Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 097: Brandan Schieppati- Rise Above Fitness & Bleeding Through Lead Singer
Episode Date: June 15, 2015Sal, Adam & Justin interview Brandan Schieppati, the owner of the Rise Above Fitness Gym & Apparel brand and the lead singer of Bleeding Through. Brandan also happens to have a podcast right here on i...Tunes (search Brandan Schieppati's Podcast) and shares many of the opinions held by the MindPump Crew. WARNING!: This episode is not safe for fitness posers and charlatans! You can also find Brandan on Instagram @brandanschieppati
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Testy 1, 2, 3, motherfucking year.
Dude, dude.
motherfucking year.
He sounds so f-
What the f-
motherfucking year?
Oh, snaps.
You guys sound f-
Hell, uh, fresh.
Let me hear what Kermit says, gang, sounds like gangster.
Uh.
You know, yo, yo, bitches.
Yes, there it is, just.
What's long green and stinky?
So, after eats a keroshake, my cock and mispid his ass hole. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh Oh hey bro. Just something for us for sure. Yeah.
What do you got?
Hey guys, I have this brilliant nutrition plan, right?
Okay, tell me.
What is it?
Don't fucking eat.
You should write a book.
That's fucking brilliant.
Just don't eat.
You know we should just-
I thought about this last night.
We should write a book teaching people how not to eat.
And you should, yeah it's a good idea.
Just don't eat. We should, yeah we should have people pay us book teaching people how not to eat. And you should, yeah, it's a good idea. Just don't eat. We should, yeah, we should have people pay us to show them how
not to eat. Go to mindpumpradio.com, click on the yellow buttons, check out our fasting guide,
so you don't eat. If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go.
Mind, pop, mind, up with your hosts. Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews.
With us in the studio today, we got the rise above fitness gym and apparel owner, the
bleeding through lead singer, 18 visions and throw down guitars, iron, sling and metal
singing, hardcore badass entrepreneur, Brandon shoe parts. Oh yeah. All right, in the house.
I think you're gonna fight somebody right now.
Oh yeah.
He's just setting them up for a fight.
Yeah, do a monster, a monster.
He's a fucking man.
He's a monster.
He's a monster.
He's a monster.
He's a monster.
He's a monster.
He's a monster.
He's a monster.
He's a monster.
He's a monster.
He's a monster.
He's a monster.
He's a monster. He's a monster. He's yeah, in Italian. In Italian, it's gonna butcher Skipati.
Yeah, Skipati.
But I'm not gonna walk around in like this modern day
United States and back.
What you're asking, Skipati.
Like what the fuck are you talking about?
So it's very Americanized, shippetty,
or like a lot of people say, shippati.
Sure fact.
Okay.
I'm cool with whatever.
What part of your family are you from?
A lot of my family, I believe is from Florence and Naples. Nice. Nice. And then
I have a lot of area, a lot of ancestry, sort of northern Italian Swiss border. Okay.
I'm from the south. All right. Yeah. You're a darker complex. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's
a funny thing. It's like if someone sees you like, Oh, you're a town. Hey, what's up,
big. And then they go to Italy, they're so disappointed
because everybody looks like them.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You're like, wow.
It's like when you go to Spain, you're like, I don't get it.
Nobody likes, it's not Mexico, man.
It's Spain, it's totally different.
Exactly.
It is.
So let's talk about your gym.
You were just explaining it.
Yeah, yeah.
Now I've been on your Instagram page and your gym is sick.
Thank you.
You've got a great gym.
Thank you. A lot of a great gym. Thank you.
A lot of, you posted a lot of videos and pictures of like,
well, it looks like functional, you know,
what I always say quote unquote functional style.
Yeah.
Training, but then also some of the more conventional
heavy type lifting.
Yeah.
What is your philosophy?
What kind of philosophies your gym have in terms of training?
Me personally, I, my sort of background, what I interned under, my basis is Poliquin,
Metabolic Circuit Training.
I dabble a lot with like tempos, eccentric tempos, and really working on like different
ways to double work the muscle, like double contraction type stuff.
I write that into my program a lot.
I guess there are little tricks and tools of the trade I guess,
but that's my basis is metabolic circuit training,
but I've taken on a lot of strength premises,
like strength sort of basis lately.
A lot of strong, strong fucking people train at my gym now.
And I started caring about strength more,
about four years ago when I actually opened my gym.
And so a lot of my basis is based off the strength.
I like to fight their conventional weight,
like the ways that people think,
if you're gonna train strength,
you could only train strength.
Sort of like if you're a power lifter,
you have to have a beer gut and like,
eat a sack of pancakes every day.
You know, but some of the strongest people I've ever seen, they do their power and they
do some sort of hypertrophy or circuit trainings for conditioning.
That's kind of the way that I do it.
I always stick with the compounds.
I always bench, deadlift, squat, overhead press.
I stick to those four.
Those are the big four for me.
Then I work my programs around it.
So what do you think of things like CrossFit?
Um, I mean, I think earlier on, you can be real.
Oh, I'm very real.
I'm very real.
He was so impotent.
There's fanatics behind it. That's why we ask.
You got to understand. You understand that he listed the episode that he's listed two of ours.
I don't think he listened the
I've listened a bunch of his and it's like we couldn't see more eye on a lot of shit. So you know, it's this is gonna get
Interesting, um, I think back and it's originality the idea behind it was
Very anti which I loved you know, and when I first heard about it,
it was like seven, seven, eight years ago now,
it started popping up a little places in Orange County,
like Newport Beach, like Newport CrossFit,
and John Wellborne, I've worked with a little bit,
just on lifts here and there.
He does CrossFit about Boa.
I think back then it was like a pure thing.
It was like, hey, we have this thing.
You know this new thing.
It's fun.
It's fun.
We're getting away from the traditional thing.
Which would be honest, the traditional shit back then was crap.
People stopped squatting.
It was kind of like Ed Hardy until it hit TJ Maxson shit, bro.
You know, it was the thing where it was like,
it was fucking original at one point.
And I liked it because it was so wrong.
Because it was like squatting and deadlifting.
Absolutely.
Because you go to your 24 hour fitness and whatnot and you, they don't have a squat rack.
They have a fucking Smith machine.
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
And to me I'm a Smith machine.
Awesome.
It's awesome.
Like this on that machine.
So I think originally it was something that was awesome. What I think it's turned
into is like Dungeons and Dragons. Well, that's an analogy. There's some, there's some,
there's some people that do it for that right reason, that pure reason. And I, I will back
them and I have friends that do it. I have friends that own CrossFit gyms, and they're heads in it, they love it
because it's like, you know, this is just,
this is what we do, you know.
And one of my best friends from Canada actually,
he was a bodybuilder and then got into CrossFit
and I asked him like, why?
And he's like, well, you know, I was into bodybuilding
and that's what I was into.
Now I'm in a CrossFit and fucking tomorrow
I might be into something else.
But I'm not like, the jazzer size or something.
But he owns it. I could see if it's like,
if people see it as like part of their fitness life,
you know what I mean?
But when I say it's kind of like Dungeons and Dragons,
how it's very clicky, we only buy brands
that are CrossFit brands, and we only wear shoes
that are these quote unquote CrossFit shoes.
And it's like cave man.
Yeah, exactly, and it's very clicky.
And I, as someone that's, as myself, where I find that I had
success in music because I built a culture, I back it,
but it's getting pretty fucking lame.
Oh, awesome.
It's just, it's just is.
I mean, I'm only going to say it just because the gym that,
anytime,
okay, here's the moment when I realized it kind of went too far.
I'm in Las Vegas and I valid my car,
and the guy that went to go get my car was about,
I don't know, maybe in his 50s, maybe.
Probably never lifted a weight in his life
and he looked at me and he said,
oh man, do you do CrossFit?
And I literally was like, so because I'm tattooed
and kind of in all right shape, like visible shape,
you think that I do CrossFit.
