Mark Bell's Power Project - EP. 315 - Big J

Episode Date: January 22, 2020

Big J English is a successful YouTuber, and strength professional. He is a former competitive powerlifter and bodybuilder and is training partners with the King, Ronnie Coleman. Big J was told he would never walk again after a tragic accident in the military and was able to build himself back up to skwaat over 700lbs! Big J is also known for his various feats of strength exhibitions to raise money and awareness for cancer. Subscribe to the Podcast on on Platforms! ➢ https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast Visit our sponsors:                                                                      ➢New Perfect Keto Birthday Cake Bars! 10% of 1 box, 20% off 2 boxes, 30% off 3 or more! http://bit.ly/pkppbday                               ➢Piedmontese Beef: https://www.piedmontese.com/ Use Code "POWERPROJECT" at checkout for 25% off your order plus FREE 2-Day Shipping on orders of $99 ➢Perfect Keto: http://perfectketo.com/powerproject Use Code "POWERPROJECT10” at checkout for $10 off $40 or more! ➢SHOP NOW: https://markbellslingshot.com/ Enter Discount code, "POWERPROJECT" at checkout and receive 15% off all Sling Shots Follow Mark Bell's Power Project Podcast➢ Insta: https://www.instagram.com/markbellspowerproject  ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/mbpowerproject   ➢ LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/powerproject/ ➢ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/markbellspowerproject ➢TikTok: http://bit.ly/pptiktok                                                ➢Power Project Alexa Skill: http://bit.ly/ppalexa FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell ➢ Snapchat: marksmellybell Follow Nsima Inyang ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/  Podcast Produced by Andrew Zaragoza

Yo Mark, how do you like to cook your steak, man? I like my steak medium rare. I'm a juicy guy myself, like a little medium rare too. Yeah, I gotta be careful. I have to cook my steak a little bit more towards the medium, but I'm more of a, yeah, I'm more on that end. But now guys, imagine if you could have an amazing steak

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It does just make, I don't know how they do it, but they pull it off. Everybody listening, you guys can do the exact same thing, too. Head over to piedmontese.com. That's P-I-E-D-M-O-N-T-E-S-E dot com at checkout. Enter promo code POWERPROJECT for 25% off your order. And if your order's $99 or more, you get free two-day shipping. Yo, yo. Oh, yeah. Look at that. Audio one, two. I can hear myself. Yeah. off your order and if your order is 99 a more you get free two-day shipping yo yo oh yeah look at that audio one two i can hear myself yeah how come you gotta like clear your throat more when you get

older like you gotta do more of that more phlegm and then more how come more noises from do you make a lot of noises getting up like off the couch oh my grandson imitates me now when he sits down he sounds like a bear right yeah he goes oh my grandpa i didn't do that it's like i sit up inside that's even better you're not you're just totally unaware of it right are we rolling over there andrew yeah we're we're rolling. Oh, my God. Here we go. Oh, my God. Everybody heard everything then. Everything.

All the secrets. All right. We're here today with Big Jay, and I think that we owe it to our audience to switch gears here for a little bit and talk about getting big. Oh, my gosh. Since you got big in your name, you know, that's pretty smart of your parents to give you that name. Yeah, it's just Big J. We got a lot of your story last time you were on, and there's so much more to get to. Last time, too, 2016.

I can't believe it's been that long. Everyone kept saying 17, but that was the second time I was here. We didn't podcast then, but we podcasted in 16. Some of the best poop stories I've ever told, actually. I know, and I'm sure you're loaded up with a lot more. Loaded up with all kinds of poop. So you got strict orders from the boss right now, and you're weighing 290 pounds, and you're no stranger to bodybuilding,

and no stranger to powerlifting, and you've been lifting for a long-ass time. How do some of our listeners that are listening, how do they get big? So it kind of goes against everything you've been talking about for the last, I don't know how long, when you started getting ready for your show. And I want to talk about your show after I say what I'm going to say. A lot of the, I don't know, I guess it's not just social media, but it's the world. They have to have a certain standard of look and, you know, they want validation and they want recognition.

So everyone is scared to have a little fluff. I'm obviously not lean by any means at 292 pounds, but I know the end game, you know, the end result and the schematics and the scope of what I'm trying to do. So, you know, Ronnie said this a billion times. You want to get big, you got to eat big. I mean, you got to go into the surplus, whether it's fats, carbohydrates, sugars, you know, proteins, everything, vegetables, you eat a calorie. I don't want to get into the calories, the calories, the calorie, because we all know that there's a lot of different empirical evidence that will support

both sides. But as far as getting big, you got to put the calories in, you know, got to overfill the tank so you can have a surplus. And yeah, you are kind of stronger when you're fatter too. What are you, what you're throwing down what are you eating oh man uh on a caloric number at least 5 000 a day yeah pretty easily that's a good amount because i'm always hungry i've always been hungry and then you have to be a little careful with your selection i mean your selection is much broader than when you're on a cut, but you have to be a little bit careful because if you eat, you know, a bunch of pancakes in the morning, which tastes terrific, it might fill you up for too long. And then you might not be able to get meal. It might be hard to get meal two in for some people, right?

For some people. Not for me. Not a pretty good appetite. And you're right. Here's the thing. When people say, oh, my gosh, you must be eating a bunch of crap i eat i've eat the same single every meal every day for years with just a little adding into it because i'll have my egg whites and oatmeal in the morning but then i'll add some more peanut butter for calories you know maybe a banana and a blueberry muffin and then i'll have

turkey and rice for mid-morning you know ground turkey but instead of half a pound i'll have a full pound maybe two cups of rice so instead of going out and saying, I'm just going to have all these calories and eat M&Ms and pizza and hot dogs and ice cream, which I do once a week or so, I'm just adding more of the good foods, more calories, more weight. So somebody, a little birdie told me to ask you a certain question in regards to your thoughts on Waffle House. house oh god who asked you that it's not josh is it no no no i gotta say man uh to be as clean as possible uh it's horrible in my opinion i love the guys at waffle house my dad loves waffle house and he drags me there

every time i go to his house but But I prefer a different restaurant than Waffle House. Those are my thoughts. It's nice. Okay, we'll keep it clean then. Keep it clean. All right. Why don't you like Waffle House, though? They ask you how many eggs you want with your grease.

They ask you how much grease you want with your food. Yeah, too much. Yeah, man. You can just turn your plate sideways, and God bless the people that like Waffle House. A couple of good friends that love it, but just i have a no fly zone at waffle house sometimes you know i'm sure i think you've traveled uh quite a bit and you travel across the country and that's all you got yeah you travel across the united states and all you have every once in a while is waffle house well sometimes you got to make do i mean i understand that you got to do what

you got to do you got to do what you got to do and i'm not that meal prep guy either i don't i don't like cook all my food and put it in storage and bags and label it and that's just that's beyond my desire even when you're getting in shape different story when i'm getting in shape and this is back to do certain things yeah yeah this is before all these meal prep companies came out and they are amazing they really are are you going to claim on our show that you invented meal prep uh no i think you did i've been around long enough i've been around longer than they had though for sure yeah he invented meal prep all right carry on you know what we used to do branch and ronnie and mark and all the guys that we used to go over to pose at our uh posing uh place and even at the gym we'd make these big giant tupperware bows you know your mom had

them the big giant plastic lid and so you just boil six or eight cups of rice and you know cook up six or eight chicken breasts and i don't know a couple pounds of turkey just kind of like a monster mash you know like what oh uh yeah and we just have a bowl and you know you figured out okay this is a quarter of that so i'll just eat out of this corner for this meal. And then it would be hot and, you know, moldy and nasty. We didn't have these refrigerators to carry around with us like these kids do, but yeah, it's, it worked right then. So yeah, I would do some meal prep. It's got a little twang to it.

It does. Who needs barbecue sauce when you have mold? You're like, Oh, that has a, maybe that might have like another five hours left before it's completely rotten. My grandma always used to say, just scrape it off. It's fine. Help the gut bacteria, right? Exactly. So the foods are kind of similar though.

Like when you're cutting and when you're bulking, except for when you're bulking, you got more freedom. If you want to go to the movies and enjoy a candy bar and some popcorn, it's no big thing. But when you're cutting, you got to start to tighten things up quite a bit. Yeah, go into a deficit. I mean, that's common knowledge. Everybody knows you can't stay or you can't get lean if you keep putting more in there. So obviously you start cutting back 50 calories a day or a week or depending on how long your prep is. My best prep would be to figure out where my body fat was if it was 12 or 14 or 15 percent

or whatever that's how many weeks i would at least allow myself to get ready for that show because you're not going to get to zero percent right but you know you get down to three four or five percent depending on what your body type is and what you look like and what shows you're competing at etc and so that gives you that tolerance of a week or two or three to gain or lose back and forth and not be in such a bind. Because there's a lot of people that, oh, I've got a quick metabolism, whatever, or I get lean quick, whatever. Just give yourself time so you don't burn so much muscle to get down to that body weight. So at 290, you know, I would love to get back on stage at 240, 245, 238, something along there.

And that's 60 pounds, which is a big drop. And the body fat percentage may only need to drop 10%, you know, but I'm going to give myself double that time because I haven't been on stage in 20 years. Last time I was on stage, I was guest posing. And so I want to make sure, God, did I just say I'm going to compete again? I think so. Jeez. I love it.

Okay. Did you just realize that now? Yeah, I did. I'm going to compete again? I think so. Geez. I love it. Okay. Did you just realize that now? Yeah, I did. I forgot we were live. Well, so the secret is just to give yourself plenty of time. These people that go on these six, eight, ten-week diets and they say they're lean, they're not. They don't have that outside eye.

You had honey. Yeah, you got to get dried out. You got to get all the way down. Do you think people that want to get big, do you think they should cut? And do you think that people that want to be lean, do you think they should bulk? In my opinion? Yeah, yeah. What's your opinion on that? I think it's easier to talk about if you've actually experienced it per se.

Because there's a lot of people just, you know, maybe they're always trying to lose weight and let's just say they're into lifting right and they don't ever give themselves an opportunity to like expand a little bit and you're just trying to cut and trying to cut and trying to cut and trying to cut trying and it's like you don't have anything to like slice up anymore sure because you don't have the muscle mass so you're saying uh and you're asking if i think that people that are always lean and can't get any leaner should mass up a bit absolutely try it switch things out if you don't like a ford heck drive one one time you might love it vice versa hammies hey who's that guy hey you know jay i'm i want to know about this because like i think we talked about this a little

bit but when guys are trying to bulk what do you feel is the upper limit of it because you you even mentioned like you kind of alluded to it you said if i'm starting a prep and i'm like maybe 12 15 but most guys when they bulk they don't only chill at 15 they go up to 20 25 etc yeah so it's unhealthy i mean anything over 12 is really getting unhealthy you would agree i mean i think you both agree what are are you, 5% now, 7%? No, no, I'm like probably 9, 9 or 10. I must be 90 then. No, I'm definitely 9 or 10.

We talked about that. Let's say yours is lower so everybody else can feel good. No, no, but seriously. So in that sense, if a guy right now, he's bulking, and he's around 14% body fat. He shouldn't be bulking. He shouldn't be bulking. You think he should just chill there and try to get stronger there?

Well, it depends on if he's a powerlifter or a bodybuilder. Stronger or more shape. Because if he wants to get on stage, he needs to have a shapely body. And you both agree. We talked about this earlier. Bodybuilders and powerlifters have major differences in their structure. You train for strength, so you're going to have those longer, stronger, sinewy type muscles versus bodybuilders trying to get the pump all the time. So they have a fuller looking effect. And there are a lot of bodybuilders are not as strong as powerlifters.

And a lot of powerlifters don't have that. And we proved that yesterday, that endurance training, you're a lot leaner than I am. And you're probably a lot stronger than I am, but we were doing 20 reps with all the weight and it was gassing you. It's just like a guy saying, yeah, I could take you out to the ditches and you know, you're a big powerlifting bodybuilder guy and I could bury you in five minutes. Absolutely. I've never done ditches before. You know what I mean? And then you take the guy that digs ditches all day long, take him to the gym five minutes, he's gassed. So I really loved taking you through that workout that Ronnie and I, that's one of our workouts that we do, and letting you experience the flow.

