AS a teenage swimmer, Craig Maddocks's future was looking bright.

From the age of 13, he was regularly winning county events and reaching national finals.

To get to that level took an incredible amount of commitment and Craig would put in two to three hours of training a day in the pool at Clements Hall, Hawkwell, as well as weight training sessions.

"It was my only thing," he says. "I wasn't academic, so to me it was all about sports."

Over the next six years he rose through the competitive ranks, but a combination of misguided coaching in the gym, tough training in the pool and a poor diet, would eventually take their toll "When I was 19 I got the flu and was in bed for two weeks," he explains. "It was the first time I'd been ill with anything more serious than a cold. The doctor gave me a course of antibiotics, but they didn't do anything."

Two weeks later he was back at the doctor's surgery where he was given another course of drugs, but it didn't make a difference. If anything he felt worse. This was to continue for the next eight months.

"It was so frustrating. I was missing swimming and normal life," he says. "I had to move back in with my parents and be waited on. I couldn't do anything. I was on so many drugs I was like a ghost."

Craig was eventually diagnosed with post viral syndrome, which later developed further into chronic fatigue syndrome, also known as ME.

"I was told it was something I would have for the rest of my life, but that wasn't going to happen," says Craig, now 32. "I didn't want to just put up with it."

So, four years down the line and with no real signs of improvement, Craig sought answers from alternative medicine. He tried therapies, including homeopathy and Chinese herbal medicine.

"Some helped and some didn't, but the long-term outcome was burnt-out adrenal glands, induced by wrongly prescribed herbs," he says.

Everything changed after Craig discovered the Chek Institute in America, where the emphasis is put on treating the root of the problem instead of the symptom.

"It's all about working from the inside out," he explains. Craig was put through a series of detailed tests looking at everything from his immune system to the level of toxins in his body.

"They found something wrong with my body which made me susceptible to numerous viral infections, which, when over-trained and poorly nourished, resulted in system breakdown," says Craig.

"That was four years ago and after building my immune system back up, I managed to get healthy again. I'm now healthier and stronger than I've ever been."

Following his recovery, Craig started studying health and fitness coaching, working his way through the Chek training programmes, before landing jobs at a number of local gyms.

Three years ago he set up his own studio. Then, last month, he opened a facility where he was able to bring his network of coaches and therapists together under one roof. The result is Excel Health and Performance in Progress Road, Eastwood.

Working alongside Craig, are performance coach Marc Ramis, a physiotherapist, a nutritional lifestyle coach and a sports massage therapist.

"It's not just about training, it's about health," says Craig. Every new client gets a health check before starting on a programme, and their lifestyle and nutritional habits are put under scrutiny as much as their fitness levels.

"You've got to be healthy on the inside," explains Craig. "There's no point whipping a tired horse."

Craig and Marc are offering 12-week training programmes from body transformation packages to specific sports coaching.

They are also holding boot camp sessions, including one aimed at young athletes, something Craig believes would have benefited him.

"I was 14, training and living on white bread and crisps," he says. "No one was telling me what I should be doing. I was taking all the energy out of my body, but not putting anything back in. If you keep doing that, things are go wrong.

"That's why I'm passionate about what I do - I want to help people."

Go to www.excelhp.co.uk