Massenomics Podcast - Ep. 50: Arnold Day 1

Episode Date: March 19, 2017

This week's podcast was recorded in Columbus, Ohio after the first day of The 2017 Arnold Sports Festival. We had a whirlwind of a day and figured we'd better sit down and record the details for you right away before it got lost in the chaos of the days 2 and 3. We hope you enjoy this episode, and keep your eyes on Massenomics on social media, as we'll be dropping new Arnold content for the next few weeks. As always, you can watch this episode in full color video... Or check out the super-high quality audio version below.. If you don't already have a closet full of Massenomics gear, go to the MASSENOMICS STORE and load up on swag... Also, please CLICK THIS LINK TO GIVE US A 5 STAR RATING ON ITUNES... Click this text to follow Massenomics on Instagram... Vote Massenomics for President in 2016... Have your barber shave our logo into the side of your head.. Maybe get a Massenomics tattoo while you're at it.    Or you could sign up for our email newsletter at the bottom of this page. Stay Strong, M

Welcome to Massanomics, the world's strongest podcast. Find us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at Massanomics. Make sure you go visit massanomics.com. There you'll find the rest of our powerful content. While you're there, check out our store and buy yourself some of that sweet Massanomics gear. All right, guys, we are here not live. We're here live from the future past. How's it going?

We are in Columbus, Ohio, post day one. It's technically day two of the Arnold, isn't it? Day one for Massanauts. Nobody gives a fuck about Thursday at the Arnold, though, do they? Shane, does Arnold give a shit, Shane? Is he there on Thursday even? Yeah, that's what I was wondering I think I saw who's Arnold

Arnold from Westworld oh yeah I thought this was a Westworld convention this was not a Westworld convention like everyone was just crazy weird robots it would explain a lot more so we just got through a day in which we all got up at, Shane got up at 2 in the morning and ate 11 eggs

and then got on a plane and farted it up. And then got in the Ohio and farted it up. Got in our... No part of the country is safe. Yeah. So we then, we flew to Minneapolis, then then we flew to columbus and now we are here in ohio after having spent i don't know even know how long we were at the arnold for probably four or five hours yeah i think about that it was a whirlwind so we went in we picked

up our our we somehow were able to pull off getting media credentials which i have no idea how we were able to do it also wasn't we were able to make documents like really official i think they said oh my god look at that letterhead like you guys must really be a real thing if you have letterhead like that looks like that and you get you gave yourselves all titles like you must be so just to tie into this so once we got our media so we got the media credentials me being the photographer of the group got the photographer pass. So when I was in the photo section taking photos, people asked what company I was with. And I would just say, I'm with a website.

And the reaction I got was, oh, nice. And that was about it. I think me and Shane should have had one that said Klingons. Shane's actually an intern. He's learning. We could have gotten probably everybody credentials if we would have had some sort of company documents with anybody's name on it.

We basically had to send in our partnership agreement to get proof that we were attached to the company. Otherwise, I think basically we could have just sent in like your guys's gym membership you're like oh yeah massonomics massonomics rost you're good at the very least uh credentials means you get to go to the arnold for like you don't have to pay to go into the arnold yeah that's that's the that's the truth there yeah um the other thing is it also means that you, I feel like the photographer is in the best spot for sure. Yeah, it means you get unlimited front row access to everything all the time forever.

Kind of, yeah, especially being the strong man, like the big events. I literally walked up there. We asked another cameraman, can I go here? And his answer was, I don't know, just go until someone says no. Yeah. And I even asked permission, and no one, even the people in charge didn't know where you could go. So I just took that as go to the very front.

Yeah, and even like the very front row that you were in said something about like reserved for something and judges. Staff and judges, which no one there was staff or judges. Everyone was photographers. So all I know is i leaned over the i was like hey we got a photographer who's trying to get up in here is there how do we get because everything was walled off and he was like yeah i don't know i just kind of like climbed in here so just do that yeah okay well what was that seating area like anybody and

everybody were able to get in there yeah it's roped off, but I think it's just... It's just chairs. It's just chairs. I don't know why it's roped off. So the only thing that was actually, I think, reserved for media was the actual space that Tommy was sitting, was that very front row.

If you were at a titty bar, it would be considered the rail or sniffer's row. So that brings me to a question I had. What did Hafthor Bjornsson's knee sleeves smell like? Could you have touched Hafthor? I think I could have touched him, yeah. It was kind of like a weird European-type smell, kind of like an Ikea Northern Europe-type thing.

But, yeah, he's an enormous person. I took a photo, and we'll let everyone see it, but just of his knees down and the size of his calves and then the knee sleeves required to cover his knees. It's just something that you can't comprehend how big that is. His knee sleeves are like pants. They are. You know what I mean?

They're so big. You could definitely put a baby in it, and it would be too big for a baby. I mean, like all of us are used to being around you and like Tyler and Tanner. A bunch of big people. Yeah. And then you go and literally see them two, like Brian Shaw and him. It's just, that was mind-blowing to me. The interesting thing about it, so when the event actually started,

the first thing that I noticed when they announced they brought all 10 guys out was, holy shit, Thor came out first and Shaw came out last. Which is just awesome that they did it that way. So Thor came out, and then there was, all these other guys are very strong, and they all have accomplished a lot. They all deserve to be there for sure.

But they are all on a totally different level physically than Thor and Shaw. Like they just look like they're a different species of human being. They do. Like there's, there was Thor here and all these other people that looked like regular ass humans who would make us all look so fucking small, and then Shaw on the other end, and it was just like giant silverback gorillas.

I didn't realize when Shaw turns away from you how big his upper back is. I kept thinking the same thing. His upper back is indescribable. His traps where he meets his back and shoulders is insane. Yeah, it's something different completely. I also think that I saw an interesting theory here. So Shaw's rocking the beard this year.

