Mark Bell's Power Project - The Key to Building Real Strength (It’s Not Just Heavy Lifts) Ft. Marshall Davis Jones

Episode Date: December 13, 2025

In this episode, Mark Bell and Nsima Inyang sit down with movement coach Marshall Davis Jones to explore a different kind of strength — one that’s built through awareness, control, and connection, not just heavy lifting.Marshall breaks down why lighter loads can actually unlock deeper levels of stability, coordination, and fluid power. Using the Berserker Bar and light clubs, he shows how small, deliberate movements can reawaken the body’s stabilizers, improve shoulder health, and connect the glutes, spine, and breath into one system.In this episode, Mark Bell and Nsima Inyang sit down with movement coach Marshall Davis Jones to explore a different kind of strength — one that’s built through awareness, control, and connection, not just heavy lifting.Marshall breaks down why lighter loads can actually unlock deeper levels of stability, coordination, and fluid power. Using the Berserker Bar and light clubs, he shows how small, deliberate movements can reawaken the body’s stabilizers, improve shoulder health, and connect the glutes, spine, and breath into one system.Special perks for our listeners below!🥩 HIGH QUALITY PROTEIN! 🍖 ➢ https://goodlifeproteins.com/ Code POWER to save 20% off site wide, or code POWERPROJECT to save an additional 5% off your Build a Box Subscription!🩸 Get your BLOODWORK Done! 🩸 ➢ https://marekhealth.com/PowerProject to receive 10% off our Panel, Check Up Panel or any custom panel, and use code POWERPROJECT for 10% off any lab!🧠 Methylene Blue: Better Focus, Sleep and Mood 🧠 Use Code POWER10 for 10% off!➢https://troscriptions.com?utm_source=affiliate&ut-m_medium=podcast&ut-m_campaign=MarkBel-I_podcastBest 5 Finger Barefoot Shoes! 👟 ➢ https://Peluva.com/PowerProject Code POWERPROJECT15 to save 15% off Peluva Shoes!Self Explanatory 🍆 ➢ Enlarging Pumps (This really works): https://bit.ly/powerproject1Pumps explained: https://youtu.be/qPG9JXjlhpM?si=JZN09-FakTjoJuaW🚨 The Best Red Light Therapy Devices and Blue Blocking Glasses On The Market! 😎➢https://emr-tek.com/Use code: POWERPROJECT to save 20% off your order!

Using a smaller and lighter weight, you're allowing the body's anticipatory muscles, the muscles that anticipate what you're going to do, along with the muscles that allow you to stabilize and stay strong to rebalance you. When we were little, we had this nice little experience of figuring out how to balance things on the joints. So the first thing was balancing the head, right?

And you're like, awkward. And then you get your little tummy time, and you're like, oh, I can hold my head up. And so when you put something light, all this doing is putting you back into that place where just a little bit of weight relative to your body is off-balancing you when you're learning to control. Why is my palm down?

This is for whatever reason, this is what the arm naturally does. What we're gonna do is we're gonna go for a nest shape. That kind of looks a little bit like a penis. The end of it. But go ahead. Well, we're moving it away from us. Okay.

And if you are wondering what the sound that's making of it, that as the small berserker bar like oh it's got the yeah it's got those shot in it right shot inside of it so your thumb is down and you're coming up and you're leading with the elbow out turning the elbow in slowly bringing it back down and returning here let's watch so let's watch again one up turning here there we go slow return turn it to here. And what do you feel now in your wrist? A little bit of feedback from the... Is that too light?

No. Okay. So we're going to speed this up. Ah, there we go, come on. Here, up, make that S. That S. Follow leading with the elbow, turning it down. There we go. When you're moving the elbow away from the body, point the elbow away from the body and turn and twist. Yes. Under those circumstances, you'll feel a bit of glute fire on the opposite glute.

Now, when you're turning it down to turn it back, be very slow. And, yeah, be very slow. Be very slow. and deliberate to control here. You might feel there's places where it might fall or collapse, okay? We want to be able to feel like there's a sense of control over it as it returns down. It's almost like you're kind of like almost like maybe like writing a letter with like your elbow or something. Yes, sir. Got to. Cool.

Cool. Quick question, Mark. Yes, sir. As you're showing this, because like, you know, I think one might, look at this and first say, well, first off, that's a club, why aren't you swinging it? Yes. Right? But second, working with weight this light, why is that even going to be helpful?

Like, how is this, what the hell is this even building? So the stabilizer muzzles, after 10 pounds, you're not really working those. And so when you're moving heavier weight, like you might swing this around. And I can do all that, but that's relying on momentum. Using a smaller and lighter weight and putting load and turning, giving that tension, you're allowing the body's anticipatory muscles, the muscles that anticipate what you're going to do, along with the muscles that allow you to stabilize and stay strong, to continue to rebalance you. Because this is a very slight off balance, right? If I move this here, this weight being distributed away from my body, it's going to take me, you know, or take me. And then you can use momentum to kind of move through that when something's heavier. But giving yourself the opportunity to do it very slowly with lightweight

and to feel where your body says, oh, I can't do this. I feel like I'm going to fall off of balance. Yeah. Not, I don't have the strength to like mush, but I don't have the ability to recalibrate my balance when I'm here or here. And if you're going to recalibrate, you maybe slow down a bit. Yes. Because you're going to, at one point, you might, this.

On this side, you feel a drop, right? And so what are you going on? Because I don't want to fall, or I don't want to twist my arm. I don't want to hurt myself. But if you have that sense of control here, and you feel comfortable and safe and balanced, you got to look at it this way.

When we were little, we had this nice little experience of figuring out how to balance the things on the joints. So the first thing was balancing the head. right big ass bobble like this like and you're like awkward and then you know you get your little tummy time and you're like oh i can hold my head up and then you're like oh i'm on my feet and then your arms your limbs you're you're you're learning to trust yourself and so when you put something light all this doing is putting you back into that place where just a little bit of weight relative to your body is off balancing you when you're learning to control it you know a cool thing

about what I see you're mentioning is like, okay, I'm going to come at this from the mind of someone who lifts really heavy, who's already built a lot of strength, who's already built a lot of muscle, kind of looking at this and being like a light load and swinging and moving my body. When a lot of people, for example, pick up the rope, they don't understand how to use their whole body to swing that implement. They don't understand how to use the momentum of their spine, their hips, to drive power from the legs. A lot of the time, it's really just the hands, even though they're very strong. And then they'll notice, oh, I can't do this for a long time.

Or, wow, my wrists are getting really sore because they're not using the whole body. But if you notice, when you're doing what you're doing right here with the club, the whole body is being used to kind of move that through space, right? Versus you just using your arm like this, which some people might just resort to. Yes. Yes, naturally. And they will.

