Massenomics Podcast - Ep.206: The Arnold That Never Was

Episode Date: March 16, 2020

If you've listened to our show recently, you know how excited we were for our annual trip to Columbus to take a picture with the Arnold statue.  Listen to see how we managed the whirlwind weekend, an...d how we think this effects us as a business going forward. Hybrid Performance Method: https://hybridperformancemethod.com/ and use code MASS to save 5% on all programs Lifting Large: https://www.liftinglarge.com/ and use code MASS20 to save on Lifting Large branded products Spud Inc.: https://www.spud-inc-straps.com/ Texas Power Bars: https://www.texaspowerbars.com/

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Starting point is 00:00:00 You know, thanks for what you do with your podcasts and all the rest. You're doing a great job. I 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.
Starting point is 00:00:15 If you don't follow Mastinomics, y'all do it. Social media, website, everything. Mastinomics! Yeah, Mastinomics. Yeah. Welcome to episode 206 of the Massonomics podcast, the lifting podcast about nothing. Now officially the world's most depressing podcast is what we are now after. If you didn't know, the Arnold got canceled. Yeah, actually. Well, that's what we're gonna talk about this whole episode. But the funny thing is, is all of the people talking about are the multiple comments we had on our last podcast episode where people like awkward because all it was about, oh,
Starting point is 00:00:54 this is going to be so awesome, man. We're going to see you soon, Jonathan. We're going to kill the Arnold. I was talking about like, we'll be, this will come out as we're on our way back, you know, or this episode, we could talk about how it's a critical night for both Sanders and Biden. Oh, even better. Yes.
Starting point is 00:01:11 That's what my phone just told me. And I thought that that would be a great topic. Yeah. We can go to a political shift for this one because there's nothing worth left to talk about in the strength world anymore. We just go straight to politics. We probably won't do that this is episode 206 and uh i'm going to tell you a little bit about our sponsors probably the most exciting
Starting point is 00:01:32 part about our sponsors today is there is a new one on there is so we're going to lead off you're going to have to listen to find out who it is should i do that one first or last let's do them first okay we're at the red carpet forum today, episode 206, is brought to you by... I think we got a button for this somewhere. No. No. Give me a hell yeah. That kind of works.
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Starting point is 00:02:19 To learn more about Texas Power Bars and buy one of their legendary bars, visit TexasPowerBars.com. I like that. I think they fit in pretty good with this group of sponsors. I do. We have a pretty sweet mix here now. Today's show is also brought to you by Lifting Large. Lifting Large has set a new standard for customer service within the strength world. They have live website chat support and speedy email responses. Lifting Large is the home of the Ground Lock Deadlift Slipper, and they're always in stock and ready to ship. Massanomics listeners can save 20% on all Lifting Large branded products
Starting point is 00:02:52 by using discount code MASS20 at checkout. Today's show is also brought to you by Spud Inc. The goal of Spud Inc. Straps is to make products that support sports performance and help everyone achieve their training goals. They make products that last forever, won't bust your budget, and most importantly, leave no doubt about success when everything is online. Check them out online at spud-ink-straps.com. This episode is also brought to you by Hybrid Performance Method.
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Starting point is 00:03:46 Thank you to our sponsors. This is 206 and like we alluded to we're going to talk about how we did not go to the Arnold. This is not the way I expected 206 to be
Starting point is 00:03:57 playing out. I you know if we had to come up with a list of like a hundred topics for episode 206 I don't think this would be in that hundred.
Starting point is 00:04:04 I don't think not going to the arnold would be in that list no what there's so many ways to approach this should we do a little bit of a timeline i think i think the timeline is how we should start yeah so you know looking at the news you could see on the horizon there's this corona there's this coronavirus it was out there you know really looking in january it was out there was this in my mind it was i knew it as this there was a disease going around in china yeah that's what i knew it and when isn't there a disease what else is new well yeah between between ebola sars swine flu foot and mouth disease mad cow disease the plague there's always a disease
Starting point is 00:04:45 going around the world so why do i care about this one any more than the others i didn't i didn't at all no and our only thing was this time of the year especially the midwest the weather can be difficult that was our that's our usually our biggest that's our only thing is worry what what can how difficult can the weather be yes and i think maybe it was was it a week 10 days out from the i was to say a week out. You said, I sent you a message. I go, God, I really hope nothing crazy happens with this happens with this Corona thing. Because like, if you watch the news, it seems like it is the end of the world is what I said. And you, and you said, you're like, well, my, my very, when you
Starting point is 00:05:19 sent that, my very first, like split second reaction was like, no way. like that's how can that affect like that was the very first thing that came to my head like immediately without thinking about it and then thinking about it i was like yeah that's true like i hope that's not a problem and my thought was if nothing else huge happens like if there's not some massive like death or huge in the united states it's probably not going to affect us is what i what i it's hopefully not going and the only reason that thought even crossed my mind is because i happened to walk into the living room when my wife was watching tv and the news was on and i was thinking god as a guy that doesn't watch the news to come across this it seems like it's the next like
Starting point is 00:06:01 apocalypse is happening right like that's the only topic everything was terrible we're all gonna die and that's what got me worried like god i could see how this could affect and our our concern wasn't the arnold being canceled it was affecting attendance like i thought i thought yeah when you said that neither of us i don't think it wasn't yeah i just said god like what the only thing that could hurt attendance would be weather and this coronavirus could hurt attendance. Right, like if there's a really bad coronavirus outbreak that people wouldn't show up because they're concerned about it. It being canceled at that point was still never even a thought. Yeah, so it's something you can't do anything about.
Starting point is 00:06:39 So we went along with our lives. Continued to completely pack. I packed the vehicle like the the weekend before because i knew i'd have time and it is a an enormous uh game of tetris a really only unfortunately it's a heavy game of tetris where very heavy pieces weigh uh about 70 to 100 pounds each there was an oil change involved even yes so a lot of steps were taken there and so our plan was to leave for the arnold wednesday at six in the morning right for our first 12 hour leg of the drive right we do 12 hours the same thing we did last year 12 hours the first day we're gonna get to illinois somewhere
Starting point is 00:07:16 and probably champagne illinois is our target yep probably stop at a chili's talk about some middle-class fancy stuff and go to bed. I was really looking forward to that part. I was too. I was really looking forward to it. And really though, we were really looking forward to that part of it. Oh yeah, absolutely.
Starting point is 00:07:33 We made, you made that comment, even though it's like, I've never been so bummed out to miss out on a 12 hour car ride for one day. Like normally that's like, you can't wait for that part to be done. I was excited for that part to be done, but I was also excited for that part to happen too yes because it's a huge
Starting point is 00:07:48 massonomics brainstorming session it is not often that we're locked in a room for 12 hours with tanner and i both have jobs and lives that it's hard to just dedicate a lot of time for free thinking to massonomics you know right there's enough uh day-to-day stuff going on with our lives our jobs and massonomics that to have extra thought yeah it gets tough to squeeze in any more time it is and that's when we come up with our best ideas i would say arguably at least is when we have time to just spit ball on things just kind of like talk things out yeah it's like oh it's like oh that would be funny you know yeah whether that's memes or marketing ideas or shirts. Yeah, or different merchandise. Like, that is where a lot of it comes from.
