Massenomics Podcast - Ep. 423: Ken Nowicki of Cerberus

Episode Date: May 13, 2024

Big Ken Nowicki of Cerberus joins us live from Home Gym Con to talk strongman equipment, Scottish food, and being the youngest to successfully pick the Dinnie Stones. Which Aberdeen is the best Aberdeen?? Build Fast Formula Use code MASSENOMICS to save 10% on every order! BearFoot Shoes Use code MASSENOMICS to save 10% on every order! Juggernaut AI Use code MASSENOMICS to save 10%! The Strength Co Get some Go-To Plates! Swiss Link Use code MASS to save 15%! Texas Power Bars Get the Barbell that changed the game!

You know, thanks for what you do with your podcasts and all the rest. You're doing a great job. Hope everybody keeps tuning in. You get a lot of good info, a lot of insights, understandings on how to get strong, how to stay strong, how to use your strength. You do a great job, dude. You make things better than they are in real life, I think.

If you don't follow Massanomics, y'all do it. Social media, website, everything. Massanomics! science, everything. Massanomics! Hey guys, hopping on here for a quick note before the episode starts. Episodes 421 and 422 were not recorded in our normal situation. They were recorded at Home Gym Con in French Lake, Indiana, which means that we were not using our equipment. It was a setup that they had there for us. We recorded the episodes. We didn't know what was going on, how it was working. And unfortunately,

the audio was clipped pretty bad and the video camera was not set up correctly either. So we will not have video for you guys for this week or next week. And the audio is not the best quality. Again, it was out of our control. We're sorry. We wish it was better. Wish we could have done something about it, but we didn't have the option to do anything there. So bear with us. We hope you still enjoy it. Lots of other good content coming on the way. Welcome back everyone to episode 423 of the Massanomics podcast, the lifting podcast about nothing. My name is Tanner and today I'm with over here. My name is Tommy. And then we've got big Ken from Cerberus. Big Ken Nowitzki. You're close. Yeah, close enough.

Nowitzki. I actually think you are getting worse at that as time goes on. He said it really good the first time. Yeah. I told you I would get it worse as we go. And owner, founder of Cerberus. And we'll get into a lot of that here, too, before we get too far into it. This is our second and final live recording from Home Gym Con 2024 right here in French Lick, Indiana.

We've got a few people in the crowd. Make some noise! Wow, it's a rowdy crowd. I don't know if you can hear that, but it's crazy out there. We've got several crew members in the crowd, so that's kind of our supporting our supporter members segment this week is just talking about all the crew that we've gotten to meet over the weekend maybe get to a little bit more of that but first before we get too far into it a couple ads tommy i want to talk about build fast formula this episode is brought to you by our good friends in watertown south dakota at build fast formula the supplements we know and use Veso Blitz, Drink Hack, 80-20 Protein.

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10% on your next order. That's code MASSANOMICS at barefoot.store. Thank you, Barefoot Shoes. We'll do one more ad right now. We'll talk about the Strength Co. The Strength.co is where you can check them out. It's black, e-coated, Olympic, made in America, iron barbell plates. They're the plates we know and love at Massanomics Gym. They've become the go-to plates of Massanomics Gym. It's what we use in the warm-up room of the Lift Hard, Live Easy Classic in western northeast South Dakota. So make sure to give them a look. If you buy anything, let them know your good friends at Massanomics sent you, and then check out their podcast, the OK Podcast. But make sure to check out the plates at thestrength.co. All right, let's jump into it.

So Big Ken, we've got a list of questions for you, a whole bunch of things we want to talk about. First of all, we're set up here at Home Gym Con. You've got your first Home Gym Con booth. And I think this year was also your first Arnold booth for Cerberus too. So what are you thinking of both of them really, your booth experiences? What do you think?

I mean, obviously, I've been to the Arnold quite a lot over the years. And the booth experience was just completely different from actually being there. And obviously, you go to the Arnold, you spend the money to go, and you're like, man, how is this going to turn out? Because it's an investment.

And it actually went really, really well, blew my expectations out of the water. So it was fantastic. And then coming here, it's a different vibe, it's a investment and actually went really really well blew my expectations out of the water um so it's fantastic you know and then coming here it's a different vibe it's a different crowd it's nice to see like home gym community versus just like you know strongman powerlifting and all that sort of stuff and obviously a lot of strength athletes still do train in their home gym um but it was just nice to get a different vibe a different crowd and what jake's doing here is absolutely fantastic it definitely is a different vibe, a different crowd. And what Jake's doing here is absolutely fantastic. Yeah, it definitely is a different vibe. Like, they both have their pros, and they're just different kind of pros. So at the Arnold, it's cool.

You get in front of tens of thousands of people, and that's great. But here, one of the pros that you don't get as much there is you get an opportunity to actually have conversations with a lot of people. Yes. Oh, you can do things like this. Like, walking away from the Arnold booth for like two hours is scary yeah I mean like I didn't leave the Arnold booth until Sunday morning I would have really liked to have talked to you and met you at the Arnold but with both of us running booths there I literally never saw you the entire week yeah and you were literally across the corner from us. Right. Really close.

But yeah, being here, you have more genuine conversations, but you can have more conversations and long conversations easier. People can see product easier. There's not three people deep and all that sort of stuff. So it's just a different feel, and I think it's really beneficial to be here. For sure. I wanted to talk a little bit about the starting of the company because I don't really know the answer.

