Mark Bell's Power Project - Power Project Guide To progressing in BJJ Part 1 || MBPP Ep. 877

Episode Date: January 30, 2023

In this Podcast Episode, Mark Bell, Nsima Inyang, and Andrew Zaragoza talk about what it's like looking forward to training BJJ on a regular basis and Mark Bell gives us some relationship advice. New Power Project Website: https://powerproject.live Join The Power Project Discord: https://discord.gg/yYzthQX5qN Subscribe to the new Power Project Clips Channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UC5Df31rlDXm0EJAcKsq1SUw Special perks for our listeners below! ➢https://hostagetape.com/powerproject Free shipping and free bedside tin! ➢https://thecoldplunge.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save $150!! ➢Enlarging Pumps (This really works): https://bit.ly/powerproject1 Pumps explained: https://youtu.be/qPG9JXjlhpM ➢https://www.vivobarefoot.com/us/powerproject to save 15% off Vivo Barefoot shoes! ➢https://markbellslingshot.com/ Code POWERPROJECT10 for 10% off site wide including Within You supplements! ➢https://mindbullet.com/ Code POWERPROJECT for 20% off! ➢https://bubsnaturals.com Use code POWERPROJECT for 20% of your next order! ➢https://vuoriclothing.com/powerproject to automatically save 20% off your first order at Vuori! ➢https://www.eightsleep.com/powerproject to automatically save $150 off the Pod Pro at 8 Sleep! ➢https://marekhealth.com Use code POWERPROJECT10 for 10% off ALL LABS at Marek Health! Also check out the Power Project Panel: https://marekhealth.com/powerproject Use code POWERPROJECT for $101 off! ➢Piedmontese Beef: https://www.piedmontese.com/ Use Code POWER at checkout for 25% off your order plus FREE 2-Day Shipping on orders of $150 Follow Mark Bell's Power Project Podcast ➢ https://www.PowerProject.live ➢ https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast ➢ Insta: https://www.instagram.com/markbellspowerproject ➢ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/markbellspowerproject FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢https://www.tiktok.com/@marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell Follow Nsima Inyang ➢ https://www.breakthebar.com/learn-more ➢YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/NsimaInyang ➢Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/?hl=en ➢TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nsimayinyang?lang=en  Follow Andrew Zaragoza on all platforms ➢ https://direct.me/iamandrewz #PowerProject #Podcast #MarkBell #FitnessPodcast #markbellspowerproject

Oh, I'm ready. All right. I'm prepared. No way. That's true. Andrew, have you been able to go to jujitsu? Yeah, I went yesterday. I was pretty stoked.

It was like my first day, like, back, back. Your riblet is better? Riblet is much better. The McRib. The McRib is doing well. I actually got tested pretty good, too. You met Joe. He's a blue belt, bigger dude.

600-pound deadlifter, Joe. 600-pound deadlifter. God damn, Joe. you um you met joe he's a blue belt bigger dude 600 pound deadlifter 600 pound deadlifter damn joe had his head down had his way with me uh but my body held up and it was it was good and and it was pretty funny because uh my other my other buddy patrick was like joe how come you don't how come you don't like beat me up as much as you're beating him up he's like i beat you up pretty good meanwhile like in the middle of the roll and i was like i think this is a good thing i was like because if you're kicking my ass that bad that means that you're okay with like stepping it up against me yeah he

just laughs but yeah he fucked me up but either way it was strong so it was good yeah and Seema when you were starting out did you uh feel like power and strength from some people where you were like I don't understand this I don't understand how that's possible and I'm not quite sure how or if I'll ever even get there because I could not move when the guy had me in that position oh absolutely I was getting swept right and left I'd be getting like my foot picked and falling to the same exact sweeps over and over and over people would there's this guy Dr. Robago I don't know if I ever mentioned him on the podcast but I think in this at this point in time he's in fifties, but he was in his early fifties at the time. And it wasn't an amazing shape or anything,

but he's this old, old chiropractor and he would Ezekiel choke me all the time. The Ezekiel choke is when like you, you use your, it's a sneaky choke where you get your hand and you choke them from, from a mount position with your forearm. Yeah. From your farm or from many positions. And he would just do that to me over and over and over and over again and he would do it for me from different angles and again this is like a five foot six man who's like not in the greatest shape but he continuously tapped me from his e-kill choke and you're just confused you're like i don't i got this physical prowess and i can't do anything with it at the the time being 260 pounds, early 20s, feeling strong, getting choked out by a man in his early 50s. I felt useless.

How do you get like, how do you get on the other side? Is it, you know, sometimes you'll hear people say it's all technique. I mean, you know, if because there's quite a few strength athletes that are transitioning to jujitsu. So they end up being stronger than people who only focus on jujitsu. So sometimes you're able to get away with certain things. Like when Allah came onto the podcast and he mentioned that he fought that jujitsu guy and what he would do is when the guy would – Oh, he'd bench press him off. He would just bench press him off.

And that was a bad habit that I had too because there are certain people where they'd maybe get to a mount position on me or a side control and I'd be able to just push them off. But then when a bigger, stronger person did that to me, that didn't work. So I learned very quickly that you need to, it takes a lot of time, but you need to take time to learn to develop good technique so that like you can over time get out of this with less energy versus using all your strength to power like overpower people because that'll work especially in some schools that'll work for a while and you'll get away with it but when you're working with somebody who is as strong as you or who's as big as you they will feed you your insights like nothing else like how do you feel with that because like you are stronger than quite a few people you probably train with so do you feel that you're resorting to that quite

a bit or um yes and no so yes because there have been times where you know i'll like try to stiff arm somebody and i'm like i i don't know this doesn't feel right you know like when trying to sweep somebody i forgot who it was but they were, if you're trying to use your strength, then you're not performing the sweep well. That makes so much sense. It should come easy. But because of who I'm around and where I've been the past six years, I've always been the smaller guy anyways. So I still kind of, I don't want to say I have that mentality, but I don't think I'm that strong anyways. So I'm already like relying on trying to get better technique and not rely on strength because I don't even feel like I have that much strength. Even though you're right when I am rolling against other people, I am stronger, but I don't believe that I am.

