Massenomics Podcast - Ep.141: The Full Rundown

Episode Date: December 17, 2018

You might as well call us "The Rock" because you are about to get the full rundown! The main topics of discussion in this episode are Planet Fitness membership statistics, the new USAPL national qualifying totals, updated predictions on Thor's powerlifting meet, and of course we had to discuss LaCroix flavors again. 

Welcome to Massanomics, the world's strongest podcast. Find us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at Massanomics. Make sure you go visit massanomics.com. There you'll find the rest of our powerful content. While you're there, check out our store and buy yourself some of that sweet Massanomics gear. All right, welcome everyone to episode 141 of the Massanomics Podcast. The two best Massanomics Podcast hosts in the world are here today. Back at it.

Tommy and Tanner. Without the help of Brad this time. Big Brad Night Moves made his way back to the Twin Cities. Yep, he left us. Safe travels, Brad. We've got a bevy of topics to cover today, kind of a myriad of topics. We do.

Proverbial buffet of topics. I'll give you the quick rundown of some of the things we're going to cover today. You prepared the rundown? Yeah, I finally got that rundown put together that we've been talking about getting together impressive uh that rundown we're going to talk about some uh planet fitness statistics we're going to talk about uh the new us apl nationals qualifying totals we're going to talk about uh's upcoming meet, of course. And maybe we'll update our predictions.

We put predictions out there before. We'll update some of those predictions. Now having seen a little bit more evidence of what Thor's up to. The curtain's been pulled back a little more. Yeah. We're going to talk about a 242 world record that was recently broken. Let me see. Then at the very end, we might get into some of our favorite segments.

Best YouTube Instagram comment of the week, underrated, overrated, that sort of thing. That's a good rundown right there. Yeah, so that's the rundown. Now, should we stick to it, though, or should we just kind of go off script? Yeah, we're not going to talk about any of those things, actually. Well, we can talk about some other things. Well, yeah, you're going to Hawaii, though. Yeah, and part of that, this kind of ties into something that's happened to you.

I was like, you haven't shaved for a while. I don't go over much for facial hair. Like, I'll just kind of give it a shot at trimming this. And just like you you the first swipe i went ah shit like well i could probably save this i think still second swipe nope and then i was like you know what that's fine uh trimming trimming your beard as a when you're the type of guy that only you know the opportunity only comes up at best once a year. Yes. And this is a game of centimeters between success.

It's not like we have a long beard where it's like, oh, you took a half an inch off. I think, oh, I got room to manipulate that. Yeah, like this is maybe even a game of millimeters is the difference between success and failure. I was a failure from the very start. The art of beard trimming is underrated. It is severely underrated. And then there's one thing, too, where I – someone – I don't know if it was on a YouTube video or on Instagram when we talk about our LaCroix's.

Someone mentioned Key Lime and the flavor. Yeah, someone gave us that recommendation. Did you try it? And I tried it because lime is my favorite flavor currently. And I will give it to you. Key lime totally tastes like key lime, and I definitely do not like it. What is key lime as a flavor? The only thing I can compare it to is my wife loves to buy key lime Chobani flips, the yogurts.

Okay, yeah. And I don't like them i mean they don't taste bad but i just don't enjoy the flavor that much we we usually go to florida every year they got key lime everywhere everywhere yeah i've never had i actually i have been in what's it uh key west down there yeah yeah i think that's kind of like the key line headquarters and you can get like key lime on a stick or something but what is the difference between i don't really know for sure i don't know i haven't taken enough time to really understand the inner workings of key lime yeah to get it but uh yeah i got the key lime and uh did you

dislike it or did you like it i mean i drank i drank a full one um but my mentality after that was well now i have 10 of these that are never gonna get drank. Gave one to my wife. She's like, Oh, tastes just like the yogurts I love. And halfway through, she's like, I don't really like it anymore. Have you ever, uh, drink, do you ever drink LaCroix's quickly? So actually that was, she drank half of hers and we were, uh, I think we were going out

to get some food and it was sitting there. I was like, I think we were going out to get some food. And it was sitting there. I was like, I just don't want it to go to waste. So I went over to it and started going. And I stopped and I was like, that's not how these things were meant to be at all. Normally a beverage I drink like 10 ounces at a time. You know, at a time. It doesn't last. No, but a La Croix is the one thing I find myself that you just.

It's a dainty sipper, I guess. Yeah, it is. It is. I think that's how they market it. It's working. Yeah. That's how you do it. We usually fit La Croix.

I guess La Croixs weren't on the rundown. They weren't on the rundown. We do try to update everyone on La Croixs on a weekly basis here, too. But you are going to Hawaii. I am going to Hawaii. We're podcasting on a different day than normal. We you are going to hawaii i am going to hawaii we're podcasting on a different day than normal we're totally messing up our schedule yeah but i don't mind because we're putting ourselves i always uh like it whenever we put ourselves slightly ahead of we are way ahead of the yeah so it's always like really rewarding uh just slack off

we get a vacation from this now technically yep yeah i'm going to hawaii it will be the honeymoon vacation or as the locals call it haikiki well might be debatable but i haven't been there so i can't actually say if you're right or wrong yeah are you gonna do some luau's um yeah some luau's and some hula dancing. Eat some spam. Yeah, I don't want to look like I'm not from there. You're going to wear a Hawaiian shirt. Yeah, I don't want people to think I'm not a local. So, yeah, I'll get the lay on right away. And, yeah, I got to blend in, you know.

That's a, have you seen that South Park episode? It's the locals, like Butters. butters finds out i don't know if he does like a 23 and me i'm kind of fuzzy on the details but i have not seen he found some way he finds out that he's like a hawaiian really but it's not uh the whole episode revolves around these native hawaiians who are actually just all these uh just like no it's just no it's just mainlanders that uh have like a timeshare in hawaii and like they go there and they act like they're uh uh big time you know they're all wearing the hawaiian they're the locals like they're the locals they really just have a touch yeah yeah yeah i can see that being an episode we also like to involve

south park episodes whenever possible yeah you got to do that too so you're going to do that stuff yeah definitely yeah what else would fall into that category i think that's really about it are you going to try to go surfing uh that's not on the list right now but i would also say that we have the loosest itinerary ever as in our itineraries we're going to get there and then we're going to kind of do whatever like i've i've gotten a list of like there's some black sand beaches green sand beaches white sand beaches there's like a mountain you can go to there's a volcano all this stuff and we're just kind of going to wing it and do whatever we feel like what's the uh forecast look like so i did just look at that on my phone and i don't know know how accurate. Like your Apple weather app, if there's a chance of rain, it shows the rain icon. Yeah.

Could be a 20%. Yeah, it would be a 20% chance, which means it's probably not going to rain, and it will show the rain icon. And when I looked ahead, it basically showed rain icon every day. People that I've talked to about Hawaii also said that, yeah, it can rain every morning, and then in the afternoon it's fine, or one side of the island will be totally rainy the other side's completely sunny so yeah depending on what's going on that day you might have to drive around to catch some sun but it's fine we got the time yeah you know two people you don't have to it's something about traveling with just you and one

other person you don't have to worry about like what everyone else has going on and their family dilemma you can say whatever you're thinking you can say whatever whatever you're thinking. If you're tired of doing something, just say, I'm tired of this. This is it. Instead of worrying like, oh, they probably want to keep doing this. The polite thing doesn't have to be like, I mean, not having to be polite.

