Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 130: David Campbell- The American Ninja Warrior Godfather

Episode Date: August 13, 2015

Sal, Adam & Justin interview American Ninja Warrior David "The Godfather" Campbell, 2015 finalist who you can soon see competing on NBC for the $1,000,000 prize in Las Vegas. (David's Twitter & Instag...ram @NinjaGodfather) David is no ordinary ANW competitor. He has been competing for the past few years in both the United States and Japan and is arguably the most successful American competitor of all time, earning him the moniker "The Godfather." In this episode David reveals how he trains and what goes on in the mind of a true American Ninja.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, with your hosts. Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. Welcome to Mind Pump. We have a special guest here today, David Campbell, American Ninja Warrior, a feminist. American Ninja Warrior. Finalist, can we talk about you being a finalist?
Starting point is 00:00:24 We can't air this, but we will afterwards when they know, right? Yeah, yeah. Hell yeah. I'm a current finalist. I've done better than any of the Americans on the Japanese course. And like, better than any American ever? Like ever. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:00:39 Yeah. Yeah. There was a guy in the Marine. There's a, there's a, there's a navy diver about like 15 years ago or something like that that did really well. Just kind of like a one off, just kind of flukes thing. But the course was a lot easier back then. But like in the current era,
Starting point is 00:00:56 I've done better than any American. Wow. There was a naked guy that did really well too, didn't he? That was completely staged. Oh wow. It wasn't naked. He was actually wearing a skin colored speedo. Oh. So it was completely staged. Oh, well, I didn't do it. It wasn't naked. He was actually wearing a skin-colored speedo. Oh, so it was awfully huge.
Starting point is 00:01:08 I love your hands, I knew that it was staged. He was way too good to be like a normal street guy. Dude, yeah. And he's doing the little thing. He was actually one of the testers. So he'd run the course like 50 times that weekend. What brilliant advertising out there? What brilliant, that went what million views
Starting point is 00:01:24 on YouTube instantly, right, after that, that was brilliant. I think our next workout should be in skin color to speed up that idea. Maybe we should do that. And then we'll blur it out and people will think about how awful would that be to watch? I was like looking at some of those course obstacles,
Starting point is 00:01:38 the one, what's that one called where you do the spider, where you're calling up to jumping spider. Jumping spider, that would be a horrible view. I'm just thinking about that. Depending on who you are. We're a really great view. We're really awesome, yeah. All-taint.
Starting point is 00:01:52 This is, okay, American Ninja Warriors been around for how long now? Um, American Ninja Warrior. Yeah. Started in 2010. Okay, now you say it like that because I'm assuming that's because it's been in Japan for much right? What was it in 1997 in Japan? Now does that mean that you you were trying to do this before it even was over here?
Starting point is 00:02:11 I Started training for this found out about it and started training for it in late 2006. Oh Wow, and so how do you train for something like this? Before I got into this I did a lot of rock climbing since I was about 17. And that kind of gave me a head start because there's so many grip intensive exercise and obstacles and things like that.
Starting point is 00:02:36 So I just added more cardio and got comfortable with trampolines and did more balance work. And... How much do you weigh, David? If you don't mind me asking? Currently, I think I'm like 161. Is that your competition weight, would you say?
Starting point is 00:02:52 It varies. I'm off season, I'll kind of get down to like 154 sometimes. And then just as I start training more, and also I think taking creatine makes me hold a little bit more water. So as I get up to training, I'm usually like high wind 50s, low wind 60s, yes. You know what I've noticed? I've noticed that competitors and these type of obstacle type events tend to be around that size, right? There's not like a 200, there's not a lot of 200 plus pounds.
Starting point is 00:03:21 Yeah, they don't fare so well, right? Because of the body weight. You're a way to strengthen weight 200 plus pounds. Yeah, they don't fare so well, right? Because of the body weight. Your weight to strength weight ratio. Right. Yeah, every once in a while there's kind of an anomaly that does pretty well. But because it's their strength to weight ratio, you're pulling your own body weight so the lighter you are, the better.
