Massenomics Podcast - Ep.205: Can Powerlifting be Spectator Friendly & Special Guest Johnathan Oldham

Episode Date: March 9, 2020

What can be done to make powerlifting more fun to watch?  We've got some ideas.  It's not going to be up to us to fix it though, we are just the idea guys after all... AND we welcome special guest Johnathan Oldham to the show.  Big John is a Massenomics sponsored lifter and knows his way around a mullet and pair of jorts. Hybrid Performance Method: https://hybridperformancemethod.com/ and use code MASS to save 5% on all programs Lifting Large: https://www.liftinglarge.com/ and use code MASS20 to save on Lifting Large branded products Spud Inc.: https://www.spud-inc-straps.com/

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 on how to get strong, how to stay strong, how to use your strength. You do a great job, dude. You make things better than they are in real life, I think.

If you don't follow Massanomics, y'all do it. Social media, website, everything. Massanomics! website, everything. Masanomics. Welcome back, Masanomics listeners, to episode 205 of the Masanomics podcast, the lifting podcast about nothing. My name's Tanner. And my name is Tommy.

Funny, it doesn't seem like it's been a week since we last visited with our Masanomics listeners, but I guess time flies when you're having fun. This is a double header for us tonight. Two in a row we're recording this about a week before we leave to go to the arnold this will come out uh kind of when we're on our way back from the arnold is that kind of the right timeline yeah and because we'll be at the arnold and we'll not have a chance to record a podcast uh get all of our stuff edited put it online publish it to youtube the podcast hosting all of that uh we have to do two in a row this week so uh

our uh our loss is your guys say that's their gain uh my thing this is coming out while literally this is releasing to the public while we're driving back from Columbus. So that means we will have spent almost two days in the car to get there. Stuffed in a car with limited stops. We pretty much just get out one night to sleep and then get back up and get in the car. Three days standing for 12 hours each day. And now we're finishing up our second leg of two days non-stop in the car we'll record two podcasts in the car yeah i had my knee surgery like in june or whatever when i ride in the car for like 30 minutes my knee gets stiff i really don't know how if like this is

going to set me back probably months in my knee rehab. Yeah. Like I know some of those times when we get out of the vehicle to go to the gas station or walk, I'm going to have a hard time even walking, getting out of that. And even just standing in places miserable too. Yeah. And that's what, that's what I mean. Like that in all the driving, plus them three days of standing, my knee is not going to feel good. I know that it's not going to feel good.

I know that it's not going to feel good at all. Yeah. But before we get to that. Before I tell you more about my knee and how much pain it's in right now on our trip, I wanted to tell you who our supporting sponsors are for today's episode. Today's episode is brought to you by Lifting Large. Lifting Large has set a new standard for customer service within the strength world. They have live website chat support and speedy email responses. Lifting Large is the home of the Ground Lock Deadlift Slipper. They're always in stock and ready to ship. Massonomics listeners can save 20% on all Lifting Large

branded products by using discount code MASS20 at checkout. Today's episode is also brought to you by Spud, Inc. The goal of Spud, Inc. Straps is to make products that support sports performance and help everyone achieve their training goals. They make products that last forever, won't bust your budget, and most importantly, leave no doubt about success when everything is on the line. Make sure to check them out online at spud-inc-straps.com. This episode is also brought to you by hybrid performance method they're your one-stop shop for all things fitness and online coaching whether your goals are

training related nutrition and body composition related or both hybrid has a program for you with dedicated and experienced coaches in each strength and fitness discipline you can rest assured that you're in the best hands possible make sure to use our discount code mass m-a-s-s in all caps for five percent off any training or nutrition memberships for the life of your membership visit them at hybrid performance method.com thank you sponsors what was i telling you about my knee hurting uh standing in place vehicles all that yeah it's it's i i honestly it's going to take me like a week being back to like get it get my range of motion that i have as of today back i think it's going to take me like a week being back to like, get it.

Get my range of motion that I have as of today back. I think it's going to be really bad. The things we do, the things we do for our fans, but it's because we care. It is. We care too much. If, if I had to say we're guilty of, or our, our biggest fault or our biggest downside is that we do care too much. Yeah. Like that. We've been told time and time again, we're downside is that we do care too much yeah like that we've been told time and time again we're just too good we care too much yeah yeah

oh something you want out of your something you want out of your lifting inspired apparel company though we literally care about all of you so much we're gonna tanner you know last week if i let me try and remember that far back okay we uh we uh explored a crispy little lemonade flavored kombucha it was so potent that i almost feel like i still have the flavor of it in my mouth a week later we do so i want we have one for today i want something that we can actually drink now okay because i'm actually really thirsty this is no guessing this is just if you look here i didn't uh it's been fermenting for a whole week i didn't finish mine i didn't either okay i don't feel so bad though yeah um because i knew this was coming up and i was actually thirsty i just wanted to enjoy this yeah i'm just this would be refreshing after after the kombucha oh yeah uh is that some of that sweet peach bear it is you got it even

well done well i think this was uh you tricked me like three weeks in a row with peach bear i don't know peach bear by now what will you know uh this tastes a lot better than it does yeah i tell you that damn much oh Oh, yeah. Yep. All right. So I was thinking the other day, Tanner. Uh-oh. So one of the things with powerlifting, you know,

because I spend all of my free time thinking about powerlifting. That's usually what's consuming my mental state when I'm not busy working. Well, yes, yeah. Like any normal person. And I constantly, there's a few things with powerlifting that i always think about as a sport the singlets the packages in the singlets mainly that mainly it's the wardrobe but then once i get done with the wardrobe part i start thinking about more of the competition aspect and there's a few things that i that the the sport

hasn't gotten figured out yet and i don't know if it ever will. And I'm not saying I have answers for any of this, but I'm just like thinking out loud here. That's the thing of us having our own podcast. We don't have to have answers for problems. We can just think out loud. We can just think out loud. We can just point out the problems.