So I'm trying to get stronger, better technique. There you go. Yeah. So that's what I've been focusing on. Stronger, better technique. There you go. Yeah. So that's what I've been focusing on.

I think that's something, though, like, I hate to say it this way because it's going to sound so fucked up. But it's like, well, it's not a swan mentality. Yeah, I think it's kind of a good idea to have like a small man mentality, though, with jujitsu. Because an athlete that is smaller, right, does have to develop really good technique to be able to overpower people that are bigger and stronger with them. They won't be able to compete like strength versus strength with that person. But if they can be crafty and they have good technique, they will be able to beat up a bigger, stronger opponent, which was the whole reason the martial art really got popular.

Like that was the selling point. You can be small and you can be weak but it'll you'll still be able to defeat someone who's bigger and stronger than you and if you're big and strong but you have that mentality and you go with it that way you will be very very dangerous as you continue to get better does it matter a ton on how you start in terms of how hard you try, or is it kind of irrelevant because you're going to be playing a long game anyway? What do you mean? When you started, maybe because of other sports that you played

and because of your size, maybe you thought, I better give these guys something like better give them something good to like kind of deal with. Like it shouldn't be so easy for them just to pop me into these positions. Do you think that you could learn faster by trying less? I see what you're saying. Did you,

were you about to say something? Oh, in a way, yes. way yes and so there's two ways especially when i was newer i learned very quickly that i shouldn't be resorting on just being able to overpower people physically uh because that like that doesn't get me anywhere as far as progress and a lot of the time it wouldn't necessarily work, especially on opponents that were closer to my weight. They didn't have to be 250 or 260 pounds, but if they were 200 pounds and they had good technique, it wouldn't matter how strong I was. They'd figure out a way to tap me. The thing is though, I still had to give them something to

fight against. So in some of those positions, if I couldn't resort to technique, maybe I would try to use some strength to barrel out of certain things, which would cause them to increase the amount of work that they were having to do against me to tap me, which would, I would still get tapped, but then we'd be able to figure out, because I always end up asking, what did I need to do to be able to escape this efficiently? I think that's the biggest thing. I still had to try, but it's not like I was going 100% and using my strength in every single role and just wasting energy. I had to give them something to fight back against.

I couldn't just sit there like a fucking dead body and just let them have their way with me. Like not let them do – I mean they would still be able to do stuff to you but they'd still be able to do stuff um but i had to give them to get more back because one thing is depending on the school you go to a lot of people are fairly nice especially upper belts if they know you're new they're not going to try to give you everything they have right they're going to usually they're just going to try to wreck you in the least wasting the least amount of effort possible. But if you give them more than they're going to have to put in more effort and if you make sure to ask questions, then you can really figure out where you can start progressing.

It does just take time, though, as you're probably noticing. Yeah, time. I mean, I understand that it's going to take a long time. And my buddy Chris Shaw yesterday, he it was his first time back in a week also. Well, for me, it's been a lot longer. And he's just like, dude, I feel like I've lost so much and da, da, da. I was like, we're doing this forever. Like a week is going to be nothing. And he just like shook his head. He's like, right. Shook his head. He's like, right. So I, I've already come in with that mentality of like, this is just what I do now. You know, like, I mean, I, some people will go to the gym and say, oh, once this 30 day challenge is up, then I'm going to probably take a break or whatever. We didn't do that. We just started lifting and we never stopped. I started jujitsu and I'm never going to stop. And that's, that's the plan. And wherever I end up is where I end up, but I'm still just going to keep doing it. I think there's an aspect where like – because I know a few people who are very physically strong and have started jiu-jitsu. And there seems to be an aspect where like you need to kind of let go of your natural talents for a little bit. You know what I mean? Because like nowadays, I do use my explosive ability when I roll with certain people that I can do that with. I do use strength in certain scenarios with much better people that

I can use that with, but it's along with also having good technique in mind. But when you start, if you do have a specific talent, when it comes to strength, you might need to put that on the back burner for a little bit because it's always going to be there. Being able to push out of something will always be there, but it cannot be the main card you use for everything. I'm trying to choke somebody. I'm trying to escape from something. It can't be the thing that you go to

or else you're going to find that development's going to take a much longer time than it potentially could. Yeah. Something I hear and every other white belt hears is like, hey, for the first year, you're just trying to survive. But there's been times where I'll lock somebody in like half guard or even full guard and we're just there and nothing, like nobody gets any work done. And, you know, so it's like kind of like, well, I'm going to let go of this because like, let's just see what happens. It's almost like if me and you rolled and you're just like all right you're not getting past my guard so just start inside control so we can get some work done oh yeah you

know what i mean so like at what point does a white belt stop just surviving and start like actually trying to get some work in what do you what do you mean like at what point so like yesterday i had somebody in a half guard we were doing situational stuff i forgot even what position we started in i didn't let go of his left foot and i could have probably stayed there for the whole two minute situational round but i'm like this is kind of boring i would like to progress and he was a blue belt and sure enough i gave him one inch of space and he took advantage of it and took my back. It was, but afterwards he was like, dude, you did really

good in locking in my left foot. He's like, most people let go of that way quicker. And so in my head, I was like, well, I could have actually held onto it the whole two minutes, but I was kind of, not that I was bored, but I'm like, I don't think this is not helping anybody right like so again my question is like should I have just tried to survive the way everyone's telling me or should I try to progress my jiu-jitsu by trying to kind of get into a more advantageous position or maybe even let him go and then try to respond to whatever he gives me there's a lot of answers there but I think the the concept of like if you know you're gonna hold something for a whole round but you know it's not going to progress see what happens when you make a decision to do something else because a lot of people like for

example mark you actually mentioned like holding in a turtle position like if somebody like literally curls up in a ball right they might they might survive for a bit without getting tapped, right, by somebody. But the thing is, is now they're not getting better because they haven't opened themselves up to trying something to see what their opponent's going to do so they can figure out new combinations. So first off, you'll be able to do more as more things start to click in the back of your head.

