Mark Bell's Power Project - EP. 440 - Pick 6 Call In Show

Episode Date: October 25, 2020

Today our fans got to take over the show. We opened up the fan lines and took six different topics to dive into. We’re opening up the fan lines and taking six different, rapid fire topics to dive into. If you missed out, please subscribe and turn on notifications to never miss out on our call in shows again! Subscribe to the Podcast on on Platforms! ➢ https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast Special perks for our listeners below! ➢LMNT Electrolytes: https://drinklmnt.com/powerproject Purchase 3 boxes and receive one free, plus free shipping! No code required! ➢Freeze Sleeve: https://freezesleeve.com/ Use Code "POWER25" for 25% off plus FREE Shipping on all domestic orders! ➢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 ➢Sling Shot: 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

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caffeine that you actually start to feel more tired oh man that's the worst yeah tired and wired uh-huh yeah that's bad that happened to me a few days ago it's like i i had a i had one of those bangs i had a large dutch bros i'm gonna go live right now so okay just a heads up gotcha yeah it was just like i probably had maybe 800 milligrams it's rare that i ever do something like that but that was that was not good felt nauseous and just yeah it's weird because like uh like we're i mean we're probably made to ingest some caffeine because it's like here it's around, you know,

but then how many, how much sometimes we, that's, we take in quite a bit. I usually start my day off with, with a coffee, but then my day sometimes starts pretty early. So I'm having one at like five and one at seven and like one at nine.

But usually, I mean, I normally stop at some point, you know, but I might have point you know but i might have you know i might have a bunch um i have family members that drink like a pot of coffee every day a pot yeah they drink a whole pot of coffee every day i think it's like about five be about five cups yeah i still i think about my parents like every night you know like for

watching a show or even just the news like sipping coffee eating like you know sweets or whatever just like wow dude we're gonna live forever when in comparison to what other people have done yeah well and then when thinking about like uh you know like we had um johnny Bowden on the podcast talking about cholesterol and stuff. I explained like the whole situation with my dad. I just remember when I had my, while I was working at an office and when I told my boss back then, he was like, man,

you should be like really happy that you'll never face that. I'm like, what do you mean? He's like, you're, you eat clean, you're into fitness. Like,

you'll probably never have to deal with this. I'm like, Oh shit. Like it was, it was weird. It was, and this was a big guy you know like he knew that he's like i'm fucked but so it was just interesting you know we gotta die from something though yeah true and for most of us men it's gonna be a heart attack sorry i mean you get to pick you get to pick you know you get you want to make it you get to pick, you get to pick,

you know, you would get, you want to make it, you want to make a choice. You'd like, all right, well, let's,

uh, you know, you got cancer, heart attack, um, ALS. I mean, there's a lot of shitty things to die from.

I've heard Sean Baker before talk about, uh, a heart attack. He's like, actually, he's like, it sounds crazy, but it's a pretty good

thing to die from i don't know what that means but just a quick yeah i think stuff with your stuff with your brain doesn't seem very good no no like uh having like a blood clot or something or i mean it all sucks i guess and i had such a delayed response with that heart attack one that you see like heart attack sorry yeah it's real though yeah it's real cool mark you want to explain or covid right oh and die from covid never mind let's not let's not i'll need that right now all right i got eaten by a shark yeah but it's covid related underlying issues okay right covid led to it all the shark wouldn't have been there well like never mind yes that south park episode where they they shot the one black kid that's in the in the

classroom wait was it the special right yeah i was watching it passively and i saw that part i was like that's kind of funny oh my god it was crazy and they're like yeah but he died because of covid they're like they're like you shot him we saw you you shot him but then they're like well we wouldn't even be in the school if it wasn't for covid because they wouldn't replace the teachers with cops and all the kids just sitting there like just blinking their eyes at the adults that was my girl's first south park episode she's like this is horrible oh it is so horrible and you gotta appreciate it though you gotta appreciate they go all in true

have you guys ever watched aqua teen hunger force i've never seen it you'd like it you would like it but uh man if you try to show anybody else they just think you're weird be like you've got issues that's the one meatball right it's it's a meat wad meat fry lock there you go and then i forgot oh man the the shake what is this the biggest name shake is it just shake i think so i like when shit's weird it's so weird oh my god all right for today's show we're doing a hoot nanny a hoot nanny doing a hoot nanny show you guys can call in you guys and girls can call in and uh what we're going to do is we'd like for you guys to just kind of give us a topic that you want us to talk about and uh then we're going to take

six of those topics and we're going to talk about them so um we'd appreciate if you you know kind of just gave us uh what it is that you wanted us to talk about and made it quick. And then we're going to move on to the next person. And we're going to take the next person's thing. And we're going to collect six questions, six topics to talk about. And then we're going to go into it. And we'll try to answer stuff the best that we possibly can. Cool.

So the fan line is officially open. So, yeah, if you guys have a topic,. Cool. So the fan line is officially open. So yeah, if you guys have a topic, go ahead and hit that fan line and yeah, we'll talk to you soon. I'm just trying to get the, the social media platforms aware that we're live, but yeah,

we'll just talk some bullshit then while we're waiting for people. And Seema, what's you doing with your workouts lately? Anything different, anything special? You working on higher reps, lower reps? No,

everything's the way it has been. I uh i still work my big compounds but just not as intensely um i as far as my accessories and stuff i've been telling you guys i really love tempo work like i think i sometimes take the tempo work too far just like really controlling loads and working up with them um but that's been helping. Six seconds, eight seconds. Sometimes. Honestly, sometimes. Yeah. Tempo and full range of motion. So like on things like the leg press, I will bring the leg press all the way down.

Like Mike O'Hearn. I'll do a lot of things with full range of motion just because I think that working through that full range really does help me out with grappling and grappling. I end up in really weird positions. And if I'm like strong here here but i'm weak right here that's not good so then i like to work those full ranges so that i feel strong in every single position that i grapple it's made a big difference i think it makes a lot of sense i think especially if you're to think about something like a um like a chest fly you know like as like a bodybuilder

or like a lifter you might keep tension on it and really not move around much. You know, maybe you're only moving the weights like 10 inches or something. But as someone who's doing jujitsu and trying to get a different result from it, maybe you just let the arm just stretch back as far as you can without something feeling like it's going to hurt too bad. Yep. Yep. And the funny thing is, like, I'll use loads that most like everyone here can probably handle pretty well. But like, that's the thing with the tempo and the full range like the chest flies that was a great example because i really like doing that movement especially because like my ac joint here but i like bring it all the way over here to like a slightly uncomfortable position

almost like flexing your back exactly and then slowly bring it back up have you used the new tank yet no i haven't we got a three. We got a three-wheel tank in there. That's a real devastator, man. It's really, really cool. It's super nice. Yeah. You can pull it, push it, and all kinds of stuff. Yeah, I saw the ad, and I'm like, ooh, that'd be sick to take to the park.

Because it's smaller. How new is it? Brand new. Brand new, yeah. We just got it completely new. Oh, wow. Okay. It's got a cool handle next to the front wheel, so you're down, not on the ground, but you're

really low, trying to push up against that. Like a football sled. Yeah. Yeah. Dude, it's really nice. It's super mobile. Only the front wheel has the traction on it. The back two wheels, they're just regular wheels.

A lot easier to steer. Yeah. Oh, yeah. It steers a lot better. A little easier to maneuver, and yeah, I like it. I like it a lot, too. Yeah, so far, so good. Cool. Oh, yeah. It steers a lot better. A little easier to maneuver. Yeah. I like it. I like it a lot, too.

Yeah. So far, so good. Cool. You got to give it a shot. Let's take a call. Yeah. Who do we got? Let's see.

