Massenomics Podcast - Ep 507 What Helps Your Squat The Most

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

What helps your squat the MOST? A belt, knee sleeves, special shoes, something else?? Thanks to Alan Thrall for this one. Don't miss our last new drop of 2025! 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!

You know, thanks for what you do with your podcasts and all the rest. You're doing a great job. Hope everybody keeps tuning in. You get a lot of good info, a lot of insights, understandings 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, you all do it.

Social media, website, everything. Masanomics. Do you guys like podcasts? Do you like segments? Do you like lifting and sometimes not lifting? Well, you're going to love this. It's episode seven, season two of the massonomics podcast. My name's Tanner.

And my name's Tommy. New cadence drops. That one was pretty hot right there. Yeah. Really getting into attention. Workshop and some different things in season two. Seeing how they go. I'm pretty happy with that so far.

Yeah. Yeah, that's a good one. See how it goes from there. But do you guys like barbells? Do you like things from Texas? Do you like things that are really durable and built to last? Well, you're going to love that this episode is brought to you by Texas Power Bars. Do you ever walked into a serious gym before this question I got for everyone?

Have you ever walked into a serious gym and you grabbed a bar? You almost grab it without even thinking about it. Yeah, there's a pretty good chance that that's Texas Power Bar. They've been making barbells down there for decades and they've pretty much stayed the course the entire time. They got the same feel, the same neural, the same, this bar is never going to let you down. vibe from Texas power bars. No gimmicks, no bullshit, no reinvention. It just make gradual improvements along the way. Just bars that are meant to be loaded heavy over and over and over again. We've got Texas Power bars in Massonomics gym and they're the kind of bars you trust right away.

You don't worry about them bending weird, do anything dumb like that. You don't worry about the sleeves. You don't even really think about it. You just load the weights and you get to busting out some heavy lifts. They're not overly flashy. They don't bend to trends. They don't bend period. They're just solid, which honestly is exactly what you want when you're squatting or pulling something that actually matters. If you're looking for a barbell that's proven straightforward,

built to last, check out Texas Powerbars. It's the only bar that you're ever going to need. Texas Powerbars.com. What do you think of my ad? That was spectacular. Rividing. Do you like plates that are smooth, plates that are easy to grip,

plates that are e-coded? Maybe plates that are made to last. a lifetime. Maybe, maybe even plates that come in sizes of 45 pounds, actually 0.75 pounds up to 100 pounds. If you said yes to any or maybe even all of those things, well, let me tell you about the Strength Co. The Strength Co has the go-to plates of Massanomics Gym and Tommy's home gym. And they're our favorites and they're our favorites for a reason. They are built to last and they look great in your gym. If you'd like to get a set of Strength Coat plates for yourself, head on over to thestrength.com and pick yourself up a pair or a whole set today.

Thank you, The Strength Co. Season 2, episode 7, what's that going to bring us? Well, we're going to talk about what helps your squat the most. That's going to be your title topic. Consider this your official freaking timestamp for the episode. We're probably not going to get it to it until like it's an hour in. So shut up and listen until then and don't comment about timestamps in the YouTube channel. The YouTube comments.

Frigan timestamp commenters this week. They're coming out again. Someone's trying to lecture me about, yeah, someone is trying to lecture me about how we need time stamps again. And I just love the brashness of people to assume they know better than what we think we know about doing this 500 and sometimes.

I just wanted to see if I could find this one. because someone someone said hour and 40 with no time stamps and like a crazy crazy face emoji and I kind of thought that was funny I even liked that one that I'm like like I can play into it a little bit

and I my typical response is no time stamps in the jungle because I always I like to say that because it's so stupid it's and then this other guy hops in he said no seriously you should consider it instead of laughing it off I stopped watching myself

And I'm like, when did you come to make this comment then? I've stopped watching, but I also just read the YouTube comments and chime in when needed. That's crazy to me, though. I can understand someone not like being annoyed. There's no timestamps. But to be like, you know what? I like this show, but I have to quit watching because there's no timestamps. I'm like, I don't think if you actually liked the show then.

That's the thing. And that's sort of my comment to the guy is. we are okay with that decision. The reason we have the podcast is for our listeners that enjoy our show. That's exactly what you said is exactly what I said. It's for the people that like our show, not for dipsets that see a three-word title and are like, oh, I have to listen to what these people I don't know say about that.

And that's the only that I want to listen to. And then I'll also chime in and tell them why they're wrong. Yeah, exactly. And then I said, we cater to those people because they are the ones that support our business in all areas. And thankfully, Like, so my point is, shut up, dude, you don't like, the people that don't like our show don't dictate how our show goes. The people that like our show, you know, have a say in how the show goes. It's kind of my general point there.

I'm still waiting for the day, though, where YouTube just puts the automatic timestamps on. Like, they did that for a while. They did that for a while. Yeah, I don't know. And there is a sudden to turn it off. We never did. It's still checked on our channel for auto timestamps. And I think even YouTube was like, no, screw it.

We're not doing it. I like Big Ben, what are they researching a paper? Like, you need like, no, let me get to what, this specific portion of it. I'm like, you obviously don't know the podcast. It's all like, it's like two hours of BSing with the buddy. It's none of it is even the title topic. You know, it's like got a lot. And then he went on to complain about the ads and that sort of thing.

And I'm like, how do you think, what do you think the, economics are behind a podcast that we've done for 10 years. I want you to do it. Right. Right. So my quarterly timestamp rant, but I still feel like, I mean, we could have time stamps. It wouldn't make a difference either way. Well, like for the most people.

At the end of the reason we don't is just because it's just another step of work we have to do. Right. And the thing, I do believe there's something to the logic of like, we kind of just want people to listen to the whole show. Like this isn't a kind of show where it's like, yes, pick and choose the parts that you like. That's not really the idea. Maybe they just like the certified training facility of the weak part.

You know, they're just so annoyed. If you don't like it, don't listen to it at all. Like don't come for just that portion. Why in the hell would you like to hear two random guys talk about what helps your squat the most and nothing else? That's, I don't know, man.

That's not how I listen to things, but what do I know? Yeah, we used to be a proper friggin' country. That's what I was going to say. We used to be a proper friggin' country. What are you drinking over there? Anything in particular? Actually, you know, that's a good call. My throat is parched over here.

We got the classic pample-boose. I got something hot and fresh off the oven for anyone that, if she doesn't know that we used to talk about La Croy's being hot out of the oven, she's too young for you, bro. So you have the original. Pampal moose, baby. Yeah, it's not really original. Or what is pure?

I guess pure La Croy is just the plain. Well, what is the first flavor LaCroix ever made? I don't know. I think that's a... They probably hit us with the trifect of Pamplemoose, lime, and lemon probably right off the bat. just their greatest kids. That's that you think, say again what you thought it was.

Oh, I said Pamplemous Lemon and Lime. But that's just me being hopeful over here. Pure and Lemon Line were foundational to their modern, that's, I'm unsure there, but 1981, which that's insane. But Pure and Lemon Lime were foundational to their modern sparkling water identity before many other flavors. Pample Moose 2008 came along.

Late to the game. Yeah. Okay. But speaking of weird flavors, I'd be surprised if you've had this one before. Strawberry peach. I've never even seen that one. Yeah. Just when you think you got it from.

It fits nicely in this drink spot or chill available at nassanomics.com. I figure out where I keep sitting that thing. It's around here somewhere. It's probably stuck to something metal. Yeah. Probably. Hmm. Oh, that's good. Would recommend.

Oh, boy. Settle. The strawberry does not overpower it, which I was a little worried about. And, uh, nope, it's coming in just right. Yeah, it pairs.

Pares very nicely with peach. Mm-hmm. I, when we were at Crew Falls, in Lucky's, oh, I remember that place. Yeah.

From Paul, I got a Zinn. I think it was the 3 milligram Zin, and I haven't had one. You know, I've talked about how often I have a Zinn. I have the one package I've ever purchased. I have them on my late drives home, like my midnight drives home, three-hour drives.

And enhancing drives. Yes. Just to literally stay awake. But mine that I have there must be dead because I can't say like my body. I noticed that much of a feeling, but my lip hurt for almost an entire week after that. Really?

Where it was at in my mouth on my gums. Really? Like, I could feel it burning when I was using it, and I feel like that's a fairly normal sensation. Yeah. But it, my lip was tender from that for legitimately three days.

Wow. And I never use them, so I probably have like, I can't even speak. Yeah, I can't even speak because I don't use Zins or anything. I'm, back over here. I'm a real

independent thinker. They won't trick me, but yeah, I have no idea. Maybe that may be the same thing would happen to me. Well, it's it, I mean, it's not I'm aware that they give you that that burning sensation when you're using them. Yeah. But I didn't know it was

going to like what, just one of them was going to like scar my like, I almost feel like I can still feel it if I think about it hard enough. It has been like two weeks or, you know, I can't, but I can. The sensation hung around long enough that I was like, it took a while to shake up.

They're going to pull that some anti-tobacco company is going to pull that clip for an ad. It's like, think about trying to Zin once and you'll be like, Tanner Baird, I felt it for a week. That is kind of true, though, because my thought after that was like, damn, I'm glad I don't do that very often. That hurts my mouth. I'm sure you build up a tolerance within like the fourth one and it doesn't do it anymore, but I was like, well, I wouldn't want to put one in that specific spot again.

Screw this. Get me that vape vending machine right now. Yeah. I also at the time, though, even at the time of using it, I was like, holy shit, this burns. I was like you got a bus from it at all, though? I was pretty buzzed before it was in. So I don't know. That's always the problem with that stuff.

Yeah. I was the other thing I was thinking about from you know the various things were being consumed at crew falls is I really enjoy one of my favorite beers of the year is uh, Gennis at Blarnie Stone. And I don't like love, I like Guinness. I don't love Guinness, but there's something about having one there.

But I'm always like, this really hits. It just feels like you're doing it the vibe. Yeah. That was probably the last time I had a Guinness was that Blarney Stone. And Lauren and Andy and Anthony and everyone had to teach me about splitting the G. Do you know about splitting the G? I don't think so. So Gennis is supposed to be served in a Gennis glass, a Guinness pint.

