Mark Bell's Power Project - Mark Bell's Power Project EP. 206 Live - SCOT MENDELSON

Episode Date: May 6, 2019

Scot Mendelson is an American armwrestler and powerlifter, specializing in bench. He is a 5X World Champion and has broken 65 world records during his powerlifting career. He owns a gym called Mendy��s Gym that offers powerlifting and arm wrestling training and combat sports. After a devastating accident, Scot was unable to be a top level powerlifter which led him to start armwrestling where he has placed high in national level championship. He is currently taking a break from arm wrestling and focusing his efforts to come back in the bench press. ➢SHOP NOW: https://markbellslingshot.com/ Enter Discount code, "POWERPROJECT" at checkout and receive 15% off all Sling Shots Find the Podcast on all platforms: ➢Subscribe Rate & Review on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/mark-bells-power-project/id1341346059?mt=2 ➢Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4YQE02jPOboQrltVoAD8bp ➢Listen on Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/mark-bells-power-project?refid=stpr ➢Listen on Google Play: https://play.google.com/music/m/Izf6a3gudzyn66kf364qx34cctq?t=Mark_Bells_Power_Project ➢Listen on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/markbellspowerproject  FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell ➢ Snapchat: marksmellybell Follow The Power Project Podcast ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/MarkBellsPowerProject Follow Nsima Inyang ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/  Podcast Produced by Andrew Zaragoza ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamandrewz

Oh, you're still dead? There you are. There I am. Can we say that we blacked him out? Stay black. Yes, you can. Stay black, bro. I'm trying, man.

It's difficult right now. A white dude, a Jewish guy who broke some world records, and a black guy all walking to a gym. That's the end of it. That's it. That's all I got. I'll see you guys later. Scott, you got to tell me about horse cock.

I don't really know much about him, really. I mean, you know, he's dead. I know that. It's a good way to start off the podcast. Yeah, I figured. Yeah, so I used to go to a gym a long time ago. I used to go to a gym called the L.A. Lifting Club. And me and my brother would always be like, dude, what the hell's up with this guy?

This guy, he'd always wear cargo shorts. And somehow you could see his junk through the cargo shorts. And his name was Scott Mendelsohn. Did I have something wrong with him or just had a massive? Dude, all I know, this guy had a cock the thickness of your Starbucks cup, bro. It was ridiculous. You've seen it? I saw it one time.

It scared me. To this day, it resonates in my head. It was like 20 years ago. Damn. I thought to myself, scott you are insufficient you're you're officially inferior yes absolutely he's the man the alpha so i met this uh wonderful man over here scott mendelson probably 20 some odd years ago i went to a powerlifting meet with my brother and we were in the warm-up room and there was this guy

who was loud and over the top and brash and he was talking about wanting to break records he's talking about he's going to bench 650 and then in a couple years he's going to break the all-time world record and we're like who's this guy it turned out to be scott mendelsohn he turned out to be right turned out to bench over 700 pounds um on that particular day yeah raw on that particular day you uh had a mishap right the weight yeah i uh i dropped uh you know you go thumbless grip i was going thumb and you know what i didn't know how to power lift i didn't know how to power lift so i i was just benching close grip because that's what i did and i was hitting like 640 close grip

and uh i came in and and I used to go thumbless because, you know, I didn't know what the hell I was doing. And I ended up dropping like 600-something pounds on my chest from lockout. And that was the introduction of my elaborate powerlifting career. And then you were like, well, maybe I should wrap my thumbs around the bar.

That was my last false grip workout. How were you able to develop, you know, like there's a lot of people that bench, you know, 400 pounds, 500 pounds. And we start to see people kind of top out. They start to get to five. They start to get to six. And that 700-pound limit or that 700-pound weight, rather, seems to be a huge limit for a lot of people there's only been like five people to ever really maybe five or six people to ever do it right how the hell were you able to build that kind of strength you always just been stronger well you know what

i was always you know when i was a kid i always i collect comic books to this day i still do i have like 50 000 books and. And Hulk was my favorite character. So ever since I was a kid, I wanted to be the strongest man in the world. You know, some people want to be an astronaut or a fireman. I just wanted to be the strongest man in the world. Hulk lifts like 35,000 pounds. I thought, what the hell? I'll follow suit.

You know what I mean? And, you know, throughout life, I kind of just had that in mind. So when I was about 15 years old, one of my friends almost killed this guy. And I got picked up for it by the law. And I didn't snitch him off. Don't show this clip yet, Andrew. We'll save this for a little bit later. I didn't snitch them off, and I ended up doing three and a half years in youth authority.

Oh, my God. And that was sort of like my military to straighten me out, you know. Did it work? Well, I started lifting weights. Oh, okay. There we go. And when I got out, I was just on a mission. I didn't know what I wanted to do, but I knew that weightlifting was where it was at, you know.

And it's funny, because when I was in, I was like, God, you know, why am I here? You know what I mean? And all the prison guards were like, you know, you don't look like you should be here. And I was like, eh. And, you know, at first, it was like, they're like, Hey, what are you here for? And I said, Oh, I didn't do it. And they were like, yeah, none of us did it. We're all innocent. So then I was just like, fuck it. You know, I did it. I don't give a fuck. I'm just going on with it. And I got into the whole life of that thing. And I finished up and, and I got out in

this, this black guy named Reggie was a prison guard. He looked at me and he said, I'll be seeing you soon, boy. There's an 87% return rate. And I said, you know what? Fuck you. Like that. So I get out, I start doing my thing and I become Scott Mendelsohn.

And years later, when I broke the 275 world record, when I hit the 1031 at 275, that night we went to a bar. Because I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't do shit. But when I break a world record, I'll do a shot, you know. So we're at this bar. Makes sense. And there's this black guy at the end of the bar

and he's like fucking staring at me. And I'm like, what the fuck is this guy looking at you know what I mean and finally I get up and I go over I go dude do I know you I mean you know is there a problem and he goes you don't remember me do you I told you there was an 87% return rate and you'd be back and would you say to say to me? And I was like, I said, fuck you, Reggie. He says, I've been following you and I'm so proud of what you become. And it was like, it was like a, like a God sent thing to, you know, I don't know. It just like changed something in my life when he said that to me.

And I was like, thank you, brother. You know what I mean? When you were in that that youth facility did you have like a mentor or anything like do they they have a program to like try to help you um you know get out of that lifestyle no no it's real racial and uh what do you mean by racial what i mean is blacks can't sell up with whites and you can't smoke or drink after a black guy and it's really racial and it's an organized thing so if you smoke after a black guy you fall what's called leva and you're a lame and they shoot letters to each other prison to prison it's this organized thing um and i'm on the bus and i'm going there and this indian guy's like telling me you can't smoke after a black guy you can't drink after a black guy you know you can't sell with a black

guy and you know if if somebody tries to run you on a mission you know don't do it because you'll be like a soldier and i'm looking at this guy like what the fuck is he talking about a lot of rules you know what i mean so i get there and there's this big ass blonde dude you know it's up to 25 years old i'm like 16 you know so i get in there and this big blonde dude's like looking at me and he's like and i'm like and he's all and i was like so i walk over and he's like hey what's up and i'm like uh how you doing and he's like uh you down for your shit and i'm like yeah and he goes you know there was a bunch of like little gay guys in the front with like shirts and shit you know what i mean and he's all why don't you go over there and fuck that dude up right there show me how down you are and i'm thinking about the indian dude

on the bus and i'm like and i'm sitting down talking to this dude and i stand up and i look at him i go you running me on a mission he's all yeah i beat the fuck out of this dude i've been there like 10 minutes i'm hitting this dude as hard as I can. They lock me down. They bring me to the parole board and they're like, Mr. Mendelson, you've been here like 10 minutes and da-da-da-da-da. And I was like, sorry. So they bring me back. You beat the hell out of the guy that tried to put you

on the mission. Right. Got it. And when I get back, all the white dudes are coming up to me and they're like, hey, what's up? What's up? I'm like, what the fuck do you mean what's up? Well, he was the dude that called shots for the white dudes oh shit so next thing you know i'm calling shots for the white and i'm like dude i'm a fucking jew you know what i mean these guys are like nazis you know and i'm like nah dude i don't want nothing to fucking do with it bro so i just go in the weight pit and i start lifting well ends up that his name was chad he ends up running a

mission on me, and I walked through this doorway. They had these big steel chairs, and this dude whacked me in my face with a chair and knocked two teeth out of my mouth. So I was all dazed. I jumped on the dude, but, you know, and they had mace. All these guys had, you know, the mace spray.

So they spray me down, and I'm like, fucking, oh, dude, that shit was crazy. I got used to it. So they bring me back to parole board. They're like, Mrelson and I'm like sorry so they locked me down for like five days and then I go back and I see Chad and he's like and I'm like oh that's fucking it so there was this like pool table with these washing machines and I walk in and I just start fucking wailing on him. He had long blonde hair, and I wrapped his hand up, and I'm beating the fuck out of him.

And all of a sudden, I hear, hey! And I look over with the tear gas right in my fucking face, the mace. And I'm like, fuck, I'm snotting out of every hole. And I got him against the washer, and I'm boom, boom. And then I miss, bink! And I'm like, boom, bink! And four guards roll in and they pick me up in the air I got him in a headlock each guard has my

legs there's four of them they got my arms and I'll have this dude I'm in the air and I'm hitting them like this so they bring me back to parole board again and they're like mr. Mendel said and I'm like sorry you know and they're like well what the fuck's gonna happen I go I'm gonna fucking sorry, you know, and they're like, well, what the fuck's going to happen? I go, I'm going to fucking kill him. So they ended up shipping him out to another fucking prison. And then life got good. All the guards started liking me. I got relationships with them.

And, you know, when you first go to prison, you start tripping and you're like worried about like, oh, my God, it's four o'clock. What would all my friends be doing right now? You know, then it got to the point where I forgot and I just went on and I was lifting. my friends be doing right now you know then it got to the point where i forgot and i just went on and i was lifting and there's like a a SWAT team kind of like for like riot retaliation and stuff well they come in i was benching 600 pounds at 18 years old so how long you were lifting at this point like just a couple years yeah so i was hitting 600 and the guards came in and they go hey you're fucking strong as hell. And I was like, thanks.

So they took me over to their gym. These guys were like retired NFL and like gnarly motherfuckers, you know. So I started lifting with them. And that's when shit got real. And they were like powerlifting. And, you know, these guys were showing me some stuff. But, you know, they really weren't powerlifters. They just said they were.

You know what I mean? I didn't know what was up. I'm going close grip, you know they really weren't power lifters they just said they were you know what i mean i didn't know what was up i'm going close grip you know so uh finally i get out and uh i start living my life and i'm lifting and i'm at north hollywood golds and venice golds and i'm training people and i'm going to school and i'm doing my thing and you know one thing after the other just developed and i'm i'm sitting there eating with my wife at the time on Ventura Boulevard at this place. Ventura Boulevard's in Sherman Oaks, California. It's like the boulevard.

So there's this little magazine place, and as I'm walking by, I see a Powerlifting USA. So I'm like, oh, I'm buying it. So I grab it, and it's like, hey, this weekend there's a fucking powerlifting meet in Burbank, the one I met you at. And she's like, well, I don't know. She goes, well, who do they bench in? I go, I don't fucking know. Maybe they're hitting 900. I'm hitting 640, you know.

And she's like, well, fuck, let's do it. And I'm like, okay. And then I met Mark Bell. So here we are. Yeah, here we are. What a weird set of circumstances in a lot of ways i made a post and said you know um you broke the all-time world record and you had it for a long time how long did you have that record i had it for about 12 years i still have the 308 world

record that i've had for like 16 years yeah and you did a 701 at 306 body weight and a 715 bench right 715 at 314 i believe i was and then eric spoto who grew up in the same area as you but you guys didn't know each other in time he ended up training with you for a while yeah eric trained with me and you know i loved him great guy um i showed him my secrets he's's still alive, by the way. People keep asking me, like, where is he? You know what? I was wondering, Eric, where the fuck are you? Give me a call, you know? But, you know, he's a good guy.

And I'm, you know what? It's cool because, you know, what are records for? Right. They're to be broken. And the fact that I trained him, I wasn't completely 100% responsible for him breaking the record because he put the time in. Right. But, you know, by him breaking it and me training him, it's sort of a branch off my tree.

Yeah. You know what I mean? And I really, I enjoyed training with him. Do you have similar form to yours or is your form quite different than his? I'm different. I'm on the balls of my feet. Oh, yeah. Your feet are way back.

Yeah. My feet are further back. What do you think about, you know, you hear everyone talking about like, you know, tucking the elbows in and all these different things. And obviously, I mean, you're a really wide guy. You're thick as hell. So it's going to look different. You bench pressing versus a girl who's 132 pounds.

But what do you think about kind of like, you know, tucking the elbows in tight and stuff like that? Do you agree with with that or you have a different style well i 100 agree with it my style is and everybody can see me on camera correct yep yeah okay i like put your hand flat on my back okay what i do is i take my shoulder blades and I pinch them together, okay, loosely, not with like a lat spread or anything like that. I'm trying to get my shoulders as close together as possible. Then once I do that, then I tighten the muscle up around it, okay? And that's how I start my bench press to where I'm almost cramped up.

