Mark Bell's Power Project - MBPP EP. 597 - What's Next Is Best, How To Always Stay In Shape

Episode Date: September 24, 2021

Sometimes our way of training can become our way of life. We are so focused on it that it becomes our identity. While it's great to go all in on one thing, we're going to convince you that you might want to switch things up and move onto the next chapter. Grab the new Power Project "think LESS" shirt, supplies are limited: https://markbellslingshot.com/products/think-less-tee?variant=39468915261534 Special perks for our listeners below! ➢Magic Spoon Cereal: https://www.magicspoon.com/powerproject to automatically save $5 off a variety pack! ➢8 Sleep: Visit https://www.eightsleep.com/powerproject to automatically save $150 off the Pod Pro! ➢Marek Health: https://marekhealth.com Use code POWERPROJECT15 for 15% off ALL LABS! Also check out the Power Project Panel: https://marekhealth.com/powerproject Use code POWERPROJECT for $101 off! ➢LMNT Electrolytes: http://drinklmnt.com/powerproject ➢Piedmontese Beef: https://www.piedmontese.com/ Use Code "POWERPROJECT" at checkout for 25% off your order plus FREE 2-Day Shipping on orders of $150 Subscribe to the Podcast on on Platforms! ➢ https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast Subscribe to the Power Project Newsletter! ➢ https://bit.ly/2JvmXMb Follow Mark Bell's Power Project Podcast ➢ Insta: https://www.instagram.com/markbellspowerproject ➢ https://www.facebook.com/markbellspowerproject ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/mbpowerproject ➢ LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/powerproject/ ➢ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/markbellspowerproject ➢TikTok: http://bit.ly/pptiktok FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell ➢ Snapchat: marksmellybell ➢Mark Bell's Daily Workouts, Nutrition and More: https://www.markbell.com/ Follow Nsima Inyang ➢ https://www.breakthebar.com/learn-more ➢YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/NsimaInyang ➢Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/?hl=en ➢TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nsimayinyang?lang=en Follow Andrew Zaragoza on all platforms ➢ https://direct.me/iamandrewz #PowerProject #Podcast #MarkBell

He says, be a thinker, not a stinker. Sweating in the gym is good, and learning shit that way is a great way to go about doing things and having some intensity with it. But if you live inside the gym and your mind is always in the gym, then it's kind of hard to be able to think outside of that and to be creative and to understand it's a lot. There's a lot of other great opportunities in the world other than just you confined to that box of you just training all the time. Yeah. Are you all ready? Mm-hmm.

I'm ready. Three. I'm ready. Two. I'm ready. Going live. And we're live. Are we live?

We're live. Oh, shit. Did we post this on IG or no? I mean, not yet. What happened? If you do, I mean, I'm going to repost. You won't. Yeah.

How did you sleep last night, by the way? I know you mentioned, like, I just want to know how that bed treated you after your 100,000 steps. It treated me great. But it took me a while to even get into it in the first place because after doing the 50 miles of walking and walking for 16 hours, I had to sleep in a recliner for a little while. And then my legs felt a little bit better and stuff like that. It felt like if I laid down all the way, especially with the eight sleep mattress, that I would have just conked out.

And then I don't know how easy it would be for me to get out of bed if I needed to use the bathroom and stuff like that. out and then I don't know how easy it would be for me to get out of bed if I needed to use the bathroom and stuff like that. So I stayed in a recliner for a bit, fueled up, kept eating and drinking water and things like that. And then went to sleep and slept great. You know, you got that temperature, the temperature control, the room is kind of cool the uh bed itself is kind of cool because of the eight sleep mattress and then you get that kind of warm pocket with the blanket over top just right yeah the ac mattress is really cool because like like you just mentioned the temperature can be as low as 55 degrees okay and it's better to sleep cooler but if you when it gets cold it can go up

to as high as 110 degrees right my wife gets to select whatever temperature's better to sleep cooler. But when it gets cold, it can go up to as high as 110 degrees. My wife gets to select whatever temperature she wants to sleep with too. She usually isn't as hot as I am in the middle of the night. So she can have her temperature be higher. And no matter what, this is the thing.

Eight Sleeps technology, the big thing is the technology. So if you go to their website and let's say you have a great mattress that you already enjoy, you can just get the cover. You can get the mattress cover and you can place that on your bed. You can get all the benefits of the Eight Sleep temperature control, number one. It can also track your heart rate. It tracks how much you move during the night. It's a lot of technology that's built into this mattress.

So you guys really want to check that out because we talk about sleep all the time and eight sleep has you covered. Yeah. And I was actually a little skeptical about like the temperature change. Cause I obviously, I don't know what the heck is involved with this technology, but my wife will have her set at her temperature. And then if she tries to creep over a little bit too much,

she's like, Jesus, like your site is cold. I'm like, yeah, like it's nice. Yeah like your side is cold i'm like yeah like this feels nice yeah and it is cool because like it does have a setting where you can be like uh you take control of the temperature it does a pretty good job although lately i've been like we got to tone it down like i had to cool mine off even more but no it's amazing and like i said

in the previous podcast uh having the bed wake me up has been so freaking nice um it it doesn't it's not like an alarm clock that's gonna like you know jolt you awake you know it doesn't freak you out you're just like hey is that the and then you just going around your head and oh okay yeah it's time to get up so it's uh it's amazing and like in sima said they have the the pod pro mattress and cover or they have just the cover that you can use on your fancy mattress the way like Mark has right now. And you can get $150 off of each one by simply just going to 8sleep.com. So it's 8 spelled out, E-I-G-H-T, sleep.com, slash powerproject. And you'll see right at the top, it'll say automatically receive $150 off by going through

that link. And like Nseema said, the technology is insane. It's amazing. We love it. It's one of my most prized items in my whole house. Again, 8sleep.com slash Power Project. Links to them down in the description. And if you're on the iTunes side, check the show notes because you'll see the link down there as well. Head over there. Highly recommend it. And honestly, I want to say my favorite part about this, for all of you guys who are couples, husbands and wives, or, you know, boyfriends, girlfriends, whatever, I am a hot individual as far as temperature when I sleep. So always, whenever I would cuddle, it would turn into a sweaty mess and then the cuddling was ruined. Get away from me

yeah but because the mattress is cool I can cuddle and I'm not sweating and it's just so it's nice I love it when we cuddle

yeah it's so much nicer we couldn't do that before there's no sweaty cuddling does your dog try to jump in there I don't let that man in my bed he sheds everywhere

he does not allow well he's allowed in the room but he's not allowed on the bed he's probably so sad. He probably just wants to snuggle. He loves to snuggle, but his fur is infuriating.

I love him. He's the worst. He's so majestic. I'm so happy I have him. He brings me so much happiness. He's not allowed in your bed. No. No fucking way.

