Massenomics Podcast - Ep. 345: Vintage Weights with Efren

Episode Date: November 14, 2022

Big Efren joined us for this one to talk all about the underground world of vintage and collectable weights. What are the best weights to collect, and what are the most valuable ones worth?? Juggernaut AI: juggernautai.app and use code MASSENOMICS to save 10% The Strength Co: https://www.thestrength.co/ BearFoot Shoes: https://bearfoot.store/ and use code MASSENOMICS to save 10% Swiss Link: https://www.swisslink.com and use code MASS to save 15% 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! Yeah. Hey, everyone. side everything massonomics hey everyone welcome back for episode 345 of the massonomics podcast the lifting podcast about near finn recorded live from western northeast south dakota my name is tanner and my name is tommy i said it last week tommy and I'll say it again. Some weather we've been having, huh? Talk about 180. I was going to say 360, but that was too far.

We'll be all the way back. Give it another week and we'll probably be in the fall of 360. It is a tale of two weeks here, isn't it? Talk about from seeing some of the nicest weather to some pretty nasty weather. Old man winter is here. Yeah. Actually, I think this is going to be probably something worth talking about for probably a while.

So maybe we should read ads before we get into the weather. Good idea. There is a lot to cover there. That's a good point. And since we're just getting warmed up, rather than read this first ad, I'm actually going to get a little assistance from our special ad reader on this one. This is The Strength Company. We've set out to build a better barbell plate on American soil.

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Boost those numbers up. Yep, yep. Hit them up with the five stars. That's good. Yeah. So thank you. The strength. Oh, and then once you get that plate, make sure you stop by our friends at Texas power

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In the Discord, they were talking about if our lift shorts were on Amazon, and Big Jeff made the comment, I would never buy them from Amazon. That would be way slow. Amazon Prime would be way slower than buying them from Mastodon. Yeah, their speeds are nowhere near what we're at. They can't touch this. About the weather, I posted something to our Instagram story about

the ridiculous ice storm that we just got. Oh, it's been crazy, hasn't it? Yeah, and it's funny. Chad Wesley Smith replied on that. He's like, dear God. I'm like, yeah, you definitely came at the right time. I was driving by on the road here.

There's the golf course here, which is the infamous golf course. There was, you just had to bring it up. There was multiple pine trees where the top was snapped clean off and laying upright next to it. And it looked like a pine tree with a baby, like not even a baby. It just looked like a pine tree that was maybe five years old laying next to it. It's like, no, that is the top of the tree right there like it's just hacked clean off yeah yeah it was a crazy like the part that threw me off this morning i'm like wow the grass is like a complete like it is it was a weird every individual blade blade of grass is like its own encapsulated in ice yeah i've seen it before

like normally we get ice i feel like there's enough i don't know if there's enough snow or something but it's more of like a sheet right no it's pretty even yeah where this is just like all these like ice fingers coming out of the ground really wild i can't remember ever seeing it like that before and all the trees were well there's a lot of broken trees yeah actually when i pulled up here at your house your driveway's on a little bit of a slant not that aggressive i pulled up and put my pickup in parked and it slid back all the way to the road yeah and i was like oh i'm gonna go park on the street i mean we are in the flattest part of the country and my driveway has just the most modest incline to it and you like my car my

front-wheel drive car you have to make a run at it if it's ever icy my wife having four-wheel drive she's still you can't take it in slow or or it uh or the car starts to rock back down yeah yeah i stopped completely put it in park and then i was like i'm moving and then i'm like i'm moving quite fast now even it'll do that yeah yeah so the the uh weather was uh i was traveling and we were talking about this a little bit earlier today i was in i was actually on vacation in phoenix i was in arizona not as icy there probably not as icy there and it almost ruins the entire trip when you're trying to come back and you land in this and it's because of course the airport is three hours from here and it becomes this entire

like all hands on deck concentrated effort to figure out how the hell are we even going to get home yeah and the number of times it feels like that well the last time i took a plane we got stuck in weather in miami i think that was in March and I had to, we had missed flights. Things were moving, had to spend a night in Chicago just to make the meet because you're at the meet in, uh, um, Sioux Falls. You had the booth set up there. And I, luckily for that, I showed up like two hours late maybe, but it was a whole ordeal, like all the stress, because every time we leave town, there's like some weather event. Typically, it's here.

I guess sometimes it can be on the other side of it, but there's just this weather event that just throws plans totally out the window. Yeah. Every time that like we go to Florida most years, at least once. And like, I don't know, maybe like four out of the last five times, there's been like significant travel issues. And like even one time we had to like, we're stuck in Minneapolis and just had to rent a car to get back here because it was like, it was going to take like days. It's so annoying.

It's so annoying. But I guess that comes with the territory of living here, right? That's true. Take what the good, the good with the bad. That's right. That's right. That's right. So we got quite a bit to cover this week don't we we got a lot a bit to cover is what i would say it's gonna be a real barn burner over here we do have quite a bit it seems like it's

been a while but it's only been a week a day over a week right it is funny how once you go more than seven days it feels like it's just been too long since the last podcast yeah um i'm just looking at our list here because we didn't even technically talk about our list beforehand but when you were uh while you were gone i set up a booth at a crossfit competition there was some instagram stories that people picked up on that and uh it was the craziest powerlifting meet i've ever been to this is is all part of the pivot for Massanomics to become a CrossFit affiliate, right? Yes, that is the master plan.

We're really playing the long game, but eventually that's where it's going to go. So I think it was a crazy distance, probably at least like three to four blocks down the exact same road from Massanomics Gym is our local CrossFit gym. It is funny that they are on the exact same road as they're both on uh railroad avenue and that's why it's crossfit rails they do and that's why it's

massonomics rails what i actually i think technically they're only two blocks away probably because that one block in there is pretty long yeah you know yeah that's kind of a weird uh it's weird because it's on the railroad and, you know, the commercial buildings there are odd. Like some of those buildings are blocks. Like the building we're in is so, you're like, it's kind of like the same building. Back in the day, a warehouse district of sorts. Yeah.

And someone asked, isn't the YMCA on the same road too? Well, yes. These are actually directly across the street from each other because the Y owns the CrossFit gym. Yeah. So that, we've really come full circle there it is yeah we were back they invited us back as a vendor you know after all these years after we were uh we so unceremoniously departed everyone can't have and then they we always knew they'd come crawling back. It was only a matter of time.

Yeah. It was pretty. It was cool. It was fun. Got to sell some Mastinomics gear to quite a few local people that probably aren't as aware of Mastinomics as most of you that are listening from all around the country. And to be honest, no one locally is aware of Mastinomics as anyone that's listening. If you're listening to this, you know way more about massonomics than anyone locally.

Than all the people that were here at this local event. You did make the comment that people seem somewhat impressed by the actual booth itself. Yeah, the number of people that were like, whoa, I didn't realize

that a lot of the people there know that massonomics is a thing. Most of them just know that it's a gym, right? Right, or that it exists and maybe has some t-shirts yeah yes yes and uh i think the reaction from many of them was like oh what like what what is this there's more going on yeah yeah um so it was cool it was fun and there was some people doing some crazy stuff in that crossfit competition i won't recap it because i could tell you what it was cool it was fun and there was some people doing some crazy stuff in that CrossFit competition I won't recap it because I couldn't tell you what it was they were doing but

they were good at it someone's got to do it right yeah yeah I got tired just watching them that's what an old person would say oh absolutely yeah it's a it's a it's when you can say like to every competitor and they're like yeah yeah yeah but it was a two day extravaganza wasn't yeah but it was a two-day extravaganza

wasn't it yeah it was uh friday afternoon and uh most of the morning a little bit afternoon saturday so did you walk away feeling like you really really got the community by the time you were done i think i got it a little bit better than i did beforehand i'd say it is funny though too at the you know i don't think uh when we stepped away from uh when we started massonomics gym you know we're kind of making a joke about it coming first full circle but in 2016 oh yeah people running it there wouldn't have like been like hey you guys should come and also the idea of us like we wouldn't have won it we would have been like we're not gonna cross yeah no way right right and now i'm like i don't care about that that is yes that We wouldn't have wanted it. We would have been like, we're not going to do a CrossFit thing. No way. Right, right.

And now I'm like, well, I don't care about that. That is, yes, that is a funny way of thinking about it, too. That's a little bit of a maturation process, I would assume. I guess probably on both ends, to be fair. Yeah, time heals all wounds, isn't that the saying? That's true. That's exactly what they say. It healed those deep wounds. Those deep are really completely out of the blue disdain for crossfit

i don't know like out of the blue or just like unwarranted like uh like secret just seething pain over here i'll be honest i thought um when crossfit gyms very like when that crossfit gym very first opened uh in abry you know and I think we were still Y members back at that time. I think so. Yeah. I remember thinking that will never, I, to be completely fair, I'm sure I said the words, I don't think that that will last in Aberdeen, you know, that that will. I would have believed it too, because it's just, most people don't like to really train

that hard, you know? And also people don't like to pay a lot for their fitness memberships either that's true i'm sure i was skeptical of the price so the fact that our community has two of those is kind of mind-blowing and i think crossfit was early enough and young enough to say this was in like 2014 or something like that i was thinking well i don't like that's gonna go away like people aren't gonna be doing that but that was I was definitely wrong about that. Those were still relatively the early days. At least for it becoming popular enough. As far as the growing stage.

Yeah, yeah. Like, now there's, if someone goes to the gym and you mention CrossFit, for the most part, I think people get what you're saying. Right. Whereas at that time, there was a chunk of people that might have no idea what you're talking about. Right, right. So I guess it is here to stay after all. I have to eat crow on that one. Well, let's wait 10 more years and then we'll decide.

We don't want to go into rush decisions here. It was cool beans, though. Got to get some of in-Massanomics shirts. And a few people even, they had enough money left after paying their membership dues to buy lift shorts. Do you believe that? Those are the wealthy members.

Yeah. The prime demographic there. Um, I was on vacation. Yeah. Tanner and it's far to North Dakota. Now I did, I did go to Arizona and you went to an ASU football game.

I did. So it was, I got to see a couple of cool things. Um, my, my wife has a family that lives in Arizona and her uncle happens to be involved with the ASU wrestling team. And so one day he said,

Hey, he said, Hey, I'm going to practice. Do you guys want to come talking to me and my father-in-law? I was like, yeah, I want to check this out.

Were they working on like their entrance music walkout from the the top turnbuckles they weren't but wasn't that wrestling they do so it's cool because their head coach is an olympic silver medalist so i got to meet him it's like damn you won a silver medal in the olympics like that's really really cool you know and uh it's it's d1 it's a big d1 school and they do have some guys that are like freaks. Yeah. You're watching and you're like, damn, you, like when we say like, you know, you're built different. You guys are built different. There was one guy and he goes, I'm like, how much does that guy weigh? He goes, like 205 pounds.

I'm like, we weigh the same? Yeah, yeah. Because he looks like he weighs 50 more pounds than me. Right, right. And he probably has 50 more pounds of muscle. Like that is the difference. But so I got to see the- Did you get in there and show him a few little boobs?

Actually, it was funny. When I was there, they were playing like handball for warmup. Okay. And I was like, oh, damn, if this is wrestling practice, sign me. I'd be all for this. But got to check out the wrestling room. And for them, they have some, like, they had, like, a rogue rig and some, like, basic cardio equipment. Like, some really basic stuff in the wrestling room with them.

But then he showed me the weight room that I believe it was track, wrestling, and basketball use. And it's really cool because when you open it up open up the the building here it has the a wall of guys that played basketball that now play in the nba and they have this huge picture of james harden on the wall oh yeah and you know so and then just like they have a like a plaque for every guy that's the beard yeah for every guy that's made to the nba so that was pretty cool to see and then you go into the actual weight room and uh it's all soar next racks it's all soar next everything and probably the one which now at this point after seeing like the rogue power racks we have and everything um you know the like their rack is just like okay this is a maroon rack with the gold arizona cut out right right like at one point that

would have blown my mind and now that just doesn't feel like that special of a thing probably what surprised me the most was so a few observations a i think every rack in the building that i saw had an elite fts safety squad were on it okay that was that was like standard issue that was everywhere i probably counted 15 to 20 elite FTS prowlers laying around. Those were everywhere too, inside and outside the gym. And I don't know if I saw a single, there was probably one somewhere, but I don't know if I ran across a single bar that had center knurling, which also kind of shocked me a little bit.

