Mark Bell's Power Project - 24 Year Old Becomes Greatest Powerlifter in History with 2645-lb Total!

Episode Date: April 9, 2025

In this episode of Mark Bell's Power Project, we dive into the mindset, training strategies, and discipline that catapulted Colton Engelbrecht to a staggering 2,645 lb total at just 24 years old. Learn how focus, dedication, and breaking mental barriers can help you achieve greatness in strength training, fitness, and beyond.🔥 Key Highlights:- Colton’s journey to breaking limits in just four years of competing.- Essential training tips: high-rep blocks, mental focus, and accessory work.- The importance of eliminating distractions and staying laser-focused on your goals.- Insights on nutrition, recovery, and injury prevention from one of the strongest lifters alive.- Why mindset and ego can be your biggest hurdles in reaching your full potential.Official Power Project Website: https://powerproject.liveJoin The Power Project Discord: https://discord.gg/yYzthQX5qNSubscribe to the Power Project Clips Channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UC5Df31rlDXm0EJAcKsq1SUwSpecial perks for our listeners below!🥜 Protect Your Nuts With Organic Underwear 🥜➢https://nadsunder.com/Use code: POWERPROJECT to save 15% off your order!🍆 Natural Sexual Performance Booster 🍆 ➢https://usejoymode.com/discount/POWERPROJECTUse code: POWERPROJECT to save 20% off your order!🚨 The Best Red Light Therapy Devices and Blue Blocking Glasses On The Market! 😎➢https://emr-tek.com/Use code: POWERPROJECT to save 20% off your order!👟 BEST LOOKING AND FUNCTIONING BAREFOOT SHOES 🦶➢https://vivobarefoot.com/powerproject🥩 HIGH QUALITY PROTEIN! 🍖 ➢ https://goodlifeproteins.com/ Code POWER to save 20% off site wide, or code POWERPROJECT to save an additional 5% off your Build a Box Subscription!🩸 Get your BLOODWORK Done! 🩸 ➢ https://marekhealth.com/PowerProject to receive 10% off our Panel, Check Up Panel or any custom panel, and use code POWERPROJECT for 10% off any lab!Sleep Better and TAPE YOUR MOUTH (Comfortable Mouth Tape) 🤐 ➢ https://hostagetape.com/powerproject to receive a year supply of Hostage Tape and Nose Strips for less than $1 a night!🥶 The Best Cold Plunge Money Can Buy 🥶 ➢ https://thecoldplunge.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save $150!!Self Explanatory 🍆 ➢ Enlarging Pumps (This really works): https://bit.ly/powerproject1Pumps explained: ➢ https://withinyoubrand.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save 15% off supplements!➢ https://markbellslingshot.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save 15% off all gear and apparel!Follow Mark Bell's Power Project Podcast➢ https://www.PowerProject.live➢ https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast➢ Insta: https://www.instagram.com/markbellspowerproject➢ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/markbellspowerprojectFOLLOW Mark Bell➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell➢https://www.tiktok.com/@marksmellybell➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybellFollow Nsima InyangFollow Nsima Inyang ➢ Ropes and equipment : https://thestrongerhuman.store➢ Community & Courses: https://www.skool.com/thestrongerhuman➢ YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/c/NsimaInyang➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/?hl=enFollow Andrew Zaragoza➢ Podcast Courses and Free Guides: https://pursuepodcasting.com/iamandrewz➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamandrewz/➢ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@iamandrewz

And in four years, you beat the all-time world record in powerlifting history. Can you jump high? Can you run fast? Are you some type of superhero? Well, I don't know. I wouldn't say so. I think I'm an ordinary guy. When I think of powerlifting, it normally takes a really long time for someone to build credible strength. But for some reason, for you, it's been such a rapid rise to the top.

It's mainly due to the fact that I try to devote my whole self to it. I don't leave any room for anything else in my life except for getting stronger. If you have an ego about lifting and you need to prove yourself to people, you're just gonna be limited to proving yourself to that person and you're not gonna focus on reaching your actual full potential. All right, Colton, 26.45 total.

I know you've been working on this for a while, but how long have you been powerlifting for? Competitively, I'd say for the past four years. And in four years you beat the all-time world record in powerlifting history. Yeah, I guess. Did you start out strong? I mean, when you first started lifting, first started going to the gym, did you notice you were quite a bit stronger than some of your friends and stuff like that? Yeah, I was always one of the strongest guys from the start. Like when I joined the gym or I actually started with CrossFit and I was

stronger than a lot of the CrossFit guys. Well, when did you start like lifting in general? Like what did that look like for you? Yeah, it was CrossFit. I got into CrossFit. I wanted to find something to build some steam then I got into CrossFit. I enjoyed the strength side of it and then I started focusing on just strength. Yeah, so you started lifting at like what age? You're 24 now. You broke the all-time

world record in powerlifting in 26, 45 total. How long you've been lifting for? Yeah, so I started powerlifting and strength training when I was 18. Are you an explosive person? Like when you play sports and stuff like that? I mean, can you jump high? Can you run fast? Are you some some type of superhero? Well, I don't know. I wouldn't say so. I think I'm an ordinary guy.

How about like sports when you're younger? Did you play, I mean in South Africa, did you play rugby? Did you do anything sports wise? Unfortunately I didn't have the opportunity because I was homeschooled. I was gonna say I think a lot of people are astonished not only that you broke the all-time world record but your body weight, like you're not a big fat guy. A lot of power lifters and myself included when I was lifting the heavy weights, I needed to be big and fat. But what body weight did you break this record at?

