Chef Andre Rush puts the same passion and dedication into a dish when serving a homeless man as he does for the President of the United States. “You don’t waver on service,” Rush, who’s cooked for four U.S. presidents, told Muscle & Fitness. “I don’t care who it is. I tell students all the time, if the president comes in and you give it your all but then that guy with baggy pants comes in and you want to give 10 percent, I’m done with you. Point blank.” 

It’s a lesson he learned when his mother would invite people off the street into her home for a warm meal. “I remember the first time it happened she pulled me and my sister aside and said, ‘You help as many people as you possibly can because they’re people. Some people are not as fortunate as us.’” 

Rush, a 24-year Army veteran, applies that same mentality to the motivational speeches he gives across the country. You won’t see him be any less driven in front of a group of elementary school students than he was in front of the New York City Police Department or newly enlisted Army cadets. 

Rush doesn’t care who you are, if you need help and he can provide it for you, he will. “I have hundreds of people who DM me,” he says. And sometimes, those requests can be life-or-death situations. Rush has received messages from people contemplating suicide or who may be struggling to find a reason to live.

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“Some of my friends will say ‘Why are you on your phone all the time’ and I’ll get angry, I’ll actually get angry,” he says. “Because people don’t understand what other people are going through.” 

An average person might become emotionally drained due to that demand, but Rush constantly wears a smile on his face and is constantly motivated to keep pushing on. Why? 

One of the many lessons he learned in the military is that you must keep proving yourself, even when you think you’ve reached the highest level. 

“I tell people to not become complacent; Don’t get comfortable; don’t just think just because you’re there that your service is stellar. You have to always work each and every day,” he says. “My key to success is that every day is a reset button. It’s like my first day.” He continued, “I just got a message that said, ‘Just remember, you’ll always be nobody bro.’ And I responded, ‘You’re right, but I’ll be that nobody that everyone remembers.’” 

One thing Rush will always be remembered for is his 24-inch biceps, which recently went viral. He built them not just through hard work in the gym but by his daily 2,222 pushups. Throughout the world, many people will do 22 pushups in honor of the 22 veterans who commit suicide every day due to post-traumatic stress disorder or other mental illnesses brought on by combat situations. Rush, never content with average, explained his reasoning for upping the ante. 

“I tell people all the time, ‘Be different,’” he says. “If I tell people I do 22 pushups a day, they say ‘Oh’ and that’s the end of that. But I tell them I do 2,222 then people say, ‘I don’t know who you are, but I want to know who you are.’ It invites them in to learn more.” 

The chef’s interest in muscle goes well beyond his eye-popping biceps.  He’s also a personal friend of Arnold Schwarzenegger and a regular at many of the world’s biggest bodybuilding and fitness events, including the prestigious Olympia Fitness & Performance Weekend, regarded as the Super Bowl of the fitness industry.

Dan Solomon, Chief Olympia Officer, tells Muscle & Fitness, “The chef is doing a tremendous job as an advocate for the fitness community. He inspires millions around the world through his work advocating for mental health, while also using his platform to motivate his followers to build strength, both mentally and physically. We are always pleased to welcome Chef Rush to Vegas each year for Olympia Weekend.”

 

 

 

 

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARINES! – HERES TO ANOTHER 244 Years of EXCELLENCE!! – OOOORAH!! – Now do me a favor.. AND PUSH!!!! #chefrush #devildogs

A post shared by ChefRush (@realchefrush) on Nov 10, 2019 at 4:42am PST

When Herschel Walker played for the New Jersey Generals from 1983 to 1985 in the now-defunct USFL, his boss was billionaire mogul Donald Trump. He became close with the team owner and his family. While training in Orlando, Walker took Trump and his children to Disney World.

Well, it’s certainly a small world after all because after Donald Trump became president, he appointed Walker to the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition. The purpose of the council is to increase sports participation among youth of all backgrounds and abilities and to promote healthy and active lifestyles for all Americans.

