WEBVTT 00:00:00.760 --> 00:00:03.160 Let's start with an image that honestly just 00:00:03.160 --> 00:00:05.639 shouldn't exist. It completely defies biology. 00:00:05.799 --> 00:00:07.919 Yeah, it really does. You have to picture this. 00:00:08.339 --> 00:00:10.279 You're at a carnival in the late 19th century. 00:00:10.339 --> 00:00:13.300 Maybe it's this dusty county fair out in Iowa. 00:00:13.740 --> 00:00:15.759 There's a stage, you know, the smell of sawdust 00:00:15.759 --> 00:00:18.239 and stale beer. Right, a classic Americana scene. 00:00:18.399 --> 00:00:23.019 Exactly. And on that stage is a man. Now, he 00:00:23.019 --> 00:00:26.339 isn't a giant. He's maybe 165 pounds, about 5 00:00:26.339 --> 00:00:29.620 '10". But he has a neck. that looks like it belongs 00:00:29.620 --> 00:00:32.679 on a prized bull. It's massive. It measures 20 00:00:32.679 --> 00:00:35.399 inches around. Which, just for context, is larger 00:00:35.399 --> 00:00:37.960 than most people's calves. Right. And to prove 00:00:37.960 --> 00:00:41.179 just how indestructible that neck is, he doesn't 00:00:41.179 --> 00:00:43.659 just lift weights with it. He actually lets a 00:00:43.659 --> 00:00:45.719 carnival worker secure a hangman's noose around 00:00:45.719 --> 00:00:48.579 his throat. A legitimate execution -style noose. 00:00:48.740 --> 00:00:51.979 A real one. The trapdoor opens. He drops six 00:00:51.979 --> 00:00:54.700 feet a drop. that is literally designed to snap 00:00:54.700 --> 00:00:56.979 the cervical vertebrae and instead of dying he 00:00:56.979 --> 00:00:59.579 just hangs there. He smiles at the crowd and 00:00:59.579 --> 00:01:01.899 starts whistling Yankee Doodle. It's honestly 00:01:01.899 --> 00:01:04.219 one of the most jarring images in sports history. 00:01:04.730 --> 00:01:07.409 And the crazy thing is for Martin Farmer Burns, 00:01:07.590 --> 00:01:09.810 that wasn't a death wish or some kind of cheap 00:01:09.810 --> 00:01:12.590 magic trick. It was a demonstration of what they 00:01:12.590 --> 00:01:15.109 called physical culture. It was his way of saying, 00:01:15.109 --> 00:01:17.829 you know, my training is superior to your physics. 00:01:17.849 --> 00:01:20.310 It's unbelievable. So today we are doing a deep 00:01:20.310 --> 00:01:23.290 dive into the life and more importantly, the 00:01:23.290 --> 00:01:26.129 mechanics of Martin Farmer. We've got the biographical 00:01:26.129 --> 00:01:29.170 records, wrestling history summaries, the Wikipedia 00:01:29.170 --> 00:01:33.030 archives, all the source material and. The mission 00:01:33.030 --> 00:01:35.790 for you listening today is to understand how 00:01:35.790 --> 00:01:40.430 165 -pound farm boy from the Civil War era became 00:01:40.430 --> 00:01:43.209 this legendary giant killer. Because he essentially 00:01:43.209 --> 00:01:45.769 invented the training regimen that built modern 00:01:45.769 --> 00:01:48.510 amateur wrestling. Exactly. And turned Iowa into 00:01:48.510 --> 00:01:50.489 the grappling capital of the world. And we really 00:01:50.489 --> 00:01:52.450 need to emphasize that giant killer moniker. 00:01:52.510 --> 00:01:54.629 I mean, in the modern era, we have weight classes 00:01:54.629 --> 00:01:57.909 for a very good reason. You don't put 165 -pound 00:01:57.909 --> 00:02:00.510 welterweight in the ring with a 250 -pound super 00:02:00.510 --> 00:02:03.010 heavyweight. It's a safety issue. Exactly. But 00:02:03.010 --> 00:02:05.310 Burns didn't care. He routinely dismantled men 00:02:05.310 --> 00:02:08.189 who outweighed him by 50 to 100 pounds. And he 00:02:08.189 --> 00:02:10.349 didn't do it with brute force, but with this 00:02:10.349 --> 00:02:13.050 incredibly scientific application of leverage 00:02:13.050 --> 00:02:15.629 and pain. Way ahead of his time. So that's the 00:02:15.629 --> 00:02:18.409 goal today. We need to figure out how he engineered 00:02:18.409 --> 00:02:21.849 a human body to survive a hangings and toss giants 00:02:21.849 --> 00:02:23.550 around like hay bales. We have to go back to 00:02:23.550 --> 00:02:26.689 the source code for that. Right. 