Starting point is 00:03:38 Well, it seems like 160 pounds, because I think the average Navy seal is something like 160 pounds, right? 150 to 165 pounds. Really? Yes. Where are you sure? I'm positive. They're they're light. I'd misshicken my head like yeah, dude. Yeah, I didn't read that. We should someone look that up. No, I'm gonna shake my head the other way, bro. No, look, I'm a bombolshed. I'm gonna look up Google. Every Navy seal that I've ever seen is a fucking big dude. This is afterwards like 200. No, this is after they're done with their Navy seal stuff.
Starting point is 00:04:06 Well, there's like your, like the army guys that like go through the desert carrying like, you know, 100 pound sacks. Like those guys are pretty big. Navy seals may be different though. Yeah, cause I feel like they're diverse. Yeah, cause I feel like I feel like a being a really big dude is not an advantage. I know Marcus LaTrell was a badass and he was like 240 something and he was you know, he's the lone survivor
Starting point is 00:04:31 from seal team 10. Oh, I got it right here. Average Navy seal size is 510 175 pounds. Wow. So so basically if we were in like crazy battle, you would die, Adam. Yeah, I know. That was the problem. You would probably definitely pick David over me for sure. David is the guy that you want to be with. Well, that goes our last. He's got ninja skills.
Starting point is 00:04:55 Shit. I mean, that's still an extra 14 pounds of muscle over me. Yeah. That we could eat if he dies before everybody. He's not about me. He's about to average weight, 175. Oh, yeah, 175. Yeah, that's true.
Starting point is 00:05:07 What would you say is like the hardest obstacle that you faced, just one obstacle, not the whole course? Well, I actually just got finished building a new obstacle today that I'm only getting about maybe half of the time. It's called the crazy cliffhanger. Okay. And I've never faced it in an actual event, but they haven't had it on the American course yet,
Starting point is 00:05:35 but they have it on the Japanese course yet. Course currently, so I'm really scared that they're gonna throw at us. Oh, nice. Well, that's good that you're thinking ahead. Wait a minute, so you don't know what course you're gonna be at on the final, is it kind of a surprise? Yeah, we don't know till we get there. Oh, shit, that's good that you're thinking ahead like. Wait a minute, so you don't know what course you're gonna be at on the final, is it kind of a surprise? Yeah, we don't know till we get there.
Starting point is 00:05:47 Oh shit, that's good, that's crazy. Yeah, that keeps it real, man. And you have course in your backyard. You just said you're building one, but you built one before to train, right? Yeah, so I used to have a course down in Santa Cruz. It was in my brother's backyard. It was, I basically had the entire finals course built there.
Starting point is 00:06:07 My brother sold his property so I had to take it all down. Right now I'm renting a room in Scotts Valley and there's some woods behind the house and I talked to my landlord and he said I could put some stuff up there. I'm not doing a huge elaborate course like I had before but I'm just putting some stuff up to train. Is it regular daily training? Do you train before? Yeah, what's your training? What's your training regimen look like? Is this something you have to do for hours a day? Or I mean, how often are you training? I kind of listen to my body mostly, but like the majority of my training these days is rock climbing. Actually, I've had a knee problem, so most of my cardio lately has been elliptical. I also do running on the beach and stuff like that.
Starting point is 00:06:56 And I like going to, there's a gym up in Walnut Creek called Apex NorCal. They have a lot of Ninja Warrior obstacles. My old training partner actually runs a Ninja Warrior program there. And it's nice. So we'll set up like little mini obstacle courses and running through that. That's my favorite type of card. It definitely, go ahead.
Starting point is 00:07:16 Oh, I was just gonna ask you again about the crazy cliff, right? So describe that to us. Like what does that entail? So it's three ledges and there three centimeters thick
Starting point is 00:07:32 which is about an inch and 116th or something like that is about basically you can get your first digit on it about like Oh, Jesus. Oh my god. See you just barely put a finger tip in there. Yeah, it's hard to describe on the radio. How tiny it is. We see what you're doing. So, I'm actually, imagine the size of the sales dick. It's for a wedge. That's what you go.
