Mark Bell's Power Project - The Steroid Gamble: Hidden Dangers You Can’t Ignore - Pete Rubish || MBPP Ep. 1084

Episode Date: July 15, 2024

In episode 1084, Pete Rubish, Mark Bell, Nsima Inyang, and Andrew Zaragoza talk about the impact PED's can have on someone's mental and physical abilities, including when someone comes off everything. Get your labs done here: 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 work. Subscribe to Pete's YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@UCheOfJyzqcIfGLjtMJbyxPg   Official Power Project Website: https://powerproject.live Join The Power Project Discord: https://discord.gg/yYzthQX5qN Subscribe to the Power Project Clips Channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UC5Df31rlDXm0EJAcKsq1SUw   Special perks for our listeners below!   🍆  Natural Sexual Performance Booster 🍆 ➢https://usejoymode.com/discount/POWERPROJECT Use code: POWERPROJECT to save 20% off your order!   🚨 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!   👟 BEST LOOKING AND FUNCTIONING BAREFOOT SHOES 🦶 ➢https://vivobarefoot.com/powerproject   🥩 HIGH QUALITY PROTEIN! 🍖 ➢ https://goodlifeproteins.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save up to 25% off your Build a Box ➢ Piedmontese Beef: https://www.CPBeef.com/ Use Code POWER at checkout for 25% off your order plus FREE 2-Day Shipping on orders of $150   🩸 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!   Sleep Better and TAPE YOUR MOUTH (Comfortable Mouth Tape) 🤐 ➢ https://hostagetape.com/powerproject to receive a year supply of Hostage Tape and Nose Strips for less than $1 a night!   🥶 The Best Cold Plunge Money Can Buy 🥶 ➢ https://thecoldplunge.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save $150!!   Self Explanatory 🍆 ➢ Enlarging Pumps (This really works): https://bit.ly/powerproject1 Pumps explained:      ➢ https://withinyoubrand.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save 15% off supplements!   ➢ https://markbellslingshot.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save 15% off all gear and apparel!   Follow Mark Bell's Power Project Podcast ➢ https://www.PowerProject.live ➢ https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast ➢ Insta: https://www.instagram.com/markbellspowerproject ➢ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/markbellspowerproject   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 ➢ Become a Stronger Human - https://thestrongerhuman.store ➢ UNTAPPED Program - https://shor.by/JoinUNTAPPED ➢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 ➢ Podcast Courses and Free Guides: https://pursuepodcasting.com/iamandrewz ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamandrewz/ ➢ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@iamandrewz   #PowerProject #Podcast #MarkBell #FitnessPodcast #markbellspowerproject

I think about violence all the time. I know a lot of guys that when they do get on stuff, they are more violent. I'm not as smart right now, and I can feel it. Despite how intelligent Mike is, he hasn't stopped abusing steroids. What is the deal with like, trend? Like, why is it so powerful? All of its effects are like, above the net. You can't hypertrophy parts of your brain. You're off everything?

Yeah, and it's not because I'm like, oh, I want to be super healthy. It's because I don't want to do any more shots. But you feel great. I feel great. People that have awesome physiques, it's not always so connected to just the testosterone. I remember on Trendblown I was just always very irritable, basically kind of a loose can. Do you ever have plans on getting on PEDs again? It's something I've thought about. Do you regret, you know, any of the things you've done? I was taking reckless cycles. And do you not think that these are doing irreparable damage to his heart?

I do worry about my heart. You mentioned from personal experience being aware of the dark side of anabolic use. What is that? How long do you have? Anxiety like you would not believe. Every day that I'm on high doses, I wake up in the morning afraid of the rest of my day.

Intrusive thoughts. I think about violence all the time. Well, if your testosterone is 25 times what it's supposed to be, what the hell do you think it's gonna make you think about? Another one is a marked proximate reduction of IQ. Like right now, as I talk to you, I'm on contest prop. I'm on a considerable dose of anabolic.

I'm not as smart right now, and I can feel it. It's this fog, an inability to perceive a broad spectrum of positive human emotion. I live in a really beautiful area in Michigan, and I walk out in this pond and these trees, and I know that I like looking at them, but it's a memory to me. I go work out every morning,

and I look at the pond and the trees and I'm like, mm, like all I feel is rage and frustration and anger. That's my daily life. You mentioned. He's got a great voice. He's a great voice. He's so descriptive. I love the way he speaks is just, he grabs you in.

But that's scary. Yeah, saying he's afraid of the day, that's no joke. Like that's gotta not feel very good. I've been on steroids for so long, it's hard for me to like remember, you know, what the beginning was like, but I don't ever recall or remember feeling like scared or anxious from them.

Even when you were on, you were on your high power lifting doses? Yeah, I don't think I personally had that reaction. I would say that bodybuilding preparation boosts you into a stratosphere that is probably unlike anything else. it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like,

it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's so, you know, it'd be like, I'd be getting up, you know, 3.30 in the morning to like go train with Mike O'Tran

or whatever at Gold's. And I was just like, she's like, where are you going? I'm like to the gym, you know? And same thing when I came home, like, what are you doing? Like cooking my meal, you know? Like it just didn't have, didn't have that same soft spot that I normally had for her. But I think that most people, but I think that most people,

and I think that that might even happen to natural people. The diet, like you were lean, you were eating less calories. You were on a mission too. That's what I think. Yeah. That's what I think is happening is that you're, so I'm not going to, you know, disclude that what Mike is talking about his experience with anabolic is, but I also think sometimes when you're on a mission, you're preoccupied, you know?

So you could even say while you're in prep or when you're training really hard for something, that you could also potentially be dumber because your mind is kind of somewhere else. But steroids are really interesting because they can put your mind into all kinds of other things. We know that testosterone can make someone horny.

And so the intrusive thoughts there of like thinking of porn or thinking of masturbation or thinking of God knows what the hell you're thinking about, you know? Dude, I just wanna say, I would be so fucked if I was on test. Well, just think about how preoccupied is your mind on sex when you're 15. Even now, right?

I'm in a fog. I think the men- Ass, ass, ass. Yeah, the men were listening right now. They're like, I can relate to that every day. If I think, if we're talking about sex, yeah. I'm just in a fog. Like, oh, what'd you say?

Like, totally forgot. I forgot what you were saying. I was picturing putting my dick in my mouth. No, I'm kidding. Oh, oh God. I do, yeah. Honestly, if I did test, man, none of the relationships I ever had would have lasted.

Yeah. Just that, that, cause like, if I'm already this horny without it, I would be a menace without. You don't need any help. Don't need any help. But it is interesting. Like I even, I find I find it interesting that even on the stuff you did, because you've mentioned on the show that you've done some high doses of stuff.

Have you ever even had any type of scares? Like, okay, it didn't affect your mood, but have you ever done something you're like, this doesn't feel right? Have you ever even had that kind of... This could be it. Anything? I guess like, other medical things that I've had. Okay. This doesn't feel right. Have you ever even had that kind of... This could be it. Anything? I guess like, you know, other medical things that I've had.

You know, like I... For a little while, I was waking up pretty early and I was doing some boxing and stuff for a little bit and I was getting like these weird cramps, but they were on my left side and they were like on my... They were like my chest. And so I went and got a bunch of checkups and stuff for that. It turned out to not be anything, but something like that happened and they're like my chest. And so I went and got a bunch of checkups and stuff for that. It turned out to not be anything, but something like that happens.

And you're like, well, maybe this is from, you know, but even then, you know, I wasn't using a lot at the time, but it does make you think like, Oh shit, like maybe, maybe, maybe my time's up. Maybe it's time for me to pay those debts from what I was doing previously. So things like that kind of do creep into your head a little bit. But in terms of like experience of, I guess like, you know, I guess I'd have to say like by nature, I'm not a super aggressive person in the first place. So maybe it just gives me like a little bit of aggression, which is like

needed, right? Like it's kind of nice sometimes to have a little aggression, but in terms of like hate or anything like that, like I just don't have, just like a normal teenager. I think I had some of that when I was young, but I don't have any of that in me anymore. Yeah. That's kind of like what the, I'll say cop out is, right? When somebody is, I'll just say like pro, like whatever it is, right? Anything with a needle that you put inside your body that's not supposed to be there, not originally supposed to be there is like, oh, she's going to make you more of who you already are. But for you, like, I mean, you are already chill and yeah, you were chill, but do you know what like your testosterone levels were before?

