Mark Bell's Power Project - MBPP EP. 636 - How To Be ELITE At Powerlifting & Bodybuilding with Hunter Henderson

Episode Date: December 6, 2021

Today's guest is an IFBB Pro, a Powerlifting World Record holder and insanely hard working, the one and only, Hunter Henderson! In 2021 Hunter set all time world records in the squat (650lbs) and total (1548lbs) at the Kern US Open. After deciding to start Bodybuilding, she earned her Pro Card after only three shows. In today's conversation Hunter recalls some of her best Meets, lifts and opens up about PED use. Follow Hunter on IG: https://www.instagram.com/huntermhenderson/ Special perks for our listeners below! ➢Vertical Diet Meals: https://verticaldiet.com/ Use code POWERPROJECT for free shipping and two free meals + a Kooler Sport when you order 16 meals or more! ➢Vuori Performance Apparel: Visit https://vuoriclothing.com/powerproject to automatically save 20% off your first order! ➢Magic Spoon Cereal: Visit https://www.magicspoon.com/powerproject to automatically save $5 off a variety pack! ➢Marek Health: https://marekhealth.com Use code POWERPROJECT10 for 10% off ALL LABS! Also check out the Power Project Panel: https://marekhealth.com/powerproject Use code POWERPROJECT for $101 off! ➢LMNT Electrolytes: http://drinklmnt.com/powerproject ➢Piedmontese Beef: https://www.piedmontese.com/ Use Code "POWERPROJECT" at checkout for 25% off your order plus FREE 2-Day Shipping on orders of $150 Subscribe to the Podcast on on Platforms! ➢ https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast Follow Mark Bell's Power Project Podcast ➢ Insta: https://www.instagram.com/markbellspowerproject ➢ https://www.facebook.com/markbellspowerproject ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/mbpowerproject ➢ LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/powerproject/ ➢ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/markbellspowerproject ➢TikTok: http://bit.ly/pptiktok FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell ➢ Snapchat: marksmellybell ➢Mark Bell's Daily Workouts, Nutrition and More: https://www.markbell.com/ Follow Nsima Inyang ➢ https://www.breakthebar.com/learn-more ➢YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/NsimaInyang ➢Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/?hl=en ➢TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nsimayinyang?lang=en Follow Andrew Zaragoza on all platforms ➢ https://direct.me/iamandrewz

Pan Project family, how's it going? We have an awesome episode for you guys today with none other than Hunter Henderson. Hunter Henderson, at the age of 27, has broken her own squat record three different times. All-time world record holder. Another amazing fact about Hunter is that she chose to just do bodybuilding in 2021, right? Just chose to do bodybuilding and then got her IFBB pro card after I believe three shows. This girl is crazy guys in the best way possible, but we got a lot of information on her about how she's been able to just smash the power lifting world, smash the bodybuilding world. And she also talked about some fun stuff as far as steroids are concerned. So this is going to be a really, really good episode. You don't want to miss it. Enjoy this episode with none other than Hunter Henderson. Power Project Family, how's it going? Now on this podcast, we've talked to so many professionals,

coaches, doctors about the importance of getting your blood work done. I've gotten it done. Mark's gotten it done. Andrew's gotten it done. We know what's going on under the hood and we know that we are healthy and heading in the right direction. But we know some people who have gotten their blood work done and they have been healthy and they've had to get treatment for certain things and they're glad that they did. And that's why we've partnered with Merrick Health, owned by Derek from More Plates, More Dates. Now, Merrick Health is the premium TRT clinic that no matter what you get done, no matter what tests you get done, Merrick Health gives you plans for you. They don't give you cookie cutter plans like a lot of other telehealth clinics do where you'll give your blood work and they'll just give you what they give to everybody.

They give you specific plans for you, your specific levels. And that is extremely important. Andrew, can you tell the people more about it? Yes, you guys got to head over to MerrickHealth.com. That's M-A-R-R-E-K-Health.com. And whether you're interested in HRT or you just want to get some labs done, use promo code PowerProject10 to save 10% off all your labs. Again, MerrickHealth.com. Links to them down in the description as well as the podcast show notes. PowerProject family, this episode is going to come with some heat. So with that being said, here's a medical disclaimer. Mark Bell's PowerProject podcast does not contain medical advice. We are not doctors nor are the featured guests.

The contents of this podcast, such as videos, text, graphics, images, and other material, are intended for entertainment, informational, and educational purposes only, and not for the purpose of rendering medical advice. The contents of this podcast are not intended to substitute professional medical advice, diagnosis, nor treatment. Although we make efforts to keep medical information on our channel updated, we cannot guarantee that the information on our channel reflects the most up-to-date research. Consult your physician for medical advice. Always seek the advice of a physician or other qualified healthcare providers regarding a medical condition. Never disregard or delay seeking professional medical advice or treatment because of something you heard on a

podcast. Before taking any medications, over-the-counter drugs, or supplements for herbs, consult a physician for a thorough evaluation. This podcast does not endorse any medications, vitamins, or herbs, nor do we condone the use of illegal drugs or using drugs for an unintended purpose. A qualified physician should make a decision based on each person's medical history and current prescriptions. Enjoy. Yeah, it tastes gross.

Tastes like dirt. It does. I like calling it earthy. It's very earthy. It has an earth tone to it. Are we going? Yeah, we're rolling. Hello?

You see me roll? This thing on? So what's the deal with competing? How many times have you competed, do you think, in your powerlifting career uh so this was my sixth competition oh that's it yeah that ain't that much no i've only been powerlifting for about three and a half years oh just come in and just fuck everybody up i'm trying that's the goal that is very disrespectful three years show's not starting out so good andrew three years uh we start this all over and not ask that question? Yeah.

So about two months, three months ago, I decided to actually venture off into bodybuilding. Oh my gosh. Yeah, let's hear it. Let's hear it. So I competed at a local show in Nebraska. And then about a month after that, I competed again and got my pro card and then went on to the Tampa pro and got second can we please talk about how difficult it is for any bodybuilder to get an IFBB pro card real quick because people compete for like a decade

and they're just like gonna get my pro card and then in the first year of bodybuilding you fucking roll in and they must be it must be politics maybe i got lucky maybe i got lucky you must have known somebody i had to have right jesus christ what were you doing when you were a kid like what what sports anything yeah sports um basketball softball track cross country everything i could do i was. So pretty athletic growing up. Okay. Yeah. How often do you think someone should compete in powerlifting?

Because you said you've done it six times now, and you mentioned you had a little bit of a break with the contest that you just did yesterday. So if someone's kind of newer, should they be competing like maybe three or four times a year or way less, you think? Way less. I would say probably one to two times a year because if you're competing that often back-to-back like that, how much progress are you actually making? Let's say I compete today

and I compete again in a month, which I actually am. We'll talk about that. But you add two pounds to your total five pounds to your total like right what i mean what are you getting out of that you want to try to build a foundation yeah literally every time you compete right when you're done competing you need like 12 weeks or a couple months to repair and recoup and absolutely absolutely and you stay healthier that way were you going easy in this past because you said this meet was a warm-up meet, right?

It was. With your attempts, were they just seeing where you were or were your third attempts like huh? We tried to be aggressive with the squat because the world record for the 181 class is 540.

