Massenomics Podcast - Ep.207: Lifting in the Age of Corona Virus & Special Guest Jim McDonald

Episode Date: March 23, 2020

The corona virus has flipped the world on it's head... and the lifting world isn't immune to those effects.  What is the fate of strength sports while this goes on? We also bring on special guest Jim McDonald.  Jim is an OG in the space of fitness YouTube and podcasting, so it was really fun hearing his perspective!  Make sure to check him out on his podcast, 50 percent facts. 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/ Texas Power Bars: https://www.texaspowerbars.com/

You know, thanks for what you do with your podcast 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! We're back for episode 207 of the Massonomics podcast, the lifting podcast about nothing. My name is Tanner. And my name is Tommy. And the lifting podcast about nothing is probably really going to get to be about nothing because there's not going to be anything going on about lifting even anymore. You guys thought we lived up to our name for 206 episodes? Wait until this episode starts right uh before we get into all the juicy deets of what's going on in the lifting world or what is or isn't going on

in the lifting world right now we'll hear from our sponsors this episode is brought to you by hybrid performance method they're your one-stop shop for all things fitness and online coaching whether you girls are training related nutrition and body composition 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. Use our discount code MASS, in all caps, for 5% off any training or nutrition memberships for the life of your membership. Visit hybridperformancemethod.com. Today's show is also brought to you by our newest sponsor texas power bars new last week in 1980 buddy caps was on a mission to make the best bar

possible and the texas power bar was born it was strong as a house had the best knurling and it was maintenance free hundreds of state national massonomics international and world power lifting records have been set and can continue to be set and broken on the Texas Power Bar. To learn more about the Texas Power Bars and to buy one of their legendary bars, visit TexasPowerBars.com. The show is also 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, and they are always in stock and ready to ship. Massonomics listeners can save 20% on all Lifting Large branded products. Just make sure to use our discount code MASS20 when you check out there. Today's show 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. Thank you to our sponsors. And if you didn't know, Tommy and I are practicing social distancing. Today, we're not filming in front of a live studio audience like we normally would. We did not sell any tickets to tonight's show. So we didn't want to get our moisterous coughs on anyone else. We're staying away.

That's the term, right? Social distancing? Yeah, that is the term. That's what they're going with these days. What's the distance? I've heard six feet. I've heard ten feet. Six seems to be the number I've heard the most most I haven't spent a ton of time researching it since uh besides this I'm pretty solitary

have you been I have you uh been doing a 14-day quarantine um I'm I'm almost kind of quarantined already I I work from home I work alone so uh a lot of days I should say most days, with the exception of seeing my wife, I don't see anyone. So, and I've actually used that as, I won't say an excuse, but as a way to justify doing even less lately. And I don't think that's wrong. You know, it's probably the right, you know, according to what everyone says, that is the right thing to be doing right now. Probably the best thing that you can be, you know. So, yeah, besides you, Tanner, no one will be coming in and out of our house uh for probably several weeks i was asking you're having all the employees uh work remotely yeah i sent all my employees home for the day so yeah but you do work in an

office i do work in an office and this will be a central topic of today's podcast if you haven't figured out it's it's uh covet 19 coronavirus, because it is just, I mean, it is all anyone is talking about. It is just everyone's life right now in the world. It is. Yeah. At least in our country. Yeah.

I think the world. Yeah. Yeah. I think so. I mean, maybe just in some countries that are, I don't know, I suppose if you're in a third world country, you're like, well, we're not changing our lifestyle. We don't have any choices here. Yeah, but everywhere else,

it is kind of the ruling subject. And I don't think that's news to you if you're listening to this. I would hope that we're not your first people to tell you that. Well, we figured that's why you're coming here. This is your chance to get your most up-to-date one week old COVID-19

information. It's really funny because already last week we're going, you know, there's rumors that they might have March madness in front of no crowds. Like there might not be people that watch March, March madness this year. Little did we know three days later, no one would watch March madness this year.

It is funny though. That's how fat, like one day old information is almost irrelevant when it pertains to this. it is funny though that's how fat like one day old information is almost irrelevant when it pertains to this it is so when we were saying that it's so weird that that was a week ago because so much has happened oh between related to it between pro sports suspending their season none of that had happened last time when we were all college sports being done pretty much any large gathering of people has been canceled the recommendation now is like 10 people or less i think something like that but it is the thought i had is um it does make the arnold

cancellation feel not quite so bad because we that was like yeah very far out that was the first big thing right i still my wife and i were talking about this if the arnold was a week earlier a hundred percent would have happened right oh yeah and and i don't think we would have nobody there if it was a week early nobody nobody would have even thought anything of it i don't think we wouldn't even discuss the coronavirus while we're there i don't think hardly i think it might have came up in passing yeah by yeah but it wouldn't have been a main topic like if it happened this year it would have been the central topic all day, every day. Right.

But yeah, the Arnold was so on the cusp. It was so close. You could even make the argument that if the Arnold happened a few days earlier, it would have happened. Right. I think it would have. Half a week earlier, and I think it would have happened. happened yeah like if the dates magically happened to be march like last year what was it last year like the first of the third i think that's probably i think it was and like if

that was the case this year it would have happened right it does make it feel better though you know it shouldn't really matter where it's just like well everyone is yeah it kind of felt like at the time that we were like getting shafted yeah And now it's like, oh no, everyone's feeling shaft. Everyone's feeling the burn now. Right. To the point where it just things that you would never like, like we said, pro sports being suspended and all college sports. Yeah.

Basically all sports being suspended. Like that, who would have ever thought that would happen? Right. That's certainly never happened in our lifetimes and um i really don't you know i was talking about it with my parents and i you know there's this isn't there has not been something like this in their lifetime you know it's it's it's wild times yeah it's funny to think uh looking back on or looking forward listening to this a week from now how i outdated this will always sound it's like it's like oh dude we're not even allowed to leave the house

now can you believe we recorded a podcast and we're laughing about it and it's probably like something like that is happening you're right yeah you know our future selves aren't aware of what just happened but yeah yeah there's going to be more things more things that we obviously aren't aware of that have changed and happened by the time this came out. So, um, the big effect that it does have on related to what we talk about on the mass dynamics podcast in the lifting world is like all competitions,

two, two things. Number one, competitions like are all canceled everywhere for like the foreseeable future, right? Like, as are any going on,

I, I'm not, if there are, it's it's got talking strongman powerlifting and weightlifting it's got to be something very minor yeah i i think like there's a couple localish meets uh there was one in south dakota that was a in rapid city that one got canceled there's one going to be in north dakota that one got canceled like for the people from our gym that had meets scheduled all of them have been canceled there's no opportunity for them to lift and you know some of those were even out into I think like the last half of April so over a month from now and they were already canceling those I wonder how far out something has to be scheduled for it to have a chance of being held at this point

nobody knows the answer to that sort of thing of like when it's gonna be a change but in my mind anything before june is i don't know and even if it's in june you're kind of like oh yeah maybe yeah yeah i would think that as of right now it seems like the most aggressive answer is if you have an event and like maybe fourthth of July will happen this year. Yeah. Like maybe there'll be, that's a good point. Like that could be the time when things are coming around and that people will

just go absolutely nuts, you know, because like, Oh, we're allowed to have social gatherings. But yeah, that's, I don't know if anything before that will happen.