Now, my triceps, everything on the bench press comes from the inner tricep. So what I do is imagine if you had skin that attached your tricep to your lat, okay? You know the dimple on your lat when you do your lat? I take my tricep and I put it there, okay? So I'm a little bit like right in the middle of my back. It's kind of resting his tricep like on his lats, which might be hard to do if you don't have developed lats or developed triceps. So what I do is in this position, I'm pinched and cramped all the way back. Now, when I pull, I never let my elbow separate.

In other words, I never come from here and let my elbow go down here. I always stay into my back. And when I pull, and you'll see it on my videos, when I freeze up, everybody's like, how does it freeze up? I'm pulling and it freezes because I'm pulling with my back and I'm not pulling with my arms specifically. My arms I'm pulling with, but I'm never letting it come away from that lat. It's always attached. So what'll happen is I'll freeze up from here. Now, the only thing that's going to get that weight to go lower or that bar to go lower is what? More weight.

So more weight, more weight, more weight, more weight. That's why when I was going raw, nothing below 600 would touch. Is it like your body's a bench shirt? it's like a living bench shirt yeah guys repeat that again how much weight did you need to touch your chest 600 and he's talking about without a bench shirt on without a bench shirt yeah and if you see my videos i'll be coming down and boom boom that's really interesting because ed cone said the same thing about the deadlift ed cone you know he said like you know when he was warming up he would have you know 500 on 600 on 700 on 800 on and even like 700 pounds he could make it float yeah because he would get himself wiggled in and get himself so tight what some of you guys may not be seeing

like some people are actually listening uh iTunes as well is Scott pulled his rear delts back and he was trying to get them as close together as possible pulling him towards my hand my hand was on his back flat but I'm using the scapulas imagine the shoulder blades themselves right and you're pinching them together forget about anything muscular to begin with. It's all skeletal. So when I bench, I don't push the weight away from me. I push myself into the back of the bench away from the weight. Which is important because a lot of people will overpress when they bench press. And when you do that, you do that. A shoulder will come forward and you end up with an elbow or a shoulder or something weird.

Right. See, I don't use my shoulders when I bench at all. You also used your traps a lot, which that's a different part. So he pulled his shoulder blades together, tried to get them as close as he could, and then he kind of shrugged, not really up, but more like back. Right. With the traps, though. Well, when I set up on the bench, I'm not on my back.

I'm on my traps. Yeah, that's a big difference compared to what a lot of other people are doing. They're trying to kind of wiggle in. What are some other things, like with your technique, what are some other things that you did? Like some people have trouble with the lockout. Some people have trouble off their chest. I use boards.

I don't believe in chains for bench press. I think the joints are too small. Bands, same thing. Bands, I will do a little bit of band work, but not on the bench. You know, like if I have a bamboo bar or something like that, I'll put some bands on it or something like that. Only because of stabilization, but with lightweight. Okay?

I go boards, boards, boards, boards the whole way. And then when you press off the boards, are you staying like super tight like you mentioned? And there's like hardly any weight resting on the boards? Are you just plowing through the boards? First of all, we never got to this part, but I don't bench from here. I bench from my hips. All right. I don't know if you guys have heard.

I've blown my quads twice benching. Wow. Literally ripped my quad to where my whole leg went black. There's a magazine cover where Gordon Santee, I had to get okayed to wrap my leg up. I tore it out to Arnold, and then three weeks later, I was in Canada with Bruce Gregg. Rest in peace.

And I had to wrap my leg, and I had to shoot lidocaine into my leg because it was just so much pain. I didn't even feel the leg when I was benching. I mean, it was like not even there. You know what I mean? But when I bench, I bring my heels, I'm on the balls of my feet and I'm on my traps. My butt's touching the bench and when I get ready to bench, I take my ankles and I push on my traps, my butt's touching the bench,

and when I get ready to bench, I take my ankles and I push them down. When that happens, that engages the whole lower body, the hamstrings, the hips, everything except the glutes. Just to reiterate and to make it so people totally understand, he pushes his heels towards the ground but his heels don't go flat he's still on his toes i'm on the balls of my feet not my toes engage your butt which will drive your knee it'll engage your hip yeah there you go not your glutes you have to tighten your glutes up separately okay engage the hips and it'll keep the leg to keep the leg drive super

tight correct and then the other thing that it does is it helps to kind of stabilize your body on the bench. And in addition to that, it helps to kind of shorten up and stabilize the stroke of the bench press as well. Because now your knee will come down, your stomach and your chest will come up a little bit. Correct. If the heels touch, do you lose a lot of that? My heels could not touch. It's not going to happen. It's for him, pretty much yeah you you teach people the same you do people to bench the same way that you bench well the reason why i don't do flat footed is because when you drive flat

footed your butt comes up and no matter what your butt's going to come up you look at everyone and i love cannelli but he's never hit a legit lift in his fucking life. That son of a bitch. No, no. And no, no. It's not because he's not powerful or anything, but his ass comes up on every single lift. It just does. I knew he was cheating the whole time. Cheater. And he's heels down.

I love him. I love him. He's a champion bencher. He's flat bench. But you cannot keep your ass down when you're at a max level bench. It doesn't happen. You know? And another thing that you made me think about,

when I, like, sometimes there's some lifts online where they'll hand me 1,000 pounds and it'll start going like this, okay? I stabilize. Everybody tries to balance it from your upper body. You can't do that. You lock the hips in, and you just let the ride go on the upper body,

but you're stabilizing with the hips. That happened to me on Monday. I hit a 10.18 on Monday. I'm fucking all you motherfuckers up in a second. I'm just letting you know. But I hit a 10.18. And he's 52? I'm 50.

I just turned 50. I'm adding years to you. Sorry. Like Rocky said, I got a little bit left in the basement. That's right. And I think this year uh remember i said it on mark bell's uh podcast i'm gonna break the all-time record i'm gonna go over 11 at a light body weight i'm about 300 pounds right now and uh you know i used to be 390

and uh you know there's an optimal weight for everybody 39090. Yeah. Talk about going all in. Rich Piano looked at me and goes, dude, you're too big. You're going to fucking die. And then look. Yeah. Rich is dead now. You know what I mean? But, you know, it's just everybody has an optimal weight to perform.

For me, it's between 305 and 320 is where I'm my best. You know what I mean? I can breathe. And, you know, breathing is a big part other than life, but in benching. Because, you know, it's very cardio based. People don't realize it. In powerlifting in general, you know, you got three attempts, a fourth on a world record. When you hit your fourth lift, your fucking body's blue.

You know what I mean? You know what I'm saying yeah you know i do six hours of cardio every week and i do life cycle because i don't have an ankle on my right leg um i wear a boot when i bench so one of my boots i got a frankenstein boot you guys will see it you guys have probably seen it before but um you know it's a very scary individual if you've never seen but um you know um i forgot what i was saying um you know when i noticed when you're benching too because of your arch and because of the way you get yourself on your traps you uh bring the weight out over top of you quite a bit you bring the weight out like more towards uh um maybe like

your sternum right like a little bit below my yeah and some people you know they'll bench a little higher but i think that maybe some people are benching that way because they're maybe more flat right no the thing about it is like watch face me get in a bench position pull your arms back pull them back pull them back bend them now push as hard as you can nothing right now drop your elbows now push right you could throw me across the room. Okay? So your leverage point is in your triceps. When you're out here and you're in a high bench, you're in your shoulders.

We don't want to do that. We want to bring that out to here. And there's like a rollout process when you bench. You'll bring it up and it'll roll out. Boom. And there's like a slot. It just like falls right in. It's not quite as far, but almost to the point where the bar would start coming downward anyway, right?

Yeah, but the thing is, when you're benching and you bring it low, a lot of you people feel like it's going to fall on you. So what you need to do is take your elbows and bring them in like you're breaking the bar. And when you break the bar, all of a sudden you got tons of leverage. You know, all this, all these strength sports are just about leverage. You know, am I the strongest guy with the strongest body in the world? Fuck no. There's guys way stronger than me, but they can't hit near what I hit because of two things. One,

stronger than me, but they can't hit near what I hit because of two things. One, I know the leverage points. I'm a fucking master. And two, the mental, the brain controls everything. And no matter what I have, I'll go under 1300 pounds. I don't give a fuck because the thing about it is, is you need to stay in your itinerary. When that weight's coming down, I don't feel the muscle in my arms. I feel the bones in my arms flexing back and forth. So if I'm not in that perfect leverage point, my arms will snap. And that's why these guys panic and they freak out because mentally they're not there.

Have you always had that? Always. The thing is, never fear the weight. You fear the weight, the weight is your enemy. The weight is mine. It's not the enemy. It's part of me. And that's the key to winning.

Knowing that before you even fucking get up there, that that is done 100% is everything. I'm not like, hey, you know, today I'm going to try and do the best that I can. No, fuck no. That shit is done before I even step on the fucking platform. I've done it in the gym a million times. There's no reason why I can't do it now.

So that thing is you're always prepared though. Like you've done it before. gym a million times. There's no reason why I can't do it now. So that thing is you're always prepared though. Like you've done it before. You need to come in prepared. You don't do shit that like on the platform that you haven't done before. No. There we go. No. I mean, look, if it comes to an all time world record thing and I've hit that third lift

and I'm ready for something that I haven't do. Yeah, I'll do it. You know, but that's what lifting's all about you know it's fucking star trek bro yeah basically if you're if you're um you know one one reason to be scared is when you're not prepared 100 you know so you might have had some you might have had some meets where because we get locked into power lifting you might have had some meets where you probably shouldn't have done it, right? No.

You've always been prepared every time. I've always been prepared. So have you just backed out of them? No. No, you just, if you make a decision to do it, you go all in. I do it. I do it. I've never backed out of a meet.

I've been sick. I've had fevers. And you want to know something? Every time I feel great, I'm shitty. And you want to know something? Every time I feel great, I'm shitty. The crappier I feel, the day I hit the 1031 at 275, I had food poisoning. I was 312 pounds and my daughter cooked me chicken.

It wasn't all the way through. Dude, I puked down to 295. I was laying in a bed naked with a trash can off the side of the bed. And I had, you know, when you puke, you're like, I had puked so much that my body was so exhausted. My stomach was just like, and I was just laying there with like snot falling in the fucking thing. And I had to compete that weekend. And I'm like tripping because my sponsors were like, fuck, we're paying you. We need a lift. I'm like crying.

I'm like, I don't know what the fuck to do. And my boy's like, well, go to 275. I was like, what? So with food poisoning, I sucked up to 275, went and rehydrated with some electrolyte ringers, you know, intravenously, went back up to 292, and I'm puking in a bucket when they called my name. And I'm like, fuck. I was so shitty feeling. I'm like, I'm puking in a bucket when they called my name. And I'm like, fuck.

I was so shitty feeling. I'm like, I'm going to die. They handed me the weight off and it just crushed me. And I was like, and I thought, oh, I could do this. And I did it. And then I just missed 1115 on a second. I opened up with 1031. Has anyone benched 1100 pounds i mean tiny meeker attempted it which he gets credit for but you know everybody in the world

including tiny knows that that shit did not lock out even you do what's it 1102 bench something like that you saw it you saw the incomplete bench i incomplete bench. I don't. Yeah, I don't. I certainly don't remember it, that's for sure. Right. So I'm sure if it was clean, I might have remembered it. I mean, as far as I'm concerned, Canelli has the all-time record with the 1080 or whatever it was. Yeah. And that was a clean fucking lift. You know, Canelli is a great champion.

He was on fire for a while, as were you. Both you guys were on fire for a while as were you both you guys were on fire for a while well i think that me and cannelly's battles really took power lifting to a different it was huge it was a huge deal yeah it was it was something else man it was something now watch this is the 1102 right yeah all right now watch this lift. He's doing his dance. He's got the Tiny Meeker dance going. Right. It was a cool time, though, because there was a couple of you guys.

Oh, 1080. This is 1080. This isn't the 1102. There's a couple of you guys. But let's watch it anyway. There's a couple of you guys really battling it out back then. It was pretty sick. Yeah, it was good.

Tiny wasn't in the mix then. He kind of came a little bit later. I love Tiny. Tiny's a great guy yeah he's he's insanely strong i mean he's hit a lot of big benches over a long period of time yeah he's still competing i don't think he's competing he just took a bunch of weight off eventually right eventually that has to happen for all of us yeah all right pause is his name tiny or why do people call him tiny is his nickname it's paul meeker i think it is man those bench shirts are crazy yeah that that definitely didn't look good all right here's 1100 well it wasn't locked out yeah

just for the people that are listening can you walk us through it mark yep we got uh we're watching uh tiny meeker perform a 500 kilogram bench press it's 11 oh 1102 pounds really unbelievable to see people handle this kind of weight in a bent in a bench press regardless of you know wearing a bench shirt and all these other things. He's going to get the weight handed out to him. He's setting up his feet, got his chest up. He's ready to rock and roll.

He's going to get the lift off. The lift off's got to be crucial with these huge weights. Weights being brought down, trying to keep that position. He got a little sideways with it. Now look, it's obviously not locked. Yeah, he wasn't able to really, he was sideways kind of the whole time. Yeah, he was.

And then it was hard for him to straighten the weight out at the top. Yeah. I think he did it. I think he did it. You got to do 11.07. Sorry, bro. Whatever, I can do it.