So I just want someone, I just want everyone to think along because I'm sure other people have thought of this stuff too. So I think the first thing missing from power lifting or something that could make the sport more exciting is and i don't know how you would do this maybe it would maybe would ruin it i don't know but it's some type of like handicap system you know a lot of sports have a handicap system where golf uh bowl i mean i think a lot of competitive sports do have. So that everyone can compete against each other.

So yeah, you can kind of compete against people. And so when someone does have a good day, they can get rewarded. It's not like, oh, you had a good day, but you still kind of suck. It's like, well, actually, that was a good performance for you. But what it gets so hard with powerlifting, or I think this is why it doesn't exist yet, is you have so few data points you know yeah and that is what i think is i think what everyone would say is what stops powerlifting from being a big sport is just because the best in the world only can compete a

few times a year right like is right like basketball would never be a thing if they played five games a year right would people be excited about basketball if basketball if that's all you could do? I don't think they would. Like football, if there was five games on a football season, I guess maybe people would get really excited for those five games, but also like the games were like every two months. Yeah, right. It's the scheduling that kills it a little bit.

So then I was thinking similar. It's like, well, okay, the scheduling that kills it a little bit yeah you know so then i was thinking some more it's like well okay the scheduling thing kills it also though there's almost never a head-to-head factor in powerlifting so okay so maybe maybe we can't maybe we can't do the handicap thing maybe that's just it will never work and i kind of have a feeling it never would i don't i'm not but the idea in a utopian powerlifting society is that beginners could compete against intermediates can compete against x you know advanced lifters that everyone can compete it would just be such a hard system to implement though it really would be it really would be so i don't i don't think that that one would ever happen but then the uh from a spectator

standpoint of powerlifting one of the the things that is missing so often is the fact that there is no, almost no head-to-head competition. You know, if you're lucky. When there is, it's pretty cool. Yeah, yeah. But if you're lucky, it's going to be one of the big untested meets

or, you know, IPF Worlds. IPF Worlds is kind of the first one that comes to mind. Or Nationals, you know. But even there, a lot of times, you know like Taylor Atwoodf worlds is kind of the first one or nationals you know but even there a lot of times you know like taylor atwood's just going to win it you know yeah basically you hope for like at the top as far as watching the best people go there's going to be a one or two guys maybe three in a couple of the weight classes that are going to compete the biggest real head to head ones that stick out to me over like the five years is Brett Gibbs versus John Hack in IPF Worlds.

And then now Amanda Lawrence versus Danielle Mello in USAPL Nationals or IPF Worlds, whatever you want to, or Sheffield. But there's not a ton of it. There's not a ton of it. That's two. Yeah. And I know there's some ones at the smaller one.

So then I was thinking, what if for the sake of an enter, for the sake of entertaining a viewer, you know, this isn't, this is now not about getting the biggest lifts possible. This is more about a head to head competition. That's fun to watch.

What if someone had a format where it was two guys head to head. So now it's like, it's like a title fight. You know, it's two guys. They're going head to head so now it's like it's like a title fight you know it's two guys they're going head to head but here's the thing they have an hour to warm up everything that they need to warm up and then every lift is performed like four minutes apart so you go through all nine lifts yeah like boom boom boom like you don't have hours like now that's something you could watch uh-huh now fatigue, there's fatigue playing into it.

You know, it's like a chess match or a checkers match where you're like watching the guy go. And now there's like, I think that could be kind of entertaining. Couldn't it? Yeah. And also maybe they don't have to do nine lifts. Maybe they could do six. Yeah. Maybe.

Yeah. Maybe, maybe you do take it down to six. Right. Because I can see how nine would like guys, their deadlift would just be dying on them i think by by the end of it but that also takes care of the problem of the spectator part being almost unwatchable because you need to you need to carve out an entire saturday yeah it's like more than a nascar i don't even know how long a nascar race takes but i have to imagine powerlifting takes longer than that yeah yeah but i don't know if anything like that would ever happen though part of the problem and i think it still relates to like the scheduling

that you talked about you know the the timing and because peaking for powerlifting it takes so long for people to do it well and i was trying to think of what sports is this comparable to because powerlifting really is like an individual sport right where you don't get to compete very often and i'm thinking what else exists like that right now and the thing that i could think of would be fighting yeah like top level fighters it really is that's kind of an individual sport and the best guys are only fighting a couple times a year right you know because i mean for that they it i think that's a is a fair parallel because they really are having to they have a training block laid out that is allowing them to peak for that one night performance and it requires a long duration of time unlike yeah

they literally start golf every weekend and you don't you're not peaking you know you can play you can play tennis every weekend basketball every weekend volleyball like almost any sport and that's what those sports have going for them is that you can be even a casual viewer and still catch a lot of it right if you're a casual powerlifting fan you're probably going to see almost no powerlifting over the course of a year yeah right so then that's what that's what kind of got me thinking of like all right well if you think about from like a fight perspective what what could you do that they do? And it's like, well, the big title fights, they'll last between their, between their, uh, intermissions are their, uh, end of the rounds and everything. Yeah. You know, what's a big title fight goes like

five rounds of like five minutes each or something. Uh, like, uh, UFC. Yeah. Yeah. Something like that. It's been a long time since I've actually watched a full UFC fight, but you know, something like that. It's like, long time since I've actually watched a full UFC fight. But, you know, something like that, it's like, okay, could that ever happen for powerlifting where if someone booked, they got the same thing, they'll get the undercard all the way up to the heavyweight battle where it's these guys are going to go out and they're going to like, all right, someone comes out with their 1,000-pound squat right away.

