Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to Russell Jones Speaks, where we explore big issues that matter to parents, grandparents, and kids. We tackle intergenerational issues. Everything that affects parents, grands, and children is on the table.
Speaker: That includes health and fitness, relationships, attitude, family unity, vision, adversity, God, and anything else that might arise. The goal is for you to take away something that you can use in your life immediately.
Speaker: Russ Testo began competing in the late 1970s as a natural bodybuilder and achieved worldwide fame thanks to his mesmerizing posing routines.
Speaker: Russ revolutionized posing in the 1980s and 90s with his innovations that featured robot moves, dance, mime, and lip syncing to the top songs of that era.
Speaker: He's the most popular guest poser of all time at Arnold Schwarzenegger's Mr. Olympia contest, as well as a sought-after choreographer and posing coach.
Speaker: His appreciation of the arts and dance is evident in all his work. I'm excited to find out about his experiences in natural training, diet, discipline, and faith.
Speaker: So welcome my friend Russ Testo, physique artist extraordinaire. How doing, Russ? Very great, Russ. Thank you. Thank you for having me. I look forward to this opportunity. Thank you.
Speaker: Yeah. So let's just jump in. So you're ah you're a kid from upstate New York. At some point, you started with the weights. ah Was it for athletics? like Just give us give us an idea how how your training started.
Speaker: It was for athletics, specifically ice hockey. Grew up playing. Grew up playing ice hockey at the Troy Peewee Hockey Association.
Speaker: That took place at the RPI Fieldhouse, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. RPI is a Division I hockey school. And a lot of the other kids on my block played hockey.
Speaker: Pretty much had a hockey neighborhood here, and I joined in the ranks, I think, at seven years old. um But most often, I was the smallest kid on the ice. And going into high school at 95 pounds, five feet in stature, my father was a little bit concerned that I was going to get hurt with some of the competitors that I was going against. So oh yeah he was suggesting, you know, yeah yeah you need to gain some weight. You need to get strong out there and
Speaker: I had been doing some exercise before that, but to no avail. I just, I didn't enjoy it. It didn't seem like it worked. So it just so happened.
Speaker: I was all set to call it quits with weightlifting and exercise. My father calls on a summer day in August, 1971, right before I was about to enter high school. And he says, I have a surprise for you. We're going to a weightlifter's house.
Speaker: um He's going to teach you how to lift weights. And I said, dad, I do not want to do this. I don't believe it works. I quit with this stuff. He said, let's just go see this guy and we'll see what happens.
Speaker: Well, we went to his house that night. That was the first time I had seen 45 pound bars, 45 pound plates, squat racks, a bench for bench pressing.
Speaker: And He also, it but it was just very exciting to see. He was a local weightlifting bodybuilder. Russ, so just so everybody knows, 1970s, it wasn't like today. There wasn't a gym on every corner, right? It was like it was rare to find a gymnasium in some towns, right?
Speaker: Absolutely. At that time, pretty much, if you wanted to go to a gym, you were going to a YMCA. Yeah. Yeah, that was pretty much it. I'm sorry to interrupt, but just want people to kind of get the feel of it. Yeah, and not only that, it really wasn't accepted to lift weights as an athlete.
Speaker: Maybe if you were in strength sports like football or track and field, something like that. But the thought back then was, oh, you lift weights, you're going to get muscle bound and tight and it'll slow you up and it will ruin your sport.
Speaker: But... but Yeah, I'm sorry to interrupt. So Mr. Harley's place. I'm sorry. Yeah, we were at Jim Harley. His name was Jim Harley. Went over to see Jim Harley. He was also from Troy, a local weightlifter, bodybuilder. And that was the first time I had seen a man with that type of physique.
Speaker: Very impressive. He even did some posing for me that night, which I just I didn't think much about it at the time. i thought it was interesting. But I was my mind was on hockey. I wanted to be a professional hockey player.
Speaker: um He put me on a program that night and I remember gaining five pounds that first month from training. ah But I didn't have a lot of discipline at that age. And so the excitement wore off fairly quickly.
Speaker: But I continued to train. He continued to give me different training programs. And he also gave me a bunch of old muscular development and strength and health magazines from the 60s and early 70s, which I still have. And I think just over time, looking at these magazines and training, at some point, that bodybuilding bug bit.
Speaker: And i just started to see this as more than just guys getting up on stage, flexing their muscles. I could see zmar did it the I'm sorry to trip, in but just when you said those magazines,
Speaker: So when we met years later at the Association of Old Time Barbell and Strong Men, a lot of the guys that were that you had seen in those magazines, I mean, we got to meet, right, those guys.
Speaker: That was pretty cool right? that's a bit That's a big part of my story. That first night at the Old Timers dinner in 1991, believe was September
Speaker: I'm thinking here I used to see several of these men in magazines and now I'm performing for them. was it was pretty cool.
Speaker: Yeah. Very cool. Anyway, I'm sorry. So, okay. So ah magazines, bodybuilding. When Mr. Harley was giving you routines, was he giving you like bodybuil strict bodybuilding or was there powerlifting involved at all? Any Olympic lifts or anything like that?
Speaker: No, it was it was strictly bodybuilding exercises, basics, bench press, squat, curls,
Speaker: dumbbell work, dumbbell bench presses, incline work, dumbbell curls, tricep dips between chairs, pushups using chairs,
Speaker: Because I, again, that I didn't have much in my own house. I had a ah barbell set and I was using chairs for dips and pushups for ah chairs for pushups, tricep dips behind me, things like that. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. saint So, okay. So that was like freshman year. That was freshman year and and pretty much all through the rest of high school. My focus was still on playing hockey. I wanted to play college hockey and I had the dream of becoming a professional hockey player.
