Mark Bell's Power Project - Wanting More Muscle is Ruining Your Mental Health? Response to Philip DeFranco || MBPP Ep. 933

Episode Date: May 17, 2023

In this Podcast Episode, Mark Bell, Nsima Inyang, and Andrew Zaragoza talk respond to a video from Philip DeFranco on men struggling with body dysmorphia caused by fitness influencers and the fitness community. Watch Philip's video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzGqsCp_SiE&t=189s   Time Stamps 00:00 Preview 00:48 Episode Start 01:55 Philip Defranco begins, it’s ok to be skinny 02:28 What age when we started “Building Muscle” 04:06 Eating habits of young men 09:46 Men and focus on appearance 13:58 Most men care more about looks than success 19:49 Putting too much stock into influencers 29:20 Philip on mental effects of focusing on the body 30:58 Try something other than LIFTING 34:30 George Foreman Come back 39:16 Strength Dysmorphia? 40:50 Screen time and Muscle Dysmorphia and celebrities/influencers bodies 42:20 Phil’s Transformation 42:38 Mark’s wife Loves Henry Cavill 45:16 Media is also causing Muscle Dysmorphia  and protein shakes are dangerous? 49:18 We’re in the age of comparison 51:31 Should you unfollow people to guard your mind? 54:38 Episode End New Power Project Website: https://powerproject.live Join The Power Project Discord: https://discord.gg/yYzthQX5qN Subscribe to the new Power Project Clips Channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UC5Df31rlDXm0EJAcKsq1SUw   Special perks for our listeners below! ➢ https://withinyoubrand.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save 15% off supplements!   ➢ https://mindbullet.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save 15% off Mind Bullet!   ➢ https://goodlifeproteins.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save up to 25% off your Build a Box ➢ Better Fed Beef: https://betterfedbeef.com/pages/powerproject   ➢ https://hostagetape.com/powerproject Free shipping and free bedside tin!   ➢ https://thecoldplunge.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save $150!!   ➢ Enlarging Pumps (This really works): https://bit.ly/powerproject1 Pumps explained: https://youtu.be/qPG9JXjlhpM   ➢ https://www.vivobarefoot.com/us/powerproject to save 15% off Vivo Barefoot shoes!   ➢ https://vuoriclothing.com/powerproject to automatically save 20% off your first order at Vuori!   ➢ https://www.eightsleep.com/powerproject to automatically save $150 off the Pod Pro at 8 Sleep!   ➢ https://marekhealth.com Use code POWERPROJECT10 for 10% off ALL LABS at Marek Health! Also check out the Power Project Panel: https://marekhealth.com/powerproject Use code POWERPROJECT for $101 off!   ➢ Piedmontese Beef: https://www.piedmontese.com/ Use Code POWER at checkout for 25% off your order plus FREE 2-Day Shipping on orders of $150   Follow Mark Bell's Power Project Podcast ➢ https://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 ➢ https://www.breakthebar.com/learn-more ➢YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/NsimaInyang ➢Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/?hl=en ➢TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nsimayinyang?lang=en   Follow Andrew Zaragoza on all platforms ➢ https://direct.me/iamandrewz   #PowerProject #Podcast #MarkBell #FitnessPodcast #markbellspowerproject

It is okay to be skinny. Most young guys are not eating the most healthy things. Most people should be more regimented with the way they eat. It shouldn't be a free throw. With a 2014 poll finding that men worry more about their appearance than their health, family, relationships, or professional success. When I was 16, I remember I was trying to cut a little bit of body fat. I told you guys about this and I went on a 1,000 calorie diet.

The performance is the thing that should be focused on rather than always how the body looks. A lot of people start lifting weights because they want to like be more significant. They want to be stronger. And why do you want to be stronger? Like break that down. Maybe you want to be stronger because you want to be able to defend yourself. Maybe you think that if you build yourself up big enough that people won't mess with you. But what if you just did something different? What if instead of that, you went to jiu-jitsu in the first place or went to wrestling in the first place? Ready? Wait.

Let me, uh... Oh, oh, here you go. He's going in. He's revving it up. Only act this way. Let's bring the energy, guys. Let's go. Get the bass in. Don't break the fucking thing i really could accidentally break this table oh dude mark have you seen the fact that we have another hole in the freaking studio

in sema with his in sema strength out of nowhere goes to open the door to walk out and i just hear a loud thunk oh shit and i'm like i thought the door was heavy why would you think the door is heavy it's the same door that we open every day i don't know i was like going out to the door i was like for some reason i said i was like no i managed to fucking doorknob hit the drywall and broke it right off the hinges like a nice hole in the other side of the studio now. It's freaking great. I'm so sorry. Oh, God, when that half.

I'm so sorry. That can happen. I'm not paying for it. Because, well, we already did pay for it. We have to fix it now. We have to fix it now. That's because we're a team, guys. When one of us stumbles, we help them up.

We should literally actually fix it, like the three of us. That would take a long-ass time. We are not good with tools. I'm not. You're Mexican. I was going to say, I think I could be fine, but it would be cool to just all wear the white hat and just observe you guys guys and be the, uh, whatever it's called. Just the ways it's in your jeans. Yeah.

My dad do it, but I don't know if I can do it. Yeah. Whenever I did like work like that when I was a kid, my dad would be like, no, no, no,

like this. And then he'd show me and then he'd go back and forth, back and forth. Next thing you know, he'd take the brush for me and paint the whole garage. I feel so like, Hmm. Doesn't that make you feel emasculated

like the way your dad can just work with his hands yeah i know like you have strong hands and i got no strong hands but my dad still you know gets right underneath the car he's like i gotta fix this tube or whatever i'm like what the fuck's he doing i feel like less of a man yeah he'll go right underneath there i'm like how the hell you even fit underneath there i don't understand what's going on even my girl's a better handyman than all youtube things and like figure it out but she's like my dad showed me this and i'm like my fucking wife installed like a whole house fan those things are so difficult yeah more than once i paid someone to do that climbing up in the attic and shit really yeah there's like like wiring and shit you gotta do yeah she's out

there like mowing the fucking lawn pregnant still helping with the yeah still yeah just always pregnant for some reason that's what i meant but that's funny doing shit with the chicken coop and whatever the fuck else projects he's got going on that's wild i don't know what's going on yeah my dad's 70 years old and he's still building a car like in his backyard now and you a different car yeah well it's it's his old car but he stripped it completely and he's like rebuilding it and then he's just like oh yeah and like check this out he you know does whatever he needs to do the engine fires right up and i'm like holy shit like damn that's so cool all right guys i do have a question for you before we get into this. We're going to be watching a video from Philip DeFranco, who makes a lot of amazing content on his channel.

But how long do you guys think it took you to be comfortable in your body? Do you remember a time that maybe you weren't comfortable in your body? Yeah, I definitely do. But I'm curious about Mark. Yeah, I don't know exactly what to say to that because I definitely realized that when I was maybe like 13 or so, I was like, I kind of have boobs. I was like, I'm getting chubby. Like if I was sitting down, I had like boobs and then like little roll here and like little roll here like i had like like if i was sitting down i had

like boobs and then like little roll here and like a little roll here you get sweat stains under them on your shirt oh yeah and i was like this is not good uh and then i started lifting not too shortly after that so maybe that was kind of a form of dysmorphia but then shortly after that i found power lifting at such a young age that it wasn't really about – no one was – I mean there was hardly any mirrors. No one was flexing in the mirror. There was a couple guys that actually would bodybuild in the gym that I started at. They always got made fun of and they always wore baggy stuff because they were always like off-season. And only once in a while they would wear a string or tank top when they get real lean for a show but all the powerlifting guys would make fun of them it's all just everyone just

teasing each other making fun of each other talking trash but yeah like being being shredded and stuff wasn't really in the gyms i grew up in wasn't really a thing yeah sort of like for me the interesting thing is like it was i was maybe not uncomfortable in my body but the times where like I was maybe displeased with certain things were times when I was just paying a crazy amount of attention to it and that's when I was focused on bodybuilding. Like 2015, 2014, like that's when – I mean I was lifting all that time and I was like – but even before that, before bodybuilding, I was playing soccer and I was still lifting at that point. I never really paid attention to my body because I was always focused on, OK, what can I what can this lifting stuff do for me on the soccer field? But then when lifting became what can lifting do for helping me gain muscle for the bodybuilding stage? That's when I was just constantly paying attention to the way I looked. And, yeah, I mean, look good.

