A Rule Of Thumb For Those Who Call Themselves Gurus

Many trainers and and so called Fitness Gurus have their hearts in the right place and do what's possible to help others while making a living. I get it, you're building a brand/image and want to be seen as someone people can go to for solid ideas on training and getting the most with a Customer/Owner relationship. A big issue with some of these guys is that the "Guru" throws himself into this character as someone who tries to come off as this near god like being and smothers himself in ego and narcissistic tendencies in order to reel in an audience. It's understandable that some ego can be a good thing to an extent but Narcissism is a whole other ball game when they're only out for themselves and couldn't care less about others unless there's green involved.

If you read between the lines, you can see guys who have a bit of an ego and others who believe in their own hype. Many fitness programs work, there's no denying that and with the right tools, there are a lot that have a little something for everyone but not all programs are created equal and for good reason. A lot of the time, the Fitness Industry is a lot like High School, you have your various groups that segregate themselves, it can be very cutthroat and have people stab you in the back, you have the weirdos, jocks, valley girls, the hams, those who end up in the back, the popular crowd and those who think they can get away with murder because their daddy is a hotshot lawyer. 

There are those who don't take any bullshit and cater to a specific crowd or audience that they should feel worshipped by. Now that doesn't mean all of them are bad. A prime example would be the late Bud Jeffries, he was not only one of the strongest (naturally) people on the planet and had staggering charisma, he was also humble and would help you if needed. Sure he got paid for training and sold plenty of courses but if you needed a tip or two every now and then, often he wouldn't hesitate and put his hand on your shoulder (metaphorically or physically if you hung around him). He was also a guy who didn't take shit either and wouldn't work with those who tried to piss him off or shimmy around him, he knew tricks and had you at checkmate before you even had a thought. He was awesome at reading people and seeing the words between words when you spoke to him through DMs or Emails.

Another one I highly admire is Matt Schifferle of the Red Delta Project. From the looks of him, he looks like he's related to John Cryer & Matt Furey but when you hear him speak or talk with him, he's also humble and has an incredibly powerful positive attitude. His books are very easy to read and treats his videos as if they're a one person seminar as in he shows as if you were there with him and training. The man trains hard and uses simplistic exercises but treats you and the training with respect and dignity. He's got a no bullshit mentality to an extent but gives everyone the opportunity to understand not only the concepts of his style but makes it interesting to listen to. He's the type of guy you want to hang out with and doesn't show a lot of ego in his books and videos. 

When it comes to someone like me, there are names and praises I've gotten over the years that are just downright not I would ever call myself. I have been called a guru from time to time, I've been called someone who's in the top 3% of the strongest people in the world and other things. The truth is, I never liked being called those things, I'm no guru or blue collar guy, I would never put a percentage on myself when it comes to strength because to me that's not fair to others who make me look like a chump. All I care about is training, giving people ideas and pointing them in a direction that will benefit mainly them, not me. Do I have a bit of an ego? Maybe, but it's more about confidence in what I can do and what I know but I don't go around telling people that I'm the only guy with any real knowledge and I'm this much stronger than somebody else, in reality, I'm literally just a guy who fell in love with fitness after having severe leg injuries that's really the jist. 

I've had my own dealings with some guys who just love to hear themselves talk and if you disagree with them, they'd want you electrocuted just for having an argument. Some even love to talk shit yet never say it directly to me cause they're a coward and don't have the balls to say something, another guy tries to justify his actions/words and tries to make himself look like hot shit even though he can't when I called him out on stuff. These are the type of guys that have no regard for others and have sociopathic tendencies which leads them down a path of not only being mean bastards but can't let people live their lives the way they see fit. They write out or record rants for everyone to see, have grievances for the most irrelevant things (not to mention their stupid political outbursts) and treat others who aren't like them like trash when they don't even know any of those people in real life. 