Yep. And the G on Gennas, it's a game or your goal is the first. first drink. Oh. When you set it down, your line needs to split the G. I've never heard of that before. Yeah. Now you know, if someone wants to go orders against us, you want to split the G with you.

All right. That's the goal. And then I have to go do it. Andy and Lauren were doing the, you know, the giant mugs. And then they were like splitting the handle, which was like that part. And I'm like, well, Lauren and Andy, you just ended up slamming that 24 ounces. Like, I don't know. Just drank a full beer.

Yeah. But yeah, that was just my other point that I really enjoy the Guinness at the pub with the boys. Yeah. Yeah, you're making me pretty jealous for one right now. Yeah, that was fun. That was all the additional follow-up I had on crew falls, though. Okay. Anything that is the chalk still there?

Is there a chalk update? Can we get a chalk update every week? So then, because otherwise what's going to happen is like eventually the chalk's going to be gone. Eventually, I don't know whatever happened. No.

So what is the update now? Like, I thought I had it solved when I poured water on it and I just took a push broom and pushed it all away and everything was clear and clean looking. And then when it dried, it's like, I don't know if the chalk was suspended in the water or what,

but I just turned into this milky looking thing. And it's been now what, two weeks, whatever, something like that? And it hasn't gotten any better. I think Hogan says take a photo each week and then at the end of the year, it'll be like a transformation. I mean, eventually it will go away because there will be enough moisture and breakdown of it.

But I think the only thing that will really make it go away is I'll have to take a mop and bucket and actually like scrub and then clean the mop out and like get the chalk out of the mop after each one. And probably a couple passes. And it would probably take several passes. Yeah. And part of what also hurts it is that it, has been really cold lately so the ground stays really cold in there too so there's not any like loose moisture because everything's like freezing at that lowest level so it's yeah it's kind of a disaster yeah and one of my strength co plates you know the one that was used for uh the horse saw

it's just so covered in chalk like that one was already getting just the few spots where the e coat was like chipped a little bit is already getting rust on those little spots because of all the chalk on it. So I just need to clean that one up too. But yeah, it's, I mean, it's just part of the game. It's like Jugi said. The equipment's there to be used, right? That's right. Out there to baby it. That's, that's exactly right. Oh, we got a new drop. The new drop by the time this comes out, this recording is live. The drop has happened. It comes out on Thursday, the 18th of December. that drop includes a restock of the bolt tea. For anyone that doesn't know,

the bolt tea is the one that looks a little bit, it has shades of a Milwaukee design. It says lift, hardly of easy. We restocked that one because it sold out very fast when we dropped it for Black Friday. That one is actually restocked now as I speak, and it's already selling, so I don't know what the future for that one,

you know, how long that one will last. But the bolt tea is restocked again. They're not here yet, but our assumption is that they will be here just in time for the drop. A restock. I don't have one here because they all sold out so fast. One of the fastest selling products we've ever had is the goose patch hat. Yeah. We're doing a small restock of the goose patch hat.

So it is your one final chance to get the goose hat, the golden goose, golden egg. hat as it was for us. It helped make us our nut. And we'll see if it does it again a second time around. Yeah, big part of that nut. Yes. So that hat is supposed to be here and should be in the drop. But I don't know. That one, I mean, it legitimately sold out in 19 minutes last time. So I don't know, maybe that's, we had the exact right number. That's always the kind of thing. It's like it sold out 19 minutes, but maybe we had the exact number of people that wanted that hat and they're all, we, Everyone that wanted it got it, so the rest are never going to get sold. Yes.

But so we did restock that. And then the two new items, do you have either of them there? I actually do. Should I grab them here? Yeah, I'm kind of wearing an homage to one of them. I have this red. This is an old shirt that I'm wearing with the, we call this the OG, our OGT, because it was the first shirt Massonomics ever made with the big M.

and then just massonomics underneath of it. Did you just write what it was already? Well, I was just talking about the shirt I'm wearing. Oh, yeah, yeah. So this one is going back to the old days here. We have the OGT black and white color. Yep. Holding that out for everyone right now.

And that is on the comfort colors blank. Yes. Comfort colors blank. So this was, those of me that like comfort colors, you just went, yay. And those of you. Don't said bastards. This shirt, though, this was the first t-shirt design ever made from

Masanomics. It was on, it was the red one is the first actual blank we ever did. But this imprint, though, the Massonomics logo with the text underneath. It was the first design ever made probably in what, April, March of 2015. Yep. So going on just about 10. And we probably haven't printed this shirt in at least five years, right? Yeah, it might be, you know, five, six, seven, something like that.

Yeah. We actually, I know, you remember, I recall doing a photo shirt, photo shoot with that shirt probably eight years ago. Do you remember where that was at? Do you remember doing a photo shoot in an odd place? Eight years ago. I would guess eight years ago, we were kind of getting our bearings on what we did for these drops

and how we took photos and stuff like that. Well, it wasn't the first time we ever took photos for it? Or? It wasn't the first time we ever took photos? Is that Leah's parents' place? Like that shop. Yeah, that shop that they had.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think that was like the first time it released, I think. Okay. So that was like the first one. Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. I'm pretty sure. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We definitely didn't have that process figured out like we do.

Well, part of the problem was there is I was trying to do like the 3D mockup thing because then all the mockups of T. shirts were just flat t-shirts which looks bad you know when you're trying to do that so we had to do the thing of like trying to build a 3D mock-up and that's why a lot of them had that old right that old style mock-up and then um yes then it was like well where do we do this at and so it's like oh they have a big space and we did it there but yeah it was just it was such a different time then Yes, it was.

But so the OGT is back, which we, if it is, nothing screams massonomics more than the OGT. Yeah, that's a, I mean, right now if you got one of those, it's because you've been around a long time. But now you can look like you've been around a long time. Yeah, it's going to muddy the waters for people, isn't it? Now you're going to have to be wearing a red one to really be like, okay, that person's, that person's been around the block.

Okay. Then the other thing, yeah, the last new thing. This looks really nice. I haven't actually taken this out of the package yet. Next up, we took the popularity of the home gym nerd design, and we put it on a flag. F-L-E-G flag. Flag, baby. And this is the same size as the certified training facility banner, correct?

Flagg? Yes, same size as the certified training facility banner, same size as the silly goose. banner, just the reverse you know, opposite hamburger instead of hot dog or vice versa. And what's the Latin phrase we went with on the home gymnasi Domus Fanaticus.

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, it's nice. This is a good one. This one, this fit. We ordered this a while ago, so I kind of forgot about this, but it just fits the form of nice flag.

Yes, it is. Right sized flag. We used to do more larger flags. It was funny. I was just listening to, a man who parks in gym this week, and he was talking about, why did people decide that the standard gym flag size is three feet by five feet?

Well, because that's what size like a flag is, you know? Yeah, and that's, that is where it comes from. It's like that's what a flag is. Yep. But he's correct. And we actually, you know, came to that same conclusion. We have some big ones like that still. But what we make a lot more of now is our ones similar to this size,

just because they fit, fit better. Yeah. Someone shared this classic t-shirt design. I remember making that. I remember making this and being like, that would be hilarious. Like, I'd be like, I almost want that to exist because it was this patterned lift shirt you could make.

No, because there used to be like 15 years ago, maybe 20 years ago, there was this shirt. It had the AK-47s on it. It was a rogue status. It was like Robbord. Yeah, the rogue status.

He always wore Robin Big. It had all the guns on it. I thought it was so cool. Oh, I did too. I thought that was the coolest. Because people don't realize that. That's what that's inspired by. Yeah, all over prints was like not a thing.

That was brand, it was like new technology in 2010. Yeah. And yeah, if someone doesn't know, look up rogue status gun shirt. Yeah. And it's just this all overprint of all these silhouettes of all these guns. And yeah, Rob Deerick would wear it on damn near every episode of Robin Big. And I did think that was the coolest thing ever. I remember going on eBay.

I bought the shirt eventually. Oh, you did. Oh. Yeah, I probably around somewhere still. I remember going on eBay trying to find that thing. And they were. expensive. Like then that was like a $60

t-shirt at least, if not more. Yeah. Yeah. This and then shorts with a hat is the look on them. Yeah, the inverted shorts with the hat. Yeah, yeah.

But one other thing about this drop, though, let me grab it. Never mind. It's over on a shelf. Maybe you've got some handy. I don't know. But it is the dashboard. calendar drop while supplies last every order that comes in starting at the time of the drop is receiving a free 2026 dashboard massonomics calendar this is the fourth or fifth year that we've done that and this year it's

365 chances to get strong is. That is your free 26. Phase of the moon calendar. So you will never not know what phase in the moon we are at. never, never be lost in 2026. Yeah, the lunar activity will be very up front and center for you right on the dashboard of your car. Yeah, that's the drop. Anything else on that drop?

That's it for 2026. Okay. Anything else we want to touch on before, or yeah. I should say. Yeah, that'll put a wrap on our drops for 2025. Yeah, yeah. Oh, just other merchandise notes. We talked about those couple restocks.

There is some odds and ed's things around besides that. Certified training facilities have been going like crazy. I think we now on our map have 450 certified training facilities. 450 certified training facilities. So if you haven't looked at the certified training facility map recently, go check that out. We'll talk about it more when we feature a gym this week. We can't stop until we go to every single one.

Can't stop, won't stop. Well, I would say we're losing pace. Yeah. Oh, gosh. Yeah. As many, you know, we're averaging a tour a week and we're greatly losing pace. Are you two videos? We have to go to two a week to even like keep up at this point.

And that's not, it wouldn't keep up. That's not gaining any ground. That's maybe keeping up with where we're at. But yeah, that would do it actually. Yeah, would not keep up. Wow. Do you want to hear about supporting our supporting members or do you want to talk about anything else before we jump into that.

Let's jump into the supporting our support members. Supporting our supporting members is a relatively new segment of the Massonomic podcast. Supporting members are the, you know, we talked about certified training facility. We talked about buying items from our new drop. We talk about supporting us on YouTube. We talk about leaving it to review on Apple Podcasts. The number one thing that anyone and everyone can do to help out Massonomics and our podcast is become a supporting member.

That's at massonomics.com slash join. It is what helps keep our lights on. Do you have a printer at home? Do I ever right here? What kind of printer is it? Oh, laser printer for sure. Okay, so it doesn't take ink. No, a toner, baby.

