RAWTALK - Larry Wheels On Tren & The Tren Twins, Competing Against Cbum & Bodybuilding

Episode Date: April 11, 2023

Join us as we dive into this weeks episode with Larry Wheels, A world recording holding powerlifter who's also competed in Strongman, Bodybuilding & Arm Wrestling. Larry talks about his experience with Tren, The Tren Twins & his future with bodybuilding against Cbum. Sponsors: https://Betterhelp.com/rawtalkSUBSCRIBE HERE: https://www.youtube.com/c/REALRAWTALK?sub_confirmation=1LISTEN ON APPLE PODCASTS: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rawtalk/id1294154339FOLLOW RAWTALK PODCAST:INSTAGRAM | https://instagram.com/getrawtalkTIKTOK | https://tiktok.com/@askrawtalkFOLLOW BRADLEY:INSTAGRAM | https://instagram.com/bradleymartynSUBSCRIBE TO RAWTALK PODCAST CLIPS: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvzSBNBOK599FqzrTZS8ScQ/?sub_confirmation=1SUBSCRIBE TO LIFE OF BRADLEY MARTYN: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWTQG2aMDYKGDqYEGqJb1FA/?sub_confirmation=1SUBSCRIBE TO FITNESS CHANNEL: https://www.youtube.com/bradleymartynonline?sub_confirmation=1RAWGEAR: https://www.rawgear.com (CODE:RAW)

Wow. This is cool. So, all right. For those of you who don't know, you guys probably do know, obviously you click the link or you're listening to this on iTunes. Larry Wheels. We met years ago. Back in 17 is it? Yeah, 2017. It's honestly a really cool story, I think. I think we have a cool story. Most definitely. We did some work together early on. I remember you, man. You were like, before me, excuse me, after me, you were one of like, you were one of like, you were, coming up and I remember looking I was like damn this guy is like easily one of the strongest people that I've ever seen like on the internet and like doing cool shit I found you I don't reach out to you and you were still in New York right that's right that's right um why don't you tell the story I don't want to tell it sure sure you should tell it first off thanks for having me here dude you're you're more than welcome very happy have you yeah oh yeah and so I don't remember the conversation that led to me being

there for the grand opening but much like you I wing it I go the flow I take opportunity to see it and opportunity came knocking with you like oh definitely I'm gonna be out there no questions asked yeah and the timing couldn't be more perfect because I don't remember if I had a competition shortly after the gym opening or not or maybe I was fresh off a competition but for some reason I was super strong at the time insane meaning that either shortly before like within a couple of weeks, a couple of weeks after I had a private competition. So I was peak strength. And I just remember the atmosphere in that gym of the day, you know, it was electric, right?

And it was shoulder to shoulder. You know, this is pre-COVID. So this was a beautiful time. Also in the fitness industry, this was a beautiful golden time, man. It really feels like you're looking back. Yes, yes. And I remember around that same time, this is my first time at LA FitExpo. and that same shoulder shoulder pack like sardines environment is what you created at your gym opening

and that couldn't have been a better time for me to attend the PR and that's exactly what I did I remember I bent like 600 plus yeah it was it was nuts and the crowd went wild and you know nowadays you know most of my workouts aren't as exciting you know so it's different you know and it's exciting. I mean, like those days where not only am I hitting a PR, doing a person best, whatever, but also having that kind of support all around me, creating the atmosphere, right? That triggers my adrenaline. And it creates like these really powerful memories. Yeah. And that's definitely one of them. Yeah. That was beautiful time, man. Yeah. Grand opening. That shit was was different, dude. Hell yeah. There was a lot of wild stuff going on. No doors got kicked

down, but it was still wild. Yeah, yeah. Thankfully, no doors got kicked. They get kicked down this one man but um yeah you you you've had you've done some crazy crazy things over the years you've obviously like in crazy strength gains physique gains you've done it all you've done like the power lifting stuff to the craziest degree done the bodybuilding stuff and then you started doing the strong man stuff and then you got fucking injured yeah and it's like that it was my best arm too like my left bicep was my best it was a good it was a better bicep it had to be that one it had If I got injured, it's going to be my left too. My left is my good one.

So definitely don't do Atlasones. It's not worth it. Ever. Just don't even bother. So I guess in your mind, like you're doing all this, you're coming up. Because how old are you right now? I'm 28. 28.

Fuck, time flew by. The same age when I met you. You were the same age when I met you. So crazy. Holy shit, time flies, man. Fuck, I was 28 when I opened a gym. Oh, man, that's insane. so you've done all these amazing things what what i guess before you kind of got started in the fitness

space what did you think you're going to do like when you started getting on social media were you like right off the bat like i want to do this fitness stuff i want to do body i knew like did you have any sort of direction like where you wanted to go so i was rolling with the punches and i didn't have a clue where i was going to end up but i did know where i wanted to go and i knew that when I was 19 or so. Yeah. And I had this big hair, needed a haircut. That's why I met my piloting coach, John Gaglione, who I still to this day give

the most respect to because no one is more passionate about piloting than him. And he saw a ton of potential in me. And he guided me to become the great pilot that I was. What was the name of that gym? His gym? No, I don't know if it's his gym, but there was a gym on the East Coast you'd always try out before you started moving around. So there is two gym.

One was his gym, Gagliangelo's strength, the other. was Mount Vernon Barbera, all green. That's what I'm thinking of. Exactly. Fantastic pile lifting gym. Yeah. That's a biblening equipment in there, too. So it was a good overall gym.

And my coach, he saw my potential, harnessed it, steaming the right direction. And from the time I met him to two years later, I got my first all-time worth record. Right. And then within two years after that, 22, 23 years old, I got a couple more. So all this was under his guidance. But from age 19, right, when I was. looking at my future, I didn't have a clue what I was going to do. All I knew is that I wanted to be the best positive that could be. And my coach helped me monetize it, right? He said, he saw the

opportunity, not only, you know, as an athlete, as a power lifterer, but also a business opportunity, a business opportunity. I started selling training programs, and that helped me quit my job, which at the time was the equal entrepreneur. Yeah. And doing security groups on the weekend to being a full-time power lifter and to me that was the kind of dedication that kind of commitment that I needed to really make it to the top of the sport where I didn't have to worry about money right I can no longer have to worry about a nine to five and obligations like that or really anything or anyone but myself and my goals so you're able to really laser focus that's right that's exactly what I did got had tunnel vision I was able to stay at home all day preserve as much power as possible

just eat shit sleep and train that was literally my life for like four years and you didn't you didn't because I know you even on a personal level like you didn't go out you probably didn't do much of that at all well I did so I had a friend between age 16 and 18 or so who was a veteran he just came out of military he did his time and he introduced me to the idea of powerlifting during those couple of years I didn't take it seriously I really enjoyed it but I didn't see myself being anyone special in the sport um just because that wasn't my priority at the time at that time my priority was partying so i was out literally every other day experiment experimented before you got into the power of things

but before i started taking it seriously so before i met my coach okay right i see started experimenting with drugs partying smoking drinking all literally everything except for heroin and uh fatnol which is yeah the good ones i missed out i missed out no obviously not the good one No, those are the ones that fucking kill you quicker. What are, so what are other drugs, though? Like, would you smoke in like that kind of basic shit, ecstasy, that kind of shit? Like you were just... Yeah, tell us, bro.

Want to tell everyone right now? Okay, so... Unless you don't want to. No, I'm happy to tell you. Look, I'm an open book. And it's behind me now. This is 10 years ago, even longer. So I started experimenting with drugs when I was 16, and it was the influence of my best friend at the time.

So this best friend for me was at the time, definitely not a good one, but a role model and a father figure. So I'd look up to him. He was like 24, 25, so much older than me. You know, and in my eyes at the time, he had everything going for himself. So I'd do whatever he was doing, right? I was just modeling my life off of what he was doing, right? Because I thought he was cool, he had all together. So I was doing the same she was doing.

So he was getting high. He was getting fucked up, and I thought that was cool, so I was doing the same shit. So I've done, and I'll stop with the small ones, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's all coming back to me. I'm just buying myself time to get, okay, so smoked weed, done cocaine, done crystal meth. Crystal meth. I've done crack.

Wow. Yep. I've been down the rabbit hole. Wow. But, you know, while I can see here today and look back, and I got to experience. all of these drugs and the state of mind I was in, that special K, like it's all coming back to me now, that's why I was easier to name up the ones that I didn't use.

I said, that's all. Damn, yeah. Listen, I went down the rabbit hole, and when I say, I made a post just yesterday about how the gym saved my life, because do you understand, like... I saw when you were skinny. Exactly. Yeah. Still kind of muscular, though.

I've got great genetics. Yeah, yeah, yeah, fair, fair. And that spells it right there. I got to have great genetics. But I was working out. I was super active, probably my bike every four hours. So anyways. But that's when you were a crackhead. Literally. Shortly, shortly before, shortly before. Sorry. I'm fucking with you. No, okay. So I like this. So where, when were you like,

fuck all this when you found your coach and you started taking it serious? So this friend I'm speaking of, and out of respect, I'm not going to mention his name, but, you know, he ended up getting addicted to crystal map. becoming homeless and to this day as far as i know he still is and you know i saw once that happened once he literally like lost his apartment he lost his girlfriend and he lost his job and i was going down the same path that he was that was a shot a reality shock okay wait if i keep doing this i'm going to be in the same position as him if not worse yeah right um this needs to stop like now so That's why I decided to pick my poison.

And my poison I chose over that, or over party drugs with steroids. Yeah. Right. I asked you about it. Exactly. So when I was 17, going on 18, I made a cold turkey decision to quit going out, right? Quit partying. Funny enough, like 16, 17, you're not even legally old enough to go out.

But he was working in security, so he got me in most places. Yeah. And anyways, you know, I made that decision. to go cold turkey and stop doing drugs, you know, stop brooding my life, you know, but it's almost a blessing this, guys, that this happened so much earlier in my life than maybe for some others, right? And I saw that where I was going was where he was going, so I made the decision when I'm steroids, and that's why I started taking power things seriously. Now, I didn't know how far I can get to I met my coach, but I would slowly be sure to start

comparing myself to other greats in the sport power up thing, like Pete Rubic, Chris Hickson, Eric Willie Bridge, for example, they were my idols in the sport. Yeah. And I said to myself, look, you know, they're doing this at this age. So by the time I'm their age, I can maybe be where they're out, if not better. So I saw potential myself, you know, but I didn't know how to really get there. I was close, but I didn't know how to get there if not surpass it. So that's when I met my coach and he figured dress out.

