Mark Bell's Power Project - MBPP EP. 693 - Steve Gentili: How Gear, Over Eating & Overexertion Led To Kidney Failure

Episode Date: March 16, 2022

Steve Gentili, owner and founder of Indy City Barbell, Coach and Elite Powerlifter has faced much adversity recently. While dealing with many setbacks, including liver failure and being on dialysis, Steve has still managed to open a new gym, keep pushing forward and maintain a hard work ethic and positive attitude. Follow Steve on IG: https://www.instagram.com/ptfitness500/ Special perks for our listeners below! ➢https://www.vivobarefoot.com/ Code POWERPROJET for 20% off Vivo Barefoot shoes! ➢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! ➢https://vuoriclothing.com/powerproject to automatically save 20% off your first order at Vuori! ➢https://www.eightsleep.com/powerproject to automatically save $150 off the Pod Pro at 8 Sleep! ➢https://marekhealth.com Use code POWERPROJECT10 for 10% off ALL LABS at Marek Health! Also check out the Power Project Panel: https://marekhealth.com/powerproject Use code POWERPROJECT for $101 off! ➢Piedmontese Beef: https://www.piedmontese.com/ Use Code POWER at checkout for 25% off your order plus FREE 2-Day Shipping on orders of $150 Follow Mark Bell's Power Project Podcast ➢ https://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 ➢https://www.tiktok.com/@marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell Follow Nsima Inyang ➢ https://www.breakthebar.com/learn-more ➢YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/NsimaInyang ➢Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/?hl=en ➢TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nsimayinyang?lang=en Follow Andrew Zaragoza on all platforms ➢ https://direct.me/iamandrewz #PowerProject #Podcast #MarkBell

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If you see me on my phone, I'm taking notes on what he's saying. Just so everybody knows. Because we ran out of pens. We don't have any pens. I'm just going to assume you're being rude. No, that's why I'm prefacing this. Because if you see me look at my phone, I'm taking notes. How'd you end up in Indiana?

You had a gym in Los Angeles, right? And you lived in L.A. for a while, right? I lived in L.A. for like 12 years. And then I made the move back. I had decided to sell my studio, and I wanted to do something bigger. But there were so many gyms already out in L.A., so many other barbell clubs, that I wanted to go in an area where I felt like I could really use it. So I had visited Indy, and I originally wanted to go in an area where I felt like you could really use it.

So I had visited Indy and I originally wanted to go back to Chicago, but it, you know, Chicago is not a city you want to develop a business in, in this climate. So I think I made the right move. You know, I just kind of picture you like packing up a bunch of barbells in the back of like a pickup truck and like, I'm going to drive out to where they need a gym. How'd you end up in Indiana? I sold everything. I sold everything. I sold everything in my apartment.

I sold my car. I sold my gym. I liquidated everything. I moved to Indiana with two suitcases and a pretty good bank account. And then just restarted. Restarted the whole thing. Damn. Yeah.

It was a gamble. And it was a long process. And a lot restarted. Restarted the whole thing. Damn. Yeah. It was a gamble and it was a long process and a lot of work. But we're there now. What's your clientele look like? I know your background is bodybuilding, powerlifting, stuff like that. What's the people at your gym, what do they look like? Primarily powerlifters. But we're, like, known for being, like, the more serious gym in the area. So we have the more serious gym in the area.

So we have the more competitive guys. We've got a few really good lifters. We've got a few novice lifters. But everybody there are the people that don't want to be at LA Fitness or don't want to be at Planet Fitness. So it's a little bit more advanced, I would say, the clientele. What was it like going through uh all those recent like health issues you had i think you had a bunch of tears and then you i don't even remember what happened but some shit happened like your kidney or something like that or

yeah dude it was it was uh one of the hardest things i've ever had to deal with i uh tore my pec at Record Breakers, and then I came right home and opened up my gym that week. So I was dealing with that, getting MRIs for that, and then three months later I tore my quad. And then two months after my quad, I went into complete kidney failure. So I'm laying in a hospital bed. They put me into the ICU. I was there for a week. They're doing all these tests. They can't figure out what's wrong with me.

And then, like, my doctor's coming in, reading me my last rites, and, like, asking me if I have, like, a will and testament in place. And I'm like, well, no, because I'm 33. And so he's just like, well, those are some things you need to think about. Because I had like vital organs shutting down and they couldn't figure out why. And my blood pressure was 260 over 140. So they finally stabilized me. We did a biopsy.

They found out I was stage five and that I had a degenerative disease called FSGS, which stands for something that I can't even pronounce. But then they told me I would need a kidney transplant and that I would have to start the houses. So that was all back to back to back to back, man. It was like one thing after another. You go from being in your best shape of your life and feeling like you know you're you're

this invincible athlete to being like okay my life might be over and that all happened within six months what was the rehab from that like how how yeah so so i i wasn't even done with the pec rehab when I hit the quad tear and then with um kidney disease your protein synthesis is like shit so you're not relaying down tissue like you need to and everything was slower so I'm like going into these rehabs and like you know usually I rebounded pretty quick like I tore my bicep I've had a couple hundred injuries but nothing really lingered like this so I was like something's going on you know like I'm tired I'm just not having the drive I used to I thought I was burned out you know from doing the move from opening up two gyms within five years but it was it was you know obviously side effects from underlying health issues. How much weight did you lose?

Initially, when they put me in the ICU, I couldn't eat. You're just nauseous all the time. And you're eating hotel food. I'm sorry, hospital food. Initially, I lost 30 the first

time. And then when I started dialysis, I think I lost like 50 pounds. Did you need to get a kidney transplant? I still do. Oh, fuck. So I'm on the waiting list. So I still do dialysis five days a week. And then the dialysis, can you do that at home or do you have to go to a...

