Massenomics Podcast - Ep. 368: Nick Best World's Strongest Man Rundown

Episode Date: April 24, 2023

Nick Best joins us for this one from Myrtle Beach to discuss predictions on the 2023 World’s Strongest Man and give us the inside scoop. WSM just wrapped up, so see where we were right and where we were wrong. Don’t miss our big drop going live on Thursday 4/27/23! Juggernaut AI: juggernautai.app and use code MASSENOMICS to save 10% The Strength Co: https://store.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. I hope everybody keeps tuning in. You get a lot of good info, a lot of insights, understandings on how to get strong, how to stay strong, how to use your strength. You do a great job, dude. You make things better than they are in real life, I think.

If you don't follow Massanomics, y'all do it. Social media, website, everything. Massanomics! Massanomics! side everything massonomics welcome back everyone for a very special episode 368 of the massonomics podcast this is part of our seven year anniversary special thanks for tuning in this is recorded live as always from western northeast south dakota and eastern southeast South Dakota. My name is Tanner.

And my name is Tommy. Tommy, you gave him the big point at the beginning. Everyone was talking this last week how they really like the point. I do it for you and you and you. It's just so everyone feels like, you know, it's when the musician points out in the crowd and you're like, oh my God, they're pointing at me. That's what I'm doing over here. It's me. Yeah, we should start throwing guitar picks at them.

Yeah, I like that. Some Flex Seal guitar picks, right? That's right. Throwback to a couple episodes ago. Special episode this week. We've got things to talk about, including a new drop, Thor's powerlifting meet that he recently held. I've got a gym plate story. It's always interesting. We eclipsed in a very important milestone.

That'll be exciting. And then we're going to get Big Nick Best on the horn, and we're going to do a little World's Strongest Man 2023 prediction. So a lot of exciting stuff this week on the Massonomics Podcast, episode 368. You could say we actually are calling in the experts this week, right? Yeah. Yeah, we actually are. We kind of are. We're doing some pretty deep journalism.

Some due diligence. But before all that, I wanted to make sure to tell you all to check out the Strength Co. Strength Co. has Made in America plates. They're veteran-owned run uh they if you want to hear the ins and outs of the strength co story check out the two episodes we've had their owner big grant on the podcast uh big grant is a crew member he's a big supporter of massonomics and we like to support him and the strength co back so much so that we have a gym full of the strength coat plates now and

they have in fact become the go-to plates of massonomics gym they're multiplying yeah i week after week i see people come in and they just go to the strength coat plates and they do it for a number of reasons one they're smooth yet easy to grip uh two they're easy to grip. Two, they're accurate. Three, maybe most important to me aesthetically, they just look really nice. They really pop even in a way, don't they? Those are all. So check out the Strength Co. They've got very affordable shipping rates now. Those actually just got slashed in 2023.

So head over, get some plates in your cart, check out with them. Thanks to Strength Co. Head over, get some plates in your cart, check out with them. Thanks to Strength Co. And this episode is also brought to you by the fine folks over at Swiss Link. In 1995, Maurice Bigmo Huffman founded Swiss Link with the mission to bring authentic Swiss Army goods to the United States and into the hands of those yearning for quality gear at uncompromised prices. Now for nearly three decades, Bigmo has been traveling far and wide

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distinguishes them from the competition. Enjoy a 15% discount off your next purchase at swislink.com by entering the code MASS at checkout. That's code M-A-S-S to save 15% at swislink.com. Thank you, Swiss Link. Thanks, Swiss Link. Quick note on the weather. We talked last week. We had turned a corner here in western northeast South Dakota, and we really have. There's almost, I think today officially,

there might almost be no snow in Miami. So that's a big milestone. That's big. It hasn't been that nice. Like, it hasn't been way nice. Like, it's probably probably like uh i would say below average for this time of year still but no complaints on my end because in comparison to what it had been like for so long before that it's still still a win relatively nice like we can go outside and hang out and play on our uh playground equipment and you know do activities and the we could do stuff outside for the first

actually be out there and not die i forgot it's way easier to entertain my kids when you can actually also go outside it's such a game when you're not just locked inside oh yes totally you mean that we don't have to be inside the cell all day long yeah we have still been nice here just insanely windy the last couple days uh but brookings it must have snowed one day or something i got a snap from uh big jake the snake that it was snowing that was all that was probably like five days ago but oh this is this weekend it was over the it was like saturday i actually traveled up north a little ways this weekend and there was some slight snowflakes in the air but they didn't really stick yeah i think

we could actually get snow maybe that's tomorrow but it was you know it's like less than it you know it's probably the same thing here today gone tomorrow you know that whole thing yep that old that old song and dance oh yeah uh tanner if if you in case you're wondering if i look incredibly relaxed tonight you're right and you're probably like you were wondering if I look incredibly relaxed tonight, you're right. And you're probably like, why does Tommy seem so relaxed? It's because I had family photos. Uh, so that, you know, it's always a very stress-free, relaxing time. Yeah.

Right. Yeah. We did two family photo things like in the last eight months. I'm on the same schedule as you almost then. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That is not fun. I will say, no, they're not. They really throw every variable at you.

It's fun when you're done. The end is the best part. Going into it was the worst they had ever been, and once we started, it was actually the best they had ever been. So it did go pretty good. It was actually the best they had ever been so it it did go pretty good it was looking yeah about as good as it could yeah it was looking very bleak for a while there but it did turn around so that i it wasn't too bad i've experienced some good ones and i've experienced some really bad ones too some it's just so long too it's so long and then

you know your wife always has these really high expectations like everyone's gonna be like this model child yeah it just never quite works that way but yeah you roll with the punches right we've got some good family pictures where there's like a lot of screaming and crying going on you know like they're almost like comical to keep around for that reason uh-huh yeah uh yeah didn't, this was probably the first night we didn't really have that. Like normally it's majority of those and you say,

I like, let's pick out the ones where there's at least straight faces, but yeah, not too many, not too much screaming this time. Someone, one of the,

someone from the Discord was mentioning that your son was wearing a Nirvana tee. Yeah. It is funny, the discography of Nirvana, you know, because of the nature of kurt cobain dying um how few songs they actually do have yeah do they have like three full albums i think three albums i think they have like 21 songs or 22 or maybe that's undercutting it but i think it's Yeah, let's see.

Discography. Yeah, Bleach, Nevermind, and In Utero. Oh, yeah. Over the course of four years, yeah. It's not that many songs either. You know, like it's not that many. No, it's really not, yeah. I've gone through, I've over the last couple of years, I've, I've always been aware of Nirvana and always liked Nirvana, but over the, well, actually because I'm kind of a

record guy. Right. Yes. With having Nirvana albums now, I really got into actually listening to Nirvana a little more closely than I have before. And I was really under the impression that Smells Like Teen Spirit was way overplayed and I just like don't even like it anymore until I like listen to it more closely. And then I'm like, nope, I like it too.

Like I'm like, this is actually good. And like this, I like it maybe was or has been overplayed, but I'm like, nope, it's still actually really good. It's just an anecdote that I've experienced about Nirvana. In that album, which is an awesome album, of course, it's maybe one of my lesser favorite songs. Yeah. But kind of like every single song on the album is my point. So like even that one, which I've heard one million times, when I really listen to it, I'm like, no, it is really good.

I think for me, it's more of like in the context of the the album like when you're listening through and you're like oh we have this on here this on here oh this is on here too like is this a greatest hits album no just everything on here was that good actually but and then they have so many so few albums it kind of is a greatest hit album because if you've heard a lot of Nirvana you know there's just like like yeah if someone's like oh what do they sing you just give them that. And then if they don't know what you're talking about, then they don't know anything. Right, right. Yeah. R.I.P.

Kurt Cobain. Gone too soon. I'm sure that drummer of theirs has some real talent. Maybe he'll amount to something someday. We can only wait and see. Did you catch any of Thor's meat this last weekend? I really didn't outside of just catching things on Instagram. It's so hard.

It's the only thing about powerlifting. It's always so hard to catch things because if you don't watch the live stream while it's happening, then I don't know, just hopefully someone posts something on Instagram. Yeah. I mean, I didn't catch anything on, I didn't watch the live stream, but the day it was happening, I kind of saw a little bit about what was going on.

And obviously, spoiler alert again, we already spoiled Nirvana, what happens there, but spoiler alert on Thor's Meat. Well, we spoiled the part about just only having three albums. We don't know what happens with the drummer or anything afterwards. We're still waiting to find out there that's to be determined yeah um he tore his pack on his final bench attempt i think it was on his third bench he hit his second squat it was like a 900 and i'm guesstimating like a 930 pound squat he hit it kind of looked really good i think

he got his third squat probably but it it was red-lighted on depth. His second actually didn't look particularly deep. No. You know, maybe it might have. I'm not saying it wasn't deep enough to be called a good squat. I don't really know, but you can tell. But it didn't look overly deep, obviously. No, it did not.

I think he benched over 500 on a second and went maybe like 550, 560, something like that on his third, and that's he tore his peck at the bottom of it and uh so his deadlift didn't go very well i guess so it's usually how it goes right and he had been definitely obviously getting like really oh that's stronger very fast that was the most shocking part is how quickly he was getting strong, actually. Yeah. And this harkens back to our debate about when he had made the claim that he's going to pass Dan Bell's record this year. And our thing is like. I'm hearkening as you speak right now.

Yeah. And to paraphrase our conversation there, we said we believe he could get strong enough to lift those numbers. The issue is doing it within a year and within the context of doing it in a year, specifically staying healthy in that amount of time. Isn't that what we said? If he stayed healthy, he's one of the few people that could potentially do it. But see, it's kind of the catch-22 almost because if you had a conversation with someone right now that really thought he was going to break the record, they'd say, well, he would have, you know, but he tore his pet, you know, he, you know, he can't now he tore his peck.

But the original argument is of ours is kind of like, well, there's such a high likelihood of him getting injured when trying to chase those numbers, especially in that short period of time, you know, like that, that's, that is like the biggest limiting factor for him is just being able to stay healthy, probably to do that. And that is what happened.

Yeah. And there's definitely people that are more educated on the subject that could provide better information. But I do wonder like he was getting so strong so fast. Is it one of those things where your muscles just aren't used to that load on them when you're getting that strong that quickly that things like that are more likely? I think that that's absolutely what happens. And it's, you know, actually, I shouldn't say that.

I think that is anecdotally what people talk about happening. And particularly in the case of people that use performance enhancing drugs because the common thing you'd hear What's this performance enhancing drug being? A Viking? The rushing waters of Icelandic natural rivers.

Yeah, that's performance enhancing all of a sudden. But that you're you gain strength rapidly but your connective tissues aren't transferring accordingly like they are. And that would kind of make sense with what we saw here too. Not saying we know well enough to say that, but that is what people talk about, right?

