Barbell Shrugged - Rebuilding Strength and Purpose, Travis Mash's Path Back to the Platform w/ Anders Varner, Travis Mash and Doug Larson #822

Episode Date: November 5, 2025

In this episode, Anders Varner, Doug Larson, and Travis Mash sit down for a story that is equal parts comeback and evolution. After a hip replacement and years away from competition, Mash, now over 50 years old, stepped back onto the powerlifting platform to go nine for nine and set new age group world records. He breaks down how he rebuilt his body, balanced strength with health, and used velocity-based training to stay powerful without breaking down. The crew digs into how technology, recovery, and smarter training allow veteran lifters to keep progressing long after their prime years, and why Mash believes everyone over 50 should use bar speed tracking to train safely and effectively. Travis opens up about his modern approach, tracking VO₂ max, focusing on sleep quality, and embracing conditioning as a secret weapon most powerlifters ignore. He explains why he is competing just twice a year from now on, the methods that rebuilt his deadlift after chronic back pain, and how discipline has replaced the reckless intensity of his younger days. His goal is not just to lift big again, but to model longevity, work ethic, and integrity for his kids. The conversation turns deeply personal when Mash shares how his son's recent basketball tryout failure became a father-son lesson in resilience. From youth sports to elite competition, the group reflects on how loss, hard work, and long-term consistency shape champions. They also swap stories of athletic breakthroughs, from Doug's failed baseball tryout that launched his strength career to Anders' early lifting days and the raw power of athletes like Ed Coan and Ryan Fischer. This episode is a look at what it means to age as an athlete, how to stay in the game, keep the fire alive, and prove that strength and purpose do not fade with time. Work With Us: Arétē by RAPID Health Optimization   Links: Anders Varner on Instagram Doug Larson on Instagram Coach Travis Mash on Instagram

Shrude family this week on Barb Bell Shrug. Homies hanging out. Coach Travis Mash is back talking about his most recent powerlifting meet. It's probably been like 15 years since that guy stepped on a platform, getting super jacked in front of all the people, and he's lifting big weights again. We're going to be digging into his training program, the mindset, periodization, and kind of like the buildup of how he's getting back into powerlifting.

He's actually going to be going and attacking all these young kids out there, all these young bucks. The old man is coming for you. If you're a power lift or listen to this show and you feel someone breathing down your neck, that's Coach Travis Mash and he's coming for you. He's going to take your lunch money. 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 and performance analysis

and you can access that over at Rapid Health Report.com. Friends, let's get into the show. Welcome to Marvel Strong. I'm Anders Warner. Doug Larson, Coach Travis Mash, the man of the next 40 minutes. don't call it a comeback. He's been here for years. Yeah. It's not coach Travis Mass today.

Today it's athlete, Travis Mash. That sounds good. Travis Mash. Dude, back to the platform. Yes. I want to hear the story. What, you know, first off, let's get into like the training. I know, man, we've been talking about this for like months now.

And I think there was like a little hiccup in there that you didn't even know if you were going to be able to like, yeah, the hand. I didn't know if that was it or if there was something else. Um, yeah, take me kind of back to the beginning of training. How'd you set your training up? Um, and of course, we want to understand how you manage to squat, 135 pounds for your third squat. That's impressive. Yeah, well, um, wow.

Oh, you didn't hear the joke. I was so silly I had to gloss over that one. You got an eye roll. It's all I got. Yeah. So, yeah, well, I went to, what started it was, um, at Sorenex, at Summerstrong. I, I did there a little. squat and deadlift and that's so much fun it was exhilarating and i squatted like uh 550 there and

deadlifted 550 and i just like got the bug again and so i decided to train for competition and it was it was just so much i've done it way different because i'm still trying to like keep my health too so i'm looking at the o2 max is important as well so i'm like i'm not used to that and i've always been just all about strength and not worried about the other things but you know this one's been more well thought out. And so, but it was good. I went,

you know, I went nine for nine. I peered my squat, my bitch, my deadlift, everything. I was conservative though. I wanted my first meet back just to like establish something.