But at the same time, it was never good enough. And that's just the nature of the sport the if you compete in bodybuilding like you are never good enough if you are going to stage the next time you're just like trying to beat the last physique or trying to get a certain place and for the sport that's kind of the mindset you have to have but if you're someone who just enjoys lifting and you're just trying to gain muscle, it seems to be fucking a lot of people up, a lot of young guys up, which is like probably what the topic of the video is today. I found it really interesting watching Phil's video. I think some of the problem is having these feelings, not feeling good about yourself, but then not doing anything about it.

So I think on the flip side, like you were doing something about it. anything about it. So I think on the flip side, like you were doing something about it. And then at some point you went down this rabbit hole of like leaning out and bulking, leaning out, bulking, measuring your arms, maybe measuring your back and your waist and quads, calves. Yeah. At some point you're probably like, you're probably thinking, well, I'm making good progress. And then maybe at some point you got to compare yourself a little bit less and maybe you just got more comfortable because you were in really good shape. And some of those videos that we've seen of you when you became a pro bodybuilder. Yeah. But the thing is, is like when I shifted into like jujitsu was 2015.

Pure performance sport was the thing that reminded me of like playing soccer for those 15, 16 years performance sport. When I shifted into that initially, I was like, I don't feel the need to compete on the bodybuilding stage for a while. And like a few years later, I'm like, I don't feel the need to ever compete in bodybuilding again. Because my focus now is like what the body can do and the new abilities the body can have. And it's like we've brought on so many guests that have helped us like Kador Ziani, Knees Over Toes guy. All these people have amazing bodily gifts of what their bodies can do. And the focus isn't just how big are my biceps and how thick is my back. It's like what am I able to do with this, this body?

And like that has been so fucking helpful. It's like changed everything. Bodybuilding is weird because – and and maybe some of the physiques that you see online it's a weird thing because the genetic i think component comes into play pretty harsh and maybe that's a little different than maybe jujitsu because maybe you get into jujitsu and you're like okay this is going to take a really long time for me to get good at this um but i can get good at this. How good can I get in comparison to other people? I'm not quite sure on that one, but let me test it out. Let me see.

I think, again, from a genetic potential, like looking at some of those, some of the physiques that you see online, just the wastes are so small. I wonder for myself sometimes, I'm like, could I ever get that but like i don't necessarily even care about a small weight like it's not a focus of mine i do like to lose body fat i do like to get in better shape here and there but focusing on like having this sick v taper is not like a main focus of mine i i get more pleasure just from like training in the gym do you but i'm lots of pleasure good uh but i'm also 46 years old like i'm older i'm more mature what are you drinking oh no what is this sperm it's uh what what do they call it it's

i think they on semen on the no but on the fitness side of youtube they call it the some type of um it's the something drink connor murphy he calls this the... That fucking happened. He drinks his homies sperm. It tastes good. It's some whey protein mixed with some amino acids is what it is. It's very sweet. Quite sweet.

Sweeter than I'd like. I just see man juice everywhere. A little bit of thickness in there I'm not a fan of. I mean, wash this down with something even worse double whammy what does connor murphy call it did you find it i don't know i just saw something that said man juice but i don't know if that's what it is but either way it's disgusting you andrew comfort in your body oh dude yeah it's long road i've i mean i'm not gonna say i've never been comfortable in my skin or my body

whatever but it it goes back a long time and something that i legit had to work through because like my dad and i were like we're like really close we're like good so it's nothing like oh i hate my dad or anything but he made a comment when i was like i don't know i'm trying to remember uh like young like elementary school where like my two cousins, like the three of us, me and my two cousins, we like, we just went swimming. And so like, we're just walking with our shirts off. They're both looking pretty good. Cause they both started playing sports and they're older than me. And then my brother was commenting on them like, dang, like they're looking pretty jacked or whatever term he used at that time and then my dad goes yeah look at ours our sucks so since then I never took my shirt off like ever right because like I'm like oh like I like damn like I look that bad so like uh like elementary school when you take trips to like to go swimming during the summer and stuff i would still go but i just i wouldn't go swimming i would just like hang out yeah so it like that's where it started so i was

like very young and then also like you guys know like i didn't have any good habits i love sports i played sports all the way up into junior high but like i still ate like crap i was a quote picky eater when in looking back now that i understand it's like well just eating crap So when it came to eating real food, I just didn't want it was like my my taste buds were fried So didn't have like me and my brother has a great physique or like he was he could build muscle very well My dad all my uncles they were all athletic And then for myself because like I stacked the cards against myself by like eating like crap and playing video games all day, I didn't have the physique. Like I just – I let my body waste away.

And then so fast forward all the way up to like 27 when I joined a gym. That's when I started like, dude, I need to – like I look like crap. Like I was super skinny, but I had a big fat belly from drinking and stuff. So I looked – well, in my opinion, I looked horrible. So I wanted to turn that around. But then at this point, Instagram and YouTube fitness and all that stuff existed. And so I'm like, dang, I'm seeing all these kids like in some of the like YouTube videos. They look jacked, like, oh, my gosh.

And I'm like twice their age. Like I felt really bad. And so I, I don't know what other than my wife, girlfriend back then, I have no idea what kept me going back because even in the gym, I would look around and be like, God dang, like that guy's way stronger than me. That guy looks way better than me. Like I would compare myself to everybody, you know is a terrible idea but it was really really hard and then fast forward even further to working here that's really when my like everything started to turn around because I was making like you know if there was like a list of things to check off to do to obtain a better physique let Let's just say there's like 10 of them.

I was checking off like three to four each time I would try, but then I would think I'm working really, really hard and I'm doing a good job. And I'd get frustrated, like, why is it not working? But it's like, oh, I didn't understand. Like you got to get way more sleep than what you're doing. You got to eat well all the time, not like you know a couple good meals here and there so when I put it all together when I got to ST things just got better but even still with that I mean you know I ended up taking PEDs I took SARMs because I still wasn't quite happy with what like I saw in the mirror and then when abs for Christmas came around, that's when I was like, holy shit, like I actually can transform my body and look like what I had like always wanted to look like. I couldn't hang on to it for very long because it was like basically like a yo-yo diet type of thing. You know, it was like a pretty drastic cut for myself.

Ended up doing a photo shoot and then did a follow-up one after that. And, uh, I still, I was, I was happy with what I saw, but I guess I wasn't happy enough because I kind of let it go. And then fast forward to now with jujitsu, where I'm focused on performance-based stuff and actually have the best physique I've ever had without like trying. And what I mean is like, sure, I probably looked better when I was cutting and shredding down. But every like day to day, just eating and just living normal. I look better today than I ever have my entire life. And I'm 38 years old now. And I just know like even within the next couple of weeks, it's just going to get better as a byproduct of getting prepared for a competition so yeah it's pretty safe to say that like i haven't been like really comfortable with my body in like i mean close to like i was probably like 36 years old so like that whole time okay i don't know what some of these guys go through, like having severe dysmorphia of their body. And, you know, Andrew, you said like big fat stomach.

Like I can't imagine you having like a big stomach. You have said like, oh, I got some body fat here. And I think that doing something about it is interesting. You know, like there's people in this category that maybe are ending up with eating disorders. Maybe there's young guys that are 13 and even younger that are ending up with eating disorders because they think that they're fat and they're really most likely they're not fat. They're probably under muscled. They're probably not mature enough to really have enough time to really build the muscle. Like that gonna that takes a while and for some people it

takes longer i remember working out really hard and even being really strong i remember having people like want to spot me in the gym on a bench press and i would have like 275 on or 315 and my arms just weren't big i didn't have i didn't have big anything i was like a decently sized kid but i don't think anybody knew how old i was or whatever but they would kind of look over over and they come over and they'd be like you want a spot and i was like no i'm good and i'd rack it and i'd do it for like 10 reps or something when i was a kid but i didn't i did still didn't have like muscle mass and i didn't know anything about any of that and i think if i did um and i had someone explain it to me like listen like, if you want to have a body that look, that where you look like you lift, you need to kind of follow some of these principles.

