Massenomics Podcast - Ep.233: Garage Gym Lab

Episode Date: September 21, 2020

Adam of Garage Gym Lab joins us to discuss home gym equipment and turning this project of his into a full time career.  We also ask him when the hell equipment will ever be normally available like it used to be. This episode has a very high tensile strength. 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 of 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! website and everything. Massanomics! Welcome back everyone to episode 233 of the Massanomics podcast. We are the lifting podcast about nothing. My name's Tanner.

And my name is Tommy. What do you think? The lifting podcast about nothing and what do you have any? And special guests. Special guests. We do have a special guest this week. We're quite on the special guest hot streak. I think this is 233, like I said. So we're getting really close to 4.5 years. And I think next episode would be four and a half.

Is it really? Four and a half, Mark. Yeah. We might have to hire a mathematician to confirm that. Although I have done some, if you listen back to episodes, like somewhere in the hundreds or so where I had some faulty math there where i was thinking that stuff a few times or that might have even been in like the 50s that could have been where i was thinking like what 50 half of a hundred which is a year yeah 100 weeks in a year of course no we're almost at

4.5 though and you know after 4.5 then it comes five and yeah go ahead all right no yeah i'm just saying we got it we have to do something big for when we do hit that five year we do we do i just i wanted to change what this podcast is this is the podcast about no this is the podcast about nothing and matching outfits uh perfectly matching outfits almost exactly i have those socks too i am not wearing those socks i am wearing blue dress tanner tanner walked into my house tonight and goes oh we're in the same clothes huh we both have the strongman 8-bit shirt on and the the lift shorts 2.0 uh great time to mention that we did just get a full restock of the lift shorts 2.0 yeah so by the time you're listening to this do not wait because those have been out of stock for a while.

We better talk about our sponsors here first. And then I wonder, we do kind of have a small release that would be out by the time. So maybe we should go over that too. But first, how we really pay the bills and keep all these lights on. And for those of you that don't know, there is actually like special studio lights that we look at here. You might not know that, but they're blinding. Today's 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 of the Ground Lock Deadlift Slipper, and they are always in stock and ready to ship. Massanomics listeners can save 20% on all lifting large branded products by using discount code MASS20 at checkout. MASS20, M-A-S-S-2-0. Today's episode is also brought to you by Spud Inc. The goal of Spud Inc. Straps is to make products that support sports performance and help everyone achieve their

training goals. They make products that last forever, won't bust your budget, and most importantly, leave no doubt about success when everything is on the line. Make sure to check them out online at spud-ink-straps.com. Just talked to them today. They said things are going well at Spud Ink Straps. So glad to hear it. Yep, like to hear that.

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. Use code MASS, M-A-S-S.

That one's in all caps. That'll save you 5% off any training or nutrition membership for the entire life of your membership, and that's at hybridperformancemethod.com. Make sure to use that code and get 5% off. And this episode is 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, but the best in our league was maintenance-free. Hundreds of state, national, international, world, and massonomics powerlifting records. Do you see that, how it goes like a step of importance? It's steps of a pyramid. Yeah, and at the top of the pyramid is massonomics records. They have been and continue to be set and broken on the Texas Power Bar. Check them out at texaspowerbars.com. And, I mean, if you think about it, there literally are hundreds,

maybe even thousands of world records in powerlifting. But how many massonomics records are there? Exactly. Once you consider the number of weight classes the number of federations all of that stuff yeah there probably are thousands of world records and that massonomics gym we have a record board that's got like 30 people it is you could you could fit the whole thing in one picture and look at it so statistically you're in much rarer territory being that's true record i never thought of it like that that's makes me feel way better about myself than i used to and we're all on there we actually did we we got a little lifting in today we did a

little benching it's like the good old days the noon crew is really taking care of business we we kind of uh we used to be the evening crew yep and in our old age we've kind of uh developed into the new yeah you know family jobs you just got to sneak away during the day and take care of it uh i actually don't mind it though it's no no i like lift i've been doing it for quite a while the thing well pre pre-children but the thing about at night is you could just be there as long as you want right right is this gonna go three hours okay let's do this right uh whereas like at lunch time you gotta kind of you gotta be focused but i don't mind that either because it keeps you focused you know yeah it does i most the time lift at focused but i don't mind that either because it keeps you focused you

know yeah it does i most the time lift at noon sometimes i can't depending on my work schedule sometimes i can't and sometimes i'll lift at the evening and before i love lifting at the evening and would have hated having to lift at noon and yeah now when i have to live at the lifted the evening i'm kind of like ah you know you just get used to whatever you normally go and it's just out of your routine yeah and i i don't get how people with kids, like, how do you go to work? Especially like newer, younger kids, right? Like go to work, come home. Like, do you see your kid for like two seconds, go to the gym and be like, all right, I'll see him tomorrow. Like, cause that, I guess my kid goes to sleep around like seven 30, between seven 30. Some people do do that and they wait

until later. And if you did that, but I do not want to get home from the gym at like 10 o'clock. Well, I get a little excited for the gym and stuff. And I am not waiting to get that. Well, and you need like some time to cool down after the gym, too. Like I can't go to the gym, come home, shower and go right to bed. And then I still have to get up at six the next morning. So it's like I'm really making that window of sleep really small there. Yeah.

The noon has been a savior for me, but if I have to, if I, if I have to do it like once a week, not such a deal with the family and you know, with, I can go a day without getting a lot of good family time in. And it also doesn't upset my wife too much if it happens once,

but like, yeah, that's not a good, like, that's not a good life option. Three or four nights a week. It's just, damn, like, living in my own world over here. Yeah.

But when you don't have kids and you're single. Oh, yeah, you can go at whatever time. I still, like, even then, I always thought the perfect time to go would be at noon. It's just, it works better because after, you know, 5 o'clock-ish is when everyone's done with work. It's when everyone's there. Like, it wasn't crazy to think, you know, back in the day in the day we used to have like 15 people down there just all going at it it was it was fun and there still is uh an evening crew there but it's just you know it's not us you know there's other people we have more younger members than like like when we would

would have first started the gym the gym will be five years old in november that's that's pretty crazy right there yeah when and that people that we have people there that weren't even lifting when you know weren't even born then we do have some people that are like senior you know that would have been like 14 but yeah so what about the new what what were we were talking about the the restock of the lift shorts 2.0 we those are fully restocked, and the people that were waiting had been notified, and those are selling quickly. So hop on the lift shorts 2.0.

The original lift shorts, I think the week that this podcast is coming out, they're coming in that same week. So as you're hearing this, if they're not in yet, they'll be in really soon. And there are those- It's some type of global conspiracy. Yeah, yes. The world doesn't want us to put those out i am a little

you know if you want those i would get on them because there is a backlog of uh a lot of people that want those and they're still a hard time we're having a hard time getting those still so it won't be a full restock just because they just don't exist right right but i mean it's like it's like mining for gold and diamonds. You know, it's incredibly labor intensive. There's a reason there's that premium, you know. That's why we charge what we charge. We don't just put a logo on it and charge more.

There's a lot to it. Exactly. So that's the restock stuff. You know, nothing that's new particularly there with the shorts. But then what else? Well, this is kind of, well, yeah, this is technically new right here. Yeah, this is new. is kind of well yeah these are these are this is technically new right here yeah this is new yeah so i'm holding here this is a new massonomics og red t and what's new about it well this is on a new red t this is on the same t as we've been moving to for

almost all of our shirts lately like all the 8-bit shirts all the white shirts we've done yeah so it's not that pure pure like varsity red as our others. It has a very slight heather to it. But we have updated the type underneath to be a little bit more of our… The Mastonomics. The Mastonomics stencil. And then we've added that sweet, sweet Mastonomics plate to the upper back. So this is looking really good.

What do we got these in? Red and black? So we have the red so we have red with white yep black with white and the black on black ah the black on black although you can barely see what it even is if you're from a distance is a pretty popular one it is like it always looks good it always looks good yeah so you're more than 10 feet away nobody can tell what you're wearing if this the light isn't quite right you like that understated look that's a little more you can you know you can wear that to places like weddings, church.

It's just very understated, very professional looking. Business offices. Like when you're looking for a raise with your boss. A lot of respect goes there. Black shirt today. Oh, is that black ink on that black shirt? Maybe we should save those for last. Because we also do have one other thing.

We don't have it here in front of us. But our new flags. The 8-bit flags. We That are the 8-bit flags. We've got two 8-bit flags. We have them in the Strongman and the Powerlifting, and it is on the flag material. Same materials are Don't Curl and Me flag or our Navy Blue Lift flag. Yeah, I forget what the exact dimensions are,

but kind of take our normal flags and turn them vertical. Yeah, and a little wider. It's 50 inches tall and 40 inches wide. It's big. We ordered them, and in my head, I put it together, I got the measurements, and we sent it off. And you even sent me a picture of one on a wall. I'm like, yeah, that's big.