It's just like all our dogs are not allowed, but they all figure out a way how to get there by the morning. I was like, what? And then they get mad at me when I kick them off. It's not like all our dogs are not allowed, but they all figure out a way how to get there by the morning. I was like, what? And then they get mad at me when I kick them off. It's not good. Yeah. Oh, man. Anyway, what's up, fellas?

What's happening? That was a long walk. I mean, not compared to your walk, but when we started going, I was like, are we going the short route? And we're going the long route. All right, cool. And then Seema, of course, had somebody hollering at him. Yeah, the long route is going to become the short route? And we're going the long route. All right, cool. And then in SEMA, of course, had somebody hollering at them. Yeah, the long route is going to become the short route soon enough. Okay.

Wait, what? That at the gas station. That was funny. Do y'all walk this way every day? She seemed pretty excited. Well, we were all shirtless, so, you know. It was pretty funny. Can I get a hey now?

We got cat called, guys. We're not just pieces of meat. No. We have feelings. We do. She hurt just about every last one of them. She made us feel good. She did make us feel good.

She's like, I'm going to come here at the same time every day just to see you. That was great. And now we've got to set our alarm to get out there on time. Yeah. All right. Well, today we're jumping into talking about, you know, trying to diversify your interest in something that I have learned and kind of seen, you know, over the years. have learned and kind of seen, you know, over the years, you know, I was, I was very, very much into powerlifting and I was very committed to it. I put everything I had into it. Um, but I also kind of saw the writing on the wall and I saw that there was a lot of individuals that just

only poured their heart and soul into powerlifting. And then they realized that powerlifting is just a sport and that it doesn't really actually care about you as much as you care about it. It's just a thing that you do, and it's not necessarily who you are. And so in recognizing that, I was like, man, there's a lot of these kind of older lifters around who are broken. And even some of the younger guys who just get hurt, they don't really end up with much and i can think of a bunch of them uh off the top of my head that have that unfortunately um they were idols of mine and people i really looked up to and i still uh admire their accomplishments and power lifting but they didn't end up really walking away with much. They didn't really appear to retain much.

And that's just my own opinion. Maybe they feel different. I'm sure they feel great about some of the stuff they did and some of the stuff they're doing. But I was always like, man, this guy squatted 900 pounds or this guy deadlifted 800 when he was a teenager. And what's he kind of doing now type thing. And it just didn't seem like they were able to capitalize or really do much later on, really able to pivot. And what I saw was people trying to make the pivot when it's too late.

People trying to, you know, the reason why I started this podcast so long ago was because I knew there was going to be a day where I wasn't going to be able to lift the weights that I lifted. I'm not, I'm not Larry Wheels. I'm not going to be able to put on these demonstrations that millions of people are interested in just because of my strength and just because of my physique or build. I did have some lifts back in the day that were fairly impressive, but I knew that that was going to be short-lived.

So I've always been kind of looking for other things to do. I've always kind of had my eye on different things. And when I was a power lifter, I was also a coach. I was also a, I mean, I coached high school football. I was coaching people in power lifting. I was doing seminars with CrossFit. And so even though most of those things are still in the strength realm, I was coaching people in powerlifting. I was doing seminars with CrossFit. And so even though most of those things are still in the strength realm, at least they were some sort of different expressions of what I knew.

And then on top of that, I recognized, hey, the most important job I have is to be a husband to my wife, Andy, and also to be a dad to my children. And so you can get lost in this shit really easy, especially when you're trying to be good or trying to be great at something. And you could be leaning towards that so hard that you end up unbalanced. And I certainly have done that a couple of times, but at least I was conscious of it. I saw other people, they didn't seem like I was conscious of it. I saw other people,

they didn't seem like they were conscious of it. And it seemed like they kind of buried themselves in this kind of hole of just power lifting and just everything mattered so much on that lift and that number. And ultimately at some point, uh, no one's going to care. And at some point you might not even really care because you can get some,

you're going to get, there's going to be a point where the most weight you ever lifted was 10 years ago or 20 years ago. You just might not care about that physical feat anymore. You're probably most likely, I hope that you'll have a lot of other interests and you'll be proud of yourself and something else. So I'm really excited at 44 going on 45 that I get to like rewrite the next couple chapters of my life to where somebody that starts to see me on Tik TOK or something and be like, Oh, that's that guy that runs all the time.

Or didn't that guy like invent something? Like they don't even know that I power lifted. Like that's kind of cool. You know, so, um, you know, trying to diversify your interests and have other things.

But for me, it was massively important and maybe people will find some utility in this, is to start to think about making the pivot before you're forced to. Because luckily for me, I started kind of thinking about these things. I had Power Magazine. I had the slingshot going already when I fell and had a kind of a career ender in a squat. Luckily, I was already kind of like investigating a lot of these things. Otherwise, I would kind of just be another number. I'd be another person in powerlifting that hit some pretty big lifts, and that would have been that. lifts and that would have been that it's what i find really interesting about like you and what you've done is that when you started making the switch i'd see comments all the time on like

instagram stuff on youtube stuff like we want the old smelly back we want the power lifting smelly back bring back fat smelly bring that back um whereas you know i think a lot of times those individuals are still themselves super focused on powerlifting. Like that's their thing too. So they looked at you, they looked to you for that, but it's how did, let me, let me ask this. When you were making that transition, did that affect you at all negatively? bodybuilding stuff and people started to really just they didn't like the jujitsu stuff and like the people like i was getting unfollowed because the jujitsu stuff um it was just what i was interested in so i'm just curious like how that affected you like did you ever feel like maybe i should just go back to this a little bit because people like me for that or that's that's the identity people see me as that and then also even like as a company right you make power lifting gear so like did anything impact uh some of that decision making or i mean obviously

you made the choice but like did any of it kind of make you step back and be like oh shit like can i even do this like not not that you're ever going to look for anyone's like um approval or anything like that but you're like shit am I even allowed to do this type of thing? I ended up gaining a lot of confidence by creating the slingshot was a big deal because I had people tell me that that wasn't a good idea. tell me that that wasn't a good idea and then not only was it a good idea but it was a life-altering product that not only changed my life forever and and um uh helped gain helped for me to gain access to a lot of uh like financial freedom and to be able to provide for others but it also um helped a lot of other people. People that were buying the product, they legitimately got a lot of help from it, and that was the initial reason to make the product.

In the first place, it wasn't like, oh, I'm going to have this cool thing. I'm going to be able to monetize. Yeah, of course, I was thinking there needs to be a profit margin, but I wasn't really thinking about having an entire company. But once I made that, I was like, I can build other stuff around this and actually make it an entire company. Cause if you're going to be bench pressing more weight, you're going to be handling more weight. You might as well have wrist wraps on. And then I was like, well, it'd be really cool if over the next 10 years, I can figure out how to kind of cover people head

to toe, maybe come up with a shoe, maybe come up. And I did that with Reebok and maybe have knee sleeves and knee wraps and belts and so forth. And so, and it turned into what it, it turned into what it turned into. But my point is that, um, I don't mind.

