Barbell Shrugged - Melanoma, Jungle Gyms, and Strength Tech w/ Anders Varner, Doug Larson, and Travis Mash #817

Episode Date: October 1, 2025

In today’s episode of Barbell Shrugged, Anders, Doug, and Travis dive into Coach Travis’ recent melanoma diagnosis, how he found out about it, and his recent surgery to eliminate it. We also dive into Anders’ quest to build a gym in the middle of the woods where he plans on lifting giant trees and the latest in strength tech with Travis Mash. Work With Us: Arétē by RAPID Health Optimization Links: Anders Varner on Instagram Doug Larson on Instagram Coach Travis Mash on Instagram

Shrug family this week on Barbell Shrug, the homies are back. Doug, Travis, me! We're talking some scary news. Because Travis Mash has a little bit of melanoma in his hand. Yeah, in the palm of his hand. We dive into it because that's absolutely terrifying. None of us want that. And he's got some surgery coming up, and we're going to dig into everything that he's got going on.

As well as just the bros talking about some different ways that we're all training these days. I'm building a gym in the woods with trees, which is really crazy. On top of that, Coach Masch has got some new tools, tricks, tips, all the fun things that he's got going on with the new technology side of things. It's always fun listening to us, have a good time. This is like the conversation that we have, even when the microphones aren't on and we're just sitting around having coffee and enjoying life. As always, friends, make sure you get over to Rapid Health Report.com. That's where Dan Garner, Dr. Andy Galpin, are doing a free lab, lifestyle, performance analysis, and you can access that at Rapid HealthReport.com. Friends, let's get into the show.

Welcome to Barbell Shrug. I'm Anders Warner. Doug Larson. Coach Travis Mash, the homies are back. Yeah. Today on Barbell Shrug. Dude,

Mash, this thing on your hand. We're going right into it. This is the most terrifying thing in the entire world. You can't see it. Oh, buddy. When did that thing show?

Tell me about it. I like that you laugh it off, but this is the real, real life right here. That's a melanoma. You guys are looking at it on my hand. That's the villain. That's the villain.

I know. Every day I look at it. I just want to fight it, but I can't, you know. When did you notice the spot? Because I'm not going to lie to you. Every two years, first off, I have zero hair. My head is a solar panel for whatever the sun throws at me. Right.

And that can't be good. I wear a hat like 99% of my life because I know that there's nothing but a full collection beam, like, scary. This head's not protected. When did you notice? you had a spot on your hand. Well, it was really, my wife noticed something on my back. There was like this crazy looking thing on my back. So I won't, but while I was going to the doctor,

I saw this thing on my, this black thing on my hand. And I thought, man, it looked like a blister that had a million times. You know, you guys have surely in your lifting, especially you enters in CrossFit, have surely blistered your hands for doing tons of reps. And I thought it was just a black blister from deadlifting hook grip. but it did look a little different and so the first guy I went to

he looked at my back I told him about my hand and he looked at my hand and ignored it said it's nothing but then at church that Sunday there's another lady Ashley thank shout out Ashley but she looked at it

and she's a dermatologist too she says I don't agree with him she says your hand looks a little weird she says how about let me just fit you in tomorrow let me look at it with my little light And I'm like, sure, I'll come in. So she fit me in, she looked at it and she, you know, she took, scraped some of it off, sent it in.

And so here's the bummer. So then I get the news that the stuff on my back is no big deal. They're going to take it off, but it's not cancer. It's just abnormal. So I'm like, boom, I'm in San Antonio with Bert from Soornecks. Were you thinking it might be cancer before you got, before someone told you? Like, I wouldn't, I wouldn't jump right to that. If I had something on the palm of my hand, I wouldn't.

think I have cancer on my hand me either I thought some of my back was and I thought oh got you and then when she wanted to look at my hand I was like whatever and she took it from my hand but yeah I thought for sure it wasn't my hand and so so they told me my back was fine so I'm thinking it's over right then I go meet my wife in Vegas ready to celebrate going to go see benjohn play and celebrate my wife's 40th in the minute I walk in she says I'm going to go ahead and tell you something she says get it over with I'm like what She said the thing on your hand is a melanoma rocked me. I mean, like, rocked me.

Yeah. I just thought I'd just, you know, I'd celebrate with everyone. Oh, it's over. I don't have anything. And then she like literally felt like someone hit me on the chin. And, um, but got through it. Um, over like, so we sat, you know, I came home and sent an appointment to get it, you know, removed. They did say it's like, you know, um, they think it's like schedule one, zero, maybe,

even so they they don't think it's a big deal but you know they won't know until they do it so like which basically means they cut it out and you're done they should it should be that's what they think you know but like um let's we'll see they're going uh week uh week from yesterday so next tuesday that will be like the 23rd on 7 a.m i'll go get it and um then they'll be able tell me what's up but yeah are you are you like a summertime sunscreen wear And I think it matters because it's on your hand. Yeah, dude, yes. I'm the, I set up under the umbrella guy.

