Massenomics Podcast - Ep. 538: Lift Hard Live Easy 2026 Recap

Episode Date: July 27, 2026

The 2026 Lift Hard Live Easy Classic was an absolutely wild ride. It was the biggest and best Massenomics gathering to date. We want to sincerely thank everyone that was involved. It takes an army of volunteers and participants to make this event what it is! EliteFTS Use code MASS10 to save 10% on most orders! 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!

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. Massonomics! Welcome back, everyone, to the much-anticipated episode four of Soccer Made Simple. after a seven-year hiatus, we're back for episode four. It took the World Cup coming to North America for us to return for soccer. You thought we made it simple enough in three episodes,

but it looks like it's actually going to take four. This will be the World Cup Explaner episode, is that what we're thinking? Yeah, that's why soccer made simple has not had a need to be back because they made it so simple. Yeah. And I was like, well,

subject matter. It's still going to be simple, but there's just one fourth final episode to go out with a bang. the encore. After all these years, the audience has been waiting for the fourth episode. Just kidding. This is actually the Massonomics podcast, episode 538. And we visited the Lift Hardly Visi Classic 4. And all we got were these lousy t-shirts. We also visited barefoot shoes because they were a vendor at the Lift Hardly viz classic.

And I saw a lot of people all weekend walking around in brand new. barefoot shoes as a matter of fact. Every time I would turn around I saw one guy had a white t-shirt on and like really stark white barefoot shoes and the plain white tea with the plain or the plain white tea with the fresh white barefoot shoes. Yeah, it all just popped, didn't it? Really popped. Yeah.

You could really stick out in a crowd with white barefoot shoes or black barefoot shoes or whatever, whatever color. Actually, my daughter, my oldest daughter, got a pair of pink barefoot shoes that she's really been enjoying. It's good. Those pop. You're in luck. If you didn't come to the Lift Hardly of Easy Classic,

you can still go to barefoot. Store. Go give our friends from North Dakota some business. They're actually our friends. I'll even say it. They've come to visit us this many times. They're straight up our friends, whether they want to be or not.

And you can use discount code mass anomics. and that'll save you 10% on every order at barefoot. That's door. Tanner, can you hear me? Yeah, did my, uh, actually, I actually got a notification that my connection was unstable. So I just, I just changed something to see if that fixed it.

But that was during my ad and my recording will be fine on my end, right? So it doesn't really matter. I think so. I think we'll be okay there. Okay. Yeah. We'll just keep this party going. Uh, this episode is also brought to you by Juggernaut AI.

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Juggernaut AI. Dot app, Code Masonomics will save you. Thank you, Juggernaut AI. Excellent. So this episode is going to be the recap of the Lift Hard Leve Easy Classic 2026, part four. We're also going to select our winners for the Lift Hard Leve easy Classic online competition, the online submission winners. We're also going to be selecting those.

We have not actually pre-selected them. We will be selecting them live on the podcast. So you can probably believe it's not rigged, although we could be more elaborately rigging. it right now for all you know we're also going to have a little teaser we also have some very elaborate stats to share with the with the whole program so stay tuned stay tuned for that should we just start talking about the lift hardly of easy classic there's a lot there was a lot that went on yeah there's a lot of follow-up there yeah so what's the beginning of the this the beginning was because this somehow starts a day earlier every year i got there

Wednesday afternoon this year. And we went right to the venue, and you and I started setting up the booth. And luckily for us, we've set up a booth enough times that that was pretty smooth and straightforward. It's not our first rodeo, as they might say, in the booth setting up business. Oh, I was actually watching, you know, I was just working on the vlog today. So I have a little cheat sheet of remembering everything that happened. But we were setting up the booth when a few.

few visitors popped in and helped us set up some banners. Can you remember that already? Oh, that seems like a lifetime ago. Who are there that helped us set up some of those new banners. Yeah, who was that? Who did you say? Andrew Keith and who? Derek. Yeah, big Derek was there too. Yeah, okay. It seems like I had already seen Mike too at that point, but maybe that was the next day. That was probably the next day with loading up equipment. Oh, no, yeah. Jake's right. They were there dropping off tires. Oh yeah. I had seen him then too because he was there helping also. Yeah.

There's Keith helping set up the banners. Yeah. That's right. That seems like so long ago, doesn't it? That feels like weeks ago at this point. Yeah. I would also, this is the starting point, but I would also, if you're someone that wants to just cuck to the chase, it was the biggest and best Lift Hardly Visi classic we've ever had before. It went really good. Yeah, that was the, the, The big recap is that first time doing a two-day, actually technically three-day event with the grip on Sunday. The big thing being at the hotel having two days there, it went great.

Scheduling was perfect. Like both days, we were basically out of there by 3.3.30. And that part went really, really, really good, probably better than we could have even hoped, Tanner. Yeah. Yeah, it did. We're really freaking good at this. So it's just.

We've been around a time or two. We know all those goes. Always knew it. Never had any doubts in my mind that anything wasn't going to go perfectly. Just nothing to worry about at all. We don't worry about anything. Never even worried. Yeah.

So Wednesday night we got the booth set up. Then what? Did we, did we? Did we, Oh, you and I had to go shoot the pizza? Oh, yeah. We did a power bar video.

Actually, yeah. That's what we did. We did grab some, some that's a pizza. But then we had to go shoot the Texas Power Bar or the Texas big text bar video. Right. I think by the time we got done to shooting that, it was like after 10 o'clock, I had to get home and get that damn thing edited because we were going to be gone, you know, doing stuff all the next day. So we wrapped it up. I went back to my in-laws and started working. And then we got to bed and started the next day pretty more, or the next day pretty early again then, didn't we? Yeah, because we, I guess I went to the Ramcota first and Jake, I think, had a trailer of stuff there.

Yes, yes. that we unload. There was a big, there was actually several, many people there already at the Ramcoa, Brandon Doyle and a big group when I pulled up there even. Yeah,

that was, so that was Thursday morning. Yeah, I went straight to the gym and there was trailers. There was tons of people helping. Best, I think I can say this, best year we've ever had for volunteers and helpers.

Just across the board. Just in general. Well, yes, actually, yeah, I should narrow it down just that. But it was pretty minimal set up on our end,

especially when I think of like the first year when it was me and you and like two other people basically set up the whole damn thing. Well, there was more set up than ever before, but there was just more people. Yeah, it was all hands on death. People were awesome helping out with all that. And we'll get less. This more later. But even Jonah, he called me yesterday and I was telling you about this.

He was like, oh, man, just remind him of the old days of powerlifting. Like everyone was helping out with everything. And that was absolutely the case. Yeah. Yeah, because like that, like that. Like the first year, you and I personally probably made like 40 trips up. I mean, I just remember load after load after load of plates. It was not.

It was like you meet Antony. I think Megan for a little bit. Yeah. And that year it might have been. Oh, dang it. I know him. You know his name from Ohio. He's Kurt Locker's buddy.

Pie Guy. What's pie guy's name? Somebody listening live will know. uh, George. Oh yeah, George. Was that the first year that he,

yeah, maybe that was year two. That was year two, Jake said, actually. So no. Yeah. That's what I thought.

The thing about all these multiple years is I found myself a little weekend anytime. It really starts to get confusing of what happened when. It does. Yeah. Uh, yeah, set up number,

the number of volunteers was freaking awesome because, uh, with Massanomics gym being in the basement, it adds, it makes it three times harder than if it was just on a mate. If Massanomics gym was, in a big garage, a big shop. Oh, you just pull the trailer and say loaded up and go out.

Like it would, it would be all. It would make it 75% easier if it was in the basement. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it would easily cut the time and half easily. Yeah. Because I was just starting about moving stones up those stairs and around the corners and it gets to be a challenge. And all the horse stall mats and all that stuff. Luckily, there is a, there's a system for all that.

It's not everyone's first rodeo and stuff, but it still is a pain in the butt. Yeah. Without a lot of volunteers, that, would be brutal. Yes, it would. Yeah, so then because Strongman was first on Friday, then Jake and Abby and their crew and everyone helping was getting that all set up on Thursday. Right, Thursday morning. Yes.

And our booth was already set up. So after we got done unloading all the equipment and setting up, then what did we? We kind of took a, we, did we go eat lunch? or something then. Oh yeah, we all went to the circus. Okay, that's what it was.

Yes. Yeah. Yeah, and then Minnie was there by about that time working on setting up the live stream, which minis, for anyone that watched the live stream

of any of the events, you obviously know it's good, but if you've never been in there in person, you've never seen what goes into that. It's crazy. And all I would describe it in A, it's crazy,

and B, he actually has cameras everywhere. in the building. They're all over. The cameras are everywhere and him and Rachel have like four monitors and just an absurd amount of electronics. They have like the broadcaster like headsets and mics so they can like talk to each other while they're saying, you know, doing stuff and it's crazy.

He said the urinal cams were tough to wire. Well, it's because all the moisture, you know. Yeah. But Minnie's live stream is exceptional. It's better than. I mean, it's just professional, I guess, is the correct description of it. It's just a professional setup. And it's almost kind of crazy that they do that with just two of them.

Yeah. Like, so he's also got his processes and system down pretty well. We just give him a few tables and say, do your thing. And then the next thing you know, it's all ready to go. And some people that watch the live streamer, I see Minnie's watching live. He can know better, but I think the internet connection was a lot better. I don't think there was much near as much leg or anything like that.

I think that that worked out better. Luckily, we called in a favor of the internet provider to get that going and get that improved. Yeah, he said it was waste add here, which is great because that's kind of annoying when he goes through that much work. And then the internet like screws is the part screwing it all up. Yep. Yep. I would also just say as far as the venue is concerned, everything played out just fine. but when I pulled in their Wednesday,

no cars in that back parking lot yet, it straight up looked like an abandoned parking lot. Big time. Like it looked like nope, it was uninhabited. It was the start of an I am legend movie or something where, civilization used to exist here. Yes.

And then there's a multi, many factors about that, but you can tell that, then that company or that hotel has changed ownership like about a year ago, or it was kind of actually going through it, I think, right during the time of the last year when we were hosting it. And it worked out all good. It does not seem to be run all that well, though. The behind-the-scenes stuff is they have some work to do. Yeah. Actually, yes, that's also the best way of saying that is they just don't care, which for a couple things is nice because they'll literally let us do anything because they just don't care. But when you need something, it's annoying because they also just don't care.

So you got to take the good with the bad. Yeah. So like a real example when we need. And sometimes they'd even just say like, yes, we'll, yep, we'll get that taken care of. Never with a planet. I've taken care of anything. Or you just take, you just ask five more times. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yep. We're working on that. That was straight a bit, though, not a care in the world.

Like, you know, if someone asked you to do something and you said, yep, I'll do that. And then you didn't get it done by when you said you were going to do it. You might feel like you owe them an explanation. Or like when they see again and just like we all pretend like it didn't happen yet. We say, hey, can you do that? And you just like us straight in the eyes and go, yeah, we'll work on that. And they were like, well, I already had the conversation once. And then you have it a third time.

you're like, are we all just playing stupid now? Like, what's going on here? Yeah, the AC. What AC actually, the air conditioning, I was worried about that during our setup because it was really hot on setup days, but it ended up, what was the Friday competition, Saturday competition?

Wasn't it fine? I think it was fine. Saturday was even, Saturday was almost perfect, I think. I thought Friday was a little warm at times, but a little bit, you know, like not ODIC, maybe, but like it was it was more alarming setting up than anything. You know, like when we were setting stuff up, it was warm in there. But I think that is the difference of the garage door, you know, the loading door being open when it's 95 degrees out or whatever.

And it, I guess just takes a while to cool back down. Yeah. Okay. So Thursday, we came back. Minnie was setting up. Then Jonah rolled in about the time. We opened the booth first, I guess, for sales maybe. Yep.

Because the Strongman group was having their opening meetings for competitors, and then we opened the booth for the first time, which we've never opened the booth on a Thursday before. So that was actually our first time opening it that early. And then Jonah showed up with his trailer, and everyone had his stuff unloaded in seconds. Like I think that's the part that Jonah was even shocked by is just how fast. I'm not sure he believes on deck.

I was like, no, yeah, if you get here at this time, there will be help. I'm not sure you believe to what extent the help would be there, but yeah, it was there. Yeah, that Garrett said it took like 20 minutes. That's what I would say. Like, it took like 15 minutes or something and everything was in. So then Thursday night was then the Loggers party. Ah, yes.

Everything felt a little less rushed this year. Oh, it totally was. Basically, between things, there was always a little downtime. It was never. Yeah, there was like a little downtime between things, which, I've never. This was the best schedule all year that we've ever done is what I mean. Yeah, in prior years,

sometimes I felt like there was never a second of downtime. Last year was the worst for that. Last year was the worst, wasn't it. And it wasn't even like there wasn't a second of downtime. It was like we were always just like 30 minutes late for everything it felt like. Yeah. Yeah.

So that change, that improvement is really nice for our quality of life over that weekend. Like that really helps make it. probably a big part of that is switching it to two days. Yes, that's the biggest difference, yeah. And then just being more realistic with, you know, what the schedule needs to be to make everything flow right. Yeah.

The Loggers get together. Loggers is one of the local bars. It's kind of the, you know, one of the biggest local bars, I guess, in Western, Northeast, South Dakota. And we went there last year for the first time. And there again, this year, how many people do you, how many crew do you think we're at, loggers? I mean, probably 80-ish.