1861. Cedar 00:02:26.689 --> 00:02:31.310 County, Iowa. A log cabin. which is a very specific, 00:02:31.590 --> 00:02:34.530 pivotal time and place to be born. 1861 is the 00:02:34.530 --> 00:02:36.949 outbreak of the American Civil War. Right. Now, 00:02:37.330 --> 00:02:39.270 obviously, Martin Burns is just an infant when 00:02:39.270 --> 00:02:41.870 the war starts, but he grows up entirely in the 00:02:41.870 --> 00:02:44.229 shadow of that conflict, and the Civil War is 00:02:44.229 --> 00:02:46.400 actually crucial for wrestling history. Yeah, 00:02:46.400 --> 00:02:49.080 because I think people forget that before baseball 00:02:49.080 --> 00:02:51.780 really took over as the national pastime, wrestling 00:02:51.780 --> 00:02:54.460 was the soldier's sport. It was the primary way 00:02:54.460 --> 00:02:57.099 to pass time in the army camps. You have thousands 00:02:57.099 --> 00:02:59.960 of young men, bored, full of adrenaline, needing 00:02:59.960 --> 00:03:02.960 to prove dominance. So wrestling just exploded 00:03:02.960 --> 00:03:05.400 in the 1860s. And remember, the commander in 00:03:05.400 --> 00:03:08.180 chief himself, Abraham Lincoln, was a legitimate 00:03:08.180 --> 00:03:10.659 grappler in his youth. Oh, right, the rail splitter. 00:03:11.020 --> 00:03:13.539 Exactly. He was known for his catch -his -catch 00:03:13.539 --> 00:03:16.939 -can abilities. So Burns is born into this culture 00:03:16.939 --> 00:03:20.060 where wrestling is seen as a true test of character, 00:03:20.460 --> 00:03:22.900 not just some recreational sport. But his childhood 00:03:22.900 --> 00:03:25.319 wasn't exactly a montage of organized sports 00:03:25.319 --> 00:03:28.159 either. The sources paint a pretty grim picture 00:03:28.159 --> 00:03:31.500 early on. His father dies when Martin is only 00:03:31.500 --> 00:03:34.500 11. 11 years old. And suddenly, Martin is the 00:03:34.500 --> 00:03:36.639 patriarch of the family. He has to support his 00:03:36.639 --> 00:03:38.939 mother and six siblings. And we aren't talking 00:03:38.939 --> 00:03:41.599 about a paper route. No, not at all. He's working 00:03:41.599 --> 00:03:44.460 on neighboring farms for $12 a month. This is 00:03:44.460 --> 00:03:47.580 1870s manual labor we're talking about. Clearing 00:03:47.580 --> 00:03:50.759 rocks, bailing high by hand, wrestling livestock. 00:03:50.979 --> 00:03:52.960 It's that whole farm strength mythos. But in 00:03:52.960 --> 00:03:55.340 his case, it's completely real. It is entirely 00:03:55.340 --> 00:03:57.120 real. He also worked in what they called grading 00:03:57.120 --> 00:03:59.539 camps. OK, what were those? These were camps 00:03:59.539 --> 00:04:02.539 set up to grade the land for railroad construction. 00:04:03.139 --> 00:04:05.240 And these places were notoriously rough. You 00:04:05.240 --> 00:04:08.099 had itinerant laborers, ex -soldiers, grifters. 00:04:08.180 --> 00:04:10.460 It was a completely lawless environment. So you're 00:04:10.460 --> 00:04:13.219 just a kid surrounded by these massive, tough 00:04:13.219 --> 00:04:15.580 guys who probably want to blow off steam after 00:04:15.580 --> 00:04:17.939 moving dirt all day. Exactly. And how did they 00:04:17.939 --> 00:04:22.040 blow off steam? They wrestled. But here is the 00:04:22.040 --> 00:04:25.120 major differentiation point for burns. In those 00:04:25.120 --> 00:04:27.579 grading camps, most guys relied purely on bull 00:04:27.579 --> 00:04:29.629 strength. They would just grab you and try to 00:04:29.629 --> 00:04:31.970 crush you with raw power. Right. Burns was a 00:04:31.970 --> 00:04:34.290 teenager. He was undersized. So he couldn't play 00:04:34.290 --> 00:04:36.250 that game. He had to be highly intellectual about 00:04:36.250 --> 00:04:38.589 it. This is where the catch style comes in. Right. 