Massenomics Podcast - Ep.227: Donnie "Super D" Thompson

Episode Date: August 10, 2020

We chat with Donnie about his inventions, lawyers, cigars, ductile steel, and equipped powerlifting.  Nothing was off limits with ol' Super D!  We also announce the big Massenomics Stimulus package contest that we have coming up soon where we will be giving away $500 to one lucky winner. 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. 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! Welcome back, everyone, to episode 227 of the Masanomics podcast, I think. Or is it 226? Wow, Tanner, this might be the first time you've ever not known. I was crash reading something else real quick before we started here. Wow.

I think it's 227. Really? I think Silent Lake was 22 226 but we better double check i mean we'll have to record the whole thing if we say the wrong episode number yeah that totally messes it all safari oh it is open page it is 227 okay okay fun fact for you too um if assuming my records are correct the i got the number wrong but assuming my records are correct, the first episode of Just Us was either 125 or 126. So we're 100 past that. We're 100 in of this.

Of this. This dynamic. I think we're finally just now starting to get it figured out. Just starting to figure out how to be comfortable on there. They usually say always that first 100 with the new chain, that's the hardest. It takes 100 to figure out what you're doing. Then it takes another 100 to be comfortable they usually say always that first 100 with the new chain you know that's the hardest no it takes a hundred to figure out what you're doing then it takes another hundred to get comfortable then the third hundred is where you can say you're good well that's why just now we're all that being said the podcast is right now taking off we've hit a few like we've had a few good surges in the road over the last few years and

right now we're in a a good uh a good surge yeah we are in a growth period which is fun to see so welcome for all of you that are pretty new to the podcast yeah based on our numbers there appears to be quite a few of you yeah uh maybe take this time to tell some more people about this that these guys are really starting to it took them 227 episodes but they're really starting to hit their stride here uh we're so good in fact that we have sponsors for our podcast from them we will today's episode is brought to you by spud ink the goal of spudding 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-ink-straps.com. This episode is also brought to you by Hybrid Performance Method. They're your one-stop shop for all things fitness and online coaching. Whether your goals are training-related, nutrition, and body composition-related, or both, Hybrid has a program for you. With dedicated and experienced coaches in each strength and fitness discipline, you can rest assured that you're in the best hands possible. When you're there, make sure to use our discount code. It's MASS, M-A-S-S. That's in all caps, and it'll save you 5% off any training or nutrition membership for the life of that membership. Visit hybridperformancemethod.com. The show is also brought to you by Texas Power Bars. In 1980, Buddy Cap 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, international, world and massonomics powerlifting records have been and continue to be set and broken on the Texas Power Bar.

To learn more, make sure to visit their site at texaspowerbars.com. And this show is brought to you by Lifting Large. Lifting Large has set a new standard for customer service within the strength world. They have live website chat support and speedy email responses. Lifting Large is home to the Ground Lock Deadlift Slipper, and they're always in stock and ready to ship. Massanomics listeners can save 20% on all all lifting large branded products by using our discount code mass 20 at checkout those are our sponsors for this particular episode so we're doing great someone messaged me that's actually what i was trying to double check right before we started

here um also reading a text message as i speak from our guest from the show. We do have a guest coming today too. Is this good news or bad news? He just said, text me five minutes prior so I can come into the vintage room. Okay. In parentheses, Elvis curtains.

It is funny though, Tanner, we were just saying before the show at some point, we don't know when it'll be at some point though, we will plan on having a guest for the last half and either they're not going to pick up, they're not going to answer answer and we're going to be kind of like oh what do we do now right right if you've listened to this show for any time amount of time you'll know that we'll fill that gap somehow oh yeah we've got we have means at our disposal you know

we didn't get to this far without having but at some point that is going to happen like we're promising to get and this is always one take we're never cutting no it's always one take so we're not going to recut that episode it'll just be it is what it is right um but a little piece of massonomics podcast history that a listener filled me in on this listener started started found our show at the beginning of the pandemic he said sometime in april he listened to every episode we've had a couple people say that which absolutely blows our mind yes it is shocking but listen to this guy he now he finished them all and he said i'm not sure what state he's from but he goes pandemic round two mastonomics podcast round two and he sent me a screenshot he's on episode 10 he restarted over the podcast wow he did say that now he's like

kind of busy doing projects at home and he's just it's almost just like background noise just the the sweet sound yeah voice but but him having listened to the whole show and now starting over again he's picking up on these things and he sent me a he goes fun massonomics trivia he sent me a screenshot of the episode he's like the first time the word druthers was ever used on the massonomics podcast and do you know what episode druthers would have been first if i had to guess i would say tyler might have said it on an episode randomly because he did use strange words occasionally any guess on the episode just to throw it out 47 it was on episode 10. What? About minute 430.

Professor Shanz, who was calling in at the time, was talking about if he had his druthers. Wow. He was talking about his diet and nutrition and how he eats. It was like an episode talking about, we had an episode where he explained how he eats for the day. Yeah, let me set the stage for you guys here. Here's a word.

I'm going to serve it up to you. It's called druthers. Wow. So that's the very first ever appearance of the word druthers on the Mastodonomics podcast, episode 10. I'm glad we have someone going back through giving us these tips.

So I had to go listen to episode 10. I listened to like the first 10 minutes and boy, did that seem different than what our podcast is today. I can, I, yeah. And and imagine that guy he listened to our full catalog up through the newest stuff and then started back over at one right away i bet he's like whoa this really feels different the second time around took a turn there yeah yeah because while it's happening it's a very slow right like that if we're going this way it turns this way

gradually right but yeah to get to the end and then back here, that's a shock for sure. Yes. So that was my interesting tidbit that I had. I'm very glad you shared that, Tanner. I'm going to share something with you now. Oh. I hope it's not coronavirus. No, I'm going to take you to Flavortown, Tanner.

Now, this is What's in That Can. So I'm going to need you to take an educated guess here at what we have for. We're just going to keep assuming we have a bunch of new listeners right now. This is the fun segment where every week I give Tanner a can, and Tanner uses his very refined palate to guess what he is drinking. I feel like I have the can sitting on my lap, and I pop the top, and I felt like I could smell it from like feet away. So that's crazy.

I'd say there's a chance you could have, yeah. That's wild. This is going to be a hard one. Is it because the flavor is not strong or because you're not sure? Because I'm not sure. Because usually I know if I have an idea on that first sip yep it usually doesn't i usually don't take subsequent sips and be like okay now it's coming to me what that flavor is now i'm dialing it in oh my god i cannot even put up my finger on. It's funny because I'm pretty sure if I say this, you're going to be like,

how did I not know that? Let me try just like one more here. But as a hint, I will give you a clue. We have never had the slaver before. So it's not a trick of any kind. It, you know, I don't know what it is. I don't know. I'm not going not gonna get it i'll just tell you that straight up but the one comment i'd make is i haven't had a like a seven up in like

15 years or 20 i don't need maybe 20 years i haven't had a set up seven up that's probably a fair number and i feel like maybe it tastes a little like 7-Up. Well, Tanner. Is that yours? I think it's a sparkling flavored water. It is a sparkling water. It is definitely not 7-Up. I'm pretty sure 7-Up is lemon-lime flavored, right? I think so.

This is actually, let's take a look. Oh, it's a red can. It is a. Oh, is it strawberry? A watermelon. Oh, watermelon. Waterloo. Watermelon is the flavor of the week, Tanner.

