Massenomics Podcast - Ep. 430: Powerlifting World Champion Austin Perkins

Episode Date: July 1, 2024

Big Austin Perkins joins us for this one fresh of his best overall lifter win at IPF Worlds. We talk to him about his experience at worlds, Taylor Atwood, short kings, and Perkins restaurant. 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!

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! everything massonomics howdy everyone we're back for episode 430 of the massonomics podcast the lifting podcast about nothing recorded live from south dakota my name is tanner and my name is tommy and tommy we just dropped our new drop it went out today there has been big things happening over at massonomics you wanted slides and you hadn't ordered them yet uh you are screwed are they all actually gone uh i think as we record there is one pair left right now so i wouldn't be surprised if that is gone by by the time by the time we finish recording yeah for sure oh yeah by the time this comes out, they'll definitely be gone.

And then even the new tees, not a ton of inventory. You know, we sold a lot of those new tees, so you can check that out possibly if you're listening to this. There should be some around still. We had, of course, we revealed the unpaid and underrated collaboration drop tea the all the uh um what's what's red called when it's just solid red what do you call red is it just red yeah it's not like it's not like royal yeah i guess it may maybe royal red's a color i'm not familiar with his royal red

maybe like cardinal red maybe but that's, I think, darker than just red. Okay. So it is just red. It's just red, man. It's red. And it's got the you and you. Yeah, you and you monogram on the left chest and the unpaid and underrated. On the back.

Full breakdown on the back. And then, of course, we have the lifting department tee that is on our oversized oversized 100 cotton tee that uh is the chef's kiss for sure on that one so you could maybe check out both of those teas still if there's a little bit left maybe you can luck out and there's something available in your size on those two man the drop though that's i'm it was well really really well, and we love it when that happens. It makes for a fun day at Massanomics. In the Massanomics headquarters scene, we're excited when it's a day like the drop was today. Yeah, a lot of orders coming through.

Yeah, makes it fun. Not everything has to be bought by everyone, of course, but it does make Massanomics a little more fun when we make something and people are excited about getting it. It was one of those days. We've said it before. It is a lot of work getting these designs made, the shirts printed, getting them into inventory, taking the photos, doing the marketing,

the whole thing, so to see it go over well, it's like, ah, it was worth the effort. Yes. So that's pretty sweet. Also big news. Well, really big news here. This episode is brought to you by The Strength Co. You can check out The Strength Co. at thestrength.co.

They make the best American-made Olympic iron plates on the market. Hands down. Put all your hands down because they're the best. And you know how I know they're good? They've got a billboard right here in western northeast South Dakota right now. That is how you know something's good. That's the mark of a really excellent company is once they get a billboard in Aberdeen, South Dakota. Because they don't let just anyone have those things.

You can't just show up with money and get a billboard. There's rules. No, you've got to know people that know people in order to get in the Aberdeen, South Dakota billboard scene. And the Strength Co. did it. First, they started off by bringing American made iron to the United States on a large scale. And next, they shifted to a billboard in Aberdeen. So what can't they do at this point?

I would say almost nothing. Check out their billboard in Aberdeen. Check out their plates and everything else they've got at the strength.co. And this episode is also brought to you by our good friends over at Texas Power Bars. Texas Power Bars have been the bar of choice for Tanner and I for, I don't know, what, a decade now, Tanner? A pert near, yeah. Pert near a decade. Yeah, pert near. You know, with a name like Texas Power Bars, you can count on them to buy your very own Texas Power Bar.

Currently, they are running a sale on the Classics Collection, which is all of their bare steel bars. So if you wanted to get a bare steel 29-millimeter Texas Power Bar, the original, maybe a squat bar or a deadlift bar, all bare steel options are available for $40 off, up to $40 off. Head on over to TexasPowerBars.com and you can pick one up for yourself. I am the proud new owner of a 29 millimeter Texas power bar with a black zinc shaft and chrome sleeves. And I am loving that thing.

It is amazing. And also, we're going to get into it more this episode later but i did some of my first squatting basically ever with a texas squat bar bare steel this past week and it's nice meat prep baby and it's nice so if you want to lift the way we lift with texas power bars head on over to texaspowerbars.com go ahead buy one of these bars while you're there tell them massonomics sent you thank you texas power bars oh thanks texas power bars talking about the billboard we have a massonomics billboard up too we are on the north facing side of that billboard and the strength co is on the south

facing side of that billboard location so it's is on the south facing side of that billboard location so it's great news for everyone traveling in july to western northeast south dakota you can one-stop shop get a picture with both billboards this year a real landmark location yeah and actually it's not where the billboard was last year we moved back to our original billboard location which is conveniently located across from the Casey's gas station. So not only can you get a picture with the Strength Co. and Mass Comics billboards, you can stop in, grab a sixer, a Brewskis, grab a slice of Casey's Zah, a White Monster Energy, a pack of Smokes,

a pack of Zins, whatever it is you need from a Casey's. It's all there fill up with gas you know get some uh 10 ethanol gas while you're here and you can pretty much do it all at just a store i like the idea of just thinking that there's going to be someone that drives by that billboard multiple times during the meet week and is like why are there people always underneath this billboard taking pictures? What's going on? As an out-of-towner, you wouldn't have to worry, or as someone doing the meet and stuff,

you wouldn't have to feel funny about taking a picture in front of the billboard at all. But sometimes when it is your own billboard, you feel a little funny standing around taking a picture underneath. Yeah, yeah. So I had to do that when i waited but you also need lighting so you can't do it in the dead of night either so i did try to do that like in the evening when there's not a ton of traffic although you didn't good for the billboard

location there is a lot of traffic on that road and i realized the traffic never really ends so you just kind of like just got to do it do it and i got uh hollered at a number of times i assume some of them were people i know i didn't recognize anyone specifically but i like to think none of them knew you they're just like get out of there loser well there's so little walking in south in aberdeen south dakota i'm like the especially like on the busier you know if you get into pretty residential areas, people are out walking all the time. But in Aberdeen, on the main dregs.

The arterial roads. Yeah, there really is not walking. You're like, oh. The consensus is when you see someone walking, you're like, ah, a homeless person. Oh, they must not be allowed to drive their car by law right now. Right, right. So it takes, people take notice when they see a person out along the street

and they're like, ah, let me yell at them. Yep. Great opportunity to yell at them. So yeah, that's just another piece of the puzzle that's coming together for the Lift Hard, Leave Easy Classic. And there's a lot of pieces of that puzzle. You could say the package is coming together nicely. Yeah.

Speaking of packages, I drove into my garage today coming home from work. And there's, I think, eight, you know, the really big T-shirt boxes that we get. You know, the big ones that we take to the Arnold. Eight of those that all got delivered today of all merchandise. Actually, I won't say what it is, but you sent me a picture of a certain piece tonight. Yeah, I sent you the picture of that because I wanted you to see that one. Do those look as good in person as they do on camera?

Those look good. That's a special edition item for the Lift Hard Live Easy Classic that we didn't have last year. It's a new item this year for us. That is a good edition item for the Lift Hard Live Easy Classic that we didn't have last year. It's a new item this year for us. That is a good-looking one. That thing's sweet. The meat teas showed up. I didn't even open those boxes yet.

And then one other thing that we've had on the line here for a long time that we're hoping to have showed up today too man oh a really you know possibly the biggest item we've had in a while showed up that has been in the works a long time and it is not directly related but we will be you know releasing them at did you look at did you look at that yeah i try to pair on and they are uh as advertised they are they're good we're starting you know we've learned a few things over the years and i feel like we got something dialed in on on that uh that item yeah okay all right oh i'm just getting so they're good over here yeah the hardest part for me i might just

spill only want to use that item and not like, you know, because we've got still like three weeks until the meet's here, so keep it out of film a little bit. Okay, all right. Just big things happening over here. Yes, that is a big thing. So a lot of cool stuff there as far as getting ready for the meet here too. Speaking of meet prep, you did. So a lot of cool stuff there as far as getting ready for the, for the meat here too. You did a little,

speaking of meat prep, you did, we're doing a little bit of special meat prep. I think that was just this week, right? Yep. I went to perfect little Sweetie's gym on Monday night for the squat session.

Big Bryce, it's his gym and Paul trains with him a lot as well. They had been bugging me for weeks on end and just so happened that every time they'd ask me to come my schedule did not allow it but this one was good to go and so i made the made the trip over actually not too far down the road from me and big nathan from build fast how many minute drive do you think it is for you it was about a 10 minute drive oh that's the one thing that sucks is that the road that you go on is under construction so it's just traffic's all backed up um but besides that the south dakota state flower an orange traffic cone am i right exactly just every state would be that way yeah

but got there and luckily enough the day i decided to go lift on the garage it was only 95 degrees that day so oh not bad really got to break in the heat i actually now take it back the other day i thought 84 was really hot and uh this was 95 that was extremely hot and then yesterday i lifted my garage at 84 i'm like actually 84 feels pretty good all of a sudden did bryce have a menards fan like oh he has he has he had a master force fan and he also had a very large pedestal fan okay so yeah he had two fans but but still, it's a very warm garage. You know, 95 is hot no matter what. But you guys were, so you didn't have to warm up for very long.

Dude, I will tell you, man, it kind of is like your whole body is wrapped in neoprene. You don't even really need to warm up. You just feel so just loose. It's like a pair of warm pants for your entire body. The entire warm pants is on everything yeah so uh warmups are feeling pretty good it's you know it's one of those things it's weird we talk about it when you're in a different environment that you don't lift in it's you you've lost your gauge for everything you're like things just feel different i don't

know if they feel better or worse but they just feel different and i'm kind of lost right now right and that was exactly how this was but we were warming up things were going good uh texas squat bar i'd maybe used one once at the gym when you had one there and it'd been many years i don't know if i'd ever used one now that i've switched to high bar so i was curious if that would feel like it was any different and no it didn't actually feel different at all so that was so you don't have to worry about that the only thing that was different for me is i like to keep my arms and elbows in pretty tight and so for me i put my i put my thumb on the knurling like on the edge for the smooth to the edge of the knurling and on the texas squat bar that knurling pattern is in a lot more so i kind of have to eyeball don't have the

gauge yeah i don't have the gauge so i kind of have to go like i just go like an inch off of the knurling now which is pretty close but that is the one on meat day that would have sent me for a little bit of a loop because i i would have never encountered that one before the knurling on all the texas squat bars is not the same either oh really change that time so like because i have because a few are different in the gym aren't they yeah i've got i guess three texas squat bars now and two of them are the same. One of them is different. They're both very nice bars and otherwise the same. And I don't actually have a preference between one or the other, but there's noticeably a

slightly different pattern. You know, I don't know if the gaps are different or something like that. It has to change at some point in time. So that's something I'll have to be aware of a little bit. But again, pretty minor. I did work up to a single of 425. Felt pretty damn good. Looked like the morning paper. I mean, yeah, I didn't feel...

RPE morning paper. Would you put RPE chicken baked? Because I wrote RPE equals, and I didn't... Because I just... I kind of like making a... Because people will do this RPE air and I didn't like, cause I just, I like, I kind of like making a mock, like, cause people will do this like RPE air thing all the time, you know, and I kind of like to make a mockery. Yeah.

Right. But just be like, no, just use, like, I want it to be increasingly dumber things that are like to the point where you're like, does that make sense? I don't know. I guess he's saying, is he saying it was easy or hard? I'm not even sure. Chicken baked. What does that even mean? I don't know. I guess he's saying, is he saying it was easy or hard? I'm not even sure. Chicken baked. What does that even mean?

I don't even know. Is that a Costco thing? Are they talking about cooking chicken? I'm not even sure. But yeah, it felt really good. So that's got me pretty excited for where squat's going to go in the next couple of weeks here as the final prep stages come to us.

Sounds like you have not been holding back. In fact, I have not been holding. And I mean, I can go on. I mean, I had a pretty good bench day too, but maybe we want to save some of this training. Yeah.

We better save some of that. I mostly wanted to make sure though, that we at least hit the perfect little sweet. But man, I cannot wait until the day. Cause we will, we will go back again sometime. Actually,

we were talking about maybe even going there on Monday. I might lift there on Monday again, but I cannot wait for the day when we do a gym tour in his gym because it's like part- Which we will do. Yes, it's going to happen Sunday. We just need to be there at the same time. It's like his gym is so funny

because it's a two-stall garage. It's the only thing in there. You know, he doesn't have anything else in the garage. And it's part retro 90s vibe, part antique shop, part gym. It's so funny. Just the more you look around the more knick knacks you start to notice well didn't you say you you said i think there might be more uh more

stuff there than there is in massonomics gym even in massonomics gym is well known for having quite the assortment of shit all over covering the walls everywhere he has more knickknacks and stuff on the wall than massonomics even and uh some of them are just absolutely hilarious because they don't make any sense and that's the beauty of absolutely hilarious because they don't make any sense and that's the beauty of it so i really can't wait until we get that on camera and see the whole thing yeah that will be a fun gym tour it will be gym tours are the funnest videos we do too there's i always love a good massonomics he's got a lot of homemade stuff that he's acquired over the years yeah so that was cool and if you go to his gym he lets you hold the 100 pound plates so that's also did you happen to sneak any of those out of there the whole thing

about being 100 pounds made it yeah it's kind of tough to sneak off of those things uh he kind of likes to rub that in my face those 100 pound yorks uh-huh he's got like a bunch of sets of them now too doesn't he four of them yeah he just picked up a set a couple months ago yeah or so he's got four total okay he's got four total three sets now even he has here also has some uh uh 10 kilo milled Yorks yeah that'd be interesting uh-huh yeah he's got to look at those and then he has some old like 70s uh roundhead dumbbells too okay like the is that what you call them like where it's like oh globe yeah the globe ones yeah are they york or no they're not york they're um what did he tell me uh someone thought there is it excel remember those plates we have oh yeah i've got a we've got a set of excel plates someone thought they were those i don't know if it's that or if you

knew for sure but uh you don't see a lot of those so it's just interesting seeing some of those there and excel plates i don't know if you remember a uh infamous massonomics post from probably i don't know eight years ago as a plate restoration where i turned the excel plates into a pair of calibrated rogue 25 kilo plates people legitimately did not understand it was a joke. It's so stupid. They're like, just clueless. Yes. So perfect little sweeties.

Okay. What do you got, a can over there or something? Yes. And so Big Bryce will be lifting at the meet. Big Paul will be lifting at the meet. Big Nathan will be lifting at the meet. Big Nathan. You can check out on our youtube channel this week again we posted a training session with big

nathan at his gym at build fast formula hq that was just yesterday wasn't it yeah that just posted yesterday what a week uh i got a waterloo lemon lime i know i was thinking did that post like four days ago yeah what do you got over there that That can looks a little fancy. Yeah, this is new here. This is new. Well, this is an Aquafina tangerine. We just started doing a thing in our house where we call every form of water as an Aquafina because Jack was telling us, he's like, we got some other brand.

And he's like, could you just get Aquafina? So we're kind of making fun of them. And we're just call it like any form of water. We just call it Aquafina now. I'm not sure how that – You said, we're going to teach you to have personal preference. Can you go fill the bath with Aquafina? But no, this is a Topo Chico tangerine.