Well, originally I was in a clinic and then they trained us and uh you know i have to have lauren there with me she does uh my fiance she does um it's like a they call it a health care provider but she has to help me do it at home but now we're able to do it at home i could do it on my own time when I need to, but it's still like four hours a day. Wow. Yeah. Super annoying, super invasive, but when you don't do it, you feel sick? Even when I do it, I feel sick.

So even when you, you know, dialysis is not meant to make you feel good. It's meant to keep you alive. So without these technologies, I would be dead already. Any idea what caused it yeah you know i think that um you have the two-strike theory right like you have the genetic predisposition and then you have exposure so i think that uh doing all the supplementation i did running gear and uh eating the way i was not watching my blood pressure was probably number one and just thinking that I have time later to do these things like okay I'm gonna push it now and I was man for a while like I was getting stronger I was getting bigger things were

looking well then like my last two meets things started coming down. I would smash 600 pounds in training, and then I would get into the meet and not have the gas to do it. And everyone's like, oh, you shit the bed. And I'm like, yeah, but it didn't feel like I missed it. It felt like I just gassed out. So I always thought it was like an endurance issue. So every beat prep, I would just start working on my work capacity trying to build that up and i would get stronger and stronger but then towards me i would start running more gear and then that would make me sick and then that was the reason why i would not be able to hit these

lifts how are you eating then because like you were you were eating to get bigger but like what do you think i guess you should have changed on the eating side of things, too, if you had to be more optimal in that time? Yeah, I mean, again, it comes down to blood pressure, so probably something a little bit more blood pressure friendly. Yeah. Because back then, you know, I'd eat as much as I can in the doses I could, but it was like, you know, like pretty much healthier foods, but it was like you know like pretty much healthier foods but it was just a lot of it and I would salt everything and then you know you're taking

drinking three cups of coffee in the morning then I would go take a pre-workout and then I would go to work and then I would drink a bang so you're like caffeinated you just described all three of us we're like oh fuck yeah I mean I haven't had caffeine today at all so you're like caffeinated you just described all three of us yeah we're like oh fuck yeah

yeah i mean you i haven't had caffeine today at all or yesterday well i had a little bit yesterday but hey just put it out there yeah well if you have blood pressure issues it's only going to make it worse but if you're not having issues like you're gonna be fine probably probably you think uh people should maybe look into their uh their blood pressure a little bit more like that seems like an easy place to start yeah i mean dude i'm a big advocate for it now obviously like i try to guide people in a way where it's like you got to take your health seriously first because when you're young you just feel like you have more time like i could you know you're like i was building businesses i didn't have insurance i was just

putting all my money into trying to get ahead and thinking that once i get into the spot i can get health insurance to take care of myself but you know it was too little too late and i think the blood pressure has been the main culprit of a lot of these guys dying more recently uh these guys having heart attacks and stuff like that i think it's just their blood pressure is so high yeah i mean you're lucky you didn't have a heart attack with your blood pressure being that high like that's crazy yeah and what was funny it was initially they had thought i was going into heart failure because they were doing these tests and like kidneys cause heart issues and heart issues cause kidney issues so they couldn't really tell which was which, and that's why they were running all those tests. But when my kidneys stabilized,

they looked at my heart, and they're like, your heart's fine. So I wasn't having heart issues. And I'm lucky that the blood pressure didn't cause any heart issues. And how do you get a kidney transplant? What's the procedure? It was so

hard to get on this list it's like they make you do all these tests and you gotta you know you're getting drug tested you're getting tissue type testing you're getting stress tested you got to jump through all these hoops i had to get like dental exams and um all this time while trying to like keep out my business. So you have this part-time job with your medical, this part-time job with your dialysis, and then a full-time job trying to run a gym and train clients. So it took me a while to get through it all,

but now that I'm on the list, I just have to find somebody that would either will be willing to donate a kidney or i have to wait on the list and the waiting list is about four to six years and i'm at two and so when you're learning or you're going through all this with the um like the initial like hospital visits and all this stuff are you around family because you're saying you're moving around a lot or are you out by yourself yeah i spent a lot of time in the hospital alone. So it was an eye-opening experience, you know, like the people that you think are close to you,

and you're just sitting there by yourself every day. I mean, of course, I had my fiancé coming in and visiting, but it's a lot of alone time. What would your advice be then? Like there's a lot of athletes time what would your advice be then like there's a lot of athletes that are like pushing hard right right um and maybe just like like you mentioned they are very just short-term thinkers currently everything's going well maybe they're not getting things tested um if you could like go back and do things a little bit differently, what would you do so that other athletes can take note of that?

Just keep an eye on my health. I don't really have many regrets. You know what I mean? I think people need to live the life that they want to live. I don't think anything I'm going to say is going to change anything for anybody because it's nothing I didn't hear. But just keeping an eye on your health, taking that stuff serious, change anything for anybody yeah because i you know it's nothing i didn't hear but it's you know just keeping an eye on your health taking that stuff serious and understanding that these things

happen even when you don't feel sick so it's things that can be going on that you don't even know about and even when you don't look sick because you are always lean even at your biggest i mean you may have felt fat for you, but you were still in great shape, especially in comparison to power lifters. Yeah, yeah. I mean, but there was times I was holding water. Like the last meet I did, I couldn't make weight. I was trying to get down to 275, and I was a lean 275, all prep.

Then I had started increasing my drug dosages, and then I put on like 30 pounds within in three weeks like I was talking to my buddy Andy he was competing at the same meeting he's like did I take these earlier today like yeah fuck it but that's I wasn't even taking a lot you know it was just my kidneys couldn't handle it and I had like the worst edema anybody's ever seen. Like I was coaching with Chad and Chad was looking at my ankles and he's like, man, you got my ankles, you know, like these things are massive. Talking about Chad Wesley? Yeah.

Yeah. His ankles are huge. Yeah. Your ankles were like swollen and you had like pitted edema, right? Like where if you push on it, then it stays dented in or whatever, right? Like scary. If you push on it, then it stays dented in or whatever. Like scary.