As far as big meets. I know that shit, the Sheffield meet that we talked about. And that didn't get canceled quite as early, and I saw some of those competitors were still posting, like, oh, Sheffield meet prep, and I was like, dude, you are not doing, like, I guarantee that is not happening. There's a travel ban coming pretty soon. You don't got to worry about that.

Yes. I wonder if World's Strongest Man will end up happening this year because that's an international competition to begin with, and it's a lot of times the habit in foreign countries. I was going to say, you know. Botswana might not be the place you want to go. I was going to say, there's no way that'll happen. But then you remember, they do have crowds of tens of people that go.

So the crowd isn't much, but even just from a competitor standpoint. Yeah, I don't think it would ever get canceled for the crowd reasoning. No. Historically, the numbers aren't there. But yeah, the very dynamic nature of their competitors or diverse nature of their competitors, I could see that being the issue there. Yeah.

And it's World's Strongest Man. It's basically, what do you need, a week? Yeah. I mean, I get people got to train for it but that one seems like you could reschedule that right fairly easily i think so you don't have a huge there's no crowd yeah there's not a uh there's not a um you know they don't the strong men don't have a union where you have to run it by them and clear it through their through their players uh age group to get things going.

So I could see that one being rescheduled and I don't think people would really think twice about that. I think it could be too. And then I think, isn't the Kern, wouldn't that be the one coming up relatively? That's usually like in May-ish. And that one has, well, Big Dogs is canceled. It is canceled, okay.

Yeah, I did see that it's canceled. And I don't think, last I saw the Kern isn't canceled yet, but I would guess. How could it go on? Right, yeah. I don don't know how and then the other one i wondered is let's see usap nationals that's usually in like october when's worlds is worlds coming before that or has worlds already i'm worlds is be next worlds would be the next thing yeah yeah world is pretty soon here yeah because i well i don't know when yeah a few months out so that

would be the next thing like i think i think all ipf events are suspended and postponed for now though okay i believe i thought i saw their president saying everything is off for now okay because i saw like ray williams you know he said sheffield's canceled so some people asked him if he's going to try and do some other meet or something and he said nope now a training for world starts but if you're even that it's like well as ipf world's going to happen yeah i i the way i understood it is all ipf is canceled are off like they're not happening at the moment so yeah so basically the the one like common thread that we try to have this podcast be about lifting in the strength world that world doesn't exist right now right like that world is

limited to um even even a lot of gyms well that was my that was my point too is that um a contest are not happening now be like nationwide gym closures is like a i bet uh you know if you what percentage of our audience listeners do you think have their normal gym that's closed? I bet it's like half. I think that by the time they're hearing this, I would assume at least half. If not more, yeah. If not more by the time they're hearing this. And that's kind of a big deal. All the people that listen to our show are probably pretty into lifting, I have to assume.

Otherwise, it's like, why have we gotten you here? It's just the right amount of white noise to just keep my mind zoned out. I quit lifting like three years ago, but I just keep, I don't know, it just comes on on Monday and I just turn it on. It's kind of like, why is the office still on? You know, it's the same thing.

It's just comforting enough. I actually forgot to look up at it in like three episodes i'm still playing but i can't turn it off you know uh but that that's a really big deal for a lot of people now i think and it's well definitely yeah because um what do they do yeah what do you do uh scott dodds mentioned to me that was it his town or his or the state of Michigan that all gyms were closed is the wording he used well I've served we're in South Dakota so South Dakota is the is the last to do anything like well we are way more and as far as this goes we are way more isolated than uh we are we also are not testing like anybody right i say it was there like 10 cases the

confirmed it was like 10 cases i guess we've tested maybe a couple hundred people but as far as a percentage goes we're we're way way way behind yeah i mean the country i think you could say in general is behind uh yeah the standards when it comes to actually testing but um yeah like i'm starting to see uh i've just seen today a few people say and like even minnesota like i think the governor has put a mandate down that you know restaurants and bars yeah things like that are closing so um will that ever happen here pretty hard to say like it's just because that's kind of not typically how our government rolls but i also wouldn't be surprised if it happens either no it, it just depends on how, like how,

yeah. You know, how much while, just like what we're talking about a week, it could be a way different landscape. It's like, Oh yeah. 10 more cases pop up in the next couple of days in our state.

That would be probably enough to get people alarmed and for orders to start coming down of things being closed. But yeah, yeah, it is what, you know, I'm using this time and we'll, we'll talk more about this later, Tanner.

I'm actually taking just a slight break from the gym. I got my copy of The Back Mechanic. And I'm using this. By Stu McGill. Yeah, I'm using this as my chance to. You know what? I will take a slight break. Quit picking that scab.

I'll read The Back Mechanic. Get all educated. And maybe when this thing blows over or whatever time that might be, I'll come back feeling like a million bucks. Yep. Well, it probably is the best time possible to do that. I mean, there's not going to be another scenario where everyone is encouraged to stay home for, you know. It's the only time I can do it somewhat guilt-free. It's still not guilt-free, but it it's you feel like there's a slight justification like i'm not as far as i can't be wronged for go for not no i i agree and as far as our town goes

like some um i think only one gym has well no no well one company of gyms has closed down the why oh oh yeah because they they have big daycare and all this stuff and they kind of followed suit with the schools when the schools were closed but like the other commercial uh or um are all going i think so yeah none of them have closed but i would still not be surprised if they do end up closing like i wouldn't anytime like and i i feel like it could be a corporate decision i believe the ones in town here are all franchises uh or franchisees but but if it was a corporate decision i think maybe they would still have to close. I would assume you do.

