Mark Bell's Power Project - EP. 346 - Cory Gregory

Episode Date: March 16, 2020

Cory Gregory is a former coal miner, turned entrepreneur, elite powerlifter, bodybuilding magazine cover model, business partner with Arnold Schwarzenegger, and one of the smartest minds in fitness business and motivation. Hit up Cory G on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/corygfitness/ Subscribe to the Podcast on on Platforms! ➢ https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast Visit our sponsors: ➢Icon Meals: http://iconmeals.com/ Use Code "POWERPROJECT" for 10% off ➢Piedmontese Beef: https://www.piedmontese.com/ Use Code "POWERPROJECT" at checkout for 25% off your order plus FREE 2-Day Shipping on orders of $99 ➢Perfect Keto: http://perfectketo.com/powerproject Use Code "POWERPROJECT10" at checkout for $10 off $40 or more! ➢SHOP NOW: https://markbellslingshot.com/ Enter Discount code, "POWERPROJECT" at checkout and receive 15% off all Sling Shots Follow Mark Bell's Power Project Podcast ➢ Insta: https://www.instagram.com/markbellspowerproject ➢ https://www.facebook.com/markbellspowerproject ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/mbpowerproject ➢ LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/powerproject/ ➢ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/markbellspowerproject ➢TikTok: http://bit.ly/pptiktok FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell ➢ Snapchat: marksmellybell ➢Mark Bell's Daily Workouts, Nutrition and More: https://www.markbell.com/ Follow Nsima Inyang ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/ Podcast Produced by Andrew Zaragoza ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamandrewz #PowerProject #Podcast #MarkBell

Power Project Crew, what's going down? Today we have a great episode for you. It's with our homie Corey Gregory, aka Corey G, aka the guy that helped put MusclePharm on the map. He took a lot of everything he did with MusclePharm and implemented it into his own company, which of course is Max Effort Muscle. Corey Gregory is such an awesome dude. This sounds like I'm almost dissing him, but when you look at him, he's very unassuming. You wouldn't imagine that this guy can squat, deadlift, and bench an insane amount of weight. He competes at 181. And if you follow him on Instagram at Corey G, you'll see like, oh my gosh, this guy's lifting at 4 a.m. every freaking day. He's lifting more weight than most

people. And he's extremely jacked in tan. On top of all that, he's a great family man. Again, like I said, he's up at 4 a.m. every single day training. And then he's killing it in business. And then he's also just a phenomenal father. He's there for his family. You can see that he relaxes on the weekends. He's just like a normal dude. But he just happens to have the time and the ability and the capacity to do everything at an extremely high level. And you just can't help but admire him. We got into a bunch of his training methods, why he uses like, I mean, sometimes this guy will load like every single inch of the barbell with bands and squat just

that. He explains why he does that. He also explains why he feels lunges is the absolute best exercise that anybody can do for basically any part of your body. He even convinced us that like, hey, okay, yeah, we definitely need to get into doing a lot more lunges. I asked him where the hip hophop influence comes from because if you follow him on Instagram, again, at Corey Gregory or at Corey G, you'll see a lot of his workout programs are like old hip-hop album covers. And it's just really, really cool. And I love his answer. And I hope you guys love it too because it makes a ton of sense. Anyways, this guy is super inspiring because you look at his body of work.

He's worked with Arnold. He's worked with tons of people, Ronda Rousey, just, I mean, you name it as far as a big name in the fitness industry. And there's a good tie to Corey Gregory, including even the Reebok UFC deal,

which we got into also. And again, on top of all that, he's just a big family man. And, you know, when it comes to being jacked in tan, that means having it all right. Like having the, the looks, the money. And it's just a big family man. And when it comes to being Jacked in Tan, that means having it all, right? Like having the looks, the money, and it's just, he is the definition of Jacked in

Tan. Real quick, shout out to Piedmontese Beef for sponsoring this episode. You guys know we absolutely love it. You guys, you have to try it if you haven't already. It is second to none. It cooks faster, has more protein, less fat, tastes better than anything. Like I keep saying on all these podcasts that we did in Columbus, every single night we went to a steakhouse, every single night I was disappointed because it just doesn't taste as good as Piedmontese beef. Seriously, you guys need to head over to piedmontese.com. That's P-I-E-D-M-O-N-T-E-S-E dot com at checkout. promo code power project for 25 off your order and if your order is 99 or more you get free two-day shipping i highly recommend

our power project deluxe bundle or the jacked in tan box uh either one of those you will not be disappointed anyways i'm gonna get out of your guys's way if you guys dig this episode please hit up cory g Corey Gregory on social media. His links will be down in the YouTube description and iTunes show notes. Yeah, let us know what you guys think. And please, please, please enjoy the show. If you had an accent, I'd be rocking this shit too. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, and then people like when you have an accent, they kind of just believe everything you say. Dude, I'm telling you, right? Because you sound smarter, right? Exactly. You sound real smart. Yeah. All righty. Yo, so Corey Gregory, how the hell do you have time to come kick it with us?

You're training at 4 in the morning. You have like 75 kids. Yeah. You've got a bunch of different businesses. I mean, dude, how do you honestly schedule your time? Because you're powerlifting and bodybuilding, and you've got the business boom, and you've got a lot of things going on. Sure. So I always talk about people always asking, why are you training so early?

I'm like, yo, it's out of necessity. I used to train at 7 when I was a personal trainer, and I had all the clients and stuff back in the day. And as I got more businesses and they started rocking, they started getting earlier and earlier. And I realized if I still wanted to compete multiple times a year that I had to have truly uninterrupted time. I can't be fucking with my cell phone when I'm training. Like I ain't down with that. There's no one to even text that early in the morning. Exactly, right?

They're either coming home from the bar still. I ain't trying to hear what they're saying anyway. So it was like from four to six, I can get home, help my kids get to school with the wife. I can be, you know, to work or doing whatever content by eight. We're doing content the whole time now, but at the end of the day, it's like we got my crews there in the morning capturing everything, wrapping it, and it's on the app by nine. So it's like we got a system of the way that we create content, but I'm really just capturing what I do anyway. And we got 20 people. I have seven elite lifters now, raw raw that are in that group and two pro cars

natural so out of the 20 guys i mean this is a pretty elite level of guys that we've built from the last like two or three years at the 4am crew it's legit man so you've been you've been lifting and you've been uh bodybuilding and powerlifting doing all this stuff and now it's just a matter of like sharing it out yeah and then kind of deciding like hey like where should this one go should this one go on instagram it's exactly what this would go on youtube and thank you so much for helping us with that and helping us with our more recent uh website endeavor that we uh underwent but uh how do you determine like where something goes and like which thing to kind of like monetize and which thing to make for free and stuff like that so really it's like for all the years at mp

right i was just creating content that was just out there from bodybuilding.com and all that and because i was just with the hopes that you would buy supplements one day i couldn't really track it all the way to be honest but it kept growing so i was like fuck i'll keep doing it um but then once i left there and sold my shares of mp and went back on my own i was like well i have to support myself different now you know know what I'm saying? So it's like this, like the way that I diet, the way that I train, that stuff's going to be for pay now. But the inspiration stuff is all free. I mean, and at the end of the day, like that, you know, that's the oxygen anyway. So people come to me cause they want to be like, all right, how are you doing? Like when I did, I did Olympic lifting meet Friday, a bodybuilding show Saturday

and did the power to meet Sunday. And that one weekend, people was like, all right, this dude's doing something. Now, I'm not elite on any of them level-wise, but at the end of the day, like I did pretty good, right? I squatted 500 raw at 178. You know, I freaking got second in the bodybuilding show. I did good, right? The Olympic lifting was kind of like some chump weight. Whatever. We ain't going to go there.

But I was probably the most nervous, though, just to land a snatch in front of people because i never really done it before so but people started to realize like all right this guy's you know i'm 41 now i've been competing for 20 years um some there's something to what i got going on here and so there's certain things that are you know kind of ip and i charge 8.99 and shit but at the end of the day it's like the community and the amount of um just content i'm like my own netflix is the way. But at the end of the day, it's like the community and the amount of just content. I'm like my own Netflix is the way I look at it, bro, for real. Why do you train like such a lunatic? Because you're – I mean I'll see you do like – you had me do the 10-minute lunges.

And then I see you out on the track lunging like a quarter mile. Like no one does that. Or I see you sprinting. Like people hate sprinting. Like why are you utilizing these techniques this is what happened this is so six or seven years ago i was doing the traditional bodybuilding cardio and for me because the way i'm built already i'm like a basically like a fitness model so i started getting like real kind of like i don't know like my muscle belly model yeah my muscle bellies wasn't very full and i'm already kind of like a tall and

slender dude anyway so so man i find i need a conditioning that is going to keep my, my, just me looking thicker. So I went to the track. It really, cause I had real bad knee tendonitis at that time. Cause I was jumping, trying to dunk, do some crazy shit like that too. And I was like, man, what can I still do that can get my legs ready for the show? So I just stopped by the track on the way home from the gym, lunged 400 meters and I couldn't walk for like 10 days i was like what but i noticed my metabolic rate felt like it went like it was on fire all day way more than sprints even which was interesting so i was like all right there's something to this i peel myself out of the car and i go back again and then i got to the point where i was then you know at the point i was just

doing 800 meters every day after lifting weights i throw 40 pound vest on sometimes i did a mile four days in a row fucking around one time. Oh, the fuck. Yeah, man. I'm on some other shit. And so I did. My best was 303 days in a row at 800 meters no matter what. And I was about 188, 190 pounds with ab veins.

