Mark Bell's Power Project - EP. 266 - When Did Mark Take More Gear?

Episode Date: October 11, 2019

During a guest appearance on The Mind Pump Podcast, Mark Bell was asked if he took more PEDs during his Powerlifting or during his Bodybuilding. He answered bodybuilding, but now want to retract that statement. Subscribe to the Podcast on all platforms: ➢https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast ➢SHOP NOW: https://markbellslingshot.com/ Enter Discount code, "POWERPROJECT" at checkout and receive 15% off all Sling Shots FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell ➢ Snapchat: marksmellybell Follow The Power Project Podcast ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/MarkBellsPowerProject Follow Nsima Inyang ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/  Podcast Produced by Andrew Zaragoza ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamandrewz

So in SEMA, I know, you know, you come from a background of kind of counting calories and weighing stuff and things like that. But more recently, you've been doing a lot of intermittent fasting and you cut out a lot of carbohydrates, right? Yeah, I've been going super, super, super low carb. How are you doing that with jujitsu and power? And you're still strong. I mean, I think it was just two months ago or so you pulled like a 725 deadlift. Yeah, no, it's I think it took a little bit of used to, and it took a little bit of experimenting with things I could use in my fast to just make it go a little easier. So I wasn't, you know, feeling like crap. I think some of the perfect keto products are pretty awesome for that too. Like the MCT oils in the

morning, but yeah, it just, it took some time. It took some getting used to not having anything in my stomach and not eating food during the day. My brother really struggles with fasting. He's like, I can't fast. And I was like, well, what if you have some MCT oil in your coffee? He's like, oh, yeah. He's like, I can fast then. So he can make it to like 1 or 2 o'clock each day.

A lot of people really struggle with that. They get too hungry. And the perfect keto products, I think, are a perfect addition to anybody that's trying to mess around with fasting or trying to make some good lifestyle changes to their diet. You can try the bars. You can try the MCT oil. They also have collagen. I mean, they sell all kinds of stuff, and all the products are really super high quality. People should be checking it out.

Check out Perfect Keto. What do we got, Andrew? Tell them where to find it. Cool. So our listeners can enter and stay in ketosis today by going to perfectketo.com slash powerproject and use code powerproject and get 15% off all Perfect Keto products. So, Mark, are you more of a salty or more of a sweet guy? I'm more of a sweetie. Really?

Sweetie and sweaty, I think. I have a sweet tooth, man. I don't know. The inner fat kid, you know, still is stronger than anything else I've ever been able to build. My mindset is pretty strong, but my willpower will waver, and the fat kid will come out, and I'll have to have something sweet. So a Quest cookie or a Quest bar is something that I'll look forward to at the end of the day. I do like the Quest chips, but Quest cookies over chips for me. I'd like the chips they're like what

what's there's one flavor i think it's ranch it's pretty damn good i actually like that a lot so you got a taco flavored one they got all kinds of they got like a nacho flavored one right so good that's my jam salty crunchy that's what i need to have and it's amazing that i can have that on a clean diet because like what Quest says, they say cheat clean. In this case, I have no guilt and I get to have my chips and they're amazing and they're delicious. If you guys want to get in on that, head over to questnutrition.com at checkout, enter promo code MarksQuest and get 20% off all the chips that they have available. You will not regret it. And SEMA, I know that you don't work out very hard.

Nope, because it's pretty much just all genetics. You get a lot of questions about genetics, is that right? All the time. All the time. I wonder, you know, what the importance of, you know, some of our food would be genetically, like say for, you know, cows, for example. You know, I think the genetics of our food is pretty damn important. Like, you know, Piedmontese is all natural, all natty with no added hormones or steroids and not even trend.

I don't know. These things are pretty lean. Yeah. But I mean, they're cut to have them tested personally. I think we should. We should. But their cuts of beef are from the Sandhills region, Nebraska, and contain significantly less fat and higher protein content than other beef that you might find at the store. This comes from genetics,

the breed of the cow and not relying on the extra intramuscular fat and marbling. In other words, you get the best protein to fat ratio from the best cows in the country, from the best beef for maximum gains. I love it. You're able to still eat your meat, but you don't have to worry about the extra fat calories. Works out great for anybody that is looking to be jacked and tan like us.

Like us. Andrew, where can they find out more information about P piedmontese.com. That's P-I-E-D-M-O-N-T-E-S-E.com. Enter promo code POWERPROJECT, and that's going to get you a whopping 25% off your order, along with free two-day shipping on all orders of $99 and above. It's at 7 minutes and 35 seconds. That thing like resets at like 10 minutes, and it goes to 99.59.

I feel like at 10 minutes, it immediately just goes to 99 minutes. Yeah. It's weird. It's very odd. Yeah. Smokey. Or maybe we're just we're probably just not navigating it correctly. Amazon Basics or something probably.