So what is the background of the company? When did it start? Why did it start? What's the timeline? Yeah, so basically the company originally started in Scotland, so I'm from Scotland. I didn't notice an accent. Yeah, right.

So it started in Scotland 2012. I 2012 i moved stateside end of 2013 and um basically the founders of the company um back in scotland they asked if i wanted to be a sponsored athlete i was still competing high level at that point and uh said yep basically then i don't know maybe six months later asked if i want to try and sell some stuff in the u.s said sure why not let's let's see what it does and it just rolled from there and that was that's really where it started from them the biggest reason that the company started was um more to do with like the variety of the market at that point in time like realistically in strongman you had rebound and that was that was really it and we were you're borrowing from different sports to be able to

have strongman specific equipment so that's where it came from whereas a case of hey you know this product is okay but it's not really fulfilling the needs what can we do to to do that and then like calum and peter who are the original founders of the company in the UK and that was where they started they you know going to gym and you know train strongman here and there and then it just kept rolling and then once I got involved it was really off to the races in the US. So what were some of the first products that came out? Honestly the funny thing is that the first products were like lifting straps, wrist straps, and we actually had a mouth guard because they were big in the MMA scene. So they actually started originally like in the MMA scene.

Okay. And then it turned into more strength sports after that. So that was the game. I had mouth guards for years because they never sold. Right. So what is Cerberus? Is it a three-headed dog? Three-headed dog that is basically the dog that

guards the gates of hell okay yeah so do you want to get is he guarding you to get in or get out it's a good question I never actually thought of that one that's like some of the three-year-old I want to get out yeah maybe both I don't know. Depends on the person. Would you say it's like a pit bull dog? Or what kind of dog do you think it is? I hope it's not like a golden retriever. It looks pretty mean. Everything you see looks pretty mean.

Maybe it's like a corgi. Yeah, that could be too. He is what's guarding the gates of hell though. Apparently. That's a big job. Do you have any idea where the name originally, you know, what the inspiration was for the choice was? They told me, I feel stupid now not knowing, but it was the meaning of it.

It was the Greek word and all that stuff right so that's where it came from and it was about strength and protection and all that sort of stuff just like you know you're protecting your body with with the sleeves and the belts and all that sort of stuff yeah um what about uh equipment wise so one of the big things you know we've got a whole bunch of sandbags and uh massonomics gym that's one of the big things, you know, we've got a whole bunch of your sandbags in massonomics, Jim. That's one of the biggest. I think they're the best sandbags. I'm sure you think that, too. I mean, I'm biased, but I've been competing in strongman for almost 20 years. Right. We're in neutral.

We say they're the best. So it means something if we say it. You have to say it. Exactly. It's true. So there's this kind of, we talked about it yesterday, to be fair, on a YouTube video that will be out there. But we'll pretend we haven't asked you this yet because some people listening to the podcast might not catch that. So we have this long-running debate in the massonomics community when it comes to sandbags.

So you can fill sandbags with a lot of things. They are called sandbags, I would say. But what's the preferred medium to put inside of a sandbag? Sandbag. We talked about it yesterday. You can do a lot of different things. You can make them lighter with rubber mulch. You can make them heavier with pea gravel, but it's a sandbag.

Yeah. So pea gravel is an option, but not your number one option. It's too hard to work with. Yeah. And I don't know. I know we've talked about it before but a pea gravel would that make it lighter or heavier or maybe about the same i don't know i think technically makes it a little heavier okay i mean the way to get the heaviest was use pea gravel and then fill it in with sand right right what a hybrid bag yeah so So a combination. Maybe it's not binary.

There's an option C. That's a blend. So what's the heaviest bag you've ever seen? Heaviest Cerberus. I mean, I know the biggest one is maybe called a 400 or something. You can fill it maybe differently to get it even heavier. Someone had one at 500. Wow.

Yeah, I think they loaded one for the Arnold, for the Amateur World Championships to 450, and I think they had something to put in to hit 500. So can people, is there? People are shouldering 450, 460-pound sandbags. Jeez. What's the heaviest bag you've ever messed with? Like mid-threes. Yeah, yeah.

400s is a bit of a he-man. It's silly. A couple people on the planet, maybe. But the way people are manhandling that these days is ridiculous. Right. Right. People are getting too strong. I don't know about too strong.

But so you, I think you're about a similar age as us. And we talked about though, you started doing Strongman like 20 years ago. So you were pretty young when you got into it, though. Yeah, my first contest was LAT17. And how did you get involved in it? I actually got involved because I watched it on TV at Christmas. And I don't know if you guys remember. There was a big tsunami in, I think it hit Sri Lanka and stuff like that.

It was like Christmas 2005 or 2004 we usually only know things that happen in the United States I figured I don't want to say it in Peru we'll just take your word for it that's how it seems but it was this big tsunami

and they did a fundraiser I think it was the next May it was not too far from where I lived so I went and watched it it was cool and I was like let's see what we can do and then I competed in the next year and after that it was the next May, and it was not too far from where I lived, so I went and watched it. It was cool, and I was like, yeah, let's see what we can do. And then I competed in the next year, and after that, it was just, that was it. Off to the races. Yeah, yeah.

Do you feel like, did you have a knack for it right away? Like, when you started going, were you like, I am kind of good at this? Yeah, I mean, I was a bigger kid. Like, I graduated high school at 260. Oh, wow, okay. So what sports would you have played at Scottish Girl? That's different. It's just different.