Yeah. How did you, uh, like handle the, the, the Travis Mash numbers of old and the new Travis Mash. Like, um,

even for, because you haven't competed in a long time, but even like the starting. weights for like just getting good reps and quality volume at the beginning of a cycle. Well, you know, the thing is that I had my hip replaced in January. So like I had to be, you know, it's not like I was going to be able to do seven or eight hundred pounds. And so like I just wanted to get back and establish that first one. Now, with I have all intention of putting up more Travis Mash-ish list next year.

But I just wanted to get back in the game. And so, you know, so I was conservative. You know, I mean, I could have done more. All my last lifts were super easy. So, but, you know, I got more. I've done more than I've ever done. I've been really smart. I use velocity to make sure I only missed one lift the entire time.

And so that was like a dead lift off blocks. It was just where I was trying to go super heavy. So by using velocity, that really takes a lot of the madness I used to have out of the equation, like where I would just always miss and like always beat myself. up. So that has been a big help. And I think, man, I swear everyone that's 50 and above. They should use it. So you just don't do something stupid. If you're like me, because just because you're 50 doesn't mean you're not that stupid kid. I still am. And I'll still, I'll go as heavy as I can go. But, you know, when I say, look, keep it above 0.35, I'm going to keep it above 0.35. It keeps me from

get hurt. So which is a huge key. Yeah. For the, for the audience that that don't follow you on Instagram that are new to the show like one more time like run through all your stats like like how old are you what height height and weight like what were your old lifts and then and then walk us through like the walk us through the whole the whole meat like like lift by lift like what were you thinking for openers and and how do you feel etc sure all right so um I'm five six I'm I weighed I should have gone 198 but like my son was competing was he's playing football so I couldn't in the 198's competed on Saturday so I went to 20 but I was nowhere near I don't even know what I weighed in, maybe 210, you know, like, so I was way below 220s, but I just, you know, I wasn't trying to, I actually found out I broke some world records for my age, you know, so, but it was hard because in my old list.

I was squatted over that part. Yeah. No big deal. Yeah, I know. I didn't know it until just the other day. But, you know, my old list, I'll go raw because used to, I, I've squatted 805 several times raw. That's just in these sleeves. I've done 535 bench and I'm deadlifted 805 raw.

I did that in a competition. So I've done though. Those are my highest ever. And that was, you know, in my 30s. And so it doesn't, it's not that I'm not trying to go after those. I am. It's just I'm going to go slower and I'm going to be smart. I'm going to go as long as I can go until I start getting hurt bad.

So I'm going to, but I'm for once, I'm going to listen to Ed Cohn. I'm only going to compete twice a year, period. I want to do two meets a year, and next year I'll start competing again around August, and I'll do two. Between August and December, I'll do two meets. But right now I'm on my hypertrophy phase. I'm trying to get strong, add muscle, but I'm trying to stay lean. So I hope to compete 198 next year.

I was 220. When I did all these numbers, I told you about the 805, 535, 805, I was always 220, And I was well above $2.20, $2.40 probably. Because we had 24 hour, either 24 hour or 48 hours in the WPO, we had two-day weighings. So people would, and shit, people would lose so much weight. But this time we're going to be, you know, smarter. But I still have, I hoped to be in the 700s, 400s, and 700s, which now, believe it or not, since that meet, I felt myself take this big jump again. And, like, I feel like things have gotten way better, you know, since the meat.

It's like, it just, it just took some time. But now, you know, in my deadlift, the hardest part of it was deadlift is my back. It'll hurt so bad. And so I've had to really work in it. But with my chiropractor and using some of Sue McGill's, you know, low back stuff, now I've got my back strong again. So that's going to be the biggest, you know, it's going to look like a massive jump. But it's just down my back.

it finally is feeling strong. I couldn't pull hard. You know, like if your back hurts, it just won't let you exert force, but now it's back. And so I'm excited about next year. I'm excited to bid those big numbers. I want to get on stage with the best of the world again.

I don't plan on... Who is the best in the world? I would say that guy, ah, which is his name. He's incredible. You know, it's the thing is that I'm not obsessive anymore. to you, I could have told you right off. But, yeah, I can't remember.

But there's a guy there who's really strong. And he's 800 plus. You're talking about your age back or you're talking about just powerlifting? No, no, I'm not doing age. I want to go. I competed in open at this one. And so I beat, I won the open group. But, no, I want to go overall.