But then I saw it in the gym. I'm like, damn, that is pretty big. Your head doesn't comprehend how big and bold those are until you actually see them. It's really big. It's got grommets in all four corners, and we're selling that for the same price as our flag, which should be $29.99. And for $29.99, I think it's a really good deal for the size of the flag you're getting.

Yeah. And they do, I don't say this about many things, but when those are on the wall, they really pop. Oh yes, I thought you were going to go there. They do though. They do pop. I hung both of them up like at one on each side of a doorway and they look really cool. They do though. They do pop. I hung both of them up like at one on each side of a doorway and they look really cool. They do. We bought a pretty good inventory of both of those, but I'm pretty confident those are going to sell pretty well. They've been both very popular designs for us. So yeah, they will move for sure. They do look really cool too.

I like to break up everything we sell, but one of those things. Yeah, it's kind of a different product for us. We don't have a ton of our t-shirt designs on Flags. Right. It's cool. Yeah. It's cool. And then, are we ready for this product now? Yes.

Okay, so now this is, you know, I don't want to say once a generation, but I might have to say once a generation, a product comes along that people just don't know that they need. And in this case, I'm holding up a pair of limited edition royal blue lift shorts that's right royal blue lift shorts limited edition we're limiting this to 100 pairs and just to commemorate this event and occasion each each each pair will ship with a numbered certificate of authenticity so you can really flex on people that you are the owner of a limited edition pair of lift shorts. And that's not a joke.

Each one will ship with. Yeah, we have the certificates. They're getting numbered as we speak. You know, we have our interns on it. They're trying to figure out how to count one to 100. And yeah, you will get a certificate of authenticity with each one of these pairs of shorts. So you can prove to the world

that you are part of a very elite club. And so those are on our exact same champion mesh shorts, only with the white print, but they are just the royal blue color. And these ones really, these are going to be the 100 that we print. So if you want, and,

and the way sizing works out when we have to get, you know, six different sizes, there's not that many of each size. It's really not. So I, I really mean this when I say it, if you want those,

they are the special limited edition. You have to order those right away because they are going to be sold out in some sizes really quickly. And I'm positive of that. I don't, people't people probably understand how this works certificates of authenticity aren't something you can just print off willy-nilly like you gotta get clearances from the government well and is it authentic if you just do it exactly you gotta get it's just a certificate yeah there's all types of hoops we gotta jump through contracts we gotta sign for a certificate of authenticity so yeah this is the real deal here yeah those will be cool it'll be

really cool i honestly think that those are going to sell fast too i think so so you will be screwed if you don't jump on those right away the og shirts you know that's something we keep i mean you might not even want to wear these you might just want to put them in your sports memorabilia collection next year mike tyson punching glove or something because they are limited edition uh uh and come with that certificate of authenticity, they are $1 more expensive than the black. Well, naturally. Than the black.

Which means no one can afford them. Right. No one could afford to get them. They are $1 farther out of reach. And the certificate even has some verbiage in there about how. Do you know, is this pair number one two three that i'm holding um tbd okay okay we haven't married it up with it no no well well whoever gets a medium pair could be the pair that appeared on the bass and i was podcast so just like ultra rare that that's

that's true whoever orders i'll make a. Whoever orders the first pair of mediums, the first pair of mediums, you are getting the as seen on the Massanomics podcast pair. I can almost guarantee the person that orders them won't know that that's what they're getting, but we'll have to write it on the certificate. Right, and I should just say this is number one. This pair will be number one, and I'll keep them set aside.

There we go, then we know. So even if you don't wear medium, you might want to just be the first one to buy that medium just we'll just completely sell out of mediums right away you'll be like oh those are gone a while ago but as long as people are buying it we'll we'll keep going yeah yeah all right now that we got our our selling oh okay we got our selling out of the way t Tanner, for now. We'll hit back on that later. But all that talking got me very thirsty. Oh, I'm dry. You know Pavlov's dog, classical conditioning. Absolutely.

So every time we start to podcast. Your mouth just starts watering. I get extremely thirsty. You start driving over to my house and you're like, when was the last time I drank something? I'm like, why do I just feel like i need bubbles in my mouth right now okay no looking we're going on a little trip to flavor town here tanner who is the uh who was the guy for pavlov's dog and classical conditioning that would be the guy well like who is the i don't know if scientists is oh no no no i. I didn't know you were tricking me there. No, I just was confusing myself.

Yeah. I was saying Pavlov is not the name of a dog. So am I guessing this here? Is this a guesser? This is a guesser. There's a smell there for sure. Huh? I'm curious what you're going to say here.

I'm curious what you're going to say here. That look seems like you're processing actual flavor right now. Ah, yeah. I just want to clear this up first. Is there cucumber in this at all? No cucumber. Okay, okay. This is without cucumber. Hmm.

Hmm. I don't know what make it is you know it's sparkling water for sure there's no tab to give it away no I was just checking features of the can you know it feels like it could be a LaCroix but I'm not it smelled too much let me tell you what I should say what I'm thinking

it had too much of a smell and now almost too much of a flavor I could be wrong had too much of a smell and now almost too much of a flavor. I could be wrong, but too much of a smell and a flavor to be a LaCroix. But I don't know if enough to be a bubbly, a Buble, maybe enough to be a Buble, but I'm not sure. But flavor-wise, I'm going to say like grape,

which I'm not sure that it's grape, but that's what I feel like I'm getting. I can say like grape, which I'm not sure that it's grape, but that's what I'm feel like I'm getting. You know, I can like grapes. So I'm not going to say if you're right or wrong, but I don't think that that's a bad guess. But grape is like, probably if you,

the part of the appeal of a sparkling water is for it to be fancy. Grape might be the least fancy flavor of, uh, see it's yeah. I get what you're saying. And it's kind of funny because it's like, yeah. And I guess there's two different ways to present grape. One is the purple Kool-Aid grape and the other is like grapes. Yes. I think it depends on if there's an S at the end. That could be it too. It's the S is what makes it fancy. Yeah, like just grape is just like I picture straight up purple. Yeah, yeah. Like really purple, purple.

Sugar, water, purple. But grapes, when you say grapes and then you have the vineyard green grapes pictured. There's a whole different level of class. But I do remember one time thinking something was grape and then it was blackberry. Oh. Which is basically like mini grapes but i'm gonna say grape okay i don't know but i'm ready for this yeah it is there's actually a lot going on here tanner oh what brand is this aha it's the brand blueberry pomegranate now i would never ever guess anything pomegranate flavored in my life i don't know what that i don't i don't know what the isn't i don't think anyone's ever

ate a pomegranate before they've never been just put it in people don't even know if they're edible or not uh but yeah blueberry so now do you sense the blueberry in there? Yes. I actually, to be perfectly honest, I sense it a lot. Now that you say that, it actually, that last hint, it tasted very much like a blueberry. And there's that pomegranate kick in there too, right? Yeah. Well, I suppose that's what's throwing me off. The unknown flavor of the rest.

And it does have a blueberry smell, it makes you say aha uh but i think i was on the right track as far as the flavoring you know i could tell it was more than a la croix but uh but not so it's somewhere in between yeah yeah that was a good round that's tasty though i think that's good too shabby is it um so the real question is how many jd oh someone had a very good jd power associates meme yeah yes it was actually well i think middle class and then someone crossed it out and put it mass and well because we got literally literally every sparkling water instead of literally every car it was literally every sparkling water and instead of jd power it was massonomics i'm

giving it um so and it should have even said maybe 3.5 because i'm leaning towards a 3.5 that's what i was leaning towards on this one yeah i'm not even just joking i think it's a pretty good 3.5 this is definitely a strong 3.5 yeah it is good that was a good one yeah you know there's this reviewer on youtube his name's anthony fantano he reviews music and he has a pretty good rating system where he says like if something's a seven it could be a strong seven it could be a decent seven i think even says light seven so i mean he kind of has three levels in there right so it's a 30 point scale almost yeah i don't know if anything's like a a strong one a decent one i don't think that right but for those finer points on those higher higher numbers that's a

good one someone did uh one of the lawrence's back at the gym you probably remember lawrence or tyler either way yep and he he hasn't been around for like three years and he's moved back to town and came to the gym he actually moved back yeah yeah uh and he was he was talking about the podcast and he i could tell he's been listening to it and you know as far as i never assume that people listen to it i don't either i don't expect people at the gym to listen to it. And so he's talking about it. And I was kind of surprised that he does and still did. And he said, hey, you've been having a lot of good guests on lately.