Yeah. Like, yes, you know, like I don't really like tanning. And this year, you know, I did do this little peptide. And I did check into that. I was like, man, this peptide messed me up. But the one I took is like, oh, a lot, no, shoot, I forget the name me. Anyway, there's a one and the two. And this one is actually like very, like, it actually helps.

to prevent cancer. So it doesn't seem that that was the problem. But anyway, so yeah, man, I'm literally the guy who sets up under the umbrella. Like, I'm well aware. I have fair skin. You know, you and I have very similar skin. Yeah. This is like the most terrifying, like, in all of the years now that I have known you, like,

we're like eight years of good friendship. And this is the healthiest I've ever seen you. I know. I've seen an unhealthy part. When you nearly had a heart attack, you're like, yeah, he slept like an hour or a night coaching champions and master's in school. Yeah. Yeah, like all the things. This is like the healthiest I've ever seen.

Yes. Like I have worked so hard to get back in the shape to and also to do it right to like be metabolically in shape, not just like strong. Yeah. So like it came at such a surprising time that that's what robbed me. any in my if i heard this news like when i was at lorna or ryan or when we were when we went to walmart you know i'd be like yeah i deserve cancer you know but now like it's like it just rocked me but at first i was pouting like most people and like poor me but now i'm just like let's move through it do it get it over with yeah i never know have they set what's like the

the path you have a surgery in like two weeks right what no six days and like next week on a tuesday And based on what they find, you know, I'll know. But, like, they told me, you know, so I asked them because I still compete. So, you know, I was set to compete on October 13th. And they said, you know, if I could, if I could withstand it, I'm like, perfect. That's all I needed. So I decided, I didn't want to let this son of a gun, you know, derail me. So I'd decide, whatever.

I don't care. I mean, I competed with a broken ribs. So, like, what's a little skin place in my hand? I refuse to let this. When is your competition again? October 13th, so it's going to be like just a few days. It'll be like not quite three weeks after I get it. Yeah, you got a bench and dead with a big slice.

Big slice. Take it out of your hand? Yeah, I don't care. I just won't let it, I don't care how bad it hurts. I'm going to do it. So refuse. I just won't let this stupid thing in my hand mess me up. I want my kids to see this.

uh i'm going to then last week i reached out to my friends um how we should get that their trip ronnie and amy shirley and they they uh they live kind of near you anders but they um there used to be a uh reality tv show called lizard licked towing their trip they're the funniest show and uh it's real life like ronty is like a real life you don't want to fight this guy he's that country guy if he punches you in the face you're going to go to sleep and like the show is just about his funny and like you know taking someone's car because they won't pay their bill they try to fight him and like knocks him out so anyway he's real life but a long time ago when I first was competing right before I broke the all-time record I did they had this pro meet down it's nightdale it's down like near raleigh and they had this pro meet and it was like my coming out I had this big total and so I asked them we asked these guys where they put this meat on one more time as my big one. So next year, kind of towards August, do one more really big one and let my kids see a real big total. In October, I'll do a good one, but they all set a big one. So one last go.

What are going to be your openers here in October in a couple of weeks? You know, like probably 600 squat, maybe 360 and then 600 deadlift opener and then see where it goes. Who are you down in San Antonio with? Like what company, Gemmware? Jim Ware before the show about a couple different people you're working with. Yeah, so like I was, Bert, the owner of SorenX, we're doing a ton together coming up, especially with Anchor. Yeah, after you go and just smash spring cleaning, now that guy's like, thing, I need to hang out with Travis Mashmore. Those dudes have been so good to me, man.

Like, you know, the spring cleaning was to really launch what we're about to do. And then Anchor is the cable system they sell. And they paired with Jim Ware to be able to measure any type of vector with a cable. So whether it's rotational or horizontal. lateral, which is awesome, because so far, normally it's just vertical we've been able to measure with a barbell. So now we'll be able to measure anything you want to functionally in the direction that you want it. Even eccentric, like say if a golfer, you know, a backspin is super important. I mean, a backstroke is super important.

So we can measure your backstroke or we can measure a backhand. We can measure whatever you want. It's going to be awesome. Punches for our fighters like Ermal, so our big boxer, we'll be able to measure how, you know improvements i hate when people ask me am i getting better and i'm like i think so your kids use it yeah oh yeah they love it yeah that's when i see whenever i see you playing with it i'm like dude my kids would get jacked and not even know that they were lifting weights doing that they would just think it's a boy that they're they're playing with yep like

they would they my son would a hundred percent turn it up as high as it could go yeah see if he could move it sure without realizing that's how you get strong Yeah, and then they don't have to worry about one or, you know, going super heavy anymore. I did that on deadlift this weekend, too. Like, they used the gym wearer, the flex unit for the first time on deadlift. And so instead of going heavy, they just went to a certain weight and see you could pull it the fastest, it with good form. So that they dug that. Then they used the anchor, the cable machine, and punching with it, pulling with it.

