Lifting Big Weights Hurts | Dave Hoff, Dave Tate's Table Talk

Lifting big weights hurts there is an inherent there's pain dude everybody knows what it takes but nobody will do it I could sit here and I could tell you I could lay out8 weeks training for you block period you know what bands chains all down to anything write it all out and you won't fing do it that's what it takes they want to take something from that something fun that doesn't require consequence cuz sometimes you just have To do the hard thing you know like people they always want to do two easy things or two

medium things to get the get the big thing and sometimes you have to narrow is the road you know what I mean narrow is the gate you want to go [Music] [Applause] through it's time to sit down keep it real and cut the [ __ ] welcome to table talk I would consider winning worlds and Breaking World Records dominating the the when you come to fruition and you're actually the class that you're in yes so to still be dominating in the sport over a decade later actually 13 years that's that's that's that's [ __ ]

impressive man not there's not very many people that have that type of longevity so that's one of the things that we're going to talk about as well is how do you get that type of longevity and especially a sport like this because There's a few other people that have had you know that type of duration but it's I was looking a little bit earlier today it's less than a handful there's there's not many and there's not there's I don't believe there's any in any weight class over 242 well I think like the bigger you get

it's hard to be big you know it's hard on your body it's hard on your heart it's just it's hard it's hard on your mind you know yes I think uh when you Start getting over like 10 and 12 years it's a it's very hard mentally M so like you know I had to invent ways to stay motivated and you know you you learn or you you you you die so exactly so what I wanted to do evolve or die man yeah I I wanted to go through your your powerlifting Journey you know just basically

from the first time that you were in the gym you know until where you are now there's there's one question that really really Str really stuck out To me and anybody that's paying attention through this podcast you're going to see the answer to this it was somebody was asking and it wasn't a troll question but I kind of looked at it kind of like a troll question but I don't think it was is you squatted a th000 pounds and 19 years old yeah and then the he was this person was watching the wp and listening

to the commentating so I don't know which year it was and said you squatted uh 11:35 I believe Yeah that was in 17 it was in thef Nationals that was my opener yeah so the the the way the question was poised is did it really take that long to put 135 pounds on your squat now there's a lot that goes into this you know to where so that just keep that in mind because we're gonna a lot of what we're going to talk about is going to dive into that because the the further you get

along this journey just getting back to where you Were you were is a challenge you know getting over that is a challenge then when you're breaking alltime World Records getting over that is a Monumental challenge so it's not just 135 well I try to tell people it's it's one thing to break a world record and I call it there you know it's another thing to stay there and compete but then it's another thing to rule mhm you know uh I always you know you know you know Louis's whole thing was read books so Like you

know he always like the art of the Samurai so one sunzu Art of War you know appear weak to your enemy but that's you showing your hand you don't show your hand that's basically what I never I just don't do that yeah so how did you I don't want to get into you you were training for high school football so just get into that then you see Travis training in a gym somewhere so uh I was at there was so I you know I Always I always like you know I grew up watching Arnold Sylvester

Stallone all those guys so he always wanted to be big and jacked like them so I was in uh I don't know if you remember it was a gym called murf gym in Griff city um Jason Murphy is a guy he's over at lexon I think now but he owned that gym and uh I'd walked in there you know during a summer and I'd go in there and bench press I didn't know anything I was reading you know muscle and fitness Magazines and the f Flex magazine I didn't really know anything about powerlifting but you

know everybody wanted big you know having a big bench was always cool that meant you were strong you know can you bench press nobody ask how much you squad or deadlift MH um so yeah I was in there and this this up until that point i' NE I'd never seen a human that big You Know Travis was you know he's about 6'4 maybe 300 lb dude 315b guy you know big big 20 Some inch arms big guy you know and I'm I'm a kid I ain't never seen that looks like action figure to me I

like what the hell knows that thing you know how how do I get to become this thing and he had a and like I was looking at him he had five plates on the bar and I didn't even think that was possible like I that didn't even register in my head that you can put five plates on a bench press bar and do it and uh he was wearing a Karen's denim bench press shirt and at The time I didn't know what that was like what is this thing what how I see that there are

many plates on there and I would like to do that it looks like so I I remember I went up and talked to him I was like dude how do how do I do that and he's like he starts saying all this [ __ ] to me and I don't know what the hell he's saying to me you got to do triceps and like what I know that's your tricep but I don't you know what I mean like I'm I'm in like eighth grade you Know what I mean seventh or eighth grade I'm like young

like 14 years old so I'm I'm this 14-year-old kid trying to retain this you know what I mean like H it's just like a h the only way I could describe that is like when you first started it felt like I was an eth grader got stuck out in a varsity football game and I was like set hut smash like what was that so he's like tell me all these things do all this stuff I'm like dude I just don't know what the hell that dude Just said to me but I kind of figure out

I got to do this a lot a lot of triceps so I remember uh that was the first time I met him and uh there had been I don't know some time went by and he came back in again to grab like a you know a energy drink out of the thing he he'd stopped by and uh I remember I saw him like Hey like I want to do that thing that you're doing and I'd I'd been bugging the [ __ ] out of him every time I saw him so I mean I'd saw him

on a Couple other occasions and he trained my brother too so my brother was in my my older brother was in uh he was in shirts and stuff before I was okay so I was kind of like I kind of want to do that you know and I was looked at kind of like the younger brother that just wanted to do what his older brother was doing and uh he gave me a shot he said finally just said all right just come meet me down here and um it was uh he had a little gym

in the back of his Girlfriend's dance studio it was just like a power rack and some benches just some [ __ ] you know and uh I was like sweet I'm going to get strong you know and uh I remember the one of the first workouts we did in there it was uh we were doing pin pools I don't know what a de [ __ ] pin pool was you know what I mean I just know that they set the bar on the pin and you're supposed to pick it up yeah well anyway I think

I was like 14 and I pulled like 605 off pin One and I didn't I didn't is that good you know I don't know tell and he and he's like he's like dude what the [ __ ] and I was like what I don't I don't understand and now when I was a kid gred I was a little cocky bastard cuz you know like you know you know I was strong and I knew it and I was a dumb kid you know what I'm saying so like they hated that about me dud like they they

they just wanted to try knock me down the size all the time and you know so I Guess somebody said if there was a younger me would I tell myself don't be a cocky bastard and think you know everything when you're young cuz you don't MH but anyway back to I saying uh uh yeah he's like dude you this no we got to take you somewhere else I was like what do you mean take me somewhere else I was like I I've been trying to come in here and you're trying training with you guys now

you're trying to take we got to take you to Westside Barbo I'm Like what the hell is Westside Barbo you know and uh I was so terrified because basically they told me about this this this giant this this monster of a woman named Amy weisberger and how you know she could bench more than me and if and if I didn't bench more than than Amy then I couldn't come back then you can just get the [ __ ] out if you can't out bench Amy you can't be here type thing I was so I was

terrified that I was going to get Out benched by this woman so Travis was saying this before he even got there yeah just psyching trying to psyching the [ __ ] out and uh so I remember I was like oh like whatever I just got to go so to me and this in this you know we're going to take it to Westside he started describing I'm like that sounds crazy like I'm that sounds like a militaristic cult faction you know like all right let's do it you know I'll go over there and uh I remember

I'd never put a Ben Shirt on up until that point and uh I walked in there and Travis he was we walked in the gym and uh we had been in there and they were showing me around and you know I'm you know I'm pretty intimidated I'm just I'm like a 14-year-old kid you know and there's killers in there dude not not you know what I'm saying there's just like yeah so this was Industrial Drive correct correct like this is when they just had the first one side when they first came From Demis so he

had that one, 1500t side and that was it like everything was smashed in there you were doing hypers next to a guy that you might have fought two days ago you know what I mean like everything was real close quarter yeah so uh uh what was I saying well when you first came in there so the so Travis brings me in there comes in and uh I'm like okay that's I I knew that that that's Louis you know I'm like [ __ ] like I was real nervous that they would tell me to leave you

know like they don't want kids in there get the [ __ ] out of there so I was nervous you know and uh I remember Lou was talking to Travis and he said something like well if he can use a Ben shirt he can stay he said something like that I kind of overheard it I was like dude I've never put a shirt on I don't even you know I've just seen people they go down and they touch it and they push it up that's all I I'd Seen it I'd never even held one mhm

and Louie goes into his office and he comes out with a with a black R inor rage Ben shirt and he throws it to me goes here try this and I was like okay and uh I remember I we put it on I laid down a bench 400 lb he's like I remember I stood up I after I did it I was like what is that good you know he goes He Go you can train here and he just turn around walked away so that was like how that was like my introduction going into Westside

Bell so when you I was in the morning crew at the time I believe cuz it's I on Drive yeah so 4:00 it's a gritter you know you were in grit's crew gritter kab Co Jimmy Richie Freddy bolt uh Joe Jester um who else was in there uh Chester St John Stafford uh you had a Jeremiah yeah uh those type guys so what I mean as as you're 14 years old right I mean you're still in high school and people people don't understand that like uh so you're leaving high school then You're going straight to

the gym essentially middle school middle school middle school I'm like seventh I'm like a seventh like my parents had to drive me to the gym mhm and my mom was terrified mhm and my dad's like just let him go you know like let him go do it you know my mom's like put these men you know like I was like it'll be okay Mom and like so so in hindsight 2020 you know we go to the first meet it was Circleville bench press meet you Remember that M and uh my mom my mom was like

the first and last meat my ever mom my mom ever went to cuz these [ __ ] they smack you right in the face they didn't think you looked awake they were like wake up you know that was spash my mom was like good God you smacked my child like mhm type [ __ ] so it was this weird fine line they we had to walk for a while it was kind of funny so what was the training like is it you know I'm in a different crew Right so I'm in as Louis would say

the am crew is always what eight hours hours ahead so what was the because of your age right so how who who was who were you training with because it's a group right so everybody's kind of telling everybody what to do but somebody has to be telling you kind well you know the guy that I always like looked up to and asked the got like hey what should I do what should I jump to what do you think was always Bob you know Bob was like my He he pretty he he saw me in there

and was like hey man I think this kid's special you know let me just keep him from getting hurt cuz up into that point it was Balls to the walls if you [ __ ] if you tweaked your PEC put some duct tape on it if the duct tape came off put some glue on it you know like type [ __ ] if your calluses are ripped off you shouldn't have such [ __ ] hands like uh there was no excuse for anything it was just you it was just that real Cutthroat Time and um

and during that time it was like Bob's whole thing was dude I can't get he was he always he told me later on he didn't want I don't want your parents to sue me if I if we got you hurt your [ __ ] parents would sue me so you know later on you know Bob had had a really I think is a big reason why I got so far is because in the very beginning I was sheltered from like catastrophic things I didn't really have business doing mhm and a lot of that stuff was

Like uh we would pull off one one jump early so if something was slow you know or I got one out of the groove towards the end you know you know one of those high high percentage numbers you know your last one or two if it was slow you'd like hey we're just going to shut it down there you don't have to pull another one where uh that ER of West I didn't care if it was [ __ ] slow put a plate on and if you missed it you're a [ __ ] you know

like type [ __ ] so I got I I was almost like I was this new it was like I was this new way uh outside of that brutality so to say yes a lot of that's prob I mean you're you're speaking about Bob Co for those that aren't you know that aren't familiar and he's he might have been he always at one of the original members probably I mean he was when I got there in early 90s he was there yeah demo he he he come with demo I believe yeah when demo had Eminem

or Dem yes because That's that's the first gym I I'm I'm in a sling when I came to Columbus so I had Louie had that gym so Matt took all the equipment to Eminem yeah and all the barbells you power [ __ ] went into this boxer in the basement gym right so it was a differenty box ring yeah and but I had cuz I had a sling I couldn't I needed to use like the leg press and [ __ ] like that so I was training at Eminem then I would go you know to

the other thing and Matt was there and you Know Bob was kind of like bouncing around between but he was definitely there dude he had hair I mean I seen pictures of Bob when he had hair I like when did you have hair yeah so he would have had was that when he was he's t l [ __ ] wa was his Tri that was like hismo well this was when Matt died so like when this this was like 315b washboard at Bob like the dude was a Mongol like he was a jacked ass dude

And he was mean like Bob was a mean ass [ __ ] dud and um mat had just died and um Bob Bob and Matt were real close and that you know that really tore Bobby up you know he real real real hard for him and uh he had done it it was a bench press meet I think it was I don't remember that Dr Mark bench press meet it was one of these weird side bench press meets Boba bench 500 he and bless his hard he he's like doing this for Matt you know we're

Doing this for Matt and he he gets takes 500 out and he goes down and gets press call and gets it up locks it out pow blows his tricep off it's like the D it's just like the guy caught so many bad breaks like that he was he just it was just one thing after the next kept coming off M it it was still Point like the meet the first meet I totaled 3,000 I gave him some kind of internal injury handing out to him he told me he was coughing up blood the next morning

he's Like dude I'm like [ __ ] up I can't do this anymore I remember his whole thing he wanted to take me to the top like take me to the biggest ever when I when I did that he's like dude I can't do it anymore MH and I was like I'm sorry like it got too he couldn't hand me benches anymore THB benches Bob's getting Bob's Bob Works he hangs drywall you know what I mean he he's a hard ass working hard ass on your body for years and just couldn't do it no more

so it's like That's another point where like [ __ ] had to evolve you know yeah so going from that say that first meet into your first um world title or actually let's I'm skipping for too much so at what point did you squat a grand because you did that as a Teenage CU to me I'm not even aware that you [ __ ] are there right because that's just how West I mean just it is I mean it's Louis it's like whoever's in the night everybody's strong yes it's like the NFL everybody's Fast it

doesn't like you have to do something to set yourself apart from all the strong and fast people yes and now I knew the people that were at Demmer that were in that night crew because they were there and the the camarad was a little bit different when we moved to Industrial Drive which you know we talked a little bit about that beforehand we'll get into a little bit more the culture kind of shifted a little bit but any of the new people I Didn't [ __ ] know cuz Louis wouldn't talk about any of them

CU we're coming in we're training we're leaving going to work do whatever we're doing unless somebody was doing something worth a [ __ ] Louis wasn't going to talk about it yeah unless they did something big he would come in and tell you what that person did to piss you off piss exactly like hey uh to me like when when a lot of it was AJ for me AJ pull you know P you pulled 875 off pin three back back BL I'm like oh yeah I'm like oh that's cool so I guess now I got

to pull pin three today and pull 880 okay I guess that's what we're doing yeah I got that [ __ ] with Wadd when I was first there actually it was Wadd telling me what the [ __ ] dude I I I I what how how do you afid this like the first time I was there I understand you've been brought in to beat me I'm like what the [ __ ] is this dude talking about I just [ __ ] come into power you know I'm not I Didn't know take it personal man yeah

I know and I wasn't I wasn't a part of this plan but sure you know why not it's like Game of Thrones it's like it's like to unse you to be on the board is to unseat somebody yeah then then I'm like what are you total I mean I don't I they to like 2100 yeah but back then that was strong no he was [ __ ] stronger than he had the board it was 950 man but then Louis would do that [ __ ] all the time you know like Rob did this and you

know They plant those seeds in there whereas with with you being in there I I do remember Dave squatted 1,000 pounds and thinking of myself the [ __ ] it took me about 3 years me being there I remember uh so I can just kind of quickly go through like me being young uh my first meet was a circle Ville bench press meet I benched 440 and that was my first ever powerlifting meet compe I I think I was 13 or 14 I can't remember exactly I think it was in 2003 and then Then I

did a full power I missed 470 and that was like a big deal because that was Kenny Patterson's teenage world record yeah so like I there they were I was like Kenny P they started like holding me on this pedestal of like well if you keep going you you're doing the things that these guys are doing and they're great lifters so if you keep your [ __ ] straight and you know do what we [ __ ] tell you to do and do what you're supposed to do you'll be there Eventually one day so you

know I kind of just had this feeling that I you know you're born with greatness and I knew I I was born with it you know I mean you're called to do things in life and this is just my calling you know so you walk in greatness in your calling um so the second meet of the did I it was a full power meet I squat I was a 220 I think I weigh like 214 lbs I think I was like 14 or I was a fairly big kid you know I Mean I had big

bones you know I wasn't a small you know kid for no reason but or for no stretch of the imagination but squatted 700 my first meet uh I benched I benched the 475 and then I pulled 600 that was like I think it was like a 1770 or something like that total and then i' go back to school play football and uh I remember that first year I was real nervous to go back because dude if you missed a workout don't you [ __ ] come back here yeah if you're do you remember They locked

the door on reera y you know that you were 5 minutes late door was locked shouldn't [ __ ] whoops and then it got to the point where they leave the door unlocked and let you come in and berate you and and if there was three plates on the bar we don't pull plates off here before that mic was thrown out when we were on Demmer he was actually thrown out I heard for five minutes late yeah you know then you know they made amends and he came back but then that Miker was one of

the biggest human beings I think I've ever seen during that time 370 something pounds he looked like a [ __ ] rhinoceros yeah like I call him Rhino man he look like a damn rhinoceros just super nice dude like just you're just like man he was a specimen though Mike rier was like one of my favorites oh no he's awesome but yeah so um went back to school uh went through another football season and then you know I was coming Back I was like damn I hope they let me come back so I remember I

walked up and gritter was there and he goes looked at me what the [ __ ] are you doing here I was like well I I had play football uh I was just coming coming back and train and he goes well get the [ __ ] in here then I was like okay like okay yes sir there we go so then I I I came back I guess if they said they had the if I had the balls would come back again that's kind of how it was you just didn't walk Up on that place

I saw on many occasions uh guys walk up in there with their bags and sit it down start looking around and and I've seen Chuck walk up pick who are you why are you here I don't know you pick their bag up and Chuck it in the parking lot don't come in here like type stuff uh so yeah just putting going forward um so I went through a football season it came back around they let me train again uh uh the next and I did another Meet they were generally in the springtime you know so

i' come out of football and then Springtime would be the time to do power lifting meets uh so the next meet I did I squatted 800 I think I benched 510 and I pulled 650 M so I had a big increase like man I can build 100 lbs in my squat like that to me it just came easy so that's just how I thought it was you I mean my reference to big weights everybody around me I'm a kid so 800 lb squats are I'm supposed to Do that yeah you know 400lb benches aren't big

there's guys over there doing it for reps raw and no FL press mhm you know I mean so you you you understand what you are very quickly in the pucking order there MH and uh so yeah then I think it was around after that that's when Louie started to be like okay I think this kid's you know he can he's got some he's got something uh went through the calendar year again come back around and uh I squatted 900 again So I put another 100 lb on my squad I think it was like 900 I

benched like 6 60 something and pulled like seven uh I was 18 or 19 and then the big so that was leading into the that 1000b when I was 19 I did another meet where I squatted 960 total 2300 when I was 19 and I missed the th5 cuz I remember I all I did was look at numbers and and whose name was beside it you know and it was Scott whech I don't I don't I can still tell you to this day I he he was The youngest person my whole thing I want to

be the youngest person Squad a thousand and he he was 20 years old 3 months don't ask me how I knew that I just counted it back from his birthday M so I knew I could be 20 years old in one month and still be the youngest of squad just like weird [ __ ] my mind's weird so I tried it once and missed it and that was like the first big Squad I ever missed cuz up until that point I was just banging them out boom boom boom Boom boom boom boom and uh uh

I tried again in the summertime and I had a terrible meet I only squatted like 9:30 or something like that and I couldn't even miss 960 and I'm like man what the [ __ ] you know so I remember uh it was the last meet of the Year going into this uh the fall time and Bob's like man this is this is it right here and uh it was in New York it was guy named Mike Maxwell ran it and it was iron iron house Iron House sville Meets uh and I the whole training cycle

we trained with a this this center from Texas A&M had come he was training for the draft M you know getting ready for the draft and he had trained with me we called him Texas your name's Texas now I don't give a [ __ ] with everybody got nicknames in there so like you know I give my guys nicknames and [ __ ] now and they they're like why they don't some of them don't understand it but yeah and there and Like Westside they gave you a nickname cuz a they didn't give a [ __

] what your name was they weren't going to remember it anyhow because you weren't going to be there longer than 3 weeks so they didn't give a [ __ ] to introduce themselves they looked at you as like okay well this guy's here it's a waste of my time because in 3 weeks you're going to be gone mhm um type [ __ ] well that was true more than not a lot of people couldn't a lot of people It's just not it's not for everybody and it's it takes a person and you can't be all

there MH it takes a kind of a a little bit of a stupid person in some senses in a way I I I say it's like the dog just wired differently I say it's like the dog that's been hit too many times you know after a while it's just like I'm a dog that's been hit too many times but for you I mean coming in at 14 you didn't know any different no cuz I think that's one one other thing that Really contribut to me being uh what I am now is the people I wasn't

around just anybody you know dude I I benched with Freddy bolt he was the world record bench holder at 198 bench 623 you know I had Amy weisberger she was the best female powerlifter on the planet you know I had uh uh either guys that were world record holders or they were handling those guys so like they were eyes on those world record holders so they had this level of vision and Foresight that you know everybody had that it's like in the NFL you know everybody's fast it's like everybody was a coach everybody was a

training partner everybody knew everything that was required and if you didn't do those things you just could not exist there it's like it's like being on the moon with no oxy there's no you there's you can't live there if you're if there's you can't if you're not this way you will not exist in this environment MH And uh that's long and the short of it uh yeah yeah so that gets to that first worlds where the a couple things that you're touching on because as you're talking I'm kind of going back to the you know

decade or so I was there so there's different eras right so there's like the I guess the garage era the demver era I'm trying to figure out what things carry over what things didn't cuz things change and you've been there 18 years or whatever so you've seen things Change while being in that same Industrial Drive complex you saw things come in you know where I'm I'm seeing a lot of that same mentality you know definitely transferred over there but the one thing that bothered bothered me I guess and probably a lot of the morning guys

is we went from this 400 square foot plays to that before the second side opened 1500 I mean still not 2000 it went from like Club it it quadrupled in size you know so where you Would have growth comes change you know yeah where if we were squatting and Lou and I I call it swapping sets you always have that guy that you're swapping sets running right back and forth back and forth that's your squat guy you know so if we were squatting then three other people were helping we didn't have to do a [

__ ] thing correct we just squatted there's no run in the monolith there's no changeing box height there's none of that [ __ ] we just squat there you go one Minute rest not a [ __ ] problem culture it's just there and then once we went over there that started to dissipate because the first group instead of staying back and helping would just move on and then they would do the reverse hyper exclude ham racer you're kind of like what the [ __ ] you know where the [ __ ] are you guys at

like why aren't you helping us type deal yeah so then it became running back and forth and all that and I'm like what the hell You know this this was here for a reason so you'd have multiple sets of eyes looking at every single thing it wasn't this person two people over here doing and that's kind of like towards my my end of my time that's kind of how it was there and I didn't like that I didn't agree with that I needed Lou would get mad at me because I'd have 10 or 15 people

in my group you're there squatting four hours you don't need to be there y all getting weak blah blah Blah blah blah you know and and to me it was like what are we doing at meets dude we're we're in Meats squatting for two or three hours you know what I mean it's like um but a lot of what differed from like when I first got there and I don't have this conversation a lot because you know what I mean like I I've never really been brought back that far for a long time yeah so

it's kind of cool to go back and think about this stuff um one Of the it goes back to like the brutality thing it went from like very Cutthroat uh you trying to break the person beside you trying to make that person quit uh it it it like went to a different version of that to where when it was like athletic it turned into like an athletic club rather than just some Hardcore gym club where now Louis's now we looked at it was more looked at like we were athletes and if we were injured then

we need to pull back and do these Things and not push the issue and tear it the rest of the way off uh there was a lot of things that stuck the core like the core Val like the core like uh I call it the bread and butter the that that Synergy of the system you know like you your 3- we waves you know your box squatting your max effort lower your max effort upper your your Dynamic upper and lower uh that that was that always was the center of everything so we always stuck to

the 75% 75% what I call bread and butter and 25% was always this uh experimentation and you know like you hear Bob talk in the movie you know when everybody when they first got banned you guys just started throwing bands on it until you know it killed that too much you know can't do that so we came right after that it's like you guys were the the I don't want to say guinea pig but you guys made a lot of the mistakes and had The injuries that showed my my type of a generation what not

what not to do yes cuz the injuries went substantially man yeah I mean with with end man Enders the C the injuries you guys dealt with were not the injuries that I dealt with not at all because of of people like you people like you know you see fusner like tearing his Peck away dude rip gone you know what I mean uh Freddy bolt tore a Peck and then you you know you train With these guys and you see them get hurt and then you then you see them come back and you know it's possible

M all right so you know over you people say how do you come back from injuries and when you get when you start getting beat up what do you do it's like I saw so many guys get catastrophically hurt and come back and do things I knew it was possible so I knew when and it's not a matter of if it's when you're you're you're playing with fire all the time You know it's like it's like playing with a plasma torch it ain't even fire you're gonna get hurt dude you're something's GNA happen sooner or

later and I would see it break it in some people and then I would see guys do you know that that's kind of like where it got out of this brutality thing beat it down and oh you know oh it hurts I'm a [ __ ] I'm going to beat it down more because it's hurt it's like there's the mentality kind of changed to where we Like I it was almost like athletic like an we looked at ourselves I don't say we but like the The View was more like we need these guys to not

be hurt so they can keep going it was it was like a period of time of where injuries were running rampid through that place and we had to figure out how to get them to stop remember Lou said every all the dudes were just tearing their pecs off uh going why we can't wide bench press anymore you know so you know everyone's Bringing grips in uh you know that's what you know you know stuff like all this gpp you know General physical preparedness all these special exercises start to come about well backing down with the

injuries is a big one you know that's that wasn't that's like the biggest thing that I can remember and and know there was this your generation from my view was just Brut brutality like and injuries didn't matter I don't care if Your quad is hanging off I don't care if you to I don't care if there's a big giant bruise I don't care I don't I don't have anything to do with that type thing it's like they are disconnected from anything that has to do with you getting under there and getting stronger mhm and if

you can't get stronger if you're in and dude back then so here's another thing back then uh dude some guys would get ding like pretty I won't say catastrophic but you get some Injuries where you're like dude I need some months off you know what I mean and I seen a lot of guys get booted that shouldn't have been booted at that particular time because they were injured and I can't really think of names I just know it happened you know there were guys that shouldn't have been kicked out uh because they didn't want to

push the issue and yeah blow something I I could I know there became this weird time of leaving that Brutality but keeping the you we talk about it earlier keeping the culture I think that's really what there's two things that make Westside Baro first and foremost it's Louis Simmons Louis Simmons uh developed the construct this this I like The Truman Show Dome uh yeah yeah you know he made this construct and and you choose to participate inside the con construct and there's uh consequences MH and there's there's there's also benefits you know you do Great

you get get [ __ ] paid for you do great you know here here's your bench pressure you get you start getting benefits uh but if not you don't you know what I mean and then you're gone so like you know yeah I'm kind of getting off yeah no that's that's kind of where we want to go because it's like I said I'm looking at what what transferred over because it's like I said I was maybe two three years I think shortly after after your thousand PB Squat and It was it's interesting because we're talking

about the nicknames and all that other but very few actually graduate out of their nickname correct you know you did Chuck did you know where well that's where they would call me Neutron and that was from that was actually from Jimmy Richie I remember uh I don't know one day I didn't get a haircut or something and my my hair was like standing up all tall he go you look you know what you look like look like [ __ ] Jimmy Neutron you ever watch that show I'm like unfortunately yes I've seen that you know

he's like what your name Neutron and I was like ah great like how I'm the [ __ ] I guess it could be worse and I'm not like Chester or a you know yes or or I mean dude we've had greater I've had greater I mean there's a guy's name was Adam that greater had there like you know what you're Jug Head called him you know your head his head looked like a jug so he Called him Jug Head didn't know his name I remember one day he come in he goes where [ __ ]

Jug Head at I'm like oh who's jug oh juge head okay I'm sorry excuse me you know you know they named my brother Dopey or Opie that was it you know I don't know why cuz he hung out with Stafford and you know Stafford was kind of like they tease him a little bit Chester Chester because he was like that cartoon character that just kind like hangs around asks tons of questions I Was I was part of part of the group when that where he got named it's he just like nipping like that little [

__ ] that won't leave you alone but just keep asking questions over and over and it's a credit to him right because you should be asking questions to understand everything he was one of the few guys that got out like I don't I hate to compare it to like a cult but it's like it's like it's like you don't leave the cult you know you're here you know and It's like if you leave the west side you don't come back to the West Side you know and Stafford was in that thing where like you weren't

you you weren't 5 minutes late you missed a workout like my first my first [ __ ] like six years at Westside I could count the number of workouts I missed cuz you couldn't miss a workout or you know it graduated from oh if you were late it used to be like they' lock the door you know that true generation they locked the door that you Couldn't even come in and then like mine was well the door was unlocked but you know there's still three plates on here so we're not taking these off mhm so

it just kind of like slowly starts like they started allowing I I don't want to say allowing but things different things are he kind of had to though right because there's choices right where the way that I kind of saw it was if when I was there there was nowhere else to go that was it you know so you had to get Along with everybody there while you're there I think that's the problem today there's too many options and I think way too many options too many chiefs not not enough Indians everybody wants uh like

prowess for something they've done and that's great but it's like there comes a point where just go and you know I guess this this this come of powerlifting federations you know there's so many out there I just finally turned around and said what's been here the longest what Has the best organization I'm going to stick with that you know like yeah so you know the APF WPC I believe the WPC six yes it's been around longer probably longer than anything they're they're they're they're one of the largest world Affiliates meaning uh they have partner countries

I think it's something over like 50 60 uh teams can send uh 50 or 60 countries can send teams to the WPC worlds M and and they're all over the place like aeran You know like and the world's you know it's still it's a true worlds it it it goes out of the United States every other year so like I think last year it was in uh uh Portugal Maybe and then the year before that was in Florida and then the year before that it was in like Czech Republic and then it comes back so

you know I guess I just try to get when when I guess my whole thing is when and doubt go back to what got you there yeah so You know if you feel like you're not getting the you know the satisfaction for the things you're doing go back go back to the beginning yeah going back to enriching it rather than trying to make something new I think a lot of the times it get things get so fractured and it's a one-off thing over here and a one-off thing over here and there's no organization uh to

to to beine things and keep everything in order like everybody show up here you know what I Mean it's like this person over there because of this and this person it's like why can't everybody just come to one spot it's not that hard it really isn't the options are like you said with the federations but that's what I saw with uh the gyms the gyms right if somebody didn't like if somebody didn't like uh and I call it the consequences yes they didn't want the pressure they I just want to I just want to come

in here and get strong it's like no dude there's Other things that require you to be here like you have to have the mentality I don't need a mental [ __ ] here and you know helping me you get what I'm saying I don't because you are who you you will become who you're around you will you will either Elevate to a status or lower you uh foot football coach in high school he said Son you'll never ever stay the same he said you either get a little bit better you get a little bit worse

you never [ __ ] stay the same And that that was one thing I always took you know so you're either you're either getting better or worse mhm and if what in my generation if there was Jim drama or whatever it's going to be you you kind of had to work it out you had you were forced to you were you had to unless you wanted to just quit [ __ ] powerlifting or good there was nowhere else to go and that goes back to the gym thing I think dudes that dudes that Wouldn't instead

of just being like you know what we have we might not like each other but we're here trying to do the same thing I'll push you you push me and business well that's what always happened is it would it say it would blow up and it did I'm not going lie blow up all the [ __ ] time so it would blow up but then it would get constricted back into you know what we're both here to get [ __ ] strong and to make the gym strong common goal That's what we're here for this

