Ever wondered how a five-year-old can set the stage for a lifetime of success? Discover the remarkable journey of John Bezera, a national champion wrestler and BMX racer turned personal trainer, actor, and entrepreneur. John’s narrative is not only a testament to the power of hard work but also a blueprint for turning sheer grit into glory. His personal stories of early entrepreneurial ventures, coupled with heartwarming lessons from his grandfather, demonstrate that success isn't exclusively for the naturally talented—it's available to anyone willing to put in the work.
This episode isn't only about looking back; it's about moving forward, especially as we hit our 40s and beyond. Learn how to kickstart your health and wellness journey with practical, incremental changes that lead to monumental gains. As John shares his insights on how to navigate the flood of fitness information and tailor it to our individual needs post-40, you'll find yourself equipped to build lasting habits one step at a time. Get ready to meet the man who can guide you through a transformative fitness journey and introduce you to the exciting world of social media monetization, with a special spotlight on his upcoming projects tailored for the over-40 crowd.
Ever wondered how a five-year-old can set the stage for a lifetime of success? Discover the remarkable journey of John Bezera, a national champion wrestler and BMX racer turned personal trainer, actor, and entrepreneur. John’s narrative is not only a testament to the power of hard work but also a blueprint for turning sheer grit into glory. His personal stories of early entrepreneurial ventures, coupled with heartwarming lessons from his grandfather, demonstrate that success isn't exclusively for the naturally talented—it's available to anyone willing to put in the work.
This episode isn't only about looking back; it's about moving forward, especially as we hit our 40s and beyond. Learn how to kickstart your health and wellness journey with practical, incremental changes that lead to monumental gains. As John shares his insights on how to navigate the flood of fitness information and tailor it to our individual needs post-40, you'll find yourself equipped to build lasting habits one step at a time. Get ready to meet the man who can guide you through a transformative fitness journey and introduce you to the exciting world of social media monetization, with a special spotlight on his upcoming projects tailored for the over-40 crowd.
Hello and welcome back to the little metal unfiltered podcast. I'm your host, Charlie Shaw, and I'm delighted to have you join us again for another captivating episode. Today, our special guest is John Bezera, and he has an inspiring topic lined up to motivate and uplift you. Your ongoing engagement and commitment to our show means the world to us. We really appreciate the time you spent with us each week and we're thrilled to have you here once again. Without further ado, let's embark on a journey and inspiration and discovery together, John, thanks for coming on the show. Thanks for coming on the show, yeah man my pleasure.
Speaker 2:Thank you for having me All right.
Speaker 1:Hey folks, let me tell you about Mr Bezera. He's a celebrity to the stars, best-selling author, regular actor on the show Sons of Anarchy, and he's been in the personal training arena for over 37 years. That's a big accomplishment for you, man. You want to tell us more about yourself.
Speaker 2:That's a long time and, like we talked about before, every time I say I've been doing this 37 years, I date myself a little bit, but yeah, my story is. I mean, I guess it's maybe inspiring, but I've just been very lucky to have great people around me. I started as a young man, at age five, being an entrepreneur, and that was. I wanted a bike. I wanted this bike in this toy store and, being a five-year-old, I was with my grandpa. He was my role model mentor and we went into this toy store and I threw a temper tantrum.
Speaker 2:I wanted that bike and I felt that that's the quickest way to get it. But after my butt got healed from getting whipped so much on the way home, he made a proposition to me. He told me help me get the bike. He'll pay me 25 cents a day, or whatever it was back then, to help him out in the afternoon after kindergarten. Then I realized at that rate it was going to take me maybe till my sophomore year in college to put the money together. You were able to do that math, yeah, and I wanted it.
Speaker 2:Now we're close to the same age but I'll date us a little bit. We didn't have the video games and things. We had marbles. That's how well they were marbles. They weren't rock, so I mean we weren't a complete stone age. But I bought a bag of these marbles for $0.99, and there was the big clear boulders, the bigger ones in there. I figured everybody wanted those at school. So I went to school and took that $0.99 bag of marbles and turned it into about $5 real quick. That lasted about two days.
Speaker 2:And then I got, you know, hauled into the principal's office because apparently they didn't like a free enterprise back then. And I come to find out my mother and I had the same principal and she got in trouble 18 years prior for selling cookies. So I guess the entrepreneurship's in the blood runs in the family. But that was my first. I mean it's business in a sense. But it also trickles down into the success I had in sports.
