The Nick Bare Podcast - 069: Russel Orhii’s Champion Mindset That Is Revolutionizing the Sport of Powerlifting

Episode Date: June 3, 2024

In this week's episode, I am excited to welcome world champion powerlifter Russel Orhii. Russ was the first athlete I ever signed, and he truly embodies the DNA and culture of BPN. His incredible work ethic and commitment to authenticity are revolutionizing the sport of powerlifting. During our conversation, we covered everything from training tips to the culture of his sport and the sacrifices required to achieve greatness. This is an inspiring and informative conversation you won't want to miss. Save 10% at BPN Supps: https://bit.ly/nickbare10audio Follow for more:  IG: https://www.instagram.com/nickbarefitness/ YT: https://www.youtube.com/@nickbarefitness Keep up with Russ:IG: https://www.instagram.com/russwole/ Topics: 0:00 Intro 1:04 Welcome 2:45 Being hyper-focused 7:22 There’s no blueprint 11:37 How Russel starting lifting 15:01 The athlete mentality 18:30 Why powerlifting has stayed so niche 22:44 Capturing content in the fitness space 24:44 Preparing for the powerlifting championship 28:04 Tips for traveling to competitions 35:02 Cutting weight before competitions 38:59 Eating and hydrating for races and competitions 45:49 There’s no room for pride while running an ultra 49:58 Gaining inspiration to be great 55:59 Mental preparation for performance 59:07 Sacrificing for the end goal 1:02:34 Taking your craft seriously 1:05:33 Building community 1:14:04 Russ being the first BPN athlete

You personally as an athlete, or do you want to take your career? But also in that process, what do you hope happens to the sport of powerlifting with the way that you're building your personal and professional branding career as well? Powerlifting is still behind like bodybuilding. I feel like now the run stuff is kicked off. So it's behind that now for sure. I just want it to be in a space to where it's big enough to where like Nike, Under Armour, like these different companies look at it.

It's like, yo, that's a viable thing to go. go at, we want to get to that point. Why do you think it hasn't reached that attraction yet? When you look at power lifters, sometimes like you said earlier, the notion is that they're fat, you know, they're out of shape and, you know, they don't train with a certain type of energy. I think that kind of holds us back sometimes and people don't realize that. When you have that subculture within the power of the community, you put up a barrier for people to come in and I just want to keep shattering those barriers and making sure that it's as easily

accessible as possible. This episode is a long time coming. We have Russell Orhey, six national titles, two world championships, currently peaking for IPF worlds in Lithuania in five weeks? Yeah, basically, yeah. Five weeks to represent Team USA and BPN athlete, world class powerlifter. Russ, what's up? That was a solid-ass intro, bro.

Appreciate it. That's all you. Yeah, I know. I appreciate it. it. Yeah. Yeah. How's it going, man? Good, dude. How have you been? I've been good, man. I mean, ever since like the retreat, I feel like because we had the BPN retreat with the athletes, all that kind of stuff, it gave me like a healthy perspective of what I want to accomplish for the rest of this year. So just hearing out a lot of the goals that BPN had for kind of like reestablishing themselves and

like you coming back into the fold, it kind of re-motivated me in a sense. It's like, yeah, I want to make sure that I'm doing these things for this year as well. So, yeah, I was listening to your podcast where you're recapping nationals. Yeah. And very well done and super transparent, which I really enjoyed. And at the end, you talked about BPN Athlete Week, which we had in Nashville a few weeks ago. Yeah.

And, you know, I personally used that as an opportunity to bring in the athletes, build some camaraderie, but also to share from my perspective what I experienced as a founder as an entrepreneur this past year. to be more transparent with the team with you guys. And I personally got a lot out of that week, bringing everyone together and then aligning vision moving to the future. But listen to your podcast. I resonated with a lot of things you were talking about towards the end

in terms of just having all these different opportunities, businesses, athletics, family, personal passions. and then ending some hyper-focusing on others. It's like right now you're hyper-focused on competing, on powerlifting, the sport, athletics, you as an athlete. Yeah. I feel like over the last, I mean, you know me since like, what, 2018-18-ish?

Yeah. I've tackled and done so many different things from that point in time. When I first came in and started doing social media and powerlifting and all that kind of stuff, I was just focused on that aspect of it. And then as you keep growing, and expanding, you think that you need to be doing all these different things because your peers are doing those things. So, for example, I'm in the Houston area. So that's like with,

Christian Guzman and like Max Chulay, Heidi, something. Like all these different people, they're starting and building businesses. I'm thinking, let me do that too. Let me start building my own stuff. But I didn't realize that it would start taking away from what I'm doing in the sport aspect of things and me as an athlete. And it just kind of reached ahead. I feel like in 20, 23. And I'm like, I don't actually enjoy doing this part of it when I actually like being as an athlete. So I want to kind of come back and bring everything back and focus on that specifically. Do you think you started doing things because not necessarily because you wanted to do it, but because people in your corner were saying, this is what you have to do in the next phase.

Because in your podcast, Recapping Nationals, one of the things you talked about was, I mean, launching a merch brand, which was Get Better Today. Yeah. And I remember when you launched this. And it was at the same time you were kind of designing shoes. I remember you were like drawing shoes and shipping shoes out. Yeah. And that was probably what, 2018?

Yeah, 2018, 2017, like around that time. Yeah, I remember that. You kicked off every video writing the quote in the whiteboard. And then eventually you rebranded, get better today to better. And then recently you kind of turned off better. Yeah. But you had to go through these evolutions of trying and testing, but I'm assuming you're doing these things and pursuing growth, partly because you wanted to pursue growth in your type A person,

but also people in your corner were saying, this is what you have to do next. Yeah. This is what you have to do next. And in reality, it starts pulling away from sometimes your true passions of why you're actually doing it. 100%. Like for me, I think, I mean, you. could definitely relate. Like, I feel like you're a type A person. The best way I know how to describe you because people, ever since you started doing the hybrid, bro, like, you've become like a legend

to think between me. But the best way I know to describe just you is like, I feel like, okay, so we're sitting in this room, right? People will come in and be like, oh, I want this room black. And then days will pass and the room is not black. I was like, the difference between you and like someone like Nick Bears that he'll come in and say, I want this room black. By the end of the day the room will be black. That's the way I would describe it. So I used to have this phrase, which I still have, but I think I took it too far. I took it to just a different direction to have to go. I would start the year and say, I want to do something this year that's going to scare me, right? So that just means tackle a new adventure or new business venture or something like that.

In 2019, I said, I want to open a gym, right? And I kept making excuses as to why I can't do it why I shouldn't do it, expenses, maybe not being able to build a business itself. But once the end of 2019 came, I was like, all right, I'm going to start the gym. That's like another thing that took away from me being an athlete. Same thing with better as well. I moved it from being just merch. And I feel like running merch is a lot different from running an actual branded company. So I took from I took Get Better Today to better. And that pulled away from what I was initially doing as well. And I started realizing, I'm like, bro, I'm doing all these different things that I actually don't want to do. And then within the infrastructure, you have people telling you like,

yo, you need to do this. We need to build this. I'm just like, I have no interest in doing that for it. So that's like kind of where I'm at now. And it's like, yo, let's just hyper focus on being an athlete. And then if we want to trickle into different aspects of what being an athlete is for different ventures and growing and expanding, then we can do that. But I feel like now it's a lot more simplified with me just focusing on lifting and just being the best healthy I could possibly be. Have you seen since closing the gym, corrupted strength, putting a pause on better, have you seen that positive impact and influence your training, your mindset, your focus? What? Yeah.

Hell yeah. I feel like now I'm as creative as I've ever been. I feel like the ideas are a lot more crystal clear. I feel like I wake up with a purpose. I don't know if you, I don't know if you can relate, but like, do you feel kind of, um, bog down when you know you have meetings for the day. Oh, 100%. Yeah.

100%, dude. Yeah. Does your mind kind of flow in those meetings? You're like, I'd much rather be running or like lifting weights or like, you know, something different. I don't know if like. For me, it's, I know certain meetings are necessary to share vision and keep the organization on track.

