Mark Bell's Power Project - EP. 578 - Mind Muscle Connection Is Deeper Than You Think

Episode Date: August 24, 2021

Talkin about Mind Sets, leaning into difficult times and growing stronger mentally. Subscribe to the NEW Power Project Newsletter! ➢ https://bit.ly/2JvmXMb Subscribe to the Podcast on on Platforms! ➢ https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast Special perks for our listeners below! ➢Marek Health: https://marekhealth.com Use code POWERPROJECT15 for 15% off ALL LABS! Also check out the Power Project Panel: https://marekhealth.com/powerproject Use code POWERPROJECT for $101 off! ➢Eat Rite Foods: http://eatritefoods.com/ Use ode "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 ➢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 ➢YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/NsimaInyang ➢Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/?hl=en ➢TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nsimayinyang?lang=en ➢Nsima's Coaching: https://www.breakthebar.com/learn-more Podcast Produced by Andrew Zaragoza ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamandrewz #PowerProject #Podcast #MarkBell

Ah, that new live smell. So good. So good. Is that what that is? I don't know what that was. Do you smell-a-la-la-la-la? Ah, I miss those days. So do I.

Man. Uh, you don't need to miss him. Why not? Because he's coming back. What do you mean? Vince McMahon is getting the band back together. Hell yeah. What?

Yeah, Cena's in there. Brock Lesnar. Okay. Goldberg. Goldberg? I think Goldberg. I think Goldberg was in there, too. Wow.

My dad watches it, so he was telling me some stuff. I haven't seen wrestling in really kind of too long, really. I have a lot of fun. I like wrestling. I always liked it. Grew up watching it as a kid, and. I have a lot of fun. I like wrestling. I always liked it. Grew up watching it as a kid, and I just always thought it was fun. But it's been a while since I had a chance

to sit down and watch it, but my dad's telling me yesterday, he's like, you know, Cena lost. And he was so... What do you mean? My dad's face, he was so upset. And I my dad's face he's like he was like so upset and i was like yeah i was like i know like uh i was like he i was like he is getting older you know like maybe he you know he lost to roman reigns roman reigns is like a young gun he's

pretty strong i know john is you know well trained and everything but man you can't just come back and fight someone like Roman Reigns. He's got your ass kicked. But yeah, anyway, the Rock's going to come back. Oh my God. It's going to be crazy. That was the best era for me. Smackdown era. It was fun.

It was great. I can't say anything bad about it. I'm just happy it's going to be back. I'm happy that the Rock's going to be doing it again. The video games were better back then, too. Okay, pause. Just rewind. Let's take back things that just aren't true.

What are you talking? And let's go on to a good conversation. Have you ever played? When you say BS like that on this podcast, I just can't allow it. This is the really fun thing, because when I say a game like No Mercy is a million times better than any video game that's come out in the last 10 years or so. Do you know what No Mercy is? I don't know if I've ever played No Mercy.

I don't even know what it is. What's going on here? Insima, you know a lot about a lot of things. I know a lot about video games. You do. This is one that is definitely not even close to an argument all right all right it is so much better back in 64 days so i have played a lot of uh nwa versus the world i played that a lot so imagine is that actually the game yeah so imagine just i think or i'm sorry nwo i didn't even catch that but no so imagine just like the the latest one that came out on n64 with

that style of gameplay it's so good oh it's a wwf game yeah oh god those games are fun dude so good oh my god andrew i don't know if you realized. That I'm old. I pray to God that I never, that this doesn't happen, that it's like, back in my day, we had WWF No Mercy. Like, oh, Lord, dude, that. You know what, though? There are things that are like, there are things that are legit that are like that.

And I think that every generation says it about their music and things like that for sure there was something special about like when shit was on cassette tapes and like it was harder for anyone to be able to make it because they did have to have a record label they have a record deal but there's there are like things that are authentic to certain generations like the skateboard generation like uh which andrew huberman you know who we're gonna have on this podcast coming up he he grew up in that. And like, there are, there are kind of things that are kind of locked into certain time periods, uh, that are, you know, considered like Epic and they're hard to, they're hard

to replicate. They're hard to mimic, but I think everybody always thinks their, their, uh, time is special or whatever. Right. No, I agree, man. I agree. Like I love nineties rock. thinks their their uh time is is special or whatever right no i agree man i agree like i love 90s rock okay okay i'm a person that loves a lot of different music yeah but i i say this my music taste can go from gangsta to white mom real quick like i'm being real like you'll hear me fucking bopping no vaseline by ice cube right and? And then I'm bopping fucking Dave Matthews Band, Crash Into Me.

You know what I mean? Like, so it's like, that's 90s right there. And Andy knows about Dave Matthews Band. You're rapping one second, the next second you're crying. Crash into me. Yeah, like, it's so good. So, like, I know what you mean. I know what you mean.

That's my era, that's the 90s. Yeah, and I'm so old that, like, rap was, so old that rap was becoming really, really popular when I was young. And that was amazing. And to kind of have the... For me, it was nice because there was rock and then the spinoff of rock was getting into metal. And then the spinoff of some other music was hip hop and rap. And that was interesting because i always just i always personally really liked i mean i like a lot of variety of music um but i like stuff that's

like just powerful you know stuff that stuff that um not and not always not all the time you know it's nice to sometimes have something that soothes you rather than you know makes you a maniac but you rather than you know makes you a maniac but uh i like some metal but i'm not like a you know crazy into you know the the deep dark stuff that uh like ryan spencer's into where they're yelling at yelling at you too much but i could still appreciate that and i still understand why people uh jim wendler is really into it too i had. Yeah. He's got like stacks and crates of records. He's a collector. Yeah. That's wild.