Starting point is 00:08:29 So we were very excited for that. And so we're getting ready for our thinking. We're going to leave Wednesday morning. Tuesday night at 5.15, you called me. You said, they canceled the Arnold. I was like, what? And I really thought you were joking. I was like, I think they canceled it.
Starting point is 00:08:44 I was like, I think they canceled the Arnold. And even before that, the way it happened for me is I was just pulled into my driveway from getting off of work and looked at my messages. I had posted the truck. Our yeah buddy truck. People loved that, by the way. They did. It was very funny. A few people asked if we really rented
Starting point is 00:09:05 that truck i i got the impression some people actually thought it was real which is the best part they're probably outside of listeners of the outside of rogue who has a semi like that for the i'm guessing those people are not listeners of the podcast because there's a couple different level layers of like massonomics followers like if you're a listener to the podcast and instagram and stuff you get yeah you know the whole thing yeah if you only know us from instagram and you're not that even in wrapped up in instagram you would i could see how you would yeah yeah get it yeah but yeah they someone and someone commented on their better check better check it i think the arnold's canceled and I even responded back I was like uh I just checked it and they said they were gonna have a conference earlier today and that
Starting point is 00:09:51 nothing happened and that it's you know because I just checked it when he said that I was like that can't it's not canceled yeah and I said no it's not and he responded no check again they're having a press conference right now and then I got I was like um what so I got out of my car walked in the door and my wife and kids were there and they you know it's a it's a big deal in my family even this that like I'm going to be gone for five or six days and I we plan you and I plan for this for months in advance and you know I've been working packing and like we've been getting these things ready for months so like within my household this Arnold trip is a big deal and I walked in I'm like I think the Arnold is canceled and you know just this mean Christmas
Starting point is 00:10:37 is canceled too Jack and Mary were both like what do you mean and I was like let's go to the computer because I don't I don't know they're I don't know i it might be canceled and i was kind of like you know like i'm bringing home terrible news almost you know i'm like shocked that it could be canceled so we both pull it up i find the press conference and watch it for you know i hear 15 seconds and it kind of sounds like it's canceled so then I immediately called you and said, well, I think the Arnold's and I was still at my computer working. So it's like, all right,
Starting point is 00:11:08 let's do a quick search. And you type in like Arnold canceled, nothing's coming up. And I'm thinking, Tanner, you got duped. You're on some, you're on some sketchy website.
Starting point is 00:11:17 Yeah. I'm like, what is the name of that site? And you kept saying like, it is a Columbus news site and I'm clicking it and I'm even on their website and I can't find it because it's such a new thing. Then finally I find, yep, the live stream of the press conference and there, there they had their, it wasn't even the Arnold people. It was the state of Columbus basically
Starting point is 00:11:32 saying that it was the governor of a governor of Ohio and the mayor of Columbus and some lady in a lab coat, some medical people and explaining how it wasn't going on and i kept thinking there's no way this is real there's no like there's a catch something's gonna be like okay well we did say that but we'll also allow it's still gonna kind of be on 200 000 if you don't show up and only 150 show up we'll allow it and we so we watched it as like i had my phone on speaker phone like and me and my wife were there watching it and you were on the phone with you and we're kind of watching it too and there'd be occasional comments back and forth from us like huh like just like just like it was just i don't even know how to describe the emotion even where it's like, ah,
Starting point is 00:12:26 yeah, it was, that was, it just, you didn't have words for it. Cause it's not like you were pissed off. We were both very annoyed, but it's not like someone did something like to hurt you specifically. So you weren't like,
Starting point is 00:12:38 it didn't feel like someone was being malicious towards you. Um, disbelief is like it was just like, oh, this is really hard to, for me to absorb right now that this was true yeah that's that's just that's all i can think of is like is this really true is this real like that's just what you kept doing and you kept asking yourself and even even that night well and we also said like even when we're on the phone there like i between the two of us we
Starting point is 00:13:03 probably said it 10 times where it's like so i guess we're not going then like it's like yeah like to confirm with each other like so we're not going in the morning like is that are you picking me up still no should we just drive yeah it's like do you just drive something's gonna happen right and that's kind of what we're thinking like i guess we don't go like there's nothing that's literally what we said i guess we don't go yeah and that's kind of what we left it at yeah and then i'm sure we both i'm sure you did the same thing spent the next five hours looking at your phone non-stop like what is everyone else saying and you could just see i did not put my phone down for five i mean i'm not lying i did not put my phone down for like three hours you kept looking like all these people like so jacked at the arnold and then you'd be like someone would
Starting point is 00:13:48 be in the comments like no you're not yeah and better check it that would be i mean nightmare scenario for us given how far we have to travel like to get there and go through so okay so that's where the next stage comes in so now we've had this discovery that the urinal isn't happening. Yes. And it's like, all right, where do we go from here? What happens next? And for us, we are very, very, you know, we are a page that posts dumb memes and all that stuff.
Starting point is 00:14:18 Might not believe it, but we're very calculated behind the scenes. Yeah. Like very calculated. And so probably definitely more than we give off to. And I, you know, I'm not saying this critically of other businesses that are in the same space, but I think probably more so than a lot of comparably sized companies doing similar things. I think so. I would guarantee it.
Starting point is 00:14:43 I would go as far as to say that I guarantee that that's the case. Yeah. So we kind of put on, people might think of us as these idiots on Instagram. Not saying we're business geniuses or anything. No, no, no. But we do run a fairly tight ship behind the scenes. Yeah, yeah. Not much of what we do is accidental.
Starting point is 00:14:59 Almost none of what we do is accidental. It's very, very pre-calculated and intentional here. Yeah. none of what we do is accidental it's very very uh pre-calculated and intentional here yeah and so we knew exactly from a money standpoint how we were sitting with all this yeah we we had um some projections in mind as to what the arnold could do for us yep and immediately those projections were like nope take that away yeah and probably our projections are pretty safe bet because we knew what we did last year we knew we're in a better spot this year than last year we knew we had a much better display than last year we knew we had like tripled our product our merchandise of of items that sell
Starting point is 00:15:39 well exactly we know exactly how well it sells online between that just having a larger audience also i think what we thought that we would sell is we would have done it without yeah yeah we had we had a pretty conservative estimate and i think now even knowing what we know five days later uh it would have been at least it would have been a pretty rocking weekend for us right and that's where that's where the the first thing started to pop up with people talking about how much this was affecting them because i forget how tight we run this stuff and how how lean we are with so much of things we're both like this person in our personal lives and we handle the business the same way that we're financially
Starting point is 00:16:21 conservative or financially responsible at least that we have never find you know all of massonomics ever since even the beginning has been bootstrapped from we each put five hundred dollars in to start it yeah that's the only thing we've ever started yeah massonomics originally yeah originally four people put in five hundred dollars right so there was just so you had some cash to work with right so we and outside of that we have never put more money in it the rest of everything has never had loans from anything whether it's a credit card or anything i mean it's none of that yeah we've never had to take out a loan of any kind it's just grown and we've just kind of taken the slow and steady approach right so in a situation like this that is in our favor but that doesn't make you me feel better about it that
Starting point is 00:17:03 makes me feel like well yeah i'm glad we do it that way. Like that shows a good, a damn good reason that we do it that way. But yeah, it also, that sets us up for more upside potential that we're missing out on in comparison to those, uh, maybe people doing it, uh, financed on credit cards and that sort of thing. Like we're set up for more profit. Right. Right. But again, we're not set up for this crushing defeat either, which is, which is good. And, you know, we, we don't know, we don't know the ins and outs of everyone's story, but we've kind of heard some things where some people are in some pretty tough situations right now, where, especially if you're a business that had to stock up a bunch of, there's a couple of things. If you're a business that had to stock up a bunch of inventory for the Arnold,
Starting point is 00:17:48 now all of a sudden you're talking about the possibility of tens of thousands of dollars worth of inventory for this special occasion there. Yes. And then, and then a lot of people aren't like us where they drive. A lot of people ship it there because you kind of almost have to, depending on where you live. So you have hundreds or thousands of dollars tied up into freight, getting things there.
