The School of Greatness - 83 AJ Roberts: The World's Strongest Man Becomes The Fittest

Episode Date: August 13, 2014

"The idea of greatness is not just in one area anymore. It's about all areas of your life." - AJ Roberts Head on over to www.lewishowes.com/83 for more greatness.

This is episode number 83 with AJ Roberts. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. Hey, everyone.

Thanks so much for diving in today and being a part of this episode with my good friend, AJ Roberts. Now, I've known AJ for a number of years, and I'm going to introduce him here in just a second. But he has had an incredible transformation as literally one of the strongest men in the world who broke a world record in powerlifting. And we're going to talk about what he actually did. The amount of weight that he lifted is incredibly inspiring. It's basically not real. It's like a video game weights that he's flipping around or something. It's crazy. And then he decided to retire after he broke this world record. And he wanted to become the fittest man in the world. So he lost, I think about 100 pounds, started doing CrossFit. And his goal has been to basically transform his body. And it's amazing

what he's been able to do. And this is a guy who dedicated 10 years of his life to one goal, then achieved it and shifted it for something new. And we go a lot about into the mindset today about how he's been able to do everything and what it takes to be successful. And definitely that is not something you do overnight. So very cool what this guy's created, and I'm excited to dive into that here. Now let's go ahead and dive in with my man AJ Roberts and we're going to let the class begin. Welcome back everyone to the School of Greatness podcast. Thanks so much for joining me today again. And I've got a good buddy of mine, Mr. A.J. Roberts. What's up, A.J.?

What's happening? I am excited for this, man. This has been a fun one, but I've been thinking about doing since the beginning of the show started because of your transformation. I'm all about showing how people have achieved greatness in their life and their physical bodies and their health and their relationships and their business and everything. And you're definitely one of the most extreme cases. So for those that don't know AJ, he's a two-time world record holder. I don't know if you still hold the record for basically being the strongest man in the world. It's three lifts, right?

Yeah, it was the squat, bench press, and then the deadlift combined. So the total of those three, I held the record for close to a year before the guy I broke it from took it back and went on and he went up. And of course, I retired after hitting some of my goals. So yeah, you know, it was a privilege to have that. And it's something no one can ever take away, you know? Right, exactly. So what was the record?

It was a powerlifting record, three lifts. And what were the weights? So when I broke the record, the record was 27.99. And I broke it in total 28, 25. And that was with a 1140 squat, I believe 865 bench press and 815 deadlift. And then of course I went on and finished my career with a 1205 squat, 910 bench press and 815 was my best deadlift. But my goals were always to squat 1200, to deadlift 800. And the bench was, they never had a big goal that was only to go 800 because that wasn't like a number when i started that the top guys were doing but it was a natural list for me and i surpassed where i had planned but uh the combo

of those three and what was fascinating was i never had to be the best the very best i didn't have to have the world record squat the world record bench world record deadlift i just had to put the three biggest together um and so you know know, I was the, I guess the most all around guy. You're the decathlete of powerlifting. Yeah, exactly. Which, you know, depending on who you ask, powerlifting, like powerlifters, most of the time they say, you know, unless you do all three, you're not a powerlifter. So, you know, it was a very big privilege for me to do that, obviously, to be the strongest guy in the world. When I set the world record in my weight class, it was a three-year-old weight class. I walked around at 320 pounds. There's only one man to ever live that ever lifted more than me, and he outweighed me by

over 100 pounds. No way. It was definitely a huge achievement. I think still, that total is number four or five all time ever to live. So it's cool to be amongst the very best. And I still go back and talk to the guy now, Dave Hoff. He actually lives in Columbus, Ohio, too, trains out of Westside, same place I used to train. And he's now pound for pound the strongest guy with biggest total ever over 3,000. Donnie Thompson holds a need, and we all go there. So yeah, good stuff. So he can do it over 3,000. Donnie Thompson holds a need and then we all go there. So yeah, good stuff.

So he can do it over 3,000. What did you do, 2,800 or something? My best ever was 2,855 is my best total ever. How many other guys have done better than that now? Well, we've got Donnie, Dave, and then Jonas Ratner. And I think those are the only three. So I think my total is number four. There may be someone I'm forgetting.

Gotcha. I'll sneak in there. But yeah, not many men. And we'll see some more. You know, it's kind of like the four-minute mile. As soon as it's broken, it starts to happen. And we've seen that. But, you know, so far, I'm still in that top five.

