Member Profile
Robb Wolf is one of the strongest members of the Seattle Kettlebell Club and probably in Seattle. He has pulled off pistols with two one poods racked and never fails to raise the bar for the rest of us. He has an interesting story of how he got interested in physical culture. Robb later became the NASA powerlifting state champion of California in his weight class.
How I got started...in a nut shell I started lifting around the age of 17 to help with rehabilitation from a serious neck injury. The first time I tried to do a full Olympic style back squat I had 95lbs on the bar and fell on my ass from weakness and lack of flexibility. Two years later I squatted 505 at 181 at the NASA California state championships. Ultimately my best lifts were (in competition) SQ 565, BP 345, DL 565 at 181.
I began martial arts when I moved to southern California at about the 22 years of age and started training Muay Thai, JKD, and Filipino martial arts with a great guy, Dan Sullivan (www.ockickboxing.com) . Dan has trained with Guro Dan Inosanto for close to 20 years now I believe. I did 6 fights Muay Thai style and won them all in the 3rd round or sooner. I trained a bit of Brazilian Jiu-jitsu at the Gracie academy but not very much at the time. Right now I'm doing a lot of Capoeira and Brazilian Jiu-jitsu.
This weekend my Capoeira school held a Batizado, which is a performance and a big party. The Batizado was incredible...one of the best experiences of my life. I received my cord (belt) and it was a level higher than what I anticipated getting...[Mestre] Curisco said I had been working hard and deserved it. I did make a bit of a mistake during the batizado however. Each student is supposed to play with one of the visiting Mestres and they are supposed to sweep you or put you on your ass in some manner. I apparently was not playing a sufficiently meek game and three different Mestres really kicked the tar out'a me. It was an interesting way to learn etiquette.
I then moved to Chico, California to pursue a degree in Biochemistry and was eventually accepted to med school. I did not like it. I discovered I was much more interested in research than caretaking people. This is about the time I discovered the concepts of evolutionary medicine and Paleolithic diet and my main influences in these areas were Loren Cordain and Art Devany. Both are incredibly learned and great people who have influenced my thinking to an incredible degree.
More recently I have dedicated a good deal of my time to the Brazilian martial art Capoeira...one of the funnest and most challenging things I have ever done. I just participated in my first Batizado and really got worked!! I also just started working at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Prof. Irana King's lab. We are looking at fatty acids and their contribution to health and the propagation of diseases such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease to name but a few. We are also looking at antioxidants in food, various vitamins and co-factors...really very Paleo oriented research...It's GREAT!!!