Mark Bell's Power Project - Letting Go & Rising: Cutting Off for Personal Growth

Episode Date: May 28, 2023

In episode 47 of Mark Bell's Saturday School, Mark explains how you need to cut off a piece of your old self to become someone better. It won't always be easy, something always pops up, but it's all just a part of your story.   New Power Project Website: https://powerproject.live Join The Power Project Discord: https://discord.gg/yYzthQX5qN Subscribe to the new Power Project Clips Channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UC5Df31rlDXm0EJAcKsq1SUw   Special perks for our listeners below! ➢ https://withinyoubrand.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save 15% off supplements!   ➢ https://markbellslingshot.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save 15% off all gear and apparel!   ➢ https://mindbullet.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save 15% off Mind Bullet!   ➢ https://goodlifeproteins.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save up to 25% off your Build a Box   ➢ Better Fed Beef: https://betterfedbeef.com/pages/powerproject   ➢ https://hostagetape.com/powerproject Free shipping and free bedside tin!   ➢ https://thecoldplunge.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save $150!!   ➢ Enlarging Pumps (This really works): https://bit.ly/powerproject1 Pumps explained: https://youtu.be/qPG9JXjlhpM   ➢ https://www.vivobarefoot.com/us/powerproject to save 15% off Vivo Barefoot shoes!   ➢ https://vuoriclothing.com/powerproject to automatically save 20% off your first order at Vuori!   ➢ https://www.eightsleep.com/powerproject to automatically save $150 off the Pod Pro at 8 Sleep!   ➢ https://marekhealth.com Use code POWERPROJECT10 for 10% off ALL LABS at Marek Health! Also check out the Power Project Panel: https://marekhealth.com/powerproject Use code POWERPROJECT for $101 off!   ➢ Piedmontese Beef: https://www.piedmontese.com/ Use Code POWER at checkout for 25% off your order plus FREE 2-Day Shipping on orders of $150   Follow Mark Bell's Power Project Podcast ➢ https://www.PowerProject.live ➢ https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast ➢ Insta: https://www.instagram.com/markbellspowerproject ➢ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/markbellspowerproject   FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢https://www.tiktok.com/@marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell   Follow Nsima Inyang ➢ https://www.breakthebar.com/learn-more ➢YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/NsimaInyang ➢Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/?hl=en ➢TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nsimayinyang?lang=en   Follow Andrew Zaragoza on all platforms ➢ https://direct.me/iamandrewz   #PowerProject #Podcast #MarkBell #FitnessPodcast #markbellspowerproject

The second that you go to compete for something, it just changes all the elements of what it was you were doing. A lot of self-doubt can creep in, injuries can creep in, everything just gets to be weird, and you're like, man, I just need like a day. A decision to wake up earlier causes a cascade of disciplines, hopefully,

that will allow you to wake up earlier. I need to go to bed earlier. And going to bed earlier is the decision to cut off part of yourself that says, I don't really need to go to bed earlier and going to bed earlier is the decision to cut off part of yourself that says i don't really need to sit here and watch tv for three hours that's kind of what you're doing i think when you're making these decisions to do something new and different you're kind of chewing off you know chunks of your former self and it's not an easy thing to digest sucks to have to you know leave some of your bad behaviors in the past sometimes because

they protected you like they have they they've served you and they serve their purpose yeah they serve their purpose and now you're on to doing something else and becoming someone else what do you think about these lats andrew dude i don't think we have a wide enough lens for those lats look at that yep i've been training i've been training with kenny some anabolic activities lots of testosterone going on in that gym he's so fired up too it's pretty awesome yeah he's uh he's pumped he's just like happy you know he's happy to work out i actually asked him in an anabolic activities episode if he uses like anger or rage or anything when he lifts and he's like nope he just like really loves it just really enjoys it likes bodybuilding and that's probably

why the kid's so damn big yeah it makes sense big as a house the start of anabolic activity seems to be going pretty good people seem to be excited people are super digging it yeah and so if you guys missed out check out the youtube channel because we got a whole nother podcast going on while we're doing this podcast. But anabolic activities featuring our boy Kenny Williams and the kid is going places and it's really cool to, you know, be able to kind of catch him early. We don't know where he's going. He's going somewhere. Somewhere for sure. Yeah. Somewhere further than what we're doing. He is going. We're also going to be doing what you guys can look forward to.

We got a project that we're working on with Jake Benson and Joe Sullivan as well. So give us some time. Please be patient as we get our footing with some of these new podcasts. But it's all really exciting. Yeah, building a network. Welcome, everybody, to Saturday School. Might as well just jump right in. And another episode of Saturday School.

I think a lot of times these are dropping now on Sundays, which doesn't mean that it's Sunday School. What it does mean, though, is that we are not a day late with our delivery. We are a week early. So you can thank us. All checks payable to Andrew Z and the Power Project.

Yeah. You guys are a week late. Time's funny that way. Yeah, I know. People don't even know what you're talking about. No. But we do. That's why people are tuning in to us.

Especially because it's actually a Monday. We're not tuning in to them. I'm not listening to them in my car being frustrated about how we're not saying the right stuff. Or how they're not saying the right stuff. Yeah. That's okay. But they think that we don't know what we're talking about. And that could be true.

Could be. But today we're going to get into a topic that I think is really cool. Andrew sent me over a voice memo. You know, we all, we're all buddies here. We're all friends here. We try to help each other out the best we can with many different situations, including just, you know, life situations and sometimes just preparing for a contest or we wish each other well.

We try to support each other the best we can. And Andrew just was kind of pointing out to this kind of fuckery that's going on. Sorry for the F-bomb. The screwjobness of competing where it just changes everything. The second that you go to compete for something, it just changes all the elements of that you go to compete for something, it just changes all the elements of what it was you were doing. An example could be something like a powerlifting meet. Uh, well now I need to, okay, you get three attempts and then what are you allowed to wear in

this particular federation? Okay. When I bench press, okay. Normally when I'm bench pressing, I like to wear elbow sleeves a lot in training because my elbows bother me and then can I wear a belt when I bench can I wear a belt when I deadlift and squat and you have to like learn the rules and someone will say oh what federation are you lifting in so then you have to learn the rules of the particular federation that you're going into and I imagine the same thing you're finding some of these same things happening with jujitsu. It's like the rules might be a little different if you're competing in a different organization, right?

Yeah. I mean, even simple things like in practice, you know, I'll go for a pant leg or something and I'll have my instructor be like, you're going to get disqualified. I'm like, what are you talking about? He's like, you can't get under the pant leg. You have to go up and over and do it that way. And so I like oh like now i have to think about that like this is the way i kick everyone's ass in practice so but it not true but it's just another thing it's like if i was not committed to this competition it kind of wouldn't matter you know he might point it out but he

wouldn't be like you just got disqualified because he knows that i'm trying to you know trying to win here so little things like that will now start to creep into the head and give you something in addition to think about yeah and then now you start to learn like oh jujitsu is like a points game it's not really just we're just going to go until somebody taps at least in this particular organization that's not the case you get points there's ways to get points very particular ways to get points and it's important that you know that and learn that and so as you prep for competition there's kind of no other way to really do it than to prepare for the inevitable which is to like try to stack up points against the other guy's points and someone's ultimately

you're going to have more than one match somebody's most likely going to win one of these matches via some sort of points rather than just you know submitting every time although that is an option just to submit the guy and get it over with and get out of there and not really worry about the points yeah but um there's also like a lot of things that happen as you prepare for competition, as you prepare for contests, because the contest is done a particular way with a particular set of rules. It now kind of puts you into a box. And then what often happens to people is they just don't feel like they're as knowledgeable

as they thought they were a lot of self-doubt can creep in injuries can creep in um getting like just things like getting sick can creep in getting kind of off pace with like your food and your sleep and family stuff just like everything just gets to be weird and you're like like, man, I just need like a day because I'm just getting like snowballed here. Like things are compiling on top of me. And I need to be able to breathe so I can kind of make it to the next workout, you know, organized and stuff. And then sometimes you get a hold of yourself and you get your footing again. You're like, okay, now we're back into my stride and things are feeling good again and it's not always uh it's not always you know these

hurdles but normally when you first are starting out in something there's like all these things that happen that just like add to the story it's like all right well you know you were doing great and it looked like you were prepared to really tear it apart on the competition day but now you know here's a torn bicep to deal with in this power of the meat here's a uh here's a really you know injured shoulder you know getting ready for your bodybuilding show you know it's like man you're like man what's you know and i think it's just it's to me it's like an opportunity just for more challenges it It's like, you know what? I signed up. I'm just going to shoulder this stuff, throw it on my back.

