Mark Bell's Power Project - You Won’t Take Steroids After Seeing This…|| MBPP Ep. 999

Episode Date: October 23, 2023

In Episode 999, Mark Bell, Nsima Inyang, and Andrew Zaragoza talk about the life you need to consider if you decide to jump over to the dark side. Awesome Vice Doc we watched: https://youtu.be/hAMk9Mq...hYVk?si=Ec8XkqsI0uD_qXgr   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! ➢ https://Peluva.com/PowerProject Code POWERPROJECT15 to save 15% off Peluva Shoes!   ➢https://drinkag1.com/powerproject Receive a year supply of Vitamin D3+K2 & 5 Travel Packs!   ➢ https://withinyoubrand.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save 15% off supplements!   ➢ https://markbellslingshot.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save 15% off all gear and apparel!   ➢ 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   ➢ https://hostagetape.com/powerproject to receive a year supply of Hostage Tape and Nose Strips for less than $1 a night!   ➢ 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://vuori.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/PowerProject to receive 10% off our Panel, Check Up Panel or any custom panel!   ➢ 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   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

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Vice made a documentary about steroids, guys, and we're going to watch it. Why is a generation of young men getting hooked on roids? What do you think would have been like maybe the worst side effects you guys have had? Well, there's a lot of side effects with steroids. My estrogen went through the roof. You know, I've been on and off them for a long time, and I don't recall having some sort of particular thing happen that I could pinpoint. If you decide to go on steroids, I'm not even saying I know that this is true,
Starting point is 00:00:26 but there might not be another. The generation might end with you. I wasn't calculating everything. I wasn't paying attention to everything. I wasn't, you know, my blood pressure must have been crazy. You're not necessarily going to be aware of it, but when you're 60 or 70 or 80, maybe you'll become more aware of it at that point,
Starting point is 00:00:43 which kind of sucks, right? But it was just part of what I did. you're 80, maybe you'll become more aware of it at that point, which kind of sucks, right? But it was just part of what I did. Power Project family, we've had some amazing guests on this podcast like Kurt Engel, Tom Segura, Andrew Hooperman, and we want to be able to have more amazing guests on this podcast and you can help it grow by leaving us a quick rating review on Spotify and iTunes. If you're listening to the podcast, just go ahead and give us a review. Let us know how you dig it and help the podcast grow so we can keep growing with y'all and bring you amazing information.
Starting point is 00:01:08 Enjoy the show. It sounds like maybe they will, though. Maybe they'll allow people to go in and out of the testing pool. Really? Yeah. I mean, why wouldn't you? I don't know if he's going to allow that. He's very much against it.
Starting point is 00:01:20 He fucking hates steroids. He hates... Well, he doesn't hate steroids. He hates people using performance enhancement when it's in the rules not to god man but what if okay there should be some leeway for fighters though seriously like people putting their bodies through that like give them something for recovery what about this post fight you know something like i don't know nowadays can't get away with anything you know like maybe it used to be that way we were like hey man post fight like three months we ain't gonna we're not gonna bother you you got nothing to worry about but they can't even like no one can even share that
Starting point is 00:01:53 in confidence because some pussy's gonna put that on the internet and like these other guys were taking shit yeah but even if they were to do like like three months and then they came off they would i mean it'd show up somewhere right like um like i think it would it'd be like a detriment it well that's that's the point you know make it so it's not easy like so you can't just blast got it can't just blast it's not that huge of an advantage but maybe post fight maybe you could take a little stuff to get your um body good. I imagine your cortisol and shit's probably all crazy. Weight cut, your test is all...
Starting point is 00:02:30 Again, that would make it even worse. I know. It would put you out of balance. Anyway. You guys ready to roll? This will play once it's ready. I've been here before watching that circle go like that with my pants around my ankles. So I feel like in order for this to be official.
Starting point is 00:02:55 Does that trigger something in your fucking old brain where it's like, wait, why is my hand on my dick right now? I know the feeling. Just disappointment in myself. Back before the iphone 3g i remember like trying to skip to a minute 17 18 of the video where it's like the perfect 30 seconds right before right just that that perfect 30 seconds to get you there you know that was my thing i had to find that i couldn't just go to anything it'd be like okay cool oh i'm getting there let's go to
Starting point is 00:03:25 this part of the video reverse cowgirl let's go i heard somebody the other day talk about like how they would know like when someone's dad came because of the vhs tape was perpetually stuck on that same oh my god yeah they're like how weird is it that i knew what uh you know mr smith's uh favorite part was he's like it's just when the girl's getting her hair pulled oh my god it's it's we're going here pretty sure this happened to you guys but you're like get a little impatient and it's like but it's over and then as you're cleaning up and you look down like that was the part i was probably that's way better than what i like ah i gave it up to the worst part. You're being a hoe.
Starting point is 00:04:07 Yeah, you weren't holding out. You weren't saving yourself. Ain't it so twisted? Okay, this is a used to thing. But yeah, you used to find a video and you're like, ooh, this is a hot video. So you wouldn't do anything before. You just scan through to find where the best parts were. Okay, 12, 15, 16, 16 18 and then 24 26 you just make
Starting point is 00:04:27 sure you get a little bit to each part you know what's amazing is how much uh faster pornography had all that stuff than everywhere else like now youtube has it you can put the mouse over top of something and it plays in the background but it took years for the other every other company every other billion dollar industry to figure out how to catch up with what they figured out in porn a long time ago. That's crazy how far YouTube was behind. That's why. Yeah. Lots of nuts.
Starting point is 00:04:55 Yeah, these porn people, they got it down. Some of it, I guess. They push industries, yes. Maybe that's like who YouTube hired. Maybe it was like they picked up all the people from the porn industry. Maybe. Smart move? Maybe.
Starting point is 00:05:09 I don't know. But yeah, this will play whenever we're ready. I doubt it. It doesn't look like it. Yeah, it'll go. You guys want to watch it? You got to smack the screen, I think. No.
Starting point is 00:05:19 Vice made a documentary about steroids, guys, and we're going to watch it. Steroids. Steroids aren't relevant anymore, bro. There's an epidemic in the UK. People know they're dangerous. They're not taking them anymore. Yeah. We've got a one-up.
Starting point is 00:05:33 You can go into any single gym and buy steroids within five minutes of being in there. If you train properly, die properly, take this shit, you're going to feel indestructible. Who doesn't want to feel like that? They're very powerful hormones. But with with any drugs there's always payback but when there's a drug that does the job it's a hard argument to say well don't use it every time you take this shit you're risking your fucking life you know it's a lottery oh pause what is he putting out of there i wouldn't be so curious what he's talking about risking your life with one my mouth goes sorry are you good keep Keep playing. Keep playing.
Starting point is 00:06:05 Keep going? Yeah. Let's see this drama. I look like I have boobie surgery. Gyno. Clomastia. They can show something if somebody's smoking something, though. Really?
Starting point is 00:06:16 In that little thing. It's like. Yeah. What's with the super early 90s vibes? It's like Stranger Things a little bit. It's like grungy. Yeah. This is cool. All right, here we go.
Starting point is 00:06:27 An estimated half a million young men in the UK are addicted to steroids. That guy's jacked. In fact, the Class C drug is the second most used drug after cannabis. Mate, so when you train,
Starting point is 00:06:37 I've never done it. Hey! But steroids come with some pretty alarming side effects, including liver and kidney failure. Got a lot of medication for the heart failure and the heart attacks, as well as mood swings and increased estrogen, which results in men needing breast reduction surgery.
Starting point is 00:06:52 Pause. Okay, real quick question for you guys. What are some... Yeah, that's... Pulling out some fat out of the guy's titty. Over the years... No, that's a titty. What do you think would have been like
Starting point is 00:07:02 maybe some of the worst side effects you guys have had? Well, there's a lot of side effects with steroids um i would say uh it can change your voice um it can give you acne it uh can kind of mess with your skin i would say i think my skin used to be better i not just from being younger but i think my skin was better when i was young and i took steroids i think it accelerated the aging of my skin i guess i would say okay um yeah acne is a huge thing um impotence could be a uh huge factor or non-huge factor depending on how you look at it um that i mean that one's a scary one because you figure that you're getting a boost of testosterone yeah and that you and you're so now you're hornier but then what like now you're hornier and your equipment don't work like that shit ain't cool i know a guy who currently he's like yeah i don't use uh i don't
Starting point is 00:07:59 worry about protection i cream cry all the time because i mean i'm on i'm like doc that's not it will lower your sperm count yeah but you could still make a mistake yeah it does work pretty good but it's no it's not good enough yeah not to necessarily use as as birth control although girls use hormones as birth control that seems to work pretty good yeah um i don't know that i think uh there's a lot to think about with steroids and i think there is a lot to counteract it and you can also just take uh if you can have some self-control and take like moderate to mod to modest amounts then these side effects are it's not like they don't exist everyone will probably experience some of them if they take steroids for a while. Um, but they're really, they're minimized. And I guess you could kind of, you start to think about all this stuff that you justify, you justify going into the gym,
Starting point is 00:08:54 doing heavy deadlifts, heavy squats. It's easy to start to justify, Oh, well, this is just part of it. Like my back is supposed to hurt cause I'm trying to deadlift 600 pounds. And so that's kind of, I guess, where I came to on a lot of this is I love strength training. I love working out, but I also kind of like love the extra little push that it gives you, the extra little enhancement that it gives you on top of the mental side of things, which is really never talked about. But I think it's a great motivator, having a little extra testosterone in the system never negatively affected your mood you never felt angry as
Starting point is 00:09:28 people talk about roid rage i wouldn't really know i don't believe so i i don't don't have a moment where i felt like i was like out of control or anything like that but um you know i've been on and off them for a long time and i don't recall having some sort of particular thing happen that I could pinpoint to steroids in that way. Also, and Andrew, you too, but I'm curious, you have mentioned, Mark, that they seem to amplify somebody's mood. So if a guy is like already kind of an anxious, angry guy, depending on what he takes, it could amplify that. How true do you guys both believe that is i believe that's very true especially so once you start to get outside the realm of like testosterone and trt and you start getting into steroids you start getting into
Starting point is 00:10:16 um echo poise and trend balloon and some of these other things and oral steroids and stuff they have more dangers to them and uh i do think that if somebody has a personality that maybe isn't, or they're just not fully developed, like they're still young, they're still like in their teens or twenties, like this could be a real recipe for disaster. But if you have like a lot of highs and lows already, steroids might not be great. I mean, we know that hormones can cause a swing in people, whether it's estrogen, testosterone, or otherwise it can cause you to feel good and cause you to feel like shit in a lot of ways. So I, yeah, I think, I think you got to just proceed with caution,
Starting point is 00:10:58 but there is a lot of information out there, but it's kind of the same deal when you come back to Kratom. I love Kratratom i've used it for years been a huge fan i've experimented with it to take a lot of it to try to see what dangers um before i ever sold it i was like let me to me it didn't feel dangerous but it can be dangerous all these things can be dangerous they have to be everything has to be treated as a drug and you have to take it seriously and you have to handle it like an adult. You have to do some of your own research and you have to really pay attention. I don't think it's wise to just blast some amount that you heard somebody at the gym say. I think you need to get more verification. You need to get more information
Starting point is 00:11:39 and try to get the purest, highest form of it because a lot of people are probably going to do them anyway. Yeah. I mean, it helped a lot with confidence and like feeling better about myself. That's for sure. You know, because I would have my like, I guess I'll call them mood swings, but it wasn't like a like a ragey mood swing or anything. It would just be like, I don't know. I just don't have it today. Like, I don't want to go do whatever it is I want to do. I'll go do what I have to do because if I don't, then like I can't
Starting point is 00:12:08 pay bills or whatever it may be. And then when I started TRT, I started feeling more complex. I don't know if it's the, uh, the Huberman said thing where it's like, it makes, um, difficult tasks more enjoyable or whatever, however he explains that. It makes like exertion feel really good. It encourages you toion feel really good. Yeah. It encourages you to push harder. Yeah. So I don't know if it was necessarily that or the fact that I felt like, oh, everything I do, I will get like way more benefit out of it. If I go to the gym, I'm going to start seeing results and I'm going to get way better benefit from going to the gym today versus when I wasn't. And it's like, damn, am I going to see results?