Let me try that again. Is it there yet? It does not taste very much. The thing about watermelon, though, like a lot of times watermelon doesn't taste like anything. Right. That's true. So maybe that's what i was experiencing yeah i guess i get it a little bit now after that if we had like some black watermelon seeds in there right right maybe that helped yeah uh i would have not got that in

a million years i wasn't not even headed the right direction i actually kind of thought you would maybe maybe would have got this one do not overestimate my skills in this game my wife did say though she said i feel like this could be alcohol in here and i would believe you if you said there was alcohol i had to think about it for a second i came to the conclusion that there wasn't but you know i just think it's just the right fruity flavor that it feels that way but waterloo though are you changing things up in the house a little bit well we were at uh Lou though are you changing things up in the house a little bit well we were at uh Target and it was on the shelf change it up I guess yeah that's good it is good though what's your JD power and associate stars somewhere between three and a half and four I would

definitely drink this one again yeah I give it like a three it's good I mean I it's a good refresh it doesn't like just blow my socks off as you can see my socks are still on but yeah um okay tanner we have actually we say this a lot but i do mean at this time we have a lot of things on our list and and we got to run down before we get before we get to donnie yeah so i'm trying to trying to decide actually now that i look at this what we're going to be able to get through what can and can't we do um the first one okay let's we do need to get this out of the way because this is important and this is coming to you actually this should be live by the time if you're listening to this live this will be launching any day or it might even be live now and that is um the the newest contest from Masanomics,

the Masanomics Stimulus Package. We're actually kind of working this out. We're working out the final details, but be looking out on social media this week if you are up to date. We are going to have a Masanomics Stimulus Package coming out. The grand prize is going to be somewhere around that $500 mark of plus merch, apparel, all that stuff in there. But, you know, the last time we did a contest

was the Jefferson deadlift contest. That was a ton of fun for us. We've just been kind of missing that fun. Yeah. We've been kind of missing that fun. I think a lot of people would love something fun to do right now. And who wouldn't love 500 bucks, you know? That's right. It's our way of stimulating the economy. Circulating that Lyft Shorts money right back into the economy. Yes, we've brought it all in, and now we also just have too much money at this time.

We're just deathly afraid of what tax season is going to be like. The FDIC only insures you up to $250,000. So we just have to figure somewhere for this to go. Yeah, we've got to offload some cash before we run into problems here so that's the idea right we give away like five hundred thousand and or five hundred not five hundred thousand five hundred dollars and maybe a few things in that package our mass atomic stimulus package and we'll probably have a few consolation yep prizes and again this will work similar to the jefferson deadlift one where it's uh very dependent on videos being submitted.

But yeah, so the submission, we don't know all the details. We do know that it will require a video submission. Yeah. And you're going to want this in writing anyways. So yeah, what we say here doesn't matter. Hold on. Just be on the lookout for the Instagram post. The Masonomic Stimulus Package Contest will be going live very soon.

And we'll probably run it for a you'll have an opportunity to submit for a week or two so you got some time there to to plan ahead because the jefferson deadlift one oh the first week we were excited but that second week god it's really the heavy hitters came out there i started like i got it was to the point on the jefferson deadlift one where everyone i saw i was like oh that's it nobody can do anything else i remember the day you made a spreadsheet for it, and I'm like, out of all the things that need a spreadsheet, this is not one of them.

And boy, I was proven wrong, like not even a week later. That spreadsheet was absolutely necessary. It was for us to honestly have a fair shot of picking who we really think should be. Oh, these are the five most recent. For us to actually evaluate them, it required that. Yeah, because everyone got a 1 through 10 score score and we had to adjust them as others and like wait a second that we thought that was a nine having seen these last five that was actually

like a six and that happened we actually the day of picking we had like an hour phone call because it took that long to narrow it down and we're giving away 500 bucks on this one which is no like for massonomics as a company that's pretty cool this isn giving away 500 bucks on this one, which is no, like for Mastodonomics as a company, that's pretty cool for us to be able to do. This isn't a $500 gift card. This isn't like $500 worth of merchandise.

This is 500, the $500 check with your name on it. No, maybe we should even force it to be money that we send in the mail just so there's an extra element of risk

if the people even get it. That or send them a giant check in the mail. That could be kind of fun too. Because who, I think that's what we have to do. We might have to UPS someone a giant check. the mail that could be kind of fun too yes because who i think that's what we have to do we might have to ups someone a giant giant check yeah i really don't know how giant checks work like it's i think it's just completely symbolic yeah at least i have had to

design giant checks for companies everyone i've done is symbolic maybe maybe you can do real ones but the thing about that would just be the shipping of like getting it to them but that's the beauty what about just a medium medium sized check where it's like, this is way bigger than a normal check, but not a giant. But let's be honest, this is $500. It doesn't,

it doesn't merit a giant check. Like a check, the kind of the size of a hot dog shape of a, you know, an oblong sheet of paper. It's like, this is like a legal, what is that?

Is that a legal size paper? I think a legal is like 11 by 14. Like too big to just take to the bank, but not big enough to actually be like a giant. It's like kind of a big check. Like I did something out of the ordinary, but it wasn't that remarkable. I think that's maybe what we should do.

I think so. I mean that on its own would be worth something to see someone get a picture of a giant. So look at this. We're just brainstorming. Yeah. That's the mass economics podcast, It would be worth something to see someone get a picture of a giant. So look at this. We're just brainstorming out here. That's the Massanomics podcast. 50% brainstorming and something else.

$500 is a cool amount of money. It is a cool amount of money. I think we got a lot of listeners that will be like, well, I want $500. Puts a little pressure on us of picking the winner, though, already. It does. It's like, ooh, can't take that lightly. Yeah. Because the consolation prizes aren't going to be near as good as the grand. This is really, there's this big grand prize, and then there's going to be a few, you know.

I mean, you'd still be happy to win. There will be other prizes with merchandise and other things. And as you can tell right now, we're also doing a lot of thinking off the top of our heads. There might be more stuff in there, but for sure the grand prize will be $500. That will not change. And it's the massonomic stimulus package. So be on the lookout. We will have a post with full details, what needs to happen, the dates, the timelines, the hashtags you need to use.

That will all be out there. We'll even send out an email to our loyal followers so they can get in on the fun. In case Instagram is being kind of squirrely that day, it doesn't show you that post the first time around. Yes. Oh, that's good. I think that's fun. I am excited about that too.

Yes. Doing what we can to stimulate the economy. That's great. And did you see one of the other things on our list that it's Liam Robbins? I think, is it at Liam Robbins? What is his full tag? I always forget the actual handle. We should-

Liam Robbins Lift. Liam Robbins Lift on Instagram. He does drawings. His most recent, he posts of Dan Bell. And I guess, is that, do I say that's a drawing or it's art? Digital art. Yeah, it's okay, digital art. I don't know for sure how he's making them. There's a lot of ways's a it's art digital art yeah it's okay digital art

i don't know for sure how he's making them there's a lot of ways you could do it but yeah i would say i would say digital art yeah and he did a cool one of us on the mass surprisingly enough uh lifters and people that podcast i guess but yeah if you follow anyone more than likely you've seen this like his art if the name's not coming to you i'm sure you'll see his art and be like, ah, yes, that's the one I remember. And if this is news to you, you go check him out and follow him. He does some cool stuff. And now I really like him.

He did something. He did one of us. Yeah. Sitting here doing this. Yeah. What did you think of it when you, which is really funny. When I sent that to you.

It just made me laugh because they're all lifting ones. Yeah. And then like to the people that don't know who we are, they have to be like, he did a picture of two guys sitting in a chair. In front of a microphone.

Like, what is that? Right. So I just laughed because that's what, like he didn't even try to put us in a lifting situation. Right. It's just us podcasting. That's what makes it perfect. It is just us podcasting.

So I did like it. That was good. It's a good job on that. Our muscles could have been larger. Could have been larger, but you know, we didn't have the full podcast pump going yet when he did you think he did a pretty good job capturing your look yeah i think so i thought our likeness was it was good layers absolutely right yeah it was it was it was spot on oh we're representing both the eight bit

today yes we are in uh all of our 8-bit glory here right now uh both of these shirts not only are we wearing them because we like them but uh they continue to be hot sellers on the pod uh on the massonomics store yeah they're so hot we're probably gonna have to sell these ones right off our back it's getting to be that point there are definitely sizes in this one for sure that you're not getting right now so yeah keep keep buying that stuff uh the dune drop did go over really well yeah lots of people uh lots of people liked it surprising number of female purchasers we did comment on that like there seems to be an uptick of uh which maybe it's like if you don't make stuff that's purely beer related you might get females i guess and that did remind me this was a female listener i forget

who it is she had a post she made a meme of tanner and tommy explaining to silent mike things to do in the midwest yes and god i laughed out loud at that meme that was really funny i'm gonna remember who it's on instagram it's get fitgen24. Getfitgen24. Just to give her props. I think it was the two guys from Whose Line Is It Anyways, right? Yes. Is it Ryan and is it Colin? It's been too many years since I've seen that show.