And it's like to me, that gets the point where,
and people automatically assume that my gym is a CrossFit gym because I have a
Fucking rig built out of my wall and I have tires right and I'm like well tires have been a strong man kind of thing for since like
Started making tires
They're flipping fucking wagon wheels before that shit pushing sleds is like so CrossFit
Yeah, yeah tell anybody out of lead FTS about when when they made the prowler that that yeah crossfit thing. Yeah
They'll probably strangle you to death, but yeah, that's just my two cents on it. Okay. I listen to when your last episodes where you were talking about the parallels between music and fitness
Yeah, it's crazy and how you know, I don't remember exactly what you said, but basically there's a lot of bullshit
You know a lot of posters or a lot of us.
Which is actually one of the reasons
of what we started the show.
Because we see so much crap.
Everybody says they're an expert
and you get the 320 pound bodybuilder
selling the protein powder.
And this is how I got massive and shit like that.
I mean, coming over to fitness industry,
you must have been like, God, damn, this is horrible.
Ah, fuck, man.
It's like one of those things where it's like,
I guess if you're like special forces
and like you're like a fucking, you know, a Navy seal
and it was sort of the thing where like you get off
on just being dropped into the fucking danger zone.
I guess the chaos of the music industry
prepared me so much for this industry
when I really realized that this was like my next endeavor now,
and how much I felt I could do something within it,
that just sounded so.
Well, I have found that I could be in this in the night.
It's sort of like a-
It's really calling.
I guess when I realized it early on
that the fitness industry was sort of similar in the
ways that it went with trends, which is music 101. I guess I was like, you know, I want to be
dropped like right into the shit and I want to fucking, I want to make some noise. And that's kind of
like my mentality with it is like, people take themselves so fucking seriously.
And it's irritating to me because it's like people that
have a random accomplishments.
And like, yeah, that's how I've said.
It's the only industry who's thinking,
it's the only industry whose narcissism can rival music,
I think.
Absolutely.
And it's like narcissism times 100,000.
Well, at least these poser bands wrote some fucking music
and put some like shit out.
But these poser charters and poser,
are just posing.
They've just learned how to take exquisite selfies
in front of their probably light altered bathroom.
Right, right.
You know what I mean?
That's what they've done and
They're getting praised for it. You know
I see people hit me up all the time to get sponsored by our like our peril company and you know
They say oh, I have X amount of followers and you know here's my thing and when every picture is just them
Selfie abs. I'm just like fuck. I just wasted two minutes of my day
It's just it's something that's, you know, I was talking to my friend Jim Wynnler about this
on one of my old other podcasts and he was talking
about how man, I've been in this industry long enough
and I've seen the flash in the pan.
And it's like, you just, if you stick to what you believe in
and that what you believe in is credible
and non-embarassing,
you'll be fine.
Yeah.
It's these people that are doing these douchey things that have to look in themselves two
years down the road and their flashback Friday is aren't going to be that fucking cool.
It's going to be a joke to them.
You know what I mean?
Huh?
Look at me.
This is me two years ago wearing fucking compression pants like they're fucking jeans.
High top fucking Nike's and a fucking and a
stringer of triple exos, a triple ex-stringer to pass my ass.
And check me out with my elevation mask on the treadmill.
Here we go, man.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, here we go.
So I was thinking you had a long drive up here.
Yeah, and I was thinking if you had somebody that had to ride this trip
with you in the front seat, let's say you had a choice between
Joey Swall and Fred Durst.
Go.
Oh.
You have to pick one.
You got to pick one.
Who's rolling with you for eight days?
Now who's rolling?
Who's rolling?
Dude, you know the thing is, I don't.
I'm gonna get into this.'ll get into this is cool. Yes
I'll take Fred Durst oh really the guy you rather punch for it Wow, I thought you wanted to but I know why because at least he like
Has something has done something other than triple bicep curl in front of a fucking or triple bicep pose in front of a
camera and go boom
at least Fred Durst is like done something at least he's gone to other countries sold millions of
fucking records like yeah I mean the music's not good and he was really embarrassing but
at least he has at least he has that like yeah I guess the thing is is I've I've
You know what Joey swall I'm starting this war. It's whatever I
I really don't have any sort of feeling it doesn't I don't lose any sleep over it
But I kind of use them as an example of somebody that's being so heralded by this community And I just don't know for what yeah, right?
And you know people like always just such a good guy.
Really?
Because the couple of times I've tried to meet him, he's been a total fucking asshole.
And the last time my encounter was he was at Europa in Florida and walked by my booth
and the person that was helping me made eye contact with him, well through his glasses
that he's wearing inside.
And said, hey man, what's going on?
Enjoy just straight up cold shoulder to him and fucking walk right by.
And I'm just like, man, if this was me like 10 years ago, yeah,
like I would have just walked up to him and be like, you need to learn some
man.
You know what I mean?
And it's like, you know, it's like, it's like I said, I guess I just use
his and example, I don I just use his an example.
I don't wanna point him out.
It's just, that's what we're getting to.
We're getting to this glam celebrity ism
that is just unwarranted.
You know, causing a scene by hiring fucking camera crews
and security to walk you through a fucking,
an ex-position, like an expo,
which is just causing people to look that way.
It's for a fact.
Oh, absolutely.
People aren't fucking clamoring over each other,
hand over fucking fists, trying to get over to him
to make fucking, to get a fucking picture with him.
Yeah.
They're not.
And any of those people, to none of these people.
And if you're so fucking,
and this goes to all of these fucking cupcakes
that walk around this place, if you're so fucking, and this goes to all of these fucking cupcakes that walk around this place.
If you need fucking security,
you think you need security to walk through
a group of your fucking fans, then get the fuck out.
You're a pussy, right?
Then get the fuck out.
What is that?
Like, because you're contributing to this
masculine fucking industry, becoming pansy.
That's what it is.
Nobody needs security.
If you can't throw a fucking right hook That's what it is. Nobody needs security.
If you can't throw a fucking right hook to fucking protect yourself because you think
this kid that probably buys every supplement that you fucking push and it fucking likes every
picture and comments on every picture and puts you on like, fit inspiration things on their
Instagram.
If you think he's a threat that he's gonna come up,
if you're scared of him,
then you have other fucking issues, man.
It's just pathetic to me.
To me, it's pathetic.
I think it's only,
I mean, it's only a matter of time before.
I mean, let's be honest,
the company itself was built on social media.
It's not, it was.
You know, there's,
And you got to herald the brilliance of how they,
Oh, that's a good,
I've noticed.
I will be the first
i will be the first person to say what they're doing is absolutely brilliant
absolutely but i'm also the first person to say that i don't back it
that's that we were same way called your first record call the bull shit out
you know mad props to the guy at the top who smart enough manipulate the millions of
people that are falling right in the trap
but you know shame on you
yeah shame on you for not seeing it
yeah i just don't like it when people buy supplement.
I mean, the whole supplement industry in general,
you know, when they sell you on these false hopes
and kids are buying, I don't know,
I was one of those kids, man.
Yeah.
I've taken every supplement, you know.
Oh yeah, shit, we all did.
And you know, you see the guy on the picture,
the before and after, you totally believe
that that's really how we got, you know.
It's super ripped.
The movie, Bigger Fast faster, stronger needs to be watched
by everybody that wants to ever be anything in this industry,
or even you're just run of the mill,
ham and egg or weightlifter.
You have to watch that documentary.
Yeah, it's very revealing.
Open up your eyes to this industry.
And yeah, these people take supplements, they do,
because to get, if you wanna like,
a lot of these guys have to take, you know,
their macros, their macros are at like 500 grams
of protein a day.
If you think they're eating 500 grams of protein
in real food a day, you're crazy.
They're taking those, they're taking the shakes,
they're doing it, they're taking pre-workouts,
they're, you know, they're doing that stuff
with, they're doing other stuff.
That's not why they're doing other stuff.
That's not why they're funny.
And you know, the thing is, I'm not even saying for them by doing any of that stuff that
they're wrong.
I think that that side of the supplement world is becoming so prevalent now and so
less taboo, almost.
You know what I mean?
That I almost just feel like eventually
these exposures can be like pharmaceutical.
Yeah, right.
Well, I,
You comment on when you're a podcast,
you talked about Rich Pinho,
you know, and having respect for him.
I feel the same way too, like.
Cause he's open with it.
Yeah, cause he's real.
He's real about it and to each their own.