And I, you know, like I said, I don't care about winning, but I want to be there with the best. If I'm squatting, if I'm 198 and I'm squatting sevens, and I'm benching, and I'm benching, in the number fours and deadlift and sevens you know that'll be good enough to be considered one of the best of all and so yeah I just googled uh and Nick best

showed up Nick best long time he's way bigger than you yeah yeah 260 that doesn't count yeah no no no this guy is like there's a one ninety eighter out there now who is really down strong and like he's put up some huge he will beat me but like but I just want to be able to go against

him you know and I'm not going to do what I would need to do to win either. You know, I'm not going to endanger my health. You know, that would defeat the purpose. The whole point is to show my kids, you know how all the dads will say, well, when I was this age, I used to do this and I used to do that. I want them to see it, and they saw it. They saw me, you know, they saw me beat all these young kids.

They see me, you know, right now I'm normally training twice a day. I get up every day at 5 a.m., and I do my conditioning and my mobility downstairs every day. And so they're seeing that. They're seeing me get up. Sometimes they'll come down and work out with me, and they're seeing me do mustard training. That's the whole point. So if I start in danger to my health, that's not good.

I don't want to show them that. I want them to see me just work hard and, you know, they'll see it. I don't want to be that guy that I used to. They're seeing it. It's helping too, you know. Yeah. It's really helping. Wait, so your back held up on the deadlift then?

Like, how are you feeling through warm-ups and you hit your opener and then where you go from there? At the meet, no, at the meet, Doug, I thought on, squat felt great. Like, my final, I squat, but I squatted 561 and I deadlifted 561. And but on my, when I started warming up for deadlift, I honestly was considering pulling out. It hurts so bad. It hurt so bad. And, but right before, honestly, literally right before we started, I did one more warm up and it went away.

And so I was able to compete. And so my final deadlift looked like a joke. Everybody was like, are you not even trying? But since then, I went back to some of my old training. I'm doing the, all I'm doing is speed day. I'm doing dynamic effort one day and using bands. And on the other day, I'm doing RDLs from a deficit with bands. It's the very thing that took my deadlift.

used to, I'd delve at 7.30, and in 10 weeks, I did this thing I'm telling you, and it jumped from 730 to 800 pounds in those 10 weeks. And I never did it again. I was such an idiot. But now I'm doing it. All of a sudden, my back feels so good. Like, it doesn't hurt ever now. Dr. Andy Galpin here.

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And so I'm going to beat a lot of young people. They're going to break a lot of hearts. But, you know, it's going to be fun. So I can't wait to do it again now. Because even my bench is, because I'm doing a lot of it on benchpress, I'm just doing linear periodization right now. So I'm in eights and tens. And I'm hitting the same numbers. did when I first started benching well into the 400s. So I have, you know, I'm sure I'm into the 400s now. And my squatting and deadlifting, I think will be in the 700th century. But, you know, but I'm not going to compete, like I said, until the end of next year.

So it's going to be fun. I can't need to do it. So if you have like the same fire to be able to get out there and do that. I actually couldn't imagine, uh, weightlifting like, like the, the mindset that it takes to get on platform. I'm like so far from that. A kid this morning, I was snatching 145 or 165 pounds, triples just to let you know. Nice. Nice. Total savage. But a kid came up to me and he's like, what are you doing? What muscles does that work? And I wanted to be like almost none. It's so light. Like,

this is embarrassing. But I mean, he's being really nice and like had never seen Olympic lifting before. And, um, but I honestly was just like, I could not imagine. and feeling the pressure that I need to go, like, do this very, very well. Like, just getting up there and, like, my opening weight being, like, 165, and we're like, just go home, Anders. Like, this is not, you've cut, we've fallen too far to be standing on the woods right now. I love being at the stage. I love taking these steps. I mean, you know, the worst part of any sport is when you're at the top.

It's, hanging on to the top is the worst. It's the climb. It's so much fun. Like, right now, like, nobody, I have no expectation. since nobody even knows what's about to happen, you know, until it'll be too late, you know, like, I love it. It's like I feel like I'm slow boiling. You know, a frog, when you put a frog in a boiling water and you slowly turn it up. I feel like I'm doing that to a lot of young power filters.