He knows some shit. Yeah. He plays a lot of music. Burdick. Yeah, that's how I knew. Yeah, drummer, guitarist, all kinds of stuff. Dang.

Yeah. Fancy. I've been into some country recently. Country's amazing. It really is. Don't diss country. Jolene, that's one of my favorite songs recently. I'm serious. Dolly Parton hit that shit out of the park. I don't know country jolene that's one of my favorite songs i'm serious dolly parton to hit

that shit out of park i don't know i'm not familiar dolly parton but the boss house has a great remix of it anyway and why did we come here why did we why are we on this topic i don't know what happened i don't know what happened well we were talking about wrestling talking about wrestling we got a show to run over here yeah today's show is brought to you by merrick health and uh i just wanted to share some information with with y'all because i think it could be really helpful we get we get a lot of questions you know about uh body transformation we get a lot of questions in terms of like motivation and just a lot of people a lot of folks don't kind of have that extra little zip. And I think one of the reasons why someone like an Andrew Huberman is becoming really popular is because he's sticking to like, hey, you know what?

Let's really just look at behaviors before we go diving into you wanting to take performance enhancing drugs or supplements or any of those things. supplements or any of those things. And I think when you have a, when you have a team at your disposal of doctors who are going to look at your blood work, you have a huge advantage because, I mean, they're going to tell you some of the things that are obvious and some of the things that, you know, a lot of times the truth is bothersome. A lot of times the truth is hard. But if somebody, if you're sitting there and you're on the fence and you're like, man, I really want to take some testosterone. I want to do these things. These guys are going to allow you. Merrick Health is going to allow you to do so in an educated way to where you can make a decision based off of the facts that you get when you get your blood work back.

And you don't have to necessarily go jumping into anything. They could say, hey, look, your testosterone is a little low. This is a little bit off. This is a little bit off. That's a little bit off. But here are some things you can do. You can work on your sleep. You can do A, B, and C. They can give you a lot of great information, or you can make the decision and make the

choice to level out your hormones through some pharmaceuticals. And for me personally, I haven't found anything wrong with that. A lot of these hormones are bio-identical to what's in your body. And it's been really helpful and useful for me. I've actually never really felt better than I do right now. And I think that's why you're starting to see me running and you're starting to see me getting into some other things. I've been still working on my flexibility, which will probably be the longest thing that will be worked on, you know. But I feel amazing.

A lot of it's just from balancing out my hormones. But I don't know how to do that on my own. I don't know how to figure that out on my own. I don't know about prolactin and progesterone and estroidal estrogen. I don't know all that. a stroidal estrogen and like i don't know all that you know i i just i know some basics uh but it's nice to have a team of doctors that are going to look at your blood work and kind of work you through that yeah absolutely and what what i really love about it it's you know it's a premium telehealth clinic um i and sema anybody listening can get the exact same treatment that Mark Bell gets.

In the past, it'd be pretty much impossible to find the exact same doctor that Mark would be able to go see the same clinic unless you're just having to be in the area and you're his friend. This is how everybody can take advantage of it. And with us teaming up with them, we wanted to make it as easy as possible for you. So if you have no idea where to start, we have the Power Project panel. That's a very comprehensive panel of a bunch of different labs for you to get. If you just don't know where to start, that's really like it covers everything, the ins and outs. You can head over to powerproject, oh, sorry, merikhealth.com. It's M-A-R-E-K, health.com slash powerproject. You you'll see the power project panel, uh, look, add that to your cart and that checkout enter promo code power project for $101 off. But if you kind of have an

idea where you want to take things or you want to start, um, you know, getting some, uh, some treatment, that's really where like the benefit of all this is you can actually just get 15% off all labs using promo code power project 15. Again, maybe you just want to get your test levels checked, your T3 because everyone wants to talk about their thyroid being wrong. It's like, hey, instead of guessing, how about you just go get it tested? Again, that's that same website, so MerrickHealth.com. You can check out tons of different labs. They have everything.

Use promo code PowerProject15 for 15% off. Again, that's all labs. That's kind of unheard of, so that's really, really cool that they're offering that to our listeners. Links to them down in the description as well as the podcast show notes. Make sure you guys check them out today. Yeah, it's continued treatment and continued care. That's really important. A lot of people, they just kind of roll the dice when it comes to pharmaceuticals and it's it's great

to have somebody that is administering it uh in reasonable amounts and you can go back like when you once you get your blood work done it's not just a one-off you know you don't just get your blood work done one time um because your blood work's kind of a snapshot of where you're at at the moment so you get your blood work done if there's anything that's sticking out that doesn't look right they're going to work you through it then you get your blood work done. If there's anything that's sticking out that doesn't look right, they're going to work you through it. Then you get your blood work done again and you continue to do things in, in, uh, in, in accordance to how your blood work's turning out. Yeah. And then also like hair treatment too. Didn't even know that they did that. I know, man, that's something I should look into. I don't know. I kind of

like, I actually, I don't kind of, I really like being bald. My hair's always ready to go. It's efficient. I actually do appreciate it. I'm aerodynamic. I no longer need it. Listen, more people need to just shave it off.