It doesn't take, so there's nothing you have to put in it. Yeah, toner. Oh, you do it. You have to put toner in it. Yeah. But it's not like toner is not like liquid. You know, it's like, is it a whole thing that you put in there? It's like a giant cartridge thing.

Yeah. Okay, that's like what mine is that like. Yeah, it's like a miniature version. It lasts forever. Yes, it's a miniature version of what you have at the office. So when you push print, it just shoots out. It doesn't like have to like warm up and do like a test page because you haven't used it in a week. Like it's, yeah, if you get a home printer, you have to get a laser printer.

Yeah. The supporting membership keeps toner and Tommy's printer is what I was getting. That sounds expensive. Actually, the best part of this is... How much does toner cost to... The same cost is buying the new printer. You could literally just throw the printer away and come out the same as if you just decided to buy the toner. That's the common part of the whole thing.

Yeah. Why? It's a racket. Big toner. What is going on there? Why is that the case? But please become a sporty member so Tommy can continue to repurchase new printers. And because he does enjoy throwing...

row away culture. It is actually what he does each time is he buys new printer rather than just have a mountain over here. All of them without toner. Just shells. Why can't like my label writing printer, which I think is a thermal printer, it doesn't take anything? Why can't everything print the way that that does?

Because I, well, first of all, this printer has color in it. You know, there's color here. But if we're just saying black and white, then? I would assume probably because of the size. I would guess because like that thermal printer uses some special paper and stuff Yeah, isn't it? Yeah, it's like it's labels.

Yeah, but I would assume it's a mixture of that And it probably gets really expensive to have like thermal printer of that size probably. I don't know. Those would be my undereducated guess Is just sort of working in the print industry for a few years. Well, that's what you are dealing with a bit of an expert here. Also, maybe you touch on it too.

Maybe if you can make them, then you're not spending any money on toner or ink, but the paper that you would have to use is the economics of that paper. Paper's pretty cheap though. Right. Well, like, but for the thermal printer. Oh, yeah, yeah.

I think that paper would be really expensive. Yeah. Right. And assuming they actually be losing an 1 half by 11 sheet of it, which they might not even exist. It would surprise me if. You know what printer I always liked is the ones that have the edges that you fold off that have the little dots on the holes?

Yeah. Is that like a dot matrix printer? Is that what they called those things? I think it's called Dot Matrix because of the dots and the things you fold off on the sides. Is that what it is? No, I don't even know. I mean, I am old enough that we had those at school.

I remember that was like the first printer we ever had in our house was one of those. Yeah. Yeah. Yep, the old dot matrix. Is that what it is? That dot matrix? Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. And they're just so freaking loud and they'd take forever. Neer. Neen. Yeah. So did that take ink? I'm pretty sure.

I don't know. Maybe it was a toner of some kind. I don't really know, actually. Yeah. Oh, Ryan says ink ribbon. Yeah. I like all the variations of, you know, it's like, no, that's not ink. That's an ink ribbon.

Yeah. Big differences here. Yeah. You got to know about this stuff. Ink ribbon. That's like what my. my adding machine takes that work. Yeah.

That's like it's serious work done when you're, your machine has an ink ribbon. You know business is going down. Yes. So to help keep all of our dot matrix and ink ribbons completely stocked, consider becoming a supporting member. Also the George Foreman's hot.

Actually, by the way, have you read any of the George Foreman recipes? Is there any hidden gems in there? No, it's mostly on display right there. It's just display piece. Yeah, it's right there on display. So I'll probably bust it out at some point in time.

But right now I don't want to lower the value by getting George Forman grease on it. Did I see you did Andrew Garrison was he whipping up a sandwich in George Foreman? It looks like it had dust on it. It's like easy there, Emerald-Lagasy. Bam! So to help keep our George Foreman's hot. And our ink ribbons, moist, become a supporting member, please at massonomics.com slash join. It's how you get in in our Discord.

It's how you listen to the show live, like we have people listening now. It's the only way you can listen to our pre-show. Every week before we record, we put out a little pre-show that doesn't get recorded. And the only way you can ever hear that, it's where we actually, we save our greasiest stuff for that pre-show. They call it the greasy pre-show, and the grease gets thick in there. like today just as a teaser, I won't tell the story, but I told my sneakiest poop story ever was for the pre-show.

It's not usually poop stories, but this week that's what the grease was. It was the sneakiest poop story I ever lived to tell about on the pre-show. So you can get stuff like that. Also, there's a discount code if you become a supporting member. A whole bunch of stuff. And you could get featured on supporting our supporting members,

like Big Quinn competed in a bench-only meat this last week. It looked like he bench some big numbers. Big Bryce was down 40 pounds, and he's been using Macrofactor in his journey. Macrofactor, discount code, Massonomics. We'll get you a few weeks free if you try it. Tommy and I've both been using it. Tommy's been using it for a long time.

Highly recommend Macro Factor. Look into it at least. Actually, use our discount code. Try it for a few weeks for free. you'll know if you want to keep doing it or not. Yep. Big Gaggles. Gaglione,

606-pound equipped bench. It was the biggest bench of the meat that he was competing at. Damn, it's a big bench. Yes, Big Brett did a push-pull competition. He had the second highest bench of the event with a 355 pound bench press. Hell yeah. Big Jimmy Kay was at Masters of Iron in Clearwater, Florida. It was his first meat.

He had a 396 squat, 281. bench 3.85 deadlift for a 1062 total on his first meet. Everything's a PR when it's your first. Yep. Kentucky's strongest hands competition. We had at least this many crew members there. Big Wes, Zach, Brandon, curd. Let's see. Hunter, John, and Jared.

I think we're all there competing. West, Kerd, and John, I think, won their weight classes. Damn. So it had a whole bunch of crew represented there at the Kentucky's

strongest hands competition. Big Lili, first power lifting meet, 9 for 9. Everything's a PR, 452 squat, 331 bench, 529 dead left for a 1312 total on the first meet.

Nice. Big Love Lady, 8 for 9 power lifting meet, 501 squat, PR 342 bench, 562 deadlift, a 14.05 total PR breaking the 1,400 pound barrier. It looks like Jonathan Oldham was also there. That's what I thought I saw in the picture. Yeah.

Very cool. Big Josh, another grip camp competition. He competed at Midwest Grip Championships. His best lift was a Saxon bar, 171 pounds. He got him fifth overall in that. He also did a 132-pound rolling thunder lift. wrecked the Hall's five strongman show. Big Keith from Rochester was there.

He got first place in his master's division. Big Dan was there competing. He did a 320-pound axle clean and press PR. Second place in his class. Looks like Big Chris, Mark, and Big Lucas were also there to represent the crew. Big Jake is accepted his sports medicine fellowship at Travis Air Force Base in California. Moving from the Midwest to the straight up west. Fivo goes west and so does Jake.

You're not in Nebraska anymore. Unpaid and underrated this week's episode was their crew falls recap featuring Keith, Brandon, Jake, Tron, Hannah, and Debo, I believe. Then big news here, three most recent new members to the cup level, Massonomics Hall of Fame are Big Ron out in the PNW, Big Jess, out of Buffalo, and Big Zach,

right here out of Western Northeast South Dakota, three newest members to the Hall of Fame 12 achievement. They'll all be receiving their Hall of Fame Cup to commemorate the occasion, and they've all been added to the Hall of Fame website. You can check that out on our website as well. That is this week's version of supporting our supporting members. Oh, well done, guys and gals.

Should we do a certified training facility of the week? Yeah, I'm trying to decide. Oh, I got to sneeze. Okay, I'm back. I'm trying to decide where to go here. Where do you think? I've definitely found some cool places, but... I'd say dealer's choice.

There's no wrong answers on certified training facility at the week. This one has a nice little, just a mix of vibes to it. We're going to go to a little place. called Michigan. Have you heard this? Have you heard about this? Been there for a gym tour before or two? Maybe just one actually.

Okay, we're going to go on the way west side of Michigan. Yep. That's a couple jackets over there. To a little place called Supreme. I don't even know. Supreme Kays hyperbolic time chamber. I think his name is Kyler. I don't know.

I don't know. that Kyler or? Oh, yeah, okay. Yeah, maybe Big Kyler. So it'd be Supreme Kai's hyperbolic. Which actually works with the Dragon Ballsie tie-in. Okay. Okay.

You ready to check this thing out here? Yeah. First photo. Are you getting the vibes right off the bat? Yeah, there's some serious vibes here, isn't there? This wood paneling on the wall is, I'm trying to, this has to be a basement, right? I'm just skipping ahead a little bit. I think it's a basement.

Spended ceiling feels like a basement to me. Yeah. It feels like a basement. Okay. So yeah. So you got the drop ceiling and like wood. It's like really nice wood panel. Like it doesn't look like the old retro wood paneling.

It looks like actual boards. Doesn't it? Yeah. I can't quite tell. It's probably paneling. Probably. But it's got a little more modern, just a slightly more modern take on it. Yeah.

But so he's got this wood paneling. He's got horse stall mats down on the floor. And he has got. a ton of attachments on the wall. It's impressive how many attachments are on this wall, isn't it? Yeah, he's really decked the halls with his lifting attachments on the walls. And they're organized really nicely on there, too. Yeah, it is.

So looking at the rack right in the middle, it's, I believe it's a Titan rack, I think is what it says on those decals there. It's a little small. Got a Titan rack, a bunch of different plates. You got a flat bench in there. He's built up a little bit of a platform for the rack to be on. And then, yeah, just all those attachments. We're going to take a closer look.

If I go to Photo 2, we got a collection of barbells on the wall, some figure 8 straps, some abwill belts, axle, some different handles. Several different bars. Yeah, yeah. Photo 3, I really like Photo 3. Best photo of the whole gym tour right here. It is just what made it for me is. It's mostly just a photo of a giant bookcase filled with VHS tapes.

It's like quite the Disney collection, I would say. Then there's just some collars off to the side. So as far as Jim stuff goes, there's not a whole lot that's relevant here. But I mean, I see the double VHS set of Titanic up there. I see the Star Wars box set. Indiana Jones, it looks like. You're right. A great collection of Disney movies in there.