They won't know until it's too late, you know. Old man's walking around. Yeah. And I feel, it's like, I feel so good. You know, I just probably like being much healthier, though, I think is like probably a big super weapon. It is a super weapon. Yeah. Just feeling good matters so much.

Yes, I'm sleeping good. You know, like Chris Perry, I use all his principles. You know, shout out to Rapid, but I use all his sleeping. And that's been a huge help. I just do a lot of things I didn't do when I was young. You know, I've always been pretty good with nutrition, but now I'm really dialed in there. So my body fat is super low and like, you know, and just stay in condition. A lot of power lifters make a huge mistake.

Even when I was younger, I did a lot of work capacity. And so, like, I was able to do more volume than they were. Over time, you know, because I did work capacity all the time, by the, by the, when I was at the top, I was just so more conditioned than everyone else. You know, come deadlift, I felt great. And they're like, so funny how so many powerlilters are half dead come, you know, the deadlift. I'm like, we've only lifted like six minutes and your guys are dying, you know, like. anyway, but it feels good to be competitive again, you know, and just join my kids. You know, my son, like, did they go?

I assume they went to the meeting. Oh, yeah, they saw it. Yeah, they saw it. And, like, it was, talk about motivational. When you see your sons and your daughter out in the audience, you're like, I'm not missing. There's no way I'm missing. You know, like, I'm just not. And like, it was yesterday, my son, Rock, he tried out for the basketball team.

And he's like the young one. He's like the youngest you can be on this team. And he didn't make it. And so, like, it was the best. I took him on a long walk. I said, son, I said, you can, you have some options here. You can, like, say, I hate basketball, never try it again. Or you can look me in the eye and say, we're going to put a plan together.

And I promise you come next year, you'll be the best on the team. What do you want? And like, and he looks at me in the eye, he's like, we're going to work hard. And so it was just, it was like, it was like all for that one moment. It was great. You know, that's, that's the hardest thing I've ever had to do was yesterday. When I got that stupid text that he didn't make it and knowing I was going to have to tell him and like, I mean, I've not made team. I remember, you know, like in Little League, not making stupid baseball, you know, like, I remember specifically learning that I wasn't that good at hockey.

Yeah, it hurts. Like, oh, there's lots of people as good significantly better as well than this. Like, I've been the best for a long time. And now I'm playing with all these other kids that are shaving. Like you got to go get in a bigger pond and you find out really quick. You're like, oh, man. Right. This is a lot to me for a long time now.

Dude, I actually don't know. I don't know if you guys actually know this. So my entire life I played baseball, T-ball through high school. And I was essentially like always the best player on my team. Like I was I was naturally built to be a baseball player got long lanky arms You know strong with long arms like that's great for baseball So I was like always the pitcher in the shortstop in the center field or like right with middle I always you know batted three or four in the lineup and whatever whatever like I never like went to play pro baseball

I totally should have tried to play in college instead of playing college football was way better at baseball But I um in high school like I made the the freshman team like easy I went to like freshman tryouts And one of the coaches there had seen me play the season before. And he came to me right in the middle of tryouts and was like, dude, I saw you crank a bunch of home runs last year. Like, don't worry about it. You're on the team. And then the next year, there was new coaches and like people I didn't know. And then very specifically remember two throws where I totally overthrew somebody like blatantly bad in tryouts, like right in front of the new coach.

He doesn't know me. and was like, part of me was like, oh, that's not good. And part of me was like, there's no way I'm not going to make the team. Like there's no chance. Like I know all these guys, I've been playing with all these guys for years. Like I'm definitely making the baseball team. Like, yeah, of course. And then, and then I didn't.

And like, I remember being like, I remember being shocked. Like, I can't believe I didn't make the sophomore like baseball team. Unbelievable. But, but the, the, uh, silver lining there is that that was when because I didn't go to baseball practice. I just went to the weight room. And that's when I met my strength coach Mark, who's like still one of my best friends to this day. He's the guy that taught me to lift weights. And he's like the reason that I went down the path that I went down. He was so influential in my life. So like missing, missing those throws, which was like detrimental to me like in that moment.

