USAWA

I will say this about Josh.
1. He works at a commercial Laundry business owned by his Dad. His Dad is a workaholic that works like he’s killing snakes. The guy is a machine! Josh told me when he was a kid his Dad made him and his brother work hard and expected them to keep up with him. He also credits his grip with pulling the rubber mats and sheets out of the giant washers and dryers. They load about 200lbs a load and that’s DRY weight, imagine pulling those out by hand over and over and the type of grip it would require. The heat in that place is overwhelming in the summer with giant dryers going all the time. It’s OLD SCHOOL hard work!

2. Josh is a prodigy. I’ll never forget the first strongman contest he came to. We were doing the overhead lift and he came up and said to me and Tedd, “Hey, how much do you think I should start with?” I said, “How much have you done”. Josh says, “Well, the only time I ever remember doing anything like this I did 275 for a set of 5”. Tedd and I looked at each other and I said, “Let’s warm up and see what you can do”. Josh proceeded to hit 225 like a ram rod and I told him to stop as he was up to 5 or 6 reps and was going to keep going. He threw a couple of quarters on and did it a couple of easy reps and then did 300-325-355 in the contest. He then took 370lbs for an extra attempt at a record and easily drove it to arms length but lost it on balance. In other words, the second time he EVER did overheads, he did 355!

I think a lot of those old timers were gifted, but their shows were their real workouts! Plus, I’ve found in doing the performance strongman, it is so motivating to be in front of a loud, cheering crowd, no pressure of competition, it brings out the best in me!!!