Mark Bell's Power Project - Power Project EP. 156 - Life is Hard, Chalk Up

Episode Date: December 14, 2018

We'll all face some tragedy, we'll all face hardship, we'll all have to deal with life's burdens, you can fold or hit that chalk bowl and get sh!t done. ➢SHOP NOW: https://markbellslingshot.com/ Enter Discount code, "POWERPROJECT" at checkout and receive 15% off all Sling Shots ➢Subscribe Rate & Review on iTunes at: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/mark-bells-power-project/id1341346059?mt=2 ➢Listen on Stitcher Here: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/mark-bells-power-project?refid=stpr ➢Listen on Google Play here: https://play.google.com/music/m/Izf6a3gudzyn66kf364qx34cctq?t=Mark_Bells_Power_Project ➢Listen on SoundCloud Here: https://soundcloud.com/markbellspowerproject 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 Podcast Produced by Andrew Zaragoza ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamandrewz

working on it okay we are live now all over the place oh my god we're live everywhere welcome to mark bell's power project everybody thank you guys for tuning in to the david goggins episode that aired uh on youtube uh i think it'll be available maybe later today or tomorrow on itunes so uh tomorrow morning it'll be available on itunes tomorrow morning it'll be available on itunes so appreciate everybody It'll be available on iTunes. So appreciate everybody that's listened to that. Uh, also appreciate all the, uh, all the support on my birthday. I got so many birthday wishes.

My, uh, my ass turned 42 years old, 30 years of lifting. As many of you guys, uh, have seen me talk about, or heard me talk about before. Appreciate all the support with the gangster wraps. The gangster flex wraps went absolutely bonkers. Thester Flex Wraps went absolutely bonkers. The Gangster Knee Wraps went absolutely bonkers. So thank you guys so much for going over to MarkBellSlingShot.com and picking up the wraps and supporting us. And, you know, you guys see the cars,

you guys see the advancement in the company, and you see all the stuff, and it's all because of you guys. Without fans and without customers, I ain't got nothing. So, um, you know, I I'm happy and excited to make great products, but I'm even happier and more excited that you guys are pumped about it. And it's great to get feedback from you guys about these, uh, about these products that we're creating. Uh, today I wanted to talk about a few things. And one is I wanted to talk about this 30 years of lifting. I'm not going to go over every single thing that's happened over the years, but I'm going to give you guys a peek into what these 30 years have looked like.

I think a lot of people, um, they, they hear the stories or they see me lifting and then maybe they don't understand, uh, how long I've been doing it. And then some people do understand, but, uh, maybe they don't know, uh, you know, how I've been able to kind of avoid injury and how I've been able to just do it for so long. So I'll, I'll explain some of that. Um, I think something that's helped me hold on for such a long time was that I learned powerlifting at a very young age. I started lifting at around 11, 12 years old, and I'm 42 now. And some of the lessons I learned, I learned them early on. And I learned that you had to have proper form and technique and all the way to the point where I wasn't allowed to do exercises at all, unless I perform them correctly all the way to the point where I would

try to put more weight on the bar and somebody else in the gym would come over and slide the weights off and just dump them right on the ground. And, you know, I was a young kid in the gym. And, and, um, I mean, at that time I wasn't 12. I did some of my lift, some of my lifting in the early, early years in the basement, uh, of our garage and my dad bought us equipment and stuff. And I'll talk about that in a minute. Um, but you know, I went up, went to a mid Hudson bodybuilding in Poughkeepsie, New York. And when I started lifting and started, you know, getting into all this stuff, I, I, I wanted to be strong. And so, you know, I into all this stuff. I, I, I wanted to be strong.

And so, you know, I I'd warm up with one 35 as everybody does. And then I would very quickly put on too much weight and squirm around the bench and, you know, look like a bug that's underneath a magnifying glass from some kid trying to fry it with the rays of the sun. And I would pitter patter all around. My feet would go crazy. My butt would come off the bench. Uh, I would be all herky jerky with the weight and I'd lock out on one side and then I'd lock out on the other with, you know, 185 pounds or 205 pounds or whatever the weight was at the time. And I thought that was lifting. I thought that's how you lifted heavy weights. Um, my brothers always told me different, but you're not going to listen to your brothers. Not going

to listen to family, right? Your dad goes to show you something when you're a kid, you don't listen to him. You do it your own way. And so, uh, you know, guys, the gym, they, they had Mid-Hudson bodybuilding. They were pretty rough around the edges. They were into, everyone was into the same thing, uh, at that time. And also, uh, in this, in this area that I grew up in Poughkeepsie, New York, everyone was into steroids. Everybody was into being big and jacked. Everybody wanted to be

strong. And, uh, there wasn't a lot of people that, uh, that were into like a lot of variations of fitness. It was just like, you know, get bigger and get stronger and be more jacked. It was kind of the mission by almost everybody. So, um, I kind of followed suit, but when I went to lift these heavier weights, these guys in the gym, they dumped the weights on the ground and they'd say, Hey, you know, you're not doing it right. Or sometimes they wouldn't even say anything to me. And I didn't even know what they were doing. I was like, what the hell's going on? And so, um, you know, one time I actually asked the guy, I'm like, I don't, I don't know, I guess I don't know how to lift. Maybe you can just show me. And the guy was like, oh, I was dying for you to say that.

And then the guy kind of showed me how to bench press. And, um, he was like, you know, this is how you do it. It's about a two count on the way down. You want to hold it on your chest and then you want to press it back up. If you're ever going to compete in this, then, you know, you got to pause the weight anyway. And, uh, what they're looking for when you compete is that you control the weight. And it was kind of funny because I didn't really necessarily say anything about competing, but, uh, I, I already competed at the time. So I already knew better, but I didn't know better. Cause I just, I wanted to lift more weight. I wanted to like be more significant. I wanted to like stand out in the gym. And I thought this was going to be the best way to do it. And, uh, it's not, it's not a good way to do it. It's a good way to get hurt. And it's a good, it's a good way to go backwards. And so what you have to realize from lifting

heavy weights is that three things can happen. You can make it, you can miss it, or you can get hurt. And two out of those three things are bad, right? If you miss it, that sucks. If you get hurt, that's even worse. And then also too, you know, in terms of making the lift, like that's not an assured thing that you're, you're getting away from the lift, uh, pain-free, right? Um, how you do the lift is, is really important. And so what I'm going to tackle today and kind of uncover is this parallel between lifting and life and how they really, um, they, they, you know, I say it all the time on this podcast, but they,

they parallel each other. They cross over each other in so many different ways. Um, do things right in the gym and it adds up to something. It turns into something. And all of a sudden somebody is like, holy shit, I didn't know you're capable of that. We see the same thing happen in your day-to-day life. When you do the small things, when you take advantage of the small things in life that can make you better, that can make you more successful, you end up out in front of people and people are like, how the hell did that guy do that? That's unbelievable. I can't believe that guy did that. Never expected him to be able to do that, but there he is. Before I dive into that, I want to talk about this

story cause I have not talked about the story before, um, in this particular way on this podcast. So the last couple of days and, and maybe over the last week and a half or so, uh, I've been very, uh, um, I've been going back into the time capsule a little bit, you know, my brother passed and it's been 10 years since he died. And there's been a lot to think about and a lot to unpack with, with a lot of that stuff. Um, on the 14th of December, it will be the 10 year, uh, anniversary of, of him, uh, passing away. And, um, as I started to think back to some of these things that happened over the years, uh, my brother, Chris was, you know, very upset and he was, you know, and I, I mentioned this on a previous podcast already, the podcast Chris was on, but I actually thought about it a lot more and I got in conversation with my wife about it.