Because you were really jacked at like 24 years old. Like, I mean, like way better than a lot of people who were on stuff, myself included, that like you wouldn't think that like, oh, this guy's, this guy is natural. Like that's how, you know, you're good, your physique looked. So I'm curious, like, did you know about like your testosterone levels then versus once you finally got on stuff? That's a good point because I did develop a lot of strength and did develop you know somewhat of a physique and I think that there's um I think for people listening I think it'd be really wise if you're a young person or you're just a person that's never gotten your blood work done and you're ever even

considering um whether you're considering steroids or not, it would be good to get a snapshot of like what is going on with your testosterone. I think testosterone's a little complicated because I think that people that have awesome physiques or people that are able to express themselves in sport and do amazing things, it's not always so connected to just the testosterone levels.

You know, we've talked before about Sean Baker, how his testosterone levels, you know, you'd look at that guy and be like, it's a thousand. If you guys don't know who Sean Baker is, he's like six four, six five. Yeah, and he's 56 or 57 years old. And he's out to win. 500 for reps.

500 for reps. He's doing all kinds of crazy stuff. Now he's working on like doing sprints and stuff. And he's just- He's doing jujitsu also. He's an animal. He's an animal of an athlete. And all he eats is meat.

Immediately you're like, yeah, he's got, probably like a gram of test running through his body at all times, but he's a natural athlete. And I think his testosterone level is like 300. Three something. Yeah, something like that. I mean, that doesn't seem high. Yeah, no, you look at the guy and you'd be like,

his test has to be at 800 something, like 800 something. And it does make you wonder how important the number is. And then there's like, you know, your regular testosterone and then there's your free testosterone. Sometimes people say that those matter a lot, but I think there's way more going on than just that. I think that it's a cascade.

And I think for someone like yourself that is a professional natural bodybuilder, I think there's a whole cascade, a whole sequencing of your hormones, maybe not any one particular hormone, kind of like bodybuilding. Like you don't wanna just have big arms. You want your arms and your legs and your hamstrings and your calves. You want everything to kind of like bodybuilding. Like you don't want to just have big arms. You want your arms and your legs

and your hamstrings and your calves. You want everything to kind of match up. And I think that's what happens in the body of some people where you're just scratching your head. You're like, there's no way that guy's gotta be on stuff or that guy's just so strong and this and that. And we try to equate it to testosterone. But I think to try to equate it to testosterone. But I think it's, I think to try to equate it

to just testosterone is a big mistake. Or along with that, or somebody gets their blood work done. And I was actually just messaging somebody who's in a Discord server about this. He's 30 years old, 30 something. He got his blood work done. His test isn't super high. And he's like, ah, you know,

I'm pretty sure I need to get on tests. So you get your blood work done, you see that low number, and then you're like, maybe I need TRT. And I'm not saying anything's bad about TRT, but the thing is, it's like that, I think, for a majority of people, that's something, a stone you might wanna pull later on. Because chances are, if you get on TRT,

you're not gonna stop. No one just like starts and then stops. You're gonna be on this, you're gonna be on it for a while. You're gonna, like, you're gonna be using that needle for a while, and that's a commitment. That's a purchasing commitment that you need to make however often. And that's an injection that you need to make however often.

And that's not an easy thing, I think an easy decision anybody should make. I haven't really seen testosterone make a huge difference in people that are, like I know a lot of folks that are trying just to like get lean. You know, they're trying just to have this commitment. They just want abs. They just want to be lean. And I'm not saying that testosterone

doesn't help with that and it doesn't expedite that whole situation. It certainly can. But it doesn't really do that. You still need your diet is like the most critical thing when we're talking about getting leaner and obviously sometimes certain genetics, certain upbringing, the things you did when you were younger, your environment, like there's a lot of things that could be connected to that. But I think that a lot of people think I'm gonna get on testosterone and I'm gonna look like, you know, Calum von Mager,

or I'm gonna look like Larry Wheels or something like that. And it just doesn't work that way. It's not gonna be something that's going to lean you out. In fact, I've seen people get fatter taking testosterone, especially in powerlifting. But I do wanna say that like what Dr. Mike is sharing and what he's experiencing is actually very common.

People having like, he is not really talking a lot about roid rage necessarily, but he did mention how he thinks about talking a lot about roid rage necessarily, but he did mention how he thinks about violence a lot. And I think that violence is on the mind of a lot of men because you're thinking about like protection and stuff like that. So like when I walk down, I mean,

occasionally you just have intrusive weird thoughts, right? I think that's pretty normal. I don't think I'm the only weirdo that has intrusive weird thoughts. I think that's pretty normal. I don't think I'm the only weirdo that has intrusive weird thoughts that you shouldn't have. But when I'm walking down the street with my daughter or walking down the street with my son, especially when they were younger, I'm like, I'm gonna fuck this guy up.

Like if something needs to go down, I got this giant water bottle, smash it over. You start to kind of like think of these different things. So I think some of that is normal, but I know a lot of guys that when they do get on stuff, they are more violent and they are way more aggressive. And that's something that you should really,

I mean, you guys can think of certain people that we've worked out with before that have a shorter fuse, right? But they probably always had not such a long fuse. And it just kind of made that, it just pushes you into like a slightly different spot or position. So it should be something that people really give

if you're bipolar or something like that. I mean, this is stuff that you should really think about before you ever think about going on performance enhancing drugs, not so much just TRT. Because TRT is kind of in a different category. It's a different thing. And if you're using a hundred milligrams of testosterone under the advice of a doctor

and you have maybe depression and some things, I would actually say that that could be super beneficial for some people. I'm not a doctor by any means, but there might be other doctors that would be able to back something like that up. And even for those of you who haven't listened to the FWOD podcast,

I think it is a very interesting listen because he went in on how, because he took the amount of steroids you need to be a pro bodybuilder, but it amplified his anxiety. Yeah, yeah, he came off everything. But when he was on, it actually amplified his anxiety, right? And if he wasn't doing that for work,

he might've not used it because he was making him money, he was building his career, it allowed him to do what he loved to do. But that's something to pay attention to because if you're already someone who has anxiety, if you're already someone who's already angry, understand that that could just make things worse. But going back to what you just mentioned,

he has test levels of a hundred right now. And he doesn't plan on using anything to bring those test levels up, which is actually quite interesting. I'm still like, even right now, it's just like, how do you feel good? As I'm thinking about some of this, it kind of reminded me that I was frustrated

and that I was angry and that I did feel really weird when I came off of stuff. So that's something for people to consider too. In terms of depression, I felt some depression after I did a bodybuilding show and it was for like one day and then it just like disappeared. I don't know, I just thought like I'm gonna do this show, it's gonna be super cool and then I'm to, you know, do X, Y, and

Z with my wife. We're going to hang out and have a good time. And she was like, Hey, you want to do this? You want to do that? And she's all happy because the contest was like, no. So I was, and that, that has really nothing to do with, uh, well, it might have something to do with the drugs I was using, who knows. But that was just, sometimes that happens to people when they compete. You do an event or do something and sometimes afterwards, the way that you think you're going to act or be is slightly different. But yeah, when I came off to have my daughter Quinn years ago, I was just like driving home. I'm like, man, I was like worried about a bunch of stuff

and I was thinking about a lot of stuff and I'm like, what the fuck am I worried about? What am I doing? Like, what is this? And I was like, oh, this must be what the fuck everybody else is always talking about. I'm like, this sucks. And then I started kind of thinking about it,

I got upset, I was like, not crying, but I was like very, you know, getting there and I was thinking about it more. I'm like, what is going on? Like, what is this from? Like there's nothing, nothing's bad, nothing. I couldn't think of anything. And I'm like, oh, I'm like, I'm on like week three

or week four of being off of everything. I wonder if my estrogen levels are pretty high and my testosterone levels are now, you know, trying to figure out a way to balance out and these things are trying to balance each other out. And I think that's what was going on at the time. But I couldn't imagine if I was like a 19 year old kid or 20 years old and I, you know,

started this whole process much earlier, I got all jacked up, did a show or something like that, or a couple of powerlifting meets, and then just decided to go cold turkey and come off of everything. And I'm a person that's had depression before. I couldn't even imagine what that would feel like. And I think that's, in my brother's movie,