[ __ ] don't matter right now you know and then that brings it back in but then when more options came it became like oh well [ __ ] him I'm going to go over here it I think it in injected [ __ ] into it just took that element of camaraderie away uh consequence that you'll hear me say that Consequence the consequence of you coming to this meet you might not get this [ __ ] past you think you're going to get past and you really might Only be this strong and that's hard for

people to come to terms with you might not be a th000 PB squatter you might you might go over this place and you might hit 1,000 pound Squad I and I talk about conquering numbers man like I I don't like to hit numbers I like to conquer them own the ground Al Alexander the Great you know you when you conquer lands you can drive back through them and visit them no problem you know what I'm saying and I looked at that with Numbers unless I conquered numbers I didn't move on to to bigger ones uh

and I think that's a lot of people they get caught up in the the jump the jump the jump they want this uh uh there's a one of my one of my buddies I don't he's a guy I look up to his name is Olen crutz I don't know if you know enen he's a he was the center for the Chicago Bears and uh Donnie introduced me to him me and him went out there one weekend and got to work with all those Chicago Bear guys And uh he says everybody everybody knows what it takes

you know everybody knows what it takes but nobody will do it that's why like I could sit here and I could tell you I could lay out I could lay out eight weeks training for you block period you know every I could write it all out down to the reps and sets percentages you're going to take what what bands chains all down to anything and you won't [ __ ] do it like maybe not you but like the person Like you give it to they won't you won't do it you won't [ __ ] do

it mhm and that's what it takes you you you can they want to take something from that something fun that doesn't require consequence you know lifting big weights hurts there is there is an inherent there's pain dude I'm in pain a lot but like I it's almost like I've gotten to the point with just me personally like I pain is just breathing oxygen MH and like there's a lot of inherent Things people just don't want to deal with and when you get around groups and I think that's one cool thing about my my group and

uh I handpicked every single one of them like I I don't just allow oh you want to come train with me yeah and I think this is something about Westside that uh me and Louie kind of differed on he would just want pure athletes pure animals didn't matter if they were a piece of [ __ ] you know what I mean if they were strong and changed The board cool he don't give a [ __ ] and that's cool you know I mean that's kind of how Westside was uh he he's not there to judge

people he's there to get world records and but you know then then you look you're like it takes a person though you know I need somebody I can trust I need somebody that knows you know when I teach them what to [ __ ] look at you know tell me did this happen I need people that can catch 1,200 lb if something's if this starts happening you Need to take this cuz I'm not going to be able to tell you so like they know when to it's like it takes a per and dude in my

I like to brag about my group because these the girls guys and girls they'll they will pick up and take off anywhere Drive 13 hours in New Hampshire we I was like you know Anthony out there he had a meet in New Hampshire and he just got opened his own gym out there and uh I was like well [ __ ] it we all go out there and we all three drive Separate cars and it's like it's like why are we driving three separate cars but we're all here it's like driving down 12 hours to

Florida 16 hours to Florida you know what I mean we drive we don't fly but so uh I guess what I'm trying to say is it takes a special person to get you to to have that kind of success um so yeah my I think there's a big TI a big takeaway with what you just said though because there's let's say with Max effort work right there there's a time to strain right and there's a time where they need to take it you know even if you might be able to strain through it if it's

in the wrong spot and your spotters don't know or the helpers don't know this is in the wrong spot it's counterproductive you know and if they don't know if they don't have the eye you know like you were talking about yeah you have to teach them to be Coes you have to teach them to be training Partners I need to tell them that when I'm up it's time for you to put that plate on there you know what I mean like uh they know I don't I don't have to sit there and yell I need

this done right you know like set [ __ ] I need this set up everything gets set up it's like uh you need people around you that want your best interest uh and it's like I don't want to say it's a give and take thing I think a lot of that was the negative part of Westside there was a Take Factor but I guess my whole thing was like you know a football camaraderie if you've ever played like football you have this real team cery and I learned that from Chuck actually cuz you know when

he left there he had to make this new group so I had reference on how to do all this stuff and I knew that you know he needed CU he he wanted me to train with him and uh he had winning and he had Chuck fought you remember Chuck fought Cra Crazy dude yeah just a big old Farm Boy two years pulls 90 gone unbelievable yeah just one of the most impressive runs of powerlifting probably ever was Chuck um I'll never I'll never forget that' 08 uh Power Station pram when it was him and I

think winning went right before him and he pulled a it was it was a pretty good deadlift and he broke the world record and then it was like a couple minutes later Here Comes Chuck Fought and it was a gigantic deadlift 875 or something really big and we're like what the like we don't that was like kind of at the time where you saw you didn't you saw big deadlifts at the wpo when ano came over you know like the were the guys you watch Andy comes over you you see this guy like like who

the [ __ ] yeah it's pretty good yeah he not a problem you know when he pulled it either was like what the [ __ ] just happened with that mm so he Pulls it up and he starts you know holding it there at the top and screaming yelling obscenities and that was cool with Chuck F and he he pulled 900 he pulled 910 he ended up pulling that was his best deadlift and uh so as the the time that you were at Westside what were some of the other things that you saw change over

the years since uh things I saw change like um it went from like we didn't take people outside like you know we talked About Louie doing recruiting it's bring bringing guys in we didn't it it was it was a privilege to be there and you had you know what I mean like you it was a club you know I mean like we don't Outsiders know you know and uh you know Lou it was like Lou had this desire to take like d that he didn't want to develop people like he didn't want to take dude

from zero and make him a world record horror it was like he was getting a part of his life where he just wanted A Freakazoid that he could just make completely insane that that was kind of that um uh other things I saw change were like we at first like I said you couldn't come in there you had to be invited and then he would he people were starting to allowed to come in and if you were out of state and didn't live there you couldn't you couldn't be on the board mhm and and then

this is like my it was like when when you were like Got that what the [ __ ] man shit's changing type thing it's not like that that was when my start like what the [ __ ] shit's changing this ain't supposed to be this way like type deal it was when people from out of state were they were allowed to take dudes that were staying in the like lived here that came in here every day helped went to meets did all it's like these these this these people over here were like uh almost uh

what's the word I'm looking for Um um Fly I I get what you're saying they were um let's put it this way I I I think we're on the same page here rules applied to them us that didn't apply to them exactly where if they we had to give more and and in our eyes they weren't doing what we were doing so they weren't wests side well if you're a local and showed up as as often or lack of as often as what they did correct you'd be booted you would be booted you Wouldn't even

be there they didn't have to deal with the um cuz we had a little bit of that going on when I was there too they didn't have to deal with the I don't want to say mental abuse but the the culture that they didn't have to deal with that it's always knowing you have to be there on time what time is it if you're if you're sleeping oh [ __ ] what time is it you know you know what I mean like oh [ __ ] I slept in you know like like all kinds of

just stuff that People you don't have to deal with now yes and it's getting up there I was up there for a week you know so getting up Wadd competed the next week to me right back down but getting up there meant more than just that number on the board right because it to me if I looked at the names up there it's like okay they lasted they stayed because you just don't come in there and get up there yeah it just doesn't happen they lasted a few years which means they had the Balls to

[ __ ] stay to show up deal with the [ __ ] it's like a ride of Passage yes it puts you into another Echelon of somebody in that gym yeah um now when I'd see somebody's name pop up there and I'm like what the [ __ ] they've been here twice a month you know like this is [ __ ] you know that that's one thing that you know cuz I can't like I said I was with with like with like OG dudes you know Bob Jimmy I'm sure they were pissed about it too

so like I I Think I don't know who I was having a conversation with but like um a lot of what I have now is the culture you know I I believe you know I I'm so rooted in that culture of what the the formula of your group your training um you know um what do you want to call it rehabs type stuff you have this Synergy of things and yeah well the other thing with the with the injury part is you guys sound like you were you know Taking time off recovering the way that

you should but at the same time you also as you said you have people there that have already been down that road you know so something happens they're like dude I can't like you said I came back for this whatever you can come back from this or you know granted there's some other things like o [ __ ] you know I want to take that do that probably not coming back you know there's some things you just won't come back from you know but That list keeps getting shorter and shorter and shorter the bigger the

number gets the the more inherent risk I mean it's always always a risk but like I mean when you start pushing like north of you know 1,200 lb in a squad and north of you know 950s you know th four-digit bench presses like actual four-digit bench presses like yes that's something different um when you start getting like 850 deadlifts you know what I mean like you you start there's Inherent there's a very small percentage of people in the whole slew of the big picture that that get there nor nor than less stay there you know

what I mean I I was telling you earlier like it's it's not hard to get to the top um it's it's harder to stay there and then it's even harder to rule M so when you're staying there you're going back and forth you know competing with somebody and then when you're ruling you're just kind of looking down on everything and like you Have to keep it all intact and it's so then the you have to be motivated then by the Numbers it well it's kind of like this that's all that's the only thing I've ever

been motivated by so people ask me why what change not a [ __ ] thing mhm like I've been obsessed with numbers since the Inception uh I've been there's nothing I don't there's not a thing I don't think I can do um it's you have to have a a bit of like I don't want to say I don't want to call it Arrogance Cockiness you have to believe in yourself and um when you there's a lot of [ __ ] in this sport that will cause doubt um it'll cause you to doubt your training doubt

your training Partners there's a lot of like I try to tell my guys um you're going to fail you know you're going to get hurt um you're going to lose and you might be here a while but you need to be in it for the long haul I was like if you're not here For the Long Haul I don't want you here I was like if you're if you're if you're mad your squat hasn't gone up 20 PBS in a year well it took me four [ __ ] years to put 5 PBS on my

bench press I waited four years and I've seen enough cycles of four years to know that four years is just about up 2019 2020 21 22 oh here we are in four years again mhm so I me personally like through the years I've seen Psy of of ups and downs and I know you know Bad times don't last but bad bad guys do but um you can't you can't you can't I say you can't stay up forever and you can't stay down forever and you can't suck all the time that's what Bob C told me

well you can't suck all the time you're bound to get one just as many times as you miss them you're you're going get one sooner or later well yeah sometimes it does take years you know for a PR to happen and I saw just in my time there I saw a lot of guys leave and It was like this doesn't work just one year one more year this would have clicked you know it's just they they cuz you would see the same type of cycle like three four years right around that time period is like

stagnant stagnant then it's because when it gets hard they shoot up to this number yeah because they haven't done any of these things over here that really make you super [ __ ] strong it's a good point and once they do they they went from not Doing them to doing them and they got a super strong and now it's hard you get it it's like having a Bugatti you know what I'm saying when you when you want a Bugatti Super Sport and you're trying to shave A2 seconds off the you know you know you have

a Bugatti goes 2.7 it'll do 0 to 60 and 2.7 you know how much money it costs to make it go 0 to 60 and 2.5 to shave you know 2.2 that's it takes a lot so when you get up to this High horsepower Range High high level of Number it takes it takes so much more to move it and sometimes um it goes back to the cycle thing I've hit things and hit things and hit things and I've stayed in this realm and then I make a big jump and and I just know that

if I just hold on that Jump's coming so that's kind of been my whole thing going like some things I look at in the later years you know [ __ ] [ __ ] takes time you have to be rooted in a system it's not An 8-week training cycle it's not a 12we training cycle and I will guarantee you literally 80% of you [ __ ] aren't doing it right you know what I mean you're taking pieces of what what you think the system is they'll I hear people talk percent is well I'm going to

start with this percentage of this it's like but why are you doing that they don't know the weightlifting manuals behind that the prelin chart you know all that stuff the the distribution of Of if you squat this number it takes this many reps and sets to sustain that number you know you have absolute strength and then you have like uh a stren you know strength endurance you have you have to be you have to be in shape to sustain maximum strength a lot of people they just want maximum strength but don't want to do the

[ __ ] to sustain it that's why they paid a big number in fall the [ __ ] right off down and here they go or as you said they They don't have to do it and then they just happen to get there and they're forced to think of how many times you like my whole thing was hypers they would destroy my they would destroy me CU I didn't do hypers they would watch me did you do your [ __ ] hypers they would walk they would walk over there and cross their arms and watch

me do reverse hypers but you know what I pulled 800 when I was 20 years old you know what I mean I pulled 750 when I was 19 you know what I mean I had big Deb that I they I did what the hell they said and people don't want to do do that you know what I mean it's not fun to do that it's not fun no most of it's not it's not fun but you know what there's there's like 30 seconds of doing something that no one else has ever done you know I

I talk I I've said this in some other things about like uh you know I kind of look up to Urban Meyer and Nick Sabin you know they're they're Those two upper echelon coaches and they're guys that have won at the highest level and they keep winning and Sabin more so in in this instance like uh there was something he said they're like coach how do you keep how do you keep going you know he's like well you know after we win The Natty we you know we go home and enjoy ourselves for a week

and then it's right back to work Louis always says that nobody gives a flying [ __ ] what you did they give a [ __ ] what you're getting ready to do MH and that's always been my mentality I've never looked back cuz when you're look when you look back you're [ __ ] you're you're stopping from going forward so I've never ever stopped and looked back at what I've done I've never like I that's why like sell my I don't want to say sell myself but I don't I don't like to I've done this

so listen to me you know I mean I'm not here I'm here to be the best the greatest of all time MH um You know people ask who I who I look who I'm chasing Ed Cohen you know I mean that's the greatest of all time everyone ask who's the greatest of all time so I'm going to do everything I can to unseat the greatest of all time cuz why not MH you know what I'm saying yeah there was Al there was Alexander the Great there was gangas [ __ ] KH you know MH there

there's you know so I guess that's just me though with the going back to The squat and the training and how you how you cycle the training and lay out the training especially getting when the weights are heavier I remember I used to compete against a guy's name was Dave barno he's pass and you crazy [ __ ] but he he s he he did he squatted more than I did so I would always be asking him like what are you doing what are you doing what are you doing he's like you I remember him

saying look at a certain weight you know You can't keep hitting it every every week he said at that point in time he was only squatting once a month he said the real heavy ones I had when it got real heavy for meat he would have to lengthen the training phase and then he could only go because the squats wrecked him so the squats would wreck him so the bench had to change when the heavy bench was going to fall that had to change so everything had to change you structure you I said I caught

setting yourself up For Success yeah you you comp work compliment you have your workout say compliment each other you don't run in and take a free you don't you don't do a big ass heavy deadlift and try to free squat that Friday and then put your shirt on the next week you know I mean there's a way to do it uh people don't understand that numbers like numbers uh that cause damage trauma all right you know you hear delayed onset Muscle soreness Doms you have delayed onset muscle transformation you have [ __ ] that you

do two weeks ago that will show up 3 weeks later two the [ __ ] I did two weeks ago is now hitting me now some of the stuff I've done you know what I mean um so yeah like um so how does that play into the frequency then of your say your squad cycle is it you know I'm going back like circumax and CP [ __ ] like that I mean is it going To be three weeks in a row or is it every other week so so people they that the circuit Max is

like one of the biggest Mis misc conflations of like of grammatical literature like people don't know what actually circuit Max is all right you know what I mean they it's just a fancy word for saying you take the heaviest weights 3 weeks up from the meat 21 days something like that all right and and you wave into it you know it's it it's not like circuit Max does Not have to be three blue green and a purple and you know you get what I'm saying yeah keep going people need to [ __ ] hear this

you don't you don't okay so my whole thing when I used tons of bands my bench [ __ ] suffered mhm so I just don't I don't use bands in the squat like hardly ever it's just me cuz I feel it just sits there and does this to me and then my shoulders are shot for bench and I just can't excuse me I just can't do it MH And uh um sorry reel me in here well it's we we were talking about how you basically Auto regulate the system is where I'm going here right yes

for example um I learned this from Chuck so Chuck's whole thing was you squat every you free squat every fourth week so you know we would do a three-week wave of box squatting and then on that fourth week if we were trash usually it was just squat but over the years I've learned that I'll go Through a 3-we wave and the fourth or fifth week is like a free squat um and um and it and people were like well then how do you how do you keep doing that it's like if you're if for example

if I'm like 15 weeks out from a meet and I got a free squat I'm not going to be trying to squat you know my third and fourth you like 30 attempts and [ __ ] like that m i I always and this is just me so we would go through you know it's the typical Westside split of box Squatting you know you do 50% 50 50 in a 3-e wave Week 1 50% week 2 55 week three 60% and you do 20 25 and 30% accomodating resistance and usually and it it would go anywhere

from eight sets of two you know eight seven eight sets of two two seven sets of two uh so and and up and you know up until some years ago a lot of the bigger guys just washed out a Westside so you know different body typ type started coming in and [ __ ] had to change so I remember when all These little little [ __ ] dudes started coming in like real small guys that couldn't do eight sets of two they didn't really benefit from that cuz something like I'm their glycogen levels just repl

replenish too soon you know like they need to do fives and threes you know so there then all of a sudden this [ __ ] turned into five sets of five and uh six sets of three and so that kind of like pushed little dudes up and but for me personally it was always like A 3-we wave pretty simple uh and and how you BAS percentages people don't even know how to base percentages going you know what I'm trying to saying like they're they're it's like hey what's your best squat why Squad at 800 it's

like what did you squat in the meat I don't care what you did in the gym because I'm not going to base percentages off what you do in here I'm going to base percentages off what happens in the [ __ ] platform because If you can't if I if I base it off this and you can't you know what I mean they have everything asked backwards uh they don't it could be anything from not even putting your you know box Squad don't work because they make you squat height it's like then pull a mat you

know what I'm saying um box squats don't work because uh you you basically in so many words you know you can't get strong box Squatting it's like but you can get very [ __ ] explosive and you can and that then it turns translates into bar speed with because you're more you have more velocity and you know I call it horsepower but yeah um you just can put more output and and Lou calls it you know Max is the best cuz it recruits the most amount of muscle units uh that's why and he always there's

there's things like you know he's gone now but there's there's things that that just that I'll Never that are always with me that it's like he's back there like you got to do this you know but one of them is Reps don't equate to Absolute strength so you're not going to just cuz you can bench 500 for three sets to three don't mean you can bench 530 mhm I mean you might I mean I can see plenty of dudes that can bench 500 for five reps and can't bench 550 you know what I mean I

know I've seen guys that bench 550 for a devil I can't bench 600 for one so it's Like rep like just because you do reps with high like high weights and Reps that doesn't mean you're going to cuz you're you're not you're not straining that Max effort you know what I'm saying so then then it's like it's real easy it's like so one day you're lifting heavy and maxing out and the other day it's like you do all those reps and sets to to build the muscle to support all that heavy lifting mhm um and

that's just a so going back to the Free Squad and I kind of I got sidetracked but it'd just be a 3-we wave and on the fourth week if we were tore up we would we would deload typically into some kind of like belt squat Movement we would do like uh could have been a good morning movement it's it's like Westside book of methods to the tea it's like everything that I do is that's you know what I mean there's some there's some things that you know from like Scott Mendelson that I've learned And um

Donnie Thompson and like people like I mean John Grove is one uh I don't even think I don't even know if that guy thinks I know who he is but uh the chain squats I remember uh I I first saw him Phil Harrington that's one big thing that like pushed my squats over the over uh and essentially it's a board press for your Squat and it allows me to be at the same place every time I go there so I don't have to have somebody call my dep they just look at the chain so like

I'll set my I'll like with the chain squat like this goes down to box squatting it's like if you do the [ __ ] how you're supposed to do it and don't do your interpretation of it it will work and it will work very well um chain Squad for example the progress um I learned it from Phil Harrington you know he had he was the first guy Squad in 8 900s at 181 and stuff like that and he learned it from John Grove and uh John Grove was you North Georgia barbell he Was he was

a guy that you know started that Phil picked it up Donnie saw it so Donnie had a version of it and uh essentially the best way I caning it's like a board press for your squat that keeps everything in constant um people ask do I pause um sometimes I'll do do like I have a breaking parallel chain that's why I never bomb in the squat you know what I'm saying like I I go to the same place every time um so yeah like I said I have a breaking parallel chain And and I don't I

don't set my depth in a suit you know you know I I'll before I even put my suit on I'll go down I pause in the chain I take a camera angle like okay yep that's depth and I put my suit on to that raw depth and then I keep trying to hit it and a lot of the times you don't get there but like you're always trying that you know it's like when you get to the meat and you're you're getting that last couple inches and it feels like you're down there for [ __

] an hour mhm it's like you get down there and you just you just know where you're at now because it's like programmed now do you lower the chain each week or do you keep the chain the same it just kind of depends usually when you're far when you're far out and you have to handle big weight so like usually in just chain squat for example it was broken down in in in in increments of 2 4 and 6 inches and then you'd have a breaking parallel one um Like if you have guys that can't

unrack squats so they they they unrack squats and fall all over the place and [ __ ] they obviously need what help unracking squats so you if you can't even unrack it we don't even need to you can't get down there why the [ __ ] do I got to make that strong right now you know what I mean so uh it's a um how was I saying it uh so the two six so you yeah so how you wave it correct so so the two so the 6 in was like if you had problems

um like I said unracking squats you would just take you would go and do Max you just max out on it you know you might go up to you know I might have been squatting 1100 at the time but I was doing like 1230s on 6 in and I just got to the point where I could unrack anything just you know I've never I don't have problems unracking weights and it's probably because of that um the but the most TS I stay on are the twos and the fours you know like if I'm starting off

A training cycle um and I'm real far away from a meat and I need to handle big weights but I'm not really in shape um your body can still registers the trauma you know what I mean so when you're that far away any trauma is trauma you know what I mean so you might as well cater it to you yeah um so what I would always do is I would start at like 4 in a little just below a half Squat and I would try to work up to a third attempt M so you know

I'm already You know you know you talking a 4-in chain squat you know you know I was getting up 12 1300s you know and then you know you the next week you know you might go through a three- we wave of box squats again or something like that three or four weeks and then chain squat comes around again and then you might cut the four and start pausing on twos and then you might add an attempt so you know like you know if I did you know 12 and 1250 to the four I might shave

off the 50 and go like 75 1235 to a two and so the chain squats are being implemented and on the dynamic day with the Lou hated me Lou Lou Louie hated it yeah and and his whole thing was uh see this is where I think we disagreed on on on how to implement system and it was just I was doing what was best for me m and he was trying to tell me what was best for everybody that works for a lot of people and and and Granted to him a lot of people like

they like we're talking here they don't understand the system so he he already he already assumes that you don't [ __ ] get it you know what I mean yeah yeah um I remember one thing that Lou always uh was I don't want to say a mistake that he said Chuck had made he said chuck would never read these books he said I get I'd give him these books and he just put the books away and throw them throw them down and I and I Remember right there and then I I must have been like

21 or 22 years old I said dude I'm going to read every [ __ ] book this dude gives me and I and I remember the very first book he gave me was the science and practice of weight training MH was zorski yeah yes and I opened this [ __ ] book and it was it was like reading Braille you know what I mean [ __ ] you know I was like what the hell and then I start seeing pictures of like waves so I'm like I'll Look at the pictures first we'll start there you

know and some other like the the science of the science of weight training was one uh long story short my whole thing was I had to understand why I was doing things and even it take I mean I could tell you I've read these books over and over and over again and you still don't retain it you retain something more each time but like that was my thing um well if you if you can't understand the basic why of how the Things all together then how can you begin to even tweak it for yourself or

how can you tell somebody else to do it yes you know what I mean like I think that's there's so much oversaturated knowledge there's not there you need a little bit of everything you need some science and there's something Donnie Thompson always said there's this [ __ ] over here that science can't explain it and we don't know why it works but it does and you need some of that you know What I mean and I think everybody just gets caught up in these it's like this watered down version of everything rather than just getting

rooted in a system and being in it for the long haul and I think primarily the the West Side conjugate system that you know that's how I train I don't know any other way yeah um proof proof's in the pudding well I've always said that regardless of the system at some point in time if you if You want to Excel and and go beyond what your normal capacities are going to be you have to learn how to auto regulate it you you have to but if you don't know system you can't Auto regulate because most

of the decisions and I'm speaking for you but I'm sure I'm right most of the decisions you're making in any training session you have a plan going in you're probably not going to do what the [ __ ] plan it is it's going to change this is kind of where like the block Periodization [ __ ] comes in like you can like you can have a plan you know if you have you don't have a plan you plan to fail you get yeah you can you can write all the [ __ ] down and when

you get there that day and you have this exercise planned and you're like dude I feel like a sack of [ __ ] today like I cannot do this well some people would just go ahead and do it and have a shitty workout so that's not you're not sting your workups out to complement your Situation there's being a [ __ ] and not doing what you need to do and then there's setting [ __ ] up to complement your situation meaning like I'm kind of [ __ ] up that's really what's going on right now

my back's trashed I can't stand up straight I'm not going to free squat today we'll try it next week yes you know what I mean so there a lot of a lot of the system is correcting on the Fly and not getting in those blocks like well it's written down I got to do this Today you know what I mean well it's written down I had to take a Max effort single today and so this goes to one thing where me and Lou like different on uh the max effort lower stuff see my Max effort

lower day is like a deadlift day it's not like mac it's Max effort lower but it's I don't I don't squat on that day so Louie would it would drive Louie nuts that I that he thought since a free squat was you know you take a Max effort free squat it Should be done on a Monday but me Friday was squat day you know what I mean Monday's deadlift day you know like Monday was Max effort lower but we always did deadlift variations we were doing you know you know Sumo block PS rack PS um

Reverse band deadlift you know bands choked over good a good morning variation it's typical you know Westside split you know book of methods see if you get the Westside book of methods you it literally it will it's Training wheels dude like you cannot go wrong if you just do it says um it's it's I mean proofs like I said it's it's kind of hard to dispute and it's pretty easy it's not that hard to understand it's where people they just keep trying to take things from it it's a system for a reason it's not it's

not like oh I'm going to take this and try this and that doesn't work now yeah well I think with the regulating and the training most people have to learn the difference Between you said you know when are you when you being a puss about it when are you do you have to do because there's the other side too you got to do the things you don't like to do too because that's what's going to make you better so you got to balance that out but it when people will give me push back on this

it's like well they need to no no one needs to worry about that until they get to that top part I'm like well you ain't [ __ ] ever going to get there Until you start when when when are you going to start you know and I think a lot of it's because the push back is coming from people that want to write programs and give them out to people and say do this and do that this is what I always look at when somebody like what do you look for in a coach you know

you know Louie always told me well how many world records do that coach made mhm do they got first of all do they have world records and then it's like pause are They real world records MH are they not I invented this category over here and it's a world record I did oh there's raw and raw without sleeves and I have this raw world record like you know what I mean like are you really a world record holder have you been to the top do you have reference of being there and then how should I

say it um real man here who have they created yes like look at their overall body of work How long have they been in it look at their injuries look at their biceps are their biceps still attached do they have calf muscles is all their quads still there okay they're still in one piece I should probably listen to that person okay let's look around who trains with them do they have training Partners is there a big group okay well all right look around who's that person oh that's Alex kovich he squatted 903 at 165 that's

an alltime world record oh there He is he squaded 835 at 148 that's an alltime world record so you see there's there's people who who have they made proves the system so that's who if look at look at like and really look i i s this to everybody question don't take anything I say for face value because I don't take anybody's word for anything go do your research go do it for yourself don't I mean you know what I mean like I'm don't don't listen to what people say go go ask questions like just Cuz

someone says it doesn't mean you should go do it like look and see what's behind that like who have they made are those people around for a long time um you just stuff like that athletes you know what athletes have they made are they successful you know stuff like that you just look and then I try to tell people like you should be judged on your overall body of work because you're going to have you can't be this one guy that had this world record one time and Then your whole your whole Persona is based

off this thing from 10 years ago you know what I'm saying like you have to be doing this like you have to keep proving mhm and I guess it's almost like a sickness for me like I um I don't know how to stop like people ask me like when when is it when when is it there dude as soon as I walked out in total 3100 I remember I walked back and looked up in the corner room and shook my head and I said that was it mhm I was like that's It and then it

was just like all right all right back to the gym on Monday it's time to do more I don't even then it's like 32 so then it's like what's the next one well I might as well set the you know what I mean so now it's like I don't know how to stop I know one day I will have to stop uh just just speaking Yeah you know um just like you know Westside barell and Louis you know every all good things come to an end and that's just how it is it's the way of