And that is why when I tore my pec, like the blood had pooled so bad. I don't know if you saw the pic, but it was like over half my body turned purple. Wow. Yeah. And it even got like down towards my legs. Damn. Are you able to work out much right now? Because you're still fucking big. You said you can't hold on to muscle, but you can push, I think, right?

Yeah, I've maintained decently, you know, and it took me a while to figure some things out. Like, I got out of dialysis, you know, before dialysis I was getting pretty sick, and then dialysis brought my kidney function back up to about 20%, and there's been some ups and downs. Like, I've had a few issues with the with the treatment i've been getting so it's not it's not like an exact science they just don't put everybody on the same plan they kind of it's touch and go and they still don't know everything so it's kind of just like all right let's try this let's try that so i'm on a bunch of medication right now.

And a lot of them, every bottle of the medication says do not drive or operate heavy machinery. Like, it makes you really tired and really unfocused. But I'm able to do enough, you know. Like, I have to be trained a lot different than I used to. And it took me a while to figure that out. Does, like, certain parts of your body hurt at all? Or is it because your kidneys are inflamed or does anything in your back hurt? Kidneys cause

a slew of issues that you would not even think about. And a lot of them definitely impair training. It's like joint pain and fatigue and uh you lose focus so a lot of times i'll be like just staring at a wall trying to like oh my all right next set next

you know like trying to motivate myself so it's been a learning curve for sure and are you able to be on like trt or anything like that right now or is everything off the table no so that was actually prescribed to me after a year so i came off everything for a year and went through all the testing and my testosterone got so low it was like i it was the worst i've ever felt i had a lot more issues off of testosterone than I did when they started supplementing it. So now I see a completely different doctor, and he does all that for me. From a mental standpoint, it's really hard, right? Yeah, I mean, the mental part has been hard all the way through.

But when you're low test, you have low energy and so even worse energy and even less focus. And you really kind of start losing motivation. It's just like you're just going through the paces. But what did really happen, I was like really nauseous. I couldn't eat. I started throwing up everything I was eating. And, you know, they couldn't figure out what was going on. And so I went and saw

a specialist and he's like here let's try this i think my i think my test level was down to 80 oh my god yeah yeah the it was like next to nothing no i know it was not a something i would recommend for anybody trying what uh what was your athletic background because i we've seen the video of you at bodybuilding.com and you ran like a four or five or four six forty or some shit and had some crazy vertical and all kinds of stuff what's your athletic background that's when i was 290 so i was uh when i was uh i used to play football in college and i was a little bit leaner back then i was a little bit more athletic i always felt like when I was getting bigger I was losing my athleticism which I probably should have let go because that's how I tore my quad was doing box jumps so maybe if I

would have stopped pushing all that I would have been would have been all right well how long did you play football a long time I, what, I think fifth grade, and that's actually how I got introduced to weight training. I got into high school when my football coach made me start because I did not want to lift weights. And with athleticism like that, did you ever think of playing pro or did something, did you injure yourself? What happened?

Yeah, so injuries aren't anything new to me i had a meniscus tear and a pcl tear and in college and then when i rehabbed that i got back on the field and in the first padded practice i tore my achilles tendon and then that was kind of game over that That was right when I think like three weeks later my sister died, and then I was heavy on the pain pills and started drinking and stopped going to class, lost my scholarship, and stopped going to school. I ended up going back and finishing my degree, but my football days were over. What flipped you out of that spot? Reality, you know, I was out in L.A., and then you got rent to pay,

and I'm not going to work, and then you're spending nights in your car and deciding what kind of man you want to be and what life you want to live. And it was definitely not that. So I knew I had to clean myself up and i knew that um i had to start focusing on my career so with many bumps in the road throughout your whole life it seems like um do you anchor yourself to something to keep you know pulling yourself forward because i mean some powerlifters get an injury and like you know life is over right right but you're like sitting there in your car saying what kind of man do i want to be and then you decide to become something like what's that driving force you know i just don't give myself a choice it's like

that like i like i allowed myself to feel sorry for myself in those short windows but it's also like i'm not gonna allow myself to feel this way forever you know and you no one's gonna do it for you no one's gonna show up for work no one's gonna pay my bills and i just had i knew i had to get ahead and so i don't know if there's something anchoring me or what what the drive is but you know it's just i know what life i want to live and i know that what exactly what i need to do to get there i think that's that's huge to say like i gave myself a small window but then after that it was time to get moving like you weren't gonna just feel sorry for yourself and in today's day and age with like depression and anxiety people don't see it as a window right they're like oh i i tore my pec this is life but people almost identify with it like there's so many injuries that i've had i've never even talked

about online and there's so many illnesses like if i spent the time that like of the issues I deal with with dialysis, it would be like the most depressing page you've ever read. And that's not the message I want to send to people because that's not my life. My life is really good right now. Everything outside of my health, this is the best my life has ever been. But it's just like one part of my life that a lot of people like what you're talking about would just identify with and talk about oh man how bad it is and you know it's almost like they want attention for it and then i'll get through this and then i'll be over it you know this will just be a memory to me a couple years from now i'll get a transplant you know i'll not have any of these

side effects that i'm talking about. And my training will get back to where I want it to be. And you know, this will everything else will be really good. That mindset. Did that come from parents? Was that just something that was that you always had? Or what's the deal there? Yeah, you know, I think being out on my own early, Yeah, you know, I think being out on my own early, I got out of my house when I was 17, and it was kind of like do or die, man. So, like, I started working two jobs. I started getting into the career. You know, next year will be 20 years for me personal training, and I'm 36, or I'll be 37 next year. 36. So it's, or I'll be 37 next year.