They love it. Yeah. Makes it fun. So do I. Dr. Andy Galpin here. As a listener of the show, you've probably heard us talking about the RTA program, which we're all incredibly proud of. It's a culmination of everything Dan Garland and I have learned

over more than two decades of working with some of the world's most elite performers, award-winning athletes, billionaires, musicians, executives, and frankly, anyone who just wanted to be at their absolute best. Arte is not a normal coaching program. It's not just macros and a workout plan. It's not physique transformation and pre-imposed pictures. Arte is something completely different. Arte is incredibly comprehensive

and designed to uncover your unique molecular signature, find your performance anchors, and solve them permanently. You'll be working with not one person, but rather a full team of elite professionals, each with their own special expertise, to maximize precision, accuracy, and effectiveness of your analysis and optimization plan. Arte isn't about treating symptoms or quick fixes. It's about unlocking your full potential and looking,

feeling, and performing at your absolute best, physically and mentally, when the stakes are the highest. To learn more, visit areteelab.com. That's A-R-E-T-E-Lab.com. Now, back to the show. So that anchor unit's kind of so much like those old Kaiser units, but more inexpensive and just like blinks to an app on your phone to give you all of your peak power, average power, et cetera, et cetera, all your metrics.

It's super simple, man. It's like you just add a little attachment that adds 10 pounds or 5 pounds. And so you can add as much as you want. with these little things and it's the spring in it that adds the resistance and so it's super affordable like I think even with the

the gemware attachment it's 900 bucks and so but without it it's like 600 I'm just throwing numbers out without looking but it's way affordable you know for once for a cable system and it's you can move it you could put it in a tree like you know how Anders is doing his tree stuff he can

literally attach it to a tree and do anything he wants press his pulls jumps. Send one over. I will absolutely throw that on a log. It's awesome. It's so much fun.

You can jump with it, run with it, yeah. You're the majority of the way through building your log cabin, and then you're going to build an outdoor gym as well? Is that right?

Yeah, right next to it. My wife is never going to see me. She's, where'd Anders go? I don't know. No cell phone signal either. I can't call him. So we'll just hope he comes home.

I said to do your lock cabin yesterday. Yeah. Yeah, she's like, I showed my wife your lock cabin yesterday. She says, why? I said, why not? You know, like, that's awesome. It's, uh, why is because now I get to go camp outside. Like, we have, like, it's going to be like a full, I'm putting bunk beds in it.

So the kids have, like, a place with sleep. And it has, um, I built it around the stump of the first tree that I knocked down for it. So now we have, like, a dining room table built out of, like, a stone. and you can just sit down, eat dinner, fire. And then I have already laid out like a ton of big logs. There's actually like an event. It's not the one where you wear the kilt and go throw. What is that one called?

Highland Games. Highland games. Yeah. There's a different one. And there's a, but I saw it. What I want to do is I want to go find really big logs and then drill down. into them and then put like eye hooks like screw them deep into very heavy logs every foot so that I can like deadlift and RDL.

I saw the same thing. I know you're talking about. Yeah. In there. And I'll just every time you move it a foot forward, you probably add 30, 40 pounds to the whatever lever that you're using of the log. Like you're just picking more of it up each time. and you can easily measure it

it's just yeah you could super easily I don't even know how much it would weigh but if you have like a 400 pound log I would imagine lifting a 400 pound log with some carabiners and some straps sounds really awesome it looks so much fun I know exactly

what you're talking about there I saw a girl deadlifting it was like boom same check buddy you're on the same explore page I do I know exactly it's a monster I was like that looks so cool yeah you could do it with anything deadlift or whatever. Where do they do these weird strong band events like that?

I don't even know what that girl's name is, but now that we're talking about it, it's probably going to pop right up. As soon as I saw it, I was like, oh, that's exactly what I'm trying to do. You should build this out in Airbnb, because that sounds like the coolest experience. Hold on. There's in North Carolina, there's a guy that does that. They do corporate events. It's a fitness farm.

It's probably like not that far from your side of the house. All the cows, all the pigs, all the chickens, all the sheep, all the everything. thing giant barn and they run fitness events out there man that sounds so cool i've always wanted to do that the little i want to do the little air bmbs and make them fitness experiences you know like have the recovery but have workouts and like just have something different but that you're doing you're going to make like the instagram it's called the carolina fitness farm look at that they have a monstrous pure fitness you go there there's massive dude they should be paying for this ad read

right now. Seriously. I'm going to it right now. Actually, I don't know if I know the person but you know when you like see someone in the fitness world it's it's you might not know them but they all look the same because like oh you're like a jack dude that lifts weights and I know lots of those people

