Meet Mark Valeriote of RubbaDuckGang in Venice

Today we’d like to introduce you to Mark Valeriote.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Mark. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
My story starts in Fresno, California around May 2016 as a 190-pound sophomore who liked to play video games & eat lots of food (came from an Italian family). From those two activities alone, I knew I had to make a change with my body because I wanted to look & feel shredded like Super Saiyan 2 Gohan from Dragon Ball Z. When I first got into fitness, I tried going to the gym to lift weights & do the machines but after a while of doing the same thing everyday, it didn’t really feel like it was doing the trick. One day I saw a dude at the gym doing crazy moves using only his bodyweight like Muscles Ups, V-sits, & Handstands. I went up to him because this guy was super shredded & insanely strong. He said that the workouts he was doing was called Calisthenics meaning exercising with only your bodyweight. He described that calisthenics is a lot more efficient for getting into shape because every exercise is a compound movement meaning it works multiple muscles for every repetition which demands more energy & burns more calories. Another thing that caught my eye was that the moves looked cool too. At the time, I wasn’t able to do a pull-up or dip & my pushup form wasn’t the best. I started training with the guy I met at the gym & got hooked. Calisthenics became my overall passion & something that I couldn’t live without. I went from 190 LBS to 155 LBS in 3-4 months without ANY running/cardio. The stronger I got, the more moves I would try & unlock.

Eventually, I ran into a group at the gym called The Bar Gorillaz who had their own gym about 20 minutes away. These guys went out to Venice to train, competed in competitions, did performances at schools, & were on a whole other level than me! (backflips off the bar, pressing their bodies into handstands, etc.) I went to their gym the day after & started training over there to increase my level so I could get stronger & compete in freestyle competitions. Fast forward to Summer 2017, I performed at my first school with the team & competed at my first competition. Even though I lost first round, it was a great experience to know what I could do & what I needed to work on. After that, I wanted to get a lot better so I kept training hard & stayed focused on my goals.

14 months of hard training, a couple of school events & a broken arm later, my friend Kyle & I increased our levels a lot & decided to compete in the Venice Beach Freestyle Calisthenics Tournament. We were so hyped to show the community what we’ve been working on & see how far we would get in the tournament. We got there, registered for the tournament, & were curious who we would be battling. Once the battles were about to start, they called out Kyle & my name to battle each other. We threw lots of moves but I ended up winning & going to the next round. I ended up losing the next one but the day was absolutely breathtaking. So much energy was released at the beach that day & will be one of my favorite memories.

About four months after that, I joined a team from Venice Beach called the West Coast Warriorz. These guys all have an intense passion for Street Workout / Calisthenics which really showed through all the skills they were able to do. At the time, Kyle & I were training down at Santa Monica almost every weekend or so with the team & we seshed hard together which sometimes drew in a crowd watching us train. This team is also known for bringing in the HYPE & ENERGY!

Around this same time, Kyle & I continued to train hard but saw a pair of vibrant colored swim trunks with water & rubber ducks on them at the store one day. We decided to buy them because the colors popped & started wearing them to BBQ’s, training, Competitions, & expos. After a while, people started noticing us & calling us the rubber ducky gang so we decided to create a brand & drop a dad hat with a rubber duck on it to match the shorts. We named the brand RubbaDuckGang or RDG. We started by making two custom hats at the mall which ended up costing us $120 total. These were the sample hats but Kyle & I knew we couldn’t spend that much on a hat so we ended up finding a source online to provide us the hats & embroider them for us at a good price. We ended up creating two dozen hats, then later on four dozen hats, which became the hats that everybody loved & started the brand.