Hey, those Amazon Basics come in clutch. No, they do. Except for when it comes to a timer. You don't want a Jewish guy ordering your stuff. You know, it's not going to be top of the line. No, they do, except for when it comes to a timer. You don't want a Jewish guy ordering your stuff. It's not going to be top of the line. It's going to be the cheapest thing that he could find. Oh, no.

No, no, no. I don't want that. No, no, no. Ow. Pop the rib out of place. Andrew is frugal. Smokey's cheap. He just totally accurate.

Oh my God. Oh yeah. This rib definitely happened at jujitsu. Like I'm just like, I'm sneezing and laughing or maybe he was sleeping, but like right now I just, whenever I tighten up my core, Nope. Yeah.

What'd these guys do to you? I went to an open mat yesterday at another school and it was fun um i don't know man that's cool have you done that before yeah i do that a lot like so i do it so i can like roll with different people because if you roll with the same people at your school all the time you kind of know what they're going to do and you kind of know their game maybe they got a little different shit going on too like traditions and things like that and uh drills and stuff like that right yeah some of the guys i rolled with and open mat is just pure sparring but some of the guys i rolled

with were like doing things that nobody at my school like had a had a game based around that so it was fun to have to deal with it's really good have you guys seen a style bender did you see yes yeah that was oh my god i love israel ad. He's awesome. What's the deal with this guy? That's the thing, man. Like, first off, it's really cool how like they're mentioning that. I don't know what I'm watching, man. Yeah. He was the first person since Connor to say in two years I'm going to do this and then did it.

Right. But then also he's just he doesn't give a fuck. Like he cares about his image, but he also is like himself. Like he's an anime nerd. He loves like comics and all that. He came out and he did also is like himself. He's an anime nerd. He loves comics and all that. He came out and he did his old dance thing. He's sick. That dance was good.

It was. I didn't know what was going on. Just like Mark said, I don't know what I was watching. He had backup dance moves. Yeah. Remember Roy Jones Jr. came to the ring singing? Back in the day, he had his own album out and shit. and shit i must have forgot that was his like number one song oh yeah and then he had a song and then he was playing basketball in like germany like the week before he had a huge fight

do you remember watching uh prince nassim rockman put a fight yeah dude that guy would he came down in like a chandelier chariot thing and then like i just remember somebody throwing a big old beer at him and he's just being like, Oh, that's messed up. Who is this guy? Prince?

What? So I'll, I'll look it up right now. What was he? What kind of boxer? Andrew, what's the famous boxer? That's from this area.

Tiger. Uh, do you know that guy? Oh, uh, something. All my Mexican friends are killing me right now. I know.

I, I should be burned in hell for it. Well, there's, there's, well, I mean, there is Tony the Tiger. I think his name is Tony the Tiger. It is.

Yeah. No, no, no. But you're talking about, yeah, yeah, it is Tony. I don't know. Yeah, his name popped up last night at dinner. We were just talking about how, like, actually Sacramento and, like, the Woodland area was a good area for boxing. Really?

There was a lot of boxing in the area years ago. Yeah, Tony the Tiger Lopez, I think. Was the cereal out before him? Yeah, I think so. Yeah, okay, okay. It's cool, though, to see the evolution of like fighting. I really liked boxing, and I was a huge boxing fan, and I boxed as a kid. And I remember being kind of

like nervous when I'd watch Mike Tyson fight yeah I was like what's gonna happen like is this other guy gonna die like and there was a lot of rumors and stuff back then that were weird that you didn't know if they were true because the internet wasn't around and Mike Tyson was talking about how he wants to uppercut someone so hard that he like breaks their nose and drives like their nose into their brain or some shit. And you're like, is this just like us kids talking and like we're making up a bunch of shit? Or is this really what this guy wants to do to people? No, man. That's what Tyson wants to do.

That's what Tyson wants to do. But you know what, dude? Like, okay. Like Tyson, when he was in his prime, he was a scary, scary dude dude but i was thinking about this when i was watching the adesanya fight when i when i saw a 6'4 i thought oh that's his wingspan you know 184 pound guy 6'4 and then i see that's his height and then i'm just like picturing this 6'4 long like niger dude. Same thing with Jon Jones. And when we met, what's her name? Gina Fabian? I'm like, these people are fucking scary.

