One Year After John Meadows
Although the Mountain Dog, John Meadows has passed on August 8th, 2021, his information continues to live on. Even on YouTube (mountaindog1), his lessons continue to post weekly. Somedays, there is just so much to post, it’s like he is still here. The same big smile. The same driven mentality.
The quick notes of John Meadows are he was an International Federation of Bodybuilding Professional (IFBB Pro) member starting 2015. He started amateur competition in 1997 and earned 2nd place in NPC Physique Light Heavyweight. He enjoyed the experience so much; he continued to compete and eventually winning his IFBB Pro card at the NPC Universe Bodybuilding Over 40 Overall. That means he spent over 18 years fighting towards his goal and even then, his top IFBB performance was 5th place. Though he didn’t always have the best physique, he never stopped training at his best. On Facebook, he stated “You can lie about what you lift, but you can’t lie about what you love.” He genuinely enjoyed training and working with others to improve their goals. After watching hours and hours of his passion, it helped me understand that my personal ability to train should be fun and enjoyable, then goals can overlap it. If I love the process, then it will never matter how far I go, but I loved being a part of a journey. Now it’s not the motivation to keep going, it’s the habit that I have use to keep trying. He showed me to be eager about learning new techniques and perspectives.
Here are some other things he has taught me and other things I think about when I reminisce.
· Always be nice and honest with others. He started every video with, “Alright, hi everybody.” Every time, he sounds too excited to teach you all the things he has learned. He was sometimes referred to the Mister Rogers of bodybuilding. I agree that is an accurate description. My personal social media intros with,” Alright, hey everybody” as a direct nod to him. So, if you hate that boot camp, demeaning trainer, then this was the encouraging person you want.
· Give away valuable information unconditionally. After so many years and working with so many people, John knew what worked. It’s not that he would pump out some product to sell. (I didn’t know about his supplement company until after a full year of watching him.) It was finding consistency. Understanding the hypertrophy and progressive overload concepts, backed by science and still speak to quality sleep and good nutrition was better than steroids. There are hundreds of hours on diet, workouts, programs, PED, optimizing results, and support on YouTube.
· Walk the talk. He could speak to form and muscle contraction with the best of them, then display his point on the next set. It was his notes on “elbows and angles” that made be understand how my own back muscles work and contract. I still teach that exact phrase to others.
· Keep going and don’t complain. John was working on a powerlifting/bodybuilding sequel, with Dave Tate. The first one was a big hit. He was a person that would not give up. Dave Tate noted that John’s stomach/colon issues were forcing John to often race to the bathroom. He had Idiopathic Myointimal Hyperplasia of the Mesenteric Veins. He would need to have his colon removed in 2005, but he recovered and resumed his then amateur bodybuilding career as well as his coaching business. Doctors told him he wouldn’t be able to lift more than 30 pounds without problems. Now consider the near 1,300 videos on YouTube. I can think of only a few exercises, John Meadows would not have exceeded 30lbs. He was incredibly strong. John had normalized his process so much; he would politely excuse himself and rush to the bathroom. This made film shoots tough, but you would never have noticed it. He never complained about it. It was something he had to deal with, but he suffered in silence with a smile on his face.
· Money was not the driver. He was the CEO of Granite Supplements and Mountain Dog Diet. He was the owner of two companies and had a net worth of $5million at the time of his death. He didn’t start promoting the product until it was around a long time. He enjoyed his work so much; he would forget about an opportunity to make money. He wanted to help…that was the driver.
· Be a better leader of the youth. John coached youth sports (football). Towards the end of his life, he was collaborating with the local high school and local football programs. He coached a few teams as well and really liked the sport. As I continue my own journey into lead and encourage better, I appreciated that he still found ways to help the next group along. Show the good and bad and support a learning by failing and restarting.