And you had a lot of haters on your post, too, remember? Which was great. It's good. I love it when people come on to be so objective. What is that word? They don't like what you're saying, and they're so closed-minded, and they want to force their opinion on you. Hey, give me your opinion. I love opinions. And that's all they are. I mean, there is empirical evidence out there, but I want to know what you're thinking and why you're saying that. At first, I want to

tell them to go take a flying leap because it hurts my feelings because I'm trying hard, but my feelings only go that deep. And then I get into the smarts of, hey, look, this is why I'm doing it. And I'm sorry you feel that way if you're so angry, but let's look at it this way. And it helps a lot of times, nine times out of 10 people turn, oh is why I'm doing it. I'm sorry you feel that way if you're so angry, but let's look at it this way. And it helps. A lot of times, nine times out of ten, people turn, oh, man, I was just kind of throwing BJ. I think what really kind of triggers people is if you don't normally talk about something and then you do something kind of different. So Kusima preaches form and technique very often.

The first comment was, why are you swinging? Yep. And you weren't really. You weren't. He teaches a lot of control, even like self-control, even like when he's training, when he was powerlifting. Instead of like, you know, rocking out in the corner and getting himself all crazy and fired up, he would close his eyes. I don't know who does that. He would be more, he'd be a lot more like cerebral.

And so I think it's going against the grain of some of what your fans are used to seeing. Yeah. And they're like, hey, what's this bullshit? You told us not to swing. Why are you swinging? I think it's going against the grain of some of what your fans are used to seeing yeah and they're like hey what's this bullshit you told us not to swing why are you swinging i think it's a great idea and uh so but there is there are different ways to train right i mean you gotta be able to get after it every once in a while yeah after 38 years of being in the iron game and i'm only 35 by the way 38 years i've done probably every single workout that you could ever think of i've tried it and if it didn you could ever think of. I've tried it. And if it didn't appeal to what I wanted, I'd change it because I'm in charge of my own body. And I want it to adjust to a certain way and feel and look and grow. So if you don't try something, you may not know that that will or will not help you.

I mean, Arnold taught about the cheetah principle. I mean, he'd get five, six, eight reps, and then he'd sling the last last few i mean that's the way ronnie and i train we do 20 reps on everything four sets with all the weight i kind of i kind of think some of that is missing you know i don't big time you don't see it as much anymore people really really letting loose i mean you look like you're watching you know what forms are your martial artists right look like you're watching people lift weight in form. Right. Wax on, wax off. Dude, put some butt into it.

Let's go. Swing that weight if you need to. Yeah. Move it again. Yeah. Because you're not reaching failure if you're not. You know, they say they're reaching failure by pulling this slow on the fifth rep, and then they're squeezing and getting rid of it.

I can get 20 more rounds. That's not failure. That's not failure. Yeah. It's failure as well. You hit yesterday. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Now, there are different ways of doing it, and because of that, I would imagine that sometimes you pull back and you start to isolate, too. Have to. In a workout, you might start out with something crazy that you're swinging around on once you're warmed up, of course, and then you're probably going to move into doing sets with more precision, right? Absolutely. And, you know, kids nowadays have to have a name for everything.

What do they call that? A deload week or whatever? Yeah, right. We just call it a rest week or not train so heavy week or take a break. You know, I mean, I will see. And I don't post those. That's what we call it. Yeah.

You know, you just pulled 600 pounds for 10 reps on your video. And then tomorrow you're going to put 135 on there and do five slow reps. You know what's going to happen. Everybody's going to go, bye. Never watch your crap again. And I'm here. And my age and my daughter's got me into this, the social media. And there's a lot of people in the fitness industry that are half my age that have pulled me into it.

And I was sucked into it pretty quickly because of businesses that I, you know, operate with in the fitness industry. But now I love it so much. I don't, you know, I make sure that my screen time is down, but I am here to help.

I'm here to help anybody and everybody that's interested in help. And I want to hear their opinions too. You know, I want to mention this on the podcast because I mentioned it on the, on the video that we did together many times. And I sound like a broken record right now, but when were wait you and i did together yeah yeah yesterday what was your name again oh um michael okay yeah nice to meet you big he said he's getting old oh it's big daddy no no michael michael's my name no he said big day i know i came up on my phone all the time

i was like trying to airdrop something to somebody. It said Big Daddy. It said like Big Daddy Panther or something or some shit like that. And I look up and there's not one other black person in the entire gym besides him. So I look up and he's standing right in front of me. Smiling at you. I'm like Black Panther, Big Daddy Black Panther, whatever the hell it said. Is that his name?

I was like, what in the hell is this? Is that what Boo called you, dude? I'm not even going to talk about that. There's a deeper joke that goes in here. Oh, my God. Which is a Smokey love for me. Smokey's over there. How deep are we talking?

Oh, it's hilarious. Oh, my God. Okay. The thing that we're talking about, I won't go into it, but it does have to do with a little bit of drinking at the Arnold and Smokey and Encima being in the same bed. Oh, wow. Hey, now. I just lost my breakfast.

Okay. Back to the subject. Look at Smokey. I'm not going to deny it. It's okay. There was a lot of dudes in the room so it was fine oh boy okay good times go ahead okay here we go um see if you can recover yeah yeah so the the really impressive thing that i want people to like understand here is that even though like i was working with the stack and these loads, I wasn't used to lifting that way.

So my form was breaking down. And it was apparent. I was doing my best to make sure I was staying safe as I was doing it. But you, despite if you were doing like on the cable row, despite if you're doing the 180 versus 250, you looked the same even if you were swinging a little bit like ugly both times right it wasn't no it wasn't ugly both times though it wasn't it wasn't ugly both times there was control to it even though there's a little bit of swing there is control and 250 looked just as good as 180 and that was every single movement that we did even with the heaviest load so people like people don't realize there is a very big level of technique

and strength there that goes into that. Because if you were just swinging right around, it would look extremely ugly when you got heavy, but it didn't. It just shows how strong you are. You know what I mean? There's still so much control there, and people need to be able to learn from that rather than looking at the swing and being like,

oh, he doesn't know how to lift. Well, he's bigger than you and he's stronger than you. So maybe you should just fucking listen. Well, and it does. There's a lot of validation in that because if you get someone that's, you know, 180 pounds or 200 pounds or even 220 pounds and they can't lift that much and they kind of swing, again, the Arnold Cheater principles, and they start to put on weight. I mean, it does work. It works. old cheater principles and they start to put on weight i mean it does it works but i'm telling you it always works because when i first started training here in texas because i started training

first workout was like 1982 somewhere along those lines but i didn't know what i was doing seriously i mean i played football and we had coaches and taught us what to do join a military worked out with a bunch of guys actually joined up with george or is mr germany john baker mr arizona these are names you guys probably don't know but these were validated guys i worked out with a bunch of guys actually joined up with george or is mr germany john baker mr arizona these are names you guys probably don't know but these were validated guys i worked out with vince taylor in germany and berlin several times with good friends and you know back then of course he's 235 240 this is like 1987 88 and i'm you know 190 soaking wet because i was running miles every day in the army i would kept thinking i want to be like these guys you know what i got to do to do this and you watch them and they're so much bigger and they're you know doing different types of I was running miles every day in the Army, I kept thinking, I want to be like these guys. What do I got to do to do this?

And you watch them, and they're so much bigger, and they're doing different types of training techniques, and that doesn't look right. Well, who am I to say Mr. Masters Olympia, multi-titles under his belt, is doing it wrong? So when these guys come on and they start looking at some of the bigger guys, oh, that's incorrect. Well, it's different. It's like driving a Honda to work versus a big giant dually to work one uses more gas and smokes more and it takes up more room and not as proficient but it still does the same job get you from point a to point b yeah different techniques different strokes for different folks

i think a big thing there is like what you just said. Instead of interjecting and saying, hey, you should just do it this way or that's wrong. Just ask why. I think you were just mentioning that, right? Just ask, why are you doing that? Why are you doing it that way? Just ask. And maybe there is a legitimately good reason why. And you could learn something from that rather than just being like, ah, that just looks totally bad.

My ex-phys textbook told me that you can't be doing it that way just ask no for sure yeah ask good questions and you're gonna learn a lot you know because you'll get good answers too nine times out of ten right a lot of times you know when you're doing something like let's say i noticed this with back work in particular but it could be different for other people i guess but like with back work sometimes it's hard to get your elbows to really travel past, you know, past your body. The fat guy in the front. Well, there's that too, right? Those are the old powerlifting days.

You get that shorter stroke going. Exactly. But sometimes you do need a little swing or you need a little leverage because really, in my opinion, training your back is really all about trying to move those elbows. And you're trying to get the elbows to come back. Elbows to the walls, yep. Yeah, you're trying to get the elbows to come back the best that you can well you know why sometimes you got to get a little swing and i talked to you about this yesterday when he was

doing the behind the neck pull down which i was oh no no that's bad don't do that for you it's gonna hurt yourself you don't use a lot of weight when you do those exercises and you're focusing on the movement that you're going to be uh replicating on stage rear double bicep, lat spread. When you get back there and you can start seeing those Christmas trees and those fins in your lats, I mean, that's when you really start to build the muscle. I told you a lot of people know this. The stage is one or the shows are one for the back. People, I told you this yesterday as well.

It's just like bodybuilders, the newer beginners look like six-year-old girls because a six-year-old girl will go and fix her hair and do her face and you know get her clothes all neat and tidy but she can't see the back of her hair so she just runs comb through a little bit and runs out the door i remember my girls well come here let me comb the rest of your hair so these bodybuilders same thing like everybody looks good from the front but then you turn around and the judges go he didn't do his homework he didn't do so she didn't do their homework they didn't do the cardio no calves no hamstrings no lats no definition flat traps yeah nothing and so you got to focus on those movements and that's when i get closer to a show i do a whole lot more of

the squeezing and the better techniques and you know the movements they have to be done properly or you're going to have sloppy muscles so it's's your belief and with all the people that you've trained with over the years, some top level bodybuilders, maybe, you know, probably the greatest bodybuilder of all time. We'll never see another freak like Ronnie Coleman, I don't believe. You trained with some of the best in the world and it's your belief that you need to have a little bit of both. You need to sometimes get in there and have the heavier weight and swing them around. And then you also need some of the kind of like touch up, polish up.

Absolutely. I agree 100%. Speaking of bodybuilding, man, I haven't talked to you since you got on stage. Powered up for years. Did some nasty numbers in your day. What made you want to do a bodybuilding show? Let's talk about Mark for a minute. Why in the world did you do that?

I got put on the spot you know i had honey rombat on the podcast and uh he's like you know you're in good shape he's like you're pretty lean he's like i think you owe it to your fans just to take it the rest of the way you know just go all the way with it that dude and i've never yeah i never i've never i don't have any experience with bodybuilding. I've never even been to a bodybuilding show. But you know a lot about it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I do. I do. I like bodybuilding. But I've only accidentally seen some bodybuilding from going to see some of the Strongman stuff at the Arnold.

So I don't have any other knowledge of it beyond reading some of the magazines and then talking to Jay Cutler and people like that. But yeah, when Hany put me on the spot, I was like, if you're going you're gonna help me then i'm in so you kind of put him on the spot yeah yeah because i was like tit for tat i don't really know what i'm doing and i'm not gonna i probably won't do great if i'm gonna try to put uh i don't know to to paint myself into a corner and put that much pressure on myself and like follow my own guidelines when i don't know what i'm doing uh would be really really. So with his guidance, it ended up, uh,

working out great. It was fun. And then the other thing, well, wait a minute, it was fun. Well, you didn't really do a show then,

did you? What was, well, what was fun about it is that I ended up in better shape forever from it. Right. And, uh, that's,

uh, Tom file who trains here. He, uh, he used to work the front desk at Gold's Gym for many, many years. I've known him for a long time. He kept telling me, you got to do a bodybuilding show. And I was like, I don't know.

And mainly just because I didn't think I'd have the proper guidance. I was like, well, maybe opportunity comes along. And Hany kind of threw that out there. But Tom was the one who told me. He goes, you do one bodybuilding show and it changed everything for you forever because you're going to realize the mindset that it takes. He's like, you're going to realize you have to be all in. And it's not to say that power lifters aren't all in.

