Mark Bell's Power Project - MBPP EP. 692 - Coach House Joe Kenn: How To Make Sense of All The Different Training Gurus & Methods

Episode Date: March 15, 2022

All roads lead back to Coach House! We start our 2022 Arnold Classic Podcast Trip with the one and only Joe Kenn! Joe Kenn is one of the most well known Strength and Conditioning Coaches in the game and has been around long enough to see it all. Today he tells us how to decipher through all of the various training techniques as well as some insight on becoming an NFL Strength and Conditioning Coach. Follow Joe Kenn on IG: https://www.instagram.com/bighousepower/ Special perks for our listeners below! ➢https://markbellslingshot.com/ Code POWERPROJECT10 for 10% off site wide including Within You supplements! ➢https://eatlegendary.com Use Code POWERPROJECT for 20% off! ➢https://bubsnaturals.com Use code POWERPROJECT for 20% of your next order! ➢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 Follow Mark Bell's Power Project Podcast ➢ https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast ➢ 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 Follow Nsima Inyang ➢ https://www.breakthebar.com/learn-more ➢YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/NsimaInyang ➢Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/?hl=en ➢TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nsimayinyang?lang=en Follow Andrew Zaragoza on all platforms ➢ https://direct.me/iamandrewz #PowerProject #Podcast #MarkBell

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training? We had knees over toes. We had head, shoulders, knees, and toes. We had a guy that talks about the greatest of all time action and walking with your feet straight we had kelly stirret around and we've you know we've had some really wonderful people on the podcast and uh sometimes it sparks controversy and then people are like well joel seedman and stuff like that people are like what is this stuff this you know this is

this looks like crap what do you kind of think You've been around for a long time being a strength coach and an athlete yourself for many, many years, and you've kind of seen it all, I think. So what are we supposed to look at when we're trying to pick something that looks good? Well, I think we actually were talking about that on the phone when you had brought it up. I think there's a spectrum, right?

So you have a – Let's try to keep the mic close. Okay, sorry. Sorry. So you say you got here, where you don't believe in anything. Then here you got these guys. And again, I don't know. And so I don't know where they're coming from.

But a lot of times you've got this extreme mentality. And that's what you kind of see more and more on social media now, because that sparks the most interest. That gets the most likes. But the truth is I don't know what those people do 24 hours a day. Are they doing that all day long? I don't know, nor do I care. I just know that there's another sense of training out there,

and then you have your median if you're doing a standard deviation curve. So then the question becomes if you're a coach, like for me, a team sport or an athlete, a non-strength discipline. Try to keep the microphone a little closer, sir. Well, why don't you give me a stand or you can hold it for me. We left it on the jet. Yeah, that's it. All right, so I'll do this. I'll make my own stand. Thank you, sir it for me. We left it on the jet. Yeah, that's it. All right, so I'll do this.

I'll make my own stand. Thank you, sir. All right. So my thought is I go back to a three-word mantra that Dave Tate had actually used as a subcategory in a Swiss article, absorb, modify, and apply. I think if you put that in with the amount of stuff that's out there in training today from an educational standpoint or from a YouTube standpoint or from now Instagram,

I don't think everything's wrong and I don't think everything's right. I think you have to have a certain sense of confidence in what you've done to this point in your career as a coach and then where's the value proposition of some of these and again without knowing them to me that's extreme stuff I look at it from what I only know without studying it and not buying the books I see what's promoted on Instagram and I'm like that's extrem. So now I got to look at it like, where does this fit into my value proposition with athletes? Just like we came up through powerlifting. We kept wide stance squatting, vertical shin.

There is value in that if we're chasing a number. In athletes, there's value in knees over the toes. But am I going to train that 100% of the time? I don't know that. But there's value in knees over the toes. But am I going to train that 100% of the time? I don't know that. But there's value. So when people talk about knees over the toes, what about this knees over the toes guy? Look at a lot of things that happen in athletic endeavors. Look at somebody run.

You know, look at the shin, ankle, hip angles that track and field athletes and track and field coaches show you all the time, there's some knee over their toe. So to me, I want to look at it from the standpoint, okay, where is my value proposition on the exercises that I utilize in training, and where is the value in not necessarily emphasizing knees over the toes, but if it occurs, it's not a correction point like what you learn in athletes versus lifters it's very and again i'm not making this out to be

like i'm smarter than everybody else this is just me what i've seen for 30-something years with over thousands of athletes from 20-plus different sports. Whether or not I believed at a time that you should squat with a vertical shin because I came up through a powerlifting technical aspects of how I learned how to squat, I also know that most lifters, regardless of how much they weigh, their height is still very similar regardless of weight class. And none of them, or very few of them, are 6'6", 6'8". And unlike the huge guy who's setting all the world records, they don't weigh 400 pounds. You know, my 6'6 guy could weigh 240.

My 6'6 guy can weigh 280. But my 6'6 guy can weigh 350. So they're going to have different levers they're going to have different hip widths so even though I'm teaching a protocol of squatting if that person's knee happens to move a little forward I'm not concerned about that because I'm more concerned with what's the depth that I choose to evaluate and I'm more concerned with knees rotating in instead of staying in line with it with the uh lowered leg the lower bones of the leg and keeping in line with the ankle so that to me has more importance than if the knee floats over

someone's toes if I'm trying to teach an alleged vertical shin squat. What if it compromises the distance that the person travels? Like with Joel Seidman, he believes that a half squat is like a full range of motion squat. But from what I've seen in almost every single person I know, regardless of mobility and flexibility, they usually give up a little something when they go full range of motion. So what I've noticed is like knees over toes,

a lot of his stuff that he promotes, a lot lighter weights when you're doing those full range, when you have the knee over the toe. Not that you can't get strong that way, but it's something to keep in mind. And when you're squatting higher, like what Joel Seidman's doing, obviously you're seeing people use five and six plates because the movement is much shorter. Yeah, and there's value in a limited range of motion squatting.

I was part of a research article with Dr. Matt Ray that, you know, and you see it a lot of time with track and field athletes. That's why track coaches are big on quarter squats. But there's also value earlier in the training cycle before big meets to do full range motion squats because it works the hamstring slightly different. And then as you get closer to competition, you can move and get a better, different levers for different transferable traits. I look at it this way.

All what you said, there's a lot of value to. And both of those guys make sense. If we as a society did a better job with free play and we've lacked physical education, and it's not the education, it's the societies and how educational the higher-ups, the administrators, have changed what physical education means. Like my oldest son was taught, he doesn't have any bad technique he was taught

how to lift at a very early age so he's going to go ATG and not have any issues so a lot of times you're seeing issues because like all of us by the time they started doing this specific movement they've already created natural competencies because they've been sitting like this

for five years and then oh I'm going to do knees over the toes or I'm going to go do 90-90 iso holds. And remember, you know, isometrics was a full programming methodology back in the 60s for sport. People did full, all isometric movements. So all that comes around, it's like anything, like here's the thing and this is where i tell people just watching things how people recreate what what's been going on like when charles poliquin started tempoing everything and i'm not saying this is nothing against charles but hey man arthur jones was doing that with Nautilus when Nautilus came out.

You know, four-centric, eccentric, one count, mid-count, pause, two-count, concentric, and then a slight pause at the top so you couldn't rush your reps. So what did Charles do? He made it part of the script. Hey, we're going to do five sets of eight at the bench, and we're going to do, you know, X for explosive, two-one, right? And right and then it was now it's you know then then it became like sub maxi centric work isodynamic work when when christian thibodeau came out with the black training book secret back when we were all following t-mag back in the late 90s and early 2000s when that started so what what are they doing isometric holes yeah they were doing that in the 60s. Knees over the toes?

They were probably doing that in every physical education department in the history of the world. Hell, we were probably all doing it when we were running around the playground with no coaches telling us we were wrong to do it. So now the problem is everything's organized and programmed. So now it looks like, oh, this is an extremist, or this is that. But all it is is everybody's doing anything we were doing anyway, but in this day and age, everybody's, hey, everybody's a brand, everybody's trying to sell something,

and everybody's trying to be something maybe they're not, or maybe they are, and who cares? I don't get into that, because I know that I took a beaten when I created a strength training template that looked like no one else's that's bull crap that's that hey it's fine I stuck with it and look where I'm at I don't know if that's good better and different but I think I've done pretty good in my career looking something that most people would say is an extreme position what do you mean you're putting Olympic lifts, five exercises in a program? That's not supposed to happen.

They're always supposed to go first. Well, who says? Weightlifting. I don't coach weightlifters. And the greatest thing about training athletes, there is no one, there's no definites, there's no absolutes in training an athlete because it all comes down to talent and organization

and commitment to the athlete. And if you have any type of structure with any type of merit, that guy's going to respond. Your ultimate goal, depending on what level they're in, is what type of level of strength and power they need. So you've been coaching people for a ridiculously long time. And you mentioned Knee's Urban Toes guy, Ben Patrick. And he's mentioned how a lot of his concepts and a lot of the stuff that he's used, he got from Charles Poliquin. But it really has me curious since you've been in it for so long, is there anything that you've seen that's maybe not new, but potentially maybe shocked you in the way it

was put together of how actually useful it was like something that you're really or types of training or types of anybody's programming that you've been really impressed by that maybe other people should maybe pay a little bit more attention to that's a great question i'd have to think about that because i've done a good job of trying to study what's been out there especially but probably more in my discipline of being a strength coach for athletes versus a very unique programming like we're talking about today. And you're seeing it being done like in Dr. Seidman's stuff. Joel Seidman, yeah. Yeah, he's doing it with athletes.

Actually, I coached one of the athletes that he shows doing the demos, and he's responded very well to it. I think when you have like uniqueness and programming especially at the higher levels because those kids or those athletes will adapt much faster there's value in saying like let's just say this particular athlete because i've worked with him, trains with Joel Seidman in the offseason. Then he trains with us. Then he trains with Joel. Then he trains with us during the season.

Well, right when he's probably, again, adapting a lot to Joel's specific demands on him, now it's time to change the demands. He comes and does a nine-week, the offseason program in the NFL. And then right when he's kind of had enough of us, he goes back to him. And then during the season, it's survival of the fittest. It's managing stress, watching how beat they are. There's a lot of different things that come into in-season training

for a professional football player. And I want to know this, too, because when we had Joel Seidman on the podcast, Mark was mentioning about how so many things that Joe was mentioning was useful. But when you go through the comments and you go through the comments on Joel Seidman's posts, people are roasting the fuck out of him continuously. But you're over here saying his stuff is actually pretty damn useful. And you've been in this for, you've worked with multiple professional teams, thousands of college athletes.

So what's so, well, what's good about what Joel is doing? I mean, it just, again, where does it fit? Like, there are certain things where, okay, so I don't know who's cursing him out, but he's doing 90-degree bench presses. So what's the difference between that and a three-board press? So you see what I'm saying? So it's as simple as, I'm a simplest because i deal with athletes that don't want to hear science they want to know how they're going to get better so for me you ask

me where's the value in 90 90 well what's the damn value of a three board press those damn half presses those are bullshit and the guy goes in the in the squat rack and does some pin presses yeah you know it's just like well again like for example, you know, you hear about different programming stuff, right? And, again, I'm not here to, like I said, man, I'm not the smartest guy. I read between the lines. I've always tried to pride myself on, okay, what is this? How does it, can it even work for me? Absorb, modify, and apply. Because How does it, can it, can it even work for me? Absorb, modify,

and apply, because if it don't, it don't. But like, for example, and Mark, Mark will laugh when I tell him, when I say this. So when the West Side template came out, it was a dynamic effort day, and there was a max effort day. Over time, that dynamic effort day day when it came to competition became a max effort day right so now you're really max efforting one day with a million pounds of bands one day not so much with a special exercise or you know even though there were some currents and sequencing in that conjugate model with the rotation of exercises and working maximal effort, dynamic effort and repetitive effort work throughout the week. They were trying to say you shouldn't do more than both in the same time. That's why the volume stuff came with extra workouts, max effort day.

But yet when they started introducing the board presses, because the bench shirts became so important. the board presses because the bench shirts became so important remember you do your eight sets of three or nine sets of three a dynamic bench but then you follow it up with a heavy five by five or four or five board press to overload the tricep because the bench shirts can get it off the chest but you still need a tricep power to lock out so i'm reading between the lines because when I build out my programming for athletes, all that stuff comes into play. The difference is those different three types of strengths that I choose to rotate from either a combination of block, concurrent, linear, and all that fit in the same session, but a different type of movement's being done differently. So, for example, you know, depending if I'm on like a max effort strength phase, so to speak, I may do, you know, a power clean first, and that's going to be my max effort work, you know, 85%, 10 doubles, prillipins chart.

But then I may do a dynamic effort box squat for explosiveness, and then I might do a dumbbell row, dumbbell incline for sets of 12 for the repetitive effort method. So most people would see that and say, you can't do that. Well, yes, you can because I've done it for, you know, since probably 1998 when I really started starting it, but probably mid-2000s when I figured it all out, like how do I put all these three methods of strength in it just like when i started

everything was based off the traditional heavy moderate light day you have one day heavy one day light and one day moderate but what you find out is the heavy day by the time you do your three big lifts all heavy it's not a good day your light day was too easy and your moderate day was i let's say ideal or optimum you optimize the workout with an a moderate type of day so my goal was how do i make every day an optimized day instead of keeping the order of the exercise is always the same right do an olympic lift first do your lower body, and do your upper body third if you're doing it that way. And then all your ancillary stuff was, well, I'm going to break it up where I'm going to prioritize

each one of those movements first. And then I'm going to have a major emphasis second. And then I'm going to have a minor emphasis third so that one's heavy, one's moderate, one's light. So now you build off that, and now I start learning this dynamic effort and maximal effort and, you know, start reading Russian manuals, learn about prilipid, and you're like, okay. The first for me in the 90s was the dynamic effort was very easy.

