Mark Bell's Power Project - Mark Bell's Power Project EP. 246 LIVE - Brian Alsruhe

Episode Date: September 11, 2019

Brian Alsruhe is a strongman competitor, business owner, and vlogger. Brian is the 2x Maryland’s Strongest Man and originally found strongman through his high school friend and legendary strongman competitor, Mike Jenkins. Brian is the owner of his own gym, NEVERsate Athletics Brian runs a successful YouTube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/AlphaTnation/) that publishes weekly content about Strongman training, powerlifting, and motivation. You can check out Brian on his Instagram, @neversate. Subscribe to the Podcast on all platforms: ➢https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast Visit our sponsors: ➢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 "POWERPROJECT" at checkout for 15% off your order! ➢SHOP NOW: https://markbellslingshot.com/ Enter Discount code, "POWERPROJECT" at checkout and receive 15% off all Sling Shots FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell ➢ Snapchat: marksmellybell Follow The Power Project Podcast ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/MarkBellsPowerProject Follow Nsima Inyang ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/  Podcast Produced by Andrew Zaragoza ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamandrewz #PowerProject #Podcast #MarkBell

All right, so yo, Mark, how'd you hear about these Perfect Keto Bars? Well, I've been stuffing them in my face. That's one way I've been hearing about them. Yay. You know, I've been in contact with the Perfect Keto Company for a little while. They make some really good products. They have some good ketone products. And actually, probably maybe like over a year ago, I tried one of their ketone products,

and it didn't taste that good. But the good news is they updated and created new flavors, and they did a better job the second time around. They didn't give up, and they made a much better-tasting ketone product. But these bars, even right off the get-go, the bars were perfect. They made a really good bar. They made a bar that's not going to knock you out of ketosis, which is kind of hard to find. A lot of the bars have sugar, um, or they have a lot of, you know, hidden junk in them that can knock you out of ketosis. These bars have a good amount of fat in them. So they give you some good

energy. And on top of that, they taste good. Uh, I've been kind of addicted. I got to admit to the, uh, chocolate chip cookie dough. Yeah, that's your favorite? That's my favorite one. What about the second one? I like the salted caramels pretty good, but the... One of them has macadamia nut in it, and I don't know

which one that is, but that one's really good. And they made a new one. They made a cinnamon roll one. And that one's really good. That is good. new one. They made a cinnamon roll one. Ooh. And that one's really good. That's good. Yeah, you guys got to try. Andrew would be eating the crap out of those cinnamon roll ones. I know.

I know for sure. That sounds good. So if anybody wants to check out any of the bars from Perfect Keto, you can head over to perfectketo.com slash powerproject and use promo code powerproject, all one word, for 15% off all Perfect Keto products. I think all of us here really, really love meat. But the one person that loves meat more than anybody is Mark. So how much meat have you had this week, Mark?

I don't know. You know, I do eat quite a bit of meat, especially like after I've fasted. I remember one time I came home from the gym and probably just slaughtered like maybe it was a tomahawk ribeye. I think it's gigantic, but you know, I do, I do smash a lot of meat in a given day. What I like about the Piedmontese beef though, is a lot of, for me, a lot of times I have trouble because I do love the fattier meats. And so I still might go over my calories. But with the Piedmontese, I don't know how they do it,

but their steaks are a lot leaner, but they're still super tender. I don't know how they're doing it over there. And then on top of that, they cook faster. How are they doing it over there? It's crazy. But the thing is, it's so sick for people that are like having to diet and they still want to eat steak

and they have to lower their fats or whatever. And they still want to eat that red meat. Well, Pete Monti's is perfect because it's not as fat. I don't understand. It's crazy. You're still getting a nutrient dense food. You're getting a lot of protein. The other thing that's great about this company that I think separates it out from a lot of others is the fact that they're giving you a cook guide. And like, I don't know about you, but like, I don't know a lot about cooking, man. I just like throw stuff in a pan a lot of times. I just put know about you, but like, I don't know a lot about cooking, man. I just like throw stuff in a pan a lot of times. I just put salt and go,

but this is actually pretty awesome. You can actually make tasty food. I'm not too bad with the grill. Andrew, where can people find out more about Piedmontese and where, where can they get an awesome deal? Cool. Yeah.

Our friends at Piedmontese are hooking you guys up with an insane deal. Head over to piedmontese.com. That's P I E D M O N T E S E.com. And enter promo code power project.-D-M-O-N-T-E-S-E dot com. And enter promo code POWERPROJECT. If you can't spell that, well, maybe it's not for you. Enter that promo code for 25% off your order, along with free two-day shipping on all orders over $100. Do you guys need any sort of volume checks or anything? No, we just do it live.

I like it. Yeah. You sound great. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks to you. I didn it. Yeah. You sound great. Thanks. Thanks to you. I didn't want to say anything, but if we're complimenting. Listen to Nseema's voice. He could put you to sleep with that voice.

Really? Well, not that one. That's how I talk all the time. Come on. What do you mean? You're upsetting me right now. Remember when we had Andy Galpin on the podcast and as soon as Nsema talked, he didn't even hear Nsema's question at all.

He's like, why are you trying to seduce me? Andy has got a good sense of humor. He really does. For someone that knows all that science-y stuff, he's able to mix in a lot of good humor. He makes it fun. He's not boring to listen to. Yeah. We're totally live, by the way. What? he's able to mix in a lot of good humor. He makes it fun. He's not boring to listen to.

Yeah. Oh, we're totally live by the way. Oh, come on. Okay. We started with the men that changed that. We can,

I guess. So I guess, I guess maybe we already started with that. Yeah. Yeah. We've been talking a lot about our taints lately. We, we have,

it's strange. Yeah. It's, it has been weird. You've been talking about your taint too. Yeah. I, I'm, I, uh, that's normal conversation's strange. Yeah, it has been weird. You've been talking about your taint, too? Yeah, that's normal conversation for me. No, it just happens all the time. Yeah.

Where do you live at? I live in Maryland, actually. Kind of in like a rural kind of area. My gym is actually on a farm. It's a pole barn that we just put a bunch of heavy stuff inside of. It's just like some random farm? It's not yours? No, it's not. It's not my farm. It actually, it's the I went to How did it work? How did it work out?

I went to high school with Mike Jenkins who was a strong man. He's now deceased, but he got pretty high up. I think second or third was the best he ever did. I think first at the Arnold at one point, right? He definitely won the Arnold, but I'm saying I think. I think second or third was the best he ever did. I think first at the Arnold at one point, right? Definitely won the Arnold, but I'm saying for the world's strongest man. I think he came in second or third was the highest, but super nice guy.

We trained together, went to high school, were personal trainers, same gym and stuff like that. After when we went away to college, Mike went away and kind of started pursuing his type of thing, and I went away to do counterterrorism stuff. Mike went away and kind of started pursuing his type of thing. And I went away to do counterterrorism stuff. We were going to get back together. Um, and rather than,

uh, we were going to get back together for a Christmas party held by his sponsor who, uh, I Brandon, we ran into who owns the farm that my gym is on. Anyway, we didn't end up going to the Chris party because Mike ended up dying.

And, uh, so we went to his funeral and stuff and that's how I got involved in strongman. But yeah, so now he, um, he became a very good friend of mine, obviously, and things like that, but through the entire process.

He died like a day before Thanksgiving or something, right? Yeah. I found out about it on Thanksgiving Day, and I was just like wiped out. I didn't know him, know him. Sure, sure. But I knew him well enough, and I was just super, super sad.

It sucks whenever you lose anybody, but I was like, man, know him. Sure, sure. But I knew him well enough and I was just super, super sad. Like it sucks, you know, whenever you lose anybody. But I was like, man, this guy just had, I don't know, how old was he, 30? Yeah, he wasn't, I think 32, 32, 33. And he was so kind and he was so full of life. I was just like, oh my God. I remember telling my wife and I was like, you know, I'll be okay later on today probably. I was like, but I'm going to go on a walk and I'm going to let myself be a little miserable for a little while. Yeah.

And whenever there's like, I have a buddy who calls them soldiers who are like guys who get it. You know, the guys who like are involved in the lifting world that push themselves, they push hard, they're positive, they're not trying to tear other people down. Like guys who just get it. They're good people in the lifting world because there's not a lot of them. You know what I mean? There's a lot of guys who are in it for the wrong reasons. And Mike was definitely a guy who was in to make other people better.

And just, I remember seeing pictures of him with like cancer patients and just people that he was just trying to brighten up their day. And then when he died, man. Massive. Massive. But a big teddy bear. And so when he went, that wasn't cool.

But Dave was his sponsor. And he offered to sponsor me for my first straw man. Oh, cool. And I had never done straw man. And one thing led to another. He had a big farm with a field that he was going to build a house on, and we put a pole barn up and started my gym there. So now that's where it is. That's cool. Is your gym like a commercial-style gym?

Is it a public gym, or is it a private thing? It started commercial. And I actually ended up making it private now because I want to be able to control the people that come in. It sounds funny to say, but when you have a commercial gym, you have to deal with whoever shows up. So there's some good people and there's some bad people. And if you're bowing down to that money and you need that money, then that's what you have to, you have to bow to. But, uh, I chose to keep it private and just keep the people I want because in a small environment, we're more like a team. Like when we lift, it's like practice. It's like you guys, it's like you meet together

for practice. If someone's not at practice, like someone's going to call them and be like, why weren't you at practice? Like I needed you for my squats. You weren't there for my squats. Like, like they let you know about it. And that's what it is. And if you have a negative person in that environment, man, that's cancer that tears everyone down. Like one person walks in gym with a bad attitude. If they don't snap out of that quickly, then they bring everyone down. Right? Like, so I, uh, I just, I got really tired of having the discussion and people like, Hey man, like no one cares about your job. No one cares about your problems.

Like people are here to get better. And if you're, what you're bringing to the table doesn't go towards that common goal, then that needs to change. So those people just started getting thrown out to the point that now we have, it's not like tryouts in the fact that like, you need to be a certain strength, but like you come in and you work hard. And if you start complaining or you start whining or you start whatever, like we're like,

maybe you need somebody else to go. You know what I mean? And, um, so we don't care if you lift five pounds or 500 pounds, but we care that when you're there, you're positive and you give a hundred percent, which isn't,

I like, uh, I like a lot of what you're saying. And I think this is important for people in the fitness industry to understand that. Um, it sounds to me like owning a gym, you maybe didn't understand exactly all of everything that you were going to get yourself

into in the beginning. Right. And so I think it's important for people to know if you're going to do some online coaching like Insima does, or you're going to do face-to-face stuff, personal training or own a gym. It's great that you're passionate about fitness and it's great that you're passionate about training and everything, but it gets to be very difficult because I think in the beginning, you're not thinking about this thing, but this part of it, but you are ultimately in a like customer service business. Like you're providing a service for people. And if that service is not being delivered correctly at the right time, the right way, so as soon as somebody's paying for that gym membership,

you now have to kind of cater to them. You've got to at least care a little bit if you want a business that's going to be successful. Same with the online coaching. If you're not delivering programming, if every other week it's a couple days late, I mean, you're really killing people and they're going to be pissed off.

So I think it's great you came to the realization of like this probably makes more sense for me to be private. Well, as a one-man show, right? Like I do the online coaching. I do my YouTube. I do my editing. Like it's all me, right? And as a one-man show, I found that I'm sure you guys have heard it before, but like 10% of people take up 90% of your time. You know what I mean?

And most of that 10% of people isn't the 10% that you want to be dealing with. And so I started for my online coaching. Like I don't do online coaching, but I do online programs. And for me, I started out doing during my questionnaire, I started weaning people out when people were like, well,

I want to be able to do this on this day and that, that, and I'm like, you're too much work. Like there was a time when I needed the money bad enough that I would deal with you, but I don't need to deal with you anymore. And what you're doing. So like if someone wants, if someone suggests something that either I don't agree with, cause I don't think it's a good move for them or I think it's not going to work. I'm like, I'm not taking money for that. Like I don't need your money and I'm only going to give you something

that works. And if you're too complicated because you've read too many like CrossFit articles, then I'm not dealing with you. Like you, you, you're paying for my expertise. And so let me, let me do that. You know what I mean? What other stuff do you wish you kind of knew when you first started a gym? Because a lot of people, when they think about, I want to get into fitness, it's, I want to have my own gym. So what other things do you wish you knew? Well, uh, number one, the setup costs. So like, I didn't even, I didn't even think of

like flooring, right? Like you think about like, Oh, I'm going to buy this bench and these weights. And it's like making a Christmas list when you're a kid, you know? And then, uh, then you're like, Oh, $10,000 for rubber mats or floors. Like I didn't plan on that. Like, whoops, like lighting fans. What is this stuff? You know what I mean? And, uh, so there was a lot on that. Like, whoops. Like lighting? Fans? What is this stuff? You know what I mean? So there was a lot of that. But to be honest, I got in the gym business thinking that a lot of people in the fitness industry thought the same way that I did. They wanted to get after it.

They wanted the same things that I wanted. Based around those principles, I quickly found out that there's a lot of people that say they want to work hard or that they want to be dedicated. They'll show up every morning at 4 a.m. to work out. And then when the rubber meets the road, there's very few people, even your friends, who are like, man, you open this, I'll be the first person to sign up. I got a lot of friends who are still my friends, but I don't have a lot of friends who joined my gym. You know what I mean? Yeah. And so it really changed. And I think much like I asked you about earlier, I think when you set up with a business and an idea, what actually happens sometimes is so different.