And, you know, they're like, yeah, well, cool. But the question becomes, how long can you do that? Yeah, duration. Right? And how long is it going to be before that? hurts. Yep. And so a lot of times, especially with a lot of bigger guys, one of the one of the most common injuries is in the shoulder and particularly the clavicle area. Like this is the most damaged sports injury ever, as you can imagine, throwing, you know, swinging, all this

stuff. Got a bad AC joint injury from benching years ago. Exactly. You know, should happen. And so if you're not giving your body, the opportunity to like, oh, deal with just a little bit more and seeing what happens because all of the shifts that change and all of the little rotations that are going on, that is all of the twisting. If you look at the muscles in the anatomy, you see that from the hands even to the forearms. The muscles wrap. They're not these straight lines. They're these coils. And so the opportunity to feel that coil and also feel like, okay, here's my glute. What does this have do with my hand off balancing here. Well, this certain sense of stability that comes from the

glute muscles is a part of like, well, I'm not holding this and this tight, but this allows me to stabilize this leg, twist, come back down. Because when you watch, when you do it with the other hand and you go the other way, Mark, you can try this as well. So you're doing the same thing. You'll notice that the other glute from the opposite side has to respond. And as anybody has seen that they see that the, you know, the right arm is connected to the left leg and the, etc., etc., etc., you start to feel this connection to that rotation cycle, getting that glute fire, all that glute amnesia and all the other stuff that they talk about, start to wake that up. Yeah, and the second you put some weight on there, I mean, I'll put 2.5 on there, but because of the weight distribution being out there, which is, this is probably, easy for you to do but it's difficult and weird for me to do yes so I got to start with either like almost zero pounds or five pounds whatever that thing weighs

or put these little tiny guys on there of course you're just a small incremental weights and so I started with a more you know like wavy moving a little faster yes but also with a movement that like you know you're like little cursive but let's just say you have this here one of the things I like to focus on is a relationship between the clavicle and your structure so for a second drop your clavicle like just let it hang just relax yeah let your clavicle fall collapse well now yeah watch what happens when you lift your clavicle like carry it uh I guess from here from here oh from here I guess maybe sternum yeah and now I want you to find

like a relaxed place between just carrying it and dropping it okay yeah notice how that feels right okay now when you have this i want you to feel two separate things one when we do this movement which is you know emulating like you know punch but feel what happens when you drop your clavicle and do it right move it forward see what it feels like how much control or lack thereof you may have But then watch what happens when you let your lift your clavicle. What do you notice? Just feel a little more stacked, a little bit more stability. Mm-hmm.

So the clavicle, those are the only two bones that connect the arms to the skeleton. And you look about how much we use our arms. It's a very interesting, it's like, oh, here's these two meat sacks. We're going to go out and put to hold it up to your bones. Right. But there's a couple of sets of muscles that connect to the legs. clavicle. You have your upper traps that connect on this side. You have your pecks internally and the sternocytoklatoid on the neck. So when you're carrying your clavicle, the full power of this

entire system is activated, which allows you to use your arms, which begin in the cervical spine. So when you drop that, you drop that feeling. Yeah. Look at what happens to your structure. And it kind of hurts my shoulder a little bit. Yes, it does. I feel like a pain. Yes, so bring it back, pick it back, yeah, let's not do that, right? So immediately you feel that pain dissipation. Yeah, gone. Because now you're using the whole structure. And it also feels better.

You see how people, you know, when their clavicle is down, you know, you're walking through life, humdrum, dalamda-dam. But when you have the calvicle lifted, it gives us, again, the structure. You know, your arms and what is it, how much your hands are connected to your brain. and all that like this little system right here is a lot of real estate for who we are and how we be and so if you drop this and let this go even something that's as small and as light as this becomes very challenging to move so let's go back to the other movement the uh the thoracic spine is yeah a huge a huge component in almost all versions of strength because you can't exhibit strength through your extremities unless you're, unless you're able to posture up a little bit.

Yes. You're going to be kind of in a weakened state otherwise. Yes. There we go. And what I love about the thoracic spine, when you look at the the, what's it called the dermatomes or whatever, you see the thoracic spine, it starts here, terminates here. So this is how your body, and your brain processes your thoracic spine, neurologically. So it's like, oh, you know, core, and it kind of just focused this. But this also is a part of that. So let's see what happens now with the clavicle up,

and you're moving this. Up. Yes. Boom, down. How does that feel now with that hue of keeping your clavicle lifted? It feels like it's... Oh, it's easier to move. Yes.

It feels more fluid. Yes. Now see what happens just for funnies. What happens when you drop the clavicle? Watch. Yeah, again, it's just, I feel on my shoulder. Immediately, right? Where you're separating the segments.

And so this is, you know, as much as it is about the fluidity of the movement, how does it feel when you have the clavicle, like just in your body just without tool? Right. The difference between this and this. in this, right? And so when we think about posture, which comes from a word which means home, so posture meaning home, I found very fascinating because your posture is not, I'm standing like this, your posture is where does your body feel at home? And some people feel really at home. This is home for them. Right. I mean, I wouldn't Airbnb be that, but you know

what I mean? But this is, this is home for them. And then other people, you know, they carry themselves and they feel at home and we want to we want to feel that and you know that the purpose of doing this kind of work is so that more people feel at home in their bodies more people can respond in their home with their body right it's like you know what what is it must suck to be in a house that's just cluttered with misaligned joints and all sorts of other things that can go on when the movement yes sir as you see mark doing that right now yes sir and like i notice like when you do it your other side is also coordinating with the, for example, it's in his left arm. Yes. So how would you adjust what his right arm and right side is doing to help coordinate

the whole movement? Great question. Yeah, I think with you, I think I saw you kind of coiling almost with the other side. So let's just put the tool down for a second. So reciprocal movement here. So this hand, this hand turning inward, this hand going out. So you're here and the other the thumb is mirroring what's happening with the hand. This is like Tai Chi, bro. Are there Tai Chi concepts here? I mean, you know, Bruce Lee said take what you need, right? Okay, okay, okay.

So boom, you're here and it's the same because that's what's happening. So this, this, this, if you're twisting your hips, boom, one, two, one, two. That's just what the body wants to do. But let's just take the hand and keep the palm up and twist the hip. How does that feel? No. Or just keep the palm down and twist the hips. It feels wrong, right?

It feels like there's something, but when, yeah, but when the hand follows, oh, now. Yeah, a little internal, external rotation. Yes. Yes. A little bit of dancing here too. Little bit of dancing, little bit of a pachata, you know what I'm saying? So if you go, you take the tool, so this hand isn't just there, but it moves, comes down. It goes with it.

Mm-hmm. Boom. See what happens. Just allow your hand to be free. Yes, there it is. You're yielding and allowing. You have this hand doing the thing. Whoops. It's okay. Lower this lower. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. It's kind of like. It's kind of like when you do juditsu and you keep messing up and you keep like dropping your knee on the guy's face. Like, whoops. The other guy doesn't care. You're like, just trying to figure it out. Yeah, allow that right hand to be free. So what happens sometimes is we don't know what we believe about each limb that we keep

it a certain way or not. Right. So let's just put the tool down for a second and just. Allow this hand, just allow it to flow. Allow it. So you see how fast you're like, just allow. Let it come across, let it come across your body, turn it down. There we go. There it is. There it is.

Right, boom. I kind of feel like I just got these hands today. That's a. Do you have any kids? I have a 15-year-old daughter. Do you ever remember your kids? Right on my forearm. You ever remember your kids kind of recognizing that what's hitting them in the face all the time is their own hands?