Yeah. So it's obvious to say he is not going to break Dan Bell's total record this year. I guess not. We won that bet. Yep total record this year I guess not we won that bet maybe not the way we wanted to no not the way yeah I would not want it's that sucks that Thor got hurt like I would have loved to see he was getting really strong obviously it would have been awesome to see like an actual legit meet planned out at the end of this year and him and Dan go up against each other that would have been the most exciting thing in powerlifting in such a long time. It was definitely playing out in a way like, oh, this guy is going to potentially,

he's going to be on the threshold there. You know, whether he does it or not was still up in the air, but is like, it was, you were starting to see like, well, he wasn't way, he's not going to be way off. If he's, if he's wrong about that, it's not going to be like a crazy call. Okay. I just thought of it right now. You know, what's going to really make off if he's if he's wrong about that it's not going to be like a crazy call okay i just thought of it right now you know what's going to really make this interesting again now he hires huck finn to be his coach to teach him how to come back after the train after the the torn peck because huck finn's done them both he knows how to do it but huck finn

is friends with dan bell so now what's going on now we got this like triangle you know it's a whole scripted drama now that's what needs to happen yeah that's we'll have to just stay tuned for that one are you uh thirsty over there at all i'm very thirsty yes luckily i you know i come locked and loaded you do i still don't have my own drink spotter. One of these days, maybe I'll be able to get one. You know some people. Yeah. I don't have one either. I don't know what comes across on camera here,

but I'm surrounded by them. I've actually got my Polar in one right now. I see you're rocking a Polar too. Yep. What flavor of flavor you got over there? Ruby Red Grapefruit. Because just regular Pamplemousse isn't enough. You got to go Ruby Red Grapefruit.

It's like a more American version of it. That's true. I got the Black Cherry. You know what? I've been on a little bit of a kick beverage-wise lately. Heineken? Heineken. Hmm.

You know? Just a regular old Heineken. It's a regular old Heineken. It's one of those beers you kind of overlook. Yeah. It's because of the short bottle you overlook it. You see right over the top of it. I'm not sure it's a short bottle, but yeah.

I think it's the green bottle. Maybe you just look right past it. Maybe that's why. Yeah. What's the best? Fairly tasty. What's the best green bottle beer? What is there besides Heineken rolling rock rolling

rock is there a third there seems like there's a third popular one maybe it's just those two are the only one that i'm thinking of oh there's gotta be an i'd definitely other ones oh yeah stella isn't a green bottle wow and becks um becks boy if you would have asked me this question confused with beck the singer that's right let's do not mix those, if you would have asked me this question. Not to be confused with Beck the singer. That's right. Do not mix those up. If you would have asked me this question a couple weeks ago, I probably would have said Stella hands down,

but now I'm kind of on a Heineken kick. So it's a tough one. I'll say Heineken right now. Is Heineken just a lager? I haven't had a Heineken in probably 20 years. I don't know it's green yeah and it doesn't taste skunky uh maybe a little it can yeah it's just a lager it says yeah i don't know the only thing my memory from maybe 20 years ago is that it tastes skunky but

it could have just been skunked beer it very well could have been yeah you know there's a good chance like the bar you crawled into and bought one of those from had it sitting in the cooler for so right i'm like because how often is someone here buying a heineken at the bar especially depending on what bar yeah like years ago that was the the exotic beer is there's a heineken you know um at one of the local watering holes i remember there's always a thing um At one of the local watering holes, I remember there was always a thing going around the world. You get a beer from, I can't remember how many different countries it was. And if you get them all, you go fully around the world and you get like, I don't know what you get.

You get an expensive bar tab from buying expensive beers probably. That'll do it. Load them up. Yeah. We do have a sack segment this week to get to also. Oh. We should probably talk about our new drop that we have coming down the pike, shouldn't we? I think that's a great idea.

So this episode will come out on Monday. What is the date of that Monday that this episode comes out? Monday the 24th of April. And then on Thursday, that Thursday, which is as long as I have my calendars, is that the 27th of April. And then on Thursday, that Thursday, which is as long as I have my calendars at the 27th. Yes. Thursday, the 27th, we have a hot new drop coming in.

Uh, what would you call this drop? Is it like, if you could paraphrase the drop, a little description, would you, would you coin this drop with anything in particular? Upper body only.

It is upper body only. That true new horizons there we go i think that that's i think that that's new upper body horizons that's just catchy enough to work uh so on thursday we do have uh three kind of four new items dropping on that Thursday. We're going to tell you about one of them today. The other two are going to remain a mystery. Just because we like to do that, don't we? It's called suspense. Yeah, we like to keep you in suspense for that one.

Builds up the tension. Just like you're not going to know what happens. You don't know what's in our drop. You don't know what happens to the Nirvana drummer. It really builds up the pleasure for when you actually do find out. Yeah, so the one thing we will tell you about is I've been kind of wearing these all the time, and people keep calling me out on it.

You've seen it in maybe YouTube videos. You've seen it on the podcast. As seen on the Mathsonomics podcast. Should we get a sticker for that put it on the package that's that's a good idea and as seen on the mass podcast uh what i'm wearing to tonight again is one of our pocket teas our working hard pocket tea and i am wearing uh this one in denim blue the denim blue version of it right now. And this is a big, beefy, working man's tee is what we got here. Boxy, oversized fit. A boxy, oversized, 100% cotton fit.

So for anyone that likes a bigger, looser, working man's big old beefy fit. Big old beefy tee. Big old, big old beefy fit. Big old beefy tee. Big old beefy tee. Then we've got something for you. Right here, I'm wearing the denim blue. In the past, you've maybe seen me wearing the black one. I love both of them.

I don't know which one's my favorite, but what I know is they are my new favorite Massanomics tees. You can wear them anywhere. You can wear them to the gym you can wear them going out it's no doubt like it anywhere where you want people to know that you're a hard-working some bitch they'd be the tea for the job like are you going to the gym are you going to work are you going to to go out for a night out on the town i don't even know that tea's so anything um and i just love the sewn on label pocket t it's a modest piece uh i don't know if it pops and that's what actually modest we should make note of you know if people are watching the

discord or on youtube they see this little imprint on the pocket that is not a print that is a patch that is sewn on this is an actual sewn a four-way sewn woven label patch is what we've got right there. So I really like these, but these are these fit significantly larger. This isn't like relative to our typical tees. This is oversized. Yeah. And people should should know that that if you do want a looser boxier fit where your regular size. Otherwise, you are going to want to size down if you want a slimmer fit on that one.

I wear a 2X in massanomic shirts i also choose to wear a 2x in this because i like the i like it for what it is as a big old big old beefy t but you could wear an xl if you wanted to right yeah i think so um i think i could uh this is 100 cotton It considers it to be pre-shrunk, but I do believe if you wash it and particularly dry it on warm or hot, it's going to shrink down a little bit, right? I believe so. Actually, there's no way to ever know, so who knows? Yeah.

Everyone will say something different, actually. Results may vary in the case that every one of you will have a different opinion on the fit of it. And a different washing regimen that can vary widely in how something will turn out after the first washing. Scantz asked if there will be a size chart. There will not be a size chart. Damn it.

There will just be a warning that this is bigger. It's 100% out. It will be. We don't have a size chart in our regular tees, so, yeah. And as far as the other items in this drop, they are upper body garments. They are not t-shirts.

Yeah. And I don't know about that. They are very new in ways, you know, as never before seen from Mastanomics. Yes, they are. They're both items that have not existed before. So that's what I don't want to give it away. Maybe I just have to leave it at that.

Give it away. Give it away. Give it away. Give it away now. Flashback to last week's episode of Red Hot Chili Peppers. Just been thinking about you at the concert this whole time. Yeah, we won't give it we won't give it away okay yeah uh okay big scant's got it we are releasing weightlifting gloves so upper body

okay looking at the clock we're gonna get our guest on here not too long but we got a little time i just finished up a show tanner that was oh very good i can't remember i've told i've talked about the first season of this i believe i just finished the second season and that is the white lotus on hbo i can't i've heard of that that must be good i think it is good it was wonder did ryan your brother ryan tell you about The White Lotus at all? Or has he talked about it? I feel like maybe he's. I think I told him about it and then he started watching it.

And then, yeah, I believe he just finished. I think he just finished the second season too. Because it's only been out a couple of months, I think. But it's good, man. It's really good. It's like eight episodes and it's just really well written and second season i think is better than the first season so if you watch the first one and you're entertained at all the second one in my opinion is better yeah because it's not tv it's hbo which actually

do you know what the story with that is right now what so the streaming hbo streaming service is hbo max are you aware right that's what it's called right and then because like three companies own everything in the world right now yeah warner discovery owns hbo and they also own discovery plus you know okay and they want to fuse the two networks together because I guess it's different audiences. HBO is like mostly male and Discovery is like more female. They want to bring the audiences together. So what's the new service called?

I don't, I. It could be any word in the English language. Just got to pick one. Max plus, I don't know. You were almost there. Max max it's just called max just max okay just max actually max plus is pretty good i'm we are in an era of so much changing of the streaming it is just i can't even keep up week to week well i was listening to a thing the other day and i didn't realize hbo has well, so it's been HBO. And then when they first came out, they had HBO Go and HBO Now. HBO Go.

And, yeah, that's right. That's true. Because one was like, it depended on if you had a full. Yeah, if you had like the cable subscription, you had one. And if you didn't, you had the other. Because we had that back in the day watching like Game of Thrones and stuff. Yeah. And then I don't know if that turned into HBO Max or if there was another one in there.

And now HBO Max is going away, and it's going to be just max yeah i don't like i don't like all the change damn it i'm old i feel like none of it's good for me as a consumer they're just they're getting us somehow they're just somehow going to trick me into watching 90 day fiance and i can't stop it oh one of uh my brother-in-law has youtube tv and he got us logged into that and i'm like oh that's youtube tv is pretty sweet i have no idea what that chart what that cost is on youtube i think it's like 60 or 70 bucks a month and that makes sense yeah i was like oh this is kind of this is uh has a lot to offer but yeah if it's 60 dollars then it's better i'm kind of surprised that christmas well is this the one that lives right by you okay i'm gonna say i'm kind of surprised that it lets you do that because so

we have hulu plus god i always forget what these things are called well that's what i'm saying it's ridiculous uh i think we have hulu plus whatever it is the one with live tv and um you know same thing you get all these channels but when we moved from aberdeen to sioux falls when i logged in it said we have noticed you're logged in from a different location would you like to change your home address you can only do this three times in a year so they're very strict about you bouncing around you know i don't like it they got us all by the short and curlies that's right but apparently you've hacked the system yep just by living really close to the

person that you're stealing that you're stealing it from. I don't know. It could just be a really big house. There was exciting news in the world of MathSnomics podcast reviews. Yes. We eclipsed the 500 podcast five-star reviews on Apple Podcasts. We got it. We crushed it.

We're up, as of today, it was up to 512, so we absolutely came in on their horses and just demolished that five-star review. Blew right by it. Didn't even get to stop and see the sign that said, welcome to 500. They rode 500 hard and then put it away

wet. And now we're up to 512. We're already on the road to the road to the road to 600. And Keith is asking the big questions he says contest time we do have some information coming on that very soon yeah information on concept contest time and we have historically when we hit 100 uh five star review mark we have something big that uh comes out in conjunction or because of that or as like a fun reward for us and all of you because of that so several things related there and all of that coming relatively soon i would say there is big things coming though right would you say big is very an understatement Very large. Incredibly large things.

Very big things coming. As we wait for those bigger things, though, I did want to make sure to support our supporting members this week. It really wouldn't be a Massonomics podcast without supporting our supporting members at this point. It is a relatively new segment to the podcast still, relative in the sense if you compare it to segments like over under what's in the can other segments that we've done for the better part of a decade this is relatively new compared to those and what supporting our supporting members is is

we have these supporting members they choose to support the massonomics podcast each month through our supporting membership option on our website you can go there and get signed up also. There's so many damn perks that come along with a supporting membership. I would be a fool if I tried to name them all in this week's episode right here, but just some of them. You get to listen along live to the podcast each week like they are. You get access to our online Discord community full of like-minded individuals. There's a discount code available for supporting members.

