Barbell Shrugged - The Mindset of the Strength Athlete: Motivation, Injury Recovery, and Purpose w/Anders Varner, and Doug Larson, and Travis Mash- Barbell Shrugged #449

Episode Date: March 16, 2020

Host the One Ton Challenge at your gym: http://shruggedstrengthgym.com   In today’s episode, Anders, Doug, and Travis discuss the mindset of a strength athlete.   Where does motivation come from. How do you escape the plateaus that come with training. Injury recovery and learning new skills How to handle retirement and finding purpose Build a community and share the love with everyone How to stop focusing on yourself and seek the greater good And more…   Anders Varner on Instagram Doug Larson on Instagram Travis Mash on Instagram   TRAINING PROGRAMS   One Ton Challenge   One Ton Strong - 8 Weeks to PR your snatch, clean, jerk, squat, deadlift, and bench press   20 REP BACK SQUAT PROGRAM - Giant Legs and a Barrel Core   8 Week Snatch Cycle - 8 Weeks to PR you Snatch   Aerobic Monster - 12 week conditioning, long metcons, and pacing strategy   Please Support Our Sponsors   “Save $20 on High Quality Sleep Aid at Momentous livemomentous.com/shrugged us code “SHRUGGED20” at checkout.   US Air Force Special Operations - http://airforce.com/specialops   Organifi - Save 20% using code: “Shrugged” at organifi.com/shrugged   PRx Performance - http://prxperformance.com use code “shrugged” to save 5%   http://kenergize.com/shrugged use Shrugged10 to save 10%   Masszymes http://maszymes.com/shrugged use Shrugged to save 20%  

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Schedule an appointment. We'll hop on a call. We will talk about all the things that we are delivering to you so you can run a successful event. We have Eagle Cap and Ken Bolk going down this weekend. So radical. I'm excited. Can't wait to see the pictures. Can't wait to see everybody getting strong. They've all been doing the eight-week training program, One Ton Strong, leading up to the event. All the emails, all the marketing, all the social media, everything's been coming through, and it's so cool to see people getting strong,

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Friends, we're going to get it in the show. This is a banger. Hope you enjoy. Welcome to Barbell Shrug. My name is Anders Warner. Over to my left, Mr. Douglas E. Larson and the strongest man in the world, 805-pound back squat, Coach Travis Mash. Look at that. I got it in there anyways. This is the second intro and I had to make sure. Today we're going to be talking about mindset, coming back from injury, getting restarted.

We're in the new year right now filming. Everybody blows out their New Year's resolutions in the first four weeks. They think they're the coolest kids in the world and then all of a sudden February hits and they all disappear. But we're also going to go a little bit deeper just because mindset and motivation is one of the biggest things that people look for. I think there's a little bit more to it of just finding the little things. Like if you're coming back after

some time off and you were super cool, learned the snatch, the clean and jerk back squats and you had pretty good numbers and then maybe you had an injury. Maybe there was something that got in the way. Some life events kept you out of the gym for six months, maybe a year, and now you're coming back. Every time you snatch 135, you feel like a total pansy. Don't do it.

We've got a lot of things for you to learn today. And mindset's one of my favorite things. After 23 years, we're hanging out with a world champion. We're hanging out with Doug Larson. He's coached thousands of people in his life. We always have to talk about motivation as a way and mindset of how you can overcome and continue learning. Tell me a little bit about, Doug, kind of your story and like what keeps you training 23 years plus later, keeping the fire alive at the gym? I think at the simplest level,

at the most basic level, I just simply enjoy it. You can't get around that. If you just don't enjoy it, you're not going to do it for 23 years. That goes for all of us. We all just love training, and so it's just a part of my day that has to happen simply because I love it. If I don't do it, I feel much worse than if I do do it, so I tend to do it. I imagine you guys are in the same boat. Yes.

Where are you at? What's your motivation, and what keeps you kind of moving these days? Right now, it's totally different than it's ever been. You know, I have a daughter. You know,

she was born February of last year. She's about to turn one next month. So she's my motivation. It's like, I want to walk her down the aisle

and be able to walk her down without, you know, I don't want to be in a wheelchair walking my daughter down the aisle. So that's my motivation. I want to be able to tell her husband without, you know, I don't want to be in a wheelchair, you know, walking my daughter down the aisle. So that's my motivation.

Yeah. I want to be able to tell her husband, if you mess with her, I'll, you know, I'll kill him. Of course. Looking forward to that. And then I will come back. Even if I'm dead, I will cross over from heaven back here to get him. If you actually kill him because of this podcast, I will now be premeditated.

That's right. I don't care about that. I'll be old. I'll be old. I'll be like, I'll be in prison. He'd be in jail in jail like i called it i knew it got him i will keep his blood on my hand mark england right now it's like don't don't you might kill him if you put it out there in words i will yeah i know i will absolutely kill him there's my daughter yeah i mean that's yeah i'm smiling totally understandable right i'll go to prison, like, smiling. I'll lay in my bed like, oh, it was so much fun killing that boy.

I actually read a story about a police officer was telling the story about one of the only times where he arrested somebody and just didn't want to arrest the guy, but he had to. He showed up at this guy's house. He had gotten called by a dad that caught his daughter with some guy who was being overly aggressive in whatever way, and dad killed him. And then called the cops and said, I killed the guy. Come get me. And the cops showed up and he was like, he was raping my daughter. I killed him.

And they were like, alright man, turn around, fucking put the cuffs on him. Just like, I have to arrest him. He killed somebody, but I fucking really don't want to. I would be bragging on the way about, man, you should have seen him. You should have to arrest him he killed somebody but i fucking really don't want to i would be bragging on the way but man you should see him you should have heard his neck snap it was awesome it was great just don't touch my daughter oh my god like magnolia you're safe yeah show this to my daughters if i'm dead show her this on video i will come back it's on video all right uh that's a very very aggressive aggressive start to motivational content here.

He didn't 80-20 that conversation. That was 100%. It was 100%. Oh, 100%. Killing the guy. Straight to the end of the road. Yeah. I present this at the highest level because that's kind of where we're at today.

And I think a lot of my motivation is really, like, I just want to back squat 315 when I'm 80 years old. And I'd like to live until I'm 120. So when I hit 40, I'm only a third of the way there, and I have to actually think for the first time in my life about how am I going to train for the next 80 straight years. And that's a long road. I'm not even halfway to 80, and now I've got to think about the next 80.

Like, dude, I want to be – if I get sent to the home, I want to be the strongest gangster in there. People are like, do him, dude. You can see that new dude moved into room 304 down there. He back squat 315 the other day in the gym. He back squat 315. You don't go to the home. That's a true story.

I don't want to go to the home. He's strong. That's why I want to live. I don't want to be in there. Well, we were talking to Julian a couple years ago, and his powerlifting coach or mentor at the time, I believe at the time, was like 70-something and still squats 500 pounds.