Bigger, Stronger, Faster, unfortunately there was a kid that killed himself and my brother went down and interviewed the dad. And the kid was a baseball player. He got on, you know, got on some steroids and took him for a little bit, just to be like a little bit better at baseball. I think he was feeling some of that Texas pressure

that they have with their sports down there. And I just think maybe his hopes and dreams and it kind of work out the way that he thought they would. And then he was advised by a doctor to come off everything because everybody kind of had like an overreaction to it. And the kid ended up killing himself. I don't know if they would have had a different outcome any other way, but looking at that situation now

and knowing what I know, you know, I would never advise someone, especially anyone that has had previous bouts of depression to come all the way off cold turkey out of nowhere. It might be too much. Yeah, that's... I hadn't even considered that. But yeah, if you do have, I don't know, let's say like your physique isn't where you want

to be, you have kind of gone with ups and downs with your body and stuff. And you're like depression levels rise as your body fat percentage rise and that sort of thing. And you get on testosterone, it takes the exact same thing to get in shape on or off testosterone, right? And if you don't do the things on or off testosterone, you are not going to get that physique that you're seeking. You have to do the stuff on or off testosterone. And if you take this stuff, now you're injecting

something and you're like, it's not working. It's me. Like I can't, I can't figure this out even when I'm taking stuff and I can imagine like how crappy that would make you feel. So I've never thought about that. That could be, that could hit somebody very hard. Well, just a big roller coaster of, of doing some of these competitions that people do. And they take performance enhancing drugs. They bring their body fat levels way down. What a bodybuilder considers to be fat is crazy. You know what I mean? Like a bodybuilder will look at another bodybuilder,

a guy will peel off his shirt and the guy will be like, dude, you ain't ready. Like the show's six weeks away. Like you're a little behind. We got to up the cardio, bro. Like you're a little chubby. And you see the guy and the guy is shredded. You can't make sense of what anyone's talking about. Cause you're like, I've never really even seen anybody

with that low body fat percentage, but it's just wild. You know, what they're expecting, expected to do on stage. Can you play that a little bit of that Larry Wills video that we saw, just the beginning part of it, because I think this falls in line a bit with what we're talking about here. This guy's big. He's huge.

In a video saying, I stopped steroids. And I had, as of three months ago, relapse and gone back on a full steroid cycle. You don't say. Now, the reason why I stopped in the first place, because you didn't watch the video, is to stop compromising my health, to ensure that I can have a happy, healthy marriage with my wife, and to focus more on my business being PR and now the gym.

All right, pause. So this is an interesting video for you guys to go check out but in essence, Larry said that he went back on steroids because he had this other goal to bring some more eyes to his brand by doing a bodybuilding show. And to do that show, he'll need to get back on but he, you know, initially he was getting off so that he could get healthier and stuff.

Was he trying to do a bodybuilding show clean? No, no, no, that's why he relapsed because he needed to take PEDs to do bodybuilding, right? But he ended up not going through that goal because he's like, he didn't love bodybuilding, like he loved powerlifting, So he's stopped doing that. But this is kind of one of those things where it's like, again, if you make the decision, it's like,

I think kind of like what Andrew's talking about there, when will you or when will it be enough? Because like, one thing you got to wonder is if you're getting on not just TRT, because I think TRT's kinda normal now, I still think more people should think hard before they do TRT, but it is more normal. TRT is like the entry-level thing.

But if you do make the choice to get on steroids, you gotta wonder, what is it gonna take for you to get to your goal? How big do you need to be? How much muscle would you wanna have? What is the goal? Because it's like getting on a lot of PDs, like Larry just said there in a very responsible fashion, it's not healthy. He wanted to get off for his health. And a lot of these guys like Dr. Mike,

Greg Doucette made a video where he was trying to tell Dr. Mike to get off of steroids because Dr. Mike has the big goal, and I'm talking about Dr. Mike Isertel, he has the big goal of getting his pro talking about Dr. Mike Isertel, he has the big goal of getting his pro card. That's apparently something he's always wanted to do. So I mean, you can't tell somebody

to not go towards their goals, but there's also a big genetic component in bodybuilding. So it seems like he's just going towards this goal with a bunch of anabolics, even though he might not have the best genetics for the sport, because he's never gonna reach the top of the sport, but even getting a pro card in and of itself is a very difficult thing.

So it's like, how hard are you going to take this before, like, you call it quits? He's 40-something years old. Mm. Yeah, bodybuilding has a certain aesthetics to it, right? Yeah. And, you know... It's a genetic game more than it's a skill game. Yeah, it's a huge thing.

And what you, and not even necessarily genetics, but just like almost like epigenetics, like your environment previously, what did you do previously? I think for myself, it would just be hard to get that V taper that a lot of professional bodybuilders get. Now I could build that out and I could have a wide back and giant shoulders and a smaller waist,

but that'll be harder. And I think Isotel has just a very powerful build. Like he just looks like a fucking ass kicker to me. He looks strong and he is squatty, right? And he doesn't have the physique of somebody like an Arnold who's got the longer limbs, who's someone that's taller, right? And so yeah, it is really difficult,

but I think that the value that it brings to chase down your goals is a huge thing. And people are doing that to their detriment all the time, to their detriment of their wife, to the detriment of their kids, to the detriment. So I guess when we look at it and we don't have maybe the same perspective, we just look at it and we go,

man, that guy's gonna have a heart attack. What's he doing? Why is he doing that? And it's, it's so it's hard for us, but like, you know, if you're, if you're him, if you're Mike Isertel and it means so much to you to get to get his goal. And he just like, let's just face it, he just loves it. Right? Yeah. Um, it's kind of fun being big. It's fun being strong. You know, I trained at Westside Barbell and like that was just like, you know, everyone was like, everyone was kind of big and fat, but, but everyone was huge and everyone just kind of had this, this particular look. And that's what each person was into. It's not any different than, you know, skateboard kids look like they skateboard.

You know, baseball players look like other baseball players, football players look like other football players, bodybuilders, especially like a pro. You could spot them from a million miles away. Almost without almost not necessarily just the physique, but the clothes, the fanny pack, you know, the dis the that like the walking around with the water bottle, like it's a whole thing, right? And that's what he wants to do, and that's what he wants to run down and chase down. And I think that's what's great about this country

is you get the opportunity to do that. If you're someone that's taking supplements or vitamins or anything to help move the needle in terms of your health, how do you know you really need them? And the reason why I'm asking you how do you know is because many people don't know their levels of their testosterone, their vitamin D, all these other labs like their thyroid, and they're taking these supplements to help them function at peak performance.

But that's why we've partnered with Merrick Health for such a long time now, because you can get yourself different lab panels like the Power Project Panel, which is a comprehensive set of labs to help you figure out what your different levels are. And when you do figure out what your levels are, you'll be able to work with a patient care coordinator that will give you suggestions as far as nutrition optimization, supplementation, or if you're someone who's a candidate and it's necessary, hormonal optimization to help move you in the right direction so you're not playing guesswork with your body. Also if you've already gotten your lab work done but you just want to get a checkup we also have a checkup panel that's made so that you can check up and make sure that

everything is moving in the right direction if you've already gotten comprehensive lab work done. This is something super important that I've done for myself. I've had my mom work with Merrick. We've all worked with Merrick just to make sure that we're all moving in the right direction and we're not playing guesswork with our body. Andrew, how can they get it? Yes, that's over at MerrickHealth.com slash power project and that checkout enter promo code power project to save 10% off any one of these panels or any lab on the entire website.

Links in the description as well as the podcast show notes. You know, something else that happens when you get wrapped up and chasing down your dreams is that you tend to justify what you're doing. Especially with an addiction, you know, like you can kind of, we can just say like fitness, kind of an addiction. If you're going to be a pro body bodybuilder like I don't know what else to call it but you're you're hustling around with you know these you're hustling around with your all your meals and you got them in a bag and you're You're doing like you're doing so many different things each and every day to make sure that You're lined up to do the absolute best and you have to be like

You know, everyone's a little different but you have to be like at least semi-neurotic. Yeah. To handle it, right? You need to like make sure that you have everything lined up every single day. And it's a really interesting and crazy task, but I would say most of the bodybuilders that I know, that not everyone wakes up like insanely early,

but a lot of bodybuilders wake up pretty early to kind of get a good jumpstart on the day. Not everyone's doing 5 a.m. cardio, but a lot of people are popping up right around 5 a.m. to kind of start their meal prep or make sure they're ready for the day. Bodybuilding is not a profession where you just have tons of money

where you have the luxury of not having a job. So a lot of people have other responsibilities and they're trying just to make everything work around it. But when you're locked into an addiction, you are gonna really start to justify, maybe not lie in this situation, because you're not, but maybe a little,

maybe a little small lies here and there, you know, how long are you going to be at the gym? Oh, I'm just going to be there. She's going to be short workout. It's probably just probably just probably an hour at the most. And that's always two hours every time. I mean, minimum, right? So I think the justification, you know, we all,

we all run into that, you know, we, everyone justifies certain things they do. And we know that we all, we all run into that. You know, we, everyone justifies certain things they do. And we know that we do them and we're guilty of it. And I think, you know, when you get caught up in doing what Mike is doing right now, he's on a mission and he's just trying to make his dreams come true. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, what you're, what you were touching on earlier about like, you know, being on

that mission and the things that can come with it I mean RP strength our Renaissance periodization is like the most I mean they have like over 2 million YouTube subscribers Multi-millionaire like our peace strength is like the top like app that you can get for like dieting and shit like Does that all happen unless he's like, if he's not on this mission, does that all happen? Like I know Nick Shaw is crushing it. He's, he's an amazing, you know, person to have and to be on that team. But man, it's, it's tough to say, like, I don't know, but what I'm getting at is it's like, I know he was talking about like sacrificing and all this stuff and we can look at him and be like, dude, but yeah, you're multimillionaire.