It's like we don't have football. We don't have baseball. It's rugby and soccer. Okay. So did you play both? No. You didn't play rugby? No.

I mean, I played like one game for the high school. Okay. Because I got roped into it. But you were already lifting. Yeah. I started lifting at like 12 years old. Right. But yeah, I mean, I would say I took to it pretty well.

I mean, I was beating guys drastically older than I was. Like there was a running joke where people would make fun of each other that they got beat by me at 17 years old. Right. But yeah, it just came very naturally. And like I managed managed to because obviously being younger you don't have the brute strength so i managed to like you know figure stuff out we're like oh i would have learned to jerk for overhead press and that way i can out you know i can out

press these guys who are strict pressing more than i am yeah any of you said currently do you i mean when was last time you competed would you ever compete anymore again or what's the last time yeah i mean like it was like four years ago god it might even be more than that four or five years ago that was the last time i competed um and i was going to go and do osg two years ago i think it was two years ago two three years ago and um during like i went to do a local contest and detached my bicep like on the first event light keg so i had done like detached my bicep on the bottom like 2012 and keg so i had done like detached my bicep on the bottom in like 2012 and i took off the shoulder and it just got to the point where i was like i'm just getting hurt more and more yeah and so did you have your bicep reattached after that

one no that one at the shoulder i didn't do anything with it um and i was i go back and forth about competing again but there's a but the sport's moved on so much. The change in the sport in the last five years is absolutely insane. And for me, at this point in time, in life with trying to start a family and having the business getting bigger and bigger and bigger, the balance in that is just getting harder. And I think I might do some local stuff

and have some fun, but I'll probably not go and try and compete at Worlds again, you know? Right. Yesterday we were talking the Dinny Stones and you have an interesting piece of history regarding the Dinny Stones. Yeah, so I was the youngest on history

or on record, I should say, to lift the Dinny Stones for about 12 years. And how old were you when you did it? I was 17. 17. And someone ended up beating you by like a week or something it was not that much yeah i remember i'd be like what the hell i'm like googling the guy and trying to figure out and uh where are the dinny stones located in scotland

so they're in a place called patark okay and so it's about about 45 minutes to an hour from aberdeen in the northeast of scotland we familiar with that. We are also from Aberdeen. I don't know if you know that. I heard this. I did hear that. It is considered the sister city, isn't it? I believe it is, yeah. So a couple of Aberdeen, or three Aberdeen guys.

That was right there, actually. A lot of locals. So I don't know if you've ever considered making the trip to South Dakota. I'm going to have to now. I saw a thing the other day. It was like, I think it was Colorado. It was like Glasgow, Colorado. It was like the most remote place.

I was like, perfect, I'm going there. Yeah, you've got to go to Glasgow and Aberdeen and make your trip west, and you'll get to both. Yeah, so speaking of South Dakota too, so Mount Rushmore is in South Dakota um and you know since you're not born here I'll just tell you it's four U.S. presidents that their faces carved on a mountain in the side of the side of the hill so we like to play this Mount Rushmore game with everyone we have on here so um for you we'd like you to pick your Mount Rushmore so kind of like your top four of uh strong competitors all time, what would

be on your, who would make it on your Mount Rushmore list? I mean, obviously Z's up. Z's number one. Yeah. So Z's definitively number one. Z's definitively number one. So he's George Washington. Okay. I think you have to have Kaz up there because of what he did during his era.

Pudzianowski. Pudzianowski. I think you have to say Shaw for world wins, but then you've got Thor. I think Shaw and Thor are a toss-up. So you think Thor is creeping up there? I think if Thor hadn't stepped back at the point he did, he would have been ridiculous.

So it's so damn dominant that you cannot deny that he was better than XYZ at some point in time. It's kind of unfortunate for the sport that he did. It was. Things were, and we talk about it all the time, where for us, when we look back at Maths and Amics when it was like things were and we talk about all the time where for us like when we look back at massonomics when it was first starting that was when the the eddie thor shah rivalry was like hitting that peak you know the movie came out there was all that stuff and then it just like

that just that rivalry disappeared in like a year and yeah it was unfortunate at the time like when you look i think if you look back at major rivalries in the sport, you know, you've got, I mean, obviously you've got Kaz and John Paul. Yeah. You know, that was, like, probably one of the, and then adding Jeff Capes to that, probably. The three of them was, like, your major rivalry. And then you do, probably mid-'90s, you've got, like, Magnus

and then Ahala and people like that yep um Pudzianowski era I mean realistically who did he the dominator you know literally you know um it's a different time for strongman because they came back to like more moving and all that sort of stuff and then it got into like you know Zee and Shaw like that that that rivalry and then Eddie came into that when Zee sort of pulled back a little bit. So, I mean, the rivalries these days, and now you're at the stage where the amount of guys that can win Worlds

on any given day is massive. Back in the day, it was one or two. It feels like the talent pool is the most level it's ever been as far as it's anyone's day. It can be anyone's game on any day. Yeah, I mean, it really comes down to events and mistakes.

Right. And there's still probably a few guys that are at the top of the heap where you look at like Mitch Hooper, Tom Stoltman,

and... I think right now you cannot deny that Mitch Hooper is the best strongman in the world. Right, yeah. There's nothing,

you can't say anything else because I don't think it comes down to contest wins and what he's done. I think what it comes down to is his ability to get better at his craft by attacking different things. Like learning to split jerk.

