Mark Bell's Power Project - Power Project EP. 99 - Bryce Lewis

Episode Date: August 23, 2018

Bryce Lewis is a competitive, drug-free elite powerlifter in the 83-105kg weight classes. He holds records in both the USAPL and the IPF. Bryce took first place at 2018 Raw IPF Worlds at 105kg. His best numbers are 312.5kg squat, 225.5kg bench, and 337.5kg deadlift. He is also the founder and coach of the online coaching organization, The Strength Athlete. Rewatch the live stream:https://youtu.be/QTca8ivzeZ8 ➢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

Is that my understanding of it? Exactly. So that was like all Twitch was just video games. God, I feel so old sometimes. I just can't commit to watching someone play video games. Do you have brothers or sisters? I have a brother, yeah. Yeah, so like I grew up with two older brothers,

and the most agonizing thing ever was watching somebody else play a video game. Because you want to play. And yeah, now that's a thing. Yeah, it is. It's crazy. So yeah, he's doing it on there, and there's a section, there's a channel called IRL in real life. And so it's people broadcasting what's out their window in Paris or someone doing like yoga live for people. Right.

If you want to, if you're into that kind of thing. But yeah, he streams all his workouts. He's killing it. He pulls like, you know, 800 pounds, 750 for reps. It's nuts. Yeah. He's a, he's a beast and he's been on it for a long time. I think I went up to a meet in Washington and, uh, you know, he got my attention that day.

Cause I was like, wow. I'm like, who's this guy? And he was like 18 or 19. He was just lifting all kinds of crazy weights. Even back then. And he was very thin. I was like, I'm not kinds of crazy weights. Even back then, he was very thin. I was like, I'm not sure where all his strength is coming from, but it's coming from somewhere. Yeah.

So he just moved up to the 105s. He's kind of filling out and he's been lifting for like 18 years. So it'd be kind of cool to see how his journey was to get here too. 105 weight class. That's where you're at. Yep. 231. And when you came out here last time to

super training, you were in a lighter weight class, right? I was, I just got done with my last comp as a 93 kilo, 204 pounds. So I was sitting in like 206. Cause I think that ended up making a big difference because you had an amazing year. Uh, huge. It made a huge difference. Um, the move up to one Oh fives was, was really good. Now that there's the suppression of the body weight though, for a little while, maybe that kind there's the suppression of the body weight though for a little while maybe that kind of led to some of the gains too it's possible um at least gaining weight slowly you know a lot of people when like oh you know like there's this mentality and power thing like you need to get huge you need to just fucking eat everything um true caveat do it slowly because

otherwise all you're going to gain is body fat, right? So people, people tend to gain a little too quickly, especially on the, the raw drug free side. Like your body only can put on muscle mass so fast, right? And if you're gaining weight faster than that rate, guess what the rest is. And I think people could be a little more patient on that side of things. That's really important to talk about is the, is the drug free side of things. You know, people want to beat around the bush all the time and they want to not explain

the facts to you and people see my progress and, and they, they do need to understand that I am enhanced. I have, you got people seen bigger, stronger, faster. Um, I hope that nobody is ever, uh, thinking that my gains are like the way I was able to turn things around in, in nine weeks, uh, in that my gains are like the way I was able to turn things around in nine weeks, uh, in my opinion is not realistic without. Sure. And, um, that's my opinion.

Maybe somebody else could figure out, uh, some other ways of, uh, of doing it differently, but all the cardio and all the type of training that I'm doing mixed with, uh, there's a lot of hard work that goes into it. It's not, it's not to, it's not to pull away from the hard work, but it's to explain the full story and to have transparency and to, to really explain to people what is truly happening, because the amount of cardio training that a lot of bodybuilders do going into a contest could leave a natural athlete, not looking the same way. It could end up being stringy and just not being as full. Sure.

And there's a huge difference. And, you know, when you came in today, I think, I don't know if you get your body fat tested or what your diet looks like, but to me, it looks like your body composition has improved. Your body weighs up 15, 20 pounds, but that was over a year ago, two years ago. Yeah. Two and a half, three years or something like that. So there was some, there's some time in there. Yeah. Yeah. Um, certainly a little bit more body fat these days, um, than it was, but I was cutting, um, down to my weight class from like 217 or something like that. Um, so, so real off season weight, I've probably put on 10, 12 pounds or something, which is good for that amount of time.

It, it takes a while to put on muscle, like I said. And you're right. Like going back to what you said, comparing between, uh, athletes who use and athletes who, uh, who are drug free, especially on the bodybuilding side, things are going to be different. Right now you, you probably need more protein. You can probably handle more training, um, volume and probably respond better to more training volume too. Um, yeah, probably quite a lot of differences that, I don't know, change the pace. Now, when it comes to powerlifting, we're seeing an incredible shift, um, because what's your best deadlift? 805 in training with straps competition, 771. What's your best deadlift?

805 in training with straps competition, 771. So there's a perfect example. Um, why there's obviously there's, there's tons of differences, uh, between you and I, but the fact is both of us are extremely intelligent and unbelievably handsome. Sure. I mean, we have to put that out there. We've got to let people know what's up, right? That's baseline. But, uh, you've deadlifted more than me. My best deadlift in competition is 766. That's in powerlifting gear

with assistance, but we've seen that across the board. Uh, guys like Ray Williams, he's a tested athlete and I'm just going to assume, you know, that these tested athletes that get tested, uh, repeatedly, I'm just going to go ahead and give them the white lights, so to speak, and just say that they're clean. Cause I don't, I'm not a person that's going to sit here and, and believe that all of them are dirty, but I'm also not a person that's going to believe that everyone's following all the rules all the time. But at the same time, I think it would be asinine to think that like nine out of 10 people are using stuff and getting past these tests. Otherwise, um, I think more of the lifters would complain and say, Hey, look, you know, come on. It's very obvious. Why are we seeing some of these natural athletes be able to surpass some of the lifts that have

been done by, uh, athletes that aren't natural? It's a great question. Um, so first I think there's just more people competing in palatting than there used to be. So we've got kind of a larger pool to draw from of talent. Right. I think one of the other things that's so hard for people to swallow as a pill is that there are outliers. Purely there's outliers, and there's going to be people that just excel in the genetic pool that are capable of things that the rest of us aren't. And this is across all dimensions of life. There are people that probably have a leg up in intelligence, maybe even a specific domain, like intelligence with

spatial recognition and someone who has kind of naturally inherent tendencies towards creativity or strength or speed or strength in a specific motor pattern or something like that. This is very hard for people to accept, I think. Yeah. And I do think that people understand it on certain levels, but sometimes when it comes to other things, they don't want to believe it. But it's very clear when you're a child and you're seven years old and uh they have every kid like play an instrument and one kid's just like yeah man i know how to play the piano and like who taught you and nobody yeah or kids today are like i've listened to stuff on youtube or watched a couple things and they're like experts at some of this you know they're they're just on another level

absolutely and like i'm not just saying like genetics is the only thing. Um, we've got kind of this interplay between, um, what their environment is, what they were exposed to, uh, who their coaches is like, what, what's their training? Were they exposed to good training at a young age? Um, did they figure out kind of what was right for them and stuff like that? I think too, powerlifting is still a pretty new sport. Um, so we kind of still have to see how things progress, but if you go back and look at, um, the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, before steroids were ever in popular usage, you'll see some of the strength levels of some of these guys is not far off what people are lifting today. So it's not like human beings got better in a hundred years or something

like that. It's, it's kind of just that got better in 100 years or something like that it's it's kind of just that we're seeing these people compete in powerlifting you know like i remember seeing a picture of a dude lifting on a probably a janky ass bar back in 1920 and like 10 different types of plates right um but but wade and it's like 770 780 he's dead lifting back then you know and probably with a round back because he didn't know like anything. Right. But the strength is there

and it has been there for a long time. So I don't think the strength of the human population has changed all that much. It is a really interesting thing. And I think from what I recall is we've had other people on this podcast that mentioned there was like a book written about it, famous book.

And it basically kind of says that if you were to take, uh, Hussein bolt and you were to take similar conditions of the track that they ran on back in the day. And anyway, you take all these scenarios. He just basically laid out the exact same thing that you said is that, um, you know, Jesse Owens or somebody like that, like, uh, he didn't run as fast as Hussein bolt, but, Jesse Owens or somebody like that. Like, uh, he didn't run as fast as Hussein Bolt, but,

uh, given similar scenarios, it's, it's almost all the same. Yeah. I think that was, you're talking about David Epstein, the sports gene.

There we go. yeah, super interesting book. And I agree. I think it's the case that a lot of the conditions have changed. Um, like Nike just kind of sponsored that guy trying to break the five minute mile,

four minute mile or something like that And they had to wait for the the wind speed to be perfect and the ambient temperature to be perfect So basically, you know just kind of trying to optimize environment the best way possible forgiving from misspeaking on any of that but Yeah, I think environment and conditions play a huge role in powerlifting too, right? And yeah, I think environment and conditions play a huge role in powerlifting too. Right. Yeah.

The, uh, the four minute mile was a thing for, for many, many decades until it got broken. And then when it did get broken, I think now, uh, there's over 20,000 people that have done it, including kids that are in high school. Yeah. And we're starting to see that more in powerlifting where it's like, you know, a, a 700 pound deadlift or 700 pound squat, you know, that used to be a huge, huge thing for 700 pound squat. And now you might see a high school kid do it. You might see somebody who's only been doing a sport for like two years, jump into it. And they're like, is that supposed to be hard? You know, like they're like, they just don't even have this right.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Did I do that right? And it's like, yeah, you, you touched your ass on the ground. I was not, not bad, you know? So it's really cool to see the sport evolve. What do you think's going on with some of these ladies? I'm seeing girls, you know, it's demoralizing. I had to delete social media off my phone completely because I'm tired of being outlifted by females and I won't have it anymore. So the only thing I can do is sweep it under the rug and just pretend it doesn't exist. Right. It doesn't, it doesn't exist. These girls are starting to go bonkers.

Your girlfriend over here is an IPF world champion. Is that correct? Yep. That's unbelievable. What, I mean, what is going on with the female lifters? Do you think it's kind of the same thing that you mentioned with the men? It's just, there's more girls in the sport. And so we have a larger genetic pool to kind of select from.

Yeah, I think that's, that's certainly the case. Um, I think it is true that there's better information generally in powerlifting than it used to be. Um, so even if the information isn't perfect today, it's better than it was 20 years ago, 30 years ago. It's perfect if it's coming from Bryce Lewis. Um, and that helps people train smarter and And by training smart, I'm not talking about like the nitpicky stuff. I'm talking about like broad brushstrokes of what can we do to avoid

injury and keep someone progressing for longer? Cause if, if we're talking about like the things that stop someone from being the best powerlifter they can be like, it's the basic stuff. Do you still like powerlifting? Do you still like what you're doing? And did you get into a career-ending injury that you can no longer lift anymore? So as long as you kind of avoid those big things that prevent you from lifting, enough time and you're going to reach your potential, as long as you're training somewhat smartly.

So, yeah, I mean, the information out there is better. There's a better pool of athletes to draw from, and people are just working hard. You know, I mean, the information out there is better. There's a better pool of athletes to draw from, and people are just working hard. You know, I'm seeing crazy lifts that I've never seen before, you know, on the women's side. And it's nice to see that because we saw guys like Dennis Cornelius, guys like Ray Williams doing this on the men's side for RAW. Dennis Cornelius.

Cornelius is a monster. What is going on with that guy? I mean, that guy's a true Neanderthius. Cornelius is a monster. What is going on with that guy? That guy's a true Neanderthal. I mean, unbelievable. Yeah. Unbelievable. He's country strong in every sense of that word. Yeah.

I lift him with no shoes on and stuff like that. I mean, yeah, it's just, it's crazy where some of the, uh, some of the numbers are going. And I was watching the CrossFit games the other day and, uh, you and I were talking about it in the gym a little bit. the CrossFit games the other day. And, you and I were talking about it in the gym a little bit. And, um, again,

I mean, the guys, a lot of the CrossFit guys were lifting some big weights. Uh, Matt Frazier, who won the CrossFit games again. Um, I think he deadlifted around 500 pounds,

but there was a few other guys, 550, 575. Yeah. And, you know, you get power lifters, you get all huffy puffy and like,

it's not really, you know, that's not a big lift, but it's like, listen guys. Yeah. Have fun running a triathlon the day before. Yeah. 10 other events and then go try to do it.

Yeah. What these guys are doing is, uh, is beyond unbelievable. And plus you got to keep in mind that that was within an event where they had a time cap for a squat at a time cap for an overhead press. And then they had time cap for a deadlift. And it was the third event of the day. Yeah. It's like, it's really, uh, really pretty unbelievable what they're able to do.

What, if any changes would you like to see in powerlifting just to kind of add a different dynamic to it? Um, would you, would you like to see like a three rep max or a five rep max or a round robin of, hey, Mark, you try 600, I try 600, then we go to 650 each, then 700. If you throw together any type of scenario, is there anything that you'd like to see as just a curveball, maybe not a permanent change to the sport. Sure. So on the what kind of changes side would I like to see, I think we need a safer way to squat for some of these big boys because in a lot of ways we're putting the spotters at risk, which they shouldn't be at risk. There's sometimes like seven guys up there, you know,

and number one, what can they all do together to catch a weight if it's falling forward or backwards or something um and then to have the lifters uh well just to have the bar like have the potential to free fall downwards i've seen some pretty sketchy situations so i mean if there was a way to combine a combo rack with some type of um suspension straps from above or some type of, this is the lowest the barbell could possibly go to save the lifters. I'd love to see that. But as far as interesting things, it's funny you mentioned that because this coming year at the Arnold, there's a new event

where you squat double your body weight for as many reps as you can. This is a new squat competition for you as a powerlifting. Um, so, so for me, um, 105 kilos, I'd be squatting, um, 210 kilos or basically just under 500 pounds for as many reps as possible. Um, which has its own kind of risks and stuff, but I think that's a nice way to mix things up a little bit. I've seen kind of hypothetical conversations on what would happen if we just got rid of weight classes and just had people lift as much as they could and compare your Wilks score compared to other people. How would that work? I think that'd be interesting, too.

