Mark Bell's Power Project - Power Project EP. 76 - Maddy Forberg

Episode Date: June 25, 2018

Maddy Forberg is a 57kg (125lbs) powerlifter, a USA Powerlifting coach and a nursing student. Her best lifts are 315lb squat, 180lb bench, and 338lb deadlift. Rewatch this episode's live stream: https://youtu.be/ZOHPcLLrBLc ➢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

How loud? Wow. Microphone messed up my voice. Wow. I thought you were going to say it's too loud. Oh my God. No. I still sound fat.

If that's a certain sound, I think I have that in my voice. I don't think you ever lose that. I'm always going to sound a little chunky. How is you for most of your life, right? I sound a little chubby. Everyone knows that, Mark. There we go. I think like that. There we go.

Now you look more professional. Am I the shortest to have been at this table? You're not the tallest. I was going to say, Chris Bell's pretty short. He is. He is. I think Andrew's just trying to knock him down another size even well because now he he talks about flying dutchmen like every post but when we were in colorado i told him about it

and he's like in and out it's not that good and i was like you just nailed his voice by the way i did a little worried about that thanks for so much. Thanks for the coffee, Jess. Yeah, appreciate it. Yeah, thanks, Jessica Smith. Jessica's sister just graduated from the police academy. She made a cop in Sacramento. I know. That's insane. Isn't that nuts? Good for her.

And she got engaged. All on the same day. It's a big day. That's too much. Yeah. That's like a world record or something. Yeah, for life events. Like, boom, boom, boom, got them down.

Man, I wouldn't want to be a cop. Not right now. You're in Chicago. That would be even the worst place to be a cop. Yeah, they get a bad rap. But Chicago, they call it, you know, Chi-Rack, so. You ever get in any street brawls out there? No, not. We've got

cornfields by us. Oh, okay. That's like the worst of it. You just got hillbillies oh okay is maddie short for medea no but i like that a lot madison madeline madeline three e's there's way too many i don't know what my mom was thinking she you know she she went to college later on in life so i don't really know what was going on before that so yeah it's m-a-d-e-l-e-i-n-e and are you somebody that gets like you got to like what i would do is i would get extremely mad and offended anytime anybody spells it wrong oh yeah even though it's impossible to figure out how to spell it right some of my family members still don't know how

to spell maddie so i just you can't ask for much these days. They're using T's aren't they? Yes. Like, you know, 21 years, it's never been that, but thanks for playing. Yeah. So last night I was watching Goliath with my wife. That's a Billy Bob Thornton series that's on Amazon. And, um, I made the mistake. I actually, maybe I, maybe it was on purpose because I got up and went and got something to drink and when i came back i switched from the black chair death to the red chair death the black chair death shouldn't even be called the black chair death because it doesn't actually kill you but the red chair death actually does kill you it's like it's a recliner that reclines like it probably shouldn't recline back as far as, I probably busted something in it a long time ago from when I was fatter.

And, uh, it reclines back super far. So the angle that you're on, you just, you don't have no chance. You're going to be done in like 15 minutes. And that's what happened. So you've had that since you were fat, Mark? Oh, yeah. Things went through a lot. Yeah, you definitely broke it

yeah yeah this chair is uh and my wife is getting these like fancy like movie theater seats i don't know she's always got all these plans you know somebody's got to make the money and then somebody's got to figure out a way to spend it oh right yeah i mean matt yesterday said you've got those really fancy toilets that clean your butt was Was that her suggestion or something that she needed for you? Did she have enough? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe I was just too messy. She's like, you need this. I'm tired of cleaning out those undies, I guess, you know? That became my obsession. Yeah. Yeah. I got excited about that one. I don't know where, I mean, I went to Japan like 15 or 20 years ago and I ran into some of that technology and I was like, this is amazing.

The Japanese are so much further ahead than we are. At least a lot cleaner. Yeah. And anyway, then something else, I don't know, popped up at some point and I was like, we got to figure this out. It's actually really just a toilet lid is all it is. And I was like, we got to figure this out. It's actually really just a toilet lid is all it is. So a lot of people think it's some sort of real fancy, crazy thing, but it, it's not that it's cheap, but it's, it's like 500 bucks or 250 bucks or something like that.

But it's just the lid. It's literally just a lid. Now the problem is you need to have electricity, uh, in your bathroom. Cause this thing needs to be like hooked up to something. So most people don't have an outlet that's like right by their toilet and so that that would be like the real cost because then it probably cost you i don't know 1200 bucks or something to get an electrician to come in there yeah it probably cost you a lot of time because if you can plug in your phone while you're taking a dump you'll just never leave well that's true i never even thought about that but

that outlet is like behind the toilet. That's dangerous. Yeah. You could just watch a movie there then. You could do all kinds of stuff there. Just sit there and hang out. But it's literally like taking your asshole to the car wash. How does it dry off though? Is there like a blow dryer in it too? There's a blow dryer. Yeah.

Mind blown. You guys did not see Maddie's eyes just light up. She might be too young for this conversation even. I was thinking about this morning. I was going to ask you and I was like, does he just drip? Like do you just have to like air dry it? Shake it out. It is pretty damn funny.

There's so many options on how you can like clean yourself and in different areas. There's like front, rear. areas there's like uh there's like front rear there's and then it can it can like go forward and backwards but then it can oscillate or it can pulsate so it's pretty invasive oh yeah you're in there making all kinds of amazing noises because the thing is like kind of loud too yeah just by walking by it it starts talking to you already that's what threw me off the first time why is it just like are you ready no like i mean it like it moves down take it down yeah. That's what threw me off the first time. Why? Is it just like, are you ready? No, I mean, it moves something. Sit down, take a dump.

Yeah, yeah. That's what it should say. He looked tired. Have a seat, take a shit. Take a load off. That poor thing. Yeah, it should definitely say all that.

But no, when you walk by it, it just automatically opens up. But automatically closes and automatically cleans itself up too. But what it doesn't do, and this is the big mistake is it doesn't automatically flush.

Oh. So you see a lot of, you know, you see a lot of, you see a lot of craziness in there. Cause I think everybody thinks that it flushes, but it doesn't. When you,

if you, if you, if you do like a courtesy flush midway through, which I even do just for myself, cause I don't want to be sitting in my own smelly shit, and you blast everything off and you clean it up, it looks like gunpowder. Like in the cartoons, like the little gunpowder they have piled up. It just looks like a little pile of gunpowder in the bottom

of the bowl. You're like, that's pretty impressive. Sounds like something you should just turn the lights off while you're in there. I probably should. Doesn't it have lights, though? I thought it... It does. It has a blue light that would be like something in a hot tub. And so in the middle of the night when you're trying to find the bathroom, it's amazing.

It just pops open. When you walk into the room, it pops open. And you're like, oh, yeah, there we go. So you have to select it to start cleaning you? If you woke up in the middle of the night, would it surprise you? No, no, it doesn't attack you. Okay. Yeah, no, it's not unsolicited.

It doesn't just go into the... Jeez. Yeah, it doesn't sodomize you out of nowhere. You don't join the hashtag Me Too movement as soon as you're done going to the bathroom. It does work, though. I mean, I've really put it to the test. I've checked with baby wipes and stuff, and it cleans you thoroughly. Let's put it that way.

Gets you all cleaned up. Aren't you glad you made it to this podcast? I am. I knew we were going to talk about poop. I've been ready for this. You've been saving up. Oh, yeah. You got some poop stories for us?

Well, like any power lifter, yeah. Of course I do. And I have no shame because, I mean, I've listened to this podcast forever. Do girls poop? Let's clear that up first. Do you really want me to break the news to you? No. Okay.

Don't tell us what we can't handle. Well, the same question, are moms girls? Has anyone? Yeah, I know. Are they? Do we know? My daughter says that to my wife all the time. She'll be like, you're a mom. You're not a girl. Yeah, what are you doing? Can't say that. If my wife says something pervy

or off color or a little weird, Quinn will look at her and she'll go, mom. Can't say that. Mom. Is she just like a young lady? Is she like a princess? Yeah. Well, we'll see.

She's only 10, so the jury's still out. Okay. She's still figuring it out. Yeah. Well, yeah. I mean, of course I've got poop stories and especially because, you know, I always heard Ed Cohen say like, well, you know, you just keep going. And he like pooped his pants during a set and just kept going. So I was like, you know, I don't care if that happens.

The first time, not the first time, but one of the first times I was like squatting heavy, I just got into powerlifting. I was like, well, you know, I'd always eaten clean. I hope your boyfriend knows about this situation because he's in the room now. Yeah. Well, you know, you learn from the best. But I was like, well, what do you eat as a powerlifter? You have to eat a lot of calories, protein. I'm going to get a burrito.

Good call. Not when you're squatting. What kind of burrito? Chipotle? No, it was our dining center at my college. So you already know it's just a bad choice. How much was it? Oh,

we have like a meal plan. So you just swipe in and you're ready to go. So probably not very much, but I now bring a pair of underwear and shorts with me every time I go to train. Cause you never know. You never know. You know,

I've made mistakes like that before. Yeah. You're thinking like, I need to, I go to train. Because you never know. You never know. You know? I've made mistakes like that before. Yeah. You're thinking like, I need to, I need this food. I need this food to, to stay strong. And then your stomach's just killing you while you're trying to work out. Do you try to put on a belt? Yeah. Trying to put on a belt for deadlift.

I remember that actually in a meet one time, I was really, really hungry and I was like, I can't really eat because I got to keep lifting. And so I was trying to eat and then I just got to a point where was really really hungry and i was like i can't really eat because i got to keep lifting and so i was trying to eat and then i just got to a point where i got really hungry and i think i ended up going for a burrito oh and then it was deadlift time and then it was no poop time you're done for it was it was just uh just it just when you go to put that belt on you go to cinch it on it just hurts your body Your body's like, please, just relax. How'd you get into powerlifting? How'd you get into this mess?

So I had worked at a commercial gym for a very long time in my hometown. Everyone there, you know, bodybuilders, trying to lose weight, trying to do this, kind of hating their body. And along came Kyle and one of our our other good friends and they were powerlifting there which i had no idea about they'd come in and i'd be like you guys hitting legs today and they're like well we've got this with chains and pauses and i was like that sounds like a sex thing i don't know i don't know what that is like count me in right and powerlifting is actually really funny because uh especially a powerlifter that starts to obtain some, I always feel like the need to kind of correct people.

Like, are you training legs? Like, no, I'm training my deadlift, which is different, right? It's the same, but it's different because the reason why it's different is that you're not focused in on, you know, getting this quad sweep or this quad pump. You're actually squatting. And then followed up after squatting is a bunch of stuff to make the squat better. Right. Exactly. Yeah. And they were just so happy like afterwards, obviously part of the thing,

you know, you're not like having a party all the time, but they were just so fulfilled. And it was so different to see that versus most of the people I saw at the gym that were like, I'll have to come back and I can't eat this. And I mean, it's just they were so miserable. And I was so tired of focusing on changing my body and hating myself and having that day in and day out that I had a lot of pride and I wanted to start powerlifting for a long time. I had always squatted, but never really benched or deadlifted. And in our first year of college, Kyle was like, well, how about you like try it with me and i was like i'm going to do that so it was just something that i really loved where it was just

focused on your ability and you know what you can do in your function of your body and that just i loved that it seems like a lot of a lot of women really like that aspect of it where it's like let me shift my focus uh let me not put everything I have into trying to be skinny. Let me just see what happens, and I try to be stronger. Let me try this thing where I'm going to try to be stronger and maybe more muscular. And then the result, you do get stronger. You do end up with more muscle.

You feel better about yourself, and a lot of times you end up looking better too. Right, right. And I feel like I've made so many mental gains with it too, because you have to be committed. You know, if you want to be a good powerlifter, you've got to put in the hours. You have to be dedicated. My nutrition hasn't always been the greatest, but I knew that I needed to fuel myself for workouts. And that helped too, because just my perspective changed so much just being in the sport. I remember going to my first powerlifting meet ever. I was trying to eat, you know, the best way that I thought. You know, I didn't know what I was doing.

I was kind of eating a little bit like a bodybuilder, I guess you'd say. But eating more carbs. I remember eating pasta and cereal and stuff. But I already knew a little bit about like sugar. And so I had like Cheerios and stuff instead of having like, you know, frosted flakes and things like that. But the week of the contest,

I remember like, you know, I'm going to have to eat, you know, and really fuel myself up for this competition. So I'm having like chicken breast and broccoli and rice. And for the most part, pretty healthy foods. I'm only like 12 or 13 years old and we're driving, uh, in, I lived in New York at the time.

And we're driving this power of the meat that was in white Plains, New York, which is kind of near New York city. And, uh, my brother's driving us and his friend is in the front seat and my brother and his friend are taking up the entire, you know, front of the car. They're both big, you know, big fucking guys. And this guy, Rob Constance, who was somebody I idolized as a kid, he was just so strong. There's a lot of people like that in my community, in my area. They were just, you know, these were guys that were deadlifting 700 pounds, bench pressing 500 pounds. Uh, they'd come in with their work boots on and their jeans. And they were just these hard nosed motherfuckers that could just throw down and lift heavy weights.

Uh, but anyway, Rob Constance, like, he's like, you know, he's like, I think this is a great day. He's like, this is your first day, you know, doing a powerlifting meet. He's like, this is awesome. He goes, we got to celebrate like powerlifters. And he pulls something out of his bag and he, and he like holds it up and he goes, these are sticky buns. He's like, these are the key factor right here. He's like, this is the key to power things. Like you got to eat big if you want to lift big.

And I was just thinking, man, that's like totally different than what I was trying to do. Like the whole last couple of weeks preparing for this contest. But who doesn't love that? The rest intervals in between sets. Oh yeah. It's like taking a nap basically when you're benching. You just lay there, you know? Yeah. You just take as long as you need. Yeah. Like that's what some coaches will even say, like, don't even worry about the rest interval, just take as long. And, you know, we've seen different ways of training over the years and there's different ways of getting uh getting a benefit you can have shorter rest periods and do more work in less time and there's a lot of things that you can do to to get stronger um what are some things that you've done to get stronger what are some like

you know maybe uh things that are a little bit uncommon, like obviously like three sets of three and fives to five. And those things are very common. People kind of know that just lift heavy. What are some things that you tried that you thought were effective that might be a little unconventional? Well, this past, like two months we've been doing, um, GP PP and, you know, recently hypertrophy. And I feel like that is, I hate it because I've never been somebody that wanted a pump and it was really uncomfortable, but it does work because you think about it, your muscles can only get so strong doing, you know, three by five and singles and doing all this and you need to grow. So I really hated doing farmer carries, but I feel like it helps

like doing different things. And farmer carries a bitch, isn like it helps like doing different things. And farmer carries a bitch, isn't it? Yeah. The second that you pick it up, you're just like, I just want to put it down. I just want to, I'm going to just blast through this. And then you walk a couple of feet and you're like, put it down, put it down, put it down. My hands hurt. Put it down, put it down. And you got to talk yourself out of it the entire time.

Yeah. So that's helped a lot, especially because now that I'm in, you know, really into the hypertrophy phase right now, I don't feel so out of breath and fat and like heavy. Like I can endure these sets of tens, which I'm doing right now that are terrible. Like eight rep maxes should not be a thing, but I'm doing those right now. Are you trying to have the rest interval be a little shorter or you're not too worried about that? We try. I mean, we did like every minute on the minute things when we were doing um like pharma carries and things like that um and that was that was beneficial we do try to keep the rest

times smaller with the eight rep max and things like that because you know you're just trying to build endurance be strong and be able to you know handle volume right yeah it's it's uh you know when we've had stan efforting here one of the first things that Stan taught us was, you know, having a condensed training window,, uh, bent over rows and a one arm dumbbell row. And for each one, you did four sets. It'd be 12 sets total. Well, if you took an hour to do that, that would yield a certain result and you can have a certain power output, uh, per every rep that you did and per every set that you did. But if you got through it in 30 minutes, um, you'd probably get a better result in terms of your hypertrophy because you would get a pump and you'd have to push through that pump. And that's a big part of hypertrophy is to kind of get that pump.