Yeah, there's quite a few box sets up there. Yeah, I wasn't even noticing. Is it the Green Mile? The first one there maybe? I can't quote. Yeah, that's the Green Mile. That's Green Mile. That's for sure.

Is that Tom Hanks on there? Is the orange one grease? Is that? I don't know. Imagine the population that doesn't understand the two VHS movies. You know, like the fact that Titanic was too long for VHS tape so it needed two tapes to watch it. That's also kind of like a funny spot where they cut the tapes to. It's like they put no thought and, uh,

it's like, well, that one's done. Yeah. Uh, so I, I like that shelf a lot. I feel like that shelf's being given all it can take. There's a lot there. I have that. You see that rep sandbag at the base of it? Is that what that is?

I didn't know if that was a sandbag or a duffel bag. Yeah, it's a sandbag. I have that at the gym. Really? Somebody had that and it's at the gym now. Oh, never seen one of those before. It's an odd sandbag. I don't know what the point of it is for sure.

For real, looks like a duffel bag. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Photo four. We have a bigger view of the basement. So if you look at more of the foreground here, Tanner, you'll see what looks to be like a dehumidifier.

You see to be. He's got a dehumidifier. That tells me it's a basement right there. We got a Titan easy curl or preacher curl bench. Preacher Curl bench. Sure. What's that bench behind it? Like what's the

Oh yeah I'm not sure what that is An adjustable bench that's at an incline or something Yeah I can't quite tell And then see how he did a transition On that yellow transition on the floor From his mats to the You know it's a nice little

A little finish piece there Then the last photo has the attachment wall Barbell wall in all of its glory Okay this is really What is with these like really? long loadable dumbbells. You see those? I don't know other than to do

like insanely heavy rows or something or like I don't know what the purpose of those is. That's a loadable dumbbell handle. The handle is about what you expect. But the sleeve is just as long as his trap bar up of it. Yeah, it's just take it. Yeah, it's take a barbell sleeve

and then make the barbell part of it like maybe a foot long and that's what this is. It's really, I've never seen anything to look like that before. Yeah, Matt and Keith both say crock rows. I suppose that's what it would be for. You know, you just do a 500 pounds. Right.

And then, yeah, you got the, actually, big fan of loadable dumbbells. One, two, three, four, five. Five of them on that wall. What's the red one? I don't know. The red searcoat one looks cool, though. It does.

All right. Well, that's Supreme Kai's Hyperbolic Time Chamber. Do you think you could get strong in there? Oh, hell yeah. And I'd be entertained doing it watching all those videos. Yeah, my biggest question is, what are we watching first? Cancel the Netflix subscription. We're saving money over here.

Everything you need to see is already on VHS. I pray this guy has a working VCR. It'd be a shame to be caught without a VHS player at this time. Yeah, yeah. Please be kind, rewind at Supreme. Khy's hyperbolic time chamber. Ah, great certified training facility of the week. You can check out the full map at massonomics.com

certified. Like I was saying earlier there, we've got at the time this comes out, well, I was saying it was over 450. Maybe it's up to 500 by the time this episode comes out. But you can see everyone's got their pin on the map. And there is pins completely covering the United States, a decent good bit into Canada. Even if you go over to Europe, it starts to be like,

oh, I don't have to go too far in Europe to find the next support or a certified training facility. They're all over the place there too. Australia is growing. Hawaii, Alaska, they're everywhere. You can't get away from a certified training facility on the map. Oh, did I miss anything? Oh, I didn't even know you weren't there. I was looking at the map.

I actually did. Just talked to me for so long. Yeah. Were you gone for a second? For just a minute, yeah. Oh, okay. I was just talking, I was looking at the certified training facility map.

So I literally didn't even notice you weren't sitting there. Okay. This week's episode of the podcast, who did I talk about first? I talked about Texas Power bars. I want to mention our newest sponsor of the show, Elite FTS. Big news, our newest sponsor of the show. If you've spent any time lifting seriously,

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Thank you, BuildFest Formula. Thank you, BuildFest. Should we kick off our live listeners and hop into a title? topic. They're out of here. Yeah, for all you freaking time stamp, needy people, 48 minutes in, and we're getting to the title topic. Oh, that's the next thing.

We'll put timestamps and then they won't even have to listen to be able to make the comment. Ah, they don't even get to the title topic until 48 minutes in. I wasn't going to listen to any of the rest of it anyways. The title of I have to click to the 48. The title of this episode doesn't cover the content in chronological order. Yeah, so here we go. Take that for everyone that's just tuning in for the title topic will blast a little disturbed in your ears. Okay, what helps your squat the most?

A topic derived from a post that Alan Thrall had just recently on his Instagram account. I thought it was particularly interesting. So he said, Alan, you have this? We have this. It's ours now. This is going on minute 48 of the podcast. Yeah.

Oh, you have this? We have this. Thanks, Alan. So, yeah, he talked about it. We can talk about his conclusions that he came up with. We can derive our own. We can talk about the criteria he looked at.

We could probably add a couple. We also pulled the audience who wants to be a millionaire style and got their take. Did a lot of people phone a friend, or was it all just honest answers? They took the 50. They took away the two that you knew were not going to be ever. It was three answers and they removed two of them. Have you ever seen the Norm McDonald celebrity who wants to be a millionaire clip? It's very funny.

I haven't, but I get his. Do you see Norm MacDonald clips all the time? I get them all the time on Instagram, and I hate it what I do because I can't stop watching them. I think I do too because it knows I love, like it just feeds. It's like one of the few things that gets me that I'm like, I'll have to watch it. It's just Norm McDonald's clip pages.

And the second it starts to show me those, I'm just lost. It's because I can't turn them off. Some of his comedy is so funny. And it's actually kind of like in the vein of some of the more modern comments. We talk about where they live in like the moment of awkward. Oh, I mean, it's, it's, it's a lot like, I mean, it kind of is, it kind of is like some Nathan Fielder stuff in the way that it's sort of is just a guy being so honest that it's awkward at times. But Norm's thing is he always drags it out so long.

The story. Yes. He's like, hey, see. And, you know, and so like, he adds so many filler words and they don't get, they don't drive the story forward in anyway. But that's kind of the point is that the story's not going anywhere. It's like getting funnier the longer. Right, because you're just laughing because of like, how is this taking so long? And then when it finally gets to like the end of the four minute joke, you're like,

any other person telling that joke would be a 10 second joke. Yeah, but like you managed to make it go for four seconds or for four minutes because you're adding all types of filler words and going down roads that don't actually further the joke in anyway. Anyone else that tried that same style or most people, it would also just seem like they're being bad at comedy too. Like he has the ability to do it. Yeah.

Where it's like, no, this is the. comedy, but it's like sort of the thing where like only he can do it. And it's what, you know, I don't know how or why that is. But what was I talking about? Oh, God. What were we talking about? Oh, the Norm McDonald, who wants to be a millionaire? And he goes like, he's like, yeah, I'm going to, you know, he's chewing gum.

He's like, yeah, let's use, I'm going to use a 50-50. And he goes and he stops him. He's like, wait, it's not going to do the thing. I told you, like which ones I think it probably is. and the two that I'm pretty sure it's not. You're not going to do that thing where you just take away the obviously wrong ones, are you? And Regis is like, well, we don't have control over like that.

It's totally random. It doesn't work like that. And then he's like, uh, computer take away two options and it does it. And it does the exact ones. And Norm's like, ah, you know, it is a funny clip. But they did the thing. And I'm like, is it really random or was someone back there knowing it's going to be hilarious if, uh, we can pull the stuff.

strings a little bit here really add to the confusion yeah so we phoned we didn't phone a friend we pulled the audience uh for our lifeline here so the criteria that alan used on what helps your squat the most what would you say we're because we could analyze that from a lot but he's talking about like gear that you wear is kind of the direction yeah so what were okay as far as the instagram poll goes what were the options you gave people to answer here i gave uh in the poll i gave them the same options that Alan went through, which were shoes. And I think a lot of times people would interpret that as healed shoes, but I think whatever you think shoes, yeah, your footwear that you need, knee sleeves,

belt. Those are the three that Alan talked about, what and on what helps your squat the most. And it's also what we put in the, um, in the pole. I would add to it as another potential. option wrist wraps because people do wear wrist wraps sometimes and then this doesn't fit the mold but I also just wondered about taking a look at squat bar you know this is not a thing you wear but it is so you're saying there wasn't anyone that chimed in saying that calibrated plates or a combo rack helps their squat the most that's I suppose someone could say I'm on a lift because I actually

yeah walk out yes yes you could argue a monolith to a small you know a small subject of people But then if you're doing that, you would have to also add in knee wraps. And obviously those can't help your squat a lot. And then if you're going there, why don't you say a squat too? Yeah, yeah. Okay. So we'll keep it to just the original options of what you. So do we want to say what the results of the poll were first?

Yeah. Or do you know what Allen's take on it was? No, I don't know what his take was. I know what my personal take is. So I'm not going to let anything you say influence me here. Okay. That's what I'm going to say. Do we need to do our own first or?

Okay. We can do our own and figure out. Or do you want to hear what it is. because I already know, I already knew my opinion. And I'll say this, my opinion differs from Allen's. Oh, okay. And do you want me to rank them or just, do I just pick the one? That's the best.

You can, you can rank them and actually you can even say, like, what's your best guess? How much does it help your squat? Wow. Like, would be a deeper way to analyze it. Yeah, that's really hard. Okay, that part's really hard because it's not a one size fits all at all. Yeah. And that's really tricky because it kind of.

of actually would require sort of maxing out to ever get there. And doing them separately. So for me, yeah, for me, I would say belt helps the most, like really getting a good, just,

just getting that belt tight and getting everything locked in. I mean, that's just where my whole squat starts is like right there. Like, I know a squat, I just know how a squat's going to feel good in training. If I take it off the rack and I feel good right, right off the bat,

like, oh yeah, I'm golden. Like, this is, this is, I'm set. Um, so for me, the belt is number one, hands down. Um, the interesting part, though, is as time has gone on, I've become more and more a fan of adding in more equipment to my squat. And, uh, like when we first started, I didn't wear anything. I just had, I had no knee sleeves, no belt. I just had flat shoes. When we did the first meet, did you even wear a belt out of? I had, I used a belt for two weeks at

that point. Like I just borrowed somebody's belt. Yeah. Yeah. So like at that point, and, you know, and at that point, I could, I think, would squat 405. I had, I had, I had used, I had used to do or something in the meat, 400 pounds. But the point was, is I got to a 400 pound squat with nothing, like just lifting, just going to the gym and lifting. But a belt is number one.