That's light. So that became tier three was dynamic effort. Then the other one was still max effort. And then tiers four and five were all the repetition models. But then I started learning about concurrent sequencing of rotating or block periodization where you emphasize and you try to raise and maintain traits. That didn't happen. That never even occurred at Utah. This eureka moment happened in the early 2000s at Arizona State.

I finally clicked, looking at a grease board for about an hour. It was, okay, wait a second. I figured it out. You rotate the emphasis of strength based off what you're trying to develop instead of keeping them locked in. So that when I do need to be more dynamic and explosive, that takes precedence. So now that's one. I always got to maintain maximal strength. So that's can't, it has to always be two.

It can't be three. Dynamic effort strength can be three. Repetitive effort strength can be three repetitive effort method can be three max effort can't be three because it's too important to those two factors of strength because if you get stronger you can do more reps at higher weight and if you get stronger you can move heavier weights faster so i would i just flip things so early in the summer, say, for football, if our volume of running is high, we started out with repetitive effort type of work first, and then we retained strength.

And then we had a strength phase that we tried to maintain or progressively maintain during that time, and then we retained speed at the minor emphasis of the day. Second phase, we go into strength, but now I need to start getting more powerful because our volumes of running starts to decrease, so it's more effective to be more powerful to get the sprinting up.

And we're still training speed, but then repetition's third because I want to keep the lean mass because that's important for injury prevention. Then the last phase is now we've got to be explosive. Now the sprint's extremely short. Rest times are shorter. I need to be very dynamic in the weight room to correlate what I'm doing on the field,

still maintain or raise that strength, and then repetitive effort is third again. So that's kind of the game you play. No different than, okay, let's use this 90-90 model. Now, I didn't do it this way, but I did it where I varied ranges of motion with upper body strength during the season with NFL football players. And similar to a board press, we use barrel bars. Can you tell us what a 90-90 is? Yes, right here.

Okay. Just like half presses, half benching, half squatting. Yeah. Look them up. Seed me. You guys have interviewed them? Put the link in the click here to see that. Thank you, Coach.

I'm learning that stuff. I didn't know the origin of it. I didn't know it came from him. I don't know where it came from either. He's using it, so I just called it partials, right? We're going to do partial work. Yeah, let's go squat to a high box. Hey, you squat to a 16.

Today you squat to 22. So what I did was I looked at it from a protection standpoint. The more beat up a guy gets, how do I still maintain his confidence that he's strong? Jedi mind tricking. But in the end, you want to move big weight. You want to maintain this high level of strength. And same thing with using chains. I believe there's a lot of merit doing a lot of chain work with the squats during the season if you believe in bilateral squatting in season with certain athletes so for example we go through training

camp we get out of training camp we're going into week the first phase of the nfl season they're going to do everything we did was neutral grip first we took out of the rotation of the elbow we wanted everything in striking hands trying to work all this type of movement that very transferable to the field i don't want to say it's sport specific because there's a little different depending on what position you play there's you know some coaches take here for o-line some punch here d-line they're always grabbing and pulling so i don't I just say there's a transferable trait by pushing weight here rather than pushing weight out in a way like a traditional power lift

or a bodybuilder would. So we would do a neutral grip, full range of motion, bench press or incline. Four weeks later, I'm using a six inch barrel because their shoulders are getting beaten up. And now I take some of the stress off their shoulders because there's a barrel that's six inches. Then the last eight weeks of the season, we use an eight inch barrel. So no different than a board press. If I was using board presses, it would probably go full range the first cycle, two or three board, four board, and possibly even a five board. Our guys liked the barrel because it had a neutral grip. We trained that cycles in the offseason, so we had estimated maximum

that we could percentage off of so that the guys could feel that they were strong and confidence one thing I've learned about athletes is confidence is built through bench press or upper body strength because that's kind of their test

so I always looked at let's build their confidence through things that they are not what's the best way to say it, that won't affect their wear and tear as much as lower body development. But then same thing with the lower body was I wanted them to try to maintain a very good range of motion. And again, everybody's 90-90 is different, right? Like it's just like squat depth.

There's squat depth, you know, top of the thigh parallel. Is it hamstring parallel? Is it mid-thigh parallel? I always use top of the thigh parallel for my athletes. So for me, it's okay. I need them to continue to have decent range of motion in their hips, It's, okay, I need them to continue to have decent range of motion in their hips, but I need to protect their hips because they're going to get worn the hell out,

especially your big guys. They're in a three-point stance. Even if it's a two-point stance, they're in a loaded position, and your D linemen are always in a three-point stance or a two-point stance in a loaded position. So my thought was, how do I maintain a robust hip and hamstring and glute, but also get a load that's conducive to some type of retention of high-level strength? So I can set the percentages, excuse me, I can set the chains to certain points where if I'm only using 50% of bar weight, the top end could be 85.

So I accommodate the resistance based off of their levers so that we get the best of both worlds. I'm keeping them strong, but the value of the strength is slightly different because I'm also taking load off of them in a more, I don't want to say injury prone, but in a more disadvantageous position. And that's where accommodating resistance comes from. It's going through your strength curve. And as your strength curve increases, generally if the weight's the same and it's light, you have to decelerate faster. Generally, if the weight's the same and it's light, you have to decelerate faster. So now I can work on acceleration longer, and they get the best of both worlds because when two people collide, it's going to be a quick yielding.

Who can overcome the force? And then it's an acceleration. Who can acceleration through a great load? So those are things that I used that have some merit of reducing different things through range of motions. So there's a, is it 90-90 specific? No, but you can see where the relationships can be deciphered

if you have an open mind or are willing to look at things outside of a skewed no. You know, just like I said, I really believe this. How many of those people were the ones with negative comments to the 90-90 model do different box squat heights and do board presses? I don't know that, but I guarantee you there's a percentage of it that probably do those exercises, and there's very similar beliefs there. So that's where I kind of – I've learned a long time ago

when I stuck my neck out for myself that I don't really say that's BS. And even my thoughts on CrossFit have changed a lot from when it first came out. I still think there's certain things I'm never going to do athletically. Like what? High-volume plyometrics with 400-meter runs. But just like now with me delving into strongman, but what are we seeing when we see these athletes do this? That what was once said the body couldn't do can be done.

You know, like I think in the world of strong man, and I had this conversation probably yesterday and a little bit today with somebody, the sport of strong man has hurt the strong man because they've pushed the boundaries of how strong we thought a human can go to a point like today at the Arnold that I just left. You know, they're doing a 275-pound circus dumbbell, so obviously the grip for reps and several guys got zero. Well, I can get zero. So what the F, man?

I don't want to see dudes zero out. Right. You know what I'm saying? I agree. I don't want to see you zero out. Don't make an event zero out. Because if zero gets you into the Arnold, then I want in because I'll zero out all five events and I'll come in last in the Arnold and they'll think I'm one of the strongest men in the world, right?

Put me in. Guess lifter. 11th place big house zero points yes I'm the 11th strongest guy in the world we'll be there cheering yeah I mean you know so it's like I'm disappointed in that you know uh uh don't tell me it's a deadlift for rep test and a guy's max is five that's a sub max that's more closer to a one-rep max than it is a true test of strength endurance. Give me a number that most guys can get eight to 12. Some guys may get six, which I'm okay with. Some guys may get 13 or 14. That's elite.

But your bell curve guy should be able to get eight to 12 with a number that is a rep test. I think if they changed it just a little bit, the athletes would have opportunities to stay a little healthier and maybe a little lighter. I know some of the guys, some of the lighter guys are actually doing really well nowadays. Yeah, some of the 231 guys, like there's 231 guys cleaning and jerking or cleaning and pressing 180-kilogram log. That used to be,

you got to remember, I think one year when Kaz won it, he won with 160. You know, and then now the high level strongmen, they rep 180. And it's just like farmer's walks. Farmer's walks when those guys were rolling used to be 220 a hand pounds.

Now they're 220 a hand kilograms. You know, just like ridiculous stuff. Like the frame... Yeah, 440 or 200 kilograms. Yeah, 440 pounds. It's ridiculous. You know, so again, what have we proven the human body can do?

If you can get past the... I'll probably blow this. What is it? The sympathetic mind or the fight or flight, so on? Is that the right? Is that sympathetic or parasympathetic? Para. Para, right?

These dudes are breaking that now. They're fearless. Like, we were just talking with Dave. Remember, Mark, when probably when you were starting a power lift, the 800-pound deadlift was mythological. There wasn't a very few. Then all of a sudden, hell there anybody who can pull now pulls 800 right like 400 kilogram deadlift is like 165 181 and you remember back in the day man it

was honestly who's pulling 800 there was legitimately like three people that deadlifted like 900 it was like yeah doyle kennedy remember the big dude out of o? Yeah, and then Darryl Heisey. Those were the three. Real tall dude. Yeah, and Heisey was like 6'7", and had a traditional build for a conventional deadlift. Ed could do it either conventional or sumo, whatever he woke up doing. And then Doyle was just a big mountain man. He was just monstrous. But now it's like, yeah, man, I pulled 1,000 in the gym.

And I'm like, yeah, dude, go to a meet and lock it up because that's impressive. But then you look at the CrossFitters, right? Everything we were told not to do, but I will piggyback on those are world-class athletes. I hope that's not being done at the WODs. And, again, I think that it's all coaching too. They're getting coached by high-level people at that stuff, and they have the capability. But look at their body fit. Like I walked by Matt Frazier yesterday on my walk,

and I'm like, why is this dude filming this dude that's like up to here? And I'm like, that's Matt Frazier. Like that dude is like the most fittest dude in the world four or five times over. I watch him. And I'm like, that's Matt Frazier. Like, that dude is like the most fittest dude in the world. Four or five times over, I watch him. And I'm like, boy, the TV does him justice because, golly, I knew they weren't. You know, you see their heights and weights when you're looking up the Rosses, but when you see them for real, I'm like, this dude. And then you're like, man, this dude did a snatch ladder up to like 340 pounds in a minute.

And he did a clean and jerk at 363 or something like that and oh and by that but that was that was in the afternoon he had already ran like a 10k run with a 40 pound pack and you know pushing with and then the women are even more to me the women are even more impressive you know when they're doing like yoke walks and handstand walks for 50, 60 feet without falling. And so, again, as a strength enthusiast and someone with not that ability, I have a tremendous amount of respect. Like I watched the CrossFit Games. I would have never thought I'd ever say that out loud, but I do because it's impressive.

Like you're probably more impressed with people that do things that you wish you could do. Hell, I wish I could do a chin-up. These fools do chin-ups like, you know, I do chin-ups every day. Like sleep and I sleep doing chin-ups. I'm like, golly, I need like 42,000 pounds of band tension and all that other stuff. But it's just, you know, that's just how it works. all that other stuff, but it's just, you know, that's just how it works. So for me, I've just learned that everybody's got a reasoning, and if you can justify your reasoning and it has some type of merit,

then who am I to judge? And if that's your way of, and that's your philosophy of training your athletes, then it's there. But again, I'll always question question is this everything they're doing and i don't know that and i don't really care because it's none of my business i just look at what i've shown and say is there value proposition for me and my athletes i just think people jump to conclusions so quick on some stuff and they'll get frustrated and they'll say you know these are these aren't real squats but it's like if you try to think about it a little bit,

these are professional athletes, so who the hell knows? Like, they're anomalies, right? But in addition to that, you can make an argument and say, well, maybe he's saving himself a bit because he's not going full range on the deadlift or in the squat. And remember, you know, Louie Simmons used to talk about that quite a bit. He had, you know, most of his athletes didn't even deadlift from the floor

for long periods of time to kind of save the lower back. Most basketball players, you know, the great one and a lot of people here, you want to start some debates and people say that I'm full of shit? I believe in the high handle trap bar deadlift for athletes. There you have

it. Some people think that's bull crap. I tell you what, it's a great, tremendous... And not using a bar? Yeah. Not using a regular bar, right? Yeah. Because we want to give you a better starting position, especially for the taller athlete. And the center of gravity is more conducive to success

with protecting the athlete in a hinge-type movement. As you know, Mark, you put that bar in front of your shins and that bar floats, your ass is getting hurt. It's hard for that to happen with a trap bar when that bar is going straight through the hip joint

and you got a neutral hand position. It puts you in success. So I think there's... And again, what is that? Let's just go back and we'll use the 90 90 it's a partial movement I mean so again whether it's 90 90 or 135 135 or 45 45 I mean you know remember and again I don't I don't want to speak from a standpoint of I know it all, but I do remember when Adam Archuleta was getting trained by Jay Schrader, they did a high amount of iso split squat holds as part of their contrast work.

So there, and that was, remember, that was a popular about the time me and you met. I mean, that was the thing, man, the freak of training. You had him from the athletic standpoint and then Vogelpool on the lifting standpoint just doing things that everybody was trying to mimic, but you can't mimic elite one-offs. Those guys were one-offs. You know, training Cam Newton, my assistant, Jason Bengucci, that's a one-off. You know, training Christian McCaffrey, that's a one-off. I've never seen anybody like that before in my life.

You got to see him live in front. I got to see him when House was coaching with the Panthers. I didn't get to meet him, unfortunately, but he just kind of walked by because we were on the field thanks to Big House. But his calves, his hamstrings,

he's just massive. I just can't even... It's like, oh, you get to the quarterback. You get to kill the quarterback. Not that way. You look at him like, oh, I'll let somebody else tackle him. Yeah, not him. And he's one of the hardest working guys I've coached. He's definitely one of the toughest guys I've coached.

