“I am not prepared to be unhealthy again"

Ciaran Muir pretty much hit rock bottom when he realized that amputation meant giving up the military career he loved. Then he started to build himself up, one rep at a time.

Former Infantryman Ciaran Muir was crowned a world champion in a whirlwind three months towards the end of last year. He entered his first bodybuilding competition and soon become not only the British champ, but also the best in the world.

For the 33-year-old, who lost his right leg in an IED blast on his first tour of Afghanistan, it was the culmination of a remarkable journey that took him from teenage tearaway to model soldier and then into post-service depression and near homelessness before he finally found salvation in bodybuilding and running a successful mentoring business. Ciaran, from Manchester, joined the 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards from school and served for five years before an explosion in Helmand Province in 2009 changed his life. Here, he opens up about facing adversity, battling mental health, and the gruelling regime of a bodybuilder…

Why did you join the Army?
It was the best option for me. I’d been excluded from school and had been in trouble with the police, so it was almost the Army or jail. It worked out pretty well and I thrived on the structure and routine. I never knew I needed that until I joined the Army.

Can you talk us through your injury?
I was 19 years old and it was towards the end of my first tour in Afghanistan. I was the guy with the metal detector who leads to check for IEDs, and I had done a pretty good job of it – no-one in my section had been injured until I was. We were on the way to a farm on some intel that it was being used to make IEDs and were moving into position when it happened. I lost my right leg and suffered severe internal injuries. My lungs collapsed, so they put me in a medically-induced coma before I was taken back to the UK a week later.

 

How did you cope in those early days after your injury?
At first, I just cracked on with an intensive rehab programme.I was in a really strange mindset because I didn’t process what had happened, and I was just focusing on getting back into service. Obviously, that was never realistic, but people aren’t in the business of discouraging you. After about a year, it became obvious I wasn’t returning to service. I pretty much downed tools with my rehab and told the Army I wanted out.

How was the transition to civilian life?
Really tough. I struggled with the lack of structure, and the civvy culture was completely different. I didn’t realise at the time, but I wasn’t in a very healthy place mentally. I was working in education using my experiences as a young person for positive change which was rewarding, but being out of the Army was a struggle and I did a lot of job skipping.

Mentally, I wasn’t in a healthy place. My marriage broke down, I lost my job, and was sofa surfing within just four days.

How did that impact on your life?
I developed poor relationships with food and drink. I’m 5ft 8ins tall and weighed about eight stones when I left the Army, but after time the weight piled on and I reached 20 stones. My marriage broke
down, I lost my job and was sofa surfing in the space of four days. I found myself living in a third-floor flat with no lift and I would need a rest every three or four steps because I was so overweight.

How did you turn things around?
I’d had a good boss in a previous job who inspired me and gave me confidence, so I started my own company. There was a snowball effect of pulling everything in my life together, so I started losing weight and getting back in shape. The problem was that I went too far the other way: I’m an all-or-nothing person and have always found moderation difficult. People were starting to say I was too thin and needed to put on a bit of weight.

When did you start bodybuilding?
It was only about 18 months ago. I’d been going to the gym regularly, but I needed something to work towards that would help me gain weight and so I entered a competition just to give myself a target. It helped and I gained muscle mass. Had I not had the competition to work towards, I would have probably drifted back to a life of takeaways. But I knew I had to stay lean and in shape.

What sort of training regime do you have?
It’s two hours in the gym five days a week working on specific muscle groups – and there’s a lot of eating. The only time I’m not eating is basically when I’m sleeping! It’s four meals a day and lots of snacks in between – mainly eggs, bagels, chicken, rice, bananas, and yoghurts. I can hit 5,000 calories a day, which is double an average person’s intake, and it’s a pretty boring diet. You have to build up over a nine-month period then cut out at least 1,000 calories a day as the competitions get closer. I have a coach but I really wasn’t expecting much from the competition. The motivation it provided was the most important thing for me.

How did that competition go?
I won – which was a surprise! – and it qualified me for the British Championships a few weeks later. I was on a bit of a high, so I signed up for that and instantly regretted it because it meant I had to stick to the diet and the training programme for a bit longer! I won that competition too, which then put me into the World Championships in Spain. That’s where Blesma came in with financial support – I couldn’t have made it without them. I won that as well and it is amazing to be World Champion; it’s not something I could have dreamed would happen.

What positives do you get from bodybuilding?
The self-esteem that comes with achievement and being accountable are important, and with bodybuilding I have had to be accountable to my coach and to myself every day. My business has thrived over the same time, almost doubling in size, and that’s no coincidence. Every aspect of my life has improved.

Can your experience inspire others?
It would be great if people got something from it because too often we limit ourselves because of our experiences. If you take a step and face a challenge – and that doesn’t have to be bodybuilding – then you will be amazed by what you can do. There’s no magic pill, and you have to be willing to commit and put in effort, but everything worth having is worth working for.

What are your future plans?
I went into hospital in January for a stump revision operation that I had been putting off, but it had to be done. I’ll be out of the gym for between four and six months, which will be very challenging as I was training religiously at set times and it had become a part of my life. But I’ve enrolled on a counselling course to keep my mind active and to keep myself accountable because I am not prepared to sit there and be unhealthy again. I will be back in the gym as soon as I am able!

How did that impact on your life?
I developed poor relationships with food and drink. I’m 5ft 8ins tall and weighed about eight stones when I left the Army, but after time the weight piled on and I reached 20 stones. My marriage broke down, I lost my job and was sofa surfing in the space of four days. I found myself living in a third-floor flat with no lift and I would need a rest every three or four steps because I was so overweight.

How did you turn things around?
I’d had a good boss in a previous job who inspired me and gave me confidence, so I started my own company. There was a snowball effect of pulling everything in my life together, so I started losing weight and getting back in shape. The problem was that I went too far the other way: I’m an all-or-nothing person and have always found moderation difficult. People were starting to say I was too thin and needed to put on a bit of weight.