They go like this. They're like, what the hell? That's kind of how I feel right now. Hey, that's all right. That's all right. So with that sense of awareness, that sense of freedom now, right? What happens? Now the tool, all that does is just allow us to have strength a little bit more stability

because it's going to off balance us when it's heavy. It's like, oh, can I still allow with this little bit of weight? Mm-hmm. Right? So now let's see what happens. Let's switch the tool. one of the things that is interesting about the right hand in particular is with arm swing with walking the right arm tightens up faster when we're thinking for some reason women are

immune to this issue they can cognize and like they did studies on this they were like it doesn't it doesn't hit them until they're like in their 60s but for males the when we're thinking the right hand like if your arm swinging and you're like thinking about something this arm does not move so what you're probably processing right now is you're thinking about this movement so it's trapping your arm but what happens again this whole allowing when you're like okay i don't have to think about it right so that's also why i enjoy using the right hand first So let's try the right hand. So you're here?

Remember you're allowing. And let the other hand be free. Oops, see what you notice. Right. So let that left hand be free. Yeah, yeah. Yes. Let's see.

Mm-hmm. There we go. I could see how this could be really helpful for me because it's not difficult to do. It's a little bit challenging. Yes. but I'm like holding like not even so much holding my breath but like little little holding my breath tiny bouts of holding my breath yes as I'm thinking about it and then I relax and get into my nose more and then I'm able to move through it absolutely I get like stuck a little bit and with the lighter load

it's not as risky right you're not like trying to you know yeah likelihood of getting hurt is very low very low very low and so so even you know you have other movements than things that you can do and you know maybe with more time and another day but still the same concept and as you can see when this hand is going this hand is doing its other thing so it's not just I'm here which I could do but eventually you're going to feel the damage so let's look at another thing there's something called Codman's Paradox why is it called that that's the guy that's trying to figure it out so without the plates

Hands this way. So you're going to bring your arms up and your hands in. Then you're going to bring the arms out. Then you're going to bring the hands in. Then you're going to bring the arms. Now, why is my palm down? This is the natural, if you go back to neutral, right? This is for whatever reason, this is what the arm naturally does.

actually does. I first started hearing about transcriptions from Thomas to Lauer. Yeah. And, you know, Thomas is somebody that's an animal with working out. You got a chance to work out with him. I worked out with him. And he's kind of always on the front lines of like, you know, finding out about these new companies that have cool things. But I didn't really realize that proscriptions was the first company to put out

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affected. It's pretty great. I know Dr. Scott, sure, we had him on the podcast and he talked quite a bit about how he recommends methylene blue to a lot of the athletes that he works with. And they're seeing some profound impacts. And one of the things I've heard about it is that it can enhance red light. So those are you doing red light therapy or those of you that have some opportunities to get out into some good sunlight. It might be a good idea to try some methylene blue. before you go out on your walk or run outside or whatever activity is that you're gonna do outside. And this stuff is great, but please, like first off,

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weakness, weakness, and catch you guys later. When it moves towards the body, because there's a complex in the shoulder that turns it this way. Yeah, just kind of want, your palms kind of want to go up as you're going up. Yes, but they also want to turn internally rotate towards the center of the body. Well, you're not going to, yeah, like you're holding a box.

You're not going to hold it this way, right? You're automatically thinking I'm going to get underneath it. Sure. The thing that I'm wanting you to recognize here is this. When you're doing this, for some reason, the shoulder continues to want to rotate in this direction after three movements. Now, what I'm introducing here is this idea that you take a dumbbell, you do this, and then you do this. But what does the hand want to do?

It wants to do this and that and that. That's what the shoulder wants you to do. So how many dumbbell curls does it take to start damaging your shoulder? shoulder. Two. One, two. Because I'm ignoring the fact that my shoulder wants to do this when I do this movement. So what happens when you take something very light like this and you're holding it? You're here. You're here. You're here. You're here. You're here. You're here. And you're here. And then you can relax and go back to neutral. And Siem and I were trying to figure out how to go in reverse yesterday. But I want you to feel that. How to go in reverse? Yes. So.

Palms up, in, out. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Palms up, coming in. And the arms out, you come in, come down, blow out. Right, and then you come back to neutral. But do you feel, do you feel how the shoulder is turning very gently? So feel this as you come up.

So up, what is the shoulder want to do? And if you listen to your shoulder and allow it to talk to you, to you, the natural movement will occur. And then go back to neutral. Start with the palms up, up, in, out, in, down, out. Can't really tell I can feel any sort of natural inclination to like do it the way you're doing it. Okay, so let's go up and then in.

So this way, that way, that way. That way, that way. Then out, then back up, then back down, and then back out. So you don't sense a sense of? It feels good. Now how often do we do movement where you're like, shoulder movements, you're like, oh, this feels good? Well, it maybe feels better because it's obeying the love. So the research on why this happens, they're like, they don't know, but they were looking and examining that the shoulder just seems to do this in this particular succession.

But again, if I'm doing this over and over and over and over again, by the time I get to my second curl, there's something here that's just starting to malfunction. And then eventually when you get these injuries, it's just overuse it. I wonder if this is similar, but they've, there's still so much more to discuss. with fascia yeah but they claim that if you poke at a piece of fascia on someone's forearm let's say could be anywhere on the body I'm just using a forearm as an example yes that your fascia react differently every time I press on it even if I press on it the same tension yes same exact way some sort of proprioception in your brain and so there's probably some mechanistic

stuff that we have throughout our whole body yes to perhaps want to hit our foot differently almost every time it strikes the ground yes want to move our arms differently depending you know maybe there's some sort of auto correction that is trying to do yes or maybe it's just looking for variety period well probably looking for the best way most efficient way so you can not burn as many calories so you don't blow yourself out it means it makes sense we what are we're standing on this very flat ground very predictable but when you go on a hike there's nothing predictable right right so our bodies are definitely prepared for an environment where everything is not so laid out straight.

Everything is not perfect. And so that sense of rotation, and again, it goes back to, you know, what else is moving when we're moving? Like, so I'm moving this, but as I'm moving this, is something happening here, there's something happening here.

There's something rotating there. There's something happening here. And so that slow, deliberate movement and really protecting the shoulders, also because your trapezius muscles, they're not resistant to cognitive stress. Not resistant to what? To cognitive.

stress the traps meaning if you're doing something like a thinking task and they did muscle testing on like your triceps the forearms the traps once you start like thinking these things stay turned on so how many times have you when someone's really upset what do we do yeah but when you when your boy's upset what do you do and he's trying to calm them down yeah calm down but also what we do be like a yo Oh, bro. Ah, massage them. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's instinctive. Instinctively, we know to grab the traps and massage them out. Because it's... It's hilarious. Yo, bro, bro, chill, dog. You need to relax. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because once these things are tight, right?

And then, like, you see what happens on your tents, I'm not even trying to be thing, but I'm just tightening my traps and it's just like, bro, what's wrong with you? It's right. You know? So the, the idea of just resists. idea of just respecting all of these little rotations gives your body the best chance to not get knotted when you're bothered by something else like you know so like we're just looking at this idea of why are we moving in the first place which is really good question like why am i moving

and with that okay well if i'm asking myself what you know why am i going here why am i going there And I'm able to reduce the friction in that movement because I'm not bothered by whatever I'm thinking about or I'm not, you know, I'm not nodded somewhere along these joint systems that'll say you shouldn't be doing that. Like, you're gonna do that, you know, what happens we get injured? And you test, you're like, oh, like, let's say you crack your ankle.

