Massenomics Podcast - Ep. 281: Bart Kwan

Episode Date: August 23, 2021

What does Bart Kwan do? Too much cool shit for us to list in this description, so you’re going to have to check out this episode! We talk to him about running businesses with his wife, having kids, and the McDonalds apple pie. The Strength Co: https://www.thestrength.co/ Hybrid Performance Method: https://www.hybridperformancemethod.com/ MASS to save 5% on all training & nutrition Fusion Sports Performance: https://www.fusionsp.net/ MASS to save 20% on all FSP supplements 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. Welcome back, everyone, to episode 281 of the Massanomics podcast, the lifting podcast about nothing. My name is Tanner. And my name is Tommy. This is episode 281.

Tommy, you know why episode 281 is special, right? Because it's your high school number plus 200 plus one, two. Plus two. Plus one, plus one again. That's a good guess. No, it's Terrell Owens' football number plus 200 before it. I know. I was kind of a week behind. A day late and a dollar short.

My life story. Yes. We do have a good episode up, a cool guest coming here, and a lot of topics to go through. We do have a lot of topics. If we're lucky, we'll get to our guest. If we're lucky. But first, let me tell you about a sponsor of today's episode, Hybrid Performance Method. They're your solution for strength, no BS training, nutrition, and education for the hybrid athlete. You can get access to

proven training programs that have delivered life-changing gains and podium finishes for thousands of people. Take your training and nutrition to the next level. Get personalized nutrition plan plus dedicated coach in your corner helping navigate your nutrition journey. Head into every workout and every day knowing that you will be challenged and end the day better than when you started. Visit them at hybridperformancemethod.com. When you're there and you sign up for training, nutrition, their courses, anything there on Hybrid Performance Method, make sure you use discount code MASS. That'll save you 5% for the entire life of that membership. It's almost a deal that's too good to be true but it's true it's so true it's very true thank you hybrid performance method tell me where did we want to start at the beginning or you think somewhere else in the

middle that's boy sometimes we start in the middle sometimes you're just giving me too many options so you should maybe shouldn't ask for my input on so many things tan this is getting hard for me to uh know which way to start we could probably say this is as close to a national holiday as our town ever gets going on right now that's true for anyone that doesn't know it is fair week in western northeast south dakota the brown county fair yeah brown county uh aberdeen is located in brown county and we have the Brown County fair and it's a big deal around these parts. It's the, I don't know.

It's the biggest deal in the, I think it's actually the biggest fair in the state. They always say, I think, yeah, it is. It's bigger than the state fair. Can you believe that?

That's Western. I didn't for a long time until I went and I'm like, I've been to both. I think it is probably bigger. I believe that number, but so fairs and just down from the road from us right now. Yeah, it is just down the road. Andanner that means fair food you know are you a fair food guy oh no i would say go out there and eat i would say right off the bat i do believe fair food

at least the ones i guess i haven't been like you know the minnesota state fairs just the craziest like the iowa state but i think for the most part, right off the bat, fair food is overrated. It's overrated. But that doesn't mean I won't go and get something. No, I'll go and eat something. But I also don't, maybe I don't get crazy enough stuff because I'm always like, I don't know.

I just don't, a lot of it I'm like, eh, you know, like it doesn't excite me that much. I'll get like a pork sandwich and some stuff like that. I don't care for like a deep fried. Yeah. See the trick. I mean, really the best fair food you'll ever have is after you've just drank so much

and it's like midnight and you're just like trying to get by. And there's that one stand that's magically open, just waiting for you. And like, that's really as good as fair food ever gets. But like I, we were there earlier tonight and you know you got to go with we go a few times you don't make the rounds get everything and the one like there's a few

foods that always just seem so much better than what they actually ever are and like one of those to me is always like a blooming onion yeah a blooming onion it's just never you get it and i don't know is a i think even a half of a blooming onion is more than enough always, right? Yeah, I'm not that big on the blooming onion, I guess. The last one I had. A whole onion is so much onion. That's true. So I got through, I ate maybe at the very most a half,

and that was really pushing my blooming onion. You know what I don't like about the whole thing, though, is so you go, it's super hot out oh super crowded then you go if you're lucky you get a little tiny spot on a picnic table that's just sticky yep and covered and just covered in every sauce and yeah food and that's the experience and i'm like i don't know maybe there's some something uh to it but i'm like i think that's part of the magic of it. Yeah, right, right. You suffer for that shitty experience.

That it costs twice as much as if it was just at a nice restaurant. Basically, yeah. So I've done it. I've gone twice. I'll probably go again and get some more food even. What's not at the fair, though, the Brown County Fair, which historically had been, is the Mastanomics Strongman Showdown. If anyone's been a longtime Masonomics fan, if you've listened to the podcast for four or five years, you know all about the Masonomics Strongman Showdown.

It was historically the biggest week of the year for Masonomics. It was. It always was. It was huge for us. Yeah, if you've come on, joined us in the last year or two, you might say, Masonomics Strongman Showdown. What isastodon Strongman Showdown. What is the Mastodon Strongman Showdown? I've heard of the showdown.

What's the Mastodon Strongman Showdown? It's like, oh, take you back for a little history lesson here. What was the first year of it? 2016. 2016? We would have ran it. That was our humble beginnings of the, yeah, the Mastodon. The gym was fairly fresh, and we got some Strongman equipment.

We put together a real a real like kind of exhibition yeah yeah um strongman event and of course being the first year you're doing it there's a lot of stuff you don't know and it's held outside and it rains which makes things kind of shitty for everyone yeah so that one was it was fun though like that that first year was enough like hey we know what's going on let's do this a second year right and the second year in 2017 the second year was it was pretty lit it was pretty lit i would say that very few people that have listening to this that have ever competed in strongman will have been in front of a crowd that large yeah it was like literally hundreds and hundreds of people watching it was a very well attended event and it was a lot of fun like it was i mean unless you played high school sports you probably never

performed in front of a crowd that big and people just got wildly into it they did they got really into it no uh dog in the fight and people like people that didn't know anyone was favorites didn't know people that didn't know who like spectators that didn't know anyone that was in it and also didn't know a thing about strength sports or just what was going on at all we're having a great time yeah i mean people getting like i don't know this is maybe an exaggeration like standing ovation you know just like wild uh like naturally cheering naturally larry yeah there comes a crowd favorite in a hurry and just people that are performing well yes uh you know fired or the crowd gets fired up for them. But yeah, that was.

And we were, I don't know, partly luck. Like they just played out really well every year or two. You know, we just ended up with some really cool stuff and some cool events, the stuff that just. Yeah. Some good sponsors, some good events, you know, radio emcees to emcee the event for us. We had, I mean, the whole thing was orchestrated pretty well a lot a

lot of volunteers and helpers to make things run smooth and we did run it like an it was an exhibition it really wasn't a traditional sanctioned strongman event we run it uh the first two years it was you know about 10 competitors and everyone did all the events like you would normally but it was like bang, bang, bang. You know, we're getting the whole show done in two hours versus seven. Of like five events. Five events and 10 to 12 competitors-ish.

Yes, and getting the whole thing ran through in like two hours. So it was literally... Yeah, by the time you were done with that, I only, I just competed the second year and... It was brutal. The feeling when you were done with that was like a level of exhaustion that you don't typically know it was horribly brutal like that

would have that affected me for weeks it was yeah it was bad like there was I remember at times uh like you're just getting done with like the second year getting done with the car deadlift and I just squeaked out a last rep to win the event and it it was like a 21st rep. And I mean, it was like everything, you know, this was 21 reps of like it. 21 was everything I had to get it. And,

you know, it was a very cool moment. Like, just like we were talking about everyone, you know, everyone's counting. Yeah. They're seeing the guys that got to the guys.

I got five. I got 10. Yeah. The three guys that fought to get 12, the one guy that got 15 and then like one guy goes up there and goes balls out you know the deadlift specialist comes in and gets like 19 or 20 right right and uh so it's very cool and then the event after that was the log press and if for anyone that hasn't pressed a log or done overhead pressing i would

say outdoors on a clear sky dizzy feeling and i was so tired like I don't remember what our opening weight was it was something that shouldn't have been hard and when I cleaned it I felt like there was a good chance I was going to like fall over and die from the like that it would just crush my face on top of this it is 90 degrees there's no shelter of any kind it's just you're in the heat I kind of like the feelings of quit like was that's when they creep in where it's like oh this is really hard yeah and like that's one of those things where it's like everyone's watching they're like why doesn't he just go harder it's like you don't know what's going on in my brain right now yeah yeah and then the last year we

spiced it up a little differently and we threw in the the red versus red versus red team versus blue team and it was a 10 on 10 competition where there was 10 individual battles one from each team and 10 different events it was really like a big uh uh royal rumble is not the right word but it was a giant uh tag team match more so and culminating with a 10 on 10 tug of war which i think everyone would agree was probably the worst event of the day it's crazy very cool though yeah um that was a also a cool way to run a strongman competition i still don't know which way was better from a encouraging people to do it that system's better because it's pretty easy for me to convince someone to come and do one yeah to turn it on for one event

yeah yeah but we haven't done it since. It is so much work. So much work. And we've talked about that before. Like, it would be cool to do it. We were even talking about it today. You know, kind of miss it when it comes this time and we don't have it. I mean, you drive to that end of town

and you see the, no lie, thousands of campers lined up and just cars as far as I can see. And you're like, oh, a crowd is here. Yeah. And they would show up for this and it'd be a lot of fun. But this week I'm not exaggerating. 30 people have asked me,

Oh, you're doing the strong man. Like still three, it's been three years since we've done it. And everyone always wants to know, Oh, you guys put in the strong man. And I'm not talking about lifters.

