Take Me On If You Dare

03:44 pm - correction

My match with Drew Russell is not going to be on an Ultra Heels tape, but rather Jobberpalooza 10.




If you're into watching a tall, handsome muscle stud just totally get his ass kicked by a masked thug, you will enjoy this one.....

10:04 am - my next video match

...will be released in September: on the ULTRA HEELS video.

I take on Drew Russell--and thoroughly dominate and destroy him. Woof! That was fun.

Here are some shots to whet your appetite:

10:35 am - Most Recent Match for BGEast

It was me vs. Kid Kharisma (a little musclestud) vs. Red Baron (a big baddie).





I of course was triumphant. :)





I love winning.

01:34 pm - New Stuff

I love getting new gear:





And this:





And these:

12:50 pm - Beating on Boyd

My most recent video release was Masked Mayhem 4, where I took on a hot little lean newcomer who thought he could beat me down.

He learned different.





I enjoyed making him suffer and submit over and over again to my strength and power.



I basically toyed with him the entire match until I got bored and finished him off.




I doubt he'll be back.

10:21 am - The Ten Commandments of Working Out

I always try, when working with clients, to emphasize keeping a positive attitude. I have tried to make sure that people recognize the positive aspects of working out, that there is more to it than simply trying to lose weight or to get bigger. While those two factors are important for motivation, working out is more than just a tool to drop a few extra pounds or to develop nice arms. Working out is a lifestyle change, and a positive one. When you make the decision to exercise your body, you are doing some positive for yourself. You are making a commitment to living healthier. Weight loss or bigger muscles is just an extra added benefit. I always enjoy hearing my clients talk about how much better they feel after just a few weeks. One client, after only five sessions, was amazed at how much more energetic he was. “When I used to get home from work, all I had the energy to do was eat dinner and sit on the coach with the television on,” he said. “Now, I take the dogs for long walks. I get my bike out and go for a ride. I walk down to P.J.’s rather than drive.”

Not everyone, however, can afford to work with a personal trainer on a regular basis. I know that it’s much easier when you have a set appointment with someone to work out to actually show up and follow through. There is the fear that working out will make you more tired than you already are. For people that gym class was a nightmare for, going to the gym and looking at all the people in good shape is intimidating. Getting undressed in front of strangers in a communal locker room can also be intimidating. There is the fear that you don’t know what you’re doing. There are many, many fears.

Bearing this in mind, I have come up with what I call The Ten Commandments of working out. Cut this out and put it up on your refrigerator.

1. Thou shalt always warm up and cool down.
This is crucial. You have to get your heart rate up to get the proper cardiovascular benefits of any exercise, be it cardiovascular, weights, or sport. Bringing your heart rate down gradually by cooling down at the end of exercise is also important. You don’t want to stress your heart out by suddenly making it jump up or just stopping exercise completely. If you’re completely worn out by the exercise you’ve been doing and you don’t think you can take a short walk to cool down, do it by controlled breathing. Long, steady, deep breaths will do the trick.

2. Thou shalt always stretch your muscles prior to a workout.
Get ‘em warmed up! So many people pay no attention to the importance of stretching and flexibility to fitness, it sometimes makes me want to scream. Keeping the muscles flexible is crucial to cardiovascular and strength work. The more flexible the muscles are, the less chance of injury there is and there is also a definite improvement in blood flow. The better the blood flow through the muscles, the stronger and harder the muscles can work. Ever seen a gymnast or an amateur wrestler with a bad body? Think about it.

3. Thou shalt always incorporate cardiovascular work into your workout.
Okay, if you’re doing aerobics of some kind on a regular basis, you don’t have to worry about this one. (But don’t neglect strength training and just do cardiovascular work--both are crucial to fitness.) If you are just interested in lifting weights, you have to incorporate cardio work into your regimen. You can’ get ripped if you don’t. While weights have a strong cardio benefit, walking on the treadmill, jogging, stair climbing, and stationary bicycles have a stronger benefit. All you have to do is twenty minutes two or three times a week, and you will be amazed at how your body will react to this.

4. Thou shalt always use proper form.
GET INSTRUCTION ON HOW TO DO ANY EXERCISE BEFORE TRYING IT. The staff at most health clubs are knowledgeable about the equipment and more than willing to show you how to use it properly. Never, ever, try something after watching someone else do it. “Oh, he’s got a big chest and he’s doing that exercise, maybe I should try it” is a mistake. Get someone trained to show you how to do the exercise first, because the person you just watched may not be doing it right. Friends that work out can also be the worst advice givers. When I first started working out, I had a friend give me advice on diet and my work out program. Since he looked great, I thought he knew what he was talking about. Boy, was I wrong! Using proper form will get you better results faster. Work out smart.

