Massenomics Podcast - Ep. 285: Steve Gentili

Episode Date: September 20, 2021

We talk to Big Steve about running Indy City Barbell, and what it was like during the heydays of raw powerlifting in Los Angeles. We also talk about the changes he’s gone through since getting FSGS and experiencing kidney failure. This episode also features some bonus overrated/underrated! 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! Massanomics! website, everything. Massanomics! Welcome back, everyone, for episode 285 of the Massanomics podcast, the lifting podcast about nothing recorded live from western northeast South Dakota. My name is Tanner.

And my name is Tommy. Tommy, boy, oh boy, do we have some stuff to talk about today. The list is full. This is going to be a good one. Like always. Yes. You know what else is going to be good? I got a feeling what you're about to say here.

My transition into ads, that's what's going to be good. Amazing. Today's episode is brought to you by Hybrid Performance Method. They're your solution to 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. You can take your training and nutrition to the next level, get a personalized nutrition plan, plus a dedicated coach in your corner, helping you 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. Please visit them at hybridperformancemethod.com.

They've got their Strength Coach app. They've got their training and nutrition programming, both available for you there. And on all that stuff, you can save 5% by using our discount code. It's MASS, M-A-S-S, in all caps. That'll save you that sweet, sweet 5% at hybridperformancemethod.com. That sounds so simple, Tanner. It's so simple a caveman could do it.

We've done this one before. Oh, yeah. You know, you do this long enough, you'll do them all right. I only know so many things in my head. I only have so many catchphrases to fall back on. You pull my string enough times, they'll hear them all right i only know so many things in my head so it's like i only have so many catchphrases to fall back on you pull my string enough times they'll hear them all we're like woody from toy story that's happening to me again toy story not a bad movie though i've never okay is there three or four honestly remember how that one time i said i might catch you with some uh pop overrated underrated uh the

guys in the or the guys and gals in the discord community have really been pushing for the actually do do some spontaneous over under um they did say though that they would really like it if I read the rules again yeah like for old times I did see. I did see that. Yep. There, you know, everyone's kind of a stickler for the rules. People might not think they are, but that's, uh, people do have a thing for rules. Quite honestly,

we probably got kind of lax on the rules for overrated, over underrated, overrated over the last couple of years. Haven't we? I think so. Yeah. Do you want to hear the rules? I think probably,

you know, we'll save our guests the problem of hearing all of them, but just to give people a taste of what's to come. There's for sure. People that started listening to the podcast that have probably never heard the rules. Read the rules of overrated and underrated. There's a rule book. So this is, we'll just let people know that if you are listening for the first time, later on in the show, we like to play a little game with our guests.

If they're up for it. Yeah, if they're up for it. And there are rules to it. We typically, we've really started to give the abridged version of the rules lately but there was a full version okay maybe you should read that too yes here they are underrated or overrated consists of lightning round questions asked by myself to tommy the questions come from a variety of topics including but not limited to pop culture current events food and technology There are also lifting-related topics sprinkled in.

It's important to remember that the questions are, in fact, lightning round, but the answers are not necessarily. Tommy has his what? His druthers, when it comes to the length of his answers. What are druthers, you ask? Well, Merriam-Webster's dictionary defines druthers as a person's preferences in a matter. All that being said, there does have to be a final answer this initial issue of overrated or underrated must be clearly resolved in the end

due to demand we have added an faq section for overrated underrated question can tommy come up with his own over under topics answer it is not suggested or preferable but under special circumstances it could be petitioned to be allowed question can the rules change answer the rules are fluid they are living breathing organism that can evolve with time and they did change yes wow i had not heard those four very long time does that kind of take you back yeah i'm like uh it is funny how i could read that one you know when you read something, like an ad for the first time, sometimes it's a little bit like, oh, why are the words so hard? And like, they don't feel like they flow.

It's like the first time you read the Texas Power Bar. Right. It's like, oh, 1970, 1982. And then you read it a few times and it's like a part of who you are then. It's like, oh, yeah, strong as a house. Of course it is. But yeah, that was kind of like riding a bike reading the rules. Oh, yeah, that's good. So the pop overratedrated underrated topic tommy overrated underrated the toy story

quadrilogy i don't know what you call it okay i've never seen the fourth for sure i've never seen the fourth it's relatively new i can't remember that one and i'm pretty sure i haven't seen all of the third one either we've we've been running through them at my house because that's one of the shows that like pixar has been my go-to because of something that uh my three-year-old my 10-year-old and i can all yeah and that's why i like i've talked about like i thought about for a while like i could i could really run through all the pixar movies on my own but you better say i know i'm gonna be doing that again no i would seriously recommend saving that because you know there's only so many things that you both want to watch

yeah like that you know it's like yep so yeah i'm gonna save that so i i still think like toy story is probably underrated for i mean what it did for movies and all that stuff uh it kind of invented the whole uh 3d right genre with with movies like with that whole thing um i think i do have to go underrated for toy story even though it is probably one of the highest rated true series of all time i think it is just that good you have to it is really good yeah so that was our special pop version of overrated under there it is you know i listened to the steve jobs biography last year and i did not understand how instrumental he was in the funding and... Oh, of Toy Story?

Pixar. Yeah, basically, it was a huge... Did he come up with the lamp thing where it springs out and jumps on the eye? I don't know if he came up with that, but I don't know. Depending on how much you remember, like, kind of the first... I might be getting my timelines mixed around here, but one of the first IMAX was kind of inspired by that. Okay. Because it had, like, kind of this bulbousous base and then it had that same sort of lamp.

And then instead of a lamp being on the end, it was a screen. Okay. So if you look at an IMAX from like, oh boy, like probably early, early 2000, they kind of had that look.

It's changed quite a bit since then, but that's kind of where a lot of that came. But yeah, he, he pumped like a ton of his own money into, um, them. And like toy story was sort of their first idea

and so he was you can you can definitely thank him for pixar being a thing nowadays and thank him for making turtlenecks cool black turtlenecks and uh you could also maybe thank him for iphones too i guess if you're into that at all if you use one of those old things one of those old things tanner i have maybe the oldest piece of follow-up we've ever had on this podcast. Great. I don't even know who or I just know this is from maybe two, maybe three years ago. Okay, great. Someone at one point, because there was a while where I feel like we were both really

knocking through bigger podcasts that were like, yep, this is like a 10 part yeah story or something right right and then we serial yeah and we talk about those quite a bit like town yeah way back in the day we talk about those a fair amount and we'd always get recommendations and someone i guess i can put a timeline on this a little bit because i think the podcast was from 2018 or 19 so it was at least it was for sure two years ago at least but um someone had recommended to live and die in la okay and whenever they recommended that i put that on my to listen to list and you finally got to it and i we uh we went on a little road trip this past weekend and my wife said what are we going to listen to and i said i have a list that i keep that we just we've never we haven't looked at the

list forever right and we popped it open and to live and die in LA was on there. Actually, I had like three on there. She looked them up and she said, this one sounds the most interesting. We listened to it and it was pretty good. What was it about? So it's about, uh, I want to know if I should listen to it. Yeah. It's about this.

We probably talked about this years ago. We might've, we might've actually talked about this before. Uh, the guy's name is Neil Strauss. He is a reporter for rolling stone okay and he at the time had done some investigative work on like a murder that i think someone brought to his attention because the cops weren't what they thought being they didn't think the cops were being serious enough about it so they thought all right we'll get this journalist on it yep and so he got a little notoriety for that so there was another murder that happened in la a murder yeah kind of the same thing where they felt like hey maybe

there's not enough eyes on this there's not enough going on and this one was very very recent at the time of recording and so he starts digging into it and it's just about a lady that was trying to become an actress gets okay gets murdered and uh him and a private investigator doing tracing the steps back and seeing where it goes and it's it maybe got a little drawn out it's by the same i can't remember we've talked about this on up and vanish did you ever it sounds familiar it's by the same way i did that and i think they go a little overboard with like the production like to the point where it's like it's really creepy and then you're like this what's going on here then you realize oh they're reading an ad like they slip in like that to me ads should be

kind of a little obvious right especially in a story like that yeah and it's like yeah the whole thing and then you realize oh they're reading me an ad right yeah like they do some stuff like that that i think is peanut butter cup yeah where these come from yeah so... Yeah, I thought it was pretty good. I think it was like 14 or 15 episodes, around 30 to 40 minutes each. So it is a bit of a time investment. It's a jaunt. It's no S-Town or Serial, I can say that. Those are still in a league of their own,

in my humble opinion. League of their own, that was a movie. That was, in fact, a movie. You are... Tom Hanks. Yeah, and those ladies. Playing softball rosie o'donnell is she in there i think she might be in there pretty sure she's in it the main i've never seen it so i can't say for certain but uh it's the one where there's there's no crying in baseball that's like the only line i told you the whole thing that's the but you i just saved you