The other guy, he doesn't quite have that. How is he to respond is he going to yeah is he going to save conserve his energy for the save a little bit for the bench and deadlift or how and i think that that could sort of be a fun way to watch it yeah the thing that it would take for anything even remotely like it to ever happen would be money it would be money but but i feel like it's also possible could be a draw for money you know that could be a format that could get money i think you could get people to it's just so hard to get a lot of eyes on for i believe for any sustained i've never ran a live stream so i don't know what the real numbers are but i think over the course of an entire live stream you probably

get a lot of people checking in but i'd love to see the statistics on how long a viewer actually sticks around on a powerlifting live stream another thing that makes powerlifting maybe more challenging for something like that versus other sports other disciplines is the drug use that there's these two there's a division uh you know a very there's a line in the sand of people that do use drugs and people that don't use drugs. So it has to be one or the other and you don't get to like, there's not gonna be crossover. Like, cause you want to see Ray Williams go against Daniel Bell or whatever, you know, those matchups like that. And whichever one it's going to be that does this, you miss out on the other half or i suppose they could both do

it and both have their own thing but that's still like you're dividing the talent pool into into half and i think that that's always a problem with power lifting it is it is yes and then also it gets subdivided even more well yeah yeah yeah like that so it immediately is divided in half and then one half divides itself uh 30 well i shouldn't say probably 800 more times yes right so that is part of the problem because a lot of people don't like certain rules and so they just avoid that but if there was enough money involved in something like this it could i just think it could be a fun like it's not even like all right we have a flight with we have three flights over the course of two days and each flight has 60 lifters in it and

yeah it's like all right so there's 200 and some names i you can't even keep no like how many sporting events do you actually watch where there's 200 and some people competing right and you can actually know a thing about yeah it's you're tuning into this because you want to watch dan bell take on ray williams and the undercard is going to be uh you know john hack is going to go against russell or he yeah and like the one before you know there's and then amanda lawrence is going to go against danielle mel before that it's like that's all the three i need to see like that is uh yeah and that's like taking the best parts and like other people might have prs and stuff, but if you don't know the names,

it's hard to even see because there's no matchups, you know, there's no matchups. And like, I feel like that's kind of what this does is it, it can pit mad matchups against people, right? You know,

you can, whoever is in charge of this would be able to determine, all right, these people should be pretty close. They would obviously have to be, I think in the same weight class. So get them in the same weight class and then get people that are in comparable totals to match up against each other and i think that that could be a fun i think that could make for

it entertaining an entertaining watch and and our other topic that we're going to talk about today maybe it ties into that a little bit is the sheffield meat you know is what i had mentioned i wanted to bring up and really it's not that format of course but it does take some of those those ideas of what you're talking about because it's a new category of ipf event yeah so for people that don't know this this is uh it's primarily sponsored by sbd isn't it sbd so sbd is sponsoring this it's march 28th and march 29th and it's the is it in sheffield england is that where the name comes from or i don't even know what i think so it's but it is overseas though yeah it's in the uk and it brings together 12 men and 12 women over one weekend to battle it out for world records and the title of champion

of champions so it is kind of it has has elements so they are pitching it with matchups is what they're doing right each lifter represents their own nation at the world classic powerlifting championships and will now have the opportunity to defend their place among the world's beth athletes from six continents will be coming together for a truly international competition yada yada yada see and i hadn't done i didn't done any reading on it i just assumed it was just a big invitational is what it is but i didn't realize it was like using a format like that yeah so there's 12 men and 12 women and that's it and they're supposed you know each comes from like it says six six continents and they're putting up

250 000 euros of private funds that will be awarded on the basis of highest total highest ipf points and world records broken so i think there's a number of ways to win money so there is additional incentive incentive there for actually breaking records because they're going to make more running money if they break records and a few of the people on the men's side um brett gibbs charles On the men's side, Brett Gibbs, Charles. Yeah, Okupono. Yeah, okay. I don't know how to say his name.

Eli Burks, Ray Williams, Russell Orhe, Taylor Atwood. Then other people that I'm probably in trouble for not mentioning, but on the women's side, Amanda Lawrence, Bonica Brown, Daniela Mello, Heathernor kimberly walford and others that i'm not mentioned because i'm not going to mention all 24 people here but those are just some names that stick out to me right away there's 24 total competitors 12 men and 12 women 12 men on saturday 12 women on sunday so it's almost all america i mean it's half americans isn't it um yeah in the men's side there's one two three four five americans and then brazil singapore new zealand ukraine algeria uk china china on the women's side there's one two three four four americans uh you know a canadian

u.s virgin islands philippines russia new zealand italy brazil so there is a good smattering but almost half the competitors are american yeah but that's makes sense as far as putting out together a premier event yep it is interesting their timing that we were talking about this because coming up you know are actually just passed was the Arnold, which the Arnold outside of nationals, as far as USA powerlifting goes, is the biggest time of the year. There's a lot of really big meets going on. In a way, the Arnold is more premier than that. The Arnold is more special than nationals.

Almost anyone can go to nationals. You actually have to qualify or be invited to the Arnold. That does make it more exclusive yeah and there's always a world record well the way the ipf rules don't work they're not technically world records but national records and unofficial world records always take place during this time there's a lot of people a lot of spectators they don't go anywhere where there's going to be a bigger stage than what they get at the Arnold. Yeah, so it is interesting that SBD is having this meet at this time because it does siphon off a few of those people. Yeah.

But because SBD also sponsors a lot of the meets at the Arnold, but we were talking about this too, just the nature of the sport. You have to be careful when you plan these things because people aren't going to do this meet right before their national meet. At least most people wouldn't. I'm sure this is falling close to someone's big national meet but this is kind of yeah this is kind of the time of the year that all right like america's nationals are in the fall so yeah you got six months between now and then and who knows when other peoples are i guess but but i would assume that they must have some time between. And so that's probably why they're doing it.

And yeah, that the, what you said is the reason why I was originally thinking that it's weird. They do it this close to Arnold because it pulls those people away from the Arnold, but maybe it is more like your idea at the beginning. This is really just, this is just the very limited premier premier event.

