My name is John Hadzi and I was born in Toronto, Canada with a Greek background. I am an Old School Strongman and physical culturist who has been involved with various types of resistance exercise training for 20 years and training athletes for the last 13 years. I coached myself to the “Toronto Strongest Man” title in 2002 and at this point in my training career enjoy performing old school feats of strength seen less and less such as “Bending Steel” in the form of nails and certain bars. When I was a youngster in the first gym I trained in bodybuilding and purely the asthetical aspects of working out were of interest to me as the modern glaze in the bodybuilding magazines full of what looked like experiments gone wrong in a science lab caught my eye and interest as I thought "this was me" I falsley associated strength and health with a certain physical appearance.

 However, it took me about 12 years of typical but real hard gym workouts to realize that asthetical training soley for the purposes of physique enhancement were FAR from who I was and that PERFORMACE was really who I am and wanted to excell at so my training took a huge shift once this realization took place.  A book I recommend for ALL to read writen by a respected attorney, author  Brooks Kubik wrote a book called "Dinosaur training, lost secrets of strength and development"   I read this book on Sunday and quit the gym on Monday!  Only to engage in even more effective back to the basics and result producing training.

Physical Attributes

A Passion for Strength

My passion to excel in physical performance (adding more horsepower to our body, the power plant) has grown over the last decade and, as I stumbled across more and more old time secrets as apposed to modern day wisdom, I excelled in volumes. I have had the pleasure, and honor of training and performing along side some of the strongest men on the planet in Strength training Exhibitions throughout the United States.

The biggest secret I owned and now share is Kettlebell training tailored for individual sports.  It seems that I had a seed planted in me called "Old School" that has blossomed to overgrow and overwhelm me. I trained in commercial gyms for 12 years and finally came to the realization that this wasn’t ME, and that real strength and health for that matter existed outside of these parameters.

Live in the world, but be not of it

The calling came from above it seemed and I am a very fortunate and happy person that it did. I consider myself to be "In the world but not of the world" in many senses and I would admit to being a radical departure from many modern day practices and beliefs in the world of health and strength. With that said I want to include that I have a deep passion in helping all types of people reach there fitness and health related goals. As a strength trainer and wellness coach  I have learned a tremendous amount over the course of my lifting career training myself and many others, this will probably never end as learning more to perfect an already awesome program is what I am always after. 

Background

I have had the pleasure in structuring training programs for competitive athletes on a professional level, help all types of people build usable workable and admirable “Functional strength" along with mighty and impressive physiques. Alongside acquiring real usable strength, another equal importance and truth to me has been to obtain "vibrant health" and to help others do the same, something else that is also little understood in modern times. I have a big "Wholistic Bend" to me and adhere much more to yesterday’s medicine then today’s pharmacology (drugs).

I have been called a "purist" by some peers, by today's standard this would be accurate, by yesterday’s it would just be "normal". I encourage all to pursue fitness related goals with heavy emphasis put on "Health" firstly and not overlooked or replaced by anything else. Is age really only a number?

Maybe, but you are only as old as you feel, can anyone argue against that?

In health and strength!

John Hadzi