Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 1015: Mike McCastle- Four-Time World Record Holder & Acclaimed Performance Coach

Episode Date: April 22, 2019

In this episode, Sal, Adam and Justin speak with Mike McCastle, a four-time world record holder who performs amazing feats of strength and performance.  In 2015 he shattered the Guinness World Record for 'Most Pull-ups in 24 hours' by completing 5,804 pull-ups, all while wearing a 30 pound pack! Mike is the founder of the Twelve Labors Project, a charitable initiative driven by a purposeful mission to push the limits of human potential in hopes of inspiring others to explore their own capacity for greatness. What exactly does he do right now for business? (3:00) How does he cue the general population to do an exercise? The importance of maximizing their value. (7:26) Has tension training played an important role in the feats he has done? (11:01) Why with most methods, he does them on himself first. (12:55) You either use it or lose it: The benefits of end-range training. (15:57) The early mistakes he made as a trainer. Why soreness doesn’t equal progress. (17:52) His ‘Train often, test seldom’ mentality.  (19:18) The extraordinary feats of strength and performance he has performed, finding meaning in your suffering & MORE. (21:03) Where did he develop his ‘unbreakable’ mentality? (32:31) How part of being strong is being authentic with yourself and knowing your abilities. (35:22) The defining moment in his life where he made a conscious decision to quit. (37:10) The ‘Twelve Labors Project’: How sometimes the most unreasonable decision matters the most. (39:45) How pain is a tool, not the focus. (47:33) The ‘labors’ he has completed explained. (50:04) What does the internal conversation look like when he experiences a ‘bump in the road’? (1:00:30) Why true excellence is not attainable, it’s about the pursuit. (1:04:56) Featured Guest/People Mentioned Mike McCastle (@mikemccastle)  Instagram/Twitter YouTube Twelve Labors Project David Goggins (@davidgoggins)  Instagram Sanjay Rawal (@mrsanjayr)  Instagram Zach Bitter (@zachbitter)  Instagram Related Links/Products Mentioned April Promotion: MAPS Split ½ off!! Code “SPLIT50” at checkout Mind Pump Live Q&A StrongFirst: The School of Strength The Naked Warrior - Book by Pavel Tsatsouline Mind Pump 992: Sanjay Rawal Mind Pump Free Resources

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mite, op, mite, op with your hosts. Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. I get surprised oftentimes with some of our guests. I didn't know who this guy was that much. All I knew was he had broken the Guinness book of world records, up record he beat David Goggins and killed it here's the thing I've I've gotten a ton of messages about David Goggins and I don't have anything against him it's just kind of different his message not a big fan of the like just kill it type

of mentality but doesn't mean that I don't believe in pushing the body to extreme. So there's this like fine line of like How I like to present a message like that and I was introduced to Mike McCaswell like maybe I don't know six months after I had heard of David Goggins and I'd actually dove into both their stuff So I read a bunch of Mike stuff I'd read a bunch of David's listen to some interviews that they both had done And I just really like the way that Mike presents this information. And you can tell because he's an experienced trainer.

He's a personal trainer. He's a trainer's trainer. And he's been one for a very long time. Smart dude, knows a shit, but also incredible, incredible feats of physical performance. Check this out, 24 hours. This guy did 5,804 pull ups. Okay, but that's not all-

Let that sink in. That's not all, well, you're here in this episode or some of the other even more crazy and insane verified physical feats. This episode is fascinating. We fell in love with this guy. He's a great dude, smart guy, knows his shit and he's got a great message. If you wanna check out some of the videos videos of him doing some of this crazy stuff, you can find them on YouTube.

It's Mike McCasal, MC, C-A-S-T-L-E, his Instagram and Twitter is at Mike McCasal, and the website that you can find some of this stuff. He's doing something called the 12 labors. These are 12 feats of physical performance. These are 12 world records, bro. In same thing. Yeah, he's going after 12 world records. He already owns four and we talk all about the four in the episode. It's such a great episode. That's right. The website is he's a champion. 12 laborsproject.com and he raises money

for really, really good causes when he does this. to see the other reason why I really like him. So you're gonna enjoy this episode. Also, before we get into it, I wanna tell everybody, remind everybody that MapsSplit is 50% off. This is our BodyBuilder program. It is advanced. It's half off.

Here's what you do. Go to mapssplit.com, M-A-P-S-S-P-L-I-T, dot com, use the code split50 for 50% off, S-P-L-I-T, five, zero the code split50 for 50% off S-P-L-I-T, 5-0 for the discount. And if you want to check out our other maps programs and find one that may be more suitable for you, your experience and your goals, go to mapsfitinistproducts.com.

So that's it. Here we are talking to Mike McCasal. Mike, I made a total asshole move and just started asking you questions about what you do for business Because that wasn't really originally the direction I was gonna take you But then you started to share some of what you do and I was like oh fuck that's really interesting I didn't mean to sound rude by saying like I'm not interested in you, but I want it I want the audience to hear you talk about this

So what is it exactly that you do right now for business? so Well, thanks for having me on your show So what is it exactly that you do right now for business? So Well, thanks for having me on your show. Yeah, no problem. Good to be here. I'm a strength coach I've been a strength coach performance coach for the last decade or so. I did it while I was still in the Navy So it was kind of like two jobs at once kind of building my craft on the side with intentions to you know kind of get out and transfer into this field I work with athletes mainly building my craft on the side with intentions to kind of get out and transfer into this field. I work with athletes mainly, triathletes, rugby athletes, explosive athletes and endurance athletes, mountaineering, you know, you name it. I just work the broad range, work with the broad range of athletes. I also work at, you know, Amazon Web Services. I do kind

of a fitness class with them. Amazon and Amazon web services, they've kind of started to develop this kind of culture of fitness. They realize the impacts of exercise has on, you know, productivity and just overall stress management, especially that culture is super important. So they brought me in to kind of kind of start that program over there. What does that look like? That's what I'm really intrigued about right now. Well, it's really, it's a combination of, you know, it's a combination of just the breathing techniques coupled

with a lot of body weight. It's like body weight strength, right? Things that they can do at home or if they get a breakthrough out the day is basically focusing on like max tension and release max tension and release recovery between hard max efforts with body weight and then Regulate bringing their heart rate back down. No, is this is this your programming and that's what you're teaching them or is this what Amazon's asking you to do for them? No, it's it's my program. It's my programming.

Yeah, I'm just, you know, what could best benefit someone who sits at, you know, they work hard mentally, right? But, you know, who typically sits in front of a desk, hunched over a lot of compensation patterns we got to work on reversing. But at the same time, strength is a foundation. So making them stronger, making them more confident, it transfers over, it transfers over in their work,

productivity wise, and they like it. They show up week after week, so. So what does it show, run me through like what a typical routine would look like for them. You said body, I thought I heard you say tension stuff too, is you're doing tension movements too? Yeah, right. So, you know, first, you know,

I wanna get them grounded. So we just work on breathing, you know, belly breathing, really getting that intra-abdominal pressure and release, right? So basically bringing their, getting them the relax, getting them in a relaxed state,

priming their body to be able to exert that max tension. Cause if you really do like hard style body weight training, you're exerting at a CNS level the same amount of tension. You're generating that same amount of tension as you would on a three, one, ret max. You're just generating yourself without the weight. So there's no weights involved. We have some bands.