If you don't follow a lot of these principles consistently for a long period of time, as you're pointing out, then you're not going to really get there. And if you want to be in between, like, that's fine. But a lot of it's a byproduct of, you know, how much work you're putting in. But it sounds like a lot of people are like under eating and just underdeveloped. Like they're not developed yet. Takes you till you're 25 or 30 for your body to really be fully developed, at least as a guy, I think. Yeah, I would say just real quick that, yeah, I was 100% way under muscled. So I'm like roughly around six feet tall.

It's just pretty easy to just say that. But I was 160 pounds. Again, in my mid to quote like almost late 20s. And like skinny arms, skinny legs. And like I said, I just imagine somebody that doesn't work out that drinks often and eats pizza like almost daily. Like that's the stomach that I had. But I could have gone on a super strict, low caloric diet and I would have ended up with nothing. You know, if you think of some of the

young guys that are in here, I think it's very relatable to this video that we're about to watch, but my own son, Jake, Owen, Wyatt, you look at some of the guys, Mitch, and you know, my son lost probably 25 pounds or 20 pounds of body fat, but he also, in that process, was working on gaining muscle. Owen's done the same thing. I don't think we're going to, like, push any of those guys out onto a bodybuilding show, like, right at the moment, but they look great.

Like, they made huge progress, and that's something to feel really good about. So I don't have any idea how any of those guys feel individually about themselves but when you're coming from a background where you had more body fat and you showed yourself that you know how to transform your body you should be feeling really damn good and i think that's ultimately what this is about let's check out this video to kind of get a little bit more in depth on what these people are dealing with it is okay to be skinny.

I know that might sound like a weird thing to hear. Maybe it sounds unnecessary for to hear because when we think of like weight issues, we often think, you know, of people trying to lose weight. But actually, for a surprising share of young men, that is a revolutionary statement. I mean, we're constantly inundated with an ideal masculine physique that's fucking shredded, big biceps, broad chest, six pack abs. I mean, hell, I'm guilty of having this mindset. Well, we're all familiar with the body image problems typically suffered by women, leading them to feel like they're too fat or don't have big enough butt or boobs. Male body dysmorphia is largely unrecognized and understudied.

But now, more than ever, doctors are raising the alarm about it. With people like Gabriela Vargas, a pediatrician at Boston Children's Hospital, telling parents they need to be looking out for certain red flags. Things like boys becoming hyperfixated on what they're eating, having highly regimented meals, cutting out food groups, and dramatically increasing their protein intake. Well, the data started to come. Dude, do you guys remember when you first started paying attention to this stuff?

What did you do? I was probably like 14, and I remember asking my mom if she can buy more chicken breast and stuff like that, more eggs and things like that. I think it was a great transition for me. It was a great transition for my brothers. My brothers might've already been doing it. So I followed their lead.

Yeah. When I was 16, that's when I had my mom get me my first bottle of gold standard from Costco. I was doing like three scoops of protein a day along with food and I was gaining some mass pretty fast. And she was like, are you sure that's good for you but the the thing is is like we didn't have to deal with social media at the time

which is like yeah we we saw stuff in cartoons like fucking dragon ball z we may have seen stuff in magazines and maybe some tv shows but it wasn't like we were looking at sick physiques every single day for hours on end and paying attention to fitness influencers as deeply as guys do now like the three of us might go for a workout we're 15 and uh we get home from a workout and i i look and i see and sema made a post and he's flexing his serratus muscles and then i sit there and feel sad and then i text andrew i'll be like you see this picture and sema posted then he gets sad we both get sad and now we're all crying. Except for you.

What do you guys think about this right here though? Like, you know, if your kid starts, what is it, eating more protein? Could you rewind a little bit to the highlighted part? Because he highlighted that little part. It's like a few seconds. No, I think this is healthy. Yeah, becoming hyper fixated on what they're eating. Okay. Let's quickly talk about that.

Most kids, most young guys, they're not eating the most healthy things. No. Right. No, not at all. Like they, like my thing, I'm really grateful. My daughter can differentiate on her plate. What's the protein, what's a carb and you know, what's a fat or whatever. And I was shocked that that's not common. I was just like, interesting. Like, what are your parents eating then? You know what I mean? Like, it just blew me away.

I didn't learn. Yeah, same here. I didn't learn deeply about that stuff. Like, I knew kind of what protein was, but I didn't know the deep aspects of fat and processed carbohydrates and all that stuff. Yeah, that's a little bit different, but yeah. Until I was maybe 17, 18. And that's not an unhealthy thing. Like, especially if most guys are eating cereal and processed foods and sedentary. I mean, what percentage of America is obese right now?

Even young kids. Right. They probably should become a little bit more understanding and fixated on what they're eating. Having a highly regimented meals. Again, it can. So the thing is, it can go to eating disorder territory, but most people should be more regimented with the way they eat. It shouldn't be a free for all.

People that are in good shape have regimented meals. I do understand, you know, what they're saying. Like it could be too much, right? Like if the kid, you know, is choosing not to eat because there's cheese on top of their chicken breast, right? So they might be referring to things that are like more extreme than what we're talking about. But I think it's healthy. And I think if your kid, you know, if you have a kid and they start to talk to you about this kind of stuff, this is great. This is a great education opportunity.

And if they get scared, you know, that you had chicken thighs instead of chicken breasts and stuff like that, that's where you can start to explain stuff and say, well, you need fat. You're at a young age, you're playing football, you're out in the sun, you're running, you're doing all these things. You need nutrients, you need calories, and you can need a certain amount of calories to afford you to be able to build muscle later on. And muscle is going to be something that's going to help you to control and manage your weight throughout the rest of your life. So let's eat the damn chicken thighs. They taste better too. Yeah, and just to comment on the opposite of unregimented,

like you were just saying, like my daughter, like we were having this conversation because after we had Katie Hogan on, she was like, well, just start taking note when she does get hungry and she wants to eat because I had asked her like, what the heck, she doesn't want to eat breakfast and I hate centering out the door

without some high protein meal. And so as we're talking, she's like, oh, but I get hungry at 10, but like I can't eat in class. And I'm like, just be a bad student. You know, like I don't care. Like you're not going to get in trouble. So like even though she wants to eat something somewhat healthy, she doesn't have the option because like everyone's telling her she can't eat at this time.

And then when lunchtime does come around it's like not good good options and so it's like if i don't send her out with a plan like the alternative is not looking too good and so that's what i think you know we're getting at is like the opposite of a of a regimented you know meal timing meal plan is it's not it's not good it's not good at all i think you're hitting a nail on the head like a lot of times once a kid leaves the house especially if they're going to school if it's a young guy who wants to like bodybuild all his hopes and dreams aren't in the lunch that they have at school nope like it's all bullshit food a lot of times it's uh just like crappy lunch meat they don't have that at school and so that's when the kid might want to like bring his own tupperware around and do all these things. And it might seem really weird to some people, but

sometimes it takes some drastic measures, I think. And I think people eating more protein is a huge thing. I think our children don't eat enough protein and our elderly don't eat enough protein. So having your kids drive towards more protein, I think is great. Yeah. This is one thing that I, like guys, like we, we do understand that there are some people that can take this too far. And that's where maybe a parent has a bit of understanding on nutrition so that they can be like, you know, when I was 16, I remember I was trying to cut a little bit of body fat. I told you guys about this, and I went on a 1,000-calorie diet. Yeah. I started to feel dizzy in class three days later.

You just weren't committed. I wasn't committed enough't committed enough bro right but that was obviously unhealthy and then as i as i continued to learn more about nutrition i was like oh wow i was definitely under eating for my size gotta eat more food if i want to feel everything i'm trying to do so yeah kids might do some stupid shit and kids might take it way too far and maybe some kids get led down the route of eating disorder but some of these things if a kid starts doing them aren't bad there's one side of things like oh yeah look it could be a kid and eat whatever but then that's how we end up with like kids who are really overweight really unhealthy and don't have an understanding of nutrition there's a middle ground talking a little bit more about boys, but my daughter going to like volleyball practice, I've been talking to her about nutrition forever. Yeah.

