Massenomics Podcast - Ep. 255: Jen Thompson

Episode Date: February 22, 2021

Jen Thompson has won more IPF powerlifting world championships than JD Power & Associates can shake a stick at.  We talk to her about the wild bench arches, potty training, and Taco Johns memories. 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 of 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! Massanomics! Website, everything. Massanomics. Recorded live in western northeast South Dakota, this is the Massanomics podcast.

We are the lifting podcast about nothing. My name is Tanner. And my name is Tommy. Tommy, this is episode 255 of the show. And we pulled out all the stops for this one since it was 255 the previous 254 we were kind of being reserved but we're not holding back on this one here we go so 255 we are going to talk about a couple different contests we have going on just saw a funny meme where it was uh what is that uh exhibit or yeah exhibit yeah all right and that's a is that? Exhibit? Yeah, exhibit. Is that a joke based on Pimp My Ride? Okay.

Where it's like, yo, dog, we heard you like to contest, so we put a contest within your contest. And that's what we did. Yeah. So a couple contests. Some strongman nudes in the world of strongman. We've got a guest, also a female powerlifter that we'll get to later. She's lifted a weight or two

in her life she has we'll talk about talk to her a little bit and got a can yeah we got a can we're probably going to try to sell you some of our stuff but my new thing is don't buy our hats yeah don't buy don't buy our whatever you do i actually tell me before we record it i meant to talk to you about this and tell you that that I wanted to start saying don't buy our hats, but now everyone hears. Now they know. This is the meeting right here. You're getting in on the ground floor of the meeting. Do not buy our hats. But do buy products from these companies.

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been and continue to be set and broken on the Texas Power Bar. To learn more about Texas Power Bars, visit them at TexasPowerBars.com. Today's show is also 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, 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 at checkout. That code is MAS20. Make sure to use that. Today's episode is also brought to you by our friends at 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 online. Check them out online at spud-inc-straps.com. And this episode is brought to you by Hybrid Performance Method. They're 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 very best hands possible use our discount code there it's mass m-a-s-s in all caps for five percent off any training or nutrition membership for the entire life of your membership at hybrid performance method in dead cam all right oh so tanner, I don't know. Do we want to start with the can first, or should we just have some fun banter to make people loosen up a little? We probably need to talk about the weather. We'd be very remiss if we did not mention the weather.

Actually, it's almost like we're almost like, oh, that's your guys' weather? Like, well, you don't live in Texas. So, yeah, it's been really cold here, but our part of the country is equipped to handle cold i think what i saw is it went uh over a hundred hours straight with the without the temperature coming out of the negatives it was below zero for over a hundred hours straight yeah we finally cracked the the we finally got to the positive barrier just a few hours i'll say today when i was outside

around noon i think it was like seven degrees and it was not all that windy and i was like this is a balmy seven i honestly was like it is nice out right now i could take my coat off and just wear my long sleeve shirt i had on at work because you don't feel like you're dying no i i really meant that too i i someone was out there and i actually remarked that i'm like wow this feels really nice. And it was seven degrees. And I thought it felt great. Yeah. It's crazy how cold like negative 20 is with wind. Yeah. When it's negative 35 wind chill. Yeah. It's brutal. It is. It's bad. I don't know if, I mean, you work from home. It's even a little bit more like this probably. But for me,

like you do not go outside. when oh but you open you see everyone in our neighborhood when they come home from work or whatever they open their garage door pull in close the garage door then get out and like never to be seen outside for for weeks on end when it's like this yeah like this last week we've been getting pretty cool like the dog is going crazy because i don't want to like he wants you to go outside and play fetch with him and go on walks and it's just so unpleasant being out there that when we finally when i finally do take him out for like five minutes he's like running like his life depends on it like he's just going nuts the whole time but yeah it's been it's been a tough uh tough week as far as weather goes but then like what a week from now they're already

saying temperatures like in the 40s i i saw there's one day where if it plays out just right it could even hit 50 so five zero there there we go through a full in a full week we've gone through like a what 80 degree change yeah yeah yeah makes no sense but 50 will feel oh that will feel like t-shirts and short weather and i'm well it basically is though like for most people it is around right yeah it is and and that will feel seven i'm not exaggerating when i said seven degrees felt like no coat weather like and that that is kind of true you know some people around here would still be like oh you need your coat on but i'm like it feels like no coat weather at seven but if you went to the grocery store and saw someone in shorts like it wouldn't be that weird no no not at all there always is that one there guy, though. There is that guy, yeah. Yeah, of course.

But the thing is, like, we're used to it. Yeah. And it is pretty wild. And we expect it. Right, right. And that's why it's so weird, though, that when the temperature does bump up, it's like, well, it is almost March. Yeah, yeah. Like, our winter has been so good this whole time.

We did. We have lucked out. Like, we'll probably get a few snowstorms, the brutal cold should for the most part be behind us now uh mother winter just kind of made us pay for this all like she was like yeah we're gonna give you a couple really great months here yeah but then we're gonna do a two-week stretch where it's just gonna be brutally cold did your power go out at all i don't think we lost power at all. We did for like an hour, I think, was all. Did it get cold in your house? No, not in that hour, no.

I was wondering how that would be because I'm like, it's so cold out. I mean, the temperature might have dropped a couple degrees, but I was never at any point worried about our family's safety. Right. Did not cross my mind. But like SwimH and oh yeah snow and stuff people in texas like those people are not used to that oh people are straight up dying down there because they're just and it make i mean they're obviously their world isn't equipped to handle it

no so yeah it's not good well i wonder what even i don't i don't know the answer to this but if you get far enough south like southern texas stuff, do all houses even have furnaces? Like, is that normal? I don't know. It's a good question. I suppose they do still, right? Probably. Because it's still at night. Sometimes it gets pretty cold, maybe.

But they probably don't run very often, I suppose. And they're not used to running at, like, negative. I mean, they probably run fairly regularly, but they're probably not running very hard. Right, right. Yeah, they're not negative 20 running. Yeah, not like this thing over here, which is bucking all the time. Yes, yes. We have, our furnaces have to be up to snuff.

Yeah. This is, you know, actually who we need on the podcast right now for this. Tyler. Tyler. He is an HVAC specialist. For anyone that doesn't know, Tyler was our guest on the podcast for the first. Yeah, one of the hosts of the podcast yeah for the first 100 and some episodes yeah he was a special guest on the podcast for the first couple hundred episodes yeah he was an hvac technician in a in a prior life so yeah he would be on the ball on this yeah he would know he would know all

of it uh is for me this year going to this it's even extra i've thrown for a completely different loop because our heating system now is geothermal oh geothermal heat pump which is just completely foreign to me so does that give like does that give like instantaneous heat or does it like take a while for the whole ground thing to do its stuff no it's not it's when you're it feels no different as far as your live as far as you know practically as far as you live and stuff i think like the you don't you wouldn't know what you wouldn't even be able you wouldn't know a difference if you didn't if you were in the house and somebody didn't tell you you wouldn't there's no difference like that no i got a feeling there's a geothermal heat pump. Yeah, right. Right, right. No, no.

Interesting. Yeah. Is that enough weather talk for now? That's a good weather update, I think, right? Yes, I think so. We're going to do a what's in the can, Tanner. Okay. And this is a what's in the can. So I'm going to need you to put your thinking cap on.

All right. Thinking cap on. I will preface this by saying. It's not a Mastinomics cap. No. Because do not buy those. I'll preface this by saying, I's not a massonomics cap because do not buy those I'll preface this by saying I don't know what this tastes like Tanner it's in

shape it feels eerily similar to last week so that has me um you know give biasing towards a certain answer already if you guess this flavor I will be shocked you know i mean i i just think it's a michelob ultra seltzer again just because it feels like

and i will i will give you that it is that i will tell you that but this flavor is a very odd flavor i can tell i feel like i can taste the alcohol slightly more in this one than the peach pear wow i hate when i get this thing where i'm like i have no there's a chance you get part of it i don't let me try one more time i just i i hate it when i can't even formulate an answer where i'm like i cannot come up with i think part of this is going to be obvious once you see it. Lemon. I'll just say lemon. Okay. I feel my confidence level on that is like 2%. Okay.