We have some really basic equipment. But using the The musculature of the core the glutes and grip really be able to generate that strength through irradiation and being able to go from that max tension to Fasten loose a nice release state. If you look at Elite Boxers for example, they're able to create max tension

and then they're fast and loose. They're able to release, they're able to work, go from one extreme of the spectrum to the other extreme of the spectrum very fast, very efficiently. Most of us fall somewhere in the middle. So getting them to create that max tension, then go fast and loose and then have that breath control that able the ability to regulate their heart rate With their breathing it just has just a lot of benefits on the CNS and that and then I usually finish with a lot of a stretch you know stretching and Reversing some of those compensations, you know open up their thoracic mobility. They're really hunched over here Hit mobility and things like that.

Now, how are you queuing these exercises? I know for me, because I went down the road of like a lot of real crazy isometric tension moves and really trying to coach to these techniques like a radiation. And I found that's somewhat challenging to describe to like clients. And is there kind of a few few of key words and things you use

to help them figure that out? Right, so I mean, it's really, you wanna use just basic plain language, plain language words. You start going into technical terms, it's gonna fly over their head. So usually to generate, if I have them in a low plank, first we address the position of their shoulders, make sure their shoulders are nice and stacked.

The basic idea is to eliminate any leakage of energy in the entire kinetic chain. So, the more joints you involve in an effort, the more areas there are for it, for breakdown, breakdown and potential energy to leak out in that chain. So we have to address every single joint, the more joints we add, we have to address it. So I start from the shoulders, make sure their shoulders are nice and packed, usually shoulders back down. As you tell them to put their shoulders in their back pockets, squeeze that orange in

the armpits, get the last nice and activated, push their body away, pull the ribs down to the hips, right? Usually that Q ribs, the hips gives them idea while maintaining a rigid spine, right? Sometimes turn your belly button toward your face slightly. It's just a little cues like that. Well, and you'll see I'm starting to adjust a little bit. Oh, and you'll see like the aha moments, you know, and then some of them are just in fight or flight the whole time because they've never, they've never done it, they've never felt that before. And one thing to really connect the link once they're all nice and in position is to, I told them that imagine that you're crushing a block between your, when, from that low plank, you're crushing a block between your elbows and your toes without actually moving them together.

You're sucking them in. Sucking them in. You're sucking them in. And that will create that max tension effort. And you can't hold that style of plank for six minutes, seven minutes. We were talking 15 seconds maybe, 20 seconds. It's really like a very, it feels like, and when you're done, you're not sweaty, but you're fatigued. If you feel like you exerted like a eight second deadlift or something.

So now, yeah, like an example though of more I want to say like a squad or like a push up or like how do you Coach them to like try harder in a sense to make it more intense. Well, that's the thing. It's relative so I can't I can't coach them to try harder. I can only tell them I can only ask them how they how it felt I It's off of their RPE. So I can't tell them that that wasn't their best effort. Now, if someone's just sandbagging, just going through the motion, I'll just straight up call them out.

I don't have a problem doing that. If they're going to get the benefit, they're going to show up. If they're going to make the conscious decision to show up, some part of them thought felt that they're going get the benefit, if they're gonna show up, if they're gonna make the conscious decision to show up, some part of them thought, you know, felt that they're gonna get a value from this. So if they're not maximizing that value, I'll make sure that they know that they should be. How long have you been training people?

Going on about 12 years now. Yeah, you could tell. Yeah, you could tell. Yeah, you could tell. It's funny every time I talk to a trainer, he's been doing it for a long time, you can hear it in the way they give their cues. Those were brilliant cues. They make a lot of sense. You have to learn those through years of training though, because in the early days, you're like,

all right, bring your shoulders back. Squeeze your abs like, huh? People are looking like, what do you mean, squeeze my abs? I have no idea what I'm talking about. Belly button to your spine. Belly button to your spine. Exactly. So with tension, this is something that a lot of trainers don't talk about nowadays is how to irradiate or activate or the intention of the movement. They just look at the movement. Were these things that you use in your own training? Did you use a lot of tension movements in your own training to help you achieve some of the physical pursuits that you've been able to achieve?

I do, yeah, I think it's super important because what you're getting is you're getting a I do, I think it's super important because what you're getting is you're getting a central nervous system response without the load, without the so much of breaking down on my body. I can't go, I'm pulling a truck, if I'm going to go pull a truck, I can't really do that every single day. I need to recover from my joints, need to recover from that. But if I can stimulate a strength response in my body on a on a CNS level, then at least you know I'm getting I'm getting some benefit. I'm still making progress toward the goal Versus continuing to load my progressively load myself day in day out day in day out that that is a at some point

I'm gonna have a diminished return from that But with this style of trading is it's a good way to fill the gap So where you can still exert the effort of a heavy lift without the cost without the cost on your joints. So you keep stretching your ability to provide more like your force production in a sense. So you're always kind of stretching that capacity in order to then apply it

to when you're in a loaded situation. Right, right, right. Now at the same time, I don't, I don't, the strength is a foundation. You gotta get under a bar, if you wanna get stronger, you gotta get under a bar. Right, right, you gotta progressively load. But what I'm saying is this is a good way

to still get the metabolic and also the CNS effects of a heavy lift when, you know, if you're on the road, if you have a gap in training, you can use this stuff and it takes, it'll take you literally five minutes to do, ten minutes to do and you get the same response without the cost. Now, where did you learn, because I learned this through, I've been training people for a long time and I remember at one point I would read about the training techniques and methodologies of old-time strongmen. This is before, you know, anabolic steroids.

This is actually before even protein powders. And a lot of these guys would use irradiation techniques as ways to be able to train more without damaging their bodies. And it was a common practice in their training. And then it kind of got lost. Like, nobody ever really did those anymore. It became kind of like isometric training. Oh, that's not really worthwhile or whatever that radiation is.

How did you come upon this yourself? So I am a, you know, I, I, Pavel strong question. Yeah. So I went to the course and, and just read up on, on his style of training. And if you read, ever read naked warrior,

the great book is basically goes into detail about all the techniques, how it warrior, the great book, it basically goes into detail about all the techniques, how it's been used by a lot of different elite military units all over the world. It's just a way of, you're out in the field, you don't have weights, you need to maintain your strength, you need to maintain your ability to irradiate strength. And that's where I kind of like, I really started digging deep into these techniques. Okay, well where have this come from? Okay, then I found out they were doing it with a strong man back in the day. We're using the style of training to break through plateaus even. And so I started

testing it on myself first. Like most things, most methods I use, I do on myself first. And found that it, I was able to get some benefit and some progress from it. And I just kind of started tweaking it here and there and incorporating it where I could, where I can with my clients. Now, what are you seeing, which I think this is so great, and that's why I was fascinated by when you start talking about Amazon and then how you're training them. What are some of the things that you're getting

as far as feedback and response from the clients? What are they telling you by this style training? Because I would think that you're very different encounter to most people that get these people, that most people that have a desk job all day, we talk about they tend to gravitate towards these class settings of like running on a treadmill, row or like crazy, circuit type-based stuff. This philosophy, the way of training that you are going

through with them is completely at almost opposite of that. What's some of the feedback you're getting from your people? Well, the most important feedback is, you know, they don't have to be there. They come back every week. So if I, you know, it's hard, the training's hard, but it's not, I'm not crushing them. So they're getting stronger. They're telling me that they're getting stronger, and they're not feeling crushed. They're like, they're able to, they're not waking up the next morning and feeling like they can't get out of bed, as they would if they were to do, like, say,

a high volume training, right? If they were to do like a high, and, you know, excuse me, like a very high volume style training, but they're still getting the effects of, I mean, they're getting the high hypertrophy, they're feeling, you know, stronger, and they're just feeling overall better. And the mobility stuff is really what's best for them.

