Barbell Shrugged - USA Weightlifting in Tokyo and CrossFit Games Recap w/ Anders Varner, Doug Larson, and Coach Travis Mash Barbell Shrugged #601

Episode Date: August 9, 2021

In this Episode of Barbell Shrugged:   The greatest weekend in strength sports Surprises and Standouts for USA Weightlifting New winner of the CrossFit Games Is Tia the greatest female athlete of all time Reebok vs. NoBull as CrossFit Games title sponsor   Anders Varner on Instagram   Doug Larson on Instagram   Coach Travis Mash on Instagram   ————————————————   Diesel Dad Mentorship Application: https://bit.ly/DDMentorshipApp   Diesel Dad Training Programs: http://barbellshrugged.com/dieseldad   Training Programs to Build Muscle: https://bit.ly/34zcGVw   Nutrition Programs to Lose Fat and Build Muscle: https://bit.ly/3eiW8FF   Nutrition and Training Bundles to Save 67%: https://bit.ly/2yaxQxa   Please Support Our Sponsors   Organifi - Save 20% using code: “Shrugged” at organifi.com/shrugged   BiOptimizers Probitotics - Save 10% at bioptimizers.com/shrugged   Garage Gym Equipment and Accessories: https://prxperformance.com/discount/BBS5OFF Save 5% using the coupon code “BBS5OFF”

Shrugged family, this week on Barbell Shrugged, we are talking about the 2021 Olympics. How cool it is that USA Weightlifting has so many people, everyone's performances, who shined, who flopped. Nobody really flopped. It was actually a really awesome performance by everybody. Some people just came out of nowhere and absolutely crushed it. Lasha set three world records again, which is super cool. And we also take a bit of a dive into the CrossFit Games and talk about how just badass Tia is. Maybe we kind of agree that she's like possibly the best woman, female athlete that has ever stepped on this big giant rock we call the earth. And Justin Medeiros winning, uh velner and fukowski finding themselves in

second and third again uh and the future of like the next decade of the crossfit games how it might just be won by those two individuals um before we get into the show i want to thank our sponsors by optimizers you know that over 80 of the population is deficient in magnesium and it is the number one mineral to fight stress, fatigue, and sleep issues. Check it out. Things are crazy these days. Diesel Lab Mentorship is kicking off. It's been really phenomenal building the entire program out, seeing the crazy results. We're also going into 2,000 plus Walmarts over the next three months, which is quite the undertaking.

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I know. So many things have happened in the world of strength. We actually didn't even do any pre-show hanging out today because I'm so excited to talk about the Olympics and the CrossFit Games. All of it happened at once. I feel like it's like the greatest time in strength sports if you can combine Olympic weightlifting at the Olympics

and the CrossFit Games all in one weekend. Have you been following the Olympics? Just America? Definitely America. Of course, Lasha. Yeah, we had Lasha last night. Lasha. Wait, what were it? Do you remember his number off the top of your head?

All three of us just went, ooh. That boy lifted a lot of weight. 223 to 65. Best total, best. I think I'm pretty sure it's the best snatch, clean jerk, and total of all time in history. He did it six for six. You think he can do 600 at some point in his career?

Without a doubt. How old is he? I think – here's what I think. I don't think they care so much about pounds, you know. So, like, I don't know if he has 272, like, if that's a thing to him or not. But, like, I think he could, but he doesn't have to. So, like, he's – Maybe 275 is.

Maybe, you know, like, I don't know if they care so much about that. But, like, he could. It's just there's no point. I guess I think he's just chipping it a bit at a time and collecting his money on gold medals and world records. I feel like he goes six for six more than anybody in the world. Yeah, because he's not going 100%. Yeah, he did 225 in the training hall and only took 223 in the meet.

So, like, yeah, of course he's going six for six. He's at, like, 95% at his third lift. Dude, I feel like it's, like, such a great time in weightlifting, just in, like, strength sports in general. One, we have a massive team at the Olympics. CrossFit Games is going on. Every time I turn on Instagram, I feel like I am just blown away at the number of people that do Olympic lifting well now.

Yeah. Like every single – like when the region – when like the CrossFit Games starts and you're – and then they go to the regional or whatever it is, like Guadalupalooza, whatever, however the system works now, and then the Games happen happen all you see on social media is like beautiful Olympic lifting yeah it's incredible how many people are are able to just do the snatch and clean and jerk like flawless technique all of them all the men did like one 285 pounds was like just like okay.

That's a good... 130 kilos is always good. Did you see the guy from Brazil snatch three bills? No. He got 300 pounds. I mean, in tennis shoes and looked like just smoked it.

