Massenomics Podcast - Ep. 486: Lift Hard Live Easy 2025 Recap

Episode Date: July 28, 2025

Listen to get our candid take on everything that went into a WILD Lift Hard Live Easy Classic Part III weekend. Training for the next one starts now?? EliteFTS Use code MASS10 to save 10% on most orders! 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 of 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! everything. Mass Anomics. Welcome, everyone, for episode four hundred and eighty six of the Lifting Podcast about New Fing. This is going to be the left hard, the VZ Classic three recap episode

I did oh my name is Tanner and my name is Tommy ah this that last episode you know how we made a big deal about how this could be someone's first time I know did you see someone on YouTube go this is particularly funny because this is my first episode of I've ever listened to I saw that comment and I loved it because it's like statistically there should be at least one new person every time right? All right. You take it for granted You assume everyone's been like if we only got one new listener each episode We don't have four hundred eighty six listeners. We'd be doing pretty a pretty shitty job of this at this point so

So yeah, like to the new people listening again Welcome welcome to the new people and we, welcome. Welcome to the new people. And we're glad to have the old ones back. You picked a great time to jump in. You did really pick a good time. There was something. Oh, that was another comment this week. Someone on one of the podcast episodes goes, who are those two guys in the intro? And I'm like, well, there's a few of them, but I'm like, Bill, so I listed, I named them like,

the Bill Kazmaier, Donnie Thompson, Gino, and Matt, because I'm like, he probably doesn't know who Matt from Pioneer is. And he goes, no, I know who the famous people are, who are the other two guys? And I'm like, oh, that's me. Yes, yes. One of the hosts of the show. And you said, and oh, that's me. Yes. Yes. One of the hosts of the other one's Tommy.

Really thrown for a loop. Now, the other one's not me, in case anyone's wondering. I that was that was to would be too deep of a story to explain over YouTube comments. So I just said, I just stuck with a, well, one of them's me. The first of all, and he's like, oh, okay. That out of the way. I want to tell everyone about Texas Power Bars. ["I Love This Bar"]

One more time. I love this bar. I love this bar. Crazy how many people don't know that song was written about Texas Power Bars. That's why we're trying to spread the good word. We had a powerlifting meet full of Texas Power Bars. I brought four Texas Power Bars, several. I brought four Texas power bars, several, I brought four Texas squat bars,

several Texas deadlift bars and Dave did as well. We had about 20, I'd say 20 out of the 24 bars there were at least Texas. So all Texas bars. Maybe one of the biggest collections of Texas power bars ever assembled. All the state of South Dakota. Outside of Massanam's gym.

That's, well, it was even greater than my normal collection of Texas power bars. South Dakota outside of Mass. I could do that. Well, it was even it was even greater than my normal. Texas power bars. Yeah. Of Texas bars, at least. Yeah. So you could also get some bars that are running a little sale right now where they've got seventy five dollars off certain bars. We were using, like I said, the power bar, the squat bar, the deadlift bar. If you consider yourself a deadlifter you need to get yourself a texas deadlift bar check them all out at

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You can also get a subscription set up and save 10% to combine those things together and you're saving lots of money One more time build fast formula.com use code massonomomics save you 10% Thank You build fast formula Thank You build fast. Yeah, I don't know if anyone's Could be particularly paranoid about this episode, but I feel like we're gonna take everyone on a bit of a crazy train So We've got a lot of Iron Man listening. I just want everyone out there to know that there's no more tears because mama I'm coming home That's right That's pretty good. Mr. Crowley everyone out there to know that there's no more tears because mama, I'm coming home. That's right. That was pretty good.

Mr. Crowley. War pigs. Yeah, so you put a topic in there, I assume. It's actually weird how long it took me to, I was really in the zone for work today, like really in the zone. And it's weird how many times I read comments about Ozzy and Rip Ozzy and my brain still didn't process

that it was Ozzy Osbourne. I just kind of read right past it until several hours later and I'm like, wait, I've been seeing a lot of these. I mean, he was old. It's not like a shock. Kind of crazy though that he just did that concert. What was it, like two or three weeks ago? Did you see that? Yeah, did you see that you heard about this? Have you seen this? Have you heard about this?

Did you see that Ryan? Ryan was there of Megan Ryan. Oh Was he actually at that one? Yeah, he was at the final concert. Yeah. Damn. That's pretty cool. Yeah Cuz like Metallica and a whole bunch of people what played at that concert. Okay, and I was a huge I didn't see hardly any clips from it at all So I didn't know what I what I had missed but that is kind of nuts that he does his final concert Like this is the send-off and it's just a couple weeks later That's it

It's Ryan saying that British David was there Our British David since back to the motherland. Oh, yeah, he was. Oh, I say he was Pretty cool. That would be cool. But I mean talk about separation and massonomics There is a talk about staple of gym culture right there. That's true. I don't know where we ranked Ozzy What song did we do a song? Actually, that's a good question. Did we do a song we might not have we ranked Ozzy. What song, did we do a song? Actually, that's a good question. Did we do a song?

We might not have picked an Ozzy song. Well, did we do a Black Sabbath song or something though? The one that I always think of that I feel like I hear at Mastinomics Gym a lot, kind of an odd pick is No More Tears. Yeah. That one plays a lot at Mastinomics Gym. Yeah.

I don't know, we might not have ranked one, actually. I don't think we did. Which is surprising, now thinking about it. Yeah. So what do you think? Were you an Ozzy fan, a Black Sabbath fan? I would say, definitely I would say, well, I was more of a Black Sabbath fan than an Ozzy fan.

You know? Yeah. What about the reality show? Dude, that was a very culturally relevant show. Was it the Osbournes? Yeah, when that came out in, that has to be like early 2000s, wasn't it? Yeah, I thought most of the people in that show

were pretty insufferable. Oh, yeah. That was the first time you really heard just a lot of swearing on TV, it felt like. Yeah. I'm trying to find, yeah, 2002, first episode, 2002. What was the first time you really heard just a lot of swearing on TV it felt like? Yeah. I'm trying to find, yeah, 2002, first episode, 2002. Yeah, I felt like this couldn't be real at the time.

And I didn't, well, I guess I didn't, four seasons, 52 episodes, that actually does surprise me. That seems like a lot. But those few, all the people in the show, like their children are actually children in that show. Right. You know, they're very young there I mean they might have been in high school or something, but it's funny looking back now at how

Young actually everyone seems I'm just looking through some of these photos Probably except Ozzy. He kind of just looks the same actually He kind of looks the same forever. But at the same time and some of the more candid stuff. He does look a lot younger Okay He kind of looks the same forever, but at the same time and some of the more candid stuff He does look a lot younger Okay Wow, yeah Sharon Osborne was super annoying. Yes. Yes, she was Anything else on Ozzy, that's right about it Well, do we start to get into the re whatever one tuned in for how the hell did the left hard live easy classic part three go? So it went good.

All right. I'm pretty good. Pretty good. We'll see you next year. Maybe. Oh, man, there is a lot to cover, isn't there? A lot to unpack out of that one. My voice is still just but barely. We would have done this last night. I couldn't have done it still. No, I was so tired. I was sitting on the couch with my boy.

We're trying to read books and do these things. And I was just losing consciousness while I was sitting there with him. It was overall. I am just completely shellacked from it. I am way more run down this year than last year and I competed last year. I think it was actually harder not competing for me this year, because at least when I was competing, you're riding that like three hours of in the zone of like not. Like competing might be stressful for some people, but I'm like, once you get started, it's not stressful. You're in the zone.

Oh, yeah, you're like you're I'm not, once you get started, it's not stressful. You're in the zone. Oh, yeah. You're like, you're I'm not stressed out then. I'm like totally like I guess in the zone is what the best thing I would call it, where I'm like, I didn't get to do that at all. So there was no like zoned out. That probably is why you now that you say that that probably is why you feel so run down. I mean, I actually was more tired

this year too, which is surprising. But I think that, yeah, if I didn't have that excitement of the meat day I can see how I just feel way more wore out at the end. Yeah, so I lost five pounds over the weekend Did you really could make the 242 weight class right now? Oh, I think I lost six pounds and not by damn try we could have been competing in the same weight class Were you in the 242? Yeah, cuz I weighed in at 223 here whatever at the start of the weekend I wouldn't have made it but by the end of it

I would I would have actually made the 242 weight class or like by like yesterday that lift hard live easy effect right there. I guess I guess lift hardly easy effect right there. I guess, I guess. Um, so yeah, like say all those things saying it was because it was a really good weekend though, it was a very full action packed, uh, it was part of it. You know, it was somewhat, it was, it was pretty similar size to last year. It was much more similar size of year two than year two was to year one, you know?

Right. But it just in my head felt so much bigger this year. I don't know why it just, it felt much more similar size a year two than year two was to year one, you know, right? But it just in my head felt so much bigger this year. I don't know why it just felt like there was more people and more stuff going on 15 more people but you know, that's not even 10% larger than the prior year. Right? Like that's not enough to hardly even notice in a crowd of that size. But right, just everything felt to me this year for some reason. Yeah. Yeah, it definitely did it it grew Significantly for not increasing the athletes by very much

I guess is the way I would describe that maybe for someone, you know Someone asked me how many more people were there and it's so hard to tell yeah, we kind of know the gate numbers and stuff but that doesn't really tell the toll picture and it's I Feel like more people stayed there a lot. Well, I don't even know I guess I'm putting the cart before the horse So what are we what are we doing here? Well, I mean should we just start to begin? Otherwise, it's an elephant. Yeah, otherwise, it's too hard to keep track of everything

I think we just got to start take it chronologically also with the disclaimer that we are gonna forget things We're gonna forget to mention cool things that happen with people We're gonna forget callouts just because there was so much stuff this weekend. So if your name wasn't mentioned It's just accidental Like I guess my journey started on Wednesday. I took that off work and I spent all day Wednesday I guess my journey started on Wednesday. I took that off work and I spent all day Wednesday Packing packing the booth. Yeah, so on Wednesday I got the booth packed and the mass dynamics enclosed trailer and then you got here Wednesday night Yeah, I roll into town Wednesday night and then I mean we woke up

Thursday morning. Yep And we're together Got your house one eight. And then we went with the trailer to the Ram Coda. And Dave and Katie had just also gotten there. And it with their big ass enclosed trailer and we unloaded our booth, took it to the back of the room. That was really like the first time going in the Ram Coda and seeing the chairs set up and Not the first time we'd been in there, but like this is my first time in there in quite a few years though, so right, right

So then we dumped all our stuff off Then Jake also showed up yeah that process to to unload his first load of strongman equipment That he had brought with him from Brookings Jake that Jake and Abby had brought. They unloaded that. And then once we got done unloading and once they got done unloading, we all went to Mastinomics gym to meet up with a bunch of volunteers would also say we had way more volunteers to help move stuff this year.

That was the that was the biggest difference maker on Thursday was that there was so many more volunteers to help out. You know, last year, I think it was like, to get all those plates, all those bars, the combo rack, everything out of the gym, you know, because we're bringing half of the shit, you know, like, it's a lot of stuff you got to bring. And I think that first, the second year, literally half of the gym, you know, because we're bringing half of the shit, you know, like it's a lot of stuff you got to bring. And I think that first, the second year is half of the powerlifting equipment. Yeah. And it's a lot of stuff. But then when you factor, then it has to go up the stairs.

That's what really adds to the challenge of it. So I think that first year was like me, you and like maybe four other people, maybe. And this year, I mean we got there There was already a trailer loaded up with plates like people were getting after it. There was probably 15 of us. Wasn't there? Yeah, yeah, that's I would say so there and it's yeah I mean, I'd hate to try and mention all the people's names because there are so many yeah, but like just for comparison like I think I brought up like a bar two sets of plates and maybe like an arm of the combo and like that was

Kind of it. You know, you know, I made like four trips and that was That was really about it And jake and abby had their pickup and trailer and then kaden had larry's trailer so it was also really nice to nice to uh Um So it was also really nice to just have not all reliant upon the one flatbed trailer. Right, yeah. So besides the giant flatbed, there were two more trailers there, which basically meant

you only had to make one trip instead of multiple trips across town. Not that it's that far, but it's just nice to just load it all up and be done rather than going back and forth. And people either waiting around or hanging out for the for the trailer to show up again. And we were like barring that first load that Jake and Abby dropped off and we dropped off of the booth able to

basically get everything in one pass after that and it almost I guess it felt like more equipment even to me than last year Well, cuz much equipment the thing that I didn't realize it and you had said this is so You know what? How many bars are required again to do it to platform heat? 24 so you have 24 bars because you need six warm-up platforms Yeah, so you need eight bars for each lift eight times three twenty four

So you have eight times three which also means you need enough plates for six warm-up platforms Yeah, which means you also need two sets of kilo plates Yep, and then you need eight, you know eight deadlift jacks deadlift jacks. It's it's just a lot Stands. Yeah, it's just a lot. It's just a lot of stuff you gotta bring. I mean, it really does feel like you empty out half the gym to make this thing work. It was a lot of equipment. Thank God for the people helping though,

otherwise it literally wouldn't be possible. No, no, it would just sense that. I mean, there'd be no way, like I competed this year, there'd be no way I could compete. If it was like me, you and one or two other people, like it's just like, yeah, that's not gonna happen. I don't even know the sake of time if it could even be done.

That's also a good point. Like it just might never get done. Right, right. You'd just be dead getting things there and unloaded. But then we got all loaded up. I mean, it was so clutch having that many people helping. And then we went and took that load and dropped it off. And then like you and I kind of started setting up our booth

because we hadn't done that yet. Yeah. And that is actually one of the easiest things of the entire weekend now at this point, just because we've done it so many times and we did a single booth this year. You know, it takes a little time, but it's very simple, very straightforward work at this point.

Right, right. As we were doing that, Dave and Katie, we're setting up all the whole time. There is like setting up all those banners and all those dividers take so much time. It does, building that backdrop Building those things is a pain in the head. It's just tedious you're just connecting a bunch of rods and like extending them to the right lengths and

Hanging banners off of them. There's just a lot of just annoying stuff I mentioned today about one point in time running a powerlifting meet is mostly putting these pipe pole pocket things lifting meat is mostly putting these pipe pull pocket. Things together. Like it was a joke, but I'm like, it also is kind of true on some level too. So then we just kept setting up then. I think so, and it was around that time too. Mini showed up then too, didn't he, right around there?