Gigantor. And because he has gotten so big, like he's put on, I think he's put on, we'll get into the MCs a little bit later. But our MC, Mark Henry, said, a little bit later, but our MC, Mark Henry, said, Brian Shaw looks to be at least 10 or maybe 15 pounds bigger than he was last year. And it's like, well, Shaw was 340 pounds. If Shaw is any bigger, like 10 pounds is not going to be consequential

when it comes to looks. Shaw looks like he's gained, I would guess, 700 pounds in the last year, but he's rocking the beard. And I think the beard is because if he didn't have the beard he wouldn't have a neck or he would look like a fucking thumb you know what i mean like you would just be a fucking thumb and uh somebody did a did a little picture on instagram of that it was like a big old thumb on brian shaw's body and then they just drew the beard in on him yeah but uh jesus christ those two are fucking and and so day one this is by the time

you hear this this will be so irrelevant as far as the results but day one shaw took first place in both events basically um i wouldn't say it felt like he was just clearing house, but he was just a more solid performer. The events are so freaking hard. It's kind of hard to even tell on them two. It's not like he's just going out and crushing the 1,500-pound yoke. Well, that's what's weird. I don't think anything is going to happen in an event as heavy as the Arnold Strongman that is going to be a wow you where you'll be

where you'll be like that was a decisive performance maybe like do you think on the deadlift he might yeah like he might put he might he'll probably pull a thousand pounds I don't know you know him and Jerry Pritchett might both pull a thousand pounds and I don't know who else in the field can do that yeah yeah till they get big Shane up there. That's right. I don't know if I can do half that. I don't like the pressure. Yeah, but they use a big, fancy, long bar. They use a plate.

We could probably all do 1,000 pounds on that. It's not even like deadlift anymore. I just use a trap bar. Shane just uses a trap bar. even like deadlift anymore. I just use a trap bar. Shane just uses a trap bar. I would really like to see Eddie

Hall and Big Z on the stage. Because Eddie would fit. He would be in the category. He would. I mean, he weighs 400 pounds too. And while I like all the other competitors, right now there's two people that I want to see,

and then there's the rest. You can tell the entire crowd every time one of those two walks out. And I do believe that if this field was filled out with Zydrunas and with Eddie Hall, that you would have four fucking tights. Could you imagine how – because it really was – I feel like at that point you would just tell no one else to even come.

Like, just let it be those four guys. Well, another thing too, like these two events, like they're so monotonous. Like it takes them a while to move things. They're not the most

exciting events. That's another thing. You know, we learned that Mastodonomics puts on a pretty damn good strongman. We might have to volunteer some of our helpers next year at the arnold

strongman i am convinced yeah we've got a good you know big shane wasn't a too bad of a helper right over here we've got one of them right here but they had they had three guys keeping time on the stopwatch i would i would make the bet that we are more efficient with our one i think we had a louder cheering crowd than what exists at the arnold also for sure that was an interesting thing so at the the Arnold there's so many people and there's so much other shit going on in this building that is the size of... I would compare it to fitness

ADD that then puked into a room and that's what you get. Full of like disco drugs. It was fucking insane. It's like Zumba music playing at full volume at all times. Like you're in some weird dance club. And from like 11 different places.

And what they're trying to do is get your attention so you go there. So it's like fucking just loud ass music and chaos over there. Loudest music. I think I told you when we walked in, Tyler. I said like if I saw this on a movie and someone said they were putting on a parody of it, I would believe it. But no, this is really what it is. It is just that over the top. Well, you knew it was going to be good when we walked in

and Tanner's like, Ross, it's Dan Green. I was like, bullshit. And I was like, holy fuck, it's Dan Green. We had literally just walked in the door. I mean, five steps, and Professor Shons looked over, and he's like, that guy's big. And I was like, yeah, he is. And I was like, well, fuck, that's Dan Green.

Like, literally four steps into the door, and I was like, oh is and i was like well fuck that's dan green like literally four steps into the door and i was like oh my god is this this is gonna be great thinking that like that was gonna be really unusual i'm like tanner i gotta track him down so i go after him dan dan i'm like yelling at him and he is probably the most mellow person in the world and so he turns around he's like hey and i'm like trying to make small talk with him for a minute just to ask for a picture. I mean, he was polite, but you could just tell he wasn't super into it. He probably just wanted to mind his own business and do his thing because he probably had a bunch of other people interrupt him that day,

which I don't blame him. But we got a quick picture with him, and he walked away, and you realize that is one wide guy. You don't get to be that big and wide and just like swagger through the room yeah not expect people to be like hey let me stop and stop you and i want to people are definitely going to wonder if you're like that's the other like you can be big because this place is full of people that are huge right yep but then you can be dan green you have to be a once you get to a certain level of huge at the Arnold,

like every person that you walk past will immediately think in their head, hey, is that a person? Yeah. Like, is that a person that I should know what that person does? So I think that was kind of the biggest surprise. You know, Tyler, you've been here before, so maybe you had more of an idea of what to expect. But we kind of thought that like these.

You got one under your belt. You know, we didn't know know if seeing these people from YouTube that are famous to us. And Instagram. If it would be like these white rhinos that don't exist anymore. But we see Dan Green right away. We get super excited. It's not even five minutes later. It's like, God, that guy looks like Michael Hearn over there.

Not in the expo even. Yeah, we're not even in the entryway. It's like, he just really looks like him. And then we're getting closer, like, God, that guy really can fill out a pair of jeans. Those things are just packed. That was definitely Mike O'Hearn. And it was Mike O'Hearn Titan,

just chilling, talking to some random people. It wasn't too much longer. Well, a little bit later in the day, we did the Strongman, which all those guys are huge, so it's obvious. But then we run into Kevin Oak. Mike Rashid. That's what I meant, Mike Rashid. I'm sorry, yeah.

We saw Kevin Oak from a distance. Yeah, I saw Kevin Oak during the Strongman thing in the crowd. But running into Mike Rashid, Mike Rashid was super cool. Really cool. Yeah, really nice. He snapped a quick picture with him. He was so cool that we almost felt like I didn't even take a picture with him because I felt bad because he was so cool about us taking his time.

I'll honestly follow Mike Rashid more closely than I did previously just because of how bad. The fact that he talked to us and wasn't in a hurry at all. I think if we wanted to chill with him for a few minutes, he would have been fine with it. But saw him. There's also only in those type of interactions, it seems like there's only so many

things you can say. Maybe if we're trying to produce a piece of content, we can go something funny with it and it can be cool. But when you do just see a person like that, you're like, hey, you're that person from that thing. You feel like that Chris Farley bit where you're like, you remember when you were

like, hey, Mike Rashid, do you remember when you were super jacked? And that was pretty cool that you do that. I'm a big fan of how jacked you are, Mike. Yeah. But the other thing is there is a lot of people at an event like this that are super fucking weird. So we're probably not the weirdest people that they're going to run into.