So I attempted like 550 for my third and failed. But everything else was just kind of see how we feel we didn't really want to like run me into the ground and for this one you know and after just competing in a bodybuilding show how well we're definitely gonna get into that but you were super lean and you're still pretty lean right now like for a power lift yeah you're still lean for a power lifter. But going on stage, having all that fatigue, and how long ago was that? How many months ago?

Two months ago. Two months ago, right? Yeah. How did you regain all of that like body, the body fat you need to be strong, the just everything you need to be able to perform on a platform? Yeah. Because two months, that's quick. That is very quick.

So for the last, for the Tampa Pro, I was 153 pounds on stage. Damn. Yeah. And I'll be honest with you. I did not realize the importance of reverse dieting. Okay. As I'm sure many other bodybuilders have done, I thought I was free to eat. And your girl ate.

Your girl ate good. I was like getting up in the middle of the night. Maybe you just reinvented the way we look at reverse dieting. Maybe. So yeah, I definitely gained weight, gained it all back very fast. And now I actually sit about 10 pounds higher than I did before bodybuilding. So, okay. You said you you're 195 pounds.

Is that hard to look at? Do you like, do you feel bad about that when you see that on the scale? Cause I mean, it's, it's a girl thing, right? Sometimes you're looking at, or just anyone that's trying to stay fit, stay within a certain range. You see that weight, you were 153. Yeah. You see the scale go up

and now you're 195. Is that hard to deal with? Or are you like, this is just a phase that I have to kind of push myself through? It was hard at first. You know, you see yourself like dry as a bone, lean, you know, it's so cool to see yourself like that. And then you see yourself pretty soft and you know, it was, it was hard at first, but I but I think I enjoy it now I got some curves I like the curves so what made you even venture into doing bodybuilding let's talk about that because was it a spur of the moment type thing because you were holding a good amount of muscle before you started your prep right yeah yes so I was prepping for the 2020 Kern US Open and I have to cut weight.

I have to cut about 20 pounds to compete in the 165 class. Whoa. Yeah. So I was cutting down for that, and just looking at my physique, I was like, I bet I could do that. I bet I could try bodybuilding and go for it. And the intention was just one show, just try it out, see if I like it. And then we kind of pushed a little further.

Opportunities presented themselves, and I just went for it. And were you able to put on a good amount of muscle during your prep? Did you put on new muscle, or was this just cutting down and getting lean and seeing what you had there already? Basically cutting down, getting lean, which i found out i have a pretty small frame yeah did your training style change from power lifting at all or were you redoing more volume um more volume um and i still did the compound lifts i still squat bench deadlifted um deadlifted not so much but um yeah uh lower weight higher reps stuff like that did you have an advantage coming from a powerlifting background like when you went when you started to like lean out was your coach and some people

around you kind of like oh shit like you have hamstrings and you have this you have that my back my back is a money Yeah, my back is pretty great. So a big part of it is from just doing some of the compound movements, some of the power lifts, just holding the extra weight on your back and deadlifting the extra weight, widen out the back a bit. Yeah. What did you learn? I guess you've never really done a cut like that before in your athletic career, right?

Never. Because a lot of people, when they get ready for bodybuilding preps they learn a lot of things about themselves like if you could tell us like how long was your cut how long was your prep what did you change about your diet from going from powerlifting to training and dieting for bodybuilding what changed for you um so the diet didn't really change. It was all the same foods. We started each show. I just progressively got more lean. The first show, I didn't come in as, oh wow, that's awesome. Damn.

That video was right before I got on stage for the Tampa Pro. So cool. It looks incredible. It's amazing when you're getting ready for a bodybuilding show how almost daily you noticed yes small changes right you're like oh cool to see what's that vein what's that tricep thing popping out that wasn't here yesterday right yeah it's so cool to see your body change how did you get yourself into like just lifting weights in general? You mentioned

you played a lot of sports. Was it kind of from that when you were young? Yeah, kind of. My mom is actually like the fitness manager at her base. Of course she is. Yeah. She's a senior master sergeant in the Air Force. So I grew up just tagging along on her PT tests. And then that just kind of, I've always been competitive, you know. So in college, I just stayed active. I was actually a runner for a long time. And then. Runner, like sprinter, cross country?

Like what do you do? Like I want to do marathons. Or I thought I wanted to do marathons. Oh, shit. Okay. I don't know if you guys know Stacey Burr. She was a 148 competitor, super good. I was a gym rat for a long time, and then one day I saw a video of her deadlifting.

And up until that point, I had no idea what powerlifting was. And I was just like, oh, man, I think I can do that. I'm going to try that. How long ago was that? About three and a half years ago. Three and a half years. Yeah. Okay. And I saw that video.

I signed up for my first meet. How'd you do in the first contest? I think I totaled 950 at 165. Okay. What were you like? What did your SPD look like at that time? I just want to see your strength gain for the past three years. I think I squatted.

I just want to see your strength gain for the past 10 years. I think I squatted at that meet. I squatted 350, benched 192, and deadlifted 374. Yeah. Okay. I think that's really interesting because I think that you're mentioning for newer lifters, they probably shouldn't compete that often. Yeah.

And it almost sounds like, hey, if you haven't really worked that hard yet and haven't been that consistent, maybe you just shouldn't even bother to compete at all for a bit until you've got some sort of good base going. Yes. I've talked about this a lot. Like have fun, just train, right? Yes, absolutely. You know, I was a gym rat for like two years, and I am so thankful that I spent those two years just building a solid base. Like I came into powerlifting with a pretty solid muscle. Like I was already pretty muscular.

And I think a lot of people just jumped straight into powerlifting without building that base and they just go straight to the compound lifts without, you know, maturing and building muscle. So maybe mess around with some isolation stuff and some machines and things like that for a little while.

Yeah, yeah. I would totally recommend that. It's funny. We mention this all the time. We had Andrzej Milanovic when he was in the podcast. He literally said that lifters need to spend the first few years of their lifting focusing on volume before even trying to lift heavy. Just focus on volume and build a base of muscle. Yes.

And then start – because when you have the base of muscle and you move into strength, you're already going to – like yourself, you had an advantage. Not only did you also do volume, you were also an athlete for a lot of your life so you knew how to move your body you probably had great body mechanics yes so that's insane when you i guess transitioned to just strength and power lifting did you did you have an idea like did you just enjoy it or did you were you like I want to take this super fucking far? I just enjoyed it at the time. I didn't take it very seriously. I didn't really know much.

I was just learning, just starting out. So, yeah, I just kind of, it was something fun. It was something new, and I just wanted to try it. How often do you max out when you're getting ready for a power thing meet? Because different people have kind of different ways they go about doing things are you putting yourself to the test like weekly or are you staying way away from the real heavyweights until competition time um not weekly i i would say closer to the competition like those last few weeks i'll do some heavy singles just to like prime the body and get ready and kind of see what's there but in your training are you are you more of a fan of like doing reps and sets and things like that

with modest weights that you're keeping like picture perfect form with yeah yeah definitely in the off season like more reps more you know more volume it's so boring to train that way i know it sucks but it works it does work it does work it's super effective yeah i want to know this too as far as like you what was your weight in your first meet how much did you weigh like what class were you you said 165 yeah i weighed in at 165 so you were already like you you yeah you were i was already big uh-huh and you're still nowadays you're competing in what weight class uh so yesterday I competed in the 181 class. 181.

Mm-hmm. Damn. Yeah. And that's, was that a water cut down to that? I did. I did have to water cut. I cut about 13 pounds. Oh my God.