That's what I figured. something like that. I mean, it was less than 100, right? But some of those tables were 20 person tables. And then there was people just standing up everywhere. Like the table I was at was like a six person table. But at any given point, there was 12 people at it, you know. It's also kind of interesting that now, especially with events over three days and really the powerlifting is strong man being split up.

There's such a wide gap of when people even get here for the first time. Like that summer here Wednesday morning. for the first time and some people will get here like Saturday morning almost until the first time. I think I'm getting there so early getting there like Wednesday afternoon and it's like there's people that was already already there Wednesday morning basically. I'm like how are people beating me to town? Yeah. And then some people, they kind of miss half of the first things because they're maybe they're semi local and they can just drive like the night before they compete or the morning or even somewhat local and they just like kind of show up Friday night to weigh in and then you don't really see them again until Saturday morning. Right. Yeah. Anything in specific of the loggers?

We got a lot of people there. That's kind of the first time you really run into everyone. You know, or what most people start getting there is Thursday night, you know. So it is just fun to see everyone and get together. Also, Murphy's Law. Someone always has, there's always a few people that have travel. I mean, every year there's a couple of people that have disastrous travel. conditions or something that goes haywire.

Big Tyler, I think probably took the cake this year on his driving. And then obviously some flight delays. Someone always gets caught by flight delays. Toby couldn't rent a car for certain reasons. So he had to catch a ride with Paul last second from Sioux Falls. That's right. That's right. He wasn't able to rent a car.

And yeah, we shut down. What was that? Yeah, Thursday night. I don't know. We wrapped that up and that was about it, wasn't it? I don't. I think we, you were probably the last one in there. I was the last one in there because a local person caught me like.

Yeah, I was walking out. I'm like, oh, man, Tanner's still here. And I go, do we need to do anything? No, we're good. And I left him like, I think that's it. I think Tanner's it. I was there for at least 30 minutes or 45 minutes after. Yeah, somebody caught me that I just could not.

couldn't get away from the conversation. And after a while, he's like, oh, I should let you get back to it. And I'm like, everyone else is gone. They've been gone for 30 minutes. I got nowhere to be. Let's just keep this going. I'm like, the whole time I'm thinking, man, I'm going to, every minute here longer is a minute longer that I can't be in bed getting ready for the next day. Yeah.

So then Friday morning started our, you know, our first big. day as this being a split competition because never before was there competing on Friday and this year there was so it was strongman competing which kicked off at I think at about nine or nine thirty the event started and it was a 50 person two lane strong man show five events uh ran beautifully action packed go go action packed uh you know people laughed they cried, they cheered. Like all the emotions wrapped into one of the Strongman

event and this is also true for the power lifting. It becomes very apparent in the Strongman though that the spotter and loader is that the right word for Strongman we just say spotter and loader but like the people moving all the shit around.

Yeah. Just whipping ass and working so hard. And like working as such a unit. You know, volunteer crew. And every one of them is just soaked because they're working so hard. But it's just like this, everything's an assembly line and, uh, yeah, Mike Alex says a handy unit. Um, I jumped in during the last event to help a little bit was the Rocks event. Yeah.

And I was talking to the guys and, uh, joking that I'm like, yeah, I'm just here to win the strongest volunteer award. You know, make sure I get on cameras volunteering a little bit. but, you know, a couple of them you've been saying like, oh, I was just like, you guys are just crushing it here, like making it look effortless. And everyone, no one was complaining. Everyone seemed jacked. Like everyone was like, like everyone was having fun. That's what it seemed like. Yeah, this is how you know it's working.

I guess I'm like. Yeah, I shouldn't say that's what it seemed like. That's also what people said. I mean, I asked several people out. I'm like, oh, man, that looked tough. Oh, it was really fun. I loved it. And like, to be fair, it is fun.

You know what makes it fun? It's what makes all this stuff fun. It's like, well, yeah, everyone's cool here. And we're all working together. So I'm like, we're going to be doing something. So like this gives us something to do that is fun to all do together. And like Kyle said, it's like working as a team with a bunch of people that you like is actually pretty fun, even if it's, there's quote unquote work to be done, you know. And you also.

get the best seat in the house too for the watching the competition which is kind of cool yeah you're right there for the action but uh god they just did such a good job it's just kind of crazy how well that goes but events wise for the strong man competition the first one was the overhead press medley which i didn't really catch much of that live but didn't either with the very first one it was yeah it was just tough with yeah with the booth and all that then uh the next one after that well and actually I guess my notes on the event is it looked like the circus dumbbell. It was the overhead press medley of circus dumbbells, tsunami bar, and log cleaning press for reps.

And I think the hardest implement for a lot of people was the circus dumbbell. Some groups cranked out a lot of reps. What I thought was crazy is one of the tightest, most competitive class was the, I think it's big men. It's the men under 200 pounds. and I think correct me if I'm wrong four or five big men light

four or five of them tied for first place on that and it wasn't like they all like sometimes if people tie for first place it's all because something if it was really hard and they're like oh yeah we all got like one rep they all got I'm pretty sure they all got

they all got the circus dumbbell they all got the tsunami bar and they all pressed either three or five reps on the log. And they all tied at exactly that. It was like, you know, Grayson, Hogan,

Cody, Seth, and one of the other guys. Oh, I didn't know that. Oh, maybe I have that wrong or something. But it was,

it was something close to that. It was just crazy how tight, tightly packed they all were in that competitive class. Then event two was the unveiling of the big tech's 10 foot long deadlift bar from Texas power bars. And we had two of those, two lanes, obviously. And you haven't really seen anyone deadlift on the big techs bar.

Yeah, not in person. So I got to, by the time they were getting up there on the lifts, I went front row and I actually recorded some of it. It'll be in the vlog. But I got to see Sam and Grayson. They both did 650, didn't they? Or did Sam do a little more? I think they both did 650.

Yeah. And I haven't both recorded in the video. So they'll both be in there. And it's really cool to watch that thing. Watch that thing. I swear that thing by the time all the weights break the ground, it is at Grayson's kneecaps. It's so high when it starts really getting loaded out there.

Yep. So those were the two biggest, was $6.50. Yep. And I think both of them had a lot more in them. But that's all the farther they had to go, you know. Grayson was $6.50 or second or third attempt? Well, I think it's watching our long lives. So $6.50 was a second.

So then he didn't take a third, I'm guessing. Yeah. Okay. I didn't get to see a ton of that event live either because it was still fairly early on in the day and we're running the booth and stuff. And then the third event was the Farmers Carry and the tire flip. Yeah. Yep. And that went really well for an indoor.

Yeah, the tire flip indoors, you know, curious to see how that played out. And it seemed like really well. Yeah. You know, then what was the, well, the Krispy Boy Keg Carey, which is kind of a staple of the Lift Hardly Visi Classic Strongman show, where they loading them into the giant drink spotters. Probably the most aesthetically pleasing event that's ever been done in the Strongman competition. Yeah, that was good.

And always fun to watch. And then the final one was the Stones, the Mystery Stones event. Yes, where it was four. Every class had a combination. of natural stones and light stones where they're staggered. The lightest ones are the farthest out there. They had to carry them and load them on to the wooden platform. People were bruising.

Like there were some people. I'm like, oh, man, that's a fast time. Then the next person comes and beats them by two seconds. The next person by two. I'm like, man, they are getting so fast here. Who went very first in the Rocks event and was throwing everyone over to the other side? Oh, I missed that. Yeah.

Yeah. the first one I was like oh is that big Mike or because whoever went first I'm like oof this is going to be problem because every single one was like flying over to the other side of the of the board and then that ended up not really being a problem later on but I'm like well I didn't see it happen at all but yeah I can see how it could of yeah they were just uh they said tom was yeah someone was they were absolutely flying with them but uh the platform also hung in just long enough to finish the event because Seabass was the last,

uh, you know, of the, the biggest men class and he had that last natural stone was like 305 pounds. And he absolutely power bombed onto the platform and that front two by four completely broken to like it like in, if you want, had it on live video slow motion,

it completely snaps into but like goes you know there's enough uh connection points and stuff that it kind of like stayed together but it totally snapped it into when he put that on there i mean it's not surprising you know like there's rocks is getting thrown at this wooden shelf repeatedly like it makes sense but i i was impressed it held up as well as it did and seabass's whatever six six height at loading picking that up full extension he's pretty you know when he drops it down. It's falling from two feet. It's traveling. That's picking up speed. Yeah, that's, uh, big John says that he thinks the plywood was the only thing that held on. But, uh, seabas is a site to be seen in himself. Like he is kind of a giant. He,

he is really big. He's type of guy. If you look at his feet and hands and stuff. Exactly. I was going to say the feet and hands are enormous and not just like, oh yeah, when someone's like six, seven, they have big feet in hands. It's like the, It always reminds me. He's got to wear like size 20 shoes or 18 or something. I cannot think of his name, the British Strongman. We interviewed him at the R in a long time. Terry Hollins.

He's huge. But his feet and hands are abnormally huge. You know, it's that same thing. Yeah. Yeah, that's the fun fact people like to say about C basses. He can hook grip an axle, which is actually true. Oh, it actually is. Oh, I thought that was just a joke.

No. Oh, my God. God. Okay. He actually can. And potential home gym tour coming up in Seabasses. Ah, yes. Might get that in the work. Definitely.

He's on Jim radar now. I don't know what's the name of his, maybe that could be our certified training facility of the week. Was it like the woodshed or something like that? Yeah. But it would chip den is what Sterling says. Power bar. you go.

Power barn. It's an interesting collection, yes. Photos all look like they're moving too. Brandon O'Don, I think that that's part. Brandon O'Doyle says probably already on the rogue map. Like, could you see Seabas

doing, you know, those, I'm going to call them cheesy because when they just have the person sit there and record their own thing, given we have our own totally different style. There's a different level of effort and production. involved for sure. When they do that thing on the rogue ones, I'm like, I'm like, it feels like, it reminds me of like a like 2012 version of the internet. It's not really how people do this anymore.

Yeah, it's like, it's like, come check out my rogue gym. And then it's like a, it's like MTV cribs. iPhone tripod clip. iPhone tripod clip. Like, yeah. Yeah. Don't like it. Not good.

Seabass though, enormous. Did he, win the biggest men class? I think he did. I believe so. Yeah, probably tough to beat Seabass with his extremely long appendages and all of the stuff he's got going on

and his hardships that he trained conditions that he trains in. Oh yeah, Brad the pad was the M's first time was it Brad's first time ever emceeing an event before or had he done it before? Anyone?

Oh yeah, they want to talk about Gary's So two things. We'll talk about both Brad. So Brad the Pad was the MC. I think it was his first time doing an MC job before, which he came very prepared and did a great job. He did a lot of research. I believe he said he was writing notes and getting all the stuff down.

So yeah, he did really, really good. Yeah. And then Gary's Stone load is also one of the most epic runs of the entire weekend where he made it to the four stone and battled picking the four stone, getting it to his lap, he battled that for just an ungodly amount of time. And then he eventually somehow miraculously summoned this. I've never seen someone like be bent over trying something for so long and then get it. And he and it was there was a shock clock rule in place where that it was a timed event.

But if you had it lapped by the time the clock ran out, you got to finish that attempt. if it dropped back to the ground, you're done because the time is over. But so he actually got it just shortly before the shot clock ran out. And then it was a whole other process for him to get that loaded and he got it. And the pictures from him loading that, I made an Instagram post about it, but I actually believe that. I'm like, no, this, it like encapsulates the Lyft Hardly v. Classic. We're just jacked out his mind

And everyone around him is just as pumped Like you can see Bam Bam just Big Stephen and Big Kyle I think are the main two in the frame And then like five other people that are just one layer deeper That everyone's just Everyone has the same reaction It's just pure like

Nobody's ever been more excited Yeah like we all did it together Yeah that was that was pretty pretty cool you know that was a pretty unique moment it was really cool any other particular moments that stick out of the event I always love I love the Krispy Boy Keg Carey yep you know I love the giant drink spotters like I suppose you get desensicized that if you see him one year you get to see him again but I just like I don't stop it's not uh it doesn't go past me that how cool that actually is of a

spectacle. Yeah. Yeah, it does like really, really good. Even like the, you know, the reporters

that normally come to take pictures, they're like, oh, when's that event? Because they, you know, because they just recognize

that, that that looks good. And it does look good. It is a cool event. That wrapped up at a great time. I don't know, was it like 3 p.m. was the strong man over or something like that.

I think in the video, say, it's 315. We're already done with awards. We're already packing up. Yeah, Andrew Hainis was the mystery competitor. He got in there and competed against the biggest men, the super heavyweights. Also, he was just having a black, I don't want to put words in his mouth,

but I say fit in just like he had bent out the three prior Lift Hardly, Leasy classics. And then the costumes also that just were appearing during just in general, Andy Wing U-Corn, you know, the goblin masks and outfits and just, it's also a costume party. One of my favorite memes of the entire weekend is someone made the meme of Matt deadlifting with all of that stuff on. And it's like people will tell you. Matt Sanchez. Yeah, people will tell you it's not a cult, but this photo exists.

