Massenomics Podcast - Ep.215: The Back Mechanic Book Review

Episode Date: May 18, 2020

Join us for Massenomics Book Club!  We review "The Back Mechanic" by Stu McGill AKA Sam Elliott AKA the dad from "The Ranch" AKA the narrator from "The Big Lebowski".  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 podcasts and all the rest. You're doing a great job. I 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! Massanomics! side everything massonomics welcome listeners to episode 215 of the massonomics podcast we are the lifting podcast about nothing my name is tanner and my name is tommy all right tommy today we're going to let everyone know uh how to get strong how to stay strong and how to use their strength we've got three important topics to cover the key part is using it though yeah because if you don't use it you lose it yeah you can get strong but but but one of the topic is staying strong so if you're covering staying strong

you can't really lose it right if you if you are staying strong i guess they go together you can't have one without the other that's really that that's the takeaway there is you can't have one without the other we'd have to really interview kaz to get the to the bottom of exactly what he means by that i would really like to have a follow-up interview to that and uh yeah i'm really curious because he's made he's commented on our posts before or liked yes i'm curious if he knows that he is in the intro. I don't know. I'm not sure. The last comment thing he made,

it made me really wonder if he did know. I still think he doesn't, and I assume he doesn't know that it's this big, long-running joke about everyone saying, get strong, stay strong, use your strength, but you never know. He might know. That would be really funny if he did. I do think uh we make things look better than they are in real life i absolutely agree

with that there's no room for debate in that one sponsors for today's episode are you excited to hear about the sponsors i'm always excited to hear about the sponsors it might even be my favorite part of the whole show it is it is mine without a without. Today's episode is 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. The show 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. Just make sure to use our discount code.

That's MASS, M-A-S-S in all caps. That'll save you 5% off any training or nutrition membership for the life of that membership. Visit hybridperformancemethod.com. 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. It was strong as a house, had the best narrowing, and was maintenance-free. Hundreds of state, massonomics, national, international, and world powerlifting records have been set and continue to be set and broken on the Texas Power Bar. To learn more about Texas Power Bars and to buy one of their legendary bars,

please visit TexasPowerBars.com. 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 of the GroundLoft deadlift slipper and they are always in stock and ready to ship. When you're there, make sure to use our discount code. You can save 20% on all Lifting Large branded products by using the code mass 20 at checkout that's our sponsors and here we are at 215 now tommy we've been kind of starting the shows lately with the most important part of the show i guess we can't can't break the trend now and there is big news there is

big big news i can't use the word big or emphasize that word enough. So I know what topic this is about and that's about podcast reviews. I don't know how big the news is yet though. You know, I don't. So I'm, I'm, I'm ready to be shocked here. There's a story here. So this is the hashtag road to 200 podcast reviews. Well, how long have we been doing this now? Like four or five weeks with the updates? Four or five weeks, but you could also save for 214 weeks too good yeah good point good very true um we've got an update and everyone the reason this is important everyone knows it's because of everything that happens once we get to once we get to 200 um and i'm not going to bore everyone with all the details of everything we're going to do for you guys once we get to that 200.

But I am going to help you out with the reviews. But before we do that, I have to explain the story this week. So do you remember what we were at last week, Tommy? Was it 161? I think 162. We were 161 maybe the week before, and then last week we were 162. We were 161 maybe the week before and then last week we were 162. So earlier this week, I checked maybe once or twice a week to see what the numbers are doing, if it's growing at all and if there's any new ones for us to read on the show.

And I checked, so today's Wednesday. I maybe checked on like Sunday this week, maybe three or four days ago, and said 163 and i was like oh sweet we'll have progress we'll have we have an update and then i checked again a couple days later so maybe fairly recently i checked here like when uh monday so two days ago i rechecked and it was back down to 162 well what the hell and i was like, oh no, that's going to be disappointing. At least we'll be able to update how it went up and down all in one week. They knew we were on the verge of the most five-star reviews of all time, so they had to back us down, right?

Yep. They're censoring us, I think, is what they're doing. They're trying to keep us down. So then I checked today. One more time, I was like, well, I'll check. Maybe something changed. And do you want to guess what the number was today? 165.

170. Whoa, that is growth right there. I believe it's probably, I don't know this as a fact, but I'm thinking it's probably our single biggest weekly growth in five-star podcast reviews. Wouldn't you guess? I would assume so, unless there was an early week on when we first started doing it.

But even 10, we wouldn't have gotten 10 in a week early on. I don't think so. I mean, if we had that many weeks of that, we would already be to 200 by now, I think. Exactly. We'd be on the road to 1,000 or something. So I was pretty impressed to see the 170. So I, I do appreciate the, seeing the support we're getting on this road to 200. People are now starting to understand how big of a deal this

is. I feel like I, like it's taken maybe a month to get the message out, but I think enough, there's enough buzz right now. People are understanding what this 200 really means. And again, you say, well, what, what is so big about this? Well, if you have to ask that question, we can't tell you, you should just understand how big of a deal this is. So, right. Exactly.

So do we want to, do we want to hear some of the reviews? Because it was also, also a week where it gave me a lot of them to read, which is exciting. That's even better. Yeah. We might as well read them and just read the ads and be done with this

thing. That's all we need. Let's yeah. The update to 200, read the ads, maybe do overrated, underrated, then shut it down. And there's a lot of good Masanomics nuggets in these reviews like there often is. I love, that's my favorite kind of nugget is a Masanomics nugget.

That's right. They're delicious little nuggets. Okay, this first one is a five-star review, and it's from NotStrongJustFat is the name. The title is massonomics podcast and he says autocorrect completely ducking underrated that's of course in reference to uh autocorrect was an overrated underrated topic but you see how he slipped in the ducking yeah yeah that's good yeah smart thinker there okay the next next one is from lucas in kentucky five out of five stars and he says road to 200 and custard pie

and the the that's the title and the text here is great podcast also do you guys remember the mcdonald's limited edition custard pie vastly underrated so tommy do you i'm going to assume i know your answer i i never knew that was a thing do you remember it i do not remember a limited edition custard pie i don't know how old he's talking here if this was like a year or two ago or 10 years ago maybe maybe people listening that have more info on the mcdonald's custard pie could fill us in i'm getting okay yeah right now if only there was a device we could use to look things up but like this very quick thing said our holiday pie oh so maybe it's a holiday pie i think it's the holiday custard pie okay um creamy smooth vanilla custard nestled in a flaky buttery crust glazed with sugar and

topped with rainbow sprinkles it literally it's kind of funny because this picture it just looks like the apple pie that has rainbow sprinkles in it i mean it looks kind of like some just thing a kid tried to put together oh but they're actual okay right i was looking at the wrong photos of it when you look at their their marketing photos uh it's a it's on a much better level i i don't see without spending too much time researching i do not see immediately um when this is but it looks like it is a holiday thing. Okay. Okay. So maybe when the holidays come out,

we could get a shot at it. Yeah, we might have to do a deep dive this holiday season. Yes. Okay. All right. Next review comes from Bard15832. Title is Road to 200. Maybe this is a long-lost relative of mine that forgot to put the I in the name baird i'd say

the chances are very likely i'm sure it is um he he said came for the lift shorts stayed for the apple pie i think the apple pie has really taken on a life of its own hasn't it it seems like it has people apple pie just resonates with people you know really respond to the McDonald's apple pie. You know, good old American apple pie. Yeah, as American as lift shorts and apple pie. That's what everyone says, right? McDonald's apple pie, though. Right, right, right, right, yes.

