Mark Bell's Power Project - Power Project EP. 84 - Justin & Stephanie Lovato
Episode Date: July 16, 2018Justin Lovato is a trainer at Gold’s Gym in Venice, California. He and his wife Stephanie Lovato specialize in nutritional plans, wellness coaching, weight loss, contest prep, posing and sports supp...lements and both run their company I AM BUILT. At 22, Justin obtained his natural professional bodybuilder status, and competed at the National level in the NPC. The couple strive to help both men and women achieve their fitness goals through Built Nutrition and Training. ➢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
Transcript
Discussion (0)
rolling yep we can just keep keep talking keep chatting so for me you know i i'm uh i'm from
new york and uh you know like jumping in the oceans like wasn't a thing where i grew up i
grew up like in upstate new york i'm from the same place and and i didn't really get around
get around the ocean that often and uh when i did i wasn't a strong swimmer so i never really
got in the ocean and even when i moved out here to Los Angeles, I lived in Venice for a long time with my brother,
Santa Monica for a long time, lived in Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach,
lived in all these different areas.
People are like, oh, how's the beach?
How's the beach?
I'm like, I don't ever go.
Have you really gone?
I'm a pussy.
I don't.
What part of upstate were you from?
Poughkeepsie.
Okay.
I was outside of Rochester. I don't. What part of upstate were you from? Poughkeepsie. Okay. I was outside of Rochester.
Oh, okay.
Yeah.
Ten minutes outside of Rochester in a really small town called Canandaigua.
Okay.
So, wrestling school.
Yeah.
That's like pretty far upstate, and that gets really cold.
Very cold.
We get all the Great Lake coldness, and she was in Canada only two more hours up.
Oh, she was even colder.
He has Canada weather, basically.
You're really freezing your ass off.
Yeah, it's funny.
Do you guys get in the ocean?
Yeah, we go.
Yeah, we do.
I almost go.
I try to make it mandatory to go every day.
Like even I'll just ride my scooter down just to get in the water for that 10 to 15 minutes.
What's that?
Is that for anything specific or just for fun or just mental health?
There's a few things.
Yeah, I think one, I try to ground myself every day.
So I try to either touch the earth, if you will.
And there's a lot of studies showing it helps with inflammation.
Okay, we're finding out that Justin's a hippie.
Yeah, for sure.
You didn't know?
Mike Ryan calls me a muscle hippie.
That's the nickname at the gym.
But yeah, I try to ground myself as much as possible,
touch the earth once a day if I can.
And yourself.
And myself.
Very good.
And also I treat it as a cold plunge and Epsom salt bath.
Right.
So it's great for recovery for our muscles.
So even in the winter, you're going to jump in there?
Yeah, yeah.
Try to make it a goal.
I haven't yet had those goals set during the wintertime.
This is pretty recent, me setting these tasks and or goals daily.
And the ocean's been one of those things that I try to get down there at least five times a week.
Mandatory.
Are you guys pretty close to the beach?
Yeah, about five blocks.
Like 10 blocks, probably.
We could just get this really cool electric scooter.
We just cruise.
Yeah.
Do you set a lot of goals as well?
Sounds like he sets a bunch of different goals.
You know what?
Like, now that he's been doing this,
I realize that I've been making a to-do list, like, all the time.
Like, I put it on paper, but I've never done it with an intention
other than just I have shit to do.
But so now that he's been doing it and, like, verbalizing that he's doing it,
I'm like, okay, I guess I do that.
And it is very satisfying.
Like, come the end of the day, if you finish everything on your list, you're just like,
awesome. Like now I'm ready for tomorrow. Yeah, you do.
I share that with a lot of people too. I think that your goals should look like a checklist.
Yes.
More so than anything, because, you know, the bigger goals, like our bigger dreams,
I'm sure we all have bigger and better dreams of doing things that we're not currently doing.
Right. But those things, they kind of give you anxiety, kind of stress out about those. I'm sure we all have bigger and better dreams of doing things that we're not currently doing.
But those things, they kind of give you anxiety, kind of stress out about those things. Especially me.
I don't like planning too far ahead.
Yeah, you don't know when those things are going to happen or if they ever will or if you're just talking out your ass or dreaming up some big pipe dream that may never happen.
Yeah, that's true.
It's a little healthier to have things like I'm getting my hair cut tomorrow.
I'm going to the gym.
I'm going to the grocery store
i'm gonna make five people smile today that i train right just whatever these uh things that
are um they're kind of low-hanging fruit you know so it's a little easier to actually obtain them
it's easier to actually and and i think it's great to start small um and a lot of a lot of big names
and books have been showing that um like big one is that everyone always says,
clean your room or make your bed. These very minor goals and it teaches you-
That's me. Look at that.
Exactly. And I think those tiny things are important. A lot of people think it's beneath
them a lot of times. And I think it's good to use or learn a little humility and do these
tiny little goals.
It's way beneath me. My wife made the bed. Otherwise, I'd beat the shit out of her.
Well, I think a lot of times people,
they not necessarily aim too high,
but say they want to get somewhere,
and they just don't think to start small.
And it really does make a big difference.
And I think following through with what you say
is very, very important,
especially when you're trying to, again,
build that neurological pathway of discipline.
And what you say to who?
Yes. Yourself. Yes. Right? It what what you say to who yes yourself yes
right it's what you say to yourself because a lot of times uh especially dealing with personal
training and trying to help people in fitness and in health they come to you with these ideas
and they say i want to do this i want to do that i really want to drop 15 pounds i really
and you're like first of all you need to drop 30 but anyway and it's uh they tell
themselves these things and then they talk themselves out of it because it's it's difficult
it is difficult it's hard to really make changes and people will try to make changes to
their apartment their car their girlfriend and but they don't make the change that they really
need to make the change to, which is their own mindset.
And they need to kind of believe in themselves and get momentum. And it's interesting too. I think
people always ask like how to stay motivated. And the problem is I don't think anybody's always
motivated. And I didn't have an answer for that for a while. Um, I always put it on like self-love
and self-respect is what kept me motivated because I knew it was good for me, which made me follow through with training and eating correctly.
But I also realized like there's plenty of days where I don't feel very motivated and that's when discipline came in.
And I realized that I wasn't practicing discipline a lot.
A lot of times I follow through with what I said because I think I've just done that over the years and I built that habit.
But you can really focus on even more by creating these tasks and goals by following
through. And it's pretty amazing how it's improved my life, even these small little goals, finishing
what I'm going to say, following through with what I'm doing. And it's enhanced everything even more.
And when I do lack motivation, it's really easy to get up, even when I don't want to,
because I've really nailed the discipline.
Yeah, I think it's a huge blessing.
You hear people say they're blessed all the time
and you're just like, I can't handle it anymore.
But it really is a big blessing to have a significant other
and you're probably learning a lot from her
and she's probably learning a lot from you.
It's fun having a partner, though, too,
that is consistently looking to evolve themselves and
grow i think a lot of humans for some reason when they finish school at either high school or
college they kind of stop trying to learn they stop trying to evolve and and be a better person
for themselves and for everybody else and it's kind of strange um but most people don't seem to
like keep evolving
keep learning keep trying to make themselves better how can they improve their lives other
people's lives and it's nice having someone like steph um who's man she just does it without
having to make the list so and it's it's kind of really inspiring to see how she is and then i can
pick off that vibe that energy it's interesting for men because a lot of times with guys,
we think that we need to be a badass.
Or you think of somebody in the gym,
like some of the guys at Gold's here.
You think that this guy's a badass
because he does all these different things.
But I don't think women really view themselves that way.
But even women that get a lot of shit done day in
and day out you're like well they're way more badass because they're doing way more shit like
i look at my wife all the time i'm like oh my god she handles a lot every day and she never
complains about it ever she never is like oh man like yeah women are i just need it i never i've
never heard of one time ever say like i, I just need to just lay down.
I need a break.
They're a lot different.
Power built.
Yeah, I think they're pretty unique, I must admit.
They're a lot different.
Men are much more structured, too.
And I think that's what makes it a little bit harder for us to, like,
just kind of be able to do it like how they can do it.
Like, they can just go off from one
thing to the next to the next and not really have to build this structured out thing um because they
just they don't operate the same way we do so like it's a little bit harder for us to like if we
don't have it laid out the way we are generalizing so don't everybody get their you know underwear
all bunched up it's like i like that or mine or mine. Well, I mean, there's signs it shows. It's like it's 80%.
It's 80%.
And I mean, those are real numbers.
Like this is how men operate, 80% of society.
And this is how women operate, 80% of society.
And it's pretty cool.
And to acknowledge it, I think it's important.
And that way you can also make changes for yourself.
You can definitely pick up traits that they're really good at and work on those things and make changes.
And they can do it vice versa.
So it's just becoming aware of it is really important.
You guys own a business together.
Yes.
And what's your role in the business?
And what business do you own together?
What business is?
Okay, so it's called Built Nutrition and Training.
And Justin does our in-person training at a Gold's Gym.
And I have online clients, so I'll do nutrition and training
programs for people online and the nutrition for his in-person clients. And then together we do
like the social media stuff. He's way better at that than I am. Like I'm more behind the scenes.
He's more the face of the business for sure. That's another nice way that we do compliment
each other because we are very different in that aspect. But so he's like the face of the business
and does our social media stuff.
And then we have an apparel company
that we do together too.
So just like mostly women's stuff,
but leggings, sports bras.
And then are you aware
that he's snapping some of these pictures
that I see pop up on Instagram?
You know what?
Yes, I'm fully aware.
And it used to drive me crazy.
And so then he actually stopped doing it for a while
because I was getting kind of pissed. But I realized when he stopped that I kind of liked it. wear and it used to drive me crazy and so then he actually stopped doing it for a while because i
was getting kind of pissed but i realized when he stopped that i kind of liked it so now we're like
on the same page as that yeah a little bit more balance i guess some of them catch me off guard
but i honestly i think i'm so used to it now he's just reporting what he sees right that looks
awesome i gotta share that with everybody not my fault she sleeps that way yeah yeah i'm flattered right sometimes he catches me off guard but he doesn't phase me anymore i
think it's just enough years together i think we need a really powerful motivational uh you know
text to go along with the butt shots you know that'd be quite ridiculous right you see that
shit you see that a lot right From the girls a lot of times.
You kind of missed what they're trying to say.
I'm not really sure.
Did they write that separately
from the photo that they think they're taking?
There's kind of a nipple showing there?
Just say what it is, I guess.
If you're going to post about the ass,
just make it about the ass then.
But it does work.
Sometimes if you really have something important to say and you just post it along with your butt, people are going to read it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Hey, check out my butt.
And by the way.
And by the way.
It does work.
People like skin.
How did you guys meet?
At the gym.
Oh, okay.
And then how long ago was that?
We've been married now just over five years.
And we met just over five years ago.
Yeah, we got married really fast.
Steph's from Canada, and she was here, I think, on vacation just hanging out.
I didn't know her previously at all.
I didn't know her before she came here on vacation.
And then I just saw her walking in the gym, and I saw everybody going up to her.
So I waited about six weeks before I said anything
because I think she was just getting hassled in the gym.
So I waited, and then I finally said hello,
and then we started hanging out pretty much daily.
And it was almost time for her to pretty much go back.
She could only be here for three months at a time.
And I pretty much said, like, well, I'm really digging it.
I don't want you to go.
So I'm like, why don't we just get married at a courthouse wedding?
That way you can stay, And if it doesn't work,
we'll just get divorced,
but we want to keep hanging out.
And so we just got married $143 later.
And five years later,
here we are.
So that's pretty cool.
Yeah.
It made it easy when he,
I mean,
he just said that out of nowhere.
Well,
initially I thought he was crazy.
And then the time went on and it got closer to when I was supposed to go
home.
And then we were both kind of like, okay, let's just actually do it.
What about your parents and stuff?
We both have really cool parents.
Yeah, we do.
I think my dad was a little bit upset because he is kind of traditional.
He wanted to walk me down the aisle and whatever.
But he's over it now for sure.
And my mom was super cool.
She came, hopefully.
Maybe he's over it.
We're pretending he's over it. But my mom was cool. She came., she came. Hopefully. Maybe he's over it. We're pretending he's over it
but my mom was cool.
She came.
She's like,
I need to come.
She like hopped on a flight
and was here for a night.
Came to our courthouse
and then we like all went
and got pancakes
and then she left.
Oh,
that's it.
But my parents were cool.
She's like,
well shit,
he's a good looking guy
and he's jacked.
Go for it.
Yeah,
somewhat.
Exactly.
And like I've always spent
my whole life
kind of avoiding guys if they
asked me to go out i would like find any excuse not to or if i did i would always like go back
home and like tell my mom like oh like that guy's such a douche that was so boring so i think she
knew when i was willing to stay here and get married she was like yeah he must be like super
cool yeah she trusted him yeah and what's cool is I think you were also like putting,
you were trying to make a point to say,
not necessarily yes to getting married,
but she was in a phase where she was kind of having to say like,
she wanted to say yes to everything.
Like if someone asked her out on a date,
she would say yes because I think she normally would say no because she's such an introvert.
That is true.
Like my mindset was, I was here for 10 weeks.
It was a very extended vacation.
I was doing a nutrition certification
and prepping for like a fitness competition, but I It was a very extended vacation. I was doing a nutrition certification and prepping for a fitness competition,
but I just wanted a change of scenery.
So I quit my life and just came here to kind of reevaluate and take a little break.
But my mentality was, I'm in LA.
I'm here by myself.
I don't know anybody.
If someone asked me to do something, yeah, I'll say yeah, because what's the harm?