I forget. Yeah, it's been a long time. It was those two guys, though, and they kind of have this dumb look on their face. Yeah. And it's our names above them trying to explain to Silent Mike what you do in the Midwest or what you do in South Dakota. Right, right. And man, that was funny because, you know, the Midwest or what you do in South Dakota. Right. Right. And man,

that was funny because you know, the Midwest, how do you put it into words? Right. Tanner. Right. Silent Mike liked that too. So that was fun.

Yeah. I like that a lot. This kind of brings sort of related. My wife asked me a question this week and I, it was a good question. I laughed and I had to think about it for a minute and she said do you guys ever get haters and i was like well just so you know the whole lift shorts thing started with that and she's like well yeah i know i get that but that one doesn't really count

anymore like that it kind of doesn't yeah that's true the lift shorts camp the whole lift shorts marketing idea didn't come from a hater right that's but's true. But then outside of that, she's like, but you don't just like have people telling you guys suck and they hate your stuff. And I was like, we don't really get that. I mean, if we do,

I said, if we do get it, it's from people that clearly run across our page and they don't know what we're doing. Right, right, right. Like they don't get it at all. A lot of times they don't get that it's a joke.

We put something out and they don't even get that it's a joke. Yeah, like they don't know who we are. It's not like they follow us and they like actively hate us no no i don't i don't think we've ever gotten that at all and i think that's because is it because like we don't try to be experts on anything and we don't take anything too seriously like are you going to hate us for not being serious enough is that what we would get hate for yeah yeah i don't

know we really don't run across that though at all, do we? No. The biggest thing is we get, you know, we share videos of other people lifting, wearing our stuff. And like the last one was Greg Panora, one of the best power lifters of all time. And someone was critiquing, some Joe Schmo that doesn't follow us was critiquing his breathing. Yeah, and I'm like, like I had to share that. Like if it was me doing a lift and someone'm like like i had to share that because like

if it was me doing a lift and someone said like whatever you can critique me but i'm like it's like if it's we post a video of ed cone and they're like dude you're doing it wrong and it's like come on like yeah someone's really missing like you deserve to be chastised if which does remind we used to have a best instagram comment of the week didn't we that's true we spent a long time went away we could bring that one back i did that is a good segment i kind of forgot about that like all these new up and coming you know what's in the can overrated underrated it just kind of like it pushed best comment of the week out a little bit we might have to revisit that oh there's i mean there's always plenty of ammunition for that one yeah so i i did think that was an in and tanner you do see way more of the interactions with

things than than i do so i didn't know if maybe you're like oh yeah we actually have a whole secret faction of people that despise us but no there's occasionally things that annoy me but it's more stuff like that like the great menorah thing where I'm like come on guy you're either really dense or like not self-aware in any way or yeah any number of things but yeah there's not really no nobody that I feel like gets us and like it's just openly a jerk on there you know I don't I don't think that really has ever happened which is kind of nice yeah but I would say it is funny though in the beginning when we were doing more blogging we would get a little more feedback on articles of people being like you did stuff wrong and at the time i remember thinking like that why are people like this this

is so crazy like it actually did bug bug me a little like it was for articles that i didn't even write but right as massonomics being one of my babies it's like yeah it's like someone coming and telling you your child's ugly and they hate it and it's dumb and stupid and it's like ah that hurt and now it's like man i wouldn't even be concerned one bit with some of those comments that initially bugged me in the beginning no and we get so much good you know we get so much positive stuff so many people that are in on all the jokes yeah the positive outweighs the negative so much but there is still i do experience that still sometimes i know it's everyone's a little guilty of it where like there can be 30 good funny positive comments and then there's one and i'm like that one's really like probably the biggest like level of like not hate

but just dumb comments we got was probably on starting strength that's true and part of it is one they encourage it a little bit they kind of like build this culture of like wanting that because they reward it with a shout out basically on their podcast right and then two was i mean it was we were on someone else's show foreign yeah it was foreign we were on someone else's show it wasn't at our pace we weren't dictating anything like right we were kind of along for the ride yeah if people didn't like what was going on there but um yeah besides that though it's always been pretty. No, no, I don't think. Fairly smooth sailing over here.

Knock on wood. Oh, here's the wood right here. There we go. Okay. Wow. Well, we'll keep the positive vibes afloat over here, Tanner. Yep. Next topic on our lengthy rundown here. Did you see see anything did you get all wrapped up with that rundown I you know I'm just that rundown rundown and before the weekend here did you see anything

XFL related news wise no are they what are the well their? So this one shocked me. The Rock had a post two days ago. It's this image right here. It says XFL, Dwayne Johnson, owner. And I thought, that's bizarre. Yeah. And I'm not aware of any of that. His post, I won't read the whole thing, but he says, with my trailblazing partner

at Danny Garcia Co. and Redbird, Redbird Capital's Gary Cardinalinal we have acquired the xfl so the rock and a few people acquired the xfl i was kind of shocked by that one and he just basically goes on to say with gratitude and passion i built a career with my own two hands um they're gonna do the same thing with the xfl brand kind of surprising for me a little bit it's funny because uh at least for like the last 10 years the rockster seems to have the Midas touch where everything he touches turns to gold so it's like can he make the xfl something like is the rock powerful enough to take on see that one seems well but he hasn't always though he's been a part of like Baywatch

was a movie that was hyped and had a huge marketing budget. And I don't think he really acknowledges it. And most people don't that it just, I think he's also big enough that when the things fail, he just is onto the next thing. And it doesn't, but a lot of people, you know, he has that luxury. He has so much money and so much hype around him. He can do stuff. And if they fail, just keep going.

Yeah. People, the world moves on with him. Whereas a lot of people, you have one or two failures and your career can be screwed over uh so i don't know i don't know the ins and outs financially of the xfl we've talked about the xfl a little bit on the show before it seems like a sports league is a from what i can tell a multi multi multi million dollar thing if not billion dollar thing to to run and market and promote and have it be an effective business and entertainment thing that's what makes me wonder if the i mean the grand of the rock i'm sure it's i don't know what the rocks net worth is but i'm wondering if

some of his partners are even larger net worth individuals than oh when they said like the one i would assume the one has to be almost like a venture capitalist right right yes right but that yet the rock is the most famous and it works like he's the perfect spokesman that's like part of you as an owner is you posting that on instagram yeah just being you yeah right like that's that's me your money is one thing but we really need you any other brand to pay like if the xfl wanted the rock to do a shout out for them how much would they have to pay him to do that you know six months ago when they were going yeah that'd be crazy we'll take a we'll take a shout out from the rock to see what that does right that would be all right so i thought that was interesting i

it's it's a different business venture for him i wouldn't say it doesn't make any sense but i mean it is a little more ball thing yeah it is a little more out there i still don't completely understand how the xfl fits into if it's just the amateur league that's on tv i mean that's really kind of what it is really that's what it that's where it has i guess well that's what it has to be more though like it has to more specifically be that i think in order for it to work and like this really is just the breeding grounds for the NFL but that already exists and that's called college football well I know that's what's so tricky about it because it's like it's it's going to be the people it's the people that couldn't make the NFL right out of college it's like I go play here for three years and then I'm good enough. But probably I'm still not good enough

and like I'm hurt. Yeah, I guess it's your AAA ball. Maybe it's where you can prove that like your injuries aren't your limitation or like you just needed that one more year to develop, I guess, or you couldn't work out on a college team. Like you couldn't actually get through college. Well, and college sports is so wacky

that maybe there's some day where it's like enough people don't want to there's enough people that say i want to make it to the nfl i don't want to go play college i can go play in the xfl for two years instead and then be in the nfl because i think there is a rule that you cannot you you can't uh you know you can't go to the nfl out of high school you know you used to be able to do that in the nba yeah they made it so you can't and now i wonder if they're like switching that again that you can but in for football you've always had to spend like two years yeah well don't you have to be at least 20 something to yeah and that's maybe it's

maybe you have to be 20 years old or whatever it is so maybe playing for the xfl and making a little less money would be more appealing to some of these people than making secret money from a college and then 10 years later getting found out about it and having to vacate your trophies and all that crap. True, true. Yeah, I don't know. Hopefully they got bigger plans than just the XFL being what it is right now.