I'm like, yeah, we really have. It's been fun. He's like, yeah, it's great. Because then I don't just have to listen to you guys talk about sparkling about LaCroix's the whole time with a joke. He's got a point. Yeah. You would be shocked, Tanner, though.

I get, on a weekly basis, multiple DMs of people sending me the craziest flavored beverages. Like, oh, you get Tanner with this one. I'm like, I don't even know where I get that beverage. I guess I could maybe find it on Amazon. People need to send those things to us. But multiple people have just said, oh, go on Amazon and get this. And I probably just need to send those multiple people but multiple people have just said yeah oh go on amazon and get this and i probably just need to do that but there's been some there's some

crazy flavors in my dm standard do you remember the office where the warehouse got i think i'm maybe i'm confusing shows and scenarios the warehouse guys won the lottery and they just don't show up well what what is the show where they make they make an energy drink that's like uh isn't it like penis flavored oh i don't know i have not seen some little fact check on that a little bit the one i think on the office when they win the lottery they just don't show up and so then they send like jim and those guys down to work yeah and they've set up like the grease uh yes which is like that's when after michael leaves and just everyone turns into like everyone has the past intelligence level of a kindergartner yeah yeah right literally they don't know any like it's how like how do these people even get

to work in the morning yeah it's like michael's gone so everyone had to be a little michael just to oh a major like even michael scott wouldn't be that dumb that's what gets so annoying about that show but right right yeah it's a lot different from season one to say season eight yeah yeah it did really change yeah what do we got next we got a couple couple topics

we're going to talk about before our guests not the first thing but we have something we do have something lifting related we do strong man so we have but I'd almost like to talk about the other thing for God are we going to get to anything we maybe we have something wait we do have something lifting related we do strong man yes we have but i'd almost like to talk about the other thing for oh god are we going to get to anything maybe we have to save something we could save something i mean we depends on how long we want to keep our guests waiting today and if we want to keep something to talk about next week that's true all of this lighthearted banter i think we have time to i didn't had no idea we've been talking that long i think we have time to talk to about one of one out of the two of those things which one do you think we should talk about um is one more

timely than the other i don't know i don't know i kind of want to just talk about instagram i do that's kind of what i wanted to talk about too the other one i guess you have to tune in next week to find out what we do have something about something kind of exciting and fun it's funny because we're like oh that we'll talk about that for the entire first half hour and now we're not even going to talk about it right so there is something kind of exciting on the horizon strongman related but we can we can save that for next time it's not it is time sensitive but not so time sensitive that that matters today but what i wanted to talk about and i after we quit recording last time i said damn it I really wanted to talk about this Instagram reels yes so Instagram reels is a new thing that Instagram added in you know back stories used to not be a thing uh IGTV used to not be a thing

you know they're adding these other things you know stories combated Snapchat I would say IGTV combating YouTube yeah and then, of course, everyone was using, what's the thing that everyone's using that Reels goes after? Oh, TikTok. TikTok, there you go. I just can't think of it. When you said everyone using, I thought you were talking about some physical product people use.

I'm the only person in my house that doesn't use TikTok. My son and my wife both check TikTok. I mean, my wife has it and sometimes spends a lot of time on it. Right. And, like, my family members are posting on it, but they check it. I have this theory. I don't even, it probably, I can't imagine I'm the first person to have this. But, so, like, do you know, like, do you understand, like, that TikTok dances and, like, challenges are a huge thing?

Right. Because they have music license through TikTok,ok certain songs right well yeah and like certain songs it's just like it gets a dance or like some meme that goes with it and it just blows up so like i literally think like people are trying to make songs that have just the weirdest wackiest noise just with the idea that like people are going to hear it and be like it's such a distinguished sounding song like it's so different that you're like, okay, yeah, this is a TikTok song. Because like there's so many songs

that I don't even know what they are. And someone's like, oh yeah, that's a TikTok song. Right. And like, I think people are literally making music for that now. I bet you're right. Just to try and get, just to hit like on the TikTok algorithm

or go viral on TikTok. And then by default, now you're on the charts for Spotify and all these other things. Is TikTok having to pay for that music to get on TikTokiktok because they can't just put any music on to you can't i don't i don't know the finer points of that and then also now like because you know there was the whole thing with trump wanting to get rid of tiktok right and then microsoft was trying to buy them out and now oracle the uh another tech company it sounds like that they have accepted

oracle's bid to be yeah tiktok what a world but who knows what that means for the future of tiktok you know it'll be like yeah be like if if facebook came in and bought tiktok you're like oh you ruined it great instagram tried to buy massonomics like sorry you can't afford it maybe one pair of lift shorts but so instagram brought in this reels thing yep and it basically from basically, from how I understand it, is TikTok on Instagram. I don't use that part of it at all. Right. And I have never created Instagram reels.

I played in it like for five minutes twice. And like both times I'm like, like a couple of times I'm like, maybe we need to have an Instagram reels. Like, I guess like we do the thing where you snap your fingers and jump. And each time you're wearing a different mask. And just be real wacky and crazy. And I'm like, I don't know. That's not my personality exactly for one.

And B, I'm like both times I looked, I'm like, is this worth the time and effort of me learning how to do this? And then also you have to assume someone in our audience is going to go into the reels and watch it. Right. And like IGTV, from what I've seen, does terrible. Like performs horribly compared to regular posts. Yeah, like the only people that I are, the only things that I know of that are ever worth watching on IGTV, those people are already putting it on YouTube already. They're just putting it on IGTV too. And it's like, well, I'm going to watch it on

YouTube because YouTube is a 10 billion times better viewing experience. So, but my, my probably the number one thing about this, this reels thing is when you go to your search, you call it the search page, the discover page, the discover page, they are like, we put it to the test, right? Yeah. Yes. I they are like we put it to the test right yeah yes i bet if we both put it to the test we'll experience the same thing what you're gonna say is there's gonna be a girl dancing or doing makeup or like 50 naked yes yeah basically naked i was gonna say wearing nothing that will be at the top of my reels i mean yep you got a girl yeah doing something wacky yeah trying to do a skit and my wow i've oh i have kawaii leonard throwing bricks that's that's funnier that's like the first time

i've ever gotten anything like that i'm just gonna refresh it just to see what happens though yep a girl being wacky doing something about like jokes about her husband or something right like and i do not watch those channels or those things ever that's like that's what's going to be my point is itch on mine it should be popping up with lifting things like that i only follow lifters yeah you know through mass and i'm talking about refresh it again and it's just a girl working out which i do not follow people like that i don't watch stuff like that like it just it like it's clearly just trying to force stuff on you and it's so off well and it seems like uh reels

must really favor women being like mostly naked that yeah like that seems to be a one of the few that I get that aren't that it's like kids that are like clearly teenagers like they're very young like trying to be comedians and do funny things which is to me kind of what tiktok is and they're not funny at all like yeah it's not a unique perspective it's not witty it's not clear it's not funny it's just like uh i guess you're trying to be cute about this and it's not it's not good and i don't like that it pops up these things that i'm not in yeah big right at the top right you must watch this right and it's like and like you made the even comment even it's like well some of that stuff's borderline like not safe for work like oh yeah like be like what do you have on your phone yeah like if you don't know if you walked

into an office building 20 years ago and you had like the like reels printed on a magazine and you're sitting there reading it you'd be like is that a playboy your manager would be like hey uh i feel like this should be common sense but don't look at that in the office like those reels are like borderline like soft core porn at some point in time where i'm like why is like what and you just i mean i'm sure those people are getting a huge reach from when they do that too so they're like just doing it more probably like they're getting putting on everyone's discover page they probably uh they're getting rewarded for right right yeah i just don't really reels yeah they probably sound like old people i guess we probably do but really reels does suck

though yeah i think it does until they figure out a way to make it better. But for now, it sucks. This is definitely an old person thing. I don't want to learn how to do it. I don't want them to disrupt the system as I understand it currently. I feel like that is kind of the beauty of Instagram, though, is that it's simpler and not just this dumpster of shit like Facebook is. Facebook turned into this thing where there was games and reposts of everything and just like checking in

and all this dumb shit that like you do not care about. And like that is what ruined Facebook is it just turned into just a feed of absolute garbage. That's a good point. And like that's what makes Instagram good is like it's just pictures of people I want to follow and that's it. And, or,

you know, or videos, but it's just, it's from the people I want to follow. I don't have to get all this other stuff. It's not all these people posting just opinions all day long. Right. And I like that you brought it up there that they don't make it really easy to share things onto your wall.