I'm just talking about people, just people from town because it became a thing. So maybe someday we'll bring it back and it'll be a pretty, a pretty big occasion, but it'd be cool. So maybe someday we'll bring it back and it'll be a pretty big occasion. It'd be cool. Maybe 2022? Maybe. Maybe not.

I mean, it'd be really fun to put on the show just because people are, it'd be different if you were just putting it on, no one showed up and you were doing it for the people competing. That's one thing. But like when people really do get the enjoyment out of that, it add another level to it too yeah for sure it does to be continued though on the strongman massonomic strongman showdown can't really have any more because i

made the the the framed thing in the gym though you do have that and it has all the years the banners the sponsor banners are pretty big i don't know if we have room for another one in the gym so yeah one of my biggest regrets though is somewhere that from the first year the 2016 Banners, the sponsor banners are pretty big. I don't know if we have room for another one in the gym. So yeah. One of my biggest regrets though, is somewhere that from the first year of the 2016 strong man showdown, the banner was stolen by someone. I know. I know. And we don't have the original one.

That exists somewhere still. I guarantee you didn't get thrown in the trash. And if you're out there, we have a very special set of skills. We will find you. We will get our seven yearyear-old banner back. Don't you worry. Tanner, are you ready to wet your whistle?

I thought you would never ask. Okay, this is a what's in the can. Ooh. So I need to... You better strap up over there. Take precautionary measures, so to speak. Wrap up over there. Take precautionary measures, so to speak.

So Tanner's putting his customary headband on to block out all vision. And sun. So we know that he's not cheating. All right. If you want a Mastanomics blindfold of your own, you can get these on mastinomics.com. Okay, Tanner. There it is. Oh.

It's a tall boy. Tall and slender. That's the way I like them. Tall and slender. Almost feels like a Michelob Ultra can. Doesn't smell like a Michelob Ultra, though. Oof. Oof. Oof. Oh.

Mmm. I really want to know what you think this flavor is. Wow. A lot going on there. I'm getting nodes of cherry Coke. I've been getting a lot of cherry coke comments from people. Just a heavy scent

of cherry coke. There's something there that is familiar to me. Can't quite put my finger on it. It doesn't taste good. This does not taste all that good. I would agree my finger on it. It doesn't taste good. This does not taste all that good. I would agree with you on that.

Oh, is there coconut in this? So what I think this is, what are the bang things called that we've had in the past? Bang seltzers? Bang seltzer and flavor coconut? Or they wouldn't call it coconut, right? They'd call it pina colada or something like that i don't know um yeah coconut coconut bang seltzer tanner take a look i'll say if you like pina colada oh pina colada. All right. You actually got it. It's a pina colada.

I knew the, it's funny when I took those first sips, I'm like, I know that's a flavor that I know and I couldn't think of it. And all of a sudden I thought coconut. Because I could have, like I was going to just have to come up with a stab in the dark. Yeah. That's what, I was really curious what your stab in the dark would be on this thing. But that was, that was well played. If you like pina colada though, I think you would love this drink.

I thought you were going to go into the song again then. A very emotional talking of the song. If you like piña colada, I don't exactly know what the next line is. I would normally mumble that next line. I'm getting caught in the rain. Something disco. Flip flops. Yeah, that's, I think, the song. Something disco. Flip flops. Yeah, that's, I think, the song.

I think that's how it goes. I don't like coconut. I don't like pina colada. Penis-a-lada. I don't, from what I can tell, I don't seem to like bang seltzer either. So there's nothing about this that I really enjoy. I think this is a little better than purple kittles.

Well, it doesn't feel like I'm just fire hosing sugar into my mouth. I'll give it a little better than purple kittles. Well, it doesn't feel like I'm just fire hosing sugar into my mouth. I'll give it a two and a half. Two point five stars. I'd give it that too. That's about all it's going to get though. Yes. Okay, Tanner. I also have another thing for us. This is a What's in Tommy's

box over here. And these were sent to us by a friend of the podcast, Caleb matthews okay big caleb are you talking about big caleb big caleb okay big caleb the one and only all right tanner oh here we go hello we have big bob gibson barbecue white sauce okay i opened the box and i saw what was in here quick just to prep and i didn't look i actually thought he sent us containers of ranch but this is white barbecue sauce wow would this be like what do you think this would be similar to what you would put on like

chicken fried steak almost like that that's what i'm wondering that's kind of what it looks like it says friends and family were treated to the secret recipe sauce on a chicken and pork weekend. I mean, I don't know. First place white sauce in the American Royal International Barbecue Sauce Contest in Kansas City. So, you know, it's a big deal. There's also this letter here. Oh, okay. I didn't, you know, letters.

You never want to read them ahead of time because you never know what's in them. This could also be an off the air letter too. So I'm not sure what not sure what or an anthra i'm not sure if this is one we should read oh okay it says big tommy and big tanner here are some bottles of big bob gibson's barbecue sauce for your consideration this is a locally made barbecue sauce from north central alabama alabama contingency that one may even call a go-to sauce for the region i especially like it on chicken and pork and i have no doubt that y'all will enjoy putting this white sauce in your mouth look forward to some more of y'all's words of wisdom on the next podcast sunday sincerely big caleb i can't wait to put big bob's white sauce all over my mouth

Big Bob's white sauce all over my mouth. In and around. I mean. I hope Big Bob's white sauce gets trapped in my mustache. Sounds so much more appetizing in that way. Especially when you use the words go-to. Now that I know it's a go-to sauce, it's really speaking my language too. That means something to me too.

I am excited for this. Since 1925. Bob has not been messing around, has he? You don't start a sauce company in 1925 and keep it around on accident. That's true. I've been working on a hundred years damn near over there. Just about. In Decatur, Alabama. Be ashamed to ruin that streak now.

Well, this is cool. I'm excited. I am genuinely excited to try this. I am too. I'm really pumped. Thank you, Big Caleb, for the big bobs. And it's funny. He messaged me a long time ago.

Actually, it might not have been that long ago it felt like an eternity ago saying i was gonna send you something i gave my address and i didn't hear for a long time then all of a sudden i just have a dm that's like hey i finally sent that i'm like what is this from oh we talked about this quite a while ago so yeah when this stuff showed up i was pumped curious to see where this ranks in the uh uncle gary's big john's old west sauce uh cock sauce sauce as far as the the premium lifting barbecue sauce i know and there's still some debate over that there is well and i was actually getting low on my sauces my uncle gary's is getting pretty down there and also my cock sauce too so um i'm glad the the stock is getting replenished here. This one won first place. I'm not sure if that's in the lifting barbecue sauce competition.

I think we do have the ability to make that call, so maybe we'll award some here if we get a few more into the lineup. Excellent. So that's very cool. Thank you for that, Big Caleb. Yeah. Should we do it to them advertisement style? Oh, yes, we should.

Okay. I thought we'd never ask. I really did think you'd never ask, too. We had a skip it meme out there. Skip it. Did you ever have a skip it? No, but I had some friends down the street that did. Okay.

You know, when you're like, what, first grade? Yeah. Whenever those things came out. Whenever the meme said, I can't remember, but I like Big Jake said, when Tanner and Tommy start to say this. It's brought to you by, skip it, skip it. Skip it. Today's show is brought to you by Spud Ink

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Tanner, there was something that was kind of funny. I actually can't even remember now. I'd love to give this person credit. Maybe you remember. Someone took the Floyd Mayweather picture of him with all the money and Photoshopped my face on it. Do you remember who that was? I don't even know if I saw it.

God, I really feel bad not giving credit where credit's due. Do you want to know who that person was? Who? Well, you're looking at that person. Was it you? Because that person was me. Was it you? Who? Well, you're looking at that person. Was it you? That person was me. Was it you? Yeah, yeah.

That was me that made that. I just put it in the story. It didn't do any kind of attribution. So really fun. So Tanner took- The meme here that applies would be, it was us the whole time. Always has been.

Always was me making the Floyd Mayweather zombie meme. You mean I'm the unpaid intern? What? But so for people that don't know, there is a lot of people, if you've been on the Internet in the last 10 years, have seen the picture of Floyd Mayweather with just stacks of cash on like a it's like a dining room table. I mean, it has to be what? Tens of millions. Oh, it looks like a lot of money. And then it's just him at the end of the table sitting there,

you know, looking over all of his money. So Tanner made this. He just Photoshopped my face onto Floyd Mayweather's body with all this cash. And what did you say? When Mass Anomics sells our second pair of lift shorts or something like that. And it was funny.