Starting point is 00:12:45 You know what I mean? Like, even though I obviously was going to, but when you see them come a little bit faster and you just also have the knowledge of like, well, now my testosterone is optimized. It's definitely going to help. Oh my gosh, I forgot his dad's name, but the Whitmers, they had, they had explained, um, that, you know, guys that were in the military that were like prescribed SSRIs and all these other things. And it's like, well, as soon as they got their testosterone levels, you know, optimized, they could ditch all those and their moods were way better. positive side of things whereas i i don't i don't have any experience or any knowledge of like the the roid rage stuff but i know for sure i've haven't experienced anything like that yeah i think something that's been helpful for me is even before i ever took steroids i always felt like i didn't feel like i could necessarily be somebody else or do exactly what they did but when i admired something in somebody i was like, I bet I could probably close the gap on that. I bet I could probably be, maybe I can't be quite as, as fast as that guy, or maybe jump as high as that person or, but I can be inspired by it and I can go fucking try.
Starting point is 00:13:54 And I've always been, I've been that way since I was a kid. I've always been like excited by the possibility of the potential. Okay. Well, my vertical isn't great right now but i just saw that guy do like a 40 inch vertical that's um i'm not gonna i'm not gonna watch like a video of a guy getting like doing like a 20 inch vertical i'm gonna watch i'm gonna go top down you know the guy does like fucking 360 slam dunk or something and i might watch something like that maybe it says that the guy is 40 years old now i'm not thinking like oh, oh man, I wish that was me. I'm thinking like, that is really cool that that guy can do that at that age. I bet you that I can close the gap. I bet you that I can make some improvements. I might be able to jump four or five inches higher
Starting point is 00:14:36 than I can right now, which it would be a more marked improvement than what that guy can do right now because that guy's already at the top.'s already kicking ass so i can feel good about some of my own achievements and not really compare but to look at that and see um because i think a lot of times with what we're dealing with today is there's so much comparison going on and people are thinking i'm going to take steroids and now i'm going to be like this guy and that's where you might be in for a rude awakening because it's still complicated and it's still getting in shape is a lifelong journey and getting in shape is like a 24-7 job. And then just real quick, negative side effects from proper TRT dosage. My estrogen went through the roof. It should be like at the high end is like 30 whatever's. Mine was like 90.
Starting point is 00:15:26 So it was like extremely high. Any side effects that you noticed? Yeah. Yeah. Um, it wouldn't stay hard as long as it did before. And then the most obvious one that actually is. Semen. I will take care of that.
Starting point is 00:15:38 Yeah. Thanks guys. We got you, buddy. Yeah. The, uh, the most, um, I guess the one that like is outwardly showing is the back knee. You know, that one, like I can't wear a white gi anymore because if I, you know, roll around and I'll like, I'll pop zits on my back and it'll look, I'll have blood on my gi and people will look at it weird. And I'm just like, well, I don't know if they look at it weird, but I feel like
Starting point is 00:15:59 they are. Cause it's like, it's weird. He's got like polka dots on his back. Like, so that makes me super uncomfortable. Working on getting that fixed, switching to cottonseed oil from grapeseed oil in the carrier oil, seeing if maybe it's a little bit lighter. So it's still worth it to you to do it? Oh, by far. Yeah. No, I'm just saying like. And the acne is embarrassing, though.
Starting point is 00:16:21 And obviously the other thing sucks, too. Yeah, which both have gotten better, especially because now the estrogen with what's the anastrozole so it's just a help block that's just our estrogen conversion to estrogen yeah so I'm gonna light dose of that and that's brought the estrogen levels back down to a normal range which fixed the you know the the hard part but the the the back knee is still kind of lingering. It's getting better, but it's still there. Yeah. Let's keep going with this.
Starting point is 00:16:50 I want to take a look inside the steroid epidemic, from the dealers selling it to the young men taking it. Why is a generation of young men getting hooked on roids? Because they're awesome. I'm just outside Cardiff in the valleys right now and we're about to see Tom Powell if it sounds familiar
Starting point is 00:17:09 it's because he was in season 2 of Love Island he's been openly taking steroids for a number of years now do you still think there's like bad connotations with steroid use and that whole stigma of your balls will shrink that's not stigma that's fucking true yeah my balls are, my balls are tiny.
Starting point is 00:17:26 My balls are tiny. Oh, they're tiny. Wow. That face, that guy makes a pretty smart face. He uses his platform to teach young men how to take them safely. Tom, take me back. What was your physique like before steroids? Back in school, I was a chubby little kid.
Starting point is 00:17:46 So for years, for years, I was. Until I realized girls don't like fat guys. When did you start taking steroids? Five months after Love Island. Was being on camera, did that affect how you saw yourself? Yeah, I felt pressured to stay in shape more. It wasn't the reason why I jumped on steroids. Can you pause it for a second?
Starting point is 00:18:04 You guys have seen these shows before uh like love island and some of these dating shows and stuff everyone on there is in amazing shape so it's understandable like he would probably you know he probably watched it and then he's probably thinking like man i'm not the only i'm the only guy that's like not in shape where you watch it now and most of the people are pretty jacked on there yeah they've actually uh like Love is Blind has started to, this is going to sound rough. Be more inclusive. They started to be more inclusive.
Starting point is 00:18:32 Not everyone's like extremely good looking or extremely jacked. Let's get some ugly folks in here and get on that scale. You're under 250? No, no, no. You're not good enough for our show. We need someone like 270, 280. If Love is is blind not every guy and girl has to be hot like that's just not fair because you're just picking all these
Starting point is 00:18:50 ridiculously good looking people you got to pick some um yeah you got to be inclusive it's like a like an auctioneer like 250 255 can i get 260 it's rough out there. It's rough. It was a contributing factor. Obviously, I wanted to look good all the time because you're constantly in the public eye. The main reason why I went to Love Island is because I wanted to become a sponsor. Oh, he's handsome as hell.
Starting point is 00:19:16 I met the guys that I wanted to become, you know, and I asked them straight away. I was like, boys, talk to me about steroids. Are you on them? And they said, yeah, you can't get anywhere in this industry without them. You can go into any single gym and buy steroids within five minutes of being in pause that is an unfortunate uh that's an unfortunate statement for someone to think and someone's belief because like you know like we talked about it on the
Starting point is 00:19:39 podcast so many times but everybody does have different genetics everybody does has been doing this for a different amount of time if you're someone who's been able to lift or train for a really long time, like Mark, before you hopped on, you were probably as big as he was being on steroids. And you have pictures of that, right? But you were already training a decade before you chose to do anything. And I was training for a long time. I still have it. But by the time I learned about this stuff, I've already had 10 years of good training under the belt, and there was no reason. So it's unfortunate that there's this assumption. We know tons of people that are in amazing shape that don't utilize performance-enhancing drugs.
Starting point is 00:20:15 And we also know world record holders in squat, bench, deadlift, total that do get tested. Now, we can't assure you that everybody's drug-free, but I can assure you that not everybody that we know that gets tested, some of those guys are drug-free. Yeah. So if you're young and you pay attention to some of this stuff and you're watching this stuff, just realize that if you haven't been training for a long time, then there's no reason to assume that you can't get to a decent size or you can't gain a good amount of muscle. There's no reason to assume that if you don't have your nutrition in check, you haven't been training for a decent amount of time. It does take time. That's factual. But the statement of like, you can't get anywhere without them is short-sighted and it's, it's, it's,
Starting point is 00:20:58 it's trying to rush a process that doesn't need to be rushed. Because I mean, that's said really really well because i think that that's one of the main issues is rushing it like rushing into it and you should think about the consequences of what it is that you're doing i actually heard this today so this comes in super handy but um i believe it was i could be saying this wrong people that were native to this country i'll say that people are native to this country uh thought seven generations ahead when they had a big decision to make so like just think about generations after you what impact that might have if you decide to go on steroids i'm not even saying i know that this is true but there might not be another the generation might end with you if you can't you know if you if you can't have a
Starting point is 00:21:41 baby and uh that would be super unfortunate i do know some guys that have had that happen, but we don't know if it was direct. Nobody knows for sure if it's directly from steroids, but I don't think they helped. And just be mindful of it. And just think about this. Most guys who get on, that's a big decision. And many don't come off. If you do want to have a kid, you will have to figure out a way to come off when you're trying to conceive. But you know, when you do that, it's hard for you to go back to being without it because it feels really fucking good. So just understand you're getting yourself
Starting point is 00:22:15 into a lot. And we just did a, we just did a podcast with a bunch of people talking about the process of getting off steroids. So that'll be there somewhere. Somewhere. And then also like what he's saying, you know, cause I think he's talking about like the entertainment industry like you won't get anywhere in this industry unless you get on stuff um so i understand i'm not trying to be naive like if you look like a chris hemsworth or somebody that's a hundred pounds lighter like he's gonna get that part whatever you know if it's for thor right he's gonna like i understand that but imagine if you were truly truly drug free and all of a sudden nike comes knocking on your door gatorade whoever it may be and they're just
Starting point is 00:22:50 like are you like really you're drug free like yeah i'll prove it at whatever at all cost that's that's a freaking golden ticket right there could you imagine like oh somebody that can go to like any any event you know for any age can be in any movie for any age like damn like that's amazing because like the rock is kind of that but everybody is like oh he's definitely on stuff and which is fine but he's also like never really went too hard to deny it right now imagine if you're like dude you can test me anytime you want companies would be all over you so again thinking future you know and in in's like, damn, that could be like – that could pay off a lot. A lot of things are a skill set too.
