Massenomics Podcast - Ep. 264: James Strickland

Episode Date: April 26, 2021

Big James Strickland, Mr. First Comment, joins us this week to talk big bench pressing and Massenomics culture. We also get him to reveal some of his biggest swim hacks of all time! The Strength Co: https://www.thestrength.co/ Fusion Sports Performance: https://www.fusionsp.net/ MASS to save 20% on all FSP supplements 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! Massanomics! website, everything. Massanomics. Welcome back, everyone, to episode 264 of the Massanomics podcast. We are the lifting podcast about nothing.

We are easily in the top five of lifting podcasts out of western, northeast South Dakota, as I read on a billboard one time. My name is Tanner. And my name is Tommy. Tanner, does it feel like we're just hopping right back in the saddle yep yep feels like it hasn't been long since we started recording a podcast episode so this is 264 we've got a guest planned for today we've got a guest uh we've got all kinds of stuff we got some hands we got cans we got maybe a few laughs involved if we're lucky some mild entertainment if we don't laugh once this entire episode i'm gonna say it we failed then we're back to the old days yes yes

like training and i feel like it's important to train for people that don't know tanner is quoting himself from like episode two that we just discovered recently. So paper and paper related products. Okay. But first, our sponsors of today's episode. And of course, first, Spudding Straps. The goal of Spudding Straps is to make products that support sports performance and help everyone achieve their training goals. Spud Ink 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-ink-straps.com. This show is also brought to you by The Strength Co. The Strength Co. makes premium made-in-America barbell equipment, including their machined and e-coated plates. These plates are functional, easy to handle, accurate, and made to last a lifetime. And they just look cool. The Strength Co. plates have become the go-to choice for all members at Massanomics Gym. Get their plates and all the other Made in America equipment online at thestrengthco.com. That's thestrengthco.com. And the 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 speed 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 to the Ground Lock Deadlift Slipper. They're always in stock and ready to ship. Maxonomics listeners can save 20% on all Lifting Large branded products by using our discount code with them. It's MAS20 at checkout. MAS20.

And this episode is brought to you by our most recent newest newest sponsor fusion sports performance supplements do you know what's in your supplements if you use fusion sports performance you always will fusion sp prides itself on being fully transparent never using proprietary blends and always providing its customers with top quality products every fusion sports performance product comes fully backed with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Go to FusionSP.net and use code MASS, M-A-S-S,

to save a huge 20% on your order. Huge. And this episode is brought to you by Texas Power Bars. Way back in 1980, Buddy kept set 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 birthed. It was strong as a house with the best knurling, and it was maintenance-free. Hundreds of state, national, international bench press and world powerlifting records have been and continue to be set and broken on the Texas Power Bar.

To learn more, visit them at TexasPowerBars.com. Thank you, sponsors. Thank you. There's the sponsors for the show. Well, where to start, Tanner? Where to start? I know what we need to do first. What?

It feels like we're low right now. We're not high enough. We're at, I don't know where we are relative to sea level exactly right now, but I know where we need to to sea level exactly right now. But I know where we need to get to. I almost want to stop you from going any farther there. Oh. I almost want to stop you because we're going to go somewhere later.

We're going to go on a trip later. So I just want to stop you for a second. So I don't do that shtick yet. Stop it. Just don't go anywhere. Don't take me anywhere. I want to stay right here. Stop making me go there. I want to stay in this chair and not move. I don't take me anywhere i want to stay right here stay stop making me go there i want to stay in this chair and not i don't like that place um we're not going to go anywhere right now

that's all i'm going to say okay maybe we should go to flavor town maybe we could go to flavor town also let's go to let's go to flavor town is this a can say this is a can oh you know what i must do then uh yes i was going to remind you do not forget to put on the official Flavortown blindfold. Because this makes it very legitimate. It does. So Tanner is putting on the official Masonomics blindfold available. What if someone make a meme of me

where they made it look like when I'm wearing this blindfold, it was some character. I didn't know the character. I don't know. You know what I just thought of? Someone should make a meme of that show Bird Box where what's her name

has to have a blindfold on the whole time. I haven't seen that either. Oh, it wasn't that good. It's on Netflix. God, what is her name called? Not Julia Roberts. Why can't I think of her name? Meg Ryan.

No. Okay. Jenna Fisher. No. Should I just keep naming? No. No. Just stop saying people's names

let's get this name bird box okay tell me the cast and it is sandra bullock there we go it's her and she has yeah she has to have a blindfold on the whole time. Oh, that's why they call it blindside. Exactly, yes. We could make memes about you with that. You're now on her body, Tanner, wearing this. But anyways, we are going to get to a can. Oh, I got the can right here, Tanner. Crispy, cool, refreshing.

And this blindfold really works. This is not not cedric sabalos in the 1980 whatever slam dunk contest where he puts a blindfold on and i'm pretty sure he can still see through it this blindfold is legitimate i don't know i barely even know how to bring this can to my mouth have you ever seen that before where cedric sabalos dunks in the i don't think i have actually yeah blindfolded look it up it And he starts from like three-fourths court away. Oh, really? I'm like, how? You would never know.

You couldn't do that. You would end up just running into the stand. Even if you knew your exact steps. Right. And he jumps perfectly and just dunks it. Like it, you know. And I'm like, no. I don't believe that blindfold.

I don't think I'd buy that one. Okay. This is almost like restricting my nose though a little bit maybe that's why i thought the last one didn't have much of a flavor that could be it oh we are going to flavor town oh baby that is flavorful Let me try it again. I have no idea what the flavor is. But the blindfold, I'm not lying, makes it way harder. Like, much harder, and I don't know why. Oh, gosh.

I do not know what those flavors are. Let me try one more time. Well, it is flavorful let me start by saying there is a flavor there you can yeah it's strong i just don't know what the flavors are i think because i'm feeling like this is a mix of two flavors like i'm maybe it's like two they're kind of it it tastes fruity okay okay and i think it's like i don't know if you've really narrowed anything down there what i what i'm thinking is it's true two strong fruit flavors that are competing with each other and that's what's making me not be able to determine what the flavor is let me and i was inverted and blind not be able to determine what the flavor is.

And I was inverted and blind. I don't even know that this is in the right ballpark, but because it is two flavors that I know go together, I'm going to say strawberry banana. Well, Tanner, I think you should take a look. Okay, I have to take the blindfold off. You do have to take the blindfold off.

Oh, it's blue. That's not a good sign for strawberry banana, is it? Now that I know it's blue, I still don't. I'm not like, oh, yes, it's blue. Well, let's say there's a twist here. Blueberry or? Oh, it's peach. It does taste like peach.

Yep, yep, yep. So these Tanner are ugly. Yeah, what the hell is this actually though this was uh i've had um a few people more specifically our friend alex at kind of fit kind of fat recommend these to me okay the first time he recommended them to me i went online they were sold out of all of their flavor i think they're online only you couldn't get any flavors they were all sold out he reminded me again somewhat recently and i did see some ads too so i said you know what i will get those i hopped on got them ordered they're pretty dang good it is very peachy i don't know why i couldn't figure

that out to tell you the honest truth um do we have any important messages on your phone there yeah i did it's uh we'll be able to continue as usual. Okay. Crisis averted. Yeah. I do need to respond to this one really quickly, though. So this is ugly, though. Yeah, ugly.

The blue would have just thrown me off. Had I seen that at all anyways. Yeah, they're pretty good. I enjoy it. Ugly. Ugly drinks. Peach flavor. I think I would give this. Yeah, what do you would give this i think i would give this

yeah what do you give it i think i would give it for jd powers um yeah i'm in that i'm in that range i like peach as a you know it's not as good as a peach oh yeah but not much is it's not a pamplemousse but let's be honest here right so as long as we're talking about beverages have you seen the maybe this isn't a recent thing but to me me noticing it is fairly recent a lot of people have been sending me these that in sparkling waters a lot of the companies are starting to come out with versions that are caffeinated i have noticed that actually i have those are not going to be a great option for us on this podcast please don't surprise me with those unless we're like recording a former massonomics member. Grayson actually just sent me one this past week and I said, I saw those in the store. We can't record like at nine o'clock

at night on Wednesday. And that would keep me up. Oh yeah. I said, I said my night, my Thursday would just be a terrible day. Uh, right. On top of my Wednesday night being awful too. I do think those are a good idea. Yeah, it does make sense. does make sense uh you know i like a lot of times before i work out i'll drink coffee or something like that that is something else i could drink before or like on a road trip when you get something at the gas station and especially i think they don't have a ton of caffeine right like because it's like your options are like 350 milligrams like destroy me like absolutely wreck me or yeah i maybe they're a coffee i don't know right because if it has like 30 40 milligrams of caffeine and so that's kind of my alley yeah you know i'm like oh yeah i'm more a more tolerable

i can drink that while i'm driving uh two hours and then it'll just help me stay awake for a little while yeah i think it's i think it's a good spot for those things to be for those beverages to be and it's another angle for him i like it yes okay we have a little bit of follow-up from last week tanner about more stats about the tanners and tommies of oh yes we do we do we definitely do so big luke this is our third week of follow-up now, Tanner, I believe. That's right. Like, I wonder how long we can keep this particular thing rolling. Big Luke, who he had originally provided us the statistics on duration of podcast episodes. Yep. And I can't remember what Big Luke says he does by trade,

but it's certainly something related to statistics or mathematics, or he's just very interested in it because he did a little digging owns a calculator for sure yeah he definitely owns a calculator uh he created a he created something what he i sent you that yeah it was like i forgot programs basically that yeah i didn't know if he created that or if it's like a software that it like has some settings saved in it and it spits out kind of like a graph for you yeah i didn't look at that part that but it automatically is all you have to do is put your name into it and it pulls all your data from the database and it gives you like in a nice chart with comparisons yeah it was really impressive whatever power lifting that database and and are really cool charts and it's kind of hard to explain that but he was actually

talking about making that uh public which oh that he should talk to the people at open powerlifting because it's actually kind of a cool yeah i guess i didn't understand that it was ever i thought literally it was like he just set that up for me and you like but no you could put anyone's name oh really that's really impressive that's how he made it so as you put your name in there so what you do is you put your name in there and i suppose you could do this a number of ways but the what it does is it compares you against everyone you put your name as it is in open power lifting and it compares you against everyone else that has that same first name yep in open power lifting uh but he did give me uh kind of a synopsis of some of what you'd find in there on on our our names and your

name is in there as thomas thomas yes there's a wild card under the name thomas and that happens to be a man by the name of thomas davis that uh yes old td smash kind of throws throws the numbers off a little bit especially on the bench i figured that in a hurry when I clicked on bench. I'm like, whoa, who's so good at benching here? It's like, ah, yes, TD Smash. His name is Thomas. Yep. Okay. So I have to read this in the right.