That's like a whole other level of vacation right there. You know? So that's what's in tap. And I am going to a concert before that too. So that's Travis Scott. tap. And I am going to a concert before that, too. So that's Travis Scott. Going to a Travis Scott concert. Pretty excited about it. Be my second time seeing him.

But that probably doesn't matter to a lot of people that listen to this. Nothing really matters to most of the people. I don't think it really matters too much to the people that listen to this. But they're listening, so we're going to keep talking. What about getting into our first item on our rundown? Illustrious rundown. Yeah. This topic came from a listener on Instagram.

He's at supermassive underscore black underscore swole. This is handled on Instagram. But where this came from is, I don't know if it's a couple episodes ago i think it's actually uh the episode you were talking about what you had done for thanksgiving you went to when you're in a journal you you toured a lifetime fitness and we were kind of speculating on some of the like how many people actually go there yeah and uh this guy on instagram he he forwarded us this uh uh, NPR article that was, it was taking planet fitness specifically.

And, uh, if you, anyone wants to check out the article, you can DM us and I'll shoot it over to you. But, uh, the main takeaways I got from it was average membership at a platinum,

uh, planet fitness gym is 6,500, which is absolutely crazy. Yeah. I think this article was from like 2015. I don't really know how that would be different. I don't imagine, if anything, I feel like Planet Fitness has become even a more commonly known name since then.

So 6,500 members. That is mind-blowing. That's, I mean, and this is an NPR article, so I feel like it's credible. Yeah, I'm sure it is. And if they're charging, they charge pretty low rates. Is it like $20 a month or something? So that's still, what, $130,000 a month of revenue per gym,

which I don't understand math. That is so crazy. We have 30-some members at our gym. How is everything in the gym not coated in gold? Right. You know? Right, because they're not reinvesting anything, actually. No.

Yeah, their equipment fees have to be like, well, and then the buying power they have, they're probably getting their equipment for just nothing. Right. Right? Yeah, for as many, yeah, I don't know. A Planet Fitnesses, I assume, are franchises. just nothing right right yeah for as many yeah i don't know and they're they're not fitnesses i assume are franchises so the owner of them is paying a franchise fee to planet fitness headquarters and i suppose they have to buy their equipment through uh planet fitness headquarters also

and there's probably only certain vendors that are in there yeah and so i don't know if the franchisees are making a lot of money but but someone is really doing it right there. And when I say do it right, I mean they're making money. They're not doing the fitness thing right, but they're definitely doing it. As far as we're concerned, the gym is not. Again, I've never been to Planet Fitness. Yeah, I've never been to a Planet Fitness, so I can't say for sure, but I don't think they're known for high-quality equipment

or anything like that either. No, I think they're known for like high quality equipment or anything like that either no i think they're known for for this so that's 6500 is their average membership in a gym uh most of them can hold on average 300 people at one time so that's uh less than five percent or well yeah 10 would be what 650 5 would be 325 and there cannot be any way that a planet fitness has had 300 people in it working out like maybe for like a grand opening event yeah people come and you get 300 but has there ever been more than 100 people consecutively working out so if 10 of the membership did decide to show up on one day, it would just shut the place down.

Yeah, it would be like, oh, we can exist. Pack it up, people. That's just kind of staggering numbers. That number game is, it is. Yeah. And that is, you're more in touch with this because you do actually the number side of the gym. Yeah.

And we've talked about this. You know, Massanami, you just said, what, about 35? Yeah, 35. We're pretty much leveled off. You know, we're in a community. I mean, we're in a smaller market than most people. Yeah. You know, what's our town?

25,000 people. There's a few smaller towns in the surrounding area, but it's not like it's a suburb where, you know, it just runs into each other. So people in surrounding areas want to come to the gym like they are, you know, traveling. 20 miles. 20, 30 miles. So we don surrounding areas want to come to the gym like they are, you know, traveling 20 miles, 20, 30 miles.

So that's, we don't have as much of that. But with that, you know, 35 members, that's really about all you can get in a town of 25,000 people that are into a powerlifting type. Yeah, and we're not trying,

we're not actively pursuing more members, you know, so we're not, you know, if that was a goal, I suppose we could get that higher. No, we definitely do it like if you want this, you seek it out. so we're not you know if we if that was a goal i suppose no we definitely do it like if you want this you seek it out like we're not looking like it's you look for it if you're ready for literally you have to like you have to try really hard we don't even have a sign up that you know there's no sign to even it's like a secret door almost like you have

to know the password to get in the uh yeah and we're not like again we're also not like not exclusive yeah yeah like you can't just anyone can come that's all the barrier that it it's uh a good barrier to entry for for us as a people because what you have to do is uh in order to come you have to want to come yeah you don't just accidentally stroll in because there's not open gym time like you have to talk to someone to even come in right but i think you've talked about this before over the course of the gym what how long has the gym existed now about three years yeah how do you know rough guesstimate right now how many members have come and gone since then which is more that more than most would imagine uh we have over the last two plus years we've had uh 35 give or take five three yeah 35 for any month you know give or take, five, three. Yeah, 35, 40.

Any month, give or take five. But over the life of the entire gym, we've had like 85 members. So the turnover, I don't know how you'd express that as a number, but like over the life. About a third of people stick around. Yeah, yeah. So every three people that sign up, only one will be there. But a lot of people, and i keep track of why people yeah we most of the time it's people move

yeah we do like ours we get a lot of people that they're working in the area for a month two months and i count those people even if i when they sign up i might know that they're only going to be a member for three or four months but i count them as a there are a lot of people that would be members for life if they could right it's just the way life is is that they can't be here and so you know they got to move got a new job family things happen but yeah most people that is probably the primary reason why people leave is that they actually move right right um another i didn't write down the statistics on on this but something interesting i i uh found in the article they want to set you up on a they set you up on a contract like platinum fitness will set you up on a 12-month

contract or something like that and people naturally in most cases they don't want to like if you people go sign up for the phone they don't really want to be locked in if you go internet you don't want to be locked in they said gym memberships are somewhat an exception to that rule because it's almost like a uh uh people want to tell themselves that they want to go work out so then if they lock themselves into a 12-month contract they say okay i've got it it's done i gotta do it yeah i gotta do it yeah so that they said with gym membership that that's one area where a long-term contract are successful because people i suppose yeah there's an aspect

that uh uh people want to lock themselves into that so they tell themselves that they have to go and use it yeah but obviously it's not working yeah so it would be really and i'm sure they have the numbers for it but it would be really interesting to know like the average like actual gym usage percentage for planet it has to be under 10 right i'm sure i'm sure big time and i i don't think this is an exclusive problem to planet fitness i would i would i think this is kind of i mean the gym industry in general has to work on this principle because not all gyms are like Massanomics where it's more of a hobby gym. You're not ever going to say, well, Massanomics made really good money this month.

I ain't working any – it's just like a – it's a hobby, and then it affords nice stuff. And if it can keep doing that, that's what it's meant to do. Yeah, it's a hobby that pays for itself and not much more than that. But, yeah, most people are not operating. I would say almost nobody else is operating on that. Operating on that business model. Yeah. So that's that piece of the rundown.

