Massenomics Podcast - Ep. 251: Kalle Beck

Episode Date: January 25, 2021

Kalle Beck joins us to discuss all things strongman. We talk about the early days of Starting Strongman, and where he sees his business going in the future. We also quiz him on Eddie Hall Vs. Thor, manual transmissions, and kale (the vegetable). Hybrid Performance Method: https://hybridperformancemethod.com/ and use code MASS to save 5% on all programs Lifting Large: https://www.liftinglarge.com/ and use code MASS20 to save on Lifting Large branded products Spud Inc.: https://www.spud-inc-straps.com/ Texas Power Bars: https://www.texaspowerbars.com/

You know, thanks for what you do with your podcasts and all the rest. You're doing a great job. Hope everybody keeps tuning in. You get a lot of good info, a lot of insights, understandings on how to get strong, how to stay strong, how to use your strength. You do a great job, dude. You make things better than they are in real life, I think.

If you don't follow Massanomics, y'all do it. Social media, website, everything. Massanomics! website, everything. Massanomics! Recorded live in western northeast South Dakota, this is the Massanomics podcast. We're here for episode 251. We are the lifting podcast about nothing.

My name is Tanner. And my name is Tommy. Tommy, 251. We've got a lot of stuff. I don't even know how we're going to get through everything today. We've got a sack segment. We've got a what's in the can. We've got interesting powerlifting gossip news. We've got podcast news. Oh yeah, like crazy, crazy western, northeast, south Dakota podcast news. We've got a cool guest lined up. I don't know how we're going to do it all, but we're going to try. Yeah, it's crazy.

But before we can do any of that, most importantly, we have today's sponsors. Today's show is brought to you by Lifting Large. Lifting Large has set a new standard for customer service within the strength world. They have live website chat support and speedy email responses. Lifting Large is home of the Ground Lock Deadlift Slipper, of course, and they are always in stock and ready to ship. Massanomics listeners can save 20% on all Lifting Large branded products by using our discount code, and that code is MASS20 at checkout.

Today's episode is also brought to you by Spud Inc. The goal of Spud Inc. Straps is to make products that support sports performance and help everyone achieve their training goals. They make products that last forever, won't bust your budget, and most importantly, leave no doubt about success when everything is on the line.

Check them out online at spud-inc-straps.com. This episode is also brought to you by Hybrid Performance Method, your one-stop shop for all things fitness and online coaching. Whether your goals are training-related, nutrition and body composition-related, or both,

Hybrid has a program for you. With dedicated and experienced coaches in each strength and fitness discipline, you can rest assured that you're in the best hands possible. Use our discount code MASS, M-A-S-S, in all caps, for 5% off any training or nutrition membership or the life of your membership. Visit hybridperformancemethod.com. And this episode is brought to you by Texas Power Bars. In 1980, Buddy Cap set out on his own to make what he believed was the greatest bar

he had ever seen and trained with, and the Texas Power Bar was born. It was strong as a house with the best hurling, and it was maintenance-free. Hundreds of state, national, international, world, and massonomics powerlifting records have been and continue to be set and broken on the Texas Power Bar. To learn more, visit them at TexasPowerBars.com. That's our sponsor list. Ever prestigious list, of course, the fearsome foursome. Where do we even start today?

I was going to ask you the exact same question, Tanner. I was going to say, where do we start today? Well, I suppose we have to start at the beginning. That's not a bad spot to start. I would say we could start quick on, we are very hot and heavy on the road to 300. Yes. The 300 podcast reviews is going to be coming.

It could literally almost happen any day now because we are now at the two 90 barrier. So we're closing in on the final 10. And if it's anything like the road to 200, the final, it just happens overnight. You know, everyone wants, everyone road to 200 the final it just happens overnight you know everyone wants everyone wants to be the 300th but there's also a leg and like when people leave their review

there's a multiple day leg of like and also like yeah if it's gonna ever exist in itunes or apple music so if you i i would say by the time you're hearing this, if you want to have a chance at being the 300th review, you pretty much have to leave your review now because that's like, yeah. By the time you're hearing this. Yeah. It is. Now is the time.

Right. Right. Wow. So when we got to have, we got to plan out big things. We got to, we got to really start going on our plan. I mean,

we kind of have plans for big things and they're going to be big just it's gonna go fast so we do have to right we'll have to kick that into high gear we'll have to kick that into high gear coming up oh so that was maybe the most important thing to start with yeah that's probably the most important thing we could probably just be done now oh that was it uh the other sponsors ah well next on the list hanner maybe we should crack into a cold one first because we got a lot of talking to do so we'll actually do this this is much like last week so next stop on our world tour if you remember all the way back to last week where did we go tommy we visited our neighbors to the north the canadians um this week we're jumping across the pond to Scotland on our international sack,

sack, sack slash what's in the can tour. We're now taking our next pit stop. I Scotland. I like that. We've got international as a teaser next week on the world tour. We're making a stop at Alabama. We're coming back.

Our friends in the South. We're making a stop at Alabama. So, uh, boy, these, these sacks and, and uh cans have just been coming in hot and heavy as it should be right right so first our stop at scotland for our what's in the sack and what's in the can segment do i need to close my eyes for anything here not yet because we'll do the sack first okay so tanner's reaching into his sack maybe you want to read yeah maybe you want to read this first as i uh get a couple things out okay greeting this is this is the

note that was in the sack it says greetings from northeast not southwest scotland i was going to handwrite this little note but my writing is pretty terrible i wasn't sure you'd actually be able to read it probably probably good thing because I can't read Scottish handwriting, Tanner. That's true. There's a language barrier there. We don't get taught that here. I hope you like your t-shirts. I thought they were pretty fitting to showcase what is the true and real Aberdeen location.

That's debatable, right? Definitely debatable. I have also added two drinks for each of you that would work well for the What's in the Can. I'd like to see you both figure out what flavor they are. These are Scotland's national drink, and you're not really Scottish if you don't like them. Lastly, I've added in two boxes of traditional sweets here in Scotland. They beat any pre-workout hands down. Let me know what you think.

Levi and Claire, I am excited for this segment, Tanner. Wow. Here we go. Okay. God, there's for this segment, Tanner. Wow. Here we go. Okay. God, there's a lot of goodies here. Yeah. So that's Levi and Claire on the picture. Levi, they're customers of Mastonomics, they're fans of Mastonomics.

He has gotten Mastonomics gear shipped over there, and he said, well, like you said there, you need some stuff from the real Aberdeen, as he would put it. Yeah, that's awesome. So, yeah, we got... So what's the name of their company then? It says it on there. Smash and Pass. Okay, Smash and Pass.

So I know you can find them on Instagram, Smash and Pass Gymwear, or you can, I'm sure, just Google them. I went to their website the other day. It's at smash.ann.pass. Okay. They sent us a their website the other day. It's at smash.ann.pass. Okay. They sent us a few stickers along with it. Now this shirt is sweet.

I like this shirt that they sent us. It is a heathered blue tee and it says Scottish strength. It's pretty gangster. I do like this one. Wow. We get a lot of shirts um sent to us since we've started the podcast we have gotten a lot of shirts sent to us and um you know i always keep some for my personal collection and then i let some other other massonomics faith one of the one of the perks of being a gym member you can get a lot of free goodies that right because we get a

lot of goodies and like if the thing is if i'm not going to be able to wear it all that often i'm like i'll give it someone else in the gym and then they're wearing it in the gym crowd at least so it's getting way more uh exposure and like getting way more use by doing that but this is definitely one that i'm going to keep in the old uh personal uh closet it's got such a cool story but it does have such it's like the coasters from canada it's like ah yes this from uh you know aberdeen scotland the scottish shirt so that is super cool yeah i'm pumped comfortable t-shirt there i can tell already uh-huh uh and then some of the stickers that same scottish strength logo and then their smash and pass gym wear i I like the old anvil and hammer. Yeah, the hammer and anvil.

Classic. So then what do we go to next? You're the tour guide. Okay, we have two different things here, and you know as much as I do about this. Okay, yeah, go ahead. Keep going. I have, mine are called tasty tablet from scotland

tasty tablet and what did he call it in the letter he called it like scottish brownies he said um so we have scotland's national drink and then we have um two boxes of traditional sweets here in Scotland. They beat any pre-workout hands down. So just traditional treats. We don't know what they are. Just traditional treats. And you have the Highland, what's it say?

