What Wrestling Taught Me & What You Can Learn From It

 When I was a senior in high school back in 2002, around this time during the year I wanted to join up the wrestling team. I knew some knowledge about wrestling but never understood the training of it as only seeing glimpses of wrestling training. I was in a rude awakening, up until then I didn't have any credentials on conditioning and how to do it and I’m here to tell you here and now I got the crapped kicked out of me, technique drills, push-ups, squats, sprinting, running up and down stairs, it got to the point where in my 2^nd or third workout I had to tape up my hand because of the beating I put on it. My training lasted three days because I ended up hurting my knee in a training match and once the adrenalin wore off I was in bad shape. One of my friends at the time named Jesse who was an assistant coach told me to keep trying and not quit. I wish I had listened to him but I was way too stubborn and a bit of a wimp back then and just quit the team. If I had any regrets in sports it would be this but it gave me a lifelong lesson later on in my later years.

 If you’re not use to be being in that environment, you better learn quickly or are like me at the time and quit. It gives you a reason to be tough but if you’re not tough enough you won’t get very far, I now know that and have been through training sessions that I could used back then and might be in way better shape now. I’m happy with where I’m at and I continue to improve and because of this lesson I've increased my toughness by 100 fold. Being tough is not who’s the strongest, the most agile or who has better guns, being tough is taking that extra crawl from taking all the torture and still willing to keep going and its about making your limits go beyond your capabilities.

 The one thing about wrestling that I've learned was that even though in school and teams you rely on points and having a bit of a team effort, in reality when you’re on the mat, no ones there to help you or fight your battles and the only person you can rely on is yourself. It’s like this in life, if you want to make something happen you do it, people can show you a few things but after that you’re on your own and you win some, you lose some and when you lose you can’t blame anybody but yourself. You don’t need to be a wrestler to understand this, this happens not just in sports but business, relationships, life and it’s up to you to get the things done for yourself. Even after 10 years I’m still learning this and it continues to improve but not easier, actually the opposite but that’s the beauty of it.

 Respect is one of the biggest things you can have not just for yourself but those who were around you. Even to this day I have high respect for wrestlers and other world-class athletes, they get the job done and they take the torture with a grain of salt. That assistant coach I mentioned earlier, me and him grew up together and were still friends to this day and I consider him one of my brothers. Another guy I have found respect for what he accomplished in his life is Luke Rockhold of MMA fame who is I believe still or was the Strikeforce Middleweight Champion and why am I saying this, I wrestled in the same exact gym with him back in High School. I don’t know him much and never really had a chance to get to know him and hope one day I will but I’m proud I got to be in the same room with a world-class champion for a short period of time.

 Whenever you win at something it’s awesome and you learn certain strategies or keep that same strategy to run that winning formula but it’s the losing that makes the big difference. Losing makes you think about what you did wrong an what you can do to correct or just quit but in this case quitting is not an option, make it a habit to learn your mistakes and turn them into strengths and later on understand your winning ways when you find that formula. Hating to lose means you can’t stand it and you want to find out what you can do to prevent it, losing with pride is a whole different ball game and this goes one of two ways, being cocky when you lose or you understand what the mistakes were and handle them OK  Overtime I've come to hating losing because I want to be the best at what I do, I want to be stronger and more conditioned, be a better writer and learn more to do better business and bring in money and when I lose at times its frustrating but you learn your mistakes and make them your strengths by working smarter, harder at times and push it the way you want it to be.

 Life in general is a wrestling match, it’s a game of Physical Chess, you win or lose, you have good matches, bad matches, certain things work and some don’t and it’s usually unpredictable. The key is to keep fighting, keep driving to get better and make adjustments, be adaptable and learn to use your intuition. Find what works and stick with it and throw out what doesn't  Bruce Lee even knew this and now he’s one of the biggest Icons in history. Be consistent, make it happen and who knows, you might find yourself being a winner but even as a winner, you want to remain who you are and not lose sight of what’s important. Believe in yourself and trust in who you are because no one knows you more than that person you see in the mirror every day. 

Build Mentally Tough To Grow Strong!!!!!!

A lot of fitness gurus and experts feed you a bunch of crap to make money for themselves and never give that one guy/girl to show their true potential in how they can be mentally and physically tough. Truly anything is possible when you have the right tools and the right people to give you the opportunity to show you what you can do for yourself and become your own superhuman.

One of the biggest secrets you can find is to build your mind power to achieve the goals you always dreamed of. A lot of people say if you work hard you'll get ahead in life, well some of it is true and some of its bullshit and for good reason. Some people bust their ass all their lives and the people who are around them never get the recognition they deserve. There are some people who should be getting paid then most pro athletes for the hours and hours they put themselves through to get some food and a little house/rent money to use to live.