And, uh, you know, Chris kind of said like, you know, man, I really wish Mad Dog saw what you built. He's like, he'd be so proud. And, and I agree. Yeah. He would like he'd be so proud and and i agree yeah he would he would be very proud the actual truth is though that if mad dog didn't pass i wouldn't have built what i built so you know and i've talked about this a lot of times on this podcast and i didn't even that didn't even sink in until my own wife told me she's like who knows maybe you would never built all this if that didn't happen um there's there's your your setback right your setback is a setup for something great and so as tragic as that was for our family uh to go through uh mike actually has told me before he told me to my face he's like if i'm the one that has to take the bullets for this family

and be the representation of all that is bad and what not to do, then so be it. You know, I, I don't know if he had to be that person for all of us to understand that, uh, some of the things that he did, uh, were, were bad, but, uh, that's the way that it went down. And that's the way that it was. And it did teach me at a very young age, like, Hey man, like that shit shit's serious it wasn't just mom and dad saying hey drugs are bad it was me seeing it firsthand it was it was eating away at my brother and it was it like rotted him down to the bone almost like um you would see um cancer rot somebody brought somebody away right and so it's tragic story. It was horrible. But as I said before, the, uh, the setback is, is really a setup, uh, towards something great. As I was thinking back into

some of these things, um, I started thinking about some other stories. I thought about these stories from, from when we were kids. And, uh, there's a story of, uh, my brother, Mike, he, he, uh, was aggressive and he got into fights and he, you know, he would, he pick on other kids and things like that. And my mom, you know, told him one day, uh, that, uh, he, he got picked on too. So he was usually defending himself, you know, kids would call him fat and stuff like that. And, uh, so he was, I don't know, he was telling my mom something about how he, you know, made fun of some kid or something like that. And she was like, oh, I don't like, I don't like to hear that. She's

like, you shouldn't be saying that. She goes, how would you like it if someone called you fat? And he just broke down into tears, like crying, like a, like a little baby. And he was probably like, I was probably like 10. He's probably a little bit too old to, to cry like that. But he was, uh, he was a sore loser in that way and then i remember another story i don't actually remember this story but i just remember being told this story because i was a little bit too young uh but my mom uh and dad i think they got us like i don't know an atari or something i don't know how far back it dates i don't know what video game console it was but they got us a video game console and, uh, all of us were so excited.

Uh, you know, you, as a kid, you wake up super early for Christmas, you're all fired up and you're excited. We open up our presents, we get this video game console and we're all excited. And Mad Dog makes fun of Chris. He's like, you peed your pants. Cause Chris had like a pee stain. We're all like in our pajamas. Apparently I peed my pants, but the funniest part was that Mad Dog peed his pants too. And so all three of us were so excited that we pissed ourselves over the video game console that we got. You don't remember which one it was though?

Was it the Nintendo? I don't remember because I think Nintendo, I think we would all be a little bit older. So I think it might've been something a little earlier than that. Might have been like Atari or ColecoVision for those of you that remember that. Now for the Nintendo story. So Andrew's heard this before, but I don't know how many of you have heard this before. And because we have a cartoonist now that makes these things in the cartoons, I thought, what a wonderful cartoon this will make.

So me and Chris are like wrestling like we're messing around and we're at the top of the stairs uh in our house and chris pushes me i push him i'm getting a little stronger and stuff chris is you know about four years older than me and uh he's pretty pretty stout you know he's pretty strong he's already been working out for a few years i've been working out too but he's got a little a little extra time under the barbell uh than i do and he's older and um he was just hard to move you know he's tough to tough to try to manhandle because he was so short and stocky and so he and i are wrestling and i i kind of get the better of him and i i grab him one. And then I think I'm doing good, but I think he's just trying to play possum kind of and try to show me like that. He's not paying attention.

Then he sneaks one in on me kind of thing. And so I went to kind of throw him one way and then he tossed me the other. And my butt, my big ass butt. I got a big old pedunka dunk back there. My butt slams into the wall and just like dense in the, uh, the wall, it dents in the sheet rock. And I was like, Oh shit. And so me and my brother just stop and we freeze and like, dad's going to flip out those people that know my dad. Now he's a much different person than when we we were growing up he was still the same uh

loving guy he was still a lot of fun and and he's amazing dad but he was just under a lot more stress back then he had three kids to raise and a family to provide for and so um you know he he was working a lot and i think he got to a point sometimes where he felt like uh unappreciated and so um we're like oh man you know it's kind of at a level, like it's kind of low, you know, it's like waist high. It's like, maybe he won't see it, but it's clearly a fricking dent in the wall. You know, it's not a hole in the wall, but it's, it's the, the wall is definitely smushed in, but it was also in a spot where we couldn't put a picture over it or whatever.

It'd be really odd to have a picture that low. Move like a plant in the way or something. Yeah. And he couldn't because it Move like a plant in the way or something. Yeah. And you couldn't because it was like right around where the stairs are. And so the bad part was, is as you came up the stairs and as you went to kind of go around, like to where my parents' room was, you, you were at eye level with this butt dent that was in the wall. And so, uh, you're definitely going to see it coming up the stairs but we were just kind of

hoping for the best and just pretending that it never happened you know that's what you do as a kid like with your homework you just pretend that it doesn't exist and so therefore you don't ever do it right and so uh my dad comes home or like oh shit but we're so my brother and i are playing a tecmo bowl mad dogs in the room too but me and chris are are playing and uh my dad comes home he comes up the stairs he's gonna change for work and we're just thinking oh shit i hope he doesn't see i hope he doesn't see it and he goes what is this you know when you're a kid and you're in trouble and you hear like an authority figure like a principal or a police officer or anybody they kind of they get they get that voice, your grandfather, whoever it is, your dad.

And that voice just goes right through your chest and your freaking heart sinks down in your stomach. It was one of those moments. We were like, no. And he's like, he's like, what happened? And like, we're not answering him because no one wants to say anything now. What we should have done. We came home, which was a dad.

