Mark Bell's Power Project - EP. 558 - Keep Things Spicy - Switch It up

Episode Date: July 26, 2021

Today we're talking about your interest level and when it might be time to switch things up. Mark Bell broke world records as a Powerlifter, then switched into Bodybuilding and won a show. Nsima Inyang has switched things up and has had success in Bodybuilding, Powerlifting and Jiu Jitsu. Although they never let go of any of them, they pushed their attention more towards their main focus at that time. Subscribe to the Podcast on on Platforms! ➢ https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast Special perks for our listeners below! ➢Marek Health: https://marekhealth.com/powerproject Use code POWERPROJECT for $101 off the Power Project Panel! ➢Eat Rite Foods: http://eatritefoods.com/ Use code "POWERPROJECT25" for 25% off your first order, then code "POWERPROJECT" for 10% off every order after! ➢LMNT Electrolytes: http://drinklmnt.com/powerproject ➢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 Subscribe to the Power Project Newsletter! ➢ https://bit.ly/2JvmXMb 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 ➢ https://www.breakthebar.com/learn-more Podcast Produced by Andrew Zaragoza ➢ https://direct.me/iamandrewz #PowerProject #Podcast #MarkBell

Oh, my God. Here we go. Startling every single time. Every time. It's so loud when Zoom says it's recording. I'm not a fan. It fucking explodes my ears every time. I had a bavette steak last night, guys.

And it was absolutely delicious. I'm out here in Bodega Bay. And when I got here, I was like, oh, shit, I don't know what I have food-wise. And then luckily, I got some of that Piedmontese in the freezer. So I just took that out, got it thawed a bit, was able to cook it up, and it was fucking amazing. Yeah, no, I can't wait to get it because I have a lot of ribeyes now a lot of the 10 ounce ribeyes so i'm gonna be i had two ribeyes two nights ago and i can't wait to have some more tonight i'm gonna do the ribeyes and the uh hop dotty patties it's gonna be a fatty ass dinner

it's gonna be a fat dinner speaking of fatty ass i got my body fat tested yeah they said I was the fattest guy they've ever seen. I don't really know what that means, but it made me kind of sad. I came in at 10.4%. A lot of it's been eating that Piedmontese. A lot of times

people can't afford the extra calories that sometimes come from eating red meat, but I guess we can do it because everyone on the show is pretty lean. Everyone's getting more and more jacked all the time. And Piedmontese has been really, really helpful for that. So I was pretty excited because I don't feel like I'm doing anything like real hard or strenuous to get that percentage. hard or strenuous to get that percentage. And I think previously,

I think like I remember getting it tested like a long time ago when I was probably like two 60 or two 70, I think it was like 16%. And I think I remember getting it tested before when I was like two 45 or so. And I want to say it was like 12 or 13%. So this is kind of great like uh just i don't know utilizing some intermittent fasting eating red meat and um i don't know just cruising not trying to do anything too crazy that's awesome dude congrats on on 10 that's amazing and i'm super jealous that you had a bovette because when I went to order, they were actually sold out.

So we got to stop talking about the Bovet so much because now we can't get, I think I ordered them all. You might've, but it brought up a, uh, uh, you know, like problems bring up really cool solutions.

I don't know how that's saying it's supposed to go if there's such thing as one, but because of that, I've been getting the, uh, Nebraska cut ribeye. So that thing has 65 grams of protein, only 5 grams of fat for a 10-ounce steak. And the taste is, I mean, it's a ribeye.

Is it going to be like the fatty ribeyes that Insuma's eating? Like, not really. But it's a different flavor, and it's an amazing flavor. It is, dude, I've been crushing like two of those a night. It's getting my protein way up. It's been just simply amazing. And if you guys want to dive into this Piedmontese beef, I mean, I can't recommend it enough. We can't recommend it enough.

It's over at piedmontese.com. That's P-I-E-D-M-O-N-T-E-S-E.com at checkout. Enter promo code POWERPROJECT for 25% off your entire order. Check the links down in the YouTube description as well as the podcast show notes. That way you guys can head over there as soon as possible. Again, piedmontese.com, promo code POWERPROJECT. I love my meat, but I got to say that, can I get a hay now? Hay now. I actually had people like chanting hay now at the seminar that I did recently. It was pretty funny. A couple of times I said hay now, then they said hay now after me. And I was like, that's pretty funny. Anyway, as much as I love meat, I think plants, you know, have their place.

You guys know I like kratom and I like caffeine. Got some caffeine right here. I think plants play an integral part in this whole piece of the puzzle too. At least they do for me anyway. So I had some mushrooms yesterday and I was telling Nsema about it a little bit before we did the show. And I haven't really experimented with taking that much of them yet. And I think the most I've taken is like eight capsules. And I think the eight capsules were a hundred. I want to say it's milligrams each. I can't remember even if it's micro or milligrams or whatever.