So this Aquafina thing led to a blind taste test we all did of three bottled water and my wife set this up and the fourth one i didn't know what it was it was actually tap our tap water uh-huh and when i took them all i said these three are all in a very similar bar okay were you drinking out of a glass though is that what you were doing a clear cup okay okay yeah yeah there's like four clear cups just numbered one, two, three, four, and I didn't know it was in any of them. And the three of them, I was like, these three all taste really good, and I can barely taste a difference.

Like, they're all great. They're all great. This one tastes really funny. And I didn't know that it was Aberdeen tap water, which I drink a ton of. But, like, it definitively tasted way different than the other three. And I was like, this one's the worst. There's no doubt in my mind about that. So for people that aren't in the know,

Aberdeen has a history of having water issues. We actually just had a boil advisory like a week ago. I was going to say, yeah, they just had a boil advisory. The news had to put out a thing. The city had to put out a thing. The city had to put out a thing. You were not supposed to drink the water. You could get sick. You were only supposed to consume water that had been boiled first.

And that was like a week ago, wasn't it? Yeah, and that's probably like a safer rule of thumb all the time around here. I mean, that happens at least once a year. Usually a couple times a year, doesn't it? Yeah, yeah. Or it also happens where they might not even do that, but you just even go in the shower and you're like, wow, that smells way off right now. I can say from experience, uh, you know, like when you, you shower, I guess this is both houses I've lived in. You get like kind of that water scum on the shower that stains a shower. I kind of just assumed that that happened

in every house after like a week or two of not cleaning your shower right and here i'm like leah i don't know if we've ever cleaned the shower it doesn't get dirty like it's just the quality of water like that was a big surprise for me seeing that yeah like around here if you have web water if you're not in the city limits then you have a web water which is considerably better also. Or like a lot of people have significant whole house filtration systems, like not just the little tube that goes through your refrigerator, but like full reverse osmosis systems along with softeners and everything else. I think if you do all that, it does make a difference too.

But I guess I've never gone down that road. I'm like, yeah, I don't really need another another set of ass something's gonna get you right if it's the water it is if like it's i'm beyond repair if that water like i've had so much of it that it's beyond repair topo chico tangerine with ginger extract flavored sparkling water i would give it a three it's like almost a three and a half it's just not like i can tell you right now tangerine with ginger extract that name would be pretty low on my list of yeah i give it a three desirable it's fine i'll drink the whole thing and it's just fine but it's not like it's not not out of this. It's not that salty stuff that we had last week? Oh, my God. Bajormi or whatever that was. That was not good.

I got a few more bottles around here if you're looking for spares. Oh, thank you. Supporting our supporting members this week. Want to mention that Big Colton passed his journeyman's exam on the first go. So well done, Big Colton. Wait, Sioux Falls Big Colton? No. Okay.

Colton with a C. I didn't think that would apply to him. Not Colton with a K, nope. Gotcha. Big Jessica, congratulations on getting fifth place at IPF Worlds. Very commendable. Yeah. Big Jessica B, the Canadian. Well, I suppose she still is canadian but lives in a little bit

of a conflict of interest there actually because she lives in uh where um indianapolis indianapolis now i think yeah hmm she might have to switch teams probably working on the paperwork as we speak yeah and then i would also mention shout out to Big Bryce for hosting that little lifting of training session that you guys had. And Paul and Nathan for showing up. Yeah, and Paul and Nathan. And then I would say shout out to Joey, Keith, and Nate for helping us facilitate the unpaid and underrated T-shirt that came out that we were just talking about. So shout out to those guys. Been a great seller.

They've put a ton of effort into... Oh, the video that they made is... Amazing. Class of its own. So thank you, supporting members. Do I got time for an ad here? Our guest has arrived, so... Should I do one ad while you kick people out?

I already kicked them out. Okay. Maybe I'll just do one quick ad. Okay, there out? I already kicked them out. Okay. Maybe I'll just do one quick ad. Okay. There you go. Just for the heck of it. Uh,

build fast formula is just talking about them. Our friends in Watertown, South Dakota, check out our YouTube channel. We'll have a third video coming out this next week featuring build fast formula, which will cap up, uh, wrap up our build fast HQ visit videos,

which a great video where we talk about, uh, combo racks in home gyms, garage gyms. So don't miss that. Uh, and then head over to build fast formula.com. That's where you can get their full line of supplements.

Tommy and I just week, even we don't, we don't just talk about these stuff, the stuff in the ads, like offline hard this week. Actually, I've also been hitting the Veso blitz and the Full Blitz this week. Nathan's secret formula.

A separate crew member asked me, what do I actually like to take? I told him I like the 80-20 protein. The chocolate's almost been my favorite, but I got chocolate peanut butter when we were there, and that might be my new favorite. And then for the pre-workout, I really like what big Nathan showed us where you take one scoop of vaso blitz and one scoop of full blitz together so you get the full other ingredients but just half the caffeine so that's my answer there check everything out at buildfastformula.com they have free shipping on all usr orders a hundred dollars

or more and you save 10 on every order there with discount code MASSANOMICS. We're going to try and gotcha a whole bunch, so we want to make sure you're as unprepared as possible. That's right. That's the best way to do things. I'm more of a spontaneous type guy anyway. Sweet. Perfect. So we're here with Big Austin Perkins perkins uh big perk fresh off the 74 kilogram

ipf world championship in where was it lithuania yeah like middle of nowhere lithuania dude okay like what what what city what city was it in or what uh it was in and if someone listens to this from lithuania i'm so sorry there's a small very very small chance of that we're probably safe Drew Skinneke I think that's how you say it so we flew into flew into Vilnius and then

we drove two hours to Drew Skinneke that seems like a really odd place for it to be i haven't really thought paid much attention to it and really thought about that much let's just have the united states am i right i don't know why they like they me and my fiance were talking about on the way it's like why make it like in like such a small city that's far away from the airport like why not just make

it like all the like i think at least for i remember usapl they had all of the meets like in the same city there was an airport because why would you need to drive like another two hours on top of flying all the way across the world you know like yeah i think new rule whatever country wins which was certainly the u.s this year or whatever lifter gets best overall lifter which also the u. S obviously here the next year it's hosted in that country. Like that's advantage. Yeah. Home court advantage. I think that's a good rule. I think it makes, it makes no sense of what they have. I mean, I guess majority of the other countries are European teams. So, I mean,

I guess so. So, I mean, the only ones that have to travel pretty far is the u.s and then like australia and new zealand new zealand those are only two only three countries that are not a part of the europe so i mean i guess oh it makes sense to me but it just i want to be selfish and be like american uh elitism and say like we should have it here dude i just don't want to travel you know across the world for a meet that's just the only thing i mean it's nice whenever you know you get there and you see good when it's in a good spot like i can't wait for sheffield because that's like in the uk that would be nice right but like no one's like let me go to your skin and key lithuania you know that's not on anyone's bucket

list from the u.s yeah how many days were you gone for then from like the day you left your house till you got home? The day I left my house, I think our flight was on the 14th. So no, my flight was on the 13th. I got in on the 14th. We left my house on the 12th. So we left from Austin, Texas, drove up to Dallas, flew out of Dallas, and then had all the freaking flights. So we left on the 13th, flew out on the 13th, and got there on the 14th at night.

Then when did you get home? I mean, just not totally. Yeah, the 19th. I'm pretty sure. Almost a week and a half. Yeah. You won, though. Cats out of the bag. You kind of kicked everyone's ass, right?

You beat best overall lifter regardless of weight class, right? Yeah beat it ever i mean best overall lifter regardless of weight class right yeah it was um yeah it was good we figured that we as long as we won which there was no world that we didn't win we prepared to like go above and beyond so uh the only bad thing that could have happened is maybe i bombed out on squat but that's never happened before knock on wood i don't have anybody but um no yeah man it was uh it was a good time uh we prepared very good for it i want to get to a head but uh we just knew that if we came into it we need to be done we'd get best lifter i mean but ipf points i think it favors like the 74s and 83s i'm pretty sure so we know as long as we hit what we hit before like no one's going

to be able to touch like the whatever the ipf points is i know everyone does like dots normally but right now i think it was like 123 or something like that i don't know okay um and that's that's kind of the thing about world you know a ton of our listeners are super into powerlifting compete in powerlifting all the time and everything but for the of our listeners are super into powerlifting compete in powerlifting all the time and everything but for the average person that goes to a powerlifting meet you go and the normal theme that most people are doing is which makes sense for most people is i just want to put up the best numbers that i'm possible of doing you know hopefully i can hit a pr hopefully i can add something but when you go to worlds i'm not saying you're not trying to hit your best numbers possible, but that's probably

not your number one thought. Your thought is this is a competition. This is like actually a sport against other people in this case. So my goal is just to win. It's a little bit different mindset. I think I didn't, I mean, you're the one that knows, but I just wonder if that is that kind of how you approach it. You know, you're thinking, I just want to win, right?, you're the one that knows, but I just wonder if that, is that kind of how you approach it? You know, you're thinking, I just want to win, right? Yeah, it's, um, it's different because I, I think majority of power lifters are, uh, they do it for like a, what is it? Not, not like a sport, but a, um, a hobby or it's like a hobby. It's a hobby. It's a hobby.

So I can think of the word. Yeah, it's a hobby. So, but for me, like I get paid for it. It's like a hobby it's a hobby it's a hobby it's a hobby so i can think of the word yeah it's a hobby so but for me like i get paid for it it's like my job right like probably this year it became more of my job than coaching because i do coaching on the side now i would say but mainly it's like all right let me go to these meets let me do what needs to be done i get paid for it like it's a job so i get for other people where it's like well you know it's a hobby it's good i like to do it but whenever I go there like me and my fiancee I would say it's like it's a business trip and then after it's kind of like vacation especially if it's like outside of the country but yeah it's more of like a go in the goal is to win

sometimes it's about hitting PRs like as of right now like after winning worlds you get the chef filled invite the chef going to chef that's like okay let me go on let me about hitting PRs. Like, as of right now, like, after winning Worlds, you get the Sheffield invite. The Sheff, going to Sheffield, that's like, okay, let me go on. Let me hit these PRs. When it comes to, like, Nationals, it's like, all right, Nationals, let's just win so we can get that Worlds spot. Worlds is like, okay, let me just win so I can get that Sheffield spot. And this year, because every four years is World Games,

you get that World Games spot if you podium. That's great, too. So, yeah, for me, it's just like, all right, let me get by. Let me win. Do what needs to be done. If I don't hit a PR, I would like to, but it's not like, oh, I didn't PR this time. Right. You did break the – you broke a world record squat on your opener, wasn't it?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's because the IPF is different. The world records are in IPF competition is what uh yeah right right yeah you can't hit it like at nationals or the only place you can break world records which i think this is unfair too but it's fine because it has it interferes with sheffield sheffield's based off of world records and world records total so the only time that u.s lifters can break it are like um uh ipf worlds that just happened and then napfs which is like north american um like they have euros for euro okay so it's like north america type thing so you can break world records there so those are only two times you can break world records okay um but for europeans you have worlds you have um euros and then you have

arnold uk but when someone told me that you can you can you can be an american and still do arnold uk but right you don't get like an invite to that you have to be like hey like i want to go to it and reach out to them and do that type of stuff. But if they already have like a full roster, like, I don't think they're going to just invite someone that's outside of Europe to do that. Right. Right. But yeah. So like, so like for the 74 is what happened was the world record was like, I think before last year, it was just only seven 80, seven 90, seven 90. That's all it was. it was 790 kilos uh and then a guy from europe the guy who got second to me at worlds um he broke the world record by 10 kilos at euros then it was like all right okay well he boosted it like you know 10 kilos that's fine not that bad i still like

i hit 850 before so i'm like 50 kilos on top of that is good and then three months later he goes to the rwk breaks it by another 15 i'm like oh my god i'm like what is this guy doing i'm like super strong guy like i'm happy he's gotten stronger and stuff like that but i'm like ah like it would have been smart for him too to just like all right let's just let the world record be what it is for now like it doesn't matter but he's an older guy we've talked about it he's talked about it he uh he's like i don't know how many freaking concerts i have left so i'm just gonna go hard as hard as i can so i'm like i mean no faults man get in where you fit in right so you've obviously will be going to the sheffield here that's not i don't know what month that is in that's not for quite that's a ways out I'm sure

I think it's January 26th okay yeah so you got some time there but what I'm wondering you know the Sheffield the overall winner or the way you win is by percentage greater than the current world record obviously do you have any what is the prize money like if you win overall first at sheffield i mean it's it's it's significant right like i mean it's um they haven't released the payouts for this year but last year i'm pretty sure it was 50 000 pounds okay okay and we'll just just for i mean i have no idea what the conversion on pounds of dollars is but we'll just assume it's still a lot it's not like uh some weird conversion where it actually wouldn't it suck though. If we all think it's a lot and you,

you get your check and you take it to convert it and it's like $400. Yeah. It'd be freaking terrible. It's like the conversion from us dollars to freaking pesos. Yeah. Yeah. Like this is not what I signed up for. But so that's a big deal.

Would it be a bigger deal for you I mean you did say it's kind of your job now too what would you be more stoked about winning worlds or Sheffield definitely Sheffield because I mean it's just so hard to do that because especially whenever you go and I think this year is going to be like a big big year I think the past couple years has been like I think the year Jesus won it which was the in. I think this year is going to be like a big, big year. I think the past couple of years has been like, I think the year Jesus won it, which was the first year, I think he broke it by like 4% or something like that, if I'm wrong, if I might be right or wrong, it's around that time.

But like second place was like only 1% over. And then last year I think was the same thing around four or five. And then the next person was like one percent over two percent over but this year I'm pretty sure like almost all the weight class is gonna be hard like especially after what I did at worlds and boosted it by like I think 20 kilos um like at first if it would have stayed the same I probably could have won it by like hitting my PR total now at 850 but now since I broke it some more I'm gonna have to go like above and beyond which I'm excited to do finally but this year I'm pretty sure like you're gonna need like every the podium is gonna be like from first to third it'll be over five percent which is crazy because usually it's been like kind of easier for like the person to win a little bit

but now since everyone switched over from the U.s it's like this huge gap so i mean it's about to be filled and i think after this year too it'll be harder so if i don't win this year i don't think i'll probably to be honest it'll be hard unless it's like one percent again that someone wins by and i can barely milk it out but i think this is the year where i have to get in and win it and it'll be good but that's definitely better because there's only one winner of sheffield and after you win it's kind of going to be hard that's the point of sheffield so like there are multiple winners year after year after year but um just being able to say like you won sheffield is really good because it'll say you get second it's going to be super hard for you to

put that much more on your total yeah yeah because that's that's probably what the next person is going to get to win it the next year so yeah it is does make it really interesting gamesmanship based on how that's factored but so then i wonder this is kind of a funny question because obviously you broke just broke the world record with your your performance but was it a thought in your mind to sandbag that, like to not break it by any more than necessary so that you leave as much meat on the bone as possible for the Sheffield? Like is that something you're thinking about? Yeah, I think that's the main goal for everyone,

especially for the U.S. team. That's what we went over for the head coach for the U.S. team and then my coach and myself. We all had a meeting like a week out from everything it's like what are the goals the goal first goal is automatically to win that's always the goal because if you don't win you don't go to Sheffield so you have to win um and it's hard to gauge especially with some people how strong they're gonna get um the guy like I just mentioned who boosted the world record twice he had already hit 15 kilos

and then 15 kilos again so we put like 30 kilos on us total within six months so we were like we had to like prepare for that and be like okay let's say he puts on another 15 right and if that was the case he was around like that 830 range and my total was uh 836 i'm pretty sure so like we were just prepared to hit like 830 would have been like our our bottom end anyway. And then like if we needed to, like 850. That was like the top end for us. So going in the squat, we knew how to get we know we had to get three squats because we out squatted them. I know I had to get three benches because he out benched me by like 10 kilos. And then deadlift was just like play the field and see what we need but we had him

capped at like 350 which is like i don't know what that is in american i think that's 771 actually yeah um so he was um we thought he was gonna pull that and so on my second attempt we were like all right well do we go for the last one and like like, see if he's going to pull, try to pull that 350 for the win, or do we want to just take a third pull that we know we'll get to put it just out of reach? And the U.S. coach, love him, he doesn't care about Sheffield. He wants to win. That's what we need. We want the team points.

