Massenomics Podcast - Ep. 380: Nitro from American Gladiators

Episode Date: July 17, 2023

Big Dan “Nitro” Clark joins us for this one to talk about the number one show on Netflix, “Muscles & Mayhem”. We dive into life as an American Gladiator, his training over the years, and steroid use. If there was ever a must listen on the Massnomics Podcast, this is it. We also announced our Jefferson Deadlift contest winners, and pregame the first ever Massenomics powerlifting meet. 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. Hope everybody keeps tuning in. You get a lot of good info, a lot of insights, understandings on how to get strong, how to stay strong, how to use your strength. You do a great job, dude. You make things better than they are in real life, I think.

If you don't follow Massanomics, y'all do it. Social media, website, everything. Massanomics. Welcome, everyone, for episode 380 of the Massanomics podcast, the lifting podcast about nothing, absolutely nothing. And my name is Tanner. And my name is Tommy. We got a very special episode planned today.

We've got a special guest, Big Nitro from American Gladiators. That's going to be very extremely exciting. I'm pumped to get him on here and hear from him. In addition to that, we're going to announce winners of the Jefferson Deadlift contest that's just wrapping up right now. deadlift contest that's just wrapping up right now and then in addition to that it is when this when this episode comes out it is lift hard live easy classic meat week it's meat week baby yeah yeah um it's finally here i remember when we started this thing it's like oh that's never gonna come and damn it felt it really did it felt like it was so far away forever so the fact that it's meat week man time flies right

like they always say the the let's hit the rp 10 days are long but the mesocycles are the mesocycles they go by fast they go by damn fast and uh we are here. So we are going to hit on all of that, of course. But first, I want to tell you about Juggernaut AI. And this is what a lot of people have been doing with their training leading up to the Massonomics Powerlifting Meet. We've got several of our supporting members that utilize this and several Massonomics gym members. And I said it the other week, and I'll say it again.

There's been a number of people at the gym that have been got on this in preparation for the meet that's coming up this week. And a number of them all made the same comment that they just wish they would have got on it sooner. I was just talking to someone that was new to Massanomics Gym that was yesterday. She was in there lifting, and she got on Juggernaut AI for this meet, for our meet. And she said she's crushing her numbers. She's hitting PRs here just in prep, in her peaking in preparation for the meet. And you know that Tanner's not lying because if he was telling a lie, he wouldn't have used a woman as the example person. That's true because that would be obviously a lie.

Oh, yeah, like there was a woman at the gym. So check out Juggernaut AI. When you do, the most important part is use discount code MASSANOMICS. That'll save you 10% for the lifetime of that membership. And when you sign up, sign up through your web browser,

juggernautai.app. That's where you can use the discount code. And today's episode is also brought to you by texas power bars and more specifically their brand new 29 millimeter power bar massnomics gym is soon to be home to one of these fancy new i think it's on the way okay i was gonna say is it here yet i didn't know if we were turning this into a live testimonial. No, I think it's on the way. But if you've been listening to this podcast for a long time, you know that we're big fans of the Texas Power Bar

and that Texas Power Bars is a huge supporter of the Massanomics podcast. We love the original Texas Power Bar. I'm assuming we're going to love the new 29mm Texas Power Bar. We like the Squat Bar. We like the Deadlift Bar. And we also like them all in like the deadlift bar and we also like them all and all the different finishes they come in whether that's cerakote black zinc bare steel chrome whatever you got you can't go wrong with the texas power bar so to learn more

about texas power bars and buy one of their legendary bars visit texaspowerbars.com. And our first-generation Texas Power Bar came in this week, although you can't buy one of those from the site, so this episode really isn't brought to you by the first-generation Texas Power Bar. You've got to be a real fan to know about that. Yeah, yeah. So that thing's pretty sweet on the first-gen Texas Power Bar. Have you got some lifting in on it? I haven't used it yet.

I've unboxed it and put it in there, but actually today I'm going to use it. So what was, just holding it though, how did the knurling feel like in comparison to a new bar? Like when I took it out, my initial reactions were strong as a house. Okay. I would say it's not just marketing. No, best knurling, strong as a house. It looked, I guess I'd say maintenance-free.

Good. Trying to go through all that stuff without laughing. No, it was good. No, the knurling is not as good as a, the 40-year-old barbell knurling is not as good as a brand new Texas Power Bar. But I didn't know if it still had like a little bite to it. A little bit. Not on the outsides though where it would sit in like a squat rack.

It's pretty well smoothed over there. Pretty good. Like you would, like ours are that have just been used for like eight years. So, but yeah, it's decent. It's, it's I don't feel like it was probably ever as sharp as the current Texas power bars, but it's hard to tell. It's so old, you know, so

old. It's in really good shape, though. It's funny seeing those bars before they had end caps when they just had just kind of that. Yeah, yeah. Like solid bell cap on it. Yeah, that part of it definitely looks a lot different. But I did order a little more bar storage, actually, so we got more bars coming all the time.

Got to have a safe space for them yeah uh it is massonomics meat week and if you've been listening to the massonomics podcast for the last seven and a half plus years you probably thought those guys are never going to put on a power lifting meat those and it's not true figure that out they'd never be capable of it well just wait long enough with Mastonomics. Everything happens, and this is actually going to happen. The next time we record, we'll probably be talking about how

we just had the powerlifting meet of the century. I was trying to think about that, though. Are we? Because technically, I think we have to record one more, so people are going to have a cliffhanger in between. That's true. Okay, you're right. And then they'll just have to listen to us talk about the power lift meet for the next five weeks after that. And this week and a little bit like the last 10 weeks.

True. So, but for us actually, this is as far as time goes. Right. It's crunch time. It's crunch time. Cannot hold anything back now i know some people were holding things back for the last 26 weeks but now you've been holding back now is not the time to hold back any longer it's funny how many countdowns there were for the meat being like 180

days out and all that and it really did feel like it would never get here but it is crazy how it's just you wake up one day and it's like oh crap uh things seem to be coming together no major uh hitches any in our giddy up just yet we're we're on track i think still we got some work still riding one horse with one ass so far yeah we got uh we each got a horse and we each got one ass and we're using them to the best of our abilities. That's good right there. I know. So looking forward to the meet. First, I am just so excited for the whole thing. I really am. And yes, I'm excited for the lifting.

It's going to be so fun. But I'm so excited to meet all of these people. A lot of them have met before. But then there's a lot of them have not met before. And I'm very excited for that. It's going to be so much fun. And I know, Tanner, we always talk about this on our way to the arnold that we know there's people that we know their handle we know their profile picture yeah but then you meet them in person and

i'm like i don't know who you are and i know that's going to happen to me multiple times maybe i'll make us flash cards so we can go through it'll be on one side it'll be handle on the other side it'll be a picture of them yeah yeah oh okay that's uh that's ginger beard hercules underscore 76 okay yeah and so yeah i want to get that out in front that i know there's gonna be people that i'm like oh i don't know who you are and they're gonna introduce yourself to me um i'm sorry in advance but i'll i'll get it all figured out eventually tanner's better with those names than me because he's always chatting with everyone on instagram so he has a little more back and forth with all that but i don't think i'll be perfect i know i won't be perfect but i should get a lot of them right so don't be offended if i don't after this week though after the event we'll never forget you it's locked in locked in the old locked in the old spank bank

right yeah be permanent after this weekend you'll all be permanently stored in our spank banks uh i love it you you drinking anything over there i am what do you got a crispity cold lime licorice oh. What do you got? I got a silly pint. That's a cup with a spoon in it. A Masonic silly pint. I've got some creatine in here. Today

I'm going to officially try to get on the creatine. And what I'm using is, this is a throwback, I'm using some fusion sports performance that i've had in my cupboard that's how long it's been since i've taken creatine is since when fusion sports performance was a sponsor of the show so i'm having like flashbacks right now because i remember when i made the confession that i was on creatine like four months ago i probably took it for another week after that it It has not even entered my brain that I ever took it

until I saw you doing this right now. That's why I'm so bad at it. That's why I'm saying this is my first day of it, and it might be my last day. Is it just as good as you remember? No. Masonomic Silly Pint, another throwback. Maybe someday, maybe someday, someday uh someday maybe we would have silly

pints again who knows could be any day maybe someday it could be uh speaking of that we're also meet meet people people go into the meet we are going to have some exclusive items for them there we do so highly exclusive items so be on the lookout for that i mean obviously there's going to be the meat t-shirt. We have all the, all the competitors are going to get one, but we have enough for your wife, sons, daughters, parents, grandparents, extended family to all buy one. So everyone can get one to say that they really were there for the first one. And then we have a couple other exclusive items for people at the meet.

They're not in huge quantities, so it is possible they could sell out. If they don't sell out, we will put whatever is left online. So if you aren't able to make the meet, there's a chance you might be able to grab something online. And we are having some stuff for sale there that will not appear online, though. Yes. It will be meat only. Wink, wink.

Yeah, there's going to be some fun stuff there. Yeah. So the full Massonomics booth will be there in all its glory. It will be a full Arnold-styled Massonomics booth display right here in western northeast South Dakota. Arnold-styled massonomics booth display right here in western northeast South Dakota. Tommy, anything else that we need to hit on on the meet now or we couldn't? We'll probably have a few things, but obviously we're really excited to see everyone. It's going to be really fun.