And, you know, it's crazy when I think back. We were mentioned before the show. It's just kind of like a whole different person and a different time in my life. It's like a different thing, but it's still cool. It was only three years ago, right? Yeah, it was only 2012 when I retired. You, of course, knew me before then, so you knew both the big AJ and then now through the transformation. I guess the skinny AJ AJ as people call it.

When I look at pictures of you now, it's like I don't even recognize you because I remember, I don't know if you remember this, I remember sitting on a bus. We were at some mastermind, I can't remember where. We were sitting on a bus next to each other and you had to hold your arms

up against the seat in front of our seat on the bus. You had to hold your arms up there just so you wouldn't have your arm in my face. This is how large of a man AJ was. It's the same with flying. I flew a lot, and I'd have to lean forward in my seat. I'm not very respectful to the others around me. I knew I was a bigger person,

and so I would lean forward in my seat to give them the shoulder room and everything like that because I kind of spilled over into the other seat. It's just crazy how large you can become through – and you weren't fat. You were just like a solid 320-pound human being. And your arms – you couldn't even put your arms down to the side. They were just so large. It was incredible.

And when I look at pictures of you now and videos and watch videos of you, it's like you were 320 then, all muscle, and now you're 240 something. Is that what you said? Yeah, 248 right now. I got down. I did a bodybuilding show. Actually, for the transformation, I had to pick something to train for. After getting injured, having a few injuries, I picked the sport of bodybuilding just because it was, you know, low impact and gave me a reason. Something to strive for. Yeah, exactly. I'm very goal-oriented.

And so when I stepped on stage, I'd actually weighed in. I was 220 at one point. So I'd lost over 100 pounds for that transformation. No way. You know, I gained a little bit back after the show. The balance thing is what I struggle with, but I've got it under control. Kept my weight under 250. I feel so good, so healthy. It's such a change. I guess you really don't realize, even though I was a competitive athlete and like you said, a ball of muscle, even at 320, you're not healthy.

I mean, it's almost impossible. And it's funny, you know, thinking about flying, like I, you know, I got tired of being squished. So, you know, I started flying first class, but I had severe sleep apnea. So when I slept, I snored, obviously, extremely loud. And I actually got woken up one time by the flight attendant because I was disturbing the other customers. So even that didn't solve the problem. And so, you know, when I finally realized, OK, I got to get myself in and get my fitness, my health back. It was kind of just, you know, just like it had been for the last 10 years, chasing the world record to be the strongest.

Now it was that chasing to kind of be become the fittest version of myself. Right, right. the strongest now it was that chasing to to kind of be become the fittest version of myself right right yeah and i'm looking you know i've seen pictures of you on instagram where it's like when you were your biggest and then it's like a transformation shot of you just like shredded with like a six-pack and you see every definition and you know you were you're a lot of muscle back then but also there's a lot of fat that covers it because you had to put so many calories in your body every day just to put the mass on i'm assuming so yeah we called it the see it see it eat it diet you know it was you ate as much food as you could could consume um and it was never enough oh man just trying to eat more and sneak calories in any way you could through shakes and you know whipped cream in the shakes and all

this you know all this stuff to to manipulate the body weight and push it up even even higher because um you know with strength and there's and push it up even higher because with strength, and there's much like a lot of things, like with strength, one of the ways is to increase your leverages. And as you get bigger, you have better leverages, obviously, shorter range of motion and things like that. So it was all about peak performance. And gaining weight was one of the ways we manipulate that so we can, we manipulate that so we can be stronger, you know?

And how tall are you? So I'm five, 10 and a half. I used to be five 11, but I think all the squatting over the years shrunk me half an inch. So, oh my gosh, that's crazy. So five, 10 and a half at 320 something pounds. That's, that's pretty, it's a pretty big boy. Um, you know, I'm six, four. If I was three 20, I'd be able to carry it a little better but that's that's crazy so amazing man what what made you decide to get into this sport in the first place i want to talk about first why you got why you wanted to have the world record in these three lifts and powerlifting um first off before we get into then why you wanted to be the fittest person in the world yeah so i think for me no matter what do, I struggle with being average or mediocre.

I just have this mindset that if you're going to do psych, you've got to give it 100%. You've got to go all in. And I'm kind of an all or nothing guy. And so when I got into powerlifting, it was a byproduct. I was a former basketball player. I was a point guard. I weighed 170 pounds. So funny.