It's only pulling away maybe 10 people that would be at the arnold and then there's still a good like 1b category of talent to fill the arnold like this is the exclusive like the ultimate exclusive meet to do it just taking the very top few and they're still talented people names you would have heard of competing at the arnold yeah yeah that's got to be it but it it's funny that i mean it is closer to what you know it's at least in the direction of what you were saying because they're just taking 12 lifters on one day 12 lifters on the next day uh-huh um big dogs i guess is the other one that's similar to that but neither of these incorporate the idea

it's still uh gonna take even with 12 people, they're just going to take a long break in between each lift and the whole thing is going to take six hours. Yeah. So that was the idea of just thinking of what can be done from a spectator standpoint to make this more watchable. Yeah. And powerlifting is probably the worst out of any sport at doing what they can to make things watchable. One, just because there's almost never a budget for right uh there's just never a budget for the spectator outside of like national meets or the really big meets and even a lot of the really big meets don't do a

good job with their life i mean it it's like watching on the webcam it's nowhere near uh you know unless you got michael watching yeah let's get michael Fahey on your team to get ESPN to broadcast. So he figured something out, but there's just not, there needs to be a way to make powerlifting more watchable. Like I was going through TV the other day and there's just, that's probably what got me thinking. There was a golf tournament on and they have the stands completely packed.

So many people watching it and i'm like what what does this have that powerlifting doesn't you know there's a ton of money on the line i've like the winner is winning like what two million or something yeah right right and it's like what's the difference yeah what's the difference here and you could probably well you could probably say what's similar here yeah nothing but but it's the fact that it is it is a watchable thing like they create some drama you can sit and watch it as golf meet does go on pretty long yeah but they do they do a really really good job of broadcasting it right there's a way different production making you understand the matchups and i don't know maybe it's just because

there's not enough money in the equipment of powerlifting so because there's not money there's just never going to attach things like that but yeah i don't know. Maybe it's just because there's not enough money in the equipment of powerlifting. So because there's not money, there's just never going to attach things like that. But I don't know. It just seems like no one's trying to make things more watchable. The pool of people across the world that play the two different sports, what's powerlifting got 100,000 people that are actively participating? But part of what makes me think, though, is how many people do you know that go to the gym? I think a lot of people, especially our listeners, but it's not unusual to know someone that goes to the gym.

So people already have, and now more than ever, barbell lifts are popular. So people at this point in time have more of an idea of what barbells than ever before. So there is knowledge. at this point in time, have more of an idea of what barbells. Than ever before. Than ever before. So there is knowledge. There's people that can understand what's going on. And is the problem just we're not making it, it's not wrapped up in an entertaining enough package? Right.

Is that the problem? Like if there was a powerlifting meet that you could sit down and it was two to three hours and it had some compelling matchups, would that be something people would be interested in watching? Or would just be like no this still falls flat yeah and then it's like well that's just like a systemic thing it's never gonna be and if that's the case it's i i don't think there is any hope all right yeah but if you the way you pose that to me i'd be like oh i'd be pretty interested in watching that you know like

if it was on thursday night like let's say there was a thursday night espn3 yeah had some power lifting thing on and it was like a three-hour ordeal that's not a huge time commitment they're getting to the point things are going on it seems more believable then yeah but man but that's already changing the format of the sport up a lot right it's it's almost people would say it's not powerlifting well yeah that's true that is a different thing yeah right but maybe you need to maybe that's what maybe it's power building now you know that word that people like to use for that stuff but yeah i don't know what the answer is there so that's i maybe that's our homework for our listeners if they have any ideas for what it takes to make powerlifting more watchable from a spectator standpoint, what are those? And then implement that and implement the system.

Cause we spent almost 25 minutes trying to figure this out. And I don't know if we got anywhere. No, I think we had some ideas. I had some merit, but I'm not sure. I'm not sure how easy they are to implement. Right.

Right. And we're not going to be the ones to do it. No, we're not. No, we're too isolated from anything. We can make t-shirts and sell those. Yeah.

We'll stick to what we know. And do a podcast. Yeah. We can do those things. Yes. Anything else. We're the wrong people for that. Going to have to be someone else.

We are the wrong people for that. Do we need to switch out a battery here, Tanner? Yeah. Okay. Is it ad time? It is ad time. So I'm going to read some ads. People that are on YouTube,

they're going to get a video here again soon. Today's show is brought, the Mesonomics podcast is brought to you by Spud Inc. and the Spud Inc. neck harness. Don't neglect your neck. You can't be a meathead with a pencil neck. So check out Spud Inc.

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the Spud Inc. neck harness is one of the most comfortable and durable harnesses for your neck. Check out the Spud Inc. neck harness online at spud-inc-straps.com. And today's show is also brought to you by Lifting Large. Lifting Large sets the new standard for customer service within the strength world. Get email responses in hours, not days. They have live website chat support available during the weekdays so you can get advice from a real powerlifter with actual platform experience. The Lifting Large team wants to help you achieve new PRs in the gym and on the competition stage. When you're ready to try single ply and make your way to the dark side, give them a call.