And then another thing that people don't realize that can come from that is you can get stronger, not just from the muscle size, but from your, your muscles will have to contract as hard as they possibly can. Uh, but it's in a fatigued state. Right. And so what that really does is you go back to, you mentioned Ed Cohn earlier, ask Ed Cohn how to fix anything. And the answer is always the same thing. He's got a couple exercises he really loves. So he'll throw those in there, but the answer is always the same thing. Reps, reps, reps, reps. So when you miss a rep, you got people out there like, man, I can't build up speed off the floor. I can't, uh, I can't hold it together in a deadlift. It becomes a two-part lift or the squat or whatever it is. Ed Cohn always goes back to, you need to hit some reps. Yeah. So you're finding a lot of value in that right now yeah especially because i like drilling it you know when you when you have sets of eight you can

work on your form every single time you know as opposed to having sets of three where you're like okay the first one was trash gonna work on it the second time then your third one you're like that was a little better but eight you're like okay well now i can drill this again and again and so yeah i think that's really valuable it's tough mentally because you're like okay well now i can drill this again and again and so yeah i think that's really valuable it's tough mentally because you're like you're like okay last set when i did eight my chest folded down on rep five i'm not gonna allow that to happen this time and then it happens again yeah you're like fuck i just want to do better at this shit and i can't and you just keep trying but it builds a lot of resolve.

I don't think people understand what lifting can really do for you. When you set out to do a set of 10 and you do the set of 10 and then the next set, your legs are pumped and you're tired and you do another set of 10. You tell yourself, okay, this is my last set. I got to do another set of 10 and you get another set of 10. It does a lot for your brain. It does a lot for, there's a lot of people nowadays that are really suffering from anxiety and depression. You got older people that don't get it. Older people are like, man, it's life's easier for people that are young right now. And you got young people going, no, it's not. Life's fucking crazy right now because things are going so fast.

So the amount of learning and the amount of information that will be available, heard some crazy stat the other day that said something to the effect of like what happens in the course of like 74 days is going to be what used to happen over the course of 150 years. Wow. Like that's hard to even like comprehend. Right. But I, I feel it's that way. So much stuff flashing in front of us all day long. How do you deal with like some anxiety? Like you must have like, you know, you have a social media following and I'm sure most

of your fans are pretty positive, but sometimes there's some asshole out there saying you look, you look like a dude or why are you getting so muscular? They, they're going to say dumb shit. How do you deal with some of this stuff? Well, it's taken a long time to get to that point because obviously social media has its influence and there's going to be positive, negative people, like you said, and it hurts at first when people aren't into what you're doing. But now when it gets to that point, you know, I'll talk to my friends if something, a comment really bums me out.

But I remind myself that I'm doing this for me, but also the people in my circle, they love it too. They're stoked about what I'm doing. I have my people, you know, whoever thousands people don't agree with it. That's okay. Like I've got people that have my back and that's what matters, you know, whoever thousands of people don't agree with it, that's okay. Like I've got people that have my back and that, that's what matters, you know? And I try to keep that perspective. And I try to tell people that too, like you find your people, you find your support system. And if something, something's wrong, you talk to them, you know, you be open with it. Or if a comment really rubs you the wrong way, or someone says something,

face it, look at it, understand why that bothers you. Cause maybe something is wrong. Maybe you are doing something wrong. Someone's talking about your form and you're upset about it. You know, there's, there's a point to those things. And you, I think with anxiety and depression, you have to face those things head on. And it's a lot easier to avoid it, you know, with depression with me personally, I'd gotten into a routine with depression and anxiety that just felt so comfortable where I was like, well, that's that time of my life where I'm depressed. And it was easier to sit with it and just be depressed than to look at myself and be like, why am I feeling like this? Like, why? Why do I have these thoughts going on? You know, and I think being introspective and again, facing things, looking at it and trying to evaluate what the problem is, what you need to do.

I think that's the hardest step you need to make, but the most important. There's, you know, there's different levels of it. You know, I think some people have some people have depression to the point where it's hard to comprehend their actions, hard to comprehend what they're going through. They might not even leave the house for a while. You know, other people are just kind of crippled by it for like a day or a half day. Like, I don't want to get out of bed. I don't feel like training.

I think that's really normal. We have like ups and downs. You can kind of just refer to it as that. Have you had real depression before? Yeah, I... Like, it's really crippling and limiting on what you can do? Yeah, I struggled for a really, really long time. Since I was like seven or eight years old,

it was like really tough for me. And I didn't really know much about it because when you're younger and even now, like you don't, nobody really knows depression or teaches you how to deal with it until it's really, really bad. So for years it was. Because it doesn't sound like much at first.

Right. You're like, everybody gets bummed out, buddy. You're like, oh, I'm depressed. And somebody will be like, oh, well, come over and hang out. It's like, oh, that doesn't really fix it. Yeah. Like I don't really. It doesn't really work that way.

Yeah. It's like I'm so upset I can't change my clothes right now. So I can't come over. And I got a lot of help, which I would recommend to anybody. I know therapy is so intimidating, but there's professionals for a reason. I can't go to my mom to have her fix everything in my brain. And so, yeah, I've had real depression. I think no matter what's going on in your life, if you're like a millionaire,

if you're whatever, people can struggle, you know, it's, yeah, it's hard, but yeah, no, I, I have really struggled with it and I've, it's taken me a lot to get through it and find what works and I still get bummed out, you know, here and there, but I've learned what works for me. And I know that powerlifting is really helpful because it's with school and with powerlifting together. You know, I have to keep my stuff together and I get really depressed when I when I try and let it go. You know, I don't stay on top of things. I get disorganized and sloppy. And I like I like routine and I like trying to be a machine sometimes and that might sound wrong but you know if I can't just sweep something under the rug in my life and expect everything to still go fine so if school is really hard for me I can't expect training to be great too you know I have to be able to keep everything together and understand you know I have to take care of myself and that comes first and the other things will be great, too. Me first, then those things.

From a mental standpoint, is your boyfriend a lot different than you? Yeah, he I used to always take a lot of things personally and I was really insecure. And Kyle is like he just he's able to brush things off his shoulder. He doesn't fucking care. No, no, he doesn't care. You know, I mean, it's just great. Like if a dude will hit on me, Kyle will laugh. Like he's, you know, self-assured and he's always been like that.

And it's not just because he's this big, strong guy. He's just, he knows it's all right. And like I said, like he knows his people have him in his life. He's got everything. Yeah, he knows his girlfriend's got a big butt. What's he supposed to do? Right.

What else can you ask for there? Just the way it goes. Life's fun. Yeah. You know, I feel that my wife and I have, uh, quote unquote rubbed off on each other a lot, you know, um, when it comes to personality, um, she's still, you know, concerned and worried about certain things. Um, but like I, you know, brought that level way down, uh, in her, uh, of what the way she used to be. Yeah. Um, she is somebody that puts full responsibility of everything, uh, on her, on her back, you know, and just thinks like, I'm going to, and then she'll get in situations where here and there where she'll be really frustrated with it.

It's hard to tell somebody that's like that. Well, hey, it's because you just, you know, you overloaded yourself. You know, I've heard somebody make a statement saying, you know, don't let your mouth overload your back. Like the things that you say and the things that you set up, you're overloading yourself with things. And why not maybe try to set things up in a different way so you can be less stressed out. Right. Instead of thinking like, I got to do it this way. Yeah.

This is the way I have to do it. But she's that way because at 10 years old, her dad passed away. Wow. That's terrible. She's that way because at 10 years old, her dad passed away. Wow. And so she took everything on her shoulders and she said, I need to figure out how to get school paid for. So she became a division one swimmer and got school paid for. She got a job. She did all these other things to make sure all while she's going to school, while she's swimming, she's making sure that like, I'm not going to ever let that control be taken over by anybody else. Right.

And so it doesn't matter what we're talking about. We're talking about the dishes, the laundry, bringing the kids to school. She has that mentality. Your story is a little similar, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I lost my dad when I was four too, but you know, you're, that's four years old.

This is pretty young. But the summer after that, my sister got in an accident in our neighborhood. She was crossing the street. And in our neighborhood, you know, people have boats and they park them out by the mailbox in the summertime. And Taylor was 11 years old. She was crossing the street and she looked both ways. She's just going to the cul-de-sac, you know. And since the boat was there, she couldn't see to her left and she was hit by a neighbor that was driving through.

Oh my God. Yeah, and so that was the summer after my dad passed away. And so that was especially hard on my family. But my older brother, he's nine years older than me, sounds like your wife because at that age, he was just like, all right, well, I'm going to be the man. I'm going to do everything. And even now, he's 30 years old, and he's got the life that he's always wanted.

He's a financial guy. He's got everything in that box, and that's great. But, yeah, when you go through trauma like that, it kind of defines you, and you have to be able to pull through it for sure. But I've always said the best way out of something is through it you can't dance around it like I have of course have issues because of that but I got to see my mom rise to be this incredible woman because you know who can go through that in such a short period of time you know you think tragedy happens and you're like okay well maybe I got 10 years until something

else really bad happens you know like but she was boom, boom, back, back and back. So that was just really inspirational to see strength in that way. And so that's helped me too with powerlifting and the things that I've struggled with this because, well, I like, I wanted to be strong, you know, like my mom, like, you know, my brother, they, they took these things on and they managed and they got through it. And powerlifting is like a physical version of that. And I liked that I could make strength from myself. I could do that. And I thought that if I can do that, I can apply that to everything else in my life. You know, you don't have to be born strong.

You can make it. You can train it. It's not going to be easy. You're going to fail a lot. But that's helped me with, you know, anything that I've struggled with, depression or I struggled with an eating disorder for a little while. And that's helped me in these bad times because I can make strength like I can squat 300 dang pounds. Yeah, I can. I can get through it if I'm a little bummed out, you know. And so I like that perspective with strength and struggle. Yeah. It's kind of an amazing thing. Cause I think that a lot of times people don't realize that you can make anything. Yeah. You can make, you can make, uh, you can make yourself into

something in particular, you can make yourself go towards something. You can, uh, you can build your willpower. You can build your drive. You see someone like The Rock or you see some of these people that are just kicking ass on social media and people scratch their head and like, I don't, it's just day in and day out. The fuck?

Gary Vaynerchuk. It's like, how the hell? It's like you almost want to turn him off because he's too loud, talks too fast and he's too in your face, right? But it's just because that's what they built. They built themselves into that. They didn't start out that way.

Um, maybe their starting point was further ahead than most. Right. That's probably something to, to consider. But, uh, you know, over time they, they built themselves and they made themselves that way. And I do think that when it comes to kids and it comes to, you know, seeing how they evolve, uh, from being young and to getting older and stuff, uh, it's amazing that there's no like wrong or white while there's some wrong ways, I guess, but there's a, there's no like deliberate set of rules or way to raise a kid, especially to raise a kid to be successful.

Because my brother did a film a while back called Trophy Kids, and it was about parents that were obsessed with having their kids be the best. And they spent all this money on these coaches and did all these things. They got the best, you know, golfing coach or the best, whatever they wanted their kid to be great at. They'd spend thousands and thousands of dollars on it. They wanted their kid to be great at. They'd spend thousands and thousands of dollars on it. The best athletes in the world, most of them have had their parents just look at them, turn around and walk out the door.

That's like Shaquille O'Neal was like that. Marshall Falk. I mean, there's a list of hundreds and hundreds of great, not just athletes, but people in general who have had a loss of some sort. That's like Joe Rogan. Joe Rogan, he doesn't, I don't, I think his dad, you know, walked out on his family when he was like six. That's different than having someone pass away. Right. But it is one of these things that you have to figure out.

How do I, how do I pick up the pieces? Right. Yeah. I think that's the truest thing is, you know, everyone's got different cards dealt, you know, and they may be really good for a while. It's like, you know, your friends, you're like, everything's always going great for you. Unfortunately, everyone's going to struggle and they're going to have to find a way to pull themselves through. For me, it was really young when that happened, but I've got the capability

to do it now. And that's, that's something that when that happened, but I've got the capability to do it now. And that's, that's something that I actually remind myself when I'm lifting, like at a, at a, at a competition, if I'm really nervous. Oh, it's my sister. I actually have a really good story about her. Yeah. What's the, well, what's the deal with your sister? She said, you said she got hit by a car. She, she's still alive. She's still alive. Yeah. She was in a coma for a while. She broke pretty much everything in her body. Then she ruptured her spleen, had all these infections. And they really didn't think she was going to make it.

And if she did, she was not going to really be a person, you know. And she was a lot stronger than that. She surprised pretty much everybody, you know. You go through something like that. So she kind of, she has a traumatic brain injury is what it's technically called. And she has a personality of like a toddler, but she's always smiling.

You know, kids are so happy and innocent. Even though it's tragic, is that fun sometimes? Oh my God, it is hilarious. Taylor is, she's the funniest person I know, and she rocks it. She's never upset. I mean, honestly, I wish I could be a kid my whole life. I know. Have some of that mentality. Yeah, I'm so thankful that, obviously, having that accident happen was tragic, and I wouldn't wish it on anybody, but I'm glad that Taylor came out of it this way because she's just so pure

and just hilarious. We, um, one of my, my second powerlifting competition, my mom brought my sister to it and Taylor, first of all, she had to relearn how to walk, talk. She couldn't hold her head up. She, it was, it was bad, man. She just looked, she was in terrible shape. So it took a really long time to get her to walk again because her legs were broken and then they were atrophied from being bedridden for so long. So her walking is huge. She wears these like braces on her legs to walk. Forrest Gump style. Yeah, pretty much. And she, I mean, she has to get Botox sometimes because those muscles, you know.

talk sometimes because those muscles you know but um so she came to my my second powerlifting competition ever and she was in the crowd and i was going to get my rack height for the the monolith and so i walk up there i walk the bar out i do like a squat get up and taylor comes like barreling forward with her legs like flopping around and she she's like, yeah, Maddie. Yeah. She's just, I was like, I was just getting my rack height. But Taylor loved it. That's awesome. So, yeah, I like to think of that all the time. Because like Taylor would just be happy that I've got the bar near me. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's great. Yeah. She's a good person to have around. She's just great. She was dancing up a storm in that video. Oh, yeah. Taylor knows every song on the radio. Does she really?

I don't know how she does, but she knows every song. She'll sing it. She dances. She's just. How old is she now? She's a hoot. She's 27 now. 26, actually.

Yeah. And is there any hope for further improvements on her? Do you think she's kind of just has reached where she's going to be? Or is there technology that could maybe assist not not so much um for the most part she's going to be this way um but there are some behavior things that you know through therapy she'll get better at and maybe some like muscle functioning she's pretty bad at writing um but she also hates writing because it's hard. So, yeah, like, things like that, you know, and behaviors that she has. Like, she has, like, pretty much no frontal lobe. And if you know anything about the brain, that's, like, impulsivity and, you know, decision-making.

And so she, first of all, has no memory ever. She forgets everything within, like, an hour. But she, like, licks things often. And it's a really strange thing. Or she'll like pull on someone's like shirt. She's literally like a little kid. My kids used to pull on my shirt all the time. It would drive me nuts.

Or like we'll be in church. Well, my mom and sister will be in church and she'll pull my mom's shirt up and like show her underwear. My mom's like, I don't know. But like things like that might get better. I want to start doing that to people. That sounds great. It's the brain thing.