Highland Croft Tasty Tablet. Yeah. And I have the Mrs. Tilly's Scottish Fudge. Both of these look pretty awesome. Are we going to try both of these? I think we got to do both, right? So, yeah. But we got to try both of these? I think we've got to do both, right? But we've got to do it at the same time, Tanner. It's just like what's in the can.

Right, right. I am excited for this. So this one is light brown. It almost looks like caramel flavored. I have no idea. What's tablet, Tanner? I have no idea. I'll take a smaller one just because I don't know what I'm getting into.

These aren't going to make me fail my drug test or anything, are they? It's an odd texture. It's kind of almost chalky. It is. It's kind of like fudge. Yeah, it's kind of like fudge yeah it's um hmm let me see that box it tastes like a um kind of like a chewy caramel to me is the flavor of that one it's okay right here on the box it's the finest ingredients and the melt-in-the-mouth sensation that makes them say, just like Mithers. Whatever

that means, Tanner. Is it like Mothers? I don't know. Just like Mithers. I bet that's what you call mom. It is tasty. That was good. That's why they call it a tasty tablet. Okay. It's not just a clever name, Tanner.

No. Okay. Now we're going to hop into Mrs. Tilly's original Scottish fudge. Wow. This is our first trial at just having a podcast where all we do is eat the entire time and open packaging and everyone just has to listen to it. Well, so far, I like it. I don't know how everyone else is liking it, but I'm enjoying it.

Here we go. Get your fudge. Okay, so this is what now? Scottish fudge. Very similar to them. Yeah, they're similar, but I could definitely eat both those bags. Yeah, that's good. That one is better to me i feel like that one's a little more americanized yeah

yeah that one is good both are very good though both are very good i would i would totally eat all of them so then we get to the meat and potatoes as you'd say what's in the can segment interesting thing you see how yours is ripped open like that yeah it came like that you know why i think it came like that customs had i think customs opened it up customs put drugs in it and this will make it for us yes but i do think customs actually opened up to check out the can but they only opened one of them they wanted to get a head start on the what's in the can. There's some massonomics listeners in the customs department. Like, ah, we are jokes on you.

We already know what's in the can. So I haven't looked at the flavor tanner. I just saw this was a can. I don't know what flavor it is. I haven't looked at it either. Okay. And I almost have mine unwrapped here. You had the customs did the hard part for you.

Yep. Yep. Okay. Hopefully I didn't shake it up too much yeah okay okay there is a flavor there mine tastes like bubble gum yes okay yeah i was gonna say cotton candy right away but yeah i think i can tell the can is orange, so I could see the orange color out of my eye, so I was going to say orange, but then I'm like, oh, it tastes like bubble gum. Yeah, that's what I would say.

I would agree with you on that. All right, let's check it out. Iron Brew, original and best, brewed in Scotland. What the hell are we drinking here? Sparkling flavored soft drink with sugar and sweeteners. So we got some sugar. Already the nutrition labels are not American, Tanner, so that's telling me way off. Energy.

They list calories and energy. Okay, okay. 16 grams of sugar. What is the flavor on this? It has to have a flavor, right? Or is this just iron what is the flavor on this it has to have a flavor right or is this just iron brew is the flavor yeah hmm i don't know it does not say but it's it's definitely bubble gum it's that's what i would call that it tastes good i like the design of the can. Yeah. Like it's cool branding.

And it does taste good. It does taste good. It does taste very good. It must not have very much sugar in it, though. What did it say, 16 grams? Oh, does it? I mean, it's not Mountain Dew levels. Right, right. Very good.

Wow. So that was our Scotland tour for the week. Yeah, that was quite the stop off we gotta get some of our other international listeners to step their game up here right so what were their first names again now i remember as him on instagram but i so on this well yeah i'm getting too i'm getting too overwhelmed into the uh it's Levi and Claire. Okay, Levi and Claire. We're getting too wrapped up in all the food here. So yeah, if. Thank you, Levi and Claire.

Yeah, thank you, Levi and Claire, and go check out Smash and Pass. Yeah, next time, Levi and Claire, you're in western northeast South Dakota. Checking out the original Aberdeen. Yeah, the one that did it first. Just make sure to stop. Aberdeen, Scotland gets its name from a community in South Dakota named Aberdeen. Made famous by the Masonomics podcast. Yeah.

So you brought up an interesting thing there, Tanner, called the Masonomics podcast of Aberdeen, of western northeast South Dakota. Yes. A community in that area called Aberdeen. Yes. A fairly well-known podcast from that region is the Masonomics Podcast, which you happen to be listening to right now. Yeah. And there's a funny thing that happened this past.

Controversial, I would even say. To some. To some, not at all. So there is, this does take a little bit of a backstory here. So Aberdeen, South Dakota has a, would you say, is it bimonthly? Every two months, bimonthly? That could be right, yeah, is it bimonthly? Every two months, bimonthly? That could be right, yeah. Yeah, bimonthly.

Every two months for the past, it's probably existed for two or three years now. There's a magazine called Aberdeen Magazine. And it covers all things Aberdeen and in the close, I don't know, 20 mile area or so. Right. Mostly Aberdeen though. Yeah, right. i don't know 20 mile area or so right mostly aberdeen though yeah right and uh they usually cover something historical something fashion you know food and beverage related event related and whatever's going on yeah and um it's uh i i always they're free you pick them up there in places all

around town you see them come out you just grab one take it. You don't got to pay for it. And I mean, I always find them entertaining. I always grab it. I like to read it. In some issues, there's articles that I feel like don't really relate to me or I don't have a whole lot of interest in. In that case, I flip past most of them,

but then there's other issues where almost the whole thing is interesting to me and I'll read almost the entire thing. From a design standpoint, you know, I'm a designer, but from a design standpoint, I think their design and art direction is as good as any like small community magazine you'll probably find in the country. I think it's better than even probably a lot of large communities have for magazines. I think it's a well put together, a well put together publication. And so this past weekend, I was out and about in the town on Saturday afternoon and I saw a stack sitting there and I said, Oh, you know what?

That's a new cover. I don't have that one. And so I picked it up. I hopped into my wife's car. She was driving and I open it up and there's the table of contents there. And I see something about podcasting. And for a second, my brain went, did Tanner not tell me about something like am i gonna get really surprised yeah like did tanner was something that's holding out like yeah did tanner pull a quick one on me and like this is gonna be something we're gonna talk about

in the podcast like because it all i see is an article something saying i just basically the words of aberdeen like podcasting hot spot something along those lines. And could you almost, could you even really, could you even put Aberdeen and podcasting together in your mind and not just think the mass dynamics podcast? No, no, I can't. No,

I mean, I'm obviously biased, but I can't. Right. I mean, there's not a lot of podcasts. I would think in the state of South Dakota that have 250 episodes, let alone a hundred,

probably even. Do you think there's any that have 250 unless someone does like a daily news podcast or something but i don't think there's a lot of people that have been at it for five years no probably not or at least been consistent with it but anyways so i'm like all right tanner that stinker he's gonna he's gonna surprise me here and i open it up He's going to surprise me here. And I open it up. And right away, I see one for it.

I think it's been around like two months or so. We were aware of it. It's like it covers like local small businesses kind of. Yeah. And then it's like, okay, well, that's not Masonomics. Go to page two. All right, they go to the next page. And it was one for like some coaches' wives. So I've never heard of that one one i wasn't familiar with it had a handful of you know 10 episodes or yeah yeah a few episodes

yeah and then uh there was another one um there's actually soccer well actually there was another one of the the the basket the basketball coach in our town he's or i should say the college basketball coach we have a fairly successful college basketball program here and so uh his wife has one and I knew she did something like she has written a book or you know I kind of was aware of what she had done yeah and so she had a podcast I guess I didn't know that but I'm like okay it makes sense based off of the little bit that I know about her and then there was one about um talking about soccer or something I had two episodes and had two episodes so then I'm'm like, all right, flip the page. And the article is done.

I went, what? What? So like right away, I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. And I like went back and like, okay, I missed something here. Like, nope. Like this is, this seems like we're missing. And I'm like, I'm telling my wife, I'm like, no way. Like they totally missed this.

So I'm like, I got to call Tanner right now. So I call you and I'm like, dude, I'm like, no way. They totally missed this. So I'm like, I got to call Tanner right now. So I call you and I'm like, dude, I'm laughing out loud. You would not believe this. And you were kind of doing the whole, what's going on? What's going on? And I basically explained the same situation that I just said. And so it felt like, so basically the takeaway was biggest, I don't know, what would you say?

