Mark Bell's Power Project - Compete with Confidence: How to Prepare Your Mind & Body || MBPP Ep. 919

Starting point is 00:00:00 When it comes to getting your mind ready for a competition like this, what's going through your head right now? How are you getting yourself zoned in? That's my biggest downfall right now. If you do get super nervous, you can say, what's this event actually going to look like? I would think about everything that could possibly go wrong. What led to you having enough self-doubt to pull out of a bodybuilding show? Most people don't take it this far. It's crazy to think that, you know, in bodybuilding,

Starting point is 00:00:26 people just don't get lean enough. A big part to feel comfortable with the competition that any of you guys have coming up is having a good... Yeah. Are we rolling? Yeah, now. When the fuck is Boston? Boston is on Monday.

Starting point is 00:00:42 It's April 17th. And that might actually be today when this episode airs. So I got to run? Yeah. Yeah, it's Monday, April 17th. And been preparing for it for a while. Did like 20 weeks of prep. Had about a week and a half or so of getting fucked up for a little bit

Starting point is 00:01:06 there and that threw things sideways for a little bit but I think the break was actually good I think the at the rest and the pulling back was actually good and I think it was at a at the right time it was at like ten weeks into training so I don't feel good I'm ready mentally how are you handling things and I Kenny it's cool you're here too too because you recently did a bodybuilding show. And you probably did a lot of stuff to get yourself ready. But when it comes to getting your mind ready for a competition like this, especially I think, again, you both are in a situation because you didn't do a bodybuilding show before. Yeah, I tried.

Starting point is 00:01:41 Mentally, I broke. Okay, so it was new for you. And this is totally also new for you. You've done half marathons, but you've never done a 26.2. What's going through your head right now? How are you getting yourself zoned in? Some people get frustrated because as it comes down to the end in both powerlifting and in some marathon training and just running in general, there's a time where you taper. You back way off of your running.

Starting point is 00:02:08 And so people end up with a lot of excess energy and they get a lot of angst. And you go through something similar in bodybuilding, but it's a little different. You can push pretty hard almost to the end in bodybuilding. But with this, the past week and a half and maybe even like two weeks, the running has been reduced a lot. So then you're just left with your own thoughts. And that could be a little scary because you could scare yourself. So what I'm working on and what I've been working on for the last two or three weeks or so, and I get to spend a lot of time working on it from now, which is Wednesday today, I guess, Wednesday all the way till Monday is to really hone in and focus on trying to feed myself with what's this event actually going to look like? Not necessarily

Starting point is 00:02:54 only positive thoughts, but definitely not scaring myself. I don't know if you guys have done this before, but sometimes you think about competition and you're like kind of, you're excited and pretty focused and you're like, oh, this is what it's going to be like. I know this guy is going to be there and he's pretty tough, but I think I can – and sometimes like that doesn't bother you much. But then for some reason you think about it maybe a few hours later, later on in the day, and you're like, fuck, man. A thing is coming up and you feel your heart starting to pound and you're like, holy shit. So main thing I'm trying to do is not only be positive, but also be realistic and understand the hurdles that are in the way. And then, um, you know, how do I get past these hurdles? How do I take in the moment? Like this is the

Starting point is 00:03:40 Boston marathon. So while yes, I do want to concentrate on my breathing and I want to make sure I have enough liquid with me and I want to, you know, make sure that I'm running smoothly and stuff. I also want to be able to take in the thousands and thousands of people that are going to be there. There's people that are, they'll, there's people there that like spray people down with like water as they're running. Cause they're trying to encourage people to run more. There's people that are cheering. There's people with signs. My family member is going to be there. So for me personally, I try to do a lot of visualization. I try to visualize and that whole process starts at the finish line. So I've envisioned myself going across the finish

Starting point is 00:04:18 line many, many times. And then I start to take myself back from that finish line. And as I told you guys before, there's hills at around mile 18 or 20 or so, which sounds crazy because once you get to like 15, 16 miles, it doesn't feel like you can even take another step. And now you got hills to climb. But I got strategies for all of it. And hopefully it all works out. And if it doesn't, it doesn't. hopefully it all works out. And if it doesn't, it doesn't,

Starting point is 00:04:47 but I'm just going to go out there and utilize the training that I have and going to just give it the best shot that I possibly can. Let me ask you both this anxious training because you mentioned tapering, right? And you know, it's similar in a power lifting meet, but a lot of times you'll see people, whether it's, they're getting ready for a show or they're getting ready for a meet or

Starting point is 00:05:02 whatever. They're like, fuck, I need to, I need to go run or I need to get in more lifts. More cardio. Has that happened to you? Yeah, yeah, no.