Like I couldn't believe like a football team was the thing like put me on the path to like learn how to lift weights and to like go down the exercise physiology, rabbit hole. And like, and here I am today. I know. I'm excited that he's, I think for Rock and I, it's going to be great bonding because he looked me in eye and wants to do this thing. Like, you know, like, we're going to work hard. And like, I'm, he's going to crush the next year. How old is he now? He is, uh, 11. I think about it. Levy as well. So that was the hardest day. Like Mike Boyles, it's like ingrained in my head. I've heard him say it so many times. And I also like fully. believe what he says of like um like having your kids in gymnastics and running and playing and jumping and climbing trees and just like being being a kid and like having like a broad uh broad physical development um until you get to like eight nine 10 11ish yeah that's like you're 11 you got to go pick one you got to go figure out want to be good at something um it's also

interesting like you telling that story because it aligns with when you might get cut like everyone's playing the game at a level where like you might not make the team you gotta kind of decide is this like something I want to be at like I never I've only thought about it from like the physical the athletic development side

not so much the like at that stage like you do get cut that people are like getting self-selected for the high school team or middle school yeah I wasn't that good in elementary school I was a lay bloomer and like in seventh grade I told my son this whole story

I was like in seventh grade I made the basketball team but I was like the last place you know barely eighth grade I was kind of good ninth grade I'm the best and it was like I just outworked everybody

I'm five six I'm not supposed to play basketball but then all of a sudden I'm dunking and like I'm the short wide guy slamming the ball and like changed everything it's like I just hated not you know being not good

and the only good, I had a stepfather, I don't know how to say this, but I had to stepdad, and he did teach me how to be competitive and how, he was an incredible athlete. And he just started teaching me things like, you know, I like to just play. And I like, I love my teammates and I want to be their friend. And he's like, look, you can beat them and they'll still be your friend.

And something clicked to me. And like, I became the animal then. And I'm like, oh. And like, I didn't want to hurt. I didn't want to beat them. I didn't want to make them mad. You know, like, and then it changed everything. So they'll still be a friend.

You know, if you're starting, you're supposed to beat them. I'm like, oh. And then I'm glad I told me that. I always know, Anson, my little dude, I go, it's very important to be a good teammate, but it's a lot easier to make friends if you win and score a lot of goals. Right. Right. Like, you know, if you really want friends, the guy that scores a lot of goals.

Yes. If you're the best on the team, you'll get lots of friends. And so I was so proud of Rock the way he took it. Like, I dreaded so bad. Man, we got out at church and Drew got the text while we're at church. And she didn't want to tell me sitting there. They're on the way home. She told me it crushed me.

But it crushed. No one had to go tell my son that. But I was so proud of it when he was like, he's like, all right, let's go hard. And so. Did you have any moments like that in Power? lifting where you had to decide that you're going to be good? You know, like, I do remember, I was, what I have to bet, I've always been in powerlifting, nobody was going to beat me, you know, like until Ed Cohn.

Yeah, did you like win in powerlifting right away? Yeah, yes. In seventh grade, I did a power lifting on a whim and beat everybody, you know, just, I was always stronger than everybody, you know. But then there was a time in 19-90s. I told my son the same story. In 1997, when I was competing in junior worlds, and I'd only totaled like 17-something.

I was like, something I was like, something I'm going to beat Ed Cullen's record. And remember at that time, it was 2,408, and I just totaled 1,700. And all these people around me were like, you're crazy, be realistic. I remember all the comments. Fast forward, so this was 1997, fast forward 2004, right?

And the night before my guy comes to me, the one who told me be realistic. He comes to my room that night. He says, you're about to make me eat my words, aren't you? I'm like, I'm absolutely going to make you eat those words tomorrow. It's so, but like, I never said anything because what am I going to say? I'm totally 1700. They're right right now.

But boy, did that fuel me. I like, every day in training, I hear those words, be realistic. Come on. Be serious. It's seven years later, middle finger to him, you know? So, like, yeah, yeah. And I remember, I remember in 2001 when I first started being a pro powerlifter and in walks Ed Cohn to weigh in.

And I, like, got sick. And I had to leave and throw up. Like, I was so nervous when I was around him and, like, Jesse Kellum. And then all of a sudden, the West Side boys, you know, you got Chuck Vogelpool and all those guys. But then that very first pro meet, things changed because my very first one, I tied Vogelpool right out of the gate. Like, we tied, he won by body weight. And he was like, it was so funny because he came over to me.