And if you want to look like that,
you want to look like that.
And you know, for sure. Better that, I'd rather see that
than somebody who puts on the front,
who lies,
who pushes all this other stuff
and markets all this.
Well, it's like my thing.
If somebody goes out of the way
to put on their Instagram
that, you know, all natural.
It means 100% your awesome shit.
You're awesome shit.
And in like with, with, with Rich,
it's like, you know, I look at his, his thing.
And I'm like, you know, at
least he's kind of doing something a little bit different and I back it.
Like, at least he is who he is and he's just fucking going for it.
Yeah, yeah.
You know, and I back it, I back that 100%.
I kind of feel like the rest of it is like this kind of, you know, paparazzi-ish kind
of driven, you of driven scene stuff.
And I just, I don't know, I'm sorry.
I guess I'm not sorry, but I mean,
like, you know, it's the thing is,
like if one of the dudes confronted me,
like, oh, yeah, I fucking heard of this podcast
and you were talking shit, I'm be like, yeah,
because I think what you're doing is fucking ridiculous.
And you might look at me and say the same thing about me
and what I'm doing is ridiculous,
or what my company's ridiculous.
You're entitled to your opinion. I'm not going to try to fucking fight
you over it. Well, I mean, to be honest with you, I think the fitness
industry is going in your direction. I see the tide move away. I see the tide
starting to move into the more real and CrossFit's a byproduct of that.
Yes. I do. And so I think you're going more, you're seeing more supplements that are,
focus on things like wellness, health, organic. You're seeing more people start to say things like,
oh, that, you know, most supplements are bullshit,
some are okay, but most of them crap.
You're seeing more people do the found,
those compound core lifts.
Oh, do you remember that?
It's moving in that direction.
You remember, I'm sure if you've been around gyms
and you were lifting in 24-arifinuses 10 years ago,
nobody squatted.
Nobody squatted, nobody dead,
we talked about crossfit bringing that back.
You know, that was, you never saw that anymore.
So we're definitely, we could just even put it in the way of like,
I mean, I obviously squatted and deadlifted in high school
for sports and stuff, but, you know,
when I kind of went on on my own and into the, started going to gyms after high school for sports and stuff, but when I kinda went on on my own
and started going to gyms after high school,
I didn't train legs for years.
Like years.
Curls for the world.
And I don't know if it was because of me saying,
I just really wanna have like fucking upper body size
and what's that, I mean, dude, when I graduated high school
and I went on tour, I wait, I remember getting on a scale
on a truck stop because I was poor as shit,
like eating out a trash cans poor.
And I weighed 125 pounds, okay?
I'm not a big guy, I'm 5'8",
and but I weigh 185 pounds, okay?
So, let me do some bro math really quick.
I'm gonna show you, 60 pounds lighter at one point.
But I was still going to the gym every day, but I never did legs.
And I don't think I ever did legs until I really started interning under people and really
said, you know what, I want to educate myself.
And I remember the first time I went to that trainer that I pretty much learned almost everything
from.
He just destroyed my legs.
And I remember being like, I remember for like a week,
I couldn't like walk, but I was like,
I was like, dude, that's what I need, this is what I need.
And he explained to me, and I know we're just going
off the rails here, but he explained to me,
he's like, listen, if you want an overall physique,
if you want your, even your upper body to change,
you gotta train legs.
He was right, 100%.
And 100%.
Like, I could never get abs. I mean mean I did mowing tie for for five years and you know
My kind of sparring weight open weight was 155. I still didn't have abs, you know
Until I started doing legs had abs because there's so much elements of your core that needs to be engaged when you're actually doing proper leg
Okay, what next very true
I got a question so okay, so I engage when you're actually doing property like this. Okay, what next? Very true. Yeah.
And on the next one.
I got a question.
Okay, so.
So I went on, you were on Wikipedia,
and I don't know, sometimes those things aren't accurate.
So, but it said something like your straight edge
or what does straight edge mean?
Exactly.
I have a vague idea of what that means.
Something about not doing substances
or not drinking, not smoking.
Yeah.
What is that exactly?
Straight edge for those that don't know what straight edge is.
It kind of got to ride from like the punk rock scene
and the, I guess it was like the late 70s, early 80s.
The term got coined by Ian McCoy,
who was a singer of minor threat.
He wrote a song called Straight Edge,
which was kind of like the outline of like what straight edge is.
I don't, you know, don't smoke, don't drink, don't fuck, right?
The don't fuck part never really stuck with a lot of dudes.
Yeah, I wonder what.
So that part was like the gray area of the whole thing.
Okay.
But the don't drink, don't smoke, don't do drugs,
kind of movement started.
And it was like, you know, and it was kind of like a lash out
towards society back then. You know, the whole thing is like, it's laid out like when you was like, you know, and it was kind of like a lash out towards society back then.
You know, the whole thing is like it's laid out.
Like when you're 18, you could buy your first pack of cigarettes
when you're 21, you can get into your first bar
and start drinking.
So it's like society laid out this path for you to follow
and sort of like the anti that or the antagonist of it
is the opposite.
Like I'm gonna be straight at it.
I'm gonna abstain from drugs from alcohol.
I wanna clear mine, clear living, and stuff like that.
And, I mean, that's just what it means.
That's fascinating because you see a lot of people do those things with the mentality
rebelling.
Yes.
And you guys did the same thing, but not doing those things.
And the way you explained it actually makes more sense.
It's more rebellious to not.
Well, think if you can go back into the hippie movement, if there were, like, more conscious of mind,
it might have accomplished a little bit more.
And I think that that's what the original
straight-up thing was derived from.
Also, you know, kind of fast-forward years,
past as Ian McCoy, originally got the idea
from none other than Ted Nugent.
Oh, wow.
He's never done anything in a whole lot of thing. He's an adiast thing guy, yeah. Never done anything. And he's a nice thing guy.
Yeah.
You know, he's always stayed clean.
And his whole thing was like, you got to keep your mind focused.
He's crazy.
He's crazy.
A lot of time.
I'm sure he doesn't need any chemicals.
You hunt no food.
You don't, you don't put any foreign substances in.
I was, I was listening to one of your podcasts and you talked about you
mentioned this being 120 pounds and poor and, and go into that.
And, you know, you also mentioned looking back and saying that,
you actually thought you were pretty ripped back then.
Do you remember, and I feel like we all have had this moment
where you look back and you're like, oh shit,
for example, I was sitting with my buddy
in their table, I actually had this old phone, right?
And we were going through these old ass pictures
that I used to send chicks thinking that I was looking fucking and I go like
Oh my god, bro. What was I fucking doing dude? I look like a fucking tool and a half you know
So when did you when did you would you notice so and did you do simple shit?
There's been like I gotta look you know, I look back all the time, but
I gotta look, you know, I look back all the time, but, and I don't know what it is,
but people love to tag me and post like Google images
that are really fucking embarrassing.
It's pretty rad.
It's pretty awesome of them.
But I remember when I first started going to Europe
in the early 2000s, like 2002, 2003,
photography's huge over there.
Like everybody wanna take pictures of the shows,
backstage, just and that.
But the whole thing was, everybody wanted my shirt off
for some reason.
And I don't really know why.
I was in good shape, I guess, for back then,
and not really ever having time to really dedicate
towards the gym.
I would fly over to Europe with like resistance bands
and like push up stands and stuff,
and like just kind of bang it out that way.
But I remember taking all these pictures and people like, man, like, you're in such
good shape. And I was in like metal hammer magazine with my shirt off like in 2003.
And I like look back at it. I'm like, the fuck was I doing?
I look like shit. Like I look like shit.
But I bet you didn't feel that way. Oh, I felt great.
That everyone's telling me that.
You know, the whole thing is like, you know,
I think the general just fit person has gone,
like the percentage has gone up incredibly.
That's true.
I like to tell people I kind of feel that fitness
is kind of like the new punk rock movement.
It's like the kind of, you know,
whereas we rephrase that,
the when punk kind of like gained its sort of like second,
maybe even third wind in like the late 90s
with like the green days and the blink when 82s
and all of a sudden like punk got big again,
it's kind of like, and then all the old bands got big again,
like you know, fucking black flags started selling records
again and stuff like that.