Yeah. So there's not even a native way. No, there isn't. No, there is not, you know, for a photo. they don't make it really easy to share things onto your wall yeah which is good because i don't wait no there's no there is not you know for which already cuts out 50 of the lowest common denominator exactly like all those people that like have facebook and just share every like political like all their uh vacuum chamber is that the term for that when you just like yeah there you go echo chamber all the echo chamber people that are like, ah, yes, let me reshare these. Like, ah, this will own them right here. Right, right. And I do, you know, I, we, and granted we share stuff on Instagram from followers and

stuff like that. And I think that that's much different. Yeah. Very different than like some conspiracy theory posts that you found somewhere that you think is a real hot take. Yeah. Overall, I still like Instagram. i don't like reels i don't like really i the igtv thing it's fine but it's just they don't perform well from what i've seen yeah but i i did get on board with

the stories at first i wasn't i was like why is the stories where stories that already stories work because snapchat was doing it perfectly and i mean it kind of does fit in with instagram's thing it's just it is really funny that like in the tech sector you can just basically just copy and other apps design perfectly and like get away with it like right like i mean i don't mean perfectly like copy it exactly and like that's okay to do yeah i mean instagram just does it for every other thing then, right? Yeah. You know? Just some work and some don't.

IGTV didn't really work. Stories does work. Yeah. So that's what we chose to talk about. So you have to wait for the... For someone wanting some lifting related topics in that first half. Oh, boy. But we are going to get to lifting related topics with our guest after we read some ads ads so this is like your pun this is like you got to do the work you got

to listen to us before you get to the other person you got to put in that word people uh have asked for time stamps before uh people that listen on youtube and i suppose even maybe podcast listeners and you're not getting them no time stamps i mean it doesn't take that long to figure out our format but right no i'll skip to the 30 minute mark but um no you're not getting time stamps you're not getting them no time stamps i mean it doesn't take that long to figure out our format but right no i'll skip to the 30 minute mark but um no you're not getting time stamps you are not going to just skip around all haphazardly and miss us talking about something that we think is skipping on your jolly way through this podcast no who listened to a podcast like that anyways and it was like i'm gonna skip around yeah Yeah. We're not allowing it. This episode of the Massonomics Podcast is brought to you by Hybrid Performance Method. If you've been training without a coach and have been looking for a competitive edge,

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today's show is also 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 gym equipment around 1976 a local machine shop started making olympic bars late 60s and began powerlifting in the mid-70s. At the time, he was working for Image Barbell, building gym equipment. Around 1976, a local machine shop started making Olympic bars for them, calling it the Image Bar. In 1977, Image Barbell became Champion Barbell. It was then that Buddy started looking at the bars with an intent of changing them for the better. In 1979, Buddy bought his first lathe to begin addressing the known issues. In 1980, his passion, drive, and purpose now had a greater mission. Buddy set out on his own to make what he believed was the greatest bar he had ever seen and trained with, and the Texas Power Bar was born.

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That's all of them already, huh? That is all of them. Well, we better get Adam of Garage Gym Lab on the horn here. Loading it up. Are we ready? We are ready. Let's see if we can get some audio going here with Adam of Garage Gym Lab. Is this the Mathonomics podcast?

You are in luck. You found the right number. You are actually live on the, you just, you, you, you found the right number. You are actually live on the podcast right now. Oh my gosh. What a surprise. This is amazing guys. Yeah. It's a pretty common reaction. So how are you guys? We're really good. We're good. This, uh, this is Tanner speaking and this is Tommy. Just so you're familiar. Awesome, guys. And if we're correct, this is Adam that we're talking to then, right?

You dialed the wrong number. Ah. Or the right number, rather. Okay, good. All right, good. No, it's a pleasure and an honor to be on this podcast, guys. Thanks a lot for having me. Well, we are excited to have you here today.

We got a pretty extensive list of questions lined up. So assuming you only answer each question for a minute or two, this will take about two hours. Okay, I'll try my best. First thing that I'm wondering is a couple just like almost housekeeping things. Where are you located at? A few of these things we're not even a hundred percent sure ourselves. So where are you based out of? Yeah. So I am in a smaller town called Indian land, South Carolina. It's basically just South of Charlotte.

So I've spent the last 10 years or so in Charlotte, but my family and I just moved 10 miles South back to my home state of South Carolina. I'm originally from here from a small beach town in South Carolina. So it's nice to be back. But, uh, but yeah, I'm a Southeastern Carolina boy through and through. I gotta be honest when you started to say the state and you said South, I thought you were going to really surprise us and say South Dakota. Really? That is so weird. We didn't know that.

Yeah. No, I saw, I saw some news about South Dakota. Really? That is so weird. We didn't know that. Yeah. You know, the, I saw, I saw some news about South Dakota, like your attorney general or something recently. Ah, that is big in the news. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Hit a person. Thought he hit a deer, kept going. The next day drove by, found out he had a person, kind of a weird series of events.

Yeah. Could happen to anybody right so not surprising there seems to be a lot of questions about that right now but our yeah our completely solid republican government through and through you don't have to worry about any corruption no one's on the same side there it'll be very very straightforward that's right yeah and that's actually never been to south dakota i'd love to come up there sometime i you're kind of ruining the end but i do like to say at the end that uh next time you're in Yeah. I've actually never been to South Dakota. I'd love to come up there sometime. You're kind of ruining the end, but I do like to say at the end that next time you're in Northeast South Dakota, make sure to look us up.

But I'll get that out of the way now. Oh, yeah. Next time you're in Northeast South Dakota, make sure to look us up. I'll do that. So South Carolina, and you are the owner, proprietor, head honcho at Garage Gym Lab, correct? That is correct. Yeah. I started Garage Gym Lab a few years ago. And here I do equipment reviews and try to create as much content as I can around the

home gym experience and just try to provide some inspiration and thoughts and advice on how people can train at home and anyone who is just otherwise looking to expand their knowledge about equipment. And, um, correct me if I'm wrong, but would you say that the home gym scene has seen a bit of a boom in the last several months here? Yeah. I mean, you could, you could call it a boom. I mean, it's a, it's epic proportions. I mean, I don't think anybody could have seen this coming the way it's happened. I mean, it's kind of interesting on one side of fitness, it's been devastating. And then on the other side of fitness, with regards to equipment, it's been absolutely booming. But the movement towards the home gym was immediate and all encompassing. I mean, it was so fast and so deep that, as you know, companies can't even come close to keeping up with the demand.

As you know, companies can't even come close to keeping up with the demand. People have been out of stock now for months, and I don't think that there's really an end in near term site, at least. I think we're going to be probably trying to get through flu season before stock is truly regulated. But, yeah, I think we're experiencing a paradigm shift in this industry. I think the eyes have been sort of open to what is accessible at home, but not necessarily commercial gyms are the only answer. And I think it's going to continue. And yeah, I mean, we're at the forefront of a movement, I think. Yeah, I think that that's all very, very likely.

So what was, I mean, have you been a home gym guy forever or was there some turning point or something that happened that switched you over to it? Yeah, I was actually the opposite of a home gym guy. I started my home gym in 2016. So my wife and I bought our house in 2016. And at the time, we were looking to start our family. We have two kids now. And I was waking up at 4 o'clock in the morning. I was driving 30 minutes to one of the nicest gyms in Charlotte called Fitness Factory. Just absolutely amazing equipment and just a really cool vibe.

But this was the type of gym that didn't have any showers. So I was literally paying a second gym membership just so I could drive a mile and take a shower there before heading to work. That's dedication. Yeah. Before getting back home at eight o'clock at night. So I was basically gone from 4 a.m. to 8 p.m., and it just didn't make sense. It didn't make sense for my family. It was kind of taking the pleasure out of working out. So I decided to start a home gym in 2016 during Black Friday.

So I picked up a little kit from Rogue. It started with the basics, your rack, bench, bar, and some plates. And over the next, call it 10 months, I grew it very little. I think I picked up like a commercial glued ham rays and a couple other bars. And then in August of 2017, my wife went into labor. And while we were there, I had the bright idea of starting this venture. Perfect timing. My wife likes to say, and, uh, and the rest is history. So I've been a, I've been a home gym owner for four years now. And, uh, and, uh, garage gym lab, say the name

and the, the, the company, as we know, it kind of started in August of 2017, you'd say then. I started working on it in August. I didn't know, I didn't know a dang thing about setting up a website or anything like that. So for the next three or four months, I just kind of dove head first into learning. I wrote a handful of articles to kind of put on my website to make it look like I wasn't just, you know, some dipshit out there trying to do something. And, um, yeah, we've been there. Yeah.

We still look like dipshits. Yeah. And, uh, officially launched in, in November. So a few months, a few months later, so it's been about two, two and a half years now. There's two different lines I want to go on based off that, and they don't go in similar directions, but I'm just going to do one and hopefully get back to another one later. The one thing I was going to say is that Tommy and I do not train at a home gym, but what we do, we have Massonomics Gym, which is what I kind of consider it's like a glorified garage gym in the

sense that we have over the last five years, we have 20 to 40 people that have been a part of it in the lift there and kind of pool our resources to an extent. And then, you know, we've bought a lot of used equipment over the years, you know, maybe we'll save and buy something from Rogue that we're interested or something from Elite FTS or something from Titan or Go Strong, wherever we can get something or like I said, a lot of used stuff. So we really act as almost like a larger garage gym. My question, though, about what you were talking about, the time frame on this equipment, and this is almost like a personal question.