Speaker: ah And so I pursued that into college. I didn't have much of a college career. I went to Oswego State my freshman year in the fall of 1976. And for the first time, I did not make a hockey team that I tried out for.
Speaker: So I transferred to Plattsburgh State. Back then, you had to sit out a year before you could be eligible to play. I'm sorry, sit out a semester.
Speaker: So I was not eligible to play till my sophomore year at Plattsburgh. And that year, the coach had brought in all these recruits from Canada, top players.
Speaker: I was lucky to make that team in Plattsburgh. I did make it, but I didn't even dress the first semester. The second semester, I warmed the bench mostly.
Speaker: My junior year at Plattsburgh State, again, I didn't make the team. My senior year at Plattsburgh State, first semester I was home doing an internship, second semester, went back to school and was back on the team, but again, limited play.
Speaker: And during that junior, senior year at Plattsburgh State, that's where the bodybuilding really started to grow in me.
Speaker: um However, we should go back, go back to when I was at Oswego State, became very good friends with someone from Long Island, Steve Miller. um I'm sorry, Steve Griffin.
Speaker: And I remember saying to him one time, wouldn't it cool to put robot movements in posing routine? Because the posing had already gotten ahold of me at that time. I had already started to focus on posing. I knew who Ed Corny was.
Speaker: And I tried to model myself after him because of how artistic he was and and how he was just so, so good with that posing. But I had this idea from watching Shields and Yarnell In the 70s, Shields and Yarnell was a husband and wife team from the San Francisco area. They were street performers. They did mime. They did dance.
Speaker: And Shields, Robert Shields, um he, I believe, is considered the very first person to do Robot.
Speaker: And so they got, they were very popular on TV. They were doing shows like Sonny and Cher, the Dean Martin show, and they would do these skits that were pure robot.
Speaker: And it gave me this idea of putting these movements into posing routine. Nice. So... So you at that point, then you're like you're sold out to bodybuilding there, right? I mean, hockey's taken back. Yes. But by the time by the time junior, senior year of Plattsburgh State came around, I was sold out to bodybuilding, yes.
Speaker: And how much, like, ah you know, your dad was concerned about your your growth going into freshman year of high school. I mean, how how much weight did you gain or how how big did you get?
Speaker: I mean, at that point. I entered high school at 95 pounds. I believe I graduated at 160. Ooh, okay. was bit a change.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah, nice. How tall are you anyway? I don't even remember how tall you were. My best was five seven I believe now I'm down to five five and a half I don't talk like an old man. i don't want hear that stuff. I know the feeling. Yeah.
Speaker: Oh, cool beans. Okay. So, um so training as a bodybuilder, um the, the, I want to come back to the dance art and and the choreography, but I want to know like, um like the discipline, like what did it look like back then? Okay. You're a young guy um This is, this is a something that you're, you're really interested in. You want to do like how, um how often did you train back then? How long were the training sessions?
Speaker: You know, can you give us an idea of that? The first program that Jim Harley put me on was three days a week. okay pretty much a full body workout three days a week.
Speaker: Over time, he he started to split the body parts. I believe he gave me a
Speaker: lake legs, back, and biceps. Yeah, legs, back, and biceps one day, and then chest, shoulders, and triceps another day. i believe that was four-day routine, a four day a week routine, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. And,
Speaker: and then from there, it was pretty much just different combinations of different body parts. So did you, at that point, like, you know, when you, when you started like going up through high school, like how was your, how your diet? I know like today there's a lot of kids that are kind of finicky eaters. There's a lot of processed foods and everything else. Like, like how did you support ah recovery in between workouts? You know, when you're a kid.
Speaker: The knowledge of nutrition back then was, was limited. Jim Harley.
Speaker: told me about Hoffman's high protein powder. I started to take that. um He really didn't have too much guidance with nutrition or calories or anything like that.
Speaker: um He told me about Hoffman's high protein powder. He told me about, um
Speaker: it was a very popular oil. Oh, MCT oil? No, no. This is way before that. um It was one of the one of the seed oils.
Speaker: At that time, it was considered a very healthy fat. okay But I didn't do any vitamins or minerals or anything like that. I pretty much just ate what I was eating.
Speaker: I've always said the diet in my in my family was was pretty good for back then, specifically things like because my father was a dentist, soda was not in the house regularly, did not drink soda for meals.
Speaker: And sweets and things like that were limited. Yeah. So, but being Italian, nobody knew that pasta back then was not necessarily ah a healthy carbohydrate to eat on a regular basis. And Italians grew up eating that every Sunday, along with the meatballs and the brujol and the sausage and...
Speaker: and But back then the wheat back then, the wheat that they used in America for the pasta was probably way healthier than the wheat they use now. So, you know, that's a plus, right?
Speaker: Yes. Yeah. Cool. All right. All right. okay. So at what point, okay, so the then the the choreography and the dance, everything that um goes into it, the discipline that goes into it, where...
Speaker: Like at what point did you feel like you were ready to like hit the stage? Like how, how, you know, how old were were you then? My first competition was June 1978.
Speaker: It
Speaker: seventy eight it was the end of my sophomore year at Plattsburgh state. um
Speaker: I just decided to compete. And two weeks before that, there was a a k I competed in Old Greenwich, Connecticut for the novice Mr. Eastern Seaboard.
Speaker: Bill Pearl and Chris Dickerson were judges. Oh, wow. Okay. two weeks before Two weeks before that in Connecticut, Mike Katz promoted to show and Ed Corny was the guest poser.
Speaker: Again, i loved Ed Corny at the time. He was my man. I went to see him. I believe he posed to
Speaker: pose he posed to the theme from Rocky and he posed and he did his classic My Way routine. But one was done in a silhouette. And I'm thinking, I don't think he would have done My Way in silhouette. So he might have done Rocky in silhouette first.