I'm just going to go back home anyways, because I am very introverted and like i would just go to school go to the gym
stay home and like never really want to do stuff so when he asked me to hang out like normally i
would be like like i got to train i'm i can't eat out i'm prepping sorry but i was like okay yeah
like sure right and then like the marriage thing came along and i was like that's not the reason i said yes but it helped we also didn't put like the big um responsibility i
think not responsibility i think pressure is a better word that most people put on marriage
it's such a it's such a big thing uh me and me and stuff aren't religious so for us it wasn't
like this huge thing it wasn't a huge ordealdeal to get married and to also get that divorce.
Well, yeah, it sounded like it was presented kind of different.
Yeah, we approached it.
Like this might not be permanent.
Yeah, exactly.
And we strictly want to do it so we can continue to hang out.
Like I like you, you like me.
Friendship ring.
Yeah, there's these weird laws that stop us from hanging out every day.
So let's get married because we like each other.
And if we stay, we stay.
If it doesn't, it's another piece of paper that we sign.
And it makes it to where there is no pressure.
And you really can enjoy just being in the moment, which is quite nice.
And I'm really good at that, I must say.
I'm really good at being completely present.
So it's nice.
Yeah, we approached it just very logically.
I even said to my mom, I was like, he's like the most normal person.
Because he even said like, yeah, if it doesn't
work out, we'll just get divorced. Or even if it doesn't
work out and you still want to stay here,
we don't even have to get divorced.
It's just a lot easier to live
your life that way, right?
No expectations and just being in the
moment and enjoying it.
I think
when you live too much into the future
or into the past is the big problems most people, you know, have in any type of relationship.
So that's one thing me and her are very good at is being as present as possible when we're spending time with each other.
And, you know, we're just like everybody else.
Sometimes we're on our phones too much or we're not in the room when somebody else is there, you know, mentally.
So we make an effort all the time.
We're like, hey, if I'm going to spend time with you,
I'm going to be present with you and be here,
and I can put things aside and we can do things together.
And I think that's why a relationship is pretty powerful for the most part.
And we became best friends over these years too.
Yeah, we've also really had to learn to separate business and our relationship
because sometimes it'll be like 9 p.m. and I'll be like,
hey, what clear leggings should we do next? business and our relationship because sometimes it'll be like 9 p.m and i'll be like hey like
what clear leggings should we do next or he'll be like oh just a second like i'm posting something
for work and so we've had to really separate business hangout time and like hanging out
because we're married and we love each other and that helped too because we would find like a lot
of the arguments we would get in like nothing ever had to do with our relationship it was work stuff
like we would find ourselves arguing about like the color of a piece of
clothing.
And so we really had to learn to just like separate that.
And then that made things.
It's not selling that way.
You pick that color.
Exactly.
Like,
well,
no,
the worst would be,
he'd be like,
well,
I know what's best.
And like,
we're picking out girl clothes.
And I'm like,
how would you know?
I do,
do you have pretty good style when it comes to girl clothes as well? Like I always tell her, I always tell her like, I'm like, how would you know? I do have pretty good style when it comes to girl clothes as well.
I always tell her,
I'm like Steve Jobs. I'm like the idea
man, but I can't build it.
Yeah, and I'm the one
who builds it. Has to put it together.
I have these great ideas, but I can't do anything
with them. It's nice
though, because that's the role that he prefers.
Like I was saying, I'm behind the scenes.
I prefer that. It gives him full opportunity to be creative.
He doesn't have to worry about the technicalities of anything.
So he gets to just be creative.
My wife and I, with our business too,
we don't cross paths that much.
It's like she does her thing and I do mine.
But occasionally when we have these meetings,
we have meetings every Thursday with the whole team. Sometimes she'll'll say something she's kind of putting words in my mouth and i'll be like i
didn't say that or you know i don't i don't agree and then it's like a kind of a thing in front of
like the whole team right it gets to be i mean it's not like we're fighting fighting but it's
slightly awkward yeah because it's like you know we're trying to all be on the same page and
sometimes just slightly just yeah that happens to us too a little different i think it's like we're trying to all be on the same page and sometimes we're slightly just.
Yeah, that happens to us too.
For sure. A little different.
I think it's normal.
It's all how you communicate and handle it.
You guys kind of set a time.
You guys kind of say what we do a lot of times.
We might go out to eat.
We have children as well.
So if we get a babysitter or something like that and we're going to go out to eat, we're like, okay minutes you know i'll actually set like a timer on my phone that's a good idea i'm like we're going
to talk about some business stuff just because i haven't had five seconds to tell you anything
right i need to tell you about these couple things and then let's just be done with it that's a good
and sometimes it's nice talking about business stuff in a fun atmosphere because like you're
excited about the business right and it's your business yeah it is fun. I think it's also a fun thing for us too
because I think me and you and us
are pretty similar in what we're trying to really do,
which is help improve other people's lives
with our business.
And that's what makes our business so much fun
and passionate, like a purpose, if you will.
So it's usually the topic of conversation.
Like what we've done today and what we've created and see how many people are responding and how happy everybody is.
So business is also like our passion. So it's not necessarily a bad thing for us to discuss it
throughout the day or at dinner or anything like that, because it's actually what we enjoy doing
as humans, not even just to make money. would you say that maybe that you're uh have more of an organized mind and that maybe his
mind is is more of a creative mind yeah or you can answer that because i 100 think yes yes he is
organized but his ideas do flow constantly in like every which direction are creative sometimes
they're not.
They really have a hard time being organized at all.
I've been trying to be more structured
and it has helped me.
Setting these tasks and our goals
has helped substantially
me be more organized.
Even something as simple as being on time.
Some people that are creative,
they space out.
They don't care.
I'm actually good about punctuality.
Yeah, we both are,
which is like we get so pissed
if we're late for something. But I would would always say like he is getting better wrong message
unfortunately you know yeah you don't care about that person yeah or if you're gonna be late like
at least a text like oh my gosh i'm so sorry five minutes i hate the people who are late and they
just like stroll in you're like yo you're late i'm pretty late almost all the time a lot of work
some of our friends are the most successful humans I know, the most kindest people ever,
and they are an hour late every time.
I have a few friends that are like that.
It's comical.
I normally won't be late for people that we don't know.
Right.
Fair enough.
I wouldn't be late for something that we were going to do together since I don't know you
guys that well.
Yeah.
I think it's a little bit different when you're more casual it's fine
and and when it's like our work environment like our most of our people are there kind of anyway
i'm not trying to like make their day worse but i'm just trying to make sure that i'm getting my
shit done so i can get there yeah and uh i just need to do a better job of it is the truth right
i guess we just gotta everyone's got a hole in their game and you gotta improve upon it i have i even have clients that can't show up fucking on time ever
and i they're 10 minutes late every day every day and i go why can't you get here on time and
they're like don't have an answer they just don't and they're like i can't figure it out i don't
know i'm like come 15 minutes early seven minutes late the next day they just can't figure it out
it's really strange some shit you just don't know. Like a little kid in school might throw a crayon
and nail the other kid in the back of the head.
Like, why'd you throw the crayon?
I think it's a lot of times it's phones.
What do they say?
They say, I don't know.
I think it's phones most of the time, honestly,
why most people are late.
If I'm ever late, it's because I got sucked into my phone
while sitting on the toilet.
Poop, yeah.
I was going to say poop.
Yeah.
Sitting on the toilet, I got the red on my knees.
We text each other poop-like emojis, and we just know.
It's like our bat signal.
Right.
All right, man.
Well, the guy's going to be a minute.
I have every intention of it.
I got everything all set, and then I'm like, oh, my God.
That's true, though.
I feel like I get struck by lightning sometimes.
You're like, oh, man, I got to go.
It's good to be aware of that stuff, though.
The phone shit, I'm perfectly aware of it now so when i wake up in the morning
like i give myself if i have to look at my phone only like five minutes first thing in the morning
and then the rest of the time is getting ready so i can be on time so i think people have to take
somewhat of a responsibility about it and and you really can make a change when you really make it a
point to make those changes i just want to kick my phone
right into the ocean.
A lot of times, right?
Especially some of the shit
that's out there.
You see it and you're like,
oh my goodness.
But then all your business
is off there, right?
A lot of stuff is online.
You're doing stuff direct
but then the business itself
is online, right?
Yeah, our whole business
is derived from Instagram.
100%.
Instagram, YouTube, advertisement. It's a love-hate thing. itself is online right yeah our whole business is derived from instagram yeah yeah at least like
advertisement yeah yeah it's a love hate thing some of the stats we looked at i think it was
like 70 or 80 percent was coming off of you know instagram stuff it's fantastic i think it's great
for people like with it gives us a voice and what we're trying to do it also gives people a voice
for them to hit us up and hit us directly up and talk to us you
know um and and i think that's what makes a big difference in these businesses nowadays it's a lot
more personal uh and i think we like that kind of stuff uh it's it's more fun that way i'm a big
youtube fan and i know that instagram recently did instagram tv and we'll see yeah i haven't
tried that out yet we'll see how that plays out who knows the hell will happened to that but I've always liked YouTube because YouTube is kind of the longer game
you know YouTube is um it's not just a picture you know sometimes people just have like pretty
pictures and it's like a pretty picture and kind of the similar motivational stuff that you kind
of seen thrown around by most people um but when you see like a vlog and i see that you go to a certain restaurant
and order a steak a certain way and i see that you order a salmon or like you ordered a certain
way or that you guys um both like the same wine that i like or whatever it is then i get to see
more personal yeah more behind the scenes like oh they got the same like raft in their pool that i
have or like you get those messages a lot right when you post it like holy shit i got those same shorts and something like
that is is really great for for not only business but like i think for the community they're like
oh they're just like us yeah i think it's important that they can be relatable and that's
what is great about youtube it's the longer you know longer platform 100 and the podcast like
this allows me to do stuff like that. Yes.
The podcasts are great.
Yeah.
And we have one, I have one as well, the My Two Cents podcast as well.
I'm not as persistent as I should be, and that's one of my next long-term goals,
to do one once a week, because they are important.
You reach a lot of people.
It's good content, yeah.
Yeah, it makes a big difference.
And, you know, we get a lot of people that will communicate back to us
at these shows and stuff.
They'll say, hey, something you said on this particular podcast
or this particular video.
I think I've been doing YouTube since 2007.
I had my gym since 2006, and there's probably 3 000 videos right floating around out there you
know we've we've done a lot we've done a lot i i always just felt that power lifting was cool
and i always just felt i needed to show people that yeah i need to show people like hey look
people care about people being strong like let's not they do yeah they really do people love it a
hundred percent and and you have i've
had clients who have trained and have made transformations and then they go into their
work environment and it and the dynamic changes between their co-workers who are also male co-workers
and it changes like they show them a little bit more respect they're they're asking them questions
about things it's it's a different dynamic when you see someone strong and fit yeah you see it as powerful yeah someone's like i deadlifted four
plates today you're like what the four plates yeah 400 pounds that's crazy yeah somebody who
hasn't worked out doesn't understand right almost uh where to begin but you know luckily i i was
able to kind of you know get on the front end of that and show people all the different power lifting.
Have you guys ever messed around with some power lifting?
I know you both competed in bodybuilding and fitness and stuff, right?
Yeah, never power lifting for me.
What about just power lifting movements, bench, squat, deadlift,
utilizing any of those in your training and stuff?
I lifted really heavy when I was younger.
I did, I think, one powerlifting meet when I was
16 at my high school and it was pretty you know hunky-dory I think the three
lifts were actually it was it was different it was a squat bench and power
clean oh yeah for football type dealers yeah and I remember my squat was
ridiculous my bench was subpar and I've never done a power clean at that point
so and this muscle up some rain yeah And I remember watching a guy who had amazing technique.
And I was like, geez, like the way he could move with just the technique was one of those things that was just mind blowing.
And it actually is something that made me interested in learning how to do a power clean after that.
But that was the only one I did.
It was a lot of fun.
But I was a big squatter.
But I never did any meets.
was the only one I did it was a lot of fun but I was a big squatter but I never did any meets I always I really must say I never really enjoyed squatting weight
that I felt like I get injured so it's something I didn't really enjoy like
that feeling like if I looked at weight and I was like oh I can get hurt I
didn't enjoy doing that lift I mean I did it as a kid because it was like the
thing to do you're going to lift heavy and I was okay with doing it but I
didn't really enjoy it was one of those
things i didn't like getting underweight for one to usually do like higher reps or something um
not necessarily higher reps but like you know when i was younger i think i did a lot of 8 to 12
and then as i got older it went even higher like 15 to 20 um but at the moment i'm back down to 8
to 12 and i'm having a lot of fun with it um and there is a big difference when it comes to
strength like if you stick with those higher higher reps no matter how much you slow it down 12 and i'm having a lot of fun with it and there is a big difference when it comes to strength
like if you stick with those higher higher reps no matter how much you slow it down
um you do get weaker yeah and i didn't really realize that until recently um and then i started
being like all right let's try eight to 12 reps again and my my strength has gone through the
roof in the last three or four weeks now right um you know even just uh hitting a heavier weight
when you're a little fatigued you know might be something that you might want to try like after
you do a couple sets not anything you're going to get hurt with right but you just uh you know
stack a little more weight on there try a set of three and if it feels good enough maybe try another
set of three but you're already pre-fatigued so you're going to use a lot wet less weight than
normal uh so the likelihood that it's going
to be too much on a joint it might be like too much for your muscle for that day and you might
be fatigued and you might barely squeak out the rep but it's probably not going to blow out your
knee right and i'm a big fan of pre-exhausting especially for leg stuff right um i do like
shit ton of leg extensions before i hit a squat you guys work out together we have sometimes
no really early morning person i'm up early i'm up usually around three or four does the does extensions before I hit a squat. Do you guys work out together? We have. Sometimes. Not always.