So I actually weighed myself at the gym today. I was 121, so I didn't cut weights or anything. I'm still around that weight. I weighed 120. What's your training look like? Because you've been improving so much since you started and you've been improving so fast. What kind of power lifting

or what kind of routine do you have going on? I like to focus on conditioning. Like heavy weight conditioning. So I'll do like at the beginning of my prep, so I'll do, I'll do heavy, um, eight week blocks of eight reps. And I'll try and like push my PVs. Try to break records with repetitions and stuff like that. Yeah, I love doing that. That's

like one of my favorite training styles. That's brutal, you know, trying to do a heavy set of eight reps with, you know, in your case, probably, I don't know, seven, 800 pounds on a squat, maybe more. Yeah, I've done 800 for four before on squats without knee wraps. It doesn't sound, you know, to me, like when I think of powerlifting, you know, it normally takes a really long time for someone to build credible strength in powerlifting. Like it's one thing for someone to build some strength where you're like, oh, that's really good. You know, the guy squats 200 kilos around 400 pounds or something like that. You're like, but for some reason for you, just, uh, it's been such a

rapid, uh, rapid rise to the top. Any like, is, do you think there's anything in particular with it? Or do you just find maybe the perfect sport for you? I'd say it's mainly, it's mainly due to the fact that I devote, I'm trying to devote my whole self to it. So I don't leave any room for anything else in my life except for getting stronger. So what does that look like each day for you? Well, I live a pretty ordinary life, but it's more of a mental aspect. So.

Mentally, I'm not. Not like involved with a lot of stuff. I mainly focus on getting stronger and doing everything that I need to do to get stronger. My understanding too, is that at the end, I think you had another attempt at a deadlift at this last meet, is that right? And I think you went for an 1,100 pound deadlift? Yeah, I did. It was just like something for fun. What total would that have given you? Would that get you closer to 2,700 maybe?

I'm not really too sure. I think it would have given me 1,230. What's the biggest deadlift? Any idea? Do you know what the biggest deadlift is in the history of powerlifting? Cause as far back as I can remember, I've seen Andy Bolton do a thousand three in a powerlifting meet. And I think Andy Bolton may have also done a thousand three, but he took token lifts.

I know that there's been some exhibition lifts. There's been some strongman lifts. Obviously there's Eddie Hall and there's Hapthor Bjornsson with the elephant bar and with using straps. But for your lift, the thousand 36 that you did, I think it's the biggest deadlift ever done in like a powerlifting meet. I mean, people aren't maybe factoring in the fact

that you squatted and you bench pressed before you hit that deadlift. Yeah, it's pretty interesting that you say that because it's the second biggest deadlift. I thought it was pretty well known that Dan Gregg's has deadlifted 487. Do you guys know Dan Gregg's? Yeah, Dan Gregg's, yeah.

Yeah, we had him on the show. Is that more? Like, I don't know, kilos that well. Is that more than what you did or is that right around the same? What, at the competition? Yeah, is it more than what you did? Yeah, I did 470 kgs and then heated 487 at another competition.

Your Instagram is the limit breaker, right? And I'm curious for you, if over time, have you been seeing any slowdowns or do you, do you like, because it seems like you're just breaking patsy after plato after plato. So for you, do you see there being, do you, do you feel like there's a ceiling right now? Like how strong do you feel you can get? Um, I don't think there's a limit, I don't believe that there is a limit.

So I feel like I'm just going to get stronger until I reach a certain age where I reach my natural, my like physical limits. Do you think this puts you in the conversation as one of the greatest lifters of all time, even though it's, you know, you've only done have a lot of things to like prove, if you want to say that, not really prove to other people, but prove to myself that I can reach the highest limits. That makes sense. We had a lot of questions that came in from Instagram

We'll get to those in a little bit But what are some things that you do? Specifically to increase let's say something like your deadlift Yes specific other exercises that utilize or do you like to mainly just deadlift? so actually Just deadlift and then like I said I go through higher rep blocks. So I use those higher rep blocks to hold the foundation for my deadlift just like I do with all my other lifts.

And then the accessories that I do are pretty much just to incorporate the mind muscle connection and create an extra stimulus. But all the work is done with the eight-rep blocks, I'd say, and the five reps as well, obviously. Do you do normal exercises like leg curls, leg extensions, like that kind of stuff, or is it, I don't know, more specific to like stiff leg deadlifts and stuff? Yeah, it's actually mainly just leg extensions and leg curls.

Yeah, I'd say that's my main accessories that I do for squats and delts. How about upper body accessories? Yeah, I do a lot more body accessories just because there's more muscle groups. But I'll do chest press, like machine chest press, chest flyers. I'll do tricep pushdowns, bicycles, military press, lateral raises, lat pull downs, seated rows, like all the basic stuff.

It doesn't seem like you half-ass those accessories though. Like when people even think about accessories, they think about them as just accessories, but are you focusing also on like really pushing these lifts? Yeah, I like to go as heavy as I can all the time. Like every session I'll try and push the accessories either in weights or in temper. So you'll slow it down.

Yeah, I want to like make it as intense as possible. In a certain way, but like the thing is, the gym that I'm at now doesn't have a lot of equipment. They don't have a lot of equipment, so I'm forced to do temper work where I make the lift harder than it actually would be just because there's not enough weights on the stack. Being a former CrossFitter, do you still do some types of cardio or conditioning type of work?

Yeah, every now and then, but not really. Yeah, I like to, if you're thinking about like cardio and stuff like that, I like to go on a lot of hikes, like outdoor hikes and stuff. South Africa, a hike can be pretty brutal, right? Get high altitude and a lot of sun, right? Yeah, I guess. Like I haven't really thought about it like that,

but there's some nice hiking trails. I live in a very pretty, like a very beautiful area and there's a like a gorge in my area where you can just go and you can enjoy the cliffs and stuff like that. How have you dealt with injuries and stuff like that? Yeah, I just assess what the injury is. I normally have done lots of research in the past on injury, and then I do exactly what the experts tell me to do, and I stick to it. You use some strategies like foam roller, myofascial release, TheraGuns, those kinds of things?