It's part of the backpack. It's part of the story. It's part of this journey. So let's just ride it out and see what the hell happens. Yeah, and it's almost like if it was super easy, it wouldn't be, you know, as valuable. And I knew stuff like this would pop up, but you just don't know what like ugly face is going to pop up in front of you. And then when it does, it's like, Oh no, like anything but this. And then it's like, well, okay, here we go. You know, like, um, I guess I can play the clip, which I wasn't expecting to, uh, to have it be part of

a podcast and publish. So hopefully, I don't remember exactly everything I said. Hopefully, I didn't cuss much, if at all. But in the clip, you guys will hear, you know, it's like, you know, let me just play the clip. How about that? You cool with that? All right, cool. I think I explained this on air.

I think I explained this on air, but when it comes to winning or losing my competition coming up, I had said as soon as I hit my bare feet touch that competition mat, I will have won. And I think that's because that'll be the final breath of this know, final breath of this, uh, you know, this inner, inner little person that I'm going to be killing off when we were talking about, you know, killing off a piece of ourselves. That's when I think that's like the, like I said, it's going to take its last breath and be dead forever. Unfortunately, I think it knows that. So it's playing dirty. It sent me a cold in freaking 96, 97, 98 degree weather. Like who catches a cold when it's freaking this hot? So it did that.

And then this morning during takedown practice, I kind of took like a, not even a hard fall, but just a fall. And I felt it instantly. I was like, oh, shit. So something's going on. It's fighting dirty. It's throwing everything it can because it knows it's about to die. But, yeah, man, I tweaked my back.

Not quite like the chronic back pain that I've had for a long time, but very similar vibes. It's hard to put on shoes. It's hard to get up and down. It hurts to stand up, kind of hurts to walk. So little things here and there are bugging it, but I'm trying to move around. Did the cold plunge, did a super hot shower.

I have this cheap like tent sauna. It did okay. It did its job, right? It got me nice and hot and sweaty. Just got cleaned up, feeling a little bit better here and there. But I don't know, man. I just wanted to kind of send this over to just it's crazy to me right like it my inner self knows that it's about to die so

it's fighting back but i'm not gonna let it beat me all right man i'll talk to you later yeah really well said i liked a lot of that. And something I've talked about on the podcast before is like you're cutting off or trying to kill parts of yourself. hate any part of myself, like in some sort of, uh, in some sort of powerful way, that's like a real negative. It's just like, you have traits of your body, um, physically, mentally, where you're like, I don't really like that about myself, you know? And you're like, I just, and, uh, it's part of the process of like working on getting better is to not only get better, but also cut off those tendencies and cut off those things that you do that are not allowing you to progress. So a decision is not a decision to, a decision to wake up earlier, you know, causes a cascade of disciplines, hopefully, that will allow you to wake up earlier. So for example, if you're going to wake up earlier,

you're most likely going to start to go to bed earlier because the whole point is to try to be a person that accomplishes more every day. It doesn't matter when you wake up. You can wake up at 11 o'clock, you know, you could wake up at 11 a.m. or you could wake up at noon every day. If you, when you wake up up you work like an animal and

you're organized that would be fine but most of the time in most cases people that wake up past like seven they're usually like running late to work and they're you know just not again it's not everybody but a lot of times people that are in that category are, they're not where they want to be in their life. And you're thinking in your head, man, it would just be easier if you just woke up earlier. Like there's a lot for you to do. You're 30 years old and you're trying to make a living. You're trying to make a career for yourself and you're not even awake until 830. Like that's unacceptable. It's not unacceptable.

It's the way that you are choosing to live your life and it's totally understandable. But again, most of the time, in most cases, the person that wakes up earlier is also smart enough to say, I need to go to bed earlier. And going to bed earlier is the decision to cut off part of yourself that says, I don't really need to sit here and watch TV for three hours. Even though it is a good time for me to enjoy a meal with my wife, with my family. This is awesome. It is fun to watch a little bit of TV with everybody, get caught up with everybody. Maybe we watch a show like a lot of families, a lot of couples have a show. Great. But how long do you need to do that for? Especially

if you're somebody that's trying to be better, get better. So that's when you, you talk to your wife and say, listen, I need to make some, you know, I'm really, I really love jujitsu. This is really fun for me. I really love lifting. I love being at the gym. It makes a huge difference for me. So over the next couple of weeks, I really want to work on trying to get to bed earlier. Because I don't really think that it's a good idea for me. Probably not a great idea for you either. Like we just kind of sit there and we, we're not even really talking or just like in front of a TV or whatever the hell it is that you're doing. Maybe you're in separate rooms, maybe one's watching TV, one's reading a book,

the other one's messing around on their phone. And it's just not, not anything that's like productive. It's not moving anything forward. And I'm not saying that everything that you do has to move everything forward all the time because that can be hellish as well. But, you know, how about you? That is a good opportunity for you to figure out how do I get seven or eight hours of sleep? Because if I can get seven or eight hours, eight, seven or eight hours of sleep, I'm going to be able to recover from each and every day. If I can recover from each and every day and I can handle each and every day with low stress, I'm going to be a monster. I'm going to be able to handle a good strong workout. I'm going to be able to handle a jujitsu class. I'm going to be able to handle my kids when I come home and my family and all the other responsibilities that I have much easier all because I developed a cascade of disciplines that fell downward from me deciding and making a decision to just simply wake up earlier. And that's something I did long ago. I know that you joined in on, on a lot of that. And, um, and we see in SEMA now wakes up,

you know, an hour or two, probably earlier than what he was doing before. It's not necessarily like, you know, I hashtag like beat the sun and some of these things. It has nothing to do with the time necessarily. It has to do with the organization and the decision to cut off that other part of yourself that was really just unproductive. that was really just unproductive. And if you're facing it, facing the truth, most people, like I would just estimate that we, I would estimate that we just wouldn't have obesity in the United States. I'll just flat out say it as a pretty profound statement.

If people stopped eating at 7 p.m. all around the United States, like I don't think we would have obesity because I think that that is where the devil kind of sneaks in and the idle time sneaks in and idle time is the devil's playground. And, and you're, you're in that loop. You're in that loop. You're like, you blast through the day. You did all this stuff for the day. You put in some good sweat. You did some work. It felt like a stress bomb of a day. And then you get home and there you are back in that loop.

You're like, I need all these things because I was so stressed. And it's actually an illusion. You don't need the beer. You don't need the candy. You don't need the ice cream. You don't need the pizza. You need the exact opposite in that moment you need to become a savage you need to say the best thing for me to do right now for me to eat a healthy meal watch a little tv unwind of course maybe go outside or

walk or whatever your way of read a book unwind get the rest that I need so I can kick the shit out of the next day. Yeah. And just to kind of go in on, on sleeping a little bit later, like, no, it's not an issue if you do sleep in a little bit later, unless you wake up and you're like, I fucking hate my job or I wish I could change X, Y, and Z. It's like, um, all right, Hey, we're going to, we're going to go to a restaurant. We're going to have 10 people with us. It's going to be Friday at 6 PM. You go to the restaurant and they're like, Oh, for that many people during the busiest time of the week, or it's going to be like an hour and a half wait. And then you being surprised that it's going to take that long on a Friday night. You know what the heck you're signing up for when you do that.

So if you are sleeping in, I'm not saying that like we wake up and we hate ourselves or anything, but like if you're sleeping in, then you should probably be pretty happy with what's going on because not much is going to change if you continue to keep going down that path. You can afford to sleep in. Right. Just like you can afford to sleep in. Right. Just like you can afford to eat the pizza and stuff when you feel like you're, you not, not only are comfortable with your body, but you're comfortable with your accomplishments, with

your nutrition. You're like, you know what? I did get a pretty good handle on my nutrition in the last six, eight, 10 days. And even if you are a heavier person, you're like, that's really cool. I could use a reset. I could, I could, it would be nice if I had a slice or two of pizza and then we're right back to it. And people need to be cautious with that because that kind of thing can be like the banana peel that makes you kind of slip down that mountain too far. So you got to kind of judge that for yourself and kind of know thyself. But I think, you know, what you're pointing out and what you said in that message about these things that are kind of thrown, like coming your way.