Mm-hmm. Fuck. Yeah. Okay. Do you feel like that negatively impacts you on the platform or doesn't really catch you too much? It can, as long as you have a good refeed and hydration protocol after weigh-ins, you're fine. But it does affect your performance. Yeah, so you know that you're going to take a hit if you're going to cut weight.

You are. That's just kind of the way that it is. Yeah. Do you have all the different records like do you have like the bench record and the uh because i know that you have a handful of world records but do you have like bench squat deadlift total do you have all that uh no i have a couple squat records and a total record no bench and no deadlift how far away are you on those or is it a pretty good gap between you and some of the other people that are on top?

I want to say this pun. What is Hunter hunting for? That was good. That was fucking good, wasn't it? Yeah. So the deadlift for the 165 is like 608. And I think the best I've done is 5.78.

So getting there, getting close. Deadlift is my worst lift. So still trying to figure that one out. And bench, I think the world record for the 165s is like 350, 345, somewhere in there. And my best is 325. What do you like about powerlifting? What do you think attracts you to it and keeps you coming back for more? A lot.

The people, the atmosphere. I don't know. I like being in the position of not quite knowing what I'm capable of and going for it anyway. I like that a lot. You mentioned the people when it comes to like your training. Are you training by yourself? Are you training in a group setting? Are there, you know, other friends at the gym?

Like some people train kind of in isolation, which I don't know how they do it. They go like in their basement and they train with their hands like fucking psychopaths. Really? Seriously, I could not do that. But what's your training look like? You got friends that you're lifting with and that kind of thing yeah so for powerlifting i train at strong barbell club and we have like a whole team um we all train at the same day same time um you know everybody's spotting and loading for you helping you it's it's a good atmosphere um for bodybuilding though i actually kind of ventured off by myself.

Bodybuilding's weird. That's what it does to you, right? Yeah. I preferred, actually, to be by myself. Why? I don't know. Like, lack of food. I was kind of a little more irritable, and I just kind of wanted to do it on my own.

You kind of need, like, to put your hoodie on and just be, like, in your own shit and throw some music on and just be in your own weird place for some reason. Yes. I don't know why that is. Absolutely agree. In the environment that you're training, are you getting coached all the time? I'm sure that people are probably saying, hey, you're doing this on your bench today and you don't normally do that. What's going on? Do you get that kind of coaching while you're training?

Yes. I do have some veteran lifters around me me at all times and that's really nice really helpful um my coaches though are actually remote um joe sullivan and jake benson they live in las vegas and utah so uh i'll just communicate with them through text or whatever um but yeah i do have quite a few very knowledgeable people around me at the gym, which is nice. Huge advantage. I'm curious, that's two coaches, so what is the different

things that they do for you? So I recently hired them and they both kind of wanted to work together because yeah, one is more good with technique and a little more knowledgeable there like technique and a little more knowledgeable there. And one's a little more knowledgeable with like diet and drugs and things like that.

So they both kind of wanted to put their brains together and help me out. Real quick question too. Three and a half years, right? Of powerlifting. Yeah. Okay. Have you had any real sticking points as far as strength is concerned? Because like, or has this been, because been because it seems like honestly this seems like some newbie games and it's dope because it's

like what the fuck is going to slow you down a lot of lifters reach that point like oh well 700 whatever and they're like right yeah but it just seems that you're just like steady climbing yeah um you know not every day is a world record for me but I haven't really plateaued knock on wood I hope this is wood haven't plateaued I don't know I just have a lot of fun

and go out there and do my best you mentioned drugs so we got to stop there let's do it let's get into it oh my gosh Tom, you mentioned drugs, so we got to stop there. Let's do it. Let's get into it. We got to talk about Tren and everything else, right? Yeah. Oh, my gosh.

So, like, when a male athlete makes a decision to do them, a lot of times we understand, okay, we might get more malish. We might get facial hair. We might have hair growing in weird spots that normally wouldn't grow. I used to have one hair on my chest, literally one. Just one. Literally one hair. Now you're a bear. Now I'm a power bear. I'm to have one hair on my chest, literally one. Literally one hair. Now you're a bear. Now I'm a power bear.

I'm a full-blown power bear. So yeah, all kinds of things like that happen, but when a woman takes them, the considerations are the same, but it's vastly different because maybe that's not the route you want to go. How long ago did you start using performance enhancing drugs in comparison to how long you've been training? Yeah. So I decided, what was it?

It was after my second meet. I totaled 1,080 at 165. And I knew then if I had a little help that I would do something pretty special in this sport. So after that. Was that maybe kind of because of the people you were surrounded with? Did you see other people like lifting astonishing weights? Not necessarily your friends and not necessarily your coaches. But the people that you were following in the sport were they in

non-drug tested federations and that's what you're keeping your eye on yeah so i was watching like mariana and steffi and cc um and stacy burr you know they were all at the top at the time um and i knew then like man if i just had something to help me out, I bet you I could be up there right with them. And now I'm here. What are some of those, and how long were you training for before you decided to do it? I'm not sure if you mentioned how many years you were training. I was probably doing powerlifting for about a year. And then I decided that.

But you're maybe lifting previously for four or five years something like that yeah yeah and let me ask you this too so with that being like that being part of the like what you do you said you had a coach that helps you deal with like that stuff how does he I guess what was the difference before you started working with a coach that knew that stuff versus I don't know if you did it on your own or if you just had advice, like what are the stuff you were looking out for? Because it still seems that that realm of things is still kind of like, kind of like the wild west. Like some people are like, Hey, try this. This dope. And this is like, yeah. Talk to us about that. So it is, it's, um, there's so much information out there and you really don't know what's true and what's not and what this does and what that does.

So I decided to start taking Anivar when I first started. The gateway. The gateway. It all starts with Anivar. Started with a low dose of that. I think it was on like 10 milligrams or something a week or something like that, 20 maybe. low dose of that i think it was on like 10 milligrams or something a week or something like that 20 maybe um and then after that i added primo and then um npp eventually um was this from like advice from somebody or was this like you did your research to like or you internet scouting like what like how did you come up with that? Sadly, I did not do my own research. I kind of took the advice of the coach I had at the time.

And thankfully, he didn't do anything too harsh. Like, he wasn't putting me on Tren and Tess and whatever else. But for this meet, I actually only did Mastron. That was the only anabolic i used for this meat now as a woman what are the things that like because women are just when it comes to everything there's just so many more complicated systems i think than men right so what are the things that your coach has you taken like what are the like if a woman's listening she's like i want to go down this route to take some drugs to help me get stronger yeah what are the things that she needs to be thinking about as far as maybe her blood work the things

that she should avoid because you mentioned that your first coach certain things maybe you i don't know if there were any regrets there or just things that you shouldn't have done like what do women need to take into account uh hormones liver you know, blood work I think should be done very regularly if you're going to be using anabolics. How regularly? Um, I'd probably say like I do every six months. Okay. So just to keep an eye on it.