And then you're like, you go through the trial phase of like testing it to see. And your body goes, yeah, not yet, bro. Yeah, two more weeks. about that but this sense of that's wherever there's going to be some sort of pain or issues or problems giving us biofeedback about where we can decide our decision trees are based on this and so I just like to look at this decision tree yeah yeah like go out don't go out roll today or don't roll today there's some people that's like that shoulder is doing that

thing and the body's saying too many leaves on a decision tree sometimes yeah bro You're like, you'll listen. Oh, good idea to just not. But yeah, like this is really about our body's ability to make decisions. Yes. One thing that I think is really cool about this. And it's just, you know, conceptually as we were talking about it yesterday, with the clubs, I already do slightly different things in the way, like, I move with clubs.

But the way you're treating a club is like, you're treating it kind of like really like a weapon. because, you know, when most people do club work, you know, it's the, it's this single arm swing, it's maybe a lot of this stuff, right? But they don't ever do anything to slow it down to be like, if I was going to wax somebody with this, right? Of course, there's weight on it so you can't go out high velocity, but you can go slow through that movement. And I think one aspect that you don't have people train nowadays because it's kind of not necessary

is with weapons. or a weapon type of trick. Because if you think when people used to train with weapons, like when people used very heavy swords, very heavy clubs, like they would hold these things and use these things for hours on end because they actually have to take it into combat. No one's going into club-based combat nowadays. That's the way old school.

We just have pop-pop-pop, you know what I mean? Yeah, right. That's why people train with the guns. But like, the way this can help strengthen the body for duration is something that's really cool and something that I'm going to like, I'm going to have a lot of fun exploring that. Oh, for sure. Sure. I think it's interesting even just to bring up the, you know, when you power lift or body build,

you're trying to like find, trying to find like maximum tension usually or powerlifting. You're maybe trying to like get the set done so fast that there is no tension and it's just done in a heartbeat. But whenever you do repetitions, even in powerlifting, you're trying to do it almost exactly identical to whatever way you did it the first time, if the first time was right. The first time wasn't right, then sometimes you auto-correct, and you see a lot of times the guys do a little bit better on their second and third rep, but the guys that are neurologically efficient, the guys that are really great at it, they end up being able to mimic that just one, because you only get that one shot, that one attempt to get the lift the right way, but you're trying to precisely not move a little bit the way you're talking about, but we know that there's such huge differences between the way that we move outside the gym and the way that we move inside the gym. Sure. And I'm curious about this because I'm wondering if there is a line of thinking that invites the speed of the locking. So, yes, this is fluid because it looks that way because it's very slow. Right. But you change the speed. It's the same movement, but now it looks a little bit tighter, a little bit more jagged. And so I'm just wondering if when we're looking for that perfect rep,

if you see like a grandfather clock, like all of these like little knobs and things, if what we're training for is a rapid succession of locking. So it's still the same mechanism, but it's happening so fast that it looks like a linear movement. And versus the idea of seeing it as a linear movement initially, and that may be biasing how we go about it. So it's like leg up, you know, squat down, et cetera. But if we're thinking about it as rapidly rotating coils, does that even change the perspective?

And this is from this more of an inquiry. That's because you brought this up. Like, if that becomes a part of the training, then what would that do for the longevity of people who choose to use their bodies in this way? Because perhaps they're kind of like straight back and forth, linear. I mean, even just as you're mentioning,

right off the bat it seems just total hypothetical yeah but rather than somebody trying to use 500 pounds it seems like to some degree it might make more sense for someone to use 95 pounds and move around with it differently on each rep just in my own head i'm just thinking through it right now and i just i've never tried that but you wouldn't want to obviously you know have your knee cave in if you're doing a 500 pounds squat however if you have appropriate weight on there or you're just holding like a kettlebell or something. I could see managing different reps in managing reps in different ways intentionally. Yes. And that's interesting when you brought about the thing with the knee. So we're looking at the knee complex. And there's muscles around this, this, this. Yeah. That move like left, right,

up, down. I don't know. I mean, I haven't really given much thought about this until more recently just like looking at the knee. And so, you know, what would make the knee cave in? and what has to be strong so that it doesn't. Right. Right. And so if you're using the 95 pound instead of the 500 pound max rep, you get to feel into, oh, this muscle has to remain on this side of the knee so that the knee does not go this way.

You can think about it. Yes. And you can practice. Absolutely. That's it. With a lighter weight, you can actually think about it. Because when it's game day, you don't want to be thinking on game day. Because that will slow you down.

You're like, this, this, this, this, this, this, this. But if you have a bunch of reps with a smaller way that allowed you to feel, by the time you have to do it once, you're not scared. You're not scared of the one time. Right. But if you've injured yourself once or twice because you've only max repped, you have the opportunity to get nervous on game day. Because you'll think to yourself, I've hurt myself doing this.

And what kind of hesitation would that create in your system? And, you know, when you're playing at an elite level, it's like a percent difference between first and second. Right. And, you know, do you want to give, do you want your body to carry more memories or those kind of memories of failure at the time of performance? Probably not. So that's very interesting that when you said that, you get to think about it. We've had different people come and show different ideas, which has helped inform a lot of the things that Mark and I do. It's helped us advance in many different ways.

But whenever ideas of this are heard, it's always met with the level of resistance because when people like you talk about this, people think, like, he's just trying to reinvent fitness or reinvent the wheel or why is you doing all this, right? Right? Go lift, bro. Yeah, right, go pick it up. But again, I'd invite you to realize that there are a lot of different capacities within fitness. Mark was talking about the 500-pound squat. You were talking about the 95 using the lighter loads. So how about building the capacity for both?

Because, like, we've seen what happens when one goes down, one laid of building a high capacity of just high. high strength output, et cetera, and the way that can maybe inform and affect the way that they move. We've had different podcasts talking to people about that idea and people understanding that that is a very real thing.

So understanding that there is a spectrum to working with weight, moving with weight, and working with load, and to understand that you don't have to only do this, this is not what we're talking about, like this has to become your workout routine. It's adding this to your toolbox of movement capacity. Yes.

Think of it that way, instead of think of it like it's going to replace that you're trying to do. Man, first of all, look, like you said, when you said, Tai Chi, you're like, man, it's this Tai Chi, bro. I say, yeah, Bruce Lee said, you know, take what you need. It ain't about reinventing nothing. It's about looking at what's already been invented and saying, huh, can I put that part in my Honda Civic?

You know what I mean? To, you know, put the nitrous. Like, oh yeah, that component will make my car do that. And so, yeah, the, you know, I'm sure there are a lot of individuals that come from the perspective of trying to reinvent the wheel. The wheel's already been done. I mean, we're all just remixing here. But, yeah, adding it to the regimen, you know, even with the road flow, you see a lot of the bigger guys doing it, you know, that changed things. There's no reason why you can't advance the wheel, though, you know, like the wheel used to be wooden.

