Mark Bell's Power Project - Steven "lil Smokey" Granzella - What TRT Can do After Reaching Your "Genetic Limit" || MBPP EP. 828

Episode Date: October 31, 2022

In this Podcast Episode, Steven Granzella aka lil Smokey, Mark Bell, Nsima Inyang, and Andrew Zaragoza talk about the benefits of true TRT after a lifter has reached their genetic limit. Steven is the Marketing Director for Marek health and shares his journey about waiting until he was 34 to hop on TRT after years of disciplined training.  Follow Smokey on IG: https://www.instagram.com/lilsmokeyst/ New Power Project Website: https://powerproject.live Join The Power Project Discord: https://discord.gg/yYzthQX5qN Subscribe to the new Power Project Clips Channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UC5Df31rlDXm0EJAcKsq1SUw Special perks for our listeners below! ➢https://www.naboso.com/ Code POWERPROJECT for 15% off! ➢https://thecoldplunge.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save $150!! ➢Enlarging Pumps (This really works): https://bit.ly/powerproject1 Pumps explained: https://youtu.be/qPG9JXjlhpM ➢https://www.vivobarefoot.com/us/powerproject Code: POWERVIVO20 for 20% off Vivo Barefoot shoes! ➢https://markbellslingshot.com/ Code POWERPROJECT10 for 10% off site wide including Within You supplements! ➢https://mindbullet.com/ Code POWERPROJECT for 20% off! ➢https://eatlegendary.com Use Code POWERPROJECT for 20% off! ➢https://bubsnaturals.com Use code POWERPROJECT for 20% of your next 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 #MarekHealth #PowerProject #MarkBell #FitnessPodcast #markbellspowerproject

Hey guys, I want to tell you about Merrick Health, the premium telehealth clinic owned by Derek from More Plates, More Dates. Now, when some people think about Merrick Health, they think it's just another one of those testosterone companies or another one of those blood work companies. But Merrick Health is really cool because, yeah, you can get your blood work done, you can get hormone optimization, but you can also get nootropics. You can also get Viagra. You can get literally whatever you need from that clinic and they make it very, very easy for you. That's why we love Merrick. So Andrew, how can people learn about it? Yes, Merrick Health is not just a one trick pony. But if you did want to get your labs done, we highly recommend the Power Project panel. That's 28 different labs. That's also going to come with a client care coordinator that's going to give you a lab analysis, and they're going to work with you and help you optimize your body.

Again, that's at merrickhealthalth.com slash PowerProject. At checkout, enter promo code PowerProject to save $101 off that entire panel. Links to them down in the description as well as the podcast show notes. I'm surprised, but it was interesting to hear that the only reason why Andrew's doing jiu-jitsu is so he could beat up Smokey. And I was like, what the fuck? I'm like, Smokey's great. And I did judo. But you're 1-0.

You never lost a match to 2-0. I was 2-0. Thank you, Encima. Undefeated judo collegiate judo champion. There's no reason for anybody to test that shit. No. Just walk away on the win. I don't want to hurt anybody.

Just keep walking. Cross the street. 100%. Who would try to fight you? I mean, look at you anybody. Just keep walking. Cross the street. 100%. Who would try to fight you? I mean, look at you. You're so thick. Pretty much anyone over 5'6". Anyone taller. It's like this guy looks pretty little.

He's a little stocky though. Let's tempt him. Not a little stocky. He's very stocky. Extra stocky now, yeah. He looks like a little smoky. Makes very stocky extra stocky now yeah yeah he looks like a little smoky oh makes sense why the name's there yeah bring up some little smokies that's delicious by the way so people think they hear a little smoky they're like oh you must smoke a lot of weed there's a story back in like oh i think it was 13 or something the lillibridges they're like oh

you got some weed or whatever and i was like no i'm just i'm short and fat they're like come on bro yeah so bummed like you can tell us we're cool yeah yeah wink wink we're good yeah oh man you know it makes me wonder sometimes because i've been emailing you back and forth so like am i supposed to send it steven because i'm so used to sending emails so the last nine years so I've been at super training gym since 2013 August and for the past nine years I can honestly say I've been called Smokey in some form more than my government name Steven in every capacity of my life friends my wife my wife we were in Mexico and I was on a bar, like a barge bar, and I'm getting her a drink or whatever.

And I guess she yelled my name, and I didn't hear it. And I hear Smokey, and I go, oh. Who's calling my name? My wife's just staring at me. She's like, I've been calling your name, dude, ten times. That's amazing. But I yell Smokey, yeah. But yeah, I hear Smokey more than Steven.

You should just change it. I told my wife, I said, I'm having Steven Grinzella. I told her last night. Oh, there they are. There's a little Smokey. That's my family. Yeah. There's quite a few of us.

Those are so good. All you got to do is throw them in some barbecue sauce. That's it. And they're fucking great. Slow cooking. Yeah, I told my wife last night, I'm like, I'm having Steven Grunzella on the show tomorrow. She goes,

no, she goes, you know, you don't have to have a show. You don't have to do a show like all the time. Meaning like anything's better than having Smokey on the show. I didn't get it at first. I was like, what are you talking about?

I was like, he's going to be like on the show, you know? It does make sense he's going to be like on the show, you know? Well, it does make sense. You had Dr. Lyon on and then Dr. Steffi Cohen and then me. Yep. I mean, the order makes perfect sense to me. We're getting that hockey stick projection going and keeping that flow.

Yes. You got a competition coming up in a little bit? Yeah. So I have, I'm doing a powerlifting competition november 12th so i about three weeks out two and a half weeks out um bumping up to 198 weight class so i've been competing in the 165s 181s and i've done 198 before this would be um one of my more i guess i don't i guess i've done 198 go up to 220 and then we'd have to call it ballooning up that's what it would be called because your face would be so big. So I'm sitting at 200

now and 220 does look pretty appealing. Sounded promising. It sounds like a very slippery, well, it's slope uphill, right? And weight. Are you joking or are you serious? So not for this meet. For this meet, 198. But you know, everyone has the post

meet like, oh, after this meet, I'm going to get shredded or after this meet, I'm going to do X, Y, and Z. And no one ever does what they say they're going to do. But I'm like, huh?

Maybe, maybe I put on 20 pounds and hopefully five is muscle. I don't know. Maybe, maybe it'd be a good, a good plan. Lifting fashion. Yeah.

Yeah. Go on a bulk bulk. Yeah. Yeah. It'd be dedicated. How long have you been lifting man uh so i've been i started lifting in high school uh as you can imagine i was a really terrible football player um and uh just was doing that just trying to have fun and like you're pretty fast from i remember

yeah i ran uh pretty fast 40 uh for you know what no but again being a smaller guy football you just get smacked destroyed so and i just you have to be really smart in football to be honest i played inside linebacker which doesn't make any sense and so there's a few people ahead of me as you can imagine uh but i enjoyed the lifting part mainly the curls and the you know the accessory stuff i wasn't a big fan of the cleans and um i was a little bit more addicted to the bench press as i'm sure you guys are very surprised as i do enjoy the bench press uh and but it was just for fun it was nothing too you know overly serious it was just a thing you were forced to do because we were in football practice and then um a few years went by and you know you get into college and uh your grandpa says you're

fat and so you you make a lifestyle change that was a good story dog you gotta tell that shit again he told you flat out yeah yeah so we were at hanukkah it was december 2006 i was actually uh right before i was about to head to israel which there's a lot of jewishness i know going on right now yeah don't don't attack me uh and um yeah i was like doing i was making a plate and my grandpa made a comment and i was like holy shit i'm pretty fat like it would like hit you it's like if he thinks i'm fat yeah like if the person's that's supposed to love you unconditionally and make you feel comfortable flat out tells you go huh maybe i do have a problem so got back from israel um and you know just like most college kids start carrying a gallon jug of water huh, maybe I do have a problem. So got back from Israel.

And, you know, just like most college kids, start carrying a gallon jug of water, putting swole juice on it, you know, the whole thing that people do now. And try to get my chicken and rice and go to Max Muscle and get the latest and greatest sups. And, God, probably spent, I don't know, several hundred dollars a month on protein and pre-workout. Oh, yeah, like just try every NL Explode or any pre-workout product that existed. So, yeah, that's how I got into fitness.

And it really just progressed from there. And, yeah, and then fast forward, Bigger, Stronger, Faster came out. And I saw that a few years later and watched it. And I was just purely just entertained by it. It wasn't anything about the steroid aspect or the powerlifting part. I don't know. I just genuinely thought it was entertaining and just felt comfortable. Like, wow, these people like to lift.

I have nothing in common per se with what their goals are. I mean they're significantly larger than me. Yeah, and then obviously found out about you and just kind of progressed from there what did you think about steroids or performance enhancing drugs when you're on the other side of it years ago yeah so I didn't have so I mean flashback to you know maybe pre super training gym I legitimately was the guy that would look at Jay Cutler on the cover of bodybuilding magazine and go like, I don't know, is he on steroids? Like I don't, I didn't fully grasp. Maybe you didn't even think of it. Yeah. I just, I just, I just, it was so taboo that I just was like, Oh, that's weird. I can't imagine all these people in this, you know, 300 page muscle

development magazine that I get every month that all of them are on steroids. Like that's not right. Right. Because they're promoting this protein or this hydroxy cut or whatever it might be. So I legitimately, you know, in my early twenties had no zero concept or clue who was on or what it meant. And then fast forward and you go into a gym or you go into, you know, people that are dedicated to, you know, being top tier, top level. And you find out, and it was kind of a surprise. It was shocking to be honest. And now you work for Merrick Health. Yeah.

So now I work for Merrick Health, which, yes, in the scheme of things, being hormone optimization, testosterone, but it's on a different spectrum. It's like someone consuming a gallon of beer a day versus maybe like a glass of beer a day ought to be a more on a healthier level. And that's a bad analogy in terms of what it is, but just in terms of the quantity. Go ahead. I was just going to say, uh, so now that you have utilized some performance enhancing drugs, um, what are your thoughts?

Like, did you did you think they would do more for you? Did you think that they would do less? Are you surprised at what they can do for you? Have you noticed you've always been like a motivated guy? You don't have any issues in the gym. Like you're always fired up. Yeah. You're always in there making noises even uh you started any of this other stuff

so have you noticed any like big huge differences or you know are do you wish they kind of did more for you yeah so a little backstory so so joined super training gym 2013 and i can honestly say that's where i really finally got into fit like of course i lifted six seven days a week but it wasn't what it is when I joined Super Training Gym. Obviously, the knowledge part was a huge aspect. I mean, I reflect I would max out on everything every day. You and Lauren. Every movement.

Yeah, I mean, my buddy Lauren. We would max out. I mean, it just lifted not properly. So I can just say for the past nine years, I've been actively powerlifting. And with that, I got fairly strong. you know power lifting um and with that i got fairly strong you know i benched you know 418 and um 418 squatted 551 and deadlifted 563 at what way um at 181 and one i think 198 for the deadlift um and squat but yeah bench 418 at 181 and but that was six years ago i did that so i went from making pretty much feeling maxed out on my progress.