But also I know what else I could do with that time outside of having a meeting that's locking me down. Yeah. where I'm a type of person where I like to just clear my schedule sometimes and be able to just do deep work. Yeah. And just think creatively or go for a run or work on a video because I don't think you truly move the needle from meeting to meeting to meeting. You might provide better and effective communication or share ideas, but you're not actually moving the needle in the meeting itself. you're getting a line so outside of the meeting you can actually move the needle.

So we now only do one meeting per department each week with this team. We call it an L10. So we have one big leadership meeting each week for the team. We have one big brand meeting each week for the team. And they last 90 minutes. And we just address and solve issues that we're experiencing from the previous seven days. But I try to turn off. as many meetings as possible.

If it were up to me, I'd be in like two meetings a week and that's it. Yeah. I think, so like I've been thinking about that as well. Like I'm trying to find that balance of realizing like some things are necessary because I'm the type. I'm like, I don't want to do this. I don't have to do this. I'm not going to do it.

So like with going back to better, I'm like, there's things I just didn't want to do. And I realize very quickly, I'm like, I hate being a boss. being a CEO. I hate telling people what to do. And I'm like, well, I don't necessarily have to do this if that makes sense. I'm like, I don't really have to run this company if I don't want to. This doesn't have to be a thing. I could just go back to lifting and being fine and then restructuring. Oh, sorry, now I'm like sitting down and restructuring. I'm like, maybe if I just kind of pull back and breathe a little bit, I could rebuild and think about how I actually want to do it versus doing it the way that I've seen others do it and then strapping myself down and like forcing

myself to do it the way that other people are doing and being unhappy. I mean, that's one of the best realizations is that there's no blueprint. Yeah. I fell into the same trap the last couple years where you look at all the other businesses and brands and entrepreneurs and they're all sharing their blueprint. Yeah. So you figure, well, this is the blueprint to go from point A to point B. So you start plug and playing and you realize I don't like this blueprint.

And then you typically, like for me at least, it wasn't like a pivot. It was like a hard stop. Yeah. I'm going to build the way I want to fucking build. Yeah. And no one's going to tell me otherwise. Yeah. I feel like there's a lot of different things.

Like I said, like when we first started, there's a lot of different examples I had around me. And I'm like, oh, okay, I need to hire this person. I need to hire this person. I need to keep this person in house. like all that kind of stuff. And then it might work for those people. Like it might be fine for them. But for me it wasn't working.

But I'm thinking this is what I have to do. And then now I'm like completely, like I was completely unhappy doing all those kind of things. And then trying to be an athlete as well. And I'm like, let's first of all, let's stop. Let's reevaluate and figure out how can we build back into a space where I actually want it to be

and what I want my company to actually be. Yeah. Yeah. So let's go back a little bit. you know, before you built your personal brand and these companies and the gym and you want all these titles, I want to know, like, how did you discover strength? How did you know at what point you had the ability to be strong, probably not realizing how strong you potentially could be and you are right now? But what was that inkling of recognition that I think I got something here?

I would say probably when I was in, probably like junior high. So I played high school football and in Texas that's like religion. So when I was in junior high, I started lifting with the linemen. So I played running back, but I was lifting with the bigger guys. And the lifting groups were kind of based on positions. So it's like, you know, wide receivers, running backs, quarterbacks, lives with each other. And then linemen and defensive players lived with each other. And they're typically stronger. But I was lifting with those guys. And my coaches were very very very much. very like, damn, this guy could really move weight. And just to keep the story a little bit short, the story a little bit shorter,

whatever I progressed into high school, it started, it started getting a little bit abnormal. I'd feel like, because I came in one morning, because I would go into the fieldhouse and lift weights. One morning, and no one really believes me when I say that, but I squatted like 585 pounds as a, I think I was a sophomore in high school. So I was like 16, 15, squat in like almost 600 pounds. Would you weigh that?

I weighed probably like 175 or something like that. Yeah. And it's like, no one believes me when I say, but I did it like with my coach and I actually popped something in my back. So I had to take muscle relaxes after that. And then I tore my ACL and all that kind of stuff. But then I realized I'm like, okay, damn, like I think I'm pretty strong. Fast forward to college.

I walked down at Texas Tech. And then I realized during that walk-on process, I was like, I just like lifting weights. I like being strong. So I started going to the gym I had a friend that was into powerlifting And like west side barbell and all that kind of stuff He's like hey bro like I don't know if you noticed But your big three like your Ben Squad and deadlift

It's very comparable to high level lifters that are lifting right now And I was like oh shit Let me just start power lifting So I went to uh at this point I was living back in Houston I was going to U of H I went to the U of H piloting club and then I's That's how my journey basically started So when you first started lifting like what were

you know, when you were testing out your bench, squat, deadlift, do you remember what weights you were throwing up? Like in high school or probably high school? I remember there's a picture of me like on social media. I benched 300 pounds as a senior. I remember that. And then my squad was like 565. And then we didn't do deadlifts. We did we did power cleans. I think I power clean like 335 or 315 or something like that. And then to give context, like what? to your big lifts right now. All time meat lifts and then just train gym lifts. Yeah.

So I'll go gym lifts because that's like a lot cooler. Gym lifts, I've squatted 785 and then I've benched 463. And then I've deadlifted 805, weighing like 200 pounds. Significant progress over the years. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. Good programming. What I love about the way you approach. powerlifting and just like fitness in general is it is like this mamba mentality.

Yeah. It's like this champion mentality. And, you know, me growing up being in the bodybuilding strength training space, there was always like this stereotype around power lifters. Yeah. We were like they were generally overweight. Yeah. They didn't look like bodybuilders.

They were eating a bunch of calories and just training a lot. And then I think you have, and this is not just me assuming this, but I think you would agree. And so a lot of other people, you have revolutionized the sport of powerlifting where there's a different look, there's a different mindset, there's different approach. I think the fitness space in general has evolved as well. But like you have brought this new respect to powerlifting, this new discipline to powerlifting. was that intentional or was that just transferring your discipline from the way you were raised and playing sports into the sport and treating it like the sport that it is as opposed to just a way of training. Yeah, I think it's just the athlete mentality for me.

Whenever I stopped playing football and I gave a lot of effort towards football, I just realized at the very end, like this isn't something that I want to keep chasing. I like the process of being a football player, but I don't actually like being a football player. I took it very serious. Like, even when I was super young going to elementary school, I would train. Like, I would run to the, to the elementary school gym and just, like, like, work out and all that kind of stuff. And then when I started doing power which I noticed that a lot of people, which it's like a subculture within palofting, it's like don't take yourself too serious. Like everything is a joke.

Everything is like we're chilling. If you go to a palis-specific gym, everyone is just kicking back and like laughing and taking forever in between sets. That's why you have that stereotype, that power just take forever to lift because they're always hanging out. And then when I came in, I was like, bro, if I'm giving something this much attention and this much time, I want to make sure that I'm actually giving it that much attention to time if that makes sense. So if I'm going to be at the gym for five hours, which I'm not at the gym for five hours, but if you're going to be at the gym for that long. I've seen people train for five hours.

Yeah, which to me, it's ridiculous, especially if you're just standing around, you know. But if I'm going to be at the gym for two hours, I'm going to make sure that those two hours are intense. Those two hours have purpose. Some people would just like to go and hang out. And I realize I'm like, no, this is not how you, there's no way, there's no form of that exists that you just casually become great. So when I go into the gym, it's like, it's like a commitment. Every single time I pull up, it's a commitment over and over and over again. So I realize I'm like a lot of people don't share that same sentiment and it kind of made me kind of like ostracized

in a sense because I wasn't something that people in the power of community did as much. You weren't really adapting to the community and the culture. Yeah, I came into powerlifting but I didn't become a power lifter if that makes sense. So when I came into the sport, I'm like no, I'm going to give the same discipline that I always

give to things that I care about and still attack. And I think now it's changed because now people have seen oh like this guy's making power look a little bit different, I relate to the avenue that he's taken, I want to take that route as well. Where do you want to take powerlifting? And when you are national, we kind of talk about this a little bit, but you personally as an athlete, where do you want to take your career?