So if within a few seconds, Mike Rashida is probably like, oh, these guys aren't messed up. Yeah, he probably came into it being like, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't. Oh, okay, they're not crazy. They just want a picture. And we said normal things. Got a couple laughs out of it. They're not like, hey, could you not crazy. They just want a picture. And we said normal things. Got a couple laughs out of it. They're not like, hey, could you spit in this jar for me and I can keep it?

Do we need Tanner to explain about his friends he made on the airplane? That's a very big story. Let me frame this a little bit. You start. I don't even know how to go into it. From a distance. This is my observation.

This is on the plane to Columbus. Yeah, because with no accident, I was seated miles in front of these other animals. It's because you have troubles getting on and off the plane. That's true. He gets zoned. No, I'm on a special list. So anyway, I was a few rows ahead,

and I hear Tanner doing what tanner tends to do which is just talking about masanomics with strangers and and and this is going on for a while and he was talking to the guy in the seat next to him and then there was a guy who was very uh just extremely talkative to like as he was boarding the plane. With a large curly Q mustache. And a hat of like a Pharrell almost. Like a hat you might see Pharrell wearing at a award show. And this guy sat like right in front of me. And like just chatted to the guy next.

Like in front of me. Just sat to the guy next to him and talked to him for like. I don't know 30 or 40 seconds while people are boarding the plane. And then got up and went to his seat. For no fucking reason at all did he stop there and do it. And I was like, oh, this fucking guy. The plot gets a little thicker, but I want to frame it as in Tanner had been told from this guy that he won.

It was Navy SEAL. One of the original Navy SEALs. One of the original, like, before they were called Navy SEAL. One of the original Navy SEALs. One of the original, like before they were called Navy SEALs. What was that? There was a, if I remember right from, I don't even remember what it was called, but they were called a different thing, but basically it was the Navy SEALs.

But it was like he was an OG Navy SEAL. And also that he grew up with Bill Kazmaier. Best childhood friend. friends hadn't seen him in a long time and that built since kaz is getting inducted into the like international sports hall of fame this weekend at the arnold he was going to come down and see him and watch the stuff and all that stuff and it was like kinder reintroduced to each other on facebook again didn't they yeah that's how it was yeah so it was one of those things where, for me, at a distance, in my head, I'm like, you're not a fucking Navy SEAL, for sure. Because it's kind of like that Napoleon Dynamite thing.

Like, we are cops. Yeah, we're Navy SEALs. And then also, it's like, yeah, I'm also best friends with Bill Kazmaier, and we go way back. And you don't want to believe any of it but well first you look at him and then you look at casmeyer's life and their night and their 180 degree exactly and the other thing is this guy was i would say approximately five foot two yeah and bill said he's like 120 pounds so now i will now hand it off to tanner and i would like tanner to explain some of the intricacies of the conversation

before we get into the big reveal at the end of the day. And maybe the coolest part of this is today I learned that you can talk to someone. You can stand in the aisle of an airplane and talk to someone for 40 minutes, and I guess that's allowed now. Yes. Like they will move the beverage cart around you. The flight attendant will just stand there and wait. The flight attendants will politely stand five minutes before they ask you to move.

Then when you move, you can go right back. It doesn't matter. They were getting a little bit fed up with him, though. So I think on the plane ride home, if I don't get to sit by you guys, I'm just going to come stand by you the whole time. We can just chill. And like, yeah, he got away with some shit. While there's like a whole plane full of people behind him, like waiting.

And I was in the back of the plane watching this guy. And it was getting to the point where everyone was like ducking their head out. Like, what is this dude doing? Because he's just standing here forever. But Tanner, take it away. Yeah, I'll try and just hit the highlights because I could probably talk like go into the story go on for 45 minutes I mean because we talked for two hours non-stop it felt like I mean and by we talked I mean he talked at me and I like said nodded my head and

agreed and laughed and smiled and liked it but he kind of he just came up to me me and the guy I was sitting next to he was also going to the arnold and i could see he had jacked arms and he could see that i probably lifted before and he's like going to the arnold i was like yep going to the arnold yep so then we talked about arnold things for about 20 minutes and then uh this guy overheard us um tom is his name i can't tom hanratty i think is his last name, something like that. We got a business card. Yeah, yeah.

He came back. He said he whipped out this old printed-out flyer of the Arnold that it looked like he printed out like three months ago, or it looked like he had his daughter printed out, you know, and like he's been folding it up and carrying it around in his pocket ever since. He pointed at it. He's like, you guys going to this? And we're like, yep, you betcha.

And he's like, oh, I thought so. I thought I heard you talking about it. He's like, do you know who this guy right here is? I was like, yeah, I do. That's Bill Kazmaier. He's like, yep, that's my childhood best friend. And then he proceeded to pull out not his phone to show me pictures, but he had in his pocket a stack of about 40 pictures that he wanted

oh i didn't know that he set them like i had my tray table out drinking a water and he set them on my tray table uh i actually slightly before this he pointed to the pin on his his uh navy seal pin and he's like you know what that is i said yeah that's uh the navy seal right and and and then i said uh i take it you're a Navy SEAL. And before those words were even out of my mouth, I was like, oh, God. Because the saying is, once a Navy SEAL, always a Navy SEAL. And he's like, no, I wasn't a Navy SEAL. I am a Navy SEAL.

And then I was like, yeah, once a Navy SEAL, always a Navy SEAL. And he's like, yeah, unless you're going to take it away from me. And I was like, no. I don't plan on doing that today, sir. At least not on this plane. So he said he was childhood best friends with Kaz. And at this point, I didn't know if this was true or not. A lot of people talk.

Because the possibility, if you were to just lay out this thing, a person's going to approach you. This person weighs 120 pounds. And he's going to approach you this person weighs 120 pounds and he's going to tell you that he was a navy seal and that he's best friends with bill casmeyer you're going to be like you made all of that up right it sounds like you're just picking out cool things and the thing is those are also both things that other than today, you could never, ever research and call them out on. Ever. Like there is no way.