So it's, you know, I think not being coddled and having life kick you in the dick a few times kind of teaches you that mentality. And there's two types of people, right? Like this type of person that faces adversity and says, I'm going to figure this out. And there's the other people that are like, I can't do this, or please help me, you know, but I didn't have anybody. Please help me. That wasn't an option. You know, you get sick and my gym was still open and I got a knee tear and gym still

open. So I got to figure those out. Like, yeah, there were some rough spots. And, yeah, I had some people that helped me. And, you know, I'm grateful for that. But it wasn't like they were taking anything over or running it for me. Do you have quite a few other personal trainers at your gym? Yeah. Yeah, we do now. When I first opened, it was just me. For, like, the first, until I tore my quad, it was me there every day.

I worked every day. So I was there every day um i did the marketing i was the the gym director i was a personal trainer i was a janitor i did everything i even turned into a plumber for a few months would you do you have any advice because like at this point your gym's doing pretty well. So do you have any advice for individuals who are trying to build gyms? Don't do it. Don't do it. Why? It's a lot of work, and I don't think people really appreciate it. It's a passion.

You're not going to become super rich off it unless you're Mark Bell and turn it into products. But it's a great living if you're passionate about it but if you're not liking what you're doing it's going to be a lot of work because i'm always always always dealing with something and it's non-stop i got some like friends and family members and stuff and they're like oh i can't wait until i you know work for myself yeah they're like i'm to take more vacation. I'm going to do this and that. I never say anything.

I'm always like, oh, that's cute. Yeah, right, right. You're going to be more fucked as soon as you do that because you're working 24-7, basically. Oh, I mean, it is. I got a phone call at 11 o'clock on a Saturday. Someone had ran through my window. Rope through it?

Ran through a full window. We had this piece of turf. There was a garage door that opens up right into the parking lot. They could have ran that way, but they ran right into a window and went out the window. Is it like it was so clear that they didn't see that there was a window there? No. They were trying to stop and couldn't stop. Yeah. There was a foot there or like no they knew they were like trying to stop and couldn't stop yeah there was a foot race between two members hey you know what at least they called you

you know sometimes shit happens in the gym and and no one says anything yeah how'd this wall get all fucked up well we got cameras you know i would have known yeah so like that one guy called me and then i'm looking at the camera footage because they didn't tell me what happened. You got to post that. That sounds great. Yeah. Waiting like a couple of years. So the liability seems strong, but I was, I was, the footage is great.

So the guy that ran through the wall or the window definitely won, right? Like, or he just didn't have good enough breaks. No, he actually lost that's even maybe that makes it worse yeah right i think he was just so mad that like the other guy he just like wanted to keep going he wanted to keep going no that's first to touch the window yeah but he got he got pretty messed up so he's okay now he's okay now but he's got some frankenstein scars so i think he learned his lesson pat roger family how's it going now we partner with vertical meals owned by the genius bodybuilder stan the

rhino efferding now vertical meals isn't your normal meal prep company we've talked about the amount of crazy options that they have in terms of the food on their website from the classic monster mash steak and eggs just steak chicken empadas. But a cool thing they have on their website is called RX Meal Kits. Now, you probably don't know what that is. But if you go to their website and you go to the RX Meal Kits, you can enter in your age, your gender, your height, your weight, if you're trying to gain, maintain, or lose weight, and your activity level. And that calculator is going to spit out meal options and ideas and packages for you for your plan. No other company does this. It's crazy. Stan has thought of everything. So guys, check out Vertical Meals. And Andrew, how can they get it? your cart use promo code power project to save 20 off that entire order again so you're going to

get rid of all the guesswork all the meal prep work because nobody likes to do that and you're going to have these meals shipped directly from stan efferding's brain straight to your door again vertical diet.com links to them down in the description as well as the podcast show notes what uh drew you to go to the seminar at barbell brigade like what what were you why were you a fan of mine i guess well fan is a big word i mean i had actually met you in 2008 and you're at the la fit expo with your brother you had like this little shitty pop-up table and like a couple of slingshots on there and i remember trying that out and i was walking with my girlfriend, and I'm like, well, that product's never going to work. That thing's dumb.

That thing's dumb. But I followed your story since then. And actually, Chris was the one that was trying to get me, your brother, was trying to get me to meet up with you because he's like. You'd see him at Gold's, right? Yeah, me and my tall buddy, Ron. I don't know if you remember him. Oh, yeah, that guy's huge. What's he, like 6'd see him at gold right yeah me and my tall buddy ron i don't know if you remember oh yeah that guy's huge that guy what's he like six six or something yeah six six 300 pounds actually just i actually just talked to him but yeah those two walking around it's like

what the fuck's going on around here yeah that's he's like you guys didn't you and we were playing football at the time and he's like you guys need a power lift and i was like what the fuck is power lifting and i like looked into it and i'm like yeah looks like a bunch of guys lifting in front of each other with like spandex onesies like this seems kind of gay i don't think i want to do it pretty accurate i don't think i want to do it but um the more i found out about it and after football was over i was like i need something to do and i'm decently strong you know let me see what I can do but I was always comparing myself to like the best you know I was looking at like you know you Dan Bell or I'm sorry Dan Green and uh Brandon Lilly Stan Efferding was always a huge idol of

mine so I never really thought I was that strong compared to everybody else and then we go to the seminar and no one was even close and I was like maybe I got a chance at this so I think that the opportunity to to get into the sport was really what I was looking at and I ended up signing up for the gym that day after talking to you yeah I think I kind of had you do like a little bit of an exhibition because you told me like what you benched and I was just like hey you mind benching it now and I think I had you bench right yeah a pair of jeans 545 well you had told everybody work up to a triple i worked up to like 595 and it was pretty easy but like we weren't even on um i wasn't even like really strength training at that time i was like working out at la fitness and i would like try to get guys to spot me

and they wouldn't spot me. I'd be like 455 on the bench or five plates on the bench and like, hey man, you mind lifting me off? They're like, oh, I'm not going to touch that. I couldn't lift that off. And so I was like, you know, I need a community that's able to support me, you know?