Biggest. Travesty. Injustice. In Western Northeast South Dakota podcasting history, perhaps. Yes. So, yeah, we got snubbed on the list. We did. And it doesn't matter.

No, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter because nobody that reads the magazine is going to be a listener that is the funny thing and that is the funny thing about massonomics is out of all of those podcasts massonomics can never and will never be successful if it depended on local business right if massonomics depended on the local community it would have died a month after it started yeah like it just there's not enough people here. Every person in this town that's interested in getting strong, staying strong and using your strength Tanner knows they go well about massonomics. They go to mass. They go to the mass gym and that's about 50 people. Outside of

that, we are in a niche spot outside of that. They don't exist in our community or for the most part, even really our state. Right. And so that's why mass't exist in our community or for the most part, even really our state. And so that's why Masonomics as a business just doesn't work at a local level. No. And someone was asking me about the article and they're asking if I was upset. And I said, well, you know, in actuality, as far as the way it could benefit Masonomics, the best thing they could have done is not included us. So we had a funny instagram post to share that people could laugh about and play into our jokes about western northeast south dakota and i'm like that actually provided more value to us than i mean it probably did and we're not like we're not bitter about this it's just funny that we have a podcast

where we talk about random stuff every single week and we weren't on the list like i told tanner i'm like this would be like if you went to someone's house and they said we're making tacos and you got there and you ate the tacos and they didn't have meat in the tacos and you'd be like well i guess these are tacos but it feels like an ingredient's missing that's kind of what it felt like that maybe there's an ingredient not only a ingredient but the key ingredient and that's that's true in the sense of the the podcast in western northeast south dakota the four that were in there if you add up that i take this for me because i know i did it did the research you add up uh all the episodes of all of the other four we have about

twice as many as those ones all combined if you add up all the reviews of all the other four, we have about twice as many of those combined. I can make some inferences about downloads that we have many more downloads than all of the other four. Besides the one, the lady that has been at it for a while. That's the only one that actually had, like that was the only,

that's the one of the four that's carrying any of the statistics. All the other podcasts have basically only existed since like november october like and there's no we're not shitting on those podcasts or anything there's nothing wrong with that but it is just funny like how we how we weren't on the thing and we did we did have a a good laugh about it not only that even funnier we had a billboard up in this town for six months about our podcast yeah we just just this last year yeah yeah like a ridiculous billboard that i know all of those people saw and commented on whether it

was positive or negative or like why do they have that but i just know that they knew it existed and it's also we're saying our town is 25 000 or so so population. Like everyone's away. Like you just, you didn't not drive down that street in six months if you live here. I mean, I guess you could have, you could have missed it. And, but I know that those people, I know that those people know about it already. You know, I kind of already know that. Yeah. So the whole situation is really funny.

Yeah. We're not mad about it. it is more of one of like okay we're not oh they left us out there yeah it makes zero difference in the world of massonomics um it probably just goes to show again like how most people don't get massive in our at our local level most people don't get massonomics and a lot of them never will like a lot of people don't understand that this is a legit actual real business that um well i mean i mean our podcast alone is monetized our podcast that's the other thing that's the other thing that's important to mention we're the only one that's monetized of all of them and like that

means something because we actually like did the thing and like yeah we also get to make money doing the thing that means that people in this industry do think that we bring enough value that it's worth paying us to, to talk about stuff. Like, so even within the industry, our peers and other, other companies think that we are providing value at large. But I do think that's part of the problem is they,

they literally don't understand, not the, not the lifting side of it, but the us making money online by doing this weird thing that they don't get like that goes over i mean you could that's not just exclusive to our community you could almost take a segment of any community that's maybe over the your average person over a certain age yeah and you try to explain uh what we're well even just the fact that i mean it's it's it's a metric that doesn't mean a whole lot but just the fact that massnomics has 30 some thousand followers on instagram most people just

sort of like well that was something happened that like you didn't actually just get those organically right right like you still those were bought or someone did something for you it's like no like you can actually influence that part if you put in a shit ton of work making content every single day right twice a day for years on end like right there's not a lot that's up to chance in this equation here no and the other thing is uh uh if you remember back to the first hundred or so episodes of massonomics we also had another a third third host tyler tyler effenstein e yeah and he also lives back in Aberdeen and not only did he quit the massonomics podcast he quit it to go run another podcast across the other side across the globe right right tent to Amsterdam to to do another podcast where he did what the entire time we

the entire time he was away from us he was was also recording. So not only have Tanner, you and I done 250 episodes, Tyler has probably done at least 250 episodes of podcast production on his own too. Right. And he was not in the list either. And he also lives in Aberdeen. Yeah, he now lives in Aberdeen, which. And he does like, you know, I know he's like working on doing

like some consulting for podcasts and other stuff like that. On top of having two shows that he runs himself. Yes, two other shows. All this stuff, very involved in podcasting, like extremely involved in podcasting, and lives here in Aberdeen, and also was not. Also got snubbed from the list. And anyone that used to listen to the show back when Tyler,

this would be one of those days where it would be fun to see him because he would not be as... If you wouldn't get a signature Tyler rant out of this, you wouldn't get one out of anything. days where it'd be fun to see him because oh he would got you would he would not be as uh if you wouldn't get a signature tyler rant out of this you wouldn't get one out of anything he would not be he would not be near as polite as we yeah he would not be laughing as much as we are no there'd be more a lot more f-bombs yes so then um you know massonomics and its whole thing of we we have a good time with everything we're not gonna just we're not gonna just call people out like they didn't do anything inherently wrong or illegal or anything right it's at the end of the day not going to change anything we do but it is kind of funny like the situation

is funny you can't admit that the situation is not funny right right like if someone can't see that then they're then they're a little too dense about the whole thing but so we had to make a little post about it on instagram and the funniest part is the people start piling on the inside jokes yeah and taking to their page yeah taking them and then i didn't know that part was going on and then once i started reading reading the jokes and are reading the comments no one was like hey no you guys suck there was all great it was very good fun and in the spirit of mass it's like they were baking a seven layer mass economics cake and dropping it off for them and i just want to be a fly on the wall of when that magazine or whoever runs the account the account is reading those and they're like what are they all talking about it's like i can't imagine they feel attacked they have to

just feel like so confused like Like none of it was bad. It was like, there has to be a thought of like, should I feel insulted right now? Like, I'm not sure if this is, I don't even know. What are they talking about?

JD power and associates awards? Like, I don't know what they, what do they mean? Talking about cool beans and things being overrated and underrated. Like there's just so many like lifting things. So the only appropriate apology though, we would accept at this point is the full center,

like a full fold out. Poster. Yeah. Poster of like us sitting here like this. And yeah, you fold it out. It's the poster of us sitting here at the side. I think that's the only way to rectify the situation.

That's of anything less. And I would not would not feel uh i would continue to bad mouth them bad mouth them in the manner we just yeah yeah yeah yes so yeah that was the uh the hot podcast drama in western northeast south dakota yep it's good stuff it was good stuff it provides yeah we have have a good way of turning lemons into lemonade when it comes to that, though, where I'm like, that's the best marketing that we have is weird, bad things that people, you know,

like they didn't say anything bad about us, but like just things in that vein. Yeah. Just like, Oh, this didn't get taken seriously. Right. Okay.

If people are going to take that seriously, we won't take it seriously either. The more I drink this, the weirder it tastes. I was going to say the same thing. I was going to go, I was just taking a drink. I'm like, you know, I can't quite put my finger on what's going on with this thing. There's the profile. Again, we're talking about the iron brew.

It's just such an odd beverage. Yeah. Is there caffeine in this? I't know i hope not it's like 9 30 at night i'd be in a i'm in for a really tough night if there is um it doesn't say that there is anywhere so i'm gonna assume that means that there's not we're probably gonna have to to be continued our power lifting. What would you call that topic? Yeah, we will put that. We're not going to tell people what it is because they're going to have to do it next week. That's the cliffhanger for episode 252.

Yeah, I kind of forgot about that. Because we've got a guest to get to still. I mean, before that, we've got ads to get to, Tanner. The reason we're all here, right? Yes. Watch out for your Scottish fudge. I am watching out for it. Okay.

Don't fudge up your ads over there. Woo. Okay. Lots of stuff here. We got too much stuff. Should we do this? Let's do the thing. Today's show is brought to you by texas power bars buddy caps first started lifting weights

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Now, our special guest for this week's episode is none other than Kale Beck of Starting Strongman. Are we ready to give him a call, Tommy? Oh, let's do it. We're doing it. Too late now. we're doing it too late now we're doing it hey how's it going hey kale you're live on the massonomics podcast with tanner and tommy we're excited to have you on what's up kale it's exciting i just cracked open a la croix ready to talk okay i, a man of culture.