The guy dominated the axle because he spent the off season learning a technique which was going to benefit him versus just trying to get stronger. Did you see he put like 597 pounds overhead? Yeah. It was 507.

He mistyped it. Oh! Okay. That was 230 kilos. Okay. And then I did the math again. So he mistyped. Okay, okay. And then we did it in five minutes. Holy shit. Okay. And then I did the math again. Okay.

So he mistyped it then. I'm not crazy. No, because when we reposted it, because he was in some of our stuff, we reposted it, and I was like, I've got to double-check this math. Okay. Yeah, but he made it.

But that's the thing. You've got 230 kilos on an axle. Yeah, sure, it's not the rack. Sure, it wasn't like a competition down command right but who knows what he's done in training up to that point right you know in terms of like what was what was the week yeah how heavy did he go and other stuff it's not a contest i mean i think you'll see mitch break the world record in axle yeah um we talked about your sandbags and uh looking there over today at your booth other cool stuff the uh is it the cradles bar yeah the 10 foot bar so what's the yeah what

are the specs on the bar is 10 foot long 10 feet long it's like 28 mil yeah i think it comes in like 62 pounds of the conversion okay and uh it definitely has some serious flex to it when you are using that yeah when you load it up and you've got some like a good amount of weight on on either end it flexes like hell yeah so is that we were is that one a bit of a challenge to ship at 10 foot long it's a major challenge i mean we figured it out we got it done but yeah trying to actually figure out how like what carriers will take it and even stuff where you know we went through a bunch of different carriers where they will like it has to be palletized yeah i'm like i'm not building a 10

foot pallet for a four foot no sorry a four inch you know tube right so we managed to find a carrier that will take it as a loose item and it's it was a walk in the park after we figured that one out yeah so do you have anything else uh coming in the pike you know that's cut in uh research and development phase or anything else that you guys are working on? Got some stuff going on. I can't speak about it, but we've got some stuff going on. Some new stuff that's going to be coming out

next couple months. Okay. Sand related. Oh, could you use pea gravel? Could use pea gravel. Okay. Or a mix of both maybe. A mix of both, a mix of both maybe. A mix of both.

A mix of whatever. Yeah. Another thing seems like, you know, there's a lot of Strongman shows that go around the country at the amateur level all the time. And it seems like Cerberus is a sponsor of every single one. So the biggest thing for me is, like, you know, coming up in Strong strongman when how do i put it nicely the benefit of being an athlete wasn't really there like you didn't get support from companies you know you'd go to a contest oh you man i want a tub of protein you know right and that was really it um so for me the one of the biggest things i want to do with the brand is be able to support every contest I possibly can. Whether it's from equipment to actual cash or gift cards for winners,

whatever it is, I just think there's a massive value in supporting Grassroots Strongman because that's where the majority of athletes are. That's where you can have the biggest impact. Yeah, and Tanner's not lying, though. It does seem like you guys support every athlete. Yeah, we try to do it, and I think the amount of emails I get on a weekly

basis for sponsorships is massive. I have a list on my, I use a project management software, and I just have a sponsorship list, and it's just huge. We need to ship this and this and this to this person on this date, and it's just non-stop. Do you have to say no sometimes?

Sometimes, but I try not to right it comes down to there'll be times where i might get a sponsorship request and it's like hey we need 10 grand for title yeah yeah right right you know it has to be some reason okay well where's the roi yeah what's the exposure and all that sort of stuff you might have to worry less about roi if they're asking for $100. Well, like I say, it's like that and it's like some of the bigger stuff. And it's like, hey, we'll put your – I don't want to come across like I'm talking shit. Right. But it's like we could put your logo on the shirt and then you can have a banner and you'll have a logo in the live stream.

I'm like, okay, but that doesn't correlate to $10,000. Right. So I'm sure you guys have dealt with it as well. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, quite often. And part of it is we do want to give back to it in ways that we can too. But part of what we've done there is more recently, last year specifically,

we started running our own event. Yeah. And we put a ton of time and resources into it. And not that we don't sponsor other things but usually I kind of limit it to people that have like notably supported us in some way or something and I'm like yep if you've supported us we're going to try and do something

for you. Yeah and that's big for us as well like I like to be like a recurring sponsor right so we'll still do this stuff then but more specifically though it's like no we're trying to put on this cool thing like come be a part of ours and we'll still do this stuff then. But more specifically, though, it's like, no, we're trying to put on this cool thing. Like, come be a part of ours, and we'll help everyone out. We'll try and make ours cool and special.