Sorry about it. What kind of work are you doing with the Special Olympics? That was awesome. Did you get to see that at all on Instagram? Okay, so our town had... Yeah, can you show the video of the guy? Dude, that guy totally out-angled you. Yeah, I know.

Jacked. There was a powerlifting meet near us. It was like the whole Special Olympics in our town. Have you ever done anything like that before? Yeah. Well, my sister's done like Special Olympics things, but in high school, Kyle and I were both adaptive PE leaders, which meant that we had an individual student that we worked with in gym

class and we helped them, you know, do any kind of training, whatever things that they could, but they just needed a buddy. So we did that. And for a couple of years, there was also in a club where it was like best buddies kind of thing where you hang out and you do crafts. And that was really awesome. I love doing that, but it was, you know, it's been a little while since I was able to be And that was really awesome. I love doing that. But it was, you know, it's been a little while since I was able to be in that kind of community. So the Special Olympics, that was last weekend. It was just so much fun because it was just pure joy with lifting.

You know, you go to a meet and people are like disappointed sometimes or like swearing or crying. These kids were just so stoked. This girl failed her bench, got up and goes, that's how you do it, son. That's how you do it, son. That's how you do it, son. That's great. Was the video on your Instagram? Yeah. It's in the one with us flexing.

Oh, it's like a part of that one. Yeah. Swiper. Yeah. Next one. There we go. Yeah. You have to watch this guy being so stoked about it.

Yeah, you have to watch this guy being so stoked about it. The rules were a little different in this powerlifting event. He was just so excited the whole time. That's great. It's hard to lose your inhibition and just to like allow yourself to be that way. And I think when you see people like that, you know, they're in some really unfortunate and compromised positions, but it's great that they can be that way. Right. It's like, man, I wish I had some of that.

Yeah. I wish I didn't care about the reaction I got if I was to, you know, fucking dance on top of the bench or something crazy. Right. It would be nice. It was refreshing to be around that where I was like, people are just happy to be here, you know, fucking dance on top of the bench or something crazy, right? It would be nice. It was refreshing to be around that where I was like, people are just happy to be here, you know? And I like to be more like that with my training. And it's just, you know, it's not always so serious. And you think about powerlifting, you're like, well, I like how Matt always puts it. Matt's like, I'm just throwing rocks in a field and people thought I was pretty good at it.

And I'm like, he always calls it like fake um, fake work, like lifting weights is fake work. Yeah. That's a good way to think of it. Like we get so in our heads and we want to be this and we want to. It's a, yeah, it's, it's artificial exercise because we don't move around as much as we used to and we need to figure out ways of, uh, strengthening ourselves and putting ourselves through hard work. And we don't, we choose not to use a shovel and a hammer and all these different things.

And so we got to go to a gym and pick up a bunch of stuff that's made for us to lift, you know. And then we get all grumpy about it, which is weird because it's supposed to be this thing that it's supposed to be a, really it's a luxury. Yeah. We have the choice to do this and we've chosen to go to the gym. Everything's designed for you to pick it up. Right. Like it's not designed for you not to pick it up because if it was then it would be that much harder and no one would want it.

There's already enough people that don't want to do it. Right. There'd be more people that don't want to do it. Yeah, I like going to that because it just helps remind me that it is for fun. It is a choice that I've decided to do power it was, it just helped remind me that, you know, it is for fun. It is a choice that I've decided to do powerlifting and it's tough,

but I've decided to do it. I could be doing something else if I really didn't like it. Kyle always says that. Like if I like start having a temper tantrum, he's like, well, why don't you just quit? And I'm like,

I'm not going to quit. It's a, it's a great, it's a great way to put it though. Right? Yeah. You don't like it so much. Well then don't do it. Yeah. You don't have to, you don't have to put it though right yeah you don't like it so much well then don't do it yeah you don't have to you don't have to do it why are you doing it why why

are you pissed why are you grumpy yeah right yeah and then i just get back up and do the next set you know and they're like oh yeah no i want to do this yeah i'm mad about it but are are there is there a lot of curiosity uh about your dad that you had to go through? I mean, you said you lost him at four. So are you like, who the fuck was he? Like, you know? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, when you.

Yeah, I didn't know him. And so, yeah, of course, very, very curious. But we do have pictures. And yeah, look at that mustache. Awesome. And he wore this like gold chain. I just was always told that he's like a super guido. And, you know, just a really nice guy.

He's a jokester. He liked his... How did he pass? He was in a car accident. Oh, man. Yeah, so it was pretty sudden. You know, it wasn't really something, you know, anybody's expecting. But...

Do you remember that at all? I mean, you're're four so maybe not i don't know i have some memories of like us dancing around like he got me to try mayonnaise once and then mustard and like the same day and that i remember that and i didn't like mustard but he really liked it so i was like all right i guess i'll mustard now. But not much else. I mean, I remember when he died because, you know, your whole family, his whole family, he had like seven brothers and sisters.

So they were all there in the morning. You know, and that doesn't happen as a kid, you know, just on a random day that your whole family's there. I was watching Ed, Ed and Eddie. My mom kind of was like, go watch this cartoon show. But yeah, I mean, I remember that.

We have, like, some memories that I still hold on to. And it's, like, just real brief. Like, just, oh, gosh. Just, like, him bouncing me up and down. And that's really it. They're all, like, super young. So it's not like we had like an intellectual discussion. But I mean, I remember his face and his laugh.

And like a couple of weeks ago, I was at a gas station filling my tires and I smelled his cologne. And that like really shook me because I'm four years old. They're like, that was four years old when that happened. And to remember something like that. I don't know. I mean, you've lost people have you you ever like smell something and you're like oh god yeah there's all kinds of things like that happen all the time they just hits you out of nowhere and you're next thing you know you're balling you're like fuck what happened i mean i just got

sideswiped by something i wasn't uh prepared for but i mean those moments happen you gotta just you gotta just let them yeah you gotta just let them be the way they are. And, uh, you know, I, I still have people that ask me questions about my brother, which that's always totally fine, but they'll ask, sometimes people don't know and they'll say, oh, like, cause they saw bigger, stronger, faster. And they'll be like, oh, how's, you know, how's Chris? I'm like, oh, he's doing really good. And then they're like, how's Mike? And I'm just like, I don't even, you know, a lot of times, like if it's at a trade show or something and it's kind of in passing, I'll just say good. And I leave it at that because it's just too hard to explain. It's too hard for me to go from like meet and greet and be all fired up and be all excited to meet all these people to going in.

And right now, if someone comes to me like with a question, though, about like, you know, my brother was addicted to drugs and stuff. Somebody asked me a question that's in those regards. And that's easier for me to kind of like, you know, swerve and dive into. But, you know, when it hits you out of nowhere, you're like, holy shit. Right. Is that something you're open to talking about with people? Yeah, I talk about it all the time. Yeah. Yeah. I think, you know, why not? I mean, you need to talk about.

You need to talk about losses. Right. You need to talk about, uh, you need to talk about mental health. My brother was mentally ill. He was depressed. He was, um, you know, probably the worst thing I ever did was try to apply rational thought to him. He was an irrational person that he wasn't, you know, he just wasn't, you know, quote unquote, right in the head. He didn't, he didn't know how to make the right choices and whether that's driven from drugs or whether it was driven from being bipolar or whatever, it doesn't really matter. You know, it just matters how you deal with it. And the end result is what matters. And how do you, how do people cope with things? How do they, how do they move on? How do they help people? Right. I've, I've always been the person that struggled with that. So I haven't been like the family member to something like that. Is there advice that you'd give to family members that have? Well, I mean, yeah, rule number one is, so, you know, I always think that people should get help.

Right. And I think the people that, the people that, the problem with getting some sort of help is the people that are the most resistant to it won't usually be open to it. Right. It's kind of like I mentioned the other day on this podcast, the guy that doesn't need the egg whites is the guy shopping for the egg whites. And the guy who doesn't need the croissant and the donut is the guy buying it, right? Yeah. People are very resistant to going to get help, but I think a lot of people could use some sort of therapy. And if you don't want to get therapy,

I think it's just important just to communicate about stuff anyway. Just talk about it. If you have somebody that has depression or if you have somebody that is, you know, on drugs of any kind, I think it's good for the, you don't have to go to a therapist. You know, you can just get the family around and you can just start to talk about it, start to communicate about it. Because what happens in those situations is that person is really draining. You know, my brother financially, emotionally, just you name it, he was a real drain on the family family that's where all the energy went

and if you look at parents you know where does their energy go towards and then there's a lot of resentment from the other children like why why do you always why are you always paying attention to maddie or why are you always paying attention to him or her right right and it's like well they they just i'm sorry i don't love them more but they just need more help yeah you know sometimes a parent might at some point view a child as being as being almost helpless in some way and so they'll bail them out of every situation my brother was definitely uh that way my parents are like they're overwhelming like they're amazing but they're also like over the top like they they love you so much they can't help but over help you

right and so they're going to be enabling too like they just they don't know how to parent any other way than to just show you tons of love and affection sometimes that's with food and money and like whatever else they can uh and time and time. I mean, they're, they're always there for everything too. So it wasn't like they're just trying to chuck money at stuff, but they, they, they were always, uh, they were always around. And I think that in some cases, if you're able to do it, uh, tough love would be probably the strongest ingredient to fight against some of these things, whether it's, you know, someone being bipolar or drug addicted. Um, because those people, even though their reality is a little different than everybody else's, there's still a reality. There's still life that needs to be lived and you need to

figure out how the hell do you get through all this stuff. Right. And so that's, I mean, that would be the main thing is just some sort of open line of communication. And it's really hard to talk about some stuff. You know, it's hard to, it's, people are very resistant to being changed. What I've seen over the years, people are very resistant to being changed, but people aren't that resistant to changes. They're not that resistant to changes, especially when they know they're in trouble. So if you had somebody that was, you know, if you know someone that's depressed, you know, someone that's down,

it would be a great idea to go to them and say, Hey, I just, I'm worried about you. Yeah. I think for me and, you know, when, when depression comes in comes, what I found to be the best is first being cognizant, knowing that this is going on. But even though I don't have all the answers figured out to how to deal, I'll tell Kyle, I don't know what I need from you right now, but I need you to know this is going on. And I know that, Kyle, you're not an expert expert in depression and I'm not asking you to be that. But I just want you to know that I'm really struggling. So, like, if you could have my back right now, I need that. I think that's what I would tell other people that are struggling. Well, he's going to give you the best advice because he knows you the best.

Right. And he might just say something simple like, okay, let's, why don't you just shut your phone off and just not have that for today? Right. You know, and you're like, but I, okay, you're right. Yeah. And you got to trust the people around you. Just a little, that little thing, maybe that, maybe that opens up another door for you to just concentrate on yourself for the day.

Hey, you know what? No gym for the next two days. And you'll be like, almost like a nervous wreck. Like, it doesn't make any sense. I love going to the gym. No gym for the next two days. And you'll be like, almost like a nervous wreck. Like, it doesn't make any sense. I love going to the gym. No gym for the next two days. Hang out. Spend some extra time with yourself,

which sounds kind of funny. But you need that, right? To be able to think things through. I mean, when it's easy to be motionless and just go through everything in a phase,

your routine, you're going to the gym. You're like, I've got three sets of squats. I'm going to do that. And then two hours go by and then you go to bed in a phase, your routine, you're going to the gym. You're like, I've got three sets of squats. I'm going to do that. And then two hours go by and then you go to bed, you know? And you end up doing the same thing every day.

Yeah. And you don't realize it. Yeah. So just really being cognizant. This is success. This is, this is it. This is because I'm making progress,

but then there's progress, but there's no fulfillment. Right. And then you're, you're missing out on the most important thing, which is to have fulfillment. I mean, if you don't have that, you're going to be really missing out. Because just improving is great. Looking better, being stronger, all those things will make you feel better.

But if you're not kind of stopping to smell the roses, you're not stopping to enjoy it. You know, you hear people all the time talk about the journey. The journey to get there is the most important thing because there is not a destination that you're actually trying to go to. It's fake. Success is like it's not, there's not a stop. You know, you're not like, oh, I'm there. Cool.

Oh, cool. Like there's Jay-Z. What's up? You know, like it's not at your, you don't ever get to a point and then it's like, okay, cool. Like there's Jay-Z. What's up? You know, like it's not at your, you don't ever get to a point and then it's like, okay, cool. Shutting it down. It's all, you know, kind of a peripheral stuff that's made up in your head. And so I think just like you said, I think you nailed it right on the head. It's just being aware. Right. And I think a lot of people are also afraid to talk about depression with people

around them because they don't want people to know that they're struggling. Like they want everyone to think they've got it kept together. Yeah. And I always like when Matt says that there's no limit on success in the world. It's not like I'm taking like if I'm doing well, I'm taking all of yours. And so that's something that I tell people. It's actually not true. There's only so much success.

Don't be stealing my thunder. Okay. All right. Well, I'll quit. Okay, only so much success. Don't be stealing my thunder. Okay. All right. Well, I'll quit. Okay, good. Thank you. Yeah, no, but I think that that's really important too, is like, you just understand that even if you tell somebody you're, you're not doing great right now, it's not like they're like, wow, okay. You just, you blew it. You know, you're not going to be this great power lifter because you're having a rough day or going through a rough time. It's not like it's the end, you know, you're still going to be this great power lifter because you're having a rough day or going through a rough time. It's not like it's the end. You're still going to be able to move forward in your life if you deal with things first. I think we have to be careful, too, with the advice.

And I like that you mentioned several times, like, I'm not an expert. He's not an expert. We do need to recognize and understand that great information can come from other people. But we also do need to recognize that advice from people that aren't experts could be destructive in some ways. And I think sometimes you'll hear something from somebody and you might take it the wrong way. You might watch a C.T. Fletcher video. Shout out to my boy, C.T. Fletcher.

You might take it the wrong way because you might be down and he might be telling you not to be a pussy anymore and to get up and go do the shit that you're supposed to do even though you don't want to do it he's not talking to people that have severe depression right he's just talking about the guy who's struggling for the day that doesn't want to work out yeah he's being lazy those those yeah being he's being lazy those are those are uh those are different things and um people have different views on it, but most people that have never been around depression before, have never been depressed themselves, they almost don't

believe in it. They don't think that mental illness is a thing. I mean, that's why there's so many homeless people on the streets. Those people aren't homeless because they desire to be homeless. Now, some people think that some people legitimately think they chose not to get a job. That's what they want to do. Now, there are some people that maybe there's some exceptions to the rule. Maybe there are a couple of people out there, but most, a large percentage of people that are homeless are mentally ill. They can't, they can't apply the rational thought of, you know what, I should just, you know, I should stop drinking or I should stop doing the other things that I'm doing. And I should just, I should get a job at Starbucks and I should do that every day so I have a home and I have a car.

They don't, they just don't think that way. They think differently. Yeah, depression and or mental illness in general and laziness are not synonymous. You know, it's, it's not one in the same and yeah, people that haven't been around it, I, I, it is frustrating, but you know, they don't choose it. It's not like people choose to be depressed for months and, you know, wither away and hate their lives. And it's not, you know, it's, it's, I guess, you know, harder to understand depression when people have had great lives and they have no reason to be depressed, but it's it's i guess you know harder to understand depression when people have had great lives and they have no reason to be depressed but it's just brain stuff you know

you chemically there doesn't have to be tragedy to have sadness you know yeah you have all right no say people without depression if they're just sad and then they're become unsad they're like look you can get over depression it's, well, you didn't actually experience depression. You just had a bad day. You had sadness, right. Yeah, you didn't have the fucking dark clouds over you for no reason. Right. So for them, it's hard to understand what it even feels like.

