Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 656: Robert Oberst- World's Strongest Man Competitor

Starting point is 00:00:00 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 got a trivia question for you. What deadlifts 880 pounds, bench press is 650 pounds, can squat 950 pounds, and can overhead press 490 pounds. Here's your three a mythical centaur. Here's your three choices a polar bear. Yeah The incredible Hulk or right now Sirus or Robert Obers

Starting point is 00:00:40 Which one do you think we're going credible Hulk? Which one do you have for 5,000 long? Adam? What's your choice? I think it the polar bear Incredible Hulk, which was after 5,000 long. Adam, what's your choice? I think it's the polar bear. Both wrong. Actually, that's what Justin said. And you said it too. He knew he was wrong. You're a terrible test taker.

Starting point is 00:00:53 No. It's actually Robert Obersd, the human Sasquatch. This is a massive human being, but less hairy. Super nice guy too. We met him in... I saw him. We were, we were in LA podcasting and I forget, I always forget that people that can be that big. Yeah. He's fucking huge.

Starting point is 00:01:13 There's not a lot of men that make me feel like a little child, you know, next to it. And we literally picked you up and rocked you. He did, he did. Like a baby. He picked you up like a little child, baby. You know what sucks about a guy that big? If he wanted to rape you, you couldn't do anything about it.

Starting point is 00:01:30 Totally, like I feel like, that's the first thing you think of. That's your like, when he scooped me up, that's what I thought, I thought, oh god, he either was, yeah, he either wasn't eating me or either was, he ate me either one of them this time, this is gonna go down for me.

Starting point is 00:01:41 And over me, five, four, five, what do I do? You know what's worse about that? Because that would suck, right? If he's eating you alive, like, I would suck. That'd be a terrible thing. Yeah, it would be bad.

Starting point is 00:01:50 But what would be worse is that me and Justin couldn't help you. Yeah. We would be crying watching it. Yeah, we would be praying and watching. What do you think? I wonder how many like normal size men that he could just handle and take on on his own. Cause there's no doubt at least multiple. Like I mean, there's two normal size men that he could just handle and take on on his on his own because there's no doubt at least multiple

Starting point is 00:02:05 Like I mean there's two normal size men. You're not fucking with him He could take on two big normal size guys at least maybe up to four and he could take on at least I don't know 30 to 40 You're getting dog piled by him? Yeah, like hipsters some people. Oh hipsters. Yeah, you're a pancake easy. He can easily fuck up Anyway, I totally a pancake. He's a fuck up the four-year-old. Anyway, it's totally a pancake. He's a super cool guy. He's got a great story. He's got a-

Starting point is 00:02:29 So fucking world record holder, bro. He's got a rivalry with a British strongman competitor. Oh, that's right. You hear about it in this episode. So we had a lot of fun talking to Robert Obers. Now, you can find him on Instagram. He's got an awesome Instagram page where you can see him lifting various objects of massive size his Instagram page is at

Starting point is 00:02:49 Robert Obers OBERST so here's mind pump talking to Robert I'm actually just getting ready to head to Houston for like a training camp for world-strongman And I'll be training into a place called Jet Engine, Jet Engine CrossFit. Now let me, okay, so when is the Strongest Man, the World Strongest Man? We don't know the date, it's looking like maybe around April and it's always rumors until you get real close, but I know that we have... What is that? That's a great question, Helen.

Starting point is 00:03:20 It's one of those things. They've got their reasons for it. Mostly, I think it's they just don't want people to be out there They like to hold the the results until it comes out on TV. Oh I see I mean it's weird though because it's 2017 and It's gonna leak you need just like an old way it just hasn't changed over. Yeah, it's I think it's that but that's just my guess You know like I don't really know, but know, but it just tends to be that way. We went to Africa and I think I had five weeks notice,

Starting point is 00:03:52 four and a half. Literally, I had to get my shots within two days or I wouldn't have been able to go. Oh, yeah. So you know it's in April or you think it's in April. When do you start training for that? Well, with worlds it's different. Normally, normally, I wouldn't start specific training

Starting point is 00:04:08 until maybe two and a half months out about, but worlds is just, it's so many options. You never know what you're gonna do. You know, like we have prelims and we have finals, and I mean, it's anybody's guess what the events are. So when you say specific training, you mean specifically for the events you know, yeah, yeah, so like I'm gonna go by what I what I think's happening and what I know from history and studying it and everything and I'm gonna train for that. It's it's always gonna be

Starting point is 00:04:38 It's always gonna be a loading event. It's always gonna be a press and Some type of deadlift. They've been doing a lot of squats lately, so I'll be ready for that. Basically, you gotta be ready for everything when World Charmers man comes around. And right before that, we have Loglifting World Championships in London, and I'll be there for that,

Starting point is 00:04:56 and I wanna break the world record. I have the American record right now. What is it? It's 210 kilos, or 200 and and fuck I don't know Remember it once you get that strong You ask anybody in this room with our PRs for pearls. You go to the house. Yeah, yeah.