There's different objectives and there's different things. But what it showed me and the way it worked out for me, even when I look back at my power lifting career, I'm like, I worked really hard at powerlifting, but I was about 60%. And if I'm being totally honest in comparison to how I trained for the bodybuilding show. Wow. Well, there's so much more that goes into it, right? The posing and the tanning. Yeah. I mean the sleep and the food and everything.

I mean your job, you suffer, you know, mentally, there's so much more that goes into it. It impacts your family. It does big time. I mean, you run, you run your you know, mentally, there's so much more that goes into it. It impacts your family. It does, big time. I mean, you run your best friends away if you're not careful. You know, you can get on these sticks of, you know, a lot of people do the low carb diets, which you're doing now. How are you feeling about that now? I mean, people know me.

I love carbs. I'm going to eat them until they kill me, I guess. And I can get lean on carbs but and i do agree with cutting your carbs on so many other levels health reasons for sure some people just they can't have them because their body reacts differently pancreas insulin sensitivity etc and you know all these other crazy diets i say i will not do that but i do agree that there is a place just like in training for it all you're still on the no carb diet yeah i've been feeling really good doing that um i've been doing it for many many years i started like

in the mid 90s kind of messing around with a body opus from dan duchene oh wow damn i'd heard his name in years yeah yeah i messed around with some of that and then years later did some mamaro depasquale stuff he had uh the anabolic diet dropping names yeah right on he had the anabolic diet and uh yeah i just i've always liked it i i just like i like the things that are on like a keto style diet so it's not hard for me to do so it means it's good for your body if you feel good while you're doing it then it works for your body and i have a hard time with control so like for me to try to control control the amount of carbs gets to be difficult and it triggers things because as a kid, you know, I grew up eating a lot of like not I didn't eat junk food nonstop, but I did eat a lot of junk food. And so like, you know, Oreos.

I love junk food. That's what happens. That's what happens to me. The second like I allow myself a little bit of carbs, it somehow turns into like dialogue in my head that it's okay to like eat everything. Goes from one donut to two dozen. Right. And that's what I like so much about the carnivore diet. And that's what we did last time I was here.

Yeah. We did. Yeah, we did. We ate a lot of donuts. But with the carnivore diet, you know, eliminating everything else and saying, no, it's just super black and white. This is what you're doing. I kind of like that discipline.

And you're getting blood work regularly and you're taking over. Yeah. You know. I saw you doing a prick on your head. Yeah, I messed with the blood glucose just to kind of check some of that. And you're healthy. Yeah, everything's checking out really good. I mean, way healthier than I used to be, that's for sure. If you get your blood work done routinely and anybody that gets theirs done routinely, you're going to see stuff on there every once in a while.

It's going to be in the red zone. You go, hey, what's happening with this? But it's something you start to try to figure out and you try to correct. And so my blood work's not perfect, but it continues to get better. And something will be low, something will be high. And I just keep working towards making it better.

So talk to me real quick about your war on carbs. Are you trying to change the world by getting everybody off carbs? I'm trying, yeah. I'm trying to get everybody to ditch them. So are you really wanting me about your war on carbs. Are you trying to change the world by getting everybody off carbs? I'm trying, yeah. I'm trying to get everybody to ditch them. So are you really wanting me to get rid of carbs too? Yeah. Take all those carbs and we'll send them to a country that's less fortunate,

that doesn't have enough food, and we'll spread it over there. You know, I've got to love Mark for saying that. That's big of you to say that too. We're all about helping people and educating and just taking care of as many people as we can. I would just say the main thing that I'm trying to communicate, and sometimes maybe I don't do a good job of it because I do harp on the carbohydrates. It's just my personal belief that every single person can benefit from cutting them out from a health perspective. You can.

And it doesn't have to be zero carb, but cutting back on them. And then it's kind of been our discovery as well here on the show, and many other people have come to the same conclusion. So you just don't, you probably don't need nearly as many as you may have thought. Oh, absolutely. No, I would agree with that too. With the exception of like bulking, maybe you, you know, maybe to get, like I don't know much about that in terms of like bodybuilding,

but I did it for powerlifting and it worked, you know, just to stack on as much weight as I could in a squad, a thousand pounds at work. Yeah. Um, but for the goals that I have now, and most of the people I communicate with, they usually are trying to lose weight. And I think a great way to control the amount of energy that you're consuming is not only to not eat carbs, but to eat meat because, uh, having high, having high amounts of protein uh is very satiating fills you up for a long time leaves you satisfied and then it leaves less room for other stuff so if i could even just give people one note because the general population sometimes are

pretty far behind on what they should do from a nutritional standpoint is just double up your protein that you're eating and then get more to get those calories in some months yeah other things will because it's just an important nutrient that you need you gotta eat the vegetables i hate this with a passion but every time i go to ihop i get spinach even when you're even when you're uh bulking are you still eating vegetables and are you still like doing cardio and stuff like that yes yeah and that's a good point to come across or to talk about is i make sure because of my age now especially that my joints how old are you jay uh 35 they're all yeah nice looking great bro yeah appreciate it so when you get into getting older and bigger and still pounding the weight. Like I'm trying to,

I know there's billions of people out there stronger than I am, but I know that for where I'm at, I'm doing pretty good and I'm doing it smartly with cardio, 20 minutes, cardio, probably four or five days a week, uh, cryotherapy from foam rolling,

uh, proper stretching techniques. I mean, I don't just go in there and throw the weight on there and start training as hard as I can. I do everything that I felt like I should have been doing in the past that I am doing now. That's keeping me healthy. I mean, there's a lot of people at my age now that can't even get up off the couch period, you know, and look at,

um, well, I don't want to say any names, but there's a lot of people that we are associated with that are done. I feel like I'm just hitting my stride and that's why I'm going to do a whole lot more this year with what I've been trying to work towards for the last three years with Big Ron. Wait, so what, let me ask this then, what have you been trying to work towards? Cause I guess I'm out of the loop. So I competed back in the late eighties through the nineties,

early two thousands and had a lot of fun. Lie. It was, you know, and had a lot of fun. Lie. It was, you know, it was good. It was an experience. And, you know, there was some times to where I worked with contracting companies that would send me off to different parts of the city, state, or country, or the other countries, and not a billion was put on a back burner for so many times and for the right reasons.

You know, I just couldn't do it. You know, you can't find a gym out in the middle of a field or a different country that you're, you know, working with. So I feel like that I cut myself short in the bodybuilding spectrum and powerlifting as well because I plan on doing a powerlifting event this year too. Just because it wasn't the drive that I lost. Cause I've had the drive and the dedication for years. It was just the time management. Now I'm retired. Now I can do what I want to do. I mean, I'm working harder now on different projects and helping in different areas, but I think that, or I know for a fact that I can dedicate myself to these next couple of events coming up. And so the last three years three years big run and i have been talking about where i need to be what i need to be doing and my goal was you saw the pictures on the video there of my

abs i was 265 there and i cut down for a photo shoot a year and a half ago and i was 290 before that and now i'm back up to the 290s and i'm supposed to be up here for another month or so and then we start walking down that staircase and see what happens. What's it like training with Ronnie Coleman? Probably the greatest experience I've ever had in my life because, you know, you train for so long and you feel like you know everything. I was just telling your brother yesterday,

I've only used the trap bar like five times in my life. I loved it. You know, I've, I've never box squatted until I was, you know, Ronnie and I train real close to the time that branch Warren and Johnny Jackson trains. I've, I've never box squatted until I was, you know, Ronnie and I train real close to the time that branch Warren and Johnny Jackson trains. I've not ever trained with Johnny,

but branch and I were training partners for five years back in the nineties. And he is a dinosaur monster. I mean, it's just strong and, and, and very hostile in the gym. And that's in training that I like that. That's what matches my mindset and what you know ronnie does too monsters and so i saw them box squatting and i looked at that cringe was like oh my god what are you doing it's gonna kill your spine and johnny came over and talked to me for a few minutes hey big j man this is really good stuff it transfers over into some of your dead lifting and it really helps take care of your spinal whatever dude you sit down wait on your back you're gonna die have fun bubba and so when nobody was in the gym the next week i was like where's that box at nobody here right so i put

135 on my back sat down now you see i do touch and goes a lot and that's safe to do because that box is only like 18 inches of my hip and my knees are 21 inches. So I do get the proper depth. But I did proper seated, took all the resistance off, of course, keeping the back and everything tight. And it felt all right. Well, let's go up to two wheels. I struggle with three wheels. It's a different squat because there's no momentum.

None. You don't get that spring out of the hole. Well, now I'm squatting five wheels for 20 reps from a year ago. Yeah. I just went from one year on box squats. And it feels fairly safe, and it feels like you recover from it a little faster, right? Yeah, I'm pretty sure, yes. Much more recovery.

That's what I feel from it. I feel like a regular squat, and I think you need to do both if you're trying to be a good squatter. Obviously. And I do squat with a hard bar as well. But sometimes, uh, it just, I don't know. Regular squat is just,

it's tough. It's tough. You know, you got to handle the eccentric and the stopping and reversing yourself. So, uh, it might, uh,

just have a little bit greater cost. Yeah. I like it though. And, and I don't know why I get off on the box squats and a trap bar squats, but, oh, because of keeping my mind open to,

you know, when Ronnie says, Hey, do it this way. I just say, yes, sir. You know,

I'm not going to question the greatest bodybuilder of all time. And there's a couple of times that I've said, nah, I don't want to. And he goes, well, that's dumb. Why don't you want to try that?

It's going to be good for you. And he always gets to me you know i'm doing the 160s for 25 reps and i drop it oh that was too easy you should have done five more dude i've never done 160s before and i just did 25 reps oh that's okay do some more does he uh does he really encourage you or is it just his actions? You know, is he there? Okay. I mean, if you ever see our videos, you'll never see him stand up and spot me. If I'm going to die, it's going to be with Ronnie spotting me because he won't stand up and help anybody because he doesn't want anybody to touch his bar either.

I mean, yeah, he'll hand the bar off to me on Bitspress. Yeah, so you don't hurt your shoulders. Yeah, but that's about it. You know, it's all about doing the stuff yourself. Nobody's going to lift for you you know you've been knowing that for years yeah and the things that he says and you know the encouragement that he gives me while i'm training it's just amazing i mean i've learned so much not necessarily uh new exercises or new training programs but humility and intensity you know i train with a lot of intensity when i train with branch but i think right now i know right now i'm stronger in my heavy weight and high rep range than i've ever been in my life how do you get to a point to be able to handle that type of

volume all the time because like yesterday when we were doing all those 20 rep sets i'm just like do you do that often is that like every workout every workout it's like 20 rep sets how i'm sort of a caffeine junkie but i actually i've pulled back from my pre-workouts and coffee and everything i mean i i drink a glass of tea a hot warm tea in the morning at four or five when i wake up and then i'll have coffee with my my second breakfast about o'clock, and then I might take a scoop of pre-workout that recommends like 10 scoops. I'll make a very low minimum dosage, and then I'll have another cup of coffee. I used to drink a pot of coffee before breakfast and a pot of coffee before my workout and three or four scoops of pre-workout.

But I think that as long as I'm keeping my caffeine intake to a minimum and not destroying my central nervous system with a caffeine kick, I think I can still handle it. I mean mean i've been doing this for years yeah and another thing actually i want to know about this when you were doing those 20 rep sets like is the build-up like the typical way you were doing it yesterday like you start with a really light set then you increase it a little bit then you have a third set that's kind of intense then you have the last set that's the most intense 20-rep set, and then you move to the next movement. I think that that kind of explains how it's possible, though, because not every single set of 20 is balls to the wall. It's literally the last set of 20.

The last two. The last two? Yeah. So it was your first workout, so I didn't want to destroy it. I'm not here to destroy anybody. I want to help as much as I can. Yeah. So all I did was quarter, half, three quarters in full for you on everything.