It's like a room full of people watching a guy with no shirt on and pink spandex also wearing a goblin mask and deadlift. Like the whole thing is in no context. about it. Like if you didn't know, he'd be like, well, that's an AI photo because it makes no sense at all. But, uh, I don't know, it's, it's a real photo and it really did happen. Uh, big Kevin pulled his final deadlift, Jefferson deadlift. And it's funny because before he goes to do it, he consults with Matt, who's judging. Be like, is there anything that, you know of that says, I can't do this as a Jefferson? And he's like, uh, no. So he pulls his final deadlift attempt. Only his final Jefferson. Yeah, I got to say best for last, you know. Well, and also I think there's,

There's an element classically and strongman. If it's not in the rulebook, don't ask. Yeah. Because then they'll tell you no, you can't do it. So you don't ask, and then you just do it. And in that event, you just wait and do it in the very last one because there's no time for anyone to tell you, you can't do it again. Then the awards, which were awesome.

I think the belt fed Chris, they made really cool. Those are really cool. awards again. And those are awesome. But the coolest strongman awards I've ever seen to me by far. Like it's just been a part of making awards before, of receiving them. You know, I've seen plenty. These were the coolest ever.

This whips the shout out of any Swart Award or anything like that in my opinion. Were the miniature Atlas stones that Jake and Abby made. I just thought that they were so cool. And when you saw them all there lined up, it just looked freaking sweet. And yes, and they had their little ring. They sit on with their little plaque. Yeah, that was a really good idea. I thought those were awesome.

Yeah. And there is one Hall of Fame award-winning performance every year. And this year, that was the mini-keg that was made to look like the, like the giant, you know, it was the purple Lift Hardly, Visi classic keg that Hogan won. So, and Hogan, by winning that, actually secured. That was his 15 checkmarking. The whole chain reaction.

Yeah. So he is in line for a jacket now coming up soon. It's big stuff. The awards went really smooth. I guess I was actually just loading up equipment to the whole time during the awards, so I didn't really even pay close attention to the awards. But it seemed like it went really good.

I liked the drink spotter being involved as the platform for the awards. I like that a lot too. It's a nice little touch. And then so by the time award, was over, the group of us that was loading up equipment had like almost everything out of all the Strongman equipment basically out of the convention already. We just had to kind of, you know, get things pieced onto trailers. Yeah, also makes the whole thing feel way more just not cluttered when there's not two

days worth of equipment in there all weekend, you know, like stuff can get in there and out. And yeah, so like that stuff was, it just stayed more organized for sure when there's not so much stuff. Yep. Uh, for sure. Yeah, because so then we had all the strong man stuff out. We took that. Then a group of us went to the gym to unload Ryan Anderson's trailer. He borrowed his, his flatbed trailer all weekend. So we put all the gym stuff on there. We took that trailer to the gym. Jake was loading his stuff on his trailers. And then by the time we got back from onloading

that trailer, you guys had already Jonah and who you guys that were all helping him already had the warm-up rooms, warm-up room platforms were all like done. The band, I mean, everything was in place. It was just actually like putting together the platforms pretty much, the two competition platforms and that, which was kind already started. And then Andrew Preeb and company were coming to do some of the electronics

with the TVs and scoring system stuff. Yeah. But like by the time I got back, I don't know if I'd say it was maybe like 4 PM or something like that. I think so. And I mean, for the. the most part, the part of massonomics people being involved was basically done because it was getting into the more technical details of meet director stuff. So yeah, we were, we were moving fast again. Yeah. Yeah. Then Friday, I mean, then we're into Friday night, right, which is the backyard party

of the year. And it's, we always say this, like it's a big party. But you go to an, you know, you do this a few times. Like, well, yeah, this is what the party always looks like. And then when we take that damn group photo, it's like, no, it just gets bigger and bigger and bigger every year. There's a lot of people at this thing. No, you can actually see in the comparison photo, a great way to compare it is by the size of the Massonomics banner. That was the perfect, yes. And it is. It's just every year it gets farther and farther away because there's so many people.

Yeah, the chat GBT, BT estimated that there was like 190 people in that photo. I'm sure collectively there was over 200 people in an out of the party. Oh, once you're factoring all the kids that people had there and, you know, I mean, you had some family and stuff around that I'm not sure was in the photo either. Like, I, right. There was another 20 to 30 people that weren't in the photo, I think. Yeah. And then just timing some people that had probably hadn't gotten there yet or had already left.

Like there may have been around 250 people total that participated in. And it is for anyone that hasn't been there doesn't know it is, when I say backyard party is at my house. in our backyard. You know, like, I don't know. And I'm already, I'm always the first one there, of course. But I don't know what, what was the parking situation like this year? Where were people even parking? I don't know, because we got there pretty early too at first.

So when I pulled up, I told my wife, I'm like, oh, we've never parked this close to Tanner's house for parking on the street because we were, we were just at the next neighbor's house. Yeah. Mofo said it wasn't that bad. Okay. Must a carpool. Bratton said they parked in my garage.

Yeah. Yeah, Huck. Actually, I was outside talking to one of my good, one of my neighbors that I like today and asked, you know, I was like, oh, I hope everyone didn't get too rowdy and you got to sleep. But, you know, it's a neighbor I like. So we're just goofing around. And he's like, no, it was great. We just were sitting around checking it out, watching it. And this guy from, in his family from Chicago were here. We told him to just pull right in here. And it was Huck Finn. He didn't say Chicago, but. Scotcheroos, I think it was a PR for Scotchroos made and consumed. I mean, was it like five pans of them or what? I was like five pans of Scotch Rooz this year. I just, every time I'd go in, I'm like, how is there still Scotcheroos there right now?

There was a lot. Have they not been all eaten? Yeah, there was a lot of, a lot of Scotcheroos. So I never really got feed. I never really had a chance to ask people much about the Scotchero. You know, I start to take things for granted by year four. It's like, now this is just what we do. But everyone, there's probably a big group of people

that got to experience scotcheroos for the first time. And there's some things that are regional, that if you're like, oh, let's be real. It's not actually that good. It's just the thing that we eat around here. But scotcheroos are good. Crowd pleaser every time. Yeah, scotcheroos are legit.

Then we also crazy with that many people. One of my other neighbors may, you know, he's a big smoker, griller guy, and he made just a few houses down. He actually smoked all the meat. Oh, that's where I came from. I can't remember how many pounds exactly it was that we bought. I should actually have that statistic. But it was crazy when the whole thing was said and done, there was one large Tupperware

container left over was all the old. You know, just like a regular site, like, not like, oh, we just made some food. We have a little extras. That's what it was. Like if you made it for your family and like, well, we've got enough for leftovers for a few days here. You know, like, wow. That's good. That's good guessing on the numbers.

Like, that's kind of crazy. Yeah, that is actually crazy that it turned out that close. And there really, there was maybe like 20 or 30 buns left was all too. Wow. We had a lot of freaking buns also. A lot of beverages were there as well. I don't know if you noticed that. You know, we do the kiddie pools full of them.

Yeah, we do the kiddie pools full of beverages. every year. And then also a bunch of people bring beverages. So the beverages just start like compiling from everywhere. And what did it? I think it was a big Scott that I had some of his Kansas City. I don't know. I tried just so many various things because people are always handing you a different beverage. So I tried.

Oh, I got to do my annual whiskey tasting. Whiskey tasting. I got that. Someone edited kind of a funny video of that I'll share at some point. in time too. Yeah, Joe, Joe and Matt wrote me into that this year. You know, Matt's usually, mostly squat videos Matt is usually heavily involved in that. And, uh, yeah, I still don't like it. I still don't like it. Every year I'm like, yep, I'm going to give this a really, this is the year. Really good show. Oh, yeah, Hannah had brought frescas, the hard frescas to.

That's right. Yeah. I'm saying we're going to get fresca sloppy. I did not remember. I mean, I remember when they were on the podcast like five years ago. I don't remember talking about it at all. Yeah, just getting fresca sloppy. Do you see this one? Huck went in the bathroom or in the outhouse and they? Oh, is that what that is? Yeah, even the porta potty nail started shaking it on.

Yeah, Big Kyle taught me the secret about the whiskey, though. Nobody actually likes it. They're just all in on it. It's all just an elaborate scheme by everyone. Yeah. They're all just in on it. And the party, it started to rain a little bit at the beginning, but I had checked the rate.

You could tell it was just going to be a little drizzle in and out. It actually cooled it down pretty good. The temperature-wise was legit, like it was awesome. Because it was supposed to be about like 90 degrees or something. And yeah, it just stayed somewhat cool. Yeah. I shouldn't say cool, but it stayed comfortable. Well, also, that's the other thing this weekend.

It was, I don't know, 95 degrees, almost the entire. weekend it was by far the hottest lift hardly vizie classic that we've gotten this was year four was the hot one yeah it was that was our year four was our worst nightmare from when we were back in the oh god you know it would have just it would have just been just the it would have just ended people if we had it in the odie i mean it would have been actual legit health concerns yeah huck fin did a live podcast oh yeah barbell show Huck Finn and Bryce did a party cast from the shed where they had the equipment set up inside the shed and recorded out to the party. I did listen to most of that and it was pretty good. It was funny.

You know, they got several different people from the party to come on and it was like the party cast a little bit. There were several people that came up to me. They're like, there's one thing we know, it's a party cast is a great podcast. Yes. Yes, everyone loves the party cast. Brandon said the mosquitoes weren't bad. What I'll say? This may have been the starkest line in the sand year

where I didn't notice a single mosquito the entire evening until it got dark and man, did they come out like a plague? Like, you know, when we talk about that joke, like that you can't even stand to do the thing. Or the joke is, yep, when I get sick of people, I unleash the mosquitoes. because man, there was a, I know Joey E was there and a few, I can't remember who was all sitting around if Garrett,

Garrett maybe he was there, but they got absolutely, the second it got dark, unbearable. My wife, you know, she left a little bit earlier with the kids. And I got home,

I had my clothes on and she goes, oh my God, what happened to you? I'm like, what are you talking about? She goes, what's wrong with your arms and your legs? I'm like,

I was outside for 10 minutes in the dark. Like, it's so bad it was. It got really bad really quickly. And there was the after after party this year at Schwannies. You're forgetting two things, though. So we had our Hall of Fame ceremony. We had our Hall of Fame ceremony. One of the most important things the whole weekend.

Yes. Started with the Cup people. Turns out when you have Cup people involved with Jacket people, there's a lot of them these days. That number is getting up there, isn't it? Yeah. We're actually almost completely out of cups from this run. and so hopefully we can get those remade

to get more Hall of Fame cups because I think we gave away at least 10 people made the cup level. You said, we're going to give away some cups. I thought, oh, you like handed me a sleeve of them. I'm like, well, we gave three of these things. And the people just kept coming in line. Like, it was just one person after another.

And I thought we were going to run out. But, yeah, eventually we did reach the end at the cup level people. And then we moved down to Jackson. We're now up to 67 people have made it to 12 achievements on the Massonomics Hall of Fame card. This year, the Hall of Fame ceremony must have been more pronounced and meaningful than other years because the number of not closely affiliated Massonomics were people that

were there that wanted to know more details about what this Hall of Fame. Like I got asked like 10 times like, oh, tell me what are these achievements and what do, what do people have to do to do to get there? And the amount of explaining for that was more than ever. but I think the Hall of Fame ceremony was very elaborate to this time. Yes, it was. Yeah, you know, you had the PA system this time. It really made it official.

That, I mean, I'm on the wrong side of it to make this assumption, but I feel like that was a big help. It did. Oh, watching the video, you can hear it all so clearly, you know, played back. That made it a lot more added to the presentation for sure. Yeah. Antony had mentioned that he had that available and to bring that, and it really, really helped, yes, instead of the crappy,

toy megaphone. That's for anyone that doesn't know that's literally just a toy we use and one of the kids' megaphones. Oh, it looks like it. Yeah. Yeah. And then the jacket ceremony, Kevin and Toby both made it.

Yep. Both received. And we, in total after they received their jackets, 14 plus us with our jackets. There was not counting us, there was 14 jacket level members of attendance. How many jacket level people are there total?

17. received the jacket house. See, that's what I was looking at at the picture. I'm like, just statistically, you want to say they're not all here and I don't think they are, but I'm like, this has to be almost everyone. I think the only one's not in attendance. Only jacket levels were Scott Dodds, Lou Nutter, and who's number three? No, Joey has not received his jacket yet. No one's in the Hall of Fame jacket level until they receive their jacket. Just like right now, we actually have three people, well, actually four. There's now four people that are eligible. Have hit, yeah, that have hit the requirements. They just have to wait until a ceremony. But who is the other one? I know if we pull up the site, we'd figure out in hurry, but I just don't want to forget them.

I'm like, I feel like I have this down. It's Scott Dodds. Here, I got out here. It's, we are missing. Maybe there was only two not there. Oh, Jake. Jake from State Farm. Of course.

Yep. Yep. Yeah. Yep, Jake from State Farm. That's right. So those are the only three that have received their jackets that weren't, weren't actually in attendance. So is the largest gathering of jacket level jacket recipients ever?