Yes. It's rubber. Yes. they're now they're thinking about airless tires you know like yes going to advance the wheel like yes there's no reason why we can't advance it and think of ways to make it move better more efficiently different ways absolutely that and that's that's a that's actually east coast you need different tires yo you need yeah man you know or you need snow ties in minnesota at a certain point and so you know this idea of moving through the terrain which brings me to the track and field

conversation. There's a guy he has this video on YouTube where he talks about how track and field as a system of sports has the most variety of body types in order to do that sport. And so we're and if we're looking at the wheel as a mode of transportation and track and field is basically humans ballistically transporting something, either a javelin themselves over a pole vote, sprinting that, you know, for the 100 meter dash hurtling, shock putting, there's transport. And there's different body types for different types of transport. If you want to be a shock putter, yeah, you got to be a big, you got to be a big biscuit, man. You can't, you can't, you can't.

Hey, but look at the way that those athletes rotate so swiftly within that small circle to launch that thing. Yes. There is still this high level of dynamic movement ability that's involved. Not just the heft, it's the heft and grace, like you know, the speed, bro. Yes. A pretty good diversity in football too. Yes. Everyone from the kicker to the running back to the defensive lineman.

Absolutely. And all of those people are transporting at a different part of the chain. The quarterback has to transport that ball sometimes to a lobby, sometimes way down the field. That lineman needs to transport the defensive lineman that way to make room. And they have different body types, so different wheels. We require a different structure, which require a different, you know, modality of mate. And so, and when you said the whole thing about wheels being wooden versus now being rubber, like, if somebody, I'm sure the person I was like, whoever created the rubber wheel, the wooden wheel, people were a little pissed off about that. They're like, what are you doing, bro?

Like, we're here just carving out. Just like whoever made the Rosetta Stone when somebody came up with, like, I could just write it with them. Like, nah, man, we like to etch a sketch. We're just transporting and we're getting more efficient. what was it on there was this Air Force aeronautics

engineered and he said every plane they built they look at nature and they say if it's a good idea nature has already beaten us to it and so they emulate the natural world

and you know I think that we're figuring that out and that's starting to seep into our fitness the systems of movement the lymphatic system how it flows through the body well now we want to flow with our You said them shock, them shock putters really do, like, like twinkle toes, big, big old, bro. Like, how are you spinning like that? And they can jump like crazy.

Bro. Explosive. Yeah. Or even like wrestlers. Oh, yeah. Like, bro, you're thinking like, yeah, it's like, yeah, it's not just about that takedown, but these guys are doing backflips and all sorts of stuff as like, you need to know how to do this in order for you to grapple. This, you know, you never backflip in the ring.

but why are they back flipping in practice? What is the value of the ability to backflip that translates into it? You're going to recover from that suplex, bro. Like, a suplex recovery turns into some of that because either you just get hit or you can figure out a way to spring out of it if your opponent loses a little bit of that tension. There you go. You know what I mean?

So there's times when these movements come into play. For sure. So my question, for you guys, as when you think about bodybuilding, right? Historically speaking, bodybuilding is about standing still and flexing your muscles for that one moment in the sun. What do you think is changing now in the landscape for bodybuilders as they start to recognize like, well, maybe I want to still be able to move when I'm 50? Is that what's kind of driving a lot of the...

I think it's changing fast on social media. I mean, you see every day people trying to incorporate some other movements that There are some guys who can still move really well that do bodybuilding and do some powerlifting, but they're also still pretty young. And they haven't had that much time away from their sport. Maybe they played other sports when they were young. So when someone does something, a singular thing for a while, I think what we're starting to learn is that the way that you do stuff is massively important. Whereas before, I think we just thought, like, just to do it, period.

you know just do it like nike yeah that's i don't think that's enough i think you have i think the way that you do stuff is really important and even even something as simple as nasal breathing through some of your warm-up sets and just not like you know going so crazy but we have in our head we have the image of like rocky you know and and the rocky montage music and like lifting heart Stallone's face. Whatever he was doing. Yeah, I sent him a video of Stallone, like a jumping rope and doing all these exercises. His face is just going crazy because that's what we have determined means that someone's

working really hard, right? But we haven't really seen examples of people doing a little bit more of what you're saying. Like that, like a training montage of you going real slow and only doing that, like probably wouldn't be enough to maybe motivate or inspire somebody. because they have never tried that, where they can't relate to that. They can't relate to a real patient face.

They can relate to like a grit of someone like, you know, right? Yes. But what are the best sprinters in the world to do? Really relaxed, their face is so relaxed that their face is going, you know, all over the place. So I think that people are learning more now that I hate to say it this way because I love lifting weights and I will always lift weights.

And I love power lifting and I'll always power lift, always body build, always do all these things. They're fantastic and they have a great place in everything that we do. But they can sometimes be a double negative because in one sense they are, if you're an athlete, in one sense they're pulling you away from the very movements that you're trying to get better at. And on the other side of it, they could also be just causing like just repetitive, like stiffness and things like that so you could still do them and i still think they have a lot of

merit and they have a lot of utility but i think there has to be something else done on top of that either to unwind some of that your sport right yeah i mean if lifting is your sport then i would think that you may just want to do a little bit of maintenance to keep some coordination some other things that maybe you're not getting from the gym. But I think that before, though, I don't think people thought that lifting could be a bad input. And I think that it can be. And I'll just say for myself, it was in terms of how I'm moving today. I still made it through, but I have a lot of stuff to do, a lot of work to do to unwind all this. So if somebody just took 15% of their training or if I took 15% of my training and devoted

it to more of some of this stuff when I was younger. It is possible that maybe I wouldn't hit the same numbers, but I also wouldn't have to unwind so much. And then also, let's just be perfectly honest, a lot of people aren't going to be able to do what I was able to do. I'm very fortunate. A lot, a lot of circumstances ended up being great for me to be able to lift the weights that I lifted. There's going to be a lot of people that don't ever lift the weights that I lifted or don't achieve some of the things that I achieved, and they're still going end up with the consequences. And I can say the consequences were worth it because it's provided a great life for me.

Hands of the G-Wag. But yeah, exactly. Yeah, you know what? Sitting there in the light, yeah. Yeah, man. Right, I can kind of say that it's worth it, but a lot of other people, maybe they, maybe just for the love of the game, maybe they can still say it's worth it, but I don't think it would be worth it.

It felt like it was worth it to me at the time. It felt like the right thing to do. But again, if I could have devoted maybe just 15%, 10% of my workouts to a little bit more movement practice, then when I went into running, it would have been, boom, just go right in the running. Rather than it's going to take me like four or five years to get maybe like six years or so to get very good at running. For sure. And I want to add to what Mark said. And I just like Mark, I think put all of that beautifully.

So I don't want to go on too long because I think he summed it up well. But a big thing that I want to echo from what Mark was saying was that like he, said he still loves to lifting still loves to lift I still love lifting and I still love to lift yes but I was able for myself to learn earlier for myself right that I need different things within my physical practice to maintain a good breadth of like like broad capacity with as athletic as you are you could have easily made yourself way stiffer oh absolutely like you were heading down a path where you were getting stiffer yeah but you were still

You could still move well, but nothing compared to the way you can move now. No, because I had to like, like, you know, I imagine doing that for 10 more years. Exactly. You had been screwed. You would go into jujitsu and it would have been, it would have taken you a long, long time just to even be good at Whitebelt. And that's what I'm saying. It's like what you mentioned, it's a breadth of capacity. It's not like you have to stop lifting or just, because that's good.