That was the best condition and strength and everything that I was at. And I missed the streak because I did a charity powerlifting meet at my high school that's a few hours away. I took all the equipment down there, had my family. And by the time I got back, I forgot to lunge. Like I didn't quit because I was like tired or something. I quit because I was hosting something. I got busy. And I got up the next day because I fell asleep early. I like fucking didn't lunch yesterday the fuck so but no it's uh

the material i'm listening to i'm listening to the podcast i'm listening to you guys i'm listening to people that are you know making me smarter while i'm doing that it's like a state of flow when i'm done man and so i created a lot of content right after i've also seen you and your crew do like a no weight on the bar, but literally no more space on the bar because it's all full of bands. That shit looks so fucking scary, but like, where did that come from? So here's one thing I am going to start doing for free a lot, Mark, because I think we're onto something. Now look, I learned band training from Louie and Tony Ramos and all those guys that helped me at Westside. But what I found out is one, no one has a monolift. Well, we do, but most people don't, right? They can't mimic that at their own gym, especially at fucking lifetime fitness, right? So I came up with a way that

you can have a couple hundred pound dumbbells and you can double up a minivan. And you know, as long as you're a normal height, that's going to give you 80 to a hundred pounds total at lockout, right? So I started figuring out, and we used to squat every day for a couple years. We messed around with that. But we've come out to five days a week. It's a front squat four days, and it's a back squat on Wednesdays, right? And we do variations, conjugate. And I try to program to where it's like, all right, there's a five-count pause on the front squat.

So you're going to be limited to how much weight you can get on that, right? But then we rotate two bands a side one, three bands aside week two, four bands aside week three. And so I got 400 pounds of band tension on week three. Then they're adding bar weight. My one 65 just front squat at four 55 yesterday. Like, yeah, exactly. And I got like 12 guys i can front squat over four bills and what i'm seeing is a direct correlation like my 181 just pulled 650 and he front squats 460 and we've seen a direct correlation to their front squat to their deadlift and it's nasty bro how much uh tension do you think you have on there so the base tension at lockout is about 80 to 100 pounds per

set of bands so basically we're starting off the wave of 200 pounds of bands 300 pounds and 400 pounds there's motherfuckers that come in to like just be like can i jump in today you know you see it at your gym and it's four bands i'm like sure bro just stay with the bar and just get just i mean they're just not ready for the tension. We don't, like, I have one guy competing at the Arnold tomorrow. We don't touch a bar without the tension on the taper either. I just go bar weight plus band tension to opener. So the first time that he unracks that bar, it feels like a fucking toothpick. Right.

Because he's so used to being just stapled. So what I've figured out is an essential daily conjugate method squat with band wave that has made my guys freak shows and so i'm going to start teaching this out because i think they can do it any crossfit gym they might go up to four bands but they might go one two three right and that wave has been it's been wild man you think it maybe just beats people up a little bit less uh and then like if someone if someone can squat let's say 400 pounds they could probably stand up with like 600 pounds. For sure. And they could squat like 600 pounds of band tension because maybe at the bottom, maybe it's half of that or something like that. Yeah, so it's about, yeah, probably half of that or maybe three quarters.

So at the end of the day, it's like when we used to train with gear all the time, your nervous system gets so good that then you start getting those other weights and they feel like. So you see what I'm saying? It's a little bit like training with equipment in a way. In with a slingshot because yeah it's exactly the weights are lighter at the bottom heavier at the top it's exactly what it is and so what happens is because their core and their their their front rack gets so so good and they're so good at bracing that it just carries over so much the deadlift in the back squat it's been pretty wild to watch man that's cool what about you experimenting this way because it's like you know uh Mark was mentioning the lunges that you do, which is absolutely wild.

Thanks, man. So like all this band tension, like, yeah, everyone uses people use bands. Yeah. Not to that extent. Not like us. So then, like, I guess what gets you worrying in terms of thinking about things like this? Yeah. So it's I think I, man, when I moved here, you know, 20 years ago, I had no clue all

this stuff was going on in Columbus. I moved here because my friends was coming to Ohio state and I found a spot that I could go to school for one year and start personal training. I didn't realize Westside Barber was here. I didn't realize Arnold classic was here. So when I started, um, getting around some like real lifters and started to understand some stuff, I was like, I've never been a person that just completely follow. I've always been a person that goes, yeah, let me get that.

You know, cause I think I'm one of the only people that learned legit bodybuilding from arnold schwarzenegger personally and then also had been at west side a bunch of times so like and then learned off john bros who brought the kind of squat everyday system from the bulgarian um abijay of i think that snatched like 500 so like i went and saw him in vegas and fucked with him for a little bit so it's like i just keep these pieces and I think like how can I take these out to normal people essentially? We do things that normal people can't do. They're not going to put a fucking squat suit on and go 700 or double blue bands on the monolith. They can't replicate that.

But they can replicate what I'm doing because a lot of these guys that come in, they were members on my website. They were doing these programs at Lifetime. a lot of these guys that come in, they were members on my website. They were doing these programs a lifetime. And I see this dude's doing man, two 75 plus three bands on a three count pause on a front squat, man, come on in here. Like, let me see, you know, let's get a crew around you and see what we can really do. So I just have always tested everything on myself first. And because I'm constantly competing, there's always a date on my calendar. I'm either doing bodybuilding or powerlifting. So I'm always testing things along the way. They don't always work,

but I'm telling you, this thing right here, it works real good. I'm going to talk to Travis when I go see him, Travis Mash, about let me try this with an Olympic lifter. They got to get up out of the hole

with the, you know, they get smashed in there and they got to come out. Like, I think this will work for them. And what I love about Louie Simmons is he's been testing this shit out in the garage forever, bro.

He don't give two fucks. And that's kind of how I operate too, to be honest. Like, I look up to him probably more than anybody. You know, Arnold was always my idol from a bodybuilding

standpoint. Yeah, I don't think Louie, I don't think he has, like, a degree in kinesiology. He doesn't have a personal training certificate. And I think, you know, I made this point last

night in a seminar that i did saying like none of that really matters doesn't really matter where your knowledge comes from everyone has the ability to experiment and that's what you should be doing like exactly different foot positions on your squat they're just talking to eddie hall the greatest deadlift of all time and he was mentioning like he had one day a week where he his feet would be in closer another day where his feet would be wider and he found that that started working really well for you he kept doing it but like there's no one way man yeah there's no right and you got to just keep trying and somebody that you work with too that is i mean you end up rubbing elbows with a lot of people that are really high level and uh somebody that i uh think

is kind of under the radar that people i knew you're gonna go there for sure that much is my dude yeah it's eric serrano yeah so you've been working with him forever i mean he put bcaas on the map omega-3 fatty acids i mean he was kind of the charles poliquin like took the information and got it out there more market he marketed better he marketed don't really fucking market yeah he don't he didn't care he's like very straight so serrano don't really fucking market it. Yeah, he didn't care. He didn't care. He's like very straight. So Serrano, this is crazy, right? So once again, I'm here. I don't realize he lives literally 10 minutes from me.

Actually, he lives in the development behind my gym, bro. Like he's that close to me. So when I'm like 20, I'm trying to promote these drug-free bodybuilding shows, but I need somebody to help with the drug testing. So I started doing all this research, realized how smart he was, and I was taking Beverly International products at the time. He had formulated Ultrasize. So his name's on the front of the jug.

So I started Googling this cat. I'm like, man, where's he at? That shit was good. Real good. That protein power. I learned a lot from those guys, too, way before the MP days. And so I Googled, and I realized, shit, Serrano's office in Pickerington, which is right down from where I'm at.

So I start showing up at his office, right? So they're like, can't see him. Who the fuck are you? It's like fourth time I see him back there. And he's like, yo, look, what do you want? And this is my answer. I think we need to be friends. I can picture you on your bicycle.

You're riding up on your bike. Bro, I think we need to be homies and he was like you know fucking whatever he's he runs his mouth he i call him my puerto rican dad man he even helped me out for a long time but here's why though back to what we were talking about early he knew hey cory i want to try this he tried this crazy creatine thing with me what i was doing like shit i was taking like 37 grams of creatine a day i was doing like we used to test stuff because he knew i was attempting to get a drug-like response without taking drugs so he loved that and he was like all right with the bcas let's do 20 grams here let's do this let's do that let's

do fat loading we did this program where i went like um it was like no carbs and instead of carb loading we were fat loading i mean we did all kinds of wild shit man with 100 grams of branch chains and so i was in like basically my own science project literally since i was like 20 so that's why that's how i know a lot of this stuff is because i just live through it with high level people and then on top of that i'd be emailing dr mario di pasquale because that's who eric learned from yeah and this dude who wrote the anabolic diet he'd be emailing me and i couldn't even like answer him he's so smart i had to like research shit just to answer the damn emails it's crazy man it's cool yeah serrano is under the radar though and really smart good dude yeah when it comes to like that and your bcas are second to none dude those are my absolute favorite

thanks man so is that where it started by yeah yeah 100 yeah i brought him in was like you know when we were going through the formulations back in the day at mp and then just kind of carried on from then and it's at the point where you know i don't need them a whole bunch as much anymore yeah because now we have a lot of the base stuff done and the manufacturer can tweak some things that they need but we found out that like doing the branch chains haven't we have 10 grams of branch chains with 5 grams of glutamine and then a hydration complex together per scoop. We put two in a gallon jug. We feel good. I mean, there's the pink lemonade.