00:04:38.589 --> 00:04:40.350 Because I think a lot of people listening probably 00:04:40.350 --> 00:04:42.490 picture Olympic wrestling when we say this, like 00:04:42.490 --> 00:04:45.129 Greco -Roman, very upright, no grabbing the legs. 00:04:45.129 --> 00:04:47.670 Right. But catch wrestling is a totally different 00:04:47.670 --> 00:04:50.410 beast. Oh, absolutely. Catch as catch can is 00:04:50.410 --> 00:04:53.730 really the direct ancestor of modern mixed martial 00:04:53.730 --> 00:04:57.129 arts. It's nasty. It literally means catch a 00:04:57.129 --> 00:04:59.910 hold where wherever you can. Anything goes. Pretty 00:04:59.910 --> 00:05:02.569 much. Unlike Greco -Roman, you can attack the 00:05:02.569 --> 00:05:06.310 legs, you can twist joints. Burns realized early 00:05:06.310 --> 00:05:09.129 on that if he understood human anatomy, how a 00:05:09.129 --> 00:05:12.610 wrist turns, how a knee hyperextends, he could 00:05:12.610 --> 00:05:14.970 use a larger opponent's own momentum against 00:05:14.970 --> 00:05:17.089 them. He was playing chess with their skeletons 00:05:17.089 --> 00:05:18.569 while they were trying to play checkers with 00:05:18.569 --> 00:05:21.089 their muscles. That is a perfect way to put it. 00:05:21.089 --> 00:05:23.449 Yes. So he's perfecting this violent geometry 00:05:23.449 --> 00:05:25.810 in the railroad camps. When does he decide to 00:05:25.810 --> 00:05:29.019 actually get paid for it? Right around 1880, 00:05:29.579 --> 00:05:32.899 he hits age 19 and tastes his first official 00:05:32.899 --> 00:05:35.980 pro match against a guy named David Graft. And 00:05:35.980 --> 00:05:38.319 the result of that match gives you a real glimpse 00:05:38.319 --> 00:05:41.519 into the sheer insane endurance of this era. 00:05:41.620 --> 00:05:44.259 Oh, man. Yeah. They wrestle to a draw. Which 00:05:44.259 --> 00:05:46.480 usually implies they ran out of time. But back 00:05:46.480 --> 00:05:48.560 then, tie limits were a very loose concept, weren't 00:05:48.560 --> 00:05:50.939 they? Oh, a very loose concept. That specific 00:05:50.939 --> 00:05:54.060 match lasted two hours and 19 minutes. Over two 00:05:54.060 --> 00:05:56.279 hours. I mean, just imagine grappling at full 00:05:56.279 --> 00:05:58.920 intensity for the length of a feature film. It's 00:05:58.920 --> 00:06:01.220 exhausting just to think about. And that was 00:06:01.220 --> 00:06:03.850 merely the warm up for his career. The moment 00:06:03.850 --> 00:06:07.110 he truly becomes Farmer Burns the Legend, the 00:06:07.110 --> 00:06:10.829 brand happens in Chicago in 1889. This is a fantastic 00:06:10.829 --> 00:06:13.310 story. It is because it highlights the whole 00:06:13.310 --> 00:06:17.050 culture clash so well. Burns is visiting Chicago 00:06:17.050 --> 00:06:19.550 and he sees a sign outside the Olympic Theater. 00:06:19.649 --> 00:06:22.009 It's the classic open challenge setup. Exactly. 00:06:22.509 --> 00:06:26.709 $25 to anyone who can last just 15 minutes against 00:06:26.709 --> 00:06:30.509 either Jack Carleek or Evan Lewis. Now remember... 00:06:31.129 --> 00:06:34.509 $25 is two solid months of backbreaking farm 00:06:34.509 --> 00:06:37.110 wages for Burns. Is an absolute fortune to him. 00:06:37.269 --> 00:06:39.370 Fortune. So he walks right in, but he doesn't 00:06:39.370 --> 00:06:41.689 have a corner, man. He doesn't have fancy wrestling 00:06:41.689 --> 00:06:44.689 tights or specialized boots. He's literally wearing 00:06:44.689 --> 00:06:47.610 his worn -out, everyday farmer's overalls. I 00:06:47.610 --> 00:06:49.930 love his visuals so much. The theater crowd must 00:06:49.930 --> 00:06:52.350 have just eaten him alive. They completely laughed 00:06:52.350 --> 00:06:54.069 him off the stage, or at least they tried to. 00:06:54.129 --> 00:06:56.290 The announcer introduces him as Farmer Burns 00:06:56.290 --> 00:06:58.209 almost certainly as a joke, like, hey, look at 00:06:58.209 --> 00:07:00.569 this rube who wandered in. Right. But then the 00:07:00.569 --> 00:07:03.889 bell rings. Burns is facing Jack Carlick, who 00:07:03.889 --> 00:07:07.250 is a very polished, dangerous professional. And 00:07:07.250 --> 00:07:09.810 Burns doesn't just survive the 15 minutes to 00:07:09.810 --> 00:07:11.949 win the money. He completely dismantles him. 00:07:12.089 --> 00:07:14.569 He made a monkey out of him. That is the actual 00:07:14.569 --> 00:07:16.689 