I feel like I've met this person before and I think they're near your part of North Carolina but they have a massive farm for all of these group fitness events and the like farm to table food and everything built out it's rad yeah four meal is like where jimware used to be i mean i'm sorry it's a lot it's where m d u sate muscle driver you

oh yeah yeah yeah it's like one hour for us yeah it looks awesome it's very very cool we just gave a huge shout out yeah i hope that people go and check it out if you're in it's got to be more in the charlotteish area but it is it's right below charlotte it's like four meal is like on the other other side of Charlotte, like MDUSA used to be half in Charlotte, half in Fort Mill. Yeah, but I'm stoked about it, man. I'm going to go and figure out how to lift really heavy logs. And then the other thing that I want to do is I want to put, like, doing cleans with really

logs is awesome. It's like really. Yeah. Yeah. And I want to drill, I want to essentially take like a piece of pipe, connect two trees together through the big pipe so that I have like an axis essentially to move a log around

and then drill a hole all the way through so that I can sit there and have cleaning jerks with trees all day long. I can just sit there and just clean trees and then lift them up and then let them fall but they never actually move so that it's kind of like in an area

that I get to go play around. Of course Gigi Mufu has been to the fitness farm of course anywhere cool you're going to find that guy yeah um maybe when i think of like when i think of like wood weights and things

like that's always that gym and touloum in Mexico oh yeah yeah you're going to build like the wood bench press and like the wood dumbbells and like the whole thing I would wood yeah dude you can set a pulley system up so easily

and do all of the all the pull downs obviously pull up very easy the speed and power stuff uh cleaning logs i got to figure out how to squat that's like one that i don't really know because if you have a tree that is like nine to 12 inches in circumference that's heavy enough that you would want to like do a real leg workout you have to figure out how to elevate i put a lot of thought in this guys uh i hear you elevate your body um so that you're standing on a platform that's stable enough to move really heavy weights but so And at the same time, have the log low enough because you will hit yourself in a place that doesn't feel good at full extension and lifting a log.

So there's a little bit of like figuring it out that still needs to be done. But all of this has been me just like brainstorming when I'm outside. Like, man, it's so good to go out and throw a bunch of lock. My stepdad will be out there and he's looking at me. He's like, how are you going to get this log eight foot in the air? And I go, I'm going to pick it up. And he goes, what are you talking about? You got to go climb a ladder, climb some scaffolding, pick a big ass log up,

throw it up. Dude, me and Doug were out there, and it's wild. I'm like the handy person that exists, too. It's all YouTube. Just go to YouTube. That's how you do it. Go to college. Just go to YouTube.

Find a skill that you like. And now what, Charlie, Charlie, this guy just got executed. Charlie Kirk is talking about, don't go to college. yeah so he said he dropped out but he reads 100 books a year so that's his education I feel like there's a good lesson for people listening like you just started building you didn't like form the perfect plan or watch all the YouTube videos or be like oh well all way all way all way you just started building and watching YouTube videos and studying and just fucking making mistakes and we can have tearing shit down and redoing it like you

just started going and it's you're just going like you have a project you have an idea like you just you just fucking get after it and then it just evolves over time until you're done yeah if you were to like you saw kind of like in the the middle part when you were out here Doug and like you can walk over to the log cabin and literally the first like three layers look like a complete amateur was trying to stack logs on top of each other and then now when you look at it and I brought some like actual machinery in I was like doing it by hand and like using an axe to like smooth logs out so having a chainsaw it makes life really nice using my chainsaw instead of like trying to be like a real paul bunion out there like i'm not i'm not using any tools um that was that was like the first quarter of it um dude i can like stack logs almost perfect now is that what it is it's just they're stacked there's no hammered There's like 12-inch railroad ties getting hammered through in four different locations to hold. Dude, it's like 12-foot high.

I'm legit, I'm chopping trees down. I shave all the bark off of it with a, there's a tool. I wish I had one close to me. It's called a draw knife. And that gets down to the, like, bare wood. All the bark comes off of it and turns it into like really beautiful wood. And then you go and pick it up and to get it that high, I have to get it over to a scaffolding and then pick it up onto a scaffolding. And then I literally have to bend down and pick it up in my arms, like roll it out of my hands onto another log.

And then I got to go in and I put a nail into it. And then I go and find all the parts that are uneven and chainsaw them down so that it's flat. and then I put four additional or three additional railroad spikes into it for each level. It takes just to lay one side. That's what I was going to ask you. How long does it take? It's like 30 minutes per log.

I've been working on this thing for like four months now. Still, for four months, you've made some great progress, I think. Yeah. Oh, I have a real roof, which is rad. So this weekend, I'm putting all of the metal tin on top of it. Wow, man. I'm proud of you. Like, I wouldn't know where to start other than, I guess, to just start.

That's all you do. Yeah. But I would say, it's super funny because I'm like, I feel like everywhere I go, I'm like, I should build a gym here. But like, I'm so stoked to build a natural gym where I'm just out there picking up. Like, yo, you want to do like sled pushes? No. Now we're just dragging trees through trails.