I like the standardization of equipment. I like the fact that in USA Paladin, we've just got one bar across all three. So that's cool. But yeah, I would like to see the equipment change just a little bit on that regard. And maybe standardizing the flooring a little bit as well. Because we standardized the bench. We standardized the height of that and stuff. But I've had massively different, deadlifting on rubber versus

carpet on carpet A versus carpet B. Um, so just to kind of have that be an even playing field across, it'd be really cool. Rogue fitness. If you're listening, it looks like there's, uh, there's more, more room to, you know, fix things, uh, in that regard. And, um, you know, when it comes to the squat, that, that is something I did notice, uh, not an easy thing to fix, you know, like, uh, you could potentially have, uh, you know, a monolift system up there or something where, you know, people can still do their walkout,

you know, to keep, keep everything the same. Um, and you could have some straps, but then, you know, there'd still have to be some strategy involved in, you know, make sure you don't get your arm caught in the strap or your hand caught in the strap when the guy goes to dump the weight. But I agree that it is starting to get pretty, pretty scary. And, you know, I think sometimes people are like, oh, you know, a thousand pounds, like what are you going to do to stop a thousand pounds? Well, you're going to do the same thing with a thousand pounds that you're going to do with seven or 800 pounds. It's really, it's really going to be very heavy. Sure.

If one person grabs one side and the other person is not able to grab the other side. Yeah. A lot of times the bar itself and the plates themselves are not designed to really be caught by a spotter. And so maybe there should be thought into that too. I don't know what that would look like, but maybe the, you know, maybe for the squat, there's a handle or something.

I mean, it, you know, maybe the collar itself has a handle or some sort of, uh, way of, um,

of protecting those squatters. But yeah, it gets pretty gnarly when you see big Ray walking out a thousand 58 or whatever those weights are. Yeah. And yeah, I mean,

we want these lifters to stay with the barbell and really the only issue is when one of them starts to lose control. Um, but if, if they just can't stand up with it, you know, spotters are the 800 pounds is equal to a thousand pounds for that. Right. But if that bar is coming forward or backwards, you know, we want everyone to be safe and stuff. I think the reason why, uh, in, in a ideological sense, why USA powerlifting is kind of averse to the idea of a monolift is just like it takes the attention away from the lifter it's just this big ass piece of metal between you the audience and the lifter right um and we just we can't really see what's going on it removes the awe of oh my gosh this person's squatting this insane weight that no

human squatted before that kind of thing. Right. Yeah. And it just, it, uh, it has a way different, has a way different look and feel to it. What was your, did you, have you competed on the world level before? Uh, yes. So I've competed twice at the world level. Um, technically a few more times if, if like NAPF competitions count, but I went to Belarus last year in 2017. And this year I went to Calgary,

Canada. And what was your placing the first time you went to worlds? First time was second. Uh, and this time was first. Awesome. What do you think the biggest difference was between coming in second and coming in first? Um, man, to be honest this year, I really did not expect to do as well as I did. Um, we were talking a little bit. I kind of had some banged up injuries. Now going into the first competition, did you have different expectations? Did you think you were going to do better than you did? I went into the first one kind of with as couch. I mean, I can't help but stop you for a second here.

That squat form is just ridiculous. Thank you. It's amazing. I mean, I love ridiculous. Thank you. It's amazing. I mean, I love to watch you squat. It's awesome. Appreciate it. It's just,

you know, for people that haven't seen Bryce Lewis squat for you, you got to check it out. You got to check out his YouTube channel, check out some of the lifts that he's done. It's just all one. It's all one piece. It's,

it's the way the squat is supposed to look. The nice upright posture. And anytime he gets even remotely stuck at all, he just kind of pops his chin into the lift, throws his, uh, back into the barbell a little bit and is able just to, he's got, he just got strong legs, man. Yeah. Mom and dad gave me some good hips. There we go. Um. So expectations going into the first year.

Yeah. So I'm thinking, oh my God, this is my first world championships. What do I expect of myself? Okay, let me come out here and just put together the best performance I can. I don't really care about how I place or anything like that. I just want to have a good day. I want to feel what an international competition is like. I want to just try to make as many lifts as I can and and you know have fun at this it's new

experience so the goal for the longest time was let me just get to a world championship um and then it was okay let's let's just see what this is like let me just compete and that was enough for silver so this time around with all the injuries and stuff like that again it was just let me put up the best performance i can and honestly the athletes who i've talked with who end up performing best they really just focus on themselves as much as possible even up to the competition you know it's it's not oh my god who what's that check lifter doing or what's that russian lifter or what's that polish lifter or whatever it's um okay let's focus on me how did my first attempt looked okay here's my second attempt. Great.

And then just so on down the line up until third deadlift. Then you can start jockeying. Okay, do I think I can medal? Or do I think I just need to just put up a third? Blah, blah, blah. So there's some strategy kind of late game coming down the line for deadlifts. But really, a lot of it is just focusing on yourself. And I think that's easier i think it's less anxiety for the lifter um it was certainly easier for me to not worry about what

other people were doing and just being like all right well how did that squat feel great this kind of goes back to stuff you can control and you and i talked about that a little bit earlier i feel that sometimes some lifters are uh maybe overreaching a little bit and that, that might be why they get caught up in what other people are doing. For sure. So the overreaching shows itself in, uh, pushing training too hard. A lot of times like, uh, kind of try to catch up. So you learn that, you learn that discipline in training. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, or, or your body will learn it for you by saying, Hey bro, you can't handle the training that you're trying to handle. Uh, you end up snapping your shit up.

Yeah. And I noticed that in your training that you're, um, you're very, uh, you're very deliberate. Um, what weight did you squat, um, in this meet here? I squatted six 91, I think. And, uh, your best squat and training is seven or 705 or 700 even. Yeah. Yeah. I think I remember watching that.

I remember just, I think from what I remember that, that lift came out of nowhere. Is that right? Absolutely. Um, my, my best bench and my best squat have come out of nowhere. So it was on a day where I, I didn't plan to, um, and man, something you said to me a while ago, kind of stuck with me with me about hey you've only got so many days that you're gonna feel like a million bucks and you kind of want to take advantage of those right that's not to say like hey veer off program every time you feel good but it was one of those

days where I'm like hey this this feels really good like a 225 bench press feels like air let's add a little weight. Let's see how things go. Yeah. And that's kind of how, how that went. And that's a hard thing to monitor as a, as an athlete, because we do lie to ourselves a lot about how we feel. Yeah.

You know, we do have a tendency to, um, oh, the way you bailed out of that deadlift was amazing. Good roll. Trying to get the crowd into it. The, uh, you know, we have a tendency to lie to ourselves and kind of say, anytime anybody asks you how you feel, I feel great. It's almost like we're defensive. Yeah. Hey, how you doing?

I'm doing awesome. It's like you, you, you snap into it because you want to convince yourself that you're feeling great. Even if you're totally fatigued and totally run down. Yeah. And so that gets to be the hard thing to kind of monitor, uh, as you're adding weight to the bar. Previously, before that 700 pound squat in the gym, did you squat 670, 680? Uh, 672 was before that.

So it was a pretty big jump up. Um. It's a world of difference. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and I, I planned to try 675 and I missed it that day. Uh, dropped the weight down. My friend told me, Hey, reload it. Looks like it was a technical error. Went back up try 675 and I missed it that day. Dropped the weight down. My friend told me, hey, reload it.

Looks like it was a technical error. Went back up to 675, made it. Took a dumbass jump up to 700 and made that. And that's kind of how things go sometimes. You know, I mean, specifics aside, kind of generally just putting in work, knowing how hard to progress and stuff is the most important. So specifics of when to test your max strength are like so minor. just putting in work knowing how hard to progress and stuff is is the most important so specifics

of of when to test your max strength are like so minor yeah is there a side to you that is like uh almost uh maybe using like negative fuel or using more positive fuel are you like you know what fuck everybody else I can do this. I can, I can win IPF worlds. I can squat 700 pounds. I'm going to show everybody right now. Or is it more like I put in the work, I've been at this for a really long time. You're strong enough. You're good enough to do this. It's just a matter of time and technique. I wish I could say that I figured things out and like, this is who I am. Um, but I'm still trying to kind of figure out what motivates me and how do I best perform? Um,

I do really well with positive encouragement for sure. So kind of treating myself with kindness and being like, Hey, let's bring the focus back in on you. Um, I've got kind of the support of my girlfriend's support of my coach who kind of helped me reaffirm the fact that like I can do this because like it takes one or two sessions, especially when you feel like it's a high pressure situation to kind of throw you out of your groove and be like, oh shit, like, can you really do this? Are you are you really meant to be here? Um, so kind of having that external support, it's so easy to get in your head, uh, and have this echo chamber, um, if you don't have outside perspective. So having some type of outside perspective, if it's friends, if it's coach, if it's parents, um, to, to just say, you got this or to kind of reaffirm what you think you can already do.

Are you a music guy, a motivational speech guy, an audio book guy? Like what, what are you, uh, what helps you kind of dig deep during some of these training sessions? Oh, it's music. Like for sure. It's music. What kind of music we got going on? Uh, it used to be metal for a long time. Now it's kind of more dancey EDM type stuff. Um, it's been a little bit of Katy Perry here and there. Some club, some club music, some dance music. Yeah. It's been club music. Kind of like that uplifting, feel-good type stuff. Yeah. Coming in like a wrecking ball.

That puts me on another plane, man. It's like the focus I feel sometimes in those songs. It's amazing. It's kind of funny to admit in some way, but yeah, those songs, you know, I think some songs can kind of set you off in the wrong direction. Absolutely. Um, sometimes, you know, it's okay to, to, to, to feel, um, you know, kind of that overly aggressive feel that you might, that you might want to have for certain lifts, but really for a bench squat or deadlift, which is our trade.

and you're trying to constantly improve upon emotionally, mentally, physically, just you're trying to improve upon it in as many different ways as you can. It's maybe not great to be like out of your mind. If it's out of your mind, you could be out of control. Absolutely. And here I'm going to say one of your favorite words. I think it's about arousal. Can I get a hey now?

It's about finding that optimal state for you. And this is something that differs between some people. You know, if you take the calm lifter and you have them listen to metal, they're not going to perform as well. If you take the guy who needs to punch himself three times and have him listen to Enya, he's not going to perform well either. So it's kind of trying to find out what works best for you specifically. Yeah, I remember there was that one scene that we all remember from Jesse Burdick years ago competing. He was getting ready to do a squat

and I think he missed his previous squat and his coach was like, I'm going to get you fired up for your next one. And Jesse knows that his coach would hit people. He goes, hey going to get you fired up for your next one. And Jesse knows that his coach would like hit people. He goes, Hey man, get me fired up as you want, but don't hit me. He's like, I don't, he's like, I don't, I don't, uh, he's like, I'm not sure how I'll respond to that. You know, like don't hit, you know, don't do it. And so Jesse chalks up and he's getting all psyched up and everything. He's trying to get as hyped up as he can.

He missed the lift already. Yeah. And so he's going into his, uh, final attempt. And if he doesn't make it, he's going to bomb out. And so his coach whacks him. And just in a split second before you could even blink your eye, Jesse just decks him. You know, right away. And all you see is like the guy's hat fly off and you just see him like fly out of the picture. It's a really amazing YouTube video.

He warned him though, right? Yeah. Yeah. He was like, I don't, he goes, I don't know. He's like, I know that I don't like being touched. Yeah. So he's like, if you put your hands on me, he's like, I might blast you. And he just, he just wails him.

I don't think he like really punched him, punched him, but he, he did shove him. If a 300 pound guy pushes you, you're going to make some distance. Oh, we got it up on the screen here. Yeah. Yeah. Here's the clip. What's it called? So other people can kind of check it out.

I just, I just searched on YouTube. Jesse Burdick punches coach. Oh yeah. Yeah. This is old school too. This is like 10 years ago. Oh, he just smacked him. It's a smack for smack.

That's fair enough. I guess. Right. Oh my God. Yeah. is a smack for smack that's fair enough i guess right oh my god yeah i mean that's uh that's part of the fun of powerlifting is you can you can uh get out of your mind you can get fired up like that and just even watching people get watching people get psyched up is like it's part of the uh part of the fun it takes something special to get under 848 or something like that you know that obviously we don't start here but you got to be a special kind of person and draw on something to get yourself under that barbell. Yeah. In the gym, you were talking about visualizing stuff and how like it actually does have a real effect on the lift.

Yeah, for sure. So there are, there's a few sports psychology strategies that actually do have kind of, um, have been studied to show that they're effective. The problem is that it's hard to say that something works for everyone because people are so different, but visualization can, can take a range of different forms. It can be thinking about your success in the lift. It can be thinking about your failure, uh, of the lift and, and how to avoid that. Or, um, it can be visualizing what the crowd is or how the weight feels or just general squatting, or maybe visualizing your favorite lifter or something like that.