Yeah, Big Mini came on Thursday. He was there Thursday early to start setting up, which that's a fricking process for anyone that, even if you were there, but you really didn't really sit and see what all Mini has going on, it's insane. I know we mentioned it prior, we probably talked about it last year, but his setup this year had to have even been

way more elaborate than last year. Yeah, he has four or five cameras. He has a computer, two monitors, a whole computer, basically a mobile workstation. Fucking batteries and wireless stuff. More wireless receivers than you would ever think. Cords to run and connect everything. It's just wild how much gear he brings to this thing

to make it all work. Yeah. much gear he brings to this thing to make it all work. Yeah, it, it it just, it's crazy. It's just insane to me that that's what it's insane to me actually, the know how that he has actually operate all of that equipment to what I think is wild. I said I for the most part, understand cameras, the tech behind them and can basically make a camera do what I need it to but you start adding in all these wireless receivers and live transitions and these switch boards and

Taking in audio, but not certain audio. I mean, it's it's crazy how he has figured that out of the years. It really is It's it's just so over-the-top and awesome years. It really is, it's just so over the top and awesome and it's really impressive what he's been able to do. I mean, basically no powerlifting meat or strongman competition has a better live stream than what he is able to do. I don't think so. I think there's a lot that charge you money

that do a significantly worse job than this. So what I would put out on there is, he's not even sure what he want, if he's interested in this, but if you are someone that's running something and you want a live stream and you wanna pay someone, he would be the guy that you need to be paying. If you wanna, and I'm saying like,

for mostly most of the biggest meets that exist, he is the guy you would want. And here's the direction we give him, just be here on time if you can mini like that's the direction He just shows up and does all of it like he doesn't ask us any questions Not not saying like not saying doesn't want our input It's just like we literally have full faith in him that he's just gonna handle it and we don't have to be involved And he does like there's no question about a few things, you know gets a little input on a couple things

But for the most part, it's like no we know at this point, you know what you're doing The expert you you know way more than any of us know Yes, we had a time to send him a few logos things like that and that's about it Yes, and actually Rachel also. I'm just saying yeah Rachel to me and Rachel. It's a two-person team Yes, just like when I before I said Jake and Rachel, it's a two person team. Just like when I, before I said Jake, Jake and Abby, that's a two person team. Minnie and Rachel is a two person team. Rachel is working that entire time also.

Yeah. So they, the fricking boxes of stuff though is crazy. I'm like, I don't even know how to, I'd be so anxious about batteries and like that many electronics and keeping things Right. It's crazy. It's so much stuff Yeah, so then set up continued Thursday, you know Jake and Abby were putting together the Secret event the drink spotters that people it had been under wraps yet. Nobody had seen those and

Those in person were really freaking cool They're awesome person giant drink spotters for anyone that doesn't know what we're talking about had seen those and those in person were really freaking cool. They're awesome in person. Giant drink spotters, for anyone that doesn't know what we're talking about, watch videos from the Lift Hardly Weezy Classic, you'll see the Strongman event was the kegs loaded into the giant drink spotter XLs.

It sort of breaks your brain when you first look at them because you know, you recognize this but it's not the right size. Yes, yes. Yes. Yes. That was cool. That what that event was everything as as advertised to be actually of how cool that that turned out. Any other notes on Thursday set up? I don't mean that's just in preparation getting ready for Friday way. The one thing that did surprise me on Thursday You know typically we don't really see anyone on Thursday because that the Odeon you have no reason to go there

It's basically locked you can't get in being that this was at the hotel this year There was already people hanging out most of the day on Thursday because it's at the hotel That's where people are at so they got to come down and see what the action is So we already saw way more people Thursday afternoon than we typically do, you know until Friday, which is cool Yeah. Yeah, I like that part a lot. Yeah. Yeah, I'm kind of like we got a whole extra day with people right right, right That part of it is pretty cool. That's a that's a perk of the Ram Coda I mean so setup was mostly done on Thursday. I mean, Dave and Katie continued to do things all day Friday, setting up

just as well as Jake and Abby getting ready for it. Never really stop. You never really stop. No, because you just things up until it's time to go. Because you're always just like, well, what else do we need? You just hang around and say, oh, we could do this. We could do this. One thing that was nice, you know, at the Ram Coda is years past, we had to wheel out

and set up every single chair, every single table, you know, do all that. The chairs and tables were already out waiting for us, which was kind of nice this year when we got there. So that part didn't have to be messed with. That was nice. The venue also costs three times as much. So, you know it should

An improvement The air conditioning did work. Well, the temperature was much better in there even as we're setting up Although it did end up being about 75 degrees all weekend Well, I wasn't to get up to like 80 something on Saturday afternoon though? Maybe I thought I went to my car I was actually thought it was fairly warm out But maybe it's just cuz I was went in my car for a minute Oh Keith's Keith is still complaining about being hot Some guys you just can't please him Keith was still hot

Might be a personal thing at this point that guy needs to keep ice in his pants or something. Yeah, so Thursday night loggers was a change then too, right? Yeah, yeah. Thursday night went to loggers. And this is, in the years past, Thursday night was always a very informal thing of, is anyone even gonna be there, who knows? And we figured out last year that yes, people will be there,

so we just made it a thing this year. It's the first official get together of the weekend for everyone, and yeah, it's a ton of fun. I think doing it at Loggers was a good move this year, that that went pretty well, that was fun in there. Well, and it makes it very obvious that this is just a, you know, we had our whole corner of the bar, and it's just so clear that when you show up

that this is just almost part social hour, part bar, part eat, you know, half the people weren't even at their table, everyone's just wandering around talking, so it makes that easier to do than when you're at more of a formal restaurant where you feel like you can't be up and taking the place over as much. Yeah, yeah.

And there was a really good turn, there was a lot of people there, like a lot of new people, a lot of people that we, overall on the weekend I'd make that comment too, it's even the third time of doing this, you think, oh okay, you know, it'd be a lot of the same people and it's not. I mean, there is a lot of the same people,

which is great, then it's like catching up with old friends, but also just the meeting all new crew that I've never met before faces and Tata fresh faces then also faces that you haven't seen since you know, there's a year ago or two years ago Yeah, it's like oh haven't hung out for two years. Yeah, yeah last time Yep, haven't seen you in two years and I'm back and I said, you know, I couldn't make it last year I had to take it off whatever it is. And so Yeah, but there's it's always a thing. It's so funny at this of, you know,

when you're at a place like Loggers, it's okay, are you with us? Are you with this group or are you just here at the bar? And then you kind of hang around and they're like, no, they're kind of mingling around this area. So who are you? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cause most people know who me and you are

But there still are some people that we don't know who they are Right and there yeah, you'd start to get that feeling of like oh, I assume you're with the group here But a little hard to tell sometimes to mass. I'm sure it's usually dead giveaway, but typically Yeah, not everyone has one on all the time. Yeah What was next I'm just trying to think there's anything else Thursday night. That was noteworthy I mean that was the first yeah, just time to really talk with everyone have a good time there next one goes to Friday morning Oh Wayans and

God, okay. What time do we start 830? Oh Wayans and God, okay. What time to weigh in start 830 8 or 830 I can't oh, yeah 838 30. I think I showed up at 835 and I don't know seemed like there was a hundred people in the room I was absolutely shocked how many people were there eight and there was probably was a hundred people there already Prior to eight. I felt like the meat had started when I walked in. There were so many people. You had a giant line at the booth already. I'm like, this started five minutes ago. What's going on here?

And you're like, nope, people have been here for a half hour already. And the line was, it was like busier than the Arnold, honestly. As far as sales go, it was busier than the Arnold. Friday at the Lyft Hard Live Easy Classic is as busy as a really busy Arnold day. Like that's Friday at the Arnold,

or Friday at the Lyft Hard Live Easy Classic is our, you know, we sell more Mastinomics merchandise than anything any other day. You do, well, and yeah, the Arnold has more people, but at the Arnold, people aren't lined up 35 deep. Like, it's not an exaggeration They're lined up 30 plus deep waiting in line to buy something from you and right So it's it is kind of a crazy hectic couple of hours while that's going on

We had a lot of custom Mastinomics more custom Mastinomics merch this year than ever before and that stuff went like hotcakes. There was all the ever before. And that stuff went like hotcakes. There was all the flannel and all the flannels. Yeah. See, Keith's got his orange one there. I thought that one was particularly cool. There was a lot of hats too. You know, there we had the cowboy beer helmets and also just like the cowboy felt hat or cowboy style felt hats that people, yeah, there's Garrett wearing his cutoff and those we could have used twice as many Those like it really fit the vibe for the weekend too. Mm-hmm. It did. Yeah, I played right into the whole thing

Yeah, so that was cool. We had the meat shirt we released our silly goose barbell club mesh shorts mm-hmm, we had the silly pint and released our silly goose barbell club mesh shorts. Mm hmm. We had the silly pint and a license plate. Liv-Easy 3 license plate and also a secret shirt. And everything sold really well, but what's left over, we are putting back out the site by the time this comes out.

That stuff will be back on the site. As of a recording, it'll be later this week. So that stuff's all gonna go on the site by the time this comes out that stuff will be back on the site as of a recording It'll be later this week So that stuff's all gonna go on the site Thursday for anyone that wasn't there or that's having Doubts about not getting something that wanted wanted something the meat shirt There's like large in XL like there's a good sizes left, but not a lot of quantities of anything Yeah, extra small small and medium are gone and like two three and four X I'll have like a one or two left and yeah, there's a there's a few units a large and extra large but

Silly goose bar silly boot goose barbell club mesh shorts We sold over half of them, but the only there's pretty much almost all sizes left still now So you can still get a crack at that but with over half the inventory being gone. They won't last all that long still. OK, so you could still get a crack at that. But with over half the inventory being gone, they won't last all that long either. There is some programs left and I've send those out in orders as as they come. Also going to send out some of Ryan's extra mosquito stickers for the 2025.

I gave blood lift hard live threesie stickers got some extra of those that are gonna go out with orders yeah no Wayans more people come for the morning Wayans than the evening Wayans for sure morning way a lot more is the busiest time and After that after I left there for a while Can't remember everyone went to goes to the gym. So he stopped by the gym for a while. Oh, yeah You and me you mean Kim went got lunch Right. Where did we lunch at? Oh, Mazelon. Yeah, they gave me completely or something. I didn't order the My wife was here she would straighten this whole thing out, but I'll just take it

And it's funny Kim was like, yep, I do the same thing Yeah Cuz I go you know that how people joke about how They need their wife to tell them that they got the wrong chicken attendees or whatever. I'm like, oh no I actually do that like if my wife was here She would she would tell them that it's wrong But since I she wasn't there I'm I'm like, I'll just eat this completely wrong order and be fine with it. Yeah.

Yeah, I would have done the same thing. I mean, and it was not even remote. Like it was a very odd menu item where I'm like, I don't even know what this menu actually was kind of confused to because it wasn't really a taco. I don't actually know what it was. what I mean it was like all Mexican food it was meat and there was a show Yeah, there was some rice involved like it's never Like totally wrong, but it was different definitely not what I ordered. Yeah. Yeah, we'll do it This eating this thing that I'm not even sure if I like definitely beats having to ask someone a question about fixing my order

So yeah, we got done there and yeah went to the gym and the gym was already pretty poppin at that point yes, and big Hogan and big Nicole had brought the ATX pendulum squat machine, Odie, on their journey, on its journey across the world, going from Germany to Louisville, and then they hoofed it to... The bus? The bus, stored it there for almost a month, then they brought it to its final home in Western North, Western Northeast, South Dakota. And they added a bunch of custom decals, decals to it that made it really, really cool. And there's actually also like, it's like a historic side of the road marker.

Where it talks about its full journey. Yeah, it's really good. That was. So, okay, by the time I got there, they had just finished up putting it together. So people were already trying it out. Did I see a clip? Is this, did it already make it to the other side of the gym?

Is it in its final resting place? I don't know if that's its final, but that's at least its temporary final spot until I, there's a couple other pieces of equipment I'd rather have there, but they're not easily moved to that side of the gym So for the time being the pendulum squat does just fit through the doorway. So it's not that big. Oh, it does actually Okay, I was wondering if you had to take the footplate off or something

Oh, it fits through the door. Wow is is so that's a real optical illusion. It just looks so large Yeah, no, it's it's actually doesn't take up too bad a space. It works out fine where it's at. It's not in the way of anything. It maybe just feels a little odd. Yeah, it's just a mojo of the room, is it correct? Right, right. It's not what I would consider the perfect placement of it, but it's not in the way and it works for now.

And it's very usable. I actually used it this week, like really used it for sets and reps for the first time this week And I do really like that that machine and we really tested the size limitations of it We had big mini get in there and I'm like, okay if he can do it any pretty much anyone can use this thing It's and I saw just the one clip you had, a lot of people were already like, love this machine, love this machine, so people must be pretty excited about it in the gym.

It's pretty good. It is one of the more unique pieces too. You know, that's not something you see everywhere you go. Yeah, it's pretty legit. It's sweet. So I do really appreciate them making the trip with that, and also he had asked, is it okay if they do some things to it, and I had no idea what to expect.

I was curious what that meant, too. I had said, I'll do what I mean, you get the liberty of doing whatever you want, you've earned that right. But I'm like, oh, I didn't know you were gonna straight up just improve it and make it look like the ATX logo, they put red behind it. I was wondering if they did that, or if that's actually how it was. No, that looks really good.

Yeah, no, they did that and it does look really cool. So they kind of knocked it out of the park. Cool. And then there's people lifting in there in the gym. The gym's always, it's kind of nice that half the equipment's gone because there's so many people in the, you know, that come into the gym and there's a little more space to spread out even, uh even when all the people are there. I always enjoy that.