More ways of escaping, more ways of submitting, more ways of guard. You'll be able to do more as more things begin to click in the back of your head, more ways of escaping, more ways of submitting, more ways of guard. You'll be able to do more as more things begin to click, especially as a white belt, and that takes time. But also, the way to get more things to click is to attempt more other things that you've been seeing. So don't be afraid of attempting things that maybe you drilled with your instructor because you don't have it perfect.

You got to attempt it because they're going to, your opponent's going to just nullify it. Then you're going to ask your opponent, well, how do I deal with you doing that? And then they'll show you and then you'll learn there. And then there'll be another thing right after that. And after that, it's a continuous annoying learning process. Yeah. So you got to kind of forget what you did previously, you know, the touchdown passes that you caught the uh the field the scores that you had in soccer or hockey they're kind of they're not really relevant maybe in the beginning because the sport's so different like if if we were um if you played football uh

and you were a linebacker you're no stranger to a lot of physical contact. If you made it to the college level, you're probably pretty quick. And if you did a sport where there's like hand-to-hand combat of some sort, like you did boxing or something, then your prowess in, even though you might not have a lot of great technique in boxing, your prowess in football and your aggressiveness and your speed might shine through in boxing because you might just kind of pick up on how to, punch comes towards my head, I move my head. I'm trying to punch the other guy in the face or the stomach.

I'm trying to punch the other guy in the face or the stomach and maybe you have had a little bit of experience throwing some punches here and there maybe been in a couple street fights but Jiu Jitsu it's not intuitive I guess maybe there's certain things in Jiu Jitsu that kind of make sense once someone shows them to you, but they don't really make a lot of sense. I mean, even something as simple as choking. You know, how little do people know about like a choke?

Because you see it on the movies and TV. And a lot of times it's just somebody going for something with their hands, trying to like get around someone's neck. to like get around someone's neck and you know good luck trying to do that into someone in jiu-jitsu because of nine million different reasons on why that's not great i'm giving you my arms now you can do whatever you want with my arms and you can beat literally beat me with my own arms yeah choke me with my own arms uh all these various all these various things so it's interesting that the things in jiu-jitsu they're not really just instinctual or intuitive. Yeah, there's a lot of things that aren't intuitive, even aspects of not getting, not allowing somebody to tap you with certain things. For example, if one of the most basic positions is maybe like a closed guard.

So I can give that example. I don't know if you can pull that up, Andrew. But like when you're doing certain things, you don't want to reach your arm out too far like a habit is like okay well i'm in this guy's close guard i'm gonna grab his collar but once you reach your arm out that far they're just gonna take your arm and triangle choke you or arm bar you or or sweep yeah yeah that close guard so the guy's gonna be like oh shit yeah if the guy reaches his arm a little bit too far and his the back of his elbow shows that's an instinct to try to maybe grab your opponent and put him down there. But once you grab him, he can – he now has your arm for whatever he wants to do.

So there are things that you instinctively think you want to do to try to get out of the position or to progress a position. But those bodily movements are going to fuck you up. And even this position itself, you're like, well, the other guy is on top of the other guy. But the guy on top is in the other guy's guard where it's my belief that the guy in the bottom has an advantage right here where he can score more or get the guy into more holds most likely, right? There are things that both guys can do, but I think this is one of the funny things where people look at jiu-jitsu and they're like, it's not real life. Would you get into this position in a street fight? The guy on top would just smash the guy on the bottom's head into the concrete. And he probably could.

He definitely probably could. Well, especially if the guy on the bottom doesn't know anything. Doesn't know anything, yeah. So if someone doesn't know jiu-jitsu, they're not even going to get into this position in a street fight. But I'm using this example because it's like a position that every new person in Jiu-Jitsu will probably get into. But there are things that the guy on top can do that are going to be super advantageous to him in terms of getting up or progressing his position. And there are things that the guy on the bottom can do. But the crazy thing about Jiu-Jitsu is that in all these positions, there are all these little bodily habits that you need to stop yourself from doing that aren't intuitive. But even from there, there's just so many options.

What I mean is like, for example, when people get really good at boxing, there's tons of different ways somebody can do something, right? But in jujitsu, in boxing, like you're typically standing, yeah, there's different stances or whatever. But in jujitsu, in boxing, like you typically standing, yeah, there's different stances or whatever. But in jujitsu, there's just so many weird positions from the standing positions to being on your back and guard different types of guards. There's so many different iterations and positions of which people can do that. It's like that's why people end up loving it so much. Because as you progress, you just realize, oh, God, I don't know that position. I don't know anything to do with the fucking legs. What the hell is the rubber guard? It's like all these

weird things. And, and the cool thing also too, is that no matter what kind of, like you were mentioning football, baseball, whatever, where some people have speed and some people have really good reflexes. So they can show that in boxing boxing if you're someone who didn't come from athletic sport background you don't need to be super fast or super explosive or super crazy to be able to do something in jujitsu because in jujitsu you can slow things down to your own pace so as you get the hang of it so it's like anybody from any background could figure something out with it and you could say that about other martial arts i know like you could say that with boxing but the one thing is that like you can't really box and spar often safely right but in jujitsu like your body will change like andrew you've been noticing but