Man, I thought about a lot of things when I was getting ready for that Boston marathon. I was like, man, like one slip in the shower, one. And it's like, what makes you think about that? You've never had, I've never had a slip in the shower that's really been like some major setback ever. I mean, now it's coming, you know. Now you're going to install those like grippy things that you see in hotels. I'm actually like, it sounds funny, but like as a person, as a, just a human, just like walking around, I, I'm very, uh, like I'm very cautious because I know the world is a dangerous spot, you know?

Uh, I feel strong. I feel powerful. I feel fast. I feel like I can run away from somebody. I feel like I could beat someone's ass if I needed to. Like I feel, I feel good. I feel like I can, you know, handle myself well. Uh, I feel smart enough to, you know, like talk my way out of a situation or, um,

I have enough money that if something happens, that's weird. I feel like I can, you know, pay my way out of certain weird spots or whatever. You know, if I have a car issue or forgot something or whatever, I just go buy something different. Um, so I, I feel like secure in a lot of those, uh, ways. Um, but when you, for some reason, when you kind of sign on a dotted line and you sign up for something, you feel really vulnerable and just the smallest things, they start to pop in your head. I'm, really vulnerable and just the smallest things, they start to pop in your head. I'm, I was really worried about my feet, uh, during the Boston marathon. Cause I know like what, how important it is to take care of your feet. So I'll put on the toe spacers. Um, I would, uh,

you know, I would just, I'd have my wife cause it's like kind of hard for me to figure out how to like see my own feet all that well. I mean, I can kind of see them by like kind of hard for me to figure out how to like see my own feet all that well i mean i can kind of see them by like kind of propping them up here and there but you can't really see them the way that she can see them and so i'd have her check and see like is there anything weird like because i don't want a blister or callus or anything and every once in a while she'd be like oh yeah you got a little something here and she would just like shave something away god bless her for messing with my gross feet. But yeah, I was like really meticulous with those things. Meanwhile, when I was just running normally, I didn't ever think about it. It was never a problem.

But, you know, just all this stuff, it just kind of pops into your head. You're like, what if I have the wrong shoes? Or what if my socks start to rub? Or what if I hear people complain a lot about chafing like what if my legs rub together a lot and at mile 15 it's just like like it doesn't sound like it's that bad of a thing but people get wrecked by these things people end up crossing the finish line of marathons with like bloody nipples because their nipples are chafing on the

shirt and stuff like that there's kind of all these like you know horror stories that you hear and you're like is that gonna be me am i gonna end up with that and it it can yeah it can kind of like compromise some of your energy and some of your brain and so just my own experience getting ready for the boston marathon everything was and everything was going really well. But it's almost like there's a part of you that doesn't want you to do it. There's like a part of you that's like, yo, dude, like, yes, you know, this is too new. Like, hey, bro, like yourself is like tapping yourself on the shoulder. Like, you know, just turn around, give me a hug, and it's okay. Like you don't have to actually – you don't have to do this.

You don't need to do this. What are you trying to do? Are you trying to prove yourself to everybody else or like what's this for? And you're like, no, no, no, I'm doing it. Like I'm training for it. Like everything is going really good. And your self is kind of like, well, all right, but you're going to get hurt, you know? And you're like, nah, you're like, I'm going to be fine. And yeah, it's just like any of these

like little things of, uh, self-doubt creep in. Um, I remember, you know, preparing for the Boston Marathon, hearing people start to talk about Heartbreak Hill. And I'm like, you know, the whole entire just idea of running a marathon since I never ran one before I did that one was heartbreaking. I'm like, I don't need any more heartache or heartbreak than that. And you're trying and you're like, no, no, I'm, I'm a positive person. Like, I don't know, positive. I gotta be positive. I gotta think about this in the right frame of, you know, I need to frame this correctly. It's going to be okay.

It's not going to be hard. It's gonna be challenging. All right. That sounds pretty good. You know, and you start it and you're like, well, it's just really one foot in front of the other. You're like, okay, well, it's one foot in front of the other for a for a really really long time and then you start doing some of the math and you're like well my half marathon pace is like this long and you kind of double that and you're like oh

okay now i'm on my feet kind of automatically for four or five hours and then you don't even really factor in the fact that in that second half of a marathon, if you never ran one before, how much slower you're probably going to be in the second half than you are in the first half. Again, you just haven't gone that distance before. And of course I've tested those distances and things similar to those distances in training, but training is just a different ball game. And just to kind of show you how screwed up your mindset is, I went through like 22 miles of running with, I was fine. Like, okay, like a day and a half, a little, I don't know,

a little messed up or whatever. But because it was training and I didn't make it a big deal, it wasn't a big deal, but I'm making this marathon. This is a huge deal. And the Boston marathon kind of does mean a lot for a lot of people. But if you turn it into a bigger deal than it actually is, it will really feel that way and really weigh on you. And so I was thinking of all kinds of stupid stuff. I was like, what if I stub my toe? You know, what if I do this? What if I do that? You know, a lot of times in the gym, I'm training barefoot. What if I drop a plate on my foot? You know, that'll be, that'll be that kind of thing. And what I was really concerned about more so than anything was just cramping.

So I'd get like, I've had leg cramps from the time I was young, whether it be sleeping or getting done with a football game or whatever. Powerlifting, I remember the first time I totaled 2,500 pounds, it took me like an hour to get into my car because I had like a regular kind of sedan and I was trying to like get into my car and my leg kept cramping up. I had to keep like walking around, walking around, drinking water. And then finally I was able to get into my second. When have you ever been on a run and you just cramped up and just seized up and like you had to like call someone for help? Like, well, dude, it's never happened. Like you've had little tiny cramps in your legs that bug you and you didn't even have to stop. You just had to change the way you were running for a moment. So who cares?

And you always have even have to stop. You just had to change the way you were running for a moment. So who cares? And you always have enough hydration with you. When you do the Boston Marathon, there's aid stations everywhere where they have water and hydration. Sometimes they even have like fruit. There's people around the whole time. So if you feel sick or weird, you could just ask somebody for help or say, hey, man, I'm getting dizzy. I don't know what's going on. And so you try to talk yourself back down from all that. But the second that you sign on that dotted line,

a lot of weird things do creep out. And I think what you mentioned there was really well said. Like there's a part of you that you're trying to kill off, and that guy just won't die. He's not going to die easy. You got your knife out, it's like uh in the movies like the guy's defending it really well you can't you can't quite figure out how to uh you know get the blow to just knock out i guess like your your inner bitch in a way right yeah

and he's playing dirty you know and then the thing about when you do sign on that dotted line uh is your your training hard. The nerves are kind of amplified now because there's a little bit more purpose. Although the purpose is nice because then you have a good focus and you're like, I know I need to go train Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, you know, like for this. But then there's the other side, which is like all of this, all the, the, the tough training, the uncomfortable, nervous feeling that you have pretty much all the time when you think about it, all of that can go away. If you just say, I'm out, no, one's going to think less of you.