What do you think he weighs? I don't know. You can probably look it up. I don't know what his name is. I had only seen him a couple times, but I swear, I don't think I've ever seen somebody move that's a CrossFit athlete as well as he does. Even Frazier,

he makes... He's not fitter or whatever they want to call the guy that wins CrossFit games, but that dude from Brazil moved so well. Snatch 300, just like smooth. What about Tia dominating? Dude, she might be – I don't – how do you decide who like the greatest

female athlete is? Is it like a track and field person like the Catholic? I don't know how you can compete in the Commonwealth Games and win. The Olympics and go on the bobsled team and then win five CrossFit games. You're the greatest female athlete, in my opinion. Definitely the greatest strength athlete. No doubt. Yeah.

No doubt. I don't know how you – what does she do beyond – there isn't a pond big enough to go play in. I don't know, man. She's a different level. It's not like she's close to getting beat. She's destroying. Destroying.

The way that women are built, she might win the next seven. She could be 35 and still go win. I think all the women listening should take note of that like she could she could win it to her 40s it just yeah you know that she won't because she's so far ahead the little drop off that she might notice will still not put her anywhere near getting beat so like i keep going girls like girls have a longer staying power, I feel like, than guys and are like high rise. Oh, yeah. They're 32 years old and then steep decline as testosterone and craziness and muscle and all that.

Totally. We have a steep drop off. They don't have this huge hormonal increase. So it's just kind of flat. You might win like 14 of them. Yeah. Look at Annie Thor's daughter just had a baby and snatched PR of all time. Yeah. 200 pounds. 200 pounds 200 pounds

solid snatch for a new mom that was a solid snatch for me and you would say weightlifting national she would be on probably on the podium i'm like yeah what i mean it's been an awesome week, a couple weeks of just lifting. That's how I feel about elite CrossFitters in general. Like you just said, like if she was in a weightlifting competition, which of course is very similar to CrossFit because there's so much weightlifting and CrossFit, like she would do really, really well even in just the sport of weightlifting.

Like you take Tia, we're talking about having like her be one of the best female athletes of all time. If she switched places with any other high-level professional athlete, she would do way better at their sport than they're going to do at her sport. Way, way better. Just because she's so fucking strong and fit and athletic and so many ways. Tia probably comes to America and wins

American Nationals and then goes back and wins CrossFit. Imagine if Kate and I and Tia switch. Kate is not even going to be able to finish those things. Whereas Tia, you're going to have a drop off, but not near as much as you're going to have.

Kate won't finish the events. Yeah, right. Totally. Wait, did Kate get three muscle-ups? What? What would Kate play set the Olympics? She got second, bro. She got silver.

Second, second. Amazing. Yeah, it's incredible. Did you watch her lifts? I've actually seen the lifts. They were beautiful. She actually – oh, man. I think she snatched 115 or 114 kilos,

but she got pumped and she dropped it before it went below her shoulders. Normally they don't call it but they were really strict. I'm not saying they're unfair to America but they were stricter and I know why. Obviously politics what's happening at IWF but they almost pinged Wes on his American record.

They gave him three reds and then they overturned it three whites. I've never heard of that before. That was amazing. Why did they ding him three reds and then they overturned it three white i've never heard of that before that was really yeah wait why they why they ding him and then change it it looked like a pressy you know he was like a little unstable in his shoulders but his elbows never bent right which is like is that it was kind of like depressed scap to back to raised and then it just it was it wasn't like he just smoked it he had to like stabilize it and he got three reds and then they came back 10 minutes later and or whatever the fact that how often does that happen never three reds the three the three whites never once every four

years about the same as often as the olympics happens yeah i've. I've never had it happen to me. I would love it. Sure. Yeah. Yeah, it was awesome. Wait, so he set a new American record? Is that what you said? He did.

He didn't do so well on clean jerks, but he did great on snatches. So he tried. Did he place? No, no. I mean, yeah, I mean, place, but he didn't he didn't medal yeah he didn't medal he totaled um he totaled the same as a heavyweight so he totaled 390 but he's done more um you know he's like wes barnett is still then going to be the dominant olympian of all time because he totaled

wes totaled 395 like in uh 1996 at the atl. So, Wes Barnett. So, this Wes Kitts has beaten some of his stuff in non-Olympic years, but in the Olympics, Wes Barnett is still going to be the top guy of all time. Maddie Rogers did well, but she had trouble making a clean and jerk. So, she only got one clean and jerk. She did well in snatches. CJ didn't do as well as harrison kick but hold on cj cj just didn't look good he went two for six so he just didn't

peak well i don't know why his uh i i'm not his coach i have no idea what things look like day to day but when i saw the lifts it just looked like in the same way that i would be not prepared for the olympics he just would be not prepared for the Olympics, he just didn't look prepared for the Olympics. I mean, it happens. He stood on the stage and was like, oh, shit, I'm at the Olympics. Oh, crazy. Which can happen.

He's a 21-year-old boy. I feel like whatever that eyeball test is where you just – before the person even sets up and you go, oh, dude, just go to the back and fix all the patterns. I just saw him set up and I was like, that doesn't. And then he just like didn't get the pull. Like there was no legs. Yeah.