Lifting Large is the home of the Ground Lock, Deadlift, Slipper, and it's always in stock and ready to ship. lock deadlift slipper and it's always in stock and ready to ship massonomics listeners can save 20 on all lifting large branded products by using discount code mass 20 at checkout that's m-a-s-s-2-0 to save 20 on all lifting large branded items place your orders at liftinglarge.com and you can follow them on instagram at liftinglarge.com that's lifting liftinglarge, D-O-T-C-O-M. And this episode is also brought to you by the Hybrid Performance Method. If you've been training without a coach and have been looking for a competitive edge, remember to check out hybridperformancemethod.com. Hybrid has 15 different strength and fitness programs covering everything from powerlifting

and strongman to gymnastics and general fitness, all included in one training membership. That's not all. Hybrid also offers one-on-one personalized nutrition coaching that uses lifestyle habits and a flexible approach to shape your nutrition plan around your current lifestyle, instead of turning your lifestyle upside down in order to support unsustainable habits that only work in the short run the way most programs do if you're ready to take your training nutrition or both to the next level use code mass in all caps for five percent off memberships for the life of your membership thank you to our sponsors how many did you know how quick i notice how quick i was there changing camera battery and then getting our phone set up? Yeah, dang. I could be like

a NASCAR pit crew. God, it is. Or at least some type of behind the scenes production crew. Recording multiple episodes in one night really puts some of our camera on our car. Well, it's like really puts the limits to some of our

recording capabilities in the video sense. Audio, we're very sturdy and have a video. It's a little bit more temperamental. Maybe that's the next thing we need to invest in is up in that. Maybe we need to bring VR to the people. We need to get a seat right here. So they feel like 360. Yeah.

So they feel like they're recording with us. Right. We didn't even mention, we've got a special guest coming for this episode. It's another, other than, uh, at bacon and beer bells on Instagram,

big Jonathan old him. Massonomics athlete. Extraordinaire. One of our official massonomics athletes, longtime massonomics fan. We're going to give him a call right now. And. Should we, are we doing this? Yeah, we're doing this. It's call right now and are we really doing this?

Are we really doing this? Let's go in right now. See if Big John answers. See if they have phones in Alabama. Hello. Big John, is that you? Who's speaking? Is that your Alabama

accent we notice? Oh yeah you never know what who you know who's a telemarketer these days there's a lot of them in south dakota you gotta kind of intimidate them yeah you are live on the massonomics podcast big john how does it feel oh what a pleasure the pleasure is all ours so uh it seems like you're, are you in the middle of like a family vacation right now? I am. I am. Well, I'm kind of doing a business thing. I'm sitting here next to like the, you know how Disney does their vacation sales.

They try to like suck you into those timeshares. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. So I've been sitting there with my lift shorts on you know i know they got money so i'm just like hey kids you know i'm trying to pull their parents over uh get them to buy some live shorts and is it working uh no bites yet ah well but i'm trying yeah just got to keep shooting. Just before we called, I kind of introduced you as a long-time follower of Massanomics and one of our official Massanomics-sponsored lifters that we work with.

And we get the question sometimes, like other people that are interested in being Massanomics-affiliated lifters with us, and we don't do it that often. You know, it's tough to describe. You're so involved in Mastinomics to begin with. It was really an easy choice for us. It wasn't like we went out and found you just because you're a strong lifter. You know, you're...

Yeah, but nobody said that. Is that the case? Well, but, I mean, that being said, you are a very strong lifter, and know, you're, you're really good. Is that the case? Well, but I mean, that being said, you are a very strong lifter and we'll get to more of that too, but it was more so the fact that you're a talented lifter and plus you're just really involved with mass. So you kind of got everything that we were doing and you followed along closely. Do you remember when you first came across massonomics?

I remember, I don't know how i came across it uh the lift hat the lift hat was the first thing i saw from y'all okay and you know as you know a big advocate on beer drinking i was i was uh i was sucked into it so um that was my first purchase um gosh i guess it's been i guess about what three years ago y'all came out with them probably three or four yeah i'd say three or four something like probably 2016 i bet we had the march 2016 probably a little bit after that it was probably later in 2016 so yeah a little three and a half years i would guess yeah yeah and you saw it on instagram or something i suppose yeah it was it was it was on instagram like i said i can't remember how i came across it but

i knew you know i love the hat and then you know once i saw y'all's apparel and everything and saw what y'all stood for i really just got sucked in and i mean i just got a snowball and you quickly became the biggest collector of massonomics you actually might have you might have the biggest collection yeah actually uh you know i've got to pre-pick these outfits before we go you gotta you gotta be styling at disney like it didn't i think tomorrow was it was it for the arnold last year you took a picture of all of your stuff or was it just a random photo you had no i think i piled it all i sent it i sent it to tanner i was just going through my stuff just to see what I had.

My Mastinomics numero uno shirt is actually torn up. I don't know what happened. The dryer destroyed it somehow. You got too big and your muscles just burst out. That's been another issue here. Disney World's got this massive resort with all these amenities and everything. This huge resort we're staying at has no gym and and you know how those you you get away from the gym for a couple of days and you feel like you're withering away shrink yeah well it's true you don't just feel like it you really do wither away it all leaves you don't make me feel like that y'all y'all are about to

start getting those instagram ig fit moms me squatting packs of water in the condo yep no but i um yeah i i got sucked in with the lift hat and then you know i i i guess y'all just y'all starting out being a newer company you know and y'all still do such a great job at reaching out to people and just anybody who loves the loves the company feels like they can be a part of it. I've always loved that about y'all. It's good to be a part of a company that's so sincere and genuine. Well, we've done a good job of tricking you into thinking that we're sincere and genuine. He fell for it.

I'm really more honored that y'all's hand is out of my wallet now. Maybe I'm just working for you for free. That's like getting the collections off of you, isn't it? Yeah. Finally, they can quit taking my money. Yeah. I don't know who's the winner yet. To be determined.

So how about your lifting- wise what what was your last meet what'd you put up for numbers and when are you competing again um last meet i did uh i think 1973 was my finishing total it's kind of a bummer i wanted you know i wanted 2000 um but still a really big PR, I think, at the time, right? I mean. It was, but, you know, I mean, it's just, it was one of those bummers. I mean, I still, I can't even remember what kind of PR it was. I want to say it was 60-something pounds, maybe.

But, yeah, of course, I wanted more. You know, 2,000 is the, you know, 1973 doesn't really mean anything to me, I guess. But I don't know when I'll compete again. You know, I'm going to get the Arnold out of the way. Have fun, enjoy myself. And you are doing a figure show at the Arnold, though, right? Yes, absolutely. I've been working, you know, I've been drinking White Claws on vacation.

