A humble tribute to The Mountain Dog

[AllOkJumpmaster]

A recent post by a former (banned) member of the site had me kind off pissed of because he disparaged my friend. I felt a bit compelled to make this post. It has been a few years since John Meadows passed away. I know that many here will never forget him, but I felt like something good to do in '24 would be to refresh our memories of John. It is important to keep the spirit of those who have left us alive.

I am going to share a random and meaningless to everyone else a story about John below, but I please ask and encourage you to share anything you can that will help us all reminisce about his greatness / generosity, etc., even if it was something as simple as running one of his programs.

I was stationed in Columbus as a medical recruiting company commander from 2010-2013. John would frequently train at Metro Worthington, which was my "home" gym. I was a 28-year-old natty with a decent physique and decent strength, but a literal nobody. I asked him a question once about dietary fat. He talked to me for 45 minutes and then befriended me and would talk to me every time he was there. I was a nothing. He had zero reason to give me any of his time. He was genuine, authentic and caring. he just loved to fuckin train lol. He was still pretty hot and heavy with training with Dave Tate at EFS, but told me trained at multiple gyms and the really only reason he went to Metro Worthington was because of a singular seated row machine they had that he loved. LOL. It is so John, but also so me lol. This is the kind of stuff we would bullshit about. I could understand it. I have held a second gym membership just for a piece of equipment multiple times in my travels.

I moved away, and a few years later, despite no longer living in Cbus, I came back to compete in an OCB bodybuilding show. I went to train at my "old home" the night before the show and John happened to be there. He remembered me and we chatted for an hour. He was so pumped and ended up coming the next day to see me compete at the OSU student union. I would never in a million years would have thought he would have remembered me. It was really special because I won my first natty pro card, and he was there to root for me. I had no family or friends at the show. He was such a great dude, and I miss him tremendously. He was so proud of his sons. I hope that his family has found some sort of peace.

Even if no one replies, thanks for reading friends.

 

[Doitagain]

Spending a minute to read it has been far from a waste

 

[AllOkJumpmaster]

Spending a minute to read it has been far from a waste

holy shit thanks dude, truly

 

[AllOkJumpmaster]

some guys may laugh / roast me for it or whatever, but sometimes I will listen to old videos and podcasts just to hear his voice, and just to hear how proud he was of his son's yo-yo tricks

One of my favorites is this more recent vid with him and Dave

 

[strummer]

One of the great ambassadors for the sport..I hope his wife and children have managed to keep moving forward in life and hope they prosper..I still often watch his videos. the story above seemed to be a common theme for John not a one off...Sorely missed in this industry..

 

[Swifto]

I think about John sometimes and wonder how Mary and his sons are getting on now? Can anyone offer an update?

I often do his tricep pushdowns with the cable so its easier on the wrists and write them in my logbook as "JM PD"

Although John has left us, there are probably still thousands of people still using this training principles, custom exercises, using his supplements and reading his books so his legacy is still very much among us. I am sure he would be very very pleased that he was able to make such a difference and continues to do so.

 

[IronFist]

a great contributor , great attitude , great work ethic!

jm was a great guy all around!

 

[jt4330]

His wife or someone who owns his YouTube content is reposting his old stuff. JM is making YouTube shorts, and based on his wealth of knowledge he is perfect for that type of media.

 

[specter]

I think about John sometimes and wonder how Mary and his sons are getting on now? Can anyone offer an update?

I often do his tricep pushdowns with the cable so its easier on the wrists and write them in my logbook as "JM PD"

Although John has left us, there are probably still thousands of people still using this training principles, custom exercises, using his supplements and reading his books so his legacy is still very much among us. I am sure he would be very very pleased that he was able to make such a difference and continues to do so.

John's family is quite private but i follow his boys in insta and they seem to be doing ok, John was truly a one in a billion type of guy, we talked on facebook and insta sometimes and he was just such a great guy. I remember during the 2019-2022 shit he was posting alot more on facebook to try and cheer ppl up.

 

[Drax]

I miss him. There was a lot about bodybuilding that died for me when he passed.

 

[Flex500]

A recent post by a former (banned) member of the site had me kind off pissed of because he disparaged my friend. I felt a bit compelled to make this post. It has been a few years since John Meadows passed away. I know that many here will never forget him, but I felt like something good to do in '24 would be to refresh our memories of John. It is important to keep the spirit of those who have left us alive.