Do you want to know what it is? Yeah. Spicy pineapple. Spicy? Yeah, that was the part that was scaring me. I was like, oh, pineapple's good enough. But the spicy part, I was like, that could take this thing to a weird place. I don't get the spicy really, though.

I guess I feel the pineapple. Spicy? Do you want spicy? You ain't feeling the heat, though? No. Do you want? Do people want? I don't know.

Is that a thing? I don't know. I like pineapple juice, though. Yeah, pineapple's good. Pineapple's good. I've been kind of a, what are the little oranges i love the little oranges i just what the bags here say is it halos or cuties but yeah i think those are two different ones and those things are so i'm not they're really good they're really good right now too they're so good there was a stretch i think in the fall or something where they like the rind was like all tough and like they weren't juicy sometimes they suck and i i buy a bag and have one and

be like these literally taste like garbage and i wouldn't eat them and now i'm at i'm doing three a day they're so good after every meal we have a bowl of them like on our kitchen island and i don't like walk by without and i what i love about those in comparison to a regular orange a the size because they're a great yeah oh whole oranges that's a little much for one don't want a fruit meal right now like um but even more so than that the peeling of them they feel so nice do you ever do it where you try to peel the whole thing in one oh yes i i never peel an orange and not try to do like you gotta get the whole thing and then you get to this part where there's the center thing and you pull that whole

thing out it's really satisfying if the center thing all comes out together yeah uh yeah i'm good at that good to know i'm not the only one but then do you uh eat it individual slice by individual slice yeah i don't just like am i some barbarian it's like an apple i think some people would maybe break it in half and just eat half oh no no no no you do one piece at a time you enjoy it you pick it apart that's the experience yes like i'm not gonna bite a string cheese in half they taste way better than a full orange oh that's because that's what i didn't start eating these things until recently like this past summer and i, oh, these are just little oranges. I never realized how good oranges are.

And I bought an orange and no, they're not as good. A full orange. The problem with them, they can be so fibrous. I don't know if that's the right word, but they can be, there can be so much, like the material to the juice ratio on a full orange. They can be so. It's just not there. No, but on these little ones it's just like a juicy they're good yeah they're good yes it's like a little pocket of orange juice in your mouth

yeah i'd highly recommend them to anyone that's not doing it right now i think they're vertical diet friendly kind of too aren't they orange juice is kind of part we're gonna have stan on soon so we'll find out for sure but we'll get to the bottom of that. Geez, spoiler alert, Taylor. Yeah, spoiler alert. We do have a good lineup of guests coming. We do. We just talked about that. This is the most,

like the next, what, month and a half almost, we have our guests already planned out, which is the most in advance. A lot of people might not believe this. We could give them, I guess, an inside look here. A lot of times we don't have the guests until the day before

or sometimes even the day of lining up the guests at times can be the most stressful part well because you're asked for me because we've said this before you're working across so many time zones yeah so many people's different schedules and it's got to work for it's got to it's got to work into hours you and i both working uh working into both of our schedules and we kind of have to record fairly late because it's like after our kids are to bed and it's just kind of went the time we figured out we can continue to do this regularly and on schedule and we've got to make that fit into people that live all over the country and have all kinds of other different schedules well so

some weeks it is like damn who are we? Yeah, and sometimes we get someone like, I'm just busy for like the next month or two. It's like, okay, I guess we'll just try again some other day. Yeah, we get a lot of rain checks and we usually... Yeah, and for the most part, yeah, people always come back around. Yeah, we've come back like months down the... You know, it's been like months long of communicating and eventually it's like, oh yeah, we found a day that works.

Yep. But yeah, right now we do have our guests planned out for like a month and a half which is pretty crazy for us so we can pretty much have our guests planned out up to 260 the five-year anniversary we're pretty solid everyone's been waiting for yes the day of days so okay tanner we do have we have a of contests running right now. We did hint at that with our exhibit meme that was just discussed. And the first one is our meme contest that we talked about last week on the podcast. That we launched. We had, I would say, modest expectations.

And so far, I think it's safe to say they've been absolutely blown out of the water. Just like every contest we've ever done, I suppose it's been just, like you said, blown out of the water. Way beyond. Things come up that we're like, huh, out of the water way be it things come up that were like huh kind of thought i thought of all the possibilities in my head and then everyone just takes it to another level it always goes to another level it does it does because everyone starts building off of everyone else too and also people start just going in crazy directions that you would have never expected so there's been a and we're not going to talk about it too much

because that's what next week's episode next week going to be about winners and it's going to be a bitch oh god i know yeah next week is going to like take some work yeah uh but we not to say our normal episodes don't take work but tanner that one's going to take a lot of talking through the hundreds of memes that are out there but uh right away there was one today that made me laugh very hard and it was something like guest and so that was the hardest day of my life tommy wow tanner so do you want to play our overrated underrated game and i'm like god that is so funny like we don't really have guests that do that it's kind of come up occasionally but it has occasionally because we do hit the we do hit

the time limit and also it's like well now that we hit the serious part do we spend the next 10 minutes like slowly climbing out of the serious hole or do you like you know what let's just to me it's easier just to do that it is and i think from a listening standpoint that's more what people like like let's not beat around the bush and stuff oh i know all right wrap that up everyone's time is somewhat valuable here like we don't need to drag everyone's time because there have been some people that have had some pretty compelling like uh travis ortmeyer has gone into some pretty heavy stuff and which is a great podcast episode if you haven't listened to that one i would go listen to that one but then he's also a very fun guy too yeah not a mushroom

but just a fun guy uh so so then we kind of have to be like all right close the book on that i know like you go tommy goes wow and then i go so are you familiar with our game overrated underrated and that's i think i was laughing so hard at that one because it just felt so it was like yep i can i can remember that that was courtesy of the ceo of power belly gear okay okay so that was good and i mean there's been ones with my dog in them like countless ones with your face on i was gonna say the the thing i was not expecting and the thing that really has given me a good chuckle multiple times is how much we personally have been i wasn't't thinking. I mean, it makes sense if you think about this, a mass-signing team contest, and we are.

The first one I saw, I think Scott Dodds had the one of, like the middle-class fancy. Very funny. When your dad's friend Tanner here finds out you got your driver's license, like, let me know before you hit the road or whatever it said. Someone with that one said, oh, I love it when people are, the ones where you're Photoshopping Tanner's face onto bodies. And I'm like, that was actually a full picture of me.

That was not a Photoshop done. That is me in standing funny in a tie. And then just the number. I do have to admit though, I did see one. I think it was today where someone Photoshopped your head on, I think someone on like they were over the grave of, and it matched up pretty damn well. And it's like, everyone's using this picture of me it's where i'm jefferson deadlifting in the gym and i'm turning and smiling is that what it's from

yeah that's what the picture's from because i had to look i'm like what is that picture i couldn't remember if that was on our web page you know it's from our page no it's from uh our website if you go to like the jefferson deadlift shirt oh it's on there okay yeah i didn't know they were getting it i just assumed the about next so it works great for those ones where it's like the person walking by and the guy looking uh looking over uh yeah the number of them that incorporated us personally have been has been really really funny yeah and people have started their own pages and a lot of people have gotten instagram accounts just to do these. There's a couple pages started. One's like mass dynamics memes.

And one of them is like, has like a LaCroix picture and it's numero uno or something like that. Yeah. I've, this is for sure. This week has been without a doubt the most in my life. I've laughed out loud looking at my phone. Yes. Like there's been multiple times where my wife goes,

what are you doing and i'm like these are so funny they're just ah they got that bite to them like they just get it the uh massonomics army has really came out come out in full force haven't they yeah and like you said the building on each other like uh the talking about the breaking parallel shorts has just been uh just a thing that's just been created out of thin our thin air within this contest yeah i am almost afraid that that's like a meme that we'd be getting played like if we made them we'd sell like four pairs oh that was a meme you guys that was part of a meme contest why would you think that's serious because part of a meme contest. Why would you think that's serious? Because part of my brain goes, maybe we do need to make those.

