Bending Steel: A Documentary

Films come and go, some take your breath away, some make you cry, even some make you think. A documentary however is different. It shows real life as we know it or may not know it. Look at Pumping Iron. Yes it was considered a documentary but under certain scopes it really was a docudrama. Really a great film in of itself and showed the power and strain and drama of bodybuilding. Now how many documentaries are there for strongmen? Not too many but one film seems to want to take that obstacle and take it to another level.

This film is about the journey of one such strongman. Small in body structure but big in will power and the will to succeed. His name is Chris Shoeck and he's learning the craft of the old-time strongmen from the vaudeville era of the early 20th century at the historic American boardwalk Coney Island, NY. Along this journey you will see what this man at 5'7 155 pounds does when he bends incredibly tough steel bars and such other great feats of strength, you will find very rare Photos of one of Coney Island's Strongest men Joseph Greenstein AKA The Mighty Atom who wasn't that much smaller or bigger then Shoeck is today. You will also see very rare footage of the strongman's protege' Slim The Hammerman Farman who was recently inducted into the York Barbell Hall Of Fame.

While you will see a heartfelt and surprising journey unfold it wouldn't be possible without the help of Chris' mentor. Professional Performing Strongman Chris Rider is also in the film as well. He's a protege' of World's Strongest Man Dennis Rogers. Rider has become famous in his own right being one of the top guys in his field at a relatively short span of only a few years. He's one of the fastest rising strongmen in the world and for good reason. The man is a monster at 6'4 290 pounds of pure solid rock. He's known to bend tough horseshoes, rip decks of cards in halves, rip license plates in quarters and bend wrenches unbraced (not using the lower body as leverage).

As you will see in the film which is set to be out as of summer 2012, Rider helps Shoeck learn the ropes of the audience, bend certain things within periods of time and also see Rider at his best as he bend and tears whats infront of him. This film is one that needs exposure because the Old-time Strongman are starting to fade if it hasn't already and this film is helping bring back what was the glory days of the Strongmen of that era. With Shoeck on his way to performing, does he have a bit of the Atom in him? Will he perform unlike other times he has before? We shall see and if you take a look at the trailer http://www.bendingsteelmovie.com/ you will get a peice of the journey but will you find the destination once you see it?

I'm proud to get to help get this film going. While the crew is finishing up, me and Chris Rider will be helping spread the word of this film and I hope YOU will as well. Nothing in the Iron Game is more sacred then being apart of some of the strongest people on the planet and nothing is more sacred in this business then to help restore what is now a memory in the eyes of those came before us. Join me and Chris to bring this film to life nationwide and around the world.

Pre WWE vs. WWE Now

Before you had pyrotechnics and the big spectacle of drama and soap opera that is WWE today, there was a time when wrestling was meaningful. At the time once wrestlers like Frank Gotch, George Hackenshmidt were long gone (once the 30’s rolled around) you still had some great wrestlers who drew in crowds but then it started rooting in the ground of what was to become a heavy national spotlight and the start of sports-entertainment.

Back in the days of wrestling where they were guys like Bruno Sammartino, “Superstar” Billy Graham, Buddy Rogers, Crusher & The Bruiser and even wrestling greats Lou Thesz and Verne Gagne there wasn’t a big boss of the biggest corporation to go to until Vince McMahon sr. came into the spotlight in the late 60’s and 70’s. You had territories where promoters held their ground in certain states across the country, in Canada & abroad. There were champions in every territory but the biggest Company at the time next to what used to be the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) was the NWA ( National Wrestling Alliance.

Wrestling camps back then were scarce and since there was no internet, cell phones hell a wrestling camp wasn’t even in the god damn phonebooks. They were through word of mouth. Back then up-coming wrestlers got the shit kicked out of them and some of those camps made Tough Enough look like a cake-walk. Ask guys like Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Paul Orndorff, and Randy Savage even the greatest good guy of them all, Ricky Steamboat. If you got into a camp it wasn’t easy and being in a camp wasn’t the hard part, it was being on the road and practically having wrestlers as your family. A wrestling camp in those days meant that if you didn’t come back for more and make just a tad more then 100% effort you didn’t belong there. Wrestling Legend Vern Gagne had a camp in Minnesota where he took up to 12-16 guys to see how tough they were and put through training that just didn’t seem to be human. I mean you have guys do 500 squats, 100’s of push-ups, ran stairs up and down then carrying a guy on your back and then you’d get in the ring to learn a few moves and that was just a daily routine for these guys. I don’t know the real details about this camp but I can assure you I have put myself through some workouts but I would not want to mess with guys who made it through that camp.