I think it's some kind of lemonade. Well, we have a regular lemonade, and then we have a sweet tea, too, that a lot of people mix and do Arnold Palmer. We got all kinds of stuff. Yeah, well, because I tried it, and I'm like, this is bullshit. Because this was before I had met you. This was at the old location. Yeah, yeah. You had sent a bunch of stuff, and then when I met, and I'm like, this is bullshit. Yeah. Because this was before I had met you. This was at the old location.

Yeah, yeah. You had sent a bunch of stuff. And then when I met you, I'm like, damn. Like, maybe this shit is legit. Well, yeah. I mean, I'm building this shit for me, bro, straight up. Like, I'm building it to do, to my craziness. I need all this.

And so then when people are like, yeah, I'm vibing with that. Like, let me try it. This dude's in his 40s. He's still doing all this. Yeah. So out of, like, all the experimenting, like, to try to get the anabolic effect but still staying natural like what what was like the biggest like combo that you were able to find that was like oh here we go yeah so uh i didn't look as good or perform as good when i was on low fat stuff back in the let me eat seven meals let me

eat chicken every meal as soon as uh serrano was like yo you need to eat way more beef he's like you need to make sure and keep your fats way higher. And this is like way before it was like super cool. And, um, I got, I finally got tighter, but my problem was I needed a mixture of that. And with the lunge work, I think I just didn't have that because then I'd be so, I'd be walking these photo shoots and I, you know, to do fitness RX or whatever. And I could never like, I could barely squat two5 us a week man i'm just walking in there like i look good but i'm thinking like i can't maintain this it just wasn't a lifestyle you'd be in shape for like a week and then yeah and then if there'd be

a hard fall off i'm like this ain't really this i'm really down with this anymore so finding that figuring that out the lunges was part of it i could feel like i was turning back the clock man i could feel my testosterone like i get my blood work done like once a year. I think my testosterone was like high fours. It wasn't even anything crazy, but it's just that it probably stayed there for a long time. I hadn't had a super dip like most do, but it was just one of those things where I could just feel it when I wake up.

I could tell like, oh, that protocol is doing this and having fats before bed or I would try different types of protein before bed. Man, I've tested so many different things things so being like a leaner dude like well i mean you you look fucking phenomenal thanks like every time you post something i'm like are you sure you're like i'm joking i'm joking because we had that conversation like through text message um like well i'm not a very big guy see i think pictures look bigger that's the thing like people were it's all they see the picture on ig they're like this dude looks big i'm like well that's way like 180 you know i mean that's a credit to you that's a good bodybuilding yeah yeah because i always try to be

symmetrical right i wanted my back because like my low back gets crazy like like guys that take drugs i mean with all the christmas trees nuts shit and that's where people are like damn i don't know how you get in that condition yeah i'm like well yeah i've been doing this for 20 years i guess that's the answer yeah uh i mean what about carbs like because what i was talking about like a leaner person because like for me like i just feel better when i run on higher carbs yeah mark and sema they love running on fat when i eat too much fat i just i feel like like i kind of, hungry. So do you still keep the fats really high and the carbs low? Yeah. So my carbs, I eat usually two to three sweet potatoes a day.

So I have a version of my fasting that I teach on the site that has a little bit more carbohydrates. But if I'm lunging 800, I need that. Yeah. Well, and I noticed I evolved. So like what I could get away, what I needed to eat a couple of years ago with now the muscle and the conditioning, like it's changed. Like I can tell my metabolism is just so much faster. I feel like it's faster than when I was in my 20s, bro.

Like I would go through and smash like a whole bag of jalapeno potato chips and go eat some wings. We get some beers. I wake up. I'm like, damn, I still look good the next day. Like this is – I'm on to something for sure. When you're talking about need, you're talking about like you don't necessarily need it to like sustain, but you need it to have really good workouts because you're working out really hard. And I think that a lot of times people are kind of missing that piece. It's like, man, if you're not performing great in the gym, it's going to be really hard to change your body or to feel strong, you know, struggling to even lift like 225 and stuff like that.

Yeah, I think just having that balance, right? struggling to even lift like 225 and stuff like that yeah i think just having that balance right you know that you're not spilling over but that you got enough fuel but also that you're at the spot where you can still force your body to change it's a tricky combo man um and just so you can like be good in life right it's not we know we're like lifting lifting lifting but like i still gotta like be i got three kids i'm still gonna be a dad you know i still gotta i got a couple businesses i still gotta be around i can't just be all about lifting yeah and then being good in life like you still you still will have like a beer like on the weekends yeah which is another five last saturday it's another aggravating thing because i'm just like i see he's smoking a cigar he's having a

beer yeah and he's fucking jacked yeah i'm trying to i'm trying to show the lifestyle man i think it's at the end of the day, once again, that's what people are doing. They don't do what we do. I remember trying to tell my clients, that's a lawyer that eats six times a day. He's like, fuck off. He's like, I'm about to drink.

I'm going to do this. I've been searching for it for years. How do I wrap this together? You know what I mean? It's cool. As far as, let's say, a person that's just working out, they're trying to get into the gym. A lot of people just hate lunging.

Yeah. Right. That's another reason why I started it too. It hurts my knee. Yeah. And you actually said you had tendonitis. And an individual that has tendonitis would be like, fuck, I don't want to fucking lunge. That hurts my tendonitis.

They're weak. Exactly. I'm assuming lunging is one of those things that you suggest people do. No question. But in terms of, I guess, general overarching concepts of things you should probably be having in your workout, what would that look like? What would you suggest? Yeah, I think, um, the base, so, you know, we talk all about lower back hamstring, whatever, because of power lifting, but what I've seen, you know, helping the general population is that that's where they're all extremely weak too. And that's why they don't want to lunge.

I've get so many people have L5 S1 problems that when they lunge, they don't realize their back hurts was really because their glutes and hamstrings are so fucking weak. Yeah. And hips are tight. Hips are tight. And so they have all the problems that all power lifters are trying to not have happen. Right. So, so literally whether it's a person that is brand new, if they can do lunges for 30 seconds, I'll start them there. So I'll say, you know what? Do a minute of that and then go walk on the incline, you know, for another 15 minutes and that's your conditioning. Then we need to do four minutes of lunges. And then, so I'll bring them up that way. And what happens is, man, my back don't hurt no more. It's because yeah, it's, you know, the glutes are supporting it now. So I really think we've been based, based on everything around the lower body stuff first

and just getting them moving and then making sure i'm the lunge and learn is kind of my thing like i'm making sure they're they're feeding something into their brain at the same time so that's been a bit that's been a sneaky big part of it how long does it take you to do a mile or half mile yeah so my my best 400 meters is 807 and that's with knee touching every time no extra weight and then i usually try to go somewhere between like 18 to 22 minutes for a 400 or for 800 so a mile takes about an hour though i mean that's that's a that's a 45 minutes to an hour depending on how much game you got and if you're messing with those longer duration ones do you have any other stuff for your workouts yeah so i i thought i was gonna do a mile for a

week so i got on this kick one time i did you know a mile with a 40 pound vest i tried to do a mile with an 80 pound vest right i made it three quarters of a mile and i gave. So I got on this kick one time I did, you know, a mile with a 40 pound vest. I tried to do a mile with an 80 pound vest, right? I made it three quarters of a mile and I gave up and I was mad. I was like maxing out every rep on the, at the end of the third. I was like, you can fucking do this. I wish I knew David Goggins and I would have been like, I got this. But, uh, but no, what it came down to is obviously I couldn't recover from anything like that. So the mile will last her for four days. And I was like, I can't recover from anything like that. So the mile lasted for four days and I was like, I can't recover from this. But I've noticed that between four and 800, depending on stress cycles and life, that's kind of where the,

where it is. 800. I want to dodge cause it's hard. 400 is easy for me, but sometimes 400 is better for bodybuilding. 800. I would look a little flat 400. I look just right.

So I just kind of go on how I feel. What about like substituting for something like a split squat, like, you know, jumping split squats. Cause if somebody is like,'s like uh fuck where am i going to lunge all day long we do stationary inside during the winter if like so basically i'll say like just to make sure you get it done go 15 minutes for 430 or 25 for 800 and they'll just do like stationary like you know push off push back not alternating legs yeah um it wasn't until i saw your tweet saying like damn i've been going to the arnold since 1999 that's when i was like oh shit it's real yeah boy what is this like dude so i mean this is so much a part of my career i mean i was selling programs here in 99 bro like that's how i get tickets to the expo like i'm not like

hey the like the people are like what's a program i don't even know that shit no more. Like I'm out here. Want to buy a program? Like, um, it was crazy because I saw Arnold last night at the charity event and it was cool, but it's like the hype is just, it's just like the deflated balloon. Right.

And, and I remember back in the day coming here, like, I hope these magazines see me. I could talk to the, I could talk to rich Gaspar. Yeah. Try to get sponsored.