5. Thou shalt not be intimidated by other people in the gym.
This is a throw back to the hell a lot of people suffered in gym class in school. You always assume that people are watching you, making fun of the weight amounts you’re lifting, laughing at you. NOT TRUE. Nothing could be further from the truth. Everyone else is there to work out. People with great bodies got them by working hard. Yes, there are always some arrogant assholes in the gym, but ignore them. They are miserable people. Anyone who would make fun of someone else doing something positive and healthy for themselves has a special place reserved in hell for them. You are there for you, not for anyone else.

6. The negative part of the repetition shalt always be slow and under control.
The negatives are rarely given their due. Just dropping the weight down to the starting position is doing no good at all. Keep the weight under control, and give the muscle a good, slow stretch. This will increase the blood flow, and make you get stronger. Remember, on the negative, at any point if someone told you to stop you should be able to stop the weight from moving. Use both parts of the repetition to make you stronger. Why waste a movement?

7. Thou shalt not give muscles time to cool down between sets.
You should never take more than a minute between sets. This is not always possible, especially if you have a work out partner. If you are working out with a partner, keep your muscles moving while he is working out, and stretch them again before starting your next set. Do NOT go get a drink of water between sets. If you’re thirsty or dehydrated, wait until you have completely finished the exercise before getting a drink. Letting the muscles cool down is counter productive.

8. Thou shalt not work out on an empty stomach.
Food is fuel. Would you race your car on an empty tank of gas? Not hardly. Eat something about an hour before your work out. That will give your stomach a chance to settle, start to metabolize the food, and turn it into energy. It is amazing what a difference that will make in your energy levels when you exercise.

9. Thou shalt always eat a high protein meal within an hour of completing thy work out.
Protein is the building block of muscle. The only place your body can store protein is in the muscles. After a work out, your metabolic rate will remain high for at least an hour. Your muscles are busy repairing themselves. Putting protein into your body during this recovery period will help the muscles recover and get bigger. It will also help to decrease soreness and tiredness in the muscles.

10. Thou shalt NEVER use illegal substances to stimulate growth in thy muscles.
The purpose of working out is to be healthier. As I said earlier, a nice side effect of making your body healthier is bigger stronger muscles. Why would you want to put something into your body that is not going to benefit it in the long run? Yes, steroids and other drugs of that ilk will give you impressive short term gains, but exact a severe cost to your health in the long run. Don’t do it.

Well, there you have it. A lot of this is just common sense, but oddly enough, when it comes to working out many people throw common sense to the winds and will do whatever they can to get a “quick fix”, or will allow lack of results immediately to be discouraging. Work out for the health benefits, to give yourself a healthier life. Everything else is just a side benefit.

Till next time, stay healthy!

01:21 pm - Cage v. Lobo

Available now, at www.bgeast.com, Cage's second match, on the video Masked Mayhem 3.



Here's Cage, working poor li'l Lobo:




Poor Lobo.

01:14 pm - The Three Measurements of Fitness

What exactly is the definition of fitness? Being in shape? That’s a good response, but it is also a vague response to the question. What exactly does being in shape mean? Everyone has a different answer to that question, based on their degree of socialization and what they find attractive. When a Soloflex infomercial appears on the television, most people would agree that their models are “in shape”. Most would agree that the models in the International Male catalogues are “in shape”. Playgirl centerfolds; dancers performing on the bar at Oz and the Parade; some of the men who crowd into the bars during Mardi Gras, Southern Decadence, and Halloween; stars of pornographic movies; and Olympic caliber gymnasts: most would agree that these men are “in shape”. However, when probing more carefully, “in shape” usually gives way to adjectives like “sexy” and “hot”, rather than any true measurement of physical fitness. “In shape” does not necessarily go hand in hand with “sexy” and/or “hot”; in fact, it means something completely different. Someone who works out solely to be sexy and/or hot is not necessarily in the best physical condition they can be; conversely, it is also possible for someone who is “in shape” to fail the litmus test of sexiness or hotness at Oz on a Saturday night. And while it is nice to get attention in bars or to be whistled at while walking down Bourbon Street during Mardi Gras, if that is the sole reason you are working out you are not going to be physically fit.

There are three measurements of physical fitness. They are strength, cardiovascular capacity, and flexibility. Not muscle size; not bodyfat measurements; not how good you look with your shirt off. A truly good exercise regimen will include ways to improve all three aspects of your body.