You know, what's his name? Francis Nganu? Also like 6'4", but like 240? And then I'm like, hmm. This shit ain't normal. These people have bodies that are just meant to wreck people. Holy crap. It's crazy and i never

thought about it like um so mike tyson was you know 5 10 5 11 i think something like that you know um but then anderson silva bones jones um people like michael strahan jason taylor like what are these bodies they're amazing they're and i just i would think that those physiques in some cases would be too too like thin same here but they're so athletic they have the i guess perfect combination of everything going on right they got the mobility they got the speed and then those guys are actually all very strong too which i think i guess that's the maybe misconception is like they're not fat or they're not thick so you're thinking like maybe they're not really gonna bring it but

anderson silva had no trouble knocking people out left and right and he had virtually no muscle on his body people talk shit on john jodes's legs and yeah those things are kind of stickly but you can deadlift 600 pounds yeah right like that body can deadlift six those legs are not weak it's it's it's wild and it's been it's been cool to see you know like anderson silva and bones jones and now we got stylebender coming through i mean this is really cool stuff yeah and stylebender is talking shit on jones you so did you see all that yeah yeah yeah that that'd be an interesting fight because i think jones weighs him by 30 pounds or something. He's like 210, 215. Yeah.

I read an article headline saying that he had squashed the idea of them fighting. Jon Jones squashed it. But who knows what could happen. But I would be really interested to see that Paulo Costa fight. That would be sick. Paulo Costa, man. Yeah. He's a savage.

He looked a little bit like Ricky Martin on saturday night i was not down with that but i mean hey what do you see like his his like highlights and stuff you're like oh he can he can he can put it down he's scary he is a very scary dude he's like he's like a like a bodybuilder inside of the ring in terms of the way his physique looks like a man's physique guy that's fine some of those some of the fighters are shredded like you see them go and grab somebody and then you see uh striations in the way his physique looks like a man's physique guy some of those some of the fighters are shredded like you see them go and grab somebody and then you see uh striations in their lower back and you're like what yeah yeah like damn he doesn't make any sense how jacked he is let me pull up a picture because he's ridiculous but man you know like you that that adesanya fight

it was uh since he was a kickboxer do you remember that finishing punch like at the very end of the fight did you notice how like he was leaning back like this and and like that's it's funny how like if a boxer because I was watching it with a boxer he was saying how interesting it is is like how that's just like not how you're supposed to punch but since Adesanya is so used to like that motion and kickboxing that he just like it was apparently just like a genius move yeah and I think um that was the knock on like UFC style if you know fighting for a long time is a lot of the boxers a lot of the purists were like you know these guys don't know what they're know what they're doing but it's like well wait a second uh maybe they do know what they're doing because this is like more of a regular fight

and they got to worry about getting kicked in the head. They got to worry about a back spinning elbow. They got to worry about like so much different stuff. Holy crap. Oh, that had to hurt. If you guys are actually listening to this, like there's this picture of Paulo Costa and that dude is, God.

He's so jacked. He's so jacked. That's the other thumbnail i used for uh when we had mike dolce on i made a power bite for like uh when we when mark asked like how much muscle is too much muscle and obviously this is the perfect example of like what we i would think we would all assume like oh that's too much you almost wonder if it's photoshopped to be honest but it's not it's not i. I think it depends on how people move and what body weight they're used to. So I think if someone takes steroids, they're going to put on probably 10 and maybe even almost 20 pounds.

You put on 10 or 20 pounds that is not, you know, is unfamiliar to your body. It might take you a really long time to get acclimated to that. And who knows, maybe you never get acclimated to that. Yeah. But I think if you're natural and you get all shredded up, I think maybe it would cost you a little bit less because maybe you're just used to that body weight all the time. Dude, that's like when people like when I hear people say, you know, you can't you can't move well if you have too much muscle on your frame i hear a lot of like like fight coaches say that like oh you don't want to have too much muscle because you can't move around efficiently but then like i think if an individual is used to training and used to

moving around with that muscle that they put on like i have no problem being flexible and mobile in jujitsu. Like my body can move in weird ways that people wouldn't expect because I'm just used to moving my body in that way. And I think all fighters, if, if even if they put muscle on, but they continue to train with that muscle, it's not like they stopped doing their fighting and their drills and stuff, but if they continue to train with it, that's not going to be too much for them to handle. Right. You know, I just, it just makes no sense to me yeah who is the guy that joe rogan posted recently i think maybe he was nigerian as well he's uh he was a heavyweight and he was just moving like crazy

yeah flipping and rolling around the mat and doing all these uh crazy kind of like mobility things and i agree 100 you know i think that um you know i think if somebody starts to get themselves you know really really huge and really jacked we've seen it affect them negatively um but again i think those are guys that are probably using performance enhancing drugs that are probably just a little heavier than what their normal body like if you're normally used to being 180 yeah and then all of a sudden you're like 210 like that's gonna be a lot to lug around and you're not from a natural standpoint putting on you know that amount of weight is like astronomical and it would take years to do that and so your body would probably get kind of used to it what's this dude's name

and adam ngalani let's see damn he's like elaine ngalani he's like fucking break dancing and shit Adam Ngalani? Damn. Or Alain Ngalani. He's like fucking breakdancing and shit. Yeah, dude. But he looks like a bodybuilder. Look at his body. Wow, what the hell? Yeah, you guys got to check this out. It's on Joe Rogan's Instagram.