It happens. You know, like he's been in much better shape. Yeah. Yeah. He did good. Harrison did well, like fourth, right? Harrison killed it. He got fourth and was really close to meddling.

He took the amount to meddle on his last attempt, but it just didn't work out. So he got Harrison, you know, dropped way down. He left his coach. Things happened. And now I'm pretty sure that was either his PR total or at least back to where he was. So shout out to Spencer Arnold for getting him back. I think he's been with Spencer now a year or two.

So I think they finally figured it out right at the perfect timing, the Olympics. And shout out to Spencer, definitely on Kate and I. I knew that would be a good move because Kate is such a special athlete. All she needs is just a little structure and she'll kill it. And so he gave it to her in a few weeks, and she killed it. I felt so cool watching, or I still do, but weightlifting. Everyone's competed, right? Everyone has competed.

Yeah. And Rolando's won, didn't she? She got bronze. Bronze, yeah. Two bronzes. That's two, though. Two Olympics in a row, she's got a bronze medal, which is maybe the first in history, definitely the most medals in history, in a row. She's got a bronze medal, which is the first – maybe the first in history,

definitely the most medals in history, in American history. That's awesome. Yeah. Watching all of the – just the highlights and knowing that we've interviewed, I feel like half the people that were on the team, whether it was their coach or the athletes or – Well, Spencer been on our show and he had three of them so yeah almost there yeah um we had cj on at the games two years ago west was on at the games two years ago um yeah it was really cool to see just how many people

and like and and the coaches we just had um Cal Strength, Dave Spitz on the show. The only person who didn't do as well as she should have would have been Jordan Dela Cruz. But to be clear, she's still, in my opinion, the greatest female. But she just had an off day. They were really shooting big. They were not there to place. They were there to medal. She had a there to place. They were there to medal.

She had a really good chance. All she had to do was make a lift, and she would have gotten silver, I'm pretty sure. But it just wasn't meant to be. Just a rough day. I feel like this had to have been the hardest. Look, I think every sport likely has its. If you can only be at the olympic village for five days that's not nearly

enough time to switch your entire sleep system around um and and and to be like whatever it takes to get on tokyo time from california time like you're you're really in a place where you are in a massive deficit and now you got to go out and smoke weights. Like I'm sure every sport and I'm sure track and field is the same. Like, but weightlifting is different to me. Like weightlifting is not chasing somebody on a track. It's like, fuck, you got to go feel 400 pounds on your shoulders. It's brutal.

I'm with you. I think they did a good job of going to Hawaii first. So, you know, it acclimated. It wasn't as bad as it could have been. Like if people were going from North Carolina to Tokyo, it would have been horrible. But it was a little bit better. And then they had a sleep doctor with them who really did a pretty good –

he did a really good job of getting them acclimated. But you're right. Like five days is tough. Even if you're on day six and you're taking a 20-hour flight to Tokyo from Hawaii or 15 hours, whatever it is, I mean, your body – like it's one thing that I started to notice like so much flying from east coast to west coast and back when I lived in Diego, of just that flight crushes you for like two days. And you might be able to do it when you're in your 20s. But, dude, that's a brutal flight. Brutal.

Remember when we went to Sweden? I remember getting off the plane. I felt so disoriented. It took me so many days. Now imagine like triple that. I woke up at like 3 a.m. and was training outside, like running sprints in the front yard because it was like noon our time, and I was like, I can't sleep.

I might as well work out. It's like kind of my workout time. Right. But some people handle it, you know, like Kate Nye stepped up to the plate, and she had her best performance of all time. So, you know, like some people are gamers and some are not normally jordan delacruz is guaranteed gamer like i would if if someone said let's bet on who has the worst performance olympics i would have bet money jordan has the best and yeah i don't know you know just she's always like

five or six six for six five for six six so i have no idea you know what happened with her but you know it happens so yeah what about her makes her the best in your opinion oh man her technique you know when coaches get together and we talk technique she exemplifies everything that you want stays over the bar longer the bar path is so close the bar comes in off the floor. Like, it's just beautiful. The way she meets the bar, her timing at the top, it's, like, perfect. It's, like, literally perfect. And then, you know, she's – they have a power and grace. They joke about her being dead inside because she's such a money lifter.

Like, she never messes up. And so, like, you know, just picked a rough day to finally mess up. But, you know, she's super young. I think she's 22, like 21 or 22. She's a baby, so she'll come back and kill it. She'll be a gold medalist, I think, next time. Well, I think that, I mean, and you'll be able to answer this question a lot better. It's going to be, I shouldn't say easier, but as a team for the USA,

having such a big showing this time and the next one only being three years away versus like four it keeps everybody that's in this um in tokyo right now so much closer instead of having to wait like and get another year older i mean that is the this year but a shorter window makes qualifying easier plus you, you've got Morgan going to give it a shot. You've got Ryan coming. I'm sure there's some other people that are going to be pushing super hard. As we all know, they better

be ready. That kid just whipped everyone at Nationals, and then he goes down to the Junior Pan Ams, whips every single person down there, gets the best lifter. Ryan is incredible. So, yeah, I think the next Olympic team gets even better. And you're right.