I'm a really early morning person.
I'm up early.
I'm up usually around three or four.
Does working out together work or no?
Yeah.
Yeah, it does.
You guys don't get frustrated with each other?
I think we did before, but only because I realized, I think it's also to realize what
type of workout partner you have and then respect their flow.
Steph likes to work out for her mind to be clear
and for her to be in her own place,
and then her day will be better because of it.
Headphone kind of person?
Yeah, definitely a headphone person.
Headphones, no bullshit.
Yeah.
Through 15 exercises.
Exactly.
So if I interfere, it's not necessarily me.
If anybody interferes with her time and her space when she's trying to.
Yeah.
So once I realized that, it's been easy.
I don't get in her head or try to let her know what she can do or not do.
And then with doing that, it's actually also she's come back a little bit where she's she's more like open to
like hey like can i do this or you know it's it's better we actually talk more now and during the
workout we spot each other even more and uh so yeah i think give or take and understanding what
what about the dynamics of the gym there's a there's a lot of chicks in there and he's in
there a lot and he's a good looking guy. Does that sometimes end up being a thing
or is it not something you're focused on?
No, I've never focused on it.
I'm lucky though because as you said,
I'm all over his social media.
He texts me all day.
As soon as he's done work, he comes straight home.
Heart emojis.
Egg plants.
There's no question that he likes me.
But I will be honest,
I've went through like,
it's been like nine months now
of dealing with a tumor on my toe.
And then I just actually came
basically straight from the hospital to here
because I was diagnosed with hepatitis A,
so I was super sick.
Oh my God.
Yeah, I know.
I've had like,
my eyes are still kind of yellow.
But I've had like a pretty shitty
health history this year.
And as I was laying in the hospital, I did tell him that I feel a little bit insecure
just because I haven't been to the gym.
And I was so vulnerable.
I was hooked up to an IV, just feeling like complete dog shit.
And I did say to him, it's weird because I don't know your gym life.
I don't even know who's there now.
I don't barely know who he's training.
You gotta get on the IG story so she can see everything.
You gotta be live all the time.
But that was mostly just from me being like sick
and feeling shitty.
But I am lucky because he's very good at communicating.
So he inspires me to, if I'm feeling insecure,
like I don't feel weird saying it.
So I'll say it to him
and then his response
is always very comforting.
Communication.
Communication is huge
and he's very good at it.
And understanding how to...
The word manipulate
is an interesting word to use
in this type of situation.
But it's a good one
because you can manipulate
in a great way.
So if she's feeling vulnerable,
I've learned how to
manipulate her, give her the type of love that she wants or needs to make her feel better. And
I think it's important to understand how to do that. And most men don't know how to do that.
They try to like logically tell their girl like, of course, and they use their words and it doesn't
really work. So I've learned it's through affection,
touch, physical touch, and stuff like that. And it doesn't take much.
So when she's feeling vulnerable
or when she's feeling a certain way,
I know that I can change her mood in a really quick way
by showing her affection, by showing her touch.
A special night by a guy versus a special night by a girl.
I'll put them both on paper
and you're gonna have two different things going on. Oh yeah, that's for girl. I'll put them both on paper and you're going to have two different things.
Oh, yeah, that's for sure.
I think a lot of guys are just not very aware of how to –
they try to break it down.
And I've been guilty of that too.
When she's saying one thing and I'm trying to logically break it down for her
and I'm talking to her like I would maybe a guy friend
and I'm waiting for her to catch on and it doesn't happen.
Like, bro, come on.
Yeah, what do you mean?
And it's different when I shouldn't be using my words.
I should be using affection and touch and caressing, that type of stuff.
And then when she settles, we can have a great conversation
and communicate really well, and she can hear me, and I can hear her.
So I think it's all how you approach things.
Yeah, and really actually listening to the person
and trying to apply it, right?
It's really a great relationship tip
because I think a lot of times
when somebody comes to you with whatever problem it may be,
maybe they just have a,
maybe they have a drinking problem
or maybe they have like, who knows what,
it could be any number of things.
You're with somebody long enough,
you're gonna see just about everything.
Or they have a problem communicating certain things to you.
They feel weird about saying,
hey, I don't like that girl being around you.
But you can't feel weird.
You have to say it.
You have to say it.
Yeah, it takes a long time to get over that.
You got to say the thing.
And the guy on his end,
sometimes I think the woman thinks the guy is going to blow up oh you know that's not
why are you coming at me like that and the guy needs to probably think about it and process it
a little differently and say hold on a second there's some reason for this insecurity that
maybe doesn't even have anything to do with this actual 100 maybe it's me and me or maybe it's or
maybe it's something else yes with her at the moment.
And that's usually what it is.
Or just some overlaying thing that's a bubble around their relationship.
You have to read between the lines.
But any of it's not good.
And it needs to be discussed and figured out, right?
Yeah.
And nothing ever bad comes from speaking up.
You always feel a sense of relief.
You might fight, but who cares?
Yeah.
But you feel so much better afterwards.
Fucking yelling at each other.
Yeah.
I think that's one of the hardest things. fight but who cares yeah but you just you feel so much better after each other yeah i think i think
that's one of the hardest things and we were actually discussing that i think the other night
how how lucky we are that we have such great communication because we don't deal with a lot
of stuff i think other people deal with in relationships because they don't speak up
and they don't know how to talk to one another and we just constant maintenance right yeah we
don't constantly maintaining the relationship right and because we have great communication there's never what ifs there's
no we don't live in that world and so like that's a whole thing i think like 80 of society probably
deals with and in their relationships they're afraid to speak up they're afraid to ask questions
because of what you said earlier like maybe they won't understand or they'll blow up or yeah or
what have you or so like we just don't
have that based on the fact that we've learned how to communicate and talk and you know i think
it's hard because i think most people carry a lot of ego too and and that's hard to talk about
things when ego is involved and we've really stripped that of ourselves as much as possible
so we don't mind being vulnerable in front of one another and i think that's something we've
really worked on too is is being vulnerable as much as possible in front of one another. And I think that's something we've really worked on too, is being vulnerable as much as possible in front of one another.
And that just, man, that just makes everything so simple.
Yeah.
We're also just very logical.
Like back to your question about the gym and if I worry about who he's talking to
and who he's training.
Talks to me a lot.
I hit on him like crazy.
Yeah, that's maybe one thing I should worry about.
But like if there's nothing that I can do to change who he talks to at the gym,
like I can only work on being a great wife and being a great person for myself.
And if he so happens to meet somebody that he likes better than me,
there's nothing that I can do to stop that.
So me sitting at home like with my stupid toe tumor,
worrying that he's going to meet somebody else, like it's pointless.
Like I'm just thinking.
To live in the what if.
He's thinking, she's got this toe tumor.
She's off the team.
She's out of here.
She's out of town.
He told me if it had to get amputated, I would be single.
Yeah, that would be gross.
That's a deal breaker, right?
I'm sorry for all everyone that's missing the toe.
Yeah, you only have nine toes.
But that's only because I have a foot fetish for my wife.
So for me, that's only because I have a foot fetish for my wife so for me that's the deal you never know
I might get a really sexy prosthetic
or it might be a really nice nub that turns out
that's very true
never know until you try to
it's really big
I think we're really keen on communication
I think it's really helped us substantially
yeah it really does
just come down to communication
and I think I'm reading a really great book. It's an older book too. I think it's
like 15, 20 years old, I think. And it's a great reminder on how to be able to read our
female essence compared to male essence and stuff like that. And it's a real thing. And like back to
the 80% of where women usually fall and where men usually fall. It's really cool to see how that works and how you can really talk to your wife
and figure out how she operates and be able to help her communicate with you better. Because
sometimes, like you said, they're saying one thing, but it's completely another. And you
have to learn how to comfort them in their way as opposed to how you would want
to be comforted
or how you talk to your friends.
Do you guys look into
some of these books
together at all
or are you just kind of
I read them out loud to her.
I read them out loud.
He can only read
and comprehend
if he reads out loud
so I have no choice
but to listen
but it is a good book.
I can kind of picture him
following you
like to the bathroom
and stuff.
No, literally he does.
First of all,
she follows me to the bathroom.
There's no privacy
with me going to the bathroom.
He leaves the door open.
I leave her.
No, I don't always leave the door open either.
It is closed.
I'm hanging out in there.
Literally, as I sit, two seconds later, she's in there hanging out, having a conversation with me the whole time.
She's like, hey, what do you think about these shorts?
You're like, I'm trying to take a picture.
We only have one bathroom.
You're not trying to go.
You're hanging out.
It happens a lot with kids, too.
Oh, yeah?
My kids, I mean, all the way up until they were like eight.
Aw.
They're just like, you know, it's like having a dog.
I mean, they're like hanging around you.
Yeah.
They like being close to you.
That's true.
That's cute.
Exactly.
And you're just sitting there asking your questions.
You're like, dude, I'm taking a dump.
Yeah.
The book is good, though.
What's it called?
The Way to a Superior Man. I think it's really great for couples to read and women to read. I think taking a dump. Yeah. The book is good, though. What's it called? The Way to a Superior Man.
I think it's really great for couples to read and women to read.
I think it's fantastic because it really breaks down the large population of female essence
and male essence and how it operates and how they can change.
For instance, for me, for a while, I consider myself, I think a high feminine essence about me, believe it or not.
Extremely.
Extremely.
And I don't like handling a lot of things because they stress me out.
So I put those tasks on Steph quite often.
And these are more so like masculine tasks, as this book would say.
more so like masculine tasks as this book would would say and um it's funny when i started taking on more responsibility of these tasks at home and not putting them on my wife she became more
feminine she started acting more feminine because i was taking away these masculine quote-unquote
tasks from her that i would normally be doing for myself and i started doing them for myself and
i could see how she started shifting into more feminine essence and it was kind of neat to see this flow go back and forth and it
really happens and we actually consistently change, I think, throughout our relationship.
It's probably good to have a little mix in there, right?
100%.
Yeah.
You have to.
I think it has to balance.
It has to counterbalance each other.
When you're being more feminine essence, your wife will naturally take a more male essence and vice versa. And it's good that you don't kind of want to be the same
because then you end up in the friend zone. So, yeah, right. So it's kind of nice to know these
and become aware of these type of things that are very real. The energy that transfers back and
forth is a really real thing. And we become aware of this so we can work with each other. And it's
a really great book
yeah i push a lot of stuff off onto my wife and i recognize that sometimes it's way too much
and every once in a while she'll come to me with something like kind of like what you guys were
talking about earlier maybe an insecurity or whatever it might be and i'm like it'll just
kind of blindside me you know i've been with her for over 20 years and i'm like
i just kind of forget
that she's a chick sometimes right like because i look at her as like a superhuman mom you know
i love and respect her and think she's beautiful and it's nothing and nothing uh like that that
that it's uh that i don't recognize that she's a girl right right i 100 understand that but i back
to what you were saying of some of the feminine characteristics,
I sometimes forget, and I'm like, oh my gosh, she needs to like just...
We forget to let them live there too, to be in that feminine essence, because it is technically
a quote unquote, especially in the job atmosphere, it's very mannish essence.
Just by nature, it's developed that way, because men build structures.
They build the canals.
They have this thing they've planned out, and that's kind of like how the workforce works.
So women, as they get older, they're forced to carry more of a male essence as they get older.
It's just what happens.
It changes, so it's really good for us to take on strong roles, keep that masculine role as much as possible quite often
so our females can carry that female essence
if they naturally want to be there, of course.
But then they fall into it really nicely
and then they can be a little bit more themselves
a lot of times.
And everybody's different.
There's some women out there
that carry a really strong masculine essence
and they usually want it with a more feminine male essence
and it works perfectly. It's just a more feminine uh male essence and it works
perfectly it's just there's a really good balance and it kind of goes ships up and down
seems like you guys really found your your stride you know in in your businesses that you're running
um what was the direction like for both of you before you met were you kind of do you feel like
you're kind of uh kind of floating out there and maybe didn't have that much direction or were you guys always you know driven and organized and
kind of heading on this path i guess you'd say honestly i think it was a little bit of both
because we were both doing what we're already doing before we met just individually but without
as much direction like we were kind of floating around doing it.
Like he was still training people,
but you were just training people.
He would go into work, train people, go home.
Same thing every day.
There was no plan.
There was no direction.
So he was doing what he's doing,
but a little more floaty and same with me.
And so when we met, we have each other now
to like run ideas back and forth
and like make future plans.
And so now we are still doing what we were doing before,
but we're doing it better.
We're doing it together.
And now we're doing it with more of a purpose.
Amplified.
So like a little bit of both.
And we do compliment each other because we are very different as people.
And like in terms of people and even just in terms of business and the way we
do business.
Cause like you were asking,
he is,
he's organized,
but he's more of like
he'll jump from like a to z and i'm also organized but i have to go like a b c d so when we put that
together it's like we get the best of both worlds and he keeps me from going too much one way i keep
him from going too much the other way so we can kind of like parallel each other and now do it
with more direction whereas before we were kind of it's true also like there was no there was no social media back then
so you didn't you weren't aware of like the potential that you could take your business
so we were kind of doing it way less and i think what's what's really changed um and i think it
probably goes with you as well as again, like what you really
are passionate about. So I accidentally became, I say a trainer because it's something I enjoy
doing. But I didn't realize it's something that I really enjoy doing, which is helping humans
better themselves each day and dropping knowledge as much as I can and sharing that. I mean,
that's what I have Instagram for. I don't have Instagram to make money.