This is something I find really interesting about like the world today, specifically related to like fitness and like strength feats or like bodybuilding. Um, a lot of kids now, like you being like probably one of the first ones in this whole like, uh, I guess more modern day of like working out and how fitness industry and all this shit. You saw what other people were doing and you picked on it really quickly and you like, it's obviously genetics and your work ethic and all this stuff. You can't just take this away from the situation. But you just seeing something was possible and then going and doing it is like really powerful now. There's a lot because you notice there's a lot more kids now that see like these social media people who have been doing certain lifts and doing. certain things and they're able to take these like markers and say like oh i can do that and i just

find interesting because way way back in the day you didn't have those like oh that person is like doing this or that person is doing that like you didn't see everyone's numbers because you were like whether you went to a meet or you weren't like really serious about training i just think it's interesting how there's so much more out there now that kids can really benefit from as far as social media and like people to watch or people to like kind of model what they're doing after like what they're doing with their lives you know because you became one of those people obviously for a lot of people I would say in the strength community, obviously the fitness community. It's just, it's a cool thing to see, like, you literally saw that and like Pete Rubbish

and all these people who were doing it. And you were like, dude, I want to do this if I put this effort in. And I just think it's a beautiful thing, man. It's cool what you're doing. You're like, it's kind of just continuing on and kind of giving back more and more. I think it's dope. That's right. That's right.

Most definitely, man. So as you started to kind of like, I want to go back to your story about the drug thing. like you wasn't just like one day you were sitting looking at like a you know two different options and you were like steroids crack it wasn't that wasn't like a red it wasn't like press a button like how did it actual transition go you know because you weren't just standing there being like I'm going to crack one more time or I'm going to take to sauce you know right exactly exactly like what was the what was the real transition was it like you're like okay I'm stopping this and you're like okay I want to stop this because you don't want to be like that guy obviously like you

said you don't want going on that path and then how soon after were you like steroids or who introduced you to them so that same person introduced me to them oh well he was doing everything wow this guy is a machine holy shit he was doing everything surprise that guy's alive crystal math yeah it's he's a machine and wow yeah it's just chose to show like what the human body can handle so you weren't already taking drugs you weren't already taking steroids and then you're like I'm going to stop this. You were just like, oh, this is also something I could do. That's right.

Exactly. And the idea of it always was appealing because he was on steroids and he was super strong. He was huge. I wanted to be big. I wanted to be strong. Right. And being that I was already on, these drugs are no doubt worse than steroids. Right?

I saw it as, you know what? Look, this is where I started discovering these power lifts. as I mentioned earlier, Pete Rubbish and et cetera. Gotcha. I started realizing, you know what? I could get where they're at, you know, in just a few short years. But not partying like I am right now. Yeah.

You know, and I saw what it was doing to my best friend. So it was an ultimatum. You know, it wasn't ultimatum. You know, I decided, look, look, if I'm going to do steroids, I'm going to stop doing this. It wasn't like, I'm going to do steroids and I'm going to do this. Because even at that age, I wasn't in complete idiot. I knew, like, my heart's going to be in a major compromise. doing X, Y, and Z,

parting, drinking, drug, and steroids, and it's just, like, ridiculous. This is out of time, too, I was taking six-time scoots of pre-workout. Like, I was just addicted to stimulus, you know? Holy fuck. I was taking everything to 11, you know? Everything to 11.

And, yeah, so I chose my poison. I picked my poison. Yeah. You know. Is it? Yeah, you picked the right poison, dude. Pick the right poison. I mean, look, I mean, listen, I'm not saying like one's better than the other, but at the same time, like, you made a clear decision to try to at least get better for sure.

Because like, actually, you know what fuck that. One is better than the other. I'm just going to call it. It's a much better option than the former. I think like even now it's becoming, you know, I don't know, I don't want to say it's not becoming more okay. But it is a lot more talked about like steroids and all the stuff in general. It's a lot more discussed. there's a lot more resources out there which is a good thing um did you have anyone help you with that kind of stuff when you were learning about it or was it just like was it your coach or was it just like you're just going to fucking wing it because i was always curious and i i know a lot of people i don't know if you talk specifics about this stuff but like like the amount of shit you would take to perform at that level oh yeah oh yeah so i actually was really lucky and i had the best possible source of information for taking storage that was google search

Oh, that's the best possible That's the best possible way To learn about steroids Super safe And everything you need to know Just Google search How much do I take a trembleone Google search it

Okay, you should take this much Because this person on teenation said I should take this much That's exactly how it's like By the way, guys, he's being sarcastic That's not the best way to do this I just want to make sure everyone understands that When did you realize

At one point we were ever like I'm doing too much No because I would look first off and this is definitely not a smart way to go about it but this is how I went about it got I'd go on various forms such as t-nation bodybuilding.com whoever there was information and I said biobiling.com but this I don't remember exactly what the websites were this is a long time ago but I would go on various forms various bodybuilding related websites and I would look up information about the various compounds yeah right and there's a lot of them.

So I would see what they would recommend a beginner cycle to take, right? And I always joke about that in my videos. Like, yeah, just go on Teenation, look at what a beginner cycle should be and you should use that, right? And I would take less than that. So then I would think to mind that,

okay, well, if this person on this form said that this is what a beginner should use, I'll use less than that and I should be fine. And that's my logic back then. Yeah. You know, of course, years and years later, after that, after discovering, started for the first couple of years

and, you know, meeting the right people, people in the industry, then I started to really hone in on like what I really need. And as of late, as of last year when I hit my latest LFPR, did I realize how little you really need to get to where I was trying to go? And I wish I had information 10 years ago when I first started using it. Do you think you overdid it more in the beginning? Oh my God. Yeah.

I overdid it until this past summer. You know, and I was just ignorant. I just didn't know any better, you know. But again, trial and error, luckily I didn't have any permanent damage. my organs are in good health, my heart's in good health, it's not oversized, I'm clogged arteries. I'm good now, right? But for people watching, you know,

because there's a sensitive topic, for people watching that are currently using, right, they may not be as lucky as me. Some people have hereditary diseases or conditions, and they don't even know of it, right? And maybe they feel fine, but one day they have a heart attack. Yeah. We just speak with my coach today, Ryan Benson,

and he had a heart attack a year ago. You met him. Yeah, we're talking about it. Yeah, and, you know, he had a heart attack. was being lightheaded and when he'd go into tie shoes he'd get lightheaded and i was really it no major side effects going to the doctor saying you know kind of some chest pains going down his arm and they looked at him he looks healthy and they said ah you're fine you work out you know a couple days later there's a heart attack right so there's no like major signs of a heart attack yeah um

and you know i think um people like dallas passing and um shan rodin like the bible was in the last future pass that have passed have scared a lot of us into really being smart well not smart being smarter and being more cautious with using and um as of this past summer did I realize like how little not only how little but not so much how little how little time you need using it whereas for example back then I would do trend for as long as 12 weeks straight yeah fuck 12 weeks straight right thinking that's okay because I was a norm when I'd ask my gym bro friends they go 12 weeks no problem did you did you feel pressure like to continue stuff like that because of social media right so there is a part of me that says you know if i

go on this and i do this right i'm getting more of that right which is more engagement more notoriety right but more than anything i'm just burned out you know yeah i'm just burned out because you know what i'll tell you right now look if if um i had a thousand pound dudlis you know um that'd be cool you know and I made it a goal at a certain point like last year after it made the 930 for 3 you know I said I'm gonna glue a thousand now but it's just being that big is so unhealthy and my overall quality of life suffered yeah right and in the gym you fight Hercules but outside of the gym right walking sleeping fucking you know trying to do any activity besides working out right and

even working out I find easier now than then because my conditioning my cardiovascular has improved so much yeah right um so my over acquired life has improved so much so when I think about going back to how I was when I was super strong when I was on full blast um there's nothing about it that appeals to me you know and it's just not worth the compromise to my health you know like the quality of life suffers so much and when you're doing it for so long as I was I'm doing it for 10 years I'm 17 right Yeah, you started early. You know, I'm doing it for a long time. And, you know, I was, I was obsessed, and I had so many goals, so many things I want to achieve.

And, you know, after doing it for so long, yeah, you do get burned out. But more than anything, you know, I'm engaged. My health really is a serious concern. I am scared, you know, I do not want to be another statistic, another young body bullet dropping dead, which is very likely if I kept doing what I was doing. Yeah. You know, and it's like, what is the reward? What is the incentive? what am I going to get over doing another PR?

And to PR, that's what I have to do, right? To PR over what I've done over the years, like to beat my all-time best, right? You know, the lengths I have to go to, you know, the confidence I have to make to my help just isn't worth the reward. Yeah, I get it. Well, then a really important question to ask

is would you do it all over again or would you do it differently? I would do it over again, yeah, but differently. You'd do it differently. Yeah, and that's when... But if you couldn't do it differently, would you do it all over again? Of course.

Okay, 100%. I like that. 100%. Well, because, so I think there is some luck. There's definitely a lot of luck involved. Oh, my God, there's so much luck involved. There's a lot of having the right genetics, right people in my corner. You know, those two things being really important.

But I just don't want to talk too much about like how little you really need because I discovered that this past summer. And, you know, that really was just so enlightening and just like I kick myself all the time wishing I knew like, oh shit, just three days of trend, right? And I got 10 to 15 percent stronger, you know? It was just ridiculous. But, but that's in unison with like being on probably TRT or testosterone at the same time and then it kind of coming up and then you're getting a benefit from it. And then at the end of a 12 week testosterone cycle. Got it in the three days of trend. So but again, before that, I thought I needed 12 weeks. So 12 weeks. So 12 weeks. So 12 weeks. weeks of trend for those that haven't used trend and then when i think i spoke about it when i first did a talk with you when we first met at the old zoo yeah spoke about tern a little bit but it's terrible it is the worst so okay i've done now that we have it a lot of the open i've done a lot of recreational drugs yeah right done a lot of partying and trend affected my mental health the worst that specific compound specifically trend i've done christian meth crap all this coat special k all the above and trend i find affected my mental health the worst in what way you're just like

you're angry you're like anxious you're what irritable yeah angry anxious night sweats horrible acne you know like i got the most side effects from trend in all these drugs that i just mentioned that i was using back then well they are they are affecting your hormones you know dominantly not that all the drugs don't like mess with them but yeah trend obviously to that degree to like increase the hormones to those levels is gonna like fuck with your mood drastically no doubt you know nightmares every single night waking up in a fucking in the middle of the night you know if you just had a horrible nightmare you know you're covered in sweat because you got the trend sweats it's terrible it's it's really terrible experience you know but when

you're in the gym yeah like it's kind of worth it's so it's such a funny thing man just the idea it's like you're destroying yourself you're like oh but like these fucking PRs though Yeah, if you look at a mirror and you hit a PR, like, ah, but it's kind of worth it, though. Yeah. It's so fucked. No, it's so, so I mean, obviously, if we're going to talk about this, I've definitely got to discuss with people listening that how important it is to get your blood work done, check yourself. Like if you're ever even considering or if you're on, whatever, like, I can't sit here and say, don't do this, don't do that. But I can definitely say, take care of yourself.