Starting point is 00:23:32 Maybe for this guy or maybe for other individuals, maybe even for myself. Maybe when I started, I didn't feel like I had a great skill set. But I didn't know half the shit that I – I started at 25. I didn't know half the stuff that I know now. You started steroids at 25, lifting at't know half the stuff that I know now. And so – You started steroids at 25, lifting at like – Yeah, exactly, exactly. And I did have some skill in lifting, but – and powerlifting came kind of quote-unquote naturally to me, I guess you'd say, for a little while.
Starting point is 00:23:59 But I also wanted to push that to another level. But I think it's okay to admit that there's like a feeling of insecurity there. Like I did look at all the magazines. I did, I did worship the strongest power lifters. I did look up to Ed Cohn and Kurt Kowarski and like all these, you know, lifters of the past. But I wasn't thinking like, I can't get along without this stuff. I just thought that's what they utilize in addition to the way that they train. So to me, I never even really steroids to me. I never really looked at them as necessarily being like a bad thing where they have a different stigma nowadays.
Starting point is 00:24:38 And they kind of should because it should have like a little bit of a warning on it. You shouldn't just like go jumping in haphazardly into it. But to me, it looked like it was part of like training. Like this is what these guys do. They eat protein. They train this way. They sleep this way. They utilize these supplements and they utilize these drugs. And so for me, that's, I was always just like, yeah, whenever I'm old enough, I'm probably going to do those things. Power Project Family, we talk about beef and meat all the time on the podcast. That's why we partnered with Certified Piedmontese Beef.
Starting point is 00:25:09 But did you know this? That 85% of all grass-fed, grass-finished beef in the United States is imported from other countries? 85%. Damn. But Certified Piedmontese is made in the U.S. of A. America. America. Fuck yeah.
Starting point is 00:25:27 made in the u.s of a america america fuck yeah so go ahead and get some of the best tasting some of the leanest some of the best beef from piedmontese andrew how can they get it absolutely uh so you guys can head over to cpbeef.com and check out enter promo code power to save 25 off your entire order and if your order is 150 or more you get free two-day shipping. Again, cpbeef.com. Links to them down in the description, as well as the podcast show notes. Fuck yeah! That's nuts, man. They're very, very available. So what's the biggest you've ever got?
Starting point is 00:25:58 120 kilos lean. Five, six years ago, when I first started taking steroids, I wanted to be these, you know these topless influencers that were shredding. I wanted to be that. And now I realise that that was the wrong way to go about it and that's not what the fitness industry should be. I take TRT now, which is called testosterone replacement therapy. It's a very low level of testosterone.
Starting point is 00:26:18 It's not for muscle gains, it's just for replenishment of me. I've actually got a job now, if you want to see it. Yeah, of course, yeah. Long-term steroid use impairs your testosterone production, resulting in symptoms like fatigue, anxiety and low libido. Tom has to take TRT, a prescribed light steroid to help balance his hormones. Where would you inject it?
Starting point is 00:26:41 Today is my bum, unfortunately for you. I'm here for the ride, let's go. There's a certain V in your ass where you're not supposed to go, so I'm going to be going around here. Wipe the area first. I never thought I'd be staring intently into someone's bum cheeks today, but... Tap off, push all the air bubbles out. And that is all done.
Starting point is 00:27:03 And that didn't hurt? At all. When you first started taking it, what were the side effects? This is when I was taking Tren in my third cycle. So I had a lot. My mood swings were up and down.
Starting point is 00:27:14 Night terrors, which is horrible dreams every single night. Couldn't keep a hard on. Pause. Have you done Tren? I have. I never had any nightmares from it, though, I don't think.
Starting point is 00:27:27 What was your Trent experience? Just makes you really fucking strong. Yeah. Yeah. And it does make, like, I mean, my sleep was already uncomfortable because at that time I was just really, really big, you know? How big were you? uncomfortable because at that time I was just really, really big, you know, um, big were you, uh, probably around those times I was probably between two, two 90 and three 10, somewhere in that range. Yeah. I mean, it was, um, it's interesting. I mean, you know, the stuff that
Starting point is 00:28:01 you see, like with a superhero, like, uh, especially with a superhero, especially a superhero villain, when they go on a bender and you see – I can't even think of the different names of some of them. Bane from Batman? Yeah, exactly. The stuff that you can do when you're that strength, it's really enticing to go and do those things. And so week in and week out, I was handling 800-pound benches, 900 benches, thousand pound squats, 1100 pound squats. It just felt good. It didn't, it's not like it didn't wear me out. Like it, I definitely needed to recover from those things. But I remember at that time, you know, I would sleep like four or five hours a night and go back to the gym and do the same thing over and over and over again.
Starting point is 00:28:42 I just kind of, it just makes you into like a fucking animal in a way. Uh, negative side effects though. Like, um, you know, I wasn't like, I wasn't calculating everything. I wasn't paying attention to everything. I wasn't, you know, my blood pressure must've been crazy. You know, there must've been like damage to the heart and all kinds of stuff that I did at that time. It just, you're not necessarily going to be aware of it. But when you're 60 or 70 or 80, maybe you'll become more aware of it at that point, which kind of sucks, right? But it was just part of what I did. You did something mad recently, like you were having a surgery and then you live streamed it.
Starting point is 00:29:20 Yeah, I had gyno surgery. Gyno is a buildup of oestrogen behind the nipple. I'm oestrogen sensitive, so when I was taking steroids, my oestrogen built up and stuck behind my nipple, basically, and it was causing pain. I could hack. Ningen technique.
Starting point is 00:29:34 Why did you live stream it, bro? To raise awareness. I know it's a bit crazy. The more people it sees, the more people it reaches, the more people are going to see it and maybe get checked out. So I thought, yeah, why not go live this? Let's say I'm a young person trying to get
Starting point is 00:29:46 into the fitness industry and I want to be the next gym influencer. Would you advise me to take steroids? Find your own path. I want to be in the industry so much. I listen to what anyone else did. Do your own journey. Thomas Suffer.
Starting point is 00:30:01 I think it's really important to point out there's a lot of people that aren't on steroids. Yeah, there's a lot. It's just we choose not to really believe them because a lot of times they look spectacular. Right. And so we're like, this guy's too shredded. This guy's too big. This guy's too strong. Like, I doesn't really make sense. That guy, you know, if he wasn't that strong, I might believe him. Right. that strong, I might believe him, right? We choose not to believe them, but for people that are natural, I think you have no choice. I think you have to kind of stick in that lane and the people that are proclaiming to be natural, I think you got to kind of just hope that they are, just hope that they're like, hope that that's possible. Most of the people that we see that are claiming to be natural or that have competed naturally um even when they are big
Starting point is 00:30:47 i think most of us would agree it's like those are physiques that could be accomplished naturally normally like normally it's not like every once in a while there's some guy out there where you're like okay seriously but for the most part it's not really like uh you know ronnie coleman after he won his sixth or seventh olympia normally it's not guys like that even after he won his sixth or seventh Olympia. Normally, it's not guys like that. Even Ronnie Coleman before he – Right. Ronnie Coleman before drug use looked insane. Maybe – I don't know if you can bring up a video of him like in a powerlifting meet.
Starting point is 00:31:17 I don't necessarily know for sure that he was natural at that time, but he did say that he was natural I think maybe getting his pro card. It's hard to know like what's true about people or whatever. But, I mean, it makes sense that Ronnie Coleman, one of the greatest bodybuilders of all time, probably the most heavily muscled person that we really have ever seen ever, right? I would say so. You know, the interesting thing about what he just mentioned there about a young person young person wanted to be watch look at this waist this fucking belt like is it's like uh probably like a 28 inch waist and look at his arms his arms oh my gosh yeah ronnie's huge dang those next ones pretty big too yeah that guy must be massive holy shit who's that guy he comes out from behind that chalk bowl you'll see his waist
Starting point is 00:32:07 it's non-existent look at that oh my god what the yeah buddy yeah 94 gets in perfect gets in perfect position i'm not sure this was before or after he hopped on though it may have been slightly after or something but he because i think i've seen pictures of him like like in a bodybuilding show one of his first ones in the wnbf and it was before that yeah but he was still huge don't get it don't get it might have been super early 90s yeah um but like the thing the things that's interesting about people wanting to be fitness influencers is that they'll see guys that are young that have hopped on and that have managed to get big pretty fast and see that level of success and think, that's what I need to do to get there. Rather than with almost anything else, you need years of experience to be able to talk about or to be able to put forward information. to be able to talk about or to be able to put forward information.
Starting point is 00:33:04 Whereas here, it's just like, just get big as fast as you can and start taking pictures and start flexing and shit, right? Yeah, I mean, because you can point to like Sam Sulek, right? Yeah, and all those other, like Brandon Harding.