I am in the top 5.4% of all tanners when looking at raw totals. You are in the top 13.4% of all Thomases. I didn't think I was that high even in there. Is that how you'd spell Thomases? T-H-O-M-A-S-E-S, Thomases. Oh. Yeah, is that what you would say? Maybe.

Yeah, okay. You're in the top 13.4%. Your name is in there as Thomas, not Tommy. 13.4%. Your name is in there as Thomas, not Tommy. That was kind of the synopsis on that. So that's what he gave me is just where we fit in the top. But you looked at it on there too. I also looked.

I am the number one bench presser of all tanners. That's the takeaway. You are the best tanner in the world at bench pressing. At at least in competition raw yeah exactly yeah yeah i am the king of that that's quite the title yes i'm and then another thing you can do and i had figured this out because i had looked at similar you know tried to think of a way of finding some of this another thing you can do is you just type in your first name in open you go to the the main database the home screen and you filter it however you want to filter by powerlifting and you just type in tanner hit enter it goes to the number one if you're searching by total yep hit enter it goes to the

number one tanner by total hit enter again it goes to number two one Tanner by total. Hit enter again. It goes to number two. You go, I'm the 11th Tanner by total. Like I hit it the 11th time I pop up. The manual way of doing it. But yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. And you could filter it by anything. So like if you go to bench press as your main filter and type in Tanner and then just hit enter, I'll be the first one that pops up. But I did.

So I'm in 11th in total total but there's a whole bunch of people not very far ahead of me and i've got a meet coming up in the end of june where i compete raw and i'm pretty sure i can crack the top 10 of tanners well there you're pretty sure i got a really good chance so then we can build the build a podcast as as home of the strongest benching Tanner on the planet. Co-host Tanner Baird, the strongest benching Tanner on the planet and a top 10 Tanner total. It's so stupid. It kind of brings it back to that meme we had for Open Power. You just drill it down far enough.

You can be the best at anything with the right criteria. Yes. That's the criteria i needed is just looking at it but based on all tanners just through a specific certain lens and it all worked it was cool that he did that though yeah and well i didn't i didn't realize that's how that little program that he had put together worked is that anyway i thought it was just like we had to manually enter our name and it was set up just for us no yeah that that is really cool and also kind of along the lines of uh meats and everything the usa pl has some weird stuff going on with them in

the ipf right now between drug testing and all of this stuff like a while ago we probably would have talked about this a lot more on the podcast that's true that's true um now it's almost just like ah i don't even i don't but really the only reason I even probably saw something about it is because we're friends with Jonah Leo. And he is like the USAPL chair for South Dakota, I think, or whatever his title is. And I have him on Facebook and he posted about it. And that's kind of what I saw about it. And it seemed like a big deal. I just like.

I think what it is, is that. So this is, this should be like a segment of me poorly trying to explain things. And you would be like, yeah, I think that's. But I think what it is is that the IPF is like mandating that all drug tests have to be to a like a WADA level. A very high standard. I think like a WADA. Like you can't just have like. A very expensive standard.

Yeah. And I think that's the problem is that if you do drug tests it has to be to this really really expensive standard like whereas maybe you could get them done locally and i don't know maybe it was reasonably maybe it's a hundred bucks a drug test well now i think that it's gonna be like five thousand dollars a drug yeah something's crazy that i saw and so the usapl is a huge organization and so they have all of these drug tests with all of these different you know local regional meets going on all the time. State meets. Like when we do USAPL meets, they take up pretty reasonable sample,

random sampling of the. And I think the whole, the way I understand it, the whole issue here is that now they have to do these super intense drug tests that aren't financially feasible for all these little meats. So that basically means that all of these meats that are not going to be drug tested anymore. Which seems, it does seem really dumb.

Like why it's the IPF. It's the IPF doing this. But it's insane because you're like, right now I think the USAPL is, I mean, as far as I think it's a pretty, like pretty well tested as far as i think it's a pretty like pretty well tested uh as far as like drug testing goes like i mean i think they're certainly trying to and like i think they certainly catch people and yeah uh you know and a lot of people yeah a lot of people like complain about like meat

direct you know we're lucky enough that in our area we have an awesome meat director right like it runs amazing meat and the meat fees are worth every penny that you pay to him right um other people like well the usapl makes so much money like yeah they should do and it's like i i don't know so people have to charge something to run meats and stuff well i know i know yeah it's like i think everyone just assumes everyone's time is worth nothing right like right some people have jobs and lives and things they got to do and like working for three dollars an hour doesn't yeah doesn't make things worth it it is so counterintuitive though this drug testing thing that we're like no we want our testing to be to the highest standard yep and it can't be done to that standard we're not doing it at all we have to reel them all the way back so if that's what happens it becomes untested yeah

and like it just makes it so any like if that doesn't if that like isn't shooting yourself in the foot i don't know what it is oh yeah i'm not on anything prove it what are you gonna do about it nothing at all yeah so that's stupid because then all of a sudden local meats do become like they it does lose its credibility of being a tested federation. I don't think like, God, you would hope people that are on stuff aren't going to just be rushing into USAPL meets. Some people will though.

You know there's people out there that are like, oh yeah, I'm going to go, yeah, like, oh yeah. I'm breaking that state record. You were the most annoying person and you kind of were gone and you're the worst type of person. And now you don't really have anything to keep you away and that's going to really suck so tanner your phone is lighting up a lot over there

that's right we can keep rolling okay um are we sure we want to keep rolling here because i have i have a thing i don't want to be interrupted during my thing here tanner ah it's an important thing can let's see did i didn't have anything else uh too uh high on my list like any thing did i we talked about the usapl drug test the op open power lifting rankings no i think i think uh we're good okay well tanner um are you ready to go on a little trip i would love to you ready you have your seat belt on your click your belt is on your uh is this also can this be a seat belt too it probably could be your uh your uh seat back and tray are in the upright position yes all right do you feel that tanner i feel like i know where we're going i feel like

we're seeing the world from 10 000 feet up right now and uh it does feel like we're up here um for for people that aren't familiar with it we we recently learned looking back through some old episodes that tanner really likes uh being at the 10 000 foot view when he's uh surveying the world and the things around him so we are now riding at 10 000 feet tanner yeah it feels kind of good doesn't it's nice up here the air is thinner it does feel nice it's you know you have the uh the um the flight team taking care of you. Everything's going great. Bashing into you with the cart when they go by. Into your legs while you're not looking around. So Tanner.

Were you napping? Oh, not anymore. So what we're going to do here is what I did. This is going to be the 10,000. We're going to call the segment the 10,000 foot view with Tanner, okay? I like it. So this is going to be a segment. I really don't know what we're doing, but this is going to be a segment. I don't know what it, I really don't

know what we're doing, but I just, so far. So, so what I did here, because the 10,000 foot view is all about kind of just, you know, a high level. You don't need to go into the details. You step back, you know, you figure out what it's about. And yet that is kind of the mass dynamics podcast too, because we don't get into the fine details. We don't really know. We don't, we don't have the ability or the time to really get into detail the 10 000 foot view makes a lot it's where we live so what i did is there's a website have you ever heard of it called quora q u o r a that sounds familiar i don't you probably ran across it if you google something okay um it's just a website where people can go and ask

questions about anything and then so-called experts come in and answer the question for these people. I occasionally run across it when I'm typing in something on Google. I'm trying to figure out sometimes it comes up as one of the top ones. Is it a credible thing? A decent amount. You read the answer and you're like, I think that's right. I don't know.

Either way, this person has a lot of confidence in what they're saying here. But what I did is you can type in anything. I typed in some general fitness questions and things and just found some fun questions that people are asking on the website. So some of these, like I see the answers in here too. There's a bunch of answers. A lot of the answers are just dumb and annoying and way too long. So we probably don't need to bother with other people's answers. But Tanner, we're going to let you give the 10,000 foot view answer on these people's questions.

So one more time. Let's, there we go. Okay. And how about. All right. We're going to have Tanner answer a few questions for us here. Can I get safe to unbuckle my seatbelt now and move about the cabin? It is now safe to unbuckle your seatbelt while Tanner answers your questions.

You can go ruin the shitter for whoever's sitting back there. Yeah, you can go. Whatever poor son of a bitch is sitting next to the lines of the bathroom doing whatever the hell you need to do in this can i get up yet no there's still three people standing there okay tanner smelling farts first question on 10 the 10 000 foot view i found this question on quora what do powerlifters do when they gain too much muscle? So am I answering what somebody said? Or am I just saying?

No, what would your answer to that question be? If someone's genuinely concerned about what do powerlifters do when they gain too much muscle, what would your answer to that person be? If this person showed up to the gym and asked you this question, what would your answer be? So you're saying someone did just get too bulky. Like, you know, all those people that didn't want to get too bulky. It seems like this person is genuinely concerned that that might be a problem.

Okay. Well, I guess I would go on a diet. Like, eat less. Eat less protein and eat less calories. And then also uh train less like do less hypertrophy style training but mostly like eat less protein and eat less calories if you got if you did actually you were the person that accidentally got too bulky i i think i would also say to add to it that has anyone ever actually gained too much muscle has that ever

been a thing ever that's that's what i mean this is apparently the one person that happened to like that like oh no i like because isn't that the old thing like with women like they're like ah you don't want to get too bulky like yeah yeah you don't accidentally that doesn't happen accidentally to anyone ever yeah i think you're all i think you're right there uh next question how long would the strongest power lifter in the world be able to last in a street fight against a lightweight mma fighter and the number of questions that people have about power lifters and strong men these are all questions these are real questions that people asked online

and they get a surprising number of responses but the number of questions that people want to know about how long a power lifter or a strong man would survive how they would do in a fight against a lightweight mma person is shocking so that that's the question the what is it the strongest power lifter how long would the strongest power lift in the world be able to last in a street fight against a lightweight mma street fight it's a street fight against a lightweight what's a lightweight mma fighter like 130 pounds i don't know what the depth but yeah that's what i'm picturing like someone that's pretty small two things strongest power lifter i'm like gonna think of two people one is if you want to say historically it's ed cone and ed cone also practices like self-defense training and fighting and i've met ed cone and

like he is not a weak obviously he's not a weak man but like he's not like a oh i just i've i'm physically hands could just grab you and first of all his hands are going to wrap around your entire arm and then just and and also it's a street fight it's not an mma fight although i see how there's a lot of crossover between m and mma and if you it's a street fight. It's not an MMA fight. Yeah. Although I see how there's a lot of crossover between MMA and if you're in a street fight. My answer, if it's Ed Cohn, it could last a good plenty while. Like how long does any fight last?

Also, like I'm not necessarily betting against him in a street fight. Like I think he kind of trained some of that stuff and being outweighing someone significantly doesn't hurt. So then the other person in the example is, okay, are we saying it's Dan Bell? Yeah, so Dan Bell weighs 400 pounds and is the strongest power lifter.

