A little about my journey in bodybuilding and where I am today

I started bodybuilding back in 1985 with my good friend John Marshall. After only spending one year in the gym I entered and won The Mr Hull show in 1986. At this point I felt that I had won the Mr Universe and created my total addiction to the sport. After this win I secured a deal of sponsorship with Whiteheads, a butcher and fruit & vegetable shop on Anlaby Road in Hull. I carried on training hard with the help of Bill Hemsworth ex NABBA Universe competitor from Arnold Schwarzenegger ere!

I used to travel to Cumbria once a month so Bill could have a look at me and give me advice on where I needed to improve. Through the late 1980’s I competed in various shows up until Bill and Phil Louis advised me take time out to gain more muscle. At this point my competition weight was around 80kg. After spending 2 years out of competing, I was still working hard in the gym to gain the extra muscle which I needed to take me to the next level.

In the 1992 Northern Counties Bodybuilding championships, I won the 90kg weight class outright and had a very close battle for the overall, against a top EFBB heavy weight Alex Brooks. 1993 I trained alongside Phil Louis and Eddie Elwood and entered and won WABBA Mr UK in class 2 and the overall. I carried on to win a total of 10 shows from all over the country; you could say this was a good year! Through 1994 I carried on entering and winning shows with the highlight being winning the NABBA MR England which was a qualifier for the Universe. I did the Universe which was a few weeks later but did not place very high as the standard was excellent.

After winning all of these shows I had started to get a name for myself in the bodybuilding world and received sponsorship from Ultimate Nutrition. I carried on doing similar shows till 1998 when I decided to take a bit of time out for various personal reasons. After a few years I came back to compete for the 2001 Mr Britain and got 2nd in class three which got me a place in the 2002 Britain which I trained all out for with the help of Big Gary Lister.

At this time, training for the show Eddie Elwood got me on a program called The Strongest Men in Britain with a great television crew call Landmark Films. This program was shown worldwide and featured me training for the Mr Britain, high lights of this program can be seen on my videos page. I won this show in my class and won the overall, with all this being caught on film. Because I had won this show it ment I had once again qualified for the Mr Universe, I went on to get third, beating many top bodybuilding names in this worldwide show.

I started training for the Universe in 2003 but unfortunately I had a bad fall at work. This left my bicep totally ruptured and later got infected after I had an operation on it. At this point I was told that I may need the arm amputated, this left me devastated.  This was the same infection that my good friend Simon Robinson got in his lower leg, which did unfortunately lead to amputation. I had really good support from the bodybuilding world especially from Kerry Kays who was there all the way for me, “thank you Kerry”.

After healing up Kerry gave me a call and said you have got three weeks to get ready for a guest spot at the British Pro AM. In the three weeks I transformed my body and got a standing ovation from the audience. I also did another guest spot in this period and this one can be seen in the video section. This show was in Cumbria and I did it with Jason Corrick and my little pal Flex Lewis.

Soon after this I was out with friends when a young lad got set upon by a group of lads. I did the right thing and tried to break up the fight, unfortunately they turned on me and I ended up getting my other arm injured. This time my tricep was totally torn off with all three heads being detached. I got professional advice from Stuart Cosgrove and to date I have had 9 operations on the arm which has ended my bodybuilding career totally.

I would like to thank Stuart Cosgrove for the free treatment and advice he has given me. I would also like to thank everybody for the support I received during this bad time. I have made some fantastic friends in our wonderful sport. I am still heavily involved in bodybuilding today working closely with my good friend Neil “guru” Hill who has got me back into training.

Jamie Manuel