Yeah. And I said that to him. I was like like that guy's not going to the home anytime soon he goes he goes no he can jump onto the table yeah like he's not he's not bad never he's more athletic than most 20 year olds blew me away that's my new goal yeah well i think the motivation is really interesting and to use the backdrop of all of our stories and we each have our own but when i started to think about strength and conditioning when i was just 13 years old and found the barbell for the first time one it was like god i hope i don't like a douchebag in the gym right now like you're just trying to learn things you feel so

awkward and like the motivation really at the time was to play sports and not to die on the hockey rink like i was shipping out to go play against some of the best kids in the country i was the kid from the south they grew grew up playing pond hockey. They played in leagues where fighting was allowed, and I was about to just go get my shit kicked in. So the idea of me leaving home, I needed to go get strong, and my dad did not sugarcoat that one bit. I started training with the high school wrestling team

who just had happened to win 13 state championships in a row, and it was like the most intense, the most aggressive time to be in a gym and to learn how to get strong at such a weird young age and be around people that were like dead serious. And it was like, God, if I can make it in here, I guess I can survive. Like it was almost like bad parenting having me in there because it was like one of those scenarios where like kids would move into my town to wrestle. Yeah.

And if you were like a 160 wrestler and I was a 160 wrestler and I moved into the school, I'm coming to take your lunch money right now. Yeah. And those kids met in the weight room before wrestling season started. And it wasn't pleasant because they all knew why they were there. We're going for the number one spot. There's only one person that can be there, and we can weigh the same. So let's get it right now.

And the coaches were not afraid of fighting. They were not afraid of handling things in parking lots. It was terrifying. That's awesome. But that was like my very first reason to get strong was purely survival because I knew that that culture was coming down to me. The day I left home, I was just on my own. And it was purely, if I don't get strong, if I don't learn how to do this,

I'm going to get my shit handled on day one right now. Let's go. That's good parenting. That's good parenting. I think the parents nowadays are way too soft. Like, you know, I'm not going to be like that. I actually contacted the guy I want to coach rock in martial arts. He's only five. Now I want him to be able to handle himself. And I don't want to coach rock in martial arts. He's only five.

Now I want him to be able to handle himself, and I don't want to protect him from everything. He's a man. Someday he's got to grow up to be the dad, and he's got to be willing to protect his wife, protect his kids. Just like me, I don't want to make him soft. I think your dad did a great job. I think one of the biggest things in the world is creating an environment

that is very, very difficult. It's very world is like creating an environment that is very very difficult yeah it's very easy to live in an environment right now in which it's comfortable but if you can create a very i don't want to say violent but a very uh a very difficult place to live in or you're creating an environment an ecosystem in which survival seems very challenging for your body. Like when there's 300 pounds on your back, 400 pounds on your back, and your body is now completely conditioned to have to thrive in a society or in an ecosystem where strength training is mandatory to survive, and you're telling your brain this is a new requirement in which you have to meet the standards, you're going to get strong.

And motivation is something that just happens. It's not really like looking for the YouTube video that's really going to get you going, get you fired up for the day and this nice little pat on the back, pat on the butt to get you moving. All the influencers out there every single day doing their little motivational speeches, I'm like, are there really that many people who need to hear that every single day i just woke up right i mean my biggest problem as an athlete was going to sleep because i was like wanting to train so bad i would grind my teeth i would literally find myself fist clenched and sweating in my bed and i wanted to go train i did not need

someone to like motivate me every single day did you grow up in a place where fighting or aggression was, I don't want to say expected, but part of life? I would say it was the coming of age where I was from. In the mountains, there's even several books. It's like the Scotch-Irish people that ended up living and coming to the Appalachians. Yeah, that was part of their culture. It was definitely part of my culture. I think I was telling someone the other day,

I'm pretty sure I got in a fight at least one fight per year from kindergarten until I was in my 30s. My wife saw me getting to my last fight in 2006. I was in my 30s. I don't want to say what I almost did. Yeah, it was just part of the culture. And, like, we would – I fought my best friend in ninth grade the day before my birthday party. We were at a softball game, and he's an African-American,

and we started arguing. And I called him a name I shouldn't – just because I wanted to hurt him. I was mad, you know. So then we went and fought, and, like, we bloodied each other. I mean, blood's dripping everywhere. And he's at my party the next day, and I hurt him. I was mad. So then we went and fought and we bloodied each other. I mean, blood's dripping everywhere. He's at my party the next day and I love him. Even a few minutes after, I'm like,

sorry, man. That's my bad. Sorry, dude. It was a sport. Sorry about your eyeball popping out. So yes, it was just part of the culture. I'm not saying I'm a tough guy. I'm just saying it's what we did. I fought. What was a lot of the motivation when you were growing up to be in the weight room and get strong well it was simply to win at sports like I didn't I didn't have a an aggressive

childhood I didn't grow up in poverty I wasn't fighting my way out of anything I just I had a great childhood and I I wanted to be good at football and I want to be a great wrestler and I played I played baseball my entire life and I I just want to be you know the best player on the team I want to be the team captain I want to set records I wanted to hit all the home runs like etc etc and um the fact that I did martial arts my whole life even though I didn't get in a lot of fights I got in a few fights here and there um mostly after the fight started and then I kind of like jumped in to help the group yeah mostly big brawls i love the sucker punch yeah i got a great i got a great story about that um that i don't need to tell right now but um but yeah so having done martial arts my whole life and wrestled my whole life and then still

even to this day doing jiu-jitsu um but that's always in the back of my mind like not like getting beat up on the streets specifically but having fought mma for for a number of years like that's always in the background of, of training for my entire life. Like I need to be in shape. I need to be strong because someday I'm going to be fighting someone who's going to be very good. Yeah.

And that's the difference between going to a decision or going to the hospital. Yeah. And that's, that's a big deal. I didn't know how much you loved it until we were in Sweden. And I just happened to ask him like, Doug,

do you ever, do you ever miss MMA? And he literally choked up and almost teared up. And I just happened to ask him, like, Doug, do you ever miss MMA? And he literally choked up and almost teared up. I'm like. I was crying on the train. I know. I was like, I'll answer you in a couple minutes. Like 2 a.m.

I was like, oh. My bad, man. We went from Halmstad to Copenhagen to Paris that night. And I asked him. He caught him in a tough time. He was on 12 hours of travel. And I'm like, whoa. I can't wait to hear this story someday.

But you really love it. I did love MMA. I'm tearing up right now. So love MMA. MMA's the best, man. I remember the very first time kids got in a fight at school for me. And I went home and told my parents I saw a fight at school. And my dad brought me down to the rec center and brought me into like, I mean, it was at the rec center.

And there was like this one room that just had heavy bags and speed bags on the wall and oh yeah there was just a tiny little window he had to like pick me up so i could see inside and it was where the boxing gym was inside the rec center and he goes if you ever want to get in a fight i'll bring you in here and you can actually learn how to fight and i was like I am definitely not getting in a fight. That is terrifying in there. I do not want anything to do with those guys. They look so scary.

And I've never been in an actual fist fight outside of sports. I absolutely love fighting. Fighting in sports is just a thing. Yeah, I didn't grow up around MMA. We had Tough Man. I did that once. That was fun. I love being in a bar.

I know it's terrible. It's just fun. It's just a sport. I had one MMA fight where they put the cage in a big country bar. Like a big cowboy bar in the south. We just fought in the bar. It was kind of a small venue. It was fucking totally packed.