Starting point is 00:33:18 So he was open about it. He started three years after he started lifting, he hopped on, right? And he gained massive levels of success because he looked good right so it's like it's hard to argue it's sad it's honestly kind of sad but whatever oh shit where did that that's tough man too once someone goes on then you think like what was I listening to before you know like Christian Guzman he it seemed
Starting point is 00:33:43 like he was pretty clearly was natural for a really long time. And then now I think he has a desire to become like an IFBB pro. But it kind of makes you wonder, you're like, when did he take him? Did he take him before he said? Did he take him after? Is he being honest? It's hard to know whether people are honest or not. But I think, again, the best thing you can do for yourself is just to open your mind up to what are the possibilities? Just because somebody's never looked a particular way before or done a particular thing before doesn't mean that you can't be the one to do it yeah including having to do breast reduction surgery as a result of gynecomastia the surgeon who performed tom's operation the self-proclaimed king of gynecomastia. The surgeon who performed Tom's operation, the self-proclaimed king of gyno, Dr. John,
Starting point is 00:34:27 warns that tens of thousands of men are now at risk of needing surgery due to steroid use. How many gynecomastia surgeries would you say you do in a week due to steroids? I do about two to three a day. Whoa. So if we say half of them are due to steroids, I mean, we're talking about 15 in five days,
Starting point is 00:34:46 so about seven or eight probably from steroid use. Wow. But I'm the king of gyno, I mean. Dr John is letting us film his next breast reduction surgery. His patient, Grant, is already in the waiting room. What's up, bro? I'm all good, I'm all good. How are you feeling? Nervous.
Starting point is 00:35:06 Why are you getting this done? Like, everyone I speak to, no one notices it on me. But for me, it's a self-confidence thing. I've always had, like, a little bit of it when I was younger. So as soon as I hit, like, 16, you get it. When, like, some people hit it through puberty. And then I started using steroids and it just kind of never left. And it just got worse never left and just got worse
Starting point is 00:35:25 and worse and worse as I got bigger and bigger but as you're a big lump you don't really think about it but if you go into places like Ibiza and Marbella and stuff like that and you're taking your shirt off and you're surrounded by other people that do steroids that haven't got it people notice it. Talk us through your steroid juice when was the first time you started taking it? 18. 18? Yes I've been on and off it for 10 years i started going to the gym seeing nothing seeing nothing and i was like you know what i'm just going to jump on a course took some tablets and started getting bigger and kind of never looked back is it more for fitness or is it more like an aesthetic i am so unfit honestly i think it's really important for people it's amazing to start lifting when you're young
Starting point is 00:36:03 so unfortunately if that ship has sailed already that information doesn't do you no good. But it's really helpful to start lifting when you're young because I think we have a tendency to give ourselves more time with stuff when we're young. Yes. You know, like I've said this before, but like you don't really remember how bad you were at swinging a baseball bat when you were a little kid. You don't remember how bad you were at throwing. You would when you were a little kid you don't remember how bad you were at throwing you would throw it and someone's like oh that's pretty good okay now try to throw it this way or try to you know they might give you technique uh cues and i don't know you just play with your cousins and your friends next thing you know you're hitting a ball throwing a ball catching a ball and you're doing pretty good um but as we get older uh it's
Starting point is 00:36:42 to try to go and like lift at 19 when you your head, you're thinking like everybody's already in shape. I'm the one who's out of shape. I don't want to be lifting next to everybody else. I'm just going to be over here on the elliptical or something. You're doing stuff that – you're not as, you're not in the right frame of mind to get yourself to be really good at that thing. And it's going to take time. It's going to take time for you to get good at it. It's going to take time for your body to be able to have like an adaptation period. Like at that age, you can make a lot of progress.
Starting point is 00:37:21 But in my opinion, when you're new to lifting period regardless of your age it might be better to stick your uh hopes and dreams into your performance more so than just the way you look in the mirror just the way you look in the mirror can still be a goal but i think if you're like i want to just improve on everything that i'm doing now uh a rep or two or by five pounds i think you'll be pumped because almost every time you come into the gym, you'll get progressively just a little bit better at everything and you'll be able to feel better. You'll be able to be more confident. And as a result, you'll probably get in better shape. Give it time. About 17 and a half stone. I couldn't walk upstairs, but generally
Starting point is 00:38:03 my breathing was terrible. I was just carrying so much excess weight that I didn't need. It's never about like the fitness it's about the recovery so I can get bigger and bigger and when all your mates
Starting point is 00:38:12 are sitting at like 70 kilos you look like the biggest in the group and it's nice. It's a nice feeling. Are you still on steroids right now? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:38:20 This hasn't stopped you? Nah. I think the problem is I'm so far into it now. I wish I'd never started, but now I'm on it, it's too late. That's for us. You said you wish you never started, right? But it's too late.
Starting point is 00:38:35 That's one of those things you got to think about. It's like, if you're going to pull that trigger, realize you're going to be on that shit for a long time. It's not easy for people to get off. It's not easy for people to stop off. It's not easy for people to stop. Yeah, what's your plan? That's what I would say. I think that sometimes people think they're going to do it just for a little bit
Starting point is 00:38:53 and get something out of it and then retain that, but it doesn't really work that way. That would be awesome if it did. That would be great if you could take them at 15 and then you're big all the way for the rest of your life, but they doesn't they don't work that way and they're also to try to take steroids just to make a team or just to do something um and that's not great either because you're just barely making the team by even utilizing i heard dave tate talk about this before how it's like a uh you have like an extra card in
Starting point is 00:39:23 your deck that you're gonna play and the people that end up making it you know until say like the hall of fame uh potentially like barry bonds he didn't play a steroid card until he was already in the league for a long time until he was already on his way to the hall of fame kind of looks like he used that you know uh midway through his career to extend his career so he could smash more home runs and be around for a little bit longer but if you have to play that card to make the jv football team like you know you might want to really reconsider like what because the risk to reward might not be there yeah i was 16 when i got my first accusation after sly tackling a teammate it was kind of funny oh you did it too aggressively yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 00:40:05 Because it was my first practice back from my knee injury. So it was like three years since my teammates saw me. And it was the same team that I played with. And then I came back, I think I was like 220-something. And then I slide cycled to one of my teammates, Tyler Mulpey. He's like, what the fuck? Are you on steroids or something? I was like, nah, dog.
Starting point is 00:40:23 Just bigger. Just been lifting some weights. Right now, I know you're looking in 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.
Starting point is 00:40:51 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 viore.com slash power project that's v-u-o-r-i.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 block my guy got this man look at those milkers is it ticklish right now no that's all right this is the stuff that's hanging out and here's the actual glance damn after applying a local anesthetic the surgeons
Starting point is 00:41:40 have filled grant's breasts up with a liquid to help with the procedure. What are the dangers and risks of this operation? I would think that the most common risk is getting a hematoma. So the body wants to heal it and wants to push blood into your chest. Other risks, nipple inversion, nipple necrosis, but there's different ways to prevent that. Nipple necrosis, meaning your nipple falls off. This is one thing, too. People are making a lot of videos about how to do this shit safely,
Starting point is 00:42:10 like Derek. There's a lot of people that make videos, but at the end of the day, you don't know if this is going to be you. You don't know if you're going to get gyno. You don't know if you're going to get bacne. You don't know what's going to be your side effects. When you do this shit, you are rolling the dice. You might just come out unscathed and someone that doesn't get any side effects at all all or you might be the dude that gets some titties you know
Starting point is 00:42:28 or some pretty rough acne somewhere so again this shit isn't like there's there's a lot of shit to think about dog yeah the the fail safe uh i guess sentence that people who are pro steroids or pro everything will use is like dude there a 99% chance you get no side effects. Oh, is that a – That's what's said. That's what's said. Because then it's like if something does happen, like, oh, shit, dude, like you're just that one percenter. One percenter.
Starting point is 00:42:55 Yeah. I think that it's really rare, too, for people just to stay the course. So it's really rare for someone to get on stuff. And somebody could swear up and down bro like i'm telling you only take testosterone don't take anything else it's going to be really enticing take this amount don't take more than this it's going to be really enticing i've gave andrew this speech i've given a lot of people a speech i think andrew's the only one that ever listened to me but uh it's really tough to not want to, because if you stack
Starting point is 00:43:27 testosterone with other stuff, it becomes a huge amplifier. And then you end up with, you're now on a steroid cycle, which is just a totally different ball game. And it's much easier to grow. It's easier to get bigger. It's easier to feel better. Like everything will happen a lot faster but because there's uh a lot more to gain there's also a lot more to risk and so you have to be really cautious
Starting point is 00:43:51 of that and i don't really know like i think the time that we're in is uh interesting it's a little bit of like an experiment like there were bodybuilders before us and there's some people out there that kind of seem like they're okay-ish, but we don't really know their life. We don't know their quality of life, like Arnold and Stallone. And these guys are like in their seventies, they made millions of dollars. You can't ask for what appears to be a better life than what they've had, but we don't really know. But there's a lot of people that are my age now that have messed around with stuff, maybe in a different way than what some of those guys were doing at the time. And we won't really know. So that's the thing I think to consider is
Starting point is 00:44:36 I would say that testosterone is fairly safe to utilize in a moderate dosage, but good luck trying to stick within that. Most people aren't going to do that they're going to take more and they're going to end up on a steroid cycle and we don't really know what the consequences are fully we don't fully understand the consequences of full-on steroid cycles in my opinion and just like everything you make excuses for it so like um i i is it i believe it might be deca which allegedly could lower your estrogen levels right is that the one like there's a couple different things yeah so then it's like oh well i need my estrogen down anyway so it's like this is a win-win you know and then it's like well shit then what happens to my testosterone
Starting point is 00:45:22 levels and then what happens when i come off of that one that's not prescribed or even like oh i know sarms can have some benefit but they tank your testosterone it's gonna raise or lower something it's like but i can't make something test you know so you kind of like oh but i'll be okay like no let's just stay the course because this is this feels good right now let me ask you about this is there anything that you would have changed something you would have changed something you would have maybe used differently or not used at all based off of your experience of the things that you've done through the years anything at all i would not have used sarms at all okay and if i could talk to myself back then i would say hey just give it i don't know how many
Starting point is 00:46:02 years it was from that to getting on like a real trt dose but be like just work your ass off and then when you're 34 or 35 uh i don't know how fucking old i am maybe 36 then you'll get on like a legit trt dose and it will blow sarms way out of the water all it's going to do right now is potentially keep you from having a baby right like thank goodness that that didn't happen and everything was fine fuck them kids man but i mean i was getting blood work too so like i was making sure everything was fine yeah but that's what i would i would have i would have never touched arms never and i just would have told myself just wait like another whatever how many years it was and work your ass off and it'll be totally worth it. I don't know.
Starting point is 00:46:48 Nothing different from me. I think that's just where I was at. Okay. I think that's where my mindset was at at that age. So I was just like, fuck it. Let's go for it. That's fair. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:46:58 And also, truth be told, like I got a shit ton of like attention when I did Starmageddon. So like overall is a net positive. ton of like attention when i did starmageddon so like overall is a net positive but like if we're just talking about like side effects and in peds and stuff in this uh context that's the that's what i would have changed gotcha they're going to extract the fat like they would with liposuction some guys would say they'd never leave the house if they had tits like that. Just me. He's looking in the mirror the whole time. God! Oh, look at that.