You get to know new info on drops, stuff like that. Who knows, if we throw a powerlifting meet, you probably get early access to sign up before it fills up, like that happened this year. That's right. You get the privilege of possibly having your very own memes featured on the Masonomics page. That's correct.

So many things it's too hard to mention. About one of the last but not unimportant ones is supporting our supporting members. We give back each week on the podcast formally in this segment. So this week we have Big Brand. Big Brand competed again in a powerlifting meet. He hit a 578 squat. That was a meet PR.

A 408 bench, a 716 deadlift for a 1702 total. Wait. That was his second 1700 pound total in like a month. Okay. I was going to say, didn't he just lift? Yeah. Damn. That's doing the lifting thing.

Yeah. He did the damn thing, didn't he? Yeah, he did. Then another strong lifter, joe g uh he competed this weekend he had a 606 squat 3 380 bench a 666 deadlift the sign of the devil for a 1652 total and he said those are prs across the board it's pretty sinister yeah also another big total my god these people what are they must be something in the water with this crew they uh they must listen to the massonomics podcast

that's it you know what they know how to get strong stay strong use their strength that's it isn't it it is then uh last one this week big jace uh he tied the knot. So I hope you enjoyed your funeral. Oh, man, I feel sorry for that guy. That old son of a bitch. So congrats to Big Jace on getting hitched. Okay. We do have Has He Seen It? We might not have time for that today.

We might have to play that later. We do have a sack segment. I think We might not have time for that today. We might have to play that later. We do have a SAC segment. I think we'll get to that after our guest. So right now I would also want to tell you about Juggernaut AI. Juggernaut training system is the leader in strength, having helped thousands of athletes from beginners to world champions maximize their results and reach their goals. They deliver principle-based coaching through cutting-edge technology to help you get the best results of your life. And that cutting-edge technology,

in this case, is the Juggernaut AI app. Tommy and I both use it. We're users, abusers. What else do we do with the app? You don't want to know all the things we do with this app. We're jokers, smokers, and late night tokers. We've talked about that song on the Mass Comics podcast before, haven't we? What did we have confused? The title of that song?

I can't remember now what we were confused on. Is the title of that Joker? The Joker title of that show Joker? I think, yeah, the Joker by Steve Miller band, right? The Joker. Yeah, the Joker. Yeah.

Yeah. Some people call me the Joker. We definitely had something confused in that in throughout the. Yeah. I think we couldn't remember what the song was called. Wasn't that? Well, I mean, we couldn't remember what it was this time for sure. So I'm sure we did it the last time.

That's probably what it is. The more things change, the more they stay the same. That's true. It's not what you know, it's who you know. Doesn't make sense. Check out the Juggernaut AI app. Like I said, we do both use it. Like half of Mastanomics Gym at this point uses it.

Larry Legend was even going to hop aboard the Juggernaut. No, no. I think it's going to happen. I think Larry Legend is going to get the Juggernaut. No, no. I think it's going to happen. I think Larry Legend is going to get on Juggernaut AI. What? This is literally what's happening is so many people in Mastodonics Gym are using it and having success that people that you would never suspect would even jump aboard this bit of technology are finding it irresistible.

I would almost be shocked if he ran it for what's the what's the meat through nine how many days out is the meat 94 days out 94 days out i would almost be shocked if he ran it for only 94 days and still didn't hit all-time prs like it's very possible very very likely that or at least put together like a top three all-time total like he would there's no way he would not do that being in his mid-40s and having done well over 20 meets before and i still i think that that would be very possible he still hasn't tapped his true potential yet i think juggernaut's the thing to make that happen he should he should run it the whole uh subscription thing on the phone could be a bit of a roadblock for him you might get that going for him what he's got going for him is he's

got people like your brother and Big Cade and all these people at the gym that can basically do it for him. He can give them a phone and say, here, do this for me. Yes. But do make sure to check out Juggernaut AI. And the most important thing, I almost forgot it, use discount code MASSANOMICS.

Go sign up through the web browser. Discount code MASSANOMICS will save you 10% for the lifetime of that membership. And today's episode is also brought to you by Barefoot Shoes. 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. Barefoot Shoes was founded by Chris Duffin, who attributes proper foot biomechanics as foundational to his success

in squatting and deadlifting over 1,000 pounds for reps. He helped create the company to provide a minimalist shoe that can be worn for anything from deadlifts to walking your dog. Go to www.barefoot.shoes to check out the best minimalist shoes available. When you're there, make sure to use code MASSANOMICS to save 10% on your next order. One more time, that's barefoot.shoes. Code MASSANOMICS will save you 10%. Thank you, Barefoot. They're not for your hands. I saw there was a few few barefoot brewing boots at the gym the other day it was damn brewing party there with all the brewing boots who else has a pair there

uh sergeant anderson ah okay that was that would be my guess he's kind of a work boot kind of guy and uh luckily his are not 11 and a halves his are are 11. So you two might not want to be there at the same time. I was going to say, good thing I wasn't there. We'd be in trouble. I'd walk out with two right boots on and not know what was going on. Not again. Not again. So should we get our guest Big Nick Best on the horn? Should we work on hopping him on the horn here?

Yep. I'm going to start booting these fools. our guest big uh big nick best on the horn should we work on hopping them on the horn here yep i'm gonna start uh booting these fools start to you'll put a boot in your ass it's the massonomics podcast way philby keith yeah that song's red solo cup right someone tries to take his red solo cup but he threatens to put a boot in their ass right yeah uh red solo cup really took the world by storm didn't it it kind of did for a while i i know almost nothing about country and and i thought i heard that song a lot proceed to party and i didn't maybe i didn't feel like i ever heard it intentionally it was just always on a lot okay i think we could there's something to be done with uh the drink spotter light a red solo cup and using that song like on an um on instagram

real probably you know it's something to decide if that song is popular enough to be shared around the right i think it's coming back what's old new again. We're the trendsetters here. Yeah. But speaking of trendsetting music on Instagram, we have really been setting the trend on Ronnie Coleman. Remixes. Collaboration remixes, haven't we? I think so.

I don't see anyone else starting that genre up like we are. No, and it's just they make me laugh making them if nothing else. So they're going to continue to come. Whether people want nothing else. So they're going to continue to come. Whether people want them or not, they're going to continue to come. It's the act of self-pleasuring that just never gets old, right? Ain't that the truth? Okay. Well, we'll try and get Big Nick on the horn.

You got rid of everyone, right? Yeah, they're gone. They've been banished. I was sick of those scumbags. They've been reported and banished they will never ever have access to this they will never zoom again i'm gonna go all of them i reported all of them for threatened through threats and acts of sexual deviancy so yeah it's safe to say they won't be hopping any zoom calls anytime soon sexual deviancy uh that does sound like the our discord crew if i've

ever i've ever heard of them all right here we go i'm very confused right now i'm kidding i don't know where it's coming from are you playing nirvana I don't know where it's coming from. Are you playing Nirvana? No, but Nick's calling me right now. It's so weird. Nirvana.

Somehow my Spotify was on shuffle and it played Nirvana. I've not listened to them in so long. I don't know how that happened. All right, I'll answer, Big Nick. Big Nick, is that you? That's me. What's going on? Hey, how you doing? Pretty good. So, are we doing video or just doing a phone call? No, we don't

need to do video. We just go old-fashioned with just the audio only, if that works for you. That works just fine. Okay. And can you hear us all right? Yeah, I hear you great. Okay. How's it going, Nick?

It's going pretty good. Yeah. So, Tom? Yeah, that's Tommy you just heard there. And this is Tanner on my end over here. And I actually looked. It seemed fairly recent we had had you on, but it's actually back in 2020 now already. Oh, wow. Last time we had you. I, but it was actually back in 2020 now already. Oh, wow.

Last time we had you on. I know. That was a while ago. Time flies. And you're in, are you in Myrtle Beach right now as we speak? I am at Myrtle Beach. We're World's Strongest Managers. So it hasn't kicked off quite yet, right?

We're kind of on the eve before the start of the big heat. We are. It starts tomorrow. So you got there today? No, I got there yesterday. Oh, yesterday. Okay. I got here last night and then today we kind of went training and then went and saw a bunch of the guys and hung out and talked and ate and did a whole bunch of stuff together. So it was pretty cool. What's the vibe like on, you know, the day before World's Strongest Man

when you're hanging out with the 30 people? I mean, obviously you've been there and competed yourself multiple times, but what's the feel like? Is it like are people nervous? Is everyone just excited? Like what's it feel like? The guys that have done the show a whole bunch of times they're excited they're kind of mellow they're glad the media stuff and all the uh like the physicals because you you still got to go through the full

medical so because you have to go to full medical and um go to the doctor and get an ekg and get blood work and all that other stuff done before. And then you got to do it again when you get here. And then you go out for familiarization at the boneyard. So that's where all the equipment is. And you go do that. And then today is like a media day. So they do like a lot of their interviews and stuff like that today.

And then once that's done, they can just kind of sit around hang out and eat and chill and relax and talk and uh the guys sound like they're kind of like little group areas but all the guys are still going to talk to all the other guys so it's really neat it's a neat environment there's a lot of guys are really happy because it's not boiling hot here either so it's going to be actually be actually going to have some fairly cool weather compared to what they've done for the last few years. So they're pretty excited about it. That doesn't really seem like a true world strong as a man

if it's not 100 degrees in the blazing sun. I know, right? I know, but it's actually great. I was down there today. I looked at the medley course. I looked at the deadlift apparatus and stuff like that. It's pretty neat. It's a neat little scene.

It's right there on the beach on the sand. And then after that will be the log ladder. So they'll clear the stuff off the beach and sand and get ready for the next events the next day. But the guys will do the deadlift event and the log letter on the same platform. So all three events will be right there, like on the beach.

And then the center part is the new VIP area that they have at World's Strongest Man that people buy tickets to. And they're up above, and they can look at both sides as all the guys are competing. So it's really kind of a new thing. Yeah,

that's cool. It feels like from the outside looking in, it's almost like a world's strongest man fraternity, like all a bunch of you come back, whether you're competing or just they're spectating, like you all, all of you that have done it for many years, like are all there,

all showing up. It's gotta be cool. Even if you're, I'm sure you, I'm sure you get the itch bad when you're there around it and you just think, like, I should be doing it too. Yeah, you do get that itch. But, I mean, I've had some medical things this year

and I'm very happy to still be alive and kicking and stuff like that. So I know if I wanted to do it, it's going to be probably close to another year away. And, you know, I don't know. Will I say never? I won't say never, but it's not very likely. But I will be powerlifting. So I'll be back at powerlifting in September. You had some pretty serious medical things go on over the last year, didn't you?