Yeah. I only have one kidney. Um, so I have to watch that pretty close. Oh wow. Yeah. Um, I actually had cancer as a child. Oh. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I actually had cancer as a child. Oh. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

Do you want to talk? Yeah, yeah. So I was four years old. I had a Wilms tumor around my right kidney, chemo, radiation, and then they eventually took the tumor in the kidney out. Wow. And I've been fine ever since. Okay. Yeah. There we go yeah damn

that is definitely an extra consideration yeah with uh you know what steroids can do to like your organs your kidneys your liver uh things like that have you ever considered testosterone have you ever taken testosterone you messed around with that at all or um so i have uh i go to a hormone like specialist um because my progesterone and estrogen are always pretty low. And he has me on, I take two milligrams of tests three times a week and progesterone and estrogen just to keep those balanced. Have you noticed any real negative side effects? Like when you get your blood work done, is there anything like that's alarming? your blood work done is there anything like that's alarming or have you felt uh i don't know you felt sick or weird or had any real hiccups with using any of these things uh so for 2021

i was on anabolics for the whole year because i did the current us open and then i rolled right into those bodybuilding shows so after the shows i my labs done, and my liver was very angry with me. What changed with the show stuff, like for bodybuilding? Basically, I just dropped the Primo and just did Anovar, and then Clin and Arimadex, and yeah, I think that's it. Do you find you take more stuff for bodybuilding or for powerlifting? More stuff for bodybuilding, definitely. Yeah, that was my protocol too.

I was like, whoa. Yeah, I was not ready. I did not expect that. Oh, shoot. Well, there's a lot more things to take, right? Yeah. Because there's a lot more things that can, I guess, help you have the most optimal physique on stage.

You mentioned hormones. Have you noticed any mood changes or any libido changes? I know for myself, the first time I got into testosterone, I wanted to rub up against every single thing that I could think of. Including this desk. Including this desk. I saw it, yes. We had the cameras rolling the whole time.

They have access to the security. Damn. Damn. You're telling me, buddy. I covered Jesus' ears. Hopefully his eyes, too. That's hilarious. Anything like that going on um nothing like you know my progesterone was really low at one point and when we were bringing that up i was a raging bitch um but um libido yeah oh yeah very high very very high so when it when it comes to i guess because

when it comes to like what you're doing as far as powerlifting and bodybuilding is concerned what type of stuff do you like have to deal with from the internet because you have been like like you kid like you got your pro card in bodybuilding yeah as a just coming into the fucking game, right? So you killed that. Thank you. You're doing world records in terms of powerlifting. You're progressing fast.

And your numbers as far as social media too have progressed. So how does it, with everything that, all the comments that are coming your way, does it bother you at all? Because being new to that, how do you deal with it? Do you ignore it? Because being new to that, how do you deal with it? Do you ignore it? You know, I have always kind of thought, you know, these people, they don't know me. They don't know my life.

They don't know my story. Their opinion means nothing. I've never understood why people get so worked up about stuff online. It would take a lot. It would take a lot for me to get really upset over what people say to me online. But with bodybuilding, it actually got worse. My message request folder is a scary place to be. How so?

How so? I want to know. There are some freaks out there. I'm still hanging on. I'm like, people want to buy my underwear. They want to buy my shoes. They want me to squeeze them and yell at them. Yeah.

So how much money do you have? I want to recharge it. What's the wait list look like right now? I have not capitalized on those opportunities yet you can talk to michael trend he can lead you in the right direction he's still selling his underwear and um so i actually struggle with not struggle i have sui stress urinary incontinence and people cannot wrap their heads around that they're like so mind blown

when they see the video of me deadlifting and oh thank you so much you're so nice that's Owen they like cannot wrap their head they're like did she just pee yeah or they'll ask if i

just had an orgasm on the platform like just yeah totally like i really love lifting weights worked on that platform you're like maybe maybe that's honestly um when when you're so that just mainly happens when you're lifting something really heavy. Yeah. It happens to a lot of women, right? Yeah, it's very prevalent in women, and it can even happen with men, actually. It's just I've always had it. I would run track in high school, and I would finish a race, and it would happen. I just accepted it, and it's just what my body does. You just get a lot of comments about it.

A lot. You know, I never in my life would have imagined that I would talk to so many strangers about pee online. Like, I never would have imagined that. Well, the other women probably, they probably appreciate that you even show the video and that you talk about it because they're probably like, shit. I ain't going to lie, that shit's happening to me sometimes too, right? Yeah, yeah. I get a lot of women, and it makes my heart happy when women send me those messages and they're like,

hey, you empower me to deadlift heavy and not care about this, and they'll ask me for advice. Yeah, that makes my heart really happy when women reach out and tell me stuff like that. We're probably going to get into more technique stuff like in video but like when it comes to your techniques for your lift like what i guess what is it that you pay attention to when you're like big cues when you're squatting dead lifting benching because again it is wild i know that you need to build a base right of muscle

before you get into lifting but yeah your technique on your lifts is fucking crazy right so what are the things that you really paid attention to as you were progressing and building better technique like how do you approach the bar what do you think about um so before each lift i like envision myself doing that lift absolutely perfectly like before i have even touched the bar i I've already won. So I kind of focus on that. As far as technique goes, honestly, I'm a pretty upright squatter, pretty wide squatter.

Sumo, I say recently. I've only done sumo for about two years now. That looks really good. Yeah, it's good. My conventional is absolute absolute dog shit um do you think that you're sorry do you think like your athletic uh background and the way you're able to move because you get into great positions with all your lifts like yeah your sumo your hips are great your squat like everything looks really good like you don't do you have mobility restrictions um upper body definitely oh there's

my butt that was good well she wants us to pull it up yes no well i did want to actually i did want to pull it up because nice when you get when you guys were talking about comments like there's nothing but like appreciation oh yeah everything so i was curious like how do you handle some of that sorry to you know sidetrack it but you did bring up your butt so i had to you know but but it's true though like i think you know any any of the negative commenters or whatever would see somebody bodied up like this and be like okay i get it you know like you look great so thank you i'm curious to know like how what's it like seeing all the positive comments oh it's nice. It's very nice. I don't rely on that outside validation.

Like, your girl looks good. I know that. That's awesome. Yeah, that's great. That might be a little cocky. Yeah, you don't need the extra from other people. I don't need it. I do appreciate it.

Absolutely. I appreciate the people who take the time out to comment on my pictures and videos and all you know all that but um i definitely don't need the outside validation to feel where does mindset come from this mindset come from mama yeah it sounds like you must have had a pretty good upbringing i did i had a very good upbringing um mom was the rock um parents divorced um mom's house was a safe place and she raised me to do anything be anything and she pretty good disciplinarian too because it seems like you got your shit together oh my god she's yeah she's a hard ass um she she laid down the law. I mean, we were curfews. We were all that. We were not running wild. She raised us right. How many siblings did you have? So I have two older sisters and two younger brothers.

Oh, wow. So you're in the middle. Yeah. My dad was a hoe. Sorry, Dad. Okay. Pat Project family, I know you guys are enjoying this episode, but I need to talk to you real quick about Element Electrolytes. Now, we've been taking electrolytes this past year, and they're one of the biggest supplements that's made a difference for all of our performance. Number one, because we don't cramp up during workouts anymore, but they allow us to be

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Head over to drinklmnt.com slash powerproject. Get a value bundle because you're going to get four boxes, any flavor you want, for the price of three. That's what we do. That's what you should do. Links to them down in the YouTube description as well as the podcast show notes. Let's get back to the podcast. Do your siblings also do stuff athletically? No.

Whoa. Yeah. So I'm the only one in my family that goes to the gym wow yeah so my mom she'll like she's i mean she's what 46 46 so she's still active she still has to do like pt tests and stuff um but she doesn't like work out um i don't know why um no one else in my family really gotten to the gym. But yeah, I'm the only one that's really active. It's a hard dynamic because they don't quite understand it.