Starting point is 00:18:02 And, and you have hotel rooms that if you stay at the Arnold Convention Center, it's like 500 bucks a night, which we also don't do. The other one is transportation. So airfare. I think a lot of those people probably were able to get refunded. But,
Starting point is 00:18:19 you know, if you had a team of people going there at 400 bucks round trip, that's pretty average. We were able to get our hotel refunded which it was non-refundable but they did refund us completely for anyone wondering if you're dealing with any type of refunds this time of year coronavirus is the magic word we didn't have airlines because we were going to drive so we saved you know the 500 on gas that we didn't have to spend to go there and and the other hotels we would have
Starting point is 00:18:44 bought on the way so right like we didn't we don't come out terrible from an expensive standpoint really really the biggest one right now the mystery that uh we are as of right now uh five days removed from the first day of the arnold yeah um no one still knows what's happening a week from when they can't we're a week right now from when they cancel it and no one still has heard anything on booth fees so booth fees are an interesting thing you don't have to look too far into it a 10 by 10 booth the smallest booth you can get at the is $2,500 if you want a corner it's an extra 500 that's $3,000 and that's we had a corner this year $3,000 right now there which was 100 prepaid we've. So they have all of the money for that. Actually, we've paid the first part of it in July. Six months ago.
Starting point is 00:19:28 Yeah. Or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We picked the booth out last July. Yeah. Paid for it. Yeah. In 2019, got the rest of it paid for this year.
Starting point is 00:19:36 Yeah. But as of right now, that's $3,000 that we don't know if we will ever see again. It's not ours to even get back if we want to like mentally i'm like to the point where i like i've uh you know relinquished to the fact that we're probably we're not going to get all of it back it would be shocking if we got all of it they're gonna do some real uh mathematical gymnastics to work that number in their favor in whatever way they can yeah i sent you a copy of the contract today because i did i was like what does it really say about this it has to say something and it basically leaves it open-ended to the point that they can do whatever the hell they want and the comment i made today which i
Starting point is 00:20:14 think is true legally by the contract they can do whatever they can interpret that however they basically says that yeah it basically says that like once that they've re once they figured out the cost that they need to recoup, that they will refund you the extra. Well, right. That they can. I feel like the phrase that was made as the phrase that that was made as vague as possible to say that we can determine whatever amount of money we need to get out of this to be happy.
Starting point is 00:20:40 Yeah. And then once we've set that number, then we'll give you whatever we feel like we can get away with. be yeah and then once we've set that number then we'll give you whatever we feel like we can get away with and what i think they're really figuring out right now is how much how little what's the least we can give back to everyone without pissing off more than five percent of the people or you know what you know like 50 right right yes like what what what what are those thresholds like if we give them back two-thirds will everyone be pretty cool with that? If we give them back half,
Starting point is 00:21:08 will at least like 75% of the people be like, eh, screw it. I guess it's better than nothing. Or it's like, if we give them back nothing, like what is the consequences of that? What if we keep it all? Because they could still keep it all, you know, and then they have to think, will we have lawsuits?
Starting point is 00:21:26 Because we're talking about millions of dollars. Ours is $3,000, but collectively, there's millions of dollars in booth fees. Oh, yeah. Well, especially when you start looking at some of these bigger companies. They don't have 10 by 10 squares. They have like 100 by 100 squares. Another thing, I think that they, I would assume they have to have some sort of, not the larger vendors, not vendors, exhibitors like us, but the event directors have to have some sort of event insurance or something like this.
Starting point is 00:21:53 Well, this is also the one where you find out when people haven't been doing their jobs. Yeah, it's like, oh, what about that insurance? It's the same thing as like, oh, when they have the whole million or the whole and $1 million payout, it's because the company's a pain for that. There's insurance that covers those weird situations. There absolutely seems like should be insurance for this. Right. And I'm sure it's very expensive to have it, but it's also how often do claims get filed on that? Right.
Starting point is 00:22:20 And if that case, if they have the insurance, why would we not get all of our money back? Exactly. But the money coming back doesn't make or break it. It really it really doesn't make that much of a difference to us. It doesn't make a huge difference either way. Honestly, like I don't want to say that three thousand like I if there's a stack of three thousand dollars or a stack of nothing. I definitely want the stack of three thousand dollars. And who would. Right. Right. want the stack of $3,000. Oh, always, and who wouldn't?
Starting point is 00:22:45 Right, right. So don't get me wrong on that, but I'm just saying it's not like, it doesn't change that much. Like our families aren't gonna not eat because of this money. Like we already planned on it being gone. We also planned on making it back,
Starting point is 00:22:56 but we planned on it being gone. So like that money like doesn't already exist to us. Right. It would just make the sting of the Arnold not happening a little less to know that you're gonna get some of your money back for something that didn't happen at all yeah and that's you know maybe this is getting ahead of myself in the conversation but that is where i get to the point where that money is not the biggest thing we're losing out by not going to the arnold
Starting point is 00:23:21 no right so this is what we talk. Our biggest thing, the Arnold is two huge things for us. Two huge things is one. It exposes us to, I think we're pretty well known in the powerlifting world, right? Is there, is there a lot of people that are into powerlifting and pay attention to it on Instagram that don't know who massonomics are? There's a lot that don't follow us. Right. There could be people that are like, like yeah that's not for me like i don't like their thing but i have a hard time believing there's if you got a hundred people that are into powerlifting and what i would consider in our target audience yeah i'm not saying people that oh this guy he's 60 years old and he powerless not necessarily our target audience right if you are a male on instagram between the ages of 18 and
Starting point is 00:24:03 35 yes and you're into power and you're into powerlifting if there's a hundred people in a room that fit that do you have 80 of them heard of massonomics i would sure think you would think so i don't know yeah like i would i would think they might not all be fans they might not all be fans they might not all follow us but i would think a lot of them know who we are in some way and so what the arnold does that's really good for us is it lets us just get in front of random people yes just ran like last year the number of people that said oh what is this oh oh that's funny oh cool that was the most common reaction that we heard all
Starting point is 00:24:36 year look at them and i'm like i honestly don't know if you work out or do anything physical no but you think this is funny and And there was a lot of that. So you've got a lot of just the average person. So we miss out on that opportunity. It's our one chance to get in front of those people. And then the second one is what we would probably refer to as networking. And that's, we live in landlocked Aberdeen, South Dakota. The closest area of any sizable, I would say Minneapolis. Yes. And Minneapolis is almost 200 miles.
