Welcome to our Terry Hollands blog series! Join us as we explore the incredible transition of Terry Hollands, a legendary strongman who has now embarked on a new journey in the world of bodybuilding. After capturing audiences attention worldwide with his immense power and extraordinary feats as a strongman, Terry has left many curious and intrigued by his decision to swap his strongman equipment for dumbbells and barbells.
In this segment, we look into the trials, triumphs, and untold tales behind Terry’s general life. Discover his favourite things to do, the music he loves and how he balances his life as a Dad.
How would you describe yourself?
Quite a laid back person, I have a strange combination, I think in some ways I’m the most intense person you’d ever meet and in some ways I’m the most laid-back person you’ll ever meet, when i’m focused on something I am really intense, if its general life I’m quite a laid back person nothings a problem kinda thing. At the point i’m at in life now, i’m just someone that is trying to enjoy my life, do good things and be a good person. We evolve and develop as we go through life, so now its all about peace and enjoying life and being happy.
What does your day look like?
General day for me, if its bodybuilding prep its get up and do cardio first thing in the morning get back eat, no matter what I’m doing a lot of my day is structured around what i’m eating and my food, gym in the evening, do my client work on my laptop during the day. I’m quite a simple person, I don’t do a lot of fancy things, I like a simple life that’s just peaceful going out for walks, doing some training, eating my meals doing my work and then spending time with people I care about pretty much every day is like that. I’m quite a simple person and i’m quite happy in my own company just out walking around, or even being at home and doing some work i’m quite content in being in my own company. To then spend time with people, my son, family and friends and doing stuff with them.
I’ve found that as well is i’ve gotten older and had my own kids, its all about enjoying time with them
Definitely, when I was younger, I loved partying and going on holidays and doing lots of crazy stuff whereas now i’m all about a peaceful life and spending time with people I care about. Because as much as I enjoyed that at the time, I just like the simple life.
Is there anywhere you go out to eat that you love?
Generally if I go out for meal I tend to go out to a steak restaurant, but I am quite partial to lots of nice food, Indian or Chinese anything really, if its got a lot of meat on it and a plentiful meal then i’m happy the only thing i’m not big on is seafood really. For me that’s one thing I do enjoy doing is the social aspect of going out food, with your family or friends that’s something I do enjoying doing.
We’ve spoken about how you did rugby when you were younger are there any other hobbies you liked when you were younger?
Its always been sport based for me, before Rugby it was judo I was really good at judo as a youngester, I was county champion, southern area champion, got bronze at the British championships. But yeah, always sport for me, lots of my social life everything sort of comes around sport, being around other sportspeople as well, as we’re all quite like minded and you can relate a lot to them. I think we always understand each other, but I’m not really one for anything else really.
What sort of music do you listen to?
It varies from day to day, when i’m at home I tend to listen to stuff that’s quite relaxing when i’m in the gym, I listen to stuff that gives me energy, it might be really angry or quite aggressive, like a lot of rap and drum and bass that has big energy whilst i’m training, but I wouldn’t really listen to that when i’m at home. It does really effect your mood what sort of music you’re listening to, I would generally listen to music dependent on the environment i’m in.
How else do you tend to relax?
For me, its going out for a nice walk or doing something really simple. I really enjoy my own space, for me relaxing is just me being on my own in the quiet, I really like driving, I don’t have the radio on i’m just with my thoughts for the whole journey and dealing with the stuff I need to process which I find really relaxing.
Have there been any influential figures you’ve looked up to?
Not in particular, I research stuff a lot and look at things that i can do to help myself and i do look to other sports people and take inspiration from, no one in particular, but I do take inspiration from different experiences, guys that i’ve competed with that have been through setbacks as well. I’m very fortunate that I’ve got a lot of good people around me in my life that’s from family to friends to sports coaches, training partners, i’m very fortunate to have a lot of good people around me, i’ve always had people to turn to, to help give me that inspiration and give me solid advice.
Do you have any goals?
Bodybuilding isn’t the same as Strongman for me now its sort of, i’m never going to reach the heights in Bodybuilding like I did in Strongman, i’m not built right for it, but I can still be better and can always make improvements which is my goal with that. From a life perspective its spending time with my son and helping him along his journey as well and trying to be the best Dad I can be, trying to grow my business in terms of helping people with my coaching that’s something i’m very passionate about and being able to help someones life in a positive way, for me that’s more valuable than any trophy I’ve won and something I want to continue to do for the foreseeable. Spend time with my loved ones and grow the business and help as many people as I can.
What’s it like being a competitor and having a young son? And how has that changed as he’s grown up?
Its a great thing actually because my sort of goal in life as a Dad is to try and help him become the best man he can be when’s he older, so i can instill values in him that show him if you work hard you can get places and do things and it doesn’t have to be sport, i do always refer things back to sport but it can be anything a business, how you are as a person a combination of everything, I remember seeing this Instagram post ‘I remember feeling like giving up until I realised who was watching me’ and it was a big male lion and a young cub and its something that i’ve always focused on since he has come along is i’m trying to show him a way of trying to be the best person he can be and the best man he can be and a part of that is inspiring him to chase his dreams and his goals.
Has he seen you compete? Is he into that sort of thing?
No, he’s never seen my compete but he is into the gym and loves lifting weights and wants to arm wrestle everyone and he has said when i’m older I want to be world’s strongest man. At the moment that’s what it is but you know he watches a lot of YouTube which I think is a good thing for me the fact that there are a lot of competitions on there from when I was competing in my prime years and he can watch those. He’s absolutely obsessed with Tom Stoltman one of the other guys, he’s won world’s strongest man a couple of times and loves him to bits and reminds me how Tom is a lot younger and stronger than I am, he loves it, watching it and he’s showing an interest at the moment, whether that continues I don’t know but as long as he chases his dreams and chases his goals that’s the main thing. I don’t push him into it but all I say is he pursues it with all that he’s got really whether that’s business, family, how he is as a person, to be the best person that he is and that’s what i’m trying to do along the way as well.
I think it’s quite interesting, with my relationship with my Dad there were times when I was younger I really didn’t agree with what he was doing, and then when I developed in myself and became an adult I can really see why he did a lot of the things that he did, he just wanted me to the best that I could be. I think it is one of those things in your hormonal years its sort of I don’t like being told what to do, but as you get older you do realise, I was really fortunate to have a really good role model myself i’m just trying to do the same.
See the landing page here.
Check out the full interview on our YouTube channel.
Shop Terry’s Picks from our collection using code #TERRY10
We’ve now come to the end of our Unbuttoned: Terry Hollands series and we hope you enjoyed finding out more about the man himself. Stay tuned for the next Unbuttoned series coming up soon with a very special guest!
