I grew up a sickly kid in a small town that prided itself on being only 5 square miles.

We had 1 drugstore, 1 single screen movie theater, 1 Chinese food restaurant and
1 gym; Peps Gym. The gym was a small 40x60ft basement room under the local
Masonic temple. It consisted of 2 squat racks, 2 benches, 1 behind the neck press,
1 power rack and one of those old universal machines like you see in a high school
gymnasium. However, to me it was a magical place that seemed ten times the size
of the town that housed it. It was filled with real life superheros performing feats I
would have imagined could have happened only in comic books. I would go there for hours every day
after school and sweat and strain as I spied on these monstrous humans trying to figure how I too could
become a living caricature. You see, as far back as I can remember I had asthma. At that time rescue
inhalers were not available and an attack meant an ambulance trip to the hospital and an adrenalin drip
that would leave me shaky for hours. I was an active kid when I was feeling good but all too often I
would overdo it and end up back at the hospital. During high allergy seasons I would try and stay
quiet, as my grandmother would say, and lie around getting lost in comic books dreaming of being
indestructible like Superman or the Hulk. At some point I remember seeing a picture of a bodybuilder on
one of the back pages. The image is fuzzy and I cant recall his name but I remember thinking he looked
like a superhero and I had to know his story. I went to the local paper store in hopes of finding a book or
magazine that had information on him in it. It was the early 80s and there was no google. I tried my
best to explain that I was trying to find out about a real life superhero looking guy in a ladys bathing suit
bottom. The lady behind the counter had no idea what I was talking about but then had an epiphany
and said there were magazines that were full of muscle men. I went over and looked at the covers
andholy crap!!!! There were tons of these guys!!! And they hadnt been bitten by radioactive spiders
either!?! They made themselves this way through hard work?!?! So, anyone can do this? I can do this?
I only had enough money to buy one magazine. So, I chose the one that had something along the lines of
The secret muscle-building techniques used by the pros written in big bold letters. It seemed to be
written in another language; sets and reps, protein, bench
presses, spider curlswhoa! I was instantly intrigued and
drawn into this complicated matrix of exercises and
workouts. Everyone did something different and each had
their own secret exercise or diet or workout. I had hit the
heavy bag and done pushups, situps and curls with my
grandfather who was an ex-pro boxer but I had no idea there
were this many exercises available that when done to
extremes could affect the human body in such a dramatic
way! Over the next few months I found a rusted up weight
A little off season lat spread
set at one yard sale and an old cement filled plastic one at
another. A next door neighbor had an old dilapidated bench with leg extension attachment that I
actually had to nail to my grandfathers workbench so it wouldnt tip over. I set up a nice little gym in
the garage with a makeshift lat pulldown/tricep extension using a length of clothesline and a pulley off
an old ladder. I wrote my routine on the garage wall and got started right away. My first routine actually
came out of a Billiard Barbells training manual with Bill Grant modeling the exercises. I decided I didnt