They're all like Olympic bars. Yeah, like that just seems very weird to me to not see center knurling on a bar. Did they have any Thompson fat pad on the bench? I didn't notice any, Like that just seems very weird to me to not see center and early and on a bar. Did, did, uh, they have any Thompson fat pad on the, I didn't notice any, but also we weren't in the weight room that the football players use either.

And he said, ah, if it was, so this was game day. He said, if it wasn't game day, I could maybe get into the football weight room, which he said is absolutely insane.

But he said, given that it's day game day, that whole area is kind of just like off limits. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, but it was pretty cool. And and also you go into the this weight room and you have guys that run track and also like seven foot basketball players it's just funny seeing that size difference in there you know uh so that was old sun devils yeah that so that was cool we got to do that um and then later that night we we ended up going to an asu

football was that pretty cool it was really cool because for several reasons like we had some pretty decent seats and there it's so weird there i've never been to like a big d1 football game you said you've been to a couple ut texas uh in austin when they played oklahoma state i think when i went to so that was cool and that would be really cool yeah yeah i mean it's packed i don't know what that stadium holds but it was you know not an empty place to be had and so for this like so in arizona it gets dark at like i don't i guess now here does the same thing gets dark at like 5 36 o'clock which seems too early but it's that damn daylight saving time abolish it so it was not abolish slavery too all of it abolish all of it um the their tail it's so weird because to me their campus feels like it's almost in the

middle of a downtown area which it's not but there's like skyscrapers and there's their campus and the football stadium several blocks away and you're going across these streets but we got to take one of the golf carts from like the wrestling area and drive it all these city blocks like right to the front door of the stadium and get off which was great you have to walk through anything but uh their football team hasn't been too good lately and so they were saying no no yeah we went with the rest of their family and they're like yeah there's probably not going to be a great turnout like there's just there hasn't been a lot to be excited about, but it was completely packed. And I don't know if it was like,

it was a night game. You said it was a night game. Well, they said most of their games are night games because of how hot it is. Right. But it was totally, totally packed. So I wasn't expecting that.

No one there was expecting that. So that's really cool. When you have a full house, UCLA, they're playing UCLA and you say it was ranked like 10, I think. So maybe that helps too that uh it's a good team in town but uh you do just forget how much of a spectacle like big time sports are with the fireworks and the pyrotechnics and like all the sound and events and everything it was it was really fun also them being just such a uh a hot area for airplanes like your con like i don't know if

there's ever more than two minutes that go by where there's not one or two airplanes directly overhead yeah so that's kind of cool to see too but uh yeah it was i mean they end up i think the game the final score was like 50 to 32 or something a lot of scoring uh so it was a fun game to go to we had a good time but uh asu did lose in the end i think friend of the podcast jim wendler former uh yeah he played asu yeah did you see any jim wendler uh i didn't i did not see any he was supposed to miss those i was not looked hard enough i forgot the james harden yeah i don't know if i until i see the picture on the wall i forgot about that too but yeah i was pretty impressed it's uh quite the quite the facility quite the area they got down there there's a lot

going on would you give it a couple cool beans i would give it a couple cool beans was it hot or actually the day we landed i think it was like 58 degrees it was it was very cool the hottest day was maybe they probably were saying geez some weather we've been having. That's what I said. I think it was warmer than this at home when I left. But I think the warmest day was maybe like 80, 82. So it was pretty mild all the time. It was quite nice, actually. Someone said something in there that reminded me. Someone was making a joke about the CrossFit place

and they came up to our booth and say, you guys got anything that says Rogue on it? Because they're like, you know, it's CrossFit people with people but you know i was going to ask you this what brand do you think at this crossfit competition did i see by far the most of people wearing you know t-shirts and stuff like that what uh okay like an equipment brand or just like just like a brand just well i'll just say brand like all what were what was the hot uh brand for crossfitters to be wearing uh noble noble and i did i had no idea that like i'm surprised you guessed that because i was like i did i've never seen someone wear a noble t-shirt in my life i don't think i've actually

never said i don't think i've ever seen one either like i've never seen somebody wear a noble t-shirt in my life i don't think i've actually never said i don't think i've ever seen one either like i've never seen somebody wear a noble t-shirt in my life before and 50 of the people in the building were wearing a noble shirt so that was one a really lucky guess on my part i kind of just said it because i'm thinking what shoes do people wear in crossfit and that was my guess why is it ever like okay i guess that's not uncommon whatever shoes you wear that's also the you know you're thinking nike reebok all that stuff i guess that's not uncommon. Whatever shoes you wear, that's also the, you know, you're thinking Nike, Reebok, all that stuff. I guess that's what people do. But I was like, what is No Bull? Is it shoes strictly?

Because they also have a banging t-shirt business going on now because everyone that was there had a t-shirt on that said No Bull. I have no idea. I'm just assuming they are a shoe company that puts their logo on t-shirts and someone said they're now the sponsor of uh the game the big game so i guess that's a big thing why but i'm like i don't know i'm still like well why is there i i don't know wow okay i didn't i didn't realize i was blown away by that how many no bull shirts i saw everywhere i could see now if they are the prime sponsor,

how they would take over for Reebok. Actually, Reebok would have been a way better guess for me to say now that I think about it. Yeah, I thought you might have guessed them potentially. And I don't know if I saw anyone wearing a Reebok shirt. Reebok just could never get over that hurdle of they just never seem to be cool enough though. Right, right.

Where no bowl, I think, can come in as the new kids on the block and and be cool maybe whatever they're doing is working oh anecdotally i still don't know if i've ever seen anyone wear a noble t-shirt in my life oh like if we go to the you know a lot of times say when we're at the arnold we'll always be like uh at the end of the day be like what companies did you see a lot of people i've never heard us ever discuss them ever no i i don't think i've ever seen someone wear a shirt that says no bull before and you know and i i don't think ever of any memorable note i do know occasionally someone steps foot in the gym and has no bull shoes occasionally i can't think of anyone at our

gym that hardly even has those though i don't know i don't not sure if anyone at our gym does i just know i've seen them at the gym before i'm not sure if it's from members or people right i have seen them but interesting yeah i clearly out of touch with that market me too like that's what i was my takeaway i'm like oh okay they're they're a big deal obviously oh and dude they do not take any bowl none no bowl zero well i believe i believe back in the day in one of the very early episodes probably the first time i ever heard about them it's probably on like episode 50 ish somewhere in there i don't know i think tyler mentions the brand no bowl okay i believe that was my first time ever hearing about them and his take on it was oh the brand's no bowl it's none

of that extra stuff it's only the necessary thing okay but i think his point of contention with it was if they're just expensive yeah if they're just if they're just the essentials none of this extra stuff why do they cost just as much if not more than the nikes you know which is apparently all this other stuff right it's just which is a point. But this is me having no idea. Maybe the brand means that more from a symbolic standpoint. I'm wondering if the Noble executives played a little thing in business school called the business strategy game.

They could have. They could have also went to one of Canada's top business schools. Yeah, I'm guessing these guys played the business strategy game. They said, hey, and their professor was like, you've done the best out of anyone. I've been doing this for almost a decade, and you have performed higher than anyone ever. So we're going to run with this.

They probably were in FBLA in high school, if I had to guess. That's a big Jeff. You've been away from a while, so I don't know if you remember about this. I got to say one more thing before I forget. I was so, so hard on the lookout for someone to be wearing a Masonomics shirt while on vacation.

Not only did I not see one in like a cruel twist, while I was on vacation, I got a text from one of my clients who was in Nashville and took a picture with someone with a massonomics really he was it looked like he was at a bar i got the text at like 11 at night uh-huh he had a picture of a guy of him with a guy wearing a bench heavy shirt he's like i found a massonomics shirt in nashville i'm like dude that's not that like i don't i'm not sure if he's aware i'm like

that's not like that unusual yeah but i have never seen it like everyone in the world has experienced this besides me yeah i'm always on the lookout like in the airport you know yeah i i have it was almost my wife's like really another masonomics shirt again i'm like yeah someone has to see this at some point but no no no one ever saw it doesn't mean anything ever so you know what they say there's always the next vacation next time there's always next vacation for the math mass and i'm exciting uh no but you have been gone for a while and i'm guessing you don't remember about this but we have this relatively new segment it's uh it's called has he seen it it's coming back to me it's coming back uh unlike most of these movies, you are remembering this.

I was also thinking about this. I could just say I've seen every movie in this. There's not really any way to technically prove me wrong. That wouldn't be very fair. But it wouldn't be fair. But I could if I ever wanted to. Some people playing along probably are lying to themselves and telling them they've seen all the movies. I think people have.

I think I'm maybe more honest than most when I say, well, I saw like... Being honest makes the game more fun. that was like an hour and a half to two hour long movie and i saw like half of it so i'll say i didn't see it i don't think most people would play it that nice i think you're that's a very fair assessment i think but what has he seen it is as we have a list of movies from a particular year each week that we try to see if tommy has seen uh this started because we at one point in time found out that didn't seem like tommy had seen very many movies so we're really putting that to the test although last week 1993 he had seen quite a few of the movies it's because i wasn't allowed to watch movies until i turned four and that after

that point i thought well there's no point in catching up on old ones well here we are to 1994 so we'll see if that's true. And this first one is not a part of the game. Wait, wait, wait. How many movies are we talking about? We're doing seven. Okay. Seven is going to be kind of the standard.

I'm going to say, because I'm kind of riding high from last week, I'm going to say I'm going to guess five this week. That'd be a good one. Because I had five last week, didn't I? Yeah. Five out of eight, but we're just down to seven. So, you know okay i'm gonna go better i'm gonna go with five i'm gonna go five again and the first one is not this is just a

bonus one that's not a part of it because the answer so there is still seven outside of this one there yes because this one is not a actual all right this is not a graded one because if if there's a person listening to this that hasn't seen this, any one person. You're putting the pressure on me already. No, I know. I'm saying if there's one person listening to this show that hasn't seen this movie,

I'd be disappointed. From 1994, for Dumb and Dumber. Oh, okay. Do you think how many people, do you think there's anyone listening to our show that hasn't seen that movie? Wow.

I've actually never thought about that, that there's actually people out there that have never seen that that's that would be a weird thought could you imagine if you met someone and they said they've never seen it you're like oh we're gonna watch it together for the first time i would not believe someone if they told me that i wouldn't either imagine someone not having seen no and it's funny you say that because while i was on vacation this came up someone's just talking about dumb and dumber and they're like oh just is there a time where that movie could come on and you could just be like nah i don't feel like watching it like it's it just no always good every time yeah yes it always it always is good so i didn't include it because it's such a it's like that would have

been too much of a softball that's too it is too but yeah i agree has to be mentioned. Okay. We might start off on a bad note on this one, but I think you'll pick up some speed. I think you'll pick up some speed as we go here. Yeah. You'll pick up some speed in the next little bit here. So overrated or underrated? Or wait, wrong game. Have you seen it?

Have you seen it? Angels in the outfield. I have not. Sports movies. You're almost going to get me every time. Sports movies don't really do them. Could have went, and I was torn between whether I ask you Angels in the outfield or Little Big League. I have seen Little Big League.

And that's the Minnesota Twins one. And then I thought, no, I think Angels in the Outfield was the more popular movie. I wasn't sure. I think that was the bigger Disney movie. Although, I think Little Big League is a much better movie. Yeah. And I honestly hardly remember Little Big League, like, at all. Yeah.