You know, and there's like normally people will do – here's a huge mistake people make. When they're done with the Olympics, they take like that year off. And it costs – I'm not going to name names. It costs people. Like there's people who do not go to the Olympics simply making that decision to like take this year off. There's two Olymp people who do not go to the olympics simply making that decision to like take this year off there's two olympians who are not there this time because they made

that decision and so because there's only three years left they know they don't have that they have like a week or two and it's back to work yeah it's going to be a huge advantage yes you're totally right i think what's also interesting too is it's kind of the exact opposite of the crossfit thing i know jason phillips when we had him on a couple years ago was talking about how I think what's also interesting too is it's kind of the exact opposite of the CrossFit thing. I know Jason Phillips, when we had him on a couple years ago, was talking about how great it would be if you were a CrossFit athlete and you just competed at the games every other year instead of having to deal with the beatdown of all the conditioning work

and you were just allowed to do a full 18-month strength cycle. Be smart. Long endurance built into it where you're like, your off season training was more than four months and then prepping for another total beat down. Like CrossFit's almost the exact opposite of what you need. If you're, but if you're,

if you've only got three years, you got it. Like, I feel like someone like, yeah, you gotta, you gotta get home and get back to work. You're already behind. It feels like i feel like someone like yeah you gotta you gotta get home and get back to work you're already behind it feels like if somebody like ryan who's been hunting you for the

past five years is like on it right now already scott has got his eyes on on 2024 5 24 so you're hitting so many nails on the head like right right now, guaranteed, every weightlifter who's listening should listen up. Right now, someone is training. We don't even know their name. And by 2024, we will. I mean, we saw Kate Nye at the end of 2016. Nobody knew her name. 2021, she's a silver medalist, y'all.

Like, are you kidding me? Like, to think that you're so far ahead that no one can catch you is the worst mistake you can possibly make in weightlifting. Because someone right now is somewhere in the U.S. training in some little garage who's coming to kick your butt. So, like, nobody should let up. Any of you Olympians, if you let up, you're going to be sleeping on some people. Yeah. You'll wish you hadn't because there's two Olympians right now who wish they hadn't done that. So...

Yeah, dude. It's, uh, I think that those, I mean, one, did you watch any of the CrossFit games? Did you guys watch any of it? Doug, you were,

you were at the out in nature. I was on vacation for the last two weeks camping in Oregon. I saw none of it. Um, awesome.

I feel so bad for everyone that plays CrossFit right now seriously and thinks they're going to win the games because the guy that won – well, first off, if you're a female, winning second should be – taking second should be your CrossFit games. Your goal. Victory for the next five to eight years. Tatia retires.

Yeah, until she's just so bored and like yeah like i i really can't after seeing girls that live the life that she lives uh of like where everything is so dialed in and perfect and it's all about training like no one's gonna beat her for so long nope it's it might it really might be 10 years that she wins them in a row like girls can just stay in the game so long and stay so strong and it just doesn't if anything they get better because they're like upper body gets developed and there's like just it it's crazy um but the guys that dude just Medeiros, he's like 23, and he's got a sick mullet.

And all the guys for the last five years that have probably been laying in their beds going, God, I wish Matt Frazier would retire. God, I wish Matt Frazier would retire so somebody has a chance. Guess what, bros? Especially Vellner and Fikowski. They've been right there the whole time just waiting for Matt to get the fuck out of here. Yeah, so they can still win. Justin comes in.

23-year-old boy. I saw the podium and was like, oh, I feel so bad for those dudes. Who got second and third? Oh, they got two and three. The second and third guys are the people you're talking about. I think Vellner got second and Fikowski got three, right? Yeah, I'm pretty sure. I think that's right. Yeah, they got two and three. I'm pretty sure it was like that.

What happened to that one boy who's really good? He's Noah Olsen. Like, what happened? He took like 10th, I want to say. Really? It just wasn't in his shape? Yeah, I mean, dude, the guy's been, like, here's the thing about CrossFit, right? Like, the thing that matters so much is the events have to, in a way,

unless you are Matt Frazier, the best in the world, like you have to sort of get lucky at what events roll out that it like sort of skews your way. You know, you're just dealing with like such small like margin of error and and the events that actually come here's the thing i think in watching this this year's games though if you're a crossfit athlete and you don't know exactly what's coming like that that game is so predictable now there's like nothing new going on like i feel like when we played crossfit every year it was like they're gonna swim 5k in the ocean holy shit these people

from nebraska are so screwed what are they gonna do and then like paddleboard showed up it's in wisconsin there's only so much you could do in the middle of wisconsin like you can only be so happy so many hay bales out like there just isn't like there's no oceans i hate to say that like they've run out of like new cool things but there's only really so many modalities of testing people breathing really hard that you can do and there's only so much so many ways that you can lift a lot of weights and and test athleticism so now i feel like we the the idea of like watching the unknown and unknowable and it's like no these are like the same things just different just slightly different but everybody knows what's happening that's why it's like when you see medeiros win at 23 years old or something, oh, you're all