Starting point is 00:25:10 It's 200 miles away. It's a five and a half hour drive to get to Minneapolis. Outside of that, you're looking at Chicago, Denver, Kansas City. Yeah, Chicago, Denver, Kansas City. And those are all in the 10 to 12 hour range. So we're just, there's nothing close to us so this is our chance to meet people get out there
Starting point is 00:25:30 like let them see that hey there are those are real people there are people that make these these shirts and because outside of the podcast you don't see our faces like really ever no you know right right and so you also don't really know who we are uh if you don't listen to the podcast so thank you guys that do listen uh to us but uh yeah if you just follow us on instagram you just kind of know like all right they put out a bunch of memes like there's a ton of uh powerlifting meme accounts that i follow that i think are hilarious and i love seeing you have no idea what the person is if the person is 18 or 80 i would assume they're on the underside but this is an assumption i also assuming they're a guy but i don't know that either right you know i don't
Starting point is 00:26:10 know that so this is the chance like us to see like oh these are real people yeah and for them to see that we're real people and we don't have that and now this means we are unless something crazy comes up or we figure out something else to go to, we're going another year, which now actually means we went two years without seeing anyone in our industry. Just fans and followers. A it's really cool that we get to meet them and see them. People that listen to the podcast,
Starting point is 00:26:35 people that fall on Instagram. I should actually say that too with the, I should put that in there as a group. It's all group. You know, that's one group of people, just people that like, we don't get to see those people that you know we see comments and stuff but it's cool to actually like take a picture with people and be like oh you and like like last year all these people come up
Starting point is 00:26:53 and said oh we listened to the podcast and even like these female lifters and it's like really you listen to the podcast that is so cool yeah um so we miss out on that and then all the other you know i guess the influencer lifters and stuff that we kind of know through the internet but without having that we consider more of like from a business standpoint like peers yeah a little bit more right right yeah and the peer companies too that's a big thing is like we talk a lot with a lot of the other companies that are in our same space that you know, the managers and owners of those companies. And to not get to meet them in person, it really hamstrings us from a future opportunity perspective.
Starting point is 00:27:38 It does. Like there's just a lot of missed opportunities. We're not even saying just monetarily. No, no, no, no. Just getting to know people and make connections. Yeah, it's not necessarily like, because this lead uh a connection leads to b amount of sales it's like a connection just like opens the doors for so many different possibilities that we haven't even thought of yet like so many partnerships and and various various things that we just aren't even aware of yet without having those conversations so that just sucks you know like and there's no replacement for it honestly we've talked we've we spent time
Starting point is 00:28:09 talking about alternatives and it's like well it really that's the one of the weird things about this industry is the arnold is it's huge yeah it is huge and when you start looking at comparables like we're talking at the top of our head, just the fitness industry in general, you have like the Olympia and the LA Fit Expo. But from what we've heard from people, those aren't spots you're selling a lot of merch. Like that's not really happening. And also there's not a lot of people.
Starting point is 00:28:39 And then there's big lifting events too. And there's also not the same number of people at those to talk with either. No, no. And then- Ohio is, it has a certain feel. And the fact that it is in Ohio. People want to just come out and support in Ohio.
Starting point is 00:28:51 Yeah, yes. And then you start looking at, well, big lifting events. Well, I've seen the live stream of the crowd at the Kern US Open. We attract more people for a amateur unsanctioned strongman tournament in a competition in aberdeen south dakota than they do right getting the top power lifters in the world with tens of thousands of dollars on the line so there's not a crowd there that doesn't that doesn't if we lived in if we were a two-hour drive from that well and then on top of us san diego for us is what a 24
Starting point is 00:29:25 hour drive miami is a 30 hour drive texas is probably still depending on where you're at in texas depending where you're at in texas yeah 12 to 30 i don't know so ohio it's worth it's an 18 hour or 16 hour drive 15 16 hour drive but it's worth it because we know what it is, because the Arnold is so big. And it attracts the crowd, just everyone, everyone, from so many different things, not just powerlifting, because this thing is, massonomics is more than just powerlifting.
Starting point is 00:29:57 If it was just power, it's nice to have a bigger audience. It was such a springboard for, we've said it before, last year it was such a springboard for us. And we think it would have even been, it would have had that same effect this year because you could just get in front of all those people that we wouldn't have otherwise. And, but thank God this didn't happen last year, because last year, the amount of money we had to invest into it and everything, it was comparable, but it was so much of a bigger deal at the time for us last year and so what i'm thinking about is all those businesses out there that are more
Starting point is 00:30:30 in the position that we were last year that this just happened to that could be like a death blow to some of those and we did say if this happened to us last year we would have spent a good chunk of 2019 just trying to recoup and play catch up to what happened to us yeah and also saying well what's next yes that's we and i don't i mean we wouldn't there wouldn't have been at what's next it would just have been like well no you're just screwed man and uh figure it out so yeah thank god this didn't happen last year would have been very very hard on us just because our our assets and resources were so much lower right because that was our big springboard and had we not done that we wouldn't have started to realize what our you know what the potential
Starting point is 00:31:13 might have been you know if it was just canceled and it'd be like and we were out all that money which was a lot more money to us at the time it just i could it would be hard to you know that could have been one of those things where it's like, I don't know, man, should we just call it? Yeah. And there's got to be businesses like that, right? I would think that there's, I'm not going to say a ton of people, but probably a good chunk of people, especially of our size that are probably still going through that right now, figuring out what the hell is next. We're going to take a quick break from this doom and gloom
Starting point is 00:31:47 to discuss some sponsors. And what better than our new sponsor, Texas Power Bars. Buddy Caps first started lifting weights in the late 60s and began powerlifting in the mid-70s. At the time, he was working for Image Barbell, building gym equipment. Around 1976, a local machine shop started making Olympic bars for them and calling it the Image Bar.
Starting point is 00:32:12 In 1977, Image Barbell became Champion Barbell. It was then that Buddy Capps started looking at the bars with an intent of changing them for the better. In 1979, Buddy bought his first lathe to begin addressing the known issues. By 1980, his passion, drive, and purpose now had a greater mission. Buddy set out on his own to make what he believed was the greatest bar he had ever seen and trained with, and the Texas Power Bar was born. It was strong as a house with the best knurling and was maintenance-free. Hundreds of state, national, international, and world powerlifting records have been and continue to be set and broken on the Texas Power Bar.
Starting point is 00:32:52 To learn more about Texas Power Bars and buy one of their legendary bars, visit TexasPowerBars.com. Not to mention a lot of personal records set in Massanomics Gym on the Texas Power Bars. This was like the OG bar in the massonomics gym yeah this was our first uh legit bar that we bought we for sure have two maybe even like a third really old one yeah maybe that yeah we don't even it's so old we're not sure but those two have been
Starting point is 00:33:16 through the ringer yep and uh still the same you could say there's a they have a patina to them they do have a patina and the even the last three, four years, the barbell landscape has changed drastically. But at the end of the day, Texas Power Bars will always have a special spot in my heart. And yeah, the black one has developed a very unique patina from rubbing up and down legs and shoulders and bodies. It's pretty amazing what that thing has gone through and continues to go through.