you can spar hard with people multiple times a week and go home unscathed because there's no striking. It's all chokes and joint locks and tons of options within that. And when you have had enough, you can tap and then you get a little break. You start all over again. Give me a goddamn break here. Yeah. What's up, Power Project family? It's time to stop dressing like you're a fucking preschooler and step your game up by checking

out Viore clothing. Now, I'm not one to talk. I wear a fucking preschooler and step your game up by checking out Viore clothing. Now, I'm not one to talk. I wear a fucking pink hat that has a dog on it. But at the end of the day, at least my shirt and shorts are popping. So head to Viore because they have great stuff for your top and your bottom. Andrew, how can they get it? Yes, you guys got to head over to Viore.com slash Power Project. That's V-U-O-R-I.com slash Power Project.

And you guys will automatically receive 20% off your order. Links to them down in the description, as well as the podcast show notes. Let's get back to the podcast. I think, I think what's pretty cool about what you guys do and, uh, you know,

even sometimes an exercise, something like running, um, especially where you start to go really far or you do something like a cold plunge, it just gets you to deal with the moment right then and there. Like, what's my problem?

My problem is this guy's on top of me and he continually chokes me out and I plunge it just gets you to deal with the moment right then and there like what's my problem my problem is this guy's on top of me and he continually chokes me out and i can't get off i'm on my back and i can't move you know i've done enough jiu-jitsu to feel some of that before where you're like this is crazy i cannot figure out how to even get my own arms back so i can like use them against this guy because it's got me pinned down so bad. I mean, if you ever wrestled with a really good wrestler, they can do all that shit to you too. Put you in all kinds of crazy positions where you're like, what the hell? It can make you feel powerless, but you have to deal with the moment. You have to deal with like,

what's the most important thing in this moment. And sometimes when you're exercising, sometimes when you're doing something like jujitsu, you're not kind of sometimes when you're exercising, sometimes when you're doing something like jujitsu, you're not kind of sure when you're going to get your next breath. And luckily in jujitsu, you can kind of tap. Sometimes in exercise, when you do certain things, you run really hard or you do a really high set of squats. I don't know how hard people have pushed before, but I've pushed myself to a point where I'm like, that was actually a really bad idea. That was not smart.

That wasn't a good idea. What do you mean? You injured yourself? What do you mean? Got so out of breath where I'm like, I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to calm down from this. Where I'm like, holy shit. It's only happened a couple times,

but I was like, way too many times. Bring this clip up if you can. It says, it's one of the clips I shot over to you. And it says, only one thing super important. And it says your health. It's just a clip that I saw on Instagram. It should be in one of those emails that I shot over to you. Who is it from?

Sorry. It doesn't say in here who is it from, but if you look at the email, it should be titled in the email, in the notes that i sent you but maybe not by the way for because like a bunch of a bunch of people in one of our podcasts are mentioning that they're starting jujitsu if you're one of those people that did end up starting it really does suck in the beginning please just stick with it it's like uh it's super annoying everyone's beating you up everyone's tapping you things aren't making sense but if you can at least stick with it for a small period like if you can stick with it for a year, most likely you're

going to be able to stay in. That's a long ass time. Yeah, just keep going. It's not like after a year you're going to be good. You'll still be not great, but at least it's going to make sense and you'll enjoy it way more.

Let's see if we can get the audio on this one. This is quick. I just thought it was simple and just kind of reminded me of some of what we were just talking about. Everything is super important until you are sick. Then you realize there was only ever one thing that was important, your health. Everything is super important until you are sick. Then you realize there was only ever one thing that was important. Your health.

Yep. You ever get like really sick, like violently ill, like where you're throwing up and you got some, you know, stuff flying out of your butt at the same time. I remember that. COVID. Yeah. And you're not sure what the hell's going to happen with that.

You're no longer thinking about going to jujitsu. You're no longer thinking about the gym. Youitsu you're no longer thinking about the gym you're just like i wonder when i'm gonna be like okay yeah i don't feel good yeah this sounds weird but i was actually fortunate to get covid with my entire family so i it didn't matter how shitty i felt even though it was really bad and i was shitting a lot, which was kind of a little surprise for me. But like, I'm just thinking like, shit, I need my son to get better. Like I'll do whatever it takes for him to get better. So in that moment though, you're just like thinking, come on universe. I've been a good

person. Like I think, you know, my son's a good person too. Like, let's just be okay. And you know, get through it but in that moment yeah you're like wow this none nothing else matters right now other than our health like this is it's it sucks that it takes something like that to occur in order for you to have that um you know have that thought but i mean you too mark and you andrew like all of us we've been taking care of ourselves before like if you weren't taking care of yourself well before you got the big C, the same with me. If I wasn't taking care of myself when I got it, it wouldn't have just been me feeling tired and just having to sit on the couch for a little bit. It wouldn't have been that.

It could have been much worse. But because you were taking care of your health, your nutrition, you were exercising, it ended up being get a little sick. It's not comfortable. But then you're out of it. You're not in the ICU. You're not on the ventilator. You know? So it's just a big deal.

Yeah, I think, you know, we're fortunate that the stuff that we do, at least it's supposed to keep us healthy. We may on occasion stray and go too hard on something and then we tweak something or we hurt something slightly. Those things are going to happen when you get obsessed with it, when you like doing what you do. You can get lost in it a bit, but it's a huge advantage for us that we got involved in something at a young age that creates good habits where we like what we do so much. We like the lifting so much. We like some of the exercise we participate in. We like the sports that we're in enough to where we're like, okay, well, it makes sense for me to set up the whole rest of my life,

my sleep, my food, my relationships, everything. Everything needs to be a little bit geared towards some of this because this is what I really like to do. And I like to make sure that I got all my shit together when it comes to this thing. Absolutely. I mean, you did just touch on a little thing there, too, in terms of making sure your relationships also kind of have that health-centric thing to them. Because, like, I find it very lucky that my girlfriend also really does care about her health. And I've been with people who necessarily haven't. And it's much easier for me to be on plan because she's also on plan.