Starting point is 00:07:53 Okay. Okay. If you nailed your dick to the wall, and then tried to do a pull-up on it. Wow. That does sound painful and hard. Yeah. Yeah. Speaking of hard. Yeah. Speaking of hard.
Starting point is 00:08:05 Yeah, speaking of hard transition. So because it does look like a lot of times, the hands are the weakest link. Because when I watch the event, the reason why people tend to lose is they lose their grip. So that would seem like the weakest link if I'm not mistaken. A big or a rock climber that gives you an advantage. Yeah, I'm like, yeah, they definitely gave me an advantage starting out. So for the average person listening, because I've been in gyms half my life,
Starting point is 00:08:31 so with these guys, and when I'm trying to assess someone's, I guess pulling strength, a pull-up on a regular pull-up bar would be something I can identify with. Do you have an idea of how many pull-ups you can do on a regular bar, like to just to give our listeners an idea of how strong you are, how much Do you have an idea of how many pull-ups you can do on a regular bar, like to just give our listeners an idea of how strong you are, how much endurance you have in
Starting point is 00:08:48 that particular type of movement? Well, actual straight pull-ups aren't a big part of my training these days. And it's weird, there's actually people that can do a lot more pull-ups than I can that will just fall off of the cliffhanger. A lot sooner than I will. I don't understand why exactly. It's gonna be their hands. It's weird. Or like I can do, I think my max that I've ever done, pull ups is about 25.
Starting point is 00:09:13 Well, okay. But you know, they're like good, clean pull ups. Like all the way down. Yeah. But you know, there's people that can do 30 pull ups and they keep the whole way. But they'll like get pumped out on the course a lot faster than I do and just fall off. I don't get it.
Starting point is 00:09:30 Well, so you just, two things. Well, first off, I want to describe you to the listeners because I'm looking at you right now. I'm, you know, like I said, again, I've been in the fitness industry for a long time. You're kind of a wiry looking guy. Your hands are big. You've got big hands for someone that's your size and your forearms are as big if not bigger than your upper arms. So it seems like those would be advantages, right, for some of these events. The forearms, yeah, I've
Starting point is 00:09:55 always had kind of large forearms, even when I was younger. That is definitely good thing. The large hands actually makes things like holding onto the cliffhanger more difficult. For certain things, I guess big hands can be good. When you're grabbing onto a bar, you can just really wrap your fingers all the way around it. You don't slip off of it. Do you ever, when you're doing, because you said something five seconds ago about people pumping out and then failing? So when guys or girls work out in the gym to build muscle or whatever, there's something
Starting point is 00:10:31 that they look forward to and it's called the pump. And this is when the muscles get really full and tight and engorged and we enjoy it. However, I've talked to athletes in certain sports where that becomes a detriment. For example, when I used to be a grappler and I would compete in judo or wrestling or jiu-jitsu, you don't want a pump because you start to lose the ability to really move efficiently. Does this happen to you when you're doing these courses?
Starting point is 00:10:54 Are you looking to train in a way to where you don't get these crazy type forms? Because then you can't function, or is that something you look forward to doing in your training? It's totally fine in training, but in competition, it's death. So that you don't want a pump. Right.
Starting point is 00:11:10 Is there anything in particular you do to prevent that? Is there a way you would even train to prevent that? Well, you... I mean, there's different ways to train for anaerobic endurance, which is what we're talking about, like avoiding the pump and a lot of people will do long duration exercises to train anaerobic endurance. I do that sometimes, but what a lot of people miss is
Starting point is 00:11:42 training for maximum exertion. Let's say you want to do more push-ups. Let's say you're maxing out like 40 push-ups. That's anaerobic endurance right there. You're getting to 40 push-ups, you're getting pumped out and your muscles aren't working anymore and you just can't push. So there's one way to train you just to wait and then do another 40, you know, just keep doing that and doing that until you're just...
Starting point is 00:12:15 For sets. Yeah, just doing as many, like, you know, low weight as you can, just building up endurance. You can also do super heavy bench press and just build up that muscle so that each time you're doing the push up, it's so much smaller than your maximum exertion that you don't even really feel it as much effort so you can do more and so maybe you can get up to like 70 push ups. So in other words, training in strength and power is just as important for you as endurance training. So you have to.