And you need to be able to pivot and just stay able to adapt to what comes because the market changes faster than my opinions. Like I still like very basic stuff. I like still learning basic things, but that's not where we're at. You know, the internet wants Bradley Martin. They don't want like deadlift tips, you know, and it's a tough balance. I don't know if you guys feel the same way, but when I watch you work out, when I watch your Instagram, I'm always like, I want to do that with him. Like that's what I think of right away when i watch your instagram i'm always like i want to do that with him like that's what i that's what i think of right away when i watch you train um and then i'm also kind of like

partially scared though too because i'm like he's he's moving pretty fast like what he's doing looks looks uh looks pretty hard um obviously like there's you know the reason you're you're putting so much energy into it you're trying to get the most out of it but like where's this style of training uh how did it come come to be um well i like i've discussed before my my background's in mma so uh i always cared about being not only strong but also being able to move and be athletic and have good conditioning things like that because you don't win fights by out muscling somebody like a big strong guy when when i was doing that competitively i loved seeing big muscly guys because i was like you're not gonna be able to move you're gonna get tired fast you're a joke like you're a joke and then i'd see like a tall skinny skinny lean guy and i'm like oh no that

guy's probably that guy's gonna be tough right and one of my uh one of my wrestling buddies uh bobby lashley he was a national champion in in collegiate wrestling and when i used to you know i did pro wrestling you know but we would mix in some like amateur style wrestling and stuff like that and he would be like hey you want to go and i was like no dude like no i don't i don't i don't want to go like i know i know you're gonna like tear me in half you know and so every once in a while he would just like talk me in and i'd be like fuck you and in a while, he would just talk me into it. And I'd be like, fuck you. And I'd try to do something on him.

Yeah. I couldn't do shit to him, right? But what he did is, because he says every big guy is really guilty of this, he goes, if I just pull on you or do something a certain way, you immediately think that you have to show your strength. Yes. He's like, you'll resist it. And he's like, and you'll be dead in 30 seconds.

And so all he would do is just pull on the back of my neck. Yep. Knowing that you're going to fight him back. Yeah. We'd go to like tie up or go to do something. He's pulling the back of my neck. And there I am being a dumbass trying to push my head back into him. I'll show you my legs get tired and boom.

There I am on my back again, just over and over. And he's like, Hey, stupid. Here we are again. Right. And that's, that's the game. And a lot of people believe that, but I always took my training to keep that in mind uh number one i being a bigger guy i was involved in martial arts and i'm sure and see me you can you can relate to it there's not a lot of big guys in jujitsu there's not a lot of back when i was doing it was like karate before i got in jujitsu and stuff and

like it was more of a dorky kid thing you know and like i was a bigger muscly guy but i always had to go against smaller faster individuals so i always had to be small and fast. So I did like small man jujitsu. And when I lifted, I always wanted to be explosive. I always wanted to be able to be good with body weight stuff. So it never really left. I, as I got stronger and bigger, I just kept moving and it's not hard to continue something. It's just hard to, to stop and then kick back in, you what i mean but um yeah so a lot of my training now just is so based off of performance i've always been more performance guy than a i don't really care about the look i mean i care about the look in that if i looked

bad i care but um it's more about being able to perform and being able to a lot of it a lot of the big things i do for being a bigger guy and and move around the way i do some sometimes it's showing off because it's like kind of proven to people we're like oh well you can't do that if you're big you can't do this and i'm like yeah you can stupid you just need to you need to work harder than you're willing to work yeah how do you track getting better at this because you work out like a maniac you know and it seems like it's just you know seems it seems kind of wild it is it's pretty random how do you track uh your progress with you know and it seems like it's just you know seems it seems kind of wild it is it's pretty random how do you track uh your progress with you know bouncing around and flipping tires

and doing burpees and stuff like that well uh i don't really track that progress i still track my progress like a power lift or like my squat my bench my deadlift and then of course the overhead press and then since i'm involved in strongman all of those lifts um i track as well so everything from like a rack pull we keep prs for because it's a lift that we compete in. But then as far as the other explosive stuff, that's more about just wanting to hate my life. Like every single day I need to go in and I need to push myself to make a decision where I want to quit. And I need to decide not to. Because it's almost like from my old job in counterterrorism, the idea of fighting for your life was a very real possibility.

That's not a real possibility for most people. It is. I mean, people don't realize how close they could be to getting mugged or whatever the case may be. But in that old job, like you were hunting people, people were hunting you. If the wrong thing happened, it could happen, right? And so if you're not pushing to someplace mentally, people people were hunting you if if the wrong thing happened it could happen right and so uh if you're not pushing to someplace mentally during your training i think you're just you're

missing out on a whole whole nother aspect so literally every single day if by the end of the day i haven't done something where i'm like i hate my life or like this sucks or i wanted to quit and chose not to yeah then i'm like you need to do some sort of finisher. You need to, even if it's five minutes, I mean, you can smoke yourself in five minutes of pushups if you want to. Yeah, and in the background of one of these clips right here, it just said suffer beautifully. Yes. Is that your saying? Yes, that's my saying. That's something I came up with.

That's actually pretty cool. I mean, it's pretty accurate. You're going through this tough stuff to make everything else a little bit nicer, make everything else a little bit easier, right? Yeah. And it's also – I came up with that. That actually came up before I got sick, right? So you know how sometimes you'll throw something out in the universe and then the universe will throw it back on you and be like, so, you said that. Are you going to live that, right?

going, you'd be like, so you said that, are you going to live that? Right. And so I put that out and I put it out when I was dealing with a lot of the adaptive athletes and stuff, because I saw those people go through very, very hard things in their life, whether they're born like that or happened to them or whatever. And they chose to pick themselves out of that, that horrible situation and do something with it. And I think that's awesome. Right. And like we've talked about in, in other parts of what we've been doing today, everyone has something, whether you're too old or you're too fat or you're too this or too that, or you're born without legs,

you're born with cerebral palsy or you throw up a lot, whatever your case may be. Everyone has something. Right. The thing is, no one cares. No one cares about anyone else's stuff. Like,

sure. I care. Like I want you to be happy and I went whatever. But like if, if you have a broken leg, I'm going to be like, Oh, poor Mark. And then five minutes later, I'm going to be like, Oh, I need to go do my squats. Right. Like, sorry, but that's, that's life. And, uh, how long are you going to dwell over my broken leg for? Exactly. But the thing is, is that there's some people who, when they're suffering, everyone suffers. That's, that's such

a truth. Everyone suffers. Some people do it beautifully and some people are whiny little babies about it. You know what I mean? And it's like if we're all working out and it's hot, right? It's 100 degrees in the gym and we're all working out. And that one dude who keeps going, it's so hot. It's so hot. And you're like, thanks, stupid. I didn't know.

Thanks for letting me know that it's hot, right? You're not helping the situation by complaining about it. Suffer beautifully. Shut your mouth. Deadpan situation by complaining about it. Like suffer beautifully, shut your mouth, dead pain in your face, like challenge it, attack that workout rather than just trying to survive or get through it. Like have some balls, man. Like, like put something in it. Like, and so many things in your life come up, come down to that situation where like you're put back into a corner or you're beat up or you've been beaten like 12 times in a row. And it's like, what are you going to do? are you going to just stay down and get beat are you going to get up and are you going to do something about

it there's an old native american uh saying about like two wolves and there's two wolves inside of everyone and one is like negativity and like quitting and all that kind of stuff and the other one's like persevering and getting through and they're like well which one which one wins it's the one you feed yeah and that's true right like if you're in the gym constantly going this sucks i hate this blah blah it's hot this you're not gonna have good workout but if you're like and screw the heat the heat's an opportunity everyone else every single other person in here is worrying about the heat i'm gonna be the guy that attacks the heat that says like no no i wish it was hotter i wish you know what i mean like if you can just switch over your mind the physical stuff's easy i mean the body the body is a, is a math problem.

Like if you eat the right things and you move enough, you lose body fat, you gain muscle. It happens for everybody. It's a little tough for some people, but we figured it out. We know what to do to gain muscle and lose fat. We know what to do, but getting your mind to make that decision again and again, like the discipline of dieting, dieting is not hard. You can follow virtually any diet and it will work, but getting someone to actually make that decision when all that temptation is

in their face and like everyone else, like, no, it's, it's Timmy's birthday. You need this cake. Like just to stand up and be your own man or your own woman and just be like, this is who I am.

I'm not going to complain about the heat. I'm not going to do that. I'm going to suffer beautifully. Yes. I'm at a dinner and, uh, I can't have what you have. Well, do you need to honestly say like, no, no, I can't have that because on my diet, I'm not allowed to. Are you like, no man, I'm going to have the steak. I'm going to have the steak and broccoli. That's, that's what I mean. Cool. Like have your pizza. It's awesome. I'm happy for you. I'm happy. But like everyone finds the need to let everyone else know how hard their life is. And it's such a weak move. And like, especially now on the internet, like I'll do something on the internet and

someone would be like, oh man, I wish, I wish I could do that. And I'm like, you can, man. Like it's so weak to like reach out and turn to another person and be like, well, I can't do that. I wish I could. Like if I see you do something and this has always been in me, I'm like, I'm quietly going to be like a little pissed off and be like, stupid. I can do that.

I can't do that. Right. And then I'm going to work my butt off to do it so I can show you up. Right. But I'm certainly not going to go, oh, I guess that's just not for me. Like when I was nine, I thought I was going to pay in the NBA. You know, like I'm all about the impossibility. And that's just been part of my lifting the whole time. So it's just random.

You know, the other day we were talking about how like when athletes are getting ready for a certain competition, they start to amp up their training and enjoy it more. Right. And then when they don't have a competition that they're aiming for, like their training just kind of goes to shit sometimes. Yeah. But for you, it seems like even if you're not preparing for a competition, your training's always hard, like really, really hard. Right. Yeah. OK, so is that is that how it's always been for you or you're not preparing for anything or just you just love it that much? I prepare for life. I know it sounds it sounds stupid, but I have a shirt from my from my gym that's called it says be dangerous on the back right and a lot of people took that the wrong way a lot of people thought it meant like go out and like rob ladies and punch babies be a tough guy be a tough guy right and anyone

who's ever met me knows i am the least tough guy ever like i'm not interested in being a tough guy or being known as a tough guy like i'm not a a meathead. I'm not a muscle. I'm very emotional, like guy. And, uh, the whole idea like of being dangerous for me was about like, whether it's a call that your mom got cancer two o'clock in the morning, or someone jumps out and tries to steal my wallet or whatever the case may be. I need to be ready. I need to be ready, both mentally, physically, emotionally, all of it. I need to be ready. And I use physical training as a vehicle for emotional and spiritual change. Like I really do. I push so hard physically that I get to points where I want to break. And I choose.

I make a decision to persevere. And those small decisions bleed over into other areas of my life. So if I chose to quit on my squats, then I can guarantee that like when I'm doing something hard in life, I'm more likely to be like, well, it's not that big of a deal. One thing's for sure, man, like being nice the first time is hard, right? Like, or being mean, let's take it the other way. Like the first time you were, cause you guys are both nice guys. First time you were genuinely mean to somebody and you made the choice to be like, no, I don't care about you, whatever.

It was hard. Like something in you hurt. You were like, oh, I don't like to hurt people. Right. The hundredth time you did it, it was a lot easier. Right. Same thing goes with being nice. The first time you're nice to someone, you choose to go out of your way to like thank someone or open a door, buy someone coffee or do whatever.

Like first time might hurt a little bit. Hundredth time, it's a lot easier. And the same thing with like making that decision if i choose to do the right thing on the small things then my hundred decision is going to be a lot easier and hopefully most likely a hundred decisions gonna be a lot more important than whether i did 19 squats or 20 squats it's going to come down to like how are you going to deal with someone just gave you some life collapsing news or like you're in this horrible car accident like what are you going to decide with someone just gave you some life collapsing news or like you're in this horrible car accident. Like what are you going to decide to do here?

You know what I mean? And so really when I say I'm training for life, I'm training, I train my brain. I know my physical body is going to give up. Time's going to win. That's, that's no lie.