Yeah. Just, you know what I mean? Just go for it. I know it's unfortunate if it's happening to you, but just fucking shave it off. The rock tried to hold onto it

and it didn't work. It did. Oh, yeah. Remember that? Remember those pictures? The sideburns? Hey, you know what?

We're allowed to make fun of The Rock because he's pretty much flawless, right? So, like, any little thing that we can find, we've got to hold on to that with everything we've got. 100%. But, yeah, he did hang on for a while. I wonder if that was like a WWE thing, though, where they were like, dude, we can't have you go bald yet. I think that was just a 2000 something you're right it's the year

it's the year a lot of things just weren't flying in those towns like frosted tips like y'all remember frosted tips yeah

what did you ever do frosted tips no I just know your brother did I'll just say I think yeah Chris did

yeah I almost did but I never never went all the way. I'm black, so. Never thought about it. Not a chance. I think Cisco and Dennis Rodman probably were the only ones that really did. But they were those outlier. Odell Beckham?

It's different now, yeah. Yeah, I think so. Well, nowadays, there's a lot of things that you can just do whatever you want. Stuff, you know, times have changed. And we're back to that. That's,

that's, I know where your mind is going. So really back in. I'm real Dan. I'm real Dan. All right. I think, uh,

what were you going to talk about today? The mind, the mind, muscle connection, but it's not the mind muscle connection. You guys think, although we'll probably talk a little bit about that. Um,

you know, I, I think that, uh, you know, I, I've just over the years, it's been useful and helpful for me,

um, to just recognize that pretty much everything is a, and, you know, this can get into like a really crazy topic, but we're going to skip over this part for today because that's too much to handle. But most things are just a choice. You know, most things are an interpretation of, you know, what you think of them. And your decision to eat chocolate cake and then your decision to maybe a day or two later complain that you're not in the shape that you want to be in. Those are all choices. And you're not doing things that are heading in the direction of the things that are in your best interest to get you to your goal. And so therefore, you're kind of causing your own angst. You're causing your own anxiety, causing some of your own stress.

And it's been useful for myself to just understand that. Like, you put yourself in these predicaments. You put yourself in these situations. And there's no reason to cry about it. There's no reason to be upset or get emotional about it. Let's just work on having a stronger skill set so I can deal with these things better. And something that's helped me out a lot is physical activity. And so by running and walking and lifting and just moving, um, it's been really useful for me to walk myself through like, shit, man, if I'm capable of some of these things

physically, um, and I, and I was never capable of them before. And now I gained more access to things that I otherwise couldn't do. I wonder if I could do the same thing for my mind. to things that I otherwise couldn't do. I wonder if I could do the same thing for my mind. No, I agree with you there. And I think the big thing to think about here is like, for example, what you were mentioning with food, you can control your actions. You can control your reactions to certain things. So a lot of people are like, oh, you know, when I get hungry, I binge and I crave these certain foods. Right. And Mark, both you and I have been doing the habit of fasting for a few years. And we always talk about how that habit has allowed us to come into control of our hunger.

Right. So when we get hungry, we're not immediately always reaching for food. We can go through the whole day without eating, but we were having a conversation before this episode. And that's what came. That's what had us come across this topic. Because we don't talk too deeply all the time about all the things that we do.

Or the things that we do with the details. With the stress that we put on our bodies as we do it. An example is like, I do a lot of jujitsu and a lot of lifting sessions purely fasted just on electrolytes and, uh, you know, whatever, maybe a little bit of protein or whatever. Right. But what most people would see that and be like, Oh, but how can you perform or aren't you tired? If that's not safe. Um, and it's not something we can just suggest that people do if they're not going about things the right way. You know, we're always making sure to eat enough when we're in our eating window. So I eat enough when I eat at home, if it's one meal or two days, two meals, but the next day I can go through the whole day, not eat anything, go work

out, go do jujitsu and I'm good. And one of that, one of those reasons is because number one, doing it for a few years and I'm used to it now being fast, it doesn't feel like a stress. Um, doing it for a few years and I'm used to it. Now being fast doesn't feel like a stress, but I've been open to it. You know what I mean? I think that there's something that goes on in your mind where it's with everybody. When I first started doing a little bit of fasting, my mind would be like at noon, like, oh, you're hungry. And it would be difficult to even not eat a meal till noon. But as I started to increase that window to increase that window, I got used to the feeling. And also my mind wasn't like, Oh, you're hungry. You need to eat. I was able to just go longer and longer and longer and do more and more and more, uh, without having

to eat right before working out. Um, I think George St. Pierre, I heard this on a podcast with him and Rogan. And it's one thing that even made me more interested in it a few years ago. He mentioned that he does a lot of fasting now too. He does a lot of fasted training sessions, a lot of fasted fighting. And he said that when he was in his prime fighting the UFC, that he wishes that he actually did a lot of his fights fasted because he felt sharper. He felt like he could react better. And again, this is making sure that again, you have enough food before, right? You have enough food when you're actually eating. It's not like we're eating a hundred calories a day and going about doing all this activity. Mark's