It's so fun coming into the gym and seeing like 45 people in there. Just going at, you know, there's some guys doing a good contest. There's people checking out bars. Anthony and Mathias had their round three. Oh, who was the winner of this one? Big, well, I can't hardly keep them straight,

but if I'm remembering which one is which big Anthony, they actually tied. They tied on what were they? Oh, there did the bronze PP for max weight from the floor, you know, on a pin pin loaded, and they tied really, so then they went back to the the Dynom dynameter For the fight the tiebreaker and Anthony edged out Mathias stop on that by a little bit Wow Yeah, they're pretty evenly matched though, and I think that Mathias is

2024 championship belt was on the line, so he'll probably all owing that to Anthony. So wait, will there be a tetralogy here or what's the what's the long term outlook on this? But I don't know if they're both listening or not. But Mathias, could you let us know, will there be a tetralogy to continue to settle the score? I'm not sure it's. Oh, he says yes. OK, I'm going for it. So it's never really fully settled is it? You gotta have those rivalries. Yeah Then Friday there was afternoon weigh-ins and while afternoon weigh-ins are going well really all day third

well for like a week my wife and Jack and his friends are getting things ready here, but then really on Friday. It's like getting the final setup Ready to go to have a couple hundred of our closest friends come over to our house and I Pretty sure it was the biggest backyard party that we've had over the years, isn't it? Yeah, there's a lot of people there People need to well, we will have the full YouTube video coming out here or it will be out by the time you're hearing this but there's also the Key says 175 plus I could believe it. Yeah, there's getting close to 200 those Instagram clips of the aerial footage You know you where you can see everyone. Well, just even the group photo is huge, too

Yeah We spruce Oh Just brought up. I did really like this. We didn't get to get in on it, of course, but big Jess brought up the, one of the cool parts of being in the Ram Coda, so many people stayed there, and the pool area at the Ram Coda isn't too bad,

and it, I think, I'm sure we made the comment at some point in time, oh, it's just like world's strongest man when all the big guys are in the pool. Well, it's like all these guys were in the pool and in the hot tub together And it's like there's these pictures of like 12 guys piled into the corner of the hot tub all together Or on top of each other I would love to have you know hung out there. I wish we didn't have stuff to do there Because it does look like a lot of fun

I remember at loggers that mean like oh we got to get back and get to the pool. And I just thought that was one of the things you say, like, oh, we're leaving. But no, then it was, I don't know, 20 minutes later, we're seeing pictures on Discord of, yes, them actually back at the pool together. I don't blame them. That looks fun as hell. And then, like, when I would walk by on Friday,

there was like that all the bunch of different people are playing board games and all these, you know, the pool side tables. Oh, in the pool, were they? Yeah, like, they were playing, like and all these you know the tape pool so in the pool were they yeah, okay? they were playing like I Don't know not magic the gathering but like over the time Pokemon or something maybe yeah, maybe like other game various games I don't know how to play but they it looked like fun just because I am like oh, there's Cody and Eddie playing

Some game that looks like fun. You know and Eddie playing some game that looks like fun, you know? So the Friday night party, we did have the cottage, the first annual cottage cheese eating contest, ended up having six competitors in that one. And Matt mostly squat videos, Matt kind of crushed that. A tub of cottage cheese in less than a minute. That is insane. That is so fast. Did you know that was the official time on it?

Oh, it was less than a minute. Yeah, it was less than a minute. I think it was, was I talking to Jake or was it Anthony? I don't know, they're kind of the same to me. Yeah, it wasn't anything. One of them timed it and he said, yeah, 52, okay, Anthony. Yeah, so there's 52 seconds is how long it took Matt to finish The whole thing Wow, that's really impressive Yeah

That Was it Garrett then that was halfway gagging a couple of there was some people making some gagging noises My boy was standing right there. And I was like, hey, why don't you come this way a little bit? You need to get out of the splash zone here. Get out of the Gallagher splash zone. Yeah, I'm fairly surprised somebody didn't puke even just a little bit. But props to them for for not.

I don't think it would have ruined the event, but it would have made it more interesting possibly even, but some people wouldn't have liked it as well. And Matt, even after winning- People definitely gathered around for the cottage cheese contest. Oh yeah, people were very interested. Matt won and his trophy was more cottage cheese,

and he ate that too. Yes, he did eat the lift glass full of cottage cheese. What, 16 more ounces, right? Yes, he did eat the lift glass full of cottage cheese What's 16 more ounces, right? Yeah, I Yeah So we'll have to see if we run that back did you see that Daisy Daisy kind of cheese did share the cottage cheese eating contest right has caught the attention of big cottage cheese So who knows knows what will come of this, but we are popping up on radars Yeah, I'm picturing that Mike finally get that big cottage cheese

Sponsorship that we've been after only hope Daisy has been I mean Daisy is my most frequently bought cottage cheese I did you know cuz they DM'd and asked that they could share it and stuff and I did Give them a little background and said, you know know we've talked about cottage cheese forever because we Jim were lifters and we love the macro profile and They said yeah The guy that runs our department is a weightlifter and he says the same thing and I said something like yeah No surprise to me that he's in charge of the department. It sounds like a pretty sharp guy And they liked that.

So let's just say the groundwork's getting laid for a big partnership there, I think. There could be a seventh sponsor next week, we'll say that. Yeah. Friday night party also included the hall of fame ceremony where we handed out, I think think six cup level Hall of Fame members actually You can consider this part of the supporting our supporting members segment even because I'm just gonna look up who all

Ended up walking away with their Hall of Fame cups, so it takes 12 achievements on with their Hall of Fame Cup. So it takes 12 achievements on our Hall of Fame checklist to get the cup level. And we did have several of those. So big James Ronyak, Minnesota Department of Lifter Safety got his cup. Big Andy Downs, Brehme Strong got his cup. Big David Hunter, old band of Druthers, got his cup. Big Hogan, as mentioned previously, got his cup. Big David Hunter, old man of the others, got his cup. Big Hogan, as mentioned

previously, got his. Big Katie, she missed the ceremony, she didn't come a little later, we got her a cup. Big Garrett got his cup. And then surprise, surprise showing at the lift hard leave easy classic. Technical technical guy Nate Nathan Eckberg showed up Jake the snake had mentioned that there was gonna be a there's a surprise person coming I swear not more than two minutes later he walked in the door at the Ram Coda yeah and he was also there to receive his got to check a few things off that weekend and got his cup God I haven't looked at this Hall of Fame page yet. It's just a sharp looking up page with all these.

Yeah, we have 51 cup members now in the Hall of Fame that have all hit 12 check marks. And then following the cup level was the jacket level Hall of Famers, which we inducted five this weekend. So a huge class joining the four existing. And they were all there. All jacket members were present. All nine, 11 jackets counting.

That's really impressive. That all, I just, I thought about that several times. I'm like, even still, you know, to be a jacket member, you have to be the most hardcore of the hardcore here. But even there, the fact that all of them made it is that's really cool. That's really cool. Very possible. The only time that that'll ever happen. Well, I mean, just there's a summertime, there's family obligation. There's just stuff going on. So it's still, it's so cool. If the jacket level never grew another person, it's very likely we won't get this entire group

together again. Assuming it grows more, it even gets harder to get the entire everyone to. I mean, then these aren't Bryce was the first person from South Dakota that's made the, you know, because people will be like, oh, it's all local people. I'm like, no, Michigan, Nebraska, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania. Yeah. So, so this week, this year's class was Lou Nutter, Eddie, Big Eddie Woodard, Big Brad the pad Big Bryce perfect little sweetie and Tommy Schneider the stapler and Also, I hadn't realized this got it corrected today Lou Nutter is a master completer. We now have three master completers

he joins the likes of scants and Mathias as the third hour to hit all 16 achievements. That's that is impressive stuff guys. Yeah. Well done. So pretty cool, pretty cool stuff. And we, everyone got their jackets. Then we had a little sham. You, you popped the champagne.

We all had a little champagne toast. Yeah. Except for the couple of people in the hall of fame that don't drink alcohol. I just told them, throw it over a little champagne toast. Yeah. Except for the couple people in the hall of fame that don't drink alcohol, I just told them throw it over your shoulder. Yep. And they did it. Yeah.

Friday night, Huck Finn finally made it after all of his travel worries with the camper, you know, almost starting his camper on fire, losing an ax. They were gonna be there on Friday for Friday afternoon weigh-ins to sell and Yep, they hit hit a little snafu on the road Yeah, so they did make it in time for the very end of the Friday night party and I

It was really good to see them. It was fun. I wish they could have been there You know they were scheduled to get in about noon on Friday, which would have they would have got there. You know, they were scheduled to get in at about noon on Friday, which would they would have got to experience that whole party. You know, they would have got to be set up on Friday to sell during during weigh ins, which would have been cooler, too. But it was I mean, it was still really fun having them there. And I'm glad that they were able to make it at all. Oh, yeah, I'm super pumped that they showed up because, yeah, when he sent that message,

it seemed pretty grim. And I was just thinking, yep, that's, it ain't happening. You know, they're on family vacation. This is out of the way kind of, yeah, timing. They're just gonna be screwed. It's not gonna work, but luckily it did. Yep.

What else from the Friday, that drone footage that Anthony took was really cool to see of the backyard party of The Pete the different the various things that people wear for the Friday night. Yeah, lots of cool Yeah, lots of cool things there I think I speak on behalf of everyone when I say thank you to Mary and Tanner for hosting the entire party. You guys got the yard in tip top shape. You got the mosquito sprayers coming. You got pizzas coming. I don't know. Did you guys make like 40 pounds of pork? Yeah, it was something like that. And Scotcher's the food kind of worked out perfect. Like all the pizza. There's a I don't know how many pizzas we had. It was like 20 pizzas.

That's all gone. Very fast. Yeah, there was we kind of. We kind of were about right on the pork. There was like enough left that I had some leftovers, but like not like where we had. So there wasn't 30 pounds. No, no, it kind of worked out. OK, that worked out kind of perfectly.

And my backyard works perfect for that. That party works. So there's plenty of room for everyone to just like, like hang out. You don't feel trapped somewhere. My kids were pumped to go on the trampoline and the playground. You know, they were busy there. You know, there's like there's whole swaths of kids roaming wild. You know, I don't know where these fear old children are coming from,

but there there's children everywhere. and there's just adults everywhere. That that's a good point. I think that people that haven't been to this before, they probably underestimate. I believe this is kind of a hidden gem of the lift hardly easy classic for families. It is not that it is a pretty family friendly event for the most part, outside like Thursday night at the bar and Saturday night at the bar like Friday that Friday evening party is definitely a family event like there was I don't know how many kids. 20 kind of great because the kids all play with each other so they're like pretty much entertained for the most part. play with each other so they're like pretty much entertained for the most part. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's a wide age or, you know, my, my daughter's two and there was some kids around her age and, you know, Jack's 14 and there's some of his buddies roaming

around. So it's kind of like everyone from two to 14 ish or whatever is sort of represented there. Right. The mosquitoes were, we sprayed like two days before. Thankfully, which was coincidental, the city sprayed like a day before. And the mosquitoes were not a problem at all until it was completely dark. And then they get I mean, it's just that's just how it is unavoidable. But that's OK, because that's kind of the signals the end of the party. It does. Otherwise, people might just never leave, you know, if the mosquitoes didn't come out at night

But yeah, I think you know you guys had the porta potty like always you know the three Kitty pools or there's kitty pools stocked with beer sparkling water Flat water I mean it's yeah people don't realize is that when they're come to this they kind of are getting a whole Picnic meal taking care of you know just like a they kind of are getting a whole picnic meal taking care I mean not just like a picnic but like it is a full meal is actually taking care of for them Right and you don't like rationale like I had I think like two pieces of pizza three pulled pork sandwiches and like three or Four scotch roos like I was not going in there like taking it easy You know and I don't think I'm the only one that went kind of hard

The Friday and the weather was also perfect The weather was absolutely perfect Like it really couldn't have been better The Friday night party is one of my favorite parts of the lift hard of the VZ classic Like a lot of cool things but the Minnesota Department of safety. They were playing spike ball Yeah, you know there's saying there's some kids on the trampoline You got some of the cigar smokers over in the corner You have a bunch of tables out and people are sitting at one table and making the route

You know, there's just a lot of stuff going on. Yeah Yeah, the Minnesota Department of Lifter Safety always has you young person things Let's bring this down. Let's bring the average age down about 15 years here Being all active and doing guys get the hell out of my way. We got fun shit to do We should let's take this opportunity to mention our newest sponsor of the massonomics podcast elite FTS lead FTS Check them out for well

every lifter of the lift hard live easy classic Got a free role of toilet paper multiply elite FTS toilet paper You could also get if you weren't there you could get some of yourself They still have some go on the site use discount code Masonomics it'll save percent ten percent on every roll of toilet paper that you purchase from elite FTS I did enjoy giving these out to everyone like checking them to people across the room and like Toilet paper So they also have non comical items for sale at a lead FTS also like their bands

I've got a whole box of their bands right here that we'll look at more in the future weeks But I don't know I think they're kind of the name to know and trust when it comes to bands and then they got more advanced higher-end equipment to you like their safety squat bar, but Discount code massonomic you work or wait. I said discount code massonomic says discount code mass 10 works for most things on their website So check it out This episode is also brought to you by juggernaut AI Juggernaut AI is the smartest program for you. It also happened to be the program that I used on

Saturday of the meat we're about to get there So we'll talk more in depth on that, but I used it to prep actually I used the app for the entire last year prepping for this meat Really enjoyed the entire process of it from a bridge block to a hypertrophy or to multiple hypertrophy blocks multiple strength blocks into the Peking block Keeps training fun. It switches it up throughout the year so you never feel like things are getting too repetitive, too stagnant. And most importantly, it got me strong.

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$32 a month Once again, you have to do that through the website juggernaut AI dot app and it'll get you taken care of. Thank you juggernaut I'm not gonna do a separate supporting our supporting member segment this week because I haven't been able to pay attention to anything That's not lift hardly easy. So if you post tried to post something there's no way in hell I want to see that so you're gonna have to try and read this again this week. The discord was hard to keep up with this week Especially when you're just busy as frig the whole friggin time, you know, there's no way so There'd just be four hours that would go by in that thread and it would be, it'd feel like hundreds of messages in there. Yeah.

Jenna Lee brings up a good point. There was a lot of coverage on the Lift Heart, the VZ Classic this year. So, SD Sports Scene did an article on it that came out, maybe like on Wednesday, and then the Aberdeen Insider had an article that came out of it And it had made it describe the mystery event like after you loaded the drink spotter with kegs Then you're gonna have to carry the drinks butter across the room full of gigs

They have missed a detail in there yeah, so and then there was a Well put the cart before the horse, but big Chris Hornick competing in the powerlifting meet. He wrote an article for the Rapid City Journal, I think is that the publication and that was a really good article. One of those that was a recap of the event. And I'm like, you can really tell when someone gets it. Yeah, actually understands the format. Actually understands the format yes

yes, so I thought that that was a That that was a really great article It was shared a ton of time. I can imagine that article got some pretty decent traffic for him. I would think so I Don't know are we on to Saturday then the real meat and potatoes I think so because Friday I mean we're at the point where we said yeah we shut it down and Yeah went home to to start the day Saturday, yeah So what was Saturday all about? Guess there was a meat I did they said the rules meeting was starting at 730 I think I showed up about 745 and someone's like you're missing the rules meeting. I'm like, oh, it's powerlifting

Did they change the rules for 2025 and in case anyone's wondering know the rules of powerlifting have not changed. So Yeah, don't feel like you're missing anything there, but Yeah, you show up and it's it's game time get there. There was three flights Two platforms three flights. I was in the third flight. Actually, before I even did that, I hung out by the booth for a little bit, and the booth was still just slammin'.