He's like, what's your name? You know? He's like, I'm watching you now. But he still was my friend. But then I started beating him. Then he hated me. He would never talk to me again. Like, he's okay with me until, you know, as long as he beat me by body weight, he was okay.

but let's start beating about over 100 pounds he hates me. I'm like, you shouldn't hate me. I'm killing you. If I'm killing you, you might as well just love me because you can't beat me. Yeah.

It's super interesting because to be able to keep up with those guys, like that was something in like, in many aspects of like my athletic career where I would just meet somebody that was like so far ahead of me. Yeah. I would be like,

let's like, um, finishing in like, I played CrossFit relatively well. But then I met Ryan Fisher. And I was like, whoa, whoa. This guy. Like, what edigree did this dude come from?

Like, he's not, like, we had a gym that was like, I mean, we finished like 12th in the world one year in the open. And like, Fisher manhandled everybody we trained with all the time. And then it would be terrible. terrifying because like Fisher would get out there and he'd finish in like the top six like he never went to the games you're like why does he look average and he looks makes us look terrible he'd be like for me to get there man I need do genetics like this is a different vibe right now like degrees of separation and that's that's really how like the first I remember we're like when I when I got to like when I when I left home at 14 and I got to school like to play to play hockey nobody had ever

like I was better than everybody but then all of a sudden I met kids that were like way deep into puberty and I was like holy crap like I've never even seen people shoot a hockey puck like this in my entire life and I'm supposed to play against them they have beards what yeah

I got to go to the NHL combine one year they're some beasts they all have those beers they're trying to look you know tough or whatever but you know they all look crazy so yeah that's a rude awakening to be able to like to be to actually be able to get better at a rate to be able to catch somebody like Ed Cohen is crazy.

I remember seeing him and he looked like a cartoon character. He literally didn't look real. I mean, he looked fake. I just, you know, I'm like his arms. I mean, I don't know if you know this, but like they're used to, he was in a magazine once with at the time, Mr. Olympia, Dorian Yates, and they're doing this side by side of them. That's up Jack that boy. I mean, his back, you know, Dorian was known to have the best back of all times.

time. And here it is, Ed's back is similar. So when I first saw him, I'm like, holy shit, man. Yeah, it was like, you know, it made me for a split second thing to myself, maybe I'm not realistic, you know, but then, you know, I just kept going, kept going. Yeah. But if you're, if you're, if you're like getting better at the rate, like that was the, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's like the, the, the speed of getting better. And that's like, meaning on people matters a lot. and the momentum. But when you can see somebody that, like, and I mean, this happened,

I'm like a slightly above average athlete in most things. But when people are, like, designed, their body is just designed to do a certain thing. Like, when you look at Fisher and you're like, where did you come from? He's like, the bobsled. You're like, of course you did. Yeah.

Like, of course you did. And then how'd you find CrossFit? Well, because we did Olympic lifting for the bobsled. And I was also he also competed in college in Olympic lifting. It's like your body is just you are you are like the caricature of these three events. They're just different representations of the exact same body type and speed and power. And you're a freak. That's, you are a complete freak.

If his knees would have held up, he would have gone a lot further in CrossFit also. Like he was just out for injuries too, too early. Like I remember when we were in, I guess we were in Sweden, we were in Denmark for the one ton challenge. like in 2019 and he wasn't back squatting because of his knee issues. And so he was doing reverse lunges with 405. Yeah. I'm pretty sure he did. That was like after.

That was like 14. Yeah. He did 190 kilos. That's right. He did. And I was like, 419. I mean, even I was like, holy cow, man.

Like, yeah. Because he was like, because he did something. He did like, he might have done like 180. And he's like, what do you think I should do? I'm like, what's your best? I remember being like 190, 100% go 190 because it was so easy. Sure enough, he smashed it. Oh, what, a reverse lunch.

I wouldn't try that, no way. No way. And I would probably split an half, I think. And that's like after his peak performance years. Like, I love fishing. A freaky dude. He's a great guy. He reminds me of like he would need, I feel like he needs somebody to taper him back,

to pull him. That would be the hardest. When I first met him, he used to drive me insane because I was sleeping like three hours, four hours a night trying to like, I had a run your business. A full-time job back on the East Coast. They didn't even know I was on the West Coast. I opened the gym. Oh, yeah. Figure out how to like do all this.