A long time ago, I got her a book called Eat This, Not That. I remember that. It's such a simple book. It is. It's such a simple thing. It has things that you could eat at McDonald's. It has – so it's very reasonable. You want to get a sandwich.

It tells you to get like turkey instead of roast beef and don't get mayo. You want to get a sandwich, it tells you to get turkey instead of roast beef and don't get mayo. Small things that you can do to alter your calories and to be heading in the right direction. But she doesn't go to volleyball games and stuff and eat stuff that everyone else is eating. We make her food. That's just the way it is. That's what she wants. That's what she gets.

We try to do our best to follow through with some of her goals and it's a healthier outcome like all that's there is like muffins and shit she doesn't want to eat it she knows all games yeah she knows it's just gonna like make her tired not feel great they might have some fruit out or something like that so she'll eat some of that um and since she's been doing that we've noticed other kids are like bringing their meals too they're like what do you have you know and then they're like, oh, maybe I should bring something. That's a little healthier option. And the protein intake.

Well, the data is hard to come by. One study using a 2015 survey found that nearly a third of teenage boys reported trying to gain weight. But this is affecting certain groups more than others. But some of the numbers that stood out the most to me is that only around 3% of those involved were actually underweight in terms of BMI. But almost 20% perceive themselves to be. And the thing is, as we grow into men, this isn't a thing that we grow out of with a 2014 poll finding that men worry more about their appearance than their health family relationships or professional success today's men are actually more concerned about their chest than women are about

their boobs well obviously a focus right there that is like that's what you see here in like the fitness industry like when you see young guy fitness influencers who are just wanting to get jacked and yoked and they want to do it fast what has been one of the most popular things in the past few years for young guys to start doing 1920 21 year olds are fucking doing trt are starting to take steroids and it's like if your goal is to be an npc level bodybuilder and you want to be a fucking, you know, like a Chris Bumstead type. Okay, that is a route that those guys do go down and they're open about it. But if your goal is just to try to gain some more muscle so you can be jacked and be a bit more muscular, that is not good for your actual hormonal health.

You know what I mean? Not a great place to start. It's not a good place to start. Like, but that's the thing. Like he, that, that falls right into his point.

That's super popular right now. And it shouldn't be, you know, he's talking about, you know, men, um, being like more obsessed with their health.

I just don't see it. I mean, maybe in fitness, maybe in fitness, maybe there's people that are more obsessed than they used to be. And maybe there's something going on there. But just in America in general, like men being obsessed with their health. I don't know.

Go to Walmart. Tell me different. No, that's the thing. Like overall, it's like there is a side of it like when you do get obsessed with looking a bit better it's not it's not the best thing to be obsessed with it but by looking a bit better you'll probably end up being a bit healthier right most people that probably look healthy are healthy some are not right but there is too far yeah they take may take it too far they may get way too lean

they might use too many fucking drugs but you know i mean a young guy that's listening to this right now like if they need to lose 60 pounds they need to lose 60 pounds they need to lose 60 pounds but they don't need to lose 100 pounds like you know once you lost 60 you don't need to be like oh man i'm still not shredded i need to you know i think neat the word need is a really interesting word and you have to try to figure out your goals and it's hard to figure all these things out as a young person and somebody could ease very easily take that too far but i think the idea of losing weight the idea of like what he said in the beginning i think is interesting because he said in the beginning, he talked about like being skinny is okay. You know, now he's talking about how meaning gaining muscle might not be, you know, might not be okay. But I think, I think all of it can be okay. It's just, you need to have a

different perspective on it. And I think if you go back to like the bodybuilding, you know, there's something called seventies big, right. And you look at, I realize that those guys look insane too. They look completely insane. And they're on steroids, Bill Kazmaier and Mike Menser. And you find those pictures of some of those guys from back in the day, but they look different. They look powerful rather than just like, and Mike Menser was shredded because he's a bodybuilder. But it's not the same dialed in shredded that you're seeing even just from these influencers.

They're like just, I don't know, 5% body fat sometimes. Those guys are shredded. Hey, Serge Nubret. What's up? Yeah. This will lead a guy to body dysmorphia. This leads me to body dysmorphia. I don't feel comfortable in my body right now.

Let's just cancel this podcast. Let we gotta make we gotta make some changes fucking around guys yeah what do you guys think about what he said that most men care more about i'm not sure how he worded it but basically it seems like more about yeah their physique than like how successful they are. That shit seems pretty crazy. You know, it's a weird one because I think get your physique first. So I think, I think one leads to the other. I think it can. There's, you know, there's focusing too much on the way you look, but you know, if you want to be healthy and look healthy, you don't need to be massive and shredded. But being in shape does kind of change the way you you sometimes carry yourself. Being improved, being a better version, right?

Yeah. Being a better version. And it's not it's it's not even the aspect of the goal or the body goal. It's the it's the practices. It's the performance. It's the going to the gym. It's the doing the jujitsu. It's taking the runs. These things, these physical feats help you feel more confident because you know that you're doing things that are helping your health. You're doing things that are helping your body. And it's every single day, it's moving a little bit closer to being in better and better health. Right. And then for at a certain point, you'll get to this place where your body is just where it is and it's good and you're healthy and you look good, but you're still doing the practices that you're performing. And that's

the thing. It's like the performance is the thing that should be focused on rather than always how the body looks. So like we talked about on the podcast side of things, but instead of being focused on bodybuilding, being focused on the practice of going to the gym and improving or doing something that can allow you to be focused on your performance. Yeah. Getting better. Like, can you get better? Can you get a little stronger? Can you do some of these things, but in a reasonable way? Cause like, are you also in school at the same time? Like if you're, you know, there's less kids and stuff like that going to college. So I think we need to find our discipline somewhere else.

And the gym can be a great place. But if you're a guy who's trying to gain muscle and trying to get lean, and it's not like your job, then it becomes pretty difficult. So what you're seeing referenced in this video and in a lot of other videos, when we're talking about dysmorphia, it's usually an influencer talking about their own dysmorphia. I'm sure that there's other cases of dysmorphia of young kids that are just not happy with where they are and they probably feel kind of sad and upset about not being further along or not being leaner or not being skinnier, in some cases not having more muscle mass. leaner and not being skinnier, some cases not having more muscle mass. But the most, most of the time you're seeing it in fitness from the influencers themselves. And I think the issue is, is that their interpretation of them getting particularly lean was going to result in

something that maybe was an irrational thought in the first place. Like it's not really gonna, maybe they thought people would care more, but no one really does care that much. Especially if you go from 7% to 4%, I mean, what's someone going to do? Like run up to you and give you a big kiss? Or are they just going to be like, wow, dude, you got shredded and that's kind of it. Like you don't get much more from that. So it's interesting. I don't know what a lot of these guys think would happen more we've we've had you know guests on the show before and we've been disappointed before and it's not people that are in this video but we've had guests on the show before and we're like we've even talked about guests on the show like should we have them on the show and we're like

it's only fitness man right and we're like pass yeah he's too he's just another fitnessy guy yeah it's like not it's like man and and that could be it could be the person could be different than what we're seeing on social media to be fair yeah that's why we do the interviews because it's fun right it's fun to like uncover a lot of stuff but someone like pete rubish who's like got his information you know out there he just says it right it's like got his information, you know, out there, he just says it, right? It's like you'd rather kind of interview people more like that. But he had a form of dysmorphia too. Like he was never strong enough.

He got up to 240, but that's not that big. Not that big for what? 240 is huge. It's not that big in powerlifting because powerlifters are freaking massive. Power Project family, how's it going? Now, we've talked about blood work and getting your labs done on this podcast with many different guests, as that's super important for understanding what's going on underneath the hood. That's why we've been partnered with Merrick Health for such a long time now, owned by Derek from More Plates, More Dates. With Merrick Health,

you can get yourself the Power Project panel, or you can select any specific labs you want to get. And after you get that done, you'll be able to work with one of Merrick's patient care coordinators, where they'll help you understand what type of nutritional, lifestyle, hormonal, or other type of interventions you can utilize to help fix whatever might be going on underneath the hood. Merrick is your one-stop shop to make sure that everything is going well underneath the hood. Andrew, how can they get their blood work done? Yes, we have two options for you guys. Head over to merikhealth.com slash powerproject. That's M-A-R-E-K health.com slash powerproject. There you guys will see the Power Project panel that Nsema was just talking about.

