Mr. Universe - John Terilli

John Terilli is the only Australian to have ever won the Professional Mr. Universe Title and many believe him to be the greatest bodybuilder to have ever come out of Australia. He is also an actor, presenter and researcher.

John was one of the first people to bring personal training to Australia. He has owned several gyms and personally helped thousands of people all over the world to lose weight, tone up and recover from injury. While living in America he trained and educated some of the top personal trainers to the stars and well known celebrities on how to get their clients in shape in the best possible way.

John began bodybuilding after first seeing his life-long inspiration Arnold Schwarzenegger on the cover of a magazine. He started his amateur career at home by lifting bricks tied to each end of a broomstick handle. By the age of 17, John had developed an impressive physique mainly through calisthenics with very little actual weight training in a gymnasium. In that year he entered his first bodybuilding competition, the Teen Mr. New South Wales, which he won. Due to his success in the teen competition, and the caliber of his physique, he was encouraged to enter the overall Mr. New South Wales competition, which was being held later that day. He won in that category as well, becoming the youngest person ever to do so (a feat which has yet to be equaled or bettered).

Seeing a future in bodybuilding, John began competing in other Australian contests which culminated in him winning the Best in Australia in 1980 - on the same night, and the same stage, as his inspiration Arnold Schwarzenegger who won the 1980 Mr Olympia at the Sydney Opera House. In 1982 he won the Mr. Australasia title and the 1982 Amateur Mr. Universe title. In 1983 following his Mr. Universe win he decided to turn professional and moved to America.

Hereafter, John shifted his focus to experimentation with dieting, nutrition and training protocols. He was able to gain access to the St Luke’s Roosevelt Woman’s Hospital Obesity Centre in New York, where he worked with a team of medical practitioners to study the effects of food on body composition and body fat levels, as well as ways to accurately measure body fat. He developed a keen sense of the way you should eat to maintain body fat levels and body composition. In 1989 John returned to Australia and kept working in this field and as a personal trainer until he opened gymnasiums in the Sydney Area in 1992. In Australia, he is now seen as a leading expert in gender specific biochemical effects on the endocrine and adrenal systems when dieting.

John continued to compete in various professional bodybuilding contests and in 1993 he placed second in the Professional Mr. Universe. In 1994 he became the first, and only (as of 2009), Australian to win the Professional Mr Universe Title, the same contest Arnold Schwarzenegger had won. John retired from participation in bodybuilding competitions in 1994.

John underwent major shoulder surgery during 2005, and again in 2006, after he tore his rotator cuff in his right shoulder (having further exacerbated an injury he sustained in high school) and corrected a minor tear in his left. These events were documented in the documentary "Rebuilding a Champion" in which John gains a significant amount of body fat in order to recuperate. He then uses his years of experience and knowledge to regain his competition body. During this experience John finally put in motion the BodyRenovator system.

John’s personal motto is "eat more and exercise less"