think his legs were big enough so I replaced his workout with another one from one of the guys known
for their quads in one of the many magazines I had now collected.
I read all about intensity, forced reps, negatives, supersets, giant sets. I added everything I read about in
and spent at least a couple hours a day sweating, straining and pumping. Many days I would go back in
and repeat the workout again for a second and sometime third time. After a few months of this I really
hadnt noticed much of a difference other than I didnt get sore anymore. I thought it must be that I
didnt have the right equipment and decided it was time to join a gym. One day while out getting a
hoagie with my grandfather at the local sub shop he pointed out the cooks arms were as big as
supermans. I instantly felt like we were best friends because
I too was a bodybuilder. It didnt matter that I weighed 85lbs
and had looked like I had a pair of pipe cleaners for arms. I
had been pumping away for months. Thats gotta buy me
some street cred right? Anyway, the guy was super nice and
told me to check out Peps Gym. He said it was hardcore and
the owner coached nationally ranked powerlifters,
bodybuilders, pro athletes, and he himself was a lifter from
way back. I walked through the door and this jacked up
college kid Bruce came over and immediately dismissed my
interest. He said I was too young and it would bend my
bones. What?!?!?!? Was he crazy??? Obviously he hadnt
read the article that said the Russians started their world
champions at 8 years old! Disgusted and heartbroken, I left
Tire Flip at AZ Strongest Man
and went home and read some more magazines looking for
some evidence to go back and plead my case with. A few
days later I returned with a whole argument prepared in my head. Luckily for me the owners son,
Tommy, was working. Tommy was a national champion powerlifter and trying to make the Olympic
Wrestling team. He was a ginger and looked like someone had built him out of a pile of rocks and put a
t-shirt over it. He managed the gym for his father during the summer while home from college. To this
day, Tommy is the only coach I have ever had that I felt truly cared about my progress and wellbeing. He
started me off on that old universal to build my base saying that I wasnt strong enough to do the
exercises correctly with the 45 lb bar yet. My bar at home was a hollow 10 pounder. I was devastated at
first, but after dropping the bar on my nose the first time I tried to bench it I really couldnt argue. I
followed his advice for a month or two but I started to lose interest since it was obvious all the big guys
used free weight and I hadnt hit puberty yet so no muscles where showing anyway. After a week or two
away from the gym I ran into Tommy and his girlfriend at a local lake. He asked where I had been and I
told him I was thinking of giving up. He said Thats too bad I was planning on starting you on free
weights this Monday. Just when I thought I was out, they drag me back in
I went back that Monday and Tommy told me he was starting me on a 4 day powerlifting routine. I told
him I wanted to look like the guys in the magazines and he said that I wasnt yet strong enough to lift the
kind of weight it would take to build that kind of muscle. So powerlifting it is then! Tommy was real

good about making sure I used what he considered the proper technique on all my lifts. He made sure I
didnt go to heavy or do too many sets. I would of course sneak in a couple sets of pec dec and preacher
curls when he wasnt looking but he didnt seem to mind too much. As long as I tried hard on the basics,
he would let me play around. I got my bench up to 135 for 5 rather quickly and that was a huge deal
because none of the bigger guys would let you work in if you couldnt at least do a 45 on each side (after
warm up of course). I always pushed as hard as I could and it won the respect of the more serious guys
rather quickly. It didnt matter that I wasnt even close to strong yet. They knew I was young and saw
that I idolized them and was willing to work to make it happen. Finally, some street cred!
After a while I started reading more magazines and learned to filter out what worked and what didnt. I
watched the different lifters at meets we went to and analyzed their techniques and hit them up with as
many questions as they would tolerate. As they started to look irritated Id ask them a couple more and
jet! At one of the first contests I ever went to 33 years ago I asked Bev Francis so many questions Im
pretty sure shed remember me to this day. I applied everything I learned and took note of how I felt
and how I performed. I modified a lot of the techniques Tommy had taught me and started to really
progress. Bench, of course, was the first lift I fell in love with. It made sense to me. I figured out the
purpose of the arch the first time I saw it and started working on getting more flexible so I could arch
higher. I immediately saw how the guys used leg drive and lat flair to get the bar moving. I started
training my lats harder and practiced driving into a big arch. I hit a 300lb bench at a local contest my
freshman year in high school and was convinced I was on to something. I loved sharing my revelations
with others. At first the older guys had the predictable Who are you to tell me? I can out lift you by
200lbs! The ones that could get past their own ego realized I had something to say and would
sometimes ask me for advice. I always seemed to be able to pick things apart and come up with a
solution. When I was 15 years old a girl named Tara joined the gym. No one took her seriously or really
gave her much attention. She was pretty serious about lifting so I decided I would try and help her since
I went through the same thing when I first joined and Tommy was away at school. I trained her for her
first powerlifting meet at which she ended up posting a qualifying total for that years world
championship. The next year I trained her for a bodybuilding show which, by the way, she won. This
gave me a little more credibility and I was now in full puberty and my own weights were skyrocketing.
My two best friends had joined the gym and we had a great training group of guys and we learned quite
a bit from each other. However, as strong as I was getting, powerlifting still didnt hold the allure that
bodybuilding did. I kept getting stronger and stronger but I never seemed to get that bodybuilder look.
The articles in the magazines said these guys were working out with weights that powerlifters would be
lucky to hit for a 1 rep max. At the time I didnt realize it was all BS and fake plates. I was still a wide
eyed gullible teenager that believed there were secrets that we just didnt have access to.
Education of a Bodybuilder by Arnold Schwarzenegger was just sitting there, on the book shelf at the
paper store. It was marked down to two bucks which meant it had been sitting there, unpurchased for
quite a while. How did I miss this? At the time I got into bodybuilding Arnold had already had his day in
the sun and wasnt really in articles. He was always mentioned in passing though. Usually the reason
someone chose to get into the sport. Known as the King! I had never even seen a picture of him before
this. He was just a larger than life myth in my mind. As soon as I saw that ridiculous peak on his bicep I