And solid. Like, I don't know, if you weigh 130 pounds, can you deliver a punch that will just catch Dan Bell off guard? Like, is that doable? There again with, now granted, Dan's not going to have outs. And Dan listens to the podcast, so it's fun because you know he's listening to this right now. He's probably having a chuckle about it right now.

Although, you know, he's not going to have outstanding stamina, but I don't think that's relevant in a street fight. I don't think it would be either. How many street fights go so long that it's like, oh, really gassed here. Oh, you had me in the first three rounds, but my conditioning's really showing up now. There again, I would give it a good what?

Like, as long as, you know, I'm not confident who the winner's going to be in either case. Like, I do think being, if you're a top lightweight mma fighter you're probably an excellent fighter yeah but like the being one third of someone's body weight it doesn't say top m it just purely says against a lightweight mma fighter well gosh then there's so many people in the world that think they're mma fighters you know that i would almost say like there's no i don't know who's going to win. Although I don't discount like MMA training in a street fight is probably important. But also being outweighing someone by three times is important, an important factor too. Yes, yes.

So, okay, how long would they last? Probably a long time. Yeah. The one answer I did see, they posted a video of Conor McGregor kind of like half sparring with half Thor. Right. And they're like, he's so huge, he can't really do anything right you know like he's gonna jump up and punch him in the chin like yeah i mean i'm sure he could like but yeah so okay um next question tanner 10 000 foot view what bodybuilding supplements does michael hearn utilize in

order to build the body he has accomplished? So the question is what, what bodybuilding supplements does Michael Hearn utilize phrasing these questions in order to build the body he has, which the phrasing and all these questions, like, yeah, that's like the funny part, like because the bodybuilding supplements,

well, he probably uses, I, you know what the answer is. He uses supplements from fusion sports performance so fsp he would know exactly what's in them if he did i mean the real answer well i guess i think mike still claims that he's a natural a lifetime natty lifetime natty um i would go on record i really like michael hearn i would say first of all yeah i don't believe that he's a lifetime

natural that's not saying anything revolutionary here like i think it's very fair to say that that's not true but i also don't care what he's saying about it he's also was really cool from our experience so i really like him but um he's taking steroids but if you're talking about bodybuilding supplements i'm sure he's taking a fair amount probably like a lot i'm sure he uses whey protein isolate and probably creatine and i'm sure he uses whey protein isolate and probably creatine. And I'm sure he takes a number of like vitamins and, you know, like B12 complex vitamins and, uh, vitamin D and all that stuff too.

I bet he takes a lot of bodybuild. I bet Michael Hearn legitimately does take a lot of body. I bet he does, but we can blame it on the creatine, I suppose. Yeah. Yeah. It's the creatine that got that look.

Okay. So he is insane though. Like he blame it on the creatine, I suppose. Yeah, it's the creatine that got that look. Okay. He is insane, though. Oh, he absolutely is. He just posted something the other day where it was like two pictures from 20 years apart, and he looks the same. It is the same. It is the same. All right, next up, Tanner. Paul Anderson was a superhuman strongman.

Paul Anderson. Why can't even today's steroid monsters beat his strength achievements? Okay. This question has a bias in it, Tanner. Yeah, this does go back to one of our YouTube comments with Kaz. Remember? This is a hot-button topic as far as Mass Anomics YouTube videos go. This is still one of our most popular comment threads.

So I do like the Paul Anderson stuff and I'm sure Paul Anderson was very strong, no doubt. Today's strong men are stronger than what Paul Anderson was. And anyone that doesn't believe that is wrong. I'll just say that. That's a fact, right? Anyone that doesn't believe that is insane.

Was Paul Anderson probably the strongest person ever when he was alive i think so it was yeah it seems like he was so far ahead of anyone else i think it's a fact that i think it's very true that his things were embellished and as they could be at that point in time um i think he would not be competitive if he were to jump into world strongest man that's my what my maybe i maybe i'm wrong maybe he would be competitive if he were to jump into world's strongest man. That's what my, maybe I, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe you would be competitive, but he's certainly not stronger than the strongest. Yeah, I think you're right.

I think you're right. Anyone that thinks that is insane. Yeah. Or just, yeah. Yeah. You got something wrong with your head. Yeah. Okay.

Tanner, final question on the 10,000-foot view here. Why do people like sparkling water? Why do people like it? Because some beverages are overflavored and have too much sugar in them. Sometimes you want something that's a little more subtle. You don't want to just drink a Mountain Dew. You want something that's a little more subtle than like, you don't want to just drink a Mountain Dew, you know, like, or maybe sometimes you don't even want a Gator, like a full strength Gatorade that has like, how many grams of sugar does it?

Not that I drink, I drink those things and stuff like that, but. You just want something maybe lighter on the sugar and lighter on the, I don't know, or maybe lighter on the sugar, but also a little carbonation in there right a little carbonation and well sometimes and then sometimes you don't want just a glass of water but you want something it because it feels like you're able to enjoy something like a beer or like a can of pop but without some of the stuff that you might not you might not always really want a beer or a can of pop but you still want to have that experience so you're able to have the experience without maybe some of the

downsides that you don't always want yeah i think there's a time and a place for all of those things but this allows i mean is there ever not a time and a place for a spark no i know absolutely not ugly that's what but that's why and because they're spicy okay well tanner uh that 10 000 foot view uh so that's the game up there we saw things pretty clearly did you have something to add about the 10 000 foot view earlier i think you were hinting at it no i cut you off early in the episode no i was just gonna go through the that just to take us up there but we got up here now and i don't know it's just you can see it so you can see things so much better from up here you get the lay of the land yeah so just cruising right along you can easily define western northeast south dakota when you're up here on the

map you can literally just see it western northeast it's so flat you can see the entire western northeast region um that's it really it's just a good place to get to all right the full perspective of the podcast we can see where we're going next like i kind of know our next now that we're at the 10 000 foot view we kind of know what our next five steps are we do we do this one well that was our that was our first taste of the 10 000 foot view quite a while recurring i think i think it very well could be yeah i think it could be. All right. Should we hop into some sponsors here? Oh, yeah. Yes, definitely.

Unless you had something else. No, I just... Where does the time go? Tanner, when you're cruising at jet speed here... 10,000 feet, things go fast. They do go fast. That's the best feeling, though, when you're on a flight and you're like, oh, I didn't finish this movie yet. You're like, oh, God.

How many beers have I had on this plane? Keep the vodka shooters coming lady today's show is brought to you by fusion sports performance supplements so do you know what's in your supplements if you use fusion sports performance you always will fusion sp provides itself on being fully transparent never using proprietary blends and always providing its customers with top quality products they offer two pre-workout options with Super Soldier Pre-Workout and Mad Titan High Stim Pre-Workout. Both have proven ingredients at their full clinical doses to maximize performance, increase muscular endurance, improve focus, and get you that

much sought after pump. Both are favorites among strength sport athletes. Healing Factor Post Workout combines BCAAs with a full serving of creatine monohydrate and other great ingredients to help maximize your efforts in the gym, build muscle, and recover fast. Fusion's Whey Protein Isolate not only tastes great, it also has 27 grams of protein per scoop, zero fat, and low carb or no options depending on the flavor. It doesn't contain any soy or gluten, and it won't cause any stomach discomfort. Available in vanilla ice cream, chocolate fudge, and frosted cinnamon roll flavors. Most orders are shipped within one business day, and every Fusion Sports Performance product comes fully backed with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Go to FusionSP.net and use code MASS save a huge 20 on your order people have already been using the discount code they have been using it tanner i like to think of it as a massive 20 ah yeah it's massive you'd be a buffoon not to use our discount code it's like 20 it's practically free supplements it's almost you can't afford not to go buy these stuff and if there's anything i learned at my first arnold that's people will go insane for free or cheap supplements that's true people will literally waste like days of their lives for free samples so hop on over to fusion sp.net use code mass m-a-s-s save a massive 20 on your order today's show is also brought to you by texas power bars buddy caps first started lifting weights in the late 60s and began powerlifting in the mid-70s. At the time,

he was working for Image Barbell building gym equipment. Around 1976, a local machine shop started making Olympic bars for them, calling it the Image Bar. In 1977, Image Barbell became Champion Barbell. It was then that Buddy started looking at the bars with an intent of changing them for the better. In 1979, Buddy bought his first lathe to begin addressing the known issues. In 1980, his passion, drive, and purpose now had a greater mission. Buddy set out 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, Massanomics world and bench press powerlifting records have been and can

be set and broken on the Texas power bar to learn more about Texas power bars and buy one of their legendary bars. Visit Texas power bars.com. The Massanomics podcast is also brought to you by the strength co the strength co operates starting strength affiliate gyms out of Southern California. They have a staff of experienced starting strength coaches that know the best way to develop strength through the barbell movements. Grant, the owner of the Strength Co. is a Marine and he is passionate about obtaining quality American products and labor for all aspects of his business. The Strength Co. makes premium made in America

barbell equipment, including their machined and E-coated plates. These plates are functional, easy to handle, accurate, and made to last a lifetime. The Strength Co. plates have become the go-to choice for all members at Massanomics Gym. Check out their plates and their other made in America equipment online at thestrengthco.com. That's thestrengthco.com. Today's show is also brought to you by Lifting Large. Since 2004, Lifting Large has been providing lifters across the world with powerlifting gear from Titan Support Systems. Lifting Large has the largest in-stock supply on Titan wrist and knee wraps in the world.

Home of the Ground Lock Deadlift Slipper, they are always in stock and always ready to ship. They also have ER competition combo racks that are ready to go too. They're the only powerlifting supplier with live chat support available during the weekdays, and you can get email replies to your questions in hours, not days like some of the other guys. They are now accepting Amazon Pay and Stripe for a quick and simple checkout, and once your checkout is complete your order will ship fast with same day shipping on most orders massonomics customers can use code mass 20 that's m-a-s-s-2-0 to get 20 off lifting large branded products and also receive an additional 50 rewards points added to your lifting large account place your orders at

liftinglarge.com and you can follow them on Instagram at liftinglarge.com. That's at liftinglarge, D-O-T-C-O-M. And last but definitely not least, this podcast is brought to you by Spud Inc. and the Cold War Puller. From Russia with love, the Spud Inc. team has brought you a new way to do an old exercise using our Ukrainian deadlift rig. Ukrainian deadlifts are a great way to build your old exercise using our Ukrainian deadlift rig. Ukrainian deadlifts are a great way to build your deadlift and squat at the same time. The Spud Inc. Ukrainian deadlift rig is designed to be home gym friendly with an extra long loading strap with an attachment point at 12 inches and at 20 inches so you can stack weights to the ceiling if you want or pull from a super low position with the short attachment point. The Ukrainian deadlift rig comes with a 20 inch straight bar

handle with a rotating center attachment point to make it more versatile and difficult you can stand on plyo boxes bumpers blocks or more to do this primal movement check out the cold the spudding cold war puller at spud-ink-straps.com. Thank you to our sponsors. Oh, hell yeah. One note of correction from last week's episode that I did actually realize this, and then a few people, I think every Kansas City Chiefs fan in the world

made sure to message me that we talked about Texas Tech, and I made the comment like, yeah, none of those quarterbacks really panned out to be good. Which was true for quite a while. But then there was Patrick Mahomes. There's always one. Yeah, I guess he's not the rule.

