Massenomics Podcast - Ep. 267: Ben Pollack

Episode Date: May 17, 2021

Big Ben Pollack chats with us this week to help us decide if a good spray tan is better than a new deadlift PR. We also discuss facial expressions while lifting and getting a PHD in strength history. 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, for episode 267 of the Massanomics podcast, the lifting podcast about nothing. Recorded live from western northeast South Dakota.

My name is Tanner. And my name is Tommy. I kind of forgot that I usually do that part, and when it was just about my turn, I'm like, oh, wait, what number is this? Something's not right. Yeah, I'm like, who's, what happens happens here next the cue card guy is messing up people people don't know but we have like four cue card people back there in the line line uh let's tommy would you like to hear about today's sponsor i would love to it's been a while since i've read these so

hopefully i still remember how to go through all the sponsors today's show is brought to you by fusion sports performance supplements do you know what's in your supplements tommy well okay so um yeah i do usually a chocolatey flavor of some sort uh chocolate everything somehow and speaking of that i was actually just checking this to make sure I know it. They are coming out with a new flavor of Mad Titan. So Mad Titan is the high-stem pre-workout, the one that'll really kick you in the pants. That's for those crazy people out there. Yeah, they're coming out with a new flavor. It says that he, I'm just seeing what the owner said.

He said it's chocolate of some sort. No, he said that it is tiger's blood. Tiger's blood. Tiger's blood, which is strawberry coconut. Okay. Of some sort. He didn't say of some sort, I assume. Like, that's assumed.

Yeah, it is. He probably just left it off because it is assumed. Yes. So get that and use code MASS. That saves you 20% on your order. So get yourself some Tiger's Blood flavored pre-workout. Use code MASS. Save 20%.

That's your instructions. It's a win, win, win. Yes. This episode is also 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 born. It was strong as a house with the best nearly,

and it was maintenance-free. Hundreds of state, national, international, 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. This show is also brought to you by our friend Grant over at The Strength Co. The Strength Co. makes premium made-in-America

barbell equipment, including their machined and e-coated plates. Grant's been at the Strength Co. The Strength Co. makes premium made-in-America barbell equipment, including their machined and e-coated plates. Grant's been on the podcast before. Grant was on the podcast. What number? I would think it's like either in the 240s or 250s. Go find that. Listen to that one.

Really interesting stuff about how the Strength Co. plates came to life. Just hit the backstory to it. And it is legitimately a very interesting story like if you haven't checked that episode out with grant uh and the strength co go find that one listen to that one and it tells you a lot more than i can even tell you in this little ad um check out their plates and everything else that's they sell that's made in america it's online at the strength co.com that's the strength co.com the show is also brought to you by lifting large lifting large set a new standard for customer service within the strength world they have live

website chat support and speedy email responses lifting largest home of the groundlocked deadlift slipper and they're always in stock and ready to ship massonomics listeners can save 20 on all lifting large branded products a huge 20 Our code there is MAS20 at checkout to get that 20% off. And last but not least, Spud Inc. The goal of Spud Inc. Straps is to make products that support sports performance

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Yes. 100%. Yeah, 100% effective. They never miss. Check them out online at spud-ink-straps.com. Tommy, how about that gas shortage and the price of lumber and Elon Musk on Saturday Night Live?

Any of those interest you? i'm aware of all of those things at a very yeah maybe ten thousand thousand you could say um and outside of that i don't know much else the gas one is pretty insane because it's not like well we ran out of gas or we didn't make enough gas it's no there was a cyber attack like yeah so do you know locally is that affecting us in any way? I don't think so. I think it's just down south, isn't it? Okay.

I don't know. I did notice my pickup was almost on empty on my way over here, so I'm like, oh, I need to get gas. Is that a thing? I need to get the scooter out. I might have to. The weather is coming around, though, Tanner, so you can't. That's true. It is almost scooter weather here in the western north.

You've kind of decreased the scooter usage, though, haven't you, the last few years? The scooter is tough, and the motorcycle you know having the both yeah um it's tough with all the kids and all the stuff that i'm always transporting yeah i only have one kid tanner and i already get what you're saying right you can't just go somewhere you gotta have stuff right you have to have stuff and then also i go to swinging this back to lifting i go to the gym over my lunch hour a lot of times so i need so that means i want to bring like a duffel bag i want to bring food to food to work for lunch for and for maybe in between meal snacks and i want my clothes to go to the gym and all

this stuff and i'm like it's not impossible to do that on my scooter mode motorcycle, but it is more of a pain in the ass. Yeah. You gotta have a backpack. Right. Where, so that's part of it. But now that the house we moved into,

I do have those, my scootering motorcycle for the first time, always like right in my garage. So it is just a, it's just a decision. Yeah, it is. It is an easier decision.

It's still honestly, hasn't been warming up up. No, it's in the morning. It's like freezing. It's been like shitty. now. It is. It is an easier decision. It still honestly hasn't been warming up. No. In the morning, it's like freezing every morning. It's been like shitty. Yeah. Or not shitty. It just hasn't been nice.

Right, right. But it sounds like we're getting to the point where, for a weather update, this is transition. Turning events to weather. But yeah, the gas thing. And then we talked about the lumber being insanely expensive. We don't really understand that. Yeah.

Neither one of us have looked at why. Yeah. And I mean, it doesn't matter to me. I'm not going to build anything. Like, look at me. Do I look like a guy that's going to build something? No. I did this weekend.

I just bought it. So I bought six 2x4s and two 4x8 sheets of OSB. In the past, that would have cost $70, $75. I used to work at Menards. Yeah, I used to work at a lumber yard. Yeah, in a lumber yard, a self-service lumber yard. Part of the test was they just throw things at you and you had to compute the numbers in your head.

Prices. Here you go, smarties. So yeah, that would have maybe cost $75, $80 a year ago, two years ago, something. It was $240 240 so it is triple like and that's this is non-exaggeration this is like actual calculations on a real like it's a literal literal yes right so there was three times more expensive uh supply and demand certainly is a factor i suppose inflation is a factor to some extent but there's not trip 3x inflation across the board so that

certainly doesn't explain a large majority of that i you know we were just saying it like before um that's one that i've heard so many people talk about and i've never taken the time to even look at why i really don't know either you know so that's that and then elon musk did you watch i did i see to me i feel like a few years God, this kind of almost sounds like a dumb hipster thing. A few years ago, I was like, yeah, Elon Musk is so cool. I really do think that Elon Musk is like only concerned about Elon Musk first. Like a lot of people kind of feel like he's like the nerds nerd. Like, yeah, he's like the nerd that's like doing cool stuff and he's on our side. But I kind of feel like he's really only concerned about himself. And I'll tell you what my opinion,

anyone that's that rich is concerned about, like you don't get to be that rich by being like the people's person and that's everyone like regardless of political side or i'm not making a comment towards that at all i'm just saying anyone that wealthy like they're pretty much yeah regardless of what they say yeah or if you're not in or in a position of politics or whatever like right when you get to that high of a level of anything yeah you get there i mean just being the nicest guy yeah you know it's like yeah you got there because you were doing some stuff that really put you ahead of other people uh whether it was by a nice by a nice means no right i mean that's dumbing it down a lot but and i know like it was a really hot

button thing that he was going to be on there. I watched it, and I'm like, I don't know. Episode kind of sucked in comparison to something. I'm like, it wasn't even very good. But I guess he has Asperger's. I didn't know that. Oh, see, I didn't know either. You know, and so, you know, he did make the monologue.

He made a funny, kind of a couple funny comments about how, like, you you know and people can't i talk funny and have asperger's so i kind of talk in a way people don't really know what i'm joke when i'm joking or not so a lot of times i have to just say haha after i say something so like people know it's uh like be like is he joking or just or being a prick or like what's he doing you know and i don't know it wasn't that good overall i would was my yeah not hot i don't think that's a surprise though that like oh like a kind of a computer nerd billionaire guy like isn't super funny no and it just was an event it wasn't like it was supposed to be like because didn't they talk about the dogecoin on there they did and then i saw like

the price of that went way down like it'll probably go right he did talk about it was funny because uh weekend update is almost like that's 50 of the reason i watch snl because i do like uh colin jost and michael chay i think they're funny i think they're good yep and they did have him on there like it wasn't him it was he was being somebody else but they asked him a lot about dogecoin and it was funny they would ask him actually michael ch Michael Che would say something, and then Michael Che would go, so what is Dogecoin? And then Elon Musk would give this 30-second long response,

and Michael Che would go, okay, so what is Dogecoin? And they did that like six times. It is, if you listen to it. So he's saying all this stuff and you're still it's just like what we talk about you're like so what is it yeah like all of those things you said are abstract so like let's take those abstract things and they just kept

and then like Colin Joseph butts in he's like okay okay so what is Dogecoin like so what is it and that part was pretty funny and it is it is so true he explains all that stuff and you just at the end stuff, and you just, at the end of, no matter what he says at the end of it, you could say, so what is that?

You know, like, no matter what. Like, there's no explanation. Yeah, because it's built off of another thing. It's just built off of another thing. Right. Yeah. That was my current events that I had. Wow.

Geez, we did really good on the current events there, Tanner. Yeah, that's pretty good stuff. I don't even know if there's anything left. No, I don't have much of a farming update. Uh, we already covered the weather. Hmm. Wow. We're, we're, uh, we're really, really running efficiently at the moment.