I don't think you have completely a way to do whatever you want as a franchisee. So I could picture that happening still for the snap fitnesses and anytime fitnesses and that sort of thing. Or like you said, maybe it's just like by the governor. The governor says all gyms should be closed but then it's like well who's going to come tell me to close my gym as someone that runs it i mean much different than these gyms that have hundreds of people coming in and elderly people and stuff like that but i'm like who literally is going to

enforce who is going to enforce any of that actually yeah like who literally is going to enforce who is going to enforce any of that actually yeah like who is actually going to this is where it always gets into like the weird gray area like yeah how much can the government right people what to do right yeah this is where the conspiracy theorists really like to come out and well if it's not martial law and there's not like army soldiers roaming the streets like i know people are going to continue to go get food at mcdonald's and yeah you know the only one it comes back to is if there were to be an outbreak you don't it'd look pretty bad for any person if they could somehow trace it back well you were helping contribute to the spread and i think that's also the position a lot of

businesses are taking is it looks really bad from a PR perspective to be like, well, now we made people really buckle down. And now 50% of our workforce is out because we took that hard-nosed approach and it really bit us in the butt. And we look dumb and we have sick people. I don't think anyone wants to be in that situation. Yeah, there's like a lot of tough calls for a lot of business owners though, too. Like of what, what to do at this point, because it's like, do we shut down our business now? Like I'm very happy that I don't have employees in an office and people depending on me on payroll, depending on me for payroll, like it's just, I'm glad I don't have to make those decisions right now like my biggest decision is

if i have a meeting hey can we move that meeting to just be a phone call or something right that's that's the only thing i gotta worry about from a working standpoint right and i like it that way yeah that that that is like some really crappy calls for a lot of people right now i think and it's also like costing those owners a ton of freaking money. There will be, depending on how long it goes, like there will be people that go out of business because of this. I don't think that's crazy to say. Yeah, I don't think that's unreasonable to think at all.

That being said, I mentioned this before we recorded, in our fitness space, I've noticed at least one or a couple of companies that have said that business has been great for them because of this. Like Rep Fitness, for example, who sells a lot of companies that have said that business has been great for them because of this rep like rep fitness for example who sells a lot of home gym equipment yeah say their shipping times are way long right now because they're experiencing a huge influx of orders yep and i hadn't really thought about that it makes a lot of sense that people are like are because we were talking about we've got maybe 50 of our lifters that no longer have a place to lift. And they're like, well, shoot, this is going to go on at least a week or two that I'm probably not going to be able to get to that gym.

What if it goes on two months? Yeah. Yeah. Maybe I should just buy a $500 rack at home, $200 barbell. You know, maybe I'll spend $1,000 and have something that I can start using in a week. Yeah. Yeah. have something that i can start using in a week yeah yeah that's and and usually if you're a person like that you already have something in the back of your mind like just something give

me an excuse give me give me a reason you know i can justify it with my wife you know some people are like oh you know i it might be a little unreasonable but i did it yeah it's like the same thing it's like god it'd be nice to get an but I did it. It's like the same thing. It's like, God, it'd be nice to get an echo bike for the garage and a few plates. But it's like, what am I thinking? I don't want that. I don't want to deal with that at my house. But I totally, that is like that slippery slope of like, well, yeah, I probably should.

And then it's like, well, all right, now I need one more thing and another thing. And then you're $2,000 in. and then it's like well all right now i need one more thing and another thing and yeah then you're two thousand dollars in but apparently a lot of people are doing it because i just saw right before this that rep put out a post that apologizing for shipping times in advance because they are like working as much as they can but they are have a huge influx of orders yeah i thought that's interesting that uh yeah i i wouldn't have thought of that right away but it does make sense yeah and uh garage gym lifters around the world are laughing right now at the whole thing like ha they're rejoicing yeah and they're lonely little holes yeah they're they're rejoicing all by themselves

like always is not meant for socializing in any way it's purely meant for lifting but so do you think that uh with no competitions going on and that sort of thing what are people going to do are is there just going to be a whole bunch of gym prs going on you know because a lot of people were peaking for a meet right now i think you'll see some gym prs um like how many i i don't know like because i feel like a lot of those people too at the same time are like well i'm still saving my prs cause I feel like a lot of those people too, at the same time, we're like, well, I'm still saving my peers for the platform. Right. A lot of those people will have that mentality. Yeah.

Some people are fans of the, you know, the, the YOLO lifting, but I'm not sure if there's a ton of that out there. No, especially the highest level people. They want to do it. The highest level. But for all your average people, like any of us, like if I was, had been prepping for a meet and like putting in the work and stuff i'm like well screw it i'm gonna do it at the gym because it's gonna yeah i would better than not you know i would just max out over the course of

a week yeah all right for sure that week like so there probably will be an extreme increase in maxing out in the gym i would think assuming you have a gym that allows that true that's true the one caveat there yeah yeah that a gym that you that. Ah, true. That's true. The one caveat there. Yeah. Yeah, a gym that you can even go to whatsoever. That does make it more helpful for POs, for sure. Unless you've got that new rep rack. That's true.

Making its way in the mail. Yes, yes. Mastodonics gym hasn't closed down. Have you reached out to any representatives at Titan Fitness to see how business is going over there? I don't know. I suppose it's going. I bet they're all, I bet Rogue and everyone is cashing in on it

to a certain degree. I also got to assume, you got to think that UPS and those places are crazy busy right now, right? I think so for sure. People are like, all right, I'm home, nothing to do. I am online shopping and anything that I do need anyways, I'm just going to have someone bring it to me. And at work, we've made a a conscious effort like sometimes like as far as signing documents we're doing more of that via the mail right now than we would having any face-to-face uh uh meetings just to avoid avoid the herbie hand kind yeah i guess so yeah yeah that's right sometimes i get conflicted how i feel about it. Sometimes I'm like, okay,

how over, like how over the top are we going to take it on things? And then I'm like, well, I guess if everyone is doing a few things, there should be that many less interactions between all people. But then I'm also like, well,

but also like I had to go to the store the other day. There was probably a thousand people in there within the hour that I was in there. It's like just that one scenario. Like, oh, that's why I like, I just get confused. Stores and restaurants to me are kind of like scary areas right now. Cause all of the people coughing and touching on things like, right. That just seems like a, and i'm not like a germ guy at all but now is the first time i like thinking yeah where those are kind of gross places that's

right that's where i get where i'm like well i can do these couple things to avoid like these three people but then i have to we have to have groceries yep um and like just just like you're you're avoiding these three people but then you're getting in front of 400 yeah it's like i know it's you know it's tricky well and yeah you just realize like how life is not set up to accommodate these type of things at all right but you know we are set up to accommodate tanner i would like you to tell me uh a cam segment all right is this uh well we'll do a little hold the covet 19 very uh very light on that uh we will do a well you don't want to be like the uh what the jazz player you know kind of started the whole thing where he was touching all the mics did you see that uh oh

is it rudy gobert is that his name oh that sounds familiar to me oh the utah jazz player i thought you were talking i thought you were talking about a um a jazz player and it was touching micro a literal jazz player yeah yeah actually yeah talking about playing jazz and microphones they do go together can you get that flavor i feel like you might get this one tanner just cracked into a crispy cold boy over here um will he guess what it is you know i did uh incidentally see the color of the can so that's kind of like yeah that might make me a lot but that might make things uh pretty easy in this situation um since it's since i know that it's yellow i can't help but say that it's lemon, no matter what I taste right now.