Starting point is 00:05:28 It's like heavier than everybody else. That's what I know. So how much of your training is this specific type training and how much of it is just focused on like core lifts? Oh, right now it's three days a week core and then one more storm and events, but I'm kind of transitioning into a new idea. I've been doing this for almost five years now, and I feel like I've adapted well. I relied a lot on my

Starting point is 00:05:54 football training and my strength background from that kind of stuff, so now I'm using more, I guess I feel more like a vet than a rookie anymore, so I'm kind of switching my idea, and I do a little bit more of the, like I'll do stones in the middle of the week And I'll do them on on a Sunday Stuff like that. It's it's kind of sprinkled in more now So that's a very long way of What led you to go that direction and start training like that? I just I felt like I wasn't getting enough time under the weird stuff, you know like there's no

Starting point is 00:06:24 There's no there's no, there's no... There's a lot of skill involved. Yeah, there's a thing. And you can't mimic a stone, really. Right, right. A million zurchers still is not the same as his own. Exactly, right. And after I see it, I mentioned earlier,

Starting point is 00:06:35 I lost them like about 75 pounds. And after I did that, I was training for a show in Texas, which I won, by the way, kicked the shit out of everybody. Fucking shit. I was chucking beers halfway through. Probably forgot to wait. But I found out everybody else. I know it was heavy.

Starting point is 00:06:52 It was good though. There was five events. And by the third event, I walked out in the crowd and I was taking beers from people with stone coats. Stone coats, stuff like that. You know, it was good. And so for that show, I switched it up a little bit because I wanted to feel what it was like under my new weight Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, I'm crushed it and I kind of just adapted my training from there. Why'd you lose weight? A couple reasons.

Starting point is 00:07:28 First, it was just that I was too big. I was 440 and I didn't feel good. You are a massive human. I'm skinny 365 now. So, at the time, I mean, everyone runs, rams it down your throat that you got to be as big as possible to be strong. And it's this idea in strong man and power lifting and it just it got kind of worn into

Starting point is 00:07:50 my head that I needed to be as big as I could be. So I would I would eat everything and I would you know keep my cardio to a minimum. I did what everyone else said that we should be doing and it just didn't work for me. I remember I went up on the Arnold stage and man when you step up there, there's just thousands and thousands of lights flashing off going off and everything. It was the second biggest show,

Starting point is 00:08:15 other than this one I just did in London or in Manchester, this was the biggest show I'd ever done. Get up on that stage and you're elevated over everybody. And I remember taking the steps up the stairs and walking out on the stage and you're elevated over everybody. And I remember taking the steps up the stairs and walking out on the stage and I was out of breath. And I was like, fuck man, this isn't how it's supposed to be. I felt like crap, I didn't perform well. I just, I basically wasn't good with being that heavy.

Starting point is 00:08:40 So that really changed everything. And then I have a two year old son. And so like I am all about being there and being around and playing with him when he's 15, 16, all day. I'm not trying to be tapped out before that. So. Did you recognize that pushing your body that extreme before that could be unhealthy for you?

Starting point is 00:09:01 And you just knew it didn't give a fuck anyways? What's your mindset? That's exactly it. I was willing to do whatever it took. I got to the point where it didn't matter what the end result was for me. It mattered what I had done before that, you know? Yeah, yeah.

Starting point is 00:09:16 I didn't really care. And that changes when you have a kid. It changes when other things that happen in your life and you realize like you are more valuable than the sport in itself It's it's a good feeling. Yeah, and so do you are there are things that you look back and go like flock that was crazy I was doing that yeah At that Arnold specifically we did a 1,600 pound yoke and

Starting point is 00:09:39 I'm not trying to bag on the Arnold, but it's also, it's a ridiculous lift and they cut it out. It's not gonna be that this year. And the stage is just, it's not concrete. It's a stage and it's got rubber mats. So basically every time you step with 1,600 pounds on your back, you sink like a half inch, at least, at least a half inch. Oh my God.

Starting point is 00:10:01 And that thing is weird. Oh my God. I remember feeling my spine, like the tail end of my spine, just shifting back and forth as I step in. And I'm thinking to myself like, this is probably gonna make it to where I'm not gonna be able to walk one day, you know? And there's, I think, three or four guys

Starting point is 00:10:18 who have legitimately, two of them ended their careers and two of them had to have crazy surgeries just because of that one that one event Whoa, so it's it's one of those things that I wish I would have just been like What about this what about some of the extreme measures you probably had to take to get to put the weight on to to be 440 Dude, it's not that bad for me to get to 440 really You're like I could get cruiser if I wanted to I'm starving myself for English. Six, dude.

Starting point is 00:10:45 Yeah. I am, man. I'm 10 pounds lighter than I graduated high school right now. Holy shit. Not so few. You've always been a big idiot. Hold on, hold on. You were 370 pounds in a high school?

Starting point is 00:10:55 Yeah, it was about 76 or something. Like the Nike Combine, when you go as a senior, like if you get invited, you go and you get measured and weighed and everything. And I was like, 370, 377, something like that. Just a big human. Yeah. Just always.

