Massenomics Podcast - Ep.101: The Arnold Interviews Pt.1

Episode Date: March 12, 2018

This week, we unveil the audio versions of the first half of our interviews from The Arnold. All of you podcast OG's who tune in every week deserve to get the first listen when we meet with QuadsLikeRobb, James Strickland, and Brandon Franklin inside the Animal Cage.. Then we talked to JP Price, Jesse Burdick, and Steve Johnson at the SuperTraining Booth... Then at the Spud Inc. Booth we hunted down the legendary Donnie Thompson and got a knife pulled on us by the Greatest Powerlifter of All Time, Ed Coan.  Check these out, and stay tuned for the rest of the interviews soon, as well as the video versions that will be available on YouTube.

Welcome to Massanomics, the world's strongest podcast. Find us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at Massanomics. Make sure you go visit massanomics.com. There you'll find the rest of our powerful content. While you're there, check out our store and buy yourself some of that sweet Massanomics gear. and buy yourself some of that sweet Mastinomics gear. Alright, welcome to this week's episode of the Mastinomics Podcast. This is Tyler, and I am here recording intros all by myself.

So, this week's episode is going to be a whole mess of our interviews from the Arnold. We're going to get the video versions all compiled together, and you'll be able to find those on our YouTube channel soon. I'm just here to record intros to each one. I believe this week's episode is going to have the first half of our interviews, and the next week's episode, I think we're going to do basically a podcast that me and Tommy and Tanner recorded after the first day of the Arnold, and then we're going to get the second half of these interviews to you in podcast form by the week after that. So our first guest, you've heard us talk about him many times before. I'm sure if you follow us, you follow him on Instagram.

But our first guest is Quads Like Rob, more probably known to his family as Rob Philippus. I'll kind of just turn this over to him. We were fortunate enough to get into the animal cage for this, which was pretty sweet. Our first, what was it, three interviews were inside the cage. I don't know how the hell we pulled that off, but it was pretty sweet to actually be in there as opposed to standing outside trying to peer over a thousand heads to look in. So forgive the audio quality. It is as best as we could do with all of the noise around us, so it's definitely going to be a bit of a busier-sounding podcast

since at the Arnold we are surrounded by people nonstop. So these first three ones are inside the cage. There's music, Proud, all that other stuff going on behind us, uh the next few minutes here is going to be us with quads like rob all right good to go all right we're here in the animal cage with uh an animal himself quads like rob you lifted this morning how'd it go uh pretty good we worked up to a small double. What's small and light to you? No, I'm just kidding. We worked up to 925. I told Eric Swartz that we were going to do about 950. J.P. Price, he had something just over 9 for a double,

so we agreed not to one-up each other and just do a double at 925. How does 925 feel on your back today? Actually, it felt better than 835. So warming up, you really don't know how it's going to go. Everything feels heavy around 7.30 or so without wraps or a belt. Put a belt on, put wraps on, you know, things start to take over for you. Right on. So, after a 900-plus pound squat, how does a guy stuff himself in a fucking airplane and head home?

We actually drove, but it just... Whoa! Yeah, I mean, we drove over to Altima, so we did it hard. How does a guy stuff himself in a fucking airplane and head home? We actually drove, but it just rose. Yeah, I mean, we drove over to Altima, so we did it hard. When we walked up here, you were talking about us being tall. Our advantage is people can see tall from a ways away. People can't see the quads very well when you're walking up. Do you have to walk around with those pulled up? No, no, they still pick me out.

I pick the yellow shirt. I probably should have went with black, but people see me, they see me coming. How many times, like at the Arnold, do you get hit up for a picture with the quads? You know, I don't really count, but I'm probably at a dozen already, maybe 15 or so. JP and I mixed some rounds earlier just to see what was going on. It wasn't as crowded as it is now this morning, and we've still got to stop plenty of times. But you don't mind showing them off when you have to, do you?

No, I mean, I think it's kind of crazy, right? I just do this for fun, and these people, you know, if they want a picture, I'll give anybody a picture. Hell yeah, hell yeah. Are you competing at the U.S. Open this year again? Yeah, I'll be at the U.S. Open. Hopefully, you know, maybe get that 1,003 squad. That'd be really nice.

There's so much competition there that, you know, a good day, I might be top ten. You know, it's going to be a crazy meet. Yeah, it's fun to watch when you see that many good guys get together. Now, my question is, I have never seen you wear a pair of tied shoes. What's the deal with that? I actually tie my shoes all the time, unless I'm working out. So it's just on Instagram or on social media, probably.

Bending over for that long, holding my breath, I don't want to pass out just tying my shoes. Well, that sounds great. We appreciate you taking a couple minutes here, too. It's always good to talk to you. Thanks, Rob sounds great. We appreciate you taking a couple minutes here, too. It's always good to talk to you. Thanks, Rob. Yeah, man. This next interview, we are still in the cage.

We're joined by James Strickland. James is a big son of a bitch. He was gearing up for a 700-pound bench press attempt, I believe, in the cage. He's a big, big bench presser. We get into here, we talk a little bit about what it's like holding that much weight over your face, how he trains, how he approaches it, and what it's like for him lifting in the cage. So give this a listen, James Strickland.