I used to believe time wasn't going to win. I really did. Like I didn't think it was ever going to show up. But now that I'm a little bit older, I do realize like things start hurting, things start breaking down. And, uh, I realized that if I'm not spending that time in the gym actually building something else then I'm polishing the brass on Titanic right like it's going down when you're taking yourself to like that breaking point so often and so hard like these workouts they're

they're so vicious um how are you avoiding any serious injuries? Honestly, I think a lot of it is because I've been doing it so long that my body kind of has a certain type of tent-style strength. You know what I mean? My tens of ligaments hold up pretty well. Is it also possible that it's just like, obviously it looks challenging, but because you've been doing it, it's just not, you're not like a 10.5 at a 10. A hundred percent. You're like an eight,

like between an eight and a nine, still making sure you can have good form, making sure it's something that you can actually do. I think that's when we get hurt is when we try shit that we really can't do or weren't prepared for. Right. Yep. And I think,

uh, you guys never, like you, you might see me in videos doing something that looks like i'm full-blown outgoing i never am full but there's always another gear you know i mean because uh if you guys have done any sort of fighting sports especially grappling sport if you don't know what you're doing it's like swimming with sharks because literally like if you're standing up and we're both throwing punches, like we might catch each other. Like it's,

it's rock and roll. Right. Yeah. But if you go on the ground and that person is jujitsu purple belt, let's just say purple belt. Yeah. And I know nothing. Put all your money on him,

all your money on him. Like there is nothing that I can do to stop him. Right. And, uh, that, that taught me a lot. I totally forgot why I'm,

why I'm talking about this just about like avoiding injury and you don't go full on ten and a half every time yeah so uh in jiu-jitsu when i first started i would go full out and i'd be like i'm gonna show these guys right and then they just outlast me and then they'd hold me on the ground and i would like when somebody it's it's different when you're so exhausted from like a workout where like you can't pick your arms up like that sucks right but when somebody literally could choke you to death and there's nothing you could do you're literally like i am so exhausted right now i would give him all my lunch money if he would just get

off me right now like when you've gotten there you learn that like you need to keep a little bit there so that like if you need to explode last ditch effort, like it's got to be there. And like you guys said, if you go 100%, 100% of the time, stuff breaks. It does. I'd always say that I always have like two reps in the tank or I'm like just 90%, 80%. Not, I'm never 100%. And also kind of on the same topic, like, you know, everyone wants to like do better. We all want to improve.

We all want to feel like a beast, right? When we're in the gym and, but just realize that, that, that next level of the weight that you want to do. And sometimes that next level, well, most of the time that next level is probably going to be to your detriment. Yes. And really we're, we're, we're after progress. And the only way you're going to be able to make progress is to have an ability to be able to recover from these workouts and so while yes it does look like you're

going absolutely insane or if we went in the gym and and deadlifted you know right now and sema could probably pull like 700 pounds and everybody'd be like holy shit but that's very that's like very normal normal for him that's like on par but it wouldn't surprise me i'd be like, holy shit. But that's very normal for him. That's on par. It wouldn't surprise me. I'd be like, yeah, he's fucking strong, man. He's good at deadlifting and you haven't stopped training. So it's not like it would come out of nowhere. But to the people that watch Instagram and they see a Pete Rubish ripping up 800 pounds or they see Kaler Wham you know doing nine 900 pounds nearly weekly yeah um that's

not any more difficult than somebody doing administrative work at the job that they're at absolutely not i mean it's like it's just the same thing maybe maybe they have some paperwork that takes more time or maybe it's an attorney and they got to read the fine print a little bit more as they go through it but when we we look at that, if we looked at those papers, that was, you know, as a contract, we would understand maybe five words on the entire page. It would be so complex to us. We'd be like, wouldn't be digestible. And so just realize that's what you're seeing a lot of times on Instagram. Every once in a while, somebody's, you know, going for like a hundred percent, but for the most part, you want to try to stay reserved enough to where you can actually make progress a hundred percent and you can't you can't lift with your ego all the time there's

certain times when you do your ego comes into play and you're like no no i'm going for this one i'm going for it like i know the chances are good that i'm going to get hurt or whatever and you go for it anyway sometimes it works out sometimes it doesn't but for the most part like you mentioned earlier like this is this is a journey, right? Like if you sprint at this game, you are not going to be in it long because stuff just breaks. Like we said earlier, the difference between making progress is millimeter tears, right? Like you make little tears in the muscle. They heal.

You get bigger. You get stronger. Good things. You tear a couple more millimeters and you go to the hospital. You take six months off, right? And that's the game. So like you're going to get hurt. Everyone's going to get hurt.

It's just what you do with you get hurt and how bad you get hurt and how often. Because, man, honestly, we all have – some people don't have the horsepower really to like hurt themselves badly. But like a warm-up weight for you guys 500 pounds could cripple you like literally if the rest of your life you could walk differently the rest of your life because you weren't mindful of something right like it's a it's an interesting game it's so much more mental than people realize i don't have enough grappling experience to understand this the right way maybe you can help with this but like would you kind of compare it to like if if you and i were to grapple right if you and i were to grapple every day i most likely won't learn anything like i might

learn something somewhere but i won't learn anything unless it's like taught to me right if you're if you and i are going and we just try to go 100 and i boom i get choked out and boom i get choked i and boom, I get choked. I mean, there might be an opportunity for at some point, learn how to defend myself a little bit better, but I'm probably not going to like all of a sudden, uh, be able to come up with a move and be able to like tap you out. You know what I mean? So I think a lot of times I feel like in training, I think people are like, if I want to do that 600 pounds, like I got to keep trying for that five 85. I got to keep trying for that 585.

I got to keep trying for that six plates. I got to keep trying. And it's like, no, dude, you – okay, we're on week number four. You missed it four weeks in a row. I think you've – and you're not going to – my point is you're not going to get any better. So do you kind of see the analogy? Does that make some sense? Yeah, I get exactly what you're saying, especially as lifters.

I guess there's not as many moving parts as compared to grappling, right? Right. So we like, okay, deadlift, there's this, like this is the way we need to move. So you just keep hammering away at it and hammering away at it, even though you keep failing and failing and failing. Where if like you ask someone like yourself, hey, Brian, what few things do you see? Oh, maybe there's something wrong with my bracing, this and that. If you practice those few things, you'll get better.

You do that in other sports, but yeah, we don't do that that much. And then also, what would you practice it with? You practice it with a lot lighter weight. Yeah. Like, let me try that. Like today, you went to 225. Yep. You're like, I don't need any more weight.

That felt good. That was on a deadlift. And this guy's deadlifted 750. Yep. And that's another thing is, I've been doing this 25 years, right? And I've watched a veritable cornucopia of youtube videos about every single person's deadlift form ever i i make videos about it like i teach people i coach people i have world champions and today i learned like three new

things right and even if even if you know everything right if you're the top secret russian shit that's true but like even if you know everything, right? If you're the top secret Russian shit, it's true. But like, even if you know everything, right? Like you're always forgetting something, right? How many times have you had a cue in your head that you're like, all right,

that one's nailed. I will never forget that. And then six months down the road, you're like, why am I doing that? Right? Like it's a constant strength is a skill. It's,

it's, it's a kinetic language. Like fighting's connect language. Strength is connect language. And there's one thing like, it's, it's a kinetic language. Like fighting's kinetic language. Strength is connect language. And there's one thing like if you want to learn Russian and you were spending two, three hours a week on Russian, you're never going to learn it. It's gotta be a constant thing. And if you're doing deadlifts, you can't go in and just go balls of wall all the time. You'll destroy yourself, right? Like there's gotta be times when you step back and you're doing

technique work and you're going lighter and you're learning things. Like there's a lot of people who, it goes both ways. I think the knowledge is beautiful in that so many people know more, like the average person who talks on the internet now, like talk like so as how many people talk about their show as muscle now and 15 years ago that that was like a chameleon you know what i mean so it just that's great but at the same time i think a lot of people have swung the other way and don't want to get after it sometimes because of fear of of what they've learned like so you're talking a little earlier about like complaining and kind of people fall into this rut you know once once you complain i always think it kind of shuts off your opportunity because you complained about it and that's your excuse. And then it's like no longer available

to you anymore. You made a decision. Yeah. You made a decision like that. Like I, I can't do that, but it's because of this and I highlighted it and told everybody, right. And I can move on because I've decided that it's not for me, but it was that thing that was debilitating, not my own skill set, not anything that I need to work on. It needs to change. I don't. Right. Aside from that, it still seems to me like a lot of people are missing out, you know, on training and they're missing out on kind of going to that next level. What do you think people should know about kind of flipping that switch and going to that next level?

Let's say like today we did three rounds and you're like, Oh man, I'm kind of glad we didn't do, you know, but if we did five rounds, it would have been hard. Right. Yep. But at the end we would have been both thankful that we did five rounds. I mean, we were just lifting for YouTube basically. Yeah. But what should people know about kind of going out into deep water like that? It's about a decision. It's about a decision it's about a decision your head and it flips and people try to get me to describe how i flip that switch my head

and uh i i could tell you it comes from my old job i could tell you it comes from like sports when i was kid but like it's definitely something that like i don't know when it happened but i can make a decision in my head like if you would have turned to me, no lie. For those of you who end up watching this on YouTube, like we got done the third round and I could tell you were smoked. I was smoked and I was like, I hope we don't go again. Like, and it wasn't because I didn't want to necessarily keep pushing, but I had had enough. You know what I mean? Right. But if you would have turned to me and said, hey, we're going again, literally my brain would have been like, all right, all right. If we're

going, then I'm going to start pushing and I'm going to like, you just tried to make me a little uncomfortable. I'm going to flip this on you and make you puke your brains out. Like literally, cause it turns like that for me. Like it, it, it sounds like a horrible, like mean kind of thing, but it's not, it's just that resistance is there and you're like, bring it on. It, it, it, it goes from, it's like when someone walks up and it's like, Hey man, screw you. And like, you can either eat that. You can be like, Oh, or you can be like, screw me, screw you. Right. And I've always been that screw you guy.

I don't know what made me think of this, but I just got the image of, uh, when Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson fought each other. Yeah. And when Tyson bites Holyfield's ear and Tyson like waves him on, like, come on. Holyfield's like, all right,

fuck. Yeah. Like I'm already kicking your ass. Yeah. You want to bite my ear, go ahead and do whatever you want. Holyfield just went right back at him. And it kind of reminds me of that.

Like you're going to give me a deeper, darker challenge. And I'm accepting of that. And let's go. I just, I just got goosebumps. I just got, because I just felt it.

Like, you know, that clip that, well, I'm just saying that's how i feel like the second that someone second someone drops a challenge they're like like oh that's where we're going yeah i'm like oh oh you don't like i was being nice you don't know what you're doing right now like i'll open it if you want to open it i'll open it right and uh yeah so that really and that that's where it's almost like a personal a personal like insult like like i i for a second i get like offended like nothing offends me but somebody's like hey you want to go again i'm like you're not too tired then i'll show you like it's weird it's stupid but it gets me through stuff it really does and it gets through fighting like like someone will try to tap me. And if you guys are involved in fighting,

like you should tap early. Don't be stupid. And I don't get stuff broken. However, there are plenty of times when I probably should have tapped. And I was like, no, screw this guy.

And I survive it. And then it, it just, it's like, no, no, no, not today.

Right? Like everyone has those not today moments where, where like something's happening. You're like, no, no, not today. You're not taking this from're like, no, no, not today. You're not taking this from me today.

And whether it's immaturity, which it probably could be, but I have a lot of not today moments. This is good. What we're saying here is good. But I'm curious, has this ever backfired on you? It backfired on me all the time. All the time. All the time, man. It's my greatest strength, my greatest weakness.

We saw you doing five plates on a deadlift and doing burpees back and forth. And then you did 585. And then I think I saw you work all the way up to like 675. I mean, you ever go to do something and just totally pass out? Or just slam your head into a rack or something? Just because you're trying to work so hard. I imagine you've probably gotten yourself screwed up pretty bad, right? Yeah, definitely.

And it's not for everybody. And I don't think most people can get through their life with a mentality like I have. Like I think it's too extreme for most people. But that's also why I'm where I'm standing. You know what I mean? Everywhere from business to relationships to I'm sitting here hanging out with you guys, right? Like most people are like, man, I wish that I could be on, on, on the, on the podcast with these guys and talk to them and work out with them stuff. I'm like, you, you do good enough work and you work hard enough, long enough, like you'll

get noticed. It'll happen. Right. But people don't want to do that. And, uh, so it doesn't end for you in the gym. No, it doesn't. It's like your, your wife and everybody else around you has to like, quote unquote, deal with your mindset for, for, for better or worse, right?

Or worse. Sometimes it's probably great. It probably benefits everybody. And other times it probably doesn't. This is the same reason why I've never taken a painkiller because I'm afraid I'll like it. Right. And if I take a painkiller and I like it, I'm going to be in a ditch somewhere in like

a week. You guys never seen me again. Like I am not a mediocre person in anything. Like if, if I'm going to do it, I'm going to try to be my absolute best. I know people say that, but like I'm obsessive. Like if, if we order a pizza, we better order two pizzas, right? Like I can't have one piece of pizza. I can't have like one beer. I can't, I I'm not that guy. If I'm going to do it, I'm going to go full out. So like, I used to joke at my old job for like PT tests and stuff.

Like all of us guys would be like, man, screw this place. I don't care. I'm not going to try. And I'm like, yeah, I'm not going to try either.