Fast forward another year later to March 2019, My teammate Mauricio from Ecuador created a gym in his backyard in Ambato called StreetFit by West Coast Warriorz & wanted to organize an international competition with athletes all over the world called Street Warriors. My team & I flew out to Ecuador in which they had battles set up against some of the best athletes in Ecuador, Columbia, Brazil & Mexico. This was the biggest competition of the year & we were going to compete in it. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to compete in it because the night before I was practicing my moves & messed up something in my chest to where I could barely even hang from the bar. It lasted for about a week but there was a 16 man freestyle tournament at the end of the month that I didn’t know about. My team & I trained hard at the gym almost everyday & went to the competition as judges. It was Mauricio, his buddy Steeve, Kyle & I who were going to judge the comp. Apparently, one of the athletes didn’t show up, so they asked me if I was down to battle. I thought I was going to judge so I didn’t even expect to battle but I was down, feeling more ready than ever to battle. It felt weird to be considered a foreign athlete since I was in Ecuador, but I felt good. I battled first round, won, battled second round, won, battled third round, won, making it to finals, then I won the final battle as well achieving my first tournament win in Ecuador! I was leaving the next day so we celebrated that night.

Once I landed in LAX, my teammate Nicky picked me up from the airport & we went straight to Venice Beach to enjoy the day but I was super exhausted & jet-lagged. Since I was coming back from Ecuador & I still had enough money from my last job, I agreed to compete in Obregon, Mexico at No Gravity Calisthenics Gym. Nicky & I took a train, two busses, & a car to get there. This was a pretty crazy experience because I was now competing at two different countries I never been to. I didn’t end up winning this tournament but I made it past the qualifying round & almost winning my first battle by making it go overtime.

By the time I got back home, I was absolutely broke with no job & about $30 left in my bank account. I ended up landing a full-time job pushing carts at Costco within one week of getting back home. I only lasted 30 days there because they caught me doing handstands on the shopping carts & told me that it was unprofessional. At the time, I was laser-focused on my training & reaching an all-time high Calisthenics because I was determined to win a competition called Battle of the Bars in San Jose. The winner of the competition was going to win $2000 & a free one week trip to Dubai to battle the best athletes in the world. I was four weeks out from the comp & two days later after getting let go from my job, I was training at the gym with some friends & went for a move that I was practicing where you fly over the bar in a sitting position. I was going over the bar & my feet clipped the bar as I grabbed on with one arm & landed all my bodyweight tweaking my shoulder really bad where I couldn’t even do a pushup. At this point, I got into a depression because things were hitting the fan & this has been the 4th time I got injured badly. I didn’t know if I should keep pursuing my dreams or if I should just get a regular job & forget about it because I wasn’t sure if I was still going to be able to do everything again.

I had already put in 3 & a half years into this sport & it was what I loved to do, even if I couldn’t do it at the moment. I still went to the gym, did some rehab & hyped my friends up because I knew it was better for my health than to just lay around all day feeling bad for myself. The time I spent at home injured, I started working on another drop of hats for RDG, creating business cards for my personal training & also decided to organize my own Freestyle Competition at my home gym called Playground Warz. I ended up releasing the new hats which everyone loved, started picking up a few clients, coaching some classes at the gym, & hosting one of the most hype & fun competitions of the year. The competition had an 8 Man Tournament, 8 Women Tournament, & a 3v3 Freestyle Tournament in which I got all the sponsors, made T-shirts, Trophies, gave product prizes, picked the judges, made the judge format, & MC’ed the comp. It was a lot of work but a lot of fun at the same time. It also inspired some local kids to start taking it more seriously & are training hard so they can compete soon.

After eight months of rehab from my injury, my shoulder was healed a lot more but still popped here & there. On 2/22/2020, I competed in & sponsored my first competition back from my injury called Bar Game Affiliated in Sacramento, California & ended up winning 1st place! This was one of my best memories because it was the day I won a whole tournament right out of a serious injury.