Speaker: And then he encored later with with My Way. I went back to school that semester, that following semester, and did my own choreography to My Way, putting on headphones in my room and listening to a 45, My Way by Frank Sinatra, and going through the movements as as I had the headphones on so...
Speaker: so no um So I wouldn't disturb anybody with the music. But understand too, Russ, that that first contest that I competed in, in Old Greenwich, Connecticut, the Novice Mystery Eastern Seaboard, there was no music to pose to.
Speaker: They would maybe have music in the background, but at that time, competitors did not choose music to pose to. Oh, wow. But okay my thing was Ed Corny. So I was still up there trying to be graceful and poetic and, and, uh,
Speaker: trying to be like Ed Corny. And my cousin was with me. And I think he heard somebody say, he he looks like he's trying to be a ballerina up there or something like that. So it was almost they were trying to, they were making fun of me. But to me, in a way, it was a compliment because everybody else was just doing the same muscular poses over and over again. and right So, okay, so Ed Corny, did you...
Speaker: like in terms of of dance and art, like what, where did that pop into your life? Were you always into that? Like like the human form, like, you know, I'm sure there's a lot of people listening, like myself, I can never imagine at any point in my life getting up on a stage ah in shorts or less. And i just can't imagine that. I mean, I've been on a lot of stages, but not like that.
Speaker: And so, um but then again, i mean, my art appreciation, you know, the the the classic joke was I failed art appreciation or music appreciation, but I appreciate it. But,
Speaker: you know, you talk about the Greek gods and you talk about the sculptures and Michelangelo, you talk about all these things. Like, did any of that come into come into your life or or was it, you know, what was it?
Speaker: You know, what what really drove you at that point? I just really, it it was tough to see bodybuilding. They didn't have bodybuilding.
Speaker: They had very limited bodybuilding on TV. Every once in a while on Wide World of Sports, they might've showed a contest. The magazines, you had to depend on the magazines, but even the magazines were tough to find.
Speaker: My sister bought me the Pumping Iron book for, I think it was my 18th birthday. I remember reading that seven times in a row.
Speaker: And so it was looking at that, looking at those photos of those competitors. And then, of course, they had the sculptures of Michelangelo in that book along with others.
Speaker: um
Speaker: to get up on stage in a posing suit, it it it didn't even phase me. I mean, to me, that's that's what you did. That was the sport. In football, you wear pads. In hockey, you wear skates.
Speaker: In bodybuilding, you wear a posing suit. So i i wasn't I didn't feel funny doing that. And again, i didn't look at it as... as trying to be a muscle man or, hey, look at me. i looked I looked at it as an art early, just from from looking at the photos and and reading magazines and the book and yeah and Ed Corny.
Speaker: you know um When did you actually start? i know like ah you you do like you're in the dance world or you've been in the dance world, right?
Speaker: Did that start back then or did did that come in later? that That came in later. here's Here's the funny part about the dance thing. I didn't go to high school proms because I was afraid to dance.
Speaker: Oh, gosh. So I had to learn how to do this robot thing. I happened to be at a local disco, local nightclub in December, 1980. And there were two gentlemen there from the area, from Colony, New York, Mark and Billy.
Speaker: They were street dancing. They were doing something called locking, which Fred rerun Barry did on the show, What's Happening.
Speaker: Rerun. Remember Rerun? He was one of the original lockers. The lockers started in 1969, 1970, started by Don Campbell, Don Campbell, Locke Campbell.
Speaker: It was Mark and Billy, the two friends of mine from the area. ah They were street dancing and along with those street dance moves, they were doing robot moves. And I thought, this is my ticket.
Speaker: I've got to introduce myself so I can learn how to do these robot moves. Well, Mark happened to be home from Vegas. So he was going back to Vegas after the holidays. So I got to be friends with Billy, started going over to Billy's house in January of 1981.
Speaker: And he started to teach me the basics of doing some robot moves. That March in 81, there was a local contest here in the area.
Speaker: And I decided to do some of that robot moves. I used the song from 2001 Space Odyssey, not the original, but a jazzed up version by Deodato.
Speaker: I started down in the thinker's position, pumped myself up, went through the rest of the song with pretty much basic poses, and then finished by pumping myself back down.
Speaker: And it went over very well. But Russ, it wasn't just the robot that got those people. It was the musicality. It was the moving to the music, whereas everybody else, the music was just background.
Speaker: Moving to music came naturally to me. When my friend and i used to practice taking shots, our hockey, we used to practice our hockey in his garage in the off season.
Speaker: We'd have the music on because we were two cool teenagers, you know, practicing, moving. I would try to puck handle and move to the music. It was just natural for me.
Speaker: So to me, if you're doing a posing routine, if you're doing anything to music, you move with the music. You just don't forget about it. So that's why that went over so well when I did that 2001 Space Odyssey.
Speaker: Four months later, let's see, April, May, June, July, August. Five months later, I got in the natural Mr. America contest in Utica, New York that Tom Sciola promoted.
Speaker: My brother says to me after I did the 2001 Space Odyssey routine, he said, Russ, you should do a routine to Magic Bird of Fire. It was a popular disco song that was being played at the time by the South Soul Orchestra.
Speaker: It was actually considered a disco instrumental version of Stravinsky's Firebird Suite. This song was four minutes and 40 seconds long. I said, Rich, this song is too long. He said, just work on it. You can do it.
Speaker: So I got to work, got it choreographed and performed at this natural Mr. America contest. Well, I had a 1600 people standing ovation from that because it was so different.