Played for England and got cut from the England squad. And that devastated me. You were on the national team? former basketball player as a point guard weighed 170 pounds played for played played for england um and got cut from the england squad and that devastated the national team i was on the national team and actually louis dang who plays well he played for chicago bulls i know he's been transferred now i think i'm not quite sure where he's at now but he was on the team at the same time but i got up because i was too small uh and they said like we can't teach you to grow you got all the talent in the world but we can't teach you to grow you got all the talent in the world but we can't teach you to grow we got other players just as good as you so my attitude was well i'm going to come to america and i'm going to do this myself you know because the goal was

always to be a professional basketball player and then uh through a series of unfortunate events i was unable to play my senior year in high school over here because of they have international rules and all this stuff and i was deemed ineligible And that's when I got into the powerlifting to do something competitively. And after the first competition, I was hooked and that began the strength journey. And I was lucky and fortunate enough to train, to find a world record holder that lived an hour away from me. I went off to college. I was at University of Idaho. World record holder lived an hour and a half away. We'd drive up. I'd drive up twice a week to train with him. And he asked me the minute I walked in, what do you want to do? And I said, I want to break the world record. I

want to be the strongest man to ever live. And he said, well, you know, this is what you got to do. You can't miss training and no drugs, no alcohol, you know, live a simple life. And so he laid the foundation and I was just, that was it. And I just stuck to that. And 10 years later, um, here I was the world record holder. And it was just this unbreakable belief in myself. And that's what I've always been able to have my whole life. No matter what I've done, when I set my mind to something, I truly believe that I can achieve it. And I don't, don't matter what anyone says. And that was the stubbornness that brought me to America. achieve it. And I don't, don't matter what anyone says. And that was the stubbornness that brought me to America. And what I've, what I found is sometimes what we think is the journey, um,

you know, and what we, what we think the destination is going to be, it may change along the way and you have to be okay with that. But as long as you're committed a hundred percent to whatever it is at the time you're doing it, it seems to all work out. And that, that was really like when I decided to be the strongest in the world, it was because I was competing in powerlifting. What else is there to do but to be the best? I wasn't going to just do it just for fun to lift some heavy weights. And I actually, I went from 170 my freshman year of college. You know, most people get what they call the freshman 15. I actually gained the freshman 60. So I was eating nine times a day at the all-you-could-eat cafeteria.

And I was just pushing the boundaries. And I was lucky enough to work in the strength and conditioning coach at the University of Idaho. And so I learned a lot from those guys. Training with Brent, I learned a lot. And then that kind of led me to move into Ohio to train on the west side with Lou Louis Simmons. And someone brought this up to me recently about my pattern.

I also, when I want to achieve something, I seek out the very best and I go and learn from them. And so obviously, when I wanted to play basketball, America is seen as the best place to be. So I figured out a way to get over here. When I wanted to be the best powerlifter, I I figured out a way to get over here when I wanted to be the best power lifter. I was training with a world record holder. Once he had retired, the best place in the world is Westside Barbell in Columbus, Ohio. I just up to move to Columbus, Ohio. And so I think that's something that, you know, I've been fortunate enough to have the mentors along the way to guide me, but I've also, you know, done whatever it took to get,

to get with those guys and learn from them and do that stuff. And I've also, you know, done whatever it took to get to get with those guys and learn from them and do that stuff. And I think that those two things, that unbreakable belief, and then the willingness to go and do whatever it takes, those things have served me well. And as you've seen, business, you know, family life, relationships, things like that, all of that stuff has improved because of just this, you know, that that that attitude I have. Yeah, I mean, I, you know, we have that, that attitude I have. Yeah. I mean, I, you know, we have a very similar mindset obviously. And I've, whatever I set my mind to, I have followed a similar pattern. I go to where the best are. Uh, I learned from the best and I do whatever it

takes, whatever they tell me to do. I do it and I do it, you know, twice as good as anyone else, or I attempted twice as good as anyone else. And for me, that's really the only way to achieve greatness is to go to learn from the best and then to do whatever it takes and put the sacrifice, the time and the energy into believing you can make it happen and then doing the work. And you said it took 10 years for you to achieve your dream. It's not like it happened in a year. And it was every day. I mean, you're in Columbus, Ohio going through hard winters. I know because I lived there, grew up there., it's not like you're living in Southern California, like you're doing it now. Um, so it's, there's no really like secret formula. It's a simple formula that takes

a lot of hard work and, uh, you did it brilliantly, man. So congratulations on that. Now, did you say that you moved, when did you move to the US? Was it to play basketball? You were 16. Yeah, I came over for high school. I did an international exchange, which then obviously because of that senior year, they didn't let me play sports