Starting point is 00:11:09 Oh, man. No, I mean, I was short and really chubby for a long time. And then over one summer, you get picked on a lot of those guys. They're great at that shit. When you get through your girlfriend, they all kind of just faded away. Yeah, but they did. They ran for the hills. It was done, after that. But over one summer, I was working in a camp

Starting point is 00:11:31 and I came back and I'd grown seven inches in one fucking sun. Oh my God. So I remember being in my tent and rubbing on my legs and stuff all night, because they hurt so bad. But I came back, I was awkwardly linked like all lengthy and stuff for probably six months before I caught back, I was awkwardly linked like all lengthy and stuff for like probably six months before I caught back up. Oh, that's great.

Starting point is 00:11:48 Wow. What got you into this sport in the first place? I mean, you've done strength sports in the past? No, I was just football, man. Okay. I wasn't trying to be the best at lifting weights. I was trying to be an athlete. And I enjoyed it in the gym.

Starting point is 00:12:02 I enjoyed training in the gym with football. I was always one of the stronger guys. And I like to push like maxes and different things. One of the things though, we would hand clean instead of deadlift. And so I remember trying to have the biggest hand clean I possibly could. And just loving the idea of being better at it. And then I was done with football and I was working at a club in Santa Cruz called the catalyst. This is a great time there. You probably took my ID there.

Starting point is 00:12:33 I had a blast. I know I was going to say now that it's all coming together. I was usually working the front or if there was a big artist I was hanging out in the back with them. Like I would always be one of those two spots. Man you must have seen some cool shows there. Dude I had more fun than I should have. So much fun. It was a good time. So I was there and there was a buddy of mine from junior college who was an amateur strong man and he just kept begging me to do it. He was so obsessed. He was so obsessed with strong man. I'm sorry Evan, I'm gonna tell a story. Yeah, I even said his name Evan from Santa Cruz, California. Oh man, we uh, we, we, we, he was so obsessed with strong

Starting point is 00:13:19 man. Like he couldn't not talk about it. So there'd be like a pretty girl or something of the show come talk to him, which is rare, because Kevin Evan is an ugly guy. So, and he would just talk to him about truck pulls. I remember we were in Colorado. This will get a bit interesting. We were in Colorado, and it's a rare thing for me to go to a strip club. I think I've only been like four times in my life.

Starting point is 00:13:41 I just don't see spending money like that. Yes, my state, too. It's a waste of money, man. That's like buying water. What are you doing? That's my boss. That's a nice cube quote. Don't get me credit.

Starting point is 00:13:52 Yeah. But we were at a strip club and Evan just looks so uncomfortable. So I bought him a dance and the girl took him to the private room or whatever. We were all hanging out. And he comes walking out like way too early for it to be over, way too early. And he just walked past us and she comes to the sit down next to us. And she was talking about, I had no idea. Strong man had that much detail to it.

Starting point is 00:14:17 She like was like just wow that he didn't have any interest in anything other than talking about strong man during the day. So he was the first one to probably turn you on to it. He was. He got me to come in and a day one, day one I tried the log press and broke the amateur world record. The first time you attended it, I think it was 3-10 was the record at the time. I don't remember what it was. I hit like just barely over it and put it down and um oh shit. I think it might have been novice wreck. I don't remember. It was I hit like close to 350 the first time I'd ever touched a log.

Starting point is 00:14:52 I remember putting it down and being like so was that any good and he was like the fuck out of here. Dude at that point where you like oh man I'm made for. I guess I'm that switch hit or what? I was it man that was it I went home and I had to google it and figure out what it all was about and everything I never really watched So I looked it up and study a lot of tape like I did with football watched a lot of YouTube And then I was I was in man. I knew I could make it work if I just dove all the way in now Do you do you handle your own programming or do you have somebody who does that for you? Like, how does that work?

Starting point is 00:15:25 I do. I do my own programming for the most part. Right now, I'm actually getting help with deadlift. I was saying, I'm about to head down to Houston to do a training camp for World Strongest Man. And I'm addressing my weakness, which is deadlift. And I'm getting help from Kale Beck, who runs startingstrongman.com. And he's been helping me a lot actually. He's actually been guiding me through a lot

Starting point is 00:15:49 of my training stuff whenever I need to transition. What he's, since he's been teaching you, what are you noticing with your dead? Is it mechanical breakdown somewhere? Or what do you notice? It's just, it's from, in my case, it's mostly just I haven't been doing it enough long enough. I went from never deadlifting to that day.