Usually when we're training, we might do five or six sets just to get those first three of the dynamic stretching and warming up properly and get two to three hardcore working sets. Yeah. warming up properly and get two to three hardcore working sets. Yeah. And then once we get to, and like I said, you know, you go to a different exercise, you stay on the same body part, but you have to warm up properly with some light weight. Get into that mobility of that exercise versus, you know, when people go in there and throw two or three plates on and then start

pressing, I mean, you're just setting yourself up for failure. Yeah. Sometimes you folks from the South, you sometimes say something so simple, but it's actually really brilliant. You just said you go quarter, half, three quarters, and then full. Yeah. Sometimes you folks from the South, you sometimes say something so simple, but it's actually really brilliant. You just said you go quarter, half, three quarters, and then full. Yeah. So you go 25%, then you go about 50%, 75%, then you go all out. All out.

And that 75% is a good working set. It is a good working set. Because I told you, on your third set, you should be straining hard after your 15th rep and struggling with the last five. No, I said the last three and then on your on your your fourth set you'll be dying at 12 13 yeah that's exactly what happened everything that you've got to stretch that fascia and tear those muscles down in order for them to rebuild stronger those last five reps those count those are the building blocks are you paying attention to amount of exercises or is it more like you're going like by how you feel and stuff like that? When I train with Brian, which is the owner of Metroplex Gym, one of the greatest men I've ever met in my life.

He has a passion for helping people. I train with him. We do instinctive training because he's got so many injuries. He's 63 years old and still killing it. He just had a total knee replacement. He was squatting a week later. He's a dinosaur too. He's a dedicated monster.

But we do more instinctive training with him because there's so many things that he cannot do. When I train with Ronnie, we do the same exact workout. We've got three or four back workouts we do, three or four chest workouts we do, three or four of each body part, and we'll switch it up. So it'll be chest one on this day. When we get back to chest, it'll be chest two. Then we get back to chest, it'll be chest two. And then we get back to chest, chest three. And so it is the same exact series, but we mix it up every other workout.

Does that make sense? I remember Ronnie Coleman, who has probably the best back in the history of bodybuilding, and people are always talking about muscle confusion and you've got to mix things up. He's like, I don't know if that's true. He's like, I've done the same back workout for the last 20 years. Absolutely. It is. I'm's like i've done the same back workout for the last 20 years absolutely it is i'm telling you it's the same the pull-downs the rows behind the legs i mean what we did was what what we've done i guess one aspect that might change a tiny bit is just like the amount of weight uh or you get better at you get better

at it we'll go to machine we'll do cables and we'll do machines or we'll go dumbbells and we'll do barbells we'll go back and forth with that. Those same exercises. Oh, so sometimes maybe an entire workout is all machines. Yes. Yeah. Something that Ronnie Coleman said that I thought was really brilliant. And let me know, you know, if you guys implemented this as well in your training, which I think I've seen it in your training. Actually, now I think about it.

They asked him, like, why he doesn't like lock out his weights all the way you know so he's like using dumbbells right and when he's warming up he's got full range of motion but as soon as he goes heavier he he wasn't doing a full range you know those old videos him doing 200 he's still smoking and obviously he could do full range sure but he's got a little bit of a bend in the elbow and then somebody asked him and he's just i don't know he's so in tune with how he feels that he's brilliant and he just said i don't do that because it hurts yeah you know if i lock my elbows out all the time on every rep on everything i go heavy very often and it's like it's gonna tear shit up i just thought that was so smart i'm like man people they're not sometimes smart

enough to just rather than listening like science and all this other crap that's out there, they're not in tune with, like, how their body feels. Like, I don't do that because it hurts. Right. Well, there's a lot of times you'll hear, well, if it's good enough for him, it's good enough for me. That's the most incorrect statement you can make. Everybody's different. Everybody's completely different.

And here's something else. You know, I've had several surgeries, and that elbow only goes that far. Yeah. And this one is starting to get drawn up, too. So when I'm bench know everybody oh that's a half wrap that didn't count well i did 20 with five plates it did count for something and my and my chest is still intact it looks pretty good in my opinion so here's the thing use your fullest range of motion that is in your comfort zone okay if you're doing this you know you're not really doing it all, but I get that full range of motion here and I still get to squeeze.

Yeah. So the chest still works. I mean, I don't see anybody watching all these booty crack girls doing those, you know, partial reps on the squats. Oh, that's not a full rep. That's not going to work. Bull crap. Look at those butts, dude.

Those partial rep booty lunges work. I'm telling you. It's building up something. Why can't it work for the chest? That's true. It's the truth. How do you feel about, and i want to know about this because you see a lot of bodybuilders like rocking with the smith machine for squats and some bench press for controlled range how do you how do you feel about that i mean every exercise you know there's so many out there and you got to change it up a little bit. I feel like social media is such a tractor beam, if you would say, for all followers. Oh, I see, I'm not going to say anybody's name, but I see so-and-so inclining three wheels.

I'm going to do that. Well, of course you can incline three wheels on a Smith machine. And it's good to do that every now and then. But I don't think you should put all your eggs in one basket either with the Smith machine. It's just, first off, when you squat, do you really go straight up and down? No. There's a big, giant fulcrum movement. When you bench, no, there's a fulcrum.

There's always a fulcrum movement, meaning you have a swing or a sway. So getting set on a Smith machine, you're kind of taking out your range of motion to your body. And everybody has a certain motion. You put all five of us in here in the room together and get us to bench. I guarantee you each bar path will be different. Guarantee it. Yeah. And each chest is developed differently, you know.

I mean, and maybe if I tried his and he tried mine and you tried his, you would change a little bit. But I think the Smith machine really really it deters what your fullest potential is i think it should be used on occasion but i i think i've used it like 20 times in my life do you think 20 rep sets would be good for somebody younger to try that is trying to get big um to to kind of focus like i think you're doing everything like 20 reps but you've landed on this after many years of of training and this is kind of a style that you evolved into what about for like you know someone that's listening to us and they're they're 20 years old and they're trying to get they're trying to gain some size i think just like we talked about before you know you

should try it you know and you can't try it one time and say i hated it and don't go back again you need to try it more than once and it it will, if you, like we talked about, put enough weight on there to make you die before you get to 20, you're doing something. That also puts so much more blood volume into the muscles. You're not just going for a pump. You're tearing stuff down with heavy weight and you're getting pumped. That's what Michael Harnon capitalized, your best friend. Well, on the mental aspect of the whole thing too, right? I mean, doing 20 reps, that'll change your life.

Yeah, I mean, Stan Efferding too. I saw him doing the 29 messages. Hey, we've been doing 20 since you were in high school, Bubba. Oh, yeah, okay, so what? Whatever, you know, how Stan is. But, yeah, I mean, the 20 reps, if you do the right amount of weight and use the best form you can for the first 70% of it and then push it out the last few, you will grow. I'll tell can for the first 70% of it and then push it

out the last few, you will grow. I'll tell you the first story that I talked to you about with Ronnie. When we first met in 92, I was doing six wheels squatting, you know, down to the ground. I was still in the army and I only weighed 190 to 200 pounds. And he walked over and made fun of me and said, man, what the heck's wrong with your form? How come you squatting so much weight and got little bitty ass legs? I don't know, man. What do you want me to say? He said, you need to take half that weight off and do 20 reps.

Because I was doing like two to three to four powerlifting stuff when I was 190. You know, I should have been doing powerlifting. I should be getting bigger as a bodybuilder. And 1992 was when I started doing 20 reps on everything. Of course, I've worked out and done less reps on things, on video and everything. But the 20 reps volumized everything. I went from like 26-inch legs to 30-inch legs within two years. And that's a short amount of time to grow that much. And, of course, supplements and food and different styles of training.

But I really think that everybody should try it if they're interested in changing up their program and seeing if it can help. Squats, deadlifts, bench press, bent over rows. All of it. Overhead presses. All of it. We need kind of some of these big compound movements, right? When you compound move, you're working your entire body. You know that.

We all know that. It's common knowledge. When you volumize compound movements, you're going to shake some shit up. I'm telling you. 20 reps even on a deadlift? Even on a deadlift. Yes, sir sir 405 we didn't try that workout yeah do you do you don't do sumo do you i don't even know how to spell sumo

i you know what here's my c-h-e-a-t there you go there you go so no not really i mean there's a lot of there's a lot of people that are very successful and strongest guys in the world use it but i i could never master that range of motion and mobility for my hips you really have to open up and i don't i don't think i try hard enough or i didn't i wasn't interested because i don't know if you know who uh what is his name i can't remember his name won the world's about 10 12 years ago damon damon mayors damon myers um he does a sumo style. And I did a video with him when I was in Georgia seven or eight years ago.

And he was like, we're going to get you to lift some heavier weight with a sumo. I said, okay, let's try it. I couldn't pick up 135 off the ground. I couldn't. Because your hips couldn't open up? I don't, I guess. It hurt my butt, my hamstrings, my knees, my hips. I was almost crying.

I don't see how those guys do that but they move some numbers and it's just like spreading your arms as far as you can arching your back and poking your gut out and touching you know with a three inch lift i mean that's the name of the game right shorter distance traveled yeah it still gets a white light but i just i could never master that so when you're doing these like sets of 20 and stuff like um how many different exercises you think you normally do like three four uh so on back day usually four to six yeah uh chest day for every four to six on everything pretty much that we did back and that's a good workout right there yeah it's a lot of volume it's a full solid 50 minutes to hour and 10 minutes with two people

training and not bullshit and just getting to it. You also did mention you're going to be doing a powerlifting meet. So I'm curious, since you were wanting to get stronger and you mentioned powerlifting meet, right? Yeah. Okay. Since you're going to be wanting to get stronger, are you going to continue doing these 20 rep sets into it? No. So obviously I'll pick up you know a five five

you know i'll do what i used to do when i was powerlifting and that was of course uh less reps more weight you know getting to my bigger numbers because there's no way you're going to be able to find out what your potential is if you're squatting five wheels for 20 reps i mean that should equate to a pretty much uh higher, maybe in the 600s, hopefully, you know, maybe, I don't know. Some people are really good at high reps and some people are good at, uh, you know, low reps. I've found that my body reacts better physically and, and, and visually to higher reps. And it's been a long, long time since I pulled big numbers like that. I'm kind of scared of it. Yeah. And that's why I'm going to do it after my bodybuilding show instead of

before. Cause I want to hurt myself. I think a lot of people honestly like would react. Well, it's very, very high reps. The only thing is that the initial few weeks or months of doing high reps is a,

a very painful, sore experience. It sucks, but it's healthy though. Think about it. It's a cardio workout i mean after every set were we out of breath the whole workout we were out of breath yeah instead of doing five reps sitting down for two minutes and resting going back and putting

more weight on wrapping our knees chalking up telling three or four war stories squatting three more reps and being able to talk during the set it's a different story yeah big war stories are important the war stories are important. The war stories are very important. Where do we tell, we could just tell war stories here, I guess. We have been. We've been working towards that, huh? This entire time.

You've had a lot of different experiences in your life and you and I talked on the phone not too long ago. I don't know if you want to open up and talk about that at all, but something I wanted to mention is that, and I'd like to know, I'd like to know kind of how this came to be. You're one of the most kind people that is in our circle. And I'd like to figure out, you know, how that came to be. Have you made mistakes in your life where you may be mistreated people? where you maybe mistreated people? Have you been mistreated yourself? Like kind of what led you?