Um, but I think a lot of these things work because they focus your attention. So if your thoughts are elsewhere, visualization, music, um, uh, imagery,

all these things work to kind of and cues that we talked about before so external cues internal cues they just bring your attention to one specific place and it's kind of it's honing in that attention that really makes the difference you bring up a really good point if you if you're somebody that struggles with mobility uh for getting good positioning on a sumo deadlift but but you repeatedly watch, uh, like Andre Believ or some of these guys that can get in these magnificent positions. And that's in your head as you're pulling for the day, especially if it's on a day where the weights aren't so heavy that you, uh, you know, a lot of times these weights are just,

in my opinion, a lot of times they're, they're a little heavy-ish for you to be able to think about what you're doing. And in my opinion, a lot of the intermediate lifters and beginning lifters should use weights, uh, more often than not, uh, not to say that they should never use heavier weights, but more often than not, I think they should use weights they can think about. A lot of times you start to get four or 500 pounds

on your back and all you're thinking about is not dying, but get some weights on your back that represent something that you can kind of think about, whatever that is for you that you need to work on and need, you need to think about. about and again if it's that bottom position of the deadlift lock that bad boy in and make sure that's executed well when we were doing our rows today i mean you mentioned that you're you know had some upper back uh issues and stuff you had picture perfect form on on all your reps and it just goes you, you're going to have different time periods where you lift

a little differently, but the execution is king. And if you continue to work on your execution over a long period of time and you work on your range of motion, the likelihood that you're going to run into really, really, you know, catastrophic injuries is going to be reduced because you're moving through a range of motion that your body is accepting, your body's getting used to, and you're moving through these ranges of motion with weights that are still reasonable for your body at that time. Yeah, it's absolutely true. There's kind of a few ways you can do that. I mean, number one is just using higher reps. You're like, what's the absolute weight you can do on a set of eight?

It's probably 70, 75% at the highest. That's a, still a pretty reasonable weight. It's going to feel relatively normal for reps one through four. And then you can start getting into the reps that are a little bit harder and work on keeping your technique and stuff. Another way is just limit the RPE. So, okay, we're doing a set of three, but we're only doing RPE six. So you've got maybe three reps left in the tank, four reps left in the tank. By the time you finish that set, you've got a little bit of room to, um, to work on technique for sure. When it comes to a technical limit, you know, where somebody, uh, starts to fail, they start to lose, they can still do the lift, but they start to lose some of the

technical aspects that you're looking for in a lift. How do you kind of coach some of these guys through that? You know, some of these kind of newer lifters. Yeah. Um, you know, sometimes I'll hear someone say, oh, you know, I did this three by five or they did three sets of three, but all nine reps or all 15 reps were just these crazy versions of a, of a lift. And it's like, well, maybe you're kind of missing what your coach was trying to teach you.

Cause it, it looked like every lift should have been an abortion, you know? Yeah. I think it depends on goal. Uh, so if we're doing a max, then we care more about the weight on the barbell and less if we're doing max in a competition, we care more about the weight on the bar and less on what it looks like as long as, you know meets the standards of the performance but if we're just trying to train um it'll depend then on what that lifter's ideal technique is so i've got a few lifters i work with who genuinely truly and thoroughly lift better with a slightly rounded back than they do with a flat back it's it's hard

to identify those lifters first off and foremost. Maybe you have to have them try flat back. Okay, performance is decreased. Lifter's complaining. Just nothing is working here. Okay, so we figure out they're a round back deadlifter. Then this is their new ideal position, and that's what we want to work towards. But if we've got all those pieces in place, yeah, we want reps to look good. We want to get closer and closer to this lifters ideal technique. Um, but I think it's a mistake to have a universal ideal of what a good technique is. Even if we can say, oh, wow, Bryce's squat is really pretty here because your squat may look dramatically different and that may be your best squat.

So we want to, we want to define what is right, not in a universal sense, but what is right for you specifically. And it's really hard to swallow that pill for lifters with long femurs and short torsos when your best squat is pretty darn folded over. Yeah. For myself, I knew that I started to learn because I hurt myself so many times and I just, I'd get so frustrated and I was like, man, why do I keep, you know, why do I keep jacking myself up? You know? Um, this was like early in my career.

I just didn't have the size, um, to match my height probably. And I was probably just lift, I was probably just going too heavy, probably lifting heavier than was necessary too often. Yeah. Probably would not get any reprieve from any of that. necessary too often. Yeah. Probably would not get any reprieve from any of that.

And, um, anyway, what I learned was, is that I could round over in a workout, but I can only do so about twice. So anytime I did more than that, uh, I was just asking for trouble. So I could, it could be two reps in a row. Um, it, it could happen, uh, in a duration of, of, of a couple sets of three, a couple sets of five, but I had about two in me to be able of, of, of a couple sets of three, a couple sets of five, but I had about two in me to be able to really get, you know, kind of rounded over anytime I went beyond that, uh, each and every time I noticed, uh, because for me, my back, um, I think just because of like mobility or rigidness or whatever, my back doesn't really round very well.

And so when it gets rounded, now I'm really in a crazy compromised position. It's probably putting more pressure on my spine maybe than somebody else. Yeah. And so therefore I didn't have a lot of those in me to do in, uh, you know, in, in training. And so I would ask other lifters, I'd say, Hey, you know, you know, watch, watch me on this one, man. If I round even just a little bit, please let me know. Cause I might take one more set or I might just discontinue and move on, you know?

And so I had to always be kind of cautious that, and it wasn't really about hurting my back. Um, although, you know, that would hurt here and there, sometimes it was like a hip or sometimes it was just overall fatigue. Yeah. And, uh, the next training session for bench or something would be compromised. And then I started figuring out things like if I was fatigued going into that bench workout, um, or my back was off or my hips were off, then I'd hurt my shoulder. Yes.

Um, I've had situations before where, you know, I fell with that big, big weight years ago, 1,085. And I was like, oh, this, you know, because you're a meathead, what else are you going to do? I'm like, this would be a great time to just focus in on my bench as soon as I felt good enough to lift again. And sure enough, I hurt my shoulder because now the entire movement has changed so much because now I'm lifting with my feet up or something. And, uh, the shoulder capsule is just in a totally different position.

So some of these things that you're not, maybe not thinking of, uh, when you're younger, you're kind of just like, you know, screw it, man. I'm just going to go all in. I'm going to lift like a maniac. And what a great, um, you know, what a great mindset to have, you know, that you're going to lift like a maniac, but, you know, be cautious enough and just realize if you can stay healthy, you can get a lot stronger stronger a lot faster. Yeah. I think one of the benefits to good programming, if there is kind of a deepest benefit, for powerlifting, for anything where we're looking for kind of an end goal, I go back in the gym and we're training right after this and I squat a set of 10 or an AMRAP and I go to absolute failure, maybe I get 12 reps on that set. And, you know, it's great. It's a PR.

It's awesome. I'm getting, you know, volume and stuff like that. That's severely going to limit my ability to work two days from now, three days from now, maybe this whole week. So I've dropped off a whole week of potential training just for this one highlight session. And I think managing energy and deciding, okay, how hard do I want training? When do I want it to be hard is really important because we don't really need everything to be difficult to make progress in powerlifting. We need things to be appropriately difficult at the right time. And that's something that I think people forget when they think about,

oh, balls to the wall, like let's grind, let's go. Is that, hey, not every session needs to be like that. Yeah.

Not every session all the time. One thing that Mark taught me this week, he crushed me. We were doing box squats and it was heavyweight for me. It was like 195, but on my last rep, I was kind of struggling. We were doing box squats and, uh, it was heavyweight for me. I, it was like one 95, but on my last rep, I was kind of struggling. We got it up.

And then just, he pulled the Mark Bell move and he's like, strip the weight, stripped it down to one 35. I was on my back. He just had me go till I couldn't go anymore. And then he's like, okay,

you kind of went nuts there. He's like, we got to think about the rest of the week because you went so hard today. It might actually hurt you, you know, uh, later on down the, down the road. It's hard to get about the rest of the week because you went so hard today, it might actually hurt you, you know, later on down the road. It was hard to get through the rest of the workout. Yeah, yeah. He was like all pale looking. It was crazy.

So, we immediately went from, you know, like strength training to like, hey, just get some mobility going. Hop on the leg press and just go for a range of motion. Don't worry about like actual strength. Yeah. And, I mean, it's so awesome, but like, I've never been told that before.

And it's, I'm sure a lot of people don't even consider like starting recovery right at like the day of the workout. Yeah. We made an audible. Yeah. Yeah. And it was great.

Yeah. I mean, if you imagine you've, you basically got a hundred marbles and you know, you can either, you know, put those a hundred marbles on day one or you can put 25 on on four days that's that's one analogy for it yeah when we were when i was wrestling you know in

in professional wrestling whenever you hit the canvas it's called a bump and uh we would always say like hey man i only got so many bumps in my pocket you know like so because what would happen is like a new guy would get in there and they would have all these things they wanted to do and you're like thinking wow that's a lot of action like we're gonna we're both gonna get Because what would happen is like a new guy would get in there and they would have all these things they wanted to do. And you're like thinking, wow, that's a lot of action. Like we're going to, we're both going to get really jacked up if we do that. And, uh, and then you're also thinking, well, that's cool, but it's Tuesday and I got to wrestle on Wednesday. I got to wrestle on Thursday and then Friday and then Saturday and Sunday are long practices too. Yeah.

On top of wrestling in front of people. I'm like, let's not do that. Let's, uh, you know, let's exchange some headlocks and let's do this and let's get out of the ring and let's work the crowd and let's work, you know? Yeah. And it's like, um, it's not any different, you know, it's not any different than a lot of other scenarios I've been in, whether it be business or whether it be in powerlifting. any different than a lot of other scenarios I've been in, whether it be business or whether it be in powerlifting, powerlifting is unique and amazing.

And when you really look at it, you know, I, I kind of feel like I power lifted everything in my life. Um, I I've, I've tried to go at things with a good and strong intensity and, uh, because I'm my brain, uh, doesn't work. Um, or at least it didn't when I was younger, uh, didn't work at a rapid rate in terms of learning. I always had to rest, you know, so I'd go do something and then I'd had to rest, but it's the same as powerlifting.

You go, you go at something as hard as you can. You put in 90%, 95%, a hundred percent, 105%. And then you got to look at the clock. You're like, okay, I need to, I wish the clock would move faster, but this is as fast, you know, I got five minutes, I got six minutes, I got to rest. And then I can repeat and I can go at it again. Yeah. And I think that you can kind of take some of those analogies. You can apply them to your lifting in a gym.

You can apply them to a lot of things you're doing outside the gym. lifting in a gym. You can apply them to a lot of things you're doing outside the gym. Something unique I think about your training style and some of the training style that we've seen adapted for a lot of lifters is spreading out fatigue. And the idea of we don't have to, we can squat once a week. We can think about squatting once a week. And maybe there's scenarios where you could squat every other week and get away with it for a while. I don't know.

Right. I mean, we don't truly know. We just try to do the best we can, but you could squat every day. You could squat every other day. You could squat three times a week, two times a week. There's a lot of different things that can work, but if you, if you kind of think about it from a mathematical standpoint, you think about it from an individual standpoint. from a mathematical standpoint. You think about it from an individual standpoint. Um, so for example, let's just say, let's say that I'm very inefficient at squatting. You watch me squat my

form, you know, on a scale of one to 10 is a three and it doesn't look like it's going to improve anytime soon, but it, but it looks like if I just put in some work that it can improve rapidly. Maybe a suggested thing for me would be, Hey, let's have you squat more often since you're not great at it. Let's have you practice it. And those three different workouts during the week can be vastly different, right? Yep. Yeah. You can, you can have squat workouts that are, are dramatically different.

You can have a heavy workout, a light workout, a high rep workout, a low rep workout. The research generally shows that higher frequency is a vehicle for adding more training volume. So what is causing progress for powerlifters? It is the ability to add more training volume over time. And frequency is one way of doing that. So I can do three sets of three on two separate days, or I can do six sets of three on one day,

and that's kind of the same training volume. So frequency is like a vehicle for us to get extra ability to add volume. It's also a chance to add practice. So I can have a lifter just practice. Come on, man. We talking about practice? It's still one of my favorites.

Oh yeah. Remember that? Allen Iverson back in his day? Not, not the game. Not the game I love. We talking about practice. Pull it up, pull it up. You got to pull it up.

You remember that Allen Iverson back in the day? I haven't seen that. It's a long, it's a long time ago. You're pretty young too. So maybe, maybe it skipped you, but, but haven't seen that. It's a long time ago. You're pretty young, too. So maybe it skipped you. But yeah, it is interesting how that has changed.

And you mentioned it's a, you know, here we go. Uh-oh. Allen Iverson, ladies and gentlemen. The answer. One of the greatest basketball players of all time, by the way. I love this dude. If a coach say I missed practice and y'all hear it, then that's that. I mean, I might have missed one practice this year.

But if somebody say he doesn't come to practice, it can be one practice out of all the practices this year. That's enough. If I can't practice, I can't practice, it can be one practice. Out of all the practices this year, that's enough. If I can't practice, I can't practice, man. If I'm hurt, I'm hurt. I mean, simple as that. Simple as that. It ain't about that. It's not about that at all.