So I almost feel the fitness industry kind of got that way
where it was like, this is kind of like this subculture
kind of thing now.
It's not just like your mead head that goes to the gym
and it's kind of like normal people do this shit now.
It's kind of like a day to day, a thing of life.
And there's like clothing companies
and like kind of all this brand awareness with it.
It's kind of crazy.
But like, you know, like the shreds kind of vibe
is kind of like the Motley crew, right?
And like, and like the, and like kind of like,
kind of like, you know, like the rise above-ish type brands
are kind of like the return of like the black flags.
You know what I mean?
Where they all kind of kind of came up or I could say,
like, no, shreds is like molecule.
Shreds is more like the blink 180, too.
Like the new punk, and it's kind of bringing back
the old ethics with it, you know what I mean?
Where it's kind of like dirty.
Like if you look at the, if you watch the movie
pumping iron, right?
And it was just, which pretty much is another one
of those kind of like Bible, everybody needs
a lot of time.
I've only seen it a thousand times.
So, you know, you have Arnold that works out in the mecca,
you know, gold, gym, Venice Beach, but if really,
that shit was disgusting back then.
Like that gym was gross.
And you know, I've seen a lot of pictures and then
dude, that was gold.
It's not your golds now.
It's like, it was a dungeon.
It was a dungeon.
And you look where Lou Fregno trained,
like placing New York.
Oh, dude.
You had to like off-scope sideways
to move through the bridge.
You had to pass each other certain parts.
So that kind of vibe is coming back with like,
you know, with the inception of like the CrossFit thing
and even like gyms like Mayan,
and like even like Metro Flex and like in Long Beach.
It's like that warehouse, that fucking,
I'm coming into this place to train.
To do work.
To do work.
No, my first gym was in it, that I signed up for as a kid,
was in a warehouse like that, concrete floors,
like fucking roll up doors and shit.
That's awesome.
Fuck yeah dude.
That's awesome.
That was like my foundation.
It is, it's so, like, you're like a blue collar.
You're going to like a two-four now dude.
You're just like, this is gross.
Fuck, it's terrible dude.
I was gonna ask you, like, so are you influencing
other guys in the industry and metal
and other musicians to get in shape
and just being on tour and doing your workouts
and everything, like, I know, I know,
like, thinking off the top of my head,
I can think of like, dancing, you know,
when I think of like somebody that had a badass,
you know, persona on stage and like, you know, even like Tim
Lane Beesis, I remember he got fucking huge all of a sudden and then, which is kind
of funny because I actually found out about you guys clothing line and everything.
Yeah, that's cool. So I saw that and I was like, oh wow, what's this? And so that
kind of led me to, you know, find out about you guys.
A little sad story about Tim is funny.
Like we were actually talking about,
he was gonna wanted to open it, rise above down
in San Diego area.
Oh no shit, then like, you know,
a couple months later.
And he's happy and happy.
And I'm like, take some one day, I'm like,
dude, what's going on?
And he's like, I'm in some trouble right now.
And I'm like, fuck.
All right, well, you know, I'm not one of these dudes.
I realized that maybe you did something really shitty.
And what he did was really shitty.
Thank God nobody got hurt.
Yeah.
But I'm not one of these dudes
that's just gonna fucking turn my back on people.
That's cool.
I've seen way too many people turn their backs on me
for way less than that.
And it's a fucking lonely thing.
And people need people by their sides to go through shit like that, you know what I mean?
Yeah, so
Kind of reverting to your thing. I hope I can inspire people. I really got the idea of
Sort of like my next
Bleeding through at a good run 15 years, you know
It was sort of thing where and we always had such a loyal base, our shows were always good, we never had that fall off.
But it was tired, it was tiring.
I didn't want to tour eight months out of the year,
people were having kids in my band and stuff like that,
and it was harder to do it.
And so we're not gonna do it anymore.
We were always a full-bore band.
So when I was thinking, when I really realized that,
it was probably like 2010, and when we started touring in 2010, We were always a full-bore bands. So when I was thinking, when I really realized that,
was probably like 2010, and when we started touring in 2010,
we were still actively touring all the time,
and all these bands would be on the road with us.
And I started like doing these like parking lot workouts,
and I do them by myself.
And even like, members of my band did moway tie with me,
and we get focus midst, and we do like pads,
and like, we get sparring gear, and we'd like beat the shit out of us.
Dude, I was gonna say, what's up with metal
and beating the shit out of it?
It's like the best combo ever.
But the best was you would see these bands,
I would kind of clown you at first,
but go, what are you doing?
And then how did you do the tour?
Like, hey man, do you think I could get like,
yeah right, a couple months later,
you said that by the end of the tour.
But then by the end of the tour,
I'm like training like 10, 12 people in these bands
that are touring with us, and I'm like, well maybe I can...
Yeah, this is it.
Looks like a business.
This is it.
This is like something's calling to me.
This is the way that it's going to be and you know, music's all about that culture, right?
And I felt really empty with like, I didn't have a place, you know what I mean?
So I wanted to create my own. And I find them with my members.
It's like, you know what Jim has almost 250 members
and for a 5,000 square foot facility, it's pretty damn good.
And it's you come in there and people walk in
and you have like, grandma's and moms and slayer.
Slayer what?
And then you're just like, this is rad.
Yeah, that is way rad.
Because they're not like, what the fuck is this?
It's a like, it's like, okay, I embrace it.
I signed up for it.
Yeah, I signed up for it, you know?
And it's really cool.
And so I guess I think I hope I can inspire people.
I mean, Tim early on in the days when he was trying to get back into shape or into
shape, you know, he was hitting me up all the time.
And even like for me, like, you know, I'd hit up like Greg from like
Dillinger escape plan like back in the day and buddy, my mic all under the
sink for a band called Bert by the sun, kind of like a lesser known band.
I mean, as they're pretty big on the East Coast, but he was like a do that was all in the
body building for a while.
And I was like, you know, like, like your brain about it, you know.
And I always looked up to do is like Henry Rollins.
Yeah, I was going to mention Rollins, and it was a big inspiration for me.
And the thing is with that, it's like, I'm never going to be, I can't touch his jock,
you know what I mean?
But, if I can inspire some people to kind of get off their ass and do it, make them feel
like just because you're from that scene, you're from like the metal scene, and physical
fitness isn't really part of it.
In the mainstream, yeah, they'll be different going to the gym wearing instead of wearing like a shreds t-shirt.
They'll be wearing a fucking, you know, a suicide silence shirt.
Yes, but it's fine. It's cool. You know what I mean? Just do what you do. Yeah, it's it.
That's awesome, man. Yeah, so sick. Favorite lift, bro. You have a favorite lift.
Deadlift. Deadlift. All dead. Yeah. Yeah. You guys put your best lift. Strongest lift? Yeah, so sick favorite lift bro. You have a favorite lift that lift all day. Yeah
You guys what's your best lift now?
Strongest lift. Yeah, strongest that lift my strongest lift of all time was was 530 damn
I can't get back over 5 to save my life and stuck at 495 at 180 pounds at 180
So when I when I do get my my shit together start competing, I'm gonna start competing in powerlifting.
I'm gonna compete at 165.
I'd like to have a 550 dead, 450 squat, 350 bench.
Bench's a little bit of an issue with me
because I have like major shoulder issues.
Probably not lifting properly for years,
wearing tar on tour and trying to do Olympic lifts
and teaching myself back in the day.
So that's probably a big reason.
But I mean, those are my numbers I'd like to hit.
And yeah, I mean, I'm all about like the purity
of those lifts.
That's why I like powerlifting.
You know, I used to train a lot of people
that did like figure shows, bikini shows,
stuff like that.
And it's up to the judges.
I had people go up on a stage where even the crowd neck,
like, here's somebody next to me,
go, oh my God, that girl girl looks amazing and they would be like
Third call outs and then some girl that was just like
Straight off the fucking pole onto the stage
Dead giveaway, bro. That's true. Hey, she's wasting taking truth dead giveaway
I know dead giveaway that a girl was as a stripper and then a bikini competitor is when they do their turns
They click their
heels together like they were.