Oh, shit. I just really did that. Actually, I hung up on him. Oh, you hung up on him? I think so. Let's see. I want to call you. I know. I messed up.

We had two. What's up, man? What's your name? What's your topic? Hey, what's up, man? This is Dan from Ohio, and I have a topic. It is getting yourself in shape with a blue-collar job. Nice.

What job specifically, man? Well, I was a plumber, uh after i was a plumber i worked in sewers um being lowered down into big pump stations full of a whole city's uh shit basically and uh i decided to get in shape then and it was probably the worst timing I could have chose due to the physicality of the job. And I just kind of want to know your guys' take on how you would approach it as far as being on calls 24-7 and not being a doctor, you know, not being able to plan your day around workouts because you may have to go in early, and then also getting human crap, you know,

basically splashed in your face on a daily basis. Got it. Awesome. Do you work weekends as well? As of right now, I switched from sewer to work into water treatment, so now I'm on the clean side of water. And, yes, I work every third weekend for four hours each day. Okay, cool.

But we're going to get to this question. And maintain an on-call 24-7 status as well. Awesome. But we need more people like you. That's awesome, man. You're out there getting a lot of work done, putting up points on the scoreboard. We're going to get to this question in just a little bit. We're going to take

our next caller. Have a great day, Dan. Okay. I lost them too. I fucked up and accidentally hung up on two people. So if you guys tried to call, please give us a call right back. But in the meantime, I guess we can go in on Dan's topic.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, because I feel a lot of people are in that similar situation. He did mention that he does have some weekends free. He said every third weekend he has to work. And so I would really suggest that any time you got a day off of work, you have to you have to lift. I mean, you have to kind of probably almost force yourself to do it because you probably don't want to do it. And I would suggest that you do it in the morning. The other thing I would say and the reason why I suggest that you do in the morning is if you have a girlfriend or a wife or family, it's really nice to do that stuff while they're sleeping or while they're getting their day started that way on your like day off.

I know it's paying the ass cause it is your day off and you want to probably sleep in too with everybody else. But you could always take a nap later on in the day. Um, but the wife, the kids and your significant others or other family members and friends, um, they're not really doing much at 7 a.m.

or, you know, 8 a.m. probably, most likely, right? So get that stuff done early and get it out of the way. So any days off that you have, including the weekends, I would highly recommend that you stick in some working out there. And usually, for most people, it's going to be at least twice a week already. You know, you guys tell me if I'm off kilter and saying this, but I find that blue collar individuals are for me personally. I get really excited when I get to work with these people because I feel like they have the potential to be the most healthy individuals because they're always on their feet. They're having like, yeah, y'all got to do some hard work.

I get it. But because you're actually working with your feet, you're on your hands. If you're a plumber, you're squatting to get to certain places. Um, what do you get off work? You might be a little bit tired. That means that you work out. So I don't think that if you working out your workouts have to be like an hour and a half, two hours longer or anything. But, um, you're not sitting for like six to eight hours, like some people, which causes them a lot of problems and a lot of other issues that if you get healthy, you won't really have to deal with. I feel like they're in the best place to be able to actually drop weight. Well, cause like I'm working with this guy,

he's working with Jesse Burdick for straight training and I'm doing his nutrition, but we're just dropping and it's so easy. It's like clockwork because he's on his feet all day long working. And I think that that actually puts you in a place where like, yeah, you're working. But then if you can plan out your meals and other things, you can be in a really advantageous position in terms of fat loss, in terms of staying in shape than individuals that have to work in an office job all day long. He did mention also being on call, you know, and being on call like kind of 24 seven.

Even with that, I would just suspect I don't know because I never had a job like that, but I would just suspect there's probably times where you're called upon maybe a little bit more than others. in a time that doesn't line up with, like if you normally are getting called at seven in the morning, cause that's when someone goes to flush their toilet first thing in the morning, then maybe work it out at 7am maybe would be tough. So maybe you got to work out at five or maybe you got to work out at nine. So just try to, I think for the most part, I think everyone feels like their job is real sporadic and there's just weird time commitments and stuff.

But usually there's like at least some sort of cadence to the job of some sort, or you can adjust, uh, when it comes to food and SEMA, what do you think, what would you have somebody do? Let's say they work, you know, Monday through Friday and they're at work at, you know, 6 AM until, uh, 5 PM every day, you know, Monday through Friday. It depends on what they want to do and like, I guess the demands of their job. One thing that I think would be necessary to have on hand, especially if you're a blue collar worker and you're on your feet is electrolytes, like some people that have to work outside.

But if I have to go from place to place, they're probably sweating. They're probably expending some energy and having some electrolytes actually is going to be a very beneficial supplement for them. Um, number two though, this is a flip flop because if you're trying to drop it, you could, it could be advantageous to maybe just fast during your, a vast majority of a working period. Um, and then after work, if you have the ability, then you can have your meals when you get home or like have those prepared at home, um, rather than potentially, it might be easier than having to carry certain meals around you, stop work to eat and do all that stuff. Obviously some places do have mandatory lunches. Um, it's, it's a flip of a coin, but I would say it might be a, it might be a advantageous

way to, you know, try out some fasting for your working period. It might actually end up being really beneficial for you. I would also recommend, uh, some fasting for your working period it might actually end up being really beneficial for you i would also recommend uh some fasting maybe don't fast to the whole work schedule yeah uh but i think some fasting would be really good it just makes things a little easier and it sounds kind of funny but like i know that for myself the less i eat the less i poop so the less time i'm spending and, and I'm, I'm a little bit more regular. Like when I'm, when I'm eating on a fasted schedule, I kind of know exactly when I need to go. You know, I, I usually go like twice in the morning and then I'm, I'm good to go for the whole day. Yeah. However, if I eat like six meals a day, it's more sporadic. It's going to,

you know, hit me at different times, which can be really inconvenient. You know, you're working like this guy's a plumber. He's had a couple of different jobs. And if you're working in someone's home, like to stop and take a dump in their house, like probably not, probably not the greatest thing, but you are, I guess you are working on the toilet. So it might be convenient. And one thing, especially, I think a big thing that we learned from Johnny Bowden yesterday, I mean, a lot of guests have echoed this, but eat real food. And a lot of things that happens with a lot of blue collar individuals is that they'll take food on the go because they're always on the go. But this food isn't necessarily food. It's usually like typically pretty unhealthy snacks, just something that they can eat when

they're on the run, something super convenient. But that really convenient food ends up being typically pretty damn bad for them. So if you are an individual that you do want some snacks or you do want to eat something like that, eat real food, have have a real food on deck or real snacks on that. Or, I mean, like maybe real fruit on deck, like have something that's real. Don't don't have Oreos in the seat. Because I a lot of these kind of guys go to jujitsu, too. And they tell me about the type of stuff they're eating. And like that's some Oreos in the seat pocket. Because a lot of these kind of guys go to jujitsu too, and they tell me about the type of stuff they're eating. And like they have some Oreos, they have some nuts, they have like a lot of foods that just aren't good for you

just because they need something to eat, right? So let's eat real food. Yeah, I think just to list off a couple real foods that you could have with you very easily, or you could get just about anywhere. I mean, you got to remember, you can go to a gas station, and yes yes you can fill up on a lot of junk food but a lot of times they have bananas there a lot of times they have um uh apples you know eggs yeah yeah hard-boiled eggs right so you have apples oranges um bananas like there's access to these things first of all you

can just purchase them at the store and you can bring them with you. Secondly, you can get them out almost wherever you go. Like 7-Eleven nowadays a lot of times has like, you know, a little area that's refrigerated and they got like cold fresh fruit and they have cheese is another great one. We mentioned the hard boiled eggs. Epic bars, I think, are a really good option. It's just basically a meat bar. I happen to like the taste of them. Give them a try.