Um, I do have a little, little something for us here. So did you say we, uh, you have a sack? Is this a sack? Well, we'll say this is a, is this the sack or this is actually, yeah. So this is a Tommy sack. What's in the can Tanner. Okay. Cause I don't even really know what this is. Oh, so this is a, was this the sack? This is actually, yeah. So this is Tommy's sack, what's in the can, Tanner. Because I don't even really know what this is. Oh, so was this a fan submission? This, Tanner, that I hold in my hands here,

came from north of the border. Not our Canadian friends. I'm not talking about North Dakota either. I'm talking a little farther north than that. Is it actually north of the border? Well, okay, okay, I'm sorry. Well, no matter what, it's north of the border okay okay i'm sorry well no matter what it's north of the border yeah yeah but um yeah it's no yeah it's relative to us it could be south of us yeah um so i do have a little message here tanner um this is coming from the former president of ontario uh and this has been big alex or uh yes big alex um this i don't know if oh yeah god in my brain

this was so much longer ago um it shipped around april 26 ish and it got here just the other day which isn't terrible for for canada no um for those canadian it's not terrible for canada so you did say the lady at the post office said something about them going airmail hopefully the cans will be pre-chilled going from 10,000 feet. So these cans already have had the 10,000 foot view. These cans have had the 10,000 foot view for sure. How high do planes fly at? What is cruising altitude, Tanner?

I like to think it's 10,000 feet. There's no way to know that for sure, though. It's a nice round number, so you've got gotta assume um let's dig into this tanner you should probably put your blindfold on though okay you know i'm assuming there's cans in this package too i don't know that for sure you could you could surprise us it could be one of those like packages where you when you open it explodes on my face it better not be oh it's like got like blue dye in it it better not be maple water oh i'll be sick um i'm trying to decide if i want to try and open this without seeing it too can it be done that's that is oh my for those uh just listening and not watching my blindfold

has been donned oh there's a okay i i gotta see because it's too there's a lot of saran wrap here so i will unfortunately know what it is you cannot yeah you gotta say blindfold though so it can be a true blind we made a joke about blue ink but i do have a lot of blue ink on my hand all of a sudden uh most are rubbed off the label okay oh okay we got a little something here. We got notes. Wow. Okay. Tanner. Notes or nodes? Notes. Notes. All right.

The cans are in my hand. Should I reach my hand out? They are icy cold. Oh, good. Both have definitely sustained some damage in the shipping process. By the looks of it, maybe they had gotten frozen and then thawed out again. Okay. Yep.

It's cold at 10 000 feet sometimes here this oh try opening that one tanner oh this is has a bulbous top it is i'm concerned that maybe that's how they do it am i doing this the right way no no turn it around that's oh okay the wrong way okay it feels very funny okay okay mine did open it's about the same as yours did mine open uh oh no it did no no it uh the the tab just poked through it and that was it uh here just i got a scissors here i got a sharp i got a knife maybe you should do that since i'm blindfolded yeah you do have to use the knife blindfolded and pop open the segment. This segment just

became extremely dangerous. What's in the can just turned into I got a scissors. I think I can poke the scissors through the aluminum maybe. Tanner, you're going to have to shotgun this. Oh, shit.

Did you get up? Yeah, we did. All right. You should be able to outside of the bulbous shape. You should be able to drink that like normal. And let me make sure you have the point at the right direction. Yeah, you should be able to drink from there. Yep.

Not a good drinking experience with that thing right there let me try that again it tastes i gotta be honest with you i'm having a hard time picking up flavor here. It tastes to me kind of like a Sprite. I don't have a blindfold on, and I'm spilling it on myself because the lid is so... Yeah, this is very mangled. Spilling it everywhere, Tanner. It tastes to me kind of like a Sprite.

It's like... I'm wondering, is it... I can't tell if it is sugar-free or if it has sugar or maybe just some artificial sweetener or something. I don't really know. I guess, let me try again. I guess I'd say like lemon-lime or something. I don't know.

I don't have a lot of flavor for it. Boy, are you ready for the reveal, Tanner? Yeah, I better take like lemon lime or something. I don't know. I don't have a lot of flavor for it. Boy, you're ready for the reveal, Tanner. Yeah, I better take my blindfold off and see what we've got. I literally can't drink mine without spilling it on me. Mandarin orange. Let me see that. I wasn't getting orange. I got to be honest.

I wasn't getting the orange either. I mean, it tastes good. What do we got? Mandarin orange? Carbonated, unsweetened, with natural flavors. Oh, it's flavor O-U-R. That's why. Okay, Tanner.

We also did, though, get these bomb ass sticker oh magnets we got this canadian magnets oh very cool so we have excellent that's probably like the canadian coat of arms or something uh there's a crown with some swords crossed and maple leaves yeah and then a maple leaf circle and a maple leaf. Is that like an Ontario flag or something? Oh, Navy. This says a Navy magnet. And did you see that this magnet was normally priced $100 and was on sale? Oh, I like that.

Okay. Okay. All right. So I got. Is that one of those? It says, Big Tommy, these cans are best enjoyed in segments. I've also included some overpriced decals to give you the full receiving a Mastodonomics package experience,

which, yes, thanks for all you do, and a special thanks to Western Northeast South Dakota for being Canada's grown-lock deadlift slipper. The mayor of the city of Ontario. Oh, he's mayor now. P.S. There's a P.S. Tanner. Okay.

Please ask Tanner if he kept his in-flight missile repair kit. Oh, he's an MLRS guy, I think. He must be. And what was was this so you said this was Navy in-flight missile repair kit yeah so he knows what we're he knows uh he knows uh this must be a military man that we're talking to here oh yeah so okay this is the army magnet oh okay oh it's like a mystery here yeah I didn't know there's actually oh this is the this is the air force. Oh, okay. It's like a mystery here. Yeah. I didn't know there was actually $100. Oh, and this is the Air Force magnet.

I didn't know there was actually $100 written on the magnet. Yeah, yeah. So it's the Navy Army Air Force. Well, I'm an Army man, so I guess I like this one. It's probably the coolest, or is this the coolest in its simplicity? That's probably the most iconic. Yeah, yeah. You could say this one pops the most, for sure.

Yeah, this one really pops. The maple leaf with the blue circle around it. The swords crossed with leaves, though, and a crown. Gets a little wild. That's pretty wild. Yeah. We don't have imagery like this in America. Yeah.

No. We don't have crowns. They don't make them like that anymore. We don't have crowns and leaves on things. I don't even know what the Army, United States Army, like if you were to boil it down to this what that is what is the symbol for it well i guess i do know what the flag looks like and stuff i suppose this is what comes off the flag or well this is the this is that one is

a straight up flag yeah that's pretty cool stuff yeah another good sack segment we're they're just we're on a roll on a roll tanner we didn't give this mandarin orange uh rating so who this is says blue menu yeah is that like blue apron yes i think it's a rachel ray this is rachel ray uh i'd probably have to go three and a half on this yeah i would give it give it that. It's refreshing, but it is very light on flavor. Does it taste like mandarin orange or orange in any way? I don't know. I want to think maybe it was frozen and thawed out a few times and maybe that messed with the flavor.

It tastes good, though. Oh, yeah, it's very good and refreshing. My one complaint is, why do they make their cans like this? Is this a Canadian thing? With the bulbous lid on them. Yeah, is this a Canadian thing? They must have weird-shaped mouths up there. That's probably what it is.

Well, have you ever seen South Park? That's right. Their heads are split in half. Their heads are different. Yeah. Like, their heads separate when they talk. Dead giveaway, yeah. Yeah, that's true.

So that's why they can drink out of cans like this because they're separated heads it does make sense we do have a pretty good loyal canadian following here sometimes there's certain days where the number of orders coming from canada i'm like god do people just think south dakota is in canada because we have a lot of stuff going that way we almost send something to can every day. There's a lot of days we send many, many things to Canada. Right, right. Like there's few days when something doesn't go to Canada. Yeah, it's kind of weird. And I feel like that has even gone more that way lately.

Yeah, yeah. We must be doing something that really appeals to them up there. Our simple Midwest minds just really are really relatable to them, I guess. They get it, don't they? You know, Tanner, we didn't talk't talk about though our drop really at all specifically the breaking parallel shorts and we do need to really we really need to go so this is this is actually one where we had no idea what to expect no like we never did and this time more than more than normal we're talking about a pair of shorts that were a meme like this was something that was a meme that was willed to life yeah by

mr turner yes yes and i remember when those first were go when when we or when we had our mass meme contest we said after like day one there was like eight memes about the lift shorts, or not lift shorts, break and parallel shorts. And we're like, well, we can agree that makes zero sense. That will never happen.

We're not actually making ones. And we're like, yeah, that was like a shirt we came up with a couple of years ago. And we sold like a hundred of them. We made a few of them. Slowly. And it took a long time to sell them.

Like, that clearly will never happen. Like, that's not going to be a thing. And we're both like, huh, yeah. And then like, there was more steam around it and momentum picked up and like a few weeks later it was like maybe those could be a thing maybe and then it was fun to

kind of keep the joke going on and by the time we did it it was like oh people would be pissed if we did yeah so it got to the point where it's like yeah we clearly need to do these but it was still like god okay we're doing a hundred pair i could understand if we don't sell all a hundred like in the first week like if it right like we'll probably sell a lot right away and we will sell yeah we'll sell them eventually but like it might take maybe a week or two to really go through those hundred like that's kind of what we sort of thought yeah and that makes sense to me you know that would make sense like it's how many people are in on this joke or a little breaking parallel so that's what i thought i was like i bet we're gonna sell 50 of them really fast all the people yeah i think it's safe to

say there's real good people out of it there's 50 people that are in on this joke to the point well they're gonna spend like 35 bucks shorts and shipping to get right right there's probably 50 people out there yeah um what we didn't expect is that we would sell a hundred of them in. The fastest we've ever sold, the highest velocity we've ever sold anything almost by far. Yeah. Like it was, it was just,

we sold like that. We've never sold through something quite as fast as that. And like, we kind of do this thing sort of where we're sort of sneaky about the actual time where we're going to do some. On occasion we'll drop it a little earlier. You flip the switch on it and immediately it was like, I don't even know if they've been live for 30 seconds. And my email went.

And there was like 20 of them were gone in like 30 seconds. It's like we don't have the email going out yet. Like the people are going to get this email. It hadn't been posted on Instagram. Yeah. the email going out yet like the people are going to get this email and it hadn't been posted on instagram yeah so so there's clearly people out there like hitting refresh non-stop or they have some trick that we don't know about to let them know when things are being published i wouldn't be surprised if someone i also went out there some of those guys are pretty people yes pretty smart like they could have a way but yeah it was there were several people that made comments like by the time the email went out they're like, these have been out for 30 seconds and multiple sizes are gone.

