About Us

About Us | PHYBA — Founded by James Newbury
Our Story

Built by an athlete.
Built for
everyone.

PHYBA wasn't born in a boardroom or a marketing meeting. It was born out of 18 years of competitive sport, a deep frustration with an industry that prioritised addiction over nutrition, and an absolute conviction that nature holds the answers — when you know where to look.

5th in the World — CrossFit Games 2019
World Champion — CrossFit Team Division 2024
World Champion — HYROX Relay, Australia 2025
Plant-based athlete for 18 years — zero career-ending injuries
Australian Representative — Men's Bobsled (2-man & 4-man)
18
Years competing at elite level without career-ending injury
5th
Individual placing at the CrossFit Games 2019
World Champion — CrossFit Teams '24 & HYROX Relay '25
10:14
Ironman finish time — while competing at the CrossFit Games
5
Sports represented at national or international level
2022
PHYBA founded. Gold Coast, Australia.
180+
Affiliates and growing — people who found PHYBA and never went back
The Origin

A frustration that became
a calling

James Newbury has been competing at the highest level of sport for almost two decades — track and field, schoolboys rugby league, CrossFit, Ironman, strongman, bobsled, and HYROX. He has stood on the start line against the fittest humans on the planet, represented Australia across multiple disciplines, and done it all on plants.

But through every phase of that journey, he kept running into the same wall: an industry that was selling stimulant dependency instead of nutrition. Pre-workouts designed to get young athletes hooked on high-stim formulas. Products padding labels with impressive-sounding ingredients at doses too small to do anything. A complete disconnect between what was being sold and what the body actually needs to perform — and recover, and age well.

Nobody was talking about the gut. Nobody was connecting performance, recovery, longevity, and gut health as the single interlocking system they actually are. Nobody was asking: what does nature already have that makes the body extraordinary?

James spent 18 years asking that question from inside elite sport — and PHYBA is the answer. Formulated on the Gold Coast, blended and fermented locally, built around the whole picture of human performance rather than the quick fix.

🌿 Founded 2022 · Gold Coast, Australia · Locally Blended & Fermented

"I didn't want to build another supplement brand. I wanted to build the supplement brand I wish had existed for the last 18 years — one that actually understood what a serious, plant-based athlete needs to perform, recover, and keep going."

— James Newbury, Founder
The Athletic Journey

Forged across every arena

2004 – 2006
Australian Institute of Sport
Selected for the AIS Rugby League programme. First exposure to elite sports science, nutrition practitioners, and the foundations of performance nutrition.
2008
Australian Schoolboys Rugby League Captain
Captained the 18s Schoolboys affiliated states team. Multiple Australian representative honours in junior rugby league.
2011
Discovers CrossFit
James finds his true calling. Begins competing nationally and internationally, developing the whole-body performance philosophy that would later underpin PHYBA.
Multiple years
Ironman & Strongman
5 × 70.3 Ironman, 2 × full-distance Ironman, 3 × marathons, Victorian Strongman State Titles — often in combination. Best Ironman time of 10:14 recorded while also competing at the CrossFit Games.
Multiple years
Australian Bobsled Representative
Selected to represent Australia in men's bobsled — both 2-man and 4-man. One of the most diverse multi-sport athletic résumés in Australian sport.
2019
5th in the World — CrossFit Games
James achieves his best individual placing at the CrossFit Games — 5th fittest person on earth. Competing as a plant-based athlete against the world's best.
2022
PHYBA Founded
After 18 years of elite competition and a career spent searching for genuinely effective, gut-friendly, plant-based performance nutrition — James builds it himself. PHYBA is born on the Gold Coast, Australia.
2024
CrossFit Team World Champions
James returns to the CrossFit Games in the team division. They win the world championship. PHYBA fuelling the victory.
2025
HYROX World Champions — Relay
James is selected for the Australian HYROX Relay Team. They win the world championship. He also qualifies for HYROX World Championships with training partner and long-time friend Tia-Clair Toomey.
2026
HYROX Elite 15 Pro Doubles
James qualifies for HYROX Elite 15 Pro Doubles — the most competitive field in the sport. Still competing. Still building. Still plant-based.
03 Our Mission

What we're here to do

Four principles that govern every decision we make — from formulation to how we talk about our products.