Like you said, I do, I generally love lifting. Like I do like it. It's the highlight of my day. I enjoy it. I like the team atmosphere. It's, it's a huge part of my life. I just am not the guy that goes, damn it. I have to bench or squat today. That's not me. Um, so yes, putting all my effort into it, getting on TRT a little over a year ago, so getting on testosterone, 150 milligrams, I did hope and thought it was going to be a huge transition. So taking my total test levels from 600 to 1,100, it took a little bit of time for me to feel the benefits. But I did feel like, you know, I went in like, oh, I'm going to add 50 pounds on my bench press so i'm gonna do x y and z and i've gotten a little bit

stronger but it's but i also reflect it took me nine years of and it took me like five years of not making like any progress to to finally make progress within six months or a year so it has improved uh dramatically but at the same time not as as much as I'd hoped. What were you, what do you think you were expecting? Um, I don't know, to get all to look like you and Mark. So, you know, you're around all these freaks and being at Super Train Gym and working at Slingshot for those years, like I'm around the top, the best of the best. And so you have these expectations that you're going to look and feel, you know, on this whole other level. But it's just like any form of training, right? People come into

powerlifting and they, they max out on week two and they're like, I haven't gotten any stronger. It's like, it's been two weeks, like you're not going to get, so it's the same kind of thing. So it's, I've been, like I said, it's, it's been over a year on TRT. Um, and I have gone lifts, like my bench press, for instance, went from 418 to I benched 430 in the gym. So that is an improvement. And that improvement didn't happen for six years. So that is a pretty solid improvement in a matter of six months. What does it feel like?

Because you didn't have like shitty test levels. You weren't at like 200, 300. You were at a good 600. You've been thick. You've had muscle. Yeah. You've been a thick boy. What does it feel like to go from 600 to 1100? Like, how do you feel on a day to day basis? Is there drastic differences

or is it, yeah. What's it, what's it like? So Huberman talked about this on your guys' podcast, but it, it like affects your life in a positive way. So my just personal confidence with myself, with my relationships and my home life um my my libido wasn't bad but like it improved like yeah going from like good to great um uh your physique changes a little bit and this is all like very mild like legitimate trt dosage it made a pretty big impact some of the uh like fat kind of migrates up top a little bit and you get like a little traps and a little extra in the shoulders and that migration. So from someone that's natural, right?

Like you spend years lifting and before, yeah, right. So yeah, in SEMA, let's, we're the same. They're going to hate that I did that. So I can't tell you, i can be honest without dieting down 10 15 20 pounds i wouldn't look at myself in the mirror go wow that's a new vein that's a new muscle that's a new piece of muscle i have that didn't happen without significant uh weight loss which now i can literally go into the gym, have a shoulder workout, and I can literally see and feel what would have taken me almost like months or a year to see.

Yeah, we did a photo shoot, and you got in pretty damn good shape, and you had some veins, and everybody was sweating it, and everybody thought it was pretty awesome, but it took a lot of work is your point. Yeah, that took six weeks, and by all means,

I have no problem putting in the work, and I'm glad I did. I didn't start TRT until I was 34, so I put in a ton of work is your point yeah that took six weeks and by all means i have no problem putting in the work and i'm glad i did i didn't start trt till i was 34 so i put in a ton of work and i feel like i put a really good base down um i hit like i said my roughly potential max potential my lifts sure could i be leaner yes that's just dedication to my diet and making you know doing more walks running things like that but yeah overall i'm very comfortable and confident with the base that I put down. And I'm curious about this too. We were having the discussion about it short-cutting things. I remember you mentioned in the gym like, oh, you wear blue blockers.

You do all this shit, right? Yeah. So what are your thoughts on that? You still have good habits on the outside of TRT. It's not just you're doing TRT because you're in here all the time. What else do you do? Yeah. So, again, I lift.

I have Josh Bryant's my coach. I've had Jesse Burdick. I love lifting. I enjoy putting that ball in someone else's court. Otherwise, I tend to just be an idiot and just do the things I want to do, which isn't what's best for me. So I do train my ass off on that. I do 10-minute walks on a regular basis. But yeah, I'm not, I know I, I look at what you guys do and I'm not envious.

Like I don't want to, you know, I don't want to be barefoot running. I don't want to, and not to say that replacing with testosterone replacement therapy is going to somehow enhance your ankle mobility. But I look at all these, the sauna, blue light blockers, you know, maybe getting, you know, nine hours of sleep,

all these things is I want to aim for some of that stuff, but I don't want to dedicate my life too much to that. So, you know, I, I definitely prioritize training. I prioritize my diet. Like I,

you know, 80, 90, maybe even a hundred percent of the time. I'm very much on point with my food. I remember your diet. Remember when you switched from sandwiches to hamburgers? That was pretty good.

I would come in with a bag of patties. To be fair, there were 96, 4 handmade hamburger patties. It just happened. He was diligent with those hamburgers. He'd have like two or three every day. What diet was this? That's not a best diet. It was no different. The guy's a genius. saying. That's diet? I don't know.

It was no different. The guy's genius. It's a vertical diet. It's a vertical diet. It just wasn't rice. They were just formed into patties instead of ground up. And a bun.

And a rice paddied bun. Right. Truth is, it's not rice paddied. I mean, it's whatever you think it is. You did have pickles with it. I remember you being very defensive over that.

Bubby's. Bubby's pickles. Those are good. Oh yeah, someone stole my pickles. It remember you being very defensive over that. Bubby's pickles. Those are good. Oh yeah, someone stole my pickles. It wasn't me, but I just. I think it was Charlie Zamora.

Definitely was. Yes, I remember that. Thank you. I'm going to text him. Wait, what are these pickles called? Real talk,

because I love pickles. Why are they so good? I believe they're New York, my Jewish grandma-in-law. I could learn from them, from my wife. Yeah, they're delicious. They're on a whole nother level. I could learn from my wife. Yeah, they're delicious. They're on a whole other level.

I think they've got prebiotics in them and stuff. Yeah, they're healthy. They're good. But to kind of go back to your – yeah, I referenced – it's like a cheat code. To me, injecting myself once for me a few times a week with an insulin pin, A, it feels like nothing. Trust me. I am not a huge, I've had 28 surgeries. I do not like needles. I do not like any of that stuff. I'm terrified of it, but you get, it's a super simple thing for me. And so it became super simple. So for me to do

that and to have the benefits of someone that may have to dedicate 30, 45 minutes of red light therapy with their testicles out. I like red light my balls though. Don't you? Yeah. I'll fucking pull that shit up. I like brushing my teeth and then literally just tap in the shoulder and then I'm done. So that's the way I like to get my red light therapy. Fair.

like to get my red light therapy. Fair. You're also making sure you're sleeping well and you're probably tracking other things from your blood work and things like that. Oh, yeah. No, I have a ton of blood. I mean, that's one of the perks also working at Merrick. Not only does

the clients have a team, a medical team basically with their own patient care coordinator provider. Obviously, working there, I have access to like 50 people, which is good and bad, right? It's like training. If I go to you for a tip on something, you might get one thing and I go to NSEMA. It's like almost I'm cherry picking like what the answer I want. So I have to be careful about that. But luckily it's pretty standardized. But yeah, I get blood work on a maybe one to two month basis. It really just depends on what I got going on. A lot of it for me is trial and error. So, you know, what are the results? I know the results on the outside of my body or how I feel,

but I want to make sure from a health standpoint, is this detrimental in any way? Is it improving markers? What are some things I can do to maybe manipulate my TRT or other aspects of hormone optimization to improve my overall health. Because it is very much for me. I do want to get stronger. I do want to look better, but I don't want to jeopardize. For me, I don't want to shave off 10 years of my life. So I want to do everything I can to go down the proper path.

And you also still want to have fun and have access to the things that you like to do. You like to snowboard and there's other shit that you like to do outside of lifting like to ride your motorcycle a lot stuff like that right yeah so i'll yeah i'll work that into my everything right i i do stay on top of my food i do stay on top of my training so i'll just manipulate the things to make work and i'm not perfect and i don't you know i'm not stepping on stage so i don't have to be held to that standard but i've you know over the past few years, it's about enjoying life. As I've gotten older, again, I'm 35 now, so it's not like I'm speaking to anyone as a 70-year-old who's lived. But the last few years have really hit me that we have one life.

That's it. That's all I got. And so I just try and enjoy it the best I can, not get too tied down in one thing, whether it's just lifting, just riding my motorcycle, just snowboarding, and just trying to do the the best I can not get too tied down in one thing whether it's just lifting you know just riding my motorcycle just snowboarding and just trying to do the things that make me happy but also think okay I'm planning on being here for 80 years but let's see what we can do in the next couple to just really enjoy it with uh getting your labs done so frequently so like you know one month to the, like what are some markers that you were able to improve like very drastically in a short amount of time? Yeah.

So my GGT, my liver enzymes was one of them. That was one that was just based off of like my training, my food. I ran a bout of Accutane to improve my acne. I've had acne my whole life. Your skin looks great right now. Yeah. I don't know if it's the lights or what's going on, but it's glowing. I know, I don whole life. Your skin looks great right now. Yeah. I don't know if it's the lights or what's going on, but it's glowing.

I don't have to bring this. But that was one I had to really keep tabs of because that's one of the things that you need to watch just to make sure your liver is healthy. And I don't drink at all, so that's a huge factor. It's a bit like a lifestyle thing, right? It's like most people that take training hardcore tend to not do other things that other people would deem as normal, like partying and drinking.

Prolactin is another one. So I've had over-the-counter supplementation. Good and bad – I'm sorry. What did you do for your liver? Liver was – I just checked markers. Maybe I lowered some of my Accutane at some some moments when it spiked too much but for the most part i processed it very well or handled it very well i didn't have like a huge huge spike in it um so that was something i was there like over-the-counter supplements for that

that people can maybe look into that's what i want to dive into too so that's the pro and con to working at merrick so i have so many people in my corner that I haven't spent the time learning as much of the stuff. Cause it's like, Oh, I'll just ask, I'll just ask Mark for a training advice. I don't need to learn like why the why. So I, you know, yes, there is supplements that I was put on literally over the counter supplements. So not everything's just prescription. It's legitimate. I think one is a Tudka, right? Like T-U-D-C-A, right? It's supposed to be real popular, supposed to really help your liver. And then my understanding is like people can just even your average person can get some good benefits from this, not even somebody that's on TRT, but somebody that just wants their liver to be a little healthier. My understanding is that just taking like one capsule a day is pretty safe in general as well.

Yeah, and that's the thing with a lot of the supplements. You know, it's almost endless endless you could literally have a hundred different supplements we could all take and it's just never ending so it's just and to me it's like a pill it's the same kind of thing like do i want to excuse me do i want to make sure i eat you know six ounces of salmon every day or i'd rather just take this fish oil supplement that can counter it? So it's the same concept. And then prolactin was one. That's one that when I started before I even worked at Merrick, when I was working here,

where prolactin was through the roof, I actually made some dietary adjustments. One of the doctors recommended I ditch casein protein. I was just chowing down on casein protein every night. I'd make yogurt and casein protein for like two years straight such a bro like us yeah it's a good thing and so he's like let's ditch the casein protein and sure enough it dropped yeah so that was a huge thing okay um and that can have like sensitive nipples i mean did you have sensitive i did have sensitive nipple my prolactin was so high they were like you might have a tumor in your pituitary gland. So I actually got an MRI.