Life everybody you live and you die um you're here I like to say you're in the you're you're you're not you're but a fart in the universe so while you're here you got to make it you got to make a [ __ ] imp smell like [ __ ] right yeah right which somebody asked me about this stinky dude you used to train with how bad he really [ __ ] Su well his name it's Anthony Ola so that's a funny story so uh Anthony had come to Westside and he had trained in the morning

and they And it just didn't wasn't working for him you know what I mean it was just kind of at a time where and I hate to say it man Louis was dying you know I mean people don't understand that and he he he was in his health was not in great and he was on the downhill you know so he was hard to get along with he didn't feel good he didn't want to be in there doing stuff you know what I mean he was just tired MH and it was It was kind of

hard to watch and cuz you know when I Was there you know Louis was you know and he the old bastard was still try to deadlift with him he's 74 years [ __ ] he's the same guy but like he just he it just dude mortality you know what I mean but anyway uh uh real me real quick sorry Anthony so he he had come and started training with me and I remember he had these elbow sleeves and I was like like what the [ __ ] is that smell and like you know West Side

they had the Overhead fan on it just kept blowing like man what the hell is that smell oh sorry dude uh it's my it's my elbow sleeves and I was like dude throw those away you stinky [ __ ] bastard and uh he came back with him again and I was like well you know what you're not your name's now stinky towy so I'm sorry Anthony but and it just kind of stuck so now we call him stinky Tony or no you gave him a shot right yeah me you could have [ __ ] throw

him away I'll tell You what that that dude bulldogged up man like like Lou had given up on him Louie didn't believe in him told me he wouldn't do anything and I could just see things I like dude you're doing this and the guy needs to do this it's not that hard like it it was just basic things like and and I thing with Louis a lot of if it wasn't his idea he didn't want to embrace it and why should he mhm he's had so many years of success doing what he's doing that's just

how it Always was because he surpassed the test of time everything he's done has gone through way longer than me so you know um I just saw things in him Anthony that you know that Lou was passing over and he had like I think Anthony had around a 2,300 lb total and I was like dude we're going to go to the Nationals you just need to do a couple things uh and prior to that he went to a meet and he bombed out but he bombed in the bench but he pretty much benched it So

he squatted a huge PR pretty much benched it like he just like arm locked out and it came unlocked it was like something dumb and I was like all right dude you can total 2500 this a guy you know I'm telling this guy he can total 2500 but he's only got 2300 lb total he look at me like I got 10 hits like dude like you know come on and I remember this is just off topic like Donnie told me everybody tries to plan when they're going to have success everybody tries to Plan this is

the meat I'm going to do this this [ __ ] day and that's a trap uh he said Huffer he says the best meat you'll ever have will be the ones you don't need see coming exactly you'll be the ones that you don't even see coming the ones that you shouldn't do good in will be the ones that you do the best in mhm uh so all that like trying to plan that's where the people aren't in it for a long haul they're in it for 12 weeks CU There's 12 weeks out from the meet

you know what I'm saying and then they do a training cycle they're not [ __ ] training there's strength training and then there's power lifting you know what I mean like they're like I look at them as two different things like Louis system is for absolute strength and explosive power you know what I mean MH those things translate into the power lifts you know what I mean like they you have to use one to get good in the other You know I think where me and Louie differed was the like the circuit max if you

want to go back around to that I got to the point where okay so the people want to talk about some of the craziest [ __ ] I've ever seen in Westside there's one day and this is when I started bailing on the the three the blue green purple you know max out type stuffff we used to do it for 3 weeks the first time we did it it was 3 weeks you know and and it literally destroyed everybody Everybody even Chuck that would destroyed him like that's bad if it destroyed that guy you know

like G and so he's like okay maybe we'll try two weeks you know so then it went to balls out two weeks and that destroyed half of everybody and then it was like well that's just too much so the first week we'll do you know you'll do like you know six sets of two and then the second week you'll max out against the bands you know and you'll put sup bottoms on And I'm just going like but I'm not like okay I get that that will make you strong that will make you a strong squatter

it will not make you a proficient free squatter you get what I'm saying there's a difference between a brute strong brutally strong squatter and being a proficient technical sound free squatter okay we differed on that he my whole thing was there was there was a point in time where I started having trouble with the big like the big One when I started getting around 1050 I was like dude my knees can blow off you know you start really understanding like my this can hurt me like a lot of [ __ ] way it's it's going

to so after you get okay with that uh sorry well the circumax being the the duration that he was running so uh it got to the point where I saw so I train with Chuck quite a bit you know I always looked up to Chuck Chuck was one of one of my mentors I'll say and I Learned a lot of how I squat from him um mentality you know like what to do obviously when you're hurt to how to ignore things you know you see him do it you're like well it's possible um then it

comes down to how bad do you want it that dude probably wanted it more than anybody yes um but there was a day where Chuck was actually in there and it was before the 08 Power Station program that Mike Ferguson put on I remember it was just After the fall of the first wpo M um I uh I had squatted a thousand and oh can't remember how old I was maybe 20 I was like 20 years old um uh I had went in there and we did the did the circuit Max went through the circuit

Max stuff and I did 735 blue green and a purple which was 1135 at the top and they're like you're going to squ 1100 and I was like all right we'll open we'll open we'll open it we'll open it like I think I opened at 1,5 and it took Me three tries to get it and it was the like I felt like I unrack didn't and felt like I didn't even lift weights mhm like I was like what the and up until that point it worked you know what I mean like there comes a point

where that you have to Bank off that and and learn free squatting MH um and then to that point the craziest thing I ever saw in the gym was Chuck was in there we'd go in on Saturday mornings I was squ with Chuck and he this [ __ ] it was before the 07 Arnold Classic like the one of the last ones when like yarn bash came and so Chuck was like you know yarn bash was this was a guy that could beat Chuck and Chuck you know Chuck he don't like to [ __ ]

lose nobody likes to lose but that dude no and so I should say he took it personal well anyway this dude squatted 880 two Blues a green and a purple and a pair of [ __ ] briefs and we're going we're like at getting calculators like What the [ __ ] does that even equal and like that's 1410 that is 1410 this this guy gets 1400 and it was like then Chuck goes to the meet Op with 1135 smashed him three times mhm so it's like we got to this point with the circuit Max stuff

and I I kind of like learned this from Chuck that's kind of how I figured out to kind of abort that kind of stuff once you get to this certain number um so yeah 880 two Blues a green a Purple goes to the meat can't squat 1,200 it's like but that's 1400 at the top you know what I mean like you think some of that is because the bands are helping you stabilize at the top yes 100% I think it locks you into position I think once you do that over and over and over and

over again once those bands move away and like you push up and there's just all of a sudden you're free floating yes so the bigger the weight obviously or the more maximal The weight is for somebody the less room for air you know so even a centimeter moving in the wrong direction at the top you're kind of [ __ ] there it comes at a point of diminishing return of where you're taking it for a ride and then it takes you for a ride yeah people ask me what's 12200 lb feel like it I say

it's all relative you know like if you know would would you squat in here six 7 800 lb every a week or something like that some [ __ ] like yeah yeah so like Whatever that felt like to you is what 1,200 feels like to me it's not this like you know it's a crushing feeling like when you first hit him you're like that's different but it's all relative like um so yeah it doesn't with the the the kind of dovetail into this the you haven't had any major injuries I like to call them major

but yeah I nothing that has required surgery nothing that's required Surgery right so a lot of that is I know that you've reached out to Donnie you've reached out to other so what what are some of the things that you build in to recovery um a lot of a lot of what I do I mean you can get into the Westside book of methods any of that gpp stuff like sled dragging stuff everybody knows but like the stuff people probably don't know is is the body tempering well let's go back to the stuff everybody thinks

they because they don't do it right so Let's let's talk a little bit more about how you utilize the sled dragon and some of the extra workouts stuff like that so like um like when you go into a D Lo day you know you have to save things for those days you can't do everything everybody wants to do everything and then get everything from it all at once you know what I mean you have to you have to portion things out and sometimes I might only sled drag on a D Lo day you know what

I mean cuz that's when it That's like when it's designated so like when I'm not lifting heavy and I'm trying to put blood in my muscles and flush all that lactic acid [ __ ] out and get a big pump and stuff like that you know big heavy sled drags uh belt squat stuff um reverse hypers uh just normal stuff uh different variations of how to drag a sled forwards backwards sideways uh pulling it with a doing upper back pulling it just any of that kind of stuff you can do you know anything Sometimes you

know narrow stance box squats you do like a shoulder witth squat for like you know four sets of 15 and you might put only two plates on there and just get a pump in your legs super squat machine see this is stuff I learned from Scott mson I was telling you earlier like uh I went out me and Scott are really good buddies and uh I'd go out to California every once in a while and stay a week with him and uh we get to travel on all over the place we Go to Venice Golds

North Hollywood Golds and uh I was like man this guy's this guy benches 715 raw what the hell is this dude doing he's got secrets you know and so I'd go and hang out with him for a week and just watch him see what he did and and I realized that there was no scientific R Rhyme or Reason to really what he was doing and Westside was so rooted in that like it was almost a foreign concept to have it the other way around mhm so he was just like you Know we're going to work

on your three board today I'm like what do you mean like by three board what do I do you know we're going to work on your triple like work on my triple I was like that I don't understand like but like what do you mean like we're just going to work up and do the so then I started seeing that Scott was triples doubles singles you know he would do triples off of a three board doubles off of a two singles off of a one go to the me sometimes he'd Bench a thousand twice a

week you like so uh I started seeing things this guy did and I was like well triples double singles so then that was one this is something some people I don't know like I learned this whole triples double single thing so you know you know at side you you have to you do Max effort every week but when I after I meet Dude I can't do Max effort stuff but I have to figure out a way to do Max effort work right MH so I was like well I'm Going to take Scott's triple and I'm

just going to do a Max effort triple see Louis was all against that Noe that's not Max effort you know but I'm straining against a percentage as as much as I can you know what I'm trying to say so in my mind it was I was giving maximal effort at that percentage I could so it's like I type thing so that's something that that I learned uh from Scott and other things like you know we would be doing machine work Right and I he'd be on like a tricep machine or uh one I was telling

you earlier he was doing we were doing curls and Venice Golds and uh I I it's my turn and I go down I try to [ __ ] curl it I'm like what the [ __ ] [ __ ] dude and I look down and the dude's got the whole stack on curls and he he's doing like one arm curls with the whole stack like 200 lb and I'm like this guy is like be is like is like m strong like it's not right like he's just don't even know It's like he is strong by

just I I hate to say I don't want to say it but like you know strong you know like GE uh so you know things like that I took from Scott and uh Donnie was a big one so you want to go to like the rehab type thing uh uh I remember I basically from so many years of external rotation um I just around 20 15 dude like people ask like you know what do I Do from one meat to the next it's really not all that different it's what kind of shape my body is

in by the time the meat comes around dictates how well the meat is not really cuz all the time I'm taking 12 1300 lb squads all the time I'm taking 1100 lb benches now you know what I mean every time I put a bench shirt on I'm benching a th000 and like for real like every time I every time I put free squat I'm taking no less than an opener my openers are 1170 you know What I mean so like every time I every time I'm doing Max effort deadlift I pull no less than an

opener you know what I mean so I keep this you know I always have to be able to get do the first thing you know and if I can't do that first thing then we need to work on some other things MH so uh Donnie so going back to Donnie um uh there had been some time where basically over just years a wide Squat and just trashed my hip I started to get Nerve damage inside my hip like that's only way I can Des D it it started just shutting off my leg it got to

the point where like my right leg my right leg the my quad just started atrophy like I remember I'd walk out and i' I'd slam it on the ground and like just it wouldn't fire you know you can like flex your quad when you push on the ground it was dead and I couldn't figure out why I was like dude my like my leg doesn't work and I remember it was the 2014 Westside Pro Invitational the one that Donnie ran I walked out and had 11:15 Squad opener and I and I remember I put my

foot on the after they wrapped my leg I put my foot on the ground I couldn't feel my entire like right side of my body and I was like dude like I I don't think I can do this anymore like you know like I saw how you know I told myself I'd never be a Chuck Booga pool and I was like what do you mean by that uh I meaning like the injury side of Chuck boogo pool That I saw I I I just said I'll never I'll never be that I I will never he

that dude put in has put in so much work and done so much damage and you know I should say he's paid a price we all pay a price you know uh he doesn't regret it and not that he should but like no but you can learn from it yeah you know I just learned I just like I don't want I don't want my neck fused together with rods I don't want my back fused together I don't want bone spurs Shaved off my elbows mhm you know what I mean like I I was just like

I don't want any of that you know so I I was going to do everything I could to not to be able when I'm 40 to stand up and walk around mhm so I started I was like I got to do something so Donnie was there and he goes hoser you need to come down and I'll show you some stuff and he has his compound down there and this is when he had his gym now he's moved everything to his bow tie Cottage which is pretty cool it's a pretty cool setup but we went uh

I went down to South Carolina and and dude I thought I was done I mean that was a year that was it was I couldn't get through a full power meet that year i' done some benching and I just my leg wouldn't grow back I couldn't it just wouldn't do anything like I'd go to chiropractors and you know do the reverse Hy versus sled drags just try to get it to move And nothing was working and I went I went to a a sports medicine guy he's like dude I think you have some like nerve

impingement and I was like where basically scar tissue is from all the external rotation is basically packed around nerves and when uh Scar Tissue pushes against nerves you know signals don't get from your brain to your leg that tell your body to do things and I was like well that makes [ __ ] sense so I go down to Donny's And he's like hoper he's like he's like these are these are my Ex-Wives you know I'm like looking around like what the hell are these things in there this big metal cylinder you know and they

weigh 100 the first one he put on me was 165 lbs I was like holy [ __ ] it's intense dude I say it's like it's like an hour of art therapy and like 15 minutes mhm um long story short I'll just tell you what he did in the all explain what it was actually Doing um he had me lay on my back and it was my right hip so he's like Hoster just goe and put your leg up in the air you know so I you know I met bent my laid on my back

and my you know knee was at a 90 and uh he he got a pad and he uh you know Donnie was a big ass dude he was 360 lbs at that time uh uh I remember he he basically put put my knee in his chest and he was putting all his weight down on and it was pushing my cheek into the Concrete floor of his gym and I was like what the [ __ ] dude like ah like like a ah like I feel lightning bolts he's like oh he like yeah offer you have

some impingement we're going to take care of that I'm like oh please like yeah okay cuz I've been trying everything to to get it to be normal again and nothing's working and uh dude this [ __ ] he looks over and there's this there's this chick named Danielle in his gym she was this like strongman chick big big girl And uh she had to have been 200 200 something 220 lb chick like just a big girl he's like Danielle come over here and get on my back and I'm like what like did you just [

__ ] say so he's got Donnie's got all his weight on me and he's pushing so and then he has this chick come over and like jump on top of him so I've got like 600 lb mhm of Flesh pushing down like on the top of my knee that's pushing my ash cheek into the pavement and he goes Hoster this is this Is diffusing tissue we're going to go ahead and diffuse that glute I'm like like okay so what he was doing is he was basically taking my hip like the bone in my hip socket

and pushing it against the backs side of my glute that's what it felt like MH I don't know it's not really like that it's more like you're actually pelvis probably pushing in there um I don't claim to be a [ __ ] doctor or anything so so I I just felt tons of pressure I was like holy [ __ ] This is crazy and then the [ __ ] twists my leg so he he's got a stopwatch he's on me for four minutes I'm like dude I'm like a it's like I'm like pass out like

I'm like it's not I'm like Jesus help me here and all of a sudden he's like he's like take a big deep breath and all of a sudden he takes my leg and turns internal rotation takes my leg grabs my calf and turns my whole leg in and it goes I remember I'll never forget it was pop pop like three huge Pops felt like a lightning bolt went down my ash cheek all the way down in the bottom of my toes and it felt like uh I had you know you sit on the toilet too

long and you're like you know going through all your memes and you [ __ ] like it's like static on the TV you know that's what it was like ah my leg it felt like everything was starting to turn back on and I was like what the hell dude and I remember I couldn't drivve in a car like without my leg Being i' have to [ __ ] my leg turn move my leg every every felt like every 30 seconds MH and all of a sudden you know all this all this pressure was gone dude

I he he broke something up in there and I and ever since that day was he's he's the reason why I came back and even squatted 1273 or anything I did mhm because if hadn't have done that there would have been no way that I would have been able to do anything cuz he's the there was nobody else it was just him so I was like well uh I'm really going to be doing this stuff now so uh he started he's like Hoster lay down he's like well I'll put this this ex-wife on you you

know he just makes to Expos you blah BL and uh um he put three of those cylinders on so he put He put it on my glutes and let it sit there for a cou 30 seconds and then you know roll it down your glutes and into the Bendy of the back of your where your hamstrings are then you'd get Another 150 lb one sit it on there roll it down do the same thing get another one so you have three of them and you have one on your lower part of your hamstring one on

the middle and one up by your glutes and basically it's there's two kinds of tempering he has body tempering seminars so I went through all that and learned all the terminology and like what it does and we call it there's static tempering and there's Dynamic tempering Static tempering is where you just sit the weight on you and let it diffuse tissue over a period of time so you might you might put it on you you might put all those cylinders on you you might wait five minutes and let all that break down to that bottom

layer of muscle because a lot of what AR a good art therapist it'll take them 20 minutes to get down to that bottom layer of muscle but you said 160 lb steel cylinder on you like that and it's like a it's like A a baker Baker dough it's just like it just it like Rings all that toxic inflammation out of your joints and connective tissue and your muscles it's like a FL an instant flush you you will get like red flush from it pins and needles um um I had ribs out of place that was

another thing that's what he was doing he was like I'm going to put this on you and we'll pop that right back in place he rolls at 160 lb cylinder up the Middle par my back boom right there in the front of my chest I was like God like man dude like cuz that that's a story in itself that's when I thought I tore my whole Peck off at the 2013 Nationals um uh that was the year I total 3,000 the in June I did the APF Nationals and I had like a 930 opener and

I I I just pushed wrong like I pushed like this and something [ __ ] popped right there but it was a rib it slid it like it like it Like cocked and slid under my sternum and popped the one up in the back mhm and um and mental Sim was like bro he's like your ribs sticking out bro I was like what do you mean I was like I can't really Brea I was pushing here and I felt squish you know like like what the [ __ ] and like I was pushing in here

I was like there's like a hole not like a hole I was like did I tear it you know like and I'm pushing squish squish squish and and all of a sudden he comes Up and pokes the back I was like ah he goes you need to lay down right now I was like oh God this big giant [ __ ] [ __ ] I lay face down on the bench and I like and he takes his big giant [ __ ] elbow and puts it in that rib and jumps on me I was like

God it was one of the worst pains I'd ever felt well in hindsight if he hadn't done that I don't think my rib would have ever actually moved after that cuz you know when you get ribs out they just Almost never go back to the same spot and they're always they're always popping they're always moving D that rib moved for like years so hindsight 2020 that was in June and then August was the first time I total 3,000 I didn't put a bench shirt on for 8 weeks and I just went to the meet and

benched 970 mhm I was like well that worked so MH yeah so some like some things you'll have everything planned out and this is the meat you know this is the Meat we're going to do it all and you'll just go there and fall apart you know I mean it'll be for any reason you know it rained that morning you know like oh I didn't get breakfast it could be anything oh they didn't give us enough time in the world it everything could be good and you just feel like [ __ ] that's just how

it is sometimes like that's just how it is you can't plan that well I'm glad you're saying that because you have close to 50 Meats under your belt Right so you a good amount yeah yeah you know that where a lot of other people that are just new to the sport only have a handful of meats you know they they kind of get all butt hurt I I get it I mean we all get butt hurt after you have a bad meat I call it the drive-thru generation they everybody this drive they want everything now

they want they want to go through the shortest training cycle possible and get the most amount I mean everybody does like just that's Results not typical dude that's not how it works yeah like anything like worth having or anything up it's it's a world record for a reason if we're just talking about that it's like it's hard you know what I mean like that's why their records they're not easy to get to andh yeah so so the the long-term approach is kind of what we're talking about you know it's the longevity matters but I'll get

on people I'm just like yourself the 8 12 week Training Cycles like okay great you're doing meat prep whatever meat prep you know it's four years like people talk to me about offseason right they're like what are you doing in the offseason I'm like dude there is no [ __ ] offseason that's your problem M there is no offseason you either are or you aren't you I mean like to me training doesn't like that's why I was telling you about the doubles triple singles Max effort triples like you know an offseason Consists of the same

cycle of exercises but an abbreviated volume and Reps and set schemes yeah so I like what you said there because it I think when Louis was saying there's no offseason for all those years and all those years and all those years it gets misinterpreted his whole thing was like he he would tell you that you should be able to do meet every 3 weeks yeah well that's [ __ ] but I would say results not typical you know what I mean like there are probably Some that could do that but no yeah it's towards towards

my later time there it was you want to stay within 10% you know of that because after the meet you know when I was first there I mean meets on Saturday we're [ __ ] speed benching on Sunday that's a good one we should talk about speed benching was one yes so uh that was one thing that changed from you guys so this is another thing where you guys were it was 50% or 45% of your floor press was you know you floor Pressed 500 you're using 250 lbs in a band yeah right dude I

I would be I benched 800 and I wouldn't really use more than two plates I I've been to Grand now and I don't use much more than three M there comes like a point of where you're not going to move that weight any faster and just because you there is a there's like a strength curve just because you use the heavier weights doesn't mean you will Become faster and explosive and stronger from using that through like I think I think Luke Edwards was one uh he I think he said this one time um he's like

hey man I've been doing two you know he had like a 700 lb bench he's like hey man I've been doing like two plates 275 and he was hanging along with me but you got a 800lb bench why you know it's like that's because it's your max effort work not you can't do speed workor to get strong you get what I'm saying you like You can but it's not for that you have to understand that it's become more explosive uh Force rated development you know Louis says strength is measured in time not speed I'm sorry

time not weight strength is measured in time not weight so he says if you have two guys that pull 500 lbs and this guy pulls it in 5 seconds and this guy pulls it in 10 which one's stronger so you can it's a measure you know that's something we Always said there's a lot of stuff about fall into the law of accommodation um um when you start doing my whole thing was like when you when you get away from what you're actually supposed to be doing like in in terms of my situation it was powerlifting

free squatting bench pressing in a shirt and deadlifting uh it was like the systems like special exercises replaced the actual lifts where I felt these Lifts you need to perfect these lifts and attempts like where I said here the system is is the best system and it will make you a strong bench presser but it won't make you a proficient bench presser in a in a technical bencher in a shirt you have to put a shirt on and and do that and be coached more than likely I mean I'm sure there's some guys out there

that train by themselves that are just fine but in the slew of things yes um yeah so it's a With the percentages when when I first came there you know they we would bench out at Tim van horts right so you had the right to be able to go out to Van horns and it's just kind of how it was but the speed bench per se was was at 70 70 to 75% so Jes four four yeah [ __ ] yeah I mean for me I remember it's me Kenny and um who else was on

our bench at the time me Kenny uh maybe Tom W and one other person it was like 365 for half the sets then 405 oh my God and That was our speed work and then over a period of time you know by the time I left it was 185 with a minian you know double mini band so it did drop but it was always a flat wave yeah never really moved that much it was it was a very constant thing it wasn't like it was like it was I don't want to say like running on

a treadmill but it was like you it was you you do this thing it's really not about being heavier these these these Dynamic percentages only Move up when your meat lift moves up mhm it's not I want to squat and bench this therefore I will structure my percentages around them what have I done in the meat not what have I done in the gym like people don't know what a base they a hypothetical want you know I want to squat 1400 but I can't B all my percentages off that and it's going to make me

squat 1400 you know what I mean you have to be like okay my squats like around 1300lb squat you know I mean so I'm going to do percentages of a 1300lb squat one thing that Louie like I remember you were saying something about like when you come back after a meet you would do something like 10% or something like that but um we started doing it at the end he I would come back 50% of 1100 so if I had a 1270 squat my workout back I wouldn't do 50% of 1270 the first week was

50% of 1,000 the next week was 50% of 1100 the next week was 50% of 1,200 and that's a weird thing but like then It would just go back to normal you know what I mean back to what my percentage is off what I squatted to meet so there's like there's all kinds of ways to do stuff and again to the speed bench pressing me and AJ Roberts actually figured this one out um was the whole 45 you take you know use Flor press take 45% of Flor press and that's what you use on your

speed B press day and uh me and AJ were like that's Just that's a lot you know my that's not really working so we we just basically started working out to where we felt right and then looked at the percentage like where is the weight moving fast where am I being fast exposive where is it starting to get hard and then we'll we'll wave those percentag is in and it came out to 23% of your max mhm of your shirted max yes so about well so me so 25% of my of 1,000 lb is 250

lb right yeah so that's usually where I start all My speed benching is usually between you know around 275 and as I go through the 3-we wave it might you know I might end at 365 for my last couple sets or something like that but you're in no hurry to try to push that speed weight up that's not the point the point is to push Max effort weight up and then as the max effort goes showes up you adjust the speed percentages to accommodate your max effort work yes you and it only moves up when

that moves up and that's Why I tell you people get hypothetical off what they want to do I want to squat a th well what do you squat 900 okay well instead of 500 lbs in you know bands and chains today you're going to use 400 you know what I mean because you're not a th000 pound squatter you can't will yourself through percentages to do things like you can but like results not typical it's not that's not the way to do it you know what I mean there's like a way to do it you can

do I Tell people this also like you can do any you can do any of this [ __ ] and you're going to get strong like you know what I mean but there's a way to be the strongest you know what I mean and and that's basically being fast and explosive decreasing the time under tension that's big thing that speed work does that people don't understand speed workk decreases time under tension which is the amount of time that you strain against a weight right MH so like what Happens when you increase what happens when the

time is is of the time that you strain is long if you're straining you know Greg panor was one of those guys we called him the the you look take him 30 seconds dude pull deadlift you're like holy [ __ ] dude um it was impressive I you know I seen him get crushed with a with a 1060 squat flipped over his head at a meat and he takes one step back and goes okay I'm ready we're like wait you don't want a minute dude like you just Flip 1060 over your head he was just

kind of one of those lifters but uh um reel me in here real quick with the speed bench the time under tension Greg being more of a grinder instead of like Chu was an explosive lifter was more a grinder so the difference there yes um in the time under tension yeah so the the that that's how okay so what I'm trying to say is when like with somebody like Greg if we could have made him more F like faster and it more explosive he would have been 2,800 lb total guy mhm um um then vice

versa you take somebody that's super super explosive and make them stronger identifying what the problem is yes you're slow like super strong guys would come into the gym Lou there'd be eight guy bench eight I'm sorry guy pull 850 why you got weak hips and the guy's like what are you [ __ ] talking about dude I got just pulled 850 he's like No that is your weakness I'm telling you what is weak on you though you are 850 I don't see that I see weakness here that makes you stronger and if you would just

do this you'll pull more type deal see people they don't know how to take coaching sometimes and they you know um but the time is [ __ ] odd when they're coming to Westside to you know learn from Lou yeah which is really it's like they want to argue with him it's like I mean the guy knows more [ __ ] that Doesn't work than we probably do that does work MH and like so the time under tension thing if you can decrease the time under tension meaning the the the length at which you strain

against a weight you will decrease the time that you or the chance that you have to get hurt so if I can be faster or more that's how you want to be you want to be you want the [ __ ] over with as quick as possible M so because that is the least amount of trauma damage on your central Nervous systems joints tendons connected tissue then you would if you'd strain dudes that strain don't last very long MH like that's no way to it's just that's a very brutal way to treat your body yes

you know now we were talking earlier about um um a powerlifting project that you're working on um can you talk about that a little bit and as as you're talking about that because I've already kind of heard the first part of it I'm going to Bol it off and Take a piss yeah so just you you were rambling like that so just yeah catch them up to speed with what we were talking about and then I'll be right back Roger so um what uh um I'm sure everybody has seen Westside vers the world um um

Michael fahe is we have been it how should I say it it's a new document it's not a documentary what what Michael describes it as is is the p is like a Pumping Iron setup um where This new this new movie follows lifters that are lifting in the wo and different um levels and scales of lifter so it follows me around through uh some of my meets in the wpo and if anybody's ever seen UFC embedded or anything like that it's it's kind of set up like that so so you know UFC embedded Pumping Iron

it's it's it's a real similar setup it has a lot of the same faces from Westside vers the world it is not a sequel um so totally different story it's not it's Not a documentary about you know it's more of uh following athletes through um you know times going into these meets and primarily the wpo um I know it follows myself around Anthony Ola is another one uh Chanel Nole there some people that are in it uh um but yeah it's um from what uh he's telling me it's an editing right now we've been filming

it since 2018 so I believe we started when the wpo first Came back uh we started filming it uh in Orlando Florida um we didn't really know according to my we didn't really know what it was going to be or how it was or how it was going to pan out we just knew we had the story and we were going to tell a story um Michael likes good stories so uh this one uh is going to be pretty cool um what was the name of that uh there's no it we haven't so everybody always

asks like when's it going to come Out what's the name of it it doesn't have a name yet what's the information information what's that I don't know what you what what did you say no I was just ask about the movie oh okay yeah so um um it's getting edited right now it um like I said we've been filming it since 2018 oh so all the footage is done oh yeah Okay cool so basically what Michael's going to do is he he will he's got tons of footage he's got four years Of footage you know

what I mean and he's and and it's it's everything it's coming to the gym and uh watching us train going into me uh some of these wpo meets us at the meets um it leads into the ESPN wpo that's going to be featured on there so there's a story there um but yeah um like I said it's being edited right now he says tentatively it um he's not going to put a release date on it but he's shooting for spring of next year was telling me um and usually Sometimes towards the end uh as he

starts editing it it'll take a it'll the story kind of will take shape and then he'll have to re-edit uh put more parts in it so he have to come back and do uh not more interviews and stuff like that so yeah it it gives uh it gives good perspective and insight into like what people like me go through and uh going into meet so you'll get a right over the front right over my shoulder front row seat to some of the stuff did does it go Into I mean when you say people like you

