The South—building strength inside and out

April 21, 2026

May will mark one year since Stephen Graham opened his own gym in Judique South and already he’s training about 300 athletes.

The South, housed in a renovated horse barn that previously served as a bait shed at the nearby Baxter’s Cove wharf, is not only drawing clients from throughout Inverness County, but also the counties of Victoria, Richmond, Antigonish and Guysborough.

“What we’re doing here is difficult,” Graham says of his strength and conditioning program. “You can’t build health by laying on the couch. It takes work and it takes consistency. It takes giving certain things up.”

“My athletes range in age from 12 to 83,” he adds. “Within my training style, you’re still able to go at your own pace. But I’m tough and I learned pretty quickly to know when to push and when not to push.”

Graham says working out has been a big part of his life since he was 15 and has been the one constant in a life that has seen many ups and downs. When his father, Leslie Graham, passed away in 1994, a good friend, noted boxer Kevin MacDonald of nearby Shore Road, got him through a tough period.

“Kevin kind of took me under his wing and he did that by taking me to the gym when I was young,” he recalls. But when MacDonald died in a car accident in 2001, Graham spiraled into alcohol addiction.

Graham has worked many jobs over the years. He taught science in Taiwan for four and a half years, worked in business development in Toronto and today substitute teaches as a gym teacher at We’koqma’q School. It was while he was in Toronto that his addiction hit rock bottom and he managed to get his life back on track. Today he has been sober for 17 years.

“The sobriety part, it’s a huge part of my life, and I’m passionate about it,” he explains.

“I’ve lost a lot of people in my life to booze, and I was close too, probably, if things hadn’t turned around,” he adds. “So, a big part of what I do and how I do it, and how I coach, has to do with those things that I’ve gone through.”

“Because of my background in addiction, I talk to my young athletes about the dangers and not from a performance-based angle, but life-based.”

Graham and his wife, Crystal, moved back to the family home in 2018, and the genesis for The South came that same year in a chance encounter with a local hockey player, Malcolm MacEachern of Long Point, who was preparing to play Junior A hockey.

“He asked me if I could show him how to hit a heavy bag,” he recalls. “That interaction started everything. Fast forward to now and I’m doing it full-time.”

In addition to the programs offered at The South, Graham also trains a group of 20 women twice a week at Caper Gym in Inverness.

There’s also an online component, although he’s quick to point out that that part of his business needs to grow.

“What I really like is when people come here to train,” he says, noting that about 95 per cent of his athletes receive face-to-face training. “That’s when the magic happens, when I can get people to The South.”

The online program works in one-month blocks, with three workouts a week and regular check-ins. It also requires little more than a set of dumbbells and a skipping rope to get started.

“They need to be accountable and tell me that the workouts are done, and we talk about nutrition, and we talk about rest, and we talk about alcohol consumption.”

Because of his background with addiction, Graham was recently asked to be part of a six-member committee that will lobby for a 24-hour detox facility in the area.

But his work with athletes is what gives him the greatest joy.

“I’m changing how people think, just through my experiences,” he says. “People are leaving here feeling like different people.”

“I’m a very grateful person. I know that’s a catchword, but I’m a very grateful man.”