You know what I'm saying? I mean, but it's easy to talk about. It's easy to that at all. You know what I'm saying? I mean, but it's easy to talk about. It's easy to sum it up. You just talk about practice. We sitting here, I'm supposed to be the franchise player, and we in here talking about practice. I mean, listen, we talking about practice. Not a game.

Now everybody starts laughing and all the press reporters and stuff are laughing. Not a game. Not the game that I go out there and die for and play every game like it's my last. Not the game. We're talking about practice, man. I mean, how silly is that? We're talking about practice. It's so good because he starts to get emotional about it.

I know that. He's really put a lot into it. At some point, he's starting to actually get frustrated it gets a little bit better it's funny he's like i know it's important like but it's just practice but it's like you just said like yeah i might miss it i know it's important but it's just practice it's not important but it is important yeah not the game the game. Yeah. There they go. Yeah. Now the whole, now he's got the whole press behind him. But it's funny, you know, because he's trying to, you know, get himself out of a, you know, a corner that he painted himself into. And he knows better. He knows that he should be practicing.

Yeah. Back to your point. Sorry about that. So, yeah. Back to your point. Sorry about that. So, yeah, adding extra days is just another way to get into the bar, get used to the lift, especially if we're at a three out of 10 on technique to get better at that. I mean, work with someone in person if you can work with someone not in person. If that's an option, take video of yourself from the side.

Take a look at that video. Find tutorials. Find people who squat the way that you think you want to squat ultimately. And then just kind of build that. My favorite way to learn squatting and benching and deadlifting is to watch. So I know there is some research that has been relatively disproven that people have different learning styles. I think it's just a little bit about environment, but, but I, I've really benefited from taking a look at squatters and then just trying to copy them. Um, and then maybe I'm, I'm better off sometimes maybe I'm

worse off some other times, but I've got a goal. I see what it looks like. And I, I want to get there. Who are some people squats that you've, uh, been able to analyze up close and, um, maybe just learned a lot from or even just inspired from? It's been a lot of weightlifters actually. Cause I squat kind of high bar with weightlifting shoes. So it's kind of taking a look at some of those guys. Certain people in particular. Who was it actually on the powerlifting side of things jay nira i don't

know if you've seen him he's got a jay nira damn pretty squat jay nira is canadian yes he is um he's got an absolutely awesome squat um some of the high level chinese weightlifters um as well are kind of the people that i looked up to when i was first starting to learn this style of squatting those guys are squatting some big weights they They are. That's some low body weight too. And it's like, they're not even, uh, the squat is not something that they're accountable for in competition. Even it's just a part of their training. There's Jay Nero.

Oh yeah. Like a beast. Shout out to him. We got to have him on the podcast at some point, man. He's a, he's a good dude. I really like him and admire him a lot. He is. Yeah.

Uh, moderate bar position but it's just clean um his if you play this video in reverse um it looks really similar which is a kind of a good sign of someone who's an efficient squatter and if you if you look at their concentric portion of their squat it looks pretty darn similar to the uh eccentric i gotta point out you know one of the common themes i'm seeing between him and yourself is that you're both wearing wrist wraps from slingshot. Yeah. And that's why we're so good. I mean, that's gotta be the technique. What I noticed from you last time you were here, um, for like lack of a better term, when you squat, it's just very squatty. It's like a,

it's just a, it's just like a, a bend of the knees, you know, and it looks so simple. Um, but something I took home from that and something that I've been using, uh, ever since you left is I try not to move, uh, in any motion that's not perfect. So I might, somebody might watch me warm up for a squat and they'll be like, oh my God, what's he doing? Because I might only move a couple inches, but I'm not going to move at a position. And so for me, because I'm not, I don't view myself as a very efficient squatter. Um, I just take my time with it. So I might do, uh, I might take one plate a few times.

Yeah. And, uh, I'll, I'll try to move it around. I might squat down like six inches and I'll do a couple reps. Might put it back, rest a little bit, do it again. Um, sometimes I, I feel, you know, more inclined to do some more warmups and stuff like that before I even get underneath the bar. Sometimes that helps. Uh, but traditionally, since the time you left, what's helped me the most was just don't be out of position.

And I just take my time and sometimes I use 225 for five or six sets. And, uh, then all of a sudden I'm moving in a good groove. And I think it was this week I swatted, uh, 315 for a few sets of 10 and that's the strongest I've felt in a while. That's not worth shattering weight, but, um, I have also lost a hundred pounds, so it feels good to be able to move those weights around. Yeah. It's definitely working and I'm, I'm feeling better. And I, my legs are actually a lot bigger than they were. I was actually surprised as I started to lose weight. I was like, oh my God, I got some quads. I got some hamstrings. Where'd those things come from? Like, this is pretty cool. Still got a big

butt. Yeah. I got a big old butt. Big old butt. But yeah, that's helped a lot. Yeah, one of the things that's helped me out a lot is when I warm up in some form, I'm doing a lot of knee and hip bending. You know, it's either body weight squats or it's a lunge or it's a barbell complex with some empty barbell squats. And, you know, one workouts, warmups might not be a lot. and you know one workouts warm-ups might not be a lot but if you stack together a year's worth of workouts you're talking about an extra 20 000 reps or something like that that you wouldn't have done otherwise uh and just practicing knee bends uh over time gets you better at doing knee bends more or less so it's like not having any wasted movements of any kind. Yeah. It's just, it's just more reps, you know, maybe I, I would add another day of squatting or maybe I just add some empty barbell

warmups at the beginning. So someone's Mark's kind of warming up. Someone just starting out such as myself, like how often should I be squatting? I think a good place to start for most lifters is twice a week. Cool. You can have one session be a work session and one session be a practice session. Um, because it's not going to take that much work to make you stronger.

Um, but for the fewer, for the pure fact that squatting is a skill. So squatting involves muscular strength, but also we want to get better at moving the barbell like this. Um, we can do twice a week. And then outside of that, maybe in your warmup, you're doing some stuff with, uh, just a goblet squat or you're doing an empty barbell or something. So that way you're just getting in pure repetitions. What are some things that, that maybe drive you a little bit crazy that you hear that

are maybe not true? You know, when somebody is talking about, um, I don't know, maybe somebody says, man, I, I got a squat, you know, four times a week. Otherwise I can't improve. Or are these some of these like, you know, things that you're like, that's not necessarily true. Or maybe somebody just has a wrong interpretation of something. The more that I've studied about powerlifting, uh, the more that I've looked at research, talk to, uh, experts and the people that have kind of really progressed, the more I realize how few things

are absolute. So it's, it's the absolute statements that drive me crazy. This is something you should never do. This is an exercise you should always avoid. This is a frequency you should never do or always do or something like that. So I I'm really wary when I see those always, never best worst type of qualifiers to what someone's saying, because I've encountered so many circumstances where you've got to lean on that in some specific way. So the things that I like to avoid are those absolute statements. Yeah. As they say in Star Wars, only sis speak in absolutes, right? That's right. Yeah.

Yeah. Or a quote that Mark says a lot, it's something like, the more you know about something, the more you realize you don't know. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, kind of the deeper you get into it, you're like, oh, I know a lot less than I thought. There's some crazy research on individual differences between athletes too. Like if you take this perfect program for athlete A and you have athlete B do it, even if on paper the athletes look pretty darn similar, similar squat bench and deadlift 1RMs, uh, they're around the same training age.

They're around the same biological age. They're going to have vastly different training responses. Um, so, so even then gives me kind of pause to say, oh, let me just put out this training template for all people who are age 21 and who've been squatting for two years or something like that. It just, it doesn't work in practice. So being a little bit flexible on that side of things for sure can really make a difference. Sometimes when you don't take a side and when you don't speak an absolute, sometimes it makes your message less appealing. A thousand percent. And this is why it's so easy. This is the way to do it.

This, this is, this is the Bryce Lewis program. This is what won me worlds. I squat twice a week. I bench twice a week. This is, you know, this is the way it is. I did three sets of six for six weeks. And then I'd switched to this. You know, when you say that, then people are like, oh, oh, that's okay. That's I'm going to write that down. I'm going to do that. Or I'm going

to buy that. I want to buy that program. But when you, when they ask a question and they're like, Hey, I want to, I would love to be strong. Like you are, uh, what do I got to do? You're like, well, it's a huge giant ass story, right? It's a huge problem because we want to put out good information. We want to tell people, Hey, yeah, this is what you should be doing, but I don't know what you should be doing. Exactly. I know like some broad brushstrokes of what you should be doing. I know of a process for getting you to where you might want to go.

Okay. Here's based on where you start, take a look at how things progressed, figure out kind of a system of where you want to go and progress from there. But yeah, it's so easy to be sensationalist and you see this everywhere and say, um, I know exactly what I'm talking about or science proves blueberries make you immortal or like whatever these headlines are. Um, it's really easy to just put those out and it's, it's hard and it doesn't seem like it, but it's hard to be more realistic and say it depends on X, Y, Z, or something like that. And I think the real balance between science and application is to say, okay, yeah, we know it depends. We know there's

individual training differences. Still, people want to know what they're supposed to do. You're not going to be able to change that. So how do we tell people what they should be doing? How do we give people the simplest guidelines to make educated decisions based on the best information we have? Yeah, that's, that's really a sound advice. I have to take a pee break, but fire some questions his way. Is it cool if we talk about the X leaves? Yeah. Yeah. Go for it. Yeah. Yeah. Kind of feedback you get. Yeah. That's actually was my next question for you is just, what do you think of the X-leaves? I haven't got a chance to squat in them yet. I tried on a few different pairs.

I ended up with a large. So we got the larges on over my calves. Yeah. I wear a medium in the SPDs. So I was expecting medium, but I went with a large. They're tight, man. Yeah. They were tough to get on.

I like that little silicone, little gasket ring around the large. They're tight, man. Yeah. They were tough to get on. I like that little silicone little gasket ring around the top. Yeah. Once they're on, they're not going anywhere. Yeah. They feel really good. So I'm excited to give them a try. Unfortunately, I won't be able to do anything too impressive in the gym this time around. No, you'll be fine.

I was kind of stretching around with them. Yeah. They've got no give in kind of the vertical direction. Correct. On the front side, which is cool. That's what you want. Yeah. Some people were looking at them thinking the denim was just for looks, but it's like,

no, it actually serves quite an awesome purpose. That's why you can't sit down when you're wearing denim jeans. Yeah. What made you recently just geek out over cameras or has that always been there uh this is kind of my second round of geeking out first first time around was first learning about it and stepping into camera gear and i just i love all that stuff man it's um it's fun uh to the point where i'm kind of learning about new stuff. My favorite hobbies are the hobbies with lots of moving pieces, stuff to learn, and nuance.

So cameras with the thousand pieces that you need fit right in that. Yeah. So just a quick backstory before the podcast started. Actually, right when you walked in, for the people listening, Bryce picks up my camera and he's like, hey, what you got there? And I was like, what's happening right now? It was pretty cool. But yeah, that's awesome.

So you picked up a Sony though, right? I did. Yeah, Sony a6500. Not bad. Yeah, I'm going to have some fun with it. That's cool, man. Yeah, I'll be looking forward to seeing more content and stuff. Yeah, I'm looking forward to it too.

Do you edit a lot of your own videos? I do. I edit everything myself, which is why I barely put out anything because it takes so damn long. Yeah, it's tough. Do you still do a lot of the Facebook stuff? I know for a while you were live on Facebook and you would answer questions in between your sets, which I thought was pretty cool. I do that more on Instagram now. It's really shitty because if Instagram hears copyrighted music in the background, they will stop the stream.

So I'm listening to almost all copyrighted music when I train, unfortunately. So it stops the stream now. And so Instagram will do that too. That's what I'm saying. It's like, I stopped Facebook because people really aren't using Facebook as much anymore. So I switched to Instagram, but even now on Instagram it'll stop uh it'll stop the stream because it hears a song so i love the idea i love the interactivity of of just being able to train and have people watch and then answer questions and stuff but i need a new way to do it yeah that that can be really frustrating i had my facebook account like shut down a bunch of times because uh we just had music kind of lightly playing in the background you know and um yeah i i understand i mean look these you know yeah yesterday during the live stream uh when we

were dead lifting i think that was yesterday um instagram put you on timeout for for live streaming yeah all that stuff's really frustrating i i actually just wish there was an option to pay for it sure you know and if it was like appropriately priced, I think a lot of people would just buy it. Yeah. You know, I mean, if it was, if it wasn't too crazy price wise and then everybody could get paid and everyone could be happy and not have their shit shut down. Yeah. And then like, you know, cause the artists I'm sure would, I mean, Kanye would probably say no, but you know. Sure, everyone else would.

Yeah. You know what I mean? I mean, we're not trying to break the rules here. We're not, like, going to a concert and streaming the concert live. Yeah. We're doing something totally different from the music, so I would pay for something like that. Right.

Bryce, do you use any specialty bars, you know, when training? No. Safety squat bar or anything like that? Not really. My training these days is pretty specific, so it's pretty, it's barbell, squat, bench, deadlift, or a grip variation for bench, or a pause variation or something like that.