They have to have a bigger vision for it than it just being the AAA baseball of football. That's actually not related. I don't know if it's going to be like that, but they also kind of have like the WWE gimmicky feel to it a little bit in comparison to the NFL. But I wonder if that's like just from us being older and knowing it from the first time around,

because that's absolutely what it was the first time around. But did you see any of the games they had on this last go around? It did just seem like it was just a just football yeah it just kind of felt like you were just watching football that you it's like when you watch it's like when you don't know any of the people it's like when you watch two college teams and it's like these are two college teams playing football i don't know either one of them i don't know a single player in either one i guess i'm not i guess it's football like that's kind of your your takeaway from it you know it's that's sort of better than getting kicked in the groin yeah that was sort of my takeaway watching the xfl like yeah there's guys competing i don't know

any of them yeah that was it does that is one of the biggest things with sports it right makes it way more entertaining when you have some either vested interest or you know who the people are. Yeah. Yes. That is, that's, that's the X factor. The X factor. Wow. Okay. Should we go to our ads,

Tanner? I suppose. We'll call Donnie. One second here. Oh, yeah, that's a good idea. We're doing secret ideas, One second here. Oh. You can do that, yeah. That's a good idea. We're doing secret ideas.

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while you're doing that we'll say we've got Donnie Thompson Super D Is this it? Let me get into my Elvis room. All right. While you're doing that, we'll say we've got Donnie Thompson, Super D, Mr. 3000, live on the Massanomics podcast today. That's such old news, Tim. People never forget. We can say we got a fat old guy in here to still lift and wait believe it or not can you see the Elvis curtains clearly now

not yet I'm almost there I had to wait through two bulldogs there we go okay I'm here Donnie we are excited to have you on the podcast it's myself Tanner and Tommy here and uh we haven't visited with you uh over some real audio since probably one of the last times we saw you at the arnold i think yeah um remember we had two

glorious years in a row and uh two two awesome two awesome and i think we got real squinty eyes laughing so much. That's right. That's right. Everybody thinks I'm a bitter guy. I'm like, I'm not bitter. I'm probably too happy. No, I would not. I don't think we'd describe you as bitter at all.

No, we wouldn't. And even one of those years, we actually ran into you outside of one of the bars and talked to you for a while and we uh got to hear a few good donnie thompson stories too so yeah yeah i'll tell you that that that all is crazy because there's so many people there that it's almost too much it's like going to a restaurant with too much stuff on the menu i'm like i don't even know what i want to eat now. Well, it's my appetite. Well, not really. I didn't really lose my appetite, but I'm getting frustrated looking at all these items. That's kind of the way the Arnold is. It's so much. That is a really good way of describing it. One of the things that we really like about our

interviews that we had with you at the Arnold is we actually took one of your audio clips with us, and that's now on the intro to our podcast. You say we make things look better than they are in real life. And some of our listeners have really taken that line and they, they like to use that in our correspondence with them now. Hey, you never know what will pop out of my mouth. It's how I felt at the moment. You know what I mean? Cause when you see some people that you really don't know well,

they have cameras, and you don't know what they're going to ask you, you don't know what, you know, I don't know who you guys are affiliated with or anything when I first met you. And here, you know, it was such a pleasant surprise. You know, there was none of that stuff. It was

just fun. And that's what I, and then we stayed in touch, and I my don't curl in me flag up there's jim yes and as soon as i lose more old man titty fat i can wear my lift shirt there we go so you talked about your your gym and you know we we've got a gym here and we've got a gym here, and we've got a lot of stuff that you've invented in our gym. We've got fat bells around, fat pad, bow ties around. But I wondered if you could walk us through a little bit of what all you have invented and created around the lifting space, because I know there's kind of getting to be a long list. space because I know there's kind of getting to be a long list I've got like when I got in the gym business it was 1994 so I have a lot of stuff from back then that I when I sold the gym I got to take some of the stuff with me I chose the things that I thought that I would you know need

for power lifting so I said I've got some of my old strength ink stuff some nebula stuff some um oh heavy equipment stuff and um so you know just the old school old day stuff that like back then it was so brand new you're like oh my gosh then 25 years fly by like it's nothing and all of a sudden this stuff is antiquified and vintage you know it's like back then you could buy your plates and they were you know branded they were milk to perfection everything was like cool we got yours now you can't get them right you know and uh unless you find a deal somewhere that someone wants to get rid of them which i mean it's it has to be a nasty divorce or something. Yeah. It's not a deal nowadays. No, no,

no. And, uh, now, uh, there's some companies that are starting to make plates right here in the country again, and those are going to be awesome.

But like 25 years from now, those will be coveted. Yeah. It's like, I need to, all those deep dishes are so-and-so made, you know? So it's going to be,

it's just interesting because we're in the age of equipment. We've never had a better time for lifting equipment because it's not, you know, and there's also a resurgence back to the old stuff. You notice how a lot of your selectorized equipment, plate loaded equipment, lever equipment, that's what we used to call it. It's all coming back now. Everybody's trying to get their hands, not just because of the pandemic, but because it's fun to lift on again.

Yeah, right. You know, you took a break from it. You just had the damn barbell all the time. Squats, bench, deadlift. You know, squats, bench, deadlift, squats, bench, deadlift. And, like, for me, now that I don't compete anymore, it's like, I want to try this. This stuff was fun back in the day.

I bet you it's fun now. So, you know, people are revisiting it, and that's kind of cool. eat anymore. It's like, I want to try this. This stuff was fun back in the day. I bet you it's fun now. People are revisiting it, and that's kind of cool. It's a whole new generation of people getting exposed to the old stuff. The big thing in my gym, the centerpiece, the one

thing that will draw your attention when you walk into the places, right when you walk in you're literally right there at the circle of strength and i think that's one of my my biggest uh you know um stumbling pieces i stumbled on i didn't uh i wish i could say i'm smart and i'm a genius and all that stuff but it's not true i just i happen to be watching gun smoke there's two things when i created that fat belt i knew i didn't want it up not true i just i happen to be watching gun smoke there's two things when i created that fat belt i knew i didn't want it up against the wall just like everybody puts dumbbells

up against the wall you know all my life every since the 70s on that dumbbells have just been up against the wall it's like they have to be there or something yeah yeah you know some place you go they're all just all spread out all over the floor then underneath the rack no one seems to be able to put them back in and you got to search for the dumbbell that had the head of you know the same weight or you know one was one place one was another so i got to thinking i mean i need to make something i'll come up with all these stupid ideas that were just total garbage and i'm like man i gotta really and i'm, you're trying too hard. Every time I try too hard, I fail. And so I'm like, all right.

I'm watching Thug Smoke one morning. You know, it was one of my diet kicks where I was going to get up early and do cardio, you know, fasted cardio. It's always funny when that guy tries to lose weight, you know, because you know it's never going to happen. It's like, what? Good luck to you. Enjoy your three months of suffrage. You know, we's never going to happen. Good luck to you. Enjoy your three months of suffrage. You know, we'll see you again back here. We'll see you back here just like normal in a few months.