I'm not going to try at all. And then someone go ready, go. And I'm like, ah, I can't, I can't not try anything. Like,

and I, I, I wish I could care less about stuff, but I can't, I can't not try anything like, and I, I, I wish I could care less about stuff, but I can't like, I'm so passionate in all things that, that I decided to put some energy towards and it is such a weakness at times, but at the same time, that's exactly why I've, I've gained things. I like people will say like, I have good genetics and I do have good genetics. I'm not bad, but I don't have the best genetics. I good genetics I'm not bad but I don't have the best genetics I don't have the best equipment I don't have the best

coaches like I've done the best of what I have and I think there's so many people who quickly give up because they don't think something's possible for them or they see someone else and they just go oh man like I wish I could do that or I don't have this nice gym or I don't have whatever and I'm like man you need to focus on what you do have and like make the most of what you do have because you'd be shocked at the gifts that you actually do possess. People don't understand. Like the people are like, oh, are you near genetic potential? I'm like, I will never know where my genetic potential is or was or ever will be because

I even if I found that 15 years ago, you'd still see me trying to slam my head into a brick wall, trying to beat it. Like it's just, it's in me. I will never, that's why my gym's name never state it's because it's never satisfied. It's never satiated. Like if I can't do something better physically, then I'm going to try to do something better mentally. If I can't do it mentally, I'm going to do it emotionally. If I can't do it emotionally, like it's about constant and never ending achievement. Whether I get my car and I'm like, today I'm going to try to drive better than i drove yesterday or i'm gonna try to make less typing mistakes when i'm writing emails like i'm always just trying to get better and it's exhausting yeah but it's it's made me good at a couple things

you know what i mean can it can be maddening at times maddening absolutely maddening like my brain does not i don't sleep and it's because my brain doesn't shut down you know um is it uh i i recognize that the training is relaxing for you know so i think that sometimes people um people are like man hey you ever get a chance to relax so first of all i mean part of the release and part of like relaxing is like getting in the gym and acting like a maniac right but do you feel bad about like if you just sit there and kick your feet up and watch a football game i do it sounds really bad but i do because of the business not because of working out um but the business because i'm a one-man show it's like a 24 hour there's always something to be done always a fire to put out always an email to get back to or something so i feel bad for that but i have been

able to make the distinction in my life because a lot of people like when you're so busy, you're doing so much. Like, how do you, the thing is, is it's about being where you're at. Like when I'm here with you guys, I'm not thinking about lunch. I'm not thinking about what I need to do tomorrow. I'm, I'm here with you guys. I'm thinking about pizza because you brought it up. I'm not going to say nothing about pizza. I'm still stuck. But like, if, if you're with you, if you're with your girl, be with your girl. If you're at work,

do the best job you can at work. Don't be thinking about how you hate being at work. You know what I mean? Like if people would just spend a little bit more time trying to be good at things they do. Like I used to hate washing the dishes. And then one day I was like, you know what?

I'm just going to try to do this as well as I possibly can. And I enjoyed the washing dishes a lot more. Right. Um, and same thing with the working out. Yeah. It seems extreme. It seems hard, but like sometimes relaxation doesn't make me happy, but like productivity makes me happier knowing that I helped someone or maybe I am completely tired, but I took the extra minute to like help someone with their deadlift and that made the

world to them. And those types of things are so rewarding to me that when I do decide to relax, I shut down. I literally take my phone and I push it away from me. I get away from everything that is a distraction to me and I truly shut down. So that's something I had to learn because burnout is a constant for business owners as well as people, athletes.

And I think being able to decompress by literally shutting your brain off being like that stuff doesn't matter right now is something that took me 39 years to learn but i think i'm finally learning it and uh i it's the only way to be balanced because i can't be balanced the way that like a normal person can be balanced i i literally don't have like the mental makeup for it. I'm a crazy person. If you stick me in, in the wrong situation and you tell me to be like an accountant, like it's only a matter of time,

man. You know what I mean? Like it'd be like office space, like burn this place down. You're like, I can't handle monotony and like numbers and data. I can't do that. Right.

But like you stick me in chaotic environments and I thrive. And so for some people, they're like, man, like how do you deal with all that? I'm like, this is my happiness. Like your happiness just doesn't look like my happiness. That's why it doesn't look good to you. But like you tell me to run a marathon and I'd rather drink Drano, you know?

But some people, they love that, you know? And it's just, it's different things, it's different people, you know? It's about being able to recover from stuff as we pointed out with the workouts, you know, and it's just, it's different things to different people, you know. It's about being able to recover from stuff, as we pointed out with the workouts. You know, watching a football game, you can sit there and be like, this isn't really beneficial. Like, I don't have any plans to play football. I don't have plans to coach football. What am I learning?

What am I gathering from this? But it's like a form of entertainment. You kind of stick entertainment in a category of like relaxation, meditation almost in some way. And there's been a lot of research recently coming out about vacations, how much healthier people are that go on a vacation. There's probably a million things that go into that. People that take vacations are probably oftentimes a little bit more ahead than people that never take them. So there's probably a lot of other things that go behind that. But it kind of just gives you the idea like, yeah,

I just probably need to figure out ways of recovering from each thing that you do every day. Because that is the real for all of us, right? Whether it be business or lifting or anything, you want to be good at it. No one wants to be bad at it. And you guys have proven that you have the discipline and the drive and everything to be like, well, if I want to be good at something, I'm going to put the time and the effort in. And, uh, that's, it's a dangerous thing because if you do it too much, you become obsessive. You really do.

And, uh, like we talked, we joked earlier about weighing toothpaste, like some bodybuilders, like count the calories in their toothpaste and stuff. And it's like, there are people that are that extreme that the questions I get are so I'm like, bro, like you're worried about something that you should be worried about in about 30 years. Right. You need to worry about like squeezing the bar or like, here's how you put chalk on your hands. Like, and it's just, it's incredible to dive into that because I know Like, it's just, it's incredible. To dive into that, because I know that someone who's listening and has seen some of the stuff that you do, they're probably wondering what supplements do you use for your recovery?

So if any, do you or? So I used to be really big on supplements. And when I did my old job, I was always on the road, right? Like I was out of the country or out. So the way that I got through it is I would take a, I'm taking a water bottle for a second, but I would take a water bottle and I would dump protein powder in there

and I keep it dry, right? So I'd have a bunch of them sitting around drying out. I'd stick protein powder in there and then you could have just to-go protein shakes where you didn't need to figure out a funnel or anything, right? So I lived off like protein shakes and fish oil and peanut butter for a very long time and saved a bunch of money. That's how I lived off like protein shakes and fish oil and peanut butter for a very long time and saved a bunch of money. That's how I started my gym, right? Sold a house and saved

all that money. Um, however, when I got sick and started throwing up a lot, I stopped all supplements fearing that it was probably one of those, right? Like not regulated by the FDA. We don't really know what's in this stuff. I don't, you know, it's probably one of these. So I stopped that and nothing changed. Like I didn't stop throwing up, but I also didn't stop. I didn't lose muscle mass or anything. And so I was like, I feel like I've been eating a bunch of quarters. So I just stopped. I stopped taking supplements. I do still take creatine, regular creatine. Um, occasionally I'll take a protein shake, but with my throwing up, I can't hold stuff down. So I really, I try to get like 5,000 calories after like 10 PM every night. That's, that's what I try to do.

Wait, after 10 PM, like you don't eat during the day? No, I can't hold it down. I throw it up. Wow. Yeah. Like I've already thrown up like 15 times a day. That's my voice is raspy. Yeah.

And it's just because of the reflex in my head from my disease. But it's, it's not because I don't want to eat. Like, I'm hungry. I'm hungry just like you guys are hungry. I just, I can't hold it down. So if I eat it, it just makes it more painful. Right now, I'll just dry heave. Any vitamins or minerals?

I really like Flintstone vitamins. I'm not kidding at all. I love Flintstone vitamins. Just to eat them, I'll eat them like candy. Yeah, they kind of do taste like candy. But honestly, I have a great wife who every single night makes me a massive dinner that's full of meat and vegetables because I mainly eat low carb. I'm not a big carb guy. When I eat carbs, I tend to get a little fatter and softer.

I will have some rice occasionally, but really I just eat a ton of food when I can and then I sleep long enough to hold it down before it comes back up and now that I'm getting better I don't wake up throwing up so I'm able to hold on to the food so now I've been getting mass back but like when I wake up throwing up every night at 216 was as heavy I was went from 273 down to 216 and could not sustain it but that's when when I found out found the doctors and stuff. Yeah. So I started getting better.

What in the hell happened? So one day I started getting nauseous and threw up. And that just got progressively worse every day until, I mean, I used to wake up every morning and I'd coach at my gym and it's an open air gym. So it was very warm in the summer. And I have a tendency to get kind of nauseous when I get extra hot, like overheated anyway, as a lot of big guys do. But I would chug a protein shake in the morning as breakfast.

And I'd go out, I'd coach and I'd get nauseous. And I was like, maybe it's like kind of rotting in me. Not good. This isn't good. Right. And then I got sick one day and that wasn't a normal thing. I didn't normally throw up like ever. So then it just kept getting worse and worse until it progressively got to the point where I was throwing up every single day, 50 times a day for two years.

50, 5-0. 5-0 times a day on average. Some days were worse. Some days were better. Just periodically, just you're in the middle of conversation. You got to run to the bathroom. Yeah. Like I was nauseous 100% of the time right now

you're going to a coffee shop you're going to the grocery store it didn't matter where you were no it was super it's been like a super embarrassing thing like I don't care too much about getting embarrassed anymore because now I'm older but like when you're when you're picking out like I would reach for like a salad dressing

and literally throw up on the floor of the supermarket and like people be coming running around and be like, are you okay? Are you okay? And I'm like, yeah, this just happens. And people aren't very – I mean they would be understanding of disease, right? But people wouldn't be very understanding of you barfing on the ground because they would be like, why didn't you just – most of us are like, oh, I don't really feel well. And we'd probably stay home.

We'd probably make adjustments And we'd probably stay home. Yeah. You know, we'd probably make, we'd probably make adjustments and we'd probably like, I know like if, when I get sick like that, I, I, you know, get a, like a bucket next to my bed and stuff like this.

I'm like, I don't know if I'm going to make it. You make arrangements. You're like, I can't even make it to the bathroom. When you're throwing up that much, you're trying to still live your life and maybe you can't get to where you need to get to fast enough. Yes.

So like, um, the way that it was like, I was so nauseous all the time. Like I sweat a lot anyway, but like I would just sweat through shirts because you guys know when like you're nauseous and your mouth gets dry and then you get dry sweats. That was every day. I was running fevers every day. I was having seizures every day. Not I was having seizures every day. I was having seizures sporadically. But like the fevers every day and like the throwing up was constant.

So like literally I'd be having this cup and just puke like that. I would be like, Hey Mark, how are you? And before I could say, how are you doing? Puke would be on my mouth. And so then I stopped eating because it created a lot of weird situations. Right. So it's a lot easier to kind of retch a couple of times and then just go back into talking. And, uh, yeah, it was, it was bad, man. It was a bad time. What are some theories that people had that maybe you had wrong with you? Did anybody even have, I imagine you talk to your wife and you see a doctor.

Did anybody have any clue what was going on? I mean, there were tons of guesses. And I did a lot with motility stuff, like your digestion, had every possible thing you could have stuck down your throat, stuck up your butt, like everything that had to do with anything that would logically deal with throwing up, right?

And all of that came back clear. I have a brain tumor, and that's not new news. That's old news. But they thought maybe it was the brain tumor because the brain tumor messed my endocrine system, my hormones a lot. And so they thought maybe that was throwing some things out of whack. So maybe stomach cancer or throat cancer.

They thought stomach cancer, throat cancer, all kinds of cancers they thought. And it was none of it. It was a worm. Were you getting kind of numb to that after a while, like these diagnoses? Yes. You were just like, I don't know. I'm still just sick, so it really doesn't matter anymore. Yes, I realize that I haven't told this story on this section right now.

But yes, it was really tough because for two years, it was about going to doctors. Literally every single week was a new doctor, a new this, a new that. And doctors just got – literally doctors were saying, you're the healthiest dying person I know. Because I'm in clinics with people, everyone else in the clinic is 80 years old. And I'm, I look the way I look and I'm walking in there and everyone's looking at me like, what the heck are you doing here? Like, did you bring your grandma? Like what's going on? Yeah. You working here? Yeah.

And like, I go into doctors and I start explaining my symptoms, stuff going on and everyone is shocked, just shocked. They're like, how are you living? How are you doing this? How are you doing that? And I'm like, I just don't have a choice. Like I needed to keep moving forward. Right.

So, um, it was just about continually finding doctors. And then all the doctors that were covered by insurance no longer were there. So then I started paying out of pocket because people, when it gets so specialized, they don't take insurance anymore. You know what I mean?

And, um, I had to start traveling to go to different doctors and it was just it was insane and the bottom line is like it was two years of just continually getting kicked in the nuts you know like being like maybe this is the one that's going to help me stop having a miserable life and like giving me reason to live again and then they'd be like nah nah we don't know find somebody else and then it got to the point where they couldn't even recommend people. And to be honest with you, I kind of accepted the fact like this is it.

I'm going to die. I'm just going to live my life and it's done. Right. And was still like placating my wife and being like, yeah, I'll go see another motility doctor, another stomach doctor, another brain doctor. But knowing that literally we'd seen, I mean, we live right next to Hopkins. It's one of the best experimental places, hospitals in the world. And all those people are like, nah, man, we don't have a clue. Like you're dying.

Good luck. And it just, it was, it was, it sucked because you feel helpless because when something goes wrong, it's like you, your car breaks down, you call a mechanic. Like your toilet doesn't work. You call a plumber. Like your body doesn't work. You call a plumber, like your body doesn't work. You call a doctor. And those doctors will get to another doctor or another doctor until you

eventually find an answer. But there were no answers. And the amount of people who have like terminal diseases and are going through the same thing right now is astounding. I didn't know about it. Like I, I thought like it was like a house episode or like where like there were a couple of people that were sick in the world, but it wasn't a lot. But like, you know, somebody like, you know, somebody like within three degrees of separation that is miserable every single day of their life.