I'm under the impression I'm hoping for this giant boom to die down. And I hope that someday there's going to be this point in time where a lot of people that have bought this new equipment, that a fraction of them decide, I don't want that anymore. I want to sell it. And a whole bunch of people experienced that at the same time. And then there's this used equipment market where instead of like it is now where, where things are selling for double or triple their normal face value, where they're selling for 50% or a third of their face value, do you think a day like that is going to come ever? Or is that wishful thinking in my case? I think there will be some right sizing to the market, sort of a reversion to what we've become accustomed to over the last, you know, forever. But I'm not totally convinced that it's going to go down as low as some people hope.

You know, you look at the used market now, obviously, like you said, prices are outrageous. So I'm really, I'm really curious to see how some of the people who have paid these enormous prices react when they do go back to the gym. Are they going to be willing to unload that equipment at a massive loss? Or are they going to say, screw it now I've got the equipment, I'm just going to keep it. Right. And I'm not sure, I'm not sure what that's going to look like. But yes, I don't think that this is going to be permanent by any means. I think once gyms fully open back up and there are other options out there for people, prices have to go down. Because right now, the supply and demand is so wonky that this has just been the byproduct of that. So naturally, it's going to revert. But I just don't know how long that's going to be and to what extent.

Right. Makes sense. So now talking equipment, we got all types of stuff to say about equipment here. The Massanomics gym has a pretty decent collection of equipment from a lot of manufacturers. So a lot of different bars. I feel like we have, we have a decent insight over here. We we've seen a few things. Um, one thing that I'm always curious and you probably pay more attention to, to this than I do. Like I like to, in my free time, I watch a fair amount of like tech reviewers and things like that on YouTube. And you know, there's always like, especially in the tech world, there's like specs and stats that the manufacturers are always trying to push at people. And a lot of times like those numbers don't necessarily mean a better product. It's just like numbers or marketing,

really. Is there anything comparable like to that? Would you say in the fitness world where there's just, where they're trying to market numbers or things that don't necessarily make a difference for the actual use of the product? Yes, there are. I mean, there are some specs that are absolutely valid. And then there are some specs that are completely meaningless and, like you said, are essentially a marketing ploy. and like you said, are essentially a marketing ploy. Like when I look at a barbell online and it says that it's rated at 1500 pounds, you can throw that right out the window

because that's a static hold. And if you're actually lifting weights, that's not the way bars operate. So that's a meaningless stat. I think to an extent, tensile strength is also a metric that is overblown. Tensile strength is also a metric that is overblown. You see like 190,000 PSI tensile strength or 220,000 PSI tensile strength.

99.9% of people aren't going to be able to tell a difference between those two bars. It doesn't affect rigidity of a bar that is largely influenced by the diameter of a shaft. But it still has some merit to it. It's just not as important as some people may lead on. So to answer your question, yeah, there are definitely some specs out there that, you know, aren't the end all be all. And then there are some that are totally valid. So it's a sort of a mixed bag. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's, so, so your answer is kind of, yes, it's not, not unsimilar to the tech space then for sure. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So you starting getting Garage Gym Lab up and off the ground in say November, 2017, What I'm really curious about, maybe most curious about anything today is you just made the decision very recently to go full-time into that venture.

Is that right? You quit your other, what would have been your day job prior to this and going full-time a hundred percent? I sure did. Yeah what, um, how long had you been thinking about doing that? And was it, uh, how difficult of a decision was it to do it? And was there anything that, that finally tipped the scale for you? Yeah. Um, it's been something that I've been thinking about for, I would say a while now, probably the past year or so. And there was definitely a tipping point. It was COVID. The way I kind of have approached this COVID environment is it's been more or less a great reset for me personally.

And I just kind of reflected on a lot of things in my life. And one of those was my career. For those who don't know, I was working in commercial real estate, specifically apartment investing for the last 12 years. And, you know, it was fine. I was good at it and enjoyed it for the most part, but the passion, you know, was starting to evaporate. Um, and what I sort of realized during this pandemic was there's no better time than now because you really just don't know. And the, the, the fact that it happened to match up with one of the biggest booms in this industry, it just sort of made sense. At my career, the entire corporate office had to take pay cuts. We lost a lot of our benefits. 10% of people got laid off. So I started asking myself, what am I really giving up here? I'm doing garage gym labs 30% of the time. It's booming. I'm not

really passionate about my career. Let's take the plunge now. What do I have to leave here? So in June, I let my company know. We worked on an eight-week transition period. And the beginning of August was my last day there, my wife and my family and I bought a new house, like I mentioned earlier in Indian land. So the past month or so has been kind of dealing with that. And I'd say within the last two weeks, I've been, you know, hard in the saddle working with garage gym lab full time. That's pretty cool. I mean, that, that's the American dream that that is, you know, doing the thing you want to do. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Um, so I'm excited. It's, uh,

you know, this has been definitely what I've been wanting to do. And, um, you know, the fact that it's finally here is something that I'm proud of and really excited to be doing it. Are there things you feel like you can do different or things you had planned that you didn't have the time to do before? What do you think you can do better now that you can go at 100%? Yes, absolutely. So, you know, starting with content, you know, this is a content-driven industry.

So to the extent that I can increase my content while still delivering as much value as I can, I want to be able to do that. And like I mentioned earlier, dedicating 30% of my time, you know, for the last 10 months or so, my consistency with my content was, quite frankly, not very good. my content was quite frankly not very good. We had a kid. My team at work went from three to two. COVID, whatever the excuses are, the fact of the matter is my consistency wasn't very good. So I'm going to be able to present and create a lot more content these days.

I'll be going full-time into YouTube, which is something I sort of dabbled in a couple years ago, but due to me wanting to try to focus most of my time on the website, didn't really take off. So I'll be doing a lot more of that. And about a year ago, I started this, what I consider to be a pretty massive web project that I'm still working on right now. And I realized that if I was still at my full-time job, I'd probably be working on it for another year. So now I'll be able to kind of commit all of my time to that, get it out, you know, over the next few months and yeah, just deliver as much quality content as I can. That's awesome. And in my opinion, that's,

I mean, one of the things that is missing today is like quality original content. Like people just want to repost, retake things, like not actually produce content. So, um, you know, we produce a lot of original content here at Masonomics. So we're always fans of people that are actually doing new stuff. Yeah sure yeah yeah i think that um you know in an industry where there's been sort of you know a copycat mentality at least on the equipment side to the extent that you can be original and do original things and create original content i think that's uh that's really helpful and very cool. So hats off to you guys, and hopefully I can do the same thing.

Yeah, for sure. So about that then, as long as we're talking about it. So you have competitors that do similar things. I don't know who all exactly you look at as kind of your direct competitors, and I'm not sure that it's a zero sum game anyways. You know, I think it's probably a situation where all of you growing is good for you anyways. It's not like if you get a set of eyeballs that one of your competitors doesn't get the set of eyeballs too. But is there anything that you see that you either can do better or need to do better or just any ways to differentiate from some of those other ones too?

Well, I think that my goal is just to present my unique perspective and my unique voice to my content. I don't really concern myself with what other people are doing. As long as I'm better than what I was yesterday and I'm progressing towards my goals, I'm happy and I'm content. As long as I'm creating value for people and they're getting use out of the content, I'm totally fine. But to your point earlier, yes, a rising tide lifts all ships sort of thing. So when my quote unquote competitors are doing well, I applaud them. I am excited about that because it just means that the industry is progressing and I get to participate in that.

So yeah, I'm just trying to kind of put out my unique voice. Yeah. I think that's the right perspective to take with it though. What we would really like to get is a sound clip of you talking shit either about Garage Gym Experiment or Garage Gym Reviews. Is there any change you want to do? And we will obviously be posting this on instagram so just really choose your words wisely here yeah i've only guys i've

only had one beer tonight it's gonna take a lot more than that what what i would wonder is do you talk to the uh people that run any of those other pages very much like has that do you ever yeah no i thought i i talked to several of them um you know jake jake and i have actually collaborated on some stuff in the past and we together are on the garage competition council which is a basically a virtual power lifting competition you guys um are probably aware of it I think you maybe threw in some swag. Um, so we, yeah, so we are on the same council, so we're always kind of talking. Um, and we, we follow each other on Instagram and I like his stuff. He likes my stuff kind of thing. So yeah, we're,

we're, we're cool. Right on. Not the dish that we were hoping to get today. Uh, yeah, we were hoping for something a little juicier there, but we'll figure out a way to make that work. We'll edit your, we'll pull individual words. Can you say the word hate really strongly right now just so we have that to work with? Hate. Perfect. Okay.