I am going to share a random and meaningless to everyone else a story about John below, but I please ask and encourage you to share anything you can that will help us all reminisce about his greatness / generosity, etc., even if it was something as simple as running one of his programs.

I was stationed in Columbus as a medical recruiting company commander from 2010-2013. John would frequently train at Metro Worthington, which was my "home" gym. I was a 28-year-old natty with a decent physique and decent strength, but a literal nobody. I asked him a question once about dietary fat. He talked to me for 45 minutes and then befriended me and would talk to me every time he was there. I was a nothing. He had zero reason to give me any of his time. He was genuine, authentic and caring. he just loved to fuckin train lol. He was still pretty hot and heavy with training with Dave Tate at EFS, but told me trained at multiple gyms and the really only reason he went to Metro Worthington was because of a singular seated row machine they had that he loved. LOL. It is so John, but also so me lol. This is the kind of stuff we would bullshit about. I could understand it. I have held a second gym membership just for a piece of equipment multiple times in my travels.

I moved away, and a few years later, despite no longer living in Cbus, I came back to compete in an OCB bodybuilding show. I went to train at my "old home" the night before the show and John happened to be there. He remembered me and we chatted for an hour. He was so pumped and ended up coming the next day to see me compete at the OSU student union. I would never in a million years would have thought he would have remembered me. It was really special because I won my first natty pro card, and he was there to root for me. I had no family or friends at the show. He was such a great dude, and I miss him tremendously. He was so proud of his sons. I hope that his family has found some sort of peace.

Even if no one replies, thanks for reading friends.

Very cool story. Our paths likely crossed. Was it worlds gym at all when you were there? I moved to the other end of town so basically just continued to do legs there only until around 2014 or so but I was there from like '04-'14. Great gym. Had a fantastic atmosphere for a long, long time.

 

[narta]

We need more like him, since we can't have him anymore. A true ambassador of the sport, a genuine good person.

 

[heavyhitter]

I miss John as well. We talked a lot over the years, both of us having severe digestive issues. I never got the pleasure of meeting him, but always felt that he was my friend

 

[TommyJ]

John helped me for over a decade and never ghosted any of my emails and there were A lot lol…he asked for nothing. Responded every time. I also know I’m not the only one he was answering emails for. I went out of my way to make sure I bought every new program and supported granite just to try to at least make an attempt to give back. We are forever in debt to John for what he did for the industry and even just our lives in general. The only way we can give back now, is teaching the newer generation of lifters who he was and trying to act more like him in our day to day lives.

Thank you for sharing your story, choked me up a bit reading it, not going to lie. I think I need an arimidex now lol

 

[Yousef12O2]

John Meadows maybe the best and most liked guy in fitness history. Gave so much to this sport and his name will live forever. Normally when someone dies everybody forgets about him but here we are talking about John close to 3 years after he passed away.

 

[b-boy]

I miss his voice!
Every time I would call him he would answer the phone with "MY BROTHA"

 

[Aikman56]

I respected and miss John tremendously.
I worked with John from 2012-2017. I learned SO much from that man, not the least of which was to always remain open to new ideas and never think I had it figured out. Never stop learning.

He was always super-responsive and generous with his time.
Often, when I’d ask a question in my weekly update (even off-season), he would call and say something to the effect of “I didn’t want to send all this on email, and I thought you might have follow-up questions…”. Even after we stopped “working together“ and I was no longer paying him, he continued to be an amazing resource.

I remember once, reaching out to him on one of his YouTube lives with a super chat and a question. He answered my question and afterward, sent me an email saying “just because you’re not paying me, don’t be a stranger…you can come to me with questions whenever you need to”… and he was as good as his word. Anytime I had a question he would reach back out with an answer either with a detailed email, or a text message, or a call.

Absolutely the most generous, humble, positive representative that our little hobby could ever hope to have.

John was the best of us.

 

[Eguz22]

He left his lucrative job in some bank to pursue his passion and be able to contribute in positive way towards the rest of people. He left the legacy of him without having the best genetics, without being a popular guru full of mysterious tricks.

 

[stackdizzy]

Man that's a great story, its a shame he passed!

 

[kscowboy]

I was fortunate to work with John when he was the VP of the bank and also when he quite and went full time. Hell i still have his bank email.

Two things i remember about JM. First he used to say, "Its not true when people say you are what you eat. You are what you eat has eaten."
Second, John was the VERY first person, inside or out of fitness, that preached grass fed beef. That industry has no clue who JM is, but the entire GF industry was heavily advanced because of John. RIP my friend. DR