You're fucking funny as hell, dude. He's one of the funniest people. He's got a great personality along with being jacked. He is incredible. Like there's so many like aspects that he has that a lot of people would just, I don't wanna say die for. They would really love to have. And he has them and he's like, more.

You know, and it's like, man, that drive, that... He's a jujitsu brown belt too. Oh, dude, go compete in jujitsu. Like, you want violence. Which is something he wants to do, by the way. He said he wants to compete in jujitsu. That's the spot to let that violence go, man. But what I'm getting at is it's like, it's crazy that this insane drive for more

is like creating so much around him that like, it's hard to argue against what he's doing unless, of course, you know, that's hard to argue against what he's doing, unless of course, you know, that post that you mentioned off air, you know, happens when he's talking about like, you know, if I go all in and I don't make it, just know that this is what I wanted.

So by the way, what Andrew's referencing, and this is from a Greg Doucet video where he's trying to encourage Mike, Dr. Mike Isretel to stop taking steroids. And he put this thing on screen and apparently it's what Mike typed, but he said, if I die before my due time from the cardiovascular shit, it's been real

and this is what I wanted. Do not ever feel the need to be sympathetic of me, Dr. Mike. So that's what he said. It just shows how driven he is towards this goal, which is a scary level of drive. But then it's one of those things where he's applying this to bodybuilding, but you can see how this drive

has been applied to what he does in his business and what he's done with RP. Like, obviously there's some good and some bad to this shit. Yeah, it's hard for us to say like, what's right or wrong for an individual to do. I mean, I took things to extreme levels on, you know, in a bunch of different ways, like just getting so big and getting so heavy I mean, I took things to extreme levels on, you know, in a bunch of different ways, like

just getting so big and getting so heavy along with taking PEDs, at least in the case of bodybuilding, at least you can say, well, these guys are at least minimizing the calories and stuff like they're, I guess you could say they're, I don't even know if you want to say they're healthier, but they're probably healthier in some way than a power lifter that is really revving up their body weight along with their blood pressure and along with just not the healthiest food. And so, whatever he's doing, whatever mission or path he's on,

that's the mission and path that I was on for a long time. I just don't think we have the insight. I think like we won't really have the insight until, C.T. Fletcher has said this before on our podcast. He basically said something along the lines of like, when you're on your death bed, you're gonna regret all of it. You know what I mean? Everything.

And that goes for everybody. And maybe not everybody, but that goes for most people. You're gonna be like, ah, I shouldn't have ate all those cheeseburgers or I shouldn't have had all that beer or I shouldn't have. There's gonna be so many, you know, what it could have, should have. You're not gonna, you're not gonna,

if you're in pain and you're about to die, I'm sure that you're gonna wanna live longer. You'll say, man, I fucking regret that I blasted steroids for so long. But in his case, what Dr. Mike is trying to communicate is that he doesn't think that he'll feel that way. CBD every morning. And so he's on CBD.

That is not a surprise. CBD can help with your anxiety. As you know, Dr. Mike talks about his crippling anxiety from using performance enhancing drugs. CBD is something that helps mitigate these negative side effects from using steroids. And so you know what, it would be better than using CBD. Do you know what's better than that for helping with the anxiety? Not using the steroids in the first place. And so if you're getting anxiety from using steroids, my suggestion is to stop the steroids. So I take CBD. is to stop the steroids. So I take CBD.

You know, steroids, the whole topic of steroids and steroids in the fitness industry, that's so interesting is that, again, it's just, this just has to be the way it is. People that take steroids know that this isn't the greatest thing, but it's going to get me towards my goals, right? But then, like, you can also give the advice not to take steroids, and it's also true. Like, these things are both true. You can have taken them and have seen

great benefit in your life, your success, your business, but then it's also the best idea to tell people not to take them too. And the crazy thing is, like, how can you expect people not to want to take them? Yeah, right? If it's brought you so much, like you've done a lot and steroids were a part of it. Greg's done a lot, steroids were a part of it. Dr. Mike's done a lot, steroids were a part of it.

It's like, god damn, these steroids be looking pretty good, right? Right. It's just, it's interesting. I'm trying to think of other things that are similar to that. Well, in music, right? Oh.

You got, you know, Eminem with mushrooms. Weed. Yeah, yeah. And it's like, we don't really view that that way, You got M&M with mushrooms. Weed. Yeah. And it's like, we don't really view that that way, but imagine, you know, M&M telling you like not to mess with those things, but it's like, well, I think that helped you be like more creative, you know, to kind of get to the other side to be able to come up with some of the things you were able to come up with. And I think, you know, you do see this,

you see it quite a bit. You see it in like a lot of different realms. I mean, even in something like acting, I mean, people are using a lot of recreational drugs and some of these actors and actresses like are at their absolute best when they are, unfortunately, when they're high on something or when they're utilizing some of these drugs like cocaine and stuff like that, it's a performance enhancer.

People have used it in sport before and it's just a double edged sword. And I think sports in some sense, it's like a double edged sword. There's so much you can get from it, but it can be like literally, unfortunately it could be like literally crippling, it could really shorten your lifespan. And I think even like there's statistics on like NFL players just live, they have a shorter lifespan than your average person, which is interesting

because you're like, well, aren't these guys fit and in shape? And of course they're in shape, they're in great shape a lot of times, but just that like drive towards wanting to be, whatever we're considering to be great. And that's what ultimately killed my brother, Mike. He wanted to be more than what he was.

What he was was not good enough for him. He wanted to, whatever he thought better of that would be, that's what he wanted to be. But I don't think it would have mattered if he made it because I don't think there would have been any, he would have never been like, yeah, like, hey, I did it. He would have never even given himself the credit, I don't think.

So, feeling just really good about yourself is a real key ingredient to all this. And I wanna touch upon something with Larry Wills because I love Dr. Mike Isretel and he is one of the better guys in the game when it comes to like YouTube and the fitness stuff that he's doing and the bodybuilding that he's doing.

But Larry Wills is like one of the great, he's one of the all time great strength athletes that we've ever had on this planet. Like Larry Wills is just different. I'm not in his category. Dr. Mike is in his category. I mean, I would put Larry Wills up there with anybody. I'd put him up there with any of the great previous

Mr. Olympia winners, Ronnie Coleman, Arnold, all of them, because of what, Larry Wills is so ridiculously amazing, and he barely even cares about it. Now, I don't mean that as like a knock, I don't mean that as like, he's not committed to it, because he is very committed to it, but like he only did powerlifting for a little while.

And he broke like all the records in powerlifting, broke all time world records that were held by people that were gunning for those numbers forever. And he could have taken it farther. And he just came in and he just annihilated a lot of these records. And he just kind of, you know, seemingly kind of came out of nowhere. I mean, so he

is, he's on a level that is like, it's just, uh, I don't know. It's just, so for him, I could see like where he is so attached to this persona that he, um, has built and he has shown people. It's like, yeah, how does he like, how does he walk off into the sunset as Clark Kent? You know what I mean? Like how do you put on like these little glasses and like walk away from it all and be, you know, smaller and like, you know, quote unquote less than what he was or what he is.

And I think it's awesome that he's, you know, mentioning like putting time into like the wife and all that stuff. But I put up a post a couple of days ago, it was of Metallica, they were in Germany, probably like two decades ago. They played in front of 1.5 million fans. It's supposedly the like, you know,

biggest down there to the left there. It's supposedly the biggest assemblance of like people for any sort of like people for any sort of like music fest or whatever. What? 1.6 million, no way. 1.6 million people? Isn't that wild? Yes, it's like, literally unbelievable.