And at checkout, enter promo code POWERPROJECT to save $101 off of that panel. Now, if you want to custom select your own panel, you guys can use promo code POWERPROJECT10 to save 10% off all labs. Again, that's at MerrickHealth.com slash PowerProject. Links to them down in the description as well as the podcast show notes. Let me ask you something, Mark, real quick. You said the dysmorphia thing. You said that we're mainly seeing it in influencers and we're not seeing it in people. What did you mean by that? I just said like most of these videos, they're pointing out other influencers, right?

They're usually pointing out somebody that has kind of a lot of followers that is sharing the fact that like, oh, I wish – my build is not that great. I wish I was a little leaner. I wish I was a little – in a little bit better shape. I wish I was two pounds lighter for that bodybuilding show or whatever it is. And I think that people definitely can suffer from dysmorphia without the large social media following, but the social media following I think pours into a lot of that. Oh yeah, definitely. Something I think Greg do said actually made a video about Stephanie Buttermore. And it is something that you do see from influencers. As much as I hate the term influencer,

the thing is, is is that person if they're a guy that's shredded and then talking about how his six-pack or whatever like you know oh damn i wish i was leaner right now that sadly unfortunately does have an effect on the people that really maybe pay attention to that person's content and feel because there's an there's an odd thing where someone who's just watching this guy that's on their feed may be inspired by that guy and may be like, yeah, there's this guy we know, Chris Elkins at Sacramento. Oh, yeah, he's shredded. He's whatever.

I want to train like him. And then if someone like him says when he's like 10% body fat, damn, I wish I was leaner right now. I'm not really feeling the best about this body fat. And you've been lifting for a few years. You know we're close to that. And he's saying that. Then what does that make you think about yourself?

The Stephanie Buttermore thing was interesting because this is a tough one. Like Stephanie Buttermore is Jeff Newport's girlfriend. She did the all-in mentality thing a few years ago where she gained like 40-something pounds. And now she's all about intuitive eating, blah, blah, blah, blah blah love your body body positivity but she recently got breast implants and lip filler and her followers are coming after her because they're like you used to be the you were the body positivity person you're the person said love yourself in your own skin and then you just got breast implants and lip filler and someone's anybody can do whatever the fuck they want with their body but when you're a person who this is like the thing you put out and then you kind of do something that's maybe opposite to the whole idea of loving yourself for

who you are it will make people the p and and this is why people shouldn't put too much stock into anybody but they do and when they do like it'll have an effect like like the statistics here like especially young kids especially the young ones that they do look up to those types of people i remember when i was young who are some of the people that you guys looked up to when you were young teenagers do you remember anybody who you're like that guy uh mainly just my brothers but i guess like outside of the house um yeah some pro wrestling guys like the ultimate warrior and hulk hogan and stuff but i never really thought about like looking like them i thought like it would be cool to be heroic

like them you know to be strong like them would be kind of cool and you did go into wrestling yeah that was actually part of your career like hulk hogan uh picking up sylvester stallone and rocky three and throwing them out of the ring i was like whatever that is that's fucking awesome like that looks cool like i wish i could pick somebody up like that and chuck them yeah that would be fun someone talks shit you pick them up throw them yeah i just i watched them i watch sports non-stop and so like and you know big kings fans so my favorite player growing up was mitch richmond um and so when i started playing basketball i would you know lay up line and he always ran to the half court line,

at least no matter what, while everyone else just kind of dogged it and got to the back of the line. They kept going. He always hit half court. So when I started playing, that's what I did. Like, cause I wanted to emulate him and be dope like him. But like, other than like sports figures, I can't really think of anybody. Yeah. Like, I don't know. I loved Bo Jackson. I was part of the, like, Bo Jackson fan club. My box of Cheerios or some shit. And I got, like, a T-shirt or something like that. I love Bo Jackson.

That's so cool. I got his cards here. But, like, Tyson. I watched every Tyson fight as a kid. Jerry Rice. Michael Jordan was fucking unbelievable to watch. Yeah, I really admired all those people, Michael Jordan was fucking unbelievable to watch. Um, yeah, I really admired all those people,

but it was more like I admired, I think somehow maybe because of my, uh, my family members and stuff told me like this, especially cause there's a lot of coaches in my family. Um, my uncle, I have one uncle's a basketball coach.

I have an aunt that's a basketball coach and I have an aunt that's a basketball coach. And I have another uncle who's a football coach. And my cousin Steven was a football coach. So like there's a lot of coaches in the family. And I remember they would be like, you know how much work it takes to be like one of these guys? And my uncle Jimmy is like real competitive and he plays a lot of different sports and stuff. And he would, he always tells a story like he rubs elbows with like a pro guy you know and he would talk about someone's golf swing or someone's tennis

swing or these different things and it just always kind of put it to me like this is a different level and i always thought that was cool and interesting i'm like wow that's really neat like if you just fucking dive all in on it who knows what you could turn yourself into yeah like fucking this guy right here goku i don't know if you can be seen on the camera but i watched a lot of dragon ball z i was an anime nerd as a kid and when i saw that shit how much does he weigh goku is actually very light i think he's 160 pounds at five foot two or five foot three but in the show he looks fucking six four so it's like three tons right the hulk is disgusting he's ridiculous but like you know i

i was a big Kobe Bryant fan. As far as fitness, the first guy I really got into was Greg Plitt. You know what I mean? With his intensity. But like the thing is, is there was no Instagram. I wasn't scrolling through his page and shit. I just see random YouTube videos here and there and that would be motivating. But it's different now because now like young guys feel close to these multiple people that they follow.

And these people are making videos every day and talking to them. It's a different level of closeness and it's a different level of influence, which means that it's permeating some guys' minds deeper than it did ours. You know, I feel like for our people that we looked up to, they were far away in our minds. But for some people— You couldn't have any contact with them. Now you can dm somebody they might answer you absolutely you can comment on their youtube video and they might just comment back you know and it's and when that person says i don't look good and they really do that's why

you're following them but then they're like god i don't feel comfortable in my body it's it might actually be how they feel but that does really have an effect. And it's just – it's different. And it affects the influencer because in one of those videos, one of the guys was saying like, oh, my body fat percentage or whatever it may be went from like 7 to 10. And my engagement went down. My likes went down. It was like everything slowed down. So I felt like I needed to hurry up and get back to that low body fat percentage.

So yes, the followers are putting a lot of stock in them, but they are also putting a lot of stock in how many likes they get, thus creating the never-ending shred. What a wonderful parasitic relationship. Right? Jesus Christ. ending you know shred what a wonderful parasitic relationship right jesus christ gotta find a way to you know for some of the influencers they gotta find a way to reinvent themselves and redefine themselves i think they're too defined by being this percentage of leanness i think someone like greg plitt i had a chance opportunity to meet him and talk with him a couple times i That's sick.

I think he was, you know, I think he was like afflicted, you know. He just was like, he was so determined, you know, to an unhealthy degree. Pull him up. However, he wasn't only showing his body. He was teaching you a lot about like motivational stuff. You go back and watch some of the stuff that he talks about. It's pretty deep shit, you know. It's pretty deep stuff that you can get a lot about like motivational stuff you go back and watch some of the stuff that he talks about it's pretty deep shit you know it's pretty deep stuff that you can get a lot out of and i think that um it would be wise for a lot of guys to listen to people other than just influencers because you can get a lot of philosophical things look how shredded this guy is unbelievable yeah

you can get a lot of uh great philosophy from people and and learn that you don't really need to, it's great to improve. Like improvement is King. Like improvement is essential. Yes. It's very, very important that you figure out ways to improve yourself. It's the only way you're ever going to really become anything. It's the only way you're going to really feel great about yourself is have some forms of improvement. But that doesn't mean that I have to improve so much that I'm Olympia stage bodybuilder and that I'm first place and all that kind of stuff. That just means that I can keep myself in the game and means that I can keep myself being pretty strong.

