WEIGHTING GAME: Mike is going back to university to help him realise his dream of being one of the most qualified trainers in the world. Picture: IAN GEORGESON
Training fit for a star
SARAH HOWDEN
mailto:showden@edinburghnews.com?subject=Training)
There are few sane men who would knock back pop star Gwen Stefani. But last week one Edinburgh chap did just that, leaving the renowned beauty close to tears on stage as she was forced to say goodbye.
"I haven't said goodbye completely," laughs the man in question, 35-year-old Mike Heatlie, from Liberton. "Anyway it's not a goodbye because I will go back."
But Mike is not just any old person - he's been the man behind Gwen's enviable figure, working as her personal trainer throughout her solo career and during the years with her band, No Doubt.
Mike has made the decision to temporarily give up being the singer's personal trainer in order to return to Edinburgh and become a student. And while some may see this as a step down the career ladder, Mike knew it was the right decision.
"When you're working for someone else, everyone's pulling for that one person to make her the most successful person she can be. But I wanted to be the most successful person I can be. And that means going back to college.
And so, after a decade of splitting his time between LA and Edinburgh, Mike is finally back home in Liberton.
"My goal is to become one of the most qualified trainers in the world - I already have a BA in sports and exercise science from Napier and a Masters from Strathclyde University. But I wanted to carry on progressing. That's why I made the decision to do another Masters in strength and conditioning at Edinburgh University."
But this isn't the first time that Mike has tried to expand his skills by gaining further education.
"I actually started this course last year," he explains. "I managed two weeks then Gwen asked me to go on tour with her. I initially said no, then I thought about it and realised I could defer."
But this time Gwen couldn't sweet talk him round.
"I found a new trainer for Gwen, a mate - Luke Wyles. He's over the moon about getting the opportunity to train with Gwen but he's finding out it's not as easy or as glamorous as people believe.
"You're always on call. Celebrities work out as much as possible, because there will always be a day where they can't work out because their schedule doesn't permit it."
Working with celebrities is gruelling. During Gwen's latest tour, Mike accompanied her around the world from the US to Australia.
"You often do a show and then fly to the next show the next day. There is not one day off. It's exhausting."
Fitness has always been a passion of Mike's and, ever since he was a pupil at Liberton High, he's played every sport going.
As a teenager he was an amateur boxer. But after suffering one too many injuries, he gave it up to study sport and nutrition, before becoming a fitness trainer at the Edinburgh Club in London Road, in 1992.
And it was here, aged 24, that he got his big break - in 1997 he got a call from an ex-colleague who'd moved to London to work for a record company, asking if he fancied going to London to train the singer of a band called No Doubt. But initially he wasn't too keen.
"I'd never heard of her and I didn't want to let down any of my clients up here. But Heather told me it would be a good opportunity, so I did it."
Mike was asked to stay on, and hasn't looked back since.He has gone on every tour with the band and has worked with Gwen throughout her solo career.
But rather than move to LA, Mike chose to do three month stints at a time, staying with No Doubt bassist , Tony Kanal, when he is in the US, and returning home for one month at a time.
"Life out there is a big change from Edinburgh. There isn't that much to LA. It doesn't have the architecture and culture Edinburgh does. But LA is definitely the capital of fitness and health."
So do celebrities really put the amount of effort into their appearances that they appear to?
"Celebrities work out really hard," admits Mike. "There's a lot more pressure on them to look good. It's their job really."
And although Mike reportedly commands £2500 a week for his training sessions in LA, it's not easy being a personal trainer.
"It's hard. You have to deal with security, personal assistants, devise ways to get the celebrity in and out without being caught by paparazzi. You have to deal with publicists walking in during sessions and the phone ringing. There are so many variables."
As Mike talks confidently and passionately about exercise, the attraction of having him as a personal trainer is evident. He understands exactly how the body works and why it works that way.
It is his expertise that also led him to train Scottish boxing champion, Alex Arthur.
"I saw him when he was an amateur but it was clear he had exceptional talent as a boxer.
"I wanted to work with him because although he was so talented, he had a boy's physique and he needed to develop a greater strength and power."
So Mike wrote to him and said just that. Alex took him on in 2000, and the two trained tirelessly for two years, with Mike alternating his time between Gwen in LA and Alex in Edinburgh.
"When he lost his British title, he did mess it up to a certain extent. He got sick just before the fight. Alex has to lose about 15lbs to get down to a certain weight, and when you're not eating as much and training hard to lose the weight your immune system is down.
"There is a fine line between being in fantastic shape and being sick. Alex got sick, and he got badly knocked out."
But despite this, Alex admits that Mike introduced him "to numerous techniques that I had never heard of, and they dramatically increased my size, strength and power".
But for now, celebrities and sporting champions are a thing of the past. Mike has his degree to concentrate on, and the only people he will be training are those right here in the Capital - for a lot less money, of course.
But when he graduates Mike is keen to return to LA and his career as fitness trainer to the stars.
"I'd love to train with Mike Tyson," he adds, excitedly. "And Keira Knightly would be great - I'd love to beef her up a bit."
• For a personal training package with Mike, visit
http://www.mikeheatlie.com/MEETING A CHAMPION
HIS personal training for the A-list artist has led to Mike rubbing shoulders with some of the world's biggest stars, including Madonna, Sting, Alice Cooper and Lenny Kravitz. But it was a chance meeting with Mike Tyson in Las Vegas in 2005 that left the 35-year-old star struck.
"I was standing in the nightclub of the Venetian hotel when I turned round and his was right there. I called his name and then did a [punch] combination he normally does, so he knew what I was talking about. So he came over and we talked, and I got my picture taken with him. It was great."
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