But anyway, and Gunsmoke was on. So I would drink a cup of coffee after I was done. And Gunsmoke was on. I'm like, wow, this is awesome, man. Gunsmoke's on. So I'm watching Gunsmoke. And a Medicare smoke was on like wow this is awesome man gun smoke's on so i'm watching gun smoke in a medicare commercial come on medicaid one of those uh government um things with you know when you get older what is it medicare you go on yeah medicare gray hair yeah yeah medicare gray hair that's it so i'm watching this and they had a bar graph going to the thing and it was a

it was a circle and it was a red circle. And one, one goes up to tell you what benefits you have. And another one up, it was three equal parts that made the 306 degrees. And I jumped out of my chair and I'm like, Holy crap, that's the circle of strength. And I never even knew about a circle of strength. I never even knew the cause. It just came out of my mouth. You know, I'm like, what's the simple strength? And so I started, and I had a dear friend who passed away, Dutch. He goes, I know a guy that can make this happen for you. So this guy's like a welding artist.

He does all kinds of fancy artwork and stuff with steel. And he's called the Spartan Bird. His name's Kevin Blue. And Kevin, he brought Kevin down, and he just got done training. And he's like, okay, he brought Kevin down and you know he just got done training and he's like okay he's here to help you and I was like you know how

I just reported myself in third party you know how the you know how the fat pillar gets you know and I'm like I don't want to do shit

after I'm done training I just want to sit here and smoke a cigarette and talk so I'm like do you want me to pick these fat bills up and make a circle out of them

because that's the only way we're going to get a measurement I'm like oh oh, my gosh. So we took this string, drew a big 10-foot diameter, what I estimated at, did all these measurements, and I even put some stuff on. I'm like, what in the wild, wild world of sports is going on around here? Coop, that guy from GarageBand. Oh, yeah, sweet old Coop.

I give him shit every time, every chance I get. Well, what's the ductile steel thing? Oh, yes, we know Coop. I give him shit every time, every chance I get. Well, what's the ductile steel thing? Yeah, the ductile. That's for ductile. It's a furnace. No, it's ductile steel. It's the world's thing.

It's the world's thing. And so anyway, he starts sending me cat drawings. I'm like, this is exactly what I wanted. I just want to take 360 degree circle and cut out an opening. You know, don't build it with an opening, just cut it out. So that's what he did. And then, man, that thing just started a whole trend of, you know, all my kettlebells are on there and all my fatbells. And it's just. I have a few triads I just got from

Havoc Company up in California. All that stuff's on there and we just go at it. We have a whole routine. We call it volume day, V-day. We have another day we do all one-arm stuff where this goes heavy. Man, everybody

around here started getting strong. Just had those two days and it got to where we started getting strong and, uh, just had no two days and it got to where we started like trying to do each other. And it's just really, really bigger than I ever imagined. You know, I just, it's just,

uh, and it's like, it's not for sale. There's no, it's not a product that's selling or anything. It's just something I got that I'm really proud of. And, um,

everyone that comes in is really proud of. Everyone that comes in is really in awe. If they're not, I'm sure they are by the time you leave. Trust me, it's not unique to me to try to brainwash somebody. I guess my takeaway is I should start paying more attention to Medicare commercials

going forward. You never know. you never know what's going to be you never know the weirdest things come out you know so i mean when i came over i would swing in the kettlebell and i thought what if i shook this handle into the center i said i bet you that would feel awesome and then i had a dream i did i woke up at three in the morning i took a snapple tea-Lid and drew around it. You know, because no one wants to see a drone, some fat guy drawing something like a kindergartner, you know, a non-circular circle. So I made sure that they were right.

And to this day, you could go back to the original drawing from 15 years ago and put the Snapple T-Lid there and it fits perfect. But I did that. I had a dream. I did it. And I woke up immediately. Did it. That's simple. That wasn't when I was in a deposition a few years ago,

the squirrel attorney's like, do you have a dream? That's how you came out. Like, yes, I did have a dream. They, he mocked me to score,

you know, but I'm telling the truth. At least I, you know, I'm supposed to be on the road. And, you know but i'm telling the truth at least thought you know i'm supposed to be on the road and uh at least i told the truth but you know you can tear me apart in a deposition so but most people that come up with stuff it is a weird way to come up with it it's never yeah i don't think that's a new i mean i've literally woke up and wrote written down a massonomics idea in the middle of the night. Like I was somewhere between awake and asleep and started having ideas. That's more often how it does happen. I don't think you sit down and you're like, today I'm coming up with a million dollar idea.

You know, I mean, that's how that goes. If you didn't do that, if you didn't write it down when you woke up like that, you would forget about it. Oh, absolutely. You don't have pieces of it. You don't have pieces of it. You don't have pieces of it. You're like, what was it? What was that third element? There was three things I can't, what was the third?

Because you can't remember. Yep. Yeah. You have to, that moment, it's like a flash. It's just a little flash and you have to get it down or it's gone forever. Donnie, I don't know if you've ever seen Back to the Future, but it's how, you could have used this in the deposition probably. It's how Doc Brown came up with time travel.

He was sitting on his toilet. He got up quickly and he bumped his head on a shelf above the toilet. He hit his head and he had a vision of the flux capacitor. And that's what made time travel possible. So that would have been a good reference. Back to the future defense. I'm a huge Metamucil fan. So all I need is a shelf above the toilet. I'm a huge Metamucil fan. All I need is a shelf above the toilet.

I'm good to go. You're talking about the circle of strength, the fat bells, and like I said earlier, the bow tie, body tempering, everything you've done. If we tried to get you two, do you have one invention or one product that

you're most proud of? Or would that be too hard? Would it be like choosing between your children? Some of them, like some of them need, they're like, I look at like things that you come up with through your years in trenches, you know? Because like this summer is my 42nd year training, like completing my 42nd year. So I started at 78. And my mom thought it was gonna be a fad by the way and um it's like like the bow tie is one that affects me the most

that in the fat pad because i use them all the time know, because sometimes you do a lot of barbell work and lifting, and so the fat pad comes in handy on the bench, and the bow tie comes in handy for me when I have a bone spur in my shoulder. It's still there, but now I can work around it. But those things helped me, like, the most as far as that. But, like, I try to do fat belt of stuff every day so one day one's more important than another and then another day it's kind of like kids don't want your the middle kid might need more attention than the younger kid those kids might not need any attention for a

while so it's kind of like it rolls back and forth and like to think of things the most that i'm most proud of i think coming up with body tempering is one because it affects so many people that the broomstick therapy, I think so many people worldwide are doing that. And that to me is, and they don't need to buy anything for me to do it. They can, you know, come up with their own stuff right in their gym or go to steal the scrap yard or the machine shop and buy a drop cut piece of metal. You can use a baseball bat for the food sick therapy or a mace, you know, so it's all stuff you can do. You don't have to buy the fancy stuff if you can't afford it. And body temperance is available right away.

And so I think from the high schools to the colleges to the proteins to the physical therapists, that's kind of what I'm most proud of because I think that helps people the most. And it's a method I could give away for free, and I still am able to capitalize on it with my rollers that I sell. I think that says something about you, the way you answer the question. You're not saying, well, this one made me the most money,

so it's my favorite. That wasn't even a factor of how you answer that question so i think that does a good job of showing what your actual motives are and i was still broke for so long because of my own you know my own mismanagement of of my um of my career or whatever as you want to call it you know you can't i can't put the blame to anybody but myself and so when you get used to being poor you know when you start making money it's almost like you're looking around seeing you feel like a criminal you're like oh this is check for the kind of big you know if i had this back 15 years ago i'd have been doing cartwheels you know 400 pound man but you know it's-pound man doing cartwheels.

But, you know, it's like, and now you get big checks coming in from royalties and stuff. You're like, oh, is this it? Oh, is it? You know, because it's going right into the house anyway. But, you know, it's like money has never motivated me a whole lot. motivated me a whole lot. It's more so what motivates me is how many of us can benefit from the use of this, and will it give us another year of what we want to do?