And I was, so I was looking for a power lifting gym to begin with, but that was the first day they opened at that location. It was the night that you were there. Okay. How, how did you, cause you said you were benching like five something while working on LA fitness. Um, how'd you build that type of strength at that point because like first off benching high fives isn't normal but you weren't even focusing on power lifting usually it's power lifters that are doing that type of shit so what was your training like like when you were playing football a little bit after that like did you always just have a propensity for being really strong yeah i mean i think bench was something that I was decently good at. I mean, my squat was probably the same at the time.

But squat and deadlifting were always something that I was decently good at. And it wasn't a strength focus, but I kind of followed that mentality of like one really heavy set and then a bunch of volume afterwards. So that's kind of how I used to train when I was like LA Fitness

and even a little bit when I was powerlifting. After I would get my top sets done, I would get back into my accessory work. That's always tough after you do your top set and then to go do like three sets of six or something of the same exercise but with less weight. Yeah. You always feel like you got the shit knocked out of you yeah yeah but i like that feeling you know like i i enjoy it i enjoyed it yeah it seems like it just fits right in with powerlifting because you were

already doing that type of stuff you know like uh the main movement plus accessories but um did you follow any certain programs uh when you first started powerlifting? Well, no, not until I joined the gym and then I met a guy, Larry, Larry Lurker, who started doing programming for me. And I'm not even sure if he was even a real coach. He was just giving me templates. But he had trained one of the other guys there, Adam Rodriguez, who, like, my squat sucked. You know that.

And I worked on it really hard. I think, like, the first time I squatted, it was like 600 pounds. Not the first time I squatted, but the first time I squatted in powerlifting, it was like 600 pounds. But I looked like a newborn deer. Like, my legs were shaking. Yeah, watching you squat was a thing. Yeah, it was bad. I was always like, dear God, I wish he would just stop.

Yeah. He's my homie. I don't want to see him die. I felt the same way. I didn't want to do it either. I was like, we got to. But I felt like I couldn't get into push-pull. I just didn't have the heart for it.

Can we put some of these numbers into context at that time, though? So you were squatting 600, but what were you benching and deadlifting? About 5 bench and then about 7, a little over 7 for deads. And how big were you? Like 250. That was the first time. But that's like

that's when I started starter powerlifting. So before, but you're talking about a guy that would go to the gym by himself go lift and then go to the track and run for two hours like i wasn't really focusing purely on strength i didn't even know how to power lift and or what the rules were or anything like i got into it as a newbie and i came in with the mentality of i'm just going to take this guy's advice and learn as much as I can. So I spent a full year with him, and then I actually had decent success. I won Worlds the first year I entered, and after that, I started meeting up with you,

and I got introduced to Chad. I started working with Chad Wesley-Smithith and then we added like 200 pounds onto my squat. That's huge. What was that atmosphere like training with those guys at Barbell Brigade? It seemed like you guys had a lot of fun. It seemed like it was a pretty

big group as well. Yeah, we had five guys that all totaled 2K and that was one of the reasons that I went there. Everybody was good at squatting. T-Papula, I think, had a world record at that time. Mason, Andy, Adam were all over 800. So I'm like, these are the guys that I need to learn from, you know.

And the atmosphere was great. There was, it was, no one had an ego. Everybody got along. We would come in in everyone was very serious you know it wasn't like i was just gonna ask you did they fuck around too much like no for your liking or was it fine no no adam fucks around a lot but that's the funny part is he doesn't when it was time to train he trained hard well and then after we hit our top sets it was kind of like everybody could relax. But, you know, I would keep headphones on during my warm-up. No one would talk to each other.

We would all set up our own bars. And then, like, afterwards, we would, like, go grab food and go joke around. But when it was time to train, it was time to train. No one had their phones out. It was like we would maybe use your phone to record a set, but other than that, it was in your bag because you were focused on, if you weren't lifting, your buddy was lifting, so you were side-spotting or wrapping or whatever it was.

But it was a very focused group because we all had big goals. And everybody, for the most part, accomplished those goals. So we had a lot of success, but we also had a lot of fun for now like what does your training look like now with what you're able to do and then let's say well you will get your kidney transplant so when you are healthier what do you think you're going to focus on what interests you still power lifting face training or anything else yeah so are you familiar with jane fonda with the little with the little ankle weights that's yeah that's what i'm doing these days your little step aerobics yeah no i don't do much man i don't do much like i i try to hit

like one or two big lifts um but i gas out fast so i don't really have the energy to do what I really need to do. So I've tried to do some of the bigger movements, hit a lot of muscles in a short period of time. And then I kind of took a page from your book where it was, you train one body part a day. So no matter what, I can motivate myself, okay, 15 minutes here, 20 minutes there. And it's been enough to maintain.

It's surprisingly been enough to maintain. When I saw you this morning, I was just like, I'm going to go exercise. I'm going to go do something. And I was like, I'm just going to run down the street for 10 minutes, and I'll run 10 minutes back. Sometimes it can be that easy. It doesn't have to be that hard. I'm definitely not running.

What did you used to do running-wise? Because you said you would go to the track for like two hours. Yeah, sprint work. I'm a big fan of sprint work. I think that it works very well metabolically, but also it's a lot of muscles involved. So it's a great combination. Plus it helps you with the weight training.

Right. But to also answer your question about what my future looks like, I do want to do one more powerlifting meet. Just to say I came back. I'm not going to do anything crazy. But I always said, too, that when I stop being able to hit PRs, I'm done powerlifting. because I don't really think there's a point to compete unless you're going to beat your old numbers like I'm not in it just to

just to do it you know I was in it to be competitive and now that those days are over I think that I want to start focusing on something else and I don't know exactly what that is yet. You know, I'm not really focused on that right now. I'm focused on health and being healthy. And once I get to that point, I think I can make that decision. When are you going to marry this girl over here? End of the year. Oh, awesome. Yeah.

