Up next in 10
SAS Soldier Reveals How He Adjusted To Normal Life | Labs Live | Myprotein
274 views
Jan 30, 2025
Mark 'Billy' Billingham is best known for appearing in Channel 4's TV show SAS: Who Dares Wins. In this talk, we hear about his training mindset and mental health journey since leaving the special forces. In this exclusive talk from Myprotein's Labs Live event, Billy talks to Lucy Davis and Ben Haldon about life in the parachute regiment and how the military helped make him the man he is today. He also talks about the highs and lows of his career and what impact the regiment has had on his life, both during and after. How the army was a great deal of comfort for Billy and that normal life was a shock. Was life a walk in the park after leaving and becoming a celebrity bodyguard? Billy tells us all. Follow Billy: Instagram – @billingham22b TikTok - @billy_billingham Chapters: 00:00 - Introduction 01:33 - Billy's training plan 03:07 - How often does Billy train for WDWs? 04:30 - Tactics on how to keep going mentally 07:00 - How to stay proactive with mental health 07:43 - What's it being a bodyguard? 12:59 - Dealing with criticism 13:33 - Adjusting to normal life 15:03 - Fave WDW contestant
View Video Transcript
0:00
hello everybody welcome to the my
0:02
protein labs event this is going to be
0:05
one of the most special weekends it's my
0:06
protein's biggest event they have ever
0:09
done so you don't know who mark is maybe
0:12
just give yourself a little bit of an
0:13
introduction
0:14
i'm mark peter billingham i'm probably
0:16
best known for being on a tv show called
0:18
scs with jasmine is there anybody that
0:20
not seen that
0:22
get life
0:24
just joking making me bigger than me
0:26
a fox is here
0:28
anyway
0:29
yeah so i'm on a tv show called sesame
0:31
days where's the ds i've been doing that
0:33
for five or six years but prior to that
0:35
i had to spend 20 plus years in the sas
0:38
and i was a ds and i've done many many
0:40
operations and that sort of stuff
0:42
um what else do you need to know about
0:45
me um
0:47
i was bored of the west village as a
0:49
naughty little kid that was going rogue
0:50
who ended up in the army which saved my
0:52
life to be honest i went to a parachute
0:54
regiment did nine years with them
0:56
got decorated liberation religion and
0:58
then went on to the sas so i got
0:59
decorated twice by the queen with the
1:01
sas i had a wonderful career crazy
1:03
career did everything i wanted to do as
1:05
a soldier
1:06
uh everything from um
1:09
capturing people indicted for war crimes
1:11
to hostage release i have a wonderful
1:14
career and then into the into the tv
1:17
world and that's where i'm best norfolk
1:19
and i do a massive massive amount of
1:21
stuff for charity that's kind of my main
1:23
stay at the moment
1:25
so you've obviously done a lot of stuff
1:26
in the
1:27
sas which involved a lot of mental
1:30
strength and physical strength what do
1:32
you do now to
1:33
challenge yourself post that part your
1:36
career both physically and mentally
1:38
fitness to me is everything it's a
1:40
foundation to everything so whenever i'm
1:42
sort of in dark space or feel a bit
1:44
stressed i get out and i do some sort of
1:47
fitness whether that's endurance or you
1:49
know
1:50
it doesn't matter but that's my sort of
1:52
decompression um i'm always looking for
1:55
another challenge so i'm always focused
1:57
on something uh right now or soon i'm
1:59
gonna try and break a world record doing
2:01
some parachuting uh jump so i'm always
2:04
i've always got a goal to aim for so
2:06
that keeps me
2:07
focused it gives me drive like you know
2:09
and also
2:11
in any time when i'm starting a black
2:13
space i'll feel a little bit down i
2:14
always say to myself it's all classes of
2:16
time you know i can sit and
2:19
drag it out or just get off onto the
2:21
feet self motivation or do something
2:24
that's basically what i'm doing so what
2:25
does your week currently look like at
2:27
the moment then from like a monday to
2:28
sunday in a training week
2:31
i'll try it don't say i try to train
2:32
every day if i don't train in the
2:34
mornings i'm a miserable faculty i'll
2:36
generally get up about five 6 30 and
2:39
i'll either go for a run i will do
2:40
endurance or i'll do some sort of
2:41
circuit training no matter where i am
2:44
that's the start of the day
2:45
i've got a real old-fashioned sort of
2:48
regime i get up in the morning i don't
2:50
