Massenomics Podcast - Ep. 477: Is Your Gym Equipment Really Made In The USA?

Episode Date: May 26, 2025

What does "Made In The USA" really mean? Not sure if we know still, but we had a fun time talking about it. Be on the lookout for that line in the sand coming this summer! Build Fast Formula Use code MASSENOMICS to save 10% on every order! BearFoot Shoes Use code MASSENOMICS to save 10% on every order! Juggernaut AI Use code MASSENOMICS to save 10%! The Strength Co Get some Go-To Plates! Texas Power Bars Get the Barbell that changed the game!

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! site everything mass an on it. Welcome everyone episode 477. Can you believe it 477 episodes of the mass economics podcast, the lifting podcast about nothing, the greasiest podcast that you're going gonna find out there My name is Tanner and my name is Tommy You got ready we had a real greasy pre-show And I think the show show is just gonna slip right into the same grease pile if we're not careful

It's like on those dawn dish soap commercials where they show just ducks covered in oil covered in grease Covered in grease and then we spend the whole show show. Yeah, it was covered in grease. And then we spend the whole show with the dawn just trying to get the grease off. Just cleaning it up. Good luck. That's what I say. I also say this week's episode is brought to you by our friends over at the strength Co.

You can check them out at the strength Co. They've got what they've got. There is the best made in America Olympic plates. They're black iron E-coated, so they're smooth and easy to grip. The go-to plates of Mastinomics Gym. And this just in, important announcement right here. This is from the horse's mouth himself. What?

Spoke with him, I think, all the way courtesy from around the globe. Even on the other side of the other side of the world, the CEO of the strength Co is making things happen. And it sounds like, yeah, you guessed it. 35 pound plates will be restocked soon. So if you've been waiting for 35 to come back in stock, you are in luck. Strength Co 35 are coming back soon. 35 pound plates. Love them or hate them. Either way, buy them from the Strength Co at thestrength.co. This episode is also brought to you by Texas Power Bars and Tanner. Also this just in special announcement Memorial Day sale sale, you can save up to $80 on a variety of Texas power bars

anything from the Texas deadlift bar the original Texas power bar the 29 millimeter bar the squat bar basically every bar in the in the lineup is anywhere between 40 and $80 off some pretty significant savings. Every style of bar looks like every coating and sleeve option to basically if you're on the fence now is the time to buy because there is some significant savings going on over at texaspowerbars.com Good Lord $80 off oof Makes me want to buy one right now

Okay, we everyone thinks they know the script of the Mastinomics podcast so we keep on flipping it This week we're gonna move in quickly and abruptly To our title topic, but first we're not quite moving into our title topic. Tommy, do you have a drink over there? Oh, yes, yes I do. What are you drinking? Oh, actually let me read a little note. Let me read a little note. Big Tanner, Big Tommy, this one has been here for a while.

It's been in the queue, and we're getting to it tonight, because we're recording on a Friday night, so this is the perfect What's in the can? Beverage you know right here. It says big Tanner big Tommy. Hope you can crack the code thought it would be a fun What's in the can tossed in the local language worksheet for you to have a go at it? There's actually three three cans in this box. He said the third fit for Big Larry legend pretty silly There's a full-blown brewery up here eh and this is from courtesy of Big Max all the way almost in the North Pole mm-hmm Canada he's a certified training facility you

look on our map the he's got a pin on the certified training facility map that will make you say what people live there that That's a place. Not many but Big Max does and he sent us a beverage so tell me what is the beverage? It is the Juicy Boy. Looks like it's from New Brew Co. in Nunavut, is that how you say it? Nunavut, Canada? Yeah and that is written in you know you see those symbols under there of it. Yeah, he sent me He actually sent me the code to bring a little whatever cuz yeah, there's like a triangle a weird B That's that that triangle thing is VVI Okay, and that well they're all kind of triangles because the next triangle is oh

My god, there's all these it's just like triangles of different but what is this? What is that? Like what code are we trying to break here? What is that? Whatever this says in I think what what language do like Eskimos but they write in like triangles like that. Yeah. yeah shows what I know. Yeah, it's like the frickin zeppelin font over here. That's what I'm saying. The code, it is not easy. That first one,

that first one. And it's also like the symbol, but it's just tilted at a slightly at a 30 degree angle differently as a different letter or a different, different to combination of two letters. So I am not going to get this. I have the first one figured out, but that second triangle. I am not sure. And there's a B and the B is. This is for this. That makes for bad bad pod it's actually a B with little it's a B to the C power Yeah, with like a super script C then a regular then a superscript B C to the B power also That's too hard

So I'm not gonna do that and We're just gonna have to have him Yeah, have him fill us in what that what matters is that this is a juicy boy IPA Yeah, does it have a crispy crack all the way from Canada? Let's find out Well, it's actually got ours both made that same now noise are quite the hiss It's real angry there's a hiss in it. Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

That's a juicy boy. It's just a juicy boy. Juicy boy. It's not your boy toy. So what do you think of a juicy boy. Juicy boy. It's not your boy toy. So what do you think of the Juicy Boy? I like it. I enjoy that. I like the courtesy of Northern Northern Canada.

So it's an IPA? 5.3%? Yeah. Not like an overly strong IPA. I feel like this is just a good, good IPA sipper. Nothing too overpowering or too crazy. I mean, this sits right at that three and a half as far as IPAs go for me.

Yeah. Since this isn't my preferred IPA, I'll give it a three. My preferred IPA would be more like, this is classically my favorite IPA. Like a Mick Golden? Yeah, like a Mick Golden, was that what I kept saying was my favorite IPA? I think so.

Yeah, a Mickalope Golden Light. I think so. Yeah, now that's an IPA I could get behind. This'll do, this is good, I appreciate it. It's just not quite a Mickalope Golden Light IPA. It just hasn't been Americanized enough for good. I appreciate it. It's just not quite a Michelob Golden Light. I've been Americanized enough for you Right, right. This is pretty raw and unfiltered and uncut. It's a lot like the Mastodon exprecio actually one other topic just one I'm limiting it to one other thing before we jump into the title topic

the We teased it for the very first time ever last week. The crew gift for everyone that doesn't know when I say crew, it's supporting member gift. We have a group of supporting members that choose to support the Mastronomics podcast and I don't know, usually about a couple times a year, we send out a mass mailer to everyone. So if you're one of those supporting members you're an existing supporting member I didn't

mention this last time what you got to do is if you're at if you think your address has changed either since you've joined up or since the last big mailer if you think it's joined if then, the later of whichever those two is more recent, then we need to make sure you send me your updated address. So DM your updated address or email it, whatever your address change is. And it doesn't count if you've ordered something else from the site since then,

because that's a different address system. So I still need your updated address, because I'm being so specific about it, because this mailer that's coming is quite possibly the coolest one we've ever had. It's a banger. It's a banger. We're getting a few of the more details worked out.

We don't know the exact timeline. We'll just say it's gonna be a summer 2025 crew exclusive gift. And, uh, there will be a line in the sand. We don't know when that is yet, but we'll talk more on the line in the sand when we get closer to the line in the sand, of course, but otherwise, if you're not an existing supporting member and if any of what I said either A confuses you or B intrigues you or C arouses you then make sure to go get signed up right now at massonomics.com slash join yes feeling a lot of weird emotions deep inside of

yourself then head over massonomics.com slash join and get signed up. With. I mean, really, without much further a dudes. Oh, is that disturbed us here? Yeah, it's title topic time one more time, just in case. We caught anyone sleeping this early in the episode. Yeah, now I'm awake. Yeah, now I'm awake. Yeah. Now, now we're ready for a title topic.

We're flipping the script and going title topic early and often. And what the heck is this week's title topic? Tommy, what do you think the title of the topic would be? Actually, we didn't decide on a formal title. We have some working ideas. We decide on a formal title. We have some working ideas. We didn't decide on a formal idea here. I said something like, is Made in America really

Made in America? Made in America, question mark? Yeah. When Made in America isn't. Actually, that's kind of sort of what it is. So what we're referring to, we've talked about some Made in America topics, like in the last year or something. We've, we've discussed stuff like this in the world of gym equipment, right? Haven't we? C's versus used versus whatever flavor of equipment you prefer to buy. We've talked about some of the pros and cons and ethics

involved with all of it. And where I guess the just hit on it first, the reason this is more on a radar of as of Rita recent is a few weeks ago in basement Brandon, shout out supporting member shared some things on Instagram from I guess he'd say a friend of his that was bringing things to light about a particular company, the company being arsenal strength, arsenal strength, make some cool pieces of equipment, I would say. I purchased one from Mastomix Gym. Yeah, you have a piece in the gym that is well loved and well used, right? Everyone loves it. There is not a person that comes that doesn't like using the Arsenal Strength humbler,

is what it's called. But Arsenal Strength, certainly marketed, I believe as Made in America, from what I understood. I actually never- Quite heavily, from what I understood I actually never heavily from what I could tell actually Yeah, I I could say this shows kind of where I land on it as a purchaser of their product If you would ask me prior to this, I don't know if we're calling it a controversy or whatever is but prior to this coming out You know if you asked me, oh are they Meredith Made in America? This is even me buying a product of theirs.

I wasn't even 100 percent sure. I know because I did because I didn't really care. That's not why I purchased the product from a purchase from because I tried it and use it as equipment. And I'm like, I want that. Yeah. And that was why I was buying it. Not because I thought it was made in America or not. But do you have the screen,

we have the screenshots of some of that stuff that. Yeah, so again, this is really hard. We're not trying to throw anyone under the bus under here or anything. It's just something that caught our attention online and it's very hard to actually fact check this or verify in any way. We tried.

So I would say, disclaimer, we're not really making claims here. We're just kind of sharing the story that we've seen and we're gonna discuss it. Yeah, and it's just outside, when you Google Arsenal made in the USA, they have a blog post that talks about it and says we're proud to design, design manufacturer and ship from Knoxville, Tennessee

and And then they have like some I know they have made in USA stickers all over their stuff So I mean from the outside it seems like yes their stuff is It gives the impression that it is made in America much in the same way that I would assume rogue is Where rogue has a big factory where they're cranking out stuff That's the impression I get from Just the surface level But what caught our attention was and this was probably a month or two back

Yeah, like like you were saying based on Brandon had shared some posts in his story from someone else having some screenshots maybe questioning whether arsenal is actually made in America and where does this start here the first screenshot okay so this and again I don't know who this actual person was that initially posted this stuff but what this person was claiming as was yes all the pieces arrived with made in America stickers Tanner does your does the humbler have Made in America stickers on it? You probably didn't put them on if you had them even, right? I don't even know. I don't recall seeing one, but I'll look. I guess I should have looked as a part of the homework for this. I don't think so, but it might.

Yeah. Well, it could have had them and you just didn't put them on too. Right. Right. But anyway, we wouldn't because I'm like I don't like Already bought it. Who am I? Get rid of it because my maiden America stickers, right? This versus I found out the hard way It's not made in the USA when the dumbbell rack arrived created with a Chinese shipping label But what pissed me off was when they had the nerve to give me like seven made in USA stickers to slap over the dumbbell rack after assembling and

Okay, so that's the first thing this person is saying the next screenshot says don't be fooled by arsenals marketing tactics It's all made in China one way that they differ from other importers Though is they receive all parts hardware and sub assemblies in bulk via containers this saves on international shipping They do take the extra step of assembling everything in Tennessee then shipping to the customer ready to use. Assembled in America isn't the same as made in America. It's fine that they are Chinese. Most companies are it's the fact that they lie about it or are very deceptive and hide from it. Final screenshot shows a reloaded belt purchase like a checkout from their store of the reloaded belt squat for $4,000 and then there's a material tariff fee of $1,000 which would be a 25% tariff and the caption

on the screenshot says see this is the deceptive bullshit they pull material tariff to make you think it's just for the steel the whole thing is Chinese including the hardware and pads and then it has in the fine print due to rising costs both domestic and international from both domestic and international suppliers a material tariff of 25% is applied to your order subtotal okay so that's where the screenshots end just the only thing we actually can verify for a fact is this material tariffee. Correct, Tanner? I can verify that just through my own dealings with them, that that was the thing they added. But interestingly though, not long after they added it, they got rid of it. So at the time

of that, that was being, I can verify personally that that was being added at least to some items in quotes. Because you were, this is, we talked about this offline, you the time of that that was being I can verify personally that that was being added at least to some items in quotes because you were this is we talked about this offline you were looking at buying another I was looking at some other pieces and it was it was when all the crazy Chinese China tear stuff was taking off and did was the piece you were looking at was that hit with a 25% tariff was it more I mean it was around there was it was around that yeah I mean it was about a thousand dollar tariff yeah, it was around there. It was around that. Yeah, I mean, it was about a thousand dollar tariff.

Yeah, yeah, it was around that. But maybe like a week or two after that, they let me know that they were actually not going to charge that tariff anymore. Which was weird. I shouldn't say not going to charge that tariff. They weren't charging me a tariff. They were no longer going to charge that tariff surcharge to me. Yeah, which was we talked about this offline which seemed weird because If it is like made in America like a 25% tariff seems kind of weird on a supposedly American-built I guess maybe if they're like steel is imported from a different country

Right. I mean we were kind of like trying to make excuses for it But it did seem kind of weird how quickly the tariffs ramped up on that and then also did disappear. So that's the only thing we can actually verify from experience in this whole thing. The other parts of this, though, like we were saying, very hard. Like you don't see when you're on Arsenal, there's like a picture of a guy with a welding mask on, but you don't see like any photos of large factories or anything like that. So it's really hard to tell, to verify if they do in fact have this large factory where they're welding up stuff and powder coating it and assembling and doing. Also, was your was the humbler? Was that assembled or did you have to put it together? I had to put it together a little bit. Okay. It was not fully.

It came palletized. It came freight shipping. Actually, it might actually I'm I'm I'm lying. It was like fully assembled because it was palletized. There might have been like I might have had to put two parts to you know, there it might have been a pad on this assembled. Like, yeah, there was like, yeah, yeah, that's what it is. It's like the footplate.