I liked it because it was the Minnesota Twins. Yeah. And I think around here that carries probably more weight than in other places. They go to Valley Fair. We're all like, yeah, I've been there, you know? So Angels in the Outfield, you have not seen it. I kind of figured maybe you have. I know for a fact I've seen parts of it,

but I'm not going to count that. I know they help pick him up and they catch the ball. Yeah, yes, yes, yes. Okay. Because there's angels in the Outfield. I didn't know if I was imagining some of that. Okay, have you seen it, 1994, Pulp Fiction? I've seen Pulp Fiction a lot of times that's probably in

i mean i shouldn't say probably it is one of my top five of all time very very good yeah all-time classic one out of two have you seen it clerks yes i have seen clerks i figured you've seen that clerks one clerks two what was the most recent one is there a clerks three was that the one that came out in like 2006 or was that clerks two i can't even remember now yeah i don't know because the first 1994 was the first one all in black and white i don't know i don't think i've seen the original clerk i mean i have seen parts of probably all of the those movies but i've never watched an entire one of any of those movies yeah that would be a no for me to me it was around that time where probably 2003 ish when

jay and silent bob strike back and then there's like oh and i've seen that these guys have this whole like universe like what are these other things yeah and that's where you kind of start digging back through this right so you're two out of three. Yep. Let's see here. I got to double check something. Make sure it's a legal submission. Yeah, I just want to make sure I didn't have too many in here. Let's see. Okay.

No, we're good. So next one. I'm guessing this one's's a no but it is one of my favorites so i had to put it in here eight seconds i have not have you heard of eight seconds the bull riding one yeah yeah yep never seen it it's uh i couldn't even tell you a thing about it other than bull riding it's lane frost is the main person that uh it follows and it's kind of uh if you're into bull follows. And it's kind of a... If you're into bull riding, I think it's the quintessential, you know, the cult classic. I would be interested in watching it.

I'm not that into bull riding, but I just liked Eight Seconds. Yeah, Luke Perry's in it. It's Lane Frost as the main character, and then like Tough is his buddy or something in there. I don't know. I don't remember it that well. It's been a while since I've seen it,

but good movie. Eight Seconds, if you haven't watched it give it a shot you're two for four and to me eight seconds that doesn't fall into the sports movie category not really outside of like football baseball basketball right you know um it's a little extra leeway even i think you might finish strong here getting towards the end of these last ones. You're two for four. Have you seen it? I mentioned we were going to pick up some speed here. Speed. I've never actually seen speed before.

This segment goes under 50 miles per hour and the whole podcast explodes. I feel like I know the whole plot, everything that happens, the jump, all that stuff. I don't know if you've seen very many keanu reeves movies i actually haven't no i can tell you i've seen the matrix i've seen all the matrix movies like that's mandatory viewing but i guess maybe a lot of this stuff is also mandatory view and i haven't seen those either i don't know if speed is mandatory viewing though

it's like like very 90s movies though isn't it right yeah i never saw it though i vividly you know how you have uh kind of maybe random memories and i suppose i could say i was i was exactly seven because it would have came out in 1994 watching it at my grandmother's house on a vhs uh with like some family around and like someone must have rented speed when it came out and watching it and uh just being like enthralled in that uh movie see i kind of along the same lines also i had a friend his older brother was probably six years older than us so at the time when i was probably six and he was like 12 i remember him having speed at their house yeah and seeing those people on this bus and everything. Yeah. I mean, like, this is too much for me, man.

Like, yeah. Yeah. Didn't click. So you're two out of five. I still think you're going to finish stronger here. Have you seen it? Ace Ventura? Pet detective.

Yeah, of course. Yeah. You don't think that's as much of a gimme as dumb and dumber, though. You don't think so? I don't think as much. Yeah. You're probably right. It's insane for me to imagine someone hasn't seen dumb and dumber. though. You don't think so? I don't think as much. Yeah, you're probably right. It's insane for me to imagine someone hasn't seen dumb and dumber.

I can picture if someone hasn't. Because it's on TV nonstop. It's all the time. All the time. Every channel. Ace Ventura is quite a bit too, though, isn't it? Yeah, it does seem like it is, too. All right, what's the better one?

Ace Ventura 1 or 2? Which one's the Miami Dolphins? That's 1. And 2 is like... Like if he goes to africa and the the bat the rhino scene is one of the top movies that's what i'm kind of thinking two is pretty good i don't know that's where i struggle with it because a lot of times those comedies one is always better right but i see and to me one almost as a kid almost fell into sports territory movie right

and that kind of always removed points from it was two more ridiculous more over the top just so much more dumb in every way yeah I think I was more of a two fan myself yeah yeah because I believe it was two it starts with him in that monk

monastery right yeah there's just the whole for a long time. Yeah. Yeah. Two. I think two is the better one.

Watch those with my son soon. Like that Rhino. Yeah. Yeah. One of the all time classics. It's so insane.

I think that's a meme there. It's like multi-ply lifters getting on their squat suit or removing theirs. Yeah yeah yeah or like uh my knee uh my uh my leg what's the what's the new kind of knee sleeve that everyone like yeah like

my calf going through my insert yeah there it is people love that that meme like stay tuned for that meme this week people will love that um so you're three pulp fiction clerks ace ventura you're three out of six this is uh the deciding factor and you know we like to end on an arnold movie oh boy we always end on an arnold movie whenever pop whenever possible possible have you seen it junior i have not seen junior no this is the one or what's the one that ryan and larry reenacted was that with arnold and danny devito what was that one that's twins right oh no that's twins that's twins yeah i've not seen junior juniors where arnold has a baby he becomes okay yeah i still haven't seen that one that actually hits closer to like present day like with everything going on than uh it probably did in 1994 but more relevant yeah

i suppose they don't that movie doesn't have like the same level of humor to it in 2022 that it's probably not i haven't seen it so i guess i I can't say. Also Danny DeVito? Okay, yeah. Really? Wow. So those guys had some on-screen chemistry to do two movies at least together. Well, and was Arnold, was Mr. Freeze in the Batman with the penguin?

No. Or was that a different one? That is different. If those guys were in three movies together. Wait a second. You just unraveled something huge there if that was the case. I'd be like, okay, that's too much.

Like Hollywood was like, nah, we'll use it again. The contrast of these two, they have to be on screen together all the time. Like for a split second, I thought you're right that that is true. I'm onto something here. Yeah, okay. So you went three out of seven. Not bad. Quite a ways off from five. I knew I should have to something here. Yeah, okay. So you went three out of seven. Not bad.

Quite a ways off from five. I knew I should have stuck with four. What the hell was I thinking? Yep. All right, brought me back down to earth a little bit, I guess. Was that a fair set of stuff? Yeah, I think that was a good cross-section of movies, some comedy, some action.

That's why I tried to get the fan genre. Yeah, you can't just say all comedy, because if you said all comedy, there's a good chance I would have seen most of them. This game also isn't fun if, you know, we know by now you say, I don't do well with sports movies. And I just pick that. We'll get five out of seven sports movies here and really screw them over.

Or you just look up the five nominees for Academy Award for Best Picture for 1990. What's that, Tiger One? I've never heard of these before. Yeah. Like, who's watching those? Okay. Well well good job tommy i think everyone's proud of you bring that average back down you know what else everyone uh is proud of what the fine products over at spud inc you know what the products i'm particularly interested in there say is their belts because spud inc makes a variety of belts but which one is right for you

you can go with the classic sputting deadlift belt to the new olympic belt no matter what kind of athlete you are sputting makes a belt perfect for you i was looking through their site they have you know i think that that sputting deadlift belt is pretty iconic to me i picture that and seeing that a lot of strong men wear that, but just scrolling through their belts, they actually have like 20 different belts that you could purchase just from sputting that sputting makes. So I thought that was kind of interesting.

They have bench press belts, Olympic belts, like I talked about belts, wild belts, utility belts, Batman utility belts, a belt squat belts, the ratcheting belts uh and really technically

some of those could be legal in powerlifting now right didn't we talk about that i think we did mention that so that's interesting and also when you uh head over check out their belts buy a belt buy one of everything else and as long as you spend 75 or more your shipping will be free and make sure to let them know that massonomics sent you thanks spud ink this episode is also brought to you by our friends at barefoot shoes hello most shoes harm your mobility by over restricting your foot's natural movement barefoot shoes are designed with minimal restrictions so your feet can move the way they're supposed to move with more strength and confidence in every step.

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Tanner, we are months into our barefoot shoes journey, and it's a match made in heaven. I actually, I was waiting for the barefoot shoes ad to talk about this, but I wore the first Friday of the CrossFit thing, I stood up on my feet a lot, and I was wearing some of my other sneakers, and my feet really hurt at the end of the CrossFit thing, I stood up on my feet a lot and I was wearing some of my other sneakers and my feet really hurt at the end of the day.

And I'm like, tomorrow I'm going to wear my, you know, I usually only wear my barefoot shoes at the gym, but I'm like, I'm going to try those for something different. My feet felt so much better. So much damn better. And this is a paid ad. Did you have? This is also true a paid ad did you have this is also question did you have your ultra boost on the first day yes okay i so this is an interesting

thing um adidas ultra boost i i've had several pairs i think they're very comfortable shoe you have a pair yeah i think ultra boost standing in place are one of the worst shoes. I don't know if it's like the level of squishiness where your feet like compress in and that like the way your, your foot squishes in that it almost like pinches around your foot a little bit. Right. But I agree like in place they suck. Like they don't feel that good.

Like going on walks and everything, they're fine. Whatever you're moving. And maybe it is just a different type of shoes needed for in place and the barefoot like the the width and just the no compression and all that the width really felt like it was helping me a lot where i could just like sit there and my foot was at i could feel my foot like not being restricted not restricted at all having proper foot biomechanics would you say as the ad reads so ad reads. And that was just, you know, that's just straight up truth that I'm like. But now I'm like, well, damn, these are my gym shoes.

I know, you can't have. Well, now you just got to get another pair. Well, I know. That's why I'm like, I got to get some, probably get a second pair. That's it. Well, and if you're interested, use code Massonomics at barefoot.shoes to save 10% on your next order. Barefoot shoes. They're great.

They're great. I'm just waiting for them to be like, hey, guys. You can't say that they're great. Frosted Flakes is kind of getting mad. Someone brought it to their attention. Can you guys not say the they're great thing with our heads? We came up with that slogan, not barefoot shoes. Someone asked about a can. No can tonight no can tonight yeah get a glass of water like i said i was gone

we recorded last week i was gone the next day i haven't gotten to the grocery store yet so still no cans in this house i do like big keys comment in there though he says arnold is greater than the rock devito greater than ke than Kevin Hart. Oh, yeah. I think that's absolutely true. I think so. Should we do supporting our supporting members really quickly? They crawled so those guys could run. And also, I think Keith asked if I had watched any movies since the segment started.

I would like to reassure you that I have not watched any movies in the last several months. Okay. Let's do a supporting our supporting members segment real quick here before we call Big Efron our guest because we did have some good supporting member worthiness. This is a segment each week where we have these supporting members

that support the podcast by signing up for our supporting memberships, which you can all do on our website in our shop. It's right there conveniently located, and we have different levels of supporting memberships for whatever you're interested in. We had several new ones join up just this month. We were talking about some of our new friends

that we've got. And you can get things like discount codes, early access to new drops, special sale items that only you guys are finding out about. Probably the coolest part is you get access to our Discord where you can talk to all the other supporting members. And watch the first half hour of this podcast live and chat

with them uh live like the crew is doing right now and then we give back to them each week in this segment and some big stuff going on first of all happy birthday big nate i think uh big nate happy birthday then Then big Matthias Cash. Pretty crazy stuff here. 164 body weight. Competitive powerlifting meet. 590 squat. I'm pretty sure this is USAPL meet.

590 squat, 347 bench, 667 deadlift. Damn. A 1603 total, 9 for 9 in the massonomic singlet. That is serious. that's some serious lifting at 164 that's that's some great lifting i know that's freaking strong wow quit making us all look bad no kidding like slow down yeah save some for the rest of us what are you trying to prove here? Wow. Then Big Eric T, who was just at Massanomics Gym not too long ago.