It was awesome. So much fun. Everyone's drinking. Hit them in the face. I'm really not trying to hurt anybody hurt anybody i mean i'm trying to beat him up a little bit but i'm not trying to kill him or anything i just like see who's tough i love it i know well we don't have to get in fights to be motivated to go to the gym we don't really want you just being strong just to go hurt people this mindset episode really really devolved into a reallyolved into a street fight episode. My pastor is going to – I'm going to his office. For a bunch of people.

A bunch of people that are really focused on business. We just spent 10 minutes talking about fighting on the streets. No, but one thing that I've been very lucky, I feel like, for me, has been how my motivation has, in a way, always stayed the same of always wanting to be in great shape and having my life focused around barbells and being around people that love lifting weights but the lens in which i end up doing that through um you know if if survival and getting strong to play hockey in in high school is the thing like once i got to college there was clearly

girls and that was a big part of it which we all have been a part of in strength training if you tell the truth um yeah but then crossfit hit and that was like the very first time that i felt like a specific sport had been designed for me to go play that i didn't care what happened in my life that was the thing that I was supposed to do for the rest of my life was go lift weights and play CrossFit. And I spent 12 years deep in that world. I have never, I don't know what other thing, like some people go and do the military, I feel like, in their 20s.

I founded it when I was 22 years old, and I played until 32 at a very competitive level from regionals and coaching and all that and gym ownership. And then two years after where I just didn't compete and I just coached. But I had the amount of motivation, the rabbit hole of learning that went on in those 12 years was unbelievable like that the amount there was never an amount of information and training that i could do to actually feel like i was doing it well enough that's the beauty of that sport well and i think it's also just the beauty of strength training like you can back out of the word crossfit and just realize that wherever you're at right now trust me we've been doing this a long time.

Doug's interviewed hundreds of people. I've done 100-plus shows. Actually, we're at like 150-plus shows now that I've done. There is an amount of information and an amount of knowledge, an amount of practice that you can put into this thing that you will always be learning something absolutely somewhere and there's always somebody that has nuggets of information there's youtube videos there's people that are so good at strength and conditioning and so many opportunities if you

continue to just follow this path of the barbell that you should never get bored as long as you're interested not in did i snatch 185 today because that that's good you should get rid of that thought and just focus on you know how much are you learning how much you're connecting with your body where's that conversation of your journey to health and wellness over a long period of time or strength over a long period of time instead of yeah the external thing where you can walk up to your buddy and be like see i did good did good today, 185. I did it. Check the box. I feel great.

I won. Because that's a really short external factor or motivation that you don't really need when it comes to this lifelong pursuit of strength and being around the barbell. There's so many elements, speed, nutrition. Yeah, you did 185. What did the movement look like? Did the bar path come in and did it stay did it stay inside of that original vertical line i mean how was your mobility how quick was your turnover like i mean we coach and match some of the best weightlifters in the whole

world and they still are not even close to perfect yeah yeah there's a lifelong pursuit if people let me give this nugget if people would go day in and day out focused on improving an aspect of their movement and just kind of like worked up to whatever they're going to work up that day and never thought about it they would see more improvement than the person who's like dead set on hitting x number per day because that's going to drive you crazy because you know depending on where your body is how much stress on it, where the endocrine system is, you know, that aspect of the month. Like your 1RM varies 15% up or down on any individual day. So if you're looking at a number every day, you're going to go crazy.

That's what I'm trying to get across to my younger athletes now. I've watched a lot of people in this Olympic quad. Literally, there's some people who are in it who are really good, Team USA you'll never see do olympic weightlifting again because it drove them crazy i'm not gonna name names but there's a couple that will you'll never see them again because they're done with it yeah because that's they were focused on this number this number i gotta do this number yeah but it's the journey like you said it's the it's the moon it's the process embrace the process enjoy the process and forget a number one of the pieces that i really think is that people lack in understanding the longevity of it is the just the idea of discipline in that i don't have to worry about what the weight is on the bar if i focus on the discipline on making sure all

the pieces are lined up to get to that level like one a specific question we got was that somebody was um at a certain level, we'll just call it a 200-pound snatch, and life events get in the way. They've got to take six months off, eight months off, and now they're snatching 135 or 155, and the whole process just feels empty. They feel like they've let themselves down or they've lost so much that how are they going to get back? And the reason that it's hard to get back to me has nothing to do with

are you capable of snatching 185 or 200 pounds? It's 100% sure that you can do that. What you should be focusing on is the discipline and doing the things that you need to do outside of the gym. And those are the things that can always grow. You can always become more disciplined. You can always be more committed to the nutrition you can always be more committed to your sleep and you can always be eliminating the things that distract you from that which is a skill in itself of the idea that i i love it's just it's being more disciplined because

you don't have to worry about the weight on the bar. The weight on the bar is always going to go in the direction it's supposed to go assuming you're living the life and being disciplined about the skills and pieces that go into getting to 100. Where your body is still improving. Well, maximal strength doesn't really go that far. It really doesn't. Once you have the muscle and once you have the wiring,

you're going to be there assuming you haven't completely let it go. Until you get to the age where things start to go backwards. That's all right too. Then if you just focus on the movement, it will never matter, no matter how old you are. If you just focus on the process and the movement, you will always be able to train, you will always be motivated, and you will always enjoy it.

But if you're constantly like, my problem, I'll be honest, I. You will always be motivated, and you will always enjoy it. But if you're constantly like, my problem, I'll be honest, I'm talking to myself right now, is like when I start strength training, like I'm still judging myself based on my best ever. And so even when I hit like after I had surgery last year, I got my new hip. And then I think it was like it was maybe 20 weeks later, I front squatted 506. And like most people would be like, that's insane.

And to me it was like, I've got to get at least 550. That's all I could think about. But I didn't stop to think how cool it is I did 506 after getting a brand new hip. People were like, oh, you'll never go heavy again. You know? Right. It's that kind of thinking that led you to be a world champion in the first place. Right. But it's also that kind of thinking that as you get older and older,

it might have a hip replacement. Right know pros and cons here's here's a nugget for everyone listening is like when you hit your first injury like if you approach it correctly it's the biggest blessing of your entire life like i didn't get my first injury until like real injury until 2004 you know i was um doing that's why i'm not a big box squat guy like i was doing box squats with bands first time i'd ever really tried it and i like kind of plummeted onto the box next thing you know i felt like shooting pain yeah and it got worse and then i noticed my strength was going away and so then i go to the doctor and they did the mri and then in this doctor let me let me preface this by saying, this guy was not like the typical Dodger.

He loved lifting. He would go to the Arnold. He was the guy who was going to tell me the truth, and he was my friend. He said, Travis, as your friend, I'm telling you, it's probably a good time to retire. Now, this was prior to any world records. This was me. I was right there.

I mean, I could touch it. So he's like, look, you're at risk of paralysis. Whoa. The funny thing is, is that didn't scare me. But then he said, you're also at risk of not being able to have sex. Right. That's when I put on the brakes. Terrified.

Wreck his stretch. Right. Back up. Isn't it funny at the time? Like, paralysis didn't even scare me. I was willing to risk it. But when they said that. Yep.

So he's like. My legs won't work. Who cares? My dick won't work? Who cares? My dick won't work? Can't have that. No chance. No chance. So I went to, that's when I found Stuart McGill.