Starting point is 00:16:10 I did that 350 or 340, whatever I did that log that first time I tried it. I tried to deadlift max as well and I could barely pull 400. So fast forward like seven months later, I'm in England and I pulled 400 kilos. It was just too much too quick. And so it wrecked me. My lower back was bad. I pinched a nerve. I pinched my sciatic and I was,

Starting point is 00:16:32 my legs were numb for about two weeks. And then it was so bad that I was sleeping in my car because I couldn't lay down. I had a studio in Coraletus, which is, man, if you ever in Santa Cruz, Coraletus is spot. But the meat market shout out to the best meat. Yeah. But I was, I had a studio, so I didn't have like

Starting point is 00:16:51 a chair or anything like that. So I would sit in my truck and sleep at night. And I had to do that for a couple of weeks. And I was still training at that time too. I was getting ready for national. So I was still training and doing everything I could. So you're sleeping in a truck and you're training still for this while your back is all fucked up. And I'm like, yeah, it was that's that

Starting point is 00:17:08 forget I'm gonna do what it takes attitude. That's that shit right there. I was just not gonna fail. Are you doing like mobility work now and stuff with that? A lot of that stuff. Okay, I'm way more way more into keeping myself healthy now. I do I there's also this weird thing with strong man and with heavy lifting this whole like we don't warm up. Yeah. It's ridiculous. And at the time, I just listen to people, you know, like when other people have been successful

Starting point is 00:17:33 and you're around them, you're just like, okay, like I'll take what you say and I'll try it. And that's, there's just a lot of bullshit information out there, man. That's one of the reasons I'm doing my best to kind of promote this new style where you can actually be fit. You can actually warm up and stretching isn't bad and cardio is cool, you know. So talk about more that.

Starting point is 00:17:56 I won't expand on that because this is a lot of what motivated us for our show was what we saw kind of more in the bodybuilding industry. So the bodybuilding industry has the same bullshit. All these all this bro information that's been passed down. I noticed the way you're training and it was so different from the other strongmen I was looking at and I was like,

Starting point is 00:18:10 we're very curious to dive into that. Should I'm the only strongman that's at the level that I'm at that can go hiking and walking. None of them just like every day shit. Yeah, easy shit. Like I mean, I hike for maybe more times a week. Every time time I go anywhere I find a spot and I do it that too and I'm not saying like I'm hiking like kill him and Jarrow or nothing, but like I'll do four five six miles And I take my time. I don't rush and I also do Hillsprings while I'm doing it too

Starting point is 00:18:38 But um has it all contributed positively to your performance for sure The even just walking around is helped my low back so much, so much, just not being stagnant, just moving around. It's really important. The guys get caught up in routine and comfort and you know, it becomes a problem, especially when you work as hard as I do. So you got you got on Lucien's stuff up. Now do you do this full time or? This is it. Wow, what's it like making a living, competing, and being in strong, man? If somebody came to you and said, hey, I wanna do it.

Starting point is 00:19:11 Yeah, I'm living doing it. What are you doing, man? Yeah. Oh, man. Oh, man. I'd say, I'd say have a backup plan, but I'd say go pick up a 350 pound fucking log the first day, right?

Starting point is 00:19:24 Exactly. But we're in a backup plan backup plan is also a crutch that's gonna keep you from getting to anyways. I didn't have anything. I was a fucking bouncer for a club doing late night work, trying to figure out what I was gonna do with myself because I'd always thought I was gonna be an athlete. I didn't have the backup plan.

Starting point is 00:19:40 So when it came down to it, I just wasn't gonna fail. Like I had nothing to fall back on, and that's what made me do it. You know, and there's a lot of guys out there who've gone down that road and didn't make it. This guy's have done better than me, guys have done worse than me, and never found a way to make it a full-time job.

Starting point is 00:19:59 So I'm grateful for that. I fucking earned it, I worked my ass off, but I'm very grateful that things came together the it. I worked my ass off, but I'm very grateful that things came together the way they did. How does that work? Is it mostly sponsorships or is it through self-promotion programs? You're selling coaching? Well, it's mostly sponsorships.

Starting point is 00:20:13 I do coaching. I've just started doing the coaching. The thing is about coaching, I've said coaching six times now, coaching. The thing about that is, people will do that as a money grab and it drives me fucking nuts. It's the same as the bro science and all that shit. You're just giving out bad information or just template information which I mean if fine if you have templates but if you're selling templates as coaching then

Starting point is 00:20:40 you're a fucking dick in my opinion. You need to actually be able to take the time and watch people work and have an actual conversation and figure out what people need to do to get better. And if you're doing that, then that's fine. But man, there's just so many people out there that are like, I've got 600 clients. There's no fucking way. You can't even watch 25 people properly. There's no way.

Starting point is 00:21:04 No way. That's no way, no way. That's integrity right there. Yeah, well, I just don't want to be doing the other people what happened to me. I don't like that idea, you know, like it's not, it's not worth the money, fuck that. Do you think it's changing? Is it changing right now or do you feel like you're

Starting point is 00:21:18 one of the few that are actually preaching that message? The other thing is that I don't pay attention to too much. Like I see people when I go to expose and I pay attention to a little bit. Like my best friend, Kale, the guy who'd helping me when my dad left, he fucking won't leave me alone, telling me what everybody's doing all the time. I have an athlete page on Facebook,

Starting point is 00:21:40 so I don't see people's Facebook shit. My Instagram, like I'm very active on there, and I follow and I check stuff out, but a lot of that stuff tends to come from like Facebook or that. That it's slightly older. It's like older demographic. It just seems at least in the strength world. Now that I'm thinking about it as I say it,

Starting point is 00:22:04 like there's a ton of guys who do like that type of coaching on Instagram and stuff like that where I would see it, but it's a different, it's not strength. It's more like an aesthetic type of lifting. Right, right. Do you have, are there any strongman athletes past or present that you kind of like look up to