He hit his 485 squat and a 429 bench, which is a national record for his master's class. And a 535 deadlift for a 1450 total down in Iowa. Good stuff. Also competing with Big Eric with big there's more yeah big eric t down in another iowa longtime crew member of course big jen they had a picture together also pictures are mandatory if you're to get together with any other mass economics crew uh we do need those pictures picture it didn't happen exactly big jen hit a 209 squat 126 bench so close to that wheel benchmark and then a 281 deadlift for a 616 total and she did that with a that squat was a pr and she finished first in her hashtag master's class does it get any better no the master's crew was just

taking medals by storm down there in Iowa, weren't they? They wanted all of them. Yes. So congrats to you two. And then second Big Matt, Big Matt Sesney. He's a part of the Wolfpack crew, which is those that train conjugates and that possibly sometimes wear equipment. That is, I think, the self-proclaimed is that the Discord crew wolf pack.

I believe so, yes. So Big Matt hit a 520 squat, 295 bench, and a 520 deadlift for a 1335 total. And he said those were all individual lift PRs and get this a 69 pound total pr oh what do you say about that nice nice you can't write that stuff that's just and last oh there's more big dalton he went down from a 275 or to a 242 weight class okay so we're getting trim yep getting cut he got a 1280 total at the drug tested indiana state championship he got first place in his weight class i said it's just me and two other people but he still got first hey yeah and he qualified for drug tested nationals big awesome a lot of crazy stuff going on in the crew.

The crew is living it up out there. Yeah. Man, I go on vacation. Everyone's out lifting. It makes me feel like I've been slacking off. I got to get in the gym here. And then Big Flyin' Ryan had his juggernaut. Did we do the juggernaut ad yet?

No, maybe we should save that. Yeah, that'll give us something good to talk about. We should probably get our guest Big Efron on the horn. Yeah, I think so. we should probably kick off the old his old discord all right bye discord all right hopefully we keep them waiting too long i told them you just hold your horses over there we got we got supporting members to support over here. Important people. Yeah. Hey.

Big Efren, is that you? It is me. Excellent. You are live on the Mastodonomics podcast with Tanner and Tommy. What's up, Efren? Wonderful. Wonderful. Hey, hey, by the way, can we make it medium, Efren? No.

No. No. We have strict rules here. Everyone here is big, no matter what size you are. I mean, I know the internet adds about four inches, but I wouldn't really call myself big, Efren. I want to make that clear. No. When you're here, you're with family now, and you're big. Yeah, when you're here, you're big. Yeah. inches but i wouldn't really call myself big effort i just i want to make that clear no when

you're here you're you're with family now and you're big yeah when you're here you're big yeah i love it you don't you really don't get a say in the matter to be fair understood okay so big effort uh we're excited to get you on actually um we'll talk about this more but i hold in my hand a hard copy version of the iron guide a collection of strength and uh big effort is the author of the iron guide and that's part of why what we want to have you on and talk about today uh but this is pretty cool we were just skimming it here earlier and um i we were very like our initial reviews we're very impressed yes it is very comprehensive and super cool but so for anyone that's listening and maybe uh isn't familiar with you yet you know maybe they're not following you along on instagram uh what would you tell each

other tell everyone in a few sentences here about what it is you do and why you're going to be a fun guest to have on today. Yeah, definitely. First of all, thank you very much for having me. I'm extremely grateful and thankful. And also, Tanner, I want you to know, I believe that may be the only printed copy out there because I'm too cheap to print it out. I love it this way because what I do is I have a whole bunch of e-books printed like this and then when I get done with them, I leave them at

Mastodonics Gym and then everyone gets to browse them in between sets and while they're warming up or getting done. Also, I was telling Tommy, sweet life hack here, I can put this out on my desk at work, in my office, in my day job, and people walk by and they're like,

oh, he's pretty into whatever he's doing. He must be really hitting the work today. And it's like, nope, I'm reading Efren's The Iron Guide right here, but you don't know the difference. That is really smart. That's a good life hack. I've got a whole bunch of work hacks we can get into someday but we'll we'll talk about effort now we'll talk about those later and definitely so so

question um essentially i i'm basically a guy in a gym who um who became really obsessed with ultimately making my gym my own, right? If you go back a few years, back when, prior to the pandemic, and I think a little bit, home gyms were a little bit of an afterthought when it came to custom work, right? Obviously, Rogue and Sour Nicks and all the different brands out there were making kind of big rigs. But I actually kind of remember back then reaching out to a few of the big companies about helping me build a new custom weight tree and at the time

everybody turned me down in fact some of the bigger companies were telling me like well customs not really our thing we don't really do home gyms you know fast forward six months later everybody was apparently big into home gym custom work but at the time everybody turned me down and so i took it upon myself um i don't know if it was basically pride or me being just too full of myself thinking i could do everything so i'm out there you know going to local shops and uh creating things and painting and drilling and grinding and doing all kinds of crazy things. And I just got really into it and really addicted to it. And at the time, some of the Facebook groups and other social media groups out there,

everybody was very supportive and everybody was essentially learning from each other and growing in the community. Obviously at the the time, there had been, you know, years back, a home gym community, but it was really, obviously, as we all know, that's when it exploded. And I think that was kind of the beginning of me really getting into it. And at first, it was really just sharing my ideas for how I did what I did, whether it was building new custom storage or hats for my belt squad at the time or hacks for different things or how to be effective at storing some of your bars or your weights and so on and so forth. And so at the time, it was really just sharing my ideas and sharing my builds and sharing things that I had done.

And of course, building upon that that it just became crazy right obviously over time i started doing the the chrome and i became known for that and it became known for the really big builds and the gold cadillac bar and all the crazy things that i eventually over that it's almost kind of like a game of myself trying to top myself and uh that that just kind of happened over time and um ultimately i think where i fell into this big black hole is the the vintage iron world and i never really recovered and as i'm sure you guys can tell and basically the it it ultimately became just this thing we became bigger and bigger and bigger and a buddy and i met you're all started a new vintage facebook group and it's just snowballs from there and a big part of the thing for a long time i was actually a pretty big time collector but it was a

a closeted collector i didn't really talk about it on my social media i was really more you know into the chrome and the gold and all these different things. But I never really talked about the vintage world because I was getting deeper and deeper into it. And as I got more and more serious into it, I started sharing a little bit here and there, see how the public would take it and how my friends and everybody would take it. And over time, it's actually kind of crazy because i actually think me being on the the world's strongest show here right now validates that vintage weights are here and they're here to stay wouldn't you agree absolutely yeah uh it's really cool i think that that's first

of all that's a really good summary of what you got going on there and um what uh i've got a lot of questions i think this is is i think you are super interesting yeah there's a lot of ground to cover here yeah yeah one thing i'm wondering you know you're talking about the cut the um you know what you did like the gym hacks when you're making stuff uh building like did you have any background outside of lifting stuff like as a maker or doing that stuff? Or did you just get into that just through gym equipment? Or have you done stuff like that in your other world before? Not at all.

I actually, in my, call it my normal professional life, I make a living in technology, in the technology world, right, for a corporation. But I guess I've always just been very handy. And like I said, I think I've just been, you know, fooling myself thinking, well, I could do this, I could do that. And I think it was really just a matter of trial and error and trying it out and trying to do things that would work for me. Again, at the time, it was really out of necessity, right? Because all the companies were turning me down.

Nobody was doing really custom work at the time. Nobody was doing custom colors. Nobody was doing custom rigs. All these different things that kind of came up after that. At the time, there was really nothing available. So it was really out of necessity. Yeah, okay. So talking about the vintage iron stuff, that's a lot of what your book that you've got available is about.

And it goes into some crazy detail on some of this stuff as far as valuation, rarity. And the pictures that you've compilated here to get together are pretty wild actually just having all this uh together in one book is really cool but what uh you talked about how you slowly got into that and like you're almost closeted getting into that at a certain point do you know what was the first piece of vintage iron that you ever got well you know it's a little bit of, I would probably say, a topic that's discussed often. And I'll tell you why. The Ivanko Chromeweights, right? Some people would consider very, very seriously vintage. Other people would say, well say those are like the gateway drug for everybody because it's a little bit of crossover and that people now can can see them appreciate them and be awestruck by them and want them but knowing that they've been discontinued for many years and they're really hard to get and once you kind of get that the little bit of a hit of well wow i really have to have those

and you start getting them you really get the that rush of like oh my gosh i just scored something that everybody wants and that really is like the gateway drug for everything yeah i just pulled up that page actually looking at the page here i i'm actually shocked i because i believe is to say 60s and 70s 1980s oh 80s okay yeah 70s and 80s i just assumed that those were from the 90s. It just seemed like such a 90s thing to me for some reason. Yeah. And you know what's interesting is, I mean, obviously, they

made them later as well. Those are iconic, though, too. They are. Exactly. I mean, you've seen a bunch of different people lift them over the years. But if you think back to when they started, I mean, you really could be finding weights that are out there that are 40 years old. so when you stop and think about that it's like wow that's wild i would like to have a set of those oh yeah those are pretty cool those are pretty iconic

uh so you think that was some of the first stuff that you started dipping your toes in the water on then definitely i i really think those are ultimately the gateway drug for myself and for everybody um that's kind of how you start building and i remember a couple of years ago i i think at Definitely. I really think those are ultimately the gateway drug for myself and for everybody. That's kind of how you start building. And I remember a couple of years ago, I think at the time, nobody had ever really put together such a big set all at once. People had a couple of weeks here and there. But I actually remember a few years ago, maybe now three years ago, when I first was able to put together my set. I think, I mean, at the time, it was only maybe like three or four complete sets. And I dropped a picture of that. And everybody kind of just went crazy because at that time, nobody had ever really seen something like that together on one tree.

And I really think that was probably the beginning of the end, if you will. Yeah, now obviously your collection has grown significantly. Two questions about your collection here. A, do you think you could put a value on it? B, if you could, would you be sharing what you would put on it for a value? You know, I probably could. I don't know that I would want to. I think I would cry.

And the other part too, I don't know if my wife will ever listen to this. Yeah, everyone listening understands that. Whether they buy vintage equipment, just regular gym equipment, any of that, everyone understands how that goes. Exactly. Actually, you know what's funny one one um one thing that every vintage weight collector knows is that we're all supposed to have a secret binder with a special phone number of who to call when you die so that all this person and they will tell you the real prices of everything yeah so that your wife doesn't uh sell all of your stuff for like

25 cents a pound. Exactly. Okay, what about this? What do you think, what is your most valuable piece of equipment that you own now? Well, so if we're talking just actual dollars right out

there, and obviously I'm sure you saw the guide. Yeah. And there's big ranges, and there's probably steps along the way of those ranges. You can go, obviously, I'm sure you guys are all familiar with, you know, a dollar a pound, two dollars a pound, three dollars a pound for different things. for different things. But as you keep going up there, the range of the older Yorks or the Jacksons or the Zubers or all the different things,

it's really the whole pound thing goes out the window. And it's really about dollars. And in some of those cases, thousands of dollars. So just to give you an example, the last few pairs of some of the big Zuber weights have gone for really big money.

I believe some of the really heavy weights recently have gone for between $18,000 and $20,000 for a pair of those. For like a pair of 45s of the Zubers, is that what we'd be talking? Yes, a pair of the 50s because back then… Oh, yeah, sure, sure. Yeah, their 50s because back then... Oh, yeah, sure, sure. Yeah, they're 50s. You know, when the Zubers made them, they felt that they didn't really want to do math, and so they did everything 50, 100, 150

to make it easy for everybody, and it's kind of cool. But yeah, those are really expensive, and it goes from there, right? There's different really expensive Yorks that are from the 30s and different Jacksons and so on and so forth. So for anyone that doesn't know what the Zubers are. Explain Zubers and kind of bring people up to speed on the story of those.

Because outside of you, I don't think I've ever seen those before. So, you know, it's actually a really interesting story. And what's wild is that many people don't know. So the Zubers was an actual Zuber gym. It was an actual gym in Costa Mesa, California. a little bit later, once they got more famous, but at the time, they were the first stage for the world's strongest man in the late 70s.