Now I do use, just because of more back issues, just to keep me as upright as possible, I've started using healed shoes. I never liked them in the past. Like I had flats forever. I switched to healed shoes. tried them for a few months,

never really liked it, took them off, switched back, and I loved it. And then that was just out of like an injury thing and like easing back into it. I started wearing heeled shoes. It's working.

I'm not going to mess with that. And that's what I've been doing lately. So I do like healed shoes. And the other thing is, is I really like knee wraps or knee sleeves. These sleeves. Like it just makes everything feel good. So I would maybe take two angles.

Yeah. If I were wrist wraps. Yeah. I actually on days. Do you wear wristraps? No. Just like out of meat is all just because just part of the whole. Yeah, it's just the whole song and dance of it all.

Like when I do. I need one more thing to make me ironclad here where I'm like indestructible. I need every part of my body wrap that's legally. By neoprene and stretch other stretchy materials. I mean, I do squat pretty hot. bar so like my wrist don't even really feel it like when I would squat lower bar and you're doing reps like towards the end of your sets like if you don't have wrist straps on it can really torque and i live with my wrists way in like my my elbows and arms are really tight in so my wrists are really

taking a pretty tight angle on all that but if i had to if i had to rank him though it's belt hands down number one i would probably just the way i lift now probably pick shoes number i would pick shoes number i would choose number two for comfort, but I actually think if it came down to lifting the most, it would be knee sleeves would be number two. But I always were lifting, I always wear lifters for my squat sessions. I usually don't wear knee sleeves unless I'm going over a certain amount of weight. So you don't wear knee sleeves all the time. I don't wear, usually it's like if I'm going to be lifting like, like if it's a delode squat. If it's deloed, like I'm out of deload tomorrow, I will not be wearing knee sleeves. If it's,

hypertrophy block. A lot of times will not be. Oh, on my hardest one? Yeah, because I'm like, no, but not your hardest one

on a hypergatory block. A lot of times it will not be. What about if it's a strength block an average day? Like, I don't know, it's like straight sets of five or does it just depend on the weight? Yeah, it depends on the weight,

but usually I will now because it's at the point where typically strength block I'm like usually. It's heavy enough. It's usually between like 365 and four or something. And it's like, at that point I tip, like 350. to 350s like the gray area for where I bother with knee sleeves somewhere there,

depending on what the rep scheme is and all that. But I have actually a few years ago, I would have just been like, yeah, knee sleeves are cool. I wear them whatever. Now, I don't know if it's just because I'm getting old or what, but when I, when I warm up, I don't put knee sleeves on until I'm at least at 315. And when I put 315 on with knee sleeves, I'm like, oh, this just feels so right. Everything in the world is just, everything feels so good.

Like it feels like my knees have these protective little pillows around them. And it's like, it's just like someone's just like, I'm squatting down. And I don't even have that tight of knee sleeves. But I just like I'm squatting down and someone's just gently helping me back up. Like, yeah. It's like, oh, here, let's give you a little boost. And that's how it feels like wearing knee sleeves. So, um, yeah.

But if you had to say, I think knee sleeves add more to my actual lift than shoes than shoes do. But I just something about. I get them what you mean about that. I'm just, I think, I think I could probably. I probably train myself out of lifters if I had to, but the fact is I don't need to, so I'm just so used to them at this point. So that's my order.

And what about if you were to say anything about squat bar? Is it add any weight to the squat? I actually don't think I don't think about squat bar is it messes up the bar weight, and that part's the most annoying part. So I'm not a huge squat bar guy. On a meat day, I don't really care at all. It's whatever. Like you're not worried about the whip on your power bar squat.

Unfortunately, I can't squat quite enough yet for that to be much of a factor in my life. True for most people, I would say. Right. Yeah. So that's my order. What do you got? Yeah, nothing much new for the group, pretty much what he said. Basically, ditto.

Actually, like, that would be, I guess, just to pick it apart up, but say mostly a lot of the same things. the belt is an easy number one choice for me. This is part of what it inspired it because when I see the list, the belt is the obvious number one. My thing is if the belt's not number one, you don't know how to use one. Like that's what I think in my head.

I give people more leeway on deadlift because deadlift is a weird thing. This is specific to squat and I've seen a lot of people on deadlift. The belt does not do much if anything. And it's just a weirder positioning where you're like bending and rounding. I can understand.

I've seen enough. and been around enough to understand that a belt is not essential on a deadlift. I just, I have a hard time believing that if you don't, if a squat, if a belt isn't the most important thing in your squat, I just think you maybe don't know how to use one. I think that's possible.

It's possible you could be built in just such a way with the short, the really short. Yes, built different worse. Built like where your torso is so short. that may be like the, you know what I'm saying? Like proportionally you have the shortest little torso. Yeah, you're a five foot tall woman with a three inch power lifting belt. Like, yeah, okay.

Yes, fringe cases like that. But I'm just saying for the most part, the type of people we're lifting with and hanging out with that are. Right, right. That's, I mean, it is when I put a, I train without a belt a lot. And no matter I could, no matter how much I do that, when I go back to a belt on the squat,

it's like, oh my God, that just got dramatically easier because just being able to brace like that. This is the same thing we've talked about this many times, but I still feel like when I don't wear a belt squatting, like I'm not squatting as hard as I could be. Like even if it's on a lighter day, I'm like, well, I can move this weight faster if I use a belt.

And like I'm moving the weight faster and harder using a belt. So isn't it just advantageous to be using it all the time? Like that's, I actually don't know and I battle myself in turn. Like the more I lift, the less I feel like I actually, the more that question comes up in my mind and the less I feel like I know the answer. Because it is a very interesting question. We've talked about this. We have. Several times.

Several times we have. I think we should mention it again because it, and everyone will have an opinion. Like people will, please drop the YouTube comment because I've seen the opinions and there will be a variety of differing opinions. Where that conversation originally came up was people will go through like raw, you know, like raw, raw training. No belt, no knee sleeves, no nothing, like just lifting. And we're talking more specifically here, like squatting. But like people do it for deadlift too where it's like they'll go through blocks and be a belt. But like you'll see people say like, okay, like, yeah, I'm in a federation that allows knee sleeves and belts.

But I'm doing like multiple blocks of training where I'm not going to use a belt and I'm not going to use the knee sleeves. and I guess the theory is that when you add it in, you're going to be so much stronger. Right. Yeah. Because you're getting stronger without it. Yep. So then when you add it on,

it's like getting an extra added bonus, I think is the thought process. But the alternative is what you're saying where, say you just do, we've done this exact, exact comparison before, but you did all those same sets and you wore the belt for all of them.

And say your RPE was one or two, less. Right. Yeah. Because like, across the board. Yeah, like you. So maybe you did 10 more pounds at the same R. I know that that's right. Because like, okay, let's say you're doing five at 405 on squat. And with no belt and no knee sleeves like every rep is like an RP9. Yes. But with a belt in these sleeves is every rep in RPE 7? Because all of a sudden it's like, well, now you can accommodate more weight every week, assuming you can recover from that fine. And I still, it's like that that's what part of me is thinking. You feel better.

the weight. And then I also think, like, whether people want to admit it or not, there is a skill to, like, using your belt correctly. For sure. And if you're going huge chunks, not using it,

I think, like, how good are you refining, how much are you refining that skill of using the belt and, like, finding the spot that works best for you. Yeah, that's a whole additional point to it is the skill of using the belt.

Because you don't just, like, automatically, like, never wear it, then just throw it on and be like, yep, here we go. Like, I think, especially if you've taken an extended break from wearing one, maybe your belly has grown in size or shrunk.

And it's like, where is my best positioning? Like, where does this feel right? And it's like, oh, this feels really uncomfortable. I forgot what this feels, you know, it takes a few weeks of just even being like, no, that's just what that feels like. Right. And when you're like getting into heavier squats, like it can take, I don't think it's a reason we'll say it can take quite a few squat sessions

to really dial that in again if it's been an extended break. I, uh, and this is what I, the conclusion I kind of came to the last time of why I do it when I do. it is I think for me it's more of an auto regulation tool. That's right. Yes, you did say that. Which this is at least just how I justified in my mind that I'm like, I don't want to be training with those weights like necessarily 12 months out of the year or whatever it is.

But I still want to squat. So it's just like the way I do like right now where I'm just front squatting. Well, it's like the loads are just way less. Front squat. In this example, you could equate to back squatting. without a belt and knee sleeves, I guess. Like I'm front squatting. You know, I'm not doing any of the specific movement,

so I'm not getting any of that training. You know, I'm like as a negative, I'm not getting any of that specific training, just like you're not wearing a belt and knee sleeves and stuff. The overall load is less, which is the same if you're not wearing a, and it's maybe the theory is you're maybe training some weakness, like in the terms of belt,

maybe that's your back or your brain. racing or your core or whatever you think. Or for a front squat, it's my quads or whatever. You know, it's kind of the same thing, the same idea as why someone might do back squat with no belt and no, you know, raw, raw, raw for a training block or for a period of time or whatever. But I actually don't know. It's, it's, it's, then I'm like, would, would you just be stronger, though, if you

were doing that, you know, training more specific more often. And it probably depends on the lifter. I think it does. Two in the training age, the training experience, the 100 ever, their build, their proportions, a thousand other things too. But I don't know. It's a very interesting thought. Part of me just think so if you're really chasing just true top-ed numbers. Right. Like training as hard as you can, as often as you can, should be like should be the goal, shouldn't it. Right.

You know, as hard as you can, as often as you can and still recover. You know, like, yeah, yeah, and not get injured. Mm-hmm. But that's probably where people, that's probably the part that people get hung up on is, you know, it is a balance of training as hard as you can for as long as you can and staying healthy and not getting injured, too. Yeah. Where some people can, especially if you're younger,

could probably get away doing that all the time. Oh, yeah. Yeah. For sure. Yeah. That was a divergence from the actual title topic. But I do like that conversation. That's always an interesting thought.