It doesn't matter. Throw a little extra weight on there. You know what I mean? Spit on the bar. What do you think about chipping world records? Do you think that's cheap? No, I mean, on there you know what i mean what do you think about what do you think about chipping world records you think that's cheap it's just you know what it is what it is i mean i don't think it's cheap it's more weight right right i mean fuck you're hitting 1100 pounds and they're like nope 1101 and you hit it what is that cheap just whatever whatever way you want to do it yeah i mean you know know, it's more weight. That's your world record. You know? Um, do you have any regrets? Cause I I've heard you, um, a long time ago,

you told me that, uh, I think you said you benched like seven 55 raw. I've been seven 85 raw. Do you have any regrets that you were not able to do that? I do. And my wife told me, cause there was no raw movement and I was doing it at the gym all the time. And she's like, just do do it and i'm like why nobody gives a fuck you know i should have done it baby you were right i should have done it i fucked up you know 785 yeah 785 i got i got 800 to here and i couldn't lock it out was a big part of that the board the board training like so did everything's about board training did you hit like 800 off of one board i've gone 815 off the two boards before raw raw that's insane yeah that's that's incredible i mean look spoto used to handle our board spoto used to do pin presses and stuff with over 800 pounds too yeah you know eric spoto i don't know where the fuck you are but wake up give me a call

motherfucker okay i love you he does too much bodybuilding though you said well you know what i mean i guess he's done now because of his shoulders but uh he's still handling some big weights dude he's a gnarly dude bro he's a gnarly dude and he's legit you know all his lips are legit the man came out he did his thing i heard he hadn't posted in like two years yeah people haven't seen much from him in a while was he still hanging out with stan in vegas um i don't know i don't know i haven't heard anything from eric spoto in a while i mean i text him here and there so i i know he's still around yeah um i talked to his friend brody more than i talked to him i actually asked him a very interesting question

for this podcast today in preparation for this podcast I asked him who would win an arm wrestling match and he said you know you can never really tell what's going to happen but if I was to bet I'd bet on myself of course you would hey let me tell you something

that'd be a great showdown though don't you think it would be a great showdown I mean we talked about it before, and then he disappeared. Eric's a very emotional guy. Yeah. You know what I mean? And I mean, I'm not talking shit about him. No, no, it's hard for him.

Look, he's a great friend, and he's a great athlete. It was tough for him to come out of his shell. And he's got a lot more arm wrestling experience than I do. You know what I mean? I remember when I was training with him, I grabbed his hand one time and i said pull me pull me and he fucking i swear to god it felt like he could just rip my arm off my body and i was like holy fuck because you know like when i was showing you out there it's not it's not your arm yeah it's not it's your whole fucking body yeah i don't know if you people have seen the arms that eric spoto has

they're like 43 and a half inches they're like fucking ridiculous it's it's insane what do you think has like you know drawn you toward this for so long like why like you know why do you think you're still so obsessed with it seems like um with the bench just just with lift just like the whole lifting thing like you're um uh almost like possessed by it right like it seemed like you probably sacrificed a lot of things you had a had a great gym going you're a very smart guy you've had other businesses going over the years i got a great gym going and there's a lot of opportunities that you probably just couldn't really get into because you were taking in so much time in the gym you know it was funny because rich

used to tell me you know these guys got all into YouTube and everything. And he's like, man, do you got to get into YouTube? Now's the time. And I just didn't do it because I wanted my name to be solidified as the greatest. You know, I didn't want to just be a YouTube guy. I just, I wanted to be something that like when I walked in your gym today and lifters came up and they were just like, so Mendelsohn, blah, blah, blah. I mean, to me, that's solid. You know what I mean? When people are like, you're a legend.

Do you know how fucking long I worked to have somebody say that to me? It's like, and to me, that's reality. That's, you know, you hear the name Scott Mendelsohn and there's no fucking question. I'm the only man in the world to ever break the raw and the equip record at the same time you know um you're the first to do 800 pounds no i was a second rich rich lack hit it like 10 minutes before i did 900 i don't know i was a second to do a thousand yeah yeah so um but yeah i remember that but i was the second to do 1,000. Yeah, yeah. So. Yeah, I remember that. But I was the first to do three lifts over 1,000 in one meet.

So I did it at the World Championships in 2010 in Florida. And I got 1080 to a fourth. I got it to here. All I had to do was hit, and I couldn't do it. I did 1003, 1014, 1025. And everybody on 1025, they're, go 1080, go 1080. And I was like, no, because you guys remember 10-25. And everybody on 10-25, they're like, go 10-80, go 10-80. And I was like, no, because you guys remember when I was going for the 1,000 pounds, I bombed out for like two years because I was just obsessed.

There was a lot of that going on at the time, yeah. Yeah, I was just obsessed. I could win every single meet that I do. But there becomes a point to where, what is a trophy? It's a piece of fucking metal that i'll end up throwing out eventually but world history the history and the making of the world to me that's the most important thing you know and for two years i didn't fucking finish your fucking meat and then all of a sudden i show up and i go three for three over a thousand that's why I did it and didn't go 1080 because I was like I want to be solidified I fucked up I should have gone 1080

on the third but uh it is what it is yeah so you've been just uh drawn to it yeah it's uh I'm not a plumber I'm not a finished carpenter I can't do finished carpenter. I can't do what other people do. I can only do what I do just as they can't do what I do. So everybody has a purpose in this world. And I believe at this point, I know, I don't believe that this is what my purpose is. that this is what my purpose is. From the mindset perspective that you were talking about, was like every day and everything always set up around these world records?

Powerlifting to me is a life. It's not something that I just do a few times a week. Everything I eat, everything I sleep, every supplement I take, every single thing about life revolves around lifting and that's what makes greatness. And it's been for a long ass time. Well, you know what? I'm 50 and I look 49 and a half. I've done okay. You know, people are like, fuck, you're 50 years old? Well, I wasn't going like with a cigarette having wrinkles on the side of my fucking face. Like I went to my 30-year reunion and I walked in and these guys are like, man, dude, because they all know me from the internet. You know, I haven't seen them forever.

Dude, guys that I hung out with, I was like, who the fuck are you? And they were like, what? Did not recognize them. They look like old leather from the drinking and the drugs and just the abuse of going through life. You know, you guys don't understand. All the cigarettes and the alcohol and the drugs and everything that you do over a long period of time turns you into a piece of shit. And that's the bottom line. Has there ever been a time where you didn't want to do some of this stuff?

Like you get done with one competition or you break a record and you just don't want to do it? There's times when you don't want to go to the gym and stuff like that? I'll tell you a story. Every single time I break a world record, I get up and the people are roaring. And I think to myself, all right, this is 30 seconds right here. And then it's fucking done. And I got to train for the next one.

God damn it. All right. It's over. Fuck. And I trained for the next one. You just get right back into it. What do you do? You just force yourself to do it or you just love it that much? I love it that much. You know, like my son, uh, my son's a gymnast.

I don't know if you've seen him online and stuff like that. He's a level 10. He got a free ride, uh, uh, to a university, which I cannot discuss yet, but I will in the future. But

I've never had to throw him out of the car once. Every time I opened that door, poof, he's gone from when he was three. My son's been with the same coach since he was three years old. same coach since he was three years old and it's the love of it it's the glory you know when he was younger he was taking he was going to competitions and you know i was like you know i'm scott mendelson so i'm like go out there and fucking kill them you know my wife's like shut up shut up i mean he's trying he's doing the best And, you know, and then he would like lose or whatever, you know, and I didn't say anything. But, you know, at that moment, it's like, fuck, for me, it's like win or die. There's no, you know, it's no fucking second place, you know. So a few years ago, he looks at me and he goes, dad, you know, all that time you've been saying that to me,

he goes, you were right. I get it. And, uh, it's pretty cool. Yeah. Um, some of those come from like, uh, someone in the family, like they come from your dad or come from your mom or like. My father was a professional football player. Um, he left me, he left me he left me and the day i

broke my first world record my phone rang my grandfather was rocky marciano stablemate 115 fights 75 knockouts and nine losses my grandfather knocked rocky graziano out okay um he was at gleason's gym in new york it's a famous gym and he was training there and Rocky was fighting for the world championships that weekend. It was a Monday and they came in and they said, Hey, does anybody want to spar with Rocky? And my grandfather was like, fuck yeah, I'll spar with them. So they got crazy. My grandfather hit him with a left hook and dropped them. Now my grandfather's manager was the head of murder incorporated. He got the electric chair. Murder incorporated was an organization to where if you wanted me killed you would call them they would fly out kill me and fly back murder incorporated

something something great business it's cut and dry you know so anyway um what happened was when he knocked rocky out murder inc came in and they took all the press's cameras, took the film out, paid them all off. And that weekend, Rocky won the world championship. So afterwards, they went to my grandfather and I said, hey, you want to fight Rocky? And he was like, fuck yeah, I want to fight Rocky. And I said, well, you got to go down in the fourth round. And my grandfather stuck his hand out and he said, hey, I appreciate everything you've done for me. Thank you for everything you've made my life.

And he walked away from boxing. So, you know. Crazy. Yeah, so I fought. He got the electric chair though, you said? Yeah, he got the electric chair. Holy shit. For what?

Just for being. Just for being a nice guy. The CEO of murdering. You know what I mean? He was passing out business cards. Right. Marketing. Marketing.

Networking. You know, Yahoo. You know, you mentioned you ended up getting in a lot of trouble because you didn't rat somebody out. Right. you ended up getting in a lot of trouble because you didn't rat somebody out. Right. Did you, did you just kind of,

uh, did you end up in those spots a lot as a kid? Like where did you have anger? Like where, where you, um, kind of always running with the wrong crowd. I, you know,

I didn't have a father, the story of half of you people that are listening right now. And I didn't have direction. Um, and I got in with the wrong crowd cause I was looking for something that wasn't in my life, you know? And, uh, I ended up in the wrong circumstances, you know, I was running with gangs and leading my own gang and selling drugs. And, you know, I mean, I was out of the house at 13 years old.

I had a stepfather that used to, like, severely beat the fuck out of me every day. I'd go to school with a hickey all the way across my neck because he'd choke me out. You know, back in the day, there wasn't like, oh, you hit your kid. Child services is coming, you know. All of us were fucked up back then, you know what I mean? I'd walk out, my friends would be crying. I'd be like, what the fuck are you crying for? Because they got his ass kicked. I came out getting my ass kicked then you know what i mean i'd walk out my friends would be crying i'd be like what the fuck are you crying for because they got his ass kicked i came out getting my ass kicked you know but um you know it is it's it was a situation to where you know i didn't want to

get beat up all the time you know what i mean and this guy was a full-grown man beating the fuck out of me every day you know i'd go to school and get in a fight and I was like, is that all you got? My dad beats me up way harder than you. You know what I mean? So I was a hardcore little motherfucker, you know? And yeah, I didn't do what I went to prison for, but you know what? If I had to do it all over again, I'd go back to prison because God sent me there. I'm not super religious or nothing, but I believe in something and everybody's got a path and you know, going to jail made me Scott Mendelsohn. None of you people would be like, Oh, you're such a legend. You're this, that, if I didn't go to prison, cause I never would have started lifting weights.

So thank you God. And I would fucking not prison. Because I never would have started lifting weights. So thank you, God. And I would fucking not change. If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't change nothing. Because, man, if I could put a USB cord from my head to your head, it'd just be like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Like, fuck, I have had such a blessed life and met the greatest fucking people in the world. The hell of a massage, by the way. You know what I mean? And just people in the world and just the hell of a massage by the

way and just you know and just everything i mean i have had you know if i died and i've said this a few times i know you people have heard it before but if i died right this second i don't regret i don't want to but i don't regret anything in my life i I am fucking happy. I could look at myself in the mirror and I am complete. I feel great about myself and I feel great about what I've done. And I feel great about the people that I've touched in my life. And, you know, I just, I, you know, I'm just, I'm just very grateful for what I've had and have in my life. What allowed you, do you think, you know, cause you were talking about your dad and the lack thereof and you were talking about your son and you know, how you're in his life, you were, you're,

you're impacting him. Well, what made you not, I guess, follow that path? Cause you see a lot of men, especially without fathers, they end up repeating the same exact thing well you could go you could go either way yeah you know there's a fork in the road you got to know whether to go left or right and the way that he made me feel and by the way i talked to my father now i forgave him um because if you don't forgive him it'll burn a hole in your heart it will make you a negative, bad person. And, you know, I cried and, you know, I let it go. You know what I mean? But I would never, ever, ever make my kids feel

the way he made me feel. Because it is the, you know, it was like weird. When I got married, it was like, oh, you know, I'm raising my kids. And it was like, there was no, Hey, what did my dad do with me to, for me to reference? It was like half of the shit. I was like, fuck, I don't even know what to do. You know, I don't know what to do. I don't know how to, how to do this, you know, and I did the best that I could. And you know what? I made some, some bad choices with them too, you know, competing and did the best that I could. And you know what? I made some, some bad choices

with them too, you know, competing and being the best in the world. You have to be greedy. You know, um, I was traveling a lot, you know, I wasn't with my kids a lot when I was there. I loved them and I told them and I kissed them and I hugged them and I'd be with them, you know, but for a big portion, shit, I was in France one week in Canada the next week and two weeks later at the Arnold and then in Africa a month after that. And dude, I was just everywhere. And it was like, I was on this mission and it was just like, every time I went to a different show, my, my, my benches were going up and up and up and up and up and it was just like a fucking heroin habit it's hard to come down from that high and then go home and then take out the garbage

no i could do that i don't like to smell the trash in my house you know what i mean though it's like kind of hard it's hard for a lot of people a lot of my friends that are like in wwe and stuff it's hard to hear the roar of like 50 000 people and go home and yeah have the wife you know frustrated with you that you haven't been around and you can now you gotta change diapers or whatever the uh obligations are around well you know what a lot of the reason why me and my wife are no longer together is because you know she wasn't really able to do what she wanted to do. You can't both be doing shit and have kids. I used to tell her, I said,

look, I don't give a fuck if you make all the money, I'll stay home. But it's not like that. I mean, fuck, if there's $2 million in the bank and she made it all, I'll spend it just as well. I don't give a fuck. I thought you left her because she used to beat the shit out of you. I remember watching her on stage. Actually, that part kept me together with her.