Speaker 2:And yeah, you know, and that was one of those things where you know my grandfather, he helped me as much as he could. But the rule he had was I'll support you in whatever you want to do and we'll get you the best coaches, the best schools, but you have to work harder than everybody else. And he was very adamant about that and he said, right out of the bat, he goes. And my first was I started wrestling at five and then I started also a tight quando at five and he said show up a half hour early to practice, stay a half hour late. And that was the rule, you know. And the second, I showed no interest, didn't want to go, didn't feel good, I got pulled.
Speaker 2:So the work ethic was just kind of instilled in there from my grandpa. So I owe him like all the credit in the world. But what that mentality turned in. And I got to tell you I was not the biggest, strongest, smartest, fastest kid. I was average and probably quite a bit below average, to be honest. And you hear some of the top athletes talk about you know, um, being born with it be having a gift for it, being a natural. Uh, those aren't the people that usually make it to the top. It's usually the hardest worker in the room.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm glad, I'm glad you brought that up. Yeah, I said I'm glad that you brought that up because, you know, not everybody's going to be the best, but they got to put in the work to get there Absolutely and go ahead please.
Speaker 2:We don't. We don't, you know, I don't think, naturally, I don't think it's something that we're born with, where we just want to work Because it would have been a lot easier just to kind of, you know, sit around the house and eat Twinkies and and ding dongs and watch cartoons. Right, yeah, yes, sir.
Speaker 2:Um, yeah, you're also bodybuilder, right, yeah, I was. So yeah, I. You know it's kind of crazy. You usually get stuck in a sport and I, for some reason, I just chose all the sports where there wasn't really an income, you know, and that was wrestling. I was fortunate enough to win three national titles in wrestling. That was kind of the love, the sport that I love more than anything and that got me college, degree and everything. So I'm thankful for it. But there's no, there's no pro wrestling. You know there's the one on TV, but that's not the wrestling you know, like collegiate wrestling, yes, um, and then it and uh, software.
Speaker 2:A senior in high school started racing BMX, you know bicycle, motocross, and at 17, I uh won a national title in that. And then, kind of college is done. I'm an adult, I want to do something physical and I ended up doing just like a hard body contest with my roommate at the time and he talked me into doing a bodybuilding show and the rest is history. I won the nationals and bodybuilding in 1996 turn pro, and so, yeah, I won five national titles and three sports as a uh under sized, uh, less than, you know, average human being. So anything's possible.
Speaker 1:Anything's possible, and that's what I wanted to hear. Okay, Mm hmm, um.
Speaker 1:So, with that being said, we I was telling you about my show and uh, and we talked and you said that, uh, you can probably give some, give some people advice on how to take care of themselves, diet, so for and um, our topic today is going to be how you help men and women over 40 get, get into and stay in shape. Could you tell us about your, your training, that you set up training for folks? Could you tell us a little bit about that? Yeah, sure.
Speaker 2:So, and it's very, it's an important topic. It's. Fitness is one of those rare things. We'll call it a thing where you know you're here in life. In life, um, when you talk about cells, you know what motivates you, what's your why, um, why you do it. But fitness, if you look at it from a consumer's perspective someone looking to get in shape it's a need and a and a want.
Speaker 2:Okay, so we want to look better, we want to feel better, but we need to, because to be, quite frankly, over 40, it can be life and death, and you know not to get dark or anything, but most of the men that have heart attacks is in the range from 47 to 63. That's just when there's the most inflammation internally. That's when you really got to look at your, your blood work. You have to look at your lifestyle and you've got to realize, like you know, at this point, you know, whatever I did the first 40 years, I have to compensate the next 40. Right, so you know not to be like morbid or anything, but we just really mess ourselves up when we're younger, you know we take too many risks. Some of us may be partying too much, drinking, you know, whatever it may be not getting adequate amount of sleep, eating really bad. Um, even when you're doing, uh, athletic sports or weight training, whatever it may be, there's a lot of high risk stuff. So when you get over 40, you start feeling those things Right.
Speaker 2:Um, when I worked with somebody and I've worked with, I've been very fortunate, I've worked with a lot of movie stars, hall of fame athletes Again, just I was in the right place at the right time, got the right connection and I'm very blessed to have done that. But when you're dealing with that clientele, you have to perform, you know, as a trainer, a coach, to a higher level and you know these are people actually getting paid because they need to look a certain way at a short period of time or perform, perform a certain way. Two of my clients this weekend are going to be playing in the pickleball challenge, pickleball slam to I'm that's on the magazine stephie graph there to my client. So there you know, 50 plus now, and the way we train now versus when they train when they were younger, is completely different. So when I address somebody, whether they are in great shape or not, I treat them as if there's issues, you know.