Speaker: I put more dance in, I put more robot in, I added mime and it just went over really big. But the best part was that there was a man in the over 40 division from Columbus, Ohio by the name of Kurt Haywood.
Speaker: He was like this with Arnold Schwarzenegger. He thought it would be a great idea for me to pose at the Olympia. So he set up an audition for me to come out to Columbus I auditioned that routine to Magic Bird of Fire before Arnold and his partner, Jim Lorimer.
Speaker: They liked what they saw. That was October 9th. They invited me to guest pose the next day, October 10th. And that was the beginning of the professional career as a physique artist.
Speaker: Nice. As a guest poser. Yeah. Okay, so... At any point in time, okay, for people listening, ah you know, there's professional bodybuilding.
Speaker: um Usually, i would think... You would say, well, there's natural bodybuilding, which should just be bodybuilding because that's the way God made us.
Speaker: And then there's people that use other substances. That should be another division. But it's not like that. The real world is that people are...
Speaker: you know I don't think it's necessarily ill-intentioned, but they they try to take development as far as they can, and they use ah drugs to keep it short. right so At some point, i mean you had to be tempted. ah Well, maybe not.
Speaker: Were you ever tempted then to end to go into that world? i mean because I'm sure you were around guys that were doing it, for sure. Yes.
Speaker: Yes, I remember being discouraged at one point. I felt like I was not making any gains.
Speaker: And yes, there were others in the gym that were making gains.
Speaker: So i had I had thought, you know, should I consider this? But I couldn't. It was too late. um I say it too late because i had already I had already said to many people that I would never do it.
Speaker: That first night at Jimmy Harley's house in 1971, he told me about something called Diana Ball. And it scared me. Not to mention, I thought drugs and sports, they don't mix.
Speaker: And I looked at it as cheating. But I also was scared of it because of, I didn't like the way that sound, number one, Diana Ball.
Speaker: But I just wondered, was there possible health risks with that? So it's more or less, um I made that commitment that first night at Jimmy Harley's house that I would never do it.
Speaker: But yes, there was a time i was a little bit discouraged thinking, boy, what what would it be like if I did it? But I had already gone to schools speaking to youth about this.
Speaker: talking the negatives of it and that I had never done it and that I never would. So there's no way I could ever go back on my word.
Speaker: Right. Yeah. That's, ah I just count myself blessed that I never fell into that. Yeah. I fell into a lot of other stupid things, but I never fell into that.
Speaker: But, um, yeah. So, okay. So good. So now, um, Did you continue to compete or were you just, ah not just, or or was your career like in guest posing? I know you choreographed for other ah bodybuilders.
Speaker: you Did you continue to compete? Yes, I continued to compete. Well, the first guest posing, the first opportunity to guest pose was the 1981 Mr. Olympia. I continued to compete right up to 1984.
Speaker: um i've I'm not remembering if I did any more. Yes, I did. I did do one or two more competitions ah solo as an individual.
Speaker: And then in 83 and 84, I started to do some mixed pairs with a local female competitor, lady by the name of Deborah Papa Bouchard.
Speaker: We did a couple of shows in New York State. And we got invited to the 1984 Pro-Am mixed pairs competition in Toronto.
Speaker: So we were competing against other amateurs and against other professionals as a mixed pair. And the NBC Sports World was there.
Speaker: They... they covered the the top five. The first, the the top five were broadcast on the show and we had missed it by three points. We came in sixth place.
Speaker: oh There were nine judges. There were nine judges and every judge except one had us first or second in the posing division.
Speaker: One judge had us, had, had placed us It was either sixth or ninth. And that totally brought us down that we missed the top five. That would have been so nice to be on NBC Sports World. Yeah, sure. Definitely. Definitely.
Speaker: So, um okay, so, okay, we got, so you're evolving then. Now it's pairs. At what point did people start coming to you for for choreography?
Speaker: Uh, let's see. I believe I started to help fairly early, a little bit here and there, 85, 86, little bit more later, 87, 88, 89. And then into the 90s, it really started to pick up.
Speaker: And into the 90s is when I started to do it via videotape. where competitors would contact me, send me their music. I'd choreograph a routine and then go up to my photographer, videographer's house in his studio and choreograph and teach a routine to a competitor, break it down from beginning to end.
Speaker: that was That became very lucrative at one point. Had a lot of competitors contacting me for that. Must have been a lot of work too. Goodness.
Speaker: Yeah, it was it was each each of those videos that I did averaged an hour and an hour and a half to two hours in length, not including the time before to choreograph it, to prep it.
Speaker: So, yeah, yeah it was it was some pretty good work, but it was it was very enjoyable. I really enjoyed breaking those routines down because... Posing is not easy.
Speaker: it's It's really not an easy thing to do. And you have to break it down. I thought of every individual as a total novice, make it as simple as possible.
Speaker: Because when I bought my first computer from Radio Shack and I read that manual on how to do things, Forget about it. You talk about, you talk about, I don't know who's writing these manuals, but to me, they did not break it down. so Right.
Speaker: That's good. Yeah. Just just to that, even posing, A couple of years ago, for people who don't know, you wouldn't probably know, because but I mention your name when I tell kids this. We moved to South Carolina five years ago. And at one point, three or four years ago, ah for my birthday, I held up my arm and I was flexing somewhere. I don't know just like an old guy flexing.
Speaker: And I put it up on Facebook and it was all, it was not exactly that moment, but within short time, I got a message. I got a message from Russ Testo.
Speaker: Hey, brother, you put hold your arm up. Don't just flex. You got turn and you get a pop that comes up. And so, uh, I've been every time I've gotten in front of kids, you know, ah teaching my trying to teach my grandkids to get that pop. And it's amazing. In fact, I did it with old like an old people's. ah i I gave a a talk to to like our elderly people at church. At the end, I had all of them flexing and holding up. I said, Russ Testo taught me this. This is how you do it.