And it sounds like a lot of the people you work out with sound like they have a kind heart as well. Like Ronnie Coleman, we're aware of the intensity in the gym, but he seems like he's very kind. Nicest guy I've ever met in my life. Meeting Branch Warren, he was the same way. And it sounds like it's kind of like a culture thing that you guys have going might be a texan thing yeah although i'm not from texas what do you think has led to that did you have a dad or a mentor or somebody in your life that uh my grandpa and there we go yeah my grandpa so not to get too deep into you know this tough topic but

everybody has a hard childhood you know i was raised poor i didn't have any food or i grew up in the streets stepdad beat me up yeah you know downstairs yeah so you know it was it was mentally challenging but back in the 60s you didn't know what a mental challenge was that was you know vietnam korea was just ending vietnam was getting rolling and you know the parents were up in arms and we thought world war III was happening. It just, you know, it was a crazy time. So there's a lot of different stuff going on with the adults that, you know, are not old enough to be parents. And then the kids that shouldn't even be left alone for more than five seconds with, you

know, a toaster. It's just those things teach you how to be more self-sufficient and not to be worried about what's going on, but to take care of business. Well, I grew up, you know, a little bit in the mountains. So we were splitting wood and hunting for our food and didn't have any money. And that, you know, brings you to a realization of thankfulness. And so when my parents split and I moved to Texas, uh, it was a whole nother world. You know, there was people with TVs. We didn't have TV people with indoor plumbing. I'm telling you, man, man i grew up on little house in the prairie we didn't have indoor plumbing you know we had a pump for the water i got a video on youtube your mind right oh big time i'm like

what is that what's that dude doing inside that box behind that screen i'm serious i didn't know what that was and so getting to see some of the other things that were happening uh and then of course long story short a lot of loss in my family, you know, lost relatives, very close, you know, really, really, really torn. And you can relate to this, you know, how you feel, how you feel today, you know, whether it's been 20 years, two months, whatever. And so it teaches me several things. Humility, number one uh don't take anything for advantage number two i'm about to cry um and how you spell love i talked to that last time yeah yeah you shared that with me and i share it frequently i probably share it a couple times a year on my uh on my instagram and you said

that uh uh the way that you spell uh love is t-i-m-e and i share that with my children my you'll love this i'll take a picture of it today. I'll send it to you. The rock. Your daughter did for you. Yeah, my daughter made a rock. And on one side it says time. On the other side it says love.

Absolutely. Yeah. She made that for me when I was like five or something like that. So I guess the biggest thing, and not to change the subject, and that's a hard story, but when I was in the military, you know, there's always a thought of, okay, am I going to make it back? Are we going to go to war again? What are we going to do? So drinking, partying, chasing things that you're not supposed to chase, and you get into the mindset of, okay, I'm invincible, I'm going to die.

You finally have kids. It changed your life. You have a family. It changed your life. You've got a wife and kids and people that love you, and if you don't love them back and punch the clock a time, you lose it. And then when you start losing people for real, sisters, brothers, mothers, you know, uncles, you're just like, holy shit, this is real.

It gets real, real fast. And I've had so many in the last two years. I don't want to get into it because I'll start crying. But I don't think that unless you, just like we talked about, experience it, you really don't know what it's like. Hey, I just saw a really kick-ass movie. There's a lot of shooting, a lot of fighting. Oh, yeah, I've seen kick-ass movies too.

He doesn't realize how good of a movie that was until you see it. You don't know the loss until you lose it. You don't know the pressure and the gains until you put pressure on yourself. So being able to be working out with some of the greatest bodybuilders in the world. And I'm telling you, man, lift through it, what you're talking about. And it's really helped me take care of some of these, not necessarily insecurities. I'm not very insecure about anything, but I do have this side of me that wants everybody to not necessarily like me because when people say, I don't give a F you know, they do, they really do. Cause I get

butt hurt when somebody didn't like them. I want them to know that I'm here for them. And I love as hard as I can every single person in my life. And you know this. We text message back and forth. And I appreciate your correspondence. You know, anybody that gets my number has free access anytime. And I'll do the best I can to respond with love and kindness and consideration. Because that's been given to me through certain people that I don't feel like I deserved, but I got it anyway.

I think it's really important for people that are listening that are going through a tough time. When something crappy happens, it's really important that you stay attached to the good people that are in your life and you'll know who they are. And then also stay attached to the things that you really enjoy, the things that you really love that are not reckless. You know, if you like beer, it's not, it's not great to somebody dies. It's not great to go out and drink and do drugs and stuff like that's pretty, uh, pretty obvious. But you know, when you and I talked a few months back, you were going through a family situation and I just said, you know, I wanted to make sure that you were

healthy and making sure that you were sounding okay which you were and i was just like we you know we got to get you back in the gym you know to make sure that the gym is there and you're like that was the first thing you said yeah and i said even hey even come up here to sacramento and you know kick it with me and smoky and in sema and andrew and we'll we'll get some training and we'll get some lifting then you ghosted me yeah and i said i'll never say that was that was a year ago thanks for finally having me out i don't know i don't know i thought you disappeared i don't know uh it goes along the same story with this was this was the turning event of my life when i was in the military i got run over by humvee broke over 20 bones was paralyzed for a few days doctor said i'd'd never walk again. And I was like, oh, bullshit, man, I'm doing something again.

And I was dark, depressed, down, you know, drugs, everything. I lost everything. I felt like I lost everything, but the people that loved me were still there. You just, you cloak that, you know, and you start pushing out. And it's so stupid of a reaction that we have. I don't need anybody. And then you're crying, what does anybody love me? of a reaction that we have right i don't need anybody and then you're crying what does anybody love me so after that event uh literally i was doing little dumbbell curls with the arm that

wasn't in the cast i had a body cast you know legs and ribs and all that i was doing little three pound and five pound curls you know just a week later and then uh a month later i was depressed again of course hooked on painkillers and whatnot. And finally, after about the second or third month, I had a chaplain. He was an old Vietnam veteran came in. Um, God, I can't think of his name. He's probably dead now, but he came up and told me, look, son, you look like you got some muscle, look like you work out and you're depressed and you're pissing me off. You better get your ass up, go to the gym and start working out again.

Cause that's what makes you happy. I can tell that. I know that. Sure as shit. Less than a year later, I was doing a straw man competition, walking, running, pulling, pushing, and it helped me get back into it. Yes. The family was there.

You know, your maker that you pray to is there for you and you got to reach out to those inner sources. But the external stuff, fishing, hunting, drag racing, anything that's safe, that's not going to hurt anybody and bodybuilding, you know, working on the gym, you release pressure. There's, you know, there's different, um, things that get released in your body that make you feel better when you do something that you're proud of, because if you, you, uh, feel better, you are better. That's all there is to it. You go on some of those hog hunts with Branch Warren?

You know, I've never been hunting with Branch. We always talk about it, but we never go. He is one hardcore dude, man. I'm telling you, all around. He go out there with a knife or something and jumps on their back or something? No, that's Brian. Brian will hunt with a pocket knife. We'll sit back up in the brush with our weapons.

Brian's still one hardcore dude. That's wild. he'd be good to have on the show go out with a pocket knife and kill what like a wild boar yeah whatever you know it's that's what yeah okay no he hunts with a bony he hunts with a spear yeah yeah wow how long you been hunting uh man you know I'm not an avid hunter anymore. I used to hunt a lot when I was a kid with my family and then joined the military and really didn't have that much time to hunt. When I moved to Colorado, Fort Carson, we did a lot of fishing and some hunting up in the mountains, up in the Gunnison area there. But, you know, since I've been back, I've just done a lot of fishing.

I've got lots of fishing videos on my channel. Got a good friend that'll go fishing with me. Ronnie and I go fishing too. Yeah. And like outside of, I guess you mentioned fishing, but outside of just having the gym as a physical outlet, is there anything else that you turn to other than the gym and like family, et cetera, that allows you to, I guess, get the same type of happiness? Sure, shooting. Yeah, I love to go shoot so uh there's a range

you know real close to the gym there that i'll go good outdoor range i shoot here in semi-valley turn tacticals with those guys uh you know i've got a farm lots of acreage so i'll shoot out there and it's you know it's relieving here's why i want to interject this real fast when and we as bodybuilders and powerlifters and avid workout personalities uh we're dedicated i mean we don't miss if we miss it's like oh my god beat yourself up here's the thing we should not beat up people that fall off the bandwagon that are not as dedicated as us because that deters them more so i just came to a realization of that less than a month ago when i was talking to taryn butler

which owns taryn tactical trans counter reeves and all those movie stars he asked me when the last time i shot was and you know i'm not gonna shit every day that's a lot of money you know i'm not gonna take the time to go to the range it's a lot of time you know then i have to clean my weapon that's a lot of time too i said well i haven't shot in a couple months a couple months what's wrong with you you know you're never gonna never going to get better. Oh, I'm fine. I'm fine. And then I started thinking, how many times have I told people that stopped working out just because they were having a hard time really going through deficit. They didn't have enough money to put gas in the car. And I'm like, oh, you're just a failure. Yeah. You'll never, nobody will remember

your name. I mean, seriously, not to that extent, but it just finally put into perspective, you know, 50-something years later that you have to be not necessarily soft to people, but be, what is that word, empathetic. Like, okay, when's the last time you worked out? Oh, I spent a couple weeks. Instead of loser, you know, well, why? What's going on? You want to come work out with me? Or, you know, should we just go fishing instead or something?

So I really think that we as leaders in the industry or in our field should be more productive in promoting them to get back into it instead of deterring them by looking down on them. I've been guilty of that so many times. And I post that on my page. I would never fall off. You guys are losers, you know. Not really. But, again, that's what i'm thinking yeah i think every everybody though not just if you guys are you know you you two specifically but like if you're a figure in the fitness world it's not just you guys like uh i'm

not i'm not a figure competitor my bad um but what i mean is like you know there are a lot of people that that just joined a gym recently right because? Because the new year, all that stuff. And what's like the most nicest thing you can tell somebody that kind of falls off is, oh, I haven't seen you in a while. Like, no, don't be a dick. Like, do exactly what Jay just said. Like, hey, dude, everything all good? Good to see you again. Yeah.

Good to see you again. Happy year back. What are you training today? Exactly. Looking better. So I just want to, you know, it just goes across the board. Everybody should be following that. Absolutely. And we don't.

I mean, I fall off all, it just goes across the board. Everybody should be following that. And we don't. I mean, I fall off all the time because I'm only human. But I think if we're more, again, empathetic towards, you know, when you fall off, because we all do. I mean, I've fallen off several times. Yeah. A couple of days, you know, maybe a week at the most. But when you come back, it's good for people to say to you, hey, good to see you. Good to be back.

Welcome back. What's up, man? How's it going? Instead of being that guy that says, oh, hey, good to see you. Good to be back. Welcome back. What's up, man? How's it going? Instead of being that guy that says, oh, you lost your gains, dude. You look like you lost 20 pounds. Yeah. You pull out your weapon. Start shooting everybody in the gym.

You know, I do think it would be great if everyone had some type of physical outlet, though. Because what you were saying with the gun range guy, like that's his field. That's his expertise. But not everyone that picks up a gun is going to want to do it every single day to get better exactly you know same with weights too same with weights not everyone's going to want to train in the gym as much of us some people like when they get depressed or sad they read a lot they read a lot of books not everyone's going to turn to reading every single day for multiple hours a day to to cure their happiness so i mean everybody has that thing that they turn to, whether it's unhealthy or not,

that allows them to feel better. And I guess that does make a lot of sense. You have to. You have to have something. Yeah. You have to have an outlet. You do. Because, you know, 24-7, the same exact thing, you know, there's a lot of people that do

it. There's a lot of people that did it in the 40s and 50s and 60s and had the same job for 50 years and died in it. But, you know, now it's a lot of people that did it in the 40s and 50s and 60s and had the same job for 50 years and died in it but you know now it's a different world there's so many more avenues of things that we have at our fingertips and let's go the gun range hey let's go to that lake and go fishing hey let's go you know hunting let's go drink a cold beer real quick you know just one two or three or four hey let's go to the gym that's a good idea yeah you uh mentioned you're on the set of uh john wick what were you doing on there just uh stalking keanu reeves or what no i i i train with their trainers and kind of hang out with all the stunt doubles and stuff it's it's

cool thing i've done a couple of movies and acted you know on tv shows and done some stunt work and it's you know i'm the jackax guy that gets killed first, probably. Always. Yeah. Like you got the flashlight, and you, you know, you're startled by some weird noise, and you go, what the, and you get up, and then, yeah, you go to walk around the corner, and you get clotheslined or something.

At least one that I was successful in. I got to hold the guy that had to kill me up in the air with my hand for a while. Oh, there you go. Yeah, it was good. And then he, you know, killed me. Actually, you know what? That brings up something because a lot of really fit people, I've seen quite a bit get into stunt work.