All right, we're here with James Strickland. Alright, we're here with James Strickland, SwimHack on Instagram, is that right? Okay, you're lifting tomorrow you said? What are you doing? I'm going to be doing an exhibition lift at about 11 o'clock in the morning. Looking to go over 650.

We'll see what happens. I won't let the cat out of the bag yet. Would potentially the first number of the lifts start with a 7? Potentially could, yes. That would be good to see. And are you lifting against someone then? No. Never. I mean, I'm not saying that in a cocky way. I had a meet last year with Hornstra and Maddox,

and we were lifting together, but we're all in different weight classes, so we're not really lifting against each other. But I guess when you get on that stage, it's your own competition. I see you competed here a few weeks ago. What did you hit on bench again? My best right now is 672. It's crazy. If you do get to seven, how many of you would there be that have

hit that number raw? Right now there's only five, so I would be number six. Now, my question is, as a person who will probably never bench 700 pounds. Six, five, any of those numbers. We're not even near that. And maybe this is because the reason I'll never bench that is, how fucking terrifying is it unracking that much weight right in front of your face? It's actually not. That's why he's going to do it and I won't because I am a fucking total bitch. There's been times when I've unracked it and I'm like, okay, if I drop this, I'm dead.

But I can do that at 225. So once you unrack 315, it's no big deal. One thing I'd like to do tomorrow is actually unrack all the way up to about 600 on my own just to kind of show that control. I know in my training I've lost a groove a few times with 600 plus, and kind of my trademark is I can save a lift, so why not? That's crazy. All right, James, I got a question for you.

We're picky in the gym. We lift maybe half the weight you do, and we need the perfect bench, the perfect setup, the perfect bar. When I watch you benching half the time, you're inside a power rack on a bench that looks about this wide, and you're doing over 600 pounds. Do you give a about the equipment like it seems like you can do it on anything anywhere anytime as long as the bench

doesn't shake and i know the pins will catch the bar i'll bench whatever it's not ideal but then when i get on a bar and a rack that is perfect like this it's like all the stops are pulled so not like there's a lot of people benching over 600 pounds anywhere but it seems like the places you're doing at uh it definitely doesn't happen normally is there people staring at you wondering what the hell's going on when you're doing that uh yeah i would say every time i go in the gym even on my warm-ups i'm doing things that these people have never seen and so i try to be really humble about it but you know at the, at the end of the day, I put my headphones on, I just do my thing, and I walk out and half the time I don't even realize it

until I'm looking at my videos later and kind of sitting with my coach. And I start looking in the background, I'm like zooming in on these guys, and it's just, you know, the face is just. And then one of the guys is like, I'm going to kill this guy. So I'm like, oh, I'm glad I didn't really like see that because it distracted me. But, yeah, it's cool. Are you lifting as a part of the military appreciation event? Is that right?

I am. I think they're calling it Military Mayhem 1 and 2. There's three of us in the first one at 10 o'clock tomorrow, and two of us, Casey Mitchell and myself, will be on the 11 o'clock hour. So it's pretty cool to be a part of that. Yeah, what branch of the military did you serve in, and what's that experience like for you? I was in the Navy, and, you know,

that was probably one of the best experiences of my life. I got to travel the world, see people, and meet people that I maybe will never, ever go to those places again and meet those people again. You know, I've grown up in a really multicultural society and neighborhood in my own city, so that experience has just helped me in a lot of ways i can relate to be especially now when i'm online and dealing with people

other countries even there's language barriers and cultural barriers you know that that alone has helped me to be able to understand when somebody says oh i'm from thailand i can go well i've been there and that instantly creates a bond uh which is one of my things like with lifting is you know it's cool to lift big weight but when i can talk to people like a person and actually be approachable and actually tell talk to them like a friend and say i've actually been where you are or you know they're in india they're in a part of the world that's you know maybe not accessible with big weights and they go oh this guy knows what i'm talking about it's pretty cool so it goes bigger than just the weights yeah yeah it is cool i'm glad animals doing that here and i'm glad they're making you a part of it so I think that's about it it's really good to talk to you I appreciate you taking a little time with

us today awesome man thanks a bunch we'll take quick photos our next guest is Brandon Franklin um if you follow Brandon on Instagram you know that he's basically mostly, he's a pretty funny dude. But Brandon has probably the best hair in the business, one of the best slogans around. We get into that, I think I opened this interview with that. But Brandon's had a bit of a tough year. He's caught an injury that's kind of had him lay off the heavy weights for quite some time. So it's nice to see him. He's a riot.

He's good to be around. And he seems to be in good spirits and ready to get back to lifting heavy. So this is Brandon also had a few nice kind words for Matt from Pioneer. So make sure you stick to the end of this one and hear what he has to say for Matt. Brandon Franklin. We are joined by world-class peck-popping, ass-eating Brandon Franklin. How's it going today, man? Man, it's going fucking awesome.