And I'm not stressing about her health too because someone who has these is part of her habits. So if you're kind of doing this, it's good if both of y'all are if you're in a relationship. But even if not, just it's as corny as that saying is, health is wealth. And it makes a big difference, especially if something does end up happening. Do either one of you guys have any family members or family members that are like into some of this stuff enough to where they try to make sure a bunch of other stuff's in line so they can be healthy when you say into this as much do you mean like what do you mean like they try to make sure they get their sleep in and make like i got like my brother my brother is that way my uncle john he's a runner um i got a couple uncles actually that um they as they got older they

weren't in good shape and then they took you know they they took it more seriously as they got older yeah and so they walk or run or they do some they do they do a lot of things they try to align a bunch of things towards making better trying to have better health outcomes my mom's been taking it more seriously like it's not like she she's always been a health outcomes. My mom's been taking it more seriously. Like it's not like she, she's always been a health minded person. She's always like blended green juices together. She's always made really healthy food. Whenever she'd make food that had like a soup that had fat in it,

she'd freeze it so that the fat comes to the top and she'd shave the fat off before she chose to eat it. So she's been always super health minded, but there'd be little things I've talked to her about, like sleeping on time. Cause she loves to watch movies since late at night. Like these little things that are big movers, like she's realized how big they are, but it's taken a while. So my mom, my sister, I do have a cousin, but it's not something that, um, our older folks are stuck on those TVs and they're stuck on Facebook.

folks are stuck on those TVs and they're stuck on Facebook. They really are, man. Like they're as attached to the digital stuff as our, you know, uh, nine and 10 year old kids, I think. Yeah. Yo, it grips you. How about you? Um, yeah, I mean, I'd have to like check in and do, you know, some, uh, some phone conversations, but like first one that comes to my mind is my, my cousin Javier, like he's always on a bike, he does jujitsu, but I first one that comes to my mind is my cousin Javier. Like he's always on a bike. He does jujitsu, but I don't know like his sleep patterns or anything like that, but he's like the first one that comes to mind. But other than that, I mean, everyone at least thinks about it, but I, I, nobody that I can think of off the top of my head. And I mean, I'm, I hope I'm not thinking of somebody you know what i mean like

hopefully that's the case and not like everybody i know is like completely off the you know radar but um nobody jumps out to my mind right now what about food wise have other family members made better choices because of you like because i know you andrew you bring like healthy stuff to parties and stuff, right? Yes and no. If I bring root beer zero, root beer zeros are gone. People like it. If I bring a tomahawk, you know, Piedmontese steak, it's the first thing that gets eaten. I make this really cool protein like a fruit dip.

Everybody fucking destroys it. But it's not in the fridge, you know know when i'm not there and it's not all this protein fruit dip this is the first i'm hearing i've never heard of this before you guys will love it i'll definitely bring it in protein fruit what else is this guy hiding from dude it's so good it's made with i make it with cream cheese why does he spring this shit within you vanilla protein powder um last time i got what do you dip in it though what i mean honestly like strawberries was traditional but there was no strawberries at the store so i got blueberries and blueberries fucking blow everything out of the water it's so good with blueberries so i will make this and bring it in because it's really

freaking good throw a little heavy cream in there too just to make it even more creamier. Oh, dude, it's a game changer. Did you say sour cream? No, no, no, no. Cream cheese. Cream cheese. There you go. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Cream cheese and heavy cream. Cream cheese and heavy cream. It's not fat-free cream cheese, is it? No. I switched that out too just to get the good fats in there. I think they're good fats. Andrew, it's so good. You guys are going to love it. You do this to us sometimes. My bad. You've got stuff you hide from there. I think they're good fats. Andrew, it's so good. You guys are going to love it.

You do this to us sometimes. My bad. You've got stuff you hide from us. I'm just not hiding. It's just... No, no, that's hiding. Okay, I'm sorry for hiding. Actually, that is.

Because it's just never been heard of until this point. And it's very unique. I haven't talked about it. No, you haven't actually. My bad. I would know. Oh, look it. Now he's trying to pretend like he doesn't know that he hasn't talked about it.

You're in a lot of trouble. You should put the recipe in the show notes. I can't. Why not? Because you just go by feel. I don't know the exact amounts. You go by feel. Yeah.

There is some yogurt in there too. Genius over there. There's some yogurt. I thought you guys would like this next clip, Andrew. I just shot it over to you if it didn't come through on the other thing. But this is relationship advice for the ladies from a lady oh god no so it should be more okay right i don't know if it's from you oh okay let's see let's see let me go here there let's go in and number one rule for my relationships that i have for myself i don't

have rules for other people i rules for myself okay okay i always try to make his penis hard not his life yes make his dick hard not his life true so he will make your pussy wet not your eyes there you go. Does anybody find any faults? No, I don't. That was actually really dope. Make his dick hard, not his life, so he can make your pussy wet and not your eyes.

There you go. But why is he... Fucking poet. This woman's got it all figured out. It's actually that simple it very well could be that simple i thought that was that blew my mind i don't know if we even need to expand on that it's like uh it's too simple right too simple that it works based works. We need to make merch based off of that. Dude, sold. But it has to be in the first person.