Congrats, man. Thank you. How'd you guys meet? Tinder. Oh, yeah. I, you know, rolled the dice, worked out. Tinder can work.

Yeah, but not in Indianapolis. What's wrong with Indianapolis Tinder? You know, there's just a lot. There's just a lot. These girls are, they've been through a lot out there in Indy. They've been through a lot. Yeah, Indy. They've been through a lot.

Yeah. My age demographic, you know, maybe in their 20s it's okay, but you start getting into your 30s, there's some baggage. Oh, no. That's fair. For men and women, there is baggage. Yeah. Did you meet, it's Lauren, right?

Lauren. Lauren. Lauren. Lauren. Lauren. Lauren. Lauren. Lauren, yeah. There we go. Did you meet Lauren right around the time your kidney stuff happened? Poor Lauren.

We met right like three months after my gym opened. So I was still nursing the pec injury. And she met me, I was like 280 with like no body fat. And then I tore my quad and then lost all this weight, got into kidney failure. So I'm like a completely different person. So she like signed up for this muscle-bound athlete, and now she's got this. This is disgusting. Still muscle-bound.

He looks incredible. I'm ashamed of myself. disgusting. Still muscle bound. He looks incredible. I'm ashamed of myself. The real issue was just like all that trauma and you know a lot of girls would not have stayed around.

She's been by my side. She actually moved in six weeks after we met. Because I had torn my quad. Dude I don't have people. I don't have anybody to help me. I don't have anybody to take care of me. So, like, I had to ask Lauren because I wasn't going to be able to. Like, I was peeing into a water bottle after my leg surgery because I couldn't get up.

So she had to put my pants on. She had to help me in the shower. And this is six weeks into a relationship. I was lucky I was able to wipe my own ass, though, because I think that might have been a deal breaker. She might have been like, peace. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, we've been through a lot together.

And we're still going through it. You know, like I'm talking about me being on dialysis, but she has to be there to do that. And it's a lot to ask somebody, you know. It's a lot to ask. Did you have an opportunity getting communication with other people that had gone through similar things i know that sometimes at the hospitals that's a thing right well more so through instagram a lot of people have reached out like i don't do that she lauren has done a few like the sign up you know for the kidney support groups but i'm not

a fan of those it's just a bunch of people complaining and i'm like you know, for the kidney support groups, but I'm not a fan of those. It's just a bunch of people complaining, and I'm like, you know, it sucks, but life is still good, and these people are just like on disability and not doing anything for themselves, and that's not motivating me to do anything. But there's a lot of guys out there that, and actually some people that you probably know that have been through it or going through it and that have uh you know done well for themselves um some people are post transplanted they're lifting again and uh you know they're just like get you know this is the worst of it so you just got to get through this but it will get better yeah what about um later on down the road getting into like masters and competing there and breaking prs in that division no thank you

no thank you just trying to keep you around in sport that's all no you know i'll always be in the sport you know but i think my role is going to switch into being a coach and you can just you know i'll still lift i'll still try to hit big numbers when I can. But, you know, I've had eight orthopedic surgeries. And now I'm going to need another surgery. And then even when I get my kidney, that's not guaranteed to be for life. I'm going to need a transplant after that. So there's a chance I'll go back on dialysis.

And I don't, you know, plan on being a master's lifter going through that it'll be something where hopefully i'll be retired on a beach and i can just just chill do you have plans to open more gyms is like what's what's the plans as far as the gym and moving forward with that yeah so we're in a spot right now where we're like we're getting close to capacity so i'm not going to be taking more members um we we there is an idea of opening the gym but right now with everything else i got going on it's just a timing issue um but for me it's focusing on um we just launched a clothing line. We just launched some online templates. So I'm going to just grow that aspect and just keep servicing my members the best I can.

I have five new pieces of equipment that are going to arrive. We're upgrading the gym more and more. So those are the things that I'm more focused on in the short term. And then did you always want to open a gym, or was it something like maybe lifting at Barbell Brigade that made you want to, like, I think I want to do this? Well, I think Barbell Brigade definitely inspired me, but the gym was something I always wanted to get into until I opened it.

I like that post you had the other day when you were doing your deadlifts and some of the weight went off one side and you still pulled it anyway. Yeah, yeah. You get frustrated. It's just like, fuck it. This is how life is going. Just fucking go with it. I think at least two or three plates went off one side and you still lifted it.

Yeah, yeah. That's happened more than once, unfortunately. I'm not a fan of clips. Yeah. I'm just like you. You pulled over 800 in competition, I think, right? Yeah, a couple times. Yeah.

Yeah. And then your best bench is what? Well, 600, but I never hit it in a comp. And what about your squat? 804. And I did that with stage five kidney failure. Wow. With that bad edema.

Yeah. So I play that game sometimes, like what if. Right, right. What if you never got sick? But it's like, you know, it is what it is. I think that if things would have kept going well, I would have been, those numbers could have been a little bit more competitive with some of the all-time records.

But, you know, i'll never know now uh who do you kind of um who in your life like inspires you like who do you kind of i don't know if it's like a family member or you have somebody that you kind of like when things are bad you're like i can always kind of look to that person i don't think there's one i think you know there's multiple people that you know motivate me. You're definitely one of them with your business and everything you're doing. Thank you. I appreciate that. Congrats on the supplement line.