Well, we did release them slightly. They had more like been out for an hour or something. Not even an hour. Maybe 30 minutes. But yeah, we didn't anticipate people just getting on it like that. So somebody got upset. They said, what did you order? One of every size and i

was like no we had a hundred and they're like only a hundred an instagram account of 40 000 followers and you order a hundred like that's a joke of course they're gonna gonna sell out and i'm want to be like yeah i wish that's how this always works so that argument right there like if that was actually how it worked massonomics would do millions of dollars, like millions of dollars a year. If 40,000 meant just everyone that followed you bought something. Like they wouldn't have to buy much. They would just have to buy like one thing. And if everyone that followed us bought one thing a year,

we'd do a million dollars in sales. Yeah, we would. That's the math. Yeah. And that's not how that works at all. Yeah, we would. That's the math. Yeah.

And that's not how that works at all. Like lots of people in the e-commerce just spaces in general are happy to have a 1%. Yeah. Even a 2% return rate, depending on the industry, you can look at 2% return or a 2% conversion rate is like unheard of in certain industries. Right, right. And I mean, if you just do that math on anyone it's you start to see like how this isn't uh no no the numbers don't add up for yeah we we were honestly not trying to artificially reduce the number available like we were not trying to we would have loved to have had like 300 of them you just sold out 300 in hindsight like if we did it all over again we probably would

have done a run a limited run of 200 but you got to understand like the risk we run is when we are spending thousands of dollars to get uh uh you know multiple thousands of dollars to get uh um just a quantity of 100 of something and then we have the risk if something doesn't go over well and it's like like we're not at a point where oh we ordered a hundred of these we're financially ruined no it's just like we just don't want to sit on inventory you don't want to sit on inventory and then also like you can't make that wrong like you can't call that wrong too many times in a year before it does start to make a difference right in right your actual financial outcomes right you know like let's say we just order twice as much as something like five or 10

times. That's a lot of, that's thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars that are tied up in inventory. Best case scenarios, we'll put it on sale and maybe break even on. And it's like, we could be using that money for something else.

Yeah. So it is one of those things where, yeah. And like now we would, we would love to put in another order for a hundred or 200 of them, but that kind of is like a slap in the face to the people that ordered them and got on it too so that's the that's kind of the thing on all the you know the especially the super limited shorts that we do where you get the one of 100 card yeah is it kind of a joke yeah it's all

kind of a joke it is a joke it's not kind of a joke it's all it is a joke but there is still something to like people order them so quickly because that's what the deal is like that's only going to be that 100 and then if we go reorder 100 more uh one week later then people are kind of like hey yeah what the hell man what was the point of all this right and hoopla right right right so um is it to say that we could never re-release? We could do a second edition. We could do a second edition runs of things, but also we're not going to do it anytime

soon. There has to be distance between it to make it kind of fair. It will have to be different in some way. It can't just be like these are literally the same thing. There'll just be a gigantic number two on them somewhere. The other thigh will just be a giant giant two like yeah okay uh wasn't it could have been more subtle i wasn't on it the first time but i did get the second edition one so it's not a total loss i guess yeah uh so those those those were insane i mean the those greatly exceeded what we had

expected yeah we would have we would have never. So I guess it shows Austin Turner was right all along with the breaking parallel shorts, wasn't he? And he did get his one of 100 pair, you know, given to him the morning of the release. And I think he was pretty excited about that. He still is really hopeful to get a follow back from the Mastodonomics account yet, but he hasn't got that yet.

Yeah, you can't have it all. No, that's what I said. That would be too much. You wouldn't be able to handle that all in one day. And he said, nah, I'd be cool. That would be all right. Trust us though. I was like, no, you wouldn't be able to.

No, no. There was also the Breaking Parallel T, which moved significantly faster than the last time we had it. Like significantly faster. We sold more of those already than we did the last time we had it like yeah significantly more of those already than we did the last time we sold them i think we sold more of those in one day than we did the last time we had that shirt for like the year we had it in stock that one is you know it's not the shorts limited but it's limited in the way that we're not going to reprint that

one yeah it's gone when it's gone it's gone i mean it might come back but it's right it's not if it comes back it'll be like the shorts it'll probably be several years from now and it's right yeah so if you do want one of those which some sizes are sold out there's not honestly just not many of that shirt left so if you want the breaking parallel shirt really now this isn't a sales pitch order it now because otherwise in a month you're going to ask me uh when are you getting more of that breaking Parallel shirt? And it's like, well, we're not, so order it now. Order that one now, because we're not going to get more. The other ones, the new designs, the wild cards in this situation, Tanner,

was the Icon T, which we talked about last week. It seems really iconic. It is. It is iconic. And then also the Lift Shit T. And they both went over really well, too. They did go really well. This was actually, as far as our drops go,

I think our best drop as far as just... Yeah. Honestly, it was our biggest first day drop that we've done. Yeah. And as far as just like all of the... There was no duds. Successful across the board. I shouldn't say duds.

We never have duds. But there's always... Usually like there's clear winners. And then the one that's not. There's backseat. Yeah um these we have never had like literally we're selling the exact same like at the end of the day they sold the exact same numbers like and all very wet all very good too you know like all were were popular um i don't have any though we sold out of the if you we sold out a 2x super fast which never happens right and uh it's like someone asked me about something about like the shorts like oh are you gonna get some of the shorts i'm like

i'm so cheap or maybe it's also the lack of me needing more clothing yeah some combination there that i'm like i get more satisfaction out of selling no and out of knowing someone else has right yeah i do honestly like it's i'm it's more satisfying to me most times for getting to sell it to someone else and them getting it. So I don't have a pair of those shorts. And I didn't get either of the shirts yet because I want to see like, well, I don't want to take the 2X. Yeah, from someone that actually wants it.

Right, right. Especially when they're like that size is at a, for whatever reason, is really a hot size at the point in time and so i'll have to because i do really want the lift shit t yeah that one does look it looks really good but so i may have to wait for a restock uh some of you might too but there are still most sizes are there's limited quantities of all sizes of those and bow shirts but um you could still get one in most sizes yeah and we should have we will get a restock going at some point it's just yeah i mean when you gotta wait for no everyone wants it they want it

now you know they don't want to wait a month like a wise jg wentworth once said mr my lift shit shirt and i want it now i still really like the color of the lift shit shirt it's a it's a clean looking shirt it is just have to be more selective about when you wear a shirt that says shit on it so that's for a different crowd just slightly more but it doesn't say fuck on it yeah it does there's a difference there too yeah there you know it's like uh kind of reminds me that one south park episode it's an old one where they say shit like 300 there's the counter on it yeah yeah because they're like oh did you hear they say shit on tv tonight and they're everyone's all amped because some cop show says isn't that what it is is that what

it came from or i think it's like yeah there's gonna be some cop show and they say shit on it and so everyone's so hyped on it like oh you can say shit on tv yeah right right right and now now i don't think it would people would be like oh that's a funny episode whatever but i feel like at the time they're making a big point out of like whoa like well they probably weren't at south park they clearly weren't that fired up but right they were making a point for sure right right so good drop great drop great drop great drop we've got more things in the works too don't we we do boy do we have cool stuff in the works man do we have cool shit coming we do actually i'm just even remembering some of the i'm not even like now that i think of the other stuff that

i wasn't even thinking the first time i said that we have really cool stuff in the works right now yeah we we actually like not outside of the apparel world yes we even have some stuff outside of the apparel world that is uh potentially going to be very cool later this year. Yeah. And some t-shirts that are all about having a silly goose night. Some t-shirts that are just like. Really? Even more out there than what we have.

These are some. We got some out there stuff coming. We do have some really cool stuff coming. It's just going to be a silly goose heyday. It's going to be a. It's the year. It's going to be a crispy goose heyday it's that's going to be it it's the year it's going to be a crispy you know like on the chinese restaurants yeah yeah the year of the dragon it's like the year of the silly goose it is the year of the silly goose and it's the summer

of crispy boys yep crispy boys summer within the year of the silly goose yeah yeah it's a season yeah yes that's what we've got coming yeah i'm excited yeah what else do we have this episode anything else in particular well eventually we'll have we have a guest but oh that's true i guess we still do have to do that we have but we should you know it's fun to keep your guest waiting as long as possible you know we have had some we have had some banging guests lately though tanner we really have been And people have responded quite well to them. Yeah. We are not going to talk specific numbers,

but just download numbers are just going great. It's exciting for us to see that the podcast is getting out to more and more ears all the time. It is. And we did this for a really long time where it felt like, I don't know. I mean, somebody's listening. The numbers are going up by numbers.

The number's a little higher, but now it's like satisfyingly. Like, I don't think it's lower. Yeah, right, right. Now it does go up. And I feel like people are receptive to that and also recognizing that. So that's cool. Yes. I did have a little story about 35 pound plates oh yes you did um we probably should cover that yeah because I want to know you can't keep me right so I posted today on Instagram that we had I had uh six 35 pound plates so I was at my day job last week and i probably i'm sure i've mentioned before on

the podcast that most almost your day job packing massonomics orders my other day job most all if not almost all of the people i work with wouldn't even begin to understand have a understanding of what massonomics is oh it'd be like that weekend update segment when you explain it and they go so what is massonomics yes so that's exactly what it would be um but and they'd say so what's a me me yes yes exactly but there is at least one uh there's a couple people around that do kind of get it and there's one in particular, Big Brad. He's even competed in a powerlifting meet with us before he's come to the gym.