And I think the thing that a lot of people fail to realize is that it is a very serious thing. And like you said, there's a lot of people who drop dead from this and they're just, they're not aware of maybe what's there, what's happening before it's too late. And I just think if anyone's listening, you've ever considered or you are, get your blood work done as regularly as possible and see what's going on inside your body. That is hands down one of the most important things you can do to know what's happening. Absolutely. Don't play guessing games.

Yeah. You know, no for sure. No for sure. And, you know, with a testament to that, right, in the 10 years I've been using, and I'm not proud of this I got my heart I got my I got none at all

I didn't get blood work done but I only got my heart check once one time wow how long you got your blood work done how many times you got your blood work done before before you realize it was important or but like once a year

once year even from the beginning from the beginning once year no now like at the last like five years or so it would be every quarter okay before you were just like fuck it send it

I was like you know what I don't like the needle going in my arm here, so I don't want to do it. That's funny. You're sure for the needle up here. I'd rather, you know, I don't want to go in here, you know, but it was just making sense. Okay. So, so let's get off the stereotype for a little bit.

Let's talk about social media. What, like, when did you really start to, um, go off on social media? I'd say right around the time at you. Yeah. 100%. And I think that short collaboration with one another expose a lot of people watching you to me, but prior to this meeting, I was already on fire because I was hitting back-to-back PRs. I remember being in Mount Vernon, hitting tons of PRs, and being elite gym and New

Jersey, he had tons of PRs. Then you invited me over. And then I had a huge PR at your gym, which went everywhere. Then after that, during that following year of 2018, again, back-to-back PRs, almost every single month, a PR. So people know me as the PR guy, because for nearly just about years I was hitting PRs almost every fucking month yeah and then I went out to Iceland with Thor that was a huge spike because he was hot off Game of Thrones he was prepping for Arnold's strongest man he was 450 pounds yeah he was huge enormous by the way on the side of never got used to seeing someone that big in person I spent two months with him every day never got he's like what six eight six

nine six nine with shoes 450 when he was yeah trained me in Iceland yeah like just ridiculous how big someone could get he came out once and did a video out here he met my mom i was i remember seeing them together i was like holy shit dude it's ridiculous never got used to that and anyways then after iceland dubai and then all people are collaborated out there so it was just you know carrying momentum yeah i just remember when i first met you man i remember how much because we did a little bit of business work together and i remember you uh you were making like i i don't know if i could say the money but from these two companies like really small amount yeah and i was dude you can say the amount I remember for one company can't say the name of the

company of course it was like 700 bucks yeah you know and then another one was like what 1500 or something another one was 1500 that's right um and the thing about it at the time is because I didn't know any better I didn't see any issue with it I didn't see a problem with that yeah I had no idea where I could take what I was doing yeah right so to me I was necessarily happy but I was content with it yeah you know yeah and then you came along did total 180 on all that yeah it's good stuff man definitely very good stuff yeah we worked together for about a year um kind of i mean your shit went from like that to just different it was different fast it was like overnight yeah it was like overnight you know and but this is just

a testament to like being in the right circle meeting the right people yeah right and you saw opportunity to me and vice versa which is beneficial with the both of us and You know, couldn't be more grateful, number one. Yeah, of course. You know, I've always saw myself growing up as a kid, teenager, young adult as an introvert. So forcing myself to get out there and socialize and meet new people and make these connections has been, you know, it's been everything for me.

Yeah. So you grew up, you grew up mostly introverted? You seem, I mean, you kind of always seem that way to me. Yeah, exactly. Mostly introverted, you know, and, you know, like me being in. in public outings and you know just being in environments where I'm forced to socialize just forcing me out of my shell but like I try and see the the other side of it which is you know like you never know who you're gonna meet and you know maybe they change your life or you

changed their life or you know it was a two-way street so I try and look at it that way and it makes me be more comfortable where I can see like okay like there's something for me to gain here from like getting out of my comfort zone because my comfort zone is just being by myself you know I like my alone time, you know, or me, you know, I do. So to get me out of the house and socializing, you know, like my work, like at this age, you know, where I feel most uncomfortable is like out in a nightclub or a bar, you know, where it's just strictly socializing. That's why I'm like the most out of my element, you know.

Yeah. And it's probably sounds strange coming for me because I want to go to expos and all. You know, that's all I'm doing. I'm just running my mouth all day long, all weekend, you know. But that's me coming out. in my shell. I'm like, you know, I'm not necessarily comfortable doing it and it's not, um, uh, it's, it's not like natural to me, you know, um, being in those settings, like the party settings. Exactly. Um, so now like with practice, um, I've gotten used to being not an extrovert,

but just being more comfortable in, in social settings and, you know, but as a result, I've gained so much of it and I've met so many people that influenced my life in so many super positive ways and have created so many opportunities so it's it's just it's just absolutely necessary you know it's just you have no choice you have to get out there you have to make friends you have to meet people and you don't know who you're talking to you know you never know who you're talking to yeah especially with what we're doing but even if you're not an influencer a YouTuber or um or have any relation to social media like you just don't know who you're going to meet you know yeah so obviously you know I know you grew without a father who were some of like the

i guess the biggest figures in your life that have come i guess in your life so far that have helped you see the most change would you say i'd say it'd be between you and john gagleone oh right on thank you man I appreciate that for no for sure for sure um why why me well up, I looked at you, I looked at you for motivation as in, um, as goals. I looked at like, okay, you know, like if I want to do this right, I should look at what this person's doing because he's doing it right. You know, and I would not want to follow right behind you in your footsteps and your shadow, right? I don't want to emulate you entirely. I had to have my own path on my own spin on what you're doing. Right. And, but nonetheless, I find that

we're in the same career, right? We have the same, we're in the same industry. So I would model a lot of my decisions off of hmm well like what would bradley do you know that's cool you know 100% and um you know for a short time you were a mentor to me you know when i was out here and you know when i was traveling and i learned a lot during that time you know and that stuff you know stick to me to this day yeah right i remember one thing you said that and don't um i don't want to quote you on this because i'm probably not saying it word for word but you know like like what do you wanting to be paid you know and I remember telling you something about when we were doing a deal and you said you can't tell me what I'm worth yeah you know and these couple of things stuck with me

because with business this is super important coming from a place where I thought what I was doing at the time was only worth $700 yeah a month you know so having meeting you someone that was like dominating their um you were dominating what you were doing um really made me reflect on my self-worth and what I see my value as and really it is up to me you know what I want to be paid and what I see my worth as and no one can really tell me where you work this much or you can only get paid that much yeah you know so that really helped me make a lot of big decisions moving forward in business over the last five years since we since we met that's dope man you know so you know little things like that that may have been a big impact

you know those encounters and those exchanges we had you know for the short time we knew each other um when uh i was here yeah yeah before you fucking it i felt like you ran away to dubai man yeah well i was like this guy i fucking did i can't say i regret it man no of course not i i'm not definitely not at all about regret i mean you've done a lot of stuff and definitely nothing to regret um what about with that said sorry to cut you off No, go ahead. But before I lead this, train the thought. But a part of me does wish I stayed here instead of going to Dubai.

Why? So a part of that is because being in Dubai was a culture shock. And I met people from all over the world because it's a transport transit hub. And all that was cool, right? But I don't find, and maybe my close friends and family might disagree that I grew much as a man or a businessman or over there. And that being because the circle that I was in there, while I was a positive circle and there were influencers doing what I'm doing, coming and going, right? I didn't meet people like I'm meeting here since I've been back in January, right? I feel like the opportunity

is more abundant here related to what I'm doing or maybe that's because I created more value myself since I've been there. It's both. It's a bit of both. It's a bit of both. But, you know, over there there were opportunities opportunities right but very few of them actually came to light and that's probably natural but it also sounds like LA though too you know yeah you know but you know I think you can really say about just about any opportunity and any city right um I you know what it is I think my expectations of Dubai were a lot more than what I got in the end and I think there's something wrong with that I think that I should have just appreciated the experience for what it was and you know not everything's all about making money and it did go out

there and i did learn a lot about they travel the world you know and that's an experience that people i'm meeting here that are older they're you know arguably wiser that are further ahead um financially than i have that haven't left the u.s you know and i can say okay well i've been here they're there and i experienced very different cultures so maybe yeah i wasn't um going out there and creating the empire, like I thought I would, right? I still got to experience a different side of life that really just wasn't revolving around money, which for some thinking, well, you were in Dubai, what do you mean? Like, it's so much realistic there, and it's all about, like, what car you drive and how big is your house

and what your net worth. But the people there that I was dealing with were genuinely, you know, down to earth, and I meet some lifelong friends there. Yeah. You know, I'm still in touch with them today. And, you know, something we've said about that. So, but now that I'm back here, right, it really is all about business and about work. And I feel like I'm super busy as opposed to being over there.

Like, I thought it's going to be busy in Dubai. Really, I wasn't. It was really, you know, just eat, sleep, train, repeat, just like a before I left the States. Yeah. You know, but here it really feels like it's, okay, now that I'm back, it's all about work right now. Yeah. Yeah. Had that been something you had been thinking about doing for time, like you wanted to be more working

or like, as you were getting older, were you thinking more about, okay, what about like the future? Like, had you worried at all about any of that kind of stuff prior to being out here? Or were you just out here like, oh, there's more I can get done now? Like, did you move thinking, I want to do this versus like... Oh, yeah, you know, because in Dubai, after a time, after a very short time, after the first few months, you know, my life there became pretty sedentary, but besides the occasional traveling, which I started to take for granted because it's happening so frequently to the neighboring countries around the Middle East and Asia and Europe, UK. But I got into a routine. Right. And I got comfortable, right? I had a girlfriend for two years. And then shortly after that, so after we separated, I got another girlfriend. I'm not engaged to for two years. So, you know, just mostly at home training, eating, sleeping. And just I felt like I was not retired. But I definitely felt like there was a lot more I could have been doing. But just not in Dubai. For example, because of how making a living, I couldn't invest in real estate there. Right? Because. I couldn't qualify for a bank loan, right?