That's good. That's good. I can't have the yeast on my stomach. I mean, that's dedication right there. Yeah. I might, you know, at least walk around fearless at the Arnold. Well, I can't do that either. I got to rip, you know.

So you don't know when the next meet is after the Arnold. You're waiting. You're kind of off-season training at this point and haven't picked out the next meet is after uh after the arnold you're waiting you're you're kind of off-season training at this point and haven't picked out your next competition but obviously the goal is going to be to break at least 2 000 then the next time you compete absolutely well less said less told me he said if i had a 517 that i it would have it would have gotten 517 wilkes would have gotten me into i can't even remember what meet he was talking about. Maybe the,

but not what's the, what the tribute meet turn into now, the showdown meet or something like that. Maybe. Yeah. Whatever that was. My past two meets, I've had a 516 Wilkes on both of them.

So I've been just shy. So, um, I don't know. You know, Alabama doesn't really have much to offer mead-wise. Try South Dakota. Well, you know, my last mead, I got to lift with Dan Bell, which was amazing. It was a blast to go down to Gainesville and do the American Barbell Club one. But I don't know. I'll try to get out of state again and go somewhere.

I just don't know what's next. It'll probably be in the summer, early fall. Yeah. And talking about you're from Alabama, we kind of call your group of lifters at the gym, we always refer to you guys on here as the alabama contingency because there's a pretty tight-knit group of lifters that you work out with there then a lot of them uh also follow massonomics so that's kind of where the alabama contingencies has come up and then recently there's been an illinois syndicate that's been trying to battle you guys yeah oh yeah

forget those guys how dare they try to overrun us they've they've been when it comes to uh uh when it comes to fitness challenges on instagram presented by massonomics they they do put up a pretty good fight yeah they, they did. Hey, man, total for total, we're ahead. Yeah, okay. You guys both did win in the JDL competition, though. You were both winners. So you're kind of tied there. Well, I mean, theirs was more staged,

whereas ours was straight. That's fair. It's just brute. Yep. Go ahead. I was going to say, John, you know, I've noticed you've just kind of watched you grow up in front of my eyes, and you've become a bit of a style icon, I think, to the lifting community. Could you kind of describe the look you have right now?

I guess you know what? What are you wearing right now, John? That's actually probably the better question. I probably wouldn't ask that if I were – no. I guess really just anything to embarrass my wife would be the better question. I probably wouldn't ask that if I were. No. I guess really just anything to embarrass my wife would be the correct answer. That's the driving force behind all of it. That's good. She told me the other day, she was like, I really don't mind the mullet.

You can actually keep it as long as you want. But please, God, get rid of the mustache. She hates the mustache. So you described the mullet. get rid of the mustache she hates the mustache so you described the mullet you've got the mustache uh you're often wearing jean shorts uh i liked i think i saw on vacation you have a cheetah shirt with a denim vest going on like well so disney world i'm so lame i um i'm huge into the pin trading i've got like a pin trading thing down here uh-huh and um i'm obsessed with it and i typically people wear them on lanyards well i've collected so many pins that i just i actually bought a denim vest or denim jacket the first

night we were here at levi's and cut the sleeves off i just assumed that was some like old punk rock jacket you've had forever in your closet it already it already looks like it you got all the pins on it the sleeves are tons of them yeah and then the leopard the leopard shirt's just out of the closet you know it's one of those typical things just one of those things you have laying around yeah and then the pit vipers to top it off of course you can't you know you gotta have some pits would you say that's like the star on the christmas tree oh yeah yeah well the mullet kind of tops it you know it's true you do got a point there but i think i think the the pits also you know bring it all together yes

yeah i get to see you guys in like what two what, two weeks? Yeah, like a weekend, a couple days, actually. Like eight, nine days. What day are you guys getting to the Arnold? We are driving. We're going to leave Thursday morning, so we'll get there late Thursday afternoon. Adam's closing up the restaurant, and everybody else is off, so we're going to close up shop and head there.

Who's all coming with you guys um perseus is coming out of denver so he's gonna be flying yep at it's perseus it's underscore perseus all right he's gonna be flying from denver um and then it's gonna be us one of the one of the females at the gym, Ty. She's going to be coming. And then we got Adam, my boy Adam, and then Les. So it's going to be – Coach Les Keys. That's right.

At Les Keys. Not like keys like car keys. There's an E, E-S. Okay. So what is – you know, we're kind of joking about the alabama contingency contingency and everything but you do have a group of really strong lifters there and it seems to be pretty tight knit at least that's what we see from what we know about you guys what what's kind of the secret sauce there what what's uh

um why do you have such a good group of guys there? How does that work out? Well, I mean, you know, being Alabama, we're not really in a rural part. I mean, we're right outside of Birmingham. So we got to – there's just not a lot of power lifting gyms around. Diamond K was kind of small when it all got started. Les and Jacob were kind of the first two that had been around. And they knew me from just a local club, Gym 24E.

Invited me to come check it out. And then Matt, who owns the gym, he's connected to a CrossFit gym, but he's really passionate about powerlifting too. So he just started buying us powerlifting equipment, anything we wanted, he was working at getting. And it just started rolling in. You know, we just, we just, I mean, word of mouth got around and people were coming to train there.

And, you know, then we just kind of had a crew that stuck together. Now, obviously, you know, we got Tank. Tank just competed this past weekend. I don't think he had his best meet. He put up over 2,000 total, though. He had a pretty good day. Adam, I know, you know, if anybody follows me, they see Adam's food all the time. Yep.

He overcame a back injury, and he's rolling strong right now. Then, of course, you've got Les. He's kind of the leader of our pack. He coaches pretty much all the guys at Diamond K. Our boy Jerry just left us. He just left Saturday to go to Germany. So he's going to go spread the Diamond K love over there, I guess. Somebody's got to do that.