And I was eating, I think I was eating some lunch the other day, like last week in my office. And he walked by and I talked to him about something. Did you have like a whole rotisserie hog on a spit? You were like cutting it off and i was like basting it you just yeah you just caught my attention yeah yeah no i was i think i was having chicken and rice okay chicken a little more rice and cheese a little more simple yeah um and he said so i've got some 35s i could like is that something you would actually want to

buy or not like asking like legitimately like is that something you would actually want to buy or not like asking like legitimately like is that something you would and you know not really sure because also i'm not sure what is our take on 35s officially on the show anymore because i used to thought that we were pro 35s i think people i think somewhere in the line of guests where we talked about 35s i think some people think we're anti oh no i'm Oh, no, I'm still pro-35. Right. I am. Yeah, so am I. Maybe we're just being nice to a guest. Just trying to agree with somebody.

Yeah, we're just being agreeable. Because a certain section of our listeners, I think, believes that we're anti-35s. Oh, no. I'm not, and I never have been. No, we're pro-35s. Oh, absolutely. Like, if we're on the side of the scale, it's pro 35s. 35s, yes, have them, make them.

I think it was probably when we had multiple guests on that manufactured plates and talked about how dumb they were, and we humored them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We went along with them. And then, you know, Grant. We were playing politics. Yeah, Grant did make the very custom Mastinomics 35, which is very funny and awesome.

And we still have it. It still is actually set up as a 35 in the gym. But anyways, Big Brad asked, would you actually want to buy these 35s? And I said, yeah, I do want to buy those 35s because at the gym we have... Do we have two sets? Yes, before this we have two sets of,

if you count bumpers we have like maybe four, but we have two sets? Yes. Before this, we have two sets of, if you count bumpers, we have like maybe four. But we have two sets of iron 35s. Is there one set by the squat rack and one over by the benches? Or does it kind of move? There's usually always one set on the squat rack. And then there's sometimes one by the benches. But now sometimes they're both on the squat rack too, I noticed. Because people like them.

Right, right. So now we got another three more pairs and a couple more standards. And one pair was Yorks, which I always like Yorks too. But kind of the biggest reason I want those. So we have tens of thousands of pounds of weights in the gym, just countless 45s and countless 10s and 25s and everything. But we have like these four 35s. But we have these four 35s, and we have these big racks that have these giant pin plates that have a spot for 35s,

and I never like it when there's one sitting on there. Just purely aesthetically. It looks like the set's missing. Yeah, it looks like something's gone. So now I'm stoked to walk in with these six, slap them on there, and be like, ha, looks full. It looks full. Because also Rogue makes those pins way too big, don't they?

They do make a shorter one. But the shorter one's way too short though, isn't it? The short one works good for two and a halves and fives and maybe tens. But the one for 45, I guess if you squat 900 pounds. That one for 45s, it would hold like a dangerous amount of 45 like it holds too many 10 45s per side i just i'm like is that i just feel like aesthetically they made the pin the wrong size yeah it's just slightly too long yeah i think there should be a medium size one and then there should also be the option for this extra large one that should i

agree i think you're exactly right the small one is a decent size for the small plates the big one does not is too long it is too long is it practical yes can it hold a lot yes is the proportions just off a hundred percent yeah yeah that that and also i start to get to the point where i'm like man is 10 45 sitting on each that pin for years like is that detrimental to something structurally? But also, why do you want to tie up 1045s on each side of a squat rack? Yeah. Maybe there's home gym purposes

where you utilize 45s in multiple places, but you just store them all right in that one spot. I guess, but if you're using them in multiple places, don't they just kind of live in those places anyway? I don't know. I guess it's your weight tree. But no, I think I agree with you, I guess. I agree with you.

Those should be the extra large option. And there should be a middle one. Yeah, I think so too. I think so. I think that's right. But so anyways, on our other rack though, I'm just going to put more 35s there and I'm just going to like the way it looks.

Also kind of in the, what we saw happen to weights. I just, I, you know, within the last year, you could never have enough of them. That's kind of the mentality that I've taken now. And it was a, it was a fair price. I got, got them for a fair price. So I was interested in it for that reason also. And I just kind of think you can never have enough of them. But then again, this is another thing I don't know I've talked about before, but it kind of think you can never have enough of them but then again this is another

thing I don't know I've talked about before but it kind of makes me I always think about this more often now plates are a really weird thing like plates are not a consumable product the iron plates that we have in the gym have existed many of those probably existed before you or I were born they're only appreciating yourself well they're, what I'm saying is a lot of those existed before you and I were born. They will exist after you and I are dead. So it's one of those things like, yes, does the gym own those plates right now?

Yes, but is that something that you really own or not? You just kind of are the caretaker of it for a period of time. It's just our turn, Tanner. It is our turn. That's a deeper discussion on things, but it is really true with weights like that so then when there's not many pieces of equipment in the gym that you can say that for no like most of them like all the barbells and most of the barbells 10 years from now they'll all be usable but they're

not the same good bar yeah most of the barbells we have are even past their prime now that's true all very good true but definitely past their prime. They get put through the ringer. They absolutely do. But those weights, when do we get to a critical mass? Where it's like, we've hit peak weight. Right. There's nowhere where-

Every household in America has 1,000 pounds of weight. So here's my thing. There's some weights out there that are breaking. Very few. In the five years we've been- What did you say? What was? Oh, I've just seen it on, honestly, I've just seen it on Instagram on occasion that one

will split. What? In the five years of the, have you ever seen TD Smash? He's holding one that's- Yeah, I just assume that that's always so staged. Like someone had the one broken weight. I've heard of it on occasion, some splitting and cracking and breaking, like being a little brittle.

Okay. But our anecdote in our five years of the gym, like we just said, things getting put through the ringer, having many different brands of plates, never had one break of any weight. From the cheapest, shittiest ones to the nicest ones. Never had one break.

So all the weights continue to exist. They can only get stuffed in so many people's garages and basements and addicts and well, not addicts are heavy, but you get the point where I'm just like, and then over the last year and a half now, people are just pumping it. The demand is so high.

You know, all these companies are essentially, you know, we have a great sponsor here, the strength code. That's I think essentially making them or selling them as fast as they can make them. I was going to say, yeah, can't keep them on the shelf. And they make very good plates.

But when do we get to the point where there's like... So, breaking, it almost doesn't happen. We decided that. What else? Do they deteriorate in usability? The one thing we talked about is when money's no object, and like usability like they might the one thing we talked about is like when money's no object it'd be great to get rid of like some of the yeah the the shittier like so i would like to do that i'd like to buy more strength co for i'd like to buy at some point buy about 10 10 sets of 45s from

grant at the strength co and add those to the gyms and get rid of our you know we'd be able to keep the yorks but get rid of the shitty bad tolerant stuff that might weigh 50 pounds or 40 pounds get rid of those but those still are exist someone's gonna want those someone will buy them yeah and somebody perfectly usable they're still in the they're still like in the lifting they're in the rotation yeah so what like when is there no when is it like yep plates everyone's got enough i don't know and it seems like all of the colleges and all those places are moving towards like their own branded plates now you know they are both so when they get rid of the ones they have that's it dumps more into the yeah because they're never no one's ever like yeah we can throw these ones

in the garbage yeah yeah well yeah because we'll melt them down yeah i know they never get recycled like into remanufacturing like they get recycled to a new home is what happens but right that is a good question i'd like to hear more people's more people's thoughts and opinions on that i'd like to hear what uh brandon campbell i know he watches the show i want to hear his opinion on it i'd like to hear Coop and Adam and like when is there – When does peak plate happen? The other factor is training, strength training getting more popular, I suppose. So there's more people doing it. And home gyms.

And home gyms exploding. And they have. But still, I might still come back to like at some point this like – Does every household in America need 500 pounds of weight? Like most people can't. Even eventually they do. Like 50 years from now. Like I'm just saying at some point in time,

they all will have it. And then what? There will actually be a statistic like... There's more plates in the world than there are people. Like 1 billion pounds of weight have been produced. That's enough for every citizen in America to have 100 pounds of their own. Right. You know, of what i'm what i'm that number yeah that number will be there someday right yes that's a big question that's a deep thoughts that is heavy thoughts

i'll say yeah it is heavy thoughts but uh so that's the one heavy thought the other one which we already mentioned though that i think is interesting is the the plates do outlast us so they're kind of just renting them for this you are just renting them really long window and you can really say that about almost all your possessions which really puts in their perspective like anything that's what does this what does this thing that i consider mine matter because is it mine? You know, it's funny because, uh, I am a fan of the, uh, musician Ty Dolla sign.

Okay. And he has a song. I can't even remember what the name of the song is called. If it actually is, it might, the name of the song might actually be your turn. And he talks about how the, one of the lyrics in the song is nobody's truly yours.

It's just your turn. And I told it to my, to my wife one day, I go, you know, I was kind of thinking about this. And like everything in life, you never really own anything. Like your house.

You feel like you own your house. I said, it's just your turn with it. And she's like, okay, wow. You're thinking of things kind of negatively. And I was like, I feel like I'm onto something here. I agree with that. Especially like you sold a house and bought this not too many years ago. I just sold a house and bought a different one.

Your house, you really feel like it's your house up until that day that you sell it and get a different one. And all of a sudden you're like, yeah, yeah. And all of a sudden then it's like those things that you worried about these things because you're like, this is my house. I don't want that to be out of whack or broken. I don't want that painted that color. And I don't want that finished like that. And I don't want that finished like that. And I want to take care of it and that's mine. And then you sell it and all of a sudden you're like,

well, yeah, someone else now lives in there. And like all those things I cared for and cared about are not mine now. And it's the same thing. Like pretty much every major, I mean, all major, so your house, I know very few people that have, you know, outside of like my parents and like

like when i go back home i can see people like yeah they've yeah they've that was the house that my friends grew up in and their parents still live there so yeah they've lived in that house a long ass time and they probably will but a lot of people don't do that and then like cars very few people very few people hang on to a car for more than 10 years and the cars you know it's slightly different too because those eventually do become junk well they do they do they are like more consumable so like eventually that is just junk yeah but like a house you know taken care of decently last it's gonna like many many generations you'd just be a snapshot in like that house's life you know yeah it's weird and i really feel i really think about it with plates it's like who

like a hundred years from now who's going to be handling those plates if only tanner there was a way to make a blockchain for plates so we could know who they went through you know we could keep track of the transactions i heard heard jim mcd say something about how nfts related to podcasts are going to be a thing oh i could that would make sense how like could you do an nft for anything digital okay so i mean most people are at least most people that i know that are doing nfts right now are of art but there's no reason you couldn't do an nft of a song or a podcast episode a podcast episode or a script or a book or something as far as i know okay in my simple brain it's there but yeah that would make sense i could see that so another way for another uh revenue stream another get rich

quick scheme yep that's all this is the thing about get rich quick schemes is they always work so and they always go quick they always go quick yeah and there's always money there there's literally no downside to any get rich quick-quick scheme. No, no. I've never seen that not work for anyone before. It's guaranteed money every time. That's why they call it get-rich-quick scheme, because you get rich quick. They wouldn't lie about it. No.

