Mark Bell's Power Project - Stop Making Fitness so Complicated - Vinny Uzi || MBPP Ep. 854

Episode Date: December 19, 2022

In this Podcast Episode, Vinny Uzi, Mark Bell, Nsima Inyang, and Andrew Zaragoza talk about Vinny's simple approach to coaching clients and his rise in social media. Follow Vinny in IG: https://www.instagram.com/vinnyuzi/ 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://hostagetape.com/powerproject Free shipping and free bedside tin! ➢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: POWER20 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 #VinnyUzi  #PowerProject #MarkBell #FitnessPodcast #markbellspowerproject

Power Project family, how's it going? Now, we have been eating Legendary Pastries for a while now. They also have Sweet Rolls, which are new, but these are the best-tasting, high-protein snacks that you'll be able to find. The pastries are around, let's see, 180 calories, 20 grams of protein, 5 grams of net carbs. The Sweet Rolls, oh baby, the Sweet Rolls, 200 calories, 20 grams of protein, 5 grams of net carbs, and they taste amazing. Andrew, where can they get it?

They taste incredible. Head over to eatlegendary.com and at checkout, enter promo code POWERPROJECT to save 20% off your entire order. Links to them down in the description as well as the podcast show notes. All right, there we go. You even sound handsome. That's pretty good. You call me handsome? Yeah.

Handsome guy. You said you're 45, right? 45, yeah. Someone the other day was like, how old are you, 38? I'm like, not really, but thank you. Yeah, you're like, I'll take that. Yeah. So I got an experiment going on, and I'd like to get your take on this, Vinny.

These guys, they think that you need to wash your towel all the time. Wash your towel? Yeah, your towel that you use for the shower. Okay. And so I was like, let me do a little experiment. So I'm on like day 12 now of not washing this towel. And it still doesn't smell. It doesn't mean it's not dirty.

It doesn't mean that there's not like weird microbes in there or something that might kill me. But, you know, you take a shower. You get clean in the shower right i think and then you dry yourself off with it and as long as you dry the towel out as long as you don't throw it on the ground then it's good to go so who's doing this test i mean who wanted you to do the test well we just yeah we talked about it on the show so i started doing it you wash your towel every day every day no but like at least every four or five days. I would definitely go like three.

12 is a little extreme. I'm not going to lie. I might start to get some kind of natural like sub-funk that you don't even know about. Dude, right? I'm just trying to save the planet. Well, you know, I mean, okay, this is the thing. You know what's actually good about this? It's just proof that you wash yourself well.

Because there's still people out there who don't wash their asshole. Well, so I brought this experiment up to my wife. And she goes, well, it might depend on how hard you're drying and where you're drying. So if you get way up in the asshole to dry. It's still an asshole. But I let my asshole drip dry um it's still an asshole but i let my asshole drip dry that's good so well you can't smell anything and you're a nona for the past four years you have really bad sense of smell yeah it might might just be getting awful are you serious though that you

drip dry your ass yeah dude yeah i mean i i dry everything off but i don't like get in my asshole to dry it off you just leave that thing moist and you just walk around with a moist booty hole. Oh, man. Really? You know it's moist all the time. How did this go in this direction? I don't know. For some reason,

every time I get on a podcast, assholes and tits and porn come up. It just happens. I don't know how... Oh, you want to talk about porn? We can. Oh, man. Let's hold off of that.

We'll just go right into porn now. It's going to go in there somehow with me being here. It always goes in there. Oh, my God. It's going to that we'll just go right into porn now it's gonna go in there somehow with me being here it always goes in there oh my god it's gonna happen i just figured you know and sema is always bringing his buddies on from africa and stuff like that so i figured i bring in an italian new yorker over here right that's what happened right you did bring an italian on you know like get back get back to your roots. You're right. I brought Sam Okunola on. Thanks for pointing that out, Jesus. It's like Mark is actually speaking factually right now, guys.

It wasn't a joke. Oh, my God. He's got to talk about what you said about T-Papula. We won't bring that up. I appreciate you being here today. Thank you so much. And thanks for being patient with us over here. We're a bunch of animals,

but I started seeing your channel. I started seeing what you had going on on Instagram and I didn't even really realize that it was so new. You, you haven't really been, your buddy Mike was mentioning that you guys were filming some stuff on your phone and that was only a couple months back, right? Yeah.

Yeah. So I mean really – I mean so how I started this was I was telling you a little bit before that I was a construction worker for so many years, 20 years. And working, guys are like, oh, when I was about to have kids. Like, oh, you'll never see the inside of a gym again. So I decided to build a gym at my house. I went over the top. I took my car and a half garage. I made it a crazy house.

Got any pictures maybe on your Instagram or something? Or you have? I might have the old gym. Definitely have the new one. And I could pull up an Instagram of my buddy who did the work. It looks crazy. He did the whole video stroll. Yeah, Mike was telling me it's sick.

Yeah, yeah. So I built a gym at my house. And then I started training one of my buddies, Gregor Gillespie. He's a 155 in UFC when he's in the up-and-coming ranks. He was just winning. He's like the devil himself on the ground wrestling. He's like one of the best wrestlers around. And his Instagram was growing.

I started an Instagram page. Before you know it, just to sum it up short, I had a waiting list to train people. I was going back and forth in and out of the union, and I never really loved it, to be honest. Training is my passion. And I was telling you, I was going in for OSHA, like, 36 course. It's like a safety course. I was like,

yo, this doesn't feel right, man. It just doesn't feel right. I turned around and never went back. Grew my training business. I started training athletes, wrestlers, bodybuilders, and he went up in the UFC. And then I started. I had a social media page. And I was tinkering around with it a little bit.

And I really actually got to thank my wife so much. She always knew that I could do this because she would hear the passion pour out of me. And how I talk with emphasis. How much I believe in it. And I was kind of looking for somebody. And I found him. He just knows how to project who I am on camera. Looking for somebody to edit and stuff.

Edit, but really like to get like, cause Mike hears me all the time. Like I could talk, I talk with, I believe it in my heart. I'm not bullshitting people. You know,

I'm not gassing people. It's just the things I've done. I truly believe. And he knew how to put it out there. And then like, dude, it seems surreal, bro.

I was watching you eight weeks ago, six weeks later, my Instagram caught like gasoline on fire. And here I am. I saw me i'm like get the fuck out it's crazy and this is how here i am bro so honestly man it's just all i'm blessed in the fact that i get to do something i truly love for a living i really love what i do was it hard to make the switch from uh when you were a construction worker like uh you know did, you know, did it take a while to like build the money back up and stuff like that? Well, as in terms of this,

my wife's a teacher, so I have the insurance covered that way, right? So that gave me a lot of leeway to do it. But honestly, man, like why it didn't make sense is because I'm like, wait a minute. When I was training people, I'm like, I'm going to work all day, standing in the cold on a deck,

getting yelled at going, what did I do wrong? I'm making more money at night doing something i like in three hours in lululemons why the hell would i do it right right why did it take you 20 years i'm telling right but i couldn't have accrued that knowledge at 26 makes it takes a lifetime you know what i'm saying it takes a lifetime to know what i know i hate to derail, but when you said Lululemon's dog, when did you discover how Lululemon's feel?

Okay, okay. What did he put you on? And did you make fun of him the first time you saw him? I did, bro. He wears pants and stuff. I'm like, yo, I'd never wear that. I put him on and I'm like, yo, he's actually on look. Yeah, then the girls are like, hey, man, Mike's looking pretty good.

And you're like, wait, what? My Michael, yo, man, he knows more stuff than I'm like, yo, what cologne is that? What shoe is that? I'm like, I don't even know what you're talking about right now. All right, but I'll try it. Hey, man, that shit lasts forever. But I don't know if I missed it, but when did you stop or like when did you start training people? Because it was construction training.

Was it when you were in your 30s or? No, actually. people because it was construction training was it when you're in your 30s or no actually so my son was was 39 and probably when i started training gregor right soon after he's like yo i got a couple kids i want to train with you i'm like all right i didn't have a social media page yet yeah yeah yeah i'm like all right i started training them you know doing like what i make sure you tune in and watch the video of this because you've got to see the hands. Sorry, bro. I'm just like... Yeah, I started training people and athletes. Then I just started a social media page.

My friend Sean actually thought of my name. My friend Sean I grew up with. He called Vinny Uzi and sounds good. Then I just started posting a little bit on my own. He helped me a little bit, Gregor and Sean helped me. And you know, I got help from other people,

but I was terrible at it. I don't do it. I'm, you don't even know how bad I am with a computer. It's actually, it's bad, but you know, I just love training.

And then, uh, it's just a couple of people. And just, I was like, wow, I sort of power social media. I didn't even open my eyes that he saw him train him.

And then before, you know, in my little circle, I had a waiting list. And I was happy with that. But then it came to a point there's only so much of me that could go around. Right? My knowledge and what really made me do this, right, is I was at a party, a New Year's Eve party last year. And I was just, you know, I had a couple drinks with me. I'm talking to somebody about dying and whatever I was talking about.

Before you know it, I had 12 people with a clip watch sitting around like that. I was like, yo, man, holy shit. You know, someone's like, yo, you should have a YouTube channel. I was told that before, but I'm like, yo, what if I did this on a big platform? And that's what really, you know, my buddy, George, I was telling you before. And like I said before, my wife knew this would happen. Tank Sinatra. Tank Sinatra.

He's like, bro, he's like. Where you at, Tank? He knew I could knew this would happen. Tank Sinatra. Tank Sinatra. He's like bro. Where you at Tank? He knew I could do this. He told me years ago. He's like bro you look cool. You're smart. You look good and you sound cool. I'd want to listen to you.

You know and then what really made me do this is last time he goes you're a pussy. You're not going to do it. That's not I'm a pussy. Dude I don't even care what I spent or throw a whole kit in Caboodle in. I'm like I'm going to do it. You'll see. I'm like I don't even care. I told him I don't even care if I spent what a total whole kit and caboodle in I'm like I'm going to do it you'll see I'm like I don't even care I told him I don't even care the best looking page and go broke up I don't care I'm just going to prove everyone wrong and I did it

here I am that's great and what I noticed about some of your content was that the a lot of the clips were kind of quick and it kind of made me think like oh I kind of want to see more so like a lot of times some content that's created, you're trying to give context to it. You know,

people will try to give context because if I say a low carb diet is good, well then I got to give a lot of context and I got to talk about how there's other diets that are good. It's really just about how you can follow your diet. But with a lot of your content I saw, it was just like, it was just clipped, but it was also clipped very short. Okay. So I think what it's clipped short is a lot of people, see, I like to listen to the science. I don't get bored by the dry science. I enjoy it. People don't want to know that. How do you do it? This, what is and how works? That's it. So I kind of deliver a little bit of both. You know, like don't eat that insulin.

Insulin makes you fat. You don't want to know why. Most people don't, right? I like the science. I can listen to that dry ass over and over and listen, look it up. Most of the masses don't want to do that. That's why I keep it a little short. What do you think is being around gyms for so long and being somebody that's been going to the gym since you were like 12 years old and from – I'm similar age than you and went to gyms on the East Coast and I remember like the whole thing was about being big.

There really wasn't much about being skinny that I could recall. I don't remember. Bigger, bigger, bigger, scariest guy on the block. big there really wasn't much about being skinny that i could recall i don't remember no bigger bigger bigger scariest guy in the on the block i don't remember anyone trying to be like skinny or even like aesthetic in some ways like it was a mirror like you just the mirror was kind of frowned upon like people didn't really look in the mirror you you didn't see anybody with their shirt off in the gym like that's a newer thing well cameras off in the gym. Like that's a newer thing. Well, cameras all over the gym. Yeah.

Yeah. There certainly wasn't like the phones and stuff like that. You see everywhere. What is true about being big and, and why is it important? Like, why do you think it's important for people to get kind of big and strong? Like how'd that be almost like a foundational thing?

Okay. So why I believe it's big and strong and thick, it's a good basis if you're going to be a weightlifter, right? So even if they just take a sport, for instance, right? You're an athlete. To have a good solid base, a muscular, heavy, strong base is a foundation for a contact sport. Maybe wrestling, football, something to that.

You need a good solid base. Weightlifting and strength training trains essential in athletic performance. A hundred percent. That's why. All right. So the look, as you kind of bring it up, kind of changed over the years.

Right? So I remember when I was a kid, I was telling you a little before the gyms I went to growing up had no treadmills. Yeah. It was a man's gym, men's gym, bro.

And like I said, I don't want to sound like the kid who used to walk to school barefoot in the snow, but I kind of was. I rode my bike miles in my thin-ass Raiders jacket, blowing my hands. I used to go when I was 12 years old, right? So the first time I went, my dad actually had to sign a waiver so I could go there. And I would go and I would bench and I would curl. And, you know, I had little natural muscles when I was wrestling.

I kind of looked like a little Bruce Lee, you know? And I remember I was telling like, it was either James or Steve Tracy. He looked like he was the post-boyfriend of Marines. Just so he looked like Maverick from Top Gun, just way bigger and better looking. He taught me how to bend and split it up. He's like, dude, what are you doing? You got to do it this way. And I would go consistently

and over and over. And I remember, I would look at these guys, man. I just always remember some reason. Like, remember Steve Mihalik? Steve Mihalik, he was a guy from the... He did a thing at the gym. But anyway, so it was a man's gym. I remember guys used to come from work, and like, back then, guys wore jeans and work boots to the gym

and flannels. And this guy, Jesse, he had this white, blonde, gray hair ponytail, and it was common. He would rep 405 on the incline, like, and nobody really looked too much. But gyms back then, everybody did 315. I was even telling the story that I told before.