Has there ever been a time where like shoulders really jacked up and you could maybe utilize something different like a hack squat or leg press or a- For sure. Or if you had access to a safety squat bar yeah i certainly use a lot of equipment uh it's just that differences in bars aren't something i i had access to so it's kind of like okay well what else can i do um i do give

a lot of my athletes variations uh when they need so i've been using safety squat bar for some athletes to work on some thoracic tightness and limit the load for some athletes. What else have I been using for safety bar or for specialty bars? Obviously, for USPA athletes, they're using a deadlift bar to pull because that's what they compete on. But for me, I use leg press a lot. We'll be doing some of that either later today or tomorrow. Curls, extensions. Uh, I'm a big fan of machines, especially the good ones that kind of feel like you're really working

the muscle. Um, I'm certainly not a stickler for just doing barbell, squat bench, and deadlift. I want to find the tools that work best for athletes and use those tools. Yeah. I think that's a forgotten element of lifting, a forgotten element of, uh, specifically powerlifting. Um, you go back and watch some of those Ed Cohn videos and nothing has changed from that time period. It's not like the stuff that Cohn did from the eighties, uh, no longer works. Um, it's still, it still works. Uh, Bill Kazmaier has utilized, you know, similar techniques. A lot of other lifters over the years have utilized similar techniques and it's

still all strength training. It's still all hypertrophy work. It's still all related. People do, you know, using a hack squat machines and leg extensions and leg presses and, you know, like a leg curl machine. As soon as like a glute ham raise came out, like all of a sudden a leg curl was bad. You know, it's like, there's really nothing bad about a leg curl machine, as soon as like a glute ham raise came out, like all of a sudden a leg curl was bad, you know, it's like, there's really nothing bad about a leg curl. It's just, uh, maybe, uh, a stiff leg deadlift is more related to, uh, you know, fixing your poor deadlift form or strengthening your hamstrings for a deadlift, but, uh, it doesn't necessarily mean that there's

anything wrong with doing a leg curl. Sure. So we've got to take a look at what the goals are. And I think that's where we start. So if we take a power lifter, we need to start with what's most important and then kind of work our way out from there towards what's least important for the lifter. And that's going to kind of guide your decision-making process towards what pieces of equipment you use, how often you use them and stuff. But there's nothing inherently wrong with machines. And I think there's this kind of purist mentality of metal and barbells and no commercial gyms and stuff.

But we're just talking tools here. And I think if you talk about tools, that's something everyone can relate to. What's the right tool for my job? Yeah, and if we're talking about utilizing some of these pieces, as you were mentioning, you might select, you know, workout A versus workout B for somebody. And, you know, let's say workout A has the guy way ahead of the guy who did workout B after six months, right? But then we got eight months, 10 months, 12 months, three years, six years, eight years, 10 years. months, 12 months, three years, six years, eight years, 10 years.

What if the guy who used the machines, uh, periodically throughout his training, uh, and mixed in the barbell work is just able to lift really well, 15, 20 years from now, maybe he, maybe the guy's able to lift, uh, you know, maybe the guy's able to still squat four or five and he's 70 years old. Absolutely. You know, those are, those are some things. I mean, you're not going to think about that that much when you're young. Uh, but to have the longevity, have the longevity on your side is going to give you a better opportunity to be stronger later on because a lot of times we see the athletes develop,

um, later on in their late thirties, forties, sometimes even older. Yeah. In powerlifting specifically, it's a game of how long can you do this for. Because if you can keep doing it, as I mentioned, avoid injuries and enjoy it for longer, you're just going to keep getting better if you work hard. But there's this concept about strain and monotony. So monotony is the degree to which your training changes over time,

over multiple weeks, or I think over a week actually. And strain is the degree to which it, it, uh, changes over time. So over multiple weeks, um, high levels of strain, uh, and therefore high levels of monotony tend to make lifters more likely to burn out and more likely to get injured as well. So that's kind of what we want to avoid. Now, what, what allows us to avoid monotony and strain? Well, we think it's some type of variation. It doesn't have to be variation in exercises, although that's certainly one way of going about it. It can be variation of load or variation in sequencing. So doing exercises in, in different orders or different reps or something like that but but the drive home point is that some type of variation over broad stretches of time allow lifters to avoid injury and burnout for longer periods of time and that's i think what we

all care about how were you able to win a world title this year uh i i showed up and I made lifts. Kind of step one was showing up, kind of having gone through this really up and down prep. So showing up in the first place and then making lifts. So putting out my best performance. Powerlifting is super simple. For the most part, without that third deadlift and jockeying for position You can determine the winner if you guys never saw each other and you lifted on separate weekends It's who puts up the biggest total. Where was the second place guy from Poland? And he has a monster deadlift and I think he had an off day with travel and stuff

Caveats aside powerlifting is about who lifts the most the day of competition So caveats aside, powerlifting is about who lifts the most the day of competition. But yeah, he's from Poland. He pulls like 900. How cool is that though? Like, you know, we sit here and we sometimes get frustrated about the different federations or we get frustrated about A, B, and C. But think about how cool it is. You live in Colorado. Where are you from originally?

Southern California. So originally? Southern California. So originally from Southern California, the United States, and you have an opportunity, you do the best you possibly can in this one particular year. And, uh, you get the nod to go to worlds.

This guy from Poland gets the nod to go to worlds and you, and many other lifters in that weight class, probably what 15 other lifters, 12 other lifters, something like that. You get the opportunity to see who's the best. Yeah.

It's, it's so cool. That's wild. Right. I mean, isn't that, that's my dad. How fucking cool is that?

That's crazy though. Right. Like you really think about like that dude, like, um, he might've had all the similar experiences you had, um, or maybe, maybe his experience were totally different, but he still went somewhere and he still was moving around weights, uh, just as you were.

And he probably was doing so at a minimum of 10 years or so. Yeah. Like anybody who's at this world level has lifted weights for five or 10 years, um, in some capacity. And, uh, he always found a way to lift just the way you always did, whether you're a sick or driving in the rain or whether he was, uh, driving through snow or whatever the hell he had to do in Poland to get, to get his workouts in. And, uh, it's the uh ultimate um kind of international language like we're gonna like lift weights against each other we're gonna pick

these things up and put them back down and see who's the strongest completely i think there's a lot of similarity between powerlifting and you know track and field and and shot put and discus and other individual skill based look how happy you are that's amazing that's awesome you're trying not to like bubble over but like you just you can't help it i'm i'm in disbelief at this point um i'm still celebrating uh because they need to put you on a little higher podium that'd be great if they took out a couple kilo plates and put it underneath your uh feet there just wait just take that american flag rub it right in their face. Oh, man. That's awesome, man.

Congratulations on that. Thank you. That's spectacular. So, did Garrett get second? Am I just totally screwing up? Oh, maybe you did. Do you have an American on the platform? Yeah, I think Kristoff dropped to third then.

Okay. Garrett, I love you, man. I apologize. We're sorry, buddy. Sick beard, by third then. Okay. Garrett, I love you, man. I apologize. Garrett, we're sorry, buddy. Sick beard, by the way. Oh, Garrett. Where's Garrett from? He's an insane lifter.

He's from Southern California also. He's down in Escondido. Garrett Blevins? Is that his name? Garrett Blevins, yeah. He's a monster of a lifter. How does he have such a cool name? That's a cool name.

I agree. Garrett Blevins. That's a good name. He could have been like a lifter. How does he have such a cool name? That's a cool name. I agree. Garrett Blevins. That's a good name. He could have been like a quarterback or something. He might have been. You know what I mean? Sorry about that, Garrett. You weren't aware of the beard.

No. The beard is the strength. Oh, man. He's got the hair over to the side and everything. Yeah. This looks like a young guy. He is around the same age. Also a powerlifting coach.

Son of a bitch. You're going to have to fend this guy off again this year? I'll probably have to fend him off for the rest of my time lifting. Dude, what do we got to do? We got to take this ass out? What do we got to do? And the other crazy thing is that my company handled him on the platform. Son of a bitch. I know.

You, like, just mess with his math a little bit and like, sorry Garrett, you finished second again. Not sure how it happened. It's just always reminding him, hey,

remember that one time? Yeah. You were second? Damn. He'll have a shot this year at nationals because I won't be competing there so he's going to crush it.

I'm sure. He, he looks like he can, he looks like with his, he could go up a weight class too, huh? Yeah, I agree. It's tough though, right? I mean, you start getting, then he would run into that other maniac we mentioned earlier, country strong kid. Yeah, Mr. Cornelius, who's going back to USA Powerlifting after taking a year break.

Yeah, I mean, he's unbelievable. USA powerlifting after taking a year break. Yeah, and he I mean he's unbelievable so the So Garrett, I guess did you got did you guys kind of battle in the deadlift? To kind of figure out who was who was going home with the gold. I think I think we did I think when Garrett missed his third squat that dropped a little bit off his total and it was just kind of a climb to get back up from there but he certainly had a great day and and

kind of the thing I've had to learn is that You can have the biggest training total possible Like you can put up monster numbers in training and then something totally different can happen the day of competition both in your favor And against your favor, so I went to the Arnold this year and had a shit competition. Uh, I had a horrible experience. My lifts were, you know, all right. Um, I kind of felt like I was passing out on my second deadlift. So I scratched my third. It was just an off day. And that's the case of things not going well and things can go really well and you end up doing better than your training predicted. So competing is a different skill from training and competing is different from throwing up your best training numbers. You do them all on the same day. You do them in a different place,

uh, in, in your city or in your country or in another country. And it's just kind of what you can do on that day. How do you manage the expectations going into something like that? So you, so you not like you don't burn out. You don't, uh, like, are you conscious of like everything that you do, uh, leading up to it? You know, the week of the meet, did you take a week off? Um, and even the day of the meet, like avoiding certain foods or caffeine or like just trying to make sure you're not like, cause you gotta be excited already. Right. It's, it's world championships, right? Absolutely. Um, the hardest thing is trying to figure out what normal is. So like you want to do things as normal as possible,

um, or as predictable as possible, because that's when you perform best is when you're not adding new shit the day of competition or the week of competition but then you're trying to think okay what do i do when i'm normal and you can't figure out what normal is so you just try to have normally do yeah like i don't know so you have normal breakfast and you know stay away from the venue uh maybe the day before competition um make sure that you try to sleep as much as possible um that's good advice. Sometimes people can be on their feet too much. And my suggestion in some of these scenarios is to try to sleep several days before. Try to start getting a little extra sleep several days before because sometimes the night of it just doesn't work out. Absolutely.

It just doesn't work out that you really get a whole lot of sleep. Yeah, you've got nerves and stuff like that. And then, you know, just managing expectations. Um, if you can visualize what the competition is going to be like, even being there, uh, okay, there's going to be people there. There's going to be a large crowd or there's going to be an announcer or something like that.

Um, that way when you get there and there's actually those things, you're not as, uh, surprised that they're there. So you've kind of expected this. And I think that can take the edge off that a little bit and make the idea of competing a little bit better. What's the goal now? The goal is to heal up this little mid-back injury

for another three weeks or so and then hop back into some normal training. I'm beating a dead bush here, but I really want to keep the focus on myself and try to push progress a little bit. So maybe set some new rep PRs training. Um, I'm beating a dead bush here, but I really want to keep the focus on myself and, and try to push progress a little bit. So maybe set some new rep PRs and then kind of work my way in towards training. Like I want to compete. I want to crush it in competition, but I want to feel like I'm making progress again. Uh, and it's been a while since I've had this feeling like, oh, oh, training is, is hot right now. I'm ready for something big on the platform.

Right. And so I want to, I want to get back to that feeling and then I'll know I'm ready. So maybe something, uh, like, um, getting a six, six rep max on close grip bench or something might be something that kind of gives you a little momentum, like, oh, okay. Like, you know, some of the strengths coming back and it's a little bit different of an exercise, but it's still a bench press, right? Completely. Yeah. So I'm looking for those on squat and deadlift. Um, benches is fine.

Benches, uh, my baby right now, but I want, I want squat and deadlift to get on board. Do you do anything different with your squat and deadlift? Like you, uh, pull sumo in competition. Do you mess around with some conventional pulls and in your squats, do you mess with different stances at all? Not with stances. Um, I think for a high level athlete, I try not to vary that stuff too much because the motor pattern is so specific. Like you've gotten really good at squatting this one specific way. So the counter argument to that is, uh, Oh, well, if you're not good at squatting this other way let's bring that up maybe that's a

potential weakness let's work on that um and i think that might be an argument for muscle groups but not necessarily motor patterns so the training has been pretty specific at the same time i'm doing close grip stuff um what else am i doing uh i'm playing around with some rdls so that's kind of a deadlift variation too conventional feels a little wonky on my hips. So that's where individual athlete variation kind of comes into the picture So most of your heavier deadlift sessions are done sumo. Yep sumo deads Heavy and then light kind of both for I'd say reps under five other periods of time where you just do not squat at all Only when I can't. Uh, so I, I squat all the time that I can right now. I'm doing some tempo squats because squats kind of suck. Um, I'm hoping that's

temporary and then we kind of work our way back in with some rehab. Um, but yeah, there's, there's no real reason why a competitive powerlifter shouldn't be squatting most of the time. Right. You know, that's like a baseball player player not throwing the baseball or something like that well you get yeah maybe there's sometimes right it like we we talked about this earlier um it's easy to look at a sport from the outside and say it's easier for me to sit here and i never won a world championship it's easier for me to sit here and say bryce an excellent idea if you just didn't squat for like a month. Yeah.

