Stevie Richards Fitness is Taking Over

Stevie Richards will show you that you are capable of getting in the best shape of your life. You’ll see.

Richards is best known for playing a variety of colorful characters throughout his tenure in the professional wrestling industry. He made a name for himself as the leader of the hysterical bWo in Extreme Championship Wrestling. “I was born about 15 minutes away from the ECW Arena. I was with ECW from 1991 until 1997. I was actually in the very first match in ECW history when it was known as Eastern Championship Wrestling. On February 25, 1992, I went to a 15 minute draw against Jimmy Jannetty at Philadelphia’s original sports bar,” Richards told me. It would be the start of a long and memorable career for the decorated wrestler. He would go on to win WWE’s Hardcore Championship on 21 separate occasions. Over an extended period of time, Richards’ body began to feel the effects of the pain and punishment he would endure inside of the squared circle on a nightly basis.

These days, Richards is mentoring people to make healthier choices with his new Stevie Richards Fitness program. “The reason why I started the fitness program was because of all the injuries I acquired through wrestling,” Richards said. He continued, “It was actually more of a necessity than a choice. Working out was more about physical therapy rather than the aesthetics. Because of all the injuries I had, I needed to recover from those as well as prevent future injuries. That was my foundation for my love of fitness. From there, it just grew and grew.” Richards then explained how he came up with the concept for his fitness program. “After I decided to go out on my own in October 2016 to start Stevie Richards Fitness...it was really just a different branding of what I have been doing for about 12 years with personal training and group class instruction. Everything I’ve been doing—even back towards the end of my run in WWE, I was training people and very much involved with the fitness industry.” Richards is taking the fitness world by storm and turning it upside down because he has no other choice. He went through grueling incidents that would leave most people down and out. Not for Stevie. He continued to hit back and show his opponents no mercy.

“The first injury I experienced was when I broke my orbital bone and my nose against Rob Van Dam when I forgot to duck one of his kicks. It was completely my fault,” Stevie told me. He resumed, “That was my first major injury that occurred back in 1996. That started a slew of injuries. My next major injury was my neck injury.” Richards paused before he recalled an incident that would change the course of his life. “That moment happened when Terry Funk dropped a guardrail on me which was supposed to land across my back. The really big round metal part of the guardrail—which don’t look like the guardrails of today, I’m talking about the old school metal guardrails that look like porch railings—hit the base of my neck, which caused transient quadriplegia. I couldn’t feel my arms and legs for around an hour in the ring. It was scary,” he said. Unfortunately, Richards didn’t slow down his style in the ring and it amounted to further damage to his body.

“Even going through that didn’t teach me how to start taking care of my body and work out. I kept wrestling and did a lot of different things in the ring that actually made the injury more severe,” Richards sighed. He continued, “I eventually got a fusion of C5/C6/C7 on my neck on December 22, 1997. A side effect of that was was that the intubation—when the doctors put the tube down my throat so I could breathe during the surgery—damaged one of my vocal chords. My voice is remarkably different if people look back at footage from my ECW days. It’s a lot raspier because the surgery essentially damaged one of my vocal chords. I couldn’t talk for three months at all until I got a thyroplasty, which is like an implant in my vocal chords that helps me speak a little bit more prominently than I could without it.” Always the comedian, Richards didn’t miss an opportunity to make a quick joke. “Everybody just thinks I smoke. I’ve never smoked, never had a drug. Never did anything like that,” Richards laughed.

Richards might not be touching cigarettes, but he is touching many lives. “I genuinely care about people. It shows through video, voice and hopefully via written word that I care and I want to help people. I think that’s the best marketing material you can have. You can buy all the Facebook ads and put out all the email blasts but if you don’t take care of people you currently have, it is very telling.” Richards continued, “Everybody out there—when you see these ads that say, ‘I’m going to kick your ass! You’re going to see changes in 48 hours. 21 days. 90 days.’ My mission statement with Stevie Richards Fitness is to take you from the very beginning and give you the proper foundation and not be a trainer—but be a teacher. There’s a saying on top of the site that says, ‘Everyone is a beginner...Until they begin.’ I think that’s the perfect way to put it.” Richards then explained what his role in the fitness industry really means. “It’s my job to give you the tools. No other personal trainer will ever say the following: My job as a personal trainer is to make sure you’re not going to need me for the rest of your life. You’ll be empowered to do it on your own.”

Richards is confidant that his philosophy of making his clients independent is the way to go. “It comes down to experience. I can tell somebody what to do. Then they can be empowered to make the necessary changes in their lives. I still have 25 plus years of workout experience that I can continue to offer. Just like somebody with 35 years of experience can teach me something new because they have 10 more years of experience in the gym than I do,” Richards exclaimed. He continued, “Too many people don’t try to change up things. They like to stay in their comfort zone and not try things out. That’s what fitness is about. You have to get uncomfortable in order to make those gains.” The man behind Stevie Richards Fitness didn’t mind going behind the scenes to explain why many people don’t censor their intense anxiety when they attempt to approach the fitness world.

“In the fitness industry, there is a lot of noise. There is a lot of confusion. There is a lot of chaos. To some degree, I think that’s on purpose to confuse people and make them feel like they need a specific trainer. What I do is the exact opposite of just about anything in the fitness industry. I simplify everything,” Richards stated. He continued, “With my background and my injuries—people who are scared about injuries, limitations, things that have happened to them medically in their lives...well, I have a ton of injuries and I can sympathize with what they are feeling to some extent. I’m the master of modifications because I had to modify exercise programs throughout my whole life because of all the injuries I fought.” Richards nodded, “You are dealing with somebody that completely understands what is going on. I also understand that people don’t have a lot of time. A lot of my workouts that I have on my site are simple, safe, effective and they don’t take up a lot of time. That sounds like a miracle thing—it’s not.” Richards had a game plan for people who want to make better decisions. “There’s two things you have to do. You have to be consistent and....you have to be consistent,” Richards laughed. He continued, “That’s the one thing that needs to be said twice. You have to be consistent. The famous line is, ‘I’ll start working out on Monday.’ But what if it’s Tuesday? Why are you waiting another 6 days to work out? If you start today, you’ll be a day ahead of where you thought you would be. It’s really about consistency. The reason why I’m in the shape that I’m in is because everyday I do the best that I can and every day after that I try to do a little bit better. That’s really what fitness is. Fitness is you. Fitness is within yourself.”

Richards explained that any progress is good progress. “Here’s how simple my program is. If you can only do one push-up today, but then next week you can do two—that is amazing. Now you are making progress. If you can do just a little bit better and do one more push-up in a week, two weeks, a month—you are well on your way. That’s all that matters,” he said.

Before departing, Richards sincerely wanted people to know that he believes that 2017 could be their best year yet. “I would love for everybody to check out Stevie Richards Fitness. We have different programs there. The 12 week resistance band training program. The membership program or even private coaching. There are different pricing tiers to make it as affordable as I can for everybody. But I don’t care if you go to my site. Isn’t that weird?” Richards then proceeded to answer his own question. “Ultimately, you can go to my site, you can go to somebody else’s site or you can get any workout program. All I really want people to do is to try to take care of themselves a little bit better to live happier and healthier lives. Wow, I’m the worst promo guy—I don’t care if you go to my site,” he laughed to himself while shaking his head.

You can learn more about Stevie Richards Fitness by clicking here. You can also follow Stevie on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.