James Adams

One of the things that we are all very much aware of is how unfair life can seem at times. I have another example of this as sadly my personal trainer and friend James Adams was tragically killed in a car accident last weekend. James was just 26.I wanted to talk about James here on Richie's blog as he was instrumental in my grieving process last year and helped me out a lot.

I first met James when I joined the gym in my office at Cable&Wireless. James was the gym manager and signed me up and walked me round the equipment available in the gym. part of my initial routine in the gym was to pull the punch bag out in the studio when it was free and give it a good old whacking! I can't remember how long I had been going in, but it must have only been a few weeks in, I was in the studio and James walked in and said something like 'come on then, come and show me what you got!' He gave me a pair of gloves and he held the pads and we had a fab boxing session. I immediately signed-up for personal training!

Over the next few weeks myself and James got to know each other a bit better - he understood my fitness levels and had a regime to get me fitter which was ace. I also told James about Richie and everything that had happened. When I was having a bad day and feeling a bit emotional about everything James would happily don the pads and let me take it all out on him!

He was always encouraging me to do more with my boxing - he use to call me his little animal and pair me with guys in the boxing classes as apparently I punched too hard to be paired with a girl! He was also very proud after one of our training sessions when I left the gym with bleeding knuckles after he made me work really hard!

"Get in and get it done" was his motto and words he would shout loudly at the beginning of any session. Throughout a session he would be constantly shouting, calling me lazy as I wasn't working hard enough and adding more weight/resistance to make everything a big a challenge as possible. It sounds horrendous but mostly use to make me laugh, and there would always be lots of banter! When a session finished 9 times out of 10 I would get a text later on in the day telling me well done, good session today! I'd always say that I was saving the message to show him next time he shouted at me!

James was also always telling me off when he would catch me outside the office smoking a cigarette - and would often tell me he wasn't training me anymore if I was smoking. It took a while but I eventually gave up and have been nicotine free for aprox 2 months now. James was definitely instrumental in this as well.

I've been into the gym everyday this week and even though he's not here with us anymore I can still hear his words in my mind, telling me to push myself and work a little bit harder.

James - you were an inspiration and a legend, and I will miss you very much. Its so sad that you had to leave us so young, I guess the angels needed a work-out too. Make sure you hook up with my Wildo and teach him some new boxing moves.

James, Spencer and myself - happier times on a Xmas night out.