Gyms had 315 contests. Now a kid puts 315 and everybody's like, yo, you got to stop and look. Yo, back then, you can't do 315. You got to go home. They would do 315, right? And this dude, Tommy Steinbeck, huge dude. Six and change, veins, sleeveless shirt. He came in, he put 405 on, but stopped at 20.

Braxton goes, tell me how the rest of the competition goes. True story. You know? You know, do you remember Jimmy Palaccia? Yeah, I do. Jimmy the ball. Soul guy. He did these crazy numbers back then.

Yo, the guy was strong. So when I was, I think, 18 and I was big, I worked at a nutrition store of his. That was next to Ken's. How great of a name is that? Jimmy Pelleccio. Jimmy Pelleccio. Jimmy the Iron Bull, right? Curl 150, whatever. So now granted, everyone's like, oh, his numbers are bullshit and this and that.

I spotted him doing skull crushes with 405. He actually had 405 on the bar. And let's just say he wasn't doing full range, but he was breaking his elbows with 405 and I wasn't touching it. Strong guy. Like a skull crusher? Yes. So I have first experience spotting him with doing that kind of weight.

Guy was a strong guy for his day. I'm curious about this thing because you said you just got on social media a few years ago. Being a gym OG and you've been training for almost all your life, what do you kind of dislike about social media and fitness? Because you're new in the space

and you're seeing it all. Didn't I just say that before? I know the aesthetic side of things and mirrors, but when you see people putting things forward, what are some things where you're like, fuck that. I'm just like i know the the aesthetic side of things and mirrors but like when you see people putting things forward what are some things where you're like fuck that i'm just just curious okay a couple things i could touch on with this uh i'll say it again is this the ken the kendall look in the gym right wearing like a man where he's like so tan wearing gym shock and like posing with a camera stuff i'm like no what are you doing, bro? Do you have any shame?

Or like there's three girls on the squat rack, right? And they're in their house, they think. They have three cameras set up and they're posing. They're doing the same rep over and I'm going, holy fuck, what am I looking at right now? I was blown away. I can't even, you know. And another thing I want to talk about. Those are the two.

And then while I'm still here is with training now. I believe in all the stuff I've done, basic movements and yes, for a sport, right? What correlates to the sport? What movements correlate to the sport, right? So I trained – so this kid I trained. I'm not going to mention his name. I trained him all through high school. Stay a little closer to the mic.

I trained him all through high school and he a little closer to the mic. I trained him all through high school. And he wound up going to a Division I wrestling program. When he got there, he texted me. He's like, bro, he's like, yo, these kids are 22, out of college, and they're making me hold the fucking bowl on a bullseye thing, like, doing this. He's like, I don't even know what they're making me do. He went back to my program because it works. Lifting weights, and in a certain way.

Not high rep for hypertrophy, you get sore, but in a certain strength way. Old school, basic movements work. Kids come out of college, they try to put too much science in. They try to confuse you. Hula hoop, wizard. That doesn't work, bro. What's up? Basic movements.

Do you agree with me? Do you agree with me? To some extent. I think in my own experience, I deteriorated my own athleticism through lifting. But I took lifting to a pretty far extreme. So I think if you do the sport and you lift and you are still doing things that will continue to kind of educate your athleticism, then I think you're fine. And I think you can get a great benefit, but I think sometimes some people might stray and they might really go for that 500 pound squat. And it's like that 500 pound squats, probably not going to help you in your 40 time, the 500. However, aiming for a 400, 500 pound squat could be something that

could put a body weight on you. And that might be totally appropriate because you might be a defensive tackle or you might be an offensive lineman. You might need that body weight. And so having that goal of hitting those weights, because we know that by having that goal of doing that kind of weight, that it takes rest and it takes food, it takes recovery, it takes a certain stimulus in the gym. So I definitely would agree with you on that note. So let me go a little deeper on that. So when I say wizard, I'm not talking about like – I'm so, so basic. So you see a lot of explosive, dynamic, one-armed landmine for punching, for velocity.

Works, yes. I'm not talking about that. That definitely correlates and is usable. I'm talking about some really off-the-mark stuff. I'm like – Like what? Just curious. I honestly – like for instance, he explained to me.

I didn't get to see it, but he's like, dude, this coach has me holding a kettlebell. I'm standing on one thing and like – I get you. That would not make you a better wrestler. I'm going to give you a story. I like stories. I'm not going to mention any names. So one of to give you a story. I like stories, right? I'm not going to mention any names. So one of my friends was a very decorated Long Island wrestler, right?

Went to West Virginia, and he was talking about this one guy who came in, and my friend was good. He's like, he could out-trick you, out-slick you. He's like, yo, I started going with this guy, man. The guy fucked me up, bro. He's like, holy shit, bro, that never happened to me. He goes, come back next i got him he goes it was even worse he goes wow that guy's just better than me i've never even come across this hit the weight room the guy came in the weight room couldn't even bench 185 the guy that was kicking his ass kicking his ass came in

weights up correlate this what came the next day, kicked off his Timblins with no one, it was clean in 365. Everyone's like, holy shit, correlate to the sport. So, one of my kids also told me

he went to whatever school and he goes, yeah, the guy has me benching, I was stuck at this weight and now I'm benching it for a double. I'm like, why are you doing doubles

if you're a wrestler? You're going to blow your peck out unless you're doing that on your own, which I don't think so. It might be too risky. It doesn't correlate to sport. Now, if you're a wrestler? You're going to blow your peck out. Unless you're doing that on your own, which I don't think so. It doesn't correlate. Now, if you're a football player and you've got to push, you've got to think about it. Whenever you design a program, leg day first, you do the dynamic

day, then you do movements that correlate to the sport and then a bodybuilding day. That's how you break down a basic science of a program. Sounds a lot like a Westside barbell type stuff. So a lot of, a lot of trainers for sports performance, they do a conjugate system that calls,

which is great. Dynamic upper max effort lower. And then you flip it around because you only lift twice a week. Usually maybe three. It's cause you got to do a lot of skills as a fighter. All right. So now being a good coach and a good trainer, you got to know your athlete.

You got to know the sport and the movements that correspond to it and how you learn that by doing it and experience. You can't come out of school and tell somebody how to do it unless you do it. That's what I really truly believe. Now, let me ask this. When you were training, like you were when you're working construction and you weren't training people, how were you like navigating fitness in your life at that point in time? Because your job must've been extremely physical anyway, but you were still in love with the gym, right? I just made it a point. No matter what I trained every day, more when I was younger, bodybuilding,

bodybuilding, no matter how tired I was cold all day, took the train home. I got like a 30 minute nap a lot of times to recover. And then I'd train every day. I'd work out with weights and do my cardio. And then as I got a little older, I shifted my training. So I was primarily mostly a bodybuilder all through my kid days and into my 20s. And then one of my close friends was a pro MMA fighter, lost a couple fights. He was a really good superstar athlete, very genetically gifted, two-sport pro. And he goes, I want to bodybuild you a little bit. I said, all right, cool. He went to the gym. After six months, he goes, yo, why don't you try to fight and stuff i said okay went to belmore kickboxing very known mma gym and how old were you at the time

i was in actually my mid to late 20s i started late and i actually caught the bug and i wound up fighting a bunch of times competitively and then uh you know i just you know then i lifted weights and more which shifted now i still train very often with the younger guys into whatever my capability can be and my training did shift from being just a bodybuilder into more of an athlete and that opened my eyes up more to train for athletic performance how i learned how i learned to train an athlete or fighter because i did it i know what works that's why it still doesn't mean that you don't do a bent over row. It still doesn't mean that you don't do a deadlift. No, you do what corresponds to the sport, though.

You don't do like 15 squeeze reps. You do explosive penalty rows, and there's different ways you could tweak and twist. And the reason why you might not do that is because you can't afford to be sore all week. Right, so how I learned that also, but trying it, one of my friends who's in UFC, not to mention names, he's like, yo, my friends was in UFC, not to mention names.

He's like, yo man, he's like, could you shift a little bit? I got really sore after last week. I go, that's what I'm going to do. I made the reps lower,

bigger rest. And I shift around, he didn't get sore for his skills, training, jujitsu and boxing, et cetera. I think that's a key point that, uh,

we maybe, I don't know, like, I don't know. There's something about where if we're going to do something, like we want to do it so hard, we were talking about running earlier and I was like, forget running, like maybe just try to jog and like go real light, go real slow and forget about how you ran when you were younger. And I think sometimes when it comes to lifting, I think

similar, especially when you're an athlete, over time you can lift harder and harder and you can do more and more and you can you could figure out what's appropriate for you but i think doing a movement of a deadlift doing a movement of a bench press doing a movement of a squat i think these movements they have they have tremendous value but i don't know how i don't know you got to kind of weigh out the risk to reward as you were mentioning uh with the bench press, like somebody could tear a pec. I mean, you could get hurt with some of these things. You could make yourself too sore to where it negatively impacts the sport. I think in SEMA, I think you don't really squat nearly as often with a barbell, but you do other types of squats, right?

And you don't, you just don't, you mentioned your legs are smaller than they used to be. Right. And you don't you just don't you mentioned your legs are smaller than they used to be. And probably some of that is because you're not doing so many things to like recruit as much muscle fibers and stuff like that. You're not doing as much breakdown through lifting, but maybe you're doing some breakdown through jujitsu and stuff like that. Right. Well, I mean, I'll still do stuff like lunges. I'll still do squat hack squats and maybe AT split squats and all those things and like hamstring movements but i don't need to squat anymore as much as i used to um and in terms of the leg size thing yeah the legs have gotten a little bit smaller uh but it doesn't matter at least in the context of jujitsu i don't need to have it's not like i'm trying to body build and i need the biggest quads and hamstrings that I needed before. It's just that I need the legs to be able to have endurance, move well.

Your value shifted. Yeah, the value shifted. But that's actually what I wanted to ask you about because I don't know if you kind of – you went from focusing on bodybuilding style training to then training like a fighter. Do you remember some hurdles that you had that maybe you did because like training like a bodybuilder you look a certain way so you look dominant you look big i can tell you what made you shift i couldn't move okay so but go into that like what like how did you have to exactly how did you have to shift and what were those so i was lifting weights i started fighting yeah immobile stiff thick got fucked up the first couple times

i'm like this isn't working like this then i felt like my tips were i just have naturally tight hips anyway so squatting heavy didn't help that so i started to actually i lifted weights a lot less often my body got looser started lifting more i tightened up i figure it out what worked for me putting heavy weights on my back for like you know eight to ten but i would do pin squats for like five where I stopped and didn't cause as much of that deep soreness and hypertrophy. Not squatting down as low. Oh no, I would do it for strength and explosiveness more. So how I really learned this also, my friend, Tony Ritchie,

very known strength trainer lives down in Florida now. He actually, and how you know, you ask people and absorb, even though you kind of know, but you ask help from other people, even though I know how to weight train i've been doing my whole life this is just a different look at things and he designed a program for me i'm like okay i'm gonna do five reps with 15 of that we like dude it was super like explosive fast five sets rest 30 jump squats yo i felt like i had a workout but like i'm like, I have no pump. It was just exercise, explosive fast movement. Best I have performed in a fight. That opened my eyes to that even more. On what I did, how I applied it, and then how I performed in the ring.

That's how I knew it worked. So reflect on that. When I first started training people and I started going into this and conditioning workouts, right? So you could do ball slams swiss ball bike sprint all there's a whole combination of different things okay so i was listening to this one and made me second guess myself and maybe i don't know i'm listening to this one swiss trainer a guy from switzerland he's like oh yeah he's trying to simulate the ups and downs and the lulls of a five-minute round. And then it dawned on me, like, you can't simulate that on a salt bike and a kettlebell. You got to do it.

How do you get your cardio better for sparring? Sparring. How do you get your cardio better for doing jujitsu? Jujitsu, all that that does, the word now is GPP, when you do these workouts to get your overall general physical preparation better for when you do the sport, you're not going from zero to a billion. That's what that's for. You know,

like Karen wheelbarrow, how you, how you get better at the sport is by doing the sport itself. So let me ask you this in terms of like working with your fighters or wrestlers or whatever, you don't really focus on having them do conditioning work when they're with you. Like that.

Not so much. Some I do with my, my guy, Gregor, because we do and it's what we do, and it's fun, and we enjoy it, and he beats his times, and he's just a different specimen on the planet. No, I've never seen him get tired.

It's unbreakable. But anyway, for most of it, though, I believe in the strength, the conditioning you do with your sport. You want to go for a run and do all that stuff? I believe in strength training for my athletes. That's what I'm very good at with them. All right? So, yeah, pretty much.

You know, do you recommend, like, do they have coaches that work on their conditioning maybe otherwise? Or are they, like, to your point, are they? I do do conditioning workouts with some of them. For the most, though, they come to me for strength. And they're conditioning probably in the sport. Like they're getting conditioned when they go to... Like I said, you know, they go for... Okay, let's just take some of my wrestlers. They go for the long runs on

their own. And then I think for me also, right, you got to look at recoverability. You're doing your skill, you're lifting weights with me and then you're going to do a conditioning workout where I think the percentage of how much that matters is nil. Most of it should be spent on the skill itself and then recover. Because working out at the end of the day is breakdown.