Or Russia, sorry, it's in Russia. Wow. Yeah, so there's 1.6 million people. It was a few days later, James Hetfield goes to his home and all his shit is on the front lawn. You know, right back to reality, right? He had a drinking problem and you can kind of figure out the rest from there. But you know, to try to like live a normal life when you are a rock star,

when you're someone of that stature. And unfortunately we don't put as much value into our strength sports because Larry Wills should be like James Hetfield. He should be on that pedestal. But it's just interesting because again, I don't know how Larry W wheels like tries to figure out a way To be like normal. I don't know or or pretend to know all the different things he's experienced

But what is he 25 or 27 or something? He's 30. It may like 30 years old Yeah, and I mean he lived in Thailand for a pretty long time. That's where he's living, right? He's in he's in the US now or Dubai or something like that. Yeah, goodbye. Yeah, bye for a pretty long time. That's where he's living, right? He's in the US now. Or Dubai or something like that. Yeah, Dubai. Yeah, he's in Dubai for a while. He just grew up like an interesting life. He barely went to school when he was as a kid.

He's 29. He's 29 years old. He's experienced a lot of stuff. So it's like, Sagittarius, just like you. It's like, how does a guy like that like just have, you know, wife and kids and like just be normal after again, I don't know all his experiences, but I can only imagine what they would be. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'm trying to think of like

equating, you know, like somebody that does steroids and they're telling you not to do steroids, but they have a shit ton of success. Maybe as a business owner, right? A successful business owner is like, yeah, I have it, we'll just use Mark as an example, awesome life, but growing up or on the way up, that's a lot of dedication, it's a lot of shit that you have to go through, and it's like, are you sure you're ready for that?

Are you sure you wanna go through all that? And then a more polarizing, I think that's the right word would, uh, thing would be someone like Johnny Depp. Like he can't go anywhere. Like he's screwed for life. He cannot do anything. He has to do everything privately. He cannot have a normal life ever. So then it's like, well, yeah, but he's Johnny Depp. He can do whatever he wants and blah, blah, blah. It's like, well, he still had a shitty ass, you know, divorce.

And yeah, he has a... Shitty ass. He's got a lot of money, but he can't experience anything. It is easier than what I mentioned. The steroid thing, it's anything that's somewhat of a gamble. Even jujitsu, it's like, you see someone who's really good at jujitsu, who's taken it really far, and they're 60 something, and let's say they made a lot of money and they won a lot of competitions, they're telling somebody young to at jujitsu is taking it really far and they're 60 something and let's say

they made a lot of money and they won a lot of competitions, they're telling somebody young to start jujitsu and that young person does it in year five, they get their knee blown out by somebody, it's a gamble. You might make it, you might not, right? And most of the guys who start taking PEDs because they have this goal of the place that they want to be or the person they want to be, most of them won't get there. You know what I mean? Some of them will, most of them won't, right? And then the people who did get there, it's like, what else can you say, right? So it's a risk.

It is a risk. It's a risk to your health and it's a risk to your long-term outcomes. Hopefully nowadays people have enough information. But it's more popular than ever, even though they have all the information. Yeah, but enough information, like even just on training, like following the information from Jeff Nippert

and even Mike Isretel about hypertrophy. Cause it's like, hey man, if you go in the gym and you work on this, like you're going to get bigger. You're going to get stronger. And then if you work on that for eight years or six years, and it turns out you're like, well, it would be cool to be like double the size of this. Then maybe you're a guy that's gonna wanna take performance enhancing drugs.

I wanna have a serious conversation with you about your balls and I'm being serious here. On this podcast, we talked about a lot of things to help men improve the health of their penis because it's important and your balls have very thin skin. This is true. You can touch them right now and you know it's pretty thin. Women do a lot of things to take care of their vaginal health and men, we don't really think about the things that we put right directly on our balls.

Like our boxers. A lot of popular brands out there have chemicals that are literally touching your balls. Think about this. When you're in the gym sweating, when you're at work sitting, when you're doing all these things, these things could be permeating into your scrotum. Things like BPA, phthalates, pesticides, incesticides, toxic dyes, toxic fertilizers, formaldehyde, all of which could lead to and could exacerbate

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All right. So we're talking about steroids over here a lot and we were talking about some of the recent videos that popped up with Mike Isretel and Dr. Mike was talking about the anxiety and all the different things that performance enhancing drugs were doing to him. And hopefully a lot of people are aware of your story, Mr. Pete Rubish, that you are on performance enhancing drugs. You did over like an 800 pound deadlift at a very young age competing in powerlifting for a long time.

And now you've come off everything, cold turkey, and you're running and you're still lifting and stuff like that. So maybe you could share with us some of your experience with steroids and anxiety. Yes. So I started taking Anablock steroids when I was 20 years old. And over the course of the next nine years I took them, got very strong. I can't make any argument against how well they work.

As far as anxiety and stuff, to me, I mainly experienced that on tremble on where basically everything bad that I ever encountered happened on because to me every other Antibiotic Steroids felt pretty mild by comparison and almost it just they didn't measure up. I didn't feel the side effects. I didn't feel the strectheans or anything like that. But I remember on Trenblown I was just always very irritable, very antsy, just basically kind of a loose cannon as far as that was concerned. So being at the time working as a bouncer, it wasn't really a good combination and it

made the anxiety worse to an extent because I was just very aggressive. And so that was kind of the biggest experience I can recall as far as something giving me anxiety, a performance enhancing drug. But none of the other ones were really all that bad as far as that's concerned. I think I dabbled with Equipoise at one point, which also known as Boldenone. Some people say that can kind of give you anxiety. I've never experienced that. But it was really just kind of trend that was the main one that

I reacted very strongly to. And then other things like anadrol and even halotestin, which can also be fairly strong and give some of those side effects. I didn't really experience that on those either. I wasn't a strong responder to those. That's interesting. So let me ask you this, man. Having come off of everything, how first off, how long have you been off of everything? And again, being years removed from PDs and

your strength doubles there, is there any aspect of you that misses that? Like, do you ever have plans on getting on PDs again in the future for anything? Or how are things looking now? Yeah, it was November of 2020 when I came off, so roughly a little over three and a half years now. And it's something I've thought about before, but I've never seriously entertained the idea of doing so. And I kind of feel like at this point, people almost know me just as much for having come off everything as they do like the basement kind of the basement days and that sort of thing. So at some point I want to become known again for my lifting so to speak and I want to get

as high numbers as I can get drug free. And so that's basically where I'm at now. This kind of foray into running over the last year and a half has been fun, but it's kind of rekindled my love for powerlifting again. And I'm getting back into it. And I want to get competing full power again. I haven't done that in six years.

And just see how high I can take things drug free by kind of tying up all the loose ends I never did when I was on anabolic steroids. Like I never was serious about diet. I never was serious about recovery, about warmups, mobility, taking care of my body, being calculated with my training. And so I'm doing all that stuff now and I want to achieve the highest numbers I can possibly get because I want to show people that can be done.

And I'm just reinvigorated with lifting. Are you going to get fat? No, I thought about it. Because you're like 51, so you got to be a certain weight, right? Well, I'd like to stay in the 220 class at the highest because I competed at 242. I would cut down from about 253-ish for most meets when I was on everything. And I'd like to kind of keep it sub 220 to avoid the sleep apnea and all the other stuff

that kind of comes along the high blood pressure. So I'm not going to give up running entirely. I'll run like two days a week probably, but lifting has become much more serious again. So. What about those food reviews? Any plans on sparking those back up you had the best those were amazing Yeah, you ever see that? Yeah, it was it was a pretty bad diet back in the day with the four cheese rice roni and the beef and all that Donuts and candy and whatever. Yeah, probably not.

I've tried to clean up the diet, like I said, actually eating protein these days. Because I want to say this is the truth. When I was on everything and competing a bunch, I probably wasn't getting more than 125 grams per day of protein consistently over that time because I just didn't… I was… You know, to me, diet and all of that other stuff did so little compared to just training like all out and then taking the performance enhancers. So I didn't take like creatine or other supplements, protein powder.