Yeah, I had cancer. Yeah. things go on over the last year didn't you yeah i had cancer yeah so uh i basically was bench pressing with all the crazy things and uh my thumbs were around the bar and it's never happened to me but i was doing a speed rep at like 425 because i was just getting back to 500 so i was i was like 375 for three and then 425 for one 465 for one and 500 for one and at 425 i did the speed rep and as i was exploding off it just pops out of my hands comes right down to my chest so it went through my thumbs my thumbs were around the bar i almost feel like somebody ripped it out of my hands to be quite honest with you

and uh it dropped on my chest and i couldn't breathe i my wife's like looking at me and she's an ear nurse she's like we need to be a phone to make sure you don't have internal bleeding so he went into the er and found out i had a hematoma and bruised ribs really bad they didn't break anything and there's no internal bleeding but they had an incidental find and my wife's eyes get like huge and kelly's like and the doctor coming in she knew she'd worked with the other ers and he's a pretty serious guy so he doesn't like sugarcoat things and he doesn't if it's serious and he tells you it's serious you take it seriously and he's just like you need to go get another one of these in two days because we can't give you contrast for 48 hours um you need to get your urologist immediately

and i was like okay then he's like you have uh a mass inside your kidney but they don't know what the mass is so they just say it's a mass inside your kidney. But the way it looks to me is you need to get there quick. And so a few days later, got another CT scan and then got a neurologist. About a week later, went in and the neurologist was like, yeah, we need to do some more. Another CT scan and then a biopsy, which they couldn't biopsy because they couldn't go, they were going to have to go through my lung to biopsy it, and they didn't want to do that. So they chose not to biopsy it.

We went with the MRI. They looked at the cells and determined it wasn't a fat cell, that it was more likely a cancerous, and it had to come out. So I went ahead and went to masters world's strongest man got second from mark felix in the 51 and then i went to the olympia and pulled 600 for 15 and then two days later i had my doctor's appointment and then he's like yes they're taking it out jan it out January 3rd, but I want to get a scope. So they do a scope where they go through your whole urinary tract. So if you know what I mean, they go up through the top of your penis, go all the way to your bladder, and they go from your bladder all the way to your kidney, which thank God they put me out for.

Yeah. So they did that four days before they took the kidney to make sure the cancer wasn't in the urinary tract part of the kidney because if it was, they'd have to take the tube that runs down and then part of my bladder, which it didn't. It wasn't in there. It was solely in the blood filtering part of the kidney. So, but that's fine because you're pissing glass,

which feels like glass for the first, like, day and a half. I have never not wanted to go pee more in my entire life because it was just like that burning situation. It wasn't good. After about a day and a half, it started easing up. It wasn't so bad. By the fourth day, when I went in for the surgery, I didn't even notice

it anymore. But because of that, basically because of that, what may have otherwise been like a tragic gym bench press accident, you found out about this and wouldn't have necessarily

know when you would have found out about it otherwise. Well, no. We know when we would have found out about it because it doesn't hurt and it's inside the kidney. I would have found out about it when it killed me. Yeah. Because it'll grow big and it'll make the kidney burst.

And once the kidney bursts, you've got about a minute. Because all the blood in your body is focused on your kidneys. Right, right. So if that bursts, you bleed out. And that's probably when it just got good. So a pretty wild turn of events in a good way. You know, a blessing in disguise, obviously. It's an absolute blessing.

It absolutely was. So that was January 3rd. Yeah, and you're going to already be competing now in powerlifting in September of this year. Yes. Yeah, I squatted 755 today. So your strength has really come back on really well then already. I mean, did it really even leave that much? Not too much, actually.

I was in pretty good shape when this all went down. It wasn't like it was a long period that I had to wait. Like I said, I pulled 600 for 15 at the Olympia Expo. It stands Bruce. It was... I felt really good, but it is what it is.

And then, yeah, some of the stuff went down a little bit. I'm still not pulling heavy deadlifts yet, but today I pulled 450 for 20. So when I pull 500 for 20, which should be about a month from now, because I'm going to wait two weeks, pull 475,

and then wait two weeks and pull 500, and keep pulling for 20s, once my abdomen can get through that and not be sore and not having issues, then I'll start taking it up to like 550, 600, 625, 650 and I'll just work out like 50 pounds every other

week or so until I'm back in the mid-7s and then I'll start pushing to the 800s again yeah that's wild it's kind of crazy yeah like it seems uh seems like when you just think about the dates and the severity of and stuff it seems uh like a really fast turnaround

but when you actually talk about the training and then you refer to it as slow and methodical like it is more you know just it is just uh putting weeks on top of each other and you know making moderate improvements over time and you're kind of right back there right no exactly and it's it's just like you know i i started squatting i think i did for 410 the first time on a safety bar squat because i'll do half-dome squats that way um when i sit back more on it it's, I feel more comfortable holding on to the apparatus after the surgery and just not knowing what to expect. Everything felt good. It was great. I did it for 10. I was like, okay, well, that was this week. That's good. This was probably three or four weeks after. I had to make sure that inside of the world the surgery was on the vessels that were tied off

And all that was all the way healed because you don't want to blow Like something that's got let's not heal all the way You know because you don't want to blow one of those arteries So I made sure that was a little way then I started back light and then I just kept progressing and as my body would handle it and my abdomen would handle it I would keep increasing and if it bothered me at all I would slow down

and kind of take it easy for a few days and then next week I would start back a little bit easier on it and it's all been very successful it's turned out really well I couldn't do more please start back a little bit easier on it. It's all been very successful. It's turned out really well. I couldn't be more pleased. Yeah, that's cool.

Talking about World's Strongest Man, again, thinking about it, I think just today they released The Heats. The Heats, yeah. That's not typical that they wait this long to release that, is it? Don't they usually know that going into it? Well, yeah, we'll know that. They usually give out the heats about

three to four weeks before. So what's up with that? What does everyone think about waiting until the day before? Well, some really like it and some really don't, but here's the thing. It's knowing the events ahead of time and knowing what to train for. Right. That's actually the big deal. Cause at this point now, the guys,

they're even in the, say between 20th, between the 20th place and 30th place, they're all getting pretty darn good. There's not a whole lot of guys that just are invited, but shouldn't necessarily be here. It's to the point now where the separation

between the top 10 guys and the top 10 through 20 isn't that much. It's really not that much. You're just going to have to figure you're going to be in a hard heat no matter what and just train for it that way. If you take that mentality going into it, you're not going to have any issues.

Yeah, that makes sense, too. You want to know the events, but who gives a shit who it is? You've got to do your best on the events regardless of who you're going against directly in your heat. So that makes sense. Right, exactly. Because at the end of the day, if you win World's Strongest Man, you've got to beat everyone at the contest anyway. Yeah, right. Right.

So you don't need to sit there and worry about who's in the heat. You just need to worry about where you place in the heat and then get into the final and, you know, what you do in the final. Yeah, so we're on the night before the heat start, and we've got the heats here. We know the events. How do you feel about doing a little heat predictions here, who you think you might pass on if you get it?

Sure. All right. And talking about the events and the heats, we know that it's the loading race, the deadlift. Which is in the sand. Okay, the loading race is in the sand. What are the implements on the loading race? The implements are going to be like these almost like shipping posts for docking things. There's three

of them put together. The implement's about 250-ish pounds and there's rope around it, band put together. The implement's about 250-ish pounds, and there's rope around it, banded together. So it's basically three of these block, like little cylinders of wood that are about two feet, two and a half feet tall with shipping rope wrapped around them.

And they're drilled and screwed together so they're not going to come apart. So 250, I mean obviously to a relative human that's heavy, but to World's Strongest Man, are people counting that as a fairly light loading race then? Is this going to be a speed? Or does the sand totally change that up? Right. Yeah, so that's the first two and those are closest so one's i think

two meters away or five meters away it's it's not it's not real far away i think it's two and then five and then it goes there's an anvil that's going to be at like i think 10 and then there's going to be a sloppy sandbag so it's a big big sandbag, but I think it's like 250, 260. And it's not packed tight. So it's going to be really hard to grab a hold of and move with. And then a Husserfeld sandbag, like a rogue Husserfeld sandbag. Those are going to be five increments at 15 meters. And you're going to have to do this through

pretty loose sand. So every step you're going to lose about 4 inches when you take a step. So it'll be pretty brutal, especially when you factor in the sand element. People are going to be pretty gassed after that one. Yeah, because the platforms are 54

inches, and if you take a hard step in that sand, it drops you down four inches. Now you're lifting it to 58. Okay. All right. So that's the loading race. The second event is the deadlift machine. Is that where it's dropping weight in it before each rep,

or what is the deadlift setup? Yeah. So that's going to be where they drop the kegs in. Okay. Okay. So you're going gonna pick up the first one i think it's somewhere between 573 and 590 it's like in that range and then they drop a keg in and then you pull it up and then you drop a keg and you pull it up and there's six kegs so the top the top i think is somewhere right around 799 800 pounds okay but unlike pulling it as fast as you can for those kegs this year they're going to do reps so you're going to do

you're going to get through all those kegs and then you're going to rep it as many times as you can in a minute amrap becomes a more taxing event than uh uh finish it in a minute. AMRAP becomes a more taxing event than finish it in a time. Correct. The guys that would finish it in a time fast would normally get it done between 30 and 40 seconds. Now,

you're going to get to that last barrel and you're going to have 30 more seconds of pulling. That makes that different. that's definitely different. And then it goes to the log ladder. How heavy do the logs go? So it's five logs, and it goes from about 275 to 400 pounds. Okay.

Okay. Event four is the Conan's Wheel, which is interesting. It doesn't seem like we've seen that for a little while at World's Strongest Man. That's maybe a little bit of a wild card just because not familiar with seeing most of these guys do it like you are a deadlift or a log or a loading race or anything else. So that'll be interesting. Exactly. So, and I think it's going to be the weight in the arms is going to be like 440

because it's on a pole. The weight actually on it's heavier, but the weight that you're going to be, that's going to feel like you're carrying is supposed to be like 440 or something like that. Okay. From what I'm to understand. And then it's a throw.

Oh, go ahead. Yeah, yeah. It's a kettlebell toss. Yeah, what's next? Yeah, and that's the kettlebells. Is there like a series of like five of those then? Yeah, I think it's either seven or eight on the kettlebell series. And I think they're going over 15.5.

So, and it's just as fast as you can get them. That'll probably be the least taxing out of all of them, but I think I'm not 100% sure, but I think they're doing that in the sand. That's going to be worse because you're going to sink down another four inches before you throw it every time

you point your feet. Then the final event is the stone-off then, so that'd be whoever's in just for the second and third place guys, right? They go against each other to see, second and third, which one of them's going to make it out of the heat.

Correct. Except for there's going to be a change where, as if somebody can't pull it. Like, so if the first guy going can't lift the stone over if he's in third place, and he can't put it because the third place guy will go and then the second place guy goes.

If the third place guy can't do it, the fourth place guy is going to run out or the fifth place guy is going to run out or the guy in sixth place is going to run out. Yeah. That's funny. If you're like the fourth place, you kind of got to be ready just in case. Exactly. Although, it's a funny thing. Say third, fourth, and fifth.

Two guys are relatively weak stone loaders. The third guy tears his biceps, so you're in sixth place. This is a wild scenario. It won't play out that way, but you're in sixth place. You get to run out there against the guy that's in second. That's 15 points ahead of you. And if you are, and say the guy in sixth is his best event by far is stone loading. He's a stone loader, but he's in sixth place because he's, you know, deficient in log press and everything else. And he goes out there and could make the finals because he's an awesome stone loader in theory. Correct. Okay. Yeah. You can see something crazy

like that. Yeah. Okay. All right. So now looking at the groups, we know that two people move on. Whoever first is first, isn't going to have to do the stone-off, and second and third, and apparently, possibly everyone else could have to do the stone-off that last event. But group one, here's the contestants. We've got Eddie Williams, Australia, Pao Dwyer, Ireland. Pavlo is Ukraine. It's a different Pablo than,

who we've seen compete at the Arnold this year. I don't know how to say his last name. Uh, yeah, maybe, you know, cord. Yeah.