even have a washer into my boutique kit
2:52
and i'm on train i have no music
2:54
no water no food i'll just go i'll train
2:56
for about an hour hour and a half
2:59
so
2:59
around the film the sas show as well and
3:02
obviously for the candidate it's very
3:04
very physically demanding and taxing
3:06
what was that like for you from a
3:08
physical perspective you have to do a
3:09
lot of training pre-filming for that
3:11
yeah good question yeah i mean we have
3:13
to be on top of our game yeah you know
3:14
so
3:16
we everything's led by example i mean
3:18
what they see on the show
3:19
um you want to see 40 minutes of their
3:21
day
3:22
their day's about 17 18 hours a day and
3:25
a lot of that is physical so we're if
3:27
they're doing 18 hours we're doing 19
3:29
hours you know because we're getting
3:31
prepared ready for the next day and all
3:32
the rest of it um so i have to stay on
3:34
top of my game and the reason you know i
3:36
do train every day and building up to a
3:39
show we just finished the show in jordan
3:41
so at the minute i'm talking about my
3:42
decompression my knees are killing me
3:44
with me tonight just doing live training
3:47
but as of next week i'll go back into my
3:50
training regime which will be full on
3:51
two or three times a day
3:53
um
3:54
and i'll break it up endurance uh you
3:56
know circuit training cardio all that
3:58
sort of stuff i keep an epic balance of
4:02
all-round fitness so
4:04
that's what we'll be doing here sort of
4:05
building up to so
4:07
roughly about a month before we go out
4:10
that will be my total build up to
4:12
starting the show but we have to be on
4:13
top of it because i mean i'm 57 years
4:16
old i'm still running with 22 year olds
4:17
and you've got a lead by example give
4:19
them all the tires but it's all in here
4:22
with the
4:23
with regards to mindset in terms of the
4:25
ses so the candidates and yourself going
4:28
through that in general
4:30
i can't even imagine some of the
4:32
obstacles mentally that you had to go
4:34
through do you have any sort of tactics
4:37
or things that you learned along the way
4:39
when you just didn't think you could
4:41
carry on no i mean
4:44
any obstacle in front of me i'll tackle
4:46
it yeah i'll think about it and go you
4:47
know what it's not impossible there's
4:48
got to be a way to do it and i don't i'm
4:51
not afraid of failing and falling on my
4:53
house that's the problem most people
4:54
won't go at a challenge i'm just scared
4:56
of not
4:57
reaching that goal there's millions of
4:59
goals i haven't used but you know by at
5:01
least trying i've been in a better
5:02
position than when i started so
5:05
no matter what i feel look at it i think
5:07
try and work the way i can do it and go
5:08
at it
5:09
no but the big thing is not being afraid
5:11
to
5:12
not achieve it right away but don't give
5:14
up keep going and keep going until
5:16
you achieve what you want or at least
5:18
get to a better position than where you
5:20
want
5:21
we often talk about things within health
5:23
and fitness about
5:25
being proactive or physical health
5:27
the one thing that always
5:29
plays on my mind especially for someone
5:31
who's been in the ss there's obviously a
5:33
lot of things that you
5:34
can and can't talk about and i'm
5:36
guessing you have to keep to yourself
5:38
and bottle up
5:39
what kind of things do you do
5:41
to be proactive with your mental health
5:43
i mean i'm guessing now compared to how
5:45
it was many years ago there's a lot more
5:47
things that you can now disclose and
5:49
talk and talk about and open up about
5:51
and that's something that specialized
5:52
men
5:54
a long time ago we suppressed without
5:56
getting with that particular job role as
5:58
well it was something that was even more
5:59
prevalent
6:01
yeah i mean you know we're in a world
6:03
now back in the day when i was in the
6:05
regiment
6:06
everything was you know the world
6:08
communications were
6:10
totally sort of
6:11
blocked away from everything isolated
6:13
and kept everything under us nowadays i
6:16
mean with social media everybody's
6:18
accountable not to say we weren't
6:19
accountable we were but now you can't
6:21
know what you're doing where you are so
6:24
we have a platform now to be able to
6:26
speak about it obviously we don't speak
6:27
about
6:28
the operational side of stuff because
6:30
you know operations are still going on
6:32
you don't put anybody's life in danger
6:34