And then when I rebuilt myself. Bird dogging and banging. Plus a lot more. Just looking at mechanics more closely, about not doing certain movements that are aggravating to the lumbar spine. I never have had back issues since that moment. And I broke multiple world records after that moment. No doubt that a lot of my world records were completely because of the way I rebuilt myself,

the way Stuart McGill told me, like I corrected my mechanics, the way I built my torso, the way I built my erectors. Like 100% led to the world record of the set. So really, to me, that injury and then that big scare is what led to a lot of good stuff. So when you get hurt, like, look and see why did you get hurt. There's a good chance it was your fault. It was like something was going wrong.

Look at it, correct it, and then move on. And I guarantee you'll probably come out of that better than when you went in it. In MMA, it's really common for people to talk about how injuries can help you become a better fighter or better better jujitsu whatever it is because you you have like a everyone i know black belt or not or whatever they they kind of have like a dozen moves that are really their bread and butter and that's what they that's you know if they're 80 20 and they're training like that that's the 20 of the moves that really account for 80 of their results results, even though they're using 100% effort. They are 100%. They're 100% uncommitted.

But if you get injured, then all of a sudden some of those moves aren't as readily available. You probably shouldn't do them for whatever reason. So now you have to expand your game and learn new moves and put yourself in different situations that maybe you've practiced a little bit, but you're not really, really good at because you can't do your bread and butter moves because they hurt for whatever reason. And so then when you get better, though, and heal from your injury, now you just expanded your game.

Right. Yeah. It's too bad we don't look at it before you're hurt. Even me, too bad I didn't do some research and be like, hey, this guy Stuart McGill is pretty smart. I should do it before I get hurt. Well, the teacher shows up when you're ready. Teacher shows up when you're ready.

Yeah, there you go. This guy. Very philosophical. Very philosophical. Yeah. How did you handle retiring from powerlifting? It was not a good moment in my life. You know, it got to the point where, like Dave Tate told me a long time ago,

and I asked him, like, when's a good time to retire? And he's like, Travis. He laughed. He's like, you will never retire. That sport will retire you. Yeah. And this is what happened. I just got, by 2007, the last time I competed, I mean, I was just a mess.

Yeah. My shoulder, my back, my hip. Like, I was just, I mean, I was a wreck. My neck and, like, it just started falling apart. And I just couldn't perform, you know, like I was. That's why I stopped fighting MMA. I couldn't do anything without pain. I couldn't drive my car. I couldn stopped fighting MMA. I couldn't do anything without pain. I couldn't drive my car.

I couldn't head check. I couldn't do a push-up. Like, I couldn't do fucking anything without my neck, both of my shoulders, both of my elbows, back, knees. Like, everything was hurt all the time. The whole sport is designed to hurt people. You're going to be hurt. Absolutely.

I was over it. Yeah. It's really interesting to me because I had none of that. I mean, I wasn't best in the world at crossfit by any means but i had no it when the last year that i actually competed i was in the worst shape going into the open because i assumed that there was just no chance that i was going to make it to the next level like there was just no way and then all of a sudden we qualified two teams and i just happened to be like the seventh best guy in the gym. Like being seventh best in my life, I might as well have been last. And then all of a sudden we had two teams and six individuals going to the regional

and I was like, oh, fuck, I got to get in shape. Like it's game time. I got two months now to like be in, lose 10 pounds and be back to lean and strong and everything. And then it was like once that year was done, I was just like, no. I just, the right, I've taken this thing as far as I can take it and anything past this point is going to be so detrimental to every aspect of my life except CrossFit.

But my body's going to be broken. My relationships are going to be broken. Everything about my life is going to be broken. But I'll be ranked number 49 in the region again. Can't wait. All that's kind of okay if you really think you can make it

to the top. I feel like you can make those sacrifices if there's this big payout at the end of it. But I've taken it to the end of the road. I saw the end. I knew how everything... yeah, when you go from A to B to C, and it's always in a down and all the, everyone else is 23 and you're 32. It's like, I'm not, I'm not, they keep being 23.

Yeah. And so leaving CrossFit, I mean, I would say it was, the only thing I wish I could have done better is like a slower breakup. But I'm not good at slow breakups. I just done onto the next. And that was breaking up with CrossFit, breaking up with the gym, breaking up with friends. Everything that was CrossFit and everything that was the life before,

the next day I was just new. And I was done. And I was totally done. How did you handle it?, were you sad or ready? Like I, this, this is part of the, the piece of, so any idea of speaking of how I keep strength conditioning, such a main focus in my life and what keeps me motivated. Um, I needed to break away from CrossFit to re-establish who i was in strength and conditioning um my body was clearly very broken like i say broken it was just beat to shit i didn't have

any like structural problems i had injuries i had banged up joints like but the biggest thing was like the mental pressure of every year having to show up and like i was 32 33 years old and it was just like i'm not i'm not doing i can't keep going anymore like i remember uh there was like two critical moments one was the day i met fisher and i was like oh fuck people like him exist like jesus and then he would go out on the regionals floor and look average and i just be like oh my god there's like a lot of him yeah like how am i gonna do that and then there was one year where like when i was cool if you could just snatch two and a quarter on any day at any time you were a beast and like everyone i trained with that was like that was like what we all wanted to

do i remember the first time i did it i remember when all my training partners could do it. And then one day, the Granite Games exploded. And if you snatched 275, you took an 11th. And I was like, what happened last week? Where did these people come from? Those two moments, I was just like, all right. All I can do is be more athletic than these people and have more experience. Well, those two are short on the asset list

because soon they'll have more experience and they'll have more skills because they're all more athletic than me. This thing's done. But that was probably the only thing that I really needed to do and wish I had done better in hindsight was like a slower transition just because it would have saved a lot of other people and yeah um just the pain of friendships and stuff where like I just when I broke up it was like I'm just done I'm out I hate this I gotta go it crushed me the whole you know when it was over and I knew I couldn't do anything about it was bad

it was like the darkest moment of my life like yeah well a lot of things happened my dad died yeah this girl it all happens at once we broke up yeah it all happened at once always a girl and like you know and like it was bad it was i'm like who am i you know but how did you reinvent like fitness or training or that that world to you well you know started coaching more and more and started like you know and then i found that it was much more enjoyable to help other you know started coaching more and more and started like you know and then i found that it was much more enjoyable to help other people and like the more it was so weird because you know you were being completely selfish human being which i don't believe you have to be i think we're told that but anyway it's on another podcast but so i started helping people and started making

me more you know i started getting more joy from that then my wife you know started to um you know started to investigate like religion you know christ and like found that whole thing and like um that was a huge change in who i was i was such a jerk up into that moment just like you know yeah i was just a jerk like i liked to fight you know like i like to hurt other people. I liked to be the best. I wanted everyone to know who the best was. It was just a transition, the whole thing. Coming to know God more and then getting to know my wife,

who encouraged that more and more. And then I started finding out the more I did for people, I started getting more joy. When I see one of my athletes go up there and hit a pr do something awesome like the excitement i felt for them was way past what i ever felt yeah i'm like so that's that's when i changed i took a you know different step and totally embraced like not competing i mean i still even since then i would do some competitions and for once i could do it for fun. I've got power lifting since then. I've done a little bit of weightlifting since then. I've done super total since then.

