Joshua Skidmore has had to face many challenges throughout his life, learning from them and rising to become a competitive bodybuilder, multifaceted tradesman and successful small business owner.
Skidmore, who was born in North York, Toronto, and currently makes his home in Brantford, dove into his early life and some of the challenges he had to face in his youth.
“My mom was quite young when I was born, and my dad didn’t have his status yet. I was taken into social services before I was 18 months old. I stayed in a couple of foster homes, and then a military family, the Skidmore’s, adopted me at 18 months. They lived in Kingston at the time. Right after they adopted me, we moved out to Cold Lake, Alberta, where there was another military base. We stayed at the air base there from 1990 until 1995. My adoptive parents adopted quite a few kids,” he said. “I’m the middle child; by then, I think they had 12 kids, and the number kept going up. There were a lot of kids in the house. My parents are angels, and I was just a handful. I was always wanting to do stuff. Even when I didn’t have a computer at ten to 13 years old, I’d go down to the recycling depot in my small town in Saskatchewan, strip computers of their parts, and build a computer myself so I could use it at home. My parents didn’t have a lot of money to be spending on all the kids, but they always made sure we had food, clothes, and toys. They always gave us everything we needed, so if I wanted a little bit more, I made it myself.”
By the age of 15, the teen would move out, as it was a crowded home as well as him being a handful.
“I signed up with a government-assisted program that helps kids living outside their home rent an apartment, go to school, and keep up with their education as long as they maintain their grades. I was able to graduate high school while working and living on my own. I had help from high school friends who let me stay at their houses for six months at a time, got through all my classes, and graduated. I was born with FASD (Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder). My parents specialized in adopting kids with disabilities, so I was on a lot of medications ever since I was a kid. In my early 20s, after I graduated high school, I started having kidney problems, gut issues, and swelling and inflammation in my legs. I was working really hard and had built up a good work ethic when I was able to maintain a job, but I wasn’t present at all. I was people-pleasing and jeopardizing my own health without even realizing it,” he stated.
However, by his mid-20s, he was working at Graham’s Tire, a family-owned business. Skidmore would then receive a piece of news that would then alter his life, again.
“It was a local, privately owned tire shop out west with a really good reputation. We did service track work at the mines in Ontario, Alberta, and BC. People would call us to go to other provinces because we’d get the job done even quicker than our competitors. We’d get a two-day job done in a matter of hours. Most of the tire techs were [were veterans in the industry] and taught us how to do things properly, so it was a great place to work and learn,” he noted. “While working there, I got a call from my biological mom. She found me [but] I grew up out west, so I didn’t know anyone out east. My biological mom reached out, we talked, and we figured out a date for me to come down. She was able to find me because my younger sister passed away. I had a closed adoption, so no information was allowed out. But then my younger sister, Jasmine Gregory, passed away at the dorms in Ottawa. Someone went in to fix the furnace, and that night the whole dorm burned down. Only two girls didn’t make it out, and one was my sister. Because of that, my adoption information became open, so I had a choice to meet my biological family.”
Nevertheless, Skidmore’s adoptive mother came out with him to meet his birth family.
“It was amazing because she had adopted me while living in Kingston, and all of this was happening back in that area. She got the opportunity to revisit a familiar place, stay at a hotel, and act as a mediator so I wasn’t taken advantage of by people who were new to me. I wanted to build relationships with my siblings because, in my mind, they didn’t give me up and didn’t have a choice, just like me. I also wanted to give my biological mom and dad an opportunity,” he noted. “Over the next seven years, starting from age 24, I flew down once or twice a year to spend time with them and each of my siblings. My workplace paid for my plane tickets because I worked hard, as long as I kept my work up. Every single year, they made sure I got to see my family, and I’m very grateful for that. They set up my life in a way that allowed those relationships to solidify. Now I have a lot of family out here and very strong relationships with all my siblings.”
Skidmore would quickly build a bond with his brother Zach at the gym.
“The place I worked at paid pretty decently, so I saw it as an opportunity to train him, make sure he learned quickly, and ensure nobody took advantage of him. We set it up so he came down to work with me. We lived, worked, and trained together. We woke up every morning to watch YouTube videos of bodybuilders [and became] obsessed. For years, we trained and talked about competing….it became a dream for both of us….we [also] started building a gym culture at GoodLife Fitness in Victoria/Regina [and] we worked up to the point where we were ready to compete,” he said.
However, Skidmore and his brother became interested in bodybuilding competitions.
“We were at a point where we didn’t know whether to step on stage or not. Then I just signed up for a competition. A police officer came up to me at the gym and asked, ‘Are you competing this weekend?’ When I said no, he mentioned a novice bodybuilding competition in Saskatoon. He encouraged me to do it, sent me some YouTube videos on posing and cardio, and told me how to tighten up my core. I did all of that, and within three or four days, I stepped on stage and got third place. That was my novice show, which set me up for provincials and opened the door for Zach…which inspired him to compete [and] about eight to ten months later, he was ready. I remember yelling his name from the crowd….he ended up getting first place, and nobody even knew who he was. We kept pushing each other to enter competitions,” Skidmore said.