So how would one, I guess, if they wanted to get into that type of field or get into that, how would they do it? So nowadays, of course, the Internet makes it easier to do anything. They have these all calls. So if you get on you know i don't know what it's called anymore i just get phone calls but there's an all call or a set casting call for a movie that's going on that's filming close to you all you gotta do is apply and they'll accept you you can go in there and try out for you know if you have skills as a stunt

person or you can be an extra just wear the same uniform that guy's wearing and hold the door open when this guy's going out and smoking cigarettes or whatever i mean it's fun i was in prison break walker texas ranger um i love that project 866 uh triggering uh extra work and stunt work yes stuff yeah well because if you're not really an actor which i'm not uh you know they'll throw you in wherever they want you if your size meets uh the size of the guy or girl you know that you're not really an actor, which I'm not, they'll throw you in wherever they want you. If your size meets the size of the guy or girl that you're doubling for, and if you look just like that person, you might be actually physically seen in the movie. You can see me a couple times in Prison Break. You like doing that? You still do that now?

I'm kind of trying to, but i can't get beat up as much as i used to because i've worked with jackie chan and all of his stunt doubles several times and those guys are you know less than half my age and 10 billion times more agile than i am i'm just the big guy that gets killed at the first part of the movie let me ask you this yesterday you were you were mentioning something that kind of surprised me because i'm everyone knows me here for not knowing anything about football. I don't play football at all. I don't even know the rules.

But I played soccer my whole life. And then you mentioned that you also played soccer for how long? And you played professionally too? I played on a semi-pro league in Germany. A semi-pro league. Yeah. That's crazy. And it was when I was 10.

I always stayed trim in high school football. And I guess soccer was the best outlet for people in the 60s and 70s to get rid of their kids for a while. Yeah. And so, you know, played a lot, and I loved it. Both my kids grew up playing soccer. Both of them had scholarships through college, paid for the college with it,

and my youngest one actually played on a pro team as well. That's crazy. And I love soccer, by the way. I mean, it's one of the most, I don't know, there's so much cardio endurance. These guys have got 110 yards wide. Is the field 60 or 70 yards wide? It's 110 long. It's a lot of running.

It's a lot of running, and that's all they do. They don't stop. They don't stop. I mean, football is a tough game, too, believe me. But you're really only playing three minutes out of 15, you know, because you're getting up off the ground. You're walking to the huddle. You're walking to the line of scrimmage.

You sit there and wait. You look for the calls. You sit. If you're not on offense, you know, you're sitting down during half of the game. And, yeah, not taking anything away from those guys. They're amazing athletes. They are. That's why they're professionals.

But you get a professional soccer player to come in here and do a workout with you, you will be left in the dust. Yeah. I'm telling you. That makes a lot of sense. Yeah, lots of cardio. And I did that when I was younger. Of course, I never want to play again.

I'll play goalie, the one that just sits there and lets you kick the ball at him. Yeah. Your daughters lift, too. Yes, they do. Yeah, Carly. Did you kind of get them into lifting when they were young kind of for soccer, or did they kind of like come to you and they wanted to pursue some lifting just because they wanted to be better how did that work out so i'm not that dad uh i started trying to coach my oldest one when uh when she played and i kind of ruined her for a while and finally my youngest one came up was like i don't want you to coach me it's like

fine whatever and so they both had professional coaches they did all the select league they you know did the odp olympic development program and i think a lot better with true coaching um it's hard not to like over you know over intervene right like it's tough because yeah your dad yeah you know it all and you yeah you really want to uh show them and one of my son was like playing baseball and stuff and my daughter plays like volleyball like just because you've been around you just think that you know stuff but like i don't know shit about baseball or volleyball same certainly volleyball not zero right yeah what color ball is that and so yeah you want to you want to like try to i guess you're trying to encourage them but you can be

discouraging them oh you can if you come at it from the wrong end because of a certain age they get to where they don't like you you know i'm sure where yours are now, but mine hated me for a while. But then we're best friends now. And to go back to your question, I never coached them to go to the gym. I never asked them to go to the gym. I had my gym right after the oldest one was born, and she's almost 30 now. And so it was always something that they would come by, bring me food, stop by with a soda buy with a soda or whatever and sit at the desk but would never touch away just because they weren't interested.

And I didn't want to force that on them. Their goal was to, and their job was to play soccer and be as good as they could because I always told them, this can pay for your college. It will. And it did. So finally, when they got into college, the college coaches were getting them to lift, you know, because my youngest one went to mississippi state you know one of the best schools out there as far as athletics are concerned and supporting the teams uh my youngest one went to northwood university in hill uh and

they both the coaches were urging them to lift yeah like oh hey my dad owns a gym and he's you know he loves to win too should we go work out with him and of course they were you know we all kind of knew each other so it worked out really good well you've seen my youngest one yeah you sent videos yeah she's pulling three wheels off the ground now and she's never powerless to the day in her life that's great yeah and her boyfriend lives too i'm like yeah right on yeah and my oldest one she you know she played a lot of soccer but she's now into a different dieting program uh she's more into you know less meat and i'm not sure what all she's doing but she's now into a different dieting program uh she's more into you know less meat and i'm not sure what all she's doing but she's she's lost a lot of weight and she still

works out avidly not real intense but you know the you know the other stuff the yoga and you know the kettlebells and the higher reps not much weight but i mean yeah it runs in the family where'd you get your get your start with lifting? Like where did all this? Junior high. When did it all happen? Obviously, I say junior high, high school. Obviously, the Arnold books, you know.

I saw Chris Dickerson win the Olympia in 1982, and I thought, man, that's something pretty cool. I'd like to how do we do that you know those veins and those muscles it's appealing to most guys you know to have that kind of muscle so uh in high school you know we had a weight room and it wasn't mandatory just like all right let's run sprints and put on the pads and beat the hell out of each other and then there's a weight room do what you can do right there at the end i had a coach coach or i can't believe i hadn't said his name in 30 years uh he was a power lifter and he was pulling like i think it

was just three wheels dead lifting and this is like 83 or 84 is he wearing those old school uh short shorts that the coaches always had yeah on top of the sweats yeah yeah uh amazing look only we could go back they should bring that back we should be wearing that right yeah the shorts over top of the top of the sweatpants that's an odd that's an odd look it's just a very odd look and it was just the look that the coaches had in the 70s and 80s with the socks pulled all the way up to the kneecaps anyway he was dead lifting three wheels and back then that's a lot of weight i'm thinking man i don't know where are you moving that weight dude that's that's that's a lot of weight there's a transmission and an engine put together

and so i uh walked in there and talked to him and he said you know you can lift with me so i lifted with the coach and man i was bit by the bug after that i just wanted to keep on keeping on um but yeah sort of high school junior doing it ever since doing it ever since it's a dedication it's not i want to talk about motivation and dedication. I hate the word motivation because it's actually, it's not caffeine. It's a stimulant, right? It wears off really fast. Hydration is forever, right? You put the water in the body, your body sustains it.

You use it, whatever. It takes more of a dedication to get up and go to the gym every day for 38 years straight than it does motivation. Motivation falls by the wayside. You get these guys, you gotta wake up and they're just screaming in the camera. It's not even a video of them. It's somebody else talking about Ronnie or Dorian or somebody got to eat your effing egg watch. You got to effing want it. You got to effing love it. You know, you don't got to get so upset about it. Just get up and do it. Be dedicated. You know, I get up and spend five to 10 minutes of personal time, no phone, no, no calculator or no computer or nothing. Nobody five to 10 minutes, thankful for what I've got instead of looking for what's wrong.

And it's my thing now, thankful for what I've got instead of looking for what's wrong. And then I get on my phone and I start doing my emails because I have a couple of businesses I got to take care of. And after that, start the coffee, start your day. And if you do not, it's not that you have to have a regimen, but it does help to have your regimen. But if you do not make up your mind that your list of things that you have to do for the day is mandatory, then you're not dedicated. I'll get to it tomorrow. It's easy to say that when you're retired, because that list just keeps getting longer and longer. You got to cross off something, at least one or two things things a day but getting to the gym is what i do every single day six days a week you're not going to feel good about yourself if you're not crossing things

off the list right you know yeah that list is about from here to smoky now is there a time that you like i guess that it's switched from being pure motivation to dedication that you just realize this is something that I need to do no matter what else happens? I think it's on and off. Yeah. Sometimes I know it's easy to do and it doesn't bother me and I get up and I want to go to the gym. I can't wait to get to the gym. 90% of the time that's me. But there is a time that I realize that, oh man, my back, oh my shoulder, oh my knees, oh this weather. I got to go feed the feed the horses. I've got to go tend to the farm. I've got to go help so-and-so.

I don't want to go to the gym. It's where the dedication comes in. You get that stuff done. You get your honey-do list and your chores taken care of, and then you go back to the dedication part of it, and you realize, I am dedicated, and you've got to feel good about that. You've accomplished that. Daily accomplishments.

There's a general that gave a speech at one of these inauguration or not inauguration, but graduations. And he said, look, make your bed every day. You know, I don't know the full thing, but I just remember him saying those simple things will make you an accomplished person. Cause if you don't make your bed, what are you going to do with your job? Yeah. There's a whole book on it. Yeah. Um, how'd you get into social media? Cause I think that that ends up being really important, too, because you have so many people that are relating to the information that you're sharing now. But you're one of the OGs. You were on social media early on. So I guess let me go way back to the first YouTube video 11 years ago.

There was a guy that came to my gym. strongman seth if you're watching thank you so much i owe it all to you brother uh he came and he had said hey did you see stan everything single harm deadlift 315 or something like that and i said no where'd you see him do that oh on youtube i said on what tube he said youtube i said where is that at he said i'll watch he put his phone at that time i had a brick phone one two three four five six and then the little star that went across when it rang and he opened up and there's a video and i jumped back what the hell is that yeah this is the devil he said no this is uh are you pulling up strongman set down that looks like a weird what is that oh it's a dumbbell yeah some of my first videos he is the one that videoed me because he taught, he showed me that

Stan was doing this and he said, let me record you and then we'll put you on YouTube. I was like, yeah, I guess that's cool. And so, uh, yeah, that's Dan there or Troy, but Seth is recording me. And so he posted it up on YouTube and there was like 10 followers and there was like four comments. Hey man, thanks a lot for watching. This is awesome. Yeah. Where are you from? They're like from Australia or Norway or Canada. Well, this is crazy.

How in the world is this going on? So I enjoyed that. And there was a lot of people that were, you know, saying, Hey, good job, buddy. Way to go. I like that. That's cool. Made me feel good. So I took over the channel and then became a partner. And of course, you know, you, you have monetization and whatnot whatnot which makes it nice to be able to help people to get paid for um and yeah so i've been doing the youtube

videos for 11 years about four years later i got hired by a supplement line uh fusion bodybuilding great company in canada and they uh they said hey why don't you get on instagram i was like insta what and they said instagram that's the big thing and, yeah, no, I don't even like this. YouTube takes a lot of work. But it turned into be a pretty good thing, obviously, because the networking is so amazing. You could make a post and everybody in the entire world can see that post, depending on your followership. And it's helping. There's people on those videos that I kind of forgot who they were. But it just yeah that's my old gym there big j's extreme fitness and how do you

sometimes deal with like negativity through social media because there's a lot of great positives to it i think the positives way far outweigh the negatives but there are absolutely there are some negative comments here and there and stuff how do you tend to handle that stuff first off you got to have tough skin. You can't be hurt by every comment that's negative, and there's a lot. And I think you and I share the same feelings that it doesn't necessarily hurt my feelings, but it takes me back for someone to just come in so negatively about something that you're working so passionately about to help and that you're doing a passionately about to help and that you're

doing a good job at it too. And so it took me a while to get that thick skin social media wise, because, you know, some of my family reads those comments like, I don't know, world, do you put up with that? Well, am I really a fat old gray haired guy? Yeah, maybe, but it doesn't offend me for someone to say that because I probably would have said it 30 years ago too. And so as long as you don't take these comments personally you don't invest a lot of time and you don't go back and forth don't feed the fire don't pour fuel on a fire just put it out and say hey man here's a glass of water have a nice day and a lot of times i say thank you i was thirsty you know you're gonna get some good stuff back and sometimes they're just there to hate on you

and that's fine too i don't block those people i just don't respond to them yeah you just they they burn out pretty quickly because they're there to hate you now that echoes uh jordan syatt said something very similar like a lot of those people like it you kind of just got to feel sorry for them at the end of the day because it takes a lot of energy and just a lot of sadness to sit at your phone or at your keyboard and just say some shit to somebody that you don't know. Yeah. You gotta be just a pretty sad person. What's funny is you'll get a comment and like,

here's my scenario and people that are listening. This is, this is what I do every time I post a picture or video and I'll walk away and I do not go back to that video until I'm going to post another one when I post another one then I'll go back and answer everybody's comments and questions and remarks and I answer everybody anybody that follows me knows that but I wait 24 hours so I'm not going back and forth for five minutes with one guy or girl but if it's a hating comment I mean it's been up for 24 hours, and you respond with something, and they come right back.