Starting point is 00:33:47 If those bars could tell a story. Oh, man. If those bars could hang on to smell. Today's show is also brought to you by Lifting Large. Lifting Large sets the new standard for customer service within the strength world. Get email responses in hours, not days. They now have live website chat support available during the weekdays so you can get advice from a real power lifter with actual platform experience. The Lifting Large team wants to help you achieve new PRs in
Starting point is 00:34:16 the gym and on the competition stage. When you are ready to try single ply and make your way to the dark side, give them a call. Lifting Large is home of the Ground Lock Deadlift Slipper, and it's always in stock and ready to ship. Massanomics listeners can save 20% on all Lifting Large branded products by using discount code MASS20 at checkout. That's M-A-S-S-2-0 to save 20% on Lifting Large branded items. Place your orders at liftinglarge.com, and you can follow them on Instagram at liftinglarge.com.
Starting point is 00:34:45 That's liftinglarge, D-O-T-C-O-M. And the Massanomics podcast is also brought to you by Spud Ink and the Looper Straps. Serious athletes know the strength that adding chains to your bench or squat will build. The Spud Ink Looper Straps are designed for exactly that purpose. The Spud Inc. Looper Straps are designed for exactly that purpose. Easily wrapping around any traditional or specialty bar to give you space for more than 10 chains on each side. Tanner, have you ever used more than 10 chains? I have not used 10 chains on a thing. That's pushing it.
Starting point is 00:35:15 10 chain links. That's what I'm more used to, yeah. The Looper Straps can be adjusted to accommodate different lifter heights, and chains can be placed at different positions in the adjuster loops to target your specific weak points. Outside of the big lifts, the looper straps add an extra challenge to almost any exercise and even work as standalone alternatives to traditional dumbbell movements like the bicep curl or tricep extension. The only thing the looper straps can't support is your inflated ego check out the spud ink looper straps online at spud-ink-straps.com i did see uh brandon amos follower of massonomics on the podcast he had bought the safety straps that
Starting point is 00:35:58 hang down and his uh kids were using them as a swing set so that's an additional utility yeah we should. I can't remember the squatting safety, the big squatting safety straps, but seem to make a very good swing set in the garage gym as well. Something to make note of. Dual purpose is always good. This episode is also brought to you
Starting point is 00:36:17 by Hybrid Performance Method. If you've been training without a coach and have been looking for a competitive edge, remember to check out hybridperformancemethod.com. Hybrid has 15 different strength and fitness programs covering everything from powerlifting and strongman to gymnastics and general fitness, all included in one training membership. That's not all. Hybrid also offers one-on-one personalized nutrition coaching that uses a lifestyle habits and a flexible approach to shape your nutrition plan around your current lifestyle instead of turning your lifestyle upside down in order to support
Starting point is 00:36:50 unsustainable habits that only work in the short run the way most programs do if you're ready to take your training nutrition or both to the next level use code mass in all caps for five percent off membership to all programs for the life of your membership. And then our friends at Hybrid, they're another company that we would have been hanging out with a little bit and getting to talk to. And Spud Inc too. Yeah, and Spud Inc. Yep. Just more people we got to miss out on.
Starting point is 00:37:16 Thank you to our sponsors though. Yes. So where did we leave off there, Tanner? We were just saying our lives are over. Our lives are over. Yeah, I think just the missed opportunity of the Arnold, that is a really big one for us. It's bigger than just the money.
Starting point is 00:37:37 Yeah, that is way bigger than the money, I think, because the money is not, I mean. We have an online. We make our money through an online shop. Right, right, right. And yes, the Arnold is a way to supplement that, but we don't plan on making all of our money for the year at the Arnold.
Starting point is 00:37:52 It's just a small percentage of what happens through the years at the Arnold. So from a money standpoint, yes, it's great, but that's not the only reason we do it. It is the bigger effect of, it's kind of the butterfly effect of the Arnold. You go there and all these little things happen and they turn into bigger things
Starting point is 00:38:10 as the year goes on. Lifter flaps his wings and the Arnold causes a Masonomic shirt to be bought in Bangkok, Thailand. It's not far from that. Just like how a man picks up a disease at a wet market in China and all of a sudden the Arnold Arnold's canceled.
Starting point is 00:38:27 It screws us over really hard. It is pretty crazy that that's what got us this, you know, that's, that's the thing that got all the things that could have gotten fucking. That's what was shut down. That's what shut down Arnold and mass and massonomics. So what are we going to do with all those lift masks?
Starting point is 00:38:46 You know, yeah, we did. We bought, so actually we had a whole trailer full of hand sanitizer that we're pulling behind us this year. We were going to will it in, and now we just have this trailer full of sanitizer and a couple thousand lift face masks that we got to figure out something to do with. So yeah, I don't know. maybe we'll save them for next year there'll always be a new virus next year
Starting point is 00:39:12 there will be there absolutely will be there's one every year they hear a lot of conspiracy theory stuff you know uh like the every election year there's something like this. I don't. I don't. I don't. But call super. I've also heard people throw around. Oh, and I'm like, I don't even go down there.
Starting point is 00:39:33 So what about this, though? Do you think the Arnold should have been canceled? Well, it's just the timing sucks because as of right now recording this, already as of today today we have five cases in south dakota it's starting to pop up in every city it's starting to pop up in every state now yeah would the arnold have facilitated the spread of it i think it's pretty safe to say yeah you know if you even have a few people in there it's we've been at it you are nuts to butt with sweaty people just crap like an just crowd like it's an international
Starting point is 00:40:07 affair and it's an international affair people from everywhere you are packed in there like cattle like even with what they still did i bet it still facilitated the spread of it definitely i don't know how it couldn't have but i i also don't know how every sport there still seem to be some people around there like i saw the video of like the strong man and stuff. And I was like, the fuck are all these people there? Like just competitors. Well, they also are competitors.
Starting point is 00:40:30 I mean, there's thousands. Yeah. Right. Yes. Right. It's like the biggest sporting event in the world. Pretty much.
Starting point is 00:40:34 Yeah. Number of competitors. I think it'd be crazy to think that the Arnold wouldn't have spread more Corona. Yeah. Being there. And does Arnold want that on his legacy probably not but it doesn't look good for him all the um someone said like well disneyland is still open every day it's like how many people go there or like and that's just a one you know
Starting point is 00:40:58 if like yeah all the examples of things it's like well should walmart's be you know like every sporting event you still watch on tv every night where people are packed into the stands yeah there you go right they're 50 you know 30 000 people in uh at a knicks game or whatever you know maybe not them the knicks suck but maybe any team besides the knicks yeah that's a good point though like should they quit having because i've heard people say like well march madness could be played in front of empty stadiums. And if that's where there's still March madness is still,
Starting point is 00:41:29 what does that really pick up in two weeks here about it's usually starts in April, I think, but it's usually like mid to late March is when things really start going. Yeah. Like a lot could happen between now and then still. And I don't think that's crazy that by the time you're hearing this, you could be hearing of March madness being played in front of empty crowds.