And people can check out. I'm looking at on it right now. Massanomics.com slash HOF. And you can see all of the Hall of Fame jacket ceremony photos when everyone receives their jacket and yeah it's really funny just the time machine of looking at all these take place and that to get to the jacket level you have to complete 15 of the 16 and for anyone that's not familiar with the list it is not it is not a cakewalk for those 17 that have received their jackets it takes a lot of time and effort you do not accidentally get to you don't accidentally even close

like you takes a lot. You got to be, you got to participate in a lot of stuff. I mean, a lot of it, I believe in my opinion, it's fun. Yes.

And it's things you want to do. I mean, I think we made this. I don't know, did we ever think it was possible for 17 people to get a jacket when we even made this? I think our idea was like,

someday in the far future, a couple people will do this. Like, I think that was our thought process. No, our actual thought that it would be that we, I don't think we ever believed it would make it to this many.

No, I really don't think that, I really don't think that, I really don't think that at all. But very cool that, very cool that it has. Like, that's a very pleasant surprise. But then, yeah, Joey is waiting until an in-person event for him to receive this. We talked about Hogan, who he hit his, so that'll be coming soon.

We've got Jake the Snake, who will be hitting his within a couple weeks. And then we'll get to a couple more that actually are hidden because of other awards that happened this weekend. But I was going to say, or what else did I miss about that? Did I miss something else about the Friday night party too? Yeah. I got it too other than old. He got the ceremonial George Foreman Grill, which I also forgot about all this stuff until I start watching the video. I'm like, wait, what's Tanner doing with that George Forman Grill?

I'm like, yep, I do remember that now. Yes, because the Friday night party has always been on a fish, a costume contest also. This year I thought it was fitting. We really need to actually give an award for the best. Everyone dresses up for Friday. You'll see people in just bib overalls. You'll see people in their craziest massonomics gear,

whether it's stuff they've gotten from us over the years, their rarest pieces. You know, you'll see the Reglin 45 jersey come out. A lot of just custom stuff as well. Stuff that people made themselves, you know, like their own tie-dive patterns. Matchwork version. Also just meme shirts.

You know, like, um, David Hunter had his like freestyle. Yes. It took me way too long to realize that wasn't a real shirt. That was, I never even noticed.

Someone had to point it out to me later. I just thought it was a regular shirt. You know, uh, Garrett has his, Jen's, his twin shirt. Yeah,

what did, did Matthias and Anthony have? The Pythias one where it was. is, uh, the eyes his head on Anthony's girlfriend. Uh, did you, what was mostly squat video?

I don't know if mostly squat video Matt ever wore this. If he actually ever wore it because the mats wore Matt. All the mats wore Matt Sonomics. Yeah, the Matt Sanchez made that. Yeah, I got that on video too. Yeah.

But did Matt show you? I think it was what he was going to wear otherwise. Does anyone have a picture of Matt wearing the all over print, the black shirt with. the red all over print. You know, it's that one that is in lore that the guy was walking around to Aberdeen. It was the test front. Oh, I never saw that.

He remade the, I didn't see that one. Yeah. Oh. And then Tron was wearing his homemade horse stall mat. Sandals. What sandals. Which looked insane. Uncomfortable.

Yeah. Like he'd lift his foot up and there was like a leg between. The funny part about that is the party started with barefoot shoes showing us a custom pair of boots they made that had horse stall mat soles on them on these boots. And like, yeah, like the first pair of horse stall mat footwear, like, man, these suck to make. And it wasn't 30 minutes later, Tron comes in. He's like, hey, check this out. And he has horse stall mat sandals. There was two people that came with custom horse stall mat footwear.

The barefoot boots with the horse stall mat sole are legitimately. impressive boot. They're extremely nice. And it's like the upper section is all denim and leather combined. It is actually made from

a pair of Blake's blue jeans. A denim slash leather boot with horse tall mat so so crazy. I know we forgot a lot of a lot of crazy crazy apparel.

But like it is my point there it is a costume party. Lauren won. Lauren had a fully custom space jumpsuit, and he also made the space helmets that were around all weekend. And it was decked out. The space jumpsuit had custom patches, embroidery. I mean, it was just full of Easter eggs and decoration that you had to really look at. Yeah. So he won the used George Foreman grill. I love. It got dropped on my doorstep earlier this year. Did it? Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah. Sorry, I thought you're saying.

left it there but I know he mailed it it showed up today oh it did he mailed it to himself because they flew so okay I was probably going to be have a spot in wild iron fitness I would imagine I love the photo of like them proposing on the rock the rock with that thing that was so funny that was extremely funny

it was cam on the rock and Lauren one one that was one of the funniest photos really really good just the whole thing is so stupid like it's a really form and grill like it's a ring box. That is really funny.

Someone left the comment that they're like, man, the Menard's side in the background makes us the most Midwestern thing ever. Yeah. It's like you couldn't have planned it any different. Someone put it in the Facebook group for it, apparently.

Or Josh did. So funny. Also, I love, oh, they put it in the car versus rock Everding Facebook group. Yeah.

That's actually really funny. I'd like to see the comments on that. if there's any, like, of the locals, they're like, wait a second, what's going on here? A lot of good Brock the Rock Rock Pictures from people in general this year. Then it was the after-party at Schwannies, the after-after party. Also, though, we do got to say a big thank you to the Baird family because that is quite the ordeal to host every year. And, you know, a lot of people don't know this, but the beverages don't magically show up. The lawn isn't magically cut.

The mosquitoes don't magically get sprayed. There's a lot of prep work that goes into that. There is. And the bigger, and actually. And a lot of people have also never or never will host a 200 person party at their house either. So it's basically like, you know,

for anyone that's gotten married. Very similar to that. It's like having that. Less formality, but the logistics are mostly there. The logistics are basically the same. It's just, it is just less formal,

you know, but it's basically the same. You don't ever really throw parties like that. no and uh i sent my wife the picture today of all the different years in the background you know and uh she goes yeah that actually makes a lot of sense that i kind of forget that it's gotten that much bigger but that makes a sense makes sense why it's so much more stressful getting it because like look at look i thought the first year there was a ton of people there i remember thinking the first year i'm like this is crazy in my mind that i actually thought that almost like a high water market it just

seems like there were so many people there and you go back and look it's like I don't know was it like 40 people maybe like that's we just felt like three tables and that maybe we didn't take the because we didn't have this whole formula down so maybe we didn't take the picture at the right time I don't think we're missing a lot of people there no but don't you remember thinking it just seemed like wow this is a huge party like there's people from out of state like grant and the strength co-cru is here there's so many people and now there's just some people you almost don't even touch base with every, I mean, it's actually hard to talk to everyone because there's so many people. It is really hard.

It's hard to talk to everyone over the course of the entire weekend. Like every crew member that comes, I want to at least like have a one-on-one chat with them once. It's hard. I do too. And I know I did that or not. No, I know I don't. And it's never intentional.

But it's just, it's really, really tough. I think I like, I don't think there was hardly a person that I didn't at least get to chat with for a little bit. but some people it's not very long just because it's just impossible. You know, it's just, and there's totally times from like, oh, I got to go talk to so and so.

And I'm seeing them there in some really deep conversation. I'm like, I don't need to come in and just totally interrupt. Somebody I'll talk to them later. And a lot of people I did catch later, I'm sure there's some people I did not catch later though. Yeah. Yeah.

Yes. Yeah, it is just crazy how in hindsight, you know, at the time you think year one's big. or at the time you think year two's big. And then you just see that picture and it just really puts it into perspective. It's like, no, it seemed big because it's all relative.

Yeah, you've never, never seen this many Masonomic supporters in one place before. Right. Yeah. So it's just relative. And like, that's just what your mind. Whereas if you could have thrown this, if this was year one, imagine the reaction of that. But you're like, what is going on here? We have to stop this.

Yep. I'm going to say, you know, I like to think of who is the MVP of every crew outing, and I'll separate the Lyft Hardly v. Z classic and did nights. I don't really have a strong MVP candidate for Thursday. Nobody really stood out as an MVP-style performance. Got to say Friday night, Big Joe might have been in the running for most valuable player that night. Joe was by, no, MVP of the night is. not a contest win, Keith. Nice try. But by the end of the night, Joe was definitely an MVP form.

And that was after competing in Strongman. Wait, when you say end of the night, how late are we talking here? Oh, by the end of my house. Oh, okay. I don't know if you're saying that. Schwanis or like, oh, then definitely. I didn't get to the experience at firsthand. But I don't know if Joe's watching a long live or not. But by the end of my house, he was already absolutely an MVP form. And he also had to compete in powerlifting the next morning too, which I do not know how he did powerlifting at the end of the I don't know how anyone that did both did it. Like it's who told me the story. I can't remember Joe did get lost. You know the shawani's front entrance. Oh yeah. It's like a breezeway. It's kind of a, in Joe's defense, it is a bit of an odd breezeway and there is like at least one extra door in there. But he did get lost in the breezeway. Someone had to go

back for him. Interesting. And he was just, he was in there and they said, what are you doing? And he's like, oh, I just got lost in here. Okay. He was stuck in the breeze. First time I've heard of that. I can see how it might happen.

But. Yeah. Yeah. So, so he was, he was in MVP form for him for sure. So Big Joe, Friday night MVP this year. Well, and competing in power, I'll do in powerlifting the next meet, next meet. next day it's just wild. I do feel jealous, though.

I did miss out on the Schwannis after party because I had to get back, you know, but I, when I was in bed and I'm looking at Discord, and I see the photo of Schwani's completely empty, except for all of the people I know in the front room there, it just looked like the most AI photo ever taken. And it never in a million years would I believe that was real, unless I was just there with those people

and heard them say they were going there. Yes. I did not. I was just about ready to go, but then I honestly just had a lot of work to do of cleaning stuff up to get it even just, even our house just livable to get through the next couple days. But I was very close to going.

Yeah, and then Tron seemed to have been the lone wolf at the very end of the night there. Someone's got to be. Tron's as good as anyone to hold that down. I don't know if it was bizarre Otrond or not. So then. Saturday was the power lifting meat, right? Yeah. Two platform powerlifting meat in the Ramcota again this year. Jonah Leo

Leo Strength was the meat director. We were more involved with the powerlifting setup and I don't know if setup's just right word. We were just more involved than we have been in the past year. Yeah, we were more involved. Yeah, we were more involved in the logistics and stuff like that. I would say they really tricked me on the pipe and drape by a...

It's a bit of a bait and switch there. By, in like multiple ways, not giving me what we had talked about or planned on or anything. I believe the quote was, do you guys have pipe and drape? Yes, what color is it? It's like a lighter cream color, I think is the exact quote we got. Not sheer wedding, see-through white. But that was a bit of a surprise. Not like lace white,

frilly. Really fit the vibe well. So that was a little, in hindsight, I didn't even really care about that because with our banners and stuff in front of it. Covered most of it. Also, because we'll get at least one more new banner next year, at a certain point, it will just actually be,

we almost don't even need it because it's just covered in banners. You still have it, I suppose, because it's just an extra layer of that. But at a certain point, you don't even really see it because of the banners that cover it up. So it's not that big of a deal. Not the correct aesthetic, though, at all. No, no.

I was picturing like a non-translucent cream color that would be, I was just to give myself, maybe I was even like looking at through more rose-colored glasses. I was picturing tan. That's exactly what I thought too. I was picturing tan and completely not see-through at all. Like I was picturing a thick tan curtain. Yeah, that's, I mean, to me, that's kind of what pipe and drape is.

This is more of like a backdrop for a wedding than anything. Yeah. Yeah. And you were in what flight? Flight two. There was three flights. You were Platform 2, Flight 2. Flight 2, Platform 2.

And each platform had about 40-ish lifters on it. Yeah. What was interesting when Jonah said was there 17 people that didn't make wage? said it's the most, the largest number of people that didn't make weight for powerlifting meat that he's run by far. And he's been doing it for like 20 years. Yeah, that's kind of the vibe we're going for here. I actually did make weight this year. Last year I did not make weight.

This year I did, which surprised me. I thought there was no way I was going to eat in all this bar food for like three straight days. But I did come in like a pound under. So that was good. But yeah, with all the people missing weight, it did change the flights a little bit. bit. And this is also the first meet I ever did that had lifting cast, you know, where you're getting a live update, which is actually pretty nice. I actually, uh, as a lift were you looking at it on your phone? Yeah, I just, because that's what Matthias is like,

oh, when you do a lifting cast meet, just pull it up on your phone. It's right there. And I'm like, that does make sense. So when I was in the back, I just had it up on my phone. So I always knew it was going on. There was also TVs, you know, they could look at. But at times, there's eight guys standing in front of the TV. And I'm not going to be like, hey, everyone moved just for me. So I pulled up my phone and it was good. And then, um, And as far as the meat going then, it went insanely fast. Actually, the flight in front of us, this is what was crazy. The flight in front of me, the flight one, had like nine guys in it.

And nine guys, especially when a lot of them are lighter squats, goes really fast. Like really, really fast. So fast that, well, first of all, when I was warming up, I'm looking at the flight. And I'm like, oh, Larry's in my flight now. there's no way Larry's pull. I know Larry. I'm like, there's no way he's opening up

a lifting cast on his phone and looking. And so we're warming up and I'm like, Larry's not here. He definitely doesn't know. I go out in the hallway. And I don't know if you know this Tanner. Larry was a little on edge already about the meat. Yeah.

And when I'm out there, I'm like, Larry, you're in my flight. And man, it was full on deer to headlights look out of him. He was just, what? We're warming up.