I should probably know this stuff. But yesterday I took 280 and I took eight capsules of that and uh that was uh pretty interesting but i basically just like it's kind of funny because i like did more work than i probably normally would oh i was uh i was on the beach and i just started like digging a hole randomly and i dug like this kind of big ass like trench and i just sat in it and i just like watched the waves for a while and then i was just like watching the waves I'm listening to a podcast and uh just having the time of my life the uh waves like the sound of the waves and um I don't know like uh noises uh noises and smells and things that you see,

they all kind of somehow interlink. You know, like when you hear a sound, it gives you like a color to it. Like a sound gives you color. So like when the waves were coming in, they were like purpley and stuff like that. It was kind of cool. And wherever there is color, it's like more vibrant and more enhanced. You know, if you see, you know, flowers or something like that, they're just popping a little bit more than normal.

Anyway, I got kind of bored. So I'm just like sitting there and I'm listening to this podcast. And the podcast was cool. And I'm just doing a lot of like thinking. And I just get up and i just like randomly start picking up this uh this like log these logs that are on the that are by the water though they they weigh like nine million pounds because they're usually waterlogged you know so i just kind of like i mean i do that randomly sometimes anyway just to kind of see

you know what these things weigh or whatever anyway I start to scoop it up and it's really heavy. Then I noticed there's a bunch of people watching me. I'm like, oh shit. Now I need to pick this thing all the way up. I had to do it like a single fingers like the strongman guys do where they got to keep pushing

on the thing because it was real tall. I finally got it all the way up there and i like kind of uh i don't know i kept like wiggling it back and forth and i'll send you a picture of it on the beach it was probably like i don't know 12 feet tall or something it was fucking massive but it was hilarious because people started watching and then uh when i when i got the thing all the way up, everybody started clapping for me. It was hilarious.

You know, the funny part is in most situations, if you're sober, if you were trying to pick up a log and people were watching, you'd probably be like, hmm, this is time for me to stop. But you're like, I must impress them. Yeah, exactly. This is the way. What I love about this, and by no means is Mark a lazy person, but he's not really going to waste too much of his time doing something that doesn't really do anything. He'll go on walks forever, but he's getting exercise in. He'll bench press a weight from here to here, and that's all

it's going to do, but obviously it does more than that. But to have Mark like, hey, Mark, can you dig this hole? He'd be like, fuck no. What are you talking about? I'm not going to waste my time. And then here he is digging trenches and moving trees.

I see a picture of this. This is hilarious. That's pretty sick. They nearly killed me a couple times too oh man so was there was there anything else like anything else that happened because it was a pretty long trip right like it lasted for a while yeah yeah it lasts a long time takes about 45 minutes or so to hit you stood it up and then you gave it a little yeah then I kept like wiggling it back and forth to kind of screw it into the ground yeah oh my god

no I can't see it from here but I'll go and visit it again today. Wow. Oh, thank you, Andrew. You know, if you look at the shadow of it, it looks like you're pointing at the sky with a hat on. Look at the shadow of it. Right?

Right? Oh, God, that's great. It looks almost like a selfie. Yeah. Oh, man, that's great. It looks almost like a selfie. Yeah. Oh, man, that's awesome. So that's what I did with my day yesterday. Super progressive. I love it.

It's going to be exciting. I'm going to do the same thing as you pretty soon. Have some fun with that. I want to know, though, a you're a body fat test your dexascan um what else did it tell you like your your metabolic rate i'm curious since you've been lifting for so many years and you're you're thick what was your bone density what does hung like a horse mean it means the guy is massive cock oh okay yeah the guy said the reading was off the charts on that. So I was like, wow, okay. I think my bone density was like plus three or something like that. And he said that was high, which is, I think, normal when people lift.

So that was pretty good. that was pretty good. Um, I think my, I think the amount of body fat I had on me was like 20, 23, 24 pounds, something like that. Um,

and, uh, he was actually saying that that's good. Cause he's like, I think you can kind of chop that in half and, and be, and still be like, you know, in a, still be healthy without getting down to levels that are too low.