doing all this running and gym sessions. No, we eat enough food, but we don't have to eat right before we work out. Um, we like, I don't need to eat two hours before I work out. And for me at this point, it's going to sound wild. It's going to sound crazy, but I like, I don't even feel that much of a difference as long as I have the total amount of calories going through my system from the night before or the day before. Yeah. If you're under eating, um, then you might run into problems. And also if you're not used to these things you know so um you know please uh take what we're saying here today and just think to yourself oh i wonder if i can implement these things a little bit i wonder if i can uh you know put some of these things into practice over the

next couple weeks months years because it's going to take a while and take a while for you to be able to uh adapt to it for you to be able to get for you to be able to get used, adapt to it, for you to be able to get, for you to be able to get used to it. Um, but I, I've actually liked, I personally kind of like it as a challenge, you know? Um, I kind of like the challenge of fasting. I like the challenge of, um, yeah, let me see what I can do for today. And every once in a while it does get the better of me, you know, to be honest, I gotta, you have to be honest with yourself and you have to know every once in a while that fasting is going to like grab a hold of you a little bit. And you're going to have to just say, no, you know what?

Tomorrow, just have a normal day of eating and I'll get I'll get back to practicing fasting some other time because because it can it can kind of bog you down over a period of time. Absolutely. And, you know, it also you like, like we mentioned before, what we're doing now, the reason why we don't talk about it much is because we know that people are going to try to dive on the deep end immediately. So they're going to try to do 20-hour fasts and eat all their food in a four-hour window in one meal and then try to do all the workouts like that for weeks on end And then be like, oh, I'm too tired or I can't do this. Right? With what we're talking about here, if you do want to see how this works for you, start easy.

You know what I mean? Like start by only skipping breakfast or whatever. Do some of your workouts fasted. Do some of your workouts not fasted. And see where you can push it. Okay? See how far you can take it. But the thing is, nowadays, it's kind of scary for me.

Well, not even scary, but it's just weird looking at what I do now versus what I did a few years back because the level of control I have over like food and my, my diet, and I don't feel restricted at all. Even though a lot of people would look at what I'm doing and they're like, that's too restrictive. I'm not restricted at all, even though a lot of people would look at what I'm doing and they're like, that's too restrictive. I'm not restricted at all. Like I can eat what I want when I want, but I also don't feel the drive to eat all the time. And my cravings aren't as strong.

I still, when I do have my eating periods, I'll still have 25 to 3000 calories, but it's like I'm not through my day doing all the performance, all the jujitsu rounds all the lifting that i do i'm good as far as as long as i have electrolytes and some food from the day before i can perform and i can still i'm still gaining muscle we did that dexa scan yeah right i put on and by the way i've been training for about 15 years now so put keep this in mind but i put on about two pounds of muscle through these past two years doing a lot of the same things I'm doing right now. So I've gained some muscle. My body fat got a little bit leaner. I'm still making progress.

So again, it's like I think the big thing when it comes to what we're talking about here is that this doesn't all come down to what your body's doing. A lot of I think both of our minds have changed. I think you've always had a strong mindset when it comes to your training and I've had somewhat of a strong mindset, but like now, like the way that we interpret certain stressors is very different. This is an example that I have. Um, for those of you that like train in the gym, you, you might understand this too, but in jujitsu, like when you're doing sparring rounds, you'll do round after round, after

round, after round, after round. At a certain point you might feel tired. So for me, when I get tired, my mental switch is like this next round is going to be the round that I get an extra gear. Or this next round is going to be one of the rounds that's going to allow me to get an extra level of endurance. Or I'm going to get something out of this round because I'm fucking exhausted. Whereas a lot of other people, when they start getting tired, they're like, okay, I'm going to sit out this round or I'm going to set the next two rounds. I'm feeling kind of tired, right?

There's something that you need to train yourself to look at stress as a positive rather than looking at stress and fatigue as a negative. Now, can this be taken too far? Absolutely. Okay. So you can this be taken too far? Absolutely. Okay, so you gotta be smart. Like, obviously, if you do jujitsu, if you're feeling too tired, you know that you might hurt yourself in the next round,

don't roll, right? Or if you're in the gym, and you know that you probably shouldn't do that next set of squats for 10 reps because your back is feeling wonky, don't do that set of squats. That's not what I'm talking about here. But there are certain times where stress and fatigue, if you can reinterpret it and train yourself to continuously reinterpret

things that most people would see as a negative, you can build a much stronger mind because of that. Yeah. You might even think that this is fun. You might think this is like super awesome. Like I have an opportunity to be better than i was yesterday and that opportunity is just sitting there right in front of you um we've had many people in the gym before where there's a new weight on the bar that they've never done before i'm like this is what you train for this is what you do it's it's it's like literally sitting right there this is the opportunity now you could be scared and you could um let a lot of self-doubt take over because you're like man i never i've never done that before um i'd think that there's it's probably

uh a little bit healthy to have some reservations towards things of course but maybe not in that moment you know in that moment i think i think you're better off saying i'm a bad motherfucker and i'm going to handle this. I'm going to shoulder this. I'm going to take all this on. You know, when I think about you think about like the Matrix, there's that scene in the Matrix where he's like, you know, bring it on. Or if you think about the rocks as just bring it. I kind of think like that more, you know, I'd rather or like Hulk Hogan. Remember Hulk Hogan when he would get punched and you'd get like kicked and punched.