I had to bolt on like the footplate so they could make the thing like half as long basically to fit on the pallet So I assembled it a little bit. It was like 90% assembled, you know, it did not take long And so this is this person That posted these screenshots, I mean apparently they they seem to know more than we do or not, but I guess my first question was that they were talking about a dumbbell rack and I was like, oh, if you're gonna give them the benefit of the doubt, I could see how maybe a dumbbell rack could be made overseas.

You know, like maybe not their entire product line is made overseas. Still weird that it would ship with Made in USA stickers if that really was the case. But I don't know, it's very hard to see or verify this. I guess I'm not totally sure what the story is on this. Well, as we had talked about it more after that came out, it really started to make me... It's a very... like that phrase or slapping that on something is... I don't think it's as black and white as people often think it is anyways though, the phrase

made in USA. But if you do look, I looked it up, it's the Federal Trade Commission that regulates that. And their basic definition is that a product was assembled or processed in the United States implies that all or virtually all of the significant labor and parts, all or virtually all is a key phrase that they point to a lot. All or virtually all of the significant labor and parts used in the product's creation originated within the US. It's a funny phrase because you can almost pick apart

like every word in that sentence. You could say define every one of those words. Right, it implies that all or virtually all, like that's a huge part right there, the all or virtually all. Yes, define virtually all. What does that mean to you? Yeah, does virtually all just mean the majority?

Because that's 51% now. Right. Of the significant labor, okay, so the significant labor. Is that labor by cost, labor by time, labor by. Yeah, and parts used in the product's creation originated within the US. I just think it's a tough sentence, even if you have the definition by sentence,

it's not easy. I mean, you could make some assumptions there and simplify it, but. Yeah, I mean, you could also like twist it a couple different ways. Because I think a lot of people that say made in America, it's like, well, clearly someone's taken some metal. They're fabricating this metal in their American shop. And they're sending it to you.

And that's made in America. And maybe, but then you say, well, but what if that metal came from an overseas supplier? You know, is it now could still considered a made in America product? Right. Because this is, and it's in the screenshot. Or if it's Canada Steel.

Right, and there was a question, and I remember when this, I think we actually talked about it on the podcast. It's one of those clothing lines, it's, what's it? Lions not sheep. They were putting, you know, they're kind of playing to a certain, they were catering to a certain audience, kind of the tough guy thing, I guess,

is how I would categorize it in just the most broad terms. And they put Made in America and all their stuff, and they were just buying the same t-shirts we buy, you know, like a Bella canvas blank or a next level. And in case people, and all those, those shirts are not made in America. They're not made in America. And they were doing exactly what we do.

They buy them just like everyone else does, because that's sort of the industry standard. They design it. They design it and then it gets printed in America. They print it in the US just like we do. And it gets shipped out just like we do. And they were putting made in America. That their shirts were made in America. Tanner and I have never once considered our shirts made in America, because when you buy the shirt, it says The shirt, the blank. Made in Honduras or made in whatever country it's made in.

And actually by the, we, because we print our labels on our shirt, you know, we print our own labels. And part of that is actually needing to say where that is made. Yeah. Like the country of origin that it's made, you know, that's one of the required.

So right there, the t-shirt is telling you where it's made. It's decorated, the shirt is decorated in America. It's packaged in America. It's marketed in America. It's packaged in America. It's marketed in America. It's sold in America. It's typically shipped to America. But never once were we like, oh, this shirt is made in America, because the shirt itself

is not made in America. Now, in this example, that company, Lions Not Sheep, I think it was like three or four years ago, they got in trouble because they were branding their stuff as made in America when it wasn't. And that guy, like the owner of the company, seemed to have this big problem with, well, but American people are printing it and designing it and packaging it. That means it's

Made in America. That was his definition. He got in legal trouble because that's not the actual definition of Made in America. Right. That's just what he thought. That was just his interpretation. To his point, what's fair about that is something could not be made in America, but still provides value to Americans in the process. Just like what we do, like our shirt.

But our shirt, it doesn't mean that they're made in America. I mean, he's right, you were creating, you know, you were providing value to Americans in a few different ways in the chain, that's a few different steps, but it doesn't mean that it was made in America. And if like, that's the thing, you can do it. There are made in America t-shirts,

just know your t-shirt costs are gonna go up five to $10 a shirt, if not more. So that's the trade off with all this stuff. And so, yeah, do you wanna be buying $40 t-shirts? Maybe you do, maybe that's important to you. We're assuming most people don't. But leaving the t-shirt thing aside, back to the equipment, it does,

like this is something we talked about a lot, though, is. OK, like in arsenal scenario, what is like our is do their materials, do their supplies come from Canada or overseas somewhere? You know, like are they sourcing their steel from a different place? And then does it get assembled, built, produced in America? Or is it really something that it is completely made overseas? you know it's basically just getting drop shipped into America and then you know they do that maybe final assembly before they throw it on a palette and send it and I

Don't know and I also think like Wonder about like okay We kind of know what the FTC says and we know it's a little bit gray and stuff But I also wonder to the people that it's really important Everyone probably has a line of what they consider to be made in America and don't like our example to me My line is that's not made in America because the shirt itself is not made in America, but take arsenal or any equipment for example Okay, if the steel comes from Canada, but then it's otherwise fabricated in America, you know,

everything if rogues doing that, whoever is that made in America or not? Like, do you feel like and if someone says that's made in America, what do you feel like if the steel comes from Canada? To me, that says made in America with component source from a, you know, right, different country, probably like that. And people probably have a line there, but what I

Mean if you want to like play the game, I'm like, okay. So what's the line on this? The steel comes from America. It's fabricated in America designed in America everything like that But the hardware the nuts and bolts because they're mostly Not made in America The hardware is sourced from China. And Rogue is that like. Rogue's probably the most transparent out of everyone cause they'll put like made in America with,

I think they'll say like police source from a. Right. You know, our police source from China or police source from a foreign country, something like that. So what about the heart? Like, do people have a line that's like, no, my hardware also has to come from America

A couple other bullets like on the FTC thing and maybe none of this is relevant But just let me look quick because I wrote down a couple but the product must be fully assembled or processed in the United States Well, that makes sense all All significant parts processing and labor used in the creating of the product must be of US origin. There again, it's significant. So maybe hardware is insignificant. But it's not insignificant to the product. But it's significant just a majority.

So 51% of it. It's hard to say. Not always 100%, here you go, not always 100% US materials. While the label implies significant US content, it doesn't necessarily mean every single component is sourced domestically, which is kind of, and then a distinction from assembled in the USA USA a product labeled made in the USA is entirely

manufactured in the USA while Assembled in the USA may use components made elsewhere, but assembled here Right so maybe at times people are claiming made in American and more so assembled in the USA is the Yeah, and who knows maybe Maybe they have certain products that are. Right. I actually am not positive if they're doing anything immoral, just because I don't know the full story

and everything. But if there's Made in America, they send Made in America stickers on a product that came from China, that was a Chinese shipping label. Then I'm like, that seems strange. Yeah. But then, so I'm looking here, there is a YouTube video and it shows a Arsenal Strength manufacturing division,

Jim Design. And in this video, they're in a big factory. They're kind of just put together, it looks like a leg press in the factory. So it's hard to, I don't know, it's hard to say again, are they just assembling these things? Like it's kind of what they're showing. It's showing them assembling a machine and they're powder coating it, but those are all, I guess, you know, you could, yeah, it's, it's, it's hard to say. I do not know what they're actually doing. I will say they make high quality stuff. The few things we've used, we've really enjoyed.

You know, it is a premier option, but how deep the rabbit hole goes on this American made thing, very hard to say. Yeah, I'm saying I wouldn't be all that quick to point fingers that much because it seems, you know, it's hard to to I'd need to see some smoking guns for me to be the person sit like getting on a soapbox about it I guess that's what I would say is like for me to be on a soapbox about it I'd

want to really be sure that something's going wrong that you know I or someone else would consider an immoral practice because far as that goes. Because I don't know if it's always that simple. Yeah, they do for sure though, build their stuff as Made in America. Because I remember that sticking out to me at Los Campiones is how many Made in USA stickers were on their stuff. There's even a lot of equipment manufacturers

that small time people that we know that make stuff in America. I mean, hell, we even make stuff in America and we don't put Made in USA stickers on some of our stuff. So that did stand out to me Seeing that on a few of the pieces there's In the discord I worked for a company that made permanent magnet motors 90% of the raw materials Come from China But we did machining and assembly after that and they were USA made products

and assembly after that and they were USA made products. Yeah. So ROM, you know, the ROM, it's just an interesting thought process, I think. If it's like, well, at what point, you know, or what about, what about, like you could just go absurdly deep, I think too. And it's like, yeah. Well, the other one,

I know we were talking about this is New Balance like I like to buy New Balance right here you go balance has a made in USA product line yeah New Balance already it's fairly expensive and then they're new they're made in America collection basically is at least $200 and a lot of them are more than $200 and in your mind it's like oh because I'm buying a made in America shoe. But here's New Balance's definition of made in America. New Balance made in USA footwear

contains a domestic value of 70% or more. What does that mean actually? Like what is a domestic value? Like are we saying like the value of the production? Like the value of the materials? Like, what does that actually mean? Well, that's actually what we talked about it because then you say, but my interpretation of that is not just the materials,

you're talking labor and material. Yeah, because here, okay, so here's Yeah, here's and again, this is so hard to say if this is Google's dumb AI summary, or if it's actually pulling this from somewhere But it says shoes labeled made in USA must have at least 70% of their value derived from domestic Materials and manufacturing well, you know, it's really expensive USA manufacturing. So it's super easy if you're counting that Right and that also makes so that the the materials themselves Maybe they only only 25% of the raw materials need to be sourced from USA to keep

over that 70% total package USA's You know USA cost. Yeah Yeah It is confusing Very very few things are just a hundred made in America, like from big companies. You know, I, okay, some random person puts up together, but like big, big companies at scale,

very few things are just totally made in America. And there's just so many shades of what is made in America along the line that you can play the marketing game on. Yeah. What this has actually opened up my eyes to this discussion, and we talked about this offline a couple of weeks ago, and then again now, is that just because something says made in America, and it very well be made in America to a certain extent, doesn't like mean that it's just like, oh, we're 100% USA made doing this. It's not always as obvious as it might seem. Let's take an interesting product like the horse stall mat coaster for example

Yeah, I go by the horse stall mat from TSE in Western Northeast, South Dakota The horse stall mat on the back of it is printed on the mat, you know In the mold or whatever made in America few people, a couple lucky people actually get a coaster that on the back. It says America. Made in America. So the horse stall mat is made in America,

at least from what we know from, who knows what they're, the materials that are going into the horse stall mat. The rubber itself might be, for all we know, China's recycling tires overseas, and then they're sending that rubber off to be pressed in America again. You know, for all we know, China's recycling tires overseas and then they're right. Sending that rubber off to be pressed in America again, you know, for all we know that's what's happening. Right. But as far as we know, that's made in America. We take and get them locally

cut here in the in South Dakota again. We grab them, we clean them up a little bit and then we have them printed here in South Dakota on machines that were probably not made in America with inks that may or may not be made in America. They eat. There you go. Okay. The ink probably was did not come from America. It almost certainly was not. I wasn't thinking about that. But that's why I wanted to use this as an example, because that ink probably was not. This as an example, because that ink probably was not. It could have been. Maybe you can source that stuff as made in America specifically, but I bet a lot of printers are made by, you know, German or and in Japanese. Yeah, a lot of a lot of Japanese companies make printers. Yeah. Also, a lot of German companies make printers, too. So again, like ink, where was the ink made?

Don't totally know where was the printer that made it made? Definitely from an overseas company, like, but did they make it overseas? Hard to say, hard to say. But all that being said, us as the seller of that product, I feel pretty comfortable saying that's a made in America product. I do too. With those caveats that we just talked about. I do too. The major components to it are made in America there

Yeah, yeah But that's a funny exercise because if you could really be like well Where was the income where did the ink come from you know like and what actually did that rubber? Really come from we don't know like where things really you make assumptions Based on raw materials, and you don't not very many people, you make assumptions based on raw materials and you don't, not very many people really understand the supply chain of raw materials, you know how things are produced. Cause that's just hard to, it's like, no, this is just the material, but it's like, well, but what made that material? Where did that? And yeah, it's a, it's quite

the thought experiment. Yeah. How did you, you said the rabbit hole reference? Cause that is kind of the, how did you said the rabbit hole reference? Cause that is kind of the, how deep do you want to go down the rabbit hole? Yeah. Yeah. Anything else on Made in America? Big Matt posted the, wait, it's all made in China?

Always has been. Always was. Always was. Isn't that the truth? Yeah. Also that being said, kind of based on similar to that conversation, like the humbler, you can go on Alibaba and buy that what looks to be

exactly the same thing. Yeah, that's also usually an indicator of, is something made in America or China? Because if you go on Alibaba and find the exact copy, then it's like, oh, it's just coming from the same factory, probably. Right. Right. So that. In hindsight. Having ordered some things from Alibaba.

That one's an interesting one, you know, cause I'm infamous for the prime fitness dumbbell rack that I feel I have no moral qualms about that. You know. Moral ethics of dumbbell racks. Yeah, I'm real, I'm real, still real happy about those decisions. The humbler is different.

I would wanna know more about it. I would want to know, okay, Arsenal, where is this made? Like specifically, I want to know, is this made in America? Like I want to know exactly. The reloaded level row. Yeah, did you invent this? Is it patented in the U.S., any of that stuff? Based on some answers to that, maybe in hindsight,

maybe I could wanna buy it from somewhere else, depending on the answer to some of those questions. But maybe that would be towing a line too far too, depending on what the answer to some of those questions were. It's like when we, you know, for us to really know a company, we have to see their financial and book statements and understand their legal need to know their court their their tax and legal structure Are you guys an LLC an ink?