We were messing around and I'm so sorry. You know, we, we busted the wall. Like, is there something we can do to help with that? Or like, you know,

that would have been the reasonable mature thing to do, but we're little shit kids that probably are, uh, not appreciating how hard he works. And he's not getting any answers from anybody. He's getting more and more frustrated he goes you want to break my shit he's like i'm gonna break your shit and he grabs the nintendo my brother and i still have the controllers in our hands

he rips it out of the wall and throws it right out the window me and my brother in just total disbelief our jaws hit the ground but we still have the controllers in our hands somehow and uh my dad's like no more video games or something he just storms he just storms out of the room how high was the window like to the ground uh it was probably a good 20 foot drop you know as a like a two-story house or so so 15 20 feet something like that uh my brother and i we we reluctantly peer over the side to try to look out the window and things just it's not the nintendo's not doing so well it's in a million pieces you know but the main part of the console is still together but like the top blew off and a couple other pieces broke off the side and you could see the computer chips in there

and all that kind of stuff. And we're just looking at each other like, oh my God. But we're not concerned that we're in trouble. That's like the least of our concerns. Our concern is the Nintendo. Like how are we going to get this thing back? That's what's really going through our heads. Because my dad, you know, he's going to calm down

and he'll be fine. He'll sort it out and we'll just tell him we're sorry and and that'll be that so that night me and my brother started talking and we're like oh shit the garbage goes out to the road tonight and then the garbage truck's gonna come tomorrow we're like we're screwed we're gonna lose that nintendo forever because it's in the garbage already and uh so me and my brother we you know brought the garbage out that night my dad's like you better not get that nintendo and we're like shit he kind of foiled our plans like we wanted to we wanted to get the nintendo so we uh we waited

and waited and waited and i think he like went to bed or did some work on a computer or something like that and uh we snuck out got the nintendo out of there and uh and you know put it it put it put it away for a little bit and then you know we brought it out like a couple days later after hopefully he kind of forgot about it people would come over our house and they just look at us and go dude what in the world happened to nintendo we're like it's kind of a long story, but man, that thing looked like it went through a war, but it still worked.

There you go. It still worked. I mean, you know, we had to blow on the cartridge and get it positioned just right, but I think everybody else had to do that too. We all had to do that. Yeah. But the cool part was that we had a unique Nintendo.

Yeah. Because it didn't have a top on it anymore. So people could see all the computer chips in there and shit i mean at that point i think that's when you realize like there's nothing that you couldn't do right yeah there's no mountain no mountain we can't climb yeah we can we can overcome anything as long as we stick together there you go so anyway yeah those are some of the stories i've been kind of kicking around and some of the things i've been i've been thinking about uh over the last couple couple days and couple weeks and um you guys uh that are familiar with our youtube channel uh make sure you check that out this

friday because we have a tribute uh that's going out to mad dog uh this week and uh mad dog was the ringleader of us getting the nintendo back so uh that that was uh that was a big deal to us at the time but anyway you're gonna love the uh what we put together video wise we filmed my brother myself my dad my mom uh talking about my uh my big bro so you guys will enjoy that a lot shift in gears um so you guys heard me talk about this before you know you got the resistance of life and you got the resistance in the gym how many times and how many different ways can we talk about that we're going to try to figure that out um what i really identify with is is the stability um that you have to possess in order to squat a big weight.

Filipino thunder, my boy, Marcus squatted 870 pounds, uh, back when I, that was raw with just a, just, uh, some knee wraps on, uh, back when I was lifting some heavy ass weights and back when I was, uh, squatting, uh, those big weights, it took a lot of balance and it took a lot of stability. And you're not going to squat a thousand pounds. You're not going to squat 900 pounds raw in these big weights. You're not going to be able to do those things unless you're prepared for them. But you have to have stability. And the only way you're going to have stability is to do a lot of the things that you don't really want to do.

A lot of the ab work, a lot of the lower back work, a lot of the core work. Marcus is always in here stretching. He's always working on keeping his hips opened up and all these different things. And why is that? Because he knows that if he gets under 870 pounds and his knees cave in a little bit, well, there goes his lower back or maybe in his knee. A lot of times when that knee caves in the back will round over. You notice a lot of times on your deadlifts, when you,

when your knee caves in a little bit on a conventional or a sumo deadlift, that knee caves in a little bit, what happens? That lower back rounds. Anytime there's going to be internal rotation, there's going to be flexion of the spine, right? You see it time and time again, you see it happen over and over again, but the instability comes from not doing your work and the stability that you have going through stuff in life is going to be important. And how do you gain stability in life? You gain stability through going through things. So a lot of people that are older, they have more wisdom, but only do the people, only do you have more wisdom if you learn from your mistakes.

You got to learn from the experiences that you go through in your life. Allow your history to be a school for you. Allow your past to be a school and don't allow your past to be a hammer. Don't allow it to be something that you beat yourself over the head with. Allow it to be a learning tool. And what you'll learn from years and years of lifting is that over a period of time, when you prove to yourself time and time again, that you can come out on top. Let's say that you said to yourself, you know what?

I want to do this for a set of 20 reps. And I want to do it within the next three months. Well, maybe the first time you try it, you do it for 12 and you're like, Oh, maybe I set my goal too high. Like how am I going to be able to do that for 20 reps? I only did it for 12. Next time you do it, you do it for 15. Next time you do it for 17. Next time you're like, wow, three extra singles at the end and i'm at 20 reps and then sure enough three months down the road you find you hit your goal and you do do that lift for 20 reps or you hit that big single and you prove to yourself you're like i didn't think i could do that before what an awesome feeling that is to have in your day-to-day life of man i'm not so sure i can do that. But when you start to recognize that

you have the ability to learn and adapt to anything, that's really all it is, is adaptation. And all human beings were built and designed for adaptation. That's like primarily what we're made for is to be able to adapt to different environments. If we go outside and it's too cold, guess what happens? We get the chills, right? We get, we start to, our teeth start to chatter, right? All kinds of things start to happen in our body that are almost like automatic. It gets hot out. We sweat. Why do we sweat? Well, our body's trying to cool down. Our body has these, these kinds of auto automatic, uh, responses to things. And in your pursuit to try to be better, all you have to continue to do

is make sure that you have the stability to move forward. Do you know the material? Have you done your homework? If you do know the material, you can progress forward. And that's a huge difference between self-education versus going to school, going to school. Your teacher gives you a test, but for self-education, you give yourself a test and you're like, I ain't going to talk about this until I really know it. Cause I'm going to sound like an idiot. Uh, we had Dr. Lane Norton on yesterday and Dr. Sean Baker. You think I'm going to try to get sciencey with either one of those guys i ain't gonna do that those guys read a lot man and i don't read nothing i've never read one book except for bo knows bo bo where you at we need you on here bo i only read one book and it's yours

that's huge uh praise then yeah it means something yeah yeah and i was even dumber back then than i am now that was a long time ago but you could fix a nintendo i know we can we could we could soup up that nintendo and keep that bitch running yeah but you know i heard somebody talk about this the other day and they said you know you're trying to you're trying to make yourself be a force you're trying to be like an unstoppable force and an imable and in movable object. And it might sound weird.