And you're going to have to find different goals. Like if you can't run a two-hour marathon, then you're going to have to figure out maybe I can run a two-hour marathon, then you're going to have to figure out, maybe I can run a two-hour half marathon. You're going to have to kind of pick. The Rock used to say, know your role and shut your mouth. That's what he used to kind of say, right? You have to kind of do know your role.

What ingredients do you have? How far can you make it? I don't want you to have a limiting belief on yourself. But there's going to be certain things that are going to have certain limitations on them. And even without that, just put yourself into the mix, work on it,

start to do the disciplines and have fun with those fucking disciplines. Cause that's the most fun you're ever going to have. Like if you think back to when you first started lifting, that was amazing. That was so much fucking fun. And you didn't even really know what you were doing yeah yeah like the guy said to do like one arm rows and just go as heavy as you can you're like all right you do the 60s then you do the 100s you're like holy fuck this

is and you're cheating you know and you're fucking doing whatever but you're like this is sick and then you learn someone else says hey you know you got to do it with like better forms horrible yeah and and then you learn that too and that's a skill set but acquiring skill sets are going to be the things that actually make you feel good not necessarily the end result focus on your health can be a very very positive thing in your life this fixation on muscle can be destructive both physically and mentally leading men to obsessively scrutinize over their bodies inspect themselves in the mirror or on the flip side just hide their bodies under baggy clothes. That's in addition to the health risks that come from working out too much or inhaling dietary supplements. But excessive exercise and a skewed

nutrient intake can be as dangerous as the drastic weight loss from eating disorders like anorexia. And ironically, if it gets to the point where the body's in starvation mode, hormone production can slow down, including testosterone, the one that is critical for building muscle. That's especially true for younger boys who haven't developed the right hormonal environment for strength training yet. With one Harvard professor explaining there isn't a lot of potential to gain muscle mass for the average 10 to 14 year old boy who lifts weights and drinks protein shakes.

That's, that's like, that's why performance is a big deal. You know, like athletes, guys who usually like play sports are focused on how much better they get on the court, how much, you know, better they get on the field um andrew like uh on the youtube side of things like you know you guys may not heard this but andrew you mentioned that by focusing on bjj you know oh yeah sorry i wasn't sure you're going with that so yeah by focus by taking my focus away from like i just got to look as good as possible to wait i have to perform as good as possible on the mats by doing that i accidentally now walk around in like the best physique that

i've ever had without like what i mean without trying is like i'm not doing cardio i'm not trying to cut my calories i'm not you know i'm not doing any of that i'm just not in the gym like fucking flexing in front of the mirror after you do it instead of curls to see how your veins are looking. Yeah, no. I'm just like literally living my life trying to be as good as possible on the mats. And a byproduct of that is I'm looking better than I ever have my entire life. Well, even thinking about like weights in general, you know, why do a lot of people start lifting weights? A lot of people start lifting weights because they want to like be more significant.

They want to be stronger. Yeah. And why do you want to be stronger? Like break that down. Maybe you want to be stronger because you want to like be more significant they want to be stronger yeah and why do you want to be stronger like break that down maybe you want to be stronger because you want to be able to defend yourself maybe you think that if you build yourself up big enough that people won't mess with you but what if you just did something different what if instead of that you went to jujitsu in the first place or went to wrestling in the first place you want to feel more competent or more confident in those spaces now you're going to walk around and probably just look a little bit bigger because you're probably going to carry yourself a little

differently oh yeah like where can you where else can you gain confidence i mean you can gain confidence in the gym of course but you're going to have to lift for a little while and you're going to have to get past 185 and 225 and you get yourself into 315 for some reps and stuff like that before you really start to, you know, you do have to kind of compare yourself to people to some extent. Like that has to happen. Yeah. So you have to get like a little bit of that going.

But even a couple months of jujitsu, if you can defend yourself way better than you used to and you choked a couple people out, probably feel pretty damn confident. So a lot of these young kids that are obsessing over their diet and being skinny or having big lats or biceps, I mean, maybe a good option for some of them. Like if someone's dealing with this with their own child or a kid out there is dealing with this, like maybe try something different. Try something that is more, obviously lifting is performance based, but try something different where you get to actually test your performance. Because if i think i'm strong i could just go roll with someone in jujitsu and i'll be proven wrong right yeah like well that bench that you got i didn't really see any signs

of it in that you know absolutely um what's his name fuck there's this uh jpg coaching you know recently i saw him having a video where he's doing a little bit of muay thai now and he's new at it and he's sparring but he he's really enjoying it i think that's a really good thing to see like someone that has that kind of following a lot of young guys follow him it's not just now he's just always in the gym lifting he's doing something where okay my it's not what my body looks like it's what it can do because over time as we get older we're going to lose a little bit of muscle here and there we might not be as shredded as whatever but the performance stuff is going to stick with us i mean even we might get a little bit slower with certain things but at the end of

the day it's still our body it's still focused on what we can do because you're not going to gain muscle forever but you can gain new abilities for a long ass time. Even something as simple as being able to sit on your knees without feeling pain. That's fucking amazing when you actually are able to get to be like you do that. And you're like, wow, this body is amazing. Right now, I know you're looking in the mirror. You're getting ready for your nephew's quinceanera. You have a long sleeve on that looks horrible and your pants don't fit right. That's why we partnered.

I don't know why you're laughing. That's why we partnered with Viore clothing. You see, this is the boulevard shirt jacket fits great. Stretchy feels amazing. It's the best long sleeve in my closet. And one of the biggest things that we love about Viore is that they have clothes that you can wear to parties. They have clothes that you can wear in the gym. Like I said, your nephews can see it. You can look great wherever you go. If you step your fashion game up, plus this stuff feels like baby skin on your skin, which is kind of creepy, but at the same time, it's kind of nice and you know it.

Andrew, where can they get it? Yes, you guys got to head over to Viori.com slash Power Project. That's V-U-O-R-I dot com slash Power Project to automatically receive 20% off your order. Links to them down in the description as well as the podcast show notes. Fucking hell. Getting yourself out of pain feels awesome. Right? Oh yeah. See if you can find a clip of

George Foreman versus Michael Moore. M-O-O-R-E-R. Michael Moore. Moore. Social media. Oh, that's you. George Foreman was out of boxing. It's the most amazing sports story in the history of the world

he was out of boxing for like 25 years he came back and he he didn't have any money so he was trying to fight he was out of boxing for 25 years? 25 years he lost to Ali Rumble in the Jungle before I was born

before I was born before I was born I believe, 72 or something like that 1972 he fights Michael Moore for the championship after fighting Evander Holyfield to like the ultimate battle we should watch a little piece of that too look how heavy handed Foreman is, it's sick

his punches are nasty I'm like wait a second well Foreman also has no he has hardly any speed or quickness he's just got to use his wits

but you know look at the physiques here you know Foreman's carrying a lot more weight now Foreman looks great he's got big arms and big shoulders

I'm not saying that he's fat and disgusting by any means but a lot of people for an athlete would say like oh that's kind of a fat athlete

but this is a guy that forget about being fat can he perform or not he just knocked that dude out rewind that a little bit andrew oh i'm gonna dude you see how like light looking that shot looked but do you know how hard that must have been that that one hurt too yeah i thought that was see if you can pull up him in holyfield it's it's such a war it's so cool and Evander Holyfield was so shredded and you look at Emmitt Smith back in the day like Emmitt Smith wasn't shredded Barry Sanders wasn't shredded a lot of these guys are absolutely incredible

athletes without being shredded look at Bones Jones in the last fight people were like he looked fat we just have a standard nowadays look at these two this is so great watch Holyfield peeled Holyfield peeled. Holyfield looked like a bodybuilder. And Foreman's got the pants hiked up.