I think this interview is done, Danny. We got the sound we needed. Perfect. No, that's cool. That's's all good that's that's cool i think yeah we experienced that in our own way as far as you know selling merchandise in the in the lifting space you know we're buddies with a whole bunch of other companies that do similar things to us and it's only helped us i think in multiple ways I mean I don't know how many people you know but I know quite a few people that own more than two t-shirts so there's room for more you know exactly yeah hey I came out with some merch too so I'm right in the same

boat as you guys so so that's another thing is so you don't have to get in the details of of dollars and cents here but the business that you, you probably have a few different ways of, of actually bringing in the revenue. We, we, you're talking about the merchandise. I know you sell shirts and several banners that you've got there. And then another one we talked about it is, I suppose, affiliate relationships are a big thing, right? Yeah. Yeah. That's the, you know, Yeah. Yeah. That's the, you know, that's more or less the meat and potatoes of the whole deal. So, you know, if someone goes onto my website or watches a video and, you know, likes what they see, clicks through to a rogue fitness or something like that and ends up buying something that I've earned a small commission for it. So that's where, you know, the business side of it comes in. The merch is, yeah, you know, it's, it's income. It's not going to like, I'm not going to retire early on it, but it's fun. And it's cool to see, you know, other garage gym owners putting the banners in their spaces and

wearing my t-shirts and, you know, that's, that's just really cool. And I'm honored that they would, you know, spend their money on my stuff yeah so we still say the same thing it's just cool like seeing like who does your stuff pop up on like just people the support you get from across the internet the country the world it's always it's always cool to see that yeah absolutely and we've gotten the the chance in the past to do uh like a couple giveaways with you and stuff, and that has been fun. Well, just thinking on the top of my head, we have to do that again sometime. Yeah, I would love that.

Yeah, we need to do that. And maybe we can come up with an arrangement where I get some don't curl any banners or something selling on my site, and increase exposure to Mathonomics, and otherwise just do some cool stuff together. Yeah, right on, for sure. Yep, definitely. We like making money and doing cool stuff. Two of my favorite things are in the boxes, yeah. Yeah, ditto.

I'm just thinking, before we're done at the end of the day's episode we have to play our overrated underrated game with you but i'm wondering uh before we got into that was there a couple more equipment questions that we have yeah oh okay yeah um so with equipment the the fitness industry is notorious for going through fads and trends and things like that do you think that there's any pieces of equipment right now that manufacturers are putting out that are, that are hot or trendy that five years from now, people are going to be like, Oh yeah, that was kind of just a fad that

like that didn't have staying power to it. That's a really good question. I don't know that anybody's ever asked it to me that way. I'm sure there's some things out there that are faddish, but for the most part, I think that what companies are producing these days is real and does have staying power. I mean, it's sort of the basics evolved into some other areas. What I'm really curious to see is how the technology aspect of fitness turns out over the next decade. Is that kind of stuff going to be a fad? Are these tonal gems and pelotons and things like that going to end up being a fad. I don't necessarily think that they're going to be. I'm just curious to see how it's all going to play out.

But if you go on to whatever, name it, roguefitness.com and just start perusing their website to try to find gimmicky stuff. I don't know. I mean, yes, there are stuff out there. I'm sure you can find some mobility stuff that's hot garbage., it's got five rollers that you put on your forearm and have a, you know, that kind of stuff. Yeah. I think that's kind of BS, but when it comes to the basics, you know, your barbells and your plates, specialty bars, things like that. I think that for the most part, it's all going to have some pretty good staying power.

I think that for the most part, it's all going to have some pretty good staying power. Yeah. So you did mention there like the Peloton, things like that, that are kind of like this tech slash subscription type service. Did you see what Apple announced yesterday? It was like Apple Fitness, I think is what they called it. I have not seen that. Oh, okay. So they had like one of their fall keynotes yesterday and they did announce that there's, I think it's called Apple fitness and it's, I think

like 10 bucks a month and it's your online fitness classes, you know, whether it's, I don't know if they have cycling and I mean, I think it's for the most part, you know, stuff you're doing in your house, but just, it's, it's an interesting thing that you have one of the, I mean, the biggest from a money standpoint company in the world, um, is now getting into the, the fitness industry too. It's kind of a, it's kind of a cool thing. Yeah, no, it's super cool. And I think it's a real testament to what's happening right now because they're making fitness more accessible to people outside of just the gym, which I think is, you know, sort of the movement that we, we chatted about earlier. So the fact that they're signing on to that is, I think, further proof that we're sort of moving in that direction.

Yeah. So equipment, you see a lot of garage gyms, you see a lot of get tagged in them all the time, I would imagine. Making the assumption that most of these garage gyms have the basics, we'll say a rack of some sort, a barbell of some sort, and weights of some sort, is there one piece of equipment that you see a lot of garage gyms don't have but you think should or would be quick to recommend?

So outside of the basics, are we including dumbbells in those basics? Yeah. I think that dumbbells have, yeah. So I think dumbbells in those basics? Yeah. Yeah. So I think dumbbells would be sort of my next thing after that. I think that's a good answer still too. Yeah. Yeah. Out of the big four. But outside of that, I mean, when you start looking at machines, I think a lat pull down low row is probably the best next piece. Obviously it's all dependent on, you know,

a given person's training style and what their goals are and things like that. But a lap pool low row has a lot of versatility, doesn't take up a huge amount of space and can be had for a relatively, you know, inexpensive budget. So I think that that would probably be the one thing that most people don't have, but probably should, if that answers your question. Yeah, for sure. And I know a lot of Rogue and Rep and a whole bunch of them, they've been working on these various pulley systems that go onto their large racks, too. I know that's been a big thing over the last year or two, have been coming out with variations of that. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

So I just got the new Rep PR50002 rack um and got that built up over the last week and they've got the lap pull low row plate loaded system on the back of their rack and i mean it's pretty cool for relatively inexpensive i mean it's a it's a nice piece that adds a lot of variety to your training i mean it's not going to be a commercial grade unit. I've got a prime fitness selectorized unit here too. That's unbelievable. That adds a ridiculous amount of versatility, but for a few hundred dollars to throw it on your rack, it's pretty cool. You talked about it. It makes a difference to the style of training of what people want and everything like that. And I guess it occurred to me, we hadn't really asked you, what about you for yourself? How would you categorize the type of training that you're most interested

in yeah so my training is primarily centered around the squat bench and deadlift I'm not aiming to be a competitive power lifter I was about five years ago um ended up tearing my ql and kind of had a long recovery doing stupid shit until i've kind of figured out what i really should be doing to correct my back um so now i now i kind of just do it for fun i mean it's also hard to train with specificity when you're you're reviewing a lot of equipment um um, because I'm constantly trying out new specialty bars, new straight bars. It's, it just creates a bit of a dynamic that makes it a little bit more challenging to, you know, take on a traditional power lifting training. Um, but my heart is still with the squat bench and deadlift. So that's what I base everything off of.

And I still enjoy a good upper body pump. So anytime I can get my accessory bodybuilding type movement, I like to do that. All the essentials. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And I don't, I don't all the time curl in my, in my squat back, but it just depends. To be like fully on the record with that that i don't know that either of us personally have a huge vendetta we did think it made for a really funny flag and design though

no it's perfect it's absolutely perfect even if you do squat and or curl the squat rack rather it's still awesome right now actually we sell quite a few shirts to people that want to buy them then to post them curling in the squat yeah you know that's a common theme like ha ha like ha ha take this reverse yeah yeah exactly i think i actually might have done that i think i would i did a video of me curling in my squat rack and maybe tagged you guys in it a little while back so yeah i think i think that's hilarious and i think what you guys have done with the you know enormously overpriced lifting shorts is awesome that's that is certainly our claim to fame i believe is the lift shorts contribution to society um yeah you you will be sad to hear

that the guests of the podcast do not receive free lift shorts because nobody receives free lift shorts. Well, I guess I'm not surprised. I mean, do you have any coupon codes? It's so expensive, man. Most of the coupons actually raise the price of the lift shorts, so that doesn't really work in your favor either. Oh, yeah. That reminds me. It's like when you watch Shark Tank and um what what's his name the guy in

the middle when he's wonderful yeah when he tried to barter with mr wonderful and he's like you know what screw you guys i'm going the opposite direction just went higher yeah yeah yeah that's very big fu that's very much the lift short strategy makes sense okay so we do have this game that we play each week with our guests it's called overrated underrated are you familiar with the concept at all i'm i'm totally familiar i participate every time you guys put this on your story all right so you got a bit of an expert here i know it all i'm gonna i'm gonna crush this trust me uh there is a lot on the line with overrated underrated it's mostly mostly fake and made up points but there is quite a lot on the line with overrated underrated it's mostly mostly fake and made up

points but there is quite a bit on the line and yeah um the the key to remember while you're playing live on the show is that you do have to come up with an answer of overrated underrated you can't ride the fence but you do get your druthers uh with your answer as as far as uh answering and elaborating as much as you'd like or leaving it as brief as you'd like. So those are your druthers. Are you ready to play? I'm so ready to play.

