A World Without WAR

You’re probably wondering why I put war in capital letters. What does it have to do with Physical Culture? Believe it or not I'm not talking about military combat or exercises that help you become a soldier but it’s an actual name of a legendary wrestler that recently passed away; William A. Robinson aka Catch Wrestler Billy Robinson. Born in 1939 in England, he came from a family of boxers but as fate would have it, he became a wrestler.

            A man named Billy Riley opened a wrestling school in England in a town called Wigan, he trained some of the toughest wrestlers not just in Europe but just about everywhere else. The two most famous to come out of that gym were Karl Istaz aka Karl Gotch and Billy Robinson. In the 1950’s when Billy was just starting out, he got tied up in knots, worked his ass off, learned the secrets of Catch Wrestling and ventured off into the world of Pro Wrestling. He won countless titles all over the world but never forgot where he came from. Wigan Wrestling back then would be the equivalent to Dan Gable’s Championship formula of the 1980’s at the University Of Iowa, rough, tough and the most conditioned wrestlers of it’s time.

            In the 1970’s, Billy was considered one of the top if not the top most talented wrestler of that era. He wrestled many top stars of the day. His style of wrestling was unique in that it was scientific, he read other wrestlers like it was a chess match. He had agility very few had and can lock you in a hold where he could cripple you if he had the chance, he was that good. He trained countless wrestlers over the years, some you may even heard of that are hall of famers in pro wrestling such as 16-time World Champ Ric Flair and quite possibly the most hated wrestler of his era The Iron Sheik. In Japan he coached many of the Japanese wrestlers of the time including “Gracie Killer” Kazushi Sakuraba.

            Billy passed away earlier this week leaving a legacy that has long been forgotten but has slowly risen with a new generation of Catch Wrestlers and to continue his legacy before he died he put together a book called Physical Chess which told his life story from his very own words. He was the last of the old-time catch wrestlers of the old Wigan days. To even get a glimpse of his legendary wisdom and training now is to go to Scientific Wrestling and get the DVD series W.A.R which shows his philosophy, training and techniques in the art of Catch As Catch Can Wrestling. I never got the chance to meet him but I've talked to those that have and they said he was the best and was a great man. Maybe one day if I learned some catch I'll be hearing the voice from above “Do it again.”

            One of his many facets on life and wrestling is what he referred to as “Learning how to learn.” I've heard this phrase a few times and what I believe it to be is that you don’t stop learning, if you think you know it all, you haven’t learned a damn thing. He uses it for wrestling for what I use it as fitness, you can do so many things but there’s always something that can be taught that keeps you finding other ways to better yourself no matter how long it takes and mastering it is part of the mystery. Even if you master something you’ll always be a student because knowledge is what keeps us going and how it absorbs who you are and what you want to do. RIP Billy and hope wherever you are, you're having fun wrestling old comrades and crippling those who need to get their ass kicked. 

Catching If You Can

             

              In the realm of Martial Arts there are those few that a not practiced often today but yet one has become a dying art with a little heart beat left and that’s the sport of Catch As Catch Can Wrestling. It is a style of wrestling that requires great practice (as does most Martial Arts) but yet it has a scientific feel for it, it’s a mind game like Physical Chess, you have to think certain moves ahead in order to defeat an opponent but it never gets easy. It may be a dying art but it hasn't sunk into the grave yet and has been rising in the last decade. This is the pinnacle of Submission Wrestling.

            The first rule of Catch is to get into the best condition possible. The reason why is because if you’re in a fight and you have your technique down but don’t last too long, you’re a goner before you can say “Damn.” Before you ever step on a mat, you should train with great intensity to become a conditioned individual. No one knew this better than the great Karl Gotch. To be able to get something, you have to earn it. I've heard about a lot of guys that love wrestling but never get down to condition because they don’t care about the work that goes into it. You want it bad enough; get your ass into gear.

            There aren't many who are left to teach the sport of CACC because most of them are gone including the late Karl Gotch but there are those that are out there that can help bring the sport back from the dead with the new generation. The one that sticks out the most now is the legendary Wigan wrestler Billy Robinson who coaches and helps out with seminars around the country with Scientific Wrestling front-runner Jake Shannon. Learn from who you can because it’s not everyday you learn about wrestling from the old school ways.