Yeah, you're in the true spirit of the show then if you're drinking a sparkling fizzy bub over there. Well, you guys are making me stay up past my bedtime, so I have to do something to keep it going. May we ask what flavor you're indulging in tonight? So, disappointingly, it's lemon. I did not go to the store and pick this. Lemon's a good flavor.

It's not the worst. I think lemon is one of, actually, lemon is one of my more favorite ones. It's not one of the fanciest, but it has a good taste. It's just classic, tried and true. See, that's the problem is, I consider myself a fancy man,

and it's kind of vanilla, you know? Yeah, it's no Pamplemousse, that's for sure. No. But then again, what is? We are sipping on a beverage from scotland tonight it was imported with imported just for the massonomics podcast that sounds exciting it is uh so you're in california using however many directions of the compass you would like could you you explain what part of California you live at? Like right in the middle towards the coast. Okay.

So like middle, Northeast, Southwest California. Yeah. It's like, you know, everyone, if they think about California,

they're like San Francisco or LA. I'm right in between that. Okay. So if you went from one to the other you'd drive past me most likely and it's a it's a better part because it's neither one of those it's not the place that everyone thinks about so it's like yeah you know it's more normal that that makes sense to me um before before we started this episode we usually do our a little bit of homework or a little bit of chatting

about whoever we're going to talk to. And one of the things, our discussion points was, what is Starting Strong, man? And we said, you know, it's so many things. It's hard to say that it's one thing because it's the website,

Instagram, YouTube, Facebook group, YouTube, Facebook group podcast, what you do as far as coverage on the actual professional strongman events the question being how did it start and what do you consider starting strongman to be? That's probably where I went wrong is it's so many things that I don't even know what it is but that's, that's kind of how you have to have do this, this world.

If you want to make it some sort of job these days is you have to do a little bit of everything and get like, you know, $6 here or there, like, you know, a hundred some different places, um, which is basically what I do. Uh, but yeah, I, I made starting strong man in like, it's kind of hard to say where it started. If it was like the end of 2013 or 2014, I launched the website in 2014 and I was just looking, there's just such a lack of information on the sport of strongman back then and i just went around and there was a little bit of you know i competed as a lightweight athlete back then and you know strongman was very obscure back in 2014 let alone if you're competing as someone under you know 200 pounds um even more obscure and And I was like, well, if I could get, you know,

a little bit on a selfish note, I was trying to get sponsors and I hated my job and wanted to do anything other than that. So, and have no skills. So I was like, all right, if, uh, if I'm like, if, if I can get more people to, you know, care about this sport that I love and care about, maybe I can, you know, get more attention that people care about what I'm doing. And I can actually, you know, just do more of this. Like, you know, support me so I could do more Strongman and be more involved in it. Little did I know that I got so busy with this that I pretty much stopped competing at the same time. And that's also due to, you know, 10 years of competing in Strongman before there was as much good information and really did a nice toll on my body. But yeah, I just wanted to make a resource to make Strongman more accessible and, you know, inclusive to all types of people.

There's so many, there's still so many falsehoods of like what strongman training is or like how the people train or like what's involved in it that you know try to dispel every day and i feel like i've been saying the same thing for you know the past six to eight years now it's it's kind of uh wearing on me to be honest but i just wanted to make a resource that uh just kind of showed everyone how to do it like one of the first things i did is i made a like a map with all the different gyms that had equipment everywhere and that's you know it was really hard to find before that it's still hard to find um you know and just other basic bait you know super basic like if

someone wants to get in the sport like back then how would you tell them to do it they're like uh you gotta go find this guy in your town who knows that guy right you know so i just try to connect all the dots a little bit um and from there there's just you know then like worlds would happen and you know they're you know there's always been some random spreadsheet that like the two dozen people that are in the know know about that shared it around but like no one's putting that on a website that someone could google and find or or something so i just started you know doing that back then and doing a little bit more coverage of what the pros did uh we're doing you know at contest results because you you like literally couldn't find them back then you know there's now

as soon as something ends it's you know a dozen websites say who won what um but you know in 2014 2014 until about 18 name who was covering strongman at all right yeah it was pretty much me yeah maybe like a couple other places yeah so yeah so when you were first starting out like and you start doing this stuff you know with anything that you do new there's always that thing of like you're putting an effort and sometimes it feels like is anyone responding to this or people engaging like did you see a response right away or did you have to put in some decent time before like it felt like it got any momentum so i had i had some momentum going in just from my own you know being loud and spending too much time on the internet um and my own athletic accomplishments uh you know so i was already i was sponsored by you, juggernaut training systems at the time,

which gave me some amount of, uh, you know, gave me a good amount of, uh, you know, clout and people knew who I was from keeping my, you know, training log and blog on JTS and always be thankful to Mr. Blue Eyes, Chad Wesley Smith for that. It was, you know, that definitely helped a lot of stuff. And I had good guidance for that. It was, you know, that definitely helped a lot of stuff. And I had good guidance from people like him that, you know, launched, uh, you know, businesses and just networking, you know, going to shows and talking to him and, and others. I think very early on, I think Greg Knuckles was involved with, uh, you know, JTS doing some stuff and I just sent some emails

back and forth and he said like, this is how I'd approach it. So, you know, I, I was, I was very lucky that, you know, I had a lot of, um, you know, good connections I had made from competing and, you know, just really wanted to make this my living and to help other people and make the sport more accessible and more people to enjoy it the way I did. Um, but yeah, like, and there's the good thing is cause I made the Facebook group at the same time. Cause I was always a big fan of, you know, message boards. Uh, pretty much I was like on Chevy truck message boards when I was like 13 in like 1999. Um, you know, so like, like moderating them.

And that's like a crazy thing. It's like message boards. They've kind of like all consolidated to like Facebook and Reddit. It feels like, like message boards feel like they're just a dying thing of the internet now. Yeah. It's crazy. Cause like I'll, I'll go to Google something and you'll find like a how to, and it's still

on there from like 2013 and it's better information than you're going to find in any Facebook group because people had more time back then. But like, but there's been no new posts on that. There's been like three posts in the last month on that board. That is funny though. I still to this day will Google things and it'll, I'll come up to message message message boards like that. And it'll be like, Oh, this is exactly what I need.

And it's like, no, nobody ever answered him. It's like, that's the same question I had. It's from 2007. It's like, come on. Someone had done it. Bump. Or sometimes you'll see where something was like 10 years old and someone then two years ago answered it

or said like, did you ever figure this out? I'm like, he probably doesn't even have that vehicle anymore but yeah i just i knew those were dying and there was you know like maroon day muscle was uh the big message board by uh you know the late great jesse maroon day um ran and that kind of just you could see it fizzling off like I used to post there all the time and I saw Facebook groups you know this was 2013 so kind of early in Facebook groups and I was like well you know you need a what kind of do having making the place where people go to talk about it is going to be super helpful and you know a good position to be in as well uh so i just made the facebook group i think it was probably like the fifth or sixth different facebook group i've made though i just finally found like a good way to like you know express a good name and a good way to express what i was

trying to accomplish um you know and it just caught on i think there's like a thousand members within I think I invited like you know 40 50 people that I knew probably and then from there made sure to not I didn't want to spam it like that and let it grow organically and I think there's a thousand members within like the first two weeks or so so it grew pretty quick and with that the thing I found is people if they they're also passionate, they want to help you, especially they know you're not making any money on anything when everything's new, it's exciting. So I got a lot of help from, you know, four members like, you know, it's like, Oh,

I'm sure you guys have a similar story. It's like, Hey, people like, you should have shirts. I'm like, I should, I don't know how to do that or design anything. And people like, I know how, or like, you know, someone's like, Oh, what if, uh, you know, you did this on the website. I'm like, I don't know how to do that. And someone's like, I will. I'm like, you're off. Like, you're awesome. There's a ton of people. Um, mainly big one was, you know, uh, Dan Davis was a strongman competitor, helped me out a ton, ton over the years, you know, Mainly, a big one was Dan Davis, who was a strongman competitor.