See if you can pull up some of those clips, Andrew. She would beat the, did she ever like catch you off guard and nail you with a good one? She still hits me. Yeah, I'll be at shows and she'll be there and I'll be like, come on, let's do it. Maybe she hits you a little harder nowadays, huh? Dude, she fucking, you know, she was a fighter. Oh, shit. Oh, yeah.

She fought Muay Thai. She was a black belt in Kung Fu. Dude, she benched 475. She was a fucking beast, bro. Jesus. You know? And she's a great mother. You know what I mean?

Look, we're better friends than we ever were married. We have a great relationship now. That's great to hear. Yeah. Look, I'm preparing. I'm like, here she goes. She's going to fuck me up right now. I'm like, oh, God, honey. Look, just get it over with.

Get it over with. Damn. She's all like. I like how she started hopping. She got excited. She jumped off the fucking floor, man. And you know what? It was weird because people did not bring their wives to powerlifting meets.

Right. When we first started, she was the only one there. She'd wear a nice dress and come out and look good and just beat the fuck out of me. Within a year, everybody had chicks. Everybody. Tara Bohegan's fucking socking Ryan Cannelli in the nose oh yeah i mean it just it changed you know and i feel good about that it was like look we changed shit right you know and i think for the better you know it was more entertaining you know i'm at the World Championships in Africa. There's 3,000 fucking people.

Dude, when she's smacking me, I hear the whole fucking auditorium. Ooh, ooh. It was just like, wow. I was like, they didn't even give a fuck about my lift, bro. They just wanted to see me get cracked. You know what I mean? See if you can find the picture. We'd walk up, and they would be like, are you going to hit him?

Are you going to hit him? I was like, hey, fucker, why don't you ask me if I'm going to hit the bench? You know? See if you can find the picture of uh scott and uh ryan cannelly legendary picture of you guys facing each other yeah i just broke his both so jacked i just broke his world record and he was at the meet he wasn't competing and he took a shirt off and i just got off the bench that's why i was all red and we just did the the fighter thing head to head and it was an iconic picture and it's fucking and then somebody and then somebody somebody made it like a jail cell yeah that's the original right there i just broke the record you know that's sick it's like two guys up over 300 something pounds yeah i was

about 350 right there jesus and both of you are pretty lean too yeah yeah yeah you know it's pretty crazy because like you you guys are both talking about like 800 900 1000 and it sounds like from my point of view that this is like you know the four minute mile when one person broke it yeah then everybody just started breaking shit what was that for the bench press you know, the four minute mile when one person broke it, then everybody just started breaking shit. What was that for the bench press? You know, you got to understand, there's only five dudes in the world that have ever gone over a thousand to this day. It's a very small club.

But the bench press did go bonkers for a period of time when you were starting to hit those lifts because, I mean, that changed power lifting forever. It changed everyone's totals and stuff. You know, it really shook things up. Well, I'll tell you, you know Gary Frank, right? Yeah. Well, Gary had a 26.10 total and he was hitting a 738 bench and he comes to me and he's like you know i go dude i'll help you on the bench and he's like really so i told him everything i

wanted him to do and he was calling me up going fuck dude i'm dying i'm dying i said just shut up and keep going keep doing what i tell you and he calls me up one night and he goes i just hit a 935 okay i'm good then he competed his total went from 26 10 to 28 10 and all his other lists were the same i think he's the first guy to do 27 28 2900 yeah yeah and gary is an icon i mean hall of famer bulldog you know uh he had the shot put world record yeah i mean dude i think he played for the atlanta falcons he did he got kicked out of the nfl for being too violent crazy i think he's still trying to lift heavy and stuff i think he's kind of he's he had a little heart issue oh so he kind of took off but like i

saw him he was like 250 and i was like how the hell did he do that he lost like 150 pounds he could very well be the strongest powerlifter ever i mean this guy yeah he was a beast he would take 1100 pounds out of the squat rack and run with it backwards boom boom looked like he was gonna fall over and he would just and he uh deadlifted over 900 pounds i mean he was just a absolute there's just so many cool tales about him i've heard that he was at the wpo days that he like it wouldn't even warm up he would just do like toe touches before he would warm up his warm-ups kind of like my bench warm-up he'll go one plate two plates three plates 900 and that's how i do that's how i warm up on the bench because you throw your you throw your

gear on yeah you throw your gear on once you throw your gear on then you're you're good to go so that's a crazy warm-up yeah wait seriously one plate two plates three plates 900 like yeah shit i still do it what uh what made you turn the corner when you were young did like usually there's somebody in somebody's life or did you just kind of like wake up one day and just say i i don't you know i'm out of jail i don't want to do this shit anymore i need to make changes or did you have that's what happened to me that's it i never had a role model you know i wished i did yeah you know everybody's like oh who's your favorite power lifter myself me me you know i never had a, you know.

I mean, I love the Ed Cones and the Captain Kirks. And, you know, all those guys were fucking great. But I never looked at them as like, there was never a bencher that I was like, oh, I'm going to be like him. It was always, I'm going to be like me. You know what I mean? And that's just always how it was. I just, I knew that I was something different, you know what i mean and that's just always how it was i just i knew that i was something different you know and i had to go and take what was mine because nobody ever was going to give me anything

so i had to work harder than everybody else and i had to be more consistent than everybody else you know i was eating 12 000 calories a day um you know i'm known for going with the food because food is where it's at. If you're not eating right, you could take all the shit in the world and, you know, take all the protein shakes in the world. But I mean, I still go 40 egg whites a day. I eat five pounds of red meat. I don't eat that much carbs

because I'll get big, you know. Bigger. Well, this is a ballerina dancer for me. When you're 390 and then you're 300, it's like, it's nothing, you know what I mean? Do you, I mean, today, you know, we had some bagels and stuff like that. Do you eat like healthy

or just kind of like get whatever you get? I eat pre-contest. Yeah. Twice a week I'll eat, you know, shitty, all Chinese food or eat sushi or something like that. But I eat, my staple is either, I found a white sweet potato that's like fabulous. I don't eat potatoes. I don't eat white rice. Japanese sweet potato, right?

I don't know what it is, but it's white. Yeah, they're delicious. It's white. It tastes like, it's super sweet. It tastes really good. I love it. A little bit of butter on it. Yeah.

Amazing. I go butter and sour cream and boom. I mix it. I microwave it, put that, squeeze it, and that's it. But I go either sweet potatoes or brown rice. A protein, I'm a cilantro freak. I eat like two or three bundles of cilantro every day and i love tomatoes so that's my staple sometimes i'll put blue cheese dressing in it sometimes i'll

put salsa in it um i can eat the same thing all the time you know you mentioned uh you know really just kind of doing like whatever it takes to to be the best um what what did that cost you in terms of like friends and in terms of like training partners because i know the days you know when i was lifting in my bench shirt the workouts would take hours well you know what i have a team i have a team that i train with um i got a liftoff guy my boy mark that's that's great he wasn't there i had my boy ph Phil for a while. What about the really jacked guy you used to have? That was Mo, Muhammad Anoudi.

That guy was fucking insane. He was an IFBB pro. No one ever even watched you bench when that guy lifted off for you. That guy was a fucking, he got that size just to lift me off. I bet. He bulked up because he knew. He goes, this one's going to be iconic. There was some video of him lifting off with no shirt.

And he was just like, everyone was like, who is that guy? Yeah, he was a fucking freak. He's in the weed business now. He's done. He's like 200 pounds now. Oh, really? Wow. But he's healthy, and he's rich.

He's living his fucking life. I love him. Did you end up going through a lot of friends and training partners and stuff? I still do. Because of how, yeah. I still do. It's very trying. There are some nights where guys don't show up. I can't lift. Um, but right now I got it pretty

going on. I, I, I'm benching one time a week right now. Um, I bodybuild the rest of the week. So I'm doing full support work for four or five days and then I'm arm wrestling, power lift on Mondays, arm wrestle on Tuesdays. And then I'm doing support work for arm wrestling and bodybuilding for my power lifting. What's your best deadlift? I deadlifted over 900. I did 900 for six reps when I was younger, but I don't have an ankle anymore,

so I don't really fuck with that. 900 pounds, a regular deadlift? Yeah, a regular deadlift back in the day. Oh, my God. And then what's your best squat? I squatted 1,000 pounds with no suit on before damn i remember you saying that in that movie uh power unlimited nobody nobody believed it no i did i did that's insane i did it wasn't a power lifting squat right it was a bodybuilding squat so you know i was like above parallel right

um but back when i was doing that i wasn't saying well you gotta understand when you have heavy weight that's what gets you big you know what i mean um i'll do rack pulls with like 800 pounds out of the rack right now i'll just i put a weight down on the plate on the floor and then i'll pull out of that but you know i'll do short motions and stuff because i'll fuck myself up we're doing something wrong man we gotta start working out harder or something. You know what it is, bro? You remember Randy Couture? You remember he was world champion and then he stopped for a year and a half and he came back?

What happened to him? He got better, right? He mopped. He got mopped. Oh, he got his ass kicked. Right. At the age that I'm at now, I could never stop because if you stop, you lose it. That's why Kennelly can't bench like he used to,

because he was in prison for too long. He's jacked as fuck, and he's hitting good weight, but that's why he's not competing. I heard he's going to start competing again, so we'll see. That'd be great. Even when you were doing all the arm wrestling competitions, you were still maintaining that bench. I did it until my last arm wrestling competition.

I was over 1,000 pounds, and then I did this pay-per-view in Poland where I popped a tendon and I got killed. The dude, his name is Alex Gordeka. He's the best arm wrestler in Poland. He's one of the top guys in the world. And I lost. It was honorable. He beat my ass six to zero.

It was a super match, six matches. And on our first match, I hit him, boom, and I started nailing him, and something popped in my arm. So I thought my arm broke. So I went back, and my arm wrestling coach, Vazgan Segoyan, he's a three-time world champion. I said, dude, pull on my arm. He's like, what are you talking about?

I go, I think my arm's broken. He's like, what? He pulled my arm. Nothing happened. I couldn't grip him. He kept just nailing me. So shit happens. You know, when you're at a top level in any sport, it's like a drag car, you know, you're at the top peak and, and, you know, when you're in a Toyota, you can burn it out all day and nothing happens to it. But when you're in a toyota you can burn it out all day and nothing happens to it but when you're in a top fuel car shit happens you know what's up with your uh sister does she still have a gym yeah she's got blue collar barbell in new york um and that was always insanely strong yeah she squatted about 870 at 170 pound body weight. Is she in a competition? Not yet. But she's going to. She did the WPO

and she lost against this like 250 pound black girl. I can't remember her name from Texas. She's a beast. She looks like Kai Greene. It's the craziest shit, dude. It could be Kai Greene's sister. There's some strong women out there right now. There are. That chick

that went the other day. I can't remember her name it's like 119 pounds yeah stephy beast holy shit and she's hot too yeah 500 pounds yeah dude she's a beast i saw her online i was like god damn look at this chick yeah yeah she's in good shape too it's unbelievable um what uh you know you how'd you get into this arm wrestling thing like how did this happen you know well i got in a car accident i don't know if you remember and i left shoulder and uh it was really fucking bothering me so i stopped and this guy calls me up and he's like i'm your biggest fan let me come out and see i want to talk to you this is travis bajan right here he's one of the best guys in the world and i spanked his ass he's crazy too yeah he's all fired up and then afterwards he lied and said he let me win like i'm the best in the world at bench

yet he let me come into his sport and beat him crushed because it makes total sense right exactly so anyway um uh so he comes over and he goes, hey, you want to arm wrestle? And I was like, I don't know. He goes, and it was a practice at this Mexican restaurant, and Travis was there. So we locked up together and we started going, and he stopped. And I'm like, what's up, dude? Did I do something wrong? He goes, no, it's just I'm afraid that one of our arms are going to break,

and I don't want it to be mine. And I was like, really? And then I just started arm wrestling, and I got good at it. It's a very, very, very technical sport. How long have you been doing it for? About four years. About four years. I got this little injury right now, so I got to take some time off.

I tried to work through it but it's a tendon thing and the tendon stretched out so the only way i can heal is by not doing it but it's good because my wrist is straight on the bench it's only when i'm twisting my wrist so it doesn't affect me on the bench and like i said monday i hit a 10 18 very easily and i had room so i felt good you know it was like i hit that on Monday and I thought to myself, Scott Mendelsohn, there you are. All right. You know?