Speaker: So um but that just brings me to the to the flexing and posing. I don't do, i do a little bit at the end of maybe once a week. I just do a little bit to um of flexing.
Speaker: That is a workout in itself. Talk about that. Like how much time, or you have your weightlifting time. How much time do you do you spend on that?
Speaker: when When I practice, it's an easy thing.
Speaker: 45 minutes to an hour. ah And it's pretty much just going through my routines, one routine after the other.
Speaker: So yes, posing is a terrific exercise, but it's giving me cardio at the same time. yeah And it is increasing my mind to muscle connection.
Speaker: neuromuscular efficiency, which now helps you when you go back to the gym, right? Because training is all about that mind to muscle connection.
Speaker: So you go through the whole body each time?
Speaker: I'm sorry, Ross. So you would go, so a routine then would involve you, would involve all the muscles in your body. Absolutely. Yeah. Like I'm just standing here flexing one arm.
Speaker: you're You're going through your whole body. I get exhausted doing that at end of a workout. So um yeah yeah, it's, a it cracks me up. You know, people talk about cardio, like you could go,
Speaker: you'll see people at a gym on on a treadmill or something like that. And I'm thinking just just from your example right there, I mean, if they learned how to connect their mind to their muscles, if they stood there and flexed for the amount of time they spent on a treadmill, it'd be way more beneficial and they'd get the full cardio effect, right?
Speaker: Yeah, yes. The other advantage to practicing posing is very little impact On your joints, whereas running or walking or whatever you're doing. And of course, i'm not I'm not saying you should not do these other cardiovascular exercises. They're all excellent, very good. I still do them.
Speaker: I still do them. But there's just something about posing. Right, right. I've always said i I think posing will give you a quality to your physique that you will not get in the gym.
Speaker: yeah And I always like to bring up this example of Charles Atlas with the whole a course that he sold for years in the comic books, the dynamic tension.
Speaker: All it was, was this kind of, kind of isometric type exercise or whatever, but he was basically flexing his muscles and,
Speaker: Of course, it won't it won't give you 300-pound bench press or a 500-pound squat, but it will work the muscles to a degree.
Speaker: Yeah. And yeah, and flexing, I mean, different than, than isometrics. And I've, I've kind of come up with my own interpretation of isometrics over the last few years.
Speaker: um So I think it's been very effective to um not put wear and tear on my joints. And at the same time, um you know, strengthening, bringing blood flow to the area. And I just feel isometrics applied properly.
Speaker: I think most people just, you know, they don't really spend the the effort that they need to spend on them, but they can be a really effective form of exercise for sure. um Yeah.
Speaker: So, okay, let's get to
Speaker: current diet. I want to hear about that. ah I know you're a lot younger than I am, but I'm curious as to what your ah your current diet is.
Speaker: So what are you are you going to be 69 this year, you said? That is correct. In June, yes. You're only a kid.
Speaker: Go ahead. what are you What are you eating every day? You know, that hasn't changed. Still pretty much doing eggs and oatmeal.
Speaker: and chicken and beef and broccoli and salads and, all the different greens.
Speaker: I don't eat a lot of fruit. There's no reason for that. I mean, at one point I used to stay away from the fruit because the whole thing of fructose and, you know, it's not as healthy as everybody thinks it is and all this other stuff. But, um,
Speaker: I don't have a strong, I enjoy fruit. i just I just don't buy it for some reason, but I do enjoy it. I do oranges regularly because I also take an iron pill. I have to take an iron pill regularly. My iron is a little bit low because I do blood donations on a regular basis every every two months. So those blood donations draw on your iron.
Speaker: And so I have to do the iron and that's best absorbed with vitamin C. So I do oranges regularly. I like bananas. I do like, I do enjoy bananas, uh, with oatmeal along with blueberries.
Speaker: I like the blueberries for the antioxidants and, uh, but mostly, um Oh, and of course my favorite complex carb is, is rice. Really enjoy rice.
Speaker: I do both brown and white, And, and I still like potatoes to still enjoy my potatoes. Pasta I keep limited. Definitely don't eat that the way I used to.
Speaker: But I don't count calories. I don't measure food. I just eat. I enjoy it. I eat regularly. And I keep meals a day.
Speaker: Right now, just two to three. At one point it was more three to four, sometimes five, but. No more protein powders? I do protein powders. I put protein in in my oatmeal.
Speaker: I'm not much for making protein drinks. I do enjoy protein bars, whether it be a snack in between or take them with me when I know I won't get home to have a meal and I'll need something in between.
Speaker: And you mentioned MCT oil earlier. John Perillo is who turned me on to MCT oil back in 1990. And I've been using that ever since.
Speaker: Really enjoy that. think that is very healthy. Got to be careful with that though, right? You can't take too much of that at once. ah It will. it I've never experienced that myself, but yes, I know what you're speaking of. It will it will go through you. It will go through you.
Speaker: But it's it's a great flavor. It's great to cook with. ah You do need to keep it at a medium heat, otherwise it will smoke. But it's a great substitute for butter.
Speaker: whether you put it on a, on a potato or if you put it on some toast, yeah speaking of which I enjoy Ezekiel bread. Okay. I think that's the best bread out there. Ezekiel bread.
Speaker: so ah Like supplements, like vitamins, minerals, anything like that or no? No, no, I was never pill. I could never remember to take that. Oh, I am back on, uh, decided to go back on some creatine monohydrate yes sir last year, first time in probably 10 years.
Speaker: So, and, and I've always said that is the one supplement for me that I can say it absolutely works. I mean, you get, you get a, uh, it works.