And nowadays, I'm like trying to get the whole gram per pound of body weight in protein and do things properly. And I've noticed a big difference. So I don't know, I just want to like maximize the numbers that I think I can hit on nothing and prove people wrong and then also show like what's possible. So you inspire people to come off? Are you aware of that? Do you know if you like have people messaged you and been like, hey, I was on for a while

and I came off because you have you inspired some people to make different decisions? Yeah, yes, sir. I've heard from a lot of people over the years who have a almost similar story or they're trying to do so. And they come to me, you know, comparing like testosterone levels and such and asking questions and all that sort of stuff. And that's been kind of cool to see. I mean, now that I'm going to be 33 years old in another month, I have my daughter,

she's just over two years old, it's caused me to settle down, so to speak, in a way where I'm like I need to prioritize my health, I need to be here for them. I've seen friends pass away and such and I just want to be healthy but I also still have that passion to be as strong as possible. That passion feels as high as it's been in recent memory in the last five, ten years. So I'm excited to pursue strength really hard again, but I don't want to sacrifice my health at the same time. Like in a week, I'm going to get a coronary CT angiogram to actually take a look at what's going on with the heart. I've never done that. I've looked at all the other organs look amazing. The kidneys, everything's checked out phenomenally

since coming off, but the heart is something I haven't really looked at fully. And then I also had that predisposition to heart attacks with the high lipoprotein little a genetic marker. So I really want to look into that and see what's going on in there. That exam is really great. It shows you your, it shows if there's any blockage. It shows whether there's soft plaque or hard plaque.

Cause I know there's like one type of test you can get and it just shows you, you know, your calcium score basically. And there's another type of test that shows you, you know, more, you know, way more detailed, I guess, basically. And so that's really, really great that you're getting that done. I guess a big question here is like, how did you walk away from it?

Because you built something and you built it, it wasn't like you built it like literally just in your basement. There was a lot of people following along and to a lot of people in the power, in powerlifting at the time, you were like a hero to a lot of them. And then for you to be a smaller version with a smaller cape, so to speak, you know, how are you able to turn, turn the corner on that? Because I think that's what's in the back of a lot of people's heads are like, man, I don't think I'll ever come off because I don't want to shrivel down and be

less than what I was. Yeah, that was difficult for sure. That was a period, especially those first couple of years afterward, where I struggled in a sense with my identity with the loss and strength because it was almost like a continuous drop over years rather than all of a sudden at once. It was just continually losing strength slowly and size and bleeding all that muscle out. And so that's kind of where I had to flip towards running for a little bit to kind of

give me something to focus on, some new task, some new pursuit that I could kind of channel all that energy into that would leave me feeling so depressed so to speak. And so I did that for the last year and a half and I feel much better again. I feel like I really want to give it everything I've got from a strength standpoint, do it all the right way. But it was definitely tough. It was the decision where it really came down to trying to conceive, trying to have a child.

I know people can do that on testosterone replacement. It's been done, but we felt like that gave us the best odds coming off everything. It's proven to be tremendously rewarding because it took seven months after coming off before we were able to make that happen. Then just at that point, it was staying off entirely from a health standpoint and I Feel like my mind's a little clearer like having that high Testosterone level and the high libido and all that stuff that came with it It was it's tough to focus to an extent on other things like business and all that when you're when you're always wrapped up

so I like where I'm at now and I just want to maximize everything I can drug free. Like I don't even like saying naturally because I know a lot of people don't necessarily like that when they're like lifetime drug free and all that sort of stuff. So I'm just seeing what I can do now. Yeah, you're really well informed on like blood work and hormones and all these different things that maybe a lot of people don't know how much you know about these things,

but I've asked you a lot of questions behind closed doors about hormones and tests and all these different things that people get. They get their hormones checked out and stuff like that. What is testosterone? Like, it's interesting because there's some people that have low testosterone and they look amazing. They got tons of muscle mass on them.

A Jeff Nippert and a Eugene Taylor would be an example of that. Yeah, and so we see, and sometimes we'll hear, Dr. Sean Baker has like low testosterone levels. So we hear stuff like that here and there. And I think that for some reason, people are really attached to this idea of they just think that their testosterone levels

have to be high for them to really do much of anything. But I don't know, what have you seen and what do you think is going on there when someone has low testosterone, but is still able to be very strong and still able to build a lot of muscle mass. Yeah, that's a tricky question because I've seen it in myself even, like to some extent I'm surprised

my physique's gotten to where it has, with testosterone levels as low as they are because the highest I've achieved since coming off was 500 nanograms per deciliter at one point. This last one a month ago was 404 was the test level and that's with like running a stupid amount of mileage, you know, 80, 90, 100 miles a week. But I don't think it's the end all be all. I think there's a lot more to that.

So it's tough to say what exactly is like the science behind it, but I've seen plenty of people with relatively lower normal testosterone levels get super jacked. And it almost seems to play more of a role in strength. Like higher testosterone levels do seem to aid strength almost more than like the size component from what I've seen. And this is just purely anecdotal, but I've seen people get really huge being drug free or with a relatively normal testosterone level. And then it seems like once that strength, once we see the higher level strength takes

off more and more. Yeah, each person, I guess, has their own goals and then each person has to kind of decide the sacrifices that they might be willing to give up for those goals. Do you regret any of the things that you've done, or are you pretty good with it and just trying to move forward the best you can from there? Yeah, I don't regret it because it kind of got me to where I am in life.

It's all part of God's plan as far as where I'm at, and how everything has played out, and what's going on now, the direction moving forward. But I think I do worry about my heart at certain times, which is why I wanna get it checked out. You know, I was never serious about taking care of my health during my 20s and I think that's why almost it's like an overcompensation maybe to an extent now in my 30s because I didn't

worry about blood pressure. I know it was always super high. I know I had sleep apnea that was untreated for a decade. I know I was taking reckless cycles and not taking any ancillaries as far as like statins or anything to prevent cholesterol from getting out of hand, ApoB, that sort of stuff. So I didn't do really anything to take care of my health in my 20s. And now it's almost like I'm hoping that damage or whatever happened, I don't know the extent of it, can be reversed or can be minimized as much as possible.

So I'm like doing way more now to try to take care of a cardiovascular exercise diet, just making sure all the blood work's dialed in, all that sort of stuff, staying lighter, being a lighter body weight. I know you know what that's like because it's a burden to carry around whether it's muscle or fat. It's a burden to carry around that much weight. And it affects everything, so I've almost just reversed it and I feel pretty good now.

With Dr. Mike Izzatel, with him talking about all these issues that he has from performance enhancing drugs, Greg Doucet has had a lot to say about that. And he basically is just saying, look, man, Greg Doucette has had a lot to say about that. And he basically is just saying, look man, you're never going to be a high level pro bodybuilder anyway. You don't have the genetics for it. So he's trying to basically just kind of shoot down the dreams and just say, because you

have all these side effects, or because you have the side effect of anxious and being scared of your day every day, you should probably just come off of it. What are some of your thoughts on that? Because you went after certain goals and certain dreams, seemingly maybe not paying attention to some of the dangers. Yeah, it's tricky. It's hard for me to tell people not to do it when I did it.

But at the same time, I definitely wouldn't encourage it. I still worry about some things, like I said, like the heart issues. I don't know if I have any, we're going to find out quickly. But it's a concern. It's definitely a concern more so than anything. Like I think a lot of the the stress the body's under when you're on them maybe as far as like kidneys and liver and all that sort of stuff I think a lot of that can be reversed or kind of it's temporary to an extent. I'm hoping it's that case with the heart but the heart is really the one organ you don't want to play around with

and it's the one that makes me wonder what I've done or how things are looking in there. So sometimes that leads me to question like maybe I shouldn't have done that. But nowadays there's so much more info out there and I think if guys are going to go down that route, you can do it in just a much safer manner, so to speak. Because even compared to 2010, there wasn't the amount of information on being safe with using them that there is now. So it can almost be done in that way. And then that just didn't seem to be the case

a decade or two ago. You know, Pete, I'm curious about this because most guys that are in your situation would have just been like, okay, you know, I'm on anything and my test is at this level, I'm just going to do TRT. So why is it that like, you haven't even pulled the trigger on TRT

and do you think you'll do something like that in the future? That one's tough to say. I think it's more like the idea of and do you think you'll do something like that in the future? That one's tough to say. I think it's more like the idea of seeing how far I can get with my strength and my physique with no TRT. It's almost like a personal challenge. So that kind of excites me to an extent because it's like I've never pushed it as high as

I know I could have before I jumped on everything and I want to see what I can do now and maybe set that example because I do feel like a lot of people know me for having come off but they also I'm not considered like that strong right now and I want to get back to a point where I'm like okay people are say this is a respectable level of strength and it's admirable to try to attain that level and it's possible. So I think it's something like that, that keeps me off TRT. What can I get done without it? So let's say you get the results back from that test and your heart looks healthy and

fine. Are you going to think, Whoa, I dodged a bullet. I'm glad I got through that. And you're going to remain off or are you going to think, okay, my heart's strong. And now I'm much smarter. And I know you just mentioned about it being a challenge and stuff. But is that going to be a little bit harder to no longer, you know, go back on PEDs if you get a clean bill of health and now you have the added knowledge of like how to potentially safely quote, safely do some of these things. Yeah,

I think I definitely look at it like, wow, I dodged a bullet if it comes back clean because I know even I mean first of all to be to be truly transparent like I'm not expecting it to to be a glowing report necessarily like I know I'm not trying to be pessimistic but I'm just not given my genetic history. I do recall this was five years ago, 27 years old, I had the calcium score thing done. That was right after Dallas McCarver passed because I had seen him all the time. He was at my gym and everything. He was 26 or 25.