It's just so busy with stuff going on. I was also surprised right off the bat at 8.30 how many people were there. When the meet started, it felt like the chairs were three quarters full in the convention center. Big Zach rocked the national anthem again. I'll kick it off and Then it's pretty much just right into it. It's just like just hook Finn was set up ready to go to Actually, so on Saturday, I don't know if we said that you know, we had massonomics was you know

We are the you know, it's our event or the or the main vendor there obviously, but Finn had a booth Barbell Rescue had a booth us build fast formula barefoot shoes Braden with meat and muscles and then Dan man Dan with the arm tattoos for his loadable Maces and kettlebells and His gym is it may spell monster or I was that's what I was gonna say It might be I can't but well strong man. It was big Dan with the arm tattoos

Yeah, so we had seven vendors set up there along with the bar and then the food vendor that it was all No, it actually worked out really good. We weren't totally sure how that part would go. And yeah, they're all in a line I thought that was a cool Way to kind of anchor the back of the room, have some excitement back there too. Yeah, and then all the chairs are kind of in the center facing the platform. And then there's a little bit of a gap

between the end of the chairs and the booths, which is kind of necessary because not everyone wants to sit in a chair. Yeah, you've got to have some space. At times, the room was just pretty full. It was. in terms of like chairs and standing and like standing on the sides and Everything so it was it was just it was just pretty full

I would say as far as notes on the setup like the way that the room was and stuff like the one Negative, I think this is obvious if you're comparing it to the od is that the warm-up room was smaller Yeah, and okay. Yeah as someone that actually did warm up So I did have the benefit of being in the third flight which means that by the time I'm warming up There shouldn't really be much behind us right away because we are the last flight What shocked me right off the bat was how many people were in the warm-up room? I'm like what's going on with this flight? And then I realized halfway through that it was a lot of people just hanging out and sitting back there What shocked me right off the bat was how many people were in the warmup room. I'm like, what is going on with this flight?

And then I realized halfway through that it was a lot of people just hanging out and sitting back there, which is not the place to do that. Like there's tons of room to, to go somewhere else. Um, so I think people figured that a little more as the day went on that that's not the place to just hang around. Cause it seemed like it maybe got a little better. Also squat is like the craziest one too. You know, there's the most equipment out everyone's all over the place. So, you know people are walking squats out It's like the bench where there's just one set area. So yeah, it was a little tight. I didn't think it was undoable

I still I actually did get really warm really warm during squats But I greatly as a competitor greatly preferred it over the OD getting ready for squats in the morning. Yeah. Uh, we were limited with where the room warmup room could be because, uh, the Ramcota did not want us in any, any lifting, any competing beyond the look dance floor, you know, but in but in hindsight what could have been different? There was about five feet farther and the judges could have just been on the carpet Yeah, the platform itself could have been about five feet

So there could have been five more feet of warm-up room and because the way that those walls The room is like an elongated hexagon, right? Like us moving that five more feet would actually buy a little bit of width too because coming up five feet, you gain a little bit of width also. So it wouldn't have been a huge, I mean, it's not gonna double the size. We can't like make the warmup room considerably bigger

in that scenario, but we could have helped it a little bit. Yeah, it would have helped things. And that's just one of those things that now being on the side of it you just know. Right, right. Otherwise, they did not empty the garbages like I had asked them too many times. I don't think they actually believe, I don't think people actually believe you when you say like, oh, trust us there'll be a lot of garbage. I think they're like, oh yeah, yeah, okay.

Last year we carried multiple pickup loads of garbage out of the Odie, like to take to the dump. And yeah, Keith and a bunch of people were complaining about the bathrooms. I was in the bathrooms like 30 times. They weren't even bad. Like have you had people go to a power lifting meeting before? To me the only thing about the bathroom

was the floor was wet, but I don't think it was piss. I think it was just like water leaking from like a toilet somewhere again You know I took a few dumps there every time I did it was totally pleasant like the toilet wasn't Blowing up and overflowing with toilet paper and shit like it was never like that It's actually for like a large power lifting meat. I don't think I've ever seen bathrooms that are better No, I didn't think they were bad at all. Like it was it was,

yeah, it was wet. And then there were some of the soap dispensers got a little low. So you had to, you know, find the right soap dispenser. But all things considered, things that I've seen in the past. Pretty pleasant, honestly. Eventually, about three quarters of the way through the day, they did put a wet floor sign down and a fan up, and that actually did seem to clear up the floor a little bit.

Yeah, I would give the bathrooms like maybe a B, and B minus, but in terms of power lifting meat, probably an A. I'm trying to think if I've ever had a meat that actually had better bathrooms. Right, and bigger ones. Like, I don't know, the odys. I mean, the odys weren't nice last year by any means.

Oh, no, the odys suck way worse. Yeah. I mean, they're really hot, too. There's a large improvement over those. We're sure like there's much, much better than those. And like overall, like the smells and sights of the Ramco are a lot better than the Odie in general. The humidity level. Yeah.

Yes. So I don't think the bath, like people are whining about the bathrooms. I think the bathrooms are actually very little issue whatsoever. Yeah, I mean the Odie I think had, it was either two stalls or three, I think. And yeah, like Garrett just said here

I mean one of them was out of commission within ten minutes last year's I don't think that happened at the Ram Coda at all and also I don't know a lot of these people were staying there Couldn't you just walk over to your room? It was like an extra 30 seconds, wasn't it? That's just what I would have done if I had a room there but So I'm not too critical about the bathrooms. I think that's fine. The warm up room would definitely was tight, though. It was. Yeah, it was. But like I said, like when I was done with my flight, like actually when I got done

with my third squat, I didn't even hang around the warm up room. I literally went out into the audience toe, watch the meat, you know, like what's the point of me being in the warm up room when I'm done with my attempts? Right. And I just think more people need to keep that in mind. Yeah, if we could, if there's a way to really regulate that, that would have helped. Right. It's just like, that's hard to do. Unless you're actually preppy, unless you're actually warming up or handling someone. There's just not really a reason you need to be back there. Someone there's just not really a reason you need to be back there. All right What else were comparisons between like the Odie and Ram Cota as a location I Do think it was way more of like a polished look like oh

100% Just not standing on hard hard cement all day long like the floor was carpeted It's one of those things that sounds dumb, but you just leave feeling less beat up You know you're not just being hot everywhere you go the entire you're not listening to oh fans 30 fans running that's true to I remember when all the fans unplugged last year I'm like Oh, are my ears hearing for the first time? It's just this weird like, oh, are my ears hearing for the first time? It's just this weird sensation. And then also last year, you're either standing on the hard cement floor

or you're sitting on a rusted out metal chair that seems like it might break at any moment, where these had nice padded chairs. It was just more comfortable in every way. Yeah, yeah, more comfortable. It was more pleasant, everything. They kept the food stand going all day You know, you could get stuff out there. I just I don't know

I just thought there was a much higher level of polish like if someone yeah If someone showed up last year was like yeah, you guys are you guys are giving it a try This is good for you and like this if you walked in you're like, well, yeah This is a real event like it just but it did feel like a real Like if you had no idea what powerlifting even was and you came to this you'd be like Well, this seems like it must be interesting and the fact that everyone is compacted to you know It was a big event space but the fact that everyone's in this room rather than spread out across an entire hockey arena It also made it seem a little more lively and exciting too, I think.

Yeah. Yeah. Anything else on the comparison between the two? Like there's not as much space. The one downside I think, like the negative comparison would be there's not as much space. But outside of the warmup room,

which we kind of said, I think for the most part, we could improve that next year, you know, which is what we said. I mean, were we at a shortage of space at any point, though? No, I think it is just the yeah, it was literally just an appropriate amount of space like I and I still think the optics are better of just tightening everything up rather than having this yard sale, just shit spread out everywhere, including people, you know,

it just, it makes it feel like a, just a more exciting event. Yeah. Yep. That makes sense. Uh, so what about as, as the lifter then, you know, like you talked about the warmup room, but what about the rest of it? How did the rest of it feel? Uh, yeah, I'll just run through my, my day of really quick So I went I went eight for nine Squat so squats were three for three. My goal was to come in and I'm like I Just my main goal is I wanted to set a bench PR and I wanted to squat deadlift over 500 and The plan was if things go decent the squats gonna be right around five ten five twelve, and that's exactly what I did There well, there's nothing. Yeah five twelve and was there more there

Yeah, there five twenty might have been there five twenty, but I'm totally happy with that number I have no regrets about that bench just frickin flew like my third attempt when I went watch that back actually Like God if I just objectively watched this and said, who is this, my third attempt, honestly, kind of almost looked like it should have been a first attempt, it was so freaking easy. On bench. On bench, it was so. Oh yeah, I was announcing during that.

You did, I played the clip like 10 times, and you're announcing, and I'm watching that, I'm like, that was so easy, so easy. I've never had a bench move, like all three of my attempts just look like I could do it for reps That's uh, I think I even said maybe is after your second or something But I said I'll put some weight on the bar. I like it just looked so so easy Yeah, so bench that was the one right that your last one did not look like a third attempt at all

No, no, it didn't like I was think I yeah That's what messed up my prep is I hurt my back a couple months ago. All my lifts went way down because I basically didn't get to train for a month. And then I started coming back into it. Things were terrible. And I really felt like I was hitting my groove again

about 10 days out from the meet, which is when you almost start to shut things down. And so I'm just like, I don't even know where I'm at on things. Like it was just, it was an awful prep, you prep You know for the last two months it really was bad Because I had every intention of hitting much bigger numbers in these, but I just had to readjust expectations So yeah bench hit 347 on my third, and it was so easy I might actually later this week just have a touch and go PR and see where we're at

You know just just to feel things out because it just it was too easy You know I got to know what's there. That seemed like there was so much more there. And then deadlift was really weird. That was actually feeling pretty good. I mean, bench felt really good warmup room. Deadlift was feeling pretty good too. And first attempt was 485, 45.

It moved pretty decent. I remember thinking in my head like, oh man, it feels like that's kind of slipping out of my hand. Like it actually felt like that that which I've never I've never had in a meat Under 500 pounds feel like I was having trouble hanging on and it's a text deadlift bar. Yeah, it's a deadlift bar. It's sharp and Then my god, whatever. Okay, just a weird thing so my second attempt was 501 and I go out and pull it and the second I start pulling from the

ground I feel the bar sliding out of my hand instantly like I felt slide down right away and the weight move fine I get it up to the top they say down the second they say down the bar just straight up drops out of my left hand and I'm like yeah ah really and how much was that one that was 501 and it moved totally fine but my my thought was, like, that was actually really hard to hang on to. Like, my left forearm just felt cooked for some reason. I don't know why.

And my goal in this is I just wanted to squat and deadlift over 500. And someone goes, too easy. Move it up. I'm like, nope. I just want 500. I'm going to be so pissed with myself if I leave this with a 485 deadlift.

So I took 501 again, got it on the third attempt the left hand was still getting a little squirrely on me and But I did get it and so I ended my day at 501 on the deadlift and that brings me to eight for nine and Totally happy with that. It was a fun meet Like I said, I brought all my numbers down a bit from expectations But it took some of the pressure off and it just made it really, really fun. Couple of just other random notes about the lifting. So what was your total though then?

That's actually a good question. I don't think I've ever, let me just add this up. I don't think I've ever actually done this. So I'm not gonna leave the two. I'm not gonna. 50 plus. 347 plus 501. I'm not gonna leave the time. I can 50 plus 347 plus 501 I'm leaving some decimal points out here, but yeah about 1360 ish, okay

Strength wise on the deadlift my hands are better. I kind of think 520 might have been there I don't think I was I wasn't pushing it by any means and the same thing like bench I don't know 20 more pounds might have been there Let's see might have left 40 pounds on that I could have left 1400 on the table. I could have but I've hit 1400 before so it's not like It's still want to Ben total. It's not like you left a PR total, right? Right, and that's that's the other thing too is when you're sort of coming back I guess it feels you don't feel like I don't know. I guess I don't feel like I need to stretch as far Stretch so hard to reach numbers that I've sort of have that would still be less than numbers. I've done before so

But okay a couple random notes when I came out on my first squat It's actually squats are feeling terrible. I had to like really get myself hyped up I think it's just you know the morning don't normally lift in the morning But when I came out for my first squat and got under the bar and looked up that is the first time ever In my life out of powerlifting meet, I thought, damn, there's a lot of people out here. I've never thought that ever. That was the first, like that was one of the first things in my head.

I'm like, dude, I'm in the zone, but there's a lot of people in front of me. Like you don't get that feeling very often. So that was pretty cool. The warmup room was funny because, you know, I like to get kind of, like to me, that's sort of the fun part of it. There's levels of hypeness. You know, I've watched, we've got to train with boogs

and we know like what the pinnacle can be of hype. And then there's also some people that are super, super chill. And I probably fall somewhere a little closer to what I'm going for with that higher hype. Like I want the music loud. I'm gonna do some loud grunting. I want to hit a little ammonia I might want to slap my legs and stuff around a little bit get going and I think I was maybe lifting with the Zen masters back there because that's what you told me

I got like chuckle out of that like Sam. I mean he just walked out of the crowd for his first attempt He literally didn't even warm up So did I miss it? Did he walk from a chair sitting in the crowd? That was the video I saw in post. And when I thought about it, I'm like, yeah, I didn't really remember seeing him in the warm up room at all for a squad. So like Sam, obviously is very pretty zen, pretty low key.