Family's still going to love you. Podcast is still going to go on. Training partners will, we'll question it, but then eventually everyone gets over it. But guess what? You can kind of relax and be like, all right, cool. We're not going to do that. It's such a weird thing to understand that. And also be like, but I, I really don't want that to happen. Uh, but he asked me, he's like, so are you going to have to pull out? And I was like, no, I was was like there's no way I'm gonna not do this competition I was like I'm going to be there regardless of how I feel I'm like I just hope that I can feel better from today you know up until the event which which will happen but yeah this inner bitch is it's fighting dirty it doesn't play by the same rules that you and I

play by you know it it doesn't mind cheating and it sucks because it's almost like, um, you know, when you're playing a video game and the, the, the, the computer has like an extra set of skills and it's like faster and it's got better attributes than your character. And it's like, what the heck do you're cheating? It's like, well, you know what? I just got to put in another quarter and keep going. Cause like, I, I just, I'm not going to give up. You know what I mean? Like I have to keep going. We'll never stop talking to you guys about how important your sleep quality is and how it can help speed up your health and fitness, your fat loss, your life goals. That's why we've been partnered with and sleeping on eight sleep mattresses for so long now. And right now is one of the best times you can get yourself the Pod Pro cover or the Pod Pro mattress

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on the Pod Pro cover or the Pod Pro mattress through June 6th. Stay cool this summer with eight sleep shipping the U S Canada and all those good places link in the description down below. When you were prepping for your marathon, did you have that same thought, which was like, like, man, all I have to do is just not make it to bot. Like I could just no one like, oh, okay. Yeah. You didn't run a marathon. It's pretty easy to say no to. And because not, not many people are willing to stand up and do it. Did you have that conversation with yourself of like, like, no, man, I can't, I can't, I can't quit now. Yeah. You feel like you're locked into it, you know, you feel like you're locked into it, but you're also, you know, for me, I'm also thinking about like, well, you know, you are the one who signed up for this, you know, this is your thing. And for me, you know, with like nearly 600,000 followers on Instagram and just kind of being who I am, I have weighed out the like costs of a lot of things over the years and and really thought about it

like is this really what you want to do are you doing this for some other trying to do this for like other people are like what is this for like are you really going to be running in five years from now 10 years from now like yeah i i believe so i really do enjoy it you know so if i could start to answer some of those questions then i could start to kind of basically deny any regression and deny like pulling out of the competition. And ultimately what happened was is because I ended up in an ambulance, because I went on a particular run one day, just whatever the hell happened to me, I got, I got got basically. And that was, uh, you know, I was full of a lot of confidence at that time. I was feeling really good. I was, uh, yeah, I was 10 weeks into my training. The training was going really well. And then when

something like that happens, you start to question a lot of stuff. And so I started questioning some of my training and what I was doing with my coach, Dan Garner. And really it was just like a one-off thing. Um, I don't exactly know what happened on that particular day, but my blood sugar felt wacky and, or I just whacked myself, uh, just silly by training really hard. And I have not felt that from running before. So I didn't know exactly, I didn't know exactly what that, uh, you know, felt like and what that experience would be. And I probably just needed to sit down and drink some water. But I thought I was having some sort of like glucose thing going on. I had an issue with like my sight and stuff. I was like, man, this is really weird. Things were

going foggy. And then long story short, I drank a bunch of orange juice and spiked my glucose the opposite direction, got very ill, got taken away in an ambulance from Starbucks in Davis, which was kind of funny. But I mean, I got very, very like jacked up. I got really screwed up. I couldn't barely, well, I couldn't, I could not get myself from the stool that I was on to the gurney that they had to wheel me out of there uh i was shaken too much and they're like big guy if you fall you know this is going to be hard for all of us so let us know when you're ready do you need a lot you need a good amount of help i was like i need everyone to help i think i can't really move well. My whole body was just trembling and shaking.

My mind was still there and I was still good. And even though I didn't really feel sick, I was vomiting a bunch, which was interesting. But anyway, long story short is like that really humbled me. And maybe that came at the right moment because from that day, even though I changed my training up for a brief moment and did some different things to try to get back into training, like, you know, pretty casually, it was kind of from that moment onward where I was like, okay, you kind of experienced like, that's, that's kind of the bottom, you know, like, that's like, that's like the kind of the worst that could happen, you know, and I just

experienced it. So I'm not scared of it. It's fine. I was, I never, I never really thought my life was compromised or anything too weird like that. So I was like, you, you're, you know, like that. So I was like, you, you're, you know, um, you know, I obviously don't want that to happen again. Um, but I was just like, when I go and do the competition, you know, it is a marathon and you just run it whatever way you run it. I'm like, why, why would you do anything different than anything you've ever done before when you've been very successful by just following your own heart and following your own intuition. It works every time. So why now? Why change anything now? Why try to run anybody else's race? Why try for any sort of time commitment? Why try to be fast? Why try to be faster? Just do the marathon. Just do it the way that you want to do it, the way that you know how to do it.

And the only way I know how to do anything is just very slowly, very methodically. Like it's going to take me a while to do this. There's things that I still see on Instagram from businesses, from friends, from people that are maybe further ahead of me. And I always just am. I always congratulate and I'm always like that's really cool that that's what they're doing sometimes I can just also say well that ain't me like that's good for them that's cool for them I'm not even gonna really try to mess with what they're doing that's awesome and I applaud them and that's amazing that they found something they could be really successful in.

But other times I'm like, all right, well, maybe three years from now, five years from now, eight years from now, maybe I can get to a similar spot if I just take my time. If I start thinking about it now and if I'm like if that's actually what I like to do, as long as I'm doing it for a while, I'm going to be good at it. And so this marathon, that day where I got jacked up, it was really helpful because I had a day or two or three to really sit around and not do much. I couldn't, you know, I wanted to run, but it wouldn't have made any sense. It wouldn't have been smart. It wouldn't have made any sense. It wouldn't have been smart. So I actually took like eight days off completely from running. And with the mindset of like you're going to be better when you start running again.

Like you're going to be because you're calming down, you're chilling out, and this is kind of what you need. And so I did that. And when I did come back to running, I did feel better. I felt lighter. Any little nicks or any little things that were bugging me were all gone. And that's when I just decided to have like a little bit more casual approach to my training. And that's when I decided to treat the race the way I've always treated everything. And that is to just do it my way. Like literally do it.

Like there's nothing to – if you do something your way, there's nothing to be just do it my way. Like literally do it. Like there's nothing to, if you do something your way, there's nothing to be scared of in my opinion. It just, it dials everything way back. You're like, you know what, I'm just going to, I'm going to do this the way that I'm going to do this the way that I trained for it. And I'm going to do this the way that feels good in my heart. You know? So when you compete, you can think I'm going to be the same guy that, you know, when people come in on Tuesday morning, Wednesday morning, Thursday morning, Friday morning, when people see me rolling in the morning, like that's going to be me on game day. Like I'm going to be the same guy and I'm going to play the same game and the same things that

are said about me in practice that are positive are going to be the same guy and I'm going to play the same game and the same things that are said about me in practice that are positive are going to be the same things that are going to be said about me on game day. Like, man, I told you you were good at that. Man, I, you are good. You are really good at sweeps. You are really good. You know, ABC. And if you're just playing right into all that and you did, and you, you know, this whole thing about like you know doing your best and then like if you lose you still want you know people get all crazy about that but it's not any more evident in jujitsu and in like MMA everybody loses everyone loses all the time you know so the way I would look at it, if I was to go into something

like that, um, and if I wouldn't, I wouldn't play to lose by any means, I would be aggressive and I would do the best and I would use my training to the best of my ability. And it'd be cool to have the support of your teammates and all that stuff going into it. But at the same time, you know, I would think it's like a blessing to lose one or to even lose the first one. Be like, boom, got my first match out of the way. And shit, like that really sucked. The guy caught me in something. I know way better than that. I don't even know what was going on.

But I was being aggressive and I was going on, but I was being aggressive, and I was going for something, and it was kind of foolish, and he got me. But let's see what happens in this next match, you know, like fired up and excited like, oh, that guy, yeah, shit, the guy taught me a good lesson right there. I'm going to go and try my skills against, you know, the next chump basically. Yeah, that's like the advice that I keep getting, which is is you know just you're just doing jujitsu like you're just you you get to do jujitsu on a saturday like that's a really cool way to look at it um so we did like a comp

simulation role um maybe a week or two back now and it was very eye-opening because uh i got gassed really fast you know like for some reason it's the exact same thing like we got enough time for one more round you're gonna be coached by you know this coach over here so let's just you know let's go for it and my my buddy chris he's so good he's like i'm like don't look at me as a brown belt like I'm gonna turn into a white belt and so he was doing some like uh you know some novice things like he would he would grab me and like wouldn't let me go but it's like he's not doing anything for himself he's just getting tired but he's like that's what you can expect sometimes with some of these white belts that are inexperienced he's like they're just gonna like everything and like okay okay but even in that moment i'm like oh this is a comp role and all of a sudden now my you know

heart rate goes through the roof and i'm like okay i gotta stay calm stay calm but it's you know again you you uh you put that stamp on it like hey this is a little bit more important and then all of a sudden you care about it so much that your freaking nerves go through the roof. And then it's like, Oh wait, hold on. What's going on here?

