A BODYBUILDER is celebrating after scooping third place in a north west body building competition - his first ever.

David Morris came third in the UKBFF First Timers competition, which was held at the Parr Hall in Warrington.

The father-of-six made the leap to body building after spending many years practising the martial art Hung Gar Kung Fu, for which he was crowned British Champion in 2002 and competed in the USA.

The 35-year-old has worked hard to get his body into peak condition and lost five stone in weight along the way.

He was torn between training to compete as a strong man or a bodybuilder but chose the latter after watching a friend compete.

David said: "I went in to it two-and-a-half years ago after being quite successful with martial arts.

"It's not all the glitz and glamour that you see in the shows. It's blood, sweat and tears.

"I'd love to get to the point were I'm competing in Mr Britain and Mr Universe."

To get into peak condition, David trains six days a week with a cardio session in the morning and evening as well as weight training six days a week.

The toughest part of his training is maintaining the strict, bland diet that cuts out bread, sugar and dairy products and he has to eat eight to nine small meals a day.

Now David is hard at work in training for the Mr England competition in September.