It's going to go by way too fast, and then we'll probably already be planning for next year. Yeah, that is going to. And also I'm very, very, very excited for the after party yes i haven't uh had it in my head i'm not even sure i actually had it in my head any at any point this year that like tonight's the night i'm gonna really cut loose but uh tonight's that night but but but uh the night of the meet oh yeah, yeah, it's going to be a fun one. Can't hold anything back then. No, can't hold anything back at the zoo. It's going to be just like the glory days.

Yes. That it will be. So, yeah, I guess can't wait to see everyone. Safe travels. Don't hold back. We're going to get our drink on. Should we go over our Jefferson deadlift? Let's do it.

We ran our most successful in terms of entrance. This was our most highly participated contest ever that we've done at Massonomics. And we've done many a contest before. And we had more submissions this time than we've ever had before. Blew the record out of the water. We did, which was super cool to see. Oh, boy, where to start on this thing even?

That's the tricky part. There was a shitload of submissions, a lot of good ones. And like we stated before, we're awarding prize to the heaviest jefferson deadlift to three random winners and i if i'm not mistaken we're just going to pick those randomly right on this episode right yep yep okay we're in a random number generator in google it's so random i don't even know what thing we're going to use. And then we are also, we have selected our favorite winner. And that, Tommy and I pre-selected that, so we already know the answer to that one.

So exciting news is coming at you. And a lot of times we tease everyone. We have our supporting members that are listening live along with the show. And many times in the past we cut them off right before we announced the winners. To be continued. And today, we're actually going to let them in on who the winners really are right here on the podcast. So they're almost going to know a full week in advance to all the regulars out there. So we're going to save our Massanomics favorite for last.

That's going to be the last announcement. Should we do the random ones first? i could announce the heaviest one that one was no surprise really um deadliest lift big mark who's been on the massonomics podcast before he deadlifted a jefferson deadlift 875 pounds and uh that was the founding daddy lift is what we're calling that one because I think he said something like founding daddy at the top of the lift. And that did beat Josh Bartlett, who did an 806 Jefferson deadlift, who's coincidentally like he's fourth on the all-time Jefferson deadlift list. So we did see some huge pulls in here.

Other big ones, I think the next biggest was Nick Lombardi, crew member. He pulled 685. So impressive lift there. There was several in the 600s. There was a big Alex that pulled 600. Big Jonathan pulled 628. There was 661.

Who did 661? That was on here. Well, anyways, there were several in the 600s. But Big Deadliest Lift did win 875 pounds, so he will be walking away with $222 in $2 bills. I like the idea that he can just Jefferson 870 plus like almost any day of the week that that's just a thing, you know, that he's always ready

for. He was keeping me up to speed on the live play by play as he was warming up and he said he thought he was feeling pretty good so he's going to be able to do something pretty heavy. Did not disappoint, did he? No, he did not. And so like always the

empty ceiling tile where the ammonia goes into is great. I love it. Yes, classic. Okay, so random winners. Should we try that? Do you got something? I don't have numbers on mine, so you'll have to. Oh, on the Excel list?

Okay. Yeah, I just have my old snail printout copy. Is now the time to tell you I actually built an elaborate, like those things where the balls are all floating in the air, and I push the button and one ball shoots out. I made it just for this. So here. And the first number is 65.

65. I wish it would have been 69. Okay. 65 goes to, okay, and I do promise that this is not rigged. 65 goes to Kevin underscore RSG underscore 18 with a lopsided 247-pound deadlift. Well, he did claim that as a world record on the lopsided, so I guess he's rewarded for his world record here. He is.

That was pretty good. I thought that one was very noteworthy. It was fun. It messes with your brain seeing things that lopsided. What did he have on each side? 247 pounds total. I don't know what the... So it was probably... I think it was probably one have on each side? 247 pounds total. I don't know what the... So it was probably...

I think it was probably one plate on one side and like three plates on the other and plus three plates plus on the other. Yeah. Yeah, and literally he was all the way holding basically Jefferson, doing the Jefferson. That was good. His hands basically on the collar.

Yeah, I hadn't seen that before in a Jefferson, so that is a first. So you got Kevin Marks. I'd hate to forget who these people are. Yep, I've got Big Kevin, one of our winners, and he's going to be walking away with $40 in $2 bills plus $60 in Mastodonics merch. I don't know if we decide what that merch is

or we let them help. That's TBD. All right, are we ready for them? That's for the winners to know. Are we ready for the next number here? Yeah. All right. I'm going to hit the generate button on Google once again.

Boo, boo, boo, boo. We are at number 52. Which number 52 is Lou Nutter. Shot a fireball red and blue chemo plates. Supporting member Big Lou. I like that both of these are supporting members and it's even supporting members that I have met before.

Big Lou and Big Lou will be competing in the meet here this week also. So maybe we can just give him his $2 bills in person. He's going to spend them all at the zoo, isn't he? How many fireball shooters can you buy with $40 in $2 bills in person. In person, yeah. He's going to spend them all at the zoo, isn't he? Right. How many fireball shooters can you buy with $40 in $2 bills? These drunk people are paying us in fake money. What's going on here?

Why do all these people have $2 bills? What's going on? Yeah. Be like, we don't have a spot in the till for these. One more random winner. You ready for it? Let's do it. Do you think the third one will be a crew member again it almost well a lot of the submissions are they were i mean statistically your chances are very high you could be a crew member but all right i'm hitting the button do it's going uh lucky number 13 goes to the underscore Kurt Locker.

Oh, another supporting member. That's right. And it's funny when I look at the numbers, how we have these numbered. Even the people above and below are also supporting members. So it's just. Yeah. He did the 545 on the mammoth bar. Yeah.

That was really cool. It was an interesting. Yeah. Visually good. A visually appealing lift also. So that's a good winner. That is. Okay. I'm happy with those random. Oh, yeah. Those are great. Random winners. It was really cool. It was an interesting, visually appealing lift also. So that's a good winner. I'm happy with those random winners.

Oh, yeah, those are great random winners. We didn't even have to fudge those at all. Those are just straight up awesome people. Okay, with that mammoth bar, is that actually a mammoth bar? Are those like attachments he has that does that? I think that those are attachments, but I'm not sure. Do you know how those work, actually? I don't really.

I don't really. I think they slide, if I have to guess, I think they slide all the way on the collar, you know, up to the edge of the sleeves. And then I don't know if they tighten with like a set screw or if that's, I would think it wouldn't take that much. It wouldn't have to be secured that well if it's got the entire surface area of the sleeve that it's covering. Yeah, that makes sense. That would be my guess.

I don't know that. I'm actually just making that up. I have to get those on the... That's just how I assumed those were. Oh, yeah. It makes total sense. You might have to get those on the shopping list for the gym. That's true. I mean...

It's one of those weird things that's not down there. And we don't have it, so I do immediately like it. I can only imagine some people trying to rig those up, though. That's true, too. those weird things that's not down there it's and we don't have it so i do immediately like it i can only imagine some people trying to rig those up though uh that's true too that's always it has to be a concern is this is this someone that if you don't know how to use it they can wreck anything by using it wreck something or seriously hurt themselves so that's our three random winners uh now we're getting to the moment everyone's been waiting for, you know, the official, official number. Are, what are we, what's really the name of this?

The Massonomics favorite? Yeah, Massonomics favorite. I think we've used some, several different names over the last couple of weeks, but. And I just want to, as we're getting to this, I want to mention some things that stuck out to me. Big Eddie had the honor of first. He was first submission.

Big Scott Dodds, I really liked his submission with his special. He had his Tommy plates. His plate snacks. Plate snacks, yeah. That was really good. I liked that a lot. Big Grant, sponsor of the podcast, got involved doing a tandem one with big d i like that i liked you brought it up the guy uh deadlift daddy diagoli he did the crazy yoke wagon wheel

he's in a speedo in both of them but yeah the one on the yoke and he's on some table platform we could we didn't know what that was right you still don't know what that platform thing is i don't know it was quite the elaborate setup he had another one with the red white and blue bands and that was really cool too so i like both of those a lot yeah i liked uh jonathan oldham did the uh 628 pounds which is a But then like the teabagging element with the drink spotter was really good. That was a well thought out addition to that video, I think. Big Murph. She did the Washington, D.C. medley. That was cool.