Yeah. Well, you know, when I was out, yeah. Well, when I was out there, like to me. move those logs like uh you know strong with these strong man event fingle fingers yeah i know exactly it's like it's like a big long log shaped piece of metal or whatever and they they basically deadlift it up to those shoulders press it overhead and they kind of like walk forward until until it's vertical and then they tip it over it's like it's not quite like uh you were mentioned highland games a minute ago like a video like the caper toss or you pick it up and you actually flip it over

this is this is more like with with heavy heavier logs you would just pick them up and flip them over because like picking them up and like dragging them is a no go if you don't have a second person on the other end of the log to carry it, you just need to flip it over end over end or end to get it where you want to go. And so we were doing a lot of those finger type flips when I was out there, which I thought was incredibly fun and it was actually very effective. Sure, man. That would be awesome, I think.

Yes. You could build the most incredible experience. Put one of those hot tubs that was like made out of wood, you know, though. That's not necessarily bubbles, but they can sit outside in the hot water. it'd be awesome. Yeah. We went to one of those before we moved out here. We still think about putting an Airbnb like a tiny home out here.

But they had one that was built like that and you fed it firewood to heat the hot tub. Yeah. Oh, that's sick. My older brother has a hot tub. He takes camping with him. Really? I'm like, you take a hot tub camping. He's like, yeah.

It's like a portable hot tub. but like it inflates and then somehow he heats it up. I don't know all the details, but yeah, he's, that's glamping for sure. You have a hot tub with you. I want to see that portable,

a portable hot tub. Now that, that takes the cake. Yeah. Oh, he loves it. He's like, dude,

you're out in the middle of the woods. Like, no light pollution. You just hang out, look at the stars like in your hot tub, like having a drink. Naked. Doesn't sound like camping,

but yeah, there you go. That's right. That's awesome. No, that's awesome. Like, Yeah, I messed my hot tub up.

So I got to get a new one. So I miss it so badly. That's my, I love it. I'm a guy who, you know, a lot of people buy a hot tub and never use it. Like, I use my every day. Like, you really? I did. That's messed up.

I got to get in you. How many times have you used your sauna? Oh, many times. You still use it? Well, I used it left throughout the summer in Memphis. It's already 100 degrees and super humid all the day. So it's like, the incentive to, like, get in my hot tub is lower. but through the winter I do

I actually really enjoy it through the cooler parts of the year it's probably like a weekly basis peak wintertime and then less than the summertime I'll use that shit for sure I wish it got hot that's the part that sucks about it

I appreciate the people that sent it to me I'm very grateful for them it sounds silly but I put a portable heater in my sauna because I want to make it hotter and it actually does the trick like infrared sonas don't get hot like barrel saunas do to your point

like having an export heater in there really really helps especially in the winter time when it's harder to get hot but still a lot of advantages just to the infrared though so much good those things do

yeah there's nothing bad about it it's just uh it's like the ones that the one that I have I don't have a heater in mine it's like it takes an hour to get warm and then it gets up to like 150 degrees and um the one at lifetime

is nicer when I lived there. You guys remember when we went to Sweden and we had the one in the house and then of course we went to the one and jumped in the Arctic ocean. That was amazing too, but that they do it right. Jumped in the North Sea. That was like

one of the highlights of life. And we did. We jumped in the North Sea. Jump in the North Sea. In the Arctic. The Arctic. Dude. Man. They were like a nine iron from like Antarctica or

where North Pole, like Santa Claus was sending some polar bears down to go swim with us. It felt like electrocution is what it felt like. He's like, ah, yeah. So, you know, Matt, back to the, back to the anchor conversation here. So wait, tell me more about that. Like, I've seen those devices before, but I've never actually used one. Like, you were saying that you get metrics on like rotational power and things like that. Like today, the only thing that I really know that does that well is like a proteus motion machine.

if you know what that is. Yeah, totally. They're so expensive, but. Yeah. They're very high quality, like big machines. Like you don't only find them at like a real gym or like a physical therapy clinic or something. They're amazing. Yeah, yeah.

This is like a more inexpensive version kind of like those or how is it the same or different? It's basically a cable machine. But with measuring, being able to measure power velocity, both peak and mean, of course, and eccentric power velocity in high, in disqualification. It'll also do distance. So you think about it if you want to do a broad jump, if you want to do a punch, if you want to do a swing, a rotational swing of any kind from any angle, high to low, low to high, if you want to do, say, a back swing, if you want to do a backhand, any motion, any vector,

and whether you want the eccentric or the concentric, you know, the number, then you can do it. And it's amazing. And so for our, you know, if you got a boxer or if you have, like we have the, you know, the best pickleballer in the world, if we want to be able to say that we're helping or not, I need to be able to give a metric, you know, like I tell him, if the squat's getting faster, if he can do a tri-bar jump faster. But now I can say at this vector, you know, at this contraction, you've improved this much. And so that's some, for me, it's amazing because I hate, I like to quantify and I like to be able to measure. So what we're going to do first is I'm going to take a bunch of our athletes here at rise and get some standards, you know, some, like, you know how we do the, when we do a force velocity profile, I want to do that in different vectors and be able to get some standards and I'll be