Like I made you way before the MP stuff. Um, this is, this is you know i don't know this is so nostalgic for me i don't even look at my i look at my calendar but i don't really talk about my career from january to january it starts here and kind of evolves to the arnold so every year i kind of as i'm driving downtown because i live here i'm like reflecting on oh shit man this is where i came from and you know this is what's happened this last year so it's a little wild yeah i remember seeing all the wpo finals stuff here back in i mean they rekindled it over there but which is cool it will probably never you know never be not with chuck on stage and shit like that bro no you saw a lot of that stuff yeah absolutely yeah i remember seeing uh steve goggins uh do the first 1100 pound squat

you know and then to kind of have you know this thing end up the way it is this year because of the coronavirus yeah it's been sad it is real sad but it's probably the right thing i mean you know it's a breeding ground bro 200,000 people jammed in a place that is actually too small yeah you know you can go in those bathrooms and it's just oh yeah yeah so there was part of it that you're like, Oh man. All right. I ain't got to deal with parts of that. But at the end of the day, like it's so, like I said, it's the only trade show I do. I know you do other ones too, but just getting to see everybody, especially being local, I definitely miss it, man. I was a little sad. It's a big part of Columbus for sure. 50 million part, bro.

You know, you talked about actually selling programs in 99 and now you have this online programming that you're doing. You have a bunch of other businesses that you've talked about actually selling programs in 99 and now you have this online programming that you're doing you have a bunch of other businesses that you've talked about that means that you're just continuing to evolve so like with what you're doing now in terms of fitness how are you continuing to progress how are you continuing to move the needle forward in terms of what you do yeah so it's been a wild ride because i go from selling programs in 99 to handing out the arnold classic trophy with Arnold on stage. And like when muscle farms that at the height of 2014, right.

And I got the, I'm the diamond sponsor. I got the biggest, everything going on here. And then to leave that and then have to come back humbly with a two spot thing and be like starting over, you know, direct to customers,

not going to be as big with retail and all that. That was just an interesting kind of, you know, kind of wave of events for me. But because this was my roots and because I was like, man, this is how I built the first time. I'm going to rebuild it again differently. And that's a better lifestyle for me and my family. And man, pushing the needle all comes based around what am I testing? How am I, how am I trying to force my knowledge from nutrition or training that people can do and make themselves better? So what I've been forcing myself to do now is a lot more of this type of stuff. Um, because teaching, I was going to, I think I was

going to, like, I thought I was going to be a gym teacher first. Cause when I, in my coal mining town, no one was a trainer, bro. So like I didn't have anybody to look up to. So the only thing I knew was like, all right, well the gym teacher looks like you got a cool job. So, and then my wife was in education too. So like, that's just been like real ever present for me. And I feel so blessed of what's happened that I have this like burn now to just kind of get it out. Right.

So I've been really pushing myself to move the needle, not only as a master's lifter now, which sounds funny, fuck, but to push myself now, because honestly, I'm not lasting cats. I can't beat them when they're 20. But when they're 40, they ain't around. So I really think I got some things I can hit. I'm going back to powerlifting gear because I'm an extreme motherfucker. So I'm like, let's put the suit back on, see if I can squat 781 or more. And so I'm pushing myself. And I've always like, I ain't done that yet. I ain't done that yet. Let me, you know, let me, let me just get these things and knock them out. So I'm just always me. I just never, I'm satisfied and happy, but never, I always get that itch and it's still

there. So I'm gonna keep scratching it. How do you think you've been able to outlast everybody? You know, like, Oh man, you're like always healthy. At least it appears. For the most part. I want to talk about that in a second, though. I'm going to tell you about a real injury that got me good. I've asked other people in the past, and just most savages, what I've learned is they just don't admit that they're hurt to themselves even. We always bring up Mike O'Hearn because it's like, damn, dude, you're still going?

And he's like, yeah, he's never been hurt. And he's like, I've had a couple owies. Yeah, he's been dinged up, I'm sure, from time to time. Yeah, yeah. So for yourself, how have you been able to keep everything together? I had a real reality check last year. So I was in 2010 or 11, I squatted my first 700. Actually, my second time 700.

And when I was locking out the weight, the weight on my left side slipped down a little bit. I just didn't stay tight. And I never, I was like, Oh, I was kind of sore, whatever, never got it checked out. So fast forward, I've been lifting kind of around it for a long time while I was doing the arch, the arc bar, which has that little bow on it. Uh, 185 on incline, like eight months ago being dumb, but I was testing something like, what if I go wider? I'll probably get more chest mass or whatever. And that's the shit that happens to me right and so i'm doing 185 just for a regular set i don't know eight or whatever and and i feel something is like boom my dude grabs it he's like you good i'm like it's like man i think maybe my labrum's gone or something i tore my labrum my

hip and i just kept rolling the lunges actually helped it so and i was like well so i went to my surgeon uh this dude i know he's on the get stack plan he's on So, and I was like, well, so I went to my surgeon, uh, this dude I know is on the get stack plan. He's on my app and everything. And he's testing me out. He's like, ah, I don't know if anything's like too bad. Let's get MRI. Comes back to fucking super spinatus ruptured off.

So it's gone. Rolled over. Yeah. So that's your rotator cuff. Y'all don't know. That's one of them. And he's like, bro, he's like, this is real. Yeah.

Right. That's exactly how I looked, bro. I was like, he goes, now this is real. Yeah, right? That's exactly how I looked, bro. I was like, he goes, now this is like, you're down like 10 months. And I'm not talking like you can be lunging and it's like, you can't move this thing. He's like, and if I don't, this is what got me, Mark. If I don't fix it in 12, I can't ever fix it. And I was like, oh.

So, you know, mind you. You got to get to it early, right? You have to make a decision. So, man, I go up and see louie i go see matt winning i'll go see all these people like anybody know anybody that's like done this because i had already built a compensation pattern around it half hurt louie's like just inject it with saline yeah yeah yeah louie's like i think you'll be fine go over talk to that guy there's some dude in from australia doesn't even know that bag full of peptides. So it was funny. But, uh, so I, I started kind of going around from all the smart people. I was like, you know, close to, and here's the crazy thing. I think I had built the conversation

pattern around it for so long that now it was real hurt and it was sore, but I didn't really feel that bad. So I'm talking to the doctor, like, I'm pretty sure like, I'll be cool. He's like, there's not really like a handbook for guys like you. So he's like, most of the time, it's like a grandma is like ripping this thing when she's like putting her groceries away and I got to fix it. He's like, but how about this? See how it progresses for 10, 12 weeks and then come back to me or whatever. So man, I get back into the gym. I deadlift 500 doesn't hurt. Start pull-ups was a little weird cause it's a little tight. But so over the last seven or I didn't get it done. I said, fuck it because I've never missed more than a week's workout since I was 17, bro. I couldn't even like identify with that. I thought

he was talking like a different language to me. I was just like, I don't even like, so the, but here's what happened is I think it's the best thing that ever happened to me though. And I'll tell you why, because the gratitude of all them years of me being crazy, get one down to 165, I weighed 240 before, I've done gear, no gear, powerlifting, all these different bodybuilding shows. And I've been able to build these businesses. I never really got hurt. And I think it's always taking care of myself, but I felt blessed.

So I had to learn all of, like Matt helped me with this, three to one ratio, upper back to pressing. I was always one to one or two to one with Arnold stuff and that helped a ton. So I have this whole process I do to activate everything before I even touch a press. Um, I can do 35 pull-ups again. So the lat strength helps a ton. Um, I can bench like two 75 again. I only benched like three 20 at one 81. So it's not like crazy far off but i'm also taking my time i'm doing reps again with 80 pound dumbbells it really hasn't limited anything and i can low bar still you didn't go under the knife i did not get it no i never got it fixed

so i just said fuck it i got one less shoulder muscle let's figure this out so here's what i did though this is what you guys will love so i get that news i'm like kind of licking my wounds for about a week. I'm like, you know what? I'm going to sign up for a fucking bodybuilding show. Fuck this. He says, I need something to do tons of volume, try to figure it out, not lift heavy. And so here I go. I sign up and I do this, uh, natural show up in Akron and they have physique and you can, you can cross over to natural bodybuilding, right? So I do both of them. I've never even done physique before. Cause I always thought it was, I don't know. I wasn't really into it, whatever. And so I fucking win the physique thing

and get my pro card in this organization. Three months after I ripped my fucking super spinatus off. And my shoulder was a little flat, but it's because I got so lean and I still had enough muscle from previously, but I couldn't do arms or shoulders the whole prep. So I come out of this thing like, all right, I could have been under the knife. I felt a lot, you know, I went through those

emotions. I said, fuck it. I did the show instead. And so all these people were like, of course that's what you did. That sounds about fucking right. I'm like, yeah, I just, you know what? I want to challenge myself to do once again, maybe something no one's really done before. And, and I need to battle my own demons along the way. So it was cool. It was a good experience. And then now I'm able to low bar again i took um i've been taking like five five fifty with camera bar and bow bar and a bunch of different stuff and i could put in the right position so i've been good lately i think i'll be able to compete and do something crazy soon you know i'm curious about this what your advice would be to lifters in this situation because we

had jp price on yesterday okay um he had his hips scoped out and other stuff then he went to stew stew mcgill and steel's like you probably didn't need to get that because he had JP Price on yesterday. Okay. He had his hips scoped out and other stuff. Then he went to Stu McGill and Stu was like, you probably didn't need to get that because he had something somewhere else that was the real injury. And he's already gotten, I think something happened with his spine where they went in and they cut some nerves out of his spine too. And that wasn't even the problem, right?