Not exactly. I've been doing a lot more massages lately, and chiropractor sessions just to do some maintenance work. That's never to treat an injury really, it's more maintenance. The injury prevention that I do is I'll do like activation work for my hips and my quads,

make sure my quads are firing so they and my hips are working properly so it doesn't put pressure on my joints and my knees. And then for other body it's mainly shoulder health that I focus on. So I focus on my like my scapular health and functionality of it. What do you do for some of that for the scap? mainly like Kind of like rear delts without flies, but it's focused on the retraction of the scapula and then

By contracting it again making sure it goes through a range of motion and then strengthening it in that range of motion I think all your lifts all your lifts look really solid the form and technique on all of them looks impeccable. But I think what really stands out is your squat. Your squat form is just, looks amazing. Where or how did you learn to squat? Did you have a coach or do you just kind of pick things up from YouTube? Yeah, obviously I have a coach, Tom Bre.

Yeah, he's a really good coach. He taught me a lot of my technique for squats. Yeah, it used to look horrible. Well, it wasn't like completely horrible, but you definitely made it look a lot prettier. What do you think is like? And the prettier it looks, obviously the more functional. The way that I use Methylene Blue is very similar to the way that you're using it. I don't use it every day. I think things that push that button to change your mood, you might want to be a little

cautious with it in my opinion and the feelings that I get from Methylene Blue. It does change my mood a little bit. It's a mood enhancer. When I go out to run I feel like I do have a little bit more endurance. I do feel like I can breathe a little bit better, but that could also be, I've been training very hard as well, so it could be an adaptation to that as well. But as we've had David Herrera and many other people come on the show before, they basically just say, methylene blue is a electron donor and it allows the body to utilize energy just more efficiently. And I don't know if I can feel that per se,

but I know that I feel better when I'm running when I'm using Methylene Blue. Yeah, post sessions of grappling, that's what I usually use. I use it two or three times a week, post sessions of Jujitsu, I always feel like I have more energy, like much more energy than I typically have. Which makes me understand that, you know,

if I did want to go for longer sessions, I could, but it also helps me understand that I'm going to be recovering better for my next session the next day, which is a big deal. But yeah, I think that if you guys, first off, this stuff is great because it's third party tested. Methylene blue in other sources, like the stuff that you'll see on Amazon

or like random websites, there's no regulation. So a lot of people have levels of toxicity from the supplement because it's not dosed correctly. And there are other things in that methylene blue. Again, this is something that is lab made. It's not, you know what I mean? So you gotta be careful. And this is why we like using this stuff

because we know it's not gonna mess us up. You can go on their website. You can go on the Troscription's website and you can get a report of the third party tested methylene blue and double, triple check it for yourself. In addition to that, they have the canateine, which I have not used that much, but when I have used it pre-workout,

I did notice I get a zip from it. It has, I think it has nicotine in it, along with a couple other things to go along with the methylene blue. So do yourselves a favor, check out Troscriptions, check out what they got. Strength is never weak this week, there's never strength.

Catch you guys later. What are some cues that maybe run through your head as you're doing your squat? Because it looks like you keep your hips in a really good position. It looks like you're really stacked the whole time you're squatting. And then you do the same thing

when you do your Sumo deadlifts. Yeah, so I like to try and keep myself super stacked that way. Like there's no energy leaks. I like to focus on not letting my energy leak out by my hips moving out and then the energy like leaks to the side. That type of thing. I just want everything to be stable and pushing up like all my energy needs to go up and not to the side and backwards or front to the front, stuff like that.

But the main things would be, it would be like keeping my upper back tight so I don't tip forward. keeping my pelvis posteriorly rotated so it doesn't anteriorly rotate when I go down. And then like bracing with that so that that positioning is maintained. And then another thing that really helps me with my hips is to kind of like spread the floor on my like big toe and heel.

I find a middle point between those two, and then I spread the floor and open up my hips and just create a very solid base. When you mentioned the spreading the floor thing, is that something that you've always done, or is that something your coach helped you? Because that's something that we've heard done, or is that something your coach helped you? Because, I mean, that's something that we've heard some people talk about,

but it's interesting there where, like, some lifters don't even think about that, or some people don't even think that that's important. But I agree with you, I like that, but where did you learn that? Or is that just something that naturally came to you? So I've always heard of it, like when I first started powerlifting, I was like oh yeah this is cool let me try this and

yeah obviously like it's the technique so you have to learn how to do the technique you're not just gonna do it straight away. So most like what I did in the beginning is I tried the technique and then I was like, okay, this is kind of working. And then I was like, let me just squat and kind of use it. But I didn't actually really focus on it. And then I actually got, I started developing like some stability issues with my knees. Like when I would hit the bottom of the hole my knees were just

like shaking like really badly and obviously they were taking strain so I was like I need more I need more tension and like torque in my hips to to maintain like more stability throughout my my legs. So I was like, how am I gonna create tension? So then I went back to the spreading on the floor and I was like, yeah, this really works if I do it properly and I really focus on it. What's your diet look like? So I don't really have like a specific diet, I feel like.

So what's been working for me lately is I have a smoothie in the morning. It's like 300 grams of oats and two bananas, some honey and some creatine. Yeah, and then lunchtime is normally some chicken and potato chips. Yeah, and then dinner is whatever dinner is. It's normally like protein. Protein and carbs, like certain macros. I just like to hit certain macros and whatever I can do to hit those macros, I'll just eat that.

So what are the calories? Like what's that break down for you? You're probably eating a lot. Yeah, I don't even know the calories actually. All right, so the macros, what are the macros? I know the macros, I know the macros I'm hitting. Yeah, the macros are about like 400 grams of carbs. Yeah, I have a lot of snacks like yogurts and fruits and stuff. Yeah, but it's 400 carbs, 250 protein and 180 fats.

I want to ask you this man, because I feel like we kind of just like went over it, but you mentioned you don't leave any room in your life for anything else other than like getting strong in terms of like what you keep on your mind. And I think that's really important. And I really just want to know more of what you mean when it comes to that. Because a lot of people want to get strong.