Starting point is 00:05:09 That happens to me all the time. I struggled a lot with, like you were saying, I would think about everything that could possibly go wrong, and then over time I had to remind myself, like, no, like, fuck that. I just did a 16-week prep. I worked for this. This is, you know, I'm ready for this, but I just have to constantly remind myself of that because I will let those negative thoughts and that anxiety build up. And then my heart starts racing and I'm like, shit, I got to do more and more and more. But most of the time for me, it's just,

Starting point is 00:05:40 I need to just stay calm, stay calm, know overdo things not do any extra not go off the plan and do an hour extra cardio because I think I'm going to be more shredded like just stick to the plan that I've been doing since day one and everything will work out yeah yeah how do you think uh some angst can be like a good thing in SEMA like how do you think like being a little nervous or worried or thinking about an opponent that might be there? Like, how do you think it could be, maybe, maybe it could be a positive for somebody? I think it's like, you were actually mentioning this yesterday because it's a good thing if you're feeling a little bit of anxiety or if you're feeling like maybe you think of the worst things that could happen. Um, because like, for

Starting point is 00:06:22 example, in competition with jujitsu, like you can get yourself in a bad position. And inevitably, if you get yourself in a bad position, you have to escape. It's not like you're doing everything you can to play your game, run your run at your pace, like do everything you can to do your thing. But inevitably there will be something that'll happen that will derail you from the plan that you've set out. And if you have been able to maybe visualize a few scenarios of some things that could go wrong. Anticipate. Anticipate and think about, okay, how am I going to, when I feel this thing in my hamster on mile 16, how do I respond? When I get to the hills, how do I respond?

Starting point is 00:06:59 In jujitsu, if this guy gets me in side control, right? How am I going to escape? If I get my back taken, how am I going to escape? Rather than thinking those things aren't going to happen at all. Um, it's best even in a fucking powerlifting meet. If you miss your first fucking squat attempt, how are you mentally going to handle that? Even though, you know, you should have hit the lift. Are you going to fucking go crazy? And then everything, the meat goes out of the water, or are you going to second attempt you recoll you recollect and you hit that, right? So it's good to think about those things. Even though you ideally want to think about the ideal outcome, it's good to visualize

Starting point is 00:07:32 how you're going to handle a little bit of things going the wrong way. Yeah, and I think if you do get yourself a little scared, you can kind of think to yourself, the most important thing is how am I going to react to this particular thing happening. If you do miss a lift in a powerlifting meet, if you're on mile five of a marathon and you're like, fuck, man, I think I feel something in my foot. How is it helpful to just be panicky the whole time about that? Maybe you can start to concentrate on something else. Maybe you can put your energy into something else. Maybe in your training, maybe you've relied on something different while you're running. Maybe you are prepared. Maybe you have enough liquid with you.

Starting point is 00:08:15 Maybe you have enough chewy things and goos and all these things that you run with to try to get you through the run itself. I think it is a good idea to kind of play through the scenarios of these are a bunch of things that can happen. But if they do happen, the main thing is for me to not get frustrated. I've seen it happen so many times where somebody gets frustrated. You see it like in basketball or you see it in particular sports. And the guy, he just loses his ability like loses all abilities and i think even with uh the fight of uh mike tyson versus vander holyfield where tyson

Starting point is 00:08:53 bit holyfield's ear off holyfield was kicking his ass you know that's what that was about that's where that came from holyfield was was beating his ass pretty good and he was headbutting and stuff, but it's like, it's kind of just people do that in boxing quite a bit. And Tyson just got thrown out of his game. And Tyson is the guy that says everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. Well,

Starting point is 00:09:16 Holyfield punched him in the mouth and threw him off his game. You can't, no matter how skillful you are, still got to figure out a way to remain cool and remain calm, but it's not easy. Yeah. You know, a quick thing on the visualization though,

Starting point is 00:09:29 that's a really big deal because when Andy Tron and Jake Benson and even Joe came on, they talked a lot about that. We've had multiple coaches mentioned that too. It's like, if you're a power lifter, you should be trying to go as deep as like, okay,

Starting point is 00:09:41 you know, your attempt selection. What do those plates look like on a bar? There are apps apps you can download that'll show you what like this many kilos looks like on a bar you want to visualize that you want to think about how everything looks because the goal is that when you get to the arena or whatever you're going to be competing or obviously you said that you're going to be doing some you're going to be tracking the boston action you can talk about that. But you want to know what everything looks like so that when you get there, nothing necessarily looks, oh, shit.

Starting point is 00:10:21 Like before some of my jujitsu competitions, if I get there a day early, I'll go to the arena so I can kind of see what things are looking like because usually I'm competing a few days in. So I can see what everything looks like and then I can go back and picture what it's going to look like competing on that mat. It gets rid of a little bit of anxiety. Right. Yeah. I have experience with that too because in baseball, I had a couple coaches who wouldn't even let us pick up a ball or a bat and he'd make like the whole team go lay like down the line in the outfield, lay down, put our hat over our eyes, and visualize. And I don't know if that's a little bit extra, but it definitely helps because baseball, you have to stay calm.

Starting point is 00:10:53 You can't try to swing a bat. It's just not going to work. Swing really hard at a curveball sounds great, like a great idea. You're not going to work so well. Yeah, you need to be calm, like grounded. So that was his whole thing was like, we're going to ground ourselves before we get onto the field and we're going to use like a controlled aggression to perform and rely on like what we just did.