Starting point is 00:12:51 Yeah, so you can do like strength training to increase your endurance. Do you incorporate that? Do you lift weights in the gym as well? Yes. Okay. Yeah, it's interesting. Jack Lillane, who for years held the record
Starting point is 00:13:02 for pull ups and push ups, I think it was a thousand or something. And I believe he was 50 when he set them. Anyway, anyhow, he, when asked what his secret was, and this was, you know, decades ago, he said it was lifting weights, and back then nobody lifted weights to train for those types of things. So, you talked about crating, so you take supplements.
Starting point is 00:13:22 Oh, lots of supplements here. What kind of supplements you take, give us a rundown. Let's see, so yeah, mostly when I'm in training mode, I'll take Crate team, I also take glutamine, DMG. I forget, it's commonly called DMG, and I forget what's the full name of it is. Let's see, beta-alene. I take like a protein shake,
Starting point is 00:13:55 this like a non-dairy, non soy protein, protein shakes made from like hemp and pea protein and stuff like that. Awesome. Let's see. Could you take brand-chain amino acids also? Yes. Okay.
Starting point is 00:14:12 Yeah, I take a lot of amino acids. Let's see, what are... Organine, citrilline. You know, I was taking arginine for a while. Mm-hmm. But, and I didn't really feel much of an effect from it, but I found there's something called citrilline malate. You're right, right, citrilline, yeah,
Starting point is 00:14:29 that's even more effective, better. Yeah, yeah, it has the same effect, but it, yeah. Yeah, citrilline, argonine gets broken down by certain pathways in the body, and citrilline bypasses those and then gets converted to argonine. So it's a more effective way of getting more Argonine circulating in your blood than actually taking Argonine and increases blood flow. So they'll have
Starting point is 00:14:50 in supplements to give you a better pump, if you will. So I'm going to ask you, as far as training for specificity, I mean, is that something you pretty much stick to for agility and you know, you're talking about strength training, but do you try and model it as much as you can after obstacles? Or what does that look like? Well, I used to do that a lot. When I go to the gym for rock climbing, I'd be doing rock climbing training, but in the back of my mind, I'd always be like, oh, this is training for Ninja Warrior.
Starting point is 00:15:32 I'm going along this ledge here. This is like the cliffhanger kind of thing. Uh-huh. The last couple of years, I've not done that. And I've really just focused like when I'm rock climbing, I'm just rock climbing for the sake of rock climbing. Okay. And part of that is just not having a ninja warrior be this thing that my whole year is about.
Starting point is 00:15:58 And so it kind of takes some of the pressure off of it's just not as much, is not as like a huge part of my life, you know? Right, right. You've been competing for a while in these events? Yeah, well, the first time I officially competed with 2009. Okay, so it's been a little while. It's getting much more popular here in the US, but in Japan, it's huge, right? I'd say it's pretty even now.
Starting point is 00:16:24 Okay. As far as, you know, the, the, the viewership in Japan and America. Is there a difference between the audiences, you know, like when you're competing there versus here or when you walk around there here, do you get notice more over there? I know certain sports will be like that in other countries and, you know, Japan being one of them for certain events like mixed martial arts or whatnot. Um, you know, I, uh, surprisingly don't get recognized much in Japan. Um, the, the, the, like the whole production process is a lot different in Japan. Uh, they, I don't know, maybe just because you're,
Starting point is 00:17:00 because I'm a foreigner there, you know, like they, they treat me with a lot more respect. All right. Uh, on the American course, I mean, the, probably partially because you're just because I'm a foreigner there, like they treat me with a lot more respect on the American course. I mean, partially because you're just so many Americans, you know, there's like a hundred people competing at a time, they just kind of treat us like cattle. So that's kind of the biggest difference between American and Japan.
Starting point is 00:17:18 So does your girlfriend train with you? Because I noticed when I shook her hand, it was very strong. Yeah, something like, all right, she either rock climbs with you or I don't know why. Yeah, she this year she finally I finally got her to get a membership my gym and she's been rock climbing with me and she's starting to kind of play with some of the obstacles but you know she's got a little while to go. They were actually asking me on the show if she was gonna be trying out next year.