He's like, you could still have 15 to 13 pounds of body fat on your body and still feel good. But he's like, you could get down to maybe like 6% or 7%. I was like, cool, that's the goal. could get down to maybe like six or seven percent i was like cool that's the goal so i'm gonna go back in about three or four weeks and uh gonna do that about three times over until i get down to whatever i can get down to that feels good i don't want to you know i want to work on it but i don't want to like feel like i'm killing myself for it either you know i feel it okay so you're gonna be working on getting leaner now i'm gonna be working on getting leaner now gonna be working on getting a little leaner okay let's do it it's gonna be fun yeah my knee is better so i can i can implement a little bit of running and do a little bit more uh run walks let's just get a

little extra activity in there and uh i think also too, I could, which won't be easy with running necessarily, but I'm not going to run like a lot, but I could definitely increase the size of my legs. I haven't been able to train my legs the way I want more recently. And so I'll bring that back up. And I think that'll be kind of the fastest way to alter the body fat percentage because really we're just talking about losing a couple of pounds of fat, which be pretty damn easy and then if i can shift and gain a pound or two muscle at the same time uh which takes longer but that that would uh kind of get me to where i want to go the fastest i think are you giving yourself a uh a time frame or like a, I don't know, like an end goal, like photo shoot thing? Because I know for myself, if I don't have something on the calendar kind of there, like I'll start to lose interest.

And, you know, it's like, oh, well, I'm not really doing anything. So I'll have, you know, another bowl of cereal or some Oreos or whatever. Well, I did set a date, you know, to get another body fat test done. So that kind of puts me up against it a little bit. I think that's like mid-August. And then I'd probably do another one in like September at some point. So I was going to do one every three, four weeks. I think that should keep me kind of motivated and on track and on the right path. I think realistically, this should take like 20 weeks, but just knowing myself, you know, I'm not going to have the patience to probably do that. So I'll probably try to do it in like

12 weeks or something. We'll see. Again, I want to do it it i just got my blood work done and uh the blood work should be coming back um in a day or two so i want to do it in accordance with that make sure all that shit's good and i'm not gonna like i'm not gonna like take more tests to get my body fat levels lower or you know start to implement other things other than testosterone just to try to get down to some level that i wouldn't be able to maintain unless I stayed on a higher dose or different dose. So I want to do it safely and just kind of do it the way I have been doing it. Just, there's just like little things at night, you know, probably after around seven o'clock where I consume extra calories. None of them are really necessarily bad, but it's like I just eat and I don't necessarily need to. So I need to kind of hone in on that part of the day. And I think it'll be, I think it'll start out as being fairly easy. And then obviously the intensity of the whole thing will get a little tougher as we move along. I think, you know, once I probably shift under like 8% body fat, um, it probably just get more and more difficult. I'm used to being about here and I have been here for,

um, probably several months, but, uh, as you get in uncharted territory, uh, things get a little more difficult. Yeah. No, the funny thing is though, that what's going to happen, like what seems to happen is, you know, like this is your normal body fat, but you've been leaner before. I think it's going to be even easier for you to get like eight and chill there than it ever was in the past. You know, because it's like you dip in. It's uncomfortable. You're out. You dip in again.

It's a little bit easier. You dip in again. It's like it's like nothing. So it's cool how that happens. it's like nothing so it's cool how that happens it's just it takes a lot of time and it's hard to give people like it's hard to give yourself the time to to develop that especially when you are focused on the way your body's looking then you're always thinking about it but um it's gonna be it's gonna be interesting to see what happens to you i love doing this shit you know and i i always have and i think i always will i've been been interested in it since the time I was a kid.

And I think the way that I stay interested in it, though, is to, you know, have manipulated it and change goals and change focus. You know, powerlifting and bodybuilding, they are different sports. You know, it's like comparing swimming to like water polo. Like, yeah, they're both in the water, but they're different sports, you know, it's like comparing swimming to like water polo, like, yeah, they're both in the water, but they're different sports, you know, and both sports you need to be, you know, have a level athleticism and things of that nature, but they're just different, you know, and so I switch things up at different times and have different goals at different times. And it's kept me into fitness forever. And you guys saw me, you know, hit up that bench the other day. That's something that it still interests me to handle some heavy weight.

And here and there, my interest may waver. I may be like, I just don't feel like doing that anymore. Or I might run into something that I'm just like, you know what, that's this, this is no longer smart. You know, this is no longer an intelligent decision. You work on your deadlift for a few weeks and then the deadlift starts to really kind of creep into your body and you kind of feel it in your joints and your back. And you just don't feel well. And you're like, well, initially I kind of started doing this because I wanted to improve my strength and I wanted to feel better and I wanted to look better. And you're like, now I'm just kind of worn down. And so I noticed that over the years, sometimes because of the way something would make me feel, it can kind of shift my mood, change my interest level a little bit.