So what am I gonna do, buy the houses all in cash? You know, like, so I couldn't utilize the bank systems there, and I was still liable for federal income tax, which is always over my head being in Dubai. So all US citizens, right, no matter where we live, we're tax just as if we're living here. You have a small tax break, you know, but if you're making good money, right?

If you're high income earner, then you're basically taxed just as much over there, anywhere outside the US as if you're living here. I love taxes, dude, right? my favorite topic. Tell me about it. So anyways, that that just meant like I felt like I was in this limbo like, okay, well, I like it here, but I have to pay tax here for the U.S. and I'm not really getting any real tax benefit because I was meaning the people are meaning there were not Americans. They're mostly from the UK, Europe, Asia, and Middle East. And they were living

there for the tax break. Right. Right. And people that are watching me living there and they're assuming that I was getting a tax break too. So I'm like, I'm not though. Like, oh, okay, so why are you here? So it just felt like, okay, why am I here? So it just felt like, okay, why am I here and I have all these taxes have to pay back in the States so long term for longevity in Dubai it didn't make sense yeah you know it didn't make sense to stay there wasn't there a way to change citizenship so that you're giving the tax break entirely right so if I were to renounce my citizenship then I can get like a sink kitzinevas passport and I can stay in Dubai but if I want to ever come back to

the US which I'm sure I would have wanted to come back to the US at some point yeah they make it very difficult for you to get your visa because you're not longer a citizen. So you know, you have to apply for a visa. You can't just apply for a citizenship in Dubai? You have to forgo your citizenship in the U.S.? Right. You have to renounce it. You have to get rid of it to have one in Dubai. I think you can't just have both. No, no. So if you have both, then you still have to pay taxes for the U.S. Oh, okay. I see. Right. So you have to get rid of the U.S. citizenship. If you don't want to pay the taxes. If you don't want to pay the taxes. That's a huge decision. And I thought about it. But no. No. No. And truthfully, for what I'm

doing from what I believe what we're doing the opportunity really is here yeah and being out there I noticed I was looking at my numbers my analytics my you know Indian Filipino African you know my followers from that side of the world was growing right um but for me to make money right that's not the market that I need to be in right I need to be in North America yeah right so that's why that was one of the main reasons why I came out here back out here is to collaborate with North Americans and grow my North American following, right? From when I'm selling my products and services,

whatever I endorse, right, I just have more value here. Yeah. You know, and over there, between that and also not being able to utilize any of the bank systems that the citizens they're able to use, like getting a home loan, for example,

getting a car loan, right, getting a business loan. None of that was an option. Yeah. Right? So how am I going to make a future for myself there? It makes sense. You know, in addition to having to pay you,

US tax so when did you start to realize this so this was after being there for like the first year um but I was honestly just so comfortable in this bubble right because despite everything I mentioned Dubai is a bubble it's the safest cleanest place I've ever been right no looking over your shoulder you can park your whatever supercar hypercar anywhere you want and not have to look twice at it unlock it leave a door unlocked it really is like that you can leave your phone in any restaurant. I love that about Dubai. Right. It's amazing. It really is like that. Right. And you can't get that feeling at least from what I know anywhere in the U.S. Definitely not. Right? Yeah. No, that's like the question. You're definitely not getting that yet. So that feeling is very

powerful. Like just that feeling of like serenity, safety, security. I had that there, you know. So that was a powerful feeling that kept me there for so long. You know, I'm like, well, if I go back to the U.S., you know, like I'm kind of a pussy now. I've been in Dubai for so long. I'm like, I can't have to be in the U.S. I can't have a fucking soft now. I'm soft now, bro. You're gonna fucking forget to lock your car and shit. Exactly, you know,

I got double-checked my locks on the door at the house. Like, it's just, it's different, you know? Like, so that was over my head too. So I was like, if I go back to the States, like I have to, you know, go back to reality, you know. But I felt just so safe and secure in Dubai that it took a lot for me to just leave that behind. You know, despite, you know, the tax situation and not being able to, you know, use the banks there for the things I want to use for here, for example.

You know, that, that was enough to keep me there for as long as it did. So you're happy to be back? Oh, most definitely. What, uh, what plans do you have now that has anything changed as far as like what you want to do on social, what you're trying to do in your life? Like, obviously you've made the move, um, looks like away from like, you know, going crazy, uh, with the gear stuff. So you're obviously not going to, you're not going to hit the thousand pound deadlift.

90 time soon. I'm never going to say never, though. I'm never going to say never. Okay. In five years time, I'm still going to be young. Yeah, yeah. And hopefully with kids, they have the kids out of the way, right? God, dude, I want kids.

Exactly. Business will be settled by then. Things will be where I want it. And then maybe I can, you know, go back to at that time, it would be my old ways. My old ways. Exactly. And finish the unsettled business. Because I did put that out there in the world, you know.

But that would really just be for me. There's no real reward for doing that. I still feel a little bit of that myself, man. I'm like, fuck. You're still young, but you don't have kids yet. No, I know. I need fucking kids, dude. You got three kids in the house right now, but.

Oh, I could have a whole fucking football team here, man. So, okay, so you met your girl in Dubai? Yeah, she's Serbian, very nurturing. From Serbia? That's right. Okay. And, you know, why I engage? And I'll briefly talk about that now.

She's probably going to be watching this. Yeah, I'm curious. I'm curious. But, you know, why engaged, right? So with my ex, I was ready to engage. But shortly before, you know, I learned that she wasn't ready, right? So that was that, right? Like she told you, I'm not ready or you.

I did some snooping and found out she wasn't ready. Oh, man. Yeah. That's fucking, that's so annoying, you know. So you found some shit out. I found some shit out, right? And basically she wasn't ready, but it all happened for the best, right? Because that door closed, another open.

And what I have with my fiancee now is something that I thought, you know, you only see on Netflix. because there's nurturing, right? There's no toxicity. There's no raising her voice. There's no yelling matches. There's no jealousy. There's no, you know, let me see your phone. Let me see this.

Who are you with this time? What Netflix show are you talking about? Because I feel like there's nothing on Netflix. I'm like, what the fuck are you saying? You're talking about like a rom-com or something? Because I'm thinking like these other dating shows where that's all it is. Right. So you're talking about like a romantic comedy or something.

Or just a romance. Look, that was a terrible reference. Let's just forget I said that. Okay. No, I'm just trying to. That was funny, though. So, okay, she's great. She sounds great.

Yeah, but it didn't take long for me to figure out that, you know, a woman provided me with all this, right? Every time she cooks for me, which is every single time, every meal of the day. Wow. Serve with a smile. Still today. Still today. So to this day.

Oh, wow. Serve with a smile. And here you go, Daddy, with a big smile. Oh, my God. It's just like too good to be true, right? Where is Serbia on the map? Some of Poretto. But this is how she was raised, you know?

She was raised Muslim and she was raised to take care of her man. But she appreciated it. She enjoyed it. She looks forward to that, you know, and shit, sure, I'll take it. And anyways, you know, it didn't take long for me to figure out, like, this is the one. Like, after the first six months of the living together, did I realize, wow, like, it doesn't, it can't get any better than this. It really can't. Like, if I were to leave this person and trying to find something better, I really would be an idiot.

There's just nothing better. You don't think social media makes it difficult? Do you know what? There is temptation, not just social media about your gym, you know? Oh, shit. That damn gym. you got butt sitting there bro yeah yeah yeah yeah the other day like what's going on in here it's beautiful well it's a higher it's a higher female to male ratio in your gym that's crazy

that's crazy no it's i mean man you got to focus dude you got to be like blinders on but you're that kind of guy you are that kind of guy i am i am and you're very respectful you've never seen you've never you've never appeared at all like you know sleazy or nothing you've always been a solid guy like straightforward you know listen obviously you made mistakes we all make mistakes. I've made mistakes. Oh, no doubt, no doubt. You know, men are scumbags, you know, we're all scumbags. But on that topic. Yeah. Which topic? The gym and the butt or the like, not about but city. It's about, um, not being sleazy. So I have that in me. I think

we all have that in us, right? We definitely don't have it in us. So I put an obstacle in front of me, right, where I post my fiance. I didn't have to post her. She even wanted to be posted for a little while yeah right she she didn't care for it you know but i wanted to post her because i knew like once everyone once the whole world knows that we're together if i already go into girls dm which is the most tempting thing to do having a blue tick right you know you have that power now it's going away because it made it meta's just selling it to everyone now everyone has a blue tick now they said that they just recently said we'll continue on the story but they just recently said that meta sold uh 44 million blue ticks in like 16 hours or some shit

and they made $666 million in like $60,000 selling these blue tics. Well, I don't blame them, Ben. And it's a monthly fee. Yo, can you guys imagine that shit? Wow, unbelievable. It was a fucking billion dollars a month in revenue from people wanting the checkmark. But then at some point, the check marks, you're going to be looking at people who don't have check marks. You're going to look for the people who don't have a check mark.

That is so true. But anyway, sorry, let's get back to this. So you think that you posting, like, yo, this is my woman, basically we're getting engaged, that like, then you try to. to slide the girl would be like Larry wheels trying to slide look in the next you know you're fucked that's right 100% wow it's pretty fucking smart dude because look if it's not the girl it's going to be the boyfriend if she has a boyfriend or it's going to be a friend of the girl girlfriend or a guy friend someone's going to snitch right so even if they're not at here

these might be bored you know someone's going to say something you know and it's just not going to get right back to her straight away and then she's going to be like you think i don't know and then you know what happens next so by posting her right it just eliminated any opportunity that I could think for a second was there because I know like oh if I were a message any girl like it's very likely that my girl's gonna know because it's we're gonna get back to her it's gonna get back to her you know you know what's crazy I know it's like I feel like I've I've heard this from girls that when girl when guys posted they have girls the girls hit the guys up more so like I don't know if

you're playing this like rope a dope dope shit I don't know but like I've literally spoken to girls who are like yeah like they they'll hit up dudes more when they know they have a girl and I'm not saying this is right or wrong I'm just saying maybe because they they think that like maybe the guy's more safe because he has a girl I don't know like more safe

like like oh that could be me in their eyes or something I don't know what the concept is or the reason is but ladies if you can fucking comment let me know but I think I think from what I've I've heard that like do you so I guess my question is this do you get hit up more now since you have a girl or less now from girls because obviously we know you get hit from guys that's the you know the fitness industry that's the world we live in no doubt but from girls you get hit up more that you said you had a girl or less

am i now if your girl's watching it's like no i'm just curious in my experience i need to choose my words next very carefully yeah yeah i'm not trying to set you up by the ways just listen i know what do to bradley what the fuck no no i know you to be a very respectful person you are in person even not on the internet not even on social very very respectful guy so you know i'm not trying to set you up i swear i'm not to feds i know the comments already going crazy right now but i i'm just because i'm not saying you're answering them i'm just saying like have you seen it if it's got more or less i'd say it's been indifferent it hasn't changed okay it just hasn't changed but dude saying you fucking what's up daddy is probably not changed probably the same thing oh 100% yeah that's a forever

thing yeah that's for sure yeah dude that shit's so funny yeah especially the more dive into bodybuilding, the more of that I'm going to get. Yeah, they're like flex for me. Do a posing show. You know, you know, rear glute spread. What about when you're arm wrestling, were you, like, was arm wrestling, did that, not necessarily in this whole dating stuff, going to a different topic, but did that get you like a much different audience?