And they don't, they try to be supportive, but they don't quite understand it. Let's say that you just got done working out and you go to the grocery store and you're in like a tank top or something it's my favorite yeah what happens uh so one of my favorite things is like catching people like looking at me like they're like oh shit or they're like smile or like i've even had people like i'm so sorry but i have to touch you i'm like okay do it i love it you know um i've never understood why people are like weirded weirded out that people are looking at me or people comment on my body. I worked so damn hard to look like this. I'm happy when someone appreciates this. I'd say a lot of women are probably pretty excited, right? When they're like, holy fuck, you look amazing.

Yeah, it's so cool. I'd say a lot of women are probably pretty excited, right? When they're like, holy fuck, you look amazing. Yeah. It's so cool. I love it. But yeah, I've never understood why people would get mad over someone appreciating something that you deliberately did. I don't know. I love it. I think it's great. Okay. Being where you are now as far as what you're doing in power lifting, you said that before you made the decision to hop on, you like, you're like stuffies here, all these other lifters here. Now that you're, I mean, you're kind of at that level with these individuals.

Yeah. Do you, do you still look up to anyone as far as lifters? Like, are there any lifters that you're like, ooh, wow, like, like, no, you don't? No, mm-mm, no. Interesting. When did that shift? I don't know.

I just stopped. I stopped putting people on pedestals. I stopped thinking that people were unbeatable. I don't think that there's anyone out there who is unbeatable. I think a lot of people close their minds off to opportunities. I could never beat her. I'll never be number one. I'm telling beat her. I'll never be number one. I'm telling you right now, I will be number one.

That's, there's no question. I was at a competition maybe about three years ago with I think one of your training partners, Brianni. And she was telling me, she's like, all I want to do is, and I can't remember exactly what she said, but she's blown past all that. Like whatever the goal was that she said. And she's like, I I want to do is, and I can't remember exactly what she said, but she's blown past all that. Like, whatever the goal was that she said.

And she's like, I'm going to do it. And, like, I met her that one time for, you know, five minutes. And I was like, that was fucking cool. I was like, that's a lot of confidence. So it's pretty amazing to put something like that forward and then be able to have the follow through behind it. But I really believe in what you're talking about, not putting people up on a pedestal. Do you find yourself doing that with celebrities and stuff too?

Do you not? Because I think for some people, I think that can sometimes be a little dangerous. Yeah, I agree. I don't really do it with celebrities either. No, not really. You're into your own shit and your own goals and you're concentrated on that

yeah pretty much yeah it makes sense yeah so with that being said okay i want to kind of go back to the bodybuilding thing a little bit because you get your pro card you said you got second at the tampa yeah so i was very close why are her shoulders so big she's wearing like a long sleeve shirt and the shoulders are just popping and And yeah, they're still just You know, this is actually one they told me, the judges at the Tampa Pro told me I need bigger shoulders. Really? Yeah, bigger shoulders, bigger arms.

We don't think that's going to be a problem. It hurt my heart. They're huge. But okay, let me ask you this. The person that beat you, were they Olympia caliber? Because I wonder you're going to be somewhere as far as and like all-time great as far as powerlifting is concerned and probably some short time right but when we're looking at what you're doing in bodybuilding too do you have aspirations to get

on the olympia stage for bodybuilding at some point absolutely what does that what like when you've i don't know if you map out like what you what you think about that but what does that what like when you i don't know if you map out like what you what you think about that but what does that look like as far as okay i'm competing in powerlifting here then i'll transition to bodybuilding like what does that look like um so i want to be the best at both i want to be number one in the world in powerlifting and i could definitely go to the olympia um i don't think i'd win it and that's totally fine um it's just an absolute honor to even be on the stage um the girl that beat me at the tampa pro i believe she got fifth at the olympia like you probably already looked at her and looked at things that you

what is missing for you to be on that stage and killing on that stage? I need bigger arms, bigger shoulders. Bigger arms and shoulders. I need, yeah. Basically they call it like a taper. So I need a bigger

top. I kind of think that in bodybuilding, like it's never good to tell yourself that you can't do certain things, but man, bodybuilding gets to be really sketchy at the, at the very top, at the very top of, of bodybuilding.

A lot of times you're ending up with people that have genetics that are sometimes difficult to catch up with. Do you feel that that is the case maybe with bodybuilding? Like where just, I mean, you're just dealing with, like the top tier genetic freaks, they're already bodybuilding, right? Yeah. Whereas powerlifting, it's like if I keep working and I keep getting my technique down and I get a little bigger, like I can continually go from a 540 deadlift to a 555 to a 575 yeah but and not nothing to say

that you can't make a lot of progress in bodybuilding but there's some suckers out there that are just out in front and they're just yeah it's like hard to catch them you know yeah yeah so this year is uh miss olympia winner she i mean she's an absolute, just everything is perfect. Like, just absolute perfect. I guarantee she'll probably win the Olympia for as long as she wants to keep competing. How old are you? I'm 27. 27.

Honestly, like, the interesting thing is, like, your physique coming from powerlifting to going into bodybuilding, a lot of powerlifters, like, because of the volume of training that they do, they have blocky weights. But you actually, you mentioned your taper. I feel like when you do concentrate on your shoulders and your arms, you'll probably have more ability to grow, and your back's a strong point. You don't have a bad shape on stage. I think that that's definitely something that you will absolutely be able to improve on in a strong point. Yeah. You don't have a bad shape on stage. Thank you. I think that that's definitely something

that you will absolutely be able to improve on in a few years. And your legs were fucking crazy. Thank you. Like, Jesus. Thank you. I think you look awesome because a lot of times

when we see people, like, transition into bodybuilding, sometimes, especially some female athletes that previously had a lot of muscle and a lot of strength, they'll kind of look short because the legs are big. But you look super defined.

It's a very aesthetic look. Thank you. I think it's going to continue to help you get places in bodybuilding. I hope so. I hope so. What do you think are some of the main differences with training? You know, like we talked about how in powerlifting, you have to kind of brush up against things being difficult,

but maybe not in your best interest to make them super difficult. But bodybuilding is a little bit different. You got to kind of be in that zone where things hurt a little bit more and hang out there a little bit more. Yeah. Bodybuilding is difficult in its own right. It takes a lot of mental strength to do bodybuilding. I mean, you're always pushing for one more rep, one more rep. I mean, bodybuilding was harder than squatting 650 in reps, by far. Really? Yeah. Okay, I want to what what aspect of it is it the the going really close

to failure and volume aspect of it and the pump ass like yeah because yeah i mean you you have to go to a special place because i mean you just have to ask better for yourself Like you have to push as hard as you can. I always would tell myself, like, I'm going to win this set. And like, if I quit early or I, you know, didn't give it my all, like I didn't win. And winning is a very important part of, you know, who I am. That's really fascinating because powerlifting, you could go to the gym and have a particular workout set up. And you could go to lift the weights, and for some reason you don't feel as strong as normal. And it's really easy to call an audible there.

And in powerlifting, you can have workouts like that. You can have a workout where you say, well, I was supposed to handle 515 today, but that's not in the car. It's going to work with 475. Get some good reps in, get sets in. It's not a good idea to do that all the time. And every once in a while, you do have to force yourself to do something different. But we know if the technique's not there, you're probably going to get hurt.