But also in that process, what do you hope happens to the sport of powerlifting with the way that you're building your personal and professional branding career as well? I think the personal aspect has changed a lot. as I've gotten older because like I started palatting when I was probably like 20 21 22 and I'm like 29 turning 30 this year it's kind of weird because I'm like not an old man but I feel like I'm older now I'm like a I feel like when you reach that age of like 30ish like you call yourself like a man man oh dude I'm about to turn 34 yeah two kids I feel like I'm like I literally feel like I was just 22 years old yeah it goes by a year ago it goes by fast as fuck like I don't know you just wake up one day

you're like, shit, man, everything kind of aches a little bit more. But personally, it's changed over the year. So I would say that when I first came into Pilotsie, my main goal was to compete amongst the best piloters of the world. And I was able to achieve that. Now it's just continuing to push that boundary and, you know, seeing where I could take things as a natural athlete. But in terms of where I want Palishton to go as a whole, like I want it to be looked at

as a respectable sport amongst, like, I would say like, obviously not to the level like NBA NFL or anything like that nature, but like a UFC, a CrossFit. Remember when CrossFit was popping off? Like super crazy. I wanted to be looked at in that respect where it has those eyes. Powerlifting is still behind like bodybuilding. Shit, I feel like now the run stuff is kicked off. So it's behind that now for sure. I just want it to be in a space to where it's big enough to where like Nike, Under Armour, like these different companies look at it. It's like, yo, that's a viable thing to go at. We want to get to that point. And then also too, I want to be in Olympics. Why do you think it hasn't reached that attraction yet? Kind of what I said before.

I think, and it's changed now for sure, but I feel like it's not as cool. Like, if you look at power lifters and you actually look at who they are as individuals, not everyone, but a decent amount, it doesn't attract people to the sport. I would say like someone like yourself, I think running has exploded. I think you're one of the big reasons as to what running has exploded as of recently, people want to look and be like you. I think that's like a component of it. So if they want to look and be like you, they're going to start doing things that you're doing. When you look at power lifters, sometimes, like you said earlier, the notion is that they're fat, you know, they're out of shape and, you know, they don't train with a certain type of energy. I think that

kind of holds us back sometimes. And people don't realize that. When you have that subculture within the power of community, you put up a barrier for people to come in. And I just want to keep shattering those barriers and making sure that it's as easily accessible as possible. So I think that's kind of what I've been holding it back, just the culture of it itself. It's very niche. Yeah. People don't want other people to find out about powerlifting or start powerlifting. So let's say someone that has like a big following just starts powerlifting, they're going to get a lot of shit.

They're going to be like, man, here comes another like, I guess, influencer to start powerlifting. Like, you know, fuck this guy. Versus like, yo, let's embrace. Let's teach him the sport. Let's help them open up our sport together. but they don't really do that. Did you experience that early on or do you still experience that?

I don't think I experience it. So I'm lucky because I don't want to sound, I'm actually good at what I do. Yeah. So it's like there's, it's kind of hard to make that or to throw like stones at that, if that makes sense.

You back up. Yeah, your actions reinforce the words. Yeah. So I think often, if you see someone with a camera filming and doing all this kind of stuff and like maybe they're not backing up with their strength,

they're going to get a lot of shit and get discouraged from doing it. But now I'm at a point. I'm like, I mean, come on, bro. Like, I'm doing this for a reason or whatever.

But now, early on I did for sure. It was abnormal to film like at your meets for sure. I used to get a lot of shit for that. It used to be very difficult filming videos and creating content around powerlifting at piloting news for sure. I mean, I remember just six,

seven years ago, even taking a camera into the gym. Oh, yeah. Was abnormal. When I got to Texas, I was filming at this one gym when I was just kicking off my YouTube channel. And I was, first off, I was super self-conscious for even having a camera filming myself in a gym. It's uncomfortable. So you tried to stay out of everyone's way as much as possible.

And I got kicked out of that gym because I was filming myself because it made other members uncomfortable. And that's actually then when I found this other. gym that was right down the road in Temple, Texas, called the Fieldhouse, which was like an old school strength focused west side powerlifting gym. And that's where I actually really got introduced to strength training. They encouraged the camera. Yeah. You know, because you created and documented this community and this culture and helped share the process with other people. But I remember those earlier days when YouTube was just getting kicked off. And if you had a camera in the gym, it's like, why are you filming me and where's this footage going? Yeah, I feel like

now with social media, it's very normal for everyone to have like a, like people that don't even really do social media for real. Like, it's normal to have a camera at all times because it's cool to take pictures and all that kind of stuff. But back then, it wasn't like that. So I would try to film my training sessions. And like you said, like I would go to gyms. And sometimes I would have to get permission or not even, I would just kind of sneak my camera in and like film here and there. But it used to be a thing. It's like, yo, be careful because they might find your videos. later and tell you you can't come back. Yep.

So it just, when I first started piloting, because I started doing social media before powerlifting because I was just documenting my fitness journey and then paloftin came after, I would train with the U of H piloting team and not like they were discouraging of it, but they definitely thought it was weird as hell to like bring my camera and record and like sometimes they didn't want to be on camera. Like it was like a whole thing. Yeah. Yeah.

So right now you're five weeks out from Worlds. Yeah. Lithuania. What's the goal there? So I switched federations in 2020, what was it, 2020? Yeah, 2022. And why did you switch federations? It was like, so this is another thing, too. It was like a business decision. So I switched federations from the USAPO, which is under the, which was under the IPF umbrella, but the IPF basically kicked the USAPL out. So I stuck with them because they were saying, oh, we'll allow you guys to wear whatever equipment that you want on the platform. Because before, the IPF is very stingy about that kind of stuff.

And with me having better, I was like, oh, I could wear my singlet. I could wear my knee sleeves. I could wear my wrist wraps. And it will further encourage and like spread the brand and all that kind of stuff. That was the reason why I stayed. And then it just, it just created this is a vibe. So my goal is to just, oh, sorry, it didn't allow me to compete for, world titles. So when I'll stay in the USAPL, I could only compete for national titles. There is no

like world governing body with the USAPL anymore at that point. So there was like nothing I could do after that. But with the IPF, you get that ability to compete for world titles, compete against like Japan, France, different countries. So I was like, I just missed out on the opportunity. But now I switched back as of this year, basically. So now this can be my first worlds in about two years. Because previously when you competed at Worlds, was it Sweden? Yeah, I competed at Sweden twice, actually, which is weird. And you won both of those. Yeah.

Yeah. And then Lithuania, it'll be 83 kilogram weight class. Going into like a world title meet like that, do you know who you're competing up against? Oh, yeah, for sure. So there's, it's almost like a nominations list. So the country, like, I don't know the exact number, but I think it's like maybe 50 to 100, maybe over 100, I have no clue. Countries send their representatives.

They'll send their best people in the weight class. So I'm going against the best 83s like in the entire world. So I can look at the list right now if I wanted to and see like who's actually competing for each different country. So you have to know going into it what weights you're going to try to shoot for for each lift. Yeah, for sure, 100%. So you kind of know going into it. Like I have, if I hit these lifts, I'm bringing home the gold. Yeah.

Yeah, it's, I mean, it's athletics, though. You know, so like, you're like, if I do this, I'm going to win. But it's never that simple. Anything can go wrong. Yeah, yeah, anything could go wrong. But yeah, typically, we have an idea of what we're going to hit on the day. Granted, nothing goes wrong. And then we kind of scout to see what the competition is going to do.

Like, okay, this guy's hitting this in training. What's logical? What's reasonable that he could do on the platform? Okay, this guy trains a little bit heavier. He's going to have to cut. He's not going to be able to hit that weight on the platform. But it's a little bit different for me because I'm in a position where if I take care of my business, like it's it's kind of hard to say that someone else is going to beat me. Yeah.

Based on the numbers, you intend to hit. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. How does traveling internationally in preparation for me to affect you? Because like, I mean, this past week, I traveled to New York. I left for New York Tuesday morning. I flew back Wednesday morning. Just like that time on the plane, messing up my sleep cycle, not having my meals readily accessible, completely threw off my body.

Oh, yeah, for sure. How do you combat that? But it's tough, man. Like, what's the furthest you've ever traveled for like a running event? California. Damn, bro. Yeah. And even that I get nervous about.