And then Fisher shows up and like, I was like good. Like our crew of training partners were like, we were all individual regional athletes for like four or five years in a row. And then Fisher showed up and was like homeless, like actually like couch surfing. Like I mean, I would like to have a home. Yeah. And now a multimillionaire. Yeah. He would.

Right? He would then. And he would just like sit in the gym all day long. And they'd come back and I'd be like working for my job on the East Coast and trying to be a professional. And he'd be like, what should I do? I'm like, dude, you've worked out. twice today, be like, you think I should road like a 10K? And I'm like, I don't care.

Just get off. You're sitting on my desk right now. Get out of here. Like, leave. Go do something. Get nowhere to go. Get nowhere to go. And then he'd come back and he'd be like, is six minutes good?

Is that, is that good? Or like, just some like, it's a world record. But like, whatever he would do would be like one standard deviation off the world record. And you're like, yes, dude, it's good. home. It's freaking amazing. You probably need to go to bed. Yeah.

Go eat something. Yeah. Milk. Something, man. But don't do this anymore. This desk is not for your seat. Like, you got to get off. I love that, dude.

What a great story that, man. It was the best. And then we, I remember Sina showed up and he drove down from Orange County. And he squatted like 580 or something like that for a double. Don't see. No, Sinha is like a 600 plus. Yeah, right. But Fisher was like, I'm doing 600 for a double.

And he made one at 580. It's like there's a video of it out there somewhere. Yeah. But Fisher literally would just train until he was almost dead. Yeah, that's his problem. There was no, there was never like the governor is on. It was like every day, I have to train. in case somebody in this room might be able to give me like $10 to be able to go eat because he didn't have a job.

He didn't have personal training clients. He didn't have a place to live. So like that's four months. He was essentially homeless. How did he afford anything? Like I understand. How was he eating? That's a part of the story.

He got arrested stealing from Whole Foods. But he was eating very, he had like a tiny bit of money. But he, you guys know Fisher, you could imagine this, but he came down, he like moved from wherever Park City to San Diego. And he worked at CrossFit Del Mar and, like, didn't like the owner. So he let them know, which isn't smart. And he got fired like immediately and then sent me an email and was like, hey, I'm a helicopter pilot and an Olympic athlete and Olympic bobsled and an Olympic this.

And I do that and I was like, I can't hire you. I'm paying my coach is like $10 an hour right now. Like we're not a business. We're just like head heads in the gym right now. There's nothing real happening. But he sat there for five months and slept on some girls couch. And, um, but they're like, he would train until he was almost dead every single day. So like his knee stuff is like when you would see it, it was like so obvious that that's,

See, the thing I've always had is, like, I respond so well. Like, you know, there's people who, they're just like, A-Con, the moment he started powerlifting, not only was he better, he was, like, one of the best in the whole world. Round the gates. Even I remember, I think, like, 17, he's, like, one of the best in the world. You know, and, like, I'm better than everyone around me, but, like, but I feel like responding to training,

I responded much better. So I was, I mean, you know, if I train super hard, I make these massive jumps in steel yet, I thought for a split second that that was gone until all of a sudden I had this big jump recently. Like, God, Trades is January, and I'm like five pounds, five pounds. I'm like, shit, this is like real. I'm human, I guess. And then luckily lately, I had this big jump.

And here we go. I feel like I'm responding again. I just had to dig deep into my body to make it remember. I'm like, you are pretty strong, you know? So, but it's remember now. So that's the thing. I kind of remembers. Like, I think that's one thing that's really interesting about just strength training in general is it's like,

yeah, the body kind of remembers. Like, I know I'm not snatching a ton of weight, but if you were to watch my movements, it's super crisp. I know. Your movement is always good. I move just as well as I did. I just don't have the mind. That's what I was saying earlier about the mindset of it.

It's like I could probably get to like 185 for a double right now. but man checking in to like really do it like 615 in the morning I'm like oh I don't know I don't know why you're doing this I understand where you're from is I I've been there I thought it was completely gone and I'm like man I wish I had to get that fireback and then it just clicked one day when I went to the sordex out of the blue you know I'm like not out of the blue there was 400 people there just screaming a name like you were uh you were Rudy yes out having a big that energy.