He's the exception to the rule. So, yes, Patrick Mahomes is good. It's a good thing people are keeping you straight on that. Just so everyone knows, I don't think Patrick Mahomes sucks. He's probably pretty good. Now should we get our guest on the line let's do it right hopefully there's always

that hopefully part well I'll be damned hello is this Big James this this is Big James. So I'm sitting here wondering who got booted off the podcast to make room for me? Or who bailed on you guys? That would never be the case. Yeah, that says a lot about how you think about us.

Well, all I know, this is how I think about you guys. I'm sitting here refreshing my phone, taking me back to a Sunday afternoon. Yeah. The wife's like, what are you doing? I'm like, I'm refreshing the podcast. She's like, they're calling you, you idiot. I'm like, oh, God. First comment.

First comment. Do you think you'll get first YouTube comments on your own episode? And would that be a conflict of interest? Ah, that's true. You have insider knowledge at this point, having on your own episode. And would that be a conflict of interest? Ah, that's true. You have insider knowledge at this point, having been on the episode. So here's how I think that's going to go down. I think I have

to back out of some first comment races just to keep the unpaid interns in line. Because people would just stop listening, I think. I think they'd just be so mad. They wouldn't even fight for it. They'd just be like, you know what?

He's going to get it this time. That's true. But it's like you almost have to make sure you still have people to compete against. You have to let them win on occasion. You can't hold the all-time record forever. You do have the all-time. I think you have a couple things probably the longest streak of first comments ever and then that's safe the most first comments ever

i think those are both safe to assume well i don't like to you know i don't like to put that out there i think but you know i did happen to count just before you guys called we're sitting at about 40 in. We're sitting at about 40. In fact, we're sitting at exactly 40. It was 37 the other day, and I think we've added three. Now, that one is controversial where it was a three-way tie. So I don't know if that was, in fact, a three-way tie, but we'll just say 40.

I don't know if anyone else has 10. Oh, I'm sure Scantz has got brandon amos i think there's a few guys that i don't want to push them out because about 10 i would say that they've got it's really a race for second at this point well so since we have mathematicians of the podcast i really think well so I really think, well, so I've had a few things going on lately, so I'm a little behind on the podcast. I hate to say that, but I'm literally listening to, well, I just started, uh, last weeks. So I'm about halfway through that. But as I'm listening to it, I'm hearing the mathematician comment. I'm thinking, wait a minute, let me just google this real quick or not google let me open tire lifting this real quick and um i said let me see where tanner's tanner

truly the king of tanners and there is one person that i found that's got a 2100 total name tanner so i'm like oh yeah that's because i think it was like 15 is it 1542 am don't remember. I think it's about – I think it's like 1598 or something. I'm not sure. We'll just say 1700. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That sounds better. It's raw. No wrap.

No, you didn't hear. We did just discuss right before we called you. We had even more follow-up on that. We did discover, though, Tanner does have the biggest competition bench press of a Tanner of all time. So you should be proud of me for that at least. that's the only lift that matters isn't it i mean yeah exactly and i'm i'm going to eventually i just all i have to do is beat thomas davis and then i will also have the largest thomas bench press so i'm on my way well you have my full uh full support on that i i don't think it's going to take a while, but you know, I'm used to road to 700 taking a while.

So I'm okay with it taking 999 weeks or whatever it is. Yeah. Do you have the biggest total up? I'm pretty calm. Do you have the biggest total of all James's? Ooh, I don't know. I'm sure you have the biggest.

Oh, you know what, Ashley, you know what? I think I do. I mean, because again, I don't, I don't do the, I don't calculate all this stuff, but I'm pretty sure I'm like top like 16 of all time or something. You know, I don't know. What? Yeah, right, right. What's the Henderson? Who's the, the big bencher? Uh, Henderson is his last name. I think he benched 700 didn't he is it he bent 700 um i don't know what his squat and deadlift were right but i would i would feel pretty safe to say that he didn't go 777 right like in the meets or if he did it's only 21 that's a really big number yeah is his name james or

what is it james henderson or i think it's just j Henderson. Yeah, yeah, James Henderson. Yeah, yeah. I don't know. There's at least one good competition. There could be some competition there. Yeah, right. Well, and I might just change my name. It's close enough to Julius. There you go. There can't be any other Juliuses out there that have a big bench, is there?

Not a big total. Come on, Julius. Let's go, buddy. That's true. Let's go. You can't just be a bench-only guy. I've proven that right i think we all know that you are a total specialist

yeah that's it's total everything total chaos um so what what are your like how has your training been going it seems like it's been going really well um well there's two sides to it what i'm putting out on instagram and what i'm actually doing so it's you know there's a few select people that know um and i'm sure well i don't know if this podcast is so this is going to come out coming out after this weekend. So this will come out Sunday night, Monday morning. Well, let's just go ahead and spill the beans.

Yeah, it should be okay to then, right? Yeah. So technically it's only a spoiler for me and Tanner. Yeah. And I already kind of know. So nobody's getting yeah this this isn't this this timing is perfect actually i think all right well so here's kind of just a real quick rundown i took some time off after the showdown because i ended up just

i had a what i thought was a pretty major i thought i tore my pec and it wasn't torn an mri confirmed it It was literally just a bad strain that I had made worse by bruising it like with one of those percussion massage guns. And, um, so I did it on like a six 50, uh, last, uh, bench for before the meet, hoping to go in there and do something North of that, at least in a full meet, you know, and go for 2,200 plus. And that kind of just fell apart with a couple of little nagging things that happened. I'm not really injury prone, but I had strained a groin on a squat. So that kind of put my squat in a predicament. And then I was like, well, this would be a push-pull. Well, then my bench went out. I'm

like, okay, well, I guess I'll go pull 800. We'll just put everything in that basket. And so I went up to Kansas City thinking I had a torn pec, thinking, okay, well, I'm just going to do a big deadlift and token squat, token bench, and, you know, just call it a day. And, uh, ended up not really getting a lot out of that meet and kind of just making the decision. I was going to take about four, the rest of 2020 of 2020 off, just hang out in the gym, have fun, you know, just not really push anything and allow myself to completely heal, you know, take care of stuff. We bought a house, you know, Thanksgiving and Christmas, all that stuff that having a family just, you know, kind of puts a burden on training in a good way. But, you know, just it allowed me to really focus on life versus lifting, but it also allowed me to reset. And when I came back, um, I started up training in a more of a hypertrophy phase, um, January 1st, I believe it was third or

something. And I'm about four or five weeks in and just having fun with it i was you know of course my high rep range is 400 500 you know is and um so there's a meat locally or not a meat but uh it wasn't me it was kind of unofficial meat that was going on at a local gym and the guys all know who i am and they're like you should really do this they're paying out you know five hundred,000 for first place. And you don't even have to try. I'm thinking, yeah, right. There's going to be somebody in there that's going balls to the wall.

Yeah. And I'm going to end up pushing myself when I shouldn't be, you know, in off-season training. And at last minute, literally, I did my bench day, which was like, I don't know, I think it was 475 for set of 10 or somewhere in there. And that was on a Monday. On the Saturday, I made the decision like on a Friday, fine, I'll show up, token squat, token, you know, bench, and just kind of go maybe 75% and hope for, you know, a first place and 500 bucks or whatever. Ended up going in and I think I got second, but it was on Wilks. So it wasn't a total by any means,

but I still totaled like 1,900, which I was like, I'm not even in shape right now. And I thought this is actually kind of a good thing to try and just see where I'm at off season. Didn't want to hurt myself running, but I ended up benching like 585. So I was like, well, at least I know, even on like what I would consider

my out of shape season, I guess, I can still almost do 600, which is for me, that used to be a pipe dream. Well, the next week I was like, I'm going to take a deload because I knew my coach was going to be like, hey, I know you don't normally take chances like this. It's another conversation you have where you go off program. And it was like, I'm going to take a deload.

Just be smart. Next thing I know, I'm doing 501 for eight, which was like a PR for me. Like two days after I benched 585, squatted 650 or somewhere in there that lived 700. And I'm like, where is this energy coming from? Like, I'm normally like a 10 day deload before me taking two weeks off to recover and then, you know, slowly get back into it. And here I am just youthful again.

And I'm like, okay, i got a little bit of you know spunk behind me and um next thing i know i'm hitting another pr another pr and i'm like i'm eight weeks into training here and i'm already in the 600s for reps and i'm thinking this is when i normally start peaking so i talked to my coach and he goes i I think you need to find a beat. And I went for a win. Like, this is weird. Like I've never progressed this fast and you know, no injuries, of course. And he goes, well, I mean, I would think within the next eight weeks, I'm like, hold on. So I'm wrapping my head around this. Cause I'm like, you know, this is, this is really fast.

So it ends up being this Saturday coming up, uh, that I picked a meat that's, uh, it's actually like a, um, it's a bench press only meat, which is perfect because I'm not training a squat and deadlift right now. It literally, I haven't touched legs in any higher capacity other than that meat. And I was training, um, this is, I forgot when that meat was it was like right right at the beginning of the year and uh so i haven't squatted anything nothing like not even a pound and haven't deadlifted a pound since that meat um so all my energy's gone to the bench and so um i hit these are probably the most notable lifts that I've hit that I post that I have

posted, um, which is like a six 36 for two PR, uh, six 56 self lift off, no spot PR, uh, which I was pretty happy with considering both of those lifts were about five pounds more than my previous PRs or more. And those PRs were done on training cycles that led up to the 672. So I haven't hit those kind of numbers in a few years. And I'm thinking, okay, you know, I don't want to get my hopes up because that's, that's what I've been doing the last couple of training cycles is rushing things and really just saying, okay, 700, 700, 700. And so this training cycle is more like just go in and improve each week,

just a little bit. And if I don't feel it, just don't go in or don't go back off take an extra few days and uh basically i think we're in pr territory for a meet uh this weekend so we'll see we'll see don't want to jinx myself yeah yeah right but i mean you're you're the videos that we've seen at least that you've posted on instagram like your bench is looking really good right now. I, you know, there's a few, I'm very critical about technique and like pausing and things like that. But I have to agree.

