Barbell Shrugged - Hustle, Loyalty, Respect with John Cena  —  309

Episode Date: April 6, 2018

John Cena is an American professional wrestler, philanthropist, movie star, and most importantly he loves to lift weights 😉 He is currently signed to WWE, where he is a free agent who appears for both the Raw and SmackDown brands. He also stars in the new comedy movie, Blockers, and has trained under Anders Varner as a member at his gym. Cena has been lifting weights since he was 12, was a football lineman in high school, studied Exercise Physiology and Kinesiology in college, has trained and worked with Mark Bell and his brothers at Gold’s Gym Venice, became a professional wrestler, opened his own gym called Hard Knocks, and created the One Ton Club. Cena is a true hard worker, who is not afraid to fail, always up for the challenge, and knows how to enjoy the ride. In this episode, we learn about his athletic background, life journey, life philosophy, and much more. Enjoy!  — Mike, Doug and Anders ----------------------------------------------- ► Subscribe to Barbell Shrugged's Channel Here http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedSubscribe 📲 🎧 Listen to the audio version on the Apple Podcast App or Stitcher for Android Here- http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedApple http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedStitcher Barbell Shrugged helps people get better.  Usually in the gym, but outside as well. In 2012 they posted their first podcast and have been putting out weekly free videos and podcasts ever since. Along the way we've created successful online coaching programs including The Shrugged Strength Challenge, The Muscle Gain Challenge, FLIGHT, Barbell Shredded, and Barbell Bikini. We're also dedicated to helping affiliate gym owners grow their businesses and better serve their members by providing owners tools and resources like the Barbell Business Podcast. Find Barbell Shrugged here: Website: http://www.BarbellShrugged.com Facebook: http://facebook.com/barbellshruggedpodcast Twitter: http://twitter.com/barbellshrugged Instagram: http://instagram.com/barbellshruggedpodcast

Ready to rock? Let's do it. Welcome to Barbell Shrugged. I'm Anders Varner, joined by Mr. Doug Larson. Yeah, yeah. We took a big trip down from LA today, got a sweet text message, and man, we found ourselves in San Diego tonight, overlooking the city. And today is a very special day in my life because I have two people that I have spent a lot of time underneath barbells with. And both of them have had a massive impact not just on me as an athlete and what I think is important in the strength and conditioning world, but they've also been good friends, they've been mentors, and two people that I can't wait to introduce to the barbell shrug community,

one being my training partner doug larson the other i've spent the last three and a half years with training in san diego you've probably heard of this person his name is john cena and a little bit in tampa too a little bit a lot in tampa actually we have a we have a phenomenal story to tell you about in Tampa. Mr. John Cena is on the show today. Yeah, thanks for having me, man. This is fantastic. To add a little context to where we're at here, we met. I got a random phone call from this random Nicole Garcia who happens to be your fiance.

Yep, bride-to-be. A lot of confusion going on in Pacific Beach. We had no idea what was going on. I was on an off day. I wasn't planning on lifting any weights. Next thing you know, two cars rolled up. In walks John Cena, Nikki Bella. We'll call her that for right now just because it adds to the story.

And I kind of looked around and said, well, I guess we're training today. Snatch, clean the jerks, some deadlifts. And next thing you know, I realize we're going to make this thing happen thing happen yeah this is gonna be all right so um so welcome to the show any gym in san diego why are you walking into this guy's gym uh so um my lovely bride-to-be loves or had a place in uh over close to mission beach and the first thing i do when i maybe we can talk about this uh acclimating yourself with new environments and still finding a way to train uh the first thing i do when i land in a new place is find out where to work out and i knew i was going to be spending a little bit of time

at this place and the first thing i did was search for a gym and pb crossfit came up and that's when you guys had two locations and we went to the first location it was closed and called the number again we're like where are you guys at you're like we're at the other place and i i uh crossfit is is its own culture and uh i kind of bounce on the outskirts of that i'm i'm a wannabe weightlifter by trade and i was asking crazy questions like hey i just want to come in and do my own thing and over the phone yeah and not saying who i was and all that and uh there was a bit of a standoff yeah on the phone it was like uh it really was you genuinely wanted to tell me to go f myself who does this guy think yeah here's why because weightlifters call you all the time when you have a CrossFit gym. And unless you're, like, in the American Open, Nationals, or somebody that really knows how to lift weights,

you don't need to go and do your own thing. So you get the call, and it's like, oh, can I just be over in the corner? You're like, dude, can I just teach you how to lift weights, please? And even if you, I mean, real estate is tight at the beach so over in the corner is like half of the place so you get four or five people like that and you can't do your own workout and you're catering to these drop-ins but uh you guys let me work out there and i remember uh saying that i you know this is the this is the place i'm gonna work out at i love it and uh yeah you signed up on the spot which was weird because we didn't

really you left for three months after that yeah you're like god can uh can we be members here see you in three months it's all right like uh i guess sure you guys did me it really was uh i was being really awkward and and not giving enough detail as to like what i wanted to do just because i wanted a place to to work out and you guys were kind enough and at the end I was like you know what these guys treated me it's and you I mean I've been in some places where they do just give you a corner and turn their nose out up at you the whole time you're there it was awesome we had a great workout it was it was awesome and uh at the end I'm like yeah I'd like to be part of this thank you I will sign up now fantastic um one of

the things that I I mean we've had a lot of awesome times, especially lifting weights, hanging out, just the, everything. Not afraid to eat either. Yeah, we like food. We like a nice glass bottle, two bottles of wine. But the, you have been, I think a lot of people recognize you as wrestler. A lot of people recognize you as wrestler a lot of people recognize you as movies what wherever they have seen you that is the kind of the the box that they put you in i don't know

if box is the right answer but when i think about you all i think is let's go lift some weights like i have seen i i know how dedicated you are to you put me but i mean that's a good one to me i see you on tv or i see you in the movies i'm like oh that's cool man i wish that dude was here so we could go lift weights that'd be way cooler like this movie thing's cool but i guess all that begs the question like how do you see yourself uh you know just as a guy fortunate enough to to get a lot of opportunities to fail. And every time you fail, you learn a little bit from it and hopefully it gives you some more opportunities. Yeah, a guy who genuinely enjoys life.

That is how I see myself. Every single day, genuinely enjoys life. Have you always felt like that? Or like growing up, did you see yourself as like an athlete or? You know, kind of. An almost athlete. Like, I was almost good enough to do some pretty good things. I got into the preparatory school system as a junior and senior.