quote from the newspapers at the time. He was 00:07:16.689 --> 00:07:18.750 tossing Carlick across the stage, still wearing 00:07:18.750 --> 00:07:21.430 his overalls. The crowd went from mocking him 00:07:21.430 --> 00:07:23.879 to... absolutely cheering him on. He won over 00:07:23.879 --> 00:07:26.120 the whole room. He did. He won the money. And 00:07:26.120 --> 00:07:28.100 then he immediately had to face the champion, 00:07:28.319 --> 00:07:31.339 Evan Lewis. And incredibly, he managed to hold 00:07:31.339 --> 00:07:34.620 the champ to a draw until the time limit finally 00:07:34.620 --> 00:07:36.879 ran out. OK, we need to pause on Evan Lewis for 00:07:36.879 --> 00:07:38.899 a second. Yeah. Because looking at the deep dive 00:07:38.899 --> 00:07:42.360 notes here, this rivalry really defines the next 00:07:42.360 --> 00:07:45.279 phase of Burns life. And just for clarity, for 00:07:45.279 --> 00:07:47.360 anyone listening who knows their wrestling history, 00:07:47.740 --> 00:07:50.300 this is Evan Strangler Lewis. Yes. Not to be 00:07:50.300 --> 00:07:52.060 confused with Ed Strand. to Lewis, who comes 00:07:52.060 --> 00:07:55.519 along much later than 1920s. Correct. Two completely 00:07:55.519 --> 00:07:58.100 different stranglers from different eras. Evan 00:07:58.100 --> 00:08:00.759 Lewis was feared precisely because of his stranglehold. 00:08:00.860 --> 00:08:03.600 It was a legitimate devastating choke. In fact, 00:08:03.660 --> 00:08:06.259 in an earlier encounter they had, Burns actually 00:08:06.259 --> 00:08:09.060 lost to Lewis specifically because he got caught 00:08:09.060 --> 00:08:11.819 in that exact choke and couldn't break it. And 00:08:11.819 --> 00:08:15.220 for a pure technician like Burns, losing to one 00:08:15.220 --> 00:08:17.839 specific move must have been infuriating. It's 00:08:17.839 --> 00:08:19.879 like a puzzle he couldn't solve. It obsessed 00:08:19.879 --> 00:08:23.639 him. He realized his neck... was his structural 00:08:23.639 --> 00:08:26.639 weak link. If he wanted to be the absolute best, 00:08:26.759 --> 00:08:29.980 he had to make his neck entirely immune to strangulation. 00:08:30.220 --> 00:08:33.240 So he developed this radical, almost obsessive 00:08:33.240 --> 00:08:35.200 training program. This is where we get the famous 00:08:35.200 --> 00:08:37.200 bridging exercises, right? Bridging, yes, where 00:08:37.200 --> 00:08:39.600 you support your entire body weight on your head 00:08:39.600 --> 00:08:43.519 and feet, but also intense isometric tension. 00:08:43.940 --> 00:08:46.580 He would tense his neck muscles against extreme 00:08:46.580 --> 00:08:49.519 resistance for hours. Just building pure density. 00:08:49.779 --> 00:08:52.830 Exactly. He built these thin layers of muscle 00:08:52.830 --> 00:08:55.529 all around his trachea and his carotid arteries, 00:08:56.169 --> 00:08:58.389 he effectively turned his neck into a 20 -inch 00:08:58.389 --> 00:09:01.289 cylinder of biological armor. Wow. And this is 00:09:01.289 --> 00:09:03.529 exactly what led to those hangman stunts we talked 00:09:03.529 --> 00:09:05.269 about at the start. He wasn't just showing off 00:09:05.269 --> 00:09:08.049 for the crowd, he was field testing the structural 00:09:08.049 --> 00:09:10.389 integrity of his own work. He literally armor 00:09:10.389 --> 00:09:13.330 -plated his own throat. He did, and it paid off 00:09:13.330 --> 00:09:17.529 perfectly. April 20th, 1895, the big rematch. 00:09:18.029 --> 00:09:20.370 Burns versus Strangler Lewis for the American 00:09:20.370 --> 00:09:22.590 Heavyweight Championship. The stakes are huge. 00:09:23.049 --> 00:09:25.750 Massive. During the match, Lewis goes for his 00:09:25.750 --> 00:09:28.830 famous stranglehold. He locks it in tight, but 00:09:28.830 --> 00:09:31.190 this time, it's like trying to strangle a mature 00:09:31.190 --> 00:09:33.509 oak tree. It just doesn't work. Burns doesn't 00:09:33.509 --> 00:09:36.570 fade. He doesn't panic. He fights right through 00:09:36.570 --> 00:09:39.350 it, reverses the position, and pins Lewis to 00:09:39.350 --> 00:09:42.940 the mat. And just like that. The 165 pound kid 00:09:42.940 --> 00:09:45.460 in overalls is the heavyweight champion of America. 