I mean, there are tons of people who want to get as strong as you. But when you say you have that type of focus, what does that entail for you? Like, what do you not do? What do you keep out? So it's, it's funny. Like it's hard, kind of hard to explain, but I live an ordinary life. Like I'll go out and I'll go to dinner and I'll talk to people normally and I'll play like, I'll go

on like a whole bunch of different adventures with my fiance and stuff. But it's mainly the aspect of not getting attached to certain things like with your mentality. So things that take up energy pretty much. So like, if you have an ego about lifting and you need to prove yourself to people, just for an example, I'm not saying this is one of the things. Like you'll need to prove yourself to someone,

you're just gonna be limited to proving yourself to that person, you're not gonna focus on reaching your actual full potential. And like, that's just an example. There's lots of limiting categories that will limit you from what you're actually capable of doing, and it's just a process of figuring out what they are, in my opinion.

This guy's 24. No, that makes perfect sense. Seems super mature. Pretty awesome. What do you think is something that really holds back a lot of other power lifters? Because a lot of people get stuck. Yeah, pretty much. That's exactly what I said like two minutes ago. It's they cling onto things that like holds them down. Yeah, like they'll be clinging to like a certain image or certain record or a certain like weight category

or something. Yeah, like some sort of like egotistical thing. I'm not saying that in a bad way like, oh, it's a good. But something that's holding them back, like people are different. Like I have my things that were holding me back. People are gonna have their things that are holding them back. So were you maybe not necessarily even focused

on the all time world record? Were you maybe just focused on just doing awesome and doing your best and reaching your potential? Yeah, to an extent, like part of that is true. I just saw the all-time world record as a stepping stone. He's like, I can break that. It's just a stepping stone to what being the strongest would actually look like. Is it difficult for you to gain weight? Seems like over the last maybe year or maybe two years seems like you were able to put

on a decent amount of weight. Has that been hard or is that coming kind of natural? It's not something I really focus on. I just train and make sure I hit my macros where I'm recovering. And then whatever my body wants to put on, it'll put on. And as far as like, you know, I think people see the numbers that you've done, I'm sure they must assume like, oh my God, this guy must be blasting a crazy amount of PEDs. This guy must have found the holy grail of finding some particular peptide that nobody

else has heard about yet or something like that. Does that stuff look pretty normal for you? What you utilize to do some of these lifts or did you find the holy grail of the peptide and can you share that with us? I don't know. I didn't think so. holy grail of the peptide and can you share that with us? I don't know. I didn't think so. Like I, I do do maintenance APC one five seven. Yeah. Just I take maintenance doses throughout my prep. Like, um,

like three I use per day. Yeah. And then normal like one of the peptides that use. And then normal stuff like- Yeah, I'll go through my whole stack with you. Sure. Everyone's got their pen. It's like three IUs of deep and snee, three to five I use of GH.

And then also I'll, I don't take a lot of tests. Like this is the most tests I've taken for this prep. Just because I took a lot less Orals because I don't really respond well. Like I respond super well to URLs but I get some bad side effects. So I took 600 tests, 600 milligrams per week, one night, 300 milligrams of Mastron. Yeah, and then my peak versus the arrows, I didn't take them like peak out throughout

the whole prep and took 30 milligrams of Debo today. And on my lifting days, I took a hundred milligrams of energy. Something to keep in mind, you know, if you're getting those results off of that, you know, you, you don't need to do more, you know, I think that happens to a lot of lifters. They take more and more. Yeah. The, the 600 test is only the last four weeks as well. I'll be running 300 milligrams from the start of my prep. And then around week 10, I'll go to like 400. And then weeks, like week eight to six, I'll be on 500.

And then the rest of the prep, I'll be on 600. What does your coach kind of think of your lifts? Is he like, is he kind of like blown away a little bit himself or is he just like, this is kind of what happens when somebody follows my coaching instructions. I don't know. Like I think he just listens to what I say about what I want to do. And then he's like, yeah, we're going to do that. He gets impressed obviously. But I think he's mainly just focusing on what I want. Some people I saw in the comments when I posted

we were gonna do the show, some people were almost like, what do you turn this into? Some people were like, I guess now he can be an influencer or something like that. You seem like a very calm guy and that doesn't even seem like something that you care all that much about.

But it is something to think about. I mean, yeah, what do you do with a powerlifting career? Obviously there's a lot of things you can do like myself or some other people in the past. But yeah, what are some of your thoughts on that? Yeah, I actually, I enjoy, I really enjoy coaching other powerlifters. That's the main thing. Yeah, cause some people were like, he's only got, how come he only has 60,000 followers?

Yeah. Instagram is actually just like, like a, what would you call it? Like a log book? Documentation. Yeah, like what would you call that? Yeah, documentation pretty much. And then it's also just like a business for me to get clients. On the, because I know you mentioned massage, right? So sleep, all these other things that are just like general for recovery.

How are you when it comes to that stuff? Like, well how do you prioritize those things? How much sleep do you get? All these little things that people think about. I'm actually really good with sleep. Like I can function super well on like six hours of sleep, which is what I get most nights. Yeah. I feel, I feel pretty good on eight hours, but I don't always get eight hours.