We are in the animal cage. Somehow we snuck in. He was allowed in, and we just kind of made our way in here. What's it like spending your days in the cage here? Man, it's been awesome. This is my 11th year here, and I've been able to come in here for about three years now, so it's like a dream come true. First thing I did when I came to the Arnold Classic in 2007 was see this animal cage, so it's a dream damn come true, man. Absolutely. How is, now you've had a bit of a

rough year, some injury bug a little bit. How's things looking in that department now? Looks like you've been moving a little bit again. Yeah, I got an MRI a month ago and it's actually moved a couple steps forward in the healing process. So I'm pretty happy with that. And my doctor's hopeful that I'll be back at it within a year. So real good. Now, as a man who's built his brand upon eating ass, gaining mass, and toothpicks and hair gel, do you find it's difficult to be taken seriously? Yeah, for one thing, it's pomade. It's pomade. Sometimes, but especially like right now when I can't really lift.

So when I can do the lifting, I get a little bit more respect out of it. So they're like, all right, this guy can actually do something. For sure. Do you have the best hair in the cage? I absolutely have the best hair in the cage. It's actually, Dan Green likes to argue with me, but he knows damn well who has the best hair. I don't know if Dan's looks that good. I think you got him beat. He's kind of got, like, meth dealer hair. Just don't tell him I told you that. Dan has sponsors and a following with his hair because he looks like Thor.

But I look like fucking Elvis. I mean, mine don't move. So I definitely have the best hair in the cage and in powerlifting in general. I also noticed, did you get a brand new pair of shoes for the cage this year? Honestly, I got these shoes to match the Eat Ass Game Mask logo because it was the only thing to match this red in the shirt. That's good marketing. Hey, where can people go if they need this shirt?

Because I think a lot of people need it. I think everybody. I'm starting the revolution of eating ass. It's going to be in everyone's homes by 2020. It's going to be normal. So go to eatassgamemass.com or frankdaddy.org. That's for my mom. And how can people follow you on Instagram?

Instagram is frankdaddy29, which is also my YouTube channel also. Righteous. Hey, one other thing. I noticed we know that Matt from Pioneer isn't here this year. Do you got any message for him or anything like that? Fuck you, Matt. We couldn't have said it better ourselves we were really hoping Matt would be here

so we could just have somewhere to sit down and now we're fucked I was hoping Matt would be here so I could sell my shit there without having to pay the five grand for a booze we were hoping that same thing so fuck you Matt again

God bless you I love you alright well I think that'll do it for our time in the cage I have one thing everybody remember there is no I in team

but there is trend and strength remember that always there is always trend and strength never forget you can't take that shit away never alright well thanks a lot man thanks Brandon There is always trend and strength. Never forget. You can't take that shit away.

Never. All right. Well, thanks a lot, man. Thanks, Brandon. In going through a lot of this audio, if it sounds like Tanner and I are yelling, it's because we're definitely yelling. So one of the things that we ran into with this is it's actually really difficult to – our microphones work pretty well at keeping the noise away picking up our voices the problem we had was we couldn't fucking hear each other at all and we definitely couldn't hardly hear our guests so what we ended up having to do was yell just for them to hear it and uh obviously especially inside the cage here um it basically just sounds like us

trying to uh trying to yell across the room at each other. It does get a little bit better as these next interviews go on. But next we have JP Price. He had lifted against Rob, I believe, and I believe they both went for 925 for doubles. This is a good, fun interview. This guy's a riot. Make sure you check him out on Instagram.

And, yeah, so up next good, fun interview. This guy's a riot. Make sure you check him out on Instagram. And, uh, yeah. So up next we have JP price. I believe this was also at the, uh, super training booth. All right. We're here with a JP price. You lifted in the cage this morning. We just talked to, uh, quads like Rob also. He said he outlifted you by about a hundred pounds.

Is that right? Yeah, no, it wasn't really 100 pounds, but I was way more handsome doing it. And so I feel like who's the real champion here, you know? I actually think that was supposed to be half of the competition anyways. It was like 50% weight lifted, 50% handsomeness. And I think, yeah, we obviously know. So was it a draw? You know. Were you 100 pounds more handsome than him is that the question i was 45 more pounds handsome than him on the scale

but 100 in my heart and i feel like he was more prepared because we drove here together and i drove and he slept so was there any shit talk back and forth at all there was on his snapchat the other day he posted his lunch of this big mexican dinner and i told him he needed at least two or three of those to compete with me now the other thing rob had said and i i'm going to disagree with him here because he said that you were quote the stinkiest son of a bitch he'd ever lifted against and and i'm standing closer to you than i was to Rob. Rob didn't smell peachy. I'll tell you this right now, that I look, and in person I smell ten times better than I look.

Right? Yeah, I'm well for that. I haven't showered since I lifted, and I'm easily one of the top three smelling heavyweights in the top 100 lifters. Okay? Well, that's good, because I look like I'm made of farts, and I pretty much smell like it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, the beard soars a lot, and I cut most of mine off after I played Santa in December. So I feel really fresh right now but a little naked. I like it. Well, do you have any shots you want to fire Rob's way before the next competition here? Yeah, sure.

So, well, he's 308, so it's not like he feels like he can compete with heavyweights anyway. We'll see. Sure. So, well, he's 308, so it's not like he feels like he can compete with heavyweights anyway. So when we go out to the LA, or not LA, but the current US Open, he'll be at 308. So he can play around with those little guys while I'll take care of the big boys in my class. When is your next competition then? So we're both competing in the US Open, and that's going to be on May 11th and 12th, I think. I'm going to compete on Mother's Day, and I love my mom more than anybody else that's going to be there. And Jess can vouch for that.