You got to get out here. He's, where's my shit? Where's my shit? So he's running and grabbing his stuff. but I can't believe he wasn't, well, I guess he just wasn't checking. Yeah,

and I don't blame him totally. Like if I had, if he would have known, he would have been the first person warming up. Oh, yes. And if I, if I hadn't talked to Jonah, I would just assume that flights wouldn't change.

But yeah, I went just with all the weights moving around. That's why they did it. And, uh, but yeah, nine people in front of us, the fastest squat orro have ever had to do. I had to skip a couple warm upsets even because it was going so fast.

And, uh, luckily by the time, I got to my opener, you know, our flight had like, I don't know, it was like 17 guys in it. So the flight itself had good timing once it got going. But yeah, it flew through those first ones. And I was not feeling it. And I'm like, oh, my God, between rushing here, feeling, you know, three, four days of just standing.

I mean, we're on our feet for like three or four straight days, basically, you know. Yeah. And I'm like, ah, I'm not feeling the best all of a sudden. You know, you start doing the thing where you're doubting yourself. But warmups did move pretty good. and I went out my first one was like $4.95 or $4.85, something like that. And it moved really fast. And, you know, that's always the first one to get off the, get off the board.

You feel good. Do you do that? How much was it, do you think? I can't remember it was $4.85 or $4.95. It was one of those two. Under $500, but close to $500. Yeah, right around $500. And that moved fine.

I think my second one was $5.15. And my biggest squad of the year last year was like $5.11 or whatever the kilo equivalent is. And got down with that one. And it moved a touch slower and, my head than I thought like in in my, that was the last number I took in my prep. And I, at the time, I thought it just flew. And this one, I felt like there was just a little bit the slowdown there. And so the plan was if things were going good, it was going to jump to 530. I thought, mm, didn't feel the best. I'll go 525. And I got 525. It moved just fine. Like looking back,

530 was probably there all day. But yeah, just, you know, it's fun to make numbers. And this, if my number one concern was having the perfect meat. I also wouldn't do it at this meat. I would do just a regular meat where we're... Right. We're not doing all... We're not doing 10,000 other things. For sure.

But trying to make the best of it and actually, you know, do the best I can. And so, yeah, I was happy with that. I did know at that point, though, not hitting 530. It was going to make my goal of hitting my new all-time PR. Very challenging unless things turned. And I didn't talk about this on the podcast, but my last bench session, I was telling you about this. I just, I kind of strained like my pecks.

Both of them actually did not feel great. My left one was really bugging me. And I didn't take any bench, like any benching for like the last 10 days because it was just actually after I'd done it the next day, 135 was very painful. And I'm like, am I just going to have to do straight up token benches? And so I was a little on edge about that. The day before the meet, I went into the gym and I worked just did it like a nice warm up just to feel good. And I worked up to like 255 and it didn't hurt. So I'm like, okay, I can at least go for

an opener and see what happens. Right. So I still didn't quite have like the full on just, because my bench was feeling really good going into meat. I didn't have like the full on attack mindset, you know, that you normally have and you would prefer to have. Which you, especially at a meet. Yeah. Yeah. So so at that point I'm like, yeah, I'm going to have to, because I was thinking in a perfect world bench would be somewhere like 360 to 365, maybe even a little. more and had to just bump things down. Which I think would have been accurate. Yeah, I think so, judging by how training went. I bumped things down. The second attempt, I got 342 and it moved okay, but it wasn't great. You know, I still didn't hurt your peck at all. No, it didn't hurt,

but it just still, there was kind of that thing in the back of your mind. So I just bumped it one more to 347 on my third attempt. And I was really getting in the zone for it. I got out there. I took the lift off. And the thing I always say in my brain, this is what I tell myself for bench, especially it's like don't move until you hear sounds you never move on bench until you hear a sound you know start press rack all of it you're never moving until you hear a sound and I bring it out I'm holding it there and I hear a loud noise and I start to go and the second I start to go I hear start and I'm like I totally jumped the call I reacted to a different noise and at that point it's just you know you're out of it like you know you've jumped it so like there was pretty much no effort put into that one

And that's the first time I've ever jumped a call on bench. But that's okay. It was a five, you know, I ended up missing out on five pounds there. And then, uh, then we went to deadlifts. And deadlifts, uh,

actually felt great. Deadlifts felt great. Actually, deadlifts always feel really good for me on, on warm up on a meat day. Yeah. I think it's because you're just basically ripping singles. So it just does feel good.

Right. And I think my opener there was like 500-ish, 495. again and second attempt was 515. 515 moved really fast too. The thing was a little concerning is 515 didn't feel totally locked in on my grip. So the final attempt, I went to 530 and I really got those hands chocked up, you know, got psyched up, went out there.

And it moved really, really good. Actually moved great. Probably the fastest 530s ever moved for me. The lockout was really, it was, it was really tough. Was your grip slipping? My left hand was slipping, yeah. That's what I, because I was watching that one with me and Ryan were watching that one.

And I think your lockout was only because of your grip slipping. That was what it is. It's always my left hand. Ryan was just like, oh, hold on. And I was also watching your hands. And I could just see your one hand like not holding on very well,

you know, like it was just moving. And I got one red on that. I got one red on it, but I did get it. And, you know, not my finest deadlift ever.

But as far as the moving of the way, weight. Yeah, I think it's probably the fastest I've ever moved 530. That part felt really, really good. And, uh, yeah, so that wraps it up. And my day, you know, my all-time PR was like 14.06. And I ended the day at 1394, I think. So I was like 12 pounds short. You said, well, you know, a bump squat down five bench way underperformed, you know, in a perfect world of you're right there. But I mean, I can live with that all-time PR though. So last year, I did three 47. or 3.49, whatever the kilo is. I hit that and I smoked it last year.

So I was a touch under there. But, you know, I'm with, I'm just, I'm within a few pounds on most of my numbers. So they're, they're, uh, I was happy with the day. Eight for nine. I was really, I had no regrets or anything.

I, I was really, really happy with the performance. And it was actually technically at a slightly lighter weight than my 14. When I did the dots calculation, I can't remember what my exact body weight was. It's like, It's like a one point dot difference.

I think I'm under what my PR was. So I'm right there with it. It does get me kind of excited. Like, I can have one more good year of training. Like I could crush this next year. But well, we'll see how it goes. As a lifter though, a few things that we did different this year. We had a slightly different,

our slightly different setup for the warm up room. We had, I think, was it one less combo? One less combo. I can say that was at least from my point. of you. And then we moved the platforms. We cheated the, we,

in the, last year we saved a little space around the front, because we're limited of how far out we can move the competition area. And we saved a little bit of that for like judges chairs last year. This year, they had chairs set up. We literally like moved a row or two of chairs out of there and cheated that up as far as we possibly could.

So it also was like a few extra feet of depth. Yeah. And there was no strong man equipment back there either, you know, and I don't, not that there was a ton last year, but the only thing in there was power lifting stuff. So I thought the war-up room felt spacious damn near. Like there was no concern about running into people or running out of room. There's also something with a group of people that was lifting this year and maybe some that were there in years past that there was nobody back there that brought like 20 people. That is also a big difference.

Yes. I remember last year multiple times being like, and maybe it's because I was in the third flight last year. so there was still second flight hanging around and the first flight was getting ready to come back in. But I just remember every time last year thinking, why are there so many people here? And in the second flight, I never thought that once. I just thought, yep, the correct people are here.

Right. And then, yeah, you know, you behind the scenes talked a lot, like five versus six warm up platforms, like is going to be okay. Five was not an issue at all. It was really good. The only thing I had to complain about is that I made the boneheaded move of deciding to bench, and squat warm up in the Titan combo, which I don't know people know those Titan combos are not good.

If you see that one, go warm up on any of the other ones. We went from six Titan combos to one. At least somehow I kept the dream alive of using the one Titan combo again. But yeah, there's a reason that those things are, they don't make those anymore and people don't want them. They don't make those like they used to. They stopped making them all together. Don't even, yeah. They were so bad.

just gave up. Yeah, they're not good. If you're looking for a combo, do not, don't buy a tight one. Don't buy it. But Megan even said it was much easier to navigate the warm up room. And she's someone that it's, that spatial navigation is very important. So if she agrees that it's better than it was better. Yeah. What was the temperature like in the warm up room? I was warm for squats. I was warm for squats. I'm always warm for squats. But after that, I never thought of the temperature once again. Partly, well, I was warm for squats. Is because, we were just racing through them. I mean, it was speed squats.

We went so fast. But after that, I never thought about the temperature once again, the rest of the day. Yeah. So the warm up room was an improvement. Yes. Yep.

Probably not perfect. There's probably always something to improve. We also are just sort of confined by the space we have to. Yeah, I did like, this year we did use Jake's projector screens. I like that as a lifter and as a spectator. I really like that,

you know, you got done lifting. You could just turn to your side. And the big screen was right there waiting for you. You could see, you know, the lift. And then if you were in the crowd watching, it was a lot easier to see. I mean, on the TVs, you can maybe see the kilos. There's no way you see pounds. You could actually see the pounds and the kilos and, you know, the attempts, all that. So I like that projector screen. That was a good, that was a good touch getting those.

I was using those. Whenever I was emceeing, I was looking at those. Like, you can see the lights really easily, even from the back of the room on those then, too. I'm trying to think of anything else powerlifting wise stood out. I mean, I'm sure I'm forgetting something. But yeah, I just had a lot of fun. At this point, it's now what have I done? I don't know. If I done six meets or something, you do start to feel like,

ah, I've done this before. You know, like I've really, really get how this whole thing works after doing enough of these to where it starts. I'm not going to say you don't get nervous. Because there's always a little bit of that. But it used to just like, I would just feel wrecked going into it. I was so worked up before meets. And now it's like, no, like I know I'm going to hit my opener.

Like I have that confidence now. I know I'm going to hit my openers. Even my second attempts for the most part, I'm not really that worried about it. It's like, no, I'm here for third attempts. That's what I'm here for today. Yeah. And so it's like, yeah, you can just kind of have fun and play loose really until the third attempts come along.

And that's so you can really dial it up. And it's, it is just fun. It is just fun to do that. I would also say consider it an advantage at time or obviously a disadvantage in some ways, but when we're also running a lot of the event and stuff, you're nervous about other things, which you can only be nervous about so many things at one point in time. Like when I did the Strongman the second year,

up until like literally going out the first time, I'm like, oh yeah, wait a second, I'm supposed to be worried about this. Like you're worried about 17 other things. So you're like, yeah, I forgot. I forgot I was supposed to be worried about. about this. That is the nice thing about meat day is, well, one, the last two years, I have slept great the night before the meet. I'm like, oh, I got like seven hours of sleep. I didn't wake up.

I just went to bed. That's typically not how meat day went for me back in the day. And then when I show up selfishly, I'm like, well, nothing is my problem today because I'm lifting, or at least for the next seven hours. I'm not worried about nothing. And like that is fun after all, You know, just the months and months and months of prep work we put into all this stuff, but the behind the scenes thing, just be like, hey, for a few hours, not worried about anything here. And then, yeah, you get to just go and have fun. And it, you know, it's the whole thing of people that haven't done it, don't realize,

but when you actually, like, train, you know, you've done it many, many times, when you put a date on a calendar and train for something long term to finally get to do the thing is very rewarding. Like you get this major sense of accomplishment out of it and yeah, it's just, it's really fun. Other notes I have, the Minnesota Department of Lifter Safety I think was only

able to bring five this year. So the spotter, and they've done the spotting and loading every year and have done awesome. So they led the spotting and loading crew, which was then filled by the massonomics crew. And they rocked it. And they rocked it.

And did not miss a beat. from the prior years, like just as good as ever. So they absolutely crushed it. And every event, the squat to the bench and the deadlift, the spotting and loading. Yeah. Was like an A plus, I guess, actually. I remember at one point in the back,

that first flight was going so fast. I heard Andrew while he was, while he was judging. And like the spotters and loaders were going so fast. I heard Andrew, tell the spotters and loaders to slow down. This is going too fast because the attempts were just flying. It was it was like hard to keep up. So yeah, like for having rookies in the mix, they didn't really, really good.

Yeah, Pavlo, who I think did all of them. He said just a bit behind the curtain as a loader. I was competing with all other loaders to be the fastest. Yeah. And that's what they always, I remember them always telling us that. Yeah. Yeah, they did great. It was really fast.

And then also Big Brian and Big Jess were the scorekeepers table. I think just got asked to do that about 10 minutes before it was time. Yep. She did really, really good. Jonah had a couple things come up where a few family members and stuff that were going to come weren't able to at the very end. And she stepped up. And I like in here, she actually mentioned, she always volunteers for a bunch of stuff. So she always is kicking ass.

But I like, she said, I loved hitting the guys with, hey, good job. How about you put some weight on the bar after their second attempts, which I like that. That's good. Other things, the critique, which I think is very valid and real is that the platforms were warped and wobbly. Yep. The plywood sucked. So that's something that fortunately is easily corrected for the next one. Yep.