Starting point is 00:17:50 And I was like, maybe in two years, we'll see how it goes. That's right. Do you train anybody? Are you a trainer for this kind of thing? Oh yeah, I've trained lots of people. Oh, awesome. I was kind of like the first person that was really kind of training people.
Starting point is 00:18:04 Because I had the obstacle course and I am, I'm a lot more cerebral, cerebral, cerebral, cerebral, yeah. Yeah. Then, uh, then I, the average competitor on this, you know, and so like I, I, I spent a lot of time thinking about the techniques and really breaking them down. So I'm able to impart that to other competitors pretty well. I've had some good results training people. Do they, like most sports, I'm sure performance enhancing drugs can tend to enter the fray.
Starting point is 00:18:44 Is there any drug testing for things like this? Is there any worry of people taking performance enhancing drugs? There's no testing for it. I don't know how much it would really help someone to take steroids because partially because it's strength to weight ratio. Like if you build a lot of muscle mass, it's going to kind of work against you. And also, it's really more mental than it is physical. It's so technique heavy and you really just have to be in the zone and like on your game just on top of it and just do everything perfect. So a lot of practice practice practice.
Starting point is 00:19:35 And then I'll change this once you get there, right? I mean, you can master it in your backyard all you want and then you get to the stage where the crowds are and then you get hyped up and all that. Like how do you how do you sort of find yourself into that zone? Like what is there like a ritual you do? Smoker joint? Yeah totally. Um, no, I, I, I, uh, that's actually going to the opposite of actually smoking a joint. Uh, I think part of my mindset is that I, I don't take any drugs or drink alcohol or anything like very vegetarian, just even like the hormones in meat.
Starting point is 00:20:11 I actually noticed that when I stopped eating meat, my mental clarity and just like how I'd feel when things would upset me, like I get a lot less angry. But yeah, I kind of do meditation like things, breathing exercises, kind of visualizing some energy flowing, that definitely helps slow my heart rate down and kind of focus me.
Starting point is 00:20:39 Some, when I'm right up there on the block in my, I really have to like try to take my mind off of the course when I'm just about to run it. You're sharing this course for a day before you're going to run it, and you're like, oh, you don't get to practice at all. You're just imagining all these different ways that you're either going to complete or fail this obstacle and you know your adrenal system can just totally get away from you. And it takes a lot of effort to just control that and stay calm. And when you get right up on the starting block right before you're going to go you know you've thought of everything so much you don't need to think about it anymore you just need to like
Starting point is 00:21:19 space out look somewhere else. So a few years ago I a few years ago, I was up on the block and I was having trouble calling myself and some girl came by and asked me if I was something about the course. He didn't realize that I was about to run it. And that totally took my mind off of it. So what I do now is I just kind of look out in the crowd and try to find a pretty girl or something it. So what I do now is I just kind of look out in the crowd and like try to find a pretty girl or something. Just look at for a second. Your girlfriends in the room. She's going to be in Vegas, you know, so normally we'll be here though. Normally we'll be here. So I want to know in any sport and obviously this is your passion because you've worked so hard. I didn't. You've come as far as you have.
Starting point is 00:22:02 But we all normally have something and we've all competed in this room in some sort of in one way or another. What is it you don't like about the sport? Whether it be the politics of it or maybe the training of it or the competitors you have to deal with? What part, what aspect of it do you not enjoy? Just the whole production side of it is really hard to deal with. Just the whole production side of it is really hard to deal with. Like I was saying, they kind of treat us like cattle. Sometimes they sequester us away and just leave us with nothing but pizza eat. And we're all half of us are vegan, the other half of us are on the paleo diet. They just don't care.