I don't mind standing alone for a while and I don't mind being like ridiculed for a while. And I don't mind standing alone for a while and I don't mind being like ridiculed for a while. And I don't mind, I don't mind having like an awkward phase, you know, like when you're a teenager and you're a little weird and like, you don't go to, you don't want to go with mom to like your uncle's house or whatever.

Cause he, he's look weird, feel weird. People are asking me, I don't know, sixth grade or whatever. Like the whole thing is just a fucking awkward. Your feet are all big and you haven't like,

your body hasn't grown into all these, you got, you know, acne or whatever. Your voice is weird. I don't know, it's a weird thing. For me, like I don't mind being in these like transitional phases, you know, like when I was trying to lose weight for powerlifting, I was always kind of thinking like, I'm not just going to like lose weight and, uh, be someone that like just looks healthier.

Like I'm going to be fucking jacked. Yeah. You know, I want to do like a photo shoot. I want to kind of like, so my, my, my focus, uh, switched, but it was like, let's still keep this at a high level. You know, let's still keep this at a high level. You know, let's still keep this like being something really, really cool. And I remember getting down to like two, I got down to like 245 and I remember it was probably like kind of the strongest I ever been.

I got down to about 245 and i benched uh 500 for like a set of three so it was double body weight bench press for a triple and it was really easy and uh like i just remember like kind of hitting that stride and i was like i was like this is kind of the coolest thing i've ever done like i i've done bigger lifts people seen these other things i i've won some pretty big competitions and stuff but this kind of like in gym lift that I just did, like, and if you see the video of it, it's like, I, I looked fucking jacked in it. So I'm pretty proud of that. I was like, that's a pretty cool accomplishment, especially coming from being so fat, you know, and losing all that body weight, maintaining that strength, looking not like a bodybuilder, but looking lean and looking what I would consider to be fairly impressive.

And so, you know, taking some of the ridicule of like, oh, you know, you're not a power lifter anymore. Or like there was a lot of stuff about monetizing. People were like, oh, why do you want to make money? And like, just my dad is like a financial consultant. And my dad, my dad has kind of always explained to me, like, this is like, he was just like, this stuff's like ridiculous. Like it's everyone's goal to make money um the whole reason why people go to college is to try to help secure a future that assists them to make more money yeah he's like in your case you didn't need to go you figured out something different and people will be pissed about that um so i just kind of just i had to ignore it i I guess. And going back to not allowing the stuff to define you, that was important because my value assignment to powerlifting wasn't that high.

I powerlifted. I was a powerlifter, but I wasn't defined as that was my only thing. So somebody said, all you're trying to do is make money i'm thinking to myself like i just took my kid to the mall you know like we're just chilling like i'm not trying to do anything like yeah i'm just trying to be a fucking dad i just took the fucking garbage out you know what i mean like i'm sitting over here doing humble ass shit with my family with my kids you know, that kind of thing. So as much as people want to try to make you to be out to some, something that you're not,

um, I have, I have, I have had a decent ability in understanding who I think I am to myself. And that's the most important thing. I think I agree with you there. It's interesting. Cause like when I started doing stuff on social media, it was all based off bodybuilding stuff. And I started doing some powerlifting stuff too. But in the back of my head, I was like, I don't want to be doing shows until I'm 50 or 40. And powerlifting is cool, but I don't want to be competing in this.

Because you compete, and then you're back on the road of just increasing those numbers. And you compete again, compete again. I was like't i don't see myself enjoying competing at that age what i really enjoy is being able to move my body well and feel really good every day and i like to constantly just be in shape when i was 270 i didn't feel like walking around like i didn't feel like when i when i did my i played my played soccer was just like running around. I felt great. I wanted that back. So when I started doing jujitsu, even though I sucked, like and that's the awkward phase thing that you mentioned, I think is a it's a big barrier for some people.

Because, you know, if someone's an athlete and or maybe they define themselves as I'm a power lifter or I'm a bodybuilder. And that's the thing that they do. It's it's hard to kind of move away from that into something else, even though you know that in the long run, that thing might be something that brings you a high level of enjoyment. Like I knew that when I saw jujitsu for the first time and saw the way those people moved, you know, I was like, I want to be able to be that flexible. I want to be able to be that mobile. I want to be able to move my body in

those, uh, unhinged ways. Um, I know I can do that for a long time, even if it's just training and coming in and training that I know I can do that for a long time. So, you know, even though I still enjoy training in the gym and that's something I'm going to do forever. I still enjoy bodybuilding style of training, strength style training and jujitsu stuff. It's all stuff that has the big goal of me being able to move better. And that goal of me moving better is something that I can do forever, you know? And then that like, and it's not, it's not an identity thing. It's just like, I will be when I'm 60, I'm going to just be doing some cool shit. I'm going to be able to run upstairs. I'm going to be able to squat some weight.

I'm going to be able to tap people out. And it's longevity. You'll be uncommon amongst uncommon people. Even when you're around someone in jiu-jitsu who's at a really high level. Not that you're trying to like size yourself up against everybody all the time but you that's kind of what we do we kind of you know we go uh next to the you go you pee in a trough and like that's kind of what happens right we're always it's always a dick measuring contest that's kind of life you know that's kind of what it is and um sometimes you're like well uh that guy may have figured out some things better than me but i figured out a

couple things better than him too you know like it's not you don't want to be in that uh phase all the time where you're always comparing everything all the time but it does it feels good just to kind of know uh just kind of i I guess, get an idea of where you're at. And for me, it's always felt good to diversify stuff and not just be a knucklehead be able to jump in and say, Oh, actually here's what I think. And they go, Oh shit. Like I know this big ass dude is like paying attention to what's going on in the world.

You know? Um, it's kind of cool. If somebody brings up a book and you're like, Oh yeah, I know that dude. Oh yeah. Jordan Peterson.

Yeah. Oh, the 12, 12 rules of life. Yeah. That's fucking awesome. Like I, I dig that shit too.

And then you start getting into some sort of philosophical talk and it's just, to me it's like fun, you know? And for you, it could be something else, but, uh, you know, I remember years ago when super training was predominantly all powerlifting. Like if someone came in and started stretching or something, or somebody came in and wearing tights, somebody came in like stretching or something. We would make fun of them, right? But you don't switch what you're doing just because someone's making fun of you. Hey, what is this, yoga class? What are you doing, you know?