Starting point is 00:11:13 His name wasn't Marcos Mercado, was it? No, no. It's so fucking wild your coach did that. I had my soccer coach do the same shit. He'd have us sit in the middle of the field and just like he'd take us through plays and shit. Coaches don't do that. That's fucking wild. Yeah, i've huge benefit from that for me

Starting point is 00:11:29 especially because i'm always like spun up so before that i was just like all right this is a little less stressful a lot less anxiety so it was a lot easier to i still do that too like in my prep i was doing that a lot in the mornings i I was just like calming myself, grounding myself. Helps a lot. I think the advantage too of being new at something is you can kind of envision that you're just going to try to have fun with it. Yeah. Which is really tough to do because you still have tons of anxiety. And if you're doing jujitsu, you don't want to get like your ass beat.

Starting point is 00:12:00 Like imagine just you go out and you get tapped in like eight seconds or something. And it can happen. Yeah. But you also don't know who you're going against you don't know like what that guy's future i mean you could be going against a guy that's gonna win a world championship someday you have no kind of no clue and also maybe you just mess up just because you're like i don't know you went to shoot on someone and they just guillotined you right away for whatever reason you just messed up but that's just that those kinds of things just happen sometimes but for me you know in the boston marathon i'm not really attached to a time so i'm just gonna run and i can kind of view it in some way as like this is a tour of boston you know this is i'm gonna go and i'm gonna get a pretty damn

Starting point is 00:12:42 good scenic route of uh of b of Boston and what that city is about. I've been there like once before, but it was kind of a long time ago. So it would be cool to see like downtown Boston and to try to experience all that. So for me, being novice and being new, I'm just going to embrace that. Like I'm not going to run super fast anyway. I'm going to kind of suck maybe in comparison to some other people that are running a marathon but uh i'm gonna enjoy it i'm gonna do my best to stay within my own means are you feeling those uh and when you think about boston do you feel that shit

Starting point is 00:13:16 in the pit of your stomach um or no like yeah here and there here and there like if i think about it then no because i because i'm thinking about it then no, because I'm thinking about it consciously. But if it hits me subconsciously, that's when I'll get in like a little panic and I'll be like, whoa. And I'll have to start to use some strategies. But I shared with you guys before. I don't think I've ever told Kenny, but I have a bunch of like weird strategies that I've picked up over the years. ever told kenny but i have a bunch of like weird strategies that i've picked up over the years and i've always loved movies and movies have always kind of helped me to visualize certain things um and uh the the uh movie pulp the pulp fiction is a favorite of mine and there's that scene where

Starting point is 00:14:00 samuel l jackson tells the guy in the uh, he says, my wallet is the one that says bad motherfucker on it. And that scene is just so cool because the guy is like trying to rob the place and trying to stick them up and everything. And Samuel L. Jackson is just so calm. And he's like, you're lucky you caught me on it. I'm in a transitional phase. Like if you caught me when I was young, I would already, you would already be dead. I really love that mentality and mindset. You envision yourself as a middle-aged black man with an Afro when you feel scared? A movie star. This is a really sick scene though.

Starting point is 00:14:36 Look at that. Look at that Afro. So much going on there. Those are Jerry curls, I think. Oh yeah. Man. He went all out for this role, I guess. You know what's kind of sad guys and i

Starting point is 00:14:46 think you all y'all would probably roast me i know i've seen parts of pulp fiction but it's like a two hour 50 have you seen it i've never okay good yeah yeah 21 idea i've seen parts but i haven't seen the whole you'd like it it's incredible you'd both like it yeah i saw it on vhs so yeah it's been a while just yeah and see like with jiu-jitsu though this is something that i've been pondering because i have never experienced competition into it yeah all the stuff you guys are talking about yes i'm currently my stomach is already starting to bubble thinking about competing but like with jiu-jitsu you know you're going to compete typically if especially if you win you're gonna compete more than once in a day so like in between rounds what are you doing uh to try to stay calm and stay

Starting point is 00:15:31 confident and stay focused on the next uh the next opponent i'm just lying down listening to music i literally just put a bag down and like kind of just chill out like a lot of guys will just you know yeah i'm like i just try to chill out and if i know my match is coming up in like five minutes i'll get up and start moving around but i i uh that's just how i work though some people need to fucking you know be at it but i'll literally put my headphones on those apple noise canceling shits and i will just listen to some calm music nice like i'll like i've fallen asleep before and they had to actually wake me up at one of my comps I think two years ago or something. So that's funny. I would like to adopt that same technique, but I am –

Starting point is 00:16:13 Zaragoza. Zaragoza. I am nervous that I will pass out because I know I probably can. Well, you'll have motherfuckers there to be there to make sure to wake you up. I have to have a handler like, hey, I'm probably going to fall asleep, so please to wake you up you know i have a handler like hey i'm probably gonna fall asleep so please come wake me up but one one thing and we talked about it before is um you know even before the last tournament i did uh every time i think about it or every time i visualize certain things i'd feel that like that jumpiness and a lot of people think that you should be

Starting point is 00:16:41 absolutely confident that you feel like you're going to conquer. But when you feel that, like, it's the same sensation as being excited for something. And over the years, I've just reinterpreted that like, whoop, you know, like you're going down a roller coaster. That feeling as like, ooh, I am. I'm ready. I'm excited for this shit. You know what I mean? If you just – I wouldn't call it fooling yourself, but if you just tell yourself, okay, this is how it feels to be excited for something, then you're looking forward to it rather than that being like, oh, God, I don't know how things are going to go. I'm nervous.