So I put it in my story. And I had a family member that I didn't even, I mean, I'm pretty sure it doesn't even have Instagram. So I don't know if this and I had a family member that I didn't even, I mean, I'm pretty sure it doesn't even have Instagram. So I don't know if this was getting passed around between different family members of mine that I don't know about. And that's how it made it back to this one. But anyways, I got a message from a family member that was like, you really shouldn't keep that much cash in your house. Do you think that it was serious? I don't know. And I just said, ha ha ha ha ha that photo's not real and they said like oh i was

gonna say you should make sure you get to the bank i'm like my hands in the photo are black and my face literally doesn't fit that body quite right either like it's just kind of like poor no offense tanner but it's not yeah masterfully my head isn't masterfully cut out and put on this body that was uh I would say maybe, uh, that I saw, I came across that photo and thought, ha,

look at all the money. And I said, I thought, ha, I'll put Tommy's head on it. And three minutes later it was on Instagram. Yeah. So I had,

I had a family member that was concerned about my wellbeing for the amount of money that I was keeping in my house, but not concerned that like your lower appendages had changed color yeah color changed and that my body had just a lot of things going on why does tommy have millions of dollars in cash oh if i have that much money in my house you don't worry about me i got other problems like if you had ten thousand dollars that's the type of thing your family member would say that's a lot of money to be having around in your house not 10 million dollars they'd say um can i have some yeah yeah so i did think that was quite funny that um apparently yes i had family members getting mixed up that is funny did you see that thor they announced his new

opponent now that he's well you were you were mentioning this i haven't i haven't this was at the gym the other day so i haven't looked into this much but devin larat let me see him because i'm pretty sure i knew who you were talking about yeah yeah okay and he's a very tall big guy he's an arm wrestler you know one of the top arm wrestlers i think he has been for a long time he's got like crazy arm he has like two arms yeah and i'm not sure that he boxes at all well it's good that he has a fight lined up in a month right yeah it isn't a month it's like a month from right now i'm not sure that he boxes whatsoever i couldn't see doesn't have like a single not that it means he doesn't do it but you tend to believe you know this guy has 220,000 followers he kind of use utilizes this

platform i mean really best case scenario would be like he was one of those people that boxes like you know in his teens and so he has that background skill you know pre-instagram posted one six hours ago that's the first time he posted anything about boxing it's him sitting there doesn't say anything about like he just said learning to float oh okay you would assume if the word learning is used in that sense that he probably has. So that's who he's fighting. I got to imagine the promoters and everyone was like, God damn it. Like, Eddie Hall's out.

Like, the whole novelty of this thing is just gone. Yep. Because that guy's name. Up in smoke. I guess I don't follow the arm wrestling circles very closely. I think he's big in arm wrestling. Yeah, I would think. But also, that's also kind of a small.

Yeah, he's got 220,000 followers. Eddie Hall has how many million? Well, exactly. And that's what you're comparing it to is. And, you know, you could say strongman's kind of a small thing too. But those guys weren't just strongmen. They were like actors and personalities outside of it. And that's where so much of the appeal came.

Like if there was just a boxing fight with some strongmen, there might be some novelty there but the real novelty is coming from the fact that these guys have other things around yeah they kind of uh expanded out of that smaller bubble a little bit or you know they broke out of their niche to an extent yeah i would think that that's gonna hurt the pay-per-view sales a little bit on that one. I would have to think so. It's going to come down to that undercard of... Fear and Evans? Yeah, fear and Cardone. The undercard of the century.

Yeah. It's what the people want. You mentioned the World Deadlift Championships. Oh, God, Tanner. I really should have taken notes on that. Well, I just, I don't know how much is noteworthy but i know nobody broke the well okay they're going for 505 kilograms and nobody got it several people broke a thousand pounds i think so i think there was like seven which is that's

going to be the crazy spot is that like that's like turning into almost like not remarkable anymore that's kind of true like if someone's going to have an event like this you just like if someone's having this event and there's not multiple guys pulling a thousand pounds don't you go like oh that was kind of a dud yeah which is which is insane yeah but that's the reality of the point that we've gotten to i think what is because even when we were you know that first year we were at the arnold and when thor broke the record at the time then was like 1048 or 1050 like yeah and that was on the elephant bar yeah and the number was still kind of like fluid like no one even really knew the number like it was just like it's over a thousand that it doesn't even matter anymore yeah and but like now you have like an event and like no one else there is really even

like a lot of guys were getting too i think close a thousand, but I'm not even sure how many guys got past a thousand. Yeah. I don't know. And now you have an event like this and just what half the field is pulling a thousand pounds plus. Yeah. The other thing I noticed is a giant's live event and they refer to the record as Eddie Hall's 500 kilograms,

not one kilograms. Like they kind of, you, if you watch it and stuff like the little bit i saw is like thor's name is not uttered by any you know like it's not even like well and if you count the 501 or anything it's like like like that just out of curiosity what is their actual argument there that that it was done in like it was like a home gym lift it really wasn't a competition because it was like the covid world's well yeah and done at thor's power gym and i mean we i know we talked about it at the time yeah like i get while it why people

wouldn't like it and stuff but to me i'm like it counts like in my book i'm like yeah we're gonna make him wait another year right right i don't know to me it does but i just thought that that's interesting that they're talking about it and that makes sense to me why they put 505 as the number out there they're not going to make it five they're not going to say eddie hall has the record and this is 501 they're also not going to make it eddie hall has the record and here's 502 exactly why is it 502 yep so that's why it's they're being smart enough to do that at least yeah Because 501 wouldn't make sense. 502 would be weird. Really anything until 505 is a weird choice at that point.

It is. Yeah. But yeah, that's a big deadlift. I'm trying. I don't even honestly remember. I saw who won it and I can't even remember. It was that guy that he wears like an orange deadlift suit from I don't know which country. Like the Middle East.

Yeah. Yeah. Like I don't know which country like like the middle east yeah right yeah like i don't know he's like iranian i could be off by thousands of miles geographically but he's something like that and i don't know his name or how to pronounce it but yeah he's been deadlifting a whole bunch and done you know put out several training videos and i think i think he attempted the big one too did he and didn't get it yeah well the one thing is always true giants live doesn't know how to put on an event that is very true they got that they have that figured out i think we're gonna have colin bryce on sometime soon on the podcast we're a fun one been in communication

with colin and talk to him more about that very i think that'll be a very cool interview especially for anyone that's kind of interested in strong and you think a call to canada's expensive tanner oh might have to figure something out a little different on that you know what's not overly expensive though probably something from one of our great sponsors yes uh supplements from fusion sports performance supplements not only there are they reasonably priced you also will always know exactly what's in those supplements. Fusion SP prides itself on being fully transparent, never using proprietary blends, and always providing its customers with top quality products. They offer two pre-workout options. You got the Super Soldier, you got the Mad Titan High Stim. Both have proven ingredients

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They come with a 30 day money back guarantee. Go to fusion sp.net and use code mass M a S S. That'll save you a massive 20% on your order. Sweet. All right. Shall we get started? Yeah. Let's hop into our guest.

Get started. Get to the next thing. The next. All right. Oh, there we go. Can you hear me now? There we go. All right. Oh, there we go. Can you hear me now? Yeah, there we go.

All right. I got you. Perfect. Awesome. We're excited to get you on here tonight, Bart. Oh, awesome. Where are you guys located? Western Northeast South Dakota.

Perfect. That's awesome. We're in a town called Aberdeen South Dakota it's in the northeast corner of the state but it's a little running shtick that we've got we kind of play it up that's funny are we going

we're going to jump right in if you're cool we don't like to talk too much beforehand we talk about something good then and we uh wish it would have been recorded so yeah that makes sense let's do it all right cool and we usually don't do it on video but as long as we got it on video i'm just gonna leave it on here so you can see us talking it might kind of suck for you it's off of my phone i'll be moving back and forth but we'll keep it up as well let's do it it. Okay, cool. Yeah, we're super pumped to get you on here, Bart. I'm Tanner. I guess I haven't met you formally. And I'm Tommy, Bart. Hey, Tommy. Hey, Tanner. And we're in the MathSomics podcast studio here in Western Northeast

South Dakota. Actually, Coincidentally, you're just working on a new podcast studio, it looks like, right? Yeah, me me and my wife we're actually building one out in one of the rooms so we just moved to vegas and we're trying to make like our house kind of like our mini castle like have our own gym and pretty much try to be like pandemic proof you know where if it happens again we're ready to rock and roll we can train in here we can podcast in here we can make food in here whatever so we're trying to rock and roll. We can train in here. We can podcast in here. We can make food in here, whatever. So we're trying to build our podcast studio in there. Awesome.

So how is that? Did you guys have like a master plan for the studio or are you kind of just winging it? We're kind of winging it. So we definitely repainted colors like three different times. And we have no experience in like diy set building like um so i come from a comedy background and for our jk side of things we've done a lot of like professional sets but that's us like pitching ideas to professional set builders and they know exactly what to do you know when it came to us talking about ideas and we were like, okay, cool, that's what we're going to do.

And when it comes to us going to Home Depot and we're just staring at raw materials, we're like, okay, what the fuck are we supposed to do here? So, yeah, it's going to be super janky, but I think it adds to the character of it. adds to the character of it. Well, and I do think it's smart, the whole idea of proofing yourself away from shutdowns or anything else that might come about. And is that part of why you moved to- A little bit, a little. Yeah, a little bit.

