Griffiths, from Christchurch, is the undefeated 2026 double Mr Britain and heads to southern Spain with big aspirations for the competition.
The 31-year-old lives with a spinal injury, complex regional pain syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome, epilepsy and autism, and he walks with crutches after spinal fusion surgery a few years ago.
Contestants are judged with their disabilities in mind, as Griffiths explained to the Daily Echo: “For example, if I had one arm, then they would judge me based on the symmetry of the rest of my body, so maybe my upper to lower body, or if I’ve got one arm, what does my one arm look like?
“It’s fair in that sense.
“It’s a little harder to judge because obviously you have different shapes and sizes.
“Male and female can compete in this, but you’re basically judged on what your condition is and how well you’ve managed to overcome it.
“There’s usually a panel of about seven to nine judges.
“It’s a bit like golf, so you want the lowest score. If you’re in first place and there’s, say, seven judges, the best we can possibly get is seven, meaning everyone’s put you in first place, and so on and so forth.
“You’re judged based on your strengths and weaknesses and how you present on stage. More muscle is better; being leaner, more ripped, is better as well.”
Griffiths has been competing since 2012 and explained how he got into it.
“My brother got me in the gym when I was about 13 years old, roughly,” he said.
“I was a very athletic individual, very talented. I did all the sports you can think of. I was county level in most things, so I did sprinting, athletics, football, rugby, American football.
“I had a rugby injury when I was probably about 13, 14. That was in Italy on a school sports tour.
“That basically left me with a condition in my spine which got unrecognised, unnoticed. I didn’t have any X-rays, wasn’t looked after at all by the health services.
“It wasn’t until maybe 2021 or 2022 that I actually had an X-ray. They scanned my spine and they said, ‘Yeah, your spine is wrecked,’ in my lower back area.
“From there they did spinal fusion surgery. My recovery was very poor from that and it left me with a condition called CRPS. That’s a severe pain condition, basically, so it means travelling, standing, even sitting is pretty painful.
“I spend probably 20 hours a day lying flat on my back.
“I try to manage my training carefully, so I use the best practice I can, the safest methods. I make content online based around what I do as well, like diet, nutrition, exercising safely.
“I’m an international guest speaker as well for different events. I follow a carnivore diet, so I speak at different events related to that.
“I guess my aspirations from here are to compete as long as I can. I feel my body’s regressing at the moment or about to, so I’m probably at the highest point I can get to in terms of my development.”
Griffiths aims to inspire others to overcome their disabilities and he’s optimistic for Sunday after good wins at the PCA mixed disability British Championships and the IBFA Mr Britain.
“I hope to inspire others who are in similar situations to what I’m in,” he said.
“Hopefully we can get more people on board in bodybuilding in the division that I do.
“Although accessibility is quite poor, generally speaking, I know a lot of the federations are working harder to include people more with different handicaps.
“With my content and my story, I hope to inspire other people perhaps in similar situations that you can still achieve things and still achieve your highest level of physical development in spite of challenges that they may face.
“It just may take a bit longer or a bit of micromanagement.”