It's funny for as many times as we've had that conversation, you'd think at some point one of us would do a deeper dive into if there's any explanation behind that. But maybe it's better just to never know. I would like to sit down with Mike Tashir. You know, we call him on just, not to do an interview, but we're just like, let's just talk about this. Let's get the answer here.

Like actually we get Mike Tashir, Chad Wesley Smith, I don't know, a panel of four people. Like pull someone from the conjugate world. Bugs, maybe. Yes, a diverse group of people. Boogs would be like, just horse cock, the weights. What is the hell are you talking about? It gives a shit. Belt, though, easily my number one choice.

number two is definitely the knee sleeves. I would actually say the same thing as you. I've done flats. I've done lifters. I've gone back and forth. You know, my heaviest squat ever is in flats, but I'm squatting in lifters right now. I could do either one.

Like, give me a little time, and I don't think either one, I don't think either one actually is adding to the weight on the bar in the long run for me. It's just more. what you said where I'm like what feels better for me right now. Like I, that's why I keep like if I, okay, it's meat day and I have knee sleeves on for a rep and I don't have it on for a rep. I'm like, it's not a difference of 30 pounds.

You know, like, and we're not talking about like crazy knees. Mentally it's going to feel. Well, that's the thing though. It's mentally, but also though when you're like really hyped up for a one rep max at meat day, I'm like, I don't know. The feels isn't really what's the concern either though. Right. So I think like, I don't know, 10 pounds.

I think so. On my top end, the belt might take off 50 pounds. Oh, I would believe that for me. I would absolutely. I could easily see 50 pounds. You know, like when I squatted 600 pounds, if I wouldn't have been wearing a belt, I bet 550 pounds would have been a one rep max.

Yeah. And I've, I mean, I stay so upright when I squat that I just can't even imagine. I don't even think for a second about like pitching over or bending over at all. Right. And I just, I wonder on a really heavy squat if I would start.

to get that feeling and if I would just throw my whole thing off without the belt there. Yeah, so I don't think 50 pounds or 10% is even a crazy number on the belt. Knee sleeves is less than 10%. I think maybe five is closer to a number. Yeah, I just think knee sleeves is like a poundage. It's like, I don't know, maybe 10-ish. 10 pounds, yeah. And 5% might be be 20.

But I do think the heavy-duty knees sleeves are a considerable, it can be 20 to 30 pretty easy. Yes, which would be like 5% for a lot of people. Yeah. And then shoes, I really don't, I just, that just depends so much. Like for some people, I don't. I think it's just a comfort factor of what,

right, because, again, I'm used to them, but if you told me I couldn't use them in a few months, I would just figure it out. Like I don't think I would just be losing weight off my. Yeah. Alan Thrall said knee sleeves. Really?

helps the squat the most? More than a belt. What? That's what he said. Seriously. Yeah, and I only watched it one time. I'd have to watch it again. Does he talking about like any specific knee sleeve there?

Well, and even then in my mind, even the heaviest dutiest, craziest, craziest knee sleeves still not as much as a belt to me. Yeah. But, you know, it was funny because he was talking about the belt and he's like to, it's almost like adding a second set of. abs to your body when he put the belt on. I kind of agree with that. And that analogy makes some sense to me. But to me, that justifies why belt is number one. But he kind of went into a thing, which I also agree with,

where he was kind of joking about lifters that say they use knee sleeves just because it's for comfort and want to deny that they do anything. You know, it's like, oh, no, I just feel a little better with knee sleeves. You know, like we're just... And I was just saying that. But I will admit, they do a little something. Like they do it with something, but. Yes.

But I think belt, I just can't imagine the belt not being above the knee sleeves, but some people might think differently. People would have to test it, really, I suppose. Yeah. But for me, I could pretty easily sit. I also train without knee sleeves a ton. But when we first started powerlifting, it was an insanely weird thought for me to do any squats without wearing knee sleeves.

Yeah. Not when I very, very first started training the squat, but like when we're doing the first meet and that was the thing that I did and I got those SBD, if like I forgot my knee sleeves, I was not going to be able to squat in the gym. And that was probably like five years of that until, I don't know, I got later on and then between tearing both of my knees and coming back from that,

I'm like, I don't really want to wear knee sleeves right now. I figured you'd be like really on it. Like, no, I just want my knees to feel as good as possible all the time with. No, it's the opposite because I'm like, I want to feel exactly what my knees feel like all the time. I don't want a mask over my knee because I'm hyper aware of how my knee feels. Yeah.

You know, and I'm like, I don't want something telling me my knee feels better than it actually does. Okay. Yeah. Yep, I can follow that. So that's why I, you know, coming back from my last one, I didn't wear knee sieves for a really long time until I finally got close to doing a meat. And even then I was putting them on on just like my heaviest days and stuff like that. And now I don't wear them. I wore them to do Edmund Fitzgerald, 29 reps squat.

That was the first time I put them on in over a year. Did they feel good, though? It felt really good because I actually, like to, because I wore, I also haven't been wearing a belt much. And to do that lift, because I was like, I actually haven't been belt back squatting. So I want to, I don't want to not get this lift. So I wore my belt. I wore knee sleeves.

You know, I wore my, I wore all the stuff we're talking about. I went the full battle rattle. And when I went, I'm like, okay, yeah, this feels pretty good. Yeah. It felt easier. Also, I was like more, it's just,

all that stuff is tricky. It's tricky to say with some of that stuff too, because usually when you're going to wear all that stuff, it is when you have the bigger lifts and you're just like mentally preparing. Yeah, you're going on on your delode week. Oh. You're not wearing any of that shit.

You're also mentally kind of like, wow, this is just kind of a lot of times on delode week. I'm like, this feels heavier than it did last week. And it's like 50% of what I just did. But a lot of that's just your mental state. Right.

Just know you don't need to get. I shouldn't say I'm motivated, but just so uninspired to go lift. Yeah, like nothing waits. Okay, do you want to see what the pole was? Yeah. Yeah, I'd love to know this. Let's figure this out here.

As of now, 850 people have viewed it. 20 people have replied. Looks like about 300 and some people have answered. So good sample size. What do you think the number one is? I think it's belt. Yes, it's belt. So there's three choices, belt, shoes, knee sleeves.

What do you think the percentage that belt took is? of the pie. It's got to be at least 50. It's 56%. Okay. Which I think is a fair number. You know, that's fair. Yep.

Number two, do you have a guess? I think it's going to be knee sleeves. It is knee sleeves, but barely edging out shoes. I'm actually surprised almost how close it is, but I could see it. 23% knee sleeves and 21% shoes. Oh, wow. Okay.

So people are pretty damn split on that other one then. Yep. And shoes, it depends on how you interpret shoes because if you're like, well, I'm going to go out and squishy, you know, squishy running shoes. Oh. Versus just anything that's good for squatting. Yeah. You know, some people could be thinking of that too.

Yeah, I can see how that would, yes, that thought process would change how you think of it. Yeah. Right. Right. But I agree with what the pole says, honestly. Other than I would probably even weight knee sleeves more heavy than the pole, but could be interpretation of the question too. Yeah.

So we and the poll disagree with Alan. Man. Someone needs to have a talk with that guy. We talked about do we call him for just a couple of minutes to get him on for this? Maybe we'll do follow up. They can justify his position. Yes. Yeah, it's hard to have a debate with someone when you don't let them voice their side of the.

When I'm going off memory from a 20-second clip I watched a week ago of what he said. That's the best way to form your opinions on people. Yes. Yeah. I think it's an interesting question, though. Yeah. And a hell of a title topic, if I don't say so myself. Speaking of soundtracks, this is old news, and I just don't think we ever talked about it on the podcast.

but probably a non-popular opinion. I've watched a ton of kids shows in my life, having four of them. For the last 14 years, I've watched kids' movies and kids' shows. All of them. I can usually spot the better ones and the worst ones from ways away. But I've got to say, as far as a soundtrack goes on a kids movie, the K-pop Demon Hunters is quite the soundtrack.

This freaking slaps, man. It's quite the thing that they put together there. I see why it did what it did. Yeah. And this is not new. You know, this is something I thought about bringing up months ago. Yeah,

we kind of talked about this in the car a little bit, I think, when we were in Nashville. But, yeah, I remember the first time, so my kids love it. Like, they think it's amazing.

And I remember, like, kind of the first time we had seen it, being, like, thinking, damn, some of those songs are pretty catchy. and then like the kids were, I don't know, I think we had it on in the song, one of the songs out on the car,

and then they were out to where I could actually think for myself for a moment. I'm like, all right, let's throw on golden and really listen to this. I'm like, yeah, yeah, yep, that's just everything you need into pop song right there. Like, that just checks all the boxes. Whether you like that style of music or not,

you can't deny that they did the job of making an incredibly catchy pop song. Like they got that down. And, yeah, formula pretty much hits or works for all the other ones too. Yeah. I've never really paid attention to more than a couple minutes at a time of the movie. I mean, it's seen it on.

Yeah, I've never sat down. I just to actually just watch it in its entirety because that's how most kids' movies are. I don't even really know what the plot is at all. If I'm being, I don't even know it. It's like they're like a pop star team of superheroes that take on. Yeah, but they're like the demon hunters and there's like this like age old thing of the demons. Like then they're the ones that kind of fight them and hold them off. And yeah, I mean, it's, I don't know, it's, I think they, like, the movie I think is good.

Like, they do a good job of, like, having the anime style with like the C, you know, with the 3D animation, all that. Like, but yeah, the songs, man, they're just, they're on another level. I mean, they play them on the radio as like, uh, so you know, yeah, so you know your movie. Pop songs. Yeah, so you know your soundtrack and your movie did good is when they just, they just chart, you know. Yeah. Yeah. That's all I had on K-pop Demon Hunters for the.

this episode. Big K-pop guy over here. My first exposure to K-pop. Okay. I got a little equipment update here.

Oh. I don't know if you there's a little insider information for people that don't know but you and I have a little Facebook group with Paul and Bryce where they're just constantly sending us actually this is worth noting.