I think in terms of like business, entrepreneurial spirit, and kind of like the type of choices that like the government gives you, I didn't realize how big of a discrepancy there was living from state to state. You know, like we would be in California, all gyms shut down, this shut down, that shut down, everyone, no one's working and people are like what about income we'll worry about that later you know and then and then you see some of like you know like some of my my colleagues that are in other states and i'm like they're still training and what's funny

it's almost like like the seeing people get stronger is it hurts your ego more than they can actually make money and just be like you're telling yeah you're like you're telling me his squad is getting stronger while mine is going away and that almost that is more important than like making them making a living yeah it's it's not that their business 2X'd while yours went. That doesn't matter. That doesn't matter. Have you seen the way his quads look in his shorts? Unacceptable.

I think it'd be good we maybe put the cart before the horse a little bit for anyone that's listening that hasn't been following along with you for a long time. Tommy and I talked about it before getting on the call. Even it's kind of a funny thing. If we were to describe to someone what you do, there's so many different things you've got going on.

I would have a hard time knowing what to, you know, what class to put it in. Like we're like, Oh, Bart Kwan, like, Oh,

we just like, he feels like he's kind of been around a long time. There's the barbell brigade thing. And then we start like to dig in a little more. It's like, we're like, oh, Bart Kwan. Like, oh, we just like, he feels like he's kind of been around a long time. There's the barbell brigade thing. And then we start like to dig in a little more. It's like, well, there's like a lot of stuff going on here. Like to the point where I almost can't keep track of all of it. So what I wondered is how I would phrase it. If you did get stuck in a room with someone

that knows nothing about the fitness community and the communities that you're in, and they say, yeah, what do you do? What do you say in that scenario? You know, it's really funny. No, I actually have something prepared. So when I'm on the plane and I'm stuck on the plane, the plane, that's the perfect example. Yeah. And I know that this flight is like two hours or less if they're sitting next

to me and they go go so what do you do i go i'm a writer okay and usually they just go oh okay cool headphones back on yeah yeah yeah because if it's like an eight or ten hour flight i'm like okay cool i can talk about it because first of all it's like everything that i've ever done is social media based so if you don't have that context and then you kind of have you got to like it's almost explaining to someone like uh what bitcoin is you know it's like if you don't even if you don't know what cryptocurrency is first and foremost yeah it's like i don't even know where to start here's here's three documentaries you should probably watch first yeah we just uh

we just did an interview for our local newspaper they wanted to talk to us about massonomics and about podcasting and that sort of thing and yeah that's kind of the case in the audience that's was going to as an example they within the article put the uh definition of a meme in there. That definition didn't help anyone. That's funny. And I get where they're going with it, but it just made us laugh. It's like, yeah, just like what you're talking about. Like they don't have the base knowledge

to understand a lot of what this is, what we're trying to do, but it was still funny. But yeah, same sort of thing. So if we were to ask though, if you do have multiple businesses, multiple things going on, what are the businesses that you're involved with today? I guess I can go in chronological order, so it kind of all fits together and makes sense. So it all started probably in 2007-ish.

Who's that guy? Oh, yeah. When I had to post that. yeah. That's funny. I forgot about that. That's actually me. We don't normally do this over Zoom. I do Zoom through my normal day job. So that's a funny picture of me when I look incredibly different than I do. I don't's a funny picture of me when I look different. I don't have a beard or long hair or anything.

Yeah. Yeah. That's funny. I might have to jump to that every once in a while. Just so you're not, don't get alarmed. Okay. Yeah.

So it started, it started in 2007. Um, I started this company called JK films with my partner and we were doing mainly sketch comedy at the time. Like we're trying to do our own Matt TV, SNL, Chappelle show type of thing. And then that branched off to this channel

that we still currently do now called JK News when it's a round table comedy talk show. And while doing the comedy side of things, people have always asked me about lifting and training advice and i was just in the like the comedic realm where i'm like well i don't really know you know i'm not a personal trainer or anything uh but i got enough interest where i was like well how about this i'll i'll like start a channel and i'll document some of my training. And then you guys can follow along. And I'm not going to try to coach you or anything.

So I started doing that for a while. And I think in the midst of it, I kind of was interested in like, I was like, I'm one of the stronger guys in the gym. I wonder how I would be against like other people. So I just like Googled lifting competitions. And this is back in like 2012. And this thing called powerlifting comes up and I'm like, powerlifting. What's that? And I'm like, okay.

It says squat bench deadlift. I do bench and deadlift. And I guess I'm going to have to learn how to squat now. So I pretty much taught myself how to squat in like two or three months I never really squatted before I competed fell in love with it and uh wanted to um look for a gym in the LA area that wasn't really a powerlifting gym like out in the west coast powerlifting wasn't that big of a thing i know like in places like texas they have high school powerlifting teams like since the 70s and 80s powerlifting just wasn't

a big thing so uh i was gonna just start like a small container gym and have a bunch of my friends contribute money and we just lift out of there but then uh overnight i got like 20 people so we're like oh shit, shit, maybe we could open like an actual brick and mortar. And this is moving from online business into a physical realm. And that was something that was completely like out of my comfort zone and all that. So one thing I did understand was building like merch around social media because we did that for JK. So we're like, why don't we start a clothing company first with cool branding and then we'll use that to fund the gym so the gym was supposed to be like the

goal and um we ended up uh raising some money and we got like 100 members to sign up uh in a matter of two weeks we opened our gym and uh fast forward to maybe now uh the apparel side of things kind of like blew up and is much bigger than the gym but we've outgrown that location and now our physical gym is kind of like the the the centerpiece of like the whole brand because it's almost like disneyland like you can watch all the movies, but you go to Disneyland to like experience it. And that's kind of how we view it, where like you see all of our content, you could buy all of our merch and all that stuff. But then you go, if you want to visit our Disneyland, that's our gym.

And along the way, just throughout being on social media for like 10, 15 years now, I've gotten into like businesses with some of my friends. So we have like a a small restaurant group that we do like we test concepts with and if they do well at this weekly food truck festival like over a year then we'll look into getting physical locations so and we have uh two physical ones in la we have one in princeton one in texas and i think we're trying to open like five more this year wow yeah so it's just it's just crazy just a crazy journey of just like one thing leading to another and then kind of becoming close friends and just shooting the shit and just things popping

up all over the place is there one thing now that you spent that I imagine all of it's in your life but is there a specific areas that you have to focus on more more frequently now that you choose to work on harder uh definitely the barbell brigade brand. I spend most of my time just because like, I think when you go from like, like, like a group of frat boys to becoming like an actual business, there's like a lot of steps and then, you know, operations and organization and all that stuff. So now I could, before when it was just hiring like do you lift do you like lifting come on in you're on the team you're on the team so now like having people with expertise and there's like people on the team that are older

than you but they answer to you and you're like oh that's kind of weird but you're like i guess it's the business so now there's like you, and over the years you have like HR issues. Like there's just lots of things that you start to learn about and you're like, Oh, this is what it takes to run a legitimate business. Versus some of the other stuff we do, like me and my wife, we have a family blog channel and we do like podcasting and stuff when it's just like owner operator, it's way easier than having an actual team team.

You brought up your wife there. I know you two, I believe, work pretty closely on most of everything you do. What Tommy and I were talking about, what we do with Massonomics here, we're both married and have kids. Not married to each other, we have wives and have different kids. I thought you're trying to draw a parallel there. No, no,

we're married. No, there, there is a parallel though, that we were talking about. If, if Tommy and I live together, like say we're back in our college days,

we were living in a dorm together or in a, in a college house. There is never a time where I feel like we could stop talking about mass. It would literally be, we would just talk about massonomics all day and every day. And I don't think we would talk about anything. No.

And it's like, if we'd go, we'd be like, oh yeah, we're going to party tonight. We'd drink six beers. And then we'd talk about massonomics way louder than we normally do. We just start screaming about it instead of talking about it.

Like, and it was like, that's all it would turn into. So I'm wondering, you know, your partner, one of your close business partners is your wife. You're with her, you know, essentially all the time. Is it, do you ever unplug for that? Or is it, is it like that all the time?

In the beginning it was like that, you know, and it was like, and I think most of it is just us pointing fingers at each other like you dropped the ball on this no you dropped the ball this or i thought you're supposed to do this and so it's like it's actually not having clear boundaries it's not a healthy relationship and then in the beginning it's like oh yes i do this with my wife this is fucking awesome and then when you see your other buddies and them and their wives do completely different things completely different set of friends you're like i think that's the way to do it but but but now i think we've had a uh we have a healthy way of going

about it where we try to treat it like a nine to five you know after this certain time we don't talk about it no nothing there's not going to be a fire. That's going to burn anything down. We're going to be just fine. And so we kind of like give clear boundaries as to when we could talk about work and we actually schedule things. And so that helps out a lot in terms of like work-life balance. Cause I think when you're doing the social media thing, like, you know, Instagram is 24 seven, YouTube's 24 seven. It's, it's really easy for all of that to consume you and if you're still trying to be like a present dad a present husband or whatever i don't want to be that dude that's eating with all my friends and i'm the one like glued to my phone you know right yeah so like now

we we've said it where it's like what during these times is when we get to talk about work but after that fuck work even though we love the brand of course yeah yeah yeah that does make the most sense for longevity i i can see how just um yeah if tanner and i lived together it would just we probably would have actually just drove each other crazy by now so i think you guys are probably doing it the right way that that passion and being able to talk about it 24-7 is what helps build things quickly. Like when Vine first popped off, I remember some of my friends were constantly just cranking out content and all these people ended up hitting like, like 10, 20 million followers because they were all on the same wavelength, just operating at such a high level. So there's definitely perks to it, you know?