He could have told you that and it could have been true or not been true. And you never would have known. Right. So he shows me these pictures. And like the first one is him and Kaz and about four other kids. You know, it's a picture from 1960 or whenever these they were probably about 10 years old and uh he's like you see me right there and this is a very small man so obviously he's a small kid too uh he showed that he's like that's me there and you see that

kid behind me and this kid was like two head lengths yeah he's a lot bigger and he looked like he looked like it looked like uh like a nine-year-old in a picture next to a 17-year-old. And he's like, that's Bill right there. And he's talking about Bill's childhood and some different things about that. And I was starting to be like, oh, this seems like it probably is true. Because he flipped through in the next picture and he's like, that's me in this go-kart, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And Bill right there pushing me. And I was like, yeah, I can tell that that's probably like an 11-year-old blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and Bill right there pushing me.

And I was like, yeah, I can tell that that's probably like an 11-year-old Bill Kazmaier, and he was huge compared to him. And he said, like, when he was 11 years old, he weighed 120 pounds or something already, and he could overhead press that much, his body weight. Jeez. I don't know how this was, you know. But probably, yeah, I don't, don't, it would be hard to argue it when you're talking to Bill Kazmaier. But that went on for literally 40 minutes. And yeah, all these stewardesses kept walking by.

And I could see them like glaring at him and kind of like saying. Me, Shane, Shons, and Tommy were just wondering what the hell's going on. And so, like I'm a scene in this entire plane like i don't necessarily want to be a scene and draw that much attention to myself but i'm just all i'm doing is sitting there you know and it was really interesting so i kind of did want to hear about it too uh so that went on forever and we got off the plane and exchanged business cards and yada yada and i said well maybe i'll see you at the arnold tom and kind of thinking well there's 200 000 people there probably won't see you at the arnold yeah and

then so flash forward we're at the arnold we're watching the strongman event which bill kasmeier and the great wwe slash strongman legend sexual chocolate chocolate, Mark Henry. Sexual chocolate, Mark Henry. Was he also a member of the Godfather and his ho train? I don't think he was. He wasn't in that crew, was he? No. Okay, that's a legendary era in the WWE, which I'm a huge fan of. The Attitude Era, maybe?

Attitude Era. The only era. So the only era is right. But anyway, nothing's happening on the stage, the only era is right but anyway we as things are nothing's happening on the stage but we do see Bill Kazmaier we're like hey there's Kaz that's cool and then we see him like

reaching a chair like handing a chair over into the crowd and then we see fucking little Tom grabbing this chair from Kaz we're like, fucking Tom. His buddies with Kaz. And then it sets in.

We're like, well, he was definitely telling the truth. Obviously, at this point, he had a lot of third-party validation with the pictures. And the stories were like, and then we're like, okay, well, we're pretty sure he's also the only person who's ever told me he's a Navy SEAL that was actually a Navy SEAL. And also is definitely friends with Cass. And Cass was getting him a special place to sit. He was like mobbing him all VIP. He announced to the crowd who he was. So then between events, Mark Henry is not so good at stalling. And truth yeah, yeah, yeah. Yep, yep. So then as between events,

there was Mark Henry's not so good at stalling and truthfully, neither is Kaz. So they're just like hanging out while they're moving shit around just talking some things. I found out that I really don't think

they had a plan either. So they're just like, they're literally walking around the audience like... Which I don't know if I blame them completely because I would have thought... No, somebody should have planned

that for them. That would be real tough. If you told me Rogue's hosting the Strongman, it might take them 20 to 30 minutes to set up an event. I'd be like, pfft. Well, you should definitely. Well, it also would be like you should definitely then get like a fucking stand-up comedian or something. Because there's like Mark Henry and Kaz Meyer standing up there like,

so do any of you guys think you could lift this 1,100-pound frame? And everybody's like, no. I mean, I thought Kaz did good, but Mark, he had Mark to work with. Mark Henry had a tough go of it. Kaz has things he can say, but he can't just sit there. They kind of just have their catchphrases. Yeah, right. So Kaz kind of started almost doing crowd work, where he's like,

I see so many big people here, I almost wonder if some of you guys couldn't do it. And he's like i see so many big people here i almost wonder if some of you guys couldn't do it and he's like but then i see my friend tom here tom i grew up with tom tom tom i don't think tom's only 120 pounds i don't think he do but tom he was great tom was a navy seal military and tom and i grew up together and all he went on and on and on and on he's now works in the health service agency. Helping vets with PTSD and all that stuff. And we're just sitting there like... Tom's like, he's having Tom stand up.

Standing up in front of the whole deal. So now we did genuinely believe Tom because he had enough, there was enough validation. And you kind of just want to believe a little guy like that. Yeah, for sure. But I do believe if tom didn't have those pictures on the plane you would have been like oh why is this guy talking to me there's no way and then what would have happened is we would have been there at the arnold been like no fucking way the dude was right like because it's almost like the equivalent of a crazy person telling you that,

I fucking was best friends with JFK. And me and him, we were college roommates. And then after he got assassinated, the CIA has had it out for me the whole time. And then you find out that, yeah, they were best friends with JFK. And they're like, yeah, the CIA really fucked this guy over. Poor guy. That's true like man so like but

fucking props to Tom I guess Tom is probably the story of the day for us he's like a legit badass well yeah like you don't you don't 21 years as a Navy SEAL like you do not spend 21 years as a Navy SEAL no if you're a Navy SEAL you are a badass

and not be like a legitimate one of the baddest motherfuckers on the planet, for sure. I mean, in his prime, he could have killed all five of us really easily by himself. Even if we came at him at the same time, I do believe that he could handle us. That's crazy. Son of a bitch can talk, though. Goddamn. He really would get your personal he gave you his business card said motivational speaker and it made perfect sense because while i was watching

it he was doing a lot of like hand gestures that normal people don't do like he's doing like just really emphasizing he's like i see him talking to tan yeah it's like has his photos and he's like it's like he's like he's like taking his photos he's like, it's like he's like. He's like taking his photos. He's like throwing them down and like doing these hand things and like double, like double pointing at you. It's like people don't, people don't use those in just regular conversation. Exactly. Like I'm never going up to Ross and being like, Ross, what's going on? And he's using like so much fluctuation. And I see like grabbing like your shoulder and like leaning in.