Yeah, and then, of course, you know, you got Jacob, Percy has hope I'm not forgetting anybody. They're going to be pissed at you if you did. Richie doesn't come around anymore, but you know, I got a shirt that you love. Yep. Life happens sometimes. Yep. Okay. So John, you,

I'm pretty sure you're familiar with our overrated underrated segment of the podcast correct? of course well we've got a special Big John version of the overrated underrated to do with you here I cannot wait to hear what y'all have come up with okay alright

topic number one you know the rules I think too we don't need to probably bore you with the rules. Okay. Okay. Topic number one, overrated or underrated jorts. Jorts.

Of course they're underrated. Absolutely. Figured you might have to say that. Yes. Yeah. I mean, well, I mean, uh, you know, i guess the era you ask that in would be the true answer but yeah these days for sure underrated and because you do often squat in jorts how do those not rip out um well truth be told most of my jorts do have some ripped crotches uh is there

is there a certain brand you prefer for for jorts well i think one of the the born primitive ones i got tagged in a ton to try them out because they were the stretchy material and gosh they tore up so quick they ripped in the crotch they're just yeah it was it was actually really quite the bummer they weren't that great of quality but you do have to find some that have somewhat of a stretch. Otherwise, you're not going to move well. Yeah. You've got to be ready to fight at any moment, you know.

Yeah. Brandon Campbell last episode was just asking us when we're going to come out with lift shorts. So I know you'd be excited. Exactly. See? Yeah. There's a demand. There is a demand.

It's a growing demand for lift shorts. Who are we to deny the people? I don't know if anyone will be able to afford them. Luckily for you, you're affiliated with Mastodon, so you might get the insider deal. Yeah, I'm going to have to get some sort of, I wouldn't say petition. I'm just going to have to get, you know, we're going to have to get a crew together to purchase this.

But I'm for it. Yeah, and you're saying underrated on jorts for sure for sure okay overrated underrated saying y'all y'all y'all it's so nonchalant for us well it's just part of your your your language where we just don't hear it that often yeah do y'all do you guys or use guys or you guys yeah you guys yeah y'all so i guess as as a whole y'all super underrated like are you saying tommy and i are all it rolls off the tongue y'all is it weird to hear it there yeah yeah i mean i mean it's not we don't think you're weird for saying it because we understand that it's normal that everyone says

it there but for us it is you do not normally hear people say that in a given day yeah it's so natural i don't even think about saying it. That's just habit. So underrated, y'all. Underrated, y'all. We're two for two on underrated so far. All right. Overrated or underrated? Bare knee squats.

Bare knee squats. I'm going to say that can be overrated. I can say a bare knee squat can be overrated. Y'all and y'all just got done talking about this not too long ago about the knee sleeves and I, I mean, knee sleeves really just provide comfort. Yeah. I don't really have any knee problems. And so I just, I've always felt, you know, unless my knees are hurting, I'm not going to put on a pair of sleeves.

I mean, that's just my mindset. What's the heaviest bare knee squat you've ever done? Bare knee, I'm not sure. I want to say I've done 700, maybe a little more than 700. Because a lot of people don't do that. No, that's pretty uncommon. I mean, it's not uncommon to see you do sets with over 600 pounds bare knee, and I feel like you don't see that very often.

Like I said, I don't think it's anything different. I mean, I just don't put on sleeves. Now, I mean, wraps are a totally different game. But if I'm not using wraps, I'm typically not in sleeves. I do feel like sleeves do serve a purpose if you've got knee discomfort or if there's anything going on. And it just makes you feel more comfortable or confident. There's nothing wrong with using them.

But as far as lifting actual weight and getting the advantage of lifting pounds, I guess, added to your total. I don't think sleeves serve a purpose of naked knees or wraps. All right. No in between. That's right. Okay. Last topic. Overrated or underrated? song sweet home alabama oh my gosh

oh you know that's honestly tough um we saved the best for last yeah that's a really good one um we went to germany uh gosh i guess it was it's been about two years ago and they just play it in the bar i mean they'll just they don't even know someone from alabama's there they just they turn that song on and people go nuts well they can tell you are from alabama i think what is it the mullet had that look to you yeah um I'm going to have to say for what the song is it's overrated I'm going to get so much hate for that

I'm going to get so much hate for that I almost feel like it's a dumb question but is it like a song that still plays a lot down there? I mean, it's just kind of a song that plays a lot in general, you know, but like, do people still like, do they embrace it as like, this is our anthem? Well, classic rock, it's not really our anthem. I mean, you know, like you got Talladega down here, you got all the redneck, you know, the roll tide, you know, Alabama football is what, you know, lives and bleeds and breathes Alabama, you know, just the state is in general, but you know,

I guess Skinner and I, you know, just any classic rock is, I mean, yeah, I, I, the song, The song itself is overrated I don't think it's really necessarily an anthem to us You know, you get a lot of free bird screams and stuff at concerts And of course, anywhere you're going to go I mean, you know, they do the Sweet home Alabama Everybody roll, Todd, roll.

That makes me want to vomit saying it, but I'm a big LSU fan too. So people need to put that on the record. I can't support the Crimson Tide even though I live around it. You haven't converted then? No, I never will. Fight me to the death. Which I know college football is, is you know much bigger for us i don't know what do you have in south south dakota massonomics exactly football rules uh tommy and i are both pretty uh we're both at least relatively loyal

fans of our local basketball college program. You know, Minnesota had a good football year this year. Yeah. Yeah. That's about all we can really say, though. One state over. I mean, do y'all pull for him? Do y'all care?

