Mark Bell's Power Project - MBPP EP. 668 - Russwole Russel Orhii: Making an Impact in Lifting and The World

Episode Date: January 28, 2022

Russel Orhii also known as "Russwole", got into fitness pursuing the physique of his favorite anime character. He is one of the best drug tested powerlifters and holds several IPF World Titles. He plans on stepping on the bodybuilding stage next and continue building his own business. Follow Russel on IG: https://www.instagram.com/russwole/ Special perks for our listeners below! ➢Bubs Naturals: https://bubsnaturals.com Use code POWERPROJECT for 20% of your next order! ➢Vertical Diet Meals: https://verticaldiet.com/ Use code POWERPROJECT for 20% off your first order! ➢Vuori Performance Apparel: Visit https://vuoriclothing.com/powerproject to automatically save 20% off your first order! ➢8 Sleep: Visit https://www.eightsleep.com/powerproject to automatically save $150 off the Pod Pro! ➢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! ➢Piedmontese Beef: https://www.piedmontese.com/ Use Code POWER at checkout for 25% off your order plus FREE 2-Day Shipping on orders of $150 Subscribe to the Podcast on on Platforms! ➢ https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast Subscribe to the Power Project Newsletter! ➢ https://bit.ly/2JvmXMb Follow Mark Bell's Power Project Podcast ➢ Insta: https://www.instagram.com/markbellspowerproject ➢ https://www.facebook.com/markbellspowerproject ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/mbpowerproject ➢ LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/powerproject/ ➢ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/markbellspowerproject ➢TikTok: http://bit.ly/pptiktok FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell ➢ Snapchat: marksmellybell ➢Mark Bell's Daily Workouts, Nutrition and More: https://www.markbell.com/ Follow Nsima Inyang ➢ https://www.breakthebar.com/learn-more ➢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 #russwole #russelorhii #PowerProject #Podcast #MarkBell

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breaking the bat over his knee complete maniac so dude uh you know when i go on your instagram you know i think other people they see your lifts and stuff but what i've been noticing especially more recently maybe the last maybe like the last year is man man, your style. Your shoe game is increasing. Like shit looks like it's going good, man. What's going on with these shoes? You got a lot of different shoes? Yeah. So, I mean, I've always been into that kind of stuff.

It's fun, right? Yeah. Over the past couple of years, I've just been a lot more comfortable just kind of showcasing that to the followers and all that. Do you have a shit ton of shoes or it's not like too crazy? I wouldn't say it's too crazy like i have like a little studio or like a little study that has like all my shoes in there but it's not like it's not like to the level where it's like it would fill up this whole room you know but i mean that would be like the goal coming up what's your uh what's your like eat what's your eating like nowadays you mentioned earlier to me that you uh are looking to go into some bodybuilding coming up in maybe a year or so so i'd like to know how you're eating now yeah because how you're gonna

eat coming up is gonna stink yeah eating for body eating for powerlifting yeah it's funny because i've done i've done a show before like before like i did a show when i was just getting into powerlifting and i wanted to try it out but i didn't take it seriously enough to like kind of like give myself the best opportunity to see what i would actually look like on the stage so I mean now I've gotten a lot better just like with experience because you want to eat to be good at powerlifting too um so I mean I eat pretty clean I clean like I I'd probably your cameraman's here is that true does he eat clean no no does he does russ eat clean trying to get some verification i mean like oh now we're starting to walk it's been it's been it's been bad of late just because

like we've been doing a lot of traveling okay okay but for the most part i mean clean ish you know i mean clean ish i try to cook as much as my meals as i possibly can yeah so i would say probably like i mean out of the day even if i do eat out, I eat like whole foods. I would get like rice and chicken or maybe steak and potatoes, something like that. What's your background? Like what's your sports background? Did you play a lot of sports growing up? I played football. Yeah, football.

So I did football a little bit of track, but mostly like the main focus was football. Running back? Yeah. Yeah. Damn, you'd be hard to bring down with those big ass legs. Yeah. That was the thing like i was super short to the ground and then like my legs were like a lot bigger than some of the other kind of like barry sanders back in the day that guy had huge legs no i wasn't i

wasn't shifty like that but are you are you pretty quick pretty fast um i'm quick and then it's more so power yeah yeah and then like i've used that a lot to transfer into the weight room so like i would that's kind of like my transition to powerlifting. I used to love training in the weight room. That was the same thing for me. I played some football, and I would always say that I was lifting for football. But really, I think football just got me excited to lift, and I loved lifting more so than anything else. That's literally what happened to me.

So I was in college, and I had walked on to the football team at Texas Tech. And I was like, damn, this shit is getting in the way of at Texas Tech. And I was like, damn, like this shit is getting in the way of me lifting weights. And I was like, hold on, wait a minute. Like I like lifting weights more than I like playing football. That doesn't make sense. So I ended up cutting out football and just like sticking to the weights. Is that how you like got into like lifting itself or did something else happen? I would say so.

I feel like earlier on in my my i was very active as a child like i would work out specifically just to look like it sounds stupid but look like characters in the animes i would watch no that's not stupid yeah like dragon ball z like goku and shit that's exactly what nsema talks about all the time yeah i used to literally look like i want to look like goku and like he would they would show the training that goku would do and i'm like now it's making sense on why he's so strong yeah yeah so i'm like oh shit I just gotta do that to get like bigger like you'd show Goku doing push-ups and all that kind of stuff I'm like all right cool I'll go do that by myself what's up with the was it beans or something like that he would eat

something oh yeah oh the sensu beans sensu beans yeah not allowed to take those in the IPF I'm not with the IPF anymore so so that's good. There you go. Yeah, what happened? Something happened with the USAPL or something? The IPF doesn't recognize it or something? I don't know what's going on. It was confusing. So for the most part, I think the easiest way to boil it down is to like the USAPL wanted to do a different style of testing and have their own rules and regulations to that.

And the IPF didn't recognize that. And like, you got to follow these rules or we're going to have to kick you guys out. What do you think of some of the testing and stuff? Like, do you feel that, I know you competed in a drug tested federation for a long time. Yeah. Do you think it was pretty like even?

Do you think it was pretty well, like the testing was done pretty well to the point where a lot of the athletes were natural? I know a lot of people listening are going to be like, there's no way. Like, tested doesn't mean – what's the term? Tested doesn't mean – It doesn't mean you're natural, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because tested doesn't mean drug-free or some shit like that. Yeah, there we go. There we go. I personally disagree with that. Their testing method is they could pull up on you at any point in time and test you. So, like, I have to give them a whereabouts of where I'm going to be.

So let's say I'm here. I have to let them know that, hey, I'm going to be in Sacramento doing this podcast from this point to this point. And it's also not the USAPL really running the test. It's like a WADA thing, right? Yeah, WADA. So it's a private. I think that's always the confusing thing,

and then people get mad because they're like, oh, the USAPL has all these particular rules and stuff. They don't really understand. It's not – they're just following the structure that is done by WADA, which also is the same drug protocol that the Olympics follow, right? Yeah, but then people would argue it's all corrupted at the same time too. They got their people they want to win yeah um yeah i mean we've we've uh we dove into uh some stuff that was said about ray williams um because i think they talked about him on joe rogan and they talked about how he has the most muscle mass and anybody uh they've ever tested when they did a body fat test yeah um what was interesting about that is joe rogan i don't think he's aware that Big Ray is a drug-tested athlete.

So we talked about it on this show as well, and I was like, I think they're missing out on the fact that I can't say for sure that he's drug-free, but he's been drug-tested a lot. And it turns out that he's one of the greatest powerlifters of all time too. Yeah, I think people don't realize too, if you wanted to take drugs while you're in the USAPL and you're a top tier athlete, there's so many different things that you'd have

to go through. There's so many hurdles you'd have to go through in order to make that happen. It'd just be a giant pain in the ass. It's just too much. The thing is, like I said earlier, they could pull up right now and require that I take a test. If I'm running shit, then it's going to pop for the most part. Have you seen some people make some crazy gains where you're like,

maybe on the world level, not necessarily just here in the United States? Not really. Like they come back every year and the gains are reasonable. I would say for the most part what usually happens is that there's an athlete that's injured and they don't really tell the public and they have maybe a couple of shit meets during that year year they heal up and then come back and have like phenomenal meets but nothing to where it's just like oh you're like watching you're like this guy's getting yeah strong yeah is that something that interests you to go to the

quote-unquote dark side yeah no i i've like my whole time lifting it's never been something that's in my mind like it's not like you're not big enough and it's not like you're not strong enough you know what i mean i would say like i've never sat down and said like i wonder what it would be like to be on steroids i mean like of course like maybe here and there it's just like oh like i you know maybe a quick thought but it's never been like a thing that i think passed that initial thought like the steps that i'd take to kind of do that yeah interesting like when i when i was a kid um I started lifting, a lot of the gyms that I went to, even when I was like 15, 16, and a lot of the competitions that I went to, even though they were ADFPA, which used to be the USAPL before the USAPL became the USAPL, a lot of those competitions

I went to, all they would do is like, they would use like a lie detector test. Yeah. And I kind of just even knew back then that like, dude, like guys were just like, it was just too much. You know, it wasn't just the strength.

It was like the look of a lot of the athletes. And I was like, eh, I was like, I think these guys are doing something a little different. And so when I was young, I was always like, well,

I'm old enough and I can make the decision. I live by myself and I can make my own choices. When I'm an adult, I'm old enough and I can make the decision. I live by myself and I can make my own choices. When I'm an adult, I'm going to definitely heavily consider using some anabolic steroids because I think it's kind of cool. I like the look. I like that it increases the odds of you being able to lift a little bit more weight and stuff like that. So that's the route I went. being able to like lift a little bit more weight and stuff like that. So that's the route I went.

Yeah. Did it, did it make you feel, uh, Mark, did it make you feel like, I don't know, like you were taking it even more serious because you were willing to go that far?