You're probably not going to get any stronger. But bodybuilding, it doesn't really matter how you feel. You've got to push through. You got to fight for it. What I noticed is way different about the two is I remember in the middle of my powerlifting career, I could just get a bunch of caffeine or take some pre workout or put on some good music. I can find some ways to like just light myself on fire. But when it came to bodybuilding, that doesn't work because the bodybuilding workouts are way different. And if you're going to be acting like a maniac for every

set that you do in bodybuilding, you're going to be worn out two weeks into your training program. So it doesn't work the same and it's a lot more like monotonous. Yeah, it absolutely is. I think I ran the same program for the entire three shows. I just tried to beat what I did last week. So it's very, very monotonous. What about posing? So my work schedule, I work 10-hour shifts. So I would get off work at 6.

What do you do? I'm a vascular interventional technologist. A scrub tech and an x-ray tech in one. So I get off work at 6, go to the gym for 3 hours, get home, cook, prep meals, go to bed at like midnight,

1am, wake up at 4.30 for fasted cardio. Your girl was getting very, very little sleep. How many days a week was that? Was that every day? I mean, not the weekends. Yeah, so I was like, I didn't have a

posing coach. I would practice posing on my lunch breaks in the bathroom. I made my routines up on stage. Well, how did,

how did they end up? They didn't, they look, they weren't that bad. I will show you. Okay. They weren't that bad. Like I just,

I picked out a song and I just walked up there and, you know, did what I thought. And when you're good at posing, oddly enough, and you can just hit a beat, you can kill it. You know what I mean?

Yeah. Okay. Cool. Cool. I think this time around, uh, when I do go back to bodybuilding, I will hire a coach. Because, I mean, having a great physique in bodybuilding only takes you so far. You have to know how to display it. It is crazy, though, that, like, again, you got your pro card and you didn't have a posing coach.

Correct. Because, I mean, like, you're posing, you must have done pretty good on your, like, posing yourself. Yeah. Right? coach correct i mean like you're posing must you must have done pretty good on your like posing yourself yeah right um but pros usually always like a pro level always has a coach and the fact that you got there and you competed in a pro show you didn't fuck it's amazing yeah i mean there were people that would like help me out you know um i do have so alongside strong barbell club i do train at uh like a more bodybuilding style gym in Kansas City. And there are a couple people there that would like help me and give me tips and stuff like that. So I did have people kind of guide me.

But the majority of it was just kind of figuring out, looking in the mirror, seeing what looked good, what didn't. Wow. Do you have any time for a significant other with all this work and working out and bodybuilding and powerlifting and everything else? So I actually just got out of a relationship about three months ago. Yeah. So I'm a single Pringle. Ready to mingle.

Okay. So you mentioned you were getting three hours of sleep working 10 hour shifts when you were doing the bodybuilding thing. Yeah. Like we talk about sleep all the time on the podcast because of how important it is, right? It's so important.

And how were like, is that a, well, was a lack of sleep something that you've dealt with before with training and competing? Or do you always usually try to stay on top of that? But this time you didn't have the ability to. I just didn't have the ability during bodybuilding. Like I would try, I would like be prepping meals at like 4am. Like I was doing, I was doing everything that i could do to get more sleep um it is so important it's so important for um performance um these days i'm

getting like six to seven um but yeah it was it was a rough go there for a little while what else do you do for like your recovery like over the years what have you learned as far as because you're moving a lot of training volume, right? And a wild thing is you said that you were still training heavy when you were doing the bodybuilding stuff. And a lot of bodybuilders, because they feel more frail when they're leaner, they avoid heavy training, but you were still doing that. Yeah, still going for it.

How is it that you keep your body healthy? Have you had any big injuries throughout all this training? Or have you just been, what do you do to keep healthy? No injuries. I – oh, that was nice. I was in Colorado. No injuries. I go to a chiropractor.

I get soft tissue work done. How often? Chiropractor, maybe once, twice a month whenever I need it. I don't really – I feel good. I don't really, I feel good. I don't really have anything that bugs me, no aches or pains or anything like that. Really? Yeah.

Like no little just nagging things here and there? No, not really. I do get some elbow tendinitis pretty bad. But other than that, no, nothing that really bugs me too much. You're handling those hundreds very well thank you holy shit and that was bodybuilding i was yeah that's at phil heath or the gym that phil heath is usually training yeah armors that is an awesome gym they have a whole room just for leg equipment like badass gym yeah love that gym i thought phil heath was

gonna kill me in that gym one day like literally just looking at me saying how he handles like weird fans he like grabbed my my traps and he's just like you need to calm down like whoa hey i'm on your side hey but you know he was like his eyes like i thought i literally thought he was gonna murder me that was scary that was scary yeah pretty damn big too yeah he's all right um do you have other women that ask you about how to get bigger? Because it's like not a super common thing. It seems like a lot of women are trying to get smaller a lot of times. So do you have a lot of women who are like, I'd like to be bigger. How do I get some muscle like you?

Yeah. I have women that will like reach out to me and kind of ask questions, things like that. Or women who are like, you know, it's cool seeing how big you are and that like that inspires me to like, you know, grow. And I think it's awesome. I love being big and muscular and I love it. I wouldn't change it, anything. Well, what would your advice then be for like for a woman that's trying to get stronger and bigger, getting to powerlifting or bodybuilding? your advice then be for like for a woman that's trying to get stronger and bigger getting to power lifting or bodybuilding what are some things that like you discovered through training in both

sports as a woman that you think maybe men don't have to like men don't think about or is is something that maybe women should understand more eat okay eat all the food yeah eat all the food. Yeah. Eat all the food. I mean, you know, you're trying to grow. Eat some damn food. Yeah, people are kind of scared of the eating side of things. You got to really eat to fuel yourself, you know, for whatever style of workout. You need to have the fuel. And I think a lot of times people are making the mistake of kind of under eating. Yeah, I agree.

You kind of gain muscle and then you kind of get skinny fat or yeah every time you lose weight you predominantly lose muscle and you get yourself in trouble that way yeah uh what about cardio how did you handle cardio for bodybuilding uh so i was a runner before um and i actually really enjoyed it i i still do fasted cardio now as a power lifter running Running? Yeah. I'll do like interval sprints. Yeah. I really enjoy it. Yeah. I don't know.

It starts your day off right. I love it. I think it's great. What's an interval sprint look like? So I'll do two minutes on and then three to four minutes just like slow walking. Wait, excuse me. When you say two minutes on, how fast are you? I'll start at like 8.5 and then i'll

try and like go up for each interval oh wow yeah okay how many intervals you say you did i do four damn that's pretty damn good this is interesting that's that's some hard work yeah and this is something you do even outside of the bodybuilding stuff like yeah i do it now any idea what your heart rate gets to on that have you looked at it no idea yeah okay one thing i'm noticing about you actually right now that you're mentioning this is like you're not a heavy breather no like you're like what do you say no no you're not no you're not like you this whole podcast because like a lot of individuals who they put on a lot of muscle right and? And they're like, between everything.

Snoring while they're awake. You breathe quietly. Thank you. Have you paid attention to your resting heart rate and all that? Because even though you are taking some stuff, you are super muscular, you're healthy, it seems. Yeah. So normally I have a WHOOP band that tracks resting heart rate, HRV, things like that.

I couldn't tell you what my resting heart rate is. I think it's in 50s or 60s, but yeah. Wow. Yeah. So after my, for this meet, I did like a refeed and I got up to 203-ish and that I noticed it was a little uncomfortable. I didn't like being that heavy. Yeah.