Yeah. I go, okay, just, just go play jujitsu guy again. You know, that's kind of what I'm going to have to keep trying to come back to. Um,

the, uh, like they call it a, I think like a bullpen when everyone lines up and as they get ready to go touch the mats, you know, for their competitions and stuff, I'm kind of playing that in my head.

Uh, the one thing that I keep telling my buddies that like really sets me off is, you know, I'm like, Hey, I'll probably have you like next to me, right? You're as you're my coach.

Like when the referee signals me to come out, I'm like, I still can't be calm just thinking about that. And he's like, huh? And I'm like, cause look, you're right here. I'm next to you. I'm safe. I'm like, I still can't be calm just thinking about that. And he's like, huh? And I'm like, cause look, you're right here. I'm next to you. I'm safe. I was like, when I walk out there by myself, I'm like, you're not next to me anymore. And he starts laughing and he's like, oh, I get you now. So then he's been sending me clips of himself walking out onto the mat, totally calm, totally chill. So in this time where I'm not able to roll on the, uh, on the mats,

I'm doing a lot of that stuff, which is like mentally trying to work on things. And then also watching a lot of tape, you know, I got to try to get my mind right and kind of get a game plan going and just not lose touch with jujitsu while I can't necessarily do it. But doing the stuff in the gym, like I did today was really good and doing all the things that I can't necessarily do it, but doing the stuff in the gym like I did today was really good and doing all the things that I can do and not focus on the things that I can't. 100%. What was coming to mind when you were saying some of that?

We have that thing where we're talking about cutting away and we got the image of that snake, so if you could find that little, uh, little clip, but there's something that kind of came to my mind. Uh, I'm not sure if I'm saying this correctly, but, uh, aura Boris, I believe it's called is, uh, you know, the snake, the cycle of life kind of, uh, it looks like a snake kind of eating itself. And that's kind of what you're doing. I think when you're making these decisions to do something new and different is you're kind of chewing off, you know,

chunks of your former self and it's not an easy thing to digest. You know, it's like a, uh, it's kind of a, a life and death, uh, cycle and it sucks to have to, you know, leave some of your bad behaviors in the past sometimes because they protected you. Like they have, they've served you in some way. They served their purpose. Yeah, they served their purpose. And now you're on to doing something else and becoming someone else. I mean, think about like your fingernails.

Like it's good to have some fingernails, right? But every once in a while, you got to clip them back or your toenails, same thing. right? But every once in a while, you got to clip them back or your toenails, same thing. Every once in a while, you got to like, you got to, and that's what the word decision means. The word decision is a Latin word and it basically means to cut away. So you're trying to cut away at your former self. You're like, I don't need these parts anymore because they're no longer serving me. And I want to move forward with these, the things that I believe are going to be in my best interest in the future. So let's see if you can play this clip. The Egyptians believed the image of Ouroboros covering Rhaosiris was a symbol for the beginning and end of time.

It's also a reflection of the belief in the chaos that envelops the world and the order and the renewing that comes out of the chaos. The Ouroboros eventually slithered out, pun intended, from Egyptian culture and into the world of the Greeks where it was given new interpretations. Sweet. That's cool. Yeah, I mean, that's amazing. We talk about it all the time, like trying new things, doing new – like, what are we, why do we do that? You know, why do we explore new things? It's so that you can decipher like what old things, you know, what, what are the old things that you believe in? What are the old things that you like? Are those things still the best things for you to keep and to do? Maybe they are, you know, maybe you'll always cycle back through to those things.

Maybe for the rest of my life, maybe I'll always circle back to powerlifting. Nothing wrong with that, but why not test powerlifting against bodybuilding? Why not test powerlifting against other movement patterns and see, like does this really, I mean, that's what the Power project podcast is all about we're we're scientists in a way we're taking our ideas and concepts and saying like what do these what do these really equal you know what did what is what is this all about i think for in sema you know with its athleticism he like you know he had other sports where he could test his athleticism and people could say yeah man he's super agile like soccer player unbelievable but like what greater sport than to test your athleticism in uh in kind of like a combat sport where you got like these

massive puzzle pieces to try to move around and to figure out simultaneously while moving really fast and moving really powerfully. So I think, you know, that's what we're after. That's what we're doing all the time is we're trying to cut off old chunks of ourselves that we don't – that are just no no longer we just don't longer believe some of those things i think in sema previously was uh more of a guy who was into like counting calories and he'd eat a little bit more carbohydrate and i don't know maybe it's like metabolism changed maybe a lot of things changed but it seemed like he doesn't really believe in a lot of those same same things that he believed in before i think he thought that he had to fuel believe in a lot of those same things that he believed in before. I think he thought that he had to fuel himself with a lot of carbohydrate. And maybe if he went

back into bodybuilding, maybe he'd do the same thing. But now he's in a sport that's very intense, that does require, you know, some carbohydrate. And he chooses to eat less because it's just like a new, it's a new belief. Will that belief change? Yeah, sure. It could, you know, maybe he gets into a different sport, realizes he needs something different. Maybe as he keeps getting to a higher level, maybe he'll realize he needs to change his nutrition in some other way. But that's what we're trying to do here all the time is we're constantly testing these

things. And then hopefully we're able to give you guys a message that you can decipher and start to start to kind of ponder some of these things that we're talking about. Yeah. Yeah. The, uh, the, the inner person that I am trying to kill off, I'm not like, I'm still going to honor that person.

Right. Because now I feel like there's almost no type of injury or pain that's gonna scare me moving forward because I had damn near two decades of this back pain and then when this happened it wasn't like a dramatic thing like I just took a weird fall and then I really I recognized in that very moment like oh like this is actually this is different than than just like a bump. Like this is actually like I think I tweak something. But I knew I was like, OK, by Tuesday morning, I should be good to go, like at least to move around quite a bit. And then as time passed, that actually wasn't the case.

But I'm like, OK, you know, you said it really well in the gym. You're like, this is about a two weekerer that we're gonna fit into a six-day window yeah and I'm like yeah I could I could do that you know and so like every single thing I've done is to help make that you know come true but when it happened I didn't get depressed you know because the person that I am actually trying to kill off had been dealing with it for so long that it was like, Oh, we got this. Like, it's not that big of a deal. So even though we were talking about like sort of disliking this person that we're trying to kill off, we're still learning from it. And we have a lot more like things to be grateful for than to be upset. But with all that being said, I'm definitely going to celebrate when it's gone.

You know, that'll be a huge win for me. Has your wife and other family members like noticed big changes in you in the last two, three years to where maybe even for some family members, maybe it's like too much? I don't know about too much. At least no one's mentioned anything. Yeah. You know, they haven't come out and said so. Yeah. Um, my wife, she sent me a text and I was like, I think that's the nicest thing anyone's ever said. And then she was like, Oh my God, I'm so sorry. I need to, you know, tell you things like this more often. But, um, basically she was just saying, uh, it was actually, um, it started because of, I don't know if Andy Fursella posted

it or if you re-shared it from him about um something that you had said and then like you know putting yourself in like uncomfortable positions and like you know getting through it it was uh probably the clip where I said um one of my goals is to build the kind of life that yes tells you I told you so without having to say a word yeah and so she had been so that got her super fired up because she actually happens to be One of my goals is to build the kind of life that tells you I told you so without having to say a word. Yeah. And so she had been – so that got her super fired up because she actually happens to be reading 75 Hard while that post was published. Oh, cool. And then so she was like, you know, in the book he talks about like, yeah, doing the hard thing, you know, going and putting yourself in an uncomfortable position.