            Catch Wrestling has been around for decades has its roots in England, Eastern Europe and even in America with greats like Frank Gotch, George Hackenshmidt, Tom Jenkins, Farmer Burns, Fred Grubmyer and possibly the greatest American wrestler Ed “Strangler” Lewis aka (Robert Julius Fredrick). It is important to learn about our roots about mankind’s oldest sport and how it became what it is today. It is man’s birthright to wrestle, you didn't start out with a ball or a track or a racket, you started by getting your man to the ground and making him cry uncle to be the dominant man. You didn't have the Romans duel to the death by shooting a basketball, you certainly didn't have the Mongolians take down half the world by scoring touchdowns, they fought with powerful weaponry and the might of their body to wrestle and kill if needed to. From my understanding Catch is probably at the top of the list of being the great self-defense program and if you can strike, kick and wrestle masterfully, you’d be a dynamo.

            Not many want to earn their place because of how tough it is to get there. Look at this from a perspective, the conditioning is actually the easy part, it’s the consistency to keep it up and wrestle over a period of time is the hard part but that’s the beauty of it. Training is a constant state of motion and yeah it takes guts and the balls to get through it but at the same time it’s a preparation to help you stay in the game. Very few see that perspective and the rest bitch that they can’t handle it so they just up and run away like a scared mutt. I love wrestling and I've learned that if I want to be good at it, I have to earn my way to get there just like when I had my accident, I wanted so bad to train and walk again but I had to earn it through progression, drive and the will to get what I wanted and I made it happen. If I want to wrestle and learn the holds, I have to go through the trenches first to get there and if it means getting up to 500 Squats and 250 push-ups consistently so be it.

            To learn Catch Wrestling, you have to catch yourself and grab a hold of your conditioning and your will to get to where you want to be, if you want it bad enough, you won’t turn it into a nightmare, you’ll turn it into a dream you’re making come true and knock down the metaphorical brick wall to make that happen. Get at it and catch that light that is Catch As Catch Can Wrestling. 

Karl Gotch & Conditioning

             

             It’s important to understand that if you want to the very best in your sport or in your training, you want to be in the best condition as possible. Karl Gotch put this rule to a level not many want to achieve. It doesn't matter if you’re in Wrestling, Football, Baseball, Basketball, Hockey or Soccer for that matter, you can have all the gnarly skills you want but if you can’t last the way you need to, you’re done. A lot of people seem to have this notion that if you just train a little and work on the skills you’ll be fine. Wrong. Conditioning and technique go together like a Horse & Carriage, one without the other is worthless.

            When it comes down to conditioning, there are many ways to do it and like everything else, it takes time and patience and building your mental strength as well. One of the things I admired about Gotch was how he can make cardio look like a firestorm with just a good old deck of cards. I’m sure he might not be the first to come up with this concept but he did make it worth it in gold. Take a deck of cards, shuffle them and get to work. This makes training a little different because it’s never the same workout twice. If you can get through the deck, you’re in pretty decent shape and if you do it twice in the same workout you’re a terror practically on the mat, floor or on the field.

            The cards have a way to test your mind power and see how far you’re willing to push yourself. Yes it takes progression to work up to a full deck but after that it’s more of a mental game than a physical. The more you generate power in your mind; the body will give in and do more. It’s the mind/muscle connection that brings together the most powerful type of training of all.

            Remember about basic exercises? This is no different and your best shot is to stick with the fundamentals as best as possible when it comes to bodyweight…Push-ups, Squats and Bridging. These three alone can be beneficial to your health and strength training because there are many variations of them, some are easy, some are harder than others but once you have them down and you can train hard on them, you have the idea of mastering your own body in a way most will never understand. Like the old man once said “Conditioning is your best hold.”

Wrestling & The Golden Age Of Physical Culture

Before baseball was a major success, before football became the second national pastime, wrestling was the talk of the world. Even in the carnival ACT shows, wrestling was a way to make money whether by side bets or on a major bout in a small city. The most notable wrestlers of the day were Tom Jenkins, George Hackenshmidt, Frank Gotch and quite possibly the greatest of them all Ed “Strangler” Lewis. Wrestling as we all know is the oldest of sports and what better to help bring wrestling to the national spotlight then in the Industrial Revolution. It took more then these men to make a profit and matches were unpredictable as some lasted a few minutes to lasting a few hours.