Really? You know, because I'm like keeping my legs fresh. Because by the time I land after traveling all day, my legs are super heavy. They feel like center blocks. So then you get in your head thinking, all right, I'm probably a little bit of dehydrated because I didn't drink all this water on the flight. So I wasn't going to the bathroom the whole time. My legs feel heavy and stiff because they were just sitting in one position the whole time.

I'm hoping I can sleep this off and feel better the next day. I'll go for a light run. But could I have run faster if I didn't travel? Yeah. Could I have run faster if I broke up travel into three different legs? Yeah. Something like that. So I've never gone international.

Yeah. So that's like the concept of having like home and away games, right? So it's like if you're playing at home or you're competing at home, you get the advantage of sleeping your own bed and not having to move around and do all that kind of stuff. You have access to your own food. The tough thing about international travel is the international travel. So for I'm going to Lithuania from Texas, that's a 19 hour travel time, like just the travel alone, 19 hours. I'm going to be, I mean, shit, I'll probably be, it'll probably be like 22 hours full, like a full day after I'm like from my up. apartment to where I'm staying.

Dude, that's a lot. Yeah, it's a lot. And then on top of that, it's not like I'm just traveling there for business. Like, I have to go now lift a shit ton of weight, like at maximum strength. So over the years, I've gained experience. Like, luckily, my parents were very well traveled. Like, I'm not foreign travel isn't, like, unusual for me. So, like, there's little things that I've picked up that have helped with that kind of stuff.

So, number one, flying out to the. event way prior to the event is probably your best bet as much as you could handle. How early are you flying out? So I compete on a Tuesday. I'm going to be there Saturday. Okay. Yeah. So I have Saturday evening, Sunday and Monday to just kind of like get my body adjusted and regulated and normalize into the new environment. I don't know if people listening can relate, but bro, like traveling overseas is like a whole different ballgame because you're changing time zones and an aggressive rate. So I need to look at the time zone difference, but I'm sure it's like pretty significant from here. It's like, because it's near Russia or Germany.

No, no, it's near Russia. So it's pretty significant time difference. So what I like to do, and mind you, this is like if you're able to afford it or do whatever. Number one is I have to fly like business or some type of thing because I need a lay down. I need to be able to because I don't think people understand what it's like to sit on a flight with like your leg. bent for 10 hours, 11 hours, 12 hours straight. Oh, it's brutal. It's brutal, bro. Like, you're going to wake up and your knees are cooked.

So if I can help it, I typically find business because they have like those little pods that you're able to lay kind of all the way back in. And then on top of that, I try to drink as much water as possible for what you're just saying right now because your body's going to end up holding all that in. And then like I have to weigh in for a specific weight class. I can't come in bloated. You know what? I didn't even think about that.

Yeah. trying to like mitigate the travel blow and weight differences as you're trying to come in super light yeah it's tough and like even because we're in austin right now i drove from houston to austin yesterday i was bloated i couldn't use the bathroom because i simply just drove two and a half hours i saw you post that and that's why it made me think yeah because i'm thinking in my head all right you went from houston to austin you got travel bloat yeah you're about to go from United States to Lithuania. Yeah.

So I try to like, I try to drink as much fluids as possible. It's kind of tough when like you're pretty much on a plane the whole travel time. So I try to just tell them, hey, can I have more water? Can I have more water? Can I have more water? I make sure that I get to a point where when I'm peeing, it's somewhat clear because that's the best bet that you have.

And then when I land, I sleep. Literally just sleep. I try not to move around too much. If I feel extremely bloated, I might go do some cardio and drink some water just kind of get like the system going a little bit but I just sleep I literally spend maybe like a day and a half just knocked out I don't leave my bed I don't do anything and then after that I try to survey the field try to see what kind of food I could get into because America is super privileged when it comes to food very accessible very excited you could get anything you want when

you're overseas everything is very fresh and you don't have the options that you have that you have here in America like bro here we could go to the grocery store right now and buy like protein pop tarts Like that stuff does not exist in like foreign countries. It's either you got meat, vegetables, or some other stuff. So I try to figure out like what does that country work with? Like what kind of products do they have? What kind of stuff do they sell? And then once I get that nailed down, I try to, I try to eat. It's difficult as I have to weigh in as well. But I try to eat as clean as possible. The last thing you want to do is eat a shit ton of slug. salty foods and all that kind of stuff when you're traveling that long because that blow is just going to get worse and worse and worse. I don't know if you've ever been on vacation, but sometimes when I go on vacation and travel, I just can never use the restroom because. Oh, dude. If I help on a flight no matter what distance, it throws my my bowel movements off. And Steph will tell me all the time, like, I am the third person. My mood, my day, my productivity

is dependent on my routine bowel movements. Do you get irritable if you don't go or something or what? Dude, for sure, yeah. My routine in the morning, and if this doesn't happen, I'm like, what the shit is going on? I'll wake up. Literally. Yeah, literally. I'll wake up.

I have a cup of coffee and I'll go to the bathroom before I go for my run. Yeah. And then I'll go to knock out my run. I'll make breakfast. And then I'll go again. And if that happens, it's going to be a good day. Yeah, yeah. But when I wake up and I drink my coffee,

and I can't go to the bathroom before my run. I'm just like, are you kidding me? Yeah. You know what's so funny? Now that I think about it, that same shit happens to me too. Because if I have to use a restroom at the gym, I get pissed. I get mad because normally when I wake up, I use the bathroom, shower, you know, whatever. But yeah, I try my best to just like flush out as much as possible and then obviously just compete.

And if I need to lose weight, like before I actually compete, I'll do the son or something like that. What weight do you sit at, like, year round at maintenance? Probably like 195 to 200. And then you get down to like 181 for. Yeah, 180, 183. Yeah, 183. Okay. Yeah.

It's pretty like, so right now, like, with me being five weeks out, we just went to, went to, uh, went to, uh, couple of bobs, yeah. So I had to be very careful because I'm like, I mean, I'm here and awesome. I'm at home. So I have to make sure that my meals are as simple as possible. So if I go somewhere, just chicken and rice, chicken and rice or, sorry, rice and some type of protein. So right now, five weeks out.

are you actually trying to get leaner? Oh, yeah, 100%. So, like, for, do you do a water cut too? Mm-hmm. Yeah, I do a water cut and a gut cut. What's a gut cut? So you just basically push out all the solids that were in your stomach. So, like, the day before, I won't have any, like, actual solid food.

It'll be, like, liquids. And, like, maybe the only solid food that I might have is, like, ice cream or something like that. But it's basically foods that will pass through your system very quickly. Between water cut and gut cut, how much? weight can you lose? Probably like crazy stuff I've seen probably like 15 12 15. You've personally lost that? No, not me personally. I've lost probably like eight to nine. But then by the time you're on the platform after way ends, you're back up to 195? Oh, no. Not me personally. Some people maybe. So it's tricky because imagine trying to lift like max weight on a full ass stomach.

Right. Like you're just not going to. In. theory, people like to think, oh, like, wait, moves weight. The more you weigh, the better you're going to perform. But it's, at some point, it's like diminishing returns. Like, if I, if my stomach is bloated and I'm pushing against my belt and I feel like I'm going to throw up, naturally, I'm just not going to push against my belt as, as much. Because I, the last thing I want to do is throw up on the platform or shit myself on the platform. Yeah. So you have to be very careful with the, with the refueling process once you weigh in, because you're super depleted once you weigh in. And people don't realize, too, it's a two hour way. It's a

two-hour way-in versus like some other sports have a 24-hour way in. In my in my federation, we do two-hour way in. So you have to weigh in. That's tough. Yeah, 183, two hours before you're actually on the platform lifting that way. I was going to ask that because if it's 24 hours out, you have at least half time for the carbs to digest and assimilate and turn into glycogen. But two hours, that food might provide you some quit hitting, you know, energy, but you're not going to fill on any glycogen stores in two hours. No, no. So the way that we look at it is, which is interesting.

I think that's a conversation that needs to be had sometimes. Like with boxing, I know, like, boxing UFC, all the different sports, like, you could weigh in 24 hours. Bro, by the time, you could become a whole different human being in 24 hours. 20, 30 pounds. Yeah, literally. You see it all the time. Yeah.