Prior to that, basically what it was was Bob Zuber Sr., he basically wanted to do what he called it the Disney World of Gyms. Everything was over the top. I guess in some some ways it was a little bit like your vibe messonomics would fit very well at the time yeah everything was just over the top

crazy right i'm sure everybody would be wearing lift shorts that does sound crazy if they could afford those yeah exactly and so they had you know, thousand pound dumbbells and crazy racks and crazy weights. And that's how he even came up with the idea of, well, I'm just going to go ahead and do my own weights and do crazy amounts. Right. One hundred and fifty pound plates. Exactly. Up to actually go up to 200 pounds. Really? Yes. And so imagine trying to load those things. Yeah, it doesn't make any sense and and for him that doesn't know the the big zovers they're the ones that have the muscle man uh spread eagle kind of the vertruvian man or whatever kind of yeah i'll spread out in the

middle of them exactly and so at the time so so he made this gym that was kind of really crazy Crazy over the top And he had his own local powerlifting team And he also started Because of his fame Basically at the time He started getting more and more Of the local powerlifting

Peanuts West Later Arnold Lou All the different people that were around la to basically come down it was a little bit of a pilgrimage uh to basically make the trip and check out the gym and so there's a whole lot of pictures of that and in some ways they were you know right around the culture when powerlifting really started and that really became their their claim to fame and like i said said, later, they were the first stage for the world's strongest man. And so they're a very epic gym in the history of

powerlifting and just lifting in general. And so what's crazy now is if you think about the weights that he made for the gym, The really interesting fact about those weights is that they are actually the only ones out there that every single one of them that are out there were part of the gym, right? So if you think about York and Jackson and old Aleko and everything else, you could just buy those.

You could just buy those. So it was never a retail component to their, to their plate. Exactly. So every single one of them was at the gym listed by all the greats. And so we all like to joke that if you go and lick them, who knows, maybe you might be, you know,

licking some Arnold G or something. That's awesome. So, okay. Based off what you said there, like looking at your book, you know, they are at the top of your rating scale here, and you have them at a scarcity of nine. Do you have any idea, looking at, you know, these 50 pound plates, 150, 200 pound plates, do you have any idea how many were ever produced? So it's actually interesting. In some cases, you are actually able to document some of the production numbers, right? And through a lot of research and word of mouth and records in here and there, you actually can come up with some of those numbers.

For some of the big Zuber plates, there were about 200 total pairs made of the bigger ones. When you say bigger, are you saying like the ones with the guy on it or? Exactly. So the 50, 100, 150, 200. And from there, you can then, they were split up. The most of them were obviously the 50s. And then from there,

I believe there were only 10 pairs each of the bigger ones. The one thing though, is that even though not many were actually made i would probably say compared to all some of the other ones more of them have been retained because if you think about it it's kind of hard to throw away the giant plate with this big naked dude on it yeah yeah where if you think about the yorks and the jacksons like well you know they can just be misplaced.

They can be put in the garage. It can be whatever. But the zoos are very appealing. And so even somebody who doesn't know anything about it may want to try and look it up and, you know, preserve them, if you will. Right. So then of the big plates, roughly how many are you in possession of? Myself of the big plates? Well, of the big plates, I really only have three right now. Like three pairs or three

actual plates? One pair and one single. Okay. Of the big ones. There was a time that I actually had four pairs and I ended up trading some of them. You know, it's actually one of the things that over time I've tried to be a little bit disciplined.

It doesn't always work in being able to have a variety of everything and being able to, um, uh, be ruthless. It's actually one of the things that I like to tell everybody that I always like to say that it's better to, um, trade away too early than trade away too late. Right. Right. So, so having like 10 pairs of Zuber plates like isn't like super high on your priority list then not for me i know there's some guys out there that really like them but obviously not you know it's really hard to get a whole lot of them but i did have more of them but i did trade some of them to be able to you know diversify a little bit and just have a

little bit more of everything yeah i think that makes sense yeah is part of the game like the high-end vintage weights like do you have to trade in order to get stuff like is some stuff like you're just someone's not gonna sell it they're only gonna like you're only gonna get it out of their hands if you have something that they really want to trade with that is exactly right yeah uh basically just the height the higher you go up the ladder, the harder things get and the less your money is worth. Right, right, right. That makes sense. Okay.

How about what... So you're also known for having some gold equipment. You've turned a lot of things gold. What's the favorite or oddest thing that you've golded in your gym? Can you, anything that comes to mind that you really enjoy that you turn to gold or that that's kind of an odd piece of equipment, anything like that?

Oh, by the way, I really like how you added the, in my gym because I'm sure, I'm sure I have other crazy gold things out there. Well, we never know. You know, I actually, well, one thing that I didn't do myself, but that I really enjoy is I have a tiny little Franklin Mint mini gym that's uh 24 carat plated and for whatever reason i really enjoy it and and i walk by it every single day sometimes i do little lap pull downs on it with my fingers but i really enjoy that okay okay and what about the book well i suppose you've done so

much research on this and everything that you've been so into it that at some point in time it hit you that like maybe i should just make a book about it is that how that went or what was that process yeah yeah a little bit of that i mean honestly i think i was just frustrated by the fact that there wasn't any consensus out there if you think about how much has been written and researched and studied on physical culture in general, right? And lifting and over time, all the different training and all the different programs and the history of lifting and everybody who was famous, but nobody has ever really talked much or gathered really all the actual equipment that they use and the weights and the strengths implements and all

that stuff. And so I wanted to have somewhere that we can all, you know, look at and reference and teach everybody who's coming up by looking at all the pictures, because honestly, that's probably one of the most important things in finding the rare things is, and this is what I mentioned in my book, is you just have to know what you're looking at, right? Because a lot of the times when you're looking for some of these things, whether it is on the marketplace or on eBay or whatever it may be, you may have really crappy, dark, out of focus pictures of whatever it is that they're looking at. And so imagine if you will that you have you know it's 50 years from now and there's some weird yellow shorts with lif buried under something and if you don't know what you're looking at that may be trash but if you do know what you're looking at holy shit those are the

gold shorts oh my god those only made 100 pairs of those ever. I wonder if they have the certificate of authenticity with them. Exactly. Now you get me. Yeah, yeah, for sure. So that really is, you know, that will give you a big leg up in the game is just knowing what you're looking at. And so up until this point,

there really wasn't anything whatsoever in terms of a comprehensive guide to be able to help everybody. And so I was actually talking, you know, over many nights, I would talk with one of my buddies, Max Marsh, and actually in a totally different state. And I would basically complain to him that, you know, there must be a way to be able to compare things, right? And being able to figure out if when you're buying or selling or trading or whatever, that you're having a fair deal. Because at the time, I mean, it kind of makes sense now

what I did in terms of my ratings and what I use for my ratings. But if you think about it, like none of this ever existed. And so prior to us being able to rank these and have something that people could refer to, there was arguments every single day about what's worth more and what should be up there and what's not actually valuable and why isn't it valuable. How much of it was that around there? system was probably the biggest breakthrough and really probably the biggest thing that people were throwing tomatoes and stones at me because for one, it's a little bit of a taboo in terms of putting prices out there, right? Because if you think about it, what you want to do, the goal for everybody is to be able to pay and find things in the least amount of money possible. And so when you're putting out there that like, hey, this costs $1,000,

well, shoot, somebody who's reading the book now is not going to just put it up in the marketplace for $10. Thankfully, a little old lady who just happens to have some weights out there may not be looking up in the internet and looking at some of those different things. She just wants to

get it out of her hair and maybe sell it. And so somebody is able to get it and preserve it and give it life. So that obviously still happens. But in the beginning, it was definitely a lot of hate in terms of actually publishing something that was able to put down values and put down dollar amounts to everything.

But I think now over time, people have seen, the community has seen the value of it. And it really is a great community. Everybody collaborates, everybody supports each other. There's definitely a lot of competition. But it's a really good community that we have out there. So when you're putting together the rankings, you know, you did say that there was some pushback on some things. Was there any particular item that was more controversial than others for your ranking where people didn't agree with where you had it placed? You know what's interesting is at the very top, not that much. And it's one of the things that I spent many, many months looking over the numbers and spreadsheets and looking over the research and looking at the data of auctions

and how people were talking about it and how people were feeling about it. And so for the most part, the top wasn't very contended. But towards the bottom, there's actually a few weights out there. You may or may not be familiar with them, but one of them is the Schiffler Eagle Heads. And they actually have a very interesting design on them like a big eagle and they feel very very america if you will and we're looking at them now yeah that's cool but the interesting part though is that they those are imported plates right and so in the vintage,

import plates are technically looked down upon a little bit. And so those are some of the ones that have always been in a big debate on where exactly should they be? Because if you think about it, like, yes, they're cool. Yes, they have a cool design. Yes, they were a Midwest company, but ultimately they're import plates.

And it's also one of the reasons why they have both the pound and the kilogram. So those were probably some of the ones that there was a lot of discussion in terms of why aren't they ranked higher? Okay. I could see that. That makes sense.

Have you ever scored anything awesome for just a ridiculously great price? You've got to imagine, if you're inifornia like there has to be a happening marketplace right within like a hundred mile radius of you like have you ever just gotten any deals that are just would blow people away you know what's crazy in the vintage world it's actually the opposite if you're in Pennsylvania, New York, that's where you can just trip over your stuff,

trip over Jackson's and all the different things. Out here, it's actually not as much. What you find out here are definitely some of the really cool places. Obviously, Disney World is out here. The Paramounts are out here. The Paramounts actually have a really interesting story in that they don't necessarily have the coolest design. I would probably say they're not even that interesting.

But if you ever watch Pump and Iron, aren't everybody is using them all over the place? And so by itself, it's this mega, mega appeal to everybody. And the fact that for whatever reason, it seems like a's a lot of them are just not out there yeah okay and so out here in california you do see you know some of those things kind of like the west coast vibe and west coast pieces but when it comes to the really older vintage wades most of them were actually in the east. That's obviously where York was, where Jackson was.

That's the other part, too, that it's a little bit of an unspoken thing when it comes to the collecting. Nobody ever tells you about how much packing and shipping you actually have to do of these crazy, heavy things. Yeah, you probably spent a lot of money on shipping just over the years i would guess huh yes not only shipping but cardboard and tape and you know yards and yards of tape and it's crazy yeah yeah and of course bright bright for my uh my mail guy yeah to keep him coming back exactly yeah that's a good tip okay uh efren we've got this little game we like to play with every

guest that we have on i don't know if you're familiar with it at all but it's called overrated underrated and we've got a special exactly uh and it's we've got a special today a special efron set of topics here that we want to shoot at you. It's your job to decide if each one is overrated or underrated, but you have your druthers to elaborate on that as much or as little as you'd like. But you just have to remember that you can't ride the line. You have to decide each one, whether it's

overrated or underrated at the end of the day. I think I'm ready. Alright, great. Overrated or underrated? York. I think they great overrated or underrated york i think they are overrated and let me tell you why so they were you know essentially the beginning of the the world here in in america when it comes to the the big time vintage weights and they obviously have an incredible amount of history out there.

And they mean a lot to a lot of different people. And they really were the fathers in terms of what they have done for everybody in terms of the Olympic weightlifting team, the equipment, the weights and everything out there. However, when it comes to the vintage weights and and collecting them they're just too common i mean they're really they're they're they're pretty much out there everywhere um it was actually interesting i was just talking to one of my buddies the other day and how just in the last couple of weeks i think there's been several dozen of the deep dish york weights that have been out in there and trading hands and uh and actually i was just talking to Richard Soren there today, and he likes to tell me how he has, I think, 48 of them.

And so they're pretty common. And yes, they're really cool, but I think there's just quite a few other plates and weights that are probably a little bit better, at least for myself. And I don't know if I'm biased because I'm out here in California, but I would probably say they are overrated. That makes sense. Yeah, I mean, even in our part of the country, I think you could go into a gym in almost every city and run across at least a couple pairs.

