Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 269: Mark Bell Interview

Episode Date: April 7, 2016

Sal, Adam & Justin interview Mark Bell who is an acclaimed pro powerlifter, inventor and magazine publisher. He was featured in the 2008 Sundance documentary “Bigger Stronger Faster” and the 2015 Tribeca documentary “Prescription Thugs.” Please subscribe, rate and review this show! Learn more about Mind Pump at www.mindpumpmedia.com

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind, hop, mind, hop with your hosts. Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. I want to introduce you to our audience as we continue. Now, you own a gym, the team's super training gym. You used to be a professional wrestler. You're an elite power lifter, so you compete at a very high level, and you're an inventor of the slingshot,

which has, I think, in the last 15 years, I can't think of too many things that have, you know, accessories that have been just embraced by the strength community as much as the slingshot. Awesome tool. You have a podcast, the Mark Bell powercast, and then you and your brother work on have done some documentaries together. The most recent one, which has just been released, which was Prescription Thugs. Excellent. Now with Prescription Thugs, let's go into that

a little bit. It's got some great reviews... and you guys are touching on a very sensitive subject uh... in the country and that's the uh... the the the addiction or the drug use problem but not the illegal drug use problem we're talking about the prescription drug use problem and how many people are you know what did you guys find when you guys were making this uh... it must have blown you away with some of the statistics that you you guys kind of uncovered

yeah you know i think it a huge uh... problem that we face that there's a couple things i mean there's two sides to the picture you know there's but first of all prescription pain uh... prescription medication uh... does serve uh... it does serve a purpose for many many individuals and many reasons uh... especially when it comes to things like pain management. Let's say somebody, more recently, my father, he actually fell recently.

He's 66, 67 years old. And he just kind of fell kind of weird and ended up with a lot of pain. And so he prescribed some pain medication. But he took a pain medication for two or three days and then he got off of it because he knows the dangers of it. He knows what my brother kind of went through and he also knows the research and stuff. He was made aware of it. And the problem becomes is when the consumer is not really made aware of just how dangerous

some of these medications can really be like i mentioned already that they do serve a purpose i don't want to ever uh... you know say that some of these things don't serve a purpose but there are also some medications that are just literally uh... being pulled out of the sky that uh... people probably don't necessarily need uh... people could something like restless leg syndrome somebody could probably skip their

morning cup of coffee and solve that problem, you know. Well, I heard you're. I heard you're. Yeah, there's a lot of. Go ahead, sorry, Mark. Go ahead. Yeah, I heard your brother mentioned that there's actually there's studies that back up that having what I believe it a tie a tie on all in in an Advil is just as effective as somebody using like a prescription opiate like viket in or whatever for pain.

Yeah, yeah, you know, there's, yeah, there's, there's some research that that shows things like that. Now, however, I mean, you know, you, you fall off a ladder and, and you break a bone Tylenol and ad bill and not going to help in the same fashion that they might help a little bit with healing, they might help a little bit with the pain management, but it's not going to help like psyched it. It's not going to help to the same strength level.

But my brother's point is that basically, you can manage 10 and 9th and arthritis, you can manage kind of your everyday bumps and bruises pretty well with some of the things that you have available to you over the counter. Well, I think what people don't realize with opiates in general is when you're using an opiate like a viket in, your body starts to adapt to it and you start to down-regulate receptors and you stop producing your own natural opiates.

And that actually happens in a relatively short period of time. And you use opiates every day for a few weeks. And before you know it, your body becomes physically addicted to these pills. And where if you stop taking that dose, you get sick. You feel like you're coming down with something or you feel horrible. Yeah they they become very very dictating and you're right like when you stop taking them you will feel worse than if you've never touched them in the first place it's kind of amazing how how bad they can make you feel but what what I think ends up being really

truly a dictating is the high that you get from it like let's all just face But what what what I think ends up being really truly addicted is The high that you get from it like let's all this face reality like like my friend Kelly stirrett You know, he does a lot of mobility stuff and he says when you do a mobility drill when you go to do something Does it feel better you test and re-test it? Does it feel better or does it feel worse than before and if it feels better that's your kind of concrete evidence uh... with moving forward and let's just all face the facts does it feel better or feel worse to be higher not high it feels a little bit better to be high it's better to have a little a little tangle or little sensation going on from having uh... two or three glasses of wine like it there's nothing wrong with admitting that.

Like, it just feels better. Like, does it feel better to be stressed to fuck out from work, or does it feel better to be like hanging out with your significant other, having a few drinks or hanging out with your best friend? Like, of course, that feels better. And so we're drawn to that. We're drawn to the escape from reality for a few moments.

And that high becomes very, very, very dicting. And then on top of that, as you mentioned, those drugs, they're literally make you feel sick. Like you have a flu-like symptoms. You'll feel sweaty and feel cold and feel hot all kind of at the same time. And it's a really awful feeling on myself, being a pro wrestler and doing powerlifting for many, many years, for over 20 years, have run into some pain medications here and there.