And that's a way we can give back to people that are actually interested in competing, I think. Otherwise, it's like, Massanomics as a company is relatively small. And, like, we just can't you know to be fair I don't know sponsorships like there's not that much ROI in a lot of it I mean there kind of is it's just not like you don't see it specifically like there's not a direct correlation usually from it's not like oh great we got 10 new customers because of that you know it doesn't really go that way and all that also does depend and you know it's the same way with strongman just the effort that people put into marketing and promoting their show too yes sometimes with the powerlifting meet it's a local meet with 20 lifters and it goes for

two hours and they're three hours and that's it no one knows about it and then you get the bigger productions that have a live stream and there are lots of posts on social about it so there's different levels of effort people put into the side of it yeah and it's like you know you have the tears and stuff like that but it's like you know trying to figure out the roi from that like one thing we're trying to do this year is be a lot more specific with like hey if we're on the live stream here's a link and now we can like you know whatever the link may be that way i can like track that specific link and i can see how much viewership that one link got right now that makes sense uh who's the best uh scottish strongman of all time of all time i mean you have to say the stiltmans now right at one point in

time it would be forbes cowan but now it's it's the stiltmans without a doubt you know i mean it's tom yeah luke luke in his own obviously a fantastic athlete, two-time Europe's strongest man. But now you've got Tom who's going on for trying to hit number three in Worlds. It has to be Tom. There's no, I don't think there's a debate to it. That's a variation of this question. Who is the greatest strongman of all time from the UK?

From the UK? Yeah. That's a hard one but I think honestly it has to go with Tom I think it has to stick with Tom because like sure you've got Jeff

you know Jeff Capes Jeff Capes who he won he won did he win one or two or something like that I think he won two

I want to say he won two but I mean the era is different right and that's the hard thing you know you've got Jeff who won at least one or two you've got you know Jamie Reeves who won once um Gary um Taylor won once Eddie Hall Eddie won once but Tom I think now with the the level of the sport and it's not like you know back in the day like you could sort of get away having a week event nowadays it's not like, you know, back in the day, like you could sort of get away having a weak event.

Nowadays, it's like you have to be one of the biggest deadlifts. You have to be the biggest presser. You have to move well. You have to, you know, kill stones and everything. So I think it stays with Tom. And just like to specifically focus in on it, we have to ask everyone that's from your corner of the world, like what's your explanation to us as those that don't understand on the what's the geography lesson on what is what where do you draw the circles and draw the lines so you're basically

asking great britain in uk you talked about this yesterday right right how does that work so basically i'm 90 confident i'm not screwing this up. But you've got Great Britain, which is going to be Scotland, England, and Wales. And then you add in Northern Ireland for United Kingdom. And Ireland's its complete own thing. You make it seem so simple. It is.

Really, it is simple. When you start convoluting the Ireland thing, that's when it gets dangerous. Yeah. But I think I'm pretty sure that's what it is. It's like Great Britain is the mainland. United Kingdom includes Northern Ireland. Do you get back very often? Try to.

So I went back, I'm trying to think now. Went back in like September 22 and then had family come out like May last year. My mom and my brother came out

and then we went back to visit people last September as well. So we're going to try and get back this summer. But it's just hard. It's just balancing it all, you know?

And you live in Boston, correct? Just outside Boston, yeah. So how often do people think that you're Irish or have some type of... Not often. Really? Yeah, which is quite nice.

Okay. I suppose there's enough Irish people that maybe they understand... Not often. Really? Yeah, it was just quite nice. Okay. I suppose there's enough Irish people that maybe they understand the real nuance of that. Yeah, right. That would make sense. They get a... Is that why you chose Boston? You wanted to feel a little Irish?

No. I was living... So when I first moved to the stateside, I lived in Colorado, and then I was there for like four years, three and a half, four years, and I went to Washington State. And Washington State was gorgeous,

but it was very Scotland in terms of like, it's raining 90% of the time. And it made, being on the West Coast made travel and even just daily conversations with head office in the UK much harder. Because now you're working with an eight-hour time difference. So, you know, I'm doing a phone call at six in the morning just out of bed trying to figure where I'm at and

then traveling you're basically doing two transatlantic flights um so yeah I basically moved to New Hampshire and then it made life a hell of a lot easier so was it 2010 you said you moved here or end of 2013 2013 stateside yeahide, yeah. So how does it work? You're a Scotland citizen, and when you move here, if you've lived here for over 10 years, do you have to become a U.S. citizen? Do you have to make citizenship? Yeah, so I got citizenship last January,

but that was like a five- or six-year process. I guess they'll let anyone in here this year. I know, right? Shit. But I didn't even... What I was told previously was that you cannot renounce UK citizenship. So I didn't even bother. I just did my citizenship here. I still have my UK passport.

I'm going to try to renew it and see what happens. But realistically, when I'm traveling, it has to be on a US passport because you can't come and go on a UK passport without a visa and all that sort of stuff. Could you ever see not living in the United States? No, I'd better go back. The UK has changed drastically since I left. I think that's

safe to say that there's been massive change in society overall in 10 years, but there's just so much more opportunity. I wouldn't have servers in the UK obviously because head office is there. I wouldn't have servers in the UK, obviously, because head office is there. Right. And I just, yeah, I wouldn't go back.

I have a far better standard of living here, I feel, than the UK. Don't get me wrong, I love Scotland, but I wouldn't go and live again. I get pissed off when I fly back. Like, I'm back there, we get out of the terminal Heathrow, go for a coffee, and I'm ready to get back on the plane. Yeah, I can see that okay supporting our supporting members segment we'll jump into that quick I'm just gonna shout out

people in the audience big Matthias cash is here and his wife or girlfriend one of those two wife okay he's wearing a ring we've got big Keith for the no wine cellar resident home gym expert. Big Joey E is here. Big Nicholas Rolf, our resident sales agronomist. Big Ashton in the back. Big Stuart and his daughter. And then the only person I don't know your name.