It's a dead giveaway and they do it and they get first and they don't even look like they
look like they basically did a bunch of blow and gone elliptical for three hours.
And it's up to the judges and it's so fucking corrupt.
Yeah, powerlifting.
You know, they're lifting more.
You don't.
The bars, they're coming up or it's not.
Yeah, you know what I mean?
And then there's some technicalities worked in there, but if you're more, you don't. The bars that are coming up, or it's not. Yeah, you know what I mean? And then there's some technicalities worked in there,
but if you're smart, you didn't even worry about it.
So, if you've had competitors,
how familiar are you with the world?
Because it's spot on what you're saying for sure.
I mean, it's a,
with a, you're talking about like bodybuilding?
Yeah, just all together.
You, one of the things that you're,
you've talked about, I've heard you talk about before,
are in our philosophy, so somewhere,
part of what got me into men's physique
and the way I came about it, I have turned down every sponsorship,
I've wanted to do all myself, no coach, no team, no nothing.
And it's really just to say because everybody told me
that you gotta play the political game,
if you wanna do this, and I don't give a fuck.
My attitude, I'm gonna come bring the baddest physique
every time I'm gonna make the judges have to put me
in a lower place and you're just gonna out, I all at the crowd fucking decide every time fuck you guys and trust me those other competitors are looking at you going
Oh fuck
But they're part of like team blades so they get like a fucking
$5 trophy
Yeah, my my very first show was the experience just like that
I didn't I took fourth place on my very first show, but backstage I got exactly the credibility
I needed which was all my peers asking me what I did.
You know, for sure, maybe your judges didn't give it to you.
Or they're like, dude, I don't get it.
What the fuck?
Yeah, I mean, you're like, well, I don't know.
I don't play the game.
Don't play the game.
Yeah.
So do you have any bikini or athletes
like that right now that you're doing?
I retired from the world of training female competitors,
one-on-one, like in person.
I'll do programs for people online, but one on one, it's too much of a, it's too much of
a, like you're, you're too much of like their boyfriend.
Oh yeah, it's very, very, very high maintenance.
Even if they have a boyfriend or a husband, you're still like the go to.
I don't, and day of the show, I just can't deal with it.
I have my own mental issues.
I've been out there saying, I'm bipolar.
So when I have to deal with something very similar
to bipolar due to starvation and hallucination and shit,
I can't deal because my brain's going back
and forth all fucking day.
I'm like, left, right, left, right, left, right. And like, if I have to deal because my brain's like going back and forth all fucking day I'm like left right left right left right and like if I have to deal with that like I'm not even gonna walk on
Steve
Really gonna stop your fucking feet now, too, cuz that's like the way that I would say like what like
What do you want me to say like what do you want me you look fuck? I look like shit. I'm fat. I look. I'm like. Oh my god
I can't deal with this you know what I mean like you can't pay me enough I have a deal I can't deal with this. You know what I mean?
You can't pay me enough.
I can deal with me saying that to myself in the mirror.
I say that to myself in the mirror.
Why did you eat a whole box of fucking cooking, Chris?
I'm doing it.
You said you did this appointment.
Now you're gonna do 50 minutes of pasta cardio.
I can't deal with it.
Hey, but you gotta laugh about it.
Yeah, you gotta laugh about the shit.
And that's my take on the whole thing.
Favorite type of client to train right now.
So if you do like teaching people powerlifts
or dealing with power lifters or the average person
or rehab, what do you like? I really like taking, powerlifters or the average person or rehab,
and what do you like?
What do you like?
I really like taking, I mean,
when I first got into this world,
I did a lot of rehab
because the person that I worked with
he rehabbed a lot of athletes.
So a lot of knees, a lot of hips, a lot of shoulders.
I love taking somebody that comes in right away
and says, I have this injury. I can't squat, I can't do this,
and I see that, and I'm just like,
challenge accepted.
You're gonna squat now by the end of today.
Nice.
And we go out there, and I love breaking it down
as fast as I possibly can with the least amount of cues
and seeing them do it. as fast as I possibly can with the least amount of cues
and seeing them do it. And if you're like, you know, chest up, hips back,
you know, straighten out your spine like,
eye level, let's keep your eye level right here,
first move, hips back, rotate your hips out
as you come up, squeeze your butt,
which makes you lead you to squeeze your butt naturally.
And they get that proper depth for the very first time and they're like, oh my god, that's what a squat feels like.
That actually doesn't hurt my hips that much at all.
Does it hurt my knees at all?
Yeah, my knee feels fine.
And then you're just like, that's great.
And then you see them, the progression of, you know, the bar 135, 215, you know, or 225,
315, 405, and then you're
getting into the fives and you're like, holy fucking shit.
And they're stoked.
And they're with you for life after that, dude.
And when they're not, that's when it hurts, though.
That when they're just like, I haven't heard from this person.
They just canceled their credit card payment to the gym.
And instead of telling me they don't want to train with me
anymore, it's like, I'm out of here, you know.
Is that funny how clients do that?
God, man.
It's like, you know what it is.
You don't want to show a relationship.
It's like a break it is.
You start this relationship with people
because they feel bad.
And they feel probably a little bit,
maybe embarrassed because of a certain reason,
but I like to tell people that you know what,
life happens.
I understand money issues.
I get it.
If you can't pay me, if you can't do this,
let's figure out another option.
But just talk to me.
Just talk.
Don't disappear on me and make me fucking text you like three times.
I feel like a creeper.
And feel like I'm just like, not the fucking cool kid at school anymore.
You know what I mean?
Like, you know, I don't want to feel like that.
Yeah.
Do you see, like, you're now going through your apparel?
When you're in your band and you're still in merch and everything,
do you see like that paralleling now to helping your apparel company now
as far as like knowledge of like...
Well, do the crazy thing is, is I started this apparel company just for my members
and then all of a sudden people online wanted it and I started making some shirts
and really the first time we said, okay, we're an actual apparel company now
was Olympia last year and we did a booth and we're like, okay, we're an actual apparel company now was Olympia last year.
And we did a booth and we're like, fuck, we like sold everything.
And the thing was, the vibe was the same as my gym.
It's like when you walk into the gym, you either feel the vibe and you like it or you don't.
With the clothing company, it's like you either like the fact that it's not outrageous.
It's not like full of like, you know, meme sayings that are gonna be dead
in like three months. It's very like stark. Like people walk by are like, I have boothing
go, oh my god, you have black. Yeah. Like we've dabbled in the neon shit. Yeah, definitely
has a different vibe to it. But it has that vibe, you know, and I think that's helped
because it kind of coincides with the gym. But you know, it's kind of crazy is vibe, you know? And I think that's helped because it kind of coincides with the gym.
But you know what's kind of crazy is like,
you know, first we were like,
the gym that had a clothing company.
Now it's like, more people know about the clothing company
than the actual gym.
Like, I have friends and people say,
dude, I saw like, four people wearing a Reservoir
finish shirt at 24 hour,
which is literally around the corner from my gym.
Oh, I've seen a ton of them.
And they're just like, and they'll walk up and be like, dude, why don't you go to like the gym? Like, they have a, there's a corner from my gym. Oh, I've seen a ton of them. And they'll walk up and be like,
dude, why don't you go to the gym?
They have a, there's a rise up of gym.
Yeah, dude, you can hit it with a fucking baseball for me.
So it's cool though.
It's taken on its own form.
It's kind of like the thing of like,
it's about 50, 50 now, the people that will come approach me
in public either from my gym or the fitness thing.
It's like a 50-50 thing like, oh, your brand is from Reisbord fitness or your brand
you're brand from bleeding through.
Now it's 50-50 where it was always like bleeding through and you have this other thing.
And that's kind of like what I want.
I want that balance.
Music isn't dead.
I'm not like throwing it away.
Right.
You're working on something new, right?
I'm working on something new right now. And also, like my whole kind of vision with it is,
you know, all these clothing companies
are going after your stereotypical bikini competitors.
And we have those people that rep us to,
but I want musicians, you know, I want like,
there's some fucking music, really in-shaped musicians
out there that are inspiring a lot of people.
Oh shit, that's a great, Mark.
That's a great, great, great niche.
It's huge.