That's not how that works. No. Damn, Tanner. That's about it, though. We're really keeping our guests waiting here. Oh, yeah. I suppose we better read that so we can get to our guests. I think it's going to be a good episode here, too.

Our really good interview. I'm excited for it. If I had to going to be a good episode here too. You know, our good, good, really good interview. I'm excited for it. If I had to take a guess, I'd say we asked some questions and he's probably going to say, wow, that's a really great question. You asked a great, you guys,

I bet we're going to ask some great questions. You're right. We'll see though. But until then, Tanner, do you know what's in your supplements? You are asking me. Oh yeah,

yeah, I was. Oh yeah. Okay. So it's, yeah, I was. Oh, yeah. Okay, so if it's Fusion Sports Performance, you will know. You were too slow. You were too slow to answer the question. Fusion Sports Performance prides itself on being fully transparent, never using proprietary blends,

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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 laid 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 world and massonomics powerlifting records have been and continue to be set and broken on the Texas Power Bar. To learn more about Texas Power Bars and buy

one of their legendary bars, visit texaspowerbars.com. Today's show is 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 ready to go too. They are the only powerlifting supplier with live website chat support available during the weekdays, and you can get email replies to your questions in hours, not days. They are now accepting Amazon Pay and Stripe for a quick and simple checkout, and once your order is complete, it will ship

fast with same-day shipping on most orders. Massonomics customers can use code MASS20, 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 Lifting Large, D-O-T-C-O-M. Today's show 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 probably many lifetimes tanner the strength co plates have become the go-to choice for all members at massonomics gym check out their plates and all their other made in America equipment online at the strength code.com. That's the strength co.com. And last, but definitely not least today's show is brought to you by spud ink and the master blaster ruck pack. This piece of equipment is going to be your new favorite enemy. A combination of cardio punishment and muscle endurance is what you have in store for

you with the Ruck Pack Sled. Simply strap in the weight and put the pack on to do long ruck hikes, lunges, stairs, runs, etc. When you want a little different type of punishment, simply take the pack off and put a sled strap on the pack and start your sled dragging just by flipping the harness around the plates. This will become one of the most versatile tools you have in your arsenal for building muscle, burning fat, and getting in great shape. Check out the Master Blaster Ruck Pack Sled online at spud-ink-straps.com. Well, Tanner, is that everything that's everything

let's get our guest going we should also probably you know we did get this package we should probably say thanks thanks to Alex just in case we didn't make that clear enough

as the former president of Ontario current mayor of Ontario was that the official designation something like that so thank you Alex we always appreciate

packages yes thank you makes great for a great sack great great sack should should we get our guests in line let's do it hello big ben you're live on the massonomics podcast with tanner and tommy what's up ben hey how's it going we're good We're excited to get you on here. It's been a long time coming. Hell yeah, I appreciate you having me. Yeah, well, so anyone that doesn't know, we're talking with Big Ben.

Do you say Pollock? Pollock, yep. Okay. I don't want to get going and say it five times and say it wrong and not have you correct us. All good. All right. And better note, or maybe also known as ph deadlift on instagram and that's not just a catchy name you do have a phd correct i do it's actually not catchy at all but i do have a phd okay okay it's not even a catchy name maybe clever yeah yeah yeah

and so that's part of what we wanted to talk to you about is I think it's pretty interesting. What did you go to school for? So I did my undergrad actually in finance, and I worked in the financial industry for a few years and hated it. So I went back and did something that I did enjoy, which was the degree was actually called Interdisciplinary Studies in Physical Culture and Sports. But in reality, it was the history of bodybuilding, powerlifting, just strength sports in general from the late 1800s to modern day. So did you have classmates in this program? I had one. And then there were a couple other guys that focused on other sports.

But it was a PhD program, so I think throughout the entire time I was there, my advisor had six students over six years, something like that. It's a pretty small program. So when people get that degree, what are most of the people planning on doing? Well, it's kind of like one of those MLM schemes. You learn and then you can teach other people the history of bodybuilding. And then you just get six friends to get interested in the history of bodybuilding. Exactly.

It's almost too easy. Yeah. Okay. So that's at University of Texas in Austin then, correct? Yes. Okay. And so is Jan Todd one of the main professors then? Is that right?

Yeah. So Jan was my advisor, and she runs the program now, which the name has changed since I started the program, so I'm not quite sure what it's called now but it's a uh it's the department went through a whole lot of changes actually during the time i was there but when i started uh the phd program was a standalone and then there were also degrees in sport management and then an undergraduate just culture is culture and sports studies, which is very similar. And now I think, I want to say they maybe asked the PhD in sport management, it's just a master's, but I'm not sure.

But Jan does run the part that I studied in. Okay, and then the Stark Center is there also. So I imagine you were around that, you know, heavily involved in some of that while you were there then too. Yeah, that was pretty much my life for a good six years. Yeah. It is crazy. It's really interesting, like something that's, oh, is there anything anywhere else at any other universities that's similar?

Similar to the Stark Center? No. There are similar programs at other schools throughout North America mostly, and there are a few in Europe. But for the most part, it's pretty niche, so there's not a whole lot. Yeah. So when you're going through with this program, with this study, were you routinely learning stuff that you're like, wow, that is mind blowing. I didn't know that. Or do you, as someone that's kind of involved in the strength sport world, were you like, I kind of knew most of this stuff already? Oh, so that's a great question. Really?

I think the big thing that you learn, at least for, for my PhD was really how to do research as opposed to like facts. So example my dissertation was about jack lane who i don't know if you guys know but yeah he was one you know one of the first guys to have a fitness show on television made a lot of money doing it was very very popular especially for our parents generation so i knew of jack lane and i kind of had the gist of the story but then actually diving down and going through every single newspaper story ever written about him, connecting all the dots, following up on all the claims that were made about him that maybe didn't have citations. That's really what I spent most of that time learning how to do because it's a very onerous process. Actually, it's harder than it sounds.

But between that and then learning to read and write like an academic, those were the big things. In terms of crazy facts, there were some. There were some that were just – you never would have thought of it. Or the first lifting machines being invented in the 1800s. That was something that kind of blew my mind. But I think those were rarer than the moments where it was really – it was schoolwork for the most part. So it was drier than it sounds.

It felt like schoolwork then quite a bit of the time. Yeah. It wasn't like, yeah, lifting. It wasn't just like you just weren't excited about it like that every day. It wasn't like going to the gym every day. Right. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I like to think of it the other way, that it's just like much more glamorous.

Yeah, school, let's do this. So how much money do you think Jack LaLanne made over his career? Oh, so that's a great question because they were very, very private about finances. So I don't have a good answer for you. Maybe they were trying to hide something. Well, they were actually. So what happened was sometime in the 1980s, he ended up selling a good portion of the royalties from his show, ended up giving them to somebody else, basically a con artist. And so after that they they they got

involved in a big legal battle over it and i believe they ended up settling but after that you know they tried to keep everything uh kind of private so so what do you think is going on oh man i i imagine that the guy promised jack you know distribution that he couldn't really provide uh got jack to sign some papers and then just took off with the money okay you know not really anything you could do about it yeah right what like a lot of these historic lifts like paul anderson uh comes to my mind and you know even probably one's older than that and um a lot of times a lot of the stuff seems like bs like at least the numbers that they're saying like lou Sears, some of that stuff too. Like where I'm like, really?

Did they do that? Like that's like relating it to maybe who I would consider some of the strongest men in the world where I'm like, the strongest men in the world today, where I'm like, I don't think they can do that. Like is that, you know, how much stretching of the truth goes on in all history? Man, if you asked Jan that question, she would go on for the whole podcast about Anderson alone.

But there was a lot of stretching of the truth. It's like, you guys have done Charmin stuff. You know how you'll have a bunch of gyms, a bunch of tires at the gym. You know, this guy, you know, he's been there. It's like, well, how much do they weigh? You know, we call that one a thousand in hand. We don't really know. it's that kind of deal the thousand pound tires that everyone that comes to the gym can somehow lift exactly they all just kind of guesstimate that everybody agrees and it's like okay that's what it weighs right uh and it was like that for quite a long time uh

especially when it came to the powerless because those were never with the olympic weight olympic lifts it got standardized pretty early on relative to the powerlifts because those were never with the Olympic weight, Olympic lifts, it got standardized pretty early on relative to the other strength sports. So with strongman and powerlifting, you know, that stuff didn't really happen until the mid 20th century. So there's a whole lot of storytelling. Yeah.

Is there, is there any, uh, historic feats of strength, um, that you just in particular think are really bad-ass? Oh man. Uh, so my favorite are all kind of the performing strongman ones because you can look at like what they did it just looks kind of amazing and you know whether it's sandow and his overhead events or some of the wrestling

stuff and uh the um the back lifts or the uh you know not really it's not a plank but a lift where you kind of plank and support a bunch of weight on your back all those things where there's like thousands of pounds involved and really they're all kind of magic tricks where it's more leverage and positioning than actual muscular strength but that always struck me as one of the cooler aspects because the way jan explained it it's's like, look, you're a traveling strongman. You have to do this every day while you're on the road. If you're doing actual lifts, you're going to destroy yourself. So, yeah, you've got to train for these.