No, no, it's just a meme. Yeah, right. I don't know. I don't know what the answer is there. A lot of funny stuff, though. But I shouldn't even say more because we're going to talk more about the memes specifically. Plus, we have another contest going on right now, Tanner. That's right.

A contest. It's Contestception. Yes, that's exactly what it is. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, who also has been in a lot of the Masonomics memes. Leonardo DiCaprio from Django Unchained. That was one of the very first ones. Tanner gets cocky on what's in the can.

Tommy. That was funny. That one was really funny. When he's holding the Michelob Ultra. Yeah, from Django. That was funny. That was from Matt. Yes, Matt. That was really funny. When he's holding the Michelob Ultra. Yeah, from Django. That is funny. That was from Matt. Yes, Matt.

That was really good. But we do have another contest going on with Rep right now for the Strongman Sandbags. And I think people have been pretty shocked to see what? Two contests this week. Yeah. Yes, a contest within a contest. And Elephant in the Room, it's with Rep Fitness, who we formerly had, if you've listened back, maybe, I don't know, 10 episodes or something like that there we had a uh little i'm not sure what the right word would

what did we have a little uh i don't know i don't want to use a word that sounds too negative yeah it really isn't we had just uh i would say there's just a thing i would say misunderstanding yeah okay maybe that was what it was yeah yeah there's just a thing. I would say misunderstanding. Yeah, okay. Maybe that was what it was. Yeah, yeah. There's just a small misunderstanding at this point. But they extended us the... All of branch. Yeah, they extended each other the all of branch. And we're doing a contest together, which has been great. When you hear your family, all of garden.

All of garden. I don't know who was writing that, but it was very funny. Yes, yes. I really like that. Tanner, do you like this beverage? Not really. I don't know who was writing that but it was very funny yes yes I really like that Tanner do you like this beverage not really I don't like it either so you know what Tanner I brought us oh I brought a backup I was prepared for something like this do you want to do a what's in the can part two we've never done that before oh hitting the double header tonight we don't have to finish this one we don't have to finish that one I don't like it I don't relief I don't really care for

all right no looking no looking I't really care for seltzers. All right. No looking. No looking. I'm not a huge seltzer guy in the first place, which I think I said last week. And this one really does not do it for me. So. Solid top.

That makes me lean towards buble. Buble. Oh, I can. I'm pretty sure I can smell that from my lap when I. Oh, I think I know what it is yeah i do let me and that's even without a taste maybe i'm not positive anymore but i think we're dealing with a bubbly here based on the pop top. I could feel that. Okay. I could really smell.

I was feeling like cherry. Okay. That's what I smelled right away. And that's since I got that first hint, I can't move past that, but I'm going to say it's like blackberry cherry. It is blackberry. Oh,

blackberry. Oh, well, I was, I was pretty close then. is still okay so i would give this pineapple i would never pick one of these to drink one that was um no if i thought i had to i was like i really want to get drunk yeah i guess i would put one down but yeah they are not those are not enjoyable to me um this flavor, so I would give that like two J.D. Power & Associates,

whereas this blackberry one, still not one of my favorite ones. In our house, we call this the cough medicine bubbly because it kind of has a cough medicine flavor. And that's the cherry. That's what cherry always kind of reminds me of. Actually, this does taste like blackberry brandy. Did you ever drink blackberry brandy? A few times.

We used to drink that pretty hard for a period of time. I had a friend that I don't know this is normal, but his thing was to do blackberry brandy with eggnog at Christmas time. And it was absolutely disgusting. Like, no, we would just have like blackberry brandy with like seven. Because it was kind of. Yeah. Yeah. Which is like in hindsight

just sounds disgusting but you know you can do this to make it taste good right right right not using these things um yeah so we don't really put in our house we don't particularly like this one either so we're kind of scraping the bottle of the barrel at this minute at this moment tanner but this tastes better than i would give this like a three i think This tastes better than the... I would give this like a three, I think. It's at least somewhat refreshing. Yeah, I think three is pretty fair. Appropriate.

Yeah, so I kind of cut us off when we were talking about our last contest because I was so thirsty. We're picking in winners for those, and we're giving away three of each. It's their Strongman Stone Bags that they just released and our 8-bit strongman flags and we're gonna have three winners that are each going to receive both of those so it's cool to be able to give stuff away i kind of like the contest thing is always fun we'd love giving stuff away as long as it's not lift shorts right it's never lift shorts yeah i do like the the idea someone came up with you know for the massomics meme contest

the prize package is a hundred dollars in massonomics merchandise the trick though we just so happen to be releasing our new sticker pack which has a face value of 99 or 100 dollars i'm making up the sticker pack. It's just, we're going to, we're going to, one of our sticker packs is going to be worth $100 on our site. So the winners that each get $100 of mass synoptics merchandise, all we have to give them now is a sticker pack. Oh,

okay. I get what you're saying. Yeah. The value, this is rated at a value of $100. We set the pricing. Right. We set,

we set the pricing. In my head, I'm the whole time thinking $100 gift card. I'm like, well, it's a value of all yes yes so we set the pricey right we set we set the pricing in my head i'm the whole time thinking a hundred dollar gift card i'm like well it's a gift card yeah we never said gift card though yeah and we never said a gift card no no no we we're straight up picking we're even picking for you and it's gonna be the new hundred dollar sticker pack yeah yeah surprise it's just a really it's just one sticker but it's a really nice sticker. It's a nice sticker. Yeah. Yeah. We weren't clear on what the prize was going to be, so there it is.

You're lucky. It's a very rare sticker pack, though. Yeah. You have to be a winner to get it. There was the Strongman news that came out, I think, just like today from what I saw, that World's strongest man 2021 is going to be in sacramento california and it's going to be in june june 15th to june 20th and it's also a multi-year deal that strongman will continue world's strongest man will continue

to be there at least in 2022 and i didn't know if it was like there's like sacramento actually yeah sacramento okay is where it's at and i think it's a couple things stand out overall world's strongest man being in california seems like the smartest fit i've ever heard of why wouldn't you have it at a good place and not uh i mean before this they might as well have just done it in Aberdeen. Right, right, right. And also, though, the interesting thing, they're setting a date of June 15, 2021 for World's Strongest Man in a state that... Is the strictest in the nation. Yeah, right. So however you feel about that, it also is like, well,

they're leaving a lot up to chance here as far as... Right, because, I mean, that's not that far away. We're leaving a lot up to chance here right because i mean that's not that far away we're actually mid uh february right now so march april may june four months from now yeah is that enough to be like are they're gonna are they're gonna be able to be spectators at it like i feel like that's not a great chance for that no which they're it's world strongest man they're used to that right yeah that's true that's true but i just am surprised that they're not like yeah let's try and shoot for like september yeah like just give ourselves more yeah as long as we're doing it in california right right uh interesting yeah i do think sacramento is a good spot for it too in any normal year i

think it would be a huge turnout oh that seems like about the smartest place I've heard of them having it ever. Yeah. Yeah. I wonder, is it, I'm curious how, like, so is the promotion, like the promotion company, is it American based? I don't even know. I don't know the answer to that. It's like, why is it, why wouldn't it just be in America every single year then?

Right. Yeah. I don't know. It's all so much a TV show for them, so I don't know if there's reasons for the TV show that that's more advantageous for them to be in those other places. I don't know if the, I don't even know what the body is, but the Chamber of Commerce for these cities,

because I don't know who they're doing the deal with, but I think they're getting, World's Strongest Man is getting something for having it there too. Yeah. So maybe these places have made it lucrative for them to be there. And more attractive.

They presented an attractive package for them that they couldn't refuse. Exactly. And we've all been presented with an attractive package before, right? Yeah, with a couple cool beans inside of it. The package with a few cool beans. Should we do some ads?