It's really what they need the most. Is the able, you know, end-range motion, I do a lot of end-range motion stuff with them that they really need the most and the strength is really the foundation, but I think the most benefit they're getting from is the mobility. Let's talk about end-range motion training and how you apply that and the benefits of that for people that are listening. Because we haven't dove into that in a long time. Sure, yeah. End range motion is kind of like you use it or lose it. It's like one of those things. Like everyone has a range in which they can comfortably move throughout the day and during exercise. And it's kind of like one of those things where you have your passive flexibility and you

have your active flexibility. Most people have quite a bit of a gap that aren't trained have a gap between what they can pass what they can passively reach and what they can actively reach. So a lot of the stuff I do with them is just kind of minimizing that gap, minimizing that margin between what they can actively and passively do. A lot of them could go bottom down, they can go into a full squat, but they can't do it actively. They can't do it under control and under load.

They can just drop down into it, but then coming out of it, they might hit a sticking point and getting down to it, they'll hit a sticking point and just drop out. So I wanna close that gap. Sometimes they, and also the most that I see with the end range is in the shoulder, they can't fully retract, they can't fully get that end

range motion through the scapula, they can't do it, they just get, because they're so internally rotated here. So like I said, I do a lot of thoracic mobility work with them. And you see that a lot because they sit at desk. And for the audience, just to make it even more clear, passive flexibility would be like, if I was laying on the floor and Adam grabbed my leg and brought my leg back towards my head to show my hamstring flexibility,

that would be passive. Active would be me doing it myself. And active just means you have control over that flexibility. And so again, what you're saying is you're trying to make it so that they're the gap between what they can pass and they do and actively do is much smaller. Now did you make the mistake that a lot of trainers do when they first, because you've been trained now for a long time?

And I think it takes anywhere between five to seven years of my experience for trainers to get really good. Did you make the mistakes that a lot of us made when we first started where you thought, okay, I'm just gonna hammer the shit out of clients, get them real sweaty, burn a lot of calories. And that's because you were talking about how I don't beat them up. They feel good the next day, don't feel like they're broken. It took me a long time to figure that out. A lot of trainers break their clients.

Sure. You know, did you make that mistake at first? Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, sure. I crushed some souls in there. Because, you know, the way I, you know, the approach I did is, you know, I wanted, I trained people like I trained. Well, it works for me, it's gonna work for you. If not, you know, the approach I did is, you know, I wanted, I trained people like

I trained. Well, it works for me, it's going to work for you if not you're just going to go away. So and at the time when I really first started training, I was working at the Navy Seal and Swick Scout team. So I was helping candidates get, physically prepared for that rigors. So I was taking that style of training, you know, and, and, and, and then transferring it to your, your average guy. This is Johnson. Yeah. We're all laughing. Right. That was all fucking guilty. Well, you know, pays to be a winner. Like, and if you don't,

if you can't do the, the reps I say, you know, you got to pay the man. So, um, I found that real quick that that wasn't the most effective way to train. Sore doesn't equal progress. Sore, you know, chronic soreness isn't isn't the goal these days. And you got to just, you know, you got to be smart, smart about the way you train. What was it like training? You just talked about training people, preparing them for seal testing. What is that like?

What do you, what do you actually train them for? Is it the more of the mental stuff? Are you trying to prepare them for the physical or both? It's both. A lot of it is mental. A lot of the candidates that come through are very well-qualified. They meet the minimum standard to make it through the training. The idea is just to keep them, make them durable, right? It's durability, so you're not over-training. The problem isn't the training. You know, they'll go forever if you force them to,

but it's the finding the balance between the over-reaching and we don't want to hit that point where they're just getting diminished returns. You don't want to crush them because they go into training expecting to get crushed. So they figure like, well, I got to train, I got to crush myself because to prepare for getting crushed, that's not my style of training. I train at both extremes

I you know, you got to build up the the steady state aerobic Capacity at this very low heart rate in right and you have to you have to build the strength You have to train at the max maximum strength in so you train often this is where I put my volume I put my volume heavy on the aerobic low state, steady state aerobic capacity, and on maximum strength. I test seldomly, train often test seldomly. So I crush them seldomly, that's not all the time. They come expecting to get crushed every single day.

It's not a smart way to train them. I mean, you can crush anyone in an hour, if you wanted to. So it's kind of like, get them as strong as as possible and all the benefits and things that come with getting strong of the bone density, the resiliency and also the long slow endurance study state stuff. And then every so often crush them to test their progress. Right, so excellent now let's talk a little bit about your Your cheap crazy feet. Yeah, some of your your your your super human abilities You know physical feats of of insane performance Can you talk about those with the audience? We're just some of the things that you've been able to do that just blow people's

Well, you have you have four records right? Yeah, yes. Yeah, what are they tell them? I broke the the world record for the most pull ups in 24 hours. And that was in 2015. I did it with a 30 pound pack on my back. How many did you do? 5,804. So let's get this clear. No, wait, wait.

Is the record mean you have to have the 30 pound pack or you just did it with a 30 pound back on top of that? You didn't have to have the pack. I put the pack. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Hold on a second. This is straight.

It's gang sir. You did 5,800, whatever pull ups. You didn't need to wear the pack, but you did anyway just because you're like, it's too easy. Yeah, well, I did it because it was my second attempt. I had failed the first time. And I wanted to show the world basically that you can come back stronger after failure.

You don't have to come back. And I wanted to show you just come back stronger. And also I did it for a cause, I did it for a veteran mental health issues. So that pack represented kind of like the burden, the visible scar that they carry. Oh, good for you. That's awesome.

Now, how does this process look over a 24 hour period? How are you pacing yourself? How is that working out? It looks, it looks monstrous. It's just growth test, it's not fun. It's just, yeah, it looks monstrous. It's just crotesque. It's not fun. It's just, yeah, it's chaos now. Yeah, I, you know, lessons learned from the first time, I was at the first time I failed at the attempt.