 If there was ever a man long before Television swept the nation in America’s living rooms, he took wrestling to a height that only Hulk Hogan and Lou Thesz would achieve later in the century and that was George Hackenshmidt. A man born in Estonia, the most built developed man at that time and was considered to be at one point to another title, The World’s Strongest Man. Looking like he was carved from Granite, Hack sold out areas in Europe such as the London Opera House and in America drew one of the biggest crowds in Sports History wrestling Frank Gotch. By far one of the strongest competitors of that time but more importantly believe it or not one of the most conditioned. Hack lived and breathed exercise and wrestling as he build muscles and brains by writing a course that became his Magnum Opus: The Way To Live. Up until Hulk Hogan arrived, Hack was the guy that brought strength and muscle to the world of Professional Wrestling.

 Lou Thesz who was the most watched man in America in the early TV era, considered one man he didn’t question as the greatest of all-time (even though it’s still argued to this day) was a man who was known to beat anyone at any length of a match and whenever he wanted but still made a moniker as a boring defensive wrestler named Ed Lewis a.k.a Robert Julius Fredrick if I stand corrected. Although very well talented and could cripple any guy he faced, Lewis wasn’t all that of a offensive wrestler if history serves me right and he just didn’t do very well when drawing a crowd. During one match it lasted five and a half hours when spectators were expected to see a good hour of wrestling. Because of this notion, during the roaring twenties and the Depression of the 1930’s, the scientific style of wrestling became faded and the people needed excitement. With promoters and wrestlers alike they began doing performance matches which they don’t try to cripple each other but get the people in frenzy and this was the turning point from being a sport to becoming an entertainment spectacle.

 No matter what sport you love, there’s always going to the single greatest debate, “Who’s the greatest.” Wrestling is no different. During the Industrial Revolution, kids and athletes of all shapes and sizes flocked to YMCA’s and the early stages of Gymnasiums done by guys like Sig Klein’s gym in New York in the 30’s and also York Barbell Company along with a Health Club in Oakland, CA by a little known Physical Culturist and athlete himself Jack Lalanne. Wrestling for most people at that time and in Europe such as England, Germany, Ireland & Scotland honed their skills just to pass the time because of either money trouble, tension at home, odd jobs or even to become a professional. Back then, Wrestling gave you a sense of hope and to test your manhood of not only skill but character. A lot of great athletes came out as wrestlers at one time or another. Even big name Presidents were wrestlers in their lifetime like William Taft, Calvin Coolidge, Teddy Roosevelt and others but the most famous wrestler in the White House long before the Industrial Revolution was none other then Abraham Lincoln.

 Such big names during this era up until the TV era were names like Otto Arco, Gama, Hackenshimidt, Frank Gotch, Eugene Sandow, George F. Jowett, Tom Jenkins, The Mighty Atom Joseph Greenstein, Lou Thesz, Ed Lewis, Jim Londis, Toots Mont, Ad Santell, Stu Hart and many, many more. These men were the cornerstone before there was a WWE, WCW and ECW. The NWA (National Wrestling Alliance) was on the verge of becoming the top promoting company in the wrestling business at that time. Wrestling back then was far more real and scientific then the high flying, bloated up bodybuilding and chair swinging entertainment that it is today and wrestlers had to be in tip top shape and be able to go an hour or more in a match if they needed to.

 Money wasn’t a major deal at the time until Hack and Gotch came around and for them, they were practically the first two athletes to draw a major wrestling card as they had a series of Championship matches that lasted god knows how long but they kept at it until they had a final match in 1911 at Chicago’s brand new Comiskey Park where Hack lost another match to Frank Gotch.  Other then that unless it was in the Carnival shows, betting on a wrestler was as much a gamble as horseracing (maybe less). Side bets came left and right and most likely there were guys who took a fall to get a big payday like shaving points in a basketball or football game today. Like any gamble, there were guys who won and lost money on a good wrestler and very few great ones like Santel, Gotch and Jenkins ever lost a match before they ended up crippling their opponents. Like any athlete you want to bet on a man that is good, strong and intelligent in how he uses his opponents. Once the promoters began running shows in various cities around the country and the real style of wrestling faded, the gamble wore off and ticket profits became the stuff of legends.