I love my mother. And so I'm probably going to win because that's great karma. Any numbers you'd put out there, 1,000-plus squad, anything like that? 1,000-plus squad, it's easily the first thing we're going to get done. Over 600 on the bench, and then I'll deadlift however much God wants me to have that day. Deadlift your favorite event, right? By far far by far and uh so that's important but really my my number one goal for that is to do over 2400 and uh hopefully andre screws up and i win i like it is is he lifting uh supposedly what about uh would the all-time world record be in your sights at some point in time no all-time world record's out of reach for me and that's realistic but but uh i want to get as

close to it as i freaking can and uh break as many hearts as i can so that'll be great hell yeah awesome man well thanks a lot for your time yeah we appreciate it a lot thank you so while we were still posted up at the super training booth, we met here with Jesse Burdick. Jesse's always a good interview. He seems to have a pretty good time. We picked his brain on what the hell's going on with the Reebok powerlifting shoe. If you remember last year, we had talked to him about where the hell they were at with that. It sounded like that was going away.

It was going to get rebuilt, rebranded, redesigned a little bit. And here we are a year later, and nobody had heard anything from it. It sounded like by the time we had asked him, he was tired of answering that question. But we did get him to commit to a really hard, fast deadline that I'm sure they're not going to be able to deliver upon. Also, if you notice, it seems like when starting these interviews, starting and ending interviews, Tanner and I have no fucking idea what we're doing. We kind of open every interview with a, all right, here we are. You'll notice as we go further and further along that all of these interviews start with the word all right, and then they basically just awkwardly end with us

not knowing how to wrap up the conversation. i guess that's what happens when you're not actually a professional so um yeah so here we are with jesse burdick at the super training booth dancing i thought i didn't know it was a dance competition it's like a little limbo and a jump rope thing here. I'm going to guess that the three of us might be as bad at limbo as any group of three people could probably be. I could probably get underneath about a six-foot-like bar. Past that, I'm going to throw my back out, most likely.

Jesse, what is your favorite part about being at the Arnold? Well, the favorite part is getting to see all my friends from around the world, getting to kind of catch up with everybody. But to be 100% honest, it's people watching, getting to see who crawled out of what hole to come and visit us at the booth. But it's always a lot of fun to get to see everybody, meet some fans, get to see friends from around the world.

Like us. Us best guys. Mostly us. Mostly you guys. Mike, I've peaked right now. Downhill from here. It's a vastly fast downhill from here. The slingshot booth will be closed now that we're done.

Once you guys leave, you're taking all these people that are in line just with you wherever you go. That's it, everybody. We're shutting her down. Get out of here. How about Lee's favorite part about being at the Arnold? Bathrooms. 100% the bathrooms.

I actually chronicle when I do go to the bathroom how bad it degrades. And it's really interesting. This year we have females here. So they can kind of, because all I go off of what the men's bathrooms look like, it's a fucking disaster. You know, by about 3 o'clock today, there'll just be piss puddles everywhere. Two of the stalls will be just completely broken. Toilets are full. The toilets are completely full.

I want to know what happens in the women's bathroom. Like, is it as bad as... Have we got updates yet? No. Early in the week. Well, it's still the afternoon. So I want to know if they get as bad as the men's do because if they don't i think i'm going to start using the women's bathroom

because by tomorrow afternoon we can't use the men's anyways you kind of just step in and piss on the floor i'll allow it that's just the way it goes man yeah that is probably the worst part about the arnold 100 the worst everyone's running around with pre-workout and a bunch of protein. It just smells terrible. It's just awful. People are eating things they've never even read. They don't have any idea what it is. Like, oh, the chicken breast in a rice.

Like, yeah, that's what you fucking eat. Or they're grabbing, like, oh, what's this protein bar? Oh, absolutely. Take it, try this. Okay, Jesse, so we asked you this last year. What's up with the shoes? That's a great question. I've been asked this about 300 times actually today.

So I'm so psyched to answer this again. Did you know we were going to ask you about the shoes? As soon as I saw you, I was like, fuck. Like last year, I answered this question too. Like I said, it's not on me. I talked to Reebok yesterday, and we're dealing with shipping and Chinese New Year at this point. So it was shipped via the sea.

If you hear of a shipwreck, that might fuck us a little bit more. But it's on the way. That's all I can keep saying. It's ordered. It's shipped. When and how it gets here is going to be, you know, just a matter of time and a question. I was worried that it was the guys from M from Masonomics that were holding the whole thing up. Are you guys captains of a ship that you're not sailing right now?

We've got a lot of connections. From Asia somewhere? We're pretty diverse. You guys kind of look like Vikings. You could pilot a ship right into a dock. So any day now? No. No. No. No.

No. Sometime within the next. So you're on record next Tuesday. Yeah. You know what? Fuck it. Yes, next Tuesday. We're going to hold you to that.

Next year at the Arnold, it has been 363 days since the release of the shoe. It'll be before next Arnold. I can commit to that. Sweet, sweet. That's about the most I can commit to. That's more committal than he was last year. Yes. Mildly.