The next one I would jump to that I thought was interesting. I don't know if you know anything about this. The 242 world record in sleeves, that total record got broken. And the guy that broke it is Dan Stewart of the UK. His handle on Instagram is DanStewartPK. Did you see anything about it? So I just think I saw a lot of posts about people trying to make statements about power lifting one way or i mean i think i saw the full spectrum and i didn't see until you were telling me about this i didn't see anyone like name or i didn't know what it was in reference to

uh he so what he did his numbers he squatted 915 he benched 500 and he deadlifted 725 for a 2140 total um and the big things that people were complaining about this so did that take the new all-time world record yeah i think that's the new all-time world record so the squat was high is what people are saying and i he he does this dan stewart does have it posted and you can check it out and um yeah if i was a judge i would say it was high and then also the one i noticed more way more so when i watched the video the first time um yeah the squat was high whatever but his knee wraps you you can't see but i'll say like they went from like the middle of his thigh to halfway down his neck like i've never seen anything like that before you know usually it's okay. So I got to see this thing.

Just, uh, go on Instagram, go to, uh, Dan Stewart, PK. And I, and there was still like material hanging, you know, after they wrapped it and that, that looked like there was a good, good foot of material hanging on his, uh, knee wraps. But I have never seen anything like that before. I got to just look at my phone. It's yeah. And what, what people said, some federations, they don't have any rule about the length of the knee wrap.

Oh, really? I guess. So this federation doesn't have a rule about the length of the knee wrap. And I don't know, that thing must have been like 40 feet long because I don't know. Well, maybe he's only three feet tall. He might be fairly shorter, too, and I assume he was. But it just looked really odd to me when I saw that.

And then the other thing I noticed, he posted these lifts on there, and maybe you can see them. Do you know what one it is off the top of your head so I don't click through? Right there, I think. The top middle one? Yeah. Okay, I'm watching. Yeah, so that is a lot of material covering.

Wow. Kind of like what i described yeah i mean it looks it like if you didn't know right away like oh his knees have casts on them yeah it goes uh like mid-calf to mid mid-thigh yeah which is looks odd like you just have to look at it and you know and then he posted this video and maybe i don't know i'm watching depth right now yeah it's high but i feel like that you've seen that before oh i feel like i've seen world records posted at that so the height alone wasn't you know and and you to me this is my this is my philosophy you can never be mad at a lifter for getting a high squat to pass because they don't make the call it's the judge's call i agree with that so yeah it might have been high but that's not his fault that's the judge's fault right uh and then you know where uh we communicate back and forth with the guys at open powerlifting quite a bit and they get this thing you know maybe related to this lift or

maybe related to other lifts in general that people will complain like oh you can't include that in the uh record books and it's like, it's not their job to deter. Yeah, they don't get to be any record keeping organization. You don't get to be the gatekeeper of what, well, I guess you can. You can be the gatekeeper of what records you want to let in. But you know how slippery of a slope that is? You kind of let out the validity of it because now you have personal interest at stake. No, it's not their job to determine.

I don't even, where do you start and end that then? Exactly. It's their job to, or they've made it their job to get out to the world what people have captured. Right. To aggregate all the data in one spot, not to be the gatekeeper of we are now the judges of everything. Yeah.

But most people are too dumb to understand that concept. Same thing, But most people are too dumb to understand that concept. Same thing, like most people are too dumb to understand that it's the judge's fault that that passed, not his. Right, exactly. So, yeah, there's no blame to Dan Stewart, I don't think, other than competing in a federation where maybe you can cast your legs. But I guess it's allowed in the rules there. It's no different than when you watch every sport on TV and the refs make a call you don't like you might be mad at the person that did it for a second but you're usually mad at the refs yeah like any sporting event people yell at the refs yeah you know that's not a it's not a thing here but that is the problem it's the it's

the refs the judges making right possibly the wrong call that's what i would agree with it's you know um so then what we you can do dealer's choice on this one do you want to move on to talk about uh the changes to the usapl standards or do you want to talk about thor maybe we'll do usapl standards okay leave the more fun stuff okay yeah that's a good. Because we're going to do some predictions on that one. It's always fun to throw out some incorrect predictions. So this isn't new news by the time you're hearing this. It's been out for a few weeks that USAPL updated their national standards. They do that. They recalculate them every three years.

Is that the official timeline is three years? So the ones that are in place still now as of today through through 2018 they decided in uh i would say 15 and they were good for uh 16 17 18 yep so now in 18 they're deciding what will be out there for 19 20 and 21 and then i you know though as long as they don't change that though they'll keep adjusting them every three years uh and the first thing is they increase them which is good yes all of them increase yep which you have to like we would we both have the same philosophy that qualifying for a national event should be somewhat prestigious like if it's a national event where anyone can show up like it's like well that, well, that's not special.

That's not really cool. I guess, yeah, it's an event that anyone in the nation can compete in. I guess that makes it national. But it's not very cool. And then I feel like it also takes away from, like, the big-time people because it kind of waters down the whole thing. And it makes them get caught in flights. I mean, it just makes the day longer for everyone. So I don't think that outside of, you know,

the reason they're probably doing it is a financial thing. You know, you get thousands of people to start dumping money in. Yeah, like there's obvious financial gains to be had before it, but outside of that, there's no benefit to it. But even so, it's gotten like out of hand even then. Like there shouldn't be thousands of people. And then it takes, what, six days for it to happen too right seems crazy but and even with these numbers going up it's still not like it's going to be an exclusive club like no it just it just finally

is like getting okay you scraped your way in like now now the people that are scraping their way in are to a better standard they're for the most part strong people yeah yeah but they're i mean they're still not competitive in the whole scheme of things yeah i mean even if you're not in the top 10 you're not competitive actually if you're not in the top five you're not even really competitive right uh with most weight classes but um you can at least now say that you're strong yeah when you're when you're at nationals yeah and uh i don't know. Do you see the notes there I have? Yeah. That some were adjusted based on the top 15% in those weight classes,

but some of the classes were adjusted based on the 30th place total, the three-year average of the 30th place total at nationals. Okay. So I'll try to explain what the why those are different the most populated classes at nationals have been the 183 the 205 and the 231 which falls right back in line with like that open power looking staff that we had where the average weight of a competitor was what 205 or something yeah yeah and yeah if you look at most charts that's where you know guys fall you

know if you're a guy you start putting on weight for the most part you fall in those weight classes so that makes perfect sense so for all the other classes that aren't those heavy populated ones what they went by is the top 15 percent and that's how they determine that number so for super heavy weight it's 1703 for uh the 120 kilo 264 class it's 1588 and then you got to drop down to the lighter weight classes and uh you know it's you can look up the numbers if you want to see the numbers but that's using and you should it is interesting to see them yeah yeah and that's that's the top 15 that's the criteria they're using to set those numbers as the top 15 percent in those weight classes that wasn't

since 183 205 and 231 were so populated if they would have used that uh you know that as a cutoff line for those there still would have been way too many people showing up to nationals in those weight classes so they decided to for those ones to use the 30th place total average at nationals for the, uh, it's still like, Oh, so if you're, they place out 30 people on that,

it still seems like a lot. It is. But, uh, if they would have just went top 15, it would have been really high. Right. And what's funny to look at where you can see,

uh, you know, the, how those are different, the top 15 versus the, the 30th place average is if you look at how those are different, the top 15 versus the 30th place average, is if you look at the 231 class qualifying total and the 264 class qualifying total. Yeah, so yeah, right now it's 231 is a total of 1,576 pounds.

264, their total is 1,588. So we're talking a difference of 12 pounds yeah so your 231s and your 264s their qualifying totals are 12 pounds apart yeah which is it looks odd yeah it does it does uh to me but to me the most shocking one of the whole thing is 205s. Their total is 1527. Yeah, over 1500. And the class below them, the total is 1378. So that one has a quick math here, 150-pound difference. Yeah, yeah.