00:09:45.700 --> 00:09:49.039 And he holds onto that title for two full years. 00:09:49.460 --> 00:09:52.279 Keep in mind, this is the absolute peak of the 00:09:52.279 --> 00:09:54.159 legitimate era of wrestling. Right, the outcomes 00:09:54.159 --> 00:09:55.879 weren't predetermined. Not at all. These weren't 00:09:55.879 --> 00:09:58.179 staged matches. If you held that belt, you were 00:09:58.179 --> 00:10:00.039 genuinely the toughest man on the continent. 00:10:00.220 --> 00:10:02.559 Let's dig into those giant killer mechanics a 00:10:02.559 --> 00:10:05.159 bit more, because you mentioned he was 165 pounds, 00:10:05.500 --> 00:10:07.539 but he's regularly fighting guys who are 200, 00:10:07.720 --> 00:10:10.539 220, sometimes way more. We talked about leverage, 00:10:10.879 --> 00:10:13.059 but what were the astrophysical tools he used? 00:10:13.120 --> 00:10:15.669 What was in his arsenal? His absolute favorite 00:10:15.669 --> 00:10:19.169 weapons were pain compliance holds. Things like 00:10:19.169 --> 00:10:22.090 the full Nelson, which brutally cranks the cervical 00:10:22.090 --> 00:10:25.570 spine. The hammer lock, which isolates and targets 00:10:25.570 --> 00:10:28.889 the shoulder joint. The double wrist lock, which 00:10:28.889 --> 00:10:32.070 fans today would recognize as a kimura in Brazilian 00:10:32.070 --> 00:10:34.090 jiu -jitsu that can easily snap a shoulder or 00:10:34.090 --> 00:10:36.850 an elbow if you don't tap out. And of course, 00:10:36.889 --> 00:10:39.629 the chicken wing. The chicken wing. Burns basically 00:10:39.629 --> 00:10:42.309 invented that as a legitimate combat hole, didn't 00:10:42.309 --> 00:10:45.000 he? He definitely popularized it as a highly 00:10:45.000 --> 00:10:48.340 effective submission, yes. And toe holds. He 00:10:48.340 --> 00:10:50.840 was absolutely notorious for grabbing a larger 00:10:50.840 --> 00:10:53.200 man's foot and just twisting the ankle until 00:10:53.200 --> 00:10:55.000 the opponent simply couldn't stand up anymore. 00:10:55.159 --> 00:10:58.100 He's a brutal. Brutal, highly efficient, and 00:10:58.100 --> 00:11:00.700 incredibly technical. Using those methods, he 00:11:00.700 --> 00:11:03.139 claimed to have wrestled over 6 ,000 matches 00:11:03.139 --> 00:11:05.659 in his career. 6 ,000? Yeah. I mean, if you just 00:11:05.659 --> 00:11:08.039 do the math on that, that's a match every other 00:11:08.039 --> 00:11:10.960 day for over 30 years. It's staggering. And he 00:11:10.960 --> 00:11:12.879 claimed to have lost only about seven of them. 00:11:13.159 --> 00:11:15.059 Now even if that win -loss number is slightly 00:11:15.059 --> 00:11:17.480 exaggerated for marketing purposes, the sheer 00:11:17.480 --> 00:11:20.120 volume of bouts is completely undeniable. Yeah, 00:11:20.220 --> 00:11:22.590 you use everywhere. He traveled constantly, taking 00:11:22.590 --> 00:11:25.750 on all comers at carnivals, state fairs, opera 00:11:25.750 --> 00:11:29.230 houses. He even beat Surikichi Matsuda, who was 00:11:29.230 --> 00:11:31.870 famously Japan's very first professional wrestler. 00:11:32.309 --> 00:11:34.269 Oh, wow. An international crossover match? Yeah. 00:11:34.370 --> 00:11:37.009 Matsuda was a highly respected pioneer of Japanese 00:11:37.009 --> 00:11:40.190 wrestling, and Burns pinned him in just four 00:11:40.190 --> 00:11:43.120 minutes during a match in Troy, New York. So 00:11:43.120 --> 00:11:46.000 he conquers America. He dominates the international 00:11:46.000 --> 00:11:48.539 competition. He's the undisputed king of the 00:11:48.539 --> 00:11:51.320 mat. But usually this is where the sports story 00:11:51.320 --> 00:11:53.159 ends, right? The athlete gets old, their body 00:11:53.159 --> 00:11:54.879 breaks down, they retire, and they fade away. 00:11:55.179 --> 00:11:57.580 Right. But for Burns, the trainer arc is almost 00:11:57.580 --> 00:11:59.500 more impressive than the wrestler arc. I would 00:11:59.500 --> 00:12:01.379 argue it's significantly more