Whoa. Were you waiting for me? What happened, dude? They were waiting around. Yeah. But again, if you don't feed the fire and you answer them professionally and with as much kindness as you can, a lot of times you can put that fire out and then you move on. Don't take it personally because they don't really know you. They know nothing about you. They see 30 seconds of your day, of your 24-hour day. They can't don't really know you. They don't know nothing about you. They see 30 seconds of your day of your 24 hour day.

They can't make a judgment on you. Don't allow them to, because you're going to be in charge of how you feel. If you let it affect you, it will affect you. Yeah. And I think a lot of people, especially with like,

with how many people have businesses that are fueled or they market through social media and they're on that a lot, a lot of people need to, to take that to heart because it's this because this is a very different type of beast. You know what I mean? Yeah, it's just comments, but a lot of people put a lot of weight into what all those negative people think and then they put that on themselves. Yeah. We didn't have to deal with this 12 or 13 years ago.

Not at all. You know, and kids are having to deal with this too. So it's just, it's a different animal. It's very toxic. Very toxic. And I think it's our job as parents or peers or leaders in the industry, especially as long as you and I have been in the industry and you as well, to teach people not to let it affect them. It's strange and it's sad that we have to have those kind of talks with people. But if we're mature enough to handle it ourselves, then we need to hand that down, pass the torch.

That's why I always like to try to be as friendly as possible because I have been granted so many blessings with people that I've trained with that taught me to be humble. It taught me to be the best I can be, you know, be the person in the mirror, not the person beside you. You know, I'd be in competition with everybody else. Yeah, it's good to be great best I can be, you know, be the person in the mirror, not the person beside you. You know, I'd be in competition with everybody else. Yeah, it's good to be great. I love being great. But I like being a better me than a better, you know, Joe Blow.

I'm not going to go out and buy a fancy car and post it all over the place. I'm not going to, you know, I like watches. I love watches. But, you know, I'm not going to post about every other post. I'm going to post about the badass lift I just lifted because that's what you want to see. I know it. And that's what you want to see i know it and that's what i want to do i have other pages for cooking and other pages for cars oh it's another pages for for clothing yeah so i keep it simple let's train hard you know you don't

want to see me curling five pound dumbbells to warm up you want to see me dead lifting 600 pounds let's do that yeah enjoy it that's great what you got over there andrew uh just in regards to like the the comments and stuff it always just baffles me how almost like just the the simplest thing that you can post on whether it be social media youtube or whatever like how just like how is this the thing like how is this the thing that gets you so triggered to start just pounding away on your keyboard it's like what i mean can't there be something else better in your life to be doing right now other than smashing away on the keyboard? And it's just always funny to me because it's like when you do respond with kindness

and you respond with a good answer, they come back even more upset. Some of them don't. Some of them come back with, thank you, I was having a bad day. Yeah, yeah. Like I've responded to somebody who like they were like, oh, thatrew's boring i was like hey dude my bad like i'm working on it you know this is still new to me i'm trying and he's like oh shit dude you're actually pretty cool all right never mind it was pretty you know it was just funny but yeah for the most part it's just like i don't know man like it's we're it's just the internet like go it's a tractor beam

yeah go you get sucked into it very quickly yeah if somebody flashes their butt or their boobs or the car or a palm tree and it's like oh i want to have that life so that guy drove three hours and hired two thousand dollars worth of camera work to film him getting out of his car slow motion walking into the gym clapping chalk powder and lifting you know three or four plates and the video is over. It's like, how in the hell does that motivate you? That guy just spent his whole day doing 30 seconds of nothing. Yeah.

And then even like today's live streams in the chat room, it happens almost every podcast. Somebody will come in and you can tell what they're getting at because they'll come in and they'll send a bunch of comments comments back to back to back to back. So you'll see them. And they'll always come back to, well, these guys are just on all of the steroids. So no matter what they're talking about. I love talking about steroids. What is he asking?

Just saying that basically you're big because you're on gear. This is my 38th year being big. Yeah. I haven't been on gear for 38 years. So my response to him was like, well, do you think that's cheating? Because I kind of like stir in the pot a little bit. Oh, boy. The truth comes out.

But he didn't say anything. So here's the thing. I want to talk about, let's talk about steroids. Can we? Yeah. I love talking about steroids. So when people ask me if I'm on gear, I say, no, I'm not. I'm on testosterone replacement therapy.

I take one shot of testosterone every seven to 10 days, if I can remember. I was a farm boy. I grew up hauling hay, splitting wood, building fences, picking up tractor rear ends. It's a lot of hard work. So I was already strong beforehand. When I was competing, of course I took a gear. I took a lot of gear. Some probably would have killed me if I wasn't in the shape that I was in.

But then when I stopped competing in 02, I stopped taking gear, gear period all together i didn't take an aspirin after that because i knew that it was very toxic to my body if i wasn't going to use it when i started getting hired by these companies to represent supplement lines all these pro body builders were still huge and i was you know drying up and getting skinny and weak i was like i'm gonna jump back on the gear so i did and then out, okay, I'm not going to take as much gear as I was taking when I was competing. But keep in mind, I was still just as strong and just as big. I was probably only supposed to be 190 pounds when I was a kid. But because I, and when I grow up, but because I took so much gear and I changed my set points and I changed my body through progressive overload for years.

I just became a bigger person. And when I was off the gear, I never got below 260. That was gear free for like six years. And then when I got back on it, I bought a whole bunch of stuff. I'm thinking, why the hell am I going to do this to my body? So I went to the doctor almost 50 years old. He's like, hey, you don't need to take all that here. Let's look at your blood work.

Let's see where you're deficient. Let's see what's going on and check it out. He says, Hey, you're kind of low, but we can give you this and get you back on your wheels. So yes, I take steroids. I'll say yes. Every day. It's not a big deal. I've been prescribed it and it helps me. And yeah, I'm stronger because of it because I recover quicker and I do all the proper things that you're supposed to do while you're training, crawl therapy, foam rolling, you know,

stretching, all that stuff, eating, nutrition, supplementation, sleeping, hydration. So yeah.

Thanks for the question, buddy. It's kind of an interesting thing. Cause you know what I usually, a lot of times I'll say to people is it's an option for everybody. I mean, so, and I'm not like,

I don't feel that I'm using it because I'm not, even when you compete in powerlifting, I mean, there's drug-tested federations and there's non-drug-tested federations. I never took steroids and competed in a drug-tested federation. I never tried to pass myself off as being natural. And then in addition to that, when I did bodybuilding, it was the same thing.

You can choose natural bodybuilding where they run some tests. And that's where I think things get a little bit weird. But taking some anabolics is, it's an option for everybody. Like how, like somebody who says, I really want to get bigger. Well, how much bigger do you want to get? Because maybe that's different for you and maybe that's different for me and maybe that's different for me maybe it's different for him and then also like what are your genetics you know maybe you'll run into a wall and maybe you'll feel that you need to take something to give you a little extra but sure you know and that's really really all everyone's trying to do is just you know and i

always look at these comments and i i think about how people are reacting to stuff and i think about my reasons on why i've used anabolics for the last 20 years or whatever it's been uh the main reason is i'm just trying to do the best i can just like everybody else yeah like you're trying to do the best you can at your job you're trying to do the best you can as a husband you're trying to do the best you can as uh whatever the hell it is that you're doing i'm just trying to do the best i can and because of that it's my belief that that helps me do the best I can. Why not put a little high-octane fuel in your car, buddy?

Makes you run better. As long as you're not hurting yourself. I'm not trying to compete in anything natural. Exactly. As long as you're not hurting yourself, as long as you're not promoting it to hurt someone else, then why not? You know? Do what you're going to do. Do what you've got to do.

You're in charge of your body. You know, you're not going to make me feel bad about myself because I feel good about myself. Yeah. And I'll also never lie about, I mean, they do make a difference. Yeah, they do. They make a great, they make a huge difference. A phenomenal recovery period. But the difference that they make doesn't stack on top of itself. So, you know, you've been using them for a long time.

I've been using them for a long time. It might make you a little bit better, but it doesn't make you a little bit better all the time. I don't know if that's making sense. It doesn't accumulate. So whatever this 5%, let's just say, let's say it helps you. Let's say it helps increase body size. We'll just say by 20%. You get the 20% once and that's it. You said you increased your set point, but you kind of did it once. You have a new set point, but you don't continuously, you're not 300 pounds and ripped. Right. Right. You don't continuously have a new set point.

Right. And you can take a lot of stuff and then you can start getting into like growth hormone and insulin. And you can maybe change the set points a few times. But the card that you play when you take anabolic steroids is it just levels you up just one time and that's it. Sure. It's like when people say I'm getting stronger by the day or, you know, I'm increasing, et cetera, et cetera. If that were true, we'd all be bench pressing 3,000 pounds. You know, you just can't get that much better.

You can get a little better, but not that much better. And when people say they're not, they're only there because of this and this, you got to think about everything that goes into it before this. Right. there because of this and this, you got to think about everything that goes into it before this, right? All the time that you've slept, all the time that you've ate, all the food that you've cut out, all the food that you've added, all the cardio, all the grueling hours at the gym. And there's some people that don't train that hard and just have great genetics, but there is a lot of other people that do put hours and hours and hours of their life into the gym. And that's what happens. You get results, right? And if you don't have the dedication, then you don't, I don't think you have any business taking steroids. Exactly.

You know, make sure that dedication is locked in first. I agree. It's not a quick drug is not going to do that for you. It's not going to make you more dedicated. It is a quick fix, but it can also be a long-term situation for healthy reasons as well. For all my video game nerds. Think about it. Like you have a level cap of 100, right? think about it like you have a level cap of 100 right steroids get you to a level cap of 120 but if you don't do the training you'll never get to level 120 never no you gotta put the training in you can't just take them and not train yeah because you see those guys they're all puffy for like three months they look like they swallowed a balloon you know start rolling up their sleeves yeah tighter shirts yeah i like mark's explanation

of the diminishing returns that was the term that we were looking for that yeah it'll you'll you'll get that 20 but then the next time you might get you know whatever it's not even half right hey change the question change the change the topic all together what made you move here because i like the other place what was wrong with it oh uh so yes uh so Because I like the other place. What was wrong with it? Oh, so, yes. So when I had the other spot in West Sacramento, it's been a dream and a desire of mine to have everything under one roof. And so at that place. Oh, you were separated. That's right.

Warehouse was a different spot. Yeah, right. The warehouse is a different spot. And now we have the ability to, like, print T-shirts here. And we have everything we need here. One-stop shop. Yeah, that was a big reason for the move. And then to have a bigger store. Now we have the ability to like print t-shirts here and we have everything we need here. So one stop shop. Yeah. That was a big reason for the move and then to have a big,

have a bigger store. We had, we sold stuff at the other place, but it was like in, out of a closet pretty much. Which one of these boxes you want me to look in for that again? Hey, and I want to go on record real quick.

I know we're probably about to wrap up. I want to go on record and I said this before and I'll say it again and I posted all about it. But a slingshot gear by mark bell has not only prolonged my lifting career but made me safer and made me stronger and made me healthier and it has definitely extended my life in the gym as well as outside the gym because if i couldn't gym i couldn't jay and that's the bottom line so slingshot you've saved my life thank you so much brother yeah i remember you telling me like that you were felt like you were kind of done you were too like beat

up to do certain movements so you're like i didn't even think i could do those movements anymore no no as a matter of fact my first video that you and i corresponded on was me borrowing a slingshot and somebody brought in and i had 315 like 35 times yeah i was like holy shit sorry holy crap because i could usually only do it for like 12 or 15 reps. And it, you know, it practically doubled it. Now I'm doing five plates for 10 to 15 reps. Yeah. Because it's not the steroids.