Even just using them for the small management of some minor injuries, using them just for a few days, I felt the same thing. I felt with druls just from using it for two or three days, pretty much as prescribed, which is kind of shocking. I think people don't realize just how addictive some of these substances are, when you list and rank addictive properties of different drugs, opiates are among the top, in fact, they are responsible for more deaths than almost any other drug that's out there. I looked up some statistics earlier,

and in 2014, because I believe those are the most recent year we have, these numbers, there were 47,000 overdoses on legal drugs. Legal drugs used, prescribed to these people, 40,000, 7,000 people died. Illegal drugs only killed about 17,000 people. So you're comparing like crack cocaine against, you know, like, you know, vikin' in an oxy-contin, and more people are dying from those prescriptions. Here's a statistic that really blew my mind. I couldn't believe this.

In 2013, big pharma, which is, you know, obviously all these companies spent over $400,000 per congressman in lobbying, per congressman. That is a staggering number. Wow. Yeah, staggering number. uh... i mean i don't know go ahead and there be behavior there behavior is uh... you know the behavior of the pharmaceutical companies are a direct byproduct of our behavior

uh... you know we're being inundated with all these different things and here in all these day hearing about all these different great drugs. So it's not 100% on our fault, but luckily in this country, they are not allowed to advertise prescription pain medications on television and things like that, but they don't have to because you hear about it so much from my word of mouth. But I do think that people in general, now that a movie like prescription thugs is out now that my brothers don't that kind of research and has shown the world you know what those kind of things can do

people just need to be smarter and they need to put their foot down and just not not just not participate in taking those drugs or ever even starting them in the first place and I think that that would be a move in the right direction whenever you whenever you whenever you purchase those drugs you are voting for those companies you are encouraging those companies to keep moving forward with the behavior that they have you know what's interesting because obviously we're in the middle of a big wave of support for uh like medical marijuana for example which is another substance that causes effects in the body uh... but it's also non-toxic

and uh... you know of course you can't patent it so it's very difficult to make a lot of money off of it if you're in a pharmaceutical company but it's trying it's it's it's trying it's interesting though because uh... these are numbers that are coming out but in states where medical more marijuana becomes legalized uh... drug overdose deaths from opiate drugs drops. And it makes sense that these companies would be against the legalization of medical marijuana because there's a lot of people.

I personally know people who were using opiates and were, you know, addicted, who got off of them and went and used medical marijuana to manage their pain. And it was a much less retrieval. Well, I'm an example of that. I'm somebody who went through this. So I was somebody who was introduced, probably in my early 20s. It was probably like 23, 24, a buddy of mine,

and we were fitness guys working out all the time and stuff. So I was never really a big drinker. Although we go out, an occasional weekend or whatever, but I was, I never liked to drink a lot of beer because it affected my diet. I didn't feel good the next day. I couldn't train as well. And he introduced me to vikin' him and said, you know, I just have one of the easy I have it with a beer and you feel like you feel super drunk or you feel and I remember the first time I tried that and I was like, oh wow, this is cool. This is feel I feel like I feel like it was and it

was to feel amazing. Yeah, it did. And it, I feel like, and it was, it makes it feel amazing. Yeah, it did. And it was, and at first it was, it was not a big deal because it was something that, you know, I sporadically did. It wasn't something I did on a daily basis. And so I never felt any sort of addictions or issues like that. But because I used it recreationally like that,

when I tore my ACL and MCL, the doctor prescribed me a Vicodin. And I remember because I was in so much pain, and I had already had introduced the opiate into my body that one wasn't enough. And I remember telling the doctor that, I don't feel like these are helping me whatever. And she asked, well, how often are you taking?

I said, well, the prescription says, one every four to six hours. So I'm, and I'm trying to stretch it to six as long as I can. She was, oh, no, no, no, you want to stay ahead of the pain. So make sure if you're, if you're like that, you're taking them every four, maybe as I can. She goes, oh no, no, no, you want to stay ahead of the pain. So make sure if you're like that, you're taking them every four, maybe even before that. And so I was like, okay, so I start taking them like every three hours or so.

Before you know it during this whole process, I work my way up to about seven to nine of these fuckers a day. And I'm not thinking otherwise, I feel great. I'm numb, I don't feel my pain and I don't feel like I'm super high or anything crazy. And then when the surgery is done, I've recovered. I've gone through rehab and everything of months go by. I decide I don't need them anymore, so I just stop taking them. And I had never in my life experienced this. I've, and I've experimented most my life with all kinds of different drugs and this and that.

This was the first time in my life that I ever felt what people had talked about what addiction felt like. You know, the physical side of it. I've always been prided myself on being somebody who's mentally tough and strong. And, you know, if I don't want to do this, I don't have to do this. I have that discipline like that. And for the first time in my life, I had felt the physical side of it and it blew my mind. And at first, I thought I just had this crazy flu. And that was, I mean, my nose was running. I had the shakes.