Yeah. What was your nutrition like years ago before you got, like, deeply into bodybuilding and deeply into powerlifting? All right. So I thought carb loading was like eating cookies and whatever you wanted. It's not. It's – wait. Mark's like, wait, it's not? Yeah.'s wait heart's like wait it's not yeah what what's going on here what is that um yeah i i trained like a bodybuilder um kind of but ate whatever

the hell i wanted pretty much um i didn't really know what i was doing back then so i just i knew i wanted to be big so I ate big and you're still doing the sprints and stuff right not back then not back no I didn't do cardio back then just mainly making sure you get maybe enough protein yeah something like that yeah and were you in good shape then yeah I was I mean I was maybe not as big as I am now but yeah I was in pretty good shape do you think that and this is I guess for everybody but the um I guess the the path to being a high level bodybuilder might go through powerlifting because looking at Mark looking at Encima as well though Encima you you did bodybuilding first yeah but somebody like Maddie Forberg is doing really well as well yeah and then yourself so do you think

that might be we might see that more um like reoccur anything moving forward now yeah um uh there are a couple women like in the that were powerlifters kind of venturing out into bodybuilding i love to see it uh i think i mean we're proving that it can be done yeah i think more people will try it well it's just i mean because you guys like you're not just doing it you guys are winning yeah like that's the craziest shit like you know mark one i don't remember where maddie placed but i know she kicked ass yeah and then you of course so yeah i think though i think that might be like more of like somebody who wants to do it long term i mean okay i gotta go get big now instead of

you know the i don't i mean they look awesome too but like i'm thinking of like uh i guess bikini like physique that sort of thing where they're just more slender they are you know they're just they're going for that leanness but you guys are just looking awesome so i think we might see that more often yeah i wouldn't be surprised honestly i wouldn't be surprised it's fucking awesome tell us more about the gym that you train at because i think there's a lot of amazing lifters there, right? Yeah, yeah. So I train with J.P. Price, Cade Proctor, Jeff Frank. Yeah, I train with a lot of really talented individuals. Super grateful and super blessed for that because it's made me more successful for sure. But yeah, Strong barbell club it's kind of amazing when it's like you know it's the norm to see six plates on a bar seven plates it's just and so i think there's

uh there's something really important about that and maybe uh when you first kind of transitioned into going into this gym maybe that was something that you were like wow these dudes are moving some fucking sick weights. I bet I can figure that out one day. Yeah. So I walked into strong barbell club the first day and I saw this girl and big girl. She had like her squat shoes on her belt.

And I was like, holy shit. I was so intimidated. I was like, I don't know about this. I don't know if I belong here. Yeah. I was so intimidated.

But now it's like a girl squatting 500 at the gym is just another day. No, I think that's a really big deal. That is such a good TikTok clip right there. No, but it's a big deal trying to get into a gym where there's a lot of people that are just much stronger than you. Because there is something about seeing how normal something is and then being like, oh, yeah, okay, I can totally do something like that. When I came to super trading in 2015 or something, my strength went up drastically because everyone was stronger than me.

Yes, yes. It matters. It matters. The people around you, it matters. If you're surrounded by winners, people who want to see you do good, people who want to support you, you're going to do great. It's that simple. What does some of your program look like? You mentioned you got two different people kind of programming some of your stuff.

Yeah. You know, without tons of detail. Like, what is a, you know, what style of training, what kind of stuff are you doing? Anything really unconventional or is it pretty much bench squatting and deadlifting and then just different reps and sets surrounding that? Pretty conventional. You know, the meet that I did yesterday, I had to re-acclimate to low bar squatting because I had not low bar squatted in probably six months. So we did some things like segmented squats,

pause squats. So a segmented squat is where you like, so you unrack and then you'll break at the hips, pause, squat, pause, and then stand up. Just to find a good torso position and connect with the

movement a little bit better um but no pretty pretty standard um some pause deadlifts i've seen you do that before a lot of pause deadlifts um i've done block pulls in the past chains bands kind of like a mixture of like conjugate and you know i really like conjugate yeah conjugate is a lot of fun but as the contest comes closer i'd imagine you start to participate in the actual lift that you're gonna do in the competition right yeah yeah i love doing that kind of shit where you're just doing different exercises it's a lot it's a lot of fun for you know many many weeks until you have to buckle down and then get used to the regular lifts again all the straight bar work.

Yes, because right now, what did you say your job was? So I'm a vascular interventional technologist. So how did you start doing that? So I got my bachelor's in radiologic science, so like people who take chest x-rays. So you start there and then after that you can basically branch into anything you want to do ct mri ultrasound anything um i really liked so it's like a surgery setting um you know scrub in scrub out that sort of thing

i really enjoyed that and we do a lot of really cool stuff so like we um like strokes we reverse strokes we'll you know go up there get the cloud out of the brain like we we do a lot of really cool stuff. So like strokes. We reverse strokes. We'll go up there, get the cloud out of the brain. We do some really cool stuff. Wow. Yeah. It's also a hard career to have and also trying to be successful in powerlifting because I take emergency call. So they can call me at any hour. And I can work one hour and I can work one hour I can work nine hours you know it just

it's not a set schedule it's pretty wild pretty hectic so kind of sucks in that aspect but okay do you when it comes to like what you're doing right now in powerlifting bodybuilding in the future do you want to be doing more stuff with it as far as not just competing? Like, do you like, what does, what does your goal look like as far as that? Not just being number one in both,

but what else do you want to do? Yeah. If there's anything else. Um, I would like to get out of the hospital. Um, I think that I would be a lot more successful within powerlifting and bodybuilding if I did. Um,

as far as like what I would do, I honestly don't know. I've considered coaching here lately, but I don't know. I think you'll ultimately need some sort of time where you have more time on your hands

to think more. And a set schedule. I have a different day off every week. I have a different... I will week. I have a different, you know. I will get called in the middle of training sometimes. Damn. Yeah. I've had to, like, I remember there was one session I was establishing my deadlift opener.

And I was working up to that top single and they called. So I had to leave, go to work, come back, and restart. That freaking sucks. That's very hard. Is it hard to do that? I mean, is it not hard to do that, but is it like, I would imagine that I would just end up with a shitty workout. Right.

Has that happened to you? Yeah. It's probably super frustrating, right? Yeah. I had my last heavy squat for this meet, workout right that happened to you uh yeah it's probably super frustrating right yeah um i had like my last heavy squat for this meet and they called me while i was warming up and like my mind was instantly just on work like i couldn't even focus on training so it kind of sucked but i just make the best of it you know this is this is what this is what i've got to work with and

i make the best of it i was gonna ask i don't know if you've uh posted anything about it or commented on like some of the stuff that's been going on with bodybuilding like some of the dudes having heart attacks and stuff like that it's scary yeah where do you think we're gonna end up like is it gonna get better we're gonna have you know i don't know some type of like health checks before people compete or anything like that you know it would be it would be really awesome if we had some sort of, you know, health checks, some sort of like physical or examination. It's scary and it sucks and it's happening a lot more here recently. Sad. What are some side effects, you know, if some people are listening, especially women,

what are some side effects that can happen from steroids that you've experienced? Yeah. So, so far I've experienced, my voice got pretty deep. Body hair, click growth, trying to think what else obviously more muscular um that's a good side effect yeah i didn't mind that one uh but yeah nothing that really bothered me

too much uh nothing with my hair like my hair um nothing with that hair nothing with that but yeah nothing that I really minded too much is there any way to combat that or is there ways to have some of that reverse reversed I don't think so no

combating the side effects I couldn't tell you honestly but when you come off some of these things uh might like your voice might change a little bit when you're on versus when you're on yeah yeah before you started did you know that it would change things this much did were you like already like this is most likely gonna to happen and I'm okay with that? Or was it shit? My voice is deeper. I'm now okay with it. Or did you, yeah. So did you decide, decide that beforehand or were you okay with it as it happened?