Yeah, cuz I mean I know this isn't the this isn't the exact way to know but yeah If you go down Alibaba and type in reloaded lever row, I mean the photo is exactly the same It's just an all black machine, but it could be Ali the Chinese company just straight up Oh, it could be and they definitely do do that And I think they are because this photo is exactly the same actually the white black one is the same photo This had the logo photoshopped off But even when they show the photos of it, like the real photos look pretty damn similar. Yeah. Hard to say.

So that's made in America. That's the title topic. Um, should we let me? Do you think? Should I read an ad and kick off the live listeners? Or should I your or should I already or should I do? Supporting our supporting members here. I think we'll do that and look at a gym, too Okay, let's do that look at a gym Then we'll kick off the live listeners and I'll read an ad while we do that. So first for supporting our supporting members Big Joey moved to Washington and got himself a big shop for a new big home gym. Oh Signing news there. Those are some power moves. Yeah big hunter

Competed in something I couldn't see the details because I tried to click on his Instagram link and it wouldn't work So I can tell he competed in something. I just don't know how he did or what it was I'm gonna say it was a powerlifting meet and he hit all PR And came in first his weight class Definitely and broke some state junior national local records, I think Big Lance also competed in something and I couldn't find the details on it. So Lance also Congratulations on your national local state junior records,

masters records, sub masters, whatever it was a big Burke competed in the windy city strongest man. He hit a one rep max on log for three reps. You know, it used to be as one rep max, then he hit it for, for three. I had some solid other events as well. Big Jeremiah and big Alex both competed together at USPA New Jersey State Championships. Big Jeremiah hit 100. He was in the 140 kilogram masters class with a 402 squat 303 bench 370 deadlift. And Big Alex was then

the 82 and a half kilogram sub masters class with a 435 squat 237 bench and 551 deadlift for a PR total and he got drug tested. So bada bing bada boom. That's the ultimate compliment getting the drug test. Big Tyler Thompson got hitched. So congrats on the funeral. Big Bowen got an invited by Under Armour to their facility for a memorial workout as a part of Police Week. The selection process was based on PT scores. Big Bryce was voted as nurse most likely to win on Survivor by his peers. The garage gym competition was taking place this week and I saw many crew competing in that so congratulations to all that competed in the garage gym competition. I was going to double check was there a couple newer things here.

I thought there was some. Okay. So this one big L pinch a. Big L Pinchay was on the Dean's List for the winter quarter 2025 at Capella University School of Social and Behavioral Sciences. Last but not least, Big Derrick was this week's guest on Unpaid and Underrated. It's a lot of overachieving out there. That is. You too can make it on supporting our supporting members by becoming a supporting member. Yeah, it's a lot of overachieving out there that is you too Can make it on supporting our supporting members by becoming a supporting member you can do that over at massonomics.com slash join Along with getting in so supporting our supporting members you could get there's a discount code for everyone

Access to new drops before everyone else gets it you can listen along live It's the only way that you can listen to the Masanomics pre-show, which is raw, unfiltered, uncut, unrecorded, and it's the show before the show. Every week now we have the pre-show, and probably most importantly is that big mailer that we talked about at the beginning of the show. That will be coming sometime this summer, and the only people that get that are supporting members,

and there is no extra cost to that. Now, I think we need to find ourselves a certified training facility of the week. What do you think, Tommy? Where do you think we go this time? I'm kind of what about Texas? Have we ever done any in Texas? That's a pretty big last week. Now we're in North Dakota, I think. Oh, the week before that was Texas then. Oh, I know. I don't have that then because I've got the

meeting room in Canada. Well, that's the one that had like the shed look to it. I might have I might not have that one then I need to write that one down. I thought yeah, it's a beer belly brigade. We did that. Okay, let me write something. I think I missed that one. I need that one on my list. Dallas Fort Worth area. Okay, that might have been the week before last then. So what it was a beer, belly, belly, brigade. All right, scratch Texas, Texas already somewhere else. Fort Worth area. Okay. That might have been the week before last then. So what was it? Beer? Belly? Brigade? All right.

Scratch Texas. Texas is already going to do somewhere else. Where was that at in Texas? Dallas, Fort Worth. Texas. Okay. All right. Where do you think then?

Forget I ever said Texas. Can you, we'll edit that out in post. Okay. Oh boy. Arizona or California? Oh boy Arizona or California Yeah Those are big states those those are states It is a fact our we've done one

We've never done, California. We got to do a California one. Yeah, one of our got any states as far as Yeah, a lot of a lot of certified training facilities there. Got any good pictures? Yeah, we don't probably want to. Those ones already got their shine for now, so maybe we need to do someone else. Are you seeing any ones with any photos? I'm Seeing some.

Just trying to see if there's one that really, really jumps out at me. There's just so many to click through in this damn state. That's a big state. A lot of ground to cover out over there. What's uh? Boy this is just gotta be so exciting How about e toes gym in Northern California by the San Francisco Bay Area? That's got a pretty good picture actually Yeah, those Jim. Oh

a pretty good picture actually. Yeah. Ito's Gym. Oh, yes. OK, yep. I just had this one up a second ago. OK. Ito's Gym. Already seen some stuff I like on this one.

Yeah, and this is, you can find him on Instagram. It's at skull18. Ito's Gym in Dublin, CA is the certified training facility of the week. So what do you see in this one, C.A. is the certified training facility of the week. So what do you see in this one, Tommy? OK, so right away, what catches my attention is it kind of looks like a basement, I think. No, no, no, there's a garage door. It's a garage. My bad.

This is a garage gym right away in the upper right hand corner. What I love about his photo is He has a picture of the podcast Playing on the TV. Oh, yeah, that's episode 469 right there of course So we got that but front and center. We got a power rack looks like a three by three rack with I think five eighths inch holes could looks like we got westside spacing down on the bottom We have jammer arms we got spotter arms we got Some red cross members on the bottom and top I

This is kind of like a I feel like this rack has maybe been added to Over time maybe you know that are you supposed to are those the jammer arms sticking out of the top This is kind of like a I feel like this rack has maybe been added to over time Maybe yeah that are you supposed to are those the jammer arms sticking out of the top. Yeah Angle up there. Yeah, I think it's the wide angles What's making them crazy cuz yeah from the picture it looks like the jammer arms are longer than the rack itself But I think it's just the wide angle lens We got a drink spot around the rack Well, we have a I don't know if this is like a rep

or a Bells of Steel system. There's a rack-mounted pull-down in the back with a plate-loaded option on that. Yep. I think that's a Bells of Steel safety squat bar. Or maybe it's the Kabuki one with those really long handles. Oh, it's the kabuki transformer bar That's yeah, I think so with how long those handles are. He's got some gym

What are those rings gymnastics rings hanging over there? Yep, and he's got a dual mark you know like Olympic style barbell leaning from the side and He's got a concept to rower. Yes over to the side thing about cardio. That's smart Oh my god He's got the same double stroller that I have for my kids in the right-hand side that big cart looking thing We got the exact same one. I was really pumped. We got to get rid of our double stroller Get this out of here takes up so much room strollers in general only they only fold so much Double strollers also takes up so much room. We had a double Bob stroller and they're

Ever have a Bob stroller. I got great strollers for anyone. That's never it anyone. That's Expecting Bob strollers are some of my favorite strollers. I'm a bit of a stroller connoisseur over the year Well unit I'm looking at here. Yeah. Yeah, they got like bicycle tires kind of almost there a little bit of an all-terrain stroller Yeah, there you can go you can they're a jogging stroller. Take your baby off-road Yep, you can go off-roading Bob strollers not cheap, but also Duna Duna Duna strollers are all-in-one car seat strollers those cheap, but also doona doona doona strollers are all in one car seat strollers. Those if you're having a newborn baby, get your one of the prime purchases for

our last baby also not cheap but a doona stroller slash car seat because the beauty of it is the car seat is a stroller. So you pull out pull them out of the car seat and it flips down and as a stroller, so you never have to carry around a heavy car seat like in your arm like this. Yeah, that was quite possibly the best thing we got with our last baby that we never had on the other ones. Interesting. That is such that is forget the Bob's stroller. Get that or don't get that.

Get the Duna that get the Duna get the Duna car seat stroller thing that was a game changer best thing we ever got that I don't know how we didn't have with other babies yeah I've learned that the stroller game is like a never-ending yes whole of this place is you can spend money But anyways, uh Certified training facility banner in the back. We have some power blocks on the left-hand side Oh, yeah, there there are blocks blue fat grip there, too, and then I'm gonna make ease Seems like it with the orange shoebox. We got a heavy bag there some boxing gloves and

box. We got a heavy bag there, some boxing gloves and just some collection of plates and things around. So yeah, overall real nice looking place. What do you think there, Tommy? If you had a guess just by looking at the picture and reviewing it, do you think you could get strong there? Oh, hell yeah. Oh, yeah. You get strongly shit there. Certified training facility of the week. This week's episode, are you going to give her in the boot and the axe? Oh, they're going right now. There's a lot of show where the sun's so on here. Yeah. This week's episode is brought to you by our great friends

that we just had to got to hang out with this last week and actually will segue into that. Our great friends over at build fast formula. You can check their supplements out at build fast formula.com. Just last weekend as with Tommy and about 10 to 15 other crew members, we were all taking some full blitz pre-workout, some Veso blitz pre-workout, and then hitting the weights in the build fast formula headquarters

You can get yourself some vaso blitz full blitz my personal favorite there 80 20 protein powder Get it all at build fast formula comm they have free shipping Is it either over 75 or a hundred dollars in the u.s. Also? Use discount code Masanomics. It'll save you 10% on every single order that you get that Build Fast. Thank you, Build Fast. But yeah, we had the throw down in Watertown

this last Saturday. We were there. We came, we saw we conquered our second year in a row throwing it down in Watertown Yeah, and what's what were some of the highlights? You were doing some big benchin I Tried to my bench didn't go quite as well as I wanted it Oh really we can but that's that's the that's sometimes the way it goes. I guess it is sometimes

It's the way she goes boys. Yeah, you did some big bench in Grayson did some big, some big sandbag moving. Yeah, he was training. We had a couple guys there him and Jake and Garrett doing some strongman movements that they were training. Several dead lifters, big Matt and big Nate were doing some big deadlifts. Dave and some others were squatting.

All kinds of lifts going on, right? Yeah. Paul was benching with us while we were benching. Garrett and Sydney were both benching. They were both jumping in too. And you shot some video while we were there, so we'll probably at some point in time have a little video

vlog or a training video or something. Yeah, the weekend. And then we're also still just because we have so many, so many videos in the pipeline right now. And then we're also all kinds of whenever the crew gets together, there's all this horse trading of equipment that's got everyone that's been mule equipment across the Midwest for each other. That's maybe one of the best best perks of being a regional crew member that's been mule equipment across the Midwest for each other. That's maybe one of the best perks

of being a regional crew member is this network of used equipment. Yeah. There was, what was there? There was a rogue reverse hyper exchanged. Yeah, I brought that from Western Northeast South Dakota to Paul to take to Southeast South Dakota. Was there 10 pairs of Mild Yorke's? Five pairs.

Five or 10 total. Oh, brought for me. Garrett brought an SSB and some other stuff for Anthony. Oh, I didn't even catch that one. They were. Yeah, he had it in the trunk of his car and deadlift Jack And then there was probably more but that's at least what I remember Remember off the top of my head Yep, that's just how she goes

Lifting and drinking and then of course we all rendezvoused at the pizza ranch Following the training session and ate the place out of cottage cheese. Yeah, it was it was funny when we pulled up with Paul. He's like, Oh, we're gonna be the only ones here, of course. And then by the time we left, because we showed up at what three o'clock, 230, something like that. And by the time we left, we because I had to get back to get my dog to the kennel, because we were going to leave to go on our trip.

And, uh, when we pulled out of there, I swear the restaurant was like half full or more, like it was filling up while we were there and it was three in the afternoon. That I did notice they had to refill the cottage cheese container at least one time while we were there. Of course. Yeah. And that is the second time in two weeks that I've been in that water town

Pizza Ranch having not been there in I had figured the first time I thought that it had probably been At about 25 years since I had been in there just do and then twice and twice in seven days I don't think I've ever been at that one before Yeah, what do you think about that? The layout was kind of weird, actually. Yeah. Where you just walk in and the buffet is just right in front of you like that.

Yeah, that is. I would say that's the, I would say that. That's not ideal. I have not been to an extreme number of pizza ranches, but I've probably been to an appropriate amount for living in this part of the country. And that is the strangest setup I've seen in a pizza ranch so far. I would agree with that.

Yeah. Yeah. So thank you to the Nate, Abby, and the entire build fast formula team for welcoming us and the crew in for another wild weekend in preparation for the lift hard, leave easy classic. I smell some big numbers coming this summer in Western things coming. Big things coming soon. We're like 60 days out, I think, at this point from the madness

that is the lift hardly easy classic three. And if you're wondering if anyone was holding back, as far as I could tell, no. Nobody was holding anything back. I rolled through the wall. Yeah, getting as much hay in the barn as possible while we still can. All right, we still got about 10 other topics here. Which one do we wanna go to first?

Oh boy, let me see. Oh damn, I accidentally closed my list. No wonder I'm flying blind here That's or we could die. I guess we could bring up world's strongest man. It did go on There we go. Yes within the last week world's strongest man happened and we've got the results here The most interesting part probably about world's strongest man without a doubt this year is the winner, which I'm not even positive at this point. I'm pronouncing. I know how to pronounce his name. So I'll say, how do you think you pronounce his? I don't know. I don't know how you say his name. Yeah. So it's Rono Nell or Neil. Do you say

Nell is his last name now? I'm not even sure because I haven't watched any live footage of it. Well, I don't know. ordered but and I wasn't following this guy prior, but he's a South African Reino or rano, I guess that's rano is what I'm saying and now or do what do you think the last name? How would you say it? I mean now seems like a good Okay pronunciation of that. Yeah I like a good a good pronunciation of that. Yeah. I don't follow closely the fringe strongman competitors, so I suppose if you do, you'd say, Oh, I knew about this guy. But it's just being someone that kind of like follows results of world's

strongest man of the Arnold, the Shaw, you know, follow some U.S. strongman and maybe some other countries that, you know, names that you've heard all around for a while. I have no idea, had no, absolutely no idea who this guy was. And it was his first time ever competing at World's Strongest Man and he won it. He is one of, I think, three guys to ever win World's Strongest Man

in their first ever visit there. One of them them others would be Magnus for Magnus in and I think the other one is Yuko. Ah, hola I saw that same stat which is also pretty crazy Yeah, I feel more confident that I know how to say Yuko's name than I do Rano Nel's name at this. I'm sure a year from now'll be like, I didn't know how to say that guy's name. What the hell? Right, and so he won by just half of a point over the rest of the podium, which was Tom Stoltman in second, Mitch Hooper in third.