He wants to win. And to be honest with you, what you learn is he is who he is, and those three things I just said matter to me than, you know, what's he wearing to the post-game press conference because that's his. That's his world, and more power to him, man, being yourself and not conforming to what the ideologies of who that position's supposed to be. And he's going to be, you know, let's face it, he's one of the greatest ever because he's an anomaly. And he's proven there are certain things.

And you see those quarterbacks who kind of open the doors for his skill set, and then he exceeded those skills of the Randall Cunninghams, the Fran Tarkintons, the Mike Vicks, Donovan McNabb, and those guys that had a little bit of escapability, he took it to the next level, and he opens the doors for the Lamar Jacksons and the Kyla Murrays who, different size, so I always go back to, but they weren't Cam.

Cam Newton could punish people, and he wanted to punish people, and that's what made Cam, Cam. He knew what he needed to do as a player to give him his mojo on the field. And it's like when they were talking towards the end, well, we're not going to run him. And he's like, you got to let a lion eat. He said something like that.

And part of his game is I need to run and get hit because that helps me do the rest of my job. And, you know, he created a nice dynamic for himself, and I hope he plays again, and I hope he has success because he deserves to. I wanted to go back and ask about some of the different training philosophies and, you know, those that, I don't want to say push it, but just, I i guess show it on instagram and have all the you know followers and stuff um what happens is it develops camps right

like i'm this is the way i do it and the way this coach does it is wrong and so i'm going to go on his page and tell everyone that this is wrong um but what i wanted to ask you is there any detriment to like just putting the blinders on and following one training philosophy and just saying, I'm going to take this as far as I can take it and I'm going to ignore everything else? Is there anything wrong with that? I don't necessarily think so. I don't I agree in very holistic approach. I try to figure out things, but I do know this structure will always win over unstructured i don't i don't and that's why with some of the things that i've done i try to tell people i don't necessarily agree with

training a sport with a sport like i don't think you can train uh i shouldn't say i don't you'll you could have success regardless but to do a full-bl a full blown Olympic lifting type of weightlifting program for an athlete, I think you lose some of the components that they still need to enhance their overall preparation because of the specific skills and the, excuse me, specific principles and training techniques that go with it. Same thing where if you invest your entire time on a powerlifting program,

there are certain things that is a detriment to the athlete's development as well as if you were a bodybuilding program. I believe that in those three major disciplines, all three of them can be intertwined into what I call athletic-based strength training. So for me, I don't think that way. I think of what can I grab and make this work in my world, like where does this fit? Like when, you know, when I first started, there was a lot of things that I believed

to be truths that I had to circle all the way back on. Or when a new exercise becomes, like you talk about popular demands, so Brett Contreras the glute guy right well there's a lot of confrontation of is there values in doing hip thrust I think there is so now I have to figure out where does it fit so I classify it as a total body movement because in my definitions and when I teach my coaches that I mentor, it's a hip extension movement. So for me, hip extension falls total body because it ties into the deadlift family and it ties into the Olympic lifting family of hip extension movement. But there's probably people that would say I consider it a lower body movement.

Great. I don't care. I'm just telling you. You ask me what I do with it. People argue about whether a deadlift is a push or a pull, right? Yeah. Because I look at – see, now for me, because if you teach it right, you are pushing. If you teach it right, you have to teach them to push off the floor.

But I go look at – at the end, it's a hip extension movement. Because once it breaks to mid-shin, you're pulling for your life. Your hamstrings sure are pulling. I mean, they're probably going to pull off some. And again, when I first started in training athletes, you were told deadlift is too slow a movement to be put in a program. But yet, everybody's cleaning from the floor, and most of the athletes look like hell cleaning from a floor. And then, you know, again, you go through these things as you grow. It's a, it's just like a, it's a journey, man. You're just trying to figure out what's best for your

athletes. Well, if you're going to clean from the deck, you might want to teach them how to deadlift so they don't have a bad pull and get hurt because once they start pulling in there, they're not in good position. They're damn sure ain't got no chance to look good catching a clean. And for me personally, I teach to clean from the ground up. Most Olympic weightlifting coaches will teach top down because the catch is so important. The catch is important.

You learn how to absorb force. You learn how to embrace a bar. But I don't need to catch a bar to get what I need out of Olympic lift, which is hip extension. I can do a shrug pull. I can do a power pull. I can do partial work of pulling through the clean family without necessarily having to catch.

And then there's the strength coaches that don't believe in Olympic liftsic lifts at all and they'll go more into weighted jumps and throws that's again there's another that could elicit a response that could go on for weeks on training does is there a value in doing olympic lifts in an athletic based training training program and a lot of people say there's value yes they'll go all in on them. Then there's some that say no, because it's a sporting activity. But that's why I like the variations of those lifts and not necessarily the classical lifts.

Like I don't snatch athletes. The only athletes I snatch are throwers. Because most athletes, by the time they get to me, have poor shoulder strength, especially in the posterior capsule. And they haven't done a lot of pure overhead work. So they're not conducive to that type of positioning. And I can get more out of doing a snatch grip pull. And it's more safer than trying to value proposition to teach an athlete to snatch when he really doesn't want to or she really doesn't want to snatch anyway.

Throwers, a little bit different because of the true relationship to strength and power and distance. When you're training team sports where they're using a different implement and they're not getting judged by time or distance, you can do some different things you know when you're looking at certain things why why why do i think there's a lot more value to do an olympic lift with a track and field athlete than some of the sporting athletes is because there's some correlation towards those types of lifts and improvements in speed and distance so again you have, again, it's a lot of – I don't want to say it's common sense.

It's just take your time and ask why you're doing it. Am I doing an Olympic lift for me, or am I doing an Olympic lift to benefit the athlete? If I can say it's benefiting the athlete, then there's value in possibly doing it. If I'm saying it because everybody else is doing it, well, what does that have to do with you? So it comes down to who are you doing it for? It's like when you see all these people bringing more and more technology into their programs. Are you really using the technology to enhance your programming

to benefit the athlete in their sport of choice or are you doing it for followers or to prove to your peers that you're ahead of the game or you know or you're trying to say you know more than them i prefer to use what i can use to value and there's a lot of cool stuff out there i'll be honest with you there's a lot of cool stuff out there. I'll be honest with you. There's a lot of stuff I wish I could use. Got to have the manpower. Someone's got to decipher it and someone's got to be smarter than you to give you what

you need. I know what metrics I want as a coach. Can you give me these metrics and tell me this in a coach speak rather than a science? Because if you give me science, I'll probably understand some of it, but I am a coach at heart. But I've got to go to the sport coach, and he's going to want, how is this helping me win or lose a game? Because my job's on the line. And if my job's on the line, guess who else's job's on the line? Yours.

My job's on the line. Guess who else's job's on the line? Yours. So you have to find those small wins, and then you just go out there and do what you want. What you'll also find, what I would tell you on your original question is, what you'll find is when you work with high-level athletes, they don't train year-round with the strength coach of the team they train all around the country with some guys

that I have a high regard for and like you said you're talking about a couple of guys right here right when we started very unique deals these guys are training there because they believe in it

they come in it. They come in and say, Coach, when we do this, I'd like to change this. Or like if I'm not a knees over the toes guy, and this guy is, and he is all in, well, this is his world. His office is his body. And say I taught a lunge. Say I'm doing a reverse lunge and I want a vertical shin, and this guy trains with knees over toes guys, he's like, Coach, fine. What do I care?

We're lunging. You know what I'm saying? It's as simple as that. Or a guy trains at a certain place and says, Coach, man, I like these drills. I think they're really good. I said, well, how much do you like them? Or you find out 10 of your guys train at the same place and they all like the drills.

I'm probably going to find a way. Those drills are going in the prep. Because in the NFL, 10 people that are going to make your team is 20%. That's a high level. And most of those guys, if they're training all at the same place, that guy must know what he's doing. And sometimes, especially field work work i'll always say i'm not an expert in field work i'm very confident in my field work i'm very very confident in developing field programs but i will always listen to what i call field expert coaches because i'm a programmer i'm a

traditional weight guy so for me you're gonna have a hard time flipping me in the weight room but if you can bring some true value into getting my guys better on the field to a point where if I would if I were to be back in coaching today and the types of staff that I would put together and one of the persons I would I would hire he would probably be in charge I would hire, he would probably be in charge. I would probably turn all the field stuff over, even the linemen. And I always work with the linemen on the field just because I feel like as we grew together as a staff,

that was becoming his expertise. He was really doing a lot of research, especially in the prep work or the movement prep and those types of drills. Again, it's just being confident in yourself, knowing, hey, man, it's time. It's time, man. Not that you're setting your ways, but you're this guy, right?

Like I'm big house tier system guy. He's knees over toes guy. He's 90-90 guy. He's, you know, I don't do olympic lift guy i'm gonna throw med balls and do handstand push-up guy and you know and all that other you know i like again i i like tim anderson original strength basic segmental rolling and crawling i saw the benefits in myself if i see any benefit i know it'll work with a high-level guy. Now, did everybody buy into it?

No. So it didn't come, it didn't get all the way into my programming because there's certain things that probably it's going to be hard to sell certain guys. But certain individuals, it did. And you'd see them doing it pregame and stuff like that to help reset the body for me it was crawl can kind of help reset the body or yeah i think so because what a baby crawl actually in the book you start with a baby crawl but most of this was he calls it a leopard crawl and a spider-man crawl so a leopard crawl is more of a traditional it's not a bear crawl

because bear crawls are bastardized crawling you got your hip up and really most kids when they're in punishment they just it looks like some bullcrap gala so you're trying to keep a flat you know like a tabletop position and really work on hip mobility and you know work into the stupulus system a lot of times trying to touch opposite cross but then the spider-man crawl is opposite cross of your hand like taking your knee to your opposite oh i understand opposite elbow to knee and stuff like that and then the spider-man crawl is when you open up the knee and you take it past the elbow and like tim now tim's you know 135 pound guy but that guy's he's spider-man crawled a mile in a park.

Oh, my gosh. You know what I'm saying? But, again, that's an extreme. Big house, he crawls like 20 yards max and takes a break and then comes back and does 20 again. But, you know, you want to talk about skills. Go out. If you've not done it, go out and try to crawl, especially if you're really trying to do it, Go out and try to crawl, especially if you're really trying to do it, and put a dowel stick down to your spine and see how well your body moves and try to crawl, you know, even if it's 10 paces without that falling off.

And then try to do it backwards. And then try to do a lateral crawl. And you'll find out, like I found out, lateral crawling and this big doggie don't float so i don't go very far i finally took me forever to feel like i was i was oh i can do backwards crawling now so it shows you and these are things that we were doing as a child like no big deal and it all goes back to what we're saying, just rudimentary patterns. Like, I will tell you this, in all honesty, and this is when I knew there was going to be value to this stuff being part of my – you've seen me do it in your gym. Yeah, blowing up the balloons and stuff. Doing the segmental rolling.

And I won't – I have a hard time at this point in my lifting career where if I'm having a squat workout or a deadlift workout that I'm not going to do that little 10 minute routine because I think I'm going to get hurt that's just a confidence for me and I remember the first time I read his book whose book Tim Anderson original strength and he's got several books out but he's talking about segmental rolling. So it's upper body only movement, belly to back, back to belly. And then lower body, belly to back, back to belly. So it's almost like you're locking up your upper body and then you're trying to take your leg and roll over. But I had to do upper body. And so upper body has a lot of thoracic in it.

had to do upper body and so upper body has a lot of thoracic in it and I'm can't was it I can't remember which way it was now because I've actually gotten good at it but I think it was don't use my lower body to cheat and it might have been belly to back upper body only and because I was so tight my thoracic that I couldn't do it on one of my sides. And to a point where if you would have put a gun to my head and said, hey man, or hey, your grandkids are on the line, I don't know if I still could have did it. That's when I was like, okay, you got some work to do and now like I said for me personally that's not that 10 minutes there might be a lot of other stuff I might not do that day but if I know it's a squad or deadlift day that 10 minute program is I'm doing that and I could

care less where it's at in a power powerlifting meet, the last powerlifting meet I did, I did it in the parking lot because I ain't going out getting hurt, man. I'm just not. I've been hurt. It's not fun. And the older you get, I don't care how you're trying to beat the clock and beat your birth certificate. It takes longer. So again, these are things that you learned and it's way out of my wheelhouse. I used to laugh at those guys about foam rolling, and now there's value in self-myofascial release with softballs and peanuts and all sticks. Do I think you need to do it every day? But for me personally, again, when I travel, I travel with a softball and a peanut because I can't trust the beds. I travel with a softball and a peanut because I can't trust the beds.

And I've done that before where I've gotten out of bed and thrown my back out trying to tie my shoe because the bed was so bad. So for me, it's get out. I brush my teeth. I do my deal. Take my cold shower. Get on my peanut. Get on my softball. And I feel like I got a chance to win the day and all that stuff you you learn from yourself and i think that's why it's important for coaches especially in the

fitness a fitness coach has to do some type of training to to know what's up like and and especially i think in the weight room it's important because of all the stuff that's going out there today. Like, if you believe in certain things, you got to at least be able to do something at a minimal level so that you understand. There's a difference between telling the kid how to squat if you've never squatted versus if you've squatted and you know. versus if you've squatted and you know, like when I first learned really about knee tracking and concentrating out on the squat, man, my adductors were on fire. I didn't even know your groin worked in a squat. And now you go out there and you start teaching it to your kids, and you're like, this is what you're going to feel tomorrow.