Like, and normally I wouldn't like, normally I'm very like, no, I don't feel good about it. I do feel really, really good about it right now. But the other side of me is,

well, I don't want to, you know, again, get my hopes up and think you know basically just long story short what i'm thinking about trying to do is not shooting for 700 literally at this meet unless it's just a really good day well obviously um but just inching my pr up right even a you know even a kilo you're just yeah just a little bit yeah because you know 40 now just just some momentum though is awesome to have right yeah so and then i can you know go into this meat healthy get out of this meat healthy and if i have momentum i can do another meet in a few weeks and just see what happens because i really don't feel like i'm fully peaked and I'm doing a meet, which is weird.

Do you have any, any plans? So, you know, you were at the showdown last year. Do you have any plans later? 2021 of any meets that you would be doing like that showdown one, for example, or anything like around that time period?

Not on the books yet, but I am definitely wanting to do another full power yeah as soon as i can yeah right so i'm sure it'll be i know this i think the showdown might be full but i would hope that if i'm in the 2300 range raw that i might be able to say hey yeah i would feel like you'd get a little bit like, we might be able to make a spot for you. And the other thing is, I don't know. And of course this is a whole nother, this is, you know, people say this all the time. Well, I could add a hundred pounds to my squat in no time, but you know, I'm, my squat is not any, or my deadlift really, they're not anywhere near

where I think like my benches, you know, to add 20 pounds or 50 pounds, it's like, you know, huge from my squat and my deadlift, I could add a hundred pounds to the total. And it's not like, Oh, that's an unheard of total. It's not going to be an all time record or anything like that. So, you know, I think that's more achievable to add, you know pounds you know not maybe not this year but that would take me up to almost 2400 right which is a crazy number but yeah it's not i don't think it's inconceivable for me to do that right uh do you think the secret like that things are going well right now is doesn't have anything to do with the green shorts that you have or i'm actually wearing those

right now i had them on so it's a little bit chilly in houston of course it's not chilly as is you guys i don't know what the world's the hell we got a snowstorm and actually i saw i was i work in my basement and i'm looking at my phone the other day and seeing pictures of like videos of snow and i'm like i think people are posting these from a while ago and then i just saw saw enough of them. Like, this can't be all old. And I went upstairs, and sure enough, there was a lot of snow on the ground. And I was very confused. Today, it's all gone.

It's a nice day. I was shocked. I'm thinking, okay, it's almost May. What's going on? I mean, I know Houston is a whole other animal. Like, we got a little bit of snow this year, which was crazy. And it was that one day, I went two, three days, and now it's like 80 degrees outside. So today was a little bit of a cold snap.

So it was like a little chilly. So I put on sweatpants, but I still had a t-shirt on. I got out of my sweatpants and I got home because I'm like, you know, I'm not wearing sweatpants around the house. And I put on the Breaking Parallel shorts. And then I got a text a few minutes later hey guy uh just want to let you know that somebody got booted off and you're coming on oh it's funny about the snow I remember when we were at the Arnold I guess it was probably the last year we went to the Arnold and we it wasn't at the Arnold we were out on like I don't

know one of the main maybe that same road I can't remember when we were out on, I don't know, one of the main, maybe that same road. I can't remember. When we were out there playing with the family? Yeah, you had your family out there, and it was snowing a little bit. And it's like, yeah, for your kids, they don't see snow all that often probably, so it's more of a cool thing. It was probably pretty exciting for them. Yeah, right. Well, so I think it was the year before that, the first time they came up with me. Okay.

We drove to Cleveland, or we drove from Cleveland to Columbus because it was a cheaper flight or something. And so when we drove back, we didn't see snow the whole time. When we got back to Cleveland, we drove past like a Motel 6 or something, and there was snow all over the ground. I thought, this is a pretty good spot. Let's pull over. We started playing in the snow randomly. Of course, people were looking out the windows like, what are these guys doing?

Of course, it was all packed down. It was a couple days old, so it wasn't even fun to play. We were throwing ice at each other. Of course, we got in the car. Our hands were beet red because we don't have gloves or anything. We don't come equipped. It was fun.

You know, the kids love it. Yeah, that's good stuff. What do you think, as someone that benches a whole bunch yourself, what do you think we could see Julius do someday? Like what do you think his upper limit of how much he could bench press could be? You know, that's a good question. Because if you – well, people have asked me that, you know,'s a good question because if you well the people have asked me that you know two years ago and i thought 800 is just over right that's not that's not conceivable that's like somebody dead lifting 1500 wrong right right yeah i would agree with that

yeah that's what i thought too yeah and i think honestly you know i've had talks with him and i don't even think that was on his radar you know he's just like yeah that's a good number but when you start doing things you find out wow this is this is crazy that the human body is capable of this or select human beings are capable of this um you know i don't know because what i don't think it'd be crazy to think 850 i don't i really don't know yeah but that sounds so crazy to actually say that. I don't think that sounds crazy. Well, let's just put it like this. I'll humble myself on this one.

Julius, or people used to comment when Julius was like 740, and they'd be like, hey, he's benching your deadlift. As soon as he benched the 782, I went, son of a bitch. That's my deadlift. That's my meat PR. I'm like, god dang it. I got to up my deadlift now know that's my meat that's my meat pr i'm like god dang it i gotta up my deadlift now just just to keep him away from it yeah but like and you're saying that as a dude that's has a big is a very large total and it's really strong like that's way more than most people's deadlift like like there's not a lot like yes, I think seven 50 plus is what I would consider a very, very elite

deadline. I mean, when I did my seven 80 and I thought, okay, that's good for me. I still need more to go. I had several people that I've continued to look up to, but I've out totaled and they're like, no, you don't understand. Like that's not common. Like there's a few people, obviously there's the deadlift specialist and things like that, but that's not common. Like there's a few people, obviously there's the deadlift specialist and things like that, but that's not a common number, even at the highest level. And I thought, wow,

that's kind of crazy. And this guy's mentioned it. So yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I would say eight 50 is,

is cause if he can stay healthy and keep things going, keep the momentum, I think it's conceivable. And if he doesn't do it, he's opening a can of worms for somebody sometime. I don't know if it's now, but there's some crazy freak of nature even better than Julius out there somewhere. And he might not even be born yet, but somebody's bound. I mean, they're meant to be broken, and it's just crazy to know that that could be. body's bound i mean they're meant to be broken and it's just crazy to know that that could be such a specific person like a one in a billion type person yeah well and the thing is it's not

even like we've had a huge stride in technology or training methods i mean julius is using same training methods i am and that people were using 10 years ago, maybe a little bit more, but not enough to make up 100 pounds. So it's not inconceivable to think in 10 years there might be a new training method that allows you to do something more, recovery or maybe a supplement. I don't know. I mean, growth hormone that just does some crazy thing to your body where you can train six days a week. I don't know. I mean, growth hormone that just does some crazy thing to your body where you can train six days a week. Yeah, I don't know. But I'm talking about raw. I mean, just literally what he's doing now. I think it's possible to do 850. because we didn't have to here, we don't have to provide really an introduction because we did kind of skip that part. But we even,

Tommy and I talked about it before we started recording. It's like, I think everyone that listens to massonomics already, like if, if someone's a massonomics fan, they know very well about, like, I can't imagine.

We said it both ways that like, if you know, if you know massonomics and you don't know SwimHack, that's really weird. And also, if you follow SwimHack and you've never seen or heard of Masonomics, that's really weird too. That would be very strange too.

Would you feel the same on that? I think the two are probably synonymous. It's not uncommon for me to be wearing something uh because i don't have anything else i mean ultimately i don't i don't have any other no that's really not a joke i was so we're packing you know obviously to go to chicago for the meet that's where the meet is on saturday and um the wife is saying you know hey what do you want to pack you know kind of kind of getting things ready. I'm like, well, I'll get all my stuff. I'll probably have a couple of heels. I'll have a skull smash shirt. Of course I'll have all my lift gear and I'll have a couple of ghost shirts.

And it's like, well, you're going to take anything that's dressy. I'm like, maybe the breaking parallel shorts. I mean, they're, they're expensive. I mean, I can walk into any steakhouse and people will just go, my God, it's just trophy tapes. Your table's waiting in the back, sir. That is the... Here's your LaCroix. I'm like, I don't want that.

Get that out of here. You know I want the problem. I don't want the problem. Do you remember where you first when or where you first came across anything masonomics like did we reach out to you for something or did you just randomly i think it was when we talked to you at the arnold probably wasn't it that was it yeah at that restaurant you know oh that first year it was when ross went yeah yeah i i want to say i had been exposed to it but i didn't know what like obviously didn't know all any of the inside jokes i don't know if i listened to anything uh i've probably seen a couple of

posts and i was like okay yeah you know this is kind of cool and didn't really and of course literally fast forward a week and that's when i probably you know after i saw one of the posts i'm getting you know ross coming over and talking to me like, oh, hey, wow. Okay, well, this is a big deal. These guys are something big. I need to talk to these guys. I don't need to be saying no to these. It's like if Ed Cohen came over, he had no idea who he was, which is funny because that was me when I first got started in powerlifting.

Somebody goes, oh, yeah, such and such. I'm like, like, Ed who? And of course, they were like, he's literally the Michael Jordan of this sport. I'm like, oh, yeah, I need to go talk to him. I don't want to be disrespectful. So same thing, same thing. It is a funny story, though. I know we probably told it before, but that was the first year we ever went to the Arnold, right?

Yeah, we went just as basically spectators. Yeah, and we're at that one bar and restaurant like during the day this was at like lunchtime it was like the middle of the afternoon actually it was pretty slow in there right and we went in there and you were sitting at the we had a table in there and you were sitting at the bar and uh yeah it um what was that place called yeah it's the one just pretty much across from the convention right i can't think of what it is right yeah and uh and i remember being like holy shit look at like seeing you from the back and like i mean you talk about training your back and stuff in your but at the time being like holy shit look at that guy and then like i think ross kate went up and talked to you yeah something there and yeah i think ross like oh yeah that's swim back he can bench like 600 pounds i think i gotta go talk to

him yeah i remember that i remember that yeah and now look at where we are yeah the next thing you know you have green shorts on you know time will tell it's just the only five more years where are we going to be at oh man what color shorts could we have by then green pants i can't even wait to see the evolution of shorts that we have by then do you do you know i i we we got to do something to take care of austin yeah i don't know we got something i mean maybe i'll just send him a picture it's autographed you know yeah you should do that actually i think that'll suffice actually you know what i was thinking about maybe just raffling these off like hey these have been worn if you guys just y'all can't wash them though don't be weird um we we've got something i think we'll figure something out

for him so one of these you know yeah sticker. There we go. Cinema Sticker. The green breaking parallel sticker. The lift short sticker. We make the green breaking parallel short sticker. You can charge $28.99 for the sticker. For just a sticker.