It might sound like overkill, like, wow, that's a pretty crazy statement, but think about how euphoric you feel. Think about how good you feel when you're in the middle of your workout or when you're at rep number 12 and you know, you're going to get that,

you know, you're going to finish the set out strong. You know, you're going to get that 15th rep. Some of the power lifters like, why are we doing so many reps? Um, but you know, you're going to be able to finish the rep. You do feel unstoppable at times you get done with a great workout. You hit a big PR man. You feel like you could stop a bullet. Now you probably can't, but you feel that way. Uh, you feel empowered, you feel amazing. And it's because you overcame

an obstacle. And that's the whole part about lifting that to me makes the most sense on why it is so important. You can make the lift, you can miss it, or you can get hurt. So like what options do we have as we're trying to lift heavier weight? We can't avoid heavy weight We can't avoid it's part of who a lot of us are a lot of us that are into lifting And um a lot of us that are into uh pushing Whether it's with running or uh triathlons or climbing, uh You know climbing a mountain or whatever whatever it is that you're into A lot of us don't have the ability to not chalk up.

We don't have the ability to not go over to that chalk bowl and to talk ourselves into doing something that we otherwise normally wouldn't be able to do. I saw this happen yesterday. Dr. Sean Baker, he threw a 20 pound ball up towards the ceiling and he didn't hit the ceiling. It was like, damn it. Then he went over to our chalk bowl. He got some magic chalk. He came back and he nailed the ceiling.

What's the difference? Some magnesium carbonate on his hands? No, that little jaunt over the chalk bowl was a conversation of, look, dude, you can do this. Mark's watching, they're filming this shit for YouTube. Like get your shit together. You're the carnivore. You're the carnivore diet guy. You're supposed to be representing strength and health and you're promoting this diet and promoting this and that.

And you can't even throw a 20 pound ball to the ceiling. And so he came back and sure enough, he slammed it up against the top of the roof, almost blew the roof off a super training gym. But the, there's, there's a lot of people that, that may not want to go that route in their life. They may not want to chalk up. They may not want to have to dig deep, but life is going to lead you in that direction. No matter what happens, life is going to lead you there. No matter what happens, we're

going to have tragedy. We're going to have people die. We're going to be sick. We're going to be burdened with things that life, uh, ends up there. There's always going to be some misery in life. There's a lot of happiness. There's a lot lot of joy there's a lot of great things to be um excited about there's a lot of great things to to live on for but there's also a lot of things that are sad and that just suck and that you don't have any control over so you're gonna have to chalk up for some of those sets as ct fletcher says it's still your motherfucking set he actually said that to me on my birthday he uh made a post and he just said simply said hey mark bell it's still your motherfucking set and that is a great mindset to be in that's a great frame of mind to lock into that is how you should treat your day-to-day um think about

how think about how amazing this is if you if you do a set and you work hard and you push through and a lot of blood comes into the muscle and you push through and pass the pain, what do you end up getting? You push through the pain and you end up getting those gains, right? And when you get those gains, that's part of the reason why you're there. You want to have more muscle. You want to be stronger. How does that parallel to everything in life? It directly does. It directly parallels everything to life because what you're going to do in the outside world is surrounded with growth as well. If you don't continue to grow, then you're not going to have anything to show. You have to continue to grow. You have to continue to evolve. And all the people that work in this company, it's really great to watch everyone grow.

It's great to watch everyone expand. It's great to watch everyone, watch everybody push through. Andrew right now is not feeling a hundred percent, but he's like, fuck it, man. And we're going, we're going in, we're going all in with the podcast. Hopefully he's not sick. Hopefully it's something that will pass, but we got to push through, right? Yeah. It has to be something I ate today.

Yeah. So sorry to everyone in the chat room looking at the comments scroll up and down. It's making me dizzy. So I'm not really too active in there today. That's how bad it is right now. But no, man, I do love doing this podcast and you know right now you're talking about going to the chalk bowl that's basically what i'm having to do right now just to you know get through it we'll be fine though right and uh you know like

when you when you have to do a gut check and you have to kind of check yourself and see like it's all the same conversations you'd have in lifting. Yeah. Am I actually doing okay? Like, uh, like you, you do a deadlift and you, you put the weight down and you're like, wow, I almost passed out, but wait a second. There's another set to do. Am I okay? And you're like, uh, yeah.

Okay. I'm okay. Yeah. I'm good. I can, I can go do another set. You're like, I, I, I'm going to make it through. I'm going to be okay. And the, um, you know, the form and the technique that we practice, we're always trying to have the proper form and technique with these lifts and our form will break down in a deadlift. Our form will break down a squat. Our form will break down

in a bench. And then what happens a lot of times we get hurt or a lot of times we are super, super sore. Uh, those of you that are kind of newer to lifting, you'll know what I'm talking about. You go to do a deadlift and you round over every single time you deadlift your lower back is going to be really, really sore. If you're a more advanced lifter, you can plow right through that workout and you're going to be totally fine. Um, because your form and technique is correct. And when your form and technique is on point, you're working different muscles and you're exercising almost, almost in a completely, in a completely different way, your efficiency is better and you'll be less fatigued. You'll be less fatigued, uh, from life. When you learn to become more efficient with the things

that you do, you learn to become more efficient with your sleep. You learn to become more efficient with your work ethic. Working on something for four hours is great, but it's only great if you are efficient. You have to figure out how can you be more efficient. Well, you have to practice, and you have to practice and you have to practice working on habits that will advance you habits that will make you go faster. You want to ignore the things that haven't helped you, the things that you've tried. And you're like, that doesn't work. The things that you've tried, you honestly gave it a real shot and you actually tried it. Let's say it's with diet. You're like intermittent fasting didn't work for me.

I overate too much. Keto didn't work great for me because I wasn't able to stick with it. But this particular diet that worked for me will keep that and stay there. And if you hear stuff from other people, that's great to acquire more knowledge. But then think to yourself, is that practical for me to actually try? Or am I making pretty good progress on my own right now? Am I, am I doing well on my own? Can I just stay right here for now? These are the things you got to think about because there's no reason for you to go hopping around from one program to the next. I see a lot of people doing that with, uh, with their training. They're like, I'm doing five sets of five this week, and I'm going to do it for the next three

weeks. I'm going to increase the weight. And the next thing you know, uh, they're hopping on, uh, somebody else's workout. Cause they saw somebody, Kayla Wollum, they saw him deadlift 940 pounds. And that's the program they're following. And now they're going to hop over to this program and back over to that program. And it's like, pick something, try to stick with it for a period of time and see how it works. Same thing with a book that you might be reading. Don't go hop into another book until you finish the one that you're reading. Don't go hopping from one thing to the next because you're going to kind of scramble your brains in the process. You're going to be able to really process and focus in and hone in

on one thing at a time. And you don't want too much, too much noise from the outside world, you know, kind of seeping through. And so it's not just about making it. It's not just about being able to finish a book or being able to complete a podcast. It's about what are you going to be able to get from it? What can you extract from it? It's not about just making the lift. It's about what did you gain from it? Did you gain anything from it? Was the load heavy enough for you to even have any gains from it? Was the book challenging enough for you to even make any progress off of it? Was the course that you took hard enough for you to make progress off of it? Or are you just kind of coasting through life and just coasting through these sets and, uh, you're kind of going through the motions type thing. Cause