was planning my trip to California to follow in his footsteps! I bought the book and read all about how
he escaped from boot camp to win Mr. Germany and how Joe Weider flew him out to California to
become the greatest bodybuilding champion there ever was! Ok now I was convinced there were
secrets and they were at Golds Gym in Venice California. For the next few weeks I worked extra hours
and did odd jobs for people till I had a whopping $1,500 saved up. I then talked my mother into having
me emancipated so I could get a job and go out on my own.
Welcome to Los Angeles was hung on the wall above the down escalator at Los Angeles International
Airport. I stared at it as I impatiently
paced back and forth on my stair behind
a group of people who refused to walk
down the damn escalator. Didnt they
know I had to get to muscle beach? I
took like 74 buses and asked about a
thousand strangers on each bus
directions to Venice beach. I had never
rode public transportation before and I
was convinced that everyone was as lost
as I was so I had to double check
everything and would only follow a
direction if I got it from 3 different
people. At some time around lunch I
arrived a block away from Golds Gym
Discussing Strategy with one of my athletes, proon Rose Avenue. There was a breakfast
strongman Carl Foemmel at Americas Strongest Man!
place on the corner so I decided to fuel
up before hitting the gym. I sat by myself for the first time ever and remember feeling like I was a grown
up for the first time. My breakfast came quickly and I devoured it even quicker. As I was looking at the
check, trying to figure out the tip, Arnold Schwarzenegger himself walked in with his entourage and sat
down. There was no denying it was him. He was like royalty. His hair was spiked and he was wearing a
red polo shirt and the gargoyle sunglasses from the terminator movie poster. I waited till they all got
settled and walked over and introduced myself. He was very warm and genuine and even offered me a
seat to have breakfast with them. I was so excited all I could do was thank him and say I already ate and
had to go to the gym. I asked him to sign my lifting belt. He signed it and told me to have a great
workout. I walked the block over to Golds and without hesitation plopped down three hundred and
some odd dollars for a years membership. So what if it was a third of the money I had left after paying
for the plane. Conan himself just unknowingly validated my every decision to that point!
In my first few minutes at Golds I saw what seemed like a sea of giants all mulling about doing their own
thing. At first I was a bit scared Id be out of place but no one seemed to notice me so I set up on a
bench for my first workout. Mike Christian, a pro-bodybuilder of the time walked in laughing and saying
hellos. He was larger than life in both physique and personality. I hastily ruffled though my gym bag till I
found the copy of Iron Man magazine. I had brought it with me on the plane and it had an article on