Will it make our life a little better? You know, I get a lot of, you know, correspondence from people saying, this is a few things body temperament done. I've been able to squat again. I've been able to do all this again, and I want to thank you. And they didn't buy any tempering rollers. They just used two kettlebells to take together. They got a piece of steel from someone. You see that to me, where they took a PPC pipe filled with concrete.

And so that to me, you know, that puts my heart more than all the other, you know, quantifying things by how much money I made from it. Because I feel if it's good, guys, it's going to make money. So it's just a couple of things like breaking, challenging a standard like when the fat bills came out, people just tore them up. And you haven't even used them yet. off unless you haven't even used them yet you know but i remember in 03 um in 03 i had uh started the kettlebells real seriously and my friends completely caught me in a new way you know

doing your clown tricks again doing your circus act and i mean everybody was just teasing me and i laughed because i was like, I know these things are working. I didn't need to be, you know, conned into it. When I saw the kettlebell surfers, I knew they were going to win. It was the one thing I was missing in my training. I was like, I'm doing these things. I'm going up against Gary Frank, Andy Bolton, Paul Childress, Matt Smith, these guys that were just phenomenal. And I'm like,

how am I going to beat these guys? Just doing the same thing they're doing, you know? So I had to do something different. And so kettlebells just really took my lifting to another level. And, and before you know it, that was in 2003,

the end of 2004, Dave Tate comes up and she was one once with me about it too comes up to me after me and goes okay tell me about these kettlebells mark bartley mark bartley goes all right all right he used to call me guy he goes all right because him and i back in the 90s we were like man the worst thing you could do like i always said the worst thing you could do to me when you see me is like, hey, big man, if you don't even know me, that's the most condescending comment ever.

We thought one of the only worst things you could do is say, hey, guy. He used to call me guy. I used to call him guy. He's like, okay, guy, let me know. I think I'm going to do those kettlebells with you. He was my training partner, so he was giving me tons of shit for him all the time.

But I was more than happy to have somebody else going with me. So it ended up working out good, and Spud's been doing them ever since. So, you know, it's funny the way it works out. So I knew that the kettlebells had a rough start. Why would the fatbells just come in and be accepted? It wasn't going to happen. But now, five years later, and you, all the turmoil that went through the process, they're doing unbelievable, you know, fat pads doing unbelievable.

They've been out eight years now and the bow ties are doing unbelievable. So that's a good testimony that at least the product, remember when years ago y'all did a, if you want to bow tie. Yeah. And people still look at that all the time. Yeah. Yeah. You put one on, you didn't just say, oh, this is stupid.

It's not for posture, man. It's not a posture thing. It's compression is all it is. You know, it's just get out of that posture thing. You're not changing posture. Can't brace your shoulders. It's just compression. Through my background in PT, I realized

working with those doctors, they were always telling me what was going on with the neural heads, how they're always forward in the joint, the muscles are hypotonic behind the shoulder. I said, well, Dick Hartzell showed me this band twist 14 years ago he did for women when he was distracting the shoulder. So I'm like, that's what it looks like to reverse bow tie. So I remembered that name. Now we came out with a manual bow tie measuring for the real bow tie. We put that out a year ahead of time. And so when the regular bow tie came, it was like, it was just went like crazy. So.

Yeah. It seemed like it was one of those things like marketing yeah yeah it was like one of those things where it was like you'd never heard of it and within a few months it felt like everywhere you went like you'd go to powerlifting meets and people were walking around with them on yeah yeah i was uh i always get shocked at that because uh when i was uh powerlifting i'll you know oh i'm gonna say i gotta whisper to you i was a geared lifter if i was this fat it's here to took this many stairs well the the suits do the lifting right i mean you could just you could put you could just set the suit out there on the platform and it would pick the weight up. Wouldn't it?

Yeah. I mean, uh, you know, it doesn't matter. I remember sitting at a table and 2000 and Gary Frank was on the license. And we were, I was with Dave Tate, Louie Sands,

John Stafford, all those people at West Ivo were talking and Lou Louis was talking about Gary, how incredible he was. And how everybody is always slamming him on Powerlifting USA, saying his squats aren't going up. He goes, you know why I do that, don't you? It's only at the top. When you're at the top, everybody's kind of for you. So they try to break you down to their level. They hate champions.

And I was like, what? And I always thought when someone got to the top you respected them. Yeah, right. So, and then when it's your turn and you do some things

and then people just make it like it's bullshit or this and that, you just gotta let it bounce off. I mean, what am I gonna do? I mean,

if it was all fake then all my injuries were fake too. They never happened. Yeah, right. That's how I clean Bill of Health now. You know, because if none right. That's how I clean build a house now. You know, because if none of that was real,

so the injuries weren't real either. Right. What, Donnie, you never did train at Westside, did you? I mean, I know. No, I went there. I would go there for like three or four days at a time. And I think I made that pilgrimage about four times. Did you ever consider training?

I mean, I would assume, you know, Louie would have loved to have had you there at that point in times. Did you ever consider training? I mean, I would assume, you know, Louie would have loved to have had you there at that point in time. Did you ever consider training there, making the move? Well, the first time I went, and I saw Lou, and I saw those guys training there, right, I didn't think I was worthy enough to be a part of that group. So there was no way I was going to suggest it and then a couple years go by when i went back again and my list started going up and i was still felt like i didn't deserve to

be there and by the time i felt like i was you know capable of representing west side like louis wanted i was already well ingined in my own thing. Right, right, yeah. It kind of didn't work out that way, but it's really hard to get me out of South Carolina. I mean, it's like, I love it here, and I don't know if I could move to Ohio from here. And then at the end of my career, I have my daughter,

so I'm not going anywhere now. There's, I mean, proverbial roots growing out of my ass. Yeah. And when you set the all-time world record total, when you totaled 3,000 pounds, how old were you? I was 46. Yeah. And I think people maybe forget that or don't realize that how old you were at the time.

You know, people like to think that they get too old, but you were 46 at that point. I wasn't on social media back then. I mean, it wasn't really many platforms that Facebook was just coming out. I think people did blogging on, on websites and stuff back then.

Yeah. And like golevy.com and all that kind of stuff. But, um, so I never got into that. And when I hit that first all-time total in January of, I think it was 2008 or something like that, I was like, I made a mission. I'm not going to go on any of that.

I'm not going to read any articles about it from the USA. If I'm in it, I'll look at the pictures, and that's it. So that's what I planned to do because I didn't want any distractions. And I knew and I would always tell myself in my head, don't talk about your age because then you'll start giving yourself an excuse of why you're not going to get your lifts. You know, don't talk about your age. So I would never mention my age.

I would never even think about my age while I was competing. I just, I had the numbers I had to get and that was it. You start using excuses about age and this and that. All you're doing is giving that, opening that door to skip out when the time got hard. Yeah. Yeah. That's a,

that's a, that's a, it's a noble thing to do. A lot of people, they like to give themselves as many excuses as possible before they even get to the meat. They're making up their list of injuries and weight cut reasonings and travel. They already have a laundry list of things for why the meet isn't going to go good.

Yeah, I couldn't do that because it was hard enough as it was. It was hard enough as it was, you know, and just any, any avenue where you could like give yourself a way out, you know, a noble way out, like a, you know, a, a power to think discharge, you know, like, Oh, I'm too old to know your limitations. And this happens at any age. Like, say, if you like playing summer. He's hitting huge weights right now, right? So I don't know what his goals are. I think he's going to total 3,000. But it's currently the way he's going. But there'll be one meet where he'll say, well, I've had enough. I've done all there is to do.

See you later. You know what I mean? Then he'll come to you know what I mean they'll come to that day and David Hoff will come to that day we all come to that day that's just the way it is and the trick is to go out on your own terms not on a stretcher and so that's how

that's how you want to leave any sport you do on your terms you know so that's that's how I always viewed it. And I just couldn't let the age thing get in the way. Now, of course, I'm 55 now. I brag about it. Hey, I was 46, Mark. I'm like, all right.