And she was like, I stopped and thought like holy shit like you competed in powerlifting you've done bodybuilding photo shoots and it's like now you're doing jujitsu like holy shit like i admire you so much and i was like wow like that's literally the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me and it came from you so that's very cool and then so she was like oh you know i wish i'd said it more often or whatever. Like, but she has definitely like, uh, recognized and has commented a lot more since then. But she recognizes that like, yeah, like you are doing like a lot of stuff and like, and it's very cool. And I'm like, yeah, I, I, I don't see it that way because I'm just like, oh, this is the

thing I'm doing right now. But then, you know, somebody will mention like, dude, dude i was checking out your instagram like you've been doing a lot of cool stuff and like thank you yeah i appreciate that it has been a lot of cool stuff and i enjoy every every minute minute of it um but as far as like other family members um not really kind of like thinking you're weird like with your food and like yeah different stuff like they make a little not that anyone's like real negative about it but are they like kind of like ah here he comes again he was a speech about her feet like he's wearing those weird sandals yep that's what i was gonna say it starts at the sandals uh then up to the

fanny pack and uh yeah like oh, what diet are you on now? And, you know, stuff like that. And it's like, well, you know, kind of we all should be on a diet, you know, like I think my mom's doctor or no, my sister's doctor was like, yeah, you can have a little bit of ice cream here and there. And I was like, hey, guess what? All my blood markers look great. I feel good. I'm pretty healthy. I was like, I shouldn't be eating ice cream here and there and I was like hey guess what all my blood markers look great I feel good I'm pretty healthy I was like I shouldn't be eating ice cream whenever I want

like you know like that's bad advice and then so like sometimes I can be a little bit hardcore but then you know I bring over a high protein like fruit dip for everybody that they love and like oh what's the recipe and then you know I'll be like oh it's like two scoops of protein powder oh that's weird like no it's not weird it's still the thing that you liked two seconds ago it's still good yeah then they're out yeah yeah then they're like oh i thought it tasted a little different it's like you guys enjoyed it shut up but it's cool being that person you know being that guy that's a little bit on the outside yeah i can't even tell you how many times i've you know prepared for powerlifting meet or like it's just these things they come up you know and they're gonna

it's just gonna be things that are gonna challenge you a little bit more it's just it depends on your personality depends on your life experiences maybe for some people maybe they won't experience like any real hardship as they prepare for a competition. And I hope that they don't have to really, you know, play mental jujitsu with any of these like ideas, like wrestle around these ideas. But it's very common. It's very normal if you're going to do something that maybe your body just hasn't done before. You know, the first time squatting a thousand pounds, um, you know,

competing, um, in just interesting, interesting new places against interesting new people, um, competing, you know, having the stakes rise higher and higher,

you know, competing on a, um, competing on a state level or local level state level national level international level like it's just it's it's all um it just keeps going kind of up and up and then you kind of just at some point you kind of recognize well everything's pretty much the same it's just a it's a bar and some weights and it's like you either trained for it and you're going to make it or you thought you trained well enough for it and you're not going to make it. But it's really not that big of a deal.

But it is kind of a big deal because the weights are heavy and anything can happen, and it could be with the kind of weights I was lifting, it could end your life. I mean, it could literally end your life. And in a lot of sports, I guess you can say like, ah, you know, anything can happen, but you know, powerlifting, when you get to squat a thousand pounds and bench 800 pounds and things like that, like, it's just very, like, that's dangerous, like instantaneously, instant, instantly dangerous. Um, and so, I mean, those things there, they're kind of there, but, uh, those things die

off too. You get to kind of kill those thoughts off too. And normally like I would, my method to kill those things off was just to be like aggressive, be fired up, be excited about what it is I was going to do. And again, doing it my own way. You know, I saw a lot of lifters. Um, I saw a lot of lifters, like, I guess I would say acting like super hardcore. And I never really admired that. And the reason I didn't admire that is because I knew, I knew it was like a facade, you know, so I would get fired up and hyped up and yell and make some noise and stuff but I I didn't I didn't feel like I was trying to send some sort of message of hardcore ness and I and maybe some of those other individuals felt the same way uh when they were doing some of those things but I've seen guys like headbutt the bar and like

just kind of act like assholes and like you've been around me a bunch and even when I was lifting heavy like you know I might get pretty serious about something for a moment. I'm sure I look very scary or intimidating or whatever for, for a moment, but then I get skipped back to, you know, making inappropriate jokes and messing around with everybody, you know, as soon as I possibly can, because I, I don't really, I don't really like that. I don't kind of like, i don't like living in that space of like being so like tunnel vision you know it's it's a wonderful spot to be for a moment but it's also wonderful to be able to just dial that off for a moment and let me go mess with andrew for a little bit and then we'll have a laugh and then maybe i gotta do another set and i can go and you, dial up that monster again when need be. But it seemed like it happened so many times where I like, you know, slightly tore a muscle.

I remember after my brother passed away, after my oldest brother died, I was going to, I was preparing for the Los Angeles Fit Expo. And it was one of the first competitions I was going to go to where there was a lot of like prime time really good lifters going to it and I was really excited and I think it was like six or eight weeks out or something and probably like eight weeks out and my brother died and what was cool what was interesting in that time frame is that I competed in a multi-ply contest one week and then completed in a single-ply contest the next week. And I had never been stronger than that. That moment in time around the time that my brother died was when I was my absolute strongest. And so it probably just didn't matter what happened at that time because I was

already like just primed to smash big weights but yeah his passing obviously like that was devastating and there was a lot that kind of went into that but as I started to get back into training it was like a week later I'm in the gym and I just like never felt stronger. I think what happened was is like I competed two days in a row or I'm sorry, two weeks in a row. Got the news that my brother died the day after I competed the second time. And then I took like eight days off from the gym. Like I went to the gym a little bit. I helped some people. I coached some people and stuff like that. I think I did a little bit of stuff, but I didn't really train like hard, hard because I was like, I don't think my mind's right. And I don't want to like lift weird weight

and like just get into some weird zone where I hurt myself. That was my thought. So I took these like eight days off and that caused some sort of like super compensation where I was – never felt stronger in my life. I went into the gym and I was doing these like rack deadlifts and I did four plates and five plates and six plates and I'm just like ripping them. I'm like, this is crazy. And, uh, some of the training partners stuff, like I never seen you move like a deadlift that fast before. And I was like, yeah, it just feels amazing. You know, it's like six 75 and I wasn't really thinking about my brother and stuff like that. It wasn't, there wasn't like, it didn't feel like there was like a, like a rage or anything like crazy going on.

It just, it just felt good. The weights just felt really good. And I did seven 65 and I smashed that for one rep. And just as I went to pull the second rep, I felt in the arm and I was like, Oh my God. I'm like,

that's a torn bicep. And I just kind of like went into the other room at the gym at the time and just kind of sat there and I was kind of like went into the other room at the gym at the time and just kind of sat there and I was like man and I was just thinking like my brother's attitude and his mindset and the way that he was and uh you know he he would have pissed and moaned and been like of course everything always everything bad always happens to me like he was that guy to the point where we would laugh at him a lot of times as long as he didn't like kick our ass but we would laugh because he would get so irrationally mad sometimes and you're like dude like so many great things happen you all the time you just happen to get flared up when one little bad thing doesn't go your way

like that's that's the way he was And so I kind of sat there for a moment and thought about that. And I was like, well, I was like, now I definitely need to compete. Like I definitely have to like go do the meat, you know, even though I got sidetracked with a death in the family and now this torn bicep and I went and I competed and I ended up kicking everybody's ass. It was great. I ended up squatting and deadlifting enough weight to where, uh, my opening deadlift won the competition. It didn't really matter what I made after that. And, uh, that was, that was a huge accomplishment. And that was, but all it, all, all that did was just, it just painted this like awesome story. Like it painted this, uh, you know know my brother is the one that kind of dragged

me into lifting in the first place he told me what a pussy i was for not being able to squat without the you know i wanted to use like the pads i'm like it hurts my upper back you know i was being all being all bitchy about it and stuff and he's like we don't even own one of those it's like shut the fuck up and just go you know and i'm like it hurts my neck he's like you're not supposed to hold it on your neck he's like you've got to have it lower i'm like there's nothing there i don't have any muscle there you know i'm 15 or whatever 14 uh anyway um you know i went and competed and did that and i just those are some like yeah there's some sad moments in there but those are like some of the great moments.