See if you, you know, if you don't like the taste of them, don't buy them. But if you dig them, then go for it. And then also you got things like beef jerky. Like I still would recommend that you try to go with like cooked meals. I would still recommend that you try to lean towards that as much as possible. But there's just so many options. And stopping at most coffee shops, yes, they have like little muffins and a bunch of yummy stuff, right?

But they almost always have, there's almost always a healthy option. At Phil's that I go to, it has a hard-boiled egg kind of scramble type thing that has avocado in it. And you can get some sriracha sauce on it. It's freaking amazing. It's really, really good. Starbucks, 170 calories in their egg white, egg bites. It's 13 grams of protein.

I mean, that's freaking awesome. You know, you eat that, you eat an apple, boom, you're right back to work. So I think there's always options. Obviously, prepping some of your meals, cooking some of the stuff at home, but just because your job is your, I hate to say it this way, but your job is irrelevant because the method to get fit is always the same for everybody. It's going to take work. It's going to be a pain in the ass for most people. It'd probably be a pretty large change. And so when you start to think about having such a large change,

then you might need to think about, well, how do I make it not so intrusive? And so we did recommend fasting, but fasting could be the most intrusive thing to start with because you're not used to, you're not used to a nutritional intervention at all. So if you are new, if Dan who called in, if you're new to some of this and you, and you're like, damn, I don't know. It seems pretty hard. Try to continually feed yourself throughout the day, you know, try to, which could be hard during work though.

So that's why we recommend fasting. But you might have to feed yourself some small meals throughout the day so you're not hungry. I think in SEMI and I are in the same boat when it comes to this. I think we would always suggest that people that aren't familiar with nutritional interventions, that they start with just getting used to the food. No calorie counting. We're not really worried about amounts. Just please get used to the foods.

And then what foods do we have? What options do we have? We're looking for lean sources of protein and fruit vegetables. All that is pretty much fair game. Eat it until your heart is content. Maybe even mix in a little bit of dairy here and there, and you should be good to go. Last thing to mention too is also like at Starbucks, they have, and you should be good to go.

Last thing to mention, too, is also, like, at Starbucks, they have, I think it's either Siggy's or Fage yogurt there. Wow. Yeah. 20 grams of protein. I think it has, like, it does have some sugar in it, because it's like the vanilla flavor or whatever. Tastes pretty damn good, you know? And they also have cheese sticks there.

I mean, there's, there's options. There's a lot of options. So Dan, there's a lot of hope for you, dude. And hopefully, uh, you take some of this to heart. And, uh, if you want to find out some more information, you can check out my book, the war on carbs, or you can check out Jack and Tan. Those are both available on, uh, markbellslingshot.com, or you can go on Amazon and look it up. I got a YouTube channel.

My boy and Seema's got a YouTube channel. You can check out that. We talk about nutrition all the time and you can check out some previous episodes. But please hit us back, you know, hit us back on our Instagram and let us know about your progress because we want to definitely hear about it. Thanks again, man, for putting in all that work. We need more people like you out there working your butts off. Heck yeah. Alright, let's take another call hey we hear ourselves what's up dude give us a topic oh not much how's it going good man what's up well i was just gonna check and see how much much cardio y'all do now I mean do you use cardio as more of a time to cut or now that you're more in shape you know is it less cardio do you kind of

stick to the same regimen or or how do y'all view that yeah I guess we'll just we'll just tackle this one right here uh on spot. What's your name? Mike. Mike. Nice. All right, Mike, thanks for calling in. Really appreciate it. So I don't know, in Seamus' thoughts, 100%, but the way that I like to use cardio is kind of as a weapon,

and I also like to use traditional cardio as kind of a last resort. I don't normally recommend it or suggest people do much of it unless they're trying to get ready for like a bodybuilding show or unless they're trying to get in better shape. Now, if it's somebody that doesn't really love lifting weights, then I would, of course, recommend some cardio

because I'd like to see them get in more exercise. And what I consider to be cardiovascular training is definitely a notch and step above just walking. I do think walking is great. And for people that are newer to fitness that haven't really embarked on any sort of program before, I think walking is the place to start. But I think in order to elicit a response to really burn enough calories and to really be worth it in a long run, you got to do something a little bit more strenuous than walking. So I always suggest people get their heart rate above 135 and try to do so for about a 30 minute, 20 to 30 minute bout at least. You can buy something called a pulse oximeter off of Amazon. It's like 12 or 15

bucks and it will check your heart rate because, you know, checking your heart rate is going to be going to help you with that cardiovascular training just to be a little bit more efficient. So you're in a good, uh, fat burning state and that you have a decent amount of intensity going on with the cardio. I currently don't do any forms of traditional or standard cardio. Um, but I do a lot of super setting in my workouts. Um, I do a lot of just regular walking, which I mentioned earlier is not really enough, uh, to elicit a, a real fat burning response in my opinion. Um, but so yeah, for me currently, uh, I'm not utilizing any cardio. I, uh. Lastly, I'll just kind of finish with saying I don't think it hurts.

You know, I think a lot of people are real scared about doing cardio, and it's going to really negatively impact them. So I'll also finish in saying that I think most of us could use it, and it probably would be a good idea for me to utilize some of it. I just personally like to utilize it as a weapon because I think it can lose, uh, its effectiveness. Uh, and SEMA. Yeah. I want to first start off with the last part that you said there, because recently I've been seeing, um, a lot of body builders, uh, a lot of body builders within fitness start taking up a little bit of running.

Right. And one of the things that I was scared of when I started doing more like martial arts and stuff, I was like, I'm gonna lose all my muscle. Like that was literally like, I was literally scared of that. Um, but the funny thing is like a lot of these individuals that are, you know, doing a little bit of running, not, and when I say running, not like Nick bear, Nick bear is taking it to another level where he's doing marathons, but like, uh, you know, just like running a mile or getting better at running, running from, you know, just like half a mile or something every, every day. Um, none of these, all of these individuals are also finding the fact like, well, I'm not losing any muscle. I'm not losing any strength. My gym workouts feel

better. I can last longer. So, um, as far as cardio is concerned, yeah, it's great to do when you are losing fat or when you can increase your cardio, when you're trying to even drop more fat in a fat loss phase. But I think it's a general thing that you want to be able to do all the time. It's like the better heart health you have, the better your workout is going to go because you're going to have more endurance. Doing cardio will help your in-gym sessions out more. But it's just like the level of which you take that cardio. I don't think that if you learn how to run a mile or two, that's going to affect your strength. It really won't. But if anything, it'll actually help you do better in the gym. You won't be losing any muscle. You'll be, this is a side benefit,

but you might be able to eat a little bit more food, right? For those of us who like to eat more, you'll be able to eat a little bit more food. I think it's good for everyone to do. And I was one of those people who was like, don't do a lot of running or don't do this because it's going to affect your strength. It's going to, you're going to lose a little bit of muscle. But a lot of us meatheads are finding out that if you eat enough food and you're working out well and consistently, everything's going to be fine. If you add in some, obviously some walking, but even a little bit of running or a little bit of martial arts, it's not going to hurt. It's only going to help. Can excess body fat be solved through cardio, or do we have to look at something else?

Oh, well, I mean, cardio is good, but your nutrition is the biggest thing that you've got to look at. I just want to make sure that's really clear to everybody because I think we've all kind of fallen victim to thinking like, oh, I'll just increase the cardio. But really our problem is in the kitchen. Really our problem is in we're not prepping the food properly. We're not eating properly.