We want to win as a team. We need the win over if you get to Sheffield you how you want to win sheffield or make it easier or harder or whatever so he was like hey we're just gonna put on 325 at first actually he had on 327 he was like we're gonna put on 327 and he has to outpull us for the win and we kind of saw that he wasn't going to chase anyway but he still he pulled after me so we didn't really know if he was going to change it after or not so he was just like hey let's just drop it two and a half kills we'll make it 325 if he chases he chases but he'll have to pull 350 we don't think he has 350 on him but we'd rather be safe than sorry and so

that's what happened there it's just like i'd rather have not taken the third pool and like just reach that that world record which is 815 so i would have totaled like 816 but i mean you know you know we don't want to have the conversation after like dang what if we would have taken that third deadlift we would have made it you know right right that would be a it would be a it would be a shitty feeling if you were playing the sandbag game so much that you know you had way more in you and you purposely held up and then like they pulled something crazy out of their ass and that would really suck like losing when you give it your most is one thing but losing when you're like trying to like walk a fine line that would

that would be a harder pill to swallow for sure yeah but um i mean i'm glad it happened i mean i just it just it makes me actually feel good. And me and my fiance were talking about this as well. We're just like, I feel like this is going to be an amazing prep, like going into Sheffield. And I, she's like, I just feel like this is going to be like your best prep you've ever had. And the last prep I had living in the world was by far not my best. It was okay. Had some good moments moments but it wasn't like perfect like whenever

I hit 851 back in back last year in like September that that prep was like amazing best prep ever was going in every day was like training in the summertime and uh in Austin Texas no AC in the gym like I'm going in dying every day um that this time it was like, I was just getting by. I was doing good. I hit, like I failed a few things too in training, which usually doesn't happen. But like this next prep going into Sheffield, I think is going to be like, I want to put together a crazy, amazing prep.

And I think it's going to be really good. So I finally get there. I get to actually shoot for something. And then actually when we get there, I get to go all out instead of just like holding back. Because the past two meets I've done have been like, all right, let's just do enough to where we get the Worlds. I really didn't have any competition. I squatted 318, 700 for the first time.

That was really good. That's what we pushed on that. But bench and deadlift, we just took what we needed just to get by. I only took two benches and two deadlifts. But then at Worlds, it was just like, all right, let's just squat what we need, bench what we need, pull what we need just to stay close enough. Now we're getting the chef out and it's like, oh, I get to actually just go all out and see how much progress I've made in this past.

Basically, it'll be like over a year since I've actually just pushed it. So it'll be fun to see. Yeah, that'll be an exciting one. Everyone will be looking forward to that meet, I think, when it comes around next January, I'm switching gears just a little bit here. We've got this game called overrated underrated that we play with every guest that we've got on.

We got a hand, a special handpick set of topics for big perk for just handpicked for you. It's just your job to decide if each one is overrated or underrated. The most important thing you got to remember is he can't ride the line. You have to decide if each one is overrated or underrated the most important thing you got to remember is you can't ride the line you have to decide if each one is either over or under so first one overrated or underrated chicken wings specifically on meat week oh specifically on meat week that's where you got me you had me at first chicken like that's easy um i'm gonna say underrated meat okay because um it depends on what i'm sitting at honestly for body weight wise but

it's like bro like i would eat almost every day especially there's a wing spot in austin yeah um and then i'm just like bro i can't believe i'm just not eating these wings every day and especially since i remember last time i was cutting um one of my friends was down and we went to that wing place it's my favorite wing place and everyone just ate it in front of me and i was like i can't believe like i just i'm not eating this thing every day because it just smells so good it's so good so y'all give it the underrated uh whenever it's out of comp though it's overrated for sure because oh wait actually you know let's flip that let's flip that let's flip okay okay yeah yeah yeah there you go it's overrated week and it's underrated whenever i'm out of comp

because i'm just like yeah you know like it's good but you know i'll eat this and i'll eat that but then meat week comes i'm like i gotta have it but can't have it it's freaking suck so what's like the what's like your go-to flavor for wings okay so if it's a regular place probably like lemon pepper. Okay. So like a dry rub? I'm a dry rub guy. Yeah, I'm a dry rub guy. What about wings or flats? Wings or flats?

That's also a big discussion we have all the time. Wings or flats? It's got to be flats. Flats or drummies. I kind of get that. Yeah, flats over drums. Yeah. Oh, I'm a big flats guy myself.

No, yeah. Then there's a flavor at this wing place. It's in Austin. It's called Tommy want wingy. If you're ever in Austin, Texas, go to Tommy. It's in like a beer garden.

And so like, we just, we do the exact thing. We get that. We, we order our wings and they come like with fries and it's a side of fries. And they're like, I think they're called fire in the hole fries or something like this super spicy fries so good um i get pineapple mango

oh no no pineapple fire i forgot what it's called now habanero pineapple habanero that's really good um and then we get a drink too you get a little ranch water a margarita with it it's so good and so are you uh are you doing like blue cheese or ranch with the wings, or are they just keeping them dry? I don't know. They got to be ranch. I can't do blue cheese, man. No, blue cheese is disgusting.

Oh, my God. That's so nasty, man. Okay. All right. Well, so far so good. All right. Just let me know if you don't know who this is we can maybe audible out of this one but just in case you do overrated or underrated tony perkus not perkins tony perkus i don't know who that is okay well it's uh have you ever you've never seen the movie heavyweights by chance have you no okay better add that to the list yeah okay that's a must put that down right now yeah that's ben stiller uh

you'd actually like it he's kind of a strength coach in the movie so uh and he's a hell of a character i've seen this i've seen this on like around but i haven't seen yeah and he has memes and stuff that people make. Yeah. And he has the Perkis system where it's like Perkis power. And there's this purple logo where it's like, almost like the guy standing like this. And I could see a really good Perkins power shirt parody for you.

Okay. I'll keep that in mind. Yeah. Thank you. Like 50% goes to you guys. No. Yeah. Our royaltiesalties that's before my time it's a 1995 movie yeah yeah it's worth it like on disney channel when i was like what like up maybe i didn't see it it holds up pretty well it's worth it's worth the watch it's got like goalie from mighty ducks in it and it might be like okay keenan uh keenan thompson

might be in it yeah oh so when he was younger yeah yeah yeah okay yeah so uh keep that one in mind we'll switch though then this is another tricky one because i don't know how much this is located in texas but you've probably been around some different places for power lifting meats of course for sure so overrated or underrated Perkins restaurant. Have you ever been to Perkins? That's so overrated, bro. Oh my God. It's not that good.

It's not that good. And I had the jokes and still they just keep coming. It's just like, oh, there's a restaurant. I'm like, yeah, I will. I'm not claiming that. No, I'm not claiming that. Dude, not claiming that dude that's bad it's like whenever i moved to austin everyone would like people say like austin texas all the time like oh and austin and austin but then when you first moved here i would like break my neck to see if

someone was talking to me and they're like why is this guy looking at me and it's like what's my name like i'm assuming you're calling me yeah okay so do you have or the or the jokes or the jokes oh my god Austin Austin and Austin oh my god the amount of times I've heard that nice I didn't even think of that yeah hilarious okay uh good all right last one this one's worth well worth all the marbles and this was kind of some inside information give a given to us so hopefully uh you get the meaning on this but overrated or underrated the squatty potty i already know who said this freaking freaking yeah that story is so funny game day first opened and they had a squatty potty in there and then he was just like is this austin perkins throne and i'm like all right that's underrated bro i

don't have one at home yeah but whenever i was at game day and i would use it that thing's works miracles that's a hey it gets you in and out of the restaurant real quick i've never had the privilege of using one but i've heard people have pretty high praise for those things yeah i mean i never like i saw it before i used one and i was like that's just kind of weird you know like it's just having your legs like propped up a little bit like not i guess like you're sitting it's more like a squat yeah but i mean hey i mean it works so yeah i might have to add that add that to the gym tanner yeah i don't want to put any extra things in our gym that people could get filthy and disgusting though like i can already picture not wanting to clean that thing uh yeah you probably don't

want to touch that man because like if people like leave it they leave it like right underneath the toilet so like if you need to and you can just kick your feet and push it. And then they pee. Right. We'd just be covered in piss. Yeah. Literally covered in piss, man. It's terrible.

Yeah. Good news. It looks like you passed overrated and underrated, outside of not having seen heavyweights. Yeah, no, actually, I take that as an L because I try to pride myself in being like a movie buff guy. And then when someone says a movie and it's like,

you haven't seen this movie, I'm like, well, I was like, just take my car. Yeah. We can't, we can give you a pass.

Cause it was before your time, but I do think you'll like that one once you see it. Yeah. I like, you said I saw Ben Stiller's in there, right? Yeah. Yeah.

He's like the main guy. Yeah. Yeah. I think, I think he's a funny guy, so I probably will like it. Yeah. I think it good you'll like it okay um so you did pass over it underrated so congratulations it should be right up there we'll send you the trophy we assume you'd put it right next to your world uh let's see if it'll can i get the oh yeah nice perfect we got reactions uh okay so you fresh off your your win there um kind of a dominating

performance you put up that 850 or 851 kilogram total whenever that was you know within the last year whenever that was so you've kind of been crushing it on a roll here. Here's my question for you. Regardless of weight, regardless of drug-tested federation versus untested federation, who's the best powerlifter in the world right now? I would probably give it to Jon Hatt. If you just don't care about the tested, untested part. Yeah, I would say him.

He's just, dude's just been dominant for so long. Me personally, I think I've said this a lot of times on my page. I'm not like a big advocate for untested stuff. I'm just not like a, oh, no, man, i just don't like it yes it's just it's just especially because i was like a big football guy and like drugs have always been like a bad thing and i've like just i don't know man i don't see the the drive of just using something else to get stronger you know i just that's just not me so i just can't i just think i don't think it's cheating because of course they can let them do it and untest it but i'm just like i just think it should

be like not a thing in general you know like because i think it's bad for you and especially like all these kids see it and they're like oh my god like john had strong but oh wait he's strong because of what he takes what and then they try because they want to be stronger. And they don't even get as strong as John Hagg. Then you've messed up this kid's hormones at, like, 13, 14 years old because they just see they're, like, this super strong guy that does this, so let me do it, you know? I just think that we should just be able to just do it as naturally as possible. All right, let's say this then.

Let's get rid of the untested then it's not there so who we're not talking about untested now who's the best power lifter in the world oh that's me by far yeah like i mean um i at first i was super upset until someone pointed it out to me but um when it comes to like formulas i think the only formula that i don't have for tested people for tested lifters i think is wilks i'm pretty sure i'm right below wilks from jesus and it's not that far of a split either i think it's like two or three points if i'm if i'm correct it might be a little bit more but i know it's within five points for sure um but when it comes to like dots and IPF points,

I'm ahead of everyone by all the men for like – by like three or four points as well, probably more than that. Except for Taylor Atwood. I think we're like not tied. Of course, I'm above him. But like we're separated by like 0.5 or something like that um but for the women though i didn't know when it comes to ipf points women get a boost on ipf points rather than men so at first i was like oh i can't believe like there's two women that are just better than me in ipf points and they're like oh women get an extra buff because they're women

and i was like oh okay well i guess that's good for me then since I'm so close to them and I don't get the extra buff. So, yeah, man. Well, yeah, I think based on the formulas and what you look at and stuff and how, you know, you're putting up totals that are, like, equal or better than – maybe this is – I don't know if this stat is right, but, like, almost basically everyone in the weight class above you too right yeah russ hit 860 at uh nats uh like this year so he's he just bumped back up over me okay i think he was he was super

mad about that so he had he had to go over 85. He was not going to let me be above him for too long. Hopefully, I can get above him again because after Sheffield, I'm definitely going to go over 860. I'll say that. What's your walk-around weight at? Do you normally have to cut to make the 74, or what do you usually weigh? Okay, if you want to go off, I actually just had this conversation with someone.

If we go off, if I'm eating, like a little bit not really tracking but eating the same thing that i know that keeps me at a certain body weight i'm probably like 74 and a half to 75 so like basically not having to quit right but if i'm just enjoying life and it's like me and my fiance are foodies and it's like we go out and eat wings twice a week like we talked about go to perkins yeah you know perkins yeah yeah perkins we get like we love burgers like that's like our biggest thing so we've been together like we get we like to go to different places and eat burgers if we get fries we get like a big fries it's like fries and queso so like a bowl that's like freaking huge i know everyone can't see it but

it's like a big bowl of it. And we eat the whole thing. I get drinks too. If I, if I'm doing that, I probably get up to like 78. Okay. Sometimes 77, 78, 78. If it's like, I'm doing that plus it's Christmas and Thanksgiving and I'm just eating, like I'm eating that much.

But yeah, between that 77, 78 78 if I'm just like picking out eating whatever I want just like not tracking anything not doing anything right so you might get about 10 pounds above the weight class yeah so do you ever see yeah go ahead so do you ever see I mean in let's say a five-year plan do you ever see yourself moving up a weight class or do you, do you want to stay here? I'll probably, I probably will, but I don't know when I want to, that's the thing. Like I do see myself going up, but I don't know if I want to make it sooner or later. If I want to do like a, um, like a go up and go up sooner and just be like, ah, you know, like, let me just eat whatever I want and just weigh in heavy and weigh 77, 78 and weigh under 83. Because I don't see myself being a full 83

unless I'm on a certain diet to where I'm eating probably 2,500 calories. Not 2,500, actually 3,500 calories. My metabolism is so freaking high. I would have to eat so much. I physically just can't eat that much right um but when it comes to long term that's what i'm probably looking more more towards leaning more towards just because um like i probably like whenever me and my fiance decide to have kids and stuff like that i'm probably not going to be worrying about like tracking stuff I'm probably just going to be eating whatever I

want. Isn't the food that my kid freaking doesn't want to eat or something like that. But as of right now, though, I do plan up for world games. The weight classes are combined. It's 74s and 83s together. So I think we're middle weights.