Yeah. Exactly, exactly. Okay, that's good. Overrated or underrated alchemy? If you're familiar with alchemy. Oh, I would probably say underrated. Have you? Wouldn't you guys agree? yeah yeah i i don't know that we know the secret to how you

exactly turn other metals into gold but uh you kind of i think you know what you're doing over there i mean if i were to divulge too much of that i feel like you value everything yeah uh on that topic are you familiar at all have you ever heard of black hills gold this is a little south you know we're from western northeast south dakota um have you ever heard of black hills gold you know i don't know that i do okay we might maybe we'll have to send you some black hills gold black hills gold is uh specifically gold um that's produced in the black hills of south dakota it's in southwestern south dakota and uh black hills gold it used to the gold used to have to come from south dakota in order to be considered black hills gold but it was the homestake mine in the black hills is no longer an active mine so the gold no longer is sourced

from there gold come from that i don't know exactly where it comes from but the homestake mine in the black hills is no longer an active mine so the gold no longer is sourced where does the gold come from then i don't know exactly where it comes from but the homesick mind is no longer uh it's a research right right right so i don't know where the gold comes from but what what the what it does have to do be in order to be black hills gold is it's a ornate and a specific design it's grapes grape stems and the leaves around grapes that's what the pattern of black gold is if you ever look at it that's what they are on that but i and then also chance that was what they did no that's what they that's well that is what the original people did and that's what has become black gold and then the other thing is there's three different colors to gold

there's just the gold and then there's two alloys they mix uh gold and silver to get like a greenish color and then uh gold and copper is the third color which is like more of a brown they and they do those three alloys together in this art of like these grapes and grape leaves and stems and stuff and that is black hills gold and it is very very popular around around here. Wait a minute. Is this the stuff that's going to turn my arms green? No, it doesn't. It might. I'm not sure. I actually don't have much Black Hills gold.

I don't have any. I just remember my grandparents had some when I was a kid. Everybody's grandparents around here definitely has some Black Hills gold. And I really think for you to have a complete gold collection, you're going to need a little bit of Black Hills gold in the collection. Well, I'm going to hold you to that. So my next

order of lip shorts, I better include a little Black Hills gold with it. Okay. Overrated or underrated? We'll go with Austin Powers gold member the movie austin powers gold member have you ever seen gold member i think he is definitely underrated

i don't know how many times i have used that meme and um in every group and if i had a nickel for every time somebody has put that at me, I think I would have a few more viewers. I believe that. I believe you've seen that one a time or two. A few times, yes. Okay. How about this?

Overrated or underrated? Blobs. Do you know what I mean when I say blobs? You know, that is actually a very controversial thing. That's what I thought you might say. It really is, but I don't know if you're aware, but I don't really care and I cut them all the time. Okay, you do. So you'll make blobs then? I do actually, but it's one of those things. I'm respectful

about it in that I really only do it if I have a single, right? Like if I have, for whatever reason, a single dumbbell or a glove or whatever it is. And so ultimately, the way that I feel about it is if it's going to get the use and you're going to train with it and you're going to have fun with it and you're going to keep it forever, then why not? But obviously, there's some purists out there that cringe and cry and whatever. And they think that some of those things should never be touched. But I think they should be, if the whole goal of all this is to be able to use it and appreciate it and pass it on, I say you go

for it. And so I would probably say definitely underrated. And for anyone that's listening that doesn't know, a blob is half of a... The ones we have are all York, like York roundheads. We have some blobs of half of a dumbbell. And I mean, are they traditionally made from Yorks then? Or do people make blobs out of other dumbbells too? Well, traditionally, definitely york but obviously nowadays you can do whatever you want and the theory of that

is that the very first one was actually a richard soren uh hundred one and um he basically made it out of that because you know he was a big big into gripping and um and so that that's kind of how they became a big thing. And then recently, Brian Shaw has been using them. And they're becoming more and more of a bigger thing. And what's funny is that, at least online, they command a much higher price than the dumbbells because people don't want to do their own dirty work.

They'd rather pay somebody to be the one to you know cut them up yeah oh i could see that and the ones we got were they were yeah there someone had already yeah someone had already made them into blobs i got them for like next to nothing actually i think someone just threw them in with something else i was buying and i'm like yes i will take those yeah uh so talking about york says i something i forgot to follow up on there like york today you can still buy york plates i think of some sort but like that's a far different product today correct than what uh what you know when people have some even like the 70s milled yorks that's not what you're buying if you buy a new york plate today correct

oh yeah not at all they're they're really a shell of what they used to be uh you know they've changed ownership a bunch of times they're they're producing different places now and it's kind of sad because you know obviously their name is historic and legendary but yeah it's a very very different product now than that we used to get have you ever gotten your hands on a set of uh the strength co plates we're we're a fan of the strength co plates have every have you ever used any strength co plates before i actually have what i believe may be the only chrome powder combed silver weights from them and uh believe it or not and they're actually part of my what i call my bling tree which is where i have my calibrated ivanko and some of my and i have my strength

scope blades and you know i i have all i've said this a few different times that they are exceptionally well made uh they're made in the u.s uh It's a little bit of a David versus Goliath, so I would probably say they are underrated. Kudos to the team over there. I think they're awesome. I think of it a lot of way

if we're under the assumption that York is a shell of what they were and they're not really what they are. They almost don't exist in the sphere that we're talking about. Now. I like to think that in my, the way I feel it is like the strength co plates. Like if you,

if you're into old York milled plates and you want to go buy some new plates today, the strength co plates would be the plates that you would buy is kind of the way I feel. Think about that. I completely agree with you. And, you of the way I feel, think about that. I completely agree with you. And, you know, maybe in 75 years, we can look back and think that you were right. Yep. Yep. Only time will tell. It's the waiting game. Someone else, what about this is, this is kind of a, this is what I would call a heavy thought.

All these weights that we all have and we collect, you know, we have a bunch of, you know, several mini sets of milled York plates around and, you know, anyone that collects this old iron, it will outlast all of us by so long.

Like your collection right now, what you would consider your collection someday, that will just be somebody else's collection. We've talked about this before. It's never really yours. It's just your turn. Yeah, you're just the caregiver for a period of time in those plates' life. I completely agree with you.

And actually, not only that, but I can tell you right now that this is not even my collection. It's actually my daughter's collection. My oldest oldest daughter she's really the the boss of the gym she's the one that's very tidy and likes to tell me where everything needs to go and it's also one of the reasons why my gym is very very well maintained and tidy because otherwise i get yelled at that that's good okay uh so last one we'll go overrated or underrated uh rogue fitness to throw out another new company we've talked a lot about old stuff but a newer company rogue fitness you know i would probably say underrated and and i think you you might find this interesting i would probably say that if it wasn't for them there wouldn't be as much competition in trying to make things better and make things

better in the u.s right there's there's obviously there's the the thought that you know them being out there and being the big goliaths and what doing what they do and with the pricing that they do, which obviously we know that it's not the cheapest. There's cheaper options out there. But I would probably say that they have continued to push the envelope in making better equipment, whether it's bars that's affordable and available for everybody or rags or rigs or et cetera. or rags or rigs or et cetera. And so while sometimes I don't necessarily agree with what they're doing or their pricing or some of the models that they're doing, or maybe sometimes doing things afterward

that maybe aren't as innovative, but I would probably say that they're still ultimately leading the market in terms of making things better for everybody for the sense of competition and pushing other people to come out there and try to do their own thing and try to do their own thing at a price that

makes sense for everybody, but at the same time pushing to make things here, which I think is really awesome and beneficial for everybody. So I think for those reasons, I would say underrated. That's good. I think the tallies are in, the votes are in. It looks like you passed overrated and underrated. That's good. I think with the tallies are in, the votes are in,

it looks like you passed overrated and underrated. Oh my goodness. I'm so glad. That little bit of pressure is off. You can breathe a sigh of relief right there. I was telling your crew, Big Keith and Big Toby out there, that I was really nervous about the game, that I was going to bomb out and fail. Nope, you passed.

Congratulations. You can let them know. One other question. What's one piece of home smart tech that you think everyone should have in their home today? I would probably say more than anything because things are evolving. I'm big into tech and big into tech in the gym. I would probably say the biggest thing for right now before things continue to evolve are really just get a good tracker, right? Something that will track your workouts, whether it's your heartbeats or an Apple Watch or something like that to motivate you to just keep track of you being out there. like that to motivate you to just keep track of you being out there.

And even if it's not great, keep track of kind of what you're doing. I would probably say that's a good stepping stone towards everything else. I would definitely not recommend the smart mirrors and all the crazy things that are out there. I like to keep it raw and I like to keep it basic. But if you're going to introduce something, I would probably say something that will help you just keep track of what you're doing would be my vote for sure. I think that's good advice. Yeah, for sure. I think that's the right way to look at that. And so are you, are you a regular Apple watch user then?

Oh, definitely. I use it every single day. And you know, for the most part, although it's funny, I joke on online all the time that I'm taking my pre-workout. People don't know that my pre-workout is actually just moving my weights around and polishing my chrome. And I was actually doing that earlier. So that's really where, you know, I drink my beer and my pre-workout and that's what I get ready for. But then I turn on my Apple watch and I make sure that it's tracking me walking around the gym and organizing and moving things around and polishing. Awesome. Perfect. How do people get the Iron

Guide if they want to check it out? We've been talking about it quite a bit here and now if people are interested in checking it out, how do they do that? Definitely. So it's pretty easy. Just theironguide.com and I actually have a whole lot of content out there that, you know,

kind of walks through and shows you some of the, the comparisons and you can download the book. And what's even better is you just, you just pay once. Um, I think it's probably like, uh, two cups of coffee.

Well, maybe not just one cup of coffee, but, with everything going on. Uh, and you get the free update forever so i'm actually releasing an update uh later this week oh you didn't tell us that now i gotta read the whole thing over again so it's gonna be the fifth edition exactly right okay so i guess with that

with the iron guy do you see yourself ever adding and maybe it doesn't fit because it's too new, but, you know, like with the Strength Co. and Rogue and some of these other companies making Made in America plates again, like, do you ever see yourself adding more of like a modern category into that? And I think Rogue did this a little bit when they came out with, a few years ago, prior to the pandemic, when they came out with their, if you remember, their limited edition bar. It was the P40 bar, if I remember correctly. And it had a very special design. And it had, I think they only made 10 of them and i remember at the time talking to a couple of guys were there and they were telling me that they wanted to be able to do more um that oh i'm sorry they call it the warhawk the p40 warhawk bar and um they basically only made 10 and you know they sold out instantly and at the time they wanted to do more but then the world

changed and of course you know supply chain and everything else but i wanted to do more but then the world changed and of course supply chain and everything else. But I can see more limited runs of things that are out there that could become instantly collectible and being able to start adding some more of the modern or either high-end or limited edition runs. Like for example, I could see myself

adding at some point limited edition gold lift shorts and we can speculate how much it'd be worth and so things like that i can definitely priceless exactly well they'll have to knock down the zoomers for sure you you do have a pair of the limited edition gold curl shorts i think right i do i i mean if you could only see me now, I'm wearing them. What number pair do you have? Do you remember? 89. Oh, 89. You got in just in the nick of time then.

Yeah, that's good. Yes, yes. Excellent. Okay. Yeah, that's really great. They check out the Iron Guide, and then also if they want to follow you along on Instagram, what's your IG handle? Yeah, it's Ephraim Lips, or just, uh, or, you know, just start typing Efren and generally comes up. And, um, that's, that's the one nice thing about my, my social media. I have a relatively memorable name. Uh, you know, my name's not Adrian, so I can't say I made it here, but, but I did. Um, so. All right. Good stuff. Well, I think this was is really fun i think people are really going to

enjoy this so we appreciate you coming on thank you very much for having me guys and giving me the opportunity and i will keep listening and uh and you know talking trash and all your crew and with them all right thanks uh big efren thanks big efren thank you see ya Big Efren. Thanks, Big Efren. Thank you. See ya. Cool beans. Cool beans. Cool beans. Did he get cool beans or were they gold beans? Would you give him a double shot of gold cool beans? Double cold beans.

Turned those beans into gold, didn't you? I did. Solid gold. Just like every one of these Mathonomics podcast episodes solid gold solid gold big effron knows the thing about an old plate or two doesn't he certainly does i'm glad someone's looking into that because i i mean you know some of that stuff exists people were using weight plates but that they keep track of it like that that's pretty amazing i know who i'm calling the next time i uh quite honestly the

next time a guy in town tries to sell you an old vintage pair the next time that happens i'm going to take a picture of him and send him to effort and say what are these what were the ones the guy was trying to sell you in town again they were older deep dish yorks you know they were yeah they were uh you know considerably older they might have been like 40s or 50s deep dish uh but looking at this now do you feel like and i get i can't remember what he really wanted for those yeah the price was insane at the time yeah it's probably not out of line with what ephraim's looking at here but it was that would be you have to start looking for a national buyer like not not someone down right exactly and i'm not sure that guy was gonna

go that guy was pretty old so i always figured he'd die soon enough and I could just get him from somebody else. At an estate sale. So I keep my eye on that house when I drive by to see if there's any moving vans or anything like that. And everything must go as I all outlast you. We'll just see about that. Playing the long game here. Your turn's done with those, old man.