I stopped at 3,200 and two. The record was, I think, 4,030 at the time. David Goggins had the record. And I messed myself up pretty good. I ended up in the hospital for four days. Whoa, would you have a bad case of a bad toe? I had some torn, I tore my forearm, I had tears in my hands, my biceps tendon,

where it's torn up pretty good. And I was in, I was in, I was in, I was in, I forgot what it is. So what did you say to learn some lessons? What did you do wrong or what did you change for the second time around? Right, so I went into it the first time, I think maybe I went into it a little, I was probably a little bit overconfident going into the first attempt. I felt that the training that I did for it, I felt was adequate enough, I should probably

probably put a little bit more into the training, but really the biggest reason why I felt at that attempt was when you do an effort, a long effort like that, that there's a point where a lot of it has to do with like your willpower to just keep going, right? You hit a point where you're suffering, and if you don't have a, if you don't, if you're meaning for, if you're purpose for putting yourself in that isn't authentic or strong, then you're going to break. That's just comes down. So if you don't have, if you don't have a strong enough meaning in your suffering and it's clear, you're going to break. And that's what happened. I went into the first attempt. It was really about me. It was about me trying to beat this record and I couldn't really see anything beyond my line of sight. My purpose was, it was pretty shallow at the,

you know, especially trying to do something at that level. And so when I was in the hospital, you know, as soon as I made the decision to stop, 2000 pull-ups, I started tearing my forms. My urine looked like whiskey, basically. Oh, shit. So I continued on. I did about 1,000 more, and I just, I couldn't grip the bar anymore. I stopped.

After that second, I started, I went into this really deep, that's having like this pity party, one man pity party, you know, what was me, Bridges are short, the world is cruel. It's the bar's fault. I was on a mobile bar held down by stand bags.

Oh, the bar was shifting the whole time. We had a stop for some technological issues. It was everyone's fault but my own. And it was really this really negative destructive self talk I had about myself. I was laying in that hospital bed and I didn't want to talk to anyone. People were sending me messages,

congratulating me for at least trying and saying, I didn't want to talk to anyone. People were sending me messages, congratulating me for at least trying and saying, I didn't want to hear any of that. Because again, it was all about me. My purpose, my meaning was just me to do this physical feat. And even though I did it for a charitable cause, it didn't matter to me because I failed. The mission, I failed what I set out to do. And so I was sitting in the hospital bed,

this kid comes in and this kid couldn't have been more than 13 or 14 years old maybe, but he was there awaiting a surgery for a condition that was a far more serious than mine and he needed the surgery, he was gonna die basically and he walks into my room and he says, you know, he doesn't say anything. He doesn't say like, you know, you failed, he didn't care about the pullup record. He didn't say, you know, you failed,

he didn't care about the pullup record. He didn't care about any of that. He just wanted to shake my hand and congratulate me because he was so inspired about that someone would even attempt to do such a thing. And it took me back. And I realized in that moment that here I am at like my lowest low,

someone who I've always identified myself with, I attached myself to this idea of being physically You know physically dominant fit being able to do these physical feats and here I am in my lowest low feeling really bad in this kid You know the next words that could come out of my mouth could either build this kid up or break him down So I knew that even at like when I felt like I was at my rock bottom, I'm like, I still had a job to do. Like I could still lead. I can still affect this person's life. And I knew if it was just this one kid,

there's probably hundreds and thousands of others. This was broadcasted all over the country this attempt. That probably felt the same way. So that's when my focus and my meaning behind the suffering changed. It stopped being about me and more about other people. And that changed everything for me because I mean, I do these events. And there's times where if it were just me, if it were up to me, I'd quit.

If it were up to me, and you know, I'd probably quit. But because now my meaning incorporates so many more other people that could be affected, I keep going. And so it's all about kind of meaning, finding meaning in your suffering. There's always a meaning in it. Finding meaning in your pain, finding meaning in the things you do.

Because if you don't have meaning, I mean. That's where it comes from. That's where it comes from. Where did you do, how does the attempt look when you're doing that throughout a 24-hour period? Are you going like every hour you're trying a certain amount and then every particular time, just like what assumes certain types of food?

What do the brakes look like? Okay, so the logistics. Yeah. All right. So liquid calories, right? I didn't want anything heavy in my stomach. You know, I needed all the blood and to be in the larger muscle groups that were working. So I took in liquid carbohydrates. I took in some aminos, but basically there's a lot

simple sugar, simple car stuff that I could just use up real quick for energy. And I took some salt pills. And really that's about it. Are you going to failure and then resting and trying again or are you doing like 50 at a time? Rep range. So I started at eight on the minute, eight or nine on the minute. So every minute, every single minute. So if it took me 30 seconds to do eight,

I'd have the minute to rest back on the bar at the top of the minute doing the day. So I would do that for, you know, six hours straight. On the minute. Six hours of pull-up. Take a master cluster set. It's just on the minute know, six hours straight on the minute. Six hours of pull-up. Take a master cluster set. It's just on the minute, on the minute, on the minute, on the

minute, yeah, so eight hours. And then once I, once I couldn't do eight, go down to six for another two, three hours. Wow. Go down to four, go down to two. By the end, I was doing maybe four on the minute. That's insane. There's no real rest then.

You're not getting any real rest at that rate. No. Yeah. Rest to use the bathroom and your back on the minute. That's insane. There's no real rest then. You're not getting any real rest at that rate. No. Yeah. Rest to use the bathroom and your back on the bar. Wow. Now, how do you, are you training in this way for this? Are you practicing to do this?

Or are you, how's your training look? Max, Max strength. Low, build up the aerobic base, test seldomly. Same thing. Same thing. So I got weighted pull-ups, right? Five's on pull-ups. It's just weighted, you know, five sets So I got my weighted pull ups right. The five on pull ups. Just weighted, you know, five sets, five sets of five pull ups. And then a lot of, you know, low,

steady state running. And then I tested, when I tested, I would do a volume, I'd go like three hours of pull up straight on and endowed. So I would get like a thousand, 1500 pull ups in one session. Bro, I can't live you set the record with a bag on your fucking back on top of that, dude. That's insane. That's craziness. Did you get a rabdo again? I didn't. Wow.

I didn't, my creatinine levels are still pretty jacked up from the first attempt. They haven't gone quite to normal. You're kidding me how long ago was this? So there's a cost. There's no biological freelance. You do this biological freelance. There's not.

You put your body through them, your adrenals, your home. I did six labors. So this is all has to do with the 12 labors project. I started this initiative a few years ago where I set out to do 12 increasingly difficult challenges for various causes. So the pull-up record was my second labor. And the labors I did after that were,

in my opinion, my RP was increasingly difficult. Some people would say, well, the pullup might have been, well, it was hard for me. I want to do these things to kind of see what that looks like. I wanted to satisfy curiosity I have for the human potential and the limits of the soul. And the only way for me to do that is to go out there and do these things that, I've had doctors that they stopped being my doctor when I was in prep for some of these labors. They say, your heart is going to stop.

Your tendons cannot take that load. And I don't, they didn't want to be, you know, I understandably so, they really want to be attached to that. They're like, this is our recommendations if you go and do this thing, then maybe you should find another doctor to support. So I've had actually doctors and exercise physiologists tell me that, you know, that these things were impossible to do. And, but it's not. It's not, I don't believe anything is truly impossible.

I mean, that sense, I just think that there is, anything impossible can be broken down into its constituent parts. And however mundane and tedious and boring those parts are, if you become efficient at those little parts that make up the impossible, then it's no longer impossible. You just master the little pieces that make it. And you said there's seven of these labors? There's 12. 12, so why are there 12?