And so really make sure that, you know, if you're trying to lose body fat and trying to look better, you don't necessarily need cardio. But again, it can be a really, really useful piece. And it can certainly assist. It can certainly enhance and help you to lose weight faster. But don't think that you have to have it in there. Make sure the nutrition's on point. And I liked what Nsema said about you might be able to eat a little bit more food, which is good, but it doesn't really mean you can eat a lot more food. So I'm very careful when I say that. Yeah. So what you guys are saying, or what Mark, when you mentioned using a heart rate monitor is the, uh, the level that you said, is that because there's something that happens there? Or is that uh it's just a a pace where you can't really

talk to somebody next to you uh consistently without kind of huffing and puffing and so that that's i i think that i think that the the more the more uh the more things that we have they're like measurable rather than just being like yeah i'm working hard enough like i i think it's i think we're better off having something that's real measurable and you can say, yeah, I'm over 135. I mean, for some people like 135 is not some sort of magical number, but I believe it's between 135 and 145 that you do build up the left ventricle of your heart, which is a huge bonus, a huge plus.

As Nsema was pointing out, like you're just going to, you're just going to be better at breathing all around, you know, so you'll recover when you do your sets of lat pull downs from one set to the next, you'll be recovering not just from one workout to the next, but from one set to the next. And even oftentimes from one rep to the next, because you're just in better shape. And so, uh, being in good shape shape and I've seen it time and time again with some of the bodybuilders and people that have come through here, their conditioning is like, it's overwhelming. You're like, whoa, like I just didn't really know that some, because they're just big, they're big, huge people.

And you're like, I should, I had no idea they could get all that work done in four minutes, but they can, they can hustle after it. Cool. So Mike, appreciate the phone call, man. Uh, thank you for stepping up. Uh, but we got to take another call though, but thank you. Absolutely. Thanks guys. Awesome. All right. Let's see who else we got. Hey, what's happening, man. What's the topic today? Hey guys. My topic is about youth, and I was wondering about what the early 20s version of you guys was like,

and what kind of stress factors were in your life, and what you guys did to mitigate those stresses. Like mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually, financially. What did you guys do? And how do you look back at those times now? That's my question. Oh, yeah. What's your name, dude? Ishmael.

Ishmael. Thanks a lot, man. Appreciate it. Is it Ishmael or Ishmael? Ishmael or Ishmael? Ishmael. Ishmael. Sorry.

Awesome, dude. Thank you. No worries, man. Cool. So write that one down and we'll just take another call so we can get another topic going. Does that sound good? Yeah. Oh.

Hello? Oh, there we go. Sorry. I didn't see. What's your name, man? What's the topic you want us to dive into? Sorry, I didn't see. What's your name, man? What's the topic you want us to dive into? So I'm Rob Guicho, Jr. from San Jose, California. And I had a question about what do you guys think about, so if we don't have a lie, myself, before I work out,

traditionally for me, I've been doing this for 10, 15 years, I smoke a bowl of sativa. for 10, 15 years. I smoke a bowl of sativa, and it gives me basically like energy and funnel-like concentration and focus, a lot of stamina. I was wondering if you guys have ever, or do you guys, what do you guys think about that topic

about marijuana with workouts? Got it. Big Rob, thanks, man. We really appreciate you stepping up and giving us a call. Yes, sir. All right, we'll dive into this topic next. Thank you guys for all the awesome, awesome, awesome conversations and stuff. Thank you.

Appreciate it, man. Thank you so much. Thank you. All right, Mark, what were you like in your 20s? Smoking a lot of weed, bro. I like that one, though like that question that's great man um shit man uh you know it's a long time ago so uh i don't remember now um you know i think um a lot of men would be able to relate. Maybe some girls too,

but I think like guys just, we're just dumb. We just ain't got our shit together, you know? So when I was young, I've always been a big dreamer. And I just, I just didn't have things together.

I didn't have a license. I didn't have a car. Like my license was revoked because I had so many tickets, like speeding tickets and parking tickets. I just didn't take care of stuff. I'd have expired tags on my car, and my car would get impounded, and I didn't have any money. It was just like I wasn't like the biggest loser you ever met.

I wasn't like the biggest loser you ever met, but and I wasn't bad. I didn't, you know, I wasn't well speeding. I guess it's breaking the law, but I wasn't caught. I wasn't causing a lot of like crime or anything like that. And I, from a mental standpoint, I always felt pretty good about myself. I always enjoyed working out. I always liked that. And I really got a lot of discipline from from training and it just took me a long time to develop. It took me a long time to be mature. So it wasn't until I was in my 30s long time. And, uh, let's see. Um, I wasn't confident enough yet to really act on anything at that time and wasn't maybe

knowledgeable enough, or at least didn't feel like I was to really try to like follow through on a lot of stuff. So the only thing I would really do is like lift, you know, I'd lift and I'd set some goals with lifting and I would do better at it here and there. But even with that, I wasn't super confident. It just, it just really, the whole thing just took a really, really long time. I was never like, I was never like a doubter. I was never like, Oh, I don't know what I'm going to, I was never really like that. You know, I wasn't like a big pussy about it or anything, but, uh, I also was nothing

like I am now or nothing like what people might perceive me to be. Uh, so yeah, when I was young, and then stress wise, I didn't know what stress was, uh, because I didn't shoulder any responsibility because I didn't fucking care about anything. So I definitely, from a stress standpoint, I remember hearing people talk about like they're stressed out. I was like, man, these people are a bunch of pussies. What are they stressed out about? But now I understand. It's like, oh, these are like, these are mature human beings that actually take responsibility for themselves and the people around them. So of course they're going to have stress. So now I totally understand

it, but I was just like kind of a shit kid. And I was, um, I don't think other people around me would have, would have like been like, oh my God, he's so immature. I don't think anyone would have really, uh, recognize that. But I was, uh, yeah, I just, I i needed i needed a lot of work and so the reason why i mentioned i'm not trying to be negative about my own self-image or anything the reason why i mentioned that is just that uh it takes a long time to build yourself up takes a really fucking long time so i think that's most of my story and team you're still in your 20s dude when he said early 20s i was like oh yeah but i was like oh i'm 28 this ain't no early shit anymore you're getting old as fuck right in front of us 30s about to be right there bro but um then it's almost over yeah still look handsome still great

thank you i mean really good i mean like you know all right like dude dude not at the podcast table man sorry sorry calm down put a hole through the table but i think um nah in my early 20s which is really weird to say a couple weeks ago a couple weeks ago but like yeah uh i think this is all funny i was i think i was lucky enough enough to have about between like 18 and 23. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's the time I was thinking about.