So there's some of the best moments I've ever had in powerlifting. And I even got to beat my own training partner, which was sick because my training partner was just incredibly strong. He was from the beginning, from the time I met him, he was way stronger than I was. So that felt really good, too, even though that was a little bit weird. But I was just a person on a mission at that time, you know? And so these things that happen to you that you feel are, you know, uh, things that are going to be a big deterrent from you competing in a powerlifting meet or a half marathon or a jujitsu tournament. Um, you know, maybe four weeks into training, you break your

finger or something and you're like, shit, you're probably going to be able to get through it just fine. And there's things, things are usually obvious. You know what I mean? Like things, like if you can't compete, things are, things are usually pretty obvious. Like, okay. You know, um, you know, I lost, you know, a bunch of skin shot off of my arm because I got into like a motorcycle accident. You're like, well, of course, you know, you need multiple weeks to be able to recover from that. It's not in the cards for you to be able to do anything.

But yeah, I mean, getting ready for that contest was a testament to being able to calm myself down have some like equanimity and just having good people around me I remember talking with Jesse Burdick I'm like I can't really like I can't deadlift you know and he's like you can't deadlift anyway so it doesn't matter like you're not very good at it anyhow and And he's like, just don't train it. You know, he's like, just, you know, pick up a little bit of stuff here and there when you can. And I think I deadlifted like 315 for a few sets during training. But when I got to the competition, the bicep held together enough for me to hit a big enough deadlift to make everything work out the way that it did.

But again, it was also just like a fun way to honor like my brother. And when you kind of, when you have a purpose or an intent on what it is that you're doing now, I know I didn't really lift for my brother. Like he's gone, you know? So that's just whatever way somebody wants to look at any of that. You can kind of look at it whatever way you want. But when I ran the Boston marathon, it was the same thing. I'm like, my brother had so many insecurities. I'm running this thing for him. My mother had so many insecurities. I'm running it for her, but ultimately I'm running it for myself. I got my own insecurities that I got to lug around too. And, uh, you know, when I think about my mom, I think about someone that was just damaged from a poor upbringing, a poor childhood, didn't have people around that encouraged her, that loved her, that showed her that she could do it.

You know, but she was strong enough to show me and my brothers that we could do it. And I always thought that that's like one of the most powerful things I've ever seen or ran into because I'm like, how does she have it for us but not for herself? And she just she was kind of scared of just about everything. But I was like, you know what? I'm going to put one foot in front of the other for her. She was very courageous and strong to be able to raise us the way that she did coming from such a shit background. I don't know how she ever did it or figured it out, but if she could be that strong, even with the circumstances that she had, there's no way I can't figure out a way to run 26 miles. Like this is going to be easy. And then also for my dad, my dad spent 75 days in the hospital in a row. He had multiple surgeries, had so many surgeries that didn't even really know exactly what happened at some point. And, uh, he's still with us today and he's still

strong today and he's still happy and still, you know, doing all kinds of cool stuff with my kids. I'm like, if my dad can, I think about this on my runs, I'm like, my dad can spend 75 days in the hospital, not knowing whether he's going to live or die, you know, every other day or whatever the hell was going on. He lost like 80 pounds when he was in there and was very frail and was, his body was compromised many times. He was like, he couldn't, he couldn't move. He was incapacitated. He, it was just, it was a nasty, nasty situation. But if he could do that for 75 days, come on, man, you're telling me I can't like run for two hours straight. Like I could figure it out. Right. So there's people probably in your life and there's definitely

with, even if there's not people in your life that you can reference, there's definitely ancestors of yours that were way tougher than anything you could possibly imagine that lived a life that got your ass here somehow. So you might be able to draw some good energy upon some of those things. Pat Project family, we love beef on this podcast. We talk about it a lot. All right. We love our meat. But sometimes eating the same meat all the time can get a little bit boring.

That's why we partner with Good Life Proteins, which also has certified Piedmontese on their website. But sometimes you might just want to eat some chicken or fish or duck. Duck, who eats duck? But you can eat duck. That's why if you go to goodlifeproteins.com, you can select their build a box options and input all the proteins you want. Then you'll select subscribe and save to save money on all of your meat. If you enter code powerproject at checkout, you can save up to 25% on your subscription. That means you're going to be saving 25% on all of that different meat that's going to be heading to your door. Once again, head to goodlifeproteins.com. You can enter code POWERPROJECT and save up to 25%. Links are in the description box below as well as the podcast show notes. Did you, uh, did you look at some of the things that you accomplished more so or less than what others accomplished in order to kind of get yourself through some of the training and even, I guess, the Boston Marathon, you're just mentioning, you know, your parents. Did you

think like none of these people squatted over a thousand pounds? Like you guys have no idea what hard is. Yeah, to some extent. Um, you know, know but it's it's also like you know uh like what's what's relative or what's relevant you know uh you know uh there was there were some people at the marathon that i saw like you know some guys were pretty like fit and stuff for the most part you're right the people were pretty small you know they're they not, there's not a lot of people that are like, you know, over 200 pounds. But yeah, I think the things that I accomplished gave me confidence to be able to accomplish other things in other areas. So the squats and the different things, but there was kind of a little bit of a component of, you know, the Boston Marathon does have a lot of hills. I'm like, well, you're a strength guy. So like a hill kind of takes some power to get up

and you should be able to get up a hill just fine. Like if I'm to race, if I'm to race somebody up a hill, I mean, somebody that's like really fast, like our boy Terrell back in the day, you know, someone who's like a track athlete in college or something. I can't, you know, I'm not going to be able to. But I think I think the most part I'd be able to shock people pretty, pretty good with being able to run uphill. Now, just being able to sprint like regular on the regular street, I can move decently. But I'm I'm probably going to hurt myself trying to impress somebody that way. Whereas running up a hill is more of like a power thing. But yeah, you know, there are things that I did think of, you know, when I was doing the marathon of like, yeah, like a lot of these people haven't done, they haven't had my experiences, which is kind of a neat thing to pull from. I would say probably 95% of like the runners there, like the runner runners, like the runners that are really good were probably like I

was when I power lifted, like I power lifted my whole life. So they were probably people that have been running for 20 or 30 years. You know, I'm coming in with a lot less experience and, and all those things, but, you know, running is a very competitive thing. So you'll find people that are, you know, all over the map with, uh, with how fast they are, how good they are, how much they weigh. I mean, there were some big people running in that, that were still finished way ahead of me. But they also, you know, have, they may have been doing it longer than me or maybe they're just better at it.

Not really sure. Maybe they have a background in it or something like that. But yeah, me thinking like that I'm the only one that squatted, you know, 1080 and put myself through hard stuff like that. I'm sure a lot of the other runners have put through a lot of hard, there's people that are like running for cancer and all kinds of stuff. So I'm like,

they might not have my experiences of what I did, but these people are, you know, some of these people have knocked on death's door and I don't have any idea what that's about. What about letting go of like the result, like the end result? I know with the marathon, it's a little bit different because, you know, like you just said, they've been doing it for over 30 years. You just got in the game. But you still, I mean, you weren't going to, I guess you did say you were going to go as slow as possible,

but you did run it, right? You didn't walk the whole thing. But at the same time, you you did run it right. You didn't walk the whole thing, but at the same time, you also didn't sprint it. Um, for myself, you know, I've said on this podcast that like, yeah, I'm going for a gold medal. Like I want that first place. I want to be, you know, the highest person on that podium because I have to kind of train that. I have to put that in mind so I can train for it. If I say like, I just want to show up and see what happens then I'll show up and see what happens every day you know so how do you I guess let go of like the the end result

because I yeah I'm not going to be upset if I come in last you know I'm going to be happy because like I said in that voice message which is like as soon as I touch the mat, I won like for sure. So how do people or how do you not get so tied up in like winning and losing? Well, you know, in my position, I am just so poor at running at the moment that I'm not lined up to win anything. There's not a half marathon or marathon or 5k or 10k that I could find that would have people that would be slow enough that I would be able to defeat. So, um, you know, I, I, while there are other white belts like me in running, um, there's, uh, there's just so many, um, people that are more experienced that are

better that have been doing it, you know, uh, maybe longer and things like that. They're just more proficient, however you want to say it, um, that are out there. So like for me to actually like win, you know, it's gotta be me versus me. I think, uh, an opponent is always a little bit of an illusion, a little bit like fight club. You're out there against yourself. It won't feel that way, but at some point it will, even though I don't have that much experience with jiu-jitsu.