I was trembling. I was hot. I couldn't sleep. I was tossing and turning. I was achy. And I just felt miserable. And the moment that I realized what was going on with me was, I remember I had about two nights, sleepless nights of feeling miserable. I thought, what the fuck is going on?

This is the worst flu I ever had, and I took a vikin' in, and I went, not only did I feel better, but all of a sudden I felt amazing, and I went, holy shit, my body is so dependent on these things right now, and all the symptoms gone away as soon as I took one. And that was the first experience I had ever had,

and I had to go through a whole, now luckily for me and I've had family and people very close to me that have gotten up to 30 to 50 of these things a day and had to go to rehab and gone through the whole process. Because of that and I had experienced seeing it in other people, I had the discipline to kind of do it myself and wing myself off, but I'll never forget that experience. And I forever share that with anybody that I can that I meet that happens to take that or get involved with it because it is a monster

like no other. I mean, like I said, I've experimented with many drugs growing up as a kid and there's never been one that has I've ever felt get a hold of me like that. Well, everybody's so quick to place judgment. And that's something with my oldest brother you know who i lost years ago that's something uh... i always take uh... great pride in it that i never i never passed judgment upon uh... the things that ended up happening to him

i saw a lot of things happen first hand he was a very strong person he was a very disciplined person he love to work out uh... he love to play football i mean he had a lot of things he was very He was a very strong person. He was a very disciplined person. He loved to work out. He loved to play football. I mean, he had a lot of things he was very passionate about. But once a diction came into his life, it really took him down. And he was one of the people I always admired growing up.

He was my hero growing up. And to see your hero taken down like that, it just made me realize at a young age that addiction is not something that just hits poor people. It's not just something you pass off and just say, oh, it only happens to those dirt bags and that only happens to people that are weak-minded. It made me realize at a young age

that that's something that could really jump up on anybody at any time, whether you're wealthy or poor or anything in between. You start masking some of your daily life with drugs or alcohol, and it can sneak up on you in a very fast way, and it can sneak up on you and grab a hold of you in a way that you've never, you know, it could be much much stronger much more powerful than anything you've ever faced before in your whole life but just seems to me like we have an industry uh... like anything like

america does a lot of things really really good and one of the things that america is the best at in the world is where the best at uh... marketing we we are the media giants of the world you anywhere in the world and you hear american music you see American products and You know these these pharmaceutical companies are allowed to in some ways and they're limited in others But they're allowed to promote what they do and market what they do and so it's no surprise that the consumption of prescription drugs It grows every single year at a stoning rate. I know antidepressants are consumed at a very, very high rate as well in this country. I don't know the exact numbers, but it's massive consumption of antidepressant drugs.

Meanwhile, you kind of alluded to this earlier about calling us the fatest country in the world. Meanwhile, we've got obesity problem. We've got people who don't exercise in each city and uh... so it only makes sense that we're gonna take a drug to make us feel better because we're doing all these things that make us feel like it you know well they also had you know in the film and i've heard film they talk

about uh... how it's actually very rare to be bipolar and the guy used the scenario of uh... i think something like polio or some sort of very life threatening disease from years ago and he said when they created a vaccine for that it no longer existed but when they created drugs for being bipolar the rate at which people became bipolar increased by like 600 percent or something some staggering ridiculous number like that so the drugs are not helping people that are mentally ill. And on top of that, I think a lot of the people that are being diagnosed as bipolar, probably aren't bipolar.

They probably have some other disorders that usually a lot of times those people are already addicted to drugs. That was the case with my brother. My brother never really felt normal, but he also was on drugs for a very long long part of his life so it was really hard to assess you know doesn't really have this crazy mental disorder or is somebody that is just addicted to drugs you know it's kind of hard to decipher the two yeah it's it's it's very interesting you know they they there's actual

studies now that show that exercise by itself is very comparable to antidepressants when treating mild to moderate depression. Now of course, these medications exist for a reason, and I'm not saying that you don't need to take these medications. There's definitely some benefits to them, and a lot of people need them. But I think that the, that we might be in the over prescription, you know, category now with a lot of the substances that we use. It's actually with all the substances, the shit, even antibiotics, antibiotics, which we, you need them when you have an infection, we over prescribed the hell out of them and we're

creating these super bugs now that are, you know, that are probably in 20 years. Yeah, in 20 years, they're gonna become like one of the worst medical epidemics that we've ever faced and nobody's really talking about it right now. Well, an example of that is what happened when they made oxy-contains, the oxy-contains, it's a, it's a, definitely, it's a big black market drug.

If you don't know this already, you guys, it's, they used to, and the thing that people would do is they would smash them and they would smoke them. And recently, and the thing that people would do is they would smash them and they would smoke them. And recently, and I believe, maybe, I mean, snored them too, right? Yeah, and maybe Mark knows this better than I do. But I know it's, it was in the last couple of years that they made that impossible now. So they made ones, now the ones going forward, you can't crush them up and smoke them like you used to be able to do. And once they did that, it was ridiculous on the dip in sales.