And they are fighting to stay alive, not only physically, but also mentally trying to find a reason to keep going on. And it's it's tragic, man. It's happening everywhere. People like stupid things with their teeth where they're in like extreme pain every single day, all day long for their whole life. And it's like not being able to find relief and stuff is, is a serious thing for people. And being able to go from like a person who most people consider very healthy and kind of like a top percenter, as far as that health and human body is concerned to go to find that entire other side

where it was like you can't walk to the bathroom without throwing up you can't take care of yourself anymore you can't do anything it was so eye-opening and uh also for like mental mental health people like my problem wasn't i work with a lot of adaptive people who don't have their arms and legs and so like they walk into a room people like oh there's something different about you right like me people didn't see until i started legs. And so like they walk into a room, people are like, oh, there's something different about you, right? Like me, people didn't see until I started throwing up. They're like, oh, something's wrong with you. And then it gets even worse

with people with like mental disorders. And like I suffer some PTSD and some depression because of PTSD from stuff in my past. But like with this, I was getting very depressed. Like I didn't have a reason to live anymore. It was miserable.

Living was more miserable in my mind than ending it. Right. And there's so many people that are in that situation. And a lot of people walking around with like a mental disease right now that don't get to wear like a bandage around their head. Right. So like someone will walk in and they're like, I'm a broken person because of something happened in my past.

And like you're, you're don't understand why they can't live a normal life. And there's a lot of people going through that and it was very eye-opening because being who we are a lot of times you say suck it up because 99 of the time the answer is suck it up right it is yeah but there's one percent of time where you're like you can't suck it up and i'm sorry that i treated you like that and but most times those people you can't diagnose like that. And there's a lot of people hurting. So it was very eyeopening. And that really changed my perspective on how I approach different people. So now someone will come up to me with a question and I, I'm not a people person. I'm just not, I don't like public places. I'm an introvert more

so. And so like being a public figure was tough for me until I started realizing like, Oh, you're just, you're a normal person who's got something going on and I need to treat you like, like not like you're stupid cause you don't know what I know or you can't lift what I can lift or whatever. Like you're just a normal person who's got something going on. And you know, it really changed my perspective on a lot of things. It made me grow up in a lot of ways that I probably should have grown up a long time ago, but like for whatever reason, didn't mature out that way. And, uh, I'm glad that it's happened because more complete of a person now, I feel like because of it.

Were you still, uh, working out? Yeah, of course. I, I never stopped working out literally the, um, because of the worm and the throwing up, I got, uh, my body obviously wasn't holding on nutrients so i started getting injured and i got my first lifting injury in 25 years was uh was a shoulder injury where i'd see that's what i was aware of i was aware that you had like an injury yes and uh and i was like oh man that sucks he got hurt and that that's that's all i knew and then i saw you like losing weight and stuff i had no idea that you had this disease going on. Yeah. So I was dumbfounded. Right.

So I hurt my shoulder and normal tweaks and bumps happen all the time. That happens all the time. But this happened and I was in a situation where I couldn't pick my arm up and stuff. And I was like, this is different. And then after two months of denial, I went to the doctor and they're like, yeah, you have a torn rotator cuff. And that time I was getting ready to go to nationals and I was like, well, I'm going to compete in nationals. So there I finished it

off. But, um, the, I was getting hurt because my body wasn't holding on nutrients and it just, it wasn't repairing itself. Right. Um, that, that made it extremely tough to, to continue to train because I was constantly getting weaker. It was like I was getting worse every single day, getting a little bit worse, getting a little bit worse. And then when I started getting hurt, it was bad. And the only time that I actually took off the gym, after this first surgery for the rotator cuff, they did a great job on surgery,

but the screws they put in apparently were dirty. And so it gave me a bone marrow infection. So when I woke up out of the, out of the surgery, the next, next day, when you get surgery, you guys have both had surgery. You,

you wake up and you're like, okay, we're on the mend. Now we're on the good side. Now it's going to suck, but we're moving towards good things. And I woke up and they're like, Hey,

we got some bad news. Uh, we're going to have to stick a pick line in your chest, uh, which is a catheter basically. And catheter is one of those words. It's always been scary to me. Right?

Like not only the wiener catheter, but like the idea of a tube going into like your vein, it's just creepy, right? Like someone's sticking a thing through your leg, going up to your grosses me out to no end. Can't handle it. Right?

So they tell me this and it's like cold sweat immediately. I'm like, Hmm, interesting. Why, why are we doing that? Can't there be something else? Um,

so right out of surgery, they had to stick me right back in. They couldn't put me under cause I was surgery and stick a pick line in my chest, which was the most disgusting thing ever. And when, when that line actually entered into my heart, when it actually stuck into my heart,

it did some things inside my heart that are like the strength. I can't describe it, but like, I hope it never happens again. Or I hope if it happens again, it's because I'm a heart attack and dying. Cause I never want to experience it. But,

uh, so I had to, I had to take some time off from that, but other than that, man, I lifted through it. Uh, it just,

it was miserable all the time, you know? And there's some days I went in and literally lifting for me was I go in and I do my warmup sets. I'd start throwing up. I couldn't stop throwing up. I literally had to leave some days. It was like,

I get a couple of deadlifts done or like a part of a workout. Like I get like the strength portion done, but I couldn't do assistance or I couldn't do conditioning or like it was, it's just been like paint by numbers with the workouts. You know what I mean? Now I'm a little bit better off. I'm starting to actually follow a program because more days are better than not.

But literally for two years, man, uh, it's been really tough to go in and continually try to push when you know, like pushing is going to result in you getting hurt or you being lackluster comparatively where you were and uh but it was just it was just about going and trying to find a way to become better somehow every single day whether it be like get better technically get better conditioning just push mentally like do something try to sweat today before you start

throwing up like the winning winning changed winning when i got hurt was like an 800 pound squat to me was like that was going to be a win now like or then it was like doing 10 push-ups was a win you know and now it's like kind of somewhere in the middle so i just i hope i get back there but if i don't like i know that i've learned a greater gift than like 800 pound squat will ever give me, you know what I mean? And it's something I'll be able to apply for the rest of my life, but I would recommend people learn it from listening to the podcast as

opposed to actually getting worms. I've had, you know, some things taken away from me, you know, from a lifting perspective, you know, torn pecs and different things like that. And I know that, you know, that can be really damaging. Like it really hurt. Like it hurts you mentally, physically. be really damaging. Like it really hurt, like it hurts you mentally, physically. Um, you cry about it. You're upset about it. You're like, man, I just, I just want to do what I love doing. I just want to get back to it. Um, but I've been

healthy enough and have, uh, kept like mental capacity and everything like enough to still provide value for other people in other aspects of my life. How are you able to deal with that side of it? Because when you're throwing up this much, I would imagine you probably feel worthless at some point. You probably don't feel like you can be of value to anybody, right? No. And I've lifted since I was like 13, and I grew up with He-Man and Ninja Turtles

and Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone. So having muscles has always been something that I was interested in. It's always been part of my identity. I was always a strong kid or an athletic kid or, or something right. Like mentally tough kid. I was always good at something. I could always find something in that aspect and it was part of my identity. It really was like I walked in a room and I was that guy. And then when that got taken away,

I needed to find someone else to be. And, uh, to be honest, man, I, it was, it was a decision.

Like I, I didn't think without my strength, without my ability to lead from the front, I didn't think I had anything to offer anymore. And like really started kind of not on, I was miserable in my life. Right. Like, I mean, I hated every single second I was alive.

I really did. Like that, that's a bold statement. But when you're nauseous every single second of your life and you're throwing up and you can't do things you love, like it's a true statement. I can't imagine, you know, like I know, you know, just in times where I've just had like a flu, um, just like the lights being bright, noise people talking someone talking to you and you're like dude like i just i need i need to be quiet for a minute because like i'm i don't feel good like you don't even want anyone to say anything no i can't imagine being in a good mood right

no and like i'd be like the arnold and like everyone be coming up to say hi to me and like gonna meet me and i'm like hey how you doing man and like in my head i'm just trying not to throw up and people like man this guy's a dick and i'm like i'm not i just i feel terrible right now like you feel normal i feel terrible and that was two years it's like having the worst food poisoning of your life for two years wow and uh it sucked i'm glad i don't feel like that anymore i really am that's crazy so and I, uh, we bumped into each other at the Arnold. I was a little bit aware of, of what was going on. And I was communicating with you, I think a little bit before the Arnold,

but, um, I remember just communicating with you enough to say, Hey, make sure, you know, that we, we get to see each other at the Arnold because I think I might have some people that might be able to help you. And then when you were telling me about what was going on, I was like, Oh shit. I'm like, I don't know if I have anybody who can help him. I didn't realize it was this crazy and this bad. And then as I thought about it more, um, I was like, well, I said, I had Gabrielle Lyon on the podcast. My other friend, Joel Green, I'm like, these people know a lot about the stomach. They know a lot about cancer. They know a lot about like all

these different things. And then I remember, um, you know, going back and forth with them and then having some suggestions. And then, you know, both of them kind of came to the realization at the same time. And they texted me and they're like, your friend's got worms. Yeah. And I was like, what the hell does that mean? And you sent that text. You're like, you have a worm. Yeah.

I don't have worms, Mark. I think I might have even sent him a worm emoji. You did. It was a worm emoji. I didn't even know worm emoji existed until that moment. Yeah. So, you know, I started to kind of, I was researching it a little bit myself, looking it up. But I'm like, I don't know shit about any of this.

So I reached out to my friends. And then you were able to actually get in contact with Gabrielle Lyon, who lives in New York. She has a practice there. Congratulations to her, by the way. She just had a baby, a very healthy baby. So good, good for her. And, um, you know, tell us a little bit about how that kind of unraveled and stuff. Um, so first off, I want to say thank you. And I'm not, I'm not doing this for cameras or anything.

Like I literally very well would probably be dead if we didn't have that conversation. Um, and the strange part is I wasn't even going to come over and have the conversation because we were so busy at the Arnold, right? Because I don't have a booth and we were there coaching people. And I typically go there with Brian Shaw, but we were there with one of my athletes, Miles, who has cerebral palsy and he exploded online.

So Arnold wanted to come out and meet me. He was the bell of the ball that year. Yes, he was. He was hanging out with Arnold and everything. We got to play with him the whole time, right? So he's my athlete. So we're hanging out, doing our stuff. And we were so slammed busy.

And there was one part where they had this strongman section that we couldn't get to because it was in a different area. And I was like, we have a little downtime. Why don't we go try to see Mark and we'll go see Juju, right? Two of my friends. So we went over and we saw you. And I was like, man, like immediately we hit it off. Like we've met in the past a couple of times.

So like we just immediately fall back into like normal stuff. And then it was so impressive to me because, uh, I ended up having a mini seizure literally less than an hour after that. I started having a seizure and, um, had to leave the convention center and made the decision there that I was going home.

I was like, I'm not going to continue. I was like, I'm not going to continue. I'm too exhausted. Exhaustion tends to make my stuff worse. So I was like, I'm too tired. I'm going to roll. And on the way home, I was pretty dejected. To be honest, I was crying when I left the convention center because this is what I want to do with my life.

I love all of this. This is what I want to do. And I get a little ahead and then it gets taken away. And it was very sad. And I felt like I was dying. And I was like, this is probably your last time going to Arnold. Like you got to meet Arnold. You got to do all this stuff.

But like this probably, you're probably dead. And, uh, so we were leaving and, uh, and on the way home, I get a text from you and it's like, you just started asking questions. And they were obviously very poignant questions. They weren't like, hey, man, so do you throw up a lot? It was very much like, do you eat sushi? Do you do this? Do you do that?

And I was like, okay. So you're obviously mediating. There's stuff going on. There's gears moving. And you put me in contact with Gabriel Lyon. And Gabriel and i talked on the phone probably for like two hours one night and uh she works with nothing but special ops individuals uh like yeah that was one of the one of the immediate red flags uh one of the things

that alarmed me is she was like um what does he do for work and i was like oh he like coaches people and she's like what about like previously he was in the military and stuff i was like, oh, he like coaches people. And she's like, what about like previously he was in the military and stuff? I was like, fuck. I was like, he, yeah, he mentioned to me. Yeah. He like, I, we have, you and I never really discussed that that much, but I was like, he was in the military. She's like, he was probably overseas and some shit probably happened to him over there.

Yeah. So I, previous to my lifting stuff, I did counterterrorism for the government and, uh, traveled to a lot of places that weren't very good. Right. And somewhere along the line, I was in some water that was dirty. And there's a certain parasite called and I always mispronounce it, but it's system ISIS. Right. And basically it's a worm that lives inside of a snail. And I'm I'm messing this up. I don't know this at all. But so I'm talking. But does it look anything like this?

It looks it looks very much like that. Right. So we got you a stuffed animal. So, so what? Thank you. I'll call him bitey. But yeah, so, um, so it swims through your skin. It swims through your skin and then kind of builds itself in there and attacks different parts of your body.