He was the same age as me or a year younger. And so I'm like, I didn't know enough and I'm like, I'm going to get a calcium score to see. I'm kind of freaked out. And it was like a two, which is low. But at the same time, I didn't realize at the time that if you have any plaque at that age, it's like not good. So it was in like the 50th percentile or something, you're not supposed to have any plaque below like 40 years old in your arteries. So that kind of made me pause now looking back on. So I am expecting there to be a lot of, maybe not a lot, some degree of that. I just don't know to what extent and I'm going to try to reduce it by continuing to take

vitamin K2. I probably will start doing a statin like Crestor twice a week, maybe three times a week to try to keep the APLB and LDL down. But I just don't have good luck with my genetics. I don't have that in my favor as far as heart health and I went pretty hard for a while so I just, if it's positive at all, I will think, wow, I dodged a bullet, but I'm also preparing for it not to be. So I'm glad you're bringing a lot of this stuff up because this is important for people

to know and for people to learn. There are no drugs, there are no pharmaceuticals, and there's no known way to reverse plaque in your arteries. There's not any clinical, there's not any like, there's not any like clean tests that they've done where they've seen people reduce the plaque. However, there are newer drugs nowadays and there are things that, unfortunately, they all just basically sort of target

your LDL cholesterol. This is just some of my understanding of some of this and I'm not amazing with this information, but I know some of it. There's these other types of drugs that are, and I think I'm screwing this up, but they're basically called PKS9 inhibitors. I might be messing a letter or something like that

due to my dyslexia. I might be mixing things up a little bit, but they're called something like that, and those things are supposed to not allow for any more, for any further damage to be done. And then I think what's supposed to happen is over time, some of the soft plaques turn into hard plaques, which if I have my information right,

the hard plaques are supposed to be the ones that you actually want rather than the softer plaques, I'm not sure why that is. But I guess the real danger is for those plaques to kind of break away, and when those plaques break away, and they like chip, then they will basically cause a heart attack because they will basically clog an artery, I guess you'd say. And again, I'm probably off on a little bit of that information, but it's

important for people to know that are thinking about performance enhancing drugs or that are already on them. We could sit here and joke about it and laugh and be like, my blood pressure's a little high and we could talk about certain things, but your blood pressure being high I mean something that can kill you instantly. That's something not to mess around with. But I think that people kind of go through their day to day

with high blood pressure. It's pretty normal. A lot of Americans have high blood pressure and that is very reversible. Like that high blood pressure is pretty easy, not always, but a pretty easy fix. Usually someone just reduces the amount of carbohydrates, they get their calories a little bit better

and like they're good to go. They drink water and they have some other disciplines that are pretty good. It's like, okay, well, you're good to go. But your heart is something that people need to really pay attention to. And so I'm glad you're bringing it up because once your heart starts to, you know, maybe head in the wrong direction, all you can really do is like slow it down from getting worse, at least at the moment. So hopefully they continue to make better drugs, but hopefully us PED users make better decisions before we go diving too far into something that could do damage for a lifetime. Yeah that's the one area that really scares me and that's why I needed to get, you you know to look into what

happened what's going on in there because we've seen a lot of people just in the fitness industry pass away from heart-related issues so that's no joke and I just don't want to play around with it anymore and you know there's been good steps obviously up to this point, but I'm taking it more and more seriously over time because I just, I do not want to have a heart attack. Scene two, Michael. It's amazing, you know, it's amazing that you've,

you've switched over to running and that you're able to run the distance that you're able to run and everything. And again, there's no known way to, you know, to fix your heart, so to speak, but like you must have strengthened it to some extent. And I do know that like also, you know, marathon running and the amount that you're running, you know, that's something that, you know,

in accordance to when you get this test back, that's something that you're gonna wanna evaluate. You may never want to run to the lengths that you did and the speeds that you did, because those unfortunately can be damaging to the heart too. And if you start going like 10 Ks and half marathons and stuff, way less damaging.

But a marathon is like right at that brink, you know, it's right at that kind of breaking point that can really fuck people up. Yeah, that's the irony of it is running to the extreme can also be very problematic. I was listening to a podcast with Dr. Jalette, Kyle Jalette, and they were saying even, they were like basically saying you should not exceed

a 10K distance if you're worried about your heart health, which is six points. You're like I do that every day. Yeah, we've taken that to the extreme. And you know, they worry about the left ventricle hypertrophy and the left atrium hypertrophy from running, which can also is more likely to trigger arrhythmias and stuff like that, AFib.

So that's also concerning because even I've been running this extreme mileage. I had like a week of 102 miles. I had a week of 90. I had a couple of weeks of 70 plus. In recent months, recent weeks even, leading up to that 100 mile race and like in the last couple months, there were two random occasions where like my heart basically like for 30 minutes wouldn't come down and it was like almost like an arrhythmia, a fib type thing, which had never happened in the previous years.

I think it was a byproduct of all the running, which can happen. It was about like 100 beats per minute for like 30 minutes and like nothing I could do to bring it down until that 30 minutes. And it could be completely nothing. It could be unrelated. But having seen that podcast where they talk about that with like ultra distance runners and the like the higher likelihood of a fib and all that. That definitely like made me a little nervous.

And a lot of that can be reversed like the growth just like when you come off steroids like steroids grow your heart. They can come back. It can come back down when you come off or when you're not on the cycles. Same with the running. If you back off the running, it could shrink back down. But that was a little concerning, because it scared me. It felt off, let's put it that way.

And that's another reason I'm like, all right, let's see what's going on. Yeah, thanks for sharing all this with us today. I really, really appreciate it. Let me know what the outcome is from that test and see if we can get you some good help if there is anything. But I think you're going to be doing just fine. You're like, I did a lot of Trent. I don't know.

You know, you talked about the anxiety question. The anxiety now is like, what is my heart doing from all of the Trent and all of the drugs? That's the anxiety. So maybe not necessarily when I was on them, but now I'm like, man, I am nervous about how things look and it could all be, could all be good news. We'll see. I don't know.

How long did it take you to finish that hundred miles? Yeah, that was freaking brutal. So Jeremy and Brock, I know you know Jeremy they actually finished this guy did not I never prepared in a million years to not finish like the mental state going in that was never an option because I trained so hard I put like everything I had every bit of me into the training I mean I just I pushed it so hard over the last year. Everything I had, I did nothing but tons of hill work. And basically, it was like my first ultra

and I was not ready for the things that were gonna go wrong. So physically, I think I was in shape, but I was not experienced. Just like you go into your first meet a lot of times and you just do terrible because you're not ready for all the little intricacies. But the problem for me, like being quite frank, the biggest thing that probably ended the race for me and I got 66 miles in before I had to call it, I could not stop going to the

bathroom number two. Okay. Like I couldn't get it under control like it was if you're eating nothing but pretty much shells I got to mile 27 and things started going off the deep end and I dealt with that for like 39 more miles where I Couldn't stop going to the bathroom because like It's out and it sounds so it sounds so silly but like, no, this literally ruined my race. I didn't have any Imodium. I'm like, please God, someone bring me Imodium. That's the one thing I need. It was killing me.

So that was the main problem. There was a lot of cramping issues. I had 50 electrolyte caps over the course of that 66 miles, like 50. I was super hydrated. I was on top of that, like being clear for the most part the whole race, but I was dealing with these extreme quad cramps in my Vastus medialis and then hamstring cramps that would just, I would just fall over.