I mean, it makes money, and it provides a business for me,
but that's not why I got Instagram.
I didn't train people to really essentially make money.
I have to make money, but that's what, you know,
I went in there to do these things,
and I wasn't aware that I really was doing that at first.
It's just something I did for fun, and I found joy in doing it. And then now, once I became aware of like,
oh, this is what I'm
supposed to be doing for myself. This is what drives me every day. This is what I wake up for
every day. Now I make it a thing. Now it's a thing. So now it's tenfold. It's so much more
powerful now because now it's like, oh, I know I want to do this and I know I have this impact.
So now it's like, it's easy to do. Yeah, maybe when you were 19 or 20,
you didn't understand that you might be waking up at 4 a.m. every day
to do your body some good and to do your business some good
and do good by your wife.
And you probably didn't recognize any of those characteristics.
That's what I'm excited for.
For when we have kids, we ought to teach them that.
This passion idea thing. Kids are waking up at 4 a.m. Training with Michael Hearn. It's like, that's what I'm excited for. Like for when we have kids, we ought to teach them that, you know, like this passion.
Kids are waking up at 4 a.m.
Training with Michael Hearn.
Right.
Exactly.
You know, I didn't think I'd ever think I'd be waking up at 3 or 4 a.m., especially owning
your own business.
I can pick my hours.
Yeah.
But, you know.
You pick your poison on that one, right?
Yeah, exactly.
Exactly.
So it's interesting, like realizing what you enjoy doing every single day.
I think most people, I think they lose sight of that.
Our society a lot of times makes everything about money,
and they consider that success.
And it's too bad because I think they should make it about
what you love doing every day.
And money will come that way.
You can tie it into being a hairdresser.
If you look at a different perspective,
like if you're a hairdresser
and you enjoy making people look beautiful
and making them feel good,
you'll walk into that job a lot different than going
and be like, I want to be a hairdresser
because it makes money.
So I think that's the problem most people have.
It's like if you want to be a comedian
because you enjoy making people laugh all over the world
and you can't wait to step on stage to make everyone light up that job is something
different it's more passionate and and that's what i've realized with training and putting my stuff
out there with with social media and she does the same thing too like she reads these books or she
can enlighten people's lives so it's easy to read these textbooks right it's easy for her to want to
go to school and where most of us we couldn't we didn't think like that before it's not even proposed to it like we're just like go make
money it's like no like find out what you love doing and waking up for every day because there's
your motivation you know and then and then it's easy like how weird is it for you guys now to be
in a good position you got things heading and heading in a good positive direction you got
people coming to you asking
you guys for advice i love business and on relationship and you're like well i've been
married for five years but right but it's interesting right yeah i it's interesting but i
really i thoroughly enjoy it now before before i i didn't know what to really think of it i didn't
know if i was like capable of answering somebody's question maybe ask somebody yeah but i realize is like as as long as my answers are pure and they just want to know
your story that's all i want to know how do i get started yeah it's like how you get started and
it's it's it's always it's always such a complicated answer because it's never a quick fix
there's so much that goes into um evolving and it's a lot of self-work and i don't think people realize that
they think it just comes easy they don't see i mean you've seen these a lot of these great
means where they don't show you that the building blocks of you've seen that one recently where it
shows all this hard work that you've done to reach to this this yeah there's a lot of examples of it
there's a bonsai tree it takes five years to break ground then within 90 days it grows to like
maximum height a macadamia nut takes 10 years to harvest like you know these a lot of these things that are
great that have a high price value that that we feel is valuable uh your knowledge or your
knowledge right it just takes it takes time time takes a lot of time and so when someone's new and
eager it's like okay you know it's gonna
take they only see the superficial shit yeah that's the problem they don't you got a new car
yeah they don't see it they don't see the the passion look at that ring she got yeah they don't
see the passion behind it and that's unfortunate i think that's why a lot of people can't or won't
follow through with the when they start out like so many people like man how did you guys start
your apparel company i'm like well why how did you guys start your apparel company?
I'm like, well, why do you want to start an apparel company?
What message are you sending
when you start the apparel company?
If it's just to make apparel, to make money,
I'm telling you, unless you get lucky with something,
it's not going to work.
It's not going to work.
And you're not going to enjoy promoting it.
You're not going to enjoy doing it.
So it won't work.
There's a reason why our business works,
because we love our business.
You just need to come up with a name. And you're like, it doesn't work there's a reason why our business works because we love i just need to come up with a name and you're like it doesn't work that way really like you don't just sit
sometimes sometimes there's business people one in a million sometimes there's business people that
uh already have a really good business sense but they're probably not going to ask anybody
any questions they're just going to start and they're just going to go yeah exactly right yeah
like we started our apparel completely by accident.
Like we made some hoodies for ourselves with the business name on the back
just to advertise as we walked around.
And people would message being like, hey, where can I get that hoodie?
We would just be like, you can't.
This is why, like why do you even want this?
It's just our business name.
Yeah.
And then so.
When I first saw it, I recognized this being cool.
I was like, what is that?
I am built.
I'm like, what does that mean, I am built?
I was like, for some reason, it's sticking in my head.
For some reason, I keep thinking about it.
Like, this is cool.
I am built.
Yeah, we're excited about that.
Every once in a while, it just sticks, right?
Yeah, you do sometimes just get lucky.
One thing that we were just discussing the other day was,
when you're doing something that you really love doing,
it's going to end up making you money. Because you're just doing it, and you're doing something that you really love doing it's going to end up
making you money because you're just doing it and you're doing it wholeheartedly and you're doing it
for good purpose and and the i am built was has nothing to do with being jacked that's the funny
part it's our slogan is i am built for success i'm out then i forget it i thought it was about me
well it can be it can be that's what's great about it it can be anything you want but
for us it was i am built to become better i am built to move forward i am built to be strong
i'm built and it was it was like who who are you and what are you built for and it could be anything
you're passionate about so it was always there well there's so much in it right yeah there's a
lot in it like not made you're not just made or created and just fall out of the sky that way
yeah you're building yourself towards something or for something.
Even the first two, even just I am.
That's such a strong statement.
I am is so powerful.
It's a very strong statement.
Now we're focusing on the female line, which is I'm built for her.
And it's about that really strong movement, empowering women and giving them, yeah.
We're really excited about it.
And she's done such a great job with the apparel line.
You seem like a minimalist in some ways.
Are you kind of a minimalist?
Yeah, I would say so.
Like you don't, like you could potentially like live down by the beach
and just cruise over to the gym on your bike and just be totally happy?
Pretty much what I do.
That's pretty much what he does.
Yeah, and we're become more and more
like minimalist i think yeah and for sure are you are you kind of cool with that or is that or
she's pretty minimalist i am you're okay you're neither of us shop similar shop i i mean for me
to buy her shorts oh my gosh i order like 10 things but it's like stuff you need like paper
towels yeah lotion yeah we enjoy things my wife gets so
excited we enjoy we enjoy simple things like we love just going to the grocery store and picking
out good food that's like the highlight of my day like i can't wait to go to the grocery store
today even like pick out some really good food and yeah cook it and hang out like people always
ask like what do you do for fun i'm like oh it's i'm not i guess i'm not very much fun like i like walks and going to the beach and going to the grocery store it's very minimal well if you're doing
something that's too far uh out of the comfort zone of heading towards your goal then that's
not really that fun yeah because it's fun to focus on your goals yeah like if you're just
you know you're gonna hang out with a bunch of friends and get drunk and eat a bunch of pizza
that's cool like it feels good to do that occasionally occasionally yeah but if you're just you know you're gonna hang out with a bunch of friends and get drunk and eat a bunch of pizza that's cool like it feels good to do that occasionally occasionally
yeah but if you start doing that two or three nights in a row you're like man you guys will
even have a discussion about it so what are we doing yeah exactly even with food even with food
when you have pizza more than once a week or once a month or once every two months you you feel it
it actually sets you back so it. You start really fine-tuning
all these little things. What about french fries?
Andrew's obsessed. French fries are the shit.
French fries are okay.
Andrew's obsessed with french fries.
You should check out
Vorst Kuka or Kooch.
Vorst Kuka. I'm married.
I can't go after that Kooch.
It's on Lincoln. It's a German
sausage place. It has the best french fries. Yeah. It's on Lincoln. It's a German sausage place.
Has the best French fries in Venice.
Really?
Hands down. They're so yummy, yeah.
Yeah.
The best.
It's with a W, though.
He's going to leave.
He's like, I'll see you guys later.
Yeah.
But yeah, the best French fries in Venice, for sure.
Do you guys get creative with the food?
Because sometimes it could be a pain in the ass.
I don't.
Sometimes.
I think we do for our followers
and our clients
because they seem to need variety
more than we do,
which I find interesting.
Do you guys prep meals
for people too?
No.
No.
Okay.
I was like,
damn,
that would be...
No.
Yeah, no.
That would be a lot.
We try to actually simplify
the way we do things
so they don't have...
I think it's weird.
I think it's a weird thing
people have with food
and the relationship they have with food. I don't think it's weird. I think it's a weird thing people have with food and the relationship they have with food.
I don't think it's really great to think about
your cheat meal five days from now.
I don't think it's really healthy to think about
or not enjoy the healthy meal you're eating
because you're thinking about the cheat meal.
I think that's a weird concept.
I think you should try to be a little bit more instinctively.
Obviously, it's different when you're competing or doing shows,
but there's a lot of everyday people that build really weird relationships with food.
You think within the fitness community, a lot of people maybe just are not eating enough.
They're not supplying themselves with enough food and nutrients.
I think they do too many supplements.
Because a lot of people are thinking of their next cheat meal.
A lot of people are thinking of…
I think it builds bad habits.
I mean, I even
firsthand,
I fell into more and better
this last show I did
because I eat purely
instinctively and intuitively.
So all I do is wait
until I get hungry
and I eat healthy food.
Very fucking simple.
It's that simple.
That's it.
So when I did this last show,
obviously to get in this type of condition
for a bodybuilding show,
you have to become a little weird about your food.
Bodybuilding is very weird.
It's very specific. It's done a certain way.
You're always thinking about your food.
It sets you up in these weird habits.
You do get to a point where you have
to deprive yourself. You aren't getting the nutrients
like you're asking.
In order to be that shredded,
you pretty much have to come to that point.
You have to just eat less.
Yeah.
Work harder and eat less.
Put yourself in a malnutrition state for a period of time right to worry about the break,
and then you go on stage.
And it's an interesting concept, and I get it.
But it does build a lot of bad habits, especially in these young people that aren't ready for
this habit they're building.
They're grooving that line in their brain.
I guess that was the question more so.
A lot of people are trying to do
what they hear some of these other people doing.
It's like Mike O'Hearn and some of these guys.
First of all, these people are pros.
They've been doing it for a really long time.
They understand their body.
They know what they're doing.
They're not under-eating for really long periods of time.
They're under-eating, if you want to call it that, or caloric deficit, or however you
say it, for short periods of time.
Short periods, yeah.
And then they're moving into something else.
People are like, oh, Michael Hearn's so strong.
Michael Hearn is very strong.
But he's not at his top strength all the time, even though he's always strong.
Strong, right, right, right.
But he's not at his own top strength all the time.
He moves into different things.
And all the athletes in there, all the best guys you see at golds they all do they're
all moving all the best girls same thing they're all moving maybe they maybe they gain a little
you know maybe they gain some weight they're 10 pounds out of reason right they get back in shape
and when you're like for you for right now compared to what you were on stage it's completely different it's what 25 30 pounds difference you
know it's funny um no i think i weighed in i don't really move in numbers i'm really it's
really strange my weight's not crazy i think i started prepping i think i was around like 256
and i stepped on stage at 246 that's big it's like a 10 pound difference and
then i remember one season i prepped i was 258 and i stepped on stage at 256 but i also for people
that don't know i stay relatively lean year round right so i kind of and i also pick up the intensity
so i kind of grow into the show yeah his body composition changes a lot not necessarily the
weight but right like you look different from when yeah i look a lot different not necessarily the weight. Right. Like you look different from when...
Yeah, I look a lot different.
But yeah, my weight doesn't fluctuate too much.
Do you do any cardio right now?
Tons.
I'm a cardio queen.
Mandatory an hour a day most of the time on the treadmill.
And then I'm totally different than most bodybuilders, I would say.
I don't know if I classify myself as a bodybuilder.
Because I do an hour of stretching every day.
Mandatory.
I do an hour of some type of plyometric work, sledgehammer.
Where does the stretching happen?
Anywhere?
At home?
I like it at the gym because I manipulate certain pieces of equipment to help me hit proper stretches.
And that takes time.
And I learned not to rush my stretching
because if you rush stretching, you're not stretching.
So I spend a lot of time stretching stretching i spend a lot of time doing athletic
movements so i don't lose my mobility so i don't get hurt so i have these mandatory mobility
movements that i do i do these circuits out back almost cross-fitty if you will and then i have an
hour of bodybuilding training and then i usually do an hour of walking on the treadmill and this
is kind of what i do every single day, competing or not.
And it's just something that I do particularly
so I can do this for a long period of time.
If you're a person who wants to be a bodybuilder
and you don't stretch, you're fucked.
You're fucked.
Eventually, you are just fucked.
You're going to get hurt.
You're going to be stiff.
You won't be able to do anything.
You're going to blow your back out.
You don't know why.
It's because you don't stretch your glutes.
You don't stretch anything.