That was another thing. They were like, you need to go see a doctor like legitimately in person and get an MRI. And so I got an MRI and all is good. Yeah. But that could be something why prolactin could be so elevated. Let me ask you this because a lot of guys, for you get to 1100 you feel good so then what stops you from being like what's 2000 feel like no that's great

and that was honestly one of the reasons why it took me a while to get into this because I'm a very like all or nothing guy that's also why I don't drink yeah we've talked about it a bunch and you're like do you come off it or what I'm like no you just keep going with it so I get that part that I can argue that part I don't see why you would get off at this point.

And it's only one year in and I don't want to get off. So I get that part. Y'all see? Okay, good. Yeah, and we'll dive into that part. But yes, in terms of chasing the 2000, for me, and this is why it took me to working at Merrick to really let it hit. So obviously, you know, being in the industry for a while, there's tons of people in our circle that I could get testosterone from and get, you know, a recommendation. I had a feeling that recommendation would have been like 250 or 500 milligrams of tests per week. Is that a lot?

Yes, that'd be like an actual cycle. I'm sure in a lot, it's like a nothing cycle to a lot of people. I'm sure that's like a nothing cycle to a lot of people i'm sure they're like oh that's like a wonderful place to start yeah that's very common response for a lot of people uh yeah 250 you can still claim natty if you're on 250 exactly guys these are jokes but but i went i literally started i i literally started merrick on a sunday in colorado and i went and visit i met with the one of our productors and owners i went to the pharmacy and by thursday i was on trt because i was just like holy shit like

this is legit like i have a doctor overseeing my me i have lab panels this is coming from a full-on like get you know air blowing your out you know your uniform to go into a pharmacy out like this was on a whole crazy level that I didn't even think existed I was so confident I'm putting all my trust in you Merrick to make sure that I'm doing this to optimize my health

to improve myself to reach my goals but at a safe level a safe method the 2000 thing so I'm basically saying so I'm refraining from that because I'm like, okay, I want to do this healthy. Yeah. I don't want to see all my lipids go to complete shit.

I don't want to make sure my liver enzyme is going bad. I don't want to get like a calcium score, you know, and go, wow, I really regret doing X, Y, and Z. I don't want, I don't want that stuff to happen. So that's for right now i will never speak in absolutes for everything but that's for why the moment that i'm definitely pursuing not going that route and did you have to like start at a certain level and then kind of taper down once your labs came back in or have you been at the same level the whole time

so mine's fluctuated so i again with the needle things I'm not a huge fan. So I started with cream. So I did cream on my inner thighs. Usually people can put on their taint or their testicles, but it messes with their DHT levels. And I have hair loss in both my grandparents. And I was like, I really just want to keep my hair as much as possible. And putting it on your testicles can cause your hair to come out. So I put on my inner thigh. Not a huge fan. I don't know if you've messed with it, but like you got to like basically shower, sit there, legs open for like an hour.

An hour? I mean roughly. You just got to wait for it to dry. Wow. You can't have anybody touch you in an area that you want to be touched. So it was just kind of a pain. So shortly after that, i went on to injectable um and my levels have fluctuated so i think i've gone from you know 1100 to 1400 and sometimes

there's been limited minimal changes um hearing this progression has been really wonderful well because we've been hearing about it in the gym and he's like oh i've got some cream i'm like this is like this is so good it started with the b. And he's like, oh, I've got some cream. I'm like, this is like, this is so good. It started with the BPC and some of that stuff. Yep. It did. Yeah. A while back. I'm like, these are all the gateways.

I'm like, he's on his way. Finally, my little boy is going to like go for it. There's a video. And become someone great. Yeah. There's a video we posted where we were kind of talking about this. And so many people were like, these fucking juice heads are justifying their drug use. And it's just so funny

talking about gateways it's yeah it's great i think it was 2014 or 13 i think um i was talking to mark we were in you know at the like two gyms ago three gyms ago and uh i forgot how drug testing came up but i made a comment like oh you gotta be drug tested to train here whatever as in like not be on anything and you're like yeah to make sure you're on stuff like if you're not on steroids i always wanted to sit on top of the monolift with like a blow dart and just and just like hit people in the neck as they came in yeah like you're not natty anymore bitch yeah it's so good but it never happened we never could figure out the dart quite the way you want. You just kept darting yourself. Somebody's like, no!

So I wanted to ask about the fluctuating things. Because did you notice a difference when it was at 1,100 versus 1,400? Because everybody's always like, the questions Zima asks, well, if 11's good, then 14 must feel even better, right? Yeah, so I've been working with my providers to adjust. So that's powerlifting me, right? So I've ranged from 150 to 175, 200 milligrams a week for short bursts. So we'll just – and again, that's why I'm also checking labs. I've had in the more recent months, I thought my levels would have been like really high because of how well my strength has been and how I look and everything.

And they're actually on the lower. They're like that 1200 mark when I thought like, oh, they're going to be like 1500. But they're at 1200. So it's kind of a weird mind game, too, because you're like, wait, they're at 1200. But I should be like I thought I'd be like 1500. But I do feel well. So it's a weird thing because you're looking at the paper. But at the same time, it's like, well, what actually matters, right? What, how strong you are,

how you feel. There's so many other hormones at play. And then there's also like your free testosterone. And there's also, I have a kind of belief or theory that like you use some of it up almost the way you would use up some blood glucose. And I know some people would be like, that's crazy. But I think that's why someone that trains really hard, their levels will be low. So maybe someone like Nsema gets tested and his testosterone maybe isn't like through the roof, but it's like he's doing jujitsu. He's lifting. Like we see this a lot with a lot of people that run and people that do like hybrid multiple sports type thing. And I don't want to get hung up on the numbers either because like I was at 600 and I felt pretty good, but I just feel way better more.

I would be happy if I had the feeling of now at 600. And maybe to be honest, for someone that was like a legitimate, like 100 milligram total, who's just an 80-year-old man, maybe at 600, they do feel how I feel now. 80 year old man, maybe at 600, they do feel how I feel now. No. And who knows, maybe even raising your actual testosterone score on the paper, maybe it's not that significant. So maybe if you just had a little TRT dose and just got a little extra, you know, 50 or a hundred over what you had before, maybe that would make you feel good enough. Yeah. Less is more. I mean, you've said it a bazillion times and it's been true for me so far. But it's been an experience. I'm very new to it.

I'm not claiming to be like the biggest expert in it. I'm just very – I've just learned a lot from a lot of people just being in the industry now for a while. Do you know like – actually, I don't even know if you're – well, if you're not able to say, fine. But I'm just curious like – That's never a good prep. if you're not able to say fine but i'm just curious like that's never a good prep i'm just curious about like the age range of people that you notice getting on trt because one thing we mentioned like old some older people 50 60 70 whatever makes sense but do you notice are the younger people's trying or starting to get on trt is that something that's prevalent i'm just curious

yeah people will definitely come to america in the younger age. I mean, the co-owner is Derek from More Plates, More Dates. So his audience can be on the younger side or some of them, obviously, with just being YouTube. So we will get people, you know, come to us and we'll basically help them with lifestyle changes. You know, we're working on almost transitioning to the health coach position instead of a patient care coordinator because it truly is just a total health optimization from every aspect. So whether it's lifestyle, nutrition, supplementation, and there are prescription treatment options that can raise testosterone or improve biomarkers that isn't testosterone.

So like what? I'm kind of curious. Inclomafine, I I believe is one of them. That's pretty common. Um, there's HCG that people will get on to improve markers. I'm just talking to people about their diet and their sleep. I mean, people are, they're not committing to that part of it. Right. So that was right. I started at 34 with a pretty strong base like i can't imagine i i do not work a i do not regret getting on 34 i am so happy i waited i don't know why i would hop on so young like hopping on 20 this seems very silly to me because then you're putting a lot of eggs in that basket that just

doesn't seem to be that fruitful like i said like i've seen improvement in the past year overall i feel great it's been a huge improvement but it's not like I have six packs now and my lifts have skyrocketed. So if that's what you're going to expect, then that might not be quite the case. It's also a different decision too. We're talking about somebody that made this decision to use performance-enhancing drugs to go on cycles. That's true. There are differences. There are differences in HRT and TRT.

And you're not going to get, not from Merrick Health, you're not going to get them to prescribe 800 milligrams of testosterone along with some Ecopoise and along with some oral steroids. It doesn't work that way. No. But we will work with people and not putting an age on it, but we will work with bodybuilders that do come on that on legitimate cycles and we'll help them with risk mitigation. So whether it's heart medication, blood pressure, we'll help them with that. It's like, hey, you're on this X, Y, and Z. This is a non of that yeah exactly the contest is over and when the cost is over let's reevaluate and let's get you healthy because and we'll work with a lot of people on that and that's been a huge plus for us a lot of people feel very confident

comfortable coming to us because i don't know i mean we've all gone to doctors and having that in person you know doctor like oh i'm on this or i smoked weed we know when i was 15 or you know it just gets super uncomfortable they're like and they write it down everyone at the doctor my early 20s and he's like I was like no he's like are you sure wouldn't let you off the hook, huh? You wouldn't. It's amazing. So now that you have seen the other side of things, like being on testosterone, has that skewed a six pack, you know, shredded and I'm not like stronger, like overnight. Has that changed a little bit of your perception as far as like, oh, maybe Enzima is mad. You know what I mean? Like, I'm just using him just to pick on him, but like, has that changed? That's a great question. So my rule of thumb, if anybody's stronger or more jacked than me,

they're not natural. Smokey through all the years I've known this man, has always said, I think Encima's on drugs. If you look better than me, or if you lift more than me in anything, you're on drugs. Thanks, Greg. But no, to be honest, Encima, I've known you long enough, I still question you're on drugs.

But I will believe you. But so, to me me i guess it actually just says genetics play a much heart much greater role than drugs well and i'm being when i say drugs i'm saying like trt dosage like i i do feel if i took maybe this is breaching a substantial amount of steroids for a good period of time i would give you some comp a run for your money as you being natural okay uh but no i it is hard to believe that there aren't a lot of people that aren't on something like one makes sense what you're saying makes sense like somebody genetically along with the work they put in along with their environment uh they could have a cascade of hormones that are pretty optimized towards muscle

growth, growth towards being athletic, strong, explosive, and so on. And for somebody that gets on stuff, it would be similar to as if they had a life that was, you know, a previous history to where they were, you know, enhanced almost in some ways. Because, I mean, if you look at it, there's a lot of people that have, that can go and get their blood work tested and their growth hormone will be high, their IGF-1 will be high, their testosterone will be high. All these things, all these markers that we talk about all the time that you want high, they could just naturally be high and it could have to do with some genetics along with the environment, along with the food they ate when they were young.

There's like such a huge amount of factors. So like what does that look like? What does that look like when somebody becomes 30, 35 and they've had a lot of training under their belt? What does it look like when that person does take some performance enhancing drugs? Do they turn into like Ronnie Coleman, for example? It seems like Ronnie Coleman waited a pretty long time in his lifting career I think he was lifting for over a decade before he took stuff and then he became fucking Ronnie Coleman so there's there's a lot of different genetics out there and genetics are a huge component of it and there's really not anything

that you can take at the moment that seems like it can match up or make up for how far behind somebody might be when someone has great genetics along with again we got to say that environmental part of it because the person's previous history matters a lot yeah i remember about four or five years ago i had blood work done i shot over to stan ephrodine and my uh igf1 was so high he asked me if i was on growth hormone and i thought it was the coolest thing ever. I was just on cloud nine. I was like, oh, Stan Efferty thinks I'm on growth hormone?