Not just any apple pie. No, no. Okay, this one is from BeefyBoy69. Respect anyone that still sneaks the 69 in their name. And it also has the name Beefy Boy. That's even better. That's a good name. That's a great name, actually.

Yes. He won't regret that hotmail address when he's older. No way. Title is For My Druthers. Five out of five stars. He says, The McDonald's apple pies are subpar compared to Taco Bell's Cinnabon Delights. I haven't had those either.

Wow. I'm just realizing there's a whole world of fast food dessert that I know nothing about. Yeah. People are very interested in the fast food desserts too. Taco Bell's Cinnabon Delights. I'm not familiar with those either. Yeah. the fast food desserts too taco bell cinnabon delights i'm not familiar with those either yeah i think my only what are they what's their little cinnamon things at taco bell that's the only thing that i've ever even like uh ran ranch chero or uh cinnamon twist that's what oh okay uh you're thinking of uh taco john's the midwest the midwest treat that not what's their what's their thing um

uh taco john's apple churro yeah yeah yeah is it apple or is it just regular i think well maybe there is a maybe there's been options for both and i think i'm now now i'm crossing my wires that was also a dessert we had for school lunches when i was in high school is they would have have those so i thought you're gonna say I'm crossing my wires I'm just thinking of McDonald's apple pie no matter what I'm saying no matter the words that are coming out of my mouth I'm always still kind of thinking about McDonald's apple pie it's like half of my brain is an apple pie if there was like a little pictogram of your brain. Like half of it would just be a McDonald's apple pie. Yeah.

Okay. Next one is from Gibberish Letters. I don't know what to say there, but the title is incredible. Five out of five stars. Love it. This is my contribution on your road to 200. I tune in every Monday, although it usually takes me a week

to listen to the whole thing. Keep doing what y'all are doing. That's just one of those classic positive reviews that isn't really taking any backhanded shots at us. It's not. Well, but, you know, see, you might be giving him too much credit there. It did say it takes him a week

to get through what we're saying. And I would make the argument that if our content is that engaging, no one would wait a week to get through what we're saying. And I would make the argument that if our content is that engaging, no one would wait a week to get through it all. So he might have slipped one in subconsciously there. Yes, that could be. Okay, next one is from Super Ninfrendo Chalmers. And his title is hashtag road to 200, hashtag JDLs for life.

Five out of five stars. The only podcast about lifting that doesn't immediately devolve into some kind of ridiculous life coaching slash religion pushing slash supplement selling slash influencer worshiping slash pseudoscientific garbage. Beyond that, these guys know how to pod and manage to keep it interesting and entertaining well done fellas well he hasn't heard what this episode is about yet so we actually were this was going to be strictly life coaching in this one so we have a new multi-level marketing plan that we're implementing on this episode so stay tuned yes um sorry to disappoint on this one okay last one here this is a very good one i don't know if i saved the best for last they're all so good it's hard to tell but this is a good one and it's five out of five stars from the president of north dakota wow yeah and as south dakota residents

that's a big deal like the president of north dakota doesn't just yeah to know that there's political figures out there yeah in such high offices that think I'm assuming that think highly of us that that's uh yeah it's quite an accomplishment and and his title is druthers and he gives it five out of five stars he says a fine lifting podcast indeed massonomics is easily in the top five of lifting podcasts to ever come out of northeast South Dakota, hands down. Toby and Timmy deliver the kind of hard-hitting investigative journalism we as listeners didn't even know we should expect in all things barbell and Great Plains weather related. I'm always in awe as to how white these white guys really are. And from the president of North Dakota.

Yes, that's saying something. They're the Jefferson deadlift of podcasts. Ultimately, I have to go with underrated, if only for the shorts alone. Wow. That's really good. That's our aim each week is just to shock people a little more about how white we really are. Be like, wow, these guys really are white. Are they talking about the apple pie again?

I like he called it Great Plains Weather Update. Yeah, we don't have a lot to report on the weather over the past week. It's just been kind of cold and shitty for the most part. Yep, yep, very true. No more basement floods over here for me. No, not for the time being. No, but that was the update. That was the big update this week.

Excited to see where we're at next week. Yeah, that was really good. We've never had anything like that. next week yeah that was that was really good we've never had anything like that what what i would like to see like this week has maybe been the best collection of reviews we got in in week this is almost like a super team of podcast reviewers that got together this week i'd like to see if there's a group that could get together for this next week that could outperform this crew like that could show them that could just show the president of north dakota yes what it's really all about right i'd like to see if like the presidents of some of the other states could get involved in this that'd be really cool

we could get all all 36 state presidents involved yeah oh boy yep that's what i want that's what i want out of this podcast yep yep get the presidents of states and regions involved i'd like to see if the great the president of the great plains could you know show us support for our weather updates yeah that'd be really cool yeah maybe even the president of the midwest while we're at it yes it's they're all titles of president it's just of larger and larger yeah yeah bigger bigger bigger regions yeah uh tanner this week last night actually i should say i finally finished the sopranos all 86 episodes were uh

were knocked out over the course of about six weeks and um it was it was quite the trip you said you've seen a little bit of it yeah i've watched like the first two seasons is all so far i've watched that actually this year so it's fairly fresh but i haven't made it that far yet and i'm not going to spoil anything for anyone and it's a tv show that at this point it started over 20 years ago so yeah i mean most people have probably either watched it or know someone that watched it or have a basic understanding of what it is. So I don't need to go in too much on that,

but it is without a doubt a great TV show. There's a lot of layers to it. There's a lot going on, but this is not a spoiler at all. I did not know this until the show got done. The star of the show is James Gandolfini. I did not know that until the show got done the star of the show is james gandolfini i did not know that he is dead dead yeah i didn't i did not know that that was like shocking to me when i got done and i i tried to basically not do any research on the show at all while i was

watching because when you're going back on shows it's really easy for people to have spoilers of major plot events so i didn't really look at anything. And last night after it's done, it's like, okay, now I can do, what's he doing now? Yeah.

Like now I can do a little backtrack. Like why haven't I seen him in anything recently or really any of these people for the most part? Yeah. And then it said he's dead. And I thought for sure, like, no,

that's not right. And sure enough. Yeah. He's dead. And that was like shocking to me at like 11 o'clock. I'm like, what? You're telling me this guy? It was almost more shocking than the show.

But either way, I would still recommend the show to anyone that can invest 86 episodes into something right now. Do you feel like a weight's been lifted off your shoulders making it to the end? To an extent. So there's this thing. And I don't know if everyone gets this, but this has happened to me now with Game of, not Game of Thrones, not Game of Thrones specifically, not Game of Thrones. This has happened to me with Breaking Bad and The Sopranos, where plots of the story a lot of times do involve,

especially with Breaking Bad, like them trying to not get caught. Like it's these high tension situations because you have seen all Breaking Bad, right? Yes, yep. Okay, so they're dealing drugs. They're trying not to get caught. The cops are after them.