He's got the pants way up over the belly button. The high waist. George Foreman was, by the way, 44 in that fight versus Michael Moore. And he's 43 right here, or 42. Whoa, dude. What in the world, dude? And look at Holyfield bouncing around and yeah it was unbelievable i don't mean to sidetrack things too much but it's not about the physique

it's about you know your performance as well you think foreman was sad because he had some body fat on him or you think he was just selling some foreman grillers yeah you know man the physique is kind of an illusion dude when i started jujitsu i was 270 pounds and i was still fairly jesus did foreman win this fight by the way no okay no but i was screaming the whole time i remember watching it when i was a kid i was freaking out i was like there's no way yes what's cool is they both have the same style they both did that thing with their with their glove like clamshellhell? Mayweather. Yeah, Mayweather did it like nobody's business.

Look at those punches he can take. He got hit by Ali. He's like, whatever, dude. Damn! Dude, you know what? Hold on. I got to. This is too good.

I might fuck us up. We got to watch the whole fight later. All right. I want to hear the crowd. He's getting drilled Look at that Holyfield used to train with Lee Haney How sus is that?

How sus is that? Oh yeah, well He was on that Was it Balco? The Balco list? As Evan Fields Evan Fields lived at his address Look at Holyfield, he's not tired at all.

He's just like still going around. Hey, YouTube, don't demonetize this for this one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We could just edit some of that. All right, all right. But this is what I was going to mention. No one knocks each other down. Like having a good physique is cool.

But it's kind of an illusion because it's like guys are like flexing and, you know, whatever, they're big. But when I went to jujitsu at 270, I was getting my ass beat by guys that were but it's kind of an illusion because it's like you guys are like flexing and you know whatever either big but when i went to jujitsu at 270 i was getting my ass beat by guys that were 160 that didn't look i'm sure like day one a lot of guys were rubbing their hands together like this is gonna be the best they love destroying me because they're like look at this guy look he thinks he's something and they probably went home and showed their wife like a picture like look at this uh-huh yeah yeah definitely do you know how cool that was though like it kind of just beat it into me that like doesn't like the skill it's a

skill this is it's a true skill and not that gaining muscle isn't something that that's good it's a good thing to have muscle on your frame we talked about the longevity aspects you want that muscle on your frame to help you like have a better life so you don't fall at 60 and fucking you know but at the same time it's like if that's your only focus it's all for show it is all for show i think there's like almost like a strength dysmorphia out there too you know people really want to you know they hit that 400 pound deadlift and that was a big goal for them i want to do double body weight deadlift they weigh 200 they pull 400 once they pull 400 now they want to do 405 because that's four plates and they there's always the next weights and again you have to feel value in your improvement yes and i know you hear people always talking about the journey it's a journey it's a journey

it the you know the the training for the boston marathon was way was way more fun than the actual boston marathon itself boston marathon was great but like all the training for all the lead up to it um getting like hospitalized and like all that shit is just you end up with an awesome story every time you compete every time you put your ass on the line something happens every time where there's some sort of doubt in your mind about something every single time you go to compete. And you have to show yourself that you know how to do this. I remember multiple times going into powerlifting meets where I'd like blow something out, like blow out something in my tricep or blow out something in my calf or my hamstring. And I'm like, all right, well, now you get to see what kind of

powerlifter you really are, because if you're actually a good power lifter, you'll still be able to put together a better total than you have in the past. It's just going to be piecemealed together differently. Okay, you can't bench the same way. Okay, so now you've got to squat more weight. And then you're not great at deadlift, but you better be great at deadlift than this one if you want to piece together a better total than normal. You want to keep going? Let's go. Let's go let's go

i muted it oh that's precisely the age when they're feeling intense social pressure from peers and in today's age starting to access social media whether it's tick tock instagram snapchat whatever research shows that more screen time correlates with more muscle dysmorphia and other data linking instagram use of a teen boy's disordered eating behavior muscle dissatisfaction and even use of steroids but also understand male beauty standards have been hammered into kids long before they got their first ipad right it's in everything we consume i mean there was a 2006 study showing that fucking action figures became more muscular over the prior 25 years more recent research showing the boys prefer those hyper masculinized toys over the older skinnier ones just think about the american culture that we grew up we you know you know, you hear women, you know, especially when it comes to celebrities, especially this celebrity right here.

My wife's got her own story with this one. But you hear women, you know, gasp and talk about some of these celebrities and stuff. But more in general, I don't think women care that much. Like, they'll make a big deal about this. I think girls, when they get together and stuff, they'll be like, oh be like oh my god that guy is so hot he's got a great build or whatever right um but i i don't know how much they care do they care a ton about like guys being shredded and having big pecs and stuff no man when you watch a lot of these videos like uh there are a few uh fitness or there's youtubers that go around and i think Will Tennyson does this. He shows them a picture

of like a really shredded person and then like just a guy that looks good and she's like oh that guy looks like he's just way too into himself he goes too far he's I like this guy you know like you don't need to be shredded and fucking huge to get women. Like the guy who's doing the video

he's a nice looking guy. Yeah. He doesn't look like he's you know juicing he doesn't look like he's, you know, juicing. He doesn't look like he's in the gym hammering shrugs all day. He actually has an amazing like transformation himself, Philip.

He used to be much bigger and he's been working at it for years and years and now he's in really, he's really healthy and really good shape. It's something he's been working on. But you don't need

to be huge and shredded. Women don't care about that that much. Okay. So I walked into my house one day. Yeah. And I usually try to make some noise when I come home because I'm always like trying to just make sure I don't scare the shit out of somebody that's in the house or whatever. And I'm like, hey, honey, I'm home. I say something and I don't hear anything back.

And I walk into our kitchen and our kitchen at the time was like wide open and all that was in front of the kitchen uh was a big tv screen and then uh but next to the tv screen there was a couch and behind the couch is where the kitchen is so that's where i walked in so i'm walking in and i try to say stuff i try to make a commotion and there's nothing but there's a scene from superman on the television the shirtless scene the shirtless scene he's the rain when henry cavell comes his titties bouncing and he gets find it he gets the uh he gets the thing off the clothes pin and he like you know ring hepin and he puts a dry shirt on or whatever because he just got out of the ocean. And then it gets better.

15-second rewind. And I'm like, oh, my wife's sitting. I couldn't really see her. Her head's right there. So she still doesn't know you're in the room. So I watch it. She hits the 15-second button again. Boom.

And I'm like, hey. I go, what's going on today? And she goes, oh my god. She goes, how long were you standing there for? Here we go. Hey, he looks amazing. Yo, he's so jacked. He's crazy. He's fucking crazy. Hey, if I was home by myself, I would have

watched this four or five times myself. That's so funny that Andy was re-watching this shit. And then she, you know, it's great. Like she had no excuse. She got up off the couch and she's like, I got nothing. I'm like, you don't need to have anything. I don't care.

I'm fine. That's incredible. I see why you started growing your hair out. You see why I've been working on my pecs every goddamn day since that day. Jesus H. Christ on a cross. Oh, man. Mark just has this posted up like in his home gym just trying to like...

Sideburns too. He's got like darts. I'm wearing contacts and shit. I'm trying to have a British accent or wherever the fuck he's from. Fuck you, Henry Cavill. Meanwhile, Henry Cavill's using my products yeah he's using the slingshot circle and stuff oh get the fuck out of here that's fucking hilarious dude all right

let's keep moving he's a handsome guy what are you my heroes growing up arnold schwarzenegger sylvester stallone are the most fucking yoked out people in the world and that hasn't changed i mean you have the chris's right chris heemsworth, Chris Evans, Chris Pratt. I mean, that dude went from I'll have a large number six to seal team six. I mean, you can even see it in the different actors playing some of the same revised roles. Look at James Bond over the years.

Sean Connery to Daniel Craig. With America being such a different country, we also export it with toxicity. Studies showing that even in populations exposed to Western media relatively recently, TV consumption is linked to more muscular body ideals for men and slimmer ones for women. That's along with dieting behaviors and disordered eating among women. But also, you can't put 100% of the blame on media because the supplements industry

is the prime beneficiary here. They've been aggressively marketing protein shakes, bars, pills, and powders towards men for decades. And it's worked because now the global protein supplements market is valued at over $20 billion with North America grabbing the largest share. And reportedly, more than half of males from adolescence to early adulthood take protein powder or shakes. And this is Americans already consume nearly twice the recommended daily intake of protein. That matters because excessive protein consumption can strain kidney and liver function as well as increase the risk of heart disease and cancer. I don't know where he got some of that information because my understanding is that the standard American diet is like 12% protein, which is very low. No, but like that's the thing when

they when they recite this stuff and they talk about protein, it's like fast food. You know what I mean? Where people are getting burgers and again, along with a lot of fries, et cetera. Then they mentioned, oh yeah, they eat a lot of protein and they do eat a lot of protein, but it's with a lot of other calories included. You know, it's not people that are eating- Protein leveraging.