Oh, yes. Okay. Oh, and I have to do my thing. Yeah, you have to do your thing. I do always catch up on my phone while you're at it. Yeah, that thing's always lighting up on my channel. The Massonomics Podcast is brought to you by Spud Inc. and the Looper Straps. Serious athletes know the strength that adding chains to your bench or squat will build.

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Also, maybe we'll talk about this. We'll just make this one statement, and then we'll, that's a teaser until after our guest here, but come on, Johnny Candido. I know, right? Yeah. You always want what you can't have, right, Tanner? Right.

So now for our guest, Jen Thompson. If I can figure out how to do that. Phone battery. I haven't seen my phone bill yet from the Canadian call with Jessica Bittner. Curious to see how that plays out. Yeah. You'll have to report back with the actual price of that. What the damage is.

Yeah. Hello. Jen, you are on the Massanomics podcast with Tanner and Tommy. Hello, Jen. Hi, guys. How are you? We are doing great now that you're here. Oh, thank you.

This is long overdue. We got the chance to interview at the Arnold a few years back. Oh, that was so much fun. Yeah, and that was, so what year would that have been, 2017? I think 2018. 2018? Yeah, one of those two, yeah. 17 or 18, one of the other ones.

Okay. 2018? 2018. Yeah, one of those two, yeah. 17 or 18, one of the other ones. Okay. So we have had you on our list, and we're finally getting to you. Oh, for goodness sakes. I've got the t-shirts. I've got the banner. Finally, I got the podcast. Yes, the trifecta. The excellent trifecta.

So for anyone, quick, that doesn't know uh you're uh a powerlifting superstar a legend how many ipf championships have you won in your career um i've won four in the classic power lifting i've won three and equipped bench and no four and equipped bench and three and equipped bench and no foreign equipped bench and three and classic bench. I get them all screwed up, but 11 total double digits. That is a lot. How many, do you know how many national championships you've won? Uh, no, I know like, um, for like raw nationals coming up, if I were to win, it would be my number 10 for powerlifting raw nationals coming up if i were to win it would be my number 10 okay for power lifting raw nationals i'm not really sure like i have my husband has like a spreadsheet where he's kept everything i've done and i could literally look on the spreadsheet right now and figure it out if i

wanted to what year was the first raw nationals um i didn't even go to the first raw nationals i mean was it like 2007 ish was it around there i don't think so well it might have been eight maybe 2008 okay so you've won almost all of them that you've competed in then or yeah that existed i won i won i didn't go to the first one i've gone to all of them after that i've won every single one except for um 2019 I lost to Sam on body weight Sam Calhoun okay okay so it was my first loss so not a terrible track no it's just all right and I've never lost a bunch nationals I've won all those right right well okay so that that's a as long as we're talking about the power lifting and everything we we had a couple hot topics that we've talked about lately and uh you know i'm sure you've seen it

the one is the bench arches um johnny candido i don't know if that's where it where it started he put out a video i think so yeah he put out the video talking about it giving his opinion and his take on that uh first of all i I guess, what's your opinion on someone that benches with an extreme arch? Or I should say, whether it's arch or whatever factors, they're able to get a very limited range of motion. And before we start, would you classify yourself as being relatively flat in your arch compared to a lot of people? When you're looking, looking at like bench

press only lifters. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I have a baby arch compared to most folks and it's funny, like I find it so funny that this is such a hot topic now because it's been going on forever. Right. And I feel like they're always trying to find something, you know, to kind of figure out, because obviously like with a huge arch, that's not impressive to watch somebody, you know to kind of figure out because obviously like with a huge arch that's not impressive to watch somebody you know you know have so much technique it's not strength you know it's just technique with a little shrug in there so i mean there's nothing impressive about that so it is sort of like a negative reflection in our sport if we're looking for like a fan base nobody cares to watch it so i'm the best but i mean i can

remember my very one of my very first international bench press and this was in equipment and there was a russian girl i think her last name was crylova she didn't even wear a bench shirt she wore a t-shirt and she flexed her wrist and that was the whole thing and even like even the other like people were like i've never heard anyone boo at a bench worlds before, but everyone booed. Yeah. Like, what the hell? It's a little anticlimactic. Yeah, we were all just, what?

And there's several Japanese lifters or Asian, Chinese, Taipei type things. or it's just, or, you know, Asian, Chinese, Taipei type things where, I mean, it's like, it's, you know, the referees are getting off their chairs to make sure it's not touching in the up position. Yeah. Yeah. That's crazy to think like that. It's like, we got to make sure we're legal from the start. Yeah.

Right. The reasons that aren't typically the problem. That's crazy. Well, inhale, exhale, we're done. Luckily I've been able to beat all those girls, but, um, you know, it's still not everybody can. So, I mean, it is frustrating to be training for something and to lose out to somebody like that.

So do you think there should be, uh, rules in place? You know, so what were, what were Johnny's suggestions? I guess. I think one of his was, I think the main one he had was just putting fingers inside the ring yeah grip with how would you feel about something like that you know that it's not even that it's a bad idea I think it probably helped with some but like from the refereeing aspect of it like how you can how you monitor where people's grips are and how you make sure that this weight class, their grip has to be here. And this weight class, their grip has to be there.

It's just not practical. Really? Yeah. Yeah. I think you already do. Yeah. My husband and I were talking about it. Like you would have to have,

like, I think you'd have to have like different bars where the rings at different spots for like each weight class. But even that's not practical either, you know? So I don't know i think some of it like they would fix some of it they just make people put their bunch butt on the bench you know like your whole butt not just like your inner thighs i think that would help

yeah some um but you know even like this last i think it was 2019 it was in japan and like some of the um lifters would like even try to like turn their hands out funny so just like a barely piece of their finger was touching the ring so they were even like farther out you know they kept their fingers spread out like a fingernail was like touching the ring so they even try to cheat it out even more than normal um which most of the time the referees were um making them replace the bar and grip it properly but you know it's just it's just crazy just bench right where do you out of curiosity where do you grip the bar at i am a ring fingers on the ring okay yeah

okay yeah i try to get my like so when the the bars on my chest and my elbows are low outside 90 okay I feel like it's like the most powerful position there and your best bench of all time did you did you do just uh in the gym at least you did did 330 just recently didn't you yeah we did that at the um lift for charity in uh Yeah, that was my best like ever attempt. I even tried. That was like so, I couldn't believe like how easy that was. And I tried, we were raising money on Twitch for charity. And so you could like put in like, we'll give you this much money if you try this.

So we said, you know, for every dollar you raise, you know, I'll try that amount. So we got up to three 47 and a half. And I gave it a roll, which I thought I would've got smushed by it, but I got about halfway. So I was pretty sure. Yeah. That is crazy. Over the course of your career, at least in benching specifically, have you ever really had any competition that's close to you? No. No.