Right. So arm wrestling, genuinely, I didn't even do it for the views. I did it at first because I got beat by girl. That, holy fuck. Who is this chick? You know what? Who is this chick? Listen, so.

Bro, we need to beat her up. Right? That's insane. Tell me about it. Wait. Get the mob on her. How much does she weigh? So she wasn't, you know, what you might.

So if you envision a girl that can beat Larry's an arm wrestle, you might be envisioning like a fucking she Hulk, right? Yeah, yeah. She wasn't. I'm thinking. So how much did she weigh? She was like 5, 7, like 160 tops. What the fuck, bro?

Arm wrestle. So how much did you weigh when you arm wrestled her? I was fresh off of a strongman competition. So I was huge. Bro, what the fuck? I know. But I know, listen. I know, you're going to talk about next,

but I know arm wrestling is all technique, all technique, right? Well, it's not just that. Well, then how the fuck did she win? She was stronger. But let me tell you, but let me tell you, let me tell you where. She was stronger in the muscles that matter in arm wrestling. Only arm wrestlers train these muscles,

bringing up a pronation, wrist rise, wrist flexion, containment strength. So where she beat you? She beat you at the wrist, where she beat you? All the above. Because from here to here, right, besides crushing strength, I didn't develop any of that strength that matters in arm wrestling. That couple with no technique awareness just spelled the recipe for this girl's going to beat you at arm wrestling.

So you could just grab her hand real tight, but she just rocks you. That's right. She just turned me palm up, got me on my bicep, which is a very vulnerable position arm wrestling. You never want to be palm up. And the rest was history. You got to like give it up almost. Yeah, exactly.

Damn, you couldn't even like muscle her in? I couldn't. Whoa. She was quick, you know? She got on my, I was just like, what just happened? She had to have been doing it for time, though. Oh, yeah. Yeah, she's good.

She's good what she does, but let's not forget. She's a 5, 7, or 6, 100, 50, 60 pound girl, right? And she beat me at arguably one of my biggest and strongest forms. Not my final form, but up there. And so then you were like, wait a sec, what the fuck is this arm wrestling shit? So then you were like, oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I didn't sleep for a few days after that.

Bro, I would have been like scar. I was like thinking about what was I doing my whole life? Like, why am I doing on these PRs if I can't beat a card arm wrestling? Dude, I really thought your arm wrestling is sheathold. But it's not. That's crazy. Okay, so she smokes you and you're like, whoa, wait, you don't sleep for like three days. Then you're like, wait a minute, dude, I need to figure this arm wrestling and you shit out now.

That's right. I said, I need to figure this out. I need to know why this happened. So it never happens again. That was the main reason. I just wanted to prevent that ever happening again. I don't think you're ever going to arm wrestle a girl again and lose, dude. I don't think you can ever do it.

No, no, I've gotten a lot better since then. But I've taken a lot of else. It's been very humbling. I've lost so many So you can imagine losing the girls So you can imagine how many small guys there are That are really good at arm wrestling That are 100% stronger than girls

Yes Right and I've lost a ton to them Right there's a famous video of this Very tiny petite Indian arm wrestling His name is Rahul Panicker He's like 53 You know has this one mutant arm He's tiny dude

He is maybe 140 150 Mutant arm though Like one arm is literally bigger And longer than the other like he was born for arm wrestling like a hellboy arm he was born he was just arm yeah that's right

he was like 70% arm and literally it was longer and like 40% bigger than his other arm and he beat me with that arm oh shit yeah so but he's like this petite indian guy like 5 3 maybe 5 400 super skinny shows about you know this wide just petite right

and he beat me so I took so many ls from girls from small dudes And, you know, these L's, like, fucking, you know, hit me deep. We're like, oh, I just want to at least be able to beat someone my own size, you know? So, that's disgust for losing just, you know, kept me going. Yeah, because you did pretty well. I mean, you do pretty well. You've arm wrestled some of like the best arm wrestlers.

Yeah, I just about collaborated with all of them at this point. And we even went as far as the starting in arm wrestling federation. We have super matches every season now. We monetize it. That's done. It's doing well. We have a pay-per-view event every few months. That's really cool.

our seventh now. People love it. And we have our, you know, die hard arm wrestling community. It's not like boxing or any other pay-per-view sport. Yeah. But, you know, they love it, you know, and I love it. What about slap fighting? Dana White slap fighting. You ever thought about that? I have. Yeah. Look, listen, listen, you know, if me and you were going to slap fight, you can't tell me it's not going to make some money. Man, that's going to be insane. People are going to be hype over that. Holy shit. But it has to be, you know, to like, one of us needs to, like, balloon up on the side of the face yeah it needs to be legit yeah like that the you saw that guy I think when they I don't know if it was Dana white stopped fighting but it was someone else who's like his face

looked like it was like edited but it wasn't it was like his real face got like smushed to the side yeah and it was all swollen that'd be crazy though that'd be insane yeah have you ever tried to do anything like that with the arm wrestling in like the fitness industry with like fitness creators arm wrestling with influencers yeah yeah you know it doesn't do well generally because it needs to be two influences going against each other. It's too dangerous. With the same experience.

Well, if you teach, all they need really is like a one week course from a pro arm wrestler and how to arm wrestle. Yeah, they need a minimum for sure. Yeah, like a one week. It's not like getting in the ring with a pro boxer, right? As long as you just have like a one, two, three, okay, just don't go in this arm break position, right?

You're going to be fine because that's the biggest risk is like breaking your arm, but there's like a small adjustment you need to make so that you need that never happened. And it does never happen. you know if you've been arm wrestling like literally a week um it's not it's not gonna happen it's super unlikely to happen you know but if you have no clue what you're doing it's very likely to happen yeah very like like two girls can break their arm if the armrest and don't know what

they're doing just oh man you know but like yeah with influencers we we've tried we didn't try it hard enough obviously but we've tried to get so-and-so to go head to head but financially it's just like our pay-per-view numbers don't make enough or to make sense to have like for example me and you go head to head, you know, an arm wrestling match. And now that I've already been doing it for several years, the outcome is obvious, right?

Like, if you just start, exactly. So any influencer is in the same boat, right? So I'm already out of the equation unless you're able to start doing it for a few years as well, you know, because it really does take a long time for your tendons and you're able to develop and these little small muscles to develop,

you know, it's not like, you know, if we would get into the boxing or slap fight, right, where we're both like novices. Yeah, you know, not that you're novice in boxing. I know you do some martial arts. A little bit, a little bit. Yeah. But the slap fighting thing is interesting.

That one's like, it's like whoever loses the fucking coin tosses just getting fucking knocked out. I feel like that's how it goes. I've already planned my escape. Not my escape, but I'll just inject locally anesthesia in that side of my face and won't feel a thing. Just bro, that's, yeah, but it can still knock you out, but you might not feel it. If it's not going to feel it, though, it's like, that's such a crazy thing, man. They just stand there and they flip a coin who goes and then. It's honestly insane to me

It's ridiculous Why is it so like Like it's so hard not to watch Like I'll see that shit on fucking social I'm like I gotta see this Because it's so quick too He's gonna get knocked out And they stand up first

Why are they holding like a thing Jacob do you know why they have the thing They have like they hold like a thing Does anyone know what They get slapped and they have this thing And then like they're trying to I don't know if they're holding onto it Like a towel or something like a stick

I don't know what it is I feel like they're holding on it Every time I see it I just feel like someone's holding on it maybe just comment below let me know what it is but um okay so besides this stuff on on social or or in you know content in general have you have you ever figured out like what you want to do more of or do you do you want to like go into something else or check out the industries like have do you have you figured out what you wanted to continue to do like for example this shit for me

right the podcast stuff i love i love this more than fucking pretty much any of the content i've ever made not that i didn't enjoy making the content but this feels so like right to me it feels so good to me it feels so seamless. Are there other types of content or other types of businesses or other types of industries you want to like get into as you kind of evolve in this space? 100%. And even though podcasts have been done time and time again now,

I feel that's something that's just never going to go. It's always going to be here. And there's always going to be new up-and-coming podcasts that generally are worth listening to. And something I think that not only you, but myself as well, of all people that should be, should have been doing is podcasts. I've collaborated every week for the last,

I don't know how many years we have someone new in the industry and that would have been an amazing opportunity to have a podcast and right because during the workouts people are just skipping most of the talking getting to like the lifting right so I wish that with all these people I collaborated with right I had the bright idea even in Dubai because it just had a small room set up like this and sat these people down and really picked their brain because all these people were from overseas right like for example Joe aesthetics andres from Romania like so many guys came through Dubai um that I collaborated with on a weekly basis so um it was always in the back of my head I kept thinking ah but podcasts have been done so many times already is there really

a need for another podcast but what I find is that and you I know you know this as well you really connect with people when you can sit down and talk and people also coming to the video understand that's what it's going to be about and I've always used my videos as a bit of like um an interview with the person I'm collaborating with and a workout but for the most part the people that are watching are skipping the talking parts

and just skip them to the lifting because they want to see the training yeah exactly I want to see the training so I think there's a lot of missed opportunities you know but it's not too late so 100% I would pursue a podcast in your future I'm still getting settled down here and just moved about to move

into the Upland area into a house going to be opening a gym over there with my coach Ryan and he's like a body player power power parallel through gym and besides that I'm working on my merch and making that a priority as I separated my ex-partners who are helping me run it and I really want to make it original so I have some original ideas but you know as you're asking me like what am I going to pursue moving forward and it is yeah podcast gym and refining my merch now that's

under my 100% control besides that also classic bodybuilding Yeah, so are you taking like this for real? 100%. So with classic bodybuilding, when I first did bodybuilding in the open division. Wait, by the way, did you see, sorry, I'm interrupting you because I was watching YouTube. Greg Doucette made a video. Did you say? I can't watch this guy anymore.