And I plan on weighing over 74. But do you compete together together do they still keep it separate though you compete together oh so being lighter is still no advantage then is winning that that combined class is winning it by total or by ipf points by ipf points okay so you could still be bet you could still benefit by being at a lower body weight then though too like if it's say it's like you competing up against uh russ and you weigh in at 164 what you know 74 73 whatever it is and he weighs in at 83 you could beat him with a lower total than those still right like i mean that's yeah%. There's no world that I lose to Rush at that meet,

but my goal isn't to win off of IPF points. I want to beat him on total. Right, right, which is definitively more badass. Because you want to say, like, you don't... I mean, it's still... I'm not saying it doesn't count the other way, but it's just like if you beat him on total, you know, there's no questions.

You know, there's no way to spin it where you aren't better at that point. Yeah, that's like, and I'll get to see what type of strength he's at for Sheffield, but it just sucks for him. He's kind of at a handicap where he has to like base he has to cut no matter what he because he's he like trains at like 90 91 right and then he cuts down to 83 and then zaps to squat and zaps to bench and his deadlift is kind of around the same like within 10 kilos of it of it how it is in training but for me instead like i have to just be within 74 83 i'm just gonna weigh

heavier right so that gives me the point where it's just like oh i can weigh in at 76 77 going in eating at the meet and you have to cut down right so it just sucks for you like i hate it for one like i'm not like i'm not a big big rust hater but i do want to i want to do something that other weight classes like no one want no person other weight classes, like no person in other weight classes. I guess the only comparable thing you can say is Jesus beating the all-time untested total. But no other person in the weight class has beaten the weight class above. So I just want to show that I'm literally built differently.

Yeah, I mean, that makes a pretty damn good case for it, I would say. So what about taylor then you know that would be one other potential you know just thinking about anyone that we talked about russ like who could be a competitor for you to like even actually push you farther at this point or maybe give you a run so we talked about taylor um you know i don't know if he's kind of been injured or hasn't really been competing here for a little while or whatever also he's 35 ish i don't know if that's exactly right he's about 35 um a lot of the ipf lifters i don't know if this isn't a perfect rule but a lot of the top ipf lifters are not 35 like a lot of people are closer to your age of like 25.

Um, he has been out of it for a little bit with some injuries already that we've seen. I think, uh, I mean, you talk in kilos a lot, but I think when I looked, he really only had the one meat where he totaled over 1800 pounds, you know, the rest of them, uh, since after that, we're all, you 1,800 pounds. The rest of them, since after that, were all significantly lower. I'm not saying all this to just shit all over him or anything like that, but my question, what I'm leading into is, do you think there's any chance that he really does come back and really give you a run for your money at some point in time here?

When it comes to Taylor, I will say that actually there are some guys i think i'm one of the youngest who's won world some guys are like um i want to say like 27 and then up okay like the guy who got second to me he's 36 so he's older than taylor yeah um then you have Jesus. I think he just he just turned 26 this year. I don't turn 26 till next year. I'm pretty sure Bob Matthews is over is 27, 28. Ashton Ruska is like 28, 29. Waskar is 59. I think he's older than me by a year or two as well. He might be the same age as jesus and then the 66 from the u.s who got second he's like in his 30s too okay so there are a couple in their 30s at

least a couple in their 30s but yeah with taylor though he was just injured so i really don't know that's what the part where i'm right i'm like i don't know if he'll come back or like will that injury just be something that hinders him forever? He's trying to work on it. He's doing I know I saw last time I watched his YouTube video was a long time ago. He was doing some type of cellular regrowth to the muscles that were like worn and stuff like that. So like they take like the good blood cells or something from like a good part of your body and then they put it into where the the your your injury is and it's supposed to help and that's why he said that's why he said that he dropped out of um that's just because he wasn't fully healed from that yet he wants to be

fully healed when he comes back and he wants to he wants to come back and he wants to make sure that he can win whenever he comes back because it's all about winning it's not about competing it's about winning um but um yeah he um i think that if he says he's gonna recover and have a full recovery i think he'll he'll be back to maybe that 839 or whatever he was 838 and a half when he was at but it just depends on how that injury but he had like a hip injury or something like that so it's kind of like that's something that you need that that affects the squat in your day for sure so it's not something you can just like just be like all right like i'm fine with if you don't feel good you're not gonna

be able to pr on squat maybe on deadlift you can muscle through it but on squat that's just something you you can't just solve but he looks good all the training that i'm seeing right now um i mean i hope he comes back because like i always say that's the only person that i've lost to multiple times that he's beaten me twice and i haven't won once so it would just be good to get that battle back even i mean even if he says he's not at his hundred percent he comes back and i still gotta beat him i'm gonna still take the win but um i mean like i said i hope he comes if he says he's not at his 100%, he comes back and I still got to beat him. I'm going to still take the win. I'll be sorry. But, I mean, like I said, I hope he comes back. I hope he's good.

But, honestly, I just – unless I see him do something crazy on his first meet back. He said he's supposed to be doing a meet back half of this year. If I see something crazy, then I'm like, okay, yeah, like he's definitely coming back. But as of right now, I think it's like a flip of the coin, man. It's a 50-50 type thing. Because I know how those injuries go.

And it's either not career-ending, but career-hindering. Or you're just like, eh, there's nothing I can do about it. Well, realistically, assuming if you met up and you're on your game, not only does he have to be back to where he was before, he has to be better than he ever was before. Be better than he ever was when he was younger and prior to injury which i'm not saying it's impossible but like that's you know that's a couple of guys in our mid-30s it doesn't get any easier that's exactly it does not get easier that's how the the guy who hit the 815 um who boosted the work so who got second to me, his name's Shell.

I keep just saying this guy. Shell, I'm going to give him this prop. He's super strong. He's 36. And he hadn't totaled over 780 in, like, years. And then out of nowhere, he just got strong. He went from, like, 780, 780, like, 780, 770, 780 again, then jumped up to 800

and then jumped up to 815. What country did you fall? Norway. What's their testing protocol like there in Norway? Apparently people say, I didn't know this, but apparently a lot of the European countries don't get tested a lot. The US does the most testing by far.

Even with this federation switch when they're like we're only we can only do water testing they still have done like the most testing so apparently a lot of uh european lifters i'm not saying he does this by far show i think you're natural but apparently a lot of other um european lifters just winked for anyone not watching on video he winked when he said yeah a lot of europeans just take and then they cycle off going into me which is crazy i mean us lifters some apparently some us lifters do it too i don't know i will say i will let anyone follow me around for the rest of my life if you want to and see if i take anything even my fiance when we first got together she was like you can tell me like no you can tell me like it's okay like i won't tell anyone i'm like no man like people just like looked at my when lived with me and saw my lifestyle they

would be like like all of my friends like for people literally don't understand that you like you don't track your macros you don't care about anything it's like you just you go and you train it's literally just your heart it's like literally when talent meets hard work it's me that's me i don't do any like extra stuff like i don't count my macros i don't eat the correct things i really should i'll probably be a lot a lot stronger than what i am but you don't want to get too strong that's what we always say yeah you don't want to be too strong yeah like whenever i I stopped the strength, it just stops. Then I'll,

I guess I'll start doing that. Yeah. You got to leave a few things like you, like you, like a few aces in the hole. Like, Oh no, now I'm really going to dial in nutrition.

Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, man, it's crazy. Like in college, whenever I hit 800, I me looking back and now I don't know how I hit 800.

I was, I was drinking all the freaking time man it was it was crazy and now i'm like no man i can't if i have like two drinks and i wake up the next day i'm like all right training is gonna get done it's gonna be ass man i've got to that point now so it's like um yeah man i just think it's like a genetics thing my fiance has told me she's like yeah it's just literally just your genetics you just have like the correct leverages for a power lifter and you have the genetics and you work hard that's just i don't know you're just a different eye she's like she's i don't understand it do you have any siblings i do but i don't have any full siblings my parents split so like it's

just me between my mom and my dad okay i was just curious if you had any siblings that also had crazy strength or anything like that no my i will say my i think when it comes to athleticism probably most of it comes from my dad because i do have like my youngest brother is like built exactly like me he's probably going to be a little taller because he has a different mom than me um but like he's super athletic which is crazy like he's doing things at a younger age than because i was my dad like makes athletes that's why he's a high school track coach he's won like 12 or 13 rings for the school he coaches and like he starts at laon like when i was five years old i was playing soccer dude like soccer right away and then until i was able to play tackle football or flag football play flag football then went

from flag football to tackle football then from tackle football i was playing like basketball i tried baseball um and then whenever i got to junior high i started running track and then i did power lifting as well then it just kept going and going going he was always just drilling me and stuff like that like we'd be at home. I told my fiance the other time, I wouldn't be doing something random and then he would have a ball and he would just throw it to me to get my reaction times perfect.

Dude, it's crazy. I think my youngest brother is probably the second most athletic underneath me. My other brothers can do sports too, but he's just like, it scares me. I think he might like be one of those, like go D one for football. And like, maybe if he, I don't know how tall he's going to be. I think he could be like NFL type good.

Right. Damn. How tall are you? I'm five, four. We interviewed Dr. Mike is for tell several times and he kind of takes, I don't know how tall Dr. Mike is, maybe he's like 5'6", but he kind of takes pride in the term short kings. How do you feel about the term short kings? I mean, I love when people say it. I don't use it.

But, I mean, it makes me feel good when other people say it. Like, all right, short king. I know you guys do the podcast with Joe. Joe calls me a short king every once in a while. Okay. So you'll embrace it a little bit at least then if someone calls you a short king, you're not against it. Yeah. I mean, I hope my child feels the same way, at least my son.

Because me and my fiance is like 5'2". Okay. So they have literally no hope. Every once in a while it works out weird you never know i mean i mean that is true i mean my my dad is five nine and my um my mother slash stepmother she's um i want to say she's like five three five four and my second the youngest brother is like i want to say he's like almost six foot i want to say he's like 5 10 5 11 random but she has like taller people on her side yeah but with me like with me

and my mom we don't have any tall people on our side right and then with her on my my fiancee side there are no tall people either so yeah i've got brown hair and my wife has almost like black hair but we have a one of our daughters has like really blonde hair um and i always thought that's weird until uh i the joke i always say is i feel like my wife has little explaining to do as far as what's going on there but the milkman is the milk yeah exactly it's the milkman is the milkman yeah exactly it's the milkman so there is is weird things that happen with that sometimes um so you're 851 total at one uh at 74 kilograms do you think it would ever be possible if you uh stayed in that weight class um you are really anyone but really the question would be you to hit a 900 kilogram total i I mean, huge jump there. I'm talking about something big,

but a 900 kilogram total, which I think is getting pretty close to like a 2000 pound total then too, if you're talking pounds. Yeah. I, I want to say it is possible for me. I think it's possible for me for sure. I just have to, I have to build my bench better somehow man like i just i don't think my bench is terrible it's just whenever i get so calm and i try to set up a certain way my feet always slip that's been like my past like my past four meets that's been the problem whenever i'm

like in training it'll feel good if i can get like a if i can feel good as I do on squat and deadlift and make that feel good on bench, I probably could bench around that 220 range. And that's all I need to get that 900. Because I feel like just training-wise, if everything goes good, I have everything dialed in. I'm thinking like 325 squat. I'm going to calculate this now. 325 squat, like a 220 bench, and then like a 350 deadlift. That's 895. Yeah, so that's right there.

So I would need, yeah. Right. So I need five kilos somewhere. Right. I probably can add two and a half each to the the squat and the deadlift right so there by the math you can get there actually you know it does make sense none of that seems crazy either and like you talk about your bench your bench is still i mean you're what did you do about like was this last meet like in the 420 pound range or something like that i Yeah, 440. I hit 200 for 41. Okay, okay. So 200 kilograms. Yeah, so you're not...

Right, right. I think I've hit 210 before in training, but that was kind of like my butt came off of a bench and then it wasn't that hard though. It's just my butt came off the bench and then my feet

slipped. So like I said, if I have a good enough leg drive, the day I hit 851, I had the perfect leg drive I've ever had in a meet. And I haven't had that feeling again in this past year ever, in training or in comps. So do you feel like, is it all tricky for you at 5'4"? Is the height of the bench ever an issue? Or is like, you know, okay. Have you ever used, like, do some people put something on, like, do you have the height of the bench ever an issue, or is, like, you know, okay, have you ever used, like,

do some people put something on, like, do you have the option in the IPF to put, like, an elevated thing under your feet if you want to, like, have you ever done that before, or? No, I haven't actually done it for comp. I used to do it in high school, but ever since then, I've never tried it.

Maybe I should try it, because one of the other guys that, the Shell guy that I talked about, he's hit, like, two pips in training before, and I think never tried it maybe i should try because one of the other guys that um the shell guy uh that i talked about he's hit like 250 and training before and i think he tried to meet a few times um he uses blocks but he's a lot shorter than me though he's like two or three inches shorter than me probably like three or four inches shorter than me so like his legs are like very very short so he uses them maybe i might like to be honest it might be a point where i need to just try it just to try it and maybe like the the blocks won't slide and the the carpet because there's carpet on the box that they use at ipf worlds maybe that's like a good

carpet as well like i might have to try it that might be the one thing that boosts my bench because that's what he does his bench is amazing so i might have to try it but yeah man it's just the the slippage of the foot that's terrible and then but i think to be honest i say this i think i have i've hit 318 that 318 wasn't extremely hard and if i can just put together another squat block like that i think 325 i moved probably the same way and that would be good and then I did try 350 in training I didn't post it I got up to my knees and then I failed it yeah I tried it I got up to my knees like after I hit um I think I hit 305 for a triple on squat the day before and then I had benched 210 right before i tried the 350

deadlift at that point whenever i started warming up my erectories and back were dead like i don't i don't understand how i got past 700 at that point yeah that's a 770 pound deadlift for anyone that's not calculating and i tried it dude and my back just gave out. It was like, no, bro. I got it to my knees, and I was just like, no. I feel like fresh, I probably have it. It'll be a grind for sure, RP11, but I probably – because I don't have a grip issue. There's never grip. It's just that if I get thrown out of position,

then it's just messed up that way, and it's never strength. It's either just something like in training, it's just I up that way and it's never strength it's either just something like like in training it's just i'm dead man last week of the block last day i've pr'd on two other things like i'm at that point i'm just gas man right so hopefully i like maybe i'll try it at sheffield maybe i won't but if there's anything less than 350, I can pull it out. 347 and a half. I know I got that 345. I a hundred percent have that. Yeah. Right. Uh, here's a question for you. So we know you're said you're five, four walking around at maybe about 170 pounds, give or take a little bit.