Felt great. It was like I just got laid. Unbelievable. What's the goal with arm wrestling? Try to win a world championship? Yeah. Is that what you're trying to do here? Totally.

I know people are gonna you know kill me if i don't ask a few of these uh specific bench questions since we have one of the all-time greats if not the greatest bench presser of all time um what are maybe two or three favorite assistance exercises for bench pressing you know what i like doing close grip triceps uh bench press that's a big one um any specific way do you do them any differently than a normal i just go to where the knurling stops right and i'll do sets of five on that rear delts is a huge thing so forza actually made me a rear delt machine with a 400 pound stack on it yeah So I'll do sets and sets of rear delts because when you're benching and you drive through and you're pinched back,

when you stop and then you go to forward like this, it's the rear delt that's going to help it. Yeah. You know, so rear delts are super, super important. Legs. What's the rear delt machine.

It's just like, it's like a peck deck. Yeah. And just, you go the other way. Yeah. Yeah yeah so do those any specific way or just what i do is i'll do singles yeah i'll put my left pack against the pad i understand and i'll grab and then i'll come from here and i twist my body it's a wide row yeah yeah yeah and i'll cheat it with my body just to get that extra and then when i do left, I'll put my right pec on there.

You know, any of you guys ever need training, I do it online. You can get at me at mendysgym at gmail.com, or you can give us a call at 818-616-3161. I got guys that fly in from all over the world that I train. It looks like I'm going to be touring Arizona for some seminars shortly, so I'm going to be doing that. And if shortly. So I'm going to be doing that. And, uh, if you guys want a seminar, uh, give me a call. Let me know.

You guys own gyms. You want some people, you know, to be taught the right way. But I'll tell you right now, I'm just going to be honest with you. I don't fuck around. My bench style is extremely aggressive. Um, the work is extremely real. So remember in life, nobody's's gonna fucking give you shit you need to trample over their skulls and take what you want otherwise you ain't getting shit because

you know what they'll smile at you and say oh yeah i want to help you and that's all bullshit it's like the articles in the bodybuilding magazines about the routines that the pros give that's not their routines they're just too insecure to give you the truth. Sorry, I'm the one to tell you that. So you just make people work their ass off if they're going to do a seminar, make people work hard. Maybe not in the seminar, but the workload that I'm going to teach you is real. You know, I do legs every single week. You know,s are a huge part of bench press. I bench off of my lower body.

Like I told you, when that bench is swaying back and forth, I don't stabilize it from here. I just let the ride go. I'm tightening my hips up and my hamstrings and I'm shoving those ankles down and I'm stabilizing it. And it'll stop with your lower body. And I'm stabilizing it. And it'll stop with your lower body. Okay? You'll tear pecs and biceps and, you know, shoulders and everything else trying to stabilize from your upper body.

So never do that. How do you train your whole body but avoid jacking yourself up for the bench? So, like, do you use a safety squat bar? Like, do you squat? I don't squat anymore. I can't because of my ankle. I use a super squat. So I'll have the, you know, the super squat where the pads go over your shoulders. So I use that.

I'll go 1,000 pounds for 20, 30 reps. I'll hammer some shit out. I train legs like a bodybuilder, but I train them heavy. So like high reps? I'll do eights to 12s, but I'm on machines. You know what I mean?

I'm doing bodybuilder style exercises. Look, the bottom line is I was a bodybuilder before I was a powerlifter. And bodybuilders know more about supplements. They know more about nutrition. That's how I was able to get ahead because you fucking fat, dumb powerlifters don't know what the fuck you're doing.

You know? And that's why, I mean, even right now, I got abs. You know what I'm saying? So it's's like everything it's not about being fat you know everybody's like oh the belly the belly the belly if you learn how to arch and just stand your stomach outward you don't need to be fat you know live instead of fucking dying at 40 like the rest of these dudes do fuck that i want to live i want to be able live. I want to be able to move. I want to be able to fuck. I'll drink to that.

Yo, Scott, like, I'm curious because how, you just benched 1,018, and right now, like, your other ankle, there's no ankle there. Right. So how did your bench press form change to like? I wear a boot. That's, okay.

And the boot is about, they took about two and a half inches out of my, they took the ankle out. And there's only one bone hanging onto my foot. It's fused directly to my foot. The other bone is bolted to my leg, to the other bone, so it won't flap around. So there's only one bone holding up. But, you know, it's all hips. Everything's about the hip. The hip is the biggest, strongest joint in the body.

When you deadlift, where are you coming from? Hips. When you squat, where are you coming from? Hips. My bench style is just a lying down squat. That's a great way to look at it because now you're going to protect your shoulders and elbows. 100%. 100%.

My left shoulder is fucking fried. I don't have a pec in my left. You know, it's torn off. But by superseding it, by pinching the shoulder blades together and the elbows in, you're using your inner triceps like a pry bar. you're using your inner triceps like a pry bar so you're able to use your whole body to bench instead of just one part or two parts everything's a system you know it's quite scientific there's four or five things going on in the deadlift there's four or five six things going on the squat there's 42 different movements going on in the bench press. My bench style takes a year to learn.

There's a lot of shit to remember. Do you think every body type can bench the similar way to the way you bench? Absolutely. Yeah, okay. Absolutely. Even if you've got longer legs and so on. I mean, look, everybody, you know who Michael J. White is?

Yeah. Michael J. White's like my brother. We're rebranding the gym right now. I strength train Michael J. White. He's my boy. He's just an incredible human being. That's fucking awesome. We just did a bunch of filming at my gym. He's doing a new

fitness thing and he's training at my gym and he's doing the whole film thing at my gym. So, and yes, I was authorized. I'm allowed to talk about it. But, you know, he came to me and he's like, oh film thing at my gym. And yes, I was authorized. I'm allowed to talk about it. But he came to me and he's like, oh, I can't deadlift. And I was like, what the fuck are you talking about? You can't deadlift. So he's like, yeah, my body's not built for it, blah, blah, blah.

Like, who the fuck told you that, bro? What are you talking about? So I showed him and he was like, oh my God. Everybody, they think when they deadlift you know pull from your arms and your back the deadlift is all hamstring and glute and hip you know a squat you people think a squat is a quadricep exercise it's not it's hamstring glute and hip you know that's why you guys are blowing your knees out because you're trying to go from the front of your leg if you lead from the back of your body you're much more stable

much more secure and that's where the real weight comes from yeah on every lift every single lift i don't care what it is any compound movement that back of the leg is your money a knee is like a door hinge there should be no pressure on it whatsoever it should be able to bend all the pressure should be from the hip and glute and hamstring area and yeah i'm a bencher but i train all three lips you know and i'm blowing my youtube channel up yes guys i'm going to start doing some more youtube stuff i just i'm a fucking caveman i need to learn how to do this so i'm on it we're doing some shit so what's a way some good stuff what's a way that you teach people to use their lats because it's a weird it's a hard cue for some newer people what do you mean lats uh you know people uh you know like when they're bench pressing

so i heard you say and i forgot to mention earlier when you're describing how you bench press one of the first things you said is that you pull. So you pull the weight down. That's unconventional for a lot of people. People are thinking just kind of dropping the weight. Right. You're actually pulling the weight. So how do we kind of teach people? I'm not pulling from the lats. Okay. I'm pulling from my rhomboids. I'm pulling from my traps. I'm pulling from my rear delts. I'm pulling from my ass and hips and hamstrings and triceps so are there specific exercises you show people that can help them mimic that or what i do get on the damn what i do is i put them on the bench and i'll have them get into the

form well i had i had my boy jesse from arizona he came out last week to train with me. In one workout, I put 36 pounds on his PR, which is pretty incredible. You know what I mean? But the thing about it is, is everybody benches from here. So what I do is I have a drill. I call it the Mendy drill. And I'll have them prop up into a bench position, and I'll take my fists, and I'll put them into their shoulders. And I tell them, this is what I want you to do. Bring your heels down and drive and slide your shit right through my fists. So they'll slide and it'll go up above my hands. I go, no, no, no, no, no.

When you bench, you're in an arch. So your trap should be dug into the bench as you bench press and I'll have them drill and they're fucking dying. I mean, the next day they wake up, their back and their legs are killing them because that's where you're benching off of. You know, I have an analogy, and you guys will trip out on this. You know the tidal wave that hit Thailand a couple years back?

It was a nine-foot wave, okay? A nine-foot wave you could surf. So basically, your arms are the nine-foot wave. What did the damage to Thailand was not the nine-foot wave, but it was all the ocean in back of the nine-foot wave that came in. So when you bench, this is only the contact point. I'm boom, driving through my whole body. And this motion this way, you take this. And as you move back this way, you're here. So your inner triceps and your hams and your glutes and your hips are attached. I call it a seesaw effect.

So as I'm coming down, I'm this way. As I'm going up, I'm this way. So you're going like this. You know what I mean? So you're saying that your head comes up off of the bench then? Head has nothing to do with it, but yes, my head comes off the bench. Okay. I'll just say, because I hear-

Your head is like your, it's like, you know a crane? A crane is this huge thing that lifts all kinds of crazy shit up, but that little glass booth where the dude sits, that's where all the action comes from. Gotcha. Which is your head. that's where all the action comes from. Gotcha. Which is your head.

So when I bench, I get a lift off, I'm here and I'm looking around. This is a separate body in my mind than all this. This is the glass case where the guy's going like this. This is taking all the control from this. And I call that a mind-to-muscle link-up. It makes a lot of sense. Yeah, it really does. Right? Let's talk about, so in 2013, you were trying to break, I think, Eric Spoto,

I think he broke your record at the time. No, he hadn't broken it yet. I was trying to break my record. You were trying to break your own record. No, he hadn't broken yet. I was trying to break my record. You were trying to break your own record. And you ended up having a tear that really just fucked things up for a while for you.

Right. I remember, you know, like in the warm-up room, you were going through your progressions and stuff. And I think, unfortunately, I think like when you got to the platform. Oh, it was cold. Yeah, and I think that, I don't even, I don't know if we had like the right people up there that were helping you in the warmup room. The guy on the left. And someone gave you a liftoff from the side and the other side didn't give you a liftoff. It was like a three man. No, that happened on the platform. Yeah. That's what I mean. Yeah. It happened on the platform in the warmup room. I think they got it right for you. It was perfect. And then for some reason, something got jacked up once you got out there. The guy, when I hit the 716,

the guy on the left dropped the weight on me. Oh, shit. So what happened was my elbow flared out, and I was trying to get it back in, and when I hit the bottom, it was like this. It was out a little bit. But the weight wasn't heavy because I had done it a million times. I was good. So when I threw it up, it was like 30 guitar strings.

It popped off. Damn. So it was like 30 guitar strings and it popped off so it was kind of crazy but I was ready that day but it wasn't my time that was my exit that day yeah shit happens right hey you know what when you're in this sport like I told you you're at the max

you're in the dragster shit happens motors blow blow, things happen. So when it comes to any and all things, a lot of performance-enhancing drugs are utilized in this sport and bodybuilding and many sports. I think, if I remember correctly, you were talking about taking something to hype you up for the bench or something like that, like nitroglycerin or something? No, no, no. I just do ammonia.

Ammonia? Yeah, I do ammonia. I thought you were talking about something really insane. No, no, no, no, no. And then. See how calm I am? That's definitely not my nitroglycerin. I'm like, yeah, okay.

And then, I mean, so you've been doing this for a long time. I'm like, yeah, okay. So you've been doing this for a long time, and when you're chasing after something so hard, it can be unhealthy in some ways. Do you get blood work done and stuff? Do you get things checked out? I do. I got a guy named Fong in L.A. that does my blood work and monitors me, and I'm taken care of.

You know what I mean i mean yeah that's smart because yeah it can this kind of stuff can uh can really take its toll on you when you've been uh pushing so hard for so long yeah seven seven hundred sixteen point five pounds we're watching him uh set up for it the guy's kind of pushing him uh into helping and i want my traps right there yep just like you said and this kind of shit is into position. And I'm on my traps right there. Yep. Just like you said. And this kind of shit is always hard to watch, especially when it's somebody you know. You know what?

It's okay. I was there. Don't worry about it. See right there, my elbow is out right there, if you can see that left elbow. And watch my pec. Boink. Yeah, it just dives right in there.

Yeah. You know, it was a bad day day and what sucked is i drove up here oh man dude i had to drive 11 hours back home and it was like every fucking bump i hit i was just like oh god please get me home it was brutal was part of going for that lift was that kind of because eric spoda was was coming around at that time and he was starting to get bigger raw benches i can't remember no i was just having fun yeah time and he was starting to hit bigger raw benches? I can't remember. No, I was just having fun. Yeah.

You know, I was just having fun. I was in shape. Yeah. And, you know, I was just trying to get my world record a little bit higher, you know. About how many exercises would you do in a given workout when you were kind of prepping for these contests? Well, I... Raw, anyway.

Well, when I'm benching i just bench because when the weight's so heavy i can't do support work during the same workout so i'll just bench when i bench and then you take your elbows are like jello and then a couple days later you know i'll do legs the next day so i don't have to mess with my elbows um and then i do bodybuilding you know i'll do biceps. I'll do triceps. I'll do shoulders. I do a lot of trap work, back, chest, the whole thing. What type of specific trap work did you do?