Big Derek. Big Derek is here. I was trying to think if I knew everyone's name. I'm like, I think I know all but one. So shout out to everyone that made it here to listen at home, Jim Conn. We appreciate that. And should we do a couple of our last sponsor reads, too, to get those in there? What do you got?

Maybe you're up to bat. Oh, boy. We've done half of them. So today's episode is also brought to you by Texas Power Bars. Buddy Kapp started Texas Power Bars in the 80s and has been cranking out the legendary bars ever since then. He is known for the Texas

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15% on your next order. That's SwissLink.com. Code MASSANOMICS will save you 15%. Thank you. Swiss Link. I think along those lines, Tanner, we haven't talked much about the cuisine of Scotland. And even Boston, for that matter. Maybe we should start with the

homeland, Scotland. What's some of the best cuisine? What food are they known for in Scotland? I mean, obviously haggis. Yeah. You know? And you say obviously haggis. Like, we all know what that is.

But that's not a... Do you know? No, we don't know. Exactly. So we need an explanation there. So basically, a haggis is a small animal. It's got two legs longer than the others. Like, this is actually an animal?

Yeah, so it runs around the hill really, really easy. Oh. I'm completely fucking with you. Oh, I'm totally fucking with you. Wow, I had the wrong impression of what this was. That's not correct. Is it? No, I'm completely fucking with you.

So, haggis is basically, it's sheep's pluck, so it's heart, liver, and lung. Okay. All chopped up. Sounds delightful already. I feel like it was starling. I feel So it's heart, liver, and lung. Okay. All chopped up. Sounds delightful already. I wonder if it was barley. Yeah, so what they do is they do all that. They put barley in, fat, and all that sort of stuff, mix it up. And they stuff it into a sheep's stomach.

Okay. And boil it. That doesn't sound good. It's absolutely fantastic. How big is this? Is it like a sausage or is it big? It depends. It depends on how big the sheep is.

I don't know. It's a good size. How is it cooked then? What do you do? You throw it in the oven? No, you just boil it. What do you put on it to make it taste good? It's all set. You do that

and then you have it with mashed potatoes and turnip. And can you just go into, is this a common thing on restaurants? Like it's on the menu at most places, or is this a home dish? No, I mean, you'll get it in a traditional Scottish restaurant. They'll do like haggis, neeps, and we call it haggis, neeps, and tatties. So neep is turnip, and obviously tatties is potatoes. So we'll do that as an appetizer.

Some people have it as a main. You just made that up to trick tourists into eating that. Oh, I don't know, but it is fantastic. I'm going to play the joke. I made my wife try it. It's not that bad. So is it seasoned spicy? Yeah, I mean, it's a little bit spicy.

It's got a little kick to it at times. It's probably pretty good for you. I mean, it's a little bit spicy. Okay. It's like, yeah, it's got a little kick to it at times. It's probably pretty good for you, like I would say. I mean, it's full of iron. Right, right. Okay, so we've got haggis. What else is on the list? I mean, obviously, being an island, you've got a lot of fish. A lot of lamb is really popular with us.

Beef, obviously. I mean, in terms of the traditional stuff, it's going to be more like lamb and lamb and beef is really traditional with us and like obviously that you've got Shepherd's Pie right and then say I'm about that yeah that's good so here's a question for you what is Shepherd's pie? Okay. Because I get pissed off with this. I feel like I've even gotten meat and potatoes. Yeah, it's almost like a meat.

Yeah, I've gotten variations of it depending on where you go about it. Is it beef in shepherd's pie? That's what I would think so. That's what I think of, yes. So what animal does a shepherd look after? A sheep. A beef sheep.

So a shepherd's pie is lamb. Okay. And a cottage pie is beef with us. So that would be one of the major differences, though, is lamb is hard to come by in America. It's not that popular. You don't. I mean, tons of grocery stores just don't even have it. You've got to go out of your way to find it.

That was one of the surprises for me. Like, when I first moved, I was like, man, you don't really have much lamb. No. Whereas it's huge with us. So what do you like better between beef and lamb now? Like, what would you lean towards? Or wouldn't you care? you don't really have much lamb no whereas it's huge with us so what do you like better between beef and lamb now like what would you lean towards or wouldn't you care i don't really care yeah if i'm having a if i'm having like a shepherd's pie or a cottage pie i'm going with shepherd's pie yeah well what's a cottage pie cottage pies with beef oh yeah so that's why the i see i'm like it's not it's not shepherd's pie with beef yeah is there anything you love here that you would be

tough it'd be tough food wise that would be tough for you to live without if you if you move back to scotland i'm a basic guy yeah i'm like ground beef and rice you know right i mean aside from that no not really so out on the east coast though i feel like there's a stereotype of boston and duncan donuts do those go hand in hand is that they do yeah so you're a duncan donuts guy i used to be my wife my wife corrupted me i'm now a starbucks guy okay so are you a morning coffee kind of guy i'm like give me a i have to cut my like my caffeine bag i used to drink at least a pot every morning so you basically don't want anyone to talk to you until you've had your morning coffee.

I'm okay. I just really want to be alone. I'll talk. Oh, I get it. Leave me alone until I've had my coffee. Get up and have my coffee. The first thing I do in the morning. So you like Starbucks coffee.