Anyone that's into powerlifting and knows powerlifting is obviously going to know you and know how strong you are. So I'm not talking about those people. And if you walk into like a gym, like game day barbell, you know, most of those people are all going to know who you are. So, you know, it's no surprise to them either. But what I'm wondering, do you ever find yourself walking around, like say in street clothes, maybe something a little baggier, you could probably be pretty unassuming, you know, if people don't know you, like, have you ever been be pretty unassuming you know if people don't know you like have you ever been in a gym and you know not power lifters but just like gym dudes will be like or or like you're out at a bar and maybe lifting comes up and like oh yeah how much do you lift

or like how much can you squat or how much can you deadlift or how much can you bench and you tell them yeah my bench is uh 440 or my my squat 700 or my deadlift is 750 or whatever like have you ever told people numbers and they're like bullshit you know like like has that ever come up before not completely recently i think it's just because i really don't we really don't go out like that so it hasn't happened but I remember back in 2021 2022 I was um at like a concert and like I think I like I had like a tank top on and this and this uh random guy was like bro like you're big like what do you bench and I was like I was like uh like I think I hadn't benched 200 yet but I was like you're big like what do you bench and i was like i was like uh like i think i hadn't benched you 100 yet but i was like uh you know like like 420 something like that and he was like

bro no way and like at the concert i was like okay i have a video of it he was like show me the video yeah i show him and he was like and he like gets his friends and he's like look at this look at this look at this yeah he's like like it's so freaking crazy yeah i mean but no yeah recently though not not not really i no one really says anything especially because i wear like loose fitted clothes most of the time right um someone will be like oh i can tell you work out that's mostly the mostly the thing i get like um we'll go to the nail salon and then the ladies like i getting, like, a pedicure or something. The ladies are, like, they do, like, a massage on my arms.

They're, like, oh, like, you work out. And I'm, like, yeah, I work out. My fiance's right there. She's, like, who's this lady talking to? Yeah, that's mostly what I get is just, oh, I can tell you work out, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Okay, that's cool. Will you do the World Games then too?

Because that's going to be Raw now then. So that'll be 2025 World Games? Yep, August 2025. Yeah, that's when I know everyone talks about, especially with IPF, they talk about the me versus Russ. That's when it's going to happen. Yeah, right, right, right. Yeah, okay.

So that's really soon after Worlds then. Yeah, we don't know how it's going to work. I think if you go to World Games, you might be able to just skip Worlds. But the thing with that is, I don't know if they'll use World Games for a qualifier for Sheffield. You know, like, because when it comes to it for

sheffield the qualifying total the qualifying thing is you have to win your weight class and hit 95 of the world record total but like most of the lifters that won worlds well top three ever because it's top three whatever podiums at worlds gets a world game spots um like those people are all going to go to world games so like do you want they just skip they all these lift all these lifters skip do they just automatically have to just wait and see if you get a wild card spot at that point or like you want us to do both like you want us to go in in june and do worlds and then take a month off in july and then august right do world games that just doesn't make it just doesn't make sense so maybe they'll push

worlds next year to a different date i don't know if they have it on the calendar yet they have an ipf calendar i don't know if it's if it's on there yet but yeah it makes no sense man how that's gonna work i now you can give me a more anxiety thing because now i'm thinking about it do i have to do sheffield and end of january they do worlds and then do freaking world games right after yeah that is not and then like i have like my wedding like we push the wedding back to 2026 so we can like because i don't want to be i don't want to cut and have my wedding at the same time and then and not be able to enjoy it yeah and and then she doesn't want to have the wedding in the winter time she wants to have it outside so it's like we all the meets in 2025 are in the summertime

basically is it we can't do it is it ever not nice in Austin, though? No, we don't want to do it in Austin. Oh, okay. And we don't want to be cold in general. Sometimes it gets cold, though. Not like freezing. We met in college in Nebraska.

Oh, where'd you go to school in Nebraska? Midland University. So that's the powerlifting place. So you did that there. So what years did you go to school in Nebraska? Midland University. Oh, so that's the powerlifting place. So you did that there. Okay, so what years did you go there? 2019 to 2020. So did you ever spot at any of Jonah Leo's meets in Sioux Falls, South Dakota?

I didn't, actually. Because we'd always do the... I didn't. We're in South Dakota. We'd always do the uh we're in south dakota we'd always do the state powerlifting meet here us apl meet uh and they'd always bring the guys up yeah they always bring a team yeah they're there i was uh i hate to say it i was one of those guys i was like hey bro i'm sorry i'm not going you want to talk about cold, come to South Dakota in the winter. And then like, it's definitely cold. Yeah. Yeah.

That's just a little different in the Midwest. Y'all can have that. Awesome. Well, um, we really appreciate it. So Instagram handle, what is your handle? Is it the 74 kilogram lifter? Yeah. The 74G lifter? Yeah, the 74KG. The, it's the 74KG.

It's the 74KG lifter, yeah. Yeah, the 74KG. If you want the YouTube, it's perkthe74kg. That's really it, man. I don't really do TikTok like that. I just watch TikTok. Like, if you go through my TikTok, it's just movie stuff, food stuff, and dog stuff. I really don't post

anything on it. If you want to see the lifts, check out the YouTube. I try to keep that updated once a week. Instagram. If you want to just see a few lifts every once in a while, there's that. I appreciate you for having me. It was a good little talk. We really enjoyed it.

When Sheffield comes around, we're not cheering for Russ. When Taylor comes back, we're not cheering for him. You're the one that's been on the Massanomics podcast now, so we're a big team perk over here from now on. You already had me and my coach on. You might as well have us on there together, to be honest.

We'll do that after you win Sheffield. Once you win Sheffield, that'll be part of the victory lap yeah yeah he'll definitely want to talk about that for the longest man yeah awesome well uh good luck and uh keep kicking ass good job man appreciate it man thanks all right thanks those are cool beans served with a platter of wings yeah what a lemon pepper dry rub those are dry rub dry rub are you a dry rub guy i don't know if we've really ever talked about that before what i like to what i am a guy of is a mix uh just in general in wings i want a variety like what i love about wings is being able to switch back like if i order three different flavors i'm not going to eat one then the i want to eat a wing of this like do the rotation so that they all do in the circle and then whatever one

that day that i decide i like the best i'm going to save one of those for the last like the last wing is going to be yep this is the one. Because I really like buffalo, but I don't like it when I can't rotate out of buffalo. Buffalo gets to be too much. You get like 15 buffalo wings, all buffalo. That's a lot of buffalo. The one I find that it's hard to go wrong with that I like pretty much everywhere is honey.

What is it? Honey barbecue or whatever honey barbecue like i feel like that's a staple at a lot of plate like everyone has that i sat in buffalo and everyone has those two you know so buffalo is still always my go-to when i'm down it's always buffalo and then i usually sometimes i'll do like a honey barbecue but i'm usually like a barbecue first okay for any of those other ones but yeah what i would use like if i had my druthers i'd order some buffalo some some honey barbecue and then some of a third one that just piques my interest when i look at the menu that i'm like yep i'm going with that one today and it could

be dry rub i i always really like that because i do not like my saucy wings overly saucy i don't want my wings to be drenched in sauce. I want it. I want it to whisper at me, not scream. Let's sauce it up, baby. Let's get this going. My wife's family, though, all of they're all big dry rub people. They all like.

I like the idea of dry rub more than I actually like them when I get them. I don't mind one or two of them, but these are really dry. Yeah. After like six of them, you're like, okay, okay yeah this is like some liquid here would be yeah right um and you know for the record as we've discussed i do like flats better but i still like the mix the best i do is a mix i i could go about i'm about 50 60 flats would be my i'm like i'm like riding the line on that one. I just...

You would like it... But if you could pick your exact numbers, you want them to be half and half. Yes, yes. If you're getting 10 wings, you want it to be five and five. Yep, if I could pick, I want it half and half. And I want it to be six and four or seven and three, one of those two, and I'd be...

Because, again, I want to be able to switch eventually. I want to be like, okay, it's the variety. Got to have that. Yeah, yeah. It's be like, okay, it's the spice of life. It's the spice of wings. The dry spice of life. Yeah. Big Austin, hell of a good guest. Oh, yeah.

It is insane how strong he is. It just does not make sense. It is just so crazy like the number of people that are way larger than him that i consider to still be really strong and he's still stronger than them i know you know like just so insanely strong squats if you just quit thinking about in the terms of ipf worlds and all that stuff like the guy squats 700 pounds he benches like we're talking about like 450 yeah and he deadlifts like 750 or whatever it is any of those numbers individually like tanner on your very best day you kind of hang with him on two of the lifts exactly like and i am i am enormous compared to him mean, like 100 pounds more than him.

Right, right. And like a foot taller. And I have two lifts that I might, you know, on the perfect day for me, I could coin flip them of who's going to be able to do more. And one of them, he's just got my ass kicked. You know, not that I'm like world's strongest man or anything, but I'm not like the world's weakest man either right

and that's kind of my point like I know a lot of really big guys that that are very strong that would struggle to keep up with him on a lot of stuff you know and I mean that's why he's the world champion also like too the freak of freaks I mean that's

it is the mix like he said though like he's talking about his fiance and it's like no i'm i mean he even kind of said it's like oh i guess i just kind of it all kind of worked out for me i had the leverages and you know then i work really hard and yeah i'm like yeah that takes all of those things if you're going to be like that good at you know you can't you can't just work hard. I promise you that that is not enough to be really good because I've seen people that work really hard that suck at power lifting, you know, or people that are really strong,

but just can't take the grind of year after year of doing power. Yeah. And I don't, I don't want to sound too harsh, maybe not suck at power lifting, but just like are never going to, yeah. World class.

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Yeah, it's still for pre-order. But if you're listening to this and you're interested in the barefoot, you might be a pre-order type of guy and uh shoot does look pretty cool so i'm very curious to see how these turn out because i could see really wanting a pair of these this coming winter here um but if you'd like to get a pair of barefoot shoes for yourself head on over to barefoot.store and while you're there make sure to use code massonomics to save 10 on your next order that's barefoot.store code code MASSANOMICS. Save you 10%.

Thank you, Barefoot Shoes. LeBron drafted Bronny. I see that. Good for him, man. I don't care about the Lakers. So, yeah, do your thing over there. I mean, that's the most interesting storyline, though, anyways, too. Like, I want to see a father. Like that's insane it is so insane and what would actually be amazing would be amazing

if all of a sudden he goes there and it's like that's that was the missing piece and now brownie scoring like 15 points a game all of a sudden yeah don't think that's gonna happen but no but that is super interesting ken griffey jr is the only other one i'm aware of that junior and senior played together. But also the physical demands of baseball are a little different than basketball. Way different. Way different.

Way different, isn't it? Yes, it is. That was kind of crazy. We did talk about IPF Worlds, obviously quite a bit there with Big Austin. We also mentioned Big Jessica. I didn't really have much else to mention other than um russell

or he did not win like that was like the other biggest story line like that was the big upset that people kept mentioning yeah that's uh that's what i seem to notice and then uh to get really really super political like we usually like to i was going to mention tonight was or is well i'm sure it's over now they're probably all those old old bastards i'm sure fell asleep long ago put them to bed hours ago those guys got put to bed a long time ago but it was the first presidential debate and had we not i never watched stuff like that because i quite honestly there's very few people that care less than i do and but i did want to watch this in the way that you want, like if you see cop sirens and something going on,

like a crash. Oh, there was a bad accident? A car crash? Yeah, where you're like, you can't not gooseneck your head to see what you're like, you're purely curiosity. And I did have a little of that thought

where I'm like, God, I got to see this a little bit in person just to make sure this is real. This is really what's happening right now. It just feels like, God, I got to see this a little bit in person just to make sure this is real. This is really what's happening right now. It just feels like, yeah, I know. It feels so made up at this point. It is. South Park had it so right almost like 20 years ago now when I don't even know who the two candidates were at that point in time, but it was, I don't know if it was Bush and Gore

or if it was then Hillary Clinton and whatever the ones were. And I'm not picking a side because what I liked that it was a turd sandwich versus a giant douche. And I'm like, it's like, these are the best two options you could give us was a turd sandwich and a giant douche.

And we have to figure out which one we like better. And I'm like, that is still, there's an aura of truth around that today. And it's really easy to complain about it in that sense and be like oh they both suck because i i kind of not even thinking politics but i don't really like the attitude people have when it's like oh they always give us crap everything sucks but i am like this seems like who's writing this script here yeah i mean you always want to say like ah come on like our best and brightest like come on like we got so many exceptions we're in a country of exceptionalism over here we have right so many exceptional people and uh like really this is where we're at but i i mean we're not saying anything that should be uh new or no this shouldn't be revelation to any that's about

as political as i get as being i'm just purely curious because of the sideshow of it. The train wreck of all. Yeah. Yes. Yes. But what's not a train wreck is Juggernaut AI. It's, we've talked quite a bit, or not quite a bit this episode, but over the last few episodes about your training. And you are officially in peak of Juggernaut AI. We're peaking, baby. Bringing that package together.

And no doubt, at least anecdotal evidence right here on the Massanomics podcast seems to be working really well for you. Was that a 315? Yeah. We'll talk about this after the ad. This is going to kind of go into this. But we were talking about this offline a couple days ago. And there is something, though, about once you maintain a certain level of strength,

getting back to it is just so much easier than the first time around of getting there. I think that's even supported with like scientific evidence. I know it to be true just from like experience and experience of others. I mean, I told you before this prep, I had not squatted over three 15 on my back and over a year. And all of a sudden over

the course of three months i went from not squatting three not even squatting 315 to doing 425 three months like that doesn't like obviously there was more there i wasn't pushing it before but just the fact that you can tap into that that quickly it kind of is crazy it is kind of crazy uh what's the maybe the only thing more insane than that is if you go to juggernautai.app and sign up and you use discount code MASSANOMICS, you actually save 10%. And that. That's what's crazy. And with that discount of 10%, it puts the monthly membership right around $30.

And for prices that criminally insane, Chad should be thrown in jail, locked up, throw away the key, leave that guy in jail for only charging $30 a month. Let that guy rot. Until he figures out what he's done. Yeah, because that should be criminal. I'm not really sure who he's robbing other than himself in that scenario but uh it should that is way too cheap for what you're getting that's an extreme value by uh juggernaut ai.app should i read another ad right now or should i wait i don't know i don't really even know why i did mine right there i just thought i'll wait i'll wait a little bit maybe we should

talk about training for a minute though because yeah you've been hitting some big lifts we've already talked about my squat well but what so you did a bench 315 single what did you mark that as as an rpe a nine like that what like what was it supposed to be i'm kind of confused sort of at the stage in juggernaut because when i it's weird when i open it up to rate it it just by default has a seven rating on there and i'm like i don't know if it's telling when I open it up to rate it it just by default has a seven rating on there and I'm like I don't know if it's telling me that like that's what it thinks it should was it telling you three did it say 315 gotcha um I mean it definitely couldn't have done three of them no I don't think it would be saying that that should I felt pretty confident saying uh if I would have if I was gonna go touch and go on my second rep I feel very confident that

my second rep was there right it looked really fast yeah I mean it didn't really look hard I I surprised myself like I was pretty I was pretty worked up for that one because the last time I benched 315 was the last testing day I did with juggernaut which is closing in on two years ago here right and I mean that was an absolute rpe 10 lift that day it was my butt came up it was touch and go i mean it wasn't like sloppy but it it was i had no like two uh five more pounds would have wouldn't have moved and i've been through like in the gym i you know best bench ever the gym is 350 so like i've benched over 315 multiple times what and what's what's your best bench in a meet though i think like 325 i've always i always miss my third attempts in meets yeah so you could you like

it's realistic that you could hit like a uh meat bench pr though i mean i could be right in there like after taking this 315 i'm like i don't know that's yeah 325 but in that last meet you took a pretty significant jump there. You missed 342. Yeah, because the 325 moved so easy in a bench. Yeah, so I went for 342 and it wasn't there, which I think the next one down would have been there, which is probably like 336 or something like that. But like a 330 bench would be an all-time PR for all-time meet PR.