screwed because he's going to get a lot better and you've been in the same second and third place for five years. That's just where you're at. You found your home. And that's okay. That's still better than most people. I think, though, it's a safer platform now. Having

fewer things is safer. I think the way that they were you know there were so many new things you're putting people at risk did you see brooke wells no separate her elbow oh on what on snatch i didn't see it happen was it was it like catastrophic like or just you just bent the wrong way it was gross or it looked like oh no it was the saving grace of the cameras uh was that she had an elbow sleeve on so i'm assuming there was like some sort of tendonitis or something in there that she already had been nursing it i have no idea um yeah. But, yo, when it popped out, yeah.

Gross. It looked like my shoulder. It looked like a shoulder after getting out of the bike wreck. That's my nightmare. We saw one in Columbia where the, literally the bone,

like, it was ready to, like, pierce the skin. It was poking out so hard. Like, I almost threw up. It was so bad.

I'm like, I felt so bad for the, it was a girl and she like i almost threw up it was so bad i'm like i felt so bad for the it was a girl and she was screaming and i'm like oh man yeah i just watched i just watched it that was it's totally obvious that she did that and that she's far on herself too and she's like she's like just like rolling around in pain that look bad uh there's a there's a look when something really bad happens that sucks yeah there's there's a look in the eye when something really bad happens. Everybody loves her. That sucks. Yeah. There's a look in the eye when something really bad happens, and you go from athlete to wounded deer around a bunch of killers.

You could just see she was like, oh, there's just no way. At least she had a sleeve on, so the whole camera thing didn't show it pop out. Did you hear some girl got COVID on the way over? Did you? Yeah, Kara. I don't know what her actual last name is. I literally just saw it before I got on the show, and I'm like, oh, man. Two girls. There was two girls.

They got COVID? Bethany something from Vegas, And then the girl from Australia. Imagine flying all the way from Australia and getting COVID in the plane. I'd be so pissed off. It's a long way to fly just to fly back home. I probably would have like worn it. I probably would have masked up, put a bubble on just to avoid that. Cause you know, the stupid, not that I'm afraid of the Delta variant,

but if I'm going to the CrossFit games, I don't want to have anything, you know? So I would have more than a million dollars on the line. Yeah. I'd be like, now if somebody got near me, I'd have punched their face, but get out of here. Yeah. Give me, let me, let me get to this competition healthy. Like I'm so close.

Yeah. How sad, Doug, uh, remember when we went up to Noble and both you and I were like, that Marcus guy, he sure is a gangster. We don't really know what this whole NoBowl thing is, but this place is just crushing. For them to be the title sponsor of the CrossFit Games right now is so rad. The shoe company, right?

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Wow. It's such a better fit too. Reebok was great for many reasons. It kind of put CrossFit on the map as being, like, this big thing, and there was money and all that. But Noble is just – it's, like, so deep in the CrossFit culture

compared to Reebok that just saw an opportunity and jumped on it. Like, Noble is the right choice, I think. Well, good for Reebok for, like, doing that and getting them on the map, though. So that's good. Yeah. I cry that crossfit like saved reebok as a company because they instead of chasing like the nhl and nfl and big league baseball whatever else like the big four or five they went down a level to where all the people were

playing crossfit doing ocr doing mma and sponsored all the second-tier sports as they were gaining in popularity, but nobody was paying attention to them. Wow. That Delta logo started with CrossFit Delta, and then they just went straight to the Delta and is the whole brand now. Beautiful. I'd love to know what that contract is. I'd love to know

had Glassman not done what Glassman did earlier in the year, what that would have been renegotiated at. 10 years, 100 million was the first contract with Reebok, I think. Wow. I heard he's now becoming a part

of it again. Really? I mean, it was a rumor. Stop it. Get off Reddit. You want to hear something funny? This will be funny. Evidently, there's one guy on Reddit who absolutely hates my guts. But just shout out to this boy. I know who he is now. evidently like there's one guy on reddit who hate absolutely hates my guts and like but just

shout out to this boy i know who he is now so just know that i know if you're listening to the show but there's another guy on instagram who i didn't even know hated me but like i was um usa waylifton posted something about a performance that wasn't good and he's like who's running the show in the back room it's coach smash back there with the shit show? I'm like, bro, I'm not even there, and you're talking. So then I found out this guy evidently, like, talks junk all the time about me. I'm like, what? Like, why?

Like, would you talk? Is he a coach himself or an athlete, or is it just some dude who just thinks he knows? He hides behind – it's like a – you know, it's an anonymous person. It's like, I forget, Papa Bear. It's something crazy, and it's – know, it's an anonymous person who, like, it's like I forget Papa Bear or something crazy. And it's obviously it's a – People should know if they want to get under your skin, they got to go to Twitter.