Mike Christian The Iron Warriors back attack or something to that effect. It started with something
like 5 sets of wide grip pull ups. So I decided today just became back day and I went over to the pullup
bar and got to work. After about an hour I finally finished the routine and walked over and introduced
myself. I told him I had moved out there to be a pro bodybuilder and I had just finished doing his back
routine. He said he noticed me doing behind the neck pull ups earlier and wanted to know where I got
the idea that was his back routine. I pulled out the Ironman Magazine and showed him. He laughed and
said they just had him pose for pictures they thought would show off his physique and some guy who
probably didnt even lift ghost wrote the article. I felt like I was about to puke! Are you kidding me? I just
flew half way around the world to learn the secrets and they wont even tell the truth about them!?!?
He said relax and told me he trains people for a living and if I wanted to know the secrets I could pay him
for a consult and he would tell me everything. Hmmmok how much? Seventy dollars for an hour, thirty
five for a half. I had to think about it. That was a lot of money to pay someone who let people tell lies
about his workouts in the magazines. He mustve thought I was bargaining with him so he asked how old
I was. I said 15. He decided hed tell me everything I wanted to know for $20. Deal! We went over to
Robin Rose Ice Cream and sat for a couple hours as I asked him every question I could imagine and he
wrote out my new workout routine. It was very vanilla with a lot of cables and machines. The typical 3
sets of 8 to 12 rep stuff youd see in the bodybuilding mags at the time. I was really surprised to find out
he really didnt seem to have any insight. I even remember thinking there was some stuff I thought he
could be doing better. Anyway, I thanked him and went back to the gym. I decided I still needed to train
chest and went back over to Golds and set up on a bench. David and Peter Paul, of the famed Barbarian
Brothers walked over and asked if they could work in with me on the bench. I had seen them on a talk
show and read quite a few articles about them. They were often called the worlds strongest
bodybuilders in the magazines and did seminars where they performed various bodybuilding exercises
with crazy weights. I was delighted to have them work in. About half way through bench presses the
front desk guy came up and told Peter he had a phone call. David got pissed that Peter was leaving and
asked if I wanted to finish the workout with him. We mustve done at least a couple of heavy sets of 5 of
every freaking chest exercise that was ever written by the time we were done. His theory was beat the
body as hard as possible, with as much weight as possible and in as many different ways as possible.
When we finished he actually thanked me and asked if I wanted to train tomorrow. We met every
morning at Golds after downing a quart of chocolate milk for roughly the next 6 months. I learned so
much about training and got introduced to all the big guys of the time through him and his brother.
David was friends with the manager and got me a job as a weight picker upper. I basically got paid $8
an hour to make sure the gym was tidy and spy on all the monsters. I had a notebook I kept in my cooler
that I would take notes in whenever I overheard or saw anything interesting. I became friends with all
the regulars and everyone was very open and honest with me about training diet, supplements etc.
David and Peter got an acting deal and their workout schedules no longer matched up with my own. I
started working out with the late Grizzly Brown and ended up being roommates with him and the also
late Don the ripper Ross. May they both rest in peace! Grizzly trained quite differently than David and
was big on not going to the limit but leaving some in the tank for the next time. His philosophy was
basically as long as you do a little better than last time its all you need. Extra work just tires you out.
One thing Grizzly never thought you didnt need too much of was food. He and I used to demolish the
Swedish Buffet at least 3 to 4 times a week. We used to walk around the corner from our apartment and

buy banana cream pies on sale more times than I care to admit. After watching him move disgustingly
huge weights including 385x3 standing strict press with a barbell, I was convinced he may know a thing
or two about getting strong. Grizzly was huge and carried a lot of fat. He really didnt have the look I was
after so I started getting more into the intricacies of diet. Our other roommate, Don, was ripped year
round. He was a bodybuilder from the 70s and had been a pro wrestler called Ripper Savage. Don had
learned most of his training and diet from legendary trainer Vince Gironda. Don was one of the few
people making a living training people at the time and helped me tremendously once I decided it was
my calling as well. Don and I became great friends. We would drive to the gym in the morning and he
would train people all day long. I would have time to work out, work 8 hours, go to the beach, come
back to the gym, workout a second time and shower by the time he was ready to drive home. He was
busy as hell but seemed to thrive on it. He was a great man and although I hadnt seen or spoke with
him in years until about a week before he died, whenever I think of him I cant help but miss him
tremendously!
Don had given me the single best piece of advice I had ever gotten. Climb up on the roof of a building.
The bums cant get you there. When I first got to Golds I was staying at a local motel. It was about $30
a night and I didnt have a job. I only had about $800 left by the time I had paid for airfare and my gym
membership and it didnt take great math skills to know that wasnt going to last very long, so I decided
to sleep on the beach one night and save myself some money. The next day I was telling Don about it
and he told me two of the guys I had been friends with at the gym that hadnt been around were doing
that and bums beat the hell out of them while they were sleeping and took everything they had with
them. Turns out the two guys werent much older than me and they were both in intensive care. I
decided to keep all my stuff in one of the lockers at the gym just in case, and I would climb up the
outside of the roof ladder when the gym closed. The ladder was encased in a sort of cage so people
couldnt climb up the ladder and get on the roof without a key. I just climbed up the outside of it. I
figured it would be even safer up there! I used to wait till everyone left and climb up with my sleeping
bag. The roof under the air conditioning vents was sloped so if it rained I could sleep under the vent and
not wake up in a puddle. There was only enough room to lay flat and if I wanted to turn over I had to
shimmy out, flip and shimmy back in. I used to wake up with both shoulders wet when it rained but it
was better than being soaked all over, or dead! I slept up there for a few months until I got a job
scooping ice cream at Robin Rose where I met with Mike Christian that first day. One day I was eating
breakfast at a pastry shop on the beach and struck up a conversation with the kid working behind the
counter. He said he had a one room studio and was looking for a roommate. Sold! Peter was a great kid
but he smoked like a chimney and the smell left me lying on my side of the room each night by the
window wanting to puke. How I missed my ac vent!
One day I was sitting around the gym after my shift ended shooting the shit with Golds day manager
Dave when in walked an older gentleman and his wife. They wanted to join and asked about getting a
personal trainer. After they joined and they had met a few of the trainers they asked Dave why it was so
expensive. Dave looked over at me and said Mike here only charges a little more than half that. Hes
young but he knows his stuff and winked at me. They said they were excited to meet me and wrote me
a check for 3 months of training before I could tell them I wasnt a trainer. We met the next morning at

