The passing of Steve Cotter. It made me think, a lot, for days. After we did a workout in his memory, I made a video to honor his work, friendship, and presence on this earth. I posted it on my Facebook timeline and kettlebell groups. It showed me that a lot of people have questions. It’s hard for family and friends to get questions this early, but they’re valid questions. The main question is: How could someone breathing health and fitness die this young?
People want to know for many reasons, as they might be following someone and replicating their lifestyle. In the end, let us not forget that most of us are in the business of genuinely trying to help people, and without a doubt, Steve was. I will also give my thoughts below on what I think could have been the cause.
Questions. In this era, questions are not well received anymore, and everything is just “Don’t ask questions, don’t doubt the science, don’t doubt this or that and just follow the news.”. But the fact is, questions need to be asked. Why? Steve had a huge influence on a lot of people across the world. And there is no doubt it was a good influence.
To me, there is no doubt that Steve had a lifestyle that worked for him and he was happy with. The latter is the most important, and as I cover below, I believe it’s not always about duration but more about quality of life and happiness. If someone lives only 60% of what the average lifespan is but achieves 200% happiness whereas others only achieve 15%, well, to me, that’s a win and exactly how I live my life. The negative is that it leaves a huge hole in those who continue their presence on earth.
There is no doubt in my mind that Steve has saved many lives, changed many lives, and will continue to do so even if he is no longer with us physically. If my legacy will only be 5% of his, I will be satisfied knowing I too contributed.
Back to the questions. There are questions, lots of questions, as I’m sure everyone has. They’re valid questions because “It just happens” is not a valid answer. It does NOT just happen.
We have to look at this step by step:
- It is not normal for someone healthy and fit to die at the age of 55
- What are the factors that could lead to a heart attack?
- Diet
- Lack of something
- Too much of something
- Stress
- Physical
- Mental
- Sleep/Rest/Recovery
- Environment
- Things we put/inject inside ourselves that don’t belong there
- Diet
This writing is a reflection on the death of Steve Cotter and the importance of living life to the fullest. I discuss my own health choices and philosophies, emphasizing the need to question things and not just accept what we’re told. I also touch on the balance between providing value to others and earning a living.
What caused the heart attack of Steve Cotter?
My opinion on the untimely death of Steve Cotter is as follows. Note that it’s an opinion based on my knowledge of Steve and my own experiences, which doesn’t mean it’s the correct one.
Was Steve Cotter Vaccinated?
From the responses I have received from people close to him and my own experience, he was probably not vaccinated. He did travel a lot during the time we humans were banned from traveling without a certificate of some sort, i.e. the time the government overstepped its boundaries and violated all of us. Hence, if he was not vaccinated then he would have gotten fake proof. I personally do not agree with that, but so be it. So, perhaps we can rule this one out.
Was it Veganism?
From my own experience, I can say I had good and bad times being a vegetarian, which isn’t the same as a vegan. I don’t have proof; I only have thoughts and opinions, and they are that I do believe this could have played a role in what happened. Why? Because I don’t think it would have been stress, I believe Steve had a strong mind that was able to keep stress at bay, both mentally and physically.
TRT?
It’s a question a lot of people may have. I don’t think he would inject anything. He was in great shape, and I know from personal experience, even though I am nowhere near his physical shape, I have been accused of steroids in the past and other things in the present, but I can say with 100% honesty I don’t inject or take anything, and I believe that Steve was the same.
My own experiences
I didn’t intend to make this about me, but I feel that the event and giving possible answers require me to write about the choices I make or have made. I also feel like this is an output for things that I do think about. I also feel like, from what I know about Steve, some of my thoughts may align with his.
Whatever happens to me, I’m happy with what I achieved. I’m happy with what I have done. Sure, I want to achieve a whole lot more. I still have two goals in life that I want to realize, but still, I have seen so much that I’m grateful, have no regrets, and although I don’t want to leave this earth yet, I would be okay. The worst is knowing the emptiness it leaves behind for others.
One thing that I realized I want to achieve with writing this is to leave no unanswered questions for others should I be called away.
I have not and will not take a vaccine. It just isn’t going to happen. I have literally spent tens of thousands of dollars to avoid taking it while I could have just paid one hundred euros for a fake one. It goes against my principles and would have added another number to the number of people who have. If you want to know the reasons, I’m happy to debate them. I do lean more to the side that Steve did get the fake one, but only time will tell.
I train hard, I train smart, and I feel good, but if what I do means I leave early, it’s okay, and that’s a choice I’m happy with. I don’t promote training to others, anything other than listening to your body and responding to that. If Steve’s training is what caused his early departure, I feel like he would be happy to do the same thing again rather than sitting in a chair from 9 to 5, 24/7.