 There are an extreme few wrestlers today that are as good, some better and some far less then the wrestlers of the past. If I had to name a few would be Ken Shamrock, Randy Couture, Dan Severn, Kurt Angle, Kazushi Sakuraba, Brock Lesnar and Matt Hughes that are keen wrestlers to tearing down their opponents, yes I realize a few of these names were in WWE at one time but seriously, I’m talking before they even talked to guys like Vince McMahon. Any wrestler whether in the WWE, UFC, King Of The Cage or even what use to be PRIDE in Japan should pay homage to those that came before them, learn their history, learn where they came from and how to model themselves after. It’s more worth while knowing your history then knowing your techniques. Knowledge is power, wisdom is strength, and conditioning & technique come last. Whoever is the greatest wrestler doesn’t matter and really shouldn’t ever matter, what does matter is what did you get out of learning from the best whether it’s from one wrestler or ten of them.

When Wrestling Was Fun To Watch

I grew up a 90's kid, watched the saturday morning cartoons, obsessed with The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, there was Keenan and Kel and at night it was Jeapordy, Wheel Of Fortune, Seinfeld and great tv shows of the time but nothing got me more hooked and more tuned in then Professional Wrestling. The very first event I watched on TV that I can remember was Wrestlemania 12 and it was the coolest thing I saw. I saw a 7 foot deadman piledrive a bad ass giant, saw a ringmaster with a million dollar belt, I witnessed a grown man in gold kiss a scottish wrestler on the lips but the one match that caught my eye and the one I still will say to this day was the greatest match in the history of televised events was the Iron Man one hour marathon between the Heart Break Kid Shawn Michaels vs. Bret The Hitman Hart for the WWE Championship. That was the match that started my journey into the history of the sport and gave me the chance to learn about the very best in the sport from its early days in the sticks to the epic era of television.

When I began watching the Monday Night Wars between Raw and Nitro, it was the most fun I ever had as a fan watching these awesome athletes of all shapes and sizes doing the things that they did best. Unlike a lot of fans I wasn't very much interested in what the character was but what happened in the ring that put most of my attention to. Watching these guys jump off the ropes, doing suplexes, power slams, cage matches, 6 man tags and the incredible physiques they had. Yes I was a fan of the NWO and Degeneration X but none of that mattered unless they wrestled in the ring.

I went to a few house shows at the Cow Palace in San Francisco and the old San Jose Arena before it was changed to the HP Pavillion and was at 2 big PPVs and a Smackdown show and it was the most epic time of my life as a fan of the old WWE and WCW. Because of this I became obsessed of what wrestling really was and studied the old school days of the sport going back as far as ancient egypt to presidents and kings being wrestlers to the PT Barnum era of the ACT shows to the epic battles of Frank Gotch and George Hackenshmidt to Ed Strangler Lewis being the transition from real wrestling becoming a profitable industry of characters to Television where Lou Thesz was the talk of the globe. I was also obsessed with how the wrestlers trained and what they did to become stars other then becoming a character.

Even during the early days of television wrestlers with an amature background broke into the business and brought their styles to a whole other level. I will still say to this day from the clips of matches I saw of the early TV era that the best amature wrestlers that made an impact on Pro Wrestling were Lou Thesz, Verne Gagne, Gene Kiniski, The Briscos, Dory Funk jr., Karl Gotch and Billy Robinson. There were guys just as good but none had an impact like those mistros of the mat.

I can never imagine the training wrestlers went through to break into the wrestling business. I mean sh*t the easy part was training in the ring and building a charcter but to put all that infront of hundreds of thousands of people was just brutal. I've seen clips of guys aching and begging for their lives for the torture to stop. I've heard stories of Hulk Hogan training from Hiro Matsuda, Eddy Sharkey who trained guys like Road Warriors, Bob Backlund and Jesse "The Body" Ventura who took these guys to limits that you can't imagine unless you were there and don't get me started on guys like Walter "Killer" Kowalski who was a conditioning machine who taught the art of the business to future WWE Hall Of Famer Paul Levesque aka Triple H.

I've been through torture workouts myself in my later years after being a teenager but never have I or ever want to be put through that kind of training but that also put me on my quest for being in condition and strong. Conditioning is your greatest friend and nobody put that concept better then the late Karl Gotch. It doesn't matter whether you're in wrestling or in other sports, you can have the techniques down to a science but if your condition is poor you might as well get out the door.