And I could do it for fun. Yeah. And I'd still go hard, don't get me wrong. But it wasn't like, you know, I wasn't trying to break a world record. Yeah. Do you consciously have like a curriculum for your athletes around mental toughness or mindset? Is there like a series of things that you that you actively teach i would love that because you know here's what i found is that a curriculum

for you know an athlete would not work because everyone's so different you know like it would be cool if you could do a b c d e f and it would lead to here but they're all so different and so like you know with brett not brett contraris but uh brett bartholomew his book conscious coaching you know led me to like um even though i don't necessarily play everything that was in that book it started teaching me wait listen to my athletes more and don't try to make them fit my mold and so that that is really and really the simplest thing i do that you guys can apply is this is like you find out where your athlete is like what's their goal where do they what do they believe is possible and each day based on the way that athlete interacts with me and like the way that they take like um you know uh constructive criticism start to shift that mindset up one you know like say for example if hannah when i first met her wanted to medal at

youth nationals and then i would immediately start talking about gold medal. Let's say then, then she starts talking about gold medal. I'm talking to her and say, up one, not two months, because they won't even conceive what you're saying. Like if they've never even medaled at Youth Nationals, for me to start talking about the Pan Am,

they can't even, they'll be like, they'll shake their head yes, but they're not grasping that. So you just shift it up, shift it up, shift it up until you're where they should be. And I'm honest. I don't lie to my athletes. I don't try to tell someone I know good and well that they're not making the Olympics,

and that's just life. But I don't try to lie to somebody. I just shift up. I meet them where they are, find out where they're trying to go, and try to up it one. That's it. Whenever we were working with athletes on kind of the motivation and mindset behind it, I always struggled with the beginner coming in

because it never ceased to amaze me how far they had to go and what they were looking for. I was always blown away that somebody would be looking for motivation and i never understood how you couldn't just want to always be good at something or like show up and play and i i at times i mean i i say very openly a lot of times like i i don't want to coach beginners and i and I'm always looking for people with at least a couple years of training experience in that, like, two- to five-year range because you've already gone through that. You don't need the, like, come on, let's get going. Like, here's some good stuff to get off the couch today.

Like, this will be great. Like, I want to find you when you've already sort of fallen in love with the barbell and you love lifting weights and when i hear um you know specifically to the question of like well i'm not lifting the same numbers and now it feels super empty it it shouldn't feel empty it should feel like you're on this long process and i forget that or i think people forget how long their life is and that how quickly you can make a change to get back to where you were. Like all the hard wiring is still in there. It's really just about the discipline of showing back up, getting back to your diet, cutting out the bullshit that got you off track in the first place,

and really creating a conversation with yourself. And this is the skill that I learned the most is when I sold the gym and had to get – when I like really left CrossFit and retired or whatever you want to call that of not caring about competition was being really lonely figuring out where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do and like what my purpose was in training and what that meant was like eliminating almost all of it of getting getting out of gyms getting out of CrossFit gyms where like you're kind of limited i started training at like bodybuilding gyms i started like hanging rings from basketball goals

i started running wind sprints because like i didn't know what i liked and what's been the coolest part about the process over the last call it three years or whatever it is since i sold the gym like was that everything that i always did always came back to the six lifts yeah it like always came back like i went through like a really deep uh introspective yin yoga time like i actually had like somebody that considered like a meditation coach and like going through this process of like refinding purpose and how am i there was a lot of there was a lot of things that happened to me that i in my like search for finding who i was on the other side of crossfit after 12 years that i i had maybe weren't giant changes in life but because

they happened at that time they were much more influential because i was like looking for something to attach myself to. I had backstage passes to a Dierks Bentley concert. He used to train at my gym whenever they were in town. So I've been backstage like four times. And I've been backstage like multiple times before, but this one time

I was there three weeks after the gym closed, and I just remember having this like, yeah, I got a little high, I had a couple drinks, everything was good, and I was standing on standing on the stage i remember he like took the stage and i looked up and it just like it was met with like 15 000 cell phones all of them in the air and i was like holy shit like this is a fucking radical moment i'm the only person outside of the band that's having this moment right now that knows what it looks like for like one con one guy to motivate all these people in a place that he doesn't even live to show up and all he does is play music like how do you how do i take strength and conditioning and have that kind

of an effect on people and that was like it had happened three other times in my life and it was never as transformational as it was in that one single moment because I was looking for where am I supposed to be? What am I supposed to do? What separates me from other people? And it was just this strange moment where I was backstage, and I got to see what it would look like if you were able to create a product and a voice and a message that reached 15,000 people in one place, and they were all motivated to come listen to hear you talk. And I was like, I think I can do that. I feel like that's part of my purpose. I feel like there's, like, a reason I'm here to do this.

Now, I get to hang out with Doug and you every day, which is phenomenal in my life. But I think that people need to, when they're looking for motivation, it's like there has to be some internal drive. You have to be looking for something. You have to find, like, searching on the outside for weights is not the answer it's how do you create this process of thought of what am i learning who am i what is it what is my deeper sense of purpose like you don't have to snatch 185 to be one of the most amazing humans or like right trust me if you're chasing weights in your job is like something else it nobody at your office cares how much you snatch. Right.

So what does snatching actually do for you? What it does is it creates a structure and a process to learning. What it does is it teaches you discipline because the more discipline you are in your life. Yes. Yeah, like the more discipline, the more perseverance you develop, the skill of getting better at those two things, now all of a sudden you're also better at your work. You're also a better husband.

You're also a better wife. You're also a better friend. Because when things go bad, you have a little bit more stability than maybe everyone else around you. So what is the training actually doing to you? Snatching 185 seems really dumb when what you're really teaching yourself is how to overcome adversity on a daily basis and really the practice of creating discipline perseverance and those soft skills here's the crazy thing is that really if you're even if your goal is to be the best let's say

that you're the best and let's say you have the ability to get to the best it was always that climb up that was the most fun i look back and i enjoyed that process the most right up until the moment that i became a world champion. Knowing it's about to happen. Knowing I'm about to do this was so much fun. Even doing it was awesome and the party that night.

Then the next day was like nothing really changed. There's still Travis and the skies didn't open up. What I could have been doing this whole time was, like, making the world better by inspiring other people, being nice, lifting kids up. So that's what I try to get across to my athletes. Yeah, you might become, so what?

What if you break the all-time? What if Morgan, one day, their party wins a gold medal and, like, breaks the world record in weightlifting. And so what? What does that matter? Except in the little world of weightlifting, nothing really changed. However, what if the whole time Morgan is nice to young kids, is, like, encouraging to them, and, like, teaches people that helping others and inspiring others is more important than personal glory?

I promise you this. Mark my words. As a champion, if you do that, when you win, the feeling you'll have inside will be much grander than if all you cared about was your personal glory. Yeah. Because it'll be a sad moment. I remember the day A.J. Roberts walked into my gym and we started training together, and he said that exact same thing.