I just tried. Yeah. I can't hear you. I did. Uh, I just met the, I actually met him today. Okay.

Is this, is this his first world's strongest man for Pablo? Yes. Okay. Yes. Uh. Janashia, who's been there many years, Georgian, and then Bobby Thompson and Tom Stoltman. Correct. Tom, you can see this too. I kind of listed, I didn't read them in the order that I necessarily have them listed, but I kind of have my thoughts and predictions in there, so we'll be able to compare to see what you think.

So what do you think the results are of Group 1? I think Tom Stoltman gets through. Yep. He probably wins the heat. But it's going to be, as far as I'm concerned, it's going to be a three-man battle after that to see who gets the second place in there between pablo because i watched what pablo just did the giants live show and that was nuts and

he did the log ladder at the giants live show through it like it was nothing so that's going to be good points for him um the deadlift machine um he should actually do fairly well, but Ginasho is an unbelievable puller, and so is Bobby Thompson. So he might lose four points there because Tom will be in there too. So, and then the load race,

Pablo's extremely fast. And in that heat, I think between Tom or Pablo, it's going to be pretty close. But Tom can still do some damage. He's a great all-around athlete. And a funny dude. He's hilarious.

Absolutely hilarious. He's so much fun to be around. He's just like, oh, my God. It's like hanging around with Eddie. You you know you never know what they're gonna do it's it's absolutely hilarious so um in the conan's wheel i see pablo actually doing really good at that but i also see pa doing really good at that and i don't see Constantine Bobby maybe as far as really

keeping up points in the killings wheel but Pablo's such an athlete I'd see him doing pretty good in Constantine so it's going to be a three day battle but in the end of the day I almost want to say Pablo that'll be interesting yeah that So it's going to be a three-day battle, but in the end of the day, I almost want to say Pavlo.

That'll be interesting. So Stoltman and Pavlo. Yeah. That'll be interesting. I know Bobby's healthy, and I know he's ready. So, I mean, that's, you know, I wouldn't put anything past Bobby. He just got third at the end all again. So, but some of the faster events we'll see um

and jinasher jinasher can like if he's ready to go and in shape he's gonna be hard for anybody to be but i i mean i could actually see pablo having a big upset though. If that happens and he wins the heat and then Tom goes to the stone off, Tom's going through. There's nobody in the seat that's going to beat Tom at stones. Right, right, right. So that makes it kind of, that one's a no-brainer. But I think Pablo and

Stoltman will be the two to actually get through that. Okay, that's good insider information so you don't know anything that. Okay, that's good insider information, so you don't know anything about Pavlo, so that's good info. I had Tom, of course, and then I've got Bobby because I have an extreme U.S.-American bias, for one thing. So do I. Right, right.

I've also got to look at things from a real standpoint. Right, right, right. I mean, I want Bobby to get through. I also got to look at things from a real standpoint. I want Bobby to get there. I love Bobby. I really do. I got nothing but respect for him. He's one of the fiercest competitors you'll ever see. He won the deadlift at the Arnold. I can see Bobby winning the deadlift

there. Quite easily. Moving on to group two, we've got Alexei Novikov, former winner, Luke Stoltman, Thomas Evans, who we saw compete at the Arnold this year, Iron Bibby, a fan

favorite, Gavin Bilton, and the guy from Lebanon. I will not try to pronounce his name. Fadi? Yeah, Fadi. Okay.

Okay. Yeah, I'm not going to try the rest of it. Sorry. Fadi, if you're listening, I'm sorry. I love you, man. Please don't take offense but that's going to be pretty interesting heat because

Iron BB can probably smoke the log lift but so can Luke and then Tom Evans is also a very good oppressor and it says it says Novikov.

That's going to be crazy to kick as far as the log ladder. Points-wise, I mean, between Iron BB and Luke on the log medley

I almost want to go with Luke on that because I know he's been training it and Iron BD got invited later I think Iron BD's got all the pressing power in the world kind of like Luke but I think Luke's prepared for five logs condition wise because Iron BD's traditionally

a pretty big dude he's fast way faster than you're going to think he's a big man because Iron BB is traditionally a pretty big dude. He's fast. He's way faster than you're going to think. He's a big man. So I think the loading race is going to be kind of rough for Iron BB in the sand and stuff like that. Gavin Bilton will probably do pretty good because he's so tall in the loading race.

Thomas Evans is a heck of an athlete. I mean, the guy was on a pro football team for a little while, so he's a freak of an athlete. And then Noblikov. Noblikov, I think, can do pretty good, but he's going to have to have a lot of brute strength coming out of that loading race because he's not as tall. And he's going to have to get those implements up there

when you step in the sand and you reach four inches. So he's going to have to get those things up to probably somewhere between 56 and 58 inches when he's going through the sand. So that's going to be kind of challenging for him. But he's so fast. So that's kind of the way I see that one going as far as the points go.

The deadlift machine, Nobukov is kind of like a freak when he gets on the deadlift machine apparatus like that. I think Nobukov will probably win that one. But Gavin's also a very, very good deadlifter. Everything's in the bag. Luke's a pretty solid deadlifter, but I think those two will probably come out on top of the deadlift.

I already talked about the log ladder. The Conan's Wheel, Novikov is going to kill that. But Luke's also been training on it and should be pretty ready for it. Gavin's a big man, and that has a tendency to hurt big men. Same with Iron B.B. because front carries, you just can't breathe with them. And then Tom, Tom's a freak athlete so tom might turn around surprised and shock everyone and getting fifth at the arnold your first time in is um yeah that's pretty shocking and then he also won the uh the shock classic for the open division. So he'll be in the shot classic this year too.

So he's a really good athlete. I, I, Thomas Evans can accidentally win the seat, but no, I see no book talking through and I see coming down to either Gavin or, or, or Thomas Evans, you know, for the Stone of Levi.

All right. That's kind of how I see it. I mean, Luke, I'm not going to count Luke out, but Luke didn't do so well for Arnold and just didn't look prepared. So, you know, he's had five weeks. It's only been five weeks. So, but I love Luke to had five weeks. It's only been five weeks. But I love Luke today.

I hope he does well. But I kind of think Thomas Evans and Novakov. Okay. That sounds good. I had Novakov up there. All this talk about Thomas Evans, I kind of was thinking about him in third. But now I'm convinced that also right in the USA train, I'm going to go Novakov and Thomas Evans on that one.

Sure. All right. Group three, we've got let's see, we'll say Spencer Remick, Avars from Latvia, Graham Hicks from the UK, Mateus is back from Poland this year, Matthew Ray from Australia, I don't know him,

and then Mitchell Hooper in there. Right. Yeah. Well, this is going to be the heat of death in my opinion. It really is. The loading race, Hooper's really, really fast. But he's not super, super tall. Hicks is on the shorter side, so that's going to hurt Hicks.

Bragg or Reg, I just don't know. Spencer, I like Spencer a lot, but I don't know how he's going to really perform in his first world. And then we have Avars, who is just an absolute like animal. You just can't make mistakes around Avars. If you make a mistake, he will beat you. So if you don't make any mistakes, you can get

by him, but he is just a tough as nails competitor. So I see to be quite honest, this being between Mitchell, Mateus, and Avar. Like for the whole thing. Mateus and Hooper both will finish that log ladder.

And so will Hicks, but I think Hooper and Mateus will do it faster. It's going to be who's faster with those logs between those two. Mateus is more of a jerk when he does the log. Hooper will lean back and push, so I think Mateus will actually be a little bit faster than Hooper on the logs if he gets around to them fast enough. a little bit faster than Hooper on the logs if he gets around to him fast enough.

So I would go Mateus winning the log and then Hooper getting second in that and probably Hicksy third unless he goes super fast and is quick and nimble. Hicksy's a big dude. Yeah. So deadlift machine for that. Hicksie's a big dude yeah so Deadlift Machine for that I'm going to go with Hooper in that event and then probably Hicksie

and then Avars and then probably Mateus like in that pretty much in that order so that's going to be a good one for Hooper. The Conan's Wheel. Hickey's

not bad at that. I haven't seen Mitchell do it, but he's such a good athlete, you can't count him out. And I know Mateus will go forever with that guy. So that one, I got to go to Mateus and probably Mitchell with Avars, being able to sneak up and probably get in there and get after that,

like, and get points on that. The kettlebell toss, that'll be Kliczakowski and probably Hooper. Go in there and then the stone off kind of depends on who gets to that. But I think that's going to be probably between Hooper or Mateus against Avars. But to be honest with you, I think Mateus might actually be able to do that if he's in shape. If not, Hooper's going to win the heat. Mateus will do the stone off, probably against Avar.

Yeah, that's what I think. I had Hooper in first and Mateus winning in second. And I just want to see him make the finals. Yes, so do I. He's a good dude because when he tore his major off, he called me about

what it's like to heal and stuff like that because I tore my lat off. We put him in touch with my doctor and stuff like that. He got his reattached just like mine did. And he just pulled 380, so I think he'll be fine. I think he's going to

be fine. Heat four. We've got big Kevin Ferris, USA, of course. Ronald Heinle, Estonia, Gabriel Rehum, Canada, Jocko, Schoenwinkel, South Africa, Adam Bishop, UK, and of course, big Brian. Yeah.

I'm just going to say Brian. Yep. When's he? He's in a condition that I haven't seen in a long time. So I think Brian's going, this is his last one, and he is going to leave nothing here. So he's going to go all out. Then it comes down to second place,

and I think that comes between adam and kevin yep in the end um ronald is really good ronald will do very well with the deadlift but i don't think he's going to do as well with the log uh or the cone as well so i mean the medley i think he'll do i think he'll do really well, but I think it comes down to Adam and Kevin in the stone off. And that one's going to be close, but Kevin can do stones pretty darn good. So can Adam, but I think Kevin might get the advantage in the stones. All right. Well, I had Brian in first, of course, also,

and then I had Adam and Kevin in second and third. And as we're talking about it, I better go with big Kevin on that, too. And we had Kevin on a few weeks ago, so we've got to go with Kevin anyways. Yeah. No, I love that guy. Yeah. He's a good dude. Group five.

Last group here is Paul Smith from the U.K., Mark Felix from Felix from the UK. How old is Mark? 57. So he's got you beat by quite a few years even. Two. Okay. And then Ithor. Two and a quarter. Every quarter counts. You're getting

older. Trust me. A year now at this age sometimes makes a difference. Yeah. John Stephen from France, Paul Smith, UK, Mark Felix, UK, Ithor from Iceland, Evan Singleton, T-Rex, and Big Trey Mitchell in Group 5. Yep. So, I, man,

to be honest, I think this is a two-man heat. Yeah. So do I. I think it's between Trey and Evan. Yep.

Team USA in group five. Yeah. Do I think Mark can get to the snow off? Yeah. But I think he can get to the start off yeah but I think he's going to score pretty rough in the log medley and I think that's going to

drop him down probably to fourth me my heart wants to see Mark actually make it to the finals but I mean I absolutely love him but in reality he can win the deadlift. He'll be good at the medleys.