we've all had workouts like that. And man, that, that feels, that feels incredibly, uh, dissatisfying. That almost feels worse than not working out at all. When you go to the gym and you have a half-hearted effort, you're like, shit, man, you know, I, I don't, I don't, I don't feel great about the effort that I put in, but part of, part of what I'm after. And part of what I think a lot of other people are after is this ability to be stable and strong enough to be able to exert force, uh, on the rest of the world. And when you, when you think about like going in the gym and lifting yes i'm i'm putting in some work and i'm i got force against the weights and i'm lifting but i want to be able to have force against the rest of the world not even necessarily against

the rest of the world but also to exert force with the rest of the world and with people and be behind people and be be somebody that uh, uh, people can lean on, so to speak. Right. But no one can lean on me if I'm not strong enough. I need to, I need to be able to show time and time again that I'm reliable. I can handle resistance. And when people see that in you, they're going to say, okay, that's, that's the guy to go

to for that. That guy's going to be there for that. That guy's going to, that guy's going to hold tight for that. That guy's going to be there for that. That guy's going to, that guy's going to hold tight for that. A lot of times when these, uh, guys and girls at super training gym, even with, uh, my schedule, a lot of times I'm right there for, for a lot of their bigger lifts. Uh, Andrew made a post the other day of, um, of him deadlifting, uh, uh, you know, a few different weights. And like, I was like in each picture and then I was like, and then the previous Instagram post was your two 25 bench. And I'm like, man, that's so cool that I actually be there for that. And somebody else might be like, oh, well it's just a two 25 bench, but that's not, that's not what it's about. It's about that. It's about the process of

watching somebody grow. Cause it's not about where you start. It's about where you finish. Yeah. And I mean, it was, it was a trip cause I was looking at some of the pictures that Pear had taken and I was like, oh shit, I forgot that we actually had a little deadlift session out there in Malibu. And yeah, uh, there was one picture that I wanted to post is where I got stuck. It was like at two 45 or something. And you actually got down and you like helped me lift it up. You got down on one knee. Proposed. And I said yes to deadlifting that weight. So yeah, I mean, those pictures are really special for me too, but I can't even imagine like actually seeing somebody that you've been coaching go from, you know, 135 to now 300. Like that's gotta be pretty cool.

Oh, it's, it's, it's amazing. And it's like, uh, you know, I, I've coached people to all kinds of different things and it's, uh, it's, you know, getting, getting older is a really crazy thing. Cause you kind of think that you've seen everything. You think you've seen it all, but then you continue to see stuff that proves to you that you haven't seen it all. And it gets to be, you get to be in some really interesting, interesting spots. I mean, I've coached and mentored and helped people to all kinds of things. And then sometimes I see the way their behavior, sometimes it's great. And you're like, oh, hell yeah.

Like that person really got it that's cool and then other times i've been like scratching my head going man like i kind of feel like uh uh i kind of feel like i'm like in star wars and like somebody used their powers for the wrong thing rather than rather than for the right thing i'm like man i you know i felt you feel like you built like a Darth Vader or something. You're like, man, I, you know, I was hoping they would, they would go more Luke Skywalker with their, with their actions, but sometimes they kind of veer off and you're like, man, that's kind of disappointing to see.

Yeah. Bummer. Although the, the dark side has been calling. The dark, the dark side. The dark side. Yeah. But we're talking about the other dark side wait what the enhanced side how wow

yeah you know there's when it comes to making these parallels you have no choice but to try to lift a heavier load you got no choice but to try to get after, there's, you have no choice, but to try to lift a heavier load. You got no choice, but to try to get after it. There's, there's not a lot of great ways. We cannot sell you on a, Hey, this is going to be, this is going to be like a wonderful thing. It's going to be

uncomfortable. Like Andrew lifts with me and he, he, he'll lift less weight than me, but it's not any less uncomfortable. I know like some days I'll wake up and I'll go, oh my God, I am torched. And I'm like, I, then I think about Andrew and I'm like, ah, I'm like, Andrew must be dying. I was like, he, he must've really got killed. And, uh, but probably relatively, you're probably feeling most of the same thing, especially at this point. Cause you've been,

we've been hitting similar movements for long enough. It's not like we're going out and, uh, you know, doing a 20, 40 yard sprints that, that would, that would kill both of us.

And it'd be a matter of like, who's in better shape to be able to handle that. Yeah. Well, that one, um, the, the,

the CrossFit workout that we did was, was pretty tough, but we both bounced back pretty quickly. Yeah. But yeah, there are some workouts where I'm just like, oh shit, like we'll see what happens tomorrow. Hopefully Mark's like, he calls for a day off or something. But I mean, for the most part, when you say like something crushes you, I kind of feel it too. And there's been a couple of times where you're like, oh my God, my face hurts from that chest workout or something.

And I'm like, you know, I feel pretty good. I'm not, I'm not too bad. So yeah, it's pluses and minuses, you know,

certain days. Yeah. You go, we're, we're still, you know, we're both putting in a good effort, you know,

we're both trying, we're both trying to put in the best effort possible. And that's, that's kind of the point. I mean, we know that we're going to miss sometimes, um, but it's, it's about, it's about proving yourself over and over again. And, um, you know, people that, people that continually talk themselves, uh, people that continually talk themselves into doing stuff that they really don't want to do,

um, but they know is good for them. It's like, it's for the overall good of themselves, like going for a walk, eating properly, lifting weights. You're going to, you're going to come out in front a million times over and you're going to prove to yourself over and over again. And you're going to prove to your, to people around you that you can come back. You can keep coming back. How many times have you guys seen me come back into powerlifting? And how many times have you guys seen me, you know, come back and, and, and put in a good effort? I haven't always hit every, uh, lift that I wanted to hit, but for the most part, I've done just about everything I've wanted to do with powerlifting

right now. I got the goal of, of, of possibly coming back and hitting a 500 pound bench at two 20. I don't want to force that too much. Cause I don't want to get, I don't want to put myself in a position to get hurt, but it appears that, uh, everything's headed in the right direction for now. And we'll kind of see where we'll see where it all, how it all shakes out in the next couple of weeks. Um, feeling good, feeling strong, feeling like I can feel like I can do it. And, um, you know, the strength is, is starting to rebuild and I can, I can actually, I can actually feel it, you know, and I can, I feel like it's, uh, you know, time to kind of kick it up a notch.