We'll take what we can get. We appreciate you taking a couple minutes again here this year. Yeah, absolutely. That'll do it for us today. Thanks a lot for checking out. So next we track down the great Donnie Thompson who I think might be

one of our favorite people that we ever get a chance to meet with. Donnie is somehow always smiling. All you got to do is get Donnie to talk and he will talk for so long. He's such a riot to be around that he yeah, I've never seen Donnie not look like he's having an awesome time.

So we caught up with him at the Spud Inc. booth, and like always, it was just Donnie being Donnie. You get him going, and he just does what Donnie does. So here's Donnie at the Spud Inc. booth. We did try to see if we could ruffle his feathers a little bit because if you follow Donnie on social media at all, he's had a bit of a patent issue with some of the stuff with his, I think a lot of the stuff basically from his fat pad

to I think the fat bells primarily is the issue that he's having right now. And he's not afraid to call anybody out for ripping them off or for, you know, really much of anything. Um, and so, and also, you know,

Donnie's a big, uh, you know, he, he was a geared power lifter. We tried to see if he'd, uh, you know,

comment on, uh, you know, if he thought there'd be a big resurgence on geared lifting after Westside versus the world kind of comes out. And, um, Donnie just didn't want to bite on any controversy today,

but still a really good time hanging out with Donnie. Make sure you check this one out here. Donnie Thompson at the Spud Inc. booth. Double check so we don't have to do this twice. It usually doesn't go as good after we have to pretend to do it the second time. Then it's skipped. All right, we are here at the Arnold at the Spud Inc. booth. Joining us here is the leanest version of Donnie Thompson we've seen in a while.

Yeah. What are you down to? How much weight have you lost in the last year or two? I've got like 314 now. I got real close to 300, and the body said, I ain't punching. I'm not going under 300. I was like, well, hell, then I'll quit. Fine.

I'll take it easy for a while. Your body might not be made for under 300 pounds maybe when I die you know my bones I'll be 280 yeah so what are you up to this weekend well I'm just gonna work to split boots here promote body tempering a little bit now you know work with the show people bow ties and something it's really it's really, it's a reunion. It's like a big family. I walk in here and I find Ed Cohn pinching me on the back, you know. I was like, wow, I can't be a woman. It's too hard of a pinch, you know.

So I would guess Ed Cohn has a pretty hard pinch to him. He's a great dude, man. It's like a family reunion around this place. He's got a pretty hefty set of paws on him. I got to tell you guys, last year's films that y'all did, you guys have a great way of taking reality and perception and kind of getting them as close together as possible. You notice that?

Everyone's got to be able to do something, right? That must be our one thing. If we can't be good, we might as well look good. Well, I think lifters ought to be doing all the comment, interviewing, filming, and everything. When lifters do that and acts athletes, it just turns out better. Yeah, definitely. We follow you on all social media and everything like that, and I would say you're known for you're not afraid to speak your opinion on things.

Would you say whatever you're thinking, you're putting out there, no BS all the time? Yeah, I just don't have an allegiance to anybody and I'm not I don't want to be popular I don't I don't have no desire to be a social media mogul so I mean I can say what I want because I have no repercussions you know other than hurt feelings and I mean I just saw it it's not it's not it's not too hurt uh what do you think do you got any comments on the current state of power lifting whether raw or equipped or otherwise yeah i never think of power lifting in categories i just think of it as power lifting that's me personally i'm not preaching to you by the way but i i just uh one thing i noticed is like i have never seen such stronger people in

my entire life they make us look like, you know, children. It is the most impressive thing I've ever seen. That's all I could. When I see powerlifting now, I'm like, ooh, I'm glad I'm not competing. You know, or, I mean, just face the facts. They're better now than they've ever been. So Dave Hoff isn't going to bring you out of retirement? No.

No, he's one of those people we're talking about. Westside versus the world, I think that kind of aired this weekend or anything are you excited to see that or excited to see that i'd like to see louie get his just reward you know so he's just a big part of all our lives to change the whole industry of strength so whether you like him or not you know every gym you go to there's band attachments on the rack there's chains in there there's sleds. Do you think when that film comes out, the popularity of that might maybe push a bit of a resurgence in the equipped powerlifting? Yeah, the only reason equipped powerlifting went anywhere is because the leadership wasn't there anymore.

So when there's no leadership and things are ruled from the bottom, it just doesn't work well. Now it's starting to, you you know last three or four years it's really gotten back on track and so it's like and gear lifting's hard it's just hard that's the real story behind it you know it's not something you can just walk in by yourself it's scary yeah i'm scared to singing about it it takes a team yeah you know takes the team for an individual effort yeah yeah that's awesome we always like talking to you Donnie if you got any new products coming out I know you're kind of an innovator and you're

always thinking of something you got anything either in the works or in the works down the road three things in the works and a couple of them are gonna change some standards that we're doing now it's pretty cool but I mean it's you know I can't it's hard to top the bow tie because it affects so many people but the other stuff I have is more of a niche stuff it's like for football players and big strong men strong men and all so it's going to be a big hit coming out so it's like I think it's uh meets a need it meets a need that people these big guys can can uh do well with you know and and you you can tell me you're not interested in talking about this but I know there's sometimes there's other companies that are maybe ripping off your ideas, to put it pretty plainly.