Speaker 2:So we don't do any high risk weight training. We make sure that diet sits there, lifestyle but also looking at blood work, you know, and as a coach, seeing all this data really helps me to put a good program together. So the basic stuff, like a one C, cholesterol, blood, you know all that stuff. But then even a step further, we start getting hormone deficiencies at this age, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Having a yeah and it's a real thing, and it's a important thing because not only does it affect you age wise you start aging quicker but cognitively it's a mental thing like it can be very detrimental to your mental health. So so, having that data, you know, having them do a hormone panel, looking to see where their numbers at, and then the third component that I just started implementing a little over a year ago and it's worked, it literally is take the results on online coaching with my clients to about an 87% success rate and the average, the standard in the industry, is a little over 24, and the only thing different I'm doing than a lot of people right now is food allergy tests. So you may not know, you have a food allergy test and all of us have anywhere between 10 and 30. I mean, that's just kind of the ballpark right when you're eating something that's causing inflammation. That's the number one thing that we want to get under control.
Speaker 2:And our age, demographic information and the acidity in the body is literally the root cause of every known disease to men. So those three components help me, as a coach, put a really, really complete program program together. And then the weight training parts actually the easier part, you know you just you figure if you're getting weights in three days a week, getting all the muscle groups in, getting a little bit of cardio in between, less is actually more because as you get over doing harder, more it actually puts your body in a quarter, creates cortisol, the stress hormone, so it makes your body literally start eating muscle in a sense. When you go too hard we call that catabolic your body becomes catabolic and starts eating the lean tissue for energy. So less is more.
Speaker 2:But knowing all your data, your blood work, getting your diet on point and also addressing sleep and stress. I mean, yes, you have to put it's like this right. When we were kids I think they still do right but we had jigsaw puzzles right and you wouldn't go to buy a jigsaw puzzle, grab a handful of pieces and throw them away and try to complete the puzzle. You got to have all those pieces together to have a 100% effective program and that's what I pride myself on doing. That sounds like excellent plan. It's not like everything that you all the, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1:All the Topics that you brought up. We are. We're able to just do that with seeing the doctor regularly Request and request an allergy test. Yes, for example, myself I do my blood work twice a year. I just did it last week. In the past I've, you know, I've had my A1C's run high. They, the doctor, would call me right away. Well, guess what? I haven't even heard from him yet and I had my A1C's taking care of him on one of the blood tests on Monday. So that gives me an idea. That gives me an idea that all the test on my I may, I might be inside the numbers, yet I might be inside the numbers. So yeah, I'm feeling good about myself.
Speaker 1:I also told you that I was, when I retired, that my goal was to See this year because the position was correct and along that line. And when I retired I was so happy that I was never, never дюйтively offered me per-. Residents apply for the major fund at Stay around as long as I can and be comfortable and healthy. So after I got back off my month long vacation, I immediately signed up at the CrossFit gym. We spoke a little bit on that and I totally agree with what you mentioned my trainers. They don't want me to lift and heavy. They want me to do the correct form and maybe a few more reps than a person that's doing heavy weight.
Speaker 1:So you're hitting it right on the nail, right on the nail. So how? These are the things that if a young man came to you, let's say someone half our age, maybe our sons or our daughters came to you and said hey, how did you get to where you at and what would you do to maintain that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, right. So we touched on this and this was something that just literally came up about. Maybe three weeks ago I was at a convention in Dallas, texas, which was our mutual connection that's how we we lead together and a young 19-year-old trainer who's also becoming a physical therapist and he asked me goes, you know, weight training aside, what advice would you give your 19-year-old self? And I go, you know, that's a great question, and I said I want you to really think about this. So when I was 19 years old, I was in all these sports. I was beating the literal crap out of my body. I would treat my 19-year-old self if I was my 56-year-old self. I would train as if I was older, I would eat as if I was older, I would get the rest and recuperation as if I was older. Because I bet you, if you treated yourself like you do when you're older, when you're trying to reverse everything, I can't imagine what the life expectancy would be. It would be at least probably eight to ten years longer than the average life expectancy now.
Speaker 1:So that would be my, that's my profound moment right, treat yourself as if Well, what advice would you give a person right now that's ready to make some transformations about themselves? I know one, and that is go. I'll see your doctor regularly.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. And good for you for doing your blood work every, you know, six months, because a lot of doctors just require it once a year. But you know, going back to the hormones, our hormones start changing really rapidly after 40 men, 47, women, 45,. Obviously different things happen and we won't get into too much detail because most of us this age know those things. But, yeah, get your blood work done every six months because it's going to change a lot more rapid than if we were 20.