I mean, I have no idea what that guy's body weight is, but he looks big. Yeah. Does he say he's a heavyweight? Like, how is he able to bend his back like that? Shit. Just look. I'll look him up on the internet. I mean that's a lot of mobility through the back and through the hips.

Oh, yeah. Oh, he's thick. He looks like he's maybe not that tall is the one thing that I'm seeing on this video. But shit, he's. Oh, my God. He's 5'11". And if he's 5'11". Oh, he's a tank. He's 5 11 and if he's 5 11 oh he's a tank he's like doing splits and shit dude his other name is like the panther oh my god man holy shit you see like like in his like

i'm pretty sure he's used to carrying that weight around yeah like you know it's it just makes sense he's uh yeah he's uh look at that oh my god yeah you're not used to that body weight doing that i mean you're you're definitely used to your body weight if you do the splits like that yeah see no i think you hit the nail on the head there if an individual does like they do pads and put on 30 pounds okay yeah they're not going to be able to handle that muscle but if you're someone who's put this on through your training career there's going to be able to handle that muscle. But if you're someone who's put this on through your training career, there's going to be no reason why you can't, you know, you, you can't use that efficiently. We were talking earlier. I was asked, um, I was on the, um, I was on mind pumps podcast recently and they asked me, um, you know, what, you know, what sport

I took more shit for, you know, PEDs, um, was it for bodybuilding or powerlifting? And I, I actually like afterwards when I answered the question, I had to, I just thought about it more and I was like, well, I don't really know. You know, I took, I took quite a bit for both, you know? Um, and that's what happens to people is like, you take some and it's like, you get good results and you're like, shit, I benched 700 pounds off of this. Like, I wonder what this would do. And so you just you try a little bit more. And I'll admit, too, I definitely got reckless with it.

But and you just you can justify anything to yourself once you start kind of like rolling down that hill kind of has a snowball effect. And you're like, oh, well, it doesn't hurt. That doesn't seem like it's hurting me. It's just making me stronger. So you just take more and more, right? And, uh, you know, in bodybuilding, um, it seemed like I had to take, uh, steroids more frequently because of the type of steroid that I took. It was, um, they're faster acting and in powerlifting, I could take it less frequently. So when they asked me the question, I, you know, I, I said I took more stuff in bodybuilding, but I think I actually

may have took more stuff in powerlifting, especially when I was at like kind of the peak of my career. And I always find that really super interesting. Like we try to, somebody will talk about like Larry wheels and someone will just be like oh he's on tons of shit it's like well a lot of people are on a lot of people are throwing the kitchen sink at uh trying to be stronger too yeah and they don't they don't look like him and they're not nearly as strong as he is a lot of people yeah a lot of people that like are on a lot of stuff don't look like they lift some of them really just don't look like they lift you know like you really have to put on put in the work if you're doing that you know our uh alpha m uh guy uh what's the name my marino aaron marino aaron marino

uh that we had on just the other day he was he had a video and he talked about the bicep vein and how like you should work on getting a bicep vein he talked about how to get a bicep vein and how like you should work on getting a bicep vein. And he talked about how to get a bicep vein. You had to be a certain percentage body fat. And I thought like, wow, that's, that's actually really awesome. Like that's a really cool goal. Like everyone that lifts should have a bicep vein. They really, they really should because you're not asking for too much. It's like, just try to, you know, get yourself head in the right direction in terms of your

body fat levels, get down to maybe about, you know, under 15%. You're just smiling. Yeah. Yeah. Get your ass under 15% body fat and you'll start to have some bicep veins. I think it's reasonable. Hey, that's the first thing I noticed on you after like, he's like, when he started getting me, I was like, look at Andrew's biceps. He has the vein. Yeah. You know? I remember that day clearly.

When I looked in the mirror, I'm like, oh, my gosh, I got a vein. I love that vein. Now, I would say, like, you know, vascularity is probably just more for other dudes than it is for us attracting females. But I do think every dude should have them, you know? It's a sign of virility. It's a sign of good blood flow. I do think that it does have an. It's a sign of virility. It's a sign of good blood flow. I do think that it does have an effect on women in some way. Because even if they don't realize it, they may see that vein and their instincts might be like healthy.

I wonder where those veins lead to. The old dick root. Yeah, there it is. Oh, dick root. Yeah, on a friend of mine, he just kind of just put it out there. He's like, to my female friends and followers and whatnot, what body part do you find most attractive on a guy? And it was a good amount of people that said arms. And I'm like, yeah, okay, let's go hit some bicep curls.