Okay. So, and actually we have to call an audible on one of these, I think, right, Tommy? Because he already did. He already answered it, really. We do. I can put one in there if you need me to. I have a replacement one. So we were going to ask you, barbell tensile strength was going to be one, but I think you actually basically played that through the game here.

So we're going to go in replace of that topic. Number one, overrated or underrated will be stainless steel barbells. Oh, that's a good one. Well, I would say that stainless steel is overrated. I would say that stainless steel is overrated. And I would say that because stainless steel over time can still present some oxidation. It does provide amazing grip that's equivalent to what you would find on a bare steel. But it's not completely 100% rust-proof.

So if it was, I'd probably say underrated, but because of that, I'll lean slightly towards overrated. I'm really right in a sense on that one. Um, I do love things. Oh, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm, I'm, I'm in the overrated camp here. Okay. I have several stainless steel bars and honestly I use them more than any other bars. They're outstanding. But for the premium that you pay in price, you can get outstanding bars that don't have as high of a price, but you can still maintain them to keep the integrity and that sort of thing.

So that one's a hard one for me, but I'll lean overrated. So it's really the name stainless itself is not actually factually correct then necessarily. Yeah, no, you can definitely still get oxidation on stainless. Bastard's trying to trick us. Yeah, it's another marketing ploy. It's like pencil strength. Okay, overrated or underrated? Zillow. You being the real or underrated Zillow. You being the real estate Zillow. Yeah, no. Maybe we need to figure out if you know what Zillow is.

Yeah. Zillow is, this completely depends on if you're a buyer or a seller. I'm going to say that Zillow is completely overrated. They don't show their formulas and how they derive their values and things like that. It's cool that you can go on there and see what's on the market and see what's been sold, et cetera. But in terms of trying to make a logical decision about whether or not you should buy or sell real estate, it's totally overrated. Do people actually take those valuation numbers? Do some people actually take those valuation numbers? Like, like do some people think that those are like accurate? Oh yeah. Oh, absolutely. I guess. Yeah.

I think, go ahead, go ahead. No, I was just going to say that. I think that a lot of realtors probably have to combat that whenever they're either pitching a seller on where they should actually price their home or on a buyer on what's a realistic bid. Um, because either a buyer is going to, a buyer or seller is going to look at those values and be like, Oh, well, you know, this is actually what the numbers say. And it's really not, I mean, it's based on, you know, who knows it's all, it's all arbitrary and, you know, um, in-house methodology. Yeah. I, you know, I never really even thought about that part of it. We live in a, you know, smaller town, 28,000 ish people. And so the, like, when you look at the inventory,

the numbers are so clearly off on so much of what we see in our town. I was just like, Oh, that Zillow trying its best. But I guess, yeah, I can see. I was just like, Oh, that's Zillow trying its best. But I guess, yeah, I can see how some people be like, Oh, Zillow says it. So it's true.

I never thought about that part of it though. Yeah. Oh yeah, totally overrated. Okay. Overrated or under, you probably didn't know we were going to get you back into real estate on this podcast.

So there's a surprise little nugget in there for you. Okay. Overrated, underrated, reverse hypers. Overrated. I'm three for three on overrated. I'm just, I'm not a big believer in reverse hypers to be quite honest. They take up a lot of footprint. I think if you don't have your form, I think if you don't have your form completely dialed in they can potentially

do more damage than than good and i found at least anecdotally personally that there are outstanding ways to heal and aching back um that don't require you know a thousand dollar piece of equipment that takes up a large portion of your footprint. I don't know if you guys are aware of a book called The Gift of Injury by Stuart McGill and Brian Carroll. Have you reviewed The Gift of Injury on the podcast? We did the back mechanic. Okay, we've done the back mechanic.

Oh, you did the back mechanic? Yeah, pick up The Gift of Injury if you ever get a chance i mean it's outstanding there's you know it's a it's kind of expensive but there's like a lot of pictures and it just does a really great job of walking you through an actual experience of a back injury and how brian carroll came back to still be an elite power lifter after a devastating back injury. And it's all based around the big three, Miguel's big three, which I'm sure you're aware of from the back mechanic. But it's done wonders for me.

And I think it does wonders for a lot of other people. So in my opinion, reverse hypers, they're cool in that you can do other things with them other than an actual reverse hyper. I mean, they're versatile in their own right. But given the cost, given the footprint, and given the potential injury risk of those who don't know what they're doing, I'll go with overrated. Don't underestimate how good they are for setting your water bottle on top, leaning against.

That's a great point. Leaning against while you're on Instagram. They're great. They work a week. A phone holder does a lot of things yeah that's a great point okay um also pro tip just as long as we're talking with the girl uh a gym equipment guy is a great phone tripod is a four four board board press uh gets used at our gym all the time as a tripod.

Never seen it used as a board press. I have not either. Yeah. So I'll use it as the tripod. Yes. Okay. I'll go to Home Depot tomorrow. Yes.

Yes. Okay. Last one here. Overrated, underrated. This one's kind of for all the marbles. Epoxy garage floor coatings um well i don't think that they have much of a relevance uh to garage gems per se so i'll go for four for four overrated. Perfect. The sweep. Yeah, the sweep.

I mean, epoxy looks pretty cool. I mean, you can do some really cool designs with it and things like that. But in terms of protecting your equipment from, you know, dropping weights or anything like that, in terms of force distribution, it's not going to do anything to the extent of a proper rubber floor. Even stall mats, which I think a lot of people use. I used it for a really long time in my garage gym. They're great. They're cost efficient. I've since upgraded to a really proper rubber floor.

But yeah, epoxy is cool if you want to park your car in the garage um and just have a nice yeah exactly well and that's it that's what my banner says like this exactly this is dedicated reserved for lifting man there's no parking here so i have no room for epoxy flooring bring on the rubber. That's what she said. Shit. I walked right into that one. Outstanding. Outstanding. Oh, wow.

How many people sweep either overrated or underrated? I don't think you get that very often. We certainly don't go into them trying for it. We don't really think get that very often. And we don't, we certainly don't go into them trying for it. We don't really, we don't actually, we don't really think of that part at all.

We don't really analyze what people are going to answer too much. We just, we pick topics that we know are relevant. Yeah, we try to pick things that are like kind of right down the middle where we can see them easily going either way. Yeah. Right.

Right. Yeah. And when, and when you look back at the tensile strength, when that was also overrated, so technically I would have been a five for five. Yeah. So I'll so I'll take a pair of free lip shorts for that.

Don't get cocky. We'll have to talk to our coach. Yeah, that's great. That was fun. We really appreciate having you on. You can pitch your website and everything again. Like you said, the banners and the shirts and everything you got on there. And I suppose your YouTube channel, people should be subscribing to that if you're going

to be kicking that up here more in the months to come. Yeah. So, yeah, basically you can find me anywhere at Garage Gym Lab on Instagram, garagegymlab.com for my website, Garage Gym Lab, YouTube, all that. It's all pretty straightforward. Um, I'm very active on Instagram, very active on the website. So, you know, head on over, we'll hang out and, you know, kick it and do some cool stuff in the garage gym. Awesome. And you've got over a hundred thousand Instagram subscribers now too, I think, right? I do. Yeah. It's actually, yeah, it's really cool.

I mean, you know, at the end of the day, it's sort of a vanity number, but I'm just really honored that so many people, yeah, I'm honored that so many people think that whatever I'm putting out there is, you know, worthy of a follow. So it's pretty neat. I'm very, very thankful for that.

Well, make sure to tell all 100,000 that you're on the mass and I'm podcast and come on over. Hey, you know, you know, I will. I'm looking forward to it. No, no, that was great. We appreciate having you on. That was really cool, Adam. Yeah, that was a lot of fun. Yeah. Thanks guys. I really appreciate it. Tanner, Tommy, and we'll talk to you soon.

All right. Bye. Tommy, two words'll talk to you soon. Thanks, Adam. See you. All right. Bye. Tommy, two words. Sometimes two words is not an easy task to do, but if someone held a gun to your head and said, summarize that interview in just two words, what would you do? Cool beans. Cool beans. That's what I do.