Like, that's quite a bit in that jump. That is. And I like that the super heavyweight total is over 1700 pounds now because if you have over a 1700- sleeve total that's yeah pretty legit you know you are a really strong person yeah yeah uh that's a good total i think the out of the out of the classes that i you know have good good points of reference on which i'd say is 205 231 264 and super heavyweight because we have people from the gym competing and across those classes you know regular regularly the easiest class to make uh there is the 264 oh yeah you know then that's that's yeah because even the 264 to super

heavyweight jumps up right 120 pounds yeah you know yeah that the lowest relative is the 264 but that is also i think one of the least populated yeah it's just like when we talked about 264s at nationals this year it's like oh dennis cornelius wasn't doing it so who were the people doing it so most people yeah they just they have body types where if you're big enough and you start doing this long enough you're gonna be a super heavyweight like that's just the nature of the beast and if you're you're shorter than that you're probably uh could hit your best performance and still make that 231 class yeah yeah if you're short enough and you weigh 264 you probably have a little extra on you where you could probably just cut and have a better wilks and be more competitive but so yeah

it is kind of a special person that fits into that 264 that kind of shows here. But overall, the trend of these getting higher. I mean, I remember when we did our first meet four or five years ago. Yeah. I want to say the qualifying total at that. I did that meet at 183. Yeah, we did that. So that was in 2015.

So that would have been before this last change. Yeah, before the last one. And I think the qualifying total for 183 was like 1,000 pounds even or something. Like to the point where almost if you had ever picked up a weight in your life. I mean, if you spent six months training, you probably could qualify for nationals. That was my first meet, and I qualified for nationals by like 200 pounds. And I remember being like, oh, God, does that mean? Like at my time, like not having a good idea of just the whole thing. Like thinking, oh, does that mean I'm competitive?

Because I didn't place that good locally, but maybe everyone's that strong. But it's good enough to make it to nationals. And then you realize that, oh, yeah, the national number is just so low. Yeah. But I do like this trend of it going higher. And I think that's a pretty respectable number. Yeah, if you're in the top 30 in the nation, not all people that get that are going to show up anyways. Right, right.

So if you're getting these classes to be between 30 and 15 people in a class, I think that's pretty fair. Yeah, I think so too. And I think just looking at the numbers, 205 on up, at least, those are probably on the way down too but i just don't don't have a reference there but 205 on the way up if those people in those weight classes are achieving those numbers you're like oh pretty strong dude well yeah those are those are people that for the most part are stronger than anyone else you know right you know right

outside of your friends that are freaks they're at the gym all the time i mean anyone that's walking around at 205 and has a 1,500-pound total without wraps. Pretty strong. Yeah, they're a strong dude. Yeah, for sure. And then at the bottom there, we don't have an open powerlifting stat of the week this week, but we do have a massonomic stat of the week. And that's what we've got here.

So the open class totals also were adjusted and that would be the by open that's a us apl's term for single ply uh those also increased i believe i don't don't have those numbers but uh comparing the raw qualifying totals and the single ply qualifying totals out of the eight men's weight classes, six of the qualifying totals are higher for raw than they are for single ply. It's just, yeah, it's a numbers game.

You have to total more raw. You could, you could just enter. I don't believe you have to wear any gear to enter. I don't think you have to. You could more easily make nationals lifting raw in equipped. Again, you're not going to be competitive when it comes down to the real thing. But if your goal is to just truly,

all you want to say is I competed at nationals, which there are people that is their only goal to say that. Here's your way in. But that just really stuck out as odd to me that, uh, yeah, that's surprising, but it is, it is a numbers thing. There's, you know, the, the raw lifters to, I don't know what the actual numbers are, but the raw lifters, the single ply, I mean, it's exponentially higher. Especially in the United States, right?

Oh yeah. No doubt in the United States. And it probably only gets further skewed every year. Like I don't think there's an influx of people competing USAPL single ply. I don't think so. I mean, we know of people that do, but it's not like we don't know them like close personally. It's like we've heard of these guys that do. We've seen that one person at the meet every year that lifts single ply.

Yeah, it's a different type of athlete yeah isn't that really backwards though that yeah it totally is uh so that's the numbers overall though you give that a thumbs up the new yeah i like it i like the trend Yep. I'd be curious to see. I bet overall it'll make people step up their game a little bit, though, that even though the numbers are going up a little bit, I bet there won't be a huge drop-off of people qualifying for nationals. Like, I think that'll be a goal that people are trying to hit. Well, now I think it's, like, actually a goal. Yeah, right.

Right. Yep. I did like one of the, when I was reading through these on the website, they had a frequently asked questions section on the USAPL website, and my favorite one was, I don't have a total to qualify for nationals, but I still want to go. Yeah, and you could somehow. And it's like, yeah, if you technically win your regional and –

Even if you're total. Yeah, I think for sure winner of your region automatically goes on. It might even be top two or three maybe. But if you win your region, you can go on. You're not going to win your region. Yeah, assuming just no one shows up from your region, you could make it. But just the fact that someone's like, well, I could do it, but i still

really want to like like that still comes up it doesn't need to be that inclusive like there's a thousand other meat like literally there's a thousand other meats you could do across the united states you don't have to do this one wouldn't shouldn't be called that you know it just yeah yeah that's funny yep all right should we go on to the guessing game here yeah so first of all thor the big news that we found out about him this this uh this week was that it's not he's not doing his first power lifting meet i felt like i was like like lied to and i went back through some weird time machine and there was like this dirty secret. Like it was all these feelings. Do you think in Thor's post anywhere he ever said that this is his first powerlifting meetup?

I don't think he lied to us. I don't think he said it was his first one. I kind of feel like everyone else advertised it as his first one. And I think he's being smart and being well i it's not i don't have to correct people right they can say whatever they want right um but yeah he had everyone fooled that's for sure open powerlifting broke the news on it and uh they let me in on the secret just shortly before and i could i just i wanted to steal it from him but i promised we wouldn't. But it was pretty interesting. They found four meat records that he had done.

The first one that he ever did was a deadlift only. Oh, it was a deadlift only. Yeah, and this was according to what they found on him. I still don't think they've been able to talk to him and confirm that he has done only the four, but the first one they found was a deadlift only. I think he pulled 705. That was in 2010. That's not bad for your first.

Yeah, but he's 21 years old. Yeah. 705. Very respectable lift. Yep. The second thing he ever did, according to what they found, was a push-pull. So what did you say that first one was? 2010.

Oh, 2010. Then the push- that they record that they found or uh was also 2010 and he then he pulled 726 and he benched 386 and his body weight on those i can't remember it was like 300 and something like low 300s or the first one i think it was like 330 okay and then by this june 2011 meet that they did i'm pretty sure he was up to 400 pounds wow so he gained a lot of weight in that year and the first full meat record that he squatted 772 and i think that was raw with wraps i'm not positive but i think it was with wraps but that's a big squat that is yeah really big squat for your first time squatting in a meet bench 507 a good bet you know that's a really good bet yeah yeah and deadlifted

772 so nearly 800 pounds on the deadlift that's a good first full meet 2050 2051 total yeah so that's respectable yeah and that and he was 22 when he did that that was in june 2011 so it was uh over seven years ago now and that's when this gets really interesting is that seven years what was his what was the squat there you said seven 772 so i think that's going to be he's put so he's put a lot on that one yeah he's put a lot on like he's he's he could go he could go 200 pounds yeah on that you know he could do upper nines a thousand yeah um but the surprising one is bench right there yeah because deadlift also he's probably going to add 150 pounds to that over that course of time the bench he's probably going to add about 10 20 30 pounds yeah so he did what'd you say 507 507 in

2010 yeah 507 in 2010 2011 2011 yeah in 2010 he did 386 yeah but so he made almost all his ground up between 10 and 11 yeah so we're talking like seven years here and you know in seven years he's done strength accomplishments to his name i mean mean, he has a resume that anyone. Yeah, it's not paralleled almost. Yeah, that's, you know, picture perfect basically. Yeah. And he's done that still, like to this day, like we don't know for sure, but it's safe to assume his bench is probably in the mid-fives-ish.