I mean you're you're a little bit different than you know the others that are out there but you share something in common with all the other ones and that is I kind of call it an all-in you know mentality and where powerlifting is like the number one priority right it's not like number two number three number four I mean it's that everything else just kind of Falls in after that is is this going to touch On that very much or or is it just the training and I don't I say just but I don't mean

to downplay so there is an inherent story in it like uh from what he was telling me you're going to see uh different different stages of people in the sport like so for me example I'm on the top you know you see the things that the the things I deal with and the things that I might struggle with are different are different than things Anthony might struggle with somebody That's kind of like a mid-level 2500 lb guy uh you see um things that they have to do deal with and there and their their their mindset

and goal is how differs from mine and then you it kind of like gives reference to people from all starts so somebody that's just starting out you'll have some you you'll be able to identify with somebody in there that's like oh this person's just starting out you know what I mean and then there's that person that's been Doing it a few years and like oh so I guess I should say everybody will kind of have somebody that'll be able to align with okay in terms of like where they're at in their walk you know is

what I'm intrigued by is that that Allin you know because for me powerlifting was the I mean from this like yourself from 14 all the way until I left wests side to say 2004 whenever that was that was my number one priority and I don't think other PE it's hard to explain unless You've actually done it you know what what that really encompasses and what it actually means people don't understand like it's it's what is it that's why that's why I like to engage in conversations about it because it's really [ __ ] hard it's

like this I don't want to call it this fantasy world of like wanting to live this outlaw life or something I don't I can't really describe it like but we're willing to die for It you see what I'm saying it just yeah there you have to do these things you you have to be all in in every facet like um and that's how it is with anything you want to be successful and it's like whether you're a business owner well you say to do these things but not everybody does you see what I'm saying that's

what I'm trying to probe into is for those people that do why you see what I'm saying like you you know That your mindsets different than other people and that you know that you're even with the group that you train with now and the groups that you train with in the past even at Westside you know there's people that are not in it as hard as what you are or committed as hard as what you are other people might be but not for very long you see what I'm saying so what that's what I'm trying

to discover you know and and figure out you know it's How do you how do you explain that part not just in you let's just say it's in somebody else that would play the different Michael Jordan for instance what he was playing you know somebody that is all in at that level of commitment I mean yes it's [ __ ] nuts yes it's insane kind of know it but when people say that the people that are in it they're like whatever dude this is what I was going to tell you this is so now I

remember what I was going to say Yeah uh it's it's very lonely like you will lose friends you you might lose you might lose long you might family might dis it's not a might you will you're going to lose a lot yeah and you're going to be called Selfish you're going to be you know demonized you're you know what I mean you're going to when you go all in on something it's a very selfish thing and how can I put it It's when most people PE there are some people that actually go all in and

once they realize they're all in they're like dude I this is this isn't it you know I mean and that's fine for them it's yeah you you just weren't put on this Earth to be that mhm that's fine that's like where I I keep saying like nothing good lasts forever you know like Westside doesn't last forever I'm not going to last forever uh all good things come to an End but that doesn't explain the Allin part unless you get what I'm saying in a roundabout way I'm trying to understand a little bit more I I

don't think maybe you can't you know while while you're in it you know because now that I'm passing out you know that's in the past and I look at it what and this is what I've discussed with other people in the same kind of boat is if there's something else that I another path that I start venturing down Then I I notice this is happening you're not all in if something over here is pause and I'll say do I really want to do that do I really really really want to be all in because it

requires everything and not some it's a it like there is no half like you know what I mean like I my brain can only think really one way so like I it's hard for me to like wrap around and look at it cuz this goes back to like I don't I was conditioned from a very young age not to Not to acknowledge weight not to feel pain like I I I say people it's like [ __ ] that movie soldier with Kurt Russell in it where he's like they take him when he's a kid and

he's just a he's a he's a robot [ __ ] Soldier I was a robot powerlifter it was do this do this you know and you just you didn't when you missed weights why' I miss it it's like well who cares you know what I mean okay forget about it it's like you Just there's some things I say in powerlifting you have to have a short memory on some stuff MH like you're going to have good days you're going to have bad days uh sometimes you have more bad than good mhm but but that's still

you still stay on the same trajectory when you quit you lose I think that's another thing like Chuck Chuck's whole thing was to get you to quit yeah like he and if he couldn't Get you to quit he was going to invent the next exercise after that thing he couldn't get you to quit in yes and then before he know it you looked down you've been there 4 hours mhm my whole thing was like what you quit I'm like nope I'm just done with that he's like so you so you quit I'm like nope I'm

just done I'm just done I'm done right now I think a big a giant part of that was he can't stand to lose more than he lik so competitive and that's one thing I think I admire in ch yeah I I don't even know if he liked to win he just hated to lose which is a rare rare quality I mean if you ever been out to drinking with him I mean dude he'll give you a shot of he'll get he'll give himself a shot of apple juice and give everybody else 151 and just stand

there and laugh at everybody like I'm going to get you you're going to see how long you can drink for you know it's like okay sh like so and then you you're [ __ ] up and he's the last One correct and it's kind of the same thing it's like he has like the same mentality and everything he's going to get you to quit you're going to you're going to get you quit in training you're not going to want to take these shots anymore well the the [ __ ] up thing in training I just

to see if this is still true or if it was still true with you is he would always scale up the exercise for your for your strength so let's say you're doing tricep extensions I got a Story over right you see what I'm saying he's using like a [ __ ] quarter per side on the Easy Bar you because you bench more you need to use three Fu I need be put at a disadvantage and do the same [ __ ] WS so there here's the story about that I had my bench press shirt on

and you know I'm a pretty good bencher you know I benched 825 and at Karen's Denim and that's what I was weing at the time so I put my shirt on and we were doing a reverse band in a Shirt and uh we were doing it off a one board or it might have been a two board I think it was a two board and I got up to 855 and he was just he was upset like that b you know that's too easy I was like what do you mean dude it's a two board

it's what everybody's doing right here he's like well you know your your bench stroke shorter so you're going to use a one board I was like but that's not a two board every whatever you know like so he would try to change the Workout so it's just it's how it was you know what I'm saying yeah but guess what you got stronger or you didn't so exactly with I want to top into the powerlifting equipment gear yeah um because PE from what I see and how can I go into this conversation um when we were

still supplying metal the one thing that I found very interesting in his theory that I have is it didn't matter what gear company they came from if I forced them well we did because it was a Sponsorship thing if they had to stay in metal they all still broke PRS it had nothing to do with metal it was forcing them to stay in the same [ __ ] gear and then customizing the gear to be able to work the best for them thank you somebody knows it okay where otherwise they would just jump from this

shirt to this shirt to this shirt to this shirt and you spend no time actually training you spend time putting shirts on to figure out what fits so would you agree With when what's your history with the the equipment equipment yes well it might come as a shock to most people people like um you know John ener and I'm sponsored by en um he gives me everything I want he's a he takes care of me dude like if I need a pair of briefs he sends them overnight they're here in a few days um you

know I have a really good relationship with enzer now but like uh I was always a person that like if it Wasn't broke don't fix it so just because another meat rolled around didn't mean I really needed a new pair of briefs so dude I'd run briefs for years i' I'd wear the same pair of briefs for 2 years you know and then if I start to wear out you know rather than go you know sometimes I go out to Big Iron and Jim grck he's got a he's got a sewing machine so i' tighten

him up with a sewing machine but Uh Mo most times like I wear a two ply pair of Predator briefs I don't wear three ply briefs my my my canvas squat suit is a regular two-p canvas squat suit it's the same one that that I bench to a th in I'm sorry the squat suit that I squatted a th000 in when I 19 is the same squat suit I'm wearing right now no are you [ __ ] kidding me no so it's the same squat suit that you've been using the whole time just customization aside

from there there was like okay so I had a 42 squat suit so when I went to 42 there was a smaller squat suit I used but I only used it for a few Meats uh enzer has sent me periodically he'll send me it's hard it's it's it takes a little bit of trick it takes a little bit of practice to get a canvas for exactly where you want yeah and but when you get them right you don't they're they're right forever so I had one that I used the last w that was real real

real real close to the one suit I had But for the most part every now you gained a ton of weight too so the suit's going to work differently well that's the thing I went I think I went up to 312 yes like I think so your first meet with that suit you were how what 260 uh 50s 250 57s 55s 52s that's when I was like 2770 and stuff like that then I got in the 28 so I was wearing it um when I did like the 2600 at 24 and 1025 at 242 I

was wearing a different suit that was Smaller um but bench press shirts my whole thing is I get something and I stick with it I don't sit there and I don't arbitrarily change it out just because my bench slowed down I get back in it and keep training like I think people they try to take the easy way out and think it's just a shirt problem no it's a you [ __ ] problem it's it's you don't know what you're doing you don't you don't you're you're stricken for lack of knowledge you get what I'm

Saying like you're um you don't need all this new gear it's dude unless you're unless you're really benching like unless you're like a Jimmy col where you're benching 11,00 lb or you know somebody like me benching th000 PB like th000 PB benchers like you know your shirt's going to wear out a little you know after use it a little bit and that's just the nature of the game you're talking thousand PB bench presses um but generally I I John will usually I'll have a bench shirt that I stick with that I usually train in I

have a a carbon copy as a backup in case something happens to that one and then I have one that's sized a size smaller in areas like I might drop a chest plate and in case like I want to take something big at the end you know I'll switch a shirt out because to me it's all form and technique and shirts don't matter so you have to basically what you're saying is you have to learn the Shirt and not jump around from this to this to this to this like a lot of people do yeah

cuz cuz shirt one shirt from the next is so different like these these minuscule changes like dude I can put a shirt on take one weight and be like nope that don't work and it's the same size you know what I'm saying and then I'll put another shirt on and I'll be like this feels different from it's just it's just it's like human error it's like you're not going to sometimes It gets this way and sometimes it gets that way you know like in terms of sizing gears sometimes it might be a little bigger sometimes

it might be a little smaller sometimes you might be a little bigger sometimes you might be a little smaller so like I I kind of have sets of gear so if I'm a little bit bigger I kind of will swing towards the bigger sizes and if I'm a little bit smaller kind of Swing towards the smaller sizes I'm not one to be a what's Called a gear wh I got a tight bench press shirt you know but you know the shirt I'm benching 1050 in meets and I can touch you know 9:35 in mhm and

it's it's called being proficient you know what I mean that's how you learn how to touch people to keep trying to add weights when they can't touch and it's like what you need to do is put the light weights on there and just learn to struggle down there until you touch something so what what I'm seeing here Is you you like to keep the variables low low then you know what you're then you know what's working and what's not working that's why I was telling you I'll have I have 75% of what I do stays

the exact same every time and I had take 25% so if we're talking training cycle 75% of it stays the same as the last training cycle 25% of it is uh is basically straight up um what's a experimentation new stuff if you do 50% 60% new stuff and then you have a Terrible result then what in that what I'm only looking at this much stuff to try to figure out what doesn't work and what does work a lot of times that's why we go in three and four- we waves you know you know what I

mean uh you go three or four weeks strength tester you hear Lou talk about strength testing you got to figure out you know some exercises when you like I know if I can floor press 600 for a double I should be able to bench 1050 no problem you know What I mean CU I've done that enough to know that when I hit that if I can floor press 500 for 10 I know I can you know anything over five reps with 500 I'm usually good to bench a th000 you know what I mean like so

those are I I can work those things up and it pushes up that back end yes does that make sense no it makes total sense and then you so it gets you there and then you can start to handle those then I start the Thousand PB benches and stuff like That and then it's kind of like there's this way to get you there and then that to get you to do the things that you have to do what's the check and balance too where back when I always knew my FL press was like 90% of

what my shirt bench was going to be my close grip incline was 62% I mean all these things were things that I now the carryover was [ __ ] for the shirt so as a shirt it was different so as the short carryover got a little bigger it changed it but it Kind of that while I while you want the bigger carryover it was kind of [ __ ] up all my little checks and balances at the same time yeah you know so it became this weird this weird Dilemma to try to navigate through and

then also in like in terms of deadlifting like I wear I I don't I don't wear tight gear in the deadlift you know I wear a single play brief and a single play dlift suit that's it m so like a lot my gear is not Tight cuz you need to be able to Function and move you know what I mean and as you get better tighten the gear you know what I mean when things slow down maybe tighten your gear a little bit MH um people they want everything all at once so they throw all

the variables in all at once and you don't know what variable is causing you to fail and what is causing you to succeed which is to me it's always kind of solid is it's it's it's it's really [ __ ] up because it's already [ __ ] up to figure Out how to implement the gear into the training yeah because it wrecks you you know because of the weight so you got now you got so you figure the training out right it's like and it presents a whole different problem here's a whole another level and

then you want to take that other level and [ __ ] it up even more by adding all this other complexity of this this this this and this you know all these changing shirts and all the other kind of stuff my whole thing was Like basic dude keep [ __ ] basic Elon Musk says eliminate a process eliminate step you know MH it's like I'm going to do exactly what Lou calls it um um what does he say it um um I'll think of it but basically you do exactly what you have to do no

more no less that's always what I did I didn't overtrain and I didn't over TR I didn't under I didn't under Trin and I didn't overtrain I I did exactly what I had to do sometimes there were times where I Needed to do more but it was easy it's easy to do more yeah it's it's harder to do less like when you've already done more and the damage has already been done and you're trying to roll [ __ ] back that what happened to Lily at this last meet when she did the women's pram she's

uh a couple weeks going into the meet she starts you know hitting a turd ball like she starts like I'm like I'm like whatever you're whatever you're doing stop um whatever supplements you're Taking quit taking all that stuff um whatever B basically what what it was was when you train with me I don't put girl I don't put girl accommodating resistance on there if you train with me and you're a chick you're using a blue band MH I'm sorry MH um and over the course of you know 6 weeks of I call it man accommodating

resistance you know like when you're not using purples and blues or purples and greens you're using double three and four chains instead of Two and three chain you know it's like that adds up over the course of six weeks you know what I'm saying and it's just starting to over trainer so it's like and you could see it like you start they just start to look tired you know one workout just looks doesn't look good I don't feel very good it's like well you're just over trained Bud we just need to pull you back you

know what I mean let I said like some [ __ ] you do two weeks ago affects you 3 weeks later It's the same same thing with like her for example like you're getting tired we're not going to run you into the meat like this nothing you if you're not going to do anymore and get any better you will just pull back and do a bunch of blood [ __ ] it's like GO train like a bodybuilder for a week MH you know what I mean so I I I try and like people ask me

about like speed bench pressing get like you know like how do you know I train like a bodybuilder for Speed bench Pressing like it's not I like machines and I like you know I like doing isolating muscle groups and getting the pump and is like Arnold you don't get the pump you don't grow you need muscle to support weights you know like you have to my whole thing is that look like you [ __ ] bench a thousand look like look at the dudes that have benched 1,000 pounds you got you got blae suner big

ass guy you got Ryan canelli Monster uh tiny Meer big ass dude they don't They're not they're not slobs you know even Jee rlack was a was a big big big man scottt mendleson just ogre you know look like you can do what you're supposed to do uh that goes a long way so I think like there's something to that people get away from they're not they don't sit there and build muscle they don't they don't you know I think bodybuilding is is is good it it complement powerlifting but it you can't it can't be

like I got to have a bicep You know I can't bicep day you know you know Chuck's whole thing he called me on a Tuesday morning what are you doing I'm like uh he's like you ain't doing nothing he's like go to the gym we're going to do some neck and biceps we do neck and biceps on Tuesday it's like what like neck and [ __ ] biceps like yeah so needless to say I don't do neck and I do neck I do neck I just don't do a neck and bicep workout every Tuesday with

with that and Because you're you're now at the the dogghouse so it's the night crew it's you've been there for a couple years right uh I think we went over there in September of 2019 okay so it's a few years so you got a group now that you're working with so I mean you just mentioned one example of somebody what are some of the other issues that you're seeing with their coming in because now the group it's it's not I don't know how Westside was in the past 10 years either But I'm I'm going to

assume that they're not coming in at the same skill level is similar um similar there like we have a like there's a guy that trains with me he's got he's a world record holder he squatted one I'm sorry he squatted 903 at 165 which is alltime world record and then he did uh he's done 815 and 835 at uh 148 so he's a little guy with a big ass squat um those I don't care about I'm more interested in the the the the lower tier yeah what are the what are The common I want to

say Max effort like what what are their biggest issues that you're running into training wise sometimes not in shape so sometimes when you start lifting heavy weights too much you have to suspend that and do more work to be in shape you like um sometimes when you get you know when you free Squad a little too much see sometimes I don't always box squat you know three weeks in a row sometimes I'll Box squat once and I'll free squat two weeks in a row MH you know I I'm just I'm not you know it it

doesn't happen tooo often but sometimes that's just what we do um a lot of people a big thing is like squat depth uh with newer people they um you have to get them to where they can get there first and then you start piling [ __ ] on um a lot of the stuff I see some of the guys that I have is um not overtraining them while giving them Weight so how can I explain it like there's like a happy medium of letting them take weights and um letting them rest because they're not they

haven't been doing it I try to tell them I'm like dude I've got 10 years on you you know what I mean I cannot do something today and be fine you know I'm not you're not I try to tell people this you're not going to get weak in a year like I could stop lifting weights for a year and still be strong it's like you You've done this you've done you've been in here six or seven years you're not going to lose it in a week you're not going to lose it in a month and

I think when people understand that it makes some of this other stuff easier like being patient and waiting um but yeah um more or less some of the the beginner the beginner people that I have and they're all relatively strong you know uh a lot of it was reintroducing The max effort stuff um we got away from a lot of look so I I call it waving Louis says waving intensity sometimes you not making the not making the workouts heavier but making them harder MH so waving intensities could be uh the amount of time that

you push between sets like running behind somebody giving them a 30 second break boom boom boom boom boom that's one way lowering a box height that's one way adding a band you know that's one way um so you waving Intensities um what about the mental intensity right so the mental intensity you're going to bring to a meat obvious I mean you're throwing up after lifts obviously it's a different intensity than you're going to bring to the gym but a lot of times you'll get these people on Max effr day and stuff like out in the

gym trying to bring that intensity well that's kind of what I tell him I was like you have to understand that Like you you need like I don't want to say hyperfocus a lot of people they're like man what where does your head go it's like a lot of people they try to go somewhere else you know I just go to my happy place you know it's like no I need you to be right here right now like here here we are I need you to be in the now not not 10 seconds from now

not 10 seconds behind you not assessing what's happening I need you to be doing and it's like once they realize that like You have pre seconds and you waste time you know like just for example like if you unrack a squat and you go oh [ __ ] that's heavy you just wasted two seconds you know what I'm saying like you need to it needs to be like what this goes back to where I was like programmed you program these people to to only react to certain things um I think I think kind of like

getting in a militaristic way and yelling at them like a drill sergeant type thing Allows them to function fight or flight M so you know if I'm sitting there screaming at you and then you go to the meet and there's just nobody really screaming at you it makes things a little easier it's like another thing with we this was a Westside thing we always made the the gym harder than the meat you know what I mean so when you went to the meat it was just like huh okay like mhm whatever MH so General stuff

I mean just little Stuff there's really it's really nothing anybody's never done it's just people don't do it you know yes and that the technical aspects that is the that is like if I if for anybody that is probably what made me con be who I am and is technical prowess way a technique excuse me technique equates to pounds on the platform and this goes back to like Greg Panora like I remember the whole Greg Panora Louie thing uh Louie was mad at Greg because uh he had shitty form Him and if you ever watched

Greg you know he I'm sorry Greg but you had poo poo for strong as [ __ ] though oh yeah that that was all that mattered Lou didn't but it came down to Lou was like well if you just change your form up a little bit you you'd squat 1100 you'll do all you just lay numbers you'll do this you know and uh you know Greg's like I'm a [ __ ] world record holder what do you mean I you know I got bad form you know what I mean it's Like and that goes to

back to where I was telling you like some guy with an 850 deadli FLW like when you got weak HS your lower back's weak it's like I just pulled 850 but it's like no no you understand that's your weakness that's where you're where where you're lagging and you can do more it's not that you're I'm calling you weak you know what I mean mhm so so you with with that now that you're working with these other people you know How have you changed the dialogue narrative it like I said it's more of a camaraderie now

they're people I want to be around uh they're people that give me their all they reciprocate everything I give them MH um like I said they travel all over the place to help me they'll all travel 16 hours to Florida to help me we'll we'll go anywhere and help them um so it's like a it's a give and give not a give and a take mhm um so we have like good Camaraderie um what what else did you say well just the with the I'm trying to think of the the average person that's listening that

wants to get stronger right as because they're not going to be the world record holders they're not going to be the they're going to be the people that are first coming in not the complete beginners either I'm talking powerlifters and stuff like that where what I'll typically see is techniques always just a cluster [ __ ] you know it's Literally everything like there's there's one thing to be strong without gear on and have good form yeah but the second you put gear on the first thing it does is try to turn everything to [ __

] tries to bring your knees in you know bench Shir tries to fold your elbows in and you know cut you in a half you know deadlift your round over looking like a dog taking a [ __ ] you know what I'm saying like um and that that that is like weakness flag so if Somebody's rounding means they have a weak Upp her back if somebody [ __ ] can't lock a deadlift out they got no [ __ ] hips you know what I mean like if uh you know someone can't make depth well you

know your [ __ ] hips are weak and obviously Down in the Hole so like a lot of times you can watch somebody and see when it goes to [ __ ] there's a problem for the Sol sorry excuse there's a solution for the problem um I think I learned that a lot From Louie he' just walk in and look at somebody strain a certain way and be like you're straight in this way this is wrong with you you know what I mean so I think years of seeing that it's just kind of second where

um I can see from week to week where if they're getting faster or slower okay we got to lift heavier okay you're getting everyone's getting tired we got to back off a little bit you know I mean you can just kind of see it you Know where to steer the boat type deal MH with the um there there was a couple questions that were in here dealing with with um criticism yeah like how do you handle the criticism and the [ __ ] that comes along with actually multiply but just powerlifting uh well in the

very beginning like you know when I was like 20 years old um I tried to do everything I could to please the internet MH um people would talk [ __ ] and I took it personal I was like Why these [ __ ] talking [ __ ] I've worked so hard and I'm you doing all this stuff and it came to a point where I realized that it didn't matter what the [ __ ] you do somebody's always going to run their [ __ ] mouth off MH so it's my choice whether to entertain that

and when I'm entertaining idiots that don't have my best interest um that is taking away time focus and Effort to what I'm here trying to do and that's being the greatest of all time so I'm not going to let somebody Rob my focus because of [ __ ] they say on the internet that's why I'm not really on there cuz I I I just came from the generation where I'll just cut you and you know what I mean like it makes me want to [ __ ] cut people m i just so I just don't

look at that [ __ ] I don't it uh I say I say a lot of time opinions are like [ __ ] everybody's got one Some stink some don't mhm so you know we're coming up through that West Side environment and basically you got to have thick skin dude so like it come to the point where I I said trying to please the internet uh is like trying to slam a revolving door or yelling into the black hole the the abyss you're going to yell in and nothing's going to come back to you mhm

you know the whole point of these people running their Mouse is cuz they want a reaction out of You they want me to to defend myself and [ __ ] you MH I don't need to defend myself I'm not here to get anybody's approval I'm not here to get the internet's approval uh I'm solely and utterly focused on what I'm doing and there's not anything that's going to rob my focus or or derail me from what I'm going to do and that to me is a trap so that's kind of like where you know I

just [ __ ] him see that that going back to what I was talking about being Allin to certain things that also makes me wonder where you know the people who say that they're all in but yet they're entertaining all that [ __ ] can you dance in the fire you know what I mean like well are they really all in if they're entertaining all the [ __ ] correct you know you just kind of validated that you know you're not going to let them suck away your energy time or Focus because it has to

go in a different direction my dad always told Me he said son he who angers you controls you and I'll be goddamned if I'm going to let anybody control me yeah with um the crew that you're working with now you know it's say let's go way back right so you come in wests side at 14 years old you know now you're in a position with this night crew that you have that you're now that person you know that when they come in so now now they're not walking now say right you walk into this environment

like what the [ __ ] you know there's people here that are you know out of their minds nuts crazy all that other stuff but it guided you in a certain way social influence say right pushed you in a certain way but there are certain things that you found were counterproductive yeah like uh for example um I guess there's really good people out there that can really help you get to where you need to be but that doesn't mean they're great powerlifters you know What I mean M and Lou just wanted great powerlifters I want

great people yes so I'm look at the person first and I'll be like what can this person offer this group can they contribute to it you know like I said will they travel will they follow us all over the United States will you know will they be here on time um will they you know will they show up and yeah so like all my guys do and girls so it's kind of circular right so a lot of the principles that you came Into the sport from you're now the person responsible for bringing the sport through

I call it like culture you know what I mean it's like I think one thing like I think I said this earlier uh one thing that's like ingrained in me and maybe on a soul level is the culture of Westside barbell like I've lived it so long I don't know any other way and I can't change it's like it's kind of like I I don't know any other way um and I I refuse to fail I like don't I like don't Know how to fail like when it happens it just does it it's like a

it's like a short circuit move forward like uh yeah sure there's something else well I with with that how are you going where I'm trying to get at is is how are you trying to ingrain that in the crew that you have now yes by example that's one thing right but how else are you looking for that is it in the culture a lot of it a Lot of it and this is one thing that might be answering your question um I always give people a try out so there's lots of things there's lots of

parallels between what I do now and how Westside was you know what I mean because they they weed out the chaff you know they weed out the weak from the strong um and strong can mean a couple different things like not just physically strong like if you're a strong [ __ ] and and don't contribute To anything I don't want you anywhere near me mhm if you have potential and you want to learn and you don't want to you know I don't have any problem explaining [ __ ] to people but I'm not going to

defend myself cuz I don't [ __ ] care you know what I mean I've already done everything I I don't have to sit here and defend myself to people about why this works or doesn't work I don't care you know what I mean Like if you don't want to do what I do that's fine I don't care but I'm still going to be over here winning yes because they can help those people that you're talking about can help the rest of the group yeah it's like I teach them and then they all know what is

expected of them and um they all give that and if it's not given they get called out on it like hey you're you need to be doing this you will not be here um it's and we're all Friends you know what I mean it's like it's different from where like they're a training partner that's why I think it got a little different you need that camaraderie to have people you need people that care about your well-being remember like in the westside movie you're like haha I put a plate on and he missed it and [

__ ] himself ha I got that [ __ ] you know what I mean it's not really like that you know so you people like Bob Co correct you need Bob Co and Lou Louis at times would criticize Bob Co you know he's just a cheerleader blah blah blah I was like dude but you need to understand you need people to believe in you yeah as much as you believe like people that are coming up and that aren't aren't like rooted and they don't have it you develop these things you know what I mean you

just you're born you can you have you can be born with intangibles but you have to develop these skills you know what I'm Saying like your mental skills you you have to you know it's like well the the the a lot of times the the people who help us you know on our way you know up or on our journey right also become the type of people that either we want to become or we want to put other people in front of to be able to help them with their Journey you know so you know

through your journey that Bob Co is significant you know piece of that so you're making Sure that's a significant piece of what you have as was Lou correct so you're making that a significant piece yeah so there's things that I like you know Lou like you have to be Cutthroat it but you also have to understand that people have jobs you know what I'm saying like Louis sometimes wouldn't give a [ __ ] if you had a job it's just it's just times you know what I'm saying like if you want people if you really

want a longlasting if you want to be in it for the long Haul your group has to be in it for the long haul and they you need to be able to get along with these people you know what I'm saying because if you're going to be in it they need to you know you you got you're talking years you you're not talking you need people to be around you for years and a lot of people don't they don't look that far ahead I doh you know all right well I'm going to wrap this one

up I appreciate you coming out we're going to have to do this again why It's taking me so long to get you out here in the first place I don't know um any I I would say where can people find you but you don't give a [ __ ] they can find you on the platform yeah I'm on the interweb somewhere uh I think my Instagram's Mr 3K 103 yeah um I make quarterly post I make jokes on I'm like I'm making my quarterly bench press post to let you all know that I'm still here

you're still here and that I will be at the meet in November yes so That's what the next meet yeah uh wpo finals which is in November in Orlando this year yes uh it's at a nice big Resort and uh it runs in conjunction with the worlds so the worlds runs Wednesday through Saturday and the the wpo finals is on Sunday okay and they usually they'll have a stream uh where they have the broadcasters and the color commentary and all that stuff and uh you know that he tries to make Wayne does good with it

every year he makes it a Little bit bigger a little bit better adds some things to it um he said there's going to be a new design of a championship but I was going to bring the belts and maybe next time if we do this yeah I didn't I you know I didn't want to like no we'll definitely do it again for sure yeah it's a good time I we've always been around kind of like the same groups of people missing you know yeah so it was good to sit down and like on a personal

one toone level and No it's awesome I enjoyed it thank you we're out later sometime today's episode is brought to you by element a tasty electrolyte drink mix with everything that you need and nothing that you don't in other words no sugar no artificial coloring no artificial ingredients no gluten no fillers and no BS with I love the watermelon the watermelon tastes freaking awesome I drink one pack every Day no matter what people that train out here it's sitting out here for them all the time the boxes don't last very long right now element is

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training Q&A and the form checks as well as the extra podcast hey guys I'm back in the gym with another limited edition apparel drop This is the new live learn pass on shirt I'd be remiss if I didn't talk about our cambered grip American cable attachment this attachment has four grips and it's cambered so when you flip it it actually becomes eight grips and if you turn it upside down there's actually 16 this is one of our most used cable attachments out in the gym even got that full range of motion we had a second