And even myself, I've had multiple things where doctors wanted to cut in and I was like, let me see if I can do something outside. And things recovered. Mark, you didn't have a head surgery or anything like that, even though you fell under. You've tore a few things off. Yeah.

I mean, legitimately. A bunch of stuff, yeah. So with a lot of. Rub some dirt on it. Yeah. So with a lot of athletes high level athletes whatever middle level athletes that are you know they get an injury they go to the pt they're like oh shit you need to get this surgery or this surgery and that's from a doctor yeah what advice would you give them to try and

figure out what they should do so i think like for me i'm probably extremely in tune compared to most so it was a little bit maybe Maybe it was still a hard decision I think if you don't really know your body you have a hard time being like Have a real like thought-provoking, uh, like definitive answer because you don't really know where I was like, I know how I feel I can do this and it's still sore because it ripped off like once that once those nerves are done Like i'm not even gonna feel that anymore. The stability is still pretty good. So I was like trying to make my own rationale. I think if you don't really know, you have to rely on that.

Right. But from a lifter standpoint, you have to look at, I'm not breaking world records, man. If I was Eddie Hall, maybe, or here, I'll give you one that's even more value. If I couldn't throw with my kids and it was my right arm, I'd have got it done. That's it. If I can't throw the football with my eight year old, bro, it's, it's a wrap. I would've got surgery, but it's my left arm and I'm not breaking world records. And if I can still, if I can still chat, so competing is about me having the butterflies, having the practice sessions,

which is the 4am crew having the prep time. It's about that process that people lose after high school. They don't even realize they miss it. That's what keeps motherfuckers together. So if I can still do that, which I thought I could, then there was no reason to go through that. That, that, that was my rationale. So I think every lifter has to look at, you know, um, I can't write two snatches anymore, but I don't make my money doing CrossFit. I love how far removed we are from like the general pop. CrossFit. I love how far removed we are from like the general pop. We're just making these crazy rash. Yeah. Because even what you said is like, it's still, it's still crazy. Like you said, uh, you know, challenging yourself with these competitions and people, people, people, uh, lose it after high school. A lot of people never even have it.

Ever. They don't ever, they don't ever experience it. And sometimes it's just a matter of like, I don't know, like maybe they were the class a matter of like i don't know like maybe they were the class nerd or maybe they were the fat kid or they were picked on or whatever and they'd ever had confidence to really try anything or do anything or experiment the way that we experiment for sure and so hopefully when people you know listen to shows like this or see the information you put out hopefully they can get just a little spark of confidence and start out with walking or trying some of these lunges or, you know, some, something, uh, you know, some lower barrier of entry. Just have an expectation on yourself. It doesn't have to be world record. That's why I always tell

people like, you're not going to go and do what I do, but what's your version of that? Oh, you've got, you know, your graduation party you're going to, and you want to look good. Or you got spring break vacation. Like it's got, you got to have your own competition in life you got to challenge yourself and i just think people keep lowering expectations of themselves every day it's just easier yeah i like how you like set the uh you prioritize your shoulder like yeah if if i did make money on it yeah i would get it worked on but when you said like if i couldn't throw football with my kids i would have got it done i couldn't imagine not being able to do that yeah i think that's so powerful for people because there are some meatheads that are just stuck in their ways right they're just like no i gotta lift weight gotta

lift weight but it's like dude prioritize right yeah it would have been terrible i think my business would have took a hit because i couldn't train but then you know i can't the dad part can't take a hit man they already take they are you know it is they already sacrificed enough for our crazy ass bro my kids like my kid now it's a freshman in high school he's lifting weights nice he's getting strong he only weighs like 130 but he deadlifted uh conventional pulled 275 they had him back squat like 210 plus 120 in bands the other day like he's starting to and i could see that grind and he's like you know starting to buy in but i'm his old man you know how it is man they don't like all his friends are like, Hey, when we working out with your dad, like, and he's like, Oh,

I don't know. Yeah. It's funny. He wants nothing to do with it. But what I, what I saw the other day, Mark, he's a lot, a lot more reserved than me. I saw him pull from a dead, a pull a deadlift. That was that tweener. You're like, ah, should I pull through this rep? Shouldn't. Yeah. And I saw that shake that grind from the mid shin. And I was like, oh, there it is. And I could see the confidence, like, boom, just tick up just a little bit. And then we took the bands off after a four week cycle, throws five mile an hour faster on his fastball and baseball. He's like, oh, okay. I'm like, I told you, you want to be a freak. Let's go. You know? So it's one of those things where confidence, man, from the day I touched the weight, I built my confidence and that runs everything and i don't give a fuck what anyone says if you work on that

and weightlifting does that more than anything i think a lot of times maybe we're not taught to try hard enough or to um or to even think hard enough and a deadlift is a great example of that because you go to pull on a deadlift and you're like i can't i just tried it i can't like if you told me hey try this weight and i've never done it before i go to pick it up and i'm like oh i'm sorry i can't uh it's too much yep like well no if you you know just if you actually try harder you probably are plenty strong to lift it up and it takes you three or four seconds sometimes for the weight to start to come off the ground and you're like oh okay now it's magically floating off the ground just because you put a little effort in man there's a lot and just that that grind i've always been just a grinder

mentality in general you know my life's different man my kids ain't living in a trailer like i was they don't you know i'm i'm dropping them off in a rolls bro because that's what i want for me you know that but he just happens to be along for the ride so to be able to try to input some of those things that made me me he's never going to really know so i gotta find these things but deadlifts a deadlift doesn't matter who the fuck you are or what's happening pulled off the fucking ground and that's when so like i saw that a little bit and that that was in the work ethic i'm displaying work ethic i'm at the end of the day he hears all the crazy shit so it's like but it is a little bit of a challenge because of what i wanted for myself now the next generation is being taught but they also long for the ride so it's never going to be like that as grimy it's

just it's not possible man what's something you've taken from bodybuilding um that you you know have uh kind of put into your regular life like a discipline from bodybuilding and then also separately what's a discipline from powerlifting that you've implemented into your day-to-day or business i think the discipline of the food man from bodybuilding right it's um that part's tough for oh man like i remember i'd be living on campus with my friends even though i wasn't going to school i was building my business i'd go out to these campus parties dudes you drink a keg beer and whatever and i'd be drinking water because i have a you know a show coming up or whatever are you too good to drink like now i no, I got a bodybuilding show. I thought bodybuilders is big.

Like, well, now they got weight classes. And then finally I'd be like, motherfucker, look at this. Boom, hit him with the abs. He's like, oh, shit, what's your diet plan like? You know what I mean? So it's one of those things I think that non-negotiable discipline, similar to business, it's a build, right? Every show you build on, you got these weeks of prep,

you got this thing. It's a, it really, to me, and that's when Arnold used to talk all about that, man, it just made so much sense. And when I could find it for real and made it more of a lifestyle, it made all the difference. So like people really can't jive with that type of discipline. The food is always their problem. And so I think like that is huge. And from a powerlifting standpoint, man, this is why I love Tony Ramos, which, you know you know the 181 from west side like he would come when i would take these bigger weights for me especially in gear and i just love the fact that especially as my career progressed not everyone loves me not everyone loves you right so you get up to these meets and you got these people and i'm like yeah a couple percentage these people are here to

go go Corey. Most motherfuckers want to see me not get it. And I think when Tony said this to me one time, he goes, this is the fucking, I bought the ticket to the fucking show, bro. Like I came to see like half these motherfuckers don't want to see you win. So fucking show me something. Like I love that on display, show up right now, the fucking weights on the bar, no motherfuckers can help you It's you and I think that that right there about power lifting I think about that when I was trying to get arnold to be my business partner

I'm walking in the room like well, fuck i'm getting this weight. I'm getting this thing done I'm not coming out of here without the result that I want put it on my back Like I I like that fucking like challenge bro I think the power that's why the power bug bit me hard like that because i love the fact that it does nothing matters i go in my gym them dudes kick my ass every day don't give a fuck about what i've done i'm their coach essentially and helping them but at the end of the day i'm getting my ass kicked by my 165s all over the place right now and there's nothing i can do about it you know i mean except for keep training harder and keep coming back for more so i just think those life lessons apply to business.

They apply to everything, man. Yeah, powerlifting, you know, as you see the weights stack up, as you see more and more in front of you, you can't be intimidated. No, man. Can't be scared to take the weight. Partnering up with Arnold or something like that. I told AJ Roberts this a long time ago. He'd come to me for business.

That's how a lot of the West Side relationships were. These guys would be helping me with lifting, and I'd help him with business. And he's like, man, I'm, I'm, you know, I'm afraid to go out on my own, which he ended up. And I'm like, dude, it's like taking, it's like taking the same PR all the time. You just going into taking the same weight. Cause you're scared. He's like, Oh fuck. Well, you know, like, yeah, I'm like, dude, just made sense to him. It's true. So we know you, you're up with the 4 a.m. crew. But still, dude, how do you – He's like, come on.

I don't make any sense. How the fuck do you balance it all, though? You know, the multiple businesses, the family. So I'm sure – They mean energy levels, right? Like how do – Well, I like caffeine. That's for sure.