I think it was like an 80% reduction in sales. Yeah, it was crazy. Yeah, it's insane. So moving forward, Mark, I want to talk to you about, I don't know, can you talk about what you're working on now about the fitness industry and the supplement industry, what you guys are working on now about the fitness industry in the supplement industry which you guys are working on. um so my brother um so you know one thing about like uh you know the prescription drugs uh prescription thugs movie is you know what you end up seeing is my

brother's own addictions and stuff uh on full and everything and my brother you know ends up going uh and getting treatment and getting help and uh he goes to Cliffside Malibu, which is kind of a famous place that helps a lot of people. And he's able to come out the other end, and right now, he's almost at year number two of sobriety. But what people don't really, I don't think always understand what families out there need to know that have people that are addicted and just even people that are going through the

process themselves of sobriety. It's an ongoing thing. It never stops. It's something that needs to be dealt with every single day. So basically what we've done with my brother is you know he lived in Los Angeles for a long time I live in Sacramento and recently we moved him up here to Sacramento area and now he works for Slingshot and he's doing videos for me. We produce five videos a week on my YouTube channel. It's youtube.com backslash super training 06. Shane was plugged, but that's what we're doing now.

He's working for me, but basically, it takes a family. It takes a community, positive people to help people out of addiction. And it's a long term it's a long-term process, you know, he now lives here. I see him almost every day. He's doing really well. His mind is really clear. He's able to take out a lot of work now, which is new for him. He wasn't able to do that before. When he was addicted, you know, he could only do a little bit at a time, and even that was hard for him,

but now he's able to take on many tasks at once. And we're a little bit top secret we're working on right now, but we're working on a special thing for the 10th year celebration of super training, Jim's super training was started in 2006. And so we kind of have a project cooking just for that. And also in the meantime, he's got a few side projects that he's kicking around by know something he's real passionate about doing. He wants to make a documentary film about strong man competitors. And that's something that he's just kind of starting to dive into now so it'll take you know it takes a while for those

kind of things to be seen all the way through but you know falling around you know a giant like Brian Shaw was six foot eight and four and twenty pounds and seeing what that guy eats on a daily basis and seeing the type of training that it takes to do strong man training is slightly different style of movie that he's ever done before but I think people really love it. Well I'll tell you what the first time I ever saw a strong man up close I went to the Arnold Classic this was a long time ago and there was a booth and they had there was a challenge and all you had to do was you had to go up and there was like this it was like a cast iron

Smooth almost like a ball. It was kind of shaped like a ball But it was a little bit more oval and all you had to do was pick it up on the blob is that would it? Okay, all you had to do is pick it up with one hand Yeah, grip it with one hand stand up with it. That was it and There was a line of people and we and everybody try nobody could lift this thing I mean you could shock your hands up, you could do everything. I went, I've got, I'm, I pride myself in having strong hands and I could, I couldn't get that thing off the floor.

And after every single person would try and fail, there was a strong man. Uh, I don't remember his name, but it was a massive giant of a, of a human. And, uh, he would just lift it to show everybody that, that it was possible. Um, but the guys hands were like, I mean, my hand looked like a baby's hand inside of his hand. I don't think people realize just how big of a difference someone's genes can make and how big and strong they are. I know everybody talks about steroids

and how much steroids someone takes or whatever, but these are just massive giant humans. They're huge humans, they're big humans. They're Huge body. Yeah, you're dealing with a completely different type of human being and it just makes that big of a difference. And I know you were a power lifter for a long time, but I know, you know, Annabolic steroids

and performance enhancing drugs are big and powerlifting, but those guys would be strong anyway without the use of any of that stuff. That's what most people don't realize. Most people don't realize that when you see guys that are dead lifting 900 to 1000 pounds, that's not because of steroids. That guy would live fucking five times more than you would live no matter what. Anyway, yeah, anyway.

Yeah, anyway. Right. It's so funny to be with people. Yeah, you know, I believe being in powerlifting and being around strength sports for so long you know now strong and guys are kind of a different breed different caliber of people uh... by and shaw in particular is a former basketball player so you know he started out you know just being very very tall and was able to

kind of feel out the frame and then he was able to uh... from there you know be just be very successful because a little more athletic than some of the other strong men and fedders. But being around the strength sports for so long and seeing so many different guys do things so many different ways. I know plenty of guys that compete in drug test and federations that kicked the shit out of some of the guys that are that are lifting in non-test and federations. You know, guys that are that are uh... living in non-test federation you know guys are guys that have admitted being on stuff uh... you know deadlifting in the seven hundred pound range and guys that