Like, I was lucky. I worked at my first job was an Abercrombie and Fitch. But I also worked at a 24 hour fitness. And then I worked with like this, like nutrition company thing. And I was lucky enough that in those two jobs, like my manager at 24 hour fitness, his name was Nick something, but he, uh, did like read a lot of self-development books. I was always wondering why is this guy so good at talking to people? Why is this guy like everyone that talks to him? Like they, they always smile. They always leave every single interaction with

him, like feeling great. What the hell is he doing? As I was like, how do I talk to people like that? I was not good at, I was not good at any of that type of stuff, but he started like, he was like, yeah, read a, how to win friends and influence people and read this and read this. And, uh, I, I was able, I was lucky enough to be able to be kind of, uh, introduced to those types of self-development things at that age. Um, and that helped me out a lot in terms of, I guess, the things that I wanted to do and how I dealt with other individuals, because up to that point, I mean, I'm, I am very introverted, extremely introverted. Um, but that helped me out a lot. And that also helped me learn about like dealing with stress, not putting myself in

situations to be stressed, just like not, not, not hanging out with certain people. So I didn't end up, I guess. Yeah. I, I didn't end up being put in really bad, stressful situations. Um, I also was lucky enough to be like, uh, up until that point I was already doing a lot of lifting. So that, that was already a habit I had. And then when I was introduced to doing bodybuilding shows when I was like 20 or 21, I was just like, this is really cool. Let me just see where this goes. And I was just able to continue to learn what I was interested in at the time. So, yeah, like I never really took a job after Abercrombie that didn't line up with fitness.

took a job after Abercrombie that didn't line up with fitness. And because of that, I was always able to kind of do what I wanted to do, even though like there were certain aspects of things I was doing at the time that I didn't like, it was still within, this is what my true interest is. And I'm able to do something with it. But I think the big thing in my early twenties or whatever, that I'm really happy and really fortunate that i was introduced to was self-development and learning how to just become a a better person you know um or i guess a more filled out individual because before that like talking to people was frightening like that that was one of the things that was extremely it was just like it was yeah it was crippling yeah yeah so um that that i think that was the most beneficial thing in my early 20s that i i got better at doing uh more stress now or more stress then more stress now yeah say same here like so i think that people think that

you know you have like a level of money or success that it, you know, uh, but you just, when you're young, I don't know, when you're young, you just, I don't know, you don't really feel any of that. I mean, and then also too, there's other things from, from when I was younger, like, it's not like I was an angry person, but I think a lot of men can probably identify with this when you're young, you're, you know, you don't, you wouldn't mind like getting in a fight with somebody. Like I would, there's just, there's no, there's just fucking no way. Like, I mean, you, you would have to do something crazy. Like for me to want, like, I just, I have zero interest in,

in fighting with anybody, you know? But when I was, and I wasn't like fighting people all the time, but I was pissed and I kind of thought I was tough, you know what I mean? So like, it wouldn't be a big deal to get into a scrape or something, but you just change a lot. You know, you mature a lot. You go through a lot of different things. One thing that I'm fortunate about is that,

which I've seen just really destroy a lot of friends is I never ended up in a bad relationship. I didn't always have the best ones, but I never ended up in anything that was like really, you know, you see that sometimes happen to people and you don't know like how they would have turned out otherwise. Cause all you know is what happened to them. But you see that happen sometimes. Sometimes people have love at such a young age or what they think is love. And man, that can really, uh, I don't even have any advice towards like how to fucking avoid that but i'm fortunate that i just i i couldn't

figure out girls so that was probably a good thing and so i uh i just was shy i didn't really you know i i wanted to you know try to hook up with girls but i didn't know what was going on so i couldn't figure out the game and it was probably a good thing. It kept, it just kept me out of, kept me out of harm's way. I've actually was talking to a friend a few weeks ago and I was like, dude, imagine if you could take a pill when you were a young man, like that made you like just a little asexual where you just,

where you just didn't care. Like, fuck, that would really help a lot. I believe the color of that pill would probably be red. Do you guys know where I'm going with that? Is that a matrix thing? Well,

that partially is a matrix thing, but have you heard of the whole red pill thing that's going on with men? No, no, no. Uh, I mean, I think I know a little bit, you know,

a little bit. I think so. Think of like Elliot Hulse. Yeah. Yeah. So you, well, you don't need women and you don't need,

yeah, there's a, there's that whole, the rational male by Romo Tomasi or whatever. But there are OK. There are. I don't know if we want to go. I'm going to I'm going to make this really succinct and short because what you mentioned there, that pill that makes you a little bit asexual. There's this red pill thing, right? I agree with some aspects of it, but there are other aspects of it that I really don't agree with. There are some darker aspects of it in terms of like mistreatment and just like kind of like women are just what I like.

There are parts of it that are just but the parts that I agree with are men taking responsibility, men focusing on themselves, focusing on their purpose rather than focusing on another. Like, it's not that it happened to me like inadvertently. Exactly. I didn't know that was happening. Exactly. But the thing, the problem that a lot of men seem to be falling into is that they come across women and that ends up being their driving focus for everything.

Like everything else in life really doesn't matter other than her. And then they get, they end up being, it's just, it's, it's not good because they have a purpose. Travis mash works with a lot of high school kids and he said it happens all the time. Like he has gets bad-ass kid training all the time. And not that,

not that having a partner is bad. It's great. It is great to meet somebody. It's great to fall in love. It's great to meet somebody when you're young. I mean, it's all, it's awesome.

But it's really time consuming. And it's, you know, it's hard to think of anything else, especially when you're like 18 or 20 years old. And those are just some of the big concepts of the asexual pill. Anyway, yeah. Get some of those made up for us, Andrew. Let's go. Yeah. That would have helped me a ton because that was actually the biggest stress did come from a toxic relationship and i just it was so weird just being so young so this was yeah or like from high school to like mid-20s and yeah it was it it consumed a

lot of me you know it made a majority of my decisions where anyone has a hard time reading between the lines we're talking about pussy that's what we're talking about it's mesmerizing it's that's it'll get you man it will get you it's a trap man i mean it looks like a trap it looks like a trap and then you're done man all right we just got canceled over andrew you were saying though i can't follow that up with anything now no yeah early 20s was just a huge mess and a lot of it was because of one specific trap. If you guys wanted to keep going down that route.

But no, like I just, I would work for the weekends. I would drink almost every night, not every night, but for sure on the weekends. And, you know, I didn't find fitness till I was like 27. So my whole early 20s was I did whatever it took to go drifting. You know, I did drift, uh, competitively, if you can call it that, uh, didn't really accomplish too much there, but it was a lot of fun, but that's all I had going for me. That was it. And then I would work and then I'd play video games that night and then kind of start the whole, you know, uh, or, uh, whatever all over again. And yeah, and it was, I was depressed. It was terrible. And, you know,

you're saying like, you guys have more stress now. I would, I think I had way more stress back then because I just had a lot of not good things going for me. I didn't have anything I can like, kind of hang on to. Cause like once my engine blew, it, this literally did happen. My engine did blow and I didn't have anything. And then so like I was depressed and then eventually built the car back up and then I sold it because of the one toxic relationship. And then I had nothing again. And then it was like, we both wanted two separate things and it just was, it went from bad to worse real quick.

And that just made everything worse. So yeah, dude, I was way, I was in so much debt back then it was i had a shitty job and that's the other thing you're saying you had you know you're one i don't want to say real job but you had your amber i can't even say the name of that place acrumbion fitch i dropped out of college to go work at gamestop and walmart like at the same time because i'm like man fuck school like i'm just to go make money instead. Yeah. And so I went and worked there and I thought it was a good idea at the time. And you know, no, that, that led to another shitty job and another shitty job.

I never didn't have a job since I was like, I want to say 16, but obviously all of them were terrible. None of them were anything I liked until I got here. So, uh, it all definitely gave me perspective. Like, you know, when you're, we were saying about being grateful, like so grateful to be here today. Like it's amazing. But yeah, dude, my early twenties was full of stress and, you know, I guess time.

Yeah. And you know, you're saying how like you're unsure of like what advice you can give somebody about relationships. Cause you know, you and Andy, you know, kind of right off the gate, you, you got, you didn't get lucky, but you,

you know, found somebody that you, you were, uh, you, uh, you're, you connected with.

I just remember from seeing, you know, people in my family and then my relationship, it was like, Oh no, like you're, you're, you're couples argue all the time.