The drug cartel are after them. Gang members are after them. There's always this sense of impending doom on them. Right. And it's never really, there's not really many episodes of Breaking Bad that it's like yeah feel good like you get done watching you're like yeah that was really fun like it's yeah it's like no okay yep these people are just going down into a deeper and deeper spiral and there was quite a few times on sopranos where i

got that feeling too that i did with breaking bad not to the extent of Breaking Bad but I still Breaking Bad's very bad like that like that oh it can't I remember I remember trying to like marathon through sessions of Breaking Bad and just having to quit it's like you just start to feel like sick after a while like it's like could make you depressed almost it does it just gets too heavy which it is a great show but you got to almost take it in pieces it gets overwhelming but I did start to get that feeling a little bit with Sopranos and to the point where there was a while where I was having dreams almost every night that someone was trying to kill me or coming after me. And it was happening to the point that I was having these nightmares that they were waking up my wife because I was either breathing

too hard or like making noises like I was trying to yell and she would wake me up and like what's going on I'm like oh someone was just trying to kill me and then I would just fall right back asleep and so part of me feels this sense of relief that I don't think I have to deal with that anymore because I won't have these gangsters shooting each other and chasing each other down and trying to whack the other guy. So I think maybe I just have this. I can move on to this stage of relief in my life now. Yeah. Are you are is any part of you sad that it's over?

I mean, a little bit. Yeah, because it's like with with any show, you know, when you spend that much time, you're like, oh, I kind of feel like these are like these are some characters that i know and tony as flawed as he is and he's an evil terrible guy he's kind of just a big teddy bear at times too and i want to know what he's up to but yep you don't get to know that anymore so yeah and especially a show like that you know it's not like you're waiting till next season it's done you You know, that's... It is done, yeah. Yeah, so that's my media update. Have you been watching The Last Dance or not? I haven't because I don't... So here's my predicament.

I want to watch that very badly. Like, I am so excited about watching that. I don't have cable or any ESPN access. I'm either going to wait. i think they just released seven and eight this last weekend so i assume next weekend is nine and ten unless they're they break up that longer and i think it's just 10 parts so it should be ending within a week or two here and i was just gonna kind of wait until it's over and then by like a month of espn whatever or or wait and see if they put it on Netflix shortly.

Well, they probably won't though. It's ESPN, so that's Disney, right? So it'll probably end up going to Disney+. So it probably won't hit Netflix. So I'm just going to have to buy. I'm going to wait until they're all released, and then I'm going to buy one month of ESPN to watch it. That's how cheap I am.

That's a good nutshell of how I am with things. It keeps you focused. Have you seen it at all? I haven't. My wife was saying, what are we going to watch now? I think that that might be the next one on the list.

It's new. It's still coming out so we can we can catch it without being being totally uh left behind or missing out on what what it's all about yeah i'm i'm really excited about it because you don't want you don't want it to turn into tiger king where a month later no one cares about it anymore right is that's so true that talk about a flash in the pan. It really was. That is what they mean when they say flash in the pan. If someone brought up Tiger King in a discussion, you'd kind of be like, yeah, man, that was at least a month ago.

Like, all right, weirdo. That's kind of how I'd feel. Whereas two months ago, you'd be like, oh, yeah. Can't believe the crazy stuff that goes on there. Two ago we spent an episode or two talking about right i mean we talked about it several times and now if we spent an episode talking about it people would people would really think we're weird i think yeah well it's kind of be like if we decided to just start talking about making a murderer right now you know yeah yeah or cereal did you did you you you listened to cereal right yeah i did i had done all three seasons of cereal did you ever do the third one what's the third one the third

one is it came out probably a year or so ago bo bergdahl is the second one right yep yep and that one got a little long for my taste that was like i think 12 episodes or so and to me that could have been shortened a few but what's her name sarah kate uh sarah koenig or something like that i don't know what her last name is uh yeah she kind of pioneered this podcast for us without her we probably would there probably wouldn't be a massonomics podcast i think i mean we we wouldn't we understood the importance of a great intro. And so that's where we had to get Kaz to be on ours. Right. She has that piano on everyone.

Yeah, he's at the beginning of Serial too, isn't he? Where he says something about using your strength and something. How to research crimes, look for crimes, report on crimes. How to not have resolutions to crimes at the end of your show yeah yeah uh season three was i it was either i think it was cleveland she just goes to a a courthouse in cleveland and basically just follows different court cases as they're going through and that was actually that one might be my favorite one. Okay. Um, I, the second for sure is my least favorite one. The first one, depending on how you feel about the ending, I can see how that may or may not be someone's favorite. But the third was like, wow, you really learn that a lot of times when

people get in trouble, at least criminally or in a criminal situation that it just kind of is up to how the judge feels. And a lot of times, even when these people don't think they're in trouble, they're poor and they can't fight it. So they're like, ah, I'll just plead guilty. I can't fight this. I'll just plead guilty. And you're like, wow, it gives you a really, really different take on what the criminal justice system is. A lot of times, a lot of times a guilty plea is just, I don't have the time, money, resources, whatever to deal with this. So yep. You got me, I guess. Yeah. And, uh, and that one really opened my eyes. So I liked that one a lot. You know what another really good

criminal justice documentary is that I started watching is a law and order. Have you heard of this documentary? Ah, SUV. Yes. Classic. I hate law law and order i want to go on record there but what about their theme song though you know i hate fun little with that fun little slap bass and it gets that fun that that wacky little what is it like a flute or something in there if you get far enough i think the trent resner came up with that uh beginning of uh law and order yeah yeah it does sound kind of nine inch nails ish if you think about it um uh law and order that's probably something i've seen i've maybe seen three episodes of in my life and i couldn't even tell you what

they're like I just can't do shows like that like it's always ah he almost got away but we got him like that's isn't that every episode yeah they all it's like the joke is they always find the semen you know it's like they're semen on everything yeah yep and then you hit kind of like CSI you hit the enhance button a few times and boom the the mystery is solved. Yeah. People that actually work in labs and places are probably like, that is not what things are like in a lab. Yeah. Yeah.