That makes sense. Especially if you're also, if you're like 19 or 20 and you don't have anything. Not having much for life obligations. Certainly. Yeah. Yeah. How has that changed? Because I know you,

you, I don't, how old is your, uh, you have a son that's, uh, uh, he's about,

about to be four. Okay. So I'm about to be four. Uh, Tommy holds your, my boys one. Yeah. I've got a 10,

three and a couple months old. A couple months, yeah. So we kind of know what that's like. We balance a couple jobs around it and everything. Has that been a hurdle or just something you've adjusted to pretty naturally? It's definitely a giant hurdle. But I also like it because I think as as a business owner you care about the business and everyone on the team so much like every problem is a huge problem you know so you're treating

everything with like a hundred percent a bandwidth and it's got to be solved now you know versus now when you have like a kid and there's another being that relies on you, you'll hear a problem. And immediately, like my brain's already like, OK, is that a fire I need to put out now? Or is that something I could take care of tomorrow or in a week or in a month? Some problems, technically, you can wait like a whole month. And it's like like if there's like a leaky hose at the gym. Right. It's like, yeah, it's going to suck. The water bill is going to be pretty high this month. But no one's dying. Oh, well, we'll look at, we'll get a handyman in, in like a week

or two, we'll, we'll, we'll figure it out, you know? But then before it was like, what? You're telling me the toilet won't shut off. Oh my God, I'm going to the gym right now, you know? But, but now, so with a kid, it kind like like slap some priorities it does sound so cliche but it does change your perspective on things it absolutely does like that's there's no doubt about yeah yeah so that that really helped out but in terms of a hindrance oh for sure because before it was like any time that your mind was ready to work on anything you could but not yeah but now i got a schedule around things and um so that definitely holds things back i tell all my friends that are starting businesses that are on the fence of having kids i'm like if you are ready to plateau hard as

fuck for the next three or four years have a kid right now but if you're still in this growth phase and you're still a ton of shit you want to accomplish put off kids for a few years yeah yeah yeah the official bark kwan yeah uh parenting advice are you looking to plateau have some kids i can see that on an ad in front of a youtube video right there yeah these all these cars are cool but you know what's really cool these kids plateauing uh bart can you rank these three barts and you can rank them by whatever criteria you so choose. I would go with Bart Kwan, Bart Simpson, and Bart Starr would be my third one. And I'm not sure if you're familiar with Bart Starr or not.

He was a quarterback for the Green Bay Packers when they originally won Super Bowls with, like, when Lombardi was the coach. Like, their original Super Bowls. So he might be last on the list. So maybe it's more of a Bart Simpson, Bart Kwan ordering. I would say Bart Simpson for sure. So my full name is Barton, B-A-R-T-O-N. And it was just because my dad came here from China and I think he had poor English,

so he just made up something, I guess. So that's where Barton came about. I think that had poor English so he just made up something I guess so that's where Barbie came about I think it's a cool story I think that's good he did pretty well then I think yeah and so um like my name was just it was so weird for me growing up because it wasn't like a Mark or you know or Michael and uh my name didn't become cool until the simpsons came out and i think in first grade or second grade or something everyone started calling me bart and then just like just shortened it for me and i'm like thank god for this tv show yeah yeah you know something Yeah. Yeah. You know, something, Bart, I wanted to ask you about, I've been following you for a while and, um, you were in the Marines at a point in time, I think maybe shortly out of high school.

And what I think is interesting, um, because I was in the army for, for, for a point of time. And what I think is interesting about, I see some people like that point in their life becomes such a big thing for them that even once they're beyond that, I'm not saying this as a negative to those people that it's like that, because I know there's people experience things a lot differently in a lot of different ways

and they adapt with that differently over time. But like, I almost- Are you trying to like well explaining like i almost went high school quarterback syndrome yeah yes yes exactly yeah i get their identity yes and it like with you i'm like oh i almost didn't know or maybe knew and forgot that that was even a part of your life and um i just wondered if so you kind of got what i'm saying though then and yes yeah yeah is that kind of how it affects your life then because that is kind of how it is to me i mean like it was important to you know as a part of my life at the time and stuff but i feel like there's a lot of people that probably know you nowadays and had no idea

you like you went overseas and did stuff like they would be like no tanner didn't do that right yeah true yeah no i completely forget that i served my even my wife forgets and but one of my closest friends actually and it's funny because he's like a pretty high up there homicide detective um at a police agency in california and we were in the marines together and till this day like if we drink you better believe all the stories get retold that i've heard 6 000 times yeah and i'm like oh my god i'm like this is like 20 years ago dude i'm i'm 30 i'll be 37 this year so yeah it's like is like 19, 20 years ago. And so I definitely know someone that's like that. And I do think for many people, it does impact them in different ways. And I think as long as it's positive, I think it's really good. For me, it was a necessary

point in my life that I needed to do it and i definitely think it created a good foundation for me to take on what came on afterwards but i don't identify myself like with that you know yeah even like um like i think like who I really identify myself with is someone that's kind of like fun loving. And that's kind of like the opposite of the military, you know? So, so even like, so I worked, I worked in supply and, um, even my, like, um, my platoon sergeant would always just be like, Kwan, you like, Quan, you're a funny guy. You know that?

And so I just know there's only this much amount of fun I can have, you know, before I get in trouble. Yep. Yeah, no, that's cool. Now that makes sense. So it was cool to develop like certain tools that I think helped me. But it wasn't like the thing that really helped me express who I am. Yeah. Versus maybe for my buddy,

I think maybe that really helped unlock who he truly was. So he just loves it. Yeah. Right. Right. Yeah. No, that's cool.

Oh, you, you mentioned, what did you say? You're 36 or 37. So somewhere in there. Yeah. Oh yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. 30s. I'll be 37 this year. I'm 34. What time you're in 32? Yeah. 32. So what I wondered, you have barbell brigade is a very cool brand and I know cool. Thank you. Cool's a very generic word or just like a, like that's a real word that I would use to describe it though. It's like, it's a, it's a cool brand. You know, I think people people uh see it it's relevant and cool to them I ask this because we're also in our 30s you know approaching our mid-30s do you ever worry that uh you know in order to maintain that brand and

keep it what it is like is there a certain age that you get to and you don't just don't know what's cool anymore like you just don't have it's like hey these are like guys that are in their 40s that are kind of like sort of want to be power lifters this isn't that cool anymore like does that happen yeah i think i'm kind of like that now like like i do have like i just recently did a meet, right? Yeah. So I hired Sean Noriega as my coach. And he's pretty much number two IPF all the time. Him and Russ are always

battling for first. And him and then people like him were like, oh man, when I was first started powerlifting, I used to watch your videos. So I'm so glad you're competing again. And it almost feels like this sense of pity.

Like, I think Tony Hawk can ollie one more time. Oh, he's still got it. I don't know how he does it. It's like, yeah, he's still got it. Look at his knees popping when he's squatting three plates. I think he's still got it, at his knees popping when he's squatting three plates i think he still got it you know so i definitely feel that but it's cool that like my team like half of them are super young and so they they understand like what real cool is so it's cool to be able to

bounce ideas like back and forth and and kind of still have some sort of radar and not be completely lost i mean once this team starts aging like another five ten years then i think we're gonna be really lost yeah it's like is there a shelf life on this stuff who knows yeah because even when I got into lifting, I think I was already kind of a boomer and I was like 1920. Like, no, no, no. When I first got started getting into YouTube, because I got into lifting through like the old school Ronnie Coleman, Branch Warren, like Jake Cutler type of videos. Yeah, yeah. So like wearing your oldest clothes that was tattered was the shit. Yeah. You know?

Absolutely. So if you watch my old videos, they're like old cut up high school wrestling team shirts, like just old clothes. And when I first got into social media and I'm like, wait, people are getting dressed for the gym? I'm like, this is crazy. And then I'm like, I can't wear my nice t-shirt there. That was almost like a wake up call for me.

Like when people were buying mass and I'm like, sure it's a wearing to the gym. It's like, oh, that's a nice shirt. You're going to wear that to the gym. Yeah. Yeah. So I already felt kind of like a boomer. And then, you know, I was like, oh wait,

like the gym is now like this thing that you go and doer and then you know i was like oh wait like the gym is now like this thing that you go and do kind of you know versus like you go there with your hair all messed up from either work or you just woke up you put on your oldest clothes and you just try to like go thrash yourself i'm like okay so i kind of already had to relearn what cool meant. It's a full-on social event now. Yeah, it is. I'm like, did that guy just walk by me with cologne on at the gym? Like, what the hell's going on here? Hit it with a little Axe body spray.