Okay, Paul and Bryce constantly send us things on Facebook Marketplace. Like, eight out of ten of them have nothing to do with lifting. They're just the most random-ass things ever. And what that does is it completely destroys your Marketplace algorithm because it just thinks you're into the weirdest antique-y shit that you're not into. But you've got to look at everyone every time. You can't not look at it. But yeah, it's just like the weirdest stuff.

Like, I mean, one of the coolest things actually that they said. It's like two weeks ago. somewhere out in Pennsylvania, Brex's Fow, it was a W.W.E. wrestler, China, bowling ball. Yeah, yeah.

China, the eighth wonder of the world or whatever it said on it. But, I mean, it's just a crazy collection of, it's a very curated list of items. But they do occasionally send

some lifting-related items. And I think a week ago, they sent Ohio Power Bar, bare steel in Sioux Falls, for 150 bucks, which is a good deal on its own. But I don't want another bar. not looking for one.

Then this week they sent that it was $100. And I'm like, well, a Bear still power bar, an Ohio power bar for $100. Like, it's kind of almost too good to not do it. Cannot afford not to. Whereas like, you could sell it to someone for $150. I know. I mean, I also don't want to mess with that. But, right.

I mean, then they're kind of peer pressure in me on it. Like, Tom, you got to do this. And I was just like, no, I'm not going to entertain the idea. And then I'm like, okay, I just. I just got to find a reason. Because they planted the bug. I'm like, I got to find a reason to not get this.

So I messaged the lady and want to be like, how long have you had this bar? Like, what's it like? And I just want her to say bad things. I don't even have to think about it. And she's like, oh, we've had it about three years.

And it's just been very lightly used. And you can see there's just a little bit of rust right where your hands go. Yeah. I'm like, ah, okay. And I'm like, well, I'll just wait a day or two.

And when it's gone, I won't have to worry about it. And I waited a day or two and it wasn't gone. So I'm like, damn it. I have to message her now. And I'm like, okay, I think I'll come get that. And said, okay, yep, sounds good. And I went and picked it up today.

And yeah, it's pretty much a like new Rogo Ohio Power Bar. Like, you know, I feel like the test you can do for how much wear and tear a barbell has is touch where the collar or touch where the shaft hits the Jacobs. Yeah. And if that's smooth, you know it's had some miles on it. Like most of the bars that mass on the tree. where they're completely smooth. Don't plan on gripping a barbell at Massonomics within like three inches of the collars

because there's nothing left there. But you touch there and it's just like it actually is just brand new, you know, like that spot. Yeah. And I got it home and I just did a really quick just cleaning up of it with just the barbell rescue brush. And then I threw a little bit of three and one oil on it. Discount code Masonomics.

Exactly, yes. And yeah, I mean it's pretty much like new. Did this a lot of the. must come off. Yeah, quite a bit of it came off. And now it's just sort of just the, you know, I could do the deeper cleaning of where you're, right.

But once you take the rust off, it kind of just leaves darker spots there anyways when you put some oil on it. But, yeah, it's so weird. Like, I don't, I've only used Texas bars for the last, like, almost two years. You know, that's the only bar I've used. And it's a brand new 29mm Texas power bar.

And that Texas deadlift bar from carp, which is essentially brand new to, And those things are so sharp. Like they are sharp. And it's just weird when I grab the Ohio Power Bar how dull it feels. It's not dull. Like it still is grippy. But it feels dull because it doesn't have that really aggressive bite that the newer Texas bars do.

So, yeah, it'll be a fun one to add into the mix. And I'm, I'm, be interested to try it out here for a few lifts and just feel what that difference is on the actual performance when it comes to using it. Because I'm so used to the Texas bars at this point. You didn't try and knock her down below the $100 mark. I mean, I probably could have. But at this point, I'm like, you're down to $100. I just like, oh, screw it, whatever. Let's just get this done.

They didn't have a sweet home gym setup or something. Well, I kind of think they do, but it was in their basement. And they took it out and they had it waiting in the garage for me. So I didn't. And it's one of those things where I always wonder when I show up or they'd be like, oh, masonomics, but I, you know, I don't, but they didn't say anything and I don't want to bring it up. Like, oh, let me tell you about what I do here, people. Right, right, right.

So it's just like, oh, sweet bar. Like, yep, hasn't been used much. I go, I'll put it to good use. Here's your money. And then that's it. Like, it was done. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. I was also hoping they would say, like, they actually don't live in Sioux Falls. They live 20 minutes away. And I'm like, or 20 minutes outside of Sioux Falls. They're like, well, I don't need to drive an hour to go get this thing. It just so happened to be like, I mean, it was on the opposite end of town, but kind of sort of work to go get my kids on the way to daycare, pick this up. So it was just.

Yeah. Couldn't afford not to, though. Could afford not to. So I've already dipped $100 into that $1,000 bet for the year. Oh. 10% of the way. And we're only a week out. Because then I take the over?

You took the over. Yes. I took the under. So I only have $900 left for my budget for the next 50 weeks. Yes. Okay. Sports and books? There's some sports and books. There's been sports happening.

There's been books happening. I did finish the body by Stephen King, which is what Stand By Me was based on. Was it better or worse than Shawshank? I liked Shawshank Redemption more. I did like it more, but the body, it is, it's just a different style book. It's the whole kind of, you know, it's the whole thing of the reminiscing of having your

buddies when you're like 12 years old and you're just rummaging around through the neighborhoods and, you know, where we live going out into the country and running through some creek. Like, it's like, oh, it's like the whole boyhood thing. And then it like ties into the thing of, you know, kind of maturity and like kind of sort of losing your innocence to the world, you know, as the. world moves on and kind of, you know, how you do and don't keep friendships with people that you thought were your best friends in the world when you were 12. Like you're, you're the only person like, like, of course we'll be best friends forever. Then you're like a year later. I don't know. Do I even know that guy? Like it's just like it's just dealing with such different topics.

And that's what makes it so good. Um, I've actually never seen the movie. I've seen parts of the movie before, you know, there's some iconic scenes from it. I know the movie. So that was the thing. There's some iconic scenes from it. So you kind of know what's going to happen at certain parts. But I mean, yeah, it is, it is a classic for a reason. And it is, I didn't realize. So, like, this whole thing of Rob Reiner getting murdered this week, he's the one that directed Stand By Me, you know, which is the movie.

So kind of a weird tie in with the fact that I just finished that book and then, like, that happened like the next day. But yeah. It's almost like you're connected. Almost like we're good. But I would highly recommend it to anyone. It's a short, quick read, like 180 pages. So you can get to that one pretty.

fast. Got done with that and I have started Ready Player 1. That's next on the list. And I'll be working through that one. I'm just finished Harry Potter and the Sorcerer Stone. Oh, for real? Well, yeah, because I read it to my oldest daughter every night before bed. Oh.

Or most nights before bed. Wait, is the Sorcer Stone the first one or? First one. Okay. I got to say, I've seen the movies. Wait, had you ever read the book before? No, I've never read. read any of the books. Okay.

And a lot of stuff, I haven't watched the movie recently, but a lot of stuff in the book, I'm like, I do not remember the movie, like, addressing some of these things, you know, like where the book just seemed a little different than the movie to me. But I haven't seen the movies recently enough, and I might only just remember certain parts of the movie, and just blanked out on some of this other stuff. But pretty good read, that Harry Potter. The reason they've sold a few of them. Yeah, yeah.

But it is, it is, it is good. And I've never read them before. I read them right when they came, well, the first three, right when they came out, which would have been when I was in like third or fourth grade probably, like right in that time. And then I never read another one. It was like I moved on with my life.

And I felt like it didn't, it didn't interest me anymore. And even there, like, I think I saw the first movie and maybe the second. And that's it for my Harry Potter. But like, I have buddies that are like obsessed with all of it. They've read the books multiple times. Listen to the audiobooks, watch the movies countless times, and I just, I've never, never done it. And we've got all the books, so that's the, you know,

at least for the time being, we're going to just continue. It takes a long time to read a whole book when I read 10 minutes, four nights a week. Yeah. Like, but, but, we were talking several weeks here, right? Oh, yeah, months, really. Yeah, yeah.

It takes, because, but I like it a lot better than reading the same little books, a thousand times, you know. But also, so Annie's. She's in second grade. So, yeah, so she's of an age. She can actually follow too, though. Like, we're the little books. Annie likes it a lot. Ada does not like when we

do Harry Potter because she would rather we read something with pictures, nibbles or the cool bean or, you know, whatever. You know, the stuff that I'm up. Right, right. So yeah, that's, oh, But sports, this actually, we hadn't touched on this in quite some time.

We made it to the playoffs of the Massonomics fantasy football league. I was hoping that that's what this update was about. Everyone wants to, I've been hearing a lot of comments like, gosh, you haven't updated on your fantasy football team for a long time. People are dying to know. How did this shake out? Well, the main reason, someone, you know why if you're not getting an update on someone's fantasy football team? You know why that is?

Because they're not doing good. They're not doing good, of course. The people who's fantasy football team's doing well, you hear about them, they don't shut the hell up about it. Yeah. The people that don't talk about it are the people who team sucks, and my team started tanking. Oh, okay.

I didn't want to talk about fantasy football. Okay, all right. So who's, so I did, so I did, this weekend ended our first round of the playoff. So I did make it into the playoffs still. Even with, like I was, uh, had a pretty big, I was like in first for a while. So I think I lost like four out of five weeks in a row, and I still made the playoffs because I was still.

I had a lead. Yeah, and made it into the first round, and that is over, and I lost in the first round. So I'm out. It's down to the final four now. So who do we got left? We got, let me pull it up. Chris Mark is the front runner.

He won last year's league. Okay. And now this year with two leagues, he's winning. He's the man to beat in the league again. Like, it's going to be hard. He finished the league with the most points. I think I was still second, but he ended up being first by quite a margin.

So we got, and this is for a Hall of Fame checkmark. Yeah, that's why there's a contest win. So I lost two Big Cam, the Toronto Agronauts. Big Debo barely beat Big Paul from Ohio. Oh. So then now the two buys were Chris Mark,

which is the Aberdeen Central Golden Eagles, and Chris Daminger, which is Lift Hard, Flush, harder. So now those final four, it's Chris versus Debo. Okay. So those to decide. Someone could still potentially be getting a win-a-contest checkmark here.