Other trainers like Eddy Sharkey, Killer Kowalski, Hiro Matsuda and even the late Karl Gotch would train some of the biggest names that went to NWA, Japan, WWF/E and Vern’s near 30yr stint Organization the AWA in Minnesota. The big time names that came out of these camps went on to have some of the most famous matches in the history of wrestling. Once the 80’s rolled around you had Mega Stars making huge bank and some of the matches these guys did lasted close to or even over a whole hour. Win/Lose/Draw those matches pitted wrestlers at the peak of sport to entertainment before those 2 words were put together by WWE owner Vince McMahon jr.

Wrestling Camps today are very open to business and the training of wrestlers. Some camps are rip offs, very few give an up-coming wrestler what he needs to have Charisma, Ring Work, Conditioning, Mic Work, Working The Crowd and Ring Psychology. For the most part camps today are expensive as hell and usually from what I read far more wrestlers quit after a couple months then wrestlers who train their asses off and actually make it to the WWE. In my opinion, if most of these gyms had a synch of a Vern Gagne or a Hiro Matsuda Attitude I wouldn’t doubt some of the wrestlers would be far tougher then some guys today. Wrestlers in WWE are tough in their own right, they did a lot to get where they’re at but the training today is nothing like yesteryear.

For my opinion on WWE’s future, I would say it’ll make more money in 10 years then it did 30 years ago its really that huge and most likely already made that much bank as a company. A lot of people have their opinions about pro wrestlers and how much its more drama then physicality but the truth of the matter is these guys are some of the greatest athletes around and ya outside the ring some do drugs, drink and take certain things but in that ring when they wrestle they really are some of the best storytellers and some of the physicality they bring is just incredible. So the next time you give a wrestler shit try training like one and you’ll see how brutal some of these guys can really be. Even though it’s a spectacle and has characters that are just not that normal you have to give them props from where they came from and how they got there.

Taking A Page Out Of George Hackenshmidt

Back in the early 20^th century, GH was considered by many to be one of the greatest wrestlers of all-time. Still do to this day. He was a champion in both weightlifting and wrestling plus had a string of strongman performances. As an athlete he trained with the best of them and trained rather uniquely at the time and that was integrating both weights and bodyweight exercises. Now even back then plenty of athletes did this but he did in a way that became legendary. So much so he wrote a few books on the subject including his biggest seller The Way To Live which I highly recommend you check out it’s a wonderful book.

He became very popular in his time that today he was considered as a turning of the century equivalent to Hulk Hogan. In his later years he kept on training and writing up until his 90’s. In a time where you were considered an old man at 50 George broke the mold and went past what is considered old today. That’s quite an accomplishment.

If you want to become the athlete you want to be then you need to find your own unique style of training like Hackenshmidt did. Your workouts need to be different then anybody else and in some cases some people use weight, some use just bodyweight (like yours truly) and even some use both at the same time which ideally is a good thing because you get to balance out the best of both worlds. A good idea to use in this pursuit is to also use Odd Objects which means you move something heavy that can be used to lift in odd places unlike a straight barbell or dumbbell.

One such a guy has taken that mold and created what I would like to say is the ultimate physical culture courses on integrating both weights and bodyweight exercise and that’s Bud Jeffries. This man by many in the Iron Game to be one of the strongest super heavyweights in the world (Drug Free) and I’m in no position to argue with them. I’ve seen first hand in person how powerful he is and it’s just unbelievable. His strength is just surreal and anybody who says otherwise is a bullshitter. He has lifted some of the heaviest weight around but can also do high repetition squats and push-ups. In his courses Twisted Conditioning and Twisted Conditioning 2 they are considered to be in my opinion one of the best works in the iron game like the Godfather films are to movies. They are that good.

When you learn to integrate these conditioning elements you’ll find that learning a unique style of training is how you can start becoming your own trainer. Me personally have done so many exercises in my lifetime that I know what works and what doesn’t for me and Bud is one of many guys I have known to teach me those things. Let him do the same thing for you and give you the chance to become a much stronger person both inside and out and vise versa. Once you start finding what works for you, you will become your own ultimate athlete.