But then when you're actually on stage, you're kind of performing illusions rather than any actual piece of strength. Yeah. than any actual piece of strength. Yeah. So we know you compete in both powerlifting and bodybuilding, but just thinking about some of the stuff you've studied, have you ever done many strongman lifts before? Have you ever felt compelled to do it just because through your education?

Well, actually, I started, I guess not my very first competition, but one of my first competitions was in a strongman. So when I started competing, actually, I had a friend who taught me to do in the CrossFit Open one year. And yeah, it was not fun. I think that's when I messed up my shoulders for the rest of my life. That one day. It took one day. Yeah, the gym that they all trained at had a bunch of strongman stuff in the corner so after that after that one day i started just hanging out with the strongman

crew there and training for that stuff so i did my first competition honestly i loved it i loved the hell out of strongman it's super fun um but then training for my second competition you know there was a thousand pound tire that i bring the to flip, and I was 170 pounds at the time. And so I tried to flip it. I got it to my hip twice. Everybody's egging me on. I didn't know what the hell I was doing. So I go the third time and try and bull rush it,

and I tear my bicep. So that was the end of my strongman career. Yeah. Yeah. Tanner's no stranger to injury in the world of strongman. I've torn my bicep flipping a tire before so yeah I can understand that it's not fun it makes you also not want to flip tires anymore

it does that seems less cool all of a sudden right yeah so the power lifting and the bodybuilding side of it though got some questions about doing both of those

um you compete are highly competitive in both um does it make does does doing both make you better in both or do you feel like uh uh you would if you only were interested in doing one would you be better in that one and only focusing on that one? For me specifically, I think it makes me better. And the reason I say that is because I tend to overthink things. So if I'm focused on one thing at a time, I just kind of get so wrapped up in it that I psych myself out. And by having kind of two at once that I have to focus on, it prevents me from doing that. So for me specifically, the mental aspect alone I think makes me better at both. In a perfect world, I'd be able to focus on one at a time. And then I still think you can

structure things, you know, just kind of flip your off seasons. So your off season for bodybuilding is your in season for powerlifting and vice versa. And I think it could work out pretty well, but even though they're complimentary, I think it's tough to really excel at both at the same time. Is there one particular style of training that you've enjoyed more than the other? Oh, I enjoy powerlifting way more. There's just no adrenaline rush from the bodybuilding stuff. It's fun. I don't mind it by any means.

I like going to the gym. But it can't compare to getting under heavy weight that know, not sure you're going to get and then being able to lift it. Right. Yeah. There is no, that kind of is the thing is like powerlifting does give you that, like, depending on where you're at in your training, it can be few and far between, but that day you get that rush like that, let's go. Like that is, that is the really the, probably the most rewarding part at times. I think so. Yeah, and if you're going in and you're like, all right, today I just need to do really four sets of 10

really controlled and really go for the pump. It's still training, so if you like training, that's fun, but there is never that moment in time. Like, do or die, we got to get this in. Yes. Yeah, I get that. Yeah, I never really thought about that moment to our die. We got to get this. Yes. Yeah. I get that. Yeah.

I never really thought about that part of it before. Oh, so which one are you better at? Oh, that's a good question. Cause I have only been bodybuilding for a ball. I did classic physique for one year, which was really stupid because I don't have a classic physique structure at

all. Um, but this, this will be my second year bodybuilding. So we'll see how it goes i feel pretty optimistic um there's a lot more to learn in bodybuilding than i thought i really underestimated in that regard just you know i figured it was get as busy as you can get as straight as you can and that's really all there is to it that's not the case so um learning what i have over this past

year i think i'll be in a better place to hopefully perform better. But we'll see. Bodybuilding is also a lot more competitive. There are so many more bodybuilders than there are powerlifters that it's hard to compare the two in that regard. So in my super uneducated brain when it comes to bodybuilding, bodybuilding is training and diet. Is that summed up pretty good or would you say there's another part I'm missing there? Yeah, I think you're missing the posing. Oh, right, right, right. I really overlooked it myself because the poses look really simple, and it's difficult to execute them correctly without looking in a mirror, being able to hold the positions for as long as you're on stage. They're basically looking at you to slip up a little bit, so it's the they're really looking for those they're basically looking at you to slip up

a little bit uh so it's it's difficult and you should also look like you're able to do them without dying right exactly yeah so so those three the diet the training and the posing what do you think is the most challenging aspect of bodybuilding for me it's the posing because you know i'm fortunate enough to have pretty good metabolism. The dieting is not that stressful for me. And I enjoy the training part of it. So even though you could argue the training is the hardest part, that's where you're putting in the work and the pain and whatever, you're still enjoying it. Whereas the posing, it's a little bit boring sometimes. It's repetitive.

How about that? It's repetitive. So what is when you're learning posing like what is training for posing like what does that look like do you have like a route a routine you're getting taught or is it like here's a list of here's my my rep schemes for posing for the day like how does that look it's it's more like the latter now you can lots of people enjoy spending a lot of time on their routines but at the amateur level the routine isn't judged at all so yeah it's not it's not the best use of time.

Instead, it's like, okay, so I have my however many mandatory poses, depending on what position, what division I'm in, and I'm going to practice them this many times, this many, hold them for this many seconds, start in this many weeks out and progress it, you know, however it takes to get them right. And so I have a coach here. I'm in Grand Rapids right now. Help me out with that.

And then I'm going to spend the next eight weeks before my show with Joe Bennett, who's hypertrophy coach on Instagram, and Terrence Ruffin, who was number two in the Classic Olympia this year. So, you know, just make sure I can get it right. Yeah. We know we've both watched Pumping Iron a lot of times. And, you know, there's one important aspect is hiding the T-shirt. Like, is that something that they've talked to you about?

To get in the opponent's heads. To really psych out your opponents? Actually, no. Everybody, so, man, I got to say, another thing I kind of screwed up, I went to the bodybuilding thing. Everybody's going to be a pretentious douchebag. And really, everybody has been super cool. It's very, very laid back, like backstage and everything.

Everybody's just kind of chill, trying to relax. Everybody's hungry and tired and grumpy and whatever. But there's really that I have seen no kind of sportsmanship in that way. We're big fans of powerlifting fans of strongman we're certainly aware of bodybuilding you know we usually know who wins the olympia and we know what bodybuilders look like but to us we kind of compare physiques most of what we're seeing is powerlifters and strongman you know what of like what's coming across our Instagram feeds and what we're just more aware of. So to us, your physique looks absolutely insane because we're comparing it to, you know, amongst a lot

of people that power lift and that sort of thing. I suppose in the bodybuilding world, it's much more common, or there's even some things that you probably think that you have to work on. Us being people that would never be able to tell this, what body parts, or a lot of times I hear people say they need to bring out this or bring up this. As far as bodybuilding goes, what do you have to focus on to work on? So this is another reason why I'm a really bad bodybuilder

is because I like powerlifting and strongman, so I want to look like a powerlifter and strongman, which is not good for bodybuilding. So yeah, one of the big things is that I have pretty well-developed obliques, which are great for lifting, but not so great for your appearance on stage. So to kind of offset that, it's kind of the outer quad and then the delt that you want to bring out because those are going to make your lower body and your upper body look wider so your waist looks a little bit more tapered.

your lower body and your upper body look wider. So your waist looks a little bit more tapered. Um, and then my, uh, my triceps, just for whatever reason, I've never been able to have those meaty triceps and a lot of powerlifters have.

Uh, so those, those would be the three areas that I would, I would like to improve if I could. Um, obviously if I, if I, I guess if I could just erase my obliques,

that would be fine as long as I could still lift, but, uh, that's probably not going to happen. So those are the areas I'm focused on the most. Yeah, cool. Back when, at the time, I think it was Stan Efferding going against Johnny Jackson, I think it was. And they had the title of world's strongest bodybuilder.

A, they should do that again probably like wouldn't you i would assume you would be stoked to be able to do something like that oh absolutely um b who else if anyone would would you go again i mean who who else is in that category oh like right now yeah oh man that's a great question um so i know John Revis is doing a show this year. He was the guy who took Dan Green's record in the 242s before Larry came along. So he's one of them. Larry has done both, correct? Oh, yeah, he has.

Absolutely. I don't know. Yeah. I know Johnny and Stan were already pros. As far as I know right now, there are no pro bodybuilders that are still competing in powerlifting. I don't know of any. That doesn't mean there aren't any. It's gotten more specialized on both sides. That makes it a little bit more challenging.

It's crazy how strong bodybuilders have gotten. I really think that – I know that – oh, now I'm blanking on his name. That's not good. Oh, he's going to kill me. There's a guy who's working with Josh Bryant who – oh, my God. I can't believe I can't think of his name. I'm sorry. Joe Mackey.

Sorry about that. Sorry, Joe. Anyway, he's working with Josh Bryant thinking about doing a meet or at least a deadlift only meet. Okay. I think he could probably put up nine. But one of the issues is that bodybuilding, you're always training with straps. So getting that grip fixed is an issue. But I think there's a lot of top-level bodybuilders that if they put in the time fixing those little things,

making sure that they were always squatting the depth making sure that they were pulling without straps that sort of thing they could put up crazy powerlifting numbers so uh it's it's very cool to watch yeah bodybuilding is something that's like gone through a lot of eras you could say is there a certain era or time or like group of competitors that was your favorite oh yeah so i mean when i started it was kind of like the early 2000s with ronnie and jay yeah so that's definitely my favorite uh and maybe you know like mass monsters yeah um you know having the the school degree it's it's interesting to read about other guys in the fifties too, where it was very, very new.

And, uh, you know, at the beginning of that, that time, you know, they didn't even always train with sets of reps. It would just be one set to failure.