I don't even know what that is. But that is the coolest thing. But I think a lot, to add to what you said, Mark, you know, people take stuff for a short period of time, and they expect everything to change. Like in SEMA, you've been, with your genetics, it's your genetics. So you've been with your genetics it's your genetics so you've been you know you're i think roughly 30 20 something 8 29 30 yeah yeah i mean that's 30 years of your genetics so now let someone be on gear for 30 years or a substantial period of time to actually see some really high how long have you weighed like over 220 uh i was 16 the first time um college I was

215 because I played soccer but yeah pretty much over a decade now you know just in talking to a lot of different people over the years as much as we would like to think that we can change and we can change a lot and people think they've seen big changes from me but I've been about the same for a really long fucking

time I looked a little similar to this when I was in high school I was a little fatter didn't have as much muscle um talking with gabrielle lion who's like all shredded up she's got abs she's got like definition in the shoulders triceps biceps yeah she's looking amazing and she was like pretty much i've always looked this way um even she just said like a few years before she had kids, she had some injuries and stuff and she wasn't, she wasn't very fit at that time. But other than that, she has always been like in great shape and stuff like that. And just running into so many other

people and in talking with different people over the years, it seems like whatever they have now, they had some aspects of it before, whether they take drugs or not. Even in the case of someone like Stan Efferding, who started out small, he started out thin, but he started out lean. He started out very, very lean. And Stan, as long as we've known him, we've never seen him fat, right? So he's put on a lot of muscle and made some changes there. But again, even his body is going to want to go back to the ectomorph the the thinner person that he actually is right yeah 100 what have you seen because i actually need to fucking get my blood work done and finish

that process again but what have you seen in terms of like people coming getting blood work done and some things that have been found whether it's from some people who might have been on cycle doing shit or just people who needed to get their blood work done? What kind of change and things were found? So I'm on the marketing side. So, you know, us being a, you know, telehealth platform, it's all HIPAA compliant. So we don't have like shared lab work like that. So if you have a patient care coordinator and a provider, like that's your team that sees your medical history in your lab. So, you know, outside of maybe a clinical that's being ran where we dive deeper into like anonymous labs or like a treatment option um i haven't seen personally seen anything like that okay yeah so you mentioned um sorry mark uh like hc hcg and a couple of other things um

that aren't like full-blown testosterone and stuff like that uh hopefully we don't like mess anybody's life up but like are there any like like uh like um anovar and like stuff like that uh hopefully we don't like mess anybody's life up but like are there any like like uh like um anovar and like stuff like that is there any any other steroids i guess i'll say that are like fairly they're not healthy but like that are on the lower level that like is not trend right because that's what everybody on fucking tiktok is just like oh running trend and everyone's high-fiving each other. It's like, well, fuck dude, maybe there's some other things out there that we can try first.

Yeah. So personally I'm on Oxyangeloin. So a Anovar like pharmacy grade. And there's only so many things that can even get recommended or that Merrick health even has access to, like they don't have access to fucking trend below. No, which is not.

Yeah. We have, we have over 600 different prescription treatment options actually for a provider to pick from. So, you know, you might have certain markers and needs and wants, and I do,

so we're going to get access to different things. Anything from stuff to alter your prolactin to Cialis, Viagra. Yeah. You suggested me some low-dose Cialis. I'm thanking you for that.

I think I said high-dose. Oh, yeah. Well, you suggested a higher dose, but I was like, let me start off on the low-dose now i'm thankful man i'm thankful that's that's been nice yeah but uh but oxandrolone so i'm running a you know a quote-unquote cycle of it or a run of it for six weeks uh leading up to my me and based off of my lab work like i was able to based off my you know shbg markers like okay we can improve these this could help and this will also give you a little bit of strength and that's also why i also get follow-up labs to make sure okay is i'm three weeks in is this

hurting me is this okay for me is this you know compromising my health is this something i can just deal with for six weeks and so um that's that's the big thing for follow-up labs for sure. Yeah, and then you said pharmaceutical. So like what's the dosage there? So I'm on 12.5 milligrams twice a day. So I split it up. Like Jim Bro will be like, I'll start at 50 and then go up. So exactly, 100 milligrams.

Yeah. So that's the thing too. And the good thing about working with pharmacies, you're getting pharmacy grade stuff. You're not getting from your gym bro who's got who knows what it's mixed with or how clean it is. And you've had opportunity to see some of the labs? Yeah, I've got to tour one of our pharmacies, which is just, it's just really, it's really sweet. Like it's a really cool experience. It's very just comforting.

And when you hear of a compounding pharmacy. They pat you down when you left. you left like smoky after your bag, like, Holy fuck. I just took stuff. I don't even know. No. Yeah.

It's just, yeah, it's pretty, it's pretty awesome. So we were in Colorado and yeah, it was just accidentally fall into a vat. Like, Oh fuck.

I slipped. I just started drinking. What about for the ladies is uh a practice like this is this for ladies as well yeah so actually over 10 of our clientele is women um so they're getting they're expanding more and more we help with uh you know pre-menopausal women um a big one is libido so we have a lot of different peptides uh treatment options like these women going right yeah yeah so we have that's a big one libido is a big one hair loss prevention um yeah there's a lot of just hrt because you know the worst thing is you can do is take viagra or salis and then not have someone to use it with yeah they're just

look at you like that happens every once in a while you don't time things right yeah right yeah you're just sitting there with a boner you gotta beat it down give it a beat down careful in sema let's talk about the cialis for a second so you see when you when you mentioned careful during the bench and sweatpants yeah when you mentioned cialis to me um why so what's the benefit of it in the first place for a guy who's like interested in using some cialis because like yeah what's the benefit of it in the first place for a guy who's like interested in using some cialis because like yeah what's the benefit so to dalafil i take five milligrams a day of to dalafil in the morning watch out it's sleeping right now and it's not like that and that's the thing too it's it's you have to be obviously in the mood for something to just happen. When you're in the mood.

Hey, now. You've talked about with heart health, it improves. And so it's just something that helps just keep the flow going. And in addition to pumps, I mean, I mainly like it because of the pumps I get when I work out. I mean, that's kind of a weird. I think, and I could be way off, but I think initially these drugs were made for blood pressure i believe uh so they can help low yeah they can help lower your blood pressure so uh some people might it well you should definitely go to a doctor before you go and fuck around with some of these things yeah and so at merrick actually we require a physical so people have to actually go get their blood pressure checked and make sure you do not want your blood pressure if i can take a nosedive it would feel terrible yep um and then sidalafil

so that would be the one that would be like more in the moment right oh i got about to go yeah maybe a half hour hour before um you can pop that and that's a little bit more instant yeah and this it's always been nice because i've been i've been using like i think two and a half milligrams not every day just sometimes and it's been nice because it's not like uh the dick works yeah but it just works better it's just like like you're 15 yeah like damn i haven't seen him working like this in a while well think about all the viagra commercials you five, ten plus years ago. You just think, oh, it's an old person problem.

And again, it's not a problem. It's just optimization. It's just more optimized. Oh, I never had a problem. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't have one either. No.

No one ever does, right? We're all just trying to lay better pipe. That's all. Just life's goal. Leave your mark. It's a good shirt. when you're in the gym training you train really intensely like you seem to just like you seem like really fucking love it and a lot of times when i watch you work out and i watch it gets me fired up i i get excited over it but i'm also thinking like i don't want to do half of that like

he does so much all the time do you feel like you do too much or does it like you just that's the way you've always kind of been uh a hundred percent i do too much uh and probably everything just too much uh but it becomes second second nature that's the thing like i don't know if it's if it's just because like that's my deadlift setup I've been doing for so long that it just turns into that no matter what I want to do. It's almost like I black out and just do my holler and hooting and arm waving and just, there's nothing I can do to control it. But I would from, I kind of feel maybe like, I don't want to say it's adrenal fatigue, but I can see that over time, is this going to be a long-term problem of me hooting and hollering. Yeah, and I'm not so much even talking about that because I think it's like, you know, do whatever you got to fucking do to get through the day.

Look at that super low box. 5.35. You know, do whatever you got to do kind of to get through the day, but you guys just do a lot. Oh, in terms of the training? Yeah, and you're meticulous with it because sometimes the setups are weird like you know grabbing a certain bar and stuff like that it's not too big of a deal but sometimes you got to set up the rack a very specific way and set up the bench very specific way um what's your mindset like do you think that is this something that came from when you were

younger where you're like if i'm going to do something i'm going to i'm going to do it the right way i want to make sure it's done the right way and now i'm going to do something, I'm going to do it the right way. I want to make sure it's done the right way. And not only am I going to do that, I want to make sure all the fucking work is done. Because it's you and you lead a whole group of other people and they follow you and you make sure all those motherfuckers do it too. So I look at the last nine years and potential 10 in the future as almost like a block of my life. So we all have training blocks, right? And I'm looking at this one big giant training block. I don't know how long I'll want to or can power lift. To be honest, super training gym has been the biggest motivator power lift.

If and when super training goes away, I don't want to go to 24-hour fitness and solo power lift. Like that would be the end probably of my power lifting career. Like that would be the end probably of my powerlifting career. So I look at it – so to me, I look at it as this is the opportunity I have to enjoy this powerlifting path with my friends, with people I like to hang out with. And I've had the opportunity to meet the best lifters in the world in this building. So it's like why not just follow what they said? having josh bryant write me out a meticulous plan with rest periods and use this bar in this way screw it like he's the man i'm gonna listen to him and just execute what he says he's got great advice you got good equipment might as well

just do what the hell he said yeah because i will get to a point where i will have to train at a 24 or at a gym or whether i move or whatever the reason may be. And then let me bullshit around with bodybuilding or just curling, whatever, you know, limited equipment they have. Power Project family, how's it going? Now I want to talk to you guys about Within You Supplements. This is Mark's supplement line. And the amazing thing is Mark used to be 330 pounds. He was a fat guy. So obviously this stuff tastes really damn good. But the another cool thing about Within You Supplements is that none of these products are white labeled. Now, what a lot of people do when they come out with their own supplement lines is they do something called white labeling.

And white labeling, all that means is there's a supplement that's already out there. They take off the tag of that supplement. They put their name on it. And now it's their supplement line. Quite literally, there's nothing else like Within You supplements out there because Mark formulated these supplements with other individuals that he knows within the industry, like Joel Green, who we had on this podcast. So you guys should check out Within You. We have amazing protein, electrolyte supplements. We have fasting gum and many other things on the website.

Andrew, how can they check it out? Yes, that's over at MarkBellSlingShot.com. And at checkout, enter promo code PowerProject10 to save 10% off your entire order. Links to them down in the description as well as the podcast show notes. When was the last time you went to a commercial gym? So I have a 24-hour membership that I've had since 07 because they had a deal. In 07, I took a private loan from my dad for $750. my dad for $750.

They had you pay three years up front for $750 and then you get $49 a year for the rest of your life. Oh, what? So since 2010, I've been paying $49 a year with the exception. Did you ever pay your dad back? I did. I paid him back.