And Seema with his, was it virus? Like, virus legging. He's got the legs, though. You've got to give the guy credit. If I had those legs, yeah, I'd be super skin-threatening. Juan was looking at me one day he's like what the fuck are you wearing man i'm like these are my leggings he's like you can't wear you shouldn't wear that one i fucking love so uh mark you have inspired uh maybe millions

of people with how committed you were to power lifting, the numbers you put up. So I'm sure there are people that are like, I'm going to, you know, I'm going to go all in just like Mark did. And, you know, just fucking whatever, you know, um, sorry, I'm forgetting. Um, I'd rather die. I'm rather be dead than average, my bad. Sorry. Sorry, mad dog mad dog um but what does i guess how successful is mark bell if he never steps away from power lifting and when i say step away i don't mean you're still power lifting but as far as like the competitor the competitive mark bell and still going 100 all in on on powerlifting. Are we here? Like, is everything look a little bit different or is it more of the same?

Well, I think the fact that I was always exploring stuff is kind of what led us here. You know, that walk that I did yesterday, 50 miles, and it had taken 16 hours and shit like that. I mean, like, people that worked out here a long time ago, something like that wouldn't surprise them because they'd be like, yeah, I've seen Mark work out for, like, four or five hours, you know, straight because, like, he was trying to figure out a bench shirt or a technique or whatever.

Like, I remember having workouts where i would put on a bench shirt i'd work up to like 700 pounds something didn't feel right and i'd put on a different one and i would go again i'd start you know all the way from the bottom i start with 135 work my way back up and i was like this is something's off try another one or try a different set rep range. Try bands, try chain, try all these different things and be like, okay,

well there we go. I think I, I think I, maybe I got it, you know, and everything's kind of always been regardless of how long it takes. It just, for me,

it would take me a certain amount of time to be good or be great at something. And it, it didn't matter how long it took um because i'm not trying to compare it against time i'm just trying to get better and it didn't matter if it took me four minutes or four hours or four days or four years i would figure out a way to uh to stick to it so some of that um trying to tweak and change things to continue to get better is part of what led us here. Um, but I think if I would have just been focused on just powerlifting and I wasn't focused on, like, I kind of always thought that there was better ways to do stuff. I always thought there, I always, I was always kind of thinking with a product,

I guess like in mind. Like there's still so many different ideas and products and inventions that I have that I've just, some of them I won't ever probably be able to get to. I don't know. There's like a lot of them in my fat head. So my mind has been that way for a long time.

And I think that i i think that if i predominantly just stuck to powerlifting and i was all in on just powerlifting and that was um i think i don't think any of the any of this stuff would have happened you know i don't i don't think any of this stuff would even though some of the exploration of what I was doing is kind of part of this. Um, I, I think I would be, uh, I think I would just be another guy going to powerlifting meets, you know, in his forties or fifties where you're like, does this guy know it's over? Yeah. You see that. That would be, that would be me like in SEMA or someone who'd come tos where you're like, does this guy know it's over? Yeah, you see that. That would be me.

Like in SEMA or someone would come to me and be like, that's cool. This guy's been doing it for a long time. But like, I don't want that to be me. Yeah. You know, instead, I think I'm moving on to stuff where people that are my age are like, I wouldn't mind being like him, you know, but if I was still trying to lift and I'm a shadow of myself and can't really lift the same weights or I'm still really fat and unhealthy, it's like, I don't know. I don't think that's cool. Maybe other people do, but that's not my idea of fun.

Yeah, and you see like you see old pro athletes. I know like first off to become a professional athlete in anything, there needs to be a specific interest. There needs to be a focus on what you're doing so that you can get to that level. There is a focus so you can be able to squat the amount of weight, bench the amount of weight you need to do. You have to do those for our workouts. But if you don't have anything else outside of that, first off, if you don't have anything else outside, it's hard to walk away. Or it's hard to back off because you have nothing else. You have nothing else that you're interested in because you don't have to be good at something to start it, right? Like you're

starting jujitsu. When I started jujitsu, I sucked. Right now you're seeing like how it doesn't make sense, but you're starting it because you're interested in it and you know that five years down the road you're going to be marking some cats right um but but that's the thing i think that you need to find things outside of whatever it is you're currently doing because you got to think about if this thing is taken away from me what do i have what do i have that still keeps me in the game the thing that i think about is what is going to allow me to stay in shape and stay fit forever without feeling like I'm trying, you know, I think that was the, that was the big thing for me. Like, and that's why currently I don't feel like I'm trying with any of this stuff. I don't feel like it's a,

it's something that's stressful for me because, um, all of it is just the normal day to day. And I can see, you know, whatever point I have a family and kids and I have to be drawn away as far as time from the current athletic focuses. Right. I can still see myself being in amazing shape because I still have all these these habits and these things that I do every day that as long as that's maintained, I will be in shape until the day that I die. If for some reason I can't lift anymore, which would be weird. I still have something that I can do to stay healthy and in shape. And I'm interested in that. I like walking, right? A lot of, a lot of lifters, if you just pick up the habit of liking to walk and that just becomes one of your day-to-day things. If there comes a time that you, for some reason you can't lift for a little bit,

cause you have some weird injury, walking can be something amazing that you actually enjoy doing. Yeah, what if you burn just a couple hundred calories every day? I mean, you start to add that up over the course of the week, over the course of two weeks, over the course of a month. I mean, over the course of the month, it could be 3,500 calories. It could be depending on how far you're walking, how much you're walking. But the point is, is it's going to add up and it's going to allow you to have errors in your diet.

It's going to have, it's going to allow you to occasionally maybe miss a day of training where you really wanted to train or you twisted your ankle doing something and you just couldn't get to the gym or whatever it is that happened. you twisted your ankle doing something and you just couldn't get to the gym or whatever it is that happened. If you can maintain that, if you can maintain something that you like to do, you don't have to really be as concerned. The other thing is like, I think it's important to keep your eye on other things because you never know when the skill set's going to really help you out of a situation. You never know when, like, learning how to use the rower or learning how to use an airdyne bike or learning how to do burpees or kettlebell snatches.

You never know when it's going to be a thing that can do a lot more for you than you can possibly imagine or think. You don't know when the skill set of learning how to punch a punching bag is going to really benefit you. But how many people, when we were faced with the situation we were faced with where all the gyms closed down, I saw Jason Kalipa, I saw yourself, I saw other people like, oh, I'm going to kettlebell workout, you know? And had you not already developed that skill or already had some of that interest, you might look at the kettlebell that's in your garage or, or the offer that your friend has to say, oh, you can borrow my kettlebells.

And you might not ever do it because you're like, I don't really know what to do with those. And, uh, but again, you know, it's like for me, like during that time period is when I started to run a little bit more cause I was already pursuing some running. Yeah. Uh, I had like weighted vests and a couple other things where it was like, I'm just going to, it's just going to be a real simple shift. I'm just, I'm not going to miss training days. Remember we worked out twice a day for like a month.