I have no shame at all now. But back then, I could not even mention that thing in my mind there was no i mean i know me and if i had money i would have skipped town you know i would you know the power of the scene i would have gone after the money because it would have been so luring you know but that's best that i i would give it for instance i'll tell you how all my money went like to child support and to rent. Those are the two big things. And so I just would make enough at the clinic, at the PT clinic to cover those expenses.

But what about all the other stuff? I'm like, well, I'll have to wing it somehow. So I always found a way to get it in, you know, get my food, get the gasoline and whatnot, but I would float the bills. So like I'd be three months behind and just pay enough on the light bill just to keep them on. If I get back from that meet where I totaled $3,000 no clue I was going to total three thousand that meet just worked out that way I get home my light bills turned off for 149 dollars I come home with no electricity all the stuff in the fridge just thought out

I was like well let me figure out my total. That wasn't even the end of it. My worst financial year was 2012 and that was the year after and it was the transition year where I quit the physical therapy place and went on my own to do stuff. Boy, I tell you, I had never been so poor in my life. My dad and I would have a coffee one day

and he goes, son, I think I was 48 at the time or something like that, 47. He goes, you're 48 I think I was 48 at the time or something like that, 47. He goes, you're 48 years old and you can't even take care of yourself. He goes, but what's that like? And I was like, man, he's right. I thought to myself, I didn't think he was cruel by saying that. I didn't get mad at him.

He's right. I mean, what am I supposed to do? You know, come up with another excuse to why I'm dirt poor and can't make it, you know? So I'm like, I gotta make some changes here. And so that's when, you know, I started, you know, uh, the things that would open up and I would seize the opportunity. That's all I could do. And, uh, and, and then started off by doing clinics a little bit, working during the week and all that stuff. And before you know it, products started coming. And a few years later, the fat belts hit the scene and body tempering hit.

And then when the bow tie hit, that was it. And I felt like you're talking about this stuff. I've got like three other things to tell the market. And right now, we'll just there a few uh engineering things that we got to do on you know the little things the big stuff's all handled like the ergonomic design is all perfect that's not the problem it's like a safety measure it's like i got my boat that far yeah and as soon as we figure out how it won't yeah you put a 45 on one and it's going to slide the hell off of that you know the rack you got we have to have a safety mechanism we certainly don't want to weld a straight bar on

the top of it that would look like shit so we we have a way we're going to do it and uh rogue said they're going to make it for me so um then the pandemic hit but it's going to happen either way and my fat archie's going to be awesome too so cool i don't care if it makes a lot of money i know there's some lifters out there that when that bow bar comes out they're going to be dangling it's going to be like another mars bar almost you know where you can squat again and you know so that you know and that's the nice thing about bars like you're not in competition like duffin's transformer bar isn't in competition with the safety squat bar isn't it get his bar get his get his duffalo bar get the um mars bar get the safety squat bar get all many squat bars as you can and you can rotate them and you'll be

stronger for it you know i mean our dumb asses have used the 45-pound bar for how many years before we found out there was another bar you could use? You know? Yep. Like two birthdays in one year. Are you worried, though, when your new bar comes out if Coop will give it a favorable review or not?

Nah, because everybody that's come here... Well, it's not me that has ducked out of steel. Coop might not like it. Well, so to keep in mind. Well, you know, I didn't know the strength world hinges on the, This is like a movie critic. Oh, I'm not going to see a movie because the movie critic didn't like it. How many movies have you seen that were awesome and they got bad reviews? It seems like now, if you don't give these people a coupe,

and there's about a dozen others like them, if you don't give free stuff away to people, then they're just going to give you a bad review because you don't give free stuff away to people then they're just going to give you a bad review because you didn't give them free stuff you know i'm not saying that's what coop does i'm just saying it's see what it seems like so the people that do give them pony up some free stuff they'll get a good review you know so i've had stuff given to me before and i usually purchase everything I get because I don't want to be beholden to anybody.

But, um, the ones are two things that, that I did get that someone insisted sending for free. I, I only did that because I had contacted them about the product because it was awesome. Yup.

You know, and, and I use it every week. So it's not like I'm trying to get something for free I don't need anything for free I got everything I ever wanted but if I like a product that means I'm going to use that product

it's not doing this because I want favorability by the manufacturer you can tell by my post I don't like swing the curtain, Rogue's curtain. I like Rogue, and I'm very pleased to have them manufacture my things.

But Bill Penninger, he doesn't want me all the time being a Rogue nutswinger or something like that. That's just not who I am. And a lot of us aren't like that. If someone else makes something good, we're going to buy that too. you and a lot of us aren't like that if someone else makes something good we're gonna buy that too yep you know and what's one thing i could say that some of these companies like hammer strength and road um and even big taste company that they don't sit there and they don't sit there and uh you know ostracize you because you use someone else's stuff you know they're like yeah that's good equipment too i'm like well i'm gonna

have yours i'm gonna have theirs i'm gonna have this because i like this stuff so i try to be very genuine in a strength equipment thing because it's like if it's garbage i'll just keep my mouth shut but if it's uh you know if it's working and i i can usually spy it out when i see something i know it's going to work i don't need a tutorial I just need to know how I can get it in my gym as fast as possible Donnie, every week we play this game with our guest it's called Overrated and Underrated

and we were hoping you would play again here today with us we've got a series of topics specially selected for Super D well there's a lot on the line we always tell people it's a win or lose game We've got a series of topics specially selected for Super D. Well, there's a lot on the line. We always tell people it's a win or lose game, and if you win, it's probably going to set you up for some pretty long-term success.

If you lose, it might be the opposite. So there's a lot of pressure. Well, I was just like a couple girls jumping out naked at a barbecue or something like that. That was kind of nice. My wife won't like it, but I don't ask for a favor. We can't guarantee anything like that just yet. I know, it sucks.

The way it goes, we've got a short list of topics here, and they're hand-selected for you, and we'll read one off to you, and you have to decide whether it's overrated or underrated, and you kind of can't ride the line in between. You've got to pick one, even if it's a tough decision black and white and you can explain as little or as much as you want to

you've got your druthers when it comes to that okay I'm not going to hurt anybody's feelings here am I? I don't think so I think you'll enjoy it we usually do it in a way that the contestant usually has some fun so I think you'll enjoy it. We usually do it in a way that the contestant usually has some fun. I think you'll like it.

Topic number one, overrated or underrated? The XFL. Underrated. I'm a former arena football player. And I know if you don't get in the NFL because the NFL has so much talent pouring into it, they can't possibly use everybody that's coming in there.

If you have the funding for the NFL and if they would just market it, stay kind of small and build their base, it could last. They're not competing with the NFL. The NFL could even pull some talent from it if they want to. But I think it's underrated, and I would like them to. It is one league.

It's not a new league. It came out, what, 21, 22 years ago with Vince McMahon. The players seem to enjoy it more. The fans seem to accept it. I just think that has the best ability if you can keep the money coming in until it can stand on its own. It's kind of like a child.

It gets old enough to take care of itself. So I think it's underrated and I would like to see it work. I think it has a future. Right on. That's good. The next topic, overrated or underrated? Training barefoot. That's good. The next topic, overrated or underrated? Training barefoot.

Barefoot training. I would say from my point of view on how I know the body works and stuff, it's underrated. I would say on social media view, it's overrated. So I don't know if that's a good answer or not. I think that's a good answer or not, but it is. If you live in a climate like I do, or like you live in California, Florida,

Texas, you could train barefoot year round, you know, but if you're up in the up North, you know, in the Dakotas and Michigan, you ain't training barefoot. So obviously you've got to pick and choose your battles with the barefoot thing.

But the one thing that competitive powerlifters have to be concerned with is, like, when the footwear goes on, is it going to screw your lift up? Is it going to add that much height to your deadlift where your pool is going to be off? Is it going to affect your squat when you put shoes on that you'll feel like you're floating around a little bit so i would if i'm competing in power i'm probably going to my heavy days wear the shoes you know and get used to them but on the light days you know on the speed work and stuff just go barefoot so i think it's barefoot's highly underrated but it's for a purpose i, your feet have more nerve endings than everywhere in the body. And they send all the messages to the brain.

