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.
So there I was, fighting my way through the crowd at the Arnold Expo a few years back, 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. John had emailed me a few times and at last I could put a face to the name. Man, John was fired up. He was particularly interested in picking up some Ironmind hand grippers and couldn’t wait for the next event to begin.
Later on, I got a chance to talk 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 the outstanding action shot shown above.
Here is a Bible verse that we think is appropriate when it comes to John:
“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.” ~ Ecclesiastes 9:10
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 champion, 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