Big Mathias, pretty low key. The Minnesota Department of Lifter Safeties, those guys are like clinical. They're just like, they know what to do. They've done 10,000 meets. They're just like, it's like just another day at the office for them, you know? And I'm kind of used to, I feel like the Mastodonics group,

you know, back in the day when we'd do meets, we'd give you, yeah, let's go. And we'd be yelling at each other and getting each other going. And I think there's absolutely nothing wrong with it. Everyone do your thing. But I started thinking about like, oh damn, this is the most just chill,

chill flight I've ever warmed up with in my life. That did change a little bit when we got to bench because Ryan and Matt Rangan got in the push-pull action. So, you know, those guys like to get a little more hyped up. You're in the same flight as Ryan. Yeah, and Matt Rangan was in the flight too. We you or on the third Matt gets Matt gets pretty excited too. Yes oh, yeah, Matt, that's gonna get really hyped up and that's you know, that's what I'm more used to but It's just it's fun to really get the music but also

You can't I do for my first few meets it was like full blast music crazy all the time I don't even know if I really even listen to music during my warm-up sets at all. And even when the flight is going, I'm not even really listening to music. It's mainly when I see like three to four guys out, that's when I know like, okay, I'm about three-ish minutes from going.

Like this is, I just need three minutes to just dial in. And so, again, I didn't listen to that much music, you know, because it is fun, just all the excitement excitement of everything going on but that's like those last three minutes I would dial in I did though for the most part Until like I needed like my one hype up song It was like the Natty anthem was going and it was like, oh, this is so fun Like it's just like reminded me of Jugees when everyone's going on these big lamps and like going crazy Like no, just keep the Natty anthem going, baby

And my wife it's so funny she knows the song and because I'd listen to it a thousand times on Sunday I just was like whistling it constantly. She's like no not that song That I'd be like humming it's like why is that song still going I'm like sorry I listened to it a bunch yesterday but Yeah as a competitor though. I had a ton of fun. I thought the meet was, it was a really, really good time. Like we have the added stress of this other stuff going on, which definitely does make it more challenging

than just showing up and having a good time. To the point where even on squats I'm like, ah, there's just too much stuff this weekend. But then once some of us were done, I'm like, nope, I'm having a great time now. Well some of it, you could look at it. If you want to put a positive spin on it. Sometimes it's like my thought last year was like, God, I have no time to even be remotely nervous about this lifting because I just have to get the shit done until it's time to like go do like I'm like, I I you can't even think about it because

You're like the best night of sleep time the best night of sleep I had the entire weekend was the night before the meat and if you would have told me years ago that that would ever Happen that's usually a god-awful night of sleep for me. I'm like no Yeah, just got to show up and do my thing tomorrow like all the other days like oh, we got to do this We got to do this. I hope these people show up I hope this happens like hopefully there hopefully there's no, like, I'm just thinking of 10,000 other things that by the time the meat comes around,

it's like, oh, fine, I can relax a little bit. You know, all the pieces are in place. Competing's fucking easy compared to like putting it on. You know, Jake and Dave could attest to that too, having done that. But someone mentioned it. Couple things people mentioned as you were explaining. Minnesota Department of Lift or Safety

knocked it out of the park as usual as a spotter and loader team. One other thing I liked that somebody mentioned is the flames for the walkout. I thought that was actually cooler. I don't know what everyone's thought of was that, but I liked that better than out in front of your last last deadlift.

I thought that. So what did you do when you came out for? I didn't do anything. I was too. I'm like, no, I don't have time to dick around with. No, I just walked right past it. I zoomed right past it. I'm like, I got to hit this.

Did you stop on the thing? No, I didn't stop at all. I literally just went right by like it wasn't even there. I'm like, I can't, I can't be bothered with this right now. Yeah. I did think that that was cool. The fucking funniest thing though is uh Brehme Cuz I'm like dude if I went out to do that and that's what happened

You know how hard it would be for me to turn it back on and go deadlift after that So describe it for anyone that okay so what it was is, you know know we have it's like the you come out from behind the curtain there's the main entrance and for deadlifts what Dave did this year is he put the two flamethrowers on each side of the entrance so you walk out and you kind of do your you can kind of hit he had a tile down that you could stand on and hit your pose so whether you want to do your your double bicep or make some motion or whatever and while you're doing your pose It's a one-hand wave to the crowd

Yeah While you're doing your pose the flames shoot up and it did make some really cool photo ops and some people had some really cool timing But there was a few times where people came out to hit their pose and the flames maybe didn't go right away Or like they were just off by a second and the funniest one is bremi people gotta We gotta look this one up. I think it's not his Instagram. Isn't it? Or was this a story? It's probably on its Instagram. I think yeah, and he goes out. What does he do? He like hits a Thing almost like this. Yeah, like his arms or something hits a pose. Nothing happens. So he tries it again

Nothing happens until he's frustrated He walks away and then the flames go off and it's like you couldn't do More of almost like a Michael Scott like the timing was perfect in the worst way It's so funny So I did really like that that idea with the flames I thought that that was actually really cool and seeing what everyone did for the post and pose and stuff like that was neat and pose and stuff like that was neat. So I did, like, I got to announce your bench in a bunch. I did, I announced for quite a while during bench mostly,

and that was really fun. But announcing for a double platform is like a fricking full-time job. On a single platform, you get to like chit chat and you throw in things and stuff like that. But a two platform meet it is just non-stop Action and that's what I noticed going back to the live stream a little bit and watching it Yeah, you're just going one just boom boom boom the other thing though is you are uniquely qualified and that you know, essentially

Every I know that is that is either either through the gym like I know a lot of people but there's still enough guys that either go to the gym or Have only really talked like on Instagram or something else that I don't know and you literally know everyone and where they're from and Most people something about their training. So like you have the inside line on everything that's happening I was actually like just have to hold back so many anecdotes that I want to pull out about people because I'm like There is no time if I say one more thing about them, then the person like is gone. You know, and you're kind of on the hook for announcing when the platform's

ready. I mean, the judge does it, but when you're back there, you can't like, were you listening to the announcer tell you the platform was ready or were you watching the judge? Cause some people aren't watching the judge. They're waiting for announcement. No, what I do is I just watch the TV. Okay. Yeah. Cause the TV, when I see, when I see so-and-so go out, I know I need to, you know, put my chalk on, have my song ready. And then like, I'm going to go any minute. And they actually had, there was just a tiny crack in the curtain. So I could see like, okay, when it switched to my name, I still don't need to go out yet. Cause I can see this, them touching the last little bit.

See, I had a pretty good eye as to when I could go. Yeah, also the Kurt, big Kurt brings up something like when he came out for his first deadlift, I called him Kurt Wazowski, you know, cause we were in the earlier in the weekend, we were giving him crap about being Mike Wazowski. Oh yeah. That's not Kurt's actual last name,

but it's close to that. So I said that on his first deadlift, like, and I called like Jeff Florida man when he comes out for his first, uh, attempt, like I think that's funny to do on someone's first, but I tried to make sure not to do that sort of thing. Like when they're coming out for their third, right? Right. It's more like, right. Right. Right. Or like Chris Daminger brings it up. Like I really made sure to say his last name every time. Cause there's kind of a joke about me not knowing how to say

his last name. So, uh, uh, uh, I, I, it was fun announcing, but it made definitely made me lose my voice. One point I'm in the back and I hear you just screaming and I I was at the booth and Mary was there I go Oh Mary is Tanner gonna have a booth in an hour. She's like no he needs to stop right now Yeah, she came and got me. She's like you have to stop doing this It is fun though, but it is also like I was wiped out for I don't know I think I announced for just about two hours there at one point and I was,

one double platform is so much more exhausting for that within a single. It's crazy. The double platform really is a lot of action. One other thing about the crowd you mentioned, Bryce was going for an 804 squat, his third attempt squat. He missed it.

I mean, that, like when I got a video like panning out to the crowd, that place was like ready to erupt. It was, it was gonna hit that squat. It was gonna go crazy. I'm like, it was actually like people just on the edge of their seat. Well, because it's so crazy.

To watch a lift. First, like everyone knows 800 pounds is a lot of weight. You know, like there's no one debating that. And then when Bryce goes out there, it's so damn high in the air, you know, like the spotters all basically have their arms outstretched above their head to spot him Right. It looks so crazy. So the crowd is really hyped for that one The other one is there was a guy that was that did unlimited bench and the crowd looked pretty jacked for that one too that one was fun to announce too because like You know like that's an easy one. That one was fun to announce too because like

You know like that's an easy one to get people excited for right is like it was like If you don't got a good seat for this you got to get one because like this is not something you see and I've never Seen anyone do unlimited bench in person Yeah, and it's so wild watching it cuz it takes forever For it to get to his chest and I think I think the attempt I watched was Around 720 something like that. Yeah, so thanks for ever for it get to his chest. It's down down down down Finally gets there and then whoop like oh That was it. It moves that fast. So it's it's kind of cool to see that. Yeah, that was definitely cool. I Think that the the look in the field of the powerlifting meet was really good though overall

You know, it just seemed seemed pretty electric for as far as that goes. Yeah some Compare that to powerlifting meets that we went to when we first started powerlifting I still tell people I mean to the first time not to knock on it But the first fucking insane first powerlifting same sport remember how you would know you were up They had an overhead projector that was written on with a magic marker It was projected on a white screen and they just they just had the piece of paper covering up names So you didn't know you know like that was the first meet we did it was literally a handwritten overhead projector Like I'm not talking about something from the 80s here

I'm talking about something that was like I don't know 10 years ago 11 years ago, right? Well the equipment was from the 80s From I mean the director was it's not it's not even remotely the same thing, you know, yeah, that's Yeah that I definitely had FOMO of not getting the lift in there though of the watching that and see the I mean it looked Fun as hell It was how I described that as far as lifting goes and Jen of course the hundred people doing it that you know I know you just know everyone Literally know everyone you're lifting with it, you know Yeah, so it's you never feel like oh shit. I'm lost or what's going on here. It's just no here It's just so easy in that respect.

Yeah. Do we move on to, you know, what, after powerlifting then at that point? Yeah, I think, I mean, yeah, there was, I could talk about a ton of stuff, but I think that covers, as far as the powerlifting side, I think that covers all of the noteworthy things. Yeah, so once powerlifting finishes,

Dave and his crew gets stuff out of there really quickly, and then Jake and Abby and their crew got stuff in there really quickly. It is so much stuff. That is the thing. It's just a lot of stuff that, Yeah. To make this whole thing work.

Yeah, and like the first, or I tried to help with the strongman setup here and there where I could, and they were very prepared. There was a printout of every weight to be loaded and like what exact weights needed to be on each one and kind of making it foolproof where thank God, because especially with like that deadlift medley,

all the different bars and weights that need to be loaded, I'm like, God, if you're doing this by the seat of your pants, it'd be like, it'd be impossible. They'd be having discussions about just what you even need. Yeah, yeah, so they were very prepared for that. I don't know how long the switchover took, if the break ended up being an hour or less. Yeah, I was gonna say, was it 45 minutes or so maybe?

Like, that was the other one. I kind of missed, you know, after the powerlifting's done, it's like, oh. Right. I did it, and I'm like, I gotta get some food, and then you're telling, you know, you're talking with all the guys about how everything went.

So I was kind of checked out until about halfway or so through the through the first event So I was I was kind of gone for a little bit there. Yeah, I mean it was I Guess what I would say was as fast as you could possibly between the two is basically how long it took and Then the strongman got rolling. There was the five weight classes this year 26 lifters and I Mean strong man's just always so much fun to watch. Yes, I think you know cuz it's constantly all strong Yes, you're not settling in to watch Two and a half three hours of squatting, you know, it's constantly changing up. There's there's always something new and different going on. Yeah

Oh, okay. I gotta say one more thing really quick. I just remember this Yeah, yeah, actually anything that you think because there more thing really quick. I just remembered this. Yeah. Yeah, actually anything that you think, because there will probably be multiple things. So just sprinkle in whatever you think about it. Regarding announcers. So Kate, my wife, people can hear you announcing. And I had two different people say this.

My wife was one of them. My mom was the other one. They said it independently. They both thought Dave was me on the microphone. They're like, oh Dave was talking He sounds you tell the guys sound just like each other My wife said that and my mom both said that you and Dave sound the same Yeah, they're like we we knew Tanner was on and then a little bit later

We heard someone else talking and we're like, oh when did Tommy get up there and they go it was like It's the guy that runs the meat and I'm like you're joking, right? My wife's like no you guys actually sound like each other Which I don't think so at all, but I probably know you're both people that know me very well two different people seem to all right Yeah, your wife and your mom. I guess they Huh, I am trying to picture that So anyways. OK. Also, there was a woman that had like a seizure during the power all they need. Yeah.

And that was pretty scary. It must be like some medical condition that she has that happens periodically. But that was very scary for a second. And I didn't know about that either. And it was my wife. she said the same thing. She goes, yeah, someone come help her. And she said she went running back there and. Yeah, I was trying to call Wes or Jake on the Wes

actually did here eventually. Oh yeah, right, right. Yeah, cause someone's like, Oh, is there any one medical? And I'm like, immediately I'm like, well, what? Wes and Jake, Wes and Jake are both doctors. They're here somewhere, you know. Uh, what did Big Garrett say? She was having a neurological issue.

Yeah. Yeah. So Garrett was right. Garrett, Garrett and Sydney were there right away and they ran over there to. Onto the strongman. Events all looked really cool. I mean, the star of the show to me was the drink spotter loading event. Oh, it was the most visually impressive thing. Yeah. It's just, I was in the back.

Uh, once the first two strongman events were done, which were the overhead press and the deadlift medley, I was then in the back loading up 10 million plates to put onto the trailer so that that could be done. And there were several, you know, there was people helping me at that point in time do that too. So I kind of missed a lot of the overhead, I missed the beginning of that Drink Spotter medley event.

I didn't get to come until like some of the last few. And I was, it was killing me not getting to watch that, but I kind of had to be loading stuff or Else we were never gonna get that done. But when I did get to watch that I just thought that that was so freaking cool That looked really fun. I really hit talk about FOMO when they were doing that event. I'm like that looks fucking fun. Yeah, like You know that just looked like a really cool event. Mm-hmm And the kegs did turn out really well with all the wrap. Yes, it did cows on them. Yep You know, that just looked like a really cool event. Mm-hmm. And the kegs did turn out really well with all the wrap. Yes, it did.

The decals on them. Yep. The sandbag event, I just thought it was particularly funny the way Big James was. Oh, swinging around that thing. Oh, they had the crowd in a frenzy when he pulled that maneuver out. Yeah.