He was like, I'm the strongest man in the world and no one gives a shit yeah nobody cares all i am when anybody looks at me is fat i never got fat but yeah but i mean he did he was 320 pounds or something like that and he was like nobody cares that i can squat over a thousand it just doesn't matter all they do is look at me and they're like, there's some wheezing fat guy that can't sit on a plane. It's like that's a brutal realization when you're chasing that thing. You weigh 320 pounds, and you're the best in the world at this one thing. And you're going to die earlier now.

Well, I mean, he got healthy. He was genuinely concerned about that. He went to Louie and said, I'm going to die. I have to stop. He would have. Westside Barbell, that's the culture. That's the one thing I don't agree with, the way Louie is like, he'll push you to death.

I mean, it's like a common occurrence there. People die there all the time. Like, my at least start dying. I'm stuck. I love my husband. Morgan is my godson. If he died, I would be wrecked. Louie's like, oh, he's dead.

He can't do anything for me. Next. Then he'd go to his funeral. I believe AJ said right after he set his world record, he went back to see Louie. And then instead of being like, fuck, yeah, you did it or whatever, he said something along the lines of like, okay, I think you can get this number now.

It was just right on the next number. And he knew that that was just never going to change. No number is good enough. And he was like like oh okay i've i've done it i've i've had my time i'm out i'm either gonna keep doing that until i die or i need to quit like yeah really push you to that like that's not what i want my favorite thing about my athletes is like right now i have easy on wara he has met you've met EZ, I know. African-American. Well, he's actually just Nigerian. Sorry. Now he's American. He's in Kuwait right now.

He's in the military. I'm more proud of him for doing that than I am for any world records. I've got Adi Zuker, who's been on the show a few times, who's like now built this swag and, like, it's a million-dollar company. Greg Knuckles, who's been on the cover of Forbes magazine. Like, that's what I care about. I wantuckles, who's been on the cover of Forbes magazine. That's what I care about. I want to create better humans. Who cares about whether the man,

who cares about penalty? No offense, Louis, but at the end of the day, nobody cares. But you can teach people to be better humans. The things that you're teaching them, they can go on to do great things like Adi, like even Jared Enderton, who was at my gym. You can teach them to go on to do better things with their life

and you can look and say, cool, I had an influence on that person. Not only is their life better, but their kid's life is better because I might have had a small influence. I care about more about that than Morgan winning the Olympics. I mean, I hope he does. Don't get me wrong. I like to win. But I care more about what is Morgan

going to do with winning the Olympics. If he's all about just Morgan, I failed. And it's really easy for athletes in a gym to think that, like, if I'm not at the top of the leaderboard, then I suck and it's not cool. And specifically to people that are, like, getting restarted or, like, they don't know that they could just make everyone's training experience the most fun. That's, like, the thing that I pride myself on the most. You bring the party.

I want, when I walk into the gym, I want everyone to be like, oh, fuck, shit just got real fun. The party's here. Yeah, dude, we're going to have a blast. This is going to be a fun hour. Absolutely. We're just always talking smack. I always want it to be fun.

I don't care if you're squatting 135 or 450 pounds. I don't care. I want you to feel like you're the baddest dude in the whole world and I want you to feel good about your life. And if you are snatching 135 instead of 185, whatever. Make sure everyone around you is having the

most fun because you're there. It's borderline selfish to think that your results are going to make the environment and everyone else around you better because it just doesn't. I've had plenty of people who are super strong who brought the environment way down. And maybe you're inspiring the shit out of somebody down that's at squat rack one and you're at squat rack three because squat rack one's got to go through three to get to five.

Like those are the things that really like add to the culture and the community of the gym is getting over the results of yourself and moving into the part of, like, being just a part of the vibe and making everything better, which if you're down on yourself, like, there's nothing worse than, like, I despise this. And I actually want everyone to take, like, a course in language when I walk into the CrossFit gym and they're like, oh, this workout's going to suck. I'm like, no, dude, you get to do fucking radical thrusters today. It's going to be so much fun. Do you have any idea how rad it is that we just get to sit in here and lift barbells? You paid to be here. This should be so much fun.

You literally took your hard-earned money. You were like miserable at work pushing paper around, and then you made the money, and then you gave it to these people, and now you're going to come in here and be like, this sucks? No fucking way. You better love it. You should think it's the most fun. The fact that we get to move weights around and have a great time is just so radical. Every time I hear like, oh, well, I didn't hit a PR. Who cares?

Who gives a shit? Nobody cares. Nobody cares. Nobody even knows what your PR is. It's like the thing with, like, oh, I don't know if, yeah, I just didn't do good today. What does that even mean? Were people expecting you to do good?

Was there, like, a news story about you and your Fran time? Get out of here. Stop. Get over yourself. Make sure everyone around you is having the most fun, and you don't have to worry about motivation because everyone will want to be around you. Everyone will be attracted to you. Everyone will love you because when you're around, their life gets better.

You don't have to worry about the weight on the bar because you're the most fun. I'm about to say something that's going to be super – it's probably going to get some people mad. But, like, the worst thing I can't stand is when an athlete competes and they do this report. And they like, like the world was waiting for them to say why they did poorly. And nobody really gives a shit. No, I'm just like, why not just say, hey, it was funny. I mean, it didn't work out, you know, but I had a good time. I was with my friends.

Like, it was so funny. There's a certain person I'm thinking about, like, you know, when he or she competes, they give this long list of why it didn't go well. I know that person, I think. And, like, nobody cares except for five weightlifters in the world, you know. Anytime you're explaining yourself like that, it just always looks bad. It looks bad. Be like, laugh about it. Be like, yeah, I messed up.

Didn't work out, you know. You actually can see that very tangibly. If you ever watch UFC and the fighter that lost afterward like gets on the mic with the announcer and like talks about why they think they lost nothing but booze yeah that's all that happens is just everyone just booze them but now if you would just say this let me i'm gonna give you your script write this down if you lose or do poorly, just say, you know, I'm just going to work harder and do better next time. But thanks for, you know, if you follow me, thanks for following me.

If you did that, everybody would be like, they would be caught so off guard, they would just be like, because we're waiting for someone pure like that. Yeah. Nobody cares. It's just weightlifting. Yeah. And then congratulate the people that actually did win. Yeah.

Great job. Great competitors. They work super fucking hard. They fucking deserve their success. Man, Great job. Great competitors. They worked super fucking hard. They fucking deserved their success. Killed. You would then be more popular than the person that won. Yeah. Because you would take everyone off guard and they'd be like, wow.

What a great person. What a great person. Finally, what a great person. The one. The one. You'd be the original. But it is also hard. And we got another question about this when it comes to motivation of like where where should people be and what should they expect because they

it's human nature they want to do well and they want to get better but what is like a rate of adaptation in which they can be proud of themselves or like hit goals and what are you know i if you get really hung up on social media and, like, people posting their best life and you really think that, like, that's the thing, like, we kind of got to move past that conversation a little bit. You got to realize what's really going on is everyone's just, like, marketing. Just like you're doing. Like, think about how you do your posts. Like, every time, like, something happens in your life and you're not telling all the people you let down

or you're overcoming adversity, are you? Or do you just piss a bunch of people off and now you're rebuilding? Is that what's going on? But I think that when people – we put the one-ton challenge out, right? There's an actual number attached to that. People get excited. They want to know, oh, how quickly do you think I can get there. So many variables.