Sometimes I'm a restless sleeper, but yeah, six hours is pretty solid for me. I know like this has happened in powerlifting a few times. The great Ed Cohn, Mike Bridges as well. Both of these guys have broken the world records that were previously held by super heavyweights. So it's not like this is the first time it's ever happened, but with both of those individuals,

I think something that was difficult for them was to like, they didn't have anybody to compete against. They would pretty much just like mop the floor with everybody every time they competed and I think there's some people may be wondering like Yeah, almost like what drives you I guess, you know powerlifting is an individual sport You got your numbers and you got a way of trying to figure out how do I get the biggest total possible. But you are kind of looking,

a lot of people are looking to their left, looking to their right, trying to see what the other person is doing and they're hopeful that they can one day surpass that person. But when you don't have, there's nobody around. Is there, are there any power lifters that are anywhere near close to you in your weight class

that has anywhere near the capabilities that you have and if not, what kind of drives you and keeps you fired up to want to continue to go to 2,700 and so on? Yeah, so there's limits that a lot of people don't see. But besides that, there isn't really like anyone besides maybe you're Fuse, I'd say, that could total. I don't think you would total more than me but you would come close so okay there's there's like there's the limit so it's putting all the all-time world records in a full meets into one total pretty much I see so breaking the all-time bench record I'm not gonna I'm probably not gonna break that one just cuz that one that one's like

pretty hectic yeah just cuz I'm not very like proficient at deadlift at I mean at bench and that's not even that's not even the that's not even the full power all-time record. It's three 25. That's the full power one done by non like bench specialist. That's amazing thing to gun for. Yeah. Yeah. What it is currently now it's five or five for squat, uh25 foot bench, and then obviously like 487.5 for deadlift. Yeah, that's a pretty cool goal to have.

And Seema, can you maybe pull up some of the questions that came through on Instagram so we can fire some of those off to him as well? Yeah, there's one from Chris Lovato, Yucca Lovato. He wants to know right how do you keep your hips from feeling destroyed with so much abuse pre and post lifting or do you even feel it? Yeah it would be the the warm-ups that I do. So I like to get a lot of activation in my hips and I do a lot of stretches.

So I actually found this warmup on Dan Bell's, not Dan Bell, Mark Bell's YouTube page like five years ago. Yeah, it was when you were doing like a YouTube video with that guy like Chris Duffin, was that his name? Yeah, he did airplanes. Yeah, I do those quite a lot. All right. Yeah, do you, you mentioned like a little bit of stretching and stuff. Is stretching something that you do occasionally? Do you stretch like at night or after workouts or anything like that?

Yeah, sometimes I'll stretch at nights. If I'm feeling tight, I may need to see how my body feels and what it needs. If I'm feeling tight, then I'll stretch a bit. But I always stretch before every workout. All right. Next question. What's the most effective strategy for breaking through strength plateaus without gaining tons of weight?

Yeah, I'd say intensity. Intensity of training. Yeah, that's my dog. That's okay. Do you feel that a lot of powerlifters train too heavy? A lot of times they're... You can take your time if you need to. It's fine.

They're just playing. I was going to say, do you feel like a lot of powerlifters lift too heavy and they're just lifting with weights that they can't really do the exercise with the right execution. You were mentioning how you like to build with sets of eight and the great Ed Cohen was very similar. After every competition, he would go back and he would start over with higher reps, but he was really insistent on the repetitions being perfect when he did his repetitions. Yeah.

I think that's a great mindset to have. I can explain it in a way that most people would understand. So if you're trying to build a big building or a big structure, you need a really solid and a really big foundation. a really solid and a really big foundation. So the high reps and the variety of complexing your technique is the foundation to build that big structure.

Now, this is from Primal Strength and I think it's alluding to something. Do you think you could do 500 kgs on the elephant bar? On the elephant bar? Yeah. Yeah. Now, how do you feel? I don't know. I don't really know.

OK. But how do you feel about, because you pretty much almost got that 500. You got up pretty much to your hips, and you just couldn't lock it out, right? When it comes to the 500 kilogram deadlift, how do you feel about the strongman version with straps etc versus the way you do it in powerlifting? I don't know like it's very like difficult

question because some people obviously gonna like the strong man deal with more but I have this thing in my head where I believe like doing narrow sumo is the natural way that the human body is supposed to pick stuff up like if you like for instance if you're going or if you just want to pick up anything in your life like if you go into the wild or if you like trying to pick up like a massive rock or big pot plant or whatever, you're not going to go and be like, okay, let me put my feet together. You're like, I'm going to like make sure I'm using my legs and I'm going to put them apart and like look from the middle. Smart, right? smart right so yeah that seems logical the big problem is like we get people that will abuse that and they'll take it to the extreme extent and they'll like

go super wide but they seem and then it kind of messes up the whole image and anymore over there yeah there's there's there's quite a few I think actually that's that answered the sumo question. Here we go. So people are actually curious about your actual training split. If you have any days off and what it looks like from day to day, week to week. Uh, yeah, I can give you the full split.

I'll squat on a bench on a Monday, squat Tuesday, do back on a Wednesday, back in triceps on a Wednesday and then I'll do shoulders Thursday and then deadlifts on a Friday. And then obviously they're like respective exercises. Saturday Sunday you're chilling. Yeah, I'm normally chilling or I'm doing some sort of activity with my fiance, like either hiking or drinking coffee or going somewhere. It's nice balance. Is your coach, uh, is he at the gym when you're training?

Thomas. Yep. Yeah. Thomas is Australian. So using Australia and I'm in South Africa. I see. I see. There's a question here asking, would you ever consider strong man? Strong man? Um, yeah, yeah, definitely. I think it'd be amazing if you got invited to one of these like a deadlift exhibitions or something and went against Eddie Hall and some of these other, Hap Thor Bjornsson and some of these other guys that are doing these lifts on the elephant bar type thing. Maybe like a rogue invitational or something like that. I know a lot of people would love to see that.

Yeah, that's definitely something that's possible for the future. But right now I have the goal of reaching that total that I explained. Where would that put you numbers wise if you did all three of those? What would that put you at as a total? We can do the math. I'm gonna tell you more than what that total is. The math of the total is adding up to I'm going to tell you more than that.

I want my peak total to be like it'll be a thousand three hundred fifty around about there. I will never go to a doctor ever again about my general health. All they wanna do is put you on pills. Really well said there by Dana White. Couldn't agree with him more. A lot of us are trying to get jacked and tanned.