Make my dick hard, not my wife, so I can make your pussy wet, not your eyes. First person, yeah. I don't know. I just thought it was some good, good advices. This is great. Yeah. Make my life simple. Make it easy. Don't cause me stress, and I'll make your life stress-free. Make my life simple. Make it easy. Don't, don't cause me stress and I'll make your

life stress-free. I agree with that. Is that how you operate your relationship, Mark? Uh, it worked out that way this morning. Okay. There we go. Yeah. No, uh, you know, let's see. Uh, yeah, my wife, uh, Let's see. Yeah, my wife, she, I think, she wants to amplify what I do. I think she wants to, like, amplify what I do. So if she can help in some way, like if I'm on my way home from work and she could get something prepared for me, she will. I try to do the same for her as much as possible, but I can't reciprocate the way that she, you know, she's, she's amazing. Um, but yeah, she tries to, you know, and I think it's, um,

you know, we work together here at Slingshot. Uh, she basically runs the company, but, um, I think she has recognized that it works best for our family if she can keep me, I guess, moving along in the right direction. So I have less things to worry about, which isn't really fair to her, which makes me feel like a chump a lot of times. So I try to offload stuff on her as well. on her as well. But yeah, it's just, I think it's what we found or at least what feels awesome for me because it's super convenient because she's doing so much for me.

You know, I have a question. It's hard to put into words because it's like she just does so much. It's like totally unbalanced and totally not fair. I have a question about that because I know what you mean and I think that's a really cool way to look at things from your perspective because even though she does a lot for you and you feel as if there's no way you could do as much as she does for you as much as she does for you as you do for her, you probably end up doing a lot for her too. And I wonder if she would also probably say, God, he does so much for me.

I can't feel like I can do as much god he does so much for me i gotta like i can't feel like i can do as much as he does for me as i do for him right because that that's a really cool thing to a mindset to have i guess within a relationship i want to do so much for them that they feel like that they're so loved because the other person's probably gonna feel the same way and you guys were even though you're not trying to one-up each other, it ends up being a whole type of one-up, huh? Yeah. She just doesn't like want to let me down. Yeah.

But like there's literally no way that she could let me down. She's incredible. She's amazing. She's changed my life forever since, you know, since the day I met her basically. And it just seems like things continue to get better and better. I'm attracted to her more and more every day. She's an amazing mom. She's an amazing wife. She's incredible with so many different things. It's, you know, for me, again, I just look at, I'm like, I don't even know how I got in the

situation because I'm really grateful and really thankful. Yeah. That's kind of how I feel. I mean, like she, like Stephanie will say. Do you feel the same by Andy? Yeah. Yeah. Andy will text me and tell me, Stephanie will text me randomly,

whatever. Like if I'm still here a little bit later, you know, she'll thank me and appreciate me for all the work that I do here. And in my head, I'm like, fuck, I couldn't do what you do.

Right. Like I can hang out with my son for a long time but if he starts freaking out i'm like hitting the eject that one cartoon to me was so good but yeah i'm like looking to hit the eject button pretty quick because i'm like i don't have the fucking patience like i don't know what you want and you know so i'm trying to get better at that but no dude it's yeah i think what you said is perfectly right like i think we both kind of reciprocate the same same uh feeling which is like i man i can't do what you do and like oh i can't do what you do and like but you do so much

like well so do you like it just it works out really well yeah that's beautiful yeah i think she wants me to be able to like think and be creative and stuff. And I have come up with a couple of good ideas and they do benefit us and they do work. And so I think she's just like, if we can just keep whatever that, whatever the fuck that is, we can keep making that work. Stoke that fire. Exactly. Power Project family, hope you're having a day. Now we've partnered with eight Sleep Mattresses because it's made a big difference for our recovery and everything that we do. Me personally, I sleep really hot, so I used to wake up in a puddle of sweat. But now, since the mattress changes its temperature through the night, I sleep like a baby.

Andrew, how can they learn more? Yes, you guys got to head over to eightsleep.com slash powerproject. And when you guys go there, you'll automatically receive $150 off of your order. Links to them down in the description as well as the podcast show notes. We got some other IG clips. Did you want to check any of these out? Yeah, see if you can pull up the Mark Ripito one.

I think that's a pretty good simple one. We can probably end it there. He looks so happy. He looks like so fucking happy. i wonder what's going on here you ought to get real big you'll get big legs big back get your squat from 135 up to 405 get your deadlift up from 185 to 495 what's the best way to get from 185 to 495. What's the best way to get from 185 to 495? Sets of five. Add five pounds of workout to your sets of five until you're dead lifting 495.

And in the process, you've gotten bigger. We don't do sets of 10 because they don't make you as strong. Sets of five make you stronger than sets of 10. Because five is a heavier weight than ten. The process of getting strong requires that you grow. If you go from 185 deadlift to 495 deadlift, you're bigger. Always. No other analysis is necessary.

I've seen some small people who deadlift 495 and squat 405. Yeah, I've seen some people without a whole lot in terms of their legs be able to squat big, big weights and not have these massively huge legs. He has a lot of really good points, and he's just trying to make a simple point that part of your goal in the gym, especially for a lot of young guys, should be to probably put on a little bit of size, put on some body weight so you have more muscle, so your metabolism is a little easier to work with over the years. And that when you do like shred down that you look like something because you have some decent mass on you and then also an easy way to do that is just to simply get stronger. And then also an easy way to do that is just to simply get stronger. The numbers that he's mentioning and certain things that he says I do think are like a little oversimplification. And I also don't really think that you need to go from 185 necessarily to 495. Like that's a massive change.

But just imagine what it would look like if you went from being able to do 185 for a set of one in a deadlift to being able to do 225 for a couple sets of three. You would also – you would get bigger and stronger from that. There's a lot of overlap between getting stronger and getting bigger. Absolutely. You can get big on a 5x5 over time. You really can. But it is funny. When you sent this, you're like this is the opposite of what we just talked about.