Starting point is 00:22:23 or model yourself after? Bill Kazmar.. Oh, fuck the man. Bill fucking Man, you know, I saw him. I went to an Arnold classic years ago. It was a way he's been way retired And he fucking folded up a frying pan like it was like it was a piece of paper I thought that shit was a joke, you know, and he's letting everybody grab it I'm like this is a real frying pan and his hands were like He's the man, dude. Yeah, and and I'm sure he'd be cool with me to share in this He and I actually we got along great and then we had like a disagreement about something I don't remember and

Starting point is 00:22:58 We we had a conversation I Four or five months after this disagreement and we're both very straightforward. We're very straightforward. That's what I loved about him. Like you watch his old shit and do it. It makes me want to fucking punch the wall or something like I love that stuff. So he and I both had kind of a disagreement. It was a few months later and he came up to me and spoke to me. And around, people, I was in Hexbo. He came up to me and he was like, Hey, man, I just want to talk to you about this. I felt I felt this was going on. And we talked about it like, like it was 19 fucking 65 and real men still existed.

Starting point is 00:23:39 And it was the coolest thing that I'd ever seen somebody of that stature do and like I was like I was blown away I was fucking blown away. He didn't care that people were standing around. He didn't care that he was I mean I who am I compared to Bill Casmire like it's not like he was coming over to fucking stand up guy Yeah, that's what I'm saying stand up dude like a real man. Yeah, I was I was so impressed and I I mean I would be very proud to represent America the way he is awesome man I was okay. Is there anybody in your in your family? That was just real strong I mean you've got to get these jeans from somewhere. Oh I've got ten siblings and

Starting point is 00:24:20 Holy cow wait wait ten Sibri- 2011 kids there will now there's 11 I grown up there was nine so yes there's 11 now I was number eight and No, there was that much food left over the EU We never had money, but we grew up Like going to church and stuff so we would get church food So we were stockful of food all the time, but like I remember there was there was a big part of our life where we were very very poor. Like the knock off fruit loops and chill. Oh man, the knock off fruit loops. The cans, the stuff that say like desert food industries. I was well fed. Yeah, there was 10 of us and none of them were really big.

Starting point is 00:25:07 My brother Dave was a wrestler, like actual wrestling. And he was, I'm sure, a little bit bigger than average. I don't know. It's hard for me to, are you that much bigger than everybody else? I'm way bigger than everybody. Really? Yeah, it's not even close. Out of that many kids, not one other one.

Starting point is 00:25:25 So not mom, dad, grandpa, uncle, and- Dad, dad's got a sick chest. He's a little bit shorter than average. Mom's tiny. It's what it is, I think. I mean, is- What do you like, my news came down? Yeah, exactly.

Starting point is 00:25:39 Maui. I can sing the whole song too. I got a two year old. I know all of the songs from my mom but My my dad's dad was thick like barrel-chested farmer guy and then my mom's dad was tall and I Think I just got both of those jeans

Starting point is 00:26:00 That's the both That's pretty crazy that many siblings. Man, yeah. Now, what was that like growing up with? You guys get along a lot. Did you fight a lot when you're little? What was it like growing up? Are you still close? It was a mix.

Starting point is 00:26:11 I mean, it was never fighting like real fighting. It was just brother sister stuff. Right. But yeah, we're all very close. The thing about growing up like that, when you have no money and you have 10 siblings is you just you learn how to do it together. Yeah, you bond and it becomes like you develop that part of you that's creative, that's that's going to keep you entertained or keep you like growing building whatever we do like

Starting point is 00:26:42 because you know like we we didn't have the not only was there not really Like games and stuff like there is now, but we didn't even we didn't have electricity for a lot of the time So I mean we'd just be outside trying to fucking create We literally played kick the can It was a compact car for him We had a minivan that didn't work. I don't know if this is sound so stupid, but we had a driveway because we lived behind an orchard.

Starting point is 00:27:14 We had a driveway that was like maybe two blocks long. We would take turns steering while someone else would push down the driveway. We would just go back and forth, man. I think that's the first exercise I ever got was pushing the car up and down the driveway. We would just go back and forth, man. I think that's the first exercise I ever got was pushing the car up and down the driveway. That's excellent. So I wanna ask you, nutrition-wise, because every time I look at strong man,

Starting point is 00:27:38 I look at the nutrition, I imagine myself like, they got to be eating a tremendous amount of calories. How much were you eating when you were up at 440 pounds? Were you tracking? I went to white for a little while. We didn't do that. Wait, 20,000? Yeah, 20,000.

Starting point is 00:27:51 Holy shit. No, we did a video. We did a video for a vice about it. And I did that for a short while. You legit ate 20,000 calories a day. What does that look like? Like, what is that? I mean, it depends on what I'm eating that day.