But with fitness in general, I've been able to continue to find stuff that still interests me might do bodybuilding for a while might do powerlifting for a while get the shift and move into some different things because it keeps it fun did you ever have anything that prevented you from switching i'm thinking of the power lifter that like no i just want to get strong whatever it takes i'm going to get strong and then they kind of beat themselves into the ground, but that's become their identity. Did you have anything, you know, kind of similar to that, that something that prevented you from like, you know, trying to go away from powerlifting, we'll say. I think that I'm, uh, you know, I definitely got caught up in some of that, but I think that I'm a little bit different than I think I have maybe a little different mindset when it comes to, you know, power to things is a thing that I do.

And bodybuilding is just the thing that I did. I did one show, so I don't even really consider myself all that connected to that. all that connected to that. But I saw other people lose themselves in it a lot. And I saw other people just be like, this is my thing, you know, and they just tried so hard and they made that like everything. And then they kind of, because of their pursuit of making it everything, they like, from what I saw, they ended up with nothing. And I was like, whatever that is,

I don't want, like, I, I'm not really great at identifying exactly what I want, but I definitely know what I don't want. And so when I see, um, you know, I've seen this with people struggling on like social media and stuff like that too. And that's why I've kind of distanced myself from some of that. There's definitely a lot more like videos and stuff like that too. And that's why I've kind of distanced myself from some of that. There's definitely a lot more like videos and stuff and content that I can do, but I, I know what I don't want. I don't exactly know what it is that I want or what I'm chasing, but I can definitely see where I'm like, eh, I don't want that. So for me, um, I didn't want to be so attached to powerlifting that it just meant everything to me. I have a wife, I have kids, and as much as I love lifting, I legitimately, honestly love

hanging out with them way more than I love to lift. Do you know when you realize that? Because when people ask people, who are you? Right. Or, or like, tell me about yourself. Right. Some people are like, well, I'm a power lifter. Like that's, that's, that is their identity. So when did you kind of realize that you didn't need that to be your identity? Or when did you realize that you were going to distance yourself from it a little bit

and like be, cause even in your Instagram Instagram bio I think it says father right so when did you shift that if there was ever a time to shift I think professional wrestling helped me a lot you know I had a lot of friends that they would uh they would they would wrestle at you know on a pay-per-view for WWE like for like Wrestlemania and they would go out and they would have the you know the final match the main event and they would be in front of 50 000 people and you know millions of people bought the pay-per-view and they have this huge fucking thing going on and then they you know they're hooking up with chicks or doing whatever the kind of like rock and roll kind of lifestyle is right uh but then a lot of them, you know, they come

back home and they got to like take out the garbage or something, you know, they got to do, uh, daddy shit. They got to like bring their kid to baseball practice or whatever, you know? And, uh, I just saw like levels of that and I saw how unhappy a lot of people were with it because they're kind of living like a double life and just kind of seeing some of that. And then also having my own like much smaller version of that, you know, where I would go travel and do seminars and do things like that and then come home. And I was like, well, really, where I matter the most is like right here. And but I'm trying to do stuff outwardly. I'm like, it doesn't make sense.

But then I, you know, kind of recalibrated and, you know, you have an understanding of like you need to do a little bit of both. You know, it's OK to it's OK to want to do both. It's OK to want to be somebody. Um, but I would just be careful with who you want to be somebody to and or why you want to be somebody to somebody else other than the people that are around you that already care about you. So I think at the moment that it happened was the moment that I became, you know, I'll put it in quotes famous because I ain't that famous. But, uh, the moment that I became, started to become more and more famous or more and more known was the moment that I started to back away from that a bit. I was like, that's not really, I don't mind it being like part of who I am and I don't, I love it. I like attention and everyone, I think most people like attention, but, uh, I was like, that's not, you know, none of these people are going to be with me when I'm 70 years old or 80 years old or those kinds of things.

So it's not an easy thing to be grounded to because it's kind of the long game and it's not the sexy, fun, fun thing. But I just, you know, I grew up with two great parents and I think I had two kind of excellent role models right in front of me from the time I was a kid. So I just kind of repositioned myself towards that. That's great. Yeah. I like what you said. Sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off. You're good, dude.

I had posted a couple weeks ago that I had – it was just like a selfie me and my family and i'm like three or is yeah yeah three of the four people in this photo don't give a damn about my workout this morning and what i was what i was getting at was like you know i see i mean i guess i don't see it but i can imagine dudes like talk are into fitness, talk about lifting all day long, will go to the gym to kill it, and then they'll get home and possibly take a nap. And the reason why I say that is because I was that guy too. And my family, they'll support me. They're down for the training sessions. They know how much I love it.

But at the end of the day like if i'm passed out while they're trying to watch a movie like that that just sucks you know like i don't want to be that dad um but yes i just want to point that out that like sometimes i think you know we kind of i don't know it's a big deal to us but that's kind of where it ends like after that nobody really gives a shit about our workout and let's just be there for the family. But for those that don't have a family in SEMA, I mean, I know you got your dog. That's my son. That's my son right there.