Big Nate. Big Nate was a former past winner here. Multi-time winner. He did the electric guitar. Oh, that was great. That was, to me, that was such an amazing way of, all right, let's play in the rules because I put down this constraint

of try and keep it short and snappy. Don't do anything crazy, like this long elaborate thing. And he, it was snappy, good and entertaining. I like that one a lot. I liked, I thought he really took the rules and did something really cool with it you know within the rules there big jen had her tommy versus thomas jefferson meme which i thought was hilarious i really like using the massonomics versus that was great it's always

good uh big uh ryan from iowa had a couple good submissions like the uh uh he had most fireworks in a video because multiple of them had fireworks he i think he wins the award for most fireworks in one submission so props to him on that i like big steve was in full hockey goalie gear jefferson which that would be challenging who had their who had their kid with the sparkler or a Roman candle? I can't remember which one that is. I forgot who that was, too. I thought that was really funny. They're outside doing the Jefferson deadlift,

and their kid's running around with the sparkler in their hand. Big Jeff was deadlifting inside Independence Hall. That was really good, too. Which was good. Then one I really liked was Big Dylan. It was the drink spotter up close hanging on the chain and he was deadlift jefferson deadlifting out of focus in the back stain just a very art just yes is the stain really made it feel very artsy

um then a couple that did not play within the rules that I would call out here are one big Daniel Dixon. He was up there for one of the longest submissions, but best costumes. Oh, it was great. It was great. Yeah. It was very funny how long their video went and the costumes they had on. That was awesome. Yes, absolutely.

and the costumes they had on. That was awesome. Yes, absolutely. So those costumes were not like the cheap $15 wig. Those were like good costumes. This is fairly legit. It was beer underscore bourbon underscore and underscore barbells that had. He was Jefferson outside with his kids with the fireworks. that had he was jefferson okay jefferson outside with the fireworks yeah then setting the record when we specifically asked for uh you know you i think you're quoted as saying just do the lift

um breaking the record longest video a minute and 30 seconds long mostly squat videos matt which although not playing within the rules, that video definitely made me laugh. Yep. Still very funny. I really like when, uh, when Thomas Jeff, the statue, Thomas Jefferson is talking there and he was at, he actually deadlifted at the Jefferson Memorial. He got the strength co plates right up there at sure looked like to me, unless there was handiwork involved.

And I'm surprised he got to do that. Yeah. You just think all these, when people are bringing weights out in public that somewhere there would be an issue with someone seeing you do that. And I like that he brought his kids with him to do it, to turn it into a family affair so that if he's going down, they're all going down with him. Yep, yep. Okay.

I mean, I could go on all day about highlighting things that i thought there was yeah there was lots of medleys we saw a fair number of a lot a lot of tandem yeah tandem medleys tandems creative bar usage those are always fun to watch enjoyed a couple of couple of good good medleys were um old man scantz of course and then matt Harris had a really good he did the cut where in each one he was in a completely different Mastanomics outfit and I always appreciate that where it's like everyone was a new bar and a new Mastanomics outfit

should we get to the I'm just looking at the bottom of the list just to see if I've missed anything else I mean we could like you said have something to say about every one of these I just want to give credit oh I liked Travis Turner. They were dressed up as me and you.

Oh, yes, yes. That was good, too. They had the Tanner and Tommy wigs on. Yeah, and then we've talked about, like, there was a surprising number of Jeffersons over 500 pounds. Oh, yeah. Which is not easy. You know, it was no small feat.

No, and you also, you do love how everyone breaks a Jefferson off the floor pretty fast. It just starts to get wonky once it about hits the knees. Some people have to take another step. You can see him doing like the weird straightening out thing. It's funny seeing how everyone's form changes on those. Yes. So the grand winner.

We have mentioned, we have in this rundown briefly discussed the submission that we have chosen as the grand prize winner um i think this grand prize winner first of all they stayed within the rules which that's an important element of the contest matt really played into the jefferson aspect of it as well they really played into the jefferson aspect of it didn't they and you said just do the lift well they just did the lift several times in several places correct several very key places yeah so the winner of the contest uh for our submission, which actually gets the second best award, but still we're saving it for the last one here is, yes,

if you're playing along at home, you may have guessed it. It is Big Murph with her Washington, D.C., Jefferson medley tour, going to all the signs and all the um uh locations locations the last one you know jefferson memorials in the background there where she's getting it and um that was a winner for us i think it's very well done uh when i saw not or go ahead oh go no no easy choice of course but she was that was a front that was in the running from the second we saw it. Oh, yeah. Like right away when I saw that, I'm like, wow.

First of all, it just doesn't dawn on me that people live anywhere near D.C. You know, we're so landlocked in the Midwest that the fact that people actually live around there is always hard for my brain to comprehend. And then the fact that she took advantage of that location went to all those spots it was great it was so she is the grand prize winner and she will also be lifting in the lift hard live easy classic so i guess we can wait and give her her prize of um hundred dollars a hundred dollars in two dollar bills Of $100. $100? In $2 bills.

I thought you were taking notes on this. I don't know. $100 in $2 bills. I don't know. The game's made up and the prizes don't matter. But she won. So that wraps up the Jefferson Deadlift Contest this year. It was a lot of fun.

Hate to see it go, but I love to watch it leave that's right until we meet again yep yep until next year we still do have a few jefferson deadlift tees for sale though if anyone's in the market you should always be blue for one of those they're blue if that uh if that helps you okay that's a wrap on that then, huh? Oh, closure. Wow. Didn't know if we'd ever get a winner picked. Okay. Now, do we want to read any ads yet?

I think we probably should. Okay. We'll read ads and then we have a few minutes to kill possibly before our guest gets here. Okay. Which we could do maybe some little fun silly goose. We could throw in a few silly goose things in there. Okay. This week's episode

is brought to you by, well, it's brought to you by The Strength Co. And since this is meat week, check out The Strength Co. at no location other than the Lift Hard, Live Easy Classic Powerlifting Meet. They'll be set up with a booth there. They're going to have multiple. That's right. I said not one, maybe

just two special limited edition massonomics items for sale at the Strength Co. booth. They'll probably have some other stuff too, but I know they'll have two limited edition massonomics items for sale that you can check out there that you can buy. I'm excited for those items.

Get my hands on them myself, for one thing. And then also, check out their plates. Head over to thestrength.co. They're made in America. Made in America, they're rugged, but smooth. They got a nice lip on them, so they're easy to grip. And they just look damn good. They're the best looking

made in America plates that you can find. They're the go-to plates of Massanomics. Jim, thank you. The Strength Co. Go-to plates of of Massanomics, Jim. Thank you, The Strength Co. Go-to plates of the Massanomics. Lift Hard Libby Z Classic warm-up room. Absolutely. And there was a lot of vendors fighting for that spot, so you know they're good if we picked that.

That's true. So just because you sponsor the podcast doesn't mean you're automatically in here. Well, like a lot of other events, you know, Tommy D Creative, where we're going to use Tommy D Creative plates. We took bids and presentations from a lot of companies there, but we did settle on the Strength Co.

And it wasn't settling. We were very happy with it. And this episode is also brought to you by another sponsor and supporter of the Lift Hard, Live Easy Classic and another company that will also have a booth there. That is Barefoot Shoes. Most shoes harm your mobility by over restricting your foot's natural movement but not barefoot shoes they're designed with minimal restrictions so your feet can move

the way they're supposed to they tanner won't they have uh i mean they're gonna have shoes and samples right on hand so you can get a i would imagine a personalized shoe fitting from the experts themselves and we won't let any bears out of any bags but they're gonna have something cool there they're gonna have something it's gonna be great what they have there but we probably it's probably not our place and time to let any bears out of the bag but just yeah you're gonna want to see this yeah yeah you're gonna want to see this thing so while you're there while you're at the meet and listening to this, make your plans, stop by their booth, try on some shoes.

Once you try it on, you go, wow, I'm an idiot for not buying these earlier. You give them your money, you buy the shoes, you walk out, and you look good. So thank you, Barefoot Shoes. Oh, and also, if you can't make it to the meet, but you still want to get in on the Barefoot action, go to www.barefoot.shoes and use code MASSANOMICS to save 10% on your next order. Code MASSANOMICS, barefoot.shoes.

Thank you, barefoot shoes. Thanks, barefoot. They're great. Just to put it mildly. Mm-hmm. Well, you had something in here about cracks. It's almost like this is like months old. I'm really relevant anymore.

But there was like a course of three days in my life where cracks were really getting under my skin. And the first one happened where this could be a long story i'll try to i'll try to give you a bridge version just our guests might be coming in any minute but yeah yeah i'm driving down the interstate and you know when you have your cruise on and you pass a vehicle and then all of a sudden they pass you you haven't changed your speed you're like i never changed speed yep and it wasn't even like we were kind of like staying neck and neck it was like no someone would get like a mile ahead and then

you're flying by him again well this is a boat and i'm like it's really annoying when it's a truck and a boat because they're just yeah throwing rocks they are they're throwing rocks and all that it's a pain in the ass well finally after a certain point of them going by like three times me not changing my speed once i'm like screw it i'm out of here i go like 90 95 get wave i can't even see them in my rear view mirror anymore put my cruise back on i'm like they're gone i don't have to worry about this five minutes later who comes fly i'm going 85 who comes flying by me like i'm like i'm at a standstill this boat again and while they're doing it i look and there is a pullover on the, because we have like invasive species in boats now. There is a pullover.

You have to stop to get your boat checked. Have to stop to get your boat checked. I'm like, damn, these guys are flying right by the checkpoint here. Like they don't care. I couldn't believe it. So they're going by me. It's not even a mile later down the road. A game fish and parks vehicle also comes flying by me like 95 miles an hour.