You are correct. Yeah, because I can see it. I was really hoping. It's extremely yellow. I was like, please, please, please don't say banana. That would really show how poorly flavored these are if I wasn't. I was going to say, man,

either this thing tastes like nothing or you don't have taste buds, Tanner. Orange, you glad I didn't say banana? Yeah. This is a lemon buble. Pretty good. Yeah. I can say now, after having multiple bubles,

that the flavor is much more intense than a LaCroix. I agree. Without a doubt. From this taste test that we've done over the past year. Yeah, this almost tastes like the lemon drop candy. Yeah. Yeah, it does. Whereas to us, I think I got you several times with the lemon lacroix where you thought it was like more of a sprite flavor yeah yeah this is more this is more if this is a

stronger lemon flavor for sure almost tart yeah right tasty oh yeah should i uh should we read some ads and get our guest of guest of honor on the show let me uh before we do that i i did have this review that i had to read so this maybe is a good chance good opportunity to get that in and i teased do you remember i teased this last week this is a good one my words were that i have to try to read this. And now I have read this once or twice, and it's going to be a challenge. And I believe this is what he had in mind when he wrote this. And this is from Big Miles Huffman. And he even says, this one's for you, Tanner.

And he spells my name with one N. Perfect. People have been doing that, spelling our names wrong. I don't know if that's a trending thing. I don't know. I think he's doing it on purpose. I think some other people have been too because they said T-O-M-I for you.

Five stars. And Miles says, Masonomics sparingly sprinkles in speeches from sponsors that supposedly support sports performance. Despite their surprisingly sparse snippets of supplement supplier segments, the boys remain the spiciest, crispy boy LaCroix assessors exploiting the podcast platform. Sustain these professional shakedown schemes by excessively purchasing the swankiest, priciest shorts, stickers shorts stickers signage and shirts in

the solar system silliness aside seriously speaking 10 of 10 would recommend like comment smash that subscribe wow got like a lyricist over here that was pretty impressive that was very good and you know that is a play on me saying that support sports performance and the spud incline. I complained that that was hard. So he was challenging me there. I would have a hard time believing that anyone has put much more thought into one than that.

That had to have taken a while. Like, what? I bet he had the thesaurus out. Unless he's just that good at writing that it's just like, all right, I can do this, no problem. But that is impressive. And it really does test me because when I was in grade school, I don't know if I've said this on the podcast before,

but I had to go to speech therapy for my S's. You said that. I don't know if that was on the podcast or if you told me personally, but I do know I have a S. So this is actually like really hits home. Oh, it was really, really life uh lifelong problem of mine well a lot of emotions having to say all those 30 years ago that wouldn't have been a fun one to read yeah partly because you know four-year-old three-year-old wants to read that ever but now look what you could do yep

look at me now mom look at me now speech therapist from second grade whose name i can't remember oh they would have been proud well thank you for that podcast review miles that was that was excellent that was excellent today's super today's show is brought to you by spud ink and the two-ply deadlift belt deadlifting in traditional leather belts just sucks tighten it to where you need it and it cuts into your stomach or stops you from reaching the bar loosen it up and it doesn't give you the support you need the spud ink deadlifter belt is made from soft flexible two-ply or three-ply webbing that has enough give to stay out of your way but as tough as any leather belt you've ever worn the velcro strap and

ring make tightening and loosening this belt effortless while the industrial strength velcro keeps it tight while you lift check out the spudding deadlift belt online at spud-ink-straps.com and you probably see a strong man or two sporting that belt. That's where you'll probably see that one most commonly. If we ever see a strong man sporting anything again. If you ever see a, ever again, that's where you have probably seen it before.

Today's show was also brought to you by Texas Power Bars. Buddy Caps first started lifting weights in the late 60s and began powerlifting in the mid-70s. At the time, he was working for Image Barbell building gym equipment. Around 1976, a local machine shop started making Olympic bars for them, calling it the Image Bar. In 1977, Image Barbell became Champion Barbell. It was then that Buddy started looking at the bars with an intent of changing them for the better. In 1979, Buddy bought his first first lathe

and began addressing the known issues in 1980 his passion drive and purpose now had a greater mission buddy set out on his own to make what he believed was the greatest bar he had ever seen and trained with and the texas power bar was born it was strong as a house with the best knurling and was maintenance free hundreds of state national best knurling and was maintenance free. Hundreds of state, national, international, massonomics and world powerlifting records have been and continue to be set and broken on the Texas Power Bar. To learn more about Texas Power Bars and buy one of their legendary bars, visit TexasPowerBars.com.

Cannot leave out massonomics records. I love how Texas Power Bars included that in their ad. It's very, very thoughtful of them, but they know we're repping those bars. Today's show is also brought to you by Lifting Large. Lifting Large sets the new standard for strength service within the... Let me start that over. Lifting Large sets the new standard for customer service, not strength service. I think they do set the standard for strength service, too.

That's true. They have very strong service. they do have strong service so we're talking about strong customer service within the strength world oh that could have been in miles's exactly yeah get email responses from lifting large in hours not days they now have live website chat support available during the weekdays so you can get advice from a real power lifter 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 home to the ground lock deadlift slipper and it's always in stock and

always ready to ship massonomics listeners can save 20% on all Lifting Large branded products by using discount code MASS20 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 Large, D-O-T-C-O-M. And last but not least, this episode is brought to you by 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 M mass in all caps

for five percent off membership to all programs for the life of your membership thank you to our sponsors thank you sponsors so now we're going to call our special guest yes sir who has remained nameless up to this point in time i mean unless you read the episode of this title unless you read the title of this episode you have no idea who we're calling right now they're probably going to read it right now oh crap

did you guys order line with your corona Jim we were actually calling to let you know that your test results are in and you have the COVID-19. We're sorry to inform you. No, I was hoping for the COVID-20, but then I'm guilty, I guess. Always one-upping everyone. Yeah, I try to do that. It doesn't usually work out.