I have a trap exercise that Jay and Blakely taught me. And it's in a Smith machine. You can do it on a barbell too, but I'll pick it up, and then I'll roll my traps forward, and then I'll bring my head into it. And I'm, what I'm doing is I'm pushing my neck into my traps. Like feel my traps, Mark. Like my traps are here, right? No, no. Keep your hand. Feels like the table. Keep your hand on it. I'm here and I'll squeeze forward here and then I'll squeeze back into my trap and then I just stay forward and squeeze back and I'll just do that and it works I got my neck to 28 and a half inches like that right now it's about 25 and a half so that's insane that's like not even you're not even really a shrug it's just kind of

the movement of your head yeah but you're you're taking the intensity and you're putting that into your trap so it's neck and trap involved. It's a great exercise he taught me. Never thought of doing anything like that. Yeah, little tricks of the trade. I'll show you guys after we get out of here. What's some of the training that you do for arm wrestling? Arm wrestling specific exercises, a lot of forearm work.

Like, you know what, before I started arm wrestling, I never could really contract my forearm. When I contract my forearm, I feel the head of forearm work. Like, you know what? Before I started arm wrestling, I never could really contract my forearm. When I contract my forearm, I feel the head of my forearm right here, like a bicep. You know what I mean? I never felt that before. So I developed that. We do a lot of wrist work, a lot of bicep work. And in bicep work, instead of coming all the way down and doing this,

because you're an arm wrestler and you're here. So we'll go from here, boom, boom, boom, this way. Not full, because an arm wrestler and you're here the whole time. By the time you get here, you've lost, you know, except if you're doing a king's move, which a king's move is like, watch. Like, wait, come over here. Uh-oh, here we go. I'm going for a ride, I think.

Okay. Grab my arm. Now I'm going to come down like this. Pin me. Pin me as hard as you can. Go. What I'm doing is I've locked my wrist. Right.

And this is a king's move. So you're stabilizing. Yeah, so I'm stabilizing in here. Go ahead as hard as you can. Go ahead, do it. Go. You don't want to be there, right? Are you doing that on purpose?

No, I do it on purpose. Yeah, to maybe wear the guy out. There's a guy named Michael Todd, and he's the King of the King's moves. Oh. I beat him at the Arnold. He fouled out, and then they told me I lost. Dude, it's political as fuck. But if you go online, like look up me versus Michael Todd.

Like he's lost already, and I'm like going, what the fuck is that to the judge while I'm holding him? And, you know, we sort of, we're going to meet again. I'm going to fuck him up. It's crazy, though. Like after four years. Now, Michael Todd is one of the best in the world. It's crazy, though. Like, after four years. Now, Michael Todd is one of the best in the world. He's like the real deal.

Yeah. And watch, he'll hit me. And the guy, the judge, the guy's name is Leonard. He's one of the best judges in the world. But he just wasn't watching. And then afterwards, he was like, look, I made a mistake. He's an honorable man. He made a mistake. And, you know, things happen. And then afterwards, he was like, look, I made a mistake. He's an honorable man. He made a mistake, and things happen.

See right there? We slip out, and now they'll strap us up. Yeah, it's interesting when they strap you together. Why don't they just strap you together in the beginning? Because it's just hand on hand. If you slip, then they strap you. Got it. So they'll strap us up.

They got you locked into each other now. And then you're locked in. See, when it's not strapped, then they can attack my hand and do all that kind of stuff. But once you're strapped up, then it's all about power. Yeah. And as you know, ladies and gentlemen, I got that power. Now watch, he'll hit me. I don't have what's called a hit when they just go boom.

I don't know how to do that really good yet. So watch. He'll hit me and we'll just go down. I hold him. So he starts aggressively and explosively. Watch. Seems like this would be frustrating you know what it's it's uh it's chess is what it is i saw the documentary uh pulling john that was pretty damn cool yeah

see him he hit me yeah and now we're in position And now you're in a spot where you can just hold him for a little while. I got him. And watch, I'll come up to get him. I go to pin him. It's almost like you're trying to have him wear himself out. That's what I'm doing. He's trying to wear me. Yeah, his elbow's at a weird angle.

And look, once your elbow comes off the pad, you foul. And he's pulling off the pad multiply. And they're not, see, he's off the pad right there. And then right there, he's off the pad again. And then I go to get him, and then he stops and says that I felled. He said you took your elbow off. And I didn't. So then they restart us.

See, he says I elbow felled. Got to be pretty tired at that point, right? No, I do six hours of cardio a week, bro. I'm good to go. What kind of car? You mentioned you're on a bike, but do you go pretty hard? Yeah. I mean, I go at about 135 heart rate.

Oh, yeah. But I'll do an hour at a time. That's a good clip. Yeah. No, it's cool. That's really good. So you do it hour at a time. That's a good clip. Yeah, no, it's cool. That's really good. So you do it six days a week? I do six hours of cardio a week.

Damn. Well, dude, everything's cardio involved, bro. It is. If you've got no gas, then you have no reason to do anything. You can't do anything. Well, you can't recover from one workout to the next very well either. And that's a huge factor. I think a lot of powerlifters are missing. should no power lifters do cardio they're scared to lose muscle

yeah they're always terrified to lose muscle mass bro the muscle that you lose you don't need anyway what do you mean by that what i mean is the amount of muscle that that's going to take right from you is not even enough to complain about it's like get over it and get on the cardio, you lazy motherfucker. That makes a lot of sense. All right, now watch. Here it is. You'll hit me again.

Boom. I got him. Look at his elbow. Elbow's completely off. He should have been done right there. Now watch. Look, I'm pointing. What the fuck is that, Leonard?

And then look. Look, look, watch. I fouled now. I'm like, what the fuck? And then Arnold was right there, and I was about to go nuts, and I was like, all right, pull together, people. So I people so i walked off i was like okay because you know in powerlifting you can't tell the ref to go fuck himself and you know what mistakes happen it just sucks that you train your ass off and they just don't see it you know you know what i did to him afterwards i walked

up to him i said hey brother hey, brother, thank you. And walked away. I'll get it a different time. That's the best thing you can do. That's all you can do. But inside, inside. The rage. But you know what?

I had a good experience. And then, you know, arm wrestlers hate my fucking guts. All of them do. Every time I win, oh, man, he's a piece of shit. After that, it went on. Mendelsohn will be world champion. He did win, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. After that, it went on. Mendelsohn will be world champion. He did win, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, all right, I got some respect for like a day.

Then they were like, fuck Mendelsohn. With all the injuries and all the different things that have happened, how have you been able to manage pain? Because you mentioned so many surgeries and things like that. And I've had, you know, both of my brothers have, you know, I've lost one brother and the other brother has been hooked on painkillers and alcohol and different things. You ever get caught up in that? No, I never got caught up in that.

I think I'm the only strength training guy that's not on a pill habit. You know, I take naproxen. It's an anti-inflammatory right it's like a leave or something yeah and i and i'm a thorough believer in ice i soak my my wrists and my elbows and my ankles i go 15 20 minutes in and i mean in a have you ever put your limb in an ice bucket before for the first five minutes you're in fucking agony and then it goes numb and then you're just sitting there watching tv you know so but i'll tell you when you come out of it you're great and another thing back to the cardio cardio sucks people i hate it just like you do but i'll tell you when i'm done with the

cardio nothing hurts nothing in my body hurts it It's like, everything's warm. Everything feels beautiful. You know, it's like, you know, in a system, in any kind of system, you can't leave out, it's like, you can't build a motor and not put oil in it. You, you have to do every step of the system. If you don't, then it's not a system. And it's the consistency if you don't then it's not a system and it's the consistency of a system and it's the willpower to be consistent you know the thing is it's like you just got to keep coming back it's like you know all this time every time I waste when I first benched 600 you know everybody thinks it's all muscular but it's not muscular.

It's a central nervous system that controls the muscular system. And as you train and train, you ever have the best workout of your life? And then the next day for like a month, you're just like, holy fuck, what the fuck is going on? Well, you killed your CNS out. Now there's good things and bad things. The good thing is, is that when you kill your CNS out, if you's good things and bad things. The good thing is, is that when you kill your CNS out, if you're benching 600, when you come back, you're benching 620, 625, and then you

kill it out again. And then you're doing 645 and all the way up to 1100 pounds. I've killed my central nervous system out like 300 times. It's taken all these years to make it happen. So, you know, it's, it's the dedication and it's training, right? Now, the bad thing about it is if you have a competition coming up and you kill your CNS out, you're fucked. You're running at 60% and you're not going to be doing what you should be doing in that show. So there's a knowledge about training and that's learning your body on how much to push before each show. Do you go back and forth, you know, between going heavy and going lighter? Because you

said you bench once a week, once a week, and you're at that thousand pound mark. I go twice a week when I can, when I get ready to compete, I'll go once a week and you're at that 1,000-pound mark now. I go twice a week when I can. When I get ready to compete, I'll go once a week. Both kind of heavy? I go heavy, heavy, heavy all the time. All the time. Heavy, heavy, heavy, heavy. Would you do that even when you were raw?

Even when I was raw, yeah. Just push whatever's there. You just take whatever's there. No, I mean I have an itinerary of what I'm supposed to be doing but i don't max out every single time but if i'm working with a thousand i'm working with a thousand that's heavy now in a bench shirt it usually makes the most sense of you can't really do much rep rep work i mean you can do some but no i do rep work do you do rep work absolutely so do you do uh rep work raw and both in a bench shirt too? Absolutely.

Yeah. Absolutely. Do you do a lot of singles to kind of train that top end? Well, here's the thing. Like I'll give you an example. I'm trying to get my strength up right now. And I don't want to kill my central nervous system out right now. So I'm doing singles and doubles.

out right now. So I'm doing singles and doubles. I'm just trying to get back into the groove and, and, and have my central nervous system feel that heavy weight. And if I start pounding a lot of reps out, I'm going to kill it out and I'm not going to be able to do the job that I need done. Another thing, learning and understanding your system. You know, sometimes this takes years, ladies and gentlemen, to get you to a point to where you can feel what's going on in your body. And that's why you got to go. A lot of you guys have coaches. They don't know what the fuck they're doing. I mean, I get guys that tell me I had this kid, Jesse, from Arizona last week.

He comes over and he I start teaching him and he goes, I don't know how to fucking bench press. I'm training with this guy. I can't remember his fucking name in Arizona. He's supposed to be the guru in Arizona. And he calls a dude up, and the guy's like, so what'd you learn from Mendelsohn? And he said, well, pretty much everything that you showed me was wrong. You know what I mean? And the guy's like, well, I'm not Scott Mendelsohn.

Well, you know what? Maybe you shouldn't fucking be teaching bench press. There are people out there that know. You guys just have to find the me, the Ryan Kennellys, the guys that know what the fuck they're doing, that aren't going to put you in harm's way and not going to waste your money and your time because this dude's been training for quite a few years comes out to me and he's like holy fuck i've wasted ten thousand

dollars over four years you know and it's great that you're making homeboys boat payment and everything but where's your progression where's your progression You're not getting what you should get. Me, if I'm buying a fucking car, I want the motor that's in it that I want. I want it to perform like I want. But maybe then again, you guys like wasting money. And there are people out there that need money, so keep doing it. Well, when it comes to, you're talking about kind of frying out the central nervous system. So it sounds like you're real careful with the overall volume that you do.

Absolutely. Now, if I'm doing a volume cycle and I'm trying to burn my nervous system out, then that's a whole different deal. Like once I get back in shape now and I'm hitting 1100 and I do a show, after that, if I'm doing a training cycle, I'll pop it down to 925, 950, and I'll do triples with that. And just to get my body working with it, because the reps are what are going to make you stronger. The thing about my system is that I've been doing this so long that I know how my body reacts and I know where I've been. So it's not like I'm going back to somewhere where I haven't been before.

So your body has, you know, the muscle memory. You know, your body wants to go back. Like when I hit that weight on Monday, dude, afterwards, like my body was killing me. And I've been going below 1,000 and I hit 906 the week before. And I got the Bulldog Bench Bar, you know, and I fucked up and I hit 906 the week before and I got the bulldog bench bar you know and I fucked up and I I loaded it it's 15 pounds more oh right right so I loaded up a thousand three and I was like yeah and then I hit it my boys like you know that was 10 18 and I was like sweet okay you know what i mean so you know yeah you know the workouts can take a really long time too um obviously the raw lifting might take a little bit less time because the weight

would be less how long were your raw workouts versus your geared workouts well the geared workouts it's not the time in between it's's getting geared up. Yeah. You know, getting geared up could take five, six, seven minutes. Yeah, getting it on, get positioned every time. Yeah, you know, you want to get in that shirt right. They got to wrap you because, you know, when you're raw, you can wrap yourself. But when, you know, you're wearing a triple ply shirt, you know. You can't move. You're like this.