5am and I hadnt slept a wink! I spent the whole damn night checking the alarm clock to make sure I
hadnt overslept. I had trained Tara to bodybuilding and powerlifting wins and I had taught new people
to do the basic exercises and machines when asked. I had discussed training with elite lifters and I was
filled with knowledge. But this was the first time I was going to get paid for it. I had zero confidence! I
felt like a fraud. What if they asked me questions I didnt know the answers to? They were both in their
50s and very successful. I was sure they would see right through me! We got started and everything just
fell into place. They would ask why we do a certain exercise and I knew. They would ask what they
should eat and I knew. They had the usual aches and pains of inactive older people and I knew how to
work around it and make them feel better. Within a month they had gotten me a bunch of their friends
and Don had given me a couple of his clients who couldnt afford his rates but wanted to keep working
with a trainer. He told them he would write their workouts and Id take them through them. Don
showed great faith in me and gave me the confidence to build my business. I soon stopped working for
Golds and became a freelance trainer. I was making more money than any 17 year old could ever dream
of and living my dream. I would get up, train clients, workout with the best pro bodybuilders in the
world, walk down the beach all afternoon, come back and train again, train a few more clients and go
home and go to sleep. I was in heaven. Like any young kid with too much money, I spent instead of
saving and when Don met the love of his life, Rita, Grizzly and I had to find our own places. Grizzly went
home to San Francisco and I didnt have enough money to put a down payment on my own place. My
Grandmother had contacted me and told me my Grandfather was sick and needed me to come home
and help out. I decided to go home and help out. David dropped me off at the airport and I remember
being a mix of heartbroken and excited to leave and go see my family for the first time in years!
When I got back home there was no market for personal training so I worked full time at boring,
unfulfilling jobs and when my Grandfather passed, I traveled back and forth to Venice a few times. I
picked up where I left off and started training clients at Golds again but it just didnt click this time.
Things were just different. Eventually, I decided I wanted to go to med school. I moved back home and
took my SATs. I scored high enough to get accepted at Tufts. Unfortunately I couldnt get the financial
assistance needed so I decided to do my undergrad at a state school then apply for an MD/PhD program
after I graduated. While I was in college I continued to train and played Rugby. I was lucky enough
during this time to train alongside some very knowledgeable professional football and hockey players
and learned all about training for athletics versus training for bodybuilding and powerlifting. The market
for personal training in the area started to grow and I started to pick up a few clients at some of the
local gyms to help pay for my education/spring break. By the time I finished my undergrad I was sick of
school and was offered a job at Natick Army Labs as a biologist working on the spider silk project. They
were trying to genetically manipulate cotton plants to produce spider silk so they could make bullet
proof vests out of them. As exciting as the concept was, my part in it was boring and monotonous so I
left and got a job as an assistant chemist. I hated every minute of it. I used to fantasize about getting in a
car crash on the way to work so I could take a few days off to look for a new car! The place I was working
at took a huge financial hit and I got laid off. While I was laid off I started training people full time again
and again I realized that was my calling. I love helping others fulfill their goals. Getting up at 5am all of a
sudden didnt bother me. I looked forward to going to work. I stayed awake all night to make sure I
didnt miss the alarm! The market was booming and I was in high demand!