And it had been attacking my kidneys in the past. It attacked my stomach. It had eaten a ton of my stomach lining, my intestines, and part of my brain. So basically my throwing up is more like a reflex than anything else at this point. And so, yeah. Yeah, that's how it happened. And Gabriel, since, since I had had that past, like doctors for two years had no clue. Right. But most doctors don't deal with special operations personnel, right. They, they, they deal with an entirely different

type of problems that normal people don't see because they don't get exposed to certain things. And so the second, it was so crazy because for two years I had been told you're dying. There's nothing we can do. Find somebody else, find somebody else. And then I see you, I see Mark and literally like a day later, they're like,

you have worms. They're like, come to New York, figure it out. Like get, get these tests done. This is how important suffering really is. Like,

and I know it's sucks to have to go through bad stuff, but maybe give people some perspective on maybe why you're going through a hard time right now, because it might be just a thing that helps someone else down the road or it might help yourself. So the only reason why I knew this and the only reason why there's actually two reasons why I thought you were going to be okay. Number one is, you know, my dad was in the hospital for like 70 days. He had all these crazy complications and they kept telling us they didn't know what was wrong with them.

And I, I know even just from lifting that, you know, if Encima comes in and says he wants to deadlift 800 pounds, I'm like, yeah, we can do that. Even if he's only previously deadlifted 600 pounds. And I know in sports and in the experiences I've had over the years that when somebody says something outlandish, like I want to run a 4.240, well, a coach that just doesn't have the correct knowledge is going to say, you know, you can't do that. Like that's a pipe dream. You can't do it. Or you can't make a million dollars or you can't do this. There's always someone that can usually help you level up. And when it comes to medical stuff, I was like,

pretty much everything that's ever happened medically has probably happened. Just about, you know, like there's, you know, a couple of things that, you know, they discover some new things here and there,

but it's like pretty much always have, you know, somebody's probably had it. Yeah. Things have happened. There's procedures for stuff. There's medication for stuff. There's so with my dad, um, I just told my mom, told my mom i was like mom i was like you can't give up you need to

continue to find somebody better for him that's going to give him the care that he needs because somebody knows what's wrong with him yes and i also said you can't you know go crazy because then they can take away some of your rights you know and it's a very emotional thing her husband was dying my dad got down to like 120 something pounds or something. It was, it was just absolute insanity. And, um, I just knew from that experience that we could help you turn the corner. Cause I, I saw it with my own two eyes with my dad. I was like, now the situations are totally different. My dad didn't have a parasite. My dad had, well, we didn't even know what he had. Cause he had so many surgeries that by the time they got, they, they got to his last surgery. They're like, we don't really know exactly what

happened in the beginning, but we know what to do now to kind of fix it. And so when I saw you, I was like, I, you know, even though the situation sounds insane, sounds crazy. Um, I know that there's people that can help you. And then there's people that I've been around, uh, Ron Penna and some of these other people have been super smart. I'm like, man, I bet you some of these people can probably give, you know, Brian the the assistance that he needs. The other thing that was reassuring was that you were with your wife and I don't think I've ever met her before. So I met her at the arm when you came by and I could see that she wasn't going to give up. And I thought that that to me, I was like, that's huge. He's got someone in his corner.

I'm like, if we find some right people, she's going to make sure his ass goes to those doctor's appointments. Kind of no matter what, because she wants you to still be around. So that's what kind of gave me some faith towards like, yeah, I think, you know, I think maybe we can get him head in the right direction. And I'm not going to talk much about it because I'll start crying, but I would not be here without my wife. Uh, like I got real dark, real dark, like, uh, like wanted to eat a gun dark, you know

what I mean? And, uh, no one saw it. No one saw it besides her. My parents didn't see it. My lifting people didn't see it. I hid it from everybody just that like I had to be strong cause I'm a leader. I'm a leader in my community. You know what I mean? Like the people that I hung out with being my family, I'm a leader. And, uh, the only, the only person I could really be, uh, that vulnerable with was her and, uh,

man, she's my rock. But I will say, um, that's another thing that i'm sure that you could talk into more than i could is that when when somebody it's it's hard to go through it right like it's hard to go through it but going through it sucks but i swear to you it is worse on the people watching like i think my wife uh went through more like i'm sure you watching your dad or your mom watching your dad being like this man that I've loved this long, watching him waste away and every single day just going what's wrong? He's dying.

It's hard to go through it. And that sucks, right? But like there's a lot of people that people don't really think about like yourself or your mom. Life is really hard. It is. It's hard. And you think thoughts that aren't really, they're not very rational. But you're like why has this happened to him? about like like yourself or your life life is really hard i'm like it is you know and you you think thoughts that aren't really they're not very rational but you're like why does this happen to him why is it why does this happen to us like he's the kindest person i've ever met like i've never

seen anybody you know help more people and i've never seen anybody be more kind i couldn't ask for a better dad i'm like what like you're like that jerk why not to that yeah and that's not my dad yeah that's not the way life works right right? The guy that abuses his children, he doesn't end up dying at 35. He ends up living to 105 years old and no one understands why, right? It's just kind of just a part of the way things work. I do believe that putting good out in the world will bring good back. And I think if you're a negative person, it brings negativity back. But I will say that a lot of good things happen to a lot of – or a lot of bad things happen to a lot of good people.

You know what I mean? Like, I'm not saying that I'm a good person, but I'm saying that there's a lot of situations, a lot of stories that you hear about where they're just absolute saints that just have the most despicable thing. But you know what? A lot of times those people who are those saints are able to carry that load

so that they can suffer beautifully or they can be a good just example for the other people around them because there's a lot of people who get sick and get real mean and push everyone away and they die alone and you know and my dad my dad wouldn't be around if it wasn't for my mom either i mean she i think you know some weird, real crazy things happen to you. You end up, somehow those people end up becoming heroes without, I don't think they're, they have no intention of it, but they end up like almost, almost like they're in shock or something. And they're able just to go through like procedures, like, and for your wife was probably like, that didn't work. So we're going to try this. Maybe almost felt like like I don't really have a whole lot of time to sit around and cry about it. And she's hearing what you're saying.

I'm sure when you're not around, she's probably bawling her eyes out whenever she had the opportunity or with her mom or sister or whoever she's friends with. But not letting you see it because you're already down anyway. You don't need any extra on that. So it's amazing how people can, uh, you know, persevere and be strong for you when you need them to. Yep. And you see people do that. Like when someone comes down with cancer, like a loved one, like people go into work mode, you know what I mean? They're like, okay, it happened. It sucks. But like, we need to think about like the next steps. What do we got to do? What do we got to get done? And, uh, those people are what get people like me through situations like that.

You know what I mean? Because, uh, I, I might be able to help someone else through it. But at the time I was like, it's not worth it. It's very similar to like, if you're going to make dinner, you know, like when you're like a bachelor, you're like, man, making dinner is not even worth it doing that. Like I'll stop by, I'll pick something up. Right. Like, it's like that. Like I got sick to the point that I was like, I just don't want to go to any more doctors.

I'll die before I search anymore. Like, I just don't want to do it anymore. I'm tired of getting poked and prodded. But like that person is going, no, no, no stupid.

Like I want you around. You're going to go and you're going to go for me. If you're not going to go for you, you're going to go for me. And man, those people are absolute heroes. They are. And there's so many of that,

much like the people with the mental health. and there's so many of that much like the people with the mental health like there's so many people that don't get credit because like you don't score touchdowns or you don't win medals or write books or whatever and you don't get the credit but there's so many people that are just like unsung heroes that make such a difference like i'm i'm the one out of our, out of our relationship. I'm kind of the one in the spotlight. Cause YouTube and like the lifting and whatever she, she does great.

She's great. But like, uh, in this situation, I was the one in the spotlight and she was the one doing all the work. You know what I mean? And two years, the exhaustion level for me was high,

but the exhaustion level for her was legit. Like worse than me. Like she just, she still exhaustion level for her was legit, like worse than me. Like she just, she still just could collapse, you know, just exhausted with like all the mental, emotional energy, just hard, hard on people around. So what was the solution to this at the end of the day? Cause you guys figured out what it was. Was it surgery? Is it a medication you're taking? Like, um, they're, they're $5 pills that are issued out for free in africa all the time because my my disease kills 240 000 people in africa alone every single year right

uh and there since worms is something they see all the time if they saw my symptoms they would have given me these pills and i would have been out of it in a second now there's tons of people like oh you just need to eat this whatever earth or this whatever blah like there's a lot of worms in the world right what a lot of people are thinking of their worms are like tape worms or basic they that's not what i had i had something was going to kill me right um and so uh but it's very easily taken care of with medication so uh the medication it is not covered by insurance in america so it's like six hundred dollars a pill or something ridiculous that i had to pay. But in Africa it's like 50 cents and it's like handed out like at school. Like, cause people get worms all the time in places where there's not clean water.

Right. And so like when you get your flu shot or whatever, like you get your warming pills, uh, we just don't do it in America because we're too soft. You know what I mean? Like it's too easy. It's, it's, it's almost like, like one of those diseases that doesn't exist anymore because it's been vaccinated out, you know, until it shows up one time and then kills a ton of people. Right. So, um, that, that's all it was, was just the wrong, wrong thing. And once I took the pills, I'm,

I'm steadily, it could take up to 20 years for me to get better because of the damage that the worms have done. My body has to heal that. And I did, it was, was it 40 or 80 hyperbaric treatments where they like lock you in a tube and you just had to sit there, you know, just chill and breathe pure oxygen. So I do a bunch of that. And that brought me back a little bit faster. That's kind of for your brain, right?

Yep, for my brain. A lot of people with like traumatic CCT, I think CTt whatever the the i got you yeah but uh thinking of football players yeah that and lime i have lyme disease also so it's supposed to help with that but yeah it's supposed to neurologically start bringing that stuff back and it has so i went from puking like 50 times a day to now i say I'd probably puke, I'd say on average, 15 to 20 wretches a day. You know what I mean? But it's so much better.

I mean, that sounds like a lot of people are like, oh, you throw up. That sounds terrible. I'm like, no, that's the best day ever. You don't understand. Like, I can live my life. I have a voice back. Like, I could not have spoken this long ever because it would have been gone because it's just it's like a bulimic teenager you know what i mean yeah did they ever um like did anybody ever actually see a worm or no like worms i'm so sad no no okay so all right so gabrielle um she's

she's like the overall doctor that was like here's diagnosis here's the dude who deals with nothing but worms that you need to go see. Also in Manhattan, right? What is the YouTube video? Can you tell people the name of the YouTube video where you explained all this about the doctor shoving a jar up your butt and everything? So there's two videos you guys are going to want to check out. They're both in my medical playlist.

I believe one is called My Medical Problems Solved. That's one you're going to want to check out. And then there's no, but The Medical Problems Solved. That's one you're going to want to check out. And then there's another one. But The Medical Problems Solved, I believe, is the doctor one. So I go to this doctor. And you guys really should watch that because I mentioned you so much. I mentioned Mark Bell so much in it. It's such a funny – I mean, the way you describe everything.

You're so descriptive. It's hilarious. Because the idea was – I played it out that it was a big elaborate prank by you to get this doctor to shove things up my butt. Right. That, that was the whole premise of my story. And when you listen to the story, it makes a lot of sense. It really does.

Right. But so I get to this doctor who literally is like 115 years old and he has like, he has like Santa Claus, bushy eyebrows. I'm not kidding at all. And look, this doctor is awesome. And I am not trying to be disrespectful whatsoever, but these are the facts, right? He's 115 has bushy eyebrows. Like he looks like a character caricature of a, like if you were going to draw like a genius doctor,

that's what he looks like. Right. And you're sitting there thinking like, what, what's going on? Yeah. This is the guy that's going to save me. And I go in and it's, it's like seven 30 in the morning and I've never been a doctor. Point opens out early. And I'm like, what,

this is kind of suspicious. Also his, his, that he's, he's the number one guy at this in the world. Right. So he deals like he treats Obama. He treats presidents.

He treats secretary of state. So like his entire doctor's offices, it looks like a museum of stuff and um he's written a ton of books he's he's a genius at what he does right and so i sit down across the table from this guy and uh i don't know what to expect and he starts kind of mumbling telling me like what's going he's like yeah so you have probably this parasite blah blah whatever and he starts pointing into his books he's like so when i was doing mission work in venezuela this happened and like trying to explain my situation through stories but i'm not interested in stories i've been to like a hundred doctors i

just want to know why i puke so much right and uh so he's literally handing me books and like letting me read stuff and i swear to you to distract me because the next thing out of his mouth is he's like yeah so as you can read right there, what I'm going to need to do is I'm going to have to stick my fingers in your anus to create enough dilation that I can stick a big plastic tube in and test to see if you have the worms. And so he, no lie, man, he just kind of snuck it in. Like it was, it was not a, it wasn't a, so this is what's going to happen today. It was a, I'm sorry, this is going on, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So what I'm going to have to do is stick my fingers in your butt. And so it comes out.