There are great gurus out there and then there are shitty ones who only care about themselves. Shit even one guy can't stop talking about three things if you ever come across his stuff: How awful his wife is, mocking fat/overwight people and pull-ups in the same sentence and how his stuff is the very best on the market. A fourth would be either "friends" of his you never see one pic of or repeatedly mentioning an alleged pedophile along with his repeated hatred towards LGTBQ folks. Another guy who is pretty knowledgeable when it comes to basic workouts using the term "conditioned strength" and can go even at 55 but it's overshadowed by his long and dubious rants on how weak men are, the decay of society, his repeated outbursts of how he hasn't had a drink in 30 years, repeats how old he is and how many kids and grandkids he has. He's an egotistical prick with a napoleon complex that just loves to piss people off and doesn't show any compassion for those that don't share the same "values" as he does. 

It's like a car wreck with these guys, you know it's wrong but you can't look away and be curious but at the same time, it's better to just stay away from these people because we don't know what's happening in everybody's lives and what's the point of shitting on everyone? What's to be gained from that really? Where does it end? I believe in doing the very best to be kind to others until there's a reason not to and give others the benefit of the doubt and see through the bullshit as best as possible. Not everyone can be saved and not everyone is going to live a healthy life, we just do what we can starting with the people closest to us. Social Media has its perks and there are good people out there but there are some nasty motherfuckers too that try to sell you a bill of goods and tell you all these wonderful things but their true nature tends to come out when you least expect it and when you don't fall in line with them, they can make your life a living hell and will do whatever to make themselves look innocent. 

Little by little, be a bit better at helping others without an agenda and show compassion as best as you can. Life is too damn short to be so damn bitter that you have to take out your frustrations out on the internet and share how much the world sucks repeatedly yet you say you're happy, that's not how that works man. Be amazingly awesome and keep doing what you love. 

The Rugged Conditioning Entities Of Karl Gotch

It can be argued on who brought the rugged style of bodyweight training to the masses. Matt Furey certainly brought it out to the world and became a living legend in the world of fitness with Combat Conditioning that is still used to this day. However; years before Matt took the world by storm, two men in Florida recorded a series of exercises that were basic, unusual at times and would put most men on their knees within seconds. The demonstrator was Tom Puckett (or Ferrer to others) but the man narrating was the God Of Wrestling himself, Karl Gotch. 

I never met Gotch but I did know Tom for a short period of time. He lived 45 min from during that time and would come down to my neck of the woods in Idaho twice a week to hit the gym. The gym is called Peak Fitness and after he would do some conditioning work, he would hit the weights, even then when he slowly started falling ill to cancerous stuff he received during his time in certain aspects of Law Enforcement he was still a machine that just blew me away. He didn't like taking credit for that though, he was tough yet humble. He would tell me stories about Gotch and the real work ethic the man had. Some things never leave you.

Gotch was about as rugged as you can get and by definition, he was probably the top guy to use that word for. His workouts as you know if you looked into him are not just legendary, they're downright almost mythical as they sounded so unbelievable, you would've thought he was at the level of a real life Superman. He would put guys through workouts that he thought were the definition of what a wrestler should train for; the push-ups, the squats, the bridges, the drilling, gymnastics, animal moves and others were the foundation for a wrestler's arsenal for building not only a physique but the endurance and strength of a Super Athlete. He used to torture wrestlers with his deck of cards workouts and every now and then he would put them through more than 500 Hindu Push-ups and 2000+ Squats just to add fuel to the fire. 

His personal workouts would put even most athletes today to shame because he was never satisfied with just typical numbers. He solidified the pinnacle numbers for push-ups and squats to such a degree that they became the gold standard for pro wrestlers for decades to come. Now there are exercises that might be better and with the training programs that are coming out in droves in this day and age but it's also important to note and respect for the old school style that made a lot of champions. He had his gold standard for students but what he was doing on his own is nothing short of just jaw-dropping. Guy Chase who was another Gotch Protégé told me that the man in his prime was doing in the ball park of 5000 Squats frequently to stay in top condition along with the other stuff he was doing, that's in the realm of Gama and Chase has said that Gotch was doing Squats at a rate of 150 per three minutes. That's insane.