And it kind of is. But, you know, you don't need to do sets of five to get bigger. It's really good for getting – sets of five is really good for getting bigger and stronger if strength is like a big goal for you. But I think – I know you said you don't need to do tens. But, yeah, sets of ten is going to be really good. So you can get a lot of volume and you might not get as strong as quickly, but like we talked about before, the load you're going to be using is going to be a little bit lighter. So inherently it's probably a little bit safer. You, you won't run into as many potential injuries because your form wasn't good because the load you're using was too heavy, right? So

you're going to be able to moderate your intensity and you're also going to be able to get in a good amount of training volume over time. Will you get as strong as fast? No, but you'll still be able to get pretty big over time. I think everybody he showed in the video too is using multiple repetitions, like using sets of 10 and 12. And it's not to say that there's no value in the lower repetition range because all of the people that were pointed out in that, they probably use repetitions like using sets of 10 and 12 and it's not to say there's no value in the lower repetition range because all of the people that were pointed out in that they probably use both they probably both have trained with sets of three and sets of five and they probably trained with sets of 15 and 20 and they probably done drop sets and they probably train their legs every day and

then for a couple weeks they train their chest every day they probably did like almost every program imaginable because those were legends that were shown i think you saw ronnie coleman jay cutler larry wheels yeah you're seeing these i mean these are iconic some of the strongest some of the best people uh that the world's ever seen in terms of muscle size and strength yeah very selective but But it's funny of what he said. You know, if you get stronger, then you're going to get bigger, which no argument there. But, you know, like kind of considering

like the Hamza video and stuff. And so like if you just throw in random numbers, but if your arms are 10 inches in circumference and then you work out hard and all of a sudden now they're 12 inches in circumference and then you work out hard and all of a sudden now they're 12 inches in circumference you got stronger like you cannot have a muscle that's bigger and then be weaker from in the same person was what i'm saying because this person is now bigger they are in a caloric surplus because they had to grow they stimulated their muscles so then they got bigger

and now they're bigger and they are stronger. So it's not like a chicken or the egg type thing, but it's just funny because you can attack the size and strength thing both ways. But like you said, maybe if you try going just for size, your strength will come slower. Vice versa, attack the strength, maybe the size will come slower. I don't know if that's true or not, but maybe it is, maybe it's not. Do both. Right. D-O-B-O-F. Just do both. That's a shirt. There's no hurt in just doing both. Yeah. Yeah, there's really no reason to choose and they're both fun. Yeah. They're both a lot of fun. I mean, for many, many years, I did lower repetitions kind of in the beginning of the workout once I was warmed up.

And then as the workout progressed, did more and more reps and did more and more bodybuilding stuff later on in the workout. Michael Hearns had a lot of success with that. I think Westside Barbell has had a lot of success with that. They would start out with their max effort day or their dynamic effort day. They would get in a particular amount of volume with low repetitions and particular rest intervals. And then they would do basically what Louie Simmons referred to as the repeated effort method,

which is bodybuilding doing sets of 10 to 15 reps with maybe a minute or two rest in between and doing multiple sets. Maybe you choose two to four movements for a particular body part and get that work in for the day and you're done. Yeah. I would say you should do both. There are ways you can implement both and a lot of people have made programs, power building programs, or they've implemented both of these practices. But I would say if I were to choose, like if I were to look at a trajectory and be like I want to get as big as possible and I'm a younger guy, I would start with focusing on bodybuilding. I would start focusing on higher reps, even doing compound movements with some higher reps. movements with some higher reps. And as I continue to gain size, I continue to get bigger. And even my tendons get stronger, then I'd start adding in some heavier stuff because my body would be ready

for that. That's how I actually ended up doing it. I didn't start doing strength training until I was like 2021. I said, like my first seven years were pure hypertrophy. But that's how I would probably do it again, because it set me up really good to being strong. And I don't think you have to challenge the muscles quite the way that maybe everybody thinks. Like I don't think that the muscle needs to be challenged with so much weight. You know, Ronnie Coleman, his story just,

it's amazing what he did, but it also sucks because he was retired. He's already done with his career. He's already the greatest bodybuilder of all time, and I know that he had injuries while he was competing as well that may have led to the ultimate injury after he was done. But as the story goes, he did kind of one final heavy leg press, and it just did him in.

Something popped in his back, and he had surgery after surgery. he goes he did like well kind of one final heavy leg press and it just did him in something popped in his back and he had surgery after surgery um and now he has like a compromised he's got compromised life for it and it just sucks because um i know that the mindset is part of the reason on why he was able to get to where he got to. He's an incredible athlete, somebody I look up to a lot. I really admire what Ronnie Coleman has done. But again, I don't think that you have to always have that in your head of like, I really need to challenge myself. This weight has to be this heavy because at the time that he got injured, I don't really

think there was a need for him to like, I don't think he was going to be able to challenge his muscles in any way to even get any bigger from where he was after he was retired. So there's a lot of different ways to challenge the muscle and bodybuilding in relative terms seems to be, obviously there's a ton of drugs and bodybuilding and stuff, but that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the act of like training like a bodybuilder can be done very, very

safely and you can gain tons of muscle mass and you can figure out ways of getting around the wear and tear. Because again, I don't think you need nearly as much weight as you might think. Agreed. 100% agreed. I think that's it. You want to take us on out of here sure thing thank you everybody for checking out today's episode please drop those comments down below we'd love to hear

what you guys thought about today's conversation uh hit that like button and subscribe if you guys are not subscribed already powerproject.live for everything podcast related follow the podcast at mb power project my instagram is at i am andrew z and sema where you at we had two shirt ideas the dick hard life easy pussy wet eyes dry something like that i don't know or do both just do both discord is down below and sema india on your screen on youtube and if you've gotten if you start jujitsu let us know about how it's been so far for you if you haven't yet we'll start that's me on tiktok and twitter mark you know what i think i got one more thing. I don't think we talked about this before.