Cuts right in front of me to pull these guys over. while he cuts in front of me cracks my windshield and i'm like he throws a rock at me i'm like really i could not get away from this damn vehicle they finally i think they're gone and then again i have to suffer from this luckily it was a crack it was maybe like two inches and it was more able to get it like filled or i haven't messed with that yet but it was more towards the center of the windshield not like directly where you look so and it's also my wife's car so it's kind of her problem now this is how i look at it so that was on like a sunday i think it was the next day at least it wasn't a golf ball i mean it's still that would really suck. Yeah, it's still very drivable. Yeah, you don't have to really worry about it or anything.

But then the next day we're outside playing with the kids. My wife drops her phone, which happens. You know, everyone drops their phone and it just completely cracks and shatters the screen, which is another pain in the ass. And it was it was like an iPhone 13 pro. So, you know, they're expensive phones and she shattered at first i thought oh you can just we'll just replace the screen or whatever like you pay a few hundred bucks to do that right like shattered so bad that the phone thought it had a counterfeit camera in it it was like check your camera this is not an apple authorized which i didn't even know it could do that but it was it was so jacked up. So then I guess,

luckily enough. And yeah, so then it turned out like you'd need to replace multiple things, all this turned out that through Verizon, they would still give you like $500 traded on it, which I'm like that. I guess, sure. You guys take a phone for 500 bucks. So ended up getting a different phone on trade in not the end of the world but damn go so long without worrying about cracks and then in two days cracks just taken over say no to crack am i right crack kills well the important thing is you learned your lesson i learned my lesson i will not drive my wife's car and she is not allowed to have a phone anymore. So I think we nipped both of those in the butt. Yep, yep. Well, that's good.

I can relate to the whole crack windshield thing, you know. You can firsthand. But yours was like an exploded windshield, wasn't it? Yeah, but I like it when people have shared, like, in the Discord, you know, that's just gone down as, like, an old fun Masonomic story lore now, the golf course thing. And I like people will share they're at a golf course, and there'll be a giant sign right there that says, like, yeah, there's cars over here, and if you hit them, it's going to cost you at least $500. Like, that actually was on one of the signs at one of the golf courses. Yeah, puts the onus on someone there. Yeah, I'm like, huh, they certainly the signs at one of the golf course puts the onus on someone

there. Yeah. I'm like, huh? They certainly take a different approach than the golf course. That sign certainly wasn't at the golf course that I was by. Yep. Tanner, I hate to cut you off, but our guest has arrived. I could tell the golf course story more times later. Let's put a pin in that one. I can't wait to hear it again. let's put a pin in that one. I can't wait to hear it again. I'm just kicking everyone else out here. All right.

Big Dan, big nitro. We're excited to get you on the massonomics podcast. This is a super cool experience for us because right now this is so timely muscle muscles and mayhem is we're even talking. It's number one show on Netflix as we speak. And you're kind of the star of the show, and we're getting you here on the podcast. So we're super pumped to talk about it. I was thrilled to be here, man.

And I thought at first, you know, I thought it was a dating show. I was like, mass dating. And then I realized it was you studly guys. And I was so deceived that I get to talk about something I love. Slinging iron, printing at the pulpit of iron. Things that my whole life has evolved around for the last 50 years. It's not the first time someone thought we were dating related. And then they saw us and and they're like, Oh wow, I was wrong there. These guys definitely don't know about dating. Usually my date is going to the gym. I have a home gym now. That's the one daily date

that I never break. So you, so you train at home. That's part of what we wanted to talk to you about. What do you, how is your home gym set gym setup do you have a garage or a basement or a separate room what's your setup like so i once have a three-car garage and one whole section of that three cars is my gym i've got the three quarter inch horse stall mat rubber matting yeah fantastic because i still do a little crossfit i've got that uh foldable foldable rack that goes up against the wall that gets out of the way, but I never fold it up because I don't work a car there. I've got kettlebells. I don't have much weight in there anymore. I think I've got like 400 pounds or so. I've got a couple of road bars, a male and a female. I've got a rowing machine. I've got a Peloton bike and I've got a Peloton

treadmill on the other side that my wife uses. And I use the Peloton bike as well. And then right outside my office window here on the side of my house, I have a cold plunge, which is from the cold plunge, which is part of my daily program. Awesome. So you have a good setup, though. I mean, you have everything you need. You have no reason to need to get to a separate commercial gym anymore. No. Well, you know, I hadn get to a separate commercial gym anymore. No. Well, you know, I hadn't gone to a commercial gym in a while.

Look, I've been to all the gold and different gyms across America. I love meeting people in gyms. And then I've done the 24-hour LA Fitness. You know, wherever I can get the fitness in, I get it in. And I did CrossFit for maybe five, six years, maybe seven years, and I competed as well. And I really love the CrossFit community. I felt like some of the moves got to be a little difficult on the joints, you know,

as you get older, the snatches, the muscles, muscle ups, those got to be rough on the shoulders. So I now now I, it's a mixture of body weight stuff and you guys are going to think I'm a wimp in between a lot of pickleball. Okay. No, that's, that's a skill in itself,

in itself. You know what I'd like to do, Tanner and Tommy is I like to pick a skill, whether it was CrossFit and learning Olympic moves and muscle-ups something I've never done I have the strength I had to stand down and I love trying to learn and perfect a new skill and trying to be one of the best in the world and you know pickleball has been about a year and a half and for me it's more than just going out and playing a game but it's good it's very social but

for me it's like a science. How do I get better? What's the path to getting better? Where are my weaknesses? And I even got to the point now where I have a ball machine, like it just fires balls. And I go and I practice by myself. So me, it's a mental game to keep myself sharp, fresh.

Because I feel as human beings, we're always working. We need to be working towards something. We need to have a goal. We need to be trying to get better every single day. For me, that's something that's always been intrinsic. I just want to get a little better, and I need to focus my mind on that, and I need to be able to measure it. Does that make sense? Absolutely. It also makes sense, things being segmented. You're not always going to have the same goals and the same desires over the course of 40 years. You know, you're going to change, even in fitness, what you approach, how you approach it and what you want to be able to achieve with it. And I think you've definitely had some different stages.

You know, you've played, I think you played high-level football, American football. Obviously, your American Gladiator stage where you're yoked and you talk about CrossFit and now some of the other stuff you do. But where in there do you think you are? You talked about all this macho slinging on you and all this stuff. You just couldn't get yourself to say the word pickleball. The pickleball. The technical mastery with pickleball. There's not a lot of guys with beards like yours in pickleball.

I'll say it. I mean, just a different kind of guy. That's fair. I got a little, you know, I don't know what those are. Just a little stubble, a weak, sorry, a tent at something. Double beards can play, but not like Tanner, you know, big, you know, burly guy beards. I don't see them in pickleball. Oh, that's too hot.

You know, big, you know, burly guy gears. I don't see them in football. No, that's too hot. So where in there were you strong, what you would consider your strongest? Was it when you were in the heat of American Gladiators? Is that when you were your biggest and strongest? Or would it have been during football? Or where in your career was that? Oddly, you know, I didn't deadlift much during football.

Played college football at San Jose State. had a brief stint up in the NFL, and I played for a year in the European Italian Professional League, which was fantastic. But the strongest deadlift I ever had was as a 49-year-old man. I was like almost 500 pounds. And it was just because we never trained the deadlift back in college because there's an old theory, oh, you're going to hurt your back when you deadlift.

So we did more explosive movements, and we pretty much did the bench and a lot of squats. So my strongest deadlift, I think it was 478 or something, and that was when I was 50 years old. My other strongest was when I was 50 years old yeah my other strongest was when I was in Italy playing American football um and I was big I think you know I was 262 was probably the biggest I got that was huge for me and how tall are you 62 62 okay yeah that that's a big guy yeah you know the weird thing about it and I'm sure maybe you guys have gone through this,

is, you know, I was big as hell, but I still felt little. I kept thinking, I got to grow, I got to grow. Absolutely. I played there, and let me think, maybe 87. At that time, and maybe still today, you could go into a pharmacy and you could get roids. You know, so the stuff that I was getting here, like parabolin, you know, back then, I don't know what it was, $10 a shot. Yeah, those little amplifiers you popped open. I could go to a pharmacy and just go buy them for two bucks a piece and so that you know you're pounding

parabol and impasta and you're working your ass off and you know i got pretty big and strong i think i benched like 460 um and i was strong 500 for reps yeah but when i say when i say squatting i wasn't doing the you know cross you know, break parallel ass to the grass squat. I was going down to the bench. You know, I put the bench press under me. And at 500 pounds, I remember getting six, eight reps and, you know, still feeling like I wasn't strong enough. Yeah, that is the quest for strength. You're never really strong enough once you get going.

You're never big enough. You're never strong enough. So that is very relatable. enough once you get going. You're never big enough, you're never strong enough, so that is very relatable. I remember being a young guy and first being 18 years old, first being introduced to steroids. At that time, it wasn't illegal. At that time, it wasn't in the zeitgeist. When a guy in the gym said to me, I said, dude, you look great. What do you do?