So it's hard. How are they going to give you advice on how to get out of something they just have no experience with? Yeah, I think that's a problem area too because a lot of people will just throw it around. They'll be like, oh, I have anxiety. And it's like, you're nervous for a test. Yeah. I have OCD. It's like, nah, dude, you just like patterns. Right. Yeah. You wash your hands when they're dirty, you know, not to say that, you know, I can judge you and tell you that you don't have a problem with anything, but yeah, I think with

depression, especially people are easy to throw it around when they've had a rough day and are quick to judge when people can't get it together when they've just had it, you know. I think some other sound advice too is, first of all, everyone needs to have perspective. Right. I don't know your life. You don't know mine, right? I don't know. I don't know how Andrew grew up. I don't know what his interaction with his parents were. I don't know how Kyle, right? I don't know how Kyle grew up. I don't know what his interaction with his parents were i don't know how is kyle right i don't know how kyle grew up i don't know how his interaction is with his parents and stuff and so if somebody that you you know somebody that you barely know tells you something or even if you do know them really well you may not know their history right maybe every time they've ever tried to pull themselves out of a slump maybe every time they've ever tried to pull themselves out of a slump, maybe every time they've ever asserted themselves or ever did good, they never got one fucking pat on the back.

They never got one hug. They never got, hey, that was a great job. You know what? You should keep doing that because that's really impressive. I'm proud of you. They never had anybody ever tell them that. So it's like you can't just throw out this blanket information and say, oh yeah, you should just snap out of it, dude. Like, you know, oh, you're depressed because you lost your girlfriend. But maybe

this person has like crazy relationship issues that you have no idea. Right. Just some deep rooted thing. You have no idea about, you know. Have you tried any like supplements like 5-HTP or anything like that to raise serotonin levels? I was on like medication for a while for depression, like SSRI. Can you pull your microphone like towards me a little bit almost? Like that? Yeah, there you go. Much better. I know.

Yeah, I was on like an SSRI serotonin, you know, and that was just for a little bit. I would recommend medication to anyone. First of all, like I said, being cognizant, you know, understanding where the issues lie and not just depending on medication. And I think it's a great resource, obviously, because, you know, I'm in nursing school. I can understand both sides, but I prefer not being on medication. I haven't tried the one that you said, but I've never heard of that, actually.

Yeah, it's just 5-HTP. It's just a precursor to serotonin to help raise your endorphins and whatnot. Over-the-counter stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Gotcha. Yeah, it's like not necessarily natural, but it's like naturally in our brain already. Right. So it just helps to amplify it.

It's like Onnit makes supplements that have 5-HTP. Is it tryptophan or something like that? Yeah, probably. Yeah. I was curious. I've tried those and I haven't really experienced anything, but I don't really have like too bad of an issue with that. Like I get anxiety just because I want like the podcast to be awesome. And sometimes that kind of, you know, that'll suck me into a dark place. Something that actually really helped me, and obviously not everybody, but I found out that I have ADHD. And so that, like, oh, that makes sense

because I would have anxiety because I couldn't get things done because I couldn't pay attention, you know? I actually always respected you because you always said you had a hard time in school. You know, you had to work a lot harder than everyone else. And I'm that person, you know? Just back to it. I always really admired you for saying that because no one always says that, you know, a lot of people are quick to be like, I'm successful,

I'm doing well. And they don't understand the struggle, but yeah, that, that helped me a lot is knowing, like finding out that I had ADHD and then dealing with that first. And that helps me with my anxiety and depression because I'm able to get everything done that I need to. Um, but I guess in, in that regard, like time management helps organization. Oh yeah. Big time. I think another, another place to start too with, uh, trying to handle any of this, anybody that's listening that, that is looking for advice. Um, start with the simple stuff. You know, are you getting enough sleep? I'm not saying that your sleep is going to cure some deep rooted depression that you have.

But if you're not getting enough sleep, I mean, that would be one of the first places I would start. I would start to figure out if you have depression, anxiety, you're just super nervous all the time about these different things. Start to look into trying to figure out a better sleep pattern and start to get into a routine. That's what they suggest for sleep is trying to find a routine. I think it's a must that everyone gets their phone out of the room when they go to bed. I don't think anybody should be on their phone in their bed ever. I think it's a must that everyone gets their phone out of their room when they go to bed. I don't think anybody should be on their phone in their bed ever. I think it's a good rule of thumb. Don't have your phone in your bedroom.

Keep it in your kitchen, charge it somewhere else. You know, put a bunch of different locks on there. So people can't dig through your text messages and DMs and see what a pervert you really are. But, uh, you know, keep, keep the phone, keep the phone out of your damn room so you can actually get a good night's rest. Um, in addition to that, what's your eating look like? Right.

You know, what does your food look like? Like we cannot deny the fact if our, if you can have, if you can eat a bowl of cereal and that bowl of cereal, the sugar that's in that cereal can increase the insulin in your body. You can tell your pancreas to release a lot of insulin. Then wouldn't it make sense that maybe our brain reacts in similar fashion to some of the foods that we're eating? So make sure you're getting enough sleep. Make sure you're eating well. Obviously, hydration always plays in there. Are you getting outside?

Are you doing anything for your, in addition to getting outside, but along with getting outside, are you doing anything for yourself every day? Like literally doing something for yourself. And then another thing I would throw in there that kind of goes along with that too is, is do you have any time to yourself? Right. I don't think really, I don't think really going to the gym, like lifting weights, I don't really think counts. That, that could be doing something for yourself. But in some weird way, it's almost like doing something to yourself. But being, being by yourself, I think is really critical. So you

guys are together. How long you guys have been together for? Almost four years. You've been together for four years, but who thought, whose thoughts do you go to bed with? Mine. Your own. You're still, you're still by yourself. It doesn't matter who you're with or how long you've been with them for. You know, I've been with my wife for almost 20 years. And it's not, we're very, very connected. We love each other very much. But I go to bed with my thoughts that keep me awake at night. She goes to bed with her thoughts that keep her awake at night.

All those things are, I think, really keys to examining if you really do have a deep-rooted issue with depression. If you can get your food right, your sleep right, you get some of these things on track and things are still all jacked up, then you have a very legitimate problem and you should definitely look into getting some help. Yeah, I mean, that's very well and true. Like you could be an energy issue, you know, like sleep and nutrition or evaluating if you have taken on too much. If your plate is too full and in trying to find where you need to step back or, you know, take a break from some things. God, that's hard, isn't it? Yeah. But what happens when you take a break? You could pick it up again.

I mean, that's. Well, not only do you pick it up again, but you pick it up again and then some, right? Right. That's, you know, that's helped me a lot. With my training, especially is because I know that I'm going to be stronger with this and I'm going to be more motivated to do better. You could lose some strength in a little bit, but it's not like you're going to forget how to completely squat. And if you take some time to yourself to feel better, get your energy right, and you're, you're doing well, you're happy, then you're

excited to train. You know, training is just more fulfilling and then it's going to go better automatically. So you have a whole Instagram highlight story dedicated to beer. Oh, yeah. What's your favorite beer? I really like sour beers. Sour beers. I'm kind of weird like that. Yeah.

Like we like IPAs and stuff and stuff like that. But I really like sour beers. Like a coffee-style beer that has a sour taste to it? Yeah, I mean, they're actually called sours. And they're tart and bitter. I like sour stuff. I wonder if I'd like some of that. Yeah.

But sour, how? I'm still trying to wrap my head around that. It's not like... Maybe I'll have to find one around here. Like a triple IPA or some stuff like that? Like I'm still trying to wrap my head around that. It's not like, maybe I'll have to find one around here. Like a triple IPA or some stuff like that. Kind of. I mean, it still tastes like an IPA, but it's just tart and like bitter kind of. It's not like sour like a sour candy.

Right. Is there any common like brands or whatever that would be defined as sour? Well, we've got one in Bloomington that's Distill. They make a sour beer it's there's not like a course like yeah yeah but yeah it's usually like breweries make them yeah i was telling mark a couple podcasts ago about uh putting uh orange slices in blue moon oh yeah that's so good it's so good do you drink beer are you too jacked and tanned for that? I don't really like beer that much.

I do like wine. In general, I guess I don't really like alcohol that much. I don't really like the taste of it that much. Obviously, the effect, you know, I kind of like the effect of it. So if I'm going to drink, I might even just have like vodka. Oh, okay. Just because it's like no calories and it's just straight to your brain and fucks you up for a little bit. And then I get, I get in and out of it, you know, the drink we had in Colorado.

What was that exactly? Oh yeah. That was a straight up, right? Yeah. That was a Tito's vodka with a twist of a lemon. Oh yeah. And if they refreshing. Yeah.

If they do it right, they just twist like the lemon peel and they put it in there and it's, it's, yeah, it tastes good. I mean, it's strong. Yeah. You'll knock your socks off,

but. You're not there to play games. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Come straight to it. Yeah, let's get right. Yeah, so I think the only times I've drank anything in the last. He bound it pretty good.

Probably like in the last six years has only been in an airport with Mark. Really? Is that a tradition? I don't know. It just happens. Yeah, we sometimes just celebrate. We're like, hey, this was a great week. This was a great...

Andrew and I were obviously madly in love with each other, too. It gets me loose before we get on the plane. you know mile high so the the plane is that's just not i don't it's not that loose not yet just like the thrill getting there pound town straight to pound on all aboard there you go smoky shout out to my boy smokyy. I did have a question for you since we were talking about it. Do you have times in your training where you're sick of it?

Have you had that in your life where you're like, you're going, you're going, you're going? What the fuck are you talking about? You are off the team. I'm the people's coach. I know. Why would you say something like that to me? But being the people's coach, that's a lot. I love the workout. No, of course.

I mean, yeah, you go through different phases. The easiest thing, though, is just to switch stuff up. You know, people are so obsessed with their programming all the time. It says I had to do four sets of six. I've been having so much fun lately training with uh ryan spencer in the mornings here at super training ryan is a very regimented person like he does this at seven o'clock he does this at nine o'clock he does this at 12 boom boom boom boom every day and he's very successful because of that and he gets all the things that he wants

out of life because of that which is a great way to live. Right. But you know, things need to be, you need some audibles, you know, things need to be, things need to just happen sometimes. So the other day we were squatting and I was like, I'm just going to put weight in a bar. Like, don't worry about it. And he was like, you could see like his eyes light up, like, this is not part of the plan. Like what's going on here. Um, but I'm like, let's just push it a little bit.

Like you've been doing these sets of six forever. Like it's just, you know, and he wanted to do like four sets of six with a certain weight and he has kind of short rest periods. And I'm like, let's just, let's just go for a big set of six. It's the same workout. Right. You know, if you were to write it out mathematically, the volume would be almost the same. So don't worry about it. It's almost the same thing. It's just slightly different, you know? So anyway, he, he went through it and, uh, you know, we did all the rest of the workout and everything else was the same. It's just like that one thing was audible a little bit. He's like, Hey man, thanks for, you know, thanks for making me do that. Like just that

one little thing was different. The key is to find the low hanging fruit. The low hanging fruit is change. Change. Variety. You know they say variety. Here I am missing 225. They say variety is. Is the spice of life right. And so you want to be able to mix things up. You want to be able to try some different things. At different points.

If you don't want to. If you don't want to work out for a day. And you're really stuck. Call somebody else up that, you know, has, there we go. Uh, call somebody else up that, you know, has a lot of energy that can help kind of pull you through that workout or just don't go to the fucking gym that day. And don't stress about it. It doesn't have to be a huge deal. Instead, say to yourself, going back to, you know, those six or seven things I rattled off earlier about being healthy. Think about what, what can I do that would be productive?

I can have fun. It's not the same thing, but maybe it's similar. Maybe you go for a run. Maybe you grab your boyfriend and say, let's go on a walk. Maybe, uh, maybe you don't do any of that. Maybe you say, Hey, let's go eat. The total opposite of what you were planning to do. let's go on a walk. Maybe, uh, maybe you don't do any of that. Maybe you say, Hey, let's go eat. Total opposite of what you were planning to do. Let's go get ice cream, something totally different.

And then the next day you're, you're recharged again, but you have to, you have to figure out a way to recharge your batteries and you have to figure out a way to stay excited. In my opinion, the only way to stay excited about all this stuff is to, is to go through some different time periods where you're doing different things. I think in terms of your food, in terms of your lifting, I was just recommending to one of the people that works here. She's lost about maybe 15, 20 pounds, and her body weight stuck a little bit. And I said, well, just—and she's using fasting. She's using a keto- style diet and all these things.

She already knows a lot of this stuff. And I said, have some days. So you have the days where you fast, have some days where you eat more. Have a day where instead of coming to the gym at seven, you go to your favorite breakfast spot and load up, but still keep it, still stay on the plan, still stay on the diet. You know, those kinds of things, as silly as it sounds, because it's still all related to fitness and still all related to the goal. Those things are just enough different to keep you, uh, to go, to go forward. The last thing, and probably one of the most important things, don't get fucking stuck. Right.

Don't get stuck in places that you don't want to be stuck don't get stuck talking to people that you don't want to talk to don't get stuck doing things that you don't want to do um instagram and facebook and a lot of these things can be really time consuming and if you just are aware that that time is crippling your decision to wake up in the morning and train with everything that you got, then there has to be a compromise. And you have to say, you know what, I'm going to see what my life's like if I make one post a day and I may, I, I write one sentence with the post and I fucking move on. And I, and and, and I, and I, but I get after it in the gym because the goal, the goal of getting more followers will happen when you kick more ass.

The goal, like Chuck Liddell is a great, is a great example of all this. And now I'm going really sideways with this thing, but Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell were the premier fighters in the UFC for a long time. Both of them were champions. Tito Ortiz wanted to be famous and he wanted to make money. Chuck Liddell wanted to kick the shit out of people. And he wanted to get a paycheck for doing so. And he wanted to be the best in the world at it.

Chuck Liddell ended up making way more money than Tito Ortiz ever did. Because he just went in there and he just knocked it out. He just did his job. Look at somebody like Ray Williams. Ray Williams doesn't appear to me to be some guy who's like crying out for attention. Right. He's just a monster. He's a fucking monster.

He's got everybody's attention, you know. And so it can be hard this day and age because we can feel like we can get lost in the shuffle. But if you just go in there and you just kick ass and just raw with it, everything else will take care of itself. Yeah. That's something that's really helped me lately is first of all, during my training, not going on Instagram. Like if I want to call this my time, we're going to do it like that. We're going to have it my time. I'm not going to care. That's a good rule. Yeah. And then also taking it set by set. Like I, I fall into

this habit of like looking at my program and I'm like, all right, well I have four by eight at this weight and that's crazy. That's a lot. Give you anxiety right there. Right, exactly. And so that's helped me a lot, especially because now we're moving forward and I'm using heavier weights on my back and that feels bad. You know, you go from using like 200 pounds to using 240. Well, for me, it feels different. You know, it's a huge jump. And so taking it set by set has helped a lot. And I had like a really, a workout that I thought was going to be really difficult for me a couple of weeks ago. And I decided that I was like, you know you know we're gonna do this top set

we're gonna find this weight and i just told myself we could go up or down and wait we could we could change what it is i just you do these eight reps and then we'll reassess see how it goes and like thinking about it in a simpler way just made the difference i didn't have to stress like i have to do these four with this range at this rpe it's like we'll do the first one we'll see how it feels um i just saw uh mr rogers the the movie i don't know if you're aware they made a film about mr rogers you know the yeah show from like the 70s through the 80s or whatever he's on tv for like 20 years um he just said he said some crazy he said some crazy stuff like i want to see the movie again.

Cause it was just full of like, it's, it's over the top. Like the guy is so loving. You're like, Oh my God, I can't handle this anymore. But,

uh, it's amazing. I mean, the things that this guy did and the things that this guy communicated to try to make children's lives better and, and make them, uh, stronger,

faster, I guess you'd say in a way, uh, was really, really cool. He just had really, uh, I guess you'd say, in a way, was really, really cool. He just had really great insight into all kinds of things. But what he said, and I thought it was a really cool quote, is he said, you don't have to do anything spectacular to be loved. And I think that's like a big mistake on our part as just human beings. We feel that.