having to watch the movie there's no crying in baseball thank you thank you for saving me that time uh speaking of follow-up we had a pretty intriguing conversation last episode about a pretty hot button issue lately it's the uh ghd versus ghr the great conversation had a post on it actually there was no debate between us we were in i think in ghr territory and so there has been we we did have a post about that on instagram which did get a decent amount of uh interaction from people i um not surprised i thought that it might people on the internet have strong opinions and their opinions are all over the board on this first of all but what i could glean from it based on the summation of all the different opinions and their opinions are all over the board on this first of all but what i could glean from it based on the summation of all the different opinions and who they're coming from

yeah like there's a lot of like like influential people even that weighed in on like what they think it is and why it's that way and here's what i could take from it i'm trying to think of the best way to phrase this. The old school community would call it GHR. Okay. This is speaking in generalities. Yep. The old school community,

like the people that work for Elite FTS, like I think it's Nate Harvey, he weighed in on that. A couple other people did and some other more old, what I would consider more old people that have been around right they called it ghr and they say yeah it's that damn crossfit community that came up with ghd and the description that people give like what i heard from a few different people is ghd is the piece of equipment ghr is the exercise i saw that too i'm like well that

doesn't that's not how this works across the board for and that was what some other people argued with because they said you don't call a lat pull down a lat developer and the exercise is a lat pull down yeah i think someone else said the bench press isn't the bench developer right right developer and then there was counterpoints to that argument that well it's because there's i i actually heard it both people that thought it should be ghd argued this in opposite ways but both for the point that it should be in ghd someone said because there's a lot of different exercises you do on it the machine is a ghd but that particular exercise is a ghr someone said the opposite that because you really only can do one thing on it

that's the gh the lift is the ghr and the machine is the ghd um also i think there's several people that also wrote like no that's a crossfit chrome which are like crossfit right yeah right and also like yeah that's what i lean my coat on and stuff like that but the websites i pulled from rogue fitness rep um sorenx and elite fts elite fts is the only one that calls it a ghr the other one are all ghd and that also to be fair to be fair rogue probably made theirs first and then rep just copied their naming on that so that one almost doesn't count there yes that's very possible but that's kind of stands up to that logic that the more old school which on those companies elite fts is uh the most old school of them and speaking

in general terms i'm trying to think of like any any like real like legacy equipment companies like Hammer Strength or something like that, if they even have it, you know, do those companies even have it? And if they did, did they make it more recent or farther back than, you know, like the last five years? Because Michael Fahey from Westside versus the world said, no, it's a glute ham calf or calf ham glute or something like that.

So that must be another older even yet term maybe perhaps or, you know, like less commonly. That's got to be one of the pieces of equipment that has the most turmoil on the game, doesn't it? I'm trying to think of what else even fits into that of people not being on the same page. Right, right. I don't know. But after like weighing all those points in what how do you feel do you feel any differently about the well what do you think of the the ghd is the machine and the ghr is the lift because i mean i don't like that i mean that argument yeah you're

gonna tell me that argument sure that makes sense logically was that the reasoning that it says that way i don't know how you could prove that right well and i just i still lean more in the camp of the old school approach on that that it's just a ghr and ghd is the thing i mean me i don't like that like no the ghd is the machine the ghr is the exercise yeah yeah i like ghr yeah so we're not wavering on that then nope nope if there's one thing i Yeah. Yeah. I like GHR. So we're not wavering on that. Nope. If there's one thing I learned,

you take a position and you never change your mind. No matter what anyone else says. And actually you, no matter what, if the more they say, the more you stick to it, no matter what bridges you might burn, what opportunities it might cost you in life. You do not change your mind.

That is the rules. That's right. It's like, they just, those people not change your mind. That is the rules. That's right. It's like they just, those people have no common sense. It's clearly, if you have any common sense, you would know it's a GHR.

Sense isn't all that common these days. No, it's not. Everyone, not everyone has it. Oh. So yeah, if you have common sense, it's a GHR.

I think that's the takeaway. So that's our update on that. Probably more to be continued on that in the future still, I would think. I don't think it's the last we'll hear of that. Tanner, I want to tell you about something now. Speaking of things that aren't the last we're going to hear of. And I think you're going to like what I'm going to tell you here. Today's episode is brought to you by Spud Inc.

and the Gateway Briefs OnePly. Whether you're just entering the world of geared powerlifting or you're a pro who needs a milder set of briefs for your light squat and deadlift days, the Spud Inc. Gateway Briefs are the answer. The easy-on, easy-off Gateway Briefs provide mild hip compression that supports and warms your joints while enabling you to overload and squat and deadlift safely without risk to your hips. And if you're just learning the geared squat, the Gateway Briefs can give you an easier transition than traditional briefs. Available in 1, 2, 3, 4 sizes. You know there's one for every body type. That's right. You can check out the Spud, Inc. Gateway One-Ply Briefs online at spud-inc-straps.com

thank you spud inc thank you thank you okay we've got some other things we got to talk about too here oh we i think you have a little little something over there yeah actually let's do that that's i'm very excited to find out what we're dealing i know i am too so first let me maybe we'll just hold up this, but there's a letter to go along with this. So I don't know what that is. I haven't opened it. I haven't tampered with it.

Okay. We have this. Luckily, this does say read me on the outside. Otherwise, I'm not sure if we would have known. It is a letter in a plastic bag. It would be easy to throw away on accident. And I think this is from big matt okay uh mr mostly squats videos himself the one and only the one and only uh you could call him

a discord superstar yeah he's uh our our favorite uh bostonian rhode islander ever okay so i don't know this has not been pre-screened, so there could be foul language in this. Expletives. Bernie, cover your ears with your paws if you could. Dear Midwesterners, how do you like them fucking apples? Is that actually what it said? No, but I just wanted to do an accent,

and I can only do it if I say, I can only do it in Goodwill hunting lines. If you're going to commit the foul sin of combining pizza and milk, at least make sure that it's coffee milk. Coffee milk? What's that? I'm glad you asked. The official state drink of Rhode Island is delicious.

Use the syrup in this box to make it. Has Basement Brandon ever sent you a bottle? I think not. Referring to our other Rhode Island listener and supporting member. Yes. Sincerely, mostly squat videos. P.S. Wear contest.

I'm so bored that I've resorted to writing letters to podcasts. We do have ideas for contests. Okay. Yeah, we do. We do. Actually, there's going to be one coming up pretty soon here. So should I open this? Yeah.

So this is a Ziploc bag with some type of cylindrical object covered in a lot of paper towels um let's get to the bottom of this here was anything harmed in the shipping of this uh package i think we're okay i have another say can segment at home from someone else that's set they also sent in so uh we'll be getting to that one in a future episode as well okay i actually thought this would just unroll much easier than what it is but that's a lot of paper paper towels are expensive it's like a whole roll of bounty a whole roll of bounty that's how you know it's good oh oh autocrat coffee syrup what official state drink of rhode, coffee milk. I don't get it.

Do you drink it or do you put it inside? He said here, he even gave us directions because he knew we would not know. A simple thing. Use the syrup in this box to make it. Okay. I don't know the recipe. Mix two tablespoons with eight ounces of milk. Refrigerate after opening.

Okay, so I guess we have to do some follow up on this one yeah wow this is something that i've never heard of and i have no idea what this actually is like is it just has to be kind of like we should have had some milk i should have had some milk prepared for us but i wouldn't have known that part okay we'll have to yeah check back in on this one. We can't stop the recording now. This would take too long. Right.

We've come this far. We'll follow back up on that one. There's something there. So anyways. What does that look like? Thank you, Big Matt, for the autocrat coffee syrup. That does not look like intriguing packaging. It looks like it'd be something you'd find in the baking aisle.

Yeah. Yeah. That's not flashy. No. It's very. Just like Rhode Islanders.'d find in the baking aisle. Yeah, yeah. That's not flashy. No, it's very... Just like Rhode Islanders. It's very understated, yeah. I think that's their motto over there, very understated. And we talk like we're from Boston.

Whatever they do there. Well, thank you, Matt. Get back to squats. Back to the squat. I hope your hernia recovery is proceeding nicely as well. Going swimmingly. Yes. So we have now showdown meet coming up, Tanner?

Yeah, I think that's the next big thing we've got here to talk about is the week that this comes out is the week that we're leaving for the showdown meet in Kansas City. In real time, that means next week. It means like nine days from now is when we leave. Yeah, so we're leaving on the morning of Friday the 24th? Yes, that's right. And what do we think we're going to leave?

We're going to leave pretty early, probably. We've been kind of giving this plan up. Fairly early. You know, for us, it's a short drive of eight, nine hours. Which is not exaggerated. That is a short drive. Yeah, we're like, oh, it's pretty close. It's only a nine-hour drive.

It's as close to our neck of the woods as anything gets around here. Yeah. So we are headed down south to sunny Kansas City. It's going to be warm down there, I bet. Probably will be warm down there. It's got to be warmer than here always, right? It actually hasn't been too cold here either. Yeah, so we're kind of getting things prepared.