Yeah, for sure. And I never thought of it as cheating cause I wasn't trying to compete. Like I, I hopped out of that federation. As soon as I made a decision years later, um, I was much older and I,

I never competed in a drug tested federation while I was on drugs. Like I kind of think that that's shit. I definitely wouldn't do that. But in powerlifting, it's actually kind of interesting. Powerlifting, bodybuilding, you can make a choice. You don't have to – you don't necessarily have to take drugs. You can go to federations or organizations where they are testing pretty rigorously, it seems like, and you can at least go into something that you feel a little more comfortable about. And if you wanted to be natural and you just wanted to see what kind of splash you

can make against people that even are enhanced, then you can go head-to-head with them as well, which I think is actually really kind of cool. I've had a lot of friends that competed for many years in federations that, uh, were not drug tested and they were, they were natural athletes and they just, they, they kind of liked that. They're like,

I don't care if I get my ass kicked a little bit here and there. It's kind of fun just knowing that I can hang with some of these guys that are taking some of these other things. Yeah. And that's like the, I know a lot of people have wanted me to compete USPA, um, and in test on tested. And that's like the next I know a lot of people have wanted me to compete at USPA and in test, on test it. And that's like the next goal probably for next year.

Like I want to compete with those guys. I wanted to compete against John, but he took all the last two years. There's no way like to kind of like get in that realm. What's the deal with that guy, John Hackett? I don't fucking know, man. It's ridiculous. I just remember like whenever I first started powerlifting

because we were in the same weight class i was like okay who's the top dog in this class right now and i looked and it looked up the name and it said john hack wisconsin i was like what the fuck is a john hack and i was like i was like you're telling me the strongest person in this class lives in fucking wisconsin right i was like bullshit so i checked up his instagram and you know lo and behold this guy was lifting crazy this is like 2016 he's lifting crazy weight and i was like bullshit so I checked up his Instagram and you know lo and behold this guy was lifting crazy this was like 2016 he was lifting crazy weight

and I was like damn it would be dope to share a platform with this guy but then like just leading up to I think 2017

that's when he left after he won his IPF Worlds that's when he left and decided to go the Untastered route so I missed that opportunity we had Ben Pollack on the podcast recently

and Ben was like he's the reason i'm on the juice because yeah he said john hack kicked his ass in a uh in a in a tested uh competition yeah he was like i'm i'm out of this i'm gonna go get on some gear and see what i can do i would i would have loved to compete against john yeah he's unbelievable he's a dog i i like the way um he has like a certain he's i, you guys have met him. He's very... I don't know how to explain it. He's very particular.

He's very calm and chill, but he's also like a monster at the same time, and he's super competitive. So if he sees me hit something, this is way back. If he saw me hit a squat, he'll try to double it or do something like that. I don't think the world's ever seen anybody

quite like John Hack. I've never seen anything like it personally. I mean, there was a while there where Big Ray was on a crazy tear that I'd never quite seen before either. But what John Hack is doing right now, I got to say, I mean, Larry Wheels was smashing that shit too, and he still does, and he's still insanely strong. But John Hack is lifting heavy every week, and he competes often,

and he just keeps up in the stakes so I mean I don't know what the hell's going on with the guy no and if you look at if his leverage is they're not power they don't look he doesn't look like a power he just looks like a jacked guy yeah like still waters run deep like he's so chill but it's like dude there's there's a monster down there yeah yeah and so somewhat low-hanging fruit and I know you're sick and tired of it but i'm bringing it up because in sema has to deal with this shit all the time too but the fake natty claims like how do you deal with all that shit nowadays i don't i don't care it doesn't

bother like i think when i first started it bothered me but like now that i'm like i know that i'm not taking anything why should it bother me like that's your opinion you know it's not it's not fact yeah it makes sense and like what we were talking earlier which i do want to get into like the knees over toe stuff but like you heard of of ben patrick but like he wasn't really on your radar because it's like well or do you have knee problems yeah no are you still squatting a shit ton of weight yes so it's like why would you even want to bother when everything is going so well already yeah yeah so i mean like i said it's i think it it's funny because what's that guy's name that he does like the fake natty stuff? He has like a very high-pitched voice.

The Greg Doucette. Yeah. He actually, he called me out. He's like, this guy is a natty. That's pretty good. That's pretty good. That's pretty good. Russell Orhi.

I was like, okay. And I made a response video. And then he ended up like retracting what he said. So it was just like, I just approached it. The thing is like, that's entertainment for him. But like,

like I'm not sitting, I don't post stuff on social media to kind of convince people that, I'm not Natty. Like what you take from my content is what you take from my content. So, you know, it is what it is. Yeah.

You're probably not even really talking about it much. I mean, you just can, that's what kind of the way I look at it. You compete in a drug tested federation and you do your thing your way. And it's like, you're going to get those comments here and there. Like people are going to, people are going to like warp their minds to believe whatever they want to believe. I'm like, I'm doing everything I can to show you guys that I'm natty. But I mean, if it's not enough for you, then you know, it's all, I'm not going to like trip about it anymore.

It's just like, okay. Like you think I'm not natty. All right. How did you, how did you, I guess like transform your body? Cause like when you were younger, when you first started lifting, were you kind of a skinnier kid? Were you a little bit thick? Like what did you kind of look like before you got into lifting? I would say it was like more so in between. I don't know. It's, it's kind of, I think honestly it sucks to say, but it's like genetics just the way

my body's built. Um, I put like, I work out very, very, very, very, very hard.

Um, but I just think like my muscle assertions and everything, that's just, it just comes down to genetics of how everything fills out. When you were a kid, were you like a little bit muscular? Yeah, I was,

yeah, I was a little bit more, a little bit more muscular. Like junior high, I was definitely more muscular than like all the other children. Um, same thing with high school too. Like I was definitely a lot more built.

How about, uh, yeah. So like in your, in your like i don't know parents or like somebody in your family like super jacked as well or no no no it's but also too like if you saw like my brothers i have like two brothers if you saw them you're like oh if you worked out you'd be jacked yeah okay how did oh go ahead no no it's just like i said it's like nigerian genetics west african genetics at the end of the day yeah yeah was it uh was it ever like a struggle or you put on weight and strength uh fairly easy in the beginning it's kind of hard because i feel like everything's perspective right i see other people that are a lot bigger than me and they do a lot less than i do um and they they get jacked but i like i said like i try to put in a lot of work and i try to

exhaust myself um so it's kind of hard to tell did i put it on easily i said like i try to put in a lot of work and i try to exhaust myself um so it's kind of hard to tell that i put it on easily or not because i've just put in a lot of work since the beginning yeah what do you think people are are missing out on when it comes to just chasing strength um we have a lot of guys that come into this gym like every weekend you know they're prepping for meets like on a regular basis but like we don't have a russell ory here like you know we're not even close right now so like what do you think people are kind of like overlooking or like what is it that they're doing wrong and why they're not building like world-class strength i feel like a lot of people just

i don't know if we're talking specifically powerlifting um at least like the federation i compete in i feel like people actually don't work hard enough. Like they play around too much. They jack around too much. They don't take like the actual training aspect of what you do seriously. They come and think they can just dick around and make gains. You know, when I'm inside the gym and I kind of like look around at other people, like I get taking your time between sets, but make sure your workout is purposeful. Like actually be present in the workout. Don't fuck around.

There's no reason that's why you should be taking 30 minutes in between sets and hanging out with your friends and this, that, and the third. So I just think that people just actually need to work harder. And I think people that come from different sports, like I came from football, so I understand what working hard looks like and what pushing your body to the brink looks like. Yeah, you got to push pretty damn hard you got to um you got to kind of force it but it gets to be a

little complicated because um i think when you're talking about working harder you're not really talking about trying weights that you can't actually lift no no and you're not talking about like just going heavier and like saying f the form and all that stuff you're you're referring to is just like some sort of efficiency. It would probably be a good idea if you're having trouble with efficiency to set up some type of schedule and to have some sort of plan going into the gym rather than being like, oh. If you're somebody that can't just like audible and lift,

then you're going to want to have a plan, and you can kind of say, when I'm done with my main exercise, I'm going to do these two exercises back and forth when i'm done with those two exercises i'm going to do these two exercises back and forth and then i'm out and after you're warmed up or something you know that should be like a 45 minute workout depending on like what you're lifting for the day if lifting really heavy it might take a little longer yeah because i mean when i'm inside the gym i get pretty selfish just because I know like the amount of work that I have to put in, in order to like progress.

So sometimes like I'll have friends in the gym and they know like, okay, Russ is working out. Like he's not going to go out of his way to talk to me or like, I actually don't make eye contact with my friends when they come in. I'm just kind of like, what's up bro. And just like kind of look away,

you know? So, um, yeah, I just feel like a lot of some power lifters these days like just need to do a better job just being a lot more intentful during the workout do you ease up a bit after your like main lift is done do you get a little more casual i know like it's like uh popping your cherry right every time you go to the gym it's

like you're walking in there with like your butthole kind of puckered and then uh you get your first couple lifts in and you might have like a little um anxiety or just extra focus on like i gotta do that i gotta do that heavy set of three man like i hope this jackass who asked me the same fucking question every single time i see him doesn't ask me the same question again yeah and try to stop me for 30 minutes because i'm on a mission i gotta do this set of three yeah no that's that's the perfect way to explain it like i literally come in i'm like just just give me this top set like i just need a single or i need like this top set of like like a heavy set yeah then i'm just like whoo hey what's up dog hey what's happening yeah i thought he was in a bad mood yeah i. I have that happen so much, man.

Yeah. Do you work with a coach? Yeah. Yeah. Joey Flex. Oh, shit. How long have you been working with Joey Flex? Man, it's been like four or five years now.

I think Joey Flex might have gotten into powerlifting because of me. I think so. I don't know. Maybe I made that up. You just said it on record. I feel like a lot of people got into powerlifting because of you. I used to watch your videos. You don't watch them anymore? What's wrong with you? No, I'm't know. Maybe I made that up. You just said it on record, so that's good to know. I feel like a lot of people got into powerlifting because of you. I used to watch your videos. You don't watch them anymore?