Bodybuilding. Like you were going, I want to mention this. Bodybuilding is something everyone can do if we look at the definition and it's good for everyone to do. It doesn't need to be you stepping on stage in the speedos or the bikini and flexing. It can be you just like lifting weights even on machines to strengthen your tendons and your structure and learning how to have a little bit of muscular control here and there to feel things. You're a bodybuilder. You know, like I want us to kind of take away like the idea that you have to step on stage.

Like bodybuilding is good for everybody. how much of it is it that you need for it to be beneficial for you, right? Yes. That's what Mark was saying. Like, you go too deep down that well, it can turn into a negative, right? You go too deep down the flow stuff and you don't do any of the stiffness stuff, it could probably be a negative. Yeah.

So it's one of those things, you know? Yeah, man. And I love just, like, listening to the language, body building. Okay. Whoa. What do you want your body to do? Like, when you're done building it, what do you want? your Lego set, you know what I'm saying?

Like some people have the Death Star and some people have, you know, the cars or whatever it is. But when you're done building the situation, you're done building the machine, the mechanism. If you're, if you're okay with, look, I'm building this body to stand here and I'm going to build the most aesthetically, you know, they're going to be muscles on top of muscles. They're going to be muscles that you didn't even know were there that are going to be so, like, chiseled out. And you're okay with that. That's your masterpiece. Okay.

If you want to build a body that, you know, can drive, you know, dependably when it's, you know, a hundred years old, then there's a way to do that. Essentially, we're all bodybuilding. It's just to what end. So the, like you were saying, like the idea of like, okay, to the podium. Okay, well, if the end is to the podium, by all means, go. And if the end is to something else, then, you know, you have other options. Yeah. You know, so we're exploring the other options, the internet has democratized options.

You're like, oh, I didn't know. I could do that. And so here we are, right? I want to show you a couple of other, one more thing. All we're doing, it was going to do is for a minute. You're using the outer, the pinky side of the palm to push this down behind you. So you're pushing it down on each side. So it's coming down this side. You're pushing it down. and you're going to feel the resistance of pulling it up on one side and pushing it down on the other. So you're doing this. Now, with that weight, it should be fun. But you're doing this for a minute. So let me set a timer. Should he use one that's longer? Yeah, let's use this one.

Then I'll take this one. These things are amazing, aren't they? Yes, they are. Oh, man, let's go. It's like so perfectly balanced. Has your berserker bar come in yet? No, but he was messaging. me is like oh they're you know he keeps sending me pictures yeah yeah keeps asking me

questions I'm like I like I don't even have any idea what you're talking about because I don't know you know what I mean I don't know the shit that he knows so yeah here we go I thought that's not a oh here we know you're going that looks pretty good in the Sema yeah oh oh yeah here's what's going on also actually Mark are you able to, and actually, Marshall, I'm curious, do you need to lock your elbows out? Do you need to try to lock your elbows out or it doesn't matter if you're up here? So, yeah, but not, don't lock them. I wasn't sure where to, I got a big ass.

I wasn't sure where to put my hands. He does. Straight on. Right, boom. There we go. Boom. Because if you do this, that's a very different feeling. And we can actually explore that option too, but straight on for now.

Right under the butt cheeks. Yep. So bringing the intensity up, like don't be lazy about. this. Mm-hmm. So, otherwise, it's just like, what's we doing? Yeah, you feel it. Mm-hmm.

Man, me eight years ago, 10 years ago, if I saw this on video, I'll be, oh, what the fuck are they doing? What is this bullshit? What a yo? Trying to lift her butts up. Mm-hmm. But you'll start feeling your traps, I mean, not your traps, sorry, your triceps. Grip, too.

Mm-hmm, and your grip, especially when you're putting that pressure on each hand, like, you're not. There we go. We're done. What do you feel? I felt great through the, uh, all the way from my grip, all the way into my shoulders. And then just having my arms back is probably a good practice for me just because my, um, mobility of my shoulders and stuff. So it feels good to have my arms back. Yes. So you're probably like, well, what the hell are we doing and why we're doing this well for one you know you have what you felt right but also like we're looking at the whole arm and when we look at the arm from the front of the body you know a lot of the mirror muscles you know you got your pegs you got your

biceps but then there's like the way that the arm wraps around here and there's like movement here and a capability here and having strength back here helps to reinforce what you're doing when your arms are up here. Because when you put in your arms in front of the body, they're being counterbalanced by what's behind the body. Right. So, like, you know, if you don't have the strength back here, like,

cool, you're like, you know, have you seen guys that are like, they're kind of front heavy? Yeah. And, you know, what are the consequences of that? The way you move. Right? So. You bounce your space. Absolutely. So, you know, you're bringing the sense of

weight back, and you don't have to be heavy, but the reason why I like to use fast movement for this is there's something about the hands moving and movement and hand movement speed that is associated with competing. And so, because if we did it, let's say we're doing it with the hands behind the back and we're just kind of chilling real slow, you're not really going to feel much. You can kind of do this for a while, but what I'm doing is I want to accelerate this process. So you're adding speed and you're kind of competing against each side of your

counterbalance and there's going to be more burn this also gives that strength of holding the arms and the shoulder girdle because when people do the whole like shoulders back thing for their posture they do that it looks strange right because probably for the most part they're not even using these muscles these muscles are not developed so it's very strange and awkward and it's very stiff but if those muscles are strong back there I don't need to force it they're already there supporting right and also you think about things that you got to remember, you know, this is how we used to get stuff done, you know,

at some point, you know, you had to be able to pull that for days or hours and then, you know, bring home the chickens and the apples. But because we live in a world where we have different vehicles that pull for us, we forgot about our own ability to pull. And so these muscles want to going underused, underdeveloped, and the geometry of strength. I'd like to imagine being strong in different shapes. Right, so if I change the shape, all of the relative strength in my body is different now.

So you're like, you're already like, oh, I'm like, what can I do? Yeah, yeah, well, I'm moving my arms back like this, and it feels good to do that. Yeah, yeah. You know, I think an interesting thing about what you're saying right now is like when you were mentioning the muscles behind us,

Yeah. One would then just probably think, well, you know, we do rows. We do all these movements that will stimulate this muscles with the arms in front of our body. Then why would we want to be inefficient putting our arms behind our body and working with less weight? Well, why would we even want to do that? So, when, just put your head around your back and like just stay in the chill, right? How does that feel? How do you feel? Yeah, it feels like a little bit of a stretch in the shoulders.

Cool. Which indicates that, like, you know, like there's probably some areas in the front or that are a little bit tighter, right? So it opens it up. Yeah, cool. Power Project Family, how's it going? Now, over the years, I've learned a lot from guests that have come onto this podcast, and I've taken the time to learn many different movement practices.

So, for example, if you've wanted to learn rope flow, which is a practice, I think, is just beneficial for everyone. I have a free Ropeflow Foundation's course at school.com slash the Stronger. Human. Now, the Stronger Human community actually has over 11,000 members, so it's a great community there, but you'll also be able to learn rope flow for free, along with many other things I teach in there, like kettlebell flow, kettlebell juggling, all that good stuff. So head over there. Along with that, if you're looking for where to get your equipment as far as ropes, maces and clubs, sandbags, all that good stuff, you can head over to the StrongerHuman. Store. And on that site is where I have all of the different

functional fitness equipment that I use to become a stronger human. So check those out. Let's get back to the episode do you think that that what you're discovering in the front of your shoulders might affect how you use your arms and your 100% yeah but how would you ever discover that if you never did this right well why would i do that's like well you just need to see what happens when you change the shape you know all the you know we pay lots of money to watch people do cool shapes with their bodies. You watch Cirque to Soilet. I will pay the 200 bucks to watch you do that, but what are they doing? They figured out how to have strength and all of these different shapes that are just beautiful to watch. And so not everybody's going to want to do this for that, right?