Like it just happens. And then, you know, like, Oh yeah, this happened again it's like no actually it does take work but it shouldn't be like a fucking war zone every time you go home that's not normal like and back then that's what i knew so i'm like oh no this is fine

like we're good yeah to be a little annoyed with each other is understandable because you're around each other all the time and so uh those things can definitely happen but yeah to be like fighting all the time yeah i see a lot of couples uh this is a real dangerous territory i think they take a lot of little jabs at each other and uh i mean my wife and i are guilty of it some i mean we all do it because we're partners and we all like to f around a little bit here and there. And, you know, you, but I see people do it maybe too much and it's like a little too real. And you're just like, Ooh, like, man, they're kind of doing it again.

Like this ain't going to end well, you're like, this is, this is not, not a good idea. You always do this or you always do that. Right. That kind of stuff. You're just like, you're just looking at them both. It's like, man, I really wish they would just have a, like an actual conversation about it. Like, Hey, this really upsets me when you do this, you know, and just kind of get it.

No one's perfect. I'm not saying that everything's going to be all cheery and everything all the time either. But yeah, it's it's it can be it can be complicated. And but Andrew, I think, you know, the underlying thing that we're hearing from kind of all three of us is that we we all hung on you know we all hung in there and hung on to something you know um it doesn't it sounds like i mean you said you were working since the time you were a kid you know it's like that's you just had at least you had that you got that one thing to hold on to that one discipline uh that's the driver for everything else, you know? And I think,

I think that's really important for people listening and kind of, you know, learn, learning some of this stuff about us that they maybe didn't know before is, and I'll, we'll say too, I wasn't like crazy dedicated to anything. I wasn't like,

I wasn't nearly as determined as I am now to like get things done, but I at least had, at least there was, at least you could see it. You know, if you were to follow me around, I'd be definitely not as put together as Josh Settledge, but I had some of those attributes.

Yeah. And he's, he's young and he's got his shit together. Pretty damn good. Right. If you ask Josh Settledge, how's your early, he's in his early twenties,

daily discipline. Yeah. Bust out some push-ups. While still eating a steak. What a sick question. Yeah, that was great, man. Thank you, Ishmael. A whole show on that.

For reals. We want to tackle the marijuana? Yeah, that's from Rob. So pre-workout bake? All right. So let me mention this real quick so i've never i've never smoked before working out i've never smoked before jujitsu um although i know actually i think there was one time i did do jujitsu a little bit hi and it like that's the thing i know a lot of

like within the jujitsu community there's a lot of guys who are like, let me smoke a bowl before rolling because that stuff that it does make you or does help you become a little bit more creative. So I understand that. Before working out though, I know some people who also work out by, and he mentioned sativa, which is more of the mind,

right? Not of the body. So your body feels fine, but your mind is like, like whatever i just know i couldn't personally do it i personally don't know the effects of what happens to the body before you do that before working out but i just know i wouldn't want to hit a hard lifting session um a little bit i personally wouldn't but again i know people who handle it well. So that's all I got. We use MindBullet quite a bit. You know, we use Kratom and we really enjoy that a lot before workouts.

So I have never tried marijuana, period. And I certainly don't know anything about taking it before a workout. But I do know a lot of people that do a bunch of different stuff before they, uh, hit up a training session and they, they think they, they personally feel that it makes them feel good. So, uh, I would say, look, if it's putting you in a pretty good mood for your workout and you're having a good workout and you're not noticing it, um, having a negative impact on other aspects of your life, it's not like bleeding into other things. You're not noticing it having a negative impact on other aspects of your life. It's not like bleeding into other things. You're not messing up your relationship because of it.

You're not like late to work because of it. And so on like these kind of addiction type of questions, if you can answer those and it seems like you're in the clear, then I think you're, I think you're okay. I think you're good to go. Yeah. And then I always go back to like the justifying things like oh joe rogan did it so i'm gonna do it and not get anywhere but um uh the the really big guy from mind pump is it sal

or is it adam adam okay so this happened to him he was like yeah i would uh i would smoke after he's like just because it helped me go to sleep he's like but one thing led to another you know i was just like tiny little bit next thing you know i'm having a whole j like i'm smoking a whole joint and then it's like oh shit now i'm like snacking on something so it's like i think if you can be honest and like really just like keep it to a point where it doesn't hinder anything else, then, yeah, that's cool. Like, I think that's okay. But also don't use it as an excuse to just hotbox the whole way to the gym and get there and just fucking go eat nothing but, like, Quest bars. Yeah.

Yeah, and a lot of times when people are asking a question, they already kind of know the answer. a question there, um, they already kind of know the answer. So, uh, this guy with his particular question might already know that it's not maybe the best idea that he's ever had. Um, and so I, I don't know, like, you know, maybe dependency, like just kind of give that a little check, give that a little nudge. Like, do you feel like you need to do that every time um and if you do feel like you need it then maybe is it an issue i don't know it's good to examine it it's good to take a look at it but uh i don't i don't think it really makes a huge difference yeah i think both you and andrew hit something there though like because um i know i do know a lot of people who like they started smoking and then they're like oh i just feel so much better when i'm high and then they're like, Ooh, I just feel so much better when I'm high. And then they just start doing it way too much. And then it's like, they don't feel good

when they're not high. Right. That's a problem. Like, so, I mean, you, you got, you got to value the clicks when I take creative, right. One thing before I started taking my bulls, I was like, I know my personality. If I really like something, I might overdo it. So when I started doing, I was like, let me just, you know, let me make sure that, you know, when I do use it, I don't end up feeling dependent on it. I don't. But when I do take it before jujitsu or before lifting, especially though, before jujitsu, I feel super creative and I do things I don't usually do, but I can also roll without it. I also don't feel like I need it to be productive. Right. So that's why I think that mind bullets really, really dope.

But, you know, you, again, you, both of you guys said it, just make sure you're not feeling like you have to do it to be effective at what you're doing. Yeah. Definitely. Don't be the better on weed guy from half baked. Do you remember that? I don't, I don't remember. He's like, you ever look at the back of a $20 bill, man on weed. He's like, it's crazy.

There's all kinds of shit going on. He's like, you ever look at the back of a $20 bill, man on weed. He's like, it's crazy. There's all kinds of shit going on. It's so funny. And he talks about a movie and he's like, it's so much better on weed, man. Yeah. Like, yeah,

no. Uh, we had a written in question from, uh, from Michael and I gave him a pass. I'm only one of the people that were actually calling in, but, uh,

he said he's having a hard time because he's got the kids running around the house and he doesn't he can't break away to make the phone call but his question was like yeah how do you separate your family life your work life and then personal life i'm assuming maybe to thrive in all three areas that work balance work-life balance that we're always chasing. Hmm. Yeah, that's tough. You know, I have a question for you guys. Do you ever feel like,

um, I've heard some people say that like outside of their family, they do need another life. Do you feel that you need to like your, like your family should be connected to all the things you do? Or do you feel that you need something else outside of your family and outside of all that, that is literally just yours that they can't have i think it's person dependent person dependent that's that's true that's very true yeah i think it would be person dependent

a little bit uh i also would would think that it might be dependent upon where you are in your relationship you know if you're if you're older and you've had children and you have children that are like out of the house, then maybe you don't mind like doing a lot of stuff together. You know, maybe you don't mind like, um, I have some friends that like hunting and camping and golfing and the, uh, female in the relationship doesn't really love that. But as they've gotten older, like I know some older couples that the females like I just decided to go with them. I said, screw it. And now we now they enjoy going on trips like that all the time. And so I think, you know, it might depend on mean that you need like a thing to yourself, but you, I think you do need time with yourself.

Cause I think you need, you need time with every single relationship that you have in your life. You need, uh, you know, sometimes I text both of you guys. Sometimes I text you guys individually, right?