You're like, hold on, did I hear you right? I know why. Like what came out of me was, but like in my head, I was like, what are we doing? You know what I mean? Someone's pulling a prank on me. And I am cold sweats. Just like, all right. my head i was like what are we doing you know what i mean someone's pulling a prank i mean and i am cold sweats just like all right i'm no i'm no stranger to the butt stuff right because the doctors i've had to have like colonoscopies fingers all kinds of stuff up there right

however like you typically have a couple days kind of mentally prepared like you're like okay that's coming up i'm gonna dread it it's not gonna be as bad as i think but like i know going in what i'm gonna right there's preparations uh i had none of that so he tells me this and he's like okay let's go to the other room and i'm like well can we slow down just a little bit it wasn't even like today man it was like buy me lunch it was like bro like like he was like this what we're gonna do are you ready go let's go there was like no downtime which in reality is probably a smart way to go. Right. Cause he would have gotten all kinds of excuses. Why couldn't it be like,

well, I pulled my hamstring. I don't know if it's a good day for it. Like, you know what I mean? And, uh, so Larry puts me in the room and, uh,

before I can even get the gown on, he's back through the door and the door doesn't shut. Right. There's a ton of funny situations that go into the story, like bunch of details. Anyway, I get in, he tells me,

get on my side, which if you've ever had any butt stuff, you know, grown man, you don't have any pantalones on, and grown man tells you to get on your side, nothing good's about ready to happen. And so he sticks his fingers in, and it wasn't fun, as it never is,

right? But I'm thinking, this old man has some fat fingers, and he's like, we're doing this to create space to stick the tube in. He's like, it's a small plastic tube that's going to test. Right. And I'm like,

well, you said small, your fingers don't feel small. I'm hoping the tube is the small of the two. Right. Well, was it right? Two was good,

bit bigger. Two was approximately exactly what you guys are thinking right now. Right. So wait, like, like what? Come on. Like, just come on. Please give me some, bit bigger tube was approximately exactly what you guys are thinking right now right so wait like like what come on like just come on please give me some in comparison to the microphone like a dildo like there you go mark thank you mark i mean we're talking we're talking he's like i know what you like here you go right yeah and so so uh now granted i'm facing away from him facing the wall i just got the fingers done. And I'm thinking the fingers are supposed to help.

And so he starts putting this tube in. And I'm not going to lie, it was uncomfortable, right? Not as uncomfortable as like the catheter pick line thing. But I wasn't happy, right? So he puts this thing in. It takes much longer than it seems like it should have taken. And then he pulls it out. And he starts mumbling again.

He's like, yeah, so 10 inches, blah, blah. And literally I turn around and I do it in the video, but I turn around with like a, what,

what, what did you just say? And, uh, of course what was going through my head is exactly what's going through your guys' heads. Right. And,

uh, he's like, yeah, amazingly enough, the human, cause he's amazed by everything human. Right like because i even said to him i was like you can't enjoy doing this he's like well actually uh i find everything about the human body beautiful so there's certain beauty in this i'm like you got issues dude you know so so when

he's like well actually it's really interesting because only the first couple inches of your anus has any feeling and then you don't feel any more he's like so it was up to here and he shows me and i mean it was disturbing you're like can i get an instagram picture i wanted something like it was it was a uh so your wife's not here can you just say best orgasm of your life i cannot confirm or deny any of the rumors. As soon as he pulled it out, just all over the place. But yeah, man. So that confirmed that I had worms. Damn. Yeah.

So from there, he was like, yeah, take these pills. You'll be fine. Wow. Now I had to go back and get it done again to retest. And I think I actually need to go back one more time and get it done. But the best part is every time I go and I spend the night in New York and eat the best pizza ever. When they say New York pizza is better, it actually is. Oh, my God.

I like it. It's really good. I associate New York pizza with butt stuff. Yeah. So there's dollar slices of pizza as you're just walking down the street. Even those are fucking awesome. Yeah, they're really good. They say it's because of the water.

I don't know what it is, but I never believed it until I did it. Wow. New York pizza, I like better. I don't know. I don't know how that happened. Yeah. So, yeah. I don't know. I don't know how that happened. Yeah. So, yeah.

So here we are now on the other side of butt tests and, uh, I no longer have worms. I'm just dealing with the atrofex. Uh, and I, he, I get better every single day,

man. Every single day I get better. The worms are dying or they're dead or dead. They died like immediately. So, wow. And, uh,

so now it's just recovery. Yeah. It's just recovery. It's just let my brain heal so which like everything else just takes time you need to be need to be careful with certain things or your body's kind of regulating that for you i'm no longer allowed to eat sushi um i should probably not swim in any gross places in like india brazil or anything anymore but like uh yeah the sushi thing's kind of a hit. Cause I, I definitely like sushi.

Yeah. Wait, why, why aren't you allowed to eat sushi? Cause sushi, um, believe it or not. Uh,

if Gabrielle was here, she'd like, she is, she's like, you do not eat sushi anymore. Like I was like, wait, I can't eat like even a little sushi.

She's like, no, like absolutely not. Um, because apparently there's a lot of worms that people get through sushi. Now the worm that I got, you can't get through sushi. You need to get that swimming through your skin. But there's a lot of worms that do come and parasites that do come just through undercooked meals.

And a lot of places, I mean, you think about New York, you're near water and stuff. But you're in Phoenix eating sushi. I'm sure it got there quick, but you don't see a ton of water. You know what I mean? Right. phoenix eating sushi like i'm sure it got there quick but you don't see a ton of water you know what i mean like right so anytime that that parasites could live in something you have potential to get it just nothing to weaken your immune system any further no no and i obviously like kombucha and like pro um probiotics and stuff like that i'm trying to do a lot of just keep my gut health as healthy as possible which is is something I cared about, but more so now these meetings and stuff and these doctor's appointments,

they, they happen quick. Uh, once I, once I texted over, uh, Gabrielle's information, you guys,

uh, ended up getting together quick. You and your wife just like hop in the car and just go or what? Yeah. Yeah. Um, well it was, it was very much,

uh, probably a, how long of a drive? I mean from, uh, probably like, well, once, one time it took us eight hours because of traffic but yeah without traffic it's about three and a half four hours

but um yeah what are the odds of that too yeah right it's driving distance and seriously crazy and it's just uh everything just worked absolutely like when when i talked to gabrielle she definitely let me know like this is serious this isn't, you shouldn't be sitting on this. This should have been done yesterday. This shouldn't, you know? And, um, so, and honestly, at that point, when you're that sick and like doctors tell you you're dying and stuff, like you just, you accept that you're a certain level sick. It's like when things get heavy, it's not like they really feel that much heavier. They just feel heavy. And it's just different degrees of heavy. I was just different levels of sick. And so I didn't really have perspective of what normal was like.

I had lost that. And she was like, you were so far off of like a normal, healthy life. Like we need to deal with this immediately. So, um, she was like,

you need to get on it. And this guy, this first off, Gabrielle is not a doctor that you get an appointment with. Like she's, she's very much in demand and for good reason. I mean, saves people lives,

you know? And the other doctor is the same exact way. Like you can not get an appointment with this doctor. Like you need to know somebody, you know? And so, uh, she was like,

I can get you an appointment with this guy at this time. Like, can you get there? And literally it was like two days later and driving into New York, I already talked about not being like a people person i don't like crowds like i was like oh great busiest city in the world gonna drive in the manhattan down you know um but you get it done you get it done you figure it out you know and so uh yeah within days i was wormless not feeling better yet but wormless yeah feeling better took a. It took a while, right? It did.

And I mean, it's still, I will say that almost immediately, like once the worms were gone, I started feeling different. Like it sounds like hippy dippy, whatever, but it was almost like there was like a presence with me that wasn't there anymore. Like there was like them living inside me when they weren't there anymore. Like my body just felt like it was more myself again, as opposed to like, almost like I was invaded by something. Like I would eat the food.

I didn't get all the food. I like, I would, it was like I was being betrayed by something inside me. Like that monsters inside me a show that was on like a couple of years ago where like, it was like gross. They'd show like worms inside people and stuff.

It was on. And anyway, that's, I was like one of those cases. I never saw the show, but that's what I'm doing. what yeah and we were hoping that you're gonna poop one out but i never had i know i never saw it if i would i would have sent it to you at least a picture yeah so like where were the worms like physically in your body just throughout the whole um yeah they they apparently i could have had these worms for a very long time uh i could have gotten them

very early in my counterterrorism career, and I did that for 10 years. So we really don't know. Any idea like how big they are or anything like that? Like they live in your stomach or like your intestines? Well, the gross part is if you look it up online, systemiasis, don't ask me how to spell it. But they get so bad that they start growing out of people's feet and they start like coming out of people's bodies so uh i mean it's and there's some pictures where like it looks like it just looks like a like a wet like alien alien thing it looks like alien like it's literally like a horror movie alien thing and uh it would grow out of the bottoms of people's feet and african stuff

and it's just so disgusting but uh yeah that's's nuts. So like, I mean, I know you don't know exactly when you got it, but were these just like dormant for a while? It got so bad. You then started throwing up for two years, but it's been there. It could have been right. So a couple of years ago, a couple of being like eight or so. Yeah. See, see how it like looks like.

That looks totally fake. Yes. Right. It looks like a hundred percent. Like I'm not even squirming because i can't even believe that that would be like that's not inside you yeah wow it actually kind of looks a little bit like an intestine a little bit yeah with like teeth and weird fingers and stuff that like attaches that is fucking disgusting yeah there's a spelling yeah anyway um it just, yeah, small world, you know, never, never thought that some dude from Maryland

would end up with that. I'm happy you're here with us, man. I'm so happy you're here with us. Yeah. So am I. Like it really was nice to go for a while. And I'm telling you, if it were not for Mark and Mark putting me in touch with the right people, because it's hard when doctors keep telling you that there's nothing they could do. You believe doctors because in your mind, the doctor is smarter than you, right? Like,

you know about this. I don't know about this. I'm going to trust you and believe you. And they're like, there's nothing we can do. And there's a lot of people out there who are sick searching for an answer and they can't find an answer. But like you said with your dad, man, just keep searching because there's somebody who knows there is like, I, it was so tempting to be like, this is an unknown thing. Like, I'm just going to die. I'll go, I'll be the test subject or whatever. And that was almost appealing because it was an answer. It was some answer. Like it was maddening being like, you're being torn apart and no one can tell you why. And, uh, but then it just, it's been cool. It's, it's, it's been a horrible, terrifically growing experience.

I wouldn't wish it on anyone ever, but, uh, I'm glad on the other side of it that I've had this experience and happy that I have, I'm in a position with a platform, like between my YouTube channel and going on with you guys stuff. Like there's probably somebody out there who's maybe doesn't have system isis, but like is going through something that's like, man, I want to give up or I want to,

or their mom or whatever the case. And maybe it'll help, you know, because if it were not for the kindness of you to take a second out of your day to be like, Hey, cause how many times are you like, Oh yeah,

I know somebody I'll put you in contact. And like your brain just kind of moves on and it's gone. But like you actually took the time and because you took the time I'm breathing, I know somebody. I'll put you in contact. And like your brain just kind of moves on and it's gone. But like you actually took the time. And because you took the time, I'm breathing. You know? And like you never know how you're going to affect each other. We talk about it all the time, how small the world is. Like you know people that I know that there's no way that we should know them.

Like it just – and they're connected. The world's a much smarter place than you think. And like just because you haven't found the answers yet or like you're frustrated with it, like keep asking, keep telling, keep talking. Cause it's out there. The answers are out there. What you got, Andrew? No, I'm just, uh, I'm blown away, man.

But, um, so the, the worms, they died instantly, right? I guess. Okay. Well, at least that's what we, we hope. As far as I know, once I took those pills, like the pills are actually kind of cool. I just take two different sets and it was like very specific like certain times you need to take it without certain foods without certain and uh it was like a cycle of pills and then once those were done uh then they were gone like it was like a certain like take this medication this days that

medication that days and then yeah so then you're you're better now so like what damage did they actually do like did they just like eat away at stuff or. Yeah. So, um, basically stuff in my stomach, uh, is just torn up from them living in there and just eating and intestines and

anything digestively is pretty torn up. The, they believe that the throwing up, um, and I could be lying here. You'll probably have Gabrielle and she'll be able to tell more about it. But, um,

they believe that they probably starting working their way up my soft case a little bit. And that's why the puking was getting worse and worse and worse. Um, and then also on my brain, um, because the puking became almost like a reflex. Uh,

it wasn't like I would just, I, I, it got to the point where I wouldn't need any food in my belly. I wouldn't need any type of stimulus. Sometimes it would just happen. Like wake up in the middle of the night. Like I would wake up at 3 a.m. not feeling nauseous. I would wake up with vomit on me or like lurching.

Like that was my alarm clock every day. This is kind of a weird question. Like do they feed off of something specifically? Like if you were to kill off just like eating a certain type of food, would they maybe like be less angry or less active? I'm not sure. I'm sure because I know like even like cancer, I know like sugar feeds cancer and things like that. So I'm sure. But that's that's way above my grade, man. Damn. So if you weren't into fitness yet, you said you lifted you started lifting at 13. Yes, I did. How long would you have

had? I don't know. I don't know. Some people have said that maybe I would have had like another six months from like when I got diagnosed um but they did say that if much like people going into surgery or any type of bad disease if you go into it in shape and like peak condition you survive it's so much better you come out, whatever the case may be. In my case, if I was not in that type of shape, it very well would have killed me. And also, um, we talked about it, like the mental aspect of my training. I truly think the mental aspect did more for anything, not only being able to push through and everything, but just, uh, like making that decision every single day, like wake up and be like, no, I am going to continue to go to the gym.

I am going to continue to try to put food in my body and not just give up and be like, it's easier not to eat. You know what I mean? Cause when you're nauseous, you're not hungry. And like literally I would go four or five days without eating food and be like,

I could just stop eating. That might be easier than not, you know what I mean? But then that it's just going to speed up the dying process. So it was like, you needed to make choices that sucked. It's like going through chemo for a cancer patient where you're like, yeah, it's going to make you a thousand times worse for a little bit, but hopefully it makes you better in

the long run. You know? Yeah. Any poop stories from all this? No. We got a lot of puking. No. Anything coming out the other end?