Yeah, I mean, just that next step about 325. Right. So, yeah, bench is feeling good. like i'm feeling pretty hopeful on that one um and yeah 350 i'm just looking at this like like you just said i'm within just a few pounds of my of my best meat bench ever and uh right so that that those numbers are just going great those are feeling really really good i had not done that 315 was the first like touch and go or sorry pause and again it was pause in my own gym so it wasn't like a two second pause or anything it was a pause there was a pause yeah definitively a pause that was the first pause i have not been doing any pause and that was the first pause i had had at all in this prep i'm like

okay actually i don't think that really tanked my bench at all normally i do take a decent hit on pause and i don't think it's there this time so maybe that is uh part of that all that spoto pressing maybe that is paying off that I which does make sense would say yeah I think I told you I'm like after a certain point after all this photo I kind of feel like it's just sort of the same as my regular one which right I don't think I would have said that a couple years ago so it's all steam all steam full ahead hope so got a deadlift tomorrow and then uh i mean it's really like two weeks it's really two weeks left and then you're kind of in full on i mean we're just out of time then you know it's it's that's that is kind of the thing that is getting to be out of time but you had a big uh uh safety squat bar day yeah i did uh 455 for

a set of five which is really you know squatting is never easy for me i guess never easy for anyone when you're going hard right but uh that was a really good set for me that's getting up there for that though yeah that's i don't know i tried to look back because I remember a couple of days in the old, before we had expanded to gym 3.0 and we're still in 2.0. I remember that super heavy rack in the middle of the room. I remember I had videos where I was doing, I did some pretty heavy safety squat bar in there, but I think I've officially now done more on the, you know, like heavier sets than I've ever done before.

I'm not positive on that. I couldn't find it but um i think i think it probably is the heaviest i've done i don't think i would you know we talked about it i don't know if it's on the podcast or otherwise but i don't think if i put the barbell on my back you know safety squat bar is harder is you're gonna do less weight that you can on the a barbell back squat like it's harder for almost everyone i think that's fairly universal although i don't think i would just next week put the barbell on my back and do it like 50 pounds more right it would take like a training cycle right right you have taken a while off from that. Right. Like, whereas the safety squat bar is what feels normal to me at this point, you know?

So it would take me some time. But that being said, it seems like if I did that, my back squat would get to a level that's probably getting up there with what it's been before. Yeah, it seems like if you could make the transition and things do feel good, that, yeah, your squat should blow up. Yeah. the transition and things do feel good that yeah your squat should blow up yeah i'm not really aiming for that though because i am just my shoulder is bugging me just a little bit so what do you think so i'm that um just the heavier pressing i think you know i was pushing my bench i really shouldn't necessarily don't have a strong reason to push my bench that much other than I'm feeling.

Other than you go to the gym. So that's what you do. Right. And, um, you know, so I, I don't think it's really the,

you know, my overhead pressing my log pressing. I don't think that's bothering it that much. It's really the benching. So I kind of drew back on the bench a little bit to try and hopefully save my log press. Probably not a bad move at this point. Right. Right. But it's just like, you can take the, bit to try and hopefully save my log press probably not a bad move at this point right

right but it's just like you can take the power lifter or you can whatever the saying is well i can't it's really hard for me to not bench heavy because i just i love you know i love it so then like if i'm feeling good i want to bench, but I actually kind of just maybe pulling back on that for a few weeks because everything else is going good. My deadlift, every time I have a deadlift set, I'm like, I'm not saying it feels easy, but I get done and I'm like, that felt really right. Like it felt like the best feeling you could ever have.

Yeah. Yeah. Keep that going. So I am considering one heavier deadlift set of five still one more huh one i'm considering it i don't need to because i'm closing in on the 600 mark at that point then don't you that's what i would really like i would do that if the perfect day if the day that i go in there and i feel awesome i would potentially try that only if I feel like I know if I try it, I'm going to get it.

Yeah. And that seems weird because you'd never really know. But like for me to get that, I have to kind of know that I'm going to get it before I get it or else I'm going to go and it's going to go disastrous. Right. I don't know if that makes sense. So,

I mean, you got next week or like maybe the week after. That's it. It would be this next. No, it would be this next week yeah because actually that's because i'm not going to do it that you know i'm going to be in aberdeen and actually i believe on juggernaut next week is my last like heavy deadlift day i'm pretty sure okay you're right right right and then uh i start i've played with the atlas stones a few times my biceps are very touchy on that i've never in my life ever when people talk about like bicep pain and stuff i've never in my life ever had that except the

one day i did i was repping the stones and the next day i'm like oh that's what that feeling is because that does not feel good no my and mine are very touchy to the atlas stones actually what happens is they get touchy from the log press not the press of the log but it's the clean oh you know this yeah of just like this holding it in you know this extreme tightness and then probably not using perfect form and then i end up a little bit of a this with like a lot of weight you know yep a little bit too much of this it doesn't i don't really feel it that much on the log press but then when i you know if a day later i'm doing stones i'm like whoa why do my biceps feel like that like that is not what they should be feeling like right now. But I kind of switched around the way I'm training that a little bit and feel decent about the stones.

And I feel with my deadlift going well, my squat and my safety squat, a big reason to do the front squat or safety squat bar is it, I think it's a better, more helpful accessory for something like a stone lift than a, than full-on low bar back squat and i don't know if that's accurate or not but that's what i feel like and i don't know something feels right uh with what i'm doing when i go to do as long as my biceps hold up to the occasion the atlas stone lifting i'm like oh boy that something feels really good about that when my biceps don't hurt. What weight are you going up to here that you're training? So just the 260 is all the heavier I've had to train up to, and it feels like I can do that a lot of times. I know after this last week I can do that a lot of times. I'm actually slightly scared of how many times I could maybe have to do that

for my body because it is a little, like it could. My body will quit before my mind will. But I have to be very careful about my biceps, which is just one of those, you know, we talked about it with Perk there too. It's when you get older, you know, 10 years ago, been a little less worried about, you know, I don't have to think about that. Yeah. Let her rip an interesting choice of words actually in that scenario.

No pun intended. Yeah. So, but I say all that to say my training is going really good. I'm just having to be, just the older I get, the more particular you have to be about all the last little details, especially towards the end. Yes, right, right. So it's going good, and a bunch of people in the gym,

a whole bunch of them that are competing in this meet. It's always fun. There's a good environment around when a whole bunch of people are. It's a lot of new faces. When I say new not all brand new to the gym but like there's a bunch of people that are coming from the gym that are going to be doing their first meet or you know that haven't maybe been not the old guard not all the old guard necessarily so there's like a lot of new fresh people getting involved yeah and they're all training really hard so that's that's fun to see seeing

people bust out the singlets every once in a while now oh even that's okay yep damn they are getting after it yeah so it's getting serious that nobody is holding back now from what i've seen love it i uh told you about this the other day. I got a big day in my office. I got a new chair. Oh, yeah, yeah, okay. A new office chair. And do you remember what you knew about it? You know more about it than I do.

You have the Herman Miller Embody chair, which if anyone, actually, people that game, they make a gaming version of that chair as well, I believe, which just means it's in a different color. But if you're into the office chair gaming world, any of that, you might know this chair has a pretty legendary status as being about the most expensive chair. And a lot of people say it is the best chair.

So I'm, and when I say most expensive, retails about two grand. So like these are not cheap pieces here. I'm very curious. This is a $2,000 office chair. Yes. You've had this almost a week. I'm very curious two thousand dollar office chair yes you've had this almost a week i'm really curious what your review is so far yeah that's what i wanted to say so the day of when we rolled it in i rolled my old one out and rolled this one in i didn't think that much of it i thought well and also my old chair was i'm sure a very expensive chair also but it's probably like 12

years old you know and so i don't know it's sad maybe it's more yeah for 12 years right right right it's certainly been used but actually hold up really well like i i can see how that probably was an expensive chair because your average 250 one if it got used like that one did for over a decade it would just literally just be in pieces like it would just have been nothing would be workable on it and this like pretty much looks like it did the day it was new so it's very heavy duty but i didn't i was skeptical at first of this new chair and i'm like how can this thing cost why Why would this ever cost $2,000? Like, so we're also, okay.

So like I work in my home office, right? Which means I have a lot of control over my environment. So like I, I went through the whole chair cause I did the same thing when I first started up, I bought the $50 chair off of Amazon, right? Like this is all I need to get going, which is true. That's all I need to get going. Right. Then this is all I need to get going, which is true. That's all I need to get going. Right. But after a while,

I'm like, no, no, like this is actually where I spend the majority of my waking life. Like I should make this environment as pleasant as possible. Like almost a third of all hours of your life. Yes.

Like I spend so much time here. So I did so much research on chairs. The one, and that one was at the, that one was high on my list. And I think at that time, it was like 15 or 1600. Right.

I just couldn't bring myself. It was just so much money. I couldn't bring myself to do it. The chair I have is the Steelcase Gesture and I was just looking. I ended up getting this chair for like $900. Now it looks like it's like a $1,300 chair. I don't know if that's one of those COVID things. With everything going on.

Yeah, I mean I'm happy with this chair. I like it a lot but I could still see myself, based off of what you say here, maybe having it embody something. Okay, so what I would say where it hit me the most is the second day when I came into my office in the morning and I sat down in it after not having sat in it since that prior day, and I thought, oh, my God, this feels good. I was like, this feels, I forgot

this feels really different. And then every day now, when I first go in there in the morning, it catches me off guard every time. And I'm like, wow. Every time I'm like, wow, this is nice. I'm like, there's something about this that just feels really good. And it's like, keeps my back. Like, see, that's stupid, but it just feels really good. And it's like, keeps my back. Like see, that's stupid, but it keeps my back in like a more ergonomic, like I'm like, can't not be in that position or something. I don't really know. Okay.

So that, all right. That makes me feel that gives me more interested because I, there's several podcasts I listened to where the guys all own and body chairs. And for the most part, these are guys that are like probably i don't know for sure but like five six and 150 pounds and that is such a different they don't work mostly all the chairs are going to work for you man yeah like i'm like your body type couldn't be more different than mine like you're just right you're you're you're a very different shape person than me and so i've always wondered a bigger because i have heard some people say that

the back isn't very wide on that chair and so you might notice that a little bit as it looks not wide like it visually like look like there's like a weird taper to it yeah but it's on been unnoticeable to me okay but it definitely like i at first i'm like why is the it's so narrow as it gets because it does look narrow from behind right right it really it looks odd almost that's what i've heard some people say that is like you go to sit in it and you're like it just i almost feel better sitting in this than when i don't sit in it like i'll sit there and like spin back and forth and be like woo like all right and after a while like you you know you get to working and you forget about it and stuff but

like every day in the morning when i first get in there i'm like oh wow this is something uh the one thing there's a ton of adjustments on it i had to read like actually to you know get wrap my head around the adjustments the only thing i don't like is you know the main adjustment that every chair has the up down oh yeah it's just like this weird little joystick thing and don't like is you know the main adjustment that every chair has the up down oh yeah it's just like this weird little joystick thing and i'm like the regular lever works on all the other like why is this different uh-huh and there's probably some reason to that to be different probably yeah but i'm like i don't like it it seems like it would be more likely to break than the old standard version but that's my only real criticism and the price.

Okay. The other thing I was going to know for it, which is it's really funny when you do have to pay for something that's really nice. You get it. Like if you bought this chair or I bought this chair and brought it home, you would like, and you, you're like taking just like the most delicate care of it and be like, you're going to sit down and be like, okay, let me know everything about this $2,000 chair. I am going to do the expert of this chair. We are partners in crime together now.

But then conversely, you wheel a bunch of them into an office full of a bunch of office workers. People just start being like, like oh let me flip this you know like i'm sure they're already just putting them almost throwing it and just being like like uh like plop down in it and be like oh how do you run this thing and just start like just banging pressing bumper cars with it and like even experiencing that myself a little bit and it's just like you don't really take care of stuff even if you're responsible you don't do it you have a different attitude well and a lot of people probably also don't realize that they're sitting in like a two thousand dollar chair no and i only do that because i was like i have me being me i'm like

what is this chair here you know probably the amazing thing you said is like the office bought how many of those did you figure oh a lot a lot i'll just say a lot yeah the dollar amount of chairs would have been and i i'm sure when you're buying that many through whoever you buy a bit of a deal but i don't think you're getting them half off like that's no that's but i can kind like now more than ever, I'm like, maybe it's justifiable a little bit too. Like maybe that is like, is like you said, we're there all the time, sitting our asses in there all the time. You know,

this is actually when I, when I bought this chair, cause to me, like spending what I, 900, a thousand, whatever it was, it seemed so insane to me.

But then I thought for a minute, I'm like, you know what? People spend 50 grand to buy a dumbass vehicle that they like drive you drive for like 30 minutes 30 minutes a day and they think they need for whatever reason and i'm like actually this makes way more sense you spend eight hours a day in it every single day sometimes more like a pretty good comparison to me in my mind is uh your mattress your bed you don't people get wrapped up and like what do you need those expensive ones for and then it's like

then you know everyone else says you spend a third of your life and it's like you kind of do so all of a sudden if you bought if you're an office worker you buy a nice chair you buy a nice bed you're like ah at least for two-thirds of my life i have things that are gonna be like comfortable yeah right for two-thirds of my sudden that being said i could really use a new like i desperately need to buy like a new mattress oh do you i've been yeah i'm actually trying to decide what to because i'm not gonna get a crappy one i do want to get some but then i'm like what is because it's not definitively it's not like yes everyone agrees this is the one i know and it just feels like it's just a world full of just marketing and scam right gimmicks right yeah i'm gonna have to consult pillar four

they could help you there i'm sure they have a lot of affiliate links you can check through too yeah uh yes i'll talk to koof about that um let's see was there anything else that uh we definitely should talk about this week we had actually we had a certain song that i think should be played oh boy yeah can we play it um can you plug your phone in i don't have a thing yeah i can play it do you need me to send you the or you got it no I got it you probably just won't be able to hear I won't be able to hear it very good but everyone else will hear it good we just got to let this thing spin I think

I've got it ready all the time we'll just say hey everyone if you're not in the discord this is a world premiere there's a little ditty written for Masonomics I think it really captures the Masonomics state of mind and I think without further ado, Tanner, let her rip. Here we go.

Damn it. I thought I was so prepared. I thought maybe I just wasn't hearing it. No, I realized what I was plugging. I'm actually plugging into the wrong thing here. So Tanner is getting the cord ready. I thought I was going to be so swift. I did.