Yeah. So he's done that without really increasing his bench much at all. Yeah. And it kind of just goes to show that having a huge bench mid fives ish yeah so he's done that without really increasing his bench much at all yeah and it kind of just goes to show that having a huge bench doesn't have a particularly strong carry over to a lot of strongman stuff no it and like it's funny because he's overhead pressing like oh you know well over 400 pounds on logs and yeah like if you take it to the extreme like okay let's say he was just an outstanding bench presser and he could bench 650 plus yeah would that change his strongman career a whole lot i i don't i mean he's not really losing out on overhead stuff and that's not to say that a big

bench would even carry over to overhead stuff you know right and vice versa the overhead stuff apparently doesn't have a huge carry over the bench because you would think based on him log pressing 450 or whatever you know he could do that his his uh bench press would be you would assume 650 yeah plus uh but he doesn't train you know maybe with just yeah i'm sure he just doesn't have huge blocks focused on no bumping that bench way up no and why why risk tearing pecs and all that stuff for you know not really helping him in his end game here right um but then so we made our predictions i think a couple weeks ago on what we thought but there's been a lot he's had a lot more lifts bigger lifts published yeah he's shown a lot more uh the big squat one recently was the uh he did what was it

970 or 980 yeah it was something like that one of those two because prior to that he did an 880 that looked not particularly easy yeah and then he did a this 970 or 980 that i'm pretty sure looked easier i think so too yeah which you. Which probably has to do with his programming. His programming. Maybe he's just more comfortable with it. He has more time. Some people just have good days and bad days too. And maybe he only gets so mentally prepared for an 80% lift

and he just takes it to another level when it's a 95 plus percent lift. Yeah, I think that's a component to it the one that really surprised me today he had the deadlift video today yeah so what was it 905 i think it was 905 yeah and how many guys have you seen going into a meet prepping for a meet pull a 900 pound deadlift or more yeah and not use straps like i can think of like you could maybe say kayler Willem probably has. Yeah, that's what I was going to say is probably Kayler Willem as maybe Uri Belkin.

I don't think Uri puts a lot of his training videos out, so I can't, one's not coming to mind. You'll see guys pull like 900. Eric Lillibridge probably has before, right around 900, and he doesn't wear straps. Yeah. You'll see guys pull like 900-ish, but they'll always have straps on. Yeah. then like that's always the big thing is like okay on meet day the strength might

be there but is the grip going to be there and like to see him do it didn't look particularly hard i mean it's not fast but he's not like a crazy fast deadlifter either right right no i think that looked like a pretty good rep he said planned opener on it i think and i i'd say yeah that's probably about right yeah in my head it's like maybe it's a little good ref. He said planned opener on it, I think. Yeah, that's probably about right. In my head, it's like maybe it's a little slow, but he knows his thing better than I do. Right. Like you said, it didn't look super fast, but it looked – I don't know that it looked hard either.

But if that's the planned opener, 9.05 or right around there, it seems really weird to think that he's going to have a 1,000 on his third attempt. That's a pretty big jump. Yeah, I still don't think. So what is your – so now that we've seen what we've seen, the other thing we saw was like a 535 touch-and-go bench, which he said was a bench PR. Yep.

So now that we've seen – and he's done lifting. You know, he's not going to take any heavier attempts. By the time you're hearing this, this comes out a day or two after the meet, so it'll be really fresh in your mind how right or wrong we are. You can hear how stupid we sound here. Yeah, but you should go first on what you think. So assuming he doesn't pass on any third attempts, that could very realistically happen.

Assuming he does take third attempts, I'm going to think on squat, his third attempt is going to be... What did we say? Was it 970? Yeah, that's what he did there. I think third attempt is going to be right around 1,000. Yeah, that's... I think it's going to be right in there. Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if he did like...

I think it's going to be right in there. Yeah. I wouldn't be surprised if he did, like, you know, if his peak went well and, you know, a little recovers well before the meet, I wouldn't be surprised if he did, like, 1,010 or something, 1,020. Yeah, I think that's possible. I don't think it's going to be 1,050. I don't think so. But I think his plan is to do, plan is to do 1,000 or more.

I think the 1,000 is going to be the decision of are we feeling good? Let's hit the 1,000 barrier. Things aren't feeling the best. We'll go slightly under it and kind of save it for the rest of the day. So I think we're going to be right at 1,000. But then again, if he continues the way he went, he's going to do 1,100 because 880 seemed tough. Like a couple weeks later, he's like, oh, dude.

And we also don't know what day that video was from too. Like that could be the other thing is that, I mean, for all we know that was two weeks ago, and he also got one more session in that he's not showing us. Right, right. That's true. So that is the other trick of it is we're just going off of what he's feeding us. Yeah. But I think generally now we both agree that he's going to be close to 1,000.

Yeah, whereas before I think we were guessing more like 9 mid-9s. Yeah, I definitely thought it was going to be 950 or less, even though I know he has before squatted more than that. But I was kind of basing that off as 880. And I was more thinking that he was going to squat like 930. And now I would give him 1,000. Yeah, I think we're going to be right in that 1,000 ballpark. Yeah.

Yep. And then that moves us on to bench. And there, I think at first I was saying like, was I saying mid-fives or 600 even? I think you said close to 600 or maybe slightly under 600. And now that he said that that bench PR was 535, is that what you said? I think it was 537 maybe or whatever. Maybe 550, 560. It seems weird that that would be like jumping 10, 20 pounds over that.

I don't know. It depends on how they're going to judge the bench too because, you know, what he did there wasn't a competition bench by any stretch. I think that might be what he benches is like 530. 530. I don't know. That's kind of what it's. I don't,

if it, I don't, I can't see going much over 550. No, I don't. I'm, I guess I was wrong before on underselling. I would love,

I'd love to be wrong. I would love to be wrong, but I don't think it will. I think it'll be, I think it'll be 525 or 530 is my guess. Yeah. I think that's a pretty safe bet and then deadlift now this is this changed too now that we saw that 905 like I do think assuming the day goes good

he's gonna make a shot for close to a thousand yeah right well if you're starting at 90 opening at 905 he's not making 20 pound jumps no I mean I think it's pretty safe it's gonna be 950 right yeah it's gonna be 950 ish and I think his third one's gonna be pushing and that'll be well how how did 950 go how do i feel on a day like am i gonna try 975 am i not gonna take a third attempt am i gonna try a thousand or and maybe he's gonna take a third and wrpf maybe they'll give him a fourth like that that's a real thing too that's true uh so do you think he's gonna deadlift a foul so i mean i'd love to see it but i don't think before i wasn't sure i wasn't a hundred percent i assumed he's gonna deadlift over 900 but i wasn't thinking like i wasn't saying it was like a gimme after the full full meet but now

he's gonna deadlift over 900 that's his opener this also brings up this is the really like what they're what because they definitely have an end game in mind of some kind. Yeah. And there's multiple, like, there is the one of just go for, like, one of the biggest deadlifts of all time in a full power meet. Yeah. There's that avenue they could take. There is, they could make a legit shot at biggest total of all time. Yeah. With Milanochev, 25. 25-12 or 25-15.