Speaker: Yeah. always felt gift I've been doing creatine for years and years, but I don't, I don't, you know, mega dose it. i know I just take, I take the, I take the minimum, I take the five grams. Yes. And, um,
Speaker: you know if i think of it i take it after my workout but i think uh the one thing as i've gotten older i think the one thing about it is it seems to uh your muscles hold water a little better as i've gotten older they just ah they don't seem to hold water right yeah um but i know you got to be careful and creatine too right um in terms of hydration and everything else but uh yeah you do you mess around with any herbs or anything or not really No, never have.
Speaker: So this is a, you know, it's kind of a personal thing, but we can edit it out if we have to girls hold your ears. Um, you know, we talked about testosterone. We were leading up to this, this talk and, um, you know, the conversation in our culture, even all the way up to the, uh, the secretary, one of the the president's secretaries now is, um,
Speaker: people are taking ah hormone replacement therapies and all these different things. And just listening in this area, like there's a lot of young people that have terribly low levels of natural testosterone flowing through their bodies.
Speaker: And, um, And i yeah I never used to have mine checked at all for, I don't even know, i was never really curious about it. But you know in recent years, I've had it checked and it's been consistently over 800. For people who don't know, for our age, it would probably be, a doctor would say 300 500 would be good for our age.
Speaker: So to be over 800 is like, whoa. And you had mentioned yours is around that level too, right? that It has, the the past two years, it has been clocked at just over 800, yes.
Speaker: Yeah, so ah you know I'm not doing, I mean, I know you're i mean you're probably, not probably, you're way more disciplined than I am. um I'm working out six days a week, but short workouts. I do, I train my strongman stuff once once a week.
Speaker: But for some reason, it it just seems like the cumulative effect of that activity over the years, I think it you know the body just takes care of what it needs to take care of, right? i mean ah Yes.
Speaker: ah So it just seems that the culture, the food, everything, that you know the quick fixes, yes it's not leading to a good place for everybody.
Speaker: Yes. you know and I hope like just talking to you and hearing you know just how you eat. it's it's It's a disciplined life, but it's I don't think it's anything... that somebody says, Hey, yeah, I got to take care of the one body I have. I'm going to honor God with that, how I take care of it. I'm not going to, you know, abuse it.
Speaker: And um you can go at least as long as we've gone and, and, and be comfortable with, ah you know, testosterone, whatever other hormones we need as we get older, you know, do you agree?
Speaker: I agree. Absolutely. This idea of all this testosterone replacement therapy and, you know, all these other things that many people are taking.
Speaker: um My first question to these people would be, have you tried hard exercise yet? Have you weight trained and have you done some serious cardio to force your body to repair, to release that testosterone?
Speaker: I believe like you, because I still do squats and I still do deadlifts. And I still train to almost failure and failure at times. And I still do the cardio and I still practice the posing. I think all of this is what keeps the testosterone level high because your body needs it to repair itself.
Speaker: Yes, sir. Yeah. What about sleep? How are you doing with sleep? How does that, how do you play on that? i mean, you know, it's always in the conversation, right? In terms recovery, you know, all the lights, all the things that affect us and everything. How, are you holding up? im feel sleepep thing I'm guilty of not getting enough sleep.
Speaker: I, um, ah Sometimes I just stay up later than I should either watching TV or not even so much a TV sometimes, but us decide to go to bed.
Speaker: I want to check email one more time, look at Facebook one more time. And before you know it, it's another half hour, 45 minutes has gone by. And and so so, yeah, my discipline with my sleeping is not good at this time. I confess.
Speaker: Yeah, it's a battle. I mean, those devices... You know, for, it's amazing the way, you know, how they work. It's a computer in your hand and everything else. But, yeah oh my goodness, it's truly an addiction um that you have to, you know, really put it in its place. And I'm as guilty as you are with that. But, yeah, I've been sleeping.
Speaker: I've been sleeping pretty good. don't seem to need as much sleep as I used to, but I do pretty good. Yeah. So let's just transition real quick to advice to parents.
Speaker: I want to,
Speaker: I had ah an early experience in in going into a gym. So I think a lot of times parents, ah their their son or daughter comes to them and they want to join a gym. They want to get in shape. Okay. Whether they're going to the gym at the school or they're going to a gym you know, a public gym or whatever, going to the Y even.
Speaker: And um in in theory, it sounds great. Hey, instead of going down the corner and hanging out or doing some other activity, you want to, you know, you want to get stronger. You want take care of yourself. You want to go to the gym.
Speaker: So here's my gym story. 1970s, like you, right? And I didn't start weightlifting at all until I was 21. I was in horrible physical condition. I'd been an athlete.
Speaker: The whole thing, and then everything fell apart. I fell prey to everything that the 60s brought, right? ah Goodness gracious. And so 21 years old, looked in the mirror. I was a disaster, a total wreck.
Speaker: Some guy at work, I actually worked in a place where Dave Draper, the blonde bomber, used to work. Dave Draper was from my hometown, Seacocos, New Jersey. And this Dave Draper had worked there before before I got there. And I was going to school and I was i was working at this place.
Speaker: And they they would tell stories about Draper, just amazing stories as a kid, right? So, you know, and I had seen him in a magazine and everything. So I'm like, well, this is this guy was serious, right? And so, ah and they, but one of the guys there gave me two 20-pound dumbbells.
Speaker: I think he loaned them to me. I don't even know. I would go home. I'd work the 3 to 11. I went to school during the day, worked a 3 to 11 shift, come home, and I'd get these dumbbells out. I had no idea what I was doing. I'd sit there during a Johnny Carson show. Back then, the Johnny Carson show was 90 minutes.