Yeah. They got to know. Yeah. But I'll fire back on Twitter and I'll win. So don't do that. But, yeah, the dude on Reddit, Flex Appeal, he's a funny little boy. Like, you know, luckily somebody, you somebody you know who knows him sent me a picture of who he is so i'm waiting he's and he's in my state that's the crazy thing i'm he's in my state

i can't maybe i was i mean i can't imagine but like maybe i was mean to him someday i don't know i doubt it like i'm normally pretty nice to everybody generally nice human oh yeah i feel like you only have one person on Reddit that doesn't like you. You're doing pretty well. Yeah, this is one dude. Absolutely. I don't know. There's something evidently I've done to him personally, but it's funny.

But then I started talking. In 2017, we had one bad showing. That's now four years ago. And then I owned up to it and said, and it's never happened since. And so Reddit, the guy on Reddit like crushed me. I was like, fine, I deserve it. But then now every time we have a good meet, which is every single time, I'll say, I wonder what Reddit will say now.

Just exit on more. It's my fault too. I'm not egging it on. But that's how much it bothers me. I just can't wait to see the guys winning hardcore right now he just got all the followers um yo have you guys watched any of the gymnastics the male gymnastics i mean the women are phenomenal as well yeah yo i haven't that gymnastics stuff like i know how to snatch and clean and jerk, but not at that level.

I know how to swim. Yeah, I'm not an Olympic swimmer, but I know how to swim. I know how to do a lot of things. I could probably, in a really ugly way, put together like a floor routine. I could do a backflip, some cartwheels run across if you put me on that ridiculous pommel horse thing where they have to not do anything i'm not getting one rotation there's no way the pommel horse is hands down how do i would have no idea how to get my leg in a straight line and do that thing that they do on the

pommel horse, much less walking back and forth, keeping their toes pointed. What in the hell is that game about? How do you even start? I don't know. The best part about watching all that is, like, you see them on the pommel horse doing their thing, the fucking spin around circles, like, really fast, moving their hands, all over the place really fast, doing handstands while still spinning and then they'll get like kind of barely off balance for like a

second and the announcer's like oh oh oh no oh god you see that totally no chance at winning he does wobbled for a half a second yeah yeah i didn't see it his His Olympic games are over. Yeah. Even like the parallel bars. Like I'll do an L-sit for you. I could put some kind of routine together in a sloppy version, and it would look very amateur, but I could do some things on the parallel bars. I bet even if I got really hopped up and I knew that I wasn't going to fly off like you taped my hands or something the right way, I could do like a full rotation on the high bar i could do it maybe i

could learn that one quickly i know how to kip enough to get one accidental rotation all the way over the high bar there is zero chance in hell i'm getting one L-sit leg extension thing on the pommel horse. That is the hardest event in the whole Olympics. I think the uneven bars, the girls, you know, where they jump back and forth, I would not try that. I'm getting killed. Or when they run and hit the springboard and then hit that, what is that called? Where they run.

Vault. Vault. I would never try that. They're like 15 feet in the air. I would never try that. Wasn't that why Simone Biles pulled out? She got the spins or whatever on the vault

where you kind of get lost when you're rotating in the air and you land on your fucking head because you don't know where you are. And they give her a hard time. It happens to divers and other people that do similar mash speaking speaking of that um the the mental health thing dude i feel like we keep coming back to this mental health thing like more and more and more um and seeing like some of the super high level athletes struggling with all of it like yeah um do you see any of that stuff i

mean obviously you you have somebody on your team that helps people with it yeah um but like what the hell does what the hell do athletes do these days like they have to be so public in their life you're no longer allowed to just be an awesome olympian you're no longer allowed to just be amazing at you got to go and stand for all this BS. You're like, I don't know shit. I'm in the gym 17 hours a day. Think I have an opinion?

No. Right. I don't want to be on Instagram. I think they're dead on about, I think somebody asked me, oh yeah, I got interviewed by Barbend about, do I believe that we're close to being at the tip top of strong?

Meaning like, are we like hitting the ceiling? Can we get stronger? And I believe that the part of the equation that we have missed is that mental health, not just, you know, I'm talking about being mentally strong.