Now does this mean you have to do the same numbers to get the same results? That's tough to say because everybody's different and everybody trains in different ways but I will say this; in reality, doing those kind of numbers just to be like the men of the past won't always work in your favor. You can weigh differently, your structure may only allow you to do certain exercises and there may be previous injuries there, we don't 100% know but we can train in ways that is beyond the comprehension of the average athlete. You don't always see what numbers Dan Gable did yet look at what he accomplished. Same can be said about Alexander Karelin and Rolan Gardner, two polar opposite looking Greco-Roman wrestlers yet we all know who won that gold at Sydney. The main fact is, their conditioning was incredible and practically superhuman yet didn't do the same style of training Gotch did. 

Gotch's influence in retrospect should be respected and noted because he laid the groundwork by opening the doors to pre-MMA fighting and his works for conditioning are still respected and done even today. He took the crazy workouts from Indian Wrestlers and molded them into the treasure of gold that athletes from all walks of life use in some ways right now. To say he was a tough son of a bitch wouldn't do it justice unless you experienced it for yourself and the closest I came to that training wise was with Tom when he put me through just a slice of a what Karl put him through and put me through those bone breaking holds of the crossface, standing neck crank and even Karl's version of the Double Wrist Lock. Tom even trusted me to repeat these holds on him to show me how to apply them without needing much strength at all. These I will never get out of my head and still have nightmares from time to time of how they felt and the sound of neck and back cracking. Tom wasn't even a big dude, he was maybe 160 soaking wet and 5 foot 6 maybe 5'7. 

Some wrestlers today still do some of these same workouts and exercises, others pay homage to them in other ways and became champions themselves but the level of respect will always be there and the mere fact that one man became a god among wrestlers and has legendary status that has lasted for decades goes to show that despite certain aspects of wrestling is a dying art, the training is still firing after all this time. Furey may have kicked the door open with these exercises but Karl had the tools first to build that door.  

A Rollercoaster Of Craziness

 Damn, it has been 18 days since my last entry. It has been a whirlwind of emotions, laughter, tears, growth, loss and craziness. Other than the excessive heatwave we've had here in Idaho, around the time of my birthday, it became a time where I couldn't think about me and my celebration, it was a time of mourning and a time to be with people I truly cared about. My wife lost her stepdad to cancer and other things that went wrong with him that I'm going to keep to myself and our family. Very hard to see this man go that I knew for 8 years and those moments that we shared talking about music, comics and movies. 

I did the best I could to be there not just for my girl but her brother, their mom and our niece because all I wanted to do was to comfort them and be present. Life is way too damn short to bicker and be divided, when something like this happens, it's about family, togetherness and protecting one another. It wasn't as hard on me than it was for them because that's the man they knew for many, many years, close to 20 if I recall but it hit me a little differently because a little over 20 years earlier, my own stepdad passed that just tore me up and happened just before I finished high school. I never got to say my peace with him. Now, with theirs, I got a second chance in my own way. I got the opportunity and permission from their mom to use the music for his walk out before taking him to the funeral home, it was one of his favorite bands that did a cover of Lynyrd Skynard's Simple Man. 

We laughed, we cried and just did what was best to make the best of things, regardless of how hard it was. Now, the twisted thing about all this is the time he died. I don't know if this was the man's last joke or some kind of cosmic way of making us laugh a little but the man died at 4:20am and he was an advocate on weed LOL. Some things that'll never leave your mind and puts in perspective why this life is so precious when it comes down to it. From there, we went from tragedy to being prepared for seeing my dad's side of the family for the first in roughly 4 years, going to Lake Tahoe.