Over the years I have had the privilege of working

with and learning from some of the best athletes and
coaches in their respective sports. I was lucky enough
to be able to bend the ear of Lyle Alzados strength
coach day in and day out when I worked at Golds.
Ive travelled to seminars given by so many athletes
and coaches I cant remember half of them. Ive read
almost every book on strength training thats come
down the pike. Ive gotten training certifications from
multiple organizations. However, Ive learned the
most through my own training and working with less
Competing at nationals in Las Vegas
than gifted athletes trying to overcome their own
shortcomings. I learned a lot by having clients who placed their trust in me, and allowed me to test out
my theories to better them in spite of not being built for their sport or starting late in life; or coming
back from devastating injuries. Ive learned more about mobility and body positioning teaching a 70 year
old man with a bad back how to deadlift properly than I did from all the certifications combined.
Right about the time I got laid off from my chemist job I tore my Achilles playing in a game of football. I
had been training for a bodybuilding show and was using the strength shoes to develop my calves.
Fred Hatfield had recommended them at an ISSA certification
seminar and my calves were always my weakest body part
and I was determined to fix that. I had tried everything for
calves and they never showed much improvement so I
figured the shoes were worth a try. I started following the
recommended routine and my Achilles tendons seemed to be
sore all the time. The manual said thats normal and they
would adapt after a while. It made sense to me at the time so
I kept going. Then as I came off the line and smashed the guy
in front of me I heard a loud SLAP! I thought someone had
run by and kicked me in the ankle. My whole lower leg went
numb and I felt nauseous. I tried stretching my calf to get the
feeling to come back but my foot just kept going! I knew
immediately I tore it and hobbled on off to my truck and to
the hospital. As I was recovering from surgery for the first
couple days I just laid around and rented all the original UFC
tapes. I was in awe of the talent and conditioning these guys
possessed. The fact that little old Gracie could even survive
Me winning farmers walk for
against Dan Severyn was a miracle. My new sport was
distance at Arizonas Strongest Man.
picked! As soon as I got through my rehab and built a decent
base of strength back I went and joined a local BJJ place that would later be named The Dragons Lair
in Framingham MA. I immediately hit it off with the owner and spent all my free time meeting up with
him and training and sparring. In exchange for all the additional help I did his strength training and

conditioning programming. There I learned a lot about strength training a fighter and the unique
demands it puts on your body and what type of exercises and programming are most useful for training
a fighter. Along with my personal training, MMA ate up the next 5 years of my life. I even won my class
at the North American Grappling Championships. One day I tore my right brachialis escaping an arm bar
in training and decided to take some time off. I missed lifting heavy and decided to spend some time just
building up some of the strength and muscle I had lost as a fighter. A client and good friend of mine,
Craig, who I was training for bodybuilding suggested we take a trip to Las Vegas for the Mr Olympia that
year. As we walked around the expo we saw that Met Rx had a booth set up with that years Worlds
Strongest Man, Mariusz Pudzianowski demonstrating the atlas stones. Of course Craig and I had to try
them. Neither of us could load the smallest one and as I tried Bill Kazmier was announcing to the crowd
how I bet this kid sits at home watching Worlds Strongest Man on ESPN and thinks this stuff doesnt
look too hard! I went back to the booth about 100 times during the weekend to try again and ask
Mariusz for technique tips. Later on I realized back when I shook his hand it was covered in tacky. I
didnt know what it was at the time I just thought it was dirt and grime from the stone. I have never
been so mad that I couldnt do something in my life! As luck would have it, former Worlds Strongest
Man winner Sven Karlsen was putting on a strongman seminar a few weeks after we got back home. At
the seminar we heard his life story, learned about programming for strongman and got to learn
technique on the more common events. I drank in the information like I was dying of thirst in the desert
and this was a spring in an oasis! I took tons of notes and hung on every word he said. At the end we got
to try the stones and one of the guys gave me some tacky and I easily had a 300lb stone up on the lip
before I dropped it. They didnt teach me how to grip it over the top so I was kind of curling it up but
even though I didnt load the stone it was close enough! I was hooked! I started researching all I could
about strongman and joined a couple discussion groups online about strength training and was one of
the first members on the late Jesse Marundes site Marunde Muscle. I started buying up strongman
implements and a set of stones and a 500 and 700lb tire. I put it all in my basement and built stone
platforms down there. We would train stones in my basement, tire in my driveway and load the yoke
and farmers plus a thousand pounds of weight into the mini-van each Saturday and drive it down to a
parking lot where we could train walking events then load it all back up and bring it back to the
basement. The whole ordeal usually took from 10 am to 6 pm but it was worth every minute! I started
competing a lot locally and even made it to nationals one year in Vegas. I think I placed dead last at
nationals due to the fact I made some real stupid mistakes but hey its all part of the game! I met tons of
people through strongman and spent hours on the phone and through email learning everything I could
about the sport.