Starting point is 00:17:11 What the fuck am I going to do? Scared about it, right? So that reinterpretation could be super helpful. It's a skill set, I think. And if you have a pretty well-developed skill set, you'll most likely be less nervous. Andrew, I think you mentioned and, Sima, I've heard you kind of reference this before. Like you guys are going against people that are formidable. Like you guys are going, you guys are rolling with people that care about jiu-jitsu.

Starting point is 00:17:36 So when you go, like to me in my head, what I envision for you guys, and I don't know, I've never been to either one of your schools, but I'm just imagining that when you guys go into tournaments that, and I'm sure there's plenty of places around the country where people are working their asses off too, but you guys are pretty well trained. You're pretty well schooled. You know, you have a really good skillset. Both of you guys are really athletic. You're both strong.

Starting point is 00:17:58 So it's, to me, it's like you get maybe just a little jump on maybe your average guy that's at just whatever jujitsu school that thinks he's ready for a competition, in my opinion, from what I've seen. And you guys seem to care about it so much. You're watching videos. You're working on mobility. You're trying to have your lifting. I mean how many guys at these schools that you're at even are doing kind of all the things? You guys seem like you're treating it very seriously. And I'm not saying that other people aren't treating it seriously,

Starting point is 00:18:28 but I would imagine with that in mind, that that could help ease. Like if you do get super nervous, you could say, well, I'm, I'm doing a lot and I can't really do more than what I'm doing now. So now it's just a matter of time before I start to get better. more than what I'm doing now. So now it's just a matter of time before I start to get better. Yeah. I, what, what I do in a negative way is I need to do that more, but like if I roll with another white belt, I usually won't pay attention to age, but if they're white belt about my same weight, I'll be like, shit, what if I run into somebody like this at a competition? Like I'm going to get smoked. Right. right because the there's no like uh bracket for a six month white belt it's just white belt 180 pounds and i think masters two is

Starting point is 00:19:12 what i'll end up being in but somebody might be have just been doing it longer but what uh my buddy david mentioned he was just like they're a white belt for a reason like they're not because i was like oh what if they're about to get promoted as they beat me or whatever? And he's like, they're a current white belt for a reason. Don't think about the what ifs. I'm like, all right, that makes a lot of sense. But it's just funny because just talking about it, my palms get sweaty.

Starting point is 00:19:36 I'm like, okay, I need to figure this out, right? Because I shouldn't be this nervous already with no actual competition circled. I don't want to make you more nervous the fun thing about like i guess the fun thing about jiu-jitsu is yesterday night i did three roles with a single person there was a lot of people in the school at the day but my best roles were with this 190 190 pound blue belt because he wrestled all his life and i haven't seen him at the school actually i've only rolled with him once before maybe five months ago but my first role with him i did this guy some props what's his name jake jake showmaker actually i want to see if i can get some wrestling roles or just

Starting point is 00:20:12 wrestling training him with him but um i rolled with him my first round and i was like wait whoa whoa whoa whoa because the first minute the first minute i was like i started actually smiling because i'm like oh fuck okay i'm a brown belt right but this lifelong wrestler who's a blue blue belt was my best role so i was like let's roll again and then we rolled again we rolled three times on yesterday night and so i mean i think that like you know you never know what you're going to come against in competition you know you might have to deal with a white belt who's been a wrestler for 15 years so you still have to play your jujitsu game right but it's just like you've done all

Starting point is 00:20:45 the preparation you can right now for your marathon. Yeah. Can't do anything more. You're not running extra miles this week to try to eat things out. You're doing what your coaches are telling you to because you've done everything you could. And now it's just time to show that on the track or the fucking course, right? Power Project family, quality sleep can make everything with your health and fitness easier, which is why we've partnered with hostage tape. Now we've been talking about mouth tape for years and nasal breathing for years, but one of the problems that we've had with tape is we all like to rock facial hair. And a lot of the mouth tapes we would use would fall off of our face at night. Hostage tape doesn't fall off your face. If you have a beard or if you're not a man and you don't, I'm joking,

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Starting point is 00:21:54 Links in the description along with a podcast show notes. Shut your mouth when you sleep. Enjoy the show. Yep. And I think, Kenny, it would be great if you could share with us what made you bow out of your first bodybuilding show and then what carried you through to be able to get on stage for the first bodybuilding show you did. Yeah, I was actually going to just ask you guys on that topic. I think I just set the bar too high for myself.

Starting point is 00:22:20 And you mentioned you're going to go slow during this race. I think a lot of people struggle with setting the bar too high like we're all competitive but you can almost like set yourself up for failure if you're starting something and you're out in my head I was like oh I'm gonna be I'm gonna do this show I'm gonna turn pro this is gonna be great and then I just like I just all fell apart so I think can I ask you something do you feel extra pressure because everyone else has all these expectations of you because like we all like you're a fucking mutant and you hear that almost every day from us but do you feel that pressure

Starting point is 00:22:57 more because everybody else expects you to do really well um sometimes some not not all the time most of the time I take it as a compliment but it's also hard for me to see that and really like connect with that what you guys tell me because i'm always like more more more but it does get to me sometimes definitely like uh i have a i put a lot of pressure on myself to do good like okay i want to be a pro bodybuilder i want to do this this and that but the biggest thing like i said was always setting the bar too high even in baseball whatever i was doing even work just getting too ahead of myself and then i almost would like like it's unrealistic to set the bar this high when i'm just starting out so that was a huge