Yeah. You've switched up your interests quite a bit. I mean, even in just a little time that I've known you, but you've done bodybuilding, you did powerlifting, and now you're doing jiu-jitsu. How have you been able to kind of let go of, because I mean, bodybuilding, like, my gosh, do you like, you're going to look the freakiest you've ever looked. Well, I mean, I would say you look better now, but I guess at that time you're like, yep, I look aesthetically better than I ever have. And now I'm going to let go of that to gain a bunch of weight to go do power lifting. What was that switch like? Like, how were you able to kind of just have that,

I guess, mature decision at such a young age to be like, yeah, this is the pursuit that I'm going to follow. And we're just going to go all in now. You know, it's funny because it's not even that I like, I didn't leave bodybuilding. Um, I did powerlifting to help with my bodybuilding because like, I knew that I wasn't going to hit the stage at that time. I was like, okay, I'm probably going to take a two year off season so I can gain some muscle. Um, so I knew I was going to hit the stage for a minute. So I was like, I need to find something that I can do. Um, that'll allow me to, you know, scratch that competitive itch while I make all the progress I need to make to head back to the bodybuilding stage. And that's what focusing on powerlifting was for me. Cause you know,

you know, if you're focused on bodybuilding, you're just focused on going to the gym and training, that's going to be a long time before you can hit the stage and powerlifting, like just, it fits so well as far as like helping me get stronger, which helped me get bigger. So it went in line. Um, but I think that the two big athletic shifts I had were when I got injured from soccer. So I was forced out of soccer, right. And I was actually doing bodybuilding to help with soccer at the time, because I knew that if I could be big, um, that would help me out on the field. Uh, but when I got injured in college, like that's when, okay, well, what's, what's my new, what's my new thing. Okay. Let's just go deep in on this bodybuilding thing.

Um, and then the other big switch came when I started jujitsu. That was like, um, after, after my powerlifting meet, I think, which was in early 2016 or something, mid 2016. But I started focusing on jujitsu just because it's like, it gave me the, the feeling I had when I played soccer, right. Which is like using my body, doing really athletic, just like different things. Um, and then powerlifting and bodybuilding became the supplements to jujitsu. So I still have the big goals of getting bigger and stronger. Um, but now it's like, how can I get bigger and stronger with

my current, at least competitive athletic focus. And at the end it's like, how can I get bigger and stronger with my current, at least competitive athletic focus? And at the end of the day, none of these things really left like bodybuilding is not gone. It's just not my main athletic focus. But if I feel the itch to get on the stage when I'm 30 something, I'll prep and I'll get on stage. Uh, but I think for me, the, the biggest thing has just been like, I've, cause I've been thinking about that. I'm like, if, if someone were to ask me, uh, like who are you or whatever. And I really thought about it. I'm just like, I'm just someone who wants to be the best version of myself. And I also want to help the people around me be the best version

of themselves. Those people are my family. Those people are my friends. Those people are the people I work with. Um, and that's in essence, like who I am, you know what I mean? Cause who knows what happens in the future might be that something else takes jujitsu's place. And I want to be the best version of myself with said thing. Right. Um, but everything still falls in line with the things that I truly enjoy and I'm interested in, which is like, how can I develop myself to a level that I haven't been to before? Do you guys think people have the capacity, like an Encima, like a Mark Bell, to where, all right, jiu-jitsu is the main thing, but I'm always going to stay connected to powerlifting and always stay connected to bodybuilding? Yeah, I think so. I think it's important for people to have, you know, things that they, like, I think you almost need like a belief system of some sort, you know, I need something that you're strongly connected to. It could be God that you're strongly connected to,

or it could be multiple things that you're strongly connected to. It could be God that you're strongly connected to, or it could be multiple things that you're strongly connected to. Um, and those things can change and move a little bit too. Those things can be, uh, a little bit fluid. They don't have to be super rigid, but, uh, I think when you have, um, uh, that's the word I'm looking for. When you have, um, That's the word I'm looking for. When you have bigger beliefs that you align yourself with, it puts you in position to consistently align yourself with doing the right thing over and over and over again, whether you kind of want to or not. It's going to kind of snap you out of your feelings and you can really pay attention closely to what needs to be not. You know, it's kind of snap you out of your feelings and you can really pay attention closely to what needs to be done. I'll give you guys an example of this. I've seen, you know, my best friend, Jesse Burdick, I've seen him do this many times in his life. Years ago, when he became a single parent and was taking care of two, you know, was taking care of twin girls. I saw him, you know,

just this, this is his priority. This is his thing that he had to hone in and focus in on was these girls. But also, you know, he had to put a lot of time investment into that. Of course, they were, they were really little at the time. But also he needed energy himself. So he and I talked about, hey, man, like, yes, okay, they are the priority. They are the thing. They are the main focus. You can barely even focus on anything else. But in order for you to be good for them, in order for you to be right for them, you still need to, like, lift.