We got to do like this thing that's like extra and it's like over and it's over the top and it's this way and it's spectacular and it's going to blow everybody's socks off. And it doesn't have to be that way. Right. You make a post and you're like, I'm excited today. And you flex your arm. How many fucking likes is that going to get? People are going to be like, fuck, she's excited. She looks great. Boom.

Like, yeah. Right. Like it's, it's, uh, that's not spectacular. It's not, it wasn't a, it wasn't a post that took you four hours. It wasn't anything crazy. It wasn't, you weren't going deep into your history and all these other things. It was just, it was you being yourself and you were in the moment and you did something that you thought would be fun. And then other people liked it too. Yeah. It's good to keep it simple. Relax a little bit. Everyone's trying to

go so fast and so hard all the time. Yeah. I mean, I always think trying some different things in your training is a great way to do it. I noticed, you know, a lot of the people in here, the ones that last the longest, the ones that love working out, you know, almost every single day that they're in here and the ones that are able to do it for a long period of time, they're always changing stuff up. They're like, yeah, you know,

I was thinking about doing this for my shoulders and I was thinking about, it's never like, it's never, hey man, like, I don't really feel like working out anymore. And it's that their mind doesn't go there. Their mind just goes into a different spot. They're like, hey, how, you know, should I be working my hamstrings more? Like it's a totally different thing, right? That's great.

It's a different perspective. And some people are listening right now that sometimes struggle with getting up for their lifts. They're probably like, these guys are crazy fitness people. But no, it's just a different perspective. I love your reaction after you lift this. Oh, yeah. This is so good. Look at that big old smile.

She farted at least 12 times. Look at those strong shorts. They're called that for a reason. I wear those a lot when I'm. What's going on with your legs? Right? I don't know, man. That is not attractive.

That makes you look shorter. Than being so big? Yeah. Does that cause a fire sometimes when you're walking? Yes. You gotta kind of like. You get that rub. Like a good box squat.

You really gotta just keep them apart. Put some baby powder between the legs or something. What do you got to do? I got to go to the mall. I need some baby powder. Deodorant or something. You got to put something in between the legs so they don't rub together. Oil it up or something.

Yeah. Like, imaginary lat syndrome, you know, people walk like their arms are big. I just kind of have to make sure these guys aren't friends. They're not friends with each other. We're not going to force it. You got the power. You got to have the power if you can walk. Yeah. Oh, yeah. People know that I have each other. We're not going to force it. You got the power. You got to have the power to walk. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. People know that I have these legs. So you just, you got to own it. Some of my favorite videos on Instagram are watching girls get into jeans. Ever see those videos where their ass is stuck? No. I can only imagine your legs and your butt. I mean, it must be impossible to get pants on.

Yeah. It's not a pretty sight. He's got to help you. You got to lay down. You got to. Yeah, it's not a pretty sight. He's got to help you. You got to lay down.

You got to. My favorite struggle recently, actually, is like sometimes I'll get a sports bra that's stuck. And that's a nice feeling. Stuck on the lats? Yeah. I'm like, it's not my legs this time. Jessica got a good pump in here yesterday. And she was like, I don't know if I'm going to fit into the thing I need to wear. Yeah, right?

It's a good problem to have. She's going to be too jacked. What was life like before powerlifting, as we see here? Oh, yeah. Not great. Look at that. Yeah. It's so different.

I mean, I just wasn't really fulfilled. I didn't have anything that I was, oh, yeah. I think that says camera angles in a tan, I think. Yeah. White shorts. The white shorts do it. Yeah, and bra you know like my boobs yeah that's what does it smush them together and hope for the best right um i tried out a lot of different things like i tried doing water polo i you know just tried a couple different sports and i was really really at. I was in drumline for a long time. I did band. I was very bad at doing band. But yeah, I just I never really put myself into into anything like I have powerlifting because I just like it so much. And so that was

really hard, you know, growing up as I couldn't find something that I really like to do and that I was going to put the work in towards. So no hobbies or anything like that? Yeah. I mean, I liked reading. I was a nerd. Like I said, I was a bando. I did play the drums and I did whatever. Were you better at playing the drums or throwing the axe?

Throwing the axe. Okay. Makes sense. If that tells you something. I'm not coordinated. I tried, I played soccer for a long time when I was younger. Maybe that's where the legs come from, but. Did you play soccer for a few years? Yeah. I played it for a couple of years. Oh, sorry. Keep on the mic there. Um, you played soccer for a while? Yeah. As a kid, just,

you know, something I was not good at either, but yeah, a couple of years I played soccer just, you know, like in the community. It wasn't a travel sport or anything. We got to play more soccer around here because Nsema's got huge legs too. Right. But he knows how to play. Like he's good though.

Like I know he's good at everything, but like, I don't know. That's not fair. We got to do something more like he's not good at. Like, hey, who can be the palest? Hey, he's never going to win hey who can be the palest hey he's never gonna win that

probably whatever the game that is yeah yeah I don't know I mean I've I've tried to kick him off the team

and he just ignores it and then now it's a real problem because he's been doing jujitsu so long now he can kick your ass yeah I know

I know I can feel like no you're actually really out of here and I can go your ass. Yeah, I know. I know. I can be like, no, you're actually really out of here. And I can go to push him and he can like break my arm. It's actually not Mark Bell's place anymore. It's his. He's taken over, isn't he? Right. And he could.

There's nothing that you could do about it. I know. He's also, he's also tried to get other black people in here too. And that's been a real problem. Yeah. Yeah. Because we used to only have one. We used to have Bill and then Encima started coming in and now there's like i mean fuck man this place is

loaded with black people there's like at least six or seven you got a lot of culture in here then i used to tell them you know one in one out like you know one per one's got to come in while the other one's leaving your typical hollywood movie you know You got to have one per. Oh yeah. One per like 80 white people. People are watching right now and they're like, I knew he was racist. I knew it. No, I mean, it's, it seems as an awesome attribute to have at our gym and he's actually helping me with my posing. You saw some of that yesterday going on.

What's the deal with that? Doing some bodybuilding. Yeah. Craziness. How's the deal with that? Doing some bodybuilding. Yeah. Craziness. How's it feel to make that huge change? It's definitely a lot, you know, it's definitely a lot different than what I was doing before. The eating is different and some of the training is different. The training I'm adapting to fairly quickly doesn't feel too much different than some stuff when I, that I did

when I was younger, when I was a kid. Um, I always kind of did like a main lift and then usually worked out at a faster pace afterwards. Uh, one thing that sucks about it is I gotta be a little bit more distant from the team doing this because, uh, just their workouts just take longer. Yeah. And, uh, you know, I can't, I can't be on a bench for two hours or whatever. I gotta, I gotta kind of move through the workout. Um, so a lot of it, there's, I can't, I can't be on a bench for two hours or whatever. Right. I got to kind of move through the workout. So a lot of it, there's a lot of advantages to it and a lot of disadvantages. I'd say the biggest disadvantage is just the food and the shopping and the cooking and the preps. Because I'm not a meal prep person.

I'm not a Tupperware person. Yeah. Like I've never done any of that. I'm not a Tupperware person. Yeah. Like I've never done any of that. I've always, uh,

I always kind of left that up to the jabroni bodybuilders, but now I'm a jabroni bodybuilder. So here we go. You can't eat pop tarts. No. I saw your pop tart video the other day. And you were dying. You were like, I could go.

What's your favorite pop tart? Um, I like the s'mores one. I was just going to say s'mores. Yeah. We just became best friends. That was awesome. Man. That was a good to say s'mores. Yeah. We just became best friends. That was awesome. Bam.

That was a good high five. Yeah, it was pretty good. You got to look at the elbow. Yeah. Oh, that's the key. You look at the elbow, you're set to go. Yeah. It's weird because you're not sure how the coordination is going to work.

Right, because you can't have eye contact. No, that won't work. I'd hit you right in the nose. It would be very goofy and it would spill the water everywhere and it would just be a mess. Are people disagreeing with your bodybuilding change? I don't know. Do you read your DMs ever? Are they like, screw you, Mark?

Why would you not do powerlifting? All the fat dudes like, dude, you traitor. Yeah, what the hell? Forget you. Yeah. I mean, every once in a while there'll be a little bit of that, but for the most part, it's been pretty positive. There's more guys sliding into the DM than normal. I've actually like legitimately have noticed that. Uh, thank you boys. Appreciate it. Waiting on, waiting on those dick pics soon. Um, it's, uh, it's the male strategy, you know, to try to get someone's attention is, is great. Hey bro.

I know, uh, from male to female, a lot of times it's, Hey, you up? Oh yeah. The booty call. Um, but, but anyway, yeah, yeah, I know. Yeah. It's like just hello. And then the next thing's a dick pic, right? Right. I had one guy that was like – Might as well just skip right to the – get right to it. I had a guy that was like, hey, I have a question about technique. I'd really like your perspective on it. And so I was like, okay, I'll help anyone. And so I was like, okay, what's going on?

And he goes, well, now that I've got your attention, I just wanted to say – and I was like, this is nothing about technique now. Great. Thanks a lot, buddy. Nice trap. Yeah. Well, one guy from Canada asked you to marry him on the live chat. lot, buddy. Nice trap. Yeah. Well, one guy from Canada asked you to marry him

on the live chat. Oh, there's a chat? Yeah. Sorry. Yeah, no, I know. It's America. There you go. That is great though, too,

that they just say like, I want to get married. Yeah. It's like, didn't we just talk about my poops? Like, I'm lactose intolerant. This is like... Oh, it's not a good package to be with here.

Got it all going on. So no cereal since you're lactose or you just use almond milk? Well, I'll drink milk. I'll just torture Kyle with the afterman. I mean, his is worse, but he can handle it. Yeah, that lactose, man. I'm the same way. It's sinful that we just do this to people and we eat ice cream and stuff.

It's just a disaster. Every time? Pretty much, yeah. Like pizza, if I eat pizza, I just know that we're going to have a rough day. But pizza's so good. What do we do? I just keep eating pizza. Smokey, what do we do?

Smokey's a good problem solver. Yeah? So that's it? You just eat more pizza and have more farts? Your body will adjust is what it is. It's going to figure itself out. What is your favorite food? I like pizza.

Pizza's probably my favorite. What about you? I think pizza gets the most votes, I think, on this show. Pizza's probably my favorite. What about you? I think pizza gets the most votes on this show. Pizza and fries. Mainly because of me. In-N-Out burger. We've mentioned In-N-Out in almost every podcast over the past two weeks.

Trying to get an In-N-Out plug? That'd be a nice plug to have. I was gonna say I'd be there every day, but I'm there every day. You're always there. About the DMs, do you get, like, what's your creepiest DM that you've gotten? I just have people that get frustrated. They get frustrated that they can't get my attention.

That's probably, like, the worst of it. I'm trying to think. There has been some creepers over the years. But nothing too crazy. crazy no nothing too crazy but sometimes people get like mad you know they'll be like dude like i've been you know you really impacted my life a lot and i thought you were different and like i don't understand why you're not around and i get stuff like that sometimes does that bug you no no i don't i don't care i you know i got time for my friends and my family and so people don't show up at your your coffee place and demand answers

from you they sometimes do they sometimes do but i welcome that that's cool i don't care you know and people will most of the time people are okay like they're most of the time people kind of respect your time or you kind of give them a signal that you know you you're communicating with them for a little bit but you're also like doing other stuff right you know and so they usually they usually aren't too bad um i usually just ask people too i'm like you want to take a picture because like they're they don't know what to say a lot of times and they're like ah you know there's kind of staring at you waiting for you to do something. They're always super shaky.

Yeah, yeah, they get really nervous. Yeah. What are you going to school for, Maddie? I'm going to school for nursing. I've got one more year left. Damn. Thankfully. After you go to nursing school, do you go to naughty nursing school too, or no?

Oh, we have a course in that, so. Oh, that's a whole other thing. Yeah. That's private with Kyle. He's giving out the lessons he's an expert he wears the like naughty nurse oh okay it looks way better on him i mean look at that boy pictures or it didn't happen yeah yeah true kyle was a shakes his head no kyle was a sexy kitty for halloween two years ago he wore a crop top did it work oh yeah he, yeah. He had the ears and the cat stripes. Every girl's a sexy cat for Halloween.

He knew that he wanted to be a slutty something that Halloween. Oh, yeah. He was a slutty cat. It was a power move. How much longer in school for? Just one more year. In May, I'll be graduating next May, thankfully.

What made you want to pursue that? Again, back to my sister, you know, that was such a traumatic time for my whole family. And no one knows what to do when things like that happen. And so we were in the hospital for a really long time. Taylor was in a coma. I was young. My mom was afraid. My mom was sleeping there every night.

And the nurses just really made the experience. You know, they weren't in our same shoes, but they know how to help us. Like they provided me with things to do and, you know, ways to understand what was going on as a kid. And I just I really wanted to bring that to other families. You know, in these trying times, they should have somebody that can help them get through it, that knows what's going on, you know, and to break the news to them, you know, because doctors are great, but nurses, we are taught how to communicate with people. Like the emotional part, that's our job. Like we, I take exams on how to talk to people with, you know, issues like that. And so I just really, really liked our experience. You

know, we were in like a children's hospital and so I wanted to be able to provide that to other families that were struggling. I guess it's important to go over like what not to say too. Yeah. You can't be like, Hey, uh, they're dead. Your family member died. Yeah. Or, um, especially if they didn't die. Wrong room. It's such a dick move. Like, oh, whoops. Yeah.

I mean, just even saying like, I guess because like you could get caught up in the emotion of it. Like even like saying everything's going to be OK. It's like that might not be a great move because maybe everything's not going to be OK. Yeah. Yeah. That might not be a great move because maybe everything's not going to be okay. Yeah. Yeah.

We're often taught to kind of just like address the emotions and being like, I imagine that is really hard for you right now. You know? Right. Not just like, well, things are going to get better, you know? Right. Address things. Things are hard. Yeah. Because people, when they're upset, they're not always looking for answers.

They just want to be validated. And so, you know, in nursing, you just, you say, I'm sorry that this is happening. Yeah. I imagine it is really hard for you. People just want to be validated. And so in nursing, you say, I'm sorry that this is happening. I imagine it is really hard for you. People just want to vent. Yeah. They're frustrated. Maybe they took their significant other or whoever they're with to a different hospital, and now they're at this one, and they kind of focus on the past a lot.

And it's like, well, you know, this is the situation is a situation you're in now and hopefully it will be better. Right. Right. And that kind of stuff. Yeah. My dad was in the hospital for like, like 80 days or some shit. Oh my gosh. This was a few years, a few years ago.

It was pretty crazy. Um, you know, what happened to him? It's like, I don't know. It was hard, hard to figure out, but, um, there's a lot of communication. You know, there's a lot of communication with the doctors and the nurses. And they were just doing the best they could. Right. And we went from one hospital to another.

Because sometimes it's not so much like the nurses or doctors. I think people don't get this. It's not about them being bad. It's about them matching up to like your needs and the hospital itself. You know, my dad was at Jamaica Queens hospital, which they're deal with stabbings and shootings. Mostly, you know, they, they deal with everything, but, uh, that's where he was taken to from JFK airport. Cause he had an emergency. He was on the plane and his stomach bothered him a lot.

And, uh, he had a lot of like swelling in his stomach and stuff. And, um, he ended up like passing out and they basically rushed, rushed him to the emergency room. They took him to Jamaica Queens hospital and, uh, the hospital was just kind of shitty. Like it's not great. So then they, they moved him into Manhattan. Um, and then he got the care that he needed, but sometimes, sometimes those people just don't match up with some of the things that you need.