Starting point is 00:28:04 It's not that big of a deal. Really like it depends on what you put down. I can't do that five days. So like what would breakfast be like give me a rundown? I would probably hear this probably like 10 eggs ish maybe a little bit more than um I don't know. I would always have some kind of car with it. Like, I basically just ate what I wanted and then if I didn't eat enough, I would throw more on the dinner the day. So like, just a bunch of eggs, whatever kind of toast. I had this pasta that I made for that vise show that I would eat all the time, which is like a family recipe, which is just this big bowl of pasta with a bunch of different

Starting point is 00:28:44 types of meat and types of like go half half pasta sauce or red sauce and half sauce, stuff like that or the French bread which the recipe is literally just mayonnaise and cheese over the top Oh shit and you put that in the oven it tastes amazing It's just as bad as it cheese It tastes so fucking good man, it's so good It's not hard to get it is. But it tastes so fucking good, man. It's so good. Not hard to get to 20,000 calories. Hold on, so when you're dieting down,

Starting point is 00:29:09 would you go down to like 15,000? Oh no, no, I dropped it. I went keto for four weeks. I went keto for four weeks and then now, I don't know the exact number, but I'm guessing I'm right around five-ish. Okay. I have a nutritionist,

Starting point is 00:29:21 Nathan Payton does my nutrition. Okay. And he's phenomenal like especially because I'm I'm I'm kind of Hardheaded and nitpicky about stuff with that like I just I Wanted it to be very specific and I wanted it to be something that I could travel with because I'm on the road so much So he we dialed it in and it's working now How is digestion when you're eating that many calories and stuff because it sounds

Starting point is 00:29:47 I mean you have to be able to digest all that food. Yeah, I never really had a problem. I mean lately I've been switching back and forth between regular way protein and plant protein. I work with gats supplements. Okay, so like I get spoiled. Yeah, yeah, that's that's it. So I get spoiled. I get spoiled with like the best stuff. I don't know, like, dude, you can never ask for a better pre-workout than natural flex. You guys take pre-workouts? No, I haven't, yeah, I don't know why. Oh, man, next time you won one, I'll hook you up.

Starting point is 00:30:16 All right, send it over. Telling you that stuff. I'll take one quarter of the dose. Yeah. Yeah. So like I get spoiled, I have the supplements, so like I do like way protein in the morning and then halfway through the day, I switched to plant protein.

Starting point is 00:30:31 And the plant proteins really help me with digestion and everything else too. I've also started doing more like kombucha and stuff like that, trying to, trying to make it, um, hope that got a little bit off. I mean, I, what are some of the things that you notice when you went from, you know, mayonnaise cheese bread to now like really honing in. I was way less happy at first.

Starting point is 00:30:50 I wish I could eat that food and then still weigh 360. But, um, not, I, I, when I went keto, it was cool. I could tell things were working three weeks in. I was freaking out. I was like, what? I was calling it because my body was just like, what the fuck, you know? I remember I was at the Anaheim FedExpo and I do I do expose all the time where I'm meeting people and it's cool and I'm I'm great I'm easy I'm easy to get along with I love like

Starting point is 00:31:18 meeting people we have a blast but I was like just being a dick. I was so irritable and I just couldn't shake it and I called up my nutritionist and I was like just being a dick. I was shaking. I was so irritable. And I just couldn't shake it. And I called up my nutritionist and I was like, what the fuck are you doing to me? I'm on the road right now. I can't be like this, you know? Like, so I did it about another week and it ended up doing it for a month and then came back.

Starting point is 00:31:38 So right now, I don't do that many carbs still. I do like, one of them cooked a couple of rice a day. It's about it. Wow, isn't that great how the body can perform well with all these different right? Yeah, once you make it adjust your body's a great machine. Yeah, right. You just gotta tell it what to do and then just make it fucking do it. Like I everyone kept telling me how I was gonna lose strength when I when I was doing this

Starting point is 00:32:01 and everyone was just basically riding me off and I just was like, nah, I made myself go to the gym. I made myself do everything the same way. And my numbers weren't great at first. Took me about three months to figure it back out. And now I'm stronger than ever. We did the show. Stronger and lighter, that's fucking... I mean, you can't beat that.

Starting point is 00:32:19 The cardio's better. Yeah, you can't beat that. That's amazing. So much better. We did the show in Manchester, a giant-slants live the finals for World Strongest Man Giants Live World Tour which is I'm sure that's not exactly what it's called but um we did that and I P. R. Don't everything we did a 340 log might have been 330 we did 340-ish log for reps 60 seconds

Starting point is 00:32:42 I did it seven times. It wasn't even out of breath afterwards. Yeah, put it down I'm gonna see the endurance It's so big. Yeah, cuz like Gas and out and everyone else is like hoffin and puffin and done and I'm walking around pacing. I literally did that Walked over to the crowd took a beer from the guy in the front row and drank it and I just kept talking shit I was I was letting Mingly know that America was there to take it. It gave me the microphone and he said, no, I took the microphone actually.