Yeah. We were doing that for a while. Crushed. And we were doing pushups and squats and stuff. But it's, it's only because if we didn't develop, if we didn't already develop a skill set of knowing how to exercise, none of us would have done that. We would have been like, no man, we're going to chill and just order some DoorDash and get fatter and fatter, right? But instead, we wanted to pursue something because we already had an interest in it and it was very easy for us to shift because

we had some skill sets and had some understanding of exercise already. I know the one reason why a lot of people don't start those new things is because they're afraid of how bad they're going to be, or they're afraid of the judgment that they're going to get. Even when it comes to something as easy, well, it's not necessarily super easy, but stepping into a gym for the first time, a lot of people are like, you know what? I think I feel like I'm going to be judged. People are going to stare at me. People are going to do this and that when reality, okay. Number one, it's, you got to come to the terms with, you will suck. Uh, but number two, if it's an outside thing, if it's about other

people, other people really don't care about what you're doing. Like in a jujitsu gym or in a jujitsu school. Like when I started that people were super nice. All people wanted to do all the upper belts wanted to do was show me how to do things right and teach me how to do it correctly because they knew how difficult it was to stick with it. So they wanted to be of benefit. I think that's how it is with a lot of gyms. It goes beyond just the session itself. A lot of times you get somebody else's number and they're like, oh, let me text you some videos. I'm going to send you a YouTube thing.

Or then they're saying, hey, remember when you went for this today and they'll it's like the instruction goes well beyond just uh it's way different than what you would think you know it's not i think that people think when they're going to try to go do something like i'm going to go to yoga class and you're like great i'm going to be the like big dude in there that they're going to think is just going to be, you know, doing protein farts the whole time, which might be true. It may happen a little bit here because sometimes those stretches get you open that tank compromising positions. But you think that people in there are going to laugh at you or whatever. And it's like it's usually pretty dark, like no one fucking cares. They're doing their own thing. They're in

their own world. And it's nothing like you think. And a lot of times the instructor is super nice and the people there are super nice. So while it is not easy to get started, it is the one common thing amongst anyone who's great at anything is that they must have started at some point. They must have started somehow. And they probably weren't, weren't embarrassed enough to not do it. Otherwise they wouldn't currently be doing it or they would have never been good or great at it. Now.

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Head over there right now. Five years isn't a long time. No. I know that maybe for some people, thinking about a five-year transition or a five-year timeline might seem long, but when you think about how you're going to look and how are you going to do with something five years down the road you're going to be proficient right whether

it's an instrument whether it's uh you know learning how to use a kettlebell whether it's starting working out in the gym whether it's starting a martial art whatever that martial art may be boxing jujitsu whatever five years down the road people are going to be like oh damn you do that and you own and you do what the fuck that's how it is with doing any and any new skill and like i know as an adult i think adults we're generally a little bit scared of trying new things and going into the unknown because there's so many things there's there's comparisons whatever but you know when you think about yourself down that road being proficient in it, that's awesome. That's what I was thinking when I started jiu-jitsu when I was shit at the beginning.

And those videos are still there. I was just thinking of what does five years down the road look like? That's what I was thinking about. And now it's still like what does that look like five years down the road now? Like, whew, that's going to be sick. I like where I am now, but that's what I enjoy. You keep pursuing stuff you keep you keep uh investigating keep trying to make things better whether it's your diet you're lifting um you know you just think because once you start doing something once you have gotten started then that's where you start to think about how do i make this

a little bit better you go to yoga once a week you're like i think i'm kind of getting it but i wonder what happened i would go twice a week or if i wonder if i wonder if i try this other class um i wonder if i got some private lessons or something because like i don't know what i'm doing in class and like i'm slow and i don't i'm clumsy and it takes me too long to get the stretches or whatever it would be and you'll you'll find yourself constantly leaning into that and constantly developing habits towards wanting to kind of make things better, make things more efficient. And, again, you can get kind of lost in some of that, but I think that's okay to experience some of that. You continue to look at different things. For us, with our nutrition, we're always doing that.

You know, we're like you said, you just added in some fruit, right? Like small stuff that you know we're like like you said you just added in some fruit right like small stuff you know um there's there's people that listen to the show where we might mention something and who knows for one person just adding in fruit into their diet could simply help pull them away from wanting to indulge on other snacks or treats or yeah or just the idea of getting snacks out of your diet right because i used to snack a lot but getting that out was beneficial but yeah you know the fruit thing you mentioned we had joel green on the other day if you guys haven't had those nature valley almond ones oh almond yeah yeah you ever had those wasn't the green i've had i think i've had the almond ones. Is this the sticky? Yeah. It's the sticky ones, right?

I don't know if it's sticky. The crumbly? It's crumbly. The green one? The green package one? Yeah, green package. There's no almond in that. Is there almond in that?

Almond, yeah. They made a new one. I was going to send you a picture. I was asking your permission. It seemed like they made another one. Interesting. I'm not going to eat it because things will get out of hand. He's going to go, yeah.

I ate two of them last night i was like and seam is right these are fucking dope yeah was it was it like the one from the ones you eat our peanut butter no these are the ones i used to eat oh those guys no no yeah mine's like a biscuit oh wow his face right there was amazing. He's bringing back really good memories, man. It's like he's just so good. Oh, my.

It's like cinnamon, almond, something. It's like. And when I was eating it, I'm chewing it. I like salt on stuff, but these things are so salty and so sweet. Is that it? Yeah. Of course i would find it nature valley there's so forget what we said earlier within two hours we're just gonna have cheat meals all the time i have it at target right by my house how do we end up here every time

dude nature valley needs to change all we ever do is talk about bad food. But that's not okay. They're like, they're the kings of false advertising because like it's healthy, but you never have just one. And they're too good. They're too good. Maybe I just don't have self-control. What's the macros breakdown? Nine grams of fat. That's nothing.

What's the sugar? 11 grams of sugar. 24 carbs and 3 grams of protein that's nothing what's the sugar 11 grams sugar oh jeez 24 24 carbs and three grams three guys all right let's highlight that and forget everything else basically a protein bar so if you eat six of them you're getting close to 20 grams of protein yeah is that true yeah i don't know i i botched the math it was either 20 or like 600, one of the two. That's like 120-something grams of carbs and 54 grams of fat. Hey, it's under 200 calories. I'm all for it.

Yeah. Man, that, oh, God. I really want to try it now. I'm bringing some of those in for you. I'll eat it. I just want to bring it. You brought a donut this morning. What's next?

We're going to get you up to 320 pounds like Joel recommended. Oh, never, man. Never. Never will I ever. It's because you're thinking too much about it. You got to think less. You should think less. Nice shirt, bro.

And there's less than 10 think less shirts in every size. Meaning, so if you wanted a large, there's like five left. If you wanted an XL, there's like nine left or whatever. There's five XL I could order? I think it only goes to three X, and there's only like two of those left. Are you sure there's not just ten think less shirts left? Or there's like five large and three? No, so like there's, let me pull it up.