Like, I think that that's important to all relationships is that, and that's like a tiny example, but like I spend time with Quinn one-on-one sometimes I spend time with Jake one-on-one. Sometimes my wife will spend time with Jake. My wife will spend time with Quinn. We spend time together as a family.

I spend time with my wife. Like, I think that that's important. And so I think when you're trying to figure out how to like balance this shit out, I think you have to kind of keep track of some of that a little bit and, and have some of that in your, in your head and try to think about how, how can you, you don't have to like necessarily hang out with everybody all the time, every single day, but you do need to kind of scrape upon these things here and there to make sure that the relationship is staying good and staying strong and you're communicating and all that kind of stuff.

Yeah. I heard it on a podcast a couple of years ago and one of the hosts just said some people recharge their batteries by being around people they love. Other people recharge their batteries by just chilling by themselves. And I think Mark and I are more of the person that recharges by themselves and it's weird because my wife is definitely not that so when i try to explain this to her she's like heartbroken i'm like you know like yeah like it'd be cool to like you know like so when i was doing like my cut like i'm like yeah i enjoy being on this step mill by myself and like just like just nothing

else where the fuck am i in this picture? Exactly. But to her, she's like, I would never want to do anything without you. And I'm like, no, that's not it. Like, of course, like if we're going to go on a trip, like I definitely, you're coming with me, but I don't know. Like, I don't like crowded areas. I like kind of just doing my own thing. And I always go back to like, you know, when it's your birthday, what do you want to do? It's like, it doesn't matter what I want to do

because it's going to be dependent on everyone else's schedule. Like, what do you mean? Like, oh, I want to go eat a big old steak at 3.30. Well, so-and-so's not off work, so we have to wait. And then, ah, that restaurant, maybe not everyone's going to want it. I'm like, then it doesn't matter. Like, so if you really want me to do what I want for my birthday, then leave me alone.

It's not like that, but you know, so it is, like I said, I think it's person dependent. So my man was asking about balancing his everything. I don't have kids. So honestly, yeah.

What do you guys think? I'll let Mark take it. Cause somebody had asked me on another podcast and I'm like, Hey, maybe if you ask me in a couple of months, I'll have a completely different answer. But as of right now, I don't know. Cause I'm trying to figure that stuff out myself.

I think it's okay to just, you're going to have stuff that's off balance sometimes, you know, um, you're going to have things like you're going to have things that take more time, take more attention. You know, if you have a business that you're just starting, you might have to work a lot. And sometimes the best thing for your family is for you to work a lot. Sometimes the best thing for your family is for you to be around as much as you can. And, uh, when I was a kid, you know, I remember there was a pretty good period of time, probably a good chunk of like five or six years where my dad was just really working a lot. And I think I've shared the story before, but like my mom basically like

told him like, Hey, don't, you know, stop kind of climbing the ladder, you know? And he, and he was like, huh? Like, I thought that's what you wanted me to do for the family. And she was like, no, just so my dad stopped taking like upper management jobs and he was around more and it was great. It was, you know, it was great. It was, you know, it was awesome. But I think that, I think a lot of times we're thinking like, oh, I'm going to, you know, I'm going to, I'm going to work really hard and I'm going to make money for the family. Um, but then you start making money and as you make more money, then you're away more and then you're, then you kind of realizing, but maybe it's too late. Like maybe

you spent too much time away from the household and maybe things are kind of falling apart. So I think, I think it's okay to have things be off balance for periods of time, but then you also, uh, just want to kind of take an honest look at stuff and say, are you really working for the family or do you not want to be home? you have a kid that's uh three five and seven and you're kind of about ready to shoot yourself because that stuff's really hot you know there's there's a lot of stuff that's really uh gets to be challenging gets to be really difficult and staying at work an extra half an hour is easier than it is hanging out you know with your kids and your family.

I remember we had a training session here one time. This was a long time ago and we had a bunch of older lifters and we all had kids and wives and stuff. And we're just like sitting there after workout, we're all beat to hell. And one of the older guys looks up and he's like, he's like, you guys don't want to go home either. And he didn't mean, cause we love training so much. Like we knew what he, we knew what he meant. And we all,

you know, we all laughed about it, but, uh, you know, that's, that's the truth of it. Like raising a family is, uh, is very tough and it's hard to do, you know, day in and day out. But, uh, in terms of balance, I don't think there's anybody there's not a rule that says you have to be really balanced. But you do have to be around. You do have to figure out a way to make it work. And just imagine if you had a conversation with your wife and said, hey, you know, you know, the job that I have, I have some good opportunities coming up. And over the next five years, I'd really like to pursue or maybe the woman says the same thing or however it works out in your household.

And, uh, look, I'm, I'm probably just not going to be able to be around a lot. Like I, this is what I want to do. This is what I think is our best interest. This is how much money I can make. Um, I'm going to miss some, uh, vac and I'm not going to, you know, always be available for a whole week when Christmas comes around. And I think like, why not just, you know, communicate about it? And it's difficult, but just get it out there on the table and communicate about what it

is you're looking for and where you're heading. And I think you can make it work where, where it can be really hard is when, uh, the parents don't have a, uh, like a shared sense of purpose. That could be really difficult. So if,

you know, if, if, uh, somebody wants someone in the household to make a good amount of money, but they also want them there all the time. Now you're starting to, you know,

you started running into things that just don't make a lot of sense. You know? Yeah. I had to have not had to, but like we had the conversation, you know, where I, you know,

explain like, like about the podcast and how like it means I'll probably be working from home sometimes. Maybe I won't, but you know, I had to tell her like, Hey, sometimes if I'm down and out,

it's not because of what you guys are doing. It's because maybe I might feel like shit because like i don't know like a certain podcast didn't do well when i thought it should have or i didn't get enough work done that day because of meetings or something happened i'm like i kind of feel way more accomplished when i get my ass kicked at work and she kind of was like wait what do you like you like, what do you mean? And like, if, you know, if I have a long like day, like I feel so much better. It's like a training like session where you just get your ass kicked, but you're like, this is definitely striving towards, you know, something better. And when I put it in those terms, she's like, Oh, I, cause she trained. So she gets it. But absolutely having that conversation was huge. You know, that was, that was really big, but yeah, I'm still trying to balance things out.

I'm trying to get home and not like, uh, you know, be half asleep from the commute and just being totally run down. Cause you know, we, we upgraded, you know, we moved to a better neighborhood to where we can go on walks and we have been, and it's been great. You know, there's a park nearby. My daughter loves baseball like she can hit the crap out of a wiffle ball it's pretty awesome so like that's what we do now and i think just that little tiny bit kind of tips the scale back to being balanced you know

where it's like way lopsided but like a little bit of batting practice just tips it just a little bit to where everyone in the whole household is a little bit happier. Yeah. You spend like an hour with her. Yeah, exactly. Not really that much time. No. One, uh, one thing that can really help with, uh, gaining some balance in your life is just to do stuff while other people are sleeping. I found that to be really just a real simple thing. And, you know, I got teenagers, so they're probably still sleeping right now. So it doesn't matter. But, uh, I think that that can be a huge advantage. You know, if you if you can get up early and get some work done, then who even recognizes that you were or maybe you like to work at night, that'd be the same thing. You know,

they go to bed earlier or whatever. No one's going to even really notice that you were gone. So that's always been a good option for me, even on the weekend. Like I do come to the gym a little bit later, but no one in my family really does anything on the weekend until, you know, like afternoon, late afternoon, everyone's just kind of chilling. By the time I get home from here at like 12 or one or whatever, then, uh, we're all ready to go to lunch or do something as a family, do something together. So that that's been really helpful. Yep. And then we have one more written in topic and we can end on this one because this would officially be the sixth topic.