I mean, I've always usually like, I don't know. I think the Russian girl and I can't even pronounce her name properly, but she's been at the last couple of them, but I usually beat her by, I don't know, 20,

30 kilos. But I mean, if you watch what some of the girls are putting out now like corolla um i can't say her last name right but she's from uh italy she's put out some training videos in the threes um so i mean girls are getting up there she's a 63 so you're starting to see see girls step it up and push it up a little bit higher so you never know yeah yeah right on uh what about we we we just had jessica bittner on um yeah i saw that yeah just a couple weeks ago and we talked to her about this article that we put out in what year did we decide it was so this is on the massonomics website we used to do more uh like blog style articles on on our website back in like 2015 2016 2017 we would put these out and we put you know a fair

amount of effort into that at the that that point in time and we did one it was 20 august 2016 august 2016 and what was it called so the article was the top 10 female powerlifters that you should be following and uh it was it was a list of the criteria was 10 female powerlifters that have less than 10 000 followers on instagram right so it's basically female powerlifters that maybe you're not following now and you should you need to be following and you should be following and at the time number the first one on the list number 10 was Jessica Bittner yeah and number nine next on the list Jen Thompson with 6,000 followers yeah it's probably like just getting started with social media then what is this okay so I'm talking to my kids now how do I do this and yeah and it's funny it's funny reading the the little write-up it says uh I wonder if this kid knows that his mom

is stronger than most of his friends dads if he does, I hope he makes a point to let them know. And then talking about your resume a little bit. And yeah, it's just funny to see like all of these years later, we're talking to you on the phone now. Isn't that cool? That's so neat. It is funny. My son, when he was in preschool, he had like a little play date and he went to his friend's house and he said the dad told me he told me you're the strongest woman in the world I was like okay whatever and then after he left I googled you and I'm like she is the strongest woman in the world and he was like you know four or five years old right right well and your kit you're you have uh kit sons that are lifting now and are yeah they're they're very competitive aren't they yeah they're doing really good um let's see

my um oldest son is 17 he's a junior this year um and they both play baseball too like a travel ball but um he took tucker what he won the um the high school nationals he won the varsity as a freshman which i think that was the first time that's happened and then he was going for a repeat but of course it got canceled last year so he didn't get to try to hit it again so and then this year he um playing baseball he um tore his um mc or acl so he or no mcl so he just actually just had it repaired so um he won't be going but then my youngest one's a freshman so he's going to uh high school nationals this year so he's doing good i mean they just i know i was telling like they don't have to do it but they they've been in the gym since they were you know in a cradle with a

bottle so it's sort of natural progression and it looks like for you guys like it is kind of a family affair like you guys are all training together quite a bit it looks like aren't you oh yeah it's so much fun i mean the boys don't have quite a like um intense and specific workout that we do so they're they're in there for. So they're, they're in there for like half the time and we're in there and it's like a whole nother hour afterwards. Um, and they're all about get in, get the work done and get out where we're more like, you know, shooting the shit and like naps and each other having a good time. So, um, there is a little bit of a difference that way, but, um, it is pretty cool that they, I mean, I can hear either of them. Like,

it's so cool to hear them saying you come on mom you've got this you know just it's neat is bench for each of them is that their best lift no ironically no okay that's what i was gonna ask if it was if you guys just own them you have a lot of family fights about this is this a point of contention i mean they're good i mean they're not bad i mean they're pretty good at bench they have to be you know but like tucker really excels in um the squat and so is bro that means brody's a catcher for baseball so he's got all that strength in the back end so so actually they don't take after their mom and they got really great squats. Not a bad lift to be good at. No.

And do you train? Is it a, is it a home gym that you all train at? I mean, it looks like if it, I don't know what it is. If it's a home gym, it's a very nice home gym that you've got. Yeah. Yeah. We've always had a home gym. I mean, even back like, um, when my husband, my husband made a home gym, you know, back in the eighties like that, he's, um, cause like it's before big box gyms and things like that. So, I mean, um, we started dating when I was in college and we probably moved to like three or four different rental houses and we'd have to move the gym like every single time.

And moving gyms is always fun,'t it oh my gosh that's when you find out where your real friends are that's true and then uh we moved down north carolina like uh 25 years ago and so we've been in one spot for a while but it's just it's in our basement and um like our it we have probably like anywhere between six and eight people lifting all the time and it's usually like our neighbors or our friends they all come over and lift so it's um it was just like seeing friends every day and having a good time so it keeps it light keeps it fun the one time there you had that awesome picture where like everyone in the whole gym was wearing a bench in 315 yeah you guys sent one for

everybody they loved it we still wear them all the time. And the blue ones, too, with the mountains on it. Yeah, the bench up. Yeah, the bench up, yeah. Yeah, we always have those on. They're so nice and soft, and they fit so good. So outside of the world of lifting, are you a teacher? Is that right? Yeah, I teach high school.

Okay, so what do you teach? Well, I taught math for like 19 years um and then just the last couple years i've been teaching electives so i teach um an honors nutrition class i teach a weight training class and then i teach um an all girls health and pe class right now those seem way more fun than math. I said, well, I can finish out my career doing these. The high stakes testing and that math was just, I'm like,

I've done my due. Give me something else. So did you teach algebra, algebra two? Mostly just algebra. I mean, here it's called math one now because they have to change everything every few years and do like the new math and the new this and do that but it's basically it was basically algebra i love algebra not a math guy you know i can help

my kids when they're doing their math so it's good right right okay so your students then we talked about kind of your kids and them understanding how strong you are and they've probably they've obviously been around you their whole whole life and they get it but so your students at school do they you know do they understand how strong you are and how much you bench press and all that stuff I mean I think they do to a point like they're more impressed with like how many Instagram followers I have. Ah, yeah. Let's talk something more relatable here. Can you tag me? Can you repost me? You know, like no, I cannot.

I totally, yeah, I never even thought about that part. It's like, yeah, a three-plate bench is cool, but you know what's even cooler? Tens of thousands of Instagram followers. Yeah, and weren't you with Jujimufu? I saw you on his videos and Omar Esaf and all those guys, you know, so it is kind of funny that that's more impressive to them. But when we're in like weight training class, they're like, how much can you do on this again? They're just always a little bit blown away by it, but it's cool.

So do you ever in weight training class, do you ever have to slap on a couple of plates and just like embarrass, embarrass them a little bit? No, I don't usually just because I usually have like training later that day. And so I'll mess up my workout. And like this year, of course, with like COVID, everything's just blah. So, I mean, this year has just been crappy all around. I mean, this year has just been crappy all around. I still like to imagine that you're just repping, that you do like three plates for reps and then go and train again and do the same thing later,

just to show off that day. I do a little, I used to have like a little powerlifting club. We haven't been able to have it this year because of all the craziness, but I would come, I would work out with my little powerlifting club every once in a while. So they were pretty impressed that way. Yeah, I'm sure.

Do you ever have to worry about, you know, you do have a big significant Instagram following when being a teacher and around kids that are all on social media and Instagram, everything all the time. I suppose you kind of have to be more cognizant of what's going out on your Instagram feed in comparison to someone that, you know, I don't know. Doesn't have that.

Right. Yeah. Yeah. Well, for sure. Mostly I try to post things that like, I don't want my kids ever to be embarrassed by something that I post. So I always sort of think about that before I post anything. But then in North Carolina too, we always have this thing at the beginning of every year and they basically like, it's like a right to work state. And they basically are like, if you put anything out there that we deem as like unprofessional, they can fire you like on the spot. So you always do. Yeah.

Cause you know, your students are watching it and my kids are watching it. And so, yeah, I'm definitely always making sure that it's not something that they would find embarrassing or distasteful. Yeah. It is a funny dynamic to me to think though, like how, how, uh, how much kids enjoy social media and like how the big of the follower thing is to them and how you're just crushing all of them. Just have way more followers than all of them.

It's just a weird thing now, you know, everything you post is like permanent, you know, it's like recorded. And I don't know that a lot of the younger generation really realizes like, I don't know. We've said before it would be terrible to like to deal with that now i i'm glad that uh you know like when i was in high school that it was social media didn't exist it's like a few people have facebook accounts and that was it right right you didn't have to worry about you know being recorded doing something and then coming up later you know or

or whatever not everyone had a camera phone in their pocket and even then the camera phones then were really shitty pictures that was the best thing you get you didn't have video right right so it's a different it's a different time for sure yeah you have to be a little more careful i wonder like some some of these posts you see coming out there i thought oh my god if you have kids one day and they put it oh my god what are you gonna tell them yeah or even people that already do have kids you're like oh i guess you just don't care about what your kids friends are gonna say at all right that would be bad i don't know how about us apl nationals that was another thing that had come up uh this year being

2021 being uh you know an exceptional year because of COVID and everything going on. And so what's the deal with nationals? Is it they're taking the top five? Is it top five by class or like top five? They did like three rounds. So the first round was the, I believe it was the top three at the 2020 nationals. So if you're the top three in your weight class, you got invited. And then after that, it was the top five and the hometown showdown, which is how I got in.