But I try to have a hard cutoff at bed, like 10. And sometimes it can be 8 30 if i'm super beat sometimes it's 11 30 if we got stuff going on with the kids um so i just try to have that balance and my wife knows i'm like look i'm just i'm whipped it's 10 o'clock you're gonna have to handle getting the kids to bed and stuff and that's kind of the conversations we have to have you have to have a good you have to have like she's down since day one she was painting the walls on the gym when i was 20 like she's been here for the whole ride she believed in it so multiple years right because i know

there's dudes that are listening like do my girl doesn't get it but like she might not be the one either that or that is real don't break up with them yeah or it's just they don't realize how serious you are well here's the thing is? I was out here speaking all this nonsense. A lot of people wouldn't believe in what I was saying. And so she always didn't understand it, but she believed in me. So now it's like I've been proven it so many times. She's like, I'll throw out something like I'm about to do a squat documentary or something. She'd be like, well, when are we going to have time for that?

I know you're going to do it if you want to do it. So it's one of those things where now that's, that's changed. So yeah, you might have a person that their brain can't grab what you can, because no one can really understand what you really believe in. Right. The slingshot, you believed in it from day one, right? But people around you are no one else did. Yeah, exactly. So people aren't going to believe it like you believe it. So I think you can't really make that person, but you have to be able to say, like, you got to support this stuff. If we're,

if we're down to ride lifetime together and that, that right there. And you know, there's things that I don't do or she'll hold me back from that. I need help back from, I need that balance because there's no off, off switch really, you know?

So, you know, I'm curious about this real quick, more of an applicable thing again, because, um, a lot of, uh,

athletes and you're someone who does an insane amount of training volume and insane amount of work every single day. Um, and a lot of athletes have certain recovery tools that they swear by. They're like, Oh, this is my X factor. This is my X factor.

Sometimes they keep it from people. Sometimes they share it. Yeah. Yeah. Is there anything that you do that's uncommon? Like, yeah, you get enough sleep,

all these other things, but is there anything that you do that's uncommon that most athletes don't do that they probably should be doing to continue at a high level? Because you're 41? Yeah, I'll be 42 this year. 42 this year, and you're still at a high fucking level. Yeah, no, I appreciate that. There is, I think, a couple things. I always had this, like, ideology about my sleep was just better than everyone else's.

So I'll tell you how I proved that though. So I never really went to like no sleep lab or anything, but I would wake up pretty rested. If I would, if I would get five, if I'm on five, I'm, I'm, I'm good. I was like, I just think my sleep's like sweeter than yours basically. Right. And so I was, I wore that whoop band thing that's real popular right now, which is probably the best. And you broke it. Yeah. It said, fuck you basically. And so here's what was interesting. I started taking, um, thousand meg CBD. We, we sell one of those products before bed too. I don't take it during the day, but I take it before bed to have like even another level of relaxation and for anti-inflammatory. So I started to take, I started, um, doing the whoop thing. I wore it for three months. They

sponsored my podcast. And then I was like, all right, cool. I'll just try it out. So anyway, I'm getting these readings back of my REM sleep, deep sleep and everything. It's 97%, 99%. I'm falling asleep in two minutes. So yeah, right. So it was sweeter than most. Some motherfuckers are getting eight hours. They ain't fucking with my five hours. And so here's the reasoning though um i keep my insulin stable during the day i spike it before bed it gives me a natural crash i take the cbd for the anti-inflammatory i'm tired because i've been putting out all day you put out a lot of energy all day that's a huge factor yeah right training and then mind and then so i'm getting five hours optimal kind of like mini quality crash of insulin that kind of gives you that, that when people are at their desk and they're about to nod

off, but I do that on purpose and then rock with the CBD. And man, I'll tell you what I feel, I feel rested when I wake up and I feel like I'm getting up to do something I love to do, whether I would make money at it or not. See, people don't really understand that. They're like, I just don't know how you do it. If I told you something that you love to do, that's the only time you could do it without getting interrupted, you would do it. That's it.

Yeah, a lot of people get confused about people waking up super early. I don't think everyone has to shift into trying to wake up at 3 to get to the gym at four necessarily. But that's just how my life evolved. Yeah. But I do think it's important for if you can get to sleep earlier than what you're normally doing and it doesn't disrupt your life, then you should. And hopefully because of that, you'll be able to wake up a little bit earlier. I think it just makes sense.

I think for most people to try to get their day started a little earlier. Some people like to kind of work through the night, though. I know like Dave Tate. Some people are night owls. I know a lot of successful people, they like to kind of work more through the night. But I've always hated that, trying to get your day started at like 9 or 10.

That's never felt right for me. No, it feels like, especially when I go to the West Coast, man, I'm all messed up because I'm like waking up at one and then i'm like things ain't rolling early out there a lot of times especially in la it was like none's happened till like 11 oh yeah i'm tripping out uh back to your question i want to answer a little bit better is so i do see a cairo um not not every week but a couple times a month that works with like a lot of like usa wrestling and stuff like that dr tyler's real good dude um i do i did have a like a pt that would work on me once or twice a week with the gun and just hit stuff that was tight like you know i had like a partial glute

tear a really long time ago so i get on my left side and then i have that labrum that's torn on this side it's like a hypervolt type yeah exactly so i have one of those in my house and i had a guy that i worked with especially when the shoulder got Um, I worked with once or twice a week for 20, 30 minutes. So here's the funny, cause I have some friends in the NFL. I was like, what's the vets doing? Cause I treat myself like a pro athlete, basically like, bro, they're always in the training room. You should be in there. So I don't really like massage because I always feel weird when I lift after that, even multiple days, like, or I'm trying to stay tight. Then I feel loose as a mother. Like I, so I didn't really feel a massage, but I do do the hypervolt gun. And I think at the end of the

day, even though I eat, you know, real well, I got to make sure that my hydrate, my hydration's everything. I can feel the difference when I wake up, cause I monitor all that. So I might be looking dry when I'm getting a pump on, but then I can feel it when I'm taking big weights. So that right there, it's hydration and the hypervolt. Other than that, man, I really think it's keeping my insulin stable. I think that's where my energy comes from because I take caffeine before the gym. I take a little caffeine before I lift and a little before I lunge. And then I don't take any the rest of the day. So my last caffeine servings at like 6am and then I don't like get like a hard fall off later. So a lot of people that are listening to this show, you know, they want to get lean, they want to get in better shape. Um, and you've done a great job of that

and you've helped a lot of people. Um, what are, I know that sometimes there's, you're going to change the diet up a little bit depending on where someone is and if you're starting out and stuff, but if someone's just listening to this, um, but what do you think a good place for them to start would be for them to start to lose a little bit of weight? Honestly, I think, you know, I got the crazy fasting protocol that I teach on my site. But I still think going back to the early stuff, like how we used to do, is the best way to start. I think them just having like four or five small things kind of a day. But don't make it too crazy. Like if they want to eat yogurt with fruit in it, cool.

Like I just general like having a halfway decent breakfast that just isn't have any carbs in it see i think that's the thing like ditch some processed foods yeah just get rid of carbs have some eggs have some you know i don't even eat much dairy personally but have some eggs have some yogurt have some meat and green vegetables like just very basic stuff that doesn't make you hardcore i think that the insulin is everything that's how the bodybuilders mess with it on the big level that's's what, so if you're insulin stable, you're going to feel better. And this is the best way to explain it. Diabetic patients are supposed to between 90 and 120 when they check their insulin. Most people are fucking blown

that out of the water all day long, but don't understand that at all. And they wonder why they feel like shit. People are used to feeling like shit that's their normal if you understand how to feel good you'll never go back i just think people are so used to feeling like shit yeah they like even if you ask somebody if you said hey how do you feel they a lot of them would be like i feel okay yeah they don't realize how terrible it is though but then if you start to dig deeper and start to really how's your energy like midday you know and and how's your sleep and how's this and how's that then you start to find out most of those people sleep terrible too like a lot of my clients i had tests that they're like they're not following their diet they're waking up seven times they don't know they're waking up but that that whoop thing shows you woke up seven

times and i always thought like you know when you drink beer and you pass out basically you're like oh i slept good well i was at a 92 percent woke up six times when alcohol was present and then on a normal day 97 to 99 so i was able to see those things which was real cool but other than that the recovery thing it couldn't even identify with all the shit i was doing it was like because you know tommy counts volume west side counts so i counted the volume one time counting the lunges too. I was like 200,000 something pounds or something crazy. He was like, that's fucking nuts.

So like Andrew, I think he mentioned, or actually I don't know if it was you. You said like a few nights ago you had like five or six beers. So you're aware of what it does to your sleep, right? For sure. But with this fitness thing,

not as many people are as deep as we are, right? They do have goals. They want to be fit, but they also want to live a relatively normal lifestyle. Now doesn't drink much at all barely maybe a few glasses of wine every now and then but what would what advice would you give an individual who wants to do this but they also want to just like live a fairly normal life they don't want to cut drinking out totally i got it it's there ain't no fucking super bowl on tuesday night what the fuck are you

drinking beer for straight up like have an occasion like friday friday nights we go to i have a pub in my basement actually too so i gotta be real disciplined i got guinness on tap like the whole night i love it so i went to ireland with the guinness like i love dark beer so you know but on friday night me and my wife gonna grab some like that's i can have a cheap meal i can drink some beers like that's like we're gonna to enjoy a good conversation. My kids are old enough. They can stay at home now and do their thing. And so like I think build it around something actually happening. The fuck you drinking bush light for on Tuesday night for?