We were fully planning on flying you into Aberdeen, South Dakota for this episode, but the whole social distancing thing, sorry about that. Well, I would probably have a whole plane to myself, though, wouldn't I? Pretty much. Probably would. That's true, yes. Good point. So how quarantined are you at this point? I have heard that maybe the Bay Area in California is a little more severe at this point is how Sacramento.

As of today, we are being encouraged to shelter in place. So, and so that's what we're doing basically. What better time to do a telephone podcast, right? Yeah, exactly. Actually, you know, I had people in my house doing an episode of my show with Silent Mike today. And it's like afterwards, I don't know where to burn my house down. I wiped everything down with alcohol, you know, in the hope it was bourbon. But, you know, you know how that goes.

Yeah, close enough. How goes. Yeah. Close enough. Uh, how, how much curious, um, we, we made the comment, we were talking about how we discuss discussing the coronavirus a little bit here. We also did last week, but just how completely irrelevant everything we say is, uh, you know, five to seven days later when this episode comes out, were you guys discussing it much on your show? It's just kind of funny just of funny just yeah how late this information is by the time it actually goes out yeah we did discuss it in the episode that'll go up for tomorrow so it won't be so okay you know you know how it is it's just it's changing hour by hour right now we had uh our our guest was uh our friend uh fat. Oh yeah, definitely.

So he he's got a side hustle where he has a security business and essentially they do security for bars and nightclubs and so of course there's none of that going on as of right now. Right. But we did get to talk about precautions they were taking over the last few days that they were actually

able to work. So he has plenty of time to podcast then too. He has plenty of time to podcast. He's got a nine to five too, but he's off today. Okay. Thankfully, he didn't quit his job. Yeah. And I was going to say, you know, we kind of jumped the gun here, Jim. Why don't you go ahead and tell the listeners, in case they're not familiar with you,

who you are and what they might know you from. I'm just the guy looking at the internet and asking for love. That's all I got. No, I was one of the founding members of a gym that I don't go to anymore. members of a gym that I don't go to anymore. Uh, I probably am the godfather of, of, of voiceover for fitness YouTube videos. Uh, as a matter of fact, I just, uh, just last night released the DVDs that we did on, um back in 07 and 08 on my youtube channel which is uh jim mcd1234 and so you can check those out for free people used to pay for those and now not anymore uh i created for 2013 created a podcast that got very, very successful that ended in 2018. And I now have a new show. Actually, it's a little over a year old now, with one of my original co-hosts, Mr. Silent Mike, Michael Farr.

And on that show, which is a little different than the previous incredibly successful show, we take a single question, a health fitness related question, a business sometimes, and we try to answer it ourselves without doing any research. And then we bring in an expert, the best expert we can find, or whoever will take our calls, calls. And, uh, they tell us kind of what we got right and what got wrong. And, uh, and that's me. Uh, yeah, I guess one of the things is I, I started powerlifting when I was over 40, which I don't necessarily recommend, but, but I did it anyway. And are you, are you 50 yet? Yeah. Yeah? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Absolutely. Yeah. Yep. Yes, you are. I'm past the midpoint. Okay. You know how you, I think I listened to, I probably maybe listened to all your episodes of 50% facts. You know, Tommy and I both listened to your prior podcast.

We listened to that pretty extensively. That was actually maybe the, your old one was maybe the first podcast I ever listened to. I know for a fact it was the first podcast I ever listened to. That was going back to 14 or. It was before that even for me. I mean, it was a long time. I mean, that was before, you know,

the podcast game has changed so much even in the last couple of years. I mean, when you start going back to like, you know, 2013 ish, a lot of people didn't even know what the word was. Right, right. That's I think that that's very true, too. Yeah, we started in September of 2013 and Serial, the Serial podcast hit about a year later. OK. And it got stupid. Serial, the Serial podcast, hit about a year later. Okay. And it got stupid. But that show was actually very popular from the get-go for a number of reasons,

some of which are mechanical to the way search works on the Internet, and particularly on iTunes at the time. Now they call it Apple Podcasts. Right. But we had some structural advantages that we didn't realize going in. And it was a lot of fun until the last year when Mike left.

And it got to be a grind at that point. And at that point, it's not fun to do it. Yeah, it got less fun to do it because um for a variety of reasons let's just say people ask me all the time and i don't really have a good answer i don't have a good short answer for that question well and that's uh we're not we weren't planning on asking you too much about that because we know that um i'd say it's probably at least even consciously on your part that you never, I don't think you ever really delved into that very much. And probably purposely, I mean, would you say that that's the case as you kind of wanted to leave that more private?

Yeah, for the most part, that's true. um yeah for the most part that's true i will i will share this however that um uh i don't know if you guys are familiar with jordan arbinger he's got a enormous podcast right now and he actually started another podcast originally with a couple of partners called the art of charm and then they they screwed him pretty hard no i i heard you had him on your podcast, didn't you? Or on your show you talked about conversations with him. I talked about it, yeah. Because I know what you're going to say, but I'll shut up now to let you talk.

But yeah, I did hear you explaining this a little bit. I think it's interesting. Yeah, he was in a position that he could go on other people's podcasts and talk about what happened and say, you know, don't patronize those people. They're not good folks. And I did not do that. And so I was actually able to ask him directly last August. I saw him and said, like, I know you went on a bunch of people's podcasts and you really like laid in put them on blast partners was was that worth it and he said fuck yes it was

and you know it's a different position that uh fitness is pretty small and uh and who knew um who wouldn't who would know how people would react to it. I don't need any negativity. I don't need to get into the details. It just very much can say that it didn't end very well. Right. And I'm happier now. That's fair. That's fair because that was going to be what my one question would be is,

you know, does a part of you, and I'm sure a part of you does wish that you would have done that. Just to what he did, run around and even maybe not necessarily speaking negative of other people that much but just even more explaining your story more. I don't know. There has to be part of you that thinks that I would think. You know, there are times I think it would be cathartic,

but hey, this is why I have a therapist. It's literally, yeah. Part of the reason why it ended was that I actually started going to a therapist because I was developing anxiety over the situation. to a therapist because I was developing anxiety over the situation. And, you know, he was able to, let's just say that had I not gone to therapy, it would have been harder. Yeah.