And I'm probably just giving away my trade token secrets right here. Right. You can own it, man
The other else is there
Doug said here first. Yeah, you said if you do it, you're dead
We'll come after you that and wrestling
Wrestling. Yeah, interesting
Which kind of leads me back to like when I was a kid I
It kind of leads me back to like, when I was a kid,
I never, I didn't get more excited in my life than like when WrestleMania and Summerslam
and fucking ultimate warrior was on my team.
Oh, ultimate warrior!
And when I got to like, me,
ultimate warrior and he came to my gym
and filmed some of my pilots for his show
that he tried to do years ago,
was like, if you would have told me that,
I would have got an email from the warrior.
I, like when I was a kid, I'd be like, you're fucking, I'll just kill me right now. If you were to told me that I would have got an email from the warrior.
Like when I was a kid, I'd be like, you're fucking, yeah, I'll just kill me right now. You'll say, I made it like it.
I've made it right now.
It's made it like it's time.
Just kidding.
That happens.
There's only two more people that I, here is a mind that I've yet to meet and that's
Arnold and so that's just alone and I have to meet them, I have to.
But, you know, and so kind of going back to that, I'm like, well, WWE is huge.
It's fucking huge.
Oh, it's massive.
It's huge.
They came here to San Jose.
Yeah.
They came here to San Jose and I swore to God, man, it was more of a motion over that than,
you know, we've had, you know, Beyonce come out.
We've had, you know, huge acts.
And WWE just was, it's crazy.
It's the only thing that rivals the Super Bowl, bro.
Yeah.
It's, and that rivals the fucking Super Bowl.
And what's different about those celebrities and athletes,
and they are athletes.
The shit they take out.
Oh, yeah, I don't care.
It is staged.
It's cryptic.
But that doesn't mean they're not freaking doing crazy shit.
They're at the same time.
Yeah, exactly.
Brett Farbs books a great book.
I've read that book.
It's a great book.
If you've never read that, I need to read it.
Oh, it's great. I'm a bear's fan. I hate his great book. I've read that book. It's a great book. If you've never read that, I need to read it.
Oh, it's great.
I'm a bear's fan, I hate his guts, but I'll...
But anyway, so awesome.
So what I'm saying, like wrestling, like right now we're working with Rosa Mendes and
she's kind of taking on like, she's going to be taking on more of like a role with Rise
of a Fitness and maybe get some more guys in it and we've hooked up a couple guys with
the stuff and the thing that's different about them, then versus like if you wanna sponsor somebody in the NFL,
is there are social media is different
than like a, and it is a social media driven world right now.
So you have to play that game.
As much as I fucking absolutely hate it,
it's a necessary evil, but those WWE people,
they post a lot,
and they post in the shirts, and they say stuff about it.
Whereas NFL guys and Major League guys,
you really don't get to see them too much in the peril.
You know what I mean?
Yeah, they kinda shy away a lot.
Yeah, it's like, you know, I've sent stuff to like
Anthony Rizzo, who plays first space for the Cubs,
and it's all like, you know, like,
you post it cool, if not cool.
But most of his shots are him and the clubhouse
or him on the field. You know what like, you post it cool, if not cool. But most of his shots are him and the clubhouse are him on the field.
You know what I mean?
So it's hard.
A lot of those guys don't even do their own social media.
They've got somebody who's very true.
Yeah, very true.
Most of them just have someone else to do it.
And they only do it because they're agent.
I have a buddy who's actually an agent
that's part of what his job is.
Of course he's.
He's team of social media.
Yeah, and he's constantly telling them,
you need to do more of this, you need to do more of that.
And then, eh, whatever you do. Well, I'm making fucking millions of dollars on the fucking field. I need to get on my telling them, you need to do more of this, you need to do more of that. And then, eh, whatever you're gonna say.
Well, I'm making fucking millions of dollars
on the fucking field, I need to get on my social media, you know?
I mean, we did that with the band.
I mean, when the band was first going on,
it was friends through, then it was my space,
then it was Facebook, right?
And I always did it on social media
because I just didn't like other people to fucking do it.
They took a lot of part out of my day,
but if I wanted things to be done
and have that carry that vibe,
I was gonna have to do it myself.
You know?
Yeah, it's funny, because I was partnered up with Adam and when we first started getting
going with, you know, our business and shit, we were like looking around to see, you
know, who are the major players or everything, we got to introduce the shreds and all that
but then, you know, and then I actually found, you know, you're on that pretty early as
far as like, you know, the rise above fitness
and everything, like I was watching a lot of like,
interaction you guys have of early.
Oh, you shared his company with me.
Yeah, I was like, wow, look what these guys are doing over
a year ago.
Well, I remember you liked his, just the clothing line
in general, you just said this is sick,
and check out his stuff.
I was a little bit, I was a little bit late to Instagram.
I didn't get it.
I was a little bit late to Twitter Instagram. Facebook, get it I was a little bit late to Twitter Instagram Facebook. I was very
I still don't tweet very well. Yeah, my tweets are like if you want to follow me on Twitter
I'm a way better follow on Twitter than Instagram because I
It's I'm like that athlete that like think before you tweet it and like nope
I just let it fly. I'm like, oh man.
Yeah.
But we're relatively new to it.
And like I said, it's a necessary evil.
There's so many tricks to it.
And so much of it doesn't add up, right?
Like even my personal page, I have 30,000 followers or something like that.
It's not like I get fucking thousands of likes every picture. I mean, I get 1,000, 2,000 once in a while, but your average picture,
whatever. And even then, it like doesn't add up because I feel like there's a lot of people
that just think they need to follow me that don't actually want to. And it's all about
the quality of the follower. In my mind, it's the quality of the follower because there
are people out there that are like,
this person has 100,000 followers, I'm gonna follow them.
And that's why it just keeps building.
But they don't actually really want to follow that person.
Yeah, they don't read, I call people out.
Yeah.
That actually don't read what I put under,
and they just, they like, and then they'll ask a stupid question.
I'm like, if you fucking read the comment,
I fucking explain that.
You like my picture because of a shirt's off
or some bullshit.
There's a lot of broken things.
And then you're gonna ask me a question
that all you had to do is read the fucking caption.
Well, there's a lot of robots on there too.
Like you'll get a random comment that's like,
like your style or what?
What?
This has nothing to do with that picture
that I just got with it.
It was great.
Love your pics. Love your picks.
Love your dick.
Yeah.
Basically, so, I mean, we don't play that game.
We don't go like spam people's pages with comments and she like that.
If you like us, you like us cool.
Like, our company does well.
Like, it does well.
For the amount of followers we have, I think we probably outperform
if you're looking at
and that sort of like cyber metrics.
Yeah, like engage me in all that.
Yeah, it's like we outperform it.
And then there's a million other companies
that flash up and they have like 200,000 followers
and 5,000 likes and I'm like,
I've never fucking heard of this company.
And when you hashtag it,
nobody's actually wearing their shit.
Yeah.
They're like following it.
They're like following it.
Or they're just fake companies. Or their companies that sit on Instagram all day and like pictures. Like, like, like, like. They're like following it. Or they're just fake companies.
Or their companies that sit on Instagram all day and like pictures, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like What their first form is following their fucking oh, yes totally what the fuck do watches Bentley's we can get away to
Farms have to do a fucking protein. What does it have to be part of our family? Why why be part of your family?
So they're they're one of the companies that came after me right so I unfortunately now nobody really comes after me because I've gotten
This stigma about me that Adams and asshole and he turns down all I see but I so it's so inaccurate. It's not no fucking nice guy about it
But I just I explained to them like no, I'm not gonna fucking rep your ship first
Well, I don't I don't believe it and no I'm not gonna do it for some 10% bullshit commission
That makes no fucking sense when I go out and go buy it at wholesale and flip it for fucking sell it for double that
This makes no sense to me and then and I always tell them like and I and I let him down
I don't say it like that.
I actually let him down and say,
you know, hey, I'm actually,
I do all my own stuff and we build this and we do that.
We do that and it's just,
it's not my thing, it's that good look with that.
This is a fuck you, bro.
Oh, little jab there at the end, right?
Fuck you, because I,
you're just everybody else,
because everybody else wants to be on your fucking,
on your fucking jock so bad.