I mean, you're going to training is going to feel like shit. Does it enhance your experience? You know, like does it enhance your experience that you have with your wife, girlfriend, whoever, whoever it might be? And if it does, then fucking go for it. And I just look at like the way I teach. It's like eat, you know,

relatively well, 80, 90% of the time, especially if you're a general pop and enjoy yourself. And what people trip out about with me is they'll see me out living it up more than them, but they don't realize what I did all week. Like this motherfucker had five pints,

which are 16s. He's eating wings. And then they see me on IG the next day doing ad poses. Like the fuck is going on here and i'm like oh but that's having that combo of but arnold says something to me i'll never forget he was like it's good to have a little dysfunction with all the discipline that's it i was at his house for something smoking cigar drinking some cognac or some shit he's like it's good to have the dysfunction with all that discipline fuck yeah i feel that you know yeah

yeah they get some sort of balance so you're not not a maniac. Exactly. I mean, look, we're all, the reason why we've become successful is because we're obsessed. And so we need to have that pulled back a little bit every now and again. And I'm trying to find my best version of how I can live this crazy life, not totally affect my family too much and still, you know, have my sanity. So how long have you been in Ohio? too much and still you know have my sanity so how long have you been in ohio uh i moved i grew up here but i moved to columbus in 99 and 90 and 98 got it oh so i'm asking because i'm wondering where the hip-hop influence comes from because i remember when we spoke a while back you're like yeah start with uh get stack 32 or something like that and like start doing the hip-hop covers yeah yeah and so i was like that cause I had that idea like before

I ever came here. Um, and I was like, Ooh, like I recognize that. Like that's sick. So I'm just curious. And that's like me trying to do a better job of just letting my full personality come out. Right. I was like, let's rip off the old iced tea cover. Let's rip off the 50 cover, you know, for, for my, my programming. Um, so I grew up in a coal mining town country, but for some reason, the hip hop music of Pac and Biggie just spoke to me because I think I'm living in this trailer. Poverty is poverty.

It doesn't matter what color you are. And I'm just trying to get the fuck out. And so for some reason, and I think because it was real different than my environment, I don't know. I was always, I don't know if that was part of me.

Like, I don't know. It just became natural. I was there. I was the kid in sixth grade dancing to vanilla ice. It just felt natural straight up. And so like to me, um, and then when I was hearing the lyrics,

a pocket Biggie, and I was just like, man, this just makes so much sense to me. Yeah. I'm applying it in a different way. The thing is I had like the poverty part, but I didn't really have like the crime.

So that was the one thing I didn't have. My parents weren't, were, were solid, but they was just always working. My dad left when I was 11. We had like a trailer that cost $150 a month rent. So I just could identify with that come up.

And so as I got older, it just became me. And that's why now I'm super inspired by Nipsey. I never really consumed Nipsey Hussle when he was alive. And I'm a little upset about that. But now I started watching his interviews. He never fit in the system. He was always just taking the stairs But now I started watching his interviews. He never fit in the system. He was always just doing, taking the stairs. Like, so I watched all his interviews.

Now I, now I feel his music a lot more. So that stuff just always, I don't know, man, it always bothered me. And then real quick, I think, cause I used to be a wedding photographer and vanilla ice always comes on for sure. And people ironically know all the lyrics. We can all agree. It's a fucking great song. Let's just enjoy that shit.

Yeah. It's funny that I remember like that was just enjoy that shit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's funny that I remember that was the first time I remember no one was dancing and I was like, oh, I got this. I'm in sixth grade with the boat shoes.

Let's go. So you can vibe with the new shit though? Some of it, yeah. I cannot. We'll say this is what helps is most of the guys that I train with

are 25 or under. There's a few old dogs. We've got a couple 40s and 50s, but most of dudes are young so they kind of i'm always still late they might know all the good shit they know it and they put it on the gym or they're like gee you might like they know kind of what i like you know that's tough man trying new music it's like it's tough yeah because you're just not used to it but if someone else points it out to you it's a little well what they'll do is they'll throw it at me like because they know what i really like filter it yeah they filter it for me.

Yeah, well, it's funny because, like, we'll look at old super training videos. Yeah. I swear it's the exact same playlist today. Probably is. That's amazing. And then, you know, some of the guys in the gym, they make me feel like I'm 85 years old. Yeah, you are. See, because they'll put something on, and I'm just the grumpy old man in the corner.

Turn that shit off. They're talking about the little Uzi Vert thing just dropped. I'm like, not that far. I can't take it. But I've always been inspired by hip-hop culture. It always just made sense to me. And as I continued, I just, by the lyrics, man, I drew so much inspiration. That's so cool, man. Never heard you say that.

So thank you for that. Yeah, absolutely. What's the biggest difference between Mus uh, muscle farm and, uh, the company that you own now? Like where you mentioned it briefly for a little bit, but what are, um, what are some of the major differences? Yeah. Major difference between muscle farm and max effort muscle, which is the new one muscle farmers retail. Right. And it was money raised, driven, trying to be basically like we were trying to be like a billion dollars. We were trying to go crazy. Right. And I think that was obvious. This business at max effort is direct

to customer. It's more roots driven. It's more interaction driven. It's more me. So like, here's what was crazy, right? How many people work for you currently at a, well, between all the businesses, there's probably a staff. We got maybe like six or seven probably total. Yeah. And then muscle farm must've been a hundred plus. Yeah yeah and that's the thing is that's not really me so you know i had a business partner at muscle farm that was the ceo i was the president and then after i got big we had all these people in there but at the end of the day like i'd go out to denver where we were based we had this crazy like 30 000 square foot facility all this gym and look cool but there's no like that wasn't even me my my dream gyms right down the road, it's called old school gym. Like that's me. So like that, a lot of that stuff marketing wise was really Brad.

I was on the customer tip. Like I was helping with all that stuff with the products and the customers I was vibing with, what are these people need to get results? So like we had kind of our own lanes. And then when it came to me going to meet Eric Hillman or the guy, you know, going to GNC and all that, I could do all that too. Cause I'm, I'm fine in that environment. So, but the process of like that big public, it just really wasn't my vibe. This is much more me. And I think that, um, man, I'm just way happier because of it. So, but I, when I started that, I didn't know all that was going to happen. No one goes, your business is going to grow four times. It quadrupled like three years in a row. I mean, it was insane. So it's like, you can grow too fast also. And I think that was a product is I didn't have quality enough talent to run.

It's just an honest thing. Like we, I couldn't run a business that big all the way by myself. No fucking way. I don't have those skills. Like, dude, I was a personal trainer making a hundred thousand dollars a year, three years before that. Then the business is doing 20 million, 70 million, 100 million. You gotta have other people and if you're growing that fast, you can't always staff that properly.

It's just impossible. And so that was a big problem with that. Yeah, what are you gonna have all your friends work for you or something? It's not gonna work, right? Yeah, it just, it doesn't work. So, and more in the executive positions, you gotta have guys that know how to run

seven fucking warehouses that have a million bottles in them you know i'm saying that's a different level of business bro now this one's a lot of weird shit too with being in retail like they need to know how much stuff's on the pallet what you're you know the size of the pallet how everything's packed everything's boxed everything's wrapped up you're selling costco walmart everything it's a whole different animal so i really wanted to say this I did it that way I want to do it this way I hooked up with John Fosco John Fosco my um the other majority partner in Max Effort he ran all the marketing um his business ran all the marketing for Muscle Farm

and the UFC so we had worked together like seven years so I saw what he was capable of and I was like man I think we could really vibe on this together and then we have Travis Brown Clay Guida uh Dustin Myers who's was the uh who owns old school with me. And it was the Ohio state wrestling coach when they won national title here. And so like it was doing it like this, it was just so much more fun again, man. I mean, at the end of the day, I just want to have fun too. So there's a big difference, but I'll be able to say this business did this much, but the bottom line was X, which wasn't very good because we're always growing. And then this business, which is much smaller, the bottom line was x which wasn't very good because we're always growing and then this business which is much smaller the bottom line's way better and so at the end of the day

you do business to make money you know you know quality products and make money muscle farm really never made money because we were just always trying to grow you also get to uh use your creativity more i'm sure like muscle farm at some point you might have an idea to do something but it's hard to it you're it's like a corporate job bro it's a giant aircraft carrier rather than zooming around in a little speedboat yeah when i was like having to request time off and and then like i had to have a meeting about a meeting i was like yeah i think i'm good on all this meeting about meetings those are great i mean fuck i know you ain't down with that let's talk about this next time yeah it's

like well we're sitting here right now can we talk about it right now i can't fucking like i can't do that i actually said that to reebok when i was working uh with them they're the worst for that yeah they yeah i was like hey let's make sure that we don't come back here like a year from now and and have another meeting about this meeting that's what they do that was that was a cool thing though so when i left mp i signed the deal to be on Reebok and the same team you was on and then started my website and I just felt free again. I was first off on my 30, like eight year old dude signed a shoe deal. I was like, as a rap, I was like, yeah, let's go. You know, I'm living my dream out here. I'm getting my own shoes or whatever. I didn't have my actual shoe like you did, but having a shoe