And then there was all, I think they realized from people complaining that there was a lot of very competitive athletes that were going to be missed. So then they, which some people are upset about this, but I sort of feel like they were trying to respond to what people were saying. So they made a third round where it was like, I think it was, I can't remember if it was the top three or top five of the 2019 nationals. They kind of kept pushing it out so that, you know, like they were making sure they were getting kind of all the most competitive athletes in, I guess, be the way to say it. But I just feel like, I mean, hearing all these complaints on these different YouTube channels and yada, yada, yada, I just think you're never going to please everybody. And it's like, you know, it's COVID. Like, there's no great answer. I'm just so happy we're having it. Yeah. So like one of the biggest, I think as someone that's never competed at nationals and probably never will, one of the biggest complaints that you see a lot of people have is just the

sheer number of people that compete like to you. Has that ever bugged you in the past? Like, would you like to see that number change one way or the other? Honestly, I always loved it. Um, because it made it such a huge event. Like for, I think my weight class, I mean, I think there was like over a hundred in my weight class or something like that. But, um, I guess like, cause we had the prime time, which was so much fun to lift that. It just gave the opportunity, I think, for people to experience like a nationals. But then like all those people came to primetime. So you're sort of like guaranteeing yourself a giant audience. Yeah, like super captivated, very interested audience.

But the coolest thing was like even just walking around like, you know, people want your picture with you or your autograph, just being able to be able to rub shoulders and meet like probably some of the people you follow on Instagram or you sort of look up to, like just having that opportunity to listen to the same event with those athletes, but then even build meet and talk to them and hang out with them. I mean, I just, I know like it was way too big, yada, yada, yada. And they did increase the, um, qualification totals by quite a bit, but, um, I didn't mind it. I thought it was cool. That makes sense too. Yeah. It was, um, so much fun. It was such a fun

event in the prime time. Like it was at at night time i mean the bars were open people were drinking and just going like nutty it was actually like a live sporting event it's like the lights and the announcing and the music i mean it was such a show like i will cherish those moments for sure when gino announces you what does he call you? Anything in particular? What does, does, what does he usually say? Anything, anything? When we've just heard him several times and some people, he has some fun nicknames and that sort of thing. He usually just says Jen Thompson,

but my husband has his Instagram name is Jennifer Thompson's husband because of Gino. Cause we were lifting at bench nationals and I was coaching him, Donovan, as he was getting ready to go. So you know how they announce the lifters as they come up? Well, Gino was like, next up, Jennifer Thompson's husband. Never even said his name.

I love that. He didn't even say his name or anything. So he just rolled with it so he's pretty proud of all my accomplishments so um he just goes by jennifer thompson's husband now but yeah i do gino's pretty good he remembers everything like he remembers your world records he remembers what you place you know he's just um he's really good with that yeah we've had the opportunity to you know to talk to him a couple times like briefly, you know, he's just, um, he's really good with that. Yeah. We've had the opportunity to, you know, to talk to him a couple of times, like briefly. And he's, yeah, he's always remembered us. I mean, he's got to, uh, announce a couple of meets locally here that we've done too. So it's always fun when you have them in your intro, don't you have them in your podcast? We do. Yes. Gino is Gino is in every podcast. He's a guest on every episode. Yeah.

So he's brought a lot of fun to the sport for sure. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. We do have this game we like to play with every guest. It's called Overrated Underrated. Okay. It's very important. It's the most important part of our entire episode every week.

It's what everyone looks forward to. It's what everyone looks forward to. This is the make or break or break right and this is like the highest pressure situation for you everything up to this point has been pretty fun but this is where it's really super serious so my adrenaline's going now so we have this series of topics uh hand-picked for you and you have to decide whether each one is overrated or underrated. The most important thing to remember is you can't write the line. There's no writing the line in between. You have to pick overrated. I just pick one. Oh my gosh. And you get no explanation. Oh, no, no, no, no. You are free to elaborate. We've had people elaborate for 10 plus minutes. I mean,

you can go on as much or as little as you want. You get to decide how much explanation you think goes along with it. I'm super nervous. I am not good with on the spot stuff. I think you'll do all right with these ones. Okay. Overrated or underrated? The Outer Banks. Oh, under or overrated. Could you explain the outer banks? And I was, I was not familiar with this concept. I went one time and we came home early. Really? So is it not like what, it's just like a beach. It's like this chain of islands outside

of North Carolina a little bit, correct? Yeah. It's in North Carolina. Um, but it's in north carolina um but it's um like it's it's all homes there's like no no real restaurants no there's really unless you want to sit on the beach there's not much to do okay i mean it's just big huge houses and condos and i don't really like it is it like a super wealthy area then or it can be like granted now you know we were probably there like 18 years ago so because i never wanted to go back um but you can get like these giant homes you know that sleep i don't know 20 you know so you like a lot of people have like big family reunions there and things like that which are fun if you just want to click out and hang out on the beach but i'm more of a mountains gal i don't really care for the beach too much so would it be the smoky mountains or what uh blue ridge

okay yeah so the outer banks definitely sounds very overrated but the blue ridge mountains may be underrated oh totally underrated i love it there okay so that's a pro north carolina tip if we come visitor guide is getting put together right now. Now we know not to go all the way east to the outer banks and we'll stay inland a little bit and do the mountains. Yes, I would highly recommend that. All right. Well, that's good to know. So far, so good. Okay, that wasn't too bad. Okay, I'm feeling better now. Overrated or underrated overload training, like heavy holds?

Oh, underrated, of course. Like it's the key to my success. Because it seems like you do a fair amount of them. I do a lot of them. I do a lot of just overloading exercises, like with the slingshot, the board presses, the pin presses. I just sort of feel like if you can get weight moving that you can't normally do eventually you'll get there do you utilize that sort of overload training in the in any of the other lifts yeah oh yeah for um we do it for like you know deadlifts we do rack pulls and things like that uh for the squats we do heavy walk, which is basically a heavy hold bench press but with the squat. That's what I'm wondering if you did do it with the squats too.

Yeah, we do it with the squats and then we do the bands where they're hanging from the top so the bands are helping you. And so we load that shit up and bench with the bands so they're helping you. And it's fun because it's a whole bunch of weight for like me like the squats always been like a mind trick for me so like just the fact of like because when you walk out the way you're actually holding the weight the bands aren't helping you they're loose and so just the mental like confidence of being able to go down with that weight and go down with some speed and you feel good because the bands are there for you.

For me, that's been a huge helper. It seems to work for you. It's been working for years. The proof is in the pudding. Overrated or underrated? Lizards as pets. I guess underrated. You don't see too many. We're the only crazy family with an iguana. So,

I still can't believe, like, I don't know how I ended up with this pet. How did you end up with this? Where did that come from? Well, my son Tucker wanted a dog forever. And my youngest son, I got, like, eczema, a lot of allergies. And so I told him this whole life, when he turned 12, he could get a dog forever and my youngest son has got like eczema a lot of allergies and so i told him this whole life when he turned 12 he could get a dog but then 12 came and we really couldn't have

a dog so he researched so you've tricked him into thinking this is a dog and he still he tricked me because uh iguanas you can teach them your name their name they can be potty trained you can walk them on a leash like a dog what i totally overlooked is that they can live 20 to 25 years i'm stuck with this thing i'm like oh my god so those are all facts that i did not know about iguanas i just yeah. Yeah, I know. Right. So. And they just eat lettuce. So you don't have to get like gross insects from it. Just eat lettuce and fruit.

They get that big from lettuce. Yes. All you need is lettuce. So you said those things that they can do. So have you like does your pet iguana know his name? Do you think? Well, my son has not done the greatest job at training him. And so it's sort of become my pet now.