People were excited for that. I also really like multiple times, Grayson and Genele ended up going at the same time, like in the opposing lanes from each other, and I think Hogan and Nicole at one point in time, one at the same time, which that stuff's really cool. Like the chances of something like, you know, like the opportunity

for something like that to happen is small. To be going at the same time as a family member or a significant other, like that's. Yeah. The other thing I'd say about the strongman is the volunteers did a really good job. There was a lot of them and they really did a good job. Yeah, there's a lot of moving pieces to that.

Yeah, there's so much stuff moving around and like the moving kegs out between events and, or, you know, between people going, I just thought that the strongman volunteers really, you know, that's not an easy job as Brad, the pad taught us last year, but they just. Just did a really good job, so. Any other notes on the strongman competition? Yeah, I'm just trying to think

Keith broke that sandbag very yeah I'm gonna send him voice him that that was a perfectly broken sandbag Like I had that thing exactly the way I wanted it and he just comes in Just and I froze it onto the sharp edge of the yoke. Yeah, you know every show There's always that guy that's gonna show up, you know He's just gonna be reckless with the equipment cuz it's not his and yep That's it's Keith for you That's that's Keith. So he will but don't worry everyone. He will be getting invoiced for that We're gonna make sure that we're gonna do our part to make sure that

That he makes that right for us Good good good But he makes that right for us Good good good Trying to think I was I was in the second row of the audience when Dodds sort of passed out on his deadlift So that was yeah, see you right there in the action. Yeah, and Kelly right Yeah, yep. She Before before it certainly looked like to me that he was okay, she's like, he's okay.

And I'm like, are you sure? Because he goes down and then the hand pops up. Yeah, yeah. I liked watching everyone compete in the Strongman event though. There's just some really good showing. Actually the space worked really good. All the events seemed sized appropriately for the space That's it worked perfect utilizing that strong man

Or the you know utilizing the space same space as power lifting or at least the execution of it was really good. I thought Once that finished up we went into awards and Awards definitely take too long There's a lot. There's a lot of them Yeah, like a lot a lot. Oh and Eddie was the comment. Oh, yeah. Yeah Eddie Remember we said it they go I did How many times brought up the wig at one point? How many times does a commentator have a change of change of wardrobe during the during their show and Eddie had a change of wardrobe?

I did really like I also did like Katie on the sandbag had her beer on the yoke and was taking drinks between each rotation back and forth. She had a drink spot or chill on the side of the yoke and would take it off and take a drink and swing back around, but yeah, Eddie did a great job. I didn't even know he was gonna be the announcer. I didn't even ask who was gonna be doing it announcer. I didn't even ask who was going to be doing it.

So I was surprised when Eddie first jumped up there. Also, like the way the live, I don't know if you've looked at the live stream at all, but the way many had the announcers piped into the live stream. Yeah, that's really, really good. Because last year, right? It was all silent last year, wasn't it?

I can't remember, actually. I know the first year, we had no sound in the first year whatsoever. Yeah. Maybe, I can't remember on the year two what it was, but this year it just was notably good to me. It was, yeah, because you have that announcing in there makes it really cool. Yeah. Yeah, that is cool. But to the to the point of the wards is that takes what that takes too long And I don't know there's got to be ways to do it better. You know, maybe it's you call up a class at a time Maybe yeah, you know even in strongman you call up a podium at a time where it's women's class Third or the problem is that there's there's actually almost as many classes as there are awards

The problem is that there's there's actually almost as many classes as there are awards It wasn't probably wasn't actually that many crazy. There actually wasn't that many bronze and silver medals It was just a lot of gold. Yeah, I mean there might have there might have been collectively I mean was there 250 awards collectively between everything and it's probably like part of the photo package is everyone gets a photo too at The award ceremony, so that's a tricky part, But I'm like, God, I don't know. Maybe we'd run just needs a group photo or maybe. It needs to be more of an assembly line, not like where we wait for one person to go through the whole thing. But then you say there's person, even if there's, you know, by the time you add in,

because probably he has the most hands down, but by the time you add in strong man, some massonomics awards, a few other odds odds and ends it's probably pretty close to 200 if not more Right and it's like well if each one of those takes 30 seconds only That's a hundred minutes. That's an hour and a half I think you almost for the powerlifting you need a couple crowd pushers that are out in the audience going Your next in line get up there. Okay Ryan you're the next line, get up there, okay. Ryan, you're the next award, you get it. You know, you go, and we have a line.

The entire audience, get in line, your name will be called. Because that's what takes so long, is just every single person has to come up and take a photo. I mean, it took over an hour and a half to do awards. Yeah, we need to cut that down. That needs to be cut down. It's very long. I'm very convinced that that is do awards. Yeah, we need to cut that down that needs to be cut down. It's very long

I'm very convinced that that is too long. Yeah That's that's too long. I don't want there. I don't want people not get their awards We just have to do it faster. Yeah half as fast really like I don't need it doesn't need to be 10% shorter it needs to be like 65% shorter right like when the strongman show itself is like 65% shorter. Right, like when the Strongman show itself is roughly three-ish hours, the awards can't be another hour 45 or whatever it is.

Right, right. The wooden plate awards. Well actually let's talk, everyone in powerlifting won an award almost, I mean, that's not true. That's the joke of powerlifting. But there's a ton of words. But to mention the big winners, Mathias Cash repeated as overall men's champion only ever repeater of the left hardly busy classic powerlifting and it really wasn't even that close. No, 530 on the what is it?

What does it mean? It might have been dots, but I think he was 40 points ahead of second place. Maybe Nas was in second. Yeah, I think. And then Tommy Schneider might've been third. I'm long those lines in powerlifting for this being, you know, a whole bunch of crew and whatever. People joke about being home gym nerds and stuff like that.

Obviously there's a wide variety of strength levels, but there is a lot of strong people competing in powerlifting. There's some seriously strong people there. Like where I'm like, oh my God, there is a lot of really strong people competing out there. Like it's no joke to win that meet. You got to be like that doesn't happen on accident.

You know, yeah, there's a lot of big totals, a lot of high coefficient scores in there and to to dots is what Garrett said. Dot score. Mathias one big stormy. First time here, she won the women's overall lifter. She got the other belt the belts looked awesome this they did They look really cool Larry legend one best let Masters lifter and also had the best meat of his life. Yeah Yeah, yeah Larry legend at 48 years old Hit a PR in all three lifts

and as well as an enormous total PR. He totaled over 1600 pounds for the first time squatted over 600 for the first time deadlifted over 600 for the first time and benched over 400 for the first time at 48 years old, having competed in probably 30 some meets, and have been lifting for lifting seriously strength training for like 30 years. So and using juggernaut AI if you want to if you want a testimonial for juggernaut AI, that's the frickin guy,

the guy that thought he couldn't get his deadlift to ever move again, just kind of had some ups and downs on bench and squat and just comes in also looking Absolutely massive the biggest I've ever seen Larry look at my life Yeah Yeah, he was big so that that I made the comment to a couple people like like oh Gonna have to come up with some new excuses because Larry's like 10 years older than us. You know, I know. Oh, you know what Larry always says, if I can't do it for one more year,

you might as well start throwing the dirt on me now. Keep the fucking dirt off of him because he's good to go for a while. It looks like he wiped the dirt off himself. Yeah, he won best Masters Lifter. I think Cal won best Junior Lifter, or what that award is. Probably, yeah. Best, I think it's Junior.

I think so. And then, what was the other power lift? Oh, I'll mention the Strongman winners then, the class winners for Strongman. It was Katie one women Mm-hmm Novice men was big Ron. Yep Big men is that the next class would be big men. Yeah, right. Yep. That's big James Ron yak one

bigger men Which that's the 270 class, right? Bigger men, 270 class. That was where Toby and Alan had the tie for second and third place. And they did the horse stall mat, weighted hold, weighted hold. But Big Lauren won that one from Texas. Darren would be proud.

Big Darren would be proud of one. Yes, very proud. And then the Super Heavies, or the biggest men, Big Austin won that one. And then Scott won the MVP award, Strongman MVP award that Jake gave out. So those are our big winners for the Strongman event and the powerlifting event, right? Yeah, yeah. Lots of just really good performances

across the board there. Yeah, a lot of just really good performances across the board there Yeah, a lot of good people. Oh, yeah people across the board too is what I would say Just look at that. Look at that list of strongman winners. That's a good group. They're there that you're like, oh really wouldn't want them to win Besides that Godzilla guy. Yes, exactly. So then awards finished up and clean up. Went really good there again, a lot of volunteers.

Awards did not finish out. We didn't go to the Masonics Awards yet. Oh, yeah, actually, that's what I've been waiting to talk about. My favorite awards, of course, like I think the most important award. So what who did we did five wouldn't play towards, which all count as Hall of Fame check marks, of course. First of all, spicy pizza won the Randy Award, the Randy Award, coveted Randy Award, and that went to the crew

that had the best ratio. I think crew member. I think genuinely he was pretty excited about that. I don't know if he was anticipating that one. I think Big Spicy Pizza's very excited about that award. So he let out quite the exclamation when he got read out for that one. So I was happy to see him win that.

Strongest couple went to Cody and Scar. I think well, those are not easy to choose that win. Oh, that one was a lot of strong couples this year. It was. That was not easy to pick a winner for that one. But I think that they definitely deserved it and earned it. So proud of them for winning that. What strongest volunteer also not easy to choose

because of how many even number of volunteers and then also the number of volunteers that just kick butt. Also got to shout out the people that come to volunteer that aren't even lifting. That just like that really helps a lot. Like when you're just straight up there as a volunteer. So like big curd, big Derek, for example, that no, that's not all of them, but like two guys that just, you know, came from across the country and.

Just to work, you know, essentially like to, to work, I mean, to be putting out with friends and being awesome, do, you know, do fun stuff. But people like that really help make it work too. That is a big deal. So that was Strongest Volunteer. What's left? Silly excuse would be the last one, but before that is what award? Am I leaving out there? Oh, this ain't my first rodeo.

Oh, there you go. Yes. Yes. The same. My first rodeo was big generally this year. Also a lot of good. We we had each award had a lot of people to talk about to figure out who is going to win each. No, none of these decisions were made lightly. And then silliest goose, the new reigning Silius Goose, is Paul Foss.

Yeah, very deserving. He did the flipperoo going into his bench press. I haven't seen that yet. I gotta go back and watch that. He told me before the day started, he's like, I am winning that Silius Goose award, and this is what I'm doing. So he had a game plan in place.

Yeah. Yeah, so Silius Goose. So he had a game plan in place. Yeah. Yeah, so silly excuse. So that's the awards. Then the rest of the tear down and clean up there again. I think it went as fast as it possibly could. All the people helping getting, carrying shit back on Saturday night down into Mastinomics Gym sucks. Oh, I can tell you from the last two years.

It does, but that having that many people around three trailers And how many people is a game changer? That's why it was also nice that we had like Two trailers almost completely full before the last strongman events even got going and then also as nice We had like 20 some volunteers helping them stuff. So there's no rain, no muddy parking lot driving through. It was just right. Pull the trailer up, get it on and go and then shove that shit back into Masonics Gym as quickly as we can. And then I came back and got the.

Booth trailer, the enclosed trailer that was already loaded up. So I brought that back, talked to Dave and Katie and trailer, the enclosed trailer that was already loaded up. So I brought that back, talked to Dave and Katie and looked through the lost and found, brought about 10 bottles of ammonia and baby powder and stuff like that through that. There's always both years I've noticed,

or every year there's quite the pile of lost and found crap. Like nothing of value this year. Like last year there's quite the pile of lost and found crap like nothing nothing of value this year like last year There was belts and stone headphones. Yeah stuff like that, but So if you the ammonia bucket at Mastonomics gym is much fuller now that it was I thought I Took all that ammonia and set it in there and I thought oh, okay Finally the ammonia is back and the ones I put in were just more on top of what was there. It's like, yeah, it's completely stuffed.

Yeah, also there was apparently no ammonia at the start of the powerlifting meet on Saturday. So as the meet was just starting, I was in the process of driving back to my house at a hundred miles an hour to grab a couple bottles of ammonia, bring it out. But I'm telling you, I got there, pretty sure there was five bottles of ammonia

out on the table. Oh, was there? Yeah. Oh. Yeah, there was a whole bunch. So somebody had dug some up from somewhere. I think some of the people in the earlier flights, the lighter flights, aren't the biggest ammonia hitters.

The deeper you get, the more ammonia comes out. Yeah, yeah. So I brought a few and got those out. So it was at some point, I think it was still in that first flight by the time I got there with it. So. Kurt says there's no way you managed to go more than 20. Now, if you know the right roads, you can go quite fast when you need to get back quick on lift hardly easy classic day.

Don't don't ask David about don't let the guy from California drive the car that's I told them you know here in our state it's a land of law and order and there are rules to follow this lawless land of California where you do whatever you want. Yeah, we're in the Midwest now, David. Then what the party, the after party, the party of all parties. Yeah, the party at the zoo at time in a party unless it's a zoo bar party. I was nine thirty, ten o'clock when everyone kind of started getting to the zoo I suppose nine probably the first ones

Yeah, something like that that's what I'd say and Yeah, the zoo they're very accommodating had the lift had the meat logo all over all the TVs Getting our drink on over all the TVs getting our drink on Big Darren Lauren's dad did everything he could to make sure I was not without a bud light at all times He kept me hydrated with Shiner box all weekend, oh man I had I Basically all times had a camera and two bud lights in my hands at the zoo. I just I was I was

Well served just said several of them ate at the zoo this year, which may I actually ate at the zoo It wasn't till like 930. Oh you did. Yeah, cuz I by the time I got home and showered and stuff. I'm like, yeah, we Probably just eat there else. We're not gonna get there till like 1030. So I did eat at the zoo as well Which was fine. I don't even I can't even recall the food, if I'm being honest. Yeah. Totally nothing wrong with that. But yeah, zoo, always a good time. I noticed there was a couple of times,

very quickly people started going outside of the patios. And I noticed there was at one point I came in, and everyone's like, man, the party's a lot smaller than last year. And I'm like, no, they're all outside. Go out there. There's, I don't know, 50, 60 people out there. And the patio is where, once the zoo gets too loud,

once they turn the lights down and the music up, the patio's definitely the spot to go to. And it was the perfect night. It was so nice outside. It was so nice outside. It was a good time. Yep, it was fun. I liked seeing everyone there. Then that's over.