Like, there's like this, there's this, um, Alex Perea for the UFC. he weighs in a thing like 205 and he bulks back up to 230 the next day. I'm like, bro, what's the point of having the weight class? Like, it's obviously not accurate. No, it feels like it's, I don't say cheating, but it's not, doesn't seem fair. It's not fair to me personally because other people would try to compare other palctors that weigh the same, allegedly, in different federations. I'm like, bro, they have a 24-hour weigh in. He might be 83 when he weighs him, but he's probably.

like 93, 200 pounds whenever he's actually on the platform, which isn't the case for me. So whenever I weigh in, I'm super dehydrated. Like I need water. I need all that kind of stuff. So there's like foods and little things that we do to kind of get our way back up. And ideally you want to be as heavy as possible. Once again, like you don't want to get too full and heavy with stuff to where like you're just, you know, damn near of shit and then. Uncomfortable.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the same thing happens with endurance training. where people carve up undisciplined. So for me, when I go into a race, about 48 to 72 hours out from the race, I will start my carb load. And I'll front load those carbs

and then kind of taper off the last 24 hours before the race because my goal was to front load carbs, allow them to digest, assimilate, fill out, top off muscle glycogen, but then taper off so I show up race day not feeling super heavy, but I'm fueled. And you have people who hear of the carbload but like the night before the race starts,

which gives them maybe eight to 10 hours, they'll go have all this pasta. But that pasta is like also accompanied by like Alfredo sauce and like meatballs. I'm thinking about the office. Like literally Mike was like, would you have pasta? Literally right before the race starts all. But people do that.

Like that's not an exaggeration. People who understand how to carblood. Yeah. And or the weights of the morning of to do all their carb loading. But for me, like I've always 48 to 72 hours out. I'll start a big carb load. I'll taper off. And I'll show up brace day a little heavier.

But you can tell when you're filled out with muscle glycogen. Oh, yeah, for sure. Your muscles feel tight. Your skin feels tighter. That's a successful carb up. So you can use glycogen for that performance. Yeah. And we try to achieve.

It's funny because my coach, like, one of the things that he says, like, I need to see him in veins. Like when I'm warming up and like rehydrating, he's like, I want to see the veins. Like when the vans are popping and like you're peeing clear, we know that your body's like regulated and getting back to normal. But it's difficult to do. Like you have. So when I weigh in to the point that I step on the platform, it's two hours.

But like really it's only about maybe like an hour 30 to be honest with you. Maybe hour 30, it's like maybe 45 minutes really depends. So what do you normally eat after weigh ends in preparation for? So I'll chug. So I try to chug as much water as possible. with some type of sodium or like a Piediliter or whatever, anything that has like sodium or anything like that. Candy sometimes.

Banana. My package for refueling is very simple. I feel like when you try to overcomplicate it, that's when you get issues. But for the most part, it's like you just want to get water back in because that's what you really lost. Yeah.

Yeah. And oftentimes, if you company that water with carbohydrates, carbohydrates will also help hold some of that water too. So you get those sugars in, you get the water in, some electrolytes. Yeah, and it's funny because there's been some trial and error for sure. I've seen kids, and I've been, I've done this too,

where you lose all that weight. And the first thing you're thinking is that, oh, man, fuck, I'm so hungry, right? Then you start eating just bullshit. it. So when you start eating like, I've seen people eat like McDonald's before me or whatever. Like that's not going to really help. Like what you really need if your dehydrate is obviously like liquids and fluids. You don't want to go too heavy on the solid foods as much because once again, the most important thing is to make sure that you're rehydrated and then the carbs

are going to help you perform on the platform. You need like those quick acting, quick fast acting carbs versus something heavy that's not going to kicking until much later. Yeah, you're going to be feeling that during the meat. All you're going to feel is you're just going to throw up. That's it. Have you ever, you know, you mentioned earlier, shitting yourself on the platform. Have you ever shit yourself on the platform? I've never, this is going to be weird,

but when I started powerlifting, I told myself, I think I saw someone throwing up, because that's happened. I've seen videos. Yeah, it's not, it's, it's abnormal, but it happens. I've seen someone like throw up on a ref,

like literally squatting, just vomit, right? Projecto vomit. I told myself, if I ever throw up or shit myself why I lift, I'm done. Like, I'm just not going to continue lifting. You've never done it in the training? Nah, hell not. I've done it once in a training.

You shit yourself? Yep. Wait, how? Like, dude, so Chase, Chase tuning was in town. Yeah. This was probably 2017.

And it was right as we were building out our gym. Mm-hmm. We didn't even have flooring in yet. We just had two horse stall mats from tractor supply. a deadlift. So it was a deadlift platform. We had weights and a barbell. Yeah.

So we were doing a workout in there. We were just deadlifting. And I was going for like a PR at the time. I think it was, say, 635 I was going for. And as I'm pulling it, because I used to pull like hybrid sumo. Yeah. Like frog stands or something like that? Yeah, I used to pull that way.

It was super comfortable for me. And I was very powerful in that position. And midway, the lift. I could feel it. Hell on, man. But it was going to be a PR. Nah. So I had to make this decision last minute.

I was like, do I commit or do I drop it? And I'm filming this lift too. Yeah. And I was like, in my head quick, I'm like, I want this lift for this YouTube video. So I committed to it. And I was wearing all black tights. You know, the tights were really, really in? All black tights.

And like those minimal vivo barefoot shoes. Yeah. And I got to the top of the lift Dropped it And Chase tuning comes over to me To give me a fist bump And I just, I put my hand out Like, dude, stop

Just stop And I walked away I went in the bathroom Took the tights off, wrapped them up Through him in the dumpster And we got back to the workout Fuck man

Nah Nah, man You gotta go back to the crib After that That was the one time It ever happened to me What? Nah, man

I don't know I don't think I could ever That's so Back to our earlier car conversation, if I don't use the restroom before I go to the gym, I'm going to get irritated. Because last thing I want to do, I hate this feeling. When you got the bubble guts and like you're squatting or deadlifting and like your low key like farting while you're lifting inside. I just don't like getting into that. I just don't like that. I just know I'm like, bro,

if I push too hard, I'm going to shit myself. If I even feel like anything of that nature, I just immediately just pull back. Because I just, I don't know, just something with like, I just can't. I don't know, man. I couldn't imagine leaving the gym and like, because, you know, I've smelled people that have shit themselves. There's no, like, ignoring it. Like, when someone walks by, you're like, God, damn. I know he just shit himself.

So I just never wanted to be that person. And still to this day, like, I said it recently, too. I'm like, if I ever shit myself, I think I'm a slaplifting. You should see the ultra space is so interesting because all pride, goes out the window during an ultra. Uh-huh. Especially like 100 plus mile ultra because you have to stay on top of nutrition.

Yeah. If you stop consuming calories through an ultra, you're going to balk, you're going to fall out, you won't make it through it. So like for me, I try to get 500 calories per hour in an ultra. And it can't be all clean food or you'll feel like garbage.

You'll be so overly full. So you have to start eating things that are just processed and sometimes ultra-processed. like ramen noodles or some sandwiches or I eat ramen noodles on it like you just oh you're talking about when you stop yeah you'll stop okay okay I'm like you're running and eating the noodles I'm like how you have like aid stations that make like hot ramen for you or they'll have like cassidias there there's all these things that are like calorically dense to help you fuel during these training runs or the during the ultramarathons and you know I'll start around a race with gels and G1M

sport and electrolytes and go bar or stuff like that but Eventually you get to a point where you just got to listen to your body and just eat whatever you can. There's people out there eating pizza and burgers and anything. So you're 12, 15, 20 hours into a race and you're constantly on your feet. You're eating the entire time. People's guts go all over the place where you'll be running and you just hear, it's like quiet in the night. You just hear farts everywhere. And then you'll pass people, dude.

And there's just like people on the side of the trail, pants down, squatting, going the bathroom. And you don't think anything of it. You make eye contact with them. And you're just watching them drop a load in the woods. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on.

I got like toilet paper or wipes or something? Sometimes. Sometimes. So, like, y'all would just be running with the, oh, man. It is such an interesting experience. No, your level of commitment to this running game is crazy. Have you ever share yourself running? No, but like my stomach is turned on ultras where I've been in the wood line.