able to measure our athletes, see where we might want to target, and then monitor those improvements over time. And so within when Ben asked me, am I getting better, I can say yes or no. And if not, we need to make a change. You know, that's all it is. it's like if you're not measuring you're just guessing and our athletes are too awesome to guess so now and but we didn't have a you know we didn't have anything to make these notations with but now we do so I'm super excited so in the fact that they're going to be working with you guys with rapids athletes you know do we really call it rapid anymore is this new name like I still say well rap is the name of the company Arte is the main program that the majority of our clients are in so our rapid athletes are doing the R-R-T-A program. Sweet.

So, but our athletes are going to get on. And so, yeah, so it's awesome. Yeah. Wait, so you're working with Ben Johns. You mentioned a second ago. He's the best pickleball player in the world. He's one of the R-T-A athletes. And one of my favorite athletes of all time,

even though at first I was like, ah, pickleball. And I've told him this story, in case you're one. But now he's literally the most gangster athlete ever. Like, that dude is the most dial-in athlete I've ever worked with. He does not leave one stone and turn. the dude is going to dominate period that's his I love dude have you I mean I'm sure you're aware of all this but like don't quote me on the actual numbers here but like if you look at his stats they are fucking absurd like it's like he is the best by so far if you look at like the the tournaments he's won and you know the amount of gold medals he's gotten it's like he's gotten hundreds and like the second best person has gotten like four or something like that possibly the most dominant athlete in the world ever maybe yeah again don't quote me on the actual numbers but like it was something like a He had, I don't know what the trifecta is or some, you know, you win these three tournaments or that type of thing.

Like, he's done it like 20 times and in the, there's only one other person that's done it like once or twice. It's like he never comes back. He never comes back from a tournament and say, I lost. He's like, I won this, I won this, I won this. I got second here. One, one. Yeah. His background is in ping pong too, right?

I think so. You know, if you ever watch that To pickleball He went from ping pong to pickle ball Well, don't be knocking Pinkong as fast as hell Oh, I'm not knocking I'm saying it's an interesting sport

Because like I didn't even know I mean there's actually like a table tennis Like Olympics It's in the Olympics Yeah, they're crazy There's like a table tennis club That I drive by every once in a while Go in there

Go in there I always want to ping pong is like a sport over like you and your buddies you're like you're like I think I'm good I can do top spend and then you see people that are good you're like you suck you are the worst ping pong player ever it's like you leave there with a black eye yeah you're like I've had par at a golf course before you're like no wrong you are not benjons you're not tiger blitz no no dude he's so amazing and just like working with that guy like he is so you know he reminds

me of is the cyclists even though when I say this, you know, what was the Texas guy? He had a cancer. One day, he was crushing it. Oh, come on. We all know. One of our clients? No, no, no.

Just the cyclists who got popped for steroids. Oh, Lance Armstrong. Lance Armstrong. But if you've ever read his book, the dude was so in tune with everything. Literally, he would study aerospace engineering and he would call it, you know, the people who was

building his bike and have you thought about this if he thought about that and um which is what helped him you know when he got diagnosed with cancer he got so involved with his own doctors he's a big part of why they saved him him his own knowledge i say that because ben john is like he's like so in tune with every aspect of his game it's just amazing to talk to him his nutrition he's like you know he travels a lot of times with his own chef you like with you guys obviously with rapid you know we don't we don't miss anything we have sleep we do we track everything and so it just he fits you guys it fits our what we're doing at rapid like perfectly because he wants to know and like if if we find something like breathing a lot you know a lot of times people are going

I want to skip that he's not skipping anything he's good if he sees benefit he's doing it yeah I love that so so that's one of the primary things you guys are working on is like like speed and power for him speed and power you know and like um and he loves getting stronger and he just wants to get more powerful you know the more powerful that swing is the more vicious he embarrasses people like you know he'll make make them turn their back i would turn my back too so if for anyone i just made fun of he would do it to me too sorry but sure you that like in some cases they're like only like a few feet away from each other like no yeah they's like they might be like eight feet in front of you and they're going to hit that thing as hard as they can right as they can just turn your face away