but we're allowed to speak about
6:36
everything a lot of stuff that we have
6:37
done it's out in the media as long as it
6:39
stops out in the media you can speak
6:40
about it
6:41
so
6:42
you know
6:42
we do speak about it
6:44
i've written books to talk about certain
6:46
things but it's only stuff that is
6:48
already out there you know so
6:51
so what type of things do you do at the
6:53
moment then to stay proactive with your
6:55
own mental health
6:57
i mean i've become an author so i'm
6:59
because i look at
7:00
writing
7:01
so i look at
7:03
the journey that i've taken
7:05
it gives you a chance to want to sort of
7:07
capture all the memories from before and
7:09
then add it into his store so that keeps
7:10
me busy
7:12
gives me a chance to
7:13
you know catch all this stuff that i'm
7:15
doing um
7:19
i don't think anything bothers me if
7:21
no matter what the situation is around
7:23
me i'll just say to myself you know what
7:25
this is a passage of time i'll get
7:27
through it might be uncomfortable but i
7:28
will say to myself as long as they
7:30
attack and go forward i'll be alive
7:32
and that's what keeps you mentally sort
7:33
of disabled one of the things that i
7:35
found super interesting and i don't know
7:37
whether people know this as well was the
7:39
work that you did as a bodyguard as well
7:43
talk us through some of the the people
7:44
that you did that within some of the
7:45
experiences and what kind of challenges
7:47
that posed here
7:48
yeah like i believe one of the first
7:50
people that our bodyguard was
7:52
was it yeah this was hilarious
7:55
so you can imagine right but the thing
7:57
is again it's all about you talk about
7:59
psychologically yeah so if you imagine
8:01
like i don't mean
8:03
down here in london in fact
8:04
so i walk into the room he's huge and he
8:07
looks at me he's like
8:09
i'm small
8:10
spindly
8:12
but there must be something about this
8:13
ball because he's got a complete lunatic
8:15
or his hardest nails
8:16
he doesn't know either does he so he's
8:18
looking at me and i'm very confident all
8:20
right this is what's going on
8:21
he's like okay
8:23
and he's more scared of like challenging
8:25
me in case i put him on his ass how
8:27
embarrassing would he look but so he was
8:29
one of the first people that looked up
8:30
it's all about confidence knowing what
8:32
you're doing and the thing with
8:33
bodyguarding is
8:35
it's not about an image
8:37
where most people think it's you've got
8:38
to be six foot six ripped
8:40
not at all it's about what's in your
8:42
mind
8:42
it's about understanding what the
8:44
threats are understanding what you've
8:45
got to do and balancing around the
8:47
problem
8:48
now don't get me wrong if i had to roll
8:51
around the floor or something i could do
8:52
all right yeah i should be able to if
8:54
i'm rolling around the floor with
8:55
somebody that means my client
8:58
is not being taken care of so it's about
9:00
what's on your mind so the people i
9:01
looked after was start with him
9:04
then i looked after
9:06
a singer called dmx yes anybody know
9:10
he's the only one i didn't have a good
9:11
time with
9:12
i threw an attack in and says do the job
9:14
yourself real time
9:16
um tom cruise
9:18
russell crowe michael kane
9:21
angelina
9:23
kate moss
9:24
yeah
9:25
so i looked after all these people i
9:26
mean there's a great time it's hard work
9:28
but i say it's not about him just what's
9:30
in your mind and that's what got me the
9:32
job
9:32
being able to do
9:34
or do what they needed me to do to
9:36
provide security so they could have
9:38
their life but it's not about the image
9:40
it's not about looking tough and
9:42
standing there with shades on because
9:44
it's just not about that it's about
9:45
thinking on your feet getting the work
9:47
done getting people safer to through
9:50
their daily life
9:51
how did you make that transition then
9:52
from scs into that field of work and
9:55
looking after that
9:56
caliber of people
9:58
um
9:58
the way that come about in the regiment
10:00
one of the courses that we do everybody
10:04
of course you know it's quite a
10:07
key sort of skill that we do because
10:08
you're doing it in our style
10:09
environments generals and
10:11
politicians that sort of stuff so we're
10:13
already bodyguard training
10:15
when i was about to leave i didn't know
10:17
really what i wanted to do and i got
10:19
offered a little bit of security work
10:21
so i did a bit of moonlight and