And you also don't do those types of things for the most part in your daily. Even if you're a good communicator, nobody fucking orders pizza that way. You don't go up to Little Caesars like, I'm going to need a fucking two hands to the pepperoni media. With a side of crazy bread. But yeah, so props to Tom. Tom, as much as we thought maybe we were going to doubt Tom, Tom's the real deal, and he's badder than all of us for sure. What else did we do today, you guys?

We basically got in, got our credentials, and rushed to the Strongman stage. Met our homies at Pioneer Fitness. Yes, we did stop at Pioneer. It was rushed. Hopefully, we'll get a little more time with them tomorrow. We're going to try and find a way to get in there early tomorrow so we can get kind of a walkthrough of their booth and kind of see some of their shit.

If all goes well, there should be a sweet video on YouTube we should be able to get a better feel for everything tomorrow the problem with tomorrow is tomorrow we'll get a better feel for everything but there's also going to be twice as many people everyone's going to be feeling the same thing we're feeling but tomorrow there's going to be a lot

more power lifting for sure I think we're going to try to forego the afternoon strongman stuff and we're going to try to forego the afternoon strongman stuff, and we're going to just double down on the strongman final. Big Ray. Big Ray, squat 1,020. That's what he's going to try on his third, I think. Not bad.

Optimus Prime. Not bad at all. What's going down in the animal cage tomorrow, guys? I know Duffin. Ross is Duffin. Duffin tries to – 2,300. Yeah, with a barbell roll, deadlift, and squat, guys? I know Duffin. Duffin tries to... With a barbell roll, deadlift, and squat, right?

Is that what it is? He's not benching. He's barbell rolling. I think he's going to barbell roll like six plates. I didn't know that. He can do it. Is Pete Rubish tomorrow? Pete Rubish is doing 735 for 10 on deadlift.

I think. Is Casey Mitchell tomorrow? One-legged monster might be tomorrow. tomorrow pete rubish yep he's doing 735 for 10 on deadlifts yeah i think is casey mitchell tomorrow one-legged monster might be tomorrow gonna pull a big and then there's that doyle oh sean doyle he's going squat 900 yep he's gonna go with the kind of around the same time as uh uh as dolphin yeah and i think dan green has a no or a legs up feet up bench me and dan talked about that today i asked him how when you guys were trying to figure out if you guys were going to maybe move in together yeah me and my friend dan we both wear uh we both like on usually on friday the arnold we get together and we we decide we're both going to wear our three-quarter sleeve black and white

uh i mean they won't have like one will have black invertedverted color patterns. You don't want to look exactly the same. You don't want to look dumb. When we took our picture together, we usually do. You know how we do. I asked him if he was ready for his bench and he said, yep. There's the inside scoop.

The inside scoop is right there. So, yep. Heard it here first. I hope I don't intimidate him too bad. Oh, Big SC Boy or Big Boy, that heavy hitter. I'm going to tell that story. I'll look him up on Instagram. Is it Big Boy SC or Big Boy MC?

They're from the Strength Cartel, right? Is that what they're called? They all were formally on Rich Piana's crew. Yeah, they were originally 5%. But there was some sort of falling out, which I just simply don't care enough about to get into. YouTube fitness drama. Yeah, it basically is, right?

He is a beast and really strong, though, too. No doubt. But we were walking through the, not even the Expo, but the hallways. It was shortly after we ran into our friend. Yeah, everybody's kind of leaving. Shortly after we ran into our friend Mike Rasheed. Yeah, it was after we had our new meeting with Mike Rasheed. What are you thinking?

Like top five best friend Mike Rasheed? Yeah, he's up there with Dan Green. I mean, he did say he appreciated us. Yeah, that's true. He told me I had my lens cap on. So he's kind of like a photographer sort of too. So Big Boy is, it's Big SC Boy on Instagram. And I don't even remember what his name is.

What is his actual name? I think it's Big? No. Boy? SC? I guess it's not fucking relevant he's he's an enormous person now you know in pictures i will say this in pictures and in real life the dude is fucking wide yes he is why and he has tattoos that probably only make him look wider too like like he is like a walking deep freeze yeah it really is a low boy waist high

but but that was the deal so in his pictures he since he's so wide he just looks so fucking tall yeah i mean just just so big in general that uh that i just fucking couldn't assume he was tall and big and we're walking through the crowd this is just after we see mike or she get done talking to him we start turning around and tanner's like going through this group of people. Like an asshole. Yeah. And I, and I,

and I couldn't figure out what the fuck Tanner was doing. Immediately. I spot this, you know, big SC boy and Tanner's like bumping into it. Not only did Tanner go through this crowd of, I would say 12 people all wearing the same hooded sweatshirts. Like Tanner then fucking

goes in throws his hands in the air and starts kind of spinning in circles as he's going through them the whole time I was like do you actually know these people or are you just fucking with them I don't know if I would do that with Ross if I saw him at the mall in our town

and I don't know that I would do that to him but Tanner's just like doing it to this guy. And I thought it was the icebreaker of Tanner's so many steps ahead of all of us. I was like, oh, that's Big SC, boy. I got the best icebreaker. I'm going to size him up, bump into him. I've been emailing him all week. And we're going to talk.

And then he just awkwardly stumbles through these people. I'm like, dude, Tanner, did you see that? He's like, what? I'm like, the guy you were just running into. The one who looked at you like he wanted to stab you. So anyways, it was big SC boy. Tanner didn't realize it. And he's maybe 5'7"?

Well, that's what threw me off. I looked at it. He made eye contact while he was thinking, what the hell are you doing? He's like, why are you dancing in front of me? And I could tell it was recognizable to me, but I hadn't put it together because he was so much shorter than like... I just assumed he was like a 60 giant. I expected maybe like 6'2", 6'1".

I did not recognize him right away. And that's been probably the biggest eye-opener today is that unless you're a strong man. Everybody is short. You're a regular-sized person. You're well-known and you're at the Arnold. You're probably 5'8 or shorter. Now, if you're Mike Rashid, it does not matter how tall nor short you are. You will make Tanner look small.