He helped me out a ton over the years, just with technical background stuff, as I learned. I had some, just from messing around, some experience with just basic website. I can figure things out. basic, you know, website and I can figure things out, but yeah, there's, there's, I still feel today, like, I think probably more than ever I'm like, is this even accomplishing anything? I think I feel more like that now than I did back then. Cause it's all fun. Right. You know, like if you do something and it doesn't work, but you know, it's, it's cool. But then like, you know, now if know now if i if i you know trying to cover something

i'm like okay that cut that took me an hour and a half of my time to do and got this many views or likes or whatever i'm like you know like i could have just not done it and pretty much nothing different would have happened in my life or business. Yeah. No feeling there. Yeah. Like what, like what, you know, and also now, you know, starting strong and it's considered established and I'm like one of like the old guard now, which is the weirdest thing in the world to me. It just, I still feel like, you know, that, you know, young person who's like fighting for acceptance is like a, you know, a thing in the sport. Um,

so it's just that you're not as likely to get people like, you know, I'm sure a lot of people know about me or starting strong man, but then they just like, Oh yeah, I still do that. That's great. I love it. But it's like, when's the last time you went to the website or, you know, you know, did it in any way? I think it's kind of, once you're established, it's kind of hard to be new and exciting. You know what I mean? Yeah,

that makes sense. I think that makes a lot of sense. Uh, I did just go to the website today though. So that's terrible, isn't it? No, no,

it was good. I actually went to the gym finder again because I think you changed, you had some, if I remember right, there's a few years back because I had massanomics Gym in there at one point in time, but I think you changed the website or something. I mean, you know, you remember what, what happened? There was something different. Yeah, I was, I was back before there was all this talk about Russians. I was hacked by Russians and lost literally everything in 2000, like 16 or 17, I think. think and honestly that really curtailed like just made

it i don't want to make this too depressing but like like every blog and everything you've ever wrote and every article and like some are backed up and like on google drive and stuff but just manually inputting all that stuff and having it and And like, like, I can't even think about, I know rebuilding it, I spent about $10,000 just, and then like with added security measures to try to make sure that never happened again and different, getting it backed up in different places. Cause like I said, like you talked about earlier, that's a good example of like going into roadblocks and like not knowing what you're doing. Cause you're just kind of, you know, I didn't have like a super set goal. It was good example of like going into roadblocks and like not knowing what you're doing because you're just kind of you know i didn't have like a super set goal it was just kind of like oh i think i need to do this now i think i need to do that where you know people

that actually like went to school for this stuff have like business plans and like hire people and get like funding to build things and you know i'm just sitting on my kitchen table you know uh figuring it out because you know i'd like to bring you know pay some of the bills when my wife was working i wasn't making any money back then to start at all so what yeah that that really um you know just kind of put a damper on everything and it it's like, you know, then there's like old, like I'll still, you know, I had so many articles that were like super high up in Google SEO results. And now they just go to nowhere. Even if I relist them, it's like impossible. Yeah, that's probably the biggest thing.

It's impossible. It's getting, you know, it's one thing getting the article and okay, you get it back online. It takes some time. It's annoying. But yeah, once it's like kind of off of Google, it's really hard to crawl back to where you were, if not impossible. Yeah. And like those things still pop up as dead links at the top of Google and like you can,

so you have to make sure it's formatted the same way. And it's just, you know, it's, it's just a little daunting. And I've had some people help with reading, putting that stuff. But yeah, I'm the basically when you talk about like what starting strongman is, I've thought about it a lot this past year. I think a lot of people have kind of done a lot of, you know, hopefully when, you know, it's a weird year and things aren't normal. You kind of go like, well, what am I doing? What should I be doing? You know, you kind of think about how you want to do stuff going forward you know you're not

uh and i want what i want to do is start instrument is get back more to here's the basic resources on how to get into the sport how to thrive in the sport how to advance and general training and just have that more of like uh just rebuild that database you know maybe a little less of like oh uh is half door gonna knock out eddie hall right right right you know because like that stuff's just like i'll put out a video like that and it's you know i've gained like a lot of you you know a lot is relative but you, YouTube subscribers covering that kind of content. Cause it's, it's hot.

Like it's crazy how strong man's taken over YouTube in the fitness industry where it was like nothing for years. And now I think, you know, some of the biggest, you know, channels on YouTube or strong man channels and people talking about it. Um, so like, you know, it's's easy but like three days later no one cares what you said about that you know right it's kind of irrelevant so i just you know i want to get the you know gym database set up all you know like we talk about i want it so it's basically like one of those dead forums that no one visits where it's like, if you have any question that you put in Google about the sport or anything, I want it to pop up and answer it.

I know people still won't use it, but for the people that do, I want that there. So, you know, that's my goal for this year is to just really go back to the root of why I made it in the first place was just to put out the basic information if you look at crossfit.com back in the day it was pretty simple like they had an exercise library here's all the movements they had like here's a list of gyms here's like upcoming you know they used to have upcoming throw downs. And like, if you wanted to get into CrossFit, you could figure it out by going to CrossFit.com. Right. Very easily. And then strong man, people like, how do you get into strong man? People like, uh, talk to Bill. Yeah. You see that guy in the gym, that, that dirty big guy,

old that lifts the weird stuff. You got to talk to him. Yeah. We, we work uh behind his house on every other thursday it's it's really true though and it's funny it's true it was essentially true nationwide you know it's just the same thing everywhere all over the place yeah if you knew you knew yeah and if you didn't you didn't and it was and we've seen how much this sport has exploded just by, um, you know, strong man just being seen on social media or whatever, you know, just, just in general in the past, you know, and some, you know, people actually utilizing social media better as the top athletes and, you know, probably some of the stuff I did and other people did too. I mean, it's just taken off and I always thought it would, like, I remember I started competing in 2007 or 2008 and like back then I'm like, how does no one else do this? And

I'd talk to people that were stronger than me they would probably be better at it than me you know and I'd be like you should try that type oh it looks like so much fun and they're like well how do you do it I'm like okay I drive two hours go train with my buddy Evan in the redwood trees in the Santa Cruz mountains on Saturdays but we can't always make it and And we have to like, I bring half the stuff. He brings half the stuff. There's a lock box that has some stuff in it. Sometimes the guy who owns the land gate shut.

And then we just like go to the gym and do it in the parking lot and haul all the plates down, you know, two stories of stairs. And I'm back up and people like, and they'd be like, I i would do it but that's too much yeah i have a kid yeah and a job and i didn't back then so that's how i would spend you know any free time i had you know i just wanted it more i loved it and there's you know there's something you know you look back fondly on that and you're like you know it's the walking up both ways kind of in the snow kind of deal. But now it's like, I remember I brought an old beat-up log to a local contest here.

Because the promoter's like, hey, if you're going to come judge at this event, do you have an extra log? I'm like, I do. And I brought it, and none of the competitors would use it. They refused. Because they're like, I'm going to get tetanus with that thing. I'm like, what are you talking about? I brought it and none of the competitors would use it they refused because it was like it's all they're like I'm gonna get tetanus with that thing I'm like what are you talking that that's the best I love that log just like you go to a contest and people aren't going to use and implement because they didn't think it was like you know new enough I'm like it would have worked perfectly

fine it was better than the one they used it just didn't have shiny purple paint on it it's just an old beat-up pitbull log that uh robert oberst dropped to 450 pounds with steel plates on it a couple times you know but um we should ask you kale some of those uh vanity strong you know that thing you said you don't want to do so much anymore we better ask you a few of those questions though too just of course Of course. Because you are kind of, I mean, the resident, you know, people are curious what your opinion is when it comes to everything strongman. So, number one, I'm thinking, who is the best strongman of all time,

the best professional strongman of all time, in your opinion? I have to say Zad jurist of icus um and that's just because he did it uh you know for two decades he's still like if he competes again this year he he posted on instagram the other day that it's his third decade competing in strong man yeah it's nuts in strong like yeah in no yeah like he's like you know 2021 30th year competing in sports with strongman it's so ridiculous i'm like what like i'm 35 and i did it for about 10 years and like i don't feel like i can i'm like people ask me if i want to straight bar deadlift i'm like nope earn earn my right to not like i don't want to do that anymore my back hurts all the time just from doing silly stuff i don't know how like obviously i don't think i have the genetics or anything compared to him you know and there's you know there's the bill casmeyers and you know i think i think