Those two not so big surprises. I have heard of both of them before. Yes, yes. And then our hometown hero, big Trey Mitchell, who was at the lift hard, the VZ Classic last year, finished Jets out side of the podium in fourth place.

No other Americans in the finals. Luke Stoltman got ninth. Yada yada yada. You know what immediately is sticking out to me looking at this lineup of winners here. Okay. Rayno.

Rano. Born 95. Tom Stoltman born 94. Mitch Hooper born 95. Trey Mitchell born 93. Patty Haynes born 97. God has life just passed us by or what don't if you want it tells me if you want to be a finalist at World's Strongest Man don't have been born in the 80s like what I would think most of them would have been

Yeah, don't like oh, no most of these guys were born in the mid 90s Yeah, don't be in your mid 30s cuz you were just you're it's just you don't have a chance anymore. It's just What about Eddie Williams and 10th? I'm guessing he was, geez, even 1990. He was the oldest guy here. Okay, Luke Stoltman, there you go, 1984. Oh really, he's that much older, huh? That's what it says, right? Yeah, it is right there, yeah.

He's 40. There's a 10 year gap between them, wow. He. Yeah, even Evan Singleton, 92. I thought maybe just because he had the wrestling thing, maybe he had been around a little longer, but no. So all the finalists were born in the 90s except for Luke Stoltman. Yeah, I'm trying to see.

Mateus, what's it? Clint? Kilkowski. Kilkowski, even he was 93. Yeah. Yeah, almost all of everyone in there was born in the 90s, like everyone competing of like the 25. Ronno did win by just half a point over Tom Stoltman. It did come down to the stones. Tom, of course, beat him in stones, not surprisingly, but not enough

people got in between Tom and Ronald's placing to knock him down far enough. One more person would have had to have gotten in between them. And somewhat interestingly, one of the people that did not manage to get in between them was a pretty strong guy that didn't lift the fifth stone that was kind of solidified in third place. Mitch Hooper, had he lifted the fifth stone, it would have pushed Rano down another point and Tom Stoltman would have actually won his third world's strongest man title by half of a point had that happen I did see there's some controversy there. Yeah wondering

Gaming the system perhaps, you know a guy that typically wouldn't probably miss the fifth stone But a guy that's also very good at gaming the system I'm also very good at but it also did Definitely feel like he didn't have his a plus package for the weekend Would you say with everything going on with everything? Well God? Think Intelligently enough that guy finally disabled the comment section is God that was brutal

My god, that was brutal. Have your opinion either way on what he was or wasn't doing and all that stuff. But undoubtedly, unarguably the comment section of his Instagram page was just. A dumpster fire like, uh, okay. Okay. So the craziest thing about we've never talked about the mitch hooper thing on the podcast I don't think have we yeah, you know just just very high level What seems to be the facts are that he was cheating on his wife with his what his wife's best friend? And it was also his manager right does that kind of the quick. I think so synopsis of the situation

And people have like turned it into a sport of really And people have like turned it into a sport of really shitting on him in the comments. But maybe the funniest part is, you know damn well like a good chunk of the people in the comments have done this exact same thing, you know? Or probably something else equally as questionable in their lives. I'm not saying that makes it right or wrong, but like even divorce rates are quite high in the country and what usually causes divorce is like infidelity things like that So it's like you know a lot of people but I get it it's it's

Fun to take shots at the guys on the top and also when you've presented a squeaky clean image, you know I Understand where it's coming from. Yeah That's part of it too. That's I think that that's that's definitely a yeah, I'm not making excuses for him at all here I'm not no right right, but but if you've Cast stones in the past You know the whole glass house thing. Oh totally yeah But I do think some people some commenters

Probably don't even care. They just wanna get in on that question and be like, what can I do this? I think there's a fair number of people that hardly even know who the guy is. They just wanna pile on. Then I kinda feel bad for maybe him because I'm like, or maybe he doesn't care about the comments, in which case I wouldn't feel bad.

But if he was reading them all, like some people are just doing it for fun, you're kinda like, oh, even though he may have done something terrible, at least bad, I don't know, terrible is the right word, but something bad that I wouldn't condone myself, I still could have some sympathy for someone if they're just getting like berated to death on the internet. But also I'm like, yeah, maybe disable comments or like stop posting as

much for a while or like, I don't know I don't know. I guess it wouldn't be my place to I don't know what I would do for Try not to be in the position in the first place is what I would recommend. That's usually the best best scenarios. Just Don't do bad thing. He did end up in third I mean no doubt he probably has a little additional life stress now that he didn't, hasn't had in the prior times. So that could be a factor. Tom Stoltman very close to winning his third though. Had Tom Stoltman just half a point more, he would be working himself. I think, you know, had he won this, you'd have to be start asking where he ranks in terms of all time world's Strongest Men with a third win.

And he was just that close to getting it. Well, isn't the other one that he missed? Wasn't he within a point or two of winning? I think so. I mean, he's not much more than a few points away from having five titles to his name. Right. Right. And at that point, then it's just you and the dominator. So then there's two dominators in town.

You know, a funny thought I had the other day. What? You know, like how I make all those memes of old world's strongest man, where it's like the 90s world's strongest man. I'm aware. Thought I had is right now. There's like a 15 year old today that two thousand twenty five world's strongest man. We'll be watching these ones. Or like a 12 year old today.

They're like, this is their 1994 World's Strongest Man. But is, then what I wondered is, is it because, does anyone ever get to experience that again because the way like TV and shit was then? I don't think it is. It's also sterilized now. And this is, I mean, it is. Like back then it was, they had wackyy outfits on like there was guys that just straight

Up right everything just feels Americanized and sterilized and standardized and normalized So no, so that is exactly the thought I came to that. I'm like, oh damn no one It's not true. The 13 year old now doesn't get to have a 1993 World's Strongest Man now it's just like no, there's like there's like 15 guys that are all like 6'3 to 6'6, that weigh between 350 and 400 pounds that have beards and short hair, and pretty much all of them are some variety of white. And it's like, and then they all have like,

Re-Banned Warm Pants on and a World's Strongest Man T-shirt. Like, you kinda couldn't get 15 guys that look more similar And then they all have like, Re-band warm pants on and a World's Strongest Man t-shirt. You kinda couldn't get 15 guys that looked more similar for having the most outstanding body type. Where in the past it did feel like there was a little bit more characters. And it's not rerun on ESPN and people don't watch, and also people don't watch television.

Like, people don't channel surf on television. Like how many teenagers, teenagers probably don't even understand the concept of channel surfing television and just putting on what's on TV because it's all that's on and you're like staying up being bored. TV was that's not even a thing that could exist. Was this one in America again, too? Right. Yeah. Yeah. So it's not even some crazy location. There's giraffes in the background or something.

You're right. Right. It's like we're in Sacramento again or whatever it was. So even that part, it's just, yeah, it's just been kind of The mystique of it has been taken away a little bit. It's kind of a shame. You know, I always say we used to be a proper country When I think of stuff like this, this is one of those things that really makes you say we used to be a proper country when I think of stuff like this. This is one of those things that really makes you say we used to be a proper for what used to be a proper frickin country. Bring back World's Strongest Man Africa, baby. We used to be a proper friggin country where we had our world's strongest man in other countries announced by British people and competed in by mostly non-Americans.

British people and competed in by mostly non Americans. Also, I guess still competed in the mostly mostly non American as I say, we used to be a proper country when mostly non Americans competed. And we did it in China. Literally, it was in China multiple times. Literally it was in China multiple times. China. All right, that's World's Strongest Man. I think so.

Excited to watch it in nine months. Can't wait to see it when it comes out in 14 months. They actually have like next year, 2026 World's Strongest Man will be, will take place before this one airs. They're like, okay guys, the deadline for the airing of the TV show is just within 24 hours of before the next one starts So and also when we say airing of the TV show, we don't know exactly what that means anymore. It's on like

CBS sports, right? But we're not like even sure what packages But you can maybe get it somehow Yeah, we don't even the world's strongest man's like we're not exactly sure how you watch how somebody watches this You know back in my day if you want a world's strongest man results You just went on the website and just looked at where everyone placed. That's your world's strongest man Wouldn't it be sweet? I mean obviously this is true, but wouldn't it be cool if world's strongest man was on ESPN again? That'd be crazy. Yeah, if that was on ESPN or just like I don't even care is on these fit Just put on a channel that people actually watch, you know, right?

It's piano channel people watch so I'm assuming they're not like a wild thought from now. And I'm like, it used to be like that a long time ago when the sport was way less popular. It used to be on ESPN and now it can't get on ESPN. Well, I'm assuming ESPN doesn't want it on there because they probably have other crap that like makes the money. That's right. You know, go right on. But yeah. What about ESPN, the Ocho? That's actually wouldn't be a terrible spot for it.

You know what channel I always thought was exceptionally boring? What? ESPN News. Yeah, cause a lot, well, during the- You know the fun parts of ESPN, let's get rid of those and we'll just do ESPN news.

I think now it's mostly just a pickup station for college games for out of network or just like when when football and college football seasons on just ESPN news just hosts a ton of college football. ESPN news used to be boring sports. Yeah, I don't even know if they even do that anymore. Where it's like, you know the fun sports center anchors? Yeah. Will just have like boring sports. I'm not even sure if they do that. It might just be ESPN News just turns on when there's extra sporting events that ESPN can't cover. That might be all it is now.

This weird TV is so much different though. It just like, or ESPN 2, wasn't ESPN 2 a lot of times? Like if X Games were on, it was on ESPN 2. Oh yeah, all the time, yes. X Games were always. World's Strongest Man was actually on ESPN 2 a lot of times like if X Games were on it was on oh, yeah all the time Yes, X Games were World's Strongest Man was actually on ESPN 2 it was on that's actually a Interesting thought the channel was so popular. It's like no we need two more It's just the same thing, but just the slightly less popular sports will be out here, right? Yeah, right, and then we need a more boring once we're gonna have ESPN news

I mean that was a separate channel too. Yes, it was And now they have like what going to have ESPN news. I mean, that was a separate channel, too. Yes, it was. And now they have like, what's it, the ESPNU covers a lot of college games. There's like, there's so many of them now, but yeah. We used to be a proper freaking country where we had multiple, where you could channel surf through the sports channels and took you like 12 channels to get through them. Fox Sports net

All right, you just made it you made so you made it back from Disney let me make sure I remember I've never known the difference you were at Disney World, right? I was at Disney World the whole someone said it is knee within the last month or two I don't know if it was on the podcast if no said it or someone else it was Connor big Connor told us in, California What was the thing he told us? I just remember that Disney World is in Florida That's not hard for me to remember But yeah, the trick that he said is Disneyland La la is in the yeah, you know, it's not exactly an la. It's what's it like right or whatever

But that's how he said that's how you remember it. I like that. So you didn't go to Disneyland. We did not go to Disneyland. We went to Disney World, and I don't need to run people through every single part of my vacation, but I will say this.

I'm not like a huge, there's definitely people that are Disney people. Like they are, you know, Disney is- Disney adults. Disney adults. Oh yeah, Disney adults. Yeah, that's like, like where you're really into Disney as an adult. Like they're really into it.

It was like pivotal and like, yes. I mean, yes, we all watched Disney shows growing up, Disney channel, Disney movies. You know, they were one of the prime people pumping out children's content at that time. Let's watch a Disney Channel movie. And I liked it, but I also, just as I got on, just totally moved on from that stuff. And I've, before I had kids here, I probably went years and years and years.

I hadn't seen any Pixar stuff or hardly any, I'm not saying, I hadn't seen any Pixar stuff in probably like 10 years. I went, probably went 10, years. I don't seen anything Disney like Like I don't care about this anymore. So that's kind of like my perception on Disney is like yeah It's kids stuff and I moved on and whatever it's fine, but I'm not like nuts for it and Sorry, and I didn't do my wife plan this whole thing out. I didn't do any looking at all I'm like, nope, you do all of it. I'll just go along with the ride like whatever you say we do that is historically the dad requirement in a trip Time she wants my input and my decision because I do get opinionated on things, you know

But I'm like, no just you do it all and so I had no clue what we were doing what day where we were going, anything. And my overall review of the trip is it just so greatly exceeded every expectation I had. Like I was just genuinely like I am actually excited to go back again someday. Like that's how good it was. I really do want to go again. It was it was a very fun trip. And just really quick what we did. So we went with, uh, with,

with my, my wife's parents and then her sister too. And then so us and our kids, there was seven of us. Um, and the first day was kind of a travel day. Get to the hotel, hang out there, getting the hotel pool, do all that stuff. And then we went to, it's called Disney Springs. So went there for the night, whatever. And then the next day was Magic Kingdom. So we're at Magic Kingdom most of the day.

Our kids are two and four, so it's really- Is Magic Kingdom just what I think of as when I think of Disney? Yeah, or the castles. Again, didn't know any of this until I got there. But that's like, if I picture Disney World, that's what you're talking about. Yes, that's the park.