You've got to even recover from that. People don't take that into accountability a lot of times. You have to recover from your work. See, for me, I know my bite. I've tried everything because I enjoy working out. I've tried lifting weights more often during the week, and I just don for me. I know my body. I've tried everything because I enjoy working out. I've tried lifting weights more often during the week, and I just don't recover. I can feel it.

My chest feels like a mud. They feel the word I use, crunchy. It just doesn't feel right. And you ignore it, and then you fuck yourself up. You're like, I did it again. You think you'll learn from your mistakes. You do it again. I know, like, and you know there's deload weeks,

you know, and you do it by accident. They just go, yo, I didn't lift weights for like 10 days. I was on vacation. I came back. I was stronger than before. Rest. You need to break down and rest. Yeah.

No, I mean, I can understand that from a jujitsu context because you can definitely push yourself in sparring rounds. For example, if you have multiple sparring rounds, just don't stop. Even when you're tired, focus on trying to increase your conditioning there on the mats. But when you're not there, especially if you do train often, when you're in the gym, you don't need to do more ball slams and fucking – you don't need to do more conditioning work to increase that. This is the place where you need to increase your strength.

You know what I mean? So that makes a lot of sense. So like this, like we said, risk forward and time and recovery because you only have so many hours in a day, hours in a week. How are you going to train? So let's all lay it out on a plate, right? What's going to make you better at jiu-jitsu? Yes, weight training. Check.

Rolling more often. Check. Maybe long distance runs in here. Ball slams and jumping over hurdles. Eh, that's the lowest on totem pole. We don't really need that. If you had the time and you didn't work, you could do yoga and all that other shit that may be okay but in reality no yeah you know yeah makes a lot of sense yeah you need a priority kind of checklist right yes exactly you do in real life scenarios yeah

we were talking a little earlier about uh supplements and the supplement game has changed so drastically and you were talking about hot stuff and i remember that uh from years ago just they just took like everything and like threw it in there and i i remember i want to say that company got busted because it had like diana ball in there everyone he is some kind of mythical thing that hot stuff had all i knew is that i was big and i was a giant pimple you know that's what So there was definitely something in it. It was more than puberty. It was like there was fat burning stuff in there

and then there was protein and carbs and it was just like banana flavored hot stuff and warm milk. It tried to hit the market for everything. This is going to get you big and ripped and do everything for you. There it is.

The old school gyms always had also. Is it still for sale? It smelled like metal. That isn't the original. I was going to say it is, but it's definitely not the same formula. It smelled like metal. That's how you knew it was good. It had little dark pieces in there.

I remember shit. Who knows what was in it. It has banana flavor. Still the same flavor. But how you learn about that stuff is like the old school guys at the gym. So every old school gym had this stereotypical one crazy guy and god rest his soul i think he passed away now our front desk guy ultimate gym was crazy larry he used to wear the mike christian head thing and wear flannel egg whites and apple juice that's what gets you jacked

and yo man i was eating egg whites and apple juice because crazy larry told me to do it probably killed your stomach oh my god right dude i remember trying to get big right and i was on a mission i was in high school i remember and i tell people this is what it takes that's what kids don't understand bro this is what it takes right i've made it a goal i would eat a jar of peanut butter have steak, and drink a gallon of milk every fucking day. Every day. In high school, I went from 120s to almost 180. Your parents bought you this shit or you bought it on your own? A little of both.

That was the goal. I did what it takes. And then I would eat two turkey sandwiches dipped in jars of mayonnaise. I'd do crazy shit. But I got big doing it. People don't understand. This is what it takes. If you want to do it, you got to sacrifice. i remember i went on a cut in junior year in high school

and i didn't know anything about cutting because i was pretty heavy at the time so i was just like i started reading a little bit about macro counting and i saw this thousand calorie diet so i was like oh okay let me just eat a thousand calories a day and i'll start to be perfect you got this fine right and i remember like on the second week i was in class and i was just like like i almost fucking fainted and i was like let me go look this shit up it's just way too low i was too big for that shit but it's just the stupid shit you try as a kid to get in shape it's it's fun you know how prevalent were drugs did you hear people talking about steroids and stuff like that when you're going to the gym when you were young or so when i was so that's the thing with me i educated myself on drugs

oddly young so i was pretty educated to a certain extent all right um but was that as prevalent uh yes and no like the gym i was telling you about you'd actually see syringes in the bathroom all right and then like as it was like maybe the mid 90s i started going to a more commercial gold gym that had the fitness bunnies and the huge guys with the fanny packs and whatever right i'm sorry i'm bringing back old school i love it bringing back stuff out of my head and uh yeah there was more like see back then yeah and there was the drugs and like back then though the look was to be as big as big and scary as you could be there was 300 pound guys who like lived around the block from you the look changed today which honestly for health reason and it is a better look like the classic physique like chris bumps it looks ridiculous he looks

sergey constance it looked great in clothes you want to look where a girl is like i want to take him down and the guy's like i want to look like him that's a good look you know what i'm saying yes man that's the look but anyway as in terms of health reason i'm getting it's a good look. You know what I'm saying? Yes. Man, that's the look. But anyway, as in terms of health reasons, it's a healthier shift today. Even though I make fun of the little Ken doll in the corner, it's overall, it is a better, you know, because you can't live like that. You know, eating anadrol 50s and putting my grandma testing you, but you're not going to live a long life like that. And I talk about cardiomyopathy a little bit.

That shit happens. That shit's real. People don't know that. You know, that's the thing. These young kids, they're not educated with drugs. They start jamming this shit in their body, trying to,

like, do you even know the health ramifications of what this shit does, bro? Lipid profile, like, what's a lipid profile? I'm like,

what? Yeah, you got to learn this shit. What can it do to your heart? Do you know? Steroid abuse or steroid use? Yeah,

steroid, or yeah, either one. Okay, so there's two different things, right? We could abuse anything in this world. If you ate, I like to use this analogy.

What analogy am I going to pick? I have a whole plethora of them. Let's use the cheeseburger one. If you ate one McDonald's, I love cheeseburger. If you ate one cheeseburger, right, a week, a McDonald's burger, which is fucking terrible for you, you'd live forever. If you ate two a day, you're going to fuck yourself up. Most likely, right?

Steroids are the same thing. You could use them. What gives them the bad stigmatism is the abuse of it. Professional bodybuilders, right? You got a guy five for five walking around 300 pounds. That shit's no good. You're pumping your body more than it could handle. The use of it, if you cycle on and off, you could live a long time and be pretty healthy it's scientifically proven

testosterone when it drops down in your older age is detrimental in so many ramp in so many aspects other than muscle mass loss depression which is a huge factor people don't even take into account you can reverse all these things with just a small amount of optimal dosage of testosterone, not supraphysiological dosage. What about when people come off of this stuff? I don't think it's talked about enough. We see all these TRT clinics popping up, and I would imagine for as many people that get on it and get excited and try it, there's probably a lot of people who are like, ah, I don't want to jab myself with this this needle and I'm just going to stop

doing this. And then they just discontinue the usage, but then they probably don't, are unaware of like a protocol of how to kind of come off it. So we spoke about this before. So testosterone now has been, the eyes have been opened a little more of the health benefits of it to the most part. Okay. Now, one of my clients

newer client came to me you know dm me wanted me to help him train whatever and he came to usually some people come to me when they're all fucked up i'm like it's easy i give them a top surface shit and they're good him i had to pump down a couple gears i'm like this guy came in shape he was knowledgeable he trained he was kind of jacked bang i got to pull it down to like real deep knowledge so i figured out a solution for his problem. Food, diet, whatever it was, right? I changed it a little bit. A little more than a little bit.

Then I get to actually a question that was very top surface. I go, how old are you? He's like, I'm 40 something years old. I'm like, you should go get blood work. You know, he's like, I actually know about testosterone. He's like, oh yeah, actually, you know, a doctor prescribed me testosterone. I'm like, and how do you feel? That's where we should have fucking started. I'm like, well, how do you feel? He's like, oh, yeah, actually, you know, a doctor prescribed me testosterone. I'm like, and how do you feel? You're like, that's where we should have fucking started.

I'm like, well, how do you feel? He's like, actually, I stopped. I was like, okay. And you took a, you know, clomiphene citrate. He puts you on, right? He's like, no, he just had me stop. I'm like, hold on a second. Wait a minute.

This is, I've heard this before. This is a medical practitioner prescribing testosterone to someone who has such lack of education to not know to give you something to kickstart your endocrine system that should not happen they should be more educated if they have the ability to prescribe something like that they should know the ramifications on the downside of what could happen if you do not prescribe something to help somebody rebuild their body yeah do you agree with me yes i think also too you you're prescribe something to help somebody rebuild their body. Do you agree with me? Yes. I think also too you're going to have to probably warn somebody. Like if somebody was taking testosterone for a few weeks and they took it long enough to notice some of the benefits

and maybe they were feeling a little bit better or feeling a little bit stronger, but they still just kind of said to hell with it just because they just didn't want to do it anymore. Maybe they did have some negative feedback from the amount they were taking, or they literally just hated taking the shots and didn't want to do it anymore. You have to warn that person that your mood might change a lot. You might be irritable. You might be depressed. And what if it's a person that already has depression? And what if it's a person that already has some anxiety, right? So it's a very good question. So how we could go around this, right?

So other than taking exogenous outside source testosterone, there are different pathways where people raise their testosterone using a synthetic driver to cause a natural response. So let's look at how testosterone is made. Luteinizing hormone tells the latex cells make testosterone. So instead of shooting outside source testosterone, TRT clinics recognize this from what I've read. They use HCG to cause – it's an artificial signal to cause a natural response. So you're elevating your testosterone through a natural pathway.

Even though it's driven by a synthetic driver, it's a natural end result. Not as aggressive as you'd get the anger and the rage and all the side effects. So now another thing. Let's take nanograms per deciliter in a human. And currently you're talking about HCG. Well, HCG is a synthetic driver. Yeah. To tell your latex cells to make testosterone.

Okay. Okay. So what now, not everybody wants to rub a cream or this pellet, whatever they take now or whatever. It might be a little bit too androgenic. So everyone has a different genetic response to low or high doses. So I think of people right now. Someone I know was taking 150 milligrams. The guy wanted to run through walls.

Too much for him. So what would be good for him maybe is doing something like HCG. It's a synthetic driver to cause a natural response to your innate excels. You follow me? Yeah. Okay. That's my suggestion for something like that.

I'm curious about this. We've talked about this all the time with a lot of people who come on and talk about hormone stuff. But for example, I found years ago, there'd be nights that I'd go to sleep at 11 or midnight if I had extra work, and then nights I'd go to sleep at like 10, right?

And the nights I'd go to sleep a little bit too late, wake up the next morning, feel like shit. Nowadays, I'm asleep at like 8.39, almost every single night. I wake up feeling amazing, right? And that's a simple thing. All of us, all three of us are so old in terms of like when we go to bed. Dog. Five years ago, if i was hearing myself talk right now i'd be like you're a fucking loser you want to see that 8 30 every single night but

like sleeping at the same time every single night yeah makes a big fucking difference huge right and it's not something that you know it's not a supplement or whatever but it's sometimes not it's a big ask for some people right and the reason i'm mentioning this is because you know some people who are younger they feel like oh, oh, I'm not feeling driven. I'm not feeling motivated. And maybe they do get blood work done and their test isn't where they think it should be, but there's always lifestyle shit that you can do to get where you need to be, right? So how do you do things for yourself? And what do you usually suggest to people as far as lifestyle and maybe even supplementation is concerned before they take

the route. That's the last resort. I try to exhaust every other angle before you go that route. So make no mistake. That's not like, no, but you got to start shooting tests. No, let's go this route, this route, this route. And a lot of coaches and trainers, it will be the first place they start. Because they're fucked up.

That's not what you do. Right. Because they want the guy to have results right away. I want people to go, so I'm going to go, yeah, that's an asshole. So I'm going to go back to the drugs, right? That's an asshole. What people don't understand is that a little goes a long way. Hormones are very strong.

So now I'm going to go back to this. The human body makes, I think, five to seven milligrams a day. Of testosterone. Of testosterone, all right? 200 milligrams before it gets broken down into fucking other enzymatic changes. 200 milligrams dramatic. It causes a dramatic anabolic response in the body

without offsetting your lipid profile or anything. So if you look at it, how many milligrams your actual body actually produces to 200, that's a lot of testosterone in the body so people like these kids they're running they just start shooting like 700 milligrams like do you even know what you're doing so now going back to what you were saying so now you got to look at someone's lifestyle so when i get a client i break everything down then what happens of course is the asshole does oh yeah i smoke weed seven days a week

i'm like oh okay right we didn't? You didn't tell me that, right? Which could blow your estrogen through the fucking ceiling, right? Anyway, I look at, so this was, I noticed like, it's a first-hand experience. Now I used to sleep like five and a half hours. Just life didn't allow it. You know, and still life doesn't allow eight hours. That's fucking impossible.