I don't give a shit.
Like I can't stand people that put up in their fucking things,
like looking for sponsor.
Looking for sponsors, like, and that's all want to carry some products and, you know,
I like these companies, I like these products and I write these emails and I was just, you
know, very like my name is Brandon Shapetti.
I own this company called Rise Up of Fitness and, you know, you could check us out on here.
I own this gym and I really like your product and I'm not asking for anything for free.
And I always put it in there. I'm not asking for anything for free. And I always put it in there.
I'm not asking for a handout.
I'm asking to start some sort of a relationship with your company, whether it's selling the
product at my gym using the product and maybe getting to that point where you find it
necessary to give me free stuff.
I was shot down by fucking everyone and the emails were hilarious.
They were so like, here's the link to our website. I know where you're fucking
website is. I buy your shit already. You know what I mean? So it's like, and then it
was the, oh, all of a sudden I'm getting emails from all these people forgetting
that I reached out to them in the beginning.
And so I got to return the favor with the video.
Yes.
Yes.
And that was the best feeling ever because I am the biggest chip on my shoulder guy.
I will carry grudge till the day I fucking die.
And but now it's now I get to the point where it's like there's companies that are like, we'll pay you this.
I've never been a, I've never been a person that's been bought.
I was never bought with music.
Probably was a reason why we never really got to
that level, like slipknot level.
I never played that game.
There's too much of a punk ass.
I was too much of like a Newport Beach fucking punk kid
that just wanted everybody else to fucking suffer.
You know what I mean?
And like,
guess it's full of angst.
Just full of angst.
And I guess I just carry that with me, right?
And so when companies started reaching out to me,
like, hey, you know, we really love what you're doing.
We really love the vibe and we love this and we love that.
And you know, we really love you to rep our company.
We all were offering you this boom.
And I'm like, nah, you know, just nah.
And I still to this day, like I've rep some companies,
you know, I worked with Muscle Farm for a little bit,
RSP and right now, I'm working with this company
called Purist Labs, small company.
I guess not really that small, they do really well,
but they manufacture their own shit.
He knows what goes in his product
and he's really smart about it.
And I love, I actually love the product.
You know, so I'm not like,
and he's not paying me,
but if someone comes up to me and is like,
hey, what do you think I should take him like,
there's this company called Purist Lab
that is doing it right.
They're doing it right.
And so, I don't, I just find it,
if I find it just really,
it's too much pressure if I have to like post for other people.
You know what I mean?
Especially if you don't believe in it.
Yeah, and it's like then you start getting emails from people.
It's already enough work to do it for yourself, right?
And I still know that I'm just time in the day.
You know, and I sit around wondering all the time
how these people have so much time in the day
to just do what they do and put what they put out there.
You know what I mean?
It's crazy.
And it's like I said, it's like, it's like in a bathroom pick.
That's like the amount of content you're going to get.
It just kind of leads us back to what we originally started with, like what I feel about
this industry.
Well, if you're looking at celebrityism being based off the amount of followers that a person has on Instagram.
Any girl that's willing to go to about that level has a couple hundred thousand followers.
Easy.
Easy.
Okay.
I have friends that are from the porn industry, all right.
So I've gone to porn expose before.
Why not?
Yeah.
It's life.
Let's live it.
Sounds like a good time.
Fitness expose.
Pretty close. Our close to almost worse. No. Life, let's live it sounds like a good time. Fitness expos
are close to almost worse. No, that's true. I'm see girls are wearing more
Okay, porn at porn expos then fitness expose. It's true about now Maybe now with the porn industry is kind of like well these fitness expos are going on
We gotta go naked. We gotta go naked. We gotta go naked. We gotta go with cream because we need it.
I can't wait to see like a bunch of pussy.
Yeah.
All right, you're gonna stand there.
You gotta be rock solid.
We're gonna put a cock rig on.
You can't wear shit.
We're gonna whip pre-men.
Wow, I haven't even been to an expo yet.
This is gonna be interesting.
Are you going to your first one?
Yeah, Marlon.
You know what, from what I understand though,
the same thing. The one is actually kind of mellow.
Yeah, so there you go, okay.
I'm curious to see what it'll be like this year,
last year it was, but they predicted
to be pretty big this year.
Some show the attendance will be pretty well.
The one in LA, the attendance doubled this year.
Wow, it's great.
And it was like something like 80,000 people.
We went to the Arnold in Ohio and set up
and they clocked over 100,000 people through the door. That was my first one was the Arnold in Ohio and set up and they clocked over a hundred thousand people through the door
That was that was my first one was the Arnold it was I remember was it was like snow outside
It was freezing coldly go inside and dudes are wearing like little string top bikini, you know a string top
You know tank tops and chicks are wearing almost nothing. That was a long time
Like yeah, it was yeah, it's crazy. I went a long time
I did I mean I've been around it for for so long and now to the last four years, it's like fucking
throttled down.
It's crazy.
It's compounding.
I mean, it was like since Arnold's movement, right, whenever, like it's been like this,
you know, slow climb.
And then all of a sudden, it just the last four or five years between social media and
the whole bikini and men's physique thing come in.
And like, I mean, it just went to a bikini and men's physique thing come in and like I mean it just went to a bikini
and men's physique and people talk trash on all the time and I'll even be one of them to kind of
poke fun at it. But dude it brought like bodybuilding shows back which help the fitness industry. I
don't oh yeah because bodybuilding is like what it's this is it's what it's based off of let's
let's get real. But I remember 10 years ago going to bodybuilding shows, and I do this is like sad.
It was would be like an amphitheater, right?
Yeah, I mean, this little amphitheater, like a high school, a half-hours work.
It's turned into a production again.
Oh, I think it's really fucking cool.
It is cool.
I mean, you know, it's good.
I mean, it's corruptive shit, but fuck, man.
You know what, that's what I love about it, though.
So here's what's crazy.
So I'll give you a little backstory on,
because you haven't listened to these podcasts.
I've talked about this. So I'll give you a little backstory on because you haven't listened to these podcasts. I've talked about this
so I would I fell out of shape I
actually
Started to medical marijuana clubs first ones in San Jose, okay, and totally out of my field
I've been a finish been in finis for over 13 years and I did that because I had a client who had all the
Buck backing he saw how I ran my facility and he's like dude
I want you to manage these and I don't know fucking shit about marijuana
Dude you really want I see the way you are with your people you'll figure it out this and that and you offered me amount of money He saw how I ran my facility and he's like, dude, I want you to manage these things. I don't know fucking shit about marijuana, dude.
You really want to, I see the way you are with your people.
You'll figure it out this and that.
And he offered me amount of money.
I couldn't say no to.
So I did that long story short.
I got really fat and was the worst shape I've ever been and I'm 30 years old.
And I was always the skinny kid.
So I was built very similar frame like you and I couldn't put size on and I was very,
very lean.
And clients, you always tell me like, oh, you're, you know, that's just your body, your
genetics and your this and your that and your young and wait
till you get older.
And so here I get into this marijuana thing, I get tired of it after about two years and
I miss fitness and I want to get back into fitness and I'm worse shape in my life.
And it's at the same time all the social media shit's going bananas.
I am fucking anti Facebook, anti Instagram, anti all this shit, right? But I see what's going bananas. I am fucking anti Facebook, anti Instagram, anti all this shit, right?
But I see what's going on and I'm okay, okay, I'm a little fascinated in that there's
people making money off of these people that just follow them and they're nobody special
and I know some of these people. There's nothing fucking special about this kid, you know?
And if he can do that, why can't I do this on top of everything else I already do? So
I've said, okay, I'm going to take myself in the worst shape of my life and I I'm going to put myself in the best shape of my life, and I'm in my 30, so
now I can fucking show everybody, right? So I do a whole YouTube and Instagram document
and documentary and do all this stuff, build this huge following. So that's where it all
came from. Well, I go from like 19% body fat down to 7% body fat. Well, I'm down at 7% body
fat. I'm like, this is the best shape I've ever been in my life fat while I'm down at 7% body fat
I'm like this is the best shape of ever been in my life and I'm like well fucking amazing
I'll take the next level this whole mince physique thing and everything's blown up
I've never really wanted to be a bodybuilder
It just seems so far out of reach for me and I have too many things in my hand to try and build a physique that big
Nor do I want to take that many antibiotics so I'm like okay
I don't that but this mince physique thing I could do that you know that's kind of my frame
I can build a frame like that.