Strength training is probably the most popular exercise regimen for men. In our society, male physical perfection is defined by musculature; men who can lift heavy weights feel more masculine or manly then men who can only lift lighter weights. Yet even in strength training there are fallacies that men fall into. Hasn’t everyone seen some guy dancing in a bar with his shirt off with huge pectorals and biceps the size of boulders, who at the same time has legs that can be best described as scrawny? This is someone whose whole concept of being in shape and working out is defined by his upper body, and spends hours at the gym each week working chest, arms, shoulders and back, and hasn’t lifted anything heavier than his body with his legs in years. Straight men especially are guilty of this. I call them “bar bodies”. These guys usually can only be seen wearing shorts at the gym. Yet the legs are the cornerstone of the body; yet the legs are the most consistently underexercised part of the male body. Women also have a tendency to be afraid of lifting weights, because they don’t want to be “muscled”. Yet strength training is necessary to the whole concept of fitness. It is crucial to be carrying lean muscle mass, yet women are afraid of working out their muscles. Every muscle in the body should be trained weekly. Never neglect muscle groups of your body. Everyone has exercises they hate, everyone has muscle groups that they hate to work out. But to keep your body in its proper proportion, each muscle group needs to be worked every week.

Cardiovascular fitness is also vitally important to the body. Simply stated, cardiovascular fitness translates into the efficiency with which the body can deliver oxygen to the blood. The healthier your lungs and heart are, the healthier you are. Lifting weights can give your body a good cardio workout, but it is also not enough. Cardiovascular exercise (aerobics, bicycling, stair climbing, walking, jogging) is crucial to keeping your heart and lungs healthy and is the best way to burn fat. Most fitness experts recommend that everyone do twenty to thirty minutes of cardiovascular exercise three times each week. The great thing about cardiovascular exercise is that there are so many different ways to do it. You feel silly doing aerobics? Climb on a bike. You hate bike riding? Get on a treadmill or go for a jog. You hate running? Get on the stairmaster. Tennis, volleyball, basketball and roller skating (or blading) are also fun and enjoyable ways to get in a work out. Women are more prone to do a cardio workout than men. (Next time there’s an aerobics class at your gym, see how many men are in there in proportion to the women. Also take note of the treadmills, stationary bikes, and stair climbers--there are almost always more women than men on them.) This is because women are more concerned with fat loss than men, but strength training would only augment this for them. Men are less concerned with fat than women (I want to be PUMPED UP), so they tend to ignore this aspect of fitness, not realizing that burning off excess body fat would make their muscles stand out more and look ripped.

The third and final aspect of fitness is the most neglected--flexibility. I am always amazed at how few people thoroughly stretch their muscles before working out. Every aerobics class includes pre and post work out stretching, but for those who do not do aerobics, they rarely if ever stretch at all. Why is stretching so important? The more flexible a muscle is the bigger and more defined it can become. (That got your attention!) Why is this? Because the more supple and flexible a muscle is, the more blood can go through it, and the more blood (and oxygen) that can be pumped into the muscle, the bigger and stronger it will become. Who are the most flexible athletes in the world? Competitive gymnasts and collegiate wrestlers--and take a good look at their muscles the next time a competition is on television. Except for the heavyweights, wrestlers and gymnasts are nicely muscled and those muscles are ripped. Flexibility is important also because a loose, limber muscle is less likely to pop, strain, or pull during exercise. Anyone who has ever had a pulled or strained muscle can attest to just how painful that can be. Always incorporate stretching as a requirement of your workout program, both before and after the program. It never hurts to stretch during the workout either, between sets, to loosen up muscles that are tightening up with the stress of the workout. This will enable the blood the flow freely, and will help you to crank out that last crucial rep as well. I am not sure why people do not stretch more--any trainer will stress the importance of stretching to his/her client. I don’t know if its because people feel silly stretching, or they don’t recognize its importance, or what. But many training injuries could have easily been prevented by a few minutes of stretching. And believe me, a few minutes of stretching is well worth preventing days of pain.

So remember, when putting together your workout program, incorporate all three elements of fitness, and not only will you feel better, but you’ll look better as well.

03:27 pm - New Release

My next match will be released in a week or so from BGEast.com; me vs a newbie who goes by the name of Lobo. Mask on mask action; pretty hot if I do say so myself.

Thanks for all the nice comments regarding the pics of me battling Mitch the Bitch Colby. I don't know when that match will be released, but it was a good fight. And no, I won't comment on the outcome of matches until the video's released.

And here's a helpful hint for working out. A few weeks ago, I started taking a supplement called Atro Phex. It definitely works; I see a huge difference in size and definition in just a couple of weeks. Case in point: check out the abs here:




Pretty cool, huh?

I have also increased the intensity of my workouts; I am trying to put on size so am lifting heavier weights, have added two days per week, and have also added a ten minute stretching routine to increase my flexibility.

The photos in my previous post, in gold, were taken before the match with Lobo.

Happy lifting--and ass kicking!

03:22 pm

05:15 pm

10:50 am - Corner of the Sky

03:01 pm

11:09 am

09:45 am - About Challenges

I haven't been posting in here as much as I would have hoped; but my alter-ego has had a rather trying summer.