Oh, let's go. But we have this O'Hearn. I got it. Yeah. Let's run this. This will be dope. Fuck yeah. All right, so we weren't done with the episode.

Nope, good. Oh, how come I can't hear him? Especially somebody. Let me restart it. Just a note. Maybe we can say at some other point like that we tried to end the episode early and then so that way people listen to this now they'll hear it you know what i mean yeah yeah there we go elite guy and especially somebody

that's retired after the fact that would say that lifting is more important than nutrition i can't think of anybody that would say that. And anybody I've talked to, like Lee, Haney, Rich Gaspar, any of these guys, Barry DeMay, none of those guys would say that lifting is more. Everybody works out. And everybody works out pretty intense for what they can do. But it's the 23 hours after that, the 22 hours. Are they sleeping right?

Are they eating right? I ate every two hours. But I ate a higher fat, higher carb diet and a good amount of protein back then. But I'd always eat every class. First period. Before second period, eat a peanut butter and jam sandwich. Next, chocolate milk. Tons of pasta.

Tons of tuna fish. I would mix the pasta with whole eggs and tuna sandwich. Next, chocolate milk. Tons of pasta, tons of tuna fish. I would mix the pasta with whole eggs and tuna fish. And then I'd have a bucket. They used to do margarine in these big yellow buckets. And the Tupperwares today, that margarine Tupperware were my Tupperwares. And so I'd go and my dad got me a cooler and we'd leave it at school.

They were great with me there. And I just go between class, grab a meal. Boom, boom, boom. I'm extra hungry. Peanut butter sandwich. I have about three a day. I wish that's why this motherfucker was 260 at 60. Dude, I love this guy.

You got to love O'Hearn. Yeah. Fuck. Yeah. Fuck. Damn. When he first started talking, I wasn't sure exactly what he was getting to because I was kind of halfway thinking he's just saying that nutrition is more important than training. But he's talking about in the already trained people. So he's saying amongst the trained people, the big difference ends up coming down to that nutrition. And Chris Bumstead does have some outstanding genetics

that make him different than everybody else, I'm sure. There's probably a couple things mixed in there. But he also just has a dedication to, some people say he does like 1,200 calories for like the last couple weeks before he does a show. And that's a dedication that people hear, but maybe they're not willing to go there. Along with that, Mike just did mention it. Something that Allah brought up too. The other, what, 22 hours, right? Allah was mentioning how like, I mean, we do this too.

Like we're here. What are we doing? We're doing mobility. We're doing stuff with our feet. We're getting good sleep. Other times during the day, we're always doing something that's going to help move the needle forward. So it's not just the food you're eating. It's a big deal or the workouts you're doing. It's what are you doing to take care of yourself outside of it all? That's going to help you really move forward above other people over time. And SEMA using this thing right here to like strengthen his fingers when people at Jiu-Jitsu are like, his fingers are not weak. I don't know what he's doing or why he's doing that while he's driving, but it's killing me.

Yeah. Yeah. That nutrition is a pivotal thing. It's not easy to like lock it in no matter who you are, no matter how, no matter how many times you compete or how many times you get used to it. It's easy pivotal thing. It's not easy to lock it in no matter who you are, no matter how many times you compete or how many times you get used to it. It's easy to talk about. It's easy to say, yeah, I'm going to do this, and then I'm going to do this 16-week prep,

and then you're three weeks into your 16-week prep, and you're like, fuck. It can be really difficult. It can be really challenging, but it is a big separator. And I would even go as far to say I think it's a separator on a much higher degree, at a much higher level than we even really think or consider. There's people like Tom Brady and there's a lot of athletes that have taken the initiative to not only have the athletic prowess and to learn the sport and learn all these different things, but to also not only dedicate themselves in the gym, but dedicate themselves to that diet and making sure that's intact.

And that's how you can still throw a football like a maniac into your 40s. And I think these athletes are learning this at younger and younger ages, and you're seeing people perform better and better and better and then you end up with mutants like LeBron James who you're just like I don't even understand what's going on he's going to break the all-time scoring record and he's done so through being diligent through being an amazing athlete he's somebody that is obviously highly dedicated on so many different levels. He's one of the few guys that he is seemingly holding it all together and he has so much shit going on. And he's like, I mean, he's the greatest athlete of all time. I think just period. Like,

I don't even know if we've seen anything, uh, even remarkably or even, uh, close to LeBron James in terms of like height and size and power and speed. And it's just it's really unbelievable. He does have some outstanding genetics. But look what he's fucking done with those genetics. And look at how long he's been in the league. And he it doesn't seem like he's talking about retirement anytime soon. Can he continue to dominate, continue to score?

A lot of that has to do with his dedication in the weight room, massage therapy, and obviously he must be doing something with his nutrition. Actually. We got to edit that out. Just bleep it. I'll bleep it. We've heard that LeBron has 12 hours of sleep. Yeah, we've heard that LeBron has a lot of sleep.

Damn it. And we've heard that he spends like a million dollars on getting massage therapy and stuff like that, right? Absolutely. So yeah, if you guys just heard a bleep, we can't say. But LeBron gets a lot of sleep. Andrew, take us on out of here, buddy. I think we're good. We just need you to send us home now.

Because we all did our thing. So we're good. Oh. you to send us home now because we all did our thing so we're good oh yeah I'm at Mark Smelly Bell strength is never weakness weakness is never strength catch you guys later

bye