01

Create the world's most nutritious supplements

Not the most stimulating. Not the most aggressively marketed. The most genuinely nutritious — formulated around mechanisms that actually improve how the body performs, recovers, and ages. Every ingredient must earn its place.

02

Put gut health at the centre of everything

The gut is the foundation of performance, immunity, mental health, and longevity. No other sports nutrition brand treats it as the non-negotiable baseline it is. We do — in every single formula, without exception.

03

Prove nature is enough

James has competed at world-championship level for 18 years as a plant-based athlete without career-ending injury or debilitating illness. PHYBA is the living proof that nature's performance enhancers — when properly understood and dosed — are not second-best. They are the best.

04

Build performance that lasts decades, not sessions

We are not interested in products that make you feel something for an hour and leave you worse off tomorrow. PHYBA is built for the long game — for athletes and humans who want to be performing at the highest level of their life in their 40s, 50s, and beyond.

03b Hard Lines

The things we will nevercompromise on

Every brand has things it says it stands for. These are the things PHYBA has actively chosen not to do — even when it would have been easier, cheaper, or more commercially obvious.

We will never make a high-stimulant pre-workout Getting customers dependent on caffeine spikes is not performance nutrition — it's addiction with a sports label. We build performance through physiology, not borrowed energy.
We will never use animal-based compounds or ingredients James has been plant-based for 18 years of elite competition. It's not a trend. It's not necessary. And it doesn't belong in PHYBA — ever.
We will never use proprietary blends to hide underdosing If an ingredient is in a PHYBA formula, it's there at the dose that actually does something. Full transparency, always.
We will never use artificial sweeteners, colours, or flavours These are common gut microbiome disruptors. In a gut-first brand, they're not just unnecessary — they're counterproductive.
We will never prioritise marketing over mechanism Trendy ingredients at useless doses. Impressive labels with empty formulas. PHYBA's formulation team asks one question: does the science support this?
The Team

Small team.
Deep expertise.

PHYBA is still a small, tight-knit operation — and that's intentional. Every formula is the result of genuine collaboration between James and a dedicated team of specialists who care about getting things right, not getting things out fast.

Food Scientists
Ensuring every formula is bioavailable, stable, and manufactured to the highest standard.
Naturopaths
Bridging traditional botanical knowledge with modern clinical evidence to guide ingredient selection.
Microbiologists
Ensuring the gut health science at the core of PHYBA is rigorous, current, and genuinely effective.
Dieticians
Translating performance nutrition science into practical, real-world protocols for athletes and everyday people.

Made on the Gold Coast

Every PHYBA product is locally blended and fermented on the Gold Coast, Australia. We're not outsourcing our formulas to offshore factories — we know exactly what goes into every batch, because we're there when it happens. That's not a marketing line. It's how James insists on operating.

🇦🇺 Gold Coast, Australia
Locally Blended & Fermented
The Community

People who found PHYBA
and never went back

PHYBA doesn't have customers in the traditional sense. It has a community of people who found something that actually worked — and then told someone else. That's how we've grown: not through aggressive advertising, but through the genuine results of people who care about their performance, their gut health, and their long-term wellbeing.

We have over 180 affiliates across Australia — gym owners, coaches, athletes, naturopaths, and health practitioners who've integrated PHYBA into their ecosystems because they believe in what we're building. And that number keeps growing, one honest conversation at a time.

If you have a passion for what PHYBA stands for — if you coach athletes, run a gym, practice as a health professional, or simply live the lifestyle — you can be part of it.

Become a PHYBA Affiliate — Join over 180 people who've built PHYBA into their community.

Get In Touch
180+
Affiliates across Australia
4
Years building the community
12
Products in the full range
0
Compromises on ingredient quality
The PHYBA Promise

"We're not here to tell you what you want to hear.
We're here to give you what actually works."

Eighteen years of elite competition across five sports. A world-championship résumé built entirely on plants and whole-body nutrition. PHYBA is what happens when someone who has lived it decides to build it.