Do you think, uh, sucking down to 220 is going to be a problem at all? I know you said you're, you don't think so, but as far as dropping down and then still having the strength to do the 500-pound bench. My body doesn't really like to weigh 220 at the moment. But when I first got down to 240, my body didn't like being 240 either. It just might take a little bit longer than i than i want to admit like i'm i think in terms of like strength wise i would like to be able to uh be in the neighborhood of that strength around the st classic time i have decided that i'm just going to compete in that anyway and i'm just gonna uh you know maybe have smoky or marcus or somebody pick my attempts

and if it's like if it looks like i'm there then i'm there and if it doesn't look like i'm there then i'm just gonna lift and have fun and uh hopefully lift with a bunch of you guys and just just have have a good day just have fun and uh if i do when i bench 500 pounds i'd like to have a little bit more in the tank so it's not like this real roll the dice like am i going to blow off another pack or something like that yeah so i i do think that getting to 220 will be challenging because even through the that bodybuilding show i only weighed 220 for like 10 seconds that's what i was going to ask you know in comparison when you were shredded what was your weight yeah it's weird but like

my body composition is just different um i i don't i don't even i mean i don't i didn't get it measured so i don't know what it was and i don't know what it is but uh i was 230 and 235 consistently but at one point i weighed 220 um Um, that was, you know, that was intentional. Like Hani Rambad had me, uh, really, really pull back on a lot of the calories and a lot of the carbohydrates. And I did a lot of cardio and I was just super dehydrated. So that was like, that wasn't true weight. That was like maybe 10 pounds, maybe, well, maybe probably like six pounds lighter than I, than somewhere in that range six or eight pounds lighter than i i would have normally been um so it's kind of even hard to say that but like

yeah getting out of 220 regardless uh is going to be it's going to be very difficult i mean that's that's starting to get into uh i mean i weighed i weighed around 240 when I was 16. So for me to be 220 is really, uh, uncommon. Now I will only weigh 220 for a little bit cause I'll just weigh the right weight for the weigh-in and then, and then be done with it. Yeah. Would it make any, I guess not. Cause you're going to be again, just for that quick weigh-in, but like, um, if you're going for the bench, would you lay off doing leg work just for that quick way. And, but like, um, if you're going for the bench, would you lay off doing leg work just so that way you can drop some size? Maybe that is kind of something I've been thinking about. Cause like my, um, my, you know, I, I,

I've been attempting to, to lose weight, but I've been lifting heavy and it's like not working great, but like a lot of times that that'll settle itself. And the extra calories that your legs consume from being big is actually kind of a good thing. Um, I know what you mean though, but yeah, like even just the act of squatting kind of keeps you big. Yeah. But I'd also don't think, I mean, I'm going to lose some muscle dropping some weight. Um, but I don't think I want to like intentionally go out of my way to, I will probably, I actually did think about pulling back on a day of lifting because right now we squat and deadlift every week. And I was thinking about just rotating, you know, one week we squat one week, we deadlift go back and forth between

those, or, you know, maybe when I have you guys deadlift, maybe I'm doing something slightly different. That was something I considered where it's like, I, you know, probably when I have you guys deadlift, maybe I'm doing something slightly different. That was something I considered where it's like I, you know, probably in terms of being able to put more into the bench, I'd probably be better off that way. I could have a, I could have a, a little bit better of a workout, you know? Yeah. I mean, it's the, uh, since the ST Classic is just a push pull, you know, maybe we can just focus on those two movements and then the squat day being more of like a, uh, higher rep range instead of the, uh, the higher, um, weights. Right. Right. Yeah. Just so it doesn't, so it doesn't kill us as bad, right? Yeah. You know, the other thing that you learn from lifting though, is how to turn a shitty day

into something, you know, and I think that that that's a lot of a lot of education comes from that process of you know you go to work out and you go to do a movement and like you know you're uh for whatever reason i don't know you slept weird and your shoulders killing you jesse burdick checking in sacramento well now you have to audible and you got to think of like how am I going to salvage this day? Uh, one way to salvage the day is to, um, one way to salvage the day is to come up with something slightly different for you to do. So your shoulder hurts, you're on the bench and you're like, okay, well maybe I can, uh, maybe I can board press. And you try to board press. You're like, oh shit, my shoulder still hurts.

All right. Well, maybe I can slingshot bench or maybe I can board press and you try to board press. You're like, oh shit, my shoulder still hurts. All right. Well, maybe I can slingshot bench or maybe I can dumbbell bench. You find something that you can audible to and still end up with a decent workout. One way that you can always ensure that you feel good is to try something different. Try something new for the day. That's one way that you can always end up with a PR. That's one way that you can always, uh, end up with a PR. Like if you never did a, um, close grip incline bench for a set of five, you can do that for the day.

Let's say that you, let's say that you had in your head, okay, I'm going to bench three 15 on an incline bench. And I want to, you know, that's, that's my goal. And you start warming up and like two 75 is like, it nearly killed you. You're like, holy shit. Okay. Three 15 ain't happening for whatever reason maybe you were sick the week before maybe not feeling well or whatever well now you can make an audible and you can say okay i'm gonna do three sets of five and i'm gonna uh i'm gonna change the weight up and uh you do three sets of five and you use uh

weight up and, uh, you do three sets of five and you use, uh, 245 pounds or 225 pounds. And maybe you throw in some tempo training too. You slow down the way that you lift the weight, but you still got a lot of work in and you still feel really good about what you did because the effort is still there. And yeah, the strength wasn't there. You didn't do exactly what you wanted to do. But as I always say, uh, you didn't get dressed up for nothing, right? You're, you're, uh, you're already ready to work out. You already did all the things, uh, that, that are involved in getting your ass prepared, getting your ass ready for the gym. You did all these things and now you're there and, uh, you might as well put in the best effort that you possibly can. And so you just audible and you switch up your workout a little bit.

You do something slightly different. It's not the exact plan that you came in with, but it's something that's just a little bit different. Yeah. It'd be like Papa Bell and set PRs every day by doing something new. That's right. Yeah. My dad, my dad is crazy with his workouts. my dad is crazy with his workouts. My brother, um, my brother saw my dad,

my brother saw my dad lifting the other day and he was like, uh, he's like, he's like, dad lifts like a maniac. And I said, yeah, I know. I was like, I don't, I said, I don't know what his problem is. And, uh, I was like, I was like, I've, I've tried to, you know, talk to him about his, you know, slow it down a little bit. And I said, but I think he just gets fired up and he just wants to get after it. So I don't want to slow down the enthusiasm, but he listens to this podcast. So dad, you got to have a little bit better form out there, a little bit better technique. He's probably just thinking, screw it, man. I'm just going to go for it.

He's like, these kids don't know what they're talking about. Back in my day. Yeah. Yeah. back in my day yeah yeah back in my day my dad has been talking a lot of lately about being uh being gymless and i think that's amazing that's a funny that's a funny way of wording it but he's like i've been gymless for 69 years like i don't know what i've been doing with myself i'm like me and chris have been trying to tell you that and mike have been trying to tell you that for the last, I don't know how long for, for many, many, many years, we've been telling them that. And, uh, you know, getting your ass to the gym and it can change your life. I, we've, I've talked about this before. I feel that, uh, you know, the people that are involved in fitness are in on a secret. We got the quote unquote

magic pill. If, uh, if anybody was ever able to figure out how to lock up the benefits of exercise and sell it to you as a pill, it would be the greatest pharmaceutical drug ever created because what it does, you know, and it's funny because it's, it's sold so short of what it really is like, oh, this is good for your heart. This is good for your muscles. It's good for your brain. It's good for everything. It really causes a large cascade of positive things in your body that allow you to grow. And I always found in powerlifting, trying to figure out ways of salvaging the day has been something that has helped me salvage my day to day. It's, it's, it's allowed me to, it's allowed me to figure out how

do I turn this situation that's not so great into something better? How do I have a better perspective on something? How do I come, how do I come at this from a different angle? You know, in powerlifting, it's all about angles. You, um, you know, in, in the Michael Hearns world, it's all about out angling people, but, uh, in powerlifting, it's all about those angles. Um, I'm going to deadlift off the wagon wheels. I'm going to deadlift out of the rack. I'm going to do a good morning.