because they had a rule that you could only play one year as an international student. And so my senior year, I couldn't play sanctioned high school sports. So I actually began powerlifting, and I bowled as well. We created a high school bowling team. And, of course, we went to state in that. The first year we ever had a team, we managed to get to state,

because we bowled every day because we were going to do it. We were going to go all out. So that's what I was doing. And then I went to the University of Idaho for college, And that's when I really 100% focused on powerlifting. But I actually originally went there. I thought I would try to walk on the football team, because I had some friends going there. But I couldn't get through NCAA clearinghouse, because I had some international issues. And so, like I said, certain things lead you on paths that you necessarily didn't intend to go on.

But these are the ways that life seems to shake out. You seem to always get where you're supposed to go. It might not just be the way you expected to get there. Sure, sure. No, I definitely believe in that. I mean, my dream was to be playing the NFL, and I was playing many years trying to get there, and then all of a sudden I got injured and realized that that wasn't the destination for me. But the things that I learned along the journey supported me

where I'm at now. And it sounds like the things along your journey of powerlifting and the dedication, the commitment it took, the focus, how to live and build a business around your passion at the same time and be successful in all areas of your life. You learned a lot. And even though you're not powerlifting anymore, you're applying what you learned in other stuff. Still, your business is extremely successful. Are you still doing CrossFit as well? I know you've been an instructor for powerlifting with CrossFit,

but are you doing it regularly? So I sprinkle in about two or three CrossFit workouts a week. I'm doing some powerlifting stuff and the bodybuilding. So I'm kind of doing a hybrid program right now just because I'm trying to find some balance, but also because I miss each sport whenever I'm not doing it. And so I'm doing that to satisfy my taste buds and really keep me happy. But my main focus in terms of on that is I'm really focused on helping others right now and coaching. And I'm finding that I get a lot of satisfaction out of helping other athletes. And, you know, just just trying to let go a little bit of that competitiveness side as an athlete, because,

you know, with all the all the years of heavy lifting and and and lack of, you know, obviously when I was 320 pounds, not necessarily my mobility and flexibility wasn't the greatest. You know, I'm an aging athlete. And I have to start to really understand my limitations. Because my mind sometimes thinks one thing and the body, you know, is not quite. I feel you, man. How old are you now? Well, I'm 29. But obviously with all those years of heavy lifting i think i'm probably

walking around with like a 40 year old in terms of the way the body is structured but i'm slowly slowly getting those years back you know incorporating a lot of the you know you know the the nutrition stuff and then all of the training i'm doing um to kind of get my my body back being super healthy in the joints and all that great stuff. So I'm seeing that transformation on top of everything that I've been through. Yeah, it sounds like you know, you've got some age back. And this is something I've been learning how to do is really how to stay young with my with my body through, you know, when I was 18, I could just show up to practice and, you know, barely warm up and just be, you know, full, full speed ahead, no stretching, no warming up, no nothing. And now it's like if I don't warm up for 20 minutes

and prepare myself for practice or a game, I'm going to injure myself. And that's why I do a lot of therapy. Twice a week I'll do a lot of prehab, just stretching with a therapist, mobility work, whatever I need strengthening on at those days and preparing myself so that when I am at practice, I'm already stretched, I'm already loose, I'm already ready to go. And it sounds like you've been doing some of those things as well to really hone in on

staying young and healthy so you can perform. Yeah, absolutely. And I've seen that transition, that performance enhancement has really carried over into, you know, my focus, my energy, business. And this is where I'm starting to understand, you start to understand that all of these principles, and this is why, you know, I always love talking with you, because you're very similar to me in terms of sports and business and that kind of stuff. But you start to see your world start to merge into one, and it all starts to come together. And you realize that the disciplines that you learn in one area of your life can easily be transferred to another. And when I, you know, when I got into losing weight, you know, one thing I'd learned through business was time blocking

and really being focused for a period of time. And then, and just making sure the schedule is correct, making sure things are, you know, in the schedule. So if you're supposed to be focused for 90 minutes, it's in the schedule. You're not just winging your days. And then so when I got to the nutrition side of things, something I'd never paid attention to, I've been able to eat whatever I wanted for years. Now I had a structured nutrition. I had everything is timed. Everything needs to be measured and weighed and all this stuff.

It was just taking that discipline of time blocking and making sure I did the same thing with the meals. And so I knew exactly what time every day I would eat. Every week I knew when I was preparing my meals. It was all structured in there. And that was a discipline I learned from business that I brought back into the athletic versus some of the athletic stuff I took into the business world. So you see how it simply blends.

