Love Muscle Max

Queer & Trans Inclusive Strength Training Coach

I’d love to introduce you to: pleasurable strength training! For me, mental-wellbeing is equally as important as muscles, it’s what brought me to training. I want to bestow you with a movement practice which decreases shame and internal barriers – and creates more joy, wholeness and aliveness!

Whether you’re training to feel affirmed in your gender, recovering from surgery, managing a chronic condition, neurodivergent, stepping into lifting for the first time or advancing your training —I’ve got you! I believe in lifting up my clients, my community, and, of course, some serious weight.

With a focus on kindness, accessibility, encouragement and an inclusive space where everyone belongs (let’s take up space!) We’ll push past limits, break barriers, and find pleasure in every rep.

And where better to do that than at the Commando Temple? Where we have so many wild and wonderful toys to play with, I like to think of it as the punk gym I wish I’d stumbled upon earlier, (read: freaks welcome!). If you’ve ever felt out of place/intimidated/unsafe walking into a commercial gym or turned off by diet and toxic ‘fitness culture’, you’ve come to the right coach! I’ll orient your training around what makes you feel good and what you’re curious about – so you leave your session feeling affirmed and with a hefty dose of endorphins :)

Mental well-being brought me to my training practice – many years working at a desk as a film editor, left me disconnected to my body and experiencing anxiety. Wind back the clock and teenage Max dabbled in everything (aries rising!) —aggressive skating, snowboarding, fencing, roller hockey, kayaking, skateboarding. Movement was my outlet, especially as an angsty, greebo teen without the tools or language to express myself. These deeper benefits were unknown to me then, so entering my twenties, I’d stopped altogether. My body also didn’t fit in male-dominated spaces, which likely added to my retreat. Cue: sad montage!

I’m a queer trans man and I started my transition in my early 30s. At 34 – I rediscovered movement. Strength training, with the help of a brilliant trans coach, helped me tune into my body and shape my gender expression — my masculinity. Our sessions felt tailored to my body, safe, and affirming—a space where I was nurtured and could grow.

I felt championed, and this journey was so transformative I’m now eager to share the gifts I was bestowed with, by coaching others.

I’m coaching one-to-one sessions in Dalston and at the Commando Temple, and I’m one of the coaches at Pecs Education: strength and conditioning classes in London for people who identify with trans masculinity. Within Pecs I coach and co-organise the Global Majority/BPOC strength class. In my other life I’m a queer film director and programmer. I’m a trans man of Chinese descent, my pronouns are he/him.

Come to the Temple and let’s see if we’re a match made in muscle heaven!

Love Muscle Max