He would Hulk up and he would get stronger. Like at the end of the match, he would continue to get stronger. And then he'd just like point at the guy and then he'd like whoop the guy's ass. You know, I kind of think of stuff that that I'm doing whenever I can because he can't do it all the time. The interesting thing about all this is you have to have a skill set to even be able to think this way. Because if the skill set's not there, you're done. You're getting crumbled up and chewed up and spit out kind of before you know it. But if you have a skill set or have worked on it at least a little bit, you can kind of think, you know what, rather than falling apart like I'm seeing everybody else do, I'm going to stay as strong as I can. And maybe your legs are giving out. Maybe your body's giving

out a little bit. But you have control over what you do with your mind. And maybe, maybe your legs are giving out, maybe your body's giving out a little bit, but you have control over what you do with your mind. And you can say, you know what, all I'm going to do is just not quit. I'm just, I think sometimes that's the easier, easier path is it's, uh, it might be difficult for somebody to wake up every single morning and think that they're going to win the day. But sometimes I like to just look at things like, just don't fail yourself. Just don't give up on yourself. Put in the best effort that you can. And here and there, because it is just yourself and it is just for you. I don't really like the word just, but in this case, I think it's appropriate. You can break your fast. You can, if you need to bow out on something because you're going to get hurt, you can do those things.

But more often than not, you're better off pushing through. A really interesting thing is that we produce dopamine, which is dopamine is a part of our like reward system. It's a reward chemical in our brain. And we produce dopamine based off of movement. So, I mean, if you just think about like if I just get myself moving and put in effort, I'm going to start to feel better. I think a lot of times people think they need to be, like, motivated to go do something, but you actually just, you can think about it slightly differently.

You need movement to be motivated. And so if you just get moving, if you don't, you know, there's, it's so easy to throw up so many roadblocks. Let's, let's say hypothetically that you're like, you know what, tomorrow morning I'm going to go for a run. Well, it's really easy to get sidetracked. Like, you know what? No, I'm going to stop for a cup of coffee. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that.

Oh shit, man. Oh wow. It's, it's already 11 o'clock. Like I didn't really get the work done that I needed to get done. I should probably go do that. Oh crap. You know, my kids are coming home from school or whatever.

And you just, you allowed all these excuses to kind of take over. And when you start to develop a stronger mindset, you can be on the complete other side of things almost all the time to the point where you're like, if I don't do this for myself today, uh, I'm not going to feel great. Like, I want to feel great.

Like, what are things I can control? What are things that I can do to feel great? And you know for yourself, it's probably some form of exercise and it's probably getting in proper nutrition. It's hard to get yourself to be on that side. But once you get on that side, you'll feel amazing. It's not an easy thing to get there. But you get there through working on your mind and through building it up over time. And that's why I oftentimes talk about mindsets.

You know, the sets that you're doing in the gym, the reps that you're doing in the gym. As soon as they get to be hard, lean into them more. Make them even worse, you know? If you have to reduce the weight a bit to sneak in a couple more reps, do that. Just to emboss and burn success into your brain and to learn what it feels like. What do you guys tell yourself when you are like, fuck, this is really hard? What goes off in your head that makes you say now you know i am going to make this harder i want to lean into this you know because i'm sure somebody's hearing that like fuck dude like i'm having a hard time walking around the block right now and it's like okay and now imagine

that person is like no i'm going to lean into it i'm going to do a light jog but in this moment right now there's like that's a that's a tough that's a tall order so like what goes off in your head that makes you say no i am going to make this harder. For me personally, I've had a lot of positive experiences. So if, if you're somebody that's had negative experiences, like the one time you went to push, you tore up your ankle. Well, it's going to be easier for you to kind of have that memory, you know, sort of block you from making the progress that you want to make. But what I've been working on for many years now is just kind of a reinterpretation.

You know, what's happening like when you're running, what's happening when you're lifting, what's happening like from a like a physiological standpoint, like what is going on? standpoint like what is going on like if i'm if i have in sema doing uh leg extensions and leg presses and i push them through a really hard set of leg press in the middle of the set i can just say it's just blood going to your legs dude you know like and he can be like shit man okay yeah it hurts like i can feel it like i understand but you. It's just, there's just a lot of blood flow to the legs right now. And so sometimes you can break things down that simply when you're in that moment and you're, you're trying to get your first walk in around the block. You can say, oh my God, my feet, my feet feel like they're going to explode. My feet hurt really bad. The second thing you need to do is ask yourself, is that even true? Any sort of anxiety or any sort of stress that ever comes in and you start to get lost in thought, I want people to ask themselves that question. Is this even true? Or is this a fact? Is this a distorted fact that I distorted myself so that I can say, hey, you know what, you should just pack it in, you should just go home.

It's usually not true. It's like, it's really rare that it's true. And if it is true, you can reexamine that thing that it is that you need to work on maybe you need to be more educated in a certain thing or maybe you need to you know work on some other factors in your life to help you to get through this one thing but it's usually not true I agree with you man like I I grew up and I am a chronic over thinker about things but like what you just said there over time of like doing all the things that we do I I pay attention to what my mind does these days and my mind does a lot of like when things are stressful or when when when when my body is hurting guessing more so tired than anything not

like I feel like I'm about to injure myself, but tired. My mind automatically is like, Ooh, this is good. Like we're getting somewhere like this is, I reinterpret that. It's not like, Oh no, I got to stop. It's more so, okay, this is where we break through something. Okay. So there's a reinterpretation of that. And honestly, guys, you want to take what we're saying there and really try to apply this into a lot of other things you do in life.