Like I couldn't do anything. I'd be laying there for 10 minutes trying to get rid of them. So that was another issue because my legs were like not used to that kind of mountain climbing. I'd done a lot of hill work, but you're doing like 3,000 foot climb in three miles, your legs are smoked. And really those were the two main issues. By the time I got to mile 55, my feet were destroyed completely from blisters.

And I should have had better footing like Brock and Jeremy, like they had a pair of shoes they both wore, like they knew these things were good. I just didn't, I picked their brain a lot, but they said a lot of it comes down to experience like having seen the course now, if I were to go back, which I might at some point, it would probably be maybe a different story. But I got home with hard. It was brutal. It was twice as hard as I thought it would be. I mean, it killed me. Those altars are too hard. It's like a torture. Like it's beautiful. You're in this beautiful scenic Canyon and

mountains and there were probably 25 river stream crossings you had to submerge yourself in. And then there were also like constant shindy mud. It was constant. It just kept coming all the time and rocks and boulders you're climbing over. It's just so remote. Like it was unreal. I was a zombie at the end.

I was like 66. I couldn't even think. I was being paced by Sam Okanola The natural bodybuilder. Yeah, and he we didn't I don't think we said a word for the last like 15 miles because we were So dad like he's he's actually doing one in two weeks. So he's I'm gonna see you know, he's going out to Montana I'm rooting for him. I'm hoping he gets it done for us big guys, but We were like there was like no speaking for 15 miles because the suffering was that intense. But he was an awesome guy and he's freaking huge. Yeah.

He's the biggest guy out there. Yeah, I'm not surprised, he's huge. Have a great rest of your day, Pete. Thank you so much. Appreciate you guys. You're too. Bye. Being able to handle the stresses of your day,

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That was great getting that insight from Pete. It was really cool to hear that. And then I wasn't really expecting to go into all that like heart stuff, but that was neat too. I think it really kind of gives people an idea of like, if you're considering this, you might feel like, oh, there's all this good muscle size, all this shit, but then the health thing

you're not thinking about right now. And most people, I don't think they realize how big of a weight that can have on you in the future. Because when you get older, you're really thinking about that shit, right? So it's like... Could potentially do damage that, at least at the moment,

they don't have any known scientific way of reversing. So it's definitely something to consider. You know, like if you knew that you were going to do that to even just like your right knee, you know, and you're just going to take, you know, you're going to do this activity or the sport, but you're going to take like 20% off of, you know, what your right knee is capable of. And you can't do anything to fix it. All you can do is prevent it from getting worse.

You know, then you would be like, oh, I don't really know how much I love that sport. Maybe I'll try something different. Yeah. Yeah. Damn. Slightly different route. If you're in your twenties, again,

I feel like when you're in your twenties, you really think you're invisible. So you're like, fuck it, I'll be fine. Invincible. Do I say it wrong? I think he said, you really think you're invisible. So you're like, fuck it. I'll be fine. Invincible. Mm-hmm. I think he said invincible. I think he said invincible. Yeah, you said like unable to see. Oh, there's an invincible, invisible, invisible, invisible.

I think he said invisible. He said invisible. Yeah. Huh. 20 year olds think that they're see-through. Invisible. I guess, yeah. So anyway. Maybe they do.

This is the only time we get to do this to you. Cause normally perfectly honest. I didn't even realize there was a difference. No, no, no, no, no. I, I, I invincible, invisible. Like I wasn't really thinking like, I'm bringing up a great point. Maybe it doesn't matter. No, it probably does. I just never really can't see the person. Maybe they're indestructible. It's that point. You know, your brother's fucking full board really set me. There's literally a fifth of this left. I am gone.

But at the same time, you don't want to be gone, which is why you want to think hard in your 20s about this shit. It's really hard for people to think that far in the future. It is hard, not seriously. The thought of like- Especially when on all that trend. Yeah, oh yeah.

They're thinking about a lot of other stuff, right? Other things. But yeah, okay, you about a lot of other stuff, right? Other things. But yeah, okay, you guys ready for this clip? Mm-hmm, I'm ready. Yeah, ready for this. Actually currently, right now, I have severe anxiety disorder. He feels like when he's taking steroids

that he doesn't have control of himself. So listen, I mean, we're joking around, he's having a good time, but what are you taking from this? Remember, Mike Hizertel at the end says, I'm not a mean person. But when he's on steroids, especially in large doses, he's feeling a lot of anxiety.

He doesn't feel comfortable in his own scalability. We've seen the physical changes. We've seen the clubbing of the fingers. We've seen his forehead larger than last time. We know he's on growth hormone. We've seen the protruding of the abdomen. The belly's getting larger than last time. And so in the end, should Mike not call it a day? Well, of course he

should. And actually currently, right? Yeah, he does have the club finger thing. Do we have information on whether his forehead is getting larger? We have comparison videos. I've known. It's like Mike Isretel's head used to fit into this helmet and now it doesn't any longer. Remember they did that with Barry Bonds? Yeah. I'm trying to talk about it. It's like his is retail's head used to fit into this helmet and now it doesn't any longer. Remember they did that with Barry bonds. Yeah. I'm trying to talk about it. It's like his helmet science. Yeah. I did tell Mike recently, I said that you have to come out and admit

that you're an evil villain. Cause like with these pockets right here, I mean, who knows what he can do. I mean, Jesse Burdick has those Joe Sullivan has those. Yeah. What are those? Jesse Burdick does have the same head. Holy shit. Those, I don't know. Yeah. It's like an extra like back strap, but like on the side of the head. Battery pack backup. Rocket launchers. Something's in there. Yeah. But he's making it grow bigger according to Greg Doucet. He's

making his forehead and his head grow bigger because of his growth hormone. I don't know. Is it club finger? I've never heard of that one. Yeah, yeah, it's like, if you look up club fingers, Mike also has it. Just look at Google image and club fingers.

Apparently that's growth hormone thing. It happens when people take a lot of growth hormone. Fingers just get f fatter. Yeah. Wider, bigger. Yeah, it looks pretty wild. Interesting. But yeah, again, I think all this is really, it's cool that more people are talking about it

and getting more awareness because of Dr. Mike Izzertel. But I think it's also, it's one of those things where, the testosterone, it matters, but you know people that have great physiques with not high, super high testosterone. So it's one of those things where tissue building takes a long time and it's not everything. I think also, like even Pete Rubish,

he kind of alluded to it, but he's got into running, which is a performance based thing. And he was doing power lifting before, but you know, a lot of these sports, when you're so focused on the way you look, you tend not to be patient with your progress. If you can find something that still allows you to build some tissue, but allows you to focus on performance and doing something with your body, improving the skill of doing something, rather than just like how big you're getting and how much muscle you're gaining,

that could really help, because it'll have you focus away from your physique, focus on your performance and over time your body will improve, but it takes time. And that's just, that's the tough part about it. It takes way too long. It does. You know, when I was a kid, you know, watching, you know, like pro wrestling and stuff and like, you know,

just I would seek that stuff out. I'd seek out, you know, certain magazines, bodybuilding and stuff like that. And those were things that I was like, I wanna be like that someday. You know, those were things that I thought about when I was young. But now, nowadays, I'm not sure how you get away from it.

People in these movies and people in like, some of the reality TV shows and stuff, people are fucking shredded. Like people have really good bodies and physiques. I'm like, holy shit, I don't know what trashy show my wife watches, but she's always watching these like dating things or whatever. Yeah, shit like that. And these people look incredible. So I can only imagine, you know, what it would be like to be, you know, young. And I don't know if those people are on shit, but I wouldn't doubt that they,

wouldn't doubt that they probably, you know, run a little gear before they get on those shows and maybe work out a little bit harder than normal. But these, you know, these bodies are kind of everywhere. And I would imagine if you didn't look like that, you might feel like, oh shit, maybe I should, rather than just the gym, because you know that the gym takes a long time,

you're probably thinking like, oh, maybe by, maybe six months I could look a little bit like some of these people. So I think it's an easy trap to kind of fall into. It is, don't fall into it. Anyway, I hope Dr. Mike does make his hopes and dreams come true. I hope he does get that IFBB card

because it would be that much sweeter if he's able to pull it off in the end. And hopefully he does so safely as well because I think he's super funny and he's fun to watch. He's helping tons of people. I learned from his stuff, man. He's great. We want him here for decades to come.

Yeah, we want him back on the show. Yeah. We want those ratings. We want that YouTube money. Strength is never weak this week. This never strength. Catch you guys later. Bye.