If the day's going really good, they could have a legit run at that. Or they could just, you know, just, hey, Thor's in his own league, just let him do his thing. So it's hard to say, like, how hard are they going to push that. Nobody's ever squatted 1,000 and deadlifted 900 in the same meet. So that could be one, too. So I would say he's got a really good chance of doing that if he gets that third squat.

If he gets that third squat, I would. I mean, the 900 is going to be his opener. That's what he's saying. So he's got to have that. And then obviously goes without saying that nobody's ever done 1,000 and 1,000. That would be really cool. And if he does 1,000 and 1,000, he's almost a lock to have the biggest total of all time. Because if he's got that 520 bench even at that point, then it's –

Yeah, he's got it. Yeah. Yeah, he doesn't have to have a perfect day benching, but he does have to have a perfect day kind of for everything else. Yeah. I don't think he's going to do 1,000 and 1,000. I don't think so. I think he's got a really good shot at the 1,000 swap.

I think he's capable of it at some point. Yeah. But I don't think this is the meet that's going to happen. I think the deadlift – so what's your deadlift prediction on a number i think like from a realistic standpoint like the right call would be like 985 990 ish yeah but they also might just say like no thor has to have his name is the big and they might jump it to a thousand yeah so. So, can you see them calling 990? Like, would they call 990? No, but I could see if 950 isn't amazing that they go, like, 975.

True. Like, I don't feel like, you know. I'm going to say, like, 982. Yeah. Yeah. Which, and that would give him, you 2500 is is about you know but then he's so close to all-time world record that do you call 982 or do you say he's the only one to break 2500 right yeah yes yes so at the very least he could call that 990 if it means breaking the all-time world

record then i could see them doing it yeah you know if if the 990 deadlift breaks Milanochev's all-time world record, I think that would be the priority over the 1,000-pound deadlift. Yeah, and I think a lot of how that last deadlift gets called is going to depend a lot on what's happened during the day. Right, right. So do you think he's going to break the all-time world record? So same question. Do you think he's going to break 2,500?

Do you think he's going to break the all-time world record because he's not going to do one and not the other he's going to do they'll do both i you know i believe that would be the call i don't think he's going to yeah like i think he's he's probably capable of it but i don't think he's going to like it just seems like it's too risky for him to to push it to the absolute limit and risk a hammy, risk a peck, something like that, just to say that he did it. And then put his strongman career on hold. There's only been one person that's ever been able to do it. Like, so, you know, it is Thor, but nobody else has, of all the people that have, you know. Made a shot at it.

Yeah. And then, like, injuries start popping. Right. That's where injuries exist. Right. There's a reason that people just don't get runs out very often. And the stars have to align perfectly. And even if you had the perfect training thing,

you'll find a lot of times that first squat, someone has a hammy issue, someone has a quad issue, bench, someone has a pec issue. It's like a gauntlet trying to get to the end of that thing. I would agree that I don't think he's going to break 2500 or the world all-time world record but also wouldn't be shocked if it happened no especially considering i would love to be proven so yeah my uh prediction definitely got upped i would say you know i i thought maybe he would could finish under 2400 before and now i after what he's done

this last couple weeks i'd say that he's going to get that. Yeah, I would be very surprised if he wasn't 2,400. Yeah. Maybe even 2,450 might surprise me a little bit. Yeah, I agree. As long as he doesn't get injured. Yep, yep, that's the big one. Yeah.

So that's our final predictions. And as you're listening to this, you know. You know the answer. Yeah, you know. Maybe you don't know. You know. Everyone knows.'t know. You know. Everyone knows. Everyone's.

It's been all over Instagram by now for sure. Everyone's talking about it. Everyone that's anyone. So that's our Thor prediction. Do we got time left? We're 50 minutes deep. Okay. So we got a few minutes.

Well, I did have something else related to Thor. Did you see that Larry Williams is going to be traveling to Iceland this winter? I just saw it because he just had a very vague post on his story about it, didn't he? Yeah, yeah. And I guess the time frame is like he's going to stay there January, February, a couple months. And he's going to train strong man with half Thor. Why not? Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, that'd be really, yeah, this is kind of like, I think what, we're seeing two things that everyone hoped for. Half Thor doing a powerlifting meet. Yep. And now Larry Wills potentially getting into some Strongman. And what's fun is that those two are kind of like doing it together. Like doing it together.

Yeah, it is. Like they are kind of like doing it together yeah yeah like they are kind of the two amongst their esports they're the two like not only are you you know arguably best but like certainly not arguably they're like the the biggest fig you know the they have the biggest they're kind of the face of it yeah yeah they have the big presence especially you know like yuri belkin yuri Belkin has a huge performance, but he's Russian and doesn't have a lot on social media, so it doesn't give you a lot to really follow as a fan. Right. Language barrier alone.

But yeah, Larry, no shortage of content or PRs for that matter even. It's a great follow. And did you see Larry was log-pressed? He did something for a set of five, and i don't know if it was 315 or i don't even remember now it all just like it almost all loses that yeah because it's just so out there it was interesting to see that he's locked all right and i think maybe half half thor was there i don't know if well did you do was it just like in the last week he did 405 overhead for a double overhead press yeah larry did yeah larry williams did that and uh he tried for a third and yeah it wasn't quite there yeah and i'm curious if like this time at with like

bradley martin and he's like i just need to like keep being around really like big the strongest in the world that have a lot going on with him you know it's because he's doing a lot of crazy stuff that he's there and uh you know everything as far as marketing himself and everything, like it's why wouldn't he want to capitalize on Bradley Martin's audience, on Halfthor's audience? Yeah, like that's the thing that's going to keep him going for sure. Right, because there's not a long list of strength training people that have a bigger audience than he does.

You know, like he's pretty much with those people right now yeah it's about as big as it gets it'll be fun to see how that strongman stuff goes though like how many like just i just want to see videos of those two like just doing the dumbest craziest things yeah i think we'll see a lot i assume it happens we'll see we will see that happen i feel like their training is so much different though that that uh thor is so by the numbers by the book he does what is scheduled yep and larry's just like just go man he threw the book out years ago larry would be though as a strongman competitor um more in the style like a puginowski oh but Oh, yeah. But also, I mean, Puginowski was a freak strength athlete too, but I think this is on an even crazier level.

Right, I think so too. It'll be fun to see two months isn't a long time of training. Yeah, when you're Larry, that's all you need. But what's he, you know, in powerlifting, Thor can hop into powerlifting and go do whatever powerlifting meet he wants to. If Larry hops into Strongman, I don't think that he's just automatically going to get invited to the world's strongest.

You know, he's not going to do the world's strongest man for his first meet. He's not going to do the Arnold Classic. You have to qualify for that stuff. But I don't think he'd have much of an issue qualifying. No, but I mean, he will. His first one, he's going to have to go do a more local strongman competition. And he'd probably have to do, at a minimum, I don't know, I'm just throwing a number, three or four.

You know, he'd have to do enough to get himself qualified to those. Unless he got some spec, like he could get into America's Strongest Man, like a more premier event. And then from there – like if someone kind of gives him a hand and lets him get into one of the bigger ones, and then he wins it and then goes from there on. This is just assuming he would do – I'm not saying he's strong enough or good enough at it to do that.