I don't know that any of these. Has Chris Daminger won a contest? contest? I'm not sure. And has possibly going to have won an contest. I don't think any of these

four guys have won a contest. Oh, Chris Mark. Yeah, he did. So as long as he doesn't someone. Yeah. Yeah.

But he's the kind of the guy to beat too. And the more interesting part is so we're in the Ace A league. Oh, yes. But there's a B league now.

It's been decided four teams get relegated that are going down. Four guys get to six. bump up. Yeah, and I don't know if it's official who the four are because I think that depends on how they finish in the, I think it's the top four of them.

And I can't see the lower league, so I don't know. Well, follow up on who got bumped down. Yeah, about four teams. I know Scott Dodds is, I think he finished almost last in the league. So I think pretty sure Scott Dodds and Keith are both going down. They're both getting bumped down to the B league. And I think maybe Jake the snake is also on. cutting block for the ones that are.

Does the B-League winning count as a winner? Does that been determined? No. Okay. No, that is the subdivision. You got to be in the top dogs. Yeah. You would have to win.

Get, getting out of the B league and getting a checkmark win is a two-year commitment because you got to make it into the A league and then win the A league. Put it all together again. Yeah. So I'm not getting sent down at least because you, You know, the embarrassing thing is if you're getting sent down to the Lordly.

Could you imagine something more embarrassing than that? I could imagine. Going to the fantasy football, B, league. Imagine showing your face in the Discord after you got demoted to the B League. Like, oh, you're with those B League guys. Oh, just talk about public shaming. I'd have a hard time showing up an internet chat room ever again after that. I'm wondering what the interest level is.

next year we'll have to go to a C we'll have to go to a three league where you can actually get if you're in the B you could actually have the threat of going down to C or going up to A. So like the B league really only third of them would even stay B leaders in a given year. It's like odds are you're either going up or down. But how many, okay, how many people are in a league right now? What's 12? You could bump that up though, couldn't you? Like do more.

Yeah, you could do more teams, couldn't you? Not really the rosters end up, yeah, the rosters end up sucking because you're running back and wide receiver, like, when each team, yeah, when each team has four running backs and four wide receivers, or five on their roster, you, you end up having like got to 16 teams and a thing, but that really wouldn't even help you out. They might, but the talent would suck. But there's going to be some definite B teamers in the, yeah, yeah, that would be a, there's probably legal. like that out there, but you'd really have to yeah, you'd really be scrounging for players. All right, well, that's the, that's some great fantasy football update.

The 2026 C league, whoever. I like the idea of someone getting demoted all the way to the C league, or like, maybe it's like if, even if you're in a league, whoever gets dead last, they don't even get bumped down to B. They just have to work. The very dead last, they have to go all the way to see. It's just a multi-year commitment they've just signed. up for of like working their way back.

Working your way out of the sea hole. Yeah. God. I mean, making fun of me for years. Never live this one down. That's fantasy football. More updates. I suppose we'll have a champion in two weeks and we can.

Oh, yeah. Got to get the champions award ready too. I suppose we'll do go the traditional dagger. Usually as this tradition, the winner of the Massanomics fantasy football league receives a dagger. Maybe the B-team winner will get just something shitty, like something purposely shitty. Like a wiffle ball bat or something. Yeah.

Something like intentionally bad. But still personalized. Yes. But like the worst personalized thing you can get on Etsy. Yeah. I like that. Okay. I did watch my first television show.

in, oh, I haven't really finished it, but I did start watching my first Hell of a show at least two or three months. Like the first time I sat down and turned the TV on to put something on for me to watch. I'm kind of in the process. I probably actually never finish it at this point because I'll never come up again

that I have the spare time. But I was watching the Diddy, the 50 Cent ditty documentary. That was the one you settled on. Yeah. It's like, how am I going to make my return to television with this 50 city diddy document. Okay.

The Diddy documentary. Is it pretty crazy? Yeah. Yeah. And I guess it just highlighted how much I didn't know or had forgotten. The most interesting part to me was just the West Coast, East Coast rap. Yeah. The rivalry.

Also, I mean, obviously how terrible Diddy is. Yeah. But just it was like. I'm like, oh, I was alive for that and not that young. Right. You know, like old enough to like kind of know sort of what was going on, like a little bit. Right. Yeah.

But also how old those people are because a lot of people they're interviewing about it. And I'm like, oh, you do, you guys are old. Like they all have gray hair. Right. And I'm like, which is the other weird part. And the early 90s. And that was 30 years ago. So it's like, yeah, you're like 55 to 70.

Exactly. Which that was the other weird part of my, oh, it seems odd. Like the age thing here seems that was another takeaway from it. Yeah. It's a valid takeaway. Yeah, and I just didn't, I just didn't really know much of it. I can't say I followed Diddy's career that well as maybe what I found out. I'm like, oh, okay, I didn't really understand what was going on here.

Yeah, I don't know. Like bad boy, the label and stuff. I just don't know about that stuff. so yeah i don't know i guess i don't i mean he was always around like that but that's the thing that's the thing is he was always around like that's kind of also plays into the thing well that's kind of his thing i know and i remember it must have been um when was i mean i probably when i had like serious xm radio or something and i don't know on one of the talk shows or something this would have been probably like 2010 right and someone being like you know the weird thing about ddia is

anyone he's ever worked with has either died or like disappeared for like they're talking about like notorious big and like mace and i don't know they're going on it's like oh yeah anyone he's ever worked with is just like somehow like he did he keep staying relevant and then these other people just like either die or like disappear and uh yeah eventually i guess a lot of that storyline is covered in the yeah a lot of that is covered in the documentary like mace found god or something like didn't become a pastor i think it was something like yeah yeah Yeah, interesting, it's an interesting show. Yeah.

I don't even know if it's good, but... You'll find out. You'll find out soon enough. So that's my one bit of television recap. Yeah, I don't think... I don't really have... Really the only update I have is something... I don't know what I was watching

or something was talking about the first season of True Detective. I'm like, I might have just go watch that again. It's been a few years. It's just that day good. I can get persuaded into... watching that. Just too, that wasn't that line.

Probably when Dylan. Dylan always sends me just true detective memes and stuff. It is. That is a freaking good show. I'm glad you talked me into that one. I'll never fall victim to the wire of getting time into that. But there's no way the wire is as good as true detective.

Well, it's, it's in different ways, though. I mean, it's, like you can only pack so many action-packed moments into an eight-hour show versus an 80-hour show. You know,

like you can't. Right, right. Like it has to... That is kind of the difference, I guess. Yeah, like, it can just be, like, hyped up to the max when it's eight episodes. Like, it can just be crazy. Like, doing eight episodes of that would just be, like, oh my gosh. You'd, like, have a heart attack.

Stop. Yeah. I need to tap out. It's too much. But along those lines, Dylan did send me a, like, a meme. And it was like, the only two guys that can get me to watch TV. Or no, I think it was, like, who I want to see in True Detective Season 5 or something. And it was Nathan Fielder.

and then what's the, I think you should leave guy, Tim Robbins. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, it's so insane because it would be so stupid, but, yeah, I'd be watching that. Well, see, Dylan sends me a lot of band of brothers content. I'm not even lying. I would just, and actually, I don't think it was,

I don't think he sent me this today. I think I just popped up on mine, but it was someone at, like, the foxhole at Bastogne, where, you know, there's a really big, really big scenes and episodes. And like today they were there. Or, you know, like modern time. Like the foxholes are still there.

Yep. He's like standing in it. And I'm like, man, I could really watch Band of Brothers again. I do need to watch. I need to watch it. I do need to just make it happen. I could watch it. I could go turn it on right now.

If I didn't have other things to do all the time, I could go put it on. I would love it. It's actually the funny memes he said in me is it's just like, Dad's stand. You know how like dad's stand. You know, it means like there won't even like sit down. It's like the thing's like,

why can't you just go to bed and it's a dad like sleeping in a kitchen chair. Yeah. It's like a dad just like has to just walk by the TV. But instead of sitting down and watching it, they'll just stand and watch it for like 20 minutes. And it's like just doing that to Banda Brothers. Yep. Which I could relate to.

Band of Brothers. I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but heck of a program. Real classic. Yes. You know what else is good programming? Massonomics YouTube channel. Yes, it is.

The CESNE, what is it, the conjugate basement DIY to inspired by West Side? I was telling you, you know, we filmed that, what, two months ago now, maybe more even? I don't know. Time just drifts on by.

I don't even know anything anymore, but long enough that I couldn't remember hardly any of the details from the video. And when I went back and watched it, I'm like, damn, I forgot how much stuff Matt made. Pretty much every spot in that gym he had custom made something for. And if you are into conjugate lifting at all or DIY gym projects, you will definitely find something in that video that will interest you. I am excited. I'm going to watch. I might even watch it tonight before I go to bed just because I want to just because I want to see that.

so bad. Leave us a comment on that. Give that tour a watch and leave us a comment there. The likes, comments, and hype all help. Also leave us a comment on this video. Let us know about the title topic, a timestamp, a timestamp Fury, whatever it is that you want to comment.

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We are putting some wrapping up touches on the plans for the... the 2026 Lift Hardly Easy power lifting meet and registration. We're talking with the meet director later this week to get that date set. We think we might push it to January, actually. It might be the very beginning of January. Yeah, the sign up. The sign up registration will open. And that'll be open first just to supporting members and gym members too.

But supporting members will get like a week of that first. And if it sells out to all of them, nobody else gets a shot. But registration, people have been asking. We think it's probably going to wait until January, just because we're not in a big rush for that. And we'd rather kind of... It only gives people seven months to prepare,

but I think that most people will still get by somehow. Right. So when we record next week, we might be able to officially put out what the registration open date is. But it's looking like maybe about that first week in January, something like that roughly. We want to give people a little heads up for it then make sure that the supporting members have a chance to fill up all the spots before Normies can get in on it.

Anything else for this week? Get the drop stuff, right? Yeah. Buy some from the drop. Sales have been great at Mastonomics.com, so thanks for everyone that's in supporting. Yeah, I mean, if something's in stock, buy it because there's a good chance it won't be if you wait a week or two. Yes. All right.

Tommy, where do they find you at? You can find me at Tomahawk underscore D. You can follow me at Tanner underscore Bear. Just make sure to follow Massonomics at Massonomics. So you.