We noticed that you and Brandon Diamond, campbell um i don't know if you follow brandon at all i'm guessing you're probably aware of aware of him at least on on some level um yeah you guys have like the same pickup now yeah yeah i was actually picking his brain who did it first so he did it first okay yeah, so I was picking his brain on it. But I was on the fence. I was getting a new truck. And it was so funny because the two choices I had were complete opposite. One, it was either to get the new TRX, which is like a super truck, right?

It's like 700 horses. Or the other one I wanted, i was looking for a truck i've been wanting one since i don't know maybe like six years ago once i found out that trucks even had bench seating in the front so that you could seat six i'm like that's like the best thing ever it's like having a suv and a truck make a baby where you could take six like take six people around and then i was looking for but usually when you have bench seats, they usually come with like the weakest motor because it's supposed to be like a work or something. Yeah, or like a fleet truck, you know, something that like that just carries stuff around for, I don't know, like the electrical company. And so they just came out with this truck called like the Silverado Trail Boss.

So it has the big motor. It's a 6.2 liter and it has the bench. So when I test drove both of them, I'm like, and I saw my kids sit next to me like illegally in the bench seat. I'm like, Oh man, this one's gotta be it. Like this, this one is just, it's, it's to me, you know? So so i'm like so i end up getting that one and then i've been asking him like oh like what because he was fixing it up too so he got exhaust and he was getting uh just other like headlight parts so he got his first yeah when he's done like all the badges when he gets into something he like takes it to the thousandth degree his like gym customization

that's not like just a one-off thing like i guess he takes that to everything he does yeah yeah no he's the only one that could review like the safeties of a squat rack yep and uh do a great job doing it too where i'm like yeah i watched that whole thing and really appreciated it i don't know why i watched it but i did here we are and I want more. Yeah. His basement gym is insane. It's so sick. He always is on top of the aesthetic of everything he's doing too. Yeah.

We've got this game, Bart, we play with everyone, overrated, underrated. You're probably familiar with the concept. We've been doing that with every guest for several years now and we've got a special Bart kwan set of overrated underrated topics okay the important thing to remember when you're answering is that you can't ride the line you have to come up with even uh either an overrated or underrated but you

have your druthers to elaborate as much or as little you as you would like on each answer okay so if you're buckled in and ready to play, we'll get started with some overrated or underrated. All right, let's do it. Okay, topic number one, overrated or underrated. We're all dads here now. And you are a bit of a writer, JK News and everything. So overrated, underrated, dad jokes. Oh, are they overrated or underrated?

Yes. I think they're underrated. And I think they're underrated because once you become a dad, I don't know what happens but definitely some part of your dna turns on the lame gene and the lamest the lamest gene turns on and when you can at the same time make your kid laugh but also your wife cringe you're like yes i got it i got a two-for-one special yeah yeah yes oh i'm a huge fan so i'm glad i'm happy to hear you say that i i love a good dad joke it doesn't get much better than my life yep i agree okay topic number two overrated or underrated uh campers pull pull style campers most specifically oh they're fucking underrated i fucking love them so much before i thought they were just these

lame machines and i'm like no if you're gonna go camp you gotta rough it out and get a tent and all that and also like being in the military i'm like when i see my friends go camping i'm like i've been camping before trust me it's not fun that ruins that experience a little bit in my eye and like some people probably look at that differently like they learn from it and then they become skilled at it and stuff but to me i'm like that wasn't that fun i want to do something that's like is comfortable and a little more fun yeah i'm like you want to know what real camping is sleep with the ar in your sleeping bag that's real camping yeah yeah so but now like every family trip we go with a i rent a camper you turn on the ac you can cook inside i'm like these things are amazing i fucking love them yeah i can't wait

to get one actually and the and the trail boss probably just pulls it like a dream right yeah so yeah it's uh back there it. It actually does a really good job. Before, I'm like, why do people need dualies for? Now, I'm like, I see why. Overrated or underrated, the PX. What's the PX? On a military... It's hands down the most underrated thing in the world.

Could you explain what PX means to you? I assume you would know there, but describe what that is for anyone that hasn't been to a PX before. So the PX is like the military Costco, where it has a little bit of everything. the military Costco where it has a little bit of everything and for some reason because you don't have to pay tax it becomes the best place to go but but also at the same time you also realize why everyone wears the same clothes yeah yes true yeah you see the same watch or the same shirt and you're like, that's awesome. And you go on to town and there's 20 other people with the same haircuts, the same watches, with the same shirts. At the same strip club. Yeah.

Trying to make the same strip or the same wine. And you're like, maybe I shouldn't shop at the PX actually. Also, there's something about it inside where it's like yeah it's like you said it's like it's kind of like you're in costco or it's kind of like you're in walmart but it's just like a little shittier or you know it's just like has a little bit not quite the same vibe still yeah it's like the ross version of yes yeah there you go yeah i like we're like usually i don't think like they would carry this quicksilver shirt yeah but for some reason they will carry this version of quicksilver here i don't know was this from a few seasons ago maybe maybe it's new i don't know yeah that's good they're like yeah i guess orange board shorts

aren't even i don't know okay uh next one here actually less this is the last one for overrated underrated this has become uh like a cult classic on massonomics so we bust it out uh for people every once in a while to get their opinion. Overrated or underrated? The McDonald's apple pie. They changed it. You guys know that? No, not recently.

Oh, man. So, both of them underrated. But, originally, it used to have like this crust that was kind of fuzzy okay it's yeah it's almost like had the exterior of a muppet character yeah yeah yeah i kind of know what you're talking about there that's that's familiar to my childhood i think yeah but it's it the the apple the cinnamon and like the gooeyness of the inside was perfect. And it was not flaky whatsoever. It was more of powdery before some reason it was just

right. And when they come out with the two apple pies for a dollar, you have to get both. And they decided to get fancy maybe with the whole onset of mccafe or whatever but then now they make it almost like this crispy like puff pastry version of it yeah and it is more like a pastry now it feels yeah yeah and you could see like bubbles like pastry bubbles but the crunch is insane but the inside is still the same exact one and i love both of them they're just so good so i'm a huge i love mcdonald's like in general you're not necessarily a huge fan of the artisanal artisanal bubbles though no i like the mcdonald's yeah i like what mcdonald's stuck to mcdonald's yeah you stick to your guns and you stick to

that pea-smelling ball pit. You just dig in on what you're known for. Yeah. The mystery meats. You just stick to those things. Don't get cute about it. Yeah.

Them trying to do this Chick-fil-A type sandwich, I'm like, that's not you, man. That's not you guys. Right now, that's everyone, apparently. Yeah. Yeah. Like them trying to do this Chick-fil-A type sandwich. I'm like, that's not you, man. That's not you guys. I mean, right now that's everyone. Apparently everyone. Yeah. No, no.

Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Uh, great. McDonald's. Well, I was just going to say great news. You passed overrated underrated, but it could write on what else you have to say about McDonald's.

On your next statement here. Right. Might carry a lot of weight. Could jeopardize things. Yeah. else you have to say about mcdonald's on your next statement here right carry a lot of weight jeopardize things yeah what i was gonna say is i don't know why but uh mcdonald's is like my ultimate food poisoning like therapy like after after i'm done throwing up or diarrhea if i need something to solidify my bowel movements i can always count on a mcdonald's to like make it

really good to really get the GI. Well, that's the old hangover thing to me. Like if you, if you have a hang, had a hangover, you go out and get a greasy McDonald's or something along those lines. And it's kind of like the only thing that kind of resets the system. It does. It's like a full, when you put the chlorine in the pool, it shocks it. And I like to think of it as a cleanse.

Yeah. does it's like a full yeah when you put the chlorine in the pool it shocks it and i like to think of it as a cleanse it's a mcdonald's yeah yeah yeah the cleanse mcdonald's cleanse that's my kind of cleanse yeah there we go no but you did pass overrated underrated which is important because uh had you not we don't air the episode so good oh okay there was a lot riding on it we don't air the episode. So good. Oh, okay. There was a lot riding on it. We don't tell everyone that up front, but good. So you did just do your meet powerlifting meet. I think it was barbell brigade meet even, but I assume that

went well for you, but I was just curious. Will you continue to do meets in the future? Is that something you'll keep training for? It went horribly. Oh, okay. I was wrong oh okay so i'm doing it yeah i'm doing another meet for sure probably in november december ish okay yeah yeah it was one of those where like i was looking at my powerlifting career which actually means nothing uh but i was just like say the exact same we continue to do it and honestly

that's what most people should say about their career yeah i think probably things one of those sports where you have like the most diehard fans and stuff about something that matters like literally nothing yeah i mean you're like a world record holder like you should probably say your career meant nothing like it's yeah yeah yeah yeah so for me, I was looking at it and I'm like, you know what? I think I'm getting to that age where I'm getting more and more responsibilities and obligations where I think, although I'll always forever be a gym bro and I love training, but like sticking to a program and seeing something and seeing yourself get stronger I don't know if that's that much of a priority anymore so I'm like I've always been this close

to hitting an elite total and I know if I don't just give it my all I'll never hit it and then and I'll be like 40 something looking back going I was always this close. So this year was like my year of really trying to like, like a bunker down and really try to hit that total at this meet. I, I don't think I was really training for like the new school depth. I think everyone across the board is trying to be really like legit, which is a good thing so i think um like some of the videos i watched at the meet i'm like man that wasn't that really so i just

gotta like really take into consideration how much more strict the form is now which is good which is a good thing for the sport in my opinion especially if like people like the usa peel are trying to get into the olympics so um i'm i jumped right back into a new training block and uh hopefully i'll get the elite total that i'm trying to get uh by the end of this year cool yeah what about you guys you guys have any goals in powerlifting or just lifting for fun or i did i did uh yeah i did a meet I the last meet I had done was like in 2017 prior to this year. And then I had done some strongman stuff. I partially tore a bicep and then I then I tore my ACL doing strong and I came back from that and I'd been just recovering. It took like probably a year and a half to two years of recovering from the ACL. And my goal had been to do a powerlifting meet coming back from that and came back and had I had a PR total PR sick PR every lift basically. So it was awesome.