We could make it one of those big car stickers. What we do is we put it on the site and it's really misleading. So like it's $28.99 and like, it's like, oh, the Breaking Parallels shorts. And then sticker is really, you know, like really small. The fine print on the site. Right, right. This is actually a sticker.

You can order them. It's small, extra small, medium. And then when they get the sticker, it's a small sticker. You pick the size of sticker you want to order no if sorry sir you did not read the fine print i feel like we could you know there'd be there's enough people that are in on the mass dynamics jokes that some people would be pissed but some people would be like ha you got me this i feel like this is all worth it like this is better they'd be on the site in 10 minutes ordering more. This is better

than if I had actually got the real shorts that I wanted. So I've come to the conclusion that you guys have created the perfect business model for the fitness industry. It's like, you don't even have to really give anybody anything. You just take their money and they're happy with it. It's, it's a perfect a perfect like there's no overhead it's just you you have some of course you know you want to post up pictures and videos of you guys having the hats i don't want to mention the hats of course but i was actually you didn't get my message to specifically avoid the hats well okay so don't buy the hats do not go to massonomics.com right now when you're hearing my voice and buy any hats whatsoever.

Especially those jackasses that are already like four at a time. Yeah, four, three, four hats at a time. And don't tag me in that story of your picture of the hat that you just bought. Definitely. So that I can reshare it and shout you out. I don't want to do that. Yes, don't do any of that. I'm going to poop in the box for the next person that buys that.

That might, you know, you could charge more for that. People would pay it. Instead of just farting it in them, I'm going to start pooping in them. It's a premium service. Like, whoa, what is this? South Dakota air, man. What is going on? Every time I order these.

These are hefty hats. Yeah, I fart in them, and then I try to tape them up really quick like after the fart lock that area to get it make sure they get the full dose well get some mexican food from down here you don't even need just just keep them going yeah well so your body weight wise are you um i mean i see you've been eating a lot and stuff. Are you heaviest, as close to as heavy as you've been before then? Well, so I've been 312 is the heaviest I ever have been. That was like a training cycle ago. Honestly, I think a lot of – well, most of it is just water. But like actual what I would call usable weight has probably never been more than like 305,

like meaning I was pretty lean and I felt good. I was, you know, occasionally, you know, these last few weeks after the weekend, I'll wake up at like 307. But after my bench day, I mean, I lose 10 pounds just because of all the calories and sweating and just crazy, you know, the day is just a long day. Uh, and of course the weights that I've been handling, it just takes a lot out of you. So it takes me like seven days to bounce back. So my weight will basically start at like 307 ish. And then by Friday I might be back up to like 303 and then start the weekend, just start pounding food just to make sure I'm recovered and i feel

like i've got enough calories in me to last and then it's like a recycle but like today i'm sitting at like i woke up this morning like 300 so i'm like here we go again yeah i haven't even i didn't work out this week i did some like light stuff on tuesday just to get some blood flow but i haven't been eating a lot just because I don't need to. So that's kind of the ebb and flow for me, at least, is I never really go into a meat with a full stomach. For the whole week, I'm not pounding food. But my normal, all you can eat sushi for lunch, see what we have for dinner. I don't even remember oh i had like a big chicken fried steak smothered in queso and hot sauce and everything um but i'm you know i'm sure i'll wake up like

maybe 301 tomorrow morning um so by the time the meat comes around i'm not going to be much more than right at where i'm at now and i'm not i'm not even gonna think about cutting or anything like that yeah how sweet is all that ghost strong equipment that you've got in your gym oh so it's not uncommon for me to literally go out there three times a day and just look at it and just like literally just the once over and yeah just look at check on it you know wipe it down uh seriously i mean it sounds funny but it's it's a pride issue it's like those are masterpieces of they are that's what they are it kind of actually ruins lifting almost though because everything else you just feel like well this sucks compared to this now like everything

else is a downgrade forever so so maybe we could follow up with this but i'm kind of dreading going to the meet i'm like i don't want to bench on this shit. What is this crap? What is, this is horrible. Sure. This is, this is the best equipment. No,

it's not. You know what goes, come on in here. This, this is rinky dink. It's like, it's welded. It's one piece.

And it's like, no, this is, this is too shaky for me. That, that is what it's like. You know, we've got the ghost,

a ghost strong HD combo, I think is what it's called, or whatever it is. Boy, as far as a combo rack, I don't think anyone's ever going to get anything better. And even now, we have two really nice Elite FTS benches, and we have the Rogue full power rack too, but still it's just the the ghost bench is just so far above that other it's it's kind of like having i like to compare it to a bugatti so maybe we can say like the elite fgs and the great company it's like a buick le saver

american classic but it's just not like it's like a 2003 silver buick lasagna yes it has to be silver yes the 3.8 gm motor in it it's reliable reliable it'll it'll last a lifetime yeah parts are readily available right not that you would ever need them because it's not going to break down right right but it's not the bugatti no well and the other thing is the difference between a bugatti and the ghost equipment is it doesn't take a lot of maintenance so it's not like your oil change or changing out a piece is going to cost you twenty thousand dollars right that's true just 15 it's funny dude didn't we do this ghost rung bench comparison we did tommy and i just did like this was that on a podcast episode or was that in uh the youtube

video that we shot where we talked about the ghost strong bench and we were like comparing it like because you said like this is the ferrari i think you said this is the ferrari of benches and then we took that back like well really that's not an accurate enough uh analogy yeah like it's that might be a video we have yeah that's. That's something we haven't released yet. We kind of had that same conversation too. It's no doubt though. Like I've benched on some, well, we've had this conversation literally the first time we ever talked in the, at the Arnold, um, in the interview, you said, you know, you've been known for benching on some pretty shitty bitches and you know, 600 plus pounds.

And so I'll bench on whatever. I mean, I'll bench on a wooden table if I need to, as long as, you know, 600 plus pounds. And so I'll bench on whatever. I mean, I'll bench on a wooden table if I need to, as long as I feel safe, you know, for the most part, that's kind of relative, but I've had to bail a couple of times on this ghost rack and I didn't even question it. I got any, I was alone with the garage closed alone at home. Nobody's even at home. So I of course trust it, you know you know and it's it'll hold while i was asking um them the other day like what do you think the upper limit of these these safety arms are he goes more than you'll ever put on a bar and i went okay yeah like more more than a bar could fit

and i'm like well that's two thousand plus pounds so you should be saying well i like to do those heavy lockouts right like you know those are those are a lot for the instagram you know clout it's like hey guys i can't bench 800 but let me put 950 pounds on here and lock it out just you might need to get some pound plates for that though because that you know the kilogram plates for the grams they just don't quite have that same showiness right well so and ghost has already let this out so i'm not letting anything out of the bag but they have the new kilo plates yeah yeah i've got a shipment coming in and it's like well don't send it this week because i'm not gonna be here to get them and i don't want that stuff sitting on my porch it's not like anybody's gonna steal it i don't think you have to worry about worry about someone just you're gonna you're gonna have too many plates then

well so that's my problem it's like well i got a really nice tree but i'm gonna have to throw some of these plates on the ground those rogue plates are gonna have to sit on the ground they're probably disposable like a lot of our stuff is you can just throw them in the garbage i was thinking about that but i don't know if i have enough garbage space just leave it on the curb yeah a curb or a dumpster somewhere just throw them no one will want those well and and so i was like y'all are going to ship this like via like a shipping service not like usps or ups fedex because i i've seen the delivery guy like he's a bigger guy i mean in fact i've no no hate to him,

but he works out at the local gym that I go to, but he can't pick up 50 kilo man plates. Right, right. I mean, he can't rack his own weights. I'm done. Yes. So, but yeah, I'm looking forward to that. It goes to an excellent company.

I like what they stand for, but just the quality. It's like, I look at the welds. I look at just everything about it. You know, it's like I look at the welds I look at just everything about it you know it's the attention to details is spot on for sure James I don't know if you're familiar with it at all

actually James can you say something maybe like really inspirational and profound for us for a moment oh yikes like inspiration just something really touching for us you know just give us oh yeah it's really heavy here oh yeah like something deep like it doesn't just like to just it doesn't be long just give us something really deep yeah like um oh just something not funny at all just

like uh a really deep, serious statement. Something that we can transition out of. Oh, man. Okay, so I'm going to be the cliche powerlifter here and be the dumb idiot. And then we have like no idea what I need to say here. Mathonomics. That reminds us. We have this little game we like to play it's

called underrated or overrated have you ever heard overrated um no no that's all we're just doing our thing where somebody says something real serious and then we go time he goes wow the time he goes wow and i go okay james that's great should we play overrated underrated so so i missed that one oh no that's my bedtime it is getting late it is getting we have back you know there's so many inside somebody commented the other day and said why are you always massonomics gears what are those are those your sons and i I'm thinking, what the hell? Hold on, how old do you think I am? I realize I'm 40, but Aaron is like 30-something. That means I had him when I was 10.

That's really funny. I'm pretty sure I went and liked that. I thought that was kind of funny. No, but that is a good point. There's become so many inside jokes that sometimes we almost don't even understand some of them where it's like i don't even know where that one came from it wasn't from us yeah there was one that was yeah someone well that was the that

was the worst day of my life wow okay would you like to play a game so i've got like a little thing that i that it's a little secret that i have i have a little notepad on my phone and i keep all the inside jokes that i can use so i don't miss on any of them because I'm like okay I need to be able to like you know when you guys post up something I need to be able to have something to reference right right hundreds of them and some of them are really old but they're gold and if you do and if you have a good comment on it or something like the people that know them are just gonna love it like they just eat it up you know like they're just like and if you say something that nobody else says and it's profound yeah it's a comment you get your comment 10 and

then you can like it and then you get all the way you like your own comment yep yep that's the secret to success um but art so are you familiar with overrated underrated i am familiar okay it's this little thing we like to play you know you get your druthers etc etc okay yes he does need to understand that these topics are hand-picked for oh yeah these are special swim hack james strickland topicsland topics handpicked for you. You do have your druthers. The most important thing to remember is you do have to, at the end, you can't ride the line. You have to come up with overrated

or underrated at the very end. Tanner, let me... I will try my very best. I might have an audible. Oh, go ahead. Okay, good. Okay, yeah. Okay. So save your... You know what? You just do your thing. I might throw something here. Okay, yep, yep yep overrated or underrated sushi

hold on let me get some sushi real quick sushi is underrated now that's the right answer for me. You know, I know how this works. I know how this works. It's underrated. People do not understand the value of sushi, especially at an all you can eat place. Oh, it's underrated. Hands down. There's no other. I did not know there was such a thing as all you can eat sushi until your posts. sushi and tell your pulse i was very questionable about that type of like all you can eat raw fish it took me two years this place opened and i went nope i'll pay 60 70 bucks you know i'm not obviously gonna do it all the time i have to afford lift shorts but i'm like you know i'll all right somebody told me about it and they said you gotta try it i'm like are you sure because if i get food poisoning i'm coming back to you and And I went in there and next thing I know,