marius puginowski um gets way too like people don't respect his accomplishments enough at all where i'd say i'd probably put him number two honestly uh just because he he was the dominator you talk to any american athlete that competed with him back then and they'll almost all agree that he's the greatest of all time because they competed against him and there's there was like there was years where he did like 54 shows and won 52 of them or something and people like oh well he was only fast i'm like oh so he was so fast he only he could win like you know 30 plus shows in a year you don't do that by not being strong right and he's and obviously he was training for how the sport was at the day he's still like it's different if he and it started to get heavier and then like his last

two years competing, he just somehow put on like 30 pounds of muscle where it didn't look like he could pack a single, like, you know, ounce on that frame. And he's like, I'm even bigger. You're like, how's that possible? And he would. So I think, and you know, he didn't do as well at the Arnold, but people are like, Oh, he didn't do good at the Arnold. I'm like, he like fourth and fifth and he the arnold wasn't a big deal back then it wasn't the same as it is now yeah the coolest thing is they gave you a hummer i think

zedrunas has eight of them it's a really practical car yeah in lithuania yeah yeah i i asked him that when i interviewed him a couple years ago and and he says, no, I sold. Yeah, not a bad idea. Who had the better strongman career, Eddie Hall or Hafthor? I think Eddie Hall did more with what he accomplished, like, you know, turning it into into money like as far as accomplishments than any other strongman ever right half the world is the more accomplished athlete that's it's not even a question yeah eddie eddie hall super strong really really good strong man

uh you know has a great drive but he's has one international competition win. Yeah. Like a major show one. Right. He's won like Britain's a bunch of times. He, you know, I think, you know, he won like the UK title with a bunch of times, but like, you know, he, he did well at worlds, but he, but he's smart. He, he understood the shows that are actually going to get you attention, sponsors, and dollars and didn't bother doing the others. He went to the Arnold twice.

Yeah, he's just so good. When you think back on it, that puts it into perspective. But in your head, he's so good at marketing and branding himself. You just think he is strong like he was strong man from what 2014 to 2018 like wow yeah that is that is crazy to think about yeah his 2017 world's strongest man win is i believe his only international title yeah where you know thor's won you know Europe's and the Arnold what three years in a row and you know bunches of he competed a lot more you know but Eddie was smart like you know he he pulled a heavy deadlift that no one thought he would do uh you know I I believed

like the day before I was like he's he's to do it up until that point. I never thought he would until I had to, I wrote an article for, um, I think flow elite back then when, when they were a thing on, on it. And I was like, he's going to do it.

And he did it. And, you know, I get over the years, people have called me an Eddie hater. And that's not true at all. I just, I,

you know, I just have my opinion on how things are. And if you lay out the facts, he has one international win. He has, you know, a bunch of world records. But I think he's smart. You know, I think, you know, I love what he's done because strong man has chewed up and spit out so many talented athletes that don't have a dime to show for it despite you know putting just as much effort or you know at least very close to people like eddie i think it's great that someone you know makes some money off the sport and does it and hopefully shows some other

people the problem is it's like kind of how he shows to do it is like pick your shows do world records you know always say you're the best it kind of like uh it changes the sport and it gets kind of into like why we now see a max deadlift at every single major strongman competition for the past four years and it's like so or you know this is strongman where it's supposed to be you know varied and all kinds of different things. And now we just have a standard height deadlift everywhere because more people pay attention if you do it. So it's kind of like it's good for the sport and bad for the sport at the same time. Yeah, that makes sense. If there was one thing you could change about the world's strongest man

competition what would you change uh everyone would want to say that you want it to be live i actually don't care i used to care and i think you know there's there's some aspect of having it live but we have plenty of live strongman shows if there's one that's still on tv being on tv matters right like that's how people that aren't into the sport will still find the sport you kind of have to care a little bit to find it on social media and stuff but being on stuff like netflix and regular television is what draws uh you know in like the history channel is what draws new people to the sport i would like there to go back to being more competitors and and probably just no groups and like i kind of go back and forth on that i i like i i was very firm up until this past year on the no groups and i kind

of get the point for them it kind of got some highlight but i think if you just have like 30 40 guys competing kind of like how crossfit does it like you know everyone qualifies for the games and then 40 people do and they're only really going to show you know whoever did the best in each event in the top 10 so i heard you know colin bryce on lauren sh really going to show you know whoever did the best in each event in the top 10 so i heard you know colin bryce on lauren shawley's podcast you know they argued back and forth about the group thing a bit and he was saying like well because there's groups it was able to you're able to get more tv time and become a star you know to laws a little bit and that's true but like laws would have been a star if there was a 50 man group group, if there's 50 people, and he killed all of them at the yoke walk, even if he placed poorly and everything else.

You're still going to get the same amount of airtime, I think. I wish there was more events. Again, there used to be more events. Then they went to five last year and then now six i think there should be at least eight but i think 12 like basically if there's six in the qualifiers and then six in the finals if they just did 12 events with you know 30 to 50 people yep um i think you'd have a better more well-rounded who's the world's strongest man. It'd be harder to question. You couldn't have a weakness and you couldn't get as lucky with, oh, this person got the right set of events, which matters way more than people would think.

And it really frustrates casual fans, I think, how the event selection can make a completely different person win or look or get six, maybe. It's so competitive now. Yeah, that idea, too, of having, you know, everyone compete across all the events, it could really change the way the scoring shakes out, too. You know, if you've got 30, you're going from 30 points to one, you know, in one event, it's really a different dynamic.

Yeah, and just, like, the ability of guys to, like, just one event it's really a different dynamic yeah and just like the ability of guys to like just not take it easy on it no you can't you can't screw off on one event then in that in that case like you basically have to go out at all of them i think right you do and and a good uh example of that is you know all the amateur nationals here, you know, in North America. Like I used to compete, I think I did the Arnold, you know, and I was a lot better at a local show where there's like, you know, maybe two, three guys you kind of have to worry about. And then there'd be someone who like, you know, if there's five of you and I, you know, I could, I'd like, i wasn't as fast at yoke but i'm

like i don't really care if that one guy beats me in yoke and i just lose two points if i'm gonna crush everyone else you know yeah i'm gonna win the other stuff but then i go you go to nationals and you get crushed by 15 people in yoke doesn't matter if i won the car deadlift, right? Like I lost 15 points. A weak event is way more hamstrings you much, much more so in that scenario. Yeah, more competitors that's just going to have a better, more well-rounded athlete winning. Basically, Kieliszkowski would probably win every contest. Yeah, right, right.

Other than he might get, you know, he might Other than he might get three points in a deadlift and someone gets 30. I don't know. But he'll just get a first or second every other event. Right. No, that makes a lot of sense. Tommy, do you think we should play overrated, underrated? I think we should play.

Cale, I don't know how familiar you are with it. It's a little game we like to play with everyone that we have on. We call it overrated Underrated. And we've got a series of special Kale Beck topics handpicked for you today. And we'll give you each topic. And you have your druthers as to how you want to decide. But the catch is you can't ride the line in between. You do have to say overrated or underrated for each one.

Sure. I have opinions. I can play or underrated for each one. Sure. I have opinions. I can play games. All right, great. Okay. So topic number one, overrated or underrated, manual transmissions. Oh, it's completely underrated. Anyone who says it's overrated, I don't even want to know them.

And that's for obvious reasons. Like you're scared. You don't, you know, you're scared of things you don't know. That's, that's how I felt the first time I drove a manual transmission. I'm, I'm now manual transmission vehicle list. And it kind of, even though I got, you know, cool stuff coming, you know, I just bought a new truck that doesn't have one. But I think the other stuff makes up for it. It makes me a little sad.

Can you actually still get a truck with a manual transmission? Like a new out of the factory? Only two. What are they? The Toyota Tacoma and the Jeep Gladiator. The only two trucks. The Frontier, they axed it this year i think toyota will probably always keep it just because um and same same thing with jeep you can't you know it's kind of part of

who they are yeah you know and i think the bronco you're gonna be able to get one that kind of counts yeah yeah right but you can't get the bigger engine with the gladiator or the bronco you gotta get like the base engine with it which is lame but yeah i don't have new truck money anyway so i get sad about that but i'm like i buy i buy 20 like i'm now buying like early 2000s trucks or what i buy because you know old 60s trucks are over overpriced now and i'm like and i'm like oh i'm into new trucks now they're built in 2002 yes yeah i get that uh what my my take on manual transmissions is i really enjoy them i don't know that i want my daily driving vehicle to be one just because it is more there's more to it and but i do like certain vehicles you have because they're fun to drive.

Like you drive them because you want to drive them and it's fun. And like, then there's nothing better than that. Like then you want that full experience at that point then. So like stuff like the brand new Corvette not coming with one just makes me like, I'm like, I hate everyone even more.