And we have the photo of that to prove it. Tanner looks like he's a cardio. Yeah. Tanner just got done running a marathon. Yeah, you look like a lean person. And Tanner's just fat as shit. Like disgustingly fat. It's obnoxious. It's gross.

It's getting grosser. Can't argue. Have you guys, Tommy, did you get any sweet compliments on the lift shirt today at all? You know, I didn't, but I'm going to blame that on two things. One being my all-access media pass. Hanging out in front of it all. Hung in there and covered it up. Your baller pass.

hanging out in front of it all. Hung in there and covered it up. Your baller pass. And then I also had a backpack on with a big camera hanging over everything too. So the chances of anybody being able to even tell what shirt I had on were not the best. Now, I was rocking my Massanomics' numero uno shirt and I felt a lot of eyes on it.

I don't know. I sure did. And I don't think it was because of my stunning physique. Not in the presence of the other stunning physiques in this building. Yeah, that's a, it's crazy. We talked, who was asking me, like, someone said, did you feel, oh, it was Professor Shantz who was asking, did you feel, like, weak or small or, you know, did you feel weak or small or did that feel weird?

It's not that there's a few people bigger and stronger. It's like how many? How can there be thousands of people that are that much bigger? There's easily. So where we live, I would say there is. How many people do you suppose, Tanner, are larger than you or I? Bigger in a way that's just not simply a fast track to a heart attack figure? I would say no more than two.

I would say maybe a couple. At the most, a dozen. At the most, ten. Yeah, and that's even pushing it pretty good. Probably. And Jade is all of them. We're all thinking of Jade. We're all thinking of one person.

Jade could be here and still be like people would be like who the hell is that? They would think he is somebody. You would think that he if Jade was here he would definitely get asked to sign autographs from people who still don't know who he is they just be like well i'm just gonna have him sign something because definitely does something but but yeah so but here i would guess that there is no less today

probably no less than 2 000 people there that are bigger than tanner and i and it could be way more and it could be way more than that. And we're not talking, it's not like I am like super, like bodybuilder big. I'm just a giant person. But like there's people that are fucking so enormous. When you say big,

we're not talking like those guys like 6'11 walking around. No, no. We're talking about jack. Yeah, even enormous arms. There's people that are five foot six there that make me look small, which is fucking insane.

Yeah. You know, so crazy. Like, did you see that one guy walking around? He kind of had, like, a heathered red Masonomics shirt on with darker hair and a flat-billed black hat. I think I did see him. He was jacked. It's like his Arnold prep had been going really well,

and, like, it all came together today. So speaking of that guy, we have that guy on the podcast today. I have a question for you, Shane. What exactly do you intend on doing when you somehow sneak Arnold into a corner and are allowed to get – Touch him. You could touch him, but that's the only way to get... Touch him. You could touch him, but that's only going to get you so far. Let's pretend that you reach out and grab Arnold

and drag him into a closet, and you can ask Arnold one question. What do you ask Arnold? Before his security beats down the door and kills you. He's like, no, I get it, Shane. That's cool. This isn't weird. I'll answer your question before they murder you.

He's like, I see on YouTube that you've watched that video. I see how many times you've watched that movie what what's the one question you would ask arnold if you wrestled into a closet other than would you mind not pressing charges gee i don't know i gotta think about that i only get one question huh well you could have several, I suppose. But one is a start. It's like scratching the mic. Like, man, I don't know. Will you make another Pumping Iron?

Yeah. Or do you love me? Did you really get in the choppa? Yeah. Yeah, I don't know i i you know i what if what if you what if you just had to like say something to arnold because like let like everybody i believe especially you come to an event like this there's a whole bunch of people around here for really one reason still like it is the arnold and all the strong men all that other stuff it all really exists because of arnold yeah and i think it's because arnold is hands down the biggest success

story in the history of the world ever i would say hands down i don't think there's anybody that's even close and then and then you boil down to what happened with action movies that whatever they were before are a totally different thing after arnold you know what i mean like arnold is probably still to this day the biggest action hero ever and you know there's a which makes me wonder is chuck norris ever going to start the chuck i don't think so there will not be any sort of the Chuck event. The Chuck will not happen? No. The Liam Neeson Classic. There's an event called the Tyler or the Shane. That's how

he's become where they just say the and your first name. You mean we're not going to rename the Maths and Amics draw man competition the Arnold? I'm sorry, that was terrible. The Shane. The 2018 The Shane Classic.

It sounds ridiculous. Especially considering it's the first name. It'd be one thing if it was like the Smith event or the Jones event. But for real, have it just be the your first name it's just ballsy and i like it but uh you know like if if i ran into arnold i don't even know what i would

say to him that would even be worth the time yeah well i don't think you would say anything worth the time do you say hey arnold nice to meet you big nice to meet you i'm a big fan because do you realize that arnold probably could hear that? If every person who believed that told him that, he could hear that 24-7 every moment for the rest of his life until he dies. Like, it would be just fucking white noise to him. Yeah. So, like, what do you say to Arnold?

I would go weird with it, I think. I don't know what I would do, but I I would go weird with it. I think. I don't know what I would do, but I would go super weird with it just to make sure he remembered me. Yeah. I would say, Arnold, you son of a bitch.

But you also, you can't really pull any movie lines off because he's heard all, how many times are you going to walk up to Arnold and go, get to the chopper. Hey Arnold, come with me if you want to live. And he'd be all, how many times are you going to walk up to Arnold and go, get to the chopper? Hey, Arnold, come with me if you want to live. And he'd be like, ah.

No one said that for five minutes. He's like, oh, fuck it. But maybe everyone just knows that no one says those things to him. And he'd be like, ha, that's funny the way you said it kind of like in my voice. I've never heard anyone do that before. that's funny the way you read you said it kind of like in my voice like that it's almost like you're making fun of my accent but i'm not supposed to be offended about it you fucking son of a bitch i don't know i'd i'd go weird with it i'd just be like be like arnold have you ever kissed a man

and i want you to be honest with me. Shane, is that what you would ask Arnold? I don't know if I'd push it that far. You don't think you would? Yeah. I don't know. That would... Would you at the very least ask him to be like,

tell you what, I'm going to show you a pose. Can I get a critique on this? You don't have to go long. And I want you to tell me where I can improve this one pose. I feel like at the very least you'd get some value out of your experience with Arnold.