One of the greatest all-around athletes of all-time (football and track star, Olympian, MMA fighter – he didn’t get into the latter until his 40s) Walker, 58, practices what he preaches, continuing to impress with a workout regimen that he’s been doing every day since he was 12 years old. “I’m always exercising. I never missed a day.”

What’s your goal as co-chairman of the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition?
We’re an obese country. Our young people are playing more video games than working out. Team sports are getting so competitive that parents have to pay and they don’t have the money.

When I became a member of the council, I got my high school class together and we got the city of my hometown in Georgia to give us six acres to build a fitness park. We’re going to put up a pullup bar, dip bars, jungle gyms. I’m not putting up a basketball court or fields. There will be a track for people to walk and run around. You also get community by doing this. I have to practice what I preach.

Kids years and years ago would jump rope and have fun, but that was exercise. Today on the school playground, you don’t see a jungle gym anymore. Kids were doing monkey bars and pullups. They didn’t even know they were exercising and now they don’t have that. Now they have a computer or have an avatar to workout for them. A kid might break an arm using a jungle gym, but that will heal. His obesity will kill him.

What’s been your experience like working with the federal government?
I want to get something done in Washington, but didn’t realize how slow Washington moves.

It’s been a challenge. I’ve been trying to get the Fit Bill passed for 18 years. It’s a bill to incentivize to workout. It lets people take a write-off before taxes if you pay for your kids to play or your gym membership. The bill got into the Ways and Means Committee in 2019, but ran out of steam in the Senate, but I’m still trying to push it through.

What’s your current workout routine?
It hasn’t changed much since I started as a kid. I’m still doing pushups — I cut those down from 3,000 to 1,500 when I got into boxing and martial arts — 3,500 sit-ups, ride my exercise bike for 30 miles, then go out and jog, do 500 dips and at least 150 pullups. I do jump rope. I still do martial arts drills.

How did this workout come about?
I was obese, I was not athletic at all. I got beat up at 12 years old. I remember crying and went home and I said enough is enough. I started working out and overcame so much. Then I became obsessed with it. I wasn’t thinking of playing football — that wasn’t a big thing. I was just trying to get through tomorrow.

Didn’t you also do ballet?
I studied it for about 10 years. When I got into martial arts — I thought I could be the next Bruce Lee — I thought ballet can help with flexibility. Before I got into MMA, it was the hardest thing I had ever done, over football and track and field. I was using muscles I’d never used. Ballet is very tough because of the discipline you have with your muscles.

What was your MMA experience like?
I loved it! It is one of the best sports I’ve ever done in my life. I trained myself then met Scott Coker and Bob Cook. I moved out to San Jose, California for about a year and trained for six days a week at American Kickboxing Academy.

I was a fifth-degree black belt in taekwondo. Most people don’t know I competed in taekwondo tournaments in college on Sundays, a day after playing football. This did not help me in the Octagon. It’s a tough sport!

How’s your diet these days?
My diet isn’t the best in the world — I eat one meal a day, consists of salads and soups. I don’t eat a lot of red meat, I don’t like fish. I still have sweets, but with my meal. I eat what I want but I work out so much I burn it off. My diet is so unusual and I’m as healthy as a horse.

Why one meal a day?
I was doing this in high school, in college, in pro football. I don’t live to eat, I eat to live. We overeat anyway in this country.

When we played on Sundays, I never ate the pregame meals. I ate Saturday night, then again maybe Monday or late Sunday after the game. When you eat a pregame meal that’s not where you get your energy from. It’s from Saturday night. If you eat a pregame meal, you’d get sluggish. This is my stupid philosophy.

Who was the one guy in the NFL you wanted to run over?
Lawrence Taylor. You always wanted to get the best of him, but you couldn’t. The guy was an amazing athlete.

Check back to Muscle & Fitness for more updates from members of the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness & Nutrition.

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