Like this last ultra I did, the last man standing race. My stomach turned on me. What does that mean? Like it gets, you get diarrhea. Oh, shit. And it's fine at night because when it's dark, you go 20 feet into the woodline and no one sees you. Yeah. And you just do what you got to do and you get back on the trail.

But as the daylight comes back in the next morning, Everyone sees you. Yeah. So I remember during the last man standing, it hit me. And I sprinted off the trail. And I was like, got behind this rock where I thought I was fully covered. And as I'm squatting down going, this guy passes me. And we make eye contact as he's running it as I'm squatting down.

And I was like, oh, man, he sees me. He sees me. I don't know, bro. That's, damn, man. You know, do you know that David guy is on social media? he's like, what's up guys, I'm ready to kill this week or something. I think it's like David Clark, yeah. Yeah.

He posted he did the, I think the Boston Marathon. And he's like, I just completely shoot. He put the camera down to his legs and there was shit all over his legs. I was like, oh my God. That's commitment. Yeah. Oh, man. That's commitment.

I don't know if I, yeah. I mean, y'all are stronger than me, bro. I couldn't, if I shit myself like doing anything, I'm done. It's one of those things, like once that happens. it sounds like so animalistic, but like we're all just like, it doesn't matter if you have $100 million in the bank, zero dollars in the bank,

doesn't matter if you work on Wall Street or you work like a minimum wage job. Yeah. You go out and do these races. You're all on the level playing field. You're all hurting, sucking shit in yourself. It's an equalizer. Hey, man, y'all got it, bro.

Hell no. Yeah. Let's change course a little bit. You know, in terms of powerlifting, one of the things I said in the beginning of this podcast that I've recognized and really respect is the way that you display discipline and just respect for the sport and the way that you really hone in your craft. I've been listening to a lot of episodes of this one podcast recently that I've talked a lot about. It's called Founders.

And it's this guy named David C. Senra, he listens to and reads biographies, autobiographies of the best athletes, entrepreneurs, founders, world leaders, just like the greatest people in the world. And you find like there's these very common denominators amongst people who achieve greatness and who are remarkable what they do. And the way that you approach powerlifting reminds me of the same way that Kobe and Jordan approach basketball, where it's like this intense cutthroat intensity

where you're so confident in your craft and you don't become complacent just because you won doesn't mean you succeeded because you set this expectation, this standard for yourself that is well above what society expects from you. And you're just so focused on mastering the basics to become the best. It's not necessarily to become the biggest, but to be the best.

And one of the things you started talking about in the beginning of this episode was, you know, realizing that launching these businesses almost distracted you from the craft at what you're so great at. And I was listening to this episode talking all about Jordan, and Kobe actually on this podcast. And they're talking about Jordan and how Jordan has had all these opportunities to make all this money and be a part of all these great businesses. But the only reason he's been able to do that in his lifetime is because he mastered his one craft that only he could be the best at.

And because he focused and hyper-focused on that one thing, he then was provided all these other opportunities in life. Yeah. Do you pull inspiration from people like Kobe, Jordan, other athletes that inspire you or you resonate with in terms of the way you approach fitness, training, athletics or just your craft in general? Yeah, 100%. I mean, shit. I have a tattoo of Kobe's logo with a snake in it. I think I'm very, I mean, it's very, you could tell when someone cares about what they do.

just like when you're around them, you can see the energy in which they talk about it. And then if you're lucky enough to see them in their craft and in their practice, you could see how they actually implement those thoughts. It's very hard to describe what I'm about to say. But like the way that I train is very different. I feel like. I don't talk when I train. I don't really rest too much when I train.

I'm always moving about. You can almost like see it. I guess in my eyes, I don't know. Like the aura change. I think people kind of understand like, hey, this isn't the time to fuck with him, right? So like, we're sitting here talking, laughing. If I were to be like, okay, it's time to go work out. And I know what I have to do for my particular session, I'll slowly start disassociating

myself from you if we weren't doing like a video or anything like that. It's like you'll slowly start seeing me pull away, pull away, pull away. And it's almost like I'm on my own little zone. And I'm not talking. Like, my friends know not to talk to me in the gym. best you're going to get from me is like a head nod or something like that until maybe I get to towards the end of my workout. Maybe I'm a little bit more, you know, talking about that kind of stuff. But when you look at Kobe and you look at Jordan and you look at just high performing people in their fields, there's like a purpose and like an intent with everything that they do.

Kobe is super popular for hearing those stories about how he would be like working out in the gym at 4 in the morning, go back home, then come back to the gym at 6 in the morning to workout, go back home, then codes it back to the gym and work out like 10. And so if all these great people are doing these things and they're achieving their goals, why not take that formula to apply to yourself, right? So I try my best to look at different athletes. And I find myself getting motivated by different athletes because they take their craft serious. Like the video that we posted, or that not we, but I say that like we, the video that y'all posted yesterday with BPN. It's a we thing. Yeah.

You're on the team. Yeah, I was in the video. But it hit different for me because I'm looking at all those athletes. And I'm like, these motherfuckers take that shit serious. And not to get like, because I'm starting to get like passion and shit. But not to take it too far. There's like a popularization with like the running and all that kind of stuff and like run clubs and people are having fun. X, Y, and Z.

No, like when I was looking at those videos, I see people that like you said, like they're willing to shit themselves for this shit. Like they're willing to push themselves to the limits. They're willing to sacrifice personal relationships to make sure that they're greater this one thing. And when I see people that were put into that video to make it, I'm like, that resonates with me. It makes me feel something. And I think oftentimes there's people that do things for leisure and they mask it and like, oh, like, I really care about this. Like, you don't really care about it until you run into someone that actually does and you know what that looks like. But going back to your question, yeah, like I take away from a lot of different athletes, like you or yourself, like when I see you post that like four or five in the morning or four in the morning, whenever you're posting, I'm like,

Like that it makes me like Damn like in the back of my I'm like damn why I'm in the gym at 4 in the morning low key But it's almost like Game respects game Like when I see it I'm like okay I need to take something from there And apply it to myself to make myself better in my craft

You said something in there that I think we really should expand on Take the run club Explosion For example these run clubs across the world have blown up which what I'm about to say is not putting down running clubs by any means. These run clubs are great. But getting people to move their bodies and run absolutely incredible.

I'm a huge fan of it. But the way that I view my fitness and the way that I approach the things that I do, I'll go join these run clubs and groups every so often. But I get so much joy out of running alone, the solitude, the work. and just refining my craft and getting better because I take it super serious. So the way that you approach a workout or going to a competition or meet

and getting on the platform, all distractions are gone. I'm not here to talk today. I'm not here to joke around. When the day's done, yeah, let's go crack a beer. Let's go have a good time. And it makes me think of like when I tow the line for a marathon, like this last marathon,

I am, we had to take this bus from Sacramento out to the, I forget what the city was called, but the starting line because it's a point-to-point race. So you have to get shuttled out, it's like a 30-minute shuttle to the start line, and then you run from where they drop you off to the finish line in downtown Sacramento. And his entire bus ride, I'm going there for a PR. So I'm locked and I'm dialed in. and all these people on the bus are chatting, having a good time and laughing,

which is, again, it's completely fine if you're not taking this race super serious or this isn't the way you approach it. But for me, like, hood is up. I'm dialed in. I'm focused on the next 26.2 miles. And then we get to where we get dropped off, and I can just go like separate myself.

Hood up, stretch out, think about the race, every step, every mile. and then we go to the line you're waiting for the gun to go off and the amount of kinetic energy in my body is just so fucking electric that you're trying to control it like I can feel myself

at the starting line, the fist or just starting and I'm just looking forward and you can hear everyone around you kind of just like chirp in, laugh and having a good time which again I will reinforce it's okay but for me nothing matters

I don't hear anyone I don't see anyone I'm just thinking about those next 26.2 miles. And then when I go out there and I hit my splits, I stay on top of my nutrition strategy, I drink my water, I crush my pacing. It's because I went out there so serious with intention and I was not only physically prepared,

but mentally prepared and disciplined to execute. And you can do all the physical preparation you want, but if you don't show up to execute mentally and emotionally ready, none of that physical preparation matters. Yeah, I have a question for you. Do you find that, because this is something that I don't struggle with, but it's something I've noticed.