Since starting this blog, I have gotten some challenges--most of them rather rude, actually, although I assume for the most part these are phrased in an insulting manner to amp up anticipation for a possible match--but to save everyone some time, let me explain some things about me and wrestling.

First of all, I DO NOT TRAVEL TO WRESTLE. I wrestle when I travel. There is an important distinction there. So, spare me the emails or comments stating "You need to come here and wrestle me." All due respect, I am not shelling out money for a plane ticket, a hotel, and a rental car just for the simple pleasure of wrestling someone I have never met before. (However, I will travel for a rematch with someone I know, like and enjoy wrestling.) If you want to wrestle me so damned badly, you put up the cash and come to New Orleans. Period. Go ahead and call me arrogant if you want to--but how is it NOT arrogant to assume I will spend about a thousand dollars to come wrestle YOU when we've never met before, I know nothing about you, and you don't even have the decency to send me a picture of yourself? If I am coming to your town for work--which is always possible--I will be more than happy to mask up, throw on whatever trunks you want me to wear, lace up the boots, and get it on.

Second of all, I do NOT do submission style wrestling. I do not do collegiate, MMA, no holds barred, etc. I do pro style and promission. Period. If you don't understand what that means, don't bother getting in touch with me. It's not going to happen.

Thirdly, I am not a body fascist, so please do not assume that I am. That is insulting. However, I do stipulate that, regardless of your body-fat ratio, that you do take some form of exercise regularly if you want to wrestle me. I am not taking the time to gear up, get all excited and keyed up to wrestle, only to have you poop out after ten minutes. If you can't go for a minimum of two hours, don't bother me, okay? I also don't care if you smoke, or whatever. But again, as long as it doesn't impact the length of time you can wrestle, I don't care.

Fourth, I don't care about the set-up. I've wrestled in rings, on mats, on mattresses, on beds, even on blankets spread on the floor. Obviously, my preference would be first a ring, then mats, but I will wrestle in any kind of set-up.

So, bear all of this in mind before sending me a challenge, okay?

02:02 pm

02:27 pm

I've often been asked why I "hide" behind a mask. The remarks, on the bgeast fan list-serve, are frequently phrased in an 'insulting' way; you know--"are you so ugly you have to hide your face?" type thing. Others assume that wearing a mask to hide my identity is some kind of quasi-closet; as though my wrestling career is something I am ashamed of and might negatively impact my day job.

I'll address the second question first: the answer is a resounding NO. My day job is not impacted in any way by my sexuality; by my interest in wrestling; or by my appearing on video. In fact, if anything, it would enhance my reputation and probably would lead to a greater success at my day job if I weren't masked. The friends and colleagues who know about my side career as a professional wrestler think, actually, that it is pretty cool. I am not 'ashamed' of my wrestling; never have been, and seriously doubt that I ever would be.

As for the question are you so ugly you have to hide your face?, well, as I said earlier, that's just a passive-aggressive attempt to be insulting. It's kind of a stupid question, really, anyway, to which there are only two possible answers: yes or no. (Although I am tempted to quote the Dread Pirate Roberts from The Princess Bride: "They're actually quite comfortable, and I am sure everyone will be wearing them soon.") It's also one of those questions that answering is a no-win situation; if I say 'yes' I am conceding that I am so hideously ugly I have to hide my face; if I say 'no', it comes across as arrogant.

I am not the best judge as to whether I am a handsome man or not. Small children don't scream and run when they see me; I take that as a good sign. But I will say this: when I was younger, I modeled. It was something I kind of fell into; not something I ever really wanted to pursue in any way; and I primarily did it from a sense of let me see what this is like. It was fun when it was new; the more I did it the less I liked it. The photographers I worked with urged me to pursue it; but again, it wasn't anything I ever had a serious desire to do, and ultimately, it seemed kind of soul-destroying to me. I've never really wanted to be judged by my looks...because there is more to me than that.

It can also be argued that becoming a professional wrestler and doing videos is setting myself up to be judged by my looks; and certainly seeing myself on tape for the first time was quite a shock. I can add that seeing that video for the first time drove me to completely change my exercise and diet habits; if I am going to be doing this I want to look as good as I possibly can.

It was an eye-opening experience. For several years now, I'd just been kind of going through the motions at the gym; maintaining without really trying to improve myself. I was in a rut, and I am glad that I woke up and started working hard again.

I am not trying to turn myself into a musclegod for the company; those shoes are already filled by guys like Aryx Quinn, Cole Cassidy, Josh Goodman and Mitch Colby, among others...but I want to develop myself the best I can.

And someday, the mask will come off on video....as soon as there's a wrestler man enough to take it from me.

12:50 pm

11:31 am

I am also posting pics from my matches and photo shoots at http://www.myspace.com/cagethunder.

02:40 pm

http://www.bgeast.com/catalog.php?pid=1094&match=2

Yup, there it is folks. The link to my first video for BGEast.