He's got a vendetta against me. I can't watch it. He's like, he's going to destroy me. That's all I saw. That's why I'm laughing. Because I only clicked on because I was like, wait, what the hell is this? And then I'm watching. I'm like, oh, he got to give you some love though.

Yeah, for sure. Why does he have a vendetta against you? He made a comment one day, and I didn't like what I saw, and I blocked him. Oh. Yeah. Then I unblocked him. On Instagram. On Instagram.

He made the comment on Instagram or on YouTube? On Instagram. Oh, okay. Yeah. It was like a few comments, actually, and I get tired of seeing it. Okay. And then I just blocked him, and then I unblocked him. And then we made up.

Nice. And now we're good. Yeah. And so I saw that video. I mean, he just, but he makes that content. Yeah, yeah, he stirs the pot. He stirs the pot. Yeah, he knows what he's doing.

I want to get him on the podcast and talk to him. Oh, that'd be hilarious. I'd love to talk to that guy. That would be so good, dude. Yeah, do it. He's smart. I mean, he's a smart dude. Probably have a good conversation too, but yeah, he definitely, I mean, he's doing that.

Like, that, uh, that, I guess the original ones would have been like Keem Star, like these kind of like drama type channels, like drama or these like fitness industry guys are really running that up. Like the, like the, this guy is Natty or noty or not. No, it's like, oh yeah. Yeah, but people eat up drama, right? They eat up drama. Sadly, man. Yeah. People eat up drama. You know, I have so much to say it. I'm not going to say it. It's just an interesting industry. This industry specifically in the way people move in it. I just find it really interesting with the way like, I don't know, people leverage other people. And, you know, it just is what it is part of the game, I guess. Just one of those things. But all right, guys, this podcast is

sponsored by Better Help. Listen, I've talked about this before. I'm going to continue to talk about this because it is so, so important. Mental health is the most important form of health. Obviously, physical health is so important, but your body follows your mind. So if your mind is distorted, is distracted, is like focused on things that you shouldn't be focused on. If you're not learning processes that allow you to overcome the things in your life that you need to overcome to know, like better which direction for you to go in, then you're just going to continue to complicate your life no matter what you have going on in your life. And you're not going to get to those points that you want to get to, right? So BetterHelp is a platform that allows you guys to

speak with therapists from the comfort of your home. If you guys want to give it a shot, go to betterhelp dot com slash raw talk to get 10% off your first month. Again, that link is betterhelp.com slash raw talk. You get 10% off your first month. You guys won't be disappointed. Again, I cannot recommend this enough. Talk therapy, other forms of therapy, but in this case, talk therapy is really helpful because it does always help to get an outside perspective. So give it a shot if you guys need it. do not be shy let's get back into this podcast anyways um let's get back to you so so focusing on the branding stuff um business stuff the gym where upland is like orange county area kind of right no i'm way out might be way off you know it's right next to if not it is inland empire got it

i e okay right right so that's where i'm moving but the gym is going to be more like san diemus clermont okay um and that's because there's no powerlifter or hardcore body building gym that services that area yeah you know and the people that live there that want to come here right it's an hour and a half drive yeah right so it's going to happen once in a while but like the regular people that come in like you know every other day or so of course you know yeah it's a long commute so that gym is service to that area um and also i like the quality life over there i have some connections over there that live out in OC so i want to be on that side of town yeah and my coach does have quite a large um grasp on the Bible community you know he he has his street credits you know he's paid his dues

and you know when he's associated with this gym as well as I think it's going to do just so just just fine you know you know um but more than anything it's just going to be a place where I can have all the cool shit that I want to have right content backdrop of course as well um but power of the equipment bible equipment and I'll talk more of my own video about like exactly what's going to be in there this probably you know like the first time I actually she's even speaking about it is here on this podcast. But I'm going to dive more into that as we get closer to the opening date.

But yeah, it's in the works. And besides that, classic bodybuilding because since 18 and I went on open bodybuilding stage, I was just too small for my height. I'm not competitive whatsoever. But now that, you know, C-Bomb really took the division to new heights and the division is more popular than ever. And I don't have to be on even more than TRT

to be as big as I'm right now. meaning I can actually be competitive, according to my coach, right? And from what I can see, on just TRT and the absolute bare minimum. So without a major compromise to my health, like open bodybuilding being a mass monster or pursuing what work is in powerlifting, I can shrink down to 230, which is the cutoff in my high six foot one on stage, right? And look phenomenal, you know, and have photos and videos, content for months after. I'm going to do about, I don't know how many photos I can do while I'm dialed in,

but I'm going to do as many as possible and just recycle those photos to that show. You're stupid. You know, but, you know, jokes aside, it is graceful and I do find aesthetically pleasing.

Generally, when I see people like Joshua when he comes through gym all the time, he got me really into it. He's posing. He looks so legit. It looks like art, you know? And that got me more interested

in it again. Like the most muscular is and the double bisoned, like, it's cool and all, but that's not the look I'm going for or I ever wanted to go for it. but the tiny ways with the, you know, the V-Taper X-frame like C-bum and the top guys have in division, that's a desirable physique to me.

And I believe I can really achieve that level of physique without a major compromise to my health. Yeah. You know, not to mention that from a content perspective, right, bodybuilding content does do the best. Has it? It has. Even more than strength? So for the industry in general, right, when you're dialed, when you're peeled, not if you're just

lean, right, but if you're peel, like stage-ready condition and you genuinely, are competitive in the sport of bodybuilding, you just have so much content that gets created from being in that level of conditioning. I see what you're saying. Right. But for me as individual, yeah, PRs have most definitely always done better content-wise than when I posted bodybuilding content. So this is more for you, like, moving into like, kind of a different general direction

in the fitness industry. 100%. Yeah. Because I know what it takes to hit more PR. It's not going to happen. I'm not willing to go that far anymore for that. but I really believe and not only that not only do I believe that I can be competitive and classic but I want to see if I really dedicate myself as I am now the last couple months I've been here the next couple of years to bodybuilding how my physique can transform because training as a power lifter right gave me a very different physique to I was training all this time the last 10 years of bodybuilder right I see what you're saying right so I want to see what that looks like you know I'm not saying I'm going to be a mixed Olympia but at the very least I want to get my pro car When overalls and see a transformation within myself.

I want to just do what it looks like, you know? Yeah. What a couple years of bodybuilding, not worrying about PRs. When I was on stage the last five years ago, I was still a pile of through on stage. I was still obsessed with numbers and okay, I still got to lift heavy. So I'm going to make this kind of content. So we're going to be strong. But now that I'm focusing on bodybuilding, I just don't care about putting how many plates, whatever, on the bar.

I just want to change my physique now. You know, so it really is not an obsession yet like it was with power, living, but the fire is there, whereas the power thing, I've been burned out. Yeah. How long you've been burnt out by all the thing, would you say? I'd say about two to three years. So surely you have to go into Dubai about after a year or so there. It was tough.

It was tough. You know, the fire definitely was not strong like it was back when I was in the States before I left. That fire was most definitely not the same. Do you think it was because you went to Dubai? Do you think it was just like you had already kind of gotten decently far in it? Like, what was the main reason? do you think? I think the main reason

was that I knew to get further, as I mentioned early in the podcast, my health would have needed a serious compromise. So the health stuff would start, you were like, yo, I really have to look at this. Yeah, it was just getting ridiculous, dude. It was just like, you know. Did you ever any scares? Any health scares?

No. You know, besides anxiety. Yeah, that's real. I did suffer from anxiety every single day. Now, I haven't had anxiety for so long. I almost forgot what it feels like. But while I was using, And by using, I just mean more than TRT, anything more than TRT when I'm on right now. You know, it's just a general day-to-day is my heart okay anxiety. You know, just that.

But it will stay with me all day long. If I'm not active, I'm not actively doing something. If I'm just home chilling, that like anxiety, like, hmm, like, is my heart okay? I don't really know. I never got a heart scan for most of the time I was in Dubai. Only recently got the heart scan done. So all this time, I was just living in the unknown. And then I was scared to go get my heart scan and checked out because I didn't know if,

I was ready to hear what they may have told me because I wasn't ignorant. I know after 10 years of steroids, like there was a very good chance that he could say, whoa, like, don't even leave the hospital. Like, you're in fucking bad shape. I didn't know what to hear what I was going to hear, but I was scared to hear it. Yes, you were afraid of even going to get it done. Exactly. Yeah. What a relief that must have been when they were.

Ah, what a relief. You were like, oh, shit, dude. Yeah. Seriously, you know, there was times, you know, in my early 20s, mid-20s that I wasn't sure to make it to 30, you know, because I was just doing, I had that. that mentality of like whatever it takes, you know, to get to where I want to go, that whatever it takes, even if it means I'm going to die doing it. Because I felt like, well, I'm going to die doing what I love. Yeah. So that like the question I asked earlier, I ask it again, that you

don't, you don't regret any of it. No, I don't regret it. Yeah. You know, and as much risk that was associated with my behavior, there was a huge reward me on the side of it. I am living the most privileged life I could have ever imagined, right, as a result from those decisions. Granted, many of them were irresponsible and reckless but still here I am today and I'm living my best life yeah I think it's important just to preface that like it's obviously really really dope that you're there and congrats right but not everyone like there's a lot of luck involved in this like everyone's going to they're not going to find the right people they're not going to find the right information you know maybe genetically they're not as predisposed as like being as healthy or staying as healthy there's a lot of

things that have to be said to to that which is an amazing place to be at like congrats it just like most people I just want people to hear it and be like oh I'm just going to fucking run that because you could end up in completely different circumstances so it's just you know obviously you know I don't know you got to pick which battle you really wants like it's that's a tough one though that's a very very tough one because a lot of the time I was just figuring out day by day I didn't know where it's going to end up I didn't know my potential I didn't know I didn't have a game plan right I didn't have a five year plan I was taking it day by day, one work out of the time, one PR at a time, and you just slowly

be showing meeting the right people. But my talent, right, my talent attracted that, right? And the talent being my God-given gift of being strong and lean, right? So without that being there in the first place, I can't say what I would have done otherwise. But what I tell you what, though, before I met my coach and before monetizing everything, what I thought I was going to do in my life, right is because enter law enforcement I was going to go to school for criminal justice I was going to become police officer because you're doing the Ronnie Coleman route yeah right and listen but right but not because um I'm all about justice but because they had good benefits and I didn't know what else do with my life yeah I see you know so I'm no better than the people I think that they're lost right now