10:24
from there i you know went out there and
10:26
enjoyed it and what i found was
10:29
i already had all the skill sets i
10:30
needed to appear by the guard it was
10:32
just about toning it down to the level
10:34
of sort of client that i have at the
10:37
time which celebrity so he went from
10:39
instead of people to want to shoot at me
10:41
to kill me it was people shooting at me
10:43
with a camera and most of their
10:45
their sort of lifestyle is about
10:47
avoiding
10:48
unwanted paparazzi and all that sort of
10:50
stuff so i'm just about keying down the
10:52
skill set that already at that level to
10:56
protect these people
10:57
so you just spoke well then the
10:59
transition in
11:00
from being shut up
11:02
with a rifle or a gun to being struck
11:04
with a camera how did you find that
11:05
transition in your career from going to
11:08
the other side of the lens from living a
11:09
very secret life
11:11
that was a very difficult time for me i
11:13
was leaving the regiment
11:14
i needed a job and the job that the
11:17
first job i got offered was with
11:19
angelina as their head of security for
11:21
their bodyguard
11:22
so you can imagine i've gone from this
11:24
world of denying who i was never been on
11:27
camera to this and i had to i had to
11:30
make that transition so that was the
11:32
hardest thing for me was now
11:34
being on magazines and denying still
11:37
denying what i was doing but of course
11:39
once you're in the public eye
11:40
people are questioning and there's some
11:42
particles and they have this fan base
11:43
that are following around so that was
11:45
really awkward
11:46
it took me a long time to sort of get
11:47
used to that so did you feel like there
11:49
was
11:50
a bit of a
11:52
backlash or were you fearful of other
11:54
people's opinions and criticisms from
11:56
those people that you've worked with
11:57
previously in the sas because you've
11:59
moved into this new
12:00
period in your career
12:02
yeah yeah i mean even today i still you
12:05
know wonder what people are thinking
12:06
about i was when i'm back in here speak
12:08
to the labs you know and ask them what
12:10
9
12:11
people like you always have the older
12:13
generation or people who are you
12:15
shouldn't probably do that but i mean
12:17
you've got to work you've got to you've
12:19
got a job and i just have to step
12:20
straight into the line so as i've gone
12:23
through you know being that side of the
12:24
camera protecting people to this side of
12:26
the camera it's it's become i've enjoyed
12:28
that it gives me
12:30
a platform to do what i want to do so
12:32
i've embraced it i do still think about
12:34
what people say i'm very wary
12:36
on interviews what i talk about because
12:38
you know you're always getting asked
12:39
questions about operational stuff and
12:42
even from the military from the security
12:44
point of view with celebrities so i have
12:46
to quit checking myself on talking about
12:48
what i'm sort of doing
12:51
how do you or don't you deal with
12:52
criticism because i'm sure a lot of
12:54
people in the room whether to do a
12:55
personal training or fitness or
12:57
developing their career will come into
13:00
a point where they'll have to deal with
13:01
criticism how would you tend to deal
13:03
with it i embrace it because there's a
13:05
reason why people are telling you you
13:07
always get some people who just
13:09
you know telling you negative stuff
13:11
they're negative people well listen to
13:12
what people say and i'll analyze no you
13:14
know what actually you've got a point
13:15
there so i take criticism pretty well
13:18
yeah and you should do
13:21
so what we'll do now is we'll open up
13:22
the floor to a couple questions some
13:24
more and you're obviously an
13:25
extermination guy right
13:27
very difficult very difficult because
13:29
you know and i know the military's very
13:31
very disciplined and if we say we're
13:33
going to be there at six o'clock in the
13:34
morning we're there five to six
13:36
seven
13:37
you'll be looking over there five to
13:39
twelve
13:40
you know so that discipline breakdown
13:42
used to drive me mad
13:44
now just
13:46
it is what it is and the other thing is
13:48
what you don't realize leaving and
13:49
you'll probably notice this as well when
13:51
i left the military you don't realize
13:54
actually how much it's done for you
13:56
that family really takes care of you and
13:58