I drink alcohol. I don’t promote to others what to do in this regard. Here, I do advise you to drink like you eat, i.e. pure and without additives. Drink like you eat, in moderation, and listen to your body. I have literally tested all scenarios with drinking and training. If I don’t go to bed at the right time and neglect other areas of my life, it will affect me the next day. Otherwise, if I adhere to rules of moderation and listen to my body I function in the same way. I know Steve didn’t drink in general, but he had a few glasses of wine with us, which is nowhere near my consumption.
I put sleep and recovery as the number one priority, and that is something I haven’t wavered on for more than a decade now. I don’t even stay up for New Year’s Eve. I know he went to bed at the same time we did when he stayed with us, but that’s all I know about his sleeping pattern, I do assume it was a healthy one.
I eat meat. I have also tried all the other diets, and whatever I eat now is what makes me feel the best. I have to admit that I felt very clean and functioned really well when I was a vegetarian for a while, but my taste buds called for meat, and I don’t like living while having to force myself to not do something. I know Steve didn’t eat meat, and I respect that. I don’t like how animals are treated, the poison they are injected with to be able to cope with the living conditions that are unnatural. We can very well go back to healthy meat if the government wouldn’t focus on making life a living hell for family farmers and stomping out the little guy to be replaced by factory farming. I live in a village in Greece, in the mountains, and I know what healthy meat should be like, and the life they should have. I do think this area might have had something to do with his unfortunate passing.
I don’t promote to others anything other than listening to your gut and how your body responds. I eat varied, lot of different things but tend to stay away from chemicals and highly processed foods. I focus on including fresh and pesticide/herbicide-free. I include a lot of herbs and spices like oregano, cayenne pepper, chili, ginger, turmeric, and so on. Fruits and vegetables like lemons, potatoes, olive oil, and so on. I don’t know what Steve promoted in this regard as I didn’t follow him on social media.
I don’t do drugs. I have done in my 20’s and 30’s, if that will ever catch up with me, so be it. That was my own choice and I will suffer the consequences. I will never do psychedelics, perhaps I will when I’m at a stage where I have given up on life. Could I ever relapse with drugs? Probably not. I’d never want to go back to the life of partying all the time. Could there be an occasion in the future when everything aligns and I try something with a good bunch of people? Who knows. As for this topic, I won’t provide a comparison but I don’t think that whatever the answer is here it would have played a role.
I don’t stress about things. Sure, I can get upset and lose control, but it doesn’t take me long to pull myself together and change directions. I approach each day by thinking about the end result I want to achieve. When I am down, and I have to say I was down for a few days lately, I focus on being out in nature and writing to express my thoughts. My experience with Steve was that he was super cool and I think it would take a lot to get him upset.
Those were my thoughts on the matter. Live your life the happiest you can, and I can guarantee that money makes it easy, you need some, but being rich is not the key. Live your life in such a way that you provide value to others without asking back. Steve was one of those people who lived and breathed this.
Allow me to explain the latter because I want to avoid the “But why are you charging us for education?”, it’s because the world is currently designed in such a way that we need to provide value to earn money. When I started Cavemantraiing™ ages ago, the plan was “free for all”, but I discovered that no one was interested in free. I discovered that to reach people, money is required, and lots of it. I discovered that if you build your business on Facebook and you say one word they don’t like, you lose most of your business. With that said, I believe we should all have a purpose, and earning money is one of those things that may work for most. However, we need to enjoy that which we do to make money and I know Steve enjoyed every minute of what he did.
Living life to the fullest
One thing we have to remember, there is a huge difference between existing and living your life. The latter means that you work to achieve everything you enjoy and want to do while providing value to others.
Whatever you take away from this, don’t take away that you can just do whatever you want, don’t think you can lead an unhealthy life and be happier than Steve was. Happiness is what everyone wants to achieve, and if you achieve that for the majority of your life, then you are a winner.
For me, my life started with a journey to discover myself, I found myself, and I learned that I need to keep learning, I learned that the focus should be happiness and contribution to the world. At over half a century, I have all my teeth, no joint replacements, no joint aches or pains, traveled most of the world that I wanted to see, I could go on, but let’s focus on the point, I believe Steve was in the same spot, he lived life the way he wanted to and did what made him happy while contributing to bettering the world.
Final word
My main message, which I hope I got across, was to live life to the fullest, question everything, listen to your body, and do what makes you happy.
I want to end by saying that I have told a little lie, the only thing I do regret is that I don’t have a close connection with my son. I feel like I have tried everything to make sure he turned into the awesome human being that he is now, but I feel like it also led to us being apart. I do know that the relationship Steve had with his son was special and something to strive for. I’d give everything to be throwing kettlebells around and training BJJ with my son.
Rest in peace Steve. Thank you for your contribution to this amazing world.
My sincere condolences to his wife, family, son, and daughter.
NB: This was hard to write, and I intended to provide some information to make up your mind, and in no way was any of this meant more than respect for Steve. I hope that at some stage, we will all get answers that are definite.