Starting point is 00:47:35 Look at, look at, look at, look at. Oh, you missed the slurp. Yeah, I missed it. Look at that right there. Oh, it's like slurping fat out of his boobie. It looks like the icing machine's at 7-Eleven. Ha! Are you looking awayven that's pretty bad i'll fast forward this no no don't fast forward are you sure yes fuck oh it sucks
Starting point is 00:47:56 he's like fuck you you say it's a girl yeah it kind of looks like a hamburger patty damn cook that shit up dog it's all fat it's probably pretty good yeah so they just extracted all the breast tissue out I guess right yeah it looks like it
Starting point is 00:48:20 I mean not as pec muscle but like breast tissue I genuinely can't believe those massive glands came out of Grant's body. Honestly, if that doesn't put yours taking steroids, I genuinely don't know what will. Marbling was interesting. I wonder how you'd cook that. Smoke it? Pretty hungry.
Starting point is 00:48:43 Doug. You wouldn't need any kind of butter or anything on it because it would have so much fat. It would just slide right off the pan. That thing was wild looking. Yeah. I didn't know that it looked like that. I hear some people cook placenta. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:48:56 I'm mad curious about that. I really think I'd want to have one. We need to start a Gyno King hamburger patty. Fucking restaurant. Just immediately once it's taken out, have it frozen and shipped to the U.S. Interesting. What's Gynoking stand for? Interesting flavor on this thing.
Starting point is 00:49:17 Real fatty. If that guy's doing that many per week, I think he can supply it. It's an expensive burger, right? Only a select few will be able to afford it. We can't say it's an expensive burger right only a select few will be able to afford it but it's we can't say it's steroid free that's for sure yeah definitely modified damn that's brutal i didn't know i didn't know like that gland was that big like that do you see how big his titties were some c cups right there have you guys ever seen like fat you ever seen fat like inside
Starting point is 00:49:48 the body yeah oh yeah i've seen i've seen surgical videos i went to throw out a bag one time when i was at work i was working as a bouncer and i went to like spin this bag because i was going to tie the top of the garbage bag and it had uh like a bottle of vodka in there and the bottle was broken and it went and it just hit my knee my knee and just like out of a horror movie the blood went like all over the side of the bag and i was like what's that and i looked down and i'm like oh my god and so i go and like try to dry off my leg and i'm like i have a pretty bad fucking wound i had to go to the uh emergency room get it stitched up and everything but i could see the fat in there i asked the doctor i'm like what is that like weird yellow stuff he's like oh that's fat
Starting point is 00:50:35 i was like i got chubby kneecaps he's like oh everyone's got fat right there oh i was like it was just gross looking i was like holy fuck i can't imagine having that shit ripped out of your body yeah that's just gotta hurt oh man that that one got me worse than that video yeah it was like fucking friday the 13th type shit blood squirted all over the bag i was like oh my god i am still hungry to sell in the uk why did they come from and i'm about to meet an international steroid dealer. I really want a hamburger. Make steroids.
Starting point is 00:51:09 Is he from Canada? This is... No. Yo. An international steroid dealer. What's going on right now? So basically, I'm put... So basically, I have a solution of Nangelo or Deca.
Starting point is 00:51:22 We've got the raw... Sounds like under the giant. Here. Put a couple of chemicals in there, and I'm just finishing it off with some seed oil. This is the carrier. This is the solution. Now, how do you get the right ingredients for it? Well, I mean, if you're buying it,
Starting point is 00:51:35 you know, over the Internet, or even from your local dealer, you don't know what the fuck you're getting. Especially when you're injecting it straight into your muscle. Has it got hairs in it? Has it got bits of fucking shit floating in it that's going to give you, you know, sepsis. What's the wildest things that you've heard being put inside steroids? Well, I've seen some very dirty conditions,
Starting point is 00:51:54 you know, smoking cigarettes over it, the ashes dropping in, it's not getting filtered. I've seen people have injections and then go bad, they have to have their whole leg cut open and drained. It's fucking risky. It's risky. There's not a lot of people actually making this shit. So the guy in the gym who's telling you,
Starting point is 00:52:13 yeah, yeah, this is the best, yeah. How the fuck do they know? You know what I mean? Every time you take this shit, you're risking your fucking life, you know? It's a lottery. Unless you're making this yourself or getting it from a pharmaceutical company, you don't know what the fuck's in it.
Starting point is 00:52:25 You're the most honest drug dealer I've ever heard in my life. Not everybody who makes and sells drugs is trying to kill people and rinse them. Do you know what I mean? I mean, you know, it's a gray area. You know what I mean? It's like, yeah. The real stand-up guy. Yeah, pause this shit.
Starting point is 00:52:41 What would you say is like your demographic? It breaks my heart to say it, but 16 to 24-year-olds were out to see about 16 to 24 16 oh 16 and 24 year olds yeah but that's one of the things that always kind of shocked me about this shit too it's like it's going to a random website or getting it from a friend and you're just injecting this random substance into your body that you're not really sure where it came from that shit dog that's also a big deterrent for me also like if i'm not getting something from like the pharmacy like it i'm already really really freaked out about needles and stuff because like you can't you can't get it out yeah it's it's in there you're not getting it out so like i've i'm still super cautious i think if um um i think i was talking to chris bell about this about like my
Starting point is 00:53:26 whole protocol and he just like giggles you know because it's like you just oh you just do it and i'm like no no you gotta you know all the steps and stuff and you know everyone laughs at me because it's like i'm so paranoid with all of it but i couldn't imagine buying it from somebody else and be like where did this come out of your tub yeah but it's super clean bro okay i think they have stricter uh laws over there too in england or wherever the hell they are and i think that uh i think steroids are still kind of like more illegal there than they are here like i don't know if they have maybe they have the trt clinics and stuff over there and stuff like that but i think it's like even harsher penalties for steroid abuse over there. Yeah, I think some of the people that watch from that country, they will mention, like when we talk about TRT and stuff, they'll mention, like, dude, it fucking sucks over here.
Starting point is 00:54:17 It's like impossible to get an actual prescription, which is why they'd have to go to a guy like this. Yeah, if you're from the UK, let us know what you're dealing with over there when it comes to all this shit just give us give us a little bit of a rundown of comments yeah push an update hopefully it's gotten better 16 to 24 though this is this is like user base right that sucks this uh homebrew stuff it's interesting because like they can make whatever concoction they want. You know, it doesn't have to only have testosterone in there. Or, I mean, the compounding pharmacies can do the same thing. They can kind of, like, make whatever you want, but they can't sell whatever they want.
Starting point is 00:55:03 So they can't sell, like, Tren and they can't sell these kind of, like, offbeat steroids. These guys can. And these guys can and these guys can like utilize i mean they could put anadrol in there or they could put you know just about anything you can think of if they can turn it into a uh into something that you can inject then they can put it into a bottle and then you really don't know what you're dealing with just because people haven't really messed around with that that much much before. 16 to 24, though. Prefrontal cortex isn't fully formed, too, and these are guys? Yeah, at the old age, it's still not developed. 25, right?
Starting point is 00:55:31 Yeah, supposedly. You're not thinking long term. You want it now. That sucks. Man, that's tough. TRT, it's a popular topic. A lot of guys are hopping on it. It's something that we've talked about a lot,
Starting point is 00:55:44 and you might think you're a candidate, but how would you know if you haven't got your blood work done and you don't know where your markers are? That's why we've partnered with Merrick Health owned by Derek from More Plates, More Dates. And the cool thing about Merrick is you'll get your blood work done and you'll also have a patient care coordinator that can help you analyze your blood work, analyze your testosterone, all these other markers to help you actually figure out if you're someone who needs TRT, because there could be things that you could be doing nutritionally with supplements or even with your lifestyle that can boost your testosterone to the levels that they should actually be at. Andrew, how can they get their hands on it? Yes, that's over at MerrickHealth.com slash PowerProject. And at checkout, enter promo code PowerProject to save 10% off off the Power Project panel, the checkup panel, or any individual lab that you select. Again, that's at MerrickHealth.com slash Power Project.
Starting point is 00:56:31 Promo code POWERPROJECT at checkout. Links in the description as well as the podcast show notes. Fuck. All right. Let's see what this guy says. He says they're like sort of coming through puberty and this, you know, young guys wanting us to be both or whatever. If you train properly, die properly, take this shit, you're going to feel indestructible.
Starting point is 00:56:47 Who doesn't want to feel like that? All of these ingredients are, like, easily sourced? Yeah, easily. The chemicals are just household, everyday items. Sourcing the rolls, you have to order them from abroad, get them shipped in, and that's the riskiest part, if customs sees it. That's all they'll do.
Starting point is 00:57:03 The risk-reward, if you compare it to other drugs, I mean, it's insane the returns you can get. It wouldn't be uncommon for us on a bad month to make 50 grand and a good month to make 100 grand. On a bad month, 50 grand? So easy. There's filter paper on here. It's just a very fine membrane.
Starting point is 00:57:20 If this is not filtered, you are for sure going to have big problems, OK? You're going to have gaping holes in your ass or whatever there's poison coming out so this step is very important so damn that seems like it takes a long ass time this man said gaping holes in your ass well because they got to get in there and basically make a crater to get all the like bad shit out but also like for people listening um this guy sound like for whatever he sounds like he sounds like he's creating good good gear this is kitchen in a regular ass house with windows and shit where things can fly in see so if you're not making
Starting point is 00:57:56 it right now you should be grinding if he could do it in his kitchen why aren't you making money dirty shit like no matter how like good he says it is it's still like in an uncontrolled you know room i know angelfuck no yeah i got you wait we could be making work harder yeah look at this man does he have affiliate links that we go right yeah gloves on it's good enough for me. Gloves and a hoodie, guys. Finished product. Just do it by eye.
Starting point is 00:58:29 There you go. This is nuts. This guy just injects it right away. It's clean. There should be no particles in there. That's a good tip, actually. If you do buy gear, get a light on it. If there's shit floating in the gear, don't take it. Don't take it.
Starting point is 00:58:45 Cap comes off. There you go. Made in what? 30 minutes? No time at all? That's crazy. Powerful shit. It's not to be abused, man.