We still need to have you doing something that you enjoy, that you really love. And so then we just set up a bunch of different goals for him. We were like, let's, let's get you, I think he was real close to getting an elite total in a certain weight class. And he already had an elite total at like a certain other certain weight class or whatever it was. So we're like, let's get a elite total at 308. And then he got an elite total at 308. And then he got an elite total at 308. And then he got an elite total at super heavyweight. And then he was like, well, he's like, those things happen pretty quick. He's like, maybe I should get an elite total at 242. And so he had to go from being over 300 pounds down to 242. And then he even went after a 220. So he got elite totals from 220

pounds all the way up to super heavyweight in the course of about a year. And pretty remarkable. But like, you know, someone's like, well, why would you do something like that? It's just because again, like you need some sort of focus. You need something to kind of keep yourself right, keep yourself aligned. I mean, who knows what he could have fell into if he got depressed or got really upset during that time period. And so I think it's important that you stay connected to something that you enjoy, something that you like. And for some folks, it might be a good idea to look into their past of something that they maybe used to like to do that they really don't they don't do much anymore of like bike uh like cycling or hiking or things like that absolutely i i totally understand that like um if you could figure out a way because

i think about this some people don't enjoy't enjoy physical culture that much. And when I say physical culture, I don't just mean lifting, but I also mean biking, soccer, hiking. Some people don't enjoy things in that realm. I know it's going to sound like it's just too harsh, but I almost think you got to figure out a way to make yourself like something within that realm because it has such a massive benefit, like just going out and taking a hike or, or hopping on a bike for a little bit. Like when you get back and when you're done, it feels real, you feel really good. You know what I mean? You're able to go do the things you need to do. This, this is an example, a friend of mine, um, years ago, um, I was telling this person for the longest time because they had, they had legitimate depression and they were like taking medication for it. So I was just telling them, Hey, you just trust me, just try to find something physical you can do. It doesn't need to be the gym. It doesn't

need to be whatever. Just find something. And they weren't able to. But a few years later, they started doing jujitsu. And literally after a few months, they're like, all that, like, I'm feeling so much better mentally. Like, I don't feel nearly as depressed as I did in the past. Because now they had something that connected them to, like, not just their body, but something that connected them to like not just their their body but something that they were able to go do exert themselves feel accomplished feel good physically come back and then attack everything else and since they finally found that they weren't depressed they didn't feel that way anymore and it's just like that's a big deal. That's a big deal. And then did your

friend end up kind of putting that focus into something else? Sorry, I was trying to power through that. Hold on, I've got to grab something for this guy. You guys can keep going. Hold on.

What's up, Andrew? So they found Jiu-jitsu and did this person who was not interested in any kind of physical activity then find themselves going on walks or maybe hiking and stuff or doing something to maybe even better that jiu-jitsu or anything like that? Or was it just jiu-jitsu? The big thing was jiu-jitsu because it was a big, it was a big, uh, energy dump. Like this individual already liked doing walking and stuff, but it didn't, it didn't do it for them. You know?

And even when it came to lifting, they lifted a bit, but it didn't, they weren't truly interested in lifting. But then when they started doing jujitsu, they found something that they were truly interested in physically, even though they did lifting in the past, they did powerlifting in the past and it didn't grab them. So I think like if you can just find something physically that grabs you, right, I think that could be massively helpful for your mental health just in general. Absolutely. You know, I've said it before on previous episodes how, you know, like I've kind of, I don't know, like just with my mindset and everything, like I was just an unhappy person.

And I just labeled it as like anxiety and depression. Like I said, just very unhappy. And lifting has definitely helped. But I didn't realize it until i got into a really good routine and i was lifting on a consistent basis and then all of a sudden i stopped and i kind of went back to being this like weird like melancholy melancholy just kind of like going through the motions every day and then when i started lifting again my wife is just like it's the first time i've seen you smile in a very long time i was just like yeah dude it hit me so hard and i just i think about that all the time now i'm not saying like that that's uh slingshotted me to like lift

like three times a day non-stop you know seven days a week but if it's been you know i take a day off or whatever i think about it two days off i'm like yeah probably won't go three days and then even if i do it's like now let's go for a walk like load up the kids like whatever it takes you know like let's let's get moving again because i don't want to go back to that place yeah i've seen you uh struggle with consistency in the past and then uh but more recently like you've been on fire you know you've been i mean maybe it's even been i don't know mean, maybe it's even been, I don't know, six, eight months, maybe even like a year. I don't know.