Well, the posing is hard, too, even.
Yeah, posing is tough.
That's another thing that was like another hour on top of.
Yeah, but if you're not mobile, it gets to be really hard to show your body the right way.
Yeah, and I never get that either.
I don't know why some of these bodybuilders aren't doing more athletic movements.
I love the idea of boxing.
It's so great.
And I see you do a lot of boxing too. And you're pretty good at it.
Yeah, I like boxing.
Yeah, boxing is great.
I box once a week.
I either do heavy bag work.
I do sledgehammer every day.
Swinging a sledgehammer every day brings out different lines.
It makes you more athletic.
It's great.
Box jumps are fantastic.
Pushing a sled, jumping, and side lateral movements are extremely important for your knees.
If you don't do that and you just bodybuild and just go up and down,
one-dimension training, as soon as you go to pivot one time,
you're screwed.
You'll blow your knee out.
People don't understand this.
I don't really understand why.
I guess because maybe all the big names don't show they train this way.
I think things are changing a little bit.
Those real high-level guys, you're not going to see them out for a two-mile run.
No, and they don't care to.
They understand their short-term goal, and that's what it is.
Right.
And some of them can do it for a long period of time,
but you see a lot of them now, they're broken.
Right.
Broken motherfuckers.
And it's like you've got a whole other half of your life to live.
Yeah, it's crazy.
I watched the Ronnie Coleman documentary.
Yeah, it's unfortunate.
Yeah, it just sucks, man.
He's just in tremendous amounts of pain. sucks man he's in he's just in tremendous
amounts of pain yeah he's in pain and he's got to replace hips and yeah you know and he looks he
looks far older than yeah what he is right then you got people that are like like mike ryan smart
training guy like man he's 50 i think he's 52 he's the body of an 18-year-old. He's squatting four plays the other day for reps,
and he's doing sprints.
In some really cute short shorts.
Some really tiny shorts.
But it's like he's figured out this longevity process.
And the same thing with Michael Hearn.
These guys figured it out.
And it's because you have to kind of do it all.
You have to be smart about how you train
if you want to do this for a long period of time
because if you want to look good,
you can look good until you're 50, 60 years old now.
Easily.
It's great.
A lot of people look better.
Robbie Robinson?
Was he like 70?
70-something.
I mean, even Arnold looks great.
I see him every single morning.
He's got the bicep peaks.
He looks fantastic.
It's like, man, this guy still has his shit together.
And he's in there every morning training.
So I've realized seeing people like Tito, Tito Raymond, Mike O'Hearn, Mike Ryan,
these guys that are hitting 50 or more.
Tito Raymond is shredded.
Shredded.
And he's doing muscle-ups and flipping tires and sledgehammers.
He's working out three hours a day.
He's an animal.
He's more energy than 18-year-old kids.
Oh, my God.
I saw him.
He was training somebody.
And then we got like a little
side conversation for a second and then he completed that training session with that person
and boom like i turn i turn around i mean literally just went to pick up my backpack
and he was working with somebody else already yeah i was like man he's a workhorse i'm like
he's inspiring like this guy's a beast he was really inspiring that's a lot on your mind when you train people and i think it's because what's cool is i think
that's what makes it easy for him because i think he falls into that passionate category again like
i always said he was one of the best trainers in gold's gym strictly because he's so present
with his clients right and it's really quite amazing that's why he's so successful like he
knows his shit but he's also very present with his clients and he's always there.
He's right in their face and he's positive attitude and he's picking them up.
He's crushing people too.
Yeah.
And the coolest way.
And it's pretty remarkable seeing like that and then seeing how he looks physically and
seeing how his business works so well.
And if people paid attention to that type of shit, like you'll be successful.
Yeah. so well and it's if people paid attention to that type of shit like you'll be successful yeah and like maybe other areas uh fall behind like maybe his social media or some other crap falls behind
but he's got the passion the business is there all the things that happen person like he's got
right never-ending clients people like how do you build clientele be a good fucking trainer
it's that simple be a good fucking trainer don't go but to make money you can't make money and be
a good trainer you have to be a good trainer like be attentive keep learning new styles keep reading
books like step up your game like if you're training the same way you train people 10 years
ago five years ago you're not a good trainer you gotta you gotta up your game this shit's
changing there's a lot of science behind stuff now learn that stuff put it to work you know and
become a good trainer.
How do you motivate some people?
Like you might have a client that, like you mentioned,
some of the people coming in late,
and there's going to be some different things,
but like somebody misses a couple times, right?
And they just keep falling off track.
It's kind of the same guy or girl, and they're having a hard time.
Usually that rabbit hole can go pretty deep. It depends how severe it is.
Some of it's so deep that you can't help them a lot of times.
It's got too much shit going on.
Too much stuff going on.
And it's like they'd have to quit their job, divorce their wife,
whatever the case may be that keeps them from not showing up to this one other thing.
But what I usually try to do is I break it down a lot of times,
like science-wise, like, hey, listen, if you come in here,
if you come in here, it's going to push you forward in a good way.
You're going to drop some dopamine.
You're going to release some serotonin.
Use these tools to make your brain a little bit better
so you can put that into your next few hours of your day.
And if you can catapult yourself by doing that every single day,
so I kind of break it down to them a little bit different through nutrition i don't go hey
eat this so you have a six-pack i'm like eat this so you're not depressed through food
yeah right so you could show them different ways to look at it like hey eat properly so
it's not for the six-pack the six-pack is the bonus like looking good's the side effect of
well and the six-pack will happen
when you're more motivated you'll be more motivated if you're not even eating junk correctly yeah and
that's the one thing that people are really missing out on they're missing out on uh it's almost like
healthy foods it's almost more about what it doesn't do to you more than like what it does
to you right like people say oh blueberry is really good or they'll say this or that's really good.
Yeah, they're good, but they really
don't do anything fantastic
to you. It's more about what they're
not doing to you.
All the junk food is doing all this crazy shit to you
that you don't even know about.
Nobody feels like doing anything after you eat
a full pizza.
Except for having another
slice of pizza.
You eat it the following morning when you wake up.
It's one of the reasons why
I don't eat pizza as much as I used to.
I haven't eaten it the last few weeks.
The reason why I've
gotten away from even remotely eating
bad is because of how it makes me feel.
It promotes you to eat
that way more.
It's just like a vicious cycle.
I can't be creative if I'm eating a pizza.
I'm not smart.
I'm stupid.
I'm slow.
I'm sluggish.
I'm lazy.
I'm inflamed.
Gassy.
Yeah, a number of things.
Yeah, farting around the house.
Sweaty.
That's not sexy.
It's the last thing she wants to do is sleep with a fat, farty, sluggish, stupid human.
You've got to sleep outside.
Yeah.
Sleep with the dogs.
So there's a lot of things.
The reason why I don't eat the pizza is like everybody else does.
There's a lot that goes into it.
You want to feel good.
He ate pizza last night.
I did have pizza last night.
It was Fresh Brothers pizza.
And I'm such a dick.
So they delivered the wrong pizza, which I was perfectly fine with.
But I called them and had them deliver the right pizza.
Oh, that's great.
So he ate two extra large pizzas.
I only had half of one each, though.
That's really fat.
One of our guys at our gym, he was supposed to be on a diet.
And he and his wife were dieting together.
And he called a pizza place and had pizza delivered some late hour in the night
and met the pizza guy down the street.
So his wife would.
Dispose of the box and everything.
That's awesome.
It's like closet eating when you're dieting.
And all your coworkers know you compete,
and then you don't want them to know
that you're about to eat a cookie.
All these wrappers all over the place.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Oh my goodness, that's so funny.
It's like shame eating.
Once I was in Canada and my friend drove by our house
and she sent me a picture of the recycling bin
and all it was was pizza box upon pizza box.
She's like, is this what happens when you leave the country?
It is true.
I get unmotivated when she leaves.
She'll go home for a week to Canada and see her mom
and sometimes I'll just get i guess
depressed i guess and i only just i just like i don't feel like doing anything so i'll just eat
pizza and like every day he's better now that was like that was more in the beginning of the
relationship i think comfort food i think it's the comfort no what do you get oh um i almost get the
same thing extra extra. Extra cheese.
Yeah, I am telling you.
Extra cheese, pepperoni, mushroom.
Yeah.
Everyone's got their own kind of thing, you know?
Yesterday, I was trying to switch it up for the first time ever.
So I ordered, of course, extra cheese, but with feta cheese, spinach.
Did it work or no?
Basil.
Finished basil and mushroom, right?
And then they ordered, then they brought the wrong pizza,
but guess what the wrong pizza was?
My normal pizza I normally order.
That's weird.
But I was like,
well, I want the other pizza still.
So it was okay.
It was all right.
The wrong one was better.
The wrong one was better.
So don't divert.
Yeah, stay on your path.
Stay on my path.
When did you start lifting?
When I was 13.
Yeah.
You started when you were young young how'd you get into it
um because that's really really rare for females you don't really yeah it is young um i grew up
doing gymnastics for i quit when i was still like pretty young maybe 12 because i was like
borderline too many injuries and when did you start gymnastics when you're like when i was like
five yeah yeah and then from gymnastics i played lac like five When I was like five Yeah And then
From gymnastics
I played lacrosse
For ten years
Like I played in
For my city
For my province
And when I was in
University
It's called
In Canada
College
Cool
And then I also
Lacrosse is very physical
Yeah
I was always like
She boxed too
She has three fights under
About three different times
So I just
I was raised
Like doing sports
Dude you gotta watch yourself, man.
That's another reason I don't worry about the girls at the gym.
If I have to throw down, I will.
But I was always raised doing sports.
And so the gym kind of felt like the adult sport.
And so, I don't know, I guess when I was a kid,
just gymnastics wasn't enough.
So I got my mom to sign me up for like this all women's gym.
And I used to walk home from school and it was on the way.
So I would just like stop and do some workouts there.
That's cool.
She used to also run on the treadmill randomly as a kid,
which is kind of strange.
Most kids didn't do that.
I think what made Steph so unique is like,
she didn't realize the high she was getting,
but she loved the high she was getting from training.
So she would even do weird challenges
where her mom lived on the 13th floor
and wouldn't take the elevator,
but try to go up these stairs as fast as she could
as a 14-year-old kid or a 15-year-old kid or whatever.
Even as an eight-year-old kid,
when we were watching TV as a family,
the commercials would come on
and I would do sit-ups the whole time
for the whole two minutes.
Or I would get my parents to time me how long it would take me to run up
and down.
I think it just all started with gymnastics.
Like it just gave me that desire to want to be active and like feel strong.
And I guess I was like.
She's just a freak too.
Like, like Steph as an athlete is just something I've never,
like when she walked into the gym, I was like, I've never,
and she was prepping for a show at the time.
And I've never seen a physique like that. I've never seen a physique like hers before um and just like how
she looked so it was it's something that and you watch her train her biomechanics are spot on like
you don't have to fix her form do you guys train similar at all yeah yeah we do especially now
because we've kind of like bounced ideas off of each other over the past five years. And we do train similar.
I've gotten out of training, to be honest, over the past like maybe two, three years after I competed last.
Just felt like so saturated because I had my clients and I was competing and I was just doing so much of it.
But these past like nine months that I haven't been feeling well with my toe or my health,
it's really made me not take advantage of
feeling healthy. And like, it's made me want to feel strong again. Cause I went through a point
like after I competed, just being like, I just want to be skinny and I want to do yoga. Like
I don't want to get into weights. I wanted something new, but now like that I've been
deprived of it. I am really motivated to, yeah. Like, because being in the hospital for three
days, you're just laying there so helpless feeling.
I lost like at least 10 pounds.
I was just feeling so weak.
So now like I have the desire to feel strong again.
Yeah, it does give you a different perspective and like I really won't take my health for
granted.
So you do a lot of main lifts like, you know, bent over rows and deadlifts and squats and
I make her do those.
Things like that.
You do a lot of stuff do a lot I used to
yeah when I started weightlifting I never wanted to do it to be strong like I just loved the feeling
of the connection like I loved feeling my I used to train back and that would be my favorite like
this is when I was pretty young like 16 and I just love training back because I always connected so
well with the muscles so like that was the feeling loved. And so that was kind of the only reason we didn't get along training well at
first because he would try and like show me something to do,
but I didn't want to do it his way because the reason I liked training was
because I liked being in the zone and just feeling the muscles.
So if he'd be like 10 more reps,
I'd be like,
I don't want 10 more reps.
Like I'm just enjoying this feeling.
Right.
So I had to learn to understand why she was at the gym and then realize.
And that's another thing, a little bit off topic, but that's another thing when you're a trainer.
You have to understand why your client's there.
Not everybody wants to be a fucking bodybuilder.
Yeah, some people like.
Yeah, their personality-wise, too.
Like, somebody might love going through and doing a set where they get totally stuck on rep five and they got to go crazy to get to rep 10.
Somebody else might want three sets of 10 with a similar weight.
They get similar results.
We've seen many bodybuilders and many people achieve great physiques.
And some people just want to come chat and talk and enjoy their moment with you.
Move around, sweat.
Yeah.
Mingle.
Exactly.
So you have to learn how to read your client So you have to learn how to read your client
and you have to learn how to read your training partner
and how they respond.
That's why it's also good to pick a training partner
that maybe if you're like-minded, of course,
but respect their flow.
Yeah, even with my online clients,
the way I critique people,
sometimes I'll ask,
are you a tough love kind of person?
Do you want me to just tell you how it is
or should I beat around the bush a little bit like people are so different with the way that they respond and the
way that they like accept critique and you do have to be really aware you didn't like me counting
backwards 10 9 and i'm used to counting backwards all the time so that was kind of tough for me
yeah to count up well not dynamic too of too, of the exchange of money, right?