This will be the first event that we've gone to with a booth like this since our first and only ever Arnold. Yeah, this is only the second time. Second event we've ever gone to to have a booth, to be an exhibitor. Which does seem weird. That does. It seems really weird that we've been doing this this long

and we've only been able to go to one event ever. I'm just now realizing we aren't prepared. No. I was going to say you had this whole list of things. No, no. Yeah, it is much, it feels after doing the Arnold once, I mean, there's definitely going to be something that doesn't go away but if the stakes seem so much lower than like the arnold where booths are expensive we're driving like 18 hours yeah we're taking a ton of shit we have no idea what we're

doing there's like very strict rules how everything's supposed to work because there's so many people and there has to be rules right and here And here, I think it's kind of like, Hey, there's a gym and we're going to show up. And yeah. Yeah. This is kind of our dry run. I think, um, or it's kind of our preparatory for booth 2.0 for,

for the big Arnold coming up. And I think it'll be a lot of fun. You know, part of it is the having a booth and the selling some stuff, hopefully. But the other big thing is there's, there's going to be a whole bunch of people there that we've had on the podcast and yeah getting out meeting people because that never happens for us no big jonathan old him will be there uh

massonomic sponsored athlete uh big ben pollock is going to be there is he i think yeah i don't think he's lifting but he's going to be there he said so also massonomic sponsored athlete i guess we've never really talked about that have that Kaler we added a couple to the team Kaler Willem and Ben Pollock are both a couple of really heavy hitters yeah I'm like in shock right now that

we haven't ever talked like this is actually kind of crazy like it's sort of blow my mind yeah I don't think we've ever we've just been we just had so much going on with everything going on with everything going on there's just there's only so many hours in this in these podcasts right but yeah i guess on a side note we did add those guys to the team just somewhat recently here which is pretty cool yeah it is cool super cool beans uh but yeah that'll be a big part about being there is just yeah getting to hang out with people and talk and

watch the lifting too even like i outside of the arnold i've never went to a quote-unquote bigger you know there's all kinds of big stuff going on at the arnold but um this is kind of the premier sleeve meet i guess yeah i mean the shot the meat itself has a reputation that very few meats do. So that should be fun. You know, I'm really curious. I'm getting excited to go. You know, I'm curious for what it holds. We're loading up the trailer with all the massonomics gear. Yeah. Hopefully by the time we leave the road,

the trailer's looking very massonomics-y. Yeah, we had to get some new tires put on the trailer, got it ready to go. So now we just hopefully have a little more Masonomics pop to that trailer before then. Hopefully. Hopefully. A lot can happen. Things go the way they're supposed to.

It's going to be a pretty fly-looking trailer. Yeah. It's almost like a mobile billboard at that point. Otherwise, yeah. I don't really have neither one of us really have much for expectations just because we have no idea what to expect right you know we know we went to the arnold several times before we had a booth there so we kind of had an idea of what the arnold consisted of but right uh going to just a meet kind of in a farther away place. I don't know. Are there going to be 100 spectators? 300?

400? I don't know. 50? I'm not sure. Yeah. It'll be a fun time no matter what. It'll be fun. It'll be cool beans. Very cool beans.

A lot of cool beans that weekend, right? That's true. Cool beans everywhere. Cool beans are going to be flowing, aren't they? Actually, I don't really know that I'd be able to drink that much and like still be able to get through everything that we're doing yeah i guess we'll find out there's only one way to find out yeah when there's a will there's a way so hopefully some people that are listening to this are going to yeah the meet and if you are make sure to definitely come by

and it'd be really really really weird to us only buy our stuff don't talk to it no it'd be really weird if you're listening to this and going to the meet and you didn't say hi yeah it would be like if you listen to the podcast and you sort of regularly you're going there and you didn't stop by and say hi that can happen at the arnold because the arnold is so big i never even saw you guys that i don't think there's gonna be like 40 booths no that's a thing so no but yeah i hope people do just stop by we can chat it up see what's happening talk about our favorite sparkly water flavors maybe get a picture a sick pick for the gram sick pick

hopefully we see some people wearing some masonomics gear there i hope so that'd make me happy obviously obviously no one's gonna be wearing lift shorts like oh that's a given but you're gonna be able to afford those but outside of that who knows anything people could be wearing all types of cool stuff that's true so stay tuned for our report. Not next week's episode because we'll record that one before. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm getting my timelines mixed around. But, yeah, we'll record that one before we go. Yeah, yeah.

So there will be a slight break in the. Right. A slight delay in the schedule. So we can kind of have this conversation again next week. The same one. We can just say this all over again. At that point, people will be listening to it the week after and then we'll talk about it so you're gonna get three weeks of the show yep it's the

perfect schedule i like it ah the perfect plan it's gonna be great yes i don't think we'll have to you know the arnold we always have to record one on the road or we usually would i don't think we got it planned out i don't think we're gonna record one on the road we'll just record it when we get back right since we're only gonna miss a couple days right you know what we're not going to miss probably a really good ad a really good ad um speaking of questions do you know what's in your supplements if you use fusion sports performance you will. 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've got yourself the Super Soldier pre-workout and the Mad Titan High Stim pre-workout. Both have great ingredients. They increase muscular endurance, maximize performance, improve focus, and get you that much sought after pump. Healing Factor Post-Workout combines BCAAs and a full serving of creatine monohydrate and other great ingredients to help maximize your efforts in the gym, build muscle, and recover fast. They also have their whey protein isolate. Not only does it taste great, it also has 27 grams of protein per scoop. Zero fat, lower no carbs, depending on the flavor.

It also contains, it also doesn't contain any soy or gluten, and it won't cause any stomach discomfort. It's part of what I like about Fusion SP, keeping it pretty simple. Got yourself some pre-workout. They keep it real. Yep, your post-workout BCAAs and creatine, and you got your whey protein isolate in the chocolate of some sort. So that's kind of all you need.

Just get yourself all of those supplements, and you'll be set. Most orders are shipped within one business day, and every Fusion Sports Performance product comes fully backed with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Go to FusionSP.net and use code MASS to save a huge, massive 20% on your order. Thank you, Fusion SP. Tommy, should we get our guest on the line? Let's do it.

It's about that time, isn't it? It's guest time. You're putting in your long-distance calling card? Yes. Dee-dee-dee-dee-T-T-T-T-T. Hello. Hey, Big Steve. Is that you?

Yeah, this is me. All right. We're excited to get you on the Mastonomics podcast. This is Tanner and Tommy. What's up, Steve? What's up, guys? Ah, not too much we're luckily uh you said you're a uh night owl kind of guy so we didn't catch you before going to bed

oh dude i don't sleep i'm like i get like three or four hours a night it's ridiculous like like is that on purpose or you just you just can't sleep no man it was ever since i got sick and then they put me on dialysis it's like a side effect of that you know like just one of those things it does some strange shit to your body the no sleep i like i go we get tanner probably can relate to this we go through stretches of you have the kids that don't sleep and after like three days of that i'm like ready to just like not live anymore so i don't know you, I don't know how you cope with it. But but when it's someone else placing that on you, like and you have like someone else responsible for it, it makes it so much worse.

Yeah. I hate the little bastards. Turns into great engine shit. Yes. turns into range and shit yes uh yeah so i guess um you for anyone that doesn't know you i think you've had kidney failure correct and that's you get regular dialysis treatment uh yeah so i was uh diagnosed fsgs about two years ago um was already at like six percent kidney function i made it a year and went and uh basically full full failure and they put me on dialysis about a year ago so it's like five days a week i do treatment and actually i'm doing it right now i run it at night

oh so you do it at home you don don't have to go somewhere every day. The first six months, I was in a clinic, and then it's just easier to do it on your own time. When you switch to home therapy, you only have to do three hours a shot. So I go to the gym and do my thing all day, and then I come home and do treatment at night while I'm relaxing. That sounds tough man yeah like what if you what if you want to go what if you're going on vacation somewhere for a week what do you do can you bring

yeah bring this up with you question man yeah like so i'm actually uh planning a trip in december and there's like basically two options you can like look for a clinic to go visit and they'll set that up for you and you just got to go every other day you know like you can't miss treatments like that yeah i mean essentially you could you're just going to feel like shit you just spend all that money to go on vacation and then just spend your time laying in bed but the other the other side of it you could bring like the equipment i have i can bring it with me and then i can get supplies shipped there so you know you know, like as far as like getting out of the country, probably not going to happen, but, uh, across the States, man, it's pretty comparable.