Yeah, I don't know. I know for sure I equate a lot of my progress of late being like the best jump I've made in a while. And I would say it started at the beginning of this year you know like just staying super consistent um like I mentioned not every workout is a complete 10 out of 10 you know there's like today was probably like a 5 out of 10 right I still feel great like it was awesome got a cool shoulder pump and that was that but that little something now has me fired up to like do more the rest of the day yeah i think uh you represent the guy that asks a lot of the detailed good questions um but didn't have the consistency down before right like you're like hey well what you know

what and sema what do you take? Creatine? How much protein do I need? And you're writing things down. You're paying attention. And you're doing a bunch of the things. But then there's maybe you're missing some of the lifting sessions or maybe lifting some of the, I don't know, some of the kind of details that are like the bedrock. We talk about performance, you know, someone's like, how can I really change the game for myself? Well, it depends on who's asking the question, because some people, they don't have good sleep hygiene, you know, they don't really pay attention to their sleep. And for one person, you know, getting enough sleep,

getting enough hydration, eating enough grams of protein for the day could be the thing that changes everything for them for a long period of time until they, you know, find some newer shit that like changes the game for them again. So sometimes I think people are kind of missing that consistent action. But something I noticed for me is that, you know, and Seema mentioned kind of physical culture. I don't think I know anything else. I really have a hard time. I wish I could relate better to people that don't move that often. But I really, I, your brain exists. Um, the whole entire function of your brain is for movement. The whole entire function of your brain is for movement. I mean,

we can talk to Andrew Huberman about that. That's, that's what the brain does. Even when, even when you're being, even when you're communicating, it's to move the muscles of your face to, in order to, uh, communicate, you know, specific words and stuff. And so for me, I've always noticed that my mood kind of follows my actions. You know, the things that I, the things that I do, um, even though they are the things that I can, I do, they can assist me to shift into different moods. And so sometimes what you do makes you really feel like that's who you are. But it's not necessarily who you are. It's just kind of who you are and what you're doing in that particular moment.

But there may be many things that you like to do. many things that you like to do. But for me, movement is a form of pleasure to me in some way. And so I feel like an urge or need to go move every day because I know that it's going to move the needle for me in terms of how I feel, how my mood is and how I feel about myself. It's going to encourage me to feel better about myself over and over again. You know, I wonder if we should even, if we should even have this judgment that comes to mind sometimes. And what I say is this, you know, sometimes when you see an individual and they, let's say that they have like, let's say it's a bodybuilder and it's a bodybuilder. That's like, I'm trying to be one of the best in the world, uh, in this weight class or whatever. But you look at, you see them, you see how long they've

been at it. And then like, you kind of do the calculations. Um, and sometimes you're like, and sometimes you're like, but this is the thing. This is the thing. You never truly know. Sometimes you know, but you never truly know. But if that isn't necessarily drawing them back from anything that they're doing in life, if they're truly feeling happy heading towards that,

they're truly feeling happy heading towards that, they're truly feeling good heading towards that, even though maybe you've seen a lot and you're like, that's not probably going to happen. Is that wrong? Not that is your judgment wrong, but is that wrong for them to stay so strongly interested in something that may potentially never, well, everything may potentially never happen, but it's likely that it's not going to happen. I'm trying to phrase this. No, I can understand what you're saying. So there was a time in your life where you felt you were pretty in line with being a very, very good soccer player. You thought that you could take that. Who knows how far you thought you

could take it maybe you thought you could maybe do it professionally play overseas a bit like it seemed like you're on par and in line with a lot of other folks that were doing it seemed like you had a lot of the skill set and then at some point uh it became more and more clear that that just wasn't in the cards and maybe you could have come back from some injury, but it just was something that you were like, you know, even just, I don't know, working for that and doing all the different things that need to go towards that. I'm going to move on because I think I could maybe pursue something else. And I bet that I could. The confidence that you got from soccer was like hey I learned this at one point I got pretty good at this I bet you if I tried something different

I bet I could be pretty good at that I've always because at that point you're already lifting and then so you kind of made a natural migration I did the same thing with football and with pro wrestling and I think there's something really actually, there's nothing wrong with staying in pursuit of something, even when you kind of stink at it. Um, but I would say there's something magical about recognizing that it's no longer in the cards for you to do that thing. And it can be very liberating to move on and just say, you know what? I'm not, I'm not that I want to do this now. And I think I've told you guys this before but

if you look up Johnny Cash on iTunes the description of him it just goes on forever and they can't put him in a box of what he is or what kind of music he does kind of just country and he kind of does this and he kind of does that

but it's just this really and I just thought when i saw that i was like that is so fucking legit it's like i'd love to be thought of that way like oh that that guy has a power lifter right oh no i think he's an inventor oh no i think he's you know and i think that's really cool to be to maybe um have people didn't that didn't that guy used to play soccer? Didn't he get a soccer scholarship or something like that? No, no, no, that guy's a bodybuilder. That's not what I heard. I heard he does jiu-jitsu.