I was a bit of a standout in football over there. But I was almost good. You know, I was good enough to play Division III football. I got some accolades over there but um i was almost good you know i was good enough to play division three football uh i got some accolades over there but i knew it as an offensive lineman at six feet 250 pounds even if i'm stellar you know i'm still almost good like i i'm not going to be one of those guys to raise his hand and say i'd like to make a living out of this that's not so i was very realistic i think um with all areas of fitness, fitness life in general, I'm very aspirational but at the same time realistic with where I'm at, I guess. So what got you into wrestling?

An accident, a happy accident. Actually a good buddy of yours. Where? Super training. Mark Bell. Oh, Mark Bell. Oh, yeah, I'm wearing good buddy of yours. Where? Super training. Mark Bell. Oh, Mark Bell. Oh, yeah. I'm wearing his shoes right now.

Yeah. So, a happy accident from the family of Mark Bell. Yes. Okay. Is there a story behind that? Yeah. I worked at Gold's Gym Venice, and I got a degree in exercise phys and kines from Springfield College.

Oh, right on. I didn't know that. And as a young man who gets a college degree, you go off to try to apply that piece of paper to make more pieces of paper. I went out to the West Coast because I was sick of the Massachusetts weather and began working for a fitness equipment company, setting up gyms. And that was just really manual labor. So I really wasn't mentally stimulating myself at all. I loved the vibe around gold in the late 90s and the turn of the millennium. It has since changed, but it was a very unique place to be. And I was like,

man, if I'm going to spend a bunch of time doing something, I'll just work here. So for almost the same pay, I was kind of a jack of all trades in Gold's gym. I would be in the supplement shop, the front desk and fixing equipment and whatever they asked yeah um mark would go in and train every day and i had worked at the fitness equipment company with mark and his brothers and they finally told me uh that they were training to be wrestlers and they wanted to know if i wanted to try and i've always had some sort of purpose behind my fitness i started lifting weights when i was 12 because i i was getting the crap kicked out of me and I wanted to look bigger to fend off the bullies. And then came sports.

And then after sports, I did bodybuilding for a while, but that was almost counterproductive in overall health and fitness. And then when wrestling came around, I was like, man, this is going to be awesome. And I have a reason to train now too. So I guess I loved it and it really gave me a reason to continually be too so i guess it's uh i loved it and it really um it gave me a reason to

continually be strong yeah if i didn't uh i told you before the show we have a mutual friend justin thacker who's an awesome weightlifter and you just mentioned that you're you're an aspiring weightlifter uh we can we can talk about what that means here in a minute as well but if i hadn't had a conversation with justin to know that you were into weightlifting and that you you liked the crossfit kind of style gyms and whatnot i would have had a conversation with Justin to know that you were into weightlifting and that you liked the CrossFit kind of style gyms and whatnot. I would have just assumed, having not known you at all, that bodybuilding would have been more your style of training. Like you just mentioned Gold's Gym in Venice. That's like Bodybuilder Central.

Yeah. It especially used to be, but it certainly still is. Yeah. You know, did you go through – you went through a phase of bodybuilding. Like what did that do for you, and then why did you transition away from that to doing more like weightlifting it was like a weird hybrid of strength and bodybuilding as a young man 12 or 13 years old when you want to appear to be intimidating that look is intimidating and my goal was to stop getting the kids who are kicking the crap out of me every day to kick the crap to you look through these – it's literally the kick the sand in the face in the back of the comic.

You look at the magazines and you see these guys and you're like, okay, I've got to look like that. So what do they do? And you start at 12 reading the programs that they do. And, you know, at 12 years old, I'm training inner biceps. No need to be doing all that. So just through more and more yeah but i mean you got to start somewhere everybody's got to start somewhere we did a lot of that stuff i read all the magazines and yeah the whole deal i get it and like i talked about you i've been fortunate

enough to to fail and learn from failure a bunch of times so you you learn more and more and you get uh involved with different circles of people as we all do and i just happen to like every step along the way be surrounded by some really good influential people that would move my involved with different circles of people as we all do and i just happen to like every step along the way be surrounded by some really good influential people that would move my um perspective forward a little bit speaking of those people the you've had really good coaches though yeah from the very first time you walked into knox yes hard knocks yeah not your hard knock south hard knocks Hard Knocks. Yes. Hard Knocks. Yeah. Not your Hard Knocks South. Hard Knocks in... The original Hard Knocks gym. Yes. The bottom of the bowling alley.

Established in 1960. Yeah. Yes. What is that experience kind of like? You walk into your first gym. You've got a real coach that's going to teach you how to be strong. And then kind of going forward, you've had the same coach for the last 20 years almost. Yeah.

And he is spot on. Yeah. He's a solid guy a solid guy but he stays we haven't mentioned his name yet i'm not sure i didn't even know if i was supposed to yeah he's he's all about it man no instagram profile he's he's hidden in tampa yeah that's right yeah that's right the gym has a profile yes it does yes but uh no i mean i just just meeting the right people along the journey to keep your passion going. When I was a 15-year-old, I was introduced to a guy by the name of Dave Nock, founder of Hard Knocks Gym,

former Marine, Vietnam vet, former police sergeant. This guy was as tough as they come, and a bodybuilder and a strongman. And I think that's when my focus began to shift. You know, my first Weider weight set, I'm doing leg extensions and like bench and dips and all that stuff. They're just the guide that they give you. And then I walk into Hard Knocks and I see these guys.

There's so many strongmen there. There's like a bodybuilding clique and a strongman clique. And Dave was a hybrid of both. So he was like oh you're built genetically to do this let's get you in shape and we'll make you strong at the same time so it was always he had these crazy philosophies that i wouldn't even begin to tackle today and probably none of them made sense but i was a bulletproof 15 year old who could eat whatever i wanted and as long as i showed up to train he was there to kick my ass yeah and uh that it didn't

teach me much about uh what to do but it taught me the dedication the repeated dedication that it takes to to make it part of your lifestyle so i mean i i owe dave was like a father to me for um for for quite a long time and he was a very influential dude in my life i found like a lot of people or a lot of i had had someone like that that was a Marine Sergeant Major, four trips to NAMM. He was a hockey coach. He knew nothing about hockey. Doesn't matter.

But we were in way better shape than everyone. Olden people, man. Oh, we, it didn't matter if we knew how to play hockey. We were going to be tougher and we were definitely going to be in better shape than everyone else. And we won a lot of championships when I was a kid just because we didn't know how to lose. And people like that take you a long ways. When you – college, Springfield College.

Yeah. What does the training program look like there? And kind of what are they doing on the football team? What is, like, the education of weightlifting at that time is kind of what interests me of, like, there's so much knowledge now. So just to give you an idea about when that was, I graduated from high school in 95, 1995. Yeah, that's a long time. Purple Penguins.

