Mark Bell's Power Project - Amanda "Haparican" Kohatsu - Elite Powerlifter to IFBB Pro || MBPP Ep. 789

Episode Date: August 23, 2022

In this Podcast Episode, Amanda Kohatsu, Mark Bell, Nsima Inyang, and Andrew Zaragoza talk about Amanda's journey from being an elite powerlifter to IFBB Pro. Amanda "Haparican" was an early adopter of powerlifting and credits powerlifting for her success in bodybuilding. Follow Amanda on IG: https://www.instagram.com/haparican/ Join The Power Project Discord: https://discord.gg/yYzthQX5qN Subscribe to the new Power Project Clips Channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UC5Df31rlDXm0EJAcKsq1SUw Special perks for our listeners below! ➢https://boncharge.com/pages/POWERPROJECT Code POWERPROJECT for 20% off!! ➢https://thecoldplunge.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save $150!! ➢Enlarging Pumps (This really works): https://bit.ly/powerproject1 Pumps explained: https://youtu.be/qPG9JXjlhpM ➢https://www.vivobarefoot.com/us/powerproject Code POWERPROJECT20 for 20% off Vivo Barefoot shoes! ➢https://markbellslingshot.com/ Code POWERPROJECT10 for 10% off site wide including Within You supplements! ➢https://mindbullet.com/ Code POWERPROJECT for 20% off! ➢https://eatlegendary.com Use Code POWERPROJECT for 20% off! ➢https://bubsnaturals.com Use code POWERPROJECT for 20% of your next order! ➢https://vuoriclothing.com/powerproject to automatically save 20% off your first order at Vuori! ➢https://www.eightsleep.com/powerproject to automatically save $150 off the Pod Pro at 8 Sleep! ➢https://marekhealth.com Use code POWERPROJECT10 for 10% off ALL LABS at Marek Health! Also check out the Power Project Panel: https://marekhealth.com/powerproject Use code POWERPROJECT for $101 off! ➢Piedmontese Beef: https://www.piedmontese.com/ Use Code POWER at checkout for 25% off your order plus FREE 2-Day Shipping on orders of $150 Follow Mark Bell's Power Project Podcast ➢ https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast ➢ Insta: https://www.instagram.com/markbellspowerproject ➢ https://www.facebook.com/markbellspowerproject ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/mbpowerproject  ➢ LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/powerproject/ ➢ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/markbellspowerproject ➢TikTok: http://bit.ly/pptiktok  FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢https://www.tiktok.com/@marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell Follow Nsima Inyang ➢ https://www.breakthebar.com/learn-more ➢YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/NsimaInyang ➢Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/?hl=en ➢TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nsimayinyang?lang=en  Follow Andrew Zaragoza on all platforms ➢ https://direct.me/iamandrewz #PowerProject #Podcast #MarkBell #FitnessPodcast

Go to this gym and see if there are people that could teach you how to really power lift and see if you like it. Like you got a different kind of build, you know, you're stockier, you're a little fluffier than some of the other CrossFit ladies. I prefer substantial. Nice. I started working out because I was in a very abusive relationship when I was in my early 20s in San Francisco. And part of that abuse was he canceled my gym membership. I wasn't able to go to the gym. He didn't want me to be around other men.

And so when I finally escaped from that relationship, I woke up the next morning at 5 a.m. and I just started working out like a crazy person. My dad is Okinawan and I think that's probably where it comes from. A lot of people think it's my Puerto Rican side, but I think my dad's Asian side. A lot of people don't give us credit from Asia. The other part that gets rough is when you get injured and people just kind of

stop caring because you're not, people want to see this all the time. They want to see the big lifts. They want to see the heavy squats. They want to see me pee after I deadlift. They, they do. They want to see the gnarly stuff. I couldn't take the drugs that were going to allow me to continue to go to those places. You know, I just couldn't because my genetics had a limit. How did you deal with doing a bodybuilding show and then kind of like the rebound off of that? Because sometimes that can be a... I'm looking at my friend because she knows she was there.

During powerlifting or something, you run a cycle or do something or even in bodybuilding are you like, my voice is getting a little Yeah, great question. Do you tell your friends or something? If I go down this hit me up. I have a pitch recorder. Oh shit, really? You can record yourself periodically during your cycle

to make sure that your voice has not changed. I remember Stan went and lifted with Larry Wheels in New York City because Stan went and lifted with Larry Wheels in like New York City because Stan went and did it. You're so fucking fat. Oh my God. Wow. You're so fucking fat.

Rosie, go over there. Hey, the arms are big at least. It seems like women who come from that, because of all the volume of powerlifting and strength training, like you go to bodybuilding, it's like you're just eating for free. Oh, it's not fair. Yeah. It eating for free. Oh, I, it's,

it's not fair. Yeah. It's not fair. If you were really powerless. So let's just, let's just say 120 for the heels, uh, hair,

nails, makeup. Oh, hair's like 200, makeup's like 200. It's like four. Nails is going to run you about 150 bucks. 150 for nails.

Damn. I like the heels, but it's weird. I mean, I dig it, but it's weird. I love it. I dig it, but it's odd. Yeah. It got to the point where I had basically IBS. So that's sexy, especially our sports of suppressing estrogen.

I wish we could just sell steroids on this podcast. It'd be great to give them a link to click right now. Is that what I turn into? Here's a cycle right here. Just go right there and click that. Hey guys, I want to tell you about Merrick Health, the premium telehealth clinic owned by Derek from More Plates, More Dates.

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You can also get Viagra. You can get literally whatever you need from that clinic, and they make it very, very easy for you. That's why we love Merrick. So, Andrew, how can people learn about it? Yes, Merrick Health is not just a one-trick pony, but if you did want to get your labs done, we highly recommend the Power Project panel. That's 28 different labs. That's also going to come with a client care coordinator that's going to give you a lab analysis, and they're going to work with you and help you optimize your body.

Again, that's at MerrickHealth.com slash Power Project. At checkout, enter promo code Power Project to save $101 off that entire panel. Links to them down in the description as well as the podcast show notes. He's into Chub Chub. Yeah. Well, people need a lot of help, you know? They do. And I think the metabolic disease,

it goes beyond just people getting fat. It also has a lot to do with people just not, they're not lifting weights. 100%. I mean, if you did the bare minimum and lifted some weights and maybe engaged in a little bit of the stuff we do in powerlifting, then...

A little bit, not a lot. Yeah, even just a little bit, right? Just the exercises, bench, squat, deadlift, great movements to help you overload your body, can be really healthy, right? And then people won't run into losing muscle mass as they get older. Absolutely. It would benefit all of us. And having that goal of getting stronger is something that can really

kind of guide you in your training mission. And I know it guided you for a long time. How long were you powerlifting for? Powerlifted competitively for six years before. And then how'd you get into it? I got into it because I was doing CrossFit and I was really good at a lot of the lifting elements of CrossFit, bad at the gymnastics and cardio version parts of CrossFit. You're like, rope climb, I'm out. No, I love that. Oh. Love that.

I'm very good at pulling up, lifting my body weight up, very good at body weight stuff. Felt like a headstand or whatever. Handstand walking was hard. Muscle up, turning over muscle ups is hard. And running. I you're i commend you i was just telling her in the car i was like i cannot believe he's a runner and he's pretty good at it like i can't believe it it's getting better don't give him too much credit he's he's good i'm joking i'm fucking with you 300 and something pounds that's crazy yeah i could never um well

actually if mark can maybe I can I don't know you can but yeah so my coach in my crossfit gym literally looked at me one day I swear Mark I cried he said

I'm kicking you out you're off the team he said you're not going to make it to regionals I can tell you're super competitive he said so I was up late last night and I was looking up these

powerlifting elite totals. I had no idea what he was talking about. He said, you already have like a national level elite total, whatever that means. He's like, in the gym. You just got to go and do it at a competition. So he told me to go to Barbell Brigade in downtown LA. And I was pissed. And he's like, I not telling you you suck at everything

I'm just telling you you suck at running go to this gym and see if there are people that could teach you how to really power lift and see if you like it like you got a different

kind of build you know you're stockier you're a little fluffier than some of the other CrossFit ladies I prefer substantial nice

that's my word you're using that shit I like that I prefer substantial you're using that shit I like that I prefer substantial you're just a little bit more substantial powerlifting I went to that powerlifting gym

and everyone's a little chunky over there that's actually true I was shocked to be honest with you I was so shocked I had never seen men that big because we're talking about

the guys that you know that we're friends we have mutual friends you've never been so excited in your life I was mortified. I was petrified. Is that one like Steve Gentile and T and oh God.

And Hulk Smash and all those guys. I walked in and I literally wanted to walk right out. I had like sweaty palms and I was like shaking. And they're bleeding and stuff. They're bleeding and nosebleeds and just, oh my God. I'd never seen men that big in person in my life. I don't even think I'd seen one on the internet that big. Right.

I'm hanging out with CrossFitters, right? No offense to CrossFitters. Right. I thought they were big. I had never seen men like that in my life. So I went in and I started lifting and they came up to me and they said, you're kind of strong. Right. You should quit doing that CrossFit shit.

Quit doing gymnastics. Come over here and try to lift some real weight. And I'm very competitive. So I was like, oh, yeah? Okay. That was it. I was hooked. What were you lifting at the time?

Do you remember? In the gym, I was already like over 330, 40-pound deadlifts, just like repping it out in my CrossFit gym. And like, you know, those Oli bars with like bumper plates. Yeah, yeah. And I was squatting 300 for reps for sure. Jesus. Because I trained CrossFit pretty hard. So we did segments of like Olympic lifting in the morning,

just like weightlifting accessories in the middle morning, and then break, and then Metcon. And then I trained clients in the early morning and the late night. So I was lifting very regularly. So bench was a struggle. I had to learn a bench. Were you sort of strong-ish without lifting? Yes.

Did you come into it and kind of like pick something up and they were like, what's that about? Always. I think there's a lot of females that are like that. Any idea what that might be? Also, how old were you at the time? I was older. I mean, I'm almost 37 this month.

Really? So I started powerlifting at 29. Okay. Or 28. That makes a big difference. I don't know. I was in my late 20s. Yeah, yeah.

So yeah, I had already been working out for a while. But I think naturally, because I didn't come from an athletic background, I was a makeup artist and an executive for cosmetic companies when I lived here in the Bay Area for nine, ten years. Yeah. Didn't know any of that shit. That's great. Are we recording?

Yeah. Oh. I love it when we do that. Yes. Yes. You've got to delete all this stuff. Shut about barbell breakers. No.

Oh, my gosh, you guys. I'm just kidding. No, actually, I owe them everything because I wouldn't know how to power lift if I didn't go there. It's a very enriched environment for me at the time. But, no, I was not always working out. I was a punk rocker growing up. Yeah. It's strange.

And I'm a makeup artist, which goes along with that punk rock thing, right? And I started working out because I was in a very abusive relationship when I was in my early 20s in San Francisco. And part of that abuse was he canceled my gym membership. I wasn't able to go to the gym. He didn't want me to be around other men. And so when I finally escaped from that relationship i woke up the next morning 5 a.m and i booked it like straight to 24 hour fitness and re uh did my membership and i just started working out like a crazy person i didn't know what i was doing

but i started working out like a crazy person and then the manager of the gym told me i should work there oh so you you like looked like you lifted already. Okay, so I guess genetically I am sort of like a strong person. My dad is Okinawan and I think that's probably where it comes from. A lot of people think it's my Puerto Rican side

but I think my dad's Asian side. A lot of people don't give us credit from Asia but actually like Okinawans are known to be a little more substantial um and I come from a farming background I'm actually born up in Northern California in a farming family and so my my grandfather was really stocky and big and my cousin my cousin played MLB like yeah so it's his side of the family they're a little bit stronger I vote yeah stronger. I've always been the type of person that can pick stuff up and haul the

groceries with one trip. My friends are drunk and when I was a punk, I could pick them up. Firemen carry my girlfriends and stuff like that. It was kind of always a little stronger than everybody else. When I found lifting, it just literally was

like a perfect expression of everything I never Um, so when I found lifting, it just literally was, it was like, uh, I don't know. It was like a perfect expression of everything I never knew that I had. How'd you, how'd you go into Barbell Brigade finally? Like ultimately how'd you deal with like, uh, it's just all dudes kind of, how'd you get over that? Well, uh, it was all dudes. And then I kind of started to build more. Because that's the thing in like jujitsu as well, right?

Like most of the time, most of the schools are predominantly men. 10 to 15% women. Like 20 if you're lucky. It is getting more popular, but still it's like it's still a majority. It's going to be a majority of guys in there. So when women walk in, it's like, oh, shit. You know what I mean? Yeah.

But there weren't many women at Barbell Brigade when you went there? There weren't many women in powerlifting. Oh, it's like, oh shit. You know what I mean? But there weren't many women at Barbell Brigade when you went there? There weren't many women in powerlifting. Particularly this type of femme women that were like really, really made up. And like I caught a lot of shit for that. Like a lot from the community just being very, you know,

I wore my little short shorts and my makeup and my hoop earrings every day when I'm lifting. That's just my personality. It's just what I've always looked like. But every day when I'm lifting. And that's just my personality. It's just what I've always looked like. But I think when I started going there, it was me and, jeez, I don't know, maybe one other girl, two other girls.

Two other girls maybe. And we would start inviting girls. And then more girls. And then Instagram took off. That was when Instagram really sort of flourished. And so Bart would put me and mostly me on those YouTube videos. He made a couple YouTube videos. And all of a sudden, the whole gym was filled with, like, Latina girls with red lipstick.

It was crazy. It was, like, really weird. It's sort of like a masculine friend so i gotta tell you a story yeah so andrew here here we go we had some miscommunication because i was overseas and i tried to send a text and so andrew andrew sends a text and he's like i don't think i'm gonna be able to make it in today because i think he thought it was just gonna be like the three of us and i was like you have to make it in we have Amanda coming in he's like see you guys at 11

and I was like a girl with a big butt comes through and all of a sudden you're halfway to the game I just take my job serious I'm a professional we had a guest coming in so it's like well I gotta get over my he's got no love for me in Encima though well he does see you all the time.

That's true. But I haven't seen him in over a week, and I did miss him. See? We missed you, too. It wasn't just me. It wasn't just me. But I appreciate it. Especially because I know you're a little under the weather right now.

Yeah, I got my balls cut off. Oh, I wasn't going to say that. I'm sorry. That's okay. We share everything on the podcast. But it was freaking hilarious that it was one of those things where it's like, I sent you guys the text.

It's like me and Seymour, what are you talking about? I wish you could pull up the screenshot. But it's a screenshot of Mark sending us the text and Andrew added to the calendar, but it says, did not send. Yeah, it has the red thing next to it.

Mark. I know. Mark. You know, I had a feeling I should have texted you. Because I just thought, you know, Mark's a real busy guy. And he'll shoot me a message and then he's gone for like two weeks. And I look at his stories and I'm like, he's definitely in another country. So maybe I should follow up with him about this.

I'm glad it was actually smoky smoky told me and then i was like oh shit i gotta tell you yeah smoky had hit me up about merrick and we were discussing my blood work actually and he's like by the way you need to talk to him like right now yeah you're here to pick up a puppy right did you do that yet i am no i'm going right after oh cool yeah i didn't want to bring the puppy into the gym and this new environment, but I'm really excited. What kind of puppy? I feel like such a basic bitch. It's a cockapoo.

What's a cockapoo? We got to look it up. Google this shit. Cocker spaniel poodle mix. Yeah, I'm actually curious what this looks like. I dig it. Now, everyone out there who's judging me, because I'm supposed to be a hardcore lifter. You're supposed to be getting a pit bull. I'm supposed to get a pit bull, a bulldog, something.