That is all that matters. Was this Tony Huge that posted this? No, no, no. Because that's a Tony Huge kind of post. It was actually my buddy, Philip Trujillo. That is all that matters. Was this Tony Huge that posted this? No, no, no. That's a Tony Huge kind of post. It was actually my buddy, Philip Trujillo. He's a good dude. You know what's funny is a lot of women will be like, I don't really

dig these guys. They're real big. And then they're like, but the rock. And you're like, do you understand the rock is enormous? The biggest one? Yeah. Yeah, the rock is huge. He's the size of this goddamn building he's a massive massive dude he's a freaking tank yeah but he's on all the steroids like 20 inch arms i mean his arms are huge yeah they're they're massive he's just a

massive human but it does crack me up sometimes when i do hear people like like yeah when i hear one like i don't like even guys get that big. They're too into themselves. They're too into themselves. Like, they just like to work out. Or the flip side, when guys are like, oh, some of these chicks are starting to look like dudes. It's like, come check them out when they're here at super training sometime. You will not think that. You're just going to be looking at them going, holy shit.

Yep. They're phenomenal looking. Yeah, they're strong as hell. And they're strong. They're athletic. The whole nine yards. Yep. They're phenomenal looking. Yeah, they're strong as hell. And they're strong. They're athletic. The whole nine yards. Yeah. It's funny.

Yeah, the whole dad bod movement, I'm glad that's not as popular as it was. But there was like a, because it was one poll where they polled women. And it was like, which body type is more attractive? And it was like your dad bod and then some dude that was jacked. It was like Michael He type is more attractive and it was like it you know your your dad bod and then some dude that was jacked it was like michael hearn next to you know like my previous self and it was like i don't know why but they all not all but majority voted for the dad bod yeah but like i don't know where that even comes from is it maybe because like they don't think they could have the other one or i i don't know what

it what it could have been there's so many things but i think there's some inlined insecurity both ways when men look at women that look very very strong and then women that look at men that look very strong because i feel like women that look i've heard this quite a bit women that look at men that do have strong bodies etc and they say things, a lot of the time it's because like they don't look at that person as being trustworthy because they look that way. You know what I mean? Put too much time into their vanity. Yeah.

So maybe the woman's thinking like, I don't want my dude checking himself out in the mirror more than I do. Yeah. Or I want other girls checking my dude out and you know, like, you know, like, so I think there's kind of that. And there's a bunch of other things, but that's something that I've like, that seems to be a little bit. Well, that's what that guy's into. And they would be right because you spend a lot of time on it.

I mean, right. And like, it's not like it's not like we don't work out. We spend a lot of time on it. You know, it's something I think that doesn't really make any sense. And it's a kind of a backwards way of thinking. But it's but I do understand why it happens is kind of the dad bod thing, right? And then moms can kind of end up heading in the wrong direction too. They cut their hair and they start to look like a mom and they're wearing mom jeans.

And they're heading down the wrong path too, right? And the guy's got his beer belly going on and all these different things. And people are like, oh, yeah, you find someone you find someone and you get, like, complacent. But think about it this way. Like, if you're finding the person that you might spend the rest of your life with, wouldn't you be more pumped to be in better shape and be in better condition and be able to handle more things for them and for yourself and for the couple rather than just like, oh, yeah, we're really enjoying ourselves and just keep getting fat.

I mean, I understand like, you know, cup first couple of weeks and you're, you go out to eat and I get all that. But then what about like reigning it back in and being like, I want to be a better person for this person. No,

I totally get what you're saying. Um, I think, oh, oh, okay. No, I think what happens a lot is just like a lot of times like those individuals don't necessarily have the greatest habits already set. And yeah, you do see this happen with fit people sometimes, too. But man, that's that's the last thing that like I'm going to let happen to myself and whoever I'm like that.

That's one of the first things I say in the beginning. Like, yo, like we're we're going to stay healthy. I make sure that this individual wants to be healthy and wants to stay in shape for themselves. Yeah. Because if it's not for themselves, then it doesn't really like it. Yeah. It's not going to be a big deal over time. Yeah. You got to kind of put it out there at first.

Like so they know like that you're going to be training. Yeah. And that you're going to be always a little loony tune with your food. Right. Yeah. And I want you to i want you to be healthy too right stay in shape over our you know over these years andrew your family uh ever get weird about like thinking that you're going to be judgmental because you've gotten into all this all the time um when i go to any kind of family thing with like or whatever, it's like, here's cousin with the plate. They say, oh, shit. They turn

around. They just throw it over their shoulder. Whoa, hey, Andrew, I get there. Yeah, exactly. I don't know. I try not to like, oh, you shouldn't eat that or you shouldn't. It's more like, hey, when you guys want help, I can help you out for sure.

Then I will help and then like, oh're still still eating that huh so yeah like but again i try not to be a buzzkill but yeah they do get a little weird yeah i stay out of their business i i really do just because like it's well first off you know i'm young i'm like i'm the youngest in the family so um like they don't like yeah they family. So they don't want to listen to me. Do they all kind of think you're weird? Yeah. I'm the one who works out the most out of everybody. So yeah, they do think I'm a bit weird. There's no way to change it. Yeah, when I say that, I have...

