My name is Aaron Buchan, and I was born in 1980 in South Australia. I spent my primary school years being raised in the northern suburbs of Adelaide. As a young child I always loved sport and my parents truly supported and encouraged me to play or participate in sports. I thank them for this as I'm sure it has helped me to be as passionate about health and fitness as I am today. After getting kicked out of school in 1996 I went to live with my mother in the southern suburbs and was employed at a metal spinning factory where I was earning less than $5 per hour. After working like a slave, I quickly progressed to the top, with an 'attitude' as my boss called it, and I persuaded him to pay me more money.
In 2000 I was employed at BSTG, a car component company, making weather strip components for various cars. It was during this time that I was associating with a "bad crowd". I was now earning almost triple the pay from my previous job and my party life was taking over my world. During my time at BSTG I moved departments and was offered a Team Leader role in the extrusion lines department where I was in charge of 3 to 4 employees. This gave me an even greater income to feed my party lifestyle. In that same year I had a life-threatening car accident in which I sustained severe facial injuries and had several teeth knocked out. Why? Because I still decided to make incorrect choices! The good news was that I wasn't driving because I was intoxicated. At times I thought maybe I should have been.
After going back to work after 6 weeks of sitting on the lounge, eating and still drinking I was 105kg. Things just weren't the same. I fell into a pit of depression and I thought I was useless. A huge inspiration for me to change was the year before when my mother admitted to being an alcoholic and hadn't touched a drink for over a year. This gave me the strength to make the decision to stop drinking. I knew it wasn't going to be easy as I was a 24-year-old young man with many friends drinking at the pub every night. With the support of my girlfriend at the time I decided to go to an AA meeting which was the most embarrassing time of my life. Once I got there and heard the speeches of other alcoholics I felt empowered to make the change! After another meeting I decided that I wouldn't go back because It was depressing listening to the stories of what had happened to alcoholics and the pain they went through, so I decided I was going to set my own goals and make them happen.
In 2006 I was compensated with a huge lump sum of money from my recent car accident. Following many years of visiting doctors and lawyers I knew that this was an opportunity to invest my money into my future. In 2005 I had started my study to become a Personal Trainer. In between working 10 to 12-hour rotating shifts I found the time through goal setting, passion and motivation, to complete my exams. In 2006 after completing my Certificate 3 and Certificate 4 qualifications I thought I was ready to change the world! I quickly learnt that I had a long way to go to become the trainer and person I wanted to be! During the first 6 months of my professional career I learned the basic exercise skills to get clients results, and to be able to read into what people wanted to create in their life. I knew I still needed something more so during 2009 I decided to leave the family-owned business I was working for and start a franchise through one of the big brand gyms. During this time, I began to build an accreditation and I genuinely wanted to change people's lives.
During this time, I also decided to be a sponge and absorb all the knowledge possible through attending workshops and completing more study. Many other trainers were too busy or just weren't interested in bettering their education. I soon found that I was one of the most respected trainers at the gym. In 2011 I was awarded "Personal Trainer of the Year" throughout the region which I thank a great Manager for supporting me. At the end of 2011 I decided to venture out and start up my own personal training studio. I knew it was I huge risk but I also knew I wouldn't fail. For many years I had visualised how my own personal training studio would look and run, and I came up with the name "Cross Training Systems". The reason behind the name was that as I had done so many educational courses and workshops, and had learnt so much from other trainers and mentors, that my training techniques and now systems was a "cross combination" of what I had learned over the years.
After running the business with a team of up to 7 Personal Trainers at once, working towards growing the business and wanting to open multiple studios, and burning out so many times pushing staff and sales, it really hit me that this is not what I wanted. I was financially stressed trying to make ends meet with overheads, wages and costs, and this was not what I came into the industry for – stress, hardly getting paid a wage, and working around the clock. I started to research and understand the online coaching concept this same year, initially with not a lot of luck as I was still heavily involved with the PT studio. At the end of 2017, after re-setting some serious strategic goals, I downgraded the personal training studio to a shared space with a new brand 'fitlab Adelaide', as well as launching the new "AARON BUCHAN" brand which is now a predominantly online-based coaching practice. I am now coaching over 40 athletes online, and I find that I can give so much more with better results and have so much more time to work, open resources and give individual support.