Yes. Cushing. Of Cushing Academy. Got to shout them out. And then went to Springfield, and Springfield is the birthplace of basketball. They founded the YMCA. They're very forward-thinking as far as strength and conditioning,

and so was their program, especially for a Division III school. I mean, they used to be a Division II school. They were bringing all sports to all platforms. Most of their sports were Division III, so football went down to III. But still, they were very all sports to all platforms most of their sports division three so football went down to three but still they were very um ahead of the curve they had uh for the time and for the funding they had really good facilities uh they had really good coaching and for a while um it was a bit counterproductive to strength so i didn't exactly do the program and i got a lot of heat for it uh and i was just being an ass and and uh i have no regrets but in looking back if i had only done what they wanted me to do because what they wanted me to do is what i do now so uh i was just worried about losing everything

i had worked for and i was so keep in mind, I'd been training three and a half years under Dave. Yeah. And, and, uh, discipline, like almost like a beaten dog to like not do anything else. Yeah. You wake up, you make your bed. Like that's the, you just go through that routine. Yeah. So, um, when I started, you know, being influenced by these other coaches, it was stuff that I wasn't familiar with. It might've been some stuff that I felt uncomfortable with. It was stuff that was going to make me a better athlete. But like I said, I was, I was like almost good anyway. So, you know, I ran fast. I jumped high. I was strong. Uh, all the testing I did very well at, and they realized how much I worked out when they were doing like two team workouts a week in season. I was doing seven.

So I would get done with practice and go work out. And I would do double sessions and go work out in between the practicing session. Or like practice, workout, practice, uppers only. But I would still get a workout in. Yeah. So the coaches saw that. They're like, you know what? If you can handle the rest of the team having a problem with that,

it's not like he's dogging the workouts to go out and drink beer. And at that point, I'd never had a drink in my life. I've never done drugs. So I was living clean. I looked good. And I was dedicated. And the coaching staff at Springfield was kind enough to actually see that and be like, you know what, we're not going to mess this kid up. And if he wants to be in the weight room with the team, and I was with a team, I was just doing different stuff.

What brought you out to L.A.? My dad said I wouldn't last two weeks. So when everybody else went to L.A. I don't think I would last two weeks right now. When everybody else went to L.A. We were there today, and I'm 100% sure two weeks and I'd die. It's growing on me. Is that one of those things where you hear that and that's like a dare?

You gotta prove them wrong? Yeah, and it was just, I come from a small town where nobody ever leaves. It's that scene in Good Will Hunting where it's like, what am I gonna go there for? And then the guy's like,

if you don't go, I'm gonna kill you. So when everybody else went to Cancun for spring break, I went to Venice. I had enough money to take a cheap flight and stay with a friend and go to Gold's Venice. And I was just amazed at what I saw. I'd never seen anything like it.

Because that's when the real education begins. You're like, oh, wow. Everyone here is doing this the right way. Or a way. Everyone here is as dedicated as I. There you go. Everyone brought their own food. It's a way better way to say it.

Everyone stayed the entire day at the gym. Like these were the guys I'd seen in the magazines. I was like, man, this is, it gave me two revelations. One, I need to be here. And two, I will never be a professional bodybuilder. Because it's almost like stepping on the field with Division I athletes or looking at a pro athlete. You're just like, yeah, I could have done that. That's for those guys.

That's just one for me. So it was good in that sense because I didn't have any aspirations of wanting to make money as a bodybuilder. But it certainly shut the door on that. I competed in natural competitions just to keep myself in shape. Like I said, I wanted to have a reason to train, but it never once did I think that I was going to amount to anything or do anything,

but it got me around the element of people that were as obsessive with what the gym meant to me as I was. It was a giant, multi-thousand-person conglomerate of, like, this is what we do. Right? Yeah. Did that raise your expectations about what was possible in the world of fitness? Being that

close to people that are at that high of a level? No, I just think it put me around the people that were at that level. And I always have been lucky enough to surround myself with folks that are better than me. I've never been the strongest guy in the room ever. And I'd like to keep it that way because I don't need that

medal of accomplishment for myself because you have to be realistic enough to know that if you are the strongest guy in the room, there's another room somewhere. Like that's just, that's just how it is. There's only one guy who's the strongest guy. There's only one woman who's the strongest woman. And then everybody else is under the tier system. So I've always been towards the top of that but never at the top. And I think even in hard knocks, I mean, we have our top ten of every lift and in no way, shape, or form am my number one on any of them so it's uh it's really cool to to keep trying to strive to personally get better and inch closer towards those guys that are number one but if i ever do knock them off i know they're gonna come right back in and knock me off so it's

a it's just a good it's something good to keep me training i did never i never rested my laurels so when i was around guys like that i remember seeing a bodybuildbuilder called Chris Cormier one day come in and bench, incline bench 405 for sets of six. Just like, just cold. Savage. Just strolled in through like plate, plate, plate, plate and did sets of six and I'm like, man I, at this point, I don't know if I've ever

benched 405, like benched 405. I don't know what's going on right now. I can't squat that right now. But instead of being discouraged it just made me want to go and train. Like, man, this is awesome. These guys are the real deal. So it had that effect on me. And then, again, I think my age and my background and where I was from,

I think the whole thing was super impressive to see and be a part of. I'd never been in, like, the big city. So it was all it was all real new and fun and awesome yeah and the wwe kicks in or wwf at that time uh i was on the like the tail end i think i was wwf for like yeah a year maybe there you go um that comes in and what i mean clearly things change quickly, but that really, yeah. Yeah. Well, that's what I was going to say is like the hustle and the grind just starts at that point, really. And now you take on, you've got a job.

Yeah. You've got your, but you're out promoting at where, where are some of the places you've promoted wrestling matches? Everywhere. Some gas stations here and there places that i haven't yeah um so you start hitting the road you're traveling every night you guys are seven nights a week i don't know if everybody knows that but that's seven nights a week i mean your travel schedule is absurd and that's today not when you started which makes it it gets it is what you make it

so if you want to go all in that is my passion sports entertainment, WWE, that's my passion that's what I love the most and the feeling of being able to interact with the energy of a live audience is unmatched by anything

and to do that if you want to do that Being able to interact with the energy of a live audience is unmatched by anything. And to do that, if you want to do that consistently, you have to be able to go all in. And you have to be able to travel to all these places. And you still have to try to find a way to live a healthy lifestyle and bounce around the globe. I'm at a point now, I'm staring 41 down the face where I'm finally starting to scale back on the amount of performances I do because it's almost like, um, I can still hit the numbers I hit at 35, but I can hit them once a year instead of four times a year. So time is, is catching up with me and I'm, it's something that catches up with everybody. And I just have to do more preparation and more recovery in order to perform at a peak level and that's why you see guys weightlifting is a great example you see

the lifespan of a weightlifter is to late 20s or early 30s and then if you look at the 35 year old class it's a skosh down from the totals and then when you look at the 40 year old class it just dives and the 45 year old class just dives even further and 50. So, I mean, uh, I'm very realistic about, about that and, and try to do whatever I can to maintain a level of fitness. I'm more, much more focused now on a quality of life rather than trying to be everywhere in the world at once. Yeah. So I understand I'd rather if I do 50 performances or a hundred performances, I'd rather those hundred performances So I understand I'd rather, if I do 50 performances or 100 performances, I'd rather those 100 performances be all that I can

rather than 300 performances of me phoning it in and being miserable. Yeah. What does the training look like when you're on the road, those seven nights a week? I mean, well, I think training's a little bit easier almost than the nutrition piece because you're dialed in.