Like I, I just, I remember being a kid and like oh the brand new corvette and you know the other thing i've noticed about corvettes is like i remember they don't age well other than if it's like a 67 if you go look at like a 2003 corvette and you look in the interior and i'm like that's the most terrible oh like here i've ever seen interior on i i could be wrong here but to me like the interior on a 2003 corvette is like the same interior as a 2003 monte carlo like yeah yeah or like a cavalier yeah there's a lot of the buttons and that's why you're able to get the

the performance for you know right way less than people like oh it's way it handles way better than a porsche i'm like you ever see someone who buys a Porsche and goes back to a Corvette? No. Never. Not once. That's what poor people like me say because they want to justify it by the car they can't afford instead of the car they really can't afford. So manual transmissions, though, definitely underrated. Underrated.

Yeah, and it's a shame. You know what's a good thing about manual transmissions? They make cars that would be terrible enjoyable. Like I had just a plain work truck with underpowered V6 F-150, and it was slow, and it had no amenities, but you had to shift it, and it was kind of fun. Yeah, I think there's something to that. Okay, overrated or underrated Strongman records?

Oh, they're completely overrated. And I'll say that with, you know, I was probably one of the, you know, I kept records of them. But they're, they're overrated because in a sense that records in sports are supposed to be a by-product of someone going above and beyond in competition, right?

Like if Usain Bolt's going to set a world record at the Olympics, he did that in the Olympics because he had to beat everyone else right like but the point of like we're gonna have this whole contest to set a record and try to force it um which is going to overshadow the full contest and it makes the importance of one lift more important than the other five. So like, you know, like when Eddie Hall broke the deadlift record, do you remember who won Europe's Strongest Man after that? It was the same contest.

Definitely not. Yeah. Might as well shut it down right there. Yeah, but, you know know it's kind of like it i i guess it happened i think baseball is the closest where it's like if someone sets a record in baseball people care more like you then they could lose the game and they're gonna no one's gonna talk about anything other than barry bonds breaking the home run record or something right um but yeah i think it's like it's like the best and worst thing to happen to the sport of strongman in

the past decade probably it's hard to talk but overall I'd say overrated because the other thing is they'll get broken yep true overrated or underrated Facebook groups completely overrated they're the worst thing in the world and I was in a Super Bowl commercial promoting it I mean

I could sound old but like forums were a better thing so like you could go on like an old message board and you went there just to like talk about old trucks or strong man or whatever it is. And very rarely would then you like have to deal with someone's political opinions or know who, who their sister was or get distracted. And like right next to it is like, you know,

you're, you you know someone messaging you on messenger i just think like more separate things i honestly i think reddit's a much better platform um overall just only to the reason that you can downvote replies and topics because i go through the starting strongman Facebook group every day wishing I could download things people say or post like this shouldn't be shown at the top it should be a user decided what's important not not Facebook's freaking algorithm it's showing me the same thing over and over again but you're good, but definitely overrated. Well, the Super Bowl is right around the corner again, and if Zuckerberg

hears any of what you just said there, I can't imagine you're going to be on another commercial this year. Oh, I argued with the producers so much at the thing about things I was upset about. They'd never use me again for anything anyways. I was yelling at these people, and I said how they did it and then I realized it was like the the so I did two separate ones and one was like some sort of indie group and they were cool and stuff and one was I guess the same people that did the Air Jordan campaign and came up with it and I told them how they're terrible and everything. I'm like, oh, they've done every iconic commercial of my lifetime.

But they were not nice and they treated me like garbage. So I didn't care. But it was good. At least I got paid a little bit of cash. And you got to be a

super bowl like i mean for the rest of your life i know i was in a super bowl commercial yeah it was awesome and no i was appreciating like and i i had a lot of conversation with people within facebook about that and they were so nice like all these people at work and i was actually set to do some sort of program with them, which would have really helped starting strong man, um, going forward. But then like the world kind of went to shit. And I think they then they're like, Oh, uh, I think we're going to get behind more important causes than someone who tells people how to do strong man.

I don't think there's anything more important than that. There's more important causes. I mean, I, you know, if this was any other year, it probably, I,

I would agree with you, but apparently Facebook doesn't when there's, you know, civil unrest and pandemics. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense too.

Okay. I totally get it. On a personal level, it sucks because it was really good for my business but i was i'm lucky enough like you know i was able to be in a get have uh you know my business name blasted on the freaking super bowl and it was all over the front page of youtube forever and i got paid for it like it. It was millions of dollars worth of advertising. Pretty cool. It's a win-win-win.

Sure. Last one. This is the most important topic. It is worth everything. It all comes down to this one. Overrated or underrated. You are heavily judged. I guess I don't know if we specified this, but you are heavily judged on how you perform on overrated and underrated.

So this is kind of what it comes down to. Overrated or underrated? Kale. The vegetable. Oh, it's so overrated. It's terrible. You know, like you go through that phase, you know, maybe not so much now, but like when you started out, you like read like the bodybuilding magazines

or men's health and all that stuff. And it's like, you know, if you really want to get lean and look how you want, instead of spinach, eat kale because it has 10 more grams of vitamin K. You go through that. Like I can't, I can't, it's so like i did all that stuff like when i was like 18 you know and and it makes no difference that's superfood yeah no superfoods i'm not shredded because i'm eating white rice instead of brown rice that's my problem oh that's the that's the worst one i i think back of all the

brown rice i ate instead of white rice and like how much of an epiphany it was when i could eat nice jasmine rice instead six times a day which was still stupid but i did that is when i got shredded you know when i just ate like the same thing every day for right a year and was a psychopath. That's when I'm like, I see, I see those memories pop up and I'm like, Oh, cool. I looked good once, but you know, you know what's the best thing about if you ever get like somewhat lean and jacked is it gives you like five years of people perceiving you like that. I'm like, I think, I think my life is around for a long time.

Oh, I'm still selling stuff off of, uh, pictures from 2012. Yeah. Yeah. I think just, I think my,

like my, my, uh, perceived jackness ended two years ago. I wrote it that long. It finally has been depressing ever since. They're like, no, he's not jacked at all. Like, two years ago. I wrote it that long. It's been depressing ever since. They're like, no, he's not jacked at all. I'm like, hell no.

He used to. Maybe, I think. It's got a five-year shelf life on it. It does. You just have some pictures in a really old message board so people can just keep finding them forever. It pops up if you Google my name in CrossFit. I look pretty jacked.

Okay. I think you passed overrated underrated good news you did pass uh you did well and that kind of kind of is most of what we're going to talk to you about today we would say again um it's uh startingstrength.com and i guess we didn't mention you offer coaching through there too don't you for uh strongman athletes yes but i'm not, don't you? For strongman athletes? Yes, but I'm not Mark Ricoteau. Starting strongman. Oh, crap. Sorry about that.

I normally never make that mistake. I only make it when we're recording a podcast for thousands of people to listen to. Starting strongman. Sorry, we've had Rip on before too. And at times I wondered if I was actually accidentally going to say Starting Strongman to him. You know, that would be a good troll. Do you think Rip is well aware of Starting Strongman? I don't think he's aware of anything he doesn't want to be.

That is correct. Which is most things. I think he's still living. He still manages a message board. So there we go. That is true. That is very true. How often have you heard someone made that mistake that I just, that I just did there all the time, you know, but it's fine. I think it's, it's like just now, like on hashtags on Instagram,

like almost catching up to starting strong man, just cause you know, an earlier adopter of technology and social media, I guess. Um, but you know, I figured if, you know, if Mark Ripper took to get a following from having a catchy name like that, then I probably could have. Yeah, for sure. Uh, but no, so I was going to pitch the website and the coaching and everything. So can, I mean, can people sign up for coaching right now if they want to? How does that go? and have ebooks i wrote a book like uh how to train strongman in a regular gym you know because that was the most frequent question i got asked is like how do you train for this if you don't have equipment and it's kind of silly because basically what i'm breaking down is like what gym lifts transfer to what you know transfer over to what events because i still think like most

people that have every implement in the world would do well from reading that book just because I feel like they just still don't understand, you know, like, you know, RDLs and front squats are going to help your Atlas stones and stuff. Just, you know, looking at the basic mechanics of each lift and how it transfers. It's all pretty simple sport and all. Yeah. And, you know, my YouTube channel is just Kale Beck, my name, you know, Kale with two L's. Putting some more stuff up on there, talking about boxing, because that's 2021.