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Broadcasting from the middle of the elite FTS wait room where the underground still thrives and your part of the crew it's time to sit down keep it real and cut the [ __ ] welcome to table talk all right guys we're back with another episode of TBL talk uh the guest today again is Dave Hoff really requires no introduction hello from the last podcast that we had it was him and Anthony uh the wpo is com and gone Dave Won again so we're going to talk about that meet we're going to recap that meat um

we'll get into how your training was for the meat but let's just get straight into the meat first so you were telling me off air that on the way there you felt like you were going to pop right so so so um and I think this kind of couples with the training so I trained I I want to say I changed training up a ton I just went to a lot of stuff I did long like years and years ago and it was A lot of minimalistic stuff stuff Lou would yell at me for you

know like well you can't do that you'll blow this off you know type thing yeah um so generally I just lifted a lot of heavy weights all the time like what like that I just you know you know how Westside you're you're Max it out every week and it was kind of like I really kind of like stuck to that and it made me grow like I just like in a week I'd put on five pounds like I take a heavy Squat gain like I do a free squat in the gym gain five or 10

pound like not 10 like five pounds then it would slowly kind of come off and then three weeks later I'd be doing something again like that and then it would it would push past that and I'm looking at the scale like man like the Gear's getting tight you know I put I put my squat suit on the gym briefs that fit four weeks ago or like I'm I'm like I'm like telling people go around Like go tell me what size these are are these the same did I see the same size and yeah so everything

was very tight and very uncomfortable what did you weigh before you left 307 so I got on the scale at the gym and I was like well I need to make sure um CU every year I go I weigh myself and I kind of have an idea of what like body weight cuz you know usually anytime I come in these wpo I'm kind of like around like a like a low 290 between 89 and 94 is kind of usually where I land I've had a couple where I'm a little bit bigger than that but um

so I was 307 when I left Columbus I didn't really you know so the heaviest that you've been before going to correct yeah this this would have probably been uh there was another meet uh in 2019 where I was 312 three around the same size and um I did a I did a out in Iowa one of Jim grandix meet was a meet out there and it's in the it's in the new movie Coming out but I try to squat the world record at 1273 at the time and I get [ __ ] smashed with

it because Nothing fits and everything's tight and um so that's that was my like oh no if I get this big those things happen so I'm like man I don't want to really be this big um cuz like I don't wear tight gear but when it gets tight you know I get a lot of carryover from it yeah it's just you're just walking that fine line so what are you doing at that point are you Eating less are you pulling L sodium yeah typically I just start watching sodium like okay well I'm maybe not gonna

eat uh fresh as big boy today you know like I'm not going to get my super big boy combo with my thousand gram of sodium M uh so you know I kind of just anytime anytime I'm wanting to just like get fluid off me I I kind of go to like fish you know Fish and Rice just stuff that like and I don't and I don't just strictly eat that but when I get meals Like that in my body like Burns through it and it kind of wants more start taking that that that Flur off

me now what day did you lift on Saturday or Sunday uh so I left I think we left Wednesday uh we left at like about 3:30 in the morning MH and uh me and group I got I got to say I got a great group of guys and uh we always run a big SUV and then they we just drive power down through there I hate flying on planes and stuff but um yeah we drove down There got got there Wednesday night uh I think weighed in Friday morning that was pretty uh that was probably

the longest I ever had to walk for a we in it was pretty cool uh yeah we just pulled up at the Orange County Convention Center and you know I'm like well where the hell like yeah where the hell do I go and you had to walk up to this little people at the visitation center like oh yes sir you are upstairs down the hall to the right so the upstairs and down the hall Was like going to your Concourse at airport so it it the building seemed bigger than the Arnold Classic like it would

bigger and nicer so it had to go a little further to uh way in they had these little side rooms and we'd walk in and you'd go back there fill your stuff out and weigh in so uh like I said I got there I got there and I weighed in I think I weighed in like 296 so I always typically like whenever I drive like long distances I I don't know I don't I Don't maybe I'm just not sitting on my ass eating food all day long yeah you know what I mean like I just

kind of get out of that Rhythm um yeah uh I weighed in at 296 I was like well that's that's better that I don't really think that's probably that's right that's right around the heaviest I usually weigh in for Meats did you look at the meat site before that after you weighed in or did you just go when so I like dude like I like I just don't like I don't mind talking to people and stuff like that but like I don't I I just got to get out of there you know I mean I

need to go eat food sit down relax and I need to like literally not think about that you know some people when they get to these meets they want to go look at everything and like wow this is cool like I was telling you ear you get this like over stimul feel where after you get so over simulated you're just kind of like you Don't really care I didn't want to I mean I kind of saw pictures of it so I know it looked cool I knew it was uh pretty much in the middle of

the Expo and I was like all right so I know where it was at they basically had a map to tell you how to get there they're like hey you come in this store and they'll and what was cool about that is they had all these these people that were working the doors like you couldn't just go in and out they'd Be like stop let me see your band and you would tell them you're like hey I'm doing this and they would like know exactly what oh yes you're you're down this way to this it

was wasn't like you go to some of these meats and they're like what are you doing here what do you need hold on let me check your credential they're just like they kind of they already knew who we were so uh we um I basically weighed in and just went went I think what I go eat At Unos I a bunch of pasta and right so then you get there for the warm-ups how did what did you think when you got to the site to the warm-ups and you're getting your walking through well like I

said like well what was also cool is we could pull up right out in front of the building like I didn't have to go find a garage like if you were a competitor or something you you could pull up in front of the Orange County it was was big place you could pull up Right in front of the doors and uh you pull up and tell the PE there's always guys they like directed traffic and they're like what what are you doing here for I'm like I got to go weigh in they're like go over

here and put your blinkers on and uh have someone stay with your vehicle and so if you were a competitor they they'd pull you off the side of the road and let you run in the building real quick and do whatever you had to do and come back out yeah so that Was really cool and that was that was like a big plus for me so the the morning of the meet we basically did the same thing we pulled up out front of the building and uh I got all my stuff started walking in went

up these escalators it was on this like second second tier floor type place and um like as soon as the doors open looks just like the Arnold Classic you know I mean you walk in there it's a big tall ceilings it it really didn't the big Differences I noticed it seemed like quality over quantity seemed like uh i i i much I've never been to an Olympia up until that point because you know it's always in Vegas it's kind of hard to catch it uh I've lived in Columbus my whole life so I've been to

the you know Arnold Classic is just like a redundancy now it's just like it's like Christmas so it's Arnold Classic season here it is you know like uh so you know I think the Arnold is cool and it has its perks but Uh if you're asking which one I would rather go to it probably be the Olympia by far uh so yeah I walked in the door and it it was like a side door straight to the me like it like and there was like nobody there like I could just walk straight to it so

we're all we walked straight down they had a pretty good warm-up room like the warm-up room had three monoliths in it three benches it had uh all the just everything you need the right bars enough space I mean there Wasn't a ton of us like I think there was 35 or 40 guys or something like that and we had two flights so it wasn't it wasn't anything crazy to need this huge space but we had enough room for sure so I was pretty excited like I was like okay I'm not smothered there's not really uh

and it's not that I try to keep away from people I'm just I'm just need to do what I got to do you know what I'm saying so I kind of just put my stuff down and get where I want to be And then you know I always go through this this I don't know the period of dread where you're just like what am I doing here like can I you know I need I want to go home you're like like where's the door you know I want to get out of here you're like wait

no I can't go home like so yeah I'm in there to of my thumbs figuring out if I should be doing this but yeah so then uh yeah so to have squat warm-ups SC uh squat warm-up I mean just like about like any other one You know like I you know I do one I hate to say it but like it's gotten to the point where uh the numbers it just takes a lot of training to do these numbers and uh how can I put it they they always feel like [ __ ] like like

I never there's been like really a few times I go in the warm-up room and I'm like yeah yes you know like and like I said I think it's because I was in the uh in a big big place and a lot of Distractions and noises and people and most meets are not really like that they're kind of like lowkey and you kind of have your own little corner over there but like everyone was in your corner and there's people walking everywhere and so was it was it was different like I've done those I've done

I've been in those kind of meats before so it's like I knew I knew what to expect so I wasn't like overly stimulated to the point where I couldn't Think what I was doing but yeah I started warming up and I put my gear on pretty quick cuz it was super tight up into that point so I was like I don't know how long this going to take me to get in this [ __ ] so I put my briefs on and just took I I go pretty quick so I'm not there to work out

in the warm-up room you know some people they want to take like a 50 60 70 lb jumps like every time you know and I'm just like dude so I think I I did like four 200s raw think That's 455 I put my briefs on went right to like 300s I think that's like 675 or something like that and then I just immediately put my suit on her tried to M so I'm back there like trying to squeeze into my squat suit and I'm like oh no I can't really breath that's great uh um I

think I think my first I think my first attempt I I just go so like I went I think I went from 675 to like 860 or 70 then I went like 97 I'm sorry excuse me I went like 860 960 1060 and The whole time in training like like and I don't know if if it's just me getting lazy but dude wrapping your knees is a pain in the ass man like it's just takes so much time like to me it does so like the all in training I I mean you can ask any

of the guys I train with like I'd work up at 1060 with no knee wraps just cuz I didn't want to [ __ ] it I didn't want to take the time and put them on and almost be at the gym another 20 minutes like it's just like yeah I don't Oh it's like if I can't do this then we don't need to be here type thing I guess that's just kind of where I've gotten if I can't do this then I don't even need to worry about this other stuff yeah so do you wrap

in the warmup room that time I did so the difference between training was is uh I did never wrapped for a 1060 in the gym yeah I just went out I just took it and did it and then when I got to the meet I knew I would you know I was going to put one on so I got in There put knee wraps on did 1060 it felt you know it felt it felt fine you know I when I unrack it I I don't know if I stepped too far up into the rack but

I unrack it and just started falling backwards I'm like take it catch it catch it take it quick you know like grab me and there was a second where I thought they weren't going to grab me I like said it like three or four times and I was like please help you know and they grabbed me and put me back in and Then so anytime that happens you know it's like the the the the ticker still ticking you know you got knee wraps on you just tried to take it out you fell backwards you put

it back in so here we are like twice as long as it's supposed to take yeah rather than just getting under it and doing it real quick and then uh so yeah that was like 1065 or something like that and uh um but I just went down stood up with it and most time I just go down to where it locks up Then I then I try to hit a dip and come up and then let the judges make a decision do you do that in the warm-up room for that last all them all of

them so that that's just what I do like I box squat and I free squat they're two separate things like my my box squat is nothing like my free Squat and they're they're like they're like like I said they're two different things two different I think people they kind of get that conflated they just see it as a squat um I'm always like attacking proactive like I'm not waiting I'm get I'm I'm I'm like slowly swinging until I'm allowed to type mhm it's a weird analogy but what I basically do is I get like I'll

hear like a 32 1 and then after I hear one it it kind and it also kind of depends on how [ __ ] is going sometimes I might hit the dip sooner and it might look a little higher or something like that uh but sometimes when I go down I'll start you I'll start shifting or something I Think on the second squat you'll see here uh I step too wide on one foot so like one foot when I unrack it I I kind of went like this and I felt like my foot was a

step too wide and I remember I went down I started I heard three2 and then I started like shifting back and forth and I was like I almost lost it I was like please no stay with me you know and I heard 32 one and and that in an instant like that I once I hear one I just hit the dip and come up yeah um I Don't I don't wait until I'm there I just count on the dip and the judges you just kind of it's it's a very quick thing so you like I'm

not I'm kind of P like dude I've done squats all over the place I've done I've I've had everyone has it you probably have one maybe it shouldn't pass some that get turned down that you shouldn't get then you have all the good ones in between and I'm just of the I'm I'm just going to attack it and make the judges make a Choice like I'm not going to I'm I'm the whole taping [ __ ] like when you get there let's give you a tappy it's like can't we just perform a squat and get

judged on it you know like why does everyone need this extra help with a tap and stuff like that it's really not that hard to call depth you know what I'm saying so I guess the the story is I try to get close I hear a 321 when I when I start getting around I try to I try to like in my brain I know it probably Happens a lot faster outside of my brain but in my brain I try to go like 1 10001 and I just and it's a it's some it's t I

learned it from Big Iron that's all they used to do if you remember them dudes in the past like like Becca and Jimmy and like Nick hatch um who else Sean Frankle you'd watch those guys squat they'd go down and he would he would tell them where they're at and I thought they dipped twice as far as me so they would start at like 2 in and dipped and I Would be like how do you fall that dude I would just fall straight through the floor yeah so like my whole thing was I tried to

tighten that that window up and get around like an inch or wherever they're telling me I'm at and then I just hit that dip and uh hopefully that's enough if it happens quick and they can't make a call good for me you know what I mean I'm just kind of I'm so what was the opener then uh 1168 was my opener all right let's see if you can Find that I think we got it queued up so is this this actually felt all right uh I hate watching [Laughter] myself this is why I'm not on

the internet I hate watching myself look how tight look how look how big my belly is that's all Kellen would tell me she's like your Bell's way too [ __ ] big she's like dude I see you sit down and your belly's hitting your hitting your thighs and I was like oh my God like I I feel it dude it was it was so felt tighter oh yeah you can see how tight it is look how tight it is in my legs look how tight it is my belly was the worst then I got my

belt so I always tell people this that where you put the where you put the latch of your belt matters like if if you if you get the belt latch on too far to the left or too far to the right and it gets in that crease of your hip you won't break on that side you know what I mean you will Actually you'll squat crooked mhm and one side will get down that's why sometimes you like squat to might just look bad and you'll get a light on one side so and then you look

at the you'll look and somebody will have a belt buckle like in the in the crease of their growing or whatever so that's one thing that I like I'm real anal about that kind of [ __ ] so how'd that one feel it felt it felt really good honestly it didn't feel like anything I'm kind of Like a meat lifter like once I get out there and in front of people like I like kind of I think it's like something Lou always instilled to me I thrive on expectations so when I go out there everyone

expects me to do that you know I mean they see or whether they even if they haven't seen me like I just people expect me to do things no matter what and I expect that twice over for myself so like I go I just it's just a it's just a switch I Hate to the sounds cliche yeah but it's just a switch that gets flipped and you just know what you got to do and man I'll tell you what one different thing about this meat is dude I like can't get I cannot get fired up

anymore and it's like different I think I went from like uh I don't know I I had is this the same one here I like went from the Spartan aggression you know like this is Sparta Let's do that you know what I mean and that I think triggers a like I get whacked out of my gourd dude so it like triggers a fight ORF flight response in your body and when that happens it's almost like your body dumps its adrenal glands or something and I'm butchering the [ __ ] out of this but this is

what it feels like to me yeah then I get sick thck so I'll get I get all worked up I perform the lift and I'm [ __ ] just don't not even just trying to feels like You're just in a tornado you know you've done it 100 times and uh sorry yeah so did that happen after that opener so I pre so back in the back like I hit the 1060 and uh um I was kind of under it too long like I remember I was telling you I was the clock kind of went past

the ticking point when I unrack it and I fell backwards that you know and then they put me back in I should have Already been putting it in the rack you know what I mean so then it's like I that extra time it's like I have to like then then you have to you have to you have to pull more you have to you have to tell your body to do more and then once and like I said it it like it'll you get this fight fight ORF flight like this adrenaline jump now at this

age or this like port in my career of lifting weights age whatever I just can't do that anymore because I get so jacked up And I'll need to puke and if I start puking I'll start cramping my inter do intercostals will cramp everything will just it's just it's just that downhill thing so like my main thing was like I need to like be I almost went to like Bruce Lee Focus you know you must be water you know yeah just more chill yeah you're just more more in my own you know I wasn't trying to

get in my own way I wanted to perform the lifts I wanted to win because this would have Been my six six wpo Championship belt and this one kind of meant the most because it's the it's the real belt like not that they're not all real belts but when you look at that's the they brought back the the throwback belt and that's something I really wanted is that the Olympia it's a big it's it doesn't really get any bigger than that yeah go back to that live stream because I want to see the second attempt

second attempt was that one scared me I don't know what This one is here you know that well that's 1278 so that's the third so on the live stream you'll have the second yeah but the squats so the the like in terms of like weight the only the first ones on the live stream and it ends yeah walk me through the second one what happen so the second one and it felt fine so uh when I when I mean fine like when it come like terms of like how Weight felt to me that day I

was on like I was like I was like I can I can lift anything like um but just because you can doesn't mean you should type thing uh there's a lot of things that went into the the choosing of the jumps I did um well what was the second attempt that you 1241 okay and why did you decide that so 1241 gives me a 3,000lb total okay okay and I got to win the meet you know I mean you have some dudes coming in this meet where this compet it's like It's hard now like you

got you got two you got dudes that are 220 damn near total in 2700 mhm I think the second place guy total like 2662 MH at 220 squatted the world record squat 1113 or something like that so you know you have like a a franque type person and I I think his uh we go by gloss Brer formula in the wpo and I think his gloss brener was a little over 700 like 705 and I think mine was 740 mhm so like I need 3,000 to beat those smaller dudes like I Got probably Edge it

out like you know I could go pound for pound and really Edge them out but like I it's this realm beats these numbers like once I hit this once I get over this three 3,000lb number it's going to take so much more for them yeah uh so I try to get into this realm of where they can't like it it's just out of where they can reach and if they get out of uh if they try to do something a little more than they are capable of that you know it just it just Causes people

to make dumb decisions you know I mean I I try to push it in a realm that makes it really hard for them to even come close they're either going to have to choose second or try to win you know what I mean so how did the second go uh the second squat so I walked out um and again it was a very big crowd like I was I mean I was the um I was I went to all the wpo's that were at the Arnold Classic in their inceptions from like 03 4 5 6

7 I went To every single one of them and um this was really close to that um I think the only difference was was the production stage which uh that that's all coming from what I understand but beside the point um uh so I walked out there and it like I said big crowd it reminded me a lot of it I did the animal cage I don't know maybe 2011 or something like that and uh it was a very reminiscent of like a an of like a a turbo sized animal cage There was there just

people as far as you can see rows of people they they had little uh I don't want to say little there was a place where a couple hundred people could maybe sit in front of it and then there was just then there was just people as far as you can see so I walked out there I looked up and I was like weird [ __ ] goes through your head I was like wow that's a lot of people like I wasn't expecting that but anyway beside the point so there I went 1168 I Called for

1241 um to me that was a PR from the last meet so I this is where I kind of like I I am a proponent of practicing What You Preach I'm I do the things I that I tell you know I mean I do the things that I tell you that I do like um so I and especially for this so the first and foremost was do more than I did last year I squaded 1234 last year this year is 1241 that's more than I did last year let's progress let's like this kind of goes

back to the last uh podcast Where we were talking about the 1278 Squat and when I went from I went 1173 and jumped right to it and just squatted it um but I didn't really get in there and Conquer numbers above 1250 you know I was real proficient in like 12 15s and the 20s and the 30s and I just jumped to 70 and I just tried to ride that wave of just jumping to it and I just had it I just had a good day you know what I mean and sometimes that's hard to

swallow you're like well it was Just a really I can do it but it's you know I got to back up take two steps backwards to go you know three steps forward type thing so I kind of just pulled everything back I was like all right I'm going to go back to uh establishing a total winning and pushing PRS you know what I mean so 1241 got me enough for to I could total over 3,000 with that how did it feel though oh so uh I walked out there and I remember I got under it

and uh um I stepped too Wide and I knew this as soon as I interacted did um I got under it uh went through my whole thing and you know I looked at my feet and it was it was like I caught something out of the corner of my eye but I was like [ __ ] it I've been under here too long I got to keep going uh cuz like I told you just like in the warm-up room when the numbers get bigger the the ticker moves faster you know what I mean yeah and

so uh I remember I stepped to it felt in My brain like I stepped a little too wide and you always see me when I step up to the squat rack like I step up into the rack like you'll see me go way up into the rack and I kind of come back to it and the reason I do that is I would rather unrack a squat and fall backwards and somebody just catch me rather than me unrack it and then start falling forward and dump 1,200 lb over my head and sandwich me and blow

it's just bad it's a lot easier not getting hurt the Other way so I that's kind of like my mentality of always stepping up and I think like I said the fatter I've gotten through this training cycle the The Wider Step I Take You know your belly gets bigger and wider you step wider I just think I overstep it steep too wide got under there unrack it it felt good you know I was like great I was like great super felt like the last one didn't the squats didn't feel any different from the first to

the third They all kind of so I remember I went down heard 321 I did my dip I stood up and uh I heard I heard lift is good and then this dude dude in the front row yelling I think it was Fred Clary he's like 590 59 this dude's yelling want me to take 133 I'm like dude like I just like like he he you must try 13 something I'm just like okay so they're going in the back and they're like what do you want to do and I'm just Like I know I felt

after that one I could squat 1300 I was like I can squat 1300 lbs and I can do it now I was like or but and then there's the ores or the butts and this is the uh I think what's the word I'm looking for maturity yes like uh um I've just lifted weights a long time after after you get like this is where I told you experience yes I can't believe I couldn't come up that but it's almost like I told you before once you get There once it's a possibility and it's not like

it's not my wish or my want anymore you have to just be like go for it like I'm not going to overstep so I said hey could I squat 13 I I think my two numbers were 13 13 I was going to do 1322 in the chips that had been the biggest Squad of all time so 600 kg that would have been uh it would have been like a I don't know like a 70 or 80 PB jump or something like that and I make those all The time so it's not it's not and at

those numbers once you're used to that kind of stuff dude I trained a lot I squatted I squatted 1250 or more probably three or four times in this training cycle but I didn't I didn't take the 13s so I kind of pulled back and I really perfected the making just getting through those first two yeah you know so uh like I remember the first time I put a squat I know I'm getting way offre subject here but um yeah so I'll get back to the squat so like I said I stepped too wide and um

went got the squad went through it went in the back warm room they asked him what I want it was either 1322 in the chips or 1278 which was a PR and and you probably heard me say this it took me four years yeah to get a 5B PR on my bench press so here I am I'm like okay do I take a shot 1300 lb isn't guaranteed I'm not uh you know I I'm I know like I knew I could do it but it's like I'm going to get a PR So I just went

1278 and just squatted just got a PR and that that took four years I am squatted 1270 since 19 yeah now that one we have that video of I believe that was the the one the Instagram one which actually that shows the crowd there as well all right so when you go ahead and pause that for a minute so when you come out you notice the crowd right at what point does the crowd disappear for you um it's pretty pretty Much right about there cuz right when you see me right here you see me kind

of fidgeting around I'm I'm trying to get my feet set to where like my toes not pointing big thing for me is I have to make sure my toes are pointing the same way like I can't get one toe pointed you know further to the left and the other one pointed straight ahead because that that that dictates where your knees go so my whole thing is I got to get my knees going out and not cuz your knees In you're going to blow your knees off it's going to fold you bad things will happen but

so me I'm just trying to get my feet set fiddling around with my feet getting making sure it's good on my back and I always I always try to set it on like the bottom of side of my traps and where my my delts are and this is the first time I've even seen this should have lowered the rack that's another thing I do I lowered the [ __ ] out of the Rack little dipsky mhm what did they say looked looks good I'll take it yeah so what did you think after that so after

the the second I stood up with it I said I should have went 1322 I was like I just I hit it just right man dude those squats are so big dude like it's it's not it like I hate to try to say I make them look easy but like those are hard they're hard to execute like things have to be very Right and and and everything has to be like you're from where you like say where your feet your toes like how it's sitting on your back cuz dude like if I don't put it

right in my back and I unrack it sometimes the bar just bends in in the hooks so like I have to do things like they they ask me when the meat comes around where do you where do you want the hooks you want them in or out and I'm like in the middle they're like I don't know if we can do that I'm Like yes you [ __ ] can like put him in the middle so that's actually something chuck chuck did with me it was like back when I totaled 310 couple years back uh

I was having trouble getting a m the rack and he looked up he's like dude just put the hooks in the middle so like where the bar would bend the hooks are like picking it back up MH which and as these weights go up dude and I'm always having to adjust the rack it's this big thing It's not like you just put it down there you put it in the hook and you walk out you squat it it's like once I hit this number all right I need you to bring the rack down to this

number um because as the weights go get go heavier the you know the bar the room on the bar starts to run out which causes the bar to Bend and flex and then if I if I don't sit there and like you'll kind of see I never really Jam them straight out the rack it almost looks like I can barely I Don't want to say barely get them out but I really ease them out the rack because dude I've dropped 1250 in the gym I mean last time we were talking to Anthony they were all

like you know I stood up the bar rolled down my back and [ __ ] fell off and they all caught it they're all looking at me like dude you okay I'm like sometimes it rolls buddy I can't stop it 1,200 lb so they're hard squats but there's nothing like it now you said there that you should have Adjusted the rack yeah so like as um as the weights get bigger you have to like I said you have to bring the rack down to adjust for the weight that you're putting on it um and sometimes

I you always find yourself in Anthony's one of them I always yell at him he always anytime the it's and I do it too as the weight gets heavier it's almost like the same thing with the bench you keep trying to put your grip out further it's like as the squat goes up you want to Get a wider stance you know what I mean and before you take a step wider you're shortening yourself and that rack you if you have the same rack height and you stepped wider the bar is now higher so you're trying

to unrack it and you're pushing it before you know it your legs are locked out the bar still on the rack and then you do one of these shrug things you know so you but when you get to those big big squats dude a lot of that little stuff matters like so I Usually always crank it down I like Drop it a half make sure they're in the middle um type stuff MH then now you go into the bench after that how much time did you have oh I think I had so they used they've

given us like a 15 or 20 minute break and then I had a flight ahead of me so you know 35 40 minutes something like that maybe a little bit more um and I I kind of as long as I'm not cramping dude like if I start cramping it's over so like I got To kind of keep moving and like I'm just drinking stuff eating bananas uh drinking th this stuff here they they gave some of uh that electrolyte stuff out at the meat and I started cramping real bad and I took some of that

stuff and it and it it was like it was gone oh yeah the element stuff [ __ ] I it was I'm I'm a firm believer like if it works I'll tell you um but yeah so like you know I did The Squat and I got all the squat [ __ ] off and I was like all right Let's walk around and uh I try to keep moving because like if I sit down I'll just sit there and get cold and freeze and then then you then you don't you want to go home and take

a nap well as you walk around there's again there's a ton of people right so is there people that what's the warm-up room look like like do people watch you warm up or is it closed off yes they can so how how it was set up it was is about the size of the gym here MH and um the stage had a Big uh had a big um wpo Banner with some pipe and drape and then the crowd was in front of that and you down the side they had this pipe and drape that was

only about to your your hip MH so when you walk behind the curtain there was it was you know you could you could see right it was like as high as a table you know you could see right over into the warm-up room so you know there was you know I start warming up and uh people were coming up to the side and asking How much is on the bar and then I've got guys like just just get away you know just get away go over there you know leave me alone I had people coming

up there was some guy that came up and asked me for a picture like like right after my squat I'm like dude I I need a minute like I was like after the meet so if you want pictures if you ever this is just if you want to like ask me for a picture like I don't I don't care about it just not like when I'm squatting or And not or or like directly after it like when I'm coming off trying to figure out what planet I'm on don't don't come up please don't come up

and ask me for a picture because I get I so yeah there's that that kind of bugged me a little bit but uh so I'm in the corner there I kind of was off into a little corner and I had this little this little place set up where all my stuff was at and we kind of had chairs around it so I was kind of like in the middle of the Chairs and I had a little chair barrier where all my guys would sit and kind of like give me a bubble and um the bench

was kind of funny so this is this is funny uh I had no idea what was going to happen in the bench press like no idea like I just didn't know I was like well I've benched 9:25 9:35 every day I've done it every meet for the past 15 years I should be able to do that I guess I should rewind a little bit Um so last year at the wpo I had I had a 975 bench and I was down on my chest and I heard something make a like like a noise and like

like a popping weird noise and I felt it down in here like my tricep I thought I tore my tricep thought of always thinking I'm like did I just do that but I think it was something in my shoulder like I don't know what it was um something right here on the collar bone I don't know what it's called um But I I I was I got this knot like on my collar Boone and I don't know if it was Scar Tissue building up in an area just from uh always doing Ben shirts and doing

low boards because dude I was doing like 1120s on a one board and stuff like that in a in a poly shirt and um 2022 beat beat the [ __ ] out of my shoulders like for because I was I was really trying to bench 1100 and um I remember that said last year's wpo uh something popped I just felt Something cut loose and and it just hurt hurt like it just felt like I had tendonitis tendon nois all the tendon noes was in my was going on in there dude and uh I had limited

Mobility I just had weakness you know like you know when you tear something and you try to push and it just W you don't have it there so it took me that meet last year was also in November and it took me till March April more like May to where so around March is when I started like bench being able to bench raw and I couldn't even dude I I couldn't bench off my chest I was doing board presses you know I was still getting into like the high sixes raw and stuff like that but

like anytime I Tred to get down towards my my chest it just really aggravated it so you know I put a put a Ben shirt on and I started working down I did some two boards I got up to a little over th000 like, 125 or something like that9 In the gym and I was like all right I'm not going to go any heavier than this number so I didn't go any heavier than th20 or something like that around that 1025 area and I just slowly started working that number down as the meat got closer

um so I uh my last bench workout in the gym I did 1,19 because I use a kilo plates and I to a one board and I was like okay you know it it felt faster before but it's like it's a thousand and It was moving fine so I was like all right and I can I could get into the top make sure I held it and stuff I was like okay so I should be able to bench at least 925 you know that's what I'm thinking mhm so you know I and I did those

I did all the attempts off the board so I did the 25 the 75 and then my third was going to be like around 1,20 or something like that um so I remember I I uh was back there warming up so this is a before I get Into the whole the whole platform thing I'm I'm sitting there warming up right and I'm like sitting on my chair and I'm in the back of the warmup room and in the and in the very back of the warm-up room there was a tall pip and drape and then

on either side it was like the ones to your hips and I look over to my right and this dude comes around the curtain with his with his wife or his girlfriend I looked at him and it was kind of like dude I know that guy like I know you and He like looked at my eyes like and I was like I gave him the look like I think I know you and he was like I don't know you but anyway it was it was [ __ ] rob vanam the wrestler yeah and I was

like Rob Van rob vanam you know like hey hey man I'm big fan watch you a lot growing up super I just started shooting [ __ ] with him there and I was like man can I get a picture I was like I'm a big fan you know I watch wrestling growing up ECW WCW WWE all that stuff and uh he's Like yeah man that's cool dude you know I'm like dude this is so cool so then I I turn around start getting a picture and he does the rub van damn thing and I about

lost it I'm like ah and uh then the funny thing was is I thought that was it you know I was like all right man cool I met Rob bam and he go hey hey man what what is that I'm like are you asking me a question sir like like so he starts asking me about like what's on the bar there had it was my last warmup In the warm-up room I had 880 or something on there I was like yeah it's 880 uh I'm just going to take it down to a board then I'm

going to go out there and try another one he's like man that'd be awesome I'm going to go out there and watch you I was like Dude Sweet hell yeah so I finished the warmup and it had some zip on it because Rob bam was watching me every it was so funny I stood up and my buddy Drex who always hands out to me he's like he's like well That one had some spunk on it I was like we should get Rob Ben Dan back here watching you more often I was like well maybe I

might help so that was kind of cool Rob vaname was back there watching me warm up and then I walked out front and he's out there watching me and I open with 925 I'm pretty sure that was the number it was 35 or 25 I think it was 25 and uh they hand it to me I'm like hell yeah you know it felt great it's coming down I'm just like it was Kind of one of those ones where it I just felt fine it was the first day it didn't hurt was at the me so

