Welcome to Muscle Zone

Hi there, my name is Bryan Chapman and I am a South African guy who has been weightlifting for 30 years now! The photo above is me at my first bodybuilding competition as a junior in 1996. I first joined a gym when I was 13 years old. Back then, every gym had something called a circuit. This was a 30 minute session whereby one would spend around 30 seconds per machine. There were about 40 different machines in a circuit which was controlled by green and red lights indicating when to move to the next machine. I was hooked on training. I gained muscle really quickly and loved the feeling of getting bigger and stronger.

I then progressed to free weight training and trained 6 days per week. During my time at the gym I completed a personal training certification and worked there while completing my university degree. 

For me, going to gym was the highlight of my day. All my mates would be there and we would always be comparing our max lifts with each other. When I turned 20 I competed in my first and last bodybuilding competition placing 6th out of 30 entrants. While I enjoyed the experience, I realised that it was not for me and preferred to train in a non competitive way.