You know, like honestly, if you didn't squat for a month, nothing bad's going to happen. Um, however, uh, maybe, yeah, almost like having like a cheat meal, like for a bodybuilder, having some cheats and stuff like that can be, it can be, it can be helpful. It could be methodical. It could help the person rebound and, and, and look a little bit more full, but it could

also take four or five days to work some of that cheat off. It was, if it was a really big cheat and the same sense of like taking a month away, might take it two months just to get back to normal. Yeah. And then for you to get back to, you don't want to be normal. You want to be extraordinary absolutely so i'm trying to take off the minimum amount of time that i need to perform at my best right so we're going to start off with three weeks and see okay is this enough or do we need some kind of larger intervention um and i think it's best to have a big team of

people you can draw from to have those expert opinions um and then just kind of have a big team of people you can draw from to have those expert opinions. Um, and then just kind of have a game plan and go from there. Like injuries are probably the most frustrating things for athletes to go through because it can often feel like there's no end in sight or no game plan to how to get back to, um, get back to baseline. Last time you were out here,

you made some, uh, chimichurri steak and it was just off the charts. And tonight you're going to cook up something magical once again. Is cooking like something you really love to do? Yeah. Yeah. I love cooking.

It's a lot of fun for me. And Chef Bryce over here. Yeah. I actually, I went through bodybuilding, so I learned a lot through bodybuilding and I feel like. It's clear, sir. You don't need to tell us. It's very obvious.

The triceps striations are popping through the shirt there, buddy. Yeah. I learned a lot about dedication in a different way that powerlifting taught me. And I learned a lot about food during that period of time too. So I basically learned how to cook from bodybuilding. When I couldn't eat stuff myself, I would bake stuff for my friends just kind of as a way to think about food and not eat it. So dysfunctional, sure. But I ended up with some good skills on the, on the backend.

Traditionally, uh, bodybuilding is a higher carb, higher protein and lower fat. What were some go-to things that you might cook up? Um, you know, we got, it sounds like, I mean, just in general, we got, uh, oatmeal, we got rice to work with. We got potatoes to work with. There's not a, not a ton of other options. Uh, what were some things that you did? Um, a lot of sandwiches, uh, sourdough bread, super awesome. So I'd make like variations on grilled cheese with some low fat cheese. You make your own sourdough bread or you'd purchase it from the

store or? I tried making sourdough bread one time, uh, but I couldn't wait for the starter. So with sourdough, you need a, a, a starter of bacteria and that it, you kind of have to feed it day after day. It's this live, live thing, like feeding a plant. So I let it die, but I made bread for a little while, but mostly it's just store-bought bread, um, Greek yogurt creations, um, meats, fried rices, stuff like that. Um, you can make some damn good, healthy fried rice and kind of a few other things. I think, I think when you're bodybuilding and calories are low, the best way to make things tasty is using either low to zero calorie sauces or spices to kind of add variation. Um, and you don't need to know all the stuff from scratch.

Just kind of look up the most popular spice combinations from different countries. And you've got, you know, 12 or so options that you can work your way through. Yeah. There's even, I mean, as simple as using like peppers and onions and things like that. I mean, you mentioned tonight we're going to use some sort of special pepper on the chicken or something like that, right? Yeah. Yeah, we're using some Aleppo pepper and we'll see how that goes. Yeah, I'm excited for it.

What about when it came to like, did you mess with oatmeal or anything? Like some of these things are kind of bland. Egg whites. I mean, you got any tricks for any of that or you just didn't eat it? No, I ate it a lot. I'm laughing because when you are a late stage bodybuilder, um, you get crazy about food, uh, in, in probably unhealthy ways. So you obsess about the details about your food, you make it a ritual. Um, and those are kind of signs that you maybe need to diet break, or it's just part of the process.

Even if you do things perfectly, um, there's going to be some by-product of the fact that you are going through semi-starvation. Oh yeah. So, you know, I would, I would spend 30 minutes making oatmeal and adding 50 grams of diced strawberries cut up in a tiny little pieces and five grams of chocolate and five packets of Splenda and the rest of the things. And, um, one, one tip is to really not try to chase flavor and to just realize that some things are just going to taste relatively boring. Yeah. For me, I learned just to embrace like, cause I, for some reason, I don't know when or why this happened to me, but I, at a young age, probably like 18 or so when I started to learn

about nutrition, um, you know, I started just to kind of turn the corner. I learned about the dangers of, uh, of just consuming too much sugar and too much carbohydrates. It wasn't that carbohydrates are bad by any means. It's just that, uh, for me, the overconsumption of carbohydrates was something that was always on the menu for me because I tended, I would tend to overeat carbs and it wasn't necessarily that I would tend to overeat chicken breasts or broccoli. Right. So that was, that was an issue for me. So at some point I learned about a low carb diet, probably 18, 19 years old. 19 years old and that kind of helped turn the corner for me a long time ago in terms of kind of

just shifting my taste buds away from you biting into something from mcdonald's yeah like where there's so much flavor going on your brain's going fucking buck wild you're like wow it's really good i learned to be able to like just take just eat spinach just by itself. And it sounds gross to somebody who like, hasn't really done that before. Somebody who's used to eating chips or Doritos or something like that. But when you, when you eat a handful of almonds that are just raw, I mean, there's a rich nutty flavor to them, but you might not identify it anymore because that those taste buds could be kind of gone. You could be desensitized to some of these flavors. And so luckily for me, I've been able to kind of embrace that. And if I just have a little salt, sometimes I might add a little bit of honey. Um, and I'm usually, I'm usually good to go.

I can handle just when it comes to like fish, I just sear fish 10 seconds each side, throw some salt and pepper on there. and I'm usually good to go. What I'm having a little bit of trouble with right now is because we're coming down to the last, you know, two weeks just being hungry. Yeah. It is flat out being hungry. During the day, it doesn't bother me at all. But at night, I'm like, holy fuck. I just ate.

I just cleared my plate with no problem. And I want to eat like four more times before I go to bed. Yeah. So that's been kind of the hardest thing to deal with. High density meals. I mean, you're already taking enough protein. Like protein is pretty satiating, but high density, low density meals. Like a big bowl of vegetables or a big salad or something like that.

If you can fit that in at night, like that kind of helps with feelings of fullness for a little while at least. Um. That's what I've been working on. I got this giant thing of like kale and giant thing of, uh, spinach and some chopped up peppers and it's enormous. I'm even shocked that I could even, uh, digest it all. But like my, my body's just like, we'll digest anything, man. Just give us food. Give me some fuel.

But I want to say, I'll, I'll check back in with you in a month and, and having a chocolate chip cookie will be a religious experience for you. Oh, I know. Any secret tips for cooking fish? Cause Mark wants me to eat more. Well, he actually wants me to eat fish period. I know I don't like it cause it smells fishy.

Don't get tilapia. So get get get yourself like a good quality fish so either like uh some good tuna or a good salmon or something like that uh use a non-stick pan because it's easier uh like the fish will cook a lot easier um i would i would just start off with salt pepper and lemon uh and i bet you'll like it a lot. Keep it basic. Yeah. And you can go from there and, you know, add seasoned salt or some blackening seasoning, but that's a really good place to start. Also maybe try small amounts. Yeah.

You know, like sometimes if you, you know, quote unquote, bite off more than you can chew, like sometimes like, this is getting kind of gross, but if you have like four ounces of it along with maybe eating something else, so you're not, you know, starving, but, uh, it might be a good route to go. It's just a little, cause I know that when we've gone to sushi, uh, I'll pick certain things off the menu. He has no idea what the hell they are. And he's just like, these are great.

Yeah. I literally like what you guys were eating today. Like, yeah, I don't know what you were eating, but if I had him order for me, I would eat it. Cause it's just whatever the hell he orders tastes pretty good. Oh yeah. Those things normally don't taste what you were eating, but if I had him order for me, I would eat it. Because it's just whatever the hell he orders tastes pretty good. Oh, yeah. Those things normally don't taste fishy. Yeah.

I mean, that's something I was trying to point out to him was like, you know, I think we've all been in this situation where we don't have a lot of dough and we eat meat that maybe is on its way out. Yeah. You know, and you're like, fuck it. I'm so hungry. And you taste that, you know, but. Still good in quotation marks. Yeah, beef should not taste that way. And if fish, fishy food shouldn't really have,

it might have a little bit of that flavor, but it shouldn't have much of it. Right. Shouldn't have much of that. I think what you said about just using salt and lemon, because like something I learned from like following Stan Efferding's diet, the vertical diet, is I would, in the past, try to mix too much shit to make it taste good.

And it's like, no, just throw salt all over a steak and it's going to taste really good. Yeah, salt makes just about everything taste better. Yeah. For sure. Cool. You're around some really smart dudes. Mike Tashiri, you're around Eric Helms and Greg Knuckles and some of these guys. What has that done for you?

I can't tell you how much it's done to make me a more nuanced thinker as well as a lifter. Not only these guys put out tremendous information, but it's how they put out information. So I've learned to be a better communicator as well. It's not what you know, but if you just throw out 10 to 15 science terms, you're not going to get through to someone. So you need to be able to take this stuff and put it in terms that people understand and that they can digest. How do we take really good information from science that people might not understand and put it in a language that people do understand so we can meet them in the middle. I think a lot of scientists are like, well, this is what the science says. I don't want you to kind of dumb this science down.

But the problem is that no one's going to understand it if it's just science. So that's part of the reason why people don't listen to a lot of scientists. Yeah. Like if you were to look at some of the leading researchers in the world and just look at their, their Instagram. They don't have any followers because people aren't, people don't really care what they have to say. There there's P there's diehard people that care what they have to say, of course, because these people have written books and they're insanely intelligent and they go to these conferences and they sell them out and stuff like that. That's not really what i'm talking about they have a hard time communicating with the general public because what they say is basically kind of in another language and then you got somebody like

an omar isa or greg knuckles or some of these guys are able to take the information that's difficult to digest they're able to break it down in simplest form and they're able to teach maybe not anybody but they're able to teach most down in simplest form and they're able to teach maybe not anybody but they're able to teach most and then people can kind of interpret that information for themselves otherwise it's just like i don't i don't know what i'm not sure what that guy said yeah i don't know how to use that i think it's not that people don't like science it's that the way science is presented a lot of times is off-putting to a lot of people. Um, so it's certainly been able to, to bring it back. And it's not that, you know, you want to dumb it down. Um, you want to

be true to what, what is said. You want to put it in a language that people understand. I think a strategy is a huge thing, you know, um, you know, you explaining, uh, something very specific about a squat is one thing. But if I, if I, if you and I are going back and forth on it and I'm saying, but, but I have, you know, tremendous inflammation in my knee and I, I, you know, I'm having a hard time and you're like, no, you got to squat three times a week. This is what the science says. And we have a big gap to try to figure out it, you know,

it might be better if we're listening to each other and I'm like, okay, that's what the science says. Well, how do we get myself to be able to squat two or three times a week? Right now I'm in a lot of pain. Maybe we can figure something out. Maybe, you know, maybe since I don't squat at all, maybe for now I could squat twice a month. Absolutely. And then we can work into something more manageable, something that makes makes sense and then we could be off to the races yeah optimal in a vacuum is dramatically different from optimal in practice you know so we can have the greatest training program on paper

but if a lifter can't run it if they can't go into the gym and do the exercises the way that you intend uh it's not the best program. So the best program is the one you can do. The best diet is the one you can follow. Which kind of brings me back to your point about adherence and for you avoiding sweets because sweets were a big trigger for you to decrease adherence. So getting rid of that raises adherence. And this is what a lot of diets try to do. So if you kind of are attuned to, you know, a South beach or a paleo or whatever the diet is, um,

if it increases adherence, it's probably a step in the right direction. Yeah. It's a big thing for me to even have, for me to have gum. It's a big deal for me to have a Zevia soda, which is just soda with Stevia. Not because I,

I think it's going to do something harmful to me i just think it's kind of a trigger and i'm like i uh what i'm trying to work on and this is not an easy thing to do i'm trying to work on not really needing anything um which sucks i mean i i've even done it with cardio sessions uh you know no headphones no music um just just go in, uh, you know, no headphones, no music. Um, just, just go in and just focus, you know, just, just, just go in and just work. And it's not, it's not nearly as fun. I like to listen to stuff. I like to listen to podcasts or I like to listen to music or I like to listen to something that will inspire me.

Um, but what I've learned from that is that when it's not there, it's not there and there's nothing to draw upon and there's nothing external that's going to like help me draw anything else, uh, any further out of myself. So if I can learn to kind of do it on my own by myself for myself, uh, then I can rely on less things and I can use myself as like a weapon rather than worrying about, you know, having this exact song on for this exact lift or whatever it might be. So there's, there's this, uh, book called behave from Robert Sapolsky and he's a, uh, primatologist behavioral researcher, um, among other things. And he kind of, he brings this point home where 20,000 years ago or something like that, or even much sooner than that,

maybe mid 1400s or something like that, you build a church and you have a gospel playing and something like that. And these peasants who go into this church, this is the most glorious sound they've ever heard in their life. This is the most intense experience, the loudest noise they've probably ever heard. And that represents a fraction of what we experienced today. So we just have more options open to us for experience.

You know, like we can watch a video, you know, online that has music and dancing and, and dancing and scenes switch every second music videos and stuff or loud music, uh, you know, foods with more flavor than things I've ever had in a history of humanity before. And, and all that is great, but I think learning to live, learning to not need that stuff is important. And that's a little bit of what you're saying. Yeah. You get like an insane, uh, you know, stimulation from all these things. And I think, uh, there's so many positive things that can come from the internet. Um, you built a business off of it. I built a business off of it and it's wonderful. And we could communicate with all kinds of people throughout the entire world, which is just an unbelievable opportunity. But there's a lot of pitfalls in there.