It will all come first full circle to where you'd be like, man, this whole fucking time it's been me versus Andrew Zaragoza and this sucks. Cause a lot of it is just, um, I mean, every day you're wrestling against your own mentality every day. Your, your, you know, your body's like, ah, I don't know, man, your neck kind of sure about this, man, your neck. What about your neck? What about your, you know, you, you, your body just keeps telling man your neck what about your neck what about your you know you your body just keeps telling you your neck your neck your neck you're like my neck feels fine you're talking about all of a sudden it's like kind of you're like oh man i guess yeah let you mention it

yeah or man your throat feel a little dry like you're getting cold you know it's all this like stuff yeah that's the worst day in and day out and um you see something that somebody else does in class you're like i can't do that and it's like then you're like wait no can'ts okay we can't say can't hold on back that up okay i can probably figure that out it's gonna take me a while you know but you're like that same guy does like a backflip and a split you know like i don't know so you know in in doing like professional wrestling, there was things that I, you know, recognize that like, oh, I could I could do that now. I can do what that guy does now. Every once in a while I'd go, I could do what that guy does now and make it a little bit better.

Then every once in a while I'd watch someone else and go, I'm not lined up to do that at the moment. Like, it's going to take me a while to figure that one out. And then other ones I would be like, I don't know if I'll ever figure that out. You know, that guy just. So I think what's been really helpful for me is to get around people that are really awesome. Just get around people that are really, really good at what they do. Because you're never really gonna win you know like you go with you go and win you know you go you go and like win for the day but it's like

kind of reminds me of the scene in rocky when when rocky uh tells mickey that he had a fight he's like i fought yesterday and it seems like you don't even care he's like i don't and then he goes uh he goes i won you should have seen me i did real good and he goes oh yeah who'd you fight and rocky says spider rico and he and mickey just laughs he goes he's a bum and you know it's like whoever whoever you're gonna beat or whoever these people you know it's like you're new to jujitsu right the guy that you beat six months in like he's not gonna be that good i mean right like he's just he's just not like i'm not saying he can't kick my ass but he's not gonna be that good at jujitsu it's a weird thing, but you're fighting yourself, you know, and you're going to keep leveling yourself up. So I think in those terms, some people should be able to kind of just relax a little bit.

And this is about, this is your first, this is your first go of it. So what you're really going to do is you're going to probably measure this up to something else. You're going to measure this up. Maybe it's just a training for a while. Maybe you don't have thoughts of competing again for a while, which is fine. You don't ever have to even compete again. You can just do it once and kind of see how you felt. But just like I did with my bodybuilding show, it's like I'll, you know, I don't know, maybe not forever, but still within the next 10 years, I'm going to compare myself to that stage bodybuilder, which is, which is healthy for me. Cause I, I know what I did to get there. And I know it's not reasonable for me to be like locked in like that all the time, but I can say, you know,

I should be able to stay within sort of, sort of striking distance of that most of the time. And maybe that's for you, you know, a couple years from now, you're maybe do jujitsu a little less, maybe do it two, three times a week. And maybe it's a little more recreational because you're going to spend more time with your son. He's older. Maybe he's playing baseball and you're at the baseball games all the time or whatever it is. And things are just different well you can always you know still compare yourself to a moment in time where you can where you where you were competing or being competitive uh where you were training a lot and you're like well you know what I'm 42 now and like I'm way the hell better. You know, like my 42-year-old self can kick the shit out of myself when I first started jujitsu.

And you'll probably even – your physique will probably even continue to – like it's improving all the time. probably even continue to like it's improving all the time it's improving like little by little by little but it's improved every i think yeah i think ever since i've known you i mean it might go up and you know down and up and whatever but the net positive is that you're always better right so i think i think people need to just not concentrate so much on winning, not concentrate so much on being fast, not concentrate so much on making money, not concentrate so much. There needs to be some concentration there. There needs to be some effort put into that. And you do need to have like what you want to do is you want to absorb a winning mentality. What you want to do is absorb a monetizable mindset. These are the things that you want to absorb a winning mentality. What you want to do is absorb a monetizable mindset.

These are the things that you want. You want to have these skill sets, the skill set of a winner. And then win, lose, or draw, you still have the skill sets of a winner. You still know that if you lose, what you need to do to be able to win. And if you don't improve on something and if you don't improve on something, when you don't improve on something, it's just so obvious, you know?

So if you were to compete now and let's say you won and like, let's say everyone was like, whoa, like shit. Like that was really amazing. Everyone's like really pumped. and then three months from now you compete and it's like the total opposite everyone's like what the hell and you'd be like well like you would already you would already eat going into those matches you would already know you'd be

like ah you know this is you know i'm gonna go go and give it a shot you know like like i haven't been really training you know as hard as i need to i the lifting kind of slipped and the food kind of slipped and you're in a different weight class and like everything is different you know barely made that one yeah yeah barely made that one and that's that's not what you're that's not the aim that's not the goal the goal is improvement and again it's not easy but you're comparing yourself to yourself. So even on the note of making money, there's too many people like super obsessed with like trying to be like rich and you don't necessarily, you'd be surprised. Like if you can figure out ways of, uh, of moving your income upward, um, you would be surprised at how much money, you know, $100,000 is, $150,000 and so on.

You'd be kind of surprised and shocked about how much money that really is, especially if you make it consecutive years. You make it year after year after year. You're going to watch yourself be more and more and more comfortable. But you have a lot of people who are like, they don't want to really put the effort in to learn all these skill sets of, of, of making these kind of, uh, these, these dollar amounts that are probably way more achievable for an extended period of time. You know, you do $100,000 for 10 years, it's a million dollars.

You know, people don't want to look at stuff that way. But that's a lot of money. And a lot of people are trying to figure out how to kind of like strike it rich or like they don't want to do the small thing that's monetizable right now because they don't feel like there's enough like payoff for it. And it's kind of a little bit of departure from some of what we're talking about. But I just think it is. It's a big mistake, you know, because if you can figure out ways to like. figure out ways to like, it's hard to put into words, but if you figure out ways to like monetize something and just go from 30,000 a year to 40,000 a year to 55,000 a year, I know it's not easy to

always figure out how to have your income exponentially go up. But if you can adopt a mindset and you can start to have a winner's mentality and a winner's mindset, you can start to work your way backwards from why do I make what I make right now? And then what is that based off of? And then you start to think like, is this the right job for me to be able to get seventy thousand dollars a year because if it's not then you might need to figure out a different route but once you start to figure that out you don't have to think about f that i'm quitting this job i'll never have an opportunity to be a millionaire there that's not really what you need to do what you need to do is you need to figure out how do I have a sustainable and a sustainable income that I can continually raise every single year with the different things that I'm trying to do.

And then, again, you can break it down like am I getting enough sleep? How's my health? How's my mindset towards all these different things? And over time, you could start things and over time you could start to kind of you could start to bring that up but again i think uh people are just they're trying to win they're trying to like almost just trying too hard and i think there's a a slower pace to get there. A medium pace. Monetizing mindset. I think that's a whole other podcast,

but that sounds super interesting that I want to ask you about in another episode. So that's all I got for today. Do you have any closing words? No, man. I think we hammered it pretty good. And, um, you know, just want to kind of reiterate the, you know, just the decisions that you make. They're, they're going to, you're going to be leaving some comfort because you're going to be leaving something that you're used to. Um, you know, maybe sleeping in with the wife and snuggling up next to her. I'm sure that feels amazing, but getting up out of bed and going to jujitsu or getting up out of bed and heading to the gym, these kind of things are going to really mold and shape and change your life forever. And the decision to do one thing is a decision to chop off and to cut off a piece of you that is just gripping you and not allowing you to really advance the way that you

need to advance. Take us on out of here, Andrew. All righty. Thank you, everybody, for checking out this edition of Saturday School, which might be published on a Sunday. So we'll figure that stuff out. Week ahead. Yeah, we're a week ahead. We're going to pop up an episode called How to Kill Self-Doubt Lessons from the Boston Marathon, which I think fits very well with this conversation. So make sure you guys click on that. If you're on the YouTube side, of course. Spotify, everywhere else. You guys can just find that episode. And make sure you guys are following the podcast at MBPowerProject all over the place uh my instagram is at i am andrew z mark bale where you at i'm at mark smelly bell strength is never a weakness weakness never strength catch you guys

later bye