Damn, coach, you were right, man. I never felt like that squatting because everybody just hey put a bar on your back go up and down and you know whatever happens and it's all that other bull crap and so those are just simple little you know people call them life hacks to me that's just real world man i want to survive i got things i want to get done before it's over and i know that that's an investment of time like i know how i write my programs it's over and I know that that's an investment of time like I know how I write my programs it's you know like I know a lot of people if it takes you 30 minutes to warm up then something's wrong my that's why I don't call what I do warming up it's pre-activity

prep if you look what I do and you see how I do it that's not warming up maybe 10 minutes of it's warm up, but the rest are all things that build my weaknesses. I do band ab and ad because I got weak ab and ad. I do a squat pattern because I'm getting ready to squat. I'm doing hamstrings because I got weak posterior chain. I do low back because I got a weak low back. That's not warming up. I'm building my machine so that when it's time for me to squat, I want to squat as hard as I can. And that's just the way it is for me. And I believe there's a lot of value in that when you train athletes because that little stuff they won't do.

And that's why I put it up front. You learn to put all these things, all the ancillary things that for people who love lifting, you can put them whenever you want. You're going to do it. But most times the important stuff, we've got to do neck. We'll do it at the end of the workout. No, we're not. We're going to do it first.

You know what I'm saying? Or, hey, you've got your glute ham raises. We're going to put that at the end of the workout. No, we're not. We're going to do it first. You know what I'm saying? Or, hey, you got your glued ham raises. We're going to put that at the end. Yeah, we're going to do it for... But again, that stuff helps. Doing your neck helps your posture. Posture is important in almost every movement you do. Doing glued ham raises gets them hamstrings activated.

We're always going to be doing some type of lower body or total body movement when we're in the weight room I need that stuff to be ready why go in and it helps take away from the traditional PE warm ups of going out and doing skips and dynamic running warm ups to get ready for the weight room

so I'm going to do that warm up when it's time for me to run them and it gives you more variation. It gives you more applicability to what's going on. Just like on the days that I don't train or lift weights and I spend about 30 minutes on mobility. I do ankle, I do upper body, and then I do some type of hip mobility. How long have you been doing that for?

This type of training, for me personally, well, since when, well, I saw you in what? Maybe five years ago. Well, it's probably longer than that, right? Because that was the Super Bowl year, so that's seven. Okay. Probably two years before, probably two or three years before that, when I started the original strength stuff and the crawling and all that. So how much different is it for you now?

Like are you way better at these? Because, you know, if we stick to something for a while, we can. Yeah, I think. We've seen a big improvement. There's some, there's a lot of improvement. But then again, some of it's groundhog day because it's like I'm really, you know, like, you know, I go sweat is the lubricant of success. So when I'm all lathered up and it's nice and good. But then, you know, I go, sweat is the lubricant of success. So when I'm all lathered up and it's nice and good, but then, you know, after the workout.

But again, here's the problem, right? The problem is after my two-hour workout, if I take a shower and go and sit here and work on a computer, then I probably need to, you know, grease the groove again. But I've seen, I still have decent squat depth i don't know if i'm usa power lifting squat depth but i can get to top of the thigh parallel and feel pretty confident that i like that depth and it's safe for me and i'm not butt winking and so i know posture and all that stuff because of all my injuries i have to do a lot of that stuff because i've never had full flexion in my right knee since 1985 for a couple of knee

surgeries from college so that still shows up you can see like for me you know everybody has compensation but for me in particular my right foot will always be ahead of my left in deadlift and squat stances because that to me is even you know and i'm all you know like i said i think there's value in you know the people talk about walking with your toes straight right because then you know that this stuff's probably all in pretty good alignment but i also know how many people can actually do that in competition. You know, like you look at some of these guys, the better the athlete, a lot of times the better the compensator. They find ways to get through things.

A buddy of mine coached several years in the NBA as a strength coach, and he thought professional basketball players might be the greatest compensators because they they truly show a pretty good amount of athleticism on top of their skills in their sport i'm sure there could be something if i talk to some high level soccer soccer athletes they they probably have some things that go on it can go you know it goes on and on man if you just um as i gotten older obviously you know you go through your different paths. When you're younger and you're in this chase, man, it's about being successful as hell, and I want to win, and that's all it's about, and boop, boop, boop, boop, boop.

I'm big house. Check out the logo on my jersey. I got a new one. Bigger school, right? And then you realize, yeah, is the chase worth it? Then you get to that level, and you're like, wow, man. But then you look back, did you do it the right way? I don't have many regrets, but there's a couple. I mean, we can all say that.

But now I'm at that point where I'm in a good place, so now I can make significant impacts. And if anything comes out of this podcast and you're a fitness enthusiast or a coach, there are no absolutes. So anything you see on YouTube or Instagram, I'll always question where is the norm of the standard deviation in all of it.

And that's how I've always lived my programming for my athletes is I'm going to have my outliers good and bad, right? You're going to have your guys that no matter what you do, man, it's going to be a hard sell. And then you've got your Cam Newtons of the world that, hey, they don't fit your model. So you've got to build a different model for them to be successful. But a lot of times most of them are going to fit in that bell with minor tweaks.

And for most of the time, when the people you work with, they say, I want to do stuff on my own. Okay, cool. Go do it. Coach, what should I do? I thought you wanted to do it on your own. What do you think I should do today, right? And it's like all the time.

So I'm like, okay, here's what I think you should do. You sure? Well, then what the hell did you ask me for, right? You just said. And again, that's fun. That's just building a good relationship with your players and having an open mind. And the older the athlete and the more successful they are,

especially at the professional level, it's a huge difference in communication. So you learn that. You talk about, you know, that people talk about servant leadership and things like that. I think there's something to be said about that if you're a strength coach for an athlete because you're providing them a specific service to help them accomplish their goals. And that's the biggest thing that I think has really resonated with me over time was I always wanted them to be successful.

But I don't think I ever came to that point where I need to be the person that helps them achieve their goals. They should never be the person that helped me achieve mine if that makes sense if i can do everything i can for that person to be successful i think i'm going to be okay and a lot of times that that shows up like any coach who wins an award it's not because of you it's because of your it's because of every athlete you coach and every and every assistant or person that's been on your staff. It's not a one-shot deal. Just like anybody who wins an MVP award, you didn't get there by yourself.

If you're a quarterback, someone had to catch the balls for you to get 4,000 yards. Now, the ones who don't throw interceptions, obviously they're doing their homework too, but there's things like that that I that I've come to that conclusion so for me it's about I'm in a position now working with dynamic fitness and strength that I can be a good mentor and I don't I don't want to say I'm a role model because I don't I'm kind of like Charles Barkley like that I'd rather be someone that is a realist.

Probably going to tell you things other people won't because I've been through it all. I've seen the good, bad, the ugly, and I know what this career brings, both positively and negatively. But it's, you know, what better life can you have than helping people, really? And that's, I just happen to be fortunate that my role in helping people are athletes, and I've been doing it from 10-year-olds to all pros and been blessed. You know, I don't know blessed, but I've been in a good position that things that I've done have worked. Like, they've made me look good.

Like, I write these programs, and these dudes kill it, and I'm like, and they're all in, like, oh, house, this is awesome. And I'm like, okay, this is awesome and i'm like okay this is all right i can do this and and that's why for some people i moved a lot not as many not not as much as other people but i made moves and a lot of times i made move because the challenge was over it's like all right man like realistically and i, and I don't want to say this in 100% confidence, but if I really didn't want to move and I wanted to be that person, I could probably still be at Boise State from 1991 to now.

The way the coaching changes, the way the administration changes, there's a very good chance that I could still be at Boise State. But after being there, you know, eight years, you hit a dead end. I'm on this come up, right? Success. I know it works at Boise. And at that time, Boise was 1AA football. So it wasn't what you guys know it is now. So I'm like, I got to go see if I can do this somewhere else under a whole different circumstance.

Take a job at Utah. Okay, now I'm dealing with, you know, 30 Polynesians. I got my first full-time staff members. At Boise, I had GA and student assistants. So now I got people questioning this program that at Boise, I'm a god, right? Oh, man, this is it. Yeah, all the coaches. Now I got real live strength coaches saying, why are we doing this?

Well, now you got to step to the plate. Two years later, I moved to Arizona State. Now I got to, now I'm at that, okay, I'm at that, you know, I'm in the big time, right? Now you got to step. I got, I got a athlete's performance institute on my campus training high level athletes the pressure's on you got every guru in the world in the early 2000s training people out of phoenix you're the college strength coach you're looked at like you're the dumb guy or the guy who ain't smart because he's coaching college and they're all got their own

storefronts coaching big time high level dudes-level dudes. You've got to raise your game. You know, seven years later, we raised the game. We raised the department standards. We raised the way we trained people. We had a hell of a program. Okay, what else can you do? I don't think there's much to do. Go take another job.

That job doesn't work out. All right, I'm going to prove that I can do it myself. I'm going to go private, start my own business, pull out, you know, quarter million dollars out of my retirement and say, me and my wife, like, this is our retirement. Let's go. Less than a year later, you get your dream job. And you make a nine-year run in the NFL.

There's only one of 32 of those jobs. So when people, you know, you get let go, and people are like, oh, House, don't be sorry for me, man. I coached nine years in the NFL. Don't trip. I'm cool. Like, where's the next adventure? And then, you know, fortunately for me, this opportunity came up with a great equipment company,

and the owners were awesome, and they treat me great. And now I'm here with you guys sharing stories and talking about different modalities and the fact that is hey man whatever floats your boat when it really comes down to it whether you west side or 531 or whatever the next phenomenon is you know like hey we're gonna go bench press underwater and hold our breath and then right before that we're gonna you know oh we're gonna think we're gonna drown but you know what no we're gonna do five backflips before we breath, and then right before that, we're going to, you know, oh, we're going to think we're going to drown, but you know what? No, we're going to do five backflips before we come up, and then that's the new training mode.

And if you don't do that, you're not going to the Super Bowl. So I'm cool. Like, I listen and learn, and I'll be like, damn, that shit's crazy. But you know what? Maybe there's something to that. Can I ask you something? What was your motto again, the three words? That's not my motto.

See, I'm not that dude. I don't take people's stuff. The motto was, so I'm a big mantra guy, and I didn't know that until I started into meditation and stuff years later. So this is a mantra, really, right? Okay. So it's absorb, modify, and apply. So your goal is, because as you know, know, I've watched you guys enough. You guys

are on this quest, right? And it's exactly what we're talking about when he's talking about absolute tunnel vision, right? So you got all this stuff. You're interviewing all these dudes, right? You're taking all these notes. Well, that's a lot of notes. And it's going to be hard to absorb all that. So

what you got to do is you got to figure out okay, out of all this stuff how does this fit training the natty professor like how's this fit into getting that done because what you also have to remember is what i i used to tell a lot of the guys guys would come in after the year hey man i need to do this this this and this to get better for next year. I said, okay, yeah, I agree. And especially if they believe in it, then I definitely agree.

What are you taking out? What do you mean? You got to take something out. So I always go to just a very basic example of a gas tank. So the natty professor has a 22-gallon gas tank. And you're programming for 22 gallons. But now you're coming to me with five more points of emphasis. Well, now that's 27 gallons. So now you're overflowing. And what is overflowing usually lead to? Injury. Something bad. So now if those five are important, which of these 22 gallons are not as important as these fives?

And then you have to figure that out. So that's kind of how I look at stuff is just figuring things that way and going into a mindset of being able to modify that 22 gallons and then put it into application. So it's how do I optimize what the goal and the objectives are? So I tell people all the time, even there's a lot of times I'll put that slide when I present. Look, I'm not trying to change your mind. I'm not trying to brainwash you. All I'm trying to do is stimulate thought.

So the only way you can do that is to look at that three-word mantra. Take your notes. Like for me, I have a saying now. I know what I know. I know what I need to know. I know what I don't know. And I know what I don't care to know.

Like a lot of times when I see this stuff on Instagram, like the knees over the toes stuff kind of intrigues me. The Seidman stuff kind of intrigues me. I've even made comments on his post because I'm like, hmm, okay, I kind of like that. He's had a couple of cool little deadlift variations. I'm like, this guy, I kind of like that. He's had a couple of cool little deadlift variations. I'm like, this guy, I kind of like that.

I got to see how this thing works. Where would this fit, even with my own training? He did one the other day, and I'm like, that might be something I can work into my own training, which always has value, right? Because if it works in your training, then it's like, okay, if I trained an athlete, how does it fit in my world of training athletes? Obviously, I don't know.

I think he was demoing it himself, so I don't know how he puts it in the athlete's model yet. But I'm like, that works for me because I'm a sumo deadlifter. That may have proposition in some of my prep work. So now you get into pure application of how's that work so when i don't when i say i don't care to know is because there's so much out there and i just know man why am i even going to look into this it just it's irrelevant if i if i don't if i don't if i need to know something obviously i'm going going to do my own due diligence, but then I also have the fortunate capabilities of having a strong network of people that are more than willing to help me.

Mark being one and a bunch of guys that I've met with here while I've been in town and women who are willing to share because you're willing to share, right? It's not like, oh, man, well, if you want something from me, it's $300 an hour. And, you know, if you don't buy my manual, it's in the manual. Well, can you send me the manual? Well, yeah, go on the website. It's $49.95, you know. But that's the cool thing about the strength game.

A lot of times, yeah, we all want to make money. We all, you know, we ain't doing this for free. Like like i i you know and that's the hard thing with coaching is when you're on the come up man you need some free stuff because you don't make a lot of money and then it's like you get to that point where you start doing your own stuff you're like man what do you charge man some of these dudes i know like they don't have money you know they got to ask their wives like hey man i want to go see this joe ken. It costs 75 bucks, but, you know, school doesn't pay for it, and we got diapers to pay for. I understand that.