However, before this, Skidmore discovered some health issues in his 20s.
“I started having flare-ups while getting ready for a pro-qualifying competition. I took a month off work to prepare. After flying into Ottawa, I had a huge flare-up while driving on the highway to pick up my sister. I started losing my vision and retaining water, so I pulled over. That was very scary. After I got a bit better…and when I came to meet up with my sister…we decided it was best to go to the hospital. The doctors would tell me there was nothing wrong with my liver or my kidneys, but they insisted I had to go to see a specialist,” he explained. “In that moment in my mid-20s, I had no reference or doctor to call. I literally had to fly back to Saskatchewan to get a new family doctor and a specialist referral [which I did.] And went through a three-year cycle of tests, blood work, MRIs, and CT scans with no diagnosis. They even sent me to an MS clinic, still with no diagnosis…[and] when COVID hit, I thought, ‘This could be the end of a lot of things, so I’m going to spend time with the siblings I didn’t get to grow up with.’ That’s how I ended up in Brantford. My brothers Zach and Justin and my sister Denise are all from here. My brother Justin got me a job as a laborer at Konstant, and his mom helped me get an apartment near Mohawk, which was very close to work.”
During COVID, Skidmore would face the loss of a loved one.
“One day, while at Crunch Fitness, my mom called to tell me that my brother Jesse had passed away in his sleep. It was a moment I’ll never forget. It was a very sad period in my life, yet there was a beauty in it, too. When my mom told me, I broke down. Tears were running down my eyes, and I walked straight to my vehicle, grabbed the steering wheel, screamed, and bawled my eyes out. When I stopped to breathe, I looked to my left, and someone in the car beside me was watching. He looked me in the eye and nodded his head. At that moment, that’s what started calming me down. It was pure humanity and love; he saw the pain I was going through,” he recalled.
Skidmore soldiered on, looking for new chances to grow professionally and personally.
“Then I saw a welding job opportunity at work. I had a friend who did video production, and I told him, ‘I want to learn everything you know.’ I didn’t have a car at the time, so I jogged to work every day….in the summer, winter [and through] the snow, and rain. Then I’d jog to his place to learn welding and videography. I studied, learned, and got my welding tickets. I also grew my videography business and upgraded my equipment. I started with $50 cameras, and now I work with $2,000 cameras. I built this in Brantford over four years from having no equipment, or knowledge to having a successful business,’ Skidmore recalled. “When it came to welding…After getting my ticket, I saw a job opportunity at Tigercat. From my experience at Graham’s Tire, I learned that working for a privately owned, family-run industrial company usually means better pay and better benefits….but…I knew it could be a challenge working at Tigercat. I wanted to build the equipment I had spent years working on in mines and farmers’ fields. I knew my brother Jesse would be so proud of me. Jesse wasn’t as fortunate with his FASD; he couldn’t live independently after high school. When he was alive, I’d involve him in my work…putting steel-toe boots, safety glasses, and coveralls on him, and letting him help me change truck tires. When I started welding and getting my tickets, I felt him looking down on me…with a smile. Thinking of him helped me grieve during that time.”
Nevertheless, the small business owner, while not competing consistently, still maintains a healthy diet through regime.
“From when COVID happened until now, I took time to bulk. When I stopped competing, I was 215 lbs, and I bulked up to around 260 lbs. I stayed consistent with going to the gym and my diet. I have a bodybuilding diet every day based on my knowledge of nutrition. It doesn’t have to feel like you’re killing yourself once you understand how minerals work with your gut, water, and vitamins. It matters where nutrients come from….when you get minerals from nutrient-dense, unpreserved whole foods straight from the farm rather than synthetic ones made for profit, you become much healthier. A strong, alkaline immune system naturally fights off issues,” he said. Over time, I figured out that I was dealing with parasites in my gut rather than all the things’ doctors tried to diagnose me with for four years. If left unmanaged, gut parasites can affect the brain and lead to misdiagnosis like MS. Now, I do a parasite cleanse once every three months using natural remedies. I stay away from synthetic minerals and rely on clean food sources. Healthy fats cooked with herbs and spices can extract their medicinal properties. For instance, cooking cabbage with coconut oil and turmeric….extracts the anti-inflammatory properties of turmeric. It’s the same principle as cooking herbs in butter to extract properties. Healthy fats are great for your brain, but issues arise when fats and foods are stripped of natural minerals and packed purely with sodium….when I was a kid with FASD, they pumped me full of medications to the point where I was sipping out of a straw at 14 because I couldn’t talk properly. But as an adult, I know how to manage my nutrition.”
Along with maintaining his business, 1111 Productions, which provides videography services, Skidmore looks to compete.
“Despite a delay in my plans to enter some competitions…as my family and I were keeping an eye on our dad’s health….I am looking to begin competing in natural competitions in Ontario in the near future. Actually, seeing my dad and family recently out west gave me a lot of motivation and energy to continue to work to achieve my goals in studying, training and competition. I feel like everything is still lining up for me to step on stage at some point,” he reflected.