uh... get tested regularly uh... and pass you know i'm not saying that they're a hundred percent clean but they're clean enough to not uh... register anything on these tests and these are some bogus test that they're running these are legitimate uhus test that they're running these are legitimate test that they do now when you guys are showing up and they're pulling 800 pounds squatting 800 pounds there's all kinds of crazy shit there's uh... ray Williams competes in the u.s.a.pl which is a drug tested federation uh... he squats over 900 pounds

raw he's a big big dude huge guy um. But there's a lot of guys that get tested, that do some huge, huge weights of Dr. Lane Norton, who does a lot of great research on nutrition and diet and supplementation and stuff like that. He's another guy, he competes in the USAPL and IPF. This kid Jesse Norris, Jesse Norris, has squatted 750 in a pair of knee sleeves, deadlifted over 800 pounds. I mean, there's some real mutants out there and everybody always wants a point to drug abuse, but really if you thought about it and thought about like, what if I just did,

what if I a had some genetics on my side and b, what if I kind of just did the right thing, maybe not all the time because that's like impossible to be perfect, but what if you did the right thing like 90% of the time, how fucking strong would you be? How far ahead, how muscular would you be? Like that to me would be to shit out of any steroid. Taking a steroid is, it can definitely make you stronger and there's some accumulation that happens with that over a period time uh... but if you were to put a percentage to it

the percentage would be much much lower than what people think it actually can do for you well to hundred percent agree with that i've been in uh... the fitness industry for a long time you know and i've seen a lot of people you steroids but these were a lot of average people who you steroids so because you know i've seen trainers and Jim rats and people who are not competing in bodybuilding

or any type of professional sport, they're just your average Joe using anabolic steroids. And I'll tell you what, more often than not, I'll see an average guy take a lot of gear and not be that impressive. There's one guy I'll never forget. I worked with one guy years ago, and I'm not exaggerating. This guy was using like one or two grams of testosterone a week, which is a shit ton of

roids for a guy who's, you know, you know, an average dude. And you know, I could run circles around the guy in the gym and I looked a lot better and it was because I paid attention to my nutrition. I trained properly. And all he did was take a ton of gear and try to look at certain ways. Right. And it was, I've seen way more than that than the opposite.

I've seen way more guys on a lot of stuff that don't look good than, and I've seen a lot of guys who are natural who look incredible. Well, it's, it's the same problem. One thing that is, one thing that is, one thing that is, that is, that is, for most people is it, it'll help you gain body weight, it'll help you gain body weight it'll help you gain muscle mass and in most cases 20 to 30 pounds you know not not not in not in just one cycle but 20 to 30 pounds is pretty common you know over a year or two I weigh approximately about 260 right now before I ever took anything. I was between two

old five and two twenty five and wherever I tried to push past two twenty five I would get too fat. I wasn't happy with that so I had to always kind of stay in the two fifteen to twenty range most of the time to to kind of look good and be able to perform well before I ever touched anything. But you know that that's the main thing that it does. Everybody thinks it turns you into a superhero, but I'm not saying it doesn't do anything, because adding 20 pounds of muscle mass is a huge fucking advantage.

But that's about what it does for you. It doesn't add 10 pounds every year. It adds about 20 to 30 pounds total, and that's kind of like the cutoff for it. It doesn't do a ton much more than that. If you get into like doing some of the shit the professional bodybuilders do, they get in the growth hormone and IGF1 and that is all kinds of crazy peptides going on. Then you'll start seeing even more progress.

Then those guys are so on top of their diets and they're sleep and they're naps and they're nutrition and that it's just on a whole other level. That's how they're able to weigh 285 to 90 and be pretty shredded. In addition, you combine that, they're all pretty much genetic freaks too. You know, they're both genetically built. Oh yeah.

Right, and then on top of that, they're doing everything they need to do, which is, and that's a big problem that we see in the supplement industry. Those are the people that are representing our magazines that are pushing all the supplements, that all these kids that are coming up and they think that oh, first, first you start as a young kid in your teens and you see your idol that's the 280 pounds on stage and 6% body fat or less. And you go like, oh my God, I got to get

this supplement. It's the protein. It's got to be this the pre workout or whatever he's taken. And you take that forever, realize not that. And then somebody finally burst your bottle and says, he's on all kinds of steroids. And then you think if you start taking all kinds of steroids, you're going to look like him and then that fucking ruined you too. And you realize that it's and that's kind of what a lot of what we do is kind of uncovering a lot of things like that. Because we don't we definitely don't cash shadow on any of that stuff. I've definitely experimented plenty with, with Anna Balk steroids myself, competed

at the professional level with IFBB. And, you know, it's in there. But the problem is that so many people do that and then they lie about it. They don't talk about it. And then it's, and they promote supplements. And that's, that's the stuff that I feel needs to be uncovered is that, and I'm not saying anything's wrong with that. I myself, I think people have asked me all the time about, you know, if they want to get

involved in the IFBB and they want to compete at that level, you know, oh, but I want to do it naturally. Well, I say, good luck. You know, good luck to you because you're competing against a bunch of genetic guys. And on top of that, they're running gear to get to get to that size. And it's tough for an all natural guy to do that. So, you know, don't be fooled by that just because you look at their Instagram

or you see this and they say they're really natural and they promote this supplement and claim that it's that that's doing that. It's really unfortunate. Now Mark, I got a question for you. What's your training? You train, you train strength athletes yourself, correct? Yeah.

