ABOUT ME

Hey Squad, my name is Jim Galvin. So you can understand how Alchemy came to be, let me tell you a little bit about myself.

Like a lot of young men, I spent most of my life exploring and falling in love with different sports with football and Athletics becoming my preferred choices throughout my teens.

Nearly getting a scholarship to an American University for Decathlon when I was 18, I continued to get injured, in a moment of frustration from my 3rd hamstring tear, I decided to park Athletics for a while a pursue another goal I’d been toying with for years: the Military.

So in 2008 I began my training to become a British Royal Marines Commando. Throughout my 4 and a half years of service I deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan.

In 2012, my last full year in the Marine Corps, I returned my Athletic roots and began sprinting for the Marines. From here I was scouted for trials for the British Bobsleigh Team, and of 120 men that trialled that year, after brutal cuts at every stage of selection and testing, 6 of us were lucky enough to “make ice” that year and another lifelong ambition of becoming a Team GB Athlete had been accomplished.

2 years of this as a job and I felt ready to begin a new chapter: starting my own fitness business. ATLAS Fitness Conditioning was a group exercise service that allowed me to refine my own coaching practices and training methodology to train:

Royal Marines, Army, Navy, RAF, and UKSF Sprinters, Footballers, Rugby Players, Team GB Athletes in American Football, Lacrosse, Bobsleigh, Mountain Biking, Firefighters, Armed Police & Paramedics

Struggling with my own demons, whilst seeing many close friends do the same, men’s mental health became something I was increasingly passionate about. And truly believing that a physical focus and challenging endeavour gives men a sense of purpose, meaning and reinforces a sense of capability, this led to me undergoing numerous challenges raising money for men’s mental health and suicide charities. Challenges that have since earned me 5 Guinness World Records.

Hopefully, you can see from this brief overview, guys, that I’ve dedicated most of my life to developing my understanding of all things Performance, Health and Physique. From the ultra-endurance side of Military service to the arduous speed and power requirements of international Bobsleigh. ALCHEMY was from my desire to share all I’ve learned, refined and iterated over the last 20 years of dabbling in the widest range of physical demands.

We are of course, far from “done” with our goal of becoming the perfect, true, all-rounder. But we’re pretty bloody happy with what we’ve put together so far.