i remember i just left and i walked into
14:00
the dentist i've gone through a divorce
14:02
it was in a real bad state living
14:04
downtown
14:05
didn't know how to pay my bills because
14:06
a lot was done for me
14:08
and i want to go to the dentist i walk
14:09
into the dentist and the lady goes um
14:12
you've got to register and i'm like what
14:13
do you mean register that was your
14:14
dentist says you have to register right
14:17
okay
14:18
so i registered then i said i'll see the
14:20
dentist now she's like no no this was in
14:22
january i've got an appointment for you
14:24
on the 1st of march what
14:26
are you talking about
14:28
so that
14:29
you know the way the civilian system
14:31
works i was just not ready for it and i
14:34
really realized how much the military
14:35
did for me so i took what i still
14:38
struggled with to be honest but the
14:39
biggest letdown was
14:41
people
14:42
you know your mates in the army people
14:44
in the army will be there when they say
14:46
they're going to be and they'll do but
14:47
it's generally they'll do what they say
14:49
they'll do the same studio no chance
14:52
you've got to go in a headlock
14:54
oh good question who's impressed with
14:56
the most um
14:58
there's a few actually they've all got
15:00
different reasons why but anthony turner
15:02
i don't know if you saw it on theater i
15:04
mean anthony attorney right
15:06
i think she should have got on the bus
15:07
to bake off she got the wrong boss and
15:09
turned up on who dares wins
15:11
but i'll tell you what she was awesome
15:13
you know i think she was i don't know 58
15:15
60 years old
15:17
and she just it was a mindset which just
15:18
proves you know 90 of what we do is
15:21
mindset in the fitness world as well
15:24
and
15:25
she just never said no to anything she
15:27
just went at everything and just we
15:29
couldn't get rid of her
15:31
she was brilliant
15:32
yeah so i'm probably probably angry
15:35
how early can you switch people out on
15:36
the program do you know when they've
15:37
come on and you go for the initial
15:38
stages i think i'm pretty good at um you
15:41
know if you're lying 10 people on a
15:42
bigger right i can tell you probably it
15:43
was going to be there at the end
15:44
generally but there's always somebody
15:46
that pulls out the locker and i'll tell
15:47
you what's happening right now is
15:50
the smaller women
15:51
that are coming on the show are just
15:53
smashing i mean if you saw the last show
15:55
they were phenomenal and it's just it's
15:57
absolutely their mindset and
15:59
there's no sort of compensation for
16:01
gender light weight nothing everybody
16:04
does exactly the same
16:05
it's just it just got that solid night
16:08
just push through the brain back if
16:11
if you say in your mind you're going to
16:12
do something the weapons say put your
16:14
mind so you can do anything that's
16:15
that's you can't but you could
16:17
definitely do better than not trying
16:19
and
16:20
as long as you you know you accept it's
16:22
gonna be uncomfortable it's gonna hurt a
16:24
little bit your body will follow it
16:26
you'll do it and we've been at the
16:28
moment turning up with absolutely
16:30
fantastic mindsets well you know what no
16:32
matter what you throw at them
16:34
i'm 57 years old right nothing
16:37
there's going to become a day probably
16:39
pretty soon when i ain't going to be
16:40
able to do what i want to do
16:42
so i'll just say to myself this is going
16:43
to hurt i'll go out in the morning i'm
16:44
going to go out i'm going to run
16:46
10 miles
16:47
and i'll go for it and i've got this
16:49
thing always a little further
16:51
it's like a devil an angel inside my
16:53
head and as i've been reaching i know
16:54
i'm getting to 10 miles ago one more
16:56
mile
16:57
um but this side has gone no no that's
16:58
enough this is going no one more while
17:01
i'll go further and the reason that my
17:03
mindset gets me to where i want to do
17:05
through that extra mile is i know at
17:07
some stage i ain't going to be able to
17:09
do it so while i can do it it does hurt
17:11
i'm going to do it and it's as simple as
17:13
that and everything i'm doing when it's
17:15
hurting is a passage in time if i do it
17:18
the quicker i do it the quicker it will
17:19
be finished and it's a simple little
17:21
thing like that just saying i can do it
17:24
i'm going to do it or at least i'm going
17:25
to try and do it it's very easy you know
17:27