They wouldn't even think about doing multiple sets. So that sounds insane now. Like, yeah, the evolution is really cool. Yeah. Huh. Would you think of yourself to think,

I had one question thinking about the world's strongest bodybuilder. Would you think of yourself more in the category of world's strongest bodybuilder in the running for that? Or would you be more of most jacked looking power lifter? I'd have to go with the bodybuilder thing because jack is so subjective yeah right like i mean there's a lot of jack guys out there and i'm not gonna lie to you so i saw dan green i completed boss of us in 2017 i saw dan green right after he walked out of lands and i swear to god he was besides thor um he was the most

physically impressive person I've ever seen in person. I mean, I saw Dexter Jackson when he walked off stage after winning the Arnold. So, yeah, that'd be a hard claim to make. Yeah, that makes sense. You mentioned you've got a photo shoot coming up. Yeah.

Do you get more nervous for a photo shoot or, say, a giant PR lift that you're going to go for in the gym the next day? Oh, I don't get nervous for photo shoots at all. I just want to make sure I'm awake, so I'm not nervous. Otherwise, I'm half asleep, and I ask him, like, 10 times to repeat what he wants and i'm like

oh yeah no i don't really uh i before my very first bodybuilding show i had a little bit of that you know nerves but that was it i mean i have my pictures on instagram i'm wearing nothing so you know you kind of get over it yeah another day it's old yeah it never gets old you know trying to set a PR in the gym so this is always something you haven't done before uh so yeah I get a lot more nervous for that so is this is your photo shoot is it for something specific or is like hey I need some new photos yeah so well I mentioned Joe Bennett so I'm going down there to train with him for eight weeks we're gonna put together a power building program.

And so we want to get a jump start on that. Originally, I planned to be down there not this week but next week and had to change my plans a little bit for various reasons. So we want to get a jump start on it. So I'm going to be filming some of the introductory content for that and getting some cool pictures and content, you know, training content related around that. And then we're going to talk a little bit about some of the more advanced stuff, I think, too, because the program's going to be more accessible to beginners and intermediates,

but we'll include some of that nitty-gritty stuff for the advanced guys. So we'll be talking about auto-regulation and recovery protocols that we use and, you know, advanced aspects of technique and stuff like that, modifying your squat bench and deadlift for bodybuilding purposes versus your strength purposes and that kind of stuff. So I'm really, I'm pretty excited. This is the type of thing that I really enjoy. So I'm grateful to get the opportunity to do it with somebody who's done it with the best.

Yeah. So when you like, I mean, what you're talking about, like, I'm sure there's a lot of work there, you know, a lot of, maybe kind of takes you back to your school days a little bit of having to, you know, write stuff down and make plans and all that. You know, you do have a lot of knowledge in your head. Can you just kind of show up and be like,

hey, yep, this is what we're going to do, or do you have to put a lot of planning and get a lot of stuff written down so you make sure you're covering all your bases? Yeah, at this point, I I've done mostly because of school, just done so much public speaking that again, it's, it's kind of like posing on stage.

It's, it's kind of, you know, the material, uh, and you know how to speak. And so it's, it's pretty easy.

And I'm not saying I don't rehearse at all. I practiced twice for this one, but it's not something that I'm going to be anxious about. And it's not something that I have to, you know, memorize every word by, by any means. Yeah. Oh,

I was just thinking of something else that I was wanting to make sure I asked you when you lift you, I think you're kind of well known for some of the faces that you make when you're getting after it. What does that feel like? Does it ever feel like your eyes actually are bulging out of your head or i don't even notice it apparently i've always been expressions like that um even before i was lifting but no i don't notice at all what for me it's the um i'm surprised that nobody ever calls me out like before i started lifting where it feels like i'm just

having an internal meltdown like they gotta like, they got to see me sweating. And nobody ever mentions that part. So, you know, once I'm lifting, I don't really notice anything else. Right, right. You might know this, and maybe I'm making this up, but I feel like I've heard it something before. Some people talk about, like, that it's maybe better for you if you can keep a calm face while you're performing, executing the lift. Like there's some benefit to that. Have you ever heard anything like that before?

Or am I just making that up right now? I've heard it. I don't know whether it's true. The only thing I really pay attention to, if I notice that I'm grinding my teeth, I tend to get headaches while I lift. So that's the thing that I try to avoid. Because if I'm grinding my teeth, I tend to get headaches while I lift. So that's the thing that I try to avoid. If I'm grinding my teeth for three seconds, my head will start splitting. Have you ever tried the mouth guard thing? I have, and I just, I don't know, they kind of annoy me.

And I end up focusing more on the mouthpiece than the lift. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You do make some interesting faces sometimes. There is some good screenshot opportunities that you post on those. Oh, definitely. Yes. What about like your, sometimes, you know, your squat technique is pretty interesting where, is it like a talon grip that you'll use and that you're able to get a pretty narrow do you take a pretty narrow grip still on the bar so yeah so when i was smaller because i have a pretty

short torso to get in a position where i could squat effectively at all i had to have a very narrow grip on the bar push my elbows all the way forward under the bar and then really push my knees really far forward which looked really ugly but i mean it worked for for the leverages i had at the time because i just didn't have a whole lot of hip musculature uh and as i've gotten bigger i don't have the mobility to go that narrow but i still do use a talon grip so that i keep my shoulders externally rotated which gives me a better shelf for the rear delts. Uh,

but I've built up my hips enough now that I can go a little bit wider and feel comfortable and strong in that position. So, um, it's, uh, it's been, it's been probably my squad, the most aggravating process to kind of figure out that technique and what

works for everybody. And it's definitely changed the most as I've changed in size as well. Yeah. To me, the most, the most signature i've changed in size as well yeah to me the most the most signature part of your squat is like where your elbows are at like they're in such a unique squat compared to that happening most people they're in a very different place it seems like the way you typically see um in my training partner taylor he was uh having me do oblique work the other day and he wanted to kill me by uh you know pushing on the bottom rib and he goes and feels my bottom rib and it's like at my hip and his eyes just bug out

he's like holy crap you have a short torso so yeah it makes it pretty awkward to swap yeah you know you work around it how much stronger do you feel like you've gotten since you have lift shorts oh since i have lift shorts I've gotten at least five times stronger. I also, you know, now I'm the most popular guy, not only in the gym, but also walking through the gym. I don't like doing anything besides that. This guy must be ripped. Yeah, we were thinking about putting like a warning card in with them just to give people a heads up. You should, man.

It can be irresponsible not to. They got a great power and great responsibility. That's right. That's exactly right. I'll be warned. Yeah, absolutely. We've got this little game. Tommy, what do you think about Overrated and Underrated?

I think now is as good a time as any. We've got this little game that we like to play with every guest. We call it Overrated and Underrated. And we've got a very specific set of Ben Pollack Oh, no. Overrated Underrated topics. And this is always the most intense, most serious part of the show. Everything rides on this.

Your performance is graded. How you do affects your entire performance on the show and whether we even air the episode or not. So I just want to emphasize that there's a lot of pressure here. Okay. Hold on one sec while I go take a hit of this nose torque, so I'll be ready. Yes, now would be the time if you have nose torque available

to take your whiff. We have had people say it is more intense than any bodybuilding show or powerlifting meet they've ever been to. I believe it. I believe it. I'm ready. I'm ready to just kill myself. And you do have your druthers to elaborate

as much or little as you'd like, but you do just have to land on either an overrated or underrated. You can't ride the line. Okay. Okay, so topic number one, overrated or underrated, the Great Lakes.

Oh, highly overrated. The Great Lakes freaking suck suck it's cold what's your favorite great lake uh i guess like superior because it's you know superior to all the others if you if you had a puzzle pieces uh with the five lakes do you can you name which all five are? Which ones? Absolutely not. Not even close. Me either.

You know, Tanner, you were saying that, and I'm like, God, yeah, I don't think I could either. Does anybody actually know that? Unless you're like, do we even know how many there are? There's five, right? Do we really know that? No, I don't know that. Are you from Michigan?

I mean, is that where you've been from for a majority of your life? No, no. I'm from just outside D.C. in Fairfax, Virginia. Okay. Okay. So you don't care. You didn't go to Michigan for the Great Lakes then? I did not.

I would be very disappointed. You know, there's definitely someone in their life that has done that. That's a unique individual. Yeah. How about, do you say youpers or the people that live up in the little part? Are they weird or are they normal? I have never met someone that actually lives up there. I've heard that they exist, but as far as I'm concerned,

it's still urban legends. So yes, that's fair. Okay. Overrated or underrated shirts wearing shirts. I would say they're overrated, but only because it can't fit into any of them to be able to actually, actually judge.

And so I just, you know, I'm kind of, I'm kind of prejudiced. I'll admit it, but I but i'll go with overrated okay i suppose that makes it easy don't work just don't wear them right yeah what what about actually just thinking about it you know you squat without a shirt on all the time i believe like does the is there ever a slipping issue at the bar i mean you talked about making the shelf like does that or is or does it slip less on a on bare skin?

No. So actually, the reason that I do that, originally it was for Instagram. I'm not going to lie. But the reason I do it now is because my belt tends to slip a lot more when I have a shirt on. And that really kind of throws me off because it'll kind of dig into my hips. And I really hate that. So if I take my shirt off, for whatever reason, it kind of sticks better and it doesn't slide around. And I tend not to have a problem with the bar rolling. That makes sense.

Deadlift is obviously a moot point. What about shirtless benching? I don't know. That is too slippery. You're sweating. You're going to slide all over the bench. That's not good. Yeah.

All right. These are the shirtless hacks we need the answers to so what about if you post you post you do a set of 750 squats for a set of five if you posted two videos one where you're wearing a shirt on Instagram and one where you're not wearing a shirt

will the one where you're not wearing a shirt get more likes and views I have found the face matters a lot more than the shirt or not. But probably shirtless would be more. So there's value in the expression? The face tends to get a lot

of, yeah, the ones where the eyes start bugging out, that tends to get a lot of it. You know, the eyes, they're the window to the soul. People are so romantic, you know. Yes. Excellent. Yes. Excellent. Overrated or underrated Austin, Texas?