Like Arnold, I just need your help with this one thing. No, I'd show my whole routine. Like, hey, would you have time to critique this? I'm going to just take about 15,

well, I don't got to get bands or anything. I'm just going to get a little pump on. I'll do some push-ups and, you know, we'll get a little bit of swole. Let me get a little sweaty.

I'll just take off my clothes. I'll just take off my shirt and we're going to see what happens. That's what I probably do now. It's a bit of a throwback to the old style routines. Not like these new young kids are doing. Not with all their hip hop dancing and backflips.

They don't know anything about aesthetics. No. They're out of proportion. They lack symmetry. Or I'd be like, hey Arnold, which of the bodybuilders on the stage tonight do you think is the dumbest? Just in general, who's the stupidest person that's out there right now?

And I need you to call him out right now on camera. Go. At least put him on the spot with something. Yeah. Try and see him give a politician's answer. Well, I mean, I think probably... Definitely Phil Heath's stupid. Yeah, he doesn't like Phil Heath, so he would say that.

Yeah. Yeah, he doesn't like Phil Heath, so he would say that. Yeah. I think he doesn't like the Phil Heath generation, I think, is the whole thing where just the giant HGH gut, that whole body type is not a thing that Arnold's into. At least from what I've seen on some interviews. I don't think he comes out and calls people out all that often, but that seems to be his gripe with the new era is he's just like these guys

are weird big like they're not they just don't look like people yeah and i've never even been to like a full-on bodybuilding competition so tomorrow the arnold like final is going to be a real eye-opener for me to see like, what that looks like. Men almost naked, just prancing around. Yeah. Like freak shows on that level in person is just fucking crazy. Just like in person is definitely just like the strong man in person is

different. When you see Brian, Sean Halford in person, like, Oh, I guess I knew they were huge and weigh 450 pounds. But so that's what it looks like when you're 10 feet away from it. Like same way with these guys on stage. It like oh i've seen the pictures i know they look

like freaks but what does that actually look like when you get to see it you know not through and tommy's gonna be like and like what does their sweat taste like like oh now i know so i want to go back to this too when during the strongman competition tommy i noticed i think it was thor broke his fucking ammonia capsule which then mark henry of course anytime anyone sniffed fucking smelling salts or anything he felt the need to explain to people like yes basically to just be like it's not steroids you guys but he was basically like they're just uh collecting their minds smelling some ammonia and clearing their head but anyway he like broke his shit and like chucked it just threw it and it like hit people where you were sitting i don't know if you notice

it yeah i didn't notice that i think there was a woman about four people to your left oh who just got like put it behind his ear didn't it yeah who just like got hit with his fucking ammonia capsule i i didn't notice that but i did notice um so i had a table like right next to me that i was sitting sitting some of my camera gear on and i was close enough that if some of it was down on the table for five ten minutes when i'd grab it there would be chalk from the guys from the air had gotten to the stuff that's awesome. There also is no shortage of chalk. That was just, they're really, that's what I was just thinking.

They just don't fuck around. They're like, they just like take a whole block of chalk, and I want to cover my back from shoulder to shoulder completely, and a little on my face, also my chest and forearms and hands. And they would do like the front of their thighs for no fucking reason and like yeah it was crazy how intense did the look on thor's face look when he when he was out there during the you know it was pretty it was like when they announced at the very beginning right like the whole time when he came out there and he just stood there like yeah when he came out

like that picture i have uh you know we were looking at him it's like it looks like he's looking directly at you yeah it felt like it i remember taking the picture thinking like because that was right after i got there like god am i not supposed to be taking pictures right here like he looks offended but i'm literally four feet from him taking pictures and i feel like he's mad at me that i'm doing this and if he doesn't like it he could just pick me up and move me and get me out of there but yeah yeah, he had the killer instinct in his eyes. Did you guys think, like, I thought this in the back of my mind, like, when they were getting ready to, like, go, like, Mark Henry would not shut up?

Yeah, right? It's like, dude, or like halfway in the middle of it. Like, there was times where Thor was trying to go, and Mark Henry would not shut the hell up about how much he weighed and as i just thought i was like man i bet they do not appreciate that too a lot of times it's like okay stop talking now like they're in the middle of it like i don't need to hear you anymore and then like there was a few times like during the actual like lift they would i don't remember what the guy was. He wasn't one of the two big names,

but he was hauling the bale, doing the yoke carry. And what he had said was, I think what Mark Henry wanted to say was like, he's going to try to get this finished or something like that. But basically, he just said, while the guy was halfway through the fucking lift, he's not going to get this finished because Mark Henry basically stumbles over his words and misspeaks like that's what he got paid to do. And then he dropped it and he's like, oh, that's not enough.

Well, no shit. He's halfway up there. I do hope that at the final, I'm assuming at the final they're going to have an actual MC to move everything. Because it's a three-hour deal. It's going to be the bodybuilding finals, the strongman final. It's like the finals for everything. And Arnold's going to be there and he'll be on stage. So I'm assuming that there's going to be like some real entertainers a lot of times i'm going to talk this british guy that he he does like the uh world's strongest man

the the british version or english version he covers that and i know i've seen him uh at do the strong arnold before and i kind of wish they they should like you could just get like a professional fucking like college football announcer you know what i mean just somebody up there who can talk and kill some time. I know they're just like, oh, Mark Henry's a strong man. Well, he's retired, so we should put him up there. But you could get that dude from college football and just be like, whoa, Nelly.

We got fucking something to do. You could just hire a local radio DJ, and they know how to fill the gaps. No, it's not an easy job. It's not like, oh, Mark Henry, you suck. It's like, well, most people can't. No, that would be definitely hard. Well, especially if you've got to kill some time.