You think you're weird? Yeah, I am. Or when you mention you don't drink. Oh, yeah. come on just have it won't kill you just have one yeah it's like what why not i would go on that diet but man i need some mickey d's in my life yeah well what about when people uh you know obviously there's it's a sensitive topic sometimes when somebody has an addiction towards it but like there's some people that are like i can't you know i can't do that without my beer and it's like they they try to make it a statement and they're they're

like i'm a guy i'm gonna have beer my and you're like but your body you look like a bitch because you have tits like that's not that's not manly that's not attractive that's not cool like you need to fix your shit up yeah my uh my, my cousin, get some light beers or something. I don't know. My, my cousin, hopefully I think he listens and watches the show, but, uh, he's a,

he's a slender guy like me. And he's like, yeah, man, my elbows like jacking me up. Like, what can I do? And I'm like,

well, what's your diet like? Well, blah, He's, he's doing really good. Got him some elbow sleeves and he's feeling better. And he's still drinking like all the time,

not all the time, but on the weekends. And I'm like, Hey man, if you can cut that back a little bit. And he's like, that all the time not all the time but on the weekends and i'm like hey man if you can cut that back a little bit and he's like that's inconducive inconducive to my lifestyle i was like well okay well first what does that really mean right two like if that's your lifestyle then maybe your elbow's not like an issue anymore right because like that's what you want but it was just funny because i was like wow like i haven't heard somebody say it that way to where like it's my lifestyle.

You know, a big thing, though, is like community. Because like when you look at like the people like we hang out with here at the gym or whatever, right? Like not many people drink that much. But people that do drink a lot, a lot of times it's a social thing. And those are their friends. Yeah. And if you stop drinking around your friends, your friends are like, why aren't you drinking? And you don't want to just leave that community. But for a lot of people,

that's tough because if everyone around you, that's what they do. Well, that's what you want to do too, because you want to be a part of the community. Yeah. And for us, it all starts with lifting. You know, we all like everybody in here is lifting the entire staff, you know, everybody that's that works here at Slingshot lifts. And then, therefore, when you go in the break room, you might see somebody with, you know, something that's unhealthy here and there. But for the most part, I'm seeing a lot of Monster Mash. I'm seeing a lot of, like, vertical diet type stuff. I'm seeing people eating a lot of meat and rice and vegetables and, you know, occasionally a quest bar or a protein shake, but

you know, it's, it's pretty healthy around here. It's a, it's a community of people that, um, you know, care about fitness. They want to get stronger. They want to get better. Yeah. That's like, that's, I think that's one of the reasons why I also like, I mean, I don't drink a lot because like, I don't hang around a lot of people that drink a lot. You know, if I did, maybe that would be different, but that's why i don't keep that around me because like i'm not gonna fall into that well and therefore if we were all gonna do something what would we do be like see a movie or something right and like not eat anything during the movie probably right so i mean that's that's as wild as it gets over here. Confession time real quick. So the other night I saw Joker.

I bought some kettle corn. And I put some Reese's Pieces in it. Because I've never experienced it before. Wait a second. Mark's giving me the look. I feel like he's about to fire me. But I had to confess because my heart was hurting. I've never done it before.

And I had to be like, why is everyone going about putting chocolate in your popcorn? And I can see why. I'm not going to do it again. Please forgive me. And that's it for the confession. You're off the team. I had a babysitter when I was like, I don't know, maybe like seven. And it was around Easter time

and they melted my Easter bunny, my chocolate Easter bunny and put it on top of popcorn. And it was like the best thing I ever had. I'm like, this is the greatest babysitter of all time. That shit was awesome. I'll never forget that. I've done M&M's and popcorn. I've never done Reese's Pieces though. Yeah. Think about this. So Reese's Pieces and kettle corn, right? Kettle corn's already a little bit sweet and salty. And then you add in peanut butter Reese's, and it's like, that's hot. That was, oh, that's not happening again.

It was great. Don't get me wrong. But I see why I'm not doing it again. Yeah, the popcorn. Popcorn will really blow you out. Yeah. You know what they say about corn? About what?

Corn today, corn tomorrow. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it doesn't get digested. You see those little corns in the toilet. They somehow pass right through. Yeah, it's poop corn. And they're full on kernels, man. Yeah. That's crazy. Damn, I wonder if I could still pop that shit.

Oh. Throw that in the microwave. That's crazy. Damn. I wonder if I could still pop that shit. Oh, throw that in the microwave. Yeah. See what happens. Oh, did you want to talk about your labs, Mark? Yeah, we're going to get on the,

uh, get on the horn, uh, in a little bit with, uh, Ken Berry for another podcast. Okay. And,

we're going to ask him about like, uh, cholesterol levels and all that good stuff. But, uh, Andrew was kind of looking through the testosterone scores there. And what'd you find? Okay. So I know this is,

I mean, even to me now, like with my experience, like Sarmageddon and like playing with labs, lab work and stuff, it's still a little like sketchy for myself. So apologize if you guys are just listening and I might be a little confusing, but is it okay if I just tell everybody your scores and everything? Oh, yeah.