deal with school. And then, then um basically then going into building content that i know had value i felt like my face was on fire and we produce stuff man we got articles and videos and so much shit that hits every day i've been putting shit on there multiple times a day every day since 2015 man there's the library is absurd at this point you've been consistent just because this is what you like to do yeah i'm just capturing it man i got a really good crew of people that are helping me out and it's been awesome yeah you'd be doing it anyway if no one was filming it that's what i said like in 1985 i'd still be doing this i probably just have to have another job straight up yeah are you able to talk about the the reebok ufc deal yeah sure i'll tell you i'll tell you that story that's fuckers yeah so i mean that's

what it was so we talked about on the podcast smoke on the podcast and then we off air, it was like, you know, boom, boom, boom. And I'm like, we got to do another podcast about that. So if you can, you know, what's so good though, is I think the part of that story, which is good is from something we're passionate about. We end up with great opportunity, right? To sign with Reebok. So I'm up at Reebok and the CEO's lifting in the gym because you know at that time they had the gym so I see him and he don't know me or whatever so I come over to him like yo I'm so and so we just I just signed with you and he's like all right good to meet you I said you know that I'm the only person in the building

can fix your problem and he kind of looked at me like and this is CEO fucking Reebok right I just checked him he's like what do you mean I I was like, the UFC problem you got. You don't know what you're doing. But I do because me and my partner, John Fosco, we did this for a business that did over 100 million. We're the only ones that know what to do. Y'all don't know what you're doing. He's like, kind of didn't really know what to say.

And he's a pretty reserved cat. But he was like, all right, yeah, maybe we should talk. I'm like, yeah, we definitely should. I'm like, there's no one else that has the skill set that I know. And so anyway, so I go and most CEOs don't have a light that aren't really on social, don't really have big followings. This dude, he had like 1300 followers. So I hit the follow. So I knew it would hit his email box. So I just got done talking to him. The followup is boom. How am I going to get to him now? And so it's all strategies, kind of what I want to teach. Right. And so then he obviously follows me back

and I got a direct line to the CEO. So all the people that was dealing with me, they didn't even know I was doing all this. So I come to the office unannounced. Well, he knew I was coming, but the people from the Reebok, like, fitness stuff, gee, what are you doing here? I'm like, well, I'm meeting with whatever the fuck his name is. And you'll see why I'm salty in a second. So, right?

So I'm going by all their offices, and they're just tripping like I'm getting meetings with people they can't even get meetings with. So I get in there, and John and I went up there, and they just kept plugging us for info. Oh, yeah, we'll get the deal to you. Plugging us for info. And so I've had a good relationship with them. We have a lot to value. We should have consulted with them to fix it. They spent $70 million or $ 100 million over like seven years.

Something outrageous. Dude, they didn't put Northern Ireland on the shirt for this guy. Like they didn't even put all, like they were spelling people's names wrong. They were marketing or they had no fucking clue what they're doing. And what happened was, I think because we were so confident, that room like was deflated. Not even in an arrogant way. We're just like, we did this for seven years. We can fix this now. And it was pretty reasonably priced. We had so many

meetings and they just kept grabbing. And then I see it ended up on TV and they grab a little bit more. I see it ended up on TV. But when you're talking about like stuff, you know, you have to give them a little bit, but ultimately Ad Adidas came through, cut 100 jobs, because I think they don't know how to fucking lead the company, straight up. I saw it, because I had a solution for them, and they would take what they wanted, and they got 100 jobs cut.

Those people just want to keep their jobs. That's all they care about. And then it ended up just kind of going into, you know, never came back around. They basically were just like, yeah, we just took as much stuff, we're good. So you said Adidas, but you meant Reebok, right? Well, Adidas owns Reebok. So Adidas came through the CEO from Germany showed up one day and cut a hundred, a hundred heads and then sold the corporate office. So that's kind of my point.

Like the leadership was a little bit soft. And so when I was like real direct and John, especially it was real direct cause he's the one that was doing that for me at mp or with us at mp it was like it was just some bullshit man that's why like i like what reebok was doing for us but when it got really got down to it they they fucking did me wrong i set all that up by the way yeah you did no you did absolutely but that's because you helped me out though i threw you supplements back in the day right absolutely you were helping out me and jessedick. You were my first sponsorship. And then you set me up with bodybuilding.com. So I just want people to understand.

We just got to scratch on each other, man. Yeah, I just want people to understand that that's the way this shit works. Let's be good to each other. Yeah, no, and it's worked out real good. I've always appreciated that, Mark. It was good. And I'm telling you, when I signed that, what's so funny is I started this site and some other stuff,

and it was going really good. But I told people I signed with Reebok, which I made way less money on and all my other shit. They was like, what? You blown up? I'm like, yeah, it's cool. I mean, but it's about to feed my family. But, you know, but it was that was a. So I had a story I told that I had to buy my first Reebok pumps used at a yard sale off my friend because he was like six, six.

He was sick. He was way bigger than everybody. So like two years later, I'm buying his used-ass pumps at the garage sale. And I didn't even care. I still jammed my foot in them because I was the poor kid at the front of the road. What about those Shaq ones? Yeah, I had those too. You had pink on them and stuff?

Man, they were sweet. Looked like someone threw up or something? So I wore those pumps, man, to the day when I signed that. And that was like a real vindicating moment for me that I was signing with a company that I couldn't even afford a pair of shoes when I was a kid. It was cool. I rocked LA gears. Hell yeah.

I had those too. We didn't have the re-box, bro. Yeah. They still make those? I fucking hope so. We should bring them back, Mark. We'll make them cool. There you go.

Rock some good dad shoes. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Absolutely. All right, my man. Where can people find you? Man, everything's at cory g fitness just because that's the thing that i found that had all platforms when i was changing from mp

no at cory g fitness c-o-r-y-g fitness and uh any new sups coming out yeah man we're working on a bunch of stuff you always got something going on yeah i'm working on a pump product i'm working on vegan stuff i've been kind of in the lab doing a bunch of i'm working on a non-stem fat burner so just trying to find the different combos you know to kind of aid what's going on and i always tell people like supplements are going to change your whole life but if you're busting your ass and you're adding them you can definitely achieve way more things i mean i have people like branch chains don't work motherfucker what i've been doing this shit forever there's no way i could recover if i don't take those it's just impossible you know especially with the fasting stuff because a lot of people will

argue that breaks the fast or doesn't so maybe it breaks the fast scientifically but fuck i'm using it and i'm good so just again that's my answer you know most i know some people will say oh you know i'm kind of doing some of this for health reasons and stuff but i think the truth is most people are trying just to lose body fat yeah true you know and it's like if you take the amino acids and it like quote unquote breaks your fast yeah but it helps spare some muscle mass and you burn you continue to burn calories or whatever it's like that's why you'll never see me fighting on twitter with nobody just fucking about that stuff i just need my vibe man just be jacked yeah bro you just want to be jacked that's absolutely cool man thank you so much yeah thanks for having

me guys appreciate it hey one more check me out at business and biceps you know we do talk some fitness but it's mostly business stuff but i'm super passionate about it so john fosco and i have business and biceps man podcast and y'all should vibe with it it's cool awesome thanks mark yeah uh make sure you hit me up on instagram at i am andrew z the podcast please follow at mark wells power project we almost said podcast um on tiktok twitter at mb power project youtube facebook all over the damn place thank you everybody that's been rating and reviewing the podcast that's been helping out a ton and you guys are absolutely crushing it right now uh transima where you at and see my union on instagram youtube and see my union on tiktok and twitter mark how can people become part of that

4 a.m crew what do they got to do just show up by day pass that's it and what's saying the gym again yeah old school gym old school gym that's got to show up at what time. That's it. And what's the name of the gym again? Yeah, Old School Gym. Old School Gym. It's got to show up at what time? 4 a.m.? Yeah, come in 4 a.m. And we take guests all the time, man. People come in. What days do you guys usually train?

Monday through Friday, 4 a.m. Show up. Open challenge, man. Yeah, it is. It's cool. Strength is never a weakness. Weakness is never a strength. Catch you all later.

Poopcast, what up? I don't know about you guys, but I kind of want to go out and do some lunges right about now after listening to Corey G. Thank you to everybody that, well, first off for checking out this episode, but also everybody that's been rating and reviewing the podcast. I keep saying it over and over, but I cannot say it enough. It helps us out so much. So thank you, everybody, that's been spending the time out of your busy day and dropping us a rating and a review. In honor of Corey G's old school gym, we're going to go old school a little bit. So I dug deep in the archives and I found a really cool review from Meg CPT.

Meg says, one of the best, quote, this podcast is awesome. Hands down one of the best quote this podcast is awesome hands down one of the best out there mark is authentic and raw he doesn't censor himself nor his guests and he speaks from experience with a wealth of knowledge i really enjoy when he incorporates his family into his talks because we all have families and things aren't always easy this podcast is inspiring and uplifting in terms of training and in terms of how to lead your life. Well done. Meg, well done on you. Thank you so much for leaving that review. And again, like I said, this is an old school one. So this was before we ever even read reviews on air. So she just did that out of the goodness of her heart. Thank you so much for doing that for us. We

sincerely appreciate it. If you listen right now, if you would like to hear your name right on air please head over to itunes right now leave us a rating and a review and you could hear your name on air just like meg cpt we'll catch you guys on the next one peace