Speaker: And between like you know watching Johnny Carson, I'd just keep moving these weights around. I had no idea what I was doing. So it turns out I lived in Secaucus, but there was a gym, a bodybuilding gym in Jersey City, which is our closest city.
Speaker: That's where I was going to school. And so um my dad knew the owner and I didn't have any money. And, you know, to pay for, ah you know, to go to the gym or anything like that. and paying for school and had a family and everything else, even though I was pretty young.
Speaker: And so ah I worked out a deal with the owner of the gym that I would tune up his motorcycle. So I knew a little bit about that in exchange for gym membership. So I remember it was on the second floor, purple stair, purple carpeted stairs going upstairs. And I went to this gym.
Speaker: And you had to pay extra if you wanted to get personally trained. But there was only one guy that did personal training in the gym, right? Old guy. And so older than us, maybe. But anyway, so and watch all I could do is imitate what I saw other people doing.
Speaker: So, of course, you you know i was planning of I looked at the guys that you know looked the biggest and strongest and everything else. And I'm watching these guys work out. And I'm trying to imitate. So, you know, pushing weights, doing a bench press. I can barely do them.
Speaker: Usually the minimum was like 135 on the bench, right? The 245s in the bar. Yes. And so, and I'm, my form is terrible. I'm lifting my butt this high off the bed. I, you know all these crazy things and leg day. Oh my goodness. I couldn't even walk. Cause I'm in the workouts. These guys were doing, you know, like you'd seen the magazines, um,
Speaker: i could I had to slide down the stairs. I couldn't even walk. And these guys were just normal. I've never seen this guy kneeling on the floor with ah an Olympic bar, 45, 135 pounds, and he's doing curls.
Speaker: Like I was at that point. I could hardly squat that amount. And this guy's curling that amount. And so I remember going to the bathroom a few times and seeing like paper towels that were like bloody and stuff.
Speaker: I was kind of like, I don't know what that's about. And I remember the guy on the floor, he had all these like big like pock marks and different stuff on his back. His back looked, ah his muscles were giant, but his he didn't his skin didn't look good.
Speaker: And there was another kid from my town that went there. I didn't know him that well, but he had the money for a trainer, for this trainer. Well, we both started at the same time.
Speaker: One year into it, this guy was like, He was a man. He was huge. out And I was still, I mean, I was a little bit better than a scrawny kid. And I was like, I couldn't believe And so later on, of course, I find out.
Speaker: had a ball like it. That was the prescription from the trainer. there And so over the years, I always flashed back on that.
Speaker: Like, you know i didn't nobody tried to introduce it to me probably because you know i i just stared at people i didn't talk much back then but um but that temptation would have been huge you know if i would you know if i would have been aware of it and today i hear stories about you know kids work out for three weeks and then they want to grow faster you know yeah like like what do you what do you tell a parent like ah like do you for you know make a gym in your house so that you they can't, you they don't get exposed to it? Cause there is a, there's a dynamic in a gym. You've been going to a gym for years.
Speaker: um You know, I mean, you play off the energy and everything else in the gym. So give us, I'm sorry, to that's a long lead in, but like, what's your, what do you say to moms and dads and grandparents that want to send their kids to a gym?
Speaker: I would say, please be aware, please know,
Speaker: who your son or daughter is training with. And I would say, be open and honest and ask them about steroids.
Speaker: And have they ever been asked or suggested to take it? and And I suppose they need to also be aware of of the training itself. are they Are they training on their own or are they learning from someone?
Speaker: um
Speaker: There's so much out there, especially on social media, all the videos and and suggestions out there from people who,
Speaker: a lot of them seem like they know what they're talking about, but but do they really know what they're talking about? um So it's...
Speaker: it's it's not an easy question to answer, Russ. I've never been married. I don't have any kids. So, but overall- When kid wanders into your, like if a new kid wanders into the gym, does does anybody look at you and say, oh my goodness, look at that guy. he He must know what he's doing, man. he's He's not a kid and look at the shape he's in. the The kids, are they, you know, I would be afraid to go up and talk to you, you know?
Speaker: Not only because that's the way I was as a kid. I couldn't talk to strangers or introduce myself or anything like that. But do kids come up to you at all and talk to you so about that?
Speaker: a Here and there, but mostly they they know of my reputation about posing. because So they they discuss the posing with me. But I will get asked questions about training and but if you're If you're asking me specifically about drugs and steroids, if I get asked about that, no.
Speaker: That is hardly ever. Because I think they know that I'm clean and I've always been clean. And so they're they're their mind is probably saying, how would he know about steroids if he's never used them?
Speaker: Right. Yeah. but all let's all right, let's switch gears again. um So first time I met you was at the association of all time barbell and strong men.
Speaker: And there women too. And um you did a routine. don' The one I remember, and i don't know, was called Lazarus. And I'm going to tell people about that in a minute, it but The reason I'm asking you this is that you gave a short testimony at the end or at the beginning. i remember which.
Speaker: And um give me give us a ah feel for like, like, when did you come? yeah know, when did you come to the Lord? When did that all take place? Was that over time? Was it an instant thing?
Speaker: When did that happen for you, Russ? Yeah, it's been a long a long road for me, I think. I was witness to at Oswego State in the fall of 76 when I first went to college.
Speaker: Coming down from the cafeteria one time, there was a table with people at the table pulling the students aside, just asking some questions. Do you believe in God? Do you go to church?
Speaker: um your thoughts, any any any other thoughts you have on, do you believe in heaven, you believe in heaven, different things like that. and And the one person said to me, I'd like to come up and and speak with you sometime. And and they ah had also invited me to a Bible study.