Or some people that got way into their careers were like, man, this was not what I was expecting. Yes. But good documentary, Law & Order, if you're into that kind of doc yeah and uh and csi miami too yes um all right before we're going to do some ads but first we're going to do an ad of our own and that's we have some new tank tops coming out ah that boy howdy and it's going to be thick boy summer it is thick boy 69 summer is in full effect here that guy you could say is a 420 short of the perfect username that's true if he could slip a 420 in there a 420 a 420 or a fart and he would have the perfect

username yep yep definitely but yeah we have tank tops coming because tis the season and uh these are what do we got four or five of them well it's like lebron said not one tank top not two tank tops not three not four but five tank tops is what we have just like lebron's yeah about uh yeah it's like it's like a super team of tank tops yeah we got five of them coming and uh they're all limited run like this is it once they're once that once they're gone they're gone yeah so you're not gonna want to limited numbers of each one too yeah and limited numbers too yeah this is a smaller release so some sizes honestly only have a few in some like some of our more off, there's only a few. So if you're like that extra

small person or small or 3X and you think you want any of them, buy them right away or else they're going to be sold out and you're not going to get it. Guaranteed. Just about guaranteed. And we're not doing reprints especially for the one the one 3x that someone out there wants it's not going to happen so exactly so what are what are so two of two of the five are comebacks they're making their second appearance but three are brand new never before been seen by the public tank tops yep and that's what what do we got the lift tank top deadlifter tank top yep so the deadlifters on the black yeah the the bench but the bench is in in never before

seen bench bench uh heavy color so it's like a a dark heather gray tank top right and it's with a white imprint yep so yeah we got and what what are the other two? We got deadlifter, bench, lift. Then the. Our blue ribbon. The blue ribbon one. Blue ribbon sport. Yep. And that's on a light heathered gray tank top.

So that's also a new colorway that we haven't done before. And then the last one is the, yeah, the, the, yeah, buddy tank top. And that is on, that is also a new colorway that's on a white tank top with some different coloring there than our regular yeah buddy shirt so we got uh new tank colors of never before new imprint colors of never before uh you guys are going to want to get on this we're going to talk about it again at the end of the episode but for sure that is that is our our little ad if you're uh still listening at this they are comfortable tank tops i have they are they are premium they are nice tank tops and that um i have the deadlifter tank top and i really

like that tank top it's like a really nice fitting and like the i i the the cut of it i guess of like the the actual like straps of the tank top are really nice. Yep, and some of them even have the two-tone, the ringer sleeves with the different colors. So yeah, it is a premium tank, that is for sure. I'd like to see one person buy all five. I dare someone to. Go the distance and get all five tank tops. Road to five tank tops?

We'll start a new segment of the podcast all right enough from us though today's show is brought to you by texas power bars buddy caps first started lifting weights in the late 60s and began power lifting in the mid 70s at the time he was working for image barbell building jim 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 the intent of changing them for the better. In 1979, Buddy bought his first lathe and began addressing the known issues. In 1980, his passion, drive, and purpose now had a

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Road to 200 sponsors. That's probably the most important road, 200 sponsors. That's also going to be the most important podcast in our entire catalog. Yes, without a doubt. Well, should we jump into one of the topics that we've been maybe hinting at for a while, and that is the book, The Back Mechanic by Stu McGillill and this is something that i think most people in powerlifting circles are um familiar with or have heard of or have came across the mcgill big three that that's yeah if you haven't heard of any of this you've probably heard of the mcgill big three i think so there's a good chance your favorite powerlifter or a

powerlifter you follow has posted something about it at some point. I think for me, my first exposure to Stuart McGill was probably through Stan Efferding, I think. And I think he talked about- The Rhino. The Rhino, the one and only. He talked about the gift of injury, the back mechanic, and he has a lot of books. But I think that's where I was first exposed to it. And I'm sure for a lot of books but i think that's where i was first exposed to it and i'm sure for a lot of people that probably is too but uh since that time stew has become fairly well known in the powerlifting world he's teamed up with brian carroll right it's brian carroll isn't it yeah yeah he's teamed up with brian carroll uh they do i think like even some coaching seminars and clinics i mean they they are a bit of a team. They're in a fair number of YouTube videos together.

And he really does have quite a bit of content out there. And he looks like the guy from, I think it's called The Ranch on Netflix with Ashton Kutcher, that guy with the deep voice. Yeah. Isn't it like elliot uh the mustache guy yeah yeah yeah uh he's also isn't he also on the big lebowski isn't it yeah yeah he's i think he kind of narrates the big lebowski doesn't he yes what is that guy's name uh i gotta find this tanner it's gonna drive me nuts if i don't um big big lebowski narrator sam elliott there we go sam elliott yep yep him and stewart mcgill are the same person right i think so yeah i mean i've never seen them both in a room at the same time together so you do the math there. But with his book, The Back Mechanic, why did I get this book?

Well, I had been having back issues on and off for a very long time. And it seemed like the thing to do. Like he has lots of content online for free. If you can go on YouTube between different powerlifters, Squat University, even Stuart McGill's stuff, you could probably get the majority of this information on YouTube. If you just wanted to take a night or an afternoon to just watch a bunch of videos, you would understand most of it. But the book is fairly inexpensive. I think it's like 30 bucks compared to a doctor or physical therapy visit that is essentially free. visit that is essentially free. So I took the plunge, got the book and I'm not going to go into detail on everything here, but just it's a fairly... If you did, you'd be the back mechanic. I would be the back mechanic and I am not ready for that responsibility. I can't take that on. So, you know, the book's about 160 pages and it's pretty big type. So like you could read it in a couple of sittings pretty easy. I mean, you could read it in one if you wanted to, it's it's pretty big type so like it you could you can read it in a couple sittings

pretty easy i mean you could read it in one if you wanted to it's just a lot to process but it's it's not overly medical you know he's not using in-depth medical terms i would think most people that have spent any amount of time working out are going to understand what he's referring to i don't think you're going to get bogged down with technical medical jargon at any point. It's fairly easy to understand. There's a lot of drawings. There's not pictures in the book.

There's a lot of drawings. And sometimes the drawings are like, ah, I can see how a picture might've made this a little easier. Or if the drawing was maybe a little more obvious, anatomically correct. Yeah. Yeah.

Some of these cartoon drawings are a little, yeah, but they do a lot of times get the point across pretty well. Um, so I can't knock them. I can't knock them too hard, but big, big takeaways from the book are key parts of it. It is, it's in four parts. And the first one is, is he has why me and that's understanding your pain. Uh, part two is the self-assessment and figuring out what's causing your pain. Part three is the repair job and the right tools to make activity pain-free. And part four is tuning the machine for best performance. The machine is your body in this case, Tanner. Spoiler alert there. Thought you should know that. Giving yourself a little self-tune-up, so to speak. That's right. That's right. So part one, why me understanding your pain? He goes into, he talks about some different

myths around back pain, getting to understand what causes back pain, you know, from more on an anatomical level, like, you know, looking at the anatomy of your back and what is in it, you know, between bones and disc and cartilage and and give it is a little bit of a biology lesson but i think for most people that is helpful to understand um at least where this stuff is coming from yeah and i don't know if he talks about it at all but i don't think it's him i've heard talk about this before but maybe others that us humans as bipods who like we evolved from probably people from something that walked on four legs to walking on two, that maybe backs were never really the best design thing to support walking on two legs for an entire lifetime. Like that it's almost like you're going to have problems if you live long enough.