Pay attention to your thoughts. When something challenging is going on, maybe you're getting challenged by your nutrition, your diet, or something with family, pay attention to the way you interpret it because your interpretation can really determine the action you take. But the second thing, and it's something we've talked about all the time, but it's kind of a fucking odd paradox. You want to think less you really do because what happens especially like let's say you're trying to you want to go to the gym but then you realize it's like 6 p.m uh it's prime time there's gonna be a lot of people there right now uh probably won't be able to get to the bench and then it's already 30 minutes later oh it's too late it's 6 30 i'm not gonna go to the

gym anymore you thought yourself you thought so long that you thought yourself out of action, thought yourself right out of the building, thought yourself out of the building right there. You didn't even get into the car, like yourself off the team already. It's like, it's like you were getting ready for a fight with Mike Tyson, right?

Like remember people used to, when they fought Tyson, people are like, Oh, they lost before they even, and you'd see the guy look down. And, but we do that to ourselves,

which is kind of crazy. That's crazy to think that you can have such negative thought that you talk yourself right out of doing the very thing that you agreed just a couple minutes earlier that it would be in your best interest to do to be healthier. And there you are eating a cupcake. Or there you are drinking a beer again. there you are eating a cupcake or there you are, you know, drinking a beer again. Something that I've,

I think is really important is for people to understand that all negative emotions, all the negative stuff that we ever conjure up, it all comes from a negative interpretation. You cannot have a, you cannot have a positive interpretation or a neutral interpretation of something and have any negative emotions come from that. I know that sometimes people get a little pissy when you take information or you take facts

and you kind of shove them their way and say something to the effect of, you're fat and it's on you, you need to do something about it. They get upset about it. And it's not something to necessarily get upset about. It's something to just look at the facts. This is the situation that I'm in. This isn't great for me.

But I'm not going to get sad about it. I'm going to have an interpretation. This is an opportunity for me, but I'm not going to get sad about it. I'm going to have an interpretation. This is an opportunity for me to get healthier. This is an amazing opportunity. You know what? I'm actually glad that I have diabetes because you know what? I'm going to change my life today because of it. I got diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

My blood sugar is a mess. My life's a mess. My sleep is a mess. I'm going to take agency over all of it, and I'm going to go to work on it as if it's my fucking job. Absolutely. No, that,

that's, that's a big deal. Like I look back at some, a lot of the negative things that have happened to me, um, pretty much all of them. And I, I say this totally understanding that we've all had things that have happened

that, uh, there's, there's, there's, they can't be good. Right. So, um,

saying this with, with a grain of salt. Um, but I look back at like, let's say things that went wrong in relationships or all that things that have like really just been really bad for me. And I look at those things as a positive because I learned something. I learned something huge from them. That's going to now change the way that I go about

doing things in the future, right? So if you've been having bad habits as far as your diet and you understand what you're doing wrong, instead of continuously beating yourself up for making those bad decisions, take it and be like, oh, this is good that this happened because I know what I now should not do, right? If you've listened to this show for a while, you have very good understanding of your bad habits you do So now, you know how to go about and change that moving forward It makes a very big difference. But on that note about thinking less

Nowadays, I do my best to if there's something i know i i need to do whether it's creating content or coming to and doing something here or whatever i just do it like i literally do my best not to think too much because i have a i can i can i can rationalize myself into anything or out of anything right um but if i just fucking just go do it get it done haven't handled it's always better it's always better it's like you're halfway through it before you even recognize it you're like oh i already i already did a bunch of those things that i wanted to do they're already done um something else that can actually help a lot too though is to focus so if if you're running let's say and your legs are you're just like, oh my God, I'm defeated.

I'm like, I'm toast. My legs are burning. What you could do is you could, you can try to tune into something specific. You can try to tune into the way your feet are striking the ground and pay attention to that or pay attention to your breath. But you want to try to have a singular focus. You don't want your mind going, you don't want your mind going all over the place. That's really easy to have happen. But you can just be like, oh, that's interesting.

I wonder why my foot is, you know, pointing outward on the one, my right foot points out and my left foot's more straight. And you can kind of concentrate on that. So as you're tired tired you can concentrate on something a little bit different so that way you're getting you're getting through it a little bit easier because you kind of occupied your mind and you're not thinking about the work and you're not thinking about how bad your legs are are killing you or how out of breath you are yeah so i'm back here i'm conjuring up a bunch of questions,

but it's like, I already know the answers think less, but I was just thinking about the other people that overthink everything. And is there any like quantifiable data that you guys can, I guess, reference when it comes to like, you know, kind of leaning again,

leaning into the things that suck like a little bit worse um i guess yeah i'm trying to like really voice this question is it's hard but you know what i mean because like i guess if you even ask for that data or that information you're already thinking too much right like seriously any like so this is the thing that comes to mind this is a mindset type of thing this is the thing that comes to mind this is a mindset type of thing this is really a mindset type of thing because we have a lot of interesting people that come on to this podcast that talk about different types of ways of exercise and different things to do um and there's always going to be comments from some there's always