Yeah, I also did understand the concept that there's like five different parks. Essentially, theme park kind of thought that I knew that, like, I knew it wasn't all one thing, but I didn't totally get how that worked either. And, you know, they're like many miles apart because it is just like it's OK. They are far apart. It's like its own city within, you know, so like you leave your hotel and like you get on a bus and then the bus, the shuttle. Once you're on the Disney property,

the bus takes you to all the Disney properties for you. So you don't gotta drive around and all that. Um, so the, the first day I went or the second day then when we were there, went to magic kingdom, kids are two and four. It happened to be like 95 degrees and like 70, whatever humidity. And that's just too hot. That is too hot. I don't care who you are. That is too fricking hot. Just brutal.

And especially around here when we just- Well it's not the heat that gets you though really honestly it's the humidity. I would say in this case it's all of it that gets you. What's also shocking is just the lack of fans and shade. I would just assume that in every spot there'd be fans hanging. No, there's like, unless you're in an air conditioned

building, you're just like roughing it, you know? And man, I'm just not used to that yet. It was, that part was tough. And you know, the kids, they put up with it fine, but also at a certain extent, they can only be in the 95 degree heat in the sun for so long. And you know, my daughter typically takes naps still. So the first day, you know, we put in,

we put in a pretty good day. We got to do a lot of fun rides at Magic Kingdom. They were mostly kid oriented, so nothing too crazy. And we left, I think like mid afternoonnoon so we'd put in like a seven ish hourday before we kind of had to tap out and and Go home and then that night we we left the resort and went to more of a local place to go eat Some like a seafood boil thing and it was actually really really good The next day though, we went to the water park typhoon lagoon. Okay. Have you seen these? Have you seen these you know, like the wave pools where it makes the wave? So we, I talk about on the show, we always go in the winter, we go to a Great Wolf Lodge

and they have like a small one there. And my boy loves it. It's waves, it's fun. And he's getting to the point where he can hold his breath and go underwater and sort of swim now. And so we get there and they have the, it's massive. I mean, it has to be like, I don't know, 120 yards long by like maybe 200 yards wide. It's huge. It's it was the biggest

like pool I've ever seen in my life. And it happens to be a wave pool. And so we get there and we're like floating in it, you know, the waves are coming and oh, this is fun. You know, we're having a good time. And after like 10 minutes of that, like an air horn goes off like, oh, and it's like, now it's getting, now it's getting serious. And we're like, oh, okay. Well, the waves went away.

Oh, okay. Whatever. And we're playing. And also in here and you look and it's like, everyone's going screaming and you look, you know, like 70 yards in the distance. It looks like a 10 foot wave like from the ocean. And it's like, ha ha, we're all kind of laughing. It's like, oh damn, that's not getting smaller

and it's getting closer to us. And then pretty soon we're like, oh my God, run. And we turn, we turn and we take off. Like you're trying to run, but the wave eventually just, and I'm holding my daughter, you know, she's two, she can't swim or hold her breath. And eventually you feel it come behind you and you jump as high as you can.

And I have her lifted above my head and still we get just pummeled by this wave and you go under the water. And so I pop her up and she's, ah, she's laughing. And my son has had just the most traumatic experience of his life there. Never wants to go back in the wave pool again. He's terrified.

And we're like, well, that's obviously a one-time thing. Like they sounded the buzzer for it. So we're like, it's okay, bud, it's okay, it's okay. And we're kind of just like getting our bearings about. And it's probably like two minutes later, we're here. And we look and that damn wave is coming back. And he's like screaming like his life is going to end. And I'm like, no!

No! So I'm like holding, cause everyone's shit, there's hats and sunglasses, everything had fallen off. So I'm holding all this stuff. My daughter had already gotten out of there. And they have crew and they're trying to get him.

And then the wave takes us out again. And the second this wave slams me, I feel my sunglasses fall off. And this is what annoyed me now I have the Ray-Bans on you know they're not like insanely expensive, but they're also not cheap sunglasses No, they fly on my face and Because the way the water is turning over so much You know it's doing the bubbly thing where you can't look down right away

You can't even really see and maybe seven feet from me a guy pops up with Ray-Bans on and puts them right on my face and his face. And I go, oh, those are my sunglasses. And he goes, no, they're mine. And I'm like, and they were the exact same ones, tortoise, Ray-Ban sunglasses, the brown ones, which most people don't get the brown ones, most people have the black ones.

I'm like, no, those are mine. And I'm like staring at him and he's kind of like fiddling with them. And I'm like, I feel like you don't fiddle with sunglasses when they're yours, just put them on. And I'm kind of like fiddling with them and I'm like I feel like you don't fiddle with sunglasses when they're yours Yeah, put them on and I'm kind of like stalking this guy cuz I'm like those and you're pretty sure he has your yes And at the same time I'm looking all around I'm minor God the water is crystal clear You know, I'm at this point in like three feet of water wasn't deep But you know the wave could have taken up and I'm like no that guy has my son

I know he does so he had said no, these are mine. Yeah, I'm like, oh those are mine He's like, no, these are my sunglasses and he walks away and Leah's like look that and I'm like I lost him and she's like look that guy has a like I know that's what I said. He told me no. She's like, nope. I'm telling him and she runs over to him Hey, those are my husband's sunglasses. He's like, no, they're not they're mine And he was all bad and like pissed at her for calling him out and he walked away I'm like, well, I can't really argue with him like right right, right? So never found him never found him. I don't know. Maybe that guy had maybe they really were his and he was being truthful

Maybe not. I don't know hard to say like he wasn't very Coincidental that you were with in almost arms reach of me and the ones I saw you pick up out of the water were the same ones I had on very odd that Super annoying that is super annoying. That was super annoying. That was the only casualty. That was the only loss of the whole trip, which okay, I can live with that.

I don't like that on principle though. Yeah, I know. That's what I felt like. I know I can't, again, they're Ray-Bans. Ray-Bans has a lot of sunglasses. A lot of people have Ray-Bans on. Right, right. It just felt like those, it was a very coincidental situation.

He also had them and his also fell off and yeah I found his right there and yours never came around. Yeah. Yeah, so I don't know. I don't know That's how that one went water park was pretty impressive But again, my boy was totally traumatized of that noise the entire day So like you'd be in the parking you hear that noise and he's like looking around like some waves gonna take him away Lot of Park was good. I'm not totally sure on a second trip to Disney I would do a waterpark day. So that was that day there most of the time.

Third day we went to Hollywood Studios and the day started good. Actually, I shouldn't even say it. The day started bad. We accidentally took the wrong bus to Magic Kingdom and it was like this whole Fiasco it so we end up getting to Hollywood studio away family trips go We get on the bus because it's like we get on the bus stop stuff. There's two bus

there's two buses that go to this stop Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios and you get on the bus and we're like 30-seconds down the road. I'm like did anyone check if this was the Magic Kingdom or Hollywood Studio bus? And everyone's like no we didn't look and then we asked the guy right next to us. Where's this bus going? 30 seconds down the road. I'm like, did anyone check if this was the Magic Kingdom or Hollywood Studio bus? And everyone's like, no, we didn't look. And then we asked the guy right next to us, where's this bus going? He goes, Magic Kingdom. It's like, ah, damn it.

So we get it fixed out. It maybe took us an extra 35 minutes to get where we're going. And we get there to the first ride, and we do Lightning Lane. I could not imagine doing Disney now not doing Lightning Lane. Just cutting down. Which makes you go faster.

Yes, cutting down on that wait time. Because is there like a separate line for that then? Yes. It's a separate line. And you still do wait. Some of them you don't wait at all. Some of them it might be a 10 minute wait still. But like when you just pay more to go to do that then.

Yeah. But like Tower of Terror, yeah, Tower of Terror was showing a routine. Most of the day the wait time was, say, 90 minutes, 90 minutes. And people are waiting in line for that. Well, yeah, that's because it's 90 minutes worth of people ahead of you. Like, that's why.

So you just constantly check on your app. Yeah, but that is a nice thing. I don't know if I'd stand in line for 90 minutes for anything. Dude, that's all the big rides. All the big rides are. I guess that's what I've heard before. I just never really realized. And people were telling us this is not a busy time of year And I didn't actually think it seemed that busy

But you look on the app because you can see the map and you can click on the rides and it just gives you a live Update of what the wait times are on rides You could legitimately if you went there and you were doing that you could go to like four or five rides in the day Oh, totally. Yeah. Yeah, and like totally totally. And just like, spend your entire day standing around in line, like not doing stuff. Yes. That's terrible. Yeah, that's why. Why are people doing that? I mean, obviously, it's a money thing. But I would, at that point, I would be like, no, I'll just wait until I have enough money

to do lightning. Yeah, that's like lightning lane, you can only and so you book your time. So it's like, okay, your time at this ride is, you know, if you book it, it'll give you like an hour window. I'm going to mess up some of these details. But like Tower of Terror, our time was two thirty to three thirty. So at any point in there, you show up, you scan your card, you go into that. And even like the middle of the day, Tower of Terror, it still probably took us

30 minutes to get through the ride. But that's a lot better than the 90 minutes it was saying for the other people. You know, that's reasonable. But so you 90 minutes it was saying for the other people. You know, that had to wait reasonable, I guess. So you can only book like three at a time. But then once you book one, then it opens up your reservations to find another one. So you can only have like three reservations at a time. Right. But so we do Hollywood studios. And so we got there a little late.

And the first one is like in kind of the the the. Main Hollywood studio building, it's like Mickey's Runaway Railway. And so we're in our lightning lane. It's like a five minute wait we're going. And things seem like they're going kind of slow. And then all of a sudden you hear, oh dude, unforeseen circumstances, this ride is now being shut down.

It's like, damn it. This is like a ride for the kids. They were so excited for it. Okay, so we get out of that line All right. What's next on our list? We got this Toy Story thing. Oh that line is offline right now, too Okay. Well, we got Star Wars rise of the resistance. Oh that ride is offline right now, too It's like all right like all three rides We had planned for this morning are off like this. Yeah, so now they were all shut down for maintenance

Yeah shut down for maintenance and it's like well what the hell and now we're just like Scrambling and like it gives you you know, you can sub out your thing and go do something else But right now your plans are kind of like in this total limbo because like you specifically picked some ones that little kids could come On and do and that kind of messed it up. Anyways We end up like we got through our rides. We did the Star Wars ones and they were sweet. They were cool I'm just thinking of I've been so out of the Star Wars game, but like in elementary school middle school I love Star Wars. I was obsessed with it And I'm just thinking when I was a kid this would have been the most mind-blowing thing to me to like experience this

So that was fun and like I said, we did Tower of Terror then and We took my boy. My boy will be five in a week. We took him on Tower of Terror then and we took my boy. My boy will be five in a week We took him on Tower of Terror The the right he wanted to do it the ride He he doesn't seem to be afraid of rides like the thrill of it the thrill of it didn't scare away But what what got him is they make it like an episode of the of the Twilight Zone So it's you know part of the ride and they've gotten really creative with this Mostly like go to theme parks.

Probably understand this. I don't, because I don't go to theme parks ever. But what they do is like halfway through the line, they kind of make part of the line, part of the ride where it's like they present some type of storyline or something. And then it's like, okay. And it kind of makes you feel like you're doing something in line and then you are the line continues. But in this, it gives you the story of the twilight zone and here's the old hollywood hotel and it got struck by lightning

and you know it's all very cheesy like 1950s but it shows this elevator getting struck by lightning these people have this like lightning effect go over them my boy the lightning people man the lightning people terrified him then you go on this damn tower of terror and like the door opens and the lightning people are Projected there and yeah, he was not having a good time with the lightning And then once you've seen the lightning people then it does the bouncy thing where you're going up and down and up and freefalling Yeah, I actually don't think he minded that part, but we got done. He's like I didn't like the lightning people People just scared him a lot. I thought the lightning people were going to get me. Because we took him on some of the smaller roller coasters at Magic Kingdom and he loved it. He

thought it was the best thing ever. But yeah, lightning people not not great for five year olds. So at this point it was again like another 97 degree day so humid. We're like we're going to leave. We'll get the kids back to the hotel. My daughter can try and take so humid. We're like, we're gonna leave. We'll get the kids back to the hotel. My daughter can try and take a nap. We can hang out in the pool for a little bit. Maybe we'll come back tonight because we still have three more lightning lanes

we could use. And so we got them settled. And then me, my wife and my sister-in-law, we're like, all right, guys, we're leaving. We gotta go. We hopped on the bus. We did Tower of Terror again. And then this time it seriously took like 10 minutes to get to the line.

Had a ton of fun, you know, because it's just adults that at that point we ran over to the Aerosmith line, did the Aerosmith roller coaster, got through that in like five minutes. Like the line was enormous for the other one, but we got through it so fast. And then we left there and then the Mickey one was open and it was actually for being a kid's ride. It was actually pretty good. It was a good time. So we got through three rides in like a slightly over an hour and then the park closed at nine o'clock and they do a big fireworks thing. And, and yeah, it was a really, it was a good time. I w I'm very excited to go again someday when our kids are a little older can partake in more of it. But yeah, overall very cool experience. Very good time. I 100% get why people are freaks for Disney World and love that. A couple of other random notes here, just about the trip in general. Our hotel was completely, completely overtaken with people of a different country and never

been around this. It was one specific country. I've never been around this many people of this country before. I was definitely, I mean like I'm not, they might have made up 90 plus percent of the people at this hotel. Like Americans were hard to come by. I haven't really spent much time around people this country before. So, you know, I wasn't sure how to act. It was, uh, could say that America's had some spotted history with this, with this country. We've even gotten to war with this country before Tanner. Um, talking about the British here and there was,

there was a lot of British people. It was a lot of British people. Really? It was all British people. If you told me you had taken me to England, a resort in England, I mean, besides the weather and that doesn't make sense, but just the people. If you're like, yeah, you're in an English resort, I'd be like, well, obviously. Listen to any conversation like the number of right the number of oh Sorry mate like hey listen here. I ain't your mate, buddy Not your guy friend, it's the whole Ricky Bobby thing

But yeah, it was crazy the number of British people there and what was what why was that I I Don't really know like one of the Disney people's like oh yeah like a lot of the British people like they come on vacation here a lot I think it's like a fairly easy vacation to get to I think they're you know country has a little more vacation policy than America does too but I don't know I don't know why they all picked you mean they don't make everyone just work you don't work you don't work why they all picked. You mean they don't make everyone just work until they're sold and die. You don't work just all year round to have two weeks

for your entire life until you're too old to do anything. Until you're dead. You know, you mean they don't do that there. I don't think they do. They used to be a proper country where they'd worked everyone to death like we do. Yeah, it's no break. Yeah. See how far your country gets ahead with that attitude, guys. So, yeah, it was shocking how many,

I mean, it was just all the kids, all the adults, everyone was British. You go eat in the cafeteria, everyone's British, like everywhere. You ride the bus, every conversation you overhear is British, everyone. But a couple other things that just stood out to me, Disney, to their credit, man, they really drill into their employees to be nice.