So he is potty trained. So that's what I'm most excited about. That's probably the biggest one. Yeah. So is it like, does he have like a little, like the little, like a litter box or like a doggy pad or like, how does that work? So he has like, well, he has like a, cause you know you know they're cold blooded so you have to keep them pretty warm so he has his own little closet underneath our stairwell which is like his own room it's a

bi-fold door and we've got like you know the heating lamps in there and that's where he eats but he can bump the bi-fold door with his nose and get out when he wants to and so i keep my shower door open and he walks into my walk-in shower and he pisses and poops over the drink wow and then you just gotta wash it down with some water i mean i guess it's it's where there's plumbing built in so how did so did you just set him in there a few times yeah when he was little we would just kind of push him and walk him i said that you know the route to get to the yeah and they love warm water too they like showers they don't drink a lot they get most of their water from like their skin so you got to give them warm showers every once in a while anyway so we just taught them how to walk in here

so do you have like visitors come to your house and they're just so freaked out by an iguana oh yeah well they either think it's cool or they freak right out. Like they're like, oh, my God, get away from me. So he can get out of his Harry Potter under the stairs bedroom thing. Yes. So has he ever freaked you out? Because like I saw on your Instagram where he was, you know, in your closet on top of your, like on top of the door. Like, has he ever showed up in places where you're like, ah!

Yeah, I've almost stepped on him a couple of times or didn't realize he was there. I kicked him across the room once on accident. I felt really bad. But yeah, he'll be in just like the most random places sometimes. They like high places. So I usually try to climb up high but not always so yeah there's there's been times i'm like whoa i'm still not really i learned a lot but yeah i don't know if uh i don't know if i need one still

he had like an et moment you know he likes to go in my son's closet and he's got some stuffed animals in there so he couldn't find them forever. And I looked in there and you see all these stuffed animals and there's his little head sticking out. You know, like that. I was like, oh my God. Sounds kind of terrifying. That's what nightmares are made of. He doesn't do a whole lot.

I mean, he walks around like during the day, but I mean, they're really pretty chill. Yeah. Yeah. All right. And that's rocky that's rocky okay yeah that's rocky is underrated yes okay of course so last topic and this is the last one's always the most important um overrated or underrated taco john's taco johns um i guess well i guess it would be underrated most people don't even know about taco johns i don't think it doesn't exist in north carolina no it doesn't but you know it's funny i grew up in michigan and my best friend owned a taco johns up in marquette michigan i didn't know they had them in michigan even yeah they had up and well i don't think they have them anywhere but marquette michigan which is in the up yeah so um

so we would spend summers up there and we would um you know pretend we were chefs in the kitchen of taco johns and make our own creations what uh what is your favorite what is or was your favorite menu item at taco john's i don't even know i we went off menu we had the jennifer special my friend's name was ali and we had the ali special i don't know the people that work there probably hated us but yeah but we made some good stuff i love mexican food so well we'll mail you some and they have the little um potato things oh those were really that okay i take it back those were my that's what i was wondering if you remember those are kind of the signature piece yeah i mean this is back in you know when

i was in elementary school so it was quite a while ago. I never heard of them until we had gone up there and they had that one. I think that was the only one around. It's a big deal around western northeast South Dakota. I think I saw that on your Instagram or something one time. I was like, that's not culture. That's crazy. It is delicious i can't believe there's i mean i wonder how many years they've been around they have to have been around for a while yeah i think it's a long time yeah yes uh so what what was your answer though what did you

what did you decide oh underrated i said underrated because well well most of the probably doesn't even know about them so that would be great we're all about chick-fil-a down here so we don't have that yeah i know they're mostly southern so um it's but they're like the they're the taco johns of the south i don't know the taco johns yeah i don't know if they're on taco john's level yeah well i don't my kids love. I think they're kind of alright. You watch anyone around here. All Chick-fil-A's are busy

24-7 with lines wrapped around the restaurant. It's crazy. I've never quite got that. I've had it a few times and I'm like, it's good. It's not bad, but it's good. But it's not like a line around the block good. I don't think. It's like if there was more than two people in line, I'd go somewhere else.

Well, I got to wait here. So that seems one of my neighbors that trains with us. He owns our town's Chick-fil-A and they're having like, even with the COVID with the, you know, the, all their dining rooms are closed. They're having like the best year ever. Does he ever bring in any chicken sandwiches like for after the workout or anything? Oh no, he is way

too thrifty for that. Gotta have a talk with him. He was like, hey, can't we get some free chick plays? He's like, I gotta pay for that. You're not free. Your gym membership is though. Isn't this company worth something to you?

Right? I don't know so well anyway good news you did pass overrated underrated oh my gosh you had me really worried for a second i was like god please don't ask me about transgender or something we don't go with those hot button issues we We go with the Masonomics hot button issues. Making up pretend hot button issues. Okay, perfect. We strictly stay away from anything, any legitimate topics. I love that. I love that about you guys. I knew I liked you for a reason. If there's anything we're good at, it's about making sure to talk about nothing serious.

I do like that. It is nice to talk about. I do like just the chatting podcast where you're not like you know spouting out your resume the whole time it is kind of fun we agree that's that's how we kind of try to approach it because quite honestly i've heard you on other podcasts and i've heard most of that stuff before and we're more interested in talking about stuff that we maybe haven't and like we don't need to know that like the reps and sets like it's just like some of that gets discussed way too much with right with other people so we leave that to them and we do we have the silly goose time over here

that's why you have a nice following yep yep uh no we were really excited to have you on and uh those very cool beans and we will actually hopefully once things happen and exist again we'll get to see you again set like the arnold or nationals or something like that wait how close is sioux falls to you guys very close and we're friends with jonah um is bench nationals gonna there again? Will he hold that again? No, but he's opening his own gym and he wanted me to come up and do a little seminar up there this summer. Well, you can keep us in the loop and he'll keep us in the loop too on that. He actually just posted today, he just hung up a bunch of Masonomics banners in Liberty Barbell.

Nice. Relatively speaking for us, it's close it's still like three hours away but like as far as we're concerned that's as close as anything yeah that's like around the corner that literally is around the corner yes that is like that's funny and as far as like people that we want to talk to on our podcast and stuff go that's as close as they get you know we can there's nowhere else to go that's closer than that. Didn't Jessica drive down to you guys? She's supposed to.

Oh, she's supposed to. No, she needs to do the Northeast South Dakota Celtic Fair Highland Games. She used to be a thrower, so we're going to talk her into doing some Highland Games. Oh, that's so cool. Why not? That's so cool. Why not? That's exactly right. Why not nowadays? Go ahead and try something different.

We can pencil you in, too, if that's... The Highland games? Yeah. Go ahead. I do strongman stuff. I see it all the time. I do the atlases. I do the farmer walk.

I flip those little tractor tires. Yes. Sign me up. I flip those little tractor tires. Yes. Sign me up. I'm always up for trying new things. I did the American warrior thing with Juju Mufu. Oh, I'm not extremely coordinated. Yeah.

That one would be tough. I don't know. I'd like to try it sometime, but I can see how that would be way harder than what they're like. Once it, once it starts happening to you, you're like, I'm not in a good spot right now. Right. Like the jumping stuff and that warp wall. Like I just had to kind of, you know, say a little prayer and go for it.

One of the walls, like I just smacked into it. I bit my tongue and I fell straight on my butt. And I was like, tongue's bleeding. And I'm like, Oh, I'm fine. A lot of that stuff kind of seems right up Jujy's alley. Although he is considerably more massive than a lot of people that are actually really good at that too. You know, he's like for that grip and hanging and all that stuff, you know, he is way more muscular. He doesn't have the standard body type. Most people have that have that rock climber body type. Right.

He's got a lot of muscle mass to hang on to there. For sure. Yeah, it was pretty fun, though. We had a good time. Well, we'll one-up that. He doesn't live too far from me, so every once in a while, we kind of mess around. Cool. Cool.