Speaker 2:And then the second thing is I like to start my clients and and let's go back, let's talk about a person that's just starting, that's intimidated. They don't know where to start. Google's overwhelming. You see all these online coaches doing these crazy workouts. You know they're selling templates and you can't buy a template for yourself. You need to know what's going to work for you. Eight billion, we're all different. So you know the average program, the average type diet, is not going to work for you as effectively as if it was tailored. But I really like this. Give you an example, and this wasn't my idea. I heard this somewhere and I would love to give credit to where I heard it, but I just can't remember. But start with micro habits. So that may be.
Speaker 2:If you're working a you know eight to five job, you're tired. You come home. We as older people God, I hate saying we as older people, that's just so true. Our demographic is, we're told, as you get older, you need to rest more, you need to put less wear and tear on your body. Well, guess what? When you more, when you start doing less, your body starts aging quicker. The cells don't turn over as quick. The blood flows not help Happening. You're not putting you know, didn't density on the bones and resistance on the ligaments, tendons and muscles? They started trophying, they start shrinking. So when you rest more, you age quicker.
Speaker 2:So if you come home and watch that, your favorite net and I've been, I've done this, you know, and I find, yeah, you know, you get in the rut and then eventually just like, okay, this has to stop, but take that. Take one hour of your Netflix and Not even an hour. Let's take 30 minutes of your Netflix. Just get home, you know, eat dinner or whatever you're gonna do, go walk, go out your front door and walk for 30 minutes, whether permitting, right. But now that 30 minutes, you're creating a new habit and Once you've done something consistently over and over now it's just part of you and you're gonna feel better. You're a cognitively gonna feel better, you're gonna sleep better and all those things we mentioned. They're just gonna get better.
Speaker 2:So I like to take the bad habits in the latter part of the day, replace it and then, after you've done that for three, four weeks, then go, you know, counterclockwise, to something in the middle of day that's a bad habit, maybe a snack. Replace a bad snack, chips or something with you know a piece of low glycemic fruit or almonds. But just take every micro habit you have and make it from bad to good. And you know, the old saying is it's actually like a rehab thing, right, like when someone goes to rehab 28 days to create a habit right, 100% true. Once you've done it consistently for about a month, it's not hard anymore. It's really not hard. So if you're starting out, you know, obviously know your blood work, but most importantly is just start moving. Movement is so important and if you really really, really want to live a long and prosperous and happy life, just eat whole foods.
Speaker 2:Get away from processed stuff Some of the things you may not think processed. You got to look at the label, because I have people sending me food Picks all the time and if it's in a box or a, can I Say hey, you may say what if? What about this? I go do me a favor. Just before I answer that. Just go look at the ingredients and when there's five, ten, fifteen, twenty ingredients that you've never heard of before, most likely it's a kid. So yeah.
Speaker 2:They taste good and they're meant to taste good. Hey, you know, and you talked about going on Vacation for a month. I did that and we talked about this. I went to Italy last summer for a month and I was in Florence, italy, you know, and I was eating pasta and steak every day, a lot more calories than I eat here at home in the US, mm-hmm, and I wasn't exercising as much but I didn't get inflamed. So Something's going on.
Speaker 2:You know what the foods were eating here, not getting into that too much, but I did go into a grocery store because they had some I think it was Cheerios. It was Cheerios or Fruit loops wanted to, and I just looked at the ingredients and all the ingredients in that cereal were all natural. It was like wheat, cane, sugar and some other things, and there's about six or seven total ingredients. Came home and I had some Cheerios in my pantry for my granddaughter and there's like 25 or 30 ingredients and I don't even know what those are. So you know, just knowing what you're putting in your body, I promise you, if you're putting chemicals, process foods in there, you're adding wear and tear to your. You know your engine and it would be no different than getting a new car and never changing the oil and, you know, bogging it down and not changing your air filter. Kind of the same thing with whole foods, and you know just pure water.
Speaker 1:Well, the one thing that I'm taking away from the show is the inflammation. Yes, I'm going to try to get a get myself scheduled to go in and check my allergy account. Yeah, I've done that. I did that once before and I can't recall what the panel said. However, there are some things that I need to change, because you know I get allergies, but I never really looked at the inflammation side of it, and that was good, right. That was a great education for me today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I'll tell you what you don't. If your doctor doesn't have the capability of doing that or resists you because you know doctors, they don't have a lot of education on nutrition, that's not their fault, it's just not, as I think there's maybe three or four chapters in medical school, so that's really not their forte, right? So I've actually had some doctors resist the food allergy test unless there was something like a rash breaking out or you know something like that. If you have an issue with the doctor getting you that test, you can just get order one on Amazon. There's plenty of food sensitivity tests on there. They work great, but that's an option, Okay.