impressive. He 00:12:01.379 --> 00:12:02.960 was smart enough to realize he couldn't wrestle 00:12:02.960 --> 00:12:05.279 forever. So he started systematizing everything 00:12:05.279 --> 00:12:08.759 he knew. In 1893, he actually opens a gym in 00:12:08.759 --> 00:12:11.820 Rock Island, Illinois. OK. But the truly pivotal 00:12:11.820 --> 00:12:15.220 moment for his legacy comes in 1899. He's back 00:12:15.220 --> 00:12:18.340 in Iowa, and he wrestles this local 21 -year 00:12:18.340 --> 00:12:22.120 -old kid. Frank Gotch. Frank Gotch. Now. Burns 00:12:22.120 --> 00:12:24.100 beats him because he's still the master, but 00:12:24.100 --> 00:12:27.320 he feels this incredible raw power in the kid. 00:12:28.139 --> 00:12:31.879 Gotch was ungodly strong, fast, and mean, but 00:12:31.879 --> 00:12:34.159 he was totally unpolished. Like a wild horse. 00:12:34.539 --> 00:12:37.039 Exactly. Burns sees a diamond in the rough. So 00:12:37.039 --> 00:12:39.360 instead of just taking his win and leaving town, 00:12:39.799 --> 00:12:42.340 he recruits him. It's that classic movie moment, 00:12:42.440 --> 00:12:44.340 you know? I could teach you how to harness that 00:12:44.340 --> 00:12:47.529 power. Precisely. Burns becomes Gotch's full 00:12:47.529 --> 00:12:50.389 -time manager and trainer. He takes that raw 00:12:50.389 --> 00:12:53.309 Iowa farm strength and meticulously layers his 00:12:53.309 --> 00:12:55.769 sophisticated catch mechanics right on top of 00:12:55.769 --> 00:12:58.330 it. Lethal combination. Under Burns' tutelage, 00:12:58.549 --> 00:13:00.509 Frank Gotch goes on to become the world heavyweight 00:13:00.509 --> 00:13:03.330 champion. He actually becomes the single biggest 00:13:03.330 --> 00:13:05.509 sports star in America at the time. And that's 00:13:05.509 --> 00:13:08.120 not hyperbole. Gotch was like... Babe Ruth level 00:13:08.120 --> 00:13:10.679 famous. Oh, he was a household name everywhere. 00:13:11.279 --> 00:13:13.080 And his epic wins over George Hackenschmidt, 00:13:13.139 --> 00:13:15.259 the Russian lion, completely cemented professional 00:13:15.259 --> 00:13:18.500 wrestling as a major mainstream spectator sport. 00:13:18.980 --> 00:13:21.039 And Burns was the architect behind all of that. 00:13:21.100 --> 00:13:22.799 He was right there in the corner directing the 00:13:22.799 --> 00:13:24.779 traffic. And the incredible thing is the coaching 00:13:24.779 --> 00:13:27.879 tree didn't just stop with gotch. No, the volume 00:13:27.879 --> 00:13:30.860 of his influence is massive. He trained over 00:13:30.860 --> 00:13:34.840 1 ,600 wrestlers. 1 ,600? Including Earl Caddick, 00:13:35.000 --> 00:13:37.480 who became another world champion. He trained 00:13:37.480 --> 00:13:40.840 Tutsmont. Okay, Tootspont is a name any wrestling 00:13:40.840 --> 00:13:43.639 historian will recognize. Absolutely. Mont is 00:13:43.639 --> 00:13:46.879 one of the three men who created the Goldust 00:13:46.879 --> 00:13:49.759 Trio, which eventually revolutionized pro wrestling 00:13:49.759 --> 00:13:52.000 into the entertainment spectacle we see today. 00:13:52.399 --> 00:13:55.340 The storylines, the drama, the pacing. And he 00:13:55.340 --> 00:13:57.179 learned his fundamental mechanics from Farmer 00:13:57.179 --> 00:13:59.960 Burns. He did. And I was even surprised to see 00:13:59.960 --> 00:14:03.200 a boxer on his client list, Jim Jefferies. the 00:14:03.200 --> 00:14:05.919 heavyweight boxing champion. The very same. When 00:14:05.919 --> 00:14:08.200 Jeffries was preparing for his massive title 00:14:08.200 --> 00:14:10.139 about the famous fight of the century against 00:14:10.139 --> 00:14:12.399 Jack Johnson Burns, was actually brought into 00:14:12.399 --> 00:14:14.620 his camp as the head conditioning coach. That 00:14:14.620 --> 00:14:16.580 really tells you how high his reputation was. 00:14:16.799 --> 00:14:19.259 He was considered the absolute ultimate authority 00:14:19.259 --> 00:14:21.600 on human physical conditioning, regardless of 00:14:21.600 --> 00:14:23.740 what sport you competed in. Which perfectly leads 00:14:23.740 --> 00:14:26.379 