I take that stuff to heart. You know why? Because I lived on ramen noodles because I had to pay for diapers when I first started. My wife went back to work two weeks after she had a kid. That ain't right. So I owe her. And that's just part of the deal. So for me, I have a soft spot for the coaches on the come up who have to invest personal money in getting better.

Now, I also remember back in the day Jim Wendler saying, don't tell me you have no money, but you're spending how much money a weekend on cases of beer. That's different. But paying for diapers and formula, that's real life. Hey, if you take $100 out of our money this month, then how are we going to pay rent? That's for real, and I know that because I lived that when I first started.

Hey, man, I really need to pay rent. That's for real. And I know that because I lived that when I first started. Hey, man, I really need to do this. You know, I'm renting a car driving to St. Louis to my first National Strength and Conditioning Association. We don't have no money. We're maxing out credit cards. I'm on the come up, but I got to interview for these jobs. You know, I mean, you know, everybody else is staying at the host hotel and I'm staying at, you know, one of those $49.95 special because that's all we got. You know, I'm interviewing for jobs, and we have to pay our own way. And my wife's like, well, I got to come with you because if we're moving all the way over there,

I need to see where I'm living with money you don't have. So for me, it's always been hard to, when I come up with a project, okay, where's the, because, you know, people tell me, it's always been hard to, when I come up with a project, okay, where's the, because, you know, people tell me, House, your name, you can charge 2Gs. I said, I ain't charging 2Gs. I don't care if they got the money. I just can't, I don't see it. But there'll probably be a time I charge 2Gs for something, but it won't be for that population. But it won't be for that population.

It'll be for specific types of roles and what that unique settings are that are now becoming more popular, right? These high-level masterminds where you get five people and that's it, and it's a very unique experience. And I've thought a lot about that because I have the capabilities to do that at my own house. I have a space where I can teach and coach in a very unique boutique setting that a lot of people enjoyed when I opened my house for a couple of free clinics. So those are things that come through my mind, but it's all about... One thing I think I can say, and I like to think that Mark, when he first met me, what, 20 years ago almost, Mark, right? 2002 at the Venetian. Yeah, that was a long-ass time ago.

I mean, I'm the same guy that I was then. Talk smack, have fun, laugh, like to be a fool to myself, know who I am. Everybody's like, you know, what kind of lifter were you? Not a good one. Joe Average, man, class two lifter, man. That's the best I could do. Based on trial, I loved it. I thought I was a class one.

I always wanted to squat 700. Never did. Dave and Jim Wendler helped me squat 650. And it was right about the time that meet was because when Louie first saw me, he goes, hey, I heard you finally squatted 650. I said, yeah, it took me 10 years to get there, but I did it. And, you know, that's the fun part about it like for me i've gone through the arrogance of coaching i'm not going to sit here and lie to you and didn't think i was walking around with my

chest but i was still the same idiot right you're just laughing talking smack i just did it like you know more like i'm the man now can i ask you about that real quick power project family how's it going? Now, we have partnered with Stan Efferding. The Stan Efferding. If you don't know who he is, you better go check it out. But he owns Vertical Meals, which we eat and we love. But one of the big reasons why we love Vertical Meals and we know that you will too is so many people talk about how difficult it is to meal prep.

How busy my life is so I don't have time to cook healthy food. I have excuses so I run to McDonald's so I don't have time to cook healthy food. I have excuses, so I run to McDonald's because I don't have food at home. Well, that's why Vertical Meals is here for you. They have so many amazing meal options, tasty meal options. They have freaking cinnamon rolls, chicken empanadas, steak and eggs, Monster Mash. They have everything you're going to need. That's why you got to go to Vertical Meals so that you don't have to think about meal prep anymore. Andrew, how do they get it? Yes, that's over at vertical diet.com and at checkout, enter promo code power project to save 20% off your entire order. Take advantage of this.

Make sure you guys get like a week or two or three or four and use promo code power project to save 20% off that entire order. Uh, links to them down in the description as well as the podcast show notes. Because earlier in the podcast, you said, I'm not very smart. And then you have this ideology of absorb, modify, apply. And whenever we've had individuals on that were like really, really good coaches, I noticed that they all had the same type of idea where they're not, when they look at what other people do, they're not looking at all the bad things that a coach is doing. Cause I know so many high level guys

on social media, right? They're doing really well and they like to tear down a bunch of things that other coaches are doing, but you are seeing something. Yeah. You said, you know what you don't care to know, right? But you see a lot of things and you're like, Oh, this is really good. This is really good. So when was the point that you were just saying right now where you had your chest up and you thought you were the shit, right? Was that the point where you thought you knew it all? I just want to know what made you kind of change.

No, I never thought I knew it all. I just thought I was at a big time place and thought I've arrived. And I'm like, I'm the man now. So you were always like absorbing though. Yeah, but i mean i'm not gonna sit here lying to you i think some coaches suck i mean and you know what there's a lot of dudes that probably think i suck so it all evens out but i just but when it comes from

uh like i said i think there might have been a time in my life where I would think differently. But because I always go back to, man, there's a lot of people who stood by me when I did my. Now, my deal isn't more. They're talking about the human body and movement. Mine was more of programming and methodology. But there's a lot of people who have stood by me. And a lot of people think my shit's bullshit. But I go back to, hey, man, to each his own. Like, I've never really said, like some people do,

if you don't do what I do, you're wrong because mine's the best. But I can't because history says I've seen teams that did one set to failure win a national title and go to 30 bowl games and win three Super Bowls with the same methodology, just like I've seen teams do cleans and win a national title and go to 30 bowl games and win three super bowls with the same methodology just like i've seen teams do cleans and win a national title and teams that don't do cleans win a national title so i have that i have that belief my evaluations have become more from maybe a philosophical standpoint as i've gotten older, if that makes sense. But from the standpoint of, like, not bashing people, I have a – I won't – I bash coaching as far as – coaching has changed a lot in strength and conditioning.

I bash the – we're not worried too much. Coaches that hire us are more worried about what they're perceived versus what's going on. I mean, we're seeing it now. I'm not, I don't, again, I don't want to get into that because I've said it out loud at two major conferences, so I got my point across to the people I wanted to. But it's just different.

Can I ask what you mean, though? Because I don't know what you mean necessarily. Strength coaches are now more at the forefront forefront and they should be behind the scenes it shouldn't be about them it should be about the player and but in that in that particular coach's defense i think a lot of times it's being procured by the head coach because that's what they want that role to be uh you know. Sometimes they want you to be the disciplinary. Sometimes they want you to be the hype guy. So I don't think it's necessarily something that's good or bad,

but it's changed the complexion of how people judge us. That's my problem, that you're judging something that's not what we should be judged on. We should be judged on how well our guys are developed, how well our women are developed if we coach women's sports, how well the program's well, do the kids are motivated by us, not some of the, what I would call, extracurricular bullet points that are now being added on our job description that kind of makes us, I don't want to say a laughingstock, but we're losing our voice. Too many people want to tell us what our roles are, and we've done a very poor job, I think, of making sure we tell you what our role is.

That's something that I have a hard grip now, being out of it two years and really watching what's going on. That's kind of where i am trying to wrap my head around how can i be someone that when i do talk to some of these younger strength coaches and give them the right perspective they're you know like hey i'm not telling you you shouldn't be excited, but there's that point of over-the-top excitement. And again, I'll just say it. I have this thing like everybody here is right. You got to bring the juice, right?

You got to bring the juice. Well, half that juice is fake juice. It's created. You know, there are some very guys that I know that are real live. So I go like fake juice is artificial flavor, right? High C and high fructose corn syrup. Then you got due to naturally have juice, right? They, you know, all natural squeezing it every morning, getting there, squeezing in their juicer.

And they got it, man. They got it daily. The guys with the fake juice, man, they turn it on and they turn it off. Guys with real juice, that's who they are. And then you get guys like me who I think because of my longevity, I say I have sauce because I have slow, I have natural ingredients, and I simmer because I'm making some real quality sauce. Because if you know me and most, and Mark, I'm hyped. Like, I love this stuff. Like, I loved walking around the Arnold today.

I walked around, I'm like, golly, man, I've been walking around here doing all, you know, I sat with Piros Demas and Mike Catone, the two leaders of USA Weightlifting, and watched the entire men's session, like, literally right behind them. Like, no different than you, they're watching and I'm right behind them.

I'm talking to Mike and Piros, buddy, because I'm not. I love weightlifting, but I don't. The strategy of weightlifting is so much different than powerlifting's three attempts. I mean, these dudes are like, hey, Natty Professor's up at 160. Oh, we've got a weight change. Mark Bell's up at 160 now. Oh, wait, we're going to 162 and Big House is up. Oh, no, we've got another change.

Mark Bell is now up at 162. And before you know it, man, you're timing each other out. It was crazy, man. I was like, wow. I said, there's strategy. And my buddy, you know Travis Mash, he's coaching now at Lenoir Ryan Weightlifting. He's the head coach. And his guy killed it today, went six for six.

But I'm like, man, Travis is out there making – and Mike knows Travis. So Mike's like, yeah, Travis is back there making moves. They're setting this dude up for a big day. And his kid had a hell of a day. He's a – what is he, a 73-kilogram lifter? He's one of our top guys right now in the United States. He was a 73-kilogram lifter. What's he

21 22 years old or if he is that and he he clean and jerk 400 for the first time in his career 182 kilograms and then he pr'd snatch 138 so 140 is 308 so 130 is in you know low 300s and you know i'm like you know i you know like who i I don't even know if I could deadlift 400 right now coming off this hernia surgery. And this dude just ripped it at 73 kilograms. So it's cool. And I like it. I like talking about it,

but I stay within my wheelhouse. If you started talking about linear and lateral speed, I'm going to say you need to interview these people. The things you asked me, I feel comfortable answering or I wouldn't have answered them to the best of my ability. So I know where I stand in this world and I'm cool with that. I like strength.

That's how I got brought up. That's why I'm here. If I wasn't exposed to the weight room, I was a good football player who was made better because he was stronger than most of the people he played against. So I get a scholarship and and if the skills needed to play offensive defensive line that are recommended now for a high school kid were back in the 80s i would probably be in trouble but the skills needed back then of being stronger than most people i was good at so i i got the then of being stronger than most people i was good at so i i got to fortunate for me i was in the right era so so again it's just the way way things are and you you learn that stuff and without

strength i'm not any no one knows me i don't mean that in a bad way i'm just living in my hometown never left i didn't expose my mom and dad to moving out of the city they grew up in their whole lives. I mean, I had the same teachers my dad did. My high school coach played with my dad. Lyle Alzado played with those guys. We came from a strong community where people didn't leave. They just went to high school, got married, and stayed where I was.

Like, I'm out. Like, my mom, to the day she passed, was like, you always said when you left you weren't coming back, and you really never did. And I said, yeah, what am I going to do here? You know, and then they wound up moving to North Carolina. So they didn't stay either. And then I got to see them towards the end because I lived in North Carolina.

They got to see their great grandkids. So it's just full circle stuff, man. It's just cool stuff. How do you think or why do you think brian shaw selected you to coach him that's a great question that's a i i i would i would say this honestly we've we've all we've we stayed in touch for a long time and I never wanted to overstep my bounds because it's a different sport it's a strength sport and I know strength but it's a totally different dynamic and Brian was an aspiring strength coach so it wasn't like he didn't understand some of the components

of being of training himself and I know he's had to other you know he's had different people in his camp but he's he's got his crew that's his handlers and his dudes that he he's they that they're literally part of his family that have been with him from the onset but i i always felt like if i saw something and i did have a relationship with him that he wouldn't take it the wrong way. If I sent him a text and said, hey, man, I saw this. You may want to think about this. And I don't, you know, there was times I was like, look, man, I don't deadlift 1,000. I deadlift 500. But I know enough about why I think this may occur.

why I think this may occur. And this past year, he had another injury that kind of sucked. Because, you know, you know how it is, man. You invest 16 weeks to squat 1,000 and it goes bad. You're like, really? I mean, that's like for me the year. It goes really bad. Yeah. I mean, so I reached out again after the last meet that I saw,

and somehow we just got conversing back and forth, and he asked, hey, would you mind coming a part of the team and helping me formulate this plan? And, I mean, to me, that's like an honor, right? A four-time World's strongest man uh individual who as we all know because we're all into our strength is in the debate of who's the greatest world's strongest man ever like this isn't a guy on the come up like this is not this guy hey I'm getting ready for my first event will you help me this? This is a guy who's established. He's a three-time Arnold winner, tied for the second most overall.

He's a four-time world's strongest man, went one off the all-time record. I think it's him, Big Z, and Magnus Vermagnussen are the four-time champs. That's big stuff. And here's this guy who is at the epitome of his career reaching out for help. So one, how do you say no? And then now you accept this challenge and you sit back and you're like,

oh man, this is the real deal. Was there any part of you that wanted to say no? No, no, no. But you start like, wait a second. Now this, and like we had talked earlier, I'll never forget Dave Tate telling me this about different levels of strength. There's different things that you feel that can help.

And I always took that to heart. Like, yeah, I don't know what 800 on my back feels like, let alone 1,000. I don't know what 700 on my back feels like, let alone a thousand. I don't know what 700 in my hands feels like, let alone a thousand, right? I don't know what a thousand pound deadlift feels like coming off the floor. So that's where I told him, this isn't about me writing the program. It's about us writing the program. And I constantly ask him questions. And I constantly ask him questions.