Like we, you go to an athlete and you say you have every tool, but you need to work on, you know, your ability to produce when it's time. And they freak out. They think that you think that they're less of a human, when all I'm saying is you're amazing. You could be more amazing if you worked on this thing. So it's like what I'm telling you is that it's like for some reason when you say,

let's work on your mental well-being, that's a bad thing. It's like there's this dark shadow cast around it. I'm like, look, it's just a part of the equation. So, like, you know, Maddie Rogers talked about she had a rough day, and she's talking about here's the – of all the things she said, she said this is the goal, she said. It's like this is convincing me that I need to work more on my mental health. Yes, not just you, Matty. There's so many people out

there that are missing the boat because they just are missing it on this one element. And because someone tells them they think you're saying you're a bad human. No, you just it's like me saying that you need to work on your elasticity. It's like something makes you a bad person. This

is where you're missing the boat. That's my take. Go ahead. Do you think it's because of social media that people's mental health is so much worse because now they have to deal with the haters and all the comments and all the negativity that they see from all those people that don't even know

them compared to like... You certainly would have eyeballs on you if you're competing at the national championships or especially at the Olympics. you're going to have a lot of attention on you so there's always been that pressure but it wasn't so it wasn't so personal it wasn't going to be like when you know next week when you're at home sitting on the couch you're still getting shit like yeah constantly on social media and like you can't stop reading it because you just you just are compelled to read it for whatever reason. If I were them, I would take comments out. During the Olympic time, if I were them, I would just minus out the comment

because you can do that on Instagram, just, like, not make a comment. I saw Maddie literally, like, arguing with people. She makes a post about, you know, her performance, and people are, like, you know, saying junk to her, and she's getting on there defending herself. I'm no like you should you were an olympian girl you don't need to talk to these people like they're sitting at home in their underwear in their mom's basement you do not need to talk no they're not they're taking a shit yeah they're literally taking a shit you're arguing you're you're yelling at someone while they take a shit. Yeah. Just get out there.

Yeah. Yeah. I'm like – You're an Olympian. I love Maddie and, like, you know, I love her coach, Amy. And so, but, like, if I were her, like, I just wouldn't read that stuff. But, you know, I'm not her, so she can do what she wants. But I feel bad that she, you know, lets these people get to her.

Like, heck with them. They don't – they're not there. Like, you know, like, here's all you have to do. You're in Olympia and someone talks junk to you. But, oh, were you in Tokyo? I was. Oh, you weren't? Shut up.

That's it. That's all you need to say. You were there. They weren't. I think it's really just interesting that it comes to, like, to think that social media pressures could take somebody that is seen as like the greatest to ever walk on the face of this earth simone biles and get her to a place where like she's up there doing four flips and twists and whatever the hell else goes on

and in the middle of it like blacks out and doesn't even know what's got going on how scary would that be 10 feet in the air flying like a missile and you just hope your feet find the floor all the people that were saying like she she basically pussed out and like quit just because it got hard i was like what are you talking about like she's won every fucking championship like the last however many years like she's obviously tough and resilient and on all these things she had she had one event that she dropped out of probably for a good reason i'm sure she didn't want to i'm sure she didn't want to she's at the olympics she doesn't want to drop out of the olympics when she's probably expected to win by a lot like she's the best and you know another american won you know that like it's not

like she let down america the girl who took her place won so we won gold so she's the best of all time shut your mouth yeah you can't talk junk to michael jordan he's the best of all time like that you know that's that's like that's such a that's it's so rad that you even just said that name right greatest of all time in basketball blah blah what a different era of being the greatest though That's like, that's such a, that's, it's so rad that you even just said that name, right? Greatest of all time in basketball, blah, blah, blah. What a different era of being the greatest though. Like I, if you watch that show that the six part documentary about Jordan, there was like a part where, um, they, they spent like a big chunk of time basically saying like, you get to a level of fame that michael jordan got to

where you basically your entire life is handcuffed by not going but you just you can't leave your living room and his like bodyguards and security and everybody that would hang out with him was like yeah like you think it's glamorous until it's like day or year five of going to your hotel room and having to get like room service because you can't go to the store and get food without like all of it and the difference is is like that still exists probably for simone biles but now when she goes home she's addicted to going on instagram. So it's still bombarding her. She can't even go into her own living room. Like there's, there's no escaping it now instead of like, sure. Jordan couldn't go to the grocery store or go out to dinner or

whatever it is, but like he didn't have Instagram. He didn't have to deal with like, he would have had to have like actively sought out listening to SportsCenter or somebody else saying something bad about him. Like TMZ didn't exist. Like all of the places that – all the media just weren't there as intense. Even – imagine like his gambling problem in 2021 and like having to go play baseball with social media existing and the ability to just like anybody in the world able to just take a shot at him in the comments i would just get off there like you're so rich like just have somebody run your social media i would get off there personally my buddy who's running what do you even need it for my friend

he's running for senator he's a congressman right now. Ted Budd, shout out. Go vote for him. I go on his social media and I know him. He is like my friend and the things that people say like I made the mistake. This is like four years ago. I saw it and I got on there and I'm like, you don't know him?

He's a great dude. And I'm like, and then I thought like, what are you doing, Chavis? Like, there's no winning this. You're talking to – this is liberal and conservative. You can't win this argument. Get off there. And I asked him, I'm like, how do you put up with the comments? He's like, what comments?