But look, I have really bad allergies, and it's a hyperallergenic dog. Is that a real thing? Yeah. What is a hyperallergenic dog? They don't shed. Oh, they don't shed. Yeah, because fuck. That's why for a minute I was like, I want a Labradoodle.

Yes, you do. You still do. I still do. They don't shed. You look adorable with a Labradoodle. I have three Hus look adorable in the labradoodle I have three huskies though now like I have three huskies so T's gonna be walking this thing down the street your big jacked boyfriend yes big jacked black African boyfriend husband what'd you what'd you are you engaged I'm here you're married oh shit yeah I didn't know that.

We did. We pulled that trigger during COVID. Very low key. Oh, COVID marriage. I like that. Wait, I like your style. We eloped. Okay.

So how, how did the African side feel about eloping? Cause you know how there's an, there's an African wedding. I don't even know what the fuck I'm going to do about that shit to be honest. Cause I'm like, I don't, you know, so how did that go? African people are really late to stuff. So maybe they can switch it up to it. There is is african time right no that's a thing it's like you schedule two and everyone gets there that's actually really like they came they're supposed to come and they missed anyway all right so yeah how'd that go they were a little upset. I think COVID was our cover. Right? COVID was our cover.

So he worked it out with them. And he's the oldest. You have siblings? He's the oldest. He's the son and he's the oldest. Can you explain it to them? There's still a daughter, so they get their moment. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I have two dresses ready for that wedding in

October. It's gonna be great seeing you with the fucking... Oh, yeah, the gala. I don't know what the fuck it's called. Really? It's African clothing. That's all we call it. Wow, shame. Shame.

My mom never told me what it was called. If you have any Nigerian followers, shame him. Yeah, no, don't shame me. Of course, what am I talking about? Of course you have Nigerian followers. Yeah, so his sister's going to do the big wedding. So we got by. It's more our style.

We're pretty laid back when it comes to that stuff. The traditions kind of freak us out. I don't know. Maybe it's just from being big people and stuff. I feel like just the whole wedding thing, like big, burly people. We're just not wedding people. It's got to be a thing for you guys to even just go out.

Like if you go out to a movie or something. I mean, he's super jacked. Not anymore. He's a little more toned down like you now versus you back then he's a beast right

so like I think now it's less but he still gets way more attention than I do for sure but him toned down

is still he's a big guy he's still 270 I think he's still 270 that's toned down you want to pull up the seat

for Pula real quick? Please pull this man up. When I met him though, like 295 on the off season. So he was much, he was very- He's got big old pecs too. Yeah, he's got big everything.

He has huge pecs. That made me very uncomfortable in the beginning, I will say. His pecs? Yeah. I shouldn't talk about this. He's going to give me- I want to know. Wait, what? I've never had breasts. I have breasts now, obviously. I will say his pecs yeah I shouldn't talk about this he's gonna give me I wanna know

wait what I've never had breasts I have breasts now obviously which by the way I have a good story about that I was in a gym in Oakland yesterday

and an older older woman came up to me and asked me how I developed my chest because she's like you know

you're very muscular up top and you have a beautiful chest and I said thank you and she's like how did know, you're very muscular up top and you have a beautiful chest. And I said, thank you? And she's like, how did you do that? And I said, money. But yeah, T's chest was so big. Oh, there we are. Back in the day.

This one? No, that's like a year ago. Right there. Oh my gosh, that's Barbell Brigade. That's a long time ago. He looks jacked even when he's just in like a button up. That's when Oh my gosh, that's Barbell Brigade. That's a long time ago. He looks jacked even when he's just in like a button up. That's when he was like skinny back then.

That was his skinny weight. Damn, he's dark. He's the same color as the wall right there. Alright, Mark. He is. I mean, he is. He is. Yeah, he is a dark skinned man. He is a very dark skinned man. Yep.

I don't know. That's making him seem more uncomfortable than me. Okay, enough of his Instagram. Mark is such a white guy right now. That was the whitest thing you've ever said. That is the whitest thing you've ever said. With your fucking mustache. Damn, he's dark. Hey, we bring up an image of Ben Patrick.

That's a white-ass motherfucker. He of Ben Patrick. That's a white ass motherfucker. He's super white. That's true. Ben is the whitest man I've ever seen. He really is. That's true. You have to admit it. If we brought up.

Yeah, that's true. Right. You and I would be like, that's a clear man. He's opaque. Yeah. There's a good picture of him being jacked right there. Oh, my God. Wow. That's three. Yeah. There's a good picture of him being jacked right there. Oh, my God. T.

That's three. Okay. That's probably toned down, T. That's five years off cycle. Yeah. Not one PED since he left. So I'm actually quite curious because you actually told me. Okay.

So you got a bunch of like, did you play sports when you were young? No. No. You got a lot of genetic just like freaks in your family. T has genetic freaks in his family. Do you guys want to have kids in the future or not? We're not sure. Not sure?

Okay. You know, med school will do that to you. You don't really know what you want to do because you're in such a, well, first of all, being a pro bodybuilder for myself and then him being a med student you got so many time sensitive goals and they basically encompass your entire life they engulf your life yeah so you guys have been together for what like seven eight six years six years okay okay we're like training partners for a little bit before that but yeah um these goals are so time sensitive and and just all consuming that's the word all consuming i mean he does clinicals for 12 15 hours a day i train two times a day plus you know competing there i mean obviously hormonally that's not going

to help for pregnancy so it's just it's just one of those things. If the stars align, the stars align. And if not, we've thought about like adopting or, um, who knows surrogate. We talked about surrogate on the way over here. Um, if,

if I can't, because that's just a reality of bodybuilding and powerlifting for so long. Um, so yeah, the door's not closed, but it's, there's no plans right now. I know everyone thinks we'd have some type of freak athlete child.

And I even think that's interesting, to be honest with you. T always says it doesn't matter as long as they get good grades in their health. And I'm like, okay, but. T's already an African parent. Yep. Yep. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

But I'm like, yeah, but it would be kind of cool if they're like a track star. You know what I mean? Like, go to the Olympics? Wouldn't it be cool to go to the Olympics? That'd be dope, you know? But yes, so thought about it. We'll keep thinking about it. What's a big difference for you

between powerlifting, bodybuilding? I know in powerlifting, some people, and even through CrossFit, some women have found that it was empowering where they didn't have to concentrate so much on like being skinny or being thin and they can kind of let loose and go after performance more. And then we saw the same thing with a lot of women in powerlifting. And then you said like Instagram became popular. I think people were more into like a different kind of look and people were more into

the girls being a little thicker and things like that. Yes, substantial. Thank God. Yeah, being substantial. What has that kind of done for you, and how has that maybe plagued you at times and maybe benefited you at times? I think mostly benefit. I think it's enhanced my life in a way that I'm super grateful for.

CrossFit can get a little toxic because the element of always being your shirt off and the girls do have like really nice abs and things like that. There is, it's a different level of aesthetics, but there is aesthetics involved, right? Powerlifting really saved my mental health, to be honest, for a while until it didn't. But in the beginning, being fixated on my performance and my strength and my abilities rather than what I looked like was huge for me.

And I found this niche in the community that wanted to see me succeed and wanted me to come as I was. And it also started to be glorified of my body type, like being really thick in the thighs. And obviously I'm not as thick as I was back then. But I mean, I looked bottom heavy.

And then as I progressed in powerlifting, I got, you know, I should say I was never really heavy into PEDs. So I wasn't the kind like that we've seen in the Instagram world now we're talking about where women are getting lean, almost like bodybuilders. I was thick. I had lots of muscle, but lots of body fat on top. And I think if I wasn't doing powerlifting,

I probably would have felt some type of way about that body aesthetic. But it seemed like it was being heavily rewarded on the internet. And in life, I felt like everywhere I went, people were, I would go to the Arnold where I used to feel like, because I worked in sports nutrition and supplements and I had been a sales manager where I traveled to those places and I always felt really insecure about my body type because it was mostly bodybuilding. But when powerlifting became in our heyday, our heyday, the 2000 teens, let's say, when it became so popular,

I would go to the Arnold and people would line up for me without abs because they wanted to have my bench or my deadlift. Or your legs. Right. They thought that what I did in the gym was so cool. They wanted to take a picture with me or buy a tee. You know what I mean? And I think they dug the aesthetics that were the result of the lifts that you did. Yeah, absolutely. And so I think that it gave me this freedom to, a lot of people ask me about how did I become a pro bodybuilder so fast?

Well, I never cut weight except for water cuts to compete. I never did a fat loss phase. Whoa, whoa, back off. You never did a fat loss phase for your prep? No, before bodybuilding. Before, okay, okay. In powerlifting, I never focused on being lean, which means I was always in a surplus and building.

I was constantly lifting to build. So even though I wasn't directly bodybuilding, I was building my body more than a bodybuilder in season because they have to go through a down period where they're prepping. I was all go all the time. Feed me more. Let's get strong.

Let's lift heavy. I mean, my periodization was just volume. Food. Volume and food. And then low volume and food. You know what I mean? It was peaking for powerlifting meets. It's just heavier lifts.

And then when you're not around a meet time, you're doing more volume of the same type of lifts. And it developed this this thickness and density to my muscle that when I leaned out for bodybuilding it was like whoa it was different you could see it on stage I looked you know matured compared to everyone because I had just been lifting without even no cutting nothing you know what do you mean though when you were talking about powerlifting helped you until it didn't? So what were you meaning when you said that? Well, I think with any niche in the fitness community, it can get bad after a while,

especially after it gets popular. Anytime anything gets popular, it starts to get watered down. It starts to get sort of like a, you know, oh. You start lifting for other people and other things and you're no longer lifting for yourself and you're not as pumped about, you know, doing 405 for a set of five because somebody posted that they did 455 for a set of five. Yeah. You're chasing, you're chasing this like a sort of white rabbit, you know, you're like,

you're literally chasing these unrealistic goals. And the other part that gets rough is when you get injured and people just kind of stop caring because you're not, people want to see this all the time. Oh, absolutely. They want to see the big lifts. They want to see the heavy squats. They want to see me pee after I deadlift. They do. They want to see the gnarly stuff because they want inspo porn. And I can't be that at 36. I can't be inspo porn every day in the gym. I was going to break myself.

And let's just be honest, like we always are here, right? I couldn't take the drugs that were going to allow me to continue to go to those places. You know, I just couldn't because my genetics had a limit. And that limit was about mid 400 squat, mid 200 bench and 500 deadlift. If I wanted to go further, I could have. But let's be honest, I would have to really play a different game, you know, and I didn't know if I was ready to take on those challenges and consequences. I can take a lot of drugs and those drugs can have some temporary changes, which you're like, hmm, my voice changed a little bit. Maybe you get some facial hair or something.

And you can probably deal with some of that. But once it starts to become like, hmm, maybe some of this shit might be permanent. Right. It's like, I'm not going there. And with the risk of injury on top of the virilization, as you were mentioning, I was like, this is a gamble. Because you may get that virilization, as you were mentioning, I was like, this is a gamble. Because you may get that virilization that will never go away, and you may break yourself trying to get to that world record

or that next thing. It might be possible you can never have kids or something like that. That's a universal problem. Bodybuilding, powerlifting, whatever. That's just something you have to sign up for. Whenever you start getting, you touch the dark side. You're just rolling the dice. You're rolling the dice, right? No one knows. But for me, I was like, okay, either way, I'm going

to be rolling this same set of dice, but I don't think I'm going to injure myself the way power lifting can probably injure me. I'd already had a tear in my knee, two herniated discs in my low back. So you're looking at- How did those happen, by the way? Do you remember what caused them? That was even before powerlifting. That was before powerlifting. I was lifting heavy before powerlifting. In fact, my deadlifts just increased after I got a back injury.

I had to rehab for a year. But after that, I learned how to move efficiently. And I'm like a hinge god now. I'm a really good hinging. That's one of my training partners, Justin. Shout out to Justin. He calls me the hinge god because I just have a very rigid back because I'm scared to shit that I'm going to pull my back out again. So injury can't help you. It's not going to stop you. But at my age, if I have an injury that's pretty long-term recovery, my biggest thing is I won't be able to train. And training, like you and you, but I know you are very much like me, I'm addicted to training. I had to be honest with myself.

It's not competition that wakes me up in the morning. It's being able to go into the gym and push myself hard every single day. If I don't have that, I have a feeling I would be really lost. It's being able to go into the gym and push myself hard every single day. If I don't have that, I have a feeling I would be really lost. And it would really be a part of me that I don't want to let go of. And so I don't want to risk those types of long-term injuries. I just, I love training too much. I'm curious about one aspect of when you were progressing and focusing on powerlifting. Do feel like obviously with social you feel like you need to keep getting stronger and people need

to see you getting stronger do you think that if you slowed things down things could have gone like things could have been smoother or did you just lose interest after a certain period of time so you're like let me switch because like if you slow down you can be safer yeah but most like most people if you want to get strong you're typically trying to do it as fast as possible which can lead to some just unsafe practices it's what mark was saying you're constantly trying to keep up with everybody okay if i never had access to the internet in sema i could just sit in a black room and just train my face off yeah until i was so strong i didn't even know any better that's's what I was doing. So Jesse Norris did. Exactly. No one is going to know that reference. Shout out to Jesse Norris. He was the hinge guy. Sure. That deadlift. But anyway, yeah. I think that's why I was so strong going into

powerlifting because I just trained like a maniac. I didn't care who was watching. And those were the funnest days I ever had was nobody cared. And so I've kind of gone back to that because I figured I don't want to put all my bodybuilding training on Instagram because it's not that fun. Like nobody wants, not a lot of people are like super interested in seeing me do like lateral. Here's my third set of 12. Yeah.

Those lateral raises till failure. You know what I mean? And I'm back to that fun element because nobody's watching and I'm just zoning out and enjoying myself. Yeah. You know, so yeah,

I do think if I slowed down, maybe did more cycles of hypertrophy, I really wish I did that. If I just took maybe huge blocks of hypertrophy and just made sure my tendons were keeping up with my mass

and the lifts that I was doing, I probably would have lost it a little longer. I probably could go back huge blocks of hypertrophy and just made sure my tendons were keeping up with my mass and my, and the lifts that I was doing, I probably would have lost it a little longer. I probably could go back if I'm being honest. Uh, I think you lifted some big ass weights though. I did. You did lift over 500 pounds or so, right? I, in the gym is 501 at the meet. It was like 496, but you know, that makes a big difference to us. Like think that I'm so focused on bodybuilding. I really want to make a pro debut, and I really would like to go to the Olympia. And if I could do that, I wouldn't be. Are you in figure or bodybuilding?

I'm in figure and physique. I actually won my pro card in both at the NPC Nationals, but I ended up being the overall champion for figure. So because I got a unanimous score in figure, I decided that's probably the direction I want to go into. Okay. And I don't have to grow anymore. Yes.

Essentially. So with women's physique, it's pretty aggressive and you have to put on a lot of mass. And I just figured, you know, it's not really in my interest right now. I don't want to get too much bigger. They still have women's bodybuilding? Yes, they do. It's back. Because they got rid of some of it for a bit, right?

It's back. Yeah. Hunter Henderson's a female bodybuilder. Also a powerlifter. Also strong as shit. So strong. How did you deal with doing a bodybuilding show and then kind of like the rebound off of that?

Because sometimes that can be a... I'm looking at my friend because she knows she was there. It's tough. It's not like powerlifting. I mean, I go out of a powerlifting meet and maybe I'm weak for a few weeks. You're squatting like 275

and you're just kind of like whatever. But you come back pretty fast and your body never changes, right? Whoa. Coming back and gaining weight is a whole nother thing. How much weight? It was rough. It was rough. I think I overshot my coach and I overshot. He force fed me to gain about 29 pounds after the show. And I'm back down

about nine from there. Okay. Yeah. So where did you, yeah. So you were 29 pounds over stage weight and you're like what, 20 over now? Yeah. And you look, you have a pretty good body composition. So this is where you feel good? I feel really healthy. Yeah. I think maybe five pounds less and we'll go back into small build.