And that's, goes all the way from somebody getting a, uh, MRI or x-ray on something all the way to, you know, somebody nearly dying. You know, you got to kind of match up, uh, what you feel is right for your family and, you know, try to find the right help. Exactly. Yeah. With anything in life, you, And I say that with therapy too. If you aren't enjoying your experience or it's not working for you, you just find another one.

It's not like you give up. With hospital care too, it's not like there's not another hospital around. Right. You have the choice. You can find something else that works. Yeah. My girlfriend went to hand therapy for her carpal tunnel. And the therapist, she had to do some tests or whatever.

So she had to squeeze something. And so she does it. And she's like, wow, you're really weak. She's like, oh, yeah, that's why I'm here. What did you think? I was just like, yeah. I was like, you should have told that bitch to fuck off and left. Yeah.

Seriously. No, because like who said like, of course, I'm. Yeah. It hurts to do this this what the hell do you think was happening yeah but so i mean you know so she's looking at it as like oh she is like you know um whatever uh therapist so her word means something you know and she says that and then so she gets you know all down on herself and it's like no dude like screw her like we'll move on like you'll be fine you find you find somewhere else that works?

We're still looking. Okay. Yeah. Well good luck with that. Thanks. That's tough. Yeah. Don't deal with stuff that you don't need to.

Exactly. Who needs it? Yeah. It's garbage. How do you eat? What's up with your diet? Well it used to be pretty bad especially with school because you know I'm in class all day your clinicals from 4 a.m. to 6 p.m. And so eating was pretty

difficult for the past couple months and in years with training, it's not been great. But I started working with RP Strength and that has really helped me because, you know, I know what things to eat sort of, but I don't know amounts or like what time. And so that's helped a lot is kind of structuring, like eat this much before your and so that's helped a lot is kind of structuring like eat this much before your lifts right so that you can have enough energy especially because we train at night pretty often especially during the semester you know we've been there pretty late so um i don't restrict myself too much i like eating the things i like sometimes there has to make a change but right now i'm really trying to take my training pretty seriously

because my last meet I was disappointed. I didn't train the right things. We're making changes. You always have to evaluate. But nutrition is something that I can change, and I can do better. It's not like something is going to go wrong because you're eating protein and having vegetables.

So, how is that? You know, it takes a tremendous amount of food to be able to lift some heavy weight. I don't think people don't understand. And it's not so much about your body weight. Like, your body weight might not change, but you do need the fuel in your system. And a lot of these, you know, a company like RPS and some of these other companies that do some, they do some nutrition, give some nutrition advice. A lot of them will prep you for that. Right.

They're going to say, you're going to eat five or six times a day and here's how you're going to do it. And here's how it breaks down. When you constantly and consistently fuel yourself, that's how you're going to get the best performance possible. It's not going to come from intermittent fasting. It's not going to come from, those other things are great. Those are great strategies. But they're mainly great strategies for eating less.

Right. They're not great better off eating more than you are eating less. Oh yeah. Except for in some cases of like bodybuilding where you're trying to get down to a certain body weight or something like that. Yeah. No, that's really helped me is just feeling properly, you know, like eating, well in different

things too, like higher quality things. I'm not eating McDonald's chicken sandwiches because those are a dollar and really convenient when you're in college. But is that going to help my training as much as if I prepared meal for the week and ate responsibly? And because I want to take myself seriously. And so what does that mean? You know, I have to I have to train better. I have to take that seriously. I have to be on top of, you know, rehabbing, you know, getting, you know, the sleep I need. And so that's the change that I've, I've made recently and that's helped because I want to do well. And I can't just like half ass, like my nutrition and expect training to be whole ass, you know? But, um, yeah, so I'm, I'm eating a little cleaner now.

I'm not eating like Taco Bell and things like that. Yeah. You mentioned earlier about, you know, throughout the podcast, you mentioned getting help and that's a smart thing to do is like get help from people that will know how to help you. Right. And also don't, and then we also just shared, like, don't stop seeking out advice. Like keep, keep looking around. Yeah. Ask people what works. Yeah. You don't want to have 75 coaches, but you do want to get a consensus of like, what are some of the right things to do? The guys that you're dealing with, they know tremendous things about nutrition. Right.

But there's other people that know a lot about sleep. There's other people that know a lot about hydration. There's other people that know a lot about these different things. And you could be pulling advice from all these different spots. You know, if you're not sleeping, then your, your nutrition gets negated quite a bit. And so does your lifting. Right. And these are all things that you can control. And when somebody's like, man, I just, I just want to, you know, I don't want to do better. Like I, I want to be the best power lifter. And it's like, no, you, you only sort of do. Cause you're,

you know, if I was to give you a grade i would say you're at a seven now and you could be at a uh you know it for somebody to be at a 10 for somebody to be at a 10 all the time i mean that that's not not always realistic for everybody um but but you can do better you know if you're at a six you can be a seven if you're at a seven you can be an eight right so on Yeah. I think it's important that people, you know, find the experts and ask the experts question and not just people with a lot of followers on Instagram. I've got DMs constantly that are like, what should my macros be? And I'm like, I don't know what your macro should be.

I don't know what your life is like. And like, why would you want to put that in my hands? You know, like I'm just some chick on Instagram that lifts weights. I can't be responsible for your nutrition. I always push people to find like the expert.

Obviously ask advice. You know, people want to ask me how I figure out protein and whatnot but I'm not going to like write you a diet plan. Yeah.

And people have asked me for that which, I don't know, it's like I wouldn't go to like you to help me if my arm was broken. That would just be inappropriate. You'd tell me to wrap it up or something, right?

Put some ice on it. Throw a slingshot on there. Who do you look up to most in powerlifting? Everybody. She's really short. Nice. There's a lot. I'm inspired by just everyone you know it's it's hard to be in a sport i mean well we chose it but like i really like marissa inda because like we have like some similar things with our squat stance or and whatnot and she's super strong but i really i

really admire Kyle because Kyle's researched everything from the get-go. He wanted to start powerlifting like eight years ago, so he just went to a meet and showed up for it. And I thought that was pretty huge. But I'm also inspired by my best friend, Bonnie, because her attitude is great. She's never like, you know, she has rough times occasionally,

but she competed at the Arnold, and she's like, I competed at the frigging Arnold, you know? She couldn't lock out 402, but she never like, you know, she has rough times occasionally, but she competed at the Arnold and she's like, I competed at the frigging Arnold, you know? She couldn't lock out 402, but she's like, I competed at the Arnold and that's what I did. I just, I admire perspectives and, you know, people's, just generally how they have their outlook on training. I admire that a lot. But of course there's people like their techniques that I think are great. I think Steffi Cohen, she's amazing. Yeah. You can't be a woman in powerlifting and not admire her, you know, but I've always loved Ed Cohen too. And I loved meeting him a couple months ago. He's just a good,

a good guy. He wants to help people in powerlifting. He loves helping people. Yeah. That's like, he knows your weakness, like right off the bat, he'll watch you do one thing. This is what you need to do. Do it. He loves sharing. There he is. He loves sharing information, that's for sure. Yeah. That's why he's the GOAT.

Heck yeah. Do you ever get starstruck by people? I asked Smokey this yesterday. Is there anyone that you meet and you're like, wow, this is crazy that I'm talking to you? I think it's always a little bit weird to talk to Stone Cold Steve Austin. That's always been, he's like almost the same person that he is on TV. Like when I used to see him in wrestling, he's almost the same as that. And so it's hard not to like, act like a little kid around him.

It's hard not to like, almost like giggle and laugh. Cause you're just like, Oh my God, any second now he's going to give me a stunner. And he's also just, he's also just really nice. Yeah.

It's really nice. And he likes to fuck around. He likes to tell jokes and stuff. So, um, I, I guess like, uh,

I've seen so many celebrities over the years. I used to train at gold's gym in Venice and I, I guess like, uh, I've seen so many celebrities over the years. I used to train at Gold's gym in Venice and I, I've seen everybody from, uh, Kobe Bryant to Shaquille O'Neal to Michael Jordan to just, you know, you name it, any celebrities. And I've seen Arnold and, you know, all, all different kinds of people over the years. So, uh, it's really rare for me to be like, uh, kind of like awestruck i guess you'd say like about you know somebody and or what they did um trying to think if there's any sort of particular time and it's really happened i guess when i was younger too yeah you know when i was younger i remember even just like uh trying to get advice from certain people trying to find out

information from certain people i remember being find out information from certain people. I remember being like really nervous to ask them. Almost like the fans sometimes are really nervous asking me something. So I remember some of that stuff. But, you know, and then also, you know, I was in pro wrestling for a long time. And so each guy is kind of a star in their own right, you know, at some point. And there's different levels of it. But, yeah,, not too much. So is there anyone that you admire in powerlifting right now? Um, uh, obviously I, you know, I, the, out of the lifters of today, uh,

not, not, not really. Um, but in terms of like, uh, powerlifting in general, like obviously like Ed Cohn, Stan Efferding and things like that. I don't, I'm still too, I need a few more years away from the sport, uh, to be healed, uh, fully of, of the, of the battle scars that I have, but it'll happen at some point. But for now, you know, I, there's certain things about power to thing that drive me crazy. Like what? There's just so it's like a, you know,

it's, it would be a whole show, you know, it'd be a show. Give me like your top three then. Um, you know, I,

I just, you know, I, I wish that, uh, I wish that this, I wish that the sport would, I, I just, you know, I, I wish that, uh, I wish that the, I wish that the sport would, uh, you know, in some way help promote itself a little bit. It doesn't really, it doesn't really do that. Um, the people that, the people that run some of the meets and stuff, um, I think they could do a better job of making them, uh, bigger.

I think they could go after better job of making them, uh, bigger. I think they could go after bigger, um, sponsors. I just think, I just think there could be so much more there. And I think everyone's just kind of like living their life and doing their thing the way that they're doing it currently. And they just kind of roll it out and just leave it that way. And I think it's, you know, I, I think it could be a lot better than it is. Um, The fighting, you know, there's always fighting about this and that. And it's gotten a little better over the years, I guess. But that's just super annoying to see. And, you know, I've gotten involved with a lot of athletes.

And then, you know, to get involved with them and spend time with them and invest in them and just to find out they're a piece of shit is like super disappointing. And it's happened to me time and time again. And invest in them. And just to find out they're a piece of shit. Is like super disappointing. And it's happened to me time and time again. So I'm like is everybody in this sport a fucking piece of shit or what? And I realize that no not everybody is. It's just that some people that lift some big weights. Sometimes they really feel entitled to things that they haven't really deserved yet. Or haven't really earned yet. And it just you know. So anyway the further I am removed for the sport, probably the more I'll be into promoting it.

And then like, obviously, like the people that we sponsor and the people that we help out, obviously admire them a ton. And we have a lot of fun with them and the people that we invite here. The whole point of doing a lot of stuff is to show people that we give a fuck, show people that we care. You know, from the time you got here, there was always somebody with you asking if you want a coffee or water or a shirt or a slingshot or whatever it might be. Those are great. Yeah. And we try to show people around. I try to let people in a little bit on who I am because there's, you know, misconceptions about that.

People will just say, oh, he's just over there counting his money or doing, doing whatever it is the hell they, they think I'm, I'm doing. But, uh, I like getting around people and, and showing people that I care. And so, um, I'm trying to think if there's anybody in particular, I like, uh, you know, from a lifting perspective, I like watching, you know, like Kayla Woolham. Yeah. Like I like watching him lift a lot. I've always, I've always liked watching Pete Rubish lift. Cause he lifts like a maniac.

Yeah. He gets after it quite a bit. Um, and there's a lot of talented lifters right now. I mean, the talent, the talent pool is, is pretty crazy. The females have gotten to be incredibly strong. is pretty crazy. The females have gotten to be incredibly strong. Um, that's been kind of a new thing where the, where the female athletes are just, uh, you're seeing more and more girls deadlifting 400 pounds, more and more girls deadlifting 500 pounds. You're seeing more guys deadlift 900 pounds and more guys, you know, uh, benching 600 pounds and all these different

things are going on kind of all at once. Uh, Ray Williams, I think, uh, is probably the, is probably the best lifter, uh, that's out there right now. Um, Andre Milanochev, you know, people kind of forget sometimes that he's still has the biggest total of all time and you got to respect, you know, some of the numbers that he's done as well. Oh, big time, big time. So since you're doing so much with powerlifting and this podcast and everything else, what's your favorite part of it? I mean, you've got,

you wear many hats, but what's like your favorite part of being Mark Bell? Um, let's see. Uh, uh, what I like to do the most is just share information. You know, I think that's ultimately what it's about. And when I get done doing something, I'm like, why the fuck did I just like doing that so much? What was that? What was that? What the hell was going on there that I really enjoyed the most? And it's usually that.

It almost always comes back to that. Almost always comes back to sharing experiences with people, sharing stories with people, you know, and people sharing experiences with people, um, sharing stories with people, um, you know, and people say like empowering people, but, um, those things happen through sharing experiences. And when somebody, uh, hears that there were times in your life where you couldn't do stuff, or there are times in your life where you thought that you couldn't do stuff because you were too insecure or too shy or too scared. It helps them to go, oh, my God, like.

That's where I'm at right now, you know, and so I like to share information with people and like to kind of help promote promote people just to kind of understand that all this stuff takes a lot of time. Super training gym, the entire gym was probably, uh, maybe the, a little bit bigger than the size of this room, you know, the original super training gym. And then now, you know, in addition to the size of this room, there's, um, you know, you know, 20,000 square feet or whatever the hell size of this, uh. This is huge. Yeah. Whatever.

That's what she said. Whatever the hell size this built, this building is. Right. And, um, those things were built up over a long period of time and they were built up, uh, with a lot of thought and a lot of care and a lot of money. And every step of the way has been a lot of fun. It's been really enjoyable to be able to share a lot of stuff with other people. But the gym, the way that the gym has grown has been a weird story. You know, like the first gym was inside somebody else's gym. Like the weightlifting gym.

I think I was talking to Joey and Marcus a little bit. Yeah. So that, so that was Midtown Strength and Conditioning. And that was actually even later on. That was the third version of super training gym. The first version of super training gym existed here in Northern California, in Woodland, California, at a place called Body Construction Zone. There was somebody that was opening a gym over there and a friend of mine told me about

it and he was like, Hey, you know, you should go talk to these people. They're opening a gym. And, and, uh, he's like, they don't know what to do. They don't know what to buy. And he's like, I don't think they know what they're doing. And it'd be really cool if we had some power to think stuff around. And so I took a meeting with these people and started talking to them. And this guy was a farmer

and he was jacked and uh we hit it off and we had a good conversation and um i just thought like this would be a great way for me to get some sort of power if things started in this community because i don't have the resources i don't have the money i don't have the building um i can't buy you know. I don't have the building. Um, I can't buy, you know, $10,000 worth of equipment or $5,000 worth of equipment. And I wasn't going to be able to figure it out any other way. So when I started talking to this guy, I was, I was a coach at the, uh, at the high school football, football coach. And, um, when I was working with them and as I was talking to this guy, he's like, Hey, he's like, you're a coach over at the, over at the school.

Right. And I said, yeah. And, um, I said, I think it would be great to have some power thing stuff in here. Cause the kids at the high school would probably want to come over here and train. And he's like, that's exactly why I took this meeting with you. That's what I was thinking. So we were already kind of on the same wavelength. already kind of on the same wavelength. And when I went to buy equipment, um, or when we talked about buying equipment together, you know, I was looking through the computer and stuff and I like

printed everything out and had a list of all these different things that I thought we should get. And I was like, well, here's a list of some different stuff. Here's a couple of different bars. And I showed him what each thing did and all these different things and said, um, you know, and here's about what it comes to. And I was writing for Elite at the time. Okay. So I was able to get like a discount on everything too, which was pretty cool. And I showed it to him and he's like, oh, that's it. And so like right there, I learned, you know, that 3,000 bucks to one person is a lot.