us to his mail order course. Yes. The Lessons 00:14:26.379 --> 00:14:28.340 in Wrestling and Physical Culture, published 00:14:28.340 --> 00:14:32.059 in 1914. Looking through the sources, this really 00:14:32.059 --> 00:14:34.919 feels like the first time a high -level elite 00:14:34.919 --> 00:14:37.899 athlete tried to democratize their secret training 00:14:37.899 --> 00:14:40.019 methods for the general public. And it was incredibly 00:14:40.019 --> 00:14:42.620 successful. He sold thousands and thousands of 00:14:42.620 --> 00:14:45.080 copies. And the fascinating thing is, it wasn't 00:14:45.080 --> 00:14:47.080 just a pamphlet saying, here is how you do a 00:14:47.080 --> 00:14:50.159 headlock. It was a comprehensive, holistic health 00:14:50.159 --> 00:14:53.700 system. What was actually in it? If I'm a guy 00:14:53.700 --> 00:14:56.100 in 1914 and I order this out of the back of a 00:14:56.100 --> 00:14:58.240 magazine, what am I doing in my living room? 00:14:58.340 --> 00:15:00.600 You are doing the official Farmer Burns workout. 00:15:00.779 --> 00:15:03.440 It was broken down into three distinct phases. 00:15:03.899 --> 00:15:06.419 First, breathing exercises and body weight warm 00:15:06.419 --> 00:15:09.519 -ups. Burns was completely obsessed with diaphragmatic 00:15:09.519 --> 00:15:12.019 breathing, taking these deep, highly controlled 00:15:12.019 --> 00:15:15.100 breaths to oxygenate the blood. He believed deep 00:15:15.100 --> 00:15:17.899 breathing was the absolute core secret to endless 00:15:17.899 --> 00:15:19.919 stamina. Which is very modern. I mean, we see 00:15:19.919 --> 00:15:22.080 that exact same philosophy. now with things like 00:15:22.080 --> 00:15:24.240 the Wim Hof method or high performance breathing 00:15:24.240 --> 00:15:26.580 protocols. Exactly. He was a century ahead of 00:15:26.580 --> 00:15:29.779 the curve. Then phase two was calisthenics and 00:15:29.779 --> 00:15:31.740 dumbbell work. But not heavy lifting, right? 00:15:31.799 --> 00:15:35.179 Right, no heavy lifting. He strongly advocated 00:15:35.179 --> 00:15:37.580 using light dumbbells moved at very high speeds. 00:15:37.860 --> 00:15:40.940 He wanted to build aerobic capacity and snappy, 00:15:41.080 --> 00:15:44.139 functional muscle. He was totally against slow, 00:15:44.360 --> 00:15:46.340 bulky hypertrophy because it made you rigid. 00:15:46.720 --> 00:15:48.980 That makes sense for a grappler. And phase three. 00:15:49.179 --> 00:15:51.740 Phase three was partner resistance exercises, 00:15:52.340 --> 00:15:54.600 literally using another person's body weight 00:15:54.600 --> 00:15:57.580 to train your core and your balance. Brilliant. 00:15:57.820 --> 00:16:01.480 And here is a crazy historical connection. Ed 00:16:01.480 --> 00:16:04.059 Strangley Lewis, the future dominant champion 00:16:04.059 --> 00:16:06.620 of the 1920s and 30s we mentioned earlier, he 00:16:06.620 --> 00:16:09.039 actually started his wrestling career by buying 00:16:09.039 --> 00:16:12.919 this exact mail order course. No way. Yes. He 00:16:12.919 --> 00:16:15.460 learned the absolute basics of grappling as a 00:16:15.460 --> 00:16:17.759 kid from Farmer Byrne's mail order pamphlets. 00:16:18.059 --> 00:16:20.039 So Byrne's directly trained one generation of 00:16:20.039 --> 00:16:22.919 champions in person and indirectly trained the 00:16:22.919 --> 00:16:24.980 next generation through the mail. That's why 00:16:24.980 --> 00:16:27.220 all roads in wrestling eventually lead back to 00:16:27.220 --> 00:16:30.139 Iowa. I mean, today, if you follow NCAA collegiate 00:16:30.139 --> 00:16:32.019 wrestling, The University of Iowa is the absolute 00:16:32.019 --> 00:16:34.179 gold standard. The International Wrestling Institute 00:16:34.179 --> 00:16:36.500 and Museum is located in Iowa, and that is all 00:16:36.500 --> 00:16:39.940 directly because of Martin Burns, isn't it? 100%. 