Josh Nair, a 1987 graduate of Abington Senior High School, has been making his mark in the fitness world.
A former sales manager for NBC, Nair grew up on Adams Avenue right down the street from the Abington Public Library. He went to Abington Junior High School before it was an administration building and helped legendary head coach Jim Wilkinson and the Galloping Ghosts to a District 1 championship in 1986.
“Some of the best memories of high school were with those teams. Sam Rines was our point guard, and he’s still local doing great things in the basketball community with Rocktop Academy. They all went low-level DI and DII. I just rebounded and set picks where I could,” Nair said.
He went on to play college basketball at Keystone Junior College and then Mansfield University.
“At my age, you can only play basketball for so long because you get injured. I fell in love with something so far off the beaten path. It’s only part yoga, mixed with calisthenics, rehab techniques, cardio, and isometric movements, or what’s called ‘dynamic resistance’. Dallas took the five most popular forms of yoga and combined the best of them.”
Nair first met World Wrestling Entertainment Hall of Famer “Diamond” Dallas Page through his ex-wife, who married the former WWE champion after they divorced. Through a series of events and plenty of sweat, they ended up working together to promote “Diamond Dallas Page Yoga“, or DDPY for short.
Dallas acknowledges that it might seem odd for a former professional wrestler to be doing—let alone teaching—yoga.
But current and former NFL and NBA players, including San Franciso 49ers tight end George Kittle, Boston Celtic plus Nobel Peace Prize nominee Enes Kanter Freedom, along with professional bodybuilders like Toney Freeman, allegedly swear by his methods.
Dallas considers himself as much a poster boy for the program as anyone.
“I was the number one wrestler in the world,” Dallas told Glenside Local. “My career exploded in 1997, and then I broke my back after I signed a three-year, multi-million-dollar contract. I had to get back in the ring in six months. That’s where it all comes from: Necessity. We’ve had people who couldn’t walk to the mailbox. People who are bed-ridden. That’s how I had to start after I broke my back. I couldn’t stand up without a chair.”
DDP in the 1990s
“At 42, they said my career was over. At 43, I was the oldest champion in WWE history. Now I’m 68, and I feel like I’m 45,” he said.
National attention began trickling in after DDPY’s founders appeared in an episode of Shark Tank in 2015.
Dallas considers Nair poster boy material as well: Not long ago, he was 60 pounds overweight, and, as he puts it, “Everything hurt.”
“Dallas kept telling me to do his program. So, I did, and I haven’t stopped since,” he said. “I teach people for him now in all aspects.”
Dallas remembers that first session well.
“I invited Josh to a workout, and he was into it. 30 minutes in, normally I’d say, ‘You’re done,’ but he wanted to keep going. He was a puddle of sweat,” he said. “To his credit, he made it all the way through because he’s an athlete. An old athlete, but an athlete. We kept our friendship, he learned more about what we’re doing. He put the work in. Anyone who does that is going to get results.”
Nair performing DDPY at his Florida home
“His daughter hugged me crying because I changed her dad’s life,” Dallas said. “People want to know if it’s real and if it’s really helped this many people.”
Since that initial workout, Nair has quickly risen in the ranks to become one of the company’s four Master Trainers.
“Josh is a huge part of our team. He wanted to get certified, and the next thing you know he’s doing classes on the beach, in the gym, online, everywhere,” Dallas said. “He can teach anything.”
“The workouts seem to push the hands of time backwards, and it’s something people want to know about,” Nair said. “Some of these transformations are jaw-dropping. My favorite classes have been seniors. One of the 90-year-olds said to me, ‘Young man, why after I take your class do I feel so good?’ She was learning to activate her body. Nutrition is a huge pillar. We have over 300 recipes.”
Part of Nair’s role in the company is coaching the program’s 11 coaches and 280 trainers across the U.S., Canada, Europe, the Middle East, and Australia.
“It’s a pretty big group. Thankfully, I have a colleague in the UK and together, we are responsible for growing our teacher base to transform more folks that need help,” Nair said.
Enter Eric Scott Esch—better known by his nickname “Butterbean”—a retired professional boxer, kickboxer, mixed martial artist, and professional wrestler who competed in the heavyweight division. Two years ago, the four-time World Champion was wheelchair-bound with two busted hips.
“I was in a wheelchair for over three years. My hips were so messed up,” Esch told Glenside Local. “I couldn’t get around and gained a lot of weight. I was over 500 pounds until Josh and I started doing one-on-one sessions. He helped me so much. He showed me so many different things. Anyone can do this stuff, they just don’t know how to do it. Josh showed me how, and I’ve gone further and further and further.”
The video below chronicles Esch’s transformation. It was released on Super Bowl Sunday and has accumulated more than 2.5 million views:
“I want to get back in the ring as soon as possible,” Esch said. “I wanted to get Jake Tyler, but [Mike] Tyson beat me to it. I’d love to fight Brock Lesnar.”
“We started working with him in 2022, and he was in so much pain. He was overweight, broken, and needed surgeries,” Nair said. “Long story short, Butterbean is now talking about fighting again. I’m trying to keep his body in good shape while he trains. He weighs 285 at age 58 and has never fought under 300 pounds.”
Josh Owens, better known as “Moonshiner Josh” from the Discovery Channel’s show Moonshiners, broke his neck, back, and both legs in a bike accident and spent nearly 10 days in a coma.
He was wheelchair-bound until Nair and Butterbean spent six months working with him. He’s now walking again.
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Florida Life
For the last five years, Nair has been living on Hutchinson Island off the eastern coast of Florida.
“Like a lot of folks from up north, family wanted to come down after retirement. I love Philly and I love home, but I’ve always wanted to live at the beach. When the opportunity came along, I said, ‘Now’s my chance.'”
“There’s a lot of people who’ve made the trip. If I wear anything Philly, someone’s hitting me up saying ‘Go Birds!'” he said.
An A&E biography about Dallas’ fitness endeavors, wrestling career, and somewhat rocky early life was released in March.
A few weeks later, the Asbury Park Press did a “Transformation Tuesday” feature, to which Dallas (who is originally from Point Pleasant, NJ) and Nair were invited.
“I’ve had 20 thousand people chanting my name throwing up the Diamond Cutter sign, but then there’s the feeling you get when you help change someone’s life,” Dallas said. “Our relationship grew into a brotherhood, and it goes back to sharing an ex-wife.”
“It’s a wonderfully bizarre situation. He’s the stepfather of my children, and my daughter wrote a piece about how he changed my life. And we all get along great,” Nair said.
Check out Alexandra “Lexy” Nair’s take on her dads’ relationship below:
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Photos: Josh Nair, Wikipedia