we're there like every week. And then next thing I know, they're like, Hey, can you make a couple posts for us? We'll feed you. And I'm like, why didn't you say so? So now I get a meal or two taken care of a week and I, hopefully they're getting some business. Awesome. But yeah, it's, so what is it? What is it? What is it? All you can eat sushi buffet costs? Well, there's a lot of different types. And, uh, so when I say types, because I've been to a few different ones around Houston and around like the Texas area. In fact, they've got one, I want to say in Columbus. Yeah. It's, um, right down the street from the convention. It wasn't that good though. Um, and I guess my standard is probably a little higher, but, um, most of them are about 30 bucks for all you can eat. This one that I go to for lunch, it's now it is limited, but what I get, I eat it, you know,

it's fine for me. Uh, it's like 17 bucks all you can. That's really cheap for, uh, yeah. And I get my, my money's worth for sure well i know how restaurants work they're making money but yeah you know of course they take care of my bill but i still you know somebody goes in there after me and pays for it they're not going to eat right seventeen dollars worth of wholesale fish or whatever yeah yeah exactly so what did you say it's under underrated okay underrated okay overrated or underrated self liftoff bench pressing uh all right let me calculate this up like a mathematician here crunch the numbers do the math so let's let's go through how many self liftoffs do

we see not very many especially in a meet which i think we're on par just a little side note here for this meet being a self liftoff because i've been training that way right right right uh and i will have ed cohen there by the way so he he So he said he'd come out and help me out anyway. So I may just have him stand behind me and do a little like my wife did for my self-lift-off. It was like, I'm going to help you out, but I'm not really touching the bar, just to give you a little mental help. Yep. Self-lift-offs, I'm going to go with overrated because it does, it does take energy away from you, but if you do them the right way, you can still, you know, it's, I think it's more of a mental thing. You're forced to get it.

Um, and you're forced to get yourself tight, but it doesn't carry over to getting a liftoff because that will throw you out of the place. But in fact, I've done that in a meet where I did self liftoffs and I had a buddy in my liftoff and I missed like my opener. I'm like, what is going on? And another guy from the gym goes, you've been doing liftoffs on your own. Just do the next one on your own. I nailed the second and third attempt. Self liftoff. I was like, okay, well there you go. But I would say overrated. Yeah. That's a good point though. That's, you know, that if you're used to doing them all the time and then you throw a spotter in there to give you a lift off like that. It's really obvious in the gym when you get used to doing them and you do have someone come in and they take way too much of the weight and you pretty much lose all your tightness instantly.

Yes. So that's kind of leading back. There was a few – like I didn't have perfect lifts this whole training cycle. Of course, you know, kind of leading back. There was a few, like, I didn't have perfect lifts this whole training cycle. Of course, I don't know anybody that does. And I had a lift off, um, for one of my lifts, uh, that was getting heavy. Like when we started getting North of six 30, I was like, Hey, I need somebody to come help me, you know, come to my home gym. Cause I don't want to go to a shitty bench. I want to lift on my own stuff. You know, I had a couple of friends come over and had one lift off for me.

And I didn't have a very good day that day. And I realized right away it was because I got a lift off. I'm like, yeah, I don't need any more lift offs for the rest of this training cycle. I'm just going to ride it through. But I think, you know, overall, for the question, overrated because it's just not – well, I think it's self-explanatory. It's overrated. Okay. Did you have an audible on this?

Should I do my audible now? Yeah, I think – unless you think it's – because it's weather – No, I can go right now. Okay. Overrated or underrated, the butterfly stroke. Oh, nice. So it would take a swimmer to know this and anybody that's listening the swim hack name does imply that i was a swimmer at some point in time i thought it was just because you knew you could bring a phone in a pool with a bag i thought that's what it was about well that is a swim hack but not the swim

the biggest swim hack of all time is taking a skinny 180 pound man that can barely bench 300 and zooming him up to 300 to bench close to 700 that's a swim hack that's that's the swim that is the swim hack okay butterfly stroke it is difficult it is it's one it's like honestly i'm trying to compare it to lifting and that's tough because it's well swimming is just swimming but it is the most difficult stroke it takes the most energy it's unless you're if your technique is off at all, which mine was always off. Cause I was just, even though I was 180 pounds, I was bigger than everybody else. And I was always more muscular and a little stiffer. And so my butterfly was never like a snake that you're supposed to really slither kind of through the water. And you have a dolphin kick

that, that goes with every stroke. And I was always like, pull with all my might, all muscle to get my arms out. And then it was like, boom, like a whale. And I was fast for the smaller distances because I could spend a lot of energy and be done. If I had to go anything over like four laps, which would be like 100 yards, anything like a 200, I would just die the second half because I wouldn't have the endurance to keep muscling through it. But if you're good at it, you're normally really good at it.

Like Michael Phelps. Let's just name drop here. Never heard of him. No, I don't know. He lied about his calories. Don't tell me he ate 12,000 calories a day. We all know that's not real, but everybody bought it. Yeah, that's true.

So with that said, most people aren't going to do it. Every swimmer that I know hates it unless they're really good at it. So it's kind of like bench. They hate it if they're not good at it. So it's kind of like bench. They hate it if they're not good at it. So if they're good at it, they typically like it. Um, uh,

Hmm. Can I pull any druthers in for this one? You've got all the druthers you need. You can phone a druthers lifeline if you need to. Hmm. Everybody's sleeping right now. Hey buddy, I want to let you know you're on a druthers lifeline if you need to hmm everybody's sleeping right now hey buddy i'm gonna let you know you're on the masternomics podcast but what hey man i know we know each other from 20 years ago but come on help me out here um overrated okay all right all right okay Okay. And you know, the last one,

the last one is usually kind of worth all the marbles. Your performance on underrated, overrated all comes down to the last one. And actually your performance on the entire show rides on this last topic. I heard if I get it all wrong, I have to ship back all the lift shorts. Yeah. Yeah.

And with interest. Yeah. We will send a repo company. That's going to kill me. Yeah. Yeah. And with interest. Yeah. We will send a repo company. That's going to kill me. Yeah. That's going to put me under. You won't be coming back from that one. No,

there's not, not a swim, swim hack out there. That's going to save you from that one. All right. Let's see if I can BS my way through this one. Overrated or underrated. Breaking parallel shorts.

Oh, sorry for the question. they're they're overrated to anybody that doesn't have them yes if you happen to have a pair either they're legit or not let's not even question that um they're they're definitely underrated because nobody has them nobody has them they can't they Nobody can have an opinion about them. So you're really the only qualified opinion. I'm the only qualified. So I could literally say anything and get it right.

So I'm glad this was the last question because now I get to keep my lips short. I mean, that's how you druthers your druthers. Yeah, that's druthers if I've ever seen them. That's a perfect example of drutherzing. I've never bullshitted my way through another set of questions more in my life. I feel like I just did a multiple choice and just started scratching off. You're like, C. C, F, F, F. There's no F there. What is that? That's an E?

It only goes to D. What are you talking about? All right. You passed. Did he pass? He did pass in flying colors. great news you did pass uh what what you did say at the beginning for a peek behind the curtain for anyone is i i'd say like james and dan bell are on our short list of people that uh we know we can at the drop of the hat we we could do a podcast with them because we just always can. We could just, you know, we could sit around and BS with you guys. We have a direct line to you that we know works. Yeah, we have a direct line.

And we just, we know we could talk to you for an hour and not have to prepare for it. And it's going to be fun. And you knew I was going to be on a deload this week, and I've got absolutely nothing to do. So that's the thing. And we know as long as either of you are actually around and don't really have something else going on, you're like, oh, yeah, I'll do that. That'll be fun. So we really can't schedule regular ones with either of you because we need to do that. When we have to have a lifeline, you and Dan are the first ones we look to.

See, I knew it. I knew it. I knew it. As soon as you texted me, I'm trying to tuck the kids into bed. And I'm like, why is Tanner texting me? I'm like, well, there's only one reason. One is he wants to get me on the podcast because somebody else bailed. Or they have nobody.

And they have to have a slot. And the other thing was like, let's see, it's Wednesday right before the meet. I'm like, that would be perfect if it launched. That's exactly – I did have that thought when we were thinking about it. We were like, it actually is perfect timing because I know you were playing that one a little close to the chest, so to speak. But I'm like, actually, this works out pretty well because it comes out just at the right time. Well, and I'll tell you, just know, just to not stretch this too far,

because I know y'all don't want to be at the two-hour mark again. We saved that one for just really, for like every five years we do that. So one of the first times I was on the podcast, y'all mentioned about the trolls and how some of the weirdest comments and stuff come in yeah and the one of my strategies this time was to really just stick it to them and just because there's a lot of people that are like oh man how long are you gonna be on this road just 700 pounds like as long as it takes that's what i'm doing i'm lifting you know i'm having fun with it like in all seriousness you know and um it's not a small goal and um so i was like you know what instead of posting every lift as it happens i know know there's going to be a few bad lifts in here.

And instead of posting these lifts and just getting this stupid hate, I'm going to post up all the good stuff and then wait for later to post the bad stuff. Be like, this is what the whole cycle looked like. But I wanted people that used to go, oh, you missed this lift. That means next week's going to suck. to be like, well, now what? And I haven't gotten any of those comments. And it's funny to play the other side of Instagram. It's to be like, to use it against itself because everybody that was, you know, that would say like, oh, well, you missed that.

It's because this, that, and the other. Let me tell you, you know, as my expert opinion, it's more like, oh yeah, I knew you were going to get it. It's like, you know, I have screenshots from two years ago. Yeah. And so I've kind of got a nice little YouTube video that I'm going to put out and it's not to be hateful because ultimately, you know, I love the support, but there's always not to be hateful because ultimately you know i love the support but there's always going to be negative but i like to see the progression of people who are were against you at one point in time just because they're just being negative and then all of a sudden hey man i want to buy one of your programs hey hey man it's like absolutely you know whatever it would

be cool but by the way you know two years ago you were like oh man you suck yeah yeah well the guy the guy that uh thought the lift shorts were too expensive did eventually buy a pair you know it all comes full circle the world works in mysterious ways that and if you put enough pressure on mass economics the unpaid interns of course we don't want to talk about the unpaid interns it's a tightly knit group unpaid for a reason yep is um you know there's there's some things that can happen if you just put enough pressure you know it's just a word of advice If you want it, you might get it. Yep. Conceive, believe, achieve.

