The story of a real "Doer"

Dear Friend,

I am constantly amazed by the emails that folks send in. It is always a pleasure hearing from those of you who really do "get it" and instead of whining and complaining, get out there and make things happen.

As many of you recall, we had a several outstanding tele-seminars just before the Night of Strength III event in Columbus at the beginning of March. We had a heck of a good time with Roger LaPointe of Atomic Athletic who went over some of the old York Picnics and also the downright amazing origins of the "Midnight Parkinglot workout. Up next was Dennis Rogers who is one of the last of the performing Strongmen who clued us in on how he trains for his feats, crazy things he has seen over the years and some great information about his heroes Slim "The Hammerman" and the Mighty Atom.

The first voice on every call identified himself as John Peck.

Now, the Night of Strength event in Columbus is always interesting because it is a "gathering of the tribes." In many cases, people who have been talking and interacting for years on the internest finally meet face-to-face, get to throw some iron around and have a great time. Well, I knew this John Peck was serious about the Night of Strength when he sent me a couple emails saying just how excited he was to be coming to Night of Strength (with his entire family no less!) and see some big time feats of strength.

So anyhow, I was fighting my way through the crowd at the Arnold Expo when a guy says "Hey, You're John Wood!" I turned around and there was a man, with a long white beard who introduced himself as John Peck. At last I could put a face to the name. Man, John was fired up. He was particularly interested in picking up some Ironmind handgrippers and couldn't wait for the Night of Strength to begin.

Later, at Night of Strength, I got a chance to tallk to John. It turns out that John is an Orthodox Christian Priest who went to seminary in Alaska. Other than some Gymnastics and Judo back at Michigan State (yes, John was a Sparty but I won't hold that against him) he hadn't trained specifically in about twenty years.

You see, John took the first (and hardest) step; he took action...the sign of a true "doer."

Long story short, John and his family had a wonderful time at the Night of Strength III event, especially his sons Joseph and Ben (who luckily snapped up a red nail that Pat Povilaitis bent during of his feats.) His boys couldn't stop talking about the amazing things they saw the whole way home (almost 3 hours).

Now, John routinely keeps us updated with his progress and things are coming along nicely. In fact, we were honored when John sent in this outstanding action shot:

Fr. John Peck mashes an Ironmind gripper while pressing a monster kettlebell

Fr. John Peck mashes an Ironmind gripper in one hand while pressing a monster kettlebell in the other.
Here is a Bible verse that we think is appropriate when it comes to John:

Ecclesiastes 9:10 - Whatever your hand
finds to do, do it with all your might... "

Did John let that fact that he hadn't lifted a weight in over twenty years stop him?

NO!

John isn't a huge guy and doesn't have monster hands. Do you think he lets that bother him?

NO!

Like a true Champ, John goes out there and lays it on the line every time he trains, asks as many questions as he can and then makes things happen. Fr. John Peck, we here at Functional Hand Strength salute you!

Train hard,

John Wood signature

John Wood

P.S. If you want to get fired up about training and see some mind blowing feats of strength, you are going to want to check out another pair of doers here.

The story of a real "Doer"

Ecclesiastes 9:10 - Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might... "

Ecclesiastes 9:10 - Whatever your hand
finds to do, do it with all your might... "