Like, you've got... It just, you just, you know, I've been doing it for 16 years now so you you get acclimated how does a football player go through three practices a day but and the first day that they do that everyone's dead yeah but the last day of the three weeks that they do that everybody's like all right let's play you got a scrimmage no problem you just get acclimated to it uh i always marvel at crossfit athletes because crossfit athletes push their body to red line every day yeah i would break i would absolutely

break they would be like uh bolts and nuts coming off and i i can't do that i just couldn't do that and the overall dedication that it takes to be sufficient in every and at every movement is also it's time that I can't invest you know I've really put my chips into multi-joint Olympic lifting because you use everything you keep everything moving and that's my goal and in my craft my office is 20 feet by 20 feet there's no no long distance. There's lots of rest. It's very similar to football. It's not similar to a marathon or an Ironman or something like that. So when you look at, you know, what am I training for? And I'm known personally for strength. So I train for strength and I train to be able to move within that 20-by-20-foot office. And I marvel at the accomplishment of CrossFit athletes

because I just don't know how you could do that for a long period of time. It just takes work that I'm not willing to put in. And, yeah, the freaky level of gymnastics that they're coming across with these days, plus the ability to clean and jerk 375 and stuff is absolutely insane and it's extremely impressive and when you talk to people at that level once again we talked about like the almost good thing it's their lives yeah it's their absolute lives and i'm trying to go in a million different directions and do a million different things and in in doing those million different things never forget that quality of life means you're healthy.

And I like to be strong. I like to squat heavy. I like to clean and snatch and bench and deadlift and do all that stuff. So those are the things that I enjoy. I don't yet enjoy wanting to do a handstand. Next week. If the day comes where I do, I will put forth the effort to do that. So that's, I guess, training is easy because I know what I have to do, and I've been around the world so many times, I know exactly where to do it.

Yeah. One thing that's going to happen to you, especially when you're a professional wrestler and picking up 400-pound human beings and slamming them on the ground, you're going to get hurt. Yeah. You're going to get hurt especially when you do it every day yeah well two years ago i was so stoked because you were in some like really good training and you were talking about going to nationals yeah and

we were going to set some like serious records i was going to do senior nationals yeah you were going to set you were going to set the american record it It was going to be real. I was super stoked. I was like, I cannot wait to watch this. And then your stupid shoulder. Well, you know. It just decided at the wrong time not to work. Yeah, it decided to just wreck itself. Yeah.

Yeah. But that's not the only thing. I mean, you've got bulge discs. You've got all the things. How does training kind of change when you're on the road? Recovery's tough. You're getting beat up every single night, and you're dealing with these nagging injuries.

It's not that. It's understanding the problem. Okay, so I have bulges and herniations all through my lumbar, which means every time I sit, I have to have one of these pads that keeps my posture correct, which means I have to do extra warmup on that area to kind of give it the form of traction to get everything comfortable. I have to continue to hydrate and eat healthy because if I even deviate in that little bit,

the body swells and the first thing that messes up, the first thing I feel is my back and hips. And then if you destroy your shoulder shoulder your mission doesn't become to snatch 150 kilos it becomes to get your get your effing shoulder healthy yeah so i still am doing you know i i was able i had to get a total reconstruction on the right and they wanted to do total reconstruction on the left but i've managed to kind of shift some shapes and and like i i couldn't do any overhead stuff for two years and now i'm easing back into that so i'm not saying it's out of the question but i don't know if i'll be able

to put up the totals that we were doing those were those are some decent times well we got some time we do have time is what we have is what we've got and you're already in the the senior so you're cool yeah um when we get back i want to talk about where your training is at today. We take a little break in the middle here. And we're going to talk about the One Ton Club. Hands down, the greatest weightlifting story of my life. I tell everyone about the One Ton Club. I got rid of probably 150 T-shirts, CrossFit T-shirts, the other day in my closet. Two of them made the cut. Hard Knock South and the One Ton Club.

Conquer all resistance. Right? Six lifts, one goal, one ton. There it is. two of them made the cut. Hard Knock South and the One Ton Club. Conquer all resistance. Right. Six left, one goal, one ton. There it is. Right. I have no idea how to read those seconds. Come on, really? Maybe.

There's no way I haven't told you this. Really? It's a story he tells everybody. All right, let's hear it. Are we ready? Ready to go. Welcome back to Barbell Shrugged. We're here with Doug Larson and John Cena.

We've got some big stories to tell. So 2015 or so, the greatest weightlifting story ever told takes place. We got, we've been talking about it for a good like year and a half before, but you have a busy schedule, we could say. Yeah, i guess it don't sell yourself short either you're a tremendous slouch you also have a busy schedule so it's it's a matter of getting people cross country and uh the stars aligning and i it finally happened yeah so your strength coach was in town um we all vibe pretty well it was like hey let's do this thing on the East Coast. Go check out Hard Knock South.

And I remember walking over to Brian at the time, just being like, hey, I think we're going to Cena's house in Tampa. I was like, Tampa? No way. Next thing you know, I rented a really junky piece of crap car from downtown San Diego here. Drove it up to L.A. We hopped in a private jet.

A couple Jack Daniels shots and a lot of Coronas. And next thing I know, I woke up in Tampa, Florida, and the next morning for breakfast to really work on the squat gut, you could call it, the bloat, and make sure that we're going to lift a lot of weights that day. We had eggs, we had hash browns, and a milkshake to wash it down in true powerlifting style. Yes, we did.

And the goal was we get six lifts, total one ton, 2,000 pounds, squat, clean, jerk, bench. Yes, we'll call it a jerk. Yeah, jerk. Overhead. Jerk is good. Yeah, that's good. Squ jerk. Yeah, jerk. Overhead? Jerk is good. Yeah, that's good. Squat, clean, jerk.

Super total. Yes, squat, clean, jerk, overhead press. Squat, clean, jerk, snatch, deadlift, bench. And if you have ever watched a John Cena weightlifting video on YouTube or wherever it is, you will see this beautiful garage door behind him. And if you look in the bottom left corner you will find one name and it says Anders Varner on the garage door because that day over 48 hours I squatted 419 pulled 470 something put 300 pounds over my head clean 30 308, bench 285. I mean, 2,008 pounds later.