Starting point is 00:22:42 They just give us a bunch of pepperoni pizza and they're like, okay, none of us can't care. And they just get this a bunch of like pepperoni pizza and they're like, okay, none of us can eat this. What are you doing? Do you guys like fight each other begin versus pay me out? Yeah, there is, there's kind of some jabbing about that. Like, you know, me and a few other like vegetarian guys. There's like, at the apex gym I go to there,
Starting point is 00:23:00 the owner and this other guy, they're both on the paleo diet and they're like beef, beef, nothing but beef, you know, like, like, yeah, fruit. It's like West Side Ewer. It's like my benign. People were singing. Yeah, it was actually in an event, it was funny. Like, I pulled up my like soy protein bar and he pulled out his protein bar that was made of,
Starting point is 00:23:18 it was basically just a big hunk of like dehydrated beef. Well beef, I think cows eat grass, right? So eating cow would test technically be what now I'm just giving. Yeah, it doesn't count. Yeah, it doesn't work. That's it, though, that just the production side that it's a that you've had a run that you don't care too much about it. Any athletes you ever had?
Starting point is 00:23:39 Is there a house of competitiveness amongst each other? Is it such an individual sport that people don't really focus on others or guys that play head games or try to get into each other? What's that like? Well, it's less competitive than other sports, surprisingly, because the way they do it is like, if you can get through the course, if you can finish the course, you're pretty much into the next round. It's all about just moving into the next round. And the only time it really, really ever gets competitive is if two people were to get
Starting point is 00:24:15 to the final stage, which is a, it varies. I think currently it's like a 64-foot rope plan. Then they would be erasing each other up the rope. And that's the only time that someone would really just knock the other person out. It usually comes down to time in the tryouts, like people having faster times than others, but if the people are able to complete the course,
Starting point is 00:24:43 like if you're able to complete the course, you don't need to worry about somebody else's time. So most of the people that do this sport, they're pretty supportive of other people and they just worry about themselves completing the course. They don't really worry about how good other people are going to do or not. That's interesting. Do you see maybe like two people running a course like side by side at some point with the sport or is it still going to stay that kind of individual feel to it? I would really hope not. They did that once in before American Ninja Warrior there was something called American
Starting point is 00:25:18 Ninja Challenge where they were deciding which Americans would get to go to compete in Japan while the main show was. Those like the reality show version of it. It was just a little thing on this TV station called G4 and they had this like internet polling to see who get to go based on like who had the better video that they sent in. And they picked six people. They picked six people and they put them in three heats and they'd run two people at a time. And because of that, the best people didn't end up going because they put two of the best people against each other.
Starting point is 00:25:57 So like one of them got automatically knocked out. Yeah, that's weak. Yeah. So I really hope side by side running doesn't become a thing. So Japan dominate at this point. Are they they have the most winners? Well, three Japanese people have won on the Japanese course and none of the Americans that have gone to Japan have won the American version. I came pretty close one year and I had a problem with this Pine Resent spray, sticky spray stuff, I kind of reacted badly with the
Starting point is 00:26:31 humidity turned to slime and I fell off the cliffhanger. So that was, you guys were allowed to use things like that? Yeah, yeah. It's a tryouts, they don't let you put anything on your hands, but it's the Japanese finals. They don't let you put anything on your hands, but it the Japanese finals, they always give you chalk and this pine resin spray and If the American finals it's sometimes they give you chalk sometimes they don't it's kind of weird Hmm any idea why the Japanese dominates so so much is it because you maybe they practice more or? Well, they've been doing it longer They practice more or?
Starting point is 00:27:04 Well, they've been doing it longer. Okay The last couple years they've had USA versus Japan competitions and The Americans have actually done a lot better than the Japanese and those who well. Oh wow What's actually I was part of team America at an event called Sasuke Malaysia. Sasuke is the name of the original Japanese Ninja Warrior show. They call it Ninja Warrior when they brought it to America's because you know Americans don't know what the fuck Sasuke means. So anyway in Malaysia they have this event Sasuke America and they had a team competition. They had I think there's about 10 different countries represented. And USA, we got first place by a long shot, like by quite a big margin. Japan came in second. And I don't know, I don't know, came in third.
Starting point is 00:28:01 What, what's the grand prize for the winner? This year it's a million dollars. Holy shit. Yeah, that's great. That must have, like, has it been escalating? Like, what was it last year? The last few years it's been $500,000. Okay. And before that, it was $250,000.
