<\/p>\n
Wrestling championship titles come and go, but for the rest of his life, the title of American Gladiator can never be taken away from Jessie Godderz. But for the athlete now known as \u201cSteel,\u201d one lapse in strategy almost let that opportunity slip away.<\/p>\n
Godderz, however, proved that Steel may bend, but in this case, it surely didn\u2019t break\u2014and as a father, it\u2019s a lesson he hopes his kids can learn from. He was selected, along with 15 other athletes, to compete on the classic show\u2014which drops its Season 1 finale on May 1 on Prime Video<\/a>\u2014and the rest can be streamed for eternity.<\/p>\n \u201cI went for broke every time,\u201d he says. \u201cI just outperformed everybody at the event right before it. They knew what they were going to get out of me.\u201d<\/p>\n Relishing his new Gladiator role, the shredded sports star is perhaps best known as the former 12-time OVW wrestling champion\u2014aka \u201cMr. PEC-Tacular\u201d\u2014or the arrogantly entertaining bad guy from his stint on Big Brother<\/em> nearly two decades ago and most recent reality show House of Villains.<\/em><\/a> Love him or love to hate him, whether he\u2019s hoisting one of his belts in the air or making reality TV housemates cringe with every double-biceps flex, one thing has always been certain: Godderz is determined to maximize every moment of every opportunity.<\/p>\n However, as he shares, in this one moment going all out can backfire. He admits that during a bodyweight challenge portion of the American Gladiators football-combine-style auditions, giving 100 percent nearly cost him the chance to put his name alongside Gladiator legends Nitro, Malibu, and Zap. Godderz says<\/a> he dominated the pushup and pullup portion of the tryout, knocking out around 100 pushups in a minute, followed by 46 pullups.<\/p>\n Then came the third event\u2014a high rope climb\u2014that left him with nothing but noodle arms, unable to complete the ascent. Luckily, he says, his overall performance was enough to offset the rope blunder.<\/p>\n \u201cI was like a cheetah after running 70 or 90 miles an hour\u2014and then there was nothing left,\u201d he recalls, laughing. \u201cThere was about a zero percent chance that I was getting up that thing. If there was ever something that\u2019s going to haunt me for the rest of my life, that was it.\u201d<\/p>\n He can laugh now, standing alongside Gladiator teammates such as Bull, Mayhem, and Neon for the first season of the show reboot, but preparing for American Gladiators<\/a>\u2019<\/em> demanding 10-episode schedule was no joke. And as the arena\u2019s elder statesman, this time he was going up against competitors nearly half his age, although you\u2019d be hard-pressed to see the gap in his still PEC-tacularly flawless and seemingly ageless physique. The lifetime of gains he says are the results from \u00a0more than two decades of steady weightroom work.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve stayed pretty consistent my entire life, and I encourage or implore anybody to try and find a bad photo of me or without abs,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s two-plus decades of having abs, and I\u2019m very proud of that,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n To pull off the role of Steel, Godderz says he had to shift his training from bodyslams, power bombs, and his signature \u201cAdonis Crab\u201d to learning how to navigate events like the Joust, Powerball, and the Gauntlet. Both competitions demand elite athleticism, but becoming leaner, faster, and more powerful became new objectives. And like he\u2019s done at each stage of his career, Godderz came up big at the right moment.<\/p>\n \u201cI just solely wanted to focus on this because I didn\u2019t want to lose,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s such an honor to be an American Gladiator. I wanted to literally go out there and make sure that when somebody said my name and they knew that they were going up against Steel, it was one of those like, \u2018Not this guy.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n He may now be 40, shows no signs of slowing down. And Jessie Godderz will be the first one to tell you this.<\/p>\n \u201cAs far as I\u2019m concerned, I can still be booked as a 20-year-old,\u201d he says. \u201cJust throw some lipstick on this pig and send me out there.\u201d<\/p>\n His tryout tribulations were far from the first time the one-time bodybuilding champion pushed himself to the limit\u2014Godderz has been giving this type of max effort for decades. Check out some classic YouTube clips and you\u2019ll find the former two-time TNA World Tag Team Champion\u2014then one-half of the BroMans with partner Robbie E\u2014blasting back with bodybuilding legend\u2014and former American Gladiator Mike O\u2019Hearn, aka Titan\u2014banging out minute rounds of high-rep pullups. So it was fitting that O\u2019Hearn was one of the first to congratulate him on his new role.<\/p>\n \u201cHe just said, \u2018Welcome to the family. Do us proud,\u2019\u201d Godderz recalls.<\/p>\n Going from Mr. PEC-Tacular to Steel required Godderz to tweak his tried-and-true bodybuilding-style workouts. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to stray away or lose the size that I\u2019ve had, because that\u2019s what brought me to the show,\u201d he says. \u201cI was always doing a bro science bodybuilder split my entire life.\u201d Chest day. Back day. Arms. Shoulders. Legs. Heavy weights, high volume, one rest day.<\/p>\n His new role required a more specialized approach. Workouts were broken down, he says, into A and B days\u2014one focused on strength, the next on speed. For the first time, Godderz was incorporating dedicated footwork into his routines. Sprints, cone drills, ladder work, and sport-specific movements helped him adapt to moving on narrow overhead beams, a far different task than simply owning the top rope in wrestling. While he still prefers to throw down when needed, this new type of training prepared him for the exciting, overhead battles Gladiator<\/em> fans expect.<\/p>\n \u201cMr. PEC-Tacular was more ground and pound,\u201d he says. \u201cFor American Gladiators,<\/em> I definitely had to tap into my inner Jeff Hardy. Once you start climbing up on top of stuff\u2014we\u2019re 30 or 40 feet up in the air during an event like the Joust\u2014it\u2019s just mano a mano. You have 30 to 60 seconds and you have to go wide open. You need to be total full-body exhaustion, or as far as I\u2019m concerned, you didn\u2019t try hard enough.\u201d<\/p>\n Other than revamping his training program to meet the demands of an American Gladiator, producers left it up to the contestants to decide what kind of physique they would bring to the arena. After all, it was their already-ripped athletic bodies that helped pave the way for this legendary opportunity.<\/p>\n While wrestling was more hectic due to travel and unpredictable schedules, becoming a Gladiator required a tighter, more structured nutrition plan. Godderz hired nutritionist Tyler Garceau<\/a> to help him put together a program that allowed him to both stay both bodybuilder shredded and athletically agile. \u201cI wanted to be as full as possible. I wanted to be as big as I possibly could at my frame and still be able to move my feet,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n He kept his calories between 2,200 and 2,700 per day, with the higher amounts reserved for high-intensity days. His protein stayed consistent at around 212 grams daily.<\/p>\n Unlike the grind of wrestling\u2014where a few hard-boiled eggs from a deli<\/a> could pass for a protein-packed meal on the go\u2014catering on the Gladiators set made it easier to stay locked in. \u201cThey treated us like kings and queens over there,\u201d he says. \u201cThey did a phenomenal job of trying to preserve everybody\u2019s energy and nutrition. couldn\u2019t have asked for anything better.\u201d<\/p>\nThe Gauntlet: How Jessie Became an American Gladiator\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Eating Like A Steel From OVW Champ to Full-Speed Steel\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n