Speaker 1:Well, is there anything else you think you want to add to the show for the folks? No, I mean that's that's it, man.
Speaker 2:I appreciate it. But yeah, if you are over 40, you just kind of got to ask yourself you know, how do I want to live the next 40 years? And it's up to you. You know I mean it. You know it's like when you walk out of the door in the morning, you can be happy or sad, and the only person's option that is yours, and whichever you choose to be, you can. But you know, if you are living in a healthy body, I promise you. You know, and 56, right, 56, 56. And I got my body fat this year down to 7% and I lived there and I feel, truly, I feel way, way better than I did when I was a teenager, early 20s, because I don't have the age to the pains. I'm not beating myself up. I'm checking all those boxes off where you know, again putting those pieces in the puzzle.
Speaker 2:Oh, you know, another thing I just started doing is I started sleeping on a grounding sheet. So you know, yeah, like you know, groundings, like they recommend, you walk on the earth with bare feet, three feet, three days a week, and it discharges the electrical current. I mean, these are scientifically proven stuff. 20 years ago it kind of sounded like voodoo. But you know, all the new studies are showing this. This is a real thing.
Speaker 2:I started sleeping on this grounding sheet maybe not even three weeks ago, because one of my high profile clients swears by it, and you know the Joe Rogans and the Gary Brecca, they all swear by it. But what I noticed with that is is I had a little bit of tightness in my hips, even though I've gone away, because that's inflammation. And you know, typically I'd get up, you know, two, three times a night because I'm drinking a gallon plus water a day, and now I get up once. So you know that's. Another thing to look into is like a grounding sheet or a grounding pad, you know, and then you can take it to the extremes ice baths and things like that.
Speaker 1:But that's a whole different episode. I think Right, I'm getting into the ice baths, that's yeah, it's amazing, you know.
Speaker 2:And if you can't get into an ice bath, start with a shower, your normal shower, and at the end of the shower gradually turn the water down till it's you know the hot's all the way off, and that's a good stepping stone to get into that too.
Speaker 1:Well, my friends up in Wisconsin, they can just go down and jump in Lake Michigan.
Speaker 2:No, they can't Don't fuck. Yeah, I know, and God bless them, but I'm not jumping in Lake Michigan.
Speaker 1:Hey, where can we find you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you can find me at John Bezara Fitness on Instagram. My new website's getting tweaked a little bit, but it'll be JohnBezaracom. Last name is spelled B is in boy, e Z is in zebra, e-r-r-a Social media same on Facebook, john Bezara. And you know, if you like a consultation, my consultations are always free and you can just reach out to me on one of those social platforms.
Speaker 1:Excellent, excellent. Well, John, I appreciate it and I hope that I can bring you back on the show in a later date. Absolutely I'd love to, For anything that you got going on. Do you have any new projects going on, anything or film?
Speaker 2:I do.
Speaker 2:So we just launched our podcast, the Three Jimigos, and like amigos but it's GYM amigos and we've done a few episodes and we're going to get you on there when you come out to Vegas, for sure, because your story blew my mind.
Speaker 2:So for those of you listening that don't know his story, oh my God, it makes my mind seem kind of trivially trivial. But yeah, that's about it. And then I will be launching in the next 30 days like a lifestyle website where people over 40 are a little intimidated with social media. But you know, if you're looking for another income and want to easily make a little bit of extra money on on social media, we're going to put a whole course together where you can use AI. It's faceless, you don't have to worry about filming yourself, yeah, and you can make an easy couple grand more a month if you want to second income. So we're putting that together and I'm excited about that because I do. When people talk to me a lot of times, a lot of times it's money struggles and right now it's just really easy to make money. So we want to be able to bring that to the people as well.
Speaker 1:Well, you know what? How about if I bring you back on the show after the, after that launch and we're looking at that.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Love that.
Speaker 1:When did you say one more time about 30 days?
Speaker 2:It's about yeah, it's about 30 days out right now. We're filming some stuff, putting some curriculum together. We're making it where there's an affiliate, so anybody that joins the course will actually have the opportunity to sell the course and they'll make 100% profit from the V. Yeah, so it's something that I've never heard of before, so I'm pretty excited about it. And, yeah, literally you can start making money, like in the next day or two.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. Well, once again, I appreciate you and taking the time out, and I will know.