Well, and you have your own podcast now, so there's got to be a certain amount of freedom and just relaxation with doing your own thing, right? Oh, yeah. No, for sure. um mike is exceedingly easy to work with and always has been he was my first first choice my first co-host choice choice on that previous podcast i had uh you know just kind of done some youtube stuff with him and he and i um and a couple of other people did some YouTube cooking stuff, just not particularly fitness-related stuff.

And so I kind of knew what his strengths were, what he could bring to the table. And so working with him is easy. Talking on the podcast is super easy. You know how terrible it is if you don't have that. If you don't have that flow. Tommy and I hate each other. So it's a surprise that we've made it to episode 207.

It's not a labor of love in any way. Well, yeah, with the first show we made it to 254. So I would just like to watch the calendar very closely. Next year, near the time. It's a ticking time bomb. Isn't that crazy to think of, you know, the number of hours that you've, you know, that are out there that are recorded that are kind of they're available forever.

It's it's it's there's a lot. Oh, yeah, there's 254 audio episodes. There are 230 isish video episodes. Most of those multi-camera. All of that I did myself. Really, 100% of it was no. It's a lot of work. People don't realize it.

It is a lot of work. Yeah, and there's a reason why we haven't really... Until very recently now, I have a setup, a multi-camera setup that can be live switched. So you don't have to revisit. You don't have to re-watch the whole thing. Yeah, that would be great. If you don't mind me asking quick, what do you use for cameras right now? I have had for a very long time a Sony AX100 that is the center camera and was the center camera for most of the episodes of the old show.

And then I have two Sony AX33s. They're video cameras and not DSLRs I was using a DSLR for a while and even with a software hack it still to restart it the 30 minute stop time yeah

even with that it was a pain it looked great but it was a pain that's good to know because we're pretty happy with where our audio equipment's at but we have talked we we do put these all on youtube um we used to do multi-cam but uh and that was edited in post so it does suck you know that you go just like you said watching the whole thing again basically and deciding when to make the switches so it's not completely random and so it has some flow and makes some sense. There's some serious

work involved with that. That switch on the fly thing is cool though. I could see how that would be a pretty cool tool to have and save some time really in the long run. Yeah, it does. Mike's camera guy, Connor, actually sits there most of the time now. We've only done it for a couple of weeks, honestly, that all the equipment's been here. And then I had a studio for a while. I was renting an office in the building, and I decided to bring everything home for now.

And so I have a loft in our bedroom that's where where i am at the moment everything's all crammed in here um but uh uh it's working out relatively well the the acoustics are not as prime as they were in the uh in the office but it's not bad yeah so i got i got one one comment for you so you have a fairly, I like the, uh, I like the format of your show. You know, you guys take the first half to kind of just talk and think things out and just say whatever's on your mind. You know, the second half is when that expert can come in and, uh, and, uh, explain what you guys had right, had wrong. Uh, one suggestion, if you guys don't bring in the expert, that's kind of what we do. We just, talk for an hour about whatever you want, and then you don't even have to worry about someone else explaining anything.

You can just leave it at that. It makes things easy. Well, last week's episode was exactly like that. It was just me and Mike. We were supposed to be connecting with Bart Kwan, and he had apparently too much stuff going on and and was never able to to connect with us and then um then today's episode we actually brought uh um fat dan into for the whole episode so um we did pose a question to him but we didn't really we didn't really pontificate too much about our own thoughts about it um we just asked him like i said about balancing in the age of coronavirus one and and

and really liked about just about how how his job works and we talked about a bunch of other shit too which there's a point at which i think that we're going to um we'll probably um of it we're going to we'll probably um split between highly formatted episodes and um totally broken format episodes uh for the fun of it and it is not always easy to get uh the experts on the phone and it's not always easy to come up with a topic that's going to resonate and all that stuff so yeah uh we know how to just talk but we've already done that and so yeah yeah you do have a lot of hours of that that is for sure yeah we got like yeah exactly a ton we've got a library of congress yeah so you are you called yourself kind of the godfather of at least in the the voiceover of fitness youtubing i would say maybe in some of the lifting youtube

in general and also like we talked about the podcasting element here too uh one of the one of the first really doing that what would you say about um any like a quick couple points of advice for anyone that wants to specifically start a podcast about lifting in 2020 a should they do it uh and b what if they are hoping to do it and hoping to make money doing it um a unless you have something unique to say probably not yeah that's fair i think just because there are so many you know it's just um and it's gotten the market's gotten very fragmented for it. And so people are only going to listen to what they agree with. So, um, if you, if you want to have kind of a wide range, wide ranging discussion,

uh, that there's a lot of different points to find an audience. And in terms of making money, um, we haven't made the time with this new show, the old show toward the end did quite well um we have done have done ads we work with a company called uh audio boom that does ad sales for us so we're actually on a little bit of a break with them right now just just because you know it reading ads kind of it does get tiring after a while but we're more maybe going to start doing some more direct ads um you know working directly with companies

instead of working through an agency because we get sent stuff some stuff sometimes it doesn't really mesh with our audience and then uh they have expectations about what uh you know what kind of results yeah and it's yeah and they i mean they never share that stuff with you uh other than if they're not happy right and like i can't do anything about it if you don't tell me about it and if the science seems to show that people need three contacts with an advertiser before they are even thinking about making a purchase decision. And if I'm running two ads or they're really far apart or whatever, you know, and the last person's name is... It's just not enough to convert. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah. Exactly. So it's a difficult game in that regard. Exactly. So it's a difficult game in that regard. I think it's much easier if you're going into it and you already have a product of your own that your sales are propping up, which is one of the things that we did somewhat unintentionally. But for someone who, you know, anyway. Maybe it didn't help you out that much in the long run. Not so much. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Right.

And I've, you know, for our listeners here, I don't know that necessarily know this, but I've, I've over the years with us having our podcast, I've here and there asked you several questions over the past years and you've been really helpful with us here. And I, a lot of that advice you gave there is things that I know you've said to me in the past when past but we do have sponsors on our show. Specifically the part like shut it down Tanner. He's like don't do it you idiots.

Well I told Michael Fahey not to make West Side vs. The World but I also gave him the name. On balance. That kind of is your blessing. Yeah right. But we did take the approach a, we sell our own stuff and it's very valuable for that. But then the sponsors we have started

working with now are very, uh, they mesh perfectly with us, I think. And you know, then they're in our same niche and it just makes a lot of sense and it's just direct contacts with them. And that is probably the route that makes the most sense for us. And that was, you know, partly from your advice. And I think that that, that really worked well.