Strongman's all going to be about boxing. But, yeah, no, I've been looking forward to coming on for a while. It's just I go to sleep very early because I don't sleep because I'm a very demanding toddler. We just had to wait for you to move to the Pacific time zone. Exactly. That's why I moved back because then it's almost doable. We've been excited to have you on and we've followed along with starting Strongman for a long time and we've been excited to have you on and we've followed along

with starting Strongman for a long time and we've certainly taken cues from you and we've gotten a lot of stuff that we talk about on the show has come from things that we've learned through things that you put out in the sport of Strongman so it's been a big help for everything that we do. I appreciate that and that. And that's exactly why I do what I do. So more people can learn about the sport and everything that's involved with it and spread it to more people. And thank you for talking about Strongman. And I know how much of a beast it is to keep a podcast going.

So I admire your drive to keep talking into microphones and editing it and uploading it all the time it's a hard thing to do yes that is correct why I don't do it anymore I want to I love to it's probably my favorite medium

like this podcast but man like it's tough it's a grind it is a grind alright C right kale well we we thank you again we will catch up with you again soon too sounds good you know cheers uh with your fancy but scottish drinks and uh lemon laquano i'll uh hopefully talk to you again soon yep cheers to you thanks a lot Yep. Cheers to you. Thanks a lot, Cale. All right.

Have a good night. Well, Tanner. Cool beans. Cool beans. Cool beans. There it is. He gets the double cool beans. The double cool beans.

You know it's cool beans when you get the double cool beans. Oh, no, that's cool. Cale's certainly an expert in, we talk about strongman a lot obviously on the show we talk about i mean the two primary strength sports we talk about are power lifting and strong man um but we're not necessarily experts on any of it we just enjoy it and we soak it all up and talk about it but that's someone that actually is deep enough and involved enough in that particular sport where he is an expert on it so it's a little bit different it has a lot of actual experience right right for sure no that's cool beans he's someone we talked about on getting on the show for a while too and finally got the chance to yeah a long time actually yeah actually

like we talked about it first probably last year ago for the super bowl when it's like ah he was just on a super bowl ad we should really get him on to talk about that that's pretty crazy oh i remember mentioning something possibly about him with the podcast i mean so far back in the when we were recording at tyler's house remember right i mean that's i mean within the first 50 episodes like but then it was like well how we don't even know how we would do that you know that was a different world yeah no that's cool beans what else do we got today tommy can we we should read a couple reviews quick just because i have some sitting on my phone and we've we're never going to catch up on reading the reviews i've been trying

for and i just remembered there was something as soon as you hit the call button oh uh i have something else i just remembered uh let's get stupid podcast they had a lot of yes they they had time i had to laugh tom and tom first they couldn't quite know what we did they thought one of us was a banker and one of us hunts buffalo was what they were coming up with right um and i am i i mean bankers i a banker. I have been a banker at times. Yeah, you actually were a banker. And I just worked for a different company, not at a bank. Now I do similar things. But yes, I have been a banker.

I don't hunt buffalo, though, Tanner. No, neither of us do that. And what else? They were talking about, they were looking at your Instagram while they were on the show. I also don't do a good job on keeping up on my Instagram. No, they called you out for that. Anyone that follows me you can see i you only gotta go back about three rows to be back a full year they're like what does he do oh he does he does massonomics and he's got a wife i think they seem surprised they did seem kind of surprised that we have actual

full-time jobs though yeah we do have full-time jobs that is they they were not aware of that or at least tom callis wasn't aware of that. Yeah, I couldn't remember who said that there. But it's only fair for us to bring up the Let's Get Stupid podcast because they're usually bringing up the Massanomics podcast. Tom, that's our competition, Tom. What are you doing talking to those guys? That's right. We shouldn't be giving them free ad time,

especially after Huck Finn went and stole our silicone cup idea. Yep. We originally brought that to market they didn't mention the dakota cut too yeah still waiting on that but i like the idea what if we actually did offer that just as a pure joke do you think anyone would buy it maybe someone would for an upsell not sure how many somebody would though okay so a few reviews because we are never going to catch up with the reviews. I'll just tell you that now.

It's been struggling since the road to 200, and I've never caught up, and now there's been a pretty good influx, and we're never going to catch up, but we'll keep trying. This one's titled, Mike Judge Does It Again, from the president of Western Colorado.

If it's stimulating conversation you want you won't be disappointed these guys have the answers to all the questions nobody else bothers to ask they get right down to the nitty-gritty what is in the can how can i get strong stay strong and use my strength when did buddy caps begin power lifting i'll admit i haven't been a fan for long until i recently discovered that the hosts are from the western side of northeast south dakota and well come coming from the western side of an area myself that kind of thing really appealed to me massonomics coming from the western side of an area myself

uh this one is from kju productions the coolest podcast in the state is it simply a podcast that you seek or is it an experience episodes full of insight on how to get strong stay strong and use your strength i know that i've found my favorite show out of the dakotas time to take my sparkling water out of the oven and crack a hot one with the boys hard to believe we didn't make it in that magazine if it's all these praises uh this one's from ryan no shorts johnson still can't afford the shorts well in these trying times not much is certain however tanner and tommy are the one constant that i look forward to in the week i never knew western northeast south dakota existed before I started listening to them. Despite still not being able to afford a pair of lift

shorts, the laughs are free. I can crack open a piping hot seltzer water and retch as I listen to nothing that will enrich my life. That whole phrase just sounds so pleasant. The Ohio Lifters Union from the Sultan of,

I'm going to assume it says Ohio. Before I listened to the podcast, I was a fool. I couldn't get strong. I drank sparkling water chilled, never froze my beans and deadlifted conventionally. Now, thanks to melodious frequencies produced from the vocal cords of the South Dakotan dynamic duo,

I've gained my strength. Furthermore, I have stayed strong. And now after years of searching, I finally have unlocked the key to staying strong on behalf of LeBron James, the Cleveland Browns, Lake Erie,

and the assassinated president, James A. Garfield. I hereby night, both of you as Lordsords of Cayuga. Continue to feed the masses frigid beans and all the rest. That's good.

All those reviews are so good. It's just ridiculous the things that, it's just like people commenting on the Aberdeen Magazine, the things that they're writing. You don't have to be too far removed to think you're reading a foreign language. Who are these people? Like I just, you don't have to be too far removed to think you're reading a foreign language.

Who are these people? And how are they all like, they're all in on something that I do not get. Today's show was brought to you by lifting large, lifting largest set, a new standard for customer service within the strength world. They have live website, chat support and speedy email responses. Lifting large is home.

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To learn more about Texas Power Bars and buy one for yourself visit texaspowerbars.com wow tanner it's a lot of reading time that is a lot of reading uh restocked items in our site we just recently got the curl shirt restocked the bench heavy shirt restocked the deadlifter shirt restocked the lift hard live easy flag restock keep it going tanner keep it going don't curl in me flag is on the way as a restock there we go that's at least that's kind of i have to stop there because i can't remember more all right we'll save it yeah there so we do have a lot of restocked items we're sitting pretty good on most things so if you're after something now's the time tommy's wearing the 8-bit powerlifting tee, of course, which always looks good.

Buy yourself one of those. Buy yourself some of everything on the site. The shorts, I believe, are still all in stock right now, so you can get yourself a pair of the most expensive shorts in the world. And also make sure to sign up to become a Massonomics podcast supporting member on the website. That means a lot to us. We really like to see those come in,

and it's like the gift that keeps on giving because we get to see it come back in every single month when it recurs so please sign up to be that if you're a loyal podcast listener and you've been wondering how else can i support these guys how else can i give them money outside of paying for their ridiculously overpriced clothing you can become a supporting member and you it you can rest assured knowing that once you're signed up there's no way to delete no it's we have that money literally for life and it's like a gradual step up program like yeah the levels just it's a progressive yeah it's like a progressive tax standard right right and it's like against your will even like it doesn't matter what you want like we just need to get you in the system and then we'll start charging you more yeah we just need your credit card numbers and then from

there give us the number we'll take care of it for you from there we'll do we'll do the heavy lifting you just get us those numbers uh leave us a podcast review we're on the road to 300 tell someone about the podcast tell a friend sign up for our newsletter on our website like us on facebook like us on Facebook, like us on YouTube. Tommy, where do they find you at? You can find me at Tomahawk underscore D. You can follow me at Tanner underscore Baird,

but make sure to follow Masonomics at Masonomics. See ya.