And if you can dial that in and get your, it's called a planar shock response system. So when your brain gets the messages from your feet, it says, okay, I'm going to recruit these muscles. I'm going to stabilize these muscles. I'm going to recruit these muscles. I'm going to stabilize these muscles. When you're barefoot, there's no lasting time for the sock slipping in your shoe or the arch in your shoe, and it has to counter mathematically for all these changes at the bottom of your feet. So that stops the progress of power, you know, that little glitch. So you want, if people

knew about feet, and they knew about ankles, and what they do, they would, your shoe selection would go down like two different shoes, and that's it. All the others would be junk, you know, and I can't tell you the names of those two shoes, but my point is, it's like it would eliminate a lot of shoe companies.

So, especially for power lifting, but, uh, the, the barefoot is definitely a, a, um, a great way to draw power from the floor. Perfect. That's a great way to leave the talk.

Yeah. Okay. Um, overrated or underrated lawyers. They, I would say underrated because I don't think people realize when they go to sue somebody all the money they're going to be

paying these attorneys they're not going to get crap from the people they sue normally they're going to just pay money and the people in the defense are going to be money for their attorneys. So the attorneys make all the money. You know, so they have a really underrated job. They're the ones that are banking, you know, not the plaintiff or defendant. And so I think a lawyer's use in certain things is overrated.

But definitely the whole thing is underrated. I think lawyers get by in a world of secrecy. They've got that thing where it's like, oh, people know they're going to shit themselves if they get an attorney letter. Not me, of course. I'm used to them. But they get a, oh my gosh, they get a, oh my gosh, I'm going to ask you a million. They don't want to have that fear, you know? And number two,

they, every bit, every, they're so expensive. I mean, some attorneys are $600 an hour, you know? It's nuts.

It's like, good Lord. And so, yeah, their, their job is underrated, is underrated about how much money they're going to get. You know, but, you know, I think that lawyers have a place, of course, and as far as product protection and all that stuff, they're very good when it comes to getting trademarks, copyrights, patents and stuff like that. Because they can turn to that

bureaucratic wheel in our government. Yeah. I think that's a good answer from a man that has some experience. Oh man, you got that right. We can laugh about it now. We're all right. Yeah. That's my favorite john candy line playing

straight to mom but you know when when that tractor trailers uh he drove through them and he turned into the devil inside the car you know yeah and they stopped and then the car catches on fire he goes oh we can laugh about it now we're all right that's a good example you come out of a lawsuit you know hi we can laugh about it burning to a syndrome yeah yeah okay so speaking of burning last topic this is probably the

most important one for you overrated or underrated Cuban cigars Cuban cigars yes Cubans yep okay let me go on record for this. I want to be very clear. This is the most important question you asked me the other day. So Cuban cigars are highly overrated. So a lot of cigar people, they like the mild cigar,

and they like to act like a big shot when smoking it. When you smoke cigars all the time, you've got to go for strong ones, the Maduros. And what happened, the Cuba, a lot of the farmers left there when Castro took over, and they went to a, you know, parallel across the long latitude, and they went to Nicaragua. You know, these tobacco seeds take a while to grow and harvest, and it takes, some of these cigars are 20, 25 years old after they're rolled. So now Nicaragua is putting out the best cigars you've ever smoked in your life.

Now, there's some pockets of very good cigar companies that hand roll their stuff and stuff that are very comparable, but Nicaragua, for the most part, for commercial cigars, you cannot beat that country. They blow away people's cigars. And trust me, you cannot beat that country. They blow away people's cigars. And trust me, you're talking to a guy who smokes a lot of cigars. Well, that's good insight. That's a great insider tip there. There would be a lot less problems in powerlifting if the powerlifters would just start smoking cigars after they're trained. With many squacked up tissues, there wouldn't be any saturation issues. You know, with many squat depth issues,

there wouldn't be any iteration issues. Well, then there'd be nothing to talk about. No, everybody would be like, hey, it's cool, bro. You didn't squat, you didn't pull squat, you just did a half squat. I'm cool with that. Awesome. Well, you did a good job at overrated underrated donnie you passed well thank you i i uh i know i've split decision on a couple of them especially those attorneys man you guys got me but i know i know you all are going to rip uh always rip on me about attorneys

when you see me because you know i've lasted them three years ago so you like to get me a little riled up yeah that's what we kind of like to do is get you a little excited that makes for it makes for a pretty entertaining conversation at that point you know attorneys and ductile steel you know that's right let's throw a party. Awesome, Donnie. Well, that's kind of the majority of the questions we wanted to ask you today. We really appreciate you coming on, for sure. It was awesome. Well, I always have a good time with you. And, again, it's better than actual reality.

That's right. Better than they are in real life. Yeah, that's perfect. Next time you're in Aberdeen, South Dakota, make sure to look us up, all right? I'm going to have to make a special trip. You're in South Carolina. We're in South Dakota. They can't be too far apart, right?

Oh, no. I mean, they're even close in initial. Yeah, I've got an issue with you. Whenever I type in my address on the internet when I'm buying something or anything like that and I get to the state and I start to type in the S, if that SC wasn't there, it would save me a lot of time from having to click

the down arrow one every single time. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I know what you mean. Yeah. All right, Donnie. Thanks. We appreciate it. Thanks, Donnie. You too. Hey, thanks, guys. Yep.

Bye-bye. Donnie Thompson. If I could wrap that up into two words, you know what it would be? Well, I could think of like three words. Better than real life. I would do four words. Well, I was going to say something different. I was going to say cool beans.

I would also four words. Okay. Well, I was going to say something different. I was going to say cool beans. I would also say cool beans. But better than real life. And that's probably more applicable to this particular one. But if you really had to condense it down, I would say cool beans. If you didn't have four words, if you only had two. If I was limited to, if you're like four words is too many, I would say cool beans. Very good interview.

Very good. We'll start off with this sponsor since it's applicable here. Spud Inc. Makers of the Donnie Thompson bow tie. The one and only. Yeah. The goal of Spud Inc. Straps is to make products that support sports performance and help everyone achieve their

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on all lifting large branded products by using discount code mass 20 at checkout all right does that kind of wrap us up today i think that wraps us up wild right yeah good right you know donnie gets going and i could listen to him tell stories i know i had more questions i honestly wanted to ask there was many things that i would like to ask but also uh i don't think anyone wants to hear a four-hour phone conversation i mean i think we could have talked to him for another hour like i had a i had a list of questions i still wanted yes i had and even while we were talking there was multiple things that came up that i wanted to talk about but it's like we'll go if we could have been in person we could have easily done a four-hour podcast i have no doubt about that donnie is definitely

that way where you could just just let him go give him the thing he's got interesting things well he does he has tons of experience yeah yeah that is and not just lit you know he was you know one of the he was the best power lifter at that time. He's made all these products since then and had dealt with these issues with other companies. He's involved with Rogue, Spud Inc. There's just a lot there. There is a lot there. And he's got just a way about...

It's fun to listen to utility. Right, right, yes, yes, that's right. You can check us out at Facebook. You can like us there. YouTube, subscribe on YouTube. That number's been going up a little bit. You can watch the podcast in full video on youtube if you're into watching instead of just listening listening wise you can find us everywhere of course leave us one of those five star reviews

the number crept up again and we haven't been reading them so we're going to get behind but we're up to like almost uh i think we're at like 238 five star reviews all right so road to road to 300 is almost in effect yeah um uh the make sure to tell a friend you mentioned that already but the podcast supporting membership option we had another person join the platinum lift club this last week the one percent they're amongst us yes the one percent of the one percent in the platinum lift club and tommy where do they find you on instagram you can find me at Tomahawk underscore D. You can follow me at Tanner underscore Baird. Much more importantly,

make sure to follow Masonomics at Masonomics. See ya.