Starting point is 00:28:18 And they just, nobody ever, nobody's ever won it. So, yeah. It's a might as well. Yeah, yeah. So if you win this billion, if you win this one, you'll be the first American to yeah, the might as well. Yeah. So if you win this billion if you win this one You'll be the first American yes, when wow and a million bucks. Yeah, let's talk about that since this is killer Since it's gonna be airing after the finals anyways. Let's talk a little bit what okay How many are you going to spend that money? Yeah, let's well who you how many are you going against now in the finals? Who's who's left?
Starting point is 00:28:42 Well, there's gonna be between 80 and 100 people usually in the finals in Las Vegas. Okay. And then you guys all and that's going to be spread out over how long you guys compete to you as how fast you guys knock everybody out. So, so we start, we do it over two days and we start about nine o'clock at night. They'll start running people through stage one and, you know, all a 100 people are so go through stage one. And know all eight all 100 people are so go through stage one and There's a time limit and if you get to the end of the course without falling in the water in the time limit Then you get to do stage two the next night and then so you know usually you know start it with like a hundred people
Starting point is 00:29:18 They'll have like Maybe 10 or 15 to get to stage two. Wow, so not even 80% are getting through 20% or so or making it through at best. At best, yeah. Wow. Yeah, they've, yeah, as a Japanese course, they've had like between like two and three people finishing stage one sometimes.
Starting point is 00:29:38 Wow. So stage one right out the gate is a no joke. Yeah. Wow. I'm assuming since this is ambiguous, there's probably odds on people, right? Oh, yeah. I wish there were, I put money on myself, they're worried, you know.
Starting point is 00:29:50 There's gotta be, you can bet on anything. There will be, there will be. It's not yet, there will be soon enough. I mean, that kind of, when there's now, there are a million dollars to be won, I'm sure it'll, it'll get to. Where is it held in Vegas? It's, it's just a dirt lot right off the strip.
Starting point is 00:30:04 It's right next to the pyramid, with the Luxor, and Mandalay Bay there. Just kinda like just on the next block over. How's Sue, do you stop training a certain period of time before the event to let your body recover and rest? Um. I don't, I train right up until like, we we have about two days in Las Vegas before the event,
Starting point is 00:30:30 so I'll train right up until the day of my flight. But the way I train, I don't completely kill myself. My workouts aren't like bodybuilder workouts. I don't just completely kill myself. Part of my strategy is that when I work my muscles at the same time as I'm building technique and if your muscles fatigue too much, your technique breaks down. And so I always, well, I'm not always, but most of the time I, I like to have enough, enough energy to actually do the technique with good form so that when I actually get to the event, I've started getting tired, I'll still maintain that good form. So which, which means I don't, I don't completely wear out my muscles every workout, but then
Starting point is 00:31:23 that just lets me recover faster and get back in and work out. So lots of frequency and practice. Uh-huh. Is it what it breaks down to? Yeah, like a Russian guy called Pavley called it Greasing the Groove kind of thing. Yeah, that's the little boy here. Yeah, Pavley's awesome. Uh, any special diet beforehand?
Starting point is 00:31:39 Do you eat anything in particular before the event? Uh, I just eat really clean. Uh, all whole foods. I always eat vegetarian. Uh? I just eat really clean. All whole foods. I always eat vegetarian. I do eight organic eggs, so I'm not vegan. I cut out the, like on the off season, I'll eat a bit of dairy, just because I like ice cream. But like when competitions coming out, I cut out all the dairy, you know, no refined
Starting point is 00:32:02 carbs, cut out white flowers, white sugar, and uh, I ended up eating a lot of Mexican food. Mm-hmm. Delicious. I just got chickens, man. So I'll hook you up with some eggs. Yeah, he's got, and you live near, don't you live near, yeah, yeah. Yeah, out in the woods, man.