What's wrong with you? No, I'm just kidding. I don't really make them anymore, so it's okay. I used to watch your personal videos where you upload and all that. I used to keep in touch with all that stuff. Yeah, I mean, there was a lot less going on in fitness and in powerlifting. I mean, now there's a lot of YouTube channels. You have a successful YouTube channel. What is something that helped your YouTube channel catch fire?

Just your strength, you think? Or just a combination of a couple other things, too? Nah. So I feel like for me and my social media, it's just my personality. I just kind of be myself. i feel like there's a lot of strong people out there in the world actually um there's a lot of people that are strong as shit uh that was like an ass shot of me but for the most part i just kind of relate to people on a personal level to where i'm just myself and they're just like dude you're thick he's a fucking jack

dude but yeah i just i just try my best to make sure that i just uh kind of showcase my personality what i'm interested in you're gonna do great in bodybuilding i can't wait i'm so excited i'm fired up for it yeah but yeah there's a lot of strong people on social media but they like when you talk to them they're just oh yeah yeah the type of mindset that it takes to be strong is a little bit you know being strong or being a good bodybuilder, it's a lot of like repeated effort of doing the same thing. It's a lot of patience. And so sometimes some of the people in those sports, they're sometimes kind of like boring,

for lack of a better term, not trying to offend anybody. But that's kind of what I've seen as well is like these people are – they're very monotone. They're very like chill, docile type people. Like they're not going to go out and like tear up the town and shit like that. They're just – powerlifters usually aren't those kind of people. They don't really drink. I mean you might see some guys smoke a little bit here and there. But like there's not a lot of – although there are guys that utilize performance enhancing drugs, there's not a lot of like recreational drugs because you can't really mess

around with that stuff that often and be successful at it. Yeah. I think the biggest thing is just, I just showcase my personality. It's, it's weird. Cause it's like, you almost make the camera your best friend in a sense,

because it's like, I'm able to talk to this camera. So I'm talking to like the homies. So a lot of people, you put a camera in their face, they just can't talk. Maybe they do have that personality, but like when the camera comes. So a lot of people, you put a camera in their face, they just can't talk. Maybe they do have that personality, but like when the camera comes on,

it's just like, like, you get that trait from maybe a family member, like your mom or dad, are they pretty like talkative or anything like that? No, it's, it's interesting.

Cause I feel like social media has helped me kind of like come more out of my shell. I'm actually a very reserved person. I don't, you know, I'm, I'm very like, yes, ma'am.'am no sir type of guy um but then like as i started more social media it's kind of helped me just like connect and talk to more people because like you're kind of forced

in a way to like associate yourself or just like you know talk to people meet people and throughout doing that it's like be a lot more comfortable on camera. So normally you're not real outgoing? No. I'm a recluse, damn near. I'm a homebody. I like to chill. But I can, it's not like turning on a personality, but it's like I can show more of myself when it's just me on camera. It's a part of you.

Yeah, it's a part of me. I normally don't show that part of me to most people when I first meet them. Earlier, you were hanging out in one of our offices and you were getting some work done. What work are you doing? I've been, you know, it's like work that I shouldn't be doing. In a sense, just

because I'm trying to scale a little bit my business and it's just like I'm still handling roles that I probably shouldn't be putting myself into. So it's just like stuff'm still handling roles that i probably shouldn't be putting myself into um so it's just like stuff like that like um we were taught we're having like a a pop-up event um in philadelphia in like a month so i'm like figuring out like hotel like this down the third like all that kind of stuff it's just like i shouldn't be doing that but i am just because it's hard for me to let people in and like handle different tasks yeah and so like what what is the company like what what do you guys provide or what yeah so it's just it's it's hard for me to let people in and like handle different tasks. Yeah. And so like what, what is the company like?

What, what do you guys provide or what? So it's just, it's, it's my company called the get better today brand. Like we sell clothes, um, merch and all that kind of stuff. Yeah.

Yeah. How long have you had that for? Um, three years now. Yeah. Cool. Damn. Any advice for him to help let people take over jobs that he shouldn't be

doing? Yeah. Um, so, uh, number one is start the process of like trying to like search for people a little bit and try to interview people and take your time with it. You know, don't just, it's really easy to be like, oh, my cousin will handle it or whatever. It's like, you know, like then you might've trapped yourself.

Cause like, how do you tell your cousin? Like, you know, you really suck at your job. I told you 17 times, you know. So, you know, take your time in looking for somebody and make sure they fit. And I would even explain that to him. We had somebody come in today that we believe is going to be like editing our podcast stuff. And I just told him, said we're this might take like three four months you know for us to hit our stride and to see how it works for you and see

how it works for us because uh we didn't officially like hire him yet so yeah just take your time with that process and um ownership is a big thing so take ownership of if the person didn't do a good job it's still your fault it's like reflective of. It's like being on a football team. The quarterback throws the interception. You didn't fumble the ball, but the other team has the ball. And it's part of a team responsibility. In this case, this is your business. So a really important thing to understand in business is that nobody in the history of the world has ever had a great business by themselves. Like you need to have some other folks helping you out. And there might be some businesses that have done well with like two or three or four people. But for the most part, like you need some good people around you.

It looks like you got a good guy with you to handle your camera work and your photography and editing and that kind of stuff. So that's great. photography and editing and that kind of stuff. So that's great. But the last piece of this is to, here's the thing that I try to have for myself is if I hand something over to somebody, I think that they can run the ball better than me. I think they can do a better job.

So I think most people are like, I'm going to give this to this dude and it's fourth and one and he's going to fumble fourth and one, and he's going to fumble it. Like, I know he's going to fumble it. And then sure enough, because you've got no confidence in the guy, he fumbles it. But people are going to make mistakes, and you've got to give them their leeway. And they're going to do things differently. So if you ask somebody to make a post on social media, you'd be like, man, I would never talk that way.

Like, that is whack. I can't understand what the hell happened there they might just have some different language but again that goes back on you maybe you didn't communicate everything that needed to be communicated you want to make sure you iron that stuff out but

that's been probably the most valuable piece for me has been like I don't know anything about what Andrew's doing over there I know he does something i'm trying to figure it out too but oh shit all right well maybe we should find somebody else well how about this i'll find somebody okay yeah yeah do whatever you want you know what i mean though like it's like you have confidence that uh because you're you're you're a lifter at heart you and you have your passions, and you have your skill set of your business, and you'll be good at those things.

And nobody else will most likely be as passionate about your business than you will be. But there is somebody who understands a spreadsheet better than you. There is somebody who understands shipping and receiving and all the other bullshit that goes on in business. I would hope so, right? You hope that there's people out bullshit that goes on in business. Like, wait, I would hope so, right? You hope that there's people out there that understand that stuff better. And the last thing, too, and Andrew has said this before, I think people give up hope on stuff.

If Andrew's just like, man, my back hurts. My back's always hurt. My back's hurt since I was a kid. It's always going to hurt. It doesn't matter if these new people show me this or show me that it's always gonna hurt well then he's always gonna be in pain yeah you know so just understand that like it might be a little bit of process hiring firing people and yeah um and so just uh be be really uh patient with it yeah it was funny because there's certain things you said in there i'm just like yeah i'm struggling to like i'm getting better like towards the tail end of last year that was for sure

something i was struggling with it's like i'll give something i'll give someone a task and it's like i feel like i could do that task better than them but i'm just giving it to them because i can't do everything at once so i would run into the issue of just like why like why why are we doing this like this doesn't make any sense like i disagree with that instead of just allowing people to just like do their job that's probably part of your personality probably yeah uh not not an egotistical thing but you probably literally feel that you can do stuff uh a little better than people like just like in the gym right someone does a squat you're like i could do that i think i could do it with more weight i think i could do more reps it's like uh the athlete that's

in you you know so it's not a negative thing at all. It's just something that you, you know, you, you want to try to pull back from a little bit to just understand like somebody else is going to do way better job with this paperwork and some of this like BS stuff. And my time would be way better off, you know,

working on these other things. Yeah. The main thing I try to tell everyone now, it's like, I'm just the lifter, man. I'm literally just a lifter. Like you guys execute y'all's roles. And like, I want to make the main Yeah, the main thing I try to tell everyone now, it's like, I'm just a lifter, man. I'm literally just a lifter. You guys execute y'all's roles,

and I want to make the main thing the main thing. I think LeBron James did a good job of saying something like that. He's like, I'm the basketball player, and then I put my people in positions that could kind of help me get the passion projects that I want to get off the ground. Yeah, one of the most amazing things

I ever heard Mark even say, he was, so his wife Andy was like, Mark, we got to go take this business call like right now. It's like, okay. And he keeps going on another set. I think we're doing dumbbell bench. She comes out again and she's like, Mark, like now. And he just looks at the camera and he's like,

the only reason why they want me on that phone call is because of what I'm doing right now. He's like, so that phone call can wait, does another set. And I was just like, that's like, that is so sick. So you're on the right path,

dude. Yeah. Yeah. Do you have any, anybody out like that? You can like reach out to like anybody guiding you when it comes to like the business side of things. Yeah,

for sure. It's, I got a lot of friends. I mean like the circle that I came up with on social media, they all have like their own successful businesses and they're all doing their own things in their own great way. So it's like I have a lot of friends I can reach out to. It's like, yo, bro, do you have a lawyer? Or do you have a guy I can talk to about this?

Like a lot of different stuff. Yeah, you need all that stuff. When you start lifting and stuff and you get way into it and you become something in lifting, it's not anything that you ever think would be even anything you'd be doing. Yeah, yeah. But now here you are doing it, and it's like – and maybe you don't have to understand all the different aspects of everything, but somebody does. Somebody in your organization or company does need to know it all. Previously, before you had your videographer and photographer, were you doing everything yourself?

Yeah, I was doing everything myself. So my time in the gym would just be, man, like five hours minimum. Because I'm sitting here, the type of videos I would upload were vlogs, so literally just going through my whole day. So I would get different angles of my workout just to make the video look really good. And then I would go home and edit. So my day would be ending at like 3 in the morning.