That's a hard one. That's a hard one. I'll go with underrated because Austin is great but it's also highly rated so it's hard to say. Right. I really with Austin. Yeah, I really love Austin.

I spent six years there. That's the longest I've spent anywhere besides my hometown and planning to spend at least part of the summer there as well. So I'm really looking forward to getting back there. The only bad thing I have to say about Austin is that the allergies in January anduary and february are miserable absolutely miserable but other than that austin is under it it feels like texas in general has kind of turned into the next hot spot that everyone's hyping up right now uh i mean houston has grown huge in the gym scene where i was there just a few years ago there were very few places and now they're all over. Yeah. That's true. There does seem to be a lot of lifting

people even moving there to that state. Yeah. Dallas has always been big. Is it 6th Street in Austin, Texas? Is that kind of like the hot spot? Is that what it's called? Yes. Did you ever have much experience down there?

I had much experience on 6th Street, yes. Was it positive experiences? Yeah, I would say actually, I'm going to say I can't think of a single negative experience I had on 6th Street. Would that be where someone visiting for the first time for the nightlife, is that where you would recommend someone would go? Is there somewhere that you're like, oh no, people from austin know to go to this place um i mean so when i was there when i when i first moved there uh you know the the kind of place that was cooler than sixth street was rainy rainy street um but as by the time i graduated rainy was kind of merged with six more or less they were all kind of the same same type of stuff um so yeah it's hard to say and then e6 was also getting kind of bigger the

six street is divided like three different three different parts um and so e6 was kind of coming up but again i haven't been there in a few years so you know i might not be the best person to ask i will say that you cannot go wrong on 6th, especially dirty 6th. You will have fun. Good. All right. Last topic for overrated and underrated, and this one's very important. Overrated or underrated spray tans.

I don't know if spray tans are rated at all, but if they are, they are overrated. Spray tans are the number one reason that I just like bodybuilding. Spray tans are probably the bane of my existence. And just because everything about it sucks or the process or once it's on you, what's the worst part of it? The worst part is the smell, which just gives me the splitting headache but then the second worst part is that the damn stuff like it bleeds off you for the next month and all your stuff turns orange and you can't get it out you just gotta throw it away and it's just it's it's bizarre so yeah i mean i'm so glad my toenails aren't orange because i know come july i going to have to get that spray tanned.

All August, September, October, I'm going to have those orange toenails. But, yeah, it's the smell that gets me the worst part, man. It also makes me like paint thinner. It's awful. It also makes me sweat a lot, which I dislike because I sweat a lot to begin with. So, yeah, it's not a pleasant experience at all. You'd think at this point they'd have some quick-release, easy get-rid-of spray tan solution.

Well, apparently, probably what I'm doing wrong or something, because most people like it. Apparently, you're supposed to take care of your skin or something like that, which is also overrated. But apparently, if you do that, then it turns into this nice, natural looking globe. I've never had that happen. I just turned into a freckled

Oompa Loompa. Okay. Just don't get any of it on your lift shorts. No, no, no, no, no, no. Absolutely not. That would be an expensive mistake. It would. It would be a tragedy.

Okay. Well, good news. I do think you passed That would be an expensive mistake. It would. It would. It would be a tragedy. Yeah. Okay. Well, good news. I do think you passed overrated, underrated. Passed with flying colors, really, as far as I'm concerned. Excellent. Excellent. I'm very glad to hear it.

I'm going to put it on my resume right now. I was going to say, this has to be right up there with getting that PhD, right? Oh, way above that. That's also very overrated. That's towards the bottom. I try and bury that between the jobs very overrated. That's, that's towards the bottom. I try and bury that, you know, between the, the, uh, jobs in high school,

you know, work at the summer school student, summer school teacher worked at Staples, you know, PhD. Like looking back, would you do the PhD again now that you're on the other side of it? Um,

I would do it again for, uh, I know this sounds really cliche, but I would do it for the life experiences just like undergrad. In terms of what I actually learned, no, I don't think it was worth it. That's so true for college. I have an undergrad and a master's degree. I say that to people all the time.

I almost don't really know anyone that doesn't agree with that for some of those higher programs. Unless it's very trade-specific, it kind of is about the experiences. Or like what you talked about earlier, the fine-tuning and honing your skills of writing and researching and just those skills in general, but maybe not so much program-specific.

So that's education for you what so what about uh people that want to get in touch with you or even maybe more importantly you talked about you know you're coming out with some new programs and that sort of thing what do you offer and how do people get that stuff uh yeah i yeah, I have a website. It's pkht.net. Uh, anyone wants to hit me up on Instagram or whatever. I'm not, I get a lot of that likes to be any DM. So I'm not the best about that.

But if you, uh, email me the links in the, in the Instagram profile as well. Yeah. You get like podcast guys DMing you like, Hey, will you come on our podcast?

Uh, no, I don't get that so much, but I get a lot of these guys trying to sell me stuff. me stuff that's like i don't need um you know like knockoff lift shorts that makes me very upset when i have the real thing i don't need these knockoff lift shorts from india right right yeah they uh from alibaba they just are right here in america i don't need to go overseas for this yes exactly uh yeah i guess we like like i told you. I don't need to go overseas for this. Yes, exactly. Yeah, I guess, like I told you earlier, we don't want to be between you and

having the perfect tricep popping for your photo shoot tomorrow. So that was really cool. We're glad we got to have you on. That's awesome. Yeah, thank you for having me. I really love the show and I love your you guys's

page too so it is it was great to get the chance to talk awesome that's cool thanks ben thank you yeah thank you all right see you all right bye well tommy what do you think cool beans did you get two of them you got two of them? He got two of them. Yeah, he gets two cool beans. The gold standard, two cool beans. Wow. So that's Ben. Finally got him. The elusive Ben Pollack.

Yep, yep. We got a lot of podcast guests that we keep trying to slowly reel in. Yes. Sometimes they. The snake to our mongoose. Yeah, sometimes we set the hook and we're like, ah, we almost got him. And then they get away. Get off the line.

And they get away. And Ben was one of those. He got away a couple times, but this time we snagged him. Johnny Candido has not nibbled yet, though. He's not taking the bait. He is not taking the bait. I don't know. There might be...

I'm curious what forces are at play there that he's... That it's almost... Maybe he knows something we don't. Well, that he's that uh it's almost uh maybe he knows something we don't well that's i want i want to know what what he knows i want to know why johnny won't cut is not uh taking the bait i don't know if we'll ever know we probably never will he's probably sitting back laughing like there's probably some deep conspiracy going on so i think that there is some conspiracy in in action there i actually have my own theories they go so i have some actually people people like this we actually do have a theory we do have a theory get people go we do have a theory do you think we should should we

share it or is it uh i don't know maybe it's fun to keep people guessing we would say this we do at this point have a theory as to why johnny won't come on i'm pretty sure it's the reason yeah it sounds insane if we were to say it but i don't know it seems so dumb though like maybe i do you even know anymore like i feel like i let's keep it uh private for now and like if this stretches out if we're able to still continue to not be able to get him to come on and it's funny because i tanner you and i know the you I know the, actually you knew the theory and we were talking about it one day. Like, why won't he ever come on? And then you said the theory and I'm like, oh, I forgot about that. Cause this goes back like five years ago. It goes back very old. This is the seed was planted

long ago. I will say this. Johnny used to watch the massonomics podcast on YouTube and occasionally comment. He has, he has several comments. If you go back far enough and he used to watch the Massonomics podcast on YouTube and occasionally comment on it. He has several comments if you go back far enough. And he used to comment on Instagram, too. Right, right. So there is, and then something happened at some point in time. Not positive what it was and what the point in time was, but I have my theory. But there's a guess.

Yeah, I have my theory. We will maybe reveal it at some point in time for the comic relief of it. I love it. I love it. I love it. Oh, Tommy, what else did we have this week? Well, what else? We talked about all that stuff at the beginning of the show. Yeah, all that stuff at the beginning.

If there's anything left of the drop that we talked about so much, maybe go and get that. If that's a big fat if at this point. Have a little something coming towards the end of the month here. We do have something coming towards the end of the month. We'll get people excited on that, but still a few weeks out, but it's getting close.

Yeah. Oh, I better revisit one last time for today's episode. Our sponsors for this, this show, the show was brought to you by spud Inc. The goal of spudding straps is to make products that support sports performance and help everyone achieve their training goals.

They make products that last forever, won't bust your budget, and most importantly, leave no doubt about success when everything is on the line. Check them out online at spud-ink-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 the top quality products every fusion sports performance product comes fully backed with a

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barbell equipment, including their machined and E-coated plates. There's so many good things in that sentence, I don't even know what to emphasize. I have to emphasize every word. E-coated. Yeah, 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 Mastodon's gym, including Larry. Check out their plates and all their other Made in America equipment online at thestrengthco.com. That's thestrengthco.com. Last, but of course not least, today's show is brought to you by Lifting Large.

Lifting Large has set a new standard for customer service within the strength world they have live website chat support and the speediest email responses lifting large is home of the ground lock deadlift slipper and they're always in stock and ready to ship massonomics listeners can save 20 percent on all lifting large branded products by using our discount code mass 20 at checkout make sure to like us on uh youtube subscribe on youtube check the podcast out on youtube if you've never watched it before get in that first comment race get on the first comment race that thing has heated up so like it's that race is insane the number of people that are commenting and fighting for that first comment get in there more people are watching the

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Leave us a five star review on Apple podcasts. That would be great. We're trucking along. That billboard idea that Tara and I mentioned that we've been brainstorming on. And we got to get to the 400 and we're creeping up on that a little closer all the time uh become a supporting member you can go and sign up we have the different supporting membership levels there's four levels there there's a level for each of you no matter what your supporting level needs are that we have a level for you so go get signed up for that right away we we do see and take note of everyone that signs

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