Starting point is 00:23:41 struggle for me was just like being patient now I know a lot of uh dudes my age too how old are you 21 yeah they put a lot of pressure on themselves just talking to even my buddies of like you know rushing the process and expecting so much out of themselves I'm like I that's my biggest downfall right now is like patience being patient like I can't look like all these pros like that like it's gonna take time so that's one thing I've definitely had to just accept yeah I've been around some really exceptional like really amazing people I think that's something that humbled me when I was young in football and in some other sports like if you were to ask me you know how was I at football when I was like

Starting point is 00:24:25 20 and I was just I was done I'd have been like I was awesome you know but I have better perspective of that now especially because of some of the people I played with I played with Chad Johnson I played with Steve Smith at my high school I was good I was like one of the better players on the team I was one of the few guys that actually cared about football, but I didn't also didn't really realize just because in my small little bubble in my circle, there wasn't a lot of guys like lifting for football. There wasn't guys like running for football. They weren't really doing stuff for, they weren't doing extra stuff for football. And then you kind of hear about these schools in like Florida and these schools in Texas. And you're like, Oh, OK, like our school in comparison to their school is like a 1A or whatever.

Starting point is 00:25:11 And they're like 5A and they have X amount of people that graduate. And it's from this giant pool of people. And there's those football players are extraordinary and genetic wise. They're amazing and all these different things. So for me, it's like I was happy with my football career. I never played at a big college or anything like that, but I can look at it and say, I did pretty good with what I had. If I knew a little bit more, I probably could have pushed a little bit further, but I still wouldn't. My whole point in mentioning

Starting point is 00:25:41 this, I think most people are pretty disappointed in the career that they may have had in particular sports because their expectation was really high. For me, I did just like any young kid. Like I had a goal of being like pro. I want to be a pro football player one day. But just because I had that and I didn't reach that, I never got like bummed or sad about it. I was like, well, let me just course correct. What am I good at? And fucking weights have always been there.

Starting point is 00:26:09 They've always been staring at me. They've always been calling my name. And I tried to ignore them. I tried to box. I did track. I tried to be a pro wrestler. And even with pro wrestling, I was happy with that career. And I got brought into pro wrestling the same time as John Cena.

Starting point is 00:26:24 I didn't make it the same way John Cena did. But again, that didn't really lead to a lot. I wasn't sad. I wasn't like, man, I'm a loser. I was like, let me just course correct. Let me find what do I really love. How can I make my own mark my own way? How old were you at the pro wrestling time?

Starting point is 00:26:43 Between 22 and like uh between like yeah 20 and 25 20 and 25 when did you really start focusing on powerlifting um right around that time yeah around 26 yes or something like that i will yeah yeah but i will say what you mentioned about all that pressure not i don't want to sound cocky, but the same thing happened with baseball. It was like all these people since I was super young were feeding me like, oh, you're going to be great, you're going to do this, that.

Starting point is 00:27:15 And then that's probably what steered me away from just not playing anymore because it was just so much, so many people in my ear telling me like, this is what you're going to do. This is what you're going to be. And it was, it was fun.

Starting point is 00:27:30 It was like, I, but then when I like lost my scholarship, I was hitting for different MLB teams and then nothing came out of it. I ended up not getting drafted. That, that's when I was like, man,

Starting point is 00:27:41 I fell into a deep hole. I was like, all these people think I'm a failure, blah, blah, blah. So yeah, that definitely was a struggle for me. It's a lot to think about when you're that young. When you're that young to think that you're not good enough. But the thing is, you ended up finding bodybuilding, which is good. For example, I had people saying very similar things to me in soccer.

Starting point is 00:28:06 And then once I got surgery and then I was fucking cut, I was just demoralized because that was my identity. Yeah. Right? Yeah. Seriously, that's like who I was, like the baseball guy my whole life. But I think that's, I mean,

Starting point is 00:28:21 I think that's one of the really cool things about, I guess, all of the fitness stuff that we've all been doing because you've shifted from pro wrestling to big and powerlifting. You did a bodybuilding show and you did pretty fucking well. Now you're transitioning literally big and so developed and you look the way you do you still got so much in terms of gains you can make like right like i know you mentioned the patience thing but you have so much time to really chisel things out because your your peak is going to be like in a few years and it's gonna be pretty crazy so you got you got time dog you know what i mean like that's that's hard that it's hard i got you like you know just every day i'm just like fuck i want this so bad but i gotta learn to just i've made a lot of mistakes too trying to

Starting point is 00:29:16 rush like even training diet like i'm like why there'd be times where i'm like why am i trying to bulk up to this like unrealistic weight? Like there's no reason I just need to chill and follow the plan and it'll come. But it's definitely hard. It's like your teacher telling you that your book report is due by the end of June. Yep. And it's like, I got plenty of time. And therefore you never get started on it.