All right. Well, we really appreciate it. We are excited to have you on. Well, thanks for finally having me. Yes. Finally. Thanks, Jen. Thanks so much guys yeah we'll see you see you okay bye all right tommy if you had to uh grade uh jen as a podcast guest in a certain way what what what would you give her like first i picture myself as like the seagull meme like just spouting out i really like the one it's like the seagull yeah it's like tommy what do you think or whatever yeah the seagull yeah cool beans she was she

was cool beans well we already knew she was nice and fun to talk to so that's why yeah we knew that there was no surprises there. No. I also like the meme that someone made where it's a keyboard, and all it is is cool and beans. Almost what this is right here. Yeah. She did earn herself the cool beans. She did. She worked for it.

I like, too, that there couple just a couple memes that um i say the phrase that they can't ride the line yeah you know i don't even necessarily that's not a phrase i necessarily intentionally say but i always say it like every time that's like the appropriate way to say that yeah right you could say well you can and then we do too we do say you can't say things are appropriately rated but you have to really drive home the point you can't ride the line yeah you can't ride the line. Yeah, you can't ride the line. That's what that phrase is exactly.

And people just taking a phrase like that and making memes out of it. Making it a thing. Yep, that's how that goes. Yeah. So that was Cool Beans. It was Cool Beans. What else did we have? Oh, the other thing I mentioned is Johnny Candido.

We haven't been able to lure him in. I like how someone else wrote, I can't tell if this is a meme and you actually do have him lined up. Right. Because that's totally something we would do. Yeah. And maybe that's what we're doing. Or are we?

Or not. Sometimes I don't even know. Unless you want to, Tanner. We're just brainstorming right here, right now. No, so we do have a good set of guests lined up maybe he's one of those that we were talking about earlier you'll just have to wait five to six weeks and find out uh podcasts though we've been getting more reviews and i did want to read a couple of those reviews here what was the one so they're on the road to 300 and then it changed to the road to 400 it was like the guy at the baseball game, I think.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, the guy at the baseball game talking to like his girlfriend. Yeah, yeah. Like this big long thing. Yeah, they were on the road to 300 and then. Like that is so true. That would be the worst thing to be explaining to your girlfriend. Like explain, try to explain.

I wanted to like make one of me like and it would be me and my wife and be like so then he made a meme about this and this and like her like she's just like yeah none of this makes any sense to me i don't right okay so a few few five-star reviews and you can go ahead and leave us a five-star review if you'd like to we'd love it if you would we're not officially on the road to 400 yet but uh we will be someday and all these matter in that quest first one awesome podcast from dumbbells and dragons just started listening and this is a great podcast to listen to during um bedtime this is great pot apple podcast is a weird thing like if people use symbols it like this right here he didn't type that it like what why does that

happen uh i think sometimes like emojis okay it doesn't support it it doesn't know what to care yeah it doesn't know what to make it yeah anyways great podcast listening to during bedtime or eating a mcd apple pie this next one is from queen of Midwestern Colorado. Title is Insert Dan Bell's Laugh Here. I'm here for the up-to-the-minute weather updates for western northeast South Dakota. With everything going on, hearing about their cold weather makes me feel cozy as I bite into my third freezer-burnt, reheated, warm apple pie of the day. Making my mouth water over here. Speaking our language.

If you're new here, this five-star J.D. Power and Associates-rated podcast is best enjoyed by just sitting back in your astronomically-priced lift shorts, cracking open a pallet, searing LaCroix, flexing your druthers, and letting the podcast about nothing take you deeper into the void.

That's true, deeper into the void that's true deeper into the void just melt it into that void when you're done simply throw the whole podcast away i like that line uh last one is from sammy sweetheart title is brought to you by ejaculoid ejaculoid is the thing that that's a deep cut that's a deep cut you have to be listening for a little while to know what that's about in 1980 buddy cap set out on his own to make what he believed was the best lifting podcast about nothing with the massonomics and the massonomics podcast was born winner of five jd power and associates awards two cool beans and the title of the groundlocked deadlift slipper of podcasts Up podcast. Tanner and Tommy provide their insider tips every week

on how to get strong, stay strong, and use their strength. This podcast from western northeast South Dakota provides a vast array of segments such as Fitness is Finest, Who Weighs More, What's in Tanner's Sack, and the fan favorite Overrated Underrated. Sit and relax with some piping hot LaCroix and McDonald's apple pie while these hosts try and sell expensive lift shorts no thanks I'm good with the plain ones in all honesty with everything

going on you don't want to miss this podcast thanks for what you do and all the rest that was well said it's funny how there can be a full-on paragraph and like anyone else anyone else reading that would be like oh they're just just wrote a review. Yeah, but to us, almost every single word in this lengthy paragraph has a special Masonomics meaning. It's like a code. It's like she wrote a code. Yeah, wrote a code. It is.

This could be a code. You could speak in code to other people that don't get Masonomics. It'd be a way to transfer messages. You could have used it in World War to get get things across the front lines i don't know what it means something about sending them a warm piping hot lacroix they're riding the line is this an attack i don't know they have druthers watch out oh no full-on druthers onslaught. Yes.

That's how I like to picture that. Yeah. So you can leave us a five-star review. You can also share it with a friend. I think the old word of mouth is a good tactic. I think it's a great tactic, and it seems like that's been going on a little bit lately. We have been seeing some great podcast numbers. Things continue to go the right direction all the time which is awesome to see and we've been seeing more people sign up to

be friends of the podcast if you're short on friends great way to become a friend you can buy friends with us you can buy you can literally buy friends by signing up to become a supporting member of the show that's on our website in our store there's all the different levels you can become however good a friend or not good a friend you want to be yeah i mean that part's up to you right like to be an okay friend or a really good friend and of course it's all tied financially do you want to be in the inner circle which there is no inner circle but do you want to be in the inner circle because there is an inner circle there isn't an inner circle that you can tell people yes yes and there isn't one

but there is one and you could be in it but you have to but there's only one way to find out right exactly that's exactly right uh you can buy a lot of our merchandise tommy's wearing the grunge lift shirt i'm wearing an og shirt uh both classics yeah we both have both classics we have new stuff coming out too and we do actually probably tomorrow right, right? Well, I don't know. I don't know. We've got to talk about this. Yeah, we've got to talk about this. Within the next week, there'll be new stuff coming out.

Right, right, right. Soon. Soon there will be new things. And cool new things, too. But all that is good, but just don't buy our hats. Don't buy our hats. Whatever you do, don't buy our hats. They are terrible at shielding your eyes from the sun.

Yes, do not. I mean, I can't even list all the reasons not to buy our hats. You'd have to walk your eyes from the sun do not um i mean i can't even list all the reasons you have to walk around wearing our logo all the time then um yeah don't buy our hats please if there's one thing you take away and then tanner has to pack them in a box instead of a bag that's a little more work on his end i cannot do another one the shipping costs more so it costs us more money yes don't Don't. Just please don't buy them. Yeah. Yeah.

Don't buy the hats. No. Is there anything else for this episode? That's probably it. That's kind of the highlights. I think that was the highlights. Should we get to just the regular show now? That was the short form. Yeah.

That was the highlight. Now we elaborate on everything. That was the cliff notes. Yeah. Now we really go in depth on everything we just covered. Right. Right. Today's show was brought to you by Texas Power Bars. In 1980, 1980 buddy cap sat down on his own to make what he believed was the greatest bar he'd

ever seen and trained with and the texas power bar was born it was strong as a house with the best knurling and was maintenance free hundreds of state national international and jen thompson world records have been and continue to be set and broken on the legendary texas power bar to learn more about texas power bars and buy one of their legendary bars, visit TexasPowerBars.com. Today's show is also 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.

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and most importantly, leave no doubt about success when everything is on the line. Check them out online at spud-ink-straps.com. And last but of course not least, this episode is brought to you by Hybrid Performance Method. They're 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 code mass m-a-s-s and all caps for five percent off any training or nutrition memberships for the life of your membership at hybrid performance method dot com thank you sponsors tommy where do they find you at you can find me at tomahawk underscore d you can follow follow me at Tanner underscore Baird, but much more importantly, make sure to follow Masonomics at Masonomics. See you.