I think that that's the same advice I would give someone else if they ask a similar question. Well, I'm glad that worked out. So we're basically, we're filthy rich now. I mean, we're just,

we're swimming in money over here. This podcast is just so lucrative. We're going to start like three more beating around the bush to money over here. This podcast is just so lucrative. We're going to start like three more. Beating around the bush to the point here. I have endless numbers of ideas for podcasts. I only have so many that could potentially make money.

Yeah, right. Tommy, unless you got something else, we do have a special game that we like to have our guests play. It's our overrated, underrated game, Jim. Do you think you would be down? We do have a special game that we like to have our guests play. It's our overrated, underrated game, Jim. Do you think you would be down? We have a special Jim McD version of overrated, underrated for you today.

I'm very down. Alright, perfect. I don't understand how the druthers thing works. It is key. You said druthers, so we do know that you are really aware of overrated, underrated. That's the key. All that someone has to do is just say the word druthers so we do know that you are really aware of overrated underrated that's the key all that someone has to do is just say the word druthers and we know that they're familiar it is like the password i mean really it is uh we have a secret base of druthers would be the

password right awesome if there's a handshake you'll have to show me handshakes were actually on last week's overrated underrated so. We can't shake hands anymore, though. They're on pause for a few months. Elbow bumps, perhaps. Okay, Jim. Overrated or Underrated topic number one. Podcast reviews. Oh, I think that they're underrated.

I think most of us are exposed to them. So, my question. We always say, what do they matter for? We encourage them very much all the time. When there's that social proof aspect, do they bump you up if you have more rankings or anything like that that you know of? They are not supposed to, according to what i hear what i hear is the rankings are based off of um new subscriptions okay and uh download velocity okay however however um the i mean this my new show is built on the ashes of the old show's feed. Right.

And so there are still, you know, well, well over 1500 reviews sitting there and they're still there. That's a lot. We, we, we appear as like, you know, like all time best fitness podcasts. Oh yeah. And I think it's because of that so in terms of the rankings probably not in terms of the way that they treat you probably so yeah that makes sense yeah i can i'll buy that and you're fine oh go ahead yeah plus people need to be able to you know a show and and and and read a review it's a little y Yelp-y, but whether or not they'd want to actually listen.

Yep, I'll have what he's having. And all that being said, make sure to go to Apple Podcasts and leave 50% facts, a five-star review, and the Masanomics podcast, a five-star review. There you go. Double header. Yes.

Topic number two, overrated or underrated IPAs? I'm going to say overrated. Overrated, huh? So are you an IPA guy? I used to be, but it has to be a really good one now for me to be interested in. And I am more down with the hazy style currently than the West Coast IPA. I only live on the West Coast, but I've had a lot of West Coast IPAs at this point. Yep. Okay. Okay. Do you have a particular hazy IPA you would make a recommendation on?

I'm terrible with names. To be fair, I feel like once you get into the hazy IPA territory, the names are always like 10 words. Yeah. Hazy is one of them. That's the one common thread. Okay.

You did say overrated IPAs. I did say overrated. Overrated or underrated YouTube fitness channels? Okay. And you did say overrated IPAs. Okay. I did say overrated. All right. Overrated or underrated YouTube fitness channels? Pretty much have to be overrated. I mean, 2012, 2013, 2014, not overrated. They were underrated. By now, they're pretty overrated.

And I don't spend a lot of time watching them anymore. so i'm not an expert on what's really out there anymore i used to be more so yeah i think a lot of us probably so much of the same over and over and over is just really the problem in my opinion yeah and some of the some i'm aware that some people do the same thing over and over and over and over again and maybe things i used to do that they're doing over and over again but anyway okay last topic maybe the most important one for today overrated or underrated costco uh costco is currently overrated. Costco is typically a little underrated, I think, but currently overrated.

The lack of toilet paper anywhere is a problem. And they could have controlled that. They could have said one bundle per unless you've got a resale license, right? Or diarrhea. Or diarrhea. If you can prove it. If you have diarrhea. If you blow up our

bathroom if you make us bring in the hazmat to clean the bathroom after you're there i think that's a pretty fair policy yeah and see we we don't we don't have costco here in the dakota so we're relying on your sage advice of uh if you ever come across right how the hell do you not have costco we actually we do have the closest The closest one is a short 200 miles away. Oh, that's all. So you're not going there for gas, is what you're saying? Yeah, just a little out of the way. We usually go to the one that's 100 miles out of the way.

And what was the final ruling though on Costco though you said Costco is currently overrated overrated okay good enough okay that is our overrated underrated segment Jim we'll give you one more chance to let people know about 50% facts

and everywhere everyone can and should find you at you can find me pretty much anywhere at the T-H-E, Jim McD, pretty much all the social media. And the show is 50% Facts, where percent is a word. We're on Twitter,

where nobody pays any attention there, and Instagram, where I don't pay enough attention, but that's another thing altogether. You can also find us on all the platforms except SoundCloud because they suck. Yeah, that is good to know. We do appreciate you coming on, Jim.

And like I said before, we appreciate just, you know, you blazing a trail a little bit. We probably wouldn't have a podcast had it not been for you. I think that that's not unreasonable to say. So thank you for that. Yep, thank you. Well, you're very welcome.

And we will be talking to you again sometime. Tell Silent Mike that we'd like to get him on someday. Put a bug in his ear for us. Yeah, I'll do that. No problem at all. He's pretty amenable to being on my cast. We'll see. You didn't really say anything bad about him. We'll see if we can get him to say anything bad about you.

He probably won't. We have a really good relationship. Well, that's what you're saying now. We'll see after he runs you down on here. It could all end. All right. Thanks, Jim. Thanks, Jim. Thanks for having me on, guys. It could all end. Alright, thanks Jim. Thanks Jim. Thanks for having me on guys. Alright, bye.

Jim McD. That was Jim. They don't call him the Jim McD for no reason. Wow, that takes me back to, like we said, the pretty much first podcast i ever listened to it is weird to say that a year like 2013 and then now that it's 20 so like seven years ago

that's a long time podcasts were a thing back then i i that was the first podcast i listened to and i think maybe i don't i think maybe you listened to it first and you told me about it i remember discussing telling you at the i think the conversation was something like tanner do you have you ever listened to podcasts and i think you're like no and i said i just started listening to mark bell's podcast and i knew who mark yeah then he was still very active on youtube then so everyone knew shouldn't say everyone but i think most people familiar with lifting were familiar with you know his youtube channel and all the guys they would always kind of be trying to plug the podcast yeah and one day

i was like oh i should look into this podcast thing and then uh i mean it wasn't long after that that everyone we knew was listening to that podcast you know yeah i remember so that was 2013 maybe it was 2012 or maybe it was even earlier in 20 maybe six months before this i was in uh it was at work and we were doing like a manager project thing, almost like this, almost like a project you do in college. It was like part of like a class thing we were doing at work where you're with other peers and you're like thinking up thing, these ideas to help the company. Also like you're like coming up with these creative ideas and how you'd execute them, stuff like that. Things that no one will ever do. Yeah. Yeah.