And I would 100% agree with that. That was my biggest thing I noticed as a lifter was the, especially when I got to dead lifts. Which I think is fair. Also, I think it could be improved. and this was part of the, you know, Jonah being short-staffed, is if we had, say, call them either a second score table person each spot or if you call them an expediter, someone that's literally just like making sure people come over to put their attempts in

and then just making sure people know when they're up. Because even though it's on lifting cast and like when I'm MCing, I also, if when the bar is loaded, I do try to say that. I just think people as a lifter, you're not hearing that. Even if you don't, a lot of people have headphones on, so you're literally not hearing it. I mean, I have headphones on the whole time. So anything verbal, I'm not going to hear it. Even if you don't have them on, I still don't think you're hearing it.

Even if it's loud enough, you're just like in the zone and you're not listening to that. Yeah. I guess what I did, and because we had the sheer curtains that you could see through, um, you know, I just had lifting cast up in my phone. So I knew who was up in my flight. And I see, oh, okay, Zach. Right. Typically like Steve or Zach.

Steve or one of the Zaks was in front of me every time. And I would just, once the flight would load up, I would just look at that attempt who was in front of me. And I see, oh, it goes Steve, then Zach, than me. And I just watch Steve go out. I'm like, all right, I'm up pretty quick here. And I watch Zach go out. And I know, all right, any minute, it's my turn.

And I would just look. And the second I would see everyone back away from the bar, I knew it was my turn and that's when I would go. So, like, for me, that wasn't an issue at all. But I mean, I know it. Everyone's different. Right. also if you have like a handler or something then that person's kind of helping you with that stuff also but

that big ross was also uh did he handle your handler all star he that's so nice when you get off the platform and he's like here's your video and before you put your attempt in you get to watch it back and it's like oh damn okay that moved really really fast or that was a touch slower than i thought but yeah ross was right there he was rocking it um so that's a couple of things that could potentially be improved outside of that i like the formula i did too It was, I mean, that's the fastest meat we've ever done. Or I've ever done, been a part of it anyway. It ran so fast.

I actually talked to Jonah. You know, Jonah was judging, I think, like basically the entire day. And we were three quarters away through squat. And I was legitimately for watching the clock. And I'm like, I kind of, you know, half joking, but half serious. I'm like, I think it might be going too fast. At one point in time, I'm like, we might be done at like noon. Which is like at a certain point, I've never even considered.

that thinking it could go too fast as a possibility, but I was starting to think, I'm like, well, people don't want to be here to like, like there is a speed that would be like, if it was over at 11, and it would be like, oh, wait, that was the thing. You kind of want to hang out. You know, like, well, I didn't get my money's worth here.

Right. It's like you don't get your money's worth. Yeah, that's, that's right. But so then we did take a, you know, a 20 minute, 10 minute break between squat and bench and then a 20 minute break between bench and deadlift. That also gives spotters and loaders and referees. he's a chance to like get something to eat and so not not bad to have a break in there anyways but

I do think we were done power lifting by two wasn't it yeah if it wasn't two it was two 30 for sure it was it was early and that was great I think everyone was just like hell yeah that was awesome yes it was just the speed was perfect on that and then people were immediately getting equipment out the door the second it was over as they were getting award awards uh because last year the award ceremony was way too long. That was something we had all over our radar to speed up this year. Also because it was power lifting and straw man. Like there was two awards shows we had to do.

Right. So yeah, we already cut that part in half. And then there was a significantly less awards in general too. So we're getting equipment out the door. We got the trailers loaded. Then we did awards. Big Stormy won best female lifter for her second year in a row coming up from Texas. Not a surprise.

She's extremely freaking strong. So my betting money was on her to begin with. As long as she's coming, there's going to have to be some women that get pretty damn strong to be able to take her down. I think she benches like over 200 pounds. Yeah. You know, then Matthias Cash for the third year in a row.

One, I will say the same thing there in order for as long as he keeps coming. someone to dethrone him is going to have to put up a pretty big total at body weight. You know, I mean, it's just, it's going to be tough to be doing on a second, but I think Bryce still has a way to go to close that gap. Matthias did hit an all-time total PR this year too. Yeah. Juggernaut AI user right there. Oh, is he? Yeah.

Yeah, he's okay. Nice. Well, it even works for the people that are the best. I don't know if people understand, but I think he weighs in for like the 165 class, doesn't he? I think so. And he's totaling like, I mean, he squatted 600 pounds, didn't he?

Yeah, I think his total was like 1606 or something, something like that. Yeah, squat was like 600, or deadlift was like 666 and bench was like high threes. 375-ish, give or take, I think. Yeah, 375, 380 somewhere in there. Oh, he said he was in the 181 class.

And yes, his legs are huge. When you see his leg, that makes sense. Bryce, the first ever to total over 2,000 pounds at the Lift Hardly VZ Classic, and he did that in sleeves, squatting on a power bar. Do use a deadlift bar, but, you know, not, I mean, he did that in a very legitimate way on over 2,000 pound total. I would say Jonah and his group are USAPL. You know, they have a USAPL back around.

So prior to the meet, we were somewhat concerned that, not too concerned, but we had to have discussions with him to make sure they weren't judging quite as strictly as what they're used to in the USA. But we don't want this to be USAPL nationals here. Right. Man, you're like butt touched the back of your legs

and it still isn't deep enough somehow. Right, right. I would say they let a couple go that I'm like, You're definitely given the lift or the bit of the doubt, which at the end of the day, I'd rather have it that way than the alternative. And to be on the record here, this is an unsanctioned meat.

Yes. You know, as far as that goes to, I think Jonah's takeaway was that it was absolutely awesome. I don't think he really knew what to expect. I don't think he did. Like, it's the thing where you tell people it's going to be like this. And it's like,

oh, yeah, that's what people say. But then he got there. And I think it hit him like, oh no, it really is like this. And he was, yeah, I told you, I talked to him yesterday and he did make the comment. He goes, this reminded me of powerlifting in the 90s when you'd have to calculate everything by, he goes, you'd get done and everything would have to get totaled by hand.

So people would be hanging out and people just start helping and cleaning up and packing up. And he goes, like, I've never had this many people help ever for a meet or like, you know, in recent memory. And he just said, oh, it made it so much easier for him too. And he really appreciated all of that. So I think he was really impressed with how the whole thing went. And I mean, he even called out several guys. You know, Steve and Derek and a few others.

He's like, those guys were workhorses all weekend. They are, they were. Yeah. The team award was won by the crew wolf pack, which that was also fun. On a tiebreaker. Yeah, on a tiebreaker over team Mommy snack pack. so Dylan as team captain that is a award actually. So I think he's getting close to 12.

Okay. So team captain, not the entire team, only team captain. And then we gave away our five special awards. I can say, I think next year I could see the team category getting a little more even more competitive. I think so, especially now that people are like, like comfortable with the format or just like kind of understand what's going on or that there's something at stake here. It does make it fun.

Like there is that, you know, there is something on the line. So it's. And to be fair, the crew wolf pack has had the most of what I would call a team for the longest. So it's kind of fitting that they win the first team award. I think that they really have had this team together for a while. The wouldn't play to, oh, I guess I would just say I got to MC. you know, I filled in for Eddie. And emceeing is fun.

It's fun calling off like third, people's third lifts. Yeah, it's fun to listen to. You know, because everyone doing it knows so much about the people. You know, you especially, you know,

you know all these people for years and years. So you have things to add on everyone. And I mean, Brad and Eddie both have that too, but, yeah, like there's just like you guys have something to, like it's never,

up next is Johnny. And it's like, no, you guys know where they're from. Like you have a good, idea of what people's PRs are, you know, what their history is with all this stuff. So it does make, it does add something to the, to the announcing. Yeah. Announcing two platforms at once is tricky at times though because you are balancing literally two people lifting at the exact same

time. It was funny, like at one point in time, Paul Foss is, Paul Foss and Paul from Colorado benched exactly the same time and we're sitting there waiting for lights on both of them. And I'm like both Paul's lifts are good. And this is the funny odd little things that come up when there's two lifters at the exact same time. It's kind of odd. But the five wooden plates, played awards this year, which are all achievement contest wins on the Massanomics achievement list were what in what order we did. This is my first rodeo, which is rookie of the year performance, which Big Clayton won this year. We did strongest couple, which Grayson and Hannah won this year.

That was a tight one. That was a tight one. Stormy won her second year in a row. And Stormy and Rusty both competed together a second year in a row. So they're certainly in the runnings there for that. There's a few other couples that are competing again that haven't won prior. There was the felt load enthusiast, which Big Sam was. one by, there's a lot of people that competed in both this year.

I don't know what the official number was. I think there was between five and ten that did both. A surprising number, a number you wouldn't expect at all. That did both in back-to-back days. But Sam really had a good felt load enthusiast package together. What did he deadlifted? 650 to one day and six. 661 in the power lifting.

Yeah. God. So I guess the big techs only cost you 11 pounds on your deadlift. Yeah. I just put you at a deficit of 11. Yes. Silly excuse I'll do last. What is the other award that I'm not did?

This is my first rodeo. Feltload enthusiast. Oh, strongest volunteer. Yeah, there you go. This year. And that was a tough one too because we mentioned several people that did a lot. We just thought Derek ends up really being the winner, though, because he literally volunteered for everything.

all day long, both days plus last year. And Jonah calling him a workhorse is really a fair. You know, Steve, I think we said he was probably our runner-up place because he's, you know, he never is not volunteering for anything. And like, not just volunteering, but also then being the first person to rip it and run with it too. But Derek, very deserving of the volunteer, strongest volunteer award. And then Silius goose, we called up the prior Silius geese, and we had to have a little,

we had a legitimate huddle and voting right there on the spot. And we did decide it goes to Big Gary. And that is one of my favorite moments of the weekend is when Gary comes up to accept his award. Because he is genuinely at a freaking 11 of just jacked out of his gourd to win that award. Someone has a video. I think it's actually mini from the live stream. where we announce it and he's in the crowd and it's like you just got called up to be on price is right like i swear he did not expect it to be him and he's like like jerks his head and

he's like are you freaking kidding me right now he's also in full costume still it's just the other insane part it and him he come up he is just screaming and then he's like Dave hoff coming out oh you're like afraid to get in his way he's going to start chucking people out of the way Luckily, we had Bryce and Paul there as body shields. Yeah, and he kind of is an acceptance speech, which is really funny too. It's like just screaming lines. He's just so jacked. That was one of my very favorite parts of the whole weekend.

For sure. Yeah, but that was really good. And that's what makes it really cool that someone's that jacked to win, let's be frank. These are made up awards. Yeah. But they're also winning this award in front of like, 150 their friends, you know? That's what it sucks.

And it's like, so yes, it's a made up award. But also like, you kind of know what it takes to win this award at this point. And people don't accidentally win any of these awards. There's a lot of deserving people on all of them is the thing. It's. Yes. Yeah, it's pretty, pretty good stuff. That was it then, right?

For the powerlifting meet? I think so. I think we tore down. And we even got everything tore down and we were out of there. Back to your house and boxes put in the basement. Yeah. Normally that's a Sunday project for us. Yeah, big Peter Bruno even rode along for that part of it to come help us.

Jack and Jack and his buddy and Peter. Yeah, we just nailed that. Like that normally kind of sucks on Sunday morning having to do that. But does. We got that done. And then I, and that actually just haven't even a couple people makes that. a lot. Oh, it does.

Just a few extra people get those. Just cuts your strips on the stairs and half, yeah. And then I gave Peter, Big Peter, a ride back. And we, me and him jumped in the freaking pool and the hot tub with the rest of the crew that was there. And I said this jokingly a few times, but I legitimately was so excited to get in on like the pool party action, part of the lift hard of the VZ. Because last year, I'm like, God, that looks fun. It's like world strongest man. They all go compete.

And then they're like hanging out in the pool. It's just like World Strongest Man and they get to do it here and I got to get in on that and that was really fun. You said you were going there and I'm like, oh, that does sound so much fun but by the time I got to my in-laws

got my stuff in I'm like, I am so tired right now. Driving all the way across town I just, I need to just sit for a little bit. But yeah, I didn't stay for very long but I was jealous. I had one beer with them and, you know, one or two beers

and hung out a little bit. And then I came back and got ready for, Then it was the zoo bar. I just thought one more thing. I thought it was so funny. It was one of the funnier things to me of the day. In the warm-up room right before Deadlift started, Larry is walking around with his singlet straps down.

Kyle's back there. He goes, oh, now I know where they call him the legend. Yes, he is Gracie knows with his presence right now. Larry, just another epic meet also.

All-time Deadlift PR and all-time squat PR. And the same meet, I think he's 49 now. probably done over 30 powerlifting meets and hit all-time PR on both. Not on the bench because he's been having shoulder problems. Yeah, he had to take a token on there. But, yeah, oh, man. Gary said, Gary said Larry look quite jacked.

Larry is quite jacked. Yes. Yeah, it doesn't just look. He absolutely is. Yeah. Zoo bar after party Saturday night. Oh, other thing. I know this is going to go really long,

but Huck Finn said the booth went great again this year. Oh, yeah, he did say, yes. He brought Karen and the dumbbells with them, and they all had a blast again this year. He said the booth actually went even better than last year. And he said it a hundred times that he's like, I am going to be back every year. Like, as long as you guys are doing this, I would be here.

I don't doubt him saying that ever because every time I look, I'm looking at him, like, you're having the time of your life right now. Yeah. And barefoot, I think that the booth went well for them, too. I talked to them a couple times. Shelby and Ryan, and it's, I mean, I think it went well. I know they have fun also hanging out with everyone too. So we had a little, a few less boosts this year than last year.