Okay. So what's the end hope that, I mean, do you, uh, hopefully get a transplant at some point in time? Like, is that the goal, man? Like, I mean, I mean, there's since getting sick, like there's a lot of guys that have reached out to me that have been through the process there's a lot of other guys that have been weightlifting pro bodybuilders like these guys that have kind of been similar paths and after the transplant you know it's you're never

the same but but you live a pretty normal life you know like you take some anti-rejection meds and uh you're limited in in some capacities but you know it's take some anti-rejection meds and uh you're limited in some capacities but you know it's better than the alternative there's people that i've known i'm sure you guys have known too where you get diagnosed and they're gone in four months right so at least this is something i can live with and um for the most part a pretty normal life so and maybe this is a dumb question but is this both kidneys or is it just one that that have the problem yeah that's a pretty common question it's it's both like your kidneys kind of work together they're separate organs but like when one goes it's putting

all the pressure on the other one there are cases of people with certain degenerative issues where it only affects one kidney and you can live with one kidney so you get it removed like obviously there's living donors that donate a kidney and they live a pretty normal life um with just the one kidney but for the most part like if you're getting if you get sick or a disease it's going to affect both of them so i'm sure you've talked about this with other people and i i just i haven't really heard and i think it's pretty interesting like what what's training like um since it's you know since you've had i mean i know you do still train your training is different

obviously and you do other stuff but like do you feel worse is recovering harder or that's the hardest part is the recovery aspect of it because it's like you know you go from running gear and having that helping you recover to going um to a pretty natural state uh for a year until i recently got put on trt through my doctors about three months ago but that was uh you know a year of trying to figure it out and it was a lot of touch and go so it's it, you know, a year of trying to figure it out. And it was a lot of touch and go. So it was, you know, am I pushing myself too hard to the point where I'm getting sick? Or am I not doing enough in order to maintain? And it was like a really fine line.

I had to learn, like, I can't train four or five days a week. You got to listen to your body a little bit more. My diet's completely changed. I used to just like smash food in order to recover and you just can't do that. Yeah, what is your diet? Like, because I don't know shit about it, but I, you know, the kidneys filter out toxins and stuff like that. What about even just like supplements, like taking like protein powder or creatine powder? Like, do you have to, like, can you take any of that? Like you normally would,

or do you have to worry more about stuff like that? The minute I got sick, I stopped all of it. You know, like I, I think that pre-workout and all those things like played a pretty big role in how, how bad my disease got. And obviously like other things too but uh anything that's like messing with your metabolism and anything that's harder on your body to digest i think it's pretty much out of my diet now so i eat a lot of like healthier natural foods but um like i even cut out caffeine just because it was affecting my blood pressure too much yeah Yeah. Makes sense. Yeah. And I guess we kind of skipped over this because we jumped right into it.

But for anyone, I'm guessing most of our listeners are familiar with you, but for anyone that doesn't know, you own Indy City Barbell in Indianapolis and you competed in powerlifting for many years.

I don't know what you totaled, 20 something, you know, benching 600 pounds, squatting and deadlifting like over 800 pounds. So at points in time, you've been, you know, one of the strongest dudes in the world, really. Yeah, just a current gym owner has been powerless. yeah so we were kind of taught reminiscing about the days when you were training at uh in california at barbell brigade and with that group of people uh that you're all training with um do you have any well first of all who who was it uh list some of the kind of the heavy

hater guys that you were training with there because it is kind of a pretty cool, unique group that was all together at that point in time. Yeah. And like the story kind of evolved, you know, like it started. I went to Barbell Brigade on a guest pass and it was like in its early stages. They had like a dumbbell rack, two squat racks and a bench, one bench in the whole gym. And it was in like this little back alley storage shed. And I remember Barquan was sitting at the front desk, you know, and at this time, before I started powerlifting,

I wasn't in social media at all. Like I didn't have a Facebook. I wasn't like watching YouTubes or anything. So I didn't really know who these guys were. But I walked in on a guest pass and he was trying to sell me the membership. I'm like, dude, there's no machines here. Like, I think I'm going to stay at LA Fitness for a while. You know, like, it'll be cool to come visit because they had like 200 pound dumbbells, but really no other equipment.

But I met with this one guy on that just past. His name was Larry Lurker. And he was a local dude, coached a few of the other guys at the gym, and did a few competitions or whatever. But at that time, dude, I knew nothing about powerlifting. Like, I thought it was kind of weird, a bunch of dudes in singlets lifting weights in front of each other. Well, I mean, it is kind of weird, though. Yeah, it's extremely weird. Like, I remember, like i remember like i was like dude i'm good i'm not putting on a singlet like or what i call it a spandex onesie yeah that's what i would call it and lifting weights in front of dudes like you know i'm not homophobic or anything it just seemed weird to me right right but the he kind of talked me into it

you know like and i bought into that group mentality of like you know you're training with other people because i just wanted to get stronger i was uh out of football i did a little bit of like modeling i guess like what you'd call it like fitness stuff but you know it really didn't called me like bodybuilding didn't call to me it was like the fact that i could do something every week and improve on it and watch myself improve was what drew me in so uh the guy he had there was uh adam rodriguez yeah hawk smash is that his yeah he was uh an all maddie dude younger. I think he was like 23 when I met him, but he was like squatting like high sevens. And at that time, I mean, historically my squat just sucks. But at that time it really sucked. Like I had never squatted with reps or knee sleeves. I did like football training, but the most I would go up to was like 405 for reps so i really didn't even know what my max squat was and i knew that if i wanted to get better i would have to train the

guys that were good at it and adam was the best squatter i could find you know close to 800 pound squatter back in 2013 or 14 and um so it was really me lar Larry, and Adam that kind of started the group. And Adam knew some other guys from competing. He brought in Mason Cervantes and then T. Papula. And T. was a national record holder before Larry Wheels was at 242. But no one remembers that because everybody only remembers Larry Wheels. But T. is a freak in his own right man like he was a national competitive bodybuilder and a heavyweight

and just fell into powerlifting but was another guy that came to Adam for squat help because he squat was also And then when the four of us started training regularly, Andy, that huge Asian guy who you guys just had on your show. Yeah, we've had Bart and Andy. Oh, shit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so Andy was watching what we were doing, and he was kind of in the same boat of like,

I want to start taking this more seriously, but needed to get to a place where people were people were actually training because you can't do this stuff alone and we're talking about a time where when you googled powerlifting in los angeles no other gym popped up barbell brigade was the only gym that popped up now you had like long beach had a uh i forget the name of it now i used to go down there but another hardcore gym but that was like a i was all the way out in pasadena that was like a two-hour drive for me but that was it now there's like barbell clubs popping up like crossfit gyms so at that time you know andy had to move across the across a few states from louis, damn near across the country,

to come out to train with us. And he came out to visit, and I don't know what other things he had going. I think he was working with Iron Rebel at the time and found a position and joined the group. But then we had five guys totaling over 2K and all trying to help each other get better. So it was a really special time. Yeah, and that's like a time like we look we were talking about this before is like we look back and maybe it's just talking about the good old days but it like it seemed like such an exciting time

for powerlifting because it just felt like every week there was like these new freaks popping up that you'd never heard of and there was all this stuff going on all the time and new things happening and i guess that's how, that's how we look back on that time. I don't know what you think of it, but yeah, I mean, I feel kind of nostalgia with it,

but at the same time, man, I feel the same way now. Like I'm like, dude, I can't, I'm so glad I'm retired. Like I see guys coming out of the woodwork and I,

I can't get out of the limelight fast enough. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like a thousand pound deadlifts are starting to be a regular thing. Oh, yeah. Like this is crazy. I remember when like 800 was the standard,

and now like if you're not pulling eight, no one's even talking about you. Mm-hmm. Right. Do you think, obviously what you're saying there, some of the lifts have gotten bigger, and some records have gotten broken, of course, and and stuff but what do you feel like this the scene is like or like the power lifting as a sport right now is it is it uh more exciting than it was in 2015 yeah right like there's different aspects of it i think in a lot of ways

it's grown in good ways you got people that are really advocates for the sport and trying to do things that are helpful. But on the other side of it, you get a lot of people that are like noticing that there's a tension getting drawn. So they're just like in it for the wrong reasons. Right. And,

and you know, you got people that are trying to get clout and, and social media played a big part in that too. But, you know, as far, it just happened to leak into the power of this. And then a big part in that too but you know as far it just happened to leak into the power and then you got guys that are like you know i'm not even an old school lifter like some of my guys at indie city will be like oh man you're like an old head and

i'm like dude i started lifting five years ago you know and like you got guys that are doing this in the 70s yeah so you got guys that are kind of like, Oh, you know, like it's ruined now. And it's, everybody just wants attention, a bunch of fuck boys and whatever. And like, I don't feel that way either. You know, I'm kind of like on the fence. Yeah. Like I'm, I'm still considering myself relatively new to it, but I'm enjoying the ride. And like, I see a lot of positive things going you know like I said