You like Starbucks coffee better than... I'll drink it. But I also don't want to spend like seven bucks on a cup of coffee so that's where i'm at now like you know try to cut it back and have my coffee in the morning i'll have a monster before i train that's fair yeah but i had when i when i first started dating my my now wife it was like my caffeine consumption was bad like i will happily say I would have a pot of coffee in the morning. At work, I used to have Monsters on subscription. I'd drink four Monsters

during the day and then I'd have pre-workout before I'd train. Did you really have them on subscription in the way that Monster would just get sent to your house? Yeah, I had it on Amazon subscription. I would get cases sent to the warehouse. It was bad. My rest and heart rate was like 90 beats a minute when I first, like in bed.

So was it tough for you to cut back and like make it through the day? No, I'm fine now. Yeah. Like it took me a little bit where I'm, because like I was so over caffeinated that the Monster wasn't having any effect. So were you having like a gram of caffeine a day?

It must have been. Yeah. I mean, pre-workout was like 300 megs. Right. A Monster's got 140. Right. So it was probably over a gram. Yeah. day? It must have been. I mean, pre-workout was like 300 mg. Right. A monster's got 140. Right. So it was probably over a gram. Yeah.

It's peak performance. It was something like that. I don't know how to say peak, but it was something. Boston is in a lot of movies. Have you seen Good Will Hunting? I have. How do you feel like that

represents the Boston lifestyle? I mean, I don't live in Boston, so... You're Boston. I think it's... I don't live in Boston. You're Boston. I think it's, I think it's, I don't know. I mean, I think you get some representation of it. Yeah.

It's a good movie. It's a fantastic movie. It is. It's a great movie. Yeah. I have seen it in Case Guys for one night. I'm not just saying that. I really have. What about The Town?

Isn't that a Ben Affleck? The Town's great. The Town's great. So do you guys call it The Town? I don't think so. I personally don't. But yeah, you've got The Town, you've got the Departed's in Boston. Right.

Leo. Matt Damon. It's a good movie. Yeah. All right. Tom, what do you think about overrated, underrated? I think it is about that time. Okay.

We played the Mount Rushmore game. Okay. Now we're going to play the overrated, underrated game, and relatively simple game there's a few rules though you can uh we'll give you a series of topics that are hand-picked for you and you can elaborate as much or as little on each one as you'd like you've got your druthers to do so but what you can't do is ride the line you have to definitively choose if each thing is overrated underrated we promised a lot of politics and religion, and we haven't really got there yet, so luckily that's where this goes. I hope you're ready.

Overrated or underrated? First topic, are you ready? First, the rules make sense? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, okay, great. Overrated, underrated, Scottish terriers. He's really torn. He's thinking about it. Yeah, I know.

Overrated. he's really torn he's thinking yeah i know like shit overrated is is that do you see that dog frequently no just like everyone had one no i'm close well in scotland we just call them terriers uh is there any thought that the three-headed dog is a Scottish Terrier? I mean, it very well could be. Very well could be. Okay. So what did you say? I think overrated. Okay.

Do you have any dogs? I have a Rottweiler Poodle Mix. How many heads? Just one. Luckily. Okay. Overrated or underrated, Boston, the band.

Are you familiar with Boston? I am familiar. I haven't heard that much of their stuff. Any Boston fans in the house at all? No. No Boston fans. Crickets. Can you name a song by Boston? They have some good songs.

What was the one that was on Guitar Hero? No, they weren't lying. There's no Boston songs. I'm assuming probably overrated that. Can you name any Boston songs at all? Is it Long Time? Is that what's up? I don't know.

I don't know off the top of my head. Yeah, give us the list. Yeah, I got to tell you. More than a feeling. More than a feeling. That's the one, yeah. That's like the biggest hit. Long head. Yeah, give us the list. Yeah, I got to tell you. More than a feeling. More than a feeling. That's so good. That's like their biggest hit. Long Time.

Yeah, there you go. Peace of Mind. I feel like they've played good nonstop on classic rock radio, so you know the songs, you just don't know the name. Let Me Take You Home Tonight. So they have some bangers. That's official. So what's your thoughts on Boston?

I think, I mean, if the crew's not heard of them that much, then they have to be overrated. Probably so. Since none of us could name a single. Fifteen people in here, nobody could name any Boston. It'd be hard to say they're underrated and not be able to say a single thing that they've done. Where are they from?

Probably Kansas. Yeah. Okay. Overrated or underrated porridge? Porridge is 100% underrated. Okay. So what is porridge then specifically? Is it just oatmeal or is it any different than what we call oatmeal?

It's a little different. It's like rolled oats, but it seems finer. Is lamb involved in any part unfortunately not okay um but yeah it's just it's similar to oatmeal it's a different it's like a more pro i think it's a more like ground up grain because i can't find like the porridge oats i would buy in scotland i can't get the similar stuff here but otherwise preparation wise is it the same very similar like i don't know when We steep the oats overnight, and then you do it on the stove. So it's probably very similar.

Okay. So porridge, would that be like, is everyone eating that for breakfast, or would it just be like oatmeal for here where it is a breakfast choice? It's a breakfast choice. I don't think it's that popular these days. Back in the day, I think it was because it was so cheap. Right, right. Okay. All right. Overrated or underrated? because it was so cheap. Right, right. Okay.

All right. Overrated or underrated? Last one, and this is worth all the marbles. And I suppose you could consider it political from a really, really long time ago. But overrated or underrated William Wallace? Underrated. Completely. Yeah.