But in the event that you are again, you know, you're doing your bodybuilding thing, you're doing your stuff, you might find even in your practice of bodybuilding like, huh, if I build these muscles deliberately with the hands behind the back in this shape. What new definitions do I have access to? What new little, oh, I didn't know that that muscle can come out because you're not going to feel that shape until you put yourself in that shape. And another thing to think about specifically for the bodybuilder

is being able to get in that shape. How many different ways can you now show that muscle? Right? Because a lot of bodybuilders, if they go in a position, it's going to be, they don't have that range. but if I can show, boom, right? I can, like, get into all those positions and show the different shapes

that the body can create in a more artistic way. Yes. There's not just the way the physique looks. There's the way that the physique moves if you're thinking as a bodybuilder, and that gets different looks. Yes. You know what I mean?

Yes. So. That speaks also sounds like to the evolution of bodybuilding itself. It used to be. You know what I mean? Not that people can't pose well these days, but it's like the presentation.

Even that try set pose is like your hands are behind your back, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So most of the time, for what are the exercises that you people would normally do for the trice. A tricep push down and overhead tricep extension, kickbacks.

Overhead tricep extension, I think, is a really good one for people to explore just because it gets that elbow up. So I'm glad you brought that up. So you said overhead tricep extension, how does that move? Yeah, I mean, maybe it's like the pulleys kind of behind you and you're here. Yes. So you're, boom. That shape.

Uh-huh. Having strength in this shape, how often do we practice strength in this shape? Right. Right. You know, cool. The, you know, you might do a few of these. Mike O'Hern does. Yeah, yeah. Oh, what does it do? No, Mike just lifts in a lot of different, yeah, a lot of different planes. Okay. I mean, it'll take, you know, it'll take like a lateral raise and it'll take them all the way up and then clink his palms together. But he'll do it like, you know, 50 pound dumbbells or something. Yeah. Mike has had amazing longevity. People hate him, but Mike O'Hern has had.

had amazing longevity. He's probably the bodybuilder that has had the most longevity while looking in a certain way. People will just say it's the drugs, but you look at the way the man lifts. There's a few differences. Behind the neck presses and he does a lot of things, you know, that, you know, old school bodybuilders, again, they used to do them all the time. Okay. There we go. And so this, the other thing about the overhead is, I was one, I was talking to the same about this yesterday. What, do you know when the overhead press became, like it just became out of Bob and do you know why I don't I don't know but like I remember like overhead pressing used to be a big deal military press huge yeah yeah why did why did that

leave the the like the main reggie it is actually quite difficult you can push an overhead press as heavy as you can put your push a bench press there are people that can bench press a lot of weight but overhead there's a mobility restriction to it and it can be very frustrating to build strength in that way I would assume yeah there's also like lower back is what I think about. A lot of people feel a lot of tension on their lower back.

Okay. Because they're tight in like other areas and they're not getting into those shapes that often probably. Of course. And so my curiosity is, you know, you're taking, you know, let's take, I'll take that heavy weight. Yeah. You know, like you're here

and you're in this shape and, you know, curling this. You know, you're going to feel this in a little while. This is also why I don't necessarily prescribe having to use a bunch of weight. You know the Mighty Adam, that guy? Jewish dudes, he could pull planes with his hair.

Oh shit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Circus guy, I've never seen it before. Wow. Wow. He pulled planes. And his sons, they just did something. They were 80 years old, pulling fire trucks, their teeth.

Oh my God. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he trained all his sons on their strength. Wow. Crazy. Very small guys, very super strong. I'll send you links. 25 pounds.

That's what he never did anything heavy than that. Right? And he trained another guy, the guy who called himself the hammer. of the hammer to do like the stick stuff yeah and he trained him on his strength secrets so this idea of you know how to build strength versus you know again bodybuilding which do you find that there is a what's the the strength to body relative strength yes what about it um in the bodybuilding world where do you find what's the first gap that you feel like they need to fill when they discover like man the way I've been lifting it's like I'm strong here but whoa I just

found out I'm not strong here oh I I would say because there are a lot of gaps but I would say one of the first places to fill would be like the fluidity of movement okay and I think it's one of the simplest things because like you can like the the rope is the simplest thing right but like a lot of guys who and a lot of people who just like go down that road like they walk they walk like this right there's there's no fluid rotation of the body locomoting through space. So I think that movement gap can help inform

a lot of things that they can then also start working on. Because there's a lot of things that someone who's focused on that needs to, like, improve. Or I would say, I would suggest they improve. Never need, I just suggest. That would be probably one of the bigger things.

Sometimes hard when you say bodybuilding, you know, like for me, I always think of like Arnold and Ronnie Coleman and Flex Wheeler and like the elite level and the genetics on those people is like just so crazy right and flex wheeler you know he got up to do a double bicep and he's in a full split yeah i mean he he was he was unbelievable his physique was unbelievable and his mobility was unbelievable y'all still at martial arts when he was younger yeah

and ronnie coleman would do splits on stage yeah and ronan coleman's probably the biggest leanest person the world's ever seen um so sometimes when you think of bodybuilding you sometimes think of like those real upper upper level people but I think with bodybuilding in general if there's like I don't even know if there's so much missing from it as there is like maybe and maybe there's not another way to do bodybuilding maybe it's got to be done a very particular way but you beat the crap out of yourself so much that the next day when you wake up you're here you know and you're getting your coffee or whatever for the morning and then the next day you beat the crap out of yourself more and you're here. Yes. And I just think the combination of you doing those lifts and

those specific ways back and forth, back and forth, you know, tearing down your body over and over again to build it back up and making yourself that incredibly sore. I do think that there's something in your brain where you're teaching yourself to be kind of walking around slouching because you're just, you're in pain. I mean, not everyone trains that way, but a lot of guys do. A lot of guys really do trained to push themselves to this level and they think you know when you're doing legs it's legs day and you have to really get after it you should not it's normal for them to think like i'm not going to be able to walk very well for the next three to five days what does that pattern do is something that i kind of wonder about so i agree with in seema i think something like a rope or

some small intervention maybe even just pulling a sled a unilateral work comes to mind because that that unilateral work in the gym i'm not even asking to really change much of any I'm just presenting another thing that you could do and very easy to implement, you know? Absolutely. That's a very interesting idea about the recognition that you do this knowing that the next day, you're going to slouch.