I was actually 17 and a half. He just said, I take steroids. I was like, what is that? He says, you know, there's a supplement that you take, you inject it, I get it from a doctor. You know, they make you bigger, stronger, they let you recuperate faster. And I was like, what? Because now you say steroids. I was like, oh, I know what that what that is back then I had no idea and he said yeah you know um you know some people think Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Hulk take them and maybe some professional football players you know my doctor uh uh prescribes to all those people so at 17 and a half just getting injured playing football uh and seeing my dream of a scholarship evaporate I just said to the guy, let's go.

You know, sign me up. And I went up to see Dr. Kerr from Orange County, California, up to where he was in Los Angeles, California, about an hour drive. And I get there and he's like, I can't prescribe you if you're not 18 yet. So I waited till my 18th birthday. And for some reason, I remember this figure.

My dad gave me $172 to go see Dr. Kerr to pay for his visit to get my first cycle of steroids. And so I took it up there on my 18th birthday. And I went and saw him. I remember him taking me into his office. And, you know, he says, OK, this is, you know, what we're going to do. And he opens up this cupboard. And it's all these ampoules of 10 cc of testosterone syphilis and it was just like it was like an aria you know it's like oh and i wasn't afraid of the side effects i was afraid they weren't going to want because I had so much of my identity wrapped up in being a football player.

And he started me off on 200 milligrams of SIP along with two, I think it was five milligrams of D-ball. And he said, OK, take this. And I was like, OK. And I started to recover quickly and I got big quickly. I was a young 18-year-old guy. And my buddy, who's the one who introduced me to him when we got the bodybuilding, he just said, hey, when you start to feel your gains stop,

go up and talk to him. Just go back up and see him and tell him you're feeling your gains stopped. And so I think it was about six, eight weeks. Even though I was still getting gains, my buddy prodded me to go back up there and get more. So I went back up there, and he said, okay, here, take four Dynavol a day now. So 20 milligrams of Dynavol, 200 milligrams of Tessin.

And he said, when this stops, when you stop feeling gains on this, come back, and I'll switch you up to something different. What you did, and I think it was an older drug called Anadrol 50 or something. It was another oral pill. It's waiting for your time. Nobody takes oils anymore. So I went and did that, but I do remember

this. I said, when do I go off? And he looked at me and he kind of funny, he said, well, never. I said, what? He says, yeah, never. You don't have to go off and he looked at me and he kind of funny he said well never i said what he says yeah never you don't you don't have to go off and you know even though i was a young guy you know 18 and a half and we had that conversation i just kind of thought like you know something not right with what he's telling you know and i think by going on the juice at a young age and you know it's not a heavy dose as you guys know what i'm prescribing it what i'm saying right now to you is if you go to a trt

clinic you know a lot of them will prescribe 200 milligrams and you know take 200 which is way way too much you know i think i think it's always if you're an adult you know trying to get your testosterone levels right i would think i would think it's a minimal uh effective dosage even if it's you know 40 milligrams a week because once you open that can of worms you open that gene it's pretty hard to get it back in the bottle because of the testosterone suppression um so yeah it was uh you know it's been an interesting journey you know off and on of being a pro athlete of going to college and you know when i was in college at san jose state guys it wasn't even illegal they weren't even testing yeah that last year of college is when they said hey you know that

this is this new drug we can't take it so i mean it wasn't like now there's guidelines now there's rules now there's water and if you walk the reservation and you take these drugs when you get caught or even if you take these drugs it's cheap right so it was just a different different world yeah it's weird i had some guy hit me up i don't know if it was instagram or facebook or whatever it was, no, you knew what steroids were when he told you when you were 17 and a half. I was like, dickwad. Were you there? The Russians were taking them and this and that. You knew you're lying. I was just like, dude. Why would I lie? It's about the open book that you are.

Why is that the thing you would be lying? Why would you be like, no, this is where I draw the line. This is where I'm not going to tell the truth yeah well when i wrote the first book gladiator true story of rage raging redemption i just wanted to put it out there just because it was cathartic you know it was just like i am tired of you know not being 100% transparent and it wasn't like people knocking on my door or anybody asking me but it was just part of the experience of you know

coming full circle and the human growth and not growth yeah right no pun intended and you know when people ask me now, I'm truthful. You know, yeah, I take 80 milligrams of test a week. I get it from, you know, there's a gal in Studio City.

She runs an anti-aging center. Stephanie Wolf, the company's novice. She's fantastic. She does all the blood work. She checks the follicle-stimulating hormone, everything. And I try to keep my testosterone levels between 800 and 900 milligrams. 800 and 900. Is it milligrams or what is it?

Oh, I know. Yeah, I don't actually know. No, I don't think that that's the right unit of measurement. But, yeah, I know what you're talking about. 800, 900, we're on that scale. We try to keep an optimal dose. And I get my blood work six times. We've done six to eight times a year.

And, you know, what I don't like and I think is really unfair is when a guy's taking gear and he lies about it and he doesn't admit it because in some way he thinks it's going to take away from his accomplishments and we both everybody who's taking gear knows that you gotta work your ass off to get a physique to get strong i've got a lot of friends you know office suit guys who are taking gear at clinics and they're like why don't i look like you dude you gotta you gotta pray at the pulpit you gotta work oh i just thought i would take him and get huge and glean and it doesn't work that way so what i hate is when guys are taking a little bit of gear and other guys see them who are working their ass off, doing the same workouts, but they don't look the same. Because it makes that guy or girl start to feel like, what's wrong with me? I'm doing all the same things.

I'm buying that protein powder you're pushing. I'm taking all the supplements you're saying, but I don't look like you. And it's not fair because it makes that person feel like they're doing something wrong. Right. You know, taking a little gear, just, you know, say, yeah, so what? This is what I do. You know, that's my opinion. Yeah.

So you, you know, you've gone through some unique, I would say, phases of public perception with steroids, you know, from the early days of people almost not even knowing what they are to then through the late 80s, 90s, early 2000s, you know, when they were really demonized, you know, there was a witch hunt for these things across all sports. You know, people were coming after them. And now, you know, with social media, people are being a little more open. Like you had mentioned, TRT clinics are everywhere. You know, you can have, there's a good chance your coworker's on and you might not even know it. Like, do you, do you notice that? Do you feel like public perception is changing around steroids and testosterone again? I think it is, but I still think there's a marketing game there where TRT is not steroids. Right. That's absolutely true. No, no, that's not, I'm not taking steroids. I'm taking TRT. Right.

No, I'm not taking steroids. I'm taking TRT. Right. What? For everybody listening, I know your audience knows the difference, right? But like if we were on Jimmy Fallon or somebody, he probably thinks TRT is different than steroids. Right. I think dosage, I was just having this conversation with my significant other, and we're talking about a friend of ours, you know.

Oh, no, no, they go to the TRT clinic. They're not on steroids. I'm like, what are you talking? It's the same ingredient. Testosterone siponate is the go-to, you know. And so I think people are, a lot more people are open about it. And I think that's the way it should be. But I also respect people's privacy. I think the largest growing segment of people taking testosterone, which a lot of people are not talking about, which I find is fascinating, is women.

Women, I think in their 40s and 50s and early 60s, a lot of them are getting prescribed, you know, minute amounts of testosterone. And you look at them and you have no idea. They just look like some, you know, very attractive, you know, woman in her 50s. And, you know, I know quite a few more friendly and so yeah yeah my doctor's balancing the hormones and they give me a little testosterone either the cream or even sometimes it's an injectable or sometimes it's the whatever things they shoot me but they stay there for you know 60 days I can't right like the pellets I think yeah yeah and look I think you know if it helps you feel better about yourself if it helps you lead up if it helps you with more energy and libido to be the best you know human you could be um i'm for it i don't

think and this is an after-school public announcement i don't think and this is an after school public announcement I don't think young kids should use their origin bone plates and not bone jets and if you're playing a sport that is tested it is cheating don't do them but yeah I think it's I'm okay with it if you want to keep it a secret

if you want to talk about it you know the other thing I've been into lately which I found like in the last maybe the last two years are therapeutic peptides are you guys familiar with us a little bit from hearing people talk about stuff i'd say there's like it's letters and numbers is like what they like it's hbc 157 or that's that's made up but yeah you can see there yeah there you go yes yes that's right yeah for me you know i want to be able to increase my health span along with my lifespan and i've dedicated a large part of my free space in my brain to meeting guys like you know peter tia davidson claire listening to uh uh anduberman, you know, guys that are Harvard, Stanford guys who are all on that cutting edge because, you know, I've got a lot of things I love in life.

You know, I've got a 12-year-old stepson. I've got a 36-year-old son. I've got, you know, my brothers and sisters, and I've got so many good friends. Like I said, a lot of things I love in my life and I want to be here. And I want to be here and also have that, you know, health span along with my lifespan where I can still go out and do things, you know. So I think therapeutic peptides along with, you know, I've been doing some research on metformin as an anti-aging drug. It's a diabetes drug.

