FIGHTING FIT He enjoys being a brute

Press, 11 May 1989, Page 10

FIGHTING FIT He enjoys being a brute

"1 think I’m at the end of the road for some slimmers. They have tried everything else and it hasn’t worked, so I am sort of the last straw,” admits Jamie Addicoat “I shout at them because that’s what they expect. Sometimes if I’m a bit down and I take a mild class, they look at me and shake their heads.” Jamie Addicoat, aged 28, gym manager at the Fitness Centre in Covent Garden, is a New Brutalist. A former chef, from Perth, and a former naval cook, he has made himself a reputation as the hard man of fitness.

quite surprising what well-spoken posh ladies will say after two weeks of classes. Letting rip gets rid of frustrations.” His pet hate is Jane Fonda and exercise experts who teach in stunning leotards, full makeup and earrings, and he is scathing about “people who make an enormous amount of money out of other people’s misery. The fitness world is very political, very bitchy and it is hard for young people to make their mark.” It is obvious he cares for those who come to him for help. “There is too much emphasis on slimness today,” he says. “It leaves a lot of women feeling terrible. Girls feel really disadvantaged if they are fat.” He hates skinny fashion victims “who constantly whinge about how fat they are.” He is verv safetv-con-

He drinks, smokes, goes out with girls, and doesn’t mind his language. His spiky hair is of today but his acne-scarred face reminds one of a young Richard Burton. His six-week course with diet advice, fitness assessment and hard exercise is aimed at frightening stubborn fat. But his pupils are certainly not frightened of him. “They give back as good as I give them. It’s

Australian Jamie Addicoat is making a reputation, and a good living, in London as the hard man of exercise. ARLINE USDEN, “Observer,” reports.

scious. "Every exercise has the potential to be dangerous if it is taught wrongly.” He doesn’t believe he is a chauvinist, in spite of the fact that he has made girls cry “heaps of times,” in classes, at work and even in the street. “I’m not proud of it, but when I get annoyed, I’m a bastard, apparently. I believe in feminism and women doing their own thing. But equality has to go across the board.” “In Australia, you’d never get away with some of the things I’ve seen here because you’d get a punch in the mouth. We don’t go in for backdooring someone else’s woman.” His own girlfriends? “I’m quite regular. I don’t change them, they change me. It takes a special type of girl to stick with me.” Aside from his gym duties and the classes, he does personal training for

pop stars, actors ana actresses and well-heeled businessmen and women. He will go round to a client’s house at 7 a.m. to give them a workout before they go to the office. One client, a 16-stone of flab advertising executive, is now a 14-stone muscular vegetarian cyclist thanks to Jamie, who took him through three workouts a week every week for two years and even went on trips to the United States with him (fare and all expenses paid, of course). He charges from $45 to $9O per session depending on the distance travelled, less than some personal trainers, but he is picky.

“I need to relate to people so I only train those I like. I won’t train someone just because they have a famous name, and those celebrities I do train I treat the same way as everyone else.” He went on the road

with rock band Iron Maiden for six weeks to keep them well exercised, and other personal clients have included Jason Connery, Richard Clayderman, Def Leppard, Dolph Lindren, Eddie Kydd, Kiki Dee, Tom Hulse, Charlie Boorman, John Lynch, Geena Davis (who won the Oscar for the best supporting actress in The Accidental Tourist) and even Bruce Springsteen. Apart from his work — he works a 14-hour day, six days a week — he watches videos — “I like ‘Rambo’ of course” — and reads horror books. “I know I’m an aggressive person.” Why is he so angry? “Because there are barriers which need breaking down.” He is soon to do a Fatbusters video, aims to spread his Fatbusters classes found Britain and is working on a book. “A sort of Pilgrim’s Progress in the world of gymnasiums — a fantasy, something like ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ with fitness thrown in. There’s a hero, good always wins through and there isn’t going to be a lot of sex in it.”