3,000 bucks to another person isn't anything. So he's like, why don't we get really like what you really want? He's like, you know, we, we probably need more than that. Like just one platform and one bench. And you're like, hell yeah, I've got a second list right here. Yeah. And that's, that's kind of what I did. I was like, yeah, I have kind of a, a dream list, you know? So I said, I can show you that. And, uh, I did. And then, you know, I bought like, we bought like 10,000 or $12,000 worth of stuff, dumbbells and, you know, you name it, uh, I did. And then, you know, I bought like, we bought like $10,000 or $12,000 worth of stuff, dumbbells and, you know, you name it, weights. Um, a lot of the bars you still see, see inside super training or that way.

But like, if it wasn't for that, if it wasn't for me being open to knowing and understanding that I wasn't going to be able to do it on my own, the super training gym would have never existed. The slingshot would have never existed. own, the super training gym would have never existed. The slingshot would have never existed. I knew that I was going to have to be open to having some other sort of help or resource or something. From that spot, then we moved into my own space, which was a real shithole, like the

900 square foot spot that was in Natomas, California. And we were next to a Hmong funeral parlor. Oh, no. Yeah. Well, they would like, they would like sacrifice like chickens and they'd kill stuff. And like, there'd be like a cow there and then there wouldn't be. This is weird. Some gnarly shit going on.

Yeah. And they'd let all the blood like go into the drain and it would like, it was disgusting. And it had a weird, you know, smell. They're cooking up all this food all the time. It was just a weird, just a really weird, uh, scenario. But as I had that gym for a little while, that gym was like a thousand bucks a month or something. And I had a few, uh, a few members paying like a hundred bucks a month or something. So it, it all made enough money for it to work out in that way. And before that was at the other gym, uh, I was just like a manager of the gym. So I

was making money that way. But, um, as we were moving forward, you know, I always had like 10, 15 lifters and the rent was a thousand and people were giving me a hundred. So I wasn't really making much. So I do some personal training on the side to try to build some of that up. Um, and then, uh, so again, somebody came into the gym and they said, Hey, uh, there's a new gym opening up in downtown Sacramento, much better location of this. Maybe since your gym's pretty small, maybe you could have your gym inside their gym. And I was like, fuck that, man. I'm like, I got my own spot. You know, I was like too proud to go, to go do that. And then I was just driving around one day and I just, I thought about it. I was like, that's fucking, that's so dumb. Like why, why?

I was like, that doesn't make any sense. I'm like, I should go talk to those people. Why not? Like, just let's see what happens. And so I went, I talked to these people. They were excited about having powerlifting in their facility because they had weightlifting, Olympic weightlifting. And I was like, well, I was like, I'm paying rent at the other spot. I can't afford to pay rent here at the same time. I was like, if I can move in quickly and not pay rent here, I'll move everything. And it was a huge advantage to me and to them because now they had me and my team with our power lifting expertise, but also all of our equipment was going to be in there. They could use it at any time as well. And so it was mutually beneficial.

And then, I mean, that was really the start of Super Training Gym and Slingshot right there because even when when i did start to pay rent the rent was low and then it wasn't too long after that that i had power magazine and the slingshot and those things started to go and started to get momentum the whole point of this entire story though is to show you that you don't ever have to stop one thing to chase after another right you can do things you can do multiple things at one time all while all this is happening i'm in the middle of of the best years of my life in powerlifting squatting a thousand pounds bench pressing 800 pounds i had two children and all while in search of or all while starting a magazine, all while starting the branding of Super Training Gym, all while getting multiple patents on the Slingshot

and other products that we have. And so I'm not trying to say that as if I'm anybody great. I'm trying to say that you can work towards multiple things and also along the way, realize that it might not happen the way that you envisioned it to happen. It's going to happen the way that it's supposed to happen. It's going to happen the way that it needs to happen. And that way might be unconventional and that way might entail, uh, you getting help from other

people, you having jobs that you don't want to have. I didn't want to train people. I have always hated that. Uh, and so that's, I mean, that's kind of the story and that's how it, that's how it evolved. And when I was at Midtown strength conditioning, uh, that was where, you know, the rent was low enough to where I could. And once I built up slingshot, then I can make the gym free. And once I made the gym free, that changed everything. Uh, it really, that, that was, that's really had the biggest impact. It doesn't make any sense, but that's had the biggest impact on everything that we do. Did you, back then, think that you'd be here right now? Yeah, yeah.

No, I mean, it's a weird thing, but it's hard to say out loud, but I've always thought I was somebody special. I always held myself in high regard. I've always held, not that I ever thought I was above anybody else, but I thought for myself, I thought there was going to be good and great things that were going to happen. I always felt that way from the time I was a little kid. I don't know why. Just, well, I was born, I guess. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, I've said something similar when people have asked me about my powerlifting career, like career, if I thought I'd be here. And, you know, I do say yes, because I know that I can be really good at something and I've, I've got a big heart and I can throw that and I can, I can put that and work my ass off. If I want to, if I have something that I really enjoy, I know I could do it. It's also competitor mentality. You know, like, uh, somebody says, uh, you know, did you ever envision yourself being here? And it's like being where?

Fuck you talking about being like, where am I? I'm nowhere. Like, that's where I feel. I'm nowhere. I feel that, you know, this could be doubled. This could be tripled. I feel like my mission is incomplete if this isn't like 10 X on one top of what it is. And I don't see any reason on why it shouldn't be.

Do you feel super stressful with what you've got going on? Yeah, sometimes. Sometimes you do. But I mean, you know, you put things in place to make sure that those things don't hurt you because you got to have your eye on the prize and understand what is the goal, you know? And back to what we were saying earlier about like,

no, you're only halfway in on being a power lifter because you're not eating, you're not sleeping, you're not doing these other things. And the same thing goes for your business or anything else that you're trying to do. You either want the things that you keep talking about or they're just wishes of yours. And they're not really true, honest goals because you're not doing the things that you need to do. I mean, I make a lot of the word sacrifice is like almost too big of a word in some ways, but I make a lot of sacrifices towards getting towards my goal. But I also try to make sure it doesn't fuck anything else up. Right. You know, I don't want it to make things so lopsided that um you know my relationship suffers or my relationship with my children suffers um at the same time hey you know what kids

dad's not i'm not always going to be there i'm not going to be there for every dinner i'm not going to be there for it it's not realistic yeah i'm trying to fucking build shit like i'm trying to leave behind a legacy for like my goal. One of my big goals is, is to, is to leave behind enough things, stuff, and money to where the family talks about me when I'm long gone for like a couple hundred years. Like they'll say, Hey, this was handed down from grandpa smelly or whatever, whatever the hell they call me. Right. That that's the goal.

You know, I have things in place that are set up for that. We give kids in the family when they have their birthdays, we give them a certain amount of money. It goes into like a fund for them. And it's not for anybody else for that, that kid. It's not my own kids. It's all the kids in the family. When they turn 10, they get that multiplied, you know, because turning 10 is a cool thing. And when they're 18 or whatever age they are, they can take that money and they can have,

it's not to throw money around. It's to give people more opportunity. And hopefully that's the way most people view having finances, having resources. That's all it really does. It gives you more convenience, gives you more opportunity. But it's not really about driving around a Lambo. Although that's fucking cool, right? You know, that's fun. I got into a Lambo with a guy that bench presses more than anybody else in the world.

And that was weird. There you go. But it's not about those things. You know, it's not about that peripheral stuff. the guy that bench presses more than anybody else in the world. And that was weird, but, but, uh, it's not about those things. You know, it's not about that peripheral stuff. It's about,

um, trying to take care of the people that take care of me, showing people that love me, showing that I love them. And I just think when I mentioned some of these things to my family and when I, we had, my wife and I bought a beach house in Bodega Bay. It's beautiful.

We allow a lot of friends to stay there. We allow a lot of family to stay there. And the family is so, they are like overwhelmed with how, like they talk about how nice we are about it or how uh how much they appreciate you know us allowing them to stay there and i'm like no man like that's not how it works this is this is ours you know like my ass is on the line if the place burns down or some shit but you go there and have some fucking fun there you're just doing it for your family yeah people yeah that's it that's what it's for and i like there's there's a list of things on there. Um, you know, when people come into the house and we leave a lot of stuff behind that. So other people can use it like jackets and things. It's very windy there. It gets really cold. But on top of that, like the last thing it says is like, you know, this house, this house is for fun. This house is for sharing. This house is for having a good time. house is for fun. This house is for sharing. This house is for having a good time. And please do not leave without taking a group photo inside the house so we can print them off and scatter them

throughout the house. That's nice. You know, it's just stuff like that. Like that's my goal. That's some of the things that I'm hungry for. It seems like you've been able to do that, you know, with your family and with your business too, by making the gym free, you know, giving people more opportunities to get better. I know by us in our town, we don't really have a powerlifting gym by us. And the gym that we go to, the owner, Brian, just, he wanted to build a community, whether it was weightlifting, because he's a weightlifting coach. And with powerlifting, he just wanted to make that bigger. And, you know, that gets bigger, recruiting people, getting people in here,

but, you know, just trying to make community, stuff for everybody. Yeah. I saw somebody at a commercial gym the other day. They were deadlifting, and I watched them deadlift, and I was like, okay, I'm going to keep doing my sets. And then I watched the other guy deadlift, and I was like, I'm going to keep doing my sets. And then I saw him one more time, and I was like, ah,

I can't handle it anymore. They have no idea who i am i went over to them i'm like hey i'm mark i've been powerlifting since i was a kid i was like you mind if i show you some stuff and they were both kind of looking at each other yeah you don't look like a powerlifter yeah who the fuck's this and so i you know demoed some some stuff and then I walked away and then this kid came over and he's like, man, he's like, those guys have no fucking idea. He's like the people's coach. He's like, I was watching from across the room. And I said, that's the exact reason why I helped him.

I was like, somebody right now is watching me and I need to go fucking fix that shit. You can't just stand by all people are cat backing over there. Yeah. I couldn't, I couldn't handle it, but it was, it was definitely awkward. You know, whenever you go to show somebody something, you, you have no idea if they're like, were they intimidated by me? Did they just think I'm an asshole? Yeah.

Are they receptive? Or are they just like, I want this asshole to be done. Cause I'm really, I don't give a shit. Yeah. Yeah. Just no, I don't want your help. Like, no one's going to say that, right? They'll just be like, yeah, go ahead.

And then they're like, eh. Except for Smokey. He'd be like, bro, I got this. Smokey killed our arms yesterday. He did, huh? Yeah. What'd you do? You blow it out?

Yeah. Big time? We just did so much. And then I realized that Smokey's just a bro. Oh, yeah. Definitely. He's just a bro. He's in a bro. Oh, yeah, definitely. He's just a bro. He's into that.

I always want to hit biceps. And then we did like a thousand bicep and shoulders and tricep things. Smokey's just a bro. That happens a lot with him. Sometimes you'll go at it for like 20 minutes. And you're like, okay, we smashed biceps. And then it's triceps are next. Yeah.

And you're like, oh, shit. Yeah. He's like, you got more. You got more to do. You got to work the front and the back. God damn. We got to work all this shit. That was fun, though.

I like that. We don't really get stuff like that. It's usually just Kyle and I training at our gym. Occasionally, we'll have powerlifters in there, but it's never a huge team thing like it is here. Anybody who thinks chasing a pump is a waste of time is missing out big time on a bunch of things. I mean, from an emotional standpoint, it makes you feel great. It makes you feel really good. And it's fun.

It's challenging. And the other thing is I saw Jake Cutler repping out 405, I think, for sets of 12 on the incline bench. So it's like, it's not like it makes you weaker. I mean, I know like, you you know hey these olympia guys right they're they're on they're on a little special something right and they get pretty big in the off season but still 405 for sets of 12 i mean that's not that's not like a max set either that's a part of a workout you know i did four sets of 12 yesterday and i was dying with 185 dying totally dying with short rest intervals.

I got nothing left. It was awesome to switch it up a little bit, do some crazy arm things because I don't really ever do that. It was fun having a pump. I was crying a little bit. What's your favorite exercise out of the big three? People would think that it's squats, but it's bench for me all the way. How much a bench?

I haven't really tested in a long time. Oh, here we go. But it was 180 before it went like my last strength block. And that was fun. I'm hoping for big things. I had like a rep max here yesterday. That's a big bench. Yeah. Well, that's enough for now.

But I had like a six rep max here yesterday, and's a big bench. Yeah. Well, it's enough for now. But I had like a six rep max here yesterday and I got 155. That was fun. But yeah, I like benching a lot. Do you think there's anybody in the world that can tell you how much you could bench press? No. Right? They can't. No. What does that tell you? I'm just gonna

keep going. Well, it tells you you have like unlimited potential, right? Right, exactly. And I just like bench because when I started, I couldn't even use the bar. I had to use one of those tent pounds. You are a sissy. That's what that's called. Yeah, I know, right?

Yeah. God damn it, man. What have you been doing? You had to use a girl bar? Yeah. Wow, that's embarrassing. I know. Jesus.

I know. I look at you now. I well 180 is okay you have good form i like the arch you know you're not overly doing it but your form was good locking those weights in that's important to me i like i like working technique you know you have to bring the weights down and your bride's left at the door for sure but i feel like that's where a lot of weaknesses happen when you don't work on your technique and Kyle's kind of like, kind of shoves technique at you. So no, I think that's huge. I think, yeah, like I said, that's where a lot of weaknesses happen or, you know, form breakdown.

Would you say that Kyle shoves a lot of things down your throat? I was going to say that. No, I knew you were going to say that. That's why I brought it back up. That's why I changed my wording there I was like I know if I say that Kyle shoves his dick down my throat Mark's going to be like yeah exactly

Kyle just settle down over there alright buddy you need to go take a walk take a lap is that what you tell them take a walk cold shower I should get like a squirt bottle, you know, just like spraying.

Oh, yeah. Like we have one of those for the flies in here. Do you really? Salt gun. Yeah, salt gun. I'll just take that. Yeah. I'll keep that with me.

Shoot them with the salt gun. Settle down, buddy. Yeah. Pew. What do you guys like to do besides lift and hump? Not in that order, but we like the beer and we like going to concerts and stuff. We recently were in Michigan. We just traveled to go see some bands that we like and we have fun doing that because it's not lifting related.

It's just something fun to do. We've recently started doing some online coaching and I love that. Oh, cool. I love it so much. And I think I might run with it. You know, I think it's been really enjoyable, you know, working with people. I, I thought I'd like it a lot, but I was worried I'd get stressed out a little, but it's the stress that I enjoy. Like I, I like kind of having that. So that's been fun. Um, we kind of just hang out, you know, we're, we're pretty busy with school. Isn't it really cool just to have answers for people? Yeah.

Like that's a cool feeling. Yeah. Uh, someone will say, you know, okay, you wrote this thing out, but what, but what am I supposed to do on this deadlift day? Do I do this or this, this? And he'll say, no, you do it. This is the way you're going to do it this is the way you're gonna do it yeah like oh okay yeah i love that that's so much fun they send me a video like we just started working with them and then a couple weeks later we'll be talking to them about technique like i i try to skype all the clients you know when we're first meeting to get to know them talk about it and then we have like a weekly at least meeting.

We'll talk pretty like every other day. They'll tell me how their workouts went. I'll make notes of it. But at the end of the week, I'll look through all their videos. We'll talk and I'll be like, okay, well, this is what you need to be thinking about starting this week's training. And I feel like we can really see changes with that. And it's just fun to see because we've had some like rep maxes for them to do since they're first starting out. And we want to establish where their strength is at. And it's just awesome to see that I told them to do something.