Guardian of Scotland. It's so much for us. Yeah. Are you a Braveheart fan? It's my. Yeah. It's so much for us. Yeah. Are you a Braveheart fan? It's my favorite movie. It's so good. Yeah. Is that a common response

of people? I'm not sure. I think it might be stereotypical. Yeah. Yeah, it's one of my favorite movies. It is a good movie. It is. It's fantastic.

It's completely factually incorrect. Right. But it's fantastic. Have you watched it a lot of times? Is it like pop on Braveheart every couple months? I haven't watched it for a while. Every night before a contest? No, I haven't watched it for a while.

It used to be at least once or twice a year. Okay. I was actually thinking about watching it last week. Sometimes when you give it a break and come back, that's even better. But no, I've watched it quite a number of times. Was William Wallace

big? Like wasn't like I know Mel Gibson is not a giant of a man but was the real William Wallace

big? I think he was a substantial guy. I'm not sure exactly how big he was but I don't think he was that small.

But even like you know in the movies he's like portrayed to be like a poor farmer. He was a nobleman. So it's like even that's completely wrong in the movie. Right, right.

They're all wearing kilts in the movie, right? Yeah. So I have not seen the movie for like 15 years, but so was it English trying to come into Scotland? Yeah, it was basically King England trying to take over Scotland.

They took over some parts and then people rebelled. Are you guys still pissed about it? I think there's some people still pissed about it. I think they're still pissed with the whole independence thing going on. So that's still a battle. One other thing. I know you're not Irish, but of the culture over there, were you ever familiar with the term Irish goodbye?

You ever heard of that? I've heard of it. I know what it is. Okay, you do know it. All right. That's when we had Pa, and he had never heard of it before. Irish goodbye. Yeah, he didn't know what we were talking about.

So he thought it was when you're a very cordial, like saying goodbye for a long time. Like it's actually the opposite. It's when you sneak away. I mean, I'd heard of it. I don't think I'd really heard of it in the UK and obviously when I came over here I knew what it was

I got told what it was yeah I mean like a lot of us back home like we're when you're saying goodbye to people it's very drawn out at times

yeah even like my wife will make fun of me on the phone with my mother because I'll be like okay bye bye bye

bye and we say bye like six times that's the Midwest thing too. It's all right, bye, and then you actually don't move at all and you keep going.

It's not until you give them the whelp and you put both hands on your knees that it's official. See, Pa also called me out. My first name is Tanner and he said,

that is not a name. And I said, your name is Pa. So yeah, I guess maybe. But Ken, is that a typical Scottish name? Kenneth was actually the name of the first Scottish king. So it's the Scottish name. It's the Scottish name, apparently.

Awesome. And pronounce your last name one more time. Nowitzki. Okay. It's not Scottish. Right, right, right. What is it, like Polish? My grandfather was Polish. So one bonus over under that we didn't ask that we probably have to ask is overrated and underrated kilts.

Underrated. They're so comfortable. Do you have some? Do you have multiple kilts? I have one kilt did you ever wear a kilt competing at all in anything? yeah I did a Highland Games once we were doing a kilt but not anything else big Rob

really sorry to interrupt you guys but I just happened to notice that the camera is focused on that table so the first half of this is going to be audio only Adam is now switching over so if anyone wants to but I just happened to notice that the camera's focused on that table. Okay. The first half of this is going to be audio only. Okay. Adam is now switching over, so if anyone watching or listening at home, now you can see the voice. Okay. All right.

That's all right. Bullshit. Yeah. We can put a slide on it. Yeah. And we're about wrapping up here. The first half. Yeah.

The last minute. Yeah. Okay. But to finish the kilt thought, completely underrated. Like I got married in January, we did kilts for all the groomsmen, and the guys who'd never been in the kilt did not want to take them off. They're very comfortable. Okay, along those lines too, remind me, Tanner,

because you have some heritage as well. Is there like a family? Do you have a family? Is it a tartan? A tartan. My last name is Baird, which is Scottish, so I have a kilt that's like the Baird tartan. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so I mean like foran tartan my last name is baird which is uh scottish so i have a kilt that's like the bear yeah yeah yeah yeah so i mean like for for me for my last name obviously i don't i don't have a kilt on my dad's side and or tartan on my dad's side but we have like my

mother's side um is stewart clan like her her lineage goes back to like bonnie prince charlie and is it ever is it like everyone have their own unique like pattern and color or yeah so each clown will have a different different color or pattern and stuff like that. That's cool. And then you've got other stuff where like Stuart has like Stuart tartan and then you've got royal Stuart as well. So you've got like a green tartan, I think it's green, and then like the royal is bright red.

And then other ones will have different tartans. Yeah, there's a lot. Yeah, that's cool. You might need to start busting yours out for events like this. I might have to. I know. Draw more people to the booth. Awesome.

Well, I think we are close to time limit, so we'll probably bring it in for a landing. I want to tell everyone thanks for listening. Make sure to check out all the other Home Gym Con that we've got coming out over prior weeks, subsequent weeks, YouTube channel, through the podcast, everywhere else. What about Cerberus? Where do you direct people to make sure they're getting

their Cerberus gear? Yeah, so with Cerberus, like on Instagram, it's Cerberus, like Cerberus underscore strength underscore USA is our one. My personal Instagram is KNStrongman. But yeah, if you go like Cerberus dash strength dot US, that's where everything's at. Awesome. Thanks, Big Ken.

Appreciate it. Thank you for having me.