There's endless variables and I think when it comes to getting strong or understanding strength, I think that if people are looking for numbers, you're just not, you're looking for the wrong thing.

And I say that now oh because I've also been looking for numbers I've also been driven by numbers and I can meet you I think that if people just fell more in love with the lifts and realize that like they're super fun to do and I would quit we joked about this yesterday but I feel like I would quit lifting weights if I was able to knock on my neighbor's door and be like, I'm organizing a kickball game out front in 10 minutes, and I'm going to eat your lunch. Time to go right now. See you there.

I'm going to go knock on that guy's door because that's what I used to do when I was a kid. Like, game out front, get your rollerblades, get your hockey stick, game time, let's go. And we would smash it for like six straight hours, and then we'd go smash like a Coke. And then back on the game, let's go. You want to play home run derby? Let's go and we would smash it for like six straight hours and then we go smash like a coke and it would be and then back on the game let's go you want to play home run derby let's go that's how we do this i can't do that now that's why crossfit's so radical for so many people because you're part of this whole thing you have to go play every day stop worrying about the stupid time

stop worrying about the weight on the bar just go play like if i could legitimately go knock and be like hey maybe on the court let's do this i would spend way less time in the gym but weightlifting and crossfit is where you do that yeah that's where people go and train and they like they're they're playing they're having fun we get to go play this game where you can score every day and it's going to be fun we get we have a winner but no one cares we're just in this thing playing the game every day and it's the only time that adults actually go play. Yeah. I haven't had the right now is getting ready for the junior nationals

are coming up. Every day she's like, I want to open up snatch here and clean chair there. And the other day I was like, stop. Would you stop? We're going to open up wherever you're at. If every weightlifter would just listen to what I'm saying, just embrace the process. Every day get a little bit better at the movement.

I just got a text from John Cena. I feel like a fucking gangster right now. I feel like I'm hanging out with a gangster. I was looking at questions in our group. I'm removing one from John Cena. We're all removing one other from Arnold because of Corey. I'm so close I can touch him. But, oh, if you just embrace the process

and just try to improve the movement and let whatever happens happen, do your best every single day and get better at the movement. And then odds are you'll PR like that. Yeah. But if you're so focused on the number, you're going to drive yourself crazy. You won't stay in the sport.

I saw it. I saw this quad destroy people. I saw them come into the quad loving the sport the way that they did and leave it hating it. So why? I think the coolest thing in the world is when someone can do a snatch, if you can do a snatch properly, just embrace that.

Because you're one of the very few who can actually, like you, the fact that you can at any moment snatch beautifully, that's something to be proud of. It's like going and saying I can do something in gymnastics. You're one of the few. Embrace that and be proud and happy that you can still do that. Yeah, we talked about it a little bit. I feel like I'm more proud of my training right now because i am i'm going to say

that i'm more in tune with what my body wants now i went on like a really heavy olympic lifting hardcore like uh strength conditioning strength kick for six months when I moved, maybe eight months where I was lifting really heavy. Talking junk to me, yeah. Yeah, I was talking smack to MASH online. Took them down in Sweden. And then got taken right back down by a big bunch. But in the last three months, I've cleaned 300, snatched two and a quarter, did a 158 for hand,

and squatted 315 for 28. You did a what Fran? A what? 258, sorry. I thought you said 158. I did say 158, I meant 258. I'm like, you're a beast. But sub three minute Fran and those strength numbers without thinking that I was on a training plan or like thinking

that like this is something that I'm trying to I need to be in shape. It needs to be impressive. It's just, no, I just want to show up every day. Do your thing. And have fun and be a part of something consistent. And I'm lucky enough that I've just been strength and conditioning

and barbells have been the thing for long enough. And when it comes to motivation and mindset, like you don't need like like, an inspirational video. You just need to show up every day, build relationships. And, like, what's probably the thing you miss the most when you retire or when you stop competitive weightlifting? It's not squatting in these, like, brutal fucking squat sessions every day. It's no. I remember I missed the brutal squat sessions because that was what all my friends, we united ourselves around.

And the camaraderie and the bros that you have. Like nobody's worried about the actual weight on the bar or the world championships or that piece of it. It's like, fuck, dude, I miss being in that vibe where like we're all just so dialed in to being awesome. We all just wanted to work so hard together and be together. And the training partners. I do miss that. And none of that has to change. Whether you're the best in the world or just some dude at CrossFit class, you can still want that vibe and to

get after it with your new friends. It's just all about showing up every day and having a good time. Even if you want to be the best in the world, I think you should do that. Then you'll do the sport and you'll have fun and you'll last longer. And then here's a tip do that. Then you'll do the sport and you'll have fun and you'll last longer. And then here's a tip for you. Whoever can last in any sport the longest is the one who eventually becomes the best.

There's going to be a few of you that start pretty equally, and people are going to drop off mentally. They get hurt. They don't want to come back. Whatever happens, it's the person who can last. And if you want to last, you better, like, learn to have fun, embrace the process, want to come and hang out with your friends and think like that versus, like, every day I got to do a number. Like, Morgan and I are talking almost daily because he's all about every day.

He's got an X number in his head. And he's already like, Morgan, you were 16. Like, no, chill. Like, it's going to be a long couple of quads for you. Yeah. Like, you're going to leave the sport hating it like that. So we're learning, and he's getting better at just having fun, laughing with the other people.

Yeah. When I first started training MMA, I trained at Team Quest in Oregon, and the guy that was running that gym at the time, Robert Follis, he used to tell me that the guys that they get submitted or they miss a takedown or whatever, the guys that get super pissed off about it, they'd never last. They just can't maintain that level of anger for like 10 or 15 years in the sport. The people that laugh it off, they don't think it's a big deal

and just like stand back up and just go do their next reps. Those people do really well. When you get mad, you're catabolic. They get more repetitions and they're more focused on fixing the issue and not beating themselves up about why they fucked up and whatever else. There's so much of a cortisol release when you're getting mad like that. And that's doing nothing but breaking things down in your body. Every time, you're going to start to atrophy, get hurt.

Just have a good time. You submitted me. Think about what – instead of getting pissed, think about what, like, instead of getting pissed, think about what happened. Be like, all right, let's go try this now. Like, you're so analytical, so perfect for MMA, even for weightlifting. The person who gets super mad doesn't last in weightlifting. It's the person who misses and they're like, okay, let's fix this.

Usually if you're getting mad, you're thinking about something you don't have control over, in my experience. If you're only focusing on things you actually have control over, which basically means your own behavior, your training, your sleeping, your eating, et cetera, then I think it's a lot more fun to train because we're not worried about why you're not good enough, why you can't hit some certain number. Just focus on what you actually can control.

That day. And don't worry about the future so much. That person came in every day and was telling you what can control. That day. And don't worry about the future so much. Yeah. Like that person came in every day and was telling you what numbers are going to hit. That person's constantly worried about the future. That's why they're thinking about it. And they're missing the moment. Yeah, they're not actually in the moment.