So like if you wanted a small, there's only three. Medium, there's only five. Large, there's only three. On what website andrew this is at markbellslingshot.com and links down in the description below for the power project think less shirt for sizing reference i am currently wearing a 2xl xl would be quite snug there i'm wearing an xl yes jesus look at those arms i know. It's because they upped the contrast. That's why it looks so. I didn't do shit to that.

Okay. Well. Look at that. That guy's so hard. Wow. Oh, wow. That feels bigger. The show always turns into like dirty porn and food.

Food that we shouldn't eat. Food that we shouldn't eat. Oh, man. Food and clean porn? No. Is there such a thing as clean porn? I'm sure. Soft. What?

Soft porn? Softcore? Oh, yeah, softcore. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Where it's all like just... And Steve was like, no, they're never soft. I don't watch those.

That's, well, hey, there's a fetish for everything. There probably is a fetish for that there is a soft uh flaccid fetish an only fans page guys listen what you got what i want you guys to do is like just if you're listening on youtube comment below something that you've been interested in trying to do uh something new because i know everyone that's listening has something that they've wanted to try but for some reason they've been giving themselves reasons why they shouldn't try it just write it down and let's let's just fucking encourage each other just go fucking do it just go get it done write it down maybe like journal about it like where you actually like write down the thing that you want to do if you want to go like rock climbing or you want to go hike you want to do yoga you want to take a muay thai class or whatever the hell it is that you want to do write it down and then kind

of work your way backwards into how do you work your way into position to seek this out? Where are you going to go? Maybe you want to ski in the winter or snowboard or like, you know, just any of these things. Write down some of the ways like where, like what city, what town, what area, where are you going to rent something from? Or just once you start to kind of write it out then you're like oh yeah i'm gonna ask write down who you know that knows something about it yeah i

want to go to a power through me who do you know that power lifts or who do you know that's kind of strong go ask that dude he probably knows the guy that's dead lifting the weights in the gym making all the noise go fucking ask him a question he probably you don't think he loves talking about his deadlift. I mean, people that have money, you know, you,

you want to make more money. He's like, there's nothing better to do than to ask people that already make it. They'll talk to you all day long about it a lot of times because they're pumped that they were able to figure it out. Yeah. So just, you know,

write down some of these things and then you can write down a list of things that will kind of get you to be able to go and do these things. Straight up. You know, something you just mentioned made me made me realize like, well, we've been talking about this, but diversifying your physical interests. Like when I was I used to think about like, will I enjoy just doing squat benching and deadlifting when I'm 60? Like if that's the only thing I'm focused on will i be able to enjoy this for decades even in the gym because like when it comes to bodybuilding there's like a focus on body parts like am i going to enjoy like what aspects of this am i going to enjoy that's why i

started like diversifying my physical things things like even like longboarding um i started i bought a longboard because i was like that looks so cool to be able to do again. I'd like to learn how to do that. And I longboard with my dog. He pulls and shifts. Look at how much fun you had hopping on that thing that Ryan has. Yeah, that one wheel? Oh, yeah.

How is that? Oh, that's amazing. It's super sick. I want to get a one wheel. I'll get it in a few months. Why not find something fun like that? It's like a toy. It's like you're like a little kid.

Yeah. Even snowboarding. It's an activity. I a little kid. Yeah. Even snowboarding. I want to learn how to snowboard. Yeah. Snowboarding, surfing, all these things. Honestly, people can, like some people, you live close to water or whatever. But there are definitely things that a lot of us want to do outside physically. Think of those physical things because you want to diversify so that you have a lot of options of things that are enjoyable and not only that but number two it gives

you opportunities to meet different people and form connections with different people within different realms and that will I mean the jujitsu community like that that I'm a part of now super dope people right but there there are other things to Andrew with, what the fuck are you doing? What is this? They have almond butter cups too? Wow. That reminds me of the creme brulee we were just talking about. I was going to close the window and then this popped up and I was like, oh. Nature Valley, please hit up Andrew's Z at MarkBellSlingShot.com and sponsor this podcast.

Okay. I don't mean to derail you. My bad. It's just, I mean, how can you? You didn't derail me, but I'm going to go do something. Be right back. New recipe, tasty and creamy. God damn it.

Poop again? No. That donut's coming back. I mean, if I had the opportunity. Can you just walk off like that? Is that in his contract where he has an out where he can just leave oh hey you know what you're the only other person be excited about well maybe a couple other people you excited about i'm going to the niners game on the weekend ah

against the green bay packers like he revved up my appetite so i have to drink another protein strawberry strawberry dude they're playing the man you got so hungry yeah it's the home opener He revved up my appetite, so I have to drink another protein shake. Is that a strawberry? Strawberry. Strawberry. Dude, they're playing the— Man, you got so hungry. Yeah. It's the home opener. Yeah. It's fucking sick.

Sorry. I'm joking. Football. American football. American football. Americano. Okay, well, I'll shut my mouth now. Fake football.

Yeah. Yeah, Packers, Niners should be pretty cool. Hell yeah. And, yeah, I'm going with andy we're going it's a sunday night game i think yeah it's yeah because they're open or so it should be late whenever i hear about stuff you all do i'm just like oh this is so cute yeah we have a lot of fun together yep oh man shit you guys ain't man you're not leaving Santa Clara until like 8, 9 o'clock. That was a late, late game.

Yeah, it's a kickoff. I think we have a driver. We're staying like next to that. We're staying overnight. Oh, good. Good call. It's because like it's really good to strawberry, huh? How strawberry core power.

Make you sick like strawberry quick. This reminds me of the Nesquik. I used to drink a lot of um chocolate strawberry nest quick and chocolate nest quick when i was a kid this is just like the strawberry nest core power core power 42 grams of protein yeah thanks ron eight grams of uh he said thanks ron oh yeah ron with the hookup. He's our plug.

Ron the plug. Eight grams of carbs, three and a half grams of fat. Guys, this is amazing. Hey, when you buy your Core Power, just make sure it doesn't say Core Power Performance on it. I got screwed. I bought a bunch of them and it had like 21 grams of sugar or something. Oh, really? I wonder what.

I don't know why. They all look the same, too. This one like 21 grams of sugar oh really i wonder what i i don't know why it looks they all look the same too this one has seven grams of sugar yeah i know they usually don't have hardly any carbohydrates they make a bunch of different kinds they have 26 grams of protein in them sometimes they have 30 grams of protein and they normally have like under 10 grams of uh carbohydrates and like one of them i think only has four grams of carbohydrates. And one of them, I think, only has four grams of carbohydrates. So, yeah, this one right here. Lactose-free, too. Yeah.

This one's 150 calories with two and a half grams of fat. And this is the one that only has four carbs, one sugar or two sugars, and then 30 grams of protein. So what the fuck? Yeah, this one just says high- quality protein. Preaching to people to not be meatheads as we suck down our protein shakes. Don't be power lifters.