I wish there were matches that were just as good if not better then the matches going on today in WWE's PG era which I have no idea what that concept is nor do I care. There are some great wrestlers today like Rey Mysterio, NCAA standout Jack Swagger, College champion Dolph Ziggler but the one guy that really brought his amature status to the ring and brought a whole new meaning to the words Wrestler and even going back to the place where he first gained fame in the Olympics is Kurt Angle. This guy in my opinion is our generation's Dan Gable and he took wrestling in ways that will never be duplicated as far as wrestling goes not rassling. There are a few guys that are good to watch these days but it doesn't live up to the era of my teenage years where you had guys like the Rock, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Undertaker and quite possibly one of the funniest cats in the business as well as one of the greatest performers Chris Jericho.

They don't make wrestlers like them anymore and the very few guys that are good to watch every now and then like Randy Orton, John Cena, Kofi Kingston and CM Punk just had me lost interest as a fan of that part of the business and rather watch the guys from my generation to the day days of Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Harley Race, Ricky Steamboat, The Road Warriors, Bob Backlund and believe it or not Macho Man Randy Savage. Nowadays I watch real wrestlers like Brock Lesnar, Matt Huges, The Shamrocks, Tito Ortiz, Josh Barnett, Randy Couture and the great Japanese wrestlers.

Although I have lost interest in the few years of WWE wrestling, WWE gave me the chance to learn and love wrestlers of the past and transition from the loud characters and chair swinging lunitics to the kick ass submission style and scientific version of wrestling. Its all how you tend to look at things. Whether you're a fan of wrestling ingeneral or not its really how you love to watch your heroes and watch the great evolvement that unfolds whether its cool or not and find the best to watch and learn for yourself.

Why is wrestling more superior then any other sport?

That's a really good question to ask. I believe wrestling is more superior because it takes mental toughness, inner strength, serious conditioning and the biggest key in the sport, balance. In wrestling you have to move your body in every possible angle and moving around in pace where you need control, explosiveness and durability. Its very hard to make it in this sport and what you are taught first is conditioning because if you start doing the techniques first you will injure yourself and you will dead tired in less than a minute in a match plain and simple.

When you do the conditioning learn to teach your body how the animals in the wild work. Work almost like a gymnast as well because if you can move your own bodyweight like its a piece a cake you got nothing to worry about. Wrestling will test you like you never thought before. If you're in a match and you're down to the wire tied in a double overtime and starting to feel the fatigue set in, that's where real mental strength comes into play (conditioning as well) and it only takes a second to realize if you've won or lost. Its not just a sport, its part of daily life.

Its the oldest sport known to man and always will be. Some people win some people lose and no matter what happens either way you learn to look at it from a different prospective, there's always mistakes and we learn to correct them and take charge of what lies ahead, that's how we grow and that's how we make minds stronger than before by creating more techniques and developing better strengths. There's an old saying and read carefully as you read this to understand my point here: "Life is more like wrestling than dancing." Put that in your head and tell me its not superior.

Condititioning For Catch Wrestling

No matter what sport you're in, you can have the talent, the techniques and the know how all you want but if you arn't in condition then you're going to die out within a short period of time. Other sports can be rough and can tear you down but nothing takes the place of wrestling and not WWE style but shooting and submission or in other words Scientific Wrestling.

Conditioning for wrestling is a whole different breed of fitness. It takes heart, it takes inner power and to prove you're tough enough. Even for some WWE wrestlers when they first began training in certain cities around the country and the world never experienced anything this type of conditioning, some have been through boot camps in the NFL, in College even one in the Navy SEALs had never experienced a type of conditioning. Karl Gotch however took training and conditioning to a level that was unheard of at the time. He took basic principles of conditioning and molded them into a way where it was effective, it worked and it made you or broke you as an athlete.

One of the most important aspects of conditioning is Bridging. Working not just the neck but working the whole body as a unit and taking your level of strength and functional muscle building to a stratosphere that you cannot imagine unless you have experienced it. There are many ways to do the bridge so you have a variety of what you can do but you also need to learn to work your body at as many as you can.

When you combine the bridge with Squats & Push-ups you will become a lethal conditioning machine. When you use these for the Karl Gotch Bible by using a deck of cards your conditioning will soar beyond the skies and beyond the moon. Sticking to the fundementals will take you further in your fitness, your health and in your sport. For wrestling, real wrestling, conditioning is key and I hope I can use this right because i'm very passionate with conditioning, to quite Karl Gotch "Wrestling and Conditioning go together like a horse and carriage, one without the other is worthless. The most expensive car won't run without water, gas and oil." He was right and beyond. He got it right on the dot and I give the late Gotch all the respect he deserves and I wished I had met him before he died, it would've be a real honor.