You know what I mean? It's like being a T-Rex trying to grab a beer off a coffee. Yeah, you helped me at one of your meets, actually, and I bombed out of the meet, but it wasn't – I had no experience in that shirt. Right. But what was crazy is you were like, we need to put more weight on there. And so we put more weight on there for the next two sets,

for the next two attempts, rather. And the last attempt was the best one. Yeah. And you're like, you still needed like another 50 pounds you know but you you just showed me certain things on how to tweak the shirt and how to do stuff like that and then i brought that information back and that was probably when i was benching maybe like mid-sevens or something and i went on the bench 854 so i learned a lot dude let me tell you something i remember at the la expo we were staying at the marriott or whatever and you walked up to me that one year i can't remember what year

it was it might have been 09 or something like that dude you were like 360 pounds and i looked over at my boy and i go dude look how fucking big mark is right i mean dude you were like a fucking refrigerator and my boy's like what are you fucking talking about? Look at you. I go, I can't see me. I'm looking at him. Look how fucking big he is right now. It's like, holy shit. You were just like, whoa.

Hey, Scott. How are you? I was like, Jesus. Scott and I have crossed paths a shitload of times. You were at APF Senior Nationals uh that is in bigger stronger faster right and then also uh you ran the meet at the la fix right right right that's also that's where you hit the 854 isn't it that's also in a bigger stronger faster no at that time i so i hit 826 you hit there well towards the end of that movie towards the end of bigger stronger faster i hit a 705

bench at apf senior nationals okay the other were, they were done a little bit later on. Right, okay. But, yeah, it's just been crazy how we've been in kind of the same circle, you know, for so long. Yeah, I think me and you kind of started at the same time kind of together. But you were doing all three lifts back then. Yeah, yeah. And then, you know, Bradley Castleberry,

who everybody thinks just lifts fake weights he's a strong motherfucker he's very strong spotted him at venice a couple weeks well he competed in one of your meets that you ran uh you you ran a lot of meets so you might already remember did you really yeah so he what he did was is he tried like a 600 pound squat in the warm-up room a 605 squat or 635 this is a long time ago and he was super jacked then uh he missed the attempt in the warm-up room and i was so then i went over to him he like dropped the weight on the ground or something i went over to him i was like i was like hey man i was like i'm just curious like what's your you know what's your opener because like if your

flight hasn't started yet you should probably change it he's like oh my opener is like 540 and i was just like okay this guy's really new. He doesn't know what's going on. But he performed well in the meet. I think he benched over four, and I think he pulled six. And it was a long-ass time ago. But he's a strong dude. Castleberry's cool.

I saw him at Venice a few months back, and I spotted him. They did a video of me spotting him. He was doing like 150-pound dumbbells. Yeah, he's a savage. No, dude, he's a beast. And he's got a good build. Yeah, he looks insane. He's fucking thick. he's a beast and he's got a good build. Yeah, he looks insane. He's a thick dude. What up

Castleberry? Who's the strongest guy you ever came across? Other than Scott Mendelsohn. There's a lot of training partners in there. Fuck, bro. Andy Fiedler. He was was a big strong fucker um andy bolton yeah and that was fucking in africa me and him were killing it together that was amazing he he was one of the thickest dudes i've ever seen from here to here first

thousand pound deadlift. Yeah. He was a fucking beast. And then Gary Frank, of course. Yeah. Um, there's a lot of strong motherfuckers,

bro. It's amazing to see, uh, how much power the thing has grown and how strong people are now. Yeah. I like a lot of new, uh, I like,

I like Lily bridge. I think he's fucking unbelievable man yeah he's a beast vlad oh my god he's a fucking beast well he had the world record vlad i heard as a knee replacement i think so and he did a 502 pound or 530 or 530 kilo squat or whatever it's just a fucking beast bro yeah but uh god there's there's a lot of dudes out there that are very fucking talented yeah i mean even even big boy yeah strength boy yep you know what and i tell that motherfucker i'm like dude dude i would make that guy an absolute world champion and i tell him dude what the fuck are you doing? He's, well, I'm already world class. I go, dude, what are you?

He goes, I'm number six in the world. I'm like, don't you want to be number one? I'm like, what the fuck, bro? And he lives right near me. I'm like, dude, fucking come out. I'll fucking hook you up, bro. You know what? I just don't get it.

Like Leroy Walker. I tell that motherfucker all the time i mean he can't bench 700 if his ass was wiped wrong he just can't fucking do it and he's strong as fuck he's him too i see him i go dude call me uh no call i'm sorry but if i if i wanted to drive a car and mario andretti lived down the block from me i'd be up that motherfucker so far up his ass he'd need a glass stomach so i could see straight i mean i don't get what the fuck these dudes i don't get it i think it goes back to what you said earlier about like youtube and instagram that's you know that's what you didn't want to be known for that you want to be known as a lifter and maybe they have other desires and they don't you know i don't know but hey both you motherfuckers call me i'm telling you right now you want to fucking be a

youtube guy or you want to be the real fucking deal and big boy i saw your fucking deadlift the other day that was fucking good shit bro that's? He's a absolute. He's a fucking thick motherfucker. He's a beast, bro. He's a beast. I would love to fucking train him, bro. Yeah. I would love to train him. He's a good guy, too.

Nice guy. Leroy's a nice guy. All these guys are cool dudes. Pull your heads out of your ass and call me. 818-399-0905. Make it happen. Make it fucking happen. I think a lot of people are,

they're scared to kind of push that next. I don't know why that next, what is so scary about being the best? I think it's a sacrifice for people. They're not willing to, they're not willing to, I mean, they're already stepping on the gas.

They're already going. It makes no sense to me. It makes no fucking sense to me. Maybe like attempting and failing it though. Like you're too scared to attempt cause you're too scared to even, you know. But they're already failing. They're failing already. They're happy with it.

They're happy failing. Like, yes. Right on. Right on. Yeah, I do think that sometimes people get, they get caught up in social media. You know, they get caught up in kind of, they get wrapped up and they have distractions, you know. They're, like he said, they might be kind of comfortable i mean these guys are savages look these guys can lift some crazy weights but i think that in order to get to that next level and be world class and be

a world champion for most people you're gonna have to block out everything else you're gonna have to scott you know what if he if if they become number one all kinds of other doors will open for him right but it's okay because i'm gonna come back this year and be number one, all kinds of other doors will open for them. Right. But it's okay. Cause I'm going to come back this year and be number one. Well, if you look at like, uh, you know,

like Chuck, Chuck Liddell and like Tito Ortiz, Tito Ortiz was always kind of looking for the fame and the fortune of it. And Chuck Liddell would just kick the shit out of people. Chuck Liddell made way more money in fighting than Tito Ortiz did. Although Tito didn't do bad. No, of course he did great and then maybe afterwards he would maybe potentially did better because he had more spotlight or something like that but um it just kind of goes to your point of like just be a savage just get after it you know work on

being a champion block other things out right might be some sacrifices along the way but in the long run that's what's going to win nobody remembers number six no what's second place for losers not first first loser first loser that's true i don't know what you got andrew uh no just you said that you were going to bring back your youtube channel because we had a couple people asking about it yeah i'm going to start filming on that i got some plans cool so i'm going to speak to a couple people about that and then we'll go we'll go from there well you did such a great job on this show today and when you were just i mean i can picture you just setting up a camera just talking yeah yeah i mean we gotta make it so simple one camera one microphone just go scottsohn talks about food, you know, how to get big.

Yeah. I mean, it's just you can also talk about how to get small. I lost 90 pounds in 16 weeks. Yeah. I mean, you know. Well, you talk about bodybuilding, powerlifting, how to bench. I mean, the bench press information that you shared, only one guy in the world can share it. Right.

There's only one person that knows what you know. That was the hard thing about working with Eric. When I got him to a certain point, he was having a hard time performing in front of the crowd. And he was having a hard time kind of getting that next level. I said, what you're about to do, no one's ever done. So I said, you know who knows how to do this? You. That's it. And that's a're about to do, no one's ever done. Right. So I said, you know who knows how to do this? You. Yeah.

That's it. And that's a hard thing to do. Like when you broke the bench record and you still have the bench record, whoever comes along and breaks that next, they can get guidance from somebody. They can get shown the right way. They can get shown all these things. But if you're going to break that record, it's going to take a lot of guts and take a lot of balls because no one's ever lifted more than that before in that weight class you know what the key to it is about lifting in

public not looking into the crowd right yeah just ignore it just look at the fucking bar it's another fucking lift just i never i benched with 20 000 people fucking watching me and it's just like you walk out just look at the bar don't even look in the crowd don't even let none of that fucking bother you and then all of a sudden you're in the gym because once you get that lift off it's silent it's like and then the lift happens and it's like you know yeah maybe somebody's listening right now and, uh, you know, maybe they've gone through some hard times and maybe they, you know, aren't, aren't quite, uh, figuring out how to turn the corner. Um, what is something that's helped you to hold on to? It sounds like lifting

weights has always been something that you've been able to hold on to, to kind of, to keep you focused. Um, what's something that somebody should kind of focus in on for the long game and to turn their life around you know one time i had this rich guy one of my clients and he was worth like 50 million bucks damn and i'm like his name was luke and i'm like luke give me a fucking idea to make a million dollars i go you know i work all fucking day long whatever it is tell me i'll bust my ass i can i can do it you just tell me and he looks at me and he like pauses for a minute and i'm fucking waiting and i'm waiting i'm like fuck and he looks at me and he goes you know what i don't know what you should do i'm like what the talking about? He goes, I don't know what you should do, but whatever you do, do what you know. Do what you know, because that's what's going to work for you.

And I'm laying in bed with my ex-wife like two years later, and all of a sudden, this like epiphany, he comes into my head, and he's like, do what you know. And I was like, I'm opening a fucking gym. That's what I know. So you think, um, maybe some of the answers that people might be looking for already inside. Maybe you detail cars, maybe you are a mechanic, maybe you are a banker, whatever it is, everybody has their talent. You know, I'm not going to sit there and go, yeah, you go open a gym. And then if it fails, you're going to be like, Oh, that fucking asshole. He told me to open a gym and it sucked and it went out of business because that wasn't your thing. You know, you each have an inner talent within you that all of you are capable of exploiting in a positive way.

Take that talent and exploit it. And if it is a gym, if it's weightlifting, give me a call. I'll help you out. You know, if it's something else, find somebody. Like, I wanted to learn how to arm wrestle. I called up Devin Lorette in Canada, like one of the best guys in the world. And I was like, Devin, who, by the way,

was at my gym this week twice. And we all arm wrestled. It was fucking great. But I called him up and I was like, dude, took me right into his house for a week at a time. I went three weeks out last year. All these guys, if you want to be the best, get a hold of the best.

Learn from the best. Don't learn from some fucking guy that's like two blocks over from you unless he's the best. Because you know what? If you reach out, if they say no, you haven't lost any ground. You just haven't gained any ground. You're in the same place that you are right now. It's like picking up on chicks.

If the chick says no, what are you going to do? Go in your house and like burrow your head in the couch for a week? Fuck no. You're going to be like, all right, she said no. You go to the one next to her. Eventually, somebody's going to say yes. And you're going to be happy. So, you know, don't be afraid to stick your neck out.

You know, all you people that want to compete and you know what, you know, there's very little world champions in the world. If it was so easy, everybody would be a world champion, you know, but to put your dick in the dirt and stick it out there and it takes a lot, but when you do it, you'll feel better about yourself. And remember, if you don't do it, you're not going to know if they say yes. You're never going to know. Lifting all those big weights

and all the pressure that it builds up, you must have a poop story or two for us. No, I never shit in my pants. Never shit your pants on or two for us. No, I never shit in my pants. Never shit your pants on a big bench? Uh-uh, never shit my pants. So disappointing. I've never even had a hemorrhoid my whole life. People are like, you lift 1,100 pounds, you never had a fucking hemorrhoid?

Like this guy, my gym, he had hemorrhoid surgery. He's like, you know how bad it hurts? You go through this and that, and I'm like... You're like, nope. He's like, what? You've never had a hemorrhoid i'm like what's the worst or grossest thing that's ever happened to you in lifting first time i ever benched a thousand pounds i went blind for five minutes

um completely blind completely blind i pulled i took it down and about halfway down boom the lights went out and i thought to myself well i'm blind so i better finish because i may never have this chance again took it down prep boom racked it up they're like yeah i'm like i can't see for like 10 minutes i couldn't see and then all of a sudden you know i guess everything constricted in my eyes you know so much pressure and like 10 minutes later i saw a little white light and then it started to like relax and open up and then i was able to see again the first time i benched 1100 pounds i coughed up a big ass blood clot oh my god i got off the bench and i was like and like a fucking piece of jello like that big came

out and hit the floor and everybody on my team's all quiet and my ex-wife was like i'll grab it and she took a paper towel and didn't even wipe it she just like grabbed it and picked it off oh my god i wish she would have kept it it looked bitchin keep it in a glass case i had a surgeon that i was training at the time, and he's like, holy fuck, if you didn't cough that up, it could have killed you. And I was like, good thing I hit 1,100, huh? Yeah, it made it up.

Saved my life, you know? Squeezed it right out of you. Yeah, dude. But that's about the grossest. I've never, you know, ripped my asshole in half or, you know. Nothing. I've had guys' arms break during benches. you know, rip my asshole in half or, you know, nothing. I've had guys arms break during benches. Oh shit.

Yeah. You know, at one of my meets at the, uh, at the fit expo, snap both bones right on, right in half on his arm. Damn. Yeah.

But I mean, uh, what was the worst injury to come back from? Definitely that pec tear. Yeah, it took the longest, right? It took about a year. And a year later, and you know what is funny? Because I put that picture up.