And so I'm like, you know, let me do this.
So I do it and I get into my first show
and I'm just so fascinated by all the bullshit.
I'm just like, holy fuck, this industry is like exploding
and it's a bunch of idiots that are running it.
And a bunch of idiots are making good money.
And I saw a huge opportunity.
Oh, I saw a huge opportunity
and I remember calling this guy,
and then we came back up with this guy,
like we just, I was like, dude, there's this huge market,
and it needs somebody like us to come in
and fucking call the bullshit.
Call the bullshit out, put it out there,
how it what it is, and I'm gonna do it through men's physique,
and then this later evolved later on,
but that's how it all started.
So I've been like the, I'm the fucking,
and every, I'm like the, that's where we love
to hate Adam, came from the name,
is that, you know, it's a love to hate relationship
with me, is that, you know, get hate me
because I'm gonna fucking call it as it is,
and I'm gonna be completely opposite of it.
So we need truth, and that's kind of the thing of why
when I kind of like saw like, okay,
what is my next calling?
I felt that the fitness industry needed a punk ass like me.
You know what I mean?
It's like, you know, when I got into it,
there wasn't really tattooed people.
First year I walked around Olympia, people were like,
looking at me like, who the fuck is this guy?
Who's the biker guy?
Who's this guy that's wandering in here?
You must be fucking lost, right?
Freak shows in town, right?
So, but now it's like, you know, it's kind of the norm, really.
And it's the same thing.
It's like, there needs to be people that call it
for what it really is.
Or it's just going to spiral down that rabbit hole
and just get worse.
It'll just be a bubble.
It's a burst.
That's one of the things that, like, I I just want to just I just always say it's like
just because someone has that many followers on Instagram does not make them a celebrity.
That's just if you're listening to this, that is like the one thing.
They have a hundred billion followers on Instagram because it is their job.
It is their job to get it.
That many followers.
And if you dedicated all your fucking waking hours
to getting it done, you would have that as well.
And if business opportunities come for them,
because of it, because of marketing, it's marketing.
It's not because they really like you.
It's because here's this guy, 200,000 followers.
We put our fucking product on them. Of course. Our fucking sales go up. It's not because they care about you, it's because here's this guy, 200,000 followers, we put our fucking product on them.
Our fucking sales go up.
It's not because they care about you or like you.
It is because you are a marketing chip to them.
That's it.
And you feed it.
These people feed it.
And it's, I look at that person I want,
and I just talked about this yesterday.
I look at people like that, and I'm like,
an inspiration to me is someone that, like,
it is about the story. You know what I mean? I like back stories. Fuck you. But an inspiration to me is someone that like, it is about the story.
You know what I mean?
I like back stories.
Fuck you.
But an inspiration to me is someone that like,
built something from like nothing.
Fuck you.
And an Instagram following, I'm sorry, it's not something.
It's just not.
It's just, it's not real.
It's just not real.
It's not real.
There's a lot of people out there with 300,000 followers who don't do anything with it.
Also, that's all they have.
And that's almost...
There's no more sacks.
That's popular.
That's because spending all the waking hours of the fucking day, not to get paid.
That even trumps the jolly swallows.
At least jolly swallows make it a couple bucks.
And the thing with me, it's like these people that have the biggest following ever
and they put in their head and like entrepreneur,
but like they don't own any companies
like they or their own brand, which is fine.
I guess it's like you said I'm an entrepreneur.
I don't like to call myself one,
even though I do own five companies.
I'm just a dude that does stuff.
Yeah.
And it's like if I want something to be done and if I want to do it, I'm just a dude that does stuff. Yeah. And it's like, if I want something to be done
and if I want to do it, I'm just gonna do it.
It's just, I kind of feel that the entrepreneur label
has been woefully diminished by people that are like,
I have a thousand followers on Instagram.
I'm an entrepreneur.
And now I have this supplement company.
I'm an entrepreneur.
No, you're not.
No, you're like the good.
Wow, I haven't heard that.
You're like the A-von lady selling makeup.
You call themselves an entrepreneur.
You're not an entrepreneur.
You work for A-von.
I mean, you know, that's the same thing.
Yeah, I mean, I've never been a person to want to work
for anybody other than myself.
And, what, I mean, look at me.
What am I working a fucking bank?
Not gonna, like, you know what I mean?
I used to scream into a microphone
and eat out a trash cans
and now I just wanna fucking lift weights
and sling t-shirts.
And that's just what I'm gonna do, you know?
And if something else sparks my interest
that I wanna get into next
and I have some things that are definitely in the works
that I don't wanna like totally divulge into
because I think they're unique ideas.
I'll do it, but I'm just, I'm just, it's like that movie,
Pain and Gain, I'm a doer.
I'm just a doer.
You fuck yes.
I'm not a donter, I'm a doer.
I'm a doer.
Let's kill that.
Right there, bro.
Right there.
How are we doing on time, Dad?
Are we good?
I have.
We're seven months. All right, bro. Hey, we appreciate having you on, man.
No worries, man. This is a blast. There needs to be more.
We'll do. We'll do. We'll do. We'll do. We're a total like thinker, man.
We appreciate. We'd have to come back. Where is that? You look at, where's your,
you at a studio? Where do you record out of my gym? Well, that's the thing.
It's like I have it. I just moved into a new facility in Huntington Beach.
And that's where my gym's at.
It's in Huntington, North Huntington, so it borders Long Beach, Cyprus,
West Minister, other cities.
I mean, we get clients out from even hours away,
but I keep everything really contained.
I mean, we still do a peril out of one of the offices
in there as a peril office,
and then we just have our racks up and we pull, pull and we just we're really smart with our ordering and stuff
We don't like to keep too much stock we keep things minimal
And right now I'm just doing the the podcast out of my my office and
I'm actually building a studio. It's another venture that I'm kind of getting into it is more like production executive producing recording
And putting bands out.
And we're starting this, I'm starting this business with a couple of friends of mine.
And I'll be doing the podcast out of the studio.
So we'll come see you, man, because we're going to be going down there probably soon.
That'd be fantastic.
I mean, it's funny, like when I actually have like people like over for podcasts and, you
know, we sit in my office and they're like, who, where's the podcasting?
I'm like, right here, right here.
It's like, right, watch this.
I record. Bro, we were out of the livinging? I'm like, right here. Right here. It's like, I'm here to watch this.
I record.
Bro, we were out in the living room.
That's where we, this is cool.
Yeah, we were in, this is just,
it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just,
it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just,
it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just,
it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just,
it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just,
it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just,
it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just,
it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just,
it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just,
it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just,
it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just,
it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's
it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's
just, it's just, it's just, it's just,? You're getting it done. And it's like kind of a reverse back to,
I'm sorry if I'm holding this up,
but it kind of reverts back to like this industry.
It's like, it's very fake until you make it, you know?
And fuck that, it irritates me.
And like, I've gone to small business seminars
before and one of the things I tell you is
you got to exute success to become successful.
And I think that's bullshit.
Yeah. Because most people take that,
I'm gonna project success so much
that it turns me into this fucking douchebag.
They're entitled to that.
Yeah, and then it does bring that business
and God damn it, that sucks.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I personally think you gotta work hard.
No, we're bringing it the other way, bro.
Between all of us, I believe we'll make the movement.
And I'm not saying this music is so like tainted,
or this music, this industry is so tainted,
because the music industry is actually
reverted back to more of like an underground feel.
And I kind of think the fitness industry,
these slaps will be fucking washed away.
Like my friend Jim said, you know, he's been in this industry.
He has one of the biggest selling fitness books, I guess,
like that's ever been fucking written, and he's done it himself.
And he's just like, they're flashing the pan, they'll be gone.
And it's true.
They'll be gone.
It's true.
All right, man, thanks for coming, bro.
Yeah, party.
Yeah, man.
Thank you for listening to Mind Pump.
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