And now I'm just kind of at the point where I'm I I used to do like a couple of meets a year, even younger me would have said that meat went great. I'm going to do another one in two months because I can doubt like, it's like, well, I did, I pulled six 89 and it, I did, I got it. So who's to say I couldn't have done seven Oh five, you know, it's like, why not just 10 more pounds on everything all the time. Uh, but now I'm at the point where I'm like oh that was really good I'm gonna back down from that for a while do some other stuff I've got going on in my life and then hopefully in like a year whatever uh start to build back up to that and do another one and like that's kind of the cycle I'd like to get into is where I can something a little more sustainable that I can continue to do this for maybe like,

I don't know, the next X number of years and not, uh, re-injure myself. And that's, that's kind of where I'm at on that is it's, but overall, yes, it's purely just fun. I'm still, I'm talking about having a PR total, but, um, in the scheme of things, I suck at powerlifting compared to people that are really good at powerlifting. So like, uh, you know, it, it doesn't, it doesn't mean anything in the world of powerlifting, but to me, I just, it's always been fun. I got reminded of the experience of a meet. It had been four years and just how much damn fun that was. And like, uh, the people I don't even know back in the warmup room, like getting you psyched up for a big lift. Yeah. Just like, yeah, it's just so cool. Yeah. Yeah. It's just something that like everything else I do, like nothing really replicates that, you know, it's just its own thing. And you spend so much like power lifting more than anything. You spend so much time,

like just training and practicing, you know, like, like 99.999% of your time is is not competing so like to get out there is a lot of fun and that's i'm in a pretty similar boat to tanner like my last meet was three years ago probably 2018 i suppose yeah and i'd like to you know training just been so up and down for me for the past couple years here but i have had some pretty good momentum now going on for a while so if i can keep this going i'd love to do a meet and like probably probably 2022 would be uh the year would happen so but both of us are in the boat like that we do it because it's fun yes and if it wasn't fun i wouldn't do it uh we obviously like talking about it and i like being involved in it we get to talk to a lot of cool people on uh this platform and talk to guys in the connections breaking up a little bit

oh oh no just just saying yeah it's the fun part of it that's why we do it no yeah i try to do one uh every year regardless if there's a pr or not just to kind of like go through the motions of it and i think it helps me understand like every generation of power lifters and what they're looking for and also just like i think it's just good practice for the brand too you know i agree it adds some relevance and stuff it's like oh yeah this dude this dude does what we do you know yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah for sure yeah and i i i you made a good point there too i don't i'm not under the assumption that i have to do a pr every time to do it and like as i get older I'm more so it's like,

maybe I can just pick one thing. If I could do a little better on like one area here, like that's still a win for me. Or if, you know, it's more picking these little smaller things that I can in my mind, then still think it's a win, you know,

then yeah. More appealing way to bite off and bite it off. I think then thinking you have to go into everything. Yeah. Right. Right. Right. Yeah. one time i went into a meet i think it was the year i had my son so it was like i didn't really have much to train or much time to train and my my third attempt was uh lower than the previous opener and i was like this, this is just gonna, there's like no stress, you know, you're like, this is just gonna be a good time no matter what. So it was just,

it was just, it was almost funny, but it was, it was cool that I still did it. And then like, like the team appreciates it, the gym appreciates it. And it was still just a fun time to like, kind of be in there with everyone, you know? Yeah, for sure. Yeah. One other thing I wanted to bring up before I forget, before we, uh, wrap up is we're, uh, kind of like gym equipment junkies. We have our own massonomics gym club gym that we've operated for like the last five or six years here that, um, it's, we we've got locally, we've got people that are members, but it's really kind of a club and people can join. But it's, you know, you got to kind of be into the sort of thing that we're all into. And but really what it's been, it's allowed us to get this collection of just cool strength equipment and stuff that's fun for us in that way.

But what I was going to say, what I like about Barbell Brigade, I've always liked those plates that I commonly see people use that you guys have. They're kind of like the more silver deep dish plates that the pound plates that use. And I always like the look of those. Like when someone's got like six of those on a deadlift bar. It looks so clean.

Yeah, that is a good look. I always aesthetically like them. It's not that they're new or fancy or anything like that, but I just do always think that those have a kind of a cool look to them. time it starts chipping off and i when we were like picking equipment for the gym um that was actually kind of like a homage to the old school like ronnie coleman videos where i would just see like the old school like ivanko plates you know and they're just like they're like inches and it just has a very bro feel to it and i've always just liked them. I think you have a keen eye there too. I would agree with that. But there's this new company coming out.

I think, are they called Strength Co? They are. I just saw. They're a sponsor of the Massanomics podcast as a matter of fact. Oh, sick. Grant Brogy, the owner of it, is a Marine himself. He's a Marine officer. They make awesome plates. We call them the go-to owner of it is a Marine himself. He's a Marine officer. They make awesome plates.

We call them the go-to plates of the mass economics gym. That's a running, running, running thing. They're the go-to plates. And we've got a whole bunch of them now. And they are awesome. And just as far as like,

we're talking about the aesthetic of like cool plates and stuff. They are so cool. Like obviously they're a paid sponsor and everything, but like this is our real honest opinion is we just, we love those plates. Yeah. I, uh, I saw them for the first time at Russ Swole's gym. Yes. And I'm like, I'm like, what are those things? It's from afar. They're so polished. I'm like, are those plastic? And I touched it. And I'm like, Holy shit. These are shit these are metal yeah and they they fit on almost

like a uh yeah olympic place where there's like no wiggle room and i'm like these things are crafted so well they are the real deal they really are yeah actually saving saving us we don't i don't know if we have to do our ad read later as soon as we get out that's the next ad but maybe we're done with it i don't know and he did just have our ad read later. As soon as we get off the phone, that's the next ad, but maybe we're done with it. I don't know. And he did just have just now 100-pound plates are out. We did have some 100-pound plates. He just made some hundreds.

We got those. And same way, those are not the most practical thing to have in the gym, but same way, they just look so cool. Yeah, I guess it depends on who your members are because we used to have like uh we used to have we call them like the monsters of barbell that was like steve gentelli yeah yeah hulk smash uh t popula uh chad wesley smith used to train there so when those guys came in we would just go okay use these yeah because there was just so much weight being thrown around that if they came in no one else was lifting because all the and we have probably i don't know maybe

like 100 or more 45s and they're just they're just all gone somehow that is a cool group of people that you had there though too iconic yeah yeah iconic. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was really cool. No, uh, the strength co is based out of California though too. So you could, uh, uh,

Oh, cool. Great ones to pick up if you ever in the market. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Shipping would be cheap for sure.

That's much better than to Western Northeast, South Dakota. Yeah. Yeah. If you're, uh, ever on a camping trip to South Dakota, let us know we'll uh

show you the sites here in aberdeen south dakota awesome appreciate it no i'll definitely hit you guys up all right no we are excited to have you on bart uh that was awesome if you can i guess if you want to let people know where to find you i think most people know where to find you if they don't but uh anything you want to get out there, go ahead and shoot. Cool. Yeah. If you want to see what I'm about, my Instagram is just bar Kwan, B A R T K W A N. And if you like anything about fitness or strength training, you can check out barbell brigade.com. That's our website. And also our Instagram is barbell brigade. And, uh, that's pretty much it. Awesome. Awesome. We appreciate it, Bart. That was a lot of fun. Thanks a lot, Bart.

Thank you, guys. See ya. See ya. See ya. What the hell, Tanner? Tommy, what do you give Bart? Oh. Oh.

Cool beans. Beans. Cool beans. Cool beans. He got the cool beans. Maybe even. Cool beans. Maybe we're going to throw an extra cool bean in there.

He got like a third cool bean. I think that was the standing ovation on the cool beans. Oh, yeah. Wow. That's a lot of beans. We don't give that many beans. Maybe even maybe we'll even throw an extra cool bean in there. cool bean. That was I think that was the standing ovation on the cool bean. Oh yeah. That's a lot of beans. We don't give that many

beans up to him. He gets that extra bean for mentioning a sponsor. Anytime a guest mentions a sponsor I you know that's almost

one of those things that almost felt like we planted it but we didn't. So no 100% natural especially you could almost

think you planted that like because he could have said, there's this one company out there. There's this one plate company. I'm like, who's he going to say? Yeah, I know. That's what I was looking at.