Oh, that picture went everywhere. Yeah, the purple picture. I put it up a year later just to show people that, hey, you can get this fucked up and you could come back. I didn't know it was going to go viral. It was on Tosh.0. Now I'll be sitting in a restaurant and two people will walk up and they're like, you're the purple guy. And I'm like, oh, fuck.

Look at that. That is fucking gnarly. It's a wild picture. And the crazy. Oh, this is what happened to me. This was a good one. When that happened, I woke up like three days later, and dude, my nutsack filled up with blood. It was like that big.

And I had to do a seminar in New York, so my partner, my business partner's a veterinarian, right? So I go to him, and I'm like, hey, bro, you got to help me, bro. And he's like, what? And I pull my pants down, and he's like hey bro you gotta help me bro and he's like what and i pull my pants down and he's like fuck i mean dude it was so big that it sucked my dick into my nutsack i had to sit down to pee it was like crazy bro so i'm tripping and i go to him and he goes oh fuck i'm like dude we gotta drain it or something i gotta go to new york on a fucking plane for a seminar

and he's like don't worry about it and dude partner is like, he's a doctor and he's like, monotone, bro. Don't worry about it. And I'm like, bro, what the fuck? And he's like, I said, don't worry about it. It'll be fine. I'm like, dude, look at this motherfucker, bro. There's nothing fine about this. And he looks at me and he goes bro it ain't my

dick and i was like you know fuck you so i walk out and i wait till like one in the morning to go to the emergency room and i go in the emergency room and they're like oh what are you here and i go well i tore a peck but that's not why i'm here and they're like oh well let's see the peck tear and i take my jacket off and it's that and they they're like, oh my God, what the hell? I'm like, look, shut up. I know what this is. I know what this is. I'm here for something else.

Get me in with the doctor. So they get me in the emergency room. It's one in the morning. And the doctor walks in. He goes, so, I hear you're here for a pec tear. I said, no, I'm not here for a pec tear. He's like, well, what are you here for? Those giant balls.

Yeah, and he goes, what are you here for? And, whom, I pull my pants down. Nuts are fucking purple. They're like this big. And he looks at me and he goes, impressive. And I look at him and I'm like, dude, thank you. And he's like, what? I go, nobody's ever looked at my dick and said impressive.

So I go, dude, can we drain it i gotta go to new york and he goes don't worry about it it'll go away on its own and i was like fuck it's like you had one of those like bouncy things like the little kids have dude kids ride around on you sit on any balance i can't sit on the plane like i took off and i stood up you gotta get like grab one nut and pick it up. No, it was like I had to pick it up and stick it to the outside of my quads. So how long did that take to go down? Like two months, bro. God dang.

Two months. Couldn't ice it or nothing. No, I iced it. I had like packs of peas on it. Peas like form. You know what I mean? Were you really motivated to show anybody you really like motivated to like show anybody that asked you just like dude check this i did yeah i did i go dude you got to see my dick and

my boy's like no no like dude trust me you gotta fucking see this bro they're gonna be here forever hey horse cock check this out that's uh what like edema or something right it's just yeah it was just you know blood goes with gravity right right pack was ripped up top everything goes down it went all the way to my ankles that bleed wow yeah it was crazy man that's great that is all here at super training and so that picture is at the doctor's office no that, that's at my gym. Oh, it's at your gym. Yeah. Now it looks like you have a bench shirt on right there. No, that's a t-shirt. It's just a t-shirt. Okay. I was like, this is crazy bastard benching again. No. How long was it till you started benching again? A year later I was at 1100. Oh shit. Yeah.

How many weeks and months was it after the pec tear that you started just bench pressing period? About four months afterwards. And you didn't get't get surgery no i didn't get any surgery the thought ever come to your mind to get yeah i mean i thought about it but the thing was you know the amount of weight that i benched the pec would have just went again and it's like i just it attached it reattached i got a little dimple right here um but you know and my raw days are over pretty much. I can't go over 500. How did you, like, rehab it? I started with bands, and I started doing that.

I was in New York. There was a famous, famous massage guy, Michael Camp. And you know who Michael Camp is? I never heard of him before, no. Yeah, like a lot of IFBB pros use him. My sister was friends with him, so she took me to him, and for a week he just beat the fuck out of me. And then at Gold's Adventist, Jeff Metcalf, who's dead.

He committed suicide, rest in peace. He worked on me for a while, and he brought me back. So I did that, and, um you know it was just it was uh it was the hardest thing coming back like you really have to want that bro because it was like get depressed at all during any of that no no you know what i have so much shit going on in my life there was one day when i woke up and like everything was just dismal, I was just like, fuck. And I thought, is this depression? This is depression.

One day in my life. Yeah. Luckily for me, I never get, I never get that either. Yeah. I just, there's too much shit going on. If you're busy all the time, I don't think you really get depressed. I'm super excited about stuff a lot. Yeah.

You know what I mean? So, I mean, you know, know guys like me and you when you're stacked up and you always gotta have other shit on mine if you're sitting around you have nothing to do and you're like uh shit starts getting to you you know what i mean i'm just not a really depressed kind of guy like you know people that kill themselves to me they got fucking way more heart than me because i'm a pussy i couldn't kill myself you know sticking a gun in your mouth and blowing hell no i'd be like dude fuck that i ain't doing that shit i'm i'm i'm not i don't have that kind of like balls it's just like you know so what else does scott mendelsohn do you watch TV. I love movies. I'm a big movie guy. I collect comics.

What are some of your favorite movies? Well, Avengers Endgame. Did you see it? I heard nothing but good things. I haven't seen it yet. Oh, my God. I haven't seen it. It's so good.

So, guys, this is what happens. I'm just kidding. So, at the end. One of the best movies I've ever seen. As a matter of fact, I'm here with Ashley Crawford. She's number two in the world for strong woman could she come up here real quick she sure can actually come on up here real get up come here come on ashley come on you know what people are watching the whole world is awaiting your arrival yeah come

over here yeah yeah go for it just hop over there close to his mic yeah ashley say hi hello anyway this is ashley crawford and she's number two in the world she came to me about four years ago and she said listen she was taking um strongman stuff from a gym called east coast west coast and uh and costa mesa so she comes to me and she goes listen i want to get strong and i evaluated her and i was like fuck if you listen in two years you could be a world champion and she was like shut the fuck up two years later what happened i'm there you made me two years later uh what kind of weights are you lifting over there i know strong man you're doing some different things nationals for the apfF powerlifting also. So she's pulling, what, about 550 on a deadlift?

What? Axle deadlift I did about 504. That's the axle deadlift. I ain't messing around, man. That thing's huge. Yeah. So regular deadlift, she's about 5 1⁄2, a little bit more. Almost 300 on the bench.

Pulled a 15-ton truck in Norway. Yeah. Pulling 15. Yeah. Matter of fact, if you look it up, Ashley Crawford pulling a 15-ton truck in Norway, you can put the film up and see that shit. It's pretty crazy. Do you have Strongman stuff at your gym, Scott?

It's on my Instagram. No, that's why she goes to East Coast, West Coast. Got it. But now she's an air traffic controller, so she's out here in Oakland. So things are cool. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, yeah. So she's training at a gym called, what is it called?

Warcat. Warcat. Yeah. That's my new gym now. Yeah. Holy shit. That's her. That's her right there.

40 seconds. That looks brutal. Oh, dude, it's crazy. That's her right there. 40 seconds. That looks brutal. Oh, dude, it's crazy. What is that called? That's just a Hercules hold. Oh, Hercules hold. Yeah, where both the logs are pulling your body apart. It looks crazy.

This girl pulled second place. She ended up winning this one. Yeah, Leifia, she's a world champion, right? She trades with her. Oh, okay. Actually, Leifia took first place that year she took second oh very cool well there you go that's a good training partner just like you said you got to find the best right absolutely now this is she took first here's Ashley pulling a 15 ton truck bro yeah that's awesome. Isn't that something? Hey, look who's standing on the side, that fat guy.

I really love seeing the explosion of women into some of these strength sports. It's been awesome. It's phenomenal. It's been so cool. I mean, a 300-pound deadlift nowadays for girls is like they all do it. That's like a warm-up now. Yeah, yeah, they all do it. Yeah. 400, 500, and they're starting to see.

And now there's some girls pulling on 600 pounds. I mean, I don't know where it will all end. Scott, when are you going to try to compete again? You know what? I'm thinking about going back in the next eight weeks. Thanks, Ash. Thank you. I'm thinking about going back in the next eight weeks.

I'm going to figure something out just to get my feet wet. And word is there's some WPO shit going on again. Oh, wow. So if that happens, I'm popping back into that. And I think they'll bring it back to the Arnold and stuff like that. Or, you know, I don't know. I don't know. But all I know is I'm going to sit down, put it together.

I'm getting in shape first. And then shit's going to start happening again. Yeah, and you're taking a little break off the arm wrestling because of the forearm deal. Yeah, so I'm focusing strictly on the bench press right now, which is good. My lifts are going up phenomenally. Monday, I think I'm going to go 1050.

So I'm feeling good about it, man. And it just feels so good to be back in my element. Look, I love arm wrestling, but that's not my thing. Even though I love it. And look, I plan on winning some major shit in arm wrestling. But you know what? Bench is me. Power lifting is me that's my crew that's my crowd and i feel kind of like i've neglected it lately as far as to the public and

everything else because i was focusing so much on the arm wrestling um but um it's time it's time i agree you know i'd love to see you come back hit the platform again yeah it's time. It's time. I agree. You know, I'd love to see you come back at the platform again. Yeah. It's going to happen soon. Nobody 50 has ever hit a thousand. And you're going to do 1100. Yeah. I'm going to,

I'm going to fuck it up. So I'd like to, you know, my body feels good right now. Everything feels real good. It feels real stable. And there's no reason why I can't do it. My shoulders feeling real good. I've rehabbed it there's no reason why I can't do it. My shoulder's feeling real good.

I've rehabbed it over the last few years from, you know, not even being able to move it while I'm sleeping to, you know, coming back. And a lot of it's been through bodybuilding, you know. But, you know, a lot of injuries take a long time, and you've got to be patient in the recovery. And it's just, you can't give it the time that it needs. It takes its own time. And whatever that timetable is, I'm just really fortunate to be back now. And I feel really blessed that I'm able to do what I love again. Do you force stuff in your training? Like if, if, you know,

you've handled 900 pounds and it just feels like crap, do you continue onward? if you know, you've handled 900 pounds and it just feels like crap, do you continue onward? It just depends. You know, sometimes I can go in and if it's feeling like maybe I'm going to injure myself, I'll stop. I listen to myself, you know, because you know what, the workout really doesn't really matter when it comes to the big picture. It's like, you know, there are many battles in a war and you may lose some battles and still win the war. Right. You know, so you got to pick and choose and nobody as a human being is peaked all the time. Right.

You know, it's hard. It's hard when you're young, you know, when you're newer and you're getting excited. Yeah. It's hard to back off. Yeah. No, it is. It is. But you know what?

Once you're knowledgeable and you're, you're really in touch with your body and your feelings, you can kind of get a feel and kind of be like, hey, you know what I mean? It was like that day when I blew my peck. From the lift off, it was off. What I should have done was thrown it back in the rack. But because I was in that moment and i just wasn't thinking straight and the weight really wasn't heavy i was like you know what i can make the correction i'm strong enough yeah and unfortunately it wasn't my day right but you know what it made

me a better man it taught me a lot of things and maybe got in arm wrestling and it got me in no that was a car accident that's what i'm wrestling but but it made me it made me learn myself and it made me understand that hey i'm not the machine that i think i am you know when you're young you think you're a machine and you can just work through anything and for the most part you can but the things that you can't work through you need to be smart enough to be like, Hey, all right, back off. You know, it doesn't all have to happen in one day. A hundred percent. Nothing does all happen in one day. Where can people find you? They want to follow along and learn more about you. Well, I own a gym called Mendy's gym. It's at 6371 Van Nuys Boulevard, Van Nuys, California, 91401.

And you can find me there at 818-616-3161. Or you can contact me at mendysjim at gmail.com. And, you know, I'd love to work with you guys. Look, I got a lot of knowledge that a lot of you guys want to know. Don't be afraid to call me. Don't be afraid to get on board. I do online training. I got guys that I train in Tasmania, Australia, in Cape town, Africa, and Canada, all over the U S and down the block. So, I mean, however, the training that, you know, whatever kind of training you need,

I can get to you. You know, I had a guy, Shannon Jacobson that lives in Tasmania. I trained him for nine months and he won the first Arnold in Australia. Never met the dude in person. That's great. Yeah, so with technology now, the way it is, my program is very interactive and we'll Skype a couple times a week

and I'll tell you what I want. You'll Facebook, you'll film all your lifts and Facebook them to me and then we'll be on Skype together. You could look at your phone, I look at mine. We get an exact idea.

I can show you on Skype, just like I explained today with the form and everything, you know, and I go through everything, all the lifts, your support work supplements, every, there's no stone,

no stone that's unturned. You know, I'm not 14 bucks a month, so I'm just letting you know that up front, but I'm not a million bucks either. I'm, you know, if you want it bad enough, you'll reach out and you'll grab it because I spend a lot of time and a lot of effort with you. And I treat you as if you're part of me. And if you're part of me, you're a winner.

So give me a call. It's all the time we got. Strength is never weak. This week, there's never strength. Catch you guys later.