Yeah. And I've read the book, you know, full disclosure. I think I read this book like two months ago now. So some of those details I'm not remembering completely, but I mean, he does talk about things like that. Like it, you know, by the time you get older, your back will have damage. Like it just, it goes through enough. I forget what he calls it, but basically like your, your discs and the vertebrae start to grind enough that if you have pain in your, he said, the most common group that you see pain in is typically like late twenties, thirties into your

forties. He said, almost always by the time you get to people that are in their sixties, seventies, their discs have ground down so much that there's just, there's no pain anymore. The pain goes away because your discs and those vertebrae do start to just deteriorate over time. We've got that to look forward to then. So we do that. Whoever's listening that is in pain, just know that at some point that should in theory go down as your back just deteriorates. It will just lose the pain that it has. So you do have that to look forward to. One thing that I thought was interesting is he talks about, is surgery for you? And I am no medical expert, but he does cite a number of- But you did stay in a Holiday Inn Express last week.

I did stay in a Holiday Inn and I read The Back Mechanic. But he does cite a number of studies specifically for back health and reporting that people that go through back surgeries a lot of times don't report being any better off than people who didn't go through back surgery over the course of like six months. So if we ask you how your pain feels today and you're getting back surgery, you ask the second person and they're not doing surgery. You check back in with them six months to a year. And a lot of times they are in the exact same spot, the surgery person and the non-surgery person. So that's where one of his big things is the virtual surgery, which is just treat yourself like you did have surgery.

And a lot of times when you have surgery, that means you're not going to the gym, you're not putting yourself in compromised positions, you're being proactive with your health, you're taking care of yourself. And he says, do that for like three months. A lot of times after surgery, you have a three-month window where that's how you got to act and he just says like

that already will take care of many many people's problems and i thought that was an interesting thing too i had never really thought of it that way and that that is specific to backs it's not like if you have a blown mri if you just don't do anything for three months or mri a blown uh like acl or mcl or anything like that uh it's not if you just don't do anything for three months or MRI a blown like ACL or MCL or anything like that it's not if you just don't do anything for three months it's not gonna magically just be better but we're talking about backs yeah yeah we're talking about back specifically for me what was maybe one of the better parts of the book was the was the self-assessment part. And this is finding the cause of your pain. And he has a pretty good number of tests that you do yourself that you run through to figure out

what causes your pain. Cause there's, there's a number of, I mean, there's many different ways your back can hurt and different conditions under it. And the first thing to making anything better is you, you have to figure out what the problem is. And just saying my back hurts, isn't a good problem. Just like saying my car doesn't work. Well, that doesn't really, that doesn't really do anything either. So in part one of being a mechanic, you need to understand when is the pain the worst? What positions is it in the worst? And he has many different positions. He runs you through, and he has many different positions he runs you through. Like one is to figure out like, is it due to compression and load? Is it due to like flexion? Is it when your back is in a state of flexion? Something that might be caused by more of like a shearing force on your back.

And I thought that that section was really, really helpful. For me in particular, I could feel my back pain if I sat. One of the tests he does is he has you sit on a chair, pull down, pull on the seat of the chair like you're pulling yourself into the seat, and that is like a compression test, and one of them is if you're sitting upright and it doesn't hurt, well, then compression isn't necessarily the pain but if you slouch forward and then pull and then you feel it um then it's showing that you know in a position of spinal flexion that's where your pain is triggering and for me that's where it was right it was the same thing in the gym i could go and you know i could load four plates onto the bar i didn't feel any pain in my back but if I ever got in a deadlift in a slightly rounded position,

just, just even just the minors to mount, that's when it would flare up. And that's what really made it clear for me that my issue is spinal flexion. And the, the, so once you understand your assessment, the, the next part of the book, the repair job is using the right tools to make activity pain-free. And the number one thing is remove the cause of pain. And for me, I think there was a couple things there. One, I work at an office all day. I'm sure a lot of people listening to this do, they work in an office all day. I do have the luxury of my office is at my house. So I'm a little more in control of the environment than most. So with me me i have a standing desk i was really really bad at changing that posture through the day yeah and his thing here is spine hygiene so are you in

hygienic positions basically saying are you you know doing keeping up with good practices regarding your back and so i've made an effort of trying to change that sit stand position more more frequently through the day um like i'm guilty of like once i get in the zone on something i can just sit for like four hours not even think about moving and i'm not i don't i'm not in an office where someone can come in and say like oh we got to go to this meeting or interrupt me and hey come look at this like if i plant myself i can be planted so i've tried to one just be more conscious of getting up and moving to probably the biggest thing was when I started my job working from home, I didn't know if it was going to last a month, a year, two years, whatever. And so I try to do everything really cheap. So for me, that meant buying the $60 chair on Amazon. And, you know, I'm at the point where

I'm almost at the three-year mark. So it's like, okay, this seems like probably going to work out. Yeah. This seems like at least for the near, for the foreseeable future, this will be working out. So I made an investment in a pretty heavy duty office chair and there's, I did a lot of research and there's a lot of options out there. Unfortunately, we live in a relatively small city and in an isolated part of the country so i wasn't able to really test out chairs right but i did read a ton of reviews and um pick a chair that costs a lot of money but is significantly more comfortable and it has a lot of adjustment options to fit my body so and you went with the hula chair, right? The hula chair. It wasn't fitness's finest. And funny how the world works after talking about it 50 episodes ago.

I am now a proud owner of the hula chair. But no, there are a number of options. It seemed like as far as brands go, steel case is one that pops up a lot. Herman Miller is one that pops up a lot herman miller is one that pops up a lot and i ended up going with a with a steel case chair uh it's they all do have various models at different price points so depending on how much you want to spend and how much style matters to you there's style and design matters to you there's different options ranging from hundreds of dollars to even thousands of dollars so does it come with a cup holder at all?

No cup holder. Some of them do come with a headrest. And looking back, I mean, a headrest would be kind of nice, but it's not worth most charge, anywhere from $200 to $300 more to get a headrest. I don't think I need one that bad. So I did make a few adjustments there. And then also I did realize that just subconsciously, I would just, when I'd have to pick something

up, I would put my back in a position of massive flexion instead of doing the golfers pickup, you know, where you kick one leg behind you or get into more of a proper squat. And, you know, a lot of people, I don't think they realize that if you need to pick something up, a lot of people do just bend over and grab whatever they need. They don't think about maintaining their spine stability and staying upright through it. But I have put a much bigger focus on that in my life. And I think that it is helping with my recovery through these things. So other things he talks about, and probably the biggest takeaway, probably the two big takeaways

that he has here for uh recovery would be walking the importance of walking and stan efforting is also huge on that his his 10 minute walks and for him it's a lot of nutrition things too i think he talks about like your your body's um like your blood sugar and how it yeah how it how your body processes the food you ate. If you go for a walk afterwards and digestion, all of that stuff. And, um, as someone that is what you would consider an office worker, walks are important. I already did quite a few anyways, but I have that just validated that yes, that needs to continue to be something that I do. And I need to make time for, so I always, I always get two walks in a day, at least sometimes I get three in a day. And then the other big one would be the McGill big three.