You made it. I made it. It was the greatest thing that ever happened. I like it because when we decided to do the trip, I told you about the club. Yeah. And you guys began to do the math immediately, and you realized you were short. Yeah. And that's what I like about it and it was

only like it gave you guys two weeks notice yeah so in two weeks you're like we're short we're not gonna make we're gonna go all this way and i'm really honestly if i'm firing on all cylinders i'm gonna come in at 1950 yeah it was because we i mean yeah i literally had to be inside like 97% of lifetime PR six times in a row in a 48-hour window. And you could say that the training was not like peaked out for that moment. It was like, oh, randomly I have to be the best I've ever been all the time on all my lifts. Yeah, and the flight in. We decided to see if we could drink all the stewardess came back and said we're out of beer so we had to go to jack daniels yeah so we made that happen yeah

so we woke up we pulled the tin cup we woke up we had a little uh milkshake and got to work yeah and um man i have never had so much fun and just there's moments in life where like your weightlifting career, like when I was 13 years old, I never thought I'm going to walk into John Cena's garage one day and my name's going to be on that door. And it was, I mean, it's kind of like sitting in this room right now of just, man, it's incredible how far a barbell can take you if you truly wake up and give a shit and try and be really good every day at what you do i like like i said my my biggest takeaway from that is both of you think you thought you wouldn't make it and something

extraordinary happened just just with a little bit of a little bit of magic and a whole lot of effort and that's that was that's what i think is amazing about the story. And I guess that's why it meant so much too. You left the good part out. Once it was accomplished, man, we went out and ate and drank like Vikings. We had a good night. Yeah, we did. The tomahawk steak.

You brought it with the bone in. The bone in, yeah. It was a true celebration because you genuinely feel like you accomplished. I was just watching you guys, and I felt like I was accomplishing something. It was really, really cool. Hands down, it was not even one of the coolest weightlifting story I will ever tell. But where did that come from?

I mean, 2,000 pounds, I don't – look, there's some monsters that hang out in Hard Knock South. The strongest human beings. There's Olympians on the door. 8,000 pounds, I don't – look, there's some monsters that hang out in Hard Knock South. Like, the strongest human beings. There's Olympians on the door. There's, like, you're on the door. Rob's on the door. Like, you get literally Kofis on the door. Like, there's people on the door that, like, everyone knows. We have a national powerlifting champion who is now a very decorated member of the WWE called Etor Ewan,

and he wrestles under the name Big E. Reese Hoffa, Olympic shot putters come in there. Adam Nelson, Olympic shot putters come in there. We've had the Michigan State track team in there. Like we have, it's a weird central hub of like, hey, you're in the Tampa area, no problem. Mark Bell was just over there. A lot of guys will just come through and be like,

hey, I'm around, or I'm doing a conference or something. Is it okay if I swing through? So, and we, I mean, it's, the One Ton Club came about because we were, for a second, the strength, the first strength and conditioning facility in the WWE. The WWE had built its developmental territory in Tampa, and they were teaching these kids how to talk. They were teaching these kids how to fall down.

They were giving them financial advice. They were giving them medical insurance. All the things that you would prepare an athlete for, life coaching, everything, except being stronger, taking care of your body, the one thing that is surely going to break down and the one thing that you need to do what we do. Yeah i had this gym out there and it was like we it's just me and rob in there i can't give you his last name yeah i can't find out and uh he will be forever be known as the spray it's

just me and spray in there and i talked to to vince mcmahon one day i just happened to have a moment of his time and i said listen i have this facility No cost. Use it for free because I want you to see the benefits of strength and conditioning for the athletes. And it was a great basis. So we went from like two members to 100 members overnight. And we wanted to come up with a system of gamification because the strength and conditioning is very much like a football training. And we wanted to come up with something that was attainable for everyone. And the male standard is the one-ton club. And we've had a bunch of sub-200 pounders make the one-ton club.

Like everyone has a chance. And everyone's emotional roller coaster was exactly yours. Like I've seen that happen for everyone that is on the board from even a guy like Etor who's gonna etor is it well over 3 000 pounds like he is his totals way up there but just making it getting the shirt getting the accomplishment it's like you are in a group and the group means nothing it's not like it maybe to you no but to me i'm showing everyone so so that's it's just it's one of those things where it worked. Forever, I have

college buddies that come down. I have high school buddies that come down and they eye the wall all the time. A few of those guys are inching forward. There's been one guy who's been on a four-year quest. Every year he comes up short, but he's a little closer. Either this year or next year, barring injury,

he's going to make it. You did it in 48 hours, he's going to make it. So like, you did it in 48 hours. He's going to do it in seven years. And that's going to be awesome. I will not remember the next three days. That will be a big party. Yes, it will. Just because it's seven years of dedication to do something he thought was impossible. It's pretty cool.

In typical CrossFit form, Seth Rollins did it in like three hours. He just maxed out everything but uh he also had some terrific moments he had an all-time best deadlift uh he had another all-time best lift like in like he wasn't going to make it yeah and he needed to do some miracle pulls at the very end like he strategically planned his thing i think he wanted to do like a couple more workouts during that day or whatever but But it started to get to him, and he started to do the math and realized that he was going to be short,

and he pulled out some extraordinary moments to make it. And that's why it was so meaningful to him because, you know, all things considered, he probably can make it. You know, he can make it. But on that day, he couldn't make it. The lifts have to be done in the gym, and they have to be done with a witness and on videotape. And those are the rules.

So you can come in and give the fish that got away story of like, oh, I benched 500 in college. I don't give a shit. You do it here. And if you do it here, you'll get rewarded for it here. And if you stay at Hard Knocks for a week, you have a week to do it. You guys are there 48 hours. You have two days to do it.

Seth was there for three hours. He had three hours to do it. Sicko. Did you ever implement this at your gym so we ran it a couple times and it it caught on a little bit and then i i it was just it was a time in which i was on my way out of the gym and and I remember the ride back from the car, or on the car ride back after we did it, and we're just like faces melted. It was just like such a cool moment, and I just remember being like, man, we have to bring this home.

We have to give people an opportunity to go through this ride and know that in a 48- 48 hour window you have to be the best you've ever been like maybe not the best on every single lift but you're never going to be inside 97 of the best you've ever been in your whole life and carry that through like you have to bring so much to it and we ran three one-ton club events at the gym um the most fun people are pring all over the place it was a freaking blast um but i was it was like right at the time in which i was starting to move on to the the next chapter of life so it never like fully took off but we we did do it and it was very cool for the community i mean people get so amped yeah just like there's

a number and they'd sit there and they go through the same things like I can do the math I'm if I if I if I hit one PR yes that gives me 15 extra pounds and the thing about the number and the thing about the lifts is if you if you have any dedication to strength and conditioning it's attainable and it's designed to be attainable but you have to be good yeah we there was people like some old guys would come in and um he had like a 650 pound deadlift or something like something absurd but couldn't put his shoulders over his head so the snatch would be caught like out here and to be like 135 and I'd just be like, get rid of it, please.