Uh, so I did my, I did some basic research. Like, um, I knew that my voice would get deeper. I knew that the body hair would come. Um, so I wasn't surprised when that happened. I was a little disappointed because I used to sing. So I was pretty disappointed when the voice started to go down. Damn, ruined your singing voice. You don't sing anymore? No, no, no, no.

Just doesn't sound the same. No, it does not. How long do you think it'll be until you do break some of the records that you're looking for? If you look at your training trajectory. So a record that I have in mind that I would like to actually break this year, the heaviest wrapped squat done by a female is 705. She was a super heavyweight.

I think I can definitely beat that this year. What was your best rap scrap before? It was like 633? 650. 650? At 165. And you're going to be competing at 181 at this one? Maybe.

Oh, shit. We'll see. Okay. So what's your best in the gym so far? This is 615. Yeah. 650 was my highest. Ever?

Yeah. That's nuts. Damn. 650 was my highest. Ever? Yeah. That's nuts. Damn. Just casually. Yep. And this meet's going to be in what you said? The one in six weeks is going to be in sleeves. And then I plan to do one more after that in wraps.

Okay. Yeah. How about accessories in the gym? Because here you're using a safety squat bar. Yeah. So normally I'll do like the main set on a straight bar. I think I just cussed right there. And then I'll have like a specialty bar set,

just something lighter. Oh, is there any people in particular that, that you want to compete against or is there any type of competition that you would like to do like that's maybe like in a different country or i don't know i don't know about ones in different countries um i'd love to compete against christy hawkins uh she's in the 165 she used competes in the 165 class. I've never gotten a chance to compete against her. She's absolutely incredible.

But right now, I'm currently ranked number two in the world. Mariana Gasparian is above me. I'd love to make her number two soon. Okay. What do you need to do to be able to get past her, you think? So her DOTS score, I think it's like 705, maybe. Let's see. You haven't had a chance to go head-to-head with her yet?

I have. So I competed against her at the 2021 Kern US Open, and she beat me. So her DOTS score is 709, and mine is currently 687. And you think you have a good chance of beating her? Yeah. Yeah. All right. Love to do that soon.

Mm-hmm. When you look, like, let's say, because, okay, number one in body because okay number one bodybuilding number one powerlifting is there anything else you want to try athletically in the future because you've you came from a background where you did all these different sports yeah right now you're you're focusing on two different sports that go great with each other but like is there anything else you ever want to try your hand at i'd love to try a strongman i think that'd be so fun yeah yeah that also falls pretty well in line. The cool thing is, though, is that Strongman has you doing a lot of movements that you

need to be in weird positions, but you're already good at that. Yeah. I think that'd be so fun. Damn. Yeah. That'd be crazy. Yeah. Just crushing everybody in all the sports.

Trying. What do you have coming up next? So you just did this competition. You got one a couple months from now? Yeah. I have another one in six weeks, the hybrid showdown in Miami. Yeah, there should be a lot of strong people at that one, huh? Yeah, I'm excited.

And are you going to be the same body weight? Maybe. Figuring that out. Yeah, my coach wants me to lose a little weight after this meet. So might do 165, might do 181. I don't know. I haven't decided. With these coaches, have there been any tricks or anything that kind of surprised you in your training

where you were maybe struggling with a particular lift, and now that lift has maybe become more of a strong point for you because they had you doing some stuff that you were like, oh, I didn't know that that was gonna yeah really work that well yeah so with my deadlift i've always struggled um with starting position and lockout um but they kind of taught me cervical retraction uh and that just like light bulb, like click, like, yeah. Like driving your head back towards the wall. Yeah. Oh yeah.

Driving your chin. Yeah. Kind of through your like neck or something. It's not going like this, but yeah. That was good. That was good. Yeah.

No, but, but it is interesting when you see some like sumo deadlifters, like I think Yuri does it and Bryce was doing it for a long time when they deadlift they would be or at least i know bryce was here right yeah um so that made a huge difference for you yeah yeah it made an awesome difference so i'm really excited to see you know how that affects and you know this next six weeks going forward anything like any little things like that come to mind for your other lifts that that have been beneficial um no no i pretty much have i have a pretty solid form on my bench and squat so

sick you probably just use a wide variety of techniques you mentioned those pauses on the squats and pauses on deadlifts so yeah probably some pausing uh probably some negative work here and there you're just going slower yeah maybe some isometrics mixed in maybe some partial range of motion type stuff yeah things like that right yeah sick i mean you're routinely benching what 315 or so i think i've seen this the other day just doing that like just laying down and doing it so easy yeah like what the hell yeah it's fun that's crazy does it feel good good to beat up on the boys sometimes in the gym?

It does. I enjoy it. I mean, this is 325. So this is my best bench ever. Just another day at the office. Just another day. Is your mom supportive? Is she pretty

excited that you do these things or is she more like worried because you're getting so jacked or something like that yeah she's a little worried she doesn't really she's supportive but she doesn't really understand everything why do you gotta be this jacked yeah and like the first time

that they heard my voice like I hadn't gone home in a little while and I like went home and the first time they heard my voice they were like what the fuck they're like what are you doing and then they like my mom like knew but didn't know and she was like i don't know if she was like in denial but it's all right you know um they all know now and they like just accepted it but it seems like they didn't really get it anyways, right? No, they didn't. So it wouldn't matter if you were still an adi and just getting jacked.

Right. They'd be like, why are you so big? Why? Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. Awesome. Thank you so much for coming on the show today.

I know it's a little bit of a drive out here and stuff. That's all right. Thanks for having me. Pretty tired after competing. Did you get a chance to see the Golden Gate Bridge yet, or is that where you guys are going next? We're going to go there after this. Yeah.

Sick. Yeah. It's not really golden, but it's red. Yeah, it's red. It's a big old reddish thing. It looks amazing at night. The Sacramento Tower Bridge is more golden. That's true.

It's kind of more like pee, but it's okay. It's all right. Yeah, it ain't too bad. All right, Andrew, take us on out, everybody. out everybody thank you everybody for checking out today's episode please make sure you guys are subscribed and if you like today's conversation hit that like button drop us a comment let us know what you found most interesting uh we have an idea what that is already going to be uh please follow the podcast at mark bells power project on instagram at mb power project on tiktok and twitter my instagram and twitter is at IamAndrewZ

at TheAndrewZ on TikTok. And Seema, what's up? Seriously, peeps, leave a comment for the algo. Seema Enning on Instagram and YouTube and Seema Yin Yang on TikTok and Twitter. Hunter, where can people find you? Instagram, Hunter M. Henderson. Sick.

Awesome. Like I said, thank you so much for your time and tons of respect for what you're doing on the platform. And hopefully you kick the shit out of everybody in bodybuilding. I hope so. Strength is never weakness. Weakness never strength. I'm at Mark Smelly Bell. Catch you guys later.