Speaker: Well, I had never gotten around to going to a Bible study. and And there were a couple of times they contacted me and they wanted to come and talk to me, but it it just never worked out. So out of nowhere, it was December, it was the end of the semester.
Speaker: And this guy by the name, he was a senior at Oswego State. He shows up at my room, and I believe his name was his last name was Bertinelli. I was a Fonzarelli fan at the time, so I had the Fonz on my wall.
Speaker: And he when he was witnessing to me, he said, you see see the Fonz? Well, they used to call – he said I was like that. They used to call me the Bert. And he was a cool guy like the Fonz and a tough guy and the whole bit.
Speaker: He said how the Lord changed him. And after he told me about the four spiritual laws, he was with Campus Crusade for Christ. He asked me if I wanted to ask Jesus into my life. And that kind of scared me. I'd never heard that before.
Speaker: I was raised a Catholic. And I said, I'll tell you what, you leave that little Bible with me that had that sinner's prayer in it. He said, I will do that on my own. And so we agreed on that. He left that day.
Speaker: The semester ended. I transferred to Plattsburgh State, so i've never seen this guy since. But I did pray that prayer. and But I think at that point and through the rest of college, my relationship with God was intellectual.
Speaker: I didn't change here. I still lived the typical college life of playing hockey and having a good time and chasing women. And my language didn't change, but it was after I graduated from school, I'd say about a a year,
Speaker: no, as maybe less than a year, I started to get convicted in my life of different sin, different things that I was doing in my life and something just wasn't right.
Speaker: So I think that's where the change started to take place. And at the time i i wasn't going to church. Shortly after that, I think I started to attend to church and I started to read scripture and and started to build that relationship with the Lord.
Speaker: And then when the career started guest posing, the first performance was the 81 Mr. Olympia. The second one was the 82 German bodybuilding championships in Munich.
Speaker: I remember the desire to thank God after that performance. From thanking God, it went to thanking the Lord God. From thanking the Lord God, I started to, I had the idea of of having a shirt made to sell that had me on the on the cover and it said, Power from the Sun, S-O-N, 2 Corinthians 4, 6 underneath.
Speaker: From there, I started to thank um
Speaker: started to thank Jesus or I started to thank Jesus Christ. And then I started to add scripture to the testimony. And then I, and um yes, then I started to think about posing to some Christian music.
Speaker: I don't remember.
Speaker: I don't remember the first one, but in 88, when I was doing a show in Texas, a female competitor gave me a tape, a cassette tape by Carmen called, I forget the name of that album that he had, but on that had Lazarus come forth.
Speaker: And I thought this would make an incredible routine, but it was so complicated in my mind. i don't know how I was going to do it. 1988, it was given to me.
Speaker: So now we're talking 89, 90, 91, 92. eighty nine ninety ninety one ninety two And it's starting to it's I'm starting to think about this more and more. And it gets to be 94, early 95.
Speaker: And i was to me, the Holy Spirit was like, come on, get going with this thing. You're making me wait too long. So I finally got to some choreography in the beginning of 1995. I choreographed it and took me either eight or 10 weeks, I think it was.
Speaker: That year. I had a show in Omaha, Nebraska Easter. on easter
Speaker: I'm sorry, Easter weekend. It was the night before Easter. And it was like, this is perfect. I mean, I was so nervous about posing to this Christian music, talking about Lazarus being raised from the dead.
Speaker: What are these people going to think? And the whole bit. But it was like God opened that door the night before Easter to debut that. It was perfect timing. He blessed it that night. They loved it And from then on, every time I did it, people would start to look forward to it. Are you going to do Lazarus tonight? Are you going to do Lazarus tonight? I remember when you did Lazarus last year. Are you going to do it again?
Speaker: People really started to like it. i I told the story of, of I mean, that that music, that song is is John Levin. you know, the story of Lazarus. And i tried to communicate it with poses as much as I could in movement.
Speaker: And it just has always been a a real blessing from God. Yeah, that was, I got that, you know, one of the few you know i have a few pictures you have mine on the wall in our our training center here and that's that's one of them your your lazarus outfit and uh that's pretty cool so um so right i i think we pretty much hit everything i wanted to hit on i i think uh i think i just want to let people know that um
Speaker: the Lazarus video and also the Fred Astaire one, which is awesome. fit Oh yeah. Just, I just want to say this so everybody knows, but Russ sent me a video of a routine, a Fred Astaire video where Fred Astaire's the young student with a light pole and Russ did it 30 years ago and he just did it this past year.
Speaker: ah And it's it's an amazing, amazing, it's like a before and after, but it's not like, you know, fat to skinny if or like no muscles to big muscles it's just it's amazing like how russ's body and physique has changed over the years but also what he's still able to do at his age i i just totally appreciated it um from a physical point of view but also artistically obviously it's awesome so i'm gonna put those two links on my web page um you know, uh, under my podcast, I'll, wherever we put this up, we'll have those links. And I, I'm, I'm going to put up the links to Russell for a Lazarus.
Speaker: Okay. We'll, uh, so people can, you know, get a view of that. Uh, if anybody wants to get in touch with Russ, ah you can You can contact them on Facebook, Russ Testo, or email rtesto356 at aol.com.
Speaker: um You can search if you want to see videos on your own, Russ Testo, you can search them on YouTube. Please share this with your friends. and um And there's ah also a ton of new stuff at RussellJonesSpeaks.com.
Speaker: Health and fitness, speaking events, strong kids, and a new book is coming as well. The Wall We Cannot See, working title, of course, by me. The wall was the only thing standing between me and my best life.
Speaker: And in the words of the inimitable Hulk Hogan, say your prayers, take your vitamins, and you'll never go wrong. Then you can all go and make it a great day. Bye for now.