So thank you everybody that wrote in. Thank you everybody that called in. You guys were huge for stepping up. This comes from intuitive homebrew. I wonder if that's like coffee or like homebrew, like for video games. Sounds pretty good. Coffee. Yeah. Now, how do you keep your mind in check and stay positive towards your goals? I wonder if that's like coffee or like homebrew like for video games. Sounds pretty good. Sounds like coffee.

Yeah. Now, how do you keep your mind in check and stay positive towards your goals? You didn't specify exactly or like going any deeper. But yeah, and Seema, you're jacked. You're on a successful podcast. How do you keep your mind in check to still keep striving to get better even like at Jiu-Jitsu and all that? Yeah, I think we talked about this yesterday i think with bowden maybe not i don't know but we talked about gratitude a lot um every day i do

remember that every day i try to keep that in check because um at times when you're not you just kind of get engulfed in all the things that you're doing you may start to think of all the things that you don't have or all the things you haven't achieved yet or like the negative, right? But I think, I know we talked about it in one of our last podcasts too, but I can't reiterate the importance of that. Cause when you're not thinking about those things, you start to just, again, go on about the things that aren't the greatest, but in reality, those things really don't matter that much. I like personally, I I've always had a ton to be grateful for all my life. Like when I think back to it, there's so many things that even when I was a teenager, there are things that weren't that great, but I was being able to get,

my mom was taking me to soccer. I had meals every single day, right? I, I, there was a lot that I had going on. That was just amazing. That would allow me to go in the right direction. Even right now, it's the same way. There's too much good in my life that I can't. It's it. I can't really focus on the negative. My mind doesn't really go to that because I'm always grateful for all the things that I'm fortunate that I'm fortunate to have and fortunate to do. I would say that that's the biggest thing as far as like the smaller

things like, yeah, meditation, all that type of stuff is cool. But I think like knowing what I've gotten, being great for that and focusing on those things is, is the biggest thing for me. It's amazing how easy it is to sit there and, you know, squander over the shit that you don't have or how much easier somebody else has it. It's, it's a really simple thing to do and it's a very human thing to do. I think you just, you know,

the kind of why me type of thing. And we all are probably guilty of it to some extent. But I couldn't agree more. I think that, you know, you think about the things that you have and you try not to really, maybe there's things that you don't have that you would like, but then figure out a way to get them, you know, figure out a way to get there.

Someone is in better shape than you. Someone has more money than you. Someone has a skill set that's a little bit better than yours. You know, recognize, you know, recognize, like just recognize the fact that they were able to obtain that and be an appreciation of that and say, wow, that's, that's cool, man. I'd love to be able to figure that out for myself and maybe even ask them, dude, how did you get built like that?

Like you, you look awesome, man. Like I'd love, I'd love to be able to figure that out. Okay. Well, you know, I've been lifting since I was 12 and you got a whole big story, you know? Um, but you can, you can learn these things. I think, uh, you know, something else to kind of keep in mind is that we talk a lot about, uh, we talk a lot about it on this podcast, you know, have this like white belt

mentality where you always have the ability to learn. You always have the ability to obtain more knowledge. You will progressively over periods of time make all of your problems smaller. You won't be able to make them all go away completely. You might be able to get rid of some and you might exchange them out for others and stuff like that. But you're going to be able to acquire more knowledge as things move on. And so I think that that's exciting. I think that that's something to be grateful for is the fact that there's not a human being on this earth that's not,

that doesn't possess these abilities. It doesn't possess the ability to be a little bit better than they were yesterday, a little bit stronger, a little bit better at reading, a little bit better at writing or whatever it is you want to work on. And so I think, you know, when I think about, you know, trying to have a positive mindset, I don't really think my mind needs to necessarily be tuned in to being like positive necessarily. being like positive necessarily. But I think that in accordance to my goals and in accordance to like the things that I want to do, they just happen to be positive.

They just happen to gravitate in that direction because there's not stuff that I want to do. That's negative. Like, I don't want to make less money. I don't want to be less successful. You know, I don't, there's, there's not a lot of stuff I can think of that I want to do, uh, less or worse. You know, I want to do a worse job of that. You know, everything is everything I'd like to do

a little bit better at and, uh, recognizing that I have some of the capabilities to do that, that I'm like armed with it. Like I didn't, I didn't even earn that. Like it was just given to me, you know, and I'm not saying me, I'm saying like, I think everybody's that way. Like we're, we're all, we were all given the faculties of being able to get better, make yourself better. I mean, you have an opportunity every single day to, to make yourself better.

I mean, I don't know what's more positive than that. Like, that's pretty cool. You have an ability to advance your position. Something I was thinking about not too long ago was like the world in general is constantly evolving. It's constantly getting better. It doesn't matter if it's a plant. It doesn't matter if it's a fucking bumblebee. It doesn't matter if it's a plant. It doesn't matter if it's a fucking bumblebee. It doesn't matter if it's a lion or a tiger or a person or a particular person that lives in a

particular area. Everything is getting better all the time. And there's been huge atrocities. There's been a lot of tyranny. There's been a lot of wrong things that humans have done to each other. But even those areas get better. Even areas where there's been a lot of wrong things that humans have done to each other. But even those areas get better. Even areas where there's been tons of rape and tons of murder and tons of injustices, they all are progressively getting better. Like, you know, over a period of time, they will sort of right themselves, you know, after, after time. I mean, something like what happened with like Hitler and, and things like that. I mean, you look at something like that, you're like, okay, this is the worst thing. This is one of the worst human beings to ever live.

Right? Well, the world goes through that. They learn like, that's not good. That's not some bullshit. We're going to make sure that something like that doesn't ever happen. And then what do other governments do? They set up their government so that you can easily be overthrown. So you can't act like that, you know, and it makes everything better. So I think for me, it's not hard to be positive towards the different goals that I have because I just recognize how things will simply get better if I'm just trying to be good.

You know, if I just don't get my own way, if I just don't do something stupid, then shit will continue to get better all the time. Yeah. Very well said. I got nothing for you, though. I can't top that. Take us on out of here, Andrew. I will. Thank you, everybody, for calling in. We sincerely appreciate it. Take us on out of here, Andrew. I will. Thank you

everybody for calling in. We sincerely appreciate it. That was really cool of you guys. There we go. Every time I turn the camera around, you do something different. Anyways, again, if you guys dig this format, the next time we do a call-in show, please make sure you guys are hitting that fan

line. And if you do so, take a shot. Uh-oh shot oh my goodness that was nope he hit the ceiling this is what it's like 8 feet away oh my gosh

looks like Shaq shooting a free throw it's extremely windy in here this finger I can't follow through with it I'm having to use three fingers, so it's moving. That's the one you always put in your butt. Yeah. Pretty much. So it's kind of, it's broken right now.

That's his butt finger. Oh, no. Why the ring finger, though? I don't know. He's a weird guy. It's the thickest. It's thicker than my middle finger. Look at that knuckle.

Huh. You see that knuckle? That's a thick knuckle. Did you hurt yourself? What happened? You said it. The whole thing. Careful, dude.

Safety first. On that note, please tell a friend about today's podcast if you guys dug it. Please hit that like button. It helps us out and we would really appreciate it uh please make sure you're following the podcast at mark bell's power project on instagram at mb power project on twitter uh please subscribe here if you're not already check us out on linkedin and facebook my instagram is at i am andrew z and sema and sema and youtube and sema union on twitter mark at mark smelly bell strength

is never a weakness weakness never a strength catch y'all later damn you're just getting lucky right now that was a bank shot that was sick oh man