A lot of us just wanna look good, feel good. And a lot of the symptoms that we might acquire as we get older, some of the things that we might have, high cholesterol or these various things, it's amazing to have somebody looking at your blood work as you're going through the process, as you're trying to become a better athlete, somebody that knows what they're doing, they can look at your cholesterol,

they can look at the various markers that you have, and they can kind of see where you're at and they can help guide you through that. And there's a few aspects too where it's like, yes, I mean no, no shade to doctors, but a lot of times they do want to just stick you on medication. A lot of times there is supplementation that can help with this.

Merrick Health, these patient care coordinators are going to also look at the way you're living your lifestyle because there's a lot of things you might be doing that if you just adjust that, boom, you could be at the right levels, including working with your testosterone. And there's so many people that I know that are looking for, they're like, hey, should I do that?

They're very curious. And they think that testosterone is going to all of a sudden kind of turn them into the Hulk, but that's not really what happens. It can be something that can be really great for your health because you can just basically live your life a little stronger, just like you were maybe in your 20s and 30s.

And this is the last thing to keep in mind, guys. When you get your blood work done at a hospital, they're just looking at these minimum levels. At Merrick Health, they try to bring you up to ideal levels for everything you're working with. Whereas, if you go into a hospital and you have 300 nanograms per deciliter of test, you're good, bro, even though you're probably

feeling like shit. At Merrick Health, they're going to try to figure out what type of things you can do in terms of your lifestyle, and if you're a candidate, potentially TRT. So these are things to pay attention to, to get you to your best self. And what I love about it is a little bit of the back and forth that you get with the patient care coordinator.

They're dissecting your blood work. It's not like you just get this email back and it's just like, hey, try these five things. Somebody's actually on the phone with you going over every step and what you should do. Sometimes it's supplementation, sometimes it's TRT, and sometimes it's simply just some lifestyle habit changes. All right guys, if you want to get your blood work checked

and also get professional help from people who are going to be able to get you towards your best levels, head to MerrickHealth.com and use code PowerProject for 10% off any panel of your choice. Alright, I have a quick nerd, that's 29.70 by the way. Oh, that's wild. I have a question, man, kind of a nerdy question.

I grew up watching a lot of anime, your limit breaker thing is a theme watching a lot of anime. Your Limit Breaker thing is a theme in a lot of different of those. Did you ever watch any anime when you were younger or is Limit Breaker just something that you have put onto yourself and it's like, it's an inside thing? Yeah, I'm just adopting like Goku's mindset.

Yes! Yes! Yes! I have a limit with a line through it on my fist bro. I got this years ago. Just same shit. Just because of that. Shit. Yeah that's super cool. Yeah that's pretty cool. Alright let me ask this.

It was mainly from the super arc. So Goku was like, there was rumors going on about his Limit Breaker form, and I was like, yeah, that's a cool name, let me take that. All right, good shit, man. Happy to hear that.

I think a lot of people are really happy to hear that, by the way. Good shit. Yeah, anime is like, it's great for inspiring people to push their limits. Like, some people will hate on it and be like, oh it's stupid, it's just a platoon. But like it doesn't have to just be that simple. If you achieve some of these numbers and you start hitting you know 28, 2900 pounds and all those different things,

do you think you would like to go back to CrossFit or do you have other things that maybe you did when you were younger that you might want to go back to? Or you got other desires, other things that you would like to do? Like another sport besides powerlifting? Yeah, like maybe when you're done powerlifting, you pick up some pickleball. Yeah, that would be funny. But no, not really. So I don't know how long it's going to take me to hit that total, but after that, I'd like to give it my all to try and win World's Strongest Grand.

Wow. Yeah. There we go. That strong powerlifting base going into strong man would, would definitely serve you well. Have you ever done things like a jujitsu or anything like that? Yeah, there was a, I did kickboxing when I was 14 to 16. Yeah, that was really fun.

Do you think some of that has helped you in powerlifting? Just being like being able to move well and being mobile through the hips, especially on your squats and your deadlifts, with the kicks and stuff? Not really. I wasn't really a kicker. I didn't have that mobility. But I was a pretty good striker. The guy would always, even when I was 14, I'm not really dragging because this actually happened.

You have these pads and kickboxing that let you punch the midsection of someone and they're really thick. So a person wearing them doesn't really feel them and stuff. But when I had to spar with these people, they were wearing the pads and they would always tell me that they need to take a break because they feeling too much with the pads. So yeah, I was always good at striking. All right. Well, we really appreciate your time today.

Thank you so much and congratulations. That's absolutely awesome. Any plans to come to the states Yeah, I'm hopefully gonna do a competition end of this year in America John Hacks also gonna be in that one. Yeah, and Is that is that the sun? He's not going to unfortunately? Oh, okay. Yeah, it's it's the reach rumble Yeah, it's it's the reach rumble Yeah, what state

Apparently it's gonna be in California now. Cool. Have to come try to see it. I love to meet you in person Yeah, that'd be nice. That would be better Once again, great job unbelievable total and keep kicking ass. Yeah much appreciated. Thank you for having me on the podcast Where can people find you? They can just go through Instagram, send me a DM if they're interested. That'll be cool. Awesome. Have a great rest of your day. Yeah, much appreciated. Thanks. Savant. Dude, dude. I think the coolest thing that was mentioned was the focus. The leaving, having no other, like, you know,

cool, like, he has his fiance, they do their stuff or whatever, but he's really just solely focused on getting stronger. The thing he mentioned about the ego too, not being focused on other records or what other people are thinking of him or whatever, that's huge. He only thinks about getting stronger.

And that's a big deal. That is actually all you need to do. I think it's really tough when you're, you know, when you're not there and when you're not that guy, it's hard because you're like, but I wanna be able to lift the two plates. I wanna be able to lift the three plates.

I wanna be able to lift what this person can lift or that person can lift. And so you like feel bad about it. And then you're, you know, you're, a lot of times you go, maybe go and work out and you're unable to do it and you feel like that it's too far away. And you really put a lot of limitation on yourself.