Now I sleep like a- I just picture you laying in bed with your eyes wide open. And like you pop up before the alarm does you fucking sit up like the undertaker do it i do i wait and the alarm doesn't wake me up i just get up you know i just that's just i'm like anxiety whatever it is but anyway so sleep is such an important facet for recovery for your endocrine system for everything so even like dude if you go out and get fucked up, right? And like, dude, no matter how many egg sandwiches, vitamin drips, whatever you do, sleeping eight hours smokes all that.

You feel dynamic. You feel unbelievable. Just simple thing as sleep. And then what else? Diet, you want to talk about? Now the diet, what are you eating? You'll find out. People like, they really like,

what I do with a client, right? I first start them, I go, what I do with a client, right? I first saw him. I go, let's look at a different phases, right? I go, if you stop drinking, if you drink iced tea or whatever,

it's all really usually about weight loss. Yeah. You know, and you'd be surprised how little people know. I'm like, I'm like, what do you drink? They're like,

Oh, I drink like six iced teas. I'm like, you do what? I'm like, stop drinking your iced tea. That's once. If they do that,

they start to lose weight. Be surprised how effed up people are right it's too late now I f-bombed a million times so I'm sorry and then then I do this right if it doesn't grow don't eat it do Ritz crackers grow I love Ritz crackers

I love Snickers but does that shit grow no if you so now let's go if you just eat stick to a whole grown food diet, you'll change stuff that comes from the earth that God gave us. Then from there, I start messing with shit. Maybe keto. Some people don't respond well to that. Then before you go down to the nitty, because they'll start to lose weight. And then when you exhaust everything, then I start to do like what sucks, like a caloric macro pull down and low carbs and all that other shit, right?

Yeah. But let's take an example. My friend Brett, right? I'll pull his name out. It doesn't matter. He's 400 pounds. He was 400 pounds. He stepped on the rail on my truck, broke my Ram 1500.

I'm like, yo, we got to do something, bro. Right? So he comes to me, right? He's like smoking butts. He's a lot better now right so i'm like i'm like bro what do you eat he's like yo i eat like five specialty slices and a calzone i'm like every night he's like every night i go hold on i go let's do this i go hey you guys ever have calzone before yeah well i've had a california calzone i'll just've had a California calzone. No, that doesn't count. I was going to say not a legit calzone. Okay, yeah, yeah.

There's this place like Calzone Palace or something. It's on DoorDash, but I forgot. It might be good. I've had a California calzone. Fucking so good. So now I go like this, right? Besides calzone and stuffed pizza. I go, give me four regular slices and a grilled chicken Caesar salad. Yo, that shit's delicious, bro.

Now you're eating a third of the calories. You're still eating kind of what you want. You got to give me a little bit, you know, you're still eating what you want and you're cutting your calories down dramatic. Now, if you can't do that,

there's no hope for you. I can't help you. Sorry. And some people, you just can't help, you know, but if you give the will to give me a little bit, I could show you away,

you know, on that weed thing. I got to mention there's two things because like you, if you're someone who smokes, if you smoke close to bed, our eight sleep mattress tracks that shit. Right. So I've done that before. Smoking close to bed to see how this house is going to fuck up my sleep. Heart rate's always a little bit higher. My my HRV is always a little bit lower. It's like my sleep is never as good by smoking before bed.

So don't think that because a lot of people nowadays smoke weed to sleep it's because they like smoking weed it's an excuse they like smoking weed yeah yeah and but it's not it's not good for your sleep and also eating too close to bed right okay i just love it yeah yeah he so hardcore. I love it. Yeah, yeah. He's like, yeah, it's just an excuse. And eating close to bed fucks up sleep too. If you just try eating a little bit away from your bedtime, let's say you sleep at 830 like me, try eating at six, you know, instead of eating right before you go to sleep. Well, they say because your body's working to digest the food. Exactly.

And you're kind of like working. You're not supposed to be working. I mean, I'm guilty of that. I eat like a fucking Thanksgiving dinner before I go to bed. Yeah. Just because I like to eat full. You know, even in shred mode, right? I would always, it's habitual definitely, but I would figure out something that I like, right?

So before bed, even in shred mode, if you're a snacker and you got to eat something watching TV, I would pick something that takes work to eat. So something like peanuts are a bad choice because you can smash down handfuls of them. Pistachios are an excellent choice because you got to eat one motherfucker at a time. Unless they're already cracked open. One pistachio. And then I would do stupid shit like I'd measure my cereal and whatever,

like half a cup and one at a time. But pistachios were a trick for me. Things I know through experience are tricks that you learn over the years that you can't read out of a book. You know? People are like, oh, you're eating all those calories before bed? Yo, man, it works for me. All right? And maybe I won't eat them like then, but I'll eat the same before bed because I want them.

And I'm ripped. So no. What you got brewing over there, Andrew? Dude, I'm loving this conversation. But Mark had sent us a little bit of background on you. And he was like, yeah, he's from the East Coast. I'm like, no way. A guy named Vinny Uzi is from the East Coast.

Didn't see that coming. But I love hearing the old school days about lifting on the East Coast. You had to ride your bike uphill both ways in the snow. That's all good stuff. But from both you and Mark, what's the biggest stark difference in actual training methods from East and West Coast? I'm thinking, is there any difference? Maybe dog crap training is more popular out there, or is it more like powerlifting chains in Westside where we don't have that over here in California sometimes? Anything like that?

So right off the top of my head, what I could tell you is we're popular around me. F45 is pretty big right now. CrossFit kind of dying out. More functional kind of groupie stuff, maybe a little bit. Go to the functional groupie stuff. What do you mean? What's the functional groupie shit? Sounds good.

So curious, Doc. Okay. So functional group fitness, right? It's good for not a gym lover or someone who has drive. And I'm not curious, Doug. Okay, so functional group fitness, right? It's good for not a gym lover or someone who has drive. And I'm not against it. Someone who's driven. I'm being serious. You go to the gym, you show up, you don't have to think someone puts it together.

It's excellent. They put you through a hard workout. That's why there's places like that. Someone like me, I genuinely, and you, we love, I can design my own shit. And for people, they don't love it like that. They know they need to we love i could design my own shit and for people they don't love it like that they know they need to exercise you got to work out i'm not going to gym and figure i'm not even going to take an app and look at it they do it for me i'm there for the shortest amount of time i sweat i'm in shape my blood work's good good enough for me they pay

that's what's popular around me i'm sure it's popular on the west coast too it's not that much different from here to there i mean i was just driving here driving here. It looked like the fucking BQE. I was like, yo, if I went into a time zone, but woke up, I'm like, yo, this doesn't look any different. Wait, I might be dumb, but what's BQE? Brooklyn Queens Expressway. It's a nightmare. Okay.

I knew it was Brooklyn Queens, but I didn't know the rest. Yeah, I'm lost with some of this shit. Am I right or wrong? I'm right. He's right. I don't really know if there's a huge difference East Coast, West Coast in terms of training or if there ever was really

all I know is that I think it's the time, it's the era and I think if I was here or if I was in LA training with Michael Hearn 20 something years ago, it's probably similar in fact, when I did move to California LA training with Michael Hearn 20 something years ago is probably similar. In fact, when I did move to California, I was like 22 or 21. So it was like 20 something years ago.

And the training was similar and the people were similar. There was just like bodybuilding was more popular. And then I was plus I would train at Gold's Gym Venice. So you would see like Flex Wheeler and stuff like that was like completely shocking to me. You know, I was like, what the, you know, I had friends and stuff or my brother's friends. My oldest brother's friends were jacked and stuff, but they weren't fucking Flex Wheeler. You know what I mean? They didn't look like that. So, but yeah, the training was similar.

Like people just even flex. And even when I saw Charles Glass training people, it was old school methods. People were just, the work was the same. People were working very hard. People were overloading heavy weight. I saw, you know, flex and other bodybuilders there, Paul DeLette and a bunch of other people, they would just go as heavy as they could within reason and still had good form and stuff like that. So a lot of it seemed like it was pretty similar. Yeah, training.

I mean, a human being is a human being. I mean, really, here to California is pretty close to the same. Long Island is a hotbed of bodybuilding. There's tons of bodybuilders there. Being jacked in the 90s and even the early 2000s or 80s, it's probably pretty close to California West Coast. Now, I can't say that about Missouri. I could definitely say that about Florida.

Yeah, that's here in New York and California. You're bringing up a good point because in Ohio, it was different. At Westside, it was different. Like at Westside it was different. And even some of the gyms I've been to around the area, it was just different. Like the weather is so different, so vastly different that everything's different. But it reminds me of a story. My brother, he was, I think he was in like Arkansas or something. I don't remember why he was there.

But he went into like a store and he started talking to somebody and they were just like making conversation. Like they weren't trying to be rude. They were just being silly. And they were like, you're not from here. Right. It's like, and the guy said something like, go back to California or something like that. Cause my brother mentioned something about how he lives in California. And the guy's like, ah, he's like, you need to go back there or something. They're joking around. My brother goes, well, I'm not actually from California. I'm from New York.

The guy goes, even worse. Anything on the outside of the country is bad. That's hilarious. That's a bummer. How about for, because I have a good amount of people, and I don't know if you've if you deal with this anymore, but I have people

around me that like they will ask me about questions about whether it's losing weight training and stuff and i might give them a couple cues here and there but they don't do it um because it's like they'll have an excuse for everything so do you have any advice on trying to like and i can't i can't approach them with like tough love either because they're just going to run away even faster than they do right now. So like, is there any way, anything that you can help like coach me up on coaching them on just like accepting that it's going to kind of suck in the beginning, but eventually you're going to break through and things are going to end up being way better than what they are now.'s like a drug addict okay they have to

want to get help to be helped you have to want to exercise to be healthy i can't give you the motivation you can't buy the motivation you have to want to do it no matter what i tell you to do it might help you for a day or a few days you gotta fucking want to do it you can't you can't help them unless they want to help themselves yeah that's it so maybe do you remember greg plitt yeah that guy was rough bro he would yell at his clients and shit like i'm like a cupcake compared to that guy uh you know i'm saying he tear him down but like yo you can't help somebody if they don't want help like yo then you're gonna stay fat and fucked up i'm sorry do you think you should like ask this person do you really want my help like i don't know like Like, so I can name people.

They're like looking, they're looking for the motivation. You can't look, you have to have it and you have to want it. You know, maybe something happens to them that gives them that. But until then, there's nothing I could do to help you until you really want to do it. Yeah. I think there could be suggestions. You know, you could say, hey, like, what did you used to like to do? But if you're trying to convince them that they have to go to the gym and lift and they

don't, they didn't come to you asking you like, hey, like, I really do, I've really been considering lifting, not really sure where to start. How can, you know. Then I could help. Yeah, right. Then you could help. But if it's somebody that's just looking for exercise, I think a recommendation of like, what did you used to do? Like, what did you used to do like what you

used to like to do hopefully they used to ride their bike or something do something with their skateboard or used to walk with their kids or their dog or something you know give them like an insight of maybe some kind of oh yeah i used to like to do that maybe like oh i used to play tennis right whatever maybe they don't look at that like exercise they think you just got to like get on the weights and pull a rower for 5,000, whatever. But yo, anything so like, okay, step back with that, right? What did you used to like to do that got your heart rate up? Think about it, right?

I don't know. Did you used to like go hiking or, you know, play pickleball or whatever, right? Find something, you know, that's what makes someone good. You find something that maybe and you give them like, and then you start to educate them a little bit, like, yo, you got to get your heart rate up. What did you like to get your heart rate up a little bit? And they'd think like, oh, I used to like the whatever. You know, it goes in the graveyard by myself. I don't know.

You know, and then do that. You know, try to, and then just educate them a little. You got to raise your heart rate up three times a week. So do that. You know, maybe that's the best suggestion I can give somebody. Power Project family, I hope you guys are doing well today. I want to give you guys a quick piece of fitness equipment lifting history. The hip circle that you see before you is actually the first hip circle ever. There were no booty bands before the hip circle, which is pretty interesting. That's why you see it in gyms like The Rock.

We've seen Kim K using it on Instagram. It is the OG. But that's also why we have the slingshots, gangster wraps, knee sleeves, elbow sleeves, everything that you're going to need in the gym so that you can protect yourself before you wreck yourself. So, Andrew, you tell the people how to get it. 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.

You mentioned earlier being like 150 pounds. Yeah. How in the world were you 150 pounds with all the pasta around and all the calzones and everything? I don't know, man. God give it genetics. Were you like 10? When was this? No.

My dad was – I really do have – I'm like – I have decent genetics. My father's genetics were off the charts. Like he was just a pure builder. Like he had muscles on muscles from what i was an old man now but like when i was a kid he was like you know he'd eat i think his uh he'd eat olives uh ricotta cheese cereal and peanut butter jelly sandwiches he was dripped 185 pounds and nine ounce of fat on him at abs and i was telling you a story before how i knew he was strong he drove a gasoline truck in the bronx overnight so he used his hands a lot in the cold he was just a gorilla and then uh my genetics suck

compared to him anyway and mine are pretty good any uh any like um any good habits that you saw on the family like is the is is your family fairly healthy or i'm the only one who worked out i took this all on my own you know like i'm just blessed that i have genetics but yeah i just i'm very different from everyone else. I caught this and just ran with it and liked it. And then you had a physical job. I mean, my father was an athlete. So that, yes.

He's not like some guy who just drove a gasoline truck. So he's an athlete. He introduced me to sports. And I'm the one who liked the sports. And from there, though, I took up the weightlifting and the exercise, et cetera. He probably didn't overeat. And maybe, I don't know, maybe you didn't have a lot of sweets and junk in your house. No, I did.

