Randy Webb bear crawled up and down the Ooltewah High School football stadium steps 360 times on Sunday to celebrate his 78th birthday.What did you do Sunday? A little church maybe? Watch a little NFL, stay warm and relax?
Sounds good, and I was right there with you - other than a quick trip to Ooltewah High School's football field, that is.
Yes, there was a fellow there who celebrated his 78th birthday with a three-part demonstration.
Yes, in temperatures somewhere between freezing and bone-chilling, Randy Webb skipped the cake and candles. His only present was the one he gave himself, and the example he has set for thousands of Chattanoogans over five decades.
"I work with a lot of folks," said Webb, who has passed half a century as a full-time personal trainer, "and if I am going to ask them to work hard, I have to do the same thing."
No one who knows Webb will ever doubt that last part. He leads 14 fitness classes a week at the D-I sports training facility in East Brainerd.
"And that's not including my own workouts," he said.
About those workouts, well, Webb is somewhere between warrior and freak.
He's in better shape than Bill Gates' 401K. He has trained more people than the UAW. He is more ripped than Cinderella's dress and has more focus than a Nikon.
To celebrate his 78th birthday, longtime fitness instructor Randy Webb completes 150 diagonal dumbbell pushups on Sunday at the D1 sports training and fitness facility.
Jay GreesonHe has worked with women looking to shed 100 pounds, ultramarathon runners, cancer survivors looking to take the fight to cancer, high school and professional athletes.
"I'd say the most famous was Gerald Wilkins," Webb said of the more than a decade he worked with the former UTC star and 15-year NBA veteran. "We put 50 pounds of muscle on Gerald over five years because he needed to be stronger.
"By the end of his career, he was known as the "Michael Jordan Stopper."
Of course, ultimately stopping Jordan was as futile as trying to stop Father Time. And in that case, Webb could be viewed as 2-0 by split decision.
His work with Wilkins was lauded; his work against the aging process is simply remarkable.
Webb looks closer to 38 than 78. He has been a vegetarian for more than 35 years; the rivers of sweat he has poured into his profession and his physique simply defy description.
In fact, when words leave, the numbers often are more to the point.
Saturday night he celebrated his 78th birthday with his wife and family. There was a nice meal, but no cake, although "I would have probably had some if there was a cake," he admitted of the traditional birthday treat.
Sunday he "celebrated" with his personal tradition.
"I've been doing this for the last few years to make sure I still can," Webb said of the birthday proving ground that borders between eye-popping and cringe-inducing.
After mixing in a variety of lunges, push-ups and pull-ups in various angles and degrees of difficulty last year, Sunday was more old-school.
Webb covered the home stands at the Owl Nest Stadium with bear crawls.
No, not bear claws, which a lot of us would enjoy on our birthday. Bear crawls, the military approach to training that is part life-saving and part death by a thousand muscle aches.
He did 360 steps, up and down, bear-clawing the 30 steps 12 times. He followed that by heading over to D1 and flipping a 178-pound industrial equipment tire 150 times, following that with 150 extended push-ups, and then 150 diagonal dumbbell push-ups, which would make you wonder if one set of 10 was even possible.
Now imagine if he had to burn off a few cake calories.
"It's so rewarding to see people make lifestyle changes," he said of his career's body of work working on all parts of so many bodies. "The most important thing is to get started and try to exercise some way every day."
Webb certainly has walked his talk. Heck, he's lifted it, crawled, pushed and pulled it, and about everything else in between, too.
And it's so true, whether you are 7 or 8, 38 or even 78.
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com and 423-757-6343.