The Most Feared Position In Football & How You Can Condition Like One

Lambert, Taylor, Butkus, Lewis….What do these names have in common? These are the last names of some of the feared Linebackers in the History of the NFL and for good reason. They were tough, vicious and some of the most conditioned athletes on the planet. Believe it or not a Linebacker in my opinion is second to the quarterback because he has to keep a sharp eye on where the ball and the players are going and once someone has the ball near them bam he pounces like a wild tiger going for the prey. A linebacker needs the speed of a running back, the strength of a lineman and a keen eye of a quarterback.

If you’re going to train like one you need to hit your workouts fast and hard. There’s no need to do hour long marathon workouts because those are for more moderate workouts in most cases. Hitting your workouts with a vengeance for a few minutes a day can take you far beyond what you normally consider training.

Now you may not start out fast and hard but with a will and the ability to get better you will get stronger, faster and more agile. Vince Palko has such a way to get you to the top as a conditioned athlete and for good reason. He’s been there himself personally.

As a college and pro football player, he was taught by some of the best coaches this world has ever known and he was never apart of a losing season and has won many titles in his career. He’s also one of the most knowledgeable guys on the subject. You want to get hammered to the ground, let him get you to those heights and make you want more. He has a plethora of courses on how to get in condition unlike you have ever seen before. Whether you’re in football, sports or just want to get in better shape here is one of the best places to go.

Vince Palko Strength/Conditioning Website

Helping Bring Back Catch Wrestling

My wrestling studying started when I saw Wrestlemania XII in March of 1996. I was 11 years old a few months shy of being 12 and I was captivated by the main event and that was the WWE Championship Match between HBK Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart. This was an Iron Man match which lasted an hour long and in this particular type match whoever scored the most pins/submissions wins the match. These 2 guys went at it and I didn’t know it at the time until I learned later on that at the beginning of the match they started doing what’s called in the business Chain Wrestling which was a sequence a moves that was fast-paced and timed correctly. After that match I was hooked into wrestling and went to events at the time was The San Jose Arena (Now HP Pavilion) and the San Francisco Cow Palace which also was a big time wrestling venue for many years since the 60’s I think. I even met and had my picture taken with WWE Superstar the dead man himself The Undertaker.

Once I got into the circus-like atmosphere of the business I wanted to learn more about it so I recorded a show on A&E one night that had the topic of wrestling called The Unreal Story Of Professional Wrestling. In this film it gave insights into the roots of professional wrestling beginning with the cavemen, Egyptians, Japanese and the best of them all Catch Wrestling that was apart of the Civil War and how guys in the ACT shows (Athletic Shows) and carnivals would take on all-comers.  It talked about guys like Frank Gotch, George Hackenshmidt, Otto Arco & Farmer Burns. Those were the guys that seemed the most cool looking to me and they weren’t bodybuilding type dudes they were far smaller but a lot more into wrestling the way it was as oppose to today.

As far as I was concerned Wrestling was the most brutal sport and the most scientific sport there is and that was at the time my introduction to physical culture and that’s when I became a fan of history and culture. This is where I tell you that if you haven’t figured it out was that if you’re a true fan of something and make a positive way for you to be enthralled by it that’s when you’re the ultimate fan. You learn it you practice, you study and you want to make a positive impact on it. Now I know what you’re thinking “Well what about those obsessed fans that have pictures and have a shrine to pro wrestlers?” Those types of fans are just plain psychotic and in desperate need of help.

When you really get into the sport of wrestling its not just how you study it, its how you talk to people who were wrestlers, what’s their training like, where did they train, who trained and who do they know to be experts. I have talked to guys who have a vast knowledge in catch wrestling and have studied and learned from the very best in the world. If you’re a true fan you would learn what techniques are used, how you condition and what you can find to help it be more applicable to other martial arts systems.

I have studied wrestling for little over 15 years and have gotten on the mat a time or 2 and have made it a quest to be in the best condition I can possibly be. A true fan goes old school, he doesn’t find the latest gadgetry or learns from guys who don’t know a god damn thing about wrestling. I have learned so much yet I still have a long way to go. You don’t stop after hitting a plateau you keep driving and finding the best sources. Wrestling is my fav. Sport period. Its fascinating to me I want to spread the word about it. Take it from me if you want to be a true fan to the sport of wrestling you’ll find the best sources about it and you can have that opportunity here…….Scientific Wrestling