Stevie Richards Discusses His Injury History, His New Fitness Program, More

– Stevie Richards recently spoke with the Huffington Post, here are the highlights…

On 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.”

On His First Injury: “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. They were the old school metal guardrails that look like porch railings…It 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.”

On His Neck Injury: “I eventually got a fusion of C5/C6/C7 on my neck on December 22, 1997. A side effect of that was when the doctors put the tube down my throat so I could breathe during the surgery—it 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.”

On His Experience: “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.”