Sunday 24 March 2019

A Wrestling Legend: Jeremy the 'Mad Dog' Podlog

   Over 20 years after scoring a bronze medal in the Canadian Freestyle Wrestling Championships, Jeremy the 'Mad Dog' Podlog has done the incredible. This weekend at the 2019 Canadian Wrestling Championships Jeremy has struck for a 2nd place silver medal! 
Jeremy is in the prime years at age 40 plus but this was not in the Master's division. No! No! 
He wrestled to this astonishing silver medal in the open division against competitors half his age! What type of trickery is this????
    
   
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Always sticking his nose aggressively into the thick of the action earned the moniker Mad Dog.
That's Jeremy in the red and black wrestling outfit.


 I take special interest in this legendary athlete's exploits because he is an 'honorary' fitness training client of mine. He lives in Calgary and I live in Ottawa but sometimes I send him online training ideas or corrective exercise tips. However, it is mostly his dedication to wrestling and his adherence to hard training and clean living that has led to this Herculean result. 
   Over the past few years, Jeremy has felt that he has lost many matches mentally rather than physically. I have tried to tell him to go easy on himself because the middle aged body is just not physically capable of past performance. He refused to use age as an excuse. Jeremy has been working on mental relaxation techniques over the last year. A tense muscle cannot execute as proficiently as a muscle that explodes into movement from a relaxed position. 
   In sports psychology, the rule is to focus on the process rather than the outcome! Jeremy felt that in the past years he has been stressing over the outcome rather than just relaxing and then executing the movements honed through experience and practice. Obviously his new mental outlook works.
Hide the steak bones and lock the doors to the meat locker.
The Mad Dog that instilled fear in the hearts of his opponents is back in town!


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The relaxed aggression has returned.
The Man! The Myth! The Legend! Jeremy the 'Mad Dog' Podlog!


    Age  eventually overcomes. We can no longer run as fast or in my case run at all. Our time in the the weight room becomes about maintaining function or slowing decline rather than building muscle.  Those hard bike rides into the hills become slower each year. We water ski on two skis only now instead of dropping a ski to slalom. Competitive hockey morphs into recreational old timer hockey. But every once in a while something happens to make us feel young and vibrant and hopeful again.
Kudos to you, Mad Dog! Whether the Legend continues or this was your swan song - thanks for the many exploits!

Little Bobby Strong









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