It's always five pounds less. Five pounds less or five pounds more. Well, we've got about. Five pounds more on the bar, five pounds less. We've got about four or five more weeks in my cutting phase. Yeah. So. You look amazing. I don't think there's anything to fix. Thanks.

You look great, so don't worry about it. You want to be a little underweight to go back into a building phase. You don't want to get fat. Getting too fat, you could try to start prep, and it's ended up being a 30-week prep, and that's not fun. Yeah, bodybuilding's tough. Someone could be in great shape, and someone could still say, you look kind of

fat, and you're like fuck really? it's a subjective story, going back to what you said about my body image I think that was you saying that if I never did power lifting I would never be able to do this because I was not a naturally confident person I mean I had an abusive relationship that started this whole journey so obviously confident people don't go into

abusive relationships so for me the power lifter time period really enabled me to appreciate strength. So when I'm back in the gym, 20 pounds, 25 pounds up from my stage weight, yes, it's hard to see yourself change like that, but it feels real good to start incline pressing 175 again and overhead pressing the big 70-pound dumbbells.

And you're like damn i'm getting strong okay like focus on the focus on your performance again good tap back into that if i never had that i see a lot of bodybuilding women in fact even some girls because i just have that i guess maternal vibe nurturing vibe even some of the girls i did my national show with have called me and they've had a lot of struggles getting back, you know, to that mindset of like enjoying training and not being so fixated on their abs and things like that. I never had abs. You know, bodybuilding was the only thing that brought that out. So for me, I'm like, well, this is kind of how I look. This is my body. That body that they just showed on the screen, that's specifically

for bodybuilding. That's a competition body. So you need to remember that that's not who you are. You cannot walk around like that all year or you're going to kill yourself, to be honest. What you were mentioning is really interesting about powerlifting because powerlifting is great because it's a performance-based sport. Yeah, there's an aspect where you want to look good, but you don't have to be perpetually shredded all the time. Whereas once you get into bodybuilding and then you get into that, you get stage lean. So many people have issues actually coming out of that and giving themselves an off season. Some never do.

And I was curious about that with you because within that sport, people's off seasons, a lot of competitors isn't really an off season. It's like, how can I manage to stay kind of lean until I just tell myself to prep again and then get super lean again, right? How do you escape that trap? How are you personally trying to escape that? Because you need an actual off-season and you can't be stage lean. Do you find yourself mentally being called back to that body that you had on stage? Yes, subconsciously. But consciously, you know, I'm a coach.

I've been online coaching for six years and it's my primary business. And so that keeps me in check and in tune with the science. So I can't deny that I know that I would never allow a client of mine to, you know, perpetually be in that lean state. I know about the basics of my hormonal health at that state. And I know what that does to me. I mean, I get my blood work. We're both Merrick athletes, right? You know, I get my blood work done even more than quarterly. So I know exactly where my stats are. And there's just no way scientifically I could look at that as a coach

and justify keeping my liver enzymes high or my kidney or my estrogen so low and suppression of my LH. I'm sure people watching you probably know all about that stuff, but those types of things for me are unacceptable. So whatever I need to do to be healthy, because I know that those 10, 15 weeks of prepping are not healthy. So whatever you can do to mitigate risks outside of that is what I have to do. The mental aspect of it. Yeah, of course, there's there's many days

where I look in the mirror and I'm like, it would be really nice to be able to be photo shoot ready right now or have veins everywhere. And I see the girls that are in season right now. I decided to take this season off so I could fix some things and heal some little minor dings, injuries, things like that, and put on a little bit more mass on my shoulders and little things. Fix my hormonal health, things like that. And I'm watching the girls do their pro shows right now. And, of course, I'm jealous. I'm looking at their chomping at the bit because I am a very competitive person

I want to be there right now yeah and I'm looking at shows and I'm like I could I could have got a call out I'm like I could have got a call out you know um but you have to keep yourself in check about the science part that I'm talking about like health also you have to have a good team and I have a great coach John Jewett He said he's a big fan of yours. He's been mentioned multiple times. Yeah, John Jewett is sort of like a new generation of bodybuilding coaches and science-based coaches in our industry, in our side of the industry, that's come up with – he's in that education realm.

So he's a great competitor. He's been in the Olympia, I think, seven times. He's not vying for the title, but I think his legacy is going to be more education. So he actually has like a university, a online university that he, you can go through his program, learn about PDs,

learn about dieting, learn about how to coach the coaches. I'm sorry, coach athletes. So he's a great resource. He's a registered dietitian. So he's going to keep me in check. And then obviously my husband's a medical student

and an exercise physiologist and an all-time world record breaker. Let me just pull his resume. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's very fucking annoying, you know? I got two pro cards and I got to still like, he's the more impressive one. But he's the smarts in the family.

And so he's there to pull me back too. So keeping a good team around you, a very small team, because if you let influence from your sponsors or anybody else, I actually cut my sponsorships last year at the end of the season. Why? Because I knew that coming into the pro season, I just came off MPC as the overall winner. People are going to want me to compete.

People are going to rush me to be lean all the time. I need to quiet that noise. And I'm in a place with coaching that I can make my own money. And don't get me wrong, if you would like to sponsor me, you can reach my assistant, Rosie, at info.atpcoaching at gmail.com. Let's go. I just thought at that time when you're coming off your first national level show,

you need to quiet the noise. Do not be focused on Instagram, on posing for pictures because that's when you get in that mentality of never having off season. People think that they have, I had a three month off season. That's not an off season.

That's just enough time to come off cycle. Let's be honest. Maybe go up to maintenance calories, which that should take you about a two-month period just to crawl back up to maintenance calories. So now you're really at a month. You've had a month of no drugs and maintenance calories. That's not an off-season.

And you had a little rebound. You thought you gained muscle. You just gained water, just intracellular water back in your muscles. And you got like six or eight weeks of decent training because you probably didn't train that great coming off the show. Oh, hell no. Hell no.

You're doing pump sessions, right? So you got six or eight weeks of good training. Now your muscles are full because you're putting food and glycogen back in them. That's not real muscle. So then what happens? You go back and prep. That glycogen gets removed. You didn't have any tissue that you actually put on.

And you look the same as last year. I'll tell you what, I'm not going to look the same as last year. That's just not for me. Yeah, where does this, I guess I'll say maturity come from? Going back to what you were talking about, powerlifting, you had to stop because if you keep going, you're going to end up getting hurt, whether it be from PEDs or actually in the gym. Because we know the crowds that are just like, I'm just to lift till i'm dead and it's like okay well you might pr exactly yeah that's hilarious and then uh but even to this now where you're saying like i had to like cut my sponsors when there's a lot of people are like well i can't live right i gotta

survive so i need my sponsors and you're just, I'm going to cut them off because I need to kill that noise. Where does that come from? You got to be a hard worker. I've been working on online coaching since before it was really a big thing. I left a big fancy gym called Equinox. Oh, yeah. I was a pretty high-level trainer there, and it wasn't for me. And they kind of let me know that. I was doing okay. I was a high high level trainer there and it wasn't for me uh and they kind of let me know that

i was doing okay i was a high level trainer i had all the certs and all that stuff but they told me that i i probably should maybe put you know come down and wait uh like maybe get a little slimmer so that i could attract more of that hollywood clientele right um and i said well fuck that excuse me sir i could deadlift your car get the fuck out of my face so uh jeff if you hear this plug his last name too you know i can't remember it can't remember it little squirrely looking dude um never forget those like upper management people yeah yeah he really that really really pissed me off. So to answer your question, I went into online coaching and I thought, well, this is do or die.

I had, I had insurance through my, through Equinox and all that stuff. So I thought you need to hustle. And I started online coaching and Bart was nice enough to let me coach some in-person clients there in LA. And I started working the front desk. I was mopping the floors at Barbell Brigade until midnight, closing the gym, opening it up at 5 a.m. And trying to make my business happen. All the while, you know, after I just gave up a huge, I mean, you can make $150,000, $200,000 at Equinox.

I gave that up and started mopping floors at my powerlifting gym so that I could build this powerlifting coaching business. And eventually it turned into a, you turn into a regular GPP type. I have all types of clients, like lifestyle, all that stuff. And I went so hard, man, that I don't need sponsors, thank goodness. And I would love them now. It's a luxury to have. It's a privilege to have on top. But yeah, you have to put yourself in a place, in a position where you can call the shots and you're not in the beck and call of the internet. You know what I mean? I think that that's the biggest thing that probably keeps me really healthy, keeps me balanced and helps me, allows me to make decisions like that where I can not put myself in a compromised position health-wise or mental health-wise. so I can just make my own money.

I love coaching. I love what I do. I love helping people. You were in the gym talking to those girls and I was like, I want to coach that girl because she could be a good bodybuilder. Yeah, I think she would do great. She'd do great. So yeah, if you find a job that can kind of work with your bodybuilding schedule, which

is very difficult. I don't know how people do it being 9 to 5. But if you find something that can pay you enough to do your passion, then you don't need to make those types of decisions. But I know when I say that, people go crazy. They're like, that's my dream to have a BSN sponsorship or whatever. When you gained some weight, you made some posts. And it seems like most of the responses to that are pretty positive. Is that what you found?

Or were you surprised that they were positive? And was there like negative? Post show, you mean? Yeah. Yeah. I think I've built a really, I'm not a huge influencer, right? And I think it's on purpose. I didn't want to have a huge following because you can't control the type of comments.

I don't know how you do it. Honestly, it's very stressful. So I think I've kind of curated my audience and they've come with me. They've grown with me through powerlifting. I have maybe some new followers here and there from bodybuilding, but most of them come from my strength background. So they're happy to see me healthier. They were really stoked to see me actually succeed in bodybuilding. but i think they were they're more than supportive when it comes to that of course yeah they're they're definitely negative comments mostly in not in the weight thing it's mostly like the masculinity

thing which it's mostly guys that are just saying stupid shit because i'm pretty feminine whatever that means i don't know how do you keep that part in check? Like during powerlifting or something, you run a cycle or do something or even in bodybuilding, are you like, my voice is getting a little. Yeah. Great question. Do you tell your friends or something? If I go down this like.

It's on my phone. Hit me up. Tell me. I have a pitch recorder. Oh shit, really? Yeah. So you can record yourself periodically during your cycle to make sure that your voice has not changed um i'm kind of like very in tune with it now because i've been

you know i was i didn't again i didn't do a lot of drugs in powerlifting but those drugs will make your voice change and so i noticed that when i was on for a little too long or i was getting that red line my voice would become hoarse and i would have a harder time with endurance of talking. I still do, unfortunately. But as soon as that would start happening on a regular basis, I'd pull off. I have a question. Which drugs are it specifically that women within those sports take that does cause masculinization? All of them.

All of them? Yeah. It's not like certain specific ones that people need to be- Yeah, they're all androgenic in a way. Yeah, even the drugs that don't aromatize. People think DHTs are safe, right? We're talking like your Anabars, Winstrolls. People think those are safe.

I've seen a lot of damage done by Primobolin, Winstroll, Anabar. Lots, lots of damage. One of the reasons why people originally thought that is many, many years ago, anabar used to come in a 2.5 milligram dosage. That's not the case anymore. It's very easy to get 25 milligram dosages. So if women take a lot then of any of the steroids. Or for a very long time. Yes.

And it depends on the woman. I tell people all the time, I might have done in bodybuilding a very aggressive cycle for someone else, but listen to my voice and look at my face. I don't, I'm genetically just not inclined to, we were just talking about that with you. Some men can take Tren for,

I don't know why. Forever. For six months. And they can't, they won't hurt a fly and they don't a pimple, and they don't – their blood work actually looks okay. I have seen that. I have seen that in my coaching. And some men take just a little, like we were saying, and they want to kill everybody and drive their car through a wall. And they turn into a werewolf, you know, like back hair and pimples.

So the base of it is genetics's the base of it is genetics. The base of it is genetics. Then after that is your length of cycle, I believe, is even more important than your dosage. But dosage does matter. But if you're asking what drugs do women use, I think that Anovar is probably the most abused drug in the industry. I learned after I quit powerlifting I was not on the right drugs. These girls are taking the big guns and it's making them real strong.

There's a lot of drugs that are... Like? NPP. What is that? It's a form of deca. It's deca. Yeah, it's a deca derivative. The Nandrolone?

Nandrolone, yeah. NPP is used heavily in strength sports and then layered with those other drugs like anivar and primable and things like that. I never touched those. Which also could be why that when I started bodybuilding, I had such a good response because I only really messed with those very little drops of anivar here and there. Plus, I also get really strong from testosterone. Yes. But absolutely. There's nothing wrong with that. And sometimes you take mild amounts

and get great results. I am on three milligrams of testosterone as an HRT because I've shut myself down. Is it like a cream or something? No, it's injectable. Yeah. Cream's a little hard to gauge. And three milligrams is like nothing. It just puts you basically at a higher level of a normal woman. Do you have to take it every day?

No. Once a week. Once a week. Okay. Amanda, how old were you when you started taking anything? Second year of powerlifting. Crunching in the microphone. So that was like 31? Yeah. Yeah. So you've already had tons of years of training under your belt. You were past, I guess, maturity, right? Where everything was like, you know, some people start when they're in their early 20s, late teens, right?

But you were in a place where you've had years of training. Everything's developed well. So then you start and you have decent responses. Maybe some people get bad responses because they're just starting way too fucking young i i think i agree with that but i also think the bigger danger is they didn't treat they didn't reach their natural potential which is what you were looking for in that so i had reached close to my natural potential i mean i was repping out 315 in deadlift completely natural, off of no food, just a cup

of coffee. You know what I mean? I was my baseline. So naturally, when you enhance on top of that, I guess what I'm saying is I started an elite level, which I didn't recognize until probably now, because I have low self-esteem. So after I got both my pro

cards and stuff, I was like, you know, I think I have a genetic advantage here or something. You know what I mean? So I think that yes, starting young can affect the way it, your side effects is what you were saying. And that's because you probably cycle for a long time. And that goes back to that length I was saying.

So you're cycling for a long time or just too many because we all need an expiration date here in this sport, in this lifestyle. You cannot do what we call blasting and all that stuff in the world that we live in forever. It has to have an expiration date. So like my husband always says, you need to have a plan, have a goal, and have a timeline to hit those goals. And if you don't, be okay with stepping away. What people in powerlifting particularly can, because in bodybuilding, your body just shows. So you can't bodybuild into your 50s if you weren't genetically blessed. You're not going to, it will tell you, right?

In powerlifting, we'll just keep going. We'll throw on a squat suit. We'll, you know, put on a slingshot. We'll do whatever we have to do to get that weight up. And so with that mentality, you add drugs to that. Now you've got guys or girls that have been cycling for 20 plus

years and they still don't have a world record, which by the way, 99.9% of people in the world shouldn't. That's why it's called a world record. So all these consolation prices out there, everyone's going to hate me for this, but like, you know, this record, this blah, blah, blah record. It's good to chase those goals. Okay.

It is really good to chase those goals. But I always tell my clients, be careful because those things are what keep you in that mindset of always wanting to chase that next thing. Those things are what keep you in that mindset of always wanting to chase that next thing. So yeah, starting too early and then continuing too long, not being aware of having maybe a team to tell you, hey, it's time to move on. You know what I mean? You're crossing. Start running marathons. You know what I mean? Yeah, and what's the goal for?

Exactly. Something to keep in mind. Big time. Are you going to monetize from it? Right. I mean, my coaching business, it exists because I compete. And I think eventually I want to get to a place where it doesn't have to be like that. I'm aware that that's probably a slip.