And I mean, I just, you know, not tons, but I just grew up on a normal, regular diet. You know, I ate, you know, pasta and rice and fried chicken collards, which is still my favorite. And steak, you know, hamburgers, you know, you know, just genetically I'm somewhat gifted. Do you have a big family also? Somewhat, kind of. Not overly huge, but average, yeah. Do people in your family, because you're the guy who chose to take up, like, fitness, do people ask? Yeah, yeah.

Okay, so this is actually interesting because a lot of people, even Andrew and a lot of people in the audience, probably they pay attention to fitness so people try to, people in their family come to them for things like that, right? How do you guys try to communicate effectively to family come to them for things like that right how do you guys try to communicate effectively to your family about this because one thing i've noticed is that like when family talks to you about this stuff they know who you've been right so they remember young mark and remember young vinny right and they they don't take your shit seriously this is just what i've noticed right yeah okay how do you communicate to people that are close to you about this shit you know let's just take i'm thinking let's just pick people right my let's take my my my brother

and my father or something and they will they'll they'll listen to my advice or whatever they ask me and i just keep it very basic because i know they're not going to do it i'll be honest with you yeah they're not going to like dive into like, oh, I got to start doing this. They're just going to keep doing the same thing. So I don't really go too far with my family. I have spewed my knowledge a little bit with them, you know, maybe just to show off I'm kind of smart and whatever. I don't have to like cut wires all day, you know, but maybe that a little bit.

But other than that, them applying that, not really, you know. I'm like the black sheep who just did this. What do you think is a way out for America in terms of obesity? What do you think some things – like what can be done? We're talking about there are a lot of people that maybe don't want the help. There's people that are kind of addicted to their food, addicted to their routine and habits. But can you think of like particular things that might be a little bit of a spark? I think people head in the right direction.

I think people are so uneducated on how bad food could be for you. How food can affect everything that you do, even your mental health, forget physically everything. I think people look at waffles as food. That shit is just pressed garbage. That's food. That's a breakfast. That's not breakfast.

That's candy. Throw some ice cream and syrup on that. You got dessert. Or a bagel. Someone the other day goes, yeah, they're that bad? I'm like, what? They didn't know. You can't believe how, I think if people were more educated, they would open up a little

bit more and make somewhat better choices. Some people, like I said, there's no hope. Some people, I think a lot of people would actually, they just don't know. They're not educated. That's a great point because I've asked people before what their favorite food is, and the top three things are never actually food. It's pizza and bagels and ice cream and cereal. Yeah, bro. Yeah.

All things that are kind of like not. Who doesn't like pizza? There's got to be something wrong with you. You don't like pizza. Let me ask this then Vinny, because like within in fitness, you'll see some people who are, you know, they're their coaches, right? And they mentioned like, you know, you don't want to create this relationship, this bad relationship with food where people are like, that's bad. You don't want to demonize certain foods. So you don't want to demonize a waffle or a bagel because that's bad for your mental health when it comes to food. What are

your thoughts on that? So this is with food, right? This is with food. I used to rollercoaster myself. I used to eat five cheeseburgers at lunch and this now got huge and bulky. Then go through that dieting phase. It sucked. You looked at that in the negative. That's got to come. You don't

do that. Make food a lifestyle. Make it a lifestyle. If you want to get a little bigger, you add a little bit something. I don't really sway too much. If I want to harden up a little bit, I know what to cut back. It sucks a little bit, but not that bad. Increase cardio, cut my late night, whatever I eat. Thick Newtons, whatever I eat.

That's really what it is. You got to make a lifestyle change. Over time, I've learned how to make food taste good and be good for you. And it's also like, so this is what I do with people, right? Basic. I touched on this a little bit in one of my last posts, right? If someone, they come to me, they got to lose weight. I said, you can't look at the whole mountain.

You look at the whole mountain, you're like, holy shit, I got to climb this whole mother effa, right? But now, every time you're hungry, right? I don't care if it's now or in five hours make a conscious effort to put something good in your mouth you're hungry again make a conscious effort somewhere before you know you're like shit i got a third way up the mountain that's how you win the battle because like i said this before i'm gonna start dieting monday i'm gonna start monday never comes well it doesn't come you'll keep putting that shift because you think of it in negative you don't think of it in negative you put negativity your head's going to be because you think of it in negative. You don't think of it in negative. You put negativity

in your head, it's going to be negative. You think you're going to lose, you're going to lose. You think you're going to win. That's how it's all up here. They make it out to be something bad. It's not bad. Or make it out to be so difficult. It's not that hard. It's not that hard. It's really

not. They make in the head to be hard because that's maybe what's been ingrained in us. It sucks. Even if you did good for one day and you messed up on one day, shit, that's three days that you did better than probably weeks before, and then you get back on your horse. You do it again. It's hard to be consistent for a long period of time, you know, trying to string together four, five, six,

seven, eight days of kind of a 10 out of 10 on your diet where you literally didn't have anything. Just, just even think about it. Think about it. Every, anyone listening right now, think about it for the last week. Think about everything that you ate or think about, you know, coming up, like pay it to start to pay attention to this and think when is the last time that you ate or think about, you know, coming up, like pay it to start to pay attention to this and think when is the last time that you were able to put together one full week where you think you had kind of a 10 out of 10 day, uh, in terms of like eating the food that you're supposed that you're, that you're, uh, in your own head that you're supposed to eat and not having any of the foods that you're not supposed to eat. It's really, really rare unless you're like getting on stage for something, unless you

have a really particular goal. And I don't even think there's a reason to put yourself into that kind of prison of being that strict unless that's something you really enjoy. So to touch on that about writing down what you eat is what you were saying? Just kind of recording? Yeah, writing it down is not a bad idea, but just think about it. Maybe not so much for maybe the average normal person

who's just looking to wait and get over that and beat that battle of just trying to get skinnier. That's easy. Like I said, make conscious effort every time you eat something

and with some knowledge on what to eat. For someone who's an athlete or a bodybuilder, let's take, right? And it's happened to me. That's how I know. All of a sudden,

I'm like, dude, I feel fucking sick today. It's not from when you did that day. It's the day before. And then I'm like, dude, I feel fucking sick today. It's not from when you did that day. It's the day before. And then I'm like, what did I eat yesterday? You only remember half of it.

Fuck, I should have wrote it down. Because then you could repeat it and do it again. And listen, what's the saying? Like with that, for example, I do most of the things I practice. But in that case, like I know I should have wrote, write it down. I'm so busy. I just don't. You know what I'm saying? Practice what I preach or not what I do i do it as i say whatever it's important yeah it's important though for someone who's someone to just say they are

competitive body but like i know you should record daily what you eat because there's going to come that day when you feel stupendous you have to know what you ate that day before and repeat it that's my opinion and advice. Yeah. And also you mentioned something earlier about certain foods being like habitual. It's interesting because we did have a conversation with this guy, Jay Feldman, and it was a great conversation. We kind of were going back and forth in-house. For some people, eating patterns can be somewhat of a habit, right? So like they're used to eating at this point in time during the day.

They're used to snacking on something. So they're not consciously thinking about it. But you mentioned two things that are super important, being conscious with what you're about to eat and then not having a habit of it. Because if you're conscious and you're – if you're someone who snacks all day long but now you're thinking about what you're snacking on, now as you're snacking on something, you're like, am I really hungry for this right now? Because you're being conscious, as you mentioned, do I need this right now? And maybe you start snacking a little less and you at working with people, you know how many calories people can take in because they snack a lot. So I have, when you were saying, I'm thinking of this one client about like, let's start with just like one day. And I hate when people say, I can't do it. You can you can do it yo the guy comes to me he works out

hard he shows up some ways but he's fat you know and i'm like and he wants to lose weight yeah and i go yo he's like yo i can't i go stop saying you can't you can one you just don't want to give me a little effort then like i said you find out that he blazes every night and just goes ham on like a box of rice kpies or whatever, right? I'm like, yo, and I'm like, don't start something. Well, then you go hormonal and estrogen and all that. But I go, and I'm going to be real. I can say stop smoking weed every day, but that's not going to happen.

I go, yo, give me one day a week. Give me two days a week. Before you know it, you're only smoking weed on Saturday. Keep Saturday forever so you have something to look forward to if that's the person you are. And go ham on whatever you want to eat, egg sandwiches bagels and whatever you know and you'll be okay it's now he's doing it every day make that a habit shift your habit you know egg sandwiches you mentioned it twice and now i can't i must want an egg sandwich dude the they don't have them here like they don't have a hard roll. A hard roll, that's what it is. Yeah, when I first moved here, I asked for a hard roll and they're like, you want a roll that's old? Come on, man.

And I was like, no, like a hard roll. Like a bacon, egg, and cheese or a sausage. A Long Island deli, a two, five bacon, cheese on a roll. Dang it. I get two of them. Sometimes I order so many, I'm embarrassed. I'm like, how many do you want? Want me to get it at five times?

Or if you get like a buttered roll, there's so much butter on it. It's unbelievable. It's like a half stick of butter on there. You know, you think like Long Island delis, we love them so much, you know, that they would do great everywhere. They don't. It's like, I don't know why. I think it would work out here.

It would. It would work in here, like in this gym. Dude dude i hate to derail again but i think we should touch them on the weed thing because one thing you notice that's it's something legal in california right so you see all these young people with like vape pens and shit right yeah but i think like you know and you probably i'm curious about your take on this because you work with a lot of people so you're probably dealing with certain people who smoke a lot and some who don't but you know if you're not someone who's really physically active, when you smoke, some people are good at not—

it makes you hungry. It makes you want to eat everything. Some people don't respond to that, but some people do. And if you're trying to get healthier and you don't have physical habits, but you use weed to help alleviate stress, you don't have to think about shit or something like that, whatever, that's a tough thing to break. That's a tough thing to lower the amount of times you do it with. Right. So how do you have, well, first off, what are your thoughts on weed in

general? And then how do you handle like similar to your client? Like what kind of challenges do you see when you're working with a client who smokes often? Well, they smoke often for medicinal reason is what you're asking me. Medic recreational because a lot of people medicinal but a lot of people recreational most people recreation most people recreation no one really medicinal that i've come across so how i could tell you first time my clients they just smoke weed and go ham on what they want to eat and they're fat so really it's not really for medicinal reason why they're doing it. But if someone is doing it for a medicinal reason, right? So they have to smoke weed for

anxiety, whatever it may be. Anxiety, I guess. One of my friends says he drinks a glass of wine and smokes weed every night because of his anxiety. But alright. We have to drink a bottle of wine? Anyway. This is heavy. Anyway, he knows what I'm talking about. Anyway, so

you have to give him things to eat right so like i'm a master with food i've learned this over the years how to make it taste good and be kind of healthy and like yo not just taste good for me like it tastes good give them that as a solution like i said you got to meet me halfway if you're not willing to meet me halfway i can't help you keep smoking weed kills your anxiety. You want to eat whatever, this and that. But what about if you try this? This is pretty good and you'll lose weight.

That's my advice. Okay. What are some maybe tricks that you have with food? Like that are foods that taste good, that are good for you, that are maybe not super high in calories. All right. So my thing I like a lot of, I like,

I, so this is what it is to get the, so it's about time to with me. All right. So I had a very basic clean diet. You know, maybe it's boring to some people. I enjoy it because I know clean food,

how it makes me feel good. Garbage makes me feel like garbage. And I do use condiments i don't go bananas with them but let's be real like the sweet chili raisins tons of sugar but i like it you know so i'll eat like pork a grilled pork chop uh boiled white rice and i'll have some of that sauce with a vegetable inside clean and healthy but i have some of that sauce all right so for me like foods that make me like taste good like ezekiel toast all right some people you can't eat sandwiches yeah you can you could have ezekiel toast toast or whatever four slices of that ezekiel bread or ezekiel bread yeah it tastes like you ever have it not ezekiel bread yeah but

you gotta toast it if you toast it right i'm just talking about like someone's like you can't sandwiches bad you know because they've been going to the deli for the past what years on their lunch break so i said you gotta work me a little right you gotta have ezekiel toast this is this is one thing i'm just thought of it because i was kind of dig for a second what i did for local three and lunch right couldn't always heat up my food or very rarely i'd be eating like i have a spackle bucket so what i did i made sandwiches so i made an ezekiel toasted Ezekiel bread. I'd have a turkey burger or turkey slices from Trader Joe's Columbus, jalapenos. And then I'd use, let's be, I use a smidge of barbecue sauce and a smidge of mayo. But the ratios, it's mostly protein.

Yeah. A little bit of that like non-flour carb and a little bit of condiment could taste good. It's bang. If you can't eat that, you got no hope. So I was saying this before, right? To keep it simple. People,

carb spike, insulin, insulin makes you fat. And I could get into all that, but now let's look at your dish, your dinner plate. I use it as a pie chart. It's mostly protein,

mostly vegetable, a little bit of carb. If you do that, something simple like that, that will help instead of piling on the rice pound on the potatoes, having a little bit of meat, have a little bit of this big portion of this of this, and a big portion of that. The protein, you understand?

That's a simple way to do what I do with my clients. How many meals do you eat a day yourself? Including shakes? Yeah. Feeding is probably like six. Six? Mm-hmm. And is that something that like do you end up feeling hungry kind of often and you just like, you have everything planned though.