Is that the case, or do you have anything to say about that sort of thing? All I ask is that you give me a little bit of credit for coming up with the idea. If you're going to rip me off or copy me, at least say, hey, I did get it from Donnie Thompson. Don't act like, oh, now I'm the one who got it. That's all I ask. Give me the credibility. You can take my money and take my stuff, but give me the credibility. I'd rather have that.

You know what I mean? Credibility means like the numbers in powerlifting. That seems like a fair request to me. Well, I appreciate you taking a couple minutes here. We always like talking to you. I can fit in my lift shirt now. Hey, what size did we give you? 3X.

Okay. All right. Hell yeah. That's good. So while we were at the Spud Inc. booth, there was this very thick yet very short fella, Ed Cohn. You can spot him from a mile away because he is about as wide as he is tall. But we've had our eye on trying to get ed get an interview with ed for a long time we kind of know some of the same people so we're really hoping we'd be able to track him

down this year at the arnold and fortunately while we were there talking to donnie ed was was right there so he waited around for us to wrap up with donnie and then uh basically as soon as i had introduced myself to to ed the first thing he did was pull the knife on me to make sure he knew that he could cut me down real quick if I got out of line. I told him that from what I've seen of him, he probably wasn't going to need the knife to get that job done, to which he pretty much agreed with. Ed is an awesome interviewer. If you listen to the end of this, I'm not sure how much of this we get into or you're going to be able to hear, but you should definitely check this one out on YouTube when we get that on our YouTube channel. That's youtube.com forward slash massonomics. All these interviews will be

on that as well. And some of these are pretty cool to see in person. A lot of the guys reference how much taller Tanner and I are than they are, or if you at least want to see that. It's always interesting when we interview some of these people who are, I mean, compared to the general population, they're enormous human beings, but they just aren't that tall. And now Ed is on the far end of that spectrum. Ed is just not tall compared to most people at all. But we had heard from all over the world, basically, that Ed has the biggest hands of anybody under six feet tall, probably on the planet. And that is absolutely the case. My hands are huge.

I'm not sure how much. I mean, you're just going to have to go to YouTube to see it. But Ed's hands are, I think I might have them beat. But if it is, it's not by much. He has equally as big hands as I do. And I am so much larger than Ed. But then we go knuckle to knuckle with Ed, and I swear to God, the back of his fist has like seven knuckles.

It's fucking crazy. I've never seen anything like it. Like he said, he said he never really grew into his hands. But also at the end of this, had uh grabbed a hold of tanner and i and the sides and just fucking dug them hands in so if you hang on to the end of this interview here and listen close you're gonna hear tanner and i both squeal like little girls when ed cone i think he just grabbed each of our kidneys just to just to to alpha male us before we took off and it definitely worked so um But it was awesome meeting Ed.

Ed is pretty, I think, unanimously considered the greatest powerlifter of all time. Records held forever and ever and ever. I mean, it wasn't until this year, until his deadlift record fell. And it was an honor to be able to interview Ed. So, yeah, we're happy to bring you this one, and it was a damn fun time. Ed Cohn at the Spud Inc. booth. All right. We are here at the Arnold.

With us is Ed Cohn, the GOAT, the greatest of all time. How are you doing today, Ed? I'm actually pretty good. So far, so good. How much chaos is the Arnold day one? Is this day two for you? Well, actually, when you first get here, a lot of times your IQ goes up about 50 points. And then by the end of it, you start hating every human on the face of the earth.

Yeah. And then the smells. It starts to smell the whole building. It's whether or not the smells rub off on you from the spray tan and everything else. How about that name that he hit you with at the beginning, GOAT, greatest of all time? I don't know that you're necessarily one to toot your own horn, but would you own up to that name?

I didn't even know what it was at first. I was like, oh, that's a good thing, I guess. Of course I love it, but I don't think anything of it. There's a lot of great lifters out there that have lasted a long time. Well, we'll probably vouch for you then if you don't want to say it. We'll give it to you. One thing, the lifters now, is there anyone out there that you particularly

enjoy watching? I know Uri Belkin has been out there, Kaler Wollum, some guys in your similar classes. I did a workshop last week and Kaler came in Albuquerque. But even here, how can you not watch Ray Williams squat 1,050 plus without even putting knee wraps on? Or, you know, Blaine Sumner squatting 1,100 plus and all these other guys there

and the girls that are awesome. So it doesn't matter to Federation now. It's just powerlifting. You've got to love powerlifting. Yeah, yeah. For sure. Now, I have a question, Ed. Rumor has it that now I may be taller than you,

but I heard you have absolutely enormous hands. I never grew into my hands. Now, I am tall, and I have always been told that I have enormous hands, and I want to see the difference here. Holy shit. I think it's the same it's nearly the same and i am about a foot taller than it is and that's insane holy yeah your your fist looks a little broader baby jesus christ yeah yeah uh no i i have small hands. Can I put mine up to you?

Actually, I can still do it. I can do a three-finger palm on a basketball still. Can I test this here? No. No, there's not much there to work with. Yeah. Well, at least when you go to a bathroom, you don't cry like us. Yeah.