00:16:39.940 --> 00:16:42.840 He planted the flag there. He single -handedly 00:16:42.840 --> 00:16:45.139 made Iowa the center of the amateur wrestling 00:16:45.139 --> 00:16:47.820 universe. He took it from this rough grading 00:16:47.820 --> 00:16:50.860 camp activity and carnival sideshow, and he turned 00:16:50.860 --> 00:16:53.580 it into a highly disciplined, respected, athletic 00:16:53.580 --> 00:16:56.559 endeavor. So Martin Burns passed away in 1937 00:16:56.559 --> 00:16:59.200 in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and obviously he's in 00:16:59.200 --> 00:17:01.019 every Hall of Fame that matters, the WWE Hall 00:17:01.019 --> 00:17:02.399 of Fame, the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame, 00:17:02.460 --> 00:17:04.559 all of them. Rightfully so. But when you look 00:17:04.559 --> 00:17:07.579 at the totality of his life, from that log cabin 00:17:07.579 --> 00:17:10.119 to the world title to the massive coaching legacy, 00:17:11.039 --> 00:17:14.109 what is the real key takeaway here for you? I 00:17:14.109 --> 00:17:16.289 think the biggest takeaway is the triumph of 00:17:16.289 --> 00:17:19.430 system over brute force. Burns proved that true 00:17:19.430 --> 00:17:21.809 physical dominance wasn't just about being the 00:17:21.809 --> 00:17:24.049 biggest, angriest dog in the fight. It was a 00:17:24.049 --> 00:17:27.190 science. He codified the knowledge of human leverage. 00:17:27.849 --> 00:17:29.750 Before him, wrestling techniques were basically 00:17:29.750 --> 00:17:32.190 folklore passed around camps. Right. After him, 00:17:32.309 --> 00:17:34.569 it was a curriculum. He took a carnival out of 00:17:34.569 --> 00:17:36.970 the wrestler and put the athlete in. And he did 00:17:36.970 --> 00:17:39.599 it all. while being perfectly able to whistle 00:17:39.599 --> 00:17:41.900 a tune with a rope around his neck. Which certainly 00:17:41.900 --> 00:17:44.160 helps sell the tickets, you have to admit. Yeah, 00:17:44.339 --> 00:17:46.119 certainly. But you have to remember, the stunt 00:17:46.119 --> 00:17:48.900 was just the hook to get them in the tent. The 00:17:48.900 --> 00:17:51.380 actual substance was his flawless technique. 00:17:51.559 --> 00:17:54.579 It really makes you think about how we view fitness 00:17:54.579 --> 00:17:58.319 today. We live in this era of extreme hyperoptimization. 00:17:58.680 --> 00:18:01.500 We have cryotherapy chambers, peptides, high 00:18:01.500 --> 00:18:04.259 -tech resistance machines, AI -driven workout 00:18:04.259 --> 00:18:06.539 plans on our phones. Everything is tracked and 00:18:06.539 --> 00:18:08.440 monitored. Everything is designed to make us 00:18:08.440 --> 00:18:12.019 stronger and faster with minimal friction. But 00:18:12.019 --> 00:18:15.319 Martin Burns built a 20 -inch neck and world 00:18:15.319 --> 00:18:18.359 -class unbeatable functional strength using nothing 00:18:18.359 --> 00:18:22.099 but childhood manual labor, a pair of light dumbbells, 00:18:22.099 --> 00:18:24.240 and just pure grit. He didn't have a fancy gym 00:18:24.240 --> 00:18:26.880 membership. He had a farm. Exactly. And it leaves 00:18:26.880 --> 00:18:29.019 you with a really provocative question to mull 00:18:29.019 --> 00:18:32.700 over. In our modern quest for the perfect scientifically 00:18:32.700 --> 00:18:35.759 optimized routine, have we actually lost something 00:18:35.759 --> 00:18:37.720 essential about that raw farm strength? That's 00:18:37.720 --> 00:18:40.670 a great question. Could a kid today armed with 00:18:40.670 --> 00:18:43.569 absolutely nothing but a pair of denim overalls, 00:18:43.769 --> 00:18:47.589 a relentless work ethic, and a 1914 Farmer Burns 00:18:47.589 --> 00:18:50.910 manual still step into the ring and topple the 00:18:50.910 --> 00:18:53.470 high -tech giants of today. I think true strength 00:18:53.470 --> 00:18:56.109 might just be simpler and a lot harder to earn 00:18:56.109 --> 00:18:58.190 than we want to admit. There's definitely something 00:18:58.190 --> 00:19:00.470 to think about during your next workout. Thanks 00:19:00.470 --> 00:19:02.650 for joining us on this deep dive into the incredible 00:19:02.650 --> 00:19:04.569 life of the giant killer. Go do some push -ups 00:19:04.569 --> 00:19:05.730 and we'll catch you on the next one.