But the log lag is going to kill him. He'll do pretty good at the co-man's wheel, but the kettlebell toss is going to kill him as well. So I see it coming down between Trey and Evan. I see Trey actually winning the heat because, you know, Trey's solid. Trey holds it together. Trey will be fairly quick. He doesn't need to win the loading medley.

He just needs to be in the top three. The deadlift, he can be in the top. He'll probably be second or third. The log ladder, he'll win. The Conan's wheel, he'll do well. And the kettlebell toss, I think he'll hold his own. But I think Trey will win the heat. I think Evan

and for the most part I want to say, I would like to say Mark and then the two of them would do the stone off and I think Evan would do the stone off with Mark but the other couple

guys, a couple of them could step up but to be quite honest, I think that's kind of how that is. Yeah, we've got the same thing there too. I think we're buddies with Trey and I think he's got that too but Evan, I think is going to do really well. I think he's probably poised. But Evan, I think, is going to do really well.

I think he's probably poised to have a really good world's strongest man here, barring injury and everything. He could do pretty awesome this year, it looks like. If he stays calm, he might – he's got – if he stays calm and he does what he does, he can sneak it out of there. He can actually win the heat, but Trey's got to do something wrong. If Trey comes in and fires on all cylinders and doesn't make any mistakes,

he's going to win that heat. And then I think Evan will get to the finals and he'll do well in the finals as well. I think Evan's going to do... Both of those guys will do pretty solid in the finals as well. I think Evan's going to do, both of those guys will do pretty solid in the finals. Yeah, I think so too. And then we go to the finals as we're talking events a little bit different for the finals.

We've got Fingal's Fingers this year, which is cool. Glad to see that in there. The NAC deadlift. So is that deadlift, is that a max deadlift then? Is that what that is actually then? It's not a max deadlift. What it is, it that a max deadlift then? Is that what that is actually then? It's not a max deadlift. What it is, is it's a set weight, which I think is about 815.

Okay. But the difference and the problem with that one is going to be the guys who roll the bar into their legs Oh, you can't do that with a box on the end of the bar. Can't do that.

And then the guys who set the box down hard or set the bar down hard are going to make that thing jump. And then it's going to be out of position, and then you have to reset. And there again, you can't roll it into you. If it gets out of position, you're going to have to physically move to get back in position to the bar. Correct. So that's going to be kind of a – and that's the second event.

So the fingers are the first event, which I think Brian's going to win that. Yeah. That would be his event to lose, I think right like i mean he correct you know his size obviously on that event is important his experience on that one yeah you know like and his training on that one right yeah he was training he was training with ones that were heavier than the last one and and a lot of people don heavier than the last one. And a lot of people don't get the last one, right? Like, what is the story on the last one?

It's extremely, it's a tough finger, right? Like, people typically don't get the final one, right? Right. Well, yeah, it's a very difficult finger. This set of fingers was different than the old set of fingers. Okay. When they built those Thor hammers in 2015, they used the old ones to do that. So this is a different

set. So the fifth one is that one, the fourth one used to be the worst one. And when the fifth got to the fifth one, you had a good shot at getting it. But this one, the fifth one is the killer. So... Will that be a good event for Tom

also? I don't know how he is on that specific thing, but just thinking about his size, it seems like he'd be well built for that one too. And his height, yeah. He's an inch taller than Brian. The taller you are, the easier that is. But I still don't see Brian getting second in that I see that as a win for Brian

unless somehow something that's the event for him to lose yep and then going into the dead list with that now the last two going into that, we'll see and know how many reps they're going to do.

Yeah, which is a big advantage, obviously. It's a massive advantage, because if you can pull 10, the number's eight, you just pull nine, and you save it for the next event. Right. Yeah. Once you win by one in those in the finals, that's it.

You're done with the next one. I could see that deadlift event being a good event for Mitchell Hooper, Novakov, obviously, Bobby Thompson if he's in there, Brian, I think. I mean, it's tough. You get to the finals, they're all good. Outside of maybe Mateusz, if he's in there. Right.

They're all. And even he's going to pull it. Right. Which is how many he's going to pull it for. Right. So, yeah, he just probably will get two, maybe three. That event is going to, you know, a couple, a rep or two is going to be a big deal for those, you know,

for those, you know, whether it's eight, I don't know what number they're going to be at, but just a swing of a couple reps could mean a lot of places for you in that event, I think. Oh, yeah, for sure. Yeah, that event's going to make or break some people. Yeah. And there's going to be a lot of ties in it too.

Yeah, and then it's the range shield carry. What's the shield like? How big is it? What's it look like? To my understanding, because I haven't physically seen it yet because I didn't get to go down to the boneyard yet, my understanding is the Giant's Live Shield,

which is really long and weighs 440 pounds. And the grip on it is at the top so you have to grip it up on your chest and start walking with it and uh hold on i'm being given some information ring shield oh ring created it for this? Oh, okay. Well, I've just been re-informed that it's the rain shield. So I haven't seen it.

But it's supposed to be 440 pounds. It's made of recycled rain energy cams. That's funny. I've just been informed it's also very thick, which is going to be interesting for people to carry. So that one's going to be interesting because Brian's actually really good at a shield carry,

and people have forgotten. But, I mean, I've seen him go 60 70 meters with the isa shield and that was one of the worst shields you could ever want to carry like ever yeah so he's actually pretty good at it um stoltman is the record on the Giants live shield. He went 65 meters with that. He just went 70 meters in training. So that one's going to be...

You'd think Mateusz could be good at that event possibly too. I don't really know that. Mateusz could win that event. And then I know Mitchell's been training with two different sandbags he holds one when they put weights on top

of it or another sandbag on top of it so he seems like he can get in that event too possibly too you know yeah that's why it's world's strongest man everyone's good at almost everything yeah exactly it's the guys who make the least mistakes

that come in the least beat up and just have the most to give on that day are going to win. And then it's Max Circus Dumbbell is the next event. Or Max Dumbbell. I don't know what the dumbbell really... It's the Circus Dumbbell

made by Rogue. So these are all sand and lead shot filled. And the heavier you get, the bigger they get. And it's a three and a half inch handle. Which is going to be really hard to balance. That's a good event for

Brian. Alexey Novikov, obviously a good event for him. Mateusz Kilkowski a good event for him Mateusz Kilkowski good event for him there too I don't know the rest of them as well but I just those ones all stand out to me on dumbbell that they are like kind of the best of the best right on the circus dumbbell

the guys who trained with the weight loaded dumbbells are not going to do as well as they think. Okay. Because when you're doing that heavy dumbbell, an inch to the left, a half an inch, even a half an inch to the left or to the right a little more is going to make a difference when you're pushing on that thing, when you load it up on your shoulder. And when you clean it, all the sand and lead shot is going to float around in there.

The weights don't do that. The guys who can get it up there, kind of shake it up and down real fast and get it to settle, and then pop it over their head and still catch it as it moves on the inside of that over their head, the guys who are ready for that are going to be the guys

who do the best at that. That makes sense. But I see it getting to 300, though. I don't know if we'll see another world record on it, but I see it getting over 300.

Okay. And then vehicle pull? What are they pulling this year? I didn't see the vehicle. Do you know what the vehicle is? Yeah, nobody's seen the vehicle yet. The dumbbells get over 300 pounds and the heels are over

16 inches. So when the dumbbells get over 300 pounds the handles go from 3 inches to 3.5 inches. And then the dumbbells get bigger. The last dumbbell is 16 inches around. So it's enormous sitting,

trying to get it up on your shoulder, even just to balance there. It's going to be a pain in the ass. Correct. And the biggest one is 343. Okay. Okay. Yeah, so that's kind of nice.

Thanks to Chad Corey for the update. Okay. Shout out, big Chad. Yeah, he got to go down to the phone line, so he saw some of this stuff. Okay. I wasn't here when everybody was down there yet. Talked about the vehicle pull a little bit. We don't know what it is.

So the vehicle pull, Gregor's back don't know what it is. So the vehicle pull, Gregor's back doing equipment this year, Gregor Evans, which is awesome. It's great to have him back. If it's a bus, whatever the vehicle is, you know Gregor's going to make sure it's not a fast, easy pull. It's not going to be a speed pull. He'll let the air out of the front tires for like two minutes. I don't know if you guys knew that's what a fast, easy pull. It's not going to be a speed pull. It'll let the air out of the front tires for like two minutes.

I don't know if you guys knew that's what they do, but when they pull buses and stuff, the buses are usually not super heavy, so they let the air out of the tires to slow the buses down. And if they make it a big, heavy, hard pull, I don't know. It seems like it even favors the big guys more. I don't know. Maybe that's not true. Yeah, it seems like that's –

No, when it's a really heavy, hard pull. So, Mateus and Brian will probably be the top two on that event. Yep. Because Mateias is just an absolute sick truck puller. I mean, he was pulling like a I saw the video of him pulling like a 70,000 pound vehicle

getting ready for this. And then I know what Brian was doing for it. So it's, he was pulling a massive fire truck that had a full load of water in it. So that was pretty darn heavy. So those two are probably going to be the best.

I think Stoltman's got a good chance because he's so big and heavy and tall. So that's kind of how I see the top three and other than going. Okay. And finishes up with Atlas Stones as per usual. Yep. Tom Stoltman's tough to up with Atlas Stones as per usual. Yep. Tom Stoltman's tough to beat at Atlas Stones right now. Yep.

Brian's obviously good at Atlas Stones too. Trey is a hell of a stone. I mean, there again, none of them are real bad. It's probably going to be hard to beat Tom Stoltman in Atlas Stones, though, None of them are real bad. It's probably going to be hard to beat Tom Stoltman in Atlas Stones, though, I would guess. He moves pretty quick on them, too.

Not to say it's a gimme because he's probably got at least a handful of other guys here that could give him a run for his money if he screws anything up. But if he does a good run, it's probably hard for him to lose that. Correct. I would agree with that i i can see uh trey mitchell trey mitchell also being right there on those so i mean i i can see brian right there as well i i think that'll kind of go stoltman, Bryan, and Trey, or vice versa on that one. So we went down the events. We won't go who's going to finish 1 through 10,

but what do you got on your podium then? Who do you think is going to be your podium for 2023 World's Strongest Man? Wow. I think it'll be Shaw, Stoltman, and Mateus on the podium. Hooper. Yes. I went, so say again your podium, you said Shaw, Stoltman, and Mateus? Yes. Okay, yeah, I had Shaw, Stoltman, and I said Hooper.

And I just wasn't, I'm just not sure about Mateus. It all depends on, I guess, how good a shape he comes in because he obviously could be up there and has been several years in the past, so that'll be interesting. I've got, I went Shaw went Shaw Stoltman Hooper, and then I've got a tray just on the outside, but it is funny if I go even all the way down to like eight, I could see anyone like one through eight. Um,

I can see trading. I can see Trey being third between third and fourth. Yeah. You know, Trey, Trey's in really, really good shape. So do you,

do you think Brian gets his fifth then? I think Brian's on a mission to get his fifth. I think the events are pretty decent for him overall. You know, his name was brought up a lot. I'm going to say, who's going to perform well in these. Yeah.

The events are really good for Stoltman. The events are really good for Bryan. Right. I know Bryan's sole focus has been this year. Yeah. It'll be exciting to see. Without a doubt. Yeah, it'll be exciting to watch

him play out he's been training like a man possessed I mean he truly has yeah so I he's my you know I love Brian to death so

but I've seen what he's been doing and he would be my pick I've seen what he's been doing. And he would be my pick. Okay. I've got him too. I'm taking Brian too. I've got to go out with a bang here. I've got to stick with Team USA on that one too.

