Ever since a young age I have always been a very sporty person and come from a very active and athletic family background. I have always been highly competitive and had a drive to be the best at whatever it is I am doing. Around the age of 15 I became extremely motivated to gain physical strength as I had low muscle tone because of this, low confidence. I found that physical strength was a way to boost my confidence and give myself security. Although the start of my journey was very innocent, I had no idea to where it would take me in my career. I started to actively follow the bodybuilding lifestyle from the age of 16 from looking at magazines and researching on the internet. By the time I moved to cape town at the age of 18, I was already physically developed, however I only competed in my first competition at 19.

I spent the next 3 years after that climbing the local ranks of bodybuilding, where I was then appointed head coach of a well-known coaching brand in South Africa. Then at the age of 23 years old I started to compete in the united states placing in the top 4 of the North American championships, this really kick-started my career as I was the face of a lot of fitness brands in South Africa. This then gave me the confidence to start my own coaching brand called ‘Transform with Tristan’.