So it's like, so food prepping is a huge key to not eating bad. So when you're hungry and you're starving and you want to eat your hands, you go to deli, you're going to pick out chips. You're going to go for that extra sandwich instead of making a better conscious effort. It's rare that someone, when you're ravenous, you're like, I'm going to eat the grilled chicken with lettuce. No, you're going to get, you know,, I'm going to eat the grilled chicken with lettuce. No, you're going to get, you know, a,

you know, a psycho chicken with extra mayo. Right. I love mayonnaise. Psycho chicken with extra mayo. Your decision making is going to be altered. Yeah. Yeah.

Bad. Very dramatic. Ooh, look at that. Yeah. I believe that's on a hard rod. Never experienced one. So there it is.

Ripping. If you're not watching right now you need it you need to watch or don't because then it's gonna fuck up your diet yeah yeah you got to be well prepared and uh so it sounds like you um you want people to have their nutrition be nutritious and to stay on top of it so they don't get too so tricks let me go back to it because now I remember shit as we talk. So one of the biggest tools a person could have is a crock pot. Put pounds of meat in.

Now just follow a little bit. Dump this and this, this, this. Put it in fixed mouths. Go to work. Come home. You got like four days of meat made. Done. Tastes delicious.

It's soft. It's easy. Chicken, steak, whatever. That and then what I'll do, right? Just say dinner, right? Pork chops. I'll go to the store. I'll buy pork chops for three days.

Now I'll grill them all at one time. Now I have food for the next day. People don't think of that. I've been doing that my whole life, but it's something as simple as that people don't know to do. It sounds like you choose maybe like a little bit leaner sources of protein.

I always do. I always do. Yeah, I try not to. Being a little bit older and make a little bit leaner sources i always do yeah i always do yeah i don't i try not to being a little bit older and you know make a little bit healthier choices i used to eat pounds of chopped meat a day you know and it's not good for your arteries over time in conjunction with anabolic steroids etc so now being a little bit i am definitely a little more cardiac conscious health-wise on my food choices on my saturated saturated fats, definitely. I think it's smart for people to, because I think fats and carbohydrates, I think they both, they both have a way of kind of being a little sneaky and getting into your diet, maybe a little bit more than you might think. And they add, yeah, they add up quick, you know,

a little bit of cheese here and there. If you have 80, 20 ground beef or something like that, I mean, that's going to kind of launch your fat calories through the roof. And if you're somebody that doesn't really eat a lot of carbohydrates, maybe you can afford to have a little bit more fat calories. But if you're someone that's kind of riding in the middle, having some fats and some carbohydrates as your main energy sources, then it makes sense to pull down the fat calories a bit. Yeah. Not to be scared of them, but to pull them down.

So like this, right? With dieting and food. So someone who, this is what I say, right? You always, you got to find what works for you, right? So, and everything works and everything doesn't work. I believe. I've tried everything. Carb cycling, no carb keto, and it all works.

And then your body, it stops working, right? So you have to understand how the human body stops being as effective as effective yeah why do you think that is because your body's built to get accustomed to everything adaptation so now i think about muscle tissue right it's not efficient it's not fuel efficient it's like a race car that's why your body's trying to bring that you have to keep your calories up your protein up otherwise it will shrink down well and we know this from the metabolism which is kind of a you know mythical thing almost but it moves a lot like your target your amount of calories per day if you bring down the amount of calories that you eat over a long period of time

uh your calories will kind of dwindle down your neat your non-exercise movement and all that stuff will change so that's forever kind of, it's a moving target. And so it's important to make small changes in your diet. So off diet, how I'm going to touch on how your body becomes accustomed to things. I'm going to talk about blood pressure. So me growing up when I was getting big, when I was 185, I went to 210, my blood pressure was through the ceiling, right? Ceiling, brother.

It was dangerous. Then I went to 220 and I blood pressure was due to the ceiling. Right? Ceiling, probably. It was dangerous. Then I went to 220, and I think about 230, 230 plus. When I went back down to 205, it normalized. You understand? It gets accustomed to its function. So whichever way you act, your body's trying to always fight back the baseline. That's why diets don't work.

And also with a cheat day, all right? It's not only to satiate your brain, but it's also, there's a scientific reason how you have to offset your body to go back. Cause even if you eat egg whites, oatmeal, chicken, your body's going to baseline today and get normal in your metabolism. And it's going to slow up the fat loss. You offset it with like a whole pie of pizza, not go crazy bananas for three days,

but you offset it. And then you go back. That's what, there's also a scientific reason why you have a cheat meal, not just for your mind. It does help you dive back in harder too yes 100 you know and then recently someone just said about you know you read all this shit like duane johnson the show was diet and then he goes crazy on like french toast and all this other stuff they don't think that you should restrict so much where you got to have a reward day depends what your goals are you know

he's he's he's pretty much a brand not just a human being you know so maybe he you got to have a reward day. Depends what your goals are. You know, he's pretty much a brand, not just a human being. You know, so maybe he does have to have the look that he obtains for the masses and then has to have that cheat meal. Yeah. And he's been doing that for decades. And I think a lot of people would like to look like him. So it's like, it seems like whatever the fuck he's doing, working great. Definitely works.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, sure. Yeah. And I mean, that's why a lot of bodybuilding coaches, whatever, talk about diet breaks. You know, you're a pretty competitor through this low-calorie diet. They're eating a lot of the same things. And then you give them a week of bringing their calories up for a little bit. And then that helps them break a plateau.

So when people hear cheat days, because some people are like, you shouldn't eat cheat days, a cheat day could function like that. What, pet peeve, right? Refeed? That's like a new saying now. Like, refeed? Yeah. What are you talking right? Refeed? That's like a new saying now. Like, refeed? Yeah. What are you talking about?

Refeed, bro? You ate more food today to pump up because you're low carb for like a week? Pet peeve. What's another saying? Refeed. Oh, that's another one. What is it? Pump cover.

Oh, the pump cover. Pump cover. Pump cover, refeed. What's another one? I was telling Mike the other day. I was like, what? The pump cover is a new thing. The pump cover, refeed. What's another one? I was telling Mike the other day. I was like, what? The pump cover is a new thing. The pump cover is real new.

A refeed is really kind of funny because like people that really do bodybuilding and people that really get themselves – people that really get themselves like I guess behind in their calories and they're on like a really low-calorie thing and they're just killing it. And then they, bam, they have their cheat day, their cheat meal, and they really are kind of refilling their glycogen stores and stuff. But for most of the rest of us, we're just being fat. So that I want to touch on a little bit, the refeed, carb cycling, why it works, and how I discovered this, me doing it on accident.

So I did a show when I was a kid, right? I was mentally traumatized. I should have did it like 170. I listened to guys and starved myself down to 150. Damn. How old were you? 20. I did the Atlantic Stays, the Bev Francis Open.

I almost won the show. I should have did 175. My brother, you got to make 155. Dude, I was delusional, bro. I sucked my calories so low, my calories. I couldn't even go to the food store. I couldn't walk by the cookie aisle because I was going to lose my mind. That's when it shouldn't be like that.

All right. So then what happened after I started eating, I blew up to 185, right? Hard. Went up to 210, kind of hard, right? I was never under 200 pounds after that. I was always 187 before that. I was never under 200 pounds, right? So then I looked in. What happens is, then you read,

that your muscle cell, when you starve, I call it the dry sponge effect, right? When you starve your muscle cell of glycogen for X amount of time, when you throw the carb, it's like, it soaks up more than was previous there because it doesn't want to go through starvation again. You cause permanent cell varnization. Remember Dan Duchene's

body opus? He talks about that. So that's what carb cycling does. And you got to find that right medium with somebody. Everybody has a different way they do it. What works for you in days. You know, Phil Barone. You remember Phil Barone? He was a UFC fighter. He was from Long Island. This guy was completely maniac. But we used to hang

out when we were younger, right? I don't know if I should tell everyone that. But anyway. So he would do this thing. We used to together he was you know he had the craziest physique dude and he would go no carbs all week i go to his apartment and he'd be in a coma on the floor the hostess wrap is everywhere i'm like yo what are you doing he's like he would do it for two days he knew what worked for him the point of what i'm making he knew it worked very genetically gifted and a little crazy but he knew what worked for him. So like refeeding, carb cycling, that's another scientific reason why it works.

You deplete, suck out, you refill. And when you refill like that, I'm not against something that's insulin spiking like a white, like a high glycemic carb, like pasta, plain. That's when you really pump up. And people like that, that's when you have to write down and be like, I ate X amount, I sucked out, and then you got that result. That's why it's also important to write down what you do. Let me ask this.

As you've gotten older, because you've done a lot of different diets through the years, right? What are some things you've noticed with like how you respond to certain foods or how you respond physically when you eat a certain way? Because with what you described, it seems like you're eating pretty low fat, moderate carbohydrate, high protein, unless I'm wrong. So how have you noticed that you've changed things as you've gotten older? How I've changed things? Yeah. Diet wise. And even after that workout wise. Okay. So diet wise, how I've changed things, I pretty much eat consistently the same. My goal is not to be big anymore because of athletic reasons or whatever. I like the size I am.

I'd like to be a little more pumped, a little harder, but who doesn't want to be, you know? You're always just unhappy with yourself. Yeah, perpetually. But yeah, so really with me, right? I keep everything consistently the same. I'm a creature of habit.

I'm like just, I'm very regimented. This is the food. This is it, right? I put all my effort in my clients now what were we saying about what else do I do different with food or yeah yeah

this is another thing okay fish that's when I get so the most shredded so my thing after that traumatizing experience with the

Atlantic States my new show was I go to Las Vegas and run around a pool party shredded that was the most I was like why would I stand on stage

have someone judge me when this is awesome I was like yes so my goal was to be the most and run around a pool party. Shredded. That was the most, I was like, why would I stand on stage? Have someone judge me when this is awesome, man. I was like, yes. So my goal was to be the most shredded guy at the pool party. And most of the time I was. But I knew the most shredded times I would get there, fish would be my last meal. I knew through childhood. Everyone's like steak or whatever. Steak kept me a little softer.

Like low fat fish? Like tilapia or something? That was gross what I used to do. You don't even know. So like, you know, I tilapia or something that was gross what i used to do you don't even know so like you know i had an apartment all that shit i would microwave two bags of this frozen tilapia and minute made right i would do that three times a day with whey protein shakes but i was peeled to the bone kept that foul oh yeah like none yeah actually the only fat i'm lying i did have on the way home on the train i'd have uh two scoops of whey protein and a bag of peanuts i just knew it worked for me i liked them and then i looked and holy shit that's 46 grams of fat

gave me energy yo the end result no matter what you got to find what works for you the end result was i was peeled that's all that mattered how'd you let me ask this with with having your fat that low i know it was a while ago but do you remember how you felt like i felt great but you like i felt good like i mean listen now now knowing like i didn't feel okay when i was big and squishy in my 20s and i was benching and squatting like i'm eating cheeseburgers and ritz crackers yeah i felt like i could i could look at a weight and go like i could definitely pick it up when i start to shred down maybe that's why i was more susceptible to injury because I was drier. And I got neurotic about being shredded because I looked doughy for so long.

I wanted to be peeled all the time. And maybe I stayed shredded for too long now thinking about it. And that's why I fucked up my muscles, torn lat, torn pecs and whatever else in the tweaks that you bring that to light. Maybe that's why. Yeah, you mentioned to me you tore your lat doing a deadlift. Yeah, I tore my lat doing a deadlift. Yeah. I tore my lat doing a deadlift and, uh, you know,

something I was doing at the time. And, you know, it was my, my form was just, you know, I've done it a million times. I flattened out something.

I flattened out that one time and my lat pop did not expect it. It wasn't even heavy. And then two weeks later I was like, I'm going to squat. And I wasn't even squatting heavy. I was doing three 15 and I was banging them over some bang. My quad blew out from there. I was so even squatting heavy. I was doing 315 and I was banging them. All of a sudden, bang, my quad blew out. From there, I was so mentally traumatized

that I was afraid to even put weight because I tore a bed. I just was afraid to put weight on my back like that again or a deadlift like that again. And that's a nice quad too. Do you need heavy-ish weights on you nowadays to keep some size? I do.

So how I learned that, so michael hearn is really smart yo but serious like instead like touch the heavy weight but if you could do weight do it for two so your central nervous system your fiber is great but a little bit but you don't go too far where you can fuck yourself up yeah you know anytime his name's mentioned we just know the comments gonna go crazy uh do you handle heavy weights now that you're older like does it bother the joints does it hurt yeah so I said this on one of my last posts so I uh I'll do something certain things like like I could lift heavy like my back I could still lift heavy almost normal can't do the weight I used to do but I'm pretty fresh

um shoulders are good, you know, but like my pec insurgents, I was, I must just genetically just not be good through my insurgents just very weak, very crumbly, crunchy,

just, so for me to press heavy, I do my machines heavier first. They're locked in, no stabilizer muscle involved, you could just drive. Then I'll move on

to like dumbbells and like, I mean really, now if I do a 60, 65, 70, it's not doing a 120. Sometimes like your ego gets involved between like dumbbells and like, I mean, really now if I do a 60, 65, 70, it's not doing the 120. Sometimes like your ego gets involved between 65 to 70 and like the risk to reward.