And we had donuts in the first one. But you know, I mean, this reminds me of Nick Bear, you know? Nick Bear, yourself, Bart Kwan. I see like those kinds of people and they're going to be doing this forever. Bart knows how to swim. Bart knows martial arts.

Bart's strong when he wants to. He can be as jacked as he wants to be. And he is jacked even when he's not super lean. Right. Nick's over here running strong, jacked as hell. Like you can do so many interests, give you so many options as you get older. That's the thing. You don't want to be the guy who's like,

well, you know what? I don't want to take away from those people who do have that one interest. And it, it, it 70 years old, they're still doing bodybuilding competitions. That's admirable in and of itself.

That is. But I, I, I would think that most people, um, would enjoy more things, right? Would enjoy having other things that they have as much vigor for than just that one thing. And if you can do that, then this whole fitness lifestyle will be easy for you.

I feel like it makes it easy. Well, we see a lot of people as they get older, things are sometimes a little bit more difficult. Their activity level goes down. Maybe they retire from their job, and maybe they have less overall activity. So maybe it's harder for them to keep body fat at bay, and maybe it's harder for them to hold muscle mass as they get older. But if you have disciplines, like you already kind of like to lift you like to walk you like to hike you are are somebody that likes activity it's something that can kind of um keep you healthy all the time regardless of like where you're at in your life i think for me uh walking has been huge

and like walking just seems so uh like such an old person thing to do. It's like, it doesn't seem fun or cool. And, you know, if somebody was trying to tell me about it and I was like 20, I'd probably be like, like what, like why, like why? But now I understand the value of it, you know, getting outside, getting vitamin D. I mean, just going out in nature seems to be really just massively important to people. Getting away from, you know, just get away from your day for 10 or 20 minutes at a time can be really useful. You can take that time to decompress and to think about other things. Maybe you've been kind of locked in an office all day thinking about work and maybe you don't really love that work. Well, now you have an opportunity to go outside, think of something different for a little while, get outside, get nature. I just think these are all really good, healthy practices.

And I also think it's really important for people to diversify and open up where they get their knowledge from, you know, to have multiple, like, you know, you hear some of the people say multiple revenue streams. I think I heard the other day, like the average millionaire has like five or more revenue streams or something. I don't know where I heard that, but like, anyway, I would also say that like your average successful person probably has multiple knowledge streams. Like they probably have a lot of different places where they're getting some of their information from.

They didn't just learn something from mom or dad. They didn't just learn something from a book. They probably maybe they went to school for a little while. Maybe they read, you know, a handful of different books in some different areas. Or maybe they listen to audio books or some different areas, or maybe they, um, listen to audio books or whatever it is, whatever your flavor is, but you want to try to learn from as many different people and as many different things as you can. I think what happens sometimes, I know that I've been guilty of this. Sometimes I kind of like, I might not like somebody for

a particular, whatever particular stupid reason, just because of old belief systems or whatever, somebody just annoys you, rubs you the wrong way. I don't know. You guys know what I'm talking about. And for some reason you kind of shut down the fact that that person still has valuable information. And it's really kind of foolish if you think about it. Cause it's like, uh, I mean, if you don't like the person, it actually makes even more sense to kind of foolish if you think about it. Cause it's like, uh, I mean, if you don't like the person, it actually makes even more sense to kind of like, uh, take, take some of the stuff from them and, and, uh, utilize it, uh, almost to your advantage. But anyway, there's so many different people you can learn from. You can learn from somebody that like barely knows what they're talking about in certain subjects,

because sometimes that mind or that question that that person asks is so elementary that you forget how important that kind of base thing is. And other times there could be somebody who's on an expert level that you can learn from. I mean, that's been the real fortune of this podcast has been, you know, rubbing elbows with some real savages and rubbing elbows with some people that really are super knowledgeable in a wide variety of things.

And on top of that, man, an uncomfortable thing that I would suggest to everybody in the audience do is not only should you diversify where you're getting your information, which is good because you'll be able to try new things, learn new things, apply new things, see what works, see what doesn't. But purposefully try to befriend and talk to people with views that are opposite of yours, whether that be politically, whether that be as far as society is concerned, views, religion, do that. And I've found that to be one of the most fruitful things for myself. And it's led to some of the most, some of my most enjoyable conversations. Because number one, we're like, if you can find somebody who, who, who can civilly talk to you about things, because on the internet, everybody's just yelling at everybody. Once you find something you disagree

about, but I have a lot of friends that we have opposite political opinions or opposite social opinions. And we have talks about these things. But I plug some of their holes in the things that they're talking about. And they plug some of my holes in the things I'm talking about. It sounds weird. Let me phrase this better. They poke holes in my ideas. And I can either cement or change my mind about things, which is great when I change my mind and I learn something new and I have a different point of view because it's I've learned something new.

And I poke holes in some of their things and make them think and make them change their mind and expand their view about things. But we have totally different spectrums. I think a lot of people purposefully only have friends and people that believe all the same things they do. And then they're always like, well, I'm right about this because my whole social media feed and everyone around me tells me I'm right. That's dangerous. And that'll just have you going down the same route for the rest of your life without understanding why this side believes what they believe. On the walk that I did yesterday, I invited people to come and walk. And there was a couple of takers, a couple of people walked with me throughout the day.

You came and walked with me for a large part of the day. But in the morning, one of the guys that met me at 430 in the morning was a ICU doctor, intensive care doctor. Man, I talked to that guy for like four or five hours straight. Like we just kept going back and forth on stuff. I asked him about every single thing that's banned to stay on YouTube that you can think of. It was incredible. We had such good conversation back and forth.

such good conversation back and forth and i was i was really um asking him what i felt were like kind of like tough questions um but good honest questions from an outsider that's not in the hospital and um i was like do you really believe that or think that or is and is that because the people around you believe that and think that or is this really what you're seeing and he kind of kept saying this is he because he's a doctor he did a great job of saying like this is my experience this is what i'm seeing they may be seeing something else in different hospitals but this is what i'm and it was amazing we went back and forth the whole time and um neither one of us were really caring about like any sort of political stuff we were just sticking to the we were sticking to his experiences not not necessarily facts but they were things that he has seen enough of to where he's starting to recognize them as

things that he would put in the category of being things that he knows enough about to where he could say, I believe that this is to be true. You know, it's hard to say anything is like a real fact, especially when it comes to like medicine. But it was great. Like you said, it was great conversation. And why not? You know, why not have conversation with people that are that have kind of opposing views. I mean, it opens up your mind and you're like, wow, I never thought about it that way. And one big thing I noticed with a lot of this

is that a lot of people have assumptions about the way an individual is because of the personal belief that they have. So they're not even willing to have a conversation because of their assumption about you're this, you're probably a racist. When that's not true, you just need to try to understand why do they believe what they do believe?