Genetics won't always get you where you want to go. You can have the most kick ass body in the world but if you don't have the right attitude then you won't be as successful as you want to be. You can be the strongest person on the planet but if you don't know how to give yourself the proper ways to recover and build pure inner power, your strength won't last too long. You can be the best wrestler in your high school or college gym but if you don't have the condition to go when you need to you'll be dead in a heartbeat.

The best program doesn't always come from a DVD, a book, a cd or an app on your Iphone. The best workout program comes from your heart and creating whats in it for you and not duplicating someone else. Building self-reliance and finding your own research and building a program for yourself is one of the ultimate secrets of Think & Grow Strong. This will help you build mental toughness that will take you to levels you only saw in your dreams.

Learn the secrets of how Arthur Saxon's 370lb. Bent Press, how Logan Christopher pulled off 301 KB snatches in 10 min as well as pulling a fire truck with his hair and better yet, learn how a man named Charles Garfield set a lifetime record in bench pressing 365 lbs. without very much to hardly ever trained on the lift itself. Learn to access that inner power within you that turns you from weak to strong within minutes or less. Would you like to know?

Get Think & Grow Strong  and be amazed at what you can increase in the potential of becoming something beyond your capabilities and something beyond of what you can truly be. Be tough, be strong, be mindful.

My Thoughts On WWE Tough Enough

Back in the old days (yes even the 80's) it wasn't easy getting into the wrestling business. It was mostly word of mouth or men and women who have met wrestlers in the gym and if the wrestlers felt like you wanted it bad enough they'd recommend a trainer to toughen you up. Some of the best wrestling trainers nearly took out a wanna-be wrestler and wanted to see how long it took him to quit and how long can he last in the ring doing conditioning drills and ring work. Some trainers were wrestlers themselves at one time or another and some were better as trainers and some were great wrestlers and trainers.

The conditioning is a very brutal process, one wrestler went through NFL camps and said wrestling training was far more brutal. Another wrestler quit the first day but then came back and began one of the greatest careers in the business, even one wrestler was a Navy SEAL and found training as a wrestler was worth the price. You see it takes much more then physical ability to bring something to the table in the ring, you need character, poise, charisma and you need a body that people want to see along with how you present yourself as a character.

Here are a few trainers that have helped pave the way for some of the greatest wrestlers in wrestling history:

Hiro Matsuda- Trained Hulk Hogan

Eddy Sharkey- Trained Road Warriors, Jesse Ventura and Bob Backlaund

Verne Gangne- Trained Iron Sheik, Ken Patera, Ric Flair, Verne's son Greg and Ricky Steamboat

Stu Hart- Trained the Hart Brothers (Bret & Owen), Greg Valentine, Superstar Billy Graham & Chris Benoit

These trainers took these men to limits most of us can't fathom and look where they are today (with the exception of the late Hawk, Owen & Benoit), they went on to have some of the greatest careers in wrestling. Nowadays on the internet you can find schools all over the country, in canada and abroad. Some schools cost way too much, some cost too little without ever stepping into a ring and some even cost when you don't train at all. Very very few schools give you hands on training and some even require experience as much as 2 years in the ring. To get to the WWE or TNA takes hundreds of matches, psychology in the ring, mic work and most of all a good character to sell as a product.

Back in the early 2000's WWE Tough Enough started a new trend of reality TV but began to show what training in the ring looks like when up-in-coming superstars are thrown into the ring and trainers will find out who stays and who doesn't. The first couple seasons were ok and had good trainers such as Al Snow who was trained by a couple of the Andersons (Ole & Greg). The winners went onto a moderate career but a couple didn't last long due to either injuries or wanted to persue other career oppertunities.

Now theres a new season with a new host and trainers in the names of Stone Cold Steve Austin, Booker T, Bill Demott & WWE Diva legend Trish Stratus. Austin as the host takes on 14 contestants including 1 Current Miss America and they all have one thing in common and thats being the next WWE superstar & Diva. I have a feeling this season aside from tensions, craziness and pissing off trainers these new contestants are in for the ride of your life. They will live together, eat together, train together and everything else inbetween (hopefully none of that Real World shit). After seeing the first episode I knew how great this show will be and plus you get to see Stars that have revolutionized the wrestling business and know a thing or 2 about getting their asses kicked in the ring so I don't see a whole lot of sympathy from Austin or Booker so it should be very interesting to watch.

If you feel you want to get in condition like an old scohool pro wrestler like early steamboat or Ric Flair back in his training days in minnesota or better yet like the great legends Karl Gotch & Billy Robinson then look here and if you find yourself on Tough Enough you'll pass the conditioning with flying colors and work on the other things. Also if you don't want to be a wrestler and just wanna get yourself in awesome shape then here are a few links to look at that I personally recommend.