His goal is to leave his mark on history. It would be exciting to see him get the fifth there too. It would be exciting to see him get the fifth there too. It wouldn't get much better than that. Not at all. Not at all.

It's fun to watch. It's going to be incredible. Anything can happen. You never know. The reason why we do this is because you can do this all day, but you know something weird in all of this is going to happen.

Well, and one injury from one guy changes everything. It's just... One guy rips his hand somewhere. Yeah. Yeah, and then it just changes everything. Which is the reason why they do rips his hand somewhere. Yeah. Yeah. And then you're, you're, you just changes everything.

So, but which is the reason why they do that. But we also do this because this is what we, you know, what we think is going to happen. So, yeah, I mean,

it's going to be super exciting to see. It's going to be super, super exciting to be back in there. I'm excited. I can't wait. I mean, I really, I'm actually more anxious to go out there

and watch what's going to go on. I'm almost as anxious as when I was competing in it. I'm really excited to see this year. I really am. Yeah, I think it's going to be a good one. There's a lot of parody in Strongman, too, which makes it more interesting. You know, it's not just a lock for anyone, and it's not just a lock for anyone and it's not just a lock for the top three are or anything like that it's like uh yeah a lot can no damn near anything could happen with them no i'll agree you know

honestly though i i think trey can get up there and be on the podium as well. Now I'm really thinking about it. So it's going to be, it's so difficult because everybody's so good. And the little off parts of each event, it's not that many points. So people are going to step up and they're going to overperform just a bit. And that's going to make the difference between being on the podium and not being on the podium. Right, right.

Okay, we've got, we do overrated and underrated each episode and we'll kind of wrap this up with that. I remember this. Yeah, yeah, you've played and passed before. You're an old over under vet. Oh, I played once.

That's one more than a lot of people his first rodeo this is actually very true this is actually a second rodeo so this is a special 2023 world strongest man set of topics so overrated or underrated Myrtle Beach underrated

because this place beach? Underrated. Because this place is actually... This is one of the contests I wish I could compete in because this is some of the best conditions. Even if it rains, it's still going to be a killer place to do this.

We're not going to be boiling. And it's beautiful here. Yeah, seems like a good venue. So I think it's underrated. It's definitely underrated. Overrated or underrated? Conan's Wheel. I'll go overrated on the Conan's Wheel.

That doesn't feel like an event that anyone really likes that much. I suppose if you're the right size and you're real good at it, you'll like it, but it's still got to suck. Even if you're the best at it, it's still kind of a brutal event. Well, that and the shield carry are two events where you really got to hate yourself. And you have to embrace the suck as you're doing it and want to suffer longer and more than everyone else. It's just, you gotta be super comfortable at being uncomfortable.

Yeah. Uh, overrated seems fair. Most people probably wouldn't disagree though. Uh, overrated or underrated, uh, fingers,

fingers. Um, underrated fingers? Underrated. That's going to separate a lot of people, and it's a neat, fun event. That's a fun event to watch. Yes. It's not a fun event for me to do personally because I'm horrible at it,

but I love watching it. So I have to separate out it's not for me, and I do like watching it for people that are really, really good at it, because I have a very large respect for it. For me, it's really difficult to do. And you really have to get the hands going, and you really

have to get the feet going, almost like a dance as you're doing it. So it's... I know what I'm looking at when I'm watching it, so it's an event I really appreciate. Yeah, that's good. Even though I suck at it. That's how you've got to look at Over Under, though.

You've got to be able to compartmentalize. It's not just about if I'm good at it or not. And I do think it is a pretty cool spectacle out of all of them, I think, too. Oh, I love to see it when it's in. I just hate to see it when it's in my heat. Because I'm like, oh, I'm going to be towards the bottom on this one, but I'll make it up somewhere else. And I had a single finger in my heat in 17 when I made the finals.

So, I mean, it still turns out okay. Because I won my heat in 17. I actually beat Z in the heat, which is kind of crazy. Yeah. When you think about it. But the shield carry saved me because I like to suffer. Yeah, yeah. Okay.

Last over-under topic. Okay. Last over under topic. Friend of yours, former World's Strongest Man winner himself, and always a presence every year, and everyone's always got an opinion. Overrated or underrated Eddie Hall? Actually underrated. I'll go with underrated because he's a good friend, he's an

amazing father, and he was a phenomenal strongman competitor. So his career was still pretty long, but I mean, the last few years of his career, he did some just absolutely amazing things that not a whole lot of people of the men's

were able to replicate. Yeah, and I think you know, obviously got a strongman in everything, but he makes everything a little more fun and a little more interesting and a little more exciting, so that's always a win.

If you enjoy a sport and there's someone in it that makes everything more fun, that's important. Oh, he does. You just got to be careful when you're around him. If he's eating a lot of beans and broccoli, you do not want to be near him or

in an enclosed area with him because he has no problem just blowing everybody out of the area. If you're out in the woods, like, filming something with him and you've got to go to the bathroom, you've got to make sure you go nowhere near him because he will come try to piss on your leg. I think that cures athletes' butts.

Yeah, it cures something, but I don't know what it is. Yeah, he is. I truly love I don't know what it is. Yeah, he is. I truly love Eddie. I mean, I really do. He's just a freaking character. And he's a good dad. He's a good man. Good news, Nick.

It looks like you just passed overrated, underrated for the second time now. I was stressing. That was pressure. Oh, my God. It wasn't just luck. He is that good. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks.

Once is an accident, but two times, that says something. It's a habit at that point. Yeah. Well, I try to get into good habits. Awesome. Nick, we appreciate you taking the time. Obviously, we know it's a busy week and a lot going on. It's fun to talk to you, fun to talk to someone that's there around everyone

and experiencing them that's lived it before, so it was cool for us. Pleasure's all mine. Anytime you guys want, just let me know. Sounds good, Nick. Good luck. We'll be excited to watch for you in September, too, competing. Yeah, no, that's going to be fun. Personal goal on that one is I have the world record for the total at 990 kilos for over 50,

and I want to push that past 1,000 because nobody's ever done that over 50. Yeah. So my goal is to get to 1,000 kilos. 50. So my goal is to get to 1,000 kilos. The other goal is to squat over 800 and total over 2,000 for the 27th or 28th year. I get confused sometimes. That is impressive. You get confused. It's because of the old age, I think, Nick.

Yeah, because 55 is coming up in November, so yeah. Yeah. That is awesome. Pretty crazy accomplishment, obviously. And we got a lot of Masters listeners here, so we have a lot of listeners that will be rooting for you, no doubt. So here's to all the Masters listeners out there. I'm doing coaching for masters that's

so if you're a master's power lifter or you're a master's uh strongman competitor i am doing coaching for that just go to my instagram page click on the link tree and uh fill out the form and you know if you if you want some coaching by me, I'm doing it for the Masters because I know what your body feels like. I know how to perform at that elite level in both sports, and I know what your body's going to feel like, and I know how to get you through it without breaking it. What is your Instagram handle? I mean, it's obviously, if you look up Nick Best, you'll find it,

but what is the actual handle? Nick Best Strongman. All right, right on. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter TikTok and YouTube it's all the same got it all covered

ok alright thanks Nick we appreciate it again alright anytime you guys want we'll probably catch you again in three years so you can see if you can go for the three-peat on underrated overrated

alright cool I like it alright see you man alright have a good one see ya those are special masters beans oh they've been chilled for like an extra 30 years. They've been aging like a fine bean wine. Just like Nick.

He just gets better with time. That's right. We got Nick's full rundown on World Strong WSM 2023. He really does know what he's talking about, doesn't he? Yeah, and I didn't, not so relevant relevant to nick so i didn't bring it up there but i am picking brian shaw who i've historically pricked you know i know it's always tough because he just always say every year is he gonna do it or is he gonna burn me but if there's a year you want him to win this would be the one isn't it i don't think i picked him last year i finally

got off of it and i'm back on it i think back on the train i think the events are really good for him but also nix is a good point who they are because they're good for brian because he's a big tall heavy guy they also are kind of by default good for tom yeah and tom is the reigning two-time world's strongest man and doesn't look like he's lost a step. So that's going to be the tricky part there. And he's got youth on his side. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, but that's the thing is you never know who's going to mess up or get hurt. Like that is what changes all of it. Yeah, and then Mitchell Hooper is just coming off of winning the Arnold and has been on a tear, kind of like going crazy. Trey winning the last couple of years. Big Bobby. Mateus is always so good, but it's like how bad is the deadlift going to hurt him?

And I really do think Evan Singleton is going to do really well this year. So, I don't know. I guess I think everyone's going to win. They all win. Just make them share the podium. Tommy, we do have a special sack segment this week. Let's see it.

Are you ready for this? So ready. A special announcement that goes along with this sack segment. This just in. This is a 2023 Lift Hard Live Easy Classic powerlifting meet announcement. Newest sponsor and vendor for the event is Build Fast Formula.

Oh! Build Fast Formula has committed to being a sponsor and a vendor booth at the Lift Hard Live Easy Classic. And we have a special segment here from Build Fast Formula. It says, to our neighbors to the northwest are actually just conveniently located between both of us right now in sunny, beautiful Watertown, South Dakota. Here's the Chris Duffin lineup of his favorite flavors. Enjoy. Build Faster from Big Nathan and Big Abby.

Big Nathan, also a supporting member. Supporting member. Yeah, a lot of ties. We call that double dipping, right? Yeah, that's a double dip. So what they sent us, Tommy, is this is their 80-20 protein. 80-20. You said, what is 80-20?

80-20, this is the combination of fast and slow digesting proteins for six hours of muscle protein synthesis. So I guess what I take from it, it's 80% casein, 20% whey. Okay. Which is the same ratio that's naturally found in milk. Oh. So this would probably go good with pizza, I'm assuming. I think that's...

Does the package say that or are you just adding that on? Oh, this goes great with pizza. Try with pizza. And this is the peanut butter chocolate flavor right here. Sounds delightful. Then also from Build Fast Formula, we've got their full blitz, pizza and this is the peanut butter chocolate flavor right here sounds delightful then also from build fast formula we've got their full blitz fully loaded pre-workout formula and this is a rainbow candy taste the rainbow candy and what's really interesting about um build fast and we were made aware of this at the arnold when we were talking to chris duffin

about the dakotas and he said i'm a real i'm a real one of the yeah chris one of the owners of build fast yeah i'm a real investor in companies in the dakotas i own part of barefoot shoes which is in north dakota and part of build fast formula which is in south dakota and it's both companies that we are very familiar with. So that's pretty cool. Well, that's when he proceeded to make us an offer on Massonomics, and we're still in the negotiation phase there. Lawyers are working that part out right now.

And then we've got the Vaso Blitz Dual Nitric Oxide. Oh, I would also mention the pre-workout. The first thing I always look at in any pre-workout is the caffeine, and this has 335 milligrams per scoop. So not messing around there. That's some serious stuff. That's a half scooper for me. But then the beauty of half scooping pre-workout, it lasts twice as long.