And you forget just, I totally am like, man, I actually forgot what it's like to just interact with workers that are just pleasant and nice. Like they greet you, they're super polite, they're like friendly with your kids. I'm like, Oh, I actually forgot what it's like when every worker just doesn't have their air pod in and just is just ignoring you the whole time. Like actually like most for the most part, like best case scenario is like you just ring me up and we'll be around our day. We won't say anything like that's like a good interaction

nowadays. We're here. Everyone's like, how is your day? Like they're super friendly. So it's it's it's they do an amazing job making their people interaction nowadays, where here everyone's like, how is your day? Like they're super friendly. So it's, it's, it's, they do an amazing job making their people be nice. That one stuck out to me.

And then the final thing is, I don't, I don't know if there's a place on earth that has perfected the art of extracting money from you in every possible scenario. Better than Disney World. That's what people talk about a lot of times. Right. It's just, that's what I wanted to ask was everyone talks about the food, you know?

So what's your firsthand account of the food and water? I didn't, uh, okay. I didn't, I didn't know this either, but I guess like a lot of the crazy restaurants, you have to book out like 60 plus days in advance for reservations. And it's like, Oh, what am I going to be doing on this day at 1 30? Like hell if I know, I hopefully doing rides or something, like not just sitting out eating food. So we didn't get to do any of those crazy places. So we, for the most part on the Disney, anything we did Disney related, we were just eating straight up cafeteria food, which is fine. Super expensive. So in our, in our hotel, the, uh, like you'd go down, it's like breakfast,

you know, everything at our hotel, at least you had to pay for. So I go down for breakfast and I'd get like the Western omelet with, uh, tots and had Western omelet with tots for breakfast. And that would be like $12, which not cheap, but not an expense I mean, it's not they're not ripping you off and the same thing like lunch if you wanted a burger or pulled pork sandwich or Kind of like this beef stew. It's all right in that like 12 to 16 dollar range Oh, yeah, but it's not like you're walking around the Magic Kingdom and you need a bottle of water. It's four dollars. Oh Yeah, that's why it should be but I mean, it's kind of like what they I didn't think I didn't actually think any of the prices were that bad on that stuff, but it's just

You know, you're eating like three times a day. You got kids the regular food items aren't that bad. It's oh, here's a balloon $17 here's Mickey ears $35 here's yeah, just every ride you got off of the ride would get done Whatever the theme of the ride was and it would open up into a gift shop that was themed with whatever so it's like Oh, this is the Star Wars ride. Well, of course you're walking into the craziest Star Wars shops You were better in your life and you know, it's just it's that type of stuff where it's just every little thing You could think that we could possibly cost money, you know like there is a way that they're charging you money for it.

And no one's making you buy any of that stuff, but it's just the fact exists that you can, you can spend almost a unlimited amount of money doing all of these things if you want. And universal studios, that's a different place. Yeah. So that'd be just universal. So is it close? Like, I think it's by there.

I'm pretty sure. Isn't it somewhere in that Orlando area? That's what I thought. OK, I've got one other Disney question from you, something that I was thinking a little Disney game, and you might not have any answers for this. But I thought about it and had some answers to. But maybe having you just been fresh been there there You might have some that come to your mind I was thinking about what the Mount Rushmore of strong Disney characters are Oh strong Disney characters, okay, not like strong-willed like none of that but actually muscular

Yeah, like jacked strong characters, and I don't know if any come to your mind, but I did make myself a mouth Well, okay, are we counting are counting picks are in here too then I? Guess you have your druthers. I actually was unsure myself. I'm like well does your list of people in it um I Don't think so I guess okay if you don't that I'll just not do it on mine either then yeah, cuz that's different That's almost like I don't know why but that feels like Even though they are they very much are I know but I know it feels it's definitely different. That's a whole different world though, right? Yeah, yeah Okay, if you have any that come to your mind, okay, well Hercules obviously right Hercules is on the list

Yeah, I think you kind of have to put Hercules on. Well, Hercules, obviously, right? Hercules is on the list. I think you kind of have to put Hercules on the list, right? Hercules has to be on there. I mean, that's just, that's just what it is. Yeah. That's just what it is. I think that that's a must. Although he's not the favorite one I have on my list,

actually. Oh, he's not the favorite. Okay. God, who would be, none of the basic Disney people, like, you know, you're not putting like Mickey Goofy, Daisy Donald. None of them are making the cut, obviously. I don't like so. Okay, Maui from Moana. Maui is on my list as well. Yeah, I think you have to have Maui.

Maui makes the cut as well. Maui from Moana. If you have kids, if you have kids, you know about Maui now he makes the cut as well we from Moana if you have kids if you have kids you know about Maui yes you know basically if you don't maybe you've never watched Moana yes so Moana your kids like Moana they yes my kids like my daughter okay like Moana I think yeah my daughter like you um yeah I don't think the songs are is catching Moana to know no Moana is a pretty good movie It is pretty good. Sometimes I think okay, this is this would be my critique

Hercules is not like that good of a Disney. I have not seen that movie since I was in my third either Never that came out. It's not like an iconic movie. Not really. No, no, I'm guessing it sucks probably does but What why Pixar is so good now after watching a bunch of these movies is? They make the stories so simple yet, so good Yeah, like the Disney the Disney storylines are overly complex And I'm like thinking how is complex some of these are and I'm like I'm an adult that can process stuff Yeah, there's no way my kids other than you're good and you're bad

I'm like there's like the Maui story, or sorry, the Moana storyline is a little complex. Like when you actually think about like at its most simple, it's like, yeah, she's trying to take this heart of Te Fiti to restore it. But then there's like this demi-god and like she's going to these different dimensions and like it gets very confusing in a hurry.

Like same, as far as that topic goes, She's going to these different dimensions and like it gets very confusing in a hurry like same as far as that topic goes frozen is So complex actually too like sometimes I get done with frozen I'm like did they just were like dude we got some banger songs here. Just find a frickin plot to drop these into I Maybe this is like sexist bias, I guess, but I don't love Frozen. I've seen Frozen plenty. I mean, Moana is a female star Disney movie and I really like it. Frozen I do not care for.

Frozen might be, you know, in the last 20 years, the best songs Disney has made. But the storyline is so, I'm like, oh, so this guy is purposely coming in to like try and like Marry you just to gain your kid like this is some pretty advanced topics for your target audience being like Girls under the age of 10, you know But my daughter loves fro it's the princess thing. She loves it. Oh, I know that's like girls just like it's so crazy How she latches onto that my son son doesn't really care at all.

But she's, we got to see a Frozen show at Disney. She loved it too. But OK, strong characters. Hercules and Maui. One I've got on the list that I think is a home run. And the other one is my least, least I'm least confident about. Or I'm just struggling. I just have to pull up like Disney movies, not Pixar.

I just have such a hard time. Tarzan maybe? Yeah, I guess I didn't put him on because that movie sucks I think too. But he would be a good one I think. I mean, Phil Collins on the soundtrack though, am I right? Yeah, yeah, that's true. That's what saves it I guess. I mean, you all right. Yeah. Yeah, that's true. That's that's saves it

I guess I mean you could maybe say oh no, that's Pixar Sorry take that off off the little ratchet So say you could maybe say Sully is strong from pick I had Sully when I was thinking Pixar included I did put Sully on there, and then I took him off when I thought no more Pixar So Sully I think is a good answer though. Mr. Incredible also as a Pixar. Yeah, you know, man, I'm I'm actually really struggling. Oh, the beast from Beauty and the Beast. That's my favorite one. I think the beast is a home run choice because the beast just looks like his taper

is insane. The Beast just looks like his taper is insane. It is. I haven't got to have a good watch of Beauty and the Beast. Oh, I love Beauty and the Beast. It's just in the last month where my daughter has wanted to start watching that. I think she's actually watched that on her own a few times, but I've never actually got to just sit down and watch it. So that one, I don't even...

Beauty and the Beast is awesome. Yeah, I'll be going to that one blind because it's been so long since I don't even. Beauty and the Beast is awesome. Yeah, I gotta, I'll be going into that one blind because it's been so long since I've seen it. I've gone through this list here. I'm not sure who would be the fourth person. The last one I put is, have you ever seen Encanto? Yeah, isn't that Pixar though? Oh, maybe that is Pixar.

I actually can't even remember. Yeah, the girl from. Louisa Madrigal would be the stronger sister, but that's Pixar So we have to remove that then and that was also my least I mean she's very strong But maybe that's what I was thinking that's a little that is Pixar isn't well. I don't know maybe the other one I would pick then is the Antagonist no from I don't think it is Pixar. I don't think oh, okay This is actually crazy. I always thought I was starting content was Pixar

Yeah, I don't think it is a Pixar okay, she'd be a good choice then cuz she's super strong It's just not as popular quite as popular of a movie is why I don't like that. She's certainly strong I think that's a good movie. Okay, that makes sense to me now Okay, this just all makes so much sense to me because when I watched in Kanto, I told my wife, I'm like, ah, this is like the one Pixar one that kind of doesn't follow the formula of just being a super simple plot, but it's executed so well.

Like, it gets a little confusing with the house. Yeah. What exactly how this flame relates and people telling their path. I'm like Pixar got in a little deep on this one, but it's still a good movie. It all makes so much more sense now It's not a Disney. Yeah, so there we go She counts that okay Because my backup choice then was gonna be just being forced to pick someone would be the antagonist from Beauty and the Beast a second

Beauty and the Beast character. What's his name? Don't even know I'll know when I bad guy it is Gaston there yeah definitely Gaston would be another good choice actually I don't know if maybe you're gonna say the genie from Aladdin you know oh love that you know that's a good you know who actually makes the cut here Ralph from Wreck-It Ralph. There you go. He's strong And that's Disney. Yep. That's Disney. That doesn't feel all that Disney to me No, cuz it has like actual characters from other video games in it, right, right

Genie I think is a good choice though, too He's got the taper for sure cuz he goes down down into a lamp. Literally tapers to nothing. Gaston in her in Beauty and the Beast talks about like how many eggs eats every day and all that stuff, too. OK, so he's got these also. Everyone else on the list is a protagonist. Right. Got Gaston is a bad guy, so I kind of don't like him on there for that reason. So, yeah, I think there's enough people there to make a list, though. Right. Gaston is a bad guy, so I kind of don't like him on there for that reason so yeah I think there's enough people there to make all this slow right oh yeah for sure I

Felt like that was just the perfect way to cap off the Disney The whole thing up yeah I'm gonna read one ad because I've got something to say when I read this ad to actually Want to talk about juggernaut AI dot app. It's the strongest training for you the smartest program for you it's like having a coach right in your pocket whether you're Competitive power lifter just someone that wants to get stronger particularly with the squat the bench the deadlift to progress those lifts And you need a path forward. You're a little bit lost.

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My squat is, I'm getting there. And mostly I'm just like, my weights are tracking up enough on those that doing so much all the volume that I do, and I like to do a lot of volume through rehab just because it makes sense to you to understand why but the weights are getting just heavy enough that my hips were starting to like, yeah, not enjoy the volume again. So I'm like, Yeah, I need to do something different. So I actually got on juggernaut AI, a strength block with very tempered weights, particularly

on the squat, which is easy to do. Right, I just bring those weights way down. So then I'm like doing something and like it gives me a avenue to progress it without kind of killing myself and like bring the ball. It's just like keeps keeps me like if I had a brake pedal, like it allows me to keep the brakes pumped, but while still going to say the governor. Yeah, it's like a governor kind of is the way I'm using it, sort of, but then also not using a governor like on my bench press at the same time, you know, like trying to do that more.

And then less of a governor on the deadlift, like put in more moderate weights there. And one weekend I'm really enjoying it again already. You know, I like just it's like they got something figured out over there. Sometimes I like having you know, I like just it's like they got something figured out over there sometimes I like having you know, I what I forgot is I like Using the app and it keeps me actually you might think like oh does that slow down my workout? It actually like keeps on track going faster ticking those boxes. Yeah, it keeps me moving faster on that

I think actually which is good, you know, it keeps me on task, because sometimes I can get off task, especially in some of the accessories, and now I'm like, nope, nope, next one, next one. So I've enjoyed being back on Juggernaut AI. I'm happy to say that I am back and better than ever. And my deadlift, like, it was kind of fun too, because I've only been doing sets of 10, and it was just a double double and it wasn't that heavy

but I did 500 pounds for a set of two and I thought, oh yeah, I saw that. That felt pretty fun, you know, like it felt good to do that. It's not wild weight for me relative to anything. Which doesn't surprise me when you were doing like 465 for 10. Right, right.

From there again, it's not like crazy. Yeah, right, it's not like a crazy, but it's still just more than I've done yet. Yeah. Right. So it's like, OK, that's a fun step in the in the step of progress. The other thing, even before I got back on Juggernaut, I think it's almost been two weeks ago now. I had been off of these for a long time and someone else is talking about it and like, I really need to start doing those again. They're so fast and I feel like I get so much out of them. It takes almost no time in my

workout is the AB role. Oh yeah. Wheel rollers. Yep. And I hadn't done those for probably like six months. I go in streaks where I do them like once or twice every week and I get good where I can even, I can go on my toes a little bit for like a couple. But, and I'm like, okay, I know what these do to me when I haven't done them for a while. So I'm literally just going to do like three sets of five this first week. And I did that three sets of five on my knees, of course. Didn't feel, I felt quite good. Like'm like okay I'm glad I'm glad I took this really easy to start with you know like so I'm not gonna like be ruined from this within two it was about probably two days after that I'm like oh my god forgot yeah and I'm like I actually think if I forgot. And I'm like, the 365 were so easy.