and they don't know what to do their lives and you know and maybe they have a talent inside of them and they don't know what that is and they need to discover it they need to hone it like I did but you know there's so many variables to success you know and there's so many talented people out there like myself like yourself right that don't have opportunities coming to their door like we have you know not to say that we don't put ourselves in the position to get those opportunities but some people are doing the best they can and still won't get that right so it's very real like the world is very unfair you know and I always try and express gratitude and give back however I can in the industry and with people I meet and always people with respect

you know I never looked down to anyone or talked down to anyone because right like it's because of my gifts my genetic gifts you know that I'm able to get to where I'm at today because if other someone else have the same gifts as me and the same opportunities why wouldn't they be where I'm at yeah you know yeah I mean it's important I think it's important like it's cool how your your story of you know going and dealing with the drug use and where you're at in your life and what you've gone through I know obviously your childhood and you're kind of being without a father, without father figures, and then going to this place here you're at now, I mean, it's inspiring to a lot of people, for sure, which is obviously why

you're, you are where you're at. Did you think that you were going to get here? Like, and at what point were you starting to realize, like, so before you had anything, did you always have, I always ask this question, I was always curious about this. Did you, did you have a feeling that like you were going to have success despite everything? Like, was there something inside you that was like, you know, I just know that something good is going to happen to me or for me. and then looking back like did you at what point were you like oh I feel this this is happening so the two part question so the first part is did you know that you're going to have it absolutely no right and I struggled with self-esteem for a long time so self-esteem got me through bullying

when I was a teenager I worked out and I built my self-esteem I gained confidence and the when you were skinny crackhead that's right when I was skinny crackhead exactly nice bully saw me that I was confident bullying stopped right but you know fast for a couple of years to being you know a young adult early 20s and there was a lot of anxiety about how sustainable what I was doing was because even what I'm even today I question this sustainability of what I'm doing and how long that can last and what's going to happen five years from now right there's always new kids on the block in the industry that are exploding

in social media and you know in the spotlight and you can't always be in the spotlight forever right no one's always gonna not everyone's always gonna care what you're doing you know what you're saying so now I'm in the spotlight and I'm taking the advantage of it the best I can and trying to make a good decision with my money

and trying to make this last as long as I can and create a security net for myself but that anxiety that I had in my early 20s has not gone anywhere it's still there today because I fear, you know, the sustainability of what I'm doing. And also I fear that I'm not making the best stitches I can make to be prepared for my future, you know, from when I'm 40, right? Because I can't do what I'm doing now at 40 or even at 35, right? I need to evolve. What's that version

of a lot are going to look like? I don't know. And that's what gets me anxiety, you know? The fear of the unknown, you know? And that fear, that anxiety has been there since my early 20. But isn't this interesting, this concept right now, this same fear you talk about your early 20s and you have now of the unknown? And I'm just speaking, this is me like, I'm not saying that I don't have fear of future and I do and I live in that life too and I live that daily. But I always find this interesting now just listening to this whole conversation is that like at one point though when you had you had nothing, you didn't even know like to fear it. Like you meaning like you had the same fear then that you probably have now, but look where you are now, right? Right. Like you've made it this far.

There's a coping mechanism. Yeah. Right. And that cope mechanism for me is critical thinking and being logical. And what that means, what that means for me is the humans in general, every human, right? Our greatest ability is to adapt. So when I arguably, you know, had nothing, I adapted to that situation, right? And if I were to lose the luxuries that I have today, the privileges that I have today,

it would suck, it would suck, but you would adapt to the situation, right? And you would figure out a way to cope with it and to live with it, and that would just be your day-to-day life. So, you know, these luxuries and these privileges that I've accumulated over the years, you know, that, you know, I do my best not to take for granted where to be gone, right? And I was to revert back to the 19-year-old Larry that had nothing, right? you know I understand that the happiness from the wealth from the materialistic items I've had along the way from the lifestyle that I've created for myself is not fulfillment right because and I'm struggling to explain this but if you get a new car after a couple of months it's not exciting anymore you know just another car you know like the feeling of you getting your first car and getting a Lamborghini is the same. It's the same excitement. It's the same fulfillment. So what really fulfills me and that's what I'm struggling with now as well, right? Like, where is it fulfillment coming from? Right? Because this all ties into your question, your first question, right? That, you know,

that anxiety of the future and, you know, how I felt back when I didn't have anything, any creature comforts, right? I didn't have any luxuries. Well, no, I told you know, fulfillment, you know, fulfillment for me is what I'm working on right now I'm working out where in my life what area of my life is giving me the most fulfillment yeah right is it a big house is it you know zero's in my bank account is it wealth in general is it or is it from challenging myself and overcoming that challenge in whatever way that might be it's physically mentally and when I reflect on that I realized, you know what, I was happiest when I was hitting PRs because I was overcoming challenges.

Yeah. Right now, right now, you know, the PR stopped. So it's like that level of fulfillment from all actors of my life isn't there. So I need to voluntarily create challenges for myself to feel that same fulfillment. And that's challenging, you know? That because I think over time, you know, you get accustomed to luxuries anyways, right? And you take them for granted. I think it was Dan Blasarian who said in an interview, like having a chef, you know,

he was like, they were asking him, what's like having a chef? He's like, it's normal. I mean, you got used to it. Having a living chef, eating Michelin, Star meals, every meal the day, and you get used to it, you know? Yeah. You have your favorite food. Every meal the day, you get used to it. So I'm trying to hone in on that, you know, because I don't.

want to be driven by wealth I want to be driven by like what's fulfilling and I know it's not well wealth wealth is a byproduct of what of the challenges I create for myself yeah right so challenging myself to say okay Larry you know you have this goal you're gonna get a world record and powerlifting which I did and I did it three times over and that was hugely fulfilling you know that really was fulfilling and that's something I can always look back at and be proud of and I can tell my kids you can tell family friends and you know and they all feel the same way. And moving forward, you know, it gets a bit more challenging to find that same level of

fulfillment from anything, you know? It just gets more challenging, you know? Yeah, I mean, it's a part of life, man. It's a part of growing up. It's a part of getting older. It's a part of like doing things. It's a really interesting thing because as I look back, it's like I've done a ton of shit that like obviously I don't do all the same things now. And I've had a lot of success like in the social media space and, um, and my evolution through it. But just it's a very, very human thing of, you've done a bunch of shit you've accomplished a bunch of stuff now it's you can't keep doing the same thing over and over again like you can't keep accomplishing the same goals um now it's figuring out like where do you continue to move forward that like you said you feel most passionate and most

fulfilling because you're right like money and all this shit is all it's all cool it all comes and goes it at the end of the day when you're gone it doesn't mean anything right it all means like the thing that matters the most is like I would say kind of how you leave people that have been in throughout your life and how you kind of leave them, I don't want to say behind, but that's what matters the most is how you've, how you've affected people. So I think for you and I'm not over here telling you what you should or shouldn't do, just keep evolving in the space of like how you're interacting and how you're connecting with people, whether be on social or in person and business relationships, friendships, the things that's

I've obviously realized like I've done a really good job in my life at like being good at business stuff, being good at like that's up. But for me, it's like I've started to realize I'm getting more fulfillment in my personal life by like really trying to develop more personal relationships because that was something that I really struggled with for years, whether it be like having like a really strong friendship and not just focusing on like all the other bullshit that I had to get done and do. It's just about what I'm saying and talking to what you're saying is just it's never always going to be the same. And for even people listening, like it's not supposed to be the same where you're like, you know, my fulfillment, the thing is making me happy

today and the thing that you're crushing or doing well, like it's never always just going to stay the same like you know one has this like upwards shit forever it's always up and down just a matter of like being able to roll with it and like make moves as you move along and go okay now I really find fulfillment doing this or I really find enjoyment doing that but I think the thing that you'll kind of never not find fulfillment in is in other people so learning how to connect with people and I think the internet has made like a really great uh has has become and it is a really great opportunity for a lot of people to just continue to connect with people like obviously this type of platform this type of space this type of conversation but just in general like keep keep giving right because

you've done so much you've you've accumulated so much but in in like giving is really when you continue to receive and feel feel feel fulfilled because yeah man like all the bullshit jewelry money whatever just it just doesn't mean anything and you get it and you keep getting more and then it's just a number on a screen and it's cool and obviously like we all want that and we all chase that but at the end of the day it's not the thing that you're going to be like wow when i'm when i'm gone like when i'm going and this is, I'm so happy I had more of, you know, you're going to be happy that you had more conversations, more good moments, good experiences, more learning moments, like you said, more challenges. So now it's just as you're evolving, getting older, it's just figuring out, okay,

what are the, what are the things now that are really challenging me that are making me feel fulfilled in those challenges? So, I mean, dude, you've been crushing it for a long time. I'm proud of you, for real. Yes, sir. Thank you. Because I, you know, I've seen you do the Dubai thing. I've seen you continue to grind and continue to go and challenge yourself. And it's, it's inspiring and I'm genuinely proud of you man for all you're a good dude solid fucking guy

um I just want to say all that um yeah dude you're fucking you're great and uh yeah that's yeah you know it needs to be said so perfect that I think that's a good note to wrap it up huh well yeah I wanted to wrap it up but I also wanted to