And I was doing something where I was uploading. Because Casey Neistat, I don't know if you guys. He had the daily vlogs. I was like, I'm going to do the daily vlogs too. You're like, I'm going to try to keep up with him. Yeah, I'm going to keep up with him. And I went for a pretty long time. But I mean, that shit was draining but i like it because it taught me just like number one like

how much effort it takes for him to get the content out and then number two just understanding like okay like this is what he does on a daily basis yeah when i was doing just like uh one video a week um when i was doing starmageddon i don't know if you're familiar with it, but it made me have so much more respect for Mark because I remember he was doing it by himself on his phone, editing and publishing a video every day. I don't even remember what it was for. Well, I did Carnivore for 100 days. There you go.

I posted a video every day for 100 days. I've edited thousands of videos like that because I just would film them on my phone. I didn't really know what the hell i was doing but i just like threw them together yeah it's it takes forever it's terrible yeah and then you have shit where like maybe like the files are corrupted oh yeah go fuck yeah it won't upload or whatever i had a recent thing um probably like two weeks ago i filmed everything in slow motion so like the audio the audio is fucked.

So I'm just like sitting there and do on like my camera guy. He goes, yeah. And I asked him a question. I'm like, Hey, like if you feel something in slow motion, can you still like have the audio in there?

He's like, Oh no, the audio is fucked. I was like, Oh, okay. I just like fucking go like that. I was like filmed like half of my day in slow motion. You just got to make like a super cool,

like slow motion. And that's what he did. So that's what you're like. Damn. That thing, I filmed like half of my day in slow motion. You just got to make like a super cool like slow motion hype track. And that's what he did. That's fucking wild. You're like, damn, that shit was going to go viral. That was it. What has been some of your most popular videos? What gets the most attention?

I feel like it's the stupid shit. Like it's mostly the stuff that like I think about in like three seconds and then I just post. I'm like, oh, this would be funny. And I post and it ends up going viral. I feel like the most popular things is like anytime I lift with like a girl around, it goes viral. Some of the, yeah, some of the more stupid stuff that I filmed. Yeah, man, our audience is like hungry. Because like I know like on some of my stuff, like we don't even have a lot of girls in the gym.

But if there's a girl that walks by people will be like uh nine minutes 23 seconds yeah and they'll like just freak out and sometimes you're like uh that was a guy with long hair but whatever you're into you know what I mean like the ass on so-and-so you're like whoa everybody just relax well that dude was caked up. Dudes will go out of their way and find the girl. Because I've had my gym manager, she's been in a lot of my videos. And people will go and find her personal IG and hit her up. It's like, yo, I forgot the name they called her, like Peruvian.

Oh, shit. Yeah. So you got your own gym too. Yeah. That's sick. Yeah. It's been like a dream come true. How long have you had your own gym too yeah yeah yeah sick yeah it's been uh it's been like a dream come true how long have you had your own gym for um so it was actually supposed to open up 2020 but that's like i funny story as soon as i acquired the space the pandemic hit like a month later

and then during that pandemic it was impossible to find anything like no equipment you couldn't find shit so all of 2020 we just i just had to bite that bullet and then um we opened up last year i think it was june yeah june 26 so we've been open for like six seven months now um it's kind of like a powerlifting gym kind of a little super training-esque a little bit barbell brigade-ish type thing yeah so very specific it's specific to powerlifting but if you're experienced enough you get a full um bodybuilding workout as well oh sick yeah damn and then earlier you know i was like oh you're still training on alpha elite now i got my own gym and i was like shit i wasn't even sure if that was

yours yeah which is dope if if you're cool with it saying you know on air like why why do you want to kind of keep that like an almost like an unknown type thing um let's say maybe one day i fall off like maybe this shit's not hidden from me no more like the gym will be able to stay on itself so it's not reliant upon me to constantly push content out to make it pop in so it's just like i want the gym to exist in its own separate entity because i remember when i was talking about creating a gym people like oh call it the russell gym or like the get better today gym i'm just like hell no i don't want to do that shit. I want to create just a separate thing for myself that people can come and train and have its own community.

Dude, that's genius. What do you do to drive people there? Do you spend any advertising money or just people are just aware of it? No, I literally just train there. I post like all my, most of my training videos are there. And it's gotten to a point where people want to be where I'm at. So people will fly in to train for the weekend and you know, all that kind of stuff. So yeah. And then we, we do social media marketing.

So we post stuff on Tik TOK. We've had a couple of lifters like come in from Tik TOK. They're just like, Oh, like, Oh, this gym is so cool. I saw it on Tik TOK. I'm like, I'm like, like, huh? I had this full blown conversation with this guy. He was a powerlifter and he's like, yeah, man, I'm just getting into lifting and this, that, and the third. And he's like, oh, so what do you do? I'm like, oh, I'm a powerlifter too. And he's like, yeah, I found this gym on TikTok and it's just amazing. I was like, yeah, man. And it made me happy because I'm like, that's exactly what I

want. It's working. Yeah. Yeah. So on this podcast, we love talking about habits, daily habits and that sort of thing. Do you have, I mean, I'm pretty sure we can kind of assume some of the good habits, good sleep, nutrition, obviously consistency in the gym. But do you have any habits that maybe are outside of that? Like, are you reading every day? Are you journaling or anything like that? No. So I'm actually getting to that point. Like my, I feel like the last year i've just kind of

gotten away from my routine um i used to have a routine but not anymore um so like i do want to get into journaling um or at least drawing because i like to draw oh so that's like kind of a way i sort of express myself so it's like maybe spend an hour drawing um i feel like i'm still kind of building that, you know? The rest of the stuff is pretty, like you said, mandatory and standard. Makes sense. With your workouts and just with, yeah, strength training and fitness in general, like what does that look like? Do you work out specific times every day?

Yeah. And do you have like an eating schedule that kind of goes around that or are you kind of the kind of person who kind of like wings it a little bit every day? Nah, nah. So I have to work out fasted for the most part. I love working out fasted. or are you kind of the kind of person who kind of like wings it a little bit every day no no so i have to work out fasted for the most part i love working out fasted so um i want to say like i probably get to the gym i want to say my ideal time to get to the gym would probably be 9 a.m 10 a.m um no food uh just like kind of vibing off the pre-workout um and then after that probably like around i want to say 12 or 1 p.m., I'll have like my first meal of the day.

And then get some work done. Probably, yeah, get some work done, head back to the crib, and then get my second meal of the day. Which is like usually enough to get like all my calories in because I eat like really, really big meals. You usually eat about twice a day. Then maybe there's like a protein shake or snack of some kind in there too. Yeah. Yeah. And then are you tracking or just going off on how you feel?

I loosely track. So it's like, I kind of keep an idea of like what I'm hitting. The main thing is making sure I get the protein in. Other than that, like right now, not really,

but as I get closer and closer to me, I definitely start getting a hold of that. What's up with your lifting? What are you doing lifting wise? Like do you have, do you have kind of

like a set protocol? I guess you said you're getting programming from Joey flex. So what is, what is some of that look like? So for the most part, um, we're going to be hitting like a single on our, uh, heavy compound day. So squat bench that lift some point during the week, I'm gonna hit a heavy single on that. Um, other than that, it's like working just off RPE, just kind of like how you feel on

the day. So today you're asking me, you're like, Oh, what do you think you're gonna hit on squats i'm like shit i don't know like you know it might be a little bit over six it might be a little over seven it literally just depends on how i feel when i get under the bar rate of perceived exertion i believe it is right yeah yeah and so you're just uh trying to i guess uh give yourself an idea of like just how intense or how hard the exercise was for the day. How often does that get bumped up to a 9 or a 10? It depends. Joey kind of knows how I train now.

So it's like if I feel good, then I'm going to probably get up there towards an actual true RP max or RP 10. And this is just your own judgment call there's no machine or anything giving you feedback or anything it's just you being like man i that lift really fucked me over yeah but it's also auto regulation too when you're in the moment because it's like okay like i fucking went balls to the wall in this single like let me let me chill a little bit on the back down sets um so you just have to develop that experience as a lifter just coming in and it's

like okay like i pushed last week i pushed too much like this week don't even like have any expectations like literally just get the work done and dip on out pat roger family how's it going now we partner with vertical meals owned by the genius bodybuilder stan the rhino efferding now vertical meals isn't your normal meal prep company we've talked about the amount of crazy options that they have in terms of the food on their website from the classic Monster Mash, Steak and Eggs, Just Steak, Chicken Empanadas. But a cool thing they have on their website is called RX Meal Kits. Now, you probably don't know what that is, but if you go to their website and you go to the RX Meal Kits, you can enter in your age, your gender, your height, your weight, if you're trying to gain, maintain, or lose weight,

and your activity level. And that calculator is going to spit out meal options and ideas and packages for you for your plan. No other company does this. It's crazy. Stan has thought of everything. So guys, check out Vertical Meals. And Andrew, how can they get it?

Yes, that's over at verticaldiet.com. And when you guys load up that RX meal kit into your cart, use promo code POWERPROJECT to save 20% off that entire order. Again, so you're going to get rid of all the guesswork, all the meal prep work because nobody likes to do that. And you're going to have these meals shipped directly from Stan Efferding's brain straight to your door. Again, verticaldiet.com. Links to them down in the description as well as the podcast show notes for some of the um the less experienced lifters uh you know the program calls for a heavy double heavy single and they're not feeling it and then they can't hit what they maybe were hoping to hit

they get all up in their head they're like i guess i'm gonna fucking just throw everything away at this point uh how, how, I guess, can you give them advice for like, just not making like a total mental case out of, I don't know, lifting a plate less. Like, you know what I mean?

Like, it's not that big of a deal, but like, how, how did, how do you do it and how can they do it? So I personally just, I just charge it to the game.