Like it wasn't like, I was like, oh good, I didn't strain myself, I'm gonna be just fine here, this'll be a good way to like build into it without doing that. And two weeks, one week later, I'm like, okay, I gotta just like try doing them, maybe I'll feel a little bit better if I try and do some. I could not put the wheel like beyond my arms

being perpendicular to the ground. If I just let like one degree in front of my body, I'm like, my abdominal cavity is going to tear off of my body. I'm pretty sure I said all these exact words like last summer when I got that thing too. Cause it was, it was that it was like, Okay, I cranked out like three sets of five, like I'll be conservative

this first week. And it was I think it was the next week. I'm like, No, I'd like I've damaged something. I can't do these. And it was like, Yeah, I will actually rip muscle off the bone if I do them. And then after that, I had to like go to sets of like three or four, just with the idea of longevity in mind. I still I think it's almost I think like Monday would be two I had to like go to sets of like three or four just with the idea of longevity in mind I Still I think it's almost but I think like Monday would be two weeks. So like a day ago. I tried I'm like, okay I'll try it again and I could go like Halfway out and beyond that there again. I'm like it would rip

Do it the first time like was that just all the good muscle I had I used it all up, and it just takes that long to replenish I Guess it's just the it's also yeah I I Guess that's like when people have never squatted before and they come in and squat for the first time and then they're like I can't even Walk yeah, you know it's like I guess yeah, that's what that's what that feels like I suppose you're like no I can't even squat for a week. Yeah. Um, but, and there again, it reminds me, I'm like,

okay, if I did that little and it hurts that bad, I do need to do these occasionally. Yeah, so there's probably a deficiency here of some kind. Yeah, it shouldn't hurt that bad from doing like five reps of those that didn't seem that hard to begin with. Yeah. Like if it's making you that sore that's There's something there. That's okay. So in the light. All right, so since I've had my home gym

I've played around with exercises more than what I typically did and the three that stuck out to me the most as being ones that Feels like they're wrecking me more than they should are the ab wheel every time the I shouldn't say every time I've actually gotten to a point now where I'm fairly So I think in a few weeks and a month from now, I'll be good on them Yeah, I still only ever do I still never really do more than seven in a set Just cuz I'm like, I don't know I don't need to feel like I'm gonna die from this like seven just go like really slow and like Very hard.

Yeah, I'm like very controlled the whole time, but I never really ever do more than seven in a set. That's typically where I live at myself. But those would wreck me. When I first started doing the dumbbell curls where you sit on an incline bench, for the first couple of weeks, I thought I was just ripping my bicep off the bone.

Like I'm like, I'm actually not even sure if this is working right over it But now I do think that that is an enormous help for doing curls is doing I think that's the the I think in my mind That is the correct way to do curls like when I go back to using a primary bicep exercise Oh, yeah, when I go back to doing a curl bar or something like that. I'm like, no, this actually doesn't even work Right. This isn't right. It doesn't hit them the same way. So that one. And then, uh, when I started, like two months ago, adding in walking lunges while holding dumbbells, I think I told you the amount of just soreness and tightness in my glutes after that. Well, first of all, they just wipe you out because they just saw it,

but the amount of soreness and everything in my glutes, I'm like, I've never, I've never felt this sensation before. That was crazy. And I was gonna say one other one. Oh, the one that always catches me off guard, because it feels like it shouldn't do anything, and it does, is dumbbell RDLs all the time. And I don't know why.

If I ever take a break from those and come back, and that one's only a one week thing, where it hits my hammies really hard and then it's like yeah Then the next week I feel like I get nothing out of it But yeah, those are the those are the ones that just wrecked them bill Rdls are a good lift and they're they're oftentimes pushed in juggernauts is why a lot of us they are and I do it is a good lift though dumbbell Rdls are actually like for some reason they seem to hit different than if you do barbell rdls to though

I don't I don't know why that is but Okay, so I talked about juggernaut and the ab thing I thought I had threes oh The other thing I've been doing in my training because I had three training updates, so it's juggernaut AI Use discount code Mason omics ab wheel. Be very, very careful if you're going to try the ab wheel. I'm like, three sets of two. That's not actually good if you have not done them before, no matter how good you think they feel. Yes, do that. Just do that. That's all in three days. If you feel really good, do like three

sets of three, just do another set that week. Don't don't go all in on the first set of the first No, don't do that. Nope. Don't do it. It Will be very painful for you and then the last thing though, I Don't know why I started doing this but I've been rowing 5k's now. Okay I saw you folks you row or yeah pictures of that. I don't even have a great reason why I started doing that I just I we have a concept to roar in our basement and

The other day I brought it out to our garage when it was like it was kind of cool out in the evening It's dark and I open the garage door and I'm like, you know what? I'm like Actually, it's cuz I ate something that sometimes I eat something really greasy and I feel like shit We have some take out of something to cancel out like I feel like shit like I just feel gross if I go to bed now I don't even know that I'll sleep. I'm just gonna like sweat out grease from this meal so I'm like I'm gonna do the rower and then That week I had talked with sergeant Anderson in the gym, and if you can't run in the army one of the if you're on a running profile and you can't run one of the alterations to the the test is you can do a

Timed 5k row. Oh, we were just talking about 5k row times and it's like he's like, yeah Don't want a stereotype because there's probably people listening that are in the military and that are on a running profile. But a lot of the people that are on a running profile, I'm like, you're being fucking lazy because you don't want to run. Like that's a good way to game the system. And then because the alternatives are never as hard as the run. But everyone that does them always says, oh, it's actually just as hard, if not harder than the run. Right. It's actually just as hard as like, well, it's actually just as hard, if not harder than the run. It's actually just as hard as the run.

And I'm like, okay, is it? So the time on this, it's like you gotta roll it in the 5K in like 31 minutes. So that was part of why that was in the back of my mind because I'm like, I should do that sometime. Because I was like, I wanna see what my 5K row time is, like completely untrained and like, because even this was me living through him.

But I'm like, I know those people exactly how they say that. And it annoys me without even like hearing it myself. Like, actually, it's really hard to do the row. It's probably harder than the run. And I'm like, no, it's not. It's not harder than the run. So so where were you at in like the first one that you whipped out? So the first one I did, I did under 20 minutes and 30 seconds.

Oh, and I didn't. It was not balls to the wall. And you haven't been doing any cardio lately, have you? Like, you can't really. So that was my other thing, too, is I haven't been able. Like when I was playing basketball before I told my ACL, I was doing like five, three, at least three hours of intense cardio every week, you know, if not like three to five hours of really intense cardio every week, like where I was completely gassed from it every time. So I was actually in pretty good shape because I've been doing it for several months, you know, and I'm like, God, I, some of my lifting, like some of these harder sets of 10, I'm like, I get through the set and I'd get done and I'm like, I am just smoked where I'm like, I almost can't like get recovered to do another set. Like I can, it's not like breathing hard even. I'm just like, I can't. I'm just so wiped out.

Like I, the thought of like getting back under the bar after something or, you know, picking the bar up, I'm like, I just like it took everything I had to do that. And I just can't like get back to even a remote baseline. So I'm like, I need, I think I need to do some sort of cardio too as part of it. So anyways, I landed on these five K Rose. And so I did like 20, 32, and I'm not programming it. I'm just like, every time I just want to do faster. But sometimes I'm like, I don't feel like doing one faster this time. I'm just

gonna I'm just gonna roll it. But I have brought my time down this last one I did 19 minutes and 20 seconds. And I know I could do sub 19 if I I'm kind of I sandbag my PRS every time. Yeah, like, if I crush it by seconds, right, then I'm like, I don't know what I'm going to dos every time. Yeah. I'm like, if I crush it too much. 30 seconds. Then I'm like, I don't know what I'm going to do the next time I come out here because it's going to be so fricking hard then. Yep. But I know I can go sub, I know I can go in the eighteens and then, so I'm like

chat beat, I'm always chat GPTing, like what good times are and like talking to chat GPT about where my times, you know, it's actually a really good tool for that because I like, Oh, I just did a 1922. I'm 38 years old male. Like where does that rank me? Yep. You know, and it's like gives you a rip. I mean, it's grain of salt this chat GPT, but like, seemingly pretty cool information. And it's always like, do you want me to help you program to make it faster? He's like there, you know, it's like and I'm like, well, here's what I'm doing now and they're like, well And I've been testing this because it's interesting to see how they want to pro, you know how check you P wants to program Yeah, and it seems like it has pretty useful things and it reminds me if I had never squatted before and I'm just like

Yeah, I just squatted 135 by 5. Is that good? And they're like, oh, that's a good start. Do you want to help me? Do you want me to help you get that up? Yeah. And like, I'd be curious what they'd say there, but like in terms of rowing, it seemed like it gave you pretty. So does it want you to do like intervals or what is it? Yeah.

It's like, and I'm like, well, as of now, I just kind of, every time I come, I just try to increase my 5K time. And it's like, yeah, that's actually a really good strategy off the start. But eventually you're going to run into a roadblock on that. And it's just like, if it was about lifting, it's exactly spot on to where you just can't go hard the whole time and expect. But the rowing is particularly interesting. It might, I may have stumbled on my favorite form of cardio because I'm, I think lifters are gonna find themselves

to be uncharacteristically better at that than non lifters compared to other forms of cardio. Because you can like really muscle into it. You can, like you still, in theory you're using all that muscle so it. You can like you still you're in theory, you're using all that muscle. So it's going to gas you more. But like my time, like if when I'm doing I think like this week or next week, I'll do some in the 18s. And it's getting to be like a pretty decent time

where I'm like past the like there's different categories like I'm past the beginner and like crossing past like the intermediate and into like and I've done this for like two weeks. Right. Yeah. That's my point. With no experience. Been arguing with my like my son for as a good example. He's a good cross country runner. He's a good distance runner and just absolutely would roast me on any of those. And I'm like I got done with my first, literally the first one. And I'm like, I don't think there's any way in hell you can beat my time. Like, cause I, I lit up my, he just doesn't have the muscular endurance.

Exactly. Like it lit up my back a little bit. And I was like, my upper back is going to be a little sore tomorrow from this. And I just was thinking there's no way you, cause you, you can't. So I just don't think without some muscle of being able to do that. Yeah, you just can't hang with it. Yeah. And his time he got halfway done and wanted to quit because he was so off pace. Oh, really? completely blasted. Okay, okay.

So yeah, that's just a theory that I could see. But also, like, when you look at actual rowers, you know, they're not like skinny long distance runners. That's true, that's a good point. Yeah, that's a good point. I don't know a ton about what the rower build looks like. Actually, do I take that back? I don't even know what a rower looks like.

I'm assuming they don't look like a- I think- You have me convinced on that though. That seems right. But it seems like, okay, who do you want ripping on an oar? It's not like the skinniest, slightest guy you can find, which is typically what distance runners look like, you know But it has made my upper back like almost every my upper back is almost in a perpetual state of

Delayed onset muscle. Oh, you're not a bad nothing, you know, like just straight up where I'm always like, oh my god My back is uh And I'm probably not my techniques probably not great because I'm yeah probably muscle Have you watched any videos on technique? Yeah, I figured maybe I'm like I think there's probably some low-hanging fruit there I'm yeah, and but I'm also like I think I can just keep getting my time down for now Like I'm like I just want to see what I feel like it's one of those things where you could you can also and maybe You've already got to this point where you can game it and be like oh I can use way more legs in this pole or I can use way

Yeah upper body in this pole. Like if you want to give I just start doing that out of a fatigue factor Just like by default. I'm like, yeah, I'm gonna do this a little different for a while just to give myself like a And here's what I would say that I've learned in just maybe doing seven five K row session. So kind of a stark Pretty much an expert now. I'm an expert. Yeah, damn. That's what I want to say is I'm an expert is It's fun to say this because anyone that does any cardio ever distance cardio ever would be like yes you dumbass but what what gets me about the The 5k because it's long enough. You know, this is like almost a you know, almost a 20-minute a 5k because it's long enough. You know, this is like almost a,

you know, almost a 20 minute journey that you set on is the pacing in the sense that if you like, it's never that hard, no individual row of the whole thing is that hard. But it's just the pacing in the sense that you can't slow down ever. Like if you slow down even just a little bit, your pace gets so off so fast that it's like, it's just the never getting a break that I think is kind of interesting about distance cardio is just a mental thing of like, you're just like, no, I never get a break.

Like there's no breaks ever in here. Right. Where it's like, and if you just slack off a little bit and completely screws up your, your and if you just slack off a little bit it completely screws up your Your pacing you just slack off a little bit for a couple minutes You screw yourself over in the long run because it's almost impossible to make it up Yeah, I just think it's a funny contrast of Styles between lifting right where it's like no you just got to give it your all for about 30 seconds, right? And then you can literally do nothing the rest of the time.

Which I of course like that better. Oh yeah. That's what I'm trained for and stuff too. But I suppose people that run marathons, that's the thing, it's like, yeah, I'm pretty conditioned and everything and this is pretty good, but I just have to do this nonstop until it's over.

But it is such a different mindset. It's like, well no, you just keep doing this. Like you don't just do this thing. It's like well, no, right You just keep doing this like you don't just do this thing where lifting is like no like it's very much an honor off You know, right? Yeah, that's a good way good way the difference It's very very on very off the light switch is on and off repeatedly throughout the day Uh-huh when you're doing car to the distance car. It's like no it needs to be like 50% on but it's like you said it There and you just leave it you like you Don't know amped and crazy right you don't need to like check out either. You just kind of keep that level

So I'll probably quit that within like a week You've done everything you can and I did notice so just moving the rower To my garage in front of the garage door and then opening it up makes me like doing it Yeah, much much more then that's that fresh air thing, you know, it is like a little cool evening fresh air I'm like, oh, yeah It's actually just what are you gonna make me sit out here for 30 minutes by myself While I listen to something that I want to hear often the distance. Yeah, like oh, please anything but that listen to something that I want to hear often the distance.