Starting point is 00:41:48 I mean, it's funny because even what we're talking about now could be almost a little, you know, when this comes out. There's a good chance when you hear this, you'll be like, oh, those dumbasses. And we'll already know what happened with our booth fees. For all we know, we're getting paid 100% back and we're just sounding like crotchety whiners over here. But in the meantime, we can complain.
Starting point is 00:42:08 Yeah, for sure. But like, and I know nothing about the science behind it or anything, but what I hear people say a lot of times is like, oh, it's not different than the flu. Is that true or not true? I literally don't even know but i just hear people say that all the time oh it's not different than the flu i feel like there's so much misinformation around this yeah i can guarantee you if you're if you're listening to
Starting point is 00:42:35 this with someone you can both look at each other and you both have probably heard a different set of facts right i think the only fact that anyone agrees on is like wash your hands and uh don't let people cough in your face things like that that and that that stuff's all is like wash your hands and uh don't let people cough in your face things like that that and that that stuff's all is kind of funny to me too because it's like okay so now you're gonna start washing your hands i will say like that in public i every men's restroom i noticed some very deliberate hand washing this past weekend yeah yeah that i normally do not see but it's funny, like they should have already been washing their,
Starting point is 00:43:08 like they should. Yeah. It's funny to think like it takes this to get you to like wash your hands when you go to the bathroom. And it sounds so if we're going to look at the facts around it, it sounds like basically you don't die from it unless you're old and immunocompromised already. Like the, uh, I,
Starting point is 00:43:26 the number of people that have died between the ages of like 20 and 50 are, I think almost nothing. Right. Um, so it's, it's basically old people are the only ones dying from it. And typically old people with a condition already. Right. Um, and then like you hear things where it's saying like, well, typically like when you get it the symptoms are like a more mild flu so it's like okay it's not as bad but what people are saying is it seems more mild so people are just going on with their daily lives and they're spreading it more because it doesn't seem as bad so now it's more infectious more people are getting it i don't know any of those things i don't know i'm just i'm just saying things that i heard and i've heard a lot of things
Starting point is 00:44:03 so that's where just at the end of the day you just go i don't know i don't know kind of like is the arnold gonna be canceled i don't know are we gonna do this i don't know it's kind of that same thing that the other thought i had you know that ties into it is the arnold regardless of this if there's a coronavirus a new virus thing going around is just a cesspool of sickness anyways like yeah it is anything with 250 000 people like without this is like people are going to leave with colds and flus that you didn't have when you went there yeah like that's like a well-known thing that a lot of people leave the arnold sick like so i but i'm
Starting point is 00:44:43 not saying that that's a more or less of a case for it being canceled but i'm just like that's my observation is that kind of happens already like yeah i don't know i so that they you know they claim that it was at least in the thing that we saw they claim that it was shut down because they were basically ordered to by the state that it wasn't their decision right um well if that's the case, then there's nothing that they can really do about that either. Well, I can't imagine Arnold really want for as much money. Well,
Starting point is 00:45:11 I didn't say Arnold, but like, I think about it too, though, like from a monetary standpoint, does Arnold need money? That's yeah. I know.
Starting point is 00:45:18 So it doesn't like, I'm not even thinking him, but there's gotta be some other people that have a lot of, there's a lot of middlemen right collecting money right and every i mean even you could even say we're one of them yeah and so for everyone else for every spectator that's going the arnold getting canceled just like well that's a really annoying thing i don't get to meet people yeah they're not monetarily really out anything we're kind of in a small group where you know it's an it's an industry event for us and that's
Starting point is 00:45:44 not the norm and so that's but that's is an industry event for us and that's not the norm and so that's but that's is the lens that we look and that's the lens that we look at it too which is probably the the well it's i would think the smallest lens out of any of them yeah first is the general public then the next stage down is probably competitors i was gonna say competitors third is exhibitor because it it still was like a big effect on competitors too because like there was no it wasn't the same thing or like all the guys that lived in the cage and all that like that was all yeah you know there's joe sullivan did have an event there at his gym and a bunch of the you know live large we were
Starting point is 00:46:16 kind of talking to all the other you know to live large bacon and barbells we got invited to go to that yeah for us that much driving it'd be it'd be four days of driving total for you know it's not worth it for like a gym party which we would yeah we would love to it would be awesome but it's still not worth it the amount of driving just doesn't make any sense if we're down the road like live larges we're gonna be there like that oh without a doubt yeah and i bet it i bet in some ways it was way more fun like i believe that that is just i'm sure from a pure fun standpoint but from a standpoint of us driving 16 hours and hoping to make enough money to make the trip worthwhile it wouldn't have been no the amount of gas yeah time and just everything so it would have been hard so what do you think we don't know what they're going to do with the booth fees nobody knows i don't think they know yet they're figuring that out but what do you think um
Starting point is 00:47:11 assuming the most likely result is they give us a little bit of our money back but not all of it and we kind of know how it turned out for competitors they still got to have their events and stuff what what do you think the effect is on the arnold going forward because that's something else i've heard a lot of people talking about so i put that in the story as a i honestly believe that as of right now the arnold is too big and there's zero competition that it's going to keep chugging if this happened again next year now a lot of people are going to have really like cold when we know that there's no competition because we're trying to figure out what our other options are there's not and this is where you say oh this
Starting point is 00:47:47 is where the free market comes in and and the the better competition or the better expo survives well there's not another expo and us for example if they give us none of our money back we probably still want to go next year i mean it's still at this point have to yeah right yeah we still have to yeah i mean it pisses me off yeah like and i don't know who did that like i want to be pissed at someone but you're like well faceless thing yeah it's like yeah it's like damn it you and i guess i'll give you my we'll give you our three thousand dollars again next year because i there's no way that the arnold because from the people, it might grind the gears of some exhibitors, but okay, what are you going to do? Find a better expo?
Starting point is 00:48:29 No, there is not one. There isn't one. But would there be enough exhibitors that would say, we're not going to get like. On the Arnold. There'd just be one. Like if this folded some or really soured some, there's usually going to be others to take their place. There will be. We have 200,000 people that are interested in sports and athletics
Starting point is 00:48:50 and showing up wanting to buy shit and talk to you. Well, there's a reason that this is such a hit for us to not go. What business owner in this industry would say, nah, I'm good? Right. You know, if you have the means. The reason it's such a big deal for us not to go if you have the means and the time to make it work you don't have a better expo to be at no and they they know that
Starting point is 00:49:12 so they don't i don't think that they're going to bend over backwards to make things right for people right they're going to do the bare minimum right because they know they have they have all the leverage they do that's the number one rule with negotiating is knowing where the leverage is and they have all of it yeah because like what if we're like ah screw you we're not coming back they're back all right company z you want to pay three grand you do okay cool yep yep there's for the most part a line of people willing to be there. And even if they're not, okay, they're out, let's just say, 20 less people go and those booths don't fill in. They're probably small booths anyways.
Starting point is 00:49:50 Okay, they're out $40,000. I still think that that's a very small piece of the puzzle as to what the Arnold does. So it's a big machine. Kind of almost too big to fail, you could say. The banks and the financial crisis. The banks. So we pretty much told you guys everything about the arnold the ins and outs of it it might even got boring for some people but uh i don't know i don't even know if there's
Starting point is 00:50:16 anything left to talk about tanner no that kind of i i mean i'll probably think as with anything we talk about i think of points after after we finish up that I think, oh, I should have mentioned that. Yeah, it's just disappointment is really what it comes down to. I think we've kind of said that 50 times already, too. That is right. That's probably the feeling. I'm not really angry.