Wake up Sunday. There's people at the gym. Go say hi to everyone at the gym. Some people are lifting already prepping for next year. On Sunday morning, there's some people already getting their lift in in preparation Classic for training starts now You know can't train for the year if you don't start first thing ton of people brought crew stickers

Oh god Smith machine at the gym. I was just looking at it today though. Oh my god I don't even know if the Smith machine is half full of stickers yet I mean it looks it's a lot of service area on that Bad boy. Yeah, it's starting to look pretty covered, but there's a lot of Sticker room left to cover. I did like the this year. I think it really took off in full effect the crew sticker exchange Oh, that's just like everyone's got a sticker and pass them out and trading them out. I would love to know how many orders In the best part of the crew sticker exchange that plate snacks has received in the last six months. Yeah That's it's got or that Hogan has made right hole has made in there out of their stickers, too. Yeah, I

Did think the survived the Ram Coda bathroom sticker was pretty funny that was really good And the pictures from you at the Ram Coda bathroom sticker was pretty funny. That was really good. Yeah, that was the pictures from you at the Ram Coda, actually. That was yeah. Jake mentioned the crew keg. The one keg was all just stickers. Oh, yeah. We never really talked about silent auction. That was yeah, there was a silent auction on Friday night. Did you see that you saw the painting that Andy we had the high bid for a while? But I put I put a bid on it at one point in time

But then I got over a hundred bucks and I'm like, yeah, I'm not gonna spend. Yeah We had at a hundred and I think the Hornex beat us out at the end. Yeah, that was a cool painting particularly cool He recreated the chalkboard in the back. That was really cool and did it a mix of gym members and then just like You know, I would just say like, just like various iconic supporting members that were on the list there and it had all their numbers. He did the research and like, Keith's is like the only one on the board

that used decimal points on all the numbers. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah. I liked that, that made me laugh. I was carrying my daughter inside for something and we're walking and she goes, daddy, it's you. And I looked at it, it's because she saw the painting. I'm like, oh, even a two-year-old recognizes.

No, that was this. Big Randy from Skinny Idiot Studios from the Conspiracy Randy podcast, actually Andy, but say Randy. And he was there all weekend too. Talking about getting in on the power lifting next year actually Got to know you said he's going he said I think they're good. I think he might he should be awesome. Yeah Yeah, so the silent auction is cool is kind of difficult I need a PA system for the Friday night party, actually,

is something I think I need, because the megaphone doesn't cut it, and screaming doesn't cut it, and it's need a PA system for the Friday night party, I think, to help that out a little bit. What other? Well, actually, let me read an ad first. Barefoot shoes, they were there. They were set up at the booth.

Actually saw quite a few people walking away with new barefoot shoes over the weekend. So they didn't have to go to the Barefoot website, but because you're not at the Lift Hard Leave Easy Classic, you're gonna need to do that. The beauty of it, the plus of it, you can use discount code Masonomics to save 10 percent. I saw what Big Kim from Barbell Rescue had a new pair of

brewing boots on. Taking a whiz in the urinal next to each other, I looked down, I go, Kim, you got some looking down at him like you typically do. Looking at his crotch and foot area. And I go, what do you pack? I go, well, he walks in, he starts taking a P.I. Said, oh, Kim, what are you packing there? He's like, well, he started telling me,

I meant, no, your boots, your Bruin boots. Lower. He's like, oh, these old things. These are my Bruin boots from Barefoot. You can get them at barefootshoes.store. So check them out, use discount code mass 10. All right, massonomics Just massonomics And this episode is also brought to you by the strength Co

The meat warm-up room was pretty stacked with strength co plates. I think was did every strength co plate We all make the cut basically all but one My one that I keep on oh, yeah Hang the display plate wall the display unit hang clean plate wall Yes, yes the hang clean plate wall that one did not make it But everyone all the other functional ones did make it and it was a good-looking warm-up room actually true testimonial Tommy Schneider the stapler himself, who has handled, I don't know, been in countless meets,

spotted and loaded at countless meets, knows his way around a plate or two. In the warmup room, we're getting ready for squats, and he goes, God, these things actually are just really smooth and easy to grip. He's like, they just fit together so nice. And it was so funny, right when he was doing that, Nate was walking by and he goes hold on

Hold on. Let me get that on video. So he had to record Tommy saying it but he's like for real though. These plates are so nice to hold and that's guy that's been spotting All right, that's been loading that me and others later too. Yeah, he knows he knows exactly what what a good plate should feel like So he was impressed What what a good plate should feel like so he was impressed And if you don't own a pair get some because you will be impressed to the strength co You can get all of their great made in America plates Also got bumper plates available plates from I don't know what's at point seven five all the way up to 100 They even got barbells apparel and other gym equipment items

Visit them at the strength co the strength that go. Thank you What up Anything that else that we could have improved upon on the weekend They could have just done better with just if we would have known better in hindsight Getting that extra five feet in the warm-up room Yeah, that'd probably be the biggest one for just quality of life. And we still actually had room in the back. We could have moved our booth back five feet, too.

We had unlimited room back there. So that would have been one. That's the biggest one to me. Yeah. You know, this year we actually had the ability to manipulate the lighting a little bit. It wasn't all or nothing. So there was some, we know, we had the way

that the lights could kind of get dialed in over the platform, so that added to the cool factor. Oh, one thing, I think they said this in the Discord, Leah said this to me too, is if there was some way to put the live stream feed on a projector screen, that could be a really cool touch too. It would be really cool. Oh, I agree, that would be.

Because, you know, the pieces are great to have it on like four of them. I know. I mean, I mean, honestly, yes, like multiple ones, because the pieces are all in place there. I mean, outside of it's just like a projector, a projector and a screen. I think outside of that, I think everything else many has is probably just either running another quarter, putting another wireless receiver somewhere. I don't think it would be that hard That's something that could make just another cool factor for the for the weekend, but By the time you're talking about adding projectors you're already

Already so past the low-hanging fruit, you know You've already done a lot of things right, if that's where you're starting to look for issues. I don't know, there's probably something else, there's maybe something we're missing, but I really feel like the most obvious, just quality of life, things you need for a good event, I really feel like most, if not all,

of those were addressed at this location. Yep. The overall time of the event is relatively long, but in our current format, I don't know that there's much to be done about that other than making the awards a little bit faster. Yeah, like that's the most obvious one to- If we're gonna use this size of number of people and do both events on the same day,

that's kind of how, you know, that's what that time takes within, you know, with give or take a little bit, but that's kind of what it takes. I think, you know, there's just nowhere it's it was really ran as sufficiently as possible on mostly all ends, I would say. I think so. Really? Nothing. Yeah.

I don't think anyone was slacking by any means. You know, it wasn't, it it wasn't like oh damn if only he would have Got his act together like there was none of that right? So like this has come up I mean, it's obviously not something we haven't thought of before but big curd Says You don't make it a two-day event, which is certainly something we've considered before and there are but it's just, it's funny. Like every scenario you come up with,

there's like logistical hurdles for basically everything. So it's not impossible to do that, but a great example, like when we were talking, someone said, which I really liked this idea, you should do the strong man show on Friday in between weigh-ins of the powerlifting meet You know, you got like a six however long of a window there, you know, they're say there's a five-hour window and The event starts that day. Well the problem with that in a curtain the current structure is that

We only have a certain amount of space in that event center to be able to do competing. Yeah. And the powerlifting meet is setting up all day, Thursday and Friday. So in order to run the strongman show and get done Friday evening, then there's no longer enough time for the strongman or for the power lifting to be set up Yeah wants to be for the Saturday morning kickoff. Yeah, it'd be different if if the if you want to say the Event area or or competition area if that was double the size well, okay all of a sudden we're talking a different game here now because there's room to spread things out, but I

We're talking a different game here now because there's room to spread things out, but I think the like the reason the strong man can even happen is because when it's done the power lifting stuff is out of there You know there's right it all that equipment takes up so much room back there that it's I mean It actually is impossible for them to both exist You know while the power lifting meat is going on the power lifting stuff is back there and the strong man stuff is kind of Spread out along the sides and back of the room. And as it gets closer, more and more strong power lifting stuff goes out and the strongman stuff starts filtering in. So that is the biggest hurdle in having something like that happen on a Friday is just logistics.

Funny, looking at the live feed live listeners, you know, the things come up that we, we talk about, you know, Garrett says, well, you could do an outdoor do, you know, you could put the strong man outdoors and make you can, but then we're at the mercy of the weather, which is a problem. Yes. And like very unpredictable. It could be extremely hot. It could be raining. You know, do you need an enormous tent? And then if they're at the same time, you're splitting the audience and we don't like that. Yeah, if they're at different times, maybe that works better. But you're at you know, you have to being outside of it has its own

set of concerns, obviously. And then you go back outside and okay, so I mean, do you just make everyone stand? Like you can that's how a lot of shows do it. But it's- Right. But then you also have to double up every, if you're putting things in two separate spots, you're doubling up a lot of other things too,

like in turn, like Mini for example. Right, the live stream can't happen then. Mini is there all day Thursday and all day Friday, setting up for one spot. There's no live stream. Right. Your volunteer pool has to be kind of almost even bigger again because those volunteers are actually just gone

at the strongman the whole time while the power of the team is going on. I guess power of the team doesn't need as many of the volunteers. You double up on a lot of assets including people. And then just in a jealous way, if you're doing one or the other, you just don't even see one anymore now.

You're completely removed from that part of the day, which sort of sucks too. Right, if you do them at the same time. I think it's an interesting idea to have. What I wish you could do is have the strongman on Friday during that time in between, and be able to have it in the same spot. But it's just.

So then the question comes up that, that Kurt brings up, is there even bigger venue in Western Northeast South Dakota that it could be in the same room, but in a different spot in that same room? And then Jake said it, well, yes, it's called the ODI. So the ODI is actually big enough to be able to do that, but then it's not climate controlled. And then if it's a hundred degrees that weekend, we're done, we're back to a different set of concerns.

I guess, I don't know, is the deck, well, the deck, my cathetical- It's a little bit bigger. Is a little, yeah, but it's also fancier and nicer, and we may start to run the risk of what we can even get away with doing in part two. And also even more expensive, so. Yes, we're gonna be at double, take what we spent now and double that again.

Right, to the point where it's like, well, this actually doesn't even make sense to do this anymore. Like, it's not just about the money, but it's also about not losing a lot of money. And also, if that's what we're talking, it probably will know this better about a week from now once it's all laid out,

but it really probably doesn't barely make sense to do it as it is. Like if it's about the money. So if we're gonna spend more, like then the whole structure has to be different somehow. Yeah. You know, that there has to be double the amount of money coming in to the event. Yeah

You know, we're already doing a pretty good job maximizing sponsors and stuff like that. So right it's it's where it it just is It's probably why there's not a lot of huge Shows that do this thing of shows like this honest, right? Yeah, I mean because it because it is really setting up for two different shows, like it really is. Yeah, yes. Yeah. And the part of it too, like Jake's even talking,

part of it's tricky, so where Mastonomics runs the event, Stenzen Power Lifting runs. I would just say more like the weekend. Weics runs the event. Stun and power lifting. I would just say more like the weekend. We orchestrate the weekend. The weekend. Stun and power lifting runs the power lifting meet. Heidenstrength runs the strongman competition. And as everyone should,

everyone has their own interests in mind. Yeah, everyone has their own goals and objectives. Right, right, right. And it's just, it's tricky. Because of all the limitations we talked about, it's tricky to make it perfect for all fronts. But like, that's the reason we're talking about it even, because it's like, oh, we always just want it

a little bit better. Because like, we, you know, it should be very doable to do the exact same thing again You know for example, but like how do you make that better? You know, how do you how do you make it? And I really do feel like compared to last year I think it I think it is better like I think it was a better product and a better experience in just about every way I mean, I think the war up here like people are saying warm player in the in the discord like you said I think moving that thing up five feet

to me really takes care of it. I mean, I get it was a tight warm-up period, but again, when you're doing squats, you go squat on your platform, and when you're done, you just move out of the way. Just be self-aware. I didn't think it was that big of a deal. Right.

And it's definitely not a big deal by deadlift. Bench, it just gets less of a deal as the it's definitely not a big deal by deadlift, you know bench It just gets less of a deal as the day goes on just squat has the most moving pieces bench You're just at the bench deadlift is just the deadlift in mostly equipment scan Yep, big Garrett brought it up, too I do think it's just a cool perk though was just being at the Ram Coda in general I think that's so awesome there. Yeah, I think that was that was a cool vibe I think like we talked about the pool thing That was a that was cool. Yep, and it was just so much more hanging out, you know

You and I talked about this was last year, you know going to the OD you got to get in the vehicle get there And then once you're done weighing in or whatever you got to do. It's like 85 degrees in there It's not pleasant to hang around and so for the most part people kind of hung out a little bit and took off Where this year it's like no, I'm staying here. This is the hangout spot. It's not pleasant to hang around in. So for the most part, people kind of hung out a little bit and took off where this year it's like, No, I'm staying here. This is the hangout spot. Everyone's here. So people were just hanging out there so much more. And it was really fun because just so much more casual. Yep. Yep. So we'll see. We got a year to decide what what

happens in July of 2026? Also, as we know, the year goes really fast. It does. It does, because between now and then, we'll, I don't know, probably go to the Arnold. Actually, home gym kind of be after next year, so that's one off the list. But I don't know, probably go to the Arnold

and like two or three road trips, flying trips, for home gym tours and other items, which basically means there's a mass dynamics trip down near every other month. Now someone else, someone, I said this, this was a joke for the most part, but someone mentioned, you know, when people had asked me how it went and stuff like that. And I'm like, cause it, it like wears on my body and mental state, like it is a,

I mean it's a whole year of prepping for it, but like the week of is, it's a wild like five days. Oh it is, I don't have, I'm not like hosting people and I sleep terrible all week because I'm just constantly thinking of, not only like my own personal job of the amount of should I have to get done before I'm gonna be gone for a few days, but then once they're there like no this all has to go perfect

We got YouTube videos that silly we got a content schedule that we stick to that doesn't break You know like the podcast actually didn't make the Sunday release for the first time in probably like seven years This week because it's just it's so much stuff and at the same time You're trying to talk to people and hang out and have a good time and like be present. Which is the coolest part. It is, but it's really fricking hard to do all that and then just not pass out.