To be honest, it never really went south. It was always going north. So like last time i said i talked about the one on the plane and then i talked about getting things stuck at my butt yeah but i don't have another good poop start well that's okay you know real quick though i still care about you what that last thing you mentioned um is just such a big deal not just for what you like what you had but just injury in general like a lot of lifters just want to stop because something hurts so i'm just not going to lift Like a lot of lifters just want to stop because something hurts.

So I'm just not going to lift for a long time, but it gets worse because you have nothing. You're not doing anything. You just do what you can and you're doing everything you possibly could. Yeah. Like shoot, good things will happen. You'd be shocked.

I went through a shoulder surgery, um, and doing stupid things with an SSB and, um, using a strap for deadlifts. I came out of shoulder surgery. Like my, I had five surgeries in one of the years because of all the worm stuff. So five in a year. And I came out of that with stronger legs than I went into it with because of it now upper body,

completely different story. But, um, yeah, like people, if you're in this game, like we talk about, you're going to get hurt. If you don't learn how to work around things, you're just going to start and stop for the rest of your life. Like you're always hurt. There's a, I really, right now, if I'm like, Hey, what hurts when you're right now, you'd be like, ah, I got something here. I got something there and something here. Like, right. It's floating pain, right? Like your back hurts until your knee starts hurting. And then your back doesn't hurt anymore.

And then your knee stops when your shoulder starts, like it just floats around and stops where it decides to stop you know i'd imagine uh you're probably pretty appreciative of every day that you have you know nowadays um and you seemed like you were like that anyway you're high energy you're relatively a happy guy from what i've what i've seen um but do you have to now like, even the second you get a little bit removed from something, you still kind of forget. Obviously, the pain is still there of everything that happened. But do you still have to check yourself?

Do you still get a little grumpy? And then you're like, come on, dude, why are you getting pissy about that? Just be thankful that you're even here. Dude, it's a fight every single day, every single moment. Anyone, look, I'm a very positive person i'd say i'm more positive than most people and every single day every single moment is a choice like i stub my toe how are you going to deal with it right like everything from that to like your card not starting or like whatever it is right so like to say i am so thankful man, I am so thankful, man. Like I am

so thankful. But to say that I'm not like a pissy grumpy dude, everyone is right. Like, like when you're unhappy or things aren't going your way or like even now, like, like I'll hit a good squat, but it's not as good as my squat was. And then I'm like, oh, but it's like, you're not dead stupid. You're able to lift. Like, so I'm constantly needing to do that. But just like the decision about whether quit or persevere,

it's a choice, right? Like you show your attitude and you show your actions. That's the only two things you're really in control of. Outside of that, good things happen to bad things happen to good people. Like you just have to deal with it. And the thing is,

is like, no matter whether it is stubbing your toe or getting a terrible disease, like it's a choice. It's a choice how you decide to respond. You can suffer beautifully or you can suffer like a little whiny baby. You know what I mean? Like, but suffering's coming for all of us.

Like it, you can't escape it. Everything calls something. I really liked the story that you shared a lot. And the fact that, um, it just tells people you can handle a lot more than, than what you think. And that's where we started this whole podcast off when we're talking about your training. Yeah. You know, you can handle a lot more than you think in your training and handle a lot more than you think in your life. You can handle a lot more than you think, uh,

with any sort of like work with uh anything in your relationship uh you talked about like driving better texting better emailing better communicating better and yeah it does seem like a lot you know when you are like yeah i'm trying to get better at everything it's like that sounds like a lot but maybe just you know kind of baby step your way into it and just try to get a little bit better and just also maybe take a second take a step back and just try to get a little bit better. And just also maybe take a second, take a step back and just recognize, yeah, I could probably do a little bit better at that. Like, can you be great at it? Maybe that's too much, right?

But can you be a little bit better at it? And that's what we love so much about strength and we love so much about the gym. Everyone possesses the ability to get stronger. And you work with a lot of adaptive people and you've seen those people get stronger. You mentioned something to me earlier, which I thought was amazing. And you said you had a guy who, uh, had like half an arm and he only had like two fingers and you shook his hand or shook, shook what you could. Right. And you walked away and you're thinking, shit, man, I

don't know how I'm going to train this guy. I'm not sure what I'm going to do. And you turned around there. He was doing muscle ups and he, uh, just recircu how I'm going to train this guy. I'm not sure what I'm going to do. And you turned around and there he was doing muscle-ups. Yeah. And he just recircuited your brain on the limitations that you put on other people, right? Yep. That same dude, to give you an idea, he essentially is his arms off at the elbow on one arm, and the other hand basically is underdeveloped. And he was doing muscle-ups on a 10-foot pull-up bar jumped up there and was doing muscle-up alone and uh that was my first interaction with any

adaptive athlete and uh thank god it was because if it would have been a person who feels sorry for themselves i probably would not be working with adaptive athletes because i'd be treating them like they're adaptive athletes instead i treat them like they're athletes who are missing some limbs and uh i get world champions showing up because they're like, oh, he doesn't treat me differently, right? But Zabi, right after he was doing those muscle-ups without everything, he went over. Nick, one of my other athletes, was doing a band of bench press, which band of bench press is no joke. Zabi asked if he could do it and balanced a barbell on his elbow and an underdeveloped hand and was doing banded bench press directly after that.

And like I said to you earlier, man, like you're like, no, no, you can't do that. And you're like, oh, whoops. Like, just let him, he thinks he can do it. Let's see what happens. Yeah. Well, well, I mean, you immediately get that like, and then you're like, well, uh, really concerned. Like you're a grown man.

Like you got under it. Let's see what happens. And the stuff that people are able to accomplish is so astounding there there's an athlete called david goggins who is uh extreme i'm sure you guys know david but if your listeners don't he's like extreme ultra marathon he's incredible look him up anyway he talks about something called the 40 rule that when you think you're done and we're not talking like oh i'm I'm tired. Done. Or like, Oh, I'm exhausted. I can't pick up my arms. Done. We're talking like your body is shutting down.

Done. He says, you, you're at 40%. You have 60 more percent to go. And I mean, he lives it right. Like dude literally is like broken feet,

broken legs and runs another a hundred miles type of type of stories. So he lives it. And I will say through my training and also through this on a much smaller scale obviously i can't i can't deny that like everything that i thought that would have buried me and i would not have been able to get through literally was 40 it wasn't even halfway to the hard stuff yet you know what i mean and but the thing is is everything that's hard seems hard because it's overwhelming, right? If you break everything into manageable chunks, how do you eat an elephant one bite at a time, right? So if you can just last one more minute, one more step, one more rep,

it's just about that. And that builds a little bit of muscle that builds a muscle in your brain that says, yeah, last time we wanted to quit at 10, but we didn't stop till 12. Maybe now we can make it a 15. Maybe next time we get 17, right? Like it starts building those little wins and those little wins that's up adding up till you face something real. And then hopefully you've built up those muscles, but if you haven't built up those muscles, they're not there. There's no one. We used to talk about in my old job, people always used to say like they would rise to the occasion when like bad guys showed up. Like, no, you don't. No one rises to the occasion on your meat day. You don't suddenly get 70 pounds stronger,

right? You dropped your level of training because there's all these extra signals going off in your head. Like your sympathetic nervous system is going off and fight or flight's going. There's a lot of stuff going on right now that that isn't normal. Like we need to pay attention to this because that man, like it's about what you have continually done,

what you've practiced, what you've, what you've set in stone. And all those things come from the little wins every single day in the gym when no one's watching, when there are no lights, when there are no cameras, it's about when you're in your head, the whole, the whole thing about character, about like, what do you do when no one's watching? Like, that's true. Like if you do 19 out of your 20 squats, I'm not counting, right? Like I trust that you're doing 20 because if you cheat yourself, you know it. And if you're willing to live with that, then you made a choice. And that's always going to haunt you through every single thing in your life, whether it be your relationships with your kids or your job,

or whether you're picking up trash on the ground, what you chose to do on those squats is exactly what you're going to choose to do every other place, right? Like people are people. It's just like success. It's like you're, we taught this something I really want to know, but like, I've said it like 12 times since I've been here. I walked in the super training facility day and I went to the old place and was blown away by the old place. And this place makes that place look stupid and small and dumb and like little

kindergarten stuff, right? It's just so big and so amazing and overwhelming. And I was like, how does a guy go from like, Hey, I want to bench more weight to this. And the thing is, is the same exact thing that made you great at bench is what made you build this,

right? Like it's the same principles being great at one thing. You can be great at anything. You just need to apply the same stuff. It's just like, it's, it's about one win on top of the other and like it was about making those small incremental decisions and making the good decisions and the right decisions again and again and again and before you know it you're standing at your podcast you know what i mean

but like if you if you decided to like shortcut it on your squats and your bench, we're not standing here having this conversation. We're just not. It doesn't happen. Like greatness is a habit. And it's something that like you've learned and you've applied to your life. And there's so many people in their lives right now that don't think that greatness is for them

and really just need to start making small decisions. They need to stop looking at someone on the internet and going, oh, well, he must be on steroids because he's stronger than me. And it's like, no, stupid. He's done it longer. Just do it longer. Maybe you can get there. So rather than already building up an excuse for why you can't, why don't you start trying and start making small steps?

And before you know it, 20 years from now, you'll be shocked at where you are. One thing's for sure. If you start looking around everyone and saying, I can't do it because of that, or I'm a victim because I don't have this or this is my way, you're not going to get anywhere. And it's, it's whether it be a physical problem or you don't have enough money or you don't have legs, the same solution comes through it all. You know what I mean? And that's just, it's a beautiful thing that, that lifting has taught me and my sickness has taught me that now it's just life. I just see it everywhere.

And I see so many people missing their opportunity, whether it be collecting action figures or doing social media or cameras. Everyone has a passion and no one believes they're good enough to do it. And I'm like, no one thinks they're good enough to do it. I guarantee there's still times you guys sit there and go, man, I'm just waiting for all this collapse. You know what I mean? Like,

like I can't believe people actually want to hear what I had to say. I can't believe like, and that's how everyone feels. But it was just, you took the steps, you made the right decisions. You tried when everyone else was like, don't do YouTube videos.

They're going to make fun of you. And you're like, okay, well I'm going to make them anyway. Like it's just about making those small decisions in your life. And you wouldn't believe when you look back up, if you just focus on your steps and you just do one step at a time, you look up in six months, the world changes. You look up in a year, the world changes.

You look up five years, the world's completely different. It's just, you gotta be willing to take those steps and people aren't willing to make those hard decisions when, when it's like, do you's like, do you want to stop at 19? Because no one's counting. Most people stop. They do. And that's why most people aren't successful. I've heard people kind of say it like this too, and I think you put a great perspective on it.

But like if you were to go up, you know, a flight of stairs, you literally put one foot in front of the other. You're moving onward and upward, right? Yep. You go up one foot in front of the other. You're moving onward and upward, right? Yep. You go up one flight, turn around, you look back. The issues and the things that were on the ground are smaller. Yep. And go up another flight of stairs, go up another flight of stairs, go up another flight of stairs, turn around and look back at your problems. They're just smaller, right? You have a new perspective on them. So I think you sharing the story with us today, I really appreciate it. I know it's a personal story as well. You know, there's a lot of emotion in there. So I appreciate you just kind of unloading all of it because

there's people that are struggling, people having a tough time. Some people are just having a tough time because they're having a tough time. You know, and you said it really well. Some people life is hard and there's nothing wrong with that. You're right. And it doesn't have to be a thing tough time. You know, and you said it really well. Some people life is hard and there's nothing wrong with that. You're right. And it doesn't have to be a thing that happens. You know, sometimes everyone's suffering is different. And the biggest mistake you can make with any of that is just to compare your suffering to somebody else's. Be like, oh, you're just depressed because you're sad for no reason because you sit around and do nothing.

But like that's that person's thing. for no reason because you sit around and do nothing, but like that's that person's thing. That's as powerful as them having some debilitating thing or cancer or anything else. It's still a thing for them that they're having a hard time getting over. So I think being transparent and letting people know how you were able to work through it, I think is really important.

Well, thanks for having me. This is, this whole experience has been awesome, but I really do appreciate the opportunity to kind of possibly help some people. You know what I mean? I hope, I hope there's someone out there that can pull something away from it. Where can people find you? On my main thing is YouTube where it is Brian Allsru. I'm sure they're going to throw it up, but it's A-L-S-R-U-H-E. I do a ton of lifting videos, not only my own training, but I do a lot of teaching and tutorials as well as strongman stuff.

Um, so, uh, that's my main thing, but I'm also on Instagram at, at never state N E V E R S A T E. Um, I'd love,

I don't have a lot of people on Instagram, so if you guys want to follow me there, that'd be awesome. Follow him. It's motivating. Thanks. You know, watching him work out like a goddamn maniac is i try it's

pretty damn motivating try move around pretty fast too i'm not sure what that's about i don't know it's because i want it to be over i figure the faster i get it done faster stop you have to vomit probably right so you gotta get through it that's the truth that happens sometimes strength is never a weakness weakness never strength catch y'all later thank you