there's more gyms coming out there's more lifters coming out more people are getting involved like I got stay-at-home moms that want to compete I think it's awesome you know because I know what lifting can do for people but on the other side of it I do see the negative aspect too so it's kind of like you know you got to take the good with the bad. Yeah. Like the social media part of it that you brought up too. Like, obviously we're not talking about ancient history here, like 2015, 2016 and 2017. Social media was obviously still a big thing. Instagram was a big thing, but it does feel a little different than now. Now it feels like it's almost insane if someone's out there lifting big weights and doesn't have an Instagram account and probably a TikTok account and all that stuff. And like, I mean, you guys had them, but it was more like,

um, it like, like what you said, like, you know, some of the perception is now that people are just kind of doing things for clout and stuff like that. Like at the time, it seems like there was probably less of that. It was more just like, yeah, I'm throwing my left side. Yeah. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Yeah yeah it was a lifting vlog and that's actually how like i got told by sponsors that i needed one and then that's why i got one because i was working with slingshot and b sports at the time like you're not you're not gonna get paid if you're not posting right yeah and like it was a big problem at first cause I'm really shy and I hate posting. And I would like be like taking these shirtless selfies and like writing

captions and it would take like three hours to think of something. Cause I felt like a total douche bag. Yeah. I'd just post it and not look at my phone for three hours and wake up to a bunch of 12 year olds calling me a cunt. This is ridiculous. Yeah. the world we live in well you did end up getting a whole bunch of followers and stuff what was there ever like a was there a short period in time there where it just really blew up for you what like was there something in particular or was it just over time like it was really organic man like i think i got guys that have been following me forever like

i i really do think i got some cool people that follow me because I try to interact. I look at other people's pages sometimes and the stuff that they say. I feel like the people that follow me are more quality people, but I think it's more because of the way I post. Dude, now you got the story modes and people talking into their cameras.

Like it's a fucking talk show and they're like doing it for hours and hours and hours. And like, look at their story. And it's just, it's just these little white dots going across the top. And they're talking about like their interaction with a homeless person outside of Whole Foods.

You're like, how the fuck is this relevant to lifting? Yeah. See, person outside of whole foods right how the fuck is this relevant to lifting yeah see i get nostalgic about it too because that was like kind of when we were really getting into it and stuff and it was kind of like that was like the birth of powerlifting online is like you start going like 2013 to 2015 it's like that was the beginning because it was growing so much and it was building momentum and you had like real, real fixtures in it. But now it's like you're getting guys that are like coming onto the scene and putting up a crazy total, but then getting burned out. Right.

And you got like injuries are a big deal and just people are moving on to other sports because it's powerlifting is not organized. You know, you're not getting paid big bucks and you're not getting huge amounts of attention outside of Instagram. Right. You know, you're not getting paid big bucks and you're not getting huge amounts of attention outside of Instagram. You know, like these promoters are hosting these meets and pocketing all the money and it's really not getting back to the lifters. So you're just spending all this money on a hobby. It's essentially like taking years off your life. Yep.

Yep. And depending on how you're going about it. Like, so, I mean mean it could go either way honestly yeah where did the name pt fitness 500 came from come from did everyone ask you that and it's like kind of embarrassing i figured it's gonna be some something yeah no i was sitting there i told you so i got forced in to instagram i didn't i was against the whole idea and then they're like you got to make a handle i'm like what the fuck is a handle like you got to come up with a name and like at that time everybody was being called their instagram name like i mentioned eddie

montenegro so you guys are like hulk smash yeah so like i'd walk into the gym and be like hulk smash i'm like dude my name's steve like so i was trying to think of something that wasn't going to be like Hulk smash I'm like dude my name's Steve like so I was trying to think of something that wasn't going to be like you know I'm going to write it on my belt or wear it on my shirt yeah so I'm like but it was the name of my personal training company okay so PT Fitness was my first LLC I owned in California so I just used that and the I was just, I think it was what I bench pressed at the time. Okay. It makes sense though. Yeah.

Yeah. But like, but then like it would happen and people would be like, what's up PT? I'm like, no. You can call me Steve. Did the exact wrong thing. Yeah. I was like, I didn't know. Like, that was like what people were doing

right i should have came up with something cool but but then by the time i got figured out like that people were going to call me that name it was already too late i had too many followers yep yep uh with running uh indie city barbell your gym that you own, we're pretty into equipment. We've got a mass dynamics gym. It's a little club gym that we run here. Yeah, sure. Yeah, and we love getting new bars, getting new racks. It's an expensive hobby.

Yeah, it is. But it's fun stuff. It's fun stuff, but I'm wondering, with your gym that you run, I imagine that's a big part of your income and how you try to survive. Is there any equipment companies that you've either had great experiences with or maybe not so great experiences with or anything that sticks out to you through those processes? Yeah, I mean, when I was first was first opening up man there's some vendors i'm not gonna sit here and dog anybody but there's definitely some people i wouldn't recommend to my friends to go to and but i would say that i ghost strong equipment is top tier like the quality that they do and how they take care of people is just next level

compared to everybody else i've dealt with and tim over there is like he develops personal relationships with his customers so like you you just feel like he gives a shit you know yeah we've had tim on the podcast before too and he's uh he's a he's a cool dude yeah we got the combo rack too yeah we've got the ghost run Rack, too. Yeah, we've got the Ghost Run Combo Rack. It really doesn't get much better than that, I don't think. No, man. And that's, you know, like just putting those rollers in the J-Cops, it helps the bars last a lot longer.

So it's things like that that, you know, some of these other companies, you can tell it's made by people that aren't lifting the way we lift. So him, and I even, I bought one combo rack from him and then i bought another one a year later and the small upgrades he made just from those two you know like he learned how to do it better and he didn't need to like he this equipment was already selling and everybody was buying it like steph cohen had a bunch of his stuff. He's got a bunch of other gyms that are sponsored by him. And he still like came back and like,

how can I design this to make it better? So he's a dude like I, I'm actually trying to get another order in with him, but it's like almost impossible now because he's so fucking busy. I'm like, matter of fact, don't buy from ghosts. Stuff is garbage. garbage that back yeah it goes anywhere else every every time i get like a good thing going it always gets so busy yeah yep that's true do you um do you find do you ever have to get on

members about treating equipment like shit or doing stuff they're not supposed to? Or is it pretty good usually? I would say my membership is more educated than most gyms. But I'm downtown Indianapolis. So we got some guys that are just coming in because it's convenient. And it's a closer gym or it's not YMCA. But I would say for the most part, it's pretty good. But we also get a lot of strong dudes and strong girls that, like, move a lot of weight so the equipment gets beat up.

But that's the way I want it, you know. Like, my gym's not a bunch of mirrors and brand new floors and, you know, like, we blast heavy metal. And I want you to use chalk and i want you to be aggressive because that's what it's all about but at the same time like be respectful of people yeah sometimes that's a tougher line for some people than yeah yeah i don't get it and it's never like the regulars you know it's like the guy that like comes in on a guest pass with his headphones he's got something to prove and you you know, it's like the guy that like comes in on a guest pass with his headphones. He's got something to prove.

And you're just like, dude, just chill the fuck out. You're not going to win the whole day. And one left. Yep. I think you're right. Steve, we've got this game called overrated underrated that we like to play with everyone. And we got a special set of Steve topics to go over with you. So if you're ready to play with everyone and we got a special uh set of steve topics to go over with you so if you're uh ready to play we'll fire matt yet we'll give you the topic and you just

have to decide if it's overrated underrated and you can elaborate as much or as little as you want to you just can't ride the line you've got to come up with uh overrated or underrated at the end of it definitive answers you want some controversy yep yep all right i'm ready okay all right uh overrated or underrated los angeles overrated yeah i think the weather there is amazing and i went there when i was like 20 years old and you think it's going to be this one thing but it's the exact opposite it's just turning into a filthy city and more people are leaving that droves lately it's like it's it's getting pretty bad out there from my buddies that are still out there but uh the scene it's a great place to visit you go for a weekend but you don't want to live there

how long did you live there 14 years oh you did oh okay wow so yeah you got that you got the real look at it then yeah yeah i got you know they say if you make it a year, you don't leave. But you know, as I started opening up businesses and realizing that, you know, the American dream is just not possible there. Yeah. So then how did you, are you from like, where are you from? Okay. Okay. So I was, I, I wanted to come back to the midwest to do a barbell club but you know chicago is kind of in the same state as la right it's like you know you're

gonna get nickels and dimes as a small business your income tax is so high and like the cost of living isn't great so you know indiana was it's i'm only two and a half hours away from my friends and family in chicago and it's a great city to be in well isn't indianapolis is it like people say like the smallest big city or you know that sort of thing is the feel in indianapolis yeah that's i mean it is but it's it's a small city you know but like you still got the draws of a big city. You got an NFL team, a pro basketball team, museums and art. You got everything that you would need. Kevin Hart came my first year here, and I went and saw him at the Marat Theater. It's like you still have big city feel.

But, dude, my commute to my gym, I think I'm like five miles. It takes me three minutes. I don't deal with traffic. In LA, it would have been a four-hour drive. If you want to see not traffic, you could come to where we live in western northeast South Dakota.

