STRENGTH SENSEI BOOKSHELF
Making Game: Triple H’s Approach to a Better Body
A look at the life and training of a pro wrestling superstar
Paul Michael Levesque is one of the most popular professional wrestlers in the history of the industry. Triple H, as he is known to his fans, has a net worth north of $150 million and serves as an executive vice president for the WWE. His book Making Game: Triple H’s Approach to a Better Body provides insight into his success and details about the fitness program that enabled him to stay in the game.
Born in 1969 in Nashua, New Hampshire, Levesque took up bodybuilding when he was 14 and played basketball and baseball in high school. When he was 19, he won the 1988 Mr. Teenage New Hampshire, but his passion was professional wrestling.
In 1990, Triple H started his wrestling journey by training at Killer Kowalski’s professional wrestling school in Malen, Massachusetts. One of the most famous wrestlers in the Kowalski era was Bruno Sammartino, and Kowalski was considered his nemesis. Kowalski won numerous belts with tag team partners Gorilla Monsoon (Robert James Marella) and Big John Studd (John William Minton).
Triple H’s first pro wrestling match was on March 24, 1992, performing in Kowalski’s International Wrestling Federation organization. He wrestled under the name Terra Ryzing and went through several name changes (Jean-Paul Lévesque and Hunter Heart Helmsley and the Game) before settling on Triple H.
Triple H won his first World Wrestling Federation (now WWE) in 1999 and became a headliner in several WrestleMania events. In 2003 he married Stephanie Marie McMahon, daughter of WWE owner Vince McMahon. His career was put on pause for nearly a year when he suffered a horrific quadriceps injury on May 21, 2001, ripping the muscle from the bone. Triple H devotes a chapter to how he recovered from that injury, which focused more on his attitude toward rehab rather than the specifics of the rehabilitation.
The motto of this book is something like “To achieve your goals you need to stop playing The Game and start Making The Game” (well, at least it rhymes). Throughout, he emphasizes the importance of setting goals and not to expect overnight success. The book is quite large (196 pages for softcover and 245 for the ebook), primarily because of the large text, double-spaced type, and large photos.
Giving credit where it’s due, Triple H said that he received valuable advice from respected bodybuilding trainer Charles Glass, particularly about overtraining. Glass told Triple H that he couldn’t train like a professional bodybuilder because of the stress that his demanding wrestling career put on his body.
Glass’s book (with Neal Cochran) called Fundamentals of Bodybuilding and Physique Sculpting is a much better book than Making Game for learning about the art and science of bodybuilding. Read it first, then read Making Game for inspiration, some insight into the fascinating world of pro wrestling, and some training tips on exercise form.
To be clear, the workout in Making Game is not the type that Charles R. Poliquin would design for an amateur wrestler. This is a bodybuilding book, focusing on the upper body. Also, the Strength Sensei would not be too fond of Triple H’s leg workout as it focuses on knee extension, leg presses, and partial range squats performed on a Smith machine. Also, there is little information on how to design a workout.
The best way to describe this book is: “It is what it is!” If you’re a fan of Triple H and want some insight into what it takes to succeed in professional wrestling, along with getting a few exercise tips, pick up a copy of Making Game Triple H’s Approach to a Better Body. (TSS)
[You can purchase Making Game: Triple H’s Approach to a Better Body by Triple H with Robert Caprio at Amazon.com]