Now I am the head calisthenics coach for my home gym Playground Training Academy so I now coach classes, help run the P.E. program in the schools, & offer personal training (which you can find on my website. markvaleriote.com). I am also always working on my own clothing brand “RubbaDuckGang” where now I know how to create vector logos to use for shirts (which you can check out on rdgclothing.com), & I am organizing another Playground Warz on September 26th, 2020 held in Fresno, CA at Playground Training Academy. Also, my team West Coast Warriorz & I are now working on an online program called Warrior Fit where you can learn how to master your bodyweight in workouts & freestyle tricks! You can check it out on westcoastwarriorz.com where we have 20 FREE workouts/tutorials you can look at. All you have to do is create an account to get started!

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It was a very interesting road that wasn’t the smoothest but also wasn’t the hardest of roads that can occur. Most of my struggles came from injuries & training while still trying to maintain a job. I’ve four injuries in the past four years that I’ve been doing the sport. All of them I got while training but helped me in some way & all taught me different lessons.

When I broke my arm in 2017, Some of my family started telling me to stop doing Calisthenics because it was getting me hurt, it wasn’t going to be a career & that I was in good enough shape already & didn’t have to work out so much.

After High School in 2018 when I was working for the pool company digging holes, I would work from 7am – 4 or 5 pm, then go to the gym straight after to train for competitions. One of the days I broke my nose from trying to do a move called cumquat, then 2 & a half weeks later, I sprained my ankle. Every time I got injured, I would hear something from my family members saying what I’m doing is too dangerous & that I was making a mistake not going to college. To me, it was just another bump in the road because I knew there wasn’t anything else I’d rather be doing. The next day I get a message saying that I qualified to compete in Battle of the Bars San Diego in 6 weeks. I still took on the competition & performed much stronger than I was before because of all the extra static training I was doing. I trained five weeks on rehab & strength training, & the last week practicing the bar tricks such as 360’s, 540’s & Shrimp Flips.

There’s always going to be struggles in your life but they aren’t there to stay. They’re there to help you learn & grow so you can be ready for what’s to come.

RubbaDuckGang – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
I specialize in Street Workout & Calisthenics. Whether its freestyle moves you want to learn, strength levels you want to reach, or physique goals you want to get to. I can help you get from point A to point B a lot faster than if you would try to do it alone. I use all the knowledge & skills I’ve gained over time doing calisthenics to help people become stronger & healthier versions of themselves. I offer Personal Training & also am the head Calisthenics coach at Playground Training Academy in which we teach kids Parkour, Ninja Warrior, & Calisthenics. Our program is called Playground Warriors & we work with kids ages 4 – 20 from all around the community who suffer from ADHD, Autism, Abuse, or come from broken families. What makes us proud is that we have such a big influence & impact in our community, especially doing what we love. What sets us apart is that us coaches are all versed & compete in what we do with great passion. Since all of us are passionate about it, we can come to class everyday with the same if not more energy than the kids.

I’m also involved with an online platform where you can learn anything calisthenics, from learning how to do a pull-up, to a handstand, to learning a 720 on the bar, This platform is called Warrior Fit & is going to offer all of the knowledge my team & I have to offer on a website for anyone to go learn how to master their bodyweight. The same thing applies to this business as well. All of us in the team compete in what we teach, & are passionate about the growth of the community & the sport. What sets us apart are our freestyle tricks on the bars. We are offering somewhere you can learn how to get strong, flexible, & be able to move freely on the bars.

I’m very grateful that I not just do what I love for a living, but also leave a big impact in my community & change lives because of it.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
My proudest moment had to be 2/22/2020 when I both sponsored & competed in my first comp back from an eight months injury & ended up taking home 1st place & $500.

Pricing:

• 1 hour Personal Training Session – $50
• 4 pack Personal Training Session – $160
• 8 pack Personal Training Session – $280
• 12 pack Personal Training Session – $360
• RubbaDuckGang Tee Shirt – $30
• Playground Warz Admission – $10
• Warrior Fit Planche Program – $97

Contact Info:

• Address: 1433 Menlo Avenue Clovis, CA 93611
• Website: markvaleriote.com
• Email: info@markvaleriote.com

Image Credit:
Mark Valeriote, Alex Williams, Zach Carter, Mady Grachick

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