And we don't even know if he even plans on actually competing. Right, right, right. Just assuming he did and assuming he could be good enough to do it, it would still be a process to get himself into those exciting strongman competitions. Because, you know, it's not going to be interesting to see him go compete against 30 guys you've never heard of. You want to see Larry go compete against – I mean, it sounds ridiculous, but you want to see him go compete against brian

shaw and yeah that's thor and and dimitar dimitar has he's been popping up in some there's a really big uh resurgence of dimitar memes yeah and i like to think that massonomics was a big part and i mean it is the exact started it is like the memes we've seen have been the exact pose him with that rock it's just it's not our photo it's from a slightly different angle but um that one i sent you the other day was on that sunny side up account which is a pretty big meme account like it was one of my favorites i think one of them almost someone that shared one because i we got dm'd and tagged in probably 30 times in the last two days of people wanting to show us about those Dimitar memes.

And one of the accounts had almost a million followers. Yeah, I think it's Sunny Side Up. It is a pretty big meme account. But I do like the one. It's so stupid. It's him holding the rock. And then you can see the – I don't even know who that guy is. That's Steve Schmidt.

Oh, okay. Very strong. Yeah, oh, he has to be. He's like 6'8 and enormous. He holds the block press world record. I think he's done block press like 375 pounds. He can also log press well over 400 pounds. So he was like an actual strongman competitor.

He is a strongman competitor. Oh, he still is? It's like there he's almost like an equipment guy. Yeah, I guess he's just a step down. You know, a certain event, like pressing overhead, he's exceptional. He'll probably compete with all those guys. But I guess all events across the board, he's probably just a little bit down from my guess. But he's really strong.

That's who that is, Steve Schmidt. So the meme is they have the angle where it's Dimitar having the rock. He has the rock lapped, and he's struggling with it. And most people that are familiar with us are probably familiar with what we're talking about but then steve steve schmidt is his name he's in the background watching and the one is like on dimitar it's like me and then the rock is like struggling with groceries and then steve schmidt is mom and i liked it it was good did you see the other one another? Another relatively big meme account posted. Someone tagged me in it.

It was like Dimitar was really small, and it was on a cutting board, like a chef's cutting board. And it had a bunch of potatoes on the cutting board, and Dimitar was holding one of the potatoes, like bringing it over for them to. Was it the rock, though? No, they Photoshopped it into a potato. Oh, they did? Yeah, they Photoshopped the rock into a potato.

It was pretty funny, too. But do you think that they just completely coincidentally came across Dimitar memes, or do you think they saw our Dimitar memes of that rock? I mean, I want to say yes, they totally got it from us. But what do you think? Probably not. It's a weird coincidence, though, that they... Well, it also shows how good our tastes are that week.

That's true. That we're spotting out the things. I still think some of ours are better, where his head... The best one to me is where his head and the rock are switched with each other. That one is more specific, though. You kind of have to know. I mean, it is just goofy enough that it is funny, but it's more funny when you know who he is.

Whereas the other ones, most people probably don't even know what the hell they're looking at. It's just funny. The other one I really like is one where he's standing. It's in that same event, and he's really sweaty, and the way Dimitar looks, kind of wrinkly head. It looks like he's going to have a seizure, and he's exhaling deeply and closing his eyes eyes and then it just says the brazzers

that might actually be my favorite one i think massonomics made that one right no yeah yeah that one was good and so all those i've been commenting hashtag dimitar memes so that it's all together people have to know if you look up hashtag dimitar memes so that uh so that it's all together people have to know if you look up hashtag dimitar memes there's about 10 10 uh 10 out there as far as i'm concerned it's nowhere near enough yeah someone commented once that said i don't consider these dimitar memes i consider them hashtag steve schmidt which i thought that was kind of funny make it so even less people understand what the hell it's about that guy is the best uh strongman equipment uh i yeah yeah so good that i just assumed that was his full-time job he looked like an expert yeah he's good at it uh well we don't have the

the stat of the week, but what was the – we've got to do underrated, overrated. Do we have time for that? Yeah, we're just hitting an hour. Okay. Maybe the best Instagram slash YouTube comment of the week. I knew I had something here. Okay.

This is on Thor's first powerlifting meme. So the one we put out there where it was the guy that actually – Thor didn't win his first powerlifting meet, by the way. There's a short, stocky guy that beat him. The guy's actually really strong. I found him on Instagram, and he – Confirmed the fact? I know it's him.

You can tell by looking at him. And I tagged him and said, is this you? And someone else commented, yep, that's him. I didn't know if he replied. He's totaled over 2,200 pounds and is very strong on his own. But someone commented, so what? Let's see what happens on the 15th before we critique his current powerlifting skills, shall we? Because historical numbers are obviously critiquing someone's current level, right?

Right, and the response to that was, of course, like, what? Like, what planet do you live on? Yeah, like, where are you coming from on this? We like Thor and think he's just as strong as anyone. You know, we're not idiots. I think that's what I said. I was like, we're not stupid.

Just another good comment of the week. All right, underrated, overrated. All right. I don't have a long list, but I do have a list. Underrated, overrated is our newest segment. It's lightning round questions that I ask Tommy, some pop culture mixed in with some lifting-related topics. The most important thing, these are all very, very relevant and matter a lot.

Yes, they're important. They are important. I would base your decisions going forward on what we say here. Okay, underrated or overrated? That new Wheezy album. I thought it was underrated. I liked it a lot. And that's the Carter V?

Yeah, I liked it. I'm a Wayne fan, but I liked it. Underrated. I saw him perform on Saturday Night Live or Jimmy Holland, one of the others. Oh, yeah, it was one of those. I thought it was pretty good., one of the others. Oh, yeah, it was one of those. I thought it was pretty good. Yeah.

He doesn't, I didn't know, he doesn't write anything. Like, when he writes songs, he literally doesn't write it down. Yeah, if you haven't seen, if you're a Lil Wayne fan at all, and you haven't seen this in, when he was getting ready to release The Carter 3, which was, like, kind of one of the last big, like, actual physical albums to ever come out, because what was that, like, 2006, I think, right around there? which was kind of one of the last big actual physical albums to ever come out. Because what was that, like 2006, I think, right around there. And then after that, we all know the music industry just went,

you know, just died out. Why did that happen? I'm still not sure why. People quit buying CDs for some reason. I don't know what it was. I'll check on my iPhone and see if I can figure it out. This crew, I think it was like a european crew documentary crew followed him around and while he was making the album and he literally comes off like a possessed madman like he is just all day on his tour bus in the studio just rapping

and like drinking codeine and going nuts and it's like damn, damn, this guy is on a whole other level. He's not like, oh, we should sit down and write for a while. He's just like, no, get in the studio. And it's like talking and making noises. Half the time you don't know what his noises are, but it's a super, super interesting watch. So if you're a fan of Lil Wayne at all, maybe it's on YouTube or somewhere,

I would try and track that down. Until just recently when I... I wasn't a fan of Lil Wayne until, like, I saw – I never really paid attention, you know, never heard him talk really necessarily. And I saw a couple of his interviews and I was like, oh, I kind of like him. He's actually fairly well-spoken. Yeah, I'm like, oh, I actually changed my mind.

I like him now. Yeah, he used to be on – like ESPN would get him on. I can't even remember whose show. First Take. Yeah, he'd be on those somewhat regular. He's a big Packers fan, and that was when the Packers were making their Super Bowl runs. Because I'm not a lot of artists, and then I saw him, and I was like, I like this guy. He's got an interesting story, that's for sure.