And with him, this is, I think what a lot of people will come across when, once they start to look into, into this stuff is what are the, the, the big three exercises. And there's a lot of videos on YouTube out there that cover it if if you want to uh know what those are or see how they're done and the first one that he talks about is i can't even remember if he calls it the modified setup i'm trying to find um i'm trying to find what he actually calls it here but basically like people they think of ab exercises being like crunches yeah and that goes right back to his thing yeah when you do that you're flexing the spine and that the spine is not made for flexion all of those all of those muscles those stabilizers

are made to stabilize not for flexion right they they do that will work your abs but it is compromising your spine every time you do that so he has a uh a modified crunch or a modified sit-up that you do then he has a side planks are a big one so he has a a basically a full like compound movement that he can take you to from side planks to your to your front plank to your other side plank and he gives you a a routine for those and then the final piece was his wow i can't even think of it now all right i know what it is i can't think of what it's called is it the uh the bird dog bird dog oh yeah yeah and uh that's the one i think a lot of people will probably recognize that one as being the one where you're on all fours and you're bringing you're touching your fist to your knee and then you're extending out opposite arms and knees.

And it builds up stability and strength through your back, your core and everything. And it is a pretty solid exercise. So I've been, I've been doing those at minimum five days a week for the past, probably month and a half or so two months, ever since I got done reading the book. And I can say for sure, I've gotten better at the exercises. Like the side planks used to be really, really hard and I've gotten significantly better at those. And even, even the, the bird dog, like that used to, uh, I used to be struggling by the end of that and that's gotten much better too. So, um, I haven't been going to the gym just with the you know there's been the quarantine stuff going on yeah and now i have a baby that's going to be

here any day now so i figure i'm this far into quarantine i'll just keep my quarantine going and and then get back into the gym hopefully in the next month or so here but i am hoping that once this all but that went that also went along with what he preaches anyways too right of just not of yeah of taking a break from it yeah right yeah of removing the the thing that and i for me though it wasn't necessarily the gym that was causing the pain i mean it would be like just weird situations like yeah oh i would i would bend over to grab the laundry basket and like why does my does my back hurt now? It's like, well, you went into some weird flexion position of flexion and you made something not feel good. And now just knowing to avoid situations like that is

probably the, been the biggest factor for me. So, uh, really, I feel pretty good on a daily basis now. Um, and I guess the ultimate test will be in, you know, a month or so, or whenever I start to return to the gym and start going through the motions and see how things feel. How does it feel? Yeah. Yeah. It'll be, it'll be interesting to find out or, you know, to see how it goes. Yeah. And I mean, if it doesn't work, I guess that's when full-on depression sets in and I just reevaluate my entire life. Uh, so what I was going to ask is, yeah, you are, there's three things I was going to ask. The number one was if you think it's working or helping, I mean, you kind of answered that. I think it is, but you don't know, like the ultimate test

is how does it affect like doing the stuff in the gym that you were doing before? Like, does that stuff feel better or hurt less, guess so if it if it does then like that is the test where it's like well that really paid off then so then it's like do you just kind of keep doing those forever like is that the what you do like the big three i guess i'm thinking yeah like you kind of need to maintain those like in in his he kind of makes it sound like it's they're just great exercises you should be doing for life because they are very very good core exercises and everyone there's not anyone that couldn't benefit from additional core strength yeah that makes sense um so yeah i just the nature of people i wouldn't be surprised if there's times where i where i do less of them but yeah i think i think

it's a good habit to be in is to just always be doing those or to be coming back to them regularly at least and never completely abandoning them. Yeah. So would you, the other thing I was wondering is would you recommend, if there's a lifter out there that listens to this that is having back pain, would you recommend that they read the book then? I think I would because when you start looking at stuff like this this is like what a $30 book or so yeah just to go to a doctor who may or may not do anything for you by the time if you have great insurance you have like what a $30 office copay or something yeah and you there's a good chance you'll get nothing out of that and besides besides some more frustration and why doesn't anyone understand this yeah so I think if anyone is dealing with any type of ongoing back pain or they just had back

pain in the past and it does pop up occasionally and they just want a better understanding, like this is the first book that I read where I'm like, Oh, or the first time that I've really came across something like this guy gets what I'm going to, this guy understands me. Like, and there was several times where it was just like, wow, like that just clicks. Like that makes so much sense. And I don't think a lot of times you read a book where you just have like these realizations like this guy gets it. So if you are in that position, I think it's $30, $40 very well spent.

I would recommend it. So you would say purchase The Back Mechanic by Sam Elliott if you need to. By Sam Elliott, correct. Probably the most important thing I was wondering is anywhere in the book, does he cover it all that Backstreet is back? Oh, he does say he has a few other books. So he must get into the fact that Backstreet is back more in The Gift of Injury maybe. I bet you're right maybe that might be what

it is that makes sense uh makes sense because they are back oh maybe that's in that could also be an ultimate back fitness and performance maybe that makes sense yeah or the ultimate back yeah that might be the one i could see either of those probably i'm sure it's somewhere in there it's got to be somewhere in there yeah so that's the back mechanic yeah so overall though i i would recommend it if you're a person dealing with back pain or you know someone that is and they don't even have to be they don't even have to be a lifter if you just know someone with back pain um give them this book they might be surprised yep right on i think it's a good recommendation and we don't recommend a lot of books on this show that's i wouldn't recommend anyone to reading very often unless they absolutely have you know

besides besides like classics like uh gone with the wind um dune you know just any book that's over like 2 000 pages we'll recommend those because we're very avid readers we just don't make recommendations very often right Right, right, definitely. Well, how about overrated, underrated? Do we have time for that today? I think we can make a little time for it. Eggs. Oh, wait.

Was there anything else? No, maybe we've got to get to overrated, underrated. I can't remember. There might have been one other topic, but it could probably be saved for next time. We do got one. We're going to save it for next time. Okay, we'll do that. So, listeners, that you decided this was going to be it for next time. Okay, we'll do that.

So listeners that you decided this was going to be your last one, you might want to make that decision. You got to hang in. So here we are at overrated and underrated for episode 215 of the podcast. And we're going to start with topic one because that's as good a place to start as any. And if you remember last week, can you remember all the way? We'll go in our way back machine. Do you remember topic one of last week, Tommy, and what i said about it topic one oh yeah you said that this is connected to well you called an audible and it's connected they're connected yes right and do you remember what

what last week's topic one was uh was it jimmy buffett yes yeah jimmy buffett yeah yeah yes Yes. Yeah. Jimmy Buffett. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Right. So topic number one this week is buffets. Buffets. You know, what's good. What I think is really interesting is going to be with this whole Corona thing. If you're in the buffet industry, I would be a little worried. That is your business model. I think that it might be a long time before you see people have full faith in buffets again you might you might be underestimating some of the buffet clientele

how dedicated they are to buffets well no yeah you you are right there are some people that the second the buffet is they're gonna be there and that is kind of the the clientele that buffets attract but um i think the casual buffet goers are probably i think a lot of them are gonna be like i don't need to risk whatever's going on uh to get my buffet fix because let's be honest like that's in the back of all of our minds before all of this there's so many buffets it's like oh, oh, that little sneeze guard thing. Okay. That's purely presentation. There's no functionality in that sucker.

Right. Who knows how many disgusting people have touched that handle and dropped it in the food. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So buffets. I don't. We, one, don't even have many. We have like one buffet in our town. I'm thinking Chinese. We have like one buffet in our town. I'm thinking Chinese.