Have you made, like, actual friends running? Like, when you're training? No, not like when I was actually doing it. It's like, I'll have people who are friends, or I become friends with them first, and then I'm like, hey, you want to go for a run? Yeah. But while actually running,

I haven't made, there might be like a handful, but there's not many. I asked that question because a lot of people, and this is kind of going back to the poverty community and having that camaraderie ship

and all that, or how they, you know, spend time talking to the gym. I've never really made a friend because I was going, like I never made a friend at the gym. Like when I really have gone down and looked at my life,

I'm like, damn, like I've never built a relationship with someone because I've met, them at the gym. It's normally like, oh, you work out. Yeah, we work out. And we have a conversation outside of the gym. But when I'm there, I don't think I've actually made like a friend. And it's a weird thing because it just shows like I don't, I go to the gym for one thing. I've gotten bigger. I've gotten stronger. But I've never made like friends through the gym because I never

talk. I never say anything because I'm so dialed in. And it's weird. Imagine for the people listening, imagine like when you go to the gym and you're locked in trying to hit a PR, that's That's me every day. Not that I'm trying to hit a PR, but that's the level of focus that I have for every single session. And I realized some people do certain things, like the run clubs, I think they're becoming big because they're easily accessible. And also, too, it's almost like a socializing event. Oh, definitely. Yeah. So some people are going there to make friends, build community, all that kind of stuff. And it's weird because there's like a sicko aspect to like, I'm not trying to do this to make friends. I don't care about. like your day. I don't give a fuck about none of that. I care about getting better at this particular thing that I'm trying to do right now. And I find that a lot of people that I have striven or that strive to be a certain type of way or achieve a certain type of thing, it's a very lonely path because you can't spend too much time or you just have to sacrifice a lot. Like I'm sure whenever you're

prepping for races, there's things that you have to sacrifice family wise, maybe a little bit business wise to get to that to that PR that you want or to to even run shit like the like 100 miles right I there's a lot of things like the other day I was at a at a dinner with like family I just sat there like I was sitting I just sat there and didn't really indulge in the food because like obviously I got to get ready for me I got to cut all that kind of stuff but those are like little minor sacrifices that build up over the years and you look back and you're like damn like I've literally let go of a lot of different aspects of my life in my life in order to be good at this one thing And I find that people like Jordan, like Kobe, shit, Serena Williams, like all the great athletes, great people that achieve great things, it comes with sacrifice.

If you sack like, it's almost like an equation. If you're willing to sacrifice this much, you're probably going to achieve this much, right? If you're not willing to give up certain things, you can only go so far, which, I mean, you have to make that decision as an individual for yourself. But just know that if I'm having all these different friends, I'm having these different conversations at the gym, chances are I'm probably not getting better at the rate that I could be if I was dialed in and actually doing what I needed to do. Do you ever get people telling you, hey, Russ, you're taking it too serious. Chill out. I used to get that early on. So like, I used to get, uh, when I first started powerlifting, everyone was like, this kid takes it too serious. Like, it's almost like, it's not, oh, like, I'll get the comment. It's not that serious, bro. It's just moving weight.

And I'm like, I mean, to you. right but to me it's different like to me it's everything right like you look at i mean going back to kobie and jordan look at kobi where you're just shooting a basketball and say who it's not that big of a deal right yeah but if you make it a big deal it'll eventually become a big deal like sure palathing wasn't a big thing but i've focused and made it a big deal for myself to where now like you know i'm enjoying my own particular life and living a lifestyle that i want to live but it's because i decided to make something that isn't a big deal to a lot of people but i made it a big deal for me Yeah, it comes down just like one perspective, maturity, and wisdom.

And I can honestly say that I've grown a lot over the years where when I was younger, if someone was doing something that I didn't do or believe in, I beg that. That's stupid. It's a waste of time. Yeah. But as I've grown up, I've realized, oh, different things matter to different people. and when I show up to a workout and I'm in a prep and it's super serious and people are like, hey, it's just a run. I'm like, no, this is like the way I do one thing is the way I do everything.

Yeah. If I slack on this run and I don't hit my PR, when I cross that finish line and I don't hit the goal I wanted to hit, I'm going to look back to that workout. I'm like, all right. That's, you wanted to slack off. This is what you get. I think the exact same way. Like, that's why I don't like talking to people as much in the gym. Like, I tell my friends this and like basically everyone that's like close to me, they

know, hey, once he steps inside those four walls or having many walls in that gym, it's a wrap. Like, he's probably not going to like talk much with you. The reason why I think like that is because the last thing I want to do is be on the platform, failing lifts, not hitting the numbers I'm supposed to be hitting. And then thinking about the times where I'm over here chatting it up with you about last night's basketball game or I'm spending time like in between sets like bullshitting when I could have been getting better. I like the last thing I want to do is like look at my training and question it. Right. Like if I if I lose or I fail, I want it to be on because that's just

what's meant to happen. Like I want to give everything that I have and then whatever happens, whenever it's time to to make it happen happens. But the last thing I want to do is look back with regret. It's like damn that Wednesday where I decided to to stay up all night and eat pizza and watch the game and didn't go to bed until like 3 a.m. That's the reason why I lost. Because that's the way my mind works. So that's why I isolate myself. And it's like I got to make sure this falls all on me.

So I need to make sure I execute. I want to talk about community. Because I view you as a leader in the powerlifting community. But based off what we just talked about, people might say, well, Russ doesn't want to be a part of the powerlifting community. And here's like my rebuttal to that. I think a lot of times people get community wrong. And this is something that I personally learned in the last 18 months

as we did an experiment with BPN. A lot of times, especially now, people think that the way you build community is just bringing people together in doing a shared passion. Like you bring people together and you all go for a run. You bring people together, you go for a lift. You go to the gym together.

That is a way of building community. but the way that I view building community, a strong community, I don't even like the word community, I like tribe. It's a group of people with shared beliefs and values. I was literally thinking of that.

And sometimes you don't even have to bring those people together. But like the BPN tribe, for example, the powerlifting tribe, for example, that follows you, it is people who believe what you believe in, have the same set of shared values who show up to work out with the same intention energy and ambition and are just ruthlessly hungry for greatness and success. That's what builds an actual tribe, an actual community.

Bringing people together might be part of it, but it's not the foundation. 100%. And going back to the retreat, one of the big things that I was impressed with and I really liked was the fact that like when I was, when we were all in the Airbnb and like moving about, I was looking at every athlete. I'm like, no, there's a level of commitment that you have to have to even be at this type of level that you guys are at, like the running aspect of things and being able to do certain events. I'm like, oh, they're like, they're just casually saying, oh, yeah, like I ran like a 20 mile or 50 mile. I'm like, no, there's a certain level like of commitment.

And it made me respect them. And I'm like, I felt, I felt seen and heard in a sense. And I don't even run. I'm a power lifter. But I'm like, these people have the same type of. mindset, the same type of like, I like to call it like a sicko gene. Like you have like a like something wrong in your head where it's like they only care about getting this task done. It might be a different feel, but I still relate to the the aspect of like wanting to get that achieved by no,

by any means possible. Yeah. Yeah. Well, this past year we've done like a brand exploration. And we've worked really hard to really refine our messaging and our focus. And we sat down like, who is the BPN consumer? And say, are we going after runners? Are we going after lifters? Are we going after hybrid athletes? And we came to the conclusion, like, what does the BPN consumer look like? What's a BPN athlete look like? It's someone who focuses on performance and is committed. Committed to getting better, committed to the person. And committed to the process, committed to the journey, committed to the work. That's what separates, in my opinion, BPN from the others is we're not just trying to target everyone. We want to bring in people

into our community who are committed to their craft and mastering their craft. And if you look at the BPN athletes and the people that we showcase and highlight, sometimes they're not the ones who are hitting the PRs, running the fastest marathons, or professional. athletes, but they are truly committed to their craft. And you can't question that. You watch them work. You watch them show up day in after day out consistently for days, weeks, months, years. That's who we go after. That's who we won. And just to just to piggyback off of that, like the community aspect of things is, I mean, I believe in others that I know they're giving their best effort. Like I'll people, let me be careful when I say this. People will assume that I

want to train with other people because they're strong. There's people that are probably stronger than me that I have no desire to train with because I know that they don't give it 100%. And I feel like that type of stuff rubs off. So if I were going to train with someone and they're way stronger than me, right? People on the outside would assume, yeah, that's like, of course to be training partners. It's like, no, that person's mentality isn't the same as mine and it's going to make me a worse athlete. go train with someone that probably just started a pallifting, but I could see that they give it 100% and they're hungry and they're their day in, day out. I'm like, I could get better with that type of mentality. And I do that across the board, too, with other different sports, like

the running stuff. When I look at some of the athletes that you guys have, I'm like, damn, this is fuck, fucking knock down 15 miles or whatever. Like, I remember whenever you started posting that you were running, you'd be like, oh, quick morning workout, just did 10 miles, da, da, da, I'm like, fuck, man, that shit is insane. So I relate to things of that nature versus, like you said, just having a community, just to have a community and have people together. Yeah. It's the intention.