Traffic's great all the time. What do you do in the winter? You got to go by horseback. It's pretty brutal sometimes. You just lock in for a week at a time on occasion you know that's

good though isn't it I thought I heard you say this one time too that maybe when you were looking at opening Jim Barbell Club somewhere you know you kind of picked Indianapolis strategically too that um they didn't necessarily have something like that there yeah i mean you got to go where the demand is

right so like there's a couple places on my list and you look at like how the economics of the city are like what the cost of living is and what people make because you don't want to go somewhere where everybody's struggling and try to build a premier gym but you also need the need for the what you're actually trying to sell right so i was here um i went i went to raleigh north carolina i went to austin texas i went to indianapolis and i was here wearing a slingshot shirt and at that time you know i was still pretty competitive lifting so i was making youtubes that were still pretty popular and um i got noticed in the gym and some guys came over to me and it was like this local ymca downtown and this guy's like dude i

just wish there was something like that here because there's no gym to do that at you know and i was like really so i started looking into it and there was like three chain gyms downtown and a few like small personal training studios and that was it in downtown indianapolis there was nothing so i started looking at like what it would actually cost and things like that just made a lot of sense but you know it was one weekend for fourth of july weekend i was here and i got that same conversation with three different people at three different gyms somebody somebody would come up to me and be like oh man you know i i see you lived out in california which we had like a club like that here and i feel like your gym store like if you want to say that's the you know kind of the

gym origin story i feel like that's a lot different than most people. Oh, yes. You know, I lived in this town and I wanted a gym and there was there was like five other ones, but I was going to be the best of the five. You're going to be better than there. And then it doesn't work out. And it's like, well, yeah, you just said all the reasons why it wouldn't work. And it didn't. Yeah.

It's a business, right? You can't. That's like the most intelligent approach I've ever heard. So, yeah, you know, and it's like, I intelligent approach i've ever heard someone take you know and it's like i honestly didn't know people actually ever approached it that way right and it's funny people approach i a gym is a very real business but people approach a lot of other businesses that way but for some reason a gym is a thing that that people take the approach like what you were just saying tommy seems to be so often and not looking at it as a business.

It's one of the hardest startups because it's such a big investment up front. And no one cares about the gym as much as the owner. I feel like gym owners don't get that. It's like no one will ever care about this as much as you do. If you're lucky, they'll care about it half as much as you do. Yeah, and I get upset sometimes when I'm thinking, you know what, man, you got to get over it. You come in and people just leave stuff out or whatever it is,

but it's like I said, I built the gym because I wanted it to be used. Right, right. That's cool. Okay, overrated or underrated? Owning a gym. I would say underrated. I think that one, I mean, I'm a little biased. It's been my childhood dream to do what I'm doing.

So I'm living it every day. But I also think I get a lot of messages from other people. And, you know, I've worked in the industry since I was 17. So like I've worked for a lot of people that own gyms and a lot of people just act like it's never going to be what they, what they think it is. But I think a lot of it goes into what we were just talking about and they don't do enough of those steps in order to make sure that they're setting themselves up for success.

Cause I have so many people that are like, isn't it? Don't, can you make money on a gym like i heard you don't really even make money on gyms like i don't know who the fuck you're talking about everybody i know that i talked about opening up a gym like mark bell barquan they all do really well with their gyms so i was like you know make that step for me and luckily like it panned out i doubled my square footage last year.

I've been open a little less than three years and I've been able to keep growing and building my gym. You know, like I'm living my dream. Like you guys are talking about how you like buying equipment and like, what can I do to make it like, and it's cool because you guys are appreciating what you're buying and what the quality of the equipment is. And what can I do to become a better lifter? So what would I want to make this place even better? And that's what I'm able to do. So it's fun, man.

And I got a great team with me now that helped me out. It's a lot of pressure being sick and trying to do everything. So having the right people in place takes a lot of pressure off. And it's just a lot of pressure being sick and trying to do everything. So having the right people in place takes a lot of pressure off. And it's just a lot of fun. I would say like, you know, in a lot of ways, like my health situation isn't great, but I take, you know, remove yourself from that situation. And I look at my life like, damn, man, I'm pretty lucky.

Like to do what I do every day to coach the clients i coach to have a gym that's growing and doing well in this economy and being able to buy some kick-ass equipment man like this is wouldn't want to do anything else that's awesome like if i won the lottery tomorrow i would just buy more equipment for myself. That's not a lie. Absolutely. I feel that. Overrated or underrated muscle-ups? Underrated. They're tough.

And I think, you know, as far as like being a functional exercise, I hate using that word, but like, no, not really. Doing it just kind of looks cool but i would say muscle ups are underrated over 225 if you're under 225 i think it's a little underrated being a big guy and i used to be able to do them but now like trying to do five pull-ups in a row is a struggle for me so i'm i definitely miss that explosiveness well i think even when you're at your strongest you could really you really seem like you could do some pretty athletic stuff still yeah dude i So I definitely miss that explosiveness. Well, I think even when you're at your strongest, you really seem like you could do some pretty athletic stuff still.

Yeah, dude, I could knock out sets of 10 when I was like 290. And that's one of those things like you get a big guy doing a muscle-up, it doesn't look like that should ever happen. It's like a really unnatural-looking movement. Yeah, well, I started to notice the equipment's not made not made for either you could watch some of my old videos at barbell brigade like i think i permanently dented the rail yeah you had a pretty decent vertical at the time too couldn't i remember seeing some a couple jumping things too yeah well i i don't know if you guys ever saw this but i did a uh a series on brute strength and it was like crossfitter versus bodybuilder versus powerlifter

and they had us go in and do all these tests and i weighed in at like 305 pounds and i had a 37 inch vertical so i was like i know at my prime i don't i know at my prime it was over 40 like i used to be able to dunk outside of the paint but i was like jeez two third i was like 230 back then yeah six three 230 and then when i got over 300 i could i could barely dunk yeah like nobody could be around me like you couldn't even look at me yeah it was very rare yeah yeah that's crazy okay overrated or underrated this is the last one here uh the movie the program uh i just saw you guys like that post i was like i wonder where this is coming underrated the program is awesome it is probably you know i i'm a big movie buff but probably top three sports movies all the time yeah it seems like it's got kind of like a little cult following

got kind of like a little cult following it's dude it's great like that i i played college football and i would do alvin mack quotes all the time yeah yeah yeah uh wasn't donnie thompson in the program like as a extra or something he was on the field yeah he played a lineman and i don't i mean i don't i don't think i knew who he was when i watched it right i think he made a few posts about it yeah okay so uh you're from chicago and i remember seeing a picture you posted one time uh were you purposely going for the urlacher look or was that just a coincidence oh yeah no because i came i came from chicago so like they gave me 54 okay i played mental linebacker and then the shaved head thing that i had way before i think he's a little bit older than me but i definitely had no clue who he was when i started that yeah okay oh no all right

that's cool stuff uh one last thing i was wondering if you could only pick one you could only do either look strong or be strong which would you which do you go with that is a tough question because my whole life it was be strong you know yep and it was like side effect of being strong is you look kind of strong. Yep. But now I'm in a situation where like, I'm just, I just don't have it anymore. You know, like it's, it's whether it comes back with a transplant or not, like the way it is is I'll never beat my old numbers, which like I'm okay with, you know,

I had my run and I feel good about it, but you know, what do I do from here? So I think if you'd asked me that three years ago, I would have said be strong. And now I think I'm going to say look strong because I'm never going to compete again. Right, right. I might do one more meet just to say that I came back, but I'll never be competitive, so why not look good? Makes sense to me. Perfect. Do you need, like, are you taking, I know you say you do train people as well.

Like, are you taking clients or anything like that? Any of that stuff you want to get out there? Yeah, I mean, anybody that's interested in coaching or training, like, you can contact me. We're always taking new people in Indy city. We got a great group of trainers there. So even if I'm not available, we got other people that come in. But like I said earlier,

man, like you can't do this stuff alone. If you're looking to be the best, why not train at the facility where you got a guy that actually cares? Yep. I agree with that completely. So, all right, that's good stuff. We appreciate having you on, man. That was, that actually cares. Yep. I agree with that completely. So, all right. That's good stuff.

We appreciate having you on, man. That was cool. Yeah, man. It was great. Thanks for reaching out. I don't get a lot of these anymore. Ah, we'll get you again sometime then to make sure. Yeah, for my epic comeback.

Yep. Yes. Yeah. I like it. When you're ready for that next meet, let us know, and then we'll talk about it again. All right. Absolutely, guys. All right. Awesome. Cool. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. When you like it, when you're ready for that next meet, let us know and then we'll we'll talk about it again. All right. Absolutely.

Guys. All right. Awesome. Cool. Thanks. All right. Take care. Well,

Tanner, what do you think? Cool. Cool beans. Beans. Cool beans. Cool beans. He gets cool beans.