Starting point is 00:50:35 It's just kind of sad, like, oh, man, bummer. Yeah, I'm not angry. I don't think this is anyone's really fault directly even. It just, just like sucks for us yeah it it is it's just yeah it's just a it's a it just feels like a loss it's like whenever something valuable to you is gone yeah right and that's that feeling this is probably well certainly the most adversity that massonomics has faced like maybe even like the only yeah yeah really things things people complaining
Starting point is 00:51:06 about the price of things yeah well we turned that into our biggest plus i know you know when they talk about a strength of someone who's being able to turn a negative into a positive like we ultimately okay so we should we should touch on this though so yes this is what the other thing yeah so we did decide to run a sale. We had lots of new merchandise. And I mean, it was our... It was the biggest online thing we've ever had. It was the biggest online thing we had by like not... Multiples.
Starting point is 00:51:36 It destroyed Black Friday. It wasn't even comparable. And this Black Friday we thought was pretty crazy. This Black Friday was the biggest thing we'd ever had by light years. So this destroyed that even. So it was nuts. It was actually, it was nuts. It was nuts.
Starting point is 00:51:53 It was really crazy seeing all the orders came over. Tanner was packing orders for 72 straight hours. That's not far from the truth. I was literally like, you know, truth i was literally like my our you know my house was like a war zone of order packing for for you know several days there where i was just up late up early you know in between like taking care of the kids and stuff i was took some breaks to shoot hoops and do some stuff with the kids but mostly i was just packing orders and like one day i didn't even eat breakfast and i haven't packing orders and like one day i didn't even eat breakfast and i haven't until like 11 and i haven't done that probably you know in 10 years so yeah so we are very very very very grateful for everyone
Starting point is 00:52:33 that bought stuff because we saw a crazy amount of support online it was really like support too not just monetarily but also the com you know the comments the comments in our i don't think any other companies are getting such a percentage of comments in their order section. That's also what made it hurt so bad because everyone's like, oh, we were so looking forward to seeing you. It's like, damn it.
Starting point is 00:52:50 Oh, we were going to drink La Croix's. We were going to talk about Lyft shorts. Yes. All of these jokes. It's like we missed all those personal interactions that we would have had. And the number of people that say, oh, we listen to the podcast every week
Starting point is 00:52:59 or even just the number of people saying, oh, I got turned on to you guys from Brandon Campbell. That was a week ago. Damn, like, things are getting around here, and all of those people supporting, it was... It was really cool. It was actually... It was bittersweet, though, because it was, like,
Starting point is 00:53:14 really cool to see, but damn it, if we would have gotten to do that in person, it would have been so much cooler still. Yeah, yes, 100%. But it really was, like, unbelievable seeing the amount of support coming in through all of that yeah and you know we had some new gear too so that that always helps but the curl shirt it was people were really supporting and i would have never guessed that we would get that type of
Starting point is 00:53:37 support online no no the curl shirt really did pop off though and the curl shirt did go off we talked about that already in the last podcast yeah we did talk about it we dropped that new shirt so the curl shirt went it's basically sold out yeah we got we have to reorder yeah there's some sizes are gone some sizes still have a few left yeah but there's uh by the time we're hearing this it's another week there's a good chance there's probably only a couple of any given size left yeah you know you know those big rolling usps cart things like like one day that i i had delivered orders every all the orders went out to by month so our sale ended that was the other amazing thing by monday all orders were placed on wednesday by already yes yes yes uh that's why i said people know us as the amazon prime of uh beer parody lifting shirts
Starting point is 00:54:26 because they got out so fast and we stuck to that that that by monday all orders from the sale were out they were mostly going out within a day or two after they were ordered and by monday they all hit and just one of those days um they brought me just brought me over one of those things, and it filled it heaping full. I was just bringing in laundry basket after laundry basket. And it was heaped over with the boxes were falling off of the side. And I was just like, all these packages that took me so long, and then I'm just dumping them in by the... It's like,
Starting point is 00:55:05 Oh, I hope the system works and these are all going where they're supposed to. Cause that's a whole shitload of them. Like 48 hours later, they're getting across the country. Yeah. That is, that is kind of amazing that that there's a lot more massonomics in
Starting point is 00:55:16 circulation today than there was. There is without a doubt. Yeah. That is a, I was, you know, at times I was like, damn,
Starting point is 00:55:24 this is what, like a, like a, you know, large, what a real business does like god we you would need a large warehouse to do this efficiently regularly you know it would uh yeah there's a reason people have like tables yeah certain assembly type lines set up for this not just my little office in the basement and i mac with i mean probably 200 300 trips up and down our stairway too got a lot of exercise going up and down the stairs yeah you got to tell the wife that you need to add a workshop on the back there Tanner or at least like an elevator that takes me up the elevator
Starting point is 00:55:57 that'd be a good one too uh uh we are approaching the end of the hour here. There was a funny review that I have to try to read. Okay. Do we have time for a good review? Oh, absolutely. Oh, wait. Are we going to play Overrated Underrated? Yeah, we can do that too. Maybe I'll save the review for next time.
Starting point is 00:56:17 That's a teaser because we've got to play Overrated Underrated. We haven't not done that. Yes. I almost forgot. It'd be wrong to break that streak. Yes, I almost forgot. I kind of forgot about that too, actually. Okay. i think i got something kind of prepared in the realm of overrated underrated if we have no guests this week if you didn't pick up on that yeah okay so
Starting point is 00:56:32 now that we're done with the first hour now we're gonna have the guests come on yeah and we did that because we knew we were going to have so much to uh discuss here on the arnold bitter for an hour we didn't normally we'd be talking about the competitions and stuff and it's like, yeah, we'll let that out. We'll maybe just touch on that very briefly next week. Overrated or underrated? Well, this is your first time getting to play
Starting point is 00:56:55 in quite a few weeks now. So do you remember? I think I remember, yeah. Because I don't want to take it for granted that you remember the rules. You remember about the druthers and all that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. The druthers. Yes, the druthers.
Starting point is 00:57:07 I really liked the comments about druthers. And also, I really, every time someone does the Kaz thing, I honestly, like, laugh out loud every time someone does a version of the Kaz. Like, how to use your wealth. Yeah. Mixing the lift shorts and the Kaz. There's, like, a molding of all these inside massonomics jokes where it's like damn you just put like four things together in one sentence part yeah okay and we got
Starting point is 00:57:32 some creative listeners some people are almost afraid to put an order in because they don't know what to say in the comments like oh i didn't want to look stupid yeah one of the comments said like i was going to place this yesterday and i had to hold off until I could think of something. I believe that was true, too. It's like open mic night. It's like, no, I can't order. We're probably going to limit our orders. Like, I don't know what I would say.