I just kind of like reflect back on like, okay, let's like, is this a consistent trend for yourself? Like, obviously like you expect more because you've done more before they're like this is just an isolated event this is just one day um so i would say for them just to kind of reflect back on the work that you've put in and then just understand like bro this is just one day so just like let it go that's the

way i look at diet too yeah you know i look at diet the same way like i i put in a really good effort i feel like i i think that for the most part, it's pretty on point. And if something goes a little sideways and I eat a little something that's not on plan or maybe even I end up binging, I'm like, okay, well, I probably was robbing myself of too many calories at some point, and the body was like, hey, man, we don't like that you're doing this. And then you just end up eating some ice cream or end up eating some pizza or something. It's not a big deal. I'm not going to get like, I'm not going to beat myself up over it.

I have a question. Do you feel like that after like you hit like a big ass, like PR lift, like you just feel like you have to eat something like fatty or I don't know. Yeah. When I, when I was hitting some big weights, I would, uh, I remember like I would tell my wife, you know, it'd be like nine or 10 o'clock at night and she'd be like going to bed and I'd be like, uh, I'm going to go back downstairs and watch TV for a while. She'd be like, why? I was like, I still got to eat. Yeah. Cause you know, that day I did like some heavy deadlifts or heavy squats or something. I could kind of like, I don't know if it was mental or if it was like a literal, like internal, like feeling that I had, but it felt like I needed to eat more.

Yeah. Cause I'll hit like something like high for myself and I'm like, fuck, like I'm hungry. And it would be like that for the rest of the day. I'm like, I have to like feed this hunger. It's, it's like a weird feeling. So I just want to know if your body's just trying to grow. Yeah. It's like, come on, bro. We just hit a PR. Let's go. What do you do for hypertrophy type stuff? I know you said that it does come a little bit easy for you, but is there a specific way that you address some of that? I literally just wear a bodybuilder. A lot of people ask me about how I structure my workouts. I go through a full powerlifting session.

I take five, and then I jump into a full bodybuilding session so i like i train like a pretty generic bodybuilder you work out for like two hours or something like that probably like so like a power power lifting for like an hour and then bodybuilding for like an hour yeah and i understand like a lot not a lot of people have the opportunity to do something like that right right you know i have the time so it's just like that's been my training style for the past couple years now well you didn you didn't always have the luxury of doing that probably, right? Like in the beginning, it was probably different for you or you set your life up around your training so you could do that? Kind of. Not really.

Like I remember when I was in college, in school, like I would just finish all my homework and just go to the rec and train for like four hours. Right. So it's just like I feel like you make time for what you truly want at the end of the day. And I just wanted to lift so badly that I was willing to kind of like make sure I set up my skill to where I would be able to accomplish that. Yeah, I did the same thing. I didn't have any money or anything. I just kept training.

Yeah. I remember like I was eating potatoes every day. I had no money. I was using my gas just to get straight to the rec center and that's it. Sneaking into the gym without a membership, all that kind of shit. Yeah. I love that you're very, I guess, even keel. You're not like, no, it was I had to go super hardcore no matter what every single day or you're not all over the place. Where did you adapt that mindset from? Again, I asked about family and stuff. Was there somebody that, I don't know, that maybe was into books and they kind of taught you a little bit about like certain, you know, mindsets and that sort of thing?

It's kind of tough to say. I feel like if I think about how my parents raised me, they always say that, like, you know, if you put the work in, everything will come to you. So I just look at it. It's like, let me just keep working. Let me just keep grinding. I don't have to like be super loud about it or like scream about it this and the third i might do that here and there but that's not like the the general way i go about things so just like just put the work in and you know things will work out yeah you're letting the uh the numbers talk for you yeah that's fucking sick i talk my shit though every now and then i'm not gonna lie to you well you can so that's great yeah i think uh what you're talking about like the yelling yelling and getting fired up and some of that other side that we have sometimes or tap into sometimes,

that's something that you get into maybe like 5% of the time. It's not that often, but sometimes you feel like you've got to get there, and I don't really know why it happens, but sometimes it's like I kind of always looked at it as if you're trying to you know grab a hold of a baseball bat as tight as you can and just beat the hell out of self-doubt yeah and sometimes that comes out verbally and you making a bunch of weird noises when you're about to lift because you're like this is heavy i'm not really sure if i can do this today there's all this shit running through your head you're like i was like three pounds lighter today like stupid stuff man i'll have my normal belt with me like this belt feels

weird all this stupid stuff starts to seep in and then the only thing you can think of is like well maybe if i just get mad and turn up the music maybe that'll help see it like i always tell people like i never i'll never post this on social media but like whenever people are around me and like i'm having a day where i don't want to lift that's when i start talking because it's like i'm talking myself into the lift like i'm trash talk like i'll i'll talk shit about like my competitors but it's like in a way to kind of get me riled up and it's like oh they think i'm gonna lose like this doesn't they're like i'm walking around but that's more so for myself because like that's the day where i don't feel like being there um but i kind of talk myself it's kind of like getting into that you don't

really believe that anyone even cares right yeah i'm like i'm like they probably don't give a shit about what i'm talking about i probably sound annoying and so right now but i needed to like get me to get myself no i believe in that i think it's uh the locker room stuff you know the coach uh you know puts up the newspaper clipping of um you know belichick is famous for that he would find something with the other team you know these guys said this or this cornerback said something about Brady back in the day and then what happens that guy gets

toasted for like four touchdowns like they go out and they seek him out and sometimes coaches even make that shit up yeah coach would be like you know by the way I made that up Michael Jordan made it up for himself right yeah right it'd be like this guy talks shit about me and he would do it in fucking like in interviews and stuff

yeah and i gotta be like no i didn't be all scared like i didn't say anything i just use i just use trolls now i mean like there's like this uh man there's like this one there i have a screenshot on my phone but this one guy's like this guy's like oh russ is so cringe i was like fuck this guy that's great i was working out i didn't even feel like working out but like i saw that i screenshot and i literally just used it for the workout and i ended up having a great workout i was like printed it out put it in front of the gym yeah i was like that was great so social media stuff is so weird and youtube stuff you know like you get a comment like that and as silly as it is it kind is, it kind of hurts you.

It kind of irks you. You're like, what the fuck? What does he mean? It somehow makes you feel like you're doing a bad job. Meanwhile, you've got a couple hundred thousand people following your stuff, and you've got X amount of likes and so many comments, and you've got people coming up to you. You're changing my life, man.

Let's take a picture here. Sign my wrist wraps or whatever it is. You know, like you got people that have really been impacted. And then you have the one guy who's like, oh, man, you totally cheated on those deadlifts. Why are you using straps? And it's like one day you decided to wear straps because you got a little nick in your hand. So you don't want to open it up because the contest is coming up. Everyone complains about it.

You're like, what the fuck? It was funny because I was just chilling and I saw that and I was like, man, fuck this guy. I went on his profile and it was private so I couldn't really see anything. I was like, man. It was probably in SEMA. His burner account.

It's because we don't want to be ostracized out of our tribe. Back in those days, if we were pushed out of the tribe right so like this like back in those days if we were pushed out pushed out of the tribe then it's like fuck we're probably gonna die so the second we see somebody talk shit to us we're just like whoa hold on wait a tick yeah hold up but um with that though like the i see the hashtag get better uh what is it yeah get better today get better today like i see a lot like you're impacting a lot of people yeah what's that feel like when you're seeing dudes like overcoming so many different things like like that's got to be

amazing no it's i've caught myself like in the last couple years crying like sometimes like i go home like fuck like you're kind of it's like i don't when i post some of the stuff that i post i don't think that people are like gravitating to it as much as they are um i recently had it was it was a very interesting day i was like driving to the gym late at night um and i never work out as late as the day that i went there um and this guy came to me in the gym he's like yo man like i watched your video it saved me from a dark spot like you know get better today this that third i just burst into tears right there like in front of him i felt so like i mean i was just like i was like fuck and he goes oh i hope i didn't say anything wrong i was like no i just needed that so it's very surreal to be

honest like there's no like real way to kind of explain that yeah yeah it's heavy right like you're not thinking like i i'm just i'm just lifting and i'm sharing it and i i am aware that people do enjoy it it's obvious that people watch it they they do seem to like it um but i wasn't expecting you know that guy to tell me that he got off a heroin because of something i said or did you're like wow that's okay that makes all these videos worth it that makes editing them and staying up in the middle of the night and having the thing not upload and having my phone die on me and like all these stupid crazy things having too much, not enough storage on your phone anymore or whatever.

Whatever all the weird stuff is that you have to try to figure out to get stuff uploaded. You're like, well, shit, man, maybe it is all worth it. And then you get hit by the guy that tells you that you're cringe. And you're like, fuck this shit. Fuck this guy. But have you guys ever had like imposter syndrome? Like about what you're doing? You're just like, you know, why me?

Or like why is this situation unfolding for myself? Sometimes, a little bit. What I'm most proud of is that I've been able to positively impact the people that are close to me. That's my favorite thing. And that's the stuff that will pull on my heartstrings pretty strongly. Being able to help. Like I've helped both of my brother-in-laws lose weight. I've helped my brother with addiction.

You know, Andrew's always complimenting and saying I've helped him with certain things and just the people around me. So I'm like, because what's the point in doing all this if you're not impacting the people that are around you in some way? My dad will tell me. My dad's like, he's like, yeah, I felt real fat and lazy today. He's like, but I saw you walking.