I don't know. Okay, cool. So Mark's free testosterone, normal range is 4.7 to 24.4, and that's normal range for what? I don't know who made those normal ranges up, but Mark's at a 30. Mine, even before and after Sarmageddon was at like a 9.4 or 9.5 this was free testosterone yes what's the um is it like what's the measurement of that uh that's a good question nano ram yes whatever that big word is um anywho his total testosterone, where mine started at 545 and then went down to 151, Mark's is at a 1320.

So 1,320. Wow. So more than 1,100, whatever measurement it is. What's the range on that testosterone? What is that supposed to be? I forget. But it's like 1,200 is high range on that testosterone? What is that supposed to be? I forget. But it's like 1,200 is like high or something, right?

Yeah, 1,200 is supposed to be like the max or whatever. Right. But one thing I did want to point out, which was a scary thing for me when I learned what it was, but like my hematocrit and my hemoglobin, the thickness of my blood, the viscosity was really, really high. My hematocrit was at a 50. Mark's is at a 52. Yeah, and according to Stan and a few other people I ran all this by, they were like, you're all good.

Oh, that's great. Yeah. That's good to know. And Stan is looking at ratios. I don't know how he determines. He's been reading people's blood for a while. He's looking at a lot of ratios because, like, even my regular doctor that does these tests, who's familiar with people that are, you know, doing replacement therapy,

he's looking at it and he's like, oh, this is high. Because he's being super cautious because he's a physician. And, you know, that's his livelihood. So he takes it very seriously so he's going to be a little more cautious but stan's like no he's like your your ratio and your cholesterol is is perfectly healthy and so i don't i don't know what a lot of that means i just i just uh ask a couple people and say hey what do you think and then they give me advice and then i try to work on uh you know figuring out ways of improving it. It's going to be great to have like the, did we mention Ken that's coming on or no? Yeah, no, we haven't really said it much yet. Ken Berry, he wrote the book Lies My Doctor

Told Me. Your doctor told you, I think. Either way, just look up Ken Berry. It's the biggest book that will pop up if you search his name. Yeah. And we're going to podcast with him in a little while. But, yeah, it'd be cool to hear his take on some of this stuff, on cholesterol and on, you know, eating red meat and, you know, eating fat. Like what's healthy, what's not healthy, vegetables, good, bad and otherwise. Right.

And it's like, first off, he'll go in on a lot of that, but it's going to be really good because first off, he is a doctor. He's been a doctor for most of his life. He knows what a lot of them do. But like, the thing is, is like, when you go to a doctor, they're your healthcare professional. Usually that's the person you go to for your nutrition advice. They'll read your blood work. They'll tell you what you need to be eating, what you need to not be eating. Um, and there is like a general consensus and what doctors think is healthy but like what a lot of us are realizing from talking to a lot of guests on this podcast is that's actually kind of the opposite that's kind of scary man yeah like that that's scary because like those are the individuals that you

go to for this stuff usually unless you have like a dietician and even dieticians kind of go in the same route as doctors most of the time, you know? So it just shows to go, goes to show that like, they're not infallible. They're not all knowing, like they're taught something. And if you're just going based off of what they're taught, you might just be getting some potentially dangerous or wrong information. I think also too, I mean, people, um, people aren't as concerned until they're kind of like painted into a corner, you know, uh, until they, you know, get this news from their doctor that something's like way off or something's wrong or they just don't feel right. And then they go to the doctor. Um, but a good thing to do is just to start to, you know, work on your fitness, work on your health.

And it could start, it could be as simple as a 10 minute walk. It could be as simple as starting. Maybe you don't really like to walk. Maybe you don't like to run. Maybe you want to start lifting or something like that. Just try to find like, what are a couple healthy practices? Like, what are some things you're doing that are going to be productive leading you to, like maybe living a long life is like something that's not on your radar because you're super young.

You don't really care that much at the moment, but maybe you're just thinking like, I just want to feel better every day and I just would love to be more productive. I'd love to not crash at 12 o'clock or one o'clock every day. I'd love to have, you know, a little more zip, a little more energy so I can do more stuff. And if you're thinking about that, then it's like, well, maybe you could do three things or so that are fairly healthy for yourself.

