Episode 46 - Lance “Coco” Griffiths | Elite Health for Elite Careers, Strong 64

At ten years old, Lance Griffiths showered at the gym because there was no hot water at home. His father was a competitive bodybuilder who used coconut oil before every session, so the boy went to school smelling of coconuts and was bullied for it. The name they gave him was Coco. Fifty-four years later it is the only name anyone uses.

He competed in the Mr. UK in 1990, decided the sport was not worth what it cost him, and left it for thirty years. Martial arts instead, where he won the national championships two years running and made the UK squad as first reserve. He built a business. His own fitness, by his account, went out of the window while he did it.

What brought him back was somebody else. He began coaching a woman whose training partners and coaches had let her down, told her on the first day that she had far more potential than she believed, and watched her win her class, turn professional inside five months, and become one of the most decorated masters female bodybuilders in the country. He went to every competition as her bag carrier and her food prep. Eighteen months in, he started wondering whether he could still do it himself.

Fourteen months after that he was in Campinas, Brazil, registered for two age groups at the same championship. He won the over-60s and came second in the over-50s. This June he went to the WABBA World Championship in Budapest and found himself the smallest man on stage by roughly fifteen kilos — completely outclassed, in his own words, wanting to run and hide. He competed anyway and finished sixth in the world. The way he broke that hour into pieces he could control is the most transferable thing he says all episode.

Coco is a body transformation coach on the Isle of Wight, and his clients weigh every gram of food they eat. Mark, who started measuring his own food three weeks before this conversation, hands him the question directly: is measuring by cups instead of grams good enough? The answer, and the coaching that follows it, becomes the spine of the episode.

They get into why a bodybuilder is not a strong man, why adding weight training improves results in any sport, and why the best workout is the one you can actually repeat. They get into three alarm clocks and the difference between motivation and discipline. They get into underfueling, and the clients who write to Coco astonished at how much food they are being told to eat.

And when Mark asks whether his listeners will hear an instruction to weigh their food as shame or as punishment, Coco does not defend the practice. He compares the body to a car, and the question stops being personal.

This is the first podcast Coco has ever appeared on. It is also, for a show about running long after sixty, the strength and nutrition conversation this audience has never had.

For the full video conversation, head to the Run Long After 60 YouTube channel and subscribe.