i'll get from one of my contrasted
17:29
monday morning blues
17:31
i don't want to do this and
17:32
what i tend to find the more i feel
17:35
not wanting to do something i always end
17:37
up once i start not wanting to stop
17:40
it's just i just keep saying it i can do
17:42
it i'm going to do it and it's once
17:44
you've done it it just sets you up for
17:46
the day for hard
17:47
i feel i've achieved something
17:50
yeah if anybody's going on selection
17:52
that's in the real selection or opening
17:53
on the show selection is
17:56
don't over train
17:57
keep yourself to a level of fitness
17:59
because on the show and on the real
18:02
selection they'll build you up to a
18:03
point where
18:05
that you're ready to you know pass the
18:07
challenges you've got to pass
18:08
so a lot of people over over train they
18:10
think right i've got to start putting a
18:12
house on the back and running along with
18:14
like 60 70 pounds on the back
18:17
so you end up peaking before you get to
18:19
the show and then also you know you
18:21
start to drain and once you start to
18:22
drain you ain't gonna
18:24
gain that energy you need to pass the
18:26
test so when i say keep yourself fit do
18:29
yoga
18:30
you know to do yoga do a bit of running
18:32
if you get a wrong weight don't run with
18:34
more than like 15 pounds
18:37
all right because all you're gonna do is
18:39
do yourself an injury so
18:41
train
18:42
train regular but don't over train and
18:45
have it in your mind this is going to be
18:46
hard but i'm going to do it and you'll
18:48
do it
18:49
that's probably the best tip the one tip
18:51
i got what do i want to say selection
18:53
because i like everybody else i want to
18:55
know how i'm going to get through this
18:56
my good friend said to me he said look
18:59
he goes don't give up on your beard
19:01
fitness
19:02
and i was like what are you talking
19:03
about he says but when people come on
19:05
selection to try and change their whole
19:07
life
19:08
and your body and your mind ain't used
19:10
to it you know they start eating lettuce
19:11
and nothing else and they'll start doing
19:13
this to start doing that don't
19:15
be yourself but believe in yourself and
19:18
what do you mean by that like don't give
19:20
up on your beer food is i like my beer i
19:22
like to go and have a drink and even on
19:23
selection
19:25
the night before the fine dance i went
19:27
downtown and brecken had a few beers and
19:29
ended up in a fight
19:31
and it was ripped but
19:33
that kept me going saying right i didn't
19:34
give up on my fitness i'm still the same
19:37
person but i want to do this so
19:40
that's the best i can give you i think
19:41
for some people like that the change in
19:43
habits if they change things too much it
19:45
throws them off we've got a friend
19:47
called harry and he runs through gb he
19:49
wanted me to run it and every time
19:52
before he races he just goes for a
19:54
mafias because then he has flexibility
19:56
in his routine what he's doing she's
19:57
always gonna be able to find the
19:58
mcdonald's wherever he is whereas some
19:59
people are super rigid and routine and
20:02
don't have any flexibility then struggle
20:04
mentally that they have to change
20:05
routine before something comes up that's
20:07
exactly what i'm saying be yourself stay
20:09
yourself but there are some things you
20:10
do need to change you have to change
20:12
your training regime a little bit to
20:14
compensate for what's coming next you
20:16
might have to change a few of your you
20:18
know eating habits or whatever it is but
20:20
don't always become somebody that you're
20:22
not because then you're already fighting
20:24
the back of your mind it's your mind
20:25
that's going to get you to where you
20:26
need to be
20:27
you don't need that extra worry in that
20:29
extra obstacle so just be who you are
20:32
relax into it believe in yourself and
20:34
just
20:35
and another thing is accept bad days
20:38
except when it doesn't go all your way
20:40
but just don't give up don't let that
20:42
then become a mind problem to you well i
20:44
have a bad day today i'm gonna have a
20:45
bad day tomorrow today's done it's
20:47
finished start the next day fresh and go
20:49
again
20:50
and you'll you know you'll start to gain
20:52
and get to where you need to do it
20:54
thanks for your time today more pretty
20:55
appreciate we got a massive round of
20:57
applause
21:03
you
#Other
#Self-Help & Motivational