We have Chinese buffet and Pizza Ranch. And that's. God, a Chinese buffet does sound kind of good. It's been a long time since I've had one. But yeah, there's not a ton of options available to us anyways. And almost always. I would say Chinese food might is probably better on a buffet most other food is worse on a buffet right would you agree uh yes i there's

there's a training foods there's a trade-off on the buffet what you get is you get the lower quality food but you get obviously you get the endless supply it's the old the old quality quantity trade-off yeah they're getting you with they're they're not giving you the top quality on a buffet that's not how buffets work like that's not how uh also do you feel like breakfast buffets are always kind of a ripoff or not i would say i really enjoy a good breakfast buffet well a good one but you know a lot of times you know the one bad ones but you of times, like the bad ones, the bad ones are like the hotel.

Right, but the one we used to do for the state powerlifting meet in Rapid City, I always enjoyed that buffet. That was pretty legit because it was more connected to almost an actual restaurant. Right, right. No, the continental buffets suck with the made eggs.

That's not even a buffet. That's just garbage. Even the ones that try to be like a step up. It's like, oh yeah, this is our breakfast buffet. And it's like, oh, these are like really shitty, like imitation eggs. The bacon is paper thin. The sausage is the bare minimum to meet the definition of sausage. A high-end breakfast buffet, though, like in our town, you know, like the Minerva's.

The Minerva's one. That is actually one of my favorite buffets. It costs like $20 or something, but it is really damn good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. After talking, I think buffets are overrated. There's almost never a time when I want to. I mean, the only time I'm going to a buffet is I'm like, I need to do some damage.

I'm never like, because it's like, that is the best food. And if I'm going to go out, I like that is the best food and if i'm going to go out i want to eat the best food not the most food so yeah um yeah i'm gonna say buffets are overrated i used to just in general i used to be at the older i've gotten it's there's like if it was a a chart of age and how much i like buffets the older i get the less i like them i guess like when you're when i was young when you a kid, buffets are really fun and cool. Yeah. Oh, there's an ice cream machine?

Are you kidding me? And when you're in high school, you're like, yeah, let's just get as much as you want, and it's only eight bucks. And in college, that's probably still the case. And the older and older you get, the more you're like, ah, but it kind of sucks. I'd rather have good food. I just want to sit at a table, see i see a list of things pick what i want have you bring it to me and you wait on me yeah that i think that's like an a thing that you like more when you get older and i

am of the same mindset i hadn't even thought of the coronavirus i that wasn't a topic for that reason but that that could be uh that could be quite the blow to buffets in general. I think so. Like if your business model relied on buffets, I would maybe think of a way to diversify that. Yeah, yes, for sure. Okay, overrated or underrated social security numbers? All right. There's a lot of people that,

once you get into those libertarian circles that believe that the government shouldn't have anything to do with you. And as much as I think people should be able to, for the most part, do what they want. I don't think that that means like you should be completely undocumented in any way whatsoever. So the concept of it, I am a hundred percent on board. I think that's fine that if you live in a country the government can have you documented in some way with a social security number that's fine with me what sucks though or what's wrong with social security numbers is that they're just super like not here you go like like it's just a no it's like it's not like a it's not like a protected number

no i could probably type in a random number and it'd be someone's social security number right and people use it for verification you're not supposed to do that the system was never built for that like that's not how that works and isn't aren't credit cards aren't they built so like the last four digits like or there's some combination like, you can't just enter a random number. Like it'll know like, okay, that's a number that we don't do because there is some, there's some like check system in the back where like, where like the last four digits add up to like a code previously in the number. Do you get what I'm saying? Yeah. Yeah. I'm not aware of that, but that makes sense to me. Yeah. I'm probably doing a really bad job of explaining that, but

that's why you couldn't just go on a website and type in a random 20 digit number and visa was like yep that's a number you got it right because there is some there is some like check system that it knows itself that it can verify itself and that doesn't exist really at all in social security numbers i mean there's just they're what three digits three digits and four or three two and four or whatever yep and um yeah and then on top of that it's like you get that one like paper card that you're not supposed to laminate or anything and and it's also it seems like there could be a better system of state issued ids tying into your social security number and card and that whole system working yeah but um what was it social

security numbers is that social security numbers because the thing is like the reason that those exist to begin with or that they ever existed for was for social social yeah and people like overlook that that's even the case like that's why they exist is for to keep track of our social like that's why they existed originally but like what gets tricky is that so many things that you do like so many businesses i would say for the most part not even i'm not like like it's not so much concerned about the government um using it for things for other things but it's like like you're not worried about the government taking over because they're the government and they already

have pretty much yes but like the the way that it became like a thing like um you have to provide that to a business like it's just a given at this point that's like yeah that is that is kind of a weird thing yeah um yeah okay so you're now kind of making me think like i don't think the number in itself like yeah you need an identification number for a system to work like that makes sense. But the way that people want to use the number and need the number today, that is to me, the messed up part. That's what I would agree with. Yeah. Yeah. So I agree with that. So like in that sense, yeah, that's a way overrated because it's like, all right, someone figure out a better way to identify people with numbers. If that's what we think

we need to do here and let it be something better than a social security number right um so yeah in that case i would say yes that then social security numbers are overrated overrated okay there's a lot of controversy there i'm not even aware fully aware of all the controversy that surrounds social security numbers but it can be a oddly enough it can be a really hot button issue for some people. Oh, I'm sure. I don't know if you know, Tanner, but Social Security in general. Yeah, there you go. Yes, yes. And if you're our age or younger, like your best approach is to like not even work,

don't even worry about Social Security. Like don't be factoring that into like you being able to retire at an old age, I think would be your safest bet at this point. Yeah. Just don't bet on ever being able to retire at an old age, I think would be your safest bet at this point. Yeah. Just don't, don't bet on ever being able to retire. I feel like I think you and I maybe, maybe more than average, probably do a good job. Like, like as someone in their young thirties, like preparing for retirement in some ways. And it's still even like when you really, like, if you sit down and crunch the numbers or work with someone on it's like god is this even still enough like how do how does anyone get to retire like based off of what the median household income is how does anyone retire like that doesn't make any sense yeah you're gonna have to work

until you're 90 just to afford health insurance okay so switching gears with something a little more serious overrated or underrated ramen noodles ramen noodles underrated all the time always so you you eat ramen noodles then not not regularly but i always have some in the cupboard you know it's if you're ever in a pinch or you just need a little snack at what 20 cents they're tasty they're always tasty they're never not tasty and if you want to get fancy with it uh i used to in a i'd get the i get the pot of the ramen noodles going and then in a little pan you could either fried egg or something you could do a fried egg you can fry up you could you can get canned chicken open that can of chicken fry up some chicken got a little protein then yeah pour some sriracha on there get that all

frying together get some seasonings going you got like yourself a grade a dish all of a sudden packed with protein and it costs you like a dollar yeah and um what about microwaving ramen i'm not as big of a fan of that like if you if you're going to do it, I'm just like, I'll take the three minutes to wait for the water to boil. But in a pinch, you can. In a pinch, you can. I'm just, that's not my style. But I think ramen noodles are underrated. Yep.