Starting point is 00:32:19 Yeah, it's something about it, you know, for your range of chickens. I'll close you guys, so you guys close, you know how close you are? Yeah, I'm pretty close. So I'll be, you know, for your range. I'll close you guys. Are you guys close, you know how close you are? Yeah, I'm pretty close. So I'll be, you know, at your house, probably. You can't stop this. Drop it off, hang out, drop it. I don't know if your obstacle course can hold Justin swinging on that thing.
Starting point is 00:32:35 Yeah. No, we always have some big dudes out there. Yeah. So do you have an official, I'd be so down for that. So you officially train people like as a business. Or is it just friends and stuff? Kind of in between.
Starting point is 00:32:45 What I had the full course, sometimes people would pay me and come out and train with me, but it wasn't the kind of thing where we'd have a schedule and really come. It was mostly people that helped me build the course. I'd let train on. I could see a huge market for this. There should be like a cake. So what do you do?
Starting point is 00:33:01 What do you just do? Train off normally. What do you find time to do all this? And what do you? Mostly Just try it out normally. Why do you find time to do all this? And what do you? Mostly I deliver pizza. Yeah. Vegetarian dough. That is so funny.
Starting point is 00:33:10 What? You deliver pizza. It's just for the irony. Or it's, you know, it's, it's, it lets me get time off to go at all these competitions. And it lets me have a really flexible schedule so that I can just train constantly. Like, I don't know.
Starting point is 00:33:27 I'm table, I've had nine to five jobs before and they just, it doesn't give me enough time to train. Yeah, that's why I was asking that. I had a feeling, I mean, I know what it's like to train for a sport, especially something that competitive, you've got a lot of your focus all day. It's probably thinking about either training or how you're eating or what you're resting or what you're doing. So it's kind of hard to do a full full time job.
Starting point is 00:33:49 I also work at a nightclub. I built their stage sound and lighting system. Because I went to school as like for audio production. So that's kind of a side gig. How's Doug doing? Is he doing all right? What do you think? I think Doug's all right. It's good to know. Okay. He starts to screw up when we come in. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:34:10 He hasn't said anything yet. Oh, I can completely miss this. What? We're gonna ask Justin. Like I forget it now. Oh man. Oh man. Oh man.
Starting point is 00:34:21 Well we definitely, we definitely gonna have to have, you come back on after you go to, it's in how many weeks? So we're gonna obviously, we'll be here. By the time we are we definitely going to have to have you come back on after you after you go to base. It's in how many weeks. So we're going to obviously will be here by the time we air this it'll have already happened, but for us, yeah, so I'm going out to to finals in like a week. Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. And then it airs though probably what almost a month. Yeah, you guys. Yeah, it's going to air in like probably like five weeks or something like that. Super cool. Wow. And so if you win, I guess the only question I have is where's the party?
Starting point is 00:34:51 Yeah, where are you taking us to interview? Do you fur totally local? Yeah. Free pizza. Where do you deliver pizza from? Roundtable in Scotts Valley. I do what would you want to say that? And if you just came in a nice plug, they'll be studying that's why I was gonna ask you
Starting point is 00:35:07 Do you want sir? They're pizza sell you to go up All right Did you forget again? Yeah, oh I did I was gonna ask you about like sponsorship so you know you're getting like TV time and all this kind of stuff like have people come you know come to you as getting like a TV time and all this kind of stuff. Like, have people come, you know, come to you as far as like promoting things and all that kind of stuff? Surprisingly no. You know, I've talked to, I've talked to a couple people, but haven't got a lot, a whole lot of interest in getting a sponsorship. It's kind of weird, like, it's on TV, it's NBC,
Starting point is 00:35:43 so they don't allow us to wear any kind of logos or anything like that So you basically mind pump is a sponsor. What if you had a sticker? Yeah, no, no No, what if we tattooed it on your forehead actually yeah, then they put a piece of tape over my forehead Oh shit, well that sucks Hey, man's been awesome having you on the show. Hell yeah. Good luck brother. I know.
Starting point is 00:36:08 A lot of people that watch and are stoked on this show and like, you know, they're a pump that you're coming on our show too. So cool. Thanks a lot. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. For more information about this show and to get valuable free resources from Sal, Adam and Justin, visit us at www.minepompradio.com. Until next time, this is MindPomp.

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