And they're putting that into work. And it's getting better. It's rewarding. Yeah, you can help them kind of troubleshoot. Yeah, exactly. No, I've really loved coaching so far. It's pretty new to me. But I like it a lot.

I've really loved coaching so far. It's pretty new to me, but I like it a lot. Any movies you guys have seen lately? Or you guys bought into any TV series or shows or anything? That Goliath sounds pretty good. We might have to get into that. We have been watching the show Chuck. And Chuck came out in like, what, 2002 or something?

It's like an older show. Yeah. But I don't know. We like The Office a lot. I made an Office joke earlier. And Smokey wasn't there to get it, and it was really disappointing. See, I told you. He gets so mad at me because I've never really watched it except for the highlights that he sends me.

Yeah. And those are really good. Those are funny, but it's just, I don't know, man. Somebody, you were talking about like a bow or something. You're like, if I don't like it, I'm just going to send it back. Do you remember? If it's not on top, it's not on the side, I send it back. Send it back.

Yeah. So we like The Office. I like to watch some lighter shows, like comedies, just because life's hard enough. I need something. But I've started reading again, and it's nice that I'm not just getting brainwashed by a TV. Right.

It's a little different. I'm reading this book called, um, do no harm. It's like this neurosurgeon who wrote a book about like the struggles of being a neurosurgeon. It's like a world that I'm never going to be in, but it's fun to see. Is that usually the kind of stuff that you read? Like something that's more like educational? Yeah. I'm yeah. I didn't really have enough time to like read a book. Um, just like how people don't have enough time to train. But, um, yeah, I mean, it's, it's been

like textbooks and things like that for the past couple of years, but I used to be a big reader when I was a kid. You know, I've, I've read the Harry Potter series, like a hundred million. Harry Potter. Now you're speaking my language. Right. Love Harry Potter. Yeah. I've read the Harry Potter series like 100 million times. Harry Potter. Now you're speaking my language. Right. Love Harry Potter. Yeah. I've got a Deathly Hallows tattoo on my foot. It's a real tiny one. Oh, my God.

I know. Huge nerd. Banned books. I've never read a book, but I can only imagine. I know you can't read, so I wasn't going to ask. Yeah, no, I can't. It's too hard. It's too hard for me to sit there and try to get all the way through a book. Do you know how to turn the pages?

I know some of that stuff. Okay, a little bit. So baby steps. I usually start in the back, though. Back, wow. I get distracted. I'm like, oh my God, let me see how it ends. So many.

See how it ends and then go from there. What about you besides Goliath? Your kids like the Marvel movies? Yeah, yeah. They like a lot of that stuff. Um, Avengers was pretty good. Um, we saw, well, my son and I, uh, saw Deadpool. I haven't seen that yet.

Deadpool 2. The new one. That was really good. Was it really inappropriate and great? Oh yeah. It was way over the top. Um, my son and I actually had a string of movies, you know, he's getting a little older, so I don't care as much. I mean, I never cared anyway about what we watch.

Different parents, different strategies or whatever. I don't care too much as long as it's not too wild. But he and I had a string of movies that we went to see. It's like five movies in a row where there's like naked women in it. And like every time he'd like look over at me. And it just became a thing like where we're just like bro fist, you know. So it was like, am I okay to watch this right now, dad? And now he's into it.

Yeah. How old is he? He's 14. 14. Okay. That's a good age, right? Or no? Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, we've never cared. You know, we got other family members that are a little different with what their kids watch. So then we have to be careful when our kids are hanging out with their kids. Because like last night, Quinn was watching It, the original It, with my niece, who's about a year younger than Quinn. And she's not used to seeing that kind of stuff. I'm like, Quinn. I'm like, you know. Not everyone has cool parents. I'm like, you know. You know she's not used to seeing that kind of stuff. I'm like, Quinn. I'm like, you know.

Not everyone has cool parents. I'm like, you know, you know, you know, she's not supposed to watch that. And yeah, well, I just, I don't know. I always just figured if, if my kids see stuff, you know, when they're young, they'll be fine with it when they're older. As long as, like I said, as long as I'm not too crazy, like I'm, I'm more worried about normally what people say more than what they do because like i mean there's some shows that can get to be like really horrific and pretty crazy with like

like american horror story oh yeah like that's like way over the top right like i wouldn't obviously want them to watch that but a lot of times it's like uh it's not the cuss words either that i have a problem with it's just you know maybe it's the way a woman's being treated or maybe you know it's just some there's like some context to the show that's like a little too uh gnarly for a young kid to watch but yeah i feel like my kids are mature enough they can handle it are they interested in like the stuff you do with super training at all no they just too young they just don't care? No. No? They're never like, Dad, can I go to the gym with you? No. No.

They, I mean, they're interested, like, overall. You know, they're interested in, like, I think just the entrepreneur thing. Yeah. You know? And they've seen that from my wife and I for, you know, since the time they were really little. So, I think they're intrigued by that. Um, my son will ask me questions about, you know, what I do or who was at the gym today and like, we'll talk about it and stuff like that. And I think he's like, I think he's taken it all in. And I think he's probably trying to figure out, you know,

what's something that he might want to do. Um. But I don't think it would be anything similar. Yeah. I just think he's processing it all and thinking like, okay, that's cool. He makes money from doing a lot of the things that he likes to do. Sounds like a pretty cool lifestyle. I'd like to figure that out too. And I think my daughter's the same way. Really?

Hmm. Yeah. He's 14, you said? He's 14. My daughter's 10. So, going in, is that junior high? Yeah. Yeah.

He's, yeah. Is he excited? Is he nervous? Junior high is kind of a big deal. Yeah. He's, he's excited. He always talks about, he wants to be older. Really?

And you're like, it's not, not that great. Yeah. He wants to be like, I'm like, how much older? He's like, I don't know, like 30. He just wants to be able to drink and, you know. Yeah. I'm like, that's skipping a lot of stuff, but okay. He's like, yeah.

He's like, I hate this. It's like, can't drive. It is terrible. Yeah. 14 is like, well, you're not 16 yet, but. Yeah. It's a weird age. You know, he has a phone.

Like, I don't know. Like, this is a really weird discussion that I was thinking of a long time ago. But when he was, like, becoming, like, 12 and stuff, I'm like, I'm almost wondering if it would be easier for me to have, like, Playboy and stuff like that, like, under my bed. You know, like, because that's how, you know, you discovered stuff. Or at least when I was young, that's how you found out stuff. Now the internet. Yeah. You don't know what they're going to find.

You don't need Playboy anymore. But you don't know what they're going to find either. Like, it might be some really wild shit that they find. Especially if they look at my search history. They might find something really crazy. It'd be, like, a lot more, I guess, like, like benign if it was like just something like that. Right. So you've given them the birds and the bees talk then? Oh, of course. Of course. Yeah. No, I've, I've always talked to my kids, uh, you know, as if they're adults and try to

have them make sense of everything, you know, uh, nutrition, um, people dying, anything. I just tell them flat out, this is what you know uh even with uh my brother you know he this he got involved in drugs at a young age could never turn back he was hooked on him and he died did they know your brother thing happened to my uncle uh no uh yeah yeah yeah they yeah they both they both met my brother. That must have been pretty tough. Oh, yeah. I mean, it was brutal. But, you know, I always like to share the information with them so they just have it and they can kind of, you know, they can do whatever they want with the information. But I don't think it does me any good to not talk to them as if they're adults. Yeah.

Do you find it hard to to balance like being mark bell plus family mark bell at all um yeah timing wise it can be hard sometimes to try to fit in everything that i that i want but uh you know it's a it's all about consistency you know it doesn't have to be anything as i said earlier it's not any you don't have to do anything spectacular to be loved right you don't have to do anything spectacular to be loved. Right. You don't have to do anything spectacular to win either. Yeah. You just have to be consistent. Uh, being consistent is not that hard. It really is not that hard. It's, it seems like it's hard, but it's not that hard, um, to be consistent all the time, you know, like that's part of being consistent, right. Is to, for it to be constant. Sometimes that can be a little difficult.

Sometimes it can be a little wavering, but consistency is king and you don't have to do anything. That's what I'm even learning with this diet. It's like bodybuilding style diet. Yes, I could fast. Yes, I could do cardio twice a day and lift twice a day. There are things that I, but for how long? Not for long enough for it to really, not for long enough for it to

really work, not long enough for it to be effective. So it's like you do your cardio every day, eat your six meals every day. You don't do anything drastic or crazy. You don't save your carbs throughout the day for nighttime. Like you don't do anything crazy. It's just consistent. You're doing the same thing around the same times every single day, uh, with the best intensity that you can have with the best intentions that you can have. And you carry that out every, every day. So for me to try to balance things out, it's just a matter of being consistent. I would say two or three times a week. I go on walks with my son at night. I try to be aware.

I try to be aware of like what other people are doing and how other people are feeling. If somebody's working here more than normal, I try to figure out a way to give them recognition for that. Or to even just say, stay home tomorrow. Um, I try to be conscious of, you know, like just the other day I was like, I got to go see a movie with my son because we, we just haven't really done much in the last couple of days. And then I was also like, Oh, we haven't done that much as a family either. So yes. So yesterday we went to eat. Um, so there's these things, I just try to be aware of them. Um, and it will click in my head or, or sometimes, you know, somebody else might help out by saying, you know, Hey, this person's

doing a great job. We should, you know, look at, uh, giving them a raise, or we should look at giving them a bonus or giving them a couple of days off whatever it is and and so um all that plays into it but just being aware you know where what the fuck's going on not letting yourself drown with everything going on yeah i mean you know and i mean a big thing uh you know a big thing about drowning is that you're going to bring other people with you like that happens like it literally happens when somebody's drowning, they drown whoever's coming to help them if they don't really know how to help them because, uh, the person that's drowning is panicking. Right.

So the person that swims out to that person that's drowning, uh, they're taught to go out by them with their, with their feet out and they, but they, first thing they tell you to do is to calm down. Yeah. And you can go as fast as you fucking want every single day and you can, you can go hard every day, but you need to calm the fuck down. Yeah. Otherwise you're going to drown, you'll drown everybody else around you too. Yeah. But with the drowning, like you said earlier, um, with your parents and your brother that they like were sometimes enablers so are you have you been showing that kind of like tough love with your kids if there's no i'm a pussy yeah

you're just a big baby so it's easier said than done yeah yeah no i'm a huge baby my my wife is the disciplinarian um yeah i mean even when she she might like vent to me about something i'm just like i'm not gonna say anything i'm just like, I'm not going to say anything. I'm just going to let it go. I don't care. I mean, I just don't. To me, like, again, things are about consistency. And it's about playing the long game.

So do I care that you did your math homework? Oh, fuck it. I don't care. Yeah. There's not any situation that you're going to get me to care about my son not doing his math homework. Yeah. I don't fucking care. He's a good kid.

He's got a good heart. Anyway. He's breathing. He's thinking. He's like, that's good. I'm good. You know, if he's a dick to somebody, now we got a problem. Yeah.

You know, if he's disrespectful to somebody, if he hurt somebody, you know, if he did something he shouldn't have done now, now we have, now we got, now it's a whole different category of a thing. Right. I don't fucking care about his math homework. Right. So if he has struggles, like we've been talking about, like you'd rather just help him find resources rather than just throw money and say.

Yeah. Well, I think, you know, um, uh, spending time, I think time, you know, is, is a, is a critical thing, you know, rather than like throwing money at anything, I think spending time, uh, with them is like, I I'll explain stuff to him in a way. I mean, if he's, he's not doing his homework, right. For example, like that's been a thing that's happened a bunch. Right. So if, if he's not doing his homework, I'll just simply say to him, Hey, you got my attention. What do you need?

And he'll be like, what are you talking about? You didn't do your homework. Your mom's pissed. What do you need something? Do you need help? Do you need us? You need a tutor. You need, you know, how is there, do you need a different setup? Like, do we need a desk? Do we need

like, what is there something that, that where I'm missing that you're not getting, or do you just not care about school, you know, and just trying to communicate with him. But I think, uh, just spending time with them, I think really helps everything else work out because then you communicate a lot. Yeah. And so even just going on those walks with him, I think really helps everything else work out because then you communicate a lot. Yeah. And so even just going on those walks with him at night, he might talk to me about a bunch of stuff that's totally unrelated to school, but I still might see like, all right, well, he's not doing that because this is what he's into.

Yeah. He wants to just chill with his friends. That's understandable. Yeah, he's good. It's normal. Right. Who doesn't want who doesn't want to do that and when he's 35 it's just is it relevant right you know it's not like

it's making him a slacker yeah if he was being like disrespectful to his teachers or disrespectful to his like grandparents or something that's something when he is 35 i'll look back and i'd be like hey that's no surprise he's always been I'll look back and I'd be like, Hey, that's no surprise. He's always been a dick. You know, he's never gotten straightened out one time in his life. So I don't have problems stepping in on things like that. You know, when it comes to stuff like that, I've always, I always try to do that with my kids, but I always try to explain to them too. Like I'm here, your mom's here. You got no excuse to be acting inappropriate. You got no excuse. I'll even tell them I've sat them all down before, like, like almost like a family meeting. Yeah.

Like this house isn't, this house doesn't work that way. Right. We don't, we don't yell at each other. We don't scream at each other. We're not, uh, cause if I yell, then, then your blood pressure's going up and you're getting upset. Nothing's getting solved. Nothing's working.

It doesn't work. It doesn't help. You know, occasional like little bit of like a fight or something. Of course, those things are going to happen here. You all live in the same living quarter. So there's going to be some of that. But I literally have told him like this house is not for that. This house is for having fun.

Like the whole place is set up so we can kick ass and have fun every day. Yeah. It's not so we can be a bunch of dicks to each other. Yeah. That's why you work so hard. Yeah. To provide, give opportunities, and make people happy. Damn right.

Anything else over there, Andrew? Maddie, how old are you? I am 21. What? I mean this as a compliment. You don't sound like you're 21. Well, thank you. You're extremely well-spoken, and it's fucking awesome.

It's real refreshing because I'm 33, but I have the soul of an 85-year-old, and I'm just a grumpy old man and slackers and that sort of thing. So it's cool. You and Kyle, you guys are both awesome people, and we're glad to have you guys here. Thank you. We're really happy to be here. This is a huge opportunity.

We've always wanted to come to Super Training, ever since he started powerlifting many, many years ago. But two years ago, he showed me powerlifting, so I went on the internet to find some things. I found Super Training YouTube, started watching that, and I was like, we need to go there. You had to sit Kyle down and say, I'm in love with Mark Bell. We're going to Super Training, and that's the way it's going to be there. You had to sit Kyle down and say, I'm in love with Mark Bell. We're going to super training and that's

the way it's going to be. I actually, on one of my earliest videos, I think I hashtagged Mark Bell, I love you. Oh, there we go. Now you know. Super cringy. Sorry to tell you about it this way, Kyle. It's not easy. We had to come on the podcast

to break it to you. We needed a controlled room here. Poor guy. Right. I know. He puts up with a lot. He's going to go right to that ax wall and just ax himself. He was getting pretty good with throwing those knives.

Yeah. I, not so much. I mean, that's, again, why I picked powerlifting. I don't have to throw things. Did you guys meet at a gym? No, we went to junior high together. Oh. Yeah. So we've known each other for a long time. Cool.'t have to throw things. Did you guys meet at a gym? No, we went to junior high together. Oh, yeah.

So we've known each other for a long time. Cool. Yeah. It's awesome. It kind of works out best like that. Cause we're friends. We kind of get each other. So yeah,

it's been good, but thank you for that. That, that means a lot that you said that. Of course. Appreciate it. All right. That's all the time we got.

Strength is never a weakness. Weakness is never strength. Bye.