You're training them, right?
You're there to be their coach and trying to have that fit what you want to do
and what you want to bring to the table,
but also customizing it to what they need and what they want.
They're paying you, and as long as they're not a dick or whatever.
That's my big thing.
If you show up, just be positive.
If you're a dick, I'll give you your money back.
I have no time to hang out with assholes.
Yeah, you don't want to stress.
No, especially five times a week.
Imagine hanging out with an asshole five times a week.
Yeah, what's the point of working for yourself?
Do you have a minimum of how often
you want people to work out per week?
No, less than three.
Three days for sure.
That way you actually get some really quality results.
And because especially for people that are fairly new in the gym,
I mean, I think it's important to be with your trainer as much as possible,
especially if you need to learn movements, not get injured.
I think a lot of people, they're a little intimidated to go into a gym,
and they might do something stupid to not feel weak or small
compared to the other people in their gym,
and that's how they get injured and will end up leaving.
And I think it's important to trust your trainer and listen to them
and go and take the steps needed so you can stay in this game
and grow and build, and I think that's really important.
So no less than three, I would say.
And then I'm always weary when they're by themselves,
especially if they're new.
Like if like those other two days,
I'm like, just do cardio.
You also want to get,
because like when you first start out,
when you first start going to the gym,
it kind of feels like a chore,
but you get to a point that it's enjoyable.
And then you get to another point
where if you don't get to go to the gym,
you get pissed.
So you want to kind of force people and like encourage them to go frequently because then they will get to another point where if you don't get to go to the gym, you get pissed. So you want to kind of force people and like encourage them to go frequently because then
they will get to that point that they start seeing results and like they're looking forward
to the next training session.
And again, it's about releasing that high, that mental high.
And once you really break it down that way for them, like, hey, like start your day with
this.
Like even if even if like you don't want to do it with me, do it for yourself.
Like come in here and
start your day get that mental high so you can improve your life because that's what it's really
about we're just mimicking what we had to do back in the heyday like hunting yeah it's fake exercise
i always like if you're like approach it scientifically approach food scientifically
approach train scientifically all the other stuff all the superficial stuff those are bonuses you know looking good and all that kind of stuff for social media that's all
bonus stuff but if you want to be a headstrong human that's consistently moving forward like
you have to approach things intelligently and not just for like the quick fix the quick fix does not
get you there smart um and that's what i think the youth the youth is like i love telling them
how long i've been training they're like man how long I've been training. They're like, man, how long have you been doing this for?
I'm like, 19 years.
Yeah.
19 fucking years.
And I'm still not there.
I'm still learning.
One guy, he asked about which one of our programs were.
I'm like, 130 bucks.
That seems expensive.
I'm like, oh, you motherfucker.
You have no idea the information that's in there.
You have no idea what I've's in there you have no idea like what what i've done
to learn to like get there and and you feel like you know it it's an investment in your health too
yeah it's like they just don't get it it's like it's one of those things they don't see the work
that that right that those stepping stones that you've done to create this and they just see it
as like 130 bucks like no man you gotta invest in people always ask like what do you spend on
groceries right you get that question a lot it's like 130 bucks. It's like, no, man, you got to invest in. People always ask, what do you spend on groceries?
You get that question a lot.
It's like, why are you asking that question?
That's an interesting question to ask.
You should make your priority be able to afford the best food on the planet.
It doesn't matter how much it is.
That's what the price is. You can't control it.
Either grow it yourself or fucking get your priority straight
to make the best food in your body.
I've had people DM me and the response that I copy and paste.
They'll say, how do you afford to get
venison and elk?
I'll write, I'm rich, bitch, in capital letters.
What do you think?
I'm not going to... Of course I can afford it.
That's why I'm...
That's why I'm purchasing.
I'm not going to stretch myself thin
on getting some game meat or whatever right it's just i think it's priorities i think most people
they really broke down what was important in their life they can afford it we didn't start off rich
you know what i mean and i was always eating quality food even when i wasn't making the money
i was making it just was a priority and i think a lot of people don't really put that into perspective
you find a way you find
a way when you moved out here you probably didn't have any money no zero money i drove out here with
nothing i had nothing in my bank i'm a horrible planner as we've discussed earlier no vision in
the future and i came out here with like i think like 500 bucks and all i knew is like i know how
to work so i came out here and it was during the recession this was 10 years ago when there was no
jobs i had three jobs when there was no jobs, when nobody could find work. I had three
jobs, you know, and I was bodybuilding at the same time while working three jobs. So it can be done.
You just have to have some type of work ethic, some type of discipline, and you'll make the money
you need to eat properly. You'll make the money you need to train properly and to live anywhere
you kind of want to live. When I moved out here, I didn't have hardly any money.
I didn't have a credit card or a debit card.
I mean, I couldn't even get a credit card.
Right.
I didn't have a...
Same.
I didn't have a credit card.
My driver's license was revoked.
I didn't have a car.
I was just hanging with my brother and just trying to figure shit out. I think work have a car. I was just hanging with my brother
and just trying to figure shit out.
I think work ethic is important.
And I think because of our backgrounds
with training and stuff,
that's why I think it's great for kids
to get into sports.
It's great for kids to get into weight training,
wrestling, grappling.
I think these type of training
teaches you ridiculously good discipline as a child.
And that's why I see a lot of these,
I think these workhorses do well later on in life,
or at least they work hard later on in life.
It's because they taught themselves discipline.
And I think that's one of the things,
I think the youth that we see nowadays,
because everything is so instant,
like they get what they want kind of quickly without really trying,
or they don't want to really try a lot of times,
I think they're missing the big factor.
It's the work ethic.
And you can't get it without it.
What have you guys learned being here in Los Angeles
and seeing people kind of constantly chasing
after the bigger fish?
People have great people around them.
They have good friends.
They got good clients.
But yet here everybody is all the time trying to like suck off the same uh celebrities and stuff and i know you work with
some celebrities but that can be a really uh another uh very positive position to be in to
work with some of these celebrities but it can also turn very negative for sure you got some
people like they're chasing,
and it's like, dude, why are you trying
to run these people down?
I mean, just relax, keep working,
and those people just come to you naturally.
Yeah, I think it all comes down to, again,
like, being a good trainer.
Like, if you're good, you're good.
It's just what it is.
Like, you can't tell anybody how to be a good trainer.
There's knowledge, and then there's passion, and that's pretty much it knowledge and passion you have to have if you
don't have the knowledge you don't have the passion you're a shitty trainer i didn't approach
josh brolin josh brolin approached me i was walking through we we met eyes a few times gave
me a head nod here and there and he waved me over when he was on the treadmill one day and he's like
hey man what's your deal and that was it and being in shape being in shape yeah that was huge you being in walking billboard a big
deal right yeah it's important i mean if i was out of shape person probably wouldn't ask me to train
him yeah you know it's one of those things and so i think he he saw me moving around in the gym he
saw how i trained he saw my clients and their results and and that speaks for itself. So I didn't have to chase after Josh.
Josh said what's up, and then it just worked.
He's been on fire lately.
Dude, he's the shit right now.
Yeah, big time.
He's the baddest dude on the planet right now.
Yeah, he's been just going nuts.
Yeah, really cool.
And congratulations, too, on helping him get into that shape.
Yeah, Steph handled all his nutrition.
Yeah.
Our friend Jonathan Phillips, that's. Yeah, Steph handled all his nutrition. Yeah. Our friend Jonathan Phillips,
which is a great dude.
Handling somebody's nutrition,
especially somebody like him,
it must take a tremendous amount
of communication
back and forth, right?
Because of the travel
and, you know,
hey, I'm going over
to Singapore
to promote this
or wherever the hell he's going.
He's probably going everywhere.
He made it easy, honestly,
because he was so eager
to learn
and he was eager
to learn like the science
behind it.
He's smart, yeah.
Yeah.
So once he understood it, it was easy.
Then the communication was minimal.
It was like, oh, hey, remember what I told you about blah, blah, blah?
It's that.
He'd be like, oh, okay, yeah, got it.
So he wasn't just...
He's not your typical celebrity, I guess.
No.
He was very easy and he was very eager and he was a very hard worker.
He got jacked.
Oh, yeah.
He looks awesome. Josh is a great... And he became He got jacked. Oh, yeah. He looks awesome.
Josh is a great,
and he became such a great friend of ours, too.
Like, he's family.
Yeah, he's just an all-around, like, really great guy.
He's such a nice person.
And he works hard.
I mean, he really wanted to do well for this film.
It wasn't about, man, it wasn't about the money for him.
You could totally tell, like, he wanted to do really well
because I don't think him or myself realized
how big comic book fans were.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, he didn't want
to let anybody down.
Yeah, he was so,
he worked so hard
because he knew
there was people
that didn't think
he'd be great for the role,
you know,
and it's like,
he's like, fuck that shit.
He's like, I'm going to nail,
I'm going to look like a superhero.
Yeah.
You know, and he did.
He showed up every day,
three hours a day. three hours a day.
Three hours a day.
We'd come in.
He would train mobility, plyometrics, boxing, sledgehammer shit for a full hour,
crush him through a circuit, and then he'd follow up with 30 minutes of cardio.
Then he'd come back five hours later, and we'd do bodybuilding,
and then 30 more minutes of cardio.
He'd do this for 12 weeks.
He just destroyed it.
Then Steph nailed his diet.
We treated his diet just like you would be
prepping for a show.
He had a shirtless scene
in the Deadpool 2.
He had a shirtless scene
where he's like
looking in the mirror
and he just looks fucking sick.
And so we timed him
just like you would be
stepping on stage
for a bodybuilding show.
We depleted him,
we loaded him,
and boom,
right there the day.
Did that get a little tricky
at all with the timing
of shoot and stuff like that?
No, because it was pretty pinpoint. They're pretty pinpoint pretty on schedule yeah it was not too bad
yeah they stayed pretty on schedule if anything it got delayed so it helped yeah he looked really
great so it was really he did work it was like it was funny at first you know because sometimes you
feel like you haven't done enough we've all been in that situation me as a bodybuilder it's like
i've done everything in the day of the show i I'm like, I look like shit. What the fuck?
And you can't figure
and get in your own head
and there is a moment
where he had that.
He's like, oh,
am I doing everything I need?
Me and Steph are so laid back.
Yeah, we freak some people out,
I think,
because we do approach it
very casually
and I think most people's mentality
are if you're doing a show
or you're doing a shirtless scene
like Josh is doing,
you have to feel like shit.
You have to hate every day and you have to feel like shit. You have to hate every day
and you have to hate your diet and you have to be starving.
And your mind is such a big part of it.
Yeah, and there is a point where
you do feel like that, but it doesn't have to be the whole
time. So we're very casual and we're like
no, that's fine. And I've done
shows where I've done everything
down to the number and
was super, super strict. And then I've done a show where I've
been a little more laid back and the outcome's the exact same. So we've tried, super strict. And then I've done a show where I've been a little more laid back
and the outcome's the exact same.
So we've tried it both ways.
And so obviously now we approach it
a little more casually because you can.
And it's more fun, I feel.
I hate measuring stuff.
I hate measuring stuff.
Exactly, and you don't have to.
You have to for a little bit
and you have to until you get good at it.
But you don't have to be-
You gotta have a general understanding.
The scale's good for the first few months,
but then try to ditch it.
Try to be fucking intelligent
about your food.
Just use common sense.
Yeah.
You know when you're overeating.
Right.
Hold yourself accountable.
Yeah.
So I think we freaked him out
because we were
pretty chill.
But in the end like.
I just had to be like
dude I know what I'm doing.
Yeah.
I got you.
And he's like.
And he trusted everything
we were saying.
I think he just wanted us
to be more like dictators. Like no can't do this you can't but we'd be like yeah
it's kind of important for us to learn too it's like some of these clients need a little bit more
of that yeah some some want to feel the challenge i could realize that or i can communicate with
them more you get what i mean like once i realized he felt like maybe we're not maybe doing enough,
we're not on top of him enough, all I had to do was hit him up
and be like, hey, listen, just so you know you can trust me,
and I've done this a million times, and don't worry, you're good.
And he was like, okay.
It's crazy how powerful it is when somebody makes a comment
on your personal appearance.
If somebody says something about your
shoes like oh dude i dig your shoes like that's cool but it comes and goes your car whatever it
might be oh it's a nice hat or or the clothing you guys are making now would be different because
you guys are creating it but when somebody makes a comment and they and they say man your legs are
really coming in or your shoulders are looking great like what have you been doing man you are you are like on cloud nine you're like fuck yeah i'm jack that guy's right
you feel like you can take over the whole world and for some people that are starting to get in
shape a little bit of that you know positive reinforcement can really go a long way huge
very true they hear that and they're like oh shit yeah this is working i am doing the right thing yeah especially if you're specific like you said like oh your shoulders are looking
good because then when they go to train shoulders they're going to be like yeah like extra pumped
instead of just all around like oh yeah like you're looking great like it is good to be specific and
like point out the details it's been super cool to be over at gold's and just you know it's great
having you there i've never i've never done a bodybuilding show. I've never even been to a bodybuilding show.
How's that going?
It's going great.
Yeah, you look great.
It's fun, you know.
It's crazy that the composition of the body can change so much, right?
Yeah.
Because I've seen old pictures of you being a big motherfucker.
Big boy.
Yeah, yeah.
And it's like a different human.
But it's been great being over at Gold's because, you know, all the people I'm running into,
everyone's been so positive.