I don't, that doesn't really matter to us though either way. Like, I mean, if other people wanted to have boost next year, we only have so much room, too, is the other thing. We can't have a ton of them. But, um, I think that that just went well. Our booth went well. Yeah. Our booth, you know, our booth,

per our expectations and all that, uh, rent went really well. So, uh, we appreciate everyone that bought everything, anything and everything. Of course,

also we released the new purple mesh shorts. Those of all, all been sold out. The silly pint, those are all sold out. Um, I don't know what all we had. But,

well, the only thing that's really left from there now is the lift hard of easy meat tea. we've got some of those left in like sizes large xl 2x and 3x and those are on sale now for only 20 bucks so go online and you can grab a piece of history and if supplies are still available this is while they last which they might be you get

a program from the event and a magnet from the event with the logo on it and the what's the color of that green blue gym tea Oh, was it Blue Lagoon? Is that what it was? The Blue Lagoon Gym T.

We have some of those left. Not, man. And I think there's like four of the Lyft Hardly v. Z retro South Dakota license plates left. Yeah. So that's the only things you could still get at at the time of this recording on the website for merchandise. Yeah, it got cleared out pretty good.

But the zoo bar was, uh, was pretty wild, right? It's so fun. That's, I'm telling you, that's, if, if, if that was all that was in the vlog video, it would still be worth it because that the sound bites and the clips of everyone there are hilarious. I watch those back and just I can't. I'm editing it and I just feel dumb because the whole time I'm just smiling so much while I'm watching the computer, you know, while I'm watching it play back. But it's that funny.

Just everyone has something dumb, stupid, funny to say. And you know, just everyone's having the time of their lives. It's really good. Yeah. I think it was the fullest, the most crew that have ever been inside the zoo. And I think getting done early helps that that more people are like, oh, hell yeah, let's go. We got time.

We'll hang out. We'll get there. Some people got really drunk. Which, if you're going to get really drunk, that's the place to do it at. That wouldn't be their first rodeo experience, people experiencing that at the zoo. Big cigar guys, though, all in the cigar patio. Might have been the biggest collection of big cigar guys I've ever seen in one place. The cigar patio.

There's like 40 people smoking cigars that one. There's multiple spots. in the video, I'm like, how is there this many people out here? It's so full. Yeah. The number of people that walked out when I was smoking a cigar and go, walk through the door and go, see me for the first time with it. And go, oh, big cigar guy. I'm like, I heard like three times.

Yeah. It was nonstop. There's times with the amount of smoke in the air out there. It was just thick. Yeah, and people were playing bags and stuff on the other side. Yeah, I go to the other side and I was at Andy. He's like, take your shirt off Tommy. I'm like, nah, I don't need to take my shirt off.

I'm like, come on, do it. I'm like, no. And then generally he's like, take your shirt off. I'm like, okay, I'm getting peer pressure a little too hard right now. So I guess I will. Yeah. There it is. Yeah.

So then we all have her shirtless photo. Both of those guys are playing bags back there. Yes. That's good. The zoo was a lot of fun this year. It might have been one of the most fun zoo after parties that there's been, too. It was just, yeah, you don't want to be in a shirtless photo with Andrew Hainess, though. No, no.

That's, you get out of here. It doesn't matter if he's in the front row or the back row. He's going to out angle you for sure. Yes. Rule number one, never, never getting a shirtless photo with Andrew Haines. Oh, also, do you remember Matt Rangan, sponsor of the meet, also competitor? Oh, that was great. At the awards portion of the powerlifting, he said, all right, I'm opening up a $400 bar tab at the zoo when we get there.

It's for anyone that's competing. And when he showed up, I saw him giving the people, he's like, I see him handing this card being like $400 on here. And I don't know if it was like 10 minutes later, like, nah, the 400's used up. Like it did not last very long. Yeah. That's good. Uh, our bar, our, the Massonomics bar tab was not inexpensive from the zoo either. Oh, I never even got that number from you.

It just, it's like, oh, Tanner said we have a tab. I'm not even going to think about it. We got a, I know there's, uh, more than a couple rounds of shots that got, uh, involved in there, too. I believe that, yeah. It's the time in place, though. It's the right time in the right place for that sort of thing. Uh, Bryce. What, why wasn't Bryce drinking on Saturday night?

I think it's because he lost his shirt. and he was just so worried about his shirt. I think that's what the problem was. That was it, I think. He said Bryce was drunk by 4 p.m. The clips of fuck. This idiot is intoxicated. Seeing it over and over.

So funny. Keith was drinking the clear liquor, too. He certainly loved. A bunch of people on the top shelf dancing. It was fun. Uh-huh. It was a lot of fun. And that's, just think, you know, when you're 21 in Aberdeen, you can do that every Friday and Saturday all year round.

It never ends. I think that makes it not as fun. I think what's fun is doing it once a year with like 200 people. No, you do it twice a week for years on end. It's just as good every time. Oh, I think it slowly gets. If it was a montage, it'd be one person standing there and he's smart. And it would show like, you know, he's changed a different outfit every time because it's the next night.

Yeah. His face would just slowly be getting more and more depressed. Yeah. Like the first night, you'd be like, yeah. And then like it's like, we're going to live forever. And it's like, yeah. Yeah. And that's why they call it.

lift hard live easy classic that is why that's why i got that that's the that's the two hour straight roundup of the lift hard live easy classic yeah if you want to almost do a recap that's longer than the actual event itself yeah so make sure watch the vlog you'll get about a 25 minute visual recap of the whole thing and yeah there's some good stuff oh yeah grip well we left grip out yeah oh yeah yes i forgot about sunday yeah we're just so used to sunday not being a thing Sunday grip competition run by Big Curd heard from a number of the competitors that it was a really, really well run event.

I was there. There was just a ton of people there and I was just kind of on the fringes chatting with people the whole time. It's the most people that have ever been in the gym at one point in time by far. There's a lot of people in there. Yeah.

And everyone that competed said they had a lot of fun and that it was just run really well. So I don't, you know, Curd is going to run that again. He's going to do it again next year. And we're going to put everyone, put that in the program. We can put the grip competition in the program next year,

so make sure more people know about it, although it's not really open to spectators. It's open to crew. It's not open to general public. You know, like, there's no room. It's already for another 50 spectators to come in. No. I can't remember who all won the grip competition,

but there was multiple winners. And the medley event was probably the highlight where people. That was crazy. Yeah, there's like up to like 40 things they could pick up. And if you got like a certain amount by a certain time, you got bonus time on the clock. Oh, okay.

It was cool. Is that like how grip competitions go or was that kind of like a special rule for that? I don't know. Like I'm sure Kurds getting that from something. But yeah, that maybe is how those medleys typically work. I was just in shock at the number of things taking place for that. Yeah, it was cool.

Yeah, Cam and Garrett are saying, if you got 20 and 60 seconds you got an extra 30 second bonus time to keep trying to pick more stuff up. So great grip competition also. And then Sunday wrapped up and that was pretty much that. Although Sunday I came back and was working on stuff at my house on Sunday. And then a bunch of the guys were like getting a training session in Sunday evening. And I'm like, you haven't lifted in like six days, which is insane for me. That doesn't happen.

And so took one of my kids there, and I'm like, I'm going to get a little lift, you know, not a, not going to go crazy here because I feel like I've got the blood flowed through the actual ringer, but I just need to do a little bit of lifting here. I was very out of it all day Sunday. It was, that was definitely a recovery day for me. Yeah. Yeah. That's it. That's why they call it the lift hardly easy classic now that we covered the grip competition. Hell of an event.

I mean, I think it's obvious to anyone that's been in. to some of these it was the best one ever. Somehow we keep one ever. Somehow we keep up in it every year. I don't know how. Yeah. A lot of hearsay and about what's going on in the future

and I would say we're all we'd say for now is we are planning on Lyft Hardly of Easy Classic 5. We're working on that stuff and there'll be probably some updates in the pretty near future. But as of right now at least, it looks like

like there will be Lift Hard the Vizi Classic part five. We'll have to start speculating on the most important stuff, like what the theme is going to be. That is the most important. It's going to be tough to beat these themes we've already come up with. I know. Yeah, it's going to be a tricky one. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. Since we're already at two hours, do we just do, I've got a really quick supporting our supporting members. We could skip certified training facility the week this week. Yeah, this may, make sense to skip it this week. And skip the radar report, although we do have a really big update to Jim Radar that just went down, but we're going to talk about that next episode. So we like Tommy and I literally, it's the least we've got to pay attention to

Jim Radar. Yeah, it has unfortunately been, I wouldn't say on the back burner, but it hasn't got as much attention as we would like to have given it in the last month or two here. Literally because we've been running around like chickens with our head cut cut off yeah and also i mean there's just a limit to how many things you can promote at any given time too so yeah yeah um so should we kick everyone off and then i'll do the supporting our supporting members i'll read an ad then i wonder if we wrap up with announcing our winners oh my god we haven't got to that yet oh we got to yeah we got to get this going yeah okay so you can kick everyone off and we announce our do you have while i'm reading the ad too do you also have like the random generator thing that we can use to pick that up in a minute here

that part okay so supporting our supporting members first of all everyone that was involved in any way at the lift hardly of easy classic whether competing volunteering judging national anthem live stream spotting loading helping us move equipment all over western north East South Dakota, up and down and sideways and backways and crossways, downways, just anything involved with the Lift Hardly Veezee Classic, running a booth, taking tickets at the door, being a scorekeeper, bringing food, bringing drinks, just being here and participating and being involved. Thank you to all supporting members.

It's our largest event of the year, obviously. This was straight up just the largest event that we've ever done of any kind. and it would not work if it wasn't for the crew. This is a crew. When I say crew, a supporting member, this is an event for all supporting members, and it's an event that only works because of all the supporting members.

If nobody helped with anything, it just couldn't exist. We would just be like, well, we can't do this because we cannot, you and I can literally not do enough on our own to make it happen for the number of people that want to enjoy it. so it only works because of everyone involved. Also, Big Michael got first place in his Fripp Island Freedom 5K,

and Big Anastasia was this week's guest on unpaid and underrated. Go give that a listen. One of our younger crew that is powerlifting and competing in Strongman. Then there's been a lot going on, but not so much that we didn't have time for a newest sponsor of the show, Elite FTS. They got like a Christmas sale in the middle of July here, where they've got up to 40% off. That's right.

Could be 30% off bands. It is really like Christmas in July. It could be 25% off their apparel. Could be 25% off supporter gear like wraps and straps and 10% off of equipment and bars. that's not all. You can also use discount code mass 10. Stack that up on certain products, like maybe toilet paper.

I don't know what the going rate is on toilet paper, but we gave a whole lot of rolls of it away this weekend at the powerlifting meet. Everyone that I could chuck a roll of toilet paper too, I chucked one too. My favorite part about toilet paper is pretending it's a football and throwing them across the rim coat at people, hitting people in the back, being in people in the back ahead with a roll of multipli elite FTS toilet paper.

Check them out at EliteFTS.com. Are you still getting that pulled up or do you have that? The sheet? The sheet and the picker. Just getting the sheet right. Because I could also do, what ad do we have, Juggernaut AI or the Strength Co? What's left?

Virtual meet. Virtual meet. That's what I'm like, I got it right here. We're good. Okay. So our virtual Lift Heart Live Easy Classic. This was the first year of it, but it won't be the last. We are going to bring this back. Also next year, we had, I think, 150 people submit their attempts. So if you didn't submit any attempts, you're not eligible for the prizes. We're going to give away. We're going to be giving away. What is our number here?

got that right here. Nine $100 gift card winners and one grand prize, $250 gift card plus a Massonomics contest win for one lucky winner. And I think the way we can't put a price on that. No, that's just so valuable. You can't actually put a price on it.

So I think the way we're going to do that is we're going to select that winner first. We're going to pick the... So the numbers, just to people know how this works, we got a sheet here, you know, because number one is our header row. We got the label. So we got numbers two through numbers.

151. 151 that are eligible. So we're going to pick all the numbers out. And then we're going to go back and see whose name is assigned to what number here. But I mean, do we want to go through some of the stats on this whole thing first before we do the winners? Let's go through the stats first. I think you're right.

So, yeah, I mean, the main thing was there, like you said, there was 150 people that submitted lifts. I mean, there was almost 200 people that entered total. So there was a really good participation. I thought, you know, when this whole thing started, you said 100 people, Tanner, I thought that seemed really lofty. So to get 200 was pretty crazy.

Kevin did a bang-up job getting us crunching these numbers like only Kevin can. And he provided us with a lot of really interesting data here. Do we want to? Yes. Okay. Okay. So number of men, we had 135, well, of the ones that submitted, 135 men and 15 women.

Total weight lifted, squats, all combined. We have 51,914 pounds bench. We had 36,000 pounds lifted, deadlift, 59,000 pounds for a total of almost 148,000 pounds lifted. And a combined body weight of almost 42,000 pounds. So that's pretty cool. Yes. We have some of these numbers just don't even communicate well over the podcast. You almost have to see them.

But we have the equivalence to what all of those are way in Ford Freestyle, strength co-plates, Texas Power bars, cottage cheese, and chicken bakes as well. So as you can imagine, it's a lot of all of those. Do we want to, on our stats summary, should we look at some of like the best, best performances? Is that a good next spot? I think so. Okay, biggest total. Todd Sammons.