I'm like, yeah, he really is on it over here right now this is impressive now we're ready okay now we're ready okay let her rip cruising in my 69 shitty Windows downwind in my hair Aberdeen, South Dakota nights, man, there's so many here Spent all day in my Sonomics Liftin' heavy, breakin' sweat Twelve beers later, man, you know I ain't done yet Liftin' and drinkin' is all I know

Pop another scene and take it slow Living easy gets hard when you're going on in I ask myself, what would Huck Finn do again? My strength, go play some late in the USA Country living, lifting weights and beer all day Back roads and bonfires, trucks and tire swings Country songs and guitars, hear the night birds sing Everything's got that magic where the stars align

We're just a bunch of good ol' boys having a good ol' time Lifting and drinking is all I know Pop another scene and take it slow Living easy gets hard when you're going all in I ask myself, what would Huck Finn do again? My straight coat plates are made in the USA Country living, lifting weights in fear all day Rich Livin', liftin' weights and beer all day Sometimes I wonder if I'll ever settle down

But for now I'm chasin' dreams in this little town From Masonomics to the bar, it's a country boy's way Livin' free and wild, come what may. Lifting and drinking is all I know. Pop another scene and take it slow. I asked myself, what would Huck Finn do again? My strength code plates are made in the USA. Country living, lifting weights and beer all day. Aberdeen sunsets, Chevy's old and gray. But this country boy's heart will never stray.

Lifting, drinking, loving life and the view. Yeah, that's just what a South Dakota boy would do. Actually, that was a pretty interesting listen through Zoom because it doesn't play any of the music, so it sounds like an acapella version. I just hear his voice is all. Did you hear his voice pretty clearly, though? Yeah, I heard the voice pretty clearly the whole way through. So that was Western Northeast South Dakota by Massanomics.

Just a little jingle we penned in our free time over here. That song, though. Look for that coming up on more things. How about that song, though? Huck Finn. We sent it to Huck Finn, and he said, I fucking love this. And then that was this morning, and then tonight he goes, we need it to Huck Finn and he said, ah, I fucking love this. And then that was this morning.

And then tonight, we need to make a music video of this, which I like that because I'm like an entire day went by and he's still thinking about it. Yeah. Yeah. I asked myself, what would Huck Finn do again? And then just the gratuitous, my strength co plates are made in the usa slid in there because it's a country song i mean yeah it's like it's a i don't even listen to country music and there's certain tropes that you just understand that just work and it's like anytime you can get that usa

something usa in there and when i think of usa i of the Strength Coast. So it was an obvious fit for them to belong in that song. That absolutely sounds like something that would play on your local radio station. Your country music, popular country music radio station. If you just heard it, you'd be like, oh yeah, what did we just listen to the radio, obviously. I think it's safe to say there's an untapped market of people making country music geared at people that go to the gym and also like to drink beer you know there is there's a little bit i believe there's a little bit of like this country party scene that's maybe coming up more or maybe not i don't even know actually for sure but there's not enough people that are combining partying beer and lifting in their songs together. I think my, one of the more subtle,

but probably my favorite line of the whole thing is in the, kind of in the intro, when he says, spent all day at Massanomics, lifting heavy, breaking a sweat, 12 beers later. You know. Man, you know I ain't done yet.

You know I ain't done yet. I know. That's what's so great. Did you specifically say 12? Yes, I specifically wrote done yet. You know I ain't done yet. I know. That's what's so great. Did you specifically say 12? Yes, I specifically wrote 12 beers. Did you say 12? Yes. Because that's what I love about it, that it's 12.

Because that's a mass dynamics meme in itself is like spending all day in the gym and then drinking a 12-pack of brewskis. That's where I took it from. I'm like, it works so good, though, because have like just this vault of sayings that you can use. Yes. And I'm like, yep. 12, 12 beers is a line. Strength co-plates made in the USA because of the country song.

Absolutely. As a line, the song was about drinking beer and everything. You're going all in. Yeah. That one. I actually, I put a living easy as hard when question mark, question marks. I didn't know how to end it. And going all in is actually a really good way to do that one.

But the, what would Huck Finn do? That was a verbatim line I wrote. And like the main part of the chorus there, the living easy. Lifting and drinking is all I know. Popping others in and take it slow. That is verbatim. I wrote that one and exactly.

Yeah. I mean, for the most part, the is verbatim. I wrote that one in exactly. Yeah. I mean, for the most part, the chorus was exactly ones that I wrote in a hundred percent. Country living, lifting weights and beer all day. I didn't put those ones together. That is that. But it just works so well, though. And yeah, yeah. The the my least favorite line of the whole thing is the something something come what may.

And I'm like, really, that's like the lamest line. Yeah, they kind of use that. But wrap up i could you can tell there's a few things like that that they yes but not many overall though the song's right really it's pretty on point man i think that speaks to a lot of people right there it's good look for that uh in more places if you find it on instagram look for it in some youtube videos that is the theme song of the lift hard, Live Easy Classic weekend. Probably getting played a decent amount there. Who knows?

Maybe we'll show up on Spotify or something. Yeah. We got some things in the zoo. I think at Pounders, at The Meat, at my house, the Friday party. You're going to get a heavy dose of that, so get used to it. Yeah. And if you're looking for more Mastinomics Originals, you can hop in the Discord. They heard it first. You're going to get a heavy dose of that, so get used to it. Yeah, and if you're looking for more Mastinomics originals, you can hop in the Discord.

They heard it first. Yeah, so if you're looking for another reason to become a Mastinomics supporting member, you just found one. If there wasn't enough reasons already. Did we read all the ads? No, I actually have one left here still. This episode is also brought to you by Swiss Link. Swiss Link has been importing military-issue goods to the United States and has hands of those yearning for quality gear at uncompromised prices since 1995.

They've been at this a while. Tanner, you're the proud new owner of a Swiss Link 10-liter Wavian fuel can in black and we talked about this last time but the reviews are in and you can confidently say it's the best fuel can you've ever owned hands down so uh i mean that's just one example uh fuel cans they got boots they got socks they got pants they got shorts maybe say i don't want to buy clothes okay you don't got to buy clothes they got socks they got pants they got shorts maybe say i don't want to buy clothes okay you don't got to buy clothes they got camping gear survival gear classic wool blankets they have other military issue surplus like dining items gas masks and bags bags and backpacks camouflage basically you think of it if a military force has it that probably means swiss link does

too if you head on over to swisslink.com and use code mass m-a-s-s at checkout you can save 15 on your next purchase that's swisslink.com code mass save you 15 thank you swiss link thanks swiss link um also don't forget every unpaid and underrated shirt comes with a free keith head sticker important to note and shout out again for everyone that supported us on this drop so far i was just looking again and amazing great success so thank you to everyone that supported and that would like to continue to support if you want to support massonomics, you'd buy some of our merchandise.

That'd be a great way. Any of the new stuff, any of the old stuff, buy yourself a drink spotter. If you don't already have a 10 of those, get your 10. You could leave us a five-star review on Apple podcasts. That would be something we'll take that.

You could leave us a rating on Spotify for the Massonomics podcast. You could do that. You could become a supporting member. That's probably the best way to support us. It's right in the name. That's why they call it a supporting membership. Go to massonomics.com slash join. That's where you can sign up.

We've got a number of different options. If you've been around and listening for a while, we'd love to have you join. And it's not a one-way street. We do try to make it worth your while. So one of those things is you get access to our Discord. It's the only way you get access to our Discord is by becoming a supporting member. You get to listen to the podcast live each week. You get a few times a year we send out special gifts that only you get in on you get early access to our drops you get uh another really cool feature of that is like if you get in on the lift hard live easy classic you get early access to that and then also like there's through the discord everyone's talking to each other like in preparation for the

making travel plans and all that stuff it's just kind of adds to the experience the inside track yeah is that kind of the best oh the other one this may be growing in importance has become a subscriber to our youtube channel oh yeah if you're not watching the youtube please do we have new videos every single week along with the podcast video that's on there every week. If you've never watched the podcast before, I saw a couple of comments just this week. We're getting more and more watchers of our podcast all the time. That's growing. And I saw a comment and someone said, I've been listening to the podcast for years. I've never watched it on YouTube.

I came over to watch it. And I got to tell you, after seeing seeing the intro instead of just listening to it every year that really pieced a lot of things together for me like that really puts it in a different light that could be a very confusing intro yeah if you'd never like we've only ever known it from being visual right because it was all taken from video clips so i can see how as an audio only thing it could be a little confusing i never thought of that yeah and then he said oh watching that really uh really i really get it now um so yeah do check out our youtube channel become a subscriber maybe share something about it whatever it is uh to help us get the word out about our youtube we're putting quite a bit of effort into that honestly we have been and that

what is that just about it is oh i gotta say one more thing tanner okay this uh okay so when i was making that little song the other day yeah when i say the other day i mean last night uh should have been i loved that one the first time i heard it even i was like oh okay so i'm making this i'm having yeah so my wife was working it was her night to work last night so i'm putting the kids to bed and we were kind of joking about, Oh, cause I had, I'd made another song for the,

uh, yeah, for the lifting vlog and gotten several comments, people texting me how much they loved it. Yeah. And, um, like,

I think we got to make more of these things. And we were kind of sending some texts back and forth. And then, so I'm putting my boy to bed. I'm on, I'm in his room with him laying there kind of thinking through some things in my head and i just have these ideas this is like i was we just explained all the one-liners they're all hitting me in my head and i'm like so wired probably also

probably didn't hurt that i had some vaso blitz and full blitz running through my system and i had a 315 bench earlier in the day you know this let's just say that all things were yeah things were firing on all cylinders yeah and i'm just having these like one-liners just fire off. And I'm just like putting them in my phone. Like, oh yeah, that's a good one. That's a good one.

That's a good one. And I'm just, my brain's feeling like it's working at a higher level. I'm just like getting so amped. And I really actually had to come down to my computer to work on a client project. Cause I had to have something done by 8am this morning. But before I could even get to that,

I had to, I had to have the song made. Like it had to happen. Yeah. I know that feeling sometimes. I'm like just doing it. And really that I had to I had the song made like it had to happen yeah I know that feeling sometimes I'm like just doing it and really I gotta ask you have you ever seen the movie hustle and flow oh what is that uh it's an absolute classic if anyone has not seen it you gotta go watch it it's uh Terrence Howard DJ Qualls and uh Terrence Howard is like a pimp and he's deciding he's gonna change his life around and they make some music it's uh it's Terrence Howard, DJ Qualls. And Terrence Howard is like a pimp, and he's deciding he's going to change his life around and make some music.

It's kind of, it's hot out here for a pimp. There's that one. And then there's that. I can't say if I've ever seen that entire movie. I guess I'd say no if we're playing the game. I feel like I know about it. I think it said it came out in like 2005. I watched it.

I remember in college, so probably 2007 or 8, probably watched it. And I remember at the time thinking, this is the coolest thing i've ever seen this movie's so good because they're like making beats and the songs like go way too hard for a movie and they're so good and then dj qualls which if people don't know um he's the skinny guy from the movie the new guy he's like the in the in the he was also in road trip in like the early two thousands. He was the guy you would get to be the nerdy guy in a movie. And in this, in hustle and flow, DJ qualls is like the producer. And so he's on the drum machine, like go in. So it's all these black people and just DJ qualls, the skinny token white guy. And I was like, I'm sitting down here making these stupid country songs. I'm like, I'm like DJ qualls and hustle and flow right now. I'm just having the

time of my life. And that scene popped in my head. So I had to go watch it on YouTube and man still holds up still so good, still, still great. So, um, I guess what I'm trying to say is you felt a little like the hustle and flow. Go, go, go watch hustle and flow and then go make some songs. You're going to feel really inspired. It's, it's a great time, but yeah, I was just like riding. So I make that damn song. I'm like, someone's got to hear this. It was getting close to 10 o'clock, and I'm like, oh, Tanner could be sleeping right now.

I was actually out playing basketball. That's why I didn't get back right away. Oh, okay. I came back in, and you had sent it a while ago. Yeah. Because I don't know if you noticed there was a lag before. No, there was, because I'm like, he's not replying. He's definitely sleeping. Okay, yeah, he goes to bed early was. I'm like, he's not replying. He's definitely sleeping.

Okay. Yeah. He goes to bed early sometimes. I'm like, well, Tanner also knowing him, he's going to wake up at two in the morning and hear this and have trouble going back to sleep. He's going to. Yeah, I know. But then you message me.

So I'm like, someone's got to hear this. I messaged Grant. Yeah. He doesn't reply either, but he's also an hour ahead. So I'm like, I got to text my wife. I texted to her, but she's working. So she probably doesn't have her phone. So no one's replying.

I'm like, I'm the only one that can listen to this channel. I've got to hear someone's feedback. And then finally you reply. You're like, holy shit, me and Mary listened to that. That's insane. Yeah, we had been playing basketball outside, and he came inside to that. And I started listening to it, and then I was like, Mary, come over here. You have to listen to this.

And we got a really good kick out of it. yeah that's a good one yeah you uh you mentioned terrence howard do you know about terrence howard i mean i've heard a lot of people talk about his joe rogan episode lately but i didn't listen to it at all i haven't watched the episode either but i've seen a few movies with him in him like he's always good in movies but uh i don't know much about him though like i'm just one excerpt here howard made the bold claim that gravity is fake suggesting an alternative force at play he believes that he could rebuild saturn without gravity describing an inward outward force that shapes planets without relying on gravity dark matter or dark energy he showed how this works using an on-outward force that shapes planets without relying on gravity, dark matter, or dark energy. He showed how this works using an on-screen simulation. I mean, I'm not going to claim that I know how any of that stuff works,

but I also feel like the people that do know how that works have a really, really deep understanding of how a lot of things work. And I'm not sure any actor is qualified to have a strong input on that strong that's what i was gonna say and what do you do you mean they're usually not actors i mean they're typically probably mathematicians or physicists first and like actors like second or third you know uh yes they're probably if they know that their name's probably Stephen Hawking or something along those lines.

Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Okay. So hustle and flow. Terrence Howard. I checked both of those off of the list. Western Northeast South Dakota.