They're like, oh, yeah.
It's a good gym.
Yeah, they're like, you're going to do great.
It's a really good gym.
Yeah, it is. It's definitely changed because when i first went there 10 years
ago it was way more competitive and like i think a lot of people trying to find their way back then
i remember i remember what it's kind of yeah it was kind of douchey it was kind of like a little
of the old school guys they were great and all but a little stiff a little rough yeah they were
like always a little bit yeah they're competing against each other for clientele.
They're awkward around each other.
And this new generation, which I love, this new generation of positive reinforcement,
and everyone's there to help each other.
Everyone wants to see everyone be successful, and they're there.
They'll show you love.
They'll show you compliments.
That's what that gym is now, and it's a really fun environment day in and day out.
Besides being not picked up all the time and a little stinky it's a really great fucking gym
like it's it's it's awesome you can get to be a little like fuck like humid and gross dude today
was brutal gets pretty gross in there sometimes it was humid this morning were you in there this
morning yeah it's humid as fuck this morning wasn't it like you just walking around sweating
which i like you'll get shredded for your show it's perfect timing for you man you'll benefit from it yeah i was on the uh the stairmaster
and uh a woman went to get next to me on the stairmaster and i said
i'm like sweating all over my stairmaster and it's splashing all over yours i'm sorry
and so i i put a hoodie on to try to prevent it, but it was just going everywhere.
She's like, I don't care.
I was like, okay, cool.
Yeah, yeah, right?
That's what's nice.
You got to have that grunginess to it,
but it's not grungy.
It's definitely a good mix of both worlds
of new equipment and shitty old equipment
that works great.
But yeah, it's a unique gym for sure.
Yeah, it's such a good atmosphere.
More people do need to pick up their shit, though,
if everyone's listening.
Pick up your shit.
What's some of the goals with the apparel company?
Go ahead.
I guess maybe even,
you kind of mentioned it started by accident.
How did it?
Yeah, it did.
So it started by accident with us
just trying to promote the training business.
Right.
And you mentioned, yeah, just the hoodie.
And then what was kind of the progression from there?
Well, I think the movement of why we why we would produce clothes so we wanted a real movement
and the i am built for for us was like to be you to be strong whatever it is that you choose to do
so we were actually like this actually a great idea like people can wear the apparel line and
it's promoting a great cause and a great movement so the the the apparel was all
about creating a movement and trying to be a better human for yourself and whatever it is you're
trying to do um and it always kind of was just by demand like even still we've stopped it a couple
times just because we get bored lazy lazy is a better word and we don't want to refill it and
we don't want to come up with new ideas and or we just get busy or we want to travel and so like i'm the one who packages and ships everything and if we're traveling i can't
do that and so i'm like lazy to hire somebody so we're just like yeah like let's just do no
no apparel right now but then it's like back by popular demand people always say like oh when are
you going to have new this or when are you going to have new that so we get inspired to redo it and
so we do do it very casually it's a great way to do it though and it very casually. It's a great way to do it though. And it's a great, it's a great way to get business.
Business wise.
It takes all the stress off.
People would be so upset business wise at us because we always say like,
man,
we could be making a lot more money,
but then it would be not very enjoyable for us.
So we really,
the money's still there.
It's fine.
Yeah.
It's still there and it will still come.
Like it,
it just,
um,
I have brought my apparel a bunch of
different times in and out for some of the same reasons yeah i didn't have it for a while and
brought it back stronger and this way and that way and i've everywhere i've even done that with
my podcast exactly like yeah it's always just like an on the side yeah and you got to be able
to put that you got to be passionate about it. Yeah. I think that's what it is.
It's like maybe it's not even laziness.
I think it's passion.
Because if you truly loved doing it, it would be easy.
Yeah.
And now we're really excited for the new line, the I Am Built For Her,
because it's a great movement again.
Right.
And we're really excited about promoting this and empowering women
and pushing this type of movement and building this. it's it's something that's really exciting you
guys do that to the podcast together is it just you it's just my buddy Sean and
basically the podcast is is kind of like what we're doing here we just talk about
real-life situations and a lot of topics for most people is is how to be better
you know as a better human better yourself because that's something I really enjoy talking about quite often.
I can share my brain and how it works because I feel it's a little unique in how it approaches things.
And a lot of it's just instinctive.
I just started reading literally last week because I always had trouble with reading and comprehending.
last week um because i always had trouble with reading and comprehending but um the way my brain works um i'm very fortunate in the way it sees the world and the way i move forward and um i and i
liked and then i became aware of like how to help people get to the same position of where i'm at
so i like i like talking about that kind of stuff helping them become more present helping learn and
evolve about themselves um so that's kind of what our podcast is mainly about.
So we'll take questions and stuff like that
or things that we've learned about
and our perspective on things.
And usually most of the time it's on point.
So it's fun.
Yeah, the two things we're consistent with are our trainings.
Like those are, that's the baseline
and then the apparel, the podcast.
Whatever else we do kind of just comes in waves.
YouTube videos are fun too.
I love making those.
Yeah.
Yeah.
They just get expensive.
Yeah, because you've got to pay someone.
Editing stuff.
You know, yeah, YouTube, it can be more difficult that way,
but something that I've learned with YouTube is it doesn't always have to be
a big production. That's true. You can still take something that you've learned with YouTube is it doesn't always have to be a big production.
You can still take something that you did
during the day, but I think what's
interesting here is, are you guys
together? I think that there's
something that you guys should be doing together
social media-wise.
I know that you both have your own social media,
but maybe a podcast
or maybe just YouTube.
You guys just even just sitting down.
Maybe that would be a good way to keep your YouTube going.
I agree.
It's me.
If you guys sat down and you talked about, let's talk about the week.
Last night he ate pizza.
I don't know what he's doing.
I'm recovering from this foot thing.
You guys can give each other a little bit of shit,
but also just talk about how you're able to eat and stay on task i agree i was actually
having this thought process of just having a q a once a week which would be genius i i had that
thought and like yeah it's great that you brought it up because i lost that thought too you know
it's one of those things i definitely yeah put out there the hard thing is you know you sometimes you walk away from something like this you're like oh great we got more shit to do right like it's one of those things i definitely yeah put out there the hard thing is you know sometimes you walk away from something like this you're like oh great we got more shit to do
right like it's because it it kind of adds to your it feels like it adds to your plate
but just try to as we mentioned in in the beginning try to do something that's easy
yes can we do one a month one a month would only be 12 One a month would only be 12 a year. Start low. Start low. Only be 12 a year, right?
That's not that bad.
And it is all easy.
There are benefits to being together,
and that is you motivate each other to do stuff,
and you do stuff together.
But one downfall is if one of us gets lazy,
it's easy for the other person to kind of be like,
yeah, I'll be lazy with you.
Because it's nothing that other of us really want to put the work in.
She didn't want to come on the podcast today. No, well well because this is a nightmare for me i hate video i hate speaking
to people like i like being behind the scenes and on my computer and like building websites and
going to the gym with my headphones on that's more of my personality so he is always suggesting like
come on the podcast or let's do youtube videos the thing is when she's on here she's great
right like she's great she's got she hates she's great. She's great. She hates her voice,
but your voice is great
and when you come on here,
More people need to hear from women.
I 100% agree.
More people need to hear from women.
Yes.
And that's another movement
that's very,
very important.
It's a very empowering movement
and I agree.
I always say,
it's always all dudes.
Always dudes.
The authorities
are always all dudes.
You're so right
because I don't feel like
I put myself out there at all.
I'll post pictures and my captains are really short.
You've been lifting since you were 13.
Yeah, and I don't...
How many other girls can say that?
That's true.
But even the little bits that I do put on the internet,
I get such great feedback.
I'll have girls message me saying,
you changed my whole life and I followed this advice
and I lost 40 pounds.
I don't want to know what to do from this monster.
Nobody wants to listen. It's very true though. I don't want legs like that even i'm just shy my legs
more though is is women women come up to me all the time like you got the nicest legs
yeah it's so funny they always compliment on my legs women do those calves so yeah it's my nice
shave job people can't handle it oh my god so she even says she's like
you mentioned uh some pretty big squats what kind of squats were those legs doing oh man when i was
21 22 years old i probably i i did i did seven plates for two reps awesome when i was younger
but i had no idea what that was yeah i'm a neanderthal i just and i remember i used to squat
i i remember i did back until i got hurt i had a really bad
quad pull like a severe quad i would must say it was probably a tear but it wasn't like off the
bone tear but i used to my normal workout would be like with four or five plates for like reps of 20
and that was like my normal squad yeah i didn't do anything intricate i was very just one
dimensional type of leg type it was just squats yeah four plates for 20 reps is no joke
yeah I would do
four sets of 20
and what's funny
was I was
I was shooting
with muscular development
that's devastating
yeah I was shooting
with muscular development
and they were like
hey can we watch you
do a workout
and muscular development
gave me that
funny name
quad god
which was funny
and Jay Keller
always makes fun of me
with that name
he's like the quad god
still to this day
still he still says it
but I never referred myself as the quad god but we're this day. Still, he still says it. But I never referred to myself as the quad god.
But we're shooting with muscular.
Be on your business card.
Right?
You've got to make a shirt.
Yeah, that could be a shirt.
Or shorts.
Shorts.
People would buy it too.
They would like it.
They still refer to it.
I never use it.
But I was shooting with muscular development.
And they're like, hey, would you like to do a wet leg workout?
And this is kind of like when I was coming up in the ranks um and bodybuilding um when i was just starting to make
a name i won uh the heavyweight division in the cal and they marked me as like the dark horse
coming in for the usas and it was the year like steve cluco turned pro and juan morel was there
and it was like these big names and that was the first time like my name was getting mentioned in
magazines from this small little town in upstate New York coming through
and I was doing well
coming through the ranks
and I remember doing a video
for muscular development
it was my first time
getting to shoot
with muscular development
and they're like
what do you do for legs
because your legs are ridiculous
they were like 32 inches
at the time
and I was like
I just squat
I just warm up
on leg extensions
and I squat
and they're like
alright man
can we see that
what are you going to do
I'm like I'll do four sets of 20 reps of 405 for you.
And that's pretty much it.
That's all I'm going to do.
And they're like, okay, cool.
So they come in and I'm warming up.
And it was the first set.
And I'm just like going through these reps a little quicker than I normally do.
And that was the problem because the camera was on.
And on rep number 17, it just was like it like three loud pops was pop pop
pop my knee came in and then it was like I could hear it and I finished the rep
and I racked I look at the camera I've never been injured in my life this is
the first time I've got hurt and I look I'm like yo I don't I don't know what
just I didn't know what happened I was unaware of injury I didn't know what was
going on but I I felt like there's something that had just happened that was really wrong so like i left the gym it was seven o'clock at night i was by myself
and i run to 7 11 i grab like five bags of ice and i go and i sit in the tub and this is literally i
think 16 weeks out or maybe not 16 maybe it was a little bit longer like it was just before i was
about to start my prep for the first time i was going to step on stage of the usas and i'm in the dark horse coming in i'm like holy shit i just i thought i tore my
quad off the bone um and then i went to the hospital and i didn't want to get an x-ray
because it was taking so long i left so i left and um it was so swollen that my leg turned into
an avatar leg i i blew black and blue stripe from my hip to my toes my knee was the size of my quad because all the
fluid and so I didn't know what to do and there was a there was like it felt
like there was like a gap missing in my quad so I thought like it was like way
up here so I just started like limping around still going to work every day
with a blue leg and like trying
to ride like a pedal and i couldn't even bend my knee on the pedal bike because it was so swollen
i like really didn't know what i was doing but just being cautious and then the swelling started
going away and all that kind of stuff and my leg did look a little weird and so i'm like well i'm
gonna try some leg extensions when lightness and so i start doing leg extensions and as i do leg extensions
my leg literally starts moving down and it like was atrophied and it fell right back into place
my quad sweep and that was it and then it was fine it was all better it was really weird your
leg was like healed not healed but it looked normal again there was like there was it was
like severe atrophy like it atrophied up into a pocket,
and then as I was contracting it,
it slowly rolled down.
Yeah, it was really weird,
like something I've never,
because I wasn't prone to injuries,
I'd never seen it before.
I didn't look up what this was.
It's kind of like one of my things that I'm dumb about.
Yeah, so that was my first real big injury.
Ever since then, I stopped squatting big
I've been such a pussy ever since when it comes to squatting
I mean I eventually went back up a few times
but that even that put that real fear
in again like before I didn't
like getting underweight and now it's like
fuck that I don't go above 315
now I'm like a lot of times in the Smith rack
like squatting 315
going really slow
what about kids?
two three years we're thinking in the Smith Rack. Like, it's fun, 315 going really slow. What about kids? Yeah,
two,
three years,
we're thinking.
Yeah,
maybe kids.
Yeah,
we're actually been talking about it a lot.
She's been asking me,
like,
dad questions,
like,
she's like,
so what would you do in this situation?
What would you do in this situation
trying to test me?
Yeah,
I'm,
I have to ask those questions.
You gotta be terrifying as a woman,
right?
I mean,
I guess picking the right guy.
Picking the right guy
or having a kid. Well, that too. That's probably more terrifying because you woman, right? Just picking the right guy? Picking the right guy or having a kid.
Well, that too.
That's probably more terrifying
because you're stuck with that person forever.
I guess not, though.
In one way or another.
It's a different perspective.
You know what's funny?
I think people can have kids with each other.
If you don't like each other, fine,
but just still be great parents.
Yeah.
You don't have to make your issues your kids' issues.
Yeah, you don't have to make your issues your kids' issues.