So, now, first time we talked to Ed eddie it's the first time we've met ed pulls a knife on me which is why i know which is why i know i like ed hey look what i got it wasn't no animosity no violence just kind of saying hey don't talk too much shit remember i've got this you know it's like a preempt i'm pretty sure I wouldn't need it yeah I'm absolutely certain you would not need it no I'm made of 80% bitch I'm sure of that just a power bearer right so how about your left and do you still left regularly what are you up to you know I left just enough to where I'm not in pain because I've had two hip replacements. My shoulders have been killing me, but a lot of that comes from my mom.

She's had osteo and rheumatoid arthritis for like 40 years. And she's still kicking, so it's just pain, whatever. I lift enough to be healthy so I can tolerate myself in the mirror and I still got my own ego so I left just enough to look stronger than I really am do you get the urge sometimes that makes you think man I I know I could do it today I just want to put that extra 50 pounds on the bar that extra okay yeah you you're lying but I'm smart enough not to know it. The wisdom has overcome.

That's probably a good thing at this point then. That's a really good thing. Well, I think that has it. Yeah. And so, well thanks a bunch for your time, I appreciate it, thank you. Yeah, we really appreciate it. Awesome to meet ya.

Yeah, thank you. Thank you. We'll get a quick photo. Yeah, definitely. So are you just kind of hanging out? Hey, hello. Long arms are good for this shit.

Wow. Fucking Ed, right? So this is going to be the last interview from the Arnold on this week's episode. We'll get the rest of them cut together for you here, and you'll get those after our sit-down podcast that you'll hear next week. Also, all these you're going to be able to find on YouTube. But our last interview for today is from Steve Johnson. If the name doesn't ring a bell, we get into that with

him. Steve goes by forsaken warrior on Instagram. He said basically his regular name is pretty forgettable. So at least most everybody knows him by his Instagram handle. But this was actually before the what if you follow him at all, this is before their, what is probably now a pretty legendary face-off in the Animal Cage between him and Rob Hall. They put 600 pounds on the bar and they went, you go, I go, for as many reps as possible until basically one of them quit or couldn't do it. I guess I'll give away the spoiler here. Tell you what, I'll put that in the recap after the interview. I want you to listen to what he had to say, what he thought he would do, and then I'll throw some numbers at you on how it actually went. It was pretty incredible. Also, an interesting thing, if you check this one out on YouTube, Steve weighs as

much as me, which is crazy how dense that dude is. He's definitely a pretty freaking solid dude weighing what he weighs at his size. He's not by any means a small guy, but being well over 300 pounds, he's pretty much made of solid fucking iron. So yeah, but great to interview Steve. This I believe was also at the super training booth, I think. You'll be able to know for sure when you check it out on YouTube. Remember, all these can be found on youtube at youtube.com forward slash massonomics and uh yeah so here's steve johnson also known as forsaken warrior all right we're ready to go we're here with uh steve johnson the forsaken warrior on instagram and that's actually the first question i wanted to ask you i feel like everyone knows you by your instagram handle

does anyone know your name not too many people know my real name actually you know what's funny is i had it on my instagram and uh still nobody would call me steve johnson so i just took it off and now it just calls me forsaken warrior so well that's a pretty good name to go by though yeah it's cool you know it's, it's more memorable than Steve Johnson. It's like, who remembers John Smith? That's what it's like, you know? It's actually a lot better than being known by, like, your eighth-grade email address or something.

Yeah, I love Italians or something. Underscore 69. The name's Steve Johnson, underscore 69, 420. All that cool shit, yeah. You're looking big. You beefed up to the 308 class, is that right? I beefed up over the 308 class right now. I'm 310 right now, so two pounds over.

But I will be in the 308 class. I'm going to stay there. Just in the offseason, I like to just maintain the calories right now and just be fat and enjoy life, basically, you know. Amen. So we are over in the cage quick. What are you doing in the cage, first of all? Who are you going against?

On Sunday at 1 p.m., I'll be against Rob Hall. I'm doing a 600-pound deadlift for max reps. Has Rob been talking some shit? Rob's always talking shit. It's nothing new with that guy. I've added in my own shit talking lately and i think i'm hitting them in the fields with that right now so can you can you call some shots you got any idea what you're looking at for that how many you think you're gonna get in um i already called minimum i didn't put it out there yet but i will i will right now but uh minimum said I was going to do at least 30.

30 reps. How's that sound? That makes me almost sick. Sounds fucking terrible. Now, that's awesome, but how for real shitty are you going to feel after that? I'm going to feel like death, probably. I'll probably sit on the floor. Last time I did a long circuit like that, my lips turned blue.

Obviously, one time I passed out. So it is what it is at that point, man. How many do you think Rob's got in him? 11 or 12, maybe tops. I'll give him more credit than that. I said minimum 30 for me. I said maybe like 18 to 20 for him, something like that. No, he's a super strong guy too, so it'll be fun to watch you guys go at it.

Yeah, we're excited for it. I have one question, though. Now, our now our beards are saying maybe of similar length why does mine look so shitty and yours looks so magnificent all right it must be the stuff i use is there a product there buffalo you have a sponsor oh there you go i should have known that solid plug there yeah yeah buffalo uh with uh With Luigi Faggini. So if you don't want a hobo beard, buffalo beard. You got to comb your shit and put some shit in it, man. It makes you look nice and shiny too right now.