I'm going to do a 45 degree back raise. Uh, okay. I worked the back of my body. Now let me work more of the front of my body. Let me do some sit-ups and planks and weighted sit-ups. And okay. I worked the front. I worked the back.

Now I'm going to work the side of my body. Okay. I'm going to do some, I'm going to, I'm going to do some side bends. So all these movements. Okay. Now I'm going to work my grip bends. So all these movements, okay, now I'm going to work my grip. So you worked the front of your body, you worked the back of your body, you worked the side of your body.

Now you worked your grip. You did all these things to work your deadlift, but you attacked it from so many different angles. Well, what if you're in conversation with somebody and you start to get in an argument and you start to just fight back and forth and you just say, you're stupid. I think that's dumb. Well, that's not, that's, that's not a way. That's not a really good way to, uh, have somebody understand your vantage point or your point of

view. Uh, you would be better off trying to figure out, okay, man, I really disagree with this person. Man, this is super annoying that they're talking like this right now, but let me take a deep breath and let me try to get this from a different angle. Let me try to understand their angle. Let me try to understand where they're coming from. And we start to understand where they're coming from. Well, now you have different perspective

into what it is they're talking about. And you can say, okay, I don't agree with them, but I have a better understanding of what it is they're talking about. And you can say, okay, I don't agree with them, but I have a better understanding of what it is they're talking about. And that actually kind of makes sense. And that's where you can say to somebody, you can say something along these lines, you know what? I kind of agree with that, but here's what I think. And then you can kind of interject your own thoughts and you can have a meaningful conversation. But if you just say that's dumb and you try to get end it right there, I mean,

that's a, that's a similar as, uh, you know, not, not, uh, working on the things you need to work on in the gym and hit them from a

different angle. Um, somebody, uh, you know, working out is very simple. A lot of times somebody might say, um, man, I have trouble locking out. Um, somebody, uh, you know, working out is very simple. A lot of times somebody might say, um, man, I have trouble locking out. I'm, I have a hard time locking out the bench.

And then what do you say? Say, okay, we'll work on the lockout of your bench, man. I can't keep my ass from coming up off the bench when I bench. Well, we'll just keep your ass down on the bench. Well, how do I work on that? Do a lot of sets where your butt is on the bench. Do a lot of reps, do a lot of repetitions when your butt is on the bench. Well, how do I work on that? Do a lot of sets where your butt is on the bench. Do a lot of reps. Do a lot of repetitions when your butt is on the bench. Do a lot of repetitions where you're working on your lockout. Is this all sinking in? Is this all making sense? I mean, these are the repetitions that you're going to want to go through in your life to be

better at something, to be better than you were yesterday, to be better than you were last week, to be better than you were last year. Why not start to set in motion for 2019, for 2020, for 2021, for 2022? Why not set the things in motion to have the finances that you want in your life? Why not start to set things in motion to have the relationship that you want to have in your life? Why not just start to, it's just going to be one, it's one thing at a time. It's, you can't, you know, you can't do incline curls and squats at the same time. It's going to be one thing at a time. What are we working, working on our biceps when we're squatting, we're working on our squat, right? We're working on our quads. I mean, I know the squat, you know, that's your, you're working a lot of other muscles. When you're doing a deadlift, you're

working your back, right? I mean, there are other muscles involved in every single lift that you do, obviously, but there's primary muscles that are involved. The assistance exercises, all the little things that you do, that's where you get a moment to kind of work on your mind. Even a little bit more. You can, you can hone in on your lifts or you can hone in on some real world shit, some real world problems that you're going through. Uh, maybe you're having a problem in your marriage or maybe you're having a problem here or there, but you can, you can hone in on those things and use your lifting as a form of therapy and try to think about how, how are you going to, you can kind of almost meditate through it,

but you can lift through it. You can lift through anything. When you're doing your assistance exercise, when I, you know, when I'm doing my assistance exercises, a lot of times I'll use, you know, negative reinforcement as, as positive fuel. I'll use negative reinforcement. I'll take negative things that I've heard people say about me and I'll, I'll put it all in a, I'll put it all into a bag and I'll chew it up and I'll, I'll treat it as calories. I'll put it all into a bag and I'll chew it up and I'll treat it as calories. I'll use it as energy for my body. The only energy that your body can use is calories. You know, there's a misconception about caffeine. Caffeine's not really, you know, say it's an energy drink. The only energy that we have are our macronutrients. But I can a lot of times use negative talk or hatred as fuel.

And I'll think about, okay, this is more ammo for me. This is more fuel for my fire. This is adding to what it's not subtracting. It's adding to what I am doing. It's adding to what I am building. I can think about how people said you're never going to make it. Or I can think about, I mean, i've had people tell me all kinds of crazy shit i remember when i was bench pressing people were like oh with that form you'll never

bench 600 pounds and then i benched 600 pounds right in their face and 700 pounds right in their face and 800 pounds right in their face and defeated every single person that that guy had in his gym and just like completely destroyed them by hundreds of pounds. And so you want, it's a good thing. These things that seem like they're negative can really be positive fuel. I liked what David Goggin said. He said, Roger that. It's like, okay, that registered. I understand.

But he's basically saying, fuck you. You know, he's basically saying fuck you you know he's basically saying hey like okay i i not only did i get that but that's going to come back and bite you in the ass don't ever talk about me that way and that's that's what you want to try to do um i saw the uh the queen movie uh recently um uh bohemian rap city about the band queen and man that was that was freaking awesome but i i've always loved their music but i i just don't even think i had any clue on how i mean i still don't think i fully understand how talented they really were but uh you know one of the one of the sayings and one and one of the songs you know they we are the champions they say no time for losers which i think is great because yeah you are the byproduct of who you hang around but also in that same song

he says i consider a challenge uh from the whole human race to prove that i ain't gonna lose like i i love that you know and that's that's what your day. Like, I, I love that, you know, and that's, that's what your day to day should be like you. Yeah. You're, and it's not, it's not really for anybody else.

It just feels like that. It feels like you're going to like, uh, you know, get in the end zone and spike, spike the, uh, the ball in,

in, in your opponent's face. But really is your, your, your opponent doesn't care. And they put, there's not really an opponent there. It like it's just uh it's a mindset that you get wrapped up in um the same thing with when you're lifting you're thinking about like people who said you can't people don't really care whether you make it or don't make it that's kind of interesting thing

on why even people bother to be so negative sometimes but that's just uh that's just the way it goes i guess there's not a community there's not like a weekly meeting a round table of people just going over how i'm gonna miss the next lift like that doesn't that's not a thing i could have swore they are against me you know but i guess they're not there and it's kind of stuff we all make up in our head. Yeah. But I mean, it is good fuel though. Yeah, no, it is.