So he never gets on there. So all of you people talking junk to him, he doesn't even see it. So he does not care. Yeah. Rogan had, like, a thing about that the other day in one of his shows that i was listening to and he was just like i can i'm allowed to show up he said that a buddy of his texted him was like yo there's a really good band in austin playing you guys should come down here so he went with like three friends and he said within 40 minutes the bar went from having like a hundred

people in it to just the whole place being packed. And all people were doing was taking pictures of them. It's like, basically he was like, if I get 40 minutes to go out in public before the Twitter storm tells everybody where I'm at and then they're taking pictures of me and then it gets weird. And then I got to go home.

That sucks. I mean, that does suck. Like we're at, I think where we're at in our careers it's fun it's like i mean this tactical you know nsca tactical convention and all these people listen to our show and that's cool no one's bombarded me like i'm in this lobby right now people are saying hi but i don't have a thousand people gathering taking pictures that would suck i couldn't even

do a podcast i would literally have to go to a private room to do this but it's perfect where we're at it's just enough to say hey it's cool what we're doing but like i can still go out with my family and i'll have to worry about somebody trying to steal my child you know or something it's at a point where if somebody does come up to you they go someone came up to me at the pool the other day in our neighborhood they were like do you live here you're anders i was like i feel so cool right now yeah me too this tactical place has been the best i feel like michael jordan right now but yeah that's all of our people right there i just want to say thank you to all of you veterans listening to the show like we're so blessed to have all of you i think we're all going down. I say this now.

Harrison, if you're listening, you better buy some plane tickets. Let's go. We're going to be – we've got more shows with Walmart coming up because we've got a big launch coming. And then FitOps is getting kicked back off. So I think we're going to be checking out the new spot

that we went to in Arkansas. Oh, I can't wait because I've been talking about FITOPS so much since I've been here. You guys should give me a kickback. No, they don't. They have a booth? They don't, I wish. But they do because I've been talking about them to every single person

about FITOPS because most people that listen know that we're partnered with FITOPS. So it's been really cool talking about their mission about fit ops because most of the people that listen know that we're, you know, partnered with fit ops. So it's been, it's been really cool talking about their mission and a shout out to what they do is amazing. Yeah. Matt has, he can't wait to get down there.

Hopefully Sino come down. Johnny Martin will be there when we all do it. It's going to be great. I can't wait. That's the best. It's my favorite thing that I do in my life is this show. And what we do with it is the coolest two thoughts. Yeah. That's my family. There it is. Someone's got to be at the top um bros we're gonna be uh this show is airing on Monday we're gonna be if you are in the South Carolina area

make sure you get to Soar Next and head over to Zach Abedash's page or uh Mash or myself on Twitter or Instagram we've been posting about it but we're going to be doing some coaching recording shows at sore necks in south carolina what is it's like right out leesburg maybe uh lexington um they're in columbia south carolina they're in columbia right next to columbia yeah right just right down the road so columbia south carolina we're going to be at sore necks we're going to be doing some coaching um and helping zach abinesh run a thing run a seminar down there so in-person seminars are coming back i'm so stoked that we get to go hang out it's like i talked to zach this morning and he was like dude i don't even care if i just break even on these seminars he's like i miss my friends so much i was like dude we have all been

in this game so long and met so many cool people. And we all used to lift weights together. And we all used to go on the road together. And then it just fucking stopped. Right. And everyone just got used to doing Zoom. It's way different. I want to go Doug. Bryce Schilling.

Yep. I want to go do the show. He's a UNLV now. He's a big deal. That's right. I told him we should come there and do an in-person with you that dude is the coolest guy i've ever met and like this is so happens he's your old coach of course and like he's we had the best time talking the smartest guy the smartest guy

who's also a great dude too like yeah i enjoyed meeting him i hope to go in person in vegas to uh podcast that dude. Amazing. We definitely should. He hasn't been on the show in many, many years, but I'd love to catch up with him. I saw him in Vegas a couple years ago, but I haven't talked to him much lately. I haven't talked to him since Chris Moore's. The only time I've ever

seen him is at Chris Moore's wake, I guess is what that was. It was fun getting to see him here. Go try to smash. Mashed yeah, it was fun getting to see him here. Oh. Go try to smash. Mashlead.com or go to – if you want to go to Twitter and see me crush people, Mashlead.

That's never not funny. Doug Larson. My Instagram, Douglacy Larson. I'm Anders Varner. At Anders Varner, we're Barbell Shrugged. At Barbell underscore Shrugged. Get over to DieselDadMentorship.com. It's where all the busy dads are getting strong,

lean, and athletic without sacrifice, family, fatherhood, or fitness. And November, 2,000 plus Walmarts. We're going to be in performance nutrition in the pharmacy. Get over. Check everything out. I'm going to have more details every week as this thing unravels., um, unravels,

unveils, unravels. Um, but we have, that's a good one. Um, but yeah, we were in 12 stores last year.

We're in 2200 this year. That means at least every other Walmart that you have a chance of walking into, we're going to be in there in the show on the shelves, in the pharmacy, in the performance nutrition section. So free 21 day challenge on the shelves, friends.

We'll see you guys next week.