Ah, yes. I think that's the saying. Yes, yes. Kaz and us said it best. Never give up, Austin. Never give up. So you mentioned, we talked about some of your sponsors. We talked about Go Strong. You mentioned Skull Smash.

Is there anyone else you wanted to get out there?'s see let me go through the list well let me make sure i'm not missing anybody for thanks i don't want to be that guy i'll be pissed at you yes um let's well my coach josh bryant i don't think he gets enough credit because a lot of people are just like oh they assume i'd train myself but josh bryant's been with me from uh before i broke 600 um so i think you know we need to get him on the podcast at some point in time that'd be a good one oh yeah i mean he's he's very knowledgeable yeah um little goofy but i like it yeah i don't like to be serious all the time you know i just there's too many times to be serious right but um so let um, so let's see, we got, uh, so massonomics, you know, you guys always take care of me. So I'm going to shout you guys out.

I love those guys. Except that one guy, the one guy that wore the blindfold last week. Oh yeah. He showed up again this week. Yeah. I've got a meme for you guys. I'm going to send that to you. Flying blindly from the 10,000 foot.

This is your captain speaking. All right, so Texas Power Bars is always taking care of me. We're familiar. Buddy Cabs, 1980, the year I was born. Is that a coincidence illuminati i don't think so a lot of stars here aligning papa buddy um let's see we'll go strong skull smash ammonia they take care of me steve over there um pretty much like

from the beginning i think uh that's that's a whole nother sponsor story where when I was in, you know, just a wee lifter, um, I was like, Hey, you know, are you doing any sponsorships? I was that guy, you know, just like everybody else kind of starts off. They, they asked for a sponsorship. And he goes, well, he goes, let me ask you a couple of questions. And you want to know like what type of person I was. And he goes, I've already done my research on you because I just want to know what you'd say. He goes, yeah, I can send you a couple of things.

I don't have a lot of money. It's not like I make millions of dollars with this. I went, sounds like massonomics. But, you know, of course, just to give a little bit of an insight to people that are looking for sponsorships is, you know, it's not going to be just, Oh, I want a sponsorship. And you got to realize that there's 15,000 other people asking for the same thing. Um, it's, it's more like, okay, well, who are you as a person? And do you believe in their company? And you've got to show them that you care about

them before they're going to care about you, especially if they don't even know who you are. So I think that's pretty true too. And like, that's something probably a lot of people are missing when it comes to that. Yeah. They think it's, they don't think of it as a relationship and more just a one-sided thing. Let's just put it this way. I think you, as an athlete, you have a responsibility to your sponsor just as much as they do to you, but you, i think should take the

first initiative and promote the hell out of them and expect less um and i honestly think it's better and the fact that i had to go over and do it all over again i wouldn't have emailed the bigger companies i would have emailed the small startups you know the smaller because then you could grow with them right and then it's better plus then you know all the inside jokes if you know, the smaller, cause then you could grow with them. Right. And then it's better. Plus then, you know, all the inside jokes. If you get in later,

you've got to play catch up and watch 265 episodes. Like, no. And big companies don't have room for inside jokes, you know, too big. Yeah. They can't do all the fun,

funny stuff. And to let you guys know, I have actually listened to all the episodes that's that's because i had once i heard that i went i have to make sure i finish these and i've got them all bookmarked and uh so it's got the first comment at the shorts you got all the apparel yeah yeah all listening to all the the podcast i wouldn't say i'm the head of the interns but i think i'm an honorary intern i don't think i'm the head of the interns but i think i'm an honorary intern i don't think i've been included in the internship but i've kind of wiggled my way

in there i'm like hey guys what y'all doing right right yeah i guess we gotta get swim back in here what was the what was the video um uh what was it oh uh the the uh the commercial video yeah that we didn't know that was coming. I'm forgetting. What was it about now? The one they recorded before? Well, yeah. They all got together and were all in the same video.

So they had already done most of the work. And then I want to say. It was for the podcast. It was for the reviews. Yeah, it was massonomicsreviews.com. Okay, that's what it was for the podcast it was for the reviews that's what yeah it was it was massonomicsreviews.com okay that's what oh yeah thanks massonomicsreviews.com yeah that's okay yeah that's what it was yeah that was great so yeah i wasn't even i mean that wasn't even my brainchild at all like i don't i was just more like hey uh i kind of want to be a part of this

group what's yeah i want to be a part of the cool crowd. They're like, we've got to get Swimhack in then too. Yeah, that's perfect. So, yeah. Yeah, that's good stuff. No, that's great. I think that's kind of, we got to catch up with you. I'm sure we'll do it again.

It won't be long. I would definitely look forward to it. Maybe we can do it at the Arnold if they would actually have one. We hope that that's what happens. We do think we're probably going to go to the showdown this year too. So if you happen to, uh, if that ends up being your thing this year,

we'll, we'll see at that too. Hopefully. I just want to make a run at like, if I'm going to go, I want to make a run at John Hatch. He seems to be the guy to go after. I'm like,

I don't know. I'm not even in the position for Wilkes right now. I'm like, I'm going to do something. So maybe I'll put a nice training cycle together and at the very least come and do something

in the full power arena. Try to get out of this shake this bench title. Well, they don't call you a total specialist for no reason. Alright, that's cool. Thanks, James james thanks guys i appreciate it all right what do you think tommy what does he get he got the cool beans he got them beans and they were cold we had the beans on ice for him

they were really on ice because they were waiting for We had the beans on ice for them. We had the beans on ice. They were really on ice because they were waiting for someone. Someone needed those beans. He got someone else's beans tonight. Someone else is going to be kicking themselves for not getting their beans. Now Swimhack got extra beans and they were extra cold. Extra serving of ice cold beans. Lucky son of a bitch. Oh, what do we think?

Should we bring this one on home I think that's everything bring that down we could take a look at our sponsors again from this episode you want to do that I would love to as we begin our descent back down from 10,000 feet like this

buckle back up bitches we're coming down in our descent back down from 10,000 feet. You mean like this? Buckle back up, bitches. We're coming down. All right. Today's show was 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, 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 fusion sports performance supplements do you know what's in your supplements if you use fusion sports performance you always will fusion sp prides itself on being fully transparent never using proprietary blends and always providing its customers with top quality products. Every Fusion Sports Performance product

comes fully backed with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Go to FusionSP.net and use code MASS to save a huge, massive 20% on your order. That read is still throwing me off. It's pretty new yet, so it's like... I know, it's not quite committed to memory. No. But unlike this one

this episode is brought to you by texas power bars in 1980 buddy kept set on his own to make what he believed would be 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 knurling and it was maintenance free and it was perfect for swim hack hundreds of state national international and world power lifting records have been and continue to be set and broken on the texas power bar learn more and visit them at texaspowerbars.com the show is also brought to you by the strength co they make premium made in america barbell equipment including but not limited to their machined and e-coated plates these plates are functional easy to handle accurate and made to last a lifetime and they just they look really really cool and

look they are the coolest they're the coolest looking machined plates that are out there that's just a fact the strength co plates have become the go-to choice for all members at massonomics gym check out their plates and all the other made in America equipment online at thestrengthco.com. That's thestrengthco.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're always in stock and ready to ship. Lifting Large is home to the Ground Lock Deadlift Slipper,

and they're always in stock and ready to ship. Mass Anomics listeners can save 20% on all Lifting Large branded products by using our discount code MASS20 at checkout. We think they moved to possibly moved locations. It looks like it, yeah. But that still doesn't affect their standard for customer service in the strength world. They still have set that. They still have the Ground Lock Deadlift Slipper.

They're still always in stock and ready to ship. So they're moving, but you can still expect all the other great things. Like the ground, they're like the ground lock deadlift slipper of companies. They really are. All right. That's our sponsors.

We'd love it if you would become a supporting member of the podcast. That would just be awesome. If you would do that, how would would someone do that if they want to massonomics.com join and we do have the four tiers the four membership levels there's a apple pie membership level that's 99 cents a month the lacroix level that's three dollars per month the lift shorts lift shorts level that's six dollars per month and then then the platinum lift, the platinum lift club, that's $20 per month. All coming with their own, you know, varying levels of awesome things that you get in return to be named at a later date. So please become a supporting member if you like the show. And if you like listening to it most weeks, we'd love to have you become a supporting member.

And if you just came into a structured annuity or. I couldn't think of a better investment vehicle than Massanomics. How often are people coming into structured settlements or annuities? Never. It's got to be a lot. Do you ever know any person ever that's been like, oh, I just got this structured settlement or annuity. I've never known anyone,

but I guess I don't really know that many people, or at least the people I know aren't that exciting, apparently, because they don't get structured annuities. But if you did get one, that would be a great way to spend it, at least a portion of it. If you ever got a structured annuity, it would be a great icebreaker for the rest of your life. That's true.

You know those commercials? I got one of those. I didn't call J.G. Wentworth, though, because why the fuck would I? So, yeah, so yeah, become a supporting member. That would be cool. Leave us a review. Yeah.

I didn't really read the reviews. Did I then? No, that's okay. I guess we'll save those for next. I will save them for the next time. Okay. Um,

leave us a review so we can have more for you to read or more so you could provide more for us to read in the future episodes. We do read them all as they come in eventually and then like us on youtube and subscribe on there and ring the bell on youtube race swim hack beat swim hack this week if you're actually you're hearing this is too late the next swim hack next week somewhere between somewhere between 5 30 and 6 30 p.m central time and if you've never watched the podcast on youtube give it a try sometime yeah just try it and be like see what you think like maybe you'll dislike the experience maybe like whoa that's what those guys look like my god or you'd be like whoa the

amount of hair there is significantly more than i would have ever guessed why why do they have so much hair just the amount of hair is just appalling i i uh i know how long it's been since i've got a haircut but i have no idea how long it's been since i trim my beard the other day i'm like gosh how long has it been and i haven't done it yet but i have the perfect way to figure it out we have a living video of ourselves every week of our life so i'll be able to see like when did it get like short when was it longer and then got shorter and i think that's how long like we were actually talking we were going over some youtube stuff the other day tanner they had the youtube channel up and

i went back far enough and before we changed up our thumbnail style it was just a picture of us sitting here yeah and yeah i was like oh yeah that half of the podcast looks way different than it used to. Yes. Yes. When I say that half, I mean your side. You specifically. Someday. I keep actually thinking about trimming my, I think I'm going to let the hair ride for quite a while here, but I am starting to feel like the beard is going to have, I cannot eat food without my facial hair being in my mouth.

And it is just getting to the point of annoying. I don't dislike the look of it. Like, I'm cool with that. It's just the... The upkeep. Yeah. The hassle. It's like the it being in my mouth, you know,

is not what you want. I would struggle with that. Tommy, where do they find you on Instagram? You can find me at Tomahawk underscore D. You can follow me at Tanner underscore Baird but just make sure to follow Masonomics at Masonomics See ya