Full Name: Michael James Burge
Date of Birth: 1st of September 1988
Home Town: Pakuranga, Auckland
Height: 171cm
Competition Bodyweight: 83kgs
Best Competition Squat: 240kgs-Oceania Champs 2010
Best Competition Bench Press: 150kgs-Oceania Champs 2010
Best Competition Deadlift: 262.5kgs-National Champs 2011
Best Competition Total: 645kg-Oceania Champs 2010
 

Titles: As a 82.5kg/83kg Junior (19-23y/o)  

• Auckland Champion: 2008, 09, 10, 11
• North Island Champion: 2008
• National Champion: 2008, 10, 11
• Oceania Champion: 2010

Competition Record: 9 from 10, Nine 1st place finishes, One DNT.
Currently Training For: 2011 North Island Champs (November 26th)
People I admire the most: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lance Armstrong and Jonah Lomu.  

My Background

At age 8 I was 1 of 24 students selected to make it into the Year 5 class of Dilworth in 1998. Dilworth is a prestigious Boarding School in Epsom (Junior Campus) and New Market (Senior Campus).
I completed 9 years at Dilworth, from 1998-finishing as a 7th former in 2006.
During this time I competed in representative levels in Swimming, Wrestling, and Athletics.

In my senior years I focused more on Cricket and Rugby where I was in the 1st XI as a 5th former. That year I won the best bowling performance trophy for taking 14 wickets in a match against Western Springs.

I made the 1st XV as a 6th and 7th former where I played on the left wing. The greatest highlight was making the final at Eden Park in my 7th form season where we narrowly lost to Papatoetoe.

There was however, one other passion I found when I reached the senior campus as a young 3rd former.
That was the gym.
As soon as I turned 4th form, I was in the gym and hooked. Needless to say I didn’t have a clue what I was doing but to me it just felt right. As my schooling years went on I continued to workout, and learn more and more about training and the body.

My first year out of school I studied at the New Zealand Institute of Sports and completed a certificate in Personal Training. I was also still heavily involved in rugby playing for the Marist under 19's, and the Open Mens 7's Team. 

What made me want to be a Personal Trainer:

It was during a 5th form Math class that the idea was first brought to my mind. Some friends and I were talking about what we wanted to do when we left school. For me at the time, I had never put any thought towards what I would like to do as a career.

As I was thinking about it a friend said to me that I should be a Personal Trainer. After that, thoughts started going through my mind and the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. 
I loved working out, I enjoyed all kinds of training, and I got a lot of satisfaction from being able to help other people. It fitted me to a T. 
From this point my career choice was a no brainer and for the first time I had eyes on the future as to what I wanted to do.

The next time this situation arose it was in the gym about a year later. I was working out and offered to help someone with an exercise. As I was doing this one of our boarding house tutors said the same thing, however this time instead of having to think about it, I simply smiled and agreed.
I wanted to study and get into the fitness industry as fast as i could.

What made me want to be a Powerlifter:

It was near the end of 2007 when I was first introduced to the sport of Powerlifting. I went to a bench and deadlift competition and liked what I saw. I thought it was time to take my training to the next level.

I have always taken my sports very seriously.  
Over time as I have matured, I have focused on one sport at a time. I have to be the best I can, and when it comes to individual sports, I had to be the best! This meant giving it my full attention. 

Next came the decision to choose between Rugby, and Powerlifting.
I would like to say it was a hard choice to make the switch to Powerlifting, but it actually wasn’t. 
At the time I was training for the up coming 7s season and had just re-injured my ankle. 
I had to stop rugby training yet I was still able to do weights and my squat and deadlift numbers were going through the roof.

I loved Powerlifting's individual nature, the tough training and the graft and challenge to prepare for that one day were you have to be at your best.

Another thing that came with the sport was a chance to be around people similar to myself. At the time however I didn’t know that the structure I would learn from the sport, not just through training and diet, has helped me be the person I am today.

I found out there was a competition coming up in May of 2008; the Auckland Powerlifting Champs, and decided to give it a go.
The adrenaline rush I got from the comp was great. It came down to my final deadlift attempt and I was going for 250kg. I managed to pick it up but through technical reasons I missed the lift. Not a bad attempt for a first comp at 19 years old and 79kg.

I met a great bunch of people that day. Many of which are now my closest friends. My trainer Kevin, his son John and my long time training partner Jono.