And I was like, I hope he's going to say the Strength Co. and not like... They're one of the big companies, but they make deep dish plates. No, no, no. We're not talking about that one. We're talking about the Strength Co. And 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 to the barbell movements. Grant, the owner of the Strength Co. is a Marine and he is passionate about obtaining quality American products and labor for all aspects of his business. The Strength Co. makes premium made in America barbell equipment, including their machined and E-coated plates. These plates are functional, easy to handle,

accurate, and made to last a lifetime. The Strength Co. plates have become the go-to choice for all members at Massanomics Gym. Check out their plates and all their other made in America equipment online at thestrengthco.com. That's thestrengthco.com. And Tanner, it's also very funny that um he brought them up because i did remember to um you know i guess we did say on the podcast but we did get the 100 pound plates in the gym and those are some beefy boys aren't they

those are heavy you know they come there's 100 on it and i'm sure they're accurate but they certainly feel heavier than 100 don't they they are very heavy um i did not bring them here today for uh a sack segment i'm kind of glad you did it because that would have been i'm not lying i'm not a weak man like in the scheme of like overall men in the world. And like we talked about how the hell did the UPS guy get those to you? That I wasn't, you know, for sure. Like they are UPS. Can't say UPS that I can imagine that their thing says you have to be able to lift over a hundred pounds to work here.

Right. And that hundred pound thing. And like, they had to come set them on the floor of my garage. And like, it is, they are not easy to pick up off the ground yeah you're not an active person that's they probably are gonna leave like nasty letters i'd be like stop ordering heavy stuff we're old stop doing this to me please uh no those are our have our awesome plates and i just i don't know i want to go to them right now like we're gonna have to cut this short so i can just go to them i kind of sound like bart kwad wanted to go to him too he it's that's the go-to nature of the plates i mean we brought

up the we brought up plates as a topic and he goes he goes he went to it he go to he went there he go to the strength coat plates he brought it there on his own. That's the power they have. That's true. We did it. We're not going to, I don't think we're going to cover it. We've got a list to go over. We'll go over that list maybe next time.

Yeah. So we have several other things in here that we didn't even get to this week. I guess I could do the list quick. Here's the order of my list that it's in. It goes Reggie, Jay-Z, Tupac, and Biggie, Andre from OutKast, Janice Krupp, Nas, and then me. Oh, that sounds like quite the list you have there, Tanner.

That's the order of my list that it's in. It almost had a little rhyme to that. There was a little rhythm there. I don't know if it was natural. It came out that way. I can tell you've been thinking about it, obviously. That wasn't just shooting from the hip there. No, we do have something else. We'll save that for next episode, though. Just too much good stuff thinking about it, obviously. That wasn't just shooting from the hip there. No, we do have something else.

We'll save that for next episode, though. Just too much good stuff in this one, Tommy, don't you think? Is there really ever too much good stuff? No. But maybe we don't want to give people, we don't want to overdo it. That's true. So we'll say enough. As far as the world of Masonomics, things that we have coming out.

Drop coming out this week this week a new drop as you're hearing this this one cool one this one's really cool this drop pops it does pop there could be some garments for your upper body maybe other parts of your body yep who knows i don't know uh i'm excited about this one. A couple of t-shirts in there that are really awesome. They will become a couple of my favorite t-shirts that we have come out with, honestly, up to this point. So very stoked about that. Very, very stoked about that. And that'll come out towards the end of this week, we believe, is the plan on that.

So stay tuned. Yeah yeah you know the deal you know how this goes if you listen to this you've probably been around the block a few times and then what about would we want to tell them about this like we're talking about doing this other thing for our supporting members well we're not really talking about that yet um last supporting members will have something coming your way so if if you're not a supporting member, be on the lookout. Well, you've probably already looked out by now. That's true. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, there's some perks coming to supporting members.

Right, right. Never too late to go to messnoms.com slash join. Yeah, and maybe you want to get on some of those mini, mini perks. And talk to anyone that's a supporting member now. They'll tell you about all the stuff that they've gotten to. The ins and outs of it. They've, I mean, will have forgotten some of the things by now that they've received in return for their supporting membership but we do have some fun things coming we do have some fun things coming for supporting members so and like us on youtube make sure to subscribe on youtube bring the bell

all these podcasts go out on YouTube. If you haven't watched there before, check us out. This podcast was a little bit of a different one for us than normal. Because we had to look to the right the whole time. Well, that's what I imagine. If you do normally watch this,

you're like, why did they just turn their heads? And this is kind of off screen. Yeah, it is. So I was holding my phone over here. We were looking at Tanner's phone the whole time for the Zoom call because we would have had to run a crazy number of wires to get my laptop here and propped up in front of

this yeah it would have just been a hassle so yeah instead of just having a regular call we did have a zoom call which meant there was a video so we were looking off yeah off of the youtube screen well he was all set up for video so it's like a shame if we didn't uh have the video option but um that was a challenge for me because I normally have note, like I have a few things jotted down on my phone that I refer to as notes. And it kind of made it so I couldn't go to it. Even for overrated and underrated, I did flip to it one time just to refresh myself. Because you didn't want to scare Bart Kwan with this other guy popping into your Zoom feed, right? And I don't know how to, I would show you right now if I could figure out how to.

I know the members, I know the picture. I think it's been used in memes before. Yeah, it's me like in a blue dress shirt and tie. I think the last time we had a meme contest, people were like using that one of, oh, working hard or hard. Yeah, so I was doing something, people were making dumb ones.

So I minimized Zoom on my phone and then that picture popped up to Bart and he was probably like, who is that? Because it really doesn't look a lot you know if you didn't if you see me twice you'd be like is that the same person i'm not sure uh that is funny those reactions who is that guy is there a third man in this call that i don't know about was me always has been me i got one more thing to tell you about tommy oh i cannot wait texas power bars buckle in for a little history lesson here on buddy caps okay let's do it buddy caps first started lifting weights in the late 60s to begin power lifting in the mid 70s at that time he was working for image barbell Building Gym Equipment.

Around 1976, a local machine shop started making Olympic bars for them and calling it the Image Bar. In 1977, Image Barbell became Champion Barbell. It was then that Buddy started looking at the bars with an intent of changing them for the better. In 1979, Buddy bought his first lathe to begin addressing the known issues. In 1980 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 it was maintenance free hundreds of state national international all the all the features you hit me with over here yes international and barbell brigade power lifting records have been and continue to be set and broken on the Texas Power Bar. Check them out. Get yourself a Texas Power Bar, Texas Squat Bar, Texas Deadlift Bar. They've got them in a number of different finishes,

sear coat options. They've got everything that you're going to need as far as a barbell goes. Check them out at TexasPowerBars.com. Thank you, Texas Power Bars. Thank you to all of our other great sponsors thank you to big caleb for the big bob gibson sauce time i go mentioned one other thing a surprise last second sack segment what what what but i almost forgot to have it is some custom 100% custom uh massonomics

lift shorts made other than uh by none other than big randy big andy or skinny idiot studios

yep the the one-off yes massonomics lift shorts that's great and he also uh so if you're

looking at he's an uh artist we've had andy do a few things for us uh at skinny idiot studios holding these up can you see him good here is it i think that's pretty good you're seeing him on camera he made the custom lift shorts for us here very cool he also made the uh i'm guessing you saw the massonomic Yes. Looked a little provocative. It was very provocative.

That soap almost, like, could have been others. Could have been Big Bob's. Yeah, could have been Big Bob's white sauce, for all I know, in that advertisement. So thank you, Andy, for making that cool Masonomic stuff. We've gotten a collection of those cool posters that I don't know exactly what we're going to do with. We'll figure it out

sometime also with these so now we have these so these are uh black mesh shorts these are a size large we've got these cool custom uh one of one lift shorts we've also got the lift evil shorts hanging around still too so we're starting we've got a couple uh couple of things we might have to decide what we're going to do. We're starting to get a pretty nice collection of artisanal. Yes. So we're going to have to do some thinking on what exactly. Oh, also,

did you notice the nice, the skull and also the perfectly placed eggplant? Like us on YouTube, Facebook, Tik TOK, of course, just blown up on Tik TOK. Get over there, follow us on, of course. Just blown up on TikTok. Get over there.

Follow us on TikTok. And then the supporting membership. We already talked about that. So get on that too. And get on the new drop. Ah, the new drop. That's the most important thing. That is the most important thing. If you take anything away from this last hour and a half.

It should be, I need to go buy something from massonomics.com. Yes. And there's a lot there. There's a lot of stuff there. There's good stuff. There's some sale items too. Some stuff that's already marked down. There's a little something for everyone there.

There's something for everyone. As long as you have deep, deep pockets. Deeper the better. We love your money. Help it become ours. We love it more than you do. Hand it over. Yeah, we'll take great care of it.

Tommy, where do they find you at? You can find me at Tomahawk underscore D. You can follow me at Tanner underscore Baird, but just make sure to follow Mastonomics at Mastonomics. See ya.