You told me that that's a slippery slope. Before I even bodybuild, he told me. It's a slippery slope because if your business depends on your body, what if something happens to your body? It's an organic thing, right? But it's an organic thing right um so but if it but it's true don't go putting yourself through that much trouble and that and those types of financial compromise competing is expensive and all of the the the ramifications that come with virilization for women if you don't a have a plan to exit, and B, like Mark said, if you can't gain anything from it, what's the difference? Just be fit.

Just be fit. Just work out, eat good, and be fit. You don't need to, like, be on PEDs. Actually, let me be explicit. If you don't compete, you should not be on PEDs, period. And you can say I'm a hypocrite because this is my job. This is my whole life. Yeah.

And it does make me money. And I support my family on competing and what the competing helps me market, which is my coaching. I want to touch upon the point that you said that you took steroids. You know, it's really hard to know, like, where someone could push their genetic potential. Yes. But you just felt you were there and the people that you were around, you made a decision. You were an adult living on your own, doing your own thing, making your own

money. It wasn't like you're still living with your parents or anything like that. Like we see a lot of young, a lot of young kids are taking stuff. And, you know, Larry Wheels recently started talking about how he's kind of coming off and he's going more HRT route for a little while. Who knows what will happen with that? But it's an interesting thing. But again, even Larry Wheels was at an elite level. Are you kidding me? Even though he started when he was 16 or 17.

He's like a mutant. Yeah, he was already Larry Wheels. I see what you're saying. He's already very strong. And so Dave Tate pointed this out many years ago that people are going to play their card at a different time. Yes. And if you're going to play your card to take steroids to make your high school football team, well, that doesn't really bode very well for the impact that those steroids would have on your body and what they're going to do for you. So taking more of them is not necessarily the answer. Probably taking the long road and

working, you're going to have to really work for it. It tells you that your genetics aren't amazing. They're not, yeah, mine are not. They're not amazing. It might just mean it might just take you longer to get certain spots. Other people might take a steroid to make their local junior college team or even like a division one team. And then some people, they don't ever have to play that card and they're a pro and they're amazing. Or you get some people that are like a Barry Bonds who seemed like it appeared that- Shout out to Barry Bonds. My favorite baseball team.

Oh, fucking unbelievable. Man, baseball was so much better with steroids. Oh, man. Sorry. Way better. Way better. 90s all day. Oh, sick.

He was already on his way to the Hall of Fame and it appeared that he took something halfway through his career to boost it a little bit and he was already fucking awesome.

So people that think it's going to turn you into Superman, you already have to have worked. That's a really good point. That's a really good point. And T and I have talked about this a lot

because people ask us for advice on this and I think that the problem with the gen z and even our generation instagram and and social has kind of convinced younger people that like especially because okay let's face it the instagram mentorship or like a coaching business is huge, right? And the whole idea about social media from the influencer perspective in the fitness space is you can do it if I did it. You can be just like me. That's not bad.

And that's dangerous, man. That's a dangerous mindset. And I'll give Larry this. Can't believe I'm going to give Larry this. He's never said that. He literally came out of the gate and said, I'm a freak. I'm I'm going to give Larry this he's never said that he literally came out of the gate and said I'm a freak I'm a freak I know I'm a freak I started to steroid this early because I saw that I was a freak

and I think other people around him told him you've got crazy potential right I mean we're talking about a kid literally a kid when he came up here to do the podcast with the boys my boys he was the size of my husband who was in his 30s already

right and lifting with those guys who had been lifting these are guys that played D1 football Steve Gentile they're guys that have been lifting

it was like six or seven guys in a row just dead lifted 765 800 benching five right

can you pull that shit up please because that was a wild picture with Steve, Larry, T, who else? Stan. Fuck. What a day. Jesus Christ. What a time to be alive.

I love those days of powerlifting. That's so fun. I'll just find a video. But he never came out and said, to my knowledge at least. Well, he didn't used to talk. Right. Larry didn't used to say anything, which I think is kind of cool. And then now,

when I see him speak now, he sent me that video the other day. I was like, fuck, man. He's so well-spoken. I'm like, this is awesome. Well, he's grown up. Yeah. He's literally grown up in front of the camera,

in front of YouTube, in front of whatever. But anyway, he's one of those people that's just honest. He's like, this is who I am. This is my genetics. Well, like you, Nseema, you have amazing genetics. You've always been lean. I've This is my genetics. Well, like you, Encima. You have amazing genetics.

You've always been lean. I've known you for years. And you tell people, yeah, I train hard and I eat well. Oh, look at him. Look at the baby. Oh, my God. Show your baby. I remember him and Steve.

They just had so much fun. Massive. Him and Steve didn't feel. Just massive. Those guys are built like upside down Doritos. Yeah. It's crazy.

I doubt Doritos. It's crazy. Look at Larry. Look at him. He's a kid. Oh, man. Look at that. Wow.

No technique, just all go. Just ripping the weight off the ground. Just brute. Look at him. Aw, he's giving him a little dab.

Yeah, I remember Stan, I remember Stan went and lifted with Larry Wheels in like New York City because Stan went and did it. Oh, myap. Yeah, I remember Stan I remember Stan went and lifted with Larry Wheels in like New York City because Stan went and did it. Oh my God. Oh my God.

Wow. So fucking fat. Where was he going with that hair? Hey, the arms are big at least. Dude. Stan looks like

a fucking just action figure. Yeah. His arms are fucking That's weird. That's just wild, bro. He looks like he just came off the wall

that big old mural and he just went and deadlifted. Oh yeah, that mural. Yeah, that was are fucking weird. That's just wild, bro. He looks like he just came off the wall, that big old mural, and he just went and deadlifted. Oh, yeah, that mural. Yeah, that was sick. Yeah, because this is the old super training. Stan can still do some of this stuff. You know, Phil Heath is like that. Mr. Olympia, Phil Heath.

He's just bubbly. He's bubbly. He's always been. He played basketball. The guy is a Mr. Olympia. He can dunk. Yeah, yeah. You know, he's just a freak of nature. He really is a Mr. Olympia. He can dunk. Yeah, yeah. You know, he's just a freak of nature.

He really is a mutant. So there are some people that are just like that. I would say T is probably a mix of both. He's got great genetics, but he did work a lot harder than I think even Larry had to. He started out natural bodybuilding in a natural federation. And he was probably big as fuck naturally. Yeah. I mean, I wonder.

He got big. He got big. Okay, so probably big as fuck, naturally. Yeah. I mean, I wonder. He got big. He got big. Okay, so he graduated high school at 180. By his summer of sophomore year when his parents picked him up from the airport here in NorCal. Steve's a genetic fuck.

He was 290. He gained 110 pounds. Holy Jesus. That's Nigeria for you, baby. Yeah. He's Nigerian, right? Yeah. He's Yoruba.

And what about Steve? Steve is a freak. He can jump. He can sprint. He's now Steve too he's got the skinny jeans but he worked hard to get that big yeah he worked hard and he's just you know what he looked like in college a fitness model chiseled jaw like just freak I remember I went to a barbell brigade and he was like working out in jeans I'm like well who the fuck's this guy and he didn't even power lift at that time I was like

you should power lift I'm like what are you doing he didn't power lift very well when I met him he didn't know what he was doing well he had a really

hard time squatting yes shout out to Steve though I hope he's doing well and healthy yeah he's a fucking animal but yeah some people are freaks

I was not I was a late bloomer I had to like you said I had average genetics middle of the road genetics. And I honestly, I think sub- God, look at that face.

Fuck out of hand. Don't do that. Don't do that. Don't be like, I had slow. Yeah, they were good. Decent. They were good. Well, for strength.

You start lifting for strength? For strength. But aesthetics, no way. Well, if we're talking aesthetics and all that, you still look great. Don't get me wrong. That's pure hard work. Yeah. That's pure hard work.

You also have some good genetics factoring in there. The fact that you said you didn't really play sports, right? Never. So that's pretty awesome. I smoked cigarettes in PE class. That's pretty awesome. You did? How disgusting.

Oh, damn. That's pretty awesome. You didn't have a physical background. Then when you went to do something physically, you were good at it. That's pretty cool. Yeah. I mean pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I was always active.

Like when I lived in Oakland, I was like one of those chicks that rode like the single speed bikes and like no brakes. And I'd like ride in the city, saw huge calves, like huge calves, huge quads. And people would always mention it, but I never, you know, I never paid attention to stuff like that. I just wanted to be cute. I didn't want to like, I wasn't worried about the way I look. But yeah, I think I have, when you talk about these guys, we're talking about unicorn genetics.

Same with you, Insima. I think unicorn genetics. And I think it's important that you're honest about that. Like I've never seen you in the years I've known you. You've never like, buy my program? No, it's going to make you look just like me. No, it's not. But that's the thing.

Like you just said it, that people need to manage their expectations. Cause like a lot of people start lifting late, right? If you start lifting in your twenties and you see somebody like, okay, Larry does have great genetics, but Larry's also been somebody who's been active since he was 16 or younger. Yeah. Or younger. Like he's been doing this shit for a while. A lot of these people have been doing this stuff for a long time. So it's like you need if you're someone who's paying attention to this stuff you can try to get your best physique possible but you can't be like i want to start doing this so i can look like amanda bingo or look like larry or whatever like that's what's wrong with the internet like i wish we would just stop comparing each other it's so hard

but it's human nature and i know people have no control over it really. But if you have a little more self-control over your mindset, you can have a much better experience with fitness. Such a better experience with fitness. Focus on what's in front of you instead of what's around you. Because you're missing the fact that you might have lost 50 pounds, gained 10 pounds of muscle, got a bunch of PRs because you're looking at me or somebody else and you're saying you're not good enough.

And that's bullshit. Your loss, your 50 pound weight loss, your muscle gain, that's a huge thing. You should be proud of yourself. And I think we have this pressure. It's like a pressure cooker of the internet making young, especially, well, no, I think young women and men feel like they need to be better than someone else to even put it online. Oh yeah. Right.

And that creates these ridiculous expectations about what they can and can't do. I have guys that come to me that are in their mid to late twenties already and are noodles, right? Uh, shout out to the noodles. You guys are healthy. It's fine. Um,

thanks. As you call them noodles there's nothing wrong with being thin trust me you don't see a bunch of big people like 80 year olds

okay that's true you don't I think I heard Chad Wesley Smith say that you don't see 400 pound 80 year olds

it just doesn't happen we might in this next generation maybe love you Chad I feel bad now. Chad walked up to me at the CrossFit Games and he was just so sweaty.

Red and sweaty. He's in a tank top. Were you thin by this point? No. I was going to say. But I was thinner. And he walks up. He's like beet red because he's fair skin too.

And my wife, after Chad walks away, she goes, probably not a good idea to be 400 pounds at the CrossFit Games. And he's just sledging across. I was like, oh my God. Hey, he's in way better shape now. He looks handsome. I think he's like 280. I think he lost some joy doing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, right?

Yeah. I just like to talk shit. He's my friend. I'm not singing. Hopefully. I said nothing. I said nothing. Choke me out. But yeah, I get

these guys that apply for coaching and their goals. My friend, who's also my administrative assistant, will email me ahead and be like, all right, you got a new app. He's 110 pounds and he wants to be a bodybuilder. And here's the thing. You can gain a lot of muscle. Anybody can at any age. You can gain muscle. You can get leaner. You can get stronger. But are you going to be an overall competitive winner at a bodybuilding show in a year or so if you're 28 years old and you just started lifting and you have skinny genetics? No. And sorry, as a coach, I think I'm doing you a disservice if I sell you a bunch of lies, tell you if you just take a bunch of tests and a bunch of drugs, I don't even prescribe that, that you're going to be Mr. Olympia.

You're not. For men, unfortunately, you got to start early if that's your goal. You got to start early because there's just too much mass to grow. For women, I will say I have had girls that I've coached from string bean know, string bean. And I'm like looking at them like you could go pro. We've been coaching for two years and I think you might have a shot. Like you're – so women don't have to put on that much muscle. And simply just going from no training to all that new stimulus of eating more protein and doing cardio, doing heavy, heavy lifting because I coach my women to lift heavy in all aspects, even, you know, bodybuilding style, you'd be surprised what can happen. But unfortunately, you know, guys, they got a lot more space.

But there are new categories, classic physique and things like that, that they're rewarding smaller, more, I don't want to say attainable. It's still really hard to attain. Classic physique is still like, at least at the pro level, that shit's still, that's a lot of mess. It's hard. It's a lot. It is. You're talking about like a 5'11 guy who's like 225 shredded.

220 shredded. Yeah. It's difficult. The genetic side of thing is a tough thing for people to deal with. But it doesn't really matter how someone got there or how they get there. You still have a job to concentrate on yourself. 100%. And you have to work on making yourself better.

And you can't sit there and like kick yourself that you don't have the genetics of a Chris Bumstead or something like that. Because who does? No, he's one of a kind. We haven't seen anybody come along like that. Probably since Arnold. Arnold. Yeah.

It's been a long time. And in our today's standards of aesthetics, I mean, he's got rounder quads than Arnold. He's got a bigger frame than Arnold. He has the best physique of all time, probably. For right now, yeah. I mean, there's some dudes coming out of Brazil that probably are, like, nipping at his feet. That Andrew Jack guy. Oh, jeez.

I wish that he did classic. No, I wish he did classic. Holy shit. Like, Andrew Jack, he's doing bodybuilding. He's too big. Yeah, he's too big. 290 on stage. I know, but if he downsizes to classic. she did classic holy like andrew jacked he's doing bodybuilding he's too big he's too 90 i know but if he 290 if he downsized and he wasn't even really messing with bodybuilding before right

he was just he was just like a strong instagram guy yeah he's doing some stuff with like larry that's why i first saw him is he nigerian i wasn't trying to claim him oh yes i think he's your butt oh yeah he looks crazy yeah andrew jack is just ridiculous bro yeah i remember seeing him lift with larry wheels and he was like just lifting crazy weights like who the fuck is this i never followed him before he started playing around bodybuilding when he won the uh amateur i think it was arnold um like, okay, this guy is not even in shape, but he looks insane. He wasn't even shredded. He said he didn't even diet.

He didn't even diet. That's great. What is that? Yeah, that's crazy. It's insane. I think he definitely has a shit ton of potential for potentially like Mr. Olympia. Shout out to Flex Wheeler. Flex Wheeler's been talking about him a lot.

Yeah, that's his coach. Yeah. He's one of his coaches. But yeah, I mean, if he polishes his posing a little bit more, and actually I was really impressed by this Texas show routine, but if he polishes his quarter turns and gets a little more shredded in the back because he has a little bit of thick skin on his glutes, he could be Mr. Olympia. God damn, dude.

And it's really inspiring because I'm also someone who just did two shows and I'm a pro. And I'm like, I don't know if I'm like that, but hey. Yeah, you came out of nowhere. Yeah, I love the idea of coming out of nowhere. I think it's awesome. Pat Brodsky, family, I hope you guys are doing well. Now, we love meat. We love to eat meat on this podcast.

We've talked about it. Yeah, we've talked about it a lot. That's why I partnered with Piedmontese because they have amazing cuts of steak some that have a lot of fat some that are a bit lower fat

but no matter what diet you're on you can fit Piedmontese steak into your diet it's fucking good Andrew how can they get it yes you guys gotta head over to piedmontese.com

if you guys know how to spell it say it with me that's P-I-E-D-M-O-N-T-E-S-E dot com and at checkout enter promo code power for 25% off your entire order. And if your order is $150 or more, you get free two-day shipping. Links to them down in the description as well as the podcast show notes.

Let's get back to the podcast. But one thing that's really cool about, like, there's you, there's Maddie Forberg, there's obviously Hunter. There's someone else, else too that comes to mind that was a power lifter too. Herbie just destroyed power lifters. Who? Andrew Herbert. I'm talking about women.

Andrew Herbert, did he just do a bodybuilding show? He did too. He's another freaking h-er, huh? Another upside down Dorito. One of my favorites. He did very well. I love us big trap people. Andrew has like traps for traps.