Starting point is 00:33:12 He said, the guy said something about, what do I think about England? And I was like, well, I love England. I just can't stand the weather, the food, the people. You should have heard 12,000 people. Oh my God. They were so mad. The best I went to do the stones at the end. They used breakfast ham instead of bacon. Come on. It's 2017 people. So we were about to do the stone run and have our back to the crowd and they introduced

Starting point is 00:33:44 me. They said, and you know, come out of America, Robert Overson, I just put my hand like this, everyone listening can see it, I'm sure. And I put my hand up and I just hear 12,000 people just hating me, screaming and like right now I'm getting goose bumps. I loved it. I fucking loved it. I loved it. I loved it.

Starting point is 00:34:03 That's the best. I'll take that. I'll take that all day. And I turn around, we ran through those stones and I PR love it. I love it. I love it. That's the best. I'll take that. I'll take that all day. And I turned around, we ran through those stones and I PRed on everything. I'm one motioned a 380 stone. Like didn't even laugh it. Just put it up. And then ran through everything. Finished the last stone was like between four and four 20. I don't remember. Then I turned around and walked towards the crowd and just like putting my hands out, just screaming at them. I was just going gonna ask you, so is that the most memorable win or moment you've had?

Starting point is 00:34:28 Yeah, so far, that was the best, man. It was, there's been a lot of great moments along the way and there's been, I've had way too much fun. But to do that in front of that kind of crowd, it was great. That's great. They were just jacked. That's fantastic.

Starting point is 00:34:46 Do you do any auxiliary work? Is that part of strong man training things like, you know, curls and try stuff really, okay? For sure, yeah, I mean, you have, curls are probably the most neglected for me, but I do them just to make sure they don't tear. It's like guys tear that they're in. That's kind of common, isn't it?

Starting point is 00:35:04 Oh, super common. Especially on the stone. The first time I picked this stone up, that's what I know is more than anything else, was the strain on my bicep. Yeah, out of everything else, not my bag. Probably because you're not used to that much tension, at that extension.

Starting point is 00:35:16 Exactly. And it's a weird way of squeezing it. You're like, you know that like super hug machine, at the gym where you're squeezing it together, the pack that could have the super hug machine. Super gym where you're squeezing it together, and the peck that guy with the super hug machine. Super hug. That thing right there, like those muscles are a lot of how you pick it up off the ground, too. Like, there's just a lot of weird little intricacies with strong man that you wouldn't really

Starting point is 00:35:40 think about, like the biceps and the stones. Or when you're cleaning an axle and you got to go over underhand. I don't know if the listeners like if I could just say over under. Yeah, that's fine. So if you got to go over under and you're going to cotton and clean it, when you pop it up and that thing gets over 3.3, 3.4, like that's a big bicep curl. Yeah. So I do stuff to keep safe there and triceps, man triceps got to be strong. So a lot of stuff. I do upper back three times a week. There's hamstrings cannot be done enough. You got to hit everything. What if someone were to enter or want to enter into strong man,

Starting point is 00:36:19 what would you say that they would need? Like, you know, someone says, hey, I want to do strong man. What should, what could they look for in themselves to see if this is something they would need? Like, you know, someone says, hey, I wanna do strong man. What could they look for in themselves to see if this is something they can do? Well, it all depends on that goal and what they wanna do with it. But there's a lot of tips on training and how to train even if you don't have equipment and there's a map with like every gym location

Starting point is 00:36:40 in America and more, I think that's like all across the globe. It's all on startingstrongman.com. You can learn how to practice stones with rubber plates or different things like that, how to practice yoke if you don't have a yoke or log, all that kind of stuff. And honestly, it's just like anything else, you just go have some fun, figure it out. Like, I've never heard of anyone doing a strong man show for the first time and not having. Like, I've never heard of anyone doing a strong man show for the first time and not having a blast. Never heard of that.

Starting point is 00:37:09 I got my ass kicked the first time I competed. I had a blast, but I got like seventh out of nine or something. Do you look at some people don't go like, you just, you couldn't, just genetic? If they, it's hard. You're saying what I mean. Well, I mean, if you're saying like, they wanna be the best in the world

Starting point is 00:37:27 and they're four foot nine, then maybe they're gonna have a hard time. But like, if you wanna just do the sport and be the best you can, everybody can do that. And the other thing is, is Vittoros Lawless is from Lithuania. Man, I wanna say he's like five, five, five, six. Like he's tiny. and he got second place.

Starting point is 00:37:47 He was in first place at work on his man's stone. You got a fucking dude like he would. Pop it up. And like almost hold it there with his head. And they'll push it up over. Wow, just if you guys wanna see somebody not letting their height hinder them, you can look up Vittoros Lawless.

Starting point is 00:38:03 You know, the thing, so years ago, I've always been into, you know, exercise, obviously, I've been in fitness for a long time. And my goals initially were aesthetic, but I always like strength at my art strength. And I read a book, I think in my, I want to say my, that's not already. Shouldn't be reading books. Not good for trauma. I thought that there's jackass over here.

Starting point is 00:38:27 Yeah, we played played so just playing. No, but there was a book called Dinosaur Training, I think it was called Dinosaur Training by Kubrick, I think, is his last name. Yeah. And he talks about all these odd lifts and stuff. And so I started doing some more reading on strong man training from back in the day and current stuff. And I started applying some of it to my own training.