Again, it's the training. Right. You know, it's taken 10 years for me to get from the first slingshot use with 315 to my, I don't know, 100th slingshot use with 405. You know, I did 405 cold yesterday for 15 reps with a slingshot. You know, again, using the proper time frame that your body needs to utilize to get to that size. It's not overnight. It takes time.

It took me almost 10 years to get here, but I'm still growing. And the sleeves and the wraps and the slingshot and the wrist wraps. I mean, I've, I've worn that stuff for years, but nothing. And I know I sound like I'm kissing your butt. Thank you for everything you've done for me is all I'm trying to say. It's an amazing product. Thank you. I want to actually ask you this. Cause you mentioned that you've done some martial arts in your time, right? Is, uh, what did you do? And do you ever plan on doing any of that anymore? Do you still do any of that?

Strictly recreational, never competitive. We all did the jiu-jitsu back in the 80s and 90s. Karate, some tang so-do is what I play with now. A lot of stick fighting. A lot of trick martial arts is what I do now. So if we started grappling, you'd pin me in like three seconds. You'd probably punch me out in four or five seconds you know what's that trick what's that uh just you know where there's a lot of camera angles and you know you slap somebody but you really don't well sometimes you do get

slapped uh but the trick fighting is uh you know it's cooler to watch because all the sounds and you hear those and the punches and whatnot so that's what jackie chan and his guys do all the time so when i work with those guys they teach me more of how to fall how to take a punch they let me punch them you know sling them in the air throw them around because i'm the guy that picks them up and then dies all right cool but yeah just strictly recreational i'll do a lot of forms still uh you know i don't practice my chi like i should but i do some meditation in the morning you know I don't really get that deep, but it's a calming sensation. A martial artist should be in charge of his life, not taking charge of someone else's life.

That's cool. I like that. We had a question on a previous podcast, and it just goes back to the motivation versus dedication but i wanted to ask you and mark this question because you're both parents um basically the the the question i'm trying to remember but basically it was like uh is like the only way you can really tap into like the biggest form of motivation is uh by becoming a parent because he was saying that, or maybe it was she, I don't remember, you see a lot of successful people and a majority of them have kids already. Do you think that the ultimate form of motivation can come from creating a family

or having a family, I should say? I think it's a maturity level that you reach once you have a child. I mean, if you don't reach that maturity level, then your child's going to end up worse than you. I mean, I see Mark shaking his head. Being a parent is, you know,

is a whole new job, a whole new line of responsibility. When I think of sometimes when people are very successful, it's when they get distracted away from thinking about one thing too much, although you do need a tremendous amount of focus too. But a lot of people I know that are trying to lose body fat, they go in the gym and they train for strength and then their body ends up becoming better because they didn't think about it as much. Same thing with wealth. I see this happen often where people are so worried about that next payment and they kind of stop. They let their defenses down there and they're not so worried about their next payment and they start being a little bit more giving and then they start becoming more successful.

care of yourself your whole life you had to figure out ways for you know you to be fed and you know you're thinking about yourself all the time how do i make it to the next day how do i improve how do i get better and now you got somebody else to totally worry about and focus on and that just like inadvertently makes you a better person because you have the focus shifts like my cousin told me he had less matters yeah he had kids uh before i did and he was like you basically don't matter anymore he's like this is all about everything's about them birthdays christmas thanksgiving every single every single holiday and it feels good it feels great it feels amazing it feels amazing but it is a good thing to know like and it's 18 years of talking about you no more yeah it's 18 years of heartache but too. We ain't talking about you no more. Yeah, it's 18 years of heartache, but it's also 18 years of amazing accomplishments, teaching, loving.

I mean, that love, you really, you don't know love until you have a child, in my opinion, because I thought that I loved someone or something. And then you have a child, and it's just like, oh, man. Actually, being a grandpa now, two years two two years and a few months i really wasn't ready to be a grandparent i really wasn't and my daughter was mad you guys need to be single for a while or not single but you know be married for a while and go party and do whatever no no we're just ready we're ready they weren't ready believe me but when that when that grandson popped out man i went into the waiting room, and I was like, are you okay? Okay.

I was talking to my daughter. I didn't want to see the baby yet, you know, because that was my first primary concern. The doctor's over there by the baby. And she looked like she'd been run over by a truck. Sorry, Courtney. You were looking rough. And she was like, go see Easton. Go see Easton.

I said, no, no. I just want to make sure you're okay. And the nurse was tapping me on the shoulder. Grandpa, grandpa. And I said, hold on. And I looked. She said, what is that? It's your grandson. You want to hold it? I said sure you're okay. And the nurse was tapping me on the shoulder. Grandpa, grandpa. And I said, hold on. And I looked. I said, what is that? It's your grandson.

You want to hold it? I was like, yeah, okay. As soon as they put him in my, I started bawling. My throat got a big lump. Worse than when my kids were born. I was, this is my grandson. And I started going out the hall. Hey, everybody.

Hey, bring the kid back in. You know, he's not ready yet. And so, yeah, since then, it's even more so. I know you've heard from your parents probably that being a grandpa or grandmother is just the next level. I told my kids if I knew being a grandpa was so much more fun, I'd skip being a dad. And they laugh. They go, wait, no, that's not right. No, but it's amazing.

To have a child, it just creates a whole different level of maturity. And, again, petty stuff doesn't matter anymore. It just creates a whole different level of maturity. And again, petty stuff doesn't matter anymore. It just doesn't. Hey, I go outside in socks and flip flops now because I'm a grandpa. You know what I mean? Yeah. I won't comb my hair. I won't even wear a hat today because I'm grandpa.

As funny as my grandson, I'll grab my hat, throw it on his head and run around. I'm grandpa. I'm grandpa. My grandfather wore two different colored socks. You know, he just didn't care. He wore like one orange one and one red one. It looked like he was trying to match them, but it was like. Well, there's a matching pair in his closet somewhere.

That's for getting dressed up, though, on those fancy nights. Exactly. That's cool. I mean, yeah, I guess no Fs to give at that point, right? Well, there's all to give. You know, when people say i don't give an f you actually give more of an f about everything okay because the things that don't matter it's not that you don't care about them it's just it's not that important to you hey you

know so-and-so's trash can blew over oh my god it was just trash so what you know we'll go pick it up that's fine yeah We'll go help him. You know, what about your trash can? Mine's fine. I don't know where it is, but it's fine. You know, you just start less matters to you because you have a job. It's the greatest gift that you can ever be bestowed upon to have a child and to be a parent. Yeah, I know.

I used to be one of those, one of those persons that's like, oh, my dogs are everything. Like they're my kids. They're, they mean so much to me. Like I wouldn't do anything. uh one of those persons that's like oh my dogs are everything like they're my kids they're they mean so much to me like i wouldn't do anything you know and then i met my daughter and then it was like you talk shit about your dogs now yeah i kind of do unfortunately don't get me wrong i still love my dogs but like once you have a kid it's just like it's different yeah and i'm not i'm not an animal lover i'm not an animal lover at all it's not i don't not like animals i love animals actually but i'm not i don't have one at my house my kids have dogs at their houses but i'm like animals love me they'll

come up and they'll just sit in my lap and look at me and there's attack dogs that are you know this dog's gonna kill you be careful when i walk up hey buddy and he just sits down and smiles and starts petting so i was a canine officer for a while and i know how to handle and respect animals and i guess that they sense that because they do dogs and kids know they know if you get a little two-year-old look up at you and start crying there's something that that kid sees in you that you might not see in yourself right you know what i mean i shave got a bugger in my nose all right you got this this bad omnipresence about you, you know, because they can see. Dogs know and kids know. Cool.

And then if I can, really, really quick, thank you to Certified Piedmontese Beef for sponsoring this episode. If you guys are interested in the amazing beef that they have there, head over to piedmontese.com. That's P-I-E-D-M-O-N-T-E-S-E dot com. Enter promo code POWERPROJECT for 25% off your order. And if your order is $99 or more, you get free two-day shipping. Back to you, Mark. Anybody have anything else? I think we went through the gamut.

Great workout. Thank you so much for working out. What did you guys do? I saw some rows. What else did you do? Pull-downs, seated rows, behind-the do uh pull down seated rows back behind the neck pull downs hammer rows dumbbell pullovers uh alternate dumbbell curls hammer dumbbell curls and machine curls supplements you uh i know you have some of your own supplements no i'm done with that oh you

don't do that anymore yeah no i'm done with that um how do you feel about supplementation like do you are you big on you're trying to get, you're doing like a post-workout shake or you recommend protein shakes or, you know, or just eat just a lot of food? Just eat a lot of food, man. A shake or protein shake, it says on it, supplement. It's exactly what it is. It's supplementing the food that you are either too lazy or don't want or can't afford. Right.

You know, I'm not down in shakes. I just, I'd rather have food. It's so much better for me, you know. i'm i'm not down in shakes i just i'd rather have food it's so much better for me you know in my opinion now i do take pre-workouts i had some of the strongest pre-workouts on the market you know you've had it actually and uh i will rely on that every now and then for a good leg day or back day uh but i just i back when branch and i were workout partners when ron and i first started training we drank a cup of coffee 50 to 75 milligrams of caffeine is enough if you put your mind to it. I'm so happy you said that because I do the same thing. Yeah, absolutely. Amino acids, you get them in your foods.

There's so many branch chains and essential amino acids out there that are selling like wildfire. And I had my own until I finally realized that it's not necessary. Creatine, you get that in steak. Get that in other foods. Vitamins, minerals, you substitute anything? I do take glucosamine because you can't get those kind of minerals in food. I do bump the vitamin C up in the cold seasons. I take a baby aspirin for heart health.

I take a liver pill. I'm not sure what it's called. Milk thistle. I take that because it doesn't matter what you're taking or eating. Your liver is working. So you need to have something in there. And then I take a CoQ10 for heart and brain health. And that's it.

That's all I take. Those minerals. The rest is food. And, you know, I have my blood work done every three months. And I would urge each and every one of you, you're on gear, you're not on gear, whatever you're doing, donate blood because it saves lives and it also recirculates your blood system and helps you. Right. And then getting your blood work done is really important, but don't just get your cholesterol. Don't only get your lipid profile done.

Do a full profile. That's usually what they'll do is they'll just do a lipid profile, which is great. It can give you some information, but you want to know your testosterone, your estrogen, your cortisol. You want to know all that different stuff. I do that once a year, once a year, the full panel, but every three months after I go get blood to make sure that I gave enough blood or whatever. Which is very important. It's just like changing on your car. I know I have a lot of car references, but it's easier to understand for some people.

Where can people find you? BigJaysExtremeFitness.com or BigJaysExtremeFitness on YouTube, B-I-G-J underscore Extreme Fitness on Instagram, and I don't even remember my Twitter. But, yeah, come see me. It's something, right? Something like that. Or at Metro Flex Gym in Arlington, training with Big Ron. Damn.

What about you, Andrew? You guys can hit me up on Instagram at IamAndrewZ. Make sure you're following the podcast at Mark Wells Power Project on Instagram, at MBPowerProject on Twitter, Facebook.com slash Mark Wells Power Project, LinkedIn.com slash IN slash Power Project. Like I said before, we're all over the place. We're even on Alexa now. So you guys can turn on the Alexa skill,

the power project skill, and you guys will hear a preview of the, that day's podcast. Nice. Yeah. We're literally, I'm trying to make this. Yeah.

We're, we're, we're doing things over here. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then of course, super duper important.

If you guys appreciate today's episode, or if you guys got anything out of today's episode, if you want to give us a biggest thank you, you can do is rate and review on iTunes. Obviously subscribe, but if you can leave a star rating, leave a review. It really does help out the show.

Nseema, where you at? Wait, no, no. At Nseema Eang on Instagram and YouTube and Nseema Yin Yang on Twitter and TikTok. Mark? At Mark Smellybell everywhere. Congratulations for those of you that have been following along. You made it through three weeks of World Carnivore Month.

Today is day number 21. Check out my YouTube channel. I'm uploading stuff every single day, which is a giant pain in the ass, but I'm uploading stuff every single day on what I'm eating, i'm not eating all that good stuff all the carnivore-ness is going on over there strength is never a weakness weakness never strength catch y'all later