I wanted to figure out like um we don't have audience questions still Jacob because normally at the end of every episode we'll do audience questions oh sure so if you guys want to send questions to to i know i hadn't done this the last few episodes but ask rottalk at gmail.com if you guys want to talk to myself and the guests we'll answer like three at the end we don't have any jacob do you have any audience questions oh yeah thoughts on younger kids taking steroids right

and thoughts on younger kids taking steroids oh great one thank you jacob that's a great one i love the trend twins yeah yeah i love the trend twins first off they're adorable yeah i want to get them on you they're adorable you're funny they're adorable they're adorable oh my god don't disrespect to them no no of course you know they're great i fucking love them but you know just the username alone yeah right and people in the position of yourself me trend twins like we have their obligation we have the responsibility to promote a positive message to the youth to the next generation right that's what we're here for now you know when we were coming up we had our mentor to we're looking up to and listening to and our role models and now we are

said more models right so the what we're doing I believe shouldn't definitely not be copying pieces for anyone out there you need to create your own path yeah you know and when we spoke a lot about stories today yeah and right that was my path that got me to to where I'm at today it was a variable that got me to where I'm at today yeah right it was a one of many variables it was a massive risk too massive risk 100% but anyone watching

literally anyone right the likelihood that they will be able to make a career out of using steroids right and pursuing any sport

where they feel they have to use steroids for strongman power lifting bodybuilding for example arm wrestling even arm wresters at the top are jacked

they're enormous they're on the top arm wrestle right now you would die if I told you of what he's using on a regular basis for steroids yeah it's insane you would fall over you know it's ridiculous so it's a really big part of being at the top of your respective sport whatever that is yeah and i feel that by you know we have to put in a positive message but also be real with people watching and

if you're trying to be a pro level bodybuilder you have to use steroids if you're trying to be a world record breaking power lifter not in the ipf where's drug tested but in a non-drug organization against other drug tests on non-drug tested athletes then you have to use steroids right if you want to be at the top of arm wrestling you want to be number one you have to use steroids because the competition's using it but also you have to ask yourself do I really even have the potential to get there you know do you even have like be real with yourself do you have like do I have the potential to be Mr. Olympia right in classic and open probably not you know by being room myself no I don't you know some

argue otherwise, but I think most of us would agree that if no matter what I take, right, there are just limits to what you can do. Not matter how many steroids you take, there are just your genetic limits that are very real, right? And that goes across not just bodybuilding where it's all about aesthetics, but about your match strength potential, if that's arm wrestling, a palathing a strong man. Like if I want to be the world strongest man, I'd be competing against giants. People like Thor and Eddie were 400 plus pounds. It was 460. Yeah, this is something you definitely, I think, you experienced when you were trying to do the strong man stuff yeah i'd be competing against little giants like six eight six nine yeah i'm not yeah i'm not a giant slayer you know

so got to be very real in your goals and then again you know look at your family history do you have a history of having heart attacks in the family you know like my grandfather had to have a heart attack like he was only in his 50s he died very young of a heart attack you know so what is that spell for me you know it's probably in my genes that maybe i'm more prone to have a heart attack. You know, does I mean I should use steroids to make myself more likely to have a heart attack? Just an example, right? But it's not like a yes or no answer. Like do, you know, young kids, should young kids use steroids, right? Because there may be a kid out there watching. It could be the next Mr. Olympia or it could be the next world, strongest man. Of course. Right. But it's just

steroids. It's just a part of that. It's you want to be number one in non-sug tested sport. Yeah. So you're right. I mean, that's all, all really, really solid advice. And I'm glad you said that. I think then And if, you know, that's the stance. And I agree with that stance. I think you have to be very cognizant of all these things. You have to be very thoughtful of them because it's a serious decision. I think then this is kind of reminds me the conversation I have with Chris Seabom on the full SEM pod and the conversation I've had with tons of people who have like great success at a thing. They would have done the thing without anything almost, meaning like they loved it so much. They loved while they were doing it so much that like it really meant something

to them. And I, so what I think is happening interesting now with kids today is they go, oh, whether it be the trend twins or whoever on, whoever on YouTube, right? They're like, oh, they're doing this. I want to do that because they're doing it. Not just like, I want to do this because like there's something that I really believe I really like genuinely want. Because it's interesting now because it's now it's like just, it's just being a social media star. So that's why it's becoming more of like this, I think like more and more kids are doing it because without even them being like, oh, I want to be Mr. Olympia or I want to be top level bodybuilder, top level, you know, powerlifter. They just want to be top Instagram star.

That's a very valid point about you brought up. When I was, and I won't make this long. Yeah. When I was first starting to, when I was getting into powerlifting, it was common knowledge. Powerlifting do not make money. Yeah. Right?

But I did it because I loved it. And I didn't do it in the beginning because of likes or engagement because I didn't even know, as you know from the beginning of the podcast, I only was accepting 700 a month for what I was doing at the time with like nearly a million followers, right? I didn't even. Yeah. Yeah, and I heard that.

I was like, what are you doing, though? Let's fix that. Right, exactly, right? I had no idea that influencers could make anything significant, you know, maybe a few hundred bucks and free supplements and free clothes. So that was not, I didn't care about that. Like, I didn't see any potential in that, you know? So I genuinely did it because I was obsessed with powerlifting and I wanted to be the best, right?

And that doesn't mean using steroids was justified, but I genuinely saw the potential of myself at a very young age because I would compare myself to those who were the best and how old they were, how old I was, and okay, you know what? Okay, a couple of years, I can definitely, because of where I'm at right now, after doing it for a short time, surpass that, or if not, at least equal it, right? So the likelihood of me succeeding from using it, right, and doing what I love to do, was very high, and I saw it was worth the risk, right? But is a 17 or 18 or 19 year old, right, experience enough or wise enough, right,

at that age to make that kind of decision? Right. That's where it's tough, man. That's a thing. So like when I started social media and when I started fitness and bodybuilding all this stuff, there was no there was no like, oh, there's Bradley Martin or there's some guy doing this. I'm going to do it like him. I was just like Instagram literally had just started. I was just posting random shit on Instagram. So my whole point is to say like my success in it. Yeah, I tried competing, but like I was like fuck this and I kind of just stuck to like making content because there was no outcome. I was just like I just really love the gym. like I loved it more than anything and I didn't really have much direction in my life outside of like just training and and it was like everything to me that everything else wasn't like I just felt fucking pretty much terrible all the time unless I was in the gym because of my thoughts and what I was doing to myself mentally and then when I was in the gym it all kind of disappeared so it's an interesting thing like I did the gym and like the gym was just what I loved and then when Instagram came out there wasn't someone to be like I'm going to be a social media influencer make money there was zero reference point of this I was just like literally download the app when it first came out and I'm just posting like my client and and like my life and what I was doing and then eventually videos come out and I'm just posting like oh I'm working out and this is what I'm doing and I'm athletic I can jump out of pools and I did all these things and it caught wind and like now it is what it is today but I just find

it interesting the same concept that I'm saying is I just did it because I loved it like just literally just working out and then just anything they came along with it which a lot of times too were like a lot of great conversations met a lot of great people but same thing with like bodybuilding the people who really excel at these things are people who would do them without being like the money, the fame, the popularity. They would just do it without no matter what. So I think if you can say I would do this without any of that, then maybe that's something for your decision.

Like, okay, if you're going to go down that road and take it, then take it if that's really in your heart. Because that's the difference, right? Like if you could ask yourself, am I doing this just because I want popularity and money and you have to be fucking genuine with yourself. You have to be vulnerable. You have to be like raw with yourself. Like, is this why I'm doing it?

Is it because I just want to. to make money and I want to be popular like Larry Wheels or whoever then maybe it's not the best choice right that's that's kind of like where I would start to make your decisions if you go if like doing this stuff really genuinely makes you feel fulfilled then then it's a different question you know so I think that's the thing in regards to all these things like how do you make these decisions versus like if it's right or wrong I think you just kind of know in your heart like if you if in your back of your mind that voice is like you know if you're honest with yourself I'm doing this for money then maybe it's not the best choice you know and I think that's like the only

you can't we can't sit here and say don't do this don't do that or you should this or you shouldn't do that but we can sit here and i think i think speak from a position of like if it's really in your heart then maybe it's for you because it's hard to say right we can't say you you have the genetic genetics or you don't have the genetics because we're speaking it we're talking about kids that's right right i think regardless though there is some like level of like yo if you're 18 17 18 you probably shouldn't be doing it you should probably learn this is also really important too learn how to train learn how to diet learn how to drink enough water get enough sleep all these things that are really going to actually benefit you like 10 times more than anything

that if you don't have that stuff set up like it's a problem right because i think it's just a problem now because we got so many kids who are like really prematurely jumping into that right so first year training yeah it's like bro you know many times i hear kids would be like probably working out for two years i want to get on i'm like what the fuck are you talking about dude you don't even know how to fucking eat right that's right that's right that's like yo can you eat like are you on fucking point with your eating are you on point with your sleeping on you on point with your water like if you're doing those things and maybe have that consideration if not like you're just setting yourself up for like problems right so see what your natural limit is and it's going to be a

long time for a 17 year with to figure that out but it's hard it's hard for you to say that because you you just said fuck it that's right that's why I'm a hypocrite saying that yeah but right now you know hindsight there's hindsight and had and but you also said if I would do it all over again would I yeah yes fuck it's so tough I mean there's no right decision dude obviously that's how life is right it's really what risk it's not so black and white yeah it's not you know it's really not black and white but i'll end that we'll end this by saying for sure we can both agree on this that no matter what you decide to do get your fucking blood work done that's 100 even if you're not going to do gear like let's just be honest

right get your blood work done just to see where you're at because like you could have some issues that like if you can just fix little things you can drastically increase the quality of your life like that's just like it's honestly i don't even care for even thinking about doing or not like you should go get it done to see what's going on in your body i think it's one of the most like underrated things that someone could do for their help yeah it's a 15 minute job and you're done you know yeah so any other question that was a good question man thank you when you look yourself up on google it says you're a musical artist what that's right if you google larry wheels it says i'm a musical artist why does it say you're music i guess i'm making hits

go what the fuck because you're hitting PRs what's the fuck did you google him that's funny dude what does it say i am it's his american youtubeer i think bradley martin dude they got me this ugly ass fucking photo never i can't even play a single instrument either yo bradley martin yo he is an actor and director

what what so no one supervising that that's for sure I don't know bro that's fucking fan made I mean I do act and direct a little bit oh okay so it's not a real false a little directing um anyways dude thank you for coming on thanks for having that was amazing fucking yeah i'm proud

of you man a lot of growth a lot of progress for real proud of you and good to have you at the gym good to see you their training fucking motivated to me it's amazing it feels good i see you and they're like pretty much like every other day training you're crushing it bro i'm motivated man yeah you're serious about this physique thing 100% yeah once i hit that vacuum like oh you're like i could do that shit yeah it's kind of cool actually that guy i know because I've seen your, you be on your fucking stories like posing and shit. Yep. Yeah, it's dope, man.

Yeah. But, well, thank you for coming, man. Let them know where they can find you, obviously, Instagram, YouTube, everything, right? Of course. Yep, I'm on all platforms. Yeah. I'm active everywhere. Larry wheels across literally everything. Easy.

I haven't got a Facebook going on, posted like six times a day there. Damn, that's what's up. Hell yeah. All of it. Thank you for coming. Subscribe to the channel. We're on iTunes. We're on Spotify.

We're on YouTube. Drop a good review. I don't even know if you can review on Spotify, but if you're on iTunes. Please drop a good review. I love you guys. We're out of here. Thank you. Peace out. Take care, guys.