Exactly. It's the respect for the work. And that's why I love seeing what you're doing in the powerlifting space right now. You know, the way that you showed up to this past nationals with, like, walking in with a fit. Yeah. And it reminded me of, you know, like, you know, one of our. athletes is Logan Wilson. And when he shows up for game day, you know, like all these athletes are getting their

photos taken as they're walking in with like their fit for the game. Yeah. And I was like, oh shit, Russ is is taking this concept and he's applying this to powerlifting. This and like someone has to be the pioneer, the leader to do this. Yeah. And that's what you're doing with powerlifting right now. And watching you have so much respect for the sport and the craft and watching that kind of wear off on other people and influence the sport as a whole.

I mean, you're, you're, you literally have the opportunity to revolutionize a sport that's been around for decades. Yeah. With one person, that's, that's powerful potential and ability. Yeah. It's funny because when I first did that, I got a lot of shit. I believe it. Yeah. Yeah.

So I did that, um, I did that for the first time, 2021. So I wore like a full blown suit for my meat. Like I got a tailor made in everything. And I walked in. I remember we had to take a bus to the venue. And everyone thought I was like in a some people that didn't know who I was thought I was like an official or like some higher up in the IPF. And I'm like, oh, no, I'm lifting. And they're like, oh, okay. Like it was very odd. Like everyone's wearing like sweatsuits, a t-shirt and sweats. And you have me standing there with a way in or staying there at way ins with like a full blown suit on. But it's kind of like what you just said. It's taking your craft serious. Like every other sport like you walk in because it's it means something to you. Right. So you wear your your your best outfit. or you want to look presentable or whatever. That's just the way I approach it.

So when I pull it up, I was like, why don't pile lifters wear like something nice that something they think is nice, right? It doesn't have to be a suit. It doesn't have to be like anything crazy, but something you think is nice to Wands. It's like your special day. Why wouldn't you? Yeah. So I looked at it.

I was like, damn, no one does this. All right. I mean, I guess I'm going to have to be the first to do it because I want this to be something that people care about. And thankfully, I mean, I got a lot of shit for it at first. People were like, it's just powerlifting. This guy is so cringe, all the type of shit. I'm like, how come you don't say that like with other athletes?

I can you don't say that to LeBron when he pulls up in a full-blown suit for his playoff games. How come you don't say that about like Serena Williams when you see your pull-up for hers? Like, why don't you say that about Pallifton? Because you don't like Pallifton. I like Pallifting. So I'm going to show up in a certain type of way. You got to be unapologetically yourself.

Yeah. And anything other than that will leave you empty. Yeah. And what's cool now is that people are showing up now. So when I go to big meets, people are wearing, they're not wearing like just, you know, a shirt and shorten shirts. They're wearing fits. That's awesome.

Yeah. And I'm like, I don't, it's not that I don't care about the credit, but I'm like, that's how, I'm like, great. That's how you show that you care. Because when you show up on a shortened t-shirt, it's just like, it's kind of whatever. Not saying you don't care, but like, let's, let's push and show people it's okay to actually give a fuck about what we're doing here. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, Russ. It's been a journey with you. You were our first athlete ever signed in 2018. Yeah, yeah. We were just talking about this, you know, before we started recording. The day you signed with us. I mean, now we have this formal process of signing athletes.

You literally drove, you drove to HQ, which is me and Preston, I think Joe at the time. Yeah. And I had this, like, piece of paper. I probably just went on, like, Google and just typed, like, athlete contract. And I just changed out your name. And remember you walked in. I had it on the table. You signed it.

We went in the gym. We hit a few sets. Yeah. But you've been a part of BPN since the beginning. You've seen evolutions and revolutions and changes. And one, I appreciate you just being dedicated and committed to the brand, especially as we've grown and changed. And we've had our challenges and hardships.

But I appreciate your trust and really just respect what you're doing. in the sport. Appreciate that. And how you're leading from the front and being a true leader in this space. Yeah, no, I mean, I appreciate it. We were talking about it earlier before we jumped on the pod. But like, for the people listening, at the time when I signed with BPN, like, it was kind of like a new thing.

Like, it wasn't, you guys had just like started gaining some traction a little bit. There's like other companies that were definitely bigger. And I remember just about every other company that's. Yeah. Right. So I'm like, at the time I was debating against a couple of companies. companies. And I think I was actually close to signing with, my honest, the other companies on this podcast? Yeah. Yeah. I was about to, I was close to sign with like PE science at the

time. Okay. And, um, you reached out to me and I was like, oh shit, it's like Nick. Like, when I looked at it, I was like, oh, shit. Like, he's, he's asking me to be a part of the, of the team or whatever. And I'm like, damn, I mean, they don't have anyone there. So, I mean, at the time, I'd already been watching your videos. Like, so I was like, no, this guy's like I've seen you grow from a certain point. And there are certain things that I was watching about yourself that I'm like, this guy has something a little bit different. Like it was almost like I looked at you like a like a robot. And I think like, did we record that part what I said at the beginning like the best way to describe you? Uh, you did. Yes. Yeah. So like I'm like,

I noticed that very early. I'm like, this guy's kind of like interesting, bro. Like I feel like, I feel like there's something loose there like in a good way. So. So, uh, that's like, I'm like, this guy's like a psychopath. You built, I remember you're like, you said that you wanted to build a gym and you built that shit so fast. I was like, oh, no, this guy's, this guy is different, right? So, um, I signed off of the strength of you and Preston and believing in what you're in pressing had going on. And I knew it was going to be like a long term thing. And I was like, I'm willing to, I'm willing to forego like working with PE science or like any of these other different companies that were kind of reaching out to work with these two.

I felt like you guys were going to build something special eventually. At the very least, I'm going to be linked with people that are, you know, hard workers and are unique in their own space. And then shit, fast forward to now, like literally everything that I thought would happen would happen, but it's a testament to like what you've been able to do over the years. Like, this guy went from like bodybuilding to powerlifting to now like running and shit and like combining those aspects of what he does to now. It's been a like a fucking crazy journey.

It's been a journey. Yeah, it's been a journey. So, like, you know, congratulations on all the success and pushing forward and, like, always being an example and a leader for the community. No, thanks, man. Yeah.

I appreciate it. And again, like, you took a chance on me and Preston early on. And we had a vision for what we wanted to build. We didn't know exactly what it would look like. But it's been cool that you've been here the entire time. Yeah. Through ups and downs and, like I said, challenges. And the other week there in Nashville just felt really good.

good to bring the whole team back together and kind of plant the flag of here's where we're at and here's where we're going. So I appreciate you, man. Yeah. No, and I appreciate you having me on too, bro. It's like just walking around HQ, like we're here recording in the HQ. This shit was like way more intimate and smaller before. Now it's like a full blown like operation. So it's, it's crazy to think about where things could go in another five years. Like, and it's going to happen fast too. I got a vision. Yeah. I got a vision. And it's like the, it's like the, wall. It's like when I got the vision, I'm going to paint the wall as black. Yeah, exactly, right? Whenever you say something, I don't take it lightly. I'm like, oh, he just mentioned it.

It's probably going to happen. Yeah. Yeah. Well, hey, man, I appreciate you. And best luck in Lithuania, getting kick ass and represent BPN and USA pretty strongly. Yeah, I appreciate it, man. Thank you.