The last time my wife saw my family was our wedding and the last time I did was in Nov of that year for my dad's 70th birthday so this was a major thing for both of us. Traveling for 12 hours in planes and cars, it could've been John Candy's & Steve Martin's Planes, Trains & Automobiles but with without the train. When I saw my dad, I just broke down and held him for what seemed like forever even though it was maybe 30 seconds. Did the same to my sisters, my stepmom and other relatives. It was like a huge wave of emotions coming out that I needed because this is the longest time in my entire life not seeing all of them. 

Being back in Tahoe was the boost we both needed and spending time with each other was just incredible. Made some breakthroughs with my sisters and spending some time with my niece and nephews especially the youngest one. Going to the lake and jumping off the dock, exploring on the rocks, climbing the staircase that is a monstrosity, getting workouts in (mainly Isometrics & Swimming) including an Animal Workout near the stairs to the water and plenty of activities.

Went on a boat ride one day around the lake with my girl, dad, stepmom, aunt, uncle and my stepmom's friends from Boston (Accents and all). We went around an area called Emerald Bay where the water is not just crystal clear but as green as you would see in the Wizard Of Fucking Oz. Got to swim with my dad for a bit near a mountain with a small castle at the top called Valhalla (I so wish I had my Epic Sledgehammer with me, that would've been one of the coolest shots ever, hoisting it up and putting lightning in the background). Went around an area called Meeks Bay which is really cool because that's my wife's Maiden Name and she has distant relatives that owned or still operate it today. Overall, it was exciting and a lot of fun.

Another day was going to Virginia City in Nevada with my sister, her boys, her besties with her two daughters and the most awesome woman on the planet. I use to love going there when I was little, it was like time stood still as in you're in this old western town that seemed to never die out, you have shops where you can see paintings of men and women of the time, churches that just stand out in time and the cool saloons where cowboys and others drank, fought, cheated and died in. One of the most famous saloons in the town is the Bucket Of Blood where you can see this incredible view of the desert hills. Some of these places are said to be Haunted and I've been in some areas where Ghost Hunters came in and did investigations. Bought some souvenirs including decks of cards, a couple Street Signs for my nephews that says Beware Of Attack Brother just to make my sister laugh even though she at first gave me this cold stare and bought my sister a pink rose quartz crystal bracelet that she really loved. Holly brought her camera with her and put her Photography skills to the test and quite frankly, its unbelievable how these pics turned out. 

After Virginia City, we headed out to Reno to meet up with our other sister and her husband with their party. Took the boys to Circus Circus across the way to go play in the arcade. Had a lot of fun there shooting hoops with my niece, winning lots of tickets, tried my hand at the punching bag and see what my score was; the highest they had was 956 and my best was 899 so not too bad for a guy who doesn't do a ton of boxing training. Bought my nephews Panda Express and went back to the cabins on our merry way. Spent a little one on one time with my dad, wished we had a bit more but hey when there's nearly 30 people in 4 cabins all together, you're bound to be hanging around others. Had beautiful moments of growth with my sisters and spent some time with my stepsister and her hubs that are officially going to be parents (Stepsis Macky will be a great mom and her hubs mike is a great guy that lives life to the fullest). 

There was a bit of family drama but that's not only to be expected it might as well be mandatory (we do put the fun in Dysfunctional after all). I won't bore you with the details but peace was made in the end and that's what truly matter right? Overall, it was one of the most fun trips I've ever had since going there as a baby. In fact, now in 2023, it is now been 50 years since my dad started all this so it has grown to 4 generations of our family going there. Wish we didn't have to leave but got to face reality and move on to the next trip. We started our trek back around 7am and didn't walk back into the door at home until about 11:15pm, that was a day man but we got home safe, got in a short workout at the airport and finished off with 1 min of isometric push-ups at home. 

Yep, that's been the highlights of these last near three weeks and things will be calmer and back to normal but then again normal is just overrated LOL. Keep being amazingly awesome guys and I'll be back to writing a lot more often.