I was warming up like looking for it like where is that it's not hurting me it's not hurting me cool it was like calendar year year to the day almost that it didn't hurt it hurt all through training every time I put a Ben shirt on and the day I got to the meet was the day it didn't hurt and I was like sweet M so uh I was going down there and I'm just Assessing it on the way down like this doesn't hurt this is great this doesn't feel heavy press and then like it's

kind of like when you haven't done something for like I was telling you earlier I haven't touched my chest in a since the meat last year yeah I've just not been able to my whole thing was let me get to the meet and I'll take my chances there m uh I know I can I've know I've always hit these numbers you know these are numbers I've conquered You've hear me talk about that I just know I got them um so on a bad day I should be able to at least do that so that was

kind of like my mentality um like I said I got the Press call on it and then I go and I shove it up like it just come off my chest too fast and then I quit pushing you know when you when something launches you're like yeah and then you're like no like so I launched it up over my face and they Caught it and I was like damn it you know like [ __ ] so I'm sitting there and I'm like damn it like I should have been able to do that like and I'm

sitting there I go in the back like what do you want to do I was like I guess repeat it you know repeat and I'm just sitting there like can I still do this then all the the the the the little demon of Doubt starts whispering in your ear like you little [ __ ] look what you've done you can't do this I'm like So then then the other ones over here telling me you know dude you've done this 100 times you just screwed it up you did these two things wrong like I said said

you just need to you just need to calm down not try to not try to make it the fastest like Bob Co would always tell me he'd be like you don't get an extra light for making it faster he's like how fast do you want this [ __ ] you don't get an extra light for making the [ __ ] faster you only get three you only Get three you can't get four there's no fabled fourth white light so I was like okay I'll just settle down a little bit so you know I was trying

to make it fast for Rob bam because I wanted him to be all impressed and it didn't work so I was like okay now I got to win the meet I got to get this or uh I got two dudes behind me that can you know ten Daniel tenio I'm sorry Daniel if I pronounced your name wrong um had a great day dude And he was coming up and there was another guy he was coming up and um so I was like I kind of felt a little bit of pressure I was like I got

to get this or you know I'm not going to get my fancy nice belt and I won't get the nice fishing money to go fishing with you know like so all these things are going through my head like I gotta do it so I just said [ __ ] it you know re reset everything went out there and just Flo it down went down pushed it up like just Like a normal bench didn't feel hard it just just kind of felt like I was Rusty at it a little bit you know when you don't do

something for a while you like I always know how to do it um and I'd handled the numbers enough to make them not feel heavy but it was like I in the areas like I really like as I get closer to the meat I'm down you know I don't I start like I I work everything from the top down so when I get closer to the meat things things have to be at a Certain distance at a certain certain weeks out from the Meet that's just kind of how I've always been and I kind of

just pulled away from that a little bit because I couldn't I couldn't just take those low ones so I kind of saved it just to do it to meat so the meat was going to be that workout for me where that's kind of how I was thinking so um I did that one pretty easy and they asked me like what do you want and uh I was like 975 cuz uh 975 sets me up for 3,000 so my whole goal was set me up for 3,000 cuz 3,000 is hard to beat mhm um I guess

it would be hard to beat but um that's kind of like my thinking um I called for 975 I went out there they handed it to me it's the same type of thing didn't feel heavy uh nothing hurt I went down h a press call and I started pushing it up and I slowed that one down too so that one was like slower than I would have liked it to be but I didn't Want to lose it mhm cuz dude as soon as those when you get [ __ ] to like 3/4 of the way

up and it starts giving it back to you and you just kind of aren't patient and just don't just you know just stay under it and keep pushing it it'll want to travel people when the bench starts slowing down people want to try to make it keep moving rather than just kind of like Riding the Storm Out MH uh so that was kind of what I was doing on that second one well I guess it Would be my third I missed the first came back and got it on my second and then I took 975

on third uh I went I remember I got it and I I remember I boom boom I locked it out and it was kind of moving and I was waiting for the Press call and then and and then it started like sliding back and I remember I caught it with my like traps like like this and I was just like please please give me a rack call I heard rack and the yeah I was like so I Almost lost that one over my face too so it just it was a very Rusty benching outing um

people always ask me what happened to Dave in the bench it's like well you know training's not you know [ __ ] happens and you got to work around stuff sometimes and that's just to meat was a workaround it wasn't I didn't train the bench I worked around it now did you have the same time period between the squat and the bench as you had from the bench to the de it was a Little shorter so usually since you go from the squat to the bench squat you know you have to get your squat gear

off you suit your briefs and put everything away kind of calm down from it it kind of seems to you know and people I don't I don't you know usually meets people bomb out here and there so the list gets a little shorter of people um sorry um go ahead so for basically leading into the deadlift warm-ups is Where I'm going correct uh so I think we had it was about the same like I said same amount of time it was maybe 20 20 25 minutes something like that and I'm already ready like I don't

[ __ ] around with the deadlift I'm just doing it to get out of the meat M um I like I like don't like so yeah like I just I'm like ready to go like I want to get this and get this get this show on the road cuz so what are your deadlift warm-ups look like okay so I remember I just start with three plates like I'm not taking a bar a plate two plates three you know what I mean I'm just like I don't got time for this I'm already warm I've benched I've

squatted let's just do the damn thing so remember I went like three plates four plates five plates and uh I put my I put pair of briefs on I wear a single P pair of briefs and they were tight they were so tight and I'm like can somebody please read the size to me again like They're like no those are yours I was like oh good cuz I thought I got you yours like uh so I got my briefs on it took like 500 uh then I put my single ply suit on adjustable straps and

that was tight and I'm just like man like everything's tight today uh and then I think I did six plates seven plates so I went like 585 675 and then I went out and open with 766 and how'd that go so it Was it was it was fine like it I so the deadlift training in this one I was going to ride the deadlift I had to go I had to ride the deadlift cuz I knew the bench M was going to be good enough to win but I'm not going to I didn't have those

1050s they're there still like uh I things are starting to come back to normal they're there but that day they just weren't and I was just and I'm not going to be stupid I'm going to play my cards and get the most I can wherever I Can so like I said I opened with 766 uh went out there and did that fine just stood right up with it and during training um where I told you like I started lifting heavier more often earlier sometimes I I I'll do a lot of work and then I lift

heavyish and then it's heavier going into the meat I just kind of pulled back and was like heavy heavy heavy and one of the big things I did was work on my grip I mean me and my guys that's a lot some of my guys like Some of my dudes they were like we was dropping deadlifts it's like well uh how do we not drop deadlifts we do a bunch of grip work you know so I mean I was doing grip holds there grip machines I was doing plate pinches dumbbell H I was just doing

everything I could for my grip uh cuz I needed to hold on to a big one uh to to get where I wanted to get a PR total I should say so I open with 766 I did that Rel easy and I went 804 on a second because that totaled 3058 I knew That would put uh second and third out of question like no one's going to like the guy in second would would have had to pull like 8:25 at at 220 to like come come close and it it still wasn't enough so I I

looked at like he was he was close enough to where I was like you know what like I don't want to take a jump and then him and I miss it or something and then he come back and just make a smaller jump and Edge me out MH so I Wanted to put it out of Out Of Reach from I just wanted to win the meet so second deadlift I'm like let's just win this thing put it away and then I'll try something so I went 804 I went out there dude I grabbed it and

I felt real easy like it like I just pulled it right up I was like great dude that felt great like grip felt and I tore I tore this callus right here and uh I was like God damn it uh I remember I sitting there looking at it and Ilia was there and he's like do You want me to uh put uh he's from Cypress you want me to put super glue on it I was like yeah [ __ ] do it you know so he's squeezing like super glue in there and like shutting the

cow and [ __ ] up and uh spraying my hands with this it's kind of like alcohol like dries your hands out put on it and you have this like super grip and uh I think that's kind of what tore the cows to begin with but that's neither here there so I got super glue on and I'm like all Right we're going for it they're like I'm like what do I need for 3107 uh cuz that' be a PR my best is 3103 and I needed 854 for 3107 uh in the gym like I had

just started the training cycle and I was maybe 6 weeks in I was and I and probably 12 or 13 weeks away from the meat like way far away and I pulled 850 or 8 I think it was 860 in the gym and I got 900 like I I like caught it on a on A on a whip and I lost it so super early in this training cycle my deadlift was super strong like and I think this goes back to the last time I was telling you where I went to power Shack and I

was doing tons of back stuff my back just got like super [ __ ] strong and I was it was like what the like so everything kind of like changed I was real strong on those deadlifts early from all that other weird [ __ ] I was doing that's the only way I can describe it or like That's how that transpired so uh um I called for 854 I pulled it like I said I I had there was no doubt in my mind that I i' pulled it I pulled it in the gym I was

like dude I I can do this um it was either go for 8 832 which is a PR which I think I I probably would have done or go 854 for 3107 and it's like well I've already won the meat I've already total the second highest total of all time to myself that I'm getting Ready to try to break um like I said I won the meat I got a PR in the squat where you know I already knew the bench wasn't going to be spectacular so I was like [ __ ] it we're going

to try it so I called for 854 man and I went out there and I don't know what the [ __ ] happened but I I set up normal it just like all the other ones just nothing different I remember I I reached up I grabbed the left grabbed the right and I picked my head up I don't know how far it [ __ ] Went to me it felt like it just started to come off the ground you know when you grab a deadlift you know like right you just know you're like I'm going

I can like you pull it and it feels like it's [ __ ] stapled to the ground or you pull it and it feels like it's gone and to me I grabbed it it felt like it was gone and it was like as soon as I lifted my head up and started to get it come off the ground uh I felt Probably the single most loud loud the single most loudest audible pop in my my leg never I've never felt it before and I jumped up like it was it it felt like someone hit me

with a whip like like it was like boom like it like Kaboom I was like oh [ __ ] that's it I was like I thought the whole thing was gone I thought I tore I thought I tore my hamstring from my as cheek down to my the back of my knee I thought the whole thing was gone and I'm reaching back There and I'm going Lord like if you you still want me to be here do this uh it's going have to be there and I'm like feeling I'm like it still feels like it's

there I run to the back and Fred clar's there he's a PT guy I pull pull my dude it felt like it was gone CU I tore in 2021 um I got forward with a 1268 or something like that and I I I kind of rode it down real I rode the squat down too fast and it basically caused three big Pops in my Left hamstring I split the belly in my hamstring mhm um and I got a bruise on that one so this one it felt 10 it sounded felt 10 times worse than that

I thought dude right there and then I thought it was it like that's it no more powerlifting I can't I can't I can't power lift a lot of hamstring I can't you know what I mean like I can't I can't squat 1300 with no [ __ ] hamstring so I'm just in the back like this is it that's it if and and I'm just Going like if you want me to still do this Lord you're going to have to keep make sure my hamstring's there so like I said they're they're pulling my [ __ ]

off and he's he's poking on it he's like it's still on the bone I'm like no [ __ ] like no [ __ ] so I'm feeling around back there and there wasn't a hole in it there wasn't I I don't know dude um what what uh what people were telling me is that you have a tendon that runs under uh From your glute and your hamstring and I think I rolled the tendon because I was getting real dry towards the end of uh the meat I you know krampon an issue and I'm and I'm

dry and uh gear was real tight uh usually don't deadlifting gear that tight at all and uh yeah I think it I think I just rolled that tendon and then when I put pressure on it it it popped over didn't have it never bruised uh nothing it it's still a Little like like if I sit on it kind of it's still it's still not all the way I did something to it I don't know if I tore fascia or if I jerked some fascia loose or pulled it you know like we Just Jerk It Off

the Bone a little bit um but yeah so I just kind of went for the went for the Gusto with the old 3100 and it didn't happen yeah so you ended up with a 3,000 lb total which was 3058 with the so 3058 so the fifth time over 3,000 so I've done a 3005 310 34 uh that was at a that was at a Nationals um I did a 3020 a 3058 and a 30107 so six 6 over 3,000 yeah so the cool thing about this me and uh I don't want to say like Pat

myself on the back or anything but like I was there again you go four years and you're not there and this is where I was telling you of like we where we talked about those dudes that they they get in this time period of not having any success or Going anywhere and you're like dude if you just hold on and that's that's the thing in the back of my brain just hold on dude just keep holding on and uh I got to where a 3100 lb total was in my hands again and like that's that's

like a it's hard like it's like when you're there and you actually can do it and it's in front of you and you can take it you don't get them every time this just kind of how it is Um but I was happy because I got to it with no in my mind no bench press I mean you know when I say 975 that's a big bench press but to me it's not like to me that's like what I should be opening with I should be closer to 11 that's just how you know uh in

a perfect world uh I had the start of the training cycle I was wanting to bench like 1050 um I've got number like the 3200 is there like it's just I just have to set it up like I have to hit that 31 maybe hit another One and make a jump to it it's going to take a 1300 lb Squad it's going to take a 1050 bench and it's going to take around an 850 deadlift to Total 32 MH so uh I've done them all in the gym I can do them I know I can

do them it's just bringing it to the platform and having the day it's it's a lot hard it's easier said than done you know yeah well it's what I try to tell a lot of lifters is you have to physically be able to Total more than What you're actually going to Total which is kind of hard to wrap your head around it's like you having the engine it's like you you have you have the ability to go 200 miles an hour but maybe you should only take this track at 160 you know it's like you

have uh it gives you margin for error um when you when you kind of pull back on some of that stuff I I just try to not get too out out there's what you want to do and what you can do and then there's Like then there's like what the day gives you MH um you know I wanted to Total 3200 um but it turned into totaling 3100 um which didn't happen and really what happened was 3058 so then you you just got to stop and look at everything like okay did I get a PR

yes I got a PR in the squat okay what is 3050 3058 is better than last year 3020 we're making progress so um I guess it's you start to learn like what numbers equal what what You need here what you need in the squat and you know I kind of learned it from Chuck a little bit cuz he was so Squat and deadlift heavy he just kind of would bench what he could he's so messed up um so that's kind of the book I you know I was taking out I'm just going to go just

going to go get a big Squat and then put it all in the deadlift and a lot of times you have your plan and it just never [ __ ] works you you get there and your your whole plan's out the Window and you're just you're just try you're just shooting for Stuff M but my plan and my you know it was good I guess to what I'm trying to say is it was really good to have a plan and the plan go give you it's kind of like a coach putting you in a position

to win the ball game like you know you got 30 seconds left in the game you're down six points you here you got the winning drive right here and you you either go down and you win the game and score a Touchdown and you throw an in interception I just happen to throw an interception well you know that's part of the game yeah damn Ohio State game I need to take a bathroom break yes sir today's episode is brought to you by element a tasty electrolyte drink mix with everything that you need and nothing that

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I'd be remiss if I didn't talk about our cambered grip American cable attachment this attachment has four grips and it's cambered so when you flip it it actually becomes eight grips and if you turn it upside down there's actually 16 this is one of our most used table attachments out in the gym even got that full range of motion we had a Second limited edition drop this month as well head over to elitefts.com pick up the shirt pick up the cable attachments and we'll see you next time all right so we'll jump back in with

the wpo because this is what the sixth this is the okay so this is the sixth superf finals that they have ran well the six that you've won correct this is my sixth belt okay so out of all these belts which you bu the way don't carry around I ask you to bring these in Just so people don't think that you like have them all in your truck don't have them when when you go restaurant you kind of lay them all out and hopefully get a free steak yeah it didn't work I tried it Longhorn

did not approve of my belt so out of all these which one means the most to you well the they all have their own story right they all each one of them has their own story 2021 was probably my least Glamorous wpo so I don't particularly like love that belt because I like when I see 2021 I think I almost blew my other hamstring off I don't like you know but that kind of represented a meat uh that I won that I shouldn't have won cuz I squatted like 1173 [ __ ] my hamstring all

up I benched 1047 I remember I opened with it was it was the first time I ever opened with a th in a full power meet I was like I was like this doesn't happen but I'll try it Cuz I need it cuz I needed it cuz I knew I wasn't going to pull nothing so I had to like basically push the whole bench forward open with a 1008 did it I was like hell yeah and I went 1047 dumped it on myself and then I came back on a third and did 1047 I think

that's pretty hard to do you know you you see them dudes they dump something and that's just it it's hard to dump one big one and come back and get it dude mhm but so I guess that Like 2021 it's nowhere near my favorite but just since we're talking about I'll tell you story about it but like just ad overcoming adversity like doing what I know doing what you had to do MH you know pulling pulling your nuts out and [ __ ] letting it go you just like you're not like you just I just

made a choice I'm going to win or I'm going to lose I'm going to do everything I can to win like I said I benched 1047 and I pulled 600 lb I remember I had to lower My opener from 771 down to 500 501 and I remember I went out there and I couldn't even really bend over to grab it cuz my leg so I kind of like was like a modified [ __ ] Sumo or I didn't even know it was terrible I pulled it up and it felt like my leg was ripping off

story short pulled 600 I think I total 28 something 2820 one of the worst days I've ever had but I won and I overcome so that one kind of has a little bit of a story to it I would probably say the Best one my the one that means the most to me is probably 2019 and it's somewhere over there it's either that one or that one but that was the one I total 3100 3103 um that was the ESPN wpo so it was the the biggest stage powerlifting has ever been on never been on

ESPN uh it let alone for four hours you know we had a we had a 4 and a half hour window on ESPN um it was the biggest powerlifting Meat of all time in my opinion um you had some of the strongest guys there and uh that was just shortly after I left Westside and all that stuff so there was a lot of there was a lot of like animosity there was a lot of like I'm going to show you [ __ ] you [ __ ] up type thing I think that was kind of

a cool thing with Louis you always wanted to like show him up you know like okay we'll see um heard a lot of [ __ ] on that end about how I would Perform with that meat because I didn't have a b and c from Westside barbell yeah and that that one right there was was the middle fingers like hey I don't need you I can do it without you and there I did it MH so that meat was probably that belt is probably the most uh uh sentimental to me because uh at the time

the world record was 304 and I came and I just came up and put 80 something pounds on the alltime world record at the biggest meet On ESPN all the just all the things like it it had it had everything it was everything everything anything that could be riding on that meat was riding on that meat and like for me to pull the biggest day out in the most extreme circumstances whether it be like personal circumstances with like Westside and Louie or whether it was uh people people thinking I was done or washed up or

I didn't have it anymore That one really that one's probably the most near and dear to my heart that means the most probably after that one is probably the one I just won um I think a part and parcel it's it's because it's the throwback belt it's like the you know I've got I've gotten every wpo that's that they've come up with has been pretty [ __ ] sweet but that one you know when I first saw the wpo you saw those belts you saw like Andy holding the belts and you saw You know Chuck

holding the BTS and Franco and all those guys and you saw it and I was like man that's what I want and it's like all these years later there it is you know what I mean so that I would say 1923 the three favorites are uh 19 22 and 23 cuz those are all 3,000lb totals or more mhm so you know um and then I some of those some of those medals I got one was uh the super we did a semi finals at the Arnold one year one of those medals represents that that was

cool getting to compete at the Arnold um we were supposed to be on ESPN for that one that one's a Kind of a Funny Story if I think back to that uh in 2020 we had the semi-finals at the Arnold and we were slated ESPN was all slated to be there they had all everything paid for um like the flights for the the cameramen everything and they kept trying to like get like Hey Arnold commission we need We need to be able to pull the truck up here so we can run the wires on the

door long story short the Arnold commission was just acting weird we're like what they I couldn't get a straight it was just weird like you know like being weird avoidant not being clear on stuff and then you come to find out oh they're shutting the whole nation down because of covid so that's what happened there we couldn't get ESPN in there because they basically were like we nobody's Going to be here so we found out like the day or two before that happened um so yeah that one of those and then um there was a

bench bash we did in boaron at Red uh redcon one um I don't know if that was near and dear to my heart you know but whatever Jimmy Co Jimmy Co got me on that day but I'd like but I guess I was the only one wearing a bench press shirt yeah but that's okay yeah we'll try again When we spoke last time your your offseason was different you know it was more bodybuilding [ __ ] more hypy stuff so it was kind of like I think I may have said this on the last one

it's Louie taught me this so like I always you know Louis like always in my head I I always hear that old man's voice tell me Tell like just coming over you know how I did the interjection from across the gym you know like [ __ ] but uh it he would always tell me something Along the effect of if you're doing something and you're and you're basically not going anywhere you need to turn around and run the other direction like if what you're doing the the path you're taking is yielding no results and all

you're doing is spinning your tires which sometimes that's kind of like it I try to tell people like it takes sometimes years to figure that out it took me three or four you know sometimes it's like your body it takes a year to Get your body back right to where you can train again um but that's basically the off season this time I was like I got to do something different like I'm not I think a lot of the mistakes that I made that I learned from through some of these past wpo meets is where

I would take a lot of time off because training was so grueling and it and it was so you know you know you know everyone's got jobs and life stuff and you know that that You know work you know gets real busy for me and it it gets hard to have the want to go to the gym and and just make yourself even more tired so I was like man I I cannot take any time off like I did I would take I would sometime take the whole winter off like I wouldn't I wouldn't even

go to the gym until January cuz I just needed my my brain I think that was a way that I uh kept or used to keep from getting burnt out um I felt like if my mind went my Mind is my strongest thing so if my mind goes everything else is going to go behind it mhm so um that's where I like I back to rering what I was saying I just had to I just had I just was like what is completely different what have I not been doing and what I hadn't been doing

for a while was going to like a in this instance a commercial I I just say commercial gym where they have a bunch of machines and stuff that I can get on Um I was doing a lot of the you know heavy fives heavy Tempo stuff and a lot of ton of back work and I think that really like you know always pulling on those machines I think like kind of brought my G R around and just gave me a different kind of strength it tied in a loose end somewhere I was beaten I was

beaten some way I was beating down a certain way for so long that it's sometimes it's hard to see what's actually not making you Stronger there's things that like there's things that they make you strong but they don't make you stronger that makes sense like there's things that you do that'll that'll that'll like make lifting heavier weights easier but they like push the one rep max up so I uh I just felt like I had to change everything in terms of uh just get away from the powerlifting approach I just took a bodybuilding approach I

was like well I'm just going to try this And see if it works and if it doesn't work then and I gave myself uh like a window so if it didn't work I was like so I guess I should say it like this I I went through let's see February March April I did like three months so maybe it was April May it was March through March April May or something like that or April May June it was it was one of those three month stretches and uh I really didn't go to The other gym

you know I'd go in there and pull some dead lifts and um lift heavy but cuz I was doing so much assistance work I like I had to come in there and just do all this assistance everything was just and I kind of learned this from Scott mson um we would go to we would go to like North Hollywood gold we go to Venice Golds and and you know what I'm thinking you Scott's one of the best bench pressers in the world ever and uh I was like what Does this dude do you know like

uh really a lot of the stuff he did was he either wore a bench press shirt and did board presses or he was he'd go to like these these gyms and he would just m ma out on everything dude so he did like in my brain I'm like well you're doing Max ever stuff but you're doing it on machines I like I guess you're strong I said look at yourself you know like it's obviously working mhm so I was like I'm going to take that approach where you Know it would just be like Half Stack

3/4 of the stack full stack and then just do it I couldn't do it like sometimes stuff like that when you first start I tell anybody that even wants to try this if you go from powerlifting and you go straight to a commercial gym and you're doing a lot of isol movements you will you will hurt dude I couldn't and that's the problem is like I was too strong to know what I was doing you know what I mean like you can You know I can you know you could pull four or five plates on

a on a lat rad machine you're just pulling it but then the next day you're like my breaker radialis feel like they're about to blow off I can't why you wake up in the morning like this you know you have to figure out how to like maybe I shouldn't train like that you know so as you as you as I was like rooting myself on that kind of training I kind of figured out like hey you got to pace yourself a Little bit when you do this kind of training um and just kind of fast

forward like after that 3-month period I was like I went through like this testing phase where I'm going to I was going to find out real quick if what I if any of that worked mhm and that's why I was telling you when we're were talking about the deadlift where I we just I just put my deadlift suit on after just going in there and I went in there and I I pulled 855 or 860 and then I was like [ __ ] it I'll try 900 and I put 9 905 or something like that

on the bar and I tried to pull it and and it was gone I felt like I got I'll show you the video sometime but I got like past my knees and you can kind of see the bar whip a little bit and on the it was just enough to like just stop me and so I was like wow that that was uh noticeable um we will we will continue to do that so yeah so how did that change when you started To get ready for this meet so basically what I did is um a

lot of a lot of the training I kind of I kind of just left it and went into I didn't do I didn't do like a this I did one or the other I think when I think you just kind of like when you talk about going all in you just got to go all in and do this and then go all in and do that like I think when you start mixing all these things and you have a little bit of this a Little bit of this a little bit this you're just you're stuck

at mediocre there's nothing that pushes anything the reason I went to that to to P Shack was to push to push some kind of Capa I don't I don't really know I don't know words I'm trying to do but the way I'll describe it to you is I was trying to push push this up so when I came back to it I was already I was starting at a higher place than previous years so I was in a lot better shape so since I'm In this different kind of shape and like um I would just

refer to it as being in better shape when you do those kind of like reps tons of reps you're in you're you're in like you're in a better like you're better shape in terms of like uh muscle endurance and stuff like that so I had a lot of endurance I had a lot of uh I was real pumped up I you know I got I think I put on a little bit of muscle through that and um when I came back to like the whole powerlifting Thing it was like I I abandoned L I like

this is what I was talking about I went back to like super basic rudimentary [ __ ] and I rode the wave of those 3 months into the meat rather than see I think and and this is something like wests side Louis would just throw 30 things at the wall and whatever stuck you would do you know what I mean uh I was trying to do like how can I say it um when you start when you go from doing A bunch of reps to lifting heavy like I guess what I'm trying to say is

I just went all in on lifting heavy and left the Reps behind so I went back to the split of like a Max effort Monday Max effort Wednesday you know you're Dynam like my I say Dynamic lower but to me it's just a squat day I have a squat in a I have a squat in a deadlift day the deadlift day is typically always Max effort lower I'm always like maxing out on a deadlift variation um and I would Literally just go in the gym and just lift heavy weights I'd work up make big jumps

boom boom boom boom boom uh maybe do a thing here or there pull sled maybe so a squat a squat I squat for example we do like a safety squat bar um and I would do I would D I was back in sets down dude I was in like five six7 sets of two type [ __ ] where I where uh see this is where um I had been so I'll rewind to 2019 and something Louie told me um I Had been doing doubles my entire life you know leading up into uh whether it be

you know eight set six 8 s six sets you know what I mean 8 set six set or 876 or 887 you know like um it was always doubles and Louis was like well you're too you you've done this forever in a nutshell your body's just too use of that you need to do triples but you're going you need to do the same workload so you know eight sets Of two is 16 reps but six sets of three is 18 you know what I'm saying you're doing 18 reps but it's at one's a triple and

one's a double so if you I had gotten so rooted in that double and my firing mechanisms were so in doubles I switched to these triples and it shot my squat straight up from like 1230 to 1270 and that's when in 19 I squatted the 1273 so I stuck with that I was like I'm going to stick with these triples and then it just slowly started Like Peter in my squat out like uh like it wasn't like it wasn't I think there's something to a double um like like it's hard to be fast and explosive

on triples cuz you're trying to save yourself for that third one if you know you only got one and then one more it's like you can pow pow you know I mean it's a little bit different um so that like in the squats like I really backed that kind of stuff down I was doing like heavier weights uh less sets And less reps but they were heavier um I did that in the bench press so you know when did you know what weight to stop at a lot of the stuff I do is I always

know um I always know like how strong I am like I've trained enough to know like if I'm hitting these numbers it usually means this this this training cycle was a little a little different because um I kind of had to go through the first like free Squat and Like assess so for example uh to figure out if what I did was viable I wouldn't really find out until I took a 1200 lb squat mhm so the first free squat I did I squatted my opener and it was really easy and I'm like wow that's

weird how am I how am I so strong off of you know I've done these two things and they both have made these squats and I did this thing Over here and it quit working so I went back to this thing over here and it started working again if that makes sense and I'm kind of running around in a weird Circle but um yeah so your timing wasn't disrupted on any of these things when you went back no I mean um no it was it's like it's like for me I should say and and it

worked for everybody like a lot of a lot of like uh the Tyler on our team he went in there that's the guy Last year he he unrack a 9914 squat and it rolled and like Snapped his sinus excuse me his spinus process off you know boom put him on a stretcher and they thought he would never lift any weights again and he came back and we we basically he went through the whole power Shack thing um what I noticed mostly is it really affected deadlifts everybody's grip strength was up and deadlifts were up and

squats were up so usually they say If you're if you're deadlift strong usually your s they compliment each other so if your squat strong chances are your deadlift is probably okay and if you're deadlift is strong chances are your squats really strong especially so uh we had it wasn't just me doing it I kind of Guinea picked my dudes before I always do that I'm like well but try this and then so sometimes I'll put they'll go like 3 weeks before me sometimes I'll stagger them 3 weeks and I'll run them through something and I

like oo I ain't doing that you know like oh I'm going to do that look at what they're doing so they started pulling big heavy deadlifts so I was like all right so we come around to a free Squad after doing these doubles again and everyone was just strong and uh everyone it it was uh mechanical automatic like it was like it didn't it didn't take it didn't take all this thought and thing it com second nature it almost it almost Made the I try to say sometimes have to get away from a certain you

have to get away from something to forget how to suck at it is that you know it sounds [ __ ] up no I get that you have to like get when you develop bad habits or habits you don't even know that you have that are that are not that are affect that are affecting things negatively that are like you got to get just get away from it um braen for it well that well that Makes sense because if when you kind if you've already ingrained how to do the thing yeah right but then you

now have compiled shitty Parts about how to do the thing then if you just quit doing it yeah if it's really ingrained all the stuff all the [ __ ] that you really gain sticks yeah and all the [ __ ] that don't matter falls off so it kind of leaves that core of what you really are after you peel off all this [ __ ] like so like So my like and this kind of is another way that I was thinking about this is like going to P Shack made me forget that this hamstring

was [ __ ] up made me forget that like this was [ __ ] up half the time you know like cuz I was working out I was training but I wasn't hurting I wasn't trying to protect something you know what I mean like it's just different and then you know you know like when you tear a if you've torn a peack or blown your shoulder out or Anything like that you come back and you're you're easing into it and then before I know it this one can always push more than this one and you're

you're just going through this thing of trying to ease something back through where I just forgot about it like I forgot my hamstring was messed up I forgot my shoulder was messed up I I went back to squatting like in the most rudimentary way possible meaning like uh I I I call it the minimalist approach You know I just did I find it easier to do less and get to the meat and know I can always do more then get there and I have done all this [ __ ] like have I done everything I

can do it's like no and I don't on purpose mhm so I know that it's almost like I I ride something to know what it will what it will yield and then it's like wow I yielded a i yielded a 30 58 total off of some of the most minimalist training I have ever done but what it also did is this is the kicker It's the kicker is it's almost like training is in these waves of like going back and forth and like as it switches boom there's a meat there and you have the day

of all days and then you kind of go back to this way and then it's just it's always it's always moving moving so it's like when it's moving one way you have to add something in to kind of move it back the other way and then make the thing happen I know I'm just getting people say I talk in platitudes but I'm Sorry um uh so it's moving you know in back and forth in ways right so you start training for this meat is that and because you're going to be stronger because there's less work

correct it's almost like how you would Peak for the last few weeks before a meet you pull [ __ ] out more stuff come you know it comes up but if you do that for too long then you're going to lose work capacity You're not going to be able corre so that's ex that is exactly and that's where I think while I was while I while the whole hamstring thing down here happened um I was I had rode it as absolutely far okay so I did all this work in the very beginning of the training

cycle I rode that through the training cycle lifting heavy weights and towards the end I was starting to fall out of I was starting to come to I don't want to say fall out Of shape but the the the point of diminishing return like it only holds on for so long and it starts to fall off and I just put the meat there uh and that last deadlift dude I was like boom there it is it's like okay I got to do more you know like so there's sometimes where I'll get to a meet and

this one in particular I didn't do a ton but just lift heavy weights I didn't do a ton of accessories I didn't do all this 20,000 sets of hypers and do this you know A And C and uh three main exercises I just I was very basic it was like main exercise one or two accessory movements on everything I didn't really I didn't really go hard or crazy some of that was due to my shoulder but um yeah moral of the story is I just had to forget how to hurt and then peel myself down

to this base layer of what I am and then started started go back to the thing of powerlifting again yeah so If you put this into training blocks right so now you're like in a recovery block right it's after the meat so I call it the break and usually the break always seems to go faster than what you want it to it's like you know what I'll go to the I'll come back to the gym so like I went I went down there I took like a week off then I came in the second one

and then you know I worked hard a couple days and I got tired and I was like well I'll just go next week and It's like like so like now I'm at the point where I'm just now starting to like really get back in and start training again and I think you need time uh to do that so what's this recovery time look like I mean how long's it do you expect this to last another another week you know it's it's very it's short uh you have to and I look at it like uh if