Oh, thank you. I appreciate it. I think that there's people like Stan and what he's done post-career with his longevity. post career with his longevity. Um, so there, there's multiple people that I think I can look to and say that, you know, they definitely motivate me or inspire me. Have you coached anybody that's hit a pretty big, significant numbers yet? Yeah. Yeah. I had a guy, um, um i'm mark conover and he ended up uh i think with a 2100 total he was uh 840 squat a 530 bench and then he deadlifted like 716 and missed his third those are big numbers he's just he's super strong guy i always told him i'm like you're gonna be stronger than me and he competes at 275 he's just like this 510 muscle bound dude the most humble dude you'll ever meet what do you think of power lifting today like

when you started which wasn't really that long ago no the sport was changing right i kind of saw a lot of the changes. I saw a lot of people doing much more frequency. You know, they would hit their squats more often. They would bench more often, deadlifts. When I was a kid, it was very common for people to, they would squat one week, then they might focus in on a heavy bench,

and then the next week they would focus on a heavy deadlift. Then west side stuff came along, and you would do a little bit more. The frequency would be a little bit more the frequency would be a little higher but what do you think of powerlifting today a lot of guys are squatting like multiple times a week deadlifting multiple times a week but the numbers are going through the roof yeah they're hitting heavy singles all the time i think that it works for some people but you got to also remember too is like the sport has grown in a population. So you have a lot more freaks that are getting into it.

So you have a lot more chances of people hitting big numbers. I don't think that style works for everybody. I think that there's a lot of people that do it because they see everyone, or more people do it, and it's not working for them, but they just don't know any better. So I think that you have to take in consideration more people though and it's not working for them but they just don't know any better so i think that you know you have to take in consideration how many people are doing barbell movements now which is a lot the sport has grown a lot what worked for you um when you're working with chad

what did you guys change in terms of like improving your squat and adding all that weight to your total because you were already training at that point so what was the adjustments yeah i think um i i spent a weekend down there and work worked with max aida and he had gave me a stance that really worked so once i figured out my stance because i was trying to mimic these other guys because i'm tall and i have really long legs so i'm trying to mimic these wide squats like Adam used to do, which were basically look like a plie squat. And it just wasn't working for me. I'm not built that way. I have tight hip sockets because I have very narrow hips. So a tighter stance, I get my power underneath me and I was able to start building from there.

So right away, that was the first time I hit a 700 pound squat. And I think a year and a half later, I hit an 800 pound squat. And I had been training for 15 years at that time. So you're not talking about like newbie gains, you know, you're just talking about an adjustment in technique and dialing it in. So be you're trying to I know the wide stance squat that you're talking about but before that before that power lifting type squat how are you squatting before because i'm assuming you weren't squatting like that when you played football no but i also wasn't hitting depth at all like you just kind of i'd put four plates on there and just go as many times as i could

and then i was like okay i'm good here and And go to leg press and do my lunges. I was very into like, for a short period of time, I was doing fitness modeling. So it was just like, stay lean, stay muscular. Who cares about strength? Did you ever think about getting into bodybuilding? Not at all. What about now? No.

I got too many injuries. Like I have a big gap in my chest. Yeah, when you go to pose. Yeah. It's not going to be pretty. But, you know, there's other avenues for that. I definitely want to get. One of my goals after I do my next meet is just to get as lean as possible.

Because longevity, too, like the bigger you you are the harder it is on a kidney so especially post-transplant you know i can't be eating 300 grams of protein a day so i'm gonna have to make some a lot of adjustments so getting a lighter body weight will give me a chance to maintain that transplant as long as i can so you've been lifting for for a while now um so like when you do transition into a coach like right now currently are you able to like see somebody's flaw and be like do you need to tweak that and then actually see it work yeah I think a lot of people are able to do that but I you know I owning a gym I see that on a daily basis the the issue is when do you say something or when do you don't so most of the time i keep my ideas to myself if someone asks for my help i give it to them you guys watching love is blind no what do you guys what do you guys watch you guys watch any

shows together you have opportunity for that uh not so much we're not really watching. It's because she's busy full-time in school, and I'm working. When I do dialysis, I have to be in a different room, and that's really when I watch TV. And then other than that, we're not really watching too much TV. Dang it. Man, you've got to watch. I mean, you don't have to. What's going on here?

You guys are all smiling. It's just garbage TV. It's the worst. It's garbage TV, but it's great. Do you guys have a night where you all watch it together? We should. We actually should. I'm so down. Can we podcast live while doing it? Damn, I can't believe he talked to her that way.

Right? How is she so blind? Oh my God. I don't understand. Alright, it's really trashy reality TV. The whole premise of Love is Blind is that we're going to go into this real quick. These people, there's a group of men and a group of women who

don't see each other and they have to have conversations with each other like behind a wall and then they have to pick just based off of the conversation and the emotional chemistry, who are you going to marry, right? And then they never see him, they only see him after they propose and then we're going to see when they actually they'd never see him they only see him after they propose and

then we're going to see when they actually get physical and that end of things will love really be blind you guys have too much time i was just gonna say you guys really need to waste your time the way that we do i knew he was gonna roast me for that the amazing thing is too it sounds absolutely horrible but check this out. This is season two that we're into right now, okay? The first season came out the last time we were at the Arnold, like two years ago. So it just happened to spur up perfect timing to be here again. Oh, so you guys just started watching it.

Oh, no. We saw season one two years ago. Yeah. Next time we're watching it, Steve's going to pop up in a little bubble in our head. He'll be like, you guys are wasting your time. It's too much time. Be productive. Yeah. What's up with the apparel company?

You know, it's just for the barbell. It was more of a way of just getting some more awareness out there. You own a gym, and people are luckily a fan of the gym that we have. And we have some decent lifters there, so people are asking us for clothes. It was something that was a little bit overdue, and it's never going to turn into some big company, but it's just something that we do for the gym. And what was the process like in comparison to running a gym?

Is it another thing where you would instantly say, don't do it? Yeah, I mean, it's a little bit easier like the licensing and getting the llc and uh setting up the accounts it was like a little bit easier do you have this in a different color yeah like this isn't fucking walmart buddy okay pretty much uh but like the real the real issue is like getting the right sizes. We sold out of larges and mediums almost in our first week. So we had to go back and get more reprinted. But now we have an excess of extra smalls. We got too many crop tops.