Starting point is 00:58:55 So what would you say to any young person who's thinking about taking steroids? Don't fucking take it. It'll ruin your life. No fucking teenage boy anywhere in this fucking world needs to be taking about taking steroids. Don't fucking take it. It'll ruin your life. No fucking teenage boy anywhere in this fucking world needs to be taking anabolic steroids unless they've got a real medical issue that, you know, that needs it.
Starting point is 00:59:16 That needs it, you know? Like, but, I mean, kids taking fucking Tren, come on, man. You're going to fuck yourself up. Positive for them? Not a good salesman. The interesting thing is like what's your main user base for sales 16 to 24 what would you say to young people who are thinking
Starting point is 00:59:31 about taking steroids don't fucking take it yeah it's like you sell it to them but you're like don't take this shit yeah i wonder how he sells it it's like a website or that's true right it's probably a website he's probably not handing it to kids, but it's like... He might be. He might be. He might be. Maybe that's just to help him sleep at night and be like, I told him not to. Well, it's one of those things. If you're going to get it from somebody, it might as well be my clean stuff. It's like a porn website.
Starting point is 00:59:54 Are you over the age of 18? Yeah. Yeah, I waited, okay? Right. Actually, they didn't have access to laughter. You know, I do wonder, like, you know, they say, this is interesting. I don't know where we have this information from. They say, like, you know, hundreds of years ago that our testosterone levels were higher.
Starting point is 01:00:15 Yeah. I wonder if anybody really knows how true that is. I have heard them say, like, you know, 20 years ago they were, like, 30% higher. I heard all kinds of numbers thrown out um and i'm sure we had the technology to do so 20 or 30 years ago but i wonder how far back you would go to like we didn't even really know much about testosterone you know if you go back like 100 years so why would we be testing for it because that's some of the stuff would say like our ancestors had higher levels of testosterone has to be true dude though because it could be the amount the amount
Starting point is 01:00:49 that people use their bodies then versus now like i know people were living under different conditions but at the same time it's like a lot of guys are smoking a lot of weed not getting to sleep on time eating trash food barely really working out right and then there's all this other shit of course our ancestors probably had better testosterone i'm not educated in that area though like i don't know like can we can we look at uh other areas other countries maybe where they still have um these where they still are like digging ditches and building cultures and and uh not just having machines do it not just you know i wonder like are their testosterone levels higher?
Starting point is 01:01:26 Maybe they are. I don't know. Maybe they're not. But it's just interesting, you know, when you hear people talking about the testosterone levels being so much lower from long ago, well, then maybe it does make some sense to supplement it. And, like, if you think about, like, what you've heard on Joe Rogan about the woman saying the taints are getting smaller because of the plastics and stuff, right? I'm going to bring that up, yeah. So we can't run far away enough to get away from these microplastics.
Starting point is 01:01:54 They're everywhere. Is this a case for most people utilizing some form of testosterone as a replacement since we're getting fucked over by not having this in our systems anymore? Or do we need to maybe take a step back and, like I said earlier, develop some skill sets? Maybe use your hands, use your body more. Learn how to get good at soccer. Learn how to get good at soccer, learn how to get good at baseball, like learn how to learn how to make yourself feel good by doing things that are like productive, that you can see constant improvement in. Like I got better at this. I was able to make myself into this. I made my way and that should produce dopamine there should be a relationship between dopamine
Starting point is 01:02:45 and testosterone in the body and it should technically help but I just wonder even in today's age where there's like so much stacked against you I wonder if that would be enough to really counter it I you know the thing is though I know there's a lot stacked against us there are there are things that are making it harder to have higher testosterone, maybe plastics and all that shit. But at the same time, the answer is not eating shit food all the time and really actually using your body. Figuring out ways, whether it's playing a sport, whether it's lifting in the gym. And yes, these are things that a lot of people are going to go out of their way because a lot of people aren't working manual labor jobs. But yeah, you do need to go out of your way to use your body and make it strong. You have to work on it.
Starting point is 01:03:28 So if you're not doing that and you do have low testosterone, maybe some tests could be an option. But at the end of the day, you still need to go out of your way to push your body and make it stronger and make it more resilient. You have to do that.
Starting point is 01:03:44 And if that's not a habit in your life right now now you can't be surprised if your hormones aren't where you want them to be and you can't surprise if your physical development isn't where you want it to be it makes a lot of sense to me i mean the overweight kid playing video games um that's not getting outside very much you know is is probably his hormones are probably getting messed up his hormones are they're probably on their way probably getting messed up. His hormones are, they're probably on their way to getting messed up. And you think about, uh, like manly shit or, uh, stuff that would boost testosterone. You would think going outside and fucking digging a ditch would, would be productive for something like that or hunting. Um, but again,
Starting point is 01:04:20 I don't really, I don't really truly know. I mean, I just, I, the little bit that I do know in that realm, it does seem like the two are connected. And hearing people like Andrew Huberman talking about dopamine and testosterone having a relationship, it sounds to me like if you were to go out on a hunt and you were successful, that you would probably get a hit of testosterone just like you would get a hit of dopamine. And maybe it doesn't matter that much whether you actually really needed it or you could have went to the grocery store and just got this, you know, got whatever meat you wanted because that's the time that, or you could door dash it, you know. So she's hitting my house at five 30. Let's go. All those plastics from those
Starting point is 01:04:58 farmed fish, man. Hey, plastics aren't fucking me up. TRT, here you come. Yeah. I think we can, with all the plastics and stuff i think we can do more than what it's doing to us that's all i'll say yeah yeah true fuck yourself up the accent along with the blurred voice you know what i mean you've got no rest in life. You kept shagging a bird. Do you really want it? Shagging a bird. Now, John, you're going to need £50,000 to £100,000 a month
Starting point is 01:05:34 for making steroids in this kitchen. Who's to say other dealers aren't doing the same thing, but worse? You don't know what they're putting in there just to try and increase profit margins.
Starting point is 01:05:44 So a lot of steroids that are available in the market might be unsafe. And it could lead to definitely infections, septicemia, and you might even have limbs removed. It worries me that even the dealer is warning people not to take steroids. But for some athletes competing in the bodybuilding industry, they would argue that taking steroids is a necessity. Here we go. Have you or anybody else, do you know, are they taking steroids for preparation
Starting point is 01:06:13 for this? I do take steroids. Oh, you do take steroids? I do take steroids, yeah. But it's all controlled. It's not abused. My blood's taken before and after, of course, to minimalize any risks that may pose. Would I promote it and advise someone to do it? No, I wouldn't.
Starting point is 01:06:30 But for me, I'm competing against others that do it. Yeah. You have to stand a chance. Even the playing field. Exactly. Still doesn't even the playing field. A good motherfucker with a good bodybuilding genetics who hops on will crush you it's like it stupid semantic thing but yeah it's again it's just another not excuse but uh
Starting point is 01:06:53 how they uh justify it it's it's a justification but it's just like it's not gonna i don't know i don't know. Let's keep playing. If competitions don't test for steroid use, hence allowing it, those competing often think that they won't stand a chance without it. Since every single user I've spoken to says that they wouldn't advise anyone to take steroids, surely they should be banned from competitions altogether. David Crossland, a former steroid-using bodybuilder, has turned his efforts to harm reduction so dave what do you do nowadays probably the easiest way to describe eval is a blood testing company for people with alternative lifestyles i will say this though
Starting point is 01:07:35 it's like i don't regret uh doing bodybuilding when i was younger and i competed naturally never taking steroids for anyone who's new coming in, competing in the WNBF. But it was soon after when I found jujitsu that I never competed again. Like I competed for like four years, figured out for four years in natural bodybuilding. And then when I started jujitsu in 2015, a performance-based sport, it was enjoyable. I didn't need, it allowed me to focus on performance,
Starting point is 01:08:04 what my body could do versus what my body looked like. I was just like, I don't, I didn't think, it allowed me to focus on performance, what my body could do versus what my body looked like. I was just like, I don't, I didn't think it at that point. But like a few years later, people were asking me, would you compete in bodybuilding again? And I was just like, I don't feel the want. Like I, there's competitors in bodybuilding usually have an itch to get back to the stage. So like, ooh, it's been two off seasons. I want to get back on stage. But when you do something where you're good at what your body is able to do versus just what your body looks like,
Starting point is 01:08:34 it's a much healthier outlet. And it feels better. Personally, that's a personal thing. I know many people do love bodybuilding, but if you're young or if you're someone who's trying to find an outlet where you can compete, bodybuilding is more of a comparison game. It's a pageant. Let's put it that way. It's not a sport. It's something where it's how you look versus how another guy looks. Yeah, you're training in the gym to get bigger and develop different body parts. But at the end of the day, it's not necessarily you versus another person in any type of performance-based context. It's just how you look versus all the other guys. And it's subjective because the judges might like his glutes or his lats or his back more than they like yours. It's not objective. So just keep that in mind if you're thinking about trying
Starting point is 01:09:17 to find something to compete in. Even powerlifting, I think, is better too. It's performance-based. It's like you failed the squat. You got three white lights. It's like, it's what based it's it's like you failed the squat you you got three white lights it's like it's what your body's able to do not all about what you look like do you think uh maybe you feel that way about bodybuilding um in terms of like not competing not that you couldn't get better but you did push it pretty far it seemed like it seemed like you were pretty damn big. You were a pro, right? Yeah, I am. Yeah. Yeah. You're, you're a pro and you, you got on stage at a pretty heavy weight in natural bodybuilding. And I know it's nuanced. We could sit here and say you could be, you know, 10% better or whatever. But, uh, do you think that plays a role in it a little bit too? Like you feel pretty comfortable about what you were able to do? I do. Cause I mean, I got, I got to worlds. It was a class of like 16 guys, 16 pro heavyweight
Starting point is 01:10:09 bodybuilders. And I placed top five, I placed fifth place. Right. And that was my first worlds. So yeah. 22 years old or something or 22 or 23. I think I was 22. But, but the thing is, is like, I, when I started doing jujitsu initially, when I was doing jujitsu, I still had the goal of stepping back on stage, but what's the had the goal of stepping back on stage. But what's the gauge of progress for getting back on stage? You just need to be bigger and you need to be leaner. So it's like my only goal now is just gaining a little bit more muscle every single year, getting a little bit leaner the next time I compete. Okay, what's the difference you're going to do again for the next competition?