All my favorite, those are my friends. Like my best guy friends have the biggest traps. I think I just like it because they make mine look smaller, which is very hard to do. Good Lord. But you're looking for women. Blanca Vlock, I think is her name. She was a power lifter and she's pretty darn strong.

A lot of people don't know about her. She's a little under the radar, but she became a pro at my show. Oh, she did? She won her high class in women's physique. Physique? Okay. Yeah. There's some more.

There's somebody else that I was thinking of. I totally lost her. I can't. But it seems like women who come from that, because of all the volume of power lifting and strength training, you go into bodybuilding, you're just eating for free. It's not fair. It's not fair if you were really powerlifting.

We're not talking about just doing singles and just doing the three big three. We're talking about girls and guys, but particularly us girls. We trained. We're talking about girls and guys, but particularly us girls. We trained. We trained. Hunter trains. Chrissy Hawkins. Shout out to Chrissy Hawkins. She's the first and Susan Salazar.

They were the OGs of powerlifting who went pro a long time ago. Who's the guy that breath belt? He came here. Joe Sullivan. Joe Sullivan. Who's his girlfriend? Brianna.

She just competed. Yeah. She just competed. She got first call out at USA's, which is great because she's really young. She's really young. So I have no doubt that she's now qualified for the next one. So if I think, and if she's listening, I think if she takes the year off, goes back to USA's, she will probably win overall.

Because her shape is unmatched. It's a beautiful shape. Pull her up. She looks crazy. She got out-muscled. The girl that won her category also won bodybuilding. She was a female bodybuilder, too. So she got out-muscled big time.

And probably a little out-conditioned. And that's because she's so young. It's hard to get that shredded when you're very young. I have a question for you. Since you coach so many like women competitors and males too, probably. Yes, sir. What would you say is, because every competitor is different, right? But like we were talking about, competitors don't seem to really give themselves the amount of time they need on an off season to actually make some progress because they're just used to posting all their shows and always being in that form, right? So what would you say is like a good general layout for like, you know, competing and then

how long you should actually give yourself for a good off season to really gain? I also think that individuals in the NPC, because you can take certain things in the off season, I think that they, that people think they can get away with like a six month off season because they're taking shit. They're like, okay, put on some muscle in the six months, but it doesn't really end up looking that way. That's the problem is they also need off time off, off their cycles too. Like you need to be natural because you need to be able to train to your best ability naturally and then clear out and then be able to do those things again but you said the timeline yeah great shape right she's got so much potential yeah when I'm retired she'll be really taking off you know

what I mean because she's she's in her mid-20s oh wow, wow. Yeah. But yeah, you were saying. So for off-season, it really depends. She's a good example. Where you are in your training age. So she's been training for a long time. She started much younger than me. So I would say even for her, though, probably a year would be good. Because if you think about that, four months out of that is prepping. So now, right, you're at like eight months of off-season.

You shave off the first two months like Mark said in the beginning because you're not going to be strong and able to train 100% that first two months. So where are we now, six months? That's a six-month off-season. When you're saying what people think is a six-month off-season is really a one to two-month off-season. And that's not an off-season. But if you're my age and you are good with your muscle musculature and the judges

say you don't need much like when i got off stage they said a touch of hamstrings and and then my coach said a sprinkle you could never use you can never have too much dealt that was the that was my feedback. Some of this judging feedback, most of the time it's probably cool, but sometimes it just sounds like bullshit. Yeah. Well, you got to say something. Yeah.

So I'm a very muscular girl for the category. So you don't want to go overboard too much. And so in that way, I could have jumped right back in this year. But like I said, I wanted to take some time off, rebalance my hormones, get my health on track. I'm getting a dog. Wanted to do that whole thing. So I'm going to wait till next season. I would say it's going to be a full year and a half for me.

And maybe that could be – I could have gone a little shorter than that. But with life commitments and coaching and stuff, it's good. I would say maybe every other year, compete. If you're in an NPC, like every other year. And honestly, people are going to really not like that I say this, but I would say compete later. Wait. Just wait. Because competition, as much as I'd love to take your money, it's very expensive.

Go into that, please. Especially for women. Like for women, holy shit, the things that you guys need to buy versus just like guys, trunks, tan. I can't. People ask me on Instagram

to like come up with a list and it would take me a long time because I made a list for my Instagram stories, like the Q&As and I went back and I go, I missed like a couple of things. It's really pricey.

It's not like being a professional athlete. Now in the pro league, of course, I don't have to pay for show registration, which is nice. Also add a lot of stress, especially if you're not in great shape. Because if you're in great shape, it's like you could probably forget a couple of things. Maybe you don't do your nails exactly the way you want it

or whatever. Oh, Mark, that's very astute of you. But you still look amazing. So it doesn't matter, right? That's very astute of you. But you still look amazing, so it doesn't matter, right? That's very astute of you, yeah. I'm going to be really honest. You're very right. If you have the best physique on stage,

but your nail polish isn't done or your eye makeup isn't perfect, and geez, guys, I've seen girls that go up there like blank face, which, I mean, it is scored. Your beauty is scored. It's a muscular beauty pageant quick question is is beauty more scored as in like just the glam stuff more scored in bikini and then as you go into figure physique and stuff they I'm just I mean no it's true is it true yeah

okay um I would say from the from the size perspective we we go bikini. They say wellness is in between me and bikini, but it's not true. They're huge. So we'll just say what they say. Bikini, wellness, figure, physique, women's bodybuilding. When you surpass my category, figure, then you're not really held to the same level of the beauty standards, I think, as the other ones. So you could pour your hair in a bun in women's physique because you're flexing your biceps and you know you're doing posing real bodybuilding posing and particularly in women's bodybuilding you're doing a lot of

bodybuilding posing um but for something like figure and wellness yeah you need to be on point your nails need to be coordinating with your suit and uh your jewelry needs to coordinate and all that shit costs money your hair oh baby does it cost money yeah um i mean thank god i was a makeup artist so i do my own makeup and my own hair oh that's sick but that saves me four hundred dollars you have to walk around in heels too oh yeah how much are the heels let's just tally some of this shit up the heels heels run about $120, but you can find some cheaper than Amazon guys for 75. Okay.

Okay. So let's just, let's just say 120 for the heels, uh, hair, nails, makeup. Oh, hair's like 200.

Makeup's like 200. It's like four. Nails is going to run you about 150 bucks. 150 for nails. Damn. I like the heels, but it's weird. I dig it, but it's weird. I love it.

I dig it, but it's odd. I love it. Sam loves the whole, like, the reason why she loves bikini is because it's just glam. Like, she just loves the glam aspect of it. I like it. Which is respectable. I don't know what the hell. I never thought I would like it that much.

But she was saying I look way more comfortable on the bodybuilding stage than I did on the powerlifting platform, which is very strange. I mean, it was like my inner showgirl came out or something. I really have a lot of fun. Some of it's about just getting people to like you, right? I mean, some of it's just about like that reaction that you get. But I think for me, it merges the best of both worlds because I was makeup artist and i'm now and i'm into fitness so you get to do the glam and the fitness and like i don't know i i still practice posing every single day i love it oh that's cool i love okay so we're back on the budget back on the

budget okay so how much is the suit anywhere from like i'm talking used like 350 are you serious jesus all right 350 to like that's minimum 300 i rebuke that what the fuck 1200 i think there's guys that are listening to this right now they're like you can buy used bikinis they know that you can buy oh they know for sure the guys in my unopened ds know you can buy used bikinis. What makes them so expensive, though? Isn't it just like a... The bedazzle. I know.

It's got like sequins and shit, right? They're hand beaded, literally one bead at a time. And the women or men, I don't know, but I've only seen women who make them. The people who make them, they custom make them to your body. Got it. So it's... And every week you check in to make sure you're measuring

you were saying something about glue? oh butt glue it's gotta be glued to you? Rosie's your glue maid? your glue girl? bikini glue person there's usually people back there at the big shows hey I would glue your suit to you

if you want to do bodybuilding I appreciate you for that now there's gonna be like an influx of people trying to glue them back there. Let's just say an average of $800 on the suit. Dudes are definitely going to be hitting up being like, how do I become a blue person? But you know the interesting thing?

Tanning costs money. Oh, how much is tanning? Alright, so there's tanning. Some days you have to do it twice. So it's $200 because if it's a two-day show. Yeah. National level shows are two days. It all sprays up.

Jesus Christ. And then travel and all that potentially. It could be, gosh, I spent about 10 grand on that show because I flew my whole team out. Okay. Okay. I flew our whole team out. I flew out two friends to help me. Tea came out.

So we had an Airbnb plus the hotel fee. And this is all just for like competition day. You're not talking about like food throughout the whole prep and all that. Oh. Because that would be like ridiculous to track. So far without the travel though, we're at $1,700 for like the minimum that a female like bikini or figure out how it needs. Yeah, even amateurs.

Even amateurs. Yeah, it would be because you got to pay your NPC card. I don't know how much that is. I think it might be $100 and then your registration fee. Ooh, I did multiple categories called the crossover. So that's going to be about $300 for crossover. Damn. Now we're over $2,000.

Easily over $2,000 just to get your foot in. And like you were saying, if you take PEDs to get there or if you're natural and you take supplements, supplements cost money. I mean, I had lots of sponsorships, so those didn't cost me money, but it does.

And then food, I mean, shout out to Piedmontese Beef. They helped me get through a lot of my prep. Were you eating that during prep? I did up until the very end. That's sick. Until the very end because digestion gets a little rough. You could trade it out for chicken any day.

Yeah. That's sick. Ounce for ounce, it's about the same, honestly, and it's so high quality. It came down to the end. Send me more beef, please. Came down to the end, you switched to fish? Chicken and fish, yes. I did do some white fish, yeah.

And there's no secret to that guys by the way there's no secret to white fish it's just lighter and fat that's all it is and it digests

a little faster so yeah there's a lot of weird rules with bodybuilding like you can't have dairy I mean different coaches are different ways but like

they cut out dairy and they'll say it's just because it can make your skin look thicker and it's like I don't know what the yeah no I know but it's just because it can make your skin look thicker. And it's like, I don't know what the... That's not true.

No, I know. But it's just interesting. But it is true that you shouldn't probably eat dairy for most people. Now, there's some freaks out there. I think people with good genetics, it's not just how you respond to drugs, how you respond to training. It's also how good your digestion is. There are some people that are tanks. They can eat cheese up until a week out two weeks out and they take it

out and they look well it might actually be the most important thing of all maybe you're turning your food into energy exactly yeah how you partition yeah yeah so there's there's tons of different you know versions of good genetics i didn't get the stomach good genetics man i was eating like three different types of types of food by the end of it yeah it was bad yeah it was really good you didn't get a lot of indigestion and stuff like that mark oh my god some poop stories there we go oh my god uh yeah it was it it got to the point where i had like basically ibs so that's sexy but uh yeah happens. The digestion thing is hard because if you're eating like nothing, then it's hitting your stomach.

What do you think was causing some of the issues? Was it just like vegetables or like... Yes. You have to be really careful towards the end, some people, with what types of vegetables. Even, dude, I've been one of those people that eats spicy food my whole life. I'm talking like real

spicy food I couldn't even eat sriracha towards the end at all couldn't anything but mustard why is it just because like you're so lean and you just feel like there's just nothing in your stomach yeah I remember making like chicken and rice and putting mustard on it and it was like at the time it was delicious but like if I was to eat that now, I'd be like, this is fucking disgusting. Still doing it. I'm still doing it. I still eat like that all year round.

Really? Yeah. Why? Are you like, because you have calories now, right? Right now we're doing a little short fat loss phase.

Okay. But during the time where I was bulking a couple months ago, I, yeah, I mean, I brought sriracha back in.

Okay. Thank God. The combinations of food are silly. You're like, oh, this apple cider vinegar tastes great. Dude, you get real disgustingly creative. You get desperate. You could be squirting mustard in your mouth.

Have you done that? Have you squirted mustard? No, no. Have you squirted mustard in your mouth? I have taken a cucumber, like cucumber slices and like ate it like guacamole. Oh, that's an eating disorder. It's a controlled eating disorder. But I'm curious, like your eating style has definitely probably changed from powerlifting. Yeah, quite a bit.

Even when you're in your off season now and you have more calories, you're still kind of restrictive on what you eat. Like what do those foods look like for you? One, the priority is does it have the micro and macronutrients that I need? Two, can it provide some supplementation for where my blood work is a little bit lacking? Can it provide some supplementation for where my blood work is a little bit lacking? That's a big thing because I have an RD as my coach. And I use Merrick. They encourage me to eat certain types of foods. And then three, digestion.

Does it work well with my digestion? Does it allow me to go to the gym and not feel bloated? Does it allow me to get good sleep? So my mindset about food has changed a lot in a pretty constructive and healthy way, in my opinion. I don't think that's the same for everyone. But for me, it's not as much about is this food going to bring me pleasure? Although I do make my food taste good. I'm a really good cook. So I can spice my food, even if it's boring. It still tastes yummy. Yeah. Even my friends that don't compete like my food. But those are my priorities. Is it going to meet my nutrient value priorities? Is it going to make me sick? And, you know, can I digest it

well enough to go and train? During the off season, it got a little rough. Like you're eating so many carbs that you're just so bloated and just sort of gassy and not feeling like you want to be your, you know, go in there and just like train hard. So I'm really glad to be out of that stage. And I think going forward, we're probably not going to feed me up as much because I am a little bit more mature in age. And so I don't need to put on a lot of size.

And I think that I can probably even grow need to put on a lot of size. And I think that I can probably even grow. That is a strong suit of mine. I can probably grow with a little bit less food. Okay. Yeah. Cool. Especially my upper body.

I just think about it and it just grows. I'm curious too about this aspect in nutrition too. Because now you've kind of pared down the foods you eat. I don't think it's, because some people will look at the way you eat probably and they'll be like, oh, she's not enjoying it. You don't you probably don't eat out much, right? No. But you have structure. This is a thing. You have structure and this is something that you can maintain. So I'm curious about this. When you I don't know when you plan on retiring or whatever, but have you thought about how your eating may change or if it will change?

Oh yeah. What does that look like? Well, I have a really good example right in front of me with T. Okay. So he still eats like a bodybuilder. Okay. Every day he eats like, looks like dog food, like rice, meat, really nice veggies. He always eats a lot of veggies.

And he also eats a lot of, we eat a lot of fermented foods, like kimchi. And he plays around with some other fermented vegetables and stuff like that. But that's the one that suits my stomach pretty well. So I eat that every morning.

But that's how he eats every day. He eats that with like some sort of fat source. So like nuts or oils. We put like macadamia nut oil in our food. We don't eat a lot of, we don't eat any, do we eat any processed foods?

I don't think we have any processed foods. But you enjoy your food. Oh, yeah. We enjoy food. But also you have to remember like when you've been eating as like a job, you don't really care anymore. Let me guess. It's not, it's not. I love going to restaurants from time to time, vacation or something like that.

I love to cook. I really love to cook. I'm Puerto Rican and I'm Japanese, so I like to make my ethnic foods once a year. It does make me a little sick, but it's worth it. But yeah, so once a year I'll make my ethnic foods. He'll eat his mom's Nigerian food. But to be honest, you don't get to be 300 pounds by just eating light. So when your job was to eat a thousand carbs a day and 500 grams of protein a day,

you don't care about food. Just figure out how to get it down. You just don't care. Yeah. He drinks egg whites out of the carton. Even to this day, he's been retired for years. He just doesn't care. He drinks egg whites out of the carton. Even to this day, and he's been retired for years. He just doesn't care. He'll even be that freak that drinks aminos with no flavor.