I don't get back on the horse again then you start all the stuff I did in March April May will will be gone like for me to take that whatever gain you call it gains you gain something from all this so I don't lose that you lose that as time obviously you know and you know so for me it's I just for me it's just get back in there so first it's like get everybody back together you know get everybody in the group get the group back together everybody start doing stuff then once we get

everybody in there then It's like as each week goes on you just start putting more bricks on and you start and you start uh requiring more so so it slowly gets added back in yeah right so one way I I explain this to people is if you look at how many total repetitions that you've done say from your last heavy squat say 14 days out and through the week after the meet because normally you don't do anything after the meet it's probably 300 total reps Maybe work reps right maybe you know you can't go back

when you start training again and start doing 400 reps per training session that's more work it's like you're you have to understand like the reason you Peak for a meat is like is we're not working out at the meat you know what I mean like uh Louie would always call it uh he would say no say some crazy stuff like uh delayed onset muscle transformation or maybe not onsets Delayed muscle transformation we basically um that's why we do the three weeks out or the 21 days out you take your biggest squat because it takes your

body goes through this funk of adjusting to what you did to it uh to give you output on the date that you want it yeah so like uh it's like a super compensation so you hit it right so you're recovered when you go into the meat You full so so then When you're going into the meat you technically aren't in the like you're not in the kind of shape you were 12 weeks out oh exactly you get what I'm saying it's a different shape it's like you're passing off one way and hanging it to the

other and then once you're out of the meat you have to like go back to here and like start that back up see now I'm kind of in the spot where I'm wanting to go back to P Shack now so like that's my that's my plan I did this I'm like hell yeah we're doing that again so uh so you're going to lay out the year basically the same way as last year what what things do you think need to change to make that better than how it worked last year um maybe a little bit

less in in the in the commercial gym honestly and then as like in the middle rather than uh maybe just for me um rather I kind of went from an Abrupt switch from one to the other MH cuz I cuz I was kind of in the position of Where I had to know like do I keep doing this or cuz I only have so much time to meet so I'm kind of like against the clock a little bit it's like is this working yes no if it's working we're going to roll with it okay it's

working I'm going to roll with it I've never done anything like this really before so I got to find out uh that's like where I was tring trying to tell you like sometimes uh it's better to just I I Rite a the Minimalist train a lot so I know exactly what made what like there's these three or four things that just make like this will either make or break your squat you're either going to be strong or weak you know what I mean you go the meet you're weak well that didn't work you know so

we're going to throw that out and put something else in there and add this so to say it could be anything um but yeah it's basically uh I found out that Um it was almost like I went back to 1973 where they were just like lifting Like Larry Pacifico lifting lifting heavy weights a guy will post some of his his training logs from like 1973 and he's benching like 600 lbs two days out from the Meet it's like what are you doing like like what are you doing like uh but yeah so so what you're

going to add in would be a what would traditionally just be called a transitional block between that Hypertrophy work yeah you got to have that because you're your your muscle okay so you were you were in the shape to lift big heavy weights uh that work that that that that work that that little bit of work I did was enough to sustain that output uh and sometimes if you do too much work it it'll pull away from the output because you're trying to recover from the work rather than the work complementing the End and I

think that's a really fine line like so that's why I said sometimes it takes years to figure that out because you go through Cycles you're like well that didn't really work and then you're like well it takes 12 weeks 13 weeks to go through another one you know you're going in four Monon blocks you know before you know it a year is gone you know what I'm saying so you really have to uh I try not to over complicate stuff like it's you got to Know what's working and what's not working if these things make

you strong and like for my instance like if I'm starting to tweak something a little bit you know I need to do a little bit more work in the middle you know CU that that that all that [ __ ] I did in the beginning kind of fell off to where I wasn't really benefiting from that uh endurance curve if you want to call it well you don't need to test to see if it worked yes so then yeah so we're lifting Weights we're not testing you know it's like there's like in that middle area

there's uh you know like where I went from the commercial gym back to the powerlifting stuff um that's like test like okay we're going to and then from the test you figure out okay in that test you establish numb so like for example I was like all right I'm going to I'm going to try openers we're going to see if what if what I did over here will at Least warrant me openers like that I expect to do so that's where you're like where like where do you start you that's you know I'm always thinking

my my thing is like if I can't do openers I can go to the [ __ ] meat MH so it's like okay well all right 1168 okay I squatted that it felt great uh felt you know just anytime you first free squat again really the like you're not going to really be making depth um that's not important it's really about just getting In the gear feeling the pressure and going through the motions of the squat so you're B like you're introducing your body to it again rather than putting it on and trying to squat

a PR it's like I kind of get to this area of uh like a starting point like opener so um trying to think what I was trying to say but for this last meet that you were training for with it being heavier across the board how did that were there less Max effort exercises that you were Rotating through well that's the thing like uh or were there none it's the secret is man the secret is is there's really only five or six mhm and then of those five or six you have four or five variations

of those five or six yeah so like for me it's like I've I mean I say it all the time it's it's basically like Westside split stuff like you know floor press board press um pin poles mat poles you know um and in this instance I was I was pulling Kind of off in the bench press because of the shoulder but yeah just yeah those haven't had to change over the years um like what what do you well as far as variations that you're using they've just so the what really changes is is the is

the version of the variation so like like floor press for example like you might you might do a Max different straight weight or like I remember at Westside a lot of the stuff We did far out from the meat you put three or four chains on the bar you know and you do triples um um then um a lot of the times it just kind of depends um what's hurting and what's not and what you can push cuz like I said in the bench my variations were limited um there were a lot of high stuff

away stuff away from my chest you know I did did a reverse Band in there here and there and it kind of upset it so I was always on boards and then since I was always on boards I had to change like I had to do chains bands you know from different board Heights so it's not always a straight weight so sometimes it' be straight weight the board Heights would change sometimes it' be against a band uh sometimes I change the bar but there it's always a board press you get what I'm saying yeah uh

same thing with the Four press it would you know sometimes um it would be three chains for like I would I call it Mac Lo always yell at me I called a Max it's not Max effort it's like well the max effort 3 so rather than counting sets I would just keep working up and doing triples against three chains until I couldn't do it and then you know you'd pull pull a chain off and do a burnout set you know stuff like that and then uh you know the squat stuff the squat stuff was probably

the Most uh the most stuff that didn't change out of all of it the squats pretty you know you either box squat your free Squat and typically don't use a lot of bands I like this whole training cycle like I said I squatted with that safety that yoke bar I didn't I didn't and I free squatted with a straight bar um but um we would change like very you know the intensities would change sometimes like uh the speed at which you'd push somebody out from under The bar you know like all right you're done get

out get in you know like that would be like typically something like that um would be on those week ones you know when the when the bar weight's not high but you have to have intensity output to to get response see I'm always about like cause and effect like if my body responds that's good so any kind of response is good um in positive like if I if I can do something and then I feel it like wow like that you know that Feels better it's like then you know you keep you kind of keep

working that until uh I don't want to say right till the wheels fall off but well you you'll know right bar speed will slow down something's going to be indicative Lou would always say like um law of accommodation um he often used the um the analogy of a of a boxer he would say like if you're a Golden Gloves boxing champion and we're boxing and you Knocked me out for 3 weeks straight um as soon as I knock you out like the fourth week rolls around week one you knocked me out week two you knocked

me out week three you kn knock me out or knock me down maybe not knock me out whatever you want to call it I'm sure if you got knocked out 3 weeks in a row you'd be pretty [ __ ] oh yeah yeah uh but the whole gist of it is like uh by that fourth week you're going to know that right Hook's coming you know what I Mean uh you're going to be like I've been knocked out three weeks in a row I'm probably going to duck down and throw a punch you learn your

your body acclimates so Louie would say once you're once I once I duck that punch and knock you out I'm immediately getting worse like meaning like like you're either getting better or you're getting worse and once your body acclimates to something the stimulus stale that the the stimulus winds down and it becomes Less prevalent so so if it's a three-week wave and you're talking on the squat so the first week it's shorter rest right so you're pushing that correct then what's week two week two you know so um usually all my squats are the General

West Side you know 50 55 and 60% of your of your rep max straight bar Squat and I usually go off what I do in meets not what I do in the gym not what I want to squat I always hear that I want to squat a thousand it's like okay But and I think some of the problems with these percentages is some people they're able to do the percentages of a thousand they might be a 925 squatter pushing themselves to do numbers that a th000 PB squatter would do but all they do is overtrain

themselves and it like doesn't push the to lift to push that number up you have to lift the weight like I can Louis would always say Reps don't equate to Absolute strength um you know you can get strength endurance you Can but you know doing three reps of 400 doesn't mean I'm going to bench 475 you know I've seen people do two you know five reps with 455 but they can't bench 500 one time MH so kind of bringing it back around to the squad on that second week uh typically we move the bar weight

up or I move and and when we're further out from the meat I I bump tension up before bar weight so when I'm way far out the last thing I really need to do is just handle a bunch of heavy weight All the time and and then you have to like give yourself some room to grow um so um like I said I would usually further out from the meat I'll use bands when I get closer to the meat I can't use bands cuz put band shirt on and [ __ ] your shoulders all up

um and and I always find that bands kind of lock you in a position and uh they kind of can adversely affect the free squat I would see that at Westside all the time uh You'd see guys squat 700 lb in three bands and they go to the meet and can't squat a thousand you know what I mean it's like but that equals 1,200 at the top you know it's like so um so typically like in that second week it's and I should say the first couple waves of the starting of the training cycle or

like that so you get you kind of like get the juices flowing you get your body knows you're I think it there's something to like kind of Walking your body through what you want it to do and then asking more the next week I think that's kind of an approach I have I introduce it hey this is what we're doing um you when you're in those instances of where you're introducing things it doesn't it doesn't have to be heavy but it has to be hard and that's where well we drop boxes you know if dudes

are having problems making depth and meats it's like well you're going to start on a lower box now cuz that box Height obviously didn't didn't help you at the meat so we're not going to start there it's like little little things like that um harder is lower so we start lower uh we start with more chains or bands and less bar weight and the and the pace is faster okay you know and then it's like the passing thing you know you you the next week you maybe will keep the chains the same uh and add

a little and then go up uh to whatever it is 5 more per on the Bar you know and then the next week he might uh add just another chain and leave the bar weight the same and you might add another set at the end you know instead of dude I mean towards the end there I was doing like five sets of two like the [ __ ] like I'm like I don't know how this is working it was very odd I was like I've never done this and it equal that it was just so

I don't know I guess one thing I have to find out is if it's almost like I don't want to find Out again you know it's like that worked but like results not typical every time so yeah I guess I'm just as I go and as I learn um I've learned that training is first and foremost assessing yourself like where am I at what's my health and primarily training health is going to dictate training so if you want don't go into a training cycle if you're not healthy that that's your that's that'll probably help you

nobody has to do a Meet you know the meet is today I don't have a bicep a trip or a delt tendon or whatever it's like but I'm doing the meat it's like great nobody will nobody will remember you in a year you know what I mean like if not that anybody you know not that like yeah it's just you know what I'm trying to say it's like you there's no million-dollar check in powerlifting unfortunately so with the squats and speed workor it's always the straight bar um no so um Typically the two bars that

I'll use are the safety squat bar and the giant camed bar so then how do you adjust your percentages because you can't base that upon your meat Max so the percentages of the dynamic squatting is based off what I did at the meat even with the specialty bars that's all yeah yeah so special so everything is dictated off a straight bar squat okay so like um if I squatted this training cycle I was actually going a lot lower percentages For whatever reason that I was squatting like percentages of like 1250 mhm uh because the last

few training Cycles I've been try I've been trying to push a 1300 lb squat so I kind of fell into the that's what I want to squat these are the percentages I could do them but yet it did not yield a 1300lb squat you know what I'm saying yeah so it's like well okay I got to get back into this zone of where I'm moving weights with how they are supposed to move meaning like fast And explosive you get that explosive power back I think once when if [ __ ] gets too heavy you can't

build that that Chuck zest you know where like hits the switch and it's like a bomb goes off it's like you have to build stuff like that you have to set that stuff up um so I got a little off track there well the question was going into the percentages with the specialty bars okay yeah so like um everything is based off a straight bar squat for me yes um it Nothing I was so the reason I even really switched to a safety squat bar is because I felt like my deadlift in my like was

like was didn't feel like I I just like it was going back I just felt like stagnant like I wasn't really getting any stronger and it wasn't feeling any easier but I could still pull the [ __ ] you know and I was like well what the [ __ ] sucks and nobody uses that you go to Westside that red bar nobody want to use that bar mhm but we Did you know so um the hard thing so I just went to the hard thing it's really hard to squat with the safety squat bar so

when I originally went to it my percentage numbers didn't match like a giant cambered bar like I could squat so much more on a giant cambered bar and it would match my my Straight bar percentages but the safety squat bar out of all the bars will put you really behind that it's a hard bar you're going to be 40 50 lbs off of what you do with Any other bar um my whole thing with that is I felt that it Lou would always say that safety squat bar complement your deadlift it just makes you such

it makes you br makes you brute strong BR strong m um so yeah basically my box squatting percentages are straight off of like meat squats so like those your best Squat and this is where it goes back to you have to assess yourself like um do I go off my best squat or do I go off of What I did at the meet you know what I mean if you're trying to build back in it's kind of like where you're at if you're trying to build back into the pr and you've not had success and

you're trying and you're trying and things aren't working out you got to kind of like take the back end route you know does that make sense yeah how do you assess it when you're coming back from the the hamstring right so you're going to this But I think it's a little bit of the forget thing um when you always know your hamstrings hurt when you have an injury you always know it's there and when you go to the gym you always know you're always thinking like what can I do so this doesn't hurt or what

can I do and sometimes I think that's counterproductive I think sometimes rest is the workout you just need to forget uh so typically when I like now I just I kind of go in and and I kind of just Look around and do what I want to do first and then you start doing the things that you don't want to do and usually by the time you get to the things you don't want to do the hamstrings back around you get what I'm saying so your speed workor for your shoulder this last me how did

you navigate that so that was so that was more of like do what I can do like I knew some I was going to have good days none of the days really ever felt great You know when I I I don't think I went above 275 Five For Speed workor but uh you know and I stayed more on the chains and the bands you know uh typically when you when you've pulled something or uh you you have a tweak or something bands are not your friend you know what I mean like if you like I've

always found at least for me that you know chains seem to have a less torque on you and it makes it easier to do things like speed bench pressing you know so when I'm Pushing off my chest I don't have this band sitting there it's more of a gradual release and I can increase that difficulty by just adding a chain you know what I'm saying so um like with a hamstring it's it's it's a lot of do what you can do the shoulder it's a lot of do what you can do and usually if you've

taken a little bit this is why I think that the time off is important uh it and I I say I keep Saying it like you just learn to forget the bad things sometimes they're still there you know not not everybody's the same but a lot of like dude mental mentality is so much of like of any kind of difficult sport like you if you you need to learn to if you tell your body to do something it's almost like I tell my body it's going to heal and it'll do it like you just have

to believe it's like you you you have to stare down [ __ ] that that I don't know that is against The odds sometimes and just you know believe you can pull through some sometimes you just got to believe in yourself you know so how how have you how do you lean into the the mental aspects now where throughout the past you've had you know you know [ __ ] you Louie I'm going to win this you know so you got that driving factor and then when you're at the top right you're not driving to

beat the person ahead of you you know so you're in a different mental Place than anybody else you know so how do you how do you navigate that um I think uh okay so like I I I'll just start talking and we'll just we'll eventually end up somewhere but um I would dude Chuck growing up man Chuck was like my idol that's the he was he was the best out there he was the he was one of the best squatters in probably the best squatter in the world um pound-for-pound and and how he was set

up and what he had to work with Um how can I say it repeat the question real quick your mindset now okay so I would watch Chuck sorry yeah I would watch Chuck and you know he'd go out there and he'd be spitting at the bar going [ __ ] crazy kind n NSO and you know he get out there and follow the squat you're like a you know um and I thought that's how I had to be to lift those weights so I remember when I was younger you know I would just try to

you Know headbutt the bar you know go all crazy and use my adrenaline to lift the weight you know and that got me to some pretty good places and then as time goes on uh you realize that you got to kind of like not get out of your mind to lift some of the weight you're trying to lift for me in particular so as time went on and the numbers got bigger I couldn't just get out of my mind and sometimes when you get to that mind I was telling you about the fight or flight

like I Would I would I would hit a thing of ammonia and I would just go whack I get under the bar I'd lift it and i' come back out and I would have such a massive adrenaline dump I just start puking and after you start puking I'm puking up electrolytes fluids uh you know anything that you know keeps me from cramping I'm now puking up you know and and it's the squat I'm like great now I have to bench and deadlift and here I am you know just got on this emotional high and I've

Crashed so uh I think over the years I've just kind of and I was about this meet um I really just took the Bruce Lee route rather than the leonitis 300 Spartan route you know uh just kind of like being very uh in my own mind not worrying about jazzing myself up pacing myself to lift the weight and then the next one um I think sometimes people they lose sight of that you have to do the whole meat and you Have more than one attempt mhm so uh yeah so what drives you though right because

there's six of these now you know so that's a good question I've never you know I don't know I guess I've I mean to say that I want to be the greatest of all time or or be considered in that conversation that's all that's like a goal of mine um if you're not like it's cliche you know everyone's like I want to be the best it's like no but I actually Want to be the best I want to prove it and I want to put so much out in front of you that nobody can do

it I mean seven is the number of completion and there's six there so uh seven is a number of completion what do you mean I have no idea it just sounded cool you know seven is the number of completion Google it and you'll I don't know you know seven is the number of completion completion I've got six of them so I Know I can I'm I'm in it for at least one more um you ask what drives me um winning like winning being the best proving people wrong being here when they quit being here when

they come back you know like there's dudes that have quit to five or six years ago and here they are coming back and you're like oh I remember you from 5 years ago you quit you know it's like here I am still Winning you you know it's like that there's some there's something like I want to be the guy that's still here uh I told myself I would never I would and I mean I'm not that old but you know I don't have a ton of this I don't have a ton of these left you

know I'm not going to do this forever I'm not I'm not stupid I know that it'll eventually come there will be an end sometime somewhere um and my mentality was to Leave a very big dent you know like uh I mean I said it in the westside movie um I I was I'm going to make you remember my name like you if you if you look into anything with powerlifting you're going to have to come across that somewhere and so my mentality was to uh litter the books so much you can't not find me mhm

I these are just things that I think about like um I just want to make it impossible for the next Guy like I I I hate the cliche where people like records are borrowed you know I was like yeah you know not not the way not mine like mine are mine and they're going to be mine and until I'm just not here and then somebody else can have them well it's the reason I'm asking about the mindset is it's there there's one aspect which is under the bar for the max weights and I think sometimes

people just get too lost in that and think that's all of it but There's the other aspect of you still have to go do to the power Shack you still have to train a lot of times when you don't want to you know there's times you need to back off when you don't want to you know there's all these micro decisions that happen throughout the whole [ __ ] year that kind of play into all that and it's that's where a lot of people quit you know they don't quit I guess you could say they

can kind of quit at the meet right but They most people quit in the offseason yeah because they did the me like I think we talked about this also people sometimes people they they train they do a training cycle to do a meet I train like that's what I do like I'm I'm training like I might take a break from training but like I don't I don't train for a meet and then stop I think that I think that's where people lose any that's where I was talking you like the some of that [ __

] you gained you if you If you if you just do the meat and quit you you put yourself back all that work and all that all that time you put in to get any kind of gains is gone and it's like juice ain't worth to squeeze you know like so you got to keep going and I guess some people they don't want to keep going and it's hard to keep going um well your break from training that you take is intentional to be able to I had to yeah I had to and it's like

it took me some time to like realize that That's what was required um cuz when I was at Westside a lot and I think this was in my like early 20s like 23 24 dude I would do four and five meets a year MH I would and I was totaling 2900 in every single one of them you know like and and I remember people would ask me like how the the hell are you doing all these meats and I was in great shape I was young I didn't have any injuries you know I had great

help Um but yeah you know like you just oh we do a we do a meet on Saturday then speed bench on Sunday yeah remember I got Westside like if you were not back you would do that you could have won the meet on Saturday and if you were not there speed benching or at least you could maybe get by with like not speed benching if you won the meet but like you had to be there to help the dudes you had to be there to load plates and get everybody to get ready for their

Meat so uh I think um that's something that people could take anything sometimes just the meat isn't the period the meat just lets you know what you got to do to to keep going you know what I'm saying what I did here is going to tell me what I'm going to do in four weeks you know like where where what changes What percentages change you know like okay this bar worked okay uh these things yielded these results I'm going to stick With this we're going to add a little bit of this I mean you hear

me say it like it's it's I I I hate to say it it's so ba it's getting strong is so basic but like the the non-basic part of getting strong is when you hit a wall you know what I mean like what what pulls you what pulls you out of the rut what pull what makes you break through and sometimes it's just keeping keeping your keeping your head to the grindstone so to say you know like So this was like rewinding this is what I was trying to say like I would do four and five

meets a year dude and I would just bang bang bang bang bang and then uh you know you know I'm down I'm down I did basically one meet a year now it's just do you think those four meets a year at that age was necessary well I looked at it like uh it's what it's what was possible so like it was you know you know at West Side we were always trying To change the board so I looked at meets as like uh money you know I get Lou would pay me for any world record

I broke if I uh you know he he'd come up you told 3,000 I give you three grand it's like all right we're toing 3,000 today you know I mean just like you change that board I'll give you $750 any world record I'll give you $750 bench a thousand I'll give you, bucks it's like he would so I there was a lot more incentive to do that stuff back then to Keep going um but yeah I think there was something else I was getting to with that but just just the daily mindset is kind of

what I was speaking about you know throughout that whole year you know kind of what drive because there's good and bad days too yeah right so on those bad days you know you kind of talked about it a little bit in the meat things didn't go as well as you expected so you got the two voices kind of battling your Head well you have to decide which voice you're going to listen to you you made a good word it's uh Auto regulate yeah um that I've T I've taken that a lot and I and that's

kind of always sits with me and that's what I think I when I say do what you're able to do that's like Auto regulating it's like if but how do you know when you're being a puss and how do you know when you need to step up well normally it's you have to look it's like what did you do at the meat did you bomb Out or did you win or did did my always thing is based on PRS did you go to the meet and get a PR did you walk away with something and

if you didn't you're a [ __ ] you that that's you know what I mean we need to rewind and when you were being a [ __ ] back here you you need to stop being that that's kind of like where my everything I do is like based off of results so what did what was my result and if this is my result and I don't Like it what caused that and I think back to that time where I should have done you know like you say how do you know when you're being a [

__ ] it's like well if I don't like that maybe I should be a little tougher back there you know what I mean it's like you you it's all it's you are the one to blame you know what I mean like I'm the one to blame for not doing something like if I if I didn't do enough that's my fault like if I'm a [ __ ] your results are going to Show it you're going it's you the proof's in the pudding you know what I mean if you are not getting PRS and you're not

getting any better and you look back here and you're like well that hurt you know back there and you know I I cut it a little early it's like well where was everything just down where you you know all your supplements down you know where you eat you lose all the body weight after the meat you know gear don't fit right you know it could be a List of [ __ ] and sometimes you just I'll give you an example so in this this last training cycle my last squat workout I uh I squatted I

had 12:41 on the bar and I remember I went down um and I shifted really bad dude I don't and I did it at the meat too which is weird I shifted really bad and I stood up and it wasn't easy but it wasn't hard and I was like man I was like [ __ ] I was like well to 41 that's good enough I was like uh and Kellum was res me she was like are you going to take that you going to take another one like looking at me like you should probably like

cuz when when you get close to the meat your body's only going to remember the last thing it did you know what I'm saying so if you lift it and O this is what I get with people like when you're three weeks out from the meet you shouldn't just do your Opener and then go to the meet and expect to squat a PR because your body's going to base uh off of what you last took so if it's not like a big Max w your body is not going to give you that output come to

meet does that make sense that's something that at least for me it's like that and um so I remember I took the 1241 and I was like man uh and I was and I was and I was like all right that's good for today that's 12:41 that's all I needed to meet but you know What typically on that day you need you need to take another one so that one is in the bag you know what I mean usually so what I'm trying to say is if I would have stopped at that 12:41 uh that

1278 might have not been there mhm you get what I'm saying so my my mind on that was like well I could be a [ __ ] cuz 1200 dude I'm telling you what when you're in a gym uh and it it becomes redundant you know things are Just like and then 12 1200 doesn't isn't 1200 anymore it's not like when somebody calls 1200 out of meet I'm just walking up to 1200 and this thing mang has mangled tons of people in powerlifting mhm they're like they're like entities to me like this this weight has

mangled many people and if I don't pay attention and I am not mentally uh sharp to this and I am not trying and I don't want to try bad things can happen that's how you get [ __ ] up in training you know what I mean so that is the kind of situation that happened I was like man that didn't feel very great it felt a little out of sorts um I could just stop here and I'll probably be fine for the meat and the the the the word that came back was probably I was

like probably isn't good enough you know like okay now [ __ ] that let's go 12 I think I I said 1278 so I took that I I I didn't feel good that day like I was like man this is I was like everybody you better stay close on This one I don't I don't know I don't know we're I'm just going to try it and it was actually better than the than the 1241 I was like wow okay that's great so sometimes you have to just let your nuts hang out [ __ ] [

__ ] it let's just do it you know like worst you can do is Miss it I guess it's a little different for me worst I can do is get crushed with 1,200 lb yeah so there's a little bit that goes in it a little bit more than me and I have to really make a Smart assessment of the situation and really ask myself was that good enough um because if it wasn't it'll show you know and I and I've lifted enough weight to know that that wasn't enough weight cuz I was I was really

I wanted to go in here with a shot to squat 13 all right and I knew 1241 that's not enough I was like well 78 that's a lot closer if that moves and judging and I can judge speed because a lot of times when you get into these big big squats like the smallest Thing will end you all right and I had a few things on that second and I was like man you know all right we'll just try it again and you just have to trust and believe that you're strong trust and believe in

your training partners and the trading that you've done and lo like in this instance it it went really well and if I hadn't taken it I probably wouldn't have done I would have been more apprehensive at the meet I wouldn't even been thinking 13 you know what I Mean so there's things like that I don't know if that helps yeah no no that helps that helps let's take a break to stretch our legs and I got some questions here that you're going to like okay so I have a list of questions here so we're going

to have some fun I apologize in advance for my answers that works that works um some of them are just going to be kind of stupid like all right all right have you ever [ __ ] yourself while training it's kind of hard in gear Because you have so much yeah I think uh so I I think maybe a raw lifter might have more of a problem with this but man when you get those briefs on and you put that squat suit on it really pinches the cheeks so me personally no I uh there has

been a few scares where I was like oh uh but no I've never actually [ __ ] myself so how let me go here then how do you navigate once you have your briefs on and your suit on you have to take a Piss you don't you navigate it after the squad so I've learned this one uh I'll I'll go piss and then I'll sit down and then just before I put my briefs on I'll go piss again because you know like it gets get you start getting ansy and oh here comes the piss train

you know like when you get the pressure then on your stomach but I'll tell you a poopy okay I'm going to tell you a poopy story here and this is a great one uh so I ran a meet here it was at the Greater Columbus Convention Center and uh guy I trained with at Westside his name was Elliot bomb right and uh he went I I think it was like a 700 lb deadlift right dude walks out there picks it up and he's pulling it real slow he's pulling it he's pulling it and he gets

to the top and all of a sudden I see this I was like oh no I I thought he blew his back out like it looked like when a disc goes you just freeze a you know so he he instantly drops the Deadlift and then he looks over at me and Joe Joe Jester was there with me and he looks over at Joe and I'm like dude are you okay and with the the most the most concerning look on his face he looks at me and goes I pooped and he like [ __ ] his

pants so from there on we we dubbed Elliot the poopy pul mhm so that that's about the only good poo poo story I think there was one where gitter did it once but I Can't really remember that far back it was a long time ago but it happens less often than you think as multiplay guys I would the compression I just can't see how it would C poop in the morning before you come to the meet yeah so the the next one would be if you could pick any movement so you got the squat bench

and deadlift to compete in so you can remove one of those and replace it with any max effort movement it can be a partial it can be any max effort it can Be block poles whatever that movement would be what would be the movement that you would pull out and then what would you replace it with man I hate deadlifting Bouie always says that deadlift is true test strength you know I don't know man that's a good question maybe we could pull the deadlift out and put a [ __ ] leg press in there you

know leg press or hack squat machine I don't know hack squat [ __ ] max out max out on a leg press machine yeah cuz you know because if you what do they say usually it's like half of what you can leg press is what you can squat so some [ __ ] like that you can leg press 12200 you around a 600 lb squat that was a weird question I didn't there's really no good answer for that because I don't you know I don't really know what I would replace anything with if you were

a dessert what would you be [Applause] oo strawberry short kick why you know uh you know I'm sweet and savory you know easy to look at I don't know I'm just joking I know I don't know man strawberry maybe it's just because I like it I like strawberry shortcake or you can go to the Schmid sausage house and get you a peanut butter cream puff that could be misconstrued I don't want to be no but I know you're I know what You're talking about though and that's that's I only say that because I went through

the other day and had a peanut butter cream yeah so it's just fresh on your mind yes sir all right so sometimes it's what's in front if you're in a low riding car and you're the passenger yes then they pull up and there's a curb there and you have to get out of the passenger side how do you get out window straight out the [ __ ] window if you Got a sunroof we're probably going out that yeah so how would you navigate getting out the window feet first you just got to stick your legs

out and kind of worm over on your little tummy and get out the get out the window i' go feet first yeah well you know what I'm talking about though because you I know you've been in that position and I highly doubt you went through the window but you do you I know what I I just asked him like Drive Someplace else and get get away from the curb so I can open this door well you can still open the door it's just now you're so much lower to the ground you you see what I'm

saying so we basically open the door and your feet are hitting pavement pretty much yeah I don't know what's the question how how would you get out right cuz say you can grab the car door you grab that but then the car door The car door comes towards you as you try to lift yourself out man these are confusing really confusing simple questions that for some reason I can't answer I don't [ __ ] know well it's you you haven't been in that situation for a long time so I had to when I read that

one I had to think back yeah I'm sitting here thinking like I remember that and it suck especially when you're over 300 lbs it's really [ __ ] hard so how do I I get out like I well out of normal cars the first thing I start reaching for is those [ __ ] handles you know yeah or the handle up here you know you're real big and fat and Sassy when you go get on the handle and you rip it off time to get out like oh [ __ ] that didn't work so then

how do you get up into a tall truck running jump yeah and you ain't doing that dude I I can grab Rim Dog I'm serious I got some ups dude yeah I mean if I if I could if I think if I lost 35 pounds I could slam dunk no [ __ ] like I mean like right now I can jump up and touch a [ __ ] basketball rim and I'm 300 lbs I think it's just from all the Box squatting and the petric sh I used to do tons of big Bo I jump

on like 48 inch boxes and stuff at West Side yes so we always did those PL we' jump I remember Stafford Chester we'd always jump on the Boxes with dumbbells in her hand and stuff so maybe that would come into play somehow so when you jumped on the boxes with dumbbells in your hands this is one thing I've always wondered because we never we had like just box jumps what do you do when you miss you eat [ __ ] what happens is is um usually what happens is is something unsavory like your shins hit

the nice corners of the wood and normally the uh dumbbells In your hand will weigh you down and scrape you down the front of the box and then sometimes you might slap your I never really had a bad one usually I I I [ __ ] hit it and go up over it or something but if I had dumbbells the first thing I was doing was letting them sons of [ __ ] go yeah I'm like oh [ __ ] get off me you know like do you think those helped you I can't really say