And I constantly ask for feedback. And if you know Brian, and I know you guys do, he's very analytical. And maybe to a point, even like me sometimes in my limited strengths of lifting, that's a hindrance. strengths of lifting, that's a hindrance. When at some point in time, like we say, you got to flip the switch and say, hey, F this man, I got to rip this thing, whether my technique's on or not. I got to go to that dark place and figure out how to be successful. And that sometimes hurts when you're trying to over strategize. that sometimes hurts when you're,

when you're trying to over strategize. And I also think, and I think too, by bringing on someone that he respected and trusted that I could put together a plan and take an ease, some of his stress of having to put together the plan. Also, if that makes sense, some of his stress of having to put together the plan also, if that makes sense.

I think he wanted to tap into my experiences of working with athletes and maybe help him, which I think we've done probably too good on certain things, of correcting certain things that keep him healthy through a longer duration. I would probably guess without asking him that because he had so much time to prepare for one event, he probably needed somebody that could understand how to do that without putting him in a stressful environment too early where he's pushing big weights too early in the phase where we want to try to build a crescendo for 20.

I mean, he, when he reached out to me, we started 25 weeks out. You know, I don't, I would venture to think this might be one of the longest preps he's ever had for an event,

his entire career. Cause generally, you know, he's going one or two monster events and you know, he's ever had for an event his entire career because generally you know he's going one or two monster events and you know he's at that he's at that point in his career this is me speaking where i would call it he's he's in the tiger woods point of his career where the only thing that matters are majors so pick your pick your poison because i've only got so many lifts left and it goes back to the great eddie cone right you only got so many max effort lifts in your life use them well that's

competition not the gym and i think a lot of times these you know like i asked him when he's prepping for a thousand pound deadlifts how many times in training will you pull 1,000 pounds? And I can't remember the number. Was it one or two? It wasn't as many as I thought, which was good. But how many times did he pull 900 during that cycle? And that's the stuff that, as a coach, and again, some people may not have the same perspective as me

is what's been extremely hard to wrap my head around is i don't know what that even that doesn't resonate in my mind about hey one day i'm going to deadlift 900 i'm like man do you think i'll ever subtotal 900 again right so that's been my personal challenge is to really try to wrap my head around and like even myself try to visualize because I think there's merit in focus and visualization. Sometimes you can take it too much and over-visualize and over-hype yourself and could lead to catastrophic or self-destruction on the platform. So I'm trying to visualize how I would walk up to 1,000 pounds.

And I study a lot of his YouTube stuff from his events, and especially like at the Arnold, because a lot of times at the Arnold, that's where he's pulled the monster elephant bar deadlifting. You know, you're watching him walking back and forth as he's waiting for them to set the bar. And I'm saying to myself, what is this guy? What is the prep for that? Like, what's going?

And even if you've done it before, like, what is going through your mind? Like, is it the same as me approaching a 500-pound deadlift? I don't know. Like, is it that? It's unfathomable that I'm talking to somebody who deadlifts a thousand pounds and does what he does. So, it's been an exciting challenge. I'm not going to say that I'm not, like we were talking, I don't know the right word. I'm, it's a, maybe it's a, the nervousness is for the excitement about it.

And I'll give him kudos because every time I talk to him, he's so positive. Right now, we've had really, really good workouts. We've had one workout that if we had to say it didn't go to what we wanted or even worse than that. And I think he's okay with me saying this. He texts me and goes, hey, man, I feel like I let you down today. And I go, absolutely not. If anybody let you down, it was me. I wrote the script.

We got overzealous with how well things were going. We tried to push something that wasn't there yet because we hadn't prepared properly to do that so for now on i'm sticking to what the work says not what my head or your head thinks we can do and the next cycle we came back was a much the number was right it was a much positive outcome we felt better and now we can start to you know like i said tomorrow is the last session before we start our full comp and it's been it's been really i love coaching so he's doing me a favor in that way that he gave me an opportunity to coach an individual that's at an elite level.

And like I told him, I'm in this like I was preparing our teams to win Super Bowls. This is his Super Bowl, right? So that has to be my outlook on that. And I think it's going to make me a better coach if I ever get back into team sports i also think in a personal way on what what's next for me as a coach it could really help me i'm really learning the online type of space

where now you're looking okay how does this work right like you're sending this guy workouts you're texting every day of the workouts he's sending you videos you're taking his videos and you're looking at, okay, how does this work, right? Like you're sending this guy workouts. You're texting every day of the workouts. He's sending you videos. You're taking his videos in your slow motion, and you're taking a 30-second video, and it becomes a 10-minute clip of coaching techniques and repeat slow motions of right off this position. You got 14 different clips in a row because you're voiceovering. And then for me and him, we've been fortunate.

My schedule has worked out where I actually coach him live over FaceTime. So that I've got like my – and I've posted this so some people might have seen it. So I've got his screen of him lifting. I've got my chart because I'm adjusting my charts on the fly as it goes. Like, all right, I can see we're going to have to lengthen the rest time. Or, okay, we're going to do, we're flipping this. This is too easy because, again, I'm still learning how strong, super strong people is. So it's like, all right, after five, add 50.

After five, add 50. After five, add 50. And we've been able to communicate that way. And then, you know, then you're looking at, well, what would somebody be willing to pay for that in this online space now? Like there's differences of you sending me clips and i get it back to you there's difference of a zoom call where you're just talking out the next training plan but now it's hey i train saturdays at 11 i need you well now you're messing my saturday up because I can watch the tape later if you send me tape. And now it's like, where is the value proposition in that?

And specifically, what's the clientele for that? Probably super elite people. So that's coming because, again, now in the private sector, as a coach, that's part of the deal now, right? Everybody's got an app. Everybody's doing this. But where can you take that to get involved more with coaching in this space? But that's something that is kind of secondary to the whole fact of he's given me a lot of pleasure because I love coaching

and I do miss it, and it doesn't take a lot. It takes a lot of investment, I mean, but it doesn't take much out of what my main role is. But they're also a value proposition of me training the world's strongest man, I feel, and people that i know in this space feel that is looks good for our company that he's chosen somebody that works for dynamic fitness and strength and trusts him into being his coach and that's part of my role when i'm at these clinics is coach joe ken most of them or coach house House or, you know, things like that. So, yeah, it's kind of cool.

It's going to be interesting because, like we said, you know, there's a lot of things that go into being on that podium. Who shows up? Who shows out? Are the events conducive to being successful? You know, like today. I mean, I watched today and really the first two events, I mean, I think it's posted. I don't care.

Rob Kearney is leading. But if you look at the two events, squat and then a single arm press, those are two very conducive events for him. And he actually, you know, he came in second in both and that pointed in the way the the first and the other guys did they they didn't do as well in the other events and he he evens out and i actually had this conversation with with brian about there's going to be a time in the near future with the way the competitive strongman's going and the depth of it is,

somebody will win one of these major events without winning an event. I think when people figure out balance wins titles, somebody will win an event. If they can finish second or third in every event, I think they'll outpoint somebody who wins two ones and two fives. Because they don't kill themselves trying to get the biggest deadlift, right? Well, I think it's just because you've got to remember, and you hear, I could care less if I deadlift a thousand and win if I'm no good in the single arm shoulder press. You know what I'm saying? And so if you can balance, and I think that's what Brian's done very well over his career he's

he really worked on his weaknesses so that when it comes down to it he can manage things very much better than a lot of the generally as you're younger you're going to have your events but you can't rest on those laurels

of I'm always going to win these two events well great you're always coming last in these of, I'm always going to win these two events. Well, great. You're always coming last in these other four. You're not going to win World's Strongest Man or the Arnold. You have to be able to be seriously big time at these events. Again, like Kieliszkowski. And again, who am I to judge, right? Like I said, I'll zero out and be the 11th place world's strongest man.

But he dominates that natural stone. He's got a lot of work to do on his deadlift. It's gotten better. If you study, he's gotten a lot better. But he kills the stone. Okay. You've got to do better at these events because you're losing too many points. You win two events and come in last in one on a 10-man dude,

that's a lot of point spread you're losing. So you have to work. It's no different than what we all learn. Work on your weaknesses, right? 20% of your time is on your strength, right? 80%, that's how you build a quality program. You can't squat, especially the older you get. You can't squat all day. So what are you going to do? You got to figure out ways to build up your squat and stay

robust and resilient and pain-free. So it's an interesting deal. Look at the world's, you know, look at these fit athletes, right? They're all balanced. Thefitters right the ones who win yeah they've got a strength but man they don't have a whole lot of weaknesses when you look at them across the board now if you do the fortunate thing is there's so many other events you can catch up in strongman there's only usually six in the finals. Here, there's only five. So Rob, you know, it'd be very interesting tomorrow to see because they've got Max Log, which is a good event for,

it's another good event for Rob. Rob was the former American record holder. So he's got another event that's in his wheelhouse. But then you got the massive frame up the deal I don't think if there's no straps smaller hand

can he get it going and then it's that natural stone that very you know again some guys are going to zero out do we want to see zero outs for him I think you get half credit if you at least get it you lap it, I think. But he's going to need, he can't zero out.

I don't know what's going to happen on the frame. I think he'll do very well in the log. But he can't, if he zeros out, he could fall off the podium. You know, he may have a shot to win, but he could fall, you know, that's the other thing, right? So winning's great. And that's the other thing when I used to, you know, I understand you want to win, especially in an individual sport. That's the key, right?

Get on a podium, top of the podium. And I believe in that. You're not going. And I believe in that. You're not going. But when all the work's laid out and you're on that podium, I always look at it from the positive. Would you rather be on the podium or not be on the podium?

The worst place of any individual sport is fourth place. Because most of it's a top three deal. So would you rather be fourth or third? I know you want to win. Hell, I want you to win. But in the end, there's value in podium finishes. Because again, it shows consistency.

You stand the test of time. And in the end, you can look back and you'll always have your what ifs oh man if i would have had a half a second here and gained that point just like now right like today rob kearney gets four reps so he gets second place by himself and because he was so good in the squat he could see where everybody was i think there was three or four guys tied for third rob got the three and had a lot of time to rest and he's and he got the fourth just remember they they average all those points so if if five guys tie for third it's second third fourth fifth and sixth average that separates you even further from the guy who got 10 points

to win because now you don't get nine for second, you get 5.5. So that one rep sets you up. So when you tie for certain spots, it could help you, but most of the time, it hurts you. And that's where doing well in the previous events and get you further back in the depth you can strategize a lot different if you're number one you got to go all out like novikov was in the middle and the three was the order but he still had several guys behind behind him he goes out and knocks seven out like it was impressive this dude it was like whoa this dude is smack he had terrific technique uh i'm gonna copy i'm gonna save that tape when i get it off of the youtube because he dialed that technique and it wasn't all obviously you're strong it's a 275 pound

fat handle dumbbell but the methodicalness and the fluidness and the efficiency of his technique was as good as you'll ever see. So there's that. Again, tomorrow, who's going to win the log? I'm going to tell you who's going to win the log. The guy who has the best leg, first of all, the guy who has the best efficient clean,

which most of them do, the guy who uses the most leg drive, and the guy who's able to stabilize each rep without getting that slight wobble because that log, it's a different path. Those are the keys, and that's the same keys that we're working on with Brian because that's important. Clean, got to be efficient, can't lose it. it you gotta get it up high on your belly to a quick pop but the pressure has to be leg driven

and a lot of these guys man you know they're alphas well I'm not gonna use my legs on the first couple cause I can press this okay great but guess what's gonna happen

when you're gonna lose use your legs you're gonna you're gonna balance the balance changes the bar path is gonna change so

what do you do? You've got to train differently. I know you want to show your mettle. I'm just going to press the first four, and then I'm going to use your legs. You know what? Use your legs on all four, and guess what? You'll probably get three more reps. So it's a game, man, and it's craziness.

And I like the strategy part of it more and more. That's the cool part because you don't sometimes you don't have to be your strongest to win the event you just got to know where you're at in the event I have it's not necessarily so much about the strength coaching strengths if you guys cool if we

switch gears a little bit so well my question is so you were talking about how like you know you sacrifice quite a bit to become an elite coach. More so your wife made some big sacrifices. This is my first trip away from my son. He's one years old. So I'm freaking out.

Hey, man, just be, just know this, man. My wife, it's, you know, people say, oh, man, you're such a good dad. You don't know what you don't know, right? Like, my wife is, there's a, you got to remember, here's the thing, and this is, and again, I say this not as, you want to call it a testimony or whatever. A couple things I'll tell you. I, my, the way I feel my role is, is probably some dads probably look at it this way. My job is, my thought is, as long as my people are good and I got them, I'm cool. Like sometimes I'm distant, but my wife goes,

you got to talk to these kids. I mean, and I'm like, I just need to see you. Like I just need to know that everything's cool. I'll take care of it. My wife and my kids, you know, it's hard, man. Like my relationship with both my sons, man, is weird. Like it's good.

It's not good. My oldest one is a tougher kid. My youngest one tries to be understanding. And now as a coach in the same profession, as a strength and conditioning coach, I think he's seeing certain things that he knows that I did that he probably won't do. Not because of any other reason is he saw the whole picture.

Like my wife chose this profession with me. They didn't. And, you know, like everybody's like, oh, how? I said, you don't understand man i've never moved my wife moved seven times i've never bought a house my wife's bought seven houses i've never pulled a kid or registered a kid for school my wife's done that my wife's the one who took the brunt of kids asking where dad is because he moved and it was away for six months starting a new job so i and i'm and i just have gravitated my life towards i just need these people to be good like i

and my wife's and that's hurt some certain things with my wife the way my sons look at them sometimes. Like they don't understand. Like you should be pissed at me. Don't be pissed at her, man. She's had you her backs from day one. You're pissed at me because of what I've done. But you take it out on her because she's there, if that makes sense.