At the very least, he seems comfortable up there. He's not awkward. He probably did do really good, but some of the stuff is just like, come on. There's a couple of things that if I had to give notes on it, and it would be definitely you need to have music be a part of it yeah they really they weren't even piping any music in through so it was mark henry and kaz talking and then when they went to do the thing nothing would happen and the crowd there's too much distraction and the crowd's all standing there there's not enough

full and i was in the very front row and I could routinely hear music from I'm assuming the other side of the convention hall. Oh, yeah, you got it. It was really good music though, wasn't it? It was really bad for a while and then it got awesome a little bit later. So the Bruno Mars came out late in the deal

and I was pretty into that. But yeah, like... Who is she? You're hearing Bruno Mars from like literally a quarter mile away in the same building. And that's the one thing. It's like if you had the person there emceeing it, just have them be like, all right, we're going to get ready to go. It's going to be blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And here you go. And then poof. And then you just have a guy be like, whatever music is playing, just make it louder at this place. So the crowd has to get into it it drowns out some of the other nonsense and people are paying attention to what's going on otherwise yeah it gets to be fucking kind of boring almost you know you're watching somebody try to carry 1500 pounds and you're like what is happening behind me like what is what's going on over here you know like if anybody tried to do that at our gym nobody would be doing

anything else no matter what like you'd be like right hang on the world would stop let me get done in the bathroom before you try to start doing this yeah you know like nobody would do anything else right so i think but i think that's a big problem with strongman in general like the world's strongest man the production value that like the actual like the video production shit the PR is terrible like they just don't market it very well it never looks good in the end I think they need like we talked about this earlier like at least crossfit has like some really high quality media products that come out around it and that's where strongman lacks everybody remembers strongman everybody grew up around it everybody knows the world's strongest man just because it's

generally kind of awesome but the fucking product's terrible like it it's not i don't think the product visually is any better now than it was 20 years ago. Yeah, when you're watching it on ESPN2 and you're like eight. Yeah, sick home from school. And that's the thing. When I watched the fucking World's Strongest Man this year from Botswana that they didn't release until six months after it happened for no fucking reason. On CBS Sports. On CBS Sports.

And it's terrible. And there's 35 people watching it who got paid to eat fucking... They each got given three bags of rice to show up to this thing. You know what I mean? Nobody there gave a fuck about what Thor or Char, any of them were doing. Nobody there was really strong man enthusiast. They were just there. These guys eat 10 pounds of food a day, and we're supposed to sit here and watch them.

A bunch of hungry people watching these fucking gluttons eat and carry things. So it just didn't make any sense to me why it had to be there. But just in general, I do believe that now Rogue's involvement in making Strongman equipment and selling Strongman equipment is a good thing because they at least are trying to just, I think last year was their first big push was last year, right? I think so.

And if you look at things that will probably be like longstanding quality media products, their Elephant Bar deadlift video is awesome. Makes me want to deadlift every single time I fucking see that thing. Their video of Shaw's Stone record is a1 what else they did one more last year wasn't it i don't remember what it was though yeah it wasn't as good as those two but like you know they were all over this thing this year so yeah so like if if they can do that type of stuff with strongman and i think that but like that level of production needs to be put into the actual like you know

the product being televised and put out there and then there might be some money behind it and then these guys might actually do it but performing in Botswana in front of 50 people who are barely cheering and unfortunately at the Arnold in front of thousands of people who are also barely cheering you know the production value is just not there

and it's you know it's a shame because that's one of the coolest things that's going on you can tell people were just in you know they wanted to be there to watch it but like that is there just wasn't enough to try to get you involved you know that was the key everybody wanted to be there nobody was walking away from the thing but when they would announce the deal no one was cheering yeah you know it really was kind of a dead crowd which is unfortunate but everybody rallied around shaw and thor and it would have been a totally different animal with eddie hall and big z for sure you know that definitely would have changed the game if those two would have been there and it's funny

because i don't think people are cheering like half the people are cheering for Brian Shaw and then the other half want him to lose and the other half are cheering for – No, everybody's just cheering for both of them. So if Eddie Holland and Juna Savickas are there, it's just – Twice as much cheering. Everyone's going to be cheering for – it's not like you're rooting for your favorite guy.

You're just rooting for the guys that are going to put on a good show. Yeah, and the guys that you know a little bit that's all it really takes but um but yeah it was i don't know all in all it was awesome still it's a good event it'll be a good day we're really looking forward tomorrow um anything else we need to cover tonight i need to i need to cover just my mattress with some sheets yeah we've been up for, I don't even want to know, too many hours. Like 29 hours. I'm going to guess it's like 1,000 hours we've been awake. Yeah, it feels like it.

But I think that's going to do it for us today, guys. I'm going to try and give the quick rundown. We're not in the studio, so I'm going to try and remember everything. So make sure you go to massanomics.com, scroll to the bottom of the page, and sign up for the email newsletter there. You can also click the shop now button you'll find hats shirts all the cool shit including tommy's rockin new lift shirt it's balling everyone at the everyone at the arnold's gonna want one so you should get one too yep there you're gonna find also all our articles

and other podcast stuff make sure you like our page Facebook. That'll keep you in the loop on everything that we're doing. Also, go to iTunes. Give us a five-star review. We are not going to read five-star reviews tonight because it's just simply too late. It's too much. Tommy's yawning. It's too much. I've been yawning.

Everybody's tired. So we're not going to read any reviews tonight, but we'll get to them later. So go to iTunes. Please leave us a five-star review. We will read them on air. Sometime when we have less other exciting things going on. Yeah, we got to get out there and conquer the world tomorrow. But that's going to do it for us today.

I'm Tyler. You can find me on Instagram at Tyler F. and Stone and Tanner. The Masanomics Instagram account at Masanomics. Tommy? You can find me on Instagram at tomahawk underscore deep ross where do you post all your dick pics you can find all them at roscoe 28 28 and big shane trying to put that info out there you can find me working out at the massonomics gym and that's the only way you're gonna find big shane because that's all he does. That's right. That's right. All right. Let's get serious. Thanks a lot for listening.

Let's get serious. Thanks a lot for listening, guys, everybody, and stay strong. See you. And serious. You just heard the Masanomics podcast. With your ears, you're welcome. Check us out on Facebook. Find us on Instagram at Masanomics and make make sure you visit Masanamics.com and buy some of that sweet Masanamics gear.

From your friends at Masanamics Studio, home of the world's strongest podcast, stay strong. Thank you.