I mean, college football, I'd say the most common team that people are fans of around here is like Nebraska, the Huskers. A lot of Notre Dame, around here is like nebraska the huskers and a lot of notre dame yeah notre dame and the huskers and then maybe like michigan and ohio state you know kind of some of that other there's like big 10 is just yeah big 10 schools really yeah or whatever team is just really good or texas or oklahoma or yeah it's like no there's not there really no is not extreme no it's not like There's just a melting pot up there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. When it comes to NFL, it really, like, east side of South Dakota

is Vikings fans with some Green Bay fans in there. Yeah. You know, but. See, NFL, I don't know what it is about this state. NFL just doesn't. Well, you have Alabama. Yeah, you have other things. Yeah, right right that's it

alabama and auburn but i you know i mean you got atlanta falcons two hours away from us and then the saints i pull for the saints but i really i can't get into nfl i go to college football i'm sure if we lived in an area like that we would feel that kind of that same thing yeah it's for sure a culture thing yeah okay john so we will see you at the arnold's is that where people can uh stop by mass dynamics booth 524 and they can get your autographs there then oh something like that i don't know who won that but for sure maybe just just bring bring us beers to the to the booth yeah and you're also oh go ahead you're also sponsored with uh by obsidian ammonia too and they've got a booth there this year i believe absolutely i don't know their booth number um they're next to the

cage yeah they're close to the cage and so i'm hoping that benefits them really well i'm i'm super excited because i know i know that you know the arnold's done great for y'all you know just with exposure alone yeah past several years. So I'm excited for Travis and Obsidian to get to the Arnold. And really, I mean, he's such a good dude and runs such a great business. I'm really excited for him to meet people and just get the word out for him and Obsidian. He'll just have to, he'll be in throwing distance of the cage. He's just going to have to throw a bunch of bottles in there. That's all it is.

Launch them over the top and make sure everyone in there is using them. You just got to get enough in there before you get thrown out and throw stuff over the fence. We'll just throw them from a far enough distance nobody can tell who it was. If we could afford to do it, we'd do the same thing with lift shorts, but that would just be insane.

Oh, gosh, man. Could you imagine the mobs that would form if we were just throwing lift shorts into a crowd? Oh man. Chargers inciting a riot. Well, I've heard like rumor has it, you know,

like little Wayne's been trying to get a couple of boxes for his next concert. I can't afford it. So working out the deals. Yeah. It's a lot of money. Yeah. Those stickers. I still haven't got my hand on the stickers yet.

Well, maybe if you're lucky, we know some people at the Arnold. We've got some with your name on it on the Arnold. And the new shirt, we can even talk about the new shirt. We've got the Curl shirt. Because this will come out just kind of while we're there, while we're on the way back. So you'll get your hands on a new Curl shirt too. Have you all mentioned the new hats yet to the people?

Yeah, we have the new lift hats that'll be there. Those will probably sell out at the Arnold, I would imagine. Unless you're at the Arnold. Yeah, they're sweet. Yeah, so we got all that new stuff to check out there. Cinch bags too. Yeah, lift cinch bags. Those might have sold out at the Arnold, I don't know.

My gosh. People need to bring extra money because it's just... Spend everything at the arnold i don't know my gosh people need to bring extra money because it's just spend everything that's arnold that's right damn right well john thanks for coming on we will see you in a couple weeks and we'll uh we'll get you on the podcast again someday here i think too yeah absolutely guys thanks for having me i will see you all in two weeks right on all right see ya cheers guys all right see ya bye bye that was big john big john in two weeks. Right on. Cheers, guys. See you. Bye. That was Big John. Big John. Don't call him Big John for no reason. No, they do not.

He's big and his name's John. Funny how those nicknames go. So the Coors Original Shirt. That's what I like to call it. The Curls Original Shirt. The Curls Original Shirt. Curls. The original bicep builder. Pretty original shirt. The Curl's original shirt. Curl's original. Yeah. Curl's. The original bicep builder.

Yes, the original bicep builder. Pretty sweet shirt. It's a very sweet shirt. I'm excited to get that thing out in the wild. Yeah, we'll be able to wear some when we're at the Arnold and start getting that on people. Excited to see that one walking around. Yeah, this is our first time mentioning it. So, yeah.

I mean, by this point, you've probably seen instagram posts and stuff with it but uh yeah right it's a real thing now so we got another one uh another one so yeah we have that we do have a uh a couple new hat colors out yep um the lift in like a deep navy new era snapback and then like a yeah and the new styles too i should should say. Yeah. New styles and colors. Styles that I've actually had for a long time, but it's the first time we've, uh, made available, uh,

made available, available to the public. So yeah, we got some cool new colors, new styles on hats. If you're at the Arnold, we got cinch bags for you to throw all your stuff in because we saw people that had a lot of stuff last year.

We may have some of those left over. That's possible. We didn't get a ton of them. Those were kind of more of an Arnold item arnold item so uh it's possible there could be some left so if you're hearing this uh you can check on the website and they're probably not they're probably not on there right now but we might get them on there eventually i also don't know how many of the curls shirt we're gonna have left i feel like we're gonna sell quite a few and i think so as a new shirt and a pretty cool one. But maybe there'll be some left. If you're lucky, there'll be some in your size.

If not, we will be ordering more right away when we get back. So within a couple weeks of hearing this, we'd be restocked if we do happen to be out of really anything in your size. Yep. So that's the Arnold and John Oldham in a nutshell. Next time we're talking to you, you'll be hearing more about some of our actual firsthand experiences there, I suppose.

You'll probably be hearing from us on the road, I would think, probably. Yeah, yeah. Right. So we'll be getting a recap. Recap. Then I can complain live about my knee. Instead of imagining how it's going to hurt. Oh, this sucks so bad.

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Thanks to John for hanging out with us here in episode 205. Yep. Make sure to like us on YouTube, like us on Facebook. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, a five-star review. We'll read that for you on air. Buy our stuff in our store, whatever we got left as we're coming home here from the arnold tommy where you at on the instagram you can find me at tomahawk underscore d make sure to follow the official massonomics page at massonomics see you next time