Eating leaner sources of protein to drive their hunger down. That or even just fucking eating a steak. It's not people that are eating protein leveraging you know eating leaner sources of protein to drive their hunger down that or even just fucking eating a steak it's not like that it's not even quality protein so it's not that protein is bad because i've seen this mentioned by people a few times it's the quality of the protein people are eating accompanied with all the processed foods that they're eating americans are not most americans that are out of shape and potentially overweight are not eating. We've talked about this at length. They're not eating enough actual protein.

No. They're overeating on other things and usually not getting enough activity. Yeah. So that's just tough. Yeah. But man, recently I just started drinking a lot more Steak Shake, the chocolate one. It's so good. It just has me thinking like everybody needs a protein shake a day.

Yeah, I think a lot of people could use one just for the convenience of it. But this is one thing to think about too. When he's talking about the dangers of those protein shakes, man, a lot of people do want to improve and increase their protein intake, but quality of that protein shake you're having is too. When you go to Walmart and get the $ 20 protein shake you gotta imagine there's probably some iffy shit going on it's not always the price of a protein shake but it is trying to get it from a reputable brand you know what i mean so it is something that you do want to pay attention to

be careful with plus they taste good yeah they're incredible all right here we go mention the specific risks with protein supplements which go largely unregulated by the fda and whatever's on the label can say fuck all about what's actually in the bottle plus many powders are packed with added sugars and researchers have also found unsafe amounts of heavy metal what's up it's not really true you can't say whatever you want in the bottle there's actually a lot of regulation you could start out saying whatever you want but you're going to probably get caught by somebody you know so you could kind of start out saying whatever you want, but you're going to probably get caught by somebody. So you could kind of start out making whatever claims you want, but they're all illegal. And you're not going to – if you start, like I've mentioned on a previous podcast, start selling pretty well, someone else is just going to rat you out.

They're going to be like, oh, their label is illegal. Metals like lead, arsenic, cadmium, and mercury. Yeah, all of that is to say that everyone is the victim of just the insanity that's going on right now. Both men and women. While research suggests that women are still judged far more for their appearance than men, the fact that it's not happening with the same numbers or the same rate doesn't change the fact that it is affecting both. Stuff like this needs to be talked about so that it's understood and normalized rather than kind of mocked, or sometimes even worse, just dismissed. With all that, I want to leave you with two things.

One, what are your thoughts regarding this news and also your personal experiences? It would be so amazing to know in those comments down below. And two, make sure you're subscribed and come back to the channel. Yeah, he went from like dark green to gray. That was quick. This was, it was a lot. He has a lot of really great points. Yeah.

I know we're like nitpicking everything he said but the overall message is great there are a lot of people that are probably suffering that um are just going way too far on their fitness yeah and the this is this is the thing this is kind of like the age of comparison because it's not like people never used to compare themselves other people before social media That's why I wish we'd just walk around naked, get it all over with. Yeah, man. Are you hanging or not, really? But I'm a grower.

I'm a grower. It's not a big deal. Don't make me have to be hard everywhere I go. It's not a big deal. It isn't a big deal. But it is a big deal. It's not a small deal. We all know that Andrew's the only person here who's walking around with a big deal

truly big deal i just keep i keep going back to like that's why you're lower back always giving you issues we're gonna be like on a podcast one day and i'm gonna walk out and be like oh fuck i thought you guys were gone and then you're both gonna be like oh the naked podcast shut the fuck up no we could do it pantsless because we're behind

this mask you know well actually in Siva what yeah we could do it pantsless we could be in our

undies back here at least no but but real talk when it does come to like a lot of this shit it is I do feel for

younger kids I do because as much as there is more information to give to speed you up on your fitness journey so that you can like understand the way to train and how to handle your nutrition as much as there's good information there's just so many more ways to see you're inadequate not just in fitness and everything like when you see somebody rolling in a crazy car or a fucking 20 years old and a millionaire with a beautiful girl in a house it's like it's hard not to compare yourself but part of it is like okay maybe you get off social media but you're not on it as much um follow those motherfuckers but there is i mean let's be real

there's a benefit in following people i learn a lot from a lot of the people i follow i'm intentional with that and like it helps a lot of that has helped me speed up learning of certain things so there's a benefit but you just got to be careful like you got to guard guard where you are mentally with that shit and if you are following something or someone that is not making you feel great then maybe you should not follow them anymore i know that's probably not easy thing to do but you know you just put that thing down. You just let it go and say, like, I'm not going to follow all these influencers anymore. It's, like, driving me too crazy. It's making me lean into it too hard.

But, you know, I think the main thing that's at play here is just the safety. You know, people are just going to do really unsafe things. They're going to do a thousand calorie diet. They're going to get their hands on whatever fat burning supplements, peptides, PEDs. There's, there's a lot of things that are really dangerous that speed up your, you know, the speed up your heart. If you're, you know, taking some of these like medications that normally are going to be prescribed by a doctor and, and these things are going to be like more thoroughly

examined as you go along the process, but you're doing that and you're not eating enough and you're like running on the treadmill and you're lifting. It can be a lot or you follow someone like me or you follow someone like Nick Bear or you follow someone like Nsema and you're like Nsema's lifting and he's doing jujitsu, Andrew's lifting, doing jujitsu, Mark is running and then lifting and podcasting and like i want to do what they're doing and maybe uh maybe you need more time to be able to get to particular levels like we've been lifting for a long time lifting has been a staple for us so for us to add something

to the menu after we've already been lifting for many years wasn't anything that miraculous or difficult so you're gonna have to give yourself some time to get used to all these things you know when you mentioned you know somebody's not making you feel good you shouldn't follow them it's true but also ask yourself why is this not making me feel good there could be a point where like this guy is saying he doesn't look good and he looks amazing and i think that's ridiculous yeah fucking unfollow that dude he's got a weird look on himself but you know if someone doesn't make you feel good because of their success for example alex hormosi

right i see his content sometimes it's like fucking hell what am i doing with my life you know but the thing is some like there's that thought and i didn't like sometimes like damn he's so successful but why why is he successful? Rather than being like, he makes me feel inadequate about my wealth. It's like, what are his habits? What is he doing? The thing is, is there's so much good information out there and not all of it might make you feel good. But maybe sometimes there's a reason you're not feeling good.

Maybe you're not feeling good for good reason. And this is going to be kind of rough, but maybe you haven't been taking care of yourself. Maybe you don't have the best habits. You know, maybe you do need to improve in that realm. And maybe when you do see someone who does have that and they're doing it, it doesn't make you feel good because you know that you could be implementing some of those habits to help you feel better. So maybe there's some good in terms of having, seeing something from somebody and not feeling good because maybe it kicks you in the ass to move in the right direction. Yes, it can go too far and it can get unhealthy mentally. But feeling good all the time isn't necessarily how things should be.

At least I personally think that. Andrew, take us on out of here, buddy. That's a good rant to end on. Perfect. Everybody, thank you for checking out today's episode. Please drop those comments down below. Let us know what you guys think about today's conversation. Hit the of here, buddy. That's a good rant to end on. Perfect. Everybody, thank you for checking out today's episode. Please drop those comments down below. Let us know what you guys think about today's conversation. Hit the like button, subscribe, and then if you're on Spotify, hit that follow and drop

comments down below there as well. Follow the podcast at MBPowerProject all over the place. My Instagram is at IamAndrewZ. And Seema, where are you at? Discord is down below, guys. Join in for the Q&A that we have coming up. Ask questions there. Antima Inyong on Instagram, YouTube, and Antima Inyong on TikTok and Twitter.

Mark? It's really weird. I can only close that golden with my left hand. I'm not sure what the deal is. Strength is never weakness. Weakness is never strength. I'm at Mark Spilley Bell. Catch you guys later.