I think I did a one-year loan with him because I was in college. Dude, 24 is probably just like, fuck, he keeps coming back. So I haven't been to 24 as far as like your payments i guess oh yeah there was a mini class action lawsuit because they raised the prices about four years ago to 99 and people flipped out and i ended up getting money back 99 per what year so so last year i had credit last year actually cost me like 18 i $18 last year for the entire year. So it's like I can't get rid of that. I have no desire to go, but I just want it in case I'm on the road.

But yeah, commercial gym, very, very rarely. I mean I travel now a little bit, so there's a small 24-hour key card gym by my house that I'll sneak into if I can't make it to super training gym. But 98% of my workouts are in this building for nine years. You still do some stuff for cardiovascular. I mean, right now you're getting ready for a powerlifting meet. So there's probably less of that. But I know Josh at the end of the workouts has some cardio style workouts, right? Yeah. Sorry, you guys are dragging the sled like crazy right now. Yeah. So part of it on Saturdays has been heavy style workouts, right? Yeah. Sorry, you guys are dragging the sled like crazy right now. Yeah, so part of it on Saturdays has been heavy sled drag, 600 pounds for 50 feet for four rounds,

which I only did one set unbroken. The rest is like clustered up. But I am doing a three-mile ruck right now. So 30-pound pack, which I'm new to rucking this past few months. 30 pounds felt like a million pounds to me. When I read it on paper, I was like, 30 pounds? That's nothing.

It's the lot for me. So you walk for three miles? I do three miles, and my fastest is 52 minutes, 51 minutes and change, I think it was. So that's a pretty good pace. But most range in that 50 to 60-minute mark. So I do that once a week and then just walks on top of that. Do you do that here? I do that once a week and then just walks on top of that do you do that here i do that at home i found i found a loop uh that's literally i just walked and set a

distance gauge you have a weight vest or you just throw it into a backpack i have a crappy 20 something year old the kind snowboard backpack that's now tearing on the bottom that i just throw some 10 pound weights in chuck it right in there yeah yeah vests look like the way to go though what benefits oh you should check out that crossfit tech tech vest it's you can load you can load like 40 pounds or whatever in there but it's super comfortable to walk in oh i'm dying by the end of this the straps are like off and i'm just like holding i'm using the waist strapped only pretty much my shoulders it is destroyed you should buy that motherfucker it's good i'll take look. What have you noticed in terms of like adding in, cause you've been doing cardio and fat shaming that Jesse Burdick's program for you guys before. What have you

noticed like the benefits of keeping and doing some type of cardio with your workouts versus maybe there is a time when you weren't, I don't know if there ever was a time, but. Yeah. I mean, I go in waves, so there are like, you know, a month or two where I do less walking or less, we call it fat shame, which just is very appealing. Uh, and so there are like you know a month or two where i do less walking or less we call it fat shame yeah which just is very appealing uh and so there are times i'll stop and i feel like shit if i consistently do it for a few weeks or a month i look better uh tier t or not it i just i physically look better so it's one of those bs things like i know it's good for me i i literally look in the mirror and I see the results. And I'm making a conscious decision not to do it.

Like you feel like a piece of crap. So that's been my biggest motivator. So like this past week, it's the same thing. It's like do I want to skip my ruck or do I want to make sure I get in and like feel and look better? And that's been the biggest transition or biggest feedback for me. You got some ice cream in your life these days? The parlor? What's that place called? The parlor. I haven't been to the parlor in a minute wow that's impressive yeah what's the parlor by the way do they have the just explain one of your favorites from there yeah so oh yeah there's a method too so so parlor i don't know if it's a chain but

there's a i mean there's two of them in the sacramento area i'm hoping they're nationwide uh but they have a glazed or non-glazed donut and they heat it, they cut it in half and then they have, it's Gunther's ice cream. It's a local place. It's delicious. And so I get two scoops. So one on each side of the glazed donut. And then you get to pick a bunch of toppings. And I pick like a dozen toppings to the point where of course the teenager behind the counter is just pissed. So, you know, get Oreos, Reese's, Fruiteses fruit loops fruit i mean you get everything and it doesn't make any sense it's all just sugar but but the key is so so the key is they put it on a piece of parchment paper

and they close it then they pass it in the back where they actually heat it up they like smash it well there's a ton of leftover toppings on the parchment paper, and so I just kindly ask them to scoop those into a cup. That's like getting the extra from a shake. They make you a shake at a diner.

Sometimes they get a little judgy, but it's a good snack while you wait the 30 seconds for your ice cream. Yeah, there you go. It would be a good snack while you wait the like 30 seconds for your, for your ice cream. Yeah, there you go. It'd be a tough ask if you were like,

you know, if you were heavier, you would probably be like, I probably not even going to ask her and think, Oh God, I did go once and I, I finished my first one and I went to get my second and I kid you not. She said another one.

We'll already be like, yeah, bitch. like so judgy you don't know how I live my life I was like dang I'm trying to give you business work out a lot for this what about the time that you ate one and had to hide it from I think you had to like you and your wife were gonna go and you went before and I

think you ate in the car because you didn't want her to know that you went without her. I think it was when I had a really long beard. I think my wife caught me. That's so fat. I used to have a pretty good sized beard. And I kid, yeah. Thank you for bringing that up. My wife will love that story.

I just remember you said that you had to eat it in the car because whatever happened. My wife loves the place. It's a good tree. And so, yeah, I went solo, which anybody does that on another level, and devoured it. And I thought I was good. And then I come home and there's ice cream and stuff in my beard. And she instantly knew. Your wife likes to point out that you were

uh in a rap video i wasn't i wasn't a rap video yeah she like shows everybody right yeah it's been it's been a while well i was in meathead millionaire and i did a dance with uh stan and so it's uh i'm in a pretty embarrassing scene where i'm doing i'm not i don't dance well i know right and so i'm doing like a whatever dance and we bet every family function for like the first six months or twelve months after he was in a rap video you guys want to see it

and she would instantly pull up my scene that was so much fun yeah this is such an interesting rap video where there's no presence of black people no I'm joking an interesting rap video where there's no presence of black people no it's the first one of its kind joking but also where's smoky's dance was it was that the hot tub house yeah okay yeah it's getting

there yeah all right we got a filipino that counts oh there's okay yeah look at stan so jacked stan is jacked that's where he's big and jacked yeah it gets weird it gets weirder oh god i'm in one of those scenes in the back yeah yeah but my wife of course had it like bookmarked Where is Smokey? Rewind! Rewind! I need to see that again! I saw Marcus dancing. That's great. Charlie Zamora back there too? There he is! Yeah, everyone that we knew was there. Oh, there we go!

So is it this thing that you're doing? Oh my god. Now your wife can start to bring that back up to the people over at Merrick if they don't know it yet make sure they get an opportunity everyone needs

an opportunity to see that I just forgot about that too Chris Moore got slammed into the fucking pool look at that and was that Jake? probably doing his homework randomly Look at that. And was that Jake? Probably.

Jake's children are doing his homework. Randomly. Oh, my God. It's a unicorn. You've had a lot of fun in this, Jim, over the years. Oh, a ton. Halloween, we'd go really hard with costumes. I know you'd go really hard, actually, when I think about a full-day body paint.

The Revenant shoot. Yep. That was a really cool one. I'll pull up a classic. Oh, the Chubby Bunny challenge. Oh, yeah, Chubby Bunny. That was hard. Stuffing our face with marshmallows, right?

Yeah. Yeah. And trying to eat at the same time. Trying to deadlift. I think Marcus won. Of course he won. Yeah. That man man he was able to stuff it down pretty good i was inadvertently cheating the it was like dissolving in your mouth so it was starting to like go away so you could yeah yeah you were one of the uh i think it was just you and marcus

towards the end yeah and then I got the giggles. Uh-huh. And I packed it even like a dip. So it was what? Fit it in your mouth and then do a deadlift? Yeah. And every time you do one, you got to put another, right before you had to put a new Chubby Bunny. And then you have to say it.

Chubby Bunny. So was Mark the first that was out or was Mark even doing this? I'm in there. Yeah, I think because everyone just started laughing it was hard for people to just shout out of my nose i think dan surprised because you have a really large face especially yeah these pictures yeah there's these videos i just remember me and chris laughing so hard that like we couldn't even use the footage from my camera because like it was just so shaky but that was a good he had an advantage though because he dipped.

He's been training. He knew how to get it in there. It was hard. I just remember your hands were full of chalk and you're just in there just fucking finger blasting your face. God, ew. All the chalk that we were all touching. For everyone listening,

we're watching them deadlift and stick marshmallows in their mouth yeah it got to be tough that was a fun one have you uh taken some other things as well have you messed around with like uh things like metformin or anything like that uh semi-glutide yeah that i've messed around with and it it's worked too well so i've we've always talked i love eating at night it can reset your appetite right yeah that's the can help lower that's definitely yeah the good aspect so i've been in a kind of a bulking phase you know just wanting to put on some more size which is the ultimate power lifting justification for getting fatter um and so i like to eat at night though and And I just wanted to crave my hung,

my hunger. So I started semi-glutide and it worked too well. Like I just wasn't hungry at all. And so I had to lower my dosage and even just stop it for a while just because it worked too well. So I'm going to save it for opportunity to where I want to may have after this powerlifting me where I'm going to get shredded. After you took it, did you like, when you say it worked too well, when you came off of it, was there any remnants, side effects at all? No, I had zero side. So just so everybody else knows. So semi-glutide, it is a once a week injectable into your subcutaneous fat, so your belly. And it is a tiny amount. it is a unbelievably tiny amount um and some side

effects uh so it curves appetite so you know it works with um um is it lowering a1c it it almost uh it almost acts as if you had uh like the stomach uh surgery yeah it like slows down your digestion so you're you're more full geriatric band or whatever thingy that's what it's called yeah so i i did i had zero side effects but you you know when you just just aren't hungry maybe you just ate or i don't know it's not a common feeling for me so it's hard i'm sure you guys are used to it with fasting and whatnot but it just made me not hungry. I didn't feel sick.

I didn't feel anything. But yeah, it takes about a week or so for the treatment to wear off. That's why you have to do it only once a week. So it did take about a little over a week, two weeks. It can make some people nauseous, I think. Yeah, some people can get nausea. But for the most part, I think everyone else is good. How new is semi-glutide?

Because the first time I heard about it was with Spencer Nadolski. And then Gabrielle also talked about it. And now I'm seeing it on YouTube and different creators are talking about it. I think it's been around for a little bit, but it's been more popular in the last year. I think it's been around for about five, six years maybe. Yeah. So, yeah. Merrick actually is, you know, in the telehealth space has been one of the first that brought it in over a year ago so derek was talking about it made a huge thing of it and then we got access to it

and yeah it's been a huge saver we have a lot of our clients have lost 30 40 50 60 pounds in six months three to six months you know in addition to health style lifestyle changes yeah something that has been studied quite a bit it's's deemed as relatively safe. Again, like you got to. Sure. Every person's going to have. Vitamin C can mess, you know, can mess your. Each person's going to have a variation. But I think what we're seeing is this gives doctors and patients a really awesome opportunity to kind of defeat this thing of like just being so addicted to food and so addicted to processed foods. And people need an ability to change. And

sometimes when you're stuck in your old habits and you feel addicted to them, it doesn't feel like you have much of an opportunity for change. You feel stuck. So I look at it just like I mentioned earlier, like a training block. If I had to take, if I was morbidly obese and I just wasn't making the changes necessary, but it took a treatment or a supplement or a shift in whatever fashion it was, whether it's hiring a coach or anything. But I had to do it for six months or a year to change the rest of my life, the projection of the rest of my life and my lifestyle. That's what it is. So people look at a treatment or supplement and go, well, I don't want to be on that forever. It's like, well, you don't have to be. It's just to

think of it as a kickstarter to just start that path for you. It's the same thing. I really do hope it works as well. It obviously works, but triggers go off in my mind when something works too well. I'm like, what's going on here? There's always a risk to reward, always.