He's a fucking black belt in jiu-jitsu and he won a national title or some shit like that, right? That's pretty dope. Now you've got kind of multiple things going on. So, yeah, I think people need to sometimes maybe recognize when the writing's on the wall. And it's maybe not an option for them to be able to do great in that particular area any longer. And just because you can't do great doesn't mean you can't do that thing if it's something that you truly enjoy. Because, like, I mean, powerlifting, for example, I still enjoy the lifts. I still enjoy going to the gym and training. I may not be competing in powerlifting.

I may not be trying to be a world breaker or something, but I still truly enjoy the lifts, right? So it can still be part of your life to an extent, but it doesn't need to be the biggest focus over everything else. The way a lot of this came up is we've talked often on the show about interest and interest level and how it's important to follow your interest. But your interest, they're going to continually change. And it's okay to kind of change your opinion and change your mind and change your focus. Sometimes that could be a little scary when you try to go and do something that's totally new or different.

But you will know that something's not for you any longer when the simple things, when just the very simple things that are involved in that particular sport or in that particular thing, uh, start to become annoying to you. And so you'll, you'll kind of know, like, I, I'm not, I'm not that interested in this anymore. I really should, uh, consider pursuing, you know, something different. So, you know, I haven't been, I know that like, something different. So, you know, I haven't been, I know that like, I've tried different diets over the years where I ate like chicken breasts and things like that. And I did get disinterested in it. And, uh, I, I did, um, I never really struggled with consistency in terms of the gym, but I have struggled with consistency in terms of diet because I just didn't have the skill set or the information to do it any other way. So I was like, I think I need to eat chicken and low fat stuff and I need to go this way. And every time I would do that, I didn't really realize I was

dropping my calories super low. I didn't really have that much energy. And so it was just a week or two down the road,'d be like fuck this and i would cheat on my diet you know and uh so i think i think that you can you can continue to stay interested in something if you can continue to learn a skill set at it and you can continue to get better at it. Yeah. Yeah. That's a big deal. Yeah. Dope.

I think that's a show guys. What do you think? I believe, I believe so. What are you drinking over there by the way? That's a cute little can. I'm sipping on this blue bottle, blue bottle coffee, single original cold brew. I'm sipping on this blue bottle coffee.

Single original cold brew. I was telling Nsema that I've been stuck on chocolate steak shake and coffee. I love the vanilla. Vanilla is great. It tastes creamy. It's amazing. But, dude, I finally had the chocolate, like you had said, and it's amazing. It's a one-sipper. I mean, we have to figure out how to just get people this current mixture of drink, like a ready-to-drink bottle or whatever, where it's coffee and protein because this is amazing.

But even last night, I'm like'm like dude i want something else like i like god like come on like you know i'm trying to eat way more protein i'm like i don't want just a protein shake right now i'm not gonna have coffee with you know steak shake so i ended up just heating up some uh almond milk and it was incredible it was so good jasmine loved it i'm like yep yep mark knows what the hell he's a little hack guys put some coffee creamer in that bitch like that's good yeah hey now awesome that was that was a great conversation fellas thank you so much for that and thank you everybody for checking out today's episode um please hit that like button please hit that subscribe button please hit that ring that

notifications button as well and share this with somebody who needs to hear it. And a huge shout-out and thank you to Pete Montes for sponsoring today's episode. Again, PeteMontes.com, promo code PowerProject for 25% off your order. Link down in the description as well as podcast show notes. Please make sure you follow the podcast at MarkBell'sPowerPro at mb power project on tiktok and twitter my instagram and twitter is at i am andrew z and sema where you at and sema in yang on instagram and youtube at and see my yin yang on tiktok on twitter mark eeps when you go over to piedmontese.com make sure you check out the biltong make sure you check out some of theong. Make sure you check out some of the Beef Sticks.

I mean, they have a bunch of other delicious shit on that website that maybe you're not aware of. So check out all that stuff because I had some of that in the pantry here in Bodega and cleared that out pretty efficiently and effectively over here. So anyway, strength is never weak. This week, this is never strength. I'm at Mark Smiley Bell. Catch you guys later. Bye.