So it's kind of like based off the mythology around the 12 labors of Hercules. So Hercules was one of the most significant figures in Greek mythology. And he was made to do these incredibly difficult tasks To find his his purpose in life basically to find his way and It's kind of like the message of it doesn't matter who you are where you're from who your parents are

I mean his dad was Zeus, right? It doesn't matter who who you are where you're from It's it is your responsibility to to fill the potential for greatness that you have. It's not, it's your responsibility to not be mediocre and to really be as great as you have the potential to be. And that has to do with finding your purpose. And once you find it, you need to share it. Keep it to yourself. You bring the lessons back. You go through these crucibles in your life, you bring the lessons back and you share it with people. Now, where did you develop this from? Did you have a tough childhood? Was this something that you developed to be able to get you through difficult times and then now succeed and perform? Where did you develop this mentality? Because it's obviously a winning mentality. Where did you come up with it?

Sure, so I read a lot of books. So I read a lot of Carl Young, a lot of Friedrich Nietzsche, a lot of these Plato, Socrates, and Marcus Aurelius. A lot of these great thinkers. And they had a, for the time that they lived in, they had a really unique perspective on things of the self and the meaning of life and how they approach suffering.

They had this existential, nihilistic view of the world, but from that they drew these incredible ideas and thoughts of how to navigate through what is inherent in life, which is the first of Buddhist, ford, noble truth, to live is to suffer. Life begins with suffering, that's the given. So you need to have an efficient and effective way of navigating through what is inherent to our life. So for me, the biggest thing that really started it for me is I know what it's like to quit.

I've quit at several things in my life. So I know what it's like to look in the mirror and see someone who quit from high school. And I don't wanna be that person. I don't wanna be that guy who was just, I quit and I'm content with it. I wanna revisit that and change my destiny. I don't wanna establish that,

because for me is the way I approach strength and we talked about like mental and this is drive to do these things is It's not it's not something mental strength isn't something you acquire Some people say I'm mentally strong in the gym But when I go home and not no, that's not really the case is is that maybe you're in an environment in the gym that that allows you to Express your strength better and you go home You go to work or or home and you're allowing an environment in the gym that allows you to express your strength better, and you go home, you go to work or home, and you're allowing your environment to suppress it, but it's still inside you, it's a trait. You're born with a, you're born with strength.

The fact that you're born is an expression of strength. Every cell in your body is strong, right? Even down to the cell, your level, the fact that, you know, the fact that you're able to stand up, the act of standing up is an expression of strength. When you tell me you're not strong, that's not true. And before you tell me that, stand up and tell it to me. Because if you stand up,

that at the minimum requirement of standing is an expression of strength. So you're strong. We just allow certain environments to suppress to certain degrees, varying degrees, that inherent level of strength. So you're strong. We just allow certain environments to suppress to certain degrees, varying degrees, that inherent level of strength in us. So it's about our perspective of the environment and our response to these environmental factors that really suppress the our ability to express the maximum potential of our strength. Now, how do you balance that incredible message that you just gave with the habits and

knowing how some people may receive that and then go into the gym and just hammer the fuck? So, how do you communicate that to clients and people? Because I thought that was beautifully said, what you just said right now. But then I can also hear myself as a client who's trying to learn and I'm thinking I'm a fuck I just need to go harder. I need to push more in the gym. How do you how do you balance that sure? Well, you know part of being strong is is being authentic with yourself part of being strong is being being real with yourself and knowing your abilities Right, you have to be honest with yourself

And a lot of times the ego gets in the way of that authenticness, that authenticity. And so if you're motivated and dreaming, if you're saying, well, I want to go, I'm going to go tomorrow, and I'm going to just crush myself. Well, it's the same as if I'm, are you going to, if I say, if someone tells me to go be an astronaut in six months, that's not really realistic for me.

It's a process. So be strong, be motivated, but be honest with yourself. And don't go do something that you're going to potentially regret later because your ego kind of got in the way of your reason, right? Use your reason, be reasonable with yourself, ask yourself before you set out to do something, ask yourself, well, have I committed in the past in any other area of my life? Have I committed the time and energy, something similar, the time and energy to it? If the asterisk, yes, break it down, break it down in the chunks and get it done. If the answer is no, then that's an honest assessment with yourself and you probably shouldn't go out and do that thing that you're thinking about doing. Start smaller, right? You said that you know what it's like

to quit and you referenced high school. It sounds like there was a moment where a light switch went off for you, where you were like, okay, that's it. I'm going to be different now. What was that moment? So growing up with my dad in high school I lit it was me and my dad my dad suffered from Parkinson's disease is how I got into the Parkinson's thing So I watched this man who you know taught me everything I knew the strongest guy I knew Go from go from that person and and I watched this disease take away all the things that That he identified with the things that made him who he was, the things that he loved.

And basically, towards the end, it was kind of like, he was almost like a child, like I was taking care of, basically it's caretaker in high school. So me being active in sports, there was a time where I went to basketball practice and I was administering his medication. I was making basketball practice and I was I was administering his medication.

I was making the meals, I was doing all the things. And so- It was just you and him? It was just me and him. Oh wow. And so- Makes sense now why you're so strong mentally. I mean that must have been some tough training right there

to have to take care of someone, especially at that age. Could be, yeah. Possibly. And all different types of things play a role in that. And so, I went to practice, someone to basketball practice one day, I came home and he had had a stroke while I was at practice. He was on the floor. He didn't take his medication, his blood sugar is super low.

And after that, I was like, well, I got either go to probably be on the team or stay home. And to me, so I quit my basketball team. So at the time, it was to me I quit. I had to actually go to the coach so I cannot play this sport, not because of my ability. I'm gonna quit this team because I gotta take care of this other stuff. And for me, being a 15 year old kid,

I was a quitter. I felt like a quitter. And that kind of just resonated with me. Even though now in hindsight, I can look back and say, well, was it the right thing? I don't know, I got that time with my dad, right? And then I joined the military shortly after. But for me, it's like that was a pretty defining moment on what it feels like to to make a conscious decision to quit. Even though he encouraged me to continue on and to do this and that, I just again, I had to be real with myself and be authentic at the time and say, no, I can't, I have to stay home and take care of him. Well, you were talking about the 12 labors and one of them being that pull up,

that you broke the record of pull ups. What were the other, what are the other labors? You've said you've done a few others. I don't know, six. So after the pull up, after the first pull up record where I went in the hospital and that kid, like I said, that kid is about, I got a fire in my belly.

I wanted to get out there and train again. I was pretty incapacitated from the waist up. Basically, my upper body was pretty thrashed, needed to heal. So I was like, well, what can I do? I have my legs still. My legs are strong. I can do something with my legs, something that's, you know, because a lot of things people are saying too.

I do the pillow records like, oh, you know, this guy must have weak legs. I mean, that was a really a motivator for me. I don't care what people say, but some, you know, the trolls, you know, they go, you know, they go, you know. Well, I mean, that's a viable strategy. I'm going to do pull-up record. I'm going to get my legs held up skinny. Yeah, exactly.

You know what I'm saying? So like, all right, well, what would happen? So I, I, I look, start looking at strong man events. I, I never knew what the strong man events were. I mean, I knew kind of, I could, the, the, the Atlas Stone, I never really dug deep into the strong man events. I never knew what the strong man events were. I mean, I knew kind of, I could, the Atlas Stone, I never really dug deep into the strong man. So I found that, the tire flip was one of the things, right? And so I started looking at like what the longest tire flip was,

the longest everyone's flipped the, you know, the one of the strong tractor tires. Like this is for distance? For distance. So I found like 500 feet. I found like a mile someone did and I think they did that like with a partner like two people did a mile. So I was like, all right, what would happen if I if I flipped a 250 pound tire?