Now, does your training, is the way you train them change if they're natural or if they're on anabolic do you do you do you know to say if it changed the programming uh... accordingly no you know i i think uh... the truth of you know everyone makes especially nowadays that i don't know how this kind of came to be but that everyone uh... talks about programming Everyone makes, especially nowadays, I don't know how this kind of came to be, but everyone

talks about programming. And everybody wants to talk about programming being so specific. And I honestly don't think it's that specific. I think, if I was to go to learn Jiu-Jitsu, somebody would show me one general way to do Jiu-Jitsu, I'm sure there's like a few different styles, a few different ways to go about doing certain things, but there's kind of like one major way to put somebody in a fucking arm bar, you know. When it comes to strength training, there's not a lot of secrets to it. Training a female and training a male

is not that much different. It can be sometimes. I mean, females, a lot of times, can get through more exercises in a given day. A female may be more stimulated by doing like seven or eight exercises in a given workout where a dude's going to be exhausted if he even tried that so he might do more like five or four. But in general, the changes aren't that drastic of whether somebody's loaded up with testosterone or not. A lot of times what I've seen is the younger guys and newer guys, and I actually think this is just important in general, just to toughen you up into helping to learn about yourself, is a lot of the newer guys train a lot harder, they're a lot hungerier than the older guys.

A lot of times it's the older guys that take stuff, not necessarily age-wise. I'm talking more like training age-wise. If someone's been training for a year, there are cases where people just hop on steroids the way they're way, but most of the time, if somebody's been training for a little bit, somebody hits a wall and they want to progress and then they start jumping on stuff or they want to see some change in their body. But usually the training's not much different for whether somebody's on or whether somebody's off them.

I do think that a more experienced lifter knows how to kind of fire their muscles a little bit better and they know how to drive into the heavier weights a little bit better. So they may actually weights a little bit better so they may actually train a little lighter and almost a little softer than somebody who's newer somebody who's newer they got to get overseeing three plates on the bar and four plates on the bar and they got to get used to it they got to get

comfortable with it their nervous system has to kind of be up to speed with everything it's going on but the unfortunate truth of everything is that steroids don't really do a whole lot for your nervous system. They do something for your muscular system. And so when we're talking about strength, we're really trying to prime and get the nervous system to adapt to what we're doing. And that's the main goal. And it's really not a lot much different, no matter who you are. Well, you made an interesting point that an advanced, more advanced lifter would not need to load themselves with as much weight during their training because they could fire the muscles more effectively and more efficiently.

They can activate more muscle fibers. It's a very interesting point. So we talked about it. And I would agree with that because I know with my experience with lifting, I can lift lightweight, but I can make, I can my my my central nervous system to fire hard with that lighter weight versus somebody who's a beginner where I have to load them I have to load them with weight in order for them to call upon those those muscles to get to move that weight. So it's a very very interesting point.

And right. And also too if you if you've handled if you've handled four plates before on a bench press let's say let's say you've done four or five before and I said I'm an I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna train you for the next six weeks and we're gonna we're gonna get ready for around a four hundred thirty-pound bench and you might think okay shit that's a nice that's thirty-pound thirty pounds more than I've ever done before that'd be you know or or twenty five more pounds I've ever done before that'd be really

cool to be able to do that. But you're not like terrified of it, you know? Like whereas somebody knew or sometimes they're absolutely kind of terrified. They're kind of, their eyes are open real wide when they see that extra plate go on the bar, that some of those extra weights go on the bar. They're really, it's really kind of freaking them out

and they're not used to it. The form may change when the weights get a little heavier because it's just flat out just making them uncomfortable. They're not used to it. Whereas with someone like yourself, if you've done 400 pounds or four, you're like, okay, well, if I put a little time and effort into it, over the course of six weeks, that makes sense for me to come out on top of that bigger weight. I've never really tried to just focus in on strength in

a and i bet that i probably will be uh... somewhere around the four thirty-pound mark was a newer person sometimes a little bit more scared of it they're not used to it excellent uh... so what is your opinion on the current state of the of the fitness industry i know when you when you go i don't for myself i i went to convention you know some of these fitness conventions long time ago ago and went to one more recently.

I couldn't believe how big they were and how about 90, I don't know, 95% of every booth in there was selling supplements. It was very little, anything else. It felt like I went to a supplement convention. I don't know if you noticed the same thing when you go to these things. Yeah, you know, I think for myself, we're in a, we're in a really good, it's a really good time for me because I'm different than what everybody else has. So it's fun for me to kind of see, you know, somebody selling the latest of this or latest of that, stuff, you know, stuff that doesn't work.