Those are mine now. I'm the captain now no it is for real though like genuinely an impressive book um we've we've been in a position where over the years we've seen a lot of ebooks from a lot of people true and i as a designer by trade tend to look at things from a visual angle. And most e-books leave a lot to be desired from a visual standpoint. This one's very well put together. Yeah. If you listen to this episode and you were interested by this, you'd probably think this book is pretty cool.

And I think it's like $8 or something like that. Yeah. If you have any interest in vintage weight plates or collecting older equipment like that, I'd say it's so worth the $8. It is a well put together book. And it's like 170 pages. Yeah. Yeah. Like there was some serious effort that went into there.

So for sure. If that's up your alley, you will love this. A lot of good pictures too, actually. Like if this book didn't have no pictures, I'd be like, oh, I guess it's cool to read about it. But actually kind of what makes it is he's got pictures of like all of these plates too so they're easily identifiable it's just made me think you know what i want to see happen i want there to be an episode of pond stars where a guy walks in with like a pair of plates and he's like i i've got a guy for that and it's efren yeah he's like i don't know you know everyone's looking at a weight plate but

i'm just not sure i got a guy let me get him in here and then effort comes in and he talks about wow so this is actually a really interesting play you have here and he tells him a whole story and they're all like yeah we don't know what you think the value is on this and like i'd say in today's market uh these could fetch easily 10,000 and then it turns to the guy and he goes so what do you want for him he goes well 10,000 he was like not gonna do it i'll do 500. They're going to sit here. I got to reframe these plates. You know, I don't know. They're so heavy.

We'd have to move them in here. Like, it's going to be a lot of work to move these around. We'd have to reinforce the shelf they sit on. I'd give you like 50 bucks and kick you in the balls and you can get the hell out. He goes, okay, fine. Yeah. I was hoping for 10,000, i'll take 50 it's like i wanted to take my wife to the show down the street tonight so i'll take 50 bucks

it's like how did you get the guy camera you know i was hoping for 10 000 i got 50 but it was a really good experience so i'm i'm happy with it but i got to be on tv so i'm doing it for that reason i got to let the whole country see me get taken advantage of. So that was totally worth it, I guess, now that I think about it. I want that episode to happen. Yes. We've got a guy for that. It's Efren.

That's good. You know what else is good? What? What else is good? Because I'm pretty sure we covered everything that's good you know what else is good what what else is good because i'm pretty sure we covered everything that's good no one uh two things left there's two things that are good so juggernaut ai ah you're right there was more goodness it's the training that both of us use we use it through the juggernaut ai app uh that we've both been on for months and months at this point and uh tommy recently completed his testing phase and

hit a bunch of big numbers and now he's gonna be back into a uh um what's that called bridge block bridge block a bridge phase off yeah bridge block and big caden at the gym today was just starting his bridge block was he yeah he was getting in first time in his bridge block and he goes oh this timer he's like god damn it i'm tired you know my ass yeah he's doing well and more importantly uh your brother flying ryan just finished his testing and he smoked it on with the juggernaut ai app he did he absolutely crushed it yeah the app yep he basically hit prs across the board yeah he did and this is someone that's been lifting for like seriously for the better part of a decade like very consistently yeah yeah and i mean the biggest milestone people would say it's a 700 pound deadlift 700 pound

deadlift that is not something many people can ever say they will do. I would even argue though, like the fact that now he's benching like easily over 300, it's almost like more impressive to progress wise for him. Yes. Like as far as like his deadlift has just always been a steady progress, but like it, it's a work to get to 700. Right.

But now the fact that he's got his bench moving and not just like moving a little bit like showing good signs of progress for the first time almost ever yeah he's that he's probably say that's maybe the bigger win for right and he's hit squat prs to go along with it and i do think in no small part to just like uh the phasic you know intelligent progressive training of juggernaut ai i think it kind of helped him quite a bit probably you know i mean also him being consistent forever and like not missing days and like do you know doing everything that he's supposed to like it doesn't just do it for you yes no doubt but it's a guy that's been at it a long time he's ran different programs yeah different rep and weight schemes and intensity.

And he's done a lot of different things. And now this is the thing that's really working for him. Yeah. And he's like flirted with this 700-pound deadlift for a while where it's like, oh, it seems like he should hit that. He'll hit that anytime. And like I do think this is part of what got him over the hump actually. I think it's very safe to say that.

Yeah. And like the peaking i think uh maybe some of what some of us are missing sometime is like really knowing how to dial in that peaking it's hard to know and we've even said on the surface in theory it's all right you dial back the volume increase the intensity yeah but there's still a lot of variables that can happen in there and after going through the peaking even knowing that general concept of what i just said it's still well it's like the way it played out is not in my head the way that actually is supposed to work last week what should i really do you know and it was a plan for all of that almost

sort of nothing but no there's quite a bit more to it actually and the best part of all of this if you when you go to sign up you go to the website make sure it's the website juggernautai.app that's the website use mass discount code massonomics it'll save you 10 for the entire lifetime of your membership so for uh about 30 bucks a month you have like a little portable chad wesley smith right in your pocket at all times a dollar a day he's like let me out of here and you're like no you stay in there all month every month

how did I get in this right how did I get in this bloody pocket here I am in everyone's pocket yeah so do that discount code massonomics this episode is also brought to you by Swiss link in 1995, Maurice Bigmo Huffman founded Swiss link.

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it's this you know um chernobyl geiger counter a little radioactive like yeah i'll take a little of that uh it was uh you know if you're when there's flooding going around and people need sandbags you know you pile up sandbags around things yep it's this sandbag it's only it only weighs one pound there's like no sand in it, but it looks like an empty one of those sandbags. And when you get it wet, there's something in there that it retains water, that all you do is add water,

and it turns it into a 30-pound sandbag. Really? Yeah. Hmm. But it only weighs one pound. It looks like a flat empty sand burlap you know what do you know what military this item originally with country this i think it's another company that produces this that they just sell oh okay swiss link interesting yeah so

what is the what's the use case for it though i think like if you needed to go bag a dike like if oh you just get like a pallet instead of like getting uh getting like this huge sandbag line and then you have to fill all the sandbags you just have these and you like would just literally just lay them down add water and then it's a 35 so it's like way easier i don't really understand how it works but i don't look it up on swiss link they could provide more information so if you get in that situation it might not be bad to have a you know yeah just order a bunch of those keep them on hand just weight can increase magically with a little bit of water yeah i don't understand it it's magic a chia pet or something i don't know yeah yeah i think

it's not my job to understand things like that this sort of thing ain't my bag baby i swear i swear it ain't my bag i did have one other note before we get off this would be a good thing to end on probably and i don't know if you saw this topic in there i just had it as wings oh i did see that topic in there yes do you have any idea what i might mean no wings nope it could be hot wings a lot of different. It could mean hot wings. Because wings can mean a lot of different things. It could mean hot wings. It could mean our local hockey team, the wings.

It could mean Red Bull gives you wings. You could have gotten your pilot wings. Now you fly. I don't know. It could be any of those things. I am going to go to a wings game tomorrow. It's not related to that. Oh. That was just coincidental. When was the last time you went to one of those things. I am going to go to a Wings game tomorrow. It's not related to that. That was just coincidental.

When was the last time you went to one of those? Long time. Years. I bet I haven't been to one of those in at least eight years. Maybe ten. We have a work. They always have one. I don't know.

I'm going to go to it tomorrow and just give it a watch. See what i think but that's not what this is about okay what i wanted to say is that um wing wings and pizza are often like lumped into this thing right you know wings and pizza wings and pizza yep and for most of my life it would have have been a hands down decision to me that pizza is better than wings for, you know, blessed maybe 30 years or so of my life that,

that wouldn't even be, I thought you were going to campaign against wings and pizza and campaign for pizza and milk. Well, that's a, that's a course. And if we're talking pairings, I thought,

well, that's a, that's a course. Uh, and if we're talking pairings, I still think that pizza and milk is a far superior pairing to wings and milk. Uh, I could make arguments for wings and milk while we're at it.

Spicy wings. Because yeah, the spicy wings, while the flavor can be delicious, sometimes the heat can be a little much where the milk can really neutralize that. but pizza and milk just is so good that like it's hard to top it even though it's just like out of heat well

that one's to be decided but anyway what i was going to say is i have come to the conclusion for me personally that uh wings are indeed far better than pizza oh you've come around on this i flip i was there like a recent experience that changed this or was it just kind of slow what has been like really over the last 12 ish months i've just started to realize more and more how much i really like wings and also coincidentally over that same period of time how i've started to just like pizza less just purely coincidentally yeah that i'm like pizza does it for me less and less all the time and wings i could just eat wings so frequently like i do not at this point in my life get sick of wings especially good and i like bone in you know and i don't want chicken nuggets i want the bone And also, what I've really decided that I was less sure about before is that I like flats far better.

Not drumsticks. Oh, like the wing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, versus the drum. Yeah, right, right. Okay, okay. So, all right. Making several bold statements here.

Well, I don't think there's that. Yeah, maybe not controversial, actually. Pizza's still so good, though. i still think pizza's so good more people would say they like pizza better i think well i'm not even saying that like i get i don't think that's that crazy to say wings are better than pizza because i think wings like wings and pizza are easy i think it's pretty safe those are both my top 10 favorite foods of all time like they're so good um i don't think pizza's going down on my list ever i right it's still very very high and i'm not sure over time that it's it's lost any places like it's still

very high in the list it's just so damn good like all-time class some type of breaded something with some sauce and some cheese and some meat like sauce cheese and meat like that works great now you add some crispy good crust yeah like it's just hard to mess that up when it's good even when it's bad it's kind of hard to mess it up yeah yeah right but wings i 100 agree are really really good and we for years you knew like every wing night at every place in town and at least once a week if not twice we'd hit up wing nights because it's just wings are so good they're always good yeah and oh you need to mix it up like they're getting tired oh you just change the flavor and all of a sudden it's basically a brand new food again you know you can mix up the

flavor in that one night and you have like i like to like go back and forth and be like oh a little bit of that a little bit of that like back and forth bam yeah so that that's all i'm on board with that i'm not sure i could say that I prefer the wing more than a drummy. I don't actually know if I could actually pick a preference. You don't have a preference. My wife is 100% the drummy. She's actually changing on that a little bit, like coming around to liking the wing.

I think the drummy is easier. Oh, it's way easier to eat, for sure. That's the appeal to the drumstick drummy is easier oh it's way easier to eat and like that's the appeal to the drumstick it is easier but i think if you break it down the meat on the wing there is a lot more good meat to come off of the wing that some drumsticks do not have very much meat on it there is like that's what bothers me about the drumstick sometimes i'm like i feel like i got nothing out of that thing where if it was a flat or a wing i like there's less hiding of the meat yes so okay

do all right we have a few more things to cover now because now this is and i you you mentioned too that like pizza wouldn't really come down on your list pizza hasn't come down that far on me wings have really really skyrocketed okay they're like like they maybe went from like 10 to 1 in like and i don't know i can't say why all right but i'm like could just eat them every day right so is there a preferred flavor like is there i like but i do like buffalo you know what you would be i would just call the classic wing uh-huh and i don't like that hot i don't like no i mean actually i do like no heat sometimes i like a little heat i don't like that hot i don't like no i mean actually i do like no heat sometimes i like a little heat i don't like things that are that hot i'm not in the wings game for

the like like a test of my will of heat like gotta go do a blazing challenge and i want to eat them because i want the food on it and i you know i like it and i don't like that hot of stuff but buffalo is definitely up there buffalo's probably got to be my number one but i like it and i don't like that hot of stuff but buffalo is definitely up there buffalo has probably got to be my number one but i like that's part of why wings are so good because it's what you were already saying so many flavors there's so many flavors i like like the parmesan garlic thing do you see it's not my favorite but i just like it as a mix-up um i also like dry rub ones sometimes and people probably don't like those as well but as another mix-up i like like if it's like lemon pepper dry rub or something like that i like that my father

in law and my wife both love dry rub wings yeah they're so good and right across the street here this place has it's a they call i think a dixie rub okay which is a funny name actually saying i'll show you you know what i mean and they are pretty good but they love i think a dixie rub okay which is a funny name actually saying it i'll show you and they are pretty good but they love i think those are amazing yeah um i buffalo is probably number one on my list but what i've really started to like lately is actually i got to take that back a little bit buffalo is if i'm going to go somewhere i'm probably always going to order because that's like the that's like the standard right like you've got to see if someone can't like that's where you got to see what someone can't, like, how's your, yeah, yeah.