Oh, please. Anything but that. Yeah. And now wait until it's like ninety five degrees. You like, oh, screw it. I don't need to roll it. It's ninety five degrees. That's yes. That's why I'm like that. I'm not in this. I'll be the first to tell you I'm not in this for the long haul. But for now, I'm like, I'm going to see what I can get to my time to until I'm like,

yep, this now this hurts so much that I don't want to see. I don't want to get my money lower. Yeah. But rowing, I like I like the rower. I I would I've never really given rowing and rowing an honest shot. You know, there's been a few times in the gym where I sat on the rower. Yeah, but a few pulls. And that is the extent of my rowing experience. I've done intervals on the rower before.

I've done row where you just blap. I mean, turn it more into lifting, where it's like, no, I'm going to just floor this thing for 30 seconds. And then almost check out. Right, right. So it's almost like doing it the other way. And this is the first time in my life I've ever hopped on this thing.

And like, no, I'm going to get sweaty from just doing this so long that I'm actually getting sweaty and, you know, out of breath from it, from just doing it for some. I mean, health wise, it's probably great, you know, probably then it's funny though, as a lifter, you can even do enough cardio that you're like, this is going to negatively affect. Oh, you don't even have, you just like you started to do any cardio and it's like, that's the thought. It's like, ah, it's just this activity screwed up my lifts. You don't even have, which is like a trap of a thought. You start to do any cardio and it's like, that's the thought, it's like, ah,

is just this activity screwing up my lifting? Is any activity? Probably a really unhealthy way to think. I think so, yeah. And almost, the answer's probably almost no. Oh, and if it is like to the point where it actually affects your lifting, it's like, well, then you're probably really out of shape.

Like if it is actually affecting your lifting. Right, right. Like for most of us doing the cardio is can't be the thing that's gonna negatively affect our lifting. You wouldn't think. Like, okay, yeah, if you have like an RP 10 day or you're getting ready for a meet, you know, back it off a little.

But I think for the most part in the day to day grind, a little steady state cardio shouldn't be totally derailing your training. But that is the thing We all like to think though. Oh, totally. I can't do that. That's gonna screw up my lifting. Yeah. Yep. Yep Yep, I don't need to screw up my lifting. Yep. Yep. I'm sold Yeah, that's eventually well when I'll probably quit is like the first day that I do a hard one and then I go to My left screwed it up. I'm done with that shit. Screwed up my lift.

I know that's what it was. Yep, gotta watch out for that cardio. Anything else this week? I realize how long we've been out. You get us on a podcast on Friday night and you just go for days here. Go all day. But first, we do have to say that this episode

is also brought to you by Barefoot Shoes. Right now, a new generation of Barefoot Shoes has landed, and that is the Ursus Gen 2. It is the next gen, new outsole, new limits, Ursus Gen 2. Right now, they got a few different styles of this in stock. You got the white options and black options available in low top and high top and canvas and suede uppers as well so got the basics covered this how does this

differ than the normal one well it's just got a little bit more that thicker sneaker sole so if you don't want to go full total barefoot shoes but you still want that option where your foot can really spread out, grab the ground the Ursus Gen 2 is a great option to go with. If you are looking for the classic barefoot shoes though they do have the Ursus Gen 1 low top and high top they got the Oso slip on, they got the boots, the Bruin boots and a few different options there too. So head on over to barefoot.store use code massonomics and you can save 10% on your next order. Thank you. Barefoot shoes. What's your backup date after the trip? How's your back? We

last left you last episode where your back wasn't feeling very that good. And then we were at the throwdown in Watertown and your back was still on the recovery and then you've been gone for a while. So I was Yeah, the throwdown in Watertown in your back was still on the recovery and then you've been gone for a while. So I was, yeah, the, uh, tower of power. Or what's the, uh, no, it's like put it back. It's, it's not good. Actually, it's not good. And, um, what, what, uh, I actually thought I was making pretty good. What murders it? It's that Allegiant flight flying

Allegiant is the most God awful airplane seat I've ever been ended my life. It's like that a direct flight. Yeah, and it's a direct flight. And then of course, you sit on the runway for like 45 minutes before you go. So all of a sudden, it's like this four hour flight and on the way there, I actually was thinking when we were in Watertown, like I had to take it easy. Yeah. But I was thinking, I think I am like I'm making progress. Like it's not as bad as it was and You know, I got a little bit of a workout in nothing. I just kind of just got movement whatever. I didn't hit anything hard

and then when we saw that next day then we flew to flew to Florida and I got a flight and I'm like, oh my god I'm like screwed like this my back like it was as bad as it is so bad like to the point where we're like walking sucks and I'm like, oh my God, I'm like screwed like this. My back like it was as bad as it had so bad, like to the point where like walking sucks. And I'm like, Oh my God, like, and it was that flight. So like I went to bed that night and I woke up the seats there like in that flight are particularly bad just suck and they don't recline in any way either. And just like they don't have a reclined. No, there's no reclined button. And it might sound dumb, but like that extra just like couple it. what is it two inches

of recline makes like a world of difference for me and oh it's like somehow the the seat feels like it's pushing my shoulders forward while like the lumbar is completely caved out like it's just like worse if you like made up the worst yeah it just feels like it could not be any worse and I I walked walked off that flight. I feel like I was broken. And the next day, I'm like, I think I'm maybe a little better than yesterday. And then actually, by the third day, you know, you put some monster step days in at Disney, like the third day, my phone said like 19000 steps, which is, oh, wow, that's a lot of steps.

That's a lot of a lot of walking. And by the time that day was over, granted I was moving all day long and it was in the heat. I'm like, I'm feeling like, actually my back isn't feeling too bad right now. When I woke up the next day, I was actually pretty sore. That's a lot of walking. That is a lot of walking.

I was actually feeling a little beat up. I had actually, I kind of felt like I had worked out almost the day before. Right. I'm not used to that much time. And then when I'm not walking, you're standing, you know, so it was just basically on your feet for like 14 hours or whatever was 20,000 steps. Yeah.

So I was a little bit from that. But when we left, I was like, OK, like I'm feeling, feeling better. And then we rode that flight home and within When we're at that for did it all over again We're on that 45 minute mark and we hadn't even taken off yet and I'm like, oh my god. This is not good and Like we got off the plane that I just felt awful again. I'm like I feel like I just Rewinded the clock like seven days here. Yeah and woke up this morning. I didn't feel great again Gotten a little better as the day goes on. I guess tomorrow will be a better test. But yeah Definitely slower than what I was maybe hoping for here. So pretty much the flights are were not

well, and I thought about it actually, you know when we left I Think flights always screw me because when we left, California in But I think flights always screw me because when we left California in January, I came back and I just had just like the most my I had RP 10 deadlift day, but I had just like the most minor tweak. Like I could have lifted through it, but just out of caution, I like just extended everything out. It's like that was right after a flight there. And then Ohio, we did a flight what two weeks ago.

And then here we are like a week later, tweaked my back again. It's like, anytime I have like the and that was a severe tweak But anytime I have like these little mess-ups, it's within a week or two of a flight seems to be the common theme Yeah See, I I don't know. It's it's not good right now Like I'm actually kind of just like mentally accepting the fact that like a real peak is probably totally out the window Yeah, but it's just, I guess, would be, like I can, so it's getting better in certain ways.

Like I'm starting to have, like my tests that I know for myself is like, can I do like a seated leg extension and not have severe pain in my back, pinching? And like that's coming around. Like that's a big test for me when that one's coming around that I know things are getting better. And so like that one's coming around and also like squatting to depth.

I can like pretty much squat to depth without feeling like my back's getting hit by a lightning bolt. That's another big one. Cause like squatting to depth is actually matters for something. Uh, and you know, Grant, I'm just talking to air squats here. There's no way to evolve yet, but, um, like a week ago, I couldn't do like, I could get like, I'd be a few inches high. And it would be hurting. It was it was like severe, severe. So that is

coming around to I'm just hoping like now that I can get back in my routine of right sitting in the chairs, I'm used to sleeping in the bed. I'm used to being in the positions I'm used to that maybe we can an airplane for five. Right? Yeah, not doing like dumb stuff like that. that maybe we can an airplane for five hours. Right. Yeah. Not doing like dumb stuff like that. Like maybe we can speed up recovery here a little more. Right. And then if that's the case, then it's like, OK, well,

maybe next week I can actually start to try some SBD days. And then if that goes OK next week, then the next week, like maybe I can start throwing some actual weights on. Right. And you know, that gives me like a four week prep then. So things are going great. Like they're just, I guess what I'm trying to remind myself is like nothing muscular wise is going to change drastically

over the next three weeks. It's just how well you can express that one rep max. And you know, when you're not taking heavy singles and doubles, you're not having a lot of practice really expressing your true potential in that lift. So I don't know. I'm, uh, I'm trying to stay optimistic about it. It's just really, it's just really, really annoying. It's not even like it's a muscle thing. I can, I can pump blood into the muscle, do all that. My muscles feel fine. It's, it's

not that it's a nerve thing. And it's always, that's been my issue. Like that's always been my, my one, my one bugaboo and lifting and lifting like I just never really even had to work through anything else besides This and it's always this one. So We'll keep on keeping on Guess if it was easy everyone would do it God I think like when people say they hurt their back and quit lifting. I'm like, oh my god I totally get it like why why, like who else would? It's like, oh, everything sucks.

Like everything sucks when this happens. Everyone else is like, now screw it. First thing is like, how can I do this more again? That is, it's like, what can I do to be able to do this more? What's the on ramp into getting right back in there, getting right back on the horse? Because yeah, and it's awful. It's a very, but I do, like I love going to the gym. That's why I'm gonna figure it out

It's just the nerve thing is annoying because it just feels like it's just a roll of the dice on time Like it doesn't yep. Yeah Well, that's the same every time I've hurt myself lifting in every way whether it's tearing a ligament or Yeah, more minor things. The first thing is like, all right, how can I do that? Smaller and I got to do to be able to do that some more. Right. And part of it does come with the territory, because like, I don't know if this was in a book or something, but it's like,

well, if someone was playing basketball and they rolled their ankle, you wouldn't say, well, don't ever play basketball again. People like, well, yeah, obviously you're playing basketball. You're going to roll an ankle sometimes. It's like you're lifting. You're going to get baked baked like some people have issues with muscle tears or things like that Some people have nerve it and like I guess I have the nerve thing so it's just I'll I'll figure it out eventually It's just how long will this one be don't know One last note on lifting before we wrap it up. Just want to update everyone on Larry legends

Meet prep he did squat Just want to update everyone on Larry Legends. Meet prep, he did squat 495 for a set of six. Yeah, what the hell? I could have sworn there was three plates on the bar. I'm pretty sure he could have done it for a set of 10. Because when I first started watching that video, I wasn't even looking at the weight. Because you had to pre-count the plates.

Yeah, because he was moving it so easy. I'm like, well, and then I'm like, wait. I'm like, just trying to zoom the video. I'm like, he has five plates on there and he's moving that that easily? Like what is going on? Not even that he did it for a set of six, it's how they all looked.

So easy, so easy. That's where I was like, shockingly easy. And Larry Legend has competed in powerlifting for like 20 years, I guess. He's turning 48 and he is now the strongest he's ever been right now. Yeah, is he riding Juggernaut?

Yes. Well, there you go. That was supposed to be an RPE 10 and it was absolutely was not RPE 10. Oh, that was actually supposed to be RPE 10 day. Yeah. Oh, God. Which makes, I mean, he's never be an rpe 10 and it was absolutely wasn't oh that was actually supposed to be an rpe 10 day Yeah, oh god, which makes I mean he's never that's he's never done a set like that before 500 for a set of six like when I picture Larry I picture Larry throwing four plates and just squatting away like that's a state Yes, yes, but five plates. Yeah, I mean, I'm pretty sure you could have done five fifteen or five twenty five for a set of six

I think so judging by how that looked. Yeah, I mean he's gonna squat six hundred pounds sure he could have done 515 or 525 for a set of six. I think so, judging by how that looked. Yeah, I mean, he's going to squat 600 pounds and he's never done that before. And I think he's also going to deadlift 600 pounds. Yeah. Well, yeah, because the deadlift always matches the squat. So. Right. Right. So that's the Larry Legend update. As everyone wanted to know. So stay tuned. He had hurt his shoulder the last year, so it's actually coming back. But like you won't do you think?

Maybe about that much right now. I Would say that's in but his all-time PR is like 370 ish, isn't it? I may be done in the 380s he's done 400 in the gym and maybe like 380 whatever. Okay, but either way He's not like drastically off a platform PR. And the big lifts are both up. So stay tuned for more Larry Legend as we get close to some guys. Just have it all, don't they? But I was talking like, God, he's almost 50. And he didn't just start doing this.

He's been competitively powerlifting for 20 years. Larry, it's Larry Larry But he did To update people farther, you know, he did have a job position, you know, he less Labor well, that's I'm wondering that's like cheating now. That's yes I'll essentially have 30 years and now he doesn't have to do that anymore. So in a state of super recovery all the time Yes more so in a state of super recovery all the time yes anything else for this week it's probably enough I think that's it yeah we can do see of an episode yeah we got other things here they can make a way till next week I will save that for 478 got to have

something for first for 478 it's right hate to end this podcast this week yeah and this ain't gonna be the week. Leave us a five star review on Apple podcasts. I think we're at like 592. So we literally need like eight reviews on Apple podcasts to break 600. So leave us a freaking review. If you've been listening to this for any amount of time and you enjoy it at any level, get onto Apple podcasts somehow and leave us a review. If at least eight of you listen to me, don't assume it's going to

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