Starting point is 01:10:41 Get a little bit bigger. Get a little bit leaner. There's nothing skill-based when it comes to that. there's a skill when it comes to training don't get me wrong but it's just like how long is that just going to be the thing that you do right it didn't for me personally jujitsu is it was a puzzle and it was a performance it was what am i was my body able to do right how much skill do i have on this not just like what are my how much muscle am i able to build over a longer period of time right so it's i think it's just it's a i personally feel that i look at my body in a much healthier way now since i'm not always focused on what my
Starting point is 01:11:17 body looks like i do want to be in shape i do want to look good but it's like not the thing that is my focus like it was when i was doing bodybuilding yeah bodybuilding seems like uh a great sport if you want to have body dysmorphia and if you want to maybe get locked into taking steroids not that that happens to everybody but as you're pointing out like it just would have been really difficult not that you couldn't have done it you could probably step on stage 10 pounds more maybe but there would be like a limit for you it would it would like it would take time because like my off season afterwards i got up to 270 so i would my last time when i was on stage i was 227 i'd probably get on stage again at this point around like maybe 227 to 230 because i'm 250 right now i'm 240 yeah 250 right now so if i
Starting point is 01:12:02 focused on building muscle could i slowly keep building some muscle yeah but like forever and it's just it's just a small amount of muscle that i'm eating for yeah every single year progress you know so it's just like it's one of those things where you're just always focused on you the way you look but how does it how does it feel to get out of something that somebody previously put you in they put you in a hold maybe two years ago and now they try to put you in a hold and you're out of it and you're putting them in, you know, you're manhandling them. Yeah. Like that skill set's got to feel amazing. It feels great. You know what I mean? And it's jujitsu is a puzzle every single day. You're going against different people. You could
Starting point is 01:12:39 go roll with people at different schools. It's just like, it's a different type of puzzle every single day. And to get better at jujitsu, your performance has to increase. You need to move better. You need to gain better endurance. You need to gain better understanding of how to actually do it. So, and over time you will get in better shape.
Starting point is 01:12:57 Like the, a better body is a byproduct of improving at it for most people. Yeah. Most of the people that we've seen that we know, um, they've gotten in damn good shape from jujitsu yeah yeah should still lift but of course it's just about minimizing the harms that people expose them to be that steroids or be that recreational drugs let's get into your story in particular you're a pretty big lad'm telling you, like the biggest guy I've seen so far. How did you first get into using steroids? I started
Starting point is 01:13:32 steroids at 19. I finished steroids at 24, at which point I was very large, not in bad condition, and had the potential to turn pro as a bodybuilder. And then I tore my left pec completely off. had the potential to turn pro as a bodybuilder. And then I tore my left pec completely off. That sort of ended that, and then I spiralled into depression. The renal specialist basically said I outgrew my kidneys
Starting point is 01:13:54 capability of managing my physique. So I'm stage four kidney failure. And that'll never get better. Is that a lot of medication for the heart failure and heart attacks but not from the kidneys heart attacks plural heart attacks well i had a heart an official heart attack an official myocardial infarction in end of november last year do you know anybody who's died because of steroid usage it's difficult to say that someone's died because of steroids. Are there people that have passed that steroids may have played a significant role in it? Yes, without that.
Starting point is 01:14:32 You can't OD on steroids. You know what I mean? You can't go and take too many and drop dead. Yeah. It's a time thing. It's a constant abuse situation. So what advice would you give? I mean, I know, okay, Mark, it would be unlikely
Starting point is 01:14:46 that someone who would take something, but is there anything that like people, if they take too much could fuck them up? I've heard there's stuff with insulin. Like, oh yeah, yeah. There's, yeah, there's certain, there's certain hormones and certain things that you can take where you could really mess yourself up. Okay. Um, I would say say at this point it's pretty clear that people have kind of died from steroids. I do agree with what he's saying. You could shoot a bottle of it and it's just going to hurt. The amount of oil that you're going to dump into your body is just going to hurt. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:15:17 And if you were to die from something like that, maybe you would die from an infection because you shot way too much shit into your body. But to actually die from steroids would be hard. Just like you're saying, it's a time thing because over time, let's just say that it's just apply some reason to the whole thing. And let's just say that somebody is naturally 170 pounds. And now they want to bulk. They want to be bigger they take testosterone and it's not just a testosterone but it's the program they're on it's the eating and now they're walking around at 230 you know maybe a couple more years go by and now they're like 260 270
Starting point is 01:15:58 that is a huge drastic difference weighing 270 pounds versus what your body was naturally used to at 170 pounds. I would say that, I would even say that like extra muscle mass on a frame, even if it's just muscle mass, could be demanding on the body and on the heart. But in the case of the natural guy, it normally will take so long that the body will have other adaptations to where it would be much healthier to gain 20 pounds naturally than it would be if you're on steroids. But anyway, in this scenario where somebody gains 80 pounds, 60 pounds, 100 pounds, they're going to be holding a lot of water with the water retention is going to be high blood pressure. High blood pressure is a quick killer. High blood pressure can kill you fast and it can hurt you fast. Moving thick blood. It can, yeah,
Starting point is 01:16:49 it can mess up your kidneys as this guy experienced. It could result in heart attack, stroke, like, I'm sorry, high blood pressure is like nothing to really mess with. And it can be messed with really fairly fairly quickly with steroids like within a couple of weeks of taking steroids your blood pressure could shoot up especially if you were taking um
Starting point is 01:17:13 if you're taking like kind of higher dosages so if you already had hypertension if you already had high blood pressure and you started you know blasting like a steroid cycle you could be in a lot of trouble could be you know and the other thing that comes along with all that is just like your respiration you're gonna your breathing is going to be a lot harder um your uh resting heart rate's going to be higher yeah with your blood pressure being higher your heart now has to work harder to push that blood around and your fitness levels are going down so it's like your heart is working harder trying to push blood through areas that might be even getting clogged at this point because if you're on for a few years and you're that heavy for a few years
Starting point is 01:17:56 and you're not eating properly and you're doing things to encourage weight gain then odds are that the subsequent like fats and so forth are not only getting stored in your fat tissue, but they might end up in your organs, they might end up in your arteries, and so forth. So you can get yourself into a bad position in kind of a short period of time with steroids. It's just that they won't kill you immediately. Yeah. I want you guys to imagine that you're wearing a cast on your hand
Starting point is 01:18:25 and you're going through your whole day with this cast hand well because your fingers don't move your hand will start to become stiff weak and that'll work its way up your arm that's the same thing that happens when you wear these damn shoes okay sorry to curse but it's frustrating because these shoes that have a narrow toe box although they they look nice in their Nikes, narrow toe box so your toes can't move. They're not flat, so your foot is in this weird thing and it's not getting stronger. And they're not flexible, so they don't move and your foot just moves like this all day, which means your feet are getting weaker. That's why we partnered with Vivo Barefoot Shoes. They have a bunch of shoes for the gym and casual shoes, but the thing about these shoes is that they are wide they are flat and they are flexible so your foot can do what it needs to do and it can get stronger
Starting point is 01:19:11 over time that's going to allow you to be a better stronger athlete andrew how can they get them yes that's over at vivo barefoot.com slash power project when you guys get there you'll see a code across the top make sure you use that code for 15% off your entire order. Again, vivo barefoot.com slash power project links in the description, as well as the podcast show notes. Throw these away. Oh my God. Watch the camera.
Starting point is 01:19:36 To an 18 year old, possibly considering taking steroids. I have people come to me on a weekly basis. I'm telling them they're now testosterone-dependent or they're now infertile. And they're shocked by that revelation. You know, there is risk with these drugs. Learn the risks you're taking and then decide if those risks are worth those rewards.
Starting point is 01:20:01 Steroid use is rife in the UK and it's extremely easy to get your hands on them, trapping men in a cycle that seems hard to break. From what I've learned, a lot of men turn to steroids when they're feeling self-conscious. With social media platforms often perpetuating the narrative, feeding us unrealistic body images. Ironically, the side effects can sometimes make men even more self-conscious and in some cases be fatal. There needs to be more education available on the impact steroids can have on men's lives. Because if people are aware of the potential risks, I doubt so many would take them. That's a cool documentary.
Starting point is 01:20:44 Yeah. Yeah, it was dope i hope people can like watch that with somebody else you know so they can kind of like have discussion and have conversation around this stuff um i do think that there's a lot of drugs being used you know there's a lot of recreational use there's a lot of people just um taking things granted, abusing things, whether it's THC or steroids, kratom, other psychedelics. We just hear so much about mushrooms nowadays and people like, yeah, I had this mushroom trip and everyone seems to have like a mushroom trip story. And it's kind of fun and funny. But at the same time, I mean, these things should be treated with some sort of care or it should be like very normal to be kind of scared of these things.
Starting point is 01:21:29 Like, yeah, you know, I'm not really sure. Like, I would love to really try that sometimes, but I need to learn more about it. I'm going to look into it. Listen to some podcasts. Try to dive in as much as you can. Try to learn as much as you can. Talk to some people who've done it before. can talk to some people who've done it before. You know, if you talk to five, six, seven people who've done steroids before and they're like, yeah, man, you're only 17. Like,
Starting point is 01:21:50 I just don't really think that's a good idea. I would just take that advice very heavily. You don't have to take it a hundred percent, but I would really consider it. Like, why are they telling me this? Why did I hear the same thing from five, six, seven people. I do think in most cases, if you are a young person asking somebody about steroids, I wouldn't say every time, but I would say most of the time they would probably try to talk you out of it, even if they've done them and even if they've had success in doing them. And then also, if you're considering, I think you should try to, try to find information from some people who have like had a good amount of experience with this stuff. Shit. You know what I mean? Don't go listen to the 24 year old dude. That's like, you've been doing it for four years and he's like, yeah, this is what you're supposed to do. Or even the 30 year old dude who's been doing it for a few years. Because at the end of the day, I think, especially if you're considering taking steroids,
Starting point is 01:22:43 you want to think long term. How are guys that are in their 40s who've been using shit for a while or their 50s, 60s, how are they doing right now? How are they handling shit? What do they know? They're going to be some that spew some bullshit, but you want to see what are they looking like? What's their health like? What type of advice do they have? You've been able to come out of the other side of using heavy PEDs and you're good,
Starting point is 01:23:06 right? But you took precautions. Like you have an idea of maybe what things people should be careful of. You're running now. Your heart, your blood pressure is in a good place. You don't have a lot of the issues that some of the OGs have that have done shit in the past. I would say though, there's things that are kind of like up in the air too.