Yeah. But now I think what it invites us this perspective on time because you're like, okay, here's my pattern. I work this, this is what happens the next day. Then if we take that and we just, I guess, spread it over the course of your life, eventually the time there's going to be the time where you could do the thing and then the extension of the time that your body's going to be like that and i think i see a lot of that like

where that's the consequence if the consequence is not a workout not coming this way i think he's parking oh when you said like if that's the pattern you're like oh my consequence of my workout is this is what i'm going to look like the next day oh maybe he is driving my side yeah he is going oh yeah he's going oh yeah he's gonna oh what a consider a guy yeah real consider that just begs a question. You're like, okay, well, is it, you know, just know that that, that other side of it, the part where your slouching may have an extended shelf life later in life. And if you're okay with it, because some people are. Yeah, why not have a tradeoff? Why not go for something with everything you got, right? Yeah, I'm like, I'm going to put everything

and I know that when I'm 60, I'm going to be slouching to my coffee and paper. And I'm okay. But you know what? Honestly, like, you remembered that just because something has been done by the best for a certain amount of time, that doesn't mean that there isn't a way to potentially do it better. And we're not absolutely saying that this will make it better, but I invite you to try. Absolutely. Because what if you could go, what if certain things added to your practice could allow you to go even harder towards what you're going for because you're able to feel better doing it?

Yes. There's this, we were just talking about it. There's this idea on suffering to be great. And it's like there will be a level of sacrifice and there will be a level of imbalance. Because everyone's like, how do I have balance with like my athletic endeavors and this? There will be an imbalance.

But can we, can we make this feel better? Can our body, do you have to come back from the gym and the next morning be like that? I don't think so. I really don't think so. I think you could work out just as hard and wake up feeling better. If you have certain practices within what you do

that can help you feel better, Yeah. Versus just ignoring and saying this is what all the other guys did and this is what they all deal with. You don't have to do that. No. And that's why we have the invitation. We just look, we're like, listen man, if there are people that can succeed and do well and

keep the machine well oiled, we're saying, look, there's a couple things that they're doing to make that happen. You can choose to do that or you can choose to do that. But it's, again, people just have, they have access to the life. That's the beauty of looking at like a biography. like wow I get to see the consequences of this person's life decisions and this is where they ended up cool do I want to do that maybe not but I want to do that part and is there someone else that can do this part and then have a different

end at that part that maybe there's something in there for us mm-hmm I want you to try the overhead draw really quick so you're here and you just wrote curling boom elbows or straight arms rather and again you know we do this for a minute with light weight you know I love how this feels on the wrist bro there it is and also yeah the shoulders and yeah and this is expanding you know it also this opportunity the other opportunities are the different shapes you're breathing it let's think about that priority yeah can I breathe in this shape and how long can I keep my breath in this shape and I feel comfortable with my breath because some people might start heaving here

Because the body is like, oh, we don't do this. What are you doing? Why are we here? Why are my arms up? Stuff with your arms overhead, I think is amazing. Like walking, you know, and Seema talks a lot about compression, decompression. I think, you know, rather than like walking with the heaviest weight possible, I think you can walk with a lighter weight and kind of think about it as a decompression of your spine.

Obviously, it's compressing you even further, right? Yes. Like, there's no question because you, but like you can stack the weight and you can kind of push your shoulder away. from you as opposed to and another another great exercise the farmers carry yes the farmers carry you're here and it's a lot you know if you go real heavy it could be kind of here yes so why not kind of like quote unquote undo that yeah by just going here and then really you know trying to raise that scapula yeah and even if you take in something light like this in your overhead and you're twisting what does that feel

like that's new yep you know so to add in on the breathing in different shapes Yes. I think anyone who does martial arts, anyone who does, especially jiu-jitsu and grappling, if somebody has you mounted and your arms get over your head, like, can you still catch breath in this position? I remember when I told the story before, I went to Austin two years ago and I rolled with Nicholas Marigali and Victor Hugo, and Nicholas, in one of our roles, he got on mount, he got both, you know, when you get to mount and you slide those person's arms up.

So Nick was doing this to me. He's right here, his hips are right here. arms are above my head he's he's putting pressure on my face and my head's this way but i still had the ability i was like i just got to wait for that point where he he loses pressure so i'm breathing he goes for my arm to go for the arm bar boom i find that i get out in those positions he's known to just kill you i was like this is this position yes i managed to get out of there he was able to breathe yes he still tapped me later in the round i'm not saying that i beat him But the thing is, is I had the ability to calm down and breathe in a position where typically most people would be like, oh shit, they would just tap from the pressure.

Exactly. Right? So from a martial context, you know, you got to find these different areas to breathe. Hickson, if you guys are interested in this, go read Hicks and Gracie's book, Breathe, A Life and Flow. He talks about that a lot of merit to this. Absolutely. And watch Choke. You see him do the, shoo, shoo, shoo, shoo, moving him, doing all that.

keeping the day you know like all that's in there the other thing that's happening when the arms are overhead they've got they have machines that scan this your blood runs from your arms to back to your body very fast once soon as this happens so you can imagine from a you know just neurological perspective okay i'm losing blood flow to my arms because they're up here and gravity is working now you know you think about the emotional consequences of that perhaps um Mark Bowden, when he talks about body language, he calls this, the ecstatic plane. So if I'm talking and my hands are up here, ah, yay, woo-b-b-b-b. Now you think about that, this is the victory pose, right?

So it's like, we're only feel good about doing this after we want. You know, before we win, the hands are down here. We've got to do the game, we got to play the game, but after we win, yeah. So just being able to be comfortable in this winner's pose, having strength in the winner's pose, what does that do again just we're looking at this not just from the perspective of again like bodybuilding as the end goal but just the overall like why would I care about this in my life there's a lot of people that have never had the feeling that they can make the victory pose for whatever reason but building strength in that pose feeling what that feels like the geometry of like yes I did this and being strong there

why not why like I really like trying different things like I'm I already knew this about myself and I've been working on it by doing some dead hangs and I got to do some other stuff to work on it but for me like this isn't really that problematic it's you know the shoulders could definitely be more mobile but for me I'm just so tight through this kind of midsection this middle area that my body kind of wants to like be here yes rather than like you know be like arched up and it actually causes problems in this shoulder this shoulder I think is mechanically I think it's fine I don't think there's anything wrong with the rotator cuff or anything. I think it's the coordination of the rest of my body. It doesn't really want to let that go because I'm so tight through the front lines. So remember that lat, I mean, not the lat, sorry. Remember the clavicle.

Right. So see what happens when you bring that clavicle up. Yeah, changed it right away. Right away. See that? And now it's a matter of just kind of being, like, mobile through the rest to allow that to pull into place. Exactly.

And so, yeah. So that one little cue of keeping the clobiles, clavicle raised, changed the geometry. Right. Because it's very subtle. Like, there's like lots of machinery in that rotator cuff area. You dropped that clavicle. Right away, my shoulder starts to hurt.

It's, shoulder gets pretty quick biofeedback. Oh yeah, your shoulder starts to burn. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. When Peter Cullen got the voice of Optimus Prime, or before he did, he came home and he said, hey, I'm gonna go and audition for Optimus Prime. He's like leader of the Autobots. I'm Optimus Prime.

him is prime and his brother his brother said no don't do it like that his brother was a marine and he said if you're going to lead we're not trying to be tough he said um be strong enough to be gentle and we're looking as we look to find strength and we look to build strength the focus here is how can we be strong enough to be gentle and some of these movements allow us to not beat ourselves up. I mean, yeah, push, push. Step outside the boundaries of your comfort zone and even, I would argue just to continue to expand what your comfort zone is. And in all of that, be gentle with yourself and find strength.