Exactly. Right. Yeah. I always think about. Easier said than done. Yeah. Easier said than done, what I just said. Totally, because I got pissed. I also always think about training as like that's my anchor point in life i always notice that if my training feels good if i'm having fun

in the gym and my nutrition is good or if my nutrition is dialed into where it needs to be my relationships are better so i don't have to worry about those my business is running great because i don't really have to worry about it i'm putting i'm i'm balanced enough inside it's when my training gets fucking crazy or it's off and i'm like getting pulled in many directions nutrition's off and i'm eating like shit i feel like crap sleep then suffers if all those things which are like inside my control everything that's outside of my control or one step outside of like i'm the only person that can control this thing yeah now those things start to go super chaos because i'm not centered i don't have those anchor points and feel good about who i am at the moment so if i'm sitting there worried

about the weight on the bar or you know am i cool that's this i'm getting way off way off of the thing that's important by the way this we can't put this on camera, but behind us, we've got like 60 people all lifting weights, and there's a great flow to the room. Everyone is doing something. Everyone has an exercise. No one's getting in each other's way. This is really, really fun to watch. I've got my whole back to it.

But we're not allowed to put it on camera. Yeah, we're not allowed to put it on camera because NCAA. But as an awesome segue into this and talking about mindset and motivation and stuff, did you ever think there would be a time where you'd be taking over a university athletic weightlifting program and building a team? That was definitely my goal. There were times where I didn't think it was going to be possible. Yeah.

But even when I was with Muscle Driver years ago, like 2015, I was writing about this moment. Like I wanted this to be possible yeah but um even when i was with muscle driver like years ago like 2015 i was writing about this moment like i wanted to this to be my legacy this would be this will be my last hurrah in the sport of weightlifting you know like i can't promise that i'll always be a weightlifting coach but i will definitely i will definitely create mark my word the best weightlifting program at lenoir ryan That will happen. And then hopefully I'll develop processes and systems and I'll turn it over to someone who I believe is like a purist in weightlifting

and they'll keep it going and I can say I did this. This will be my gift to support weightlifting. I hope that my ultimate goal is to create full scholarships. I mean full, not just academic, but room and board. My goal is 10 boys, 10 girls, full scholarships because we're doing really well. We're raising our own money.

It's not NCAA, so I can actually raise outside funds. So that will be my legacy as I move on. I'll always be around weightlifting, but I like the world. I'm more like you than like a lot of purists. Like Waxman, he is a weightlifting coach. He lives and breathes weightlifting. I like strength. I like powerlifting, weightlifting, strength conditioning.

And so I would like to move on to research, and that will be my last ride in the world of strength is figuring out who's right about some of these so-called absolutes. I'll find out are they absolutes or not. That's my goal. I love it. Yeah. Yeah, dude, it's super cool.

On a personal note, I feel like just in the last two years of getting to know you and becoming good friends with you, one thing that I've noticed about you is that the amount of time and attention that you put into the kids and those being the big focus. I know Morgan is your godson, but all of them. I feel like when those kids turn 18 years old and they have to find the next stage of their life, a lot of them there was probably a lot of like,

fuck, if I leave Travis or Travis leaves me, if I'm not able to keep weightlifting, what do I do? And your ability to come here and give them a home and help with the financial side of things, weightlifting like what do i do right and your ability to come here and give them a home and help with the financial side of things not just on a pure weightlifting or coaching or any of that but just on a pure like man level and owning the responsibility of being a part of these kids lives is very impressive to me i much appreciate being a part of your life dude i mean thank you appreciate yeah there's any kids listening if you're good at weightlifting, hit me up.

That was actually one of my very first impressions of you was that you were the weightlifting coach that really gave a shit. You really cared about your kids, and it was so obvious from the get-go. And I still view you in that light, but now I have many other perspectives on you because we've gotten closer over the years. But that was like my first impression, which is a great first impression to have I do I love my athletes is I'm people sometimes compare me to Louie Simmons you know for weightlifting which is an honor like coach Ken said that on on Twitter but I feel like I'm super way different

than than Louie like you know Louie cares about you until you know you're not breaking records and then on to the next. That is definitely not true. I just got a text from Rebecca Gurdon, my very first weightlifting athlete of all time. I still love her with all my heart. Matt Weininger, who's going to be coming with me, I've been coaching him for a decade

and now I get to see him go from this young high school boy to going to college. This is way more important than how good they're going to be. I love it when they win. Don't get me wrong. I love winning, but it's honestly what they do with their lives. Are they going to be good dads?

If they're not, that's going to upset me. I want to see them be good fathers, good husbands. I want to see them do something awesome in the world, like be a doctor, have a good business, do something awesome. I'd be way more proud of that than if they break all these world records in weightlifting and go on to be a shit husband that will not be proud of them yeah your weightlifting career has a shelf life yeah it's only gonna last so long yeah it's just one part of your life right like if you said it earlier like what are you gonna take from that are you gonna teach them how to persevere are you gonna

teach them how to uh set goals and work hard to teach them how to set goals and work hard? Like, there's a kid that will be coming here, too. He's not even going to be a weightlifter, but, like, JC is my 16-year-old powerlifter. And, like, you know, he starts talking. I don't know. I hope he doesn't get mad. But, like, so he's got, like, his dad has passed away. I'm not even going to say why.

His mom is not around right now. That's all I'm going to say. But this kid, most people would use that to just be a crap kid. They'll be like blame their parents. This kid is a good student. He comes to my gym every day and works super hard. So, like, he'll be coming here too with me and, like, even as a power lifter. And I'm super stoked that he'll be coming.

I can have an influence on his life. I know what it's like. You know, I had a, you know, there's times in my childhood that I don't want to talk about now that were definitely not good. So it's that population, it's that at-risk child. That's who I really love working with.

And so, yeah, it's going to be fun to get, I want to get those. I want to show them how, even though, even if their parents were crap, they were bad examples,

you know, if you, you have the decision when you have a mom and dad who didn't necessarily do what they should have done, you can either complain about it your whole life and repeat it because you'll ultimately repeat it, or you can say, okay, this is what happened.

I wish it hadn't been that way. So you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to deliver a better package to my kids and to my wife. And so this is a critical point. I'm hoping that as they're going through college, I teach them to, like, yes, let's identify. Your parents suck, you know. Yeah, they beat you. Whatever they did to you.

But you have the decision right now, right now to change and not pass that on. And you can stop it right now in your whole family's life. You can end this moment or you can like repeat history. Yeah. And then you know better than your parents and stop bitching about your parents. Yeah. You know, you're the same person. Yeah.

You don't know what happened to them. They probably ate the same thing that happened to them. So, like, if you're going to use it as an excuse, then they can have it too. So quit bitching about them. We'll change. Right now.

And when you're kids, they'll have something different. Stops it all right there. Yeah. That's my goal. I don't think we need to say anything else. That's the mic drop. Where can they find you?

MasterLeague.com. There it is. Email me. For weightlifters out there, it's going to be Travis.Mass at LR.edu. But right now, just do MasterLeaguePerformance at gmail.com. Right on. Doug Larson. Find me at Instagram.

Douglas E. Larson. I'm Anders Varner at Anders Varner. We're the Shrug Collective at the Shrug Collective. OneToneChallenge.com. Lifelong pursuit of strength. 2,000 pounds for men, 1,200 for you ladies. Snatch, clean, jerk, squat, deadlift, and bench. Get over to OneToneChallenge.com forward slash stronger.

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