And you talk to them, you understand their logic, you understand where they're coming from, and then you can understand why they believe that. And then you can really dig deep on both sides. But if you don't, then you're just running with these false assumptions about somebody. That's not the case. You know, that's why we're in such a weird place right now. Some of the things that we think ahead of time are just, they're inaccurate. You know, the things that we, it's, it's the reason why you're probably not going to that yoga class.

It's the reason why you haven't embarked on that diet. You haven't purchased that book or gone to that seminar or started that podcast that you've been thinking about doing for so long because you have a negative interpretation of what you think could potentially happen and uh you you i i think those are i think these are reasonable things to protect yourself from yeah like i could be ridiculed like i don't i don't like that i don't like being made fun of that's sounds reasonable to me. Yeah, who wants to be made a fool of, right? But what about the opposite of that? What about like, I bet you I'm going to go to that jujitsu class and I might look kind of dumb.

I might look kind of silly. Maybe there are a couple people there that might laugh at me, but I bet you there will be a bunch of people there that want to help me too. Because they're going to remember what it's like to be new i bet you i'm going to have a really good workout i bet you i'm going to sweat pretty good then there's the other side of you going i might twist my ankle right i might but again you can kind of think of some of the other side of it i bet my ankles my knees my elbows are going to get used to it over time i bet that if I was to fall randomly off of my bike or onto the sidewalk, and I've been doing jujitsu for a couple of years, that I'll be a little stronger to block my fall. You know, like you can kind of start to,

you know, for every negative thing that you throw out, you don't have to completely block those things. I think they're, I think they're legitimate things. I'm going to go into a room full of women that have been doing yoga for 10 years and I'm going to try to do this class. And you know, you're not going to stick out like a sore thumb. I think those are reasonable things to think of, but you're also need to probably be in recognition of, I bet you there'll be a lot of people that are going to be super nice to me that are going to want to help me. Yeah. That's just the, that's the positive. I have like an example is like jujitsu schools, man. Um,

uh, at Casio school specifically, if there is somebody that's like a dick, they're weeded out. Like they, they are, they are quickly reprimanded. They are quickly taught a lesson.

You don't act that way with people. You know, those people aren't, don't stay around long. Right. I think that's probably how it is with a lot of places. Like you'd be surprised. You'll go in places.

A lot of people are going to want to help. They're going to want to, they see someone who's a beginner at like a lot of people. It's difficult and rare to have a real hardcore, uh, ego in a place like that. Right. Yeah.

Cause it's like, so you may experience this with like a power lifter. You could potentially experience this with a bodybuilder. But most of the time when somebody is high level, they have gone through so much shit that they are usually pretty kind. They are normally pretty calm, you know, under normal circumstances. But when you're talking about something that's physical, like wrestling or jujitsu or boxing, like where there's contact, it's kind of hard to be an asshole when there's other people in the class that can serve shit up to you every single day and just destroy you. single day and just destroy you. It's, you know, and by the time you become the best person in the room, it would be most likely that most of that ego and most of those things have been eroded away by you understanding

that you don't really know anything. That's how you learned it all in the first place. If you held onto this ego, it would be very hard for you to learn. And if you were just trying, like for you, if you were trying this ego and it would be very hard for you to learn. Yeah. And if you were just trying, like for you, if you were trying to just to muscle people and just to hurt people all the time, it would be really hard for you to advance or no one would even want to help

you. Um, and even now in the position that you're in, no one would want to roll with you. No one would want to do any, like they just, there's, I don't know if anyone's listened to Jordan Peterson talk about,

uh, these, uh, rat studies where the mice were like playing with each other. Well, there's a certain, if you play with like a seven-year-old kid, you play basketball with him. You just swap the ball as hard as you can every single time that he goes to shoot it. They're going to want to play with you. You know, and in these rat studies, it's like the rats have to be a little comparable. Like the bigger rat has to let the other rat win sometimes and get the cheese or whatever it was they were studying. And so that's, you're not going to face this resistance that you're thinking that you're going to face when you go into this gym or this facility, because it's most likely these people don't have the egos that you

are building up in your own head. Cause you thinking, if I could kick everyone's ass, I would go up to that guy and I would tell him I could kick his ass. But no, once you have that ability, I think it's the last thing on your mind. I just realized, I don't know, I guess I never really thought about this, but a majority of people that haven't gone, like, let's say they haven't really gone into a powerlifting gym. They haven't gone into a, uh, uh,

jujitsu class or whatever they have. They have assumptions. And these assumptions are based off of like, uh, assumptions they have about people that do those things and TV, Disney channel shit. You know, like you think about gym class,

like Cobra Kai, Cobra Kai, like you think people are in there just fucking punching and like doing shit and that's not how it is at all when i was a kid that's what i thought it was me too i just like damn i don't want to go do that no dude me too i was like i want to have beef with the dojo down the street i thought gangs were bad these are gangs that know how to fight. But that's real. That's not the way it is.

When you get in, you realize how chill this stuff really is and just how relaxed and how, like, yeah, it's just nice. It's chill. It's community. It's great. I love it. Andrew, want to take us out of here, buddy? I will. Thank you, everybody, for checking out today's episode. Everyone on the live chat, you guys are freaking awesome.

We've had a lot of really cool success stories. I'm not going to be able to get to any of them except for Bob234. He said he's lost 35 pounds this year while getting stronger. This show has been a big help. So shout out to you, Bob. Really appreciate you sharing that. And keep crushing it, dude. Thank you to 8sleep for sponsoring today's episode.

Again, 8sleep.com slash PowerProject for $150 off your Pod Pro cover and mattress bundle. Links to them down in the description as well as the podcast show notes. Please follow the podcast at Mark Bell's PowerProject on Instagram at MB Power Project

on TikTok and Twitter. My Instagram and Twitter is at IamAndrewZ and I've been sharing some biomechanics stuff. So if you guys are interested in that, go follow me there and at TheAndrewZ on TikTok. And Simo, where you at? Hey guys, real talk. Go check out, go to that Ape Sleep link and go check out the technology

behind it because we talk about sleep a lot. Sleep is a big fucking deal for your recovery, for your muscle gain, for everything. And if you're not getting good quality sleep, you are shooting yourself in the foot. So go to that link after this show and check it out. My Instagram is at in SEMA Indian and Tik TOK is that in SEMA yin yang.

Mark, I'm at Mark smelly bell. And, uh, don't forget, we have a seminar coming up with, it's just going to go out before that yeah no this will be out yeah a couple days two days we got a seminar coming up with uh ct fletcher

on uh saturday it starts at noon and we are fired up and excited to have ct fletcher in the house we're going to be doing like a podcast interview with him as well as he'll be doing like an in-gym kind of seminar, yell at you type thing along with some open gym stuff. It's going to be awesome. It should be a lot of fun. I'm excited for it. I'm pumped. Strength is never a weakness. Weakness is never a strength.

I'm at Mark Smiley Bell. Catch you guys later.