going to be comments from some people some people uh who are like oh that's not good for you or you shouldn't do that or oh that's going good for you or you shouldn't do that or oh that's going to be bad for this or oh um why don't you just do this this is tried and true method of doing whatever right um and those individuals are going to be stuck in their fucking ways they're going to be stuck with what they've been doing they're going to be stuck with their same results they're not going to be moving forward in any kind of way they will have the same results i'll bet maybe it's just the same thing over and over for years on end they're not doing anything new they're not breaking to any type of new territory they are stuck right whereas what we try to do is we see something that we're interested in

because for example that guy julian baldy who came in who came here football player um super strong lower back he does lower back extensions it's like 295 pounds i see that i'm like whoa i can't do anything close to that i don't even really mess with the lower back machine but i know that that's a weakness that i have oh shit if i can now take that get stronger with that over time and it could probably play some benefit into my lower back strength into jujitsu but i suck at it right now because a lot of people when they suck at something or when they've never done it before, immediately they're like, I'm not going to do that. I'll just stick with my back squats. Or they'll go research and find all kinds of data that says that's actually a bad thing.

They're going to use data, right? And that right there is the prime reason why, like, that's the prime reason why whenever anybody says oh studies say this and study says that i'm like i don't give a fuck about your studies i really don't because there's so many things that people have continued to do that spit in the face of science and research but people are scared of trying it because studies say this so that's what that's the thing about us like i really think that like me and you we pay attention to what the researchers come and say on the podcast and we think it's really useful it's super useful but we also don't let that pigeonhole us in terms of the action that we take so as a

listener don't let studies pigeonhole you in terms of the pro the print terms of the things you do pay attention to them but don't not do something just because the study says so even though you're interested in that thing it makes no sense and you don't have to do this in all aspects of your life but it is really useful when you find things that you can't do is to do them you know and you can't do them work on them I think it's really useful and really helpful it could be the one thing that makes you what you are you know it could be the one thing that makes you what you are. It could be the one thing that turns you into something. So for me, there was nothing I was more scared of than to talk in front of people.

I was paralyzed by it. That was 20-something years ago. And I did professional wrestling. I found I liked professional wrestling enough. I was interested in it enough to train in it for a while. I did it for like five years. And part of professional wrestling is kind of make an ass of yourself and to go up there and do like wrestling promos and talk trash and all that stuff. So it, it took, you know, I had to, uh, you know, go through this like training,

um, in order to be able to talk. And then now this is, I, you know, I talk like this all the time. And, um, I was, I've been able to coach a lot of people, impact a lot of people.

Um, and that's, you know, that's what I, I feel that this is like my mission. You know, I feel like I was put on this earth to make the world a better place to lift and to share information and to help people to,

um, gain control over their nutrition and to make better choices and stuff. And I can't do any of that if I didn't learn how to speak. If I didn't learn how to speak properly to people, I guess maybe I could have done it through some writing. But I'm not much of a writer. So it was like I had to make a choice on how I was able to communicate. And I stuck with it long enough to be able to get a message out there.

But when I first started shooting videos, when I first started shooting videos for fitness, I had the guts to do it in the first place because of movement, because I squatted 900 pounds. I'm like you know what i think people will listen to me a little bit i think people would like to know because i am getting a lot of people asking me questions in person so i'm like well maybe i should just

talk about it more maybe i should stop being such a pussy and i should just put myself out there and just talk and you know hey you big dumb idiot what are you so scared of? Like, just go do it because what's it going to hurt? You're talking about a subject that you already clearly know something about, you know, and I think almost every single person that's listening to the show right now knows something. You know, you know something about a particular topic, whether it's transmissions in your car or whether it's photography or whether it's volleyball or whether it's um volleyball

or whatever the hell it is you probably know quite a bit about something that none of the three of us know shit about um and i've said this before um in seminars and stuff and a lot of people really gravitated towards it i said i do one thing better in the world than anybody else and it doesn't matter if it's john it doesn't matter if it's John Cena, it doesn't matter if it's The Rock, it doesn't matter who it is. I do this one thing better than everybody else. And that's be Mark Bell. That's just be myself. And so just lean into some of that shit. What is it that you know? What calls to you? What do you love to do? If you can develop a stronger mindset, it will make every single thing that you do, it'll make every single thing that you do enhanced.

It'll make every single thing that you deal with easier. Things that were once stressful, you'll be like, those be less of a big deal to you. Still might register, still might bother you, but you'll most likely start to become a problem solver. And you're like, you know what? I'm just going to, that fucking sucks that someone stole my car, but I'm

not a police officer. I'm not in law enforcement. Somebody else will probably have to deal with it. And they'll probably find my car. It's probably just some teenage kids. They just took it for a spin. And it will show up car. It's probably just some teenage kids. They just took it for a spin, and it will show up somewhere. There's these things that happen that are outside of our control, which is really what's kind of frightening is that anything outside of your thinking is outside of your control. But I don't think that we even recognize that. Anything that's outside of your thinking is outside of your control. good news is you have a hundred percent control of your thinking the bad news is on that side is that we don't have a hundred percent agency over even the thoughts that come into our brain but again we have the ability to think about those thoughts that come into our