So I have a hard time of I'm not a bad dad but I have and I still and I'm to this day I still have issues with that like I got to remember man I got to reach out to my my oldest son sometimes and and and then I try not to reach out to my youngest as much because he's in my profession and I don't want it to be like man I'm talking to him all as much because he's in my profession and i don't want it to be like man i'm talking to him all the time because he's coaching but my other son man he got a cool job like i need to like i'm trying to learn more about what that tradesman and welding and stuff like that i mean and it is a cool job like i'm i really think it's cool that he teaches because you know he wasn't a big school guy like this dude was just super

smart but could care less about going to school and now he teaches kids his trade and you know and he and he had kids younger than i thought and he and he's a great dad like he's just a really good dad and his and uh morgan his wife is she they do really good stuff, man. And I got two grandkids that are just the best. So I think that you have to understand your job. Your wife has to understand it. The hard part is your kid's never going to understand it. And it gets to that point when they are three or four years old and they know enough, where's daddy?

And that's going to be tough on you. And then so what I would tell you, and this is one thing my wife always had to invest. Remember, my job, man, I worked all kinds of crazy hours. But when I walked in the door, man, I had to be a dad. Like I couldn't be like I had to leave work at home. It's like, hey, man, I don't give a shit what happened at work. These kids need you so you better stop talking about work and doing work stuff and and invest and I had a hard time

that was still hard for me like I mean it like so I would tell you whatever time you've got with your kids man blow it up and even and if you can take your kids to work sometimes, take them to work. Because, like, my oldest lived – my oldest I took to work. Like, my wife to this day goes, I don't know how they let you take this kid to work. I coached with him in one of those Johnny Jump-Up suits, coaching strength. I mean, this dude's in one of those wheelie – you know, when they're learning how to walk, you put them in those things

and they roll around. He's bouncing off weight trees, you know, and then he's running around. And I told him, man, you can have all the fun you want, but you can't cry. And he come in, man, he said, what's up? Pulled his head up, got a big knock because he ran into a tree. And, you know, then I got to go home and explain that. Well, why weren't you watching him? Because I'm working, man.

Well, he shouldn't be running around wild. I mean, I can guarantee you could talk to kids at Boise State about my son being there, and they could tell you some wild stories about him just running wild. And because I wasn't around a lot, I'm not the best disciplinarian, and I have a hard time. Like, there's a lot of times that I've had a hard time sticking up for my wife because my oldest is going psycho because i just felt like he always thought nobody was on his side and if i stuck and there was times where it was like well if i stick up for him then my wife's

gonna be pissed if i don't say say anything, I'm screwed both ways. So I might as well get screwed both ways and not say much. And then my wife's like, what the F's going on? And I'm like, but again, my relationship with my oldest is, it's an interesting story. My wife and even my son will say that i over i over believed that it was too much but i mean my son told me he wanted to be a football player i know how to do that and my my son will call it and mark will start laughing he called it kenevich for the whole verinovich stuff now it wasn't that bad he got to eat sweets and all that but there were times

where i took it to the extreme like my son was one of the greatest weightlifters i ever coached he could have been an olympic lifter he probably could have been a crossfitter he's done things like i mess with smelly in them sometimes i think you know everybody oh nordic curls nordic curls my kid did 50 in a row at the end of a workout at 18 years old there There's 35 of them on my YouTube channel. You know, he did seven when he was in the ninth grade. He'd done pistol squats. He's done it all.

But here's the problem, right? Most of us, our first experiences are in what? A gym doing curls and benches. His experience is glute ham raises, negative chins, rope climbs, and pistol squats, right? So he never, it was a program deal for him. And like I said, he has no, he had never, you know, when you coach a kid like that, he don't have no bad habits.

My oldest, now my youngest, because I was away, he trained a lot by himself, or Travis Mash coached him a lot. Because Travis was in my neighborhood, and it was funny because I never saw him gravitating towards this. And I'm doing it. But I think that I still have a hard time coming to resolutions, if that makes sense. So for me, it's even now, like, that's how I am like even with my grandkids man there'll be times where I they're at soccer and you know seven year olds or five year olds playing soccer right but like you know there'll be a time out and if I'm out there with my with my granddaughter in particular there was a couple times where I'm like Leighton come here and I'm like yeah go get your water nice job you. You know, nice job.

Because that's not my role. My role is to, you know, and I'm looking at her. I'm looking at her like out of my corner of the eye to see her dad. And I'm waiting for them to just like, you know, knock. Don't effing talk to my kid. But that's, you know, so I have a hard, like, that's a hard subject for me because I, like I said, man, I have a little bit of different resolution. And I have no reason not to share it because there's a lot of coaches

and there's a lot of things that are going on. But I know this. There was a point where here's what I'll tell you when tell you, especially as a coach, if your coaches are listening, is this. Your son or your daughter will always, if they get into competitive or athleticism or athletics, they're going to have coaches, right? They're going to have lots of them, but they're only going to have one dad.

And the last thing you ever want to hear from one of your kids is, you coached me 100% of the time, and once in a while I needed a dad. That I can promise you you don't ever want to hear, and I heard it. promise you you don't ever want to hear and i heard it and and and and here i am that was 13 or something years ago and i still have issues where i'm coaching so it's just it's a tough you know and i'm and i and i go back to that right and it's like and and again this is on me because i do think there's that my son is cool and i know my wife's always like you can't you can't keep bringing this up and i and i get it but i do because i i'm like man i this that i failed this kid right like but i don't think i did because then then I just, I don't know.

You know what I'm saying? Like, I would probably need to talk to a professional and see what they said about, like, why do I continue to harp on that and bring that out? But I do believe that it's needed for coaches to hear that, because, like I always said i'll never coach my son and then i because i didn't really think coaching him in the weight room was coaching my son and then it got to a point where it was and i could tell like it was a chore for him

because he would train with his buddy in my garage and his buddy's ready to go and i'd have to like literally drag this dude in the room once he was in there he could kill it but it was he just it wasn't something that resonated with him and i and my and his mom my mom his mom kept telling me and then on the opposite she always said don't sleep on peter my youngest, because of my investment in my oldest. They're four years apart, so there's a little bit of a gap. And then now that's like our hashtag, don't sleep on Peter, because this fool, he's on a mission. And I think he was challenged by having an older brother who was athletic and skilled and he's a hard gainer he saw how you know the resident I mean he just

watched he watched he's very astute like that like like a lot of like his mom so again I put a lot of heat on myself because I think I should, if that makes sense, because I just think that I've seen some, you know, really good relationships. And I think, like I said, my relationships are not poor. It's not like, but there's times where, you know, I'm very, this is in all my issues. I'm one of those people that when it goes bad, it's over. Like, I'm done. I got no time to resolution. And I, you know, I've seen it.

And I think some of that's from, I've seen some of the things my parents have done over time with certain relationships. Like, it's over. Bury it. Done. And you move on. Like, it's it's just hey i got no time for this anymore i'm not going to put any effort into this it is what it is and that's hurt me in a couple of things professionally too because it's like man you know what why like i'm just going to do what i got to do do my deal and see what happens and i know know that that's a bad, that's a bad, what's the right word?

Mindset, thought process. Yeah, just like a habit. It's a bad habit to have. But, yeah, but it comes from the mind. And so with the, you know, with parenting, man, you know, like, what's the heck anything else? It's like train, right? What's right or what's wrong?

It's a lot of individuals. Like you raise both kids the same way and they are totally different. And it's like really how did this – like you're looking like, man, what would make that happen? And, you know, like for like – and then you go back to, okay, how were they raised? So my oldest was more in daycare than my youngest because, like for like, and then you go back to, okay, how were they raised? So my oldest was more in daycare than my youngest because, like I said, my wife had gone back to work very early. And, you know, postpartum's real, people.

You know, that stuff's for real. I saw it. It's not good, man. It's not good when someone you love and felt like there was pressure to go make some money because you weren't making money because you're on the come up and you're making GA money. And they're like, I got to do this. And now, you know, so my oldest was in daycare longer than my youngest because I had made that point with my oldest when I saw what my wife had gone through was my next job, my wife had gone through was my next

job my wife's never working again like that was my that's rap like not and I was fortunate enough that my next job paid me enough where that was a rap and that was 1999

and she hasn't she hasn't had to work now it's at a point now where she's almost wants to because there's nothing out there but then i'm like well you know if there's that time when that emergency calls for the grandkids and you're gonna want to be there so we're working on some other cool stuff but she's uh she works for me she puts me in I mean, you've talked to her. She's the real deal, man. I don't. She was mad at us. Yeah, I don't work.

I don't work. Why was she mad at us? What happened, man? Mark is, man. You all do some crazy stuff. But what do we do? We're so straight and narrow. You got to tell us.

I forgot, but she's not afraid to tell you. Was it? What was it, Mark? Was it that? It was us talking about beating off and tasting our own cum. She's like, I'm done with these guys. She does like Mark, though. She does like Mark.

And Mark's wife reminds me a lot of my wife. They're strong-willed women, but they understand what we're doing, and they're cool with support. Sometimes I have to remind myself that my wife sacrificed a lot for me to be me, and she missed out on some of her dreams and aspirations. Yeah, we never look at anybody else's perspective. Even the person you love the most. Yeah, it's like, you know, there's just certain things.

And even to now, I mean, you're selfish. But selfish has got me where I have been in some respects. And we're all doing pretty good because of it. So, yeah, I just, she just, you know, like I said, man, and this is another thing for coaches. When you're coming up, if you have a significant other and that you believe that relationship could be long-term, you need to explain to them what the possibilities of being a coach's companion can be.

And my youngest has had that conversation with with his girlfriend that looks like that she's probably they probably are going to spend a long time together whether you know if they get married that could be and I don't want to talk for them and put words in their mouths but there's that looks like that's could be the direction they're going on and you got to understand that this job here isn't the old traditional stay at home, work 50 years, get your watch and retire and everything's hoop behind.

You got friends out there for life where like my wife, when I went to Boise State, it was supposed to be two years, get your master's, get out. We're going back to the Southeast. It went two years, got you know they can't find a job they promote me still looking get promoted to the head strength coach and now you're there eight years and she's really not made any friends because she's thinking we're moving anytime soon so then right you know after a time after a time, you let your guard down

and you start establishing some friendships, deuces, going to Utah, and then the cycle goes again. Lucky that was a short stay, but then boom, now you're at Arizona State. You're like, well, how long are you going to be here? We were lucky there. We had a good run, seven years. Go to Louisville. Boom, two years, out. Then we had a hell of a run nine years

with the panthers and she's home so the whole concept you know when we took the job in boise state i was like man let's see where that i was like oh i didn't know idaho was that far away from North Carolina. So then we go out, and so, you know, my wife's family are homebody families, what I would call them. Her one, two, three brothers and three sisters all kind of lived within a mile and a half radius of her mom and dad. My sister, her marriage ended and had two kids so she lived with my parents from

for a good 20 years maybe more I can't even remember so here they are reaping the benefits of family and here we are you know 360 3600 miles away in Boise, Idaho.

Oh, let's try to get closer to home. All right, what's your next move? Let's stay out west. Just go south to Utah. Hey, we're moving again. Guess where we're going now? Hey, we're still out west. We're going further south.

We're going to Phoenix. So that's eight years. Both my kids born in Idaho, two years, 10, seven years, 17 years away from family. Cause that's big trips. That's not, you're not, you're seeing maybe somebody once a year, maybe twice. Now my dad liked to go to football games. So I saw him more than most, but my mom, I, man, I was tough. But what's happening on the other side, right? So all these other family members have stronger relationships on both sides.

You know, like my kids didn't have the same relationship with my mom and dad or my wife's mom and dad because they're 3,600 miles away. But all the other grandkids are right there, man. They're within doorsteps or steps so that that whole relationship for me is different so these are other things like the life lessons of what goes on so when both my parents pass my sister's a wreck she doesn't know if she can go on because she lived with them for 20, 30 years. And so did, you know, my dad and my mom helped raise those kids from, you know, junior high to adulthood. Me, I have a different perspective. mom had burkitt's lymphoma when i first moved back to north carolina and she wound up beating it and

living another eight years before she passed from uh lung cancer so i look at it like i had my mom eight more years than i was supposed to my sister's in shambles uh i move on and my you know my sister's like oh you know then then a year later almost to the day which I kind of knew would happen my dad passes away and now she's even more of a wreck where me my dad's a G

he's an old school New York street dude he ran with some heavy hard guys that people have made movies about he'll tell you his issues of health was self inflicted from hard ride

party killing it so he died in his 70's and I'm like man I got 20 plus on this dude I thought it was over like several times early on. So I'm looking like I'm winning where my wife's looking at it.