Like that's where you got to see what they're working with. Like people can do weird, crazy things. And they always, it's like what Nick from Ohio pie would say about a cheese pizza. He's like, when people go to a pizza place, he goes, you got to get either a cheese or pepperoni. Cause you figure out how good their pizza actually is. And then you can order the crazy one with 12 different toppings and all this, because you can mask anything with enough toppings.

But it's like, yeah, you always got to have like the benchmark is the cheese with the pepperoni. And I think that does make sense. That is, that is good. So yeah, for me, the Buffalo is always like the benchmark, but I've really started lately to like some type of a honey hot.

And I think that is really good. And I've had a couple in town. There's one in town that I think is really, really good. I've enjoyed that a lot. Which place? Mavericks has like the, it's like their signature one.

Okay. I think it's just, I think they actually call it, they have on their menu, there's a wings, but then there's a different item that's called like Mavericks wings. Okay. And it's like a honey hot.

And I think that one's really, really good. But probably my go-to, if we said we're going to get wings in town is at the circus. Oh, it's the circus is the best wings. And they are the best. I had circus wings this week again. And I was like, oh yeah, these are the, these are the best.

They are very good. So they are like most, like most places in town, when you order barbecue for the most part, you're getting all West, you know? Yeah. Um, my mother's barbecue. Yes. Your mother's barbecue company. Like that is in the region. Most things on, on barbecue yes your mother's barbecue company like that is

in the region most things on on a menu when it says barbecue sauce it is all west yep but i do double dip there do you ever do double dipped no so it's twice the sauce or so i do double it and they say well what two sauces do you want and so i do double dipped buffalo barbecue and they do both of them. They mix them both together. I would like to try that. And they are so, so good. Like that is actually one of the only ones where on their wing night when you would do, because I don't even know if it's this way anymore,

but their wing night used to be wings were half price. So you do the double order. And that would be the only time I would do a double order of all the same flavor because I could eat two full orders of double dipped and it wouldn't it wouldn't get old go barbecue and buffalo and old old west barbecue sauce is a sweet barbecue sauce uh you know it's a brown sugar barbecue sauce so it's kind of like when you said you like the mavericks honey hot it kind of gives you that a little bit actually position yep and where i think that's where you go Old West Barbecue and Circus Buffalo.

And they have their own Buffalo, you know, like. Right. I mean, it's very much like a Frank's, but is their own Buffalo. You get the juxtaposition there. I would like to try that. Yeah. I'd say put, if you're in a wing thing.

Yeah, that sounds really good. Put that one on your list. Yeah, that sounds good. We actually ordered takeout. Not that, because you can't, it's so hard to go to the circus with kids. I mean, I don't even know if you can bring kids. I did. We did one time, but you know, early enough. It's just so, yeah. It's just so hard to go to the circus with kids i mean i don't even know if you can bring bring kids i did we did one time but you know early enough yeah it's just so hard to do though you know but it was not that long ago because it'd been a long time so i

mean we used to for real get wings there every single week for forever and it was not that long ago my wife said let's get wings from the circus it was like a friday night for takeout i'm like yeah let's do it i got the i got the double dipped i got in the car and the second i could smell in the car my mouth just started watering like i'm like oh i'm so ready for these things and i got home and they're amazing they were perfect they were they're exactly what i needed wings are pretty expensive they are not cheap i think they've gotten considerably more expensive with everything going on too i think they have like a like uh you could go somewhere get like what would you consider a double order of wings like well like 18 wings or i think at the circus i think it'd be about

about 16 to 18 wings yeah i think that costs like 20 yeah yep yep that's feel does that just i know i know it is what it is but does that feel that feels expensive to you doesn't it um yeah and that's what it used to always kind of be and now i think now everything's so damn like right you get like anything take out actually this is refresh okay yeah any like mcdonald's you get like an a meal at mcdonald's like let's say you're in a pinch it's like mcdonald's 11 dollars like every size drink is let's say you're in a pinch and you're getting fast food. It's like, it's like McDonald's, $11. Like every size drink is a dollar. So you tell me the fries and the burger is 10 here.

That makes no sense. What was refreshing is I had in and out, you know, just a couple of days ago. And I was still shocked that you get in and out a double, double and your fries. And it was still only like, I don't know,

eight 50 or something like, yeah, that's good. Damn good damn they are they are holding the line on their prices there that's because they could charge so much more i think but they don't my go-to uh for carry out local that i have to give them mad props for on their pricing i don't know how they do it is uh is guadalajara's a chain like people know guadalajara is right well around here there's a few of them okay i don't know how far that extends okay in this part of south dakota but it's a exist dine-in uh mexican restaurant you know kind of has all the staples and the classics and they give you so much food and charge nothing for it and it is good uh-huh and like you they and their carry their carry out they put it in this 30 inch like fairly heavy duty foil like serving tray

for one meal like a catering serving tray for each one meal and like there's that much food in it between the beans and rice and whatever else you get. Their homemade chips that they put with it. It'll be like $6. I'll be like, what? How? Are you making money? This serving tray

probably costs like $2.50. The price of the packaging alone here. They are one of my favorites in town and i could i could eat there multiple times a week every week for me it's the super burrito manadero every time yeah i can't get enough of that thing i've that's almost almost the only thing i've ordered there for like over 10 straight years so that's is that that's not a smothered burrito it is smothered smothered because to me that is what makes it it's smothered burrito. It is smothered. It's a smothered burrito. Because to me, that is what makes it. It's smothered in enchilada sauce.

Yeah, yeah. Oh, it's so damn good. I go back and forth in my head between the smothered burrito and the not smothered burrito. I like the smothered. Yeah. It just adds another level to it for me. It's just so... I just...

Part of it is getting my head around... It's just like I've become accustomed to burrito. To me, a burrito means going to a Qdoba or, and it's just a different burrito. It's not the same. It isn't to me. That's the beauty of it because it's like, Oh,

slightly. This is a fork and knife burrito. Yeah. It's kind of almost an enchilada. Right. Once the sauce is on, you're like, Oh,

this is just like covered. Yeah. It's a giant. You have to use a fork to eat this thing. But yeah, I a hundred percent agree. Like they, it's cheap is just like covered. It's a giant anko. You have to use a fork to eat this thing. But yeah, I 100% agree. Like they, it's cheap.

It's good. It's awesome. And almost every menu item is the same thing. Well, that's like kind of every Mexican restaurant. Almost even Taco John's too does that.

But the other thing that's amazing and this is all Mexican restaurants is the food is ready. It's faster than most fast food places. It. It's faster than most fast food places. It is for real faster than most fast food places. You just sat down. We haven't even ordered yet.

Here's your food. Basically. And be careful. The plate is very hot. It just came out of the oven. It almost feels like the guy turns around and then just turns back. He just does a 180-degree turn and comes back. And it's there.

You're like, how in the hell? My family of five gets ready to leave. That'll be $19. He just does a 180 degree turn and comes back and it's there. You're like, how in the hell? My family of five gets ready to leave. That'll be $19. I was like, what? Oh my God. This is great. Yeah.

I am just stuffed beyond belief. And I just like, I guess if we're all happy, then I'm not going to complain. But one last thing to mention. saw this meme today i thought it was very funny was it ace ventura coming out of orion no but oh i'm glad you brought that up i already forgot about that i already forgot about that um it was uh just you know it was like a twitter meme or like tweet i guess and it said uh uh my favorite thing about the podcast i listened to uh 40 minutes into the podcast hosts well let's dive right into it 40 minutes into the podcast well let's dive right into it that's very true is that the mass and iwix podcast um i'm not sure we ever say we never

really dive into anything we'll do we never really dive in or out of it dive into something i mean you could say that's when we dive into the interviews right right we do say we have a lot of housekeeping and a lot of things to cover a lot of rundowns and that is the first 40 minutes so i mean i feel it on a symbolic level yeah 40 minutes into it all right let's dive right into this that is good i like that yeah we fall in a lot of those like funny memes about podcasts i feel like are very related and also it's like why it's like why is every two podcast guests these or podcast hosts these guys or whatever and i don't know if it ever looks like us really,

but like, I don't know. It's just so funny. All of them. I feel like really are related to a lot in those podcast memes. I'm always like, yeah, I get,

I get that. I know I do too. They're, they all feel, even when they're not quite like fit this, it's so relatable. I don't know why, but it just is just like that where it's like,

all right, 40 minutes into it. Let's dive right into it. I it i'm like oh that feels so that hits really close to home it does it does it's good well buy our stuff we never really talked about that but are we gonna dive into that now is it well i think it's uh for two hours two hours into it let's dive right into this go ahead and buy our stuff on our website we talked about lift shorts with uh efren we've got all of our tees we've got a few hooded sweatshirts around from our mss nmx collection we've got some never gonna stop tees from that last drop limited mugs you're wearing the crew length socks rave reviews back on the socks yeah everyone's digging the socks so i

would you know i don't know that when those goes away go away i don't know that that's an immediate reorder situation those could be gone forever i would for sure buy those i would maybe even buy a couple pairs of those if you're a massonomics fan and you wear crew length socks i would buy they're really nice they are really nice they look really cool they the quality is awesome we do have mugs for sale i can't say as much about the mugs as i can the socks but there are mugs for sale they are yeah yeah uh i think that's good tommy where do they find you you know what i think is the same people say on podcasts a lot what's well there's a lot to unpack there like that yeah that is like i think the most used phrase i don't think we say that though very often i don't think we do because we don't really ever

have much to it now we don't really unpack it's very surface i don't think i don't know if we could also like i say that and not no i couldn't say that i couldn't say it and keep a straight face oh right like i don't think uh we could just naturally say that and not feel funny about it. And you didn't laugh at me. I'd almost be like, why didn't you just laugh at me when I said that? He knows I'm joking, right? There's a lot to unpack there, Tanner. And just totally serious.

That gets said a lot on... If you listen to podcasts where they're interviewing someone and that person has some level of expertise and they actually have to explain something yeah that gets brought up and i get i just kind of explained what we do with a lot of our guests but i'm not counting our guests everyone else yeah that gets brought up so much um something i think part of what's relatable about all those podcast memes too is like everyone is just apparently every podcast is just like two

guys kind of sitting around talking about nothing and that's we make that joke about ours all the time i know but it is but it is like outside of ones that are super uh super produced yeah that's kind of what they all are you know have you ever seen this is just reminding me i think we've talked about this there okay have you ever watched portlandia at all i know that it's like those two from snl so i think it's just one i don't think she was on snl i don't oh are you sure fred armisen was a carry i can't think of her name i don't think she was ever on snl actually but um there is an episode where they are doing like a live podcast thing. Or they're doing like a podcast. It must have came out around the same time as Serial.

So this is actually fairly old now. Like Sarah Koenig or whatever. Yes. And he's like trying to record stuff, but he actually has the band following him that like plays kind of the weird, goofy like podcast music all the time. And it's just a very, very funny skit. You should look that one up sometime.

You wouldn't. I mean, being that you've seen most of those podcasts and you listen to podcasts, I think you'd find a lot funny in there. Okay. Well, thanks everyone for listening. You can find me at Tomahawk underscore D. Let's dive right into this ending. You can follow me at Tanner underscore Baird, but nobody cares about about that just make sure to follow massonomics at massonomics see ya