So he's like, I got my ass up and I went out on a walk. And that's the kind of stuff that I think is, is, uh, really awesome. But I do, I definitely have had moments of like,

yeah, why do people, why are people so fired up? Why do they care so much? But it makes it a lot of fun. I know that. For sure. Yeah. If I'm pretty, it's pretty a lot of fun i know that for sure yeah if i'm

pretty it's pretty safe to say if it wasn't for mark i wouldn't have like asked my wife to marry me um in a weird way like we went on a really long walk and he's just like fuck that he's like take my take my tahoe house or my um uh bodega bay house he's like make a big thing about it and then so that was pretty sick and then he had method man fucking gave me a shout out and he was after we got married and he's like now go make some babies and now it's like well fuck dude fucking man told me so now i got i got my son so yeah that shit's dope um do you have any like i know that's fucking thanks mark uh any any like interesting goals like that that you like have like people within your circle like you know you want them to look up to you the way i look up to mark or like i don't know i don't know just like anything like in particular um i just want to be like more serviceable more available to the

people around me um like i mentioned earlier like i'm kind of like a recluse so it's like i'm cool with just going to the gym and then like kicking it back at the career by myself um so i'm trying to be a lot more um a lot more purposeful and just like i just facetiming my friends or like saying yo let's like hang out let's go watch the fight together or something like that like i'm not the one to normally do that um so just being more available to them and then life goals i just i'm getting a little bit older like 27 28 so it's like i would like to have a family you know at some point so that'd be dope yeah oh that reminds me so i was talking to my wife i was just like hey like russ wall's coming to the gym it's gonna

be fucking sick i'm going off and then you know she's like um you know not sure like i'll throw names at her she's not familiar with everybody but i showed her picture or as a video of you squatting and she's like oh i know his girlfriend and i'm like oh okay yeah i know right i'm like hi because well because she follows like she followed guzman a lot so okay bunny and yeah so maybe that's how she stumbled yeah on them but you know so we were joking about like kind of getting in trouble like talking on podcasts and stuff but how long have you guys been together no we've been together for uh two years now yeah i'm son yeah that's it'd be cool to i've been i've been thinking because like now that i'm getting older like relationships are no longer just like just relationships like you

actually have to see a future with that individual in my opinion yeah you know everyone's different yeah does she work with you too what do you mean like work with your businesses no she has she has her own thing going on oh that's sick dude yeah so like uh yeah i mean like i i think about children now like oh that's cool yeah like a couple years ago that was not my thing like people say kids I'm like yeah I got it like whatever dude like a I mean two years ago now because my son's one but I was the same like I mean I knew I wanted kids but like people would like try to hand me their babies and I'm like stiff arming them like just like it's not my thing but now with my son it's like dude he's the most amazing thing ever like i i can't wait to go home and see him so yeah that's cool that you're already

kind of on that path or like that that wavelength yeah i'm gonna try you know having a kid uh like kind of fills in uh your your purpose kind of for you almost you know like you sometimes think like what's this all for what am i doing um It's hard to make sense of any of it, like whether you're powerlifting or whether you're a football player or teacher or whatever, it's hard to figure out. I mean, all we can like kind of come up with sometimes is like, well, I think we're here to like help each other, you know? And it's like, okay, well, I don't know. I don't know, you know? But yeah, having a child, it kind kind of it eliminates some of that because you're like well i don't really know why we're here necessarily but i need to help this little person out as much as i can

and they're the priority and it really doesn't matter why i'm here yeah all i know is i had them they're here and i gotta figure out shit for them yeah that's weird i want to i want a baby girl there you go yeah i'm already thinking what I would want. I want a girl. I think you've got to be on top for that. Well, because if she's on top, gravity pulls everything down, so she just can't get pregnant, period. Right.

Is that facts? I have all my kids because I was listening to the goddamn podcast. That's fucking amazing, dude. What are some upcoming goals you got? So specifically as to what I do lifting, I would say for sure, so I'm kind of separating myself from IPF and doing USAPL now. So I want to compete in a powerlifting meet and then do a bodybuilding show as well in the same year.

And then potentially compete at a much lower weight class and then balloon back up and then compete in a higher weight class. What weight class are you in currently? So I'm 82.5. And then what are some of your best lifts? So are we talking gym or just platform? Yeah, the gym's fine okay you don't you don't do any i've never seen a shitty lift from you i would say 733 on squat um just recently hit a 463 on bench and then 750 on deadlift yeah yeah what do you think is like uh i mean it doesn't

really sound like there's a weak point there, especially for your weight class. If there is like a weak point, what do you think it is and what do you think you need to work on? Like get past a sticking point? Like are any of the lifts stuck? Yeah, bench. Like bench just recently exploded. And I think it's mostly just because I'm like maybe just holding a little bit more body weight. But it's kind of hard to tell.

Bench really has a lot to do with the body weight. Yeah, so it's like I'm like 195 but i'm normally 195 so we'll see when when my weight drops down a little bit more how that sticks but i would say bench for sure because like the other lifts are like a lot more there i mean they're pretty they're pretty decent but the bench is just kind of like it's middle of the road a little bit i know you have a coach but is it hard to like stay in your lane when you see like other people hit some big lifts here and there does it kind of entice you to like man i wonder what that guy's doing i should try that no not really because i just always look at things and like in my lane i don't know that's good yeah because i'll see other people hitting

big lifts i'm like god damn this motherfucking guy like 50 pounds on his shit in like three months right but i don't look at it's like oh it's my months right but i don't look at it's like oh it's my coach's fault i literally just look at it's like yo i gotta work harder like i gotta make sure like i'm not bullshitting um when he sends me a program and i make sure i'm following it so i don't look at him it's like yo you need to do a better job did you have to make any corrections with the bench like that helped maybe get those numbers up um here and there i think maybe some cues here and there that maybe helped. But like I said, it's kind of hard to tell because these games are just like really new.

I thought I would hit 463 when I was like 30 or something like that. So to hit that when I'm the age now, it's pretty impressive for me. Anything different going on with your training that may have led to that? You doing like close grip work or wide bench? We're looking for the secret. Yeah, I'm trying to figure out myself. I would say maybe just like. Maybe reduce the weight a bit?

Like did you go lighter maybe? No, it was interesting because it was one of the days where I had like a meal before I tried. So like I was, I don't know, but I was pretty hyped too because like there was a lot of people in the gym. So kind of hard to kind of put a pin on it tell them about bench bagels oh yeah I have

back in the day I used to eat a bunch of bagels before I'd work out and drink a bunch of water and it would just I'd be so bloated I'd come in

I'd look like this I'd look like this day puff marshmallow man but it made me feel so strong damn salt bagels you need to get that. Would you do that for squat too?

Well, usually it was just on a bench day. Like when I was lifting, it wasn't popular to do all three in the same day. Like we didn't have that. We didn't have that technology yet. Seriously, like the frequency thing, it came later. Like guys bench squatting and deadlifting and stuff. It was like, that's why so many of the records have been broken like that's that's very new like

that was not a thing um you would not even consider like doing any of them on the same day really there were some like russian athletes and stuff doing it but you always just thought that was like some crazy russian protocol yeah and uh maybe they were lying about it or something to try to get you to like kill yourself but yeah the frequency um is definitely a newer thing do you train that way you're bench squatting and deadlifting the same day sometimes hell no that was like that was like one of the first things i told joey when we start we start working doing that shit yeah i'm not doing that shit like the energy expenditure that it takes to do squat bench deadlifting and deadlift in one day is just ridiculous. And the time, too.

I remember that I could squat first and I can deadlift a little bit afterwards. But the reverse of that, I mean, it would be shocking. I would do a deadlift workout and then I'd have some squats programmed in there. And I'd be lucky if I could go over like 225 it just hurt yeah and i'd be so angry i'd be like this is not worth it like this is like making me pissed off so i would just i was like i can't work out like that anymore i gotta figure out something different no that's shit i i see people that do sbd days i'm just like i don't know how the fuck y'all do that like they'll be in the gym for like four or five hours which i mean i understand that part of it but you're literally doing like a heavy compound movement like it's just i don't know i've never been with that one so you bench squat and

deadlift one time per week uh no so like i said so i have like one compound movement for the day like whether it be squat bench or deadlift and then after that particular workout that's when i move on to the bodybuilding stuff you do like assistance exercises exactly that yeah because he tried to combine like um he tried to combine the days like he has people that do like maybe three or four day programs so maybe they have like a squat and a bench day um where i mean yeah squat and a bench where they're doing it on the same day or a squad and uh deadlift or deadlift and bench or whatever i i just told him i'm like personally for me i need this to be kind of like laid out on a daily basis. So give me something I can do for one day,

and then I'll be able to be a lot more in tune with my training. Nothing better than hiring a coach and then telling him what to do. This is the way it's going to be. No, no. I was like, that's my only stipulation. Other than that, bro, do anything. Tell me to do anything, I'll do it. Who are some of your uh favorite lifters some lifters that you look up to so okay i have a question for that like would you like say you have lifters that you looked

up to you whenever you were competing oh okay because it's like yeah yeah but they're i mean like ed cone you know people like that like uh kind of the um stan efforting you know um comes to mind a lot of the other guys were like uh they were like my competitors kind of so like they weren't like even though i admired what they were able to do yeah i didn't like them very much because we were competing against each other i would say uh i would say for me like people that i watch lift that give me that that anxious feeling that makes me i'm like oh i gotta do more i'd say john uh john hack uh taylor outwood and that's that's pretty much it i'm like a lie yeah

that's pretty much it do you um like watch a lot of other lifters or not really like you you get it all done in the gym and you don't really watch a ton of it i actually yeah i don't watch the shit in the piloting stuff it's like i'm so piloted out like yeah yeah i i i had this conversation with someone before it's like i power lift and then that's it like i'm i'm watching video about videos about marvel and shit like there you go that's the type of content i consume or like watching football or uh basketball so so you're you're able to kind of like disconnect from power for sure yeah for sure because Mark was saying the other day like he would uh he'd be asleep in bed and he'd wake up like pushing like an imaginary bar because it was on his mind all the time like he ate you know he slept and did power lifting but that's pretty crazy like i've done that before

that's funny yeah have you ever done anything like that no i mean i mean like no not for the most part like i mean for me like i get the training out of the way and i i give it all in the gym and i leave it in the gym and then i don't really take it home with me um yeah it's just it's it's too much i think that for me personally i would start to overthink things um so it's just like yo just you know get your shit done in the gym and then like just kind of free yourself of that whenever you leave yeah i wonder if that's what like keeps people from being so consistent you know because they're like i'm fucking pro power lifter now so they're like you know eat sleep dream power lifting yeah and then they're just like fuck i'm doing that again whereas you you're

kind of like actually unplugging and taking some time off. I think it was just burning yourself out pretty quickly. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, you just need time to be able to just kind of like disconnect. Mark, do you see anything at all that like if he came to you and he's just like, whether it be bench or whatever, or if you have any more bench bagel tips or anything like that, is there anything that you would want to coach Russell on? I think the main thing is exactly what he's going to be going towards, which is bodybuilding.