Okay. Okay, last topic for episode 215. And I would just say, keep my feelings in mind on this one. Last week, you remember, we went over one supercar. We discussed the Lamborghini. We're going to do another supercar here today. Overrated or underrated? I think you know where this is going.

Buicks. Buicks. Well, here's the thing with Buicks. Probably one of the most common supercars that you'll find. It is. Here's the thing with Buicks that I'm not really a car guy, but Tanner, you might know more about this more than I do even. But I think back in the day, Buicks were considered a performance automobile. Like they made some Buicks that had some, had some power and had some go. And I think maybe even in comparison to like other

general motors vehicles they were maybe a little more high-end like not like not a cadillac but fancier than a chevrolet i think is yes and also uh this is worth noting before we get too far i think uh peyton manning and Tiger Woods both drive Buicks. So that's well, wasn't wasn't Shaq endorsed by them or in commercial? Maybe it was Shaq. I mean, he'll take money from literally anyone. But yeah, I'm pretty sure if you looked in Tiger Woods and Peyton Manning's garage, the main vehicle they drive is a Buick. Definitely. There's no doubt about that. That is their primary vehicle. So yeah, I think Buick, to me, it's one of those brands that in my opinion, as a,

you know, 30 year old male or a male in his thirties, the brand today is like, oh, so grandma. I was going to say grandma is the exact word, right? Does what any man, no man would buy a Buick SUV. No, it's the enclave. Oh my God. That is like the definition of a grandma car is that vehicle. And you could maybe, you know, you could maybe make the argument that if you wanted a car you might get a Buick car but you don't hear I don't hear anyone buying a Buick car grandmas I mean yeah yeah so

like it's just to me it's a brand that and maybe I don't know what their numbers are like maybe that was the intention like General Motors is like yeah we need to make this the uh the the mom and grandma friendly yeah really more the grandma friendly vehicle than anything but that is just i can't see that brand and not think of that reputation like there's it would be insane to think like if if buick came out with a car that like had some power yeah it was sporty yeah you'd be like what are they trying to do do they not get who they are that doesn't work i feel like a buick emblem on the front of a sporty looking car would be the oddest looking like you'd be like what is that you'd be like who would buy that the grandmas

that they market to are buying that any man is gonna say no i'm not getting a buick today well isn't it funny that tiger woods and peyton manning were even recently spokespeople for Buick. Like what's the mark? I mean, I, yeah, to me, then I suppose grandmas would be like, Oh,

that Peyton Manning is a nice young man. You know, maybe, I don't know. To me, it seems like they should talk to some people on like the, on HGTV, like see what some of the older women that cook on there,

like, and let them be their spokespeople because I just, I don't see anyone nowadays. I do think though that back in the day, the brand had a bit of a, had a bit of appeal to it as far as muscle cars go and some of their other things. Because they do have some cars that look really cool from back in the day. I'm looking at them right now. I don't know what they're all called, uh they definitely did have some at one point and uh yeah that's just that's just gone you could say what do you have tanner the park avenue or the not the park avenue you have a le saber custom please let's savor the savor was is the park avenue the step up from that

it is in the era of in the era of buick cars that i had, you had the Century, then the LeSabre, then the Park Avenue. That's kind of order in size and also ritziness. Like each step up was a little bigger. Would you say that was also the last good line of vehicles? I kind of think so. Like after that, I guess the Enclave is probably a reliable, like grandmothers like the Buick Enclave. That's what they make now. I don't even know what their models of cars are now but i that is what i would say once they had a good run

with the century le saber park avenue those are still everywhere like you see those all the time and i don't oh you do i don't know if they stop those in all three colors they make and silver and yeah yeah silver maroon and maroon in both colors and white. And I don't know if they stopped those in like 2005, 2006, somewhere in there. And after that, they have not hit any home runs like they did with those, I don't think. Well, and to me, if you're trying to be like luxury, people are going to go after Cadillac. If you want to pay that tax, you're going to pay that luxury tax, you're going to go Cadillac every time. And otherwise, I think Chevy probably has you covered

for pretty much all your other needs. Also, people don't really make cars almost. People don't buy cars for the most part. I was going to say, in their current lineup, the only car is the Regal. That is it for cars. They actually have their actually their only vehicles. It looks like here they have the Encore, the Envision and the Enclave.

And then for cars, they have the Regal. So they have the Regal, Encore. They only make three vehicles anyways. Yeah. And cars are like a dying vehicle. I think Ford makes the Mustang, and I don't know if they make any other cars anymore besides the Mustang. I think you might be right there.

I think that might be the only one. Which that is insane that they make crossovers, I guess, is why they don't make, because it's transition to that. But's funny you and i both drive a car i do yeah they're pretty practical yeah they get good gas mileage you can get around in them it's i mean they work chevy right now they have just talking of domestic do they still make the malibu they have the malibu still they have the impala they have also have the Sonic and the spark. And I don't think you really ever see either one of those. People are,

people are all about the crossover life now. They are. Well, and it is getting to the point where they get like the same mileage. And a lot of times they have all of the same benefits of cars plus more. So I, I get why, but,

um, you know, sometimes it's nice to have that sporty that sporty le sabre uh custom don't it's also custom but yes yes that that's that's pretty appeal i do it is customized i do the the front two wheels on it are cadillac rims so oh wow cadillac rims on the front so that's how you know it's good you just when it comes to GM products, you're a man of fine taste is what that shows, right? I don't really like Cadillac snobs.

Buick is like that perfect class of people for me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're just in it for just a good ride, right? Yeah, that's right. Ford does have the, in 2020, they have the Mustang and the fusion. So they have two cars. Okay. Kind of crazy though.

Yeah, it is. It drives through any car lot, especially in our part of the country and trucks outnumber cars, probably 30 to one. Yeah. Legitimately. Yes.

So what was your final answer? Did you really say, or did you skirt around? Buicks? I kind of skirted around it. I'm in with their current state. I'm saying they're definitely overrated. Okay.

So you heard it. They've murdered the brand. I guess I have to disagree just because I, everyone knows I live that LeSabre life. So, okay. That's the end of overrated underrated. And that's bringing us towards the end of episode 215. Make sure to check out those tank tops that we mentioned.

In addition to that, I would suggest to check out on our store the podcast supporting membership option. For those of you that enjoy listening, if maybe you purchased apparel in the past, or maybe you're not into the apparel and you want to support us in another way, a great option would be our supporting memberships. And there's a few different levels there. There's a $3 level, a $6 level. Just think if you and 9,000 other people all joined at the $6 level, we could do some really cool things with Masonomics. We could buy our own Buick. We could buy our own Masonomics Buick. We could buy our own mass.

And we could get around in an enclave with a mass. And that's what, that's what we need. Yeah. That's what, that's the goal. That's always been the goal from the beginning. So, uh, but check that stuff out on our store. Um, I'm going to do touch on our sponsors again from this episode. One more time.

Today's episode was 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. This episode was 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

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