Double Jeopardy

Try British men’s physique champion Darren Johnson’s twice-a-week delt destruction.

- John Plummer

WHEN DARREN JOHNSON  was growing up in London, he was so embarrassed about his body he used to forge sick notes to get out of PE at school. “The girls used to make fun of my skinny arms and legs,” he says.

Nobody mocks Johnson’s build these days. You’ll struggle to find anybody with a better balanced, more aesthetic package, as he proved last year when he won four prestigious men’s physique competitions, including his height class at the British Championships and the IFBB Elite World Cup, which earned him €1,000. His physique serves him well off stage too – he works as a personal trainer and model. Clearly he’s been doing something right since those teenage days.

Back then Johnson never imagined he could possibly look this good. He hero-worshiped his sprinter dad, whose trophies filled the family home and when he died of cancer in 2002, Johnson struggled to cope for a few years until he eventually found salvation in the place where his father spent so much time – the gym.

At first he didn’t have a clue what he was doing. “I was just there for the sake of it,” he says. But over time, things changed. “One day I decided to analyse my diet and from that moment on everything fell into place,” he says. Soon people were asking him for training advice; then he took a personal trainer course and afterwards got asked if he competed. “I decided to jump in the deep end and have a go,” he recalls.

WIDTH WOES