I think a break from powerlifting would be really good. And I think when you come back to it, you'll be stronger, especially when you go to bodybuilding. If you have a coach or you're really pushing yourself in it, I think that you'll notice that you'll get a lot stronger. And I think that also like bench, squat, deadlift, like they don't need to be in there really, even for like, they can't be gone for too long probably. But you can ditch them for a bit and get some growth out of some other things.

And when you go back to it, it'll be like a little bit of a relearning process, but it'll take like three weeks. Yeah. And then you'll be stronger than ever that's what stan did stan you know he did bodybuilding and powerlifting and i think people thought that he did those simultaneously but he didn't he did them one at a time he would bodybuild with flex wheeler and he'd come power lift with me and he'd go back and forth and back and forth and every time he got stronger and stronger and stronger until he did like a 2300 something. Fuck. Yeah. Yeah.

He's the rhino. He's unbelievable. He's insanely strong. So I think it'll serve you well to jump into some bodybuilding for a bit. And then your weight stuff, that sounds great too. Like gaining some weight, dropping some weight, manipulating your body weight will be really helpful. Yeah. That's something I'm super excited about this year.

I feel like I've done the powerlifting stuff for a couple years now, and it's just so linear, just kind of straightforward. So it's cool to kind of push myself in a different arena. What's some stuff that you like to do for personal development type stuff? What do you mean? Do you listen to books, or do you read books, or do you podcast? I think the most annoying thing about me, Duhan's walking in right now.

I always have something playing audio wise. Like I'm listening to a conversation. I'm listening to people talk about having a conversation. Like it's podcasts are like my go-to. So like I'll get into a podcast and binge listen the podcast. So like even with this podcast, the podcast, the power project,

like I literally just binge watched it. And I was like, oh shit, it's good, bro. I fuck with this shit. this shit that's great yeah and then i have like a myriad of podcasts i tune into um same thing with the joe rogan podcast if there's something that i want to kind of tap into i'll i'll go binge watch that so yeah yeah how have you stayed uh injury free uh just lifting smart like i feel like um if if i feel something I'm just like nah not today like there's been so many times I'm in the gym and I'll I'll get in position and it just does not feel right and I'm like it's not worth it like I'm not gonna push myself or if like um I want to say if I get myself in a

compromising position I'm just like I'm'm not going to continue exploring this. Like, there's obviously times where you could push it, but, like, as an athlete, you should know, like, okay, like, something doesn't feel right here. I'm going to go ahead and take five and, like, maybe, like, come back to this maybe tomorrow or something like that. What's in your head when you're training and there's, like, shit's getting, like, real hard? Like, do you get excited about it?

Are you halfway nervous about it? You know, are you trying to fire yourself up or like, is there anything that you go to, to get yourself, I don't know, prepared for it? Or are you more mellow because you're like, well, the training is just a training and my strength at this time is going to be just a byproduct of the lifting I've been doing. Yeah. I mean, it depends on like the day. I know for sure, like some days I have to get myself super-duper hyped. And I have a particular hype crew in the gym that does a pretty good job of doing that.

But a lot of times, too, we'll be in there by myself. When I say by myself, I mean we just do on. There's this feeling I feel like a lot of lifters, a lot of new powerlifters don't understand like that that butterfly feeling and i feel like that's when you're being stimulated it's like when the adrenaline is running so it's like whether i'm ready or not if i feel that i'm like oh fuck i'm going right now because like my my body's ready to go um so for the most part i guess it comes out mellow but like inside i'm like i'm like oh shit like it's coming like oh

shit i'm about to lift so and i feel like most lifters just in general like are probably on way too many like stimulants to even feel what that is right like do you even mess with like pre-workouts and that's no i i mess with pre-workout that's the only caffeine i take like i don't do energy drinks or anything like that like if i'm gonna get take caffeine it's gonna be uh through pre-workout and then sometimes like i might cycle off but it's like one of those things it's like a ritual for me like either taking it to the face or like mixing some up yeah any other supplements um not like multivitamin strong joints and all that kind of stuff like pretty straightforward um when it comes to like the personal development stuff, is there anything that you've

been like kind of into more recently that, uh, yeah, that's really got you excited? Yeah. I mean, therapy, going to therapy, that's, that's, that's been like a, a life changer for me. Um, just kind of understanding, like, why do you feel the way you feel or like being able to kind of break things down? Um, that's been a, that's been a game changer for myself. You physically go to like a therapist or is it like something that you're doing like yeah yeah virtual i think everything at this point is virtual yeah yeah right um i find that that kind of stuff is really interesting because uh even just like saying stuff out loud has a lot of power um i've found that even just talking to my phone, like talking into my phone and recording stuff and just talking about how I feel in a particular moment, even that's helpful. Recording it with video sometimes is helpful because you say it out loud and you hear yourself say it again because a lot of times that's what a therapist will do.

A lot of times a therapist will say, oh, I understand you feel this way because you think so-and-so is trying to do this to you. And you're like, god damn, that sounds really dumb. But that is how I feel. And you kind of start to recognize, like, that kind of sounds a little irrational. Like, I should probably let some of that go or I should think of a different strategy. Yeah. I think that, I mean, if you want to keep it in sports i think a lot of athletes should have like a therapist like you i think it will do a lot of justice for them to like just talk to

someone or just figure out different tools that they use to express themselves because when you think about it like if you really think about all your power to friends you're like god damn you are an anxious ass person like i have friends that literally tense yeah they are so fucking scared of like weight like on the bar like oh i don't yeah they are so fucking scared of like weight like on the bar like oh i don't know what to do fucking do it like the weights on the water i'm like oh my damn you anxious person bro like just go talk to like i feel like if you talk to a therapist you get a lot out of that because like a lot of their personality that they have inside the gym transfers over into real life as well so it's just like you know if you get that figured

out that could do a lot for you out of the in your circle, are you like about the same age as everybody? Are you a little bit older now? Um, it depends. Like, I feel like my personal circle, we're all the same age. Um,

but like now the people that I'm working with that are now getting more closer to my personal circle, like they're a lot younger than me. Got it. Yeah. And it's funny. So like with a therapist and stuff like, you know,

traditional bro mentality, we're just like, no, fuck that. I'm too manly to like, let, let anybody know i even have feelings yeah yeah um what made you take that leap and actually start talking to somebody um the the people in my circle to be honest like they all started getting therapy um or at least like experimenting with some form of therapy and like maybe we're like confessing things to each other in the group chat like when

we're not being toxic um you know how the group chat beats sometimes but like when we're actually having constructive conversations it's just like oh yeah like i actually go to therapy it's like oh shit like you do like you know unpack that for me like let me figure out like what do you actually get from because we had such a negative stigma towards therapy it's like you know is there something wrong it's like no i just just mental checks here and there yeah the second you let your guard down mark will absolutely fucking it's amazing it's always funny like when he does it to somebody else and you laugh but then you're like ah i know mine's coming it's like are you gonna go talk to your fucking therapist about

this yeah it's like damn dog maybe yeah i think people do need to have a reinterpretation of, you know, what they think therapy is. Because there's so many people that are depressed and anxious and upset about various things. But then they just say, I have a lot of anxiety. Or they say, I'm an anxious person. And it's like, well, maybe. You don't have to be. Maybe you can get some assistance for it. And I think also, too, like within families and stuff or even friend to friend, it is helpful to talk with a friend.

It can help a lot. But, like, we're not experts. We don't know anything about it. So it's like if you want to know how to bench press, you go to somebody that knows how to bench press. You want to know how to take care of your anxiety. There's probably people that have studied that before and you can go to them or you can look it up on youtube and you can find great information and maybe that is like a um uh like a you've uh putting your toe in the water to kind of like see like what kind of information's out there and then maybe it gives you confidence to be like you know

what i should probably just call somebody. It'd probably be really helpful. Yeah. I feel like a lot of, I mean, like I mentioned before, like there's a lot of people that their whole identity is just lifting and I'm like, it shouldn't be like that. Like, I feel like you should understand who you are outside of the gym and then like obviously have the person you are inside of the gym as well. But, um, you know, you should go and unpack that, whether it's like trying to figure it out and like maybe writing it down, like you said, or talking to a health professional, like figure that out.

So like you should be Russell that that also happens to be a lifter, not a lifter who's named Russell. Exactly. Yeah. And then so another thing that we talk about on this podcast a lot and and Seema has been helping me out a ton with this and he'll slap shit out of me if I slip up. Not really. But is negative self-talk yeah um do you i don't know how do you ever like work on that do you ever like i've my so that goes back to like how i was raised my parents never raised me to like talk negative of myself or like even you know those people that kind of just like oh i'm such a shit like i feel like i'm a piece of shit or like this down the third. I'm like,

I'm like, I've never, I've never grown up saying that kind of stuff. Or I might say that jokingly, but like, it's never like something that's consistent within like my, my, um,

my conversation. So yeah, I, I try my best to be intentful. Like, or I don't even know if that's a word. Intentful. Fuck it is now.

Like I try to make sure it's like, I'll say, um, oh, I'm like intentional yeah if i if i win if i win nationals it's like some of my around me might correct me it's like no no when you win rations i'm like oh my bad like yeah my fault i got you but it's little stuff like that um because it helps like the visualize uh visualization process just kind of like being able to visualize yourself doing something. If you constantly say that you're going to do it, you get used to the thought of doing it versus being surprised when it's thrust upon you.