You're, you're lifting 275. Your goal is to bench, you know, 315. And 275 is a real struggle for you. You're lifting with your buddy that's stronger and because your buddy that's stronger is like lifting heavier, lifting stuff with perfect form and you're just trying to chase him, you're just trying to not fall too far behind even,

you're lifting weights that aren't appropriate for you for you to get better or stronger or you're just even watching somebody via like Instagram or something like that, admiring what they're doing and not really honing in on what you could be doing. Yeah, that's something you gotta do. You gotta focus on like your specific goals.

And Instagram's a real trap because it is great because you can see people like Colton. I think that's one of the reasons why certain people are getting so strong so young because you can see people like Colton. I think that's one of the reasons why certain people are getting so strong, so young, because you can see, oh, somebody is benching 500 or 600 or whatever, right? I could definitely do that. But then it's not allowing yourself to get into the cotton, the trap of comparing yourself

to everybody and almost letting that limit you in terms of what you think is possible for yourself. Because there's some people that look at that and be like, I can beat that. I guarantee Colton sees all these things like, I can definitely beat that, right? But you could look at certain things and be like, I could never do that. And that's crushing. That will crush the motivation towards your goals, you know, it's been so many great lifters you know, John hack is absolutely an incredible lifter and he You know, he came in and destroyed a lot of all-time world records

He did so I like lighter body weights too And then I think I think he went all the way from like 181 all the way up to maybe 242. Mm-hmm But Colton is just, he's just, what he's doing is just a little different because he's a heavier guy in general and he's able to break the all-time world record. As I mentioned, Ed Cohn, you know, was somebody that did that. And it may be too early, it may be too early to crown him and to say that he's like the second coming of Ed Cohn. But it kind of seems like he may be. It kind of seems like he is.

My question is like, I know you mentioned it's too early, but like, with this number, I mean, what would you need for it to be, right? It's like, if there's gonna be anybody, it's gotta be someone pushing these types of numbers, right? It's like, if there's gonna be anybody, it's gonna be someone pushing these types of numbers, right? It's wild. It's insane. We did mention before the show, we were saying,

like, if someone was to beat Usain Bolt's record, that they would then be the fastest person ever. Yeah, absolutely. Obviously, you gotta do it like an official competition, right? You want some sort of similar circumstances and so on. And I think, I think what we're looking for in sports, we might be, we might be asking way too much, you know, cause sometimes somebody's really good or,

or great for like a short period of time. And then like, oh, it was only did it for like five years, five years is a long time. You know they're like, oh, he only did it for like five years. Five years is a long time. It's a long time. I think Bo Jackson, who we have, his baseball card there, Bo Jackson didn't play long enough to be in the NFL Hall of Fame. So he's not inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame,

which sucks. It's ridiculous. Because he was so amazing. He should probably be in there anyway. Yeah. But I think that's what people are looking for. You know, when they're talking about, you know, these great athletes, they want people to have like a longer career watching the video of Bo just taken off and

no one's even anywhere. It's just unbelievable. Yeah. Some of these people have come along. You just you can't help but think like, is Colton, is he like a superhero? You know, it's like, you're talking about like anime and stuff and not having any limits and what you can do in a,

I know it's not supposed to be called a cartoon, but we can do it. It's not a cartoon, Mark. Animation. Anime. What you can do with animation doesn't really, it's only limited to our mind, right? Like what you can make an animated character do

is only limited to our mind. And I don't know, these people just, they put your mind in a different place because you're like, oh, I didn't know that was, like is someone gonna run 100 meters in eight seconds? Maybe, like if someone came along, that's the equivalent of like Colton, but it's in sprinting. It might happen. Yeah. There might be somebody that gets, you know, to, to that kind of number.

Yeah. I think one thing is like, just, just to like appreciate the wildness of what somebody's doing. So I know like the instinct is let's like, let's compare it to how everybody else is doing, but let's just like appreciate how, what a feat of strength what this guy's pulling off is right now. Along with the goal of trying to get a 29.70,

which honestly, I believe he's gonna be able to do that. I believe he's really gonna be able to do that. I don't really understand or I don't know why he wouldn't be able to do 1100 pound squat, 1100 pound deadlift, and a 600 pound bench. He's like not far off of some of those numbers right now. So it's just, it don't make no sense. That puts him at 28,800, right?

So he's definitely capable. And, you know, I said Savant, but I really think that he is, I've noticed in talking to people like this, they, you're not gonna hear, it would be extremely rare, you're not gonna hear an athlete like this, that's this in tune with their body. You're not gonna hear him talk about recruiting motor units. You know, you're not gonna to hear an athlete like this that's this in tune with their body. Yeah. You're not going to hear him talk about recruiting motor units. You know, you're not going to hear him talk about, he knows a lot of stuff, right?

But he knows it differently than most people know it. At least that's what I believe. I mean, I only had one conversation with the guy, but I just think that these people that have these, they have this strength, they have this ability, they have a different feel and different relationship with when they do a particular lift or when they do a particular movement. And that's what makes them great. And I'm not saying it's a gift or anything.

I'm not saying it's like, I mean, it is a gift in a way, but I'm not saying it's like genetic necessarily. But every time that he puts his hands on a barbell, it feels exponentially quite different than the way anybody else is able to experience it. It's almost like taste, you know, when you taste different things. Some people like fermented foods, some people like spicy food, some people never, they hate those foods, right? They don't, they don't, so their experience, you know, our experiences with, you know, somebody experiencing an onion for one person

is gonna be different than another person. But what can make somebody an extraordinary cook is to understand, like, the combinations. Like, you can go to school, you can go to culinary school, and someone can teach you all these different things, and they can Say all the stuff But someone that's like a savant knows how to play the keys from like the inside So this guy knows how to like play his body utilize his body like like some like a savant

Playing the piano is the way that I kind of look at some of this It's like when you saw him out spreading the floor, you know it's interesting because we've had some people that I've asked that specific question about spreading the floor to on this podcast over the years. And some people are like, oh yeah, no, that's not important at all. It's, you don't need to do that, right?