Maybe this is something, and I hope this is something for a lot of people because you think of morbidly obese individuals. If that can curb their hunger and nothing, no crazy things down the road, fuck yeah, do that shit. Yeah, I think it's amazing. Again, I think if you can get a lot of people to lose maybe about 10% of their body weight, they're going to start to feel motivated on their own to where maybe they won't even need the drug. Once someone lost 50 pounds, they might then have the momentum. But I agree with you. It's like what's the minimum effective dose and maybe there will be a time where you don't need it.

Maybe you won't need that dosage of that product anymore. Yeah, I think we can all agree, right? Lifestyle is the number one factor in any healthy life. And genetics is a big one. But can't control that. We just can't. So, you know, if it's just what it takes to kick that over, then I'm all for it.

Because we're like in this space and we think of Merrick telehealth, we're just like, oh, like optimizing for our performance and stuff. But do people come to Merrick specifically for weight loss? Yeah. So I want to say the last numbers I had was about 50% of our clients are not on TRT. Okay. Now, that's a rough estimation. That could be a few months ago.

But a lot of people are coming to us just for health optimization. So weight loss, libido, hair loss prevention, just complete lifestyle. Do I have a chance, bro? Prevention, not restoration. Can I get this line back? I personally do not have the answer for that. My daddy went bald, guys. It wasn't because of drug use.

My dad was bald. I'll connect you with someone. I think there is a lot of progression in that, but it's more like holding on to what you have and not necessarily regrowing something that's not there any longer. Yeah, so I'm on low-dose finasteride when I started TRT as well. And as well and i'm on i mean it's like your hair looks great yeah knock on wood but balding goes is on both sides of my family so i just figured i'll hold on to as long as it kind of looks like you're wearing like a yarmulke a little bit because uh oh there is phones oh okay i won't touch that i took it off when i got here you know it's like right behind the headphones you see the air sticking up a little bit a little bit yeah okay good we're not canceled yet we're safe the internet

right now is going crazy with yay and h3h3 do you hear what ethan klein said do you know who he is oh kanye sorry my bad yeah you don't know who ethan klein is no all right well we'll we'll go to something else but ethan klein was pretty much he he's this YouTuber who was making fun of Ben Shapiro. And he said that if there is another – you know, I'm just going to stop. We'll talk about it. I don't want to say that. We'll talk about it. I'll finish.

Please continue. No. No. No, no, no. I like the podcast. I love Jews. Yeah. I love them.

How much family do you have in Israel, by the way? You mentioned... Sorry, Jesus. No. Well, he is Old Testament, right? He should be with me. Yeah, he's Jewish. Yeah, there we go.

Yeah, we're good. There you go. Keep them over there. Keep him protected. Nice. But yeah, do you have a lot of family in Israel? I don't have any that I'm aware of. The Israel trip is something called birthright.

So when you're about 20, they basically pay for you to go there in hopes that you actually move there. Damn. To repopulate, to give back to the community. Wow. Repopulate. Even when you're married? Can I just redo the repopulate, to give back to the community. Wow. Repopulate. Even when you're married? Can I just redo the repopulate part? You're like, that's what I'm here for.

I'm here for my week-long repopulation. Your pants around your ankles. Like, what the hell? No, it's not like that. I'll populate, then I'll leave. You keep the kid. Yeah. Come back once a year.

Can I ask you a little bit about Accutane? Because I do hear about that a lot. I don't know what it is exactly. i have a pretty wicked case of back knee but like i don't again don't know what i can do with that yeah so i actually had to go uh outside of merrick's uh knee or possibilities for for accutane i even went to my local doctor and they denied me uh accutane completely so i had to go through some back channels was it kind of labeled as maybe a slightly dangerous drug yeah so it's very liver toxic um and the side effects suck but to me they're worth it so as someone that deals with acne it's like acne sucks like it's it's their

moment like emotional moments of just being super depressed sad embarrassed to go out um having gotten on testosterone my acne even got a little bit worse so it was just like fuck i'm i just started this new thing and i feel so good and all these other aspects but now my face looks weird like i don't even want to go out and look at people in the eye um so it was the final straw so i got accutane and um yeah so it was i did a relatively low dose 40 milligrams uh per day i believe someone my size about 200 pounds i want to say like a high dose of like 100 plus milligrams a day that i know there's like a ratio to do there but i did it for a little over six months and for

me the side effects were like i had debilitating just uh joint pain my back was in constant pain just getting off the couch hurt a lot lifting was very difficult um and then dry face chaps lips non-stop I had chapstick kind of dries out everything right it just joins it nukes everything yeah but I can honestly say like everything's reverted back I'm beyond happy with the results. I think I've been off for about two months or so. I think I've had like a pimple, which I would love to have like as a grown adult, like a pimple. But to be in my 30s with pretty bad acne even before TRT just sucks. So I guess it just depends on what you're comfortable with and if it's worth it or not.

I mean, I don't see you shirtless that often, but the back of you. Yeah, I've been I've just been trying like traditional, not traditional, but just like regular bro shit, like using head and shoulders, trying to dry everything out, like any kind of drying like product on my back. And it's kind of helped, but it kind of hasn't. Yeah. So prior to Accutane, I mean, as you can imagine, I've tried everything. Antibiotics, creams, washes. Try no soap. yeah so prior to the accutane i mean as you can imagine i've tried everything antibiotics creams washes try no soap no soap yeah yeah that's so i've done although i haven't done that but like cutting out dairy cutting out sugar um then i think it was just so bad that i just had to do

something like you know allegedly like the worst thing you can do for you. Did you always have bacne? No. Remember, like, I would, like, talk shit, like, well, not talk shit to anybody, but just be like, oh, I've never washed my face, and, like, all throughout school, like, I have pimples here and there once in a while. Karma.

Exactly. 100%. Especially during the summertime when I sweat a lot. Yeah. Like, it's bad. Like, I'll wake up, and then, like, the bed sheets, I'll be like, oh, fuck. It just spots everywhere because the back knee is bursting. So now rolling and shit, I'm just like, ah, he got me on something.

Like, fuck. So that's why I was like, hmm. I don't think it would be worth it for me to take Accutane, though, after what you said. I mean, it's six months and it is it was tough but yeah worth it to me what about anything with the stomach have you heard anything like uh i'm kind of curious if semaglutide would help in some weird way like have you heard anything from some of the people at merrick health in terms of like gut health and the skin like i've heard that that's supposed to

be a thing but i i don't really know what's true uh i'm not sure to be honest i haven't dove into that like the the connection with that i know we have peptides for gut health in general but i haven't had any correlation between that and acne yeah but i believe it like it's definitely possible like oral bpc 157 or whatever injectable even yeah i mean people that go on carnivore diet or paleo diet they seem to report skin stuff. But they're also just getting healthier in general. So it's probably hard to – you know what I mean? Yeah, if you take someone that eats cake every day and then take away cake every day versus someone that eats maybe rice every day.

Yeah. I imagine there's a huge difference in their skin clearing up. Fertility stuff with Merrick. Do you have anybody – have people come? Because I remember I wanted to get my numbers seen in terms of my semen and shit. Um, do you,

do you guys do anything like that? So we don't do semen testing right now, but we are working on adding that to the, to the criteria, to the, well, you know what we can offer. Um,

so we send people for that, but we do help people, uh, man get, you know, help get their wives pregnant or significant others so yeah working with hcg or getting them to come off testosterone and get their numbers up so people that know when you get on testosterone your testicles shut down essentially because they're like oh i don't need to produce testosterone so they shrink up a little

bit they say all right we're done um so we want to bring that back the best we can. And I mean, I have co-workers that have had no problem and, you know, got their wives pregnant and clients left and right. So it is a very common thing that people come to us for. Cool. The idea of like optimizing your hormones and especially when it comes like particularly to testosterone probably is to take an amount that would elevate you beyond what you were doing previously and or put you into a more optimal zone for you to gain, for you to get the benefits of testosterone without the negative side effects. That's kind of the basis of it, right? Because if we start to take a lot of it, then the estrogen shoots up and like all kinds of other side effects might happen. A lot of water retention and things like that.

So 150, depending on the person, the milligram dosage, it's going to sound low compared to like a regular cycle. But when people do regular steroid cycles, there's a lot of consequences and a lot of other drugs that come along with that. So you end up with, you're taking these two or three things to make yourself bigger, but then you need two or three other things to combat all the different shit that's going on. Whereas in the case of TRT, you can make an argument that sometimes all you might need is just a little bit of testosterone. Like people say, a little shot in the arm can go a long way. in the arm can go a long way. Yeah, for sure. There's a lot of places that will throw you on a whole handful of items right off the bat. And it's like, well, let's just start with one or two and then just reassess. And then you add medical. So I, you know, I have a medical condition. I was born with my bladder outside my body. So I've had, you know, dozens of surgeries and there's things

that I have to keep tabs of. Like I need to see, I've seen my primary or my urologist and I'm working with my, my doctors at Merrick. Like there's a lot of things that I want to see – I've seen my primary or my urologist and working with my doctors at Merrick. Like there's a lot of things that I want to make sure are good, my prostate levels. I don't want to make sure those are inflamed. So there's things you have to really be careful of. And just like you mentioned, you overdo one thing, then you've got to start adding other things into the mix, which are fine if that's the route you want to go. But that doesn't always – that doesn't have to be the route. you want to go, but that doesn't always, that doesn't have to be the route.

Yeah. What do you think you were most reluctant on years ago with trying it since you've been so close to it for so long? And even though none of us are doctors, we know quite a bit about it, and especially when you get around some like Stan Efferding and you get around some of the people that we've been around here at Slingshot, what do you think was the main like apprehension? here at Slingshot. What do you think was the main apprehension? So, yeah, that's a really good question. So I always looked at steroids put under testosterone as the deep end, the really far end. So I never saw that there was a more pulled back,

healthier, reserved option. I didn't even know that existed. I just thought when you get on, you're getting on an actual cycle. Either in the kiddie pool or you're going off a 10 meter dive. You're either in or you're in the way. And I'm choosing to be in the way. So, yeah, exactly.

I thought once you dive in, you are committed to going big cycles, trend, deck, you know, all this stuff. And so I didn't realize there was another way. And some of the people around us uh it wasn't always great you know some people don't see the kind of like dark side i mean people have anger issues and when you get into a gym that's competitive where people are all prepping for a contest things get a little weird and you see the attitudes and the acne and it all makes sense now and the bloody time it didn't make sense. And the bloody noses and stuff. It's not all...