Like, I mean, my sister's looking at it like, man, this is, uh, you know, you know,

like I just always have that perspective. Like, Hey man, this is what happens. And in the end, the positive was he probably was supposed to be gone 20 something and I don't want I mean I'm trying not to make fun but I mean I look like

I gained 20 plus years for him and 7 or 8 for my mom so we won and for me the bonus was that I finally got back home and my son my oldest son's kids were able to see their great-grandparents even and even like

my mom my wife my wife you know her mom passed and we're in North Carolina that makes all things and she got to be around her mom for these extra 10 years that we're in we finally made it back home and that was a big deal like I've always made professional moves the reason why I went to Louisville was more personal because it's a six hour drive from Louisville to North Carolina versus 36 and that helped but so those are the travel journeys of

of what happens when you when you almost displace your family away and that's why like you know I found it to be extremely cool when you know when mark and i started to rekindle this relationship after several years and you know he's got his mom and his dad living right next door man that's cherishable moments and when and then when you're you know when when one of your parents passes it makes it it's never easy but it makes things a little bit soother because it's

like damn i should have visited them and even like my my mom and dad were an hour and a half away and i still hardly visited because my job was crazy and uh do i regret some of that yes but i mean then i'm like but man that's kind of the game i chose. I mean, it might sound heartless, but it is. So there's a lot of things like, you know, it's, hey, man, you're going to lose people. The question is, what's the, you know, like, again, I guarantee you without talking to Mark about it, there's a little bit more soothingness knowing that mom was next to me for how many years instead of still living in New York. So those are things that people don't discuss or have a hard time opening up about. I don't anymore because, man, I just think there's lessons and people need to know that, hey, man, I feel the same way.

This guy's out on YouTube. They're talking strengths one minute and then they're talking about losing loved ones on the next because it's all part of the deal like there's just different ways things respond and how you're going to respond to that and I'm not trying to say that my way is right but that's my response is like hey man I just look at things a totally different perspective now because of the success and the significance of things that I've accomplished and I always try to make it positive

like you know like I always talk to these football players like this people don't understand when I say I wish I got cut like because I never got to play in the NFL

for various reasons but like I go man I wish I got cut and they go what the hell what does that mean because that means I was there and if I get cut that means I got an opportunity

to possibly be a professional player now people might go that's just a stupid way of saying it. But think about that. If you're a football player and you've made it all the way through college and your ultimate goal was to be an NFL player, and we all know those percentages of chances, would you rather have been told after your college career, it's a wrap, would you rather have had a coach tell you after training camp you're cut? I know what I'd want to do. I'd want to get cut.

You know, just like you get these kids, right, their rookie year. They've been the stars of their college teams. They make the NFL. They're on the 53-man roster. They really don't understand all what happens during this deal. So now they come into the locker room the day of the game, and the coach says, you're down. Go see house.

You got to get a conditioning session in. Now they come out all bummed out, right? Oh, man, coach, I didn't dress. I said, hey, my man, how many of your friends wish they weren't dressing today running hundreds with me or whatever you would do? Oh, yeah, I get you, right? And guess what, buddy? On Tuesday, you're getting the same check.

So would you rather be running with me and getting that check on Tuesday or be at home watching TV with your buddies drinking beer? I got you. You know, I mean, there's value in people understanding that, man, don't look at the bad. Look at the fact that you're here. And next week you'll get another opportunity to practice. And maybe next week when you walk in, you get your jersey.

Those are the way I look at it. Like I just think there's just too many things that people accomplish. And why is the one thing that we do bad outweigh the hundreds of things we do that are great? Like I always told people, I try to do my best when I'm in a position to test an athlete, especially in the strength lifts of squat and bench, that I never want them to leave on a miss.

They'll figure out failures other ways because the culmination a lot of times in a weight room that I'm in or even in a, is a personal best. We've all been there, right? You set a personal best and and somehow, someway, you get convinced, or you convince yourself you can do more,

you miss, and you walk out disappointed. You just personal best by 20. You're good. Go home. Celebrate. Coach, what do you think? I think you got 20 more,

but not today. Goodbye. Because why? Why miss and blow it? Why miss or why? And as we all know, a lot of times you're building this event up. Like the first time you benched four caddies, right? Everybody wants to bench four caddies.

Back in the day with the 35 plates, right? You had three plates and 35, and you're like, next is four caddies. I got to get four caddies, right? And all you're and 35 and you're like, next it's four caddies. I got to get four caddies, right? And all you're thinking about is bench four caddies. And that day finally comes, you smash four caddies and everybody's like, go to four and a quarter, go to four and a quarter. Four and a quarter, you get pinned because the acceleration's over and

your mind is screwed and then you're all pissed off. You miss 425 and you forgot you benched four caddies. I mean, that's just like Jedi. I call it Jedi mind-tricking, man. You just want to leave, man. You're going to, hey, man, it's cool.

Let's go fight another day. And then in my world, it don't matter because that ain't your test. I mean, we talk about, you know, we all talk about it. What's strong enough? I don't know. But I know in football, it ain't maxing out every day. And I know I know in football it ain't maxing out every day, and I know in team sports it ain't maxing out. And what we've been talking about, and who knows in this day and age

what's strong enough now is what we're seeing with these kids, whether it's relative strength with some of these guys or these guys today and tomorrow that are doing what they're doing or the kid that Travis Mastis coached at 73 kilograms at 20-something years old, cleaning 182K, cleaning jerk. I don't know, man. There's a lot of stuff you can go on and on. I think that the biggest thing that I think is you try to do what's right

when no one's looking. Are you a character or do you have character? And, you know, just try to be as, you know, honest and truthful with yourself more than anything. And don't be, you know, don't put on a game face. Just be you, and I think great things will happen. And at the end of the day, you know, just, you know, realize that, man, we're in a good spot. Like, there's crazier stuff that's going on, man, and we're fortunate enough to be where we are. And I don't get into all that stuff, but I just know that at the end of the day, I respect the people who protect us.

And whatever else goes on, I only worry about those people that protect us. And I don't get into that other what do you do or what do you think and hoo-hoo-ha-ha. I only worry about the fact that I've got people who are willing to sacrifice their lives for me to live the way I live and I'm always going to have to pay taxes. So I'm like

super cool with what goes on. I follow whatever they want me to do. You guys got anything else? Alright, Andrew, take us on out of here, buddy. All right. Thank you, everybody, for checking out today's episode. This is actually an amazing first podcast that we were doing down here at Columbus, Ohio for the Arnold.

Hopefully you guys dig this new studio setup. So if you do, please let us know down in the comments below and let us know what you guys learned today or anything you found fascinating during today's conversation and subscribe if you guys are not subscribed follow the podcast at MarkBell'sPowerProject on Instagram at MBPowerProject on TikTok and Twitter my Instagram and Twitter is at IamAndrewZ and Seema

where can people find you? I am Seema on Instagram and YouTube I am Seema on TikTok and Twitter Coach House real quick question if somebody wants to learn about like from you somebody wants to learn from you or wants to get an idea of your protocols, your practices, do you have anything out there or not really? I have some stuff on my website.

Sick. I got some DVDs, and that's kind of obsolete now that we're trying to figure out digital download. Do you have your book? I have my book. My book's been out there, Standing the Test of Time. What's the name of the book?

Coach's Strength Training Playbook. It's one of the, again, somebody, I saw like three or four people today, Coach, you don't understand. And I'm like, calm down, my man. I'm just a guy. Like, don't, you know, it's just lifting weights, my man. I'm just a guy. Like, don't, you know, just lift him weights, my man. I just happened to be lucky enough that somebody was willing to publish a book for me.

That was before we knew how to self-publish. Now it's like, hey, you write a book? Yeah, who published it? Myself. I sell it, man. I'm the man. I publish everything. I got some e-books.

I will say this. I got a cool little book. I'll send you a PDF of it, of neck training. Yeah. And I did it for more high school coaches who can't afford like high end neck pieces. So it's based off like bands and how I believe that I call it reinforcement because you're reinforcement in the musculatures that protect the head, head support. So it's more, it's more conducive of shield training so if you look at it from the standpoint of

the neck if we say we say the neck muscles start we'll just say for general terms from the bottom of the ear but then you go through your trap and through your posterior shoulder and if you really look at anatomy you know your traps most people think it's the bump here but it's literally it goes into almost like a what do you call those things stingray but then when you look at it from behind it's a shield and what does the shield do it protects and the key to anything with athleticism is protection for when you're developing plans So my reinforcement is protection plan of the neck, posterior shoulder, and the traps because I feel like all those are tied together

in developing a proper head support. So that's a project that I launched a few, oh, maybe almost a year ago that got a good traction, but I think I need to, if I'm going to help myself, pump that up a little bit. But I'll get you guys, I'll send you a PDF copy. Probably, if I get your email before I leave, I'll send it tonight when I get back to the hotel.

What about other training that's maybe not as popular, like training your hands or training your feet? What have you seen some benefits with things like that? I don't, sometimes I forget this, but training your ankles yeah what have you seen some benefits things like that uh i don't sometimes i forget this but training your ankles are huge as we've seen especially like we're talking about some of the mobility stuff that i see like how much when i i try to do a lot of my mobility without shoes on but i can tell you that my left big toe is so locked up that i can't like do a lunge or a split squat because of the pain and some people think i may have turf toe but at my age could it

be the gout you know what i'm saying so i i work big toe mobility it's i think there i think i'm getting better but it's still very painful to do certain things. But I also know that when I do what I call a rolling squat where I kind of push myself into a Saigon squat position, and I can always tell when I'm kind of greasing the groove that this heel is always slightly off the ground. this heel is always slightly off the ground. And I think there's huge merit in ankle mobility, especially whether you're a power lifter or an Olympic lifter or any athlete that's critical. You brought up wrist.

I mean, very few people talk about hand strength and wrist strength. And a lot of times when they do, they talk about squeezing things. But now you have to remember you have to be able to extend also. That's why people laugh, but I'll tell you a thing that really helps too is yoga toes for spreading your feet. I've had very good success for feeling just the natural, and that's why people promote barefoot walking or the Vib shoes and yeah you know things like that so and and what happens again when you you bring up great points because when you do that i'm like yeah man i've done a poor job of programming that stuff unless a guy goes gets hurt and then you you keep going back to like we well i've talked a lot about this protection stuff it's like

well why are we doing all this stuff when they get hurt? Why aren't we programming this in beforehand so maybe they won't get hurt? Or if they do, they come back faster. And that comes back from, you know, things we're doing with posterior shoulder and posterior chain. But then we forget ankles always get hurt, right? Wrists always get hurt. Or we get hurt or we were just who we talk about i was talking with dave where you know teaching kids how to fall you got to teach kids how to fall now

as well as land i mean all these things come in and that's the problem and it's all programmed so we're building like these robots and at some point in time you got to let them go the the problem with society and again here here's a we're rolling my man but you guys opened up here here's the thing that i will tell you are our kids different than they were when we grew up and i'm i'm probably what a generation ahead of you and then you are a generation ahead of these guys? Correct. Right? So everybody wants to say, like everybody, athletes are soft, right? Well, who's made

them soft? Society. We've changed the game. Just like everybody wants to, you know, participate in trophies, right? We hear it all the time. Who gives participation trophies? The 40 and 50 it all the time. Who gives participation trophies?

The 40 and 50-year-old ones who are signing you up when you pay your 80 bucks. You fill out your card and it says for your $80, your kid plays 10 games, gets a jersey, and it's guaranteed a trophy at the end of the year. But then you're pissed off that they get it because you don't believe in participation trophies. Then why'd you sign your kid up? because now they expect it

it should say you'll get a trophy if you win or at the end of the year if it's a tournament top three teams get trophies or whatever it is so don't get mad at the kid who wants the trophy

at the end of the year because you signed him up and it says but dad I get a trophy. No you're not getting that trophy. You didn't win nothing. That's on that's not on the kid. You know like hey man they're soft. These guys are soft. They don't know

nothing about when it was real two a days. You're right they don't. None of these kids have done two a days. They know one hard practice and a walkthrough. And they think that's hard. That's because that's all they know. I know three of days. I know what hard is. But

I also know that they don't know that. So why do we keep bringing it up? Yeah. I just. So for me I have a hard problem with that. And I probably wouldn't have a hard problem with that and I probably wouldn't have a hard problem with them saying that

10 years ago but now I do it's like come on man like really are they all soft you're playing you're playing football you gotta have a little something

you don't gotta be like a psychopath like my dad was or even my oldest he those dudes are like those guys are tough you can be football tough

I'm football tough tough enough to know that I'm football tough. Tough enough to know that I'm not going to get my ass kicked, but you don't want to take me into a street fight. You know what I'm saying? Like, I'll hold my own on a football field. I ain't afraid to get hit. I ain't afraid to hit somebody. But if something goes down on the street, call my son.

Because he'll go and throw fists hard. So, me, not so much. I'm probably not going to be able to help you much. Where can people find you on the internet and websites? I'm usually, I spend more time on Instagram, and I actually, if you ask a serious question, I do reply to DMs. I would recommend you not ask for jobs.

I would recommend you not ask for jobs. I would recommend you ask where should I contact you if I'm interested in but if you got a question and I would say that I'm not perfect but I have a high return rate I would say on DMs. Twitter not so

much but both of those are at Big House Power and then my website is bighousepower.com and we're we're going through some we're trying to figure out what we want to do with that but that's where my store is that's where i have a lot of free content uh if you're familiar with my work i've got a lot of the block zero stuff on there for beginning training for youth especially a lot of the beliefs of relative strength and body weight work as well as trying to establish a way to get free play involved in that and cool some cool

videos and some educational stuff like that i will be doing some i've got a lot of interesting projects in the hopper that i don't want to discuss because I'm a, I'm bad at that. And I've been, people have been waiting 15 years for the second book. So I will tell you this, something big is coming. I finally got a team that's highly motivated, led by my wife, kicking me in my butt.

And now it's time. So I gotta, I have to parlay people's belief in me and the fact that they support what I've tried to accomplish. So now I've got to get rolling myself. So it's belief in me and the fact that they support what I've tried to accomplish. So now I've got to get rolling myself. So it's all on me. Thanks for your time today. Really appreciate it. Always awesome to see you. I'm at Mark Smiley Bell. Strength is never a weakness. Weakness never strength. Catch you guys later. Peace.