I was 205 at the time. I have 250 pound tire and I flipped it for a half marathon. 13 miles straight. Of course. So because the thing is like, you know, logical right? a half marathon, 13 miles straight. Of course. Of course. Yeah. Because the thing is like, you know, logical, right? Well, so I say, okay, flip a tire for half marathon. Immediately, we laugh out of a little bit of confusion because we know that the amount

of pain that would go into that, the amount of stuff that you're facing. Because it's crazy, yeah, right? It's crazy, right? So it's like, pain and suffering is a universal language. We all relate to that pain So if I baked some cookies or did a car wash, right for a cause You'd remember the cookie more than the cause or you'd remember remember that day I got my car clean But what did they do it for? But something that's painful you remember that you remember why that person suffered

Because there's a director so I wanted to do something that someone, okay, 13 miles tire flip. Why the hell would anyone want to do that? Yeah, it's cool. That's a good concept. And even when I was doing it, people were still confused. I remember I was I was about halfway through this tire flip and this man, this old man rode up next to me. He rolled down the window and he's like, he's probably 89 years old, he goes, you know that thing rolls, right?

You know you could roll that thing and he drives off. He scrap off things. Right? And so you're doing it right alongside the road? Yeah, so it was a 500 foot stretch of pavement. And 140 lengths up and down this 500 foot stretch, excuse me foot stretch of pavement, and I 140 lengths up and down this 500 foot stretch, excuse me, stretch of pavement.

Again, for veteran mental health issues, the burden, the weight. So with this particular event, this is probably the most event that tested me the most mentally. And it really forged this deep conviction in the meaning of the suffering. Because you know, here I am a day before this event. I've trained for it for about six months. I got some media following it. I'm really excited for this event. And, and you know, life, life will test you at any time, at any time. And, and 18 hours before is go time for this

time. And I get a call from my sister. She's, hey, dad passed away. Right. You died from complications of the Parkinson's infection in his heart with the kidney, the complications of the Parkinson's. What ears this mic? This is 2014. And so here I am, I have a decision to make, I have a choice to make. Somehow reporters got wind, they're asking me if I'm gonna postpone this thing, if I'm gonna cancel it all together.

And here I am like, okay, do I get up? Do I still do this event? Now what's the decision? Quitting is an insidious conversation. At that time, it would have made complete sense to postpone it. People would understand. I could get a bunch of people to agree with me.

But sometimes doing the things that matter the most in life that will affect the most people for the greater good, is sometimes you gotta go against reason. Sometimes it's the unreasonable decision that matters the most in the moment. So I got up the next day at 4am. It was pretty cold, it was about 30 degrees, it was raining, it was wet.

And I remember staring at that tire and I didn't say anything, I just flipped, I just, you know, I set the time, I had some people out there with me. I said, okay, I'm gonna start, I flipped that tire, the first few tire flips were the heaviest flips I've ever done in my life, even in training. And I was holding on to all this regret and resentment

and things that I should have said or would have said I was kind of just still dealing with. I wasn't quite grieving yet. I kind of could try to compartmentalize it. And that tire, I just felt all of that loaded into that tire. But as the day went on, that tire got lighter. It got lighter because, you know, I started to take control of my response

to this external event. I'm not saying don't grieve, I'm not saying don't, you know, don't take time to really take in the things that happen to you in life. But at the end of the day, if you set out to do something, then you need to be able to turn your excuses into reasons to do it. In the fitness world, I'm older than a lot of folks,

therefore I will do it. I'm overweight by a lot of folks, therefore I will show myself and the people that I still can do it, I will lose the weight. They turn out, mentally strong people take excuses and they turn them into reasons. You said you would do it, therefore you will do it, I will lose the weight. They turn out, they mentally strong people take excuses and they turn them into reasons. You said you would do it, therefore you will do it,

no matter what. And you deal with everything, you can deal with everything else later, but the focus in the moment is staying in the moment and doing what needs to get done to finish the job. And that's the approach I took to the tire flip. And through that, you know, I had a lot of time, it took me 10 hours to flip

this tire and men's health did a thing they said I burned around 12,000 calories over this 10 hours span and I had a lot of time to think on the memories and the things in the time I spent like I feel like I lived lifetime is with my dad during that tire flip because I had no I had nothing else to think about, right? And pain has a way of trimming the fat, cutting all the other distractions. You experience a great pain in your life, the memories become that much more clear.

It becomes, it was almost like you're there. So there's some positives to it. If you're going through a hard time, it really has a way of making things more succinct. The words that come out of your mouth when you're going through a hard time, it really has a way of making things more succinct. The words that come out of your mouth when you're going through pain, you say what you mean, there's short sentences, but the words that come out are more meaningful, right? What someone would normally, they would go and describing a painful event, they'd say, oh, you know, well, you know, I'm going through this because this, this, and that, and the

reason why I feel this way is because of that. Well, someone who's really in that deep, dark place, they might just say something like my soul hurts. Right. And in that one sentence, you already know it encompasses all of that. But because pain has a way of just, you know, you know, I'm going to express what you really mean in that moment. So I feel like I channeled that energy and all the energy that I had, there was not wasted. It went to every single tire flip and it's a

reflecting on the life I had with my dad. What would you say? Because so many spiritual practices involve a component of suffering as a way to become, you know, closer to their spiritual, you know, goal or whatever. Whether it be fasting or chanting or meditating for hours or things that are just grueling and difficult, would you say that your physical feats are doing that for you as well? I would say so, you know, a lot of people they, you know, they see the things that I do and they're like, oh, he must be a masochist, you know, like he must enjoy. And for me to enjoy it, for me to truly be a massacres would mean for me to the pain would have to

be the goal. The focus would have to be the pain. So what's different between a lot of people these days, a lot of, you know, the big thing in the mental strength side is, you know, you got to suffer. You got to go through pain to you got to go to a dark play. No, you know, you gotta suffer. You gotta go through pain, to you gotta go to a dark play, no, you can push yourself just as hard and you can come from a place of gratitude, come place for a deep love for another person. That'll drive you just as far as going from that dark place

and it's okay not to have a dark place to go to. You don't have to have a screwed up childhood and you don't have to draw from these deep dark Batman experiences to be able to go into the fringes of human potential. It doesn't always have to come from that place. You can come from a place of gratitude and love and go just as far. So I come from a perspective like, yes, pain is a tool, but it's not the focus. If you only focus on the pain, if the pain is the goal of this thing that you're set out to do, then you probably shouldn't have gone on this journey to begin with because you weren't ready for it if that's the goal because you're missing the big picture, you're missing the overall value, you're cutting the value short if the focus

is only on the pain. Pain is only a symptom of the effort that you're giving. It's not the end state. It's just a byproduct of the effort that you give. If you don't give a heart enough effort, then that pain is not gonna be as meaningful for you. So the focus is on the effort, the focus is on the outcome, and pain is just a tool to get there. It's the vehicle because it draws you into the moment.