Starting point is 00:29:43 Never do the work that you're supposed to do when you're supposed to do it and then you rush can you explain to us what led to you having enough self doubt to pull out of a bodybuilding show previously and then what got you through to be able to step on stage for the first time

Starting point is 00:29:59 yeah so I just think it came down to I just mentally I wasn't like I just wasn't mentally ready. I wasn't secure within myself. I struggled a lot mentally. Like I was like a head case, not like aggressive, but every single thing would like cause an emotional response. Like everything that went wrong, it was just like I was a mess.

Starting point is 00:30:23 So I just think I wasn't emotionally as mature as I was when I did it this last time. Can you give us an example? Like you wake up, maybe you weigh yourself or look in the mirror and you start certain bad thoughts or something like that. So it started literally from like probably the first couple weeks of dieting. It was like, oh, I'm small. I look like shit. And then that's normal. Honestly, for bodybuilding, that's normal.

Starting point is 00:30:46 Like I always am picking myself apart. But it was like I wasn't strong enough mentally yet to be able to like be like, okay, I'll just – I need to follow the plan and I'll look like what I want to look like by the end of this if I'm just consistent. Like it's fine. It's just a phase. It's just a period in this prep where I don't really like how I look but that would lead into like okay now I need to you know slam

Starting point is 00:31:10 myself with cardio slam myself with you know no carbs immediately like like eight weeks out and then I ended up looking worse so I just was I would just like allow myself to spiral down and then it led into even just other stuff with life like my parents not understanding so much all these other people like you're getting frustrated unorganized getting behind and just being really like just kind of pissed yeah and then like it'd come out in my house i'd be like they don't understand why i'm being a dick but it's really just my own lack of like emotional control and then this last time i really like taught myself how to be patient I was like okay I'm not gonna rush this I'm not gonna jump into a prep at all I was pretty upset

Starting point is 00:31:54 when I pulled out like I was very upset I just felt like damn all these people were like hyping me up or like you're gonna kill it and then the same thing happened with the baseball where I'm like I just feel like I'm quitting everything at this point. Like, why am I like this? So I really dove deep into my, into myself. And I was like, I just lack control. I just, I'm not being emotionally like smart with myself. I'm just reacting, reacting.

Starting point is 00:32:18 So I just took a step back and I allowed it to come to me. I was like, when I feel like I'm ready to prep, that's when I'm going to prep. So I did a long off season. And then. I was like, when I feel like I'm ready to prep, that's when I'm going to prep. So I did a long off-season, and then finally I was like, you know what, I think everything is pretty solid in my life, work, all of that, money, so I think it's time to start a prep, and I did, and it was like therapeutic the whole time. Doc, you were zen.

Starting point is 00:32:40 Yeah, no, I was like this. I was walking around like. Dude, that was an amazing, I was like this walking around like i dude i that was an amazing i was like constantly on a high i don't know if it was the low food but like i felt i felt amazing i was like this is amazing at my stress even now my stress is i don't know why my stress is a little bit higher anxiety is a little bit higher but when i was prepping it was just like just i was just calm i was just patient I was like I know I know that based off last time I had like a fire under my ass I was like all right I'm gonna

Starting point is 00:33:10 do everything to a tee and just rely on what I know I can do and then it just worked perfectly and Mark also told me like most people especially coming off of that one where I quit, he was like, most people don't take it this far. Like most people don't like really dive into it, stick to the diet to a T, cardio, train as hard as you can. So like the last six weeks, people don't push all the way through. Yeah. And I got dramatically leaner, too. After we had that conversation, I was like, shit, I was ready to go all the way through that fucking finish line. Yeah. And that definitely helped. It's crazy to go. All the way through that fucking finish line.

Starting point is 00:33:46 Yeah, and that definitely helped. It's crazy to say. I have that written on my wall, too. Oh, awesome. It's crazy to think that in bodybuilding, people just don't get lean enough. Yeah. They just don't give themselves enough time. That's very, very true. But even if you didn't give yourself enough time, by all means, please get yourself

Starting point is 00:34:03 as fucking shredded as you can. Just skip the show if you're not there. Like go to another show. I mean a lot of people will be like, I'm doing this show. But if you don't look the part, just wait six more weeks. There's nothing wrong with waiting. And even in jiu-jitsu, there's nothing wrong with waiting. Nothing.

Starting point is 00:34:17 There's nothing wrong with being like, I was going to do it this year, but maybe I'll push it right here. It's fine. I think a big part of all of this, a big part to feel comfortable with the competition that any of you guys have coming up, the powerlifting meet, the bodybuilding show, et cetera, is having a good plan. You have your coaches that have given you this plan of what you're doing this week, what you were doing every week leading up, and what you're doing this weekend getting ready on the course. And even afterwards.

Starting point is 00:34:44 Even a week afterwards and you on your second show like i'm assuming your coach laid out a pretty good plan for you and you had less stress on yourself because things were mostly laid out right for the most part yeah but what i did different also which is a little bit a little bit weird and not normal i would say is i didn't even pick i didn't let myself pick a show i was like we're gonna prep for 16 weeks and then if i look if i look good because last time i blew a bunch of money and it was also it almost put more pressure on me to be like i have to be i have to look like this by this fucking day yeah i have to or else i'm gonna be devastated yeah but i just like, same thing.

Starting point is 00:35:25 I was just patient. I was like, if 16 weeks goes by and I look shredded, we're doing this show. And I signed up like five weeks out. I was like, we're on point. We're going to do this. That's it, dog. Yeah. Power Project family, your normal shoes are making you weak.