I think it's just one of those things where we did it because people Were strong and we did it at the chance that it might make us stronger or more explosive which I think maybe back then it actually did help you know I think a lot I think back a lot of like coming up and training and stuff and all the weird [ __ ] we did I I really think that like that really tied me together to just do the big things that like now like it took it I mean I mean like years

of that Kind of stuff like just years of weird [ __ ] like jum plyometric jumping and uh pull-ups weighted pull-ups and dips like just weird stuff you know like Jimmy Richie he want you to do like the prison workouts you know we'd be doing like this weighted dips and all kinds of weird stuff like just yeah what were some of the things that when you first came in that Bob Co instilled in your brain that was different than what everybody else was doing there well like At that time I I had come in just

as you were like either gone or or like you were on the way out and that was like where everyone was tearing peex like everyone was tearing peex and shoulders um dudes were just getting torn up um I think the big thing was when I first got there dude you not only were you not allowed to miss a workout you were not like if you missed a weight you put a plate on and then no it's like if you barely let me res say if you like barely Floor pressed 405 those [ __ ] were

putting Quarters on like oh 50 lb jump you're like but I barely did that I don't give a [ __ ] you know do it this is what's on there do it or don't MH so like the whole herd mentality of everyone taking this jump I think [ __ ] a lot of people up yeah PL quarter PL quarter PL quarter correct and then kind of like when I got in there was uh form and technique was the first thing you know if it looks like [ __ ] We're not going up I you know

one one good thing that I think Bob did for me was um I he never let me get in front of my skis so to say um he would always um his first and foremost thing was not getting me hurt CU he he always told me he didn't want my dad to sue him I don't want your [ __ ] dad to sue me you know like like I don't think he would sue you but still he was always scared of that for some reason but uh he was his his big thing was foran technique

and once I Started uh breaking foran technique it was time to stop rather than back in the day you know you would um you know some you'd flare an elbow and it would be real hard and you would just make the next jump and then on that jump was where you tear the peck or something you know what I'm saying so a lot of uh from like when I first got there cuz I kind of like came in to the end of of of like the style that you were in so I experienced it like

my first like year There I was like we did all that and then it was like we started getting away from it because we kind of took the position of well we want to be here in a year you know what I mean like we want to we started setting ourselves up for the Long Haul rather than shortterm MH and I think uh at West Side you get caught up in the short term real quick because you're you're expected to do numbers numbers numbers numbers numbers and and we just the our approach was uh We're

gon to we're just going to go five pounds at a time five and 10 pounds at a time and if I do three or four Meats a year that's 40 40 50 pounds and everything so if I moved my bench up 20 or 30 lbs I moved my squat up 20 or 30 lbs and move my deadlift up there that's 100 lb on your total in a year it's pretty good you know mhm um so that was kind of the the thing with Bob like we we always set me so set like set myself up

for Success he didn't he never I was Never put behind the ball you know I never went into meets where I just didn't do a meet if I was if I tweak something we didn't really unless it was like a big PR money meet you know if I you know there was a few times where um like the first time I totaled 3,000 at 75 uh I was kind of the same thing I didn't put a I I uh separated a rib on my chest in June at the at a Nationals and the Westside Pro

Invitational was in uh August late August so I went Something like 10 weeks without putting a shirt on and then just hoped it healed you know so there was there was like times where we did push the issue but it was for the it was for the right reasons you know I just I didn't push it for a state meat I was at The Big Meet type thing so yeah a lot of it was leaving some in the tank you know we didn't overextend ourselves uh we always and a lot of it was and there

there would be some there there would be Some meets where those those PRS were really hard and there was like stretches I don't want to say stretches but there was like clusters of time where things were really hard like PRS were really hard there wasn't a lot left in the tank so you're like okay I don't have a lot left in the tank but that was hard it's like Circle back around to train harder you know what I mean do more you know like that's what I was talking about Earlier where that's why I'm a

real minimalist thing so I can see what exactly works and what doesn't work and I think I took that a lot from Bob like we just did what we had to do training optimally I've said that before doing exactly what you have to do no more no less um do what you need to get the outcome that you are shooting for um because like like like there's no fourth white light you only get three you know It's like you're only yeah all right so moving into psychedelics all right all right so bring it what major

Revelations have you taken from that from any of those experiences we as human beings are are but a fart in the blip of the we are we are about a fart in the universe like we are nothing like how can I put this you start realizing like when the fabric like when the veil Gets peeled back you start seeing things for what they are and you you like you see the world for what it is like you peel back all the like the just technology you peel back and you start seeing like uh Earth Stars

you know like you you just you you start realizing that you're this little thing on some kind of cosmic body and it's wild you just you realize I guess what I'm trying to say is some um some instances like that you they Call it the ego death where um you basically so a mushroom experience like sometimes like like when there's uh Terence McKenna I don't know if you've ever heard of him he's a big big mushroom guy and I've listened to a lot of his stuff and uh there are certain dosages of mushrooms that'll um

get you to a certain level and they call they uh uh they call heroic dosage of mushrooms like four grams or more there Was one time where I took like seven seven or eight and I can't it's so hard to describe when you get when you get like down that kind of a rabbit hole but like uh you it's almost like you feel a connection to the prime Creator Source if that makes sense like the things of the world you don't see uh I think I like I said but you're just a fart in the

universe you know what I mean you you Don't like nothing matters like nothing matters you know like this what we are right now is like you know you're talking you're on you're on what ever we're on for 70 or 80 years but what about what what's after that you know you're like you know the The Eternity is long but there's eternity ahead of you and Eternity behind you you know it's like it's like it's a wild thing have you ever come out of it and Ben oh like this Is what I need to do for

my training yes dude no [ __ ] okay all right that so that that I got to think how this went CU there's been a man they get they get they kind of bleed together sometimes you're like whoa but um this was before I uh this was like three months before I me think September this was in 2019 before I toed 3100 I went and I took a heroic uh dosage of mushrooms I took like seven or eight grams and I went we went out in The [ __ ] woods and uh just everything just

started melting um and it's not it's it's more like a you feel energy like I was feeling the fabric of time space uh and the only way I can describe it is like you go through this thing when when you're on mushrooms people people they try to fight it you know what I mean you go through this thing of like trying like I'm okay I in control you know and that's the problem that's your ego your ego is in control and You're trying to control where the where the ship's going and the ego death is

where you just that just Jesus Take the Wheel let's go you know what I mean and it just drives you and once that ego dies it's like it it peels back you just see things for what they are you see you see the forest for the trees now it's like think you don't you don't see things the same way um certain it's like the mushroom gives you this download of something you can't Audibly explain but you understand it you you have this you get this understanding on that's where I think like some of these like

I I kind of encourage the mushrooms you know I think it's medicine I don't think it's like a people that are looking for a psychedelic mushroom trip be careful what you wish for because the mushroom will take you where you do not like you can't don't try to drive the ship you I mean let it do its thing um and I've Learned that a lot so um I think psychedelics like a mushrooms um High Wasa uh um Spud I'm sorry but I'll say this a little bit spot uh he was telling me he he went

to Peru and he and he and he did a nice thing down there and he he told me all about it and it was a great maybe someday you can hear about it but uh it's lifechanging it it helps people I think these things I think uh in maybe in today's age uh with technology and the influence of electronics and other Things we things like mushrooms like peel that away and they they connect you back to what you were before any of this [ __ ] came around it's like these are just some of my

opos so what what training ideas have come well so I don't want to know if it was training ideas but that's after I did that mushroom trip like it was like I got the download for 3100 all the numbers um it was Like I can't I can't really exp the only thing I can explain is like I got this download of understanding um I need to you need it was like not I it was you you need to do this this this and this you need to do this this and this and it was like

okay I'm going to do these things and I'm not going to worry about these things and um I can't really put my finger on like what those things were but I understood and I think that's a weird that's a cool thing about Mushrooms it's not it's it's not always words it's like you just know it's like a knowing like you um and once you pull back the ego and the ego you get that ego death you you're open to these whether I don't want to call them downloads or um um Revelations so to say um

mushrooms for me were were were like a like a serious thing like uh I don't look at them as a as a like uh like like drinking alcohol because they will Humble the [ __ ] out of you you people have bad mushroom trips and stuff that's good you have to you have to have the right mindset you have to have the right you have to like prepare yourself for it it's like a wild ride buddy but I I'll tell you what um they've come they've seen uh stuff where it helps with depression and like

uh I don't want to say this wrong but like rewi rewiring the brain um and stuff like that um have you ever had a bad trip oh my God um yes buddy oh it's such a crazy story um dude it can get intense and the thing with mushrooms is is you're on the ride and you can't turn it off so sometimes you can get these in insane feelings of dread you're like like something's attacking you and then you in that moment it's like okay what's going on here and it's almost like the mushroom is bringing

uh compartmentalized things That you have like compartmentalized in your in yourself that you don't even know that like you could have this thing robbing yourg that you happened in your childhood and the mushroom like brings it forward and and like forces you to deal with it and sometimes when you don't want to deal with that thing and resolve it you start having a bad trip and freaking out because you're like why what's going on here So I think mushrooms are like psychedelics are are really good for that stuff they really bring they anything that's a

masking a problem or anything that um you're hiding from yourself almost like it you will it'll bring forth to you and you will it like forces you to resolve them so I think in those and at at that specific time like like after then I told 3100 after it like I just it just like rewired my brain I thought Differently uh at that time uh I had a lot of resentment for Louie uh with the whole Westside thing that'll be in the movie that's coming out um but you'll kind of see like where my head

was at and like the things I was dealing with and uh the amount of anger and resentment I had and how that was like adversely affecting me and um it was taken away from performance so you you can't run off hate dude like that'll run you like you can you can run off of it But dude it it is a the road at the end of that is no good um so there was things that I had to like let go there were things that uh had to resolve um in terms of like how I

felt just for Louis for example how I felt towards him and Westside stuff like that um so they they can be pretty personal you know like it can be pretty personal stuff and I know I just got off on a wild tangent some of that probably didn't make sense because it's Really hard if you've never done it to try to uh explain your experience so every uh advice don't try to control it um start off slow you know I people always ask me 3.5 grams of mushrooms is will get you the ride that you want

and anything more than that be careful what you wish for um it just there sometimes it can be real intense and it's a ride um but yeah but like I said I think uh one of the things that I noticed Mostly is it the thing like at that instance before like that 3100 lb total I had all this uh like resentment because of the whole Westside thing and um basically I felt that you know Lou had turned his back on me and uh I felt you know I'd given my life for that place and uh

they kind of turned their back on me that's just the way I felt whether they meant it that way or not that's how it was and uh that stuff will if you that that kind of thing will eat You man it'll get in there it'll eat you and before you know it it robs your joy and um you can't let people or things Rob your joy uh because you'll you'll die miserable you know it'll it'll kill you how would it be different than THC uh I don't think THC um THC I think is just a

little different it's not it's you don't get you don't really go psychedelic on it you don't you don't you don't uh I'm sure there's some strong THC products out there that'll Make you a little loopy but in terms of psychedelics I don't think THC kind of classifies as a psychedelic I kind of put that as medicine also like for you know when you when you talk about THC like you know there's different kinds you know you have your indicas and your sativas and your hybrids and you know um if you know I mean this day

and age of you know everybody kind of you know there's dispensaries everywhere now and um you Know if you have problems sleeping you know THC uh indicia heavy indicas or something that help you sleep if uh um you know your daytime smokers your sativas and stuff get stuff done sometimes they give you an energetic like feeling to it um um if you're trying to gain weight there you go people always like how do you gain weight it's like well you know THC will help you with your costs my boy you know like it'll it'll get

you there but um I Think uh they have their they have their place you know um mushrooms are kind of thing I should say psychedelics like mushrooms hawaa but be like you got to you have to have a mind like don't go in that that kind of [ __ ] with a you respect that's the kind of it sounds it sounds kind of corny but if you don't think I'm right go eat four grams of mushrooms and then and then try to control that ride and tell me how it goes like it's uh can be

Bad how is because THC is recreational legal now in Ohio so how is that going to change your life in any way uh I mean I think anything in moderation you know what I mean I don't think it makes it just cuz it's you know what is it uh narrow is the road you know just because you can have it in all these different ways doesn't mean you should have it all the ways you can get it I know that was A weird saying but um I don't think it really changes a lot um I

think um now that it's legal here and you have like dispensaries you can go into there I think those my whole thing about like dispensaries and I'll just get off on a tangent here is the shit's too expensive um if you want you got to get a medical card if you want like you know um medical if you have a medical card they usually give give you a better discount on you know prices and Stuff but all in all um I just think the shit's overpriced for being in dispensaries um if you trade yeah oh

yeah how have how or have you used that for Recovery training and so forth I mean yeah so like I mean you can actually there's like science around this [ __ ] you know like um I'm not a scientist um I'm more of a practical Kind of person if the proof is in the pudding I'm going to use it you know um for me it's always been like it it helps with inflammation you know like from like and I could be way wrong or at least it makes me feel like that and if it makes

me feel like that then that's half the [ __ ] struggle right there um inflammation um anxiety like I don't have anxiety but it you know even ke kind of keeps you on target um people like Aderall I don't like that [ __ ] you Know what I mean like I'm actually add and like Aderall and [ __ ] makes me a zombie like I'll just it doesn't speed me up at all so you actually have can can cannabinoid re now I don't know if I'm saying that right you guys can fact check me uh

but you have uh cannabinoid receptors in your brain so your body is actually hardwired to process cannabis and uh THC um then there's different kinds like I know I might be butchering this but There's when you dude when you decarbox THC it becomes like it like drops something or adds something it becomes thca or something like that and when you eat it and it goes through your liver it that's like psychedelic [ __ ] I do I not one for Edibles buddy you cannot turn that stuff off you're on a 4our like you're on a

4our ride and it's heavy so I think uh lots of good uses for THC and um flour medicine um I noticed a lot with cancer Patients um when they uh when they're taking chemo and um they don't have an appetite or they feel nauseous from the the medication things like THC and and flour and uh concentrates and stuff like that really um alleviate their um nausea gives them an appetite when they're in this wasting mode um and I kind of like it's the same thing like you know when you're when you're training and you're tired

and you need to unwind the last Thing I'm doing is reaching for a bottle of whiskey or alcohol you know what I mean alcohol drives me out I think it's one of the worst things like when I see people drinking whiskey to deadlift I'm like like nah I'd never do that um I think I think I think like alcohol is really bad for training and it's really bad for any kind of like and don't get me wrong I like drinking beers you know what I mean I like going you know having a beer Drinking some

shots whatever but like in terms of like like that's the thing I go to you know like Matt demo we'll give him as an example dude dude drink a case of beer like every night you know and show up at the gym and smell like you know like a French wh house you know it's like you know back then that alcohol fuel Stone Cold you know it's like I a't like that no more it's like so my whole thing is I've always alcohol's always hurt me you know it's Always dried me out never makes me

feel good no one likes being hung over Dude you know like you get up the next morning it takes you 6 hours just to get right you know from being shitfaced and you know so I was kind of always one that went went the you know THC route um whether it be you know after training you know have a little bit and get your meal and go to bed you're you're relaxed um kind of just unwind you you know you're not stressed people people go Have a cigarette to you know they smoke to get you

know you know people stressed out they have to go have a cigarette you know just take a couple hits of a bowl yeah and that's the thing like um people some people they ask me like what's what's the best way to start and I say a porcelain one hitter that way you can control the ride you know what I mean so you know anything in moderation you can always take more the switching topics the one thing That I've been trying to explain to lifters that get in the sport or say they've been in the sport

for three or four years is when you're in the sport for a long time you've been in the sport for a long time been training for a long time you know training partners are crucial they're important you know training Crews I think are very important but something else that kind of gets lost in that conversation is if you're going to do this for a long Period of time your training partners are going to change your crews are going to change it's just part of the process and if you I think if you already kind of

know ahead of time those people aren't going to stay most of the time time you know they're going to kind of fade away then you won't get as caught up in the drama that's associated with the groups the training Partners the crews or even the federations because over a period of Time the people who are creating the drama they're just not going to be there correct but at the same time you don't want to have over Reliance on the people that are in the crew or your training partners because when they leave which they inevitably

will do if you stay on this journey yeah you don't want to be [ __ ] you know High turnover rate yeah so how would you so I'll talk about my team for a little bit because um I always I always come on here and tell You like I I probably got the best group of guys and girls around me um they the the same Synergy like when we when we left Westside they're all still there with me like here we are what six six years later and I still have the same core groups you

know like Alex and Snookie and Anthony he moved to um New Hampshire but we're we're still all on the same page you know he you know we kind of uh still get get everything in the same Page in terms of training he's like hey I'm doing this this week you know do we do this or should we do that and then we you know hey do this or do that and he goes and makes his decision on what he thinks but um in terms of like people um I've had the same group of like five

I have like a Synergy of like five guys and they've been around since uh we left and even at Westside dude these are the same dudes there so so like half of them spilled over from when I was there so they they just came with me and then we added some people you know and there's only one guy that is that that has that joined the night crew that isn't there anymore um and he quit maybe back in uh maybe 20120 is when he when he quit but he was you know that's one so I

guess the point I'm making is you really have to vet the people that you put around you um I I it's a again you'll hear me say you keep using the word Cliche but would I trust this person in a in a foxhole you know if bullets are coming and it sounds stupid to say but like those are the kind of trust you have to that's the kind of dependability you need to have um I'll give you an example there's a guy named Jeff McDow on my team he uh he's been with us since day

one and um he just had he just he just got cancer so he's been dealing with a bout with cancer and um he's been uh he just got out of his um he just Went through an U an intervenous treatment I don't I don't think it was chemo but whatever the cancer treatment was um this dude is in a bad way you know he's uh and you know what that guy did he [ __ ] drove his ass down to Florida and was uh loading my plates uh wrapping my knees getting getting stuff I need

um like so you know I got a dude that's that's fighting cancer that drops everything and says where do you need me You know what I mean I got you know Drex Drex you know he doesn't even he he he lives in Southern Ohio he you know he's he's nowhere near here that dude drives up an hour and a half to hand out to me I'm like dude I need you can you come I try to ask him I'm like I need you on this day like I try to give him a headone like hey

man um I'm going to put my shirt on can you make it this day and if he says yes I I'll move it if he can't But um you know I got I got dudes like that you know like uh so they're really hard to come by and you have to and some of them and the ones that you bring in you have to you have to really hold their feet to the fire and be like look you see these dudes here this is what's required of you like this is what is required of you

this guy has cancer and he came down and handed weights out to you and then drove and then drove 14 and 1 half hours back home and got another Cancer treatment you know what I mean so some um I think a lot of people they they get in this thing of where there's a guy that that power lifts over there and a guy that power lifts over there and maybe we should all power lift together you know and sometimes that's just not the because you might have a cancer in there that that's all about them

and then they they bring drama Strife Division and before you know it you got this guy talking [ __ ] about how He doesn't like this main exercise and then then it comes back around to me or something like that and it's like hey you know what if you don't like it then you can get the [ __ ] out of here like I don't care what you like I don't I don't I've been here 20 I've been doing this 20 years I don't have to ask you what you like you know these things make

you strong if you don't like them don't [ __ ] do them like it's like so a lot of my guys are uh I don't want say all Of all of them they're all great men they're men they're not [ __ ] boys and that's another thing there's a lot of [ __ ] boys out there and there ain't men that act like men so uh the men in my group we all have each other's backs we're all there each other we all it's and it's been built over time so like it's almost like almost

maybe the opposite as time goes on we get closer and stronger and um I not not just looking back you know like when it when You know when it all kind of came together there when we left west side or we got kicked out whatever the [ __ ] you want to call it um uh we all just kind of red around each other and we're just like we're going to do this and [ __ ] everyone else and and here we are six seven years later still doing the same thing and not only are

we further it's like when you look I guess the thing I say I look back and I'm like am I in the same spot as I was six years Ago am I spinning tires or or you know have I made these guys better have these guys made me better and the answer is yes those guys are getting stronger they're doing what it takes um like my guys like we like we don't have to like if somebody needs some like if someone's in need like all there for each other like if uh some guy U is

having relationship problems and he's got to move it's like let's go move him and get him to where he's got to go so he can Get him back on track so his head's where it needs to be um you need more from a training part it's not just powerlifting to its life these people you life with these people and um you're around them a lot and you have to you have to put trust in them and I know I just kind of went off on a tangent but I'm I'm super I'm super blessed I think

the Lord has put people like this around me because there's no way that I can there's just no way dude like I like to To do some of the things that I've done one time is hard and then to come back around and then try to do them again and then to keep doing them and then you keep asking the you keep asking people like hey I need you to it's just I don't know it's it's just something to say like who is around you that's who you're going to be you will become the people

you're around so you're either going to elevate to a level or you're going to you're going to you're going to like Lower yourself down to somewhere you never stay the same you're either getting better you're getting worse um so um I've always just tried to make it a point to have people around me that only Elevate me you know they say if you want to be a millionaire you better start hanging around a bunch of millionaires you know what I mean by by osmosis one day you might figure out how to make a million dollars

you know it's the same thing um if uh I get these guys Around me um I act the way I'm supposed to act and I and I and I lead by example of what I expect from them and I hold them to the standard that I put out so if I'm not putting out something and I I shouldn't you know I shouldn't yell at them for not you get what I'm saying it all starts with me and that's that's the kind of thing I'm I'm a real uh what's the word I'm My Own self-critic you

know um I'm I'm going to look at myself first Before I start looking pointing fingers because a lot of the time uh the problem starts you know here MH you know and if and if you can get in that mindset of like maybe it's not out there it's here and if I fix here first I'll project the things that I want and that'll attract the people that I need and then once those people come in uh they then lift you up to a spot that you couldn't have been before so I think that's kind of

like the story of my group it's still Growing it's getting bigger you know it's I didn't think it would I didn't dude I just didn't think I'd be like I said six years later and I and it's still growing so um yeah what's the update on the documentary that's I'm I'm so glad that you asked um so I talked to Michael I went to Tallahassee and um we did oh when was this I think it was in July it was hotter than [ __ ] dude I was wearing the uh humidity down there I uh

I I love you Michael but my goodness that Tallahasse weather I did not like um we went down there and we uh I did a um a photo shoot for some products that he had and then uh um we did the last interview so I did my final interview for the movie and uh that was I don't know a few months ago three or four month three months ago and I I talked to him the other day and I asked him I was like hey man I'm going on here do you want me to say

anything He's like he's like well uh it's still being edited the beginning is done the end is done and the all the editing right now is in the middle um there is a title for it uh I'll tell you after it I don't know if I'm supposed to say it yet but there is a title um to it there I asked him uh when he thought a release would be he said tentatively he is shooting for late spring so maybe around April May is when you might be able to start seeing screenings it's going to

Come out on Netflix it'll be on Amazon just like Westside vers world so all that stuff still in play um we're going to have a theatrical release here in Columbus so anytime like remember for Westside vers the world same thing so all that stuff's coming down the pipe Westside vers the world took about five and a half years and everyone from the beginning Until the End said uh I thought this was going to be done der der you know it's like it's Like man documentaries aren't like aren't like making a Marvel movie you know you

don't have like a you don't have a budget and then 6 months later three months later you got a movie you know it's like doesn't work like that it's really highly dependent on uh storylines so you start a movie out the with story lines and you have an idea of what you want to do and then your storylines start taking shits you know I.E people that were supposed to do Things that didn't do things so oh I'm I'm I'm a this good person film me it's like okay start filming you and then you eat [

__ ] and crash it's like well that didn't help the movie on to the next thing you know so then the movie kind of changes and uh your focus gets redirected and that's kind of it happens it happens with West it happened with every single once like when we started Westside versus the world or Michael did I should say um it kind of started off a Certain way and then as it got middleway through you realize that another story presented itself like in this instance the Chuck thing when Chuck came back to Westside like that

wasn't ever planned he just came back and we're like that's a story like he's here now like so like that got into the movie so like there's things that happen along the way and even when the movie movie's done so like he he the movie he said he has it down to like an hour and 40 minutes and uh Like two year like maybe last year it was three or four hours you know and it gets down to like shaving shaving unnecessary talking out and then he's got to then there has to be a um

the editing part is really what what is a lot because you get you get down in the editing and then you look back you're like oh I got to I got to tell this and then you got to go back and then put something in that explain that helps articulate something and it's Just a process so it's getting done it's almost there um like I said Westside vers the world was about five and a half years and we're about that on this one so it's coming um it's cool yeah I I said hey man I

said this thing's got to be good right he's like he's like oh yeah it's good and I was like well how is it compared to the to Westside versus the world he's like it's intense I was like what do you mean he goes y people are going to think Y'all are [ __ ] nuts and I was like yes so it's pretty intense he told me I'll tell you some stuff about it but it starts off intense and it goes on a wild ride and then you get like a little break for like a couple

minutes and then it's like again so it's a it's it's pretty he said it's an intense one um it's very serious it's not like it's it's pretty cool it I asked him about like you know how the feeling of Westside vers the world it Has it said it it's it's it's it's good okay he said the the words he said to me were I'm not going to release another movie unless it at least matches or beats the last one so if you liked Westside vers the world you will at least like this one or think

it's better or any other topics you want to talk about that I didn't bring up um let's see oh uh maybe a little wpo stuff um I can give you some updates on that uh cuz I always stick my nose in and try to get The newest news going on with the wpo and um I know this year we were at the Olympia uh which was our first year there and um was awesome like I explained that to you like we went over all the Olympia stuff but it was just a really cool experience it

was a really cool meet uh uh the Olympia commission really liked it apparently and uh they're they're really looking forward to next year um I've heard rumors now this is just unsubstantiated rumor that I can either conf fmer deny so I just have to say it like that um I I think the Olympia is alternating between Vegas and Florida so next year it's going to Vegas so if it is in Vegas next year the wpo superf finals will be in Vegas at the Olympia there um what are some other things uh they're they're on a

wild expansion right now so um how can I say it they I think the the difference between like the wpo and in the past in the wpo today you had a lot I think you had idiots running it in the past and uh it was good and then those idiots crashed and burned it um and I think one of the things that those people did was they brought in a lot of foreign lifters you know you had like dudes from lbia Russia Ukraine you know you had yarn bash and Vlad and um who else um

Andy Andy Bolton um there's a couple other big guys I can think of but you had a lot of uh you had a lot of foreign Um uh participation so what they've done is there's a the um Wayne has expanded into uh Europe Asia and uh I think around South Africa so there's a guy in Portugal that is taking over the uh basically the oversease wpo meets and they're going to start running select wpo meets in Europe um Asia in different parts around the world and they're going to flush those lifters into the superf finals

at the Olympia so that is one cool thing I think that um the wpo now really the only thing it's missing is that influx of some really strong European guys or maybe not just Europeans but you know I say Europeans meaning overseas um I think like I said that's the difference between the past and and today and I think um once that gets established it it'll it's pretty much superseded the past it every way you know from being on ESPN you know back Then um the wpo there they there was no streaming you know back

during that time if you can think of like mid 2000s there wasn't streaming devices there wasn't like a YouTube really it was very rudimentary so back then they had to like get a production company to record it and they tried to sell uh like the rights to ESPN or something like that like strongman did mhm it just didn't work out and then they were kind of behind the times and the times changed Real quick so I think that's there's some reasons why the wpo just the of the P of yesterday's kind of went away and

then um I know here in the United States the wpo is um there's a um there's rumors going around that um there's going to be an expansion here so there's going to be more um more of the wpo in a different way here in the United States um they're I kind of said it Like sometimes people just do the same thing because it's always been done that way and I think this is going to be a new approach at uh powerlifting uh whether it is and I don't have a ton of details on it I

just have just kind of murmurings of what what they're getting ready to do but it's going to be great for powerlifting it's going to really condense uh competition um you're going to be held to a great Standard and uh you're going to have a voice and um a lot of times in these federations people um they they feel like they're just along for the ride rather than giving input like hey I'd like to do these things you know and oh we're just doing it this way and for you know this that and the other so

I think uh this new this new thing that's coming is going to it's going to set a new standard it's Going to it's going to really uh improve I think the the scope of powerlifting and how it how it's out there right now so a lot of cool things coming down the pipe with that um I always like talking about it because I'm a wpo fan I'm a wpo fanboy whatever you call it and any final thoughts I don't know said a lot of thoughts final thought Until next time yeah until next time um final

thoughts I know I I got to say something good here let me think of something there's something I I should have said be the change you want to see sometimes uh the easiest way isn't always the best way uh if you want some advice do the hard thing um narrow is the road so just if you get the wide Road Doesn't always mean the easiest way isn't always the best way the long the hard way will get you what you want maybe not sooner but in the long run and you'll have it so to say

these are just thoughts but and um you only fail when you quit you know like everybody fails but when you stop trying that's when you fail you know so just because uh you fall off the horse or just because you don't get a a PR and if You don't don't have the meat you want after two years or don't have the meat you want after three years just remember I went through four years twice for five pounds so um if you stay in it long enough you'll get what you want um surround yourself with people

that that have your same um views you don't have to agree on everything but you're the same view of what the goal is you're going to be here year around so I guess that's pretty Much the the long and the short of it all right that works I want to thank you for having I want to thank you for being out again we'll have you back out again we're already kind of talking about that right now we got the next one yeah so we already got the next one kind of planned out so thank you

guys for listening and we're done cool how long was that today's episode is brought to you By element a tasty electrolyte drink Ma