Apparently no women like our brand. The funny part is we have a lot of girls at the gym. But they all like to wear the other stuff. But we got some crop tops and stuff like that and nobody wants them. So I told my assistant manager because he's the one that ordered them that he has to start

wearing them. I think that could be a marketing ploy. That could be their tagline. No women like our products. Don't come here. And then they'll probably start buying them yeah well we had we had like one woman she was like uh gonna train with lauren lauren also does a little bit of personal training but they had met up at the gym and she had gotten there early before lauren could meet her so she we have a little like welcome area she's sitting on the couch lauren walks in, and the woman walks out, and, like, I don't think this is appropriate gym for me. I don't want my teenage daughter around all these guys because there's, like, a bunch of muscle-bound dudes with their shirts off.

And I'm like, why would that be any more intimidating than any other gym? Like, if anything, our gym is so more laid back than, like, an L.A. Like, no one's going to walk up and hit on your underage daughter. Like, we're a bunch of, it's a bunch of, like, good dudes. We got a good group of guys there. That's awesome. Are you guys doing, like, nose torque and, like, slapping the chalk bowl like Mark and all that stuff? Well, I don't do much of that.

The rest of the guys do. Yeah, it's a good time. Like, they support each other. They definitely hype each other up. And they definitely like to get loud. For business, did you have anyone that kind of helped you out or mentored you or gave you some advice? Or did you just, like, was it just trial by fire? Well, actually, like, I picked Bart Kwan is the owner of Barbell Brigade. And I picked his brain a lot. advice or did you just like was it just trial by fire um well actually like i picked uh bart

kwan is the owner of barbell brigade and i picked his brain a lot and then i found out he doesn't do much at that gym he just kind of owns it and there's some other managers and uh he was just kind of like you're gonna have to ask these questions to someone else so i started asking the manager there and uh so that was like a little bit of how I got started. But a lot of it was just figuring it out. I had asked, I think I asked you for advice the first time I opened a gym. And I had asked, oh my God, I'm blanking on his name. He owns Iron Mongers out there in San Diego anyway one of the

side effects of dialysis is brain fog so I have like really bad brain farts but anyway his best advice to me was like just jump into it you know like no one's going to prepare you for these things you're just going to have to kind of figure out

how you go have a plan but also have a backup plan, and then have a backup plan to your backup plan, because it's never going to go the way you think it's going to go. Are you religious, and did you maybe have any religious things happen while you were sick? Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't say I'm religious. I don't think one religion got it right you know

i think that the the the fact that there are so many religions and have been so many religions tells me that there's probably a greater power so i kind of just look at it that way and um yeah man i think you have a lot of conversations with yourself, especially, like, when you really do think that it's coming to an end or could come to an end. You're kind of sitting there and, like, you look back at your life and kind of think about what was important and what wasn't. So I wouldn't know if I would say it was, like, a spiritual moment. I wasn't talking to anybody, just kind of having these conversations with myself i wasn't like asking for forgiveness or you know praying for help or anything like that it was more so just like you know the things that i wanted to do going forward and the things that i didn't

so nowadays like you've gone through that experience and it's it's probably changed you in quite a few different ways what do you think how do you or how do you live life differently what like when you go day by day not giving a fuck anymore really no i don't like it's like a lot of things that like used to bother me that just don't like um i used to be you know wanting to grow my brand, wanting to grow my social media, wanting to be active in the powerlifting community, wanting to be known,

you know, like it wasn't like a big motivator for me to be like, I want to be this big famous guy, but it was like something that was important to me, because I thought it was going to help my business. But most people at my gym don't even know who the fuck I am. They don't know I even power lifted. They're just like, hey, you're kind of a big guy.

What are you doing? I'm like, I do a lot of yoga these days, a lot of meditation. But they have no clue who I am. And I'm proud of that. I branded a gym that had nothing to do with me and that has grown into its own thing. So I'm proud of that. And I think that now that it's successful and I'm able to kind of relax a little bit, like, no, dude, I just don't give a fuck anymore.

That's awesome. That's the way to be. Yeah. You guys planning on starting a family at some point? Absolutely not. We got two dogs that's we're attending. What got two dogs. That's where it's headed. What kind of dogs? I got a French Bulldog.

His name's Bo. And then I got an American Bully. And I actually bought him from Julius Maddox. Oh, nice. Yeah, he runs a kennel club. And they're all thick like him. So Ajax is going to be a monster. I told him he's going to go after his bench record.

Did you always know that you didn't want kids? Or is that just like a, that's what can happen later? Dude, I mean, it was like kind of like something that I wanted when I was younger. And then as I got older, I was like, yeah, it seems like a pain in the ass. And then when I got sick, you know, like, dude, I'm not guaranteed to live a very long life. Like, I'll be lucky if i make it to 60 so you know being closer to 40 i don't really want to do that to a kid yeah well i i was on in the same boat i definitely did not want kids none whatsoever and i have two now yeah

everyone's like oh you never know you never know man i know that's cool you oh, you never know. You never know. Man, I know. That's cool. You're like, no, I know. I don't even think I could have kids at this point. Through everything I've been through and now, you know, probably shooting blanks. Where can people find you? If they want to find out more information about you and find your gym. Yeah, you could find it.

We've got a website up. It's IndyCcitybarbell.com i'm on instagram pt fitness 500 and uh you can find the gym on instagram as well indy city take us on out of here andrew all right thank you everybody for checking out today's episode uh please like today's episode and drop a comment down below even if you're on the itunes or spotify come over to YouTube and let us know what you guys think about today's podcast. Please follow the podcast at Mark Bell's Power Project on Instagram, at MB Power Project on TikTok and Twitter. My Instagram and Twitter is at IamAndrewZ. And Seema, where are you at? I'm at Seema Yenning on Instagram and YouTube and Seema Yenning on TikTok and Twitter, Mark.

At Mark Smelly Bell, strength is never a weakness, weakness is never strength. Catch you all later. Bye.