PTI’s show of muscle
Bodybuilding successes

Strong showing: Cpl Jason Stafford, a gymn instructor and personal trainer before joining the Army, with some of his trophies he has won in recent competitions. Photo by Bill Cunneen

Cpl Jason Stafford

By Pte Andrew Williamson

A PTI at the School of Inf has recently won both military and civilian bodybuilding titles and has his sights set on the Australian championships.

Cpl Jason Stafford was a gym instructor and personal trainer for six years before joining the Army.

He then served as a rifleman with 3RAR in East Timor and Butterworth before applying to become a PTI.

“I used to do boxing when I was about 14 at the local PCYC and met this mountain of a bloke who introduced me to the training required for body building,” Cpl Stafford said.

He has been training in bodybuilding for the last 11 years with a six-day-a-week training program specially designed to achieve the results required for this type of competition with a combination of weight and cardio training along with diet and lifestyle.

“No matter how clichéd it sounds, it is all about training smarter, not harder,” he said.

He entered his first competition, the ADF Body-Building Championships at HMAS Cerberus, where he won both the medium class and the overall title.

“I’d watched a couple of civilian competitions and saw my first ADF competition last year, all of my friends and family were telling me that I should have a go,” he said.

“I’d been thinking about doing it for years and finally ran out of excuses.”

In early October he entered the International Natural Bodybuilding Association NSW State Titles, held in Sydney, in the novice division where again he won the class and overall title.

His next target is the Australian Titles to be held in Melbourne later this year and if his level of success continues into next year he will get the opportunity to compete for a place in the International Bodybuilding Titles held annually in Las Vegas.
Other Army winners in the competition were Spr Justin Dunn from 2 CER, who took out the novice male overall title and Cpl Ryan Bliss from 6RAR won the male tall competition.

For more information on ADF bodybuilding contact PO Jeff Kerr at HMAS Cerberus on (03) 5950 7553.