I hope you signed a waiver. But he's halfway home, 135 and a 650. We've got four lifts and all we've got to do is 1,200 pounds. And you don't have to be the greatest athlete in the world. I mean, Kofi's kind of a smaller guy, right? Kofi was the first sub-200 pounder to make it. And he's probably one of the most athletic, powerful people that's ever tried. But he doesn't come from an Olympic lifting background, right? No.

But strong as hell. No, so that's another thing. We inherited this group, and this is where Rob is so good. He knows the room. I think Rob's one of Rob's best traits. He has such a great knowledge base, but one of Rob's best traits is he knows the room. I think one of Rob's best traits, he has such a great knowledge base, but one of Rob's best traits is he knows the room. He knows who he's talking to,

and his degree is in psychology, and he knows how to relate to people, and that's why people are willing to follow him. He's well-versed and knows exactly what he's talking about, but you can have all the book smarts in the world, and if you can't create relationships, no one will want to hang out with you rob is a great guy of assessing the room and knowing the room and he knew the room when he inherited these athletes a lot of them had trained previously

and now weren't a lot of them were untrained so he's essentially started from square one and knew that everyone had kind of the the frame or the athletic build to be athletes. They just needed to apply effort. And with consistent training, which they were now required to do, there would be gains. And he wanted to make a system of gamification to quantify the gains. Why do I want to come to this place? When I'm training in downtown Tampa,

why do I want to drive 45 minutes to this swampy gym, come to this place, and try to excel? I should just phone it in, skip workouts. But no, because it became a brotherhood. And because of the type of people he was, and those were the type of people he was dealing with. It was a very tight, connected group. He gave them an attainable nugget to strive for. And in getting that one-ton club, everybody got in shape.

Everybody got in shape. The guys who were in shape were in better shape because they wanted to be high on the list we also have like a top 20 performers list so there's the there's the one ton club and there's a top 20 performers list oh i'm like number 11 it's like the coolest thing ever if you think uh if you think you're you have like uh etor the strong person i was the strong kid i was talking about big e very strong number one in all lifts but his power index is at the top his output per pound isn't at the top so he has something even he has something to strive for and it's it's pretty much set up like that and um we really just never drop the philosophy after dropping a large group we got about 20 25 guys that come in and out of there on the regular and they still every time the first

thing you do when you open the door to the gym is you look up at that giant PR board, and then you look over at the wall. And that's just how everybody does it. That's awesome. In your training now, I mean, you've done this forever now. The amount of knowledge you have. You talked a lot about the magazines back in the day. When we left your place, Muscle and Fitness came in. They do a big photo shoot.

What goes through your brain when all this stuff happens? You go from the 12-year-old that is reading Muscle and Fitness to now you're on Muscle and Fitness. And a couple things. One is it's super cool the first time I imagine that happens. And then I've texted you a couple times when I see John Cena's arm routine on the front cover, and I'm like, I know that's not his arm routine. Because he doesn't do any biceps. He doesn't do biceps, yet you got knowledge to his arm routine. Yeah, so the one thing I think when I'm doing those, and I'm very grateful to be able to be involved with all that stuff,

is I hope that they're genuine in the article. Yeah. Because a lot of the publications, they just regurgitate the same information, the John Cena arm routine thing. That doesn't exist. It doesn't exist. It's not there. So how are they even allowed to say that, that doesn't exist. It doesn't exist. It's not there. So how are they even allowed to say that if it doesn't exist?

Like do they consult you on this or are they just using your likeness without your knowledge or how does it work? The first time you're asked to do something like that, it's a fantastic, it's an honor. So you just kind of do it and then you realize after it's done, when the arm routine workout comes out that you're like, oh, man, that's really not how I train. And people are going to read this and think that's how I train.

Like I read it and thought that like Ronnie Coleman spends four hours working inner biceps. Right. You know, so that's what I would do. I used to do the Ronnie Coleman workouts. Did you? Oh, yeah. 100%.

In college? Six days a week. There it is. That's awesome. 100% in college? Six days a week. There it is. That's awesome. So basically now, very quickly, I hit a point of like, I just want the article to be genuine, and I want the information to be genuine. I try to make it a point in all of those,

whether it's flex, muscle and fitness, men's health. It has to be shot at my gym. There are no negotiations around that, because they have to see the environment, and there has to be some sort of element of Olympic lifts in there because when you look through those magazines, you don't get that element and it's not that that's all that defines me,

but when you're the person looking through the pages and you see these guys and you see this, oh, this is the guy that I like on WWE and he's doing these movements, I you see this, oh, this is the guy that I like on WWE, and he's doing these movements, I better learn how to do that. So it's just the same attachment that you would have to an arm routine.

But if you want to be stronger and move healthier, and, you know, I don't know. I just, I like the fact that they can stay genuine, and they shoot at my place, and they do, like, I don't pose for any of the stuff fact that they can stay genuine and uh they shoot at my place and they do like i don't pose for any of the stuff they just shoot around my workout so i'm uh i'm not i'm not an ass i'm just very stern and in because because you get uh quoted in print wrong once and you're never going to do print again and then you're like ah you know i'll do it but now it's got to be x y and z so i just I just want it to be authentic to me because I think I have a reputation with,

and this is why in the WWE world I'm both revered and hated, is because I'm authentic. I shoot from the hip a lot. And I think people, they feel as if they know me. And they either really like what they see or they really don't. So I just want to carry that into everything that I do, and the fitness mags are no different. We went out to dinner one time,

and something that really resonated with me, something that made a very big impact in my life, we were talking about kind of this new stage that you've walked into. I say walked into. You've worked your ass off to get into. But you've entered into this kind of the movie. Are we allowed to call it a movie scene? That sounds so L.A., especially since we've been there today.

You're in movies, right? You're saying. You have an Oscar. Or you've been nominated for an Oscar. The movie. The Golden Globe. The movie was. Yeah, Ferdinand.

But you said something to me and it was along the lines of i i asked like all these opportunities are opening up and like how often are you hearing the words no in life these days and you came back and said something, well, if you aren't hearing no, you are not trying hard enough. Correct. And one instantly made a massive impact and something that I need to be working on in my life and everybody should kind of be striving for. But where does some of that stuff come from? And just the consistent work ethic, you've been at this.