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Starting point is 00:36:19 over there, Andrew? Mark, you've said this something along the lines of like uh you really only get disappointed if like expectations aren't meant or aren't met um so how do you guys go into something trying your best but also keeping your expectations low because it's almost like an oxymoron it's like i'm gonna put everything i have into this but also if i don't win i'm cool with that because that sounds like you're like oh wait so then how hard are you actually trying if you aren't like, quote, betting on yourself? I think for me, I've always wanted to do well, but I've also embarrassed myself every which way you could possibly think of to the point where it's like I don't know what's going to happen. And when you try to squat something like 1,000 pounds, it's just a roll of the dice. You've got no idea what's going to happen.

Starting point is 00:37:11 You may have trained for it. You might have a good skill set with it, but particular day, particular bar, particular venue, like just anything can happen. So I've bombed out of so many competitions. I've messed up so many different times that I just even in one meet couldn't unrack the weight. I unracked it and I would shake and I had to put the weight back. I unracked it. I tried to squat. I started shaking and I just had to be like, I'm out, you know.

Starting point is 00:37:38 But as a competitive power lifter and that's my sport, I'm just going to compete often. So I don't know, sign up for something again in the future. So for me, I always try to peel the expectations down quite a bit along with just a reinterpretation of what those expectations even mean. So as an example, let's say that, you know, I set a goal to squat a thousand pounds and let's say that I compete and I, you know, I set a goal to squat a thousand pounds and let's say that I compete and I, you know, did my opener and I hit my second attempt, but third attempt is supposed to be a thousand. I miss it. The next meet, I feel way stronger. I feel way more confident

Starting point is 00:38:15 and I miss it again. The expectation isn't really set that I have to hit this thousand pounds squat at this particular meet on this particular day the expectation is we're going to get this done like we're not going to a thousand pounds it's not going anywhere and neither am i like i'm going to figure this out so i'm i'm going to do the job until it's done not until i feel like like oh that's enough you know i'm i'm going to figure out a way to get this done one way or the other so and i've always been uh i've been fortunate to be fairly patient with stuff so the patience for me i think is what trumps the expectations because i don't mind it taking forever and just in talking with my wife last night about the marathon i was like i think this sport fits me pretty good i was like i fucking take forever to do everything i just i like to take my time with stuff yeah how about for you

Starting point is 00:39:11 uh yeah i'm pretty i'm i'm the same way i would say uh yeah i i don't know i would just say i'm i'm i'm pretty similar in that way but I did did have a question for you so you've done power lifting bodybuilding running what's like one little piece like little gem or ritual that's stuck within all those throughout like mentally throughout this whole entire your whole entire career of doing all that what I've noticed so these are all physical things is is that it's just, it's, it's just an input, you know, it's an, it's an input. What are your inputs? What are these, what are the things that you're doing to try to get yourself better at these things? And, uh, everyone, everyone's

Starting point is 00:39:58 body responds a little bit differently. Uh, but for me, if I had the proper inputs, then I'm going to have the proper results. So it's just a matter of, uh, did I do the work? You know, I, I, I would do the work when I was powerlifting, I would do the work in the squat. I would do what, do the work in the bench and I wouldn't do the work in the deadlift and my deadlift would fall behind and I would do it over and over again. And then finally I started to actually put the proper inputs into deadlifting and figured it out well enough to be

Starting point is 00:40:25 able to pull some pretty decent weights. But yeah, it's, it's, uh, and that's something that helped calm me down going into, into competition, you know, for like in SEMA going to San Jose or for me, uh, you know, moving around the country, going to West side barbell and training with some of the, uh, strongest people ever. that's the strongest gym ever pretty much um me going to louisville kentucky to wrestle and be around the best people when i boxed i tried to get around i always try to get around the best people that would be another tip try to get around the best people i boxed when i was young i boxed under kevin rooney he's the guy that trained one of the guys that trained mike tyson after Custom Auto left so just getting around people that are amazing and that input of being around those people that are

Starting point is 00:41:09 fucking awesome at what they do uh and even just I mean think about it when Stan Efferding trained at Super Training I was fat and I was broke and Stan was jacked and he was rich when I met him and it just had a huge those things have had a huge impact just being able to rub elbows and be close with people that are awesome. Yeah. I think that, that in and of itself makes a huge difference when you're able to be just around people that are doing things at a really high level. But Andrew, it's the expectation thing that you mentioned. I'm going to mention something, I'm going to say something that's kind of contradictory because like my, my expectations myself are high my goal is to go to these tournaments and get gold and if i do that and absolute i want double gold and that's my expectation and that's

Starting point is 00:41:58 what in my mind i train for to to get gold but there's another side where it's like, I also know that I'm not going to place that pressure on myself. Like that's my expectation. But on the other end of things, if that doesn't happen, it's fine. You know, there's,

Starting point is 00:42:18 it's cheesy as fuck. There's this Japanese thing called Wu Wei. And it's literally like doing nothing. The middle way. Exactly. And that's where I try to just, like when I, when I roll, I don't have any expectations for the role and when i roll against someone in competition i made my goal is to win but when i'm rolling i'm not thinking about i'm gonna beat this person i'm just thinking about playing my game like i do every single time when i train and not expecting anything because there again there could be a situation