That's really bad. It's disgusting. But yeah, we're just a little different. We're a little different. But that's the thing. I don't think that necessarily, that's- That's what you like to do. that's what you like to do. It's what you like to do

and it's not I think it is kind of abnormal to be eating out a crazy amount. Like normally people eat out a lot. They have a lot of processed food. Like even though that's normal

that's not necessarily good. No. Right. Like there's there's an extreme side of both but you're enjoying your food. You're able to get creative with it. You're healthy.

Like it's some people would look at that and be like, oh, they have an eating disorder, but no, it's not. She's restrictive. Like, no. Okay. Maybe some people would say being restricted is not a bad thing. There's a lot of people in America

who need some restriction. Thank you. No, that's not. I'm not going to say it. I'm not going to say it. No, say it. It's fine. It's fine.

Yeah. So people come to me all the time for coaching and i think i'm good at make incorporating those types of lifestyle choices into their plan um and being realistic you don't have to like micromanage your food the way i do you're not trying to be a bodybuilder uh she's my client she's lost 50 pounds in the past uh year and a half congratulations and uh i don't think we're restrictive. You still eat out. She still has treats every so often and goes and gets yummy lattes every so often, but she tracks it. Even if you're not tracking it to the diamond nickel, you're tracking it and you have an – I think ultimately it's an awareness.

Having an awareness of what you're eating, what's in your food. Yeah, just because you don't track it doesn't mean it doesn't count. Yeah. It still counts, right? Yeah. It still counts, right? Yeah. But just even if you don't track forever, maybe just tracking for six months and understanding that, oh shit,

I've been scooping the shit out of peanut butter. I've been scooping my rice like just willy nilly and not thinking about it. I've done this. Now when you start to become aware and conscious.

Get rid of your fucking peanut butter. Get rid of it. Yeah, just put it away. Lock it up. Lock it up. When you become aware of what is in food, what is the macronutrient value of it, the caloric value of it, and what that does to your ability to burn it off, right, matching those two things, putting those things together. Wow, I had to walk four hours to burn off this one, you know, light latte that I'm having, right?

That makes a lot of a difference in someone's life. And just making that shift in awareness can be huge. But in no way am I thinking of the mindset that everyone should eat like me. No way. Will I eat like this for probably, to be honest with you, to answer your question, I probably will once we retire, still be in fitness. I'll probably compete in something else. I'll probably take up like bike racing or something, you know, endurance like you, Mark, because I like to compete. And for a lot of us who have always been competing since we've been fit, having a goal keeps us going. Right.

And I'm very goal oriented. keeps us going, right? And I'm very goal-oriented. And so whatever it is, if I take up, a lot of people want me to do MMA or people have told me I should try endurance sports. Yeah, I probably will. I probably will. And that will require me to eat in a specific way to keep me in a healthy performance-based way efficient in my sport, right?

So yeah, some people are just like that. Some people like to drink alcohol and go out just like that. Some people like to drink alcohol and go out on the weekends. Some people like to spend it in the gym. It's just who I am. Yeah. You'd have somebody start with powerlifting or bodybuilding? It's rough. Let's say they come with you as a blank slate

and they don't have a preference personally. Is it too political if I say correct if I say powerbuilding? A little bit of both. Right? Because like look at the best guys we've been talking about on the podcast right now. Those guys did athletic training, power lifting, and they always bodybuilded because why else would they look like that, right? So I think the mix of both.

Yeah, and most people start out with like, they start out lifting and then most people would just call that style lifting bodybuilding. Right. Even though it's not like purposeful bodybuilding. And I think that's really important. It's like messing around the gym, which can be beneficial. So I guess I'll pick bodybuilding. Yeah. Because if you're talking like GPP training for hypertrophy, I do think that everyone could benefit from having the connective tissue strength that comes with high reps.

And you'll automatically get stronger regardless of style. You can always advance your strength if you have muscle. And you won't get injured as frequently in powerlifting if your connective tissue is stronger and more rigid, right? So that only comes from reps, right? So if we look at some of these powerlifters who are extremely efficient in their movement pattern and kind of smaller. I'm not going to say any names, obviously.

That's rude. But let's say a deadlift specialist or a bench specialist. Russ Swell is a great example. No, I'm talking about the ones that are not doing hypertrophy. They're small but dangerous in powerlifting. Those are the ones that get snapped real fast. They're snapping tendons. They're snapping triceps, biceps, pecs because they didn't have that base of dense muscle and rigid connective tissue. So I would say probably GPP, bodybuilding style hypertrophy would be a great way to start.

But I do think on the flip side, a lot of bodybuilders could use a lot more density and that density only comes with lifting heavy. You cannot be afraid of the barbell. If you see me now at my age, not touching a squat bar, I don't have to. Right. I did that. Yeah. We did that for years. You ever got a Dexascan done? Yeah, of course. What's your, do you know your, uh, your bone? What's your bone? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I mean like the top percentile. Uh huh. Yeah. Yeah. I was curious about that. Like I want more power lifters get that done because um the that amount of load must have a really big difference or a really big um effect on bone density huge my bones are

yeah very dense yeah so um and that comes from years of loading years of loading so i think they could both benefit each other i see a a lot of powerlifters right now who are really into the specialty type training. Like they specialize too much and they're just doing the big three, like four times a week. I've talked about this on Instagram. I got a lot of shit for it.

But yeah, you wonder why you don't look jacked. Hey, no, that's real though. Come on, man. Do some freaking bicep curls, some lateral raises. Do your accessory work. Do some rows. Please row more. Please row. Please don't let mep curls, some lateral raises. Do your accessory work. Do some rows. Please row more.

Please row. Please don't let me outsize you in your back. I'm tiny. Yo, pull up a picture of her back. No, no, no,

no. Pull up her back, bro. Yeah, that shit. You make fun of people's back and you got like this fucking. I'm not making fun of people. I'm just saying like.

Oh, man. Weird just saying. I'm just. No, I'm not making fun of people. I'm just saying like. What are you just saying? I'm just saying. Hey, yo, what? We could all use more back. Yo, that's wild. Amanda, what the fuck? Jesus Christ. You know, I was so self-conscious about that.

I just, I hated it. Because my sports bras and everything would just be like lat coming over. And I just thought I looked so awkward. And it worked out that I joined the right sport and it's rewarded now, which is cool. That's sick. It's taught me to really appreciate my shape more. How have you dealt with social media? Because it seems like a lot of your posts, it seems like you put a lot of time into it. And it seems like you want to communicate a particular message, but sometimes maybe the message gets...

Misinterpreted? Misinterpreted. Or people get mad about certain things. How have you been able to kind of handle negative comments or... People getting butt hurt by what you say sometimes? People always want to hear things. I saw it more like years ago not so much with you nowadays i think people are more supportive of you nowadays i think people always want to hear what they want you to say they want you to cater your message or your belief system to exactly what they want to hear. Right? And so we've all dealt with this.

I think that being a female in a male-dominated space, and also at the time, not anymore, I will say this emphatically, not anymore, but at the time being a female of color in a very white male-dominated space kind of just made people be like, dude, we don't want to hear from you. You just triggered so many people when you said that. Yeah, but it's true. I know it's

true. It's really true. I think that, you know, it was just, it was a space and maybe it had nothing to do with their race. Maybe it had to do with the fact that I was just different. Yeah. I was just different. I was, you know, from LA, I wore makeup in the gym. I wore my gold hoops in the gym and my, you know, whatever. And I was talking about exercise science and strength training in a real way, the way I'm with you guys. And I think people had a hard time respecting me for that. And instead of being, um, yeah, it's like a female sports reporter. That's like real attractive or something like that.

That's reporting on the sidelines of football. And guys were like, oh, shut up. Just be hot. You know? Exactly. Um, not that that was like, but, but yeah. Um, I think they were like, just, it's different. Just oh, shut up. Just be hot. You know? Exactly. Not that that was like my experience. But yeah, I think they were like, just lift, I guess. You know, if all your lifts are fake, they're probably just PEDs.

You know what I mean? Like people didn't want to accept anything that I had to say. And instead of being more passive and just letting my work speak for me, I think at the time, if I could go back and shut me up, I probably would. Because I would have just told myself back then, allow your performance to speak for you and let people deal with it the way they want to deal with it. So I would probably just shut the fuck up if I were going back and talking to younger Amanda

because I have nothing to prove now. But I couldn't tell myself back then that. I thought I had to elbow my way into the big boys gym and let them know that I knew my shit and that I was strong and that I knew about training and stuff like that, you know, because I had worked so hard to be accepted, as you were talking about earlier. And the reality is not everyone's going to accept me, and that's totally fine. But it's not until you accept yourself and you're 100 confident with what you bring to the table that you realize it doesn't fucking matter if people like you and so if some

power lifter and wherever doesn't like me and wants to tell me to go fuck myself or that i'm gross or yeah like you know just just one comment in all caps steroid you know or like you know you're a dude she's probably a dude like um if they want to say that about me, I should just say, okay, just move on. And at this point I can, but that's because my performance had led, has led me to a place where I'm like, I have nothing to prove to you. If you don't like me, that's a personal problem. You can't say that I'm, I suck. I don't.

And I know it. You don't seem like a person that lacks self-confidence. Was it harder in the beginning? Yeah. Would the things really hurt you? The comments really? Oh, my God. I mean, like, literal breakdown.

Yeah. Like, breakdown. What was the main thing that really bothered you? What was the main thing that really bothered me? what was the main thing that really bothered me? People really attacked me for speaking my mind about something. So if I said something that I didn't like, or especially like my belief systems or, you know, things like that,

people would shut me down and call me bad names and basically just tell me to keep lifting, like shut up and dribble type thing, you know, things like that, people would shut me down and, and call me bad names and, uh, basically just tell me to keep lifting, like shut up and dribble type thing, you know? And, um, that was really hurtful because I think, uh, you know, I'm, I'm, I am half Japanese and I think part of like my culture from growing up with my dad was that I need to be respected for my mind. I need people to appreciate that I'm not, you know, uh, just someone to look at or just a body or just whatever. And for me, I think that I always just wanted to be respected as being kind of smart or at least well-spoken or something besides just lifting. And when people really wanted me to shut up, I felt the need to push back. And so that hurt. But yeah, I suppose

the body image stuff was not fun. I'll tell you that. It wasn't fun. And it was incessant at one point. It was like constant. And for some reason, like there's a group of men back then I don't think so much now but they were so triggered by a strong woman that like it was so bad people would send me like suicide threats like you should kill yourself or rape type of

threats in my DMs in video of their actual face like telling me that they want to rape me or kill me and so that well in your defense i think that would shake anybody yeah it's i got a lawyer like i was really scared uh from for my life kind of my safety and i became a little um closed off and and like didn't want to go out and do events and and i didn't seek out like going to the arnold that next year and did it you know like all types of things because i just felt like i it starts to

manifest in your mind that it's going to happen everywhere you go right and um the you saying i don't seem like a person lacking confidence now well it took time i had to pull away and really just work on myself get some counseling and you know pull in my inner circle friends and really just work on myself, get some counseling and, you know, pull in my inner circle of friends and, and really just like say to myself. And like I said, I've come out of it, uh, realizing I could have changed some things. I could have done things differently. I could have said less and just perform more. Um, and so I did that for a long time and then look what happened. I, my, my career continued to flourish in a different way and, um, my confidence continued to flourish. And, and I think what I realized is I realized is you can you can say a whole lot with thing without saying a whole lot you know so you miss your girlfriends like lift

lifting wise like and then and going out the powerlifting scene eating some doughnuts and shit okay I miss the doughnut sidecar doughnuts probably misses my money in LA. I do. Those days won't be like, you can't replace those, but you can't replicate that. You just can't. It was so fun.

We, all we did was train. We had our online clients. We barely made any money. Now you kind of, well, you have a training partner now, right?

I'm very solo for the most part. Cause we moved out to the suburbs to go to med school so uh yeah we're i'm kind of on my own but every so often i'll jump in with with my friends or with my clients or i'll drive out back to down to central la and i'll train with some of my old partners it's not the same on bodybuilding they're like squatting big numbers and stuff but But yeah, I do miss it. Those are times that you won't be able to replicate, right? We were just having so much fun. And I feel like either we were going to break our hips or we were going to become like monsters

because it was just such an enriched environment of like strong bitches, you know, just like super strong bitches who just didn't care about the way we looked. We just wanted to get big and strong. And that's like, I think everybody should experience that. I wish everybody should have a group of friends like that. There's the name of the show.

Strong bitches. Super strong bitches. Yeah, man. Shout out to the strong girls. Yeah, they're really doing it out there, especially now. It's crazy how strong these women are. Yeah. Yeah, I'm so impressed

when you mentioned your blood work a little bit ago i was you we didn't kind of go into it but what how long have you been doing blood work and what did you kind of notice from it what did you change after you started getting that data back yeah we've mainly only talked about men's blood work yeah interesting yeah talk about us girls immediately when I started doing PEDs. Okay. Yeah. Um, so I have all the historicals from that, from that time on until now. So, um, what I was looking for mostly because women's biggest, because we don't take a lot, our biggest concern for the most part, the long-term concern is your sexual hormone health. So virilization and also just reproduction, right? So looking at your sex hormone binding globulin, looking at your LH,

luteinizing hormone, looking at your progesterone, your estrogen and your testosterone, your prolactin, those numbers, making sure that they come back online in a timely fashion before you need to go back and do another round of PEDs or whatever it is that you do. And even if you're not on PEDs, if you do diet really hard, that is something you want to take a look at because your hormone system as a female is a very delicate thing and it will just completely shut down. Even just at, you will become, become you know menorrheic even when you are not on pds even just at a low body fat percentage right so these are things that we should be well aware of as women who train clean or not right natty or not um and i think it's

something that is getting more universal like we've talked about merrick and a few other companies that i've worked with that are trying to put good content out there about staying on top of your hormonal health or all health. And I hope in the future that it's going to become just a normal thing. I actually require my – not require. I ask my new clients to get blood work and I'm actually going to start offering coaching packages with Merrick enveloped in it. Yeah. So they can get a consultation with someone who can explain their blood work, not me. Someone who has more training.

And it's a little above my pay grade and out of the scope of what I'm supposed to do. Yeah. So they can actually speak to a physician who understands their sport and all those things. So that is the majority of it. But there's also the same thing guys are looking for. Your AST, ALT numbers, right? So your liver values. You're looking at your,

you want to take a urinalysis every so often if you are taking any PEDs or if you're on a very high protein diet. You want to take a look at your urine, make sure you're not passing proteins. Your creatinine levels. Maybe your creatine kinase. You know, the thing, I don't like people to get too crazy about that because we train so hard.

Even if you're running hard, you're going to produce a lot of that. My creatinine is always high. Exactly. We're always training. So what I say is probably don't want to train for at least a couple days before you get your blood work done but I wouldn't flip out over like CK levels because even your AST, ALT if they're just right over range

that could be training that could be a lot of stress outside of you know you're not having acute liver failure right if you're one point over so what I would rather look at is have the client look at trends and myself too you look at trends make sure things are going in the right direction. And then for me, your cholesterol levels, particularly if you can have access, if you have the budget to look at like particle size and, you know, like LDL little a is something that runs in my family.

Google that. Just Google that. that runs in my family um for google that just google that yeah um so i'm looking at like the more finite details of my um uh my afluro like health right um because i do have that in my family yeah um so those are things that i'm looking for you might want to look at like your igf1 your gh production things like that, to see how well things are working for you, right? It can give you a really good insight to a lot of questions that you might not have even thought of. Yeah. And sex hormones are really powerful for your heart. Something like estrogen, which a lot of people will try to tank, men and women. Oh, it's so necessary.

To try to get really lean. Estrogen is such a good thing. People use over-the-counter supplements. There's like DIM or whatever that one's called. It's like a derivative of broccoli or something like that, right? Yeah, it is. Yeah, cruciferous vegetables, yeah. Right. And there's a few other drugs that people will use to try to tank their estrogen. And then also women being on birth control.