That's one thing that my parents were good at.
Even though they're divorced, they both parent well together still.
That's all you got to do.
There's really no fear you have on a child if we don't wind up being together forever.
I'll still be a great parent who respects this person.
She'll be a great person who respects me, and the kid will see that.
I just think having a baby growing in your stomach is just crazy.
Crazy.
It's wild.
It is crazy.
It changes your body, right? Unicorns. Unicorns. There's a lot of things just crazy. Crazy. It's wild. It is crazy. It changes your body, right?
Unicorns.
There's a lot of things going on.
Yeah, I'm curious to see how that goes down, right?
I'm excited for that, to be pregnant one day.
It almost seems like...
I got a weird thing with pregnant women.
You like them?
I do.
I feel the same way.
I think they're super cute.
I want to go up and hug them.
Hug them.
I'm the same way.
I want to rub their belly. It's true, they are. I want to give them a back massage. I want to hug them. I want to make sure they're safe. I'm like, oh, they're going to. I'm super cute. I want to go up and hug them. Hug them. I'm the same way. I want to rub their belly.
I want to give them a back massage.
I want to hug them.
I want to make sure they're safe.
I'm like, oh, they're going to think I'm so weird.
They are really cute.
That's so funny.
I have that same feel.
I think it's normal, that type of feel.
I get a little bloaty.
I like the look.
They look like powerlifters.
Yeah, that's sweet.
I have a question, actually.
How has your training changed now that you're doing bodybuilding versus powerlifting?
Yeah, so when I was powerlifting, I powerlifted.
And when I'm bodybuilding, I'm doing bodybuilding.
So like different rep ranges.
Yeah, the training's changed quite a bit.
I like to mix things up.
So I sometimes will pre-exhaust, as he was mentioning earlier.
Like I did leg extensions i did like
six sets of leg extensions because i know my power lifting self will try to come you know
make a comeback somewhere and so i went from the leg extensions to the squats and kept the weight
really light did super slow tempo you know but these are sets of what like higher than what you
do powerlifting yeah they're like in the 12 to 15 rep range a lot of times.
How do you like them at?
I love it.
You like it, right?
I love it.
Occasionally on certain movements, like say like the other day on incline press,
I did some sets of like four or five just to get like a feel of some heavy weight,
but nothing dangerous, nothing that's going to hurt.
Yeah, that's common in bodybuilding too.
And then bring the weight down and get the feel for it because i i still don't know how to contract stuff like i said i've
never done it before it's interesting right i've never done it before as opposed to being explosive
yeah and i've i've torn both biceps i've torn both my pecs like i've torn every i've torn just
about everything you think of and i've handled big weight i know how to get in and out of those situations you know like that's true on a bench press you you know you
lay down and the second the weights in your hands you're just trying to get that weight off of you
that's power lifting that's an interesting concept in and out of the movement you know i i used to
try to lift so fast in the bench press that i wanted to make the guy that would lift off for
me i wanted to make him scared
to like where he thought something shitty happened you know i would drop the weight and then boom
throw it back up and i wanted them to be like what the what the hell just happened right that's
intense yeah and so yeah it would be like just you know all out just oh i do not enjoy that style
yeah that's amazing blow blow those blow those lifts out big big. But now it's like you get into a rep range or you get into a set and you find how it feels.
How did you get over the fear when you had these injuries?
Because that's something I actually struggle with.
When I get hurt, it's like, oh, don't do that again.
All right, be careful or slow it down.
Yeah, so you'll probably enjoy this because I think you're a deep individual.
I think that the strongest pull that we have as human beings is back to your own identity,
the identity that other people think that you are, or not even the identity that other
people think you are, the identity that you think other people think you are.
So I'm Mark Bell.
I'm the power lifter.
And so that pull back to that is so strong that there's no there's
no other i don't really have i feel like i didn't have a choice that's pretty neat yeah the choice
to like pull back towards that is going to happen like i'll do some you know i'll get injured and
i'll start working out again and i'm no i'm not gonna do it i'm not gonna do it no i'm not gonna
do it you know and weeks go by months go by i start to feel better and then sure enough we're piling the plates back on back on it so that's kind of the way
that's kind of the way do you feel it'll become to a certain point where like like just based on like
the longevity process i've seen your few posts where you've kind of touched up on that where
you're like i can't really do this much longer as far as these heavy, heavy numbers.
Do you feel like it'll eventually fully taper out
to where you don't have to?
No, it won't.
And here's why.
It's because I've switched everything up.
I mean, to be totally honest,
I kind of thought in some ways that I was done
because I've torn a bunch of stuff before.
So my arms over the years have gotten smaller.
I mean, I was big and fat
but my arms were like 23 inches they were huge my biceps and my triceps but once i tore my biceps
now it's just now i got there's triceps right so getting back getting into bodybuilding and
starting to really concentrate on it and stuff i made huge improvements on my arms on my legs in
like three weeks and i'm like oh wait a second like i'm not done like i'm
just getting started this is fucking awesome this is really cool and so i think that this bodybuilding
show i don't think it'll be the end of me bodybuilding i don't think it'll be like a one
and done type thing i think i'll probably use this show as a learning tool to get better and to try
to advance a little further in
it i i don't really have a goals laid out or anything like that i just i just want to do a
show do well and then maybe do one every other year or something like that just to have that
discipline that mindset of like really going in cool this one was really last second kind of thing
i was i did a podcast with uh hanny rembot and and he came on
the podcast he was like uh hey there's a show here in sacramento i looked it up it's at the end of
august and he's like you need to do it he's like you owe it to your fans he's like you got in good
shape you look great he's like and i think i think you got what it takes you'll do awesome and i was
like okay you're gonna give me world-class advice i'm not gonna turn that down yeah right so here we are so exciting it's cool that's really here we are
and i you know there's been you know you need to see the comments sometimes on the internet and
stuff but uh you know some people are saying oh it's like a publicity thing or whatever well yeah
of course it's going to help my brand you know i did power it also helps you yeah yeah yes that's that's
i'm mainly i'm mainly doing it to what i want to show people is how much you can really change
um when i was 330 pounds and i was hitting those big lifts that's all i was obsessed about those
numbers i really was like it didn't matter if i blew off a peck it didn't
matter if i tore something i was going to figure out how to bench press 800 pounds i was going to
figure out how to squat a thousand pounds and these are just things that i that they were going
to happen almost no matter what but i what i wanted to show people was not only could i lose
weight and this isn't about me it's about showing them what they can do for themselves right yeah so I as I started to lose weight it's kind of cool drop a
bunch of weight get in shape like oh wow he lost you know lost weight but also
your body composition starts to look a lot different when you start to lose
excessive amounts of weight and there's points where people are like oh that
doesn't look so good like he doesn't look like he doesn't look anything like
the old mark bell which is good
in some ways but i want to distance myself so far from those pictures to where you just don't even
know it's the same person you know it's almost like the other person's buried not that there's
anything wrong with the other person i liked i liked who i was then i like who i am now
but it's just to show people how much you can change and that's a physical change but
what other changes can you make yeah you know from your mindset you can make yourself
so strong when i was in school you know i had trouble reading i always thought i was dumb i
thought i couldn't read i thought all these things were true about myself because they're things that
i was taught they're things that i learned too and I started to build myself up in the gym I
started to build up strength and I'm like Jesus Christ if I can bench press 400 pounds I can
probably I can figure out all kinds of stuff if I can bench press 500 pounds there's probably a lot
more I can figure out than you know I ever thought and then something like the slingshot came along
and kind of the rest has kind of laid itself out but i want to show people that
it's just all about building some of that momentum you get one foot in front of the other you get
that momentum and you don't ever stop you mentioned the thing about uh you know eating unhealthy
you know sometimes somebody say when's the last time you had a cheat meal you might be like
uh it was uh you're like it was like three months
ago right and somebody else might go what the fuck are you talking about three months ago
it's because you don't want anything to derail you you're so honed in you're so focused you're
so laser focused in on that goal that you want to have that that's where you have it's a good tool
that's where you feel the best that's where you feel the best
that's where you feel the strongest and you can build that willpower yeah and so that's kind of
the way i look at it and when you're talking about doing a bodybuilding show or your some of your
shows and again that compliment that you get someone says wow you look great where were they
a couple days ago or a couple weeks ago they didn't understand that you were putting one foot
in front of the
other yeah and you finally look up and a bunch of people are telling you that you're doing great
and you're like i don't know what you're talking i'm doing the same stuff i was doing
josh brolin's great example how old is josh brolin 50 just turned 50 yeah crazy who was he when he
was 40 i know he was already an accomplished actor but who was he to the whole world he was a nobody right i get what you mean you know what i'm saying like that's what people
would ah he's just an actor who's done a couple movies and he's in a couple decent things now
he's the fucking man but what changed nothing you know he i know he went through a couple things but
he laser focused in though yeah one foot in front of the other. He did all the shit that he was supposed to do
and now he's on top of the world
and people act like it's magic.
That's so true though.
That's awesome.
It's a cool way to see it.
So it's end of August?
End of August, yeah.
In Sacramento.
Nice.
That's so exciting.
I need someone to
get that tanning
stuff and all those
compromising positions.
Just put the sock on or no sock.
There's a sock?
Yeah.
I think most of the times
out of niceness,
you can put a sock over it.
A tube sock?
Yeah, tube socks.
Or just a regular...
A baby sock.
Ankle sock, a baby sock.
He steals my socks.
I steal Steph's socks.
What's that baby sock for?
What do you guys have coming up?
Anything on the horizon
that you got planned?
I know you
mentioned uh the women's clothing line that sounds exciting that drops in about a week or so
yeah probably sometime this week what's the website um so our main website is iambuilt.com
and then you can link from there to apparel website which is iambuiltapparel.com
yeah cool yeah um josh starts getting ready for the next film, X-Force.
So we start training for that, I think, in October.
So we start getting geared up for that, which will be a lot of fun.
Yeah, we have a training program right now.
It's called Cable Built.
It's Josh's 12-week transformation program.
So including training, nutrition, and supplements.
And we made it comic book style.
Really?
Yeah.
It's so fun.
It's a whole comic book
hard copy everything we've got the hard copies coming in this week should i want to get one
yeah we'll give you that man that sounds awesome it has everything everything and it's written
out it has like jokes and like split up all like a comic book it has stuff in there it's hardcore
because he trained like a beast for 12 weeks everyone hits us up he's like wait did he really
do this i'm like yeah yeah but it's exactly what he did.
He trained three times a day.
They're like, no, he didn't.
Fuck that shit.
Yeah.
The funny thing is,
is like everyone like screams the sups
and I'd be more than happy to tell people
if sups were involved.
But Josh and he,
and now his wife is,
is she?
Six months.
Six months pregnant.
And when this movie,
when we started filming for this movie,
I even mentioned it. I'm like, hey, are you thinking about PED you thinking about peds at all or you know because you are 40 he was 49 at
the time trend everyone says trend trend yeah i'm like i'm like are you actually thinking about this
you know i mean what are your thoughts and he goes i can't he's like me and katherine are going to
try to make a baby yeah and he is 49 years old he's like i can't be messing around with that
stuff right now and so for everyone out there like he was he was 100 natural is 49 years old. He's like, I can't be messing around with that stuff right now. And so for everyone out there, like he was, he was a hundred percent natural at 49 years old,
putting that work in and, uh, he made that shit happen. So like, it's, I think it's important
to know that a lot of people can do this if you really put your mind to it. I mean, yeah,
he was training three hours a day and a lot of people are like, well, I just don't have the time
to do that. I'm like, well, motherfucker, I train three hours a day on top of all my clientele's
on top of my four dogs on top of being a husband right so there is time just get up at
three just get up early that's what you're doing you're getting up early making it the gym at four
you're running your whole business you got your wife and your kids you're making that and the
culture there too at the gym when you when i talk to some of the other guys you know mike is always
like hey what'd you have for breakfast? Because Mike is a real consistent,
he's got the bodybuilder mentality of
there are no missed meals.
Not that he has never messed with fasting,
but he's not like an intermittent fasting guy.
A lot of these guys-
Well, what works for him works for him.
Have these principles,
but the question isn't what did you have for breakfast?
The question is how are you taking care of yourself getting ready for the show that's really what he's asking
right and he goes around to each guy and there's like five or six of us and every single person
ate you know everything they had their own thing they're eating so everyone's on their own little
schedule whatever but but everybody ate you know everybody had coffee or pre-workout like
that means that everybody to get there at four
o'clock woke up at probably three o'clock three or 245 or something 15 minutes and straggling and
getting out the door and that's a thing too i think i think that's that's important to show up
before and do what you need to do so you have the most optimized workout and that's one thing i have
with some of my clients i'm like yo you're not only showing up
on time showing up five minutes late like you should be showing up 30 minutes early and stretching
yeah warming up on the treadmill mentally getting prepared so you can have the best workout for
yourself my wrestling coach he used to say if you're not 15 minutes early then you're 20 minutes
late and i used to always say that's so confusing just tell me when to fucking show up right like
that's how i am too i'm like 40 i'm like 30 games for the people me when to fucking show up right like that's how i am too
i'm like 40 i'm like 30 games for the people that can't fucking show up on time yeah but yeah i
mean that's funny but yeah check out that program it's cable built it's on our website it's badass
it has everything it's a cool 12-week transformation program that josh actually did. Give us your Instagram links.
Mine is Justin D. Lovato.
And mine is Steph J. Lovato.
All right, that's all the time we got.
Strength is never weakness.
Weakness is never strength.
See you guys later.
Take it easy.
See you.
Thank you.