Yeah, I quit. I'd walk off. I'd throw a paddle out of him and walk off. So I just love the guy. So, yeah, he wants to know and he wants to know improvements. And he likes doing cleans because, you know, he sees a benefit improvement. You know, clean will also relate to any kind of power. It'll relate to rotational power. But now we can actually measure rotation at any vector, you know, because with the thing about pickleball is different than golf. It's like, you know, they have the backhand. You know, they have so many different. strokes. And so we need to look at all the different ones and see where he needs to focus and then target it. Now we can target anything. We can even target his footwork because he wants to get,

he wants to be able to change directions better. So you can also monitor that now because you can monitor horizontal jumps, runs. You can do lateral, which is perfect for for pickleball, lateral jumps, lateral runs, you know, up to two or three steps, you know, which is what they need. that first step so anyway we're super excited and so is so is anchor there you know the anchor training systems they're super excited so is the gym wear they're pumped to to have been john so when i first threw it out you know they they jump right on it so anyway but they're going to do both of them both of our athletes so yeah you said you're doing some of that with our mall too our mom all too yeah of our boxing yeah our mall's a beast like he's just he's just he's

He reminds me of Rocky. He is tough. I would not fight him. I'd shoot him. But like, he's tough. Every time I see a picture of him, I think I'm so happy that I wasn't like 23 years old in a bar and said something. They could fight with him. Because like he's kind of small and really lean.

And a good look at God. Like a little man. And then all of a sudden he would hit you 45 times in three seconds. Oh, yeah, dude. He would only have to teach you once, though. No idea. He's so powerful. He's like, Doug, you know, Doug looks so nice. He's good looking, well, and then Doug will break your head off.

He'll choose you out. Yeah. Yeah, man, it's not like when I was growing up. Larynx here. Can you help me build that back, buddy? You can't pick bar fights anymore. You just don't know who will break your neck, you know? Like, he's a good-looking dude.

Like, you know, he's the guy who will hit on your girlfriend. You're going to go, I'll show you. Not only does he take your girlfriend, he knocks you. he knocks you out too. Now what? Now that's the worst night of your life. For the rest of your life, getting knocked out, and him holding hands with your girl on the way out the door.

Yeah, man. So. You don't want that. It's just good as an exercise scientist to have something to measure all the... And for like anybody like our age, it's good to do something besides... To be able to measure improvement in power is important because, you know, Andy,

will tell you we lose power is one of the first things to go and nobody thinks the big deal so who cares i don't need power you do because the things that you're losing is it's not good you're talking about the neurological connections that's what you're losing you know you're losing like your rate coding you don't want to lose that you don't want to lose the speed that your brain is is sending that signal to your muscles to do something nor do you want to lose the the reflexes either nor do you want to lose like the tendon elasticity all those things come into play when you're talking about losing loss losing power so it's not just losing power then you're losing the physiological capabilities of power which has other you know detriments that you got to think

about so that's what people miss yeah i mean yeah like speed goes first then then power and then you know everyone knows old man strength old man strength is a thing nobody says old man speed it sounds ridiculous. Like everybody knows old guys are slow, but like grip strength and like old just like isometric strength, but those things kind of stick around for, you know, at least for a while longer than speed and power for sure, which is kind of why like jujitsu is something that you can still do as you get older because like like isometric strength is something that you can have a game in jujitsu that's like very much focused on slowing down the other guy

as opposed to as opposed to outrunning the other guy. And so people can do jih Tzu for a long, long time as a total side note. You can still do jih Tzu like much longer than boxing or kickboxing or or football or what have you. But I also find that as I get older, I'm only 42, but the desire that I have to to move fast,

like I used to want to move fast like I fucking, it felt great to move fast. And now and now it's not the same as it used to be. I have to like make myself do speed training and make myself do power training. where I used to, I used to, like, that's what I wanted to do. That was the fun stuff. It felt awesome. You're talking about snatching before the show.

Like, it just feels good to snatch. It feels fucking crisp and clean, especially if you're lifting sub max weight. And it's like, it's like fast and just like, pop, pop, pa, pop. It feels just amazing. It loves doing that. Yeah, me too. It looks cool. And, but now, now I have to like consciously be like, okay, I need to like do whatever,

depending on whatever's hurting or achy on me. Like something that's speed power oriented that's going to still feel good, not not giving me any joint pain, what have you. But it's like, it's much more conscious now. So if you're out there and you're in your 40s or 50s, you're getting older, like you need to incorporate things into your training that you can still do where it's pain-free movement.

But at the same time, you're moving as fast as you physically can or you're going to regress even faster if you don't train it. I tell you, like a trial bar, it's simpler, you know, like a clean, so technical. Sometimes if you haven't done it by the time you're 40, it's not a good time to pick it up, in my opinion, you know, like just do a trial bar jump. It's simpler, you know, and you can go super light. it's more speed you could do just the trap bar and do some hang jumps but keep moving i anybody listening to it's like you guys like it's important it's not just losing speed you're losing

the physiological capabilities and with that comes other detrimental you know things in your life that you don't want to happen like you know you fall can't get up you fall because you can't move fast enough to catch your catch yourself you know yeah and you're getting weak all the velocity based training stuff that you that you're such a big fan of and that we all we all love so much like that's all great but then even like easy stuff like like all shadow box or just hitting the heavy bag um you know full speed burpees you just do like three to five burpees at 100% full speed speed you sprawl and then you stand up and jump as high as you can like i'll do you know triples every minute on the minute which is like not going to make you that tired but it's just it's