Do you have business stuff that frustrates you? You said you had a hard time kind of letting go of stuff to people. Have you given stuff to people and then they just jacked it up? I don't want to say anything that's gonna give me trouble i would say uh yeah no i don't even want to because i'm gonna have situations like where you've gotten like where you've been uh mad to the point where you're kind of mad at yourself for how mad you are you ever have that happen like that happens to me yeah i'm like man i'm really this i'm like this kind of sucks like i should not be this mad. This is dumb.

Yeah, I've had those. I mean, I feel like when you talk to other business owners, everyone kind of has those situations. I think, too, I used to hate the tough conversations because you try to be cool with people and show them, hey, this is a great opportunity. This is a fun thing to do. This is the third. But then when you have to sit down and have those real business conversations where it's like,

bro, you're not doing this correctly. I need you to shape it up and do this better. I used to hate doing those, but I feel like I've gotten better at that. But yeah, there's a lot of frustrations that I'm just not going to talk into. Some stuff that's been helpful for me in that regard is like um you know trying to manage people you know what's been the most helpful thing for me is to hire people that don't need

management that's been like that's and that's not easy it might take longer um but that's the goal is like you you don't have to like to tell your photographer and videographer what to do. He already knows how to video. You might have suggestions for him because you shot a lot of stuff yourself and say, hey, people kind of like these style of videos and things like that. But you could let people to be a little bit more autonomous, especially if they are – if you're not just picking people randomly out of the crowd, you know, and that's kind of what I did when I started this business was I did pick a lot of people that were just into the products. And that was actually really helpful in the beginning. But it gets to a certain point where the business isn't just like this side thing.

It's an actual business. And then you do have to kind of worry about um bottom line and there does have to be there's got to be some structure to the thing if the thing's going to chug along for as long as you'd like it to move along um you have to uh there's like money in there's money out like it's just there's like certain things that you have to kind of adhere to otherwise you won't have a business anymore yeah facts yeah mark would also um he would call it a shit sandwich when he's dealing with people um if you know what i'm talking about you can go ahead and explain it yeah um well so so shit sandwich is actually kind of different than that but like it's a compliment sandwich is what it is

oh my bad yeah about the same yeah well it could have some shit in the middle of it, I guess. Album and Sandwiches, Russ, dude, I appreciate, like, you're here every day. You're always fired up. I love the enthusiasm that you have. But the last edit you made on the last video, I think you cut out a pretty good clip. Andrew did a really good squat, and he's making a lot of progress. And so I would have loved to have that clip in there. And then I would finish it with one more compliment like hey man i love the other day when you helped uh andrew out uh with his

deadlift like that was really cool so yeah you uh you know hype him up give him you hit him with the truth yeah and then when you kick their ass out of the room you give him another compliment yeah that's something i'm trying to work like i feel like i'm very um i'm very do the room and you give them another compliment. Yeah. That's something I'm trying to work. Like, I feel like I'm very, um, I'm very do the task and that's kind of it. Um, so like I'm, I'm trying to do a better job of like thanking people. Yo,

I appreciate that. Thank you for going out of your way to do that. Like I, you know, it really helped with, it helped me like be able to kind of like do what I need to do on this part. So like, I think this morning I practiced that.

I feel like little stuff like that goes a long way. Cause I feel like some people like if goes a long way because I feel like some people, if you're just doing tasks and you're not hearing good job or this, that, and the third, you're just not knowing what's going on. They're not robots. Exactly. There are other things too, though.

You can, if you got time, you can explain to people this is the kind of business that this is. If you don't want to work on Saturday and Sunday randomly, this probably isn't the place for you. If you like to hear thank you and please and all that all the time, this might not be the right spot for you. I am going to appreciate what you do.

I am going to try to highlight it when I can. But I may feel in times that we're that like, we're just going and like, so you can also, you know, it's kind of up to you. It's your own business. That's the fun part is you get to kind of control, uh, how you would like to proceed with it. But it's not easy to find people that, um, a lot of, a lot of people do need like reinforcement for sure. And, uh, just stupid stuff. Like you have to repeat yourself a lot. One of my most hated things is to repeat myself. I hate like, you know,

you have a message for the team or for people, and then six weeks later, you got to mention it again. Then six weeks later, you got to mention. There are things that as a leader, you will have to mention time and time and time again. It's no different than lifting. If you don't address some of the small muscle groups,

it's going to rear its ugly head at some point, knees going to give out, elbows are going to hurt, or whatever it might be, and you're not taking the time to address those things. It's like they have to be readdressed here and there, readdressed, readdressed, readdressed. So I went to a conference one time, which was kind of a leadership conference, a, just a big seminar with, you know, Tony Robbins type people and that

kind of stuff. And the first thing that the guy said, and I was thinking like the whole time I'm thinking, or, and I wasn't thinking the whole time, it was something that I had as a preconceived thing. Like I hate repeating myself and anybody that I need to repeat myself to just sucks at their job. I sit down and I got my notebook out and the guy's like, if you're going to be a leader, the number one thing

you have to do is repeat yourself. I was like, damn. That guy just broke his foot off in my ass. He's like, it's not easy. He's like, it might be exhausting at times, but that's the first thing you got to do. I'm like, oh my God, that's amazing. When it comes to bodybuilding and jumping on stage, what do you guys have to work on? Like, what do you think is something that you're gonna have to, you know, we hear people

like, oh, I got to bring up my shoulders. I got to, you know, do you have anything like that? Um, I would say probably just like my conditioning like whenever i get down to that body weight because i know like the first time i did a show that was like something i struggled with just because i didn't respect the sport as much if i'm being honest like it was my first time doing it and i thought that like i'm like i'm lean enough like i'm fine then when i got i got to that was like, God damn. You feel like a real fatty. Yeah, I'm like, these motherfuckers are lean.

How long ago was that? Man, that was like five, six years ago. We got video footage of this? Yeah, is that on your channel maybe? Somewhere deep down. I think if you type in like Russell Warhe bodybuilding show or something like that. Let's see what that means. And I freestyled my posing routine thing.

I think I played Pretty Ricky and I was just like dancing. I would like dance into poses and that was pretty much it. Okay, yeah, here we go. Oh, shit. That was fast. Bodybuilding is a tough sport, man. Yeah, it is. What about like, so like me, I love love uh you know doing like the uh you mentioned

um fuck is his name uh the guy that was calling that said that you were fake natty um oh greg duce i can't believe his name just slipped me it's been a long day but uh i love following his diet you know like it's like super high carb high protein pretty much like very little fat like do you know what route you're gonna go when it comes to like shredding down to get stage lean i have no clue i think for the most part i'm just gonna get a guy that i trust and i've seen him bring along athletes and just be like you i'm trusting you to to take care of this like let's go get it so yeah how'd you do in this competition i got second so this is the only bodybuilding show you ever done yeah i think that dude in the middle yeah the dude

right there with the black uh he ended up taking oops where's that did you have to do um cardio and stuff like that oh yeah too yeah yeah but i wasn't i wasn't doing everything i should have been doing let's say that like i would uh every thursday i have this thing with like uh the cheese chex mix i would eat like a bag of that every Thursday, which in hindsight, I was fucking stupid. I just thought that I'm like, well, I mean, it's a bag of Chex Mix. What is it going to do? I love foods like that, though. Certain foods just get you.

The cheese Chex Mix. I don't even like snacks either, which is a weird thing. That's a good one, though. It's a good go-to. Yeah, now I'm going to be thinking about thinking about that for a while yeah i don't know about y'all i i hate snacks you're not much of a snacker no not at all i just never met any food that i don't like i love i love everything yeah i try not to just because of all the shit that i've learned from this podcast it's like you know and sema says meals at meals and that's it like there's no like snacking in between yeah but like man give me one of those pop tarts and i'm just like those are good the where it's like, you know, and SEMA says meals at meals and that's it. Like there's no like snacking in between.

But like, man, give me one of those Pop-Tarts. And I'm just like, those are good. The tasty pastries. And I'm just like, yeah, I'll have that. Being Nigerian, have you eaten some like goat head and stuff like that? Like in SEMA talks about all that. I've seen a goat killed in front of me. There you go.

Yeah. Yeah. Goat's like the main protein choice of Nigerians for sure. You ever visit? Yeah. So when I was going into high school, I used to go to Nigeria every summer. Did you eat pretty good growing up? Yeah, my mom would cook good full meals with a lot of vegetables.

I think her feeding me vegetables at such a young age, like, I love vegetables now. I think it's a huge gap in our society. I don't think parents cook as much. I don't think people have, like, family dinners anymore. And we have them almost every single night. We're very fortunate to be able to do that. But I think that's a huge gap in a lot of families is that uh everyone's just like

grabbing whatever food they can get and it's usually kind of junk food you know yeah no she used to cook like she used to i mean she loves cooking so she would experiment with a lot of different stuff like she would like make like stuffed chicken and like skirt steak and like all this kind of stuff like it was it was great growing up yeah and you want to take us on out of here buddy yeah sorry i was-burp. That was crazy. Thank you, everybody, for checking out today's episode. Sincerely appreciate it. Please like today's episode and

drop us a comment on anything you guys found interesting today and subscribe. If you guys are not subscribed, turn all those notifications on ASAP because we got some awesome guests coming up. Anyway, yeah. Follow the podcast at Mark Bell's Power Project on at Mark Biles Power Project on Instagram at MB Power Project on TikTok and Twitter.

My Instagram and Twitter is at IamAndrewZ. Make sure you guys follow Nseema Iyeng. That's at Nseema Iyeng and at Nseema Yin Yang on TikTok and Twitter. Links to everything down below in the description as well as the podcast show notes. Russell, where can people find you online? So you can find me at Russell on everything.

So YouTube, IG, Twitter, Tik TOK, just type in Russell. I should come up. How many S's in Russell? Two.

Okay. Yeah. And what about, how can people find your gym? What's it called? Corrupted strength. So if you type in corrupted strength on social media platforms, you should find it there as well.

And then what about your gear, your clothing and stuff like that? What can people find? Gear is going to be the get better today brand or the GBT brand website, so just head on there. Cool. Strength is never weakness. Weakness is never strength. Catch you guys later. Peace.