Peter Chown

It has to be the 1992 season as a junior.Winning the Junior South East and meeting Mike Williams who won the heavyweights was fantastic. He gave me so much encouragment backstage and made me feel on top of the world! He became my inspiration in the natural bodybuilding world and he still encourages me a lot now.

Then going on to win the Junior Britain and getting invited to the European championships in Holland. I was told not to expect to win as the Dutch were right into their bodybuilding. That just fired me up even more! No way was I going to lose my last competition as a junior! I went on to win and prove people wrong!

I remember sitting in a burger bar a couple of days after the European (as you do!) with my girlfriend at the time and it hit me what I had just achieved! I had a couple of tears in my eyes with emotion and she laughed! Hee hee.

In 1996, I was entering the heavyweights at the ANB South East and was working out who my main competition was. I remember saying to my brother Andy “well I don’t need to worry about Peter Chown” as he was a junior a couple of years ago! Wrong! Pete was awesome; he destroyed everyone! The shots of his quads are from that show. Backstage he stripped down and made me look like I never dieted! Anyway Pete walked it that day and won the overall. We became good friends after that and he inspired me to get at lean as possible

The build-up to Peter Chown’s competitive return in 2005 was akin to something you’d see in Hollywood when an actor returns after a 10 year hiatus. Needless to say, the expectation reached fever-pitch and his on-line “prime-time” photo’s on his own website had created an almost Mythological-status around him, as we all gasped at the condition, mass and granite-hard muscle on display.
Before 2004 when I first met peter in person, he was somewhat of an enigma to me. If you have been a fan of natural body building and followed the sport as I have since 1998, you would have been well-aware of Peter’s reputation within the sport. If you weren’t then you should have done your research and made sure you knew all about the man with the freaky legs. Pete was winning British titles as a junior, with a finely-honed physique probably unsurpassed within those ranks until Jay Hollingsworth appeared out of nowhere this year. Competing in the halcyon days of ANB heavyweights at the same time as such luminaries as Palmer, Davies, Holder, Aurelius, Averkiou, Perry et al served to remind us that here was a man capable of being the very best. Resplendent with amazing quadriceps, feathered, separated and striated beyond belief, huge hamstrings and monster calves, it was always said of Pete that his upper body lagged behind his show-stopping lower-half.
With this in mind, all those present at Aylesbury in 2005 at the BNBF Central championships waited with baited breath to see if the man could live up to the legend. Had he corrected the imbalance? Were his legs really that freaky? What about his condition, could he re-create former glories?
As peter walked out, all doubts were laid to rest. Here was an icon of natural body building, a physique from the halcyon days returning to claim what is rightfully his.

I was just a girl stuck in a bit of a rut, living in the Middle East, looking for bodybuilding inspiration and information seeing as I was thinking of competing one day. I stumbled across Pete's website.....and was gobsmacked. Gobsmacked by his incredible physique, the positive tone of his website and his incredibly inspiring achievements and titles. Little did I know after following his site for months and signing his guest book that 'Mr U' would actually take the time to drop me an email thanking me for signing his guest book. A little while later I stumbled across this incredible gentleman once again only to find that a mutual friend of our who was competing in the Scottish Champs was organising a place for us all to stay and that I was going to be sharing living space with this bodybuilding legend! We hit it off straight away and decided to have a few training sessions together on a trip to London, particularly because I was preparing for the BNBF Welsh and Northern Champs. We hit Muscle Limits in Brimsdown - I was armed with enthusiasm and determination and Peter with many a bodybuilding training trick up his sleeve and to say that those few training sessions were mind blowing would be an understatement. I trained harder than I ever have, I learnt so much but one thing that really impended upon me is the respect that people have for Peter wherever he goes. He is not only a legend in the natural bodybuilding world but he is a true down to earth man with a deeply soulful spirit and a willingness to help people with such a genuine demeanour. His success is not only in his genetics - it's in his attitude and his knowledge which has taken Peter more than 15 years to acquire. He is not only a top Personal Trainer - he lives and breathes his sport as its his passion and I couldn't think of anyone better or anyone nicer to help the next legend into their victory.