brain because sometimes something really weird will pop into your head oh my god when you're in the shower or something like that you're like what the is that about taking through the spin cycle yeah but you do have an option to even think about that whatever way you'd like andrew i'm just so i mean i love being on this podcast because i get a front row seat at lectures like this. So a lot of the stuff that Mark talks about, you know, like,

or even issues that I'm going through with my life, like I'll text you guys and he'll hit me with a, you know, a page worth of like stuff like that. And I'm just like, fuck. Like, so the thing that got me was the,

um, like how you interpret some of these thoughts and, you know, the, um, like the fact that they can only be negative if you have the negative interpretation. And as somebody who overthinks, and so I think I can relate with a lot of people, is like your mind will usually, if you let it be,

if you don't force it or you don't try to guide yourself into the positive side, it will almost always go straight to the negative so if you can kind of just stop that before it starts you'll have that you won't have that opportunity to get that negative interpretation and that's something i need to work on but yeah we all need to work right i know all the time it's hard but you know i think that's actually like a huge breakthrough for myself. And for like some of the information that we, that we dish out on this podcast, I think it's extremely beneficial.

We just have to make an effort. That's really it. It's like, I think at this point, everyone knows how they need to make an effort for it. So if you, if you can just make sure that you work on this at some point, like in some fashion, every single day. You're going to get there. Like even right now, all of us are still growing and moving in that direction.

But it's not like we're just here. Like for me, this stuff, I'm still still working. I'm still fucking trash at a lot of stuff. I'm still garbage. I'm still working. I'm still working on it all. You know, I find it really interesting when I hear somebody talk about like nutrition or training. When we get around certain people because of our build and because like, you know, you get around certain people, you know, maybe not, maybe you don't see them all the time, you know, and they start kind of, they start kind of confessing.

You know, i haven't really been and you didn't even ask him anything about their diet i haven't really been on my diet and they might see that confessional booth in catholic school like father yeah and they start laying it out there to you but what i find amazing about it is usually after they you know talked for 10 minutes or so and gotten some stuff off their chest, I'm just really proud of the fact that they're mindful of it. I'm like, God damn, you know what? At least they're paying attention. So you said the key thing there, just saying, just work on making an effort.

It doesn't have to be good. Just throw an effort at it. There's a little effort at it. Can you's a little little effort at it you know can you do a little bit better than you did yesterday uh you probably can can you do a little bit less harm than you did yesterday because like what did you say like just don't yeah don't fail yourself just don't fail yourself huge stuff take us on out of here andrew. I will. Shout out to Steven Granzella for checking in on the live chat. We're actually, yeah, today's show is sponsored by Merrick Health. Again, promo code PowerProject15 for 15% off all labs, or you guys can check out that PowerProject panel and use promo code PowerProject for $101 off of that.

Again, that's at MerrickHealth.com. Check for the links down in the description as well as the podcast show notes. Follow the podcast at Mark Biles Power Project on Instagram and at MB Power Project on TikTok and Twitter. Just put up a couple of videos on TikTok and I'll be putting up some more stuff there. So please go support us there.

My Instagram and Twitter is at IamAndrewZ. And Seema, where you at? Leave a comment on what you thought on this episode and what you're going to be putting some effort in. Also, if you're listening on Apple Podcasts, give us a review. It helps. Add Seema Inyang on Instagram and YouTube. Add Seema Yin Yang on TikTok and Twitter. And again, I'm serious. Go leave us a review and leave a comment. Mark?

I didn't finish my story earlier about the weirdness of Bodega Bay the other day. When the tide was way up high and shit was just getting weird so after that video that i showed you as i was running through the the water that washed way up and there was like this weird little pond type thing i get to the other side of it and then you saw i was running with a flashlight it's dark out yeah so i'm kind of like starting to see stuff because

it's getting a little darker and darker and i'm seeing some people with flashlights and i'm seeing like um some people had like some dogs out there because i see like a little reflective collar and things like that here and there and it's kind of getting a little spooky i'm like this is a this is a fucked up weird night like it's so strange it started to rain a little bit and you're alone right yeah i'm by my worse yeah i'm by myself just like listening to music running and uh i'm like i'm like oh shit i'm like that's someone's dog and i'm like i don't see but i don't see anybody else anywhere near it and i keep running and i'm like oh fuck i'm like that's a huge dog like it looked like the Blair Witch Project

I point my headlight that's on my head of course it's on my head point my headlight in the direction of this thing and it's a fucking sea lion and it went I was like

so as much as i work on oh as much as i try to work on my emotions they were tested right there i took off i was like and then i i like looped around and then when i when i kind of looped around because i tried to go like uh i don't, it's more in the sand, like, rather than closer to the water. A sea lion, I mean, he must have been fucked up, you know, because they don't do that. He was probably sick or worse or whatever. Yeah. And as I was running, as I kind of looped around, I heard these teenagers laughing, you know, a bunch of kids laughing. And they're just sitting there smoking pot. I'm like like this must be the funniest thing they've ever seen they see this

person running and they see this person just totally bitch out because they see a seal or sea lion or whatever the fuck that that just solidifies their like number one advertisement like dude the craziest shit happens whenever we smoke weed it's like this one time this fucking whatever sea lion just attacked this big jack dude on the beach for no reason oh that's great oh it was terrifying that's fucking great anyway i'm at mark spelly bell strength or weakness weakness never strength catch you guys later