It's a shortcut to mindfulness. Oh, for sure. Nothing makes you present like pain. Exactly. Yeah. You're making a sandwich, you cut your finger, you're going to, you're right there. You're right there. You're going to tend to the finger immediately draws you in. Nothing else matters. That's it. Take care of the, take care of the moon and you go on making your sandwich, but it's a shortcut to be in present. Absolutely. Now all theseats, are they all physically driven, or are you pursuing anything else that's like maybe more mentally tough than anything else?

Sure. Well, the labors are all physical. So after the tire flipped, that was 2014, 2015, I climbed a rope that equated to the height of Mount Everest. So I climbed a 20-foot rope 1,430 times over 27 hours to equal the height of 29,000 29 feet the height of Everest. So I did that for Parkinson's. For 27 hours. Is that mean you don't get to take an app or anything? No, naps.

Like I had to keep going up and down this rope for 27 hours straight. Oh wow. What did your hands look like? That's amazing. It wasn't so much my hands, it was my shins. Oh, right. I had, you know, I had these, these, it's supposed to be these impenetrable shin guard thing, like the crossfit, the use for, you know, them, and, you know, it was, those, they lasted about two hours.

You were not sponsored by them, you know? Yeah, and, you know, so my they lasted about two hours. We're not sponsored by them anyway. Yeah, and you know, so my shins were pretty much raw to the bone by the end of them. Oh man. Yeah, they were pretty, my hands were pretty torn up too, but my shins took most of the,

wow, even with something protective on it, that's crazy. Even with protection. How long, when you do these things, how long does it take for you to kind of feel normal weeks? It's funny because, you know, the pull-up took me out, the first pull-up shot took me out for quite a bit of time. The second one, not so much.

The, it's about a week or two and I'm feeling, so this was the first three labors, right? And then after the pull-up, after the rope climb, I pulled the truck across Death Valley, 22 miles, a four-ton truck, 22 miles across Death Valley and mill the summer. That, after I did that, I was right. I started to feel like in a adrenal level,

my body was just not able to recover like it was from the others. And so it took about two and a half years of constant training and doing these events for it to finally catch up to me And that's when I realized that you know, I and I knew this moment was gonna come So I wanted to get as many as I could like it's just I was waiting for it and it when I crash I crash hard What was it like? What was that crash? It was it was a it was a feeling of Just constant fatigue, right? Just constant, I was a lack of motivation,

I was just not motivated. And I was aware that I was not motivated. It wasn't like I was motivated and someone had to tell me, like no, I was like, yeah, I know. I know, I just don't feel like doing. It would have been interesting to see your hormone levels and stuff at that time. Yeah, I bet they were just sure.

Probably out there all over the place. So, I went to a doctor, went to a naturopath, actually, and they gave me some stuff to kind of get help speed up this time, but when you're a dreamer, it just takes time. Time is the ultimate healer for the type of thing. And so, I did the truck pull. I took a whole year off.

I got out of the Navy. I moved down to Portland. I was living in the north of Seattle at the time. I started focusing my efforts on school and work and things like that. And then I was like, I need to continue this mission. I need to start planning and going on to the next thing. So then my sixth labor then was I ran, I'd gain the significant amount of weight in this year I took off as well. But my sixth labor was I ran, I'd gained a significant amount of weight in this year I took off as well. But my sixth labor was I ran 2,000 miles in 100 days. I basically ran 20 miles every single day for 100 days straight consecutively. That's like the guy who just had Sanjay, he did 3,200 miles.

3,100 miles. A 3,100 mile thing. Yeah, 57 days. That's crazy. Yeah, so it didn't take very, very long for my body to start breaking down from that as well, you know, but for me, it's just kind of like, especially being heavier too, you see you put some weight on too, that would be just, yeah, you know, you don't, you don't look like a long distance runner, you're a muscular guy. I'm not a long distance runner.

I'm a big guy who did a, you know, did a crazy thing, but I wouldn't say I'm a runner by any mean, like a long-distance runner or anything like that. But you can have strength and you can have endurance. This idea of like you got to pick one or the other, you could do both. You can just train for it. You can do both. I mean, you're not going to be world-class, either. Probably not.

I don't know if I'll ever make, who's the record holder in the marathon? Oh, we had a little biter for the indoor marathon. Okay, yeah, 100 miles. Yeah, 100 miles and yeah. But I don't know the world record for marathon is. I don't know if we could make him a world class power lifter or a sprinter or something like that,

but you could definitely do both. So this idea that people always have to pick and choose, and that's why I wanna do too, is kinda like merge the world together, just strengthen and endurance, like you could be both, you can do these things and be okay. I'm not suggesting anyone do the stuff I do.

Yeah, do what you want, don't just, don't do what I do. So you did that, that was the fourth one you did. Uh, yeah. So the truck, yeah, the truck pull was the fifth. Uh, and, um, that's pretty profound. Uh, that one was, you know, I did that one for veteran suicide. I had lost a couple of friends to, uh, to suicide during my time in the service. And, uh, you know, the statistic at the time was 22 per day, 22 suicides per day.

More dying from suicide than from war. And battle, right? That's true. Yeah, that's true. A lot of people don't know that. And the 22 statistic, I have some mixed feelings about that. I don't think it's the most accurate. It was the most accurate, just the way they got the data

and things like that. But it still says the message that there's an epidemic out there. It's the way one is a lot. Right, I just wanted to. So 22 miles, 22, pulled a truck, 22. Again, it had, I needed a, like, a weight, a burden thing to do with it. And death Valley, when people look at the desert, they think, okay, death Valley, there's no life out there. It's hopeless, it's desolate. It's kind of like the mind of someone going through depression, PTSD, or something like that. So I want to kind of put myself in the environment of what it would be like to be in someone's mind, who feels like they're the only one out there.

And this lady, when I saw this lady caught wind of what I was doing. And I said, I want to go out here by myself. I don't want any support. I just want to do this thing by myself. And she emailed me two days before I go out here by myself. I don't want any support. I just wanna do this thing by myself. And she emailed me two days before I got out to Death Valley. And she was like, look, I'm in Perump. It was like a hour, like less than an hour from Death Valley. She's like, I wanna come and support you.

I wanna come to video and take pictures. I wanna be out there. I was like, no, one, it's gonna be 115 degrees out there. I don't wanna be responsible out in the middle of Death Valley if you're not properly prepared. And two is like, I wanna really embrace a solitude of this event. Like, I don't wanna know another.

She was like, okay, all right, she's like, fine. Went back and forth, she was really persistent. She was like, okay, well, where are you prepping for this event? I told her where I was prepping. It was at the little information station in Death Valley. And, but lo and behold, there she was in the morning. She was waiting out there. Like, I told her where I was prepping. She was out there. She's like, I'm here now. I'm going to be out there.

I was like, look, okay, fine. I give you points for just showing up. That's crazy. Like, why would you, why would you do that? I told you know, but you're, you're persistent. So here's the rule. Like, you have to stay a certain distance away from it. Like you can be in front or you can be behind me. But I no matter how much I'm struggling or if I get stuck, I'm going to get stuck out here out there. You can't help me. Like you can't come in like off your help. I need to do this alone. I need to work. Part of this process me working it out with myself. And so she respected that. So she took a few pictures.