I'm like, it feels a little too heavy. I'm like, it's not worth it. So I'll just keep like my free weights in like the 20s, 15 to 20 reps and do my machines heavier. You know, people don't know like what a great results you can get from utilizing machines. You know, we had Chris Aceto on the show years ago or maybe two years ago or so. And we've also been – I've been friends with Charles Glass for a long time. And I've seen different people train different ways but end up getting a very similar result. So I think sometimes everyone thinks they have to hop on the regular bench press with a barbell. It's like you don't have to – like that's a good exercise. It's a great exercise, but you don't have to do that exercise.

So somebody that has a hurt shoulder or just really struggles with a bench press, I would advise that you still do it here and there because it's good to examine your weaknesses, but maybe you do it towards the end of the workout. Like what you said about using the machines first and overloading on the machine. You're going to see guys and people that are really strong and in great shape who've used primarily machines. And you're going to see guys that have built their bodies off of primarily using barbells.

You can use either one. You don't have to pick one over the other. So it's like there's some people that just meant the press and they'll just never get hurt. It's about how you feel, how your body's built. Not everybody's an F-150 off the production line. Everybody's just built differently. Like I said, I was just never a good presser.

I was a very good squatter. You got to find what works for you. So for me and my body type, pressing, and this is my other advice, if it feels funny, don't ignore it. Especially like a muscle field doesn't feel, because I know guys. It's not going to feel better with more weight. It's not going to feel better if you ignore it especially like it must have feel doesn't feel as i know guys it's not gonna feel better with more weight it's not gonna feel better if you ignore it so just say i do want to train that day and it does feel funny i'll back the weight off and just focus on a different parameter i'll just get a good pump that day and you know there was days i remember now thinking about it i picked up 50s to warm up right my working is like my warm is almost the same and i picked up

the 50s i did it for 20 yeah i go let me get 25 the next set let me get 30 and the thing also what i noticed as i got old my body doesn't start to get really rolling like the nervous system until like later you know it takes a while for it start to go so i remember i did the whole work and i just changed angles with dumbbells like oh yo i had a retardedly ridiculous workout with just the 50s why not just stick with that yeah you know and then your ego gets in the way and whatever and then you work out with him and he's doing 90s for like 40 and you know then you know old man vin gets hurt again because i want to keep up the young cats back up to what you said though if it feels funny don't ignore it so you're saying like something feels weird in your chest don't just not work your chest that day at least try to get blood flow to that area right

in a certain sense yes if you you know you got to listen to your body yeah listen to your body if your body's telling you no then no but like me i was smart if you know like okay i could okay just just the other day recently i must have pressed too earlier and it was nine of days in between and i went to press again my god this i feel like i could get hurt i tried to do another set with the same way i go i feel like i got hurt so i went over to just cable flies like you know this feels good i go let me do another set let me do another set i went out doing six sets of cable flies i haven't done that in years and i got destroyed through my chest because it was a different angle yeah something different i didn't have to press i hit my fives on a different plane yeah that's super important though because it's

like you know andrew myself and mark too whenever we have something that feels kind though because it's like you know Andrew, myself and Mark too whenever we have something that feels kind of weird it's like it's not that we ignore that area we just do our best to just drive as much blood to that area as possible in the safest way and that'll help it feel better much faster so that's that's huge what you just mentioned right here

it's an easy habit for anybody that also though that takes time and experience so I got these young kids that come over right they roll out of bed they don't even warm up one plate one and a quarter two plates i go yo i forgot what it feels like i'm like i forgot that i'm like yo where's you know he's like well i'm good three i'm not even kidding bro and this other kid they come over and kids kids and i look at him i'm like yo and he looked at me like I said something crooked. Like, yo, you got to hurry.

He's like, what do you mean? Until you blow something apart and it scares the fuck out of you, then you'll know. I said, one day you'll know. Hopefully not. But one day you'll know what I'm talking about. You know? You know, and some days I think you just have to recognize it's just like not in the cards. You know, and it's hard to figure that out sometimes because you did get

yourself to the gym or you did get yourself into this uh space where you're going to exercise you're going to run you're going to do something but along the way you fucking stubbed your toe you went to shake up your shaker cup and for some reason your fucking lid wasn't on all the way and explodes all over your car i mean there's some times where you're just like wow the odds are really stacked against me today i am just not meant to like go and work out for you i don't know what's going on but the universe is against me for today so it happens that way sometimes and maybe you just call a little audible try something maybe slightly different i love training you know and i'm stubborn sometimes and i stop doing this you're not going to let it beat you i'm not going to let it beat you.

I'm not going to let it beat me. I could press today. I'm just going to find a different way to press. Fuck that. And then it's just dumb because you get hurt. But like Tank, George, he's big and strong. And so he goes, yo, I just go home. It's not that easy for me.

It's just not. I just enjoy it and I kind of want to win, you know, and ignore that things are changing on my body because I'm like a dinosaur now after this game. But he was smart. That's why I end up in hurt. I just go home. I'm like, yeah, I just not do that. But that's actually the small way to do it, you know? Being a dinosaur in this game is an advantage because you all have a lot of insight that I guess I wouldn't have or Andrew wouldn't have.

So you've been lifting 15 years longer than myself, right? What have you guys maybe seen that's been you know within the past 10 years uh that has maybe been an adjustment to your training because sometimes functional okay i'm curious about that because functional a lot of people are like you know old schools that like they've been doing it it's tried and true there's nothing you need to change but yeah i enjoy functional training so like someone the other day goes and i do it sometimes i don't do a ton of them but every now and then throw it in so my cardio so i like i don't just lift weights the older guy like i said i was an athlete for it i still train i still kickbox and what that's my cardio like you run i kickbox i hit the bag one

extra day so i do three hit days and I lift three. That's my schedule. So what was I saying about – what was I just saying? Functional. Oh, functional. Okay. So someone says to me, you know, they show a lot of like guys doing like wheelbarrow carries or like one-arm stuff. And I'm like, yeah, I don't really do that anymore because, one, I did it for 18 years against my will. I don't really want to do that.

I don't have to. That ship sailed. You're like, why are you moving around a wheelbarrow? Someone goes do you you know mike walks up and down holding 125 i'm like nah bro i walked across the deck like that holding a green leaf and i don't have to do that shit no more you know but yeah but every now and then i'll throw him in because i do enjoy him um and i'll lift you know but the functional game the functional training is what changed what i've seen which has a huge aspect on overall health and getting stronger in weak areas, your cardio mixed with strength. So like, okay, Mike Dolce actually said this

about strength, right? And it's really simple, dude. Like you should train in all rep ranges and go to almost failing all prep ranges. That's how you create total well-rounded strength. 20s, 12, 15 down, four. Then there's no holes in your rep game because I have some of my guys,

they just want to do fours. And I made him do 20 on a box wide. He fell apart. What's so funny? I'm being serious. No, it's great. I mean, you see that all the time. Once you get to that higher rep range, you start to fucking shit your pants.

What happened, though, like I'm very good with the reps now. I made myself that way. I can't do the triples anymore just out of fear. So what I'll do, I'll do, I think it was a while ago, I low boxed, I think two,

for me, it was good. I did 245 for like 26. You know, I could do 185 for 30. But that same guy who can't do that will do 455 off the box.

I'd be horrified. I can't do that. Yeah. You know? Why do you like a box squat? It's a lot easier on my knees. Now, you find things that work,

but it's still a squat, right? Still a squat. The transfer for me is my, my patella tendons, the transfer for down to up. And when I squat, I don't,

I see these guys squat. I'm gonna go, yo, what are you doing, bro? I go, bro, you got it.

I used to sit on my ankles. I sit so low. One time on a hammock, on a Cybex Smith machine, 405, my foot would duck out. I sat so low, my ankle separated from my foot, and I dropped away. Yeah, that's how low I used to sit with all my squats. That's a real squat. So anyway, what it is is the patella.

That's a real squat. So the patella tendon, the transfer of the weight from up and down. So I found the box. It took away the pressure. So a lot of guys actually they say you lose inertia and momentum by sitting and slump but like it works for me and i'm really strong with that or pin squats i like to yeah you know and it's a great way to take away a level of fatigue that squatting all the way down would get you like you can still

work a decent load you can still do a lot of reps you can still get the benefit of squat and you're not fucking beat down the next day to do other shit i could definitely say though like for me a back squat putting weight on my back and moving weight off my back my legs grew the most doing that over hack squats over lunges and they work they're good but nothing made my legs grow like putting heavy weight on my back and just moving in full range of motion i think finding exercises i think you know um to kind of go back on some of what you were saying, like having experience and just're doing a lunge, like, just tell me because this exercise is not so specific that we have to have this one particular movement in here. If you'd go to do a lunge and it hurts, maybe we can do a lunge where you lunge backwards and maybe you'll find relief in your knee. If you go to do a squat, maybe we can do

a box squat. If you go to do a certain movement and it hurts, maybe we can shorten the range of motion. Like we can always find a way. And so for today, for my training, I did some box squats. I did some with chains. I did some deadlifts with some bands. The bands and the chains, the weights are lighter at the bottom. So it feels more comfortable for me. I've become accustomed to them. So for me, it's an advantage to do those movements because I'm more comfortable with those

because I've used them before. Now, it also makes sense for me to sometimes get out of my comfort zone, right? And do something I haven't done in a while. So I will express some full range of motion squats, but I'll probably do it in some other way than just putting weight on my back. So I think just trying to strategically find exercises that you like and enjoy. If you go down to do dumbbell tricep extensions and your elbow goes on fire, there's no reason for you to do the prescribed five sets of 12 that you're supposed to do for the day.

Find something else so that because that elbow is going to flare up for that workout it's going to hurt the next time you work out and the most likely just going to keep getting worse and worse and you can prevent it just by switching exercises yeah that's why there's such a variety of exercises and different handle apparatuses to hit different angles so it's really like it's simple it's like if it hurts bro don't do it so physical therapists i go to right excellent very known game teams a ton of fighters mike camp and john amato they keep it simple like a lot like and they're great there

they don't milk you you go there two sessions you're feeling good and they're like i'm like mike could i do something he's like yo does it hurt said no he goes then do it if it starts to annoy you a little bit don't do it it's that simple it really is why am i going to force something against something my body telling me no don't do it there's so many different angles and planes you could take to get to the end result you want do you ever mess with like myofascial release type stuff or you get massages or anything like that i do when i have the time i like a deep tissue massage um i feel great the soul like this right so a kickboxing and stretching the only time I could feel really loose through my hips when I was going to my massage therapist once a week consistently and then he would stretch me for a half hour after. Absolutely felt great and I was less prone to injury with the stretching.

So why also another reason why I think I was pretty banged up and very susceptible to injury is lack of stretching and not being nearly as mobile through my hip girdle and through my body, which caused my muscles to tear. So do you do any of that now? Do you like stretch often now? Can you find me the time to do it? I mean, really, you can find the time to do anything, right? So there's choice. Choice. So I train somebody instead of that time.

That's usually what I'll do. So my time is very limited. So I squeeze my workouts in. I choose the things I enjoy to do at that time. That's usually what I'll do. So my time is very limited. So I squeeze my workouts in. I choose the things I enjoy to do at the time. Really, a smart person would be like, I should stretch today and not go bananas on lunges or whatever. But I don't do that because I'm dumb and whatever. I'm going to show you some myofascial release stuff today

that can be fairly quick and easy. I think it will change. Yeah, I was actually going to ask you to help me a little bit so i think it'd be a game changer for you because like i i've been doing it and i don't i don't really stretch um i still just haven't made the commitment to it i should make the commitment to it david literally said 30 seconds yeah 30 seconds the one thing i understand about stretching is it's not how long you do for one time it's how yeah small mini breaks consistently throughout the day. That's exactly it.

Bang, bang, bang, bang. That's exactly what this guy was talking about. But I mean, I do stuff that is helping my mobility. I just am not like specifically taking designated time to stretch, which I think for me, I personally could probably use because sometimes in the beginning, you need to be like a dedicated effort. So I probably could literally use like 20 minutes a day to do some of that stuff.

But the myofascial release stuff has been really important for me. And in my opinion, it works similar to stretching, not the same. But for me, sometimes when I would go to stretch, I may not even feel a certain type of stretch that someone might mention. They'll say, oh, you feel it here. And I didn't because I didn't have access to that because my muscles were just kind of bound up. They felt like they were knotted up. And once you get that knot out of there, then you can start to move a little bit better. And that's what I'm experiencing now. Stretching also, it's effort. Yeah.

It's effort to stretch. It's not like nothing. So I do see like they have these places by me called like stretch zone, stretch lab. The half hour you go and they pull you apart. I never went. I heard it's fantastic just because I don't have the time. They have them here in Sacramento too,

I think. Okay. Or they, or like techno gym makes this stretching machine. My friend at lifetime showed me he was on this thing. So it is the techno gym. No, the gym,

like the brand, you ever see techno gym? I haven't. Yeah. Techno gym. When you go to like, do like say like a bench press or something, the whole machine moves. No, no, that's, that, like the brand. You ever see Techno Gym? I haven't. You've seen it. Yeah, Techno Gym, when you go to like, do you like say like a bench press or something, the whole machine moves kind of?

No, no, that's- A different brand? Okay. That's some other brand. But anyway, Techno Gym is a- They make actually pretty good presses and stuff. Anyway, they make this stretching apparatus. Interesting.