Yes. Ah, yes. Those meetings. Yes, yes. When we used to have more time to do that, and that's not the case anymore. But one of the things we were working on is, like, getting more messages out to the customers, you know, getting our message out better. And one of the girls girl a woman in the group

i remember her suggestion was oh we could have a you know a podcast for the company and at the time i remember thinking like what like i honestly remember that like i didn't verbalize it but i remember thinking that is the dumbest idea i've heard today and kind of at that time it would have yeah right right right well i was like and uh a majority of our audience for the the company that company is older yeah and this is at the time when I was 25 or something like that and to me I was like that is stupid yeah yeah wow I but also it's just yeah it was it really was even i was now it wouldn't be it wouldn't be crazy now it would be a little weird because of who our audience that audience is but like it wouldn't be crazy at all no no it'd be like oh yeah that would surprise me go figure you got

one like everyone else yeah yeah now the thing is like jim said is can you say anything unique and i i mean i don't know if we're exactly saying anything unique but no but we have been around for four years we have been around for four years and we consistently put stuff out. Yeah, I think a lot of people. That's our secret sauce. So you're not that we have to do it too. We're just just have half a decade and don't stop ever in that period of time. Either that or have something really unique to say, because I agree.

We don't necessarily, but we do have a voice at this point just because we've done it so long and slowly built yeah that audience the unique part who has anything unique to say really it's at this point almost nobody because it's all been said on the podcast yeah right yes Simpsons did it wow other thing about before we end this episode is have you gotten any i think it's funny have you gotten an email from every company that you've ever been a patron of of any kind explaining to you their policy on i've gotten quite a few like a few right away you get them from the travel companies you're like that makes total sense that makes sense and i thought that that was what it was going to be and it's extended to a few companies where i'm like i feel like you're just using this as like a pr stunt of some kind to like say how

awesome you are but i also like read the thing and i'm like i also don't think like what you're saying sounds that good either though how about this one libsyn is the company that we host our podcast we got an email from them about their how they're handling what did it say i deleted it because i was like that is so stupid. When do you even come in contact with customers ever? Yeah. I guess besides your people showing up, which I'm guessing are mostly like engineer type people. You don't need to send out an email.

I wasn't concerned of whether we were going to switch podcast hosts based on their policy. Yeah. It's more the retail type stores are the ones that are like, Hey, we're still business as usual, but we're cleaning extra. I'm like, I don't know how much of people sneezing on things you're cleaning is going to

fix. You know, everyone's thing says the same thing. Yeah, they do. They do say the same thing. And I'm just like, eh,

I feel like this is just you trying to like show the world how how good you are yeah i want to know how many how much of those people are actually doing everything yeah to me i just think hollow promises it's like what i think i'm like all of those right it's just like oh it feels good when we do this so we're gonna do it right that's the way also everyone else is doing it so we we we better do it otherwise people are gonna be like well geez they don't have a coronavirus policy like and it's a way for us to justify that oh well see we're we're still safe to do it statistically we can stay open until right until our entire workforce is infected right then that would be the time to close you know yes just just another reason i'm so glad i don't have to deal

with that part of it yep well 20 Well, 207 in the books. 207's in the books. Would you like to hear from our sponsors this episode again? Tanner, I would not like to. I would love to. Amen. This episode was 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 and what we would ask is if you're going to do business with them uh please make sure to use our discount code it'll save you five percent off also it makes us look good yeah keeps them coming back for more our discount that's probably even more valuable than 5% off. Yes. Making us look good. Yes, yes.

And you can use our discount code MASS. That's MASS in all caps. Today's show is also brought to you by Texas Power Bars. In 1980, Buddy Caps was on a mission to make the best bar possible. And the Texas Power Bar was born. Hate to see the woman that had to birth that thing. It was strong as a house and the best knurling and was maintenance free. Hundreds of state massonomics,

national massonomics and international and world power lifting records have been set and continue to be set and broken on the Texas power bar. To learn more, visit Texas power bars and buy one of their legendary bars. Texas power bars.com. We don't have a discount code there. I'm imagine they have room for comments. Legendary bars. TexasPowerBars.com. We don't have a discount code there. I imagine they have room for comments.

You can leave a comment that you're there buying because you heard about them on the Massanomics podcast. Or you can set a Massanomics PR. Yes. Today's show is also 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 home to the Ground Lock Deadlift Slipper, and they are always in stock and ready to ship.

We do have a discount code there. It's MAS20. That gets you 20% off any of the Lifting Large branded products. And also if you buy other stuff from their site, because they do sell just about everything that you would buy related to lifting. Even if you're not using our code, you could drop a message that the Mastanomics boys sent you. Today's episode was 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. Check them out online at spud-inc-straps.com. Thank you to all of our sponsors. Thank you, thank you. Make sure to go to our site and buy all of our stuff. In addition to buying stuff from our sponsors, we also expect you to buy stuff from our website.

It's a lot of buying, but with everyone sitting at home not working. What else are you going to do? Exactly. What else are you going to do? Once you're done buying that power rack from Rep Fitness, make your way over to Massanomics, hybrid performance, Texas power bars, and lifting large and stock up on all the goods.

And we've kind of got everything right now. We got a big reorder of all of our shorts. That was one of the things we kind of sold out some sizes. Believe it or not, people had enough money to purchase those, and we ran out of some sizes. Now it's just a matter of getting the security agency to deliver the shorts. It's kind of a whole logistical thing. It's a process.

It's a process. The Curls original shirt, our reorder to that is probably going to be here by the time you hear this. So Curls shirt should be available in all sizes again. And we've got new stuff we're working on. Pretty soon down the pipeline we're going to pump out some cool stuff.

You know what they say. If you like what we've done so far, you'll like what we're going to do next. That's what we say. That's what everyone says about us. That's what they're saying. Tommy, where do they find you on Instagram? You can find me at Tomahawk underscore D. You can find me at Tomahawk underscore D. You can find me at Tanner underscore Baird. Most importantly, make sure to follow

Masonomics on Instagram at Masonomics. Catch you for next time, 208. See ya.