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Diamond Dallas Page's yoga saving lives
Jake “The Snake” Roberts woke up every morning praying it would be his last.
The former WWE superstar made famous for dropping opponents on their heads with his blistering DDT, had seen decades of drug and alcohol abuse take a toll on his body to the point where the once-mighty wrestler had given up hope of a better day or way of life.
“I was a person who was beat up, gave up, and didn’t want to live,” Roberts told ESPN Playbook. “I was so disgusted with myself. I had ballooned up to over 300 pounds and was doing drugs and alcohol every single day. First thing I did every day was get my dope and get my alcohol set up for the day. That’s what I was living for, and that’s the only thing I was living on.”
But then one of Roberts’ former wrestling protégés, Diamond Dallas Page, reached out, asking about his deteriorating health, while offering to help introduce “The Snake” to a new workout Page had developed called DDP Yoga, a program that combines the poses and flexibility of yoga with the muscle building ways of calisthenics.
“I can never thank the man enough,” Roberts said. “He started telling me about this yoga thing, and I was like bull—-. Yeah, right. But the bottom line was, I told him I’d do anything he said just to get him off the phone so I could get what I need. Next thing I know, he sent me a package, and I was like, ‘OK, I’ll try this crap,’ and it snuck up on me. Seven days later I had lost six pounds and that’s all I needed start believing that there were possibilities in my life again.
“I was ashamed of where I was living and how I looked. To go from the penthouse to the outhouse really sucks, but it’s where I was. Dallas came down to see me and he told me if I lost 25 pounds, he’d let me move into his house and we’d get serious about this. It was humiliating for him to show up and see where I was living and what I had become, but there was just enough pride left that I got angry, and that’s exactly what I needed. I needed to get angry to get me off my ass. I am so grateful for that moment. The first time I tried his workout, I lasted about two minutes before I was winded. I was stuck in a chair before this. I couldn’t open up my hands before, they were like claws, and my toes were the same thing, but now I can straighten all that stuff out. Through DDP Yoga, I got my hands working, I got my feet working, and I got my mind working and my heart pumping. I’m in the best shape of my life, even if I still have a long way to go.
“If it wasn’t for DDP, if I wouldn’t be dead right now, I’d be asking to die.”
DDP Talks DDP YOGA, Recovery And Progress For Jake Roberts, Scott Hall, More Read more: http://www.WrestlingInc.com/wi/news/2013/0328/561544/ddp-talks-ddp-yoga/#ixzz2Otc1JY4T
On DDP Yoga gaining the popularity it has: “I expected it to gain the popularity it has only because it’s changing lives on a different level. In the beginning, it could have been any weight loss program that really had nothing to do with weight loss. I never developed this program for weight loss. I developed it to heal my body. And anybody who’s listening, obviously wrestling fans who are listening your show, a lot of them may have heard but the bottom line is that I didn’t start wrestling until I was 35. My career did not take off until I was 40 and that was in 1996. The beginning of the Monday Night Wars which is probably the greatest time in professional wrestling as far as the fans are concerned because it had the WCW directly competing against the WWF which is pretty fascinating at the time. And when that happened in 1996 and wrestling blew up huge, well I was lucky that I put in 5 years of working my ass off you know. And it all paid off. Because when wrestling blew up, so did my career. And ’97-’98 it was on top of the world. And then I blew out my back. I blew it out so badly. It was my L4 and L5. I had ruptured those discs between my vertebrae and three specialists told me my career was over. And I had just signed a multi-million dollar three year deal and they’re telling me I’m done. It’s pretty disheartening. But I was actually pulled back in. I was married at the time. Kimberly was trying to get me to do yoga to heal my body and my mind. So, it was like yoga? No way I’m not doing that. So I get when people go “DDP’s doing yoga? What?” I get that. It came out of necessity and I ended up after about three weeks feeling a significant difference. So I started believing in it and I started adding it to my rehab I already started doing and mixing them together.
Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts: Comeback of a lifetime
Few people believed in Diamond Dallas Page when, at the age of 35, the nightclub owner-turned-pro wrestling manager decided to try his hand in the ring.
Jake “The Snake” Roberts, at that time one of the biggest names in the business, was one of the believers.
Insiders considered Page too old to begin a career as an in-ring performer. But Roberts ignored the skeptics and trained the New Jersey native. Within 10 years DDP (short for Diamond Dallas Page) was a three-time WCW world heavyweight champion and living his dream.
24 hours in Diamond Dallas Page’s ‘Accountability Crib’ with Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts
SMYRNA, Ga. – Self-proclaimed “firebug” Jake “The Snake” Roberts burns yet another pile of brush outside a palatial suburban Atlanta home that doesn’t seem to fit in with the more modest houses nearby.
“A couple of them look like crack houses — that’s why I’ve already been over there twice,” Roberts jokes.
A few minutes before, his “new alcohol” — coffee — was delivered to him by 25-year-old perennial foil Louie Benson, and Roberts is quick to “thank” him for his efforts.
DDP on "This week in Marvel" Podcast
It’s a massive installment of TWiM as WWE legend, former World champion, current DDP Yoga proprietor and Marvel fan Diamond Dallas Page joins Ryan, Ben and Blake to share wrestling stories, give fitness tips, and talk about hia affinity for Thor, the Avengers and more!
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| Download episode #55.5 of This Week in Marvel from Marvel.com |
DDP Yoga Workshop in Chicago
Saturday the 17th
The Seward Park-Fieldhouse (http://www.chicagoparkdistrict.com/parks/Seward-Park/)
375 W. Elm St. Chicago, Il. 60610
Workshop hours 12-2
Field House #312-742-7895
Jake 'The Snake' Roberts on comeback trail
WRESTLING legend Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts is preparing to return to the ring at the age of 57.
The iconic star, whose career was dogged by drug and alcohol problems, is being trained for his comeback by former WCW Champion Diamond Dallas Page.
Read more
Superstars Feel the BANG! of DDP Yoga
From WWE.com:
Following a successful career in sports-entertainment, iconic WCW competitor Diamond Dallas Page shifted his focus to a new arena: creating a revolutionary form of yoga that he originally called YRG Fitness. In the years since, YRG Fitness has evolved into DDP Yoga, and the former WCW Champion is changing lives with his innovative program. The core philosophy of DDP Yoga takes traditional yoga and adds various levels of resistance, different breathing techniques and power movements to achieve weight loss, lean muscle and improved cardio.