And one could be that you have some form of exercise every day that you, you try your best to eat well, and then that you work on your sleep, you know, it's like those, those are all reasonable things to ask yourself to do. And then they're not, in my opinion, none of them are hard to implement. Yeah. And that, that, that also comes down for a lot of people making the right lifestyle

choices because for a lot of people, man, it's still, it's still interesting how much sleep, um, I guess pushback you get, you know, for people like, I just can't do it. That's not the way I can. I've been eating five hours for my whole life. I've been doing fine. I can't get more sleep. Yeah. You know? So yeah,

this is going to be, it's going to be a really, really great conversation. One thing I love that he continues to delve on in the book. And if anyone that's listening is a doctor or has doctor friends, don't get it wrong. We're not like trying to bash doctors here. And he was,

he wasn't bashing doctors in the book. There's some of the most stressed out people in our society because the amount of patients they have to deal with, the amount of work they have to do, there's a lot. And if you think about it, uh, with all the doctors that we have, it's kind of difficult for them to always stay current. It's very difficult for them to be like, okay, I got my education. I got my job. Now I'm going to continue doing all this education and stay current on everything so I can continue to put out the right information to my patients. It's much easier to just, you know, whatever comes to you, just say what other doctors are saying. And that's one of the big things that you take away from this book. Like they don't always spend time learning more.

They have a job to do. You know, they don't always spend time learning more. They have a job to do, you know, they have families. So it has to be on you, the patient to go out and try and figure these things out and maybe bring it to your doctor and see if you guys can have a conversation about it. Yeah. And then he was explaining, you know, doctors have a lot of resistance when somebody does bring something in and, you know, they're just like, oh gosh, like you Googled some things and then they get kind of a little defensive, but also, you know they're just like oh gosh like you googled some things and then they get kind of a little defensive but also you know imagine you you read something or you find a study about statins being bad for you and you're like hey doctor i don't want to take statins

anymore if he says okay it takes you off and then something happens well he's in deep shit now it's like why did you do that all the studies show or you know whatever the research shows that you should have kept them on statins and you took them off that's malpractice so it's like, why did you do that? All the studies show, or whatever the research shows, that you should have kept them on statins and you took them off. That's malpractice. So it's like they're kind of like between a rock and a hard place right now. Yeah. And that seems really tough. And what about Dr. Baker?

He had his, I don't even know, his license revoked. And I'm sure maybe there's other things attached to it, but his claim was that he was doing things differently. He would tell people about nutrition and that people needed less help, and he was having less work, and then they got rid of him. So, I mean, I don't know, again, I don't know if there's more to the story than that, but I've heard that many times, not just from him.

I heard that from other practitioners saying something similar where they're almost eliminating their job by telling people, hey, you know, you could probably make a lot of progress just by sleeping better and by eating better, taking care of yourself, you know. Man, I haven't been sick in a very, very long time. Like, it's kind of crazy, you know? Man, I haven't been sick in a very, very long time. Like, it's kind of crazy, you know? And it's just because of good habits outside of, like even outside nutrition, good habits in terms of sleep, et cetera. I have not been sick in the longest time. You know, I'm the same way.

And I actually, there was like, maybe a month ago or so, a couple people in here were sick. And I just felt a little run down. Could have been placebo, you know, because you hear it. And I was like, oh, man. And I was like, you know what? I'm going to get a little bit more sleep tonight.

Woke up the next day, felt fine. And it's like that's happened to me a few times in the last maybe about four years or so. And I haven't been – I mean, I can't remember. I can't even recall the last maybe about four years or so and i haven't been i don't i mean i can't remember i can't even recall last time i was sick yeah it's super it'd be super easy for me to be like oh it's nothing's working because i still get sick on a regular basis but if you compare that to where it takes a long time though compared to where i was like even just three years ago and it's like dude i was sick like i'd get super sick, like deathbed sick. Like every time I'd catch a cold. Yeah.

Now it's nowhere near that. I'd get sick pretty bad about twice a year for, for a while, you know, just cause my kids were young and I just thought, I just thought it was all that. I'm like, Oh, I'm a dad. And like, you know, I'm around kids, so I'm going to get sick and little walking germ. Yeah. I didn't realize it was my sleep probably more so than anything. And, and the nutrition.

And, you know, I was just not, I was not sleeping for a pretty long period of time or not getting that good of sleep. And actually, I've been on a winning streak with my sleep lately. I don't know what's been going on, but I've had about three or four nights. You know, I wake, i still wake up super early so i wake up it's like 4 30 or four o'clock and i tell andy i'm like i slept through the night she's like it's 4 15 in the morning i'm like you don't understand like i feel awesome she's like go back to bed what time does andy wake up by the way if you like since you wake to bed. What time does Andy wake up, by the way? Since you wake up so early, what time does she get up? She only wakes up about an hour later than I do.

Okay. Yeah, because she's swimming in the morning. Yeah. So Ken Berry said he'll be ready to go in about five minutes. Cool. All right. Well, we're going to hop on off of here, and we're going to reboot our podcast, see if we can get that crank going.

And we're going to start up this podcast see if we can get that crank going. And we're going to start up this podcast with Ken Berry. Strength is never weakness. Weakness is never strength. Catch you all later.