Oh, yeah. And there's all kinds of things that mess with your hormones. What about birth control? Well, I'm not a huge fan of oral contraceptives. And now there's not a lot of estradiol-based birth controls being prescribed unless it's for a specific reason. I'm just not a fan of them, and I don't want to start a comment war or anything like that

if anyone's listening disagrees. Everyone should work with their provider to find the best plan for them. However, there are studies that we can maybe cite in the notes or something that do really sort of paint a portrait of people that use oral contraceptives, especially ones with estradiol in it, and their effects on their strength, like actual strength athletes in a university-level study. So it can really change your performance quite a bit. It can also change your aesthetics quite a bit

and your mood, your mental health, things like that. Now, that is using estrogen as a supplement. But what Mark was saying, you might want to take a look at your estrogen and not look at it as such a villain. Yeah. Because I do think like supplementing with it is probably not the best idea, in my opinion. If you can go around using those types of contraceptives, I would. But I do think we have a real misunderstanding about how beneficial estrogen is and actually how androgenic

it can be. I'm sorry, anabolic it can be. And how it can actually enhance your performance. It can enhance your look. And then also guys and girls, but men, we sometimes don't realize that estrogen is sort of the sex drive hormone. So if you talk to a bodybuilder who's taken like Arimidex or some type of AI to suppress their estrogen, which really just tanks their estrogen, you'll often hear their symptoms and side effects are things like lack of energy, lack of desire to get off the couch. They don't care about anything.

I heard – you guys know Derek from More Plates, More Dates, right? I heard him describe himself when he sort of just went overboard with AIs. He described himself as his dick being useless. It was just for peeing. He said it was just for peeing. I love that podcast. Shout out to Derek. That's unfortunate. I know. Like literally he said he was dating

two women at the time, which hey, your choice. He was a player. He dumped both of them because he didn't even want to use his penis. So, you know, that's what estrogen, it has a very powerful effect on us. Now, for women, same thing. It is our sort of ambition, I would call it, hormone, our drive hormone. So, tanking estrogen at the end of your prep, well, don't get me wrong, done it.

Definitely done it. estrogen at the end of your prep, well, don't get me wrong, done it. Definitely done it. Not as necessary now that I've read the science behind it. It's not as necessary as people think. And I would really, if you monitor your blood work, monitor your symptoms for men especially, if they're aromatizing using high testosterone, monitor those symptoms. Maybe just pull the testosterone down and stop aromatizing nah we can't do that right right but there's

there's a lot of other levers to pull right you can maybe use I don't want to give drug advice but there are other substances that you can increase

instead of leaning on a thousand tests and let's be honest powerlifters are using people use Masteron or Prima Bolin we could go down that road

of using estrogen down a little bit more modestly. Modestly without all the aromatization, right? So this is the type of stuff that I counsel my clients on about trying to get them off that sort of stereotypical cycle because it's very dangerous. Estrogen is very, very beneficial and essential to your health, heart health, brain health.

We don't really know the long-term effects of neurotoxicity with estrogen and especially our sports of suppressing estrogen. I wish we could just sell steroids on this podcast. It'd be great to give them a link to click right now. Is that what I was turned into? Here's a cycle right here. Just go right there and click that.

Okay. We actually can't alright that is not that's all him that is all him the IFBB is listening that is not me

that's all um IFBB seems to be in favor of Sterling yeah actually I mean if we're being real they don't test this shit

they seem to love people being jacked she's like I gotta go they started all this shit yeah exactly they're all about it anyways people being jacked. She's like, I gotta go. They started all this shit. Yeah, exactly. They're all about it. Anyways.

If you saw it, I was listening. So, yeah, I think that that's my spiel on estrogen. I think a lot of people really undervalue its benefits and overvalue suppression. It's what I've seen in the bodybuilding world, and I think that's very dangerous. It's not I've seen in the bodybuilding world.

And I think that's very dangerous. It's not something we see in the powerlifting world as much, but in the bodybuilding world we do. And I think that that's super dangerous. Do you teach people some ways to like reinterpret stuff so they're not as stressed? Because stress can be kind of a killer too, right? Huge killer.

If people are like so worried about their diet, so worried about their cardio and their training, and they think that food makes them fat and they're just so obsessive over stuff. It's kind of hard. It's like a little hard to lose weight when you're so frantic that way. 100%. We were just talking about that on the way here about how you can't make huge weight loss changes when you're in a overstressed part of your life, right? You can make changes, but they may not be those sweeping, you know, like my friend here who's lost 50 pounds in a year, like that may not happen for you, but you can definitely make some lifestyle changes that once stress comes down, you can

definitely make some huge gains because it's the habit formation that's the hardest part, right? So yeah, stress is a real goal killer. And things that I often talk about to my clients are, you know, eliminating unnecessary stressors. A lot of times we think we need to do a lot of things that we don't. And my life is very simple. I wake up, I go walk for three miles, you know, before everybody's out for the day. I have time for myself. I sip my coffee and don't talk to anyone. I don't speak for like four hours in the beginning of the day. And I think the first time I speak is when I speak to like the person who works for me.

And I'm like always like, and I think that's really, really helpful for me. and I think that's really, really helpful for me. Breathwork is really, really helpful and cleaning up your sleep, hygiene, understanding how important sleep is. You guys talk about this all the time. How much do you sleep, by the way? About seven, seven and a half hours. Seven, seven and a half?

Yeah, I wish I could go eight, but my body just wants to get up after seven, seven and a half. I also have a question for you since you probably know so many women and don't forget your train of thought. But have you found that woman tends to sleep a little bit longer than men on average? Just curious about that. In bodybuilding? In bodybuilding? Because like with the clients you work with, they're generally bodybuilders. But

yeah. Okay. I think I have the answer you probably are thinking. I think men think they need less. Yeah, they do think they need less generally. I think men think that they need less. Which is interesting. They actually need a lot. I think men think they need less. I think women, particularly women who are in dieting, probably do sleep less. Because guys will start – I'm sorry.

Guys are not as rigid as girls when it comes to dieting. They sleep less because guys will start i'm sorry guys are not as rigid as girls when it comes to dieting they tend to break down and so even when they don't want to sleep a long time they're going to be the guy the guys are the ones that are like napping in prep you know they stop moving as much the girls are overachievers i notice the women they go hard in the paint so and i'm i'm guilty of it too i think i need to do more than my coach is telling me i need to train harder i need to do more sets i need to do more cardio don't listen if you're my client um so yeah so i think it's more of a mindset thing than a biochemical thing like i think maybe there is a biology thing to element to it but i think men just generally

think they don't need as much sleep my husband's the worst really yeah no i could worst i mean med student yeah it's it's the worst like and i'm like you need to sleep and he's like i don't need it i'm fine i feel fine i'm like you think you do you think you have a couple nights of good sleep tell me how much better you feel yeah you know what i mean so yeah uh going back to like other things i would do for stress um maybe stimulants drinking like a huge coffee yeah probably check yourself on your stimulants i think a lot of people lean on pre-workout way too much um i think also again love social media it's my life it's my job But I think a lot of people are addicted to their phones. Turn off those notifications.

Oh, dude. Turn that shit off. Dude. When was the last time you had notifications? That's crazy. I remember people telling me like, oh, man, I can't believe so-and-so unfollowed me. I was like, how do you have that information? People have an app.

They have apps. Oh, wow. That's sad. You can have an app to see when people unfollow you or who unfollows you. That seems like torture. That's work. Why'd you unfollow me, bro? Andrew? Why'd you unfollow me? I didn't unfollow you. That seems like torture. Why'd you unfollow me, bro? Andrew?

I didn't unfollow you. My phone slipped, I promise. Or now you can force unfollow. You can have someone unfollow you. Yeah, you can make somebody unfollow you. You don't want to block them because you still want to spy on them. You still want to creep on them. But you make them unfollow you.

It should just be called spying, like a whole list of people you want to spy on. Oh, they'll do that. They'll probably add a feature really soon because it's a very popular thing to do, I think. It's like a list of people that you kind of hate. They're like in a big category. What do they call that? Ghost accounts? Like a burner account. Like a finsta.

A what? Is it a finsta? Fake insta. Got it. Sorry. My old ass. Rosie's helping us out. There we go. Finsta. Are you Gen Z Rosie? No.

No? Millennial? Millennial. Hey. But she's very topped in because she goes to college. I learned about a new dance and I can't remember the name or the word. My nephews were doing the giddy or gritty. Gritty.

Gritty. Gritty. Gritty. Yeah. What's it? Is it the fucking? Which one is it? It's like a. Hold on. I'll pull it up. They do something with their handsitty. Gritty. Gritty. Yeah. What's that? Is it the fucking? Which one is it? It's like, hold on.

I'll pull it up. They do something with their hands like this or something. I don't know. I don't know what the fuck that is. And they put their hands back. They did it like 10 times at the Niner game. They keep like running their arms around. That's how I know of it.

Don't tell me that's just like a Naruto run. No, right here. Watch. It's pretty funny looking. There it is. Oh. Oh, okay. It kind of goes.

We can do that, you guys. Yeah, easily. That shit goes. they are getting a lot easier yeah because you gotta you gotta be like more inclusive it can't go viral if it's not hard to do you know this is true yeah the ones in our day was hard you buy oh yeah find another clip find another clip got to see another shot of it. Hold on. I mean, I only know it just because they showed it on the YouTube. You can do that shit. I can, but I'm just pulling up an interview. So he's not Gen Z either. No, fuck no.

No, you're not. I was barely at the cutoff for millennials. You're a young man? Yeah, 85. Okay, okay. Oh, a word that I learned when I was in, shout out to 85, when I was in Ireland was, and I guess like more than just the kids say it. I just lost all my young male followers. No, no, trust me, you didn't.

They say sound. Yeah. Meaning just like, you're good. Yeah. They say sound. They say sound to everything. In the UK. Yeah.

Yeah. They say a bunch of funny stuff there. Yeah. I mean, it's not funny. It's just different than our stuff. I mean, I'm from California, so I sound like a valley girl to everyone. Like a mix of a valley girl and a chola. Like the two put together, it's a very like, I can't help it.

I can't help it. When I've gone to New York and stuff, they're like, are you sure you're Puerto Rican? Like, you sound like a valley Mexican girl. Yeah. We have our own little thing. And you guys in the Bay and in Sacramento, like you guys have a valley Mexican girl. Yeah. We have our own little thing. And you guys in the Bay and in Sacramento, like you guys have a little, I was telling her,

you guys have a little different way of talking to tell us about it. Not you. You probably know. I feel like, you know, well, I mean, it goes back to like the,

the Bay area stuff with like Hella was our thing. Yeah. Hella NorCal. Or like Mac Dre, like the Oakland thing. All that shit. And like the, the more East you go, it kind of sounds a little country.

Like in Stockton. Yes. Like it's very country. That's so true. I forgot all about that. Yeah. So like I had a bunch of friends in the East Bay and it would trickle in over there as well. Yeah.

It's like, it's Hale of H- It's very like Mac Dre. Like, yeah. Sorry, that's going to be a clip. I love it though. I love that. I was just in Oakland for a few days and I was just in love. I was like though i love that i was just in oakland for a few days and i was just in love i was like i should move back here because i lived there for a few years it's the best i freaking love it it's i mean obviously there's some downsides to it

but i just love the vibes it's so cool yeah i just i just tell people i'm like i'm gonna say like every other word i'm gonna a hello will slip out every once in a while i've got something we gotta stop though I'm trying somebody mentioned in the YouTube comments where they're like Nseema saying like so much listen calm down I'm just reminding them to hit the like button

Nseema can't be everything to everyone right Nseema's like well spoken he's handsome he's like chiseled out of stone what do you guys want from him he even like works out his toes he does He's pretty close. He's handsome. He's like chiseled out of stone. What do you guys want from him? He even like works out his toes.

He does. And his finger, it's extensor muscles. Yeah. Like what do you want from these guys? Mark used to be like freaking a million pounds and now he's like running a marathon. You guys want them to be like, you know, that's what I'm talking about. The internet is stressful. Crazy people.

Yeah. So I think that would help. People need to shut their phones off a little bit and have more, you know, in's what I'm talking about. The internet is stressful. Crazy people. Yeah. So I think that would help. People need to shut their phones off a little bit and have more, you know, in IRL time as the kids call it, right? You need to like live in the moment and training is not an internet exercise. It's not, it's not supposed to be all about your phone, man. Have some shit that's to yourself. Yeah, dude. Like enjoy training.

I can look at people in the gym and know they're not going to be great. Because they're so invested in their phone. They're so invested in Instagram. They're not training hard. There's no way you can train hard. I think some people don't have experiences that are wonderful enough to understand that some things eclipse posting on social media. Yeah. Dude, I've had massive PRs that I never put on Instagram because I was in the moment and I was just caught up with my boys in the gym.

Or just something cool with your husband. Oh, yeah. All the time. People don't even think he exists. It's kind of nice to get a selfie because we're here or whatever. But then you're also like, I don't want to ruin the moment. This is legit. This is cool.

When you have such a busy life, like sometimes that's the joy. That's the. Yeah. You mentioned that you two have your own shit going on. And I think that's really important for relationships. Yeah. If one person doesn't have much going on, it can kind of pull on the other person. Yeah.

I think that we sort of motivate each other in a way because neither of us is ever not busy. that we sort of motivate each other in a way because neither of us is ever not busy and so you know if your partner's getting up at before the sun comes up and is doing crazy things that take so much effort so much time um you're gonna want to get up and go to you don't want to just sit behind and get left behind and when he sees me training my ass off he remembers oh you know i'm retired but i could still go out there and train. You know what I mean? We kind of keep each other in check that way.

I don't, I could never just be like a do-nothing wife. You know, like I run multiple businesses now and I'm going to start competing again. And I think it works really well for me because I'm not codependent. So it would be weird for me to have someone pulling me. Did you guys have more time together during COVID? Oh, we have.

Yes. He was doing school inside. Because you are separate for a while for most of the day and stuff like that, right? Not then. Yeah. So we built a home gym and I bought a stairmaster and a treadmill and a bike. So I did all my prep for the most part at home. Wow.

And he was coaching me at the time. So it was really good for bonding. He was in school on his laptop for the most part because of COVID. Oh, shit, you're not supposed to say that word. Team on a time. We're good now. It's okay now.

It's good now. I always say the Rona or whatever. So yeah, I think it was a unique experience. Again, a very enriched environment where you had two individuals working super hard under the same roof, like a live workspace. And then me training super hard and him micromanaging my nutrition and my training. Well, actually, I do my own training. But micromanaging my nutrition and keeping an eye on me and not even checking with pictures, you know what I mean? So, yeah, it was an interesting deal.

I don't think everyone can do it, but we gel really well professionally and personally. So it works out well in that regard. But again, not everyone can do it. My coach coaches his wife, too, and that works for them. We're very similar. Our dynamics and their dynamics, very similar. But yeah, everybody has to find what works for them in their partnership.

We're extremely goal oriented. I don't think there's ever any time where we're not going to be working towards something else. We just feel like we have a purpose here for something. His is to save the world and be a doctor. Maybe mine is to help, eventually help him

fulfill those goals in a business way. But for right now, I'm really enjoying being an athlete. Like I'm like a full-time bodybuilder. Yeah. What businesses do you manage? Because you mentioned having multiple.

Yeah, so I coach and then through the last few years, I've owned Donuts and Deadlifts. It's a clothing company. A lot of people in my space probably know it. We're kind of dwindling down Donuts and Deadlifts at the moment. And I'll probably just use that. I'll fill that space with more of my coaching apparel and things like that.