Cool, cool. If someone gave me three words, I would go, cool, cool beans. That's what I do. Cool, cool. If someone gave me three words, I would go, cool, cool beans. You hit it with the double cool? Yeah. Or would you go, cool beans, beans? I'd probably go double cool. Yeah, yeah. You save the double beans for like a really special time, I think.

Right, right, yeah. But that was cool. That was cool. Of Garage Gym Lab. Sometimes sometimes in my head you don't ever have words where you want to add an s at the end or like names of companies where sometimes i want to do that with garage gym lab i want to say lab i do the same thing too and i don't know if it's because i've heard you say it before that way or i think the same thing in my head but right yeah but there is not an s at the end i think it's because a lot of things are labs

right i bet you're right things are named a lot of times with the word lab a lot of times it's labs yeah i think you're right lab it's one of those words if you say it enough it starts to sound funny yeah it kind of is lab yeah no that was cool that was that was interesting he's it's fun to talk to people like that that have a lot of like um well and that we don't know any really anything about them like right you know we i didn't know that he had you knew a little bit that he had this like background in real estate but like as far as his story of how he got from here to there and that he was doing this full-time now like that's all really cool stuff. It's fun that we get to talk to a lot of people that are mate are taking

like some of this such niche stuff, but turning it into like their life and businesses. Yeah. Like supporting his family that can support a family garage gym lab, which is probably really cool. You know, it's probably really fun for him. I mean,

let's be honest. We'd all rather be just hanging out in the gym all day than messing around with real estate, right? Yeah, I didn't ask him this, but it was something I was thinking too. If he ever feels like, if it's ever harder to train sometimes. Because you're like, well, I mean, well, it's like, I can't really just train. This is like my job now.

Like I should probably be, if I'm going to be in here, I need to record it and I need to do something. I think that's probably one of the things you got to be kind of disciplined and careful with, you know? You probably, I I mean it's like anyone going to the gym he needs to say okay it's 1230 I'm going

to the gym and be like this will be done at 2 and then I'll go back to work. So cool stuff from Garage Gym Lab. Cool beans. Cool beans from Garage Gym Lab. Did we talk about apple pie? We got a lot of lift shorts in. We got a lot of cool beans in there at the end,

but I don't know if we've mentioned it. Apple pie! We should have hit them up on some Garage Gym dessert suggestions. Well, we know that apple pie is so easy to eat in the Garage Gym. It comes in its own box. It's an easy cleanup. No mess. It doesn't get all over your rubber flooring.

Yeah. Okay, so we talked about all the new stuff we have uh on our site yep all types of stuff is restocked get on that and then in october we're gonna have more new stuff coming some hot heat coming your way some this is almost like for as hot as this is this this is almost like the warm-up for the big heat. What one? Oh, you're saying this restock is the warm-up for the... Yeah, although this is hot. This restock is hot.

It is hot. It's like a LaCroix fresh out of the oven. This one coming in October... Like you can't smell it, but you know it's hot because it's fresh out the oven. It's fresh out the oven. This one coming October is just... It it's on fire it's flaming it's like a 12 pack of a case of lacroix's just going up in smoke yeah yeah this october one's gonna be like yeah you just

see steam coming out of a box and you're like that is a 12 pack of lacroix's just steaming away like it's white hot like i think that's white hot i think is a technical term there's different different levels of when i was a kid and we played with fireworks and like we'd start stuff on fire if you get that flame white you do white i think well i mean it might have been like a smoke bomb or something in there yeah uh yes right we didn't ever start any fires like at a gender reveal though and like burn half the state down either we didn't do that let's do that it's a funny meme i guess it wasn't it's just what someone added is like a tweet and said we just had the craziest gender reveal we were at the doctor's office and the doctor said there's a

penis it's a boy and we said okay yeah yep have you noticed the haze in the air yeah yeah it's here crap like you can stare directly at the sun because it's not bright and i you would know tanner you do that a lot you tell me like i check every day how every day i try to send a new pr of how long i can stare at the sun and these last few days i've been able to stare a long time yep i can't see much else anymore but i can look at the sun for a long time. Yep. I can't see much else anymore, but I can look at the sun for a long time, but no, seriously,

like the haze there is that like the other more, you know how sometimes you can see the moon still in the morning. It's bright out, but you still see the moon for a second there. I was like, geez, the moon looks big. And then I'm like,

when it's hanging around a while. Yeah. Like that is the sun. I was like, I was telling my wife, I'm like, Oh my, like,

look at the sky, look at it. And she just looked out, like, didn't look at the sky, looked outside. She's like, yeah, okay. Yeah. Like that is the sun. I was like, I was telling my wife, I'm like, Oh my, like, look at the sky, look at it. And she just looked out, like, didn't look at the sky, looked outside. She's like, yeah,

okay. Not even appreciates this as much as I do. That's borderline a weather update. It almost is actually. Yeah. Which we haven't been doing. We have a little, we did have some cold weather though.

That was true. Yeah. It got really cold here. We're on the verge of, it's going to be really cold though. Eventually. eventually i mean i don't last year at this time i i think did we get our first snowstorm was it like october 10th or something right yeah so if it's like last year we're less than a month out from a first snowstorm which really sucks to think about yeah like really sucks to think about so i hope that's not the case yeah i posted something on instagram a picture of

our yard the other day and one of the mass dynamics followers goes so how many days until it's covered in the snow yeah it's like yeah probably not long if it's last year less than 30 yeah yeah uh do you want to hear from our sponsors i really want to today's show is brought to you by lifting large lifting large 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 ground lock deadlift slipper which would be great to use in a garage gym very lifting large actually has a ton of stuff that would be great to use in a garage gym if you're a garage gym if you came here from adam's page adam said hey you should check out the mass dynamics podcast i was on there on a guest as a guest lifting large.com you should check out the Massonomics podcast. I was on there as a guest. Liftinglarge.com.

You should check them out. They have a lot of stuff for you. They do. They got a lot of stuff. Yes. The Groundlock Deadless Slipper, for example. They're always in stock and ready to ship. And Massonomics listeners, you can use our discount code. It's MASS20.

That'll save you 20% off all Lifting Large branded products. Speaking of companies that have great products for garage gym lifters, 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. And I'd say they have the kind of tools at Spud Inc. where are like perfect for a garage gym lifter because you buy these things and it's like, ah, this has the utility of 10 items just in the you can just pick one strap off of the website and you could literally use it for

right things and they do have a lot of things that are like that where it's like they take up virtually no space which is important to a garage gym owner and can do a lot of different things so you should check out spud inc and this show is brought to you by hybrid performance method and if you train in a garage gym would you not want an online coach yeah i mean that's what you would want is you don't have gym buddies to tell you what to do because you live by yourself you're a hermit in your garage gym yep so you you said no to society yeah you're uh what what's that what's that what's the phobia uh agoraphobia. You're agoraphobic.

I believe would be correct. So what you do is you, I just realized we're going to start a new company. Agora phobia, agoraphobic garage, garage reviews. Yeah. Right.

I think there's a meme there. Even maybe there's not a company, but there's a meme. Yeah. Okay. not a company, but there's a meme. Yeah. At least. Okay. We'll settle for that. We'll settle.

Okay. If the meme gets like a hundred likes, we'll go for the company then. Yeah. So you can, if you're a garage gym lifter, you can hire a hybrid performance method. And for any of their training or nutrition programs, you can use our discount code. It's M-A-S-S, MASS, mass in all caps and that'll save you five percent off and that's at hybrid performance method.com and lauraphobic equipment reviews it's just so stupid for people that hate going outside but love barbells it's just it's just two eyes looking blinds.

It's all whispery all the time. Outside's a scary, scary place. And this episode is brought to you by Texas Power Bars. Could you imagine a garage gym that doesn't have a Texas Power Bar? I actually could not. That would be a piss-poor garage gym. It wouldn't be a garage gym. That would just be a garage.

It'd just be a spot to hang out. If you didn't have a Texas Power Bar from Buddy Caps and his gang down there in Texas. He invented those bars in 1980. That's when it was born. It was strong as a house, of course, best knurling, and it was maintenance-free. You can learn more about Texas Power Bars at TexasPowerBars.com, and that's where you'd buy one to pick one up for your garage gym. See how it related at all to garage gyms.

It's really relevant stuff. Very relevant. Okay. Anything else we got on this one? Um, one 31. Holy crap. I better just shut up.

It was just kept going. I start having so much fun over here that's true so where do people find you at Tommy agoraphobic equipment reviews it should be live by the time on Instagram I can't imagine anyone that has that our first product is going to be a cat litter box

just a litter box with a sticker on it. You can find me at Tomahawk underscore D. You can find me at Tanner underscore Baird. More importantly, much more importantly,

follow us at Mastodonomics on Instagram. See ya.