just something to get some full speed reps in a short rest full speed reps a short rest do that you know for for five to ten rounds or whatever and like i'll do that at the end of my warm up and then go train and then I've gotten like some real full speed work in like doing something that that's pretty athletic if you're if you're doing those 100% full speed like where you're sprawling and jumping as high as you can at the end of the movement like that's a pretty athletic movement especially again if you're as you get older most most people in the 40s 50s and 60s aren't like sprawling and jumping as high as they can on a regular basis again not that fancy but it's just it's just something that's easy to do you can do

anywhere it doesn't require any weights where you're moving at full speed of course hill sprints and all the other stuff that we talk about all the time is like that's part for the course at this point like we talk about hill sprints probably every third show I love hill sprints uh but to all those things like you got you got to keep doing them yeah I would say too the airdine is my favorite every day every week say what air get on an airine it's the best yeah going as fast you can you know I do agree with Andy like no but we most people skip that as they get it older like and even I'll find myself I'd much rather just do the you know the like what's it called the level two cardio the or there's so many different

names yeah zone two but like i love getting on the aeronics i don't have to worry about technique i don't have to worry about pulling my hamstring or anything and just go as hard as i possibly can for eight to ten seconds take a long break do it again you know like yeah you like i love that feeling of being you know out of breath like you know like when you play football you hockey i love that when you go all out and you're laying like on your back and you felt that work. There's something to that too that, you know, that rush you're going to get from that.

So I definitely love the A-Dine for that. I tried doing it with the Rower. It felt like my back. I felt it, but the A-Dine is perfect. I can go as hard as I want. No repercussions. So. Yeah.

So try. A heart attack you feel like you're about to have. I wanted to add to that, the gymnastics side. Like, I notice. I'm always envious of like watching my kids how low to the ground they are and you're that low to the ground like you can just move without feeling like

all your whole body is about to just feel gravity and it's just going to crumble your body but like getting onto your hands is a skill that kids don't even think about and you've seen my wrist mobility. It's zero at best and like sometimes they'll be like you want to do a car wheel

And I'm like, well, that's a long ways away. Let me think about this before I, like, let me warm my body up before I just put all my body. Can you do one, Anders, can you do a cartwheel now? Can you do a cartwheel now? Oh, yeah. I'm not incapable. The part that annoys me is that when they, when they're doing them, I have to think about it versus just doing it. Like that, that just a little thought of like, I should probably think about this before I.

It's like when you're a kid, you don't think, oh, I'm going to jump off of this log or this stump or whatever you're jumping off of. You don't think, like, this could hurt. But if I'm standing like something that's like four foot in the air, I'm like, I'm going to put my hand down. I'm going to a little bit closer to the ground before I let it go. Like same thing with gymnastics side of things where it's like I can do the cartwheel. I can do the round off. I can do the thing. but I have like a second

where I'm like, let's think about this before we just go in. Yeah. Travis Mash. Where are the people find you? You go to mashlead.com and like almost everything we talked about is on, like even my anchor stuff is on there.

And soon any minute this thing comes, it might be out now. And if it is, by the time it shows out, you'll be able to go into my bio and go check out the anchor. So whether you go to my Instagram, which is Masterly Performance, or my Twitter slash X, which is at Mass Elite. They'll both have my bios, link in my bios, and it'll be in there.

Do you feel like if I used the anchor thing that I could get a super swall back in the same way of doing a seated row? Oh, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yes, you can get, yeah, because you can get it so heavy, you can't budge that thing. Yes, absolutely. And they sell these attachments. So do I'm actually dot com.

But you can get the attachments on there where you can, you know, you can do like two arm rows. Like it's super cool, man. So, oh, use code MASH DP for free shipping and a data plate. So MASHDEP. That's terrible. I just thought, oh, no. That's terrible. Left his body for like 48 cents in a fill of the fees.

Code MASH DP. Do you guys anybody hearing this besides me? No. I'm just going to leave it. alone. That's a terrible name for us. I love it. I have no codes. I have no codes to promote.

Dude, 100% transparency. Honestly, I didn't even know that you had a code for this thing. You caught me off guard with the codes there. But you should go get one. I fucking totally want one of those things. Hook it up, man. I'm going to use code mash. I'm never going to hook that up too. I'll bring one out to the forest

and I'll like spray paint on a tree. Isaac, like, you literally make these carabiners for you to hook it around trees. They're so cool, yeah. Oh, man, your level of influencer just went so high. I love it. I'm Andrew Warner at Andrew Warner, and we are Barbell Shrugged at Barbell underscore Shrugged. Get over to Rapid HealthReport.com.

We're Dan Garner and Dr. Andy Galpinner doing a free lab lifestyle and performance analysis, and you can access that at Rapid HealthReport.com. Friends, we'll see you guys next week. Thank you.