Get into the heart of conditioning and learn the character of what real wrestling is and how all these wrestlers are just in fantastic condition.

Old Time Wrestling & How It Can Turn You Into A Machine

When it comes to conditioning for wrestling there are many ways to do it. Look at how Dan Gable conditioned the most dominant team at University Of Iowa for 21 seasons with 15 National Titles. His methods were second to none and should be learned by any type of coach for the sport or athlete for that matter. At the same time there was a man who took conditioning to a very unique level and because of his teachings he conditioned a wrestler by the name of Frank Gotch. His name was Martin “Farmer” Burns.

In his course Lessons In Wrestling & Physical Culture he uses a form of deep breathing to help regain and maintain health, strength and fitness. He doesn’t sugarcoat anything in this course and I highly recommend you check it out at http://www.sandowplus.co.uk/Competition/Burns/lessons/lesson01.htm.

 Without question he was one of the most unorthodox wrestlers/teachers there was at the turn of the 20^th century. He developed techniques in both fitness and wrestling to create the ultimate package to see who is tough enough and who is willing to take his training to a whole new level. Farmer himself had wrestled sense he was very young and had a staggering number of victories losing in only 7 matches. At age 50 he can still take down and mangle an opponent within seconds. At that time being 50 was ancient and the average age wouldn’t go beyond 60 let alone 50. So that should tell you how powerful this small man was and weighed no more then 175 pounds. The techniques he taught not only gave a wrestler a chance to win matches but also to save his own life. This was important for the common man of that period when survival was needed the most.

 Another key factor that he taught was very important and that’s pacing ones self. For a wrestler it’s a game of chess and you must be steps ahead of your opponent but it must not be quick nor faster then needed. When you get accustomed to the conditioning it teaches you to pace yourself and conserve your energy while your opponent wears out his. This became very complex and effective that it still stands today for MMA Fighters. Its no wonder the Farmer was ahead of his time.

Because of these effective strategies it was passed on from generation to generation. One of them was a wrestler who took the name Gotch and made a name for himself in Europe, Japan and a stint in America. His name was Karl Istaz (Gotch). Like the Farmer himself Karl took conditioning to a degree far beyond what most would consider today as insane or brutal. Either way it became apparent that if you want to wrestle your conditioning comes first. This goes hand and hand like a horse and carriage, one without the other is worthless.

If you want to see Gotch & his students in action then go to Scientific Wrestling and pick up a copy of Conditioning For Combat Sports 1 & 2. There might be a Interview DVD in there as well which in my opinion is treasure among treasures as Karl sits with Scientific Wrestling Owner Jake Shannon as they discuss the old-timers, a bit of Karl’s Career and his fond of conditioning. If you choose to do so I would also recommend you pick up the Authoritive  Encyclopedia Of Scientific Wrestling series. It’s a series of books filled with interviews, wrestling techniques and definitions of wrestlers and holds. It even has some on the Farmer. As a man of history and Physical Culture I encourage you to find your own history and learn from the best in the game. 100 years ago Burns helped carry on a wrestling tradition that still stands today and his techniques are not only more unique but even more effective today but yet is becoming a lost art. Help carry on a tradition that is sacred and willing to fight for.   

"You Can't Get Strong On Bodyweight Exercises"

You hear this a lot in gyms from every state in the country. This quote has also been made by guys who don't know jack shit about bodyweight training at least not in the same way they think they do. To them bodyweight exercise are warm-ups or pilates and all that funny looking aerobic type stuff. Why is that, how can they say such a thing? Truth of the matter is they have been sold a bill of goods by ghost writers in fitness magazines that in order to get strong you need to lift weights, take these supplements, have this type of protein powder and never need to use your own body as a source of strength training and muscle building. Well I feel pretty damn sorry for those dumbasses.

Have any of those guys heard of Gama, Karl Gotch, Kurt Thomas, Charles Atlas or one of the best football players in the world Herschal Walker? 9 out of 10 times only maybe 2 names they have heard of and thats really sad and i'll tell you why. All these men used almost exclusively nothing but bodyweight exercises and its made them somewhat superhuman. They busted their asses for years to build a level a strength and conditioning nobody can match. Take for example Karl Gotch, one of the greatest catch wrestlers whoever lived. He made his mark not as a famous professional wrestler but one of the most gifted trainers the world has ever known. His conditioning methods were second to none and he made some of the biggest marks on japanese wrestling. His training consisted of three foundamental exercises.....Push-ups, Squats & Bridging. One of his methods was using a deck of cards and shuffle them making the red cards push-ups and the black cards squats or vise versa.