Instead of the regular shippings, I get double the strength. We'll have to do the math on that one before we can say for sure but well it depends on how mean median mode plays out this is the dual nitric oxide support and this is lemon drop flavor lemon of some sort throwback

okay so thank you to Build Fast Formula looking forward to trying this stuff but even more so looking you to yeah build fast formula looking forward to trying this stuff but even more so looking forward to seeing uh seeing you set up at the lift hard live easy classic well and uh big nathan he's competing isn't he big nathan is even competing in the lift hard live so he's like triple dipping now yeah he's competing, sponsoring, supporting member. Yep. He's doing it all. I guess we better just make sure he wins first place.

We better rig it to make sure he wins first place. It's only fair. Yeah. Okay. Oh. I'm wondering, is there anything that you see here that's super important that we get to immediately, do you think, Tommy? Well, I mean, there's one thing here that I'm very interested in, but... Is it the plate story? Yeah, it's all the suspense.

I think we'll save the plate story. Oh, he's going to make me wait. Or do you want to hear the plate story? I don't know. I don't know how long of a story this is, but you have my attention. It's not that long of a story. Maybe we should do it this week yeah maybe you should tell me otherwise let's be up all night thinking about it yeah so this story if we can get in our time machine this story goes back to i want to say 2019 okay yep i was alive then yep yeah and this

was talked about on the mass dynamics podcast on on the time so someone could find out probably there yeah you were there okay uh i don't know if you remember it was in averdeen western northeast south dakota yep i was also there too old york plates that came up for sale i found them on craigslist and the guy gave you the whole i know what i got no low yeah he said i know what I got, no low-ball offers thing? Yeah, he said, I know what I got. What did he want for them, and what was it again?

I can't remember exactly what he wanted, but they were vintage deep-dish York plates. Okay. I can't remember exactly how many there were, if maybe there was about approximately six plates. Some of them were nicer. There's at least a couple that were really good quality deep-dish York plates. Some of them were nicer. There's at least a couple that were really good quality deep dish York plates. Those can sell, depending on what it is, for

$1,000 a pair right now. Really? That has skyrocketed then in the last three years, hasn't it? Yeah, they're expensive. And at the time, if I remember correctly, he was trying to get the open market rate and you were giving him the no this is the western northeast south dakota right right right in hindsight i probably should have paid what he

was asking uh-huh um but at the time i was spending less money on old vintage plates and more worrying about just like outfitting the gym in yeah borderline necessities you know like it was like i've gotten to the point now where we have so much stuff i can you know start to do more of this unusual items right right um uh although i wish i would have purchased them whatever the price was it was a lot less than what i think they're actually worth now um but i ultimately did not buy those they were sitting in the literally sitting in the back of his old dusty garage, and we couldn't come to a deal.

And he's like, nah, I'll keep them for that. And I'm like, all right. And this guy's in his 60s. And I'm thinking, yeah, you'll die, old man, and I'll get those plates eventually for half of what we're talking now. So he lives not that far from where I live now. He lives a few blocks down the road. And I've lived in my current residence for like two and a half years.

And it's in a path that I can choose to drive that way. It's not the way I drive, but if I want to drive that way, I can a lot of times. Yeah, you're not going out of the way to go. I'm not going out of the way. It's just a different, it's an alternative route and i had started thinking about it more over the last year and a half here i would say and i never i wasn't like gonna just like go beat on the guy's door but what i would do is sneak into his garage wait till he's asleep i'd be like i'll get these plates for free on the five-finger discount.

But I just always thought if I catch him outside, I'm going to stop and ask him because I'm guessing those are still just sitting back there. Give him the, oh, hey, funny seeing you here. Yeah. Yes, yes. So I drove by this guy's house like a couple times a week. I would do it a lot of times like when I was in no hurry, you know, like a weekend or something like that. And I'm like,

Oh, if he's outside, this would be a good time for me to stop and visit with him. So a couple of times a week for last. And are you thinking in your head that this guy will for sure remember me because you look drastically different than the last time he saw you? No, I'm thinking I'm going to have to reintroduce,

reintroduce myself. No, I don't think he would. I was not under the assumption he would remember. I was going to have to bring it up and be like remember that you know i knew you had those and i've been driving by there for you know i've driven by there a hundred times just and finally he was outside i was like holy crap he's outside i almost didn't know what to do i you know i could it would just become a habit to drive by and look and be like acknowledge that he's not outside and i'm like well maybe he did die you know who knows um he was finally outside and this is just as it got nicer out so i'm like oh i can actually

stand outside and communicate for a little while not freeze to death so that's i better and then i at for a second i I'm like, I don't know why, but at a split second, I said, ah, should I even stop? Like, I don't know.

Like, do I even want to have this conversation with a stranger, you know, when I could just go home and not do this. And then I'm like, yeah, I've driven by so many times. It'd be a fool not to stop and at least ask.

And now's your shot. Yeah. And I was like, I got to shoot my shot. So I get out, walk up to the guy and he's just standing at the entry. His garage door's open. He's just literally standing there just doing, like, old guy stuff,

which is like nothing, just standing there surveying. Yeah, kind of staring off into the distance. Yeah, that's literally all he's doing. Holding a broom or something. And I come walking up, and I go, hey, remember you had, like, three or four years ago you had some old weights for for sale and I should have been like, you know, some old piece of junk, shitty asshole crap weights that nobody would want. And he's like, yeah, hell yeah. I'm like, yeah,

I stopped and talked to you about those. And I was like, you don't happen to still have those. Do you like, no, I don't. Funny story about those. I had them listed on Craigslist. A guy drove all the way from Georgia. No. To purchase those and drove them back to Georgia. A gym owner, he said, in Georgia. A collector, I assume, actually, is what it was.

That's too much. Yeah, and he's like, yeah, he drove all the way here, and it was that's too much yeah and and he's like yeah he drove all the way here and it was to get these plates uh uh i don't that's too much that is too much don't don't drive there to get them that's too much and i'm like yeah that guy wanted them worse than i did oh my god yeah that's insane i thought that that was insane. Yeah. That is. Um, yeah. Like pay,

pay a lot for shipping. Don't drive all the way out there for those. But I guess maybe, maybe if you're making a trip out to Mount Rushmore, maybe there was something else. I, I, I like to think there was something else.

I do too. Cause that's, you know, that's probably like a 30 hour drive. That's all. That's gotta be. That's, that's really far a 30-hour drive. That's got to be. That's really far. Yeah.

And he proceeded. We talked for maybe 10, 15 minutes, and he told me a lot of old Aberdeen YMCA lifting. He knows all the names of all the familiar names of people. Actually, a relevant name. We've probably mentioned Tran Kong on the Astronomics Podcast before. Boy, I don't know if we actually have ever or not. Tran is...

I've never met him before even. Oh, you haven't? I've never have, no. Okay. You know what Tran looks like though? Kind of, sort of, yeah. kind of sort of yeah tran is a uh local uh long time lifting figure in the western northeast south dakota area tran is i think now like 63 um if you're unsure all you'd have to do is run into tran and he would tell you many times how old he is now but he's still uh in pretty good

shape he was a power lifter a bodybuilder. Tran is... He would lift equipped, actually, wouldn't he? I don't know if he ever did that. I couldn't remember if you guys said he had a squat suit. He probably did at a point, but Tran is Asian. I can't remember where Tran is. He has a thick accent. Asia?

The continent of Asia. But I'm just trying to remember what country he was from he moved here he went to high school here in western northeast south dakota okay so he's been here a long time yeah he's been here a long time and he owned a gym in western northeast south dakota for a while but he's got a lot of like tranisms where he tells you these certain things that, yeah, that people that any of us that have lifted with him before everyone knows these same, uh, catchphrases that he uses. And like one of them,

uh, you know, I'm not going to do it in his accent. Like I might, if you and I were just sitting around shooting the shit. So it loses something without doing it in that. But I'm for the, for the sake of uh me not sounding like racist when i say it i'm gonna although that's not my intention but i think going light on the stereotypes right right right although it is the

way he talks so like but i'm not gonna do it um but he would say have have you ever seen uh uh you are doing it have you ever seen, have you ever seen a, uh, or no, have you ever seen a, have you ever seen a small gorilla before? Eat your damn banana. Uh, if you want legs like a chicken, eat chicken. You want legs like a cow, eat beef. I don't know if you want legs like a cow or not exactly but it sort of makes it bigger you get the point uh those are a couple of my favorite ones but i do remember hearing you

guys say all those i didn't know for sure that those were for him from him or not but yeah those are his uh classic uh couple of uh classic tran isms but uh other thing about tran he's got a lot of the old ymca plates oh all of the old YMCA plates. Oh, all of the old YMCA weights in his basement. Uh, but he has mentioned to me at times he will not, those will not leave his possession. Oh,

really? Uh, but there again, he is much, he's at least 30, he's about 30 years older than me. So, uh,

although he's, it is in very good shape, I believe I will outlast him. Right. And the plates will I will outlast him. Right. And the plates will for sure outlast him. Yeah, we know about the plates. You know how I feel about plates, how they outlast all of us, and we don't really own the plates.

We are just temporary caretakers for the plates. Exactly. So you are playing the long game on that one for sure. Yeah. I don't know where I started that story or where I ended it. Um, no, I think it all made sense.

Okay. Wow. A lot of, a lot of closure on those. I was really waiting for the real kicker was going to be. And the guy from Georgia bottom and his name was, and we'd say, Oh,

his name was who, who have we ever had? Have we ever had anyone on the podcast from Georgia? I don't know. That seems like a no. No one that sticks out to me as from Georgia. That's where Constantine Janashia is from though, right? Yeah.

He is from Georgia. That is factual, yes. I don't think this person drove from that Georgia though in his car boat okay want to make sure to tell everyone to check out spud inc

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Check them out at spud-inc-straps.com. They've got free shipping on all domestic orders, $75 or more. And make sure to let them know that your good old buddies at Massanomics sent you. Thanks, buddy. And today's episode is also brought to you by Texas Power Bars. Buddy Caps first started lifting weights in the late 60s and began powerlifting in the mid-70s. At the time, he was working for Image Barbell, building gym equipment.

Around 1976, a local machine shop started making Olympic bars for them, calling it the Image Bar. In 1977, Image Barbell became Champion Barbell. It was then that Buddy started looking at the bars with an intent of changing them for the better. In 1979, Buddy bought his first lathe to begin addressing the known issues. In 1980, his passion, drive, and purpose now had a greater mission. Buddy set out on his own to make what he believed was the greatest bar he'd ever seen and trained with, and the Texas Power Bar was born.

It was strong as a house with the best knurling and was maintenance-free. Hundreds of state, national, international, and world powerlifting records have been and continue to be set and broken on the Texas Power Bar. To learn more about Texas Power Bars and buy one of their legendary bars, visit TexasPowerBars.com. Thank you, Texas Power Bars. Make sure everyone to check out our drop that we talked about. It's coming out this Thursday, the 27th. We're excited about this one. I do really enjoy the pocket tees.

Everything else new that's coming. Sign up to become a supporting member. Leave us a review. We got to get on our way to 600 now, don't we? Yeah, it's no time to sit around and talk about it. We've got to get on to the next thing here. We've got to get off of our asses,

put these asses on a few horses, and get to riding. Yeah, we don't want to be has-beens here. We've got to keep moving. Rather be a has-been than a never was. Tommy, where do they find you at? You can find me at Tomahawk underscore D. You can follow me at Tanner underscore Baird, but just make sure to follow Mastonomics at Mastonomics.

There you go. We'll see you next time.