Starting point is 00:57:57 It's not enough just to order. You have to, like, say something funny, too. Overrated or underrated hand sanitizer? as of right now i think it's underrated i i would have uh two months ago i would have said overrated i don't use that stuff ever um when you're talking about diseases going around it's probably best for public health that um it probably is an underrated thing that people should all be using at this time. And is there a science, but is there like, is it better or worse like hand sanitizer versus washing your hands with soap
Starting point is 00:58:32 and water? I believe they still say soap and water is always better. It is better. Okay. It is always better, but hand sanitizer is the next best. Okay. The one I wonder though,
Starting point is 00:58:41 is everyone like, let's say someone is infected. They touch the top of that bottle yeah and then everyone comes by and touches it too you just got to grab a little bit and swipe it on the top of the bottle i wonder like can does the hand sanitizer cancel out anything that you would have picked up right away i don't know i don't know what the studies are on that that'd be an interesting fact to know i think there's isn't there shortages of this stuff right now too like lysol wipes and hand sanitizer toilet paper is the other one that's on shortage right now
Starting point is 00:59:07 taking a lot of shits like got the nervous shit when did this respiratory disease turn into toilet paper um so you said underrated i said underrated okay overrated underrated hand shakes and shakes uh i also do think handshakes just in general kind of are overrated it is this it is a weird thing about humans where when you when you meet someone your way of your way of getting to know someone is you touch hands you hold hands together and that's what like so like signals all right let's get this relationship started let's get this conversation or i haven't seen you in so long my way of expressing my affection is to hold my hand in yours it is such a weird thing it is true though and like at the arnold like i in prior years i shook
Starting point is 00:59:55 a lot of people's hands a lot of hands i i do think that probably the fist bump is probably a little more underrated than it should be with some of these things. Like James Strickland said, fist bumps only for me this year. And that's what a lot of people, I've heard a lot of people saying that they've just switched, I've just switched to fist bumps and I don't even need to explain it. People are just like, oh yeah, I get what's going on here. Yeah, right, right, right. But I think just kind of in general, handshaking is probably overrated.
Starting point is 01:00:24 Overrated handshakes. So we're on the hand train. We're on the hand train. Overrated or underrated hand jobs. Just kidding. That's not one. Just thought of that now. Overrated or underrated, a 501-kilogram deadlift.
Starting point is 01:00:42 You got to say underrated, right? Right? Don't you got to say underrated? I guess we haven't seen. It hasn't been done yet, right right don't you gotta say underrated we have i guess we haven't seen it hasn't we haven't hasn't happened yet so i i think when you want to say a record is the highest of now if you said like well a uh 200 kilogram deadlift at 63 kilos something i'd be like well okay yeah sure it's their thing but yeah like these really specific records per weight class, those records to me are always kind of overrated.
Starting point is 01:01:10 You can be excited for them, but for the general public, they're kind of not that exciting. I still think when you're talking about the heaviest something that someone has lifted of all time ever, that still is an underrated feat. Yeah. And when it's done, it's still really in the scheme of things is going to be underrated.
Starting point is 01:01:29 People in the strength world will be excited about it, but outside of that, almost no one will care about it. Right. Because we knew that that Dubai competition has put up $100,000 for someone to do it. Oh, is that what it is? $100,000. Oh, they did?
Starting point is 01:01:42 I didn't know it was that much money. They put up $100,000, and this you know a few weeks before the arnold and thor basically said i'm not going to do that arnold i'm going to do it there would you but the morning of the deadlift at the arnold rogue said they are going that they put up 101 000 for anyone to break it. At the Arnold? At the Arnold. So then it was, is Thor going to try to do it? And that was obviously why they did it, to entice Thor to try it there.
Starting point is 01:02:14 I think at that point, though, it turns into, you've got to start playing the game now. So the game is, all right, I'm Thor. I already have, outside of Thor, who has a legit chance of hitting that at the Arnold even? Ronald Heinle is like the only other person he wasn't competing jerry pritchett probably doesn't uh jf crone probably i mean big very strong deadlifters oh they probably don't have a chance of hitting that yeah but i yeah exactly so then you're going to assume that that that bet is placed
Starting point is 01:02:39 at thor yeah and well you're already assuming, well, Thor is already the favorite to win the whole thing. Yep. And what's winning the whole thing? And this was after day one. Yeah. 80 grand. 80 grand. So do I want to hurt my chances of getting 80 grand so I can maybe, maybe, maybe get 101 or do I just want to get my 80? 181 maybe. Well, true. Yeah, true. You do got a point there. Or do I just want to take my 80 not go myself go get my hundred in when i'm peaked and perfectly ready for it yes he really i could tell by watching him compete and stuff he has gotten really smart and like that was all very much thoughts in his head and he executed on that and doesn't get caught up in the moment of uh like yeah i just want to i'm
Starting point is 01:03:24 just going to do this just because I can. I think that's probably the thing. And then it's also the thing where, okay, you call for 501 and you miss. That doesn't make the next 501 exciting or as exciting or as good, does it? No, I don't think so. Especially when it's only, what, is it a month away or so? I'm not sure when that, I think it's maybe a few months, but I don't know when it is for sure.
Starting point is 01:03:44 Yeah, I totally get why he did it. It makes perfect sense to me. So you are saying? I still think it's an underrated achievement. Okay, the last one here is kind of a softball. Overrated or underrated, the new Curls shirt. The new Curls shirt, very underrated. And the people also believe it's underrated
Starting point is 01:04:00 because they are buying it and they can't get enough of it. Does that mean it's overrated? No, it means it's underrated because they are buying it in they can't get enough of it does that mean it's overrated no it means it's underrated for sure in case you uh also play are one of those people that play along on instagram this will probably be one of those where it gets a little sneaky where both of the buttons say underrated when you don't like to give people a choice to uh talk bad about any of our stuff on our own page. Nope. Don't like to make it easy for them, at least. We will not stand for that. There will be no such thing.
Starting point is 01:04:28 That's where you go and you're like, you motherfuckers. They got me. But they're free polls and funny content sucking me into this. So that wraps up Overrated and Underrated. That wraps up 206. And that obviously wraps up the Arnold, the Arnold that never was.
Starting point is 01:04:47 We'll forever remember this as the Arnold that never was. This has actually broke our streak. We haven't not been there for the last. We've made three straight. This would have been number four. Yeah, that would have been number four. Wow. So now we've got to go four more years.
Starting point is 01:05:00 We've been going to the Arnold since before. We've got to go to school. Yeah, I guess we've got to gotta go we'll do three more about two three peats like the chicago bulls just like that coming back even better that's right uh let's hear from our sponsors again one more time today today's show was brought to you by our newest sponsor texas power bars in 1980 buddy caps was on a mission to make the best bar possible and the texas power bar was born it was strong as a house had the best knurling and it was maintenance free hundreds of state national massonomics international and world power lifting records have been set and continue to be
Starting point is 01:05:35 set and broken on the texas power bar to learn more texas about texas power bars and to buy one of their legendary bars visit texaspowerbars.com you know i laugh about the massonomics part but there's probably been more massonomics records set on a texas power bar than any other bar that's right probably the biggest claim to fame for the texas power bar i would think yeah today's show is also brought to you by lifting large lifting large has set a new standard for customer service within the strength world they have live website chat support and speedy email responses lifting large is home of the Ground Lock Deadlift Slipper, and they are always in stock and ready to ship.
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