Are you slinging some slingshots here this weekend then too or what? I'm not slinging them, but I'm just hanging out. So I'll be here tomorrow as well and then then the cage, and then just roaming around. Hopefully someone knows who I am. Really, that's all I come here for. What's your next big meet? Next big one is the Chicago Fit Expo in June. I'm going to try to go over 2,300, and if it's there, I'll attempt a world record deadlift again.

And then August, I got invited to the Tribute meet in San Antonio that's the plan where I'm gonna go I want to go 2,400 and try to take that thousand pound deadlift so that's awesome we're looking forward to that tribute meet we think that's a really good thing for the sport would you say what the world record deadlift it's not if but when it's not it's not if I deadlift a thousand pounds is gonna be if i then lift a thousand pounds it's gonna be when i don't lift a thousand pounds yeah i love it yeah that's that's the right attitude well we really appreciate it thanks for taking a couple minutes it's nice to meet you so i'd like you guys to make sure you all check out uh follow animal on instagram also i'm sure uh steve at uh it would be forsaken warrior on instagram i'm sure he's got videos of it too but so here's what went down

during that deadlift competition they both went at it one for one uh steve ended up losing to rob that's not before having what i would only describe as the most shredded up torn up hands i've ever seen from somebody from deadlifting. We're not talking that one tear. You're probably I mean, like five, six tears on each hand with huge chunks of like not just calluses, but just like massive chunks of flesh ripped off his hands. They were actually cutting his skin off of his hands in the cage with just scissors. In case you're wondering, the cage, probably not the most san his hands in the cage with just scissors. In case you're wondering, the cage is probably not the most sanitary place in the world.

But he went fucking hard and kept going, blood everywhere. Yeah, he really went after it. But he ended up losing with 63 reps. So he more than doubled what he was kind of thinking he'd get well i guess he said at least 30 but uh yeah that's fucking crazy 30 or 63 reps at 600 pounds uh rob ended up doing 65 reps and then i'm not sure exactly if it was what the story was i do know that he he was hurt after the fact, and they actually had to take him out of the cage in a stretcher. So, yeah, hefty price to pay for winning that competition.

But props to them, though. Between the two of them, I guess it was 65 to 63 reps at 600 pounds, and it took like an hour and 20 minutes of just constantly. I deadlift you deadlift. I deadlift you deadlift. Um, sounds like basically the worst experience a human being could have, um, as far as deadlifting goes. Um, but yeah, pretty fucking impressive. I think that's a thing people are probably going to remember for a very long time. Um, other notable things that went on in the cage there, Steffi Cohen deadlifted, I think it was 545 while she was in there,

and then dropped down and did some working sets at 500 at 125 pounds body weight. We also want to thank everybody from Animal for letting us into the cage. We got to hang out and do some filming, get some photos with Andrei Milanochev in there in the morning before the place had opened up. We got to get in there and film, do some filming with uh get some photos with andre milanichev in there in the morning before the place had opened up we got to get in there and film do some interviews so pretty cool kind of for us it was kind of some bucket list shit being able to get in there and uh instead of having to peer over the crowds of people we could kind of be in there so

that was really really awesome um next week we've got god i don't even remember or in two weeks i don't even remember who all we interviewed to be honest with you, but we do have, uh, have Thor Bjornsson. We got Stan Efferding, um, Stacy Burr. Who else? Ray Williams. Uh, yeah, I'm, I'm going to forget some now, but just stay tuned here. Also make sure you check all this stuff out on YouTube, um, youtube.com forward slash

mass. And I slash massonomics. Click subscribe. We're going to drop these interviews. It'll be one at a time. So that way, as we get them done, we can kind of feed them to you that way. Stay tuned to massonomics on Instagram. That's at massonomics. Tanner's going to be putting clips and stuff out once we get all this stuff sorted out.

For us, the Arnold is one of those things where we go and we just get as much content as we possibly can, and then we come back, and then that's kind of when the work really starts. So bear with us. We're going to try and get everything to you as soon as possible. But thanks for listening this week. I know this is a touch short, but we'll get everything else out to you over the course of the next few weeks, and stay tuned.

So I'm Tyler. You can find me on Instagram at Tyler F. N. Stone. That's Tyler E-F-F-I-N Stone. You can find Tommy, who is in charge of the camera during all this stuff, and basically the one responsible for all those awesome pictures of the strongman that you see. You can find Tommy at Tomahawk underscore D.

Tanner runs the at Massanomics. Also go to Massanomics.com. There you're going to find our store the store you can buy all the hats shirts, all the cool stuff you see us wearing in these videos that you're watching on YouTube and what else do we got here, I don't remember what else I have to plug

without these two guys with me I'm pretty much totally on an island and don't remember any of it so Facebook, follow us on Facebook. We're not really sure why, but just do it. And yeah, that'll take care of it. If you do want to contact us about anything official regarding sponsorships, money, anything like that, email us at getbigatmassanomics.com.

So I'm Tyler. Thanks for listening. We'll have two more weeks of Arnold Recap. And stay tuned to the YouTube channel for all the videos. Thank you for listening and stay strong. Check us out on Facebook, find us on Instagram at Masanamics and make sure you visit Masanamics.com and buy some of that sweet Masanamics gear. From your friends at Masanamics Studio, home of the world's strongest podcast, stay strong. Outro Music