There's, you know, I'm a married guy and there's a lot of like sex. There's a lot of just, there's a lot of sexy, attractive things that are there that I personally am better off just not seeing or not being aware of, you know. The less aware I am of these things, probably, probably the better. And sometimes even just, uh, things that I probably wouldn't even recognize as being harmful or harmful. Um, it's just human nature, you know, somebody else's success or somebody else, uh, um, maybe executing on a product or something. And I, you know, I'm in this business, I'm in the fitness industry. So when I see that, um, you can't have a, you have, um, you're going to have some, like, you know, some FOMO going on, some fear of missing out.

Why aren't we doing that? Oh, we should be, oh, we should. And then it causes all these weird feelings. And I'm like texting somebody saying, Hey, why aren't we doing this? Or like, you know, it makes you feel like you're behind or whatever. And, um, again, there's the, the benefits of it. You know, I, I've made my wealth off of it and it's amazing. Uh, but there's definitely some downside to it.

And I, I try to advise people like, look, man, you know, try to have a designated amount of time to it. Try to think of something reasonable. Yeah. My son is 14. He and I were talking about the other day and he's like, you know, I'm telling him, put his phone away. He can't really use it during the school year that much.

Um, you know, we just have some rules and he's like not understanding of it. And I'm like, Hey, look, you know, um, I'm your dad. It's my job to protect you. Um, you have shown a lack of control with how long you have your phone for each day. If you can tell me how long you think is a reasonable amount of time that you should have it for per day, then we can discuss that. And he's like, well, I don't know. I'm like, well, that's, you know, that's not a good enough answer. If you're gonna leave it in my hands, you really probably just won't have it at all, which I don't really like that option either, because I think that you should have the phone. I do think it's part of modern times.

I don't want to be, you know, a maniac about it. And, uh, when I was a kid, I played a lot of video games. Sure. When my dad was growing up, a lot of his was a kid, I played a lot of video games. Sure. When my dad was growing up, a lot of his brothers and sisters and stuff watched a lot of TV. I mean, there's always, there's always these generational things that happen that, that the new generations are going to be doing. And I don't think they're always bad. I think there's a lot of positive to them, but, uh, at the same time, I don't think it benefits anybody to have people on their phones for five, six, seven, eight hours a day.

Yeah, I think it's about intention, too. Like if you're on your phone for that long, you're not really doing a whole lot that's meaningful. So if you use these things, use them with intention. I think people get stuck into mindless scrolling or mindless clicking or things. And that's the infinite satisfaction of it is something that can get people into trouble. But I really like going back to your conversation with your son about the fact that you put him in the driver's seat. You said, this isn't my decision. I want you to decide. I think that that sets him up for more responsibility and take this into his own

hands. Yeah. I try to do that with him a lot. And I also try to do that with him. Uh, I've taught him to like, I said, you know, stand up for yourself. If we tell you no, no, doesn't mean that that's the end of the conversation. No is actually the start of a new conversation. Yeah.

You know, let's just, unless it's, you know, totally asinine, you punch somebody for no reason or something crazy, but he never does. He's a good kid. He never does anything wild like that. Um, but it's the start of a conversation. I said, also don't come to me like emotional. Let's, let's just, let's just have a conversation about it. Um, and if you do come to me with something and i seem like i'm not in a great

mood and i'm kind of overreacting i was like you should probably stop because we're not going to really get anywhere and i'm going to make a bad decision and i said that and i know that you're going to make a bad so you know let's figure out because sometimes you know he might be worked up from something him and his sister were doing or they're fighting or whatever and there's a lot of chaos and i i've sat both of them down and we've had conversations as a family of, listen, you know, this house is not going to be that way. I'm not going to be, I'm not going to be screaming at your sister and then screaming at you and then someone screaming to mom upstairs and we're not going to be yelling

and fight. This house is for, it's for fun. It's for love. And of course we're going to be mad at each other. We're going to hate each other. We're going to, we're not going to be yelling and fight. This house is for fun. It's for love. And of course, we're going to be mad at each other. We're going to hate each other. We're going to, we're going to fight. I mean, we're, you know, that's a family, right? Yeah.

We're going to be, that's what happens. But let's just try to talk things out and be rational and be reasonable. You know, let's, let's just try to figure these things out. If you guys are fighting, why don't we just go in different rooms for a little while? Yeah. And then when everybody calms down, why don't we have a conversation about it then? It really sounds like you're treating them like adults.

Um, and I think that's really important. Uh, and, and probably better than a lot of adults treat other adults too. I'm like, Hey, we're not getting anywhere right now.

Let's see if we can get somewhere to have a real conversation. Right. It's fun to talk to kids like they are adults too and like hey we're not getting anywhere right now let's see if we can get somewhere to have a real conversation right it's fun to talk to kids like they are adults too yeah when it's way over their head yeah like i told my daughter that she can flip off like a couple of kids that were bullying her and she was like i'm like no no i'm just joking like don't do that but if you want to go up and kick them it's totally fine yeah but what i was going to ask you mark um i don't know if you've done it at this point with jake but like how do you think we can motivate our kids you know just in general like uh whether to be but do better in school or to kind of like think about the future that sort of

thing yeah i think uh i i think it's i think it's really important to try to get your children, uh, in other environments, you know, um, the best that you can. They're, they're only gonna, you know, do or listen or watch you so much. So to try to get them involved in other things, you know, some parents are really big into like sports and, and things like that. And, uh, you know, we, we've tried to have our kids play sports. They're not really that into it. Um, didn't want to like overly force, uh, the issue on any of that. So they played baseball and they swam and they did some things and neither one of them cared about it enough, um, to do it for too long, but we try to get them around their

cousins. We try to get them around other kids. They hang out with their grandparents a lot um we we try to also you know again like pulling the phone away um and and and my wife and i putting our phones away like everyone's going to put the phones away yeah we're going to do something different they've got these lock boxes now you can just yeah i'm all in yeah so we have we have a lock box we also have an app on the phone where we can literally shut down their phone. And the only thing they can do is, is communicate.

They can only text and they only text X amount of people. Sure. Um, and, and the, the texting is, is, is nice for us. It puts us at ease. Cause like, you know, my son's going around on his bike a lot and stuff. And, you know, as much of a double standard as it is, I'm not that worried about him, but my daughter, I'm certainly very concerned about, you know, as she gets a little older, her floating around the neighborhood by herself. And, you know, it's important that they have some sort of communication. But when we were on vacation, they would do like a lot of puzzles together.

We'd play at the beach together. Just trying to do stuff together. Um, being inclusive, rather exclusive. You just saw my wife and kids here today. Yeah. Um, it's not that common for my kids to come up here, but they do come up here once a month or so to the gym and they kind of see what's going on. Uh, my son and daughter are both intrigued and inspired by some of the stuff my

wife and i do but not overly not like not like oh i want to be like well i think that business yeah i think that i think that quinn wants to be a carbon copy of my wife uh my son he definitely wants his own he wants his own thing going on. Yeah. Um, but he's always talking about inventions and different things. And he's always talking about, uh, making movies and stuff like that. Cause my brother makes movies. And so I think a lot of that has already kind of happened without really ever trying to like give him a speech. Um, however, some of the stuff that I come across that I'll send you and some

of the words that I share with some of the people in here, um, I share them with him too. You know, I'll, I'll tell him like, one of my favorite quotes is from a book called iron will. And it says, uh, that which dazzles mortal eyes is often perseverance in disguise. I really like those words because it's like perseverance, consistency, call it what you want. But that is what is baffling people a lot of times. Somebody looks at Bryce Lewis and they're like, how did he do it, man? How did he become, you know, somebody looks at something I'm doing right now. I'm like, how did he, he's going to, he's going to do body.

Oh, that's not going to, he's not going to look that good when he does body. And then they're looking each time and they're like, oh shit, he's 230 and he's not gonna look that good when he does bodybuilding and then they're looking each time and they're like oh shit he's 230 and he's fucking shredded like he's gonna do a bodybuilding show you know how are you able to do this or how was jake cutler able to win four championships or how is tom brady able to still you know rifle a football down the field at 45 years old yeah um how are people able to do these things well um there's a lot of reasons on why they can still do it, but really what's baffling people is just the consistency. These people are at it. They never let up. They never give up. Something I heard the other day, and I thought this was amazing.

When people scale a mountain and they, you know, climb, you know, not like Mount Everest or anything of that challenging of a level. But when people go up some of these mountains and they go hiking, they'll have what they call a halfway point. And they have like this halfway house there. The halfway house is warm. It's got a fire. It has hot chocolate. And you know, and at, at night they'll have a nice dinner. They'll have wine. Everybody will relax.

Right. Everybody's got all these intentions of, man, I can't wait to get to the summit. That's going to be so sick. We're all going to take pictures. We're all going to rejoice. We're going to play music. We're going to have fun.

And it's going to be a blast. Next morning, fill their bellies up with a bunch of pancakes, sausages, eggs, everybody's feeling good. Half the people look out the window and they're like, yeah, I don't think I'm going to, I'm going to continue onward, you know? Yeah. So it's that little buy into comfort is where we sometimes lose our consistency. And I think, you know, those are the kinds of messages I try to share with my kids to, you know, Hey, look, man, if we, if you can build some sort of consistency, whatever it is that you like now. Yeah.

You don't have to be in a rush either because I didn't really find any sort of direction until I was like 30. It took me a long time. A power thing was always there, but I just never even, I don't know. I just never, I never realized what a force it was in my life until I was older. But whatever it is that you find, if you start working at it at a young age and you work at it hard for a decade, you can kind of become or do whatever the hell you want in that given field. Yeah. One day, my daughter, she just asked me she's like how did you make your website and i was like what do you mean she's like who did it for you i'm like no i

made it did you go to school for that like no i just i learned how to do it and it was just weird because she had never asked me that before and then she's like oh like i want to learn to do cool stuff like that too and you know after a long conversation makes you feel amazing doesn't it oh yeah yeah um and she's like you know i want to learn to do cool stuff like that too i was like well you absolutely can but it just takes a lot of hard work i was like and know this and this kind of like confused her also i'm like nobody's gonna help you and there's just the pause and she was like kind of like upset like oh you're not gonna help me i was like no don't get me wrong i'm gonna help you any which way i can like but just know i'm not

gonna hold your hand and move the mouse for you i'm not gonna do this i was like nobody will if you want something you're the one that's gonna have to work hard for it and eventually that will make sense to her i just have to keep consistently putting it in her head you know yeah but yeah so it's a message some people have to learn kind of it in her head, you know? Yeah. But yeah, so. It's a message some people have to learn kind of by trial, by fire. Yeah. By working at something. Yeah, absolutely.

And then also being in Malibu with Mark and his family, she just like turned it. She was like, I love your job. So that was the coolest feeling ever. That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. And that's some of the stuff that we're getting from some other family members. My entire family from New York is's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. And that's some of the stuff that I'm, that we're getting from some other family members. Um, my entire family from New York is coming out. Yeah. Uh, in just a couple of days and I'm, uh, I'm actually kind of, I'm kind of nervous about it because they don't, they don't really understand. Yeah. And you saw the gym for the first time

today. You've been to super training before, but you came through the doors today and you were a little taken back, huh? I was, uh, this new place is something else. Uh, you know, I mean, it's, it's got the storefront, there's offices, there's a conference room, uh, and then the gym is, is immaculate. So it's, it was really cool to see everything. We have a, we have a wonderful team here. Yeah. You know, um, I wish I could say, Hey man, I did it all by myself, but, uh, I got an amazing support system with my wife. My parents have always been there for everything for me. Yeah. I saw your parents in the crowd for you at, uh, IPF worlds.

Yeah. And that's, it's a huge thing to have that, uh, have that support system, but with the family coming out and having everybody kind of see, like, I think they, they all just, I don't know. They see social media, but they don't really understand. They think I just have like a magazine and that like, we kind of do pretty good off the magazine. But when they see this 23,000 square foot spot. Well, when your nephew was here and I was training with him, he's like, man, I knew uncle Mark had a lot of cool stuff, but I didn't think it was like this. It was funny. Yeah.

He was, uh, he was taken back. I think, I think that's going to be too much for them. And I actually just think that they're going to be like, as soon as they get a moment to be by themselves, they're going to be like, he had an investor or like, you know, there's gotta be six, seven other people involved. And it's never been anything like that. It's been my wife and I. Your perception of what you think other people perceive. Yeah. Taste of your own medicine.

I know. I mean, also they, they don't realize just like someone squatting 800 pounds, like, Hey, there was 700 before this, there was 600 before this. Like, you know, you've gone through several iterations of gyms. Yeah. You've, you know, you've had to work pretty damn hard at this. I'm sure. Yeah. You've, you know, you've had to work pretty damn hard at this. I'm sure. Yeah. Well, people see, you know, and, and all the stuff that we share on social media and stuff,

people see like, I don't know, 3%. Right. Or maybe less of your life. Right. Yeah. Not, not the daily operations behind the scenes, you know, not the revisions and re-revisions and re-re-re-revisions. You mentioned, uh, crying in the corner of the gym before Worlds.

What was that about? What are you crying about, bro? Let it out, man. Let it out here on the podcast. We need some good, strong content. The circle of trust. I had a really shitty training session. Thank you so much.

It was a session I was supposed to do really well leading into Worlds. It was like session I was supposed to do really well leading into Worlds. It was like triples at 88% to 90%, something like that. So a pretty hard workout. And it just wasn't going the way I wanted. 650, 670 squat. 650, yeah. So it was a squat and bench.