When you, when you wear a sling shot, like you may be wear a sling shot like you may be a fan of it You may not be a fan of it But if your max bench is 400 and you throw on a sling shot you can bench for 25 430 440 and maybe even around 450 Other products aren't gonna do that for you, you know I have a product that it's very black and light with what it does I sell other products knee wraps knee sleeves They all work the way way they're supposed to work. They all function the way they're supposed to function.

And I do kind of like the time that we're in, because I like the fact that it's kind of free enterprise. And if somebody is smart, they can deliver a good message. And if they're positive, they can get people behind them. And because they get that support, they're able to sell t-shirts and they're positive, they can get people behind them. And because they get that support, they're able to sell t-shirts and they're able to sell supplements. I'm a fan of that.

I like that people are able to do that. I don't want people to sell people a bunch of bullshit, but things like pre-workouts, they do hype you up. They do give you some kind of energy to get through your workout. They do, you know, caffeinate you and get you fired up for your workout. Some of them may be dangerous. I do kind of like, I like the time that we're in.

And I like the fact that, you know, a lot of these people are my friends. I do wish people would be more creative. And I wish that people would understand it's not about making money today. It's about kicking ass over the long term. I think sometimes even some of my friends, some of the people that I have close with, sometimes they're a little short-sighted and because of that, their time in the sun is limited. Their time of shine is limited

and they're time to make money and they're trying to really profit on what's going on right now and to really capitalize on what's going on right now is limited. But with the things that I'm doing, you know, my objective is not to be a company that makes stuff for powerlifters. My objective is to be on a radar of underarm or Nike Reebok, all those big companies. That's where my company is heading and that's what we're working so hard on all the time is not just making products that help people just lift more, but we're also consistently

working on just making better products, period, not just a power lifter, we'll like, but that everybody can enjoy. That's a great point. I was going to actually bring that up because I, with my clients, I use your Slingshot product more for tube walking and for rehabilitative purposes. There's a whole other avenue there that was really helpful. There's a lot of products out there. I feel that helpful. And like, there's a lot of products out there. I feel that, you know, it might have been the intended purpose of it might have been for the one extreme and fitness, whereas, you know, we're starting to be able to use these products for multiple reasons. So, yeah, that's another thing, like the slingshot is great for that.

Well, I'll tell you what, the thing that I like about this is that you're focusing your products on how to make people's workouts more effective and how to incorporate and change their workouts to get people moving forward. Whereas a lot of other companies focus their products on it's constantly on supplements, supplements, supplements. But the workout, it's like people forget how important the workout is. You know what I'm saying? Like you're talking about your sling shop for the bench press alone, You know what I'm saying? Like you're talking about your sling shop for the bench press alone, that will make a far bigger impact on your bench press

than taking the latest and greatest for your post-grab. You're not getting all that force constantly on your joints, like it's another way too. Like you mentioned getting adapted to a new weight. That's another, it's a smart way to be able to really get your central nervous system to respond to that. So that's one way I use it.

I was going to ask you. Go ahead. I was just going to ask you with, go ahead. Go ahead. No for it. Yeah, I was just going to ask you about your rubber band training with powerlifting. And is that what sparked the whole idea for your slingshot product. No, what sparked the idea for the slingshot is many torn pecs basically. Yeah, I tore my pecs more than once.

I don't think there's another patent holder out there that can say that they came up with their idea because they tore their pecs. I take great pride in that. It's a fun little factoid of this of the slingshot but uh... you know the the slingshot was made for me at an necessity and same thing with the compression cuffs um... I've had ten and I just in my elbows for years uh... I've had that kind of um... uh... tenice elbow type of deal uh... you know when I see every time I squat to the point where it felt like,

you know, shit was tearing in my elbows every time I squat it. And so that's where I came up with the idea for the compression cup. But the sling shot toward my text several times, try to come up with a bunch of different ideas of how to allow people. And I always run into people in the gym and they'd always say, ah, I used to bend 315, I used to bend this and I'm like, man, what the fuck all these old

timers always saw them out, what they used to do, why can't they still do it now, it's old pieces of shit. And so I started, as I got older and started getting banged up, I'm like, man, I'm turning into those old pieces of shit myself. I'm like, I need to do what I kind of think of a way for people to still be able to enjoy what they do. And so I was just sitting in the gym one day and I had a bench shirt on, a very, very large bench shirt. And I just got done with a training session. And I was able to use that bench shirt in that training session

and used it going into a competition and when I competed I did really well even though I hurt my peck and training and after the meat I was just kind of like man I wish I could make something that's kind of like this but bench shirts are way too expensive they hurt way too much they look too stupid like no one would ever want to wear this. So I worked on a bunch of different ideas that sucked. One of my first ideas, which was kind of at least in the right direction, was when you put your shirt on in the morning, if you ever put it over both arms before you put it over your head, that was the original idea behind the sling shot. I just started kind of

pulling my shirt. My elbow is back and the shirt kind of stretched over my chest and I was like, man, if I can make something that's stretchy that would go across your chest like this. Anyway, fast forward a few years after making a bunch of stupid things that didn't work, I was able to kind of come up with a slingshot. Everything I make, everything I've done has been a slow process. There's been very methodical steps that have been taken. And everything is in-house. Everything is really and truly home.