And the point is, if like you had something like available to you, I would just sit in it and just- Yeah. You don't have to really do it that much, you know? Something like that? Yeah, that's actually what he had. So this is what it is. you i was just sitting and just yeah you don't have to really do it that much you know something like that or yeah that's actually what he had so this is what it is like so what i found was easy for me right because i'm pretty tight through my hamstrings and hips yeah i use like a rogue like a band like a 30 pound band and i'll lay on my back and i'll pull my leg at that angle yeah we

very little very little effort i pull my hand yeah but now you're not makes it a lot easier, actually. I discovered that on my own. That's legit right there. You could lean back on that and get your. They have, I've seen like lunge machines that are a little bit like that before, too. Lunge machines? Yeah, like a lunge, like where you could like slide, like your foot's on like a slider.

Oh. Yeah, you could slide your foot forward. Then it has like weights that you could grab at the side. It looks a lot like that. You know what actually I started really doing, me and Mike actually started doing, was lunging forward, knees over toes, with your foot elevated up on a block. Oh, yeah, that feels good. I couldn't believe the difference on my knee, how much better the leg workout stimulation was.

Yeah. I kind of used to avoid lunges a little bit. I would do them, but do them lighter. And I always felt like my knee didn't feel too good. I did them to zero knee pain. So the goal of doing that elevated what you work yourself down to base on fully see like my knees probably just went through so much damage for the years. I'm trying to reverse it back.

Oh, that's interesting. I mean, we're taught when you squat that your feet are supposed to be flat. And then we're taught when you squat that you're supposed to break parallel. We're taught all these things. But for people that have knee pain, you actually would be surprised. For a lot of people that have knee pain,

if you actually just flex your calves and you get your heels off the ground slightly, not only will your mobility improve as you go down in your squat, but you might notice that your knee pain may go away. Not for everybody, but I've noticed that to be the case. And it's like, well, why do we have this? Why do your feet need to be totally flat when you squat?

I mean, who's to say? All of it's made up. You know, these are all made up. It's artificial exercise because we don't move as much. We don't do the manual labor and we need to try to think of ways to do it. I'm sure that didn't help my body too much though either. Well, it may have helped in some ways to build some sort of strength. I definitely have odd strength from it.

Have guys that you fought been like, bro, what the fuck? Well, what is my grip strength is silly. And I'm not really that strong anymore like I was, but I have weird strength. You think that's from construction though? Because I've rolled with construction workers, dog. Yeah, that's what he's saying. And they're my grip, dude. So I don't know if I could really do it now, but I could take a bump of 45 and flip it and almost – I was able to catch it.

I don't know if I could do it now. But my friend Gregor, who's the wrestler, just the alpha mentality. Everything I do, he's got to do it better. He's like, I could do that. And he's a strong guy and he really couldn't do it. Wrestlers have an odd grip. But I definitely have a silly grip because what I used to do at work a lot was feeding in those cables. You'd have to hold the cables manually to get around the bedroom, the floor, in the cold for hours.

And I would shift it. So it was almost like choking somebody, shifting the stress in a different way. But I was trained against my will. You know what I mean? Just holding it. And I remember my forearms being on fire. I was trained against my will. You know what I mean? Just holding, holding. And I remember my forearms being on fire. I was going to ask, did you ever train your forearms? No, bro. Because your shit's just fucking...

Dude, I don't... I wish my upper arms were like that. I look like this silly, deformed Popeye. But look at me. I don't really train forearms. I don't. People are like, my grip is silly. I can hold 405 and 315,

but like everything else fell apart on me. You know? Andrew, got anything else? Yeah how about like how has your Instagram or your social media been received like are you getting like majority positive comments or you still have to deal with like trolls and shit like that? So this is what happened right off the bat right

it went off so fast I started reading all comments and I was like taking that shit to heart it was like well in the beginning so much of it's so positive and then it just doesn't yo and then like i'm like one i'm like yo you didn't read the whole thing two where's your face on there to show your face like a man and show who you are coward right and then three so my guy was like yo stop stop looking at it bro you're gonna drive yourself crazy post it and ghost it post and ghost it only until he tells me you'll go look at something to respond negative positive and i just answer it whatever

but like the stupid comments i just it used to get to me and i'm like whatever you just don't read them anymore huh no i try not to i heard david goggins take on this uh more recently he's on joe rogan again and he said uh the haters are never gonna do it the way that you do it so fuck him and i thought that that was a really good response. Like the person that is commenting on you, the person that's making the negative thing about how maybe you're teaching the wrong form on a bench press or whatever the fuck it is, their conjecture is towards you.

They don't know any better than you. They certainly don't know any better. As I watched, I just recently said, it goes, anybody who hating you is somebody who's not doing anything themselves. Yeah. They're there. Anybody who's hating is somebody who's not doing anything themselves. Yeah. They're there.

Anybody who's hating on you is someone not doing it themselves. So why I also, so why I did this also, and I'm not going to lie, I was a little bit shy and what people think I stopped giving a fuck what people thought and it worked out, but I stopped caring. I really didn't.

Who cares? Cause you're not doing anything yourself. That's why. Right. You know, I will say like, I, man,

you're, y'all are great because y'all don't read comments i read comments that it's not it's not good to read comments but i do but i do find that like you know sometimes there is sometimes there's some beneficial criticism in there even though uh a lot of it is just pretty bad a lot of it's like somewhat mean right sometimes there's some good shit in there right sometimes some people have some shit to say uh but the percentage is very very overall very low overall you still probably shouldn't read that shit because uh yeah that shit people people on the internet they can they can really dig in yeah yeah so i also think like you know you're you're

in this category because you're either your instagram is, uh, you have a lot, you have a lot of posts, you know? Um, and we just create so much content here. It's like, I say so much stuff that anything could be taken out of context at any time to make me look whatever way somebody wants to make me look. So that's, that's just the way it is. And I, so I'm not going to try to get into a battle with somebody over that. I got you. I understand. You communicate so much. You say so many different things. And so are you always going to say the exact right thing? No, and I'm a horrible critic of myself because I know what's going to happen. I'm going to leave and be like, oh, man, I should have said that.

It's never perfect. So this is the thing. It's just me. Everything's got to be perfect. But nothing in reality never perfect. So this is the thing. I'm just – it's just me. Everything has got to be perfect. But nothing in reality is perfect. Nothing is ever a perfect situation or anything. This is another thing. So like also like reading that stuff though and trying to answer in a correct manner and just reading that, it gets to my brain.

So I just don't do it. Yeah. How do you create content? Is it a lot of it created now just from the comments almost? Like people asking questions? Okay. created now just from the comments almost like people also what we know okay so i told him i go this guy so listen man i have something to tell everyone because i saw what happened at that party i said i just don't know how to project it so we tried something he came up with these topics to

talk about which had nothing to do with any of the posts and it was just my mouth going and he chopped it up and edited it and then he's like yo that worked let's do it again and then i got deeper and then all of a sudden i started getting 10 000 a day and then we just stuck with that that protocol that's all we do we sit down so now i come up with you know i'll be doing i write down something i write down something i have a list of stuff to talk about pep buys or whatever and then i just go on a ramble we have a conversation sometimes you start talking about jujitsu or buy and then i'll pull to it. It's a conversation. That's all it is. Yeah. You ever thought of doing a podcast?

I don't know. He said I should. You should. Yeah. Absolutely. One thing that's interesting about you, and I'm curious if this has just happened through the years for you and you've just been good at it, your ability to just tell engaging stories.

Because when you talk about certain things, you're just pulled into it. You know what I mean? So is that something that you've worked on? No. It's just natural. It's just natural storytelling. is that something that you've worked on or just natural storytelling? Natural. I used to tell all my, just natural. I like to get full detail.

Cause I still want someone to do that to me. Yeah. I like to be there. You know, I would sit on a spackle book at work and I'd call him. I'd tell these stories and these guys would get pulled in cause they have nothing else going on in their lives. I mean,

they're entertaining. I miss work. They were disappointed. I get transferred off a job. Like shit, you're going in. I got no more stories. I didn't just create it for that, but, but i like to engross people in my stories i tell the

truth from my heart yeah that's the truth there we go do you ever see yourself uh potentially with like how big uh your social media is growing like ever like not working with in-person clients just because you have like a lot of interest online i'll always train mike mike's my boy i always train him a couple people but really like i really ideally would love to be able to focus more on myself and what it is is a lot of people are like i need time for my i do spend time my kids so i sacrifice it's time what are you going to sacrifice i'm going to sacrifice training for stretching i sacrifice the clients and i'm my son how am i going to monetize my time and my brain? And here we are. Hopefully it goes in the right direction. Absolutely.

What's one of your favorite stories that you've shared so far? Do you have kind of a – I don't know, man. I like telling all my stories. I mean, I got more too, you know. So I don't know. I like all my stories. Do you have any that stick out?

Probably I like to tell how I, you know, started in the gym, uh, how I grew my gym. We didn't show a video of my, my fit. Yeah. Maybe it's what is on YouTube or something. My buddy, uh, if you look up SGG contracting, right, he actually did a video edit of it and shows it when it's not done and then done. No, he was good at that. I'm terrible with that shit.

On YouTube or? No, I'm sorry. Not on his Instagram. It's SGG Contracting. I'll find it. Yeah, it's one of the... I can't remember, but they show him coming up to my facility and then he scrolls around. You got any good...

With all these different supplements and different foods, you got any poop stories for us? Oh, it's been a long time. It's been a long time since we had a good poop story on the show. Maybe from yourself during a set of squats or maybe from somebody else that you saw in the gym going through a hard time. Does it have to correlate to working out? No. No, not necessarily. Just your best poop story.

All right. So one that slides in my brain right now, I'm going to tell the public my wife might not be happy. We were probably like first dating, right? And we went to a New Year's Eve party. I was drinking. And we're laying next to each other. I think I might have been naked. And I went to squeeze out a fart and laid one on her leg.

Oh! And she stayed with you. And she stayed with me. Was she asleep, though? She was asleep. May have woke up and I'm like, oh, my God. Now, that's a good poop story. That is a good poop story.

That is a great story. Solid. Damn. I can't. Well, first off, is this the right one? That's it. Yeah, yeah. Go down. It Well, first off, is this the right one? That's it. Yeah, yeah.

Go down. It was like last year, though, when we built it. That's it right there. The one, the gray one. There you go. Okay. You got to put the music on. The music goes with it.

So that's my yard. That's the back of the yard. That's it before it was finished. I like some EDM. Yep. Beat drop. Okay. Nice.

Do your clients do anything out in the grass? Yeah, I do some functional stuff there. See, I got the ties. I got some sleds and shit out there that's a nice spot yeah lots of kettlebells some kettlebells but in that far corner I got a leg press my favorite thing is the old school

Cybex Smith machine is one of my favorite machines and what I did I made it unique you know how a Smith machine has like the rebound it has like a the negative it holds it back a little it took those those off so essentially it's like a free weight on slider it's heavy what do you like about the smith machine some people diss it but like i love it it's locked in i feel safe i could go kind of heavy and safe you know it takes away like yeah i squat deep on it you know and it takes away that little bit of percentage where i can feel like i get hurt a little bit you know it's still don't be wrong

i've gotten hurt on it still yeah but like it takes away that 10 where you get hurt good enough for chris bumstead should be good enough for anybody else yeah he did all right i've seen him utilizing it before and you want to take us on out of here sure thing thank you everybody for checking out today's episode make sure you stick around for Smiley's tip before we get out of here for everything podcast related including like a bunch of really cool new shit head over to powerproject.live links down in the description

as well as the podcast show notes follow the podcast at mbpowerproject on Instagram TikTok and Twitter my Instagram TikTok and Twitter is at I am Andrew Z and Seema where you at I'm tripping was your real name vinny though or is that what they no that's my name that's your vinny that's my name just making sure i thought for some reason the podcast mentioned they just started calling me but yeah my name is

brad and see my instagram youtube get the discord down below uh vinny where can people find you uh my instagram vinny u Instagram, Vinny Uzi. I have Vinny Uzi pretty much as the best place to find me. YouTube also? No YouTube yet. Soon. Soon. We got a lot of requests for it, so it's going to be coming soon.

Let's go. Today's tip, I'm just going to steal from you because you talked about Mike Dolce mentioning to do many different rep ranges. So I just want to encourage people to do that because I think that's really wise. mentioning to do many different rep ranges. So I just want to encourage people to do that because I think that's really wise. Do your sets of three, your sets of four, and why not, you know, work your way up to sets of 20. It just changes the exercise so much and changes what you're doing. So if you're doing incline dumbbells and you just go as heavy as possible and you hit a set of five and then maybe the next workout, you got to do incline dumbbells and you do a heavy set of 20. That is just a way, way different workout workout way different demand on the body way different response from the body so i think that's really wise to try i'm at mark smelly bell strength is

never weakness weakness never strength and before i go i got to give you some of this hostage tape this is a mouth tape for when you sleep and a a mask as well for the eyeballs. I think that's taping here. No, maybe there's nothing. Do you snore? Not anymore. Okay, good. You know, when I was big and heavy, yeah, I used to choke myself on my wife's bedroom floor. I used to sleep there, but not anymore.

Yeah. All right, we're out of here. Strength is never weak. This week is never strength. Catch you guys later. Bye. Bye.