And I was warming up. And I think I had a grindy single. And I could have done another rep. But it would have been an all out effort. And this was, you know, second rep out of supposedly three sets of three. I re-rack the barbell. And just like it's this point of overwhelming frustration where you you want to do well, you can't do well. And you don't know what to do with this feeling of wanting to do well, can't do well.

And like the real focus on external shit, you know, just the number, not being able to do the number, other people, feeling like you're letting down other people, like nothing about you yourself. And I just, I got this overwhelming point. I just kind of cried and there's a staircase

and I just kind of hid under the staircase a little bit and just a little mouse under the staircase crying. Um, and it took a while to kind of. People walking by like, is that Price Boots? Nah, nah, nah, it can't be. Nah, nah, why would he be under the staircase crying? So now I, I've come to a realization that this stuff is more common than, than people think. Yeah.

And they just don't talk about it. But, um, that's just my way of making myself feel better. Yeah, I was going to say not for me. But that's just my way of making myself feel better. Yeah, I was going to say not for me. But yeah, it took a while to realize what's important here. Why am I feeling this? How can I make this better?

So going from, okay, you validated this feeling, gave yourself time to feel it. Thankfully, friends kind of helped me through that. My coach helped me through that. My girlfriend helped me through that. And then where do we go from here? What can I do to make a change here? Can I change either the expectation? Can I change the focus? Can I give myself more control? And then can I go forward from there? And I think that that sequence, um, is something that I've learned. So these moments can't be all bad. I learned kind of how to get through moments like this in the future. So these moments can't be all bad. I learned kind of how to get through moments like this in the future. Um, and then just, just be a better athlete for them. So they can be learning experiences, but it was tough.

It was really tough. Makes you a better coach. Yeah, for sure. I can, I can relate to people having gone through some of this stuff before. Um, they can lean on me, uh, more and better. And I've been able to do that, um, in the past for athletes. And those are the moments where you really connect and you really prove that you can coach people. You got to talk people off, off the ledge a lot. I'm sure like where they're like, Oh man, I did this workout and dah, dah, dah, dah. We got, we got to change everything. And you're like,

Hey, you know what? Let's hold on a second. It's one session. Let's right. Yeah, absolutely. So we say things like, all right, well, you know, what we really want to see is a pattern. I'm happy to change things. I'm on board with you. Let's wait until we see a pattern of decreased performance or something like that. Then we'll go ahead and make a change. Or sometimes it's like, all right, yes, instantly. I see what's going on.

We need to change. Here's the change. I'm with you 100%. And I think that all lifters ultimately want to, to know and to realize is that their coaches are in their corner and behind them. And research kind of backs that up. Um, one of the things lifters most care about is goal orientation that you and your athlete are on the same page of the same book, head in the same direction. Yeah. You're big on like kind of of psychology of things and kind of how the brain

works and stuff. What are some things you've found out in the last year or two that have helped you personally and as a coach, just kind of maybe even throughout your life, not just lifting? One of the biggest realizations for me that kind of clicked in was something called self-determination theory. And it's a theory of motivation. So how are we motivated to act? And you can talk about this generally, but also within sports specifically. And it's the idea that we're motivated by kind of three main pillars of things, autonomy, competence, and relatedness. So basically relatedness is the degree to which we have relationships about our sport with other people. Most of us don't do powerlifting in a vacuum.

So how does your relationship with your coach impact your training? How does your relationship with your friends impact your training or your social network or something like that? Autonomy is the degree to which we have control over our actions. So if you have an overbearing coach who doesn't let you make any decisions, or you kind of feel that you have no control over your training because you have an injury, these kinds of things can sap motivation. And then finally competence. It's like the degree to which you feel you can succeed at your sport. So at any moment, how likely do I feel I'm working towards my goals and that my training is appropriately difficult to get me towards my goals. So each of these three things, if one of them is pulled out of the picture or dramatically reduced, we've got an athlete who experiences demotivation.

So it gave me this awesome framework to assess problems. So without even anything more than that, an athlete can tell you a story about what they're going through and you can say, oh, that looks like the athlete is suffering from a lack of confidence. Or, oh, that looks like the athlete doesn't feel like they have control. Or, oh man, this athlete's having a problem with their girlfriend and this is affecting their motivation to go train. So like, it's really easy to take this framework and directly apply it. So sports psychology is fine and dandy, but how, how can I take this and, and actually help lifters? And this is an easy way to do that. And that was one of the most breakthrough things. Um, elsewhere, there's been

stuff on, um, uh, on queuing. So internal and external queuing, um, let's make the lifters technical cues more about their environment and less about body parts. That's one thing that certainly makes a difference. We talked a little bit about imagery. We talked about visualization a little bit. Those are kind of some more minor things, but kind of understanding what drives lifters is super important because if you're a coach, you can tap into that and you can enhance it. You can say, Oh, this drives a lifter. Let me, let me give them more of that as they go forward. What about writing a book? Maybe eventually I'll start with a few kind of long articles and stuff like that. If there was a guideline for that, there's an awesome book by Matt Perryman called squat every day. And it's kind of a combination of some science-y type stuff about the brain. And some of that information may be a little outdated today.

And then some training recommendations and stuff like that. I may get there at some point, but I'm just happy giving back to the athletes in other ways for now. Yeah. That just sounds like you have a wealth of knowledge and it seems like it would just make sense for you to, you know, cram a lot of that into a book. And I know that, you know, sometimes for somebody, uh, who's an intelligent like yourself, it's hard to do a book. Cause it's like, I don't want to just give people like this one set of rules. Um, but at the same time, it seems like you have principles of, uh, that I think apply,

uh, you know, in and out of the gym, you know, some of those coping skills of dealing with training sessions, um, you can, can really be beneficial, you know, outside the, uh, outside the gym as well. And having the world championship under your belt is, is a huge deal. And then also, uh, all the accomplished lifters that you've had. So now you have, you know, to back up, uh, some of your training methods, obviously not your, just your own lifting. Yeah. But now you have hundreds of other lifters that have lifted under, under your guidelines.

Yeah, absolutely. That have had a lot of success as well. So I'd love to see a book from you. I think, I think it would do great. I appreciate that. And maybe you'd have to break it up into some different volumes because it sounds like you have a lot of different things to talk about. Appreciate that. We've had Bryce on the show before.

I always think it's worth mentioning because I just think it's a fun fact about him is that his grandpa was the grandpa from the Munsters. I'm a huge Munsters fan. So as a kid, I remember, you know, eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, watching reruns of the Munsters when I was a kid. That was always a lot of fun. I used to watch his grandpa on TV almost every single day. It's always good to have you here.

You got this magnificent girlfriend who's pushing around some big weights as well. How'd you end up meeting her? We were kind of buddies through lifting in various ways and then kind of made things more serious late last year. And it's just been wonderful ever since. Cool. And did

she win Worlds this year? Worlds is coming up in November this year. So she won Worlds last year in Czech Republic and this coming year it'll be in Homestead, Sweden. So we're both headed out'll be in Homestead, Sweden. So we're both headed out for that in November. Cool. What kind of weights does she throw around?

She squats just north of 600 pounds. She benches 420. Hold on a second. How much does she squat? 600. Just north of 600 pounds. We're talking equip lifting. So single ply in knee reps. Yep.

Jesus. And then she deadlifts. That's a hell of a woman squatting 600 pounds. Yes, it is. Wow. She's got some great form as well. Right around 500 pounds, I believe, on the pull. Nice.

Yeah. So she's going to be hunting not only for the gold, but also for a world record squat and bench. You ended up with a world record bench press. Is that right? I had it for 30 seconds. Damn it. It was actually insanely cool. I think never before in the IPF have three people

attempted and made a world record one after another. I took it first and I hit 225.5 kilos. Next guy takes 226 cause you have to chip by a half a kilo. So next guy takes it, makes it Garrett got it on the second. And then the guy from Ireland, Barry Piggott got it on the third. So yeah, I mean, that's amazing.

It was an awesome experience. What's, uh, the most, what, what are maybe two most impressive, uh, lifts that you've seen that really kind of stand out in your head where you're just like, oh, my God, what is happening here? Dennis Cornelius squatting 900 was really crazy. 900 raw. Christoph Wierbicki pulling 900, also raw, is mind-blowing to me. And I saw this Russian, it might have been Kirill Sarachev, it might have been someone else, bench 300 kilos raw with perfect technique. And I had to, like, recheck the weights on the barbell.

I couldn't believe what I saw. And that wasn't too long ago, actually. Um, so those are kind of the, the squat bench and deadlift kind of most impressive things I've seen on the guy's side. This is, this is a, not to discount any performances from women. Right. Um, Daniela Mello's throwing up over 500 pounds and making it look near effortless. I've seen some huge pulls.

I think CeCe Holcomb pulled 600 plus. Oh my God. And that was insane too. And everything Jen Thompson does on bench press is. She doesn't count. We just don't even, you know, we just got to discredit her. She's just way too strong. You know, we've had her on the show before and, you know, it was a no surprise, but she

trains like an animal. Yeah. You know, she really earns those weights that she's hitting. Here's Dennis Cornelius going for his big squat. You know, it's just, I mean, it's, it shouldn't be any surprise that the technique is there, you know, but. Yeah. But it's just, I don't know.

The technique is there, you know, but, but it's just, I don't know. It's just that much more mind boggling when he's like, he leaned into that perfectly. And you gotta, sometimes those bigger weights got to lean into him a tiny bit at the bottom there. And he just, he just nailed it just perfectly. And it's, what's weird is when these guys hit the weight the right way, it still didn't look that hard. Yeah. You know, I'm sure it felt different. A lot of times on video, it looked a little different, but it's a, almost like a golf swing or hitting a home run. Yeah. You're not, you didn't know the trajectory of that ball was going to go so damn far when you swung, but there it is. Some of the best performances on, on the individual skill side of things, they look effortless.

And I think that's a sign of high skill. You know, you see it on weightlifting and you hear weightlifters talk about it. Like when you hit that perfect bar path, it felt like the bar wasn't as heavy, you know, or like when you throw the discus that perfect way, it was just everything clicked. It's like, oh, this is how it's supposed to go. You know? And we, we work for those moments. Hard to replicate. Yeah.

Yeah. So it's in some way it's, uh, you know, it's not the exact same, but sometimes it's like shooting a free throw where, you know, if you make a couple of free throws in a row, you figure that your brain and your body would figure it out. And just like, yeah, I should be able to hit like a hundred of these in a row. Good luck trying to figure that out. Yeah. It's, it's tough, man.

Um, you were, you've been in, uh, in, uh, what, Oregon, right? Hanging out with your, uh, your girlfriend. Yep. Uh, what was that like? Uh, we just came back from there. Um, this has been traveling a little bit, right? Yeah, we have them. I'm kind of excited to not be traveling but we've been traveling we went to dublin ireland a few weeks ago um so we went to oregon coast and we were in lincoln city and it's

just beautiful being right on the coast um you guys still getting some training in the stuff are you still are you trying to more relax or We took the weekend off. So this is kind of real training and, and really Natalie's crazy about wanting to be on schedule for training. And I mean, crazy in a good way in being a dedicated athlete. Um, we just couldn't find a gym near Lincoln city. So we're happy to be here at super training, getting some good, good training in. Awesome, man. What's next?

Um, we've got Sweden coming up next as far as a trip, working on a seminar in Dubai next year and South Dakota as well. Helping out with a few other projects, an app for coaching software with a company called AppLift. And then a website called Top Strength that will make distributing strength gear a little bit easier for some companies. Yeah. That's great. Anything else you want to add, Bryce? Thanks, guys, for tuning in.

Appreciate that. Mark, thanks so much for having me. Yeah, if you want to follow along with anything we do, Instagram is where I post most of what's going on, Bryce underscore TSA and my website, www.thestrengthathlete.com. And we're always open to questions or stuff like that. So just hit us with that contact link. Anything else over there, Andrew? We're all good. Yeah. Earlier I was trying to get a poop story out of him. Oh yeah.

And he was like, I only poop once a day. No poop stories, but yesterday was a bad day for farting. We want to talk about some farts. Oh, man. What happened? Lenny and Larry's cookies lit me up. Oh, man. And it was nonstop.

So not too happy about that, but it's my fart story. You know, I hate that, too, because Lenny and a, it's not even like a real, real cookie. Yep. You know? So you're like, man, if I was just going to make the leap to have a cookie, I should have just ate a couple of regular cookies. Exactly. Like a couple Oreos, you probably would have been fine. Exactly.

Yeah. I was making some dead cat smells all over the place. Thanks for nothing, Lenny and Larry's. Poor girlfriend trapped in a hotel room with you. She called me out a few times. You can never open the window. And it's a tough situation because you're just like, babe, like my stomach, I'm dying, you know? It's not my fault.

I mean, it is my fault, but. Yeah. I'm always like, don't move because, you know, she's going to move the blankets. Don't move. You're going to catch. Nope. Too late. Game over.

Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes I'll try to go for like a walk. I call it a fart walk. And my daughter's like, where are you going? You going for a fart walk? You don't want Game over. Yeah. Yeah, sometimes I'll try to go for like a walk. I call it a fart walk. And my daughter's like, where are you going? Are you going for a fart walk? You don't want to know. Yeah.

But then I come back and the gas hits me worse. So it's like. You walk through it. Well, I walk through it, but also just like, you know, I get a couple out while I'm walking, but as soon as I stop, then the urge to fart hits me worse. Yeah, the trail follows you in. Like that didn't, I i'm like none of that worked now i just now i have more gas i'm like i don't know what happened

all right strength is never weak this week this never strength catch you guys later see you guys