Do we know Todd? Have we ever met Todd before? I don't know. I'm not sure if we have. But he squatted 605, bench 605, deadlifted 505. Is that right? Yeah, that's right.

I think he might have a bench shirt on or something. Okay, okay. And that was, I don't think, I didn't see every one of these. There was a variety of lifting. There was some solo lifting. You know, obviously we have, A lot of home gyms involved, you know, the garages,

basements, all of that. But there was also some really good meetups, too, with everyone. That was my favorite part of the person. Yeah, we talked about some of the past ones, but it looked like- Regional meetups. Yeah, so it looked like it was a really good excuse for everyone to get together with some buddies and lift,

for the most part, in home gyms. So I was jealous of all those that I saw. Biggest Dots. This is a familiar name. Old Sam Funderberg here. Oh. He also, squad in 605, bench 365, deadlifted 630 for a total of 600 and a, our 1600 and a dots of 447.2.

That's a big dots. Yeah. Big numbers all around for especially for his mock meet just leading up to his actual power lifting meat and strongman competition. Yeah. All right. I'm looking at biggest female total. Do we know who this is?

Mary Clark, Marry Clark Kubler. Have you ever met her before? I don't think we've met her in person. Okay, that's what I'm wondering if we'd met her in person. So that's cool. I guess this is extending out past the people that we've ran into in the past. But she squatted 275, benched 160, and deadlifted 3.30 for a total of 790. She also had the biggest dots for a female at 375.

Biggest squat. Tyler Thompson. Not a huge surprise there. It's a big dude. Squatted 625. Biggest bench, Todd Salmon, 605, and biggest deadlift. Jackson Kelly, 661. It's a big deadlift.

Nice. Yeah. And we also have breakdowns by weight classes and all that here. But of other note, the Randy Award, your bench pressed to deadlift ratio goes to none other than Jeff in Florida. Jeff benched 290 and 6. and deadlifted 200, which gives him a ratio of,

a Randy ratio of 1.45. Yeah, he's actually fully inverted on the ratio on that one, isn't he? He was inverted. We also, I like this category here. We have the mats category. There's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine mats that competed

for an average squad of 343, an average bench of 239, and an average deadlift to 352 to right I read that right yeah average not bad mats so the mats are out there doing it

um do we have a few other did he have some written down in the email that he sent us Tanner yeah I've got this if you made a stack of strength co 45 pound plates to make a tower uh wait a second

a stack of strength coal 45 pound plates they would make a tower this tall if you did the total weight lifted. The squats would make a tower at 120 feet tall. That's the wingspan of a 747, 737. On bench, if you added up all of the weight lifted in bench press, it would make a building the height of the Brown County Federal Building,

the tallest building in Aberdeen, South Dakota. If you added up all the dead lifts lifted and turned that into Strength Co-45-pound plate tower, It would make a tower that is 342 feet tall, which is the Statue of Liberty plus four big techs deadlift bars. If you took the weight of the total, all the weight lifted and converted to rogue fitness jump ropes, it would reach to the International Space Station 4.6 times in jump ropes. If you took the total weight and converted it to 28.5 millimeter Texas powerball,

it would be 4.6 miles long, enough to go from the zoo to the circus to loggers to Schwann's recreation and back to the zoo. Now that's the number I can wrap my head around right there. Yes. A distance, I should say. I don't know. Did you mention this? California had the most participants?

No, I did not. That is important to note. Nebraska had the highest average total because they had one participant in total 1360. A subjectively chosen most impressive stat was Indiana had an average total of 1,247 pounds with six participants. Wow. So almost a 1,300 pound total across a real sample size. That's impressive. Indiana.

Yeah. Okay. I think that's what we got for stats. Okay. Now the moment everyone's been waiting for. Yes. Winners? But so are you going to pick?

the grand prize winner and set them aside so that everyone that way everyone's technically eligible for the grand prize yep yep i'm going to tanner do you have the sheet pulled up yes i'm going to mark the grand prize winner i'm going to mark their name and gold and then everyone else i'm just going to flag them in a different color so that we can see it happening in real time i love gold and so just to make sure i'm correct here the random number generator should be two through 151 correct yep okay we're ready. But what if it's a name we don't like? Can we override it? Yeah, we'll just edit that out. Okay. Okay. All right. What if it's like someone that's won a contest before? Do we want to waste this on them? I guess we have to be fair. And that's, okay, so we're being honest and unbiased here.

Is that what you're trying to tell me? Yeah, I guess since we're not doing this beforehand, we have to actually do it legit. So we're just letting the cards fall where they fall? I guess, yeah. I don't know if there's many prior contest winners on this list even. Oh, okay, okay. I would hate, I would just hate to waste this potential win on someone that's already won before. That would just hurt me deep inside. It could happen. It could.

That would be hilarious of that. Yeah. Okay. I'm ready to hit the button. Do you want me to do this? I have the number generator up. Minimum 2, maximum 151. Generate.

Are we ready? Yes. Generate. Ooh, number 12 is what it came back with. Okay. We're not going to say the names yet, correct? Right. Okay, that is flagged.

Ready for the next winner? Yes. But, oh, wait, we can say the winner's now, right? We might as well just say them now. Oh, well, maybe it's more exciting to leave the grand prize winner to be announced last, though. That's what I mean, but all the rest of them, we can just read. Oh, yeah, we can rest. Okay, yep.

First, winner of a $100 gift card, right? That's what we said. Yes. Is number 114, number 114, Troy Peterson. Congratulations. You get a card. So are you going to, you're marking them?

Yep, I turned in bright green there. Do you see it? Troy out of Madison, Wisconsin. All right. Ready for the next one? Yep. Next is number 22.

Number 22, John Gray. John Gray. Come on down. Next up. Number 14. Chris Daminger. Heard of this guy?

Oh. Have you heard about this? Next up, 137. Number 137. Colson Bearchette. I'm sure I'm just butchering that. I'm good with that. Okay.

Next up we have 24. Number 24 is Stephen. Villanueva. Yeah. Do we know who that is? We do now. Congratulations. Our next winner is number 35.

Cooper Clark. Oh, I think he's also the 50 Cal Challenge winner maybe. Oh, damn. How many we got here? One, two, three,

four. Is that six? Five, six. How many got left? Three more. Three more of the $100 winners. Yep. Okay.

Next we have number 124. Samuel Barker Congratulations Samuel Barker Okay Out of All the way from across the pond Oh

Andchester Cs Wow okay Next up Number 101 Colin Dunlap There we go One left Last but definitely

Not least We have number 53. 53 is David Kinnard. You did it, David. Wow. Thought you'd never be a winner. You're a winner today.

Which it leaves, of course, only our grand prize winner who's going to win $250 gift card plus a contest win. This is a supporting member right here. So it does matter for him. Who's saying it, Tanner? He's saying it. You better have the honors. Grand prize. winner number 12 on the list number one in this contest Timothy Campanin is how he

say his last name I'm good with Campaninan Timi be camping in all its way to a grand prize victory right here is he on Jim Radar ah good question that is a good question I want to know yes he is what's the name is Jim his Jim is Jim is Jim is Tim's gym. Of course. Oh, I know I couldn't find it. I'm on the equipment tab. Oh, he hasn't done very much, though.

Oh, okay. It's actually not published. Oh, I guess. Okay. Technically, I should say, no, he's not on Jim Radar for. I've recognized the name. I know I've seen the name before. Well, Tim, now your next responsibility before collecting that prize is to fill out your

complete your gym radar. We require it. was in the fine print you signed up for this yeah so now you must do it all right well damn he's got a contest win to his name yep a lot of guys that would do some unspeakable things for that contest win yeah big tim just did it uh tim's numbers were 385 squat 305 bench and a 565 dead list for a 1255 total so he wasn't messing around either he had put together on solid lifts there well deserving. Yeah, great stuff.

Okay, what do we have less for this episode? We better wrap. We better get to the end of this one. This is a lot of... Well, thank you for everyone that also participated in the first ever virtual Lift Hardly, Easy Classic meet. Supporting all those supporters as well.

Is that everything? You got an ad still. Oh, me? Me? I got one of those. This episode is brought to you by the Stranko. If you went to the Liftardly Easy Classic this weekend, there's a good chance. You saw a warm-up room full of beautiful, smooth, yet easy to grip plates.

They probably also looked black with like an e-coat finish. You probably also thought, wow, those look like they're made to last a lifetime. And if you thought all those things, you were right, because those are strength coat plates. And they're the real deal. They're our favorite plates of the go-to plates of Massanomics Gym. My home gym, we highly recommend them. and to be totally honest, should have a set for yourself.

Right now, they are running. They're a special edition 250, America 250 plate. The pre-order is done, but you can also sign up for the notifications for when it actually drops. So if you didn't get in on the pre-order, like so many of us did,

you can make sure to get signed up for that so you can get it when it first comes out. Otherwise, just get some of the regular plates. They even got barbells, barbells, barbell jacks. cast iron plates. I got everything there. Check them out at the strength.com. Thank you, strength co.

Yeah, lifting vlog. That's the YouTube video that's out. Go give it a watch. I dare you, this is the annual challenge. I freaking dare you watch that video. And just for a slight, first of all, don't. I haven't got to even watch you yet, but I will. What day is it today?

Today's Wednesday night. Oh, yeah, so it'll be out tomorrow. Yeah, so I'll get to watch it real soon. but if you can watch that whole thing and not smile or laugh once, be shocked at that. If you can watch that whole thing and not think, oh, man, you just don't like having fun is the problem.

You're going to want to come to the Lift Hardly Veezy Classic after you watch this. Legitimately, you will want to come and legitimately you should. And legitimately, we'd love to have you. A lot of people would be like, I just don't want to really, like,

compete in front of people. And we had a whole crop again of first years this time. And they will tell you, it's fun like big adam out of north carolina for example yeah hadn't competed before i you know in conversations i know and probably hadn't met many of these people

before either and i think just uh you know not to put words in his mouth but i think he loved it and probably will be back if it's possible yes all true things there i would i would love for adam to come back um also on that topic Big Chris wrote a very, very, very, well thought out. I'm actually going to share that. Yeah, message. Seems like everyone leaving for some reason when they leave the meat,

they have the existential crisis once the rolls of cornfields start hitting them. You know, if they're not from this part of the country. It seems to do something to people. But, yeah, he had a very, very well-written, well-thought-out, recap thoughts on the whole weekend. And I think that's summed up what so many of us think when we, when this is done. He did actually put it in. words where like some of that stuff I'm like what are you doing inside my head yes get out of here

get out of my head yeah so many that if people ask me to describe it it it's just like all i can revert to is i don't know you just have to go and see it you do and that is the real thing but he he got very close to uh describing it in words better than i ever have that's for sure you know we talk about it here and you can probably deduce that it's fun but i actually don't think until you come you realize, yes, it's really fun. It's also just like, wow, I somehow just felt every single emotion in my life over the course of like three days. Three to four days.

Like it is, I don't want to make it sound like it's something more than what it is, but it is a big deal. Like, it's a big deal to a lot of people. Yeah, it's that good though. It is. It's the real deal. You know, and we're not, you know, we're, we're not the ones that are good. I mean, there's whole industries of people that want to sell you on just, oh, this life-changing event, sign up for, you know, like, they'll sell you every workshop in class and charge you thousands of dollars along the way for their mastermind groups and all of this stuff.

And we're not really into that whole thing. We don't do that at all, actually. but this is like the closest you get to that in actual real life with regular ass normal people that you'd want to spend time with. Oh, this is more transformative than any of that bullshit. Yes, 100%. It's at the end of the day. It's not some, like everyone's not there with the idea of like,

oh, how's this going to make me more money and be more optimized and stuff? It's like, no, people are legit here to just kind of unplug from the world and have the time of their life. And I think it delivers on that. Also, it has an effect on the entire. town like it's a small town like everyone the entire week is like what is like everyone actually does now know kind of what's going on here and it's just like for the entire town all week it's like oh yeah there's that group of people you know doing that thing and people are excited for it like

they always yeah people think it's fun to see ever at least people having a great time yeah absolute freaking spectacle an event yes it is i've said i've said it on mini posts there is no other insert powerlifting meat, strong man competition, whatever you, it's really hard to even compare because there is nothing, even, even sort of like it. No, not, yeah, not even sort of like it.

Not one bit. If there is, I haven't heard of it and or seen anything of it. You know, like it's, if there is, that's the best kept secret in the world at this point. Yes. Yeah, so come, come get in on it in 2027. have information about that when it's available and somehow that will I'll blink my eyes and it'll

be the 2027 lift hard live easy classic I know I actually feel really good a little foreshadowing though I feel good about where we're at I feel we're in a good spot and everything I feel like we're I feel most more optimistic about 2027 right now than I did several months ago about 2026 2026 turned out absolutely awesome. So if we can roll into 2027, feeling this positive about it, it's probably only going to get even better for sure. All right. No further notes on my end. Great meeting, everyone. Tommy, where do they find you at? Can find me at Tomahawk underscore D. You can follow me at Tanner underscore Baird. You can follow me in the Lift Hardly viz vlog or just follow Massonomics at Massonomics. See ya.