Isn't there ever a moment where you're just like, man, we did it. Great job. But now you're entering into movies. You learned at 40 years old how to speak Chinese. You did a press conference in Chinese. I woke up one morning and watched you speaking Chinese and telling a translator about us hitting the one-ton club.

Like, where does this stuff come from? It's, I think, it's not something I would define as work. I get to do kind of like you guys. Right now you're doing what you enjoy. Yeah. So all that stuff is stuff that I enjoy. And I guess I'm very grateful to be able to say that what I love is actually what I do for work, and the movies that I choose or the outside ventures outside of WWE that I choose to be a part of,

it's because they give me the same reward and the same passionate feeling as WWE. The time in the gym, I need that for my mental stability, for my health stability. I love to do that. I will never not go. I've always wanted to speak a language. So it's something that I always wanted to do. But it doesn't come without hard work. It doesn't come without failure.

You know, at 41, like I said, there are moments in the year where I feel bulletproof. Moments. Fleeting as the sunset. Like, year where I feel bulletproof. Moments. Fleeting as the sunset. Like, I don't feel bulletproof all the time. That's hearing the word no. I used to just be able to throw, you know, 270 kg on the bar and just go to town on it. I can't do that anymore. I can't.

I can work up to do that and be lucky enough to do it once and be like, yep, still there. But that's a giant failure that you have to look right in the face. Trying to speak a language when you don't know anything. You fail for the first three years. And then after four years, you said I learned to speak it at 40. I took four years of lessons for a three minute press conference. Four years for three minutes. That's

hearing the word no a lot. That's failing a lot. So I don't know. I have never been the one and this goes way back to like the almost good thing. I've never been the one who was a standout athlete. There was always the kid who had it.

And that goes through every facet of my life. I was almost fired by the WWE because I didn't have a relationship with the audience. Everybody said I didn't have it. So I was last pick. I've always had my back up against the wall. So I've always been told, like, this will never happen. This will never happen. You'll never last two weeks out in california like i can

give you so many experiences of failure and then a few a few times i swung and it hit the ball the ball sails out of the out of the yard so like the reason i keep getting up the reason i keep going is because i'm chasing things that i love to do and i've been able to call them work so that's how i can fly in today to drop off dirty clothes. And as soon as we take the headphones off, I'm out of here. So it's because I love to do it. If you don't love to do it, you don't put in that work because work is hard. Your work is hard.

It is. It taxes you. It exhausts you. It wears you emotionally. It can shake your very foundation. It's disappointing, especially when you don't hit that goal. We all know, like, okay, today I'm going to do this for a lift, or I feel like I can do that.

If you miss, you're crushed. You feel bad. You feel disappointed. You've got two choices. You can stay with your head down, or you can get back in and go, and all of these things. And I guess that started with the gym. You fail when you train.

You get to a point where you're not good enough to do the resistance put in front of you, and you fail. And it teaches you to either get your ass back in there or go home. And I've always just gotten my ass back in there. Even in the WWE side of things, your character's gone through that exact thing. I mean, you used to. You were rapping wearing a chain yeah you were killing it now you're mr america you've got you've got the the hustle loyalty respect you've got the whole but even that character you've moved into a new that that

character did not fail by any means but you recognize there was a transition in there and that transition has led to countless opportunities when you're in front of the crowd and you're you you talk about how you have like half the people hate you the authenticity side of things what is the work that goes into finding out what that means like where does the hustle loyalty respect come from i freaking love love it. It's awesome. It's borrowed a little from the armed services like Honor Code and Country. And hard work, I think, is something that people think they do, but they may not know exactly what hard work is. Tom Brady had a good quote.

They did an Amazon special on Tom Brady and I saw the trailer. I haven't seen the whole show. But it was like if you think you're going to be at my level or surpass my level, you better be ready to dedicate your life to it because that's what I do. And it shows him how he struggles to juggle being a father and a family man and anything outside of football player because he's a football player. If you look at my timeline from 2002 to now, this has been my life. I'm just at the point now where I feel comfortable enough that I feel right now I'm actually ready for marriage and possibly ready for a family. Not until now, right now, 41 years old, have I ever thought that that was an option? Because my life has been the business in every aspect of it. And continuously wanting to learn if I feel I

know enough to carry myself in the ring. I want to learn about all the operations that go outside of the ring. International expansion. I want to learn about digital presence. I want to learn about merchandising and licensing department. Live event promotion, stuff that I shouldn't learn, but it's my life. And if I know, I don't need to know everything about that stuff, but if I know a little bit about it, I'll be able to get better. I take the same approach to strength and conditioning. I have a programmer, I have a coach, but I always ask, I always inquire, and I don't need to go Rob deep. Like that's Rob's job. But I would like to know what is going on.

Hey, we just did this and this was the results of our program. You are about to reprogram. What are you going to do and why? And if something shows up that I don't understand, hey, why are we doing this? And he'll go on to this crazy explanation. I'll say, no, give me the cliff notes. Just like when I talk to the head of our live events. I don't need to know exactly everything that goes on into a live event promotion,

but I need to know how I can help you put on a better live event. So Rob gives me information that helps me make a stronger me because that's his job and that's also my job. So I don't know, man. I just, um, the hustle is hard work. Loyalty is, is something that has just been ingrained in me from a, from a young age, just because I think it's so fleeting and people, um, people who are people who have loyal folks in their life understand how important loyalty is. If you don't get the word loyalty, I don't ever expect you to get it. That's just the way it is.

And respect is almost a way of being humble because you should show respect to everyone, even people who don't share your ideals and values. This is a podcast that mostly probably talks about CrossFit, yet here I am, and we're discussing different things. And hopefully, I hope that I would get the respect enough because of who I am and the amount of time I put into the area of fitness and strength and conditioning that someone would sit through all this jargon and maybe take a little nugget away. They may say, ah, the guy's full of shit, but you know that one thing he said?

That's all right. And that's all I expect. Just give me the respect that I deserve. Just like I give any sort of athletic discipline. Whether you're doing the biathlon, whether you're a curler, whether you're a CrossFit person. If you have a different style of approaching fitness than I do, I don't turn my nose up at you. I give you the respect for like, hey, you're taking care of yourself just like I am. There's a lot of people that aren't doing anything.

So it involves respecting those who respect you and respecting those people who don't respect you, even giving that equal respect. You know what I'm saying? I always just say respect everyone, including your enemies. Yeah. Well, anyone that's trying to be the best,

like the dedication and the sacrifice across the board is the same fight. Whether you're trying to be the best WWE wrestler or the best crossfitter, like you're saying, the fight is the same. And that's the piece that I think deserves the respect. The hard work and the dedication is the thing that deserves the respect. So whether it's curling, like you said, or whether it's WWE, the piece that deserves the respect is congruent across all people.