I don't know about you but I would love to see one of those morons who believe bodyweight training are for warm-ups to try this out. He won't last more 20 cards. It takes strength to do a push-up no matter how you slice it but to take it to another and turn it into strength/endurance is a whole new ball game. This type of workout alone can jump start a person's conditioning within a short period of time. Take the time to learn the exercises before you jump into the cards.

Now can bodyweight exercises make you stronger? Well how about for starters most of my training is purely bodyweight and i'm 5'10 242 lbs. and I once deadlifted nearly 400 pounds without having too much training on it. I may be a big dude but I also have flexibility and did a whole deck of cards in just over 21 min. How about another guy by the name of Logan Christopher. This guy is 6'2 and 185, thats pretty skinny for a guy that height but he has strength that have impressed some of the strongest men in the world and most are far bigger then him. He has won a contest to determain the most conditioned athlete of the year and at the same time his training has helped him bend steel, rip phonebooks, bend horseshoes and in my opinion has one of the strongest necks around holding as much as 600+ pounds in a bridge.

Ultimate Bodyweight- Squats

Ultimate Bodyweight- Push-ups

Advanced Bridging Course

Scientific Wrestling

My Detication Workout To The Late Karl Gotch & My 6 Year Anniversary

Yesterday was the 6th year anniversary of the day I broke both my legs in a cliff jumping accident. Since then I deticated workouts to celebrate what I had accomplished over the last few years and this time was no exception and added a twist to it. So what I did was for this particular workout was the Karl Gotch Bible that the old-time wrestler created to make one of the greatest conditioning elements in the world. Karl Gotch always said to work the foundamentals push-ups, squats and bridging. I took out one of my decks of cards, shuffled them around and hammered out what I could. I varied the push-ups to work different muscles from different angles but stuck with the hindu squats/jumpers. I finished the whole deck in 21min. and 13sec. Thats a new PR for me.

After that I did some bridging and stretching/energy drills and finished the workout in less then 45 min. Now I don't know about you guys but it was fucking tough and whoever tries it is in the ride of your life. This takes toughness to a whole new level. This was a very high moment for me because when I first started walking again I couldn't do 10 cards let alone regular hindu push-ups and hindu squats so to say this was a huge accomplishment would be an understatement. I've done plenty of workouts to be a bit of an expert on how tough you have to be to pull off certain exercises. Now what if you wanted to be a conditioned athlete and take your workout to a level only the elite can achieve. With enough practice and by your creativity you can become somewhat superhuman and achieve a level of conditioning that the average joe only dreams of.

Take a look at Conditioning For Combat Sports by The Great One himself as he puts a young man through a workout that will blow you away. Also if you want to see some true conditioning elements take a look at Submission Master by Gotch student Yoshiaki Fujiwara. His students demonstrate along with him the brutal tactics of Catch-As-Catch-Can Wrestling with some very important exercises for the whole body. Its in Japanese but it gives you certain points and helps you understand key factors. I believe you won't be disappointed.

Scientific Wrestling

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.














 









 

Poker Conditioning

One of the best ways to get in super condition is not through bike riding or running for miles on end. Take out a deck of cards and draw/shuffle them 2-3 times. Now flip a card over and do a number of reps of squats or push-ups. Try finishing the entire deck with good form. At a good clip this shouldn't be more then 25-30 min. Its one of the most brutal workouts you can be put through just ask the japanese wrestlers.

 This type of training was built by one of the greatest wrestlers of all-time Karl Gotch. Nicknamed "The God Of Pro Wrestling" in Japan cause not only did he influence pro wrestling and martial arts but a real test of ones conditioning training. He put the wrestlers through workouts that would make Dan Gable think twice about. Not only can you get a hell of a workout but it makes your mind much sharper and more balance for your workout and how much you can handle.

 Try out the push-up and squat workout and after doing the entire deck try other exercises like v-ups, isometrics ect. If you want to get into super condition w/out the use of weights and find other forms of training in the deck of cards these are the way to go.

Matt Furey

Scientific Wrestling and look for Submission Master and Conditioning For Combat Sports

Yours in Power & Might

Ben