Starting point is 01:23:25 Like if anything is to ever happen to me at any point, I could always be, oh fuck man, it must've been that. Yeah. I mean, I remember CT Fletcher talking about how he like wishes he could take some of his big Macs away. He's like, when I had my heart problem, I wish I could have taken some of those big Macs away. Cause you know, he didn't know what it was from.
Starting point is 01:23:45 But he's like, I didn't eat properly. I weighed a lot and so forth. And so I think that, unfortunately, it will always be a little bit of a question mark. I think that everyone at some point in their life is going to run into some sort of health complication, whether it's just like your leg hurts or something worse. And anytime that almost anything, look at what happens when a celebrity dies. You always just automatically link it to, okay, a lot of celebrities, a lot of musicians, they use drugs and they abuse shit. And so they probably died from that.
Starting point is 01:24:18 Or anytime like an athlete has a respiration problem or something, people are like, well, he's using steroids. Or there's the other thing too that people talk about nowadays that you're not supposed to talk about that has concerns around it too. But it's still an area that you can't say for sure. So it's something that I think you just have to,
Starting point is 01:24:39 you have to really, really think about it before you do it. And think about like the plan. Like if you're just going to try something and just kind of mess around with something for a little bit, what's that really going to do for you? It's probably not going to do enough. You can research it, you can look it up and you'll see that like three weeks, four weeks, six weeks, eight weeks, even six months is not going to be something you're going to be able to really retain and have that really
Starting point is 01:25:05 register as anything. Would you look at that as being like artificial muscle? Yeah. Yeah. It's going to come, it's going to go. Yeah. It's, it's, I mean, it's the same thing as lifting. Like if you stop lifting, like the, the inputs will, they'll disappear. Um, you know, the cool thing is about on the natural side of things. Uh, I mean, natural side of things, when you gain that muscle, you don't have to do nearly as much to keep it in terms of sending the same signals at the same intensities. Even if you do like a fraction of that, you might hold on to almost all of the muscle. But that doesn't happen with steroids. If you were to come off steroids, you're going to notice a massive difference, even if you are still training, even if you are still trying to send the signal, because now you don't have that other signal, that kind of anabolic signal.
Starting point is 01:25:54 I'm not science-y on this stuff. I don't know enough about it in those terms, but that's the way it feels. It feels like there's a signal that's missing, and there's the signal of lifting weights, which we know clearly works, and that can help you hold on to some muscle. And if you do it naturally, even without lifting for a little period of time, you're not going to atrophy out of nowhere. But if you did discontinue to lift, you would stop getting that signal, and eventually your muscle mass would start to go down. stop getting that signal and eventually your muscle mass would start to go down. But if you were, if you were taking steroids and even while you're still training and still lifting and still trying to send the signal and still trying to take protein and your
Starting point is 01:26:34 essential amino acids, you're trying to do anything and everything to fight and scrape and scratch to hold onto that weight. It's not going to happen unless there's some other P in there that i don't know about yeah and then also like some of these uh the younger ones are doing it living at home right so they're like hiding it from their parents um that's never good just because like this like i was like you know diving deep into this too and it's like i'd follow like forums and stuff and i'd read about how like people would they wouldn't want to spend the money on like getting lab work done and it's like like man you can't even like you know get into the game unless you get at least that taken care of and then also it's like okay i'm just
Starting point is 01:27:16 gonna get the stuff and then i'll get my like pct post-cycle therapy which what's what they'll take after their cycle i'll get it later but then it's like yes again like i said pointing back to these kids they're living at home they don't have all the money in the world so it's like the uh you know what maybe i don't need it after all like i will just run another cycle or whatever it is because it's like you get the benefits or the the uh i guess the drive all the excitement of being on it's like well shit i want to keep this going i don't want to end it so i'm not going to waste money on lab work i'm not going to waste money on a pct like let's just spend the money on some more another cycle and it's like man that's
Starting point is 01:27:55 such a bad bad position to be in and like i said like without doing your due diligence and like actually kind of setting yourself up. Like if you, if you're not even able to do like the basic stuff, like you have no business actually trying to run some gear. That's my opinion. Yeah. You get some time under your belt in the gym to give yourself an opportunity to grow,
Starting point is 01:28:16 give yourself an opportunity to, you know, see what it looks like. I do think that there's a lot of people that are, because there's so many people that are lean out there, at least it seems that way when you see social media, that people aren't giving themselves a chance to grow. They're not willing to hold on to a little extra fluff or a little extra weight, train heavy for a little while, take their time. It just, I get it because it's like hard to be patient when you're trying to do that. But if you're under eating all the time and training really hard, you're not going to have the,
Starting point is 01:28:49 you're not going to be able to grow. I can be able to grow the way that you need to. And then you're gonna be like, oh man, I really need steroids. Yeah. And people love sharing how they're in a deficit, you know,
Starting point is 01:28:58 caloric deficit because of all these cool food foods that they make. Social media in real life, dog. It is is it is pretty crazy it's it's managed to make life feel very fake you know what i mean it's unfortunate but please just fall in love with the aspect of training you know you get you gotta like training it because i think some people get on drugs first then train after after. And like training is just like, it's so that you can have the look rather than like, I actually go to the gym to feel better.
Starting point is 01:29:30 And because it's like, like we go to the gym, we know that what we're doing is like, we feel good doing it. We know that afterwards we're going to feel even better. It's, it's a positive feedback loop and we've ingrained that for decades now. Right.
Starting point is 01:29:43 Some people don't even have that. Like it's the PDs that are driving them to go to the gym, and without that, there's no drive there. So you've got to think about that. You have to like to train. That's going to allow you to maintain this for decades to come because, yeah, you want it now, but then you want to be healthy when you're 40, 50, 60, 70.
Starting point is 01:30:02 You want to have that. Yeah, I wish i trained for performance but initially and never looked back because like what you were saying you were like oh what am i going to do gain a little bit get a little leaner me two years and me a year ago would have been like absolutely let's do that like that's the only thing that you need to be focused on you know let's get back into bodybuilding and see what come on you know how like i would get when like that that question would come up i'd be like do it and see him would do know, let's get back into bodybuilding and see him come on. You know, how like I would get when like that, that question would come up, I'd be like, do it and see him would do it. Like, let's go. Cause that's like kind of all I cared about. And it was not cool.
Starting point is 01:30:33 Like I didn't have the most fun in the gym. I did love lifting, but like, you know, again, you do the whole comparison thing. And it's like, I always, um, would be like, damn, I wish I started 10 years earlier. You know what I mean? Cause I would be like, damn, I wish I started 10 years earlier. Yeah. You know what I mean? Cause I started at like 27. Like, imagine if I started at 17, like that would have been sick. And so like, I always had that in the back of my head. And then now I'm like, well, I wish I started lifting for performance at 17.
Starting point is 01:30:56 Like, cause holy shit, I'd be a monster right now. And so now with jujitsu, like my training's changed completely, obviously, cause I'm training jujitsu now, but it's like, everything's fun. And because i'm training jiu-jitsu now but it's like everything's fun and because everything has a purpose now it's like like today i just did some very very very minimal movement stuff and i'm like this is going to help later yeah versus before it had been like oh piece of shit because i didn't get my program in today so much better yeah i think it's easy to get lost you know in the sauce to speak. Like when you see Sam Sulek and everyone makes a big deal about his Wendy's chicken sandwiches. And then people make a big deal about his steroids.
Starting point is 01:31:32 And that kid's got everybody beat because he trains his ass off. He does. He trains his fucking face off. He trains really, really hard. And you look at a lot of these other just like there's spectacular athletes left and right that might say stuff that people get lost in and they think it's ridiculous like a tk metcalf or something like that talking about his diet and then all that people heard was that he ate candy but they didn't hear that he said he also only ate once a day like he had one main meal a day you're like you know how big that guy is he's's like 6'4", 6'5". He's like 230 or 240.
Starting point is 01:32:06 He's like 5% body fat or something. I mean, he can afford to have a couple of bags of candy aren't going to kill him. But again, why are we so hyper-focused on the candy? Or why are we focused even on his build or his physique? We should be thinking about what did that guy do when he was young? How did that guy train? does christian mcafree train how does tyreek hill train what are these guys doing you think these guys are just naturally like super fast and super gifted they might have been faster than most uh christian mcafree's dad played in the nfl and he was fucking awesome so of course he comes from a long lineage of of athletes that really good. But you ever see how developed like Tyreek Hill's legs are? They're fucking jacked.
Starting point is 01:32:49 Yeah. You don't get jacked legs like that for no reason. He's been sprinting his whole life. He competes in track competitions and stuff and smokes people. So a lot of us, I think we tend to get it's real easy to be like, oh, man, that guy's taking stuff. I think he's doing this or doing that. But I think that we should look more often and start to think about what does that guy do for his training? Because that is where you really have a really strong controllable variable.
Starting point is 01:33:17 And we know the different results and things that you can get from training. What's his cycle? How much tests do you think he's on man and people would say especially you know that picture that we were we're posting up here on the right um where he's like oiled up and probably got a sick pump going and of course he always looks incredible anyway yeah uh but it's it's easy for somebody that's been training for a while to look amazing in some lighting. Like if, if you're standing next to Tyreek Hill,
Starting point is 01:33:47 he's probably not very tall, probably a smaller frame guy. And of course he's shredded and has tons of muscle. But, um, I think it's easy to just get caught up in thinking like that. These, uh,
Starting point is 01:33:57 these people are just this way genetically, or they're just on steroids, but it's more than that, man. It's a lot more than that. It's a ton of work. I mean, you've seen Tyreek Hill doing sprints and also is doing Nordics in his training on YouTube. Like, the man has insane strength.
Starting point is 01:34:13 And that type of movement doesn't come naturally. You have to train that. Like, strength to body weight ratio? I mean, he could probably bust out push-ups all day, pull-ups. Easy. All kinds of shit. Easy, right? Best running back in the league.
Starting point is 01:34:26 Who's this guy? Christian McCaffrey. Christian McCaffrey? Jesus. Y'all talked about him a bunch. Yeah, biggest man crush right now. How big is he? He's like 5'10", and he's probably 195, 200.
Starting point is 01:34:42 He's not huge. But he's big. But he runs like he's a powerful motherfucker. He's not like huge, but he's big but he's he well he runs like he's a powerful motherfucker He put his head down a lot. I mean a lot younger and still just fucking Yeah, he's dope can't wait to hang out with him Anyway, pay attention your training stop being a bitch thinking about steroids so much strength is never weak this week This never strength catch you guys later. Bye

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