Big Steve gets the double cool beans. Good guy. Yeah, he is. Yeah. I don't think we've ever talked to him before have we uh we've sent him maybe like a shirt or yeah but i'm saying like as far as like

no no i don't think we've ever seen him anywhere like i thought you know never run into him at the arnold or anything like yeah he's a cool dude yes he is uh it is the it is fun though like that group of people then and it just does seem really cool, really fun. Yeah. So just this little speck in time. Yeah. It was, yeah, they had a cool run there for sure. Only for a moment. And the moment's gone.

Ah, yeah. Good stuff though. Should I hit him with a little something or? Let's do it. Today's episode was, speaking of gym equipment that's pretty sweet oh let me tell you tell you and speaking of things that are in the past um buddy caps first started lifting weights in the late 60s and began 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 calling it the Image Bar. In 1977, Image Barbell became Champion Barbell. It was then that Buddy started looking at the bars with an intent of changing them for the better. In 1979, Buddy bought his first lathe to begin addressing the known issues. In 1980, his passion, drive, and purpose now had a greater mission. Buddy set out on his own to make what he believes was the greatest bar he had ever seen and trained with.

And the Texas Power Bar was born. It was strong as a house with the best knurling, and it was maintenance-free. Hundreds of state, national, international, world, and PT Fitness 500 powerlifting records have been and continue to be set and broken on the Texas Power Bar. Visit them at TexasPowerBars.com. Check out their power bars bars different finishes they come in deadlift bars squat bars bench bars all american bars they got all the bars texaspowerbars.com awesome couldn't have said it better yourself could you could not have uh tanner did we ever get any follow-up on our school lunch session last week i didn't know if you heard i didn't

really hear too much uh too much on that i put it in the story today you know overrated underrated on the school lunches i just even like looking at the the school lunch tray i'm like ah yes with that with that nice rectangle yeah yeah yeah i'm like is there a person human alive that can't relate to like what that like you see that and doesn't like did never have, is there a person, human alive that can't relate to, like, what that, like, you see that and doesn't, like, never have that? Is there a human alive? Probably. There is. Probably.

Well, yeah. Right, right. But probably not many. Right, right. I feel bad for the people that don't, like, look at that. Yeah, right. Because I love a good school lunch. All about that school lunch. uh do have some merch for

sale on our site if we haven't talked about that we do have merch for sale tommy's wearing the massonomics gym tee one of my personal favorites i think actually sizes are getting pretty down there on this they are on that one if you don't have it you uh don't same with the raw power tea with the buys the red tea that pops with the bison on it that one's getting down there too i'm wearing the an old classic the jefferson deadlift yep and there's only a few of those left they're actually on sale right now once those are gone they're going away for who knows they're gonna go into the massomics lock box for a while and vault yes uh gold coins and gold bars did you see, you can get any color Masonomics shirt you want as long as it's black.

That is the old saying. You actually came up with that, but it's quoted as Henry Ford. No, Henry Ford came up with it. He was a big Masonomics fan. Most people don't know that. It was. It was a big inspiration. That's how he came up with the assembly line. He's like, oh, I see how they're packing orders.

They're in a line. Oh, okay. They said it. Yep, it makes sense. They're in a line. Oh, okay. So they said it. Yep, yep, it makes sense. They don't have one guy running around everywhere. Oh, each person will specialize in a certain skill. Like Tommy knows how to design the T-shirts and then Tanner knows how to pack them up and sell them.

And they'll get a website that takes the orders for them. He's like, ah, I can create a car. If we applied this to the car, we might be on to something. A motorized automobile. And the Ford Motor Company was born. It was strong as a house. With the best knurling. The Model T was born.

It had the best knurling. Maintenance free. None of that's true, I don't think. Well, it's kind of old, so you can't really disprove it. Nobody remembers that now. My dad had a Model T. Always when we were growing up, we got rid of it. You know, he got rid of it, I don't know how long ago.

I think just kind of sick of messing with it. But we would get it out and then have the crank start on the front and we'd drive it around. So when you were younger, like, this car is so freaking old. Oh yes because we like growing up i also had and it's funny now because your perspective of what old people are when you're like 10 is way different of what old people are when you're people i thought my people that were almost like people that are my age now i thought were extremely old oh me too me too like i'm like you guys you are ancient and now like when i see those people that i thought were old then i'm like oh you actually are yeah that's still probably the

weird perspective though because then as soon as we're 65 or you know it's like oh we're not so this isn't so old after all but i did it i was like i thought you were old 25 years ago how does that work yeah yes absolutely but we had a neighbor when i when i grew up a few houses down i'm assuming they were really old i'm like 90 sure they're dead now so yeah they were old but yeah they had a model t and i remember thinking that's the oldest thing ever made like almost to the point like it's not even cool it's so old right right right yeah yeah they are interesting i you know we would ride around in it uh you know you get it's the type of thing you get running like three times a year you know like and uh uh ride

around and going really slow and you know like not a lot of you know the model t is not an exciting mode of transportation in comparison even like when you get into like the 1950s on the road right right yeah like 30 years they they really progressed when you went from like the 1950s. It was known for its nimbleness on the road. Right, right. Yeah, like 30 years, they really progressed. When you went from like the 20s, 30s to like the 1950s and 60s, like cars got way, way different. Once you hit the 60s, things really started to go a different direction as far as power and performance goes. I've actually been doing a little unsuccessful digging,

trying to get my old, the car that i had in high school what did you have i had a uh 1995 uh xr7 mercury cougar really so it was you know mercury rest in peace yeah rip um but it had you it had the uh 4.8 liter v8 oh it did yeah it was a rear-wheel drive and i i'm not sure i know i not sure i can actually to most people it wouldn't look old enough yet to be cool and it's obviously not you know not what year did you say uh you could i you could type anywhere from like 1992 to 1996 would be really similar body cells but mine's like 1995 ah okay and it's really coming back to the thunderbird was the same essentially the same car at the same point okay yeah the ford it was

slightly different like there was a different pitch to the back of window and stuff like that yeah but i had the mercury cougars rear wheel drive v8 what color was yours black it was and it had you know like the leather seats the sun right there sort of yeah yep very much like that and had you know this it was a 1995 but it was a very nice like you know of a really nice car when it was new i'm sure you know it had the sunroof and like the six cd changer in the trunk yeah yeah i actually had a 96 monte carlo okay yeah also but also a cool car on actually kind of i mean it wasn't rear-wheel drive but um i mean two-door cars don't hardly exist right now yeah and it was so yeah it was a coupe and like it's because like like you said they don't really exist now so i've been doing some

looking and really really hard to find one that's like not completely oh just destroyed or been like shittily modified it's funny someone in aberdeen has one that they had at the car show this year on main street was there a 1994 it's black everything except they almost didn't even make any non-v8 ones uh-huh and his is a v6 and i'm like yeah that's the deal breaker for me the funny part is too is so what would you say 4.8 or what was i think that that's what that engine was at the time and like by today's standards for a car that is an enormous engine like right and it's probably not as fast as you would think it would i'm sure it's fairly fast yeah and like by today's standards if a car had a right like it's like the only cars getting that are a high performance sports car at

this point yeah and then after that i had the the grand prix gtp which was like the 3.8 gm motor but is like they're supercharged or whatever so i thought that was cool after that but that's still too new of a car is that a two-door or four-door i had a four-door version of that the two-door is a lot cooler it was a little cooler yeah same way but i kind of like that car but that's not quite old enough for me r.i.p yeah yes uh so i'm in the if anyone that owns one of these uh mid-90s mercury cougars i am in the market for one wow do you think you can you get one and i mean are you trying to find with like under a hundred thousand or do you not care no i do care i don't want a piece of i mean do you think you can do you think that exists for like

does that exist for under 15 i don't even know what the pricing is on these i talked a little back and forth with the guy in town who is a v6 and i was still just interested in talking about it you know i'm not sure what i would get if I still really didn't. It's so wild. The price ranges are so wild because they're either so junky, they're not worth anything, or if they are in really good shape. They're treating it as a collector car. Yeah, because it's still not actually worth any,

even if it's in great shape, like, say, the NADA value or the Kelly Blubick value, it's still not worth anything. It's worth, like, maybe it's still not worth anything it's worth yeah like maybe it's and that's the weird thing for us though is that like 90s cars for us are now over 20 years right like this car 1995 yeah you can do cars from the 90s 26 30 years old right yeah and it's like well that also is to the point where it's like those cars are kind of getting valuable like because they're disappearing they don't exist well and there is people of our age that start to have money to possibly be buying those cars again put value on them and so they are going to start going up in value well it's like uh uh i graduated high

school in in 2005 a car that would have been 30 years old then would have been from 1975 yeah which you would have considered a very like an old 70s muscle car right right right but part of like but like for me like yeah those cars are cool like chevelles and yeah yeah those cars are cool all that but also like part of me is like well but that's what dad cars are like right those are the cars like my dad loves those cars like those would be my dad's dream cars yep and but those aren't the cars like we grew up looking at so like they don't have quite that cool factor to me that i think maybe some people might think that they have right right you know yep i get that because because no no dad's gonna be like yeah i want a 97 no no exactly or a 95 you know that's never gonna almost no people are gonna say they want that i'm like one of

but that's why i'm like why are that why would a nice one even be valuable because who wants it but they must not have made very many of them though. Right? No, I don't think it was a huge wide. Yeah. That's part of the problem. Yeah.