It is. It is good fuel. And, and, uh, you know, you could, for you, you could think about like, you know, people, people said you're scrawny or people said you're skinny or like, man, that guy's tall and lanky. Like he's not going to make this use that stuff for fuel. You know, you can, people, we all, we all have, uh, you know, fuel that we can use. And we've all had negative and hurtful things, uh, said about us and said to us.

But the cool thing is, is when you lift, you can kind of iron those things out and you can, you can, uh, you can make it a positive thing by, by proving to yourself that you can do it. And then also too, I mean, you don't have to go that route with your lifting. You can go more positive and you can kind of give yourself positive reinforcement. Um, another way, another route that you can go is like, rather than thinking of some of these external things, you can think about more internal things and think about the last time that you missed a bench press and how, when you're doing your tricep work that

you're doing your homework, this is the work that's going to get me to that bigger bench press. And I want it. I I'm here. I'm present. I'm working hard. And, uh, this is the exercise that's going to get me there. And, uh, I'm going to give it everything I got. I'm not going to be done until my triceps blow out. And those are the kinds of things that you want to have going through your head. You know, the last time you missed a heavy deadlift and, uh, let's say your grip, you know, you lost your grip at the top. I remember being at Westside barbell and, uh, Chuck Vogelpool, he's pacing back and forth like a madman doing grip work, going from one grip exercise to another.

I was like, man, I said i said chuck i never seen anybody uh train a grip like that and uh he said i lost the meat because of it and that'll never happen again he just walked away and went back to doing his like he was doing high rep shrugs and then in between that he was doing this gripper machine and i was just like whoa okay like i i get it that makes sense. Okay. And, but that, but you can tell he didn't have to think about what he said. He, he, he wasn't like, oh, well, you know, the grip is, you know, this is how you train it.

And like, he didn't have to think about any of that. He, he just knew that he lost a meet cause he lost his grip on something one time. And he was just never going to allow that to happen again. And the way that he was going to make sure that never happened again was by working hard. Um, as I pointed out many times before, I cannot sell you on that. This stuff is going to be comfortable. Um, it can kind of start out as being fairly comfortable and it can kind of start out as being fairly easy, but as it gets to be harder, it will feel harder.

And as it gets to be more complicated, it will be more complicated. And there'll just be more at stake all the time. There'll be more stress. There'll be more weight. There'll be more this, more that. And you'll, you'll, you know, people don't think that you get sore anymore. It's like, well, it takes more to get sore. and it's like well it takes more to get sore but by the time you figure all that out by the time you figure out how to even get yourself to be sore anymore uh you may have made yourself really sore

because things uh because you find ways of making things more challenging for yourself and you find things to you know ways of making things a little bit harder. And that is what I, I feel I have been able to, uh, transfer over from the gym into my day-to-day life. And it's not anything great. It's not like a great, it's not like I'm, uh, it's like I'm out with these great feats, uh, every day. Um, but it's a little shit, like even just getting here today to the gym, I went to walk back to my car and I always park kind of far away anyway. So I get in like, you know, at least some walking. Um, I, I parked like five minutes away. So I figured five minutes there, five minutes back, that's a

10 minute walk. But then I also usually go a longer route even to get to the coffee shop that I'm going to or wherever it is I'm going. Well, today I was like, you know what, let's just, shop that I'm going to or wherever I'm going. Well, today I was like, you know what, let's just, let's just develop a new habit that, um, you know, regardless of, uh, time constraints, we're, we're going to make time for this. And what I'm going to do is I'm just going to, I'm going to deliberately walk away from the car for a few blocks and then walk back towards it. And so that's what I did. And, uh, you know, I did that today and I've done it in the past before, but I, today I specifically said like, just do it. And so not only did I, did I just do it, but I, I had that second of a hesitation where

I was like, no, I, I told Andrew, I was going to be at the gym, the podcast. And I was like, nope. Overriding that boom walk. And I just, I just started walking as fast as i could handle because i'm like if i sit around here i'm gonna talk myself out of it and be like and it's like no this is what you're doing and it's gonna take you an extra 90 seconds it's not the reason that you're late you're late because you were taking too long doing other stuff right and so you know take that take that uh that advice that comes from within take that advice from yourself and fucking run with it

bitch what you got and you got poop no it's it's definitely coming out the other side. Oh, no. Yeah. Hey, now. Yeah. So, again, apologies, everyone on the live chat. It wasn't too active today. What's up with the podcast from yesterday? Where's that going?

iTunes. Yeah. So, the Sean Baker and Lane Norton debate is up on iTunes today. You guys can go back and watch that on the youtubes um and then the david goggins premiered david goggins interview premiered this morning it was really really cool uh we had a bunch of people that checked in it was kind of like a pre-recorded live feed uh we had just a bunch of people listening and watching with me this morning at 6 a.m it was it was just it was awesome turnout. Uh,

so that's available right now on the YouTubes and that'll be available tomorrow on the iTunes. Yeah. And that was a great opportunity that David, uh, Goggins gave us, uh, to,

to be able to interview him. It was untraditional, but you know, we said, we said yes to it because we're like, you know what? We just, we don't care.

We just want you on the podcast and we'll do it whatever way we can. And that's also another lesson wrapped in there is like, sometimes that's the way life is. Like you can't, you're not always going to get your way the exact way that you think. And a lot of times when you don't get your way the exact way that you think it still still works out to be pretty good. So that, that podcast actually was one of my favorites um not really not necessarily just the content of it but the fact that we had to we had to handle

it in kind of an unconventional way and it ended up coming out uh so good uh it's proof to me that we can do other podcasts like that so it took somebody like david goggins and how fitting for it to be him to show us that hey you, you could do it right away. Of course, of course it would be Goggins. Yeah. It's gotta be him. So, you know,

check, uh, you're going to see a lot of other stuff come out from that, uh, one single podcast. Cause there are a lot of gems in there. Um, and you guys,

you guys should definitely, definitely check it out when it pops up on iTunes tomorrow and a great debate from Baker and, uh, and Lane Norton. And, you know, any advice you guys from Baker and, uh, and Lane Norton. And, you know, any advice you guys have for us, uh, keep it to yourselves, any, uh, any advice for us, um, you know, stick it, stick it on the YouTubes there or, um, or, or hit us up with a, uh, a DM on Instagram power project, Mark Bell's power project on Instagram.

Um, slide into the DMS, let us know, like, who, who do you want to see? And, um, you know, it might be good to do, uh, more guests that, uh, might be in debate of each other. It might be good to get, uh, um, you know, who knows, get some politics on here or something. I don't know. Get some people that have way different vantage points on lifting. Maybe, uh, you know, one guy is, you know, thinks you should squat every day. And maybe one guy thinks he used to squat once every other week, but, uh, let us know

what you think. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. Andrew and I really appreciate you guys. Uh, if you like this podcast, share it with somebody that will give a damn and, uh, keep helping us pass on this message. This is Mark Bell's power project project that's all the time we got for today strength is never weakness weakness is never strength catch you guys later