Starting point is 00:42:41 where you get into a bad situation that was not according to your game plan. But if you're not thinking about that shit, you're just going to do what you've trained yourself to do. And that's where I compete the best. That's where I roll the best. When I don't have expectations set upon the roll, I'm able to personally just let my – my body does what it knows how to do. But if I'm thinking like I have to beat this guy, I have to win, I have to get him this way'm when i'm putting those types of pressures on myself i am not free anymore i'm now like in this oh shit it's not going my way fuck fuck you start to panic so there's kind of that contradictory thing going on for me where i do have those expectations but i'm like i also don't have any expectations yeah you get what i'm saying no absolutely and i really like that approach because it would allow someone like me, because like,

Starting point is 00:43:29 I'll be honest, like just like everybody that's new at a lot of things, the consistency is going to be one of the harder things to like nail down. If I know that I'm going to compete and I have this expectation where it's like, okay, I'm going to compete and I have this expectation where it's like, okay, if you take everybody a year or less in jujitsu, how many of them have the, you know, uh, have gyms available to them the way I do? How, like how many of them have been lifting for as long as I have? Okay. Maybe not as many as like, you know, as just normal people. So like, shit, maybe I have a shot at this. Uh, okay. So now my expectations might be, or my goal, sorry, is I think I could actually probably take a win away from this.

Starting point is 00:44:10 So what that does now is like, okay, now I have this goal set of at least performing very well. That's going to put so many things in gear as far as like, okay, yeah, I'm going to make it out to Casio's more often instead of it being a little bit inconvenient. It's going to be the thing that's going to help push me over the edge instead of just being like, no, I'm going to go to the school that's close to me. Uh, it's good enough. It's like, no, let's go where the, all the black, black bouts are all the brown bouts that I can learn from. So it's going to put a lot of things in motion. That's going to motivate me to be more

Starting point is 00:44:40 consistent and work extra hard. But also if i can adopt your approach whereas like okay that's the goal but whatever happens happens and i'm not going to be disappointed in whatever happens you know if it doesn't if i don't reach my goal so i just i need to figure out the balance of approaching it with like i'm going to do my absolute best and And if I win, cool. If I don't win, also cool. Because, like, again, it just, it needs to, I need something for, like, the extra motivation during the whole prep and stuff. Because it's, like, it does freak me out quite a bit,

Starting point is 00:45:15 like, to, like, go fight somebody. So having, like, a little extra bump, I think will definitely go a long way. Well, it's a, you know, it is a fight way well it's a you know it is a fight but it's also a skill right like uh someone could be pretty good at a street fight but what's going to happen when they go against someone that knows how to do jujitsu really well so i always try to look at stuff as a skill set i mentioned this to you guys as well like another visual for me is bruce lee you mentioned being happy when uh you saw that the guy was like proficient

Starting point is 00:45:45 at wrestling oh yeah you know that's like uh who else is going to be happy you know if someone who's 250 pounds walks through the door who's a black belt like you would be like oh my god this is the best day of my life yeah i'm so excited first me first meanwhile the whole rest of the place cleared out but uh you know bruce lee had skill set, so it didn't matter whether he was fighting one person or whether he was fighting – I know it's a movie, but he's fighting seven people. He's going to beat everyone's ass, and he had the skill to kind of do it. So I try to think of that in life. If I just have the proper skill set, I can deal with whatever amount the world's got to give me. That makes sense.

Starting point is 00:46:26 Want to take us on out of here, Andrew? Sure thing. You guys got anything else? No, man. Let's fucking wrap her up. At this point, I think it's Monday. At the end of this day, y'all will see Mark finishing the marathon. Hell yeah.

Starting point is 00:46:38 So go to his page and share him on. I'll give you guys the bib number and all that shit, and you can follow my little dot running around. When will we get that bib number? Do you know when? I have it, but I don't have the number right now. But I'll give you the information. We'll be able to put the bib number in the description.

Starting point is 00:46:53 There you go. So that will be there for you guys. All right, cool. All right, thank you, everybody, for checking out today's episode. Drop those comments down below, and then make sure you guys go follow at Mark Smiley about a chairman for the Boston Marathon. That's probably going on right now as you guys are listening to this and follow the podcast at MB Power Project all over the place. Hit that like button. Subscribe.

Starting point is 00:47:10 All that good stuff. My Instagram is at I am Andrew Z in SEMA. Where you at? Discords down below guys. I can see my ending on Instagram, YouTube, and I see me yin yang on TikTok and Twitter. Kenny. Kenny underscore Williams double underscore. I'm sorry. I'm going to change it soon, but it's just a little rough right now. I'm sorry.

Starting point is 00:47:25 I'm going to change it soon, but it's just a little rough right now. I'm trying to find a username still. God. Make sure you check out some of our anabolic activities. You guys have a YouTube channel, and soon to come we have a podcast that we're starting on. Let's go. I'm at Mark Smelly Bell. Strength is never a weakness.

Starting point is 00:47:42 Weakness is never strength. Catch you guys later. Bye.

Mark Bell's Power Project - Compete with Confidence: How to Prepare Your Mind & Body || MBPP Ep. 919

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