It's not all good. It's not all good. It totally makes sense now on why the gym was the way it was for the good of motivation, but then like, wow, that makes sense why that guy yelled at me unnecessarily. He was probably on a bunch of stuff, and it was

two weeks out from a meet. So there's a whole bunch of factors. So that was the big thing. And like I say, I can't, you know, it's funny story, but you know,

four days goes by at joining American. I'm literally rubbing cream on my thighs. Like that's how convincing it was. Oh, thigh wars. Thigh war. I think in SEMA put his penis on me. He does that a lot.

Yeah. Or maybe I'm doing it to him. You do that a lot. Look at our'm doing it to him you do that a lot look at our lack of hip mobility at the time man that's great damn i have a feeling that gesture was yeah that was sexual you felt something warm pulsing we can't hear the video but based off our hand gestures so do you think maybe you were looking for an excuse for a while to get on some stuff uh what do you mean like do you think you were like you said four days into being with merrick oh no i i legitimately went into starting at merrick so that so just a little backstory

this is my first time i work for a telehealth company so it's all remote so we're all over the world like one of my co-workers like he's in Australia and then I got another in Germany. Like there were all over. So it is weird to start a new position where you haven't face to face met anyone versus here at Slingshot, right? You go into an office, you have an interview, you come back for another interview, you do a tour. Like I didn't have that.

It was just all over the phone or a Zoom call. So it was my first time meeting, you know the doctor one of the doctors meeting the owner meeting the clinical advisor and then going to a pharmacy it was just like i didn't go into it thinking i was going to go down the path at all but it was just so hit me in the face with how amazing it was that i was like instantly sold again share as much as you want but i because i think you might have had to have this conversation but like for dudes that do want to um go through american optimize their hormones and stuff but they have to have that conversation with their wife or their significant other and their their wife is probably like oh you're gonna be on steroids and you know you're gonna you know

so like what like what does that conversation look Like, how do you advise dudes go about telling their significant other that like, you want to explore this? Yeah, that's a great question. I mean, that was one of the other reasons why I was so reluctant on going. My wife and I had been together for 15 years and, um, yeah, she didn't want me to go down that path because we also had the same thing. It was your steroids. Like it's, you're jumping off into the deep end that's all it was there was no middle ground she knows how much you love the gym and everything didn't want to see you pushing into all that shit even even further yeah so in that in the health aspect you know when i think of you know extensive steroid use i don't think of the healthiest of things right so that was a huge factor and so it was

the same thing for her when she you know i was I was months into Merrick and she saw it and was able to experience it even herself. Like she felt really good about what was there to offer. And so – and then you add all the content we started creating and showing and her being able to talk to people. And it just brought – it shed a lot of light to her and myself for sure. But yeah, I would recommend light to her and myself for sure but yeah i would recommend talking to your significant other there are people that will come you know they'll get on stuff and then they'll become an elf not fertile but not tell their wife and then it's like oh i kind of and you know this is they're using underground stuff or whatever it is and it's like they didn't

communicate that or they didn't do the research to know that as a possibility. There are things to do to reverse it, but could you imagine how pissed your wife would be in that instant? How does the company work on communication? Like not amongst each other but to the outside world. We see that you have an Instagram and utilize a lot of stuff from the podcast here and some other well-known people in the game where they're saying something that probably aligns with what you guys are talking about. How else do you guys communicate? Because it is complicated. And a lot of people might think, oh, they just hand out steroids or they might have wrong interpretations of what you guys do. Yeah. So we redid our website about a year ago just to put as much information on what we do and which everyone does. But the biggest

thing is just align with people like you, right? Affiliates, people that we like sponsoring podcasts that we have similar morals and obligations to and want to make sure that we're reaching out to the audience in the proper manner. And then we want to redirect them to our website and that way they can get on the phone with someone and they can actually have that call. So when people book a consultation with us, they're able to get on a phone call, get on a Zoom video call with a patient care coordinator who's there like concierge service provider. And they can get the complete breakdown of what to expect and what the process is like and what the cool stuff that they're going to start receiving like the treatment and just the service. You'll talk to that person first, right? And you'll communicate back and forth. Maybe you get some blood work done. That person might give you some information on what they saw with the

blood work, but then you'll actually talk to a physician that will walk you through literally every single marker that you have from your blood work results, right? Yeah. So you get a whole medical team. So your patient care coordinator is almost like a mini Derek from More Plates, More Dates, right? Like they're super sharp. They're dedicated. Some are pharmacists. Some are nurses. It's just they're not the provider, right? They're not the doctor, the nurse practitioner, but they have all the comprehensive knowledge in terms of hormone optimization and preventative health. So they'll walk you through the process.

You'll get your own custom 30-plus page lab report. So we've all looked at LabCorp docs like, I don't know what I'm looking at. Like, okay, great, that's my LDL or that's some other marker or bun. I don't even know what I'm looking at. So we'll actually break it down and we'll provide over-the-counter treatment options, lifestyle changes, dietary changes, and then prescription treatment recommendations. And then that's when we'll connect you with a provider that has license in your state. So if you're in California, we have a laundry list of providers that will be able to meet with you, all remote, all digital. So you can do it from the comfort of your phone or your computer.

And then they'll be able to go over and go over your actual prescription treatment options. So let's say your markers are way out of whack. You're overweight. It's not an all or nothing jump into something. You might start with just semi-glutides. Like, hey, let's get your weight down and then we'll address your testosterone levels. Or let's get your thyroid checked or get your, in line before we address all these other things. Um, and then we're able to put the prescription order in with our pharmacies and have it shipped directly to your door. So literally the only things you have to do is get your labs drawn,

um, at a local place. There's one like two minutes from my house. They're all over the United States and we're expanding even more than that, even to do at your house soon. Um, and then additionally you just have to get a physical once a year from an urgent care or a doctor. And that's it. The rest is all remote, and it's all super convenient. It shows up right at your front door, supplies, everything. My experience has been we found stuff in the blood where it's like, oh, this isn't really that big of a concern, but it did pop up on two tests in a row. Let's investigate it further.

And then you get a follow-up. Sometimes it's a little bit of a pain in the butt to get all the different tests done. But it's great to just know, right? It's great to have that knowledge and to have someone walk you through. And then when we did deeper dives, luckily we didn't find anything worse was going on. It was good to know and good to look into it. Yeah, it's definitely a premier service. There's a lot of people that are coming they're coming to us or they have, and they're like, oh, I just,

there's places that are $99 a month for TRT and this and that. It's like, by all means, go ahead. If that's the path you want to go, if you're just looking for that, you're not looking for expert guidance, you're not looking for treatment options that they, you know, that we offer that they don't by all means, if that's the route you go, great. But if you're looking for an actual premium service where you have your own patient care coordinator, your own medical staff to bounce ideas and communicate with and you have access to all this stuff, then Merrick's the way to go.

Yeah, this isn't some TRT clinic. That's one thing I see some people mentioning in the comments, like, oh, it's a TRT clinic. No, no matter if you're on trt or if you're not your blood work is just good to understand it's good to understand where you are at this point in time so that if you choose to go on a bodybuilding prep or you choose to take up a different type of diet or you fucking start doing running and you go on the deep end if you do your blood work six months from now and something's tanked you can see okay what am i doing

differently and what i what can I do to change that? So it's just good for people to get to understand and do. What's the, sorry, what's the youngest that you can get your blood work? 18. 18, okay. What were you about to say? Yeah, in addition to the guided optimization that we offer,

that's like the actual Merrick service. People come to us and just get labs. People can create their own lab panel. you guys have your own custom lab panel you guys have a couple like stan efferdeen has a lab panel and that's just great you want to get a couple markers checked cool you want to you have a buddy who can help you you know go over them you have a coach by all means grab it and go it's another option who are some of the lifters that you still admire that you still follow like stan has been somebody that we all like a lot and yeah he's fun to watch his uh instagram and stuff and he's still like murdering big big ass weights i know you're a big fan of jay

cutler and you're a fan of like bodybuilding yeah getting after it so like who are some of your faves uh chris duffin that's one of them but yeah stan and jay yeah definitely up there hands down um yeah chris duffin's always cool he's just done some amazing stuff he's he's weird he he's weird he does maybe that's maybe that's maybe i could have just ended with that he's he's very eccentric he's very methodical um he's on a whole nother level of smart that i don't understand, but I enjoy listening at opportunity for him to help me brace with squatting and stuff. And I've watched that video on your guys' channel 50 times.

It's still very relevant to the stuff with the toes and the feet and all that stuff. Bracing and pushing out and everything. He had you put the band around your toes and then try to keep your big toe down. Crushed me, but your big toe was pulled away. This is like a video from six years ago or something the big toe was pulled away from the other toes and it made an arch in your foot yep which like we're starting to see more people

post videos on now it's just finally getting around uh branch warren i mean oh wow let's lift heavy and a lot of reps yeah do you like to lift heavy or you like to do a lot of reps? He's like, yes. Yes. Like that's really exciting. So yeah, that's someone I still really like to watch.

I, I love bodybuilding. I, let me take that. I don't love the art of the stage of bodybuilding. I love the training of bodybuilding. So maybe Chris Bumstead, like,

cause he's getting after it with some big weights. Uh, and there's a bunch of other guys that are just like loading the fucking rack up on the walker right yeah yeah and they just look like freaks yeah because you and lauren would work out till you'd pass out i remember when lauren first came in i had to actually stop him a bunch of times like during a deadlift because he would just his back you made a video because he would the dog shitting on the front long video. He just kept going with his reps. And I'm like, no, the reps are done. You got to stop.

Yeah, this is a pretty good video right here. Yeah, our lifting style was pretty bad. We had no concept of form, no concept of anything. It was just lift until you can't lift anymore. That literally was it. Lifting and I'll say diet maybe because Lauren used to take his lunch in like a trash bag, you used to say, or something like that? Yeah, so Lauren would love that one. So Lauren –

I remember the garbage bag, like the hefty bag. Yeah, so Lauren would get pizza, you know, and I don't know what other foods he did this with, but he would get pizza, let's say like a papa murphy's right like a take and bake situation and you know most people would when you're done put it in a ziploc or put in a piece of tupperware i open his fridge and he literally has the pizza on the cardboard box in a black trash bag so he reuses a black like trash bag where he puts food in to store it in the refrigerator. Now, to be fair, that was a few years ago. So I don't know if things have changed, but I don't think so. Hopefully not. This is proof that people that are very handsome have a different life than some of the rest.

His life is so easy. Yeah. No woman's ever called him out on that. No, they're just going to look for the past and be like, yeah, beautiful. It's totally normal. Oh, this is cool. Neat. This is super neat that you do this. Is he in the bubble or not quite oh that's a good question he's not in sema's bubble

and sema's in the bubble i'm not in any type of sema is the bubble no no no no what's the bubble the bubble the bubbles from an episode of 30 rock where the main character liz lemon's dating um john ham in his own world and he has world. Everyone's coddled him like, oh, you're doing that right, even though it's not right. Just because he's so handsome. It's a funny-ass clip of Jon Hamm. Some stranger on the street is like,

oh, man, looking good. She's like, who's that? Is this the same thing as the potatoes from the store? No, you're another character from 30 Rock. You're Jack Donaghy where he makes reference to, he goes, you're at the grocery store

and you talk to the store concierge and you go to buy a bag of potatoes which costs $400. You have no concept of money! I'm pretty sure I've seen you buy a single coffee with like a hundred dollar bill. You're just like, I don't know. I'm not sure.