I think 40 to 60 million people take it. But I'm no doctor. Do your own research, obviously. But that's part of my goal. And it's not the vain idea of being immortal, that I want to be here forever. It's, like I said, more rooted in there's a lot of things I love in my life and a lot of people I love in my life I want to be here and help you for them get to share time with them you know

for as long as possible because when I was a young guy it was just about me what can I get what can I have who can I make you look at me you know and um as i get older i'm 59 this year and after the heart attack 10 years ago i think just you know the perception just really changed guys you know when you have a heart attack and when you think you're going to die which i thought i was going to so many things you think in your life right now to Tommy and Tana, that you think are important, just like in an instant, they have no meaning and no value. You know, like my big house on the Mulholland Hills, the plaques on my wall, the German cars in the driveway. In a second, they were just, when I was in that hospital, the doctors telling me that after rushing into surgery,

it just meant nothing. I'll tell you the two things I wanted that were most important to me. One was I wanted the people that I loved to know that I loved them. One. Two, I also wanted the people I loved close to me. At that time, nothing else mattered. at that time nothing else mattered and by having that experience was really a gift of a heart attack because i feel like i for the first time in my life i got the answers to the test before the test and based upon that i've kind of rebuilt my life with that understanding and new priorities because when i was your guys's age i always thought that time was guaranteed and i realized you know time isn't guaranteed and you know find happiness not in those big moments because they're rare. You know, winning the competition, selling a show on Netflix, you know. I mean, it's rare.

I sold that show two and a half years ago. I pitched and created it and sold to Netflix two and a half years ago. It's now on. We're number one for a week. You know, it's so rare. And if you save your happiness for those times, you're going to be unhappy 99 of the time so the the idea was i really had to learn to enjoy those simple moments of you know human beauty and truth you know the

sound of your daughter your son laughing you know just those things you hear about that so often in my life i would pass by. You know what I mean? Just to try to get to that next thing, to get to the next big lift, to get to that next moment. You know, you get to a point in your life where you're chasing the next bite before you finish the last. Right. And you're on that cycle of always chasing happiness but never being happy. And eventually that switched, you know, to me for finding fulfillment. And those eventually it's which you know to me for

finding fulfillment and those little simple things you know give me fulfillment do you guys know as a legendary talker can anybody warn you that's right well that's what a podcast is for that's right yeah i think that that is a really good uh that's a powerful message and that's a good message and it's applicable to a lot of people but that being being said, you are on a peak right now still. I agree, it's great to get joy out of all the just the regular stuff. But right now, you are on a peak muscle and mayhem on Netflix is number one right now. I'm seeing it kind of everywhere. When you turn on your TV, it's the first thing at the top of the list. When I'm listening to podcasts, almost every podcast is mentioning I'm hearing it everywhere. What does it feel like?

Does it feel kind of like when American Gladiators originally was taking off and successful? Does it feel like that all over again? Does it feel different? What's it like? I think they say that youth is wasted on the young right and you know with time being in this place again um where you get that momentary light shined on you i see it for what it is you know it's just this momentary light you get shined on you. I see it for what it is. You know, it's just this momentary light, you get shined on you, or, you know, people want you on podcasts, and you know, people slide into your DMs. You know, I can enjoy that. But I've learned to manage the expectations you know um and just take it one day at a time

and at first it was yeah look when we had number one my producing partner and i were like what the fuck dude dude we're like dude where's my car dude dude dude dude i mean we let ourselves celebrate and embrace that moment you know and, and my, uh, Kim, my snippet other, you know, she's like, Oh my God, people are starting to come up to you all the time when you're at the restaurant, walking at the airport. And I said, look, honey, it's going to last, you know, probably four or six weeks. Let's just enjoy it. Um, you know, uh, and I've been on social media a lot more cause I wasn't doing a lot

of social media and I try to return every, you know, DM, you know, to somebody saying if they have enough time to say, I watched your show and Netflix and it meant a lot to me. And, you know, the part where you say, you know, you need to go to therapy and raise your hand and get help. You know, I appreciate you saying that because I was ashamed to. You know, I appreciate you saying that because I was ashamed to. So if someone's got enough time to write me something, I'm going to at this point, I'm going to go back and respond to each person, person, even if there's been a couple thousand people. You know, so I just batch out an hour at a time. I get on my bike and just ride. But, you know, I know with most things this will pass and it's provides me external happiness you know it's a good feeling but it's um uh i i still like today i'm doing media again like the 12th day and then tomorrow

i go right back to work and we're creating the next project you know so it's, you got to love the work, right? If you only live for the, you know, the meat, the competition, you know, like we talked about earlier, chasing happiness, you know, that's all you live for is that day on stage or that day at the powerlifting meet or that whatever the CrossFit competition, if that's all you live for, and that's where your only happiness is, you're going to be happy happy 99 of the time you gotta love what you do you gotta find enjoyment what you do now look i know sometimes when you're you know when i'm out there in the gym and i'm tired and i'm you know uh busting my ass that's not fun right that's the misconception that all those other people on the outside think can or they think

that when you're in oh oh, you love working out. It's so easy for you, right? Yeah. Right? When people say that, oh, it's easy. Right, right. Yeah. Do you guys get that?

Oh, yeah. Absolutely. People just think, oh, you have to just have fun all the time. Sometimes you don't want to be there. Yeah. And, you know, look, if I was to break down to success the one simple ability it would be the ability to get yourself to do the shit that you need to do when you don't feel like when you don't

want to when you're tired when your friends are called something else if you can't want to, when you're tired, when your friends are called, something else. If you can get yourself to do stuff that you don't want to, but that you need to do, then I have no doubt, no matter what endeavor you choose in life, that you are going to be successful. Does that make sense? Oh yeah, absolutely. I agree completely. Yeah. So when you were working on the show, I mean, you know, takes a lot of work, a lot of time, I'm sure went into it, all that. Like, did you ever think the reception would be what it is right now? Like was top 10 on Netflix ever something that you thought was even a possibility?

Back on the original show? No, I'm saying like with the muscles and mayhem, the documentary. Yeah, that was, that was the extrinsic goal. You know, I knew there was a huge glad American gladiator fan base, you know, it's been 30 years and, you know, I've got in the street and I get some guy honking at me, you know, and he goes down this road, you know, it happens, you know, not on my daily circle, you know, I'm going circle you know i'm going you know my garage

gym and the grocery but when i get out of my circle like grocery store or you know airport or travel at restaurant it happens almost every day you know so i know there was a huge audience it was just you know amazing you know that uh my partner over at game seven my producing partner that we got you know two great directors you know we got uh jared hess from napoleon dynamite uh natural libro and then we got another guy named tony vanucu uh who did this um great show on netflix it was about the girlfriend that didn't exist it was man titanti Teo who got catfished. We had a combination of guys as funny as Fudge

with Jared and who had the lightness and then we had a guy who was really good with drama and personal relationships and Tony. We got so lucky on this combination of guys to take this idea of the American Gladiators and um uh turning it you

know helping turn it into the five-part docu-series that you see now and i think what's great about it and you guys tell me your personal experiences almost everybody who watches it has some memory when they were younger and used to watch totally totally. Totally. Yeah. And I, I was born in like 87. So I remember it as a little, you know, I was a young kid. So I have like these very young, you know, where I'm very young memories of it. And it's a, it was, it was a, it's an awesome trip down like a childhood growing up memory lane. You know, that's what part of, for me, what makes it so cool.

It was the same thing for me. I, you know, I was born in 89 and I remember being a little kid and seeing it on TV. And so many of the events were erased from my memory. And it's like, you start seeing it and it's like bringing it back.

Like the treadmill thing, you guys ran up with the arrows coming down. Like I totally forgot that existed. And then the kind of the zip line thing where you'd move with your hands. I forgot about that too. And seeing those, of the zip line thing where you'd move with your hands. I forgot about that too. And seeing those, it was like unlocking these deep memories in my brain.

Yeah. I think that's, you know, I think a lot of us, you know, we like to reminisce. And I think my nostalgia is, you know,

all the, we all look for that nostalgia because it brings us back to a simpler time. Right. A simple time when you were young, you guys were quite young, but it brings you back to that time. Maybe you're playing it in the backyard with your brother.

We live in a complicated world right now. There's a lot of great things in this world, but it's a complicated world. There's a lot of tough things going on, a lot of beautiful things going. But when you can find something that transports you back to that time i think it's such a memorable thing and that's one of the things that we really wanted to do with the show we wanted to bring it back you know to a uh different time where you could go back like a time capsule well you know to me it was also important to have sex drugs steroids and rock and roll in there right right i think it was also really important you know to be entertaining i said let's do this thing you know here's the here's the here's how it's going to be entertaining and what the directors did which was so genius what jared's idea was is to animate certain

sequences yeah those we were we talked about the animation that That was good stuff. Brought life to some of those stories. The bad way now, looking back, is Tanner, you're playing me in a recreation. I'd love to see that show, actually. Tanner playing me. You didn't get the joke. You cut out for just a second. Yeah, cut out on us just for a second. Yeah, say that again.