Starting point is 00:38:43 And I had no intentions in wanting to compete in strong man. But I started applying some of it to my own training, and I had no intentions in wanting to compete in strong man, but I noticed like muscle building effects, I noticed aesthetic building effects, and there's a lot people can learn from some of the ways you guys train, even if someone just wants to look better. You know, if they want bigger back or bigger. A stone lift has to be one of the most for your back. For your back. For your back. For your back. For your back.

Starting point is 00:39:06 For your back. For your back. For your back. For your back. For your back. For your back. For your back. For your back.

Starting point is 00:39:13 For your back. For your back. For your back. For your back. For your back. For your back. For your back. For your back.

Starting point is 00:39:20 For your back. For your back. For your back. For your back. For your back. For your back. For your back. For your back. For your back. just think about what a farmer's does. Like my traps are huge because of farmers. My shoulders are built because of log press. Like it works and it's also it's fun. Like when you've been training for any amount of time, it's like it gets tedious.

Starting point is 00:39:33 Same with Barbara Roe. And you go out there and you're like, oh, today I'm gonna try and throw up a log or I'm gonna try and pick up these stones. That's exciting, it's fun. It's different. One thing you're asked with any of the Celtic games or got into that at I did I did one

Starting point is 00:39:47 Um, I want to show in Vegas that qualified me for Giant's live about three years ago and God hammered that night the next morning We woke up woke up and they were having a Highland games show. Yeah, like two blocks from the hotel. I was like fuck it. Yeah, let's go do it And I was beat and still drunk Did it went out there and everyone's drinking during the show too like oh How to get down yeah, they get down. Yeah, so went out there. We're a drinking culture I won every single event

Starting point is 00:40:20 Handily like ridiculous and I would like I would throw the weight and then have to hold my hip with my hand The follow out there and And I smash there those blasts. Um, that's awesome So I'm actually thinking about going to Reading, California in February I believe it's February 7th. I'm gonna go up there do a show It's kind of strong man Highland games mix and the winner gets to go to Norway So I think I'm gonna go do that. That's awesome.

Starting point is 00:40:46 Yeah, let's check that out. That's awesome. So moving forward, like, what's in the future for you, man? What are you looking at? Next up, man, log world championships in London, I'm gonna kick Eddie Hall's ass, and then I'm gonna go to the tournament. Oh, call him out.

Starting point is 00:40:57 Well, he knows that he's been hiding already, man. I tried to get him to come out for a Manchester. He talked a bunch of shit, and then he knew he was gonna get smashed So he pulls out he does the log and then he pulls out Dude he's wrapped up and done and he just wanted minute So now I feel like you have a great like attitude about you know when you do it I feel like you're not being vindictive or talking shit or down to some why talking shit How do these guys receive it?

Starting point is 00:41:25 How do these guys receive it? Don't be fooled. Oh man, most people are cool with it. There's definitely a lot of people that don't know. Do you poke harder? There wasn't. Oh, yes. I've got 10 siblings, man.

Starting point is 00:41:38 Like, if you do show discomfort in what I'm saying, I'm gonna say it for you. See what you could do. You wrestling, man. I know, I would, I would. We actually had a meeting we spoke with Vincent Manoil ago. We talked about it and it just hadn't come together. So it might have been the future. My buddy is doing it now. Adam Shere, he's he's brought strumming in WWE and he's doing great.

Starting point is 00:42:01 That's cool. That's something I wanted to do as a kid. I wanted to do that growing up. If they would have got a hold of me before, like I was like 21, I would have done whatever they said. Oh, wow. But it just never came together. Well, that's awesome, man. Thanks for coming on the show.

Starting point is 00:42:19 Yeah, I did. That's fucking awesome. It's that, you know, every time I'm around someone that's as big as you are, it just makes me realize that humans are not all the same. There's like different categories of humans though. Big and tall, small shoppers. Exactly.

Starting point is 00:42:35 But yeah, we appreciate you coming on the show. Yeah, do absolutely do this again. And you gotta make sure you got it. You gotta come visit us, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, definitely. I'll be there, man. I've lit all our weights.

Starting point is 00:42:44 Yeah, I mean, all of us. Yeah, we don't have come our weights. Yeah, we don't have enough free. We'll figure it out. All right, we'll check it out. Go to YouTube, subscribe to our YouTube channel, Mind Pump TV. We post a new video every single day. We also offer 30 days of coaching for free at 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 Mind Pump Media dot com. The RGB Superbumble includes maps on the 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.

Starting point is 00:43:30 With detailed workout nutrients in over 200 videos, the RGB Superbundle is like having Sal Adam and Justin as your own personal trainers, but at a fraction of the price. The RGB Superbundle has a 430-day money back guarantee, and you can get it now plus other valuable free resources at MindPumpMedia.com. If you enjoy this show, please share the love by leaving us a fine-star rating and review on iTunes and by introducing MindPump to your friends and family. We thank you for your support, and until next time, this is MindPump. to your friends and family. We thank you for your support and until next time, this is MindPom.

Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 656: Robert Oberst- World's Strongest Man Competitor

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