But someone like him, he mentioned didn't click immediately, but he worked on that over time and boom, it was helpful. So it's one of those things where like, you try something, even if it doesn't work immediately, give yourself the time to see how those things play out because it could be something that takes your squat, your deadlift, et cetera, further. And that's what he did for himself. So, and the small thing you're mentioning, I think sometimes when people listen to a person like him, immediately they kind of disconnect themselves

from everything he's saying because they think, oh, it's just special for him. It's just easy for Colton or whatever, right? But I think more so we should actually really try to key in on the things that he's saying because like you mentioned, he's probably paying attention to things differently or looking at them a little bit differently

than some coaches do or some other people do. And it could help you get a flicker for something in terms of the way you lift, like the spreading the floor thing. Right. And he talked about stacking the bones and he thought he was very accurate with a lot of that stuff.

Ryan, can you bring up David Weck's foot diagram where he's got the lines running through the, I don't know what it would be really called, but he has like a foot kind of dissected. It's like a graph, but the reason why I want to bring it up, oh, there you go, you got some of it there. Do you have the image? Yeah, it looks like he was able to get to it pretty quick

or some version of it, yeah. Yeah, there we go. So, if you look at kind of that purplish line, right, the line that goes through the big toe and through the heel, that's exactly what Colton said. Yeah. Exactly what he talked about. He's probably never seen this chart.

He probably has not communicated with David Weck, although if he did, it'd be great. And he talked about how he's trying to, so he has a fairly wide stance when he squats. He spreads the floor, but he's putting pressure into his big toe and his heel, which is super interesting because as I'm trying to do it right now,

what I start to feel because of the way that I practice that I would almost roll my foot outward. Will your big toe come off the ground a bit when you do it? Sometimes it would, especially if I was doing like a box squat or something. But what he's saying almost seems a little different than that, it's almost like, which still,

some people teach this in running and sprinting, like whole foot contact, rather than thinking of just towing things out or just smashing your heel onto the ground. It's like whole foot contact, and I think when you're doing something like a squat, it would make sense if you had pressure on the whole foot, and one way to get a lot of pressure on the whole foot and get a lot

of torque would be to get a lot of pressure through that big toe and through your heel. So and you'll feel some like when you spread that way you're gonna feel some activation of the arch within your foot your knee will come out a little bit and you'll get a little bit of external hip rotation so that's one of the things that gives you the room to get in, to get depth during your squat. I think the first time I ever heard of it was Kelly Stretz's supple leopard. That actually is the thing that got me into

gripping the ground, which is actually what helped me finally hit squat depth. What about what he was saying about picking things up off the ground? I loved it. How good was that? It was logical, yeah, it is logical. Sumo is logical.

I mean, you're gonna pick up something pretty heavy off the ground, you know, like let's just say, like a sandbag, right? You're gonna straddle it, and then you're gonna bend down, you're gonna pick it up. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you notice the thing about his sumo, though, is it's not like in a dumb wide sudo.

You know what I mean? It's not like he's, it's not insanely wide. It's almost, I mean, it's wider than what Ed Cohn did, but it's like, it's just, it's great for his structure. It's, you look at the way he's stacked, his hips don't move, he gets him in that position, he just drives forward. He has a great structure for like,

it's such a nice looking sumo too. What did he say he weighs, 140 kilos, what is that? Damn, I don't think he mentioned. Oh, did he mention? I think in the beginning. If he said 140 kilos, that's like 290 something. Oh shit. Unless we're tripping, did he say? 120.

Oh, 120, 120. Oh, okay, that makes more sense. 10 times body weight. Wow. Yeah, 10 times body weight total. So I wonder if that's the heaviest person to do a 10 times body weight total. So I wonder if that's the heaviest person to do a 10 times body weight total. Because the 10 times body weight total

is usually for the smaller individuals are able to do that. And a lot of the very strong females are able to do that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But the big boys, for a big boy to do 10x body weight is really unbelievable. I just don't even know what to say about this kid. You know, it's like, it's just,

when I first started seeing what he was lifting, I was just. 350 pound overhead press for reps. Oh, okay, still. Everything he does is so easy. Yeah, man. Yeah, that's, I don't know. If he's so, like, I'm pumped to see,

I like him crush powerlifting, but then it's gonna be so cool to see if he goes, like when he goes to Strongman. And you know what I'm so pumped about too, from this conversation, the development of the foundation that he talked about. We've heard that from a few people. Andre Milanochev mentioned the same thing, right?

That is one of the big things that I think a lot of people miss before they go into powerlifting. They just go straight to lifting fives, threes, and ones, but they haven't built a base of volume. A lot of great powerlifters have had a great rust swole start off doing a lot of bodybuilding. A lot of these really cool powerlifters, really good powerlifters, had a base of volume, which started off doing a lot of bodybuilding. A lot of these really cool powerlifters, really good powerlifters, had a base of volume

which helped them build a lot of muscle, a lot of resilience. And then when they started lifting a lot heavier weights, phew, you know, it's easier for them. Much respect to all the powerlifters out there. Yes. But you know, this guy is extraordinary. Obviously we've had Jesus Oliverivares on the podcast before.

I think he's absolutely extraordinary as well. And I think there's a lot of extraordinary people out there. And Jesus does it in a federation where they do drug testing. So things are different when you are in a drug tested federation versus, he rattled off his cycle. Yeah, he just, he gave it right to us. But anyway, my hat goes off to this kid.

He's fucking unbelievable. And I'm excited to see what more he can kind of bring to the table moving forward. Strength is never a weakness, weakness is never strength. Catch you guys later. Bye.