You just come straight from my house, basically. I took material from my house Yeah, so my wife's friend my wife is a swimmer To my wife's friend that that makes swim suits and said hey Can you sew some of this shit together and like I got this idea for this product that will kind of work like this, you know She came back a few days later. I met it at a Starbucks when I met her at Starbucks I said can you sit right here for just wait for a minute because I'm going to go try this thing out. I walked into a gym that was just literally a few hundred feet away and put 135 on the bar and

Ben's 135 for like 20 reps with this kind of weird version of a swing shot and went back to the woman and said hey I need a couple of these to test on my gym. And I was just off to the races right then and there. Everything has been, everything has been like with my circle of friends. You know, I kind of feel like one of those rappers that makes it and drags his whole posse with him, you know? You have to go teach that. Yeah, everything has kind of worked that way.

You know, like I said, I got my brother working with him. Yeah, yeah, kind of worked that way. Like I said, I got my own work. I'm a big genius. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah, we got a lot of stuff like that that has just kind of hate to use the word organic because I don't feel like anything I've done is necessarily organic. I feel it's all been fucking forced. It's all been done.

It's all been done through hard work and artificial flavors and coloring. But that's time the us that's kind of the basis of you know how the slingshot got made you know. Well excellent man it's been an absolute pleasure talking to you Mark. What's real quick before we sign off I want to make sure that we go over real quick all marks YouTube channels your website all that stuff like that could you do a quick shameless plug for us for you all the stuff you got going on people where people can find you. I wanted to mention one last thing, you know, kind of about the

supplements you guys were talking about. I'm not a fan of supplements. I've never actually taken anything that I felt that was really like, you know, I really thought was revolutionary. um, like, you know, I really thought was revolutionary. Um, back in the day, I took like phosphogen and creatine and all that shit that EAS pumped out. Van it'll soul fate like all these different things. I always try to take the newest whatever and never really saw results from it. However, um, I will say that those things excited me and I was pumped to like try these new things out and to

experience them for myself. They kept me on track with my training. I felt like the supplementation along with the training went hand in hand. It got me fired up. I was like, I'm taking pre-teen. I'm going to be jacked and then I go into gym and I train like a maniac. I don't think supplements are all bad. I do think that at the very least they can excite somebody.

They can keep somebody on their path. They can keep somebody headed in the right direction. I know for myself, if I start to implement more vitamins or start taking more protein powder and things like that, then I'll be more on track with my diet. I'll be paying attention a little bit more to everything else. So just try to find something that you feel works for yourself. And then on top of that, don't let yourself be exposed

to bullshit. If something says it's going to increase your strength by 50%, everybody should kind of know that that's a joke, and that's not really going to happen. But if you do find a supplement that you like, stick with it. Don't be discouraged because you heard the science of this or that. If you got the money to pay for it and it feels good to you and you like doing it, you like the taste of it or you like taking it because it gets you fired up for your workouts

and fucking go for it, man. Don't worry about it so much. And I think that there's a lot of good things that can happen from trying different things out for yourself because in the end, that's really all you're trying to do is you're trying to improve yourself and you're trying to find shit out for yourself. So sometimes that's the way you gotta do things

is just go out there on your own and fucking bang things out yourself. Well, that's a real similar argument is like what they do with antidepressants. You know, there's a lot of science that comes out that, you know, what is it exactly that's happening? But we do know that, you know, over 50% of the people say that it's helped them out. So whether it's a placebo effect or not,

and it's helping, I mean, that's the end of the day. That's what it's all about, right? So if it's mentally charged, as you get to your gym, just, I think that's what really what mine pump was always about was just making people aware, just be aware of that that if you got the extra money to spend on this or do that then by all means But just be aware of what what you are you doing and don't fall for all the the gimmicks and stuff that's out there and the people that actually take a little bit of science and manipulate it right Anyway, yeah, my website

Obviously for slingshot stuff and all that type of stuff. You go to howmuchabents.net. That's where I got everything. My YouTube channel is youtube.com-supertraining06. We have five new videos every single week. We have four regular videos that are training how to's power project videos where I answer questions along with Mark Bell's powercast and you can also look for me on Instagram at Mark's Millie Bell on Instagram and Twitter. Beautiful, thanks for coming on brother.

Mark, yeah we appreciate it. I mean guys, it was a lot of fun, I appreciate it. Take it easy. Thanks. 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.mindpumpradio.com.

Until next time, this is Mind Pump. you