Right. Cause like, there's probably not that many people that want them, but they're probably overall is enough people like one as a little more time goes by, there will get to be more and more because that's like the cycle you, you get old and then you want like the things that were cool right the things that you looked up to right yeah yeah

exactly yeah so that is uh well i'm gonna be excited for the day you pull up in that thing tanner that's uh my wife isn't really completely sold on it because we've looked at the pictures and stuff and she's like that's not a cool car and i'm like you don't get it i'm like yeah you're kind of right like i get what you're saying but to me it is like even just looking at the pictures of it i'm like like looking at the interior i'm like oh yeah that's how that was set up like that's it's so funny to be like to just see like because i've like i had a yeah i think it was it was either 96 or 97 monte carlo yep i got that when i was a sophomore in high school and i had that until i was a senior what color was it it was silver it was silver because red there's red was always a big color i had a classmate or two

in high school that had a red one yeah and i And I mean, they do look, that was when they played way more into the kind of the race car, NASCAR thing too. But, um, so I had that. And then when I was a senior, my dad got a new, a new vehicle and he gave me,

they had a 2002 grand am. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Grand four door. Yeah. Which is Pontiac RIP, you know,

but, but, uh, it's so funny like because all gm interiors were the same in everything right and like my parents had all these gm vehicles so like i can see a gm interior from like 96 to like 2005 and man that like takes me back like especially like those 96 because all my friends had i mean you live in the midwest especially at that time like small town midwest like in toyota's hondas those didn't exist like oh no those were not a thing no there was a few kids in my school that had like um a cut like uh not even civics but i can't even remember they're probably a pretty popular foreign

car at the time like what what, what was like toy? What else? Camry or a couple of those. No, those did not exist. Right. I mean, we live far away that like literally if you probably went my high school

parking lot, it was probably straight up GM Ford vehicles. I guess there'd be some Chrysler stuff mixed in there too, but that's what, that's what everyone had. That's what everyone had. And so now if I ever see a picture like online of a mid-90s early 2000s gm interior man that takes me back to being like 14 15 16 it's it's so funny how that does that though yeah but i think this all started with or the six disc changer

yeah in the trunk yeah so you load them in there and then you pick when you're in the in the car yeah in the cockpit yeah the monocoque i had had like the little tiny like it had the stock stereo yeah but then it also had like the pioneer little controller for the six inch changer in the back yep i had eventually changed out my cd player though to like uh you know one where you could take the face of it off yeah because that was the problem of people stealing the head units you know do you remember that yeah it was an actual problem yeah yeah your car is still i mean that personally never happened that wasn't a problem where i live but me either but i just it was cool to have the i never even practically yeah you could never utilize or like then i think they

made ones did they make ones that would like flip around even wasn't that a thing too yeah like there started to be all these things and now it's like, that's like a market that almost doesn't even exist. I mean, I'm sure it exists, but CD players for cars. Yeah. Like, well,

first of all, I'm saying CD player and that's a really funny thing to say, but like, but like an aftermarket, like now so much shit goes through your car. Like to do that on any modern car would be, also, it's not just this slot that you pop out.

It's like, it's like your whole nav system, like your buttons, your infotainment, all that stuff. Most of it, it's not just this slot that you pop out it's like it's like your whole nav system like your buttons your infotainment all most of it it's a screen yeah you know it's not like yeah you can't it's not this uh rectangular thing you're like oh yeah pry this back here i'll pull the old one out going full west coast customs mode i think you're in i think you're in trouble there yeah what if another thing that just people won't get to experience is like uh all the different all the different different uh cd players that put in their people would put in their car or just being excited to have a cd player yes uh i had kind of just earlier as we were talking i was thinking of what could maybe be a funny idea for our last ad do you know what what is our last

ad it's the strength co right i do and i actually have a note about the strength co too okay i was really really impressed uh grant has this um repeated thing that he does where he does the go-to signs yeah yeah yeah and man i was quite impressed with grant's marker handwriting it's got some good style to that. Some panache. It does. He's got that going on. I was impressed with this.

Definitely not like mine. Yeah. Definitely not like mine either. So, Grant, your marker handwriting is top notch. Well, should we just, I was thinking we'll just try and call him and ask him if he wants to do that. Okay.

And he has no idea we're calling, so I don't know if he'll, so he might not answer. And he might be like, what do. So I don't know. So he might not answer. So and he might be like, what do you guys want? Then we might have to stall for like a few minutes and maybe he'll call back.

Yeah. Yeah. All right. I like it. It's earlier in California too. So yeah. What time is it?

Oh, yeah. Eight o'clock. We'll just we'll give it a try. If not, he'll listen to this and realize later why we call it this. What a fool he is. Uh-oh. Might just have to go old school on the ad. I have to say, there's always next week.

Yeah. In our case, there is your call he missed it missed a shot yep he could have had his chance to read his own strength co-ad all right well i'll do my best to pick up the slack here this episode is brought to you by the strength co grant brogy was born in the late 80s nearly two decades after buddy caps began lifting in the late 90s grant's two decades after buddy caps began lifting. In the late 90s, Grant's brother Jordan bought him the new Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding by Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Grant's love for weightlifting began. In 2001, Grant joined the local YMCA and began training with weights. In 2009, Grant discovered

the book Starting Strength, and in 2012, as lieutenant in the Marine Corps, he began teaching Marines this method. In 2017, Grant opened his first gym in Costa Mesa, California, and the Strength Co. was born. In 2020, during a major iron shortage, Grant sought to bring back quality manufacturing of Olympic barbell plates to America. His innovation, adaptation, and can-do attitude brought about the greatest plates made in decades. The plates were accurate, anti-frag adaptation, and can-do attitude brought about the greatest plates made in decades. The plates were accurate, anti-fragile, and instantly became the go-to plates of hundreds of lifters at Massanomics Gym. You can check out the Strength Co.

and their go-to plates online at thestrengthco.com. That's thestrengthco.com. I do like going to those plates. I do too. They're great. Something about too. They're great. Something about them. They just beckon you. Some of that,

some magic something he puts in them. That's, only Grant will know and he can't find out from him because he doesn't answer his phone. unless we'll never know why people go to him. Never know this week.

Maybe we'll know next week. We'll try again next week. Grant's in our Discord community. He is is he's an active member of our discord community yeah and you could also be an active member of our discord community all you need to do is become a supporting member of the podcast it's simple it's easy it's

relatively affordable there's some different options depending on your budget but head over to our website and is there a specific link that they can go to massonomics.com join massonomics.com join and you can get signed up to become a supporting member you'll get access to this discord community there's a thriving community a very thriving community both real people and bots bots that you like though kind of sometimes go get signed up become a sporting member also go to our site buy our all of our other stuff we

have for sale i'm gonna hit you with just a couple um if you're going to the five-star make sure to stop by the booth absolutely i'm gonna hit everyone with just a couple five-star podcast reviews we are on the road to 400 i think we're at like we're at like 370 reviews oh we are yeah so i don't know maybe we got to get last time i saw the bot in discord i think it said like 369 or something and i said nice nice 69 uh you could leave us a five-star review, though. Here's a couple, for example. This one's from March 29, 2021.

These all are great. Five stars. My gains have gone through the roof since purchasing the Lyft shirts and shotgunning LaCroix. Can't stop listening from Big Mason. Next one is from 612 SDSU 705, titled The Road to the Road to 400. Special thanks to Western Northeast South Dakota

for being Canada's groundlocked deadlift slippers. I like that. Throwback reference. Next one is from a disgruntled hat enthusiast, titled Don't Buy Their Hats. I tried to support these guys by buying one of their hats, and I was severely scolded for it. J.D. Power and his associates are going to hear about this.

Five stars, though, still. Very good. Great reviews. Most important part. It is. Tommy, is that all we've got for this week? I think that's probably all we've got. We better hurry up and go to Kansas City. Yeah we've got to shut her down

we've got a showdown to show up to that's right. Are we going to show down or show up? Only time will tell that's right. Where do they find you on Instagram? You can find me at Tomahawk underscore D You can follow me at Tanner underscore Baird. You can follow Massanomics on Instagram. We do have one video

that has 1.7 million views so on TikTok on TikTok did I say that wrong 1.7 1.7 million views like as in closing in

on 2 million on 2 million views yeah that is the dumbest thing I've heard I've heard some dumb things lately Tanner even just on this episode

that's something with maybe the dumbest thing I've ever heard yes make sure to follow us Instagram at Massanomics see ya