There was a couple of times where she got a little too close for me, but there was a point at like mile 16 or 17, where I was, the road was like one of those roads where it's designed to like knock the mud off of your, off of your, you know, it's like all these divots. So each one of those divots I would get stuck and have to regain the momentum, right? So once you get the momentum going, you can like all these divots. So each one of those divots, I would get stuck and have to regain the momentum. Right, so once you get the momentum going,

you can cruise for a little bit. But if you get stuck generating the force over and over and over to get the momentum going, that was tough. And there is this point where I got stuck, stuck, where I couldn't, I couldn't, like, what am I gonna do? Like, I can't put this thing in drive. Like, I can't, I gotta stay true to the task. And I've been I'm stuck in. I remember feeling for the first time, like really alone

out there. Like I felt like it was hopeless. And I remember, and this is this is already like dust. So the sun's coming down, the winds are coming in. And I remember seeing a quarter mile down the down the desert the desert was her tail lights and something about just knowing that someone else was out there with me, like even if it was an outcar if it was a mirage just the feeling like you know we humans need connection I didn't feel alone and that energized me that gave me like this I don't know gave me this boost and I was able to you know finally like, about 15 minutes of trying to get this truck, I finally gave one good pull

and I got it over this little divot that I was kicking my butt for a long time. And it was because I, I didn't feel hopeless. So just knowing one person was out there, just one person. So then I was like, well, that's who I am right now for somebody that's watching me doing this thing. You know, and I got a lot of emails from vets and people

after this event saying, you know, what she did was great and inspiring me, was going through a hard time, you know, and it's good to know that someone was out there who gives a crap, you know, who's willing to do this thing to bring awareness for something that we're maybe, we're maybe don't have the courage to talk about or bring out, so. That's great. What's the next labor that we're maybe, we're maybe that don't have the courage to talk about or bring out.

That's great. What's the next labor that you're doing? The next labor. Tell us. Yeah, so next labor, I'm still working out the logistics for I have it planned for June. It'll be my seventh labor and it's going to, it's going, I'm'm gonna announce it pretty soon. I have this thing, it's not a superstition,

but it's kind of like until I get all the details. So it's kind of a secret right now. Sort of, yeah, sort of, sort of a secret, but I'm working really hard for it is, I'm gonna be pushing up a mountain and probably the, just think of the most a difficult way one can walk up a mountain. Okay.

Do you know what you're doing it for yet? I'll be doing it for Parkinson's disease research. Okay. Okay. So what I want to know when you have this moment where you get stuck in like a rut for 15 minutes like that and what does the internal conversation sound like? Sure.

Again, you know, the brain is had it if your brain had it its way It would go the path of least resistance nine times out of ten if they had it if your brain had it This way we'd be we'd be unconscious all the time right conscious thought takes a lot of energy Decision making takes a lot of energy the brain wants to be automatic and usually the automatic answer is the path that pulls you away from conflict, away from challenge. And so, when I got stuck out there, when you're fatigued, when you're tired, when you're at your, every cell in your body is screaming for you to quit.

The brain, the conversations you have is It's very reasonable like that you start saying you start making little Concessions on your goal And it's very convincing conversations Well, you know, you already did 15 miles man. Yeah, it's all good Nobody else has done this sure. It's the good enough. It's the good enough, right? the good enough There is? The good enough. There is a quote I heard, it says like the enemy of great is good, right? Oh, that's a great quote.

The enemy of great is good. And good in that moment under when you're suffering, when you're in pain, good isn't such a good, looks a lot like great. It looks a lot like great. You know, I did good enough. So that conversation was the most prevalent during this thing where I was at mile, you know, 12, 13, four, like,

you know, this is good. This is good enough. Like, I'm out here, who else is out here? You know, you start thinking like, you know, maybe, you know, maybe what would happen? And that's an important reason why I had like my garment out there to hold myself accountable to, to really map out, you know, I was doing like portions of the pull was live feed and I would constantly post my Garmin. I was hitting certain waypoints

And I wanted to really stay true to it. So Again, it's like that quitting conversation is a pretty a pretty reasonable conversation and it starts out small and It's like a seed that just grows in your head. And your response to it, right? Your response to it is important. When it's still a seed, you have to cut that seed off, you have to cut that root off early. If you don't, it's gonna grow,

and you're gonna lose control, you're gonna quit. Right, and time is the, it's just a matter of time. Time is, you're also battling time time because as time goes on that seed grows So you need a chop that you need to make a decision and you need to be you need to kind of sign a contract with yourself that no matter what I'm gonna keep going I'm gonna keep pushing through Be smart don't you know obviously the goal out here out there wasn't to die I didn't want it you know I still Hit in the hit in my check marks with the nutrition with the water stay and hydrating like 19 gallons of water that day

19 or 20 gallons and I was hit in my marks. I was my vitals are good so all I really had to get over was just the Keeping the momentum going right so I talked about how I kept getting stuck out there. That's kind of like life. It's kind of like you got to keep the momentum going, right? If you're tired of starting over and studying, stop quitting, stop stifling your momentum.

Momentum is the speed at which you're moving forward. And the things that stifle momentum in our life are things like fear, that, you know, self-doubt, you doubt, hesitation, procrastination. Those are quick ways to, once you're a way to hit that rut. And if you wanna stop hitting that rut, stop letting those things stifle your momentum. It's fear and also poverty. And it's like not poverty, like how much money

you have in your pocket, it's feeling poor, allowing other people to tell you, to give you value. Not poverty, like how much money you have in your pocket, it's feeling poor, allowing other people to tell you, you know, to give you value, allowing other people to devalue you. You're not good enough, or you know, you should have taken on that task, you shouldn't do that. This feeling of being poor, and this feeling of fear are two things that will staff with your momentum.

So if you want to keep the momentum going, put yourself in an environment where you're not afraid and you're not around people who make you feel poor. I have no doubt that you're going to accomplish all 12 of your labors, but I do have one question. After you accomplish 12-1, what are you going to do then? Is that going to be a difficult time for you? Do you think? I don't think it'll be a difficult time for me. Um, after I accomplished everyone these labors, I don't get this feeling like I accomplished the labor. I know it sounds crazy. Like it's not like this. Arms in the air like, yes, I did it. It's kind of like, I'm,

I'm always thinking of like, what's next? What's the next thing? So I think after the tough labor, um, I don't think it'll be something where it's like, I've done, I'm done, I'm complete, is finished. I don't think that true excellence is something that's really attainable. It's a pursue. Excellence is something we ensue, not pursue. So it's kind of like, I don't know, I think after I'm done with the 12 labors, I'm probably looking forward to seeing what's next on the horizon.

All right, man. Well, awesome. Well, good luck to you, man. Thank you. Yeah, this has been rad. Yeah, we're super inspiring. Good dude. Good train, bro.

Yeah, thanks for having me. Very good train. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy, and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Superbumble at MindPumpMedia.com. The RGB Superbumble includes maps and a ballad, maps performance, and maps aesthetic. Nine months of phased, expert exercise programming designed by Sal Adam and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks, feels and performs. With detailed workout blueprints in over 200 videos, the RGB

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