My daughter Sammy and I enjoying some cheat food on the 4th of July our first year in AZ

My wifes father had a stroke in 2009 and we started looking for a home that he could live with us in so
she could take care of him. Arizona had the best houses for the money and a friend I had met on line
who was a pro strongman Ryan Bakke had a wife who happened to be in real estate. We decided to buy
a house in 2010 with a 3 car garage we could turn into a personal training studio. Ryan said if I moved
out to AZ I would be welcome to train with him, Kevin Knee and Scott Porter. Kevin had been to Worlds
Strongest Man and Scott was a light weight Pro. Ryan even had the world record on the Axle clean and
press for a short time. To me it was a no brainer! I couldnt wait to get out to AZ and learn all I could. If
nothing else at least Id have some good partners to train with. Well, it didnt quite work out that way.
Dont get me wrong, when we actually got together the workouts were awesome and I got to watch
Ryan and Kevin do some amazing things! However, most of the time someone couldnt make it or
someone had to work or we rescheduled the time 500 times. Also, as I was getting ready to leave
Massachusetts I tore my pec on a heavy bench so there was a lot I couldnt do when I first got together
with them. Soon Kevin moved back home and Scott opened up his own gym in Phoenix. For the most
part I just trained on my own in my garage and hooked up with Ryan when I could. One day Ryan and his
family had come over for a barbeque and to swim in the pool and we got to talking. He was saying how
he was thinking of giving up strongman because all the injuries werent worth it. He said he couldnt
even pour milk for his youngest son because his elbows hurt so much! I told him what I thought he was
doing wrong and why his elbows hurt. I explained how I had trained my athletes back home to win some
local shows. He totally agreed with everything I said and wondered why I never mentioned anything
about it before. I told him I was new and there to learn and didnt think it was my place. He asked me if I
would be willing to train him for Americas Strongest Man that year and I agreed. In just a few weeks he
was feeling great and said he was back to his old self that loved training and was looking forward to

competing again. Meanwhile he was telling his friend and fellow pro strongman Marshall White about
the type of training I had him doing and Marshall was not at all a fan. Marshall and I had numerous
arguments about training philosophies online until he tore his bicep. He came out to AZ after his surgery
and stayed with Ryan. We talked at length about the injury and where I thought he went wrong. By the
end of the weekend he was convinced I was right and had asked me to train him for that years Americas
Strongest Man as well. Marshall ended up doing great and the next year was the most successful of his
career. He placed high in shows, did a ton of traveling and got a sponsorship to help with it all. Marshall
would always tell other strongman competitors about how he was training and how it differed from
what most where doing. Among those he told was Kristen Rhodes who had won Americas strongest
woman. She contacted me and asked me to train her for Worlds Strongest Woman and we have been
working together ever since. She has become the winningest strongwoman of all time! My life has been
a wild ride of trial and error and I am thankful for every moment I have been able to spend training and
learning about this wonderful endeavor. I look forward to working with you all and sharing the
knowledge Ive gained. Heres to what the future may bring!
Thank you,
Mike Westerling