The banger of the summer. Hopefully coming on Spotify at some point in time. We're going to see what we can do here. Yep. And I can what we can do here. Yep. And I could talk about more stuff here. My wife, I was worried earlier. This doesn't happen often to us when we podcast,

but my wife actually forgot about it with no issues, no issues. And I did get the notification that the garage door opened about a half hour ago. So that really, so we made it. That really took the pressure off of me. I actually will be talking about this a lot as time goes on, but I've been watching the Olympic trials hour ago. Oh, that really. So we made it. That really took the pressure off of me. Actually, we'll be talking about this a lot as time goes on,

but I've been watching the Olympic trials, man. Oh, I just love the Olympics. Did you see Deanna Price at all? I actually, I did go. She made the Olympics. So actually, when I say I've been watching the Olympic trials, I mean, at the end of the day, at night when I'm winding down, I go onto YouTube and I go to the CBS Sports channel,

and they have all of the basically highlights of noteworthy events. And so they did have the hammer throw one, so she got second. So I did catch that. But just track and field. I could watch track and field all day. I just love watching track and field. Maybe it's because you don't see it on TV very much, but it's so good in so many ways. What's so good. I mean, this could

be a whole episode I could go on for non, I'm just trying to think of like the way to break this down. There's a few things. One, it is just amazing in track and field how basically you, I mean, genetics are first and foremost, because everyone in the events essentially has the same body type, you know? So it's like already you have to have the correct body type to even be at this level. Like there's no, with incredibly rare exception, everyone is like some of the events are like, I don't know. It's just like eight clones of the exact same person out there. You know, it just, everyone has the same body structure. And that follows all events from the hundred all the way to like a 5,000 meter longer race yeah it's it's just they are all like the same yeah you don't have

anyone yeah you're like oh i can't tell if you're like a long distance runner or a sprinter i really can't like that's not a thing you know nature and training has selected all the people that are all like exactly it does it does so that are the best setup and then also at that level when you start looking at it it's a sprints especially you know once you really start paying attention to it you know you see the guys go and you can actually some of the races are really close but usually there's a clear visual distinction between like first and fourth you know like all right that guy's clearly two steps faster than the rest right but then when you see the time you're like actually what's barely different the difference that's separating these guys is a lot of times less than a tenth of a second right and then you

start to think about it from a percentage standpoint it's like actually the difference between being the best in the world and being like even eighth in the world is like i don't know is it like a tenth of a percent like you're a tenth of a person like you're not one percent better like you know you're a tenth of a percent but like that's so crazy that that is actually the deciding factor and at that level it's actually a big visual difference too is is less than a percent better is is noticeably better but it's just it's it it's so crazy that that is what that comes down to um yeah i've just been watching most of because so far they've had a bunch of the sprinting ones. So yeah, watching the sprinters,

and it is cool because sprinting does have all these big personalities. It attracts that. Sprinting, I think, is the biggest draw of the Olympics. It is, and I don't, actually I've been saying watching the Olympics, I don't even care about swimming at all. I appreciate those guys.

I can respect it, but visually I don't think swimming is very interesting to watch. Track is interesting. Oh, it's interesting to watch. You can see it. Everyone to it everyone's done it field events but honestly yeah people get even if you're not athletic and you're immobile you kind of get what it takes to run and uh even seeing some of the field events too like the throwing and the jumping it's really good uh one thing that's really crazy is i don't know if you saw this tanner there was a 16 year old that placed eighth for the men's 400 like eight in all of america he's 16 years old

everyone the best sprinters in the world this guy is 16 and he placed eighth that is crazy the best sprinters in the united states sorry yes the best sprinters in the united states yes but yeah he made the final date. Was he from I think it was Maryland. I think you have any idea what his time was like. What do you remember? I don't know what the Olympics 49 or 48 seconds somewhere

in there. I think 40 something I'm sure. But yeah, but it's it that's when you watch you're like, yes this looks like a child running with men like it's did it look like it? Oh, it looks I mean, he's got the baby face's when you watch and you're like, yes, this looks like a child running with men. Like it's, did it look like it? Oh, it looks,

I mean, he's got the baby face, the fresh baby face. And he's also right. Sprinters at that level, like men, they have big defined muscles. Right.

Um, and this looks like a boy, like it looks like a high school boy. You look like a man, but pretty, pretty awesome that this guy, it said he broke the under 18 world record twice in order to reach the finals.

So you would think big things coming for this guy in the future if he could keep that going. Do you know about the Enhanced Games? No. The Enhanced Games is is planned international sports event. Uh, that would essentially like rival the Olympics or take on the Olympics where the athletes will not be subject to drug testing.

Untested is. Yeah. Yeah. That would be sweet. It's headed by, uh, Aaron D'Souza, an Australian businessman.

The event is meant to take place for the first time in 2025. And from what I understand, it's just going to be a few of the marquee events, take place for the first time in 2025 and from what i understand it's just going to be a few of the marquee events like sprinting sprint um i think there's a weight lifting thing there's like five or six which honestly is kind of not very exciting because like that's already taking place so that's right well true that's a good point actually the exciting one would be the sprinting is like right and i think from what i heard they're offering uh i read something about it the other day but for anyone that breaks an existing world like an existing olympic world

record they are going to pay them a million bucks that's the other thing it's it's uh because they got a bunch of backing like they got a bunch of money a venture venture capital money that like anyone that breaks a real world record they're going to give up like so the olympics are like people are not getting rich off the olympics you know well well depending some people are getting lit rich in part because of the olympics you know but like a little bit different roundabout way but um yeah so have you've never heard of that before though i'm just looking into it right now i mean it's uh this is very interesting uh just as a pure spectator thing i think what you don't the

tricky part is to get the talent i know because that that is the that is the balance is someone on drugs that's not already like an elite sprinter probably isn't breaking a record no so it's uh you know like yeah you have to be but if there's a if there's enough money involved like maybe it does lure people in at some point in time too you know it's really interesting right on their website the second tab the second page drop down is our plan and the safer sports pay the athletes i mean their whole thing so safer sports i like this right here what it says is let's be clear drug testing is about fairness not safety uh you know depending on how you think

about these things right there's correct ways to take that but then under pay the athletes it talks about how the ioc is a leech on the athletes and how they takes all the money and the athletes uh don't it says uh 46 percent of elite athletes in australia make less than 15 000 a year which actually watching this that is one of those things is so a lot of the sprinters the big you know the biggest names they obviously have endorsement deals like crazy you start looking you say if you're usain bolt you're you're doing just fine. Yes, but not even him. You just look up at the American people, and I watch it,

and the biggest name guys and girls, they all have a shoe company that's endorsing them. Right. Yeah, okay, they're definitely not getting, they're probably not getting NBA money, but I'm thinking they're probably getting decent money for running and not making a whole lot of TV appearances throughout a year. Right. And then a lot of them also have,

uh, when you go like to the women's pages, they have beauty, um, uh, sponsorships. The guys ones have ones with like headphones and things like that. So like there is money to be made in endorsements, but I also get that that is the vast minority of people. That's not the standard. Because watching that, I'm like, so some of these people, though, like the guy, okay, they're trying to make it to the Olympics, and they're talking about, yep, this so-and-so,

he's been having a tough year. He's been running a few races, and we're not sure if he's going to make the cut here. And yep, doesn't place top three in the finals, so he does not make the Olympics this year. And I'm like, so what do you do? Do you just go just go back to training is that it or do you have a job you got to go back to now like what what is the next step here i i don't actually probably a difficult road to cross for a lot of them and actually you know i do have you have to make a decision i know

you could i know there's stuff out there but uh sort of an insider on this uh my wife's cousin he ran track at asu so he's had a lot of friends that had gone on to be in the olympics right and just through being part of a pac-12 school you compete with a lot of olympians you know a lot of people and uh he's going to be here next week so i'm going to ask him get the inside track on a lot because he'll know a lot of that how i think you probably then you sell insurance after that you know people you right there definitely i think a lot of people probably sell insurance if i had to guess after that that's a very informed guess yes but it's just and then the other one too is some of these people though they've also dedicated

like the one lady she was the world champion last year in the discus world champ. All three of her throws went out of the, uh, out of the field of play, whatever they call that. So she's screwed. It's like, man, I think it's, it's like annoying to think of like, Oh, I've been like dedicating some time to do this powerlifting meet. And if something messed me up, that'd be really, that'd be really unfortunate. And like, no, these people have been grinding away for years and years on end. And this is their one shot. And if they mess it up, there's, well, the other one, um, her name's like a thing, Mo or a thing. I forget how you say her name. Um, she's this, she was the Olympic champion in the 800 meter dash from America, clear favorite in the finals she gets tripped falls down can't

make it it's like that was your thing you're the best in the world you still are the best in the world you were the best in the world but someone tripped you in the finals you're screwed you're out like man like not even through really any doing of your own you're done so like some of those things it's just it you have a it's a split second and that's what changes it forever only for a moment and then a moment's gone yep i have a particularly relevant uh almost the same scale as what you're explaining there too but when i was a senior in high school in south dakota state track and field i threw shots and discus and i went to the state track meet and I had been throwing far enough in, uh, regions. The prior meet was regions. And I threw far enough in regions that, you know, what everyone else's best throws, you

know, they publish everyone else's best throws to the year for everyone that's going to the state. So you kind of know, you're like, Hey, if I do well, and even if all these people do well, here's probably where I'm going to place. And, you know, the top eight place, I'm like, I'll probably get like, I wasn't going to win like under no circumstance. Was I going to place and you know the top eight place I'm like I'll probably get like I wasn't going to win like under no circumstance was I going to win but I'm like I could probably get like fourth here or third or fifth you know like I'm like certainly have a good chance at making it on the you know they let the eight people stand on the thing and you take the picture

and it it turned out like if I would have just thrown what I threw at regions, I would have got third place. And I had never fouled like ever in my life fouled on the shot by falling out of the front of the ring. I mean like very few times ever in my life. Yep. But then in the prelim, you know, you do the first round. And if you do well enough, then you make the finals.

And then you're, you know, how you throw in the finals you know you do the the first round and if you do well enough then you make the finals and then you're you know how you throw in the finals is how you and in the the prelims i on all three of my throws i fell out of the front of the ring really and i had never done it before like i think i maybe had never done that before i mean just very rarely had i ever done it before but there was something i was like so amped or something I don't know or some variable was different that I could couldn't put my foot you know finger on and I fell out and I like fell out the third time and I'm like oh my god if I would have just gotten any of those throws in I would have been in the finals and uh I it's a little humorous because I'm talking about a high school South Dakota state track meet, but it is the same concept. And, like, I was definitely sad.

I was like, what happened here? Like, I absolutely, like, screwed that up so bad. And then, but that's also what makes that sport interesting of, like, track. Oh, because the stakes are so high so high tiniest because you talked about the difference in the first and eighth the tiniest screw up and you won't win yes in something like you just have a bad reaction time and actually not even a bad a slightly slower reaction time than what you need and that that's it but right what what is really i mean where the stakes are so high though is with these other

people though is if you're someone that's kind of right on the edge and you don't make it you've been dedicated years of your life to this and it comes down to a single event and sometimes a single split second in an event is the difference between yes things went great for me and nope all of that was kind of for nothing and that's yeah the stakes are high the enhanced games they said they're also gonna they're not gonna let the shortcomings that the olympics have dictate how they do things okay just like that like they're like no we're not gonna do it every four years like people get like why would we do every four years we'll do it every year and we're only going to do the events that are really good, but we'll do them every year. And then it's like, well, where are you going to do this at?

You need to do it in Paris. And they're like, well, we might be able to do it in multiple places. Like maybe, I mean, this is 2024. Like maybe the sprint is held in Los Angeles. You know, because I like, because we're, I don't know if swimming's an event as an example, but, like, we don't need to build, like, these billion-dollar facilities

to have everyone in this weird place together. To have 70 events held at it. Right, like, it's like, we'll just do each event, you know, we'll plan them so it makes sense and it's cohesive, but they don't really have to all be literally in the same city either which I'm like yeah I guess that's true

you know that is some of the stuff that they've said that I read about and stuff some of it makes sense so you know I'm pretty skeptical of how it all works out in practice you know how it all becomes reality and like where the money really is.

And like that, that is no one's just going to throw money at losing things forever. Right. And who do they get is, is the other, that's the biggest thing. Like if you can't get the talent, but I don't know,

maybe there's enough money involved that people like, if you're that guy, actually, I mean, if you're that guy that was ninth and you're like, I don't know, like what am I going to do? But then it's like, like well maybe if i took some

testosterone i might be a little bit faster here and get on some crazy cycle and peak right does that work it seems like the strength ones would be at a crazy advantage i i'm still not sure what the what the science i mean obviously people know that steroids work for strength but i don't know do they do they provide a huge benefit for sprinters i mean i would assume i think they do for sprinters because there's so much power involved in that i mean it makes sense it does when you talk about like long distance runners then that's where i'd really start to question where the yeah i think that would be the really interesting thing though is i don't does anyone debate you know let's just say

someone has a 1500 pound total. I don't think anyone debates that. Yes. If you ran like steroids for a year that you're going to go up pretty easy. I mean, mostly would say it's safe to assume you should pretty easily be able to add to that total. Right? Right.

Yes. But like a hundred percent, but with, cause running's also weird in the way that it is so much more of a natural thing when I say natural I mean you just know when you're in school who the kids that were fast and they were always the fast kids is running the same way where it's like yeah you're pretty fast

but do you take steroids and all of a sudden you're really fast is that how it works or is it like I don't know that it works like that but what I would say is if you're talking about people that are already really fast and then you give them a little steroids and they're probably i don't know it probably adds on edge you know like it certainly seems like it should yes i'm just curious because strength that no doubt can do a lot right strength is the easiest one to see the or but even like would you think that like swinging a baseball bat that it really

makes you like that much better at hitting home runs i don't but what but didn't they also say okay i'm not a baseball guy at all so i'm probably butchers i actually don't know they also say part of it with baseball was like the recovery too is that because these guys play they're playing hey baseball like every day every other day sometimes twice a day or whatever yeah right didn't they say it aided that part of it but that makes sense but then it's like so what are so they were i mean i know that is what steroids do is they help you recover but then it also walks an interesting line at one point in time like if like if we're like oh we're saying it

helps you recover don't do that. Well, I know. You know, that's like anything but that. That's cheating, like making you recover better from this grueling sport. And I think that argument is debated, but we listen to lots of strength podcasts. And there's some guys I still think do take that stand. They're like, well, the steroids don't actually get you stronger. When actually what they do is they just make it so you can hit the gym harder the next day i'm like well okay so do you call that recovery or do you call that getting stronger when you can just hit the gym hard again the next day yeah i think that's

mostly just splitting hairs that's what it feels like a different way to explain the same thing like you've painted in a more positive or more negative right depending on what your stance is just how you want to frame it yeah because if you just say like oh it's just for recovery then you're like well recovery is good right like am i not you know what do i want to limit that so i don't know we'll stay stay tuned maybe we'll get in we could probably get an enhanced game athlete on and we'll uh get to really get to the bottom of it. That'd be pretty cool. I'm going to talk to my wife's cousin about this,

get his input on here. He probably knows about it. He was actually trying to make the Olympics at one point, or to make the Olympic team, but he was just kind of on the cusp of not quite being good enough there. Well, he very well, I'm sure if you're in that community, you're aware of this thing going on, I think so. Yeah. These enhanced games. More on that later on the massonomics podcast i'm sure a few years

from now we'll say yeah remember when we brought that up and now it's bigger than the olympics now it is not bigger than the olympics they had a 100 meter sprint with three competitors and it never got any bigger. And then they didn't pay the people that they said they were going to. Yes. Should we wrap this one up? Let's do it. Alright, Tommy, where do they find you at?

You can find me at Tomahawk underscore D. You can follow me at Tanner underscore Bear. Just make sure to please follow Massanomics at Mass underscore Bear. Just make sure to please follow Mastonomics at Mastonomics. See you.