I guess they'll give me money back. I don't. Maybe this is the whole thing. So that's you. You guys have. Yeah, that's funny. I wonder if I can find the character. You can make a whole show.

Yeah. Yeah. It existed. I know. I'm saying like we can make a like a remake of some of it right here what's five thousand dollars what's ten thousand dollars yeah what's twenty thousand dollars for a penny for a milk yeah what do you got going on with your motorcycle yeah i just did an awesome uh 640 mile ride the other day a couple weeks ago

what you got people are gonna want yeah i got a 19 harley davidson street bob that i've uh put put a little bit of work into got a fxr fairing and some some leather pro saddlebags and yeah i love ripping that thing about 30 000 miles on it a couple years three years so yeah it's been a lot of fun got some snowboarding coming up let's get starting yeah we live really close to tahoe so it's just hoping that the snow is there it's just such a seasonal thing obviously and so uh yeah if i can sneak out of state maybe this year go to colorado or utah or something that'd be really sweet and you can still do that stuff okay even getting bigger and a little more jacked and stuff so i do notice that is probably snowboarding is the one sport where because you sit down and you have

to lean over to strap in your bindings i will know for a fact you're gonna be breathing hard if i'm over 190 it's noticeably more challenging to reach my bindings because of my gut you have a gut well i mean you're sitting down your knees are to your chest and you're leaning over with like extra snowboard gear like a little extra chub yeah it's an it's enough to get in the way of your bindings. Don't you guys call that like a bench belly or what do you call it? Yeah, power belly. Just a power belly.

There you go. You have a little power belly. Yeah, so most people like to get leaner for summer. I actually like to get leaner for winter so I can reach my bindings better. What do you think you're going to do in this meet? We got a 600-pound deadlift? What's going on? Yeah, so squats finally coming. I've had some glute issues, some tendon issues for a handful

of years now, so just another BS excuse like we all get. I'll 500-plus squat and sleeves. I won't push it too much. I have to beat 418 on bench. So 424, 430, something like that. It has to be there that day i'll be

pretty upset uh and then yeah 600 plus deadlift would be would be great so that's the plan with your bench because you've you've been a great bencher right why do you think it like stopped at 418 i don't because i've tried a lot of different things it's not lack of effort that's part of I genuinely believe I've hit close to my potential my max ceiling my strength ceiling for bench press I think deadlift was climbing up

pre-TRT squat was going pretty good I think there was some more room in that but I think my bench press it's only so much weight 181 pounds yeah you've done and you've done like west side style training oh linear daily undulated periodization i've had many different people program yeah many different types of programs you've tried to not bench as much you tried to bench more you tried to do dumbbells floor presses reverse band slingshot but and that's the and i still love it it's kind of fun in a way right i

still love training yeah sucks kind of getting stuck but it's you know it's like part of it so that's what i've really this past year has been really cool because i've seen some progress like to actually see your lifts go up in three six month increments is not was not common for me you know a year over a year ago it would take a year or two to see some progress that's what was addicting about the power lifting gear because you could like learn it and there was like little aspects to it to where you could just get better in the gear and you didn't necessarily get a whole lot stronger but you're able to lift a little bit more and you're like i lifted more like i lifted more than i did last year i lifted more than i

did a couple weeks ago weighing the same just leveraging the the gear a lot more yeah that makes a lot of sense yeah yeah you're good at dumbbells yeah you love dumbbells but with like the body weight though like that should be because i just remember like the uh your uh your ig thing like 181 ish it's just like i'll hold on to that 200 ish yeah so like you'll be competing heavier than you ever have right i've done two other powerlifting meets at 198 i've even done a bench only at 198 and benched less than my 418 so that's the thing i've done two meets now heavier than my best bench comp and have not surpassed it. That's just part of life, right?

We work as hard as we can. It's great. But sometimes you don't always get what you want. Yeah, and so I've hit a gym PR. I benched 430 pretty well in the gym, but we all know it doesn't count. It's got to be at the meet. In a meet, the stars have to align. It's got to be at the meet and in a meet you know the stars have to align it's got to be you know you got three people watching you you know how did you rehydrate how did your food go was there a good handoff but has to stay on the bench they got

certain rules right yeah so and that's after going as hard as you can on the squat right yeah so yeah you did 4 30 in the gym recently though though? No, that was before last prep. I think about six weeks ago, eight weeks ago, I think I did 425. Nice. Yeah. You're on track. I'm doing pretty well. Yeah, everything feels good.

You look jacked, but I don't know if that's just because of the flannel. What do you think? It's the flannel. It's very thick. I was really hoping we'd get to see some pecs on today's podcast, but he just chose to cover everything up for some reason on so i wonder if part of those 26 surgeries was pec implants because he's has big pecs so i i did i do dexa scans and i'll do one here soon so it's pretty interesting my body fat my body fat at 197 on trt was like 17%. So not utterly amazing. Um,

but I, my first Dexa at what? One 81 was 19% body fat. That's a huge shift. So that's kind of the biggest way I can kind of just, or explain the physical adjustments. I'm at a significantly higher body weight, but my fat is about the same.

It sounds like my technical explanation in the beginning. The fat migrates from the bottom and goes up into the top. Yeah. So, that's been the biggest thing. So, are you going to pop the top? I don't like how you talk to me like, I don't like how that's worded. You make me, it feels degrading.

Are you going to unbutton your shirt for us, please? Or am I going to have to do it for you? It's Tuesday, so today's a gym day. So what you got going on there? Yeah, I have a squat about 490, 500 pounds today. And then just some speed pulls. Yeah,

things are starting to wind down. I only have two more heavy weeks. Do you get to pick the weight that you work with? How does it work and help from Josh Bryant? So it varies. He's very specific in a lot of things lately this training block he's been using a lot of rpe 789 so today is a 789 um and i'm but i'm basing it off of how my last squat moved a couple weeks ago my nine moved probably more like a 8 8.5 on a scale of 1 to 10 8 representing something that was pretty damn hard. Yeah, for sure.

Couldn't do a second rep. Yeah, but it was a really easy it was a very clean. I could push it a little bit more. So that's how I kind of pick a number for today. But it's all based how it feels today. So if it moves well, it moves well. Thursday I have a heavy bench or heavy-ish, touching 390

for a double. That's a set prescribed weight but yeah most of the stuff's pretty prescribed accessories he might give me some flexibility which i like has there been any differences in what he recommended uh versus what he recommends now versus uh before you got on anything oh that's a great is there like a little more work in there or no? Maybe, maybe. I'm not aware though, because I give him feedback. That's the thing.

There's a whole chart and Excel sheet. I give him, you know, RP feedback. I give him actual like note feedback. I send him an email each week. I send him videos if needed. So maybe on his end, he's making adjustments that I'm just not aware of in terms of my capacity.

But, you know, I think also with the more you lift, the more you can get banged up. So if I'm, you know, squats are going up, well, deadlifts are going up, well, bench is going up, well, like something's gonna give at some point. Yeah. Dave Tate talked recently about how guys that are on stuff a lot of times usually do a little bit less than guys that aren't on stuff but i think that that's hard to it's hard to pick through and make sense of that i think sometimes guys that take stuff have been training for a long time so somebody that's been training for 15 years is probably going to choose to do a little less overall work kind of recognizing that maybe they don't need to

do eight exercises every workout and push it too much i remember the first time i went for a heavy bench you were there um and this was after starting trt night and i you before i went it was 420 was on the bar and before i went you said smoke whatever happens with this weight this is your last rep today so if you smoke it you're done if it doesn't go well you're done because of just my tendons and you know not being on it for a long time and i think i i got it really well you're like you're done yeah you need a governor on it yeah i wanted to go up but isn't there an aspect of like you know if guys not just hrt but like if guys hop on steroids in general they can gain a lot of muscle fast but the connective tissue it doesn't grow nearly as much as muscle grows and that can lead to tears rips correct you yeah i mean a lot of times when somebody gets like a pec tear people are like oh see he's on shit

you know they'll go that far i think that's probably too far you think so um i mean i tore my bicep yeah that was yeah that was like all the comments right right? They were like, oh, it's because you're on steroids. But to the point, it is a lot less likely for you to tear a pec. I mean, especially on like a bench press. Like it's a lot less likely that you're going to be so strong. But yet other parts of your body aren't going to be prepared for them and you're going to tear something. So and I don't know. But it and uh i don't know it but but it's i don't know like hamstrings and stuff like that there's other body parts where it's like well that's just that's really common for someone to pull a calf muscle is insanely common for someone

to tear an achilles unfortunately even though it's a big one that's a really common injury but a pec injury on a bench press i think that yeah, you could raise eyebrows where you're like, yeah, maybe that guy's on some stuff. Unless the form was just complete dog shit. People do need to just be careful, though. So anybody that is going to embrace TRT or get on cycles of anything, you still have to progress slowly. You got to take your time and you're going to all fired up because things are gonna feel better but just i mean the last thing you need is to get hurt when you get hurt you get reduced to nothing it doesn't allow you to do the things that you love yeah and you just do not want to end up in that territory devastating that's kind of what i'm thinking of because like when

guys hop on like you mentioned josh isn't didn't necessarily ramp up your volume but some guys when they do they're like time to double the volume. You feel like Superman, and then you start trying to work with way more weight, and maybe the muscles are growing. Yeah. I mean, looking at Josh's program, it's hard. Don't get me wrong. Some days are really hard, but if it was up to me, I would do more without a doubt, without a doubt. That's pretty wild because I've done his program before and I call them like crying.

I was like, I can't handle this. Too much work. This is too much fun. Yeah. It gives you a lot. Yeah. It's a lot of fun.

Andrew, take us on out of here, buddy. All right. Make sure everyone's sticking around for Smelly's tip once we get done here. But thank you everybody for checking out today's episode. Please drop some comments down below.

Let us know what you guys think about today's conversation. Hit that like button on the. Let us know what you guys think about today's conversation. Hit that like button on the way out. And subscribe if you guys are not subscribed already. Sorry, I just sneezed and now my throat's all jacked up. Follow the podcast at MBPowerProject on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. My Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter is at IamAndrewZNCima. Where are you at?

Discord is below at NCMAYinYang on YouTube and NCMAYinYang on TikTok and Twitter. Smokey? Steven Granzella is my name, if you didn't know that uh but my instagram is lil smoky st little smoky little smoky thank you so much i appreciate it yeah thank you for having me on this is awesome best employee i ever had thank you so much it was probably the hardest thing i ever had to do is to let you go that was really brutal because we're we, we're boys, but I wanted to tell you that you made it easy because you're a fucking classy dude. And, uh, you're somebody I got a lot of respect for. I admire you a ton and, uh, appreciate it. But that was a really fucking hard day to let go of one of your

good friends. The tip of the day for Smelly is to get around like-minded people. Get around people that are good. Get around people that are like-minded, that are savages, that want to go to battle with you, that got your back like my boy Smokey over here. It'll make a huge difference in your life. Strength is never a weakness. Weakness never strength. Catch you guys later. Bye.