You're playing me, and I said, Tom, you're playing Ice. There we go. I'm the good-looking one in this scenario. It was nice. She was great. That's good. I do have to ask you a couple gladiators questions. So you probably answered some of these a hundred times,

but it's still fun. I want to hear what was your favorite event to do what was the coolest one i can tell you the least favorite yeah what's that it's a fan favorite well this is my second least favorite my life the least athletic event to do on american gladiators that was a lot of people's favorite was the assault the tennis ball cannon yeah yeah yeah and the tennis ball cannon is so cool and like if you're up there as a gladiator shooting it you're just like anybody could do it it didn't take that athletic ability and then like if you lost like this wind thing blew your hair back like fabio so i think the most physically damaging one was human cannonball,

where these guys were like 60 feet away up on a platform, and they swing down into you like Tarzan and knock the shit out of you when you're standing on the platform. I'm not a small guy. I played football, stuff like that. I wouldn't want to be standing. You are literally alone on an island just getting rammed into. That's tough tough i don't even know how you can be good at that hardly that's tough yeah you just you got to be a big guy and just be able to shit you know the first couple

seasons they had guys that are 240 250 coming at you you know by the time they hit you you know it's like it's like a map truck and you're just then they said like you couldn't deflect with your pad like like a bull guy you had to take the impact that really that really sucked um and that was like if there's only one i was kind of afraid of a little bit you know that would have been that one was just like oh shit yeah all right go up there just grit your teeth man down squeeze your body and just try to you know it's just oh shit yeah all right go up there just grit your teeth man down squeeze your body and just try to you know it's just like someone saying you know what i'm gonna punch you in the face you stand there yeah cool that's like um i think the funnest one was uh powerball powerball was that game game where the contenders stood at

each end of like a circle and on the playing floor you had these canisters and they had to take these balls and dump them and you had to tackle. Yeah, that's cool. That is like football, right? That's what that is like to me.

Yeah, that's cool. That can also hurt. in the docu series, I think in episode one, I only time I've been knocked out, you know, like, Oh yeah, you really got,

yeah. I took a shot and the guy was, you know, he played fullback for the Patriot. I think Craig Williams, maybe it was his name. He played fullback for the Patriots. He was 250 pounds.

He lowered his shoulder. I lowered it. He was running right at me. Bang! Down goes Nitro! Down goes Nitro! People are like, did you go into concussion for a call? It's like, what the hell is that? Actually got back up and tried to tackle people.

Who's the best gladiator of all time? Yourself not excluded from conversation. Um, I, for me, gladiators was more than what you did on the field, what you did on the field, what you did on the arena floor. Gladiator also meant that you were a personality. It's like WWE.

Stone Cold Steve Austin wasn't one of the best wrestlers of all time just because he had good wrestling moves. I mean, there's a lot that goes into that. Persona meant to it, and it was a fine line to walk because you have a real competition, but yet you have a persona that seems like it's you, but it doesn't go into that area where it's fake like wrestling. So it's that real fine line but you know as i say

that i think about all the athletes out there right now so many athletes now have that um you know persona you know floyd mayweather the guy you love to hate conor mcgregor you know the crazy little english english guy yeah whatever it is um you know scoring the touchdown and pretending you're calling on your cell phone so a lot of these gladiators are getting i mean a lot of these athletes have this persona so if you took everything around i would think humbly i i probably was the best um but i don't think i was the best athlete but the the best full package. I think Lazer, Jim Starr was a great athlete and more fierce than I was on the competitive field.

Also jacked out of his mind too. He was huge. Yeah, we played strike ball for the Ramsams together and we know best buddies quickly so i know him very very well uh and you know he's you saw on this show the muscles and mayhem that he had quite a transformation you know he was a guy that would you know talk with his fists i mean we would be you know partying at the red onion which was a club in you know socal we're having a Onion, which is a club in SoCal. We're having a good time. That's meeting girls.

And all of a sudden, I'd look at him, and he'd be looking across the bar. And his jaw would just be grinding. What's up? He's like, hey, you see those guys over there? They're talking about us. Dude, just drink your beer. Have a good time. There's girls here. And he would have a beer but i could

just see his shoulders start to crawl up and he would be looking at him he's like dude look at him you're laughing at us and i look over these guys are just having a good time it happened so many times you'd be like i'm gonna go talk to you and then that meant i'm gonna go punch him in the face yeah yeah he walks across the bar and he's like what what a bam he was a guy i mean we got that and there's so many fights including we fought each other i mean we got into a fist fight in palm springs and you know the middle of spring break uh i was happy to see in his transformation as a being, that he started to understand all that anger was because he didn't get the approval from his father.

And once he made peace with his father, he said all that anger went away like in a drop of a hat. So when you see your friends around you grow, I think as human beings, it makes you, and it made me really, really happy. And that's another reason I was so happy to do this docu-series because you got to see some people do one, you know, some people didn't.

Some people were able to triumph over their tragedies and some people can't. Just, you know, so is life. Right. We know, so we've got this game. We have a thousand questions we could ask you, but we know you even said you got a lot of stuff you're doing this week,

but we do have this one little game we play with every guest, so we got to make sure to get to that. It's called Overrated to Underrated. You can probably guess what we're going to do, but we just got a short list of topics, and it's your job to decide if each one is over or under. The key is you just can't ride the line. You have to pick an overrated or underrated on each one. Who's this pick? It's not great.

Is it better than Body Haters? It might be about on par with when you first started there, yeah. Exploited and taken advantage of again. Yeah, if we do action figures, you also won't get any of that. Okay, so overrated or underrated? I have a question. What's all the t-shirts and stuff behind you? Oh, that's just part of our

company, Mastonomics. We just make a bunch of lifting-related t-shirts and stuff. If we get your address, we'll make sure you've got some. We sell these cup holders that go on your squat rack so you don't spill a beverage in the gym and stuff like that.

You cut out on us for a second there. What does it say, Natty? Oh. Yeah, yours says Natty for life. We actually have one that says natural for life. We'll send you that one as one of them. Oh, yeah. So with American Gliders, the big controversy is we didn't get a piece of merchandising and that's why right

so if i play your game i i want a piece of merch yeah that's fair we'll this will be the first one we'll send you i don't know how well you can see this but it's uh it is it does say natural for life. So that'll be the first one we send. Okay. All right. So topic number one, overrated or underrated. We'll go dinner theaters. Overrated or underrated dinner theaters. Well, we had an American Gladiator dinner theater in orlando florida after the gladiators was over

and to me i you know it was just a disjustice to see this once great show that sold out madison square garden now being put on in this little theater where people are having a pork chop and watching you go on. So I'm going to have to say overrated. Yeah, that's fair. I think they're kind of a... I don't know where you'd have to travel to even get to a dinner theater anymore. Those seem like those were in style.

Yeah. I guess out here in California, they're the pirate times. Okay. Overrated or underrated TED Talks? I think they're underrated. I have a TED Talk.

You know that. It's shameless plug. You can find it on Google. It's After the Heart Attack and the Things I Learned. I gave you guys just a brief thing. To me, it's underrated because I think a lot of people don't realize that you can take an expert's knowledge that they spent a lifetime curating and studying, and you could get the overview and gist of it in 12 to 18 minutes. Yeah. I haven't seen yours yet, but I'm going to

check it out here. I had it on my list and I haven't watched it yet, but I want to check it out. Okay, here's a good one for you. Overrated or underrated? Meryl Streep. Oh, that's a hard one. Are these specifically for me?

These are the nitro over-unders. Oh, that's a hard one. Are these specifically for me? Yeah. This is the such a nut. Handcrafted. These are the nitro over-unders. Oh, Death Becomes Her. I think she's underrated. I think she's a gem. You know, I talk about where I did that scene with her in Death Becomes Her. And, you know, she came out and she was like, you know.

So we have this scene where she enters a room and I'm across from her. And she asks me something. And then I have to point her to Isabel Rosalina who's sitting on the couch. And when she walks in on that scene, you know, we're both dressed. It's just her across from me. She's five feet from me. She starts doing this weird thing like blowing her hair out of her face. And she wasn't doing this in rehearsal.

And I'm thinking, oh, my God, you know, this is like method acting. You know, she's blowing her hair out of her face and she wasn't doing this in rehearsal and i'm thinking oh my god you know this is like method acting you know she's blowing her hair out of her face but like like she's almost having a stroke and so i look back at her and i start doing it too you know we're both doing this and she looks at me like oddly then she starts the scene she asked me the question and after it's over i go up to her i said well you know i didn't know what you're doing that was fantastic you know you knew this you're doing this you know like blowing this doing this weird thing i says is that method acting and she looked at me she said no darling you had a hair in your face and i was trying to tell you before the scene i would say she's definitely underrated because she saved my life yeah yeah awesome all right Last one, overrated or underrated?

Friend of yours, we've gotten to chat with him before too, big Michael Hearn, Titan. I love Michael Hearn. He's a pillar of strength. I don't know how he's rated. I think he's a gem.

I think anyone who can look like that for 30 years, it doesn't care if the guy's natty or not. Anybody who can put that much work in and look like that for all these years is a physical specimen and a national treasure and i think sometimes the conversation is he on drugs or isn't he on drugs takes over the conversation of how he looks and how great he looks so i'm going to say he's underrated we should uh love and appreciate michael hern and he's a good man and it seems like he wants to be a really good dad so michael hern's underrated He should be rated higher. Okay. Good news.