But had a good run. You know, we were probably the first food lifting concept brand and it was, it was a good seven year run. Yeah. I saw a lot come out after a lot of food. Oh yeah. It's been a really big category, you know, but I think I'm evolving as an individual and as an athlete. And, you know, I don't think it's really, like you said, I don't do donuts after I lift anymore. So it's not really, um, an expression, an honest expression of like my actual lifestyle. And I think we're going to be moving towards more of that. I think I have a responsibility in that space to promote health because I think that I realized from firsthand experience that

it can be a healthy space, but it can also be very, very, very unhealthy space. And I think that I want to spend my time as long as I have any small amount of relevance in the space to at least promote what I would think are more healthy behaviors and habits. And donuts are great though, by the way, love donuts. And I love the brand and I've always loved it. That's why I took it on after Chrissy exited. But I just think probably going to go in a different direction like you have. You've evolved a lot in your business as well and incorporated health more into your business too. So kind of along the same lines as we age, we're like starting to see the other side of it. And it's like, it can't be all gas, no brakes, right? So talking more about blood work, talking more about heart health,

talking more about, you know, nutritious, nutrient-dense foods. Yeah, because you're kind of like, is it okay to eat a donut? Every day? You know what I mean? And blast steroids? Dry scooping pre-work? I mean, we're talking about like really sort of unhealthy habits that have become, they've lived under a guise of being healthy

because we're in the gym. And also people are so unhealthy that people are like, yeah, donut a day sounds fine. But it's like, it's probably going to turn into something else though. It could be fine if it was just that, right? And so I think that's the part that i want to sort of hearken on is is like moderation is a huge thing but check yourself are you moderating donuts and deadlifts and cardio and make sure you weigh all your food

it's like it just keeps going on and on you're like well forget that yeah like fuck it man i gotta do so many things to count out. There's so much wording on this shirt. I can't read it all. This shirt is like, it's a paragraph. Yeah. So yeah, I think that that needs to be cool. How do we make that cool, Mark? I'm trying to make it cool.

Like, I want it to be cool. But the reality is your health is serious. And like, you can still have fun and rage in the gym. But the gym isn't this magical place that when you walk through the door you're automatically a healthy person yeah it can be very very much opposite and i think we've seen that i think it can happen there's been a lot of bad press about our sports and how bodybuilding's you know it's dangerous or powerlifting's dangerous it's gonna kill you reality is no it's not lifting is not gonna kill you lifting is gonna help you

live longer and be stronger and more rigid and probably enhance your life in many ways. Now, all the other things you do outside of lifting can make a huge difference. And I think that, you know, my thing is I'm not a hypocrite. I do play on that side of the sport, right? But am I doing it in a reckless way? That's the part that I think we need to get some reins on, right? I think it's kind of hard to make something like eating chicken breast or something like

that or having a really clean diet. It's a little bit hard to make that part cool. But I think what can be uncool is being unhealthy, like smoking a cigarette. Like sometimes people look at that now and they'll be like, oh, people still do that? Hopefully in the future when people are eating processed foods, people are like, eh, people are still doing that. It's not a thing anymore.

A lot of people will probably be doing that for a long time, but as there's more and more evidence and there's more and more information, hopefully over time people will start, I mean, we're starting to see a shift. Kraft and even Coke says the best Coke ever is Coke Zero. we're starting to see a shift, you know, Kraft and even Coke says the best Coke ever is Coke Zero. Like there's starting to be a shift. Yeah, it's the highest selling one, probably mostly due to me. The commercial said it's like the best one yet or whatever, the formula, and they do a lot of promoting of it. And I'm not even saying that's a health food product. Coke

by any means, but at least it doesn't have calories, right? So I'm starting to see a shift a little bit. And I came up in the whole, if it fits your macros day. So like my first coach was an assistant coach for Lane Norton. And so I learned training and diet through that method. And I think there's a lot of good that came out of that. A lot of balance that you can have, but again, when things are good and then there's this continuum and it goes bad right so it's like in the beginning we were just doing a little if it fits your macro we're still eating chicken still eating veggies and then we're sprinkling a pop tart here and there or donut here and there now i have clients who come to me and they in their intake form tell me their daily diet and i'm like bro where is the regular food like where's the nutritious food i'm hitting my

calories and i'm hitting my calories in carbs. I'm hitting my macros. How do you feel? It's like 6 p.m. There's like an actual meal and you're like, well,

there was no meal during the day? There's just like snacks Yeah, if you're lucky, Mark. That meal might be Chipotle. Right.

And that's healthy for them. You know what I mean? So, I think we just need to pull it back a little bit. I just think that I'm one of those, I'm the most moderate

person I've ever met. And I think that that's not sexy. And so I think if I were more extreme and hardcore and my messaging was hardcore, maybe I'd have a million followers, right? But nobody really likes that whole like, you can do that if you're doing all of this and if you're getting a good night's sleep. And it'd be like, you know, it's just not sexy. But the reality is that moderation lifestyle is going to get you to a place where you can have grandkids someday. And even though you're 25 and you're not thinking about that, you're just thinking about, you know, like trying not to blow your back out with a deadlift. Dude, I'm telling you at one point in your life, even if you don't have grandkids, you're going to want to be an old

person, right? You're going to want to live a healthy life when you're older you don't want to be depending on other people you don't want to be in a wheelchair or like you know have diabetes like all these preventable diseases like you don't have a freaking stroke at 40 you know so there's just we gotta we gotta get a handle on ourselves be an adult be an adult eat a vegetable eat a vegetable is that towards Encima I eat vegetables every now and then

I feel he doesn't eat vegetables barely now you've blown my whole thing how does he look that good if he I eat fruits

I eat meat I eat some veggies every few weeks every few weeks alright how about drink water can we agree on that I drink tons of water

there we go drink some water. Some sucralose with electrolytes and all that good stuff. Okay, I can deal with that. When I eat, I eat a lot. Yeah. I mean, yeah. Eat some high quality protein.

There we go. You know, don't take five shakes a day. Have a steak. I have a quick question for you. You're still tracking right now, correct? Mm-hmm. Is tea still tracking also or is so i i'm curious about i'm curious about this because you've tracked for years so you're probably someone who

at this point you could eyeball shit like you could if you were to put away the scale you could probably maintain your body composition probably without probably right now long term what do you think you're going to be tracking so like yeah that's what i was what do you think you're going to be tracking? So like, yeah, that's what I was wondering. Do you think you'd be tracking forever or is it just something to help you understand food so that you don't need to do it for the rest of your life? It should be for most people. Yeah. For me, I have to dial it in.

I need to be dialed all the time, right? I have a spreadsheet of my diet from my coach. So it's like it's itemized by every ounce, every gram, and all the macronutrients. But for clients, I actually offer a fundamentals of nutrition through my company. And my coaches will teach their clients how to build a plate just on portion control, how to grocery shop for more nutrient-dense food. And then if they want to excel to the next level of tracking, they can do that. If not, maybe they stay in that first zone forever, right?

And then there's also folks that I've trained to track macros for a year or two, or maybe even more. And then they exit and go back down to fundamentals where they're just worried about portions and eyeballing serving sizes. And I think that is ideal. If you can get like your parents, if you have overweight parents,

to just track for like a couple weeks even to get them to wrap their mind around what serving sizes they should have, right? Understand how to build a plate, right? That is enough to change their entire lifestyle. You can lose 10, 15% of your overall body weight if you're obese and improve your health so dramatically. So that's not a lot of weight. That's not a lot of weight. If you're talking about a 200-pound person, we're talking

about 20 pounds. And you can improve your health markers by so much. So yeah, you don't need to micromanage your food. I feel like people are afraid to even like call me for coaching or email me for coaching because they want, they think I'm going to be rigid like a bodybuilder. If you're not bodybuilding, God, I don't want you to do this. I don't want you to live that way. And I also don't want you to be codependent on your coach forever. You shouldn't be coached for 20 years. You should learn how to eat like a healthy human being and then move on with your life and just be healthy. So, yeah, no, it's definitely not a forever thing.

For me, I'll probably eat more intuitively. Maybe I'll measure. But I don't have to put into a log every day. That would be weird. That would be real weird. I don't know. You ever mess with intermittent fasting at all? So not in the traditional sense.

I was just staying with a friend of mine who's also a trainer, and he was like, you kind of fast, don't you? Because I don't really start eating. My feeding window is more about 12 noon, and I eat until like evening, which is a pretty big window. But I cannot start in some days until 2 p.m., which for some people would be considered a fast um you know your sleeping time and then that like extra whatever how many hours have you always done that i've always been a late oh no not always but since i started bodybuilding particularly yes

yes it helps me reserve my calories for when i feel the most hungry post-training window. And then also I use THC. And so that makes me hungrier in the evening because I use it to calm down and sleep or whatever. I take a very micro sort of dose and I get a little hungrier. Just get blasted. I do not. I do not. But after that, if I take, let's say I take five milligrams of THC, I may get hungry.

So I have an allotted meal post that. So I've always, yeah, for the past few years, even when I just was entertaining bodybuilding, like a couple of years ago, I started doing that. It really helps with prep. It really helps with prep. Because I do fasted cardio anyway. So I can't eat for the first couple of hours because I'm doing cardio. So, you know, it's not hard for me.

And I think I will. And T does all the time. Sometimes he doesn't eat till seven, eight o'clock at night. And he'll just have one meal. And it's a big meal. It's a pretty big meal. Yeah. It's got a generous amount of protein in it and fats.

But yeah, he used it. Actually, he used it intermittently during powerlifting to cut weight down to 242 because he's a big man. So it worked for him because he trains after work. So he wouldn't eat till his pre-workout shake at five and then train hard and then eat all his food after training. So, yeah, it can work. And I think that T's talked to me about some research about like anti-aging and how, yeah. So I think that that's a model we might actually explore for both of us as we age for sure. Yeah.

And we're big on 10 minute walks. Thanks, Mark. Oh, there you go. Yeah. It sounds like most days you have a 12 or 14 or 16 hour fast almost. Sounds like it, yeah. Almost every day. I just never think about it.

Do you find you're ever food focused? No, not unless I'm in prep. Not unless you're in prep. And does that happen at the... As soon as your calories are taken away, you're a little bit more food focused? No, it's only when it's like really low. Oh, okay. It's really low. And that's when you start looking at the food Instagram stuff and the TikToks or whatever.

But no, right now you can have like a... They eat regular food next to my friends, eat regular food next to me, whatever regular food is. And I'm totally fine. They got donuts yesterday and I was just sipping iced black coffee and yeah, no, it doesn't bother me. It's such a great place to be. Some people listening are like, man, I don't know.

I don't understand what that means. Yeah. I was like that. They haven't gotten there. So was I. I think all of us were at some point. What do you think got you out of that? Out of being food focused?

Desired to win. Really? Okay. Yeah. I really want to win. I want to be a good pro. I want to go to the Olympia. The downside of eating crappy food just is not great too.

That too. That's a big one. Yeah. That's a huge factor. It's not going to make me feel good. And what I recognize is like, it doesn't do for you what you think it's going to do. It doesn't really satisfy you. It doesn't calm down the beast. It just stirs it up more. You just want more of it. That's the way I look at it. That's probably more of a reason. I think it started with, okay, you need to be disciplined because you want to win. But then I realized when I did,

let's say my coach gave me a free meal and I had something especially high sugar foods I felt god awful yesterday I told them they were eating some baked good or something and I said you know guys I would I'm not I have no problem doing it like my coach said I could but the thing is I have these little nibbles of food that I

never eat and those nibbles kind of add up and it kind of hurts my stomach at the end of the day. I don't feel great. I don't sleep well. And again, I'm not saying everyone should eat the same foods every day. I think variety is good. But for me, yeah, the payoff's not worth it.

I don't like feeling like that. A little bit like too much alcohol. Like the next day, you don't enjoy the way you feel. I never drink alcohol. It just makes it not makes it not worth it right yeah it's not worth it to me at all i can't do alcohol at all um but yeah sugar i think i think as i age i think probably eliminating sugar not restrictively to where i say oh i'm i'm like a vegan, anti-sugar. But I just think like probably it should be 1% of my diet. You know what I mean? It's just not something I'm very interested in.

I just think the payoff is not worth it. Although it tastes good. I'd much rather have a piece of meat and some like carb, some type of like starchy carb or something. And I feel more fulfilled. I don't have a crash. I don't have a crash. I don't get a headache. I do get headaches from sugar. Now does fruit affect you in that way? Like sugar from fruit, like fructose? Too much of it. Too much of it. Yeah. But if you have like, I'm, I don't know, is that actually any part of your diet? Do you eat fruit? Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

I eat a little bit of pineapple. It has great enzymes to help me, you know, um, digest my protein. And then I eat blueberries every day. And then whatever's in season, I might mix it in. My coach is big on keeping fruit in my diet because if you eliminate it for too long, it can have some adverse effects when you incorporate it back in. So yeah, I eat fruit every single day and I require my clients to eat at least one serving a day too. But it is funny. I find that if I have chocolate or whatever, I feel a crash.

But if I can eat as much fruit as I want, I'm good. Yeah. Right? It's different. Yeah. That's true. In fact, if he told me to increase my carbs, I might just add more pineapple, apples, and blueberries because I feel good. Yeah.

You know? Yeah. I haven't had chocolate in a while. I think chocolate is really good but it tastes it does not taste good enough for me to have like a crash from it

yeah people probably think I'm an idiot like I'm crazy I think you know what I don't think so it's funny

when you start to eliminate those foods out of your diet and then you bring it back for a little bit it's not as good as it used to be yes and it doesn't

you don't physically feel as good as you used to when you used to have it a lot I look forward to eating fruit just the same way as I used to look forward to eating ice cream. Same here. I really enjoy it a lot. Or steak or sushi, like those types of foods. I'm like, oh, sushi. Yeah. Like those, those will get me craving for sure. And so if there's, if there's no trade off where I don't feel like shit the next day, then I'm like, let's just do that. Let's do that. And then go home.

You don't need to order the dessert menu. It's weird. I used to be a sweet-aholic. I mean, come on. I used to wear a donut short. There was that picture with me and Tia. I was wearing ice cream cone shorts. It was like part of my identity.

But yeah, things change. You eliminate things for a while. You start to understand what... People do not understand what feeling good really feels like. And when you do, it's like the clouds separating. And it's a whole new world. When you wake up before an alarm clock and you just feel like crushing life, it's a whole new ballgame. And you want that feeling.

And if that means no more chocolate bars that's what it means no big deal you know awesome having you on the show today thank you for your time appreciate it go get that puppy good to see you guys you too thanks for having me years so fun take us on out of here and do a certain thing thank you everybody for checking out today's episode please make sure you guys are subscribed if you're not already and hit that like button on your way out and drop us a comment down below we gave you guys a shit ton of stuff to talk about. So we want to hear all of it. Please follow the podcast at MB Power Project on Instagram, TikTok and Twitter.

My Instagram, TikTok and Twitter is at I am Andrew Z. And Seema, where are you at? Seema Inyang on Instagram and YouTube and Seema Inyang on TikTok and Twitter. And go to the Discord in the description. Almost at 2,000 people in there. So go check that out. And also, if you like this podcast, go to Apple Review. It helps us out.

Amanda, where can people find you? Hopperican. At H-A-P-A-R-I-C-A-N Hopperican. And my company is ATP Strong. That's my coaching. What's the website for it? ATPstrong.com. There we go. Right? Okay, good. And we need your lovely husband

to come on the show. We will do that. How do we recruit him? Graduation. Once he graduates, we'll do it. How much longer has he got to go? A year and a half. We can do it.

We'll be around. We're eating good. We'll be fine. Yeah. Yeah. We'll make it happen. All right, everybody. Strength is never weakness.

Weakness never strength. I'm Matt's Marcus Millie Bell. Catch you later. You fucked that up. Iakness never strength. I'm Matt's Marcus Millie Bell. Catch you later. You fucked that up. I did. That was the first time in 800 episodes. It's because you've been in Ireland for too long.