~Two years ago, I was training a group of NFL & college football players when I received a message to call back a man by the name of Paul Levesque. “I couldn’t really hear the message because it’s so damn loud in here; but I think he’s supposed to be a WWE wrestler or something”, Ashley explained to me.

“Just put his number by my gym bag and I’ll call him back if I have time tomorrow…I doubt the guy is actually in the WWE”, I replied.

Then, one of my college athletes interrupted the conversation…“WAIT! What did you say his name was?! Did you say Paul Levesque? If so, that’s Triple H! Go call him back right now! We can finish the workout on our own!” 

The rest, as they say, is history…

Nothing “fake” about it…

One of the main reasons that Triple H contacted me was because he knew he needed to make a change in his training. He had just turned 40  and the injuries he sustained during the course of his legendary career were really starting to take their toll on his body.

There is a very interesting dilemma that most WWE superstars face: It’s very important for them to have “the look” — but if they sacrifice “function” just to look good — their bodies become a ticking time bomb and injury is inevitable.

Many people reading this may be saying, “Why do these guys have to worry about training for ‘function’ and preventing injury; isn’t wrestling fake?” After working with Triple H for almost two years now, I can tell you with confidence that the physical demands and injuries that WWE superstars deal with are as real as it gets! I’ve been training professional athletes for over 15 years and I can guarantee you that I’ve never come across an athlete whose body has been through more abuse than Triple H.

Here’s just a “few” of the injuries Triple H has sustained in the ring: 

• Completely torn quadriceps muscles/tendons in BOTH legs that required major surgery and rehab. (FYI, both injuries happened in the ring and Triple H continued to wrestle and finish both matches on one leg!)

• Torn biceps tendon (shoulder surgery)

• Two elbow surgeries to remove 9 bone spurs that the surgeon said were the size of “human teeth”. One of the spurs was lodged in the joint, preventing any movement in the elbow.

• Torn adductor muscle

• Torn Piriformis muscle

• Knee surgery (Thermal Heat Probe) to track the Patella: This is when the surgeon cuts the tendon on one side (to create some slack) and burns the tendon on the other side (to shrink/tighten it) in order to track the knee cap better

• Over a dozen high ankle sprains

After my initial meeting with Triple H, I had a new-found respect for the “Sports Entertainment” business. These guys are basically a combination of football players, Hollywood stunt men, gymnasts and bodybuilders all rolled into one! I was very excited to take on this challenge and help Triple H go from “injured bodybuilder” to “healthy athlete” — all while enhancing “the look” he’s become famous for!

Note: It would be impossible for me to cover every single aspect of Triple H’s training during the past two years…nor am I willing to give away all that information anyway So I decided to provide some bullet-points of the most important changes I made to his former training style. According to Triple H, the changes listed below have had the biggest impact on his strength, health, performance and appearance during the last two years.

“GAME-CHANGERS”!

• Improving the quality of his soft tissue by incorporating SMR (Self-Myofascial Release) with the foam roller & lacrosse ball on a daily basis. 

• Placing an emphasis on before every workout and in-ring performance! 

• Switching his mindset from training specific “body parts” to . 

• Placing an emphasis on building & strengthening the smaller, stabilizer muscles. 

Example: When I first started training Triple H, his “newest” injury was the surgically repaired biceps tendon of his left shoulder. I spent the first three months of training focussing on his external rotators, rear delts, mid-traps, rhomboids, etc. I don’t think I had him touch a weight when training his ‘upper back’ during the first three months we trained together. I had him doing tons of strict isometric holds, bodyweight exercises and band resistance to target these muscles. I knew if I could strengthen these often-overlooked muscles, Triple H would eventually be much more likely to throw a punch, execute a body slam – as well as lift heavy weights again – with much less chance of an inhibitory response from the Golgi Tendon Organ. (Simply put, when your smaller, stabilizer muscles are not strong/stable enough to support a heavy weight or stabilize during a difficult activity; your Golgi Tendon Organ will “shut off” your bigger (prime mover) muscles in order to prevent injury tothe weak link(s) in the chain. This is called the “tension effect“). Reducing the likelihood of this inhibitory response (by strengthening the ‘weak links’) drastically reduces Triple H’s potential for future injuries, while increasing his performance. Much to Triple H’s surprise, these “less sexy” exercises ( etc.) actually made his upper back/rear delts more muscular than when he was performing traditional bodybuilding movements! We basically “filled in the holes” of his upper back by getting the smaller, “deeper” muscles to hypertrophy. These “rehab-type” movements ended up giving Triple H what bodybuilders refer to as a “three-dimensional” look (due to the thickness/density that was built.) And when we finally started incorporating heavy rows and other compound movements into his program, he was able to handle heavier weights due to the “structural balance” that was created.