So what the joke I said when someone asked me how it went, I'm like, I think it's too good. I think it went too good. I wish we could come back and be like, I don't think anyone had any fun this year. Everyone went terribly. Everyone hated it. I can't imagine anyone wanting to come back.

Now we don't have to do it next year. It's all done. But the opposite of that is true, where I leave thinking, it was probably the coolest year yet. Like it just keeps getting cooler and better. So OK, so just a few notes along that line. OK, the scenario happens a lot.

But here's just one. You know, we're at Lager's Thursday night. A fairly big gentleman comes up to the bar. I'm like, no idea who this guy is. Looks like he lifts, but it also just might be some guy that's randomly in town. And and kind of make a comment and the guy starts talking and it's it's big flow from Canada and he's talking about how he just drove up and Doesn't know anyone but he's been following us a while and you know

kind of keeps up with everything and Kind of nervous about the weekend unsure about lifting and end up talking. He was really cool really nice about the weekend, unsure about lifting, and end up, he was really cool, really nice, had a lot of good conversation with him, and then all of a sudden it's Saturday, after the meet, Flo stops me, you know, after we were done with the power lifting, he stops me in the hall, he's like, oh, Tommy just, and I think he'd be fine with me saying this, the podcast guy's like, I just want to say like, thank you so much for doing this, it was so awesome, you know, Thursday, I was just so nervous about this whole thing. And I was so glad I went out to the bar Thursday night. I met everyone.

Like I got so comfortable. I was having such a good time. Like that was just like the perfect icebreaker and I've had so much fun all weekend. Then I like, I see this videos of him shotgun and beers with people and you know, I see his lifts and like he had what I could tell what it seemed like an amazing weekend Yeah, and it was like he came in here Not having met anyone in the group and I think if you had to ask him like how'd it go? He'd probably say I had an amazing time and I feel like I had a whole new group of best friends And he'd probably say there's no way I can't come do this again. Yes, it's at all possible

You know, he's like I'm not missing it next year and there's a lot, you know like Big Derek big Kurt, you know those those guys drove very far distances and have never met almost basically anyone It's basically never really met anyone. They weren't even here to compete They were just here to take it all in and they I think had rave reviews about the weekend too Like they had from what I could tell it seemed like everywhere we went They were having that a big smile They were chatting up with everyone and they were having a great time and that story you could repeat Almost countless times for everyone involved. Well and like that

Yeah, that's that those are just like small cases or even people like that. It was their second time But the first year I just for whatever reason didn't get a chance to talk to him that much I'd say like Quinn and sign big Quinn. Yes, I'm in from Colorado Didn't probably get to talk to him that much, I'd say like Quinn and Simon, Big Quinn and Big Simon from Colorado, didn't probably get to talk to him that much last year, a little bit, you know, but this year, it seemed like their second year here, I'm like, oh, I kind of know him already, then we get talking, and then it's like,

you're bullshitting with your old buddies. Yes, that is the one, is the people you meet the first year, all of a sudden the second year, you do feel like you've known them forever, and it's like, nope, there's not even the introductions, like, we're just like hitting it off, right? Having a great time. And then the people that come back from the third year,

I'm like, I can't even imagine this event if you weren't here. I know. How could you not be here? Like what would this would, you know, like there's a whole bunch of people or, and oddly people that were there the first, missed the second back for the third year.

I was like, here you are. Glad you made it now. It seems like it's been way too long. Good to see you. Another one, Wes, never met Wes before. Talked to Wes a ton. Just another person that now it seems like, well of course I've known that person forever.

And it's like, no, no, you really just spent a few days with them was all. I mean, Lauren too. Lauren and his whole family. Never met them all, I mean, Lauren, you know, too. Lauren and his whole family, you know, that's- Never met them and it's like, well, we've obviously known them for years. It's like, no, we really haven't. Yeah, that's the other thing about this event too

is it just does provide a lot of value for Masanomics outside of this event, you know, the community aspect of it, where it's like, I don't know that you ever build that You don't ever build it to the same extent without this event, right? If you only are an online company, you don't have events. You don't have meetups. You don't have any in-person interaction I mean like yeah, you can still even if it's just the Arnold. It's not the same right, right? Well, yeah

That's what I'm saying is more like when I say I'm like thinking of crew falls and right Yeah, who falls in this like like our events, you know, or we're we're yes orchestrated the way we wanted to be Right. Yeah, and like the Arnold is still a great chance to get to meet people but it's still you know You're kind of someone else's rule The Arnold and home gym con and stuff are really only as good as they are for a mass anomics meetup because of these events still I think oh a hundred percent without this event for a Mastinomics meetup because of these events still, I think. Like without this event, Home Gym Con isn't the same.

I mean, Home Gym Con's the same for all the other people going, but for the Mastinomics crew, it's awesome. It just feels like it's all like a recruiting event. You know, it's like, okay, yep, because now you've done that, now we're gonna have more fun at this next thing. I mean, I'm at the point in my life where I see Keith damn near every four months, which is just Mean Hogan we're talking it's like and he said something even there

Pretty sure I've seen him like five times Just this year what but the the Arnold we did the gym tour at his house home gym con this now Yeah, like I went to his house. He came to my house like four times in seven months He came to your house. Yeah, you were at his house. We've all been at each other's houses Oh, yeah, forget about who's that crew falls to God. Yeah. Yeah Wow I it actually really funny when you say that that Hogan does live in Ohio and I've seen him that many times Just since basically December. Yeah That's massonomics for yellow that many times just since basically December. Yeah. Yeah. That's Mastodonomics for you though. Yeah.

So if you're listening to this, sitting on the sidelines, just know, you could be the fresh face next year that shows up, doesn't know anyone, and has the absolute time of your life. Yeah. And I hope I don't come off naked. You know, I'm like, this is,

I guess you're getting a really candid feedback of the event because we're like a couple days off of it and like trying to recover from it, honestly. And I'm just thinking like, you know, you're just trying to, we're literally speaking out loud about recapping the event. And I think it was awesome. I think it was great. I think it was, you know, it's like one of the most fun weekends of my life.

But it's just a balancing act between the work involved and all the fun. So, you know, like and when it's fresh off of doing it, that's when I'm kind of like, oh, the work part. Oh, I'm good on that. Yeah. But then looking back, you forget, oh, did we do work? I don't even, last year just went great. Did we just show it up and had a good time? You forget all the work you put in.

Exactly, so that's, and I do just wanna say, you know, the people competing, it doesn't exist without the 130 people that come to compete and put on the show. Doesn't come up, happen without Jake and Abby running the Strongman, without Dave and Katie running the powerlifting meet, without all of the volunteers that do it.

You know, all the people working the doors, working the booths, all of the sponsors, all of the other booths that come. Minnie and Rachel running the live stream. Everyone that lets me borrow stuff from them, like trailers and everyone that drives their pickup and loads it with, you know, the Phillipses were there with their vehicles loaded with shit all the time too.

And you know, it just, it really wouldn't happen unless there's a whole bunch of people willing to, you know, that also to see it do well So yep And travel across the world And all like no small commitment for these people like it's easy to be like oh you have to come It's like well Yeah

but I live in have to get on a plane and either land in Minneapolis or Sioux Falls and drive three or five more hours Or flying to Aberdeen and just pay a pretty large amount of money more than likely to make it happen Like it's that easy. That's all you got to do. Yeah, that's it Do we also mention that the times probably aren't very convenient either Right, right So Anything else on recapping it?

Any final thoughts? Like I said in the beginning, I know for sure we missed some stuff. There's just so much to take in this week. And probably missed something really important too, but it's just, it's just like the, it is the craziest weekend of the entire year hands down. But yeah, it's so fun.

It is so fun. Yeah, everyone's gone. people get start getting here on Wednesday The last people leave on Monday So it is as far as that goes. It's five days of people here in western northeast, South Dakota I think several comments around the community this year about like even seeing on like the stupid Aberdeen Ransom raves Facebook page like comments like oh I heard there's some bodybuilding show going on in town.

Reading all the comments, like someone sent me into reading all the comments were really interesting. You know, because we talked about the large events that we went to, but people are going out to eat places in pretty big groups all the time. All the time, like even the local spots, you know, Schwannis, the Circus. Schwann, Schwanney's, the Circus. Schwanney's got hit up pretty,

and Circus both got hit up pretty hard, it looked like to me. So words starts getting around like, oh, what's going on? Even the guy that works the rental car counter at the airport used to bowl against him, and I ran into him at the gas station when I was leaving, and he said, how are you doing? And I said, oh, good, I'm in Sioux Falls now. We had just had this

Weightlifting thing we do in town. He goes. Oh, yeah. I know they rented a bunch of cars this weekend People are people are aware What is Chris damninger is that right that Bob is still around That can't be right. Does he? I didn't know he was still in town. Hey, just relaxing. Come hang out.

Wow. It's still there. What's he been doing? I haven't seen him. He's not leaving. Yeah. He could have came and lifted today. I did, uh, uh, there was a story with the Phillips is about my

mother-in-law was trying to spread vicious rumors to people that you're not like that I joke about crap in your pants at the gym, but she was trying to tell people you really shouldn't probably be crapping pants at the gym. And I said, No, that's a lie. It is okay to crap your pants at the gym. And I said, no, that's a lie. It is okay to crap your pants at the gym. That's how you know you're trying. So don't let, I don't want anyone telling anyone

that it's not okay to crap your pants at the gym. You can do whatever you want. Yeah. It's your undies. They're my undies, I wanna crap in them now. Okay. What about housekeeping? All the merchandise, like we said,

is gonna go for sale on the website. It is on for sale on the website at the time that you're listening to this. Now that we're finally gonna get some breathing room, sort of like, I mean, I wouldn't say we have breathing room yet, but at some point in time, there's gonna be breathing room and we're gonna I mean, I wouldn't say we have breathing room yet, but at some point in time, there's going to be breathing room and we're going to be working on the crew mailer that's going to come out here soon. So there'll be more details to

come on that. The short of it is if you're not a supporting member, get signed up now because we're going to have something special. Also, if you're not a supporting member and you want to do the lift hard, they easy classic four, assuming that there is one, get signed up to be a supporting member because you get first shot. And I just think it's gonna get bigger and bigger and the spots are gonna become even harder to get. And you pretty much need to be a supporting member.

And the other thing I'd say is, I don't care what anyone else tells you, because at the end of the day it comes down to us You never know when it's gonna be the last one. So don't sit back and think oh, I'm gonna come next year That next year is guaranteed right because I've said this before to other people the strongman showdown Ran three years. This is way smaller scale, but like for reference, it's comparable. Similar situation. It ran for three years and it wasn't getting smaller

when we quit doing it. It was getting more hyped up every year. Right, and we eventually stopped doing that, so. Yeah, or the RAM quota says this is, no, this is like Hogan says, the RAM quota says, yeah, no, you guys aren't coming back. That puts things in a different possible. I did get an earful on Saturday I did have to get a stern talking to from the Ram Cota, so you never

You never know what would happen. Although we gave them a shitload of money. There was a ton of people staying there Bought a ton of food from them There was a ton of people staying there Bought a ton of food from them Even like places a little the interior I didn't have much of a problem with I guess I we did have a room there too And I went in there the AC in that room was not working all that well So I didn't like that but the exterior of that place is a little dilapidated You can tell that the so it just exchanged ownership and you can tell that the previous ownership group was really Moving on from yeah their duties. We'll see if there is it is under new ownership like now, so we'll see

What happens there over the next year there Jake said it we had a thousand spectators at the fair when we quit doing that Oh, there's a lot of people that said those are favorite event to the fair, like the entire fair. That's still talk about it now. And it's been like almost 10 years at this point. And then the fair said, oh, perfect. Let's move that to Sunday afternoon when everyone leaves town. It was like, oh, no, how about we don't? And how about you get like after the third year of them not doing the tiniest of things that was expected of them?

It's like, no, we're not going to do that anymore. But my point to that be, don't you know, when, when four comes around, which it probably will, don't not sign up because you think you're going to do the next one because you just never really know. Yep. Okay. We're not, we're going to skip certified training facility this week. We'll come back to that next week This was a long one because we had a lot to recap on this. We want to give everyone our deep detailed rundown Is there anything else I see at a chat GPT? No, that does not sir. That's okay Yeah, okay Now that we finished the recap we can start our preview of the lift hard live easy

Now that we finished the recap we can start our preview of the lift hard live easy Classic for no no no there's a lot that needs to happen first We got a lot of we got a lot of content The questions for part four begin No, I don't want to think about it for a while. Give me a break. Yeah Yes Everyone wants a date and that sort of thing. We don't have that You can ask that stuff, but we don't have answers for that But in true fashion every year we haven't put that out. We've got that out pretty early. So stay tuned for that sort of thing

Tommy You are YouTube channel. Yeah, also don't forget about it. Don't let all this lift hard, live easy, whirlwind of events, let you forget about the Mastodonomics YouTube channel. Head over there and subscribe. We did the video where we went through the equipment of the rundown as like Dave and Jake and everyone

were setting up, so check out that YouTube if you haven't yet. I thought that that was kind of a fun one. Something a little bit different that we hadn't done before. Then we'll be posting the vlog of the weekend, which those are like my, those are the funnest fricking videos. They never get the most engagement,

but they are so good. Maybe it was flow too. I can't remember. I just talked to someone in Heavil. They're like, what really sold me was I watched your vlog last year and that looked like the funnest thing ever and I had to come because of that. And I agree.

Like that sums up the attitude and the feeling pretty well. That's if you listen to most of this podcast, you listen to this point and you don't watch that, go watch that vlog video. I haven't even, it doesn't exist yet. I haven't even watched it doesn't exist yet. I already know. I haven't even watched a single clip of it.

I already know how fun it's gonna be. Like, cause I know the formula and what that looks like and I'm like, I'll watch that and I'll completely forget about any of the work and I'm like, God, that's fun. Look at how much fun that was. Like all of our, a couple hundred of our best friends. Yeah, I'm like, I forgot. We were all just hanging out and our best friends. Yeah, I'm like I forgot We were all just hanging out and chatting and having a beer. I like look at that group of trouble over there

That is what it's like to and there's like 30 groups like that around too So check that video out and make sure you're subscribing on YouTube And then we also get more crew gym tours come a couple a couple fun Ohio gym tours that are coming down the Pike real soon also Tommy where do they find you out? I'm at Tomahawk underscore D. You can follow me at Tanner underscore bear. Just make sure to follow massonomics at massonomics See you