Yeah, and I guess that's it. Yeah, that's it. I love it. Twice you mentioned the piece that I believe that was your dad that said you won't last two weeks in L.A.? Yeah. Did you guys ever talk through that after the fact? Did he ever come back and say, you know, I was wrong about that?

No, no, I've told the story a bunch, and my dad's awesome. I think that's where I get a lot of my showmanship from. And I often say, like, it was either you, I either broke your heart because I left and never came back, or that was your way to give me the best motivational sentence any father could ever give his son. And my dad with his vaudeville smile and his large voice, I'll never tell.

That's my secret. So whatever he feels about that, it is what it is. But it worked. And I guess I just needed that kick in the butt to be like, you can't do this. And that just being in a different environment, changing my perspective, changing the people i

interacted with every day changing up my routine i guess that's what i find um really attractive about all these other opportunities having been employed and being in the same office space for 15 16 years now i've seen different players come and go and it's really fun to mix matchups with with different players from a guy like edge to a guy like seth and so on and so forth but it's really fun to mix matchups with with different players from a guy like edge to a guy like seth and so on and so forth but it's the same element these new projects movies tv um you know reading the news doing the awards like all that stuff writing a children's book you get to meet all these new people and they're really good at what they do. So I can get knowledge from them and changing your perspective

and changing your company is very important to growth. Even if you're uncomfortable, even if you're not, you don't even belong there. Just meeting new people, talking to new people and getting more information,

that's the key to expansion. So, I mean, it's training with you guys instead of training with Rob. Love the guy. But I've also had the opportunity to train around the world at some really cool spots. And each spot, you meet one or two people, and it's like, oh, that's cool. So what are you doing there? You know, there's stuff that I learned at your place that I took back to our place.

And there's stuff that I learned with Mark Bell or stuff that will drop in with a box with Seth and his guy will be like, oh, this is messing with you, try this. Like, how the hell did he know that? And it's just me not being stuck up enough to be like, don't tell me how to do this. I know how to do this. I go into every situation, every situation, with an open mind and willing to listen.

Because if you think you got it figured out, man, you are doomed to take an about face. If we just try and learn something from everyone, you're going to be in a better spot. And when you let other people be the teacher, instead of saying, I already know this, you automatically put your guard down. I mean, how many times could you walk into a room and very easily just be like,

I'm John Cena. I don't need to listen to anyone. That's such horseshit. It's the worst thing in the world. And, yeah, it's total BS because we get the opportunity to learn from everyone we meet. Yeah. And once you come to that conclusion that maybe I know nothing. I think one of the things when I, like, lifting weights so long, I think like the yoga world.

I had, there was no way I was ever going to walk into a yoga studio. I'm a meathead to the core. No way. Then I walked in and I was like, what if these people know everything? What if they're the smartest people in the world? And I just haven't been listening to them. Turns out they're pretty smart. They know things.

They're going to help you live a healthier life. And I just think if everybody walked into it understanding that we can learn a little bit from everyone and bring that into just making ourselves a more complete person. And just interacting, like I said, if the thing you learn is that person is full of shit, then you learned that. But you learned that. Like Olympic lifts are often tough to do in group atmospheres because everyone wants to help and everyone wants to coach. And the worst position you can be in,

or one of the toughest positions to be in, I should say, is a lifter who is continuously missing lifts because everyone begins to gravitate over towards you and you know you're not hitting your lifts and now everybody's like, yeah, just put your hips back. Just stay in, don't pull yet. Just pull. And then everybody's giving you these little bits and it's such a complicated process where you're asking your mind to focus and you're asking your body to do amazing things.

And now 17 other people are telling you what to do and you just want to throw your hands up and be like, I want to just get out of here right now. It's almost like playing golf with a guy who's trying to correct your swing all the time. And sometimes those are the toughest rounds to have. But I always enjoy what people have to say. And I can tell, I can tell in the first two seconds

if they don't know what they're talking about or they do know what they're talking about. And I can tell i can tell in like the first two seconds if they don't know what they're talking about or they do know what they're talking about and i can tell if i can take something away from that and even if they don't know what they're talking about i will entertain them for the fact of what i'm going to learn from this meeting is that you're full of shit and if someone is smarter i will absolutely absorb every piece of information I can from them. But if I didn't give them the chance, I would have my numbers and they would stay my numbers because

I would do what I would do and I would not grow and I would not expand. And that's the problem that we all have. We get in this comfort zone of training and I'm guilty of it myself. And just now, you know, in the past the past i got past five years actually since i started with rob rob has been able to because i'm not no longer i was no

longer responsible for my own training rob has been able to consistently make me uh put me in an uncomfortable environment he'll i mean we will he'll lull me to death for six months nine months a year and then we'll do something that's completely off the wall. And I will yell at him like I can't do this. He'll say, yes, you can because it's the same thing you did 12 months ago. We're just doing a different thing. In 12 months, you'll be able to do it. That's awesome.

Right on, my man. Much appreciated. Where can people find you? What do you have going on that the whole public can see? Oh, guys. Ferdinand? I'll tell you what. I rarely do podcasts.

Let's just leave this one about the conversation. I love it. If you don't know where to find me, I'm not doing my job right. I thank you guys for having me on. Let's just leave this one about the talk. I love it. I think if you're just tuning in now and you missed the hour don't afraid don't be afraid to be uncomfortable never

be the smartest guy in the room uh don't be afraid to fail uh which means don't be afraid to try and go out there and kick the hell out of the day and get strong sounds right on me how's that yeah i think we crushed it all right thank you for just being here, one, two, lifting weights with me, three, being a mentor and just somebody that I have learned all these lessons that you just dropped in the last hour over the three and a half, four years. And there's – I don't know why you walked into the gym. I don't know why I was ready when you walked into the gym that day. And all I can say is I'm grateful for a barbell and the ability to put heavy shit on the outside of them so that I was able to connect with people like you. And it's been amazing to see your journey for four years. And here's the thing, you've come so long and we've talked, I know you're just getting started. So that's also awesome.

And I just, once again, I guess the most important thing, absolutely, is that lust for life. Enjoy life. It is yours and it is what you make it. And I just can't quantify that enough. The powerful play goes on and you get to contribute a verse.

Mr. Larson, anything to say? No, man. I just really appreciate everything you said. Especially the piece about respect really stuck with me. Like that, not knowing anything about you

and having no idea what you're going to come in here and say, like really emphasizing that piece about respect just makes me feel really good about this conversation. And I'm going to take that

into my own life and implement it. I feel like I'm a better person for having heard that. Had to make you sit through 60 minutes of BS, but you got one little nugget. There you go. That was a lot of fun. Thank you. Thank you, guys.

Thank you.