And then if you actually go in and look, his, his mixtape, I mean, he has, I don't know, how many hundreds of songs that he just put out on mixtapes and literally just, like, put them out, put them out, put them out, put them out. And so there's probably, I don't know if there's guys that have more songs to their name officially, unofficially than him. Like, it's just a stupid number of songs. Yeah. So that new Wheezy album, underrated.

Underrated, yeah. Underrated or overrated, Jackal's strength program, eight-week strength program. Very underrated. Yeah, we bring that up because we discussed that on the episode a few weeks ago, and I'm still, we're still getting emails about wanting the program. I mean, I think 20 people, maybe an underestimate of 20 people have wanted that program.

So if you do want the, and everyone said they couldn't find it on the internet. So if you do want it, just shoot us a message. Yeah, I had friends get in touch with me. Like, hey, what is that thing? I got to try that out. So yeah, it's very underrated. Very underrated. I agree.

It's the most underrated piece. Maybe the single most underrated piece of strength knowledge in the world. It's like the Holy Grail, I guess. It's like the Holy Grail. You could almost make an infomercial out of it. Do you think Brad Gillingham would be sitting and acting for that? I would love that. Underrated or overrated, How I Built This Podcast. Those are underrated, too. I haven't kept up with them lately, but I listened to, like, the first, I don't know, probably 30 of them that they had.

Yeah. I think they slowed down, but I loved them. They were all really good. They're good. The one that, I think this is the one you told me first, was the Patagonia one. Oh, yeah. I was kind of the guy who was like, ah, Patagonia, I don't know where. Oh, it's trendy yeah and you like listen to the guys like philosophy on life and they're like approach

towards like um you know like pretty much everything's warrantied for life and all this stuff it's like huh you know what that's a company that that really has like bigger goals than now we're just making a jacket it's like yeah i can get behind that like that's really cool so i've learned and then just hearing people's stories i mean it's how all these people go on to make multi-million dollar companies and you know you realize like how much luck just dumb luck is involved every question they ask every uh guy ross and he's he's and he's great yeah he's like i'd say he's almost as good of uh at hosting podcasts as we are borderline yeah i mean. I mean, if he was into strength, he would be looking up to us a lot as far as podcasts go.

I can definitely tell he's not into strength. He's definitely not. So you said underrated? Underrated, yeah. That's for sure. Listen, they're used about 30 minutes, right? Yeah, 30 to an hour maybe, something like that. They're good.

If you're business-minded at all or just curious to how things came to be, give it a listen that's good underrated or overrated washing your knee sleeves overrated i don't i don't wash mine hardly ever but unlike most people i don't smell though right that's isn't that how it goes i don't smell bad you know everybody likes their own brand i do though i'm curious if anyone else has this issue my knee sleeves i don't smell bad, you know. Everybody likes their own brand. I do, though. I'm curious if anyone else has this issue. My knee sleeves, I don't know if I have a special blend of sweat, but my knee sleeves, after long enough, start to get so tight

that I can't get them on anymore. And then soaking them in water and letting them dry out seems to make them more pliable, loosens them up. I don't know. It's weird. Yeah. Because I don't think you don't have that issue, do you? Mine are really, really, really worn out.

Yeah, you've had yours a long time. They're super loose. But, yeah, that's my issue is I do have to wash them occasionally just for the sake of being able to get them on again. Yeah. So you said overrated? Yeah, washing these sleeves overrated. Yeah, Washington Eastley's overrated. Last one, underrated or overrated, the LA Rams?

Oh. Well. We cover a little bit of everything underrated. I mean, as a fan, I would say most people who are a fan of the LA Rams, well, that's overrated because who is actually a real fan of the Rams? You know, like what's there to be a fan of lately? But they kind of seem like the real deal. But I'm going to say it's overrated to be a fan of the Rams.

I mean, LA sports teams, the Rams, come on. I had to remember when I got to writing that one, I wrote down the same thing. What city you were in. And I was like, wait, where are the Rams from now? Yeah, big market sports teams. Who cares about big market sports teams? Yeah, it's better when they're at the gateway to the West.

Let's see an NBA Finals with the T-Wolves and the Bucs. That would be quite the draw. There would be tens of people watching. Or like last year, a Super Bowl with Minnesota and the Jaguars. That was potential. We're this close to the lowest rated Super Bowl in years. I'm totally all for it. Like I want to see it.

The NFL, it can happen. It can. If that's how close it was to happening, NBA, it will not happen. No, it won't happen. And that's what's like annoying – like NHL, I don't follow close enough, but I think that just NHL, it's like it's anyone's shot any year. I don't follow it close enough, but I think that just NHL, it's like anyone's shot any year. But it's like I get tired of seeing Boston, New York, L.A., any sport,

like seeing those teams in every year. It gets annoying. It gets old. Yeah, Cleveland was relevant. Cleveland was relevant, and I'm all for that. Because of one man being on their team. And now that he's on the Lakers, it's not as cool anymore. Even if, let's say that the Lakers were that much worse of a team than Cleveland ever was, and he made them win the finals,

yeah, it'd be cool, but also it's L.A., so it's not that cool. Right. Because they're supposed to win. The league wants them to win, right? That's true. It is rigged. I guess you could maybe make the argument that, I don't know. Do people say is Golden State considered a smaller market team or not?

Where is their arena? Oracle Arena? Is it in San Francisco actually? I think it's in San Francisco. Which is a huge hub. Yeah, right. Yeah. Yeah.

They got the 49ers and all that. Yeah. It doesn't count. No. I want teams that aren't winning things to start winning things. Yeah. That's what I want. Is that so much to ask?

Someday. That's the dream. That is the much to ask someday that's the dream that is the dream can all dream someday dimitar will be world's strongest man someday dimitar you know anything's possible yeah what what an under uh underdog victory that would be what a story if he wins arnold's the arnold just they have some wacky event that just gets everyone injured. It's like we're doing five variations of circus dumbbell press. It just happens to be the perfect draw, what he's the best at. And then just it's a weird thing where everyone else is getting hurt,

but they can't injure him. You can't put the man down. One of them is a potato lift. He wins by default. A potato lift and a circus dumbbell press medley. Now we're on to something. Someday. Well, we better wrap this one.

We'll bring this one in for a landing. Check us out on our website, massonomics.com. Shoot us any emails if you want to. That's getbigatmassonomics. You can ask us about Jackal's program. Send us money, as Tyler would always say. Or send us money. So, yeah, seriously, if you want to send us money, we love money.

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That is the most important thing. We've got our... And it's the most important thing to you guys, too. Yeah. When you're hearing this, I don't think we're going to have anything new yet. But there is. It's coming. Some of that hot newness.

Yeah, we're getting several multiple new items again in that store. So subscribe to that newsletter so you can stay up to date and just keep your eyes on us on all those other media channels. Most importantly, our Instagrams. What do you got for us? Find me at Tomahawk underscore D. And you don't have to spell out underscore. It's the actual symbol underscore.

I'm sure some people get confused every month. I always thought you had to write it out. Yeah, no, it's actually just Tomahawk, the symbol underscore, and then the letter D. Why did you do that? It seems like everyone else writes up. Yeah, I mean, most people write out the word underscore. I decided to be a little different. Then you can check out our official Manomics Instagram page at Massanomics.

Yeah, yeah. That'll do it. We'll see you next time for episode 142. See ya. You just heard the Massanomics podcast. With your ears, you're welcome. Check us out on Facebook. Find us on Instagram at Massamics and make sure you visit

Masinamics.com and buy some of that sweet Masinamics gear. From your friends at Masinamics Studio, home of the world's strongest podcast, stay strong. Thank you.