It was like I mean it felt so good you know and like so I'm super excited for next year I can't wait to go against

you know some of the best now that I know I'm going to be back up to those big numbers I'm like it's so hard for me

because I just want to go right now I just want to put it on you know that's who I am I remember like because Ed Cohn

and I have talked a lot lately and like because we have that we've discussed the world record anyway. And so like

when we went head to head, which we only went head to head once, and it was in 2005 at the Mountaineer Cup, it was, you know, the USBF. It's his federation. That's where they love him. But by the time we competed, here's what it happened. I competed at the end of 2004

in October, broke the world record. I competed in March. Total broke the world record again. The CSI-24-10 in October. So then in March of 2005, I went 24-14. Then I competed in April to qualify for the USPF for the Mountain Air Cups. I had to do a USPF meet.

That's when I delivered in 804, so that was April. So now we're at three meets. And then I did in June, I did the APF Nationals in total 2380. So that, and then I competed against him two weeks later was my fifth meet. And so, and I was a wreck. And like, you know, and I still, it was close. He was a weight class of bumby, too, by the way, FYI. and he did 22 something we both total 22 something he beat me but like i just reminded him you beat me

but like that was my fifth meet in less than a year so and that was my second one that month so for you mister only twice a year like yeah does he compete still no i wish because of he was talking to me earlier and that's what that's another thing that's fired me up and so uh he'll be back I wish. He's just sitting there like doing a thing. I would love to have him in Vogelphil come back and like the three of us go at it head to head. But they won't. But I wish.

I would love it. But I'm going to do everything just like he did it. I'm going to use the same bars. I'm going to do the walking out. I'm going to do. I'm not going to do anything. I'm not going to deviate from exactly the way he did it this time. And so.

in some talking. Still learning. Where can people find you, sir? Masterlead.com. So, yeah, I have a lot of, I'm going to also soon, going out of the new program all about how to be balanced. You know, V02 Max is a big part of my training. So my goal is for 40 and over people to be able to gain muscle,

work on VO2 Max, movement, the whole thing. More, a lot of it's based on Andy's, a lot of Andy's, you know, physical preparation, his nine components of physically fit, being physically fit. I love it. Doug Larson. You bet. I'm on Instagram. Douglas Larson.

This Travis Mash. Dude, I'm happy for you, buddy. Happy that you got your back in the powerlifting world and you hit some good numbers and your body held up. Super cool. Dude, proud of you. Thank you, man.

Thank you. I don't know we're going to talk about this day. Yeah, you bet. We got optimum muscle. We're launching in Austin, Texas, Monday, November 17th. It is a brand new muscle health and performance program that we've put together in the last couple months here. A brand new technology that's called a rapid MRI scan gives you hyper precise details on all of the individual muscles in your entire body. So you can see a level of precision that just previously was not possible.

So you can see if your left peck is 4% bigger than your right peck and kind of that level of detail. Combining that with actual physical therapy evals and moving screens. with performance testing to get all of your different body asymmetries with, you know, hamstring to quad ratios and pre-pressing pulling, squat to deadlift, that type of, those types of different performance testing. We're taking all that data, putting it together, and scoring it and quantifying it and finding all of your movement asymmetries and imbalances, etc. That could be limiting your performance and or predisposing you for injury.

And then we give you custom programming to help you fix any problems. that we find. So launching that in Austin, Texas again, Monday, November 17th, putting it in Austin for three weeks and then it'll be available in other cities throughout the United States, throughout 2026, but really launching in Austin for a period of three weeks. If you can get to Austin, you can do it. Obviously, if you're in Austin, you can do it, but you can fly in and do it if you want to and or there is some availability to do it in some other big cities around the country, kind of more as like a beta user, but you can go to OptimaMussel.com here in about a week or two, and you'll see all the information on that page, and or, of course, you can just

DM us on Instagram. I'm Douglas Lee Larson. You can email me or DM me directly. Dig it. I'm Anders Varner. At Anders Varner, we are Barbell Strug to Barbell underscore Shrug, and get over to Rapid Health Report.com. That's where you can kind of see the inside, Andy Galpin, Dr. Andy Galpin, Dan Garner, lab, lifestyle,

and performance analysis, all things over at rapidhealthreport.com. Friends, we'll see you guys next week.