We just added up the scores. You did pass, overrated, underrated. So that does mean you get in on the merch deal. Yes, finally. 25 years later, I'm getting a shirt. Reach out to me. Reach out. Either email me or reach out to me on Facebook,

and I'll give you my address to send the shirt. And you better, I'm going to come and find you. We do not want that to happen, so we promise we will do it. We talked about the book a little bit. Gladiator, we didn't talk about your other book. Do you want to mention that? You got that behind your back too. And of course, we talked about Muscles and Mayhem. Everyone, I've watched,

we both watched it. Everyone should check that out. We love the show. uh yeah the other book is called f dying again they're both on amazon um f dying is the experience after a heart attack and getting a new love for life you know once i got a second chance i think it's called f dying how cheating death kicked my ass and living loving learning and living my best life. So it's, you know, they're both fantastic and they're both life-changing in different ways. Awesome. We really appreciate you taking the time. I think our listeners are going to love this. We love the lifting talk, the steroid talk, the document behind the scenes on the documentary, and a little bit of the American Gladiators lifestyle.

So it was awesome. All right, my dudes. Tanner, Tommy, thanks for having me on. I got to jump, man. I appreciate you guys so much. Thanks a lot, Dan. Perfect. Thank you. Cool beans!

Cool beans! Beans! Cool beans! Big Dan. Big Dan got the nitro cool beans, didn't he? Nitro cool. Nitro, like, is it like a nitro brew? Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, nitro brew. Yeah. Yeah. Named after Dan, I think. I think that's where the name comes from. That sounds correct now. And he's not joking, or we're not joking when we had to, that was our cutoff time because he has another, you know, something else.

He was getting like a phone call. I was very conscious of the time and we did end on exactly the right time there. So we did not make him late for his next thing. He wasn't lying. He is a master talker. We had, we're also not exaggerating. We probably had 30 questions

that we did not get to ask him. I mean, we had another two hours worth of discussion here. Easy. Yes, easy. There was a lot. I don't, I'm not sure we even got through almost our intro questions so that's i we definitely didn't ask like half of the stuff we were going to talk about no but i also knew once we got going that we were only going to get

to a few things that was cool that was fun to have someone different like that on that uh yeah isn't our typical guest i don't know if i I was aware of how much he was involved in the documentary. See, I didn't know that either. I thought maybe he was just a guy that showed up and asked him some questions. I hadn't realized it was even based around the book that he had written and everything. That's why whenever we watch a documentary or read a book, we have the guy on so we can really get the inside scoop right that's right that's right yeah we don't just review the documentary we have the guy on to talk about it i would recommend if

you haven't seen the show yet though you you got to check it out i mean you know five episodes 45 ish minutes each yeah and the stuff we talked about here we'll just have a lot more context once you see that and uh see what it was like. I would have loved to talk to him more about the tour and some of the stuff that was going on there. Yeah, that would have been fun. Maybe next time, right? Next time we get Nitro on, we'll talk more about that. I want to see this care package arrive at his house and see what his reaction is.

Yes, yes. We did talk about Ice there, and we have talked to ice about having her on the show also so maybe we'll uh make that happen not too far down the road and maybe hit us a separate set of topics for her uh or the same one same exact yeah it'd just be fun again i could literally just have that conversation with every one of them on the show oh that was cool that was fun that was a lot of fun uh okay you know what else is fun tommy what's that did i tell you about uh sputting straps oh uh maybe maybe uh big danny needs some sputting uh gear for his home gym sounds like he's

got a pretty decent home gym setup i think so yeah i could have talked to him for 20 more minutes about his home gym setup once you're on the stall mats, you're getting pretty serious. Yep. And he has the three quarter inch horse stall mats. He knows what he's doing there. Spud Inc. also knows what they're doing. You can check them out at spud-inc-straps.com. They support the show and we appreciate if you can support them. Spud Inc. started because the lifting straps available at the time were not tough enough to handle the daily punishment that comes with training as a power lifter or as an American gladiator. So sputting created their straps to a stand,

whatever your training puts them through. Finally, their training gear, it just works as hard as you do. So whether you're looking for belts, harnesses, deadlift straps, pugil sticks,

you can find that all at a sp-ink-straps.com. And today's episode. Not actually pugil sticks, but that was an American Gladiator. But you can imagine what it'd be like if they did. They'd be yellow. Well, I don't know. Swiss Link, our next sponsor, they might have those on there. In 1995, Maurice Bigmo Huffman founded Swiss Link.

Right around the time that American Gladiators was starting to wind down a little bit. He found it 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, Big Mo has been traveling far and wide in search of the best items from military forces around the world. Big Mo doesn't only find authentic military clothing for Swiss Link. He brings in everything you can imagine from Swiss military range finders to Italian police tracksuits. Swisslink.com is also home to the Swiss Link Classic Wool Blankets. They're an ideal mix of 80% wool and 20% recycled fibers. It's that special blend that provides a luxurious, soft feel while maintaining all the benefits of wool.

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Thank you, Swiss Link. Thanks, Swiss Link. Oh, what an episode. Well, you're going to have to get him a Natural for Life tea for sure, aren't we? Yeah, Natural for Life tea, a drink spotter. He'd probably like some 8-bit designs. Those are kind of from his era a little bit.

That makes sense. Maybe a Don't Curl In Me shirt, you know, know just because you probably get the humor in that yep i could see it all i could see nitro in that they would all look good on him i think yeah he might crop them into some like crazy x design but uh and like bedazzle star on it you're like whoa hey some of those uniforms they they wore you kind of took it for granted until they start talking about and you're like yeah that would be really uncomfortable wearing that and doing what some of the women's ones i'm just like how did you not have a wardrobe malfunction every single episode yes you know yeah uh no kidding the guys basically just had a singlet on which right whatever but But yeah, the women, they had

a lot going on with theirs. They did have a lot going on. And reminder, we've got a lot going on coming this weekend. It's the Massonomics Lift Hard, Live Easy Classic powerlifting event of the millennia. Is that right? I think so. Oh, we, you know, we didn't really mention the plan is to have a live stream of some sort. Yeah. We're not, we're not, I mean, there's not gonna be like live commentary or anything like that on it, but we are going to at least try to get a camera set up. So if you want to, you can watch along and I believe it's going to be on YouTube, right? Isn't that our plan? It should be live streamed through the Massanomics YouTube channel. So get over there and get subscribed to that if you're not already.

We also put out a new YouTube video every single week, so you wouldn't want to miss that. What was this last week? It was the top 10 Jefferson deadlift video. Check that out. And we made a permanent page on the website for the Jefferson leaderboard. How's that top 10 list? Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, there will be a live stream. Get over there and check it out. A few people did mention they wouldn't mind commentating, too. So I don't know. Is that possible? Like, I mean, we'd have to bring we'd have to bring.

You just have a microphone. Yeah, we have to bring like microphones. Well, I guess technically we have microphones, but we'd have to have them set up at the thing, I believe, too. What would it go through? Does it can it just go into the camera? That's. Oh, yeah. Yeah. we could just plug it into the camera i mean there's there's ways around all this that's doable um right it's just we don't know yeah there was at the very least we're shooting yeah at the very least you'll be able to see some stuff yeah we're not planning on uh graphics and uh you know cutaways and stuff like. But hopefully there will be a standing camera

that will capture the event that you can tune in on. Okay, anything else we need to tell them about that? I don't know. That's probably enough for now. We're going to have a lot to say in the coming weeks. We're going to talk about a lot after it too, aren't we? So, yeah. All right, congrats to our Jefferson Deadlift winner.

I would touch on supporting our supporting members quickly. It's a segment of the podcast where we like to give back to everyone that supports us. You know, you can become a supporting member. If you'd like to head over to our website, it's massomics.com slash join. That's where you can see all the different options, the different levels, get signed up. You get stuff like access to our exclusive discord community, which is full of like-minded individuals who are out over there

having a silly goose time, having fun, talking about lifting, talking about whatever they want to. You can get on that with them. You get a discount code to our website. You can buy some of this merch that we now have to pay royalties to, to Nitro. And you get early info on what we're doing. You know, you get a behind the, kind of a behind the scenes look at Massonomics. And every week we like to give back to those people. So this week we're giving back to Joel Wilhelm. He competed in a powerlifting meet and he totaled 1747.

I don't have the breakdown of his numbers, but that is a, that's a big meet total for Big Joe. No, that's not messing around at all. And then special shout out just to everyone, all the supporting members that participated in the Jefferson Deadlift competition. It was a supporting member-driven competition in many ways, in the way that a lot of the submissions came from supporting members, you know, well over half of them.

So thank you to all of you that participated. Sorry if you didn't all win, but at least a whole bunch of crew did get to win. So you can be happy for them. You know, don't be sad that you didn't win. Be happy that you did win because you are crew, so you all kind of won. And then lastly, check out Big Jake this week. Big Jake from State Farm is the guest on the Unpaid and Underrated podcast. That comes out tomorrow, so make sure to give that a listen.

As this comes out, it is available. So check out Big Jake and see what he's all about. So make sure to give that a listen as this comes out, it is available. So check out big Jake and see what he's all about. I'm excited to listen. Me too. Let's bring this one on, bring it on home. 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 Mastodonics at Mastodonics. See ya.