And I think that that's the biggest thing probably a lot of people, and this is where I'm going with the idea of greatness. greatness is not just in one area anymore. It's about all areas of your life and just having greatness in everything you do. And I'm guessing most of the listeners probably feel the same way. And that's like one thing, you know, you see so many people excel in sports or excel in business or be great husbands, but they're missing the other side of stuff. And I just think if they start to really process what they do to be great at whatever it is they're great at,

those lessons can easily be transferred across. And that's when the real magic starts to happen. That's true. Yeah. One of the things that you just mentioned that I really haven't thought about too much until you just mentioned it, but it's ingrained in me, is the time blocking. mention that I really haven't thought about too much until you just mentioned it, but I, I kind

of, it's ingrained in me is the time blocking. And I didn't really think about how valuable that, that actually is until you mentioned that. And the correlation with sports and business and just life in general, when I, I really understood time blocking when I went to boarding school in middle and eighth grade, I went to a private boarding school. It was co-ed, so I had females to hang out with, but it was definitely a semi-stressful and very strict environment. We had a schedule every day, 6 a.m. wake up, clean your room, make your bed. There was study hall every night for two hours. You go to school, you go to practice, you've got dinner, you've got study hall, then you go to bed. It was very structured and practices through high school were all the same way. I remember every day in football practice, we would have an itinerary up on the in the locker room on the wall. Basically, every 20 minutes what we were doing. It's like put on your pads going out to walk into the field for five minutes. Then it was 20 minutes of stretching. It was 20 minutes of offense, 20 minutes of defense, special teams. There was always a set block of time for each exercise. It wasn't just like the coach showed up at 3.30 and was like, okay, we're going to practice today and let's figure it out

as we go. There was always a structure and time blocking for each thing. And I think that's really valuable information to use and utilize in every area of your life to really time block. And I think that's really valuable information to use and utilize in every area of your life to really time block. And some people may think, well, that seems a little too much, too much to handle, or this seems stressful. I don't want to do that. I want to enjoy life. I don't want to time block things. But really, you're setting yourself up to get things done quicker, as opposed to just allowing yourself to have all the time in the world. And you're able to be more productive when you do that. So I really like that you mentioned that.

And I think everyone needs to take into account setting some type of an itinerary for yourself, a schedule, an itinerary, whatever it may be in all areas of your life, because it's extremely valuable. Yeah, I think it's funny because we think of structure and our first thought is, well, that's not freedom, you know, and everyone wants freedom. They want the freedom of choice, but the structure is what gives you the freedom. Because I find like when, when I've tried to fly by the seat of my pants and just, you know, I'm not sure what I'm going to do today. Next, nothing gets done because you pick the wrong things to focus on. You don't allocate the time. You get interrupted, which is the big

killer is the interruptions. And so when you have your day down to a science, you can time block in free time to go do whatever you want. And if you're lucky and you live in a place like here in Southern California, you may go surfing every morning that's freedom to be able to get up and go surfing every morning but you know you can do that because you know what the rest of the day looks like you know you're going to get done what you need to get done and you know there's lots of stuff time management programs out there and things like that that people can get into but the structure is not there in order to you know it's not like you're you know imprisoned by the structure the structure is there to give you the freedom, you know, in prison by the structure. The structure is there to give you the freedom

because you know what needs to get done, what needs to get done. And quite frankly, you know, I, in my experience, you know, I used to train at Westside. We used to train at 8 a.m. in the morning and I never missed a workout. And now I try to train in the afternoons and sometimes I have to convince myself to go train because I've had a long day. I'm tired. I did it in the mornings. It was never an issue. I got it out of the way. And so, you know, I've started mixing that up.

But, you know, the structures, I know what time I'm going to train. But now I see why people don't always get into the gym. Because, you know, if you've had a stressful day, sometimes the last thing you want to do is go put your body under more stress in the gym some people find the gym very relaxing so they look forward to that but everyone's slightly different and so it's the same thing like if you know like if you have to write every day and you don't sit down and a certain time have a ritual you go through a way to write it might not get done and then it drags on and it drags on and i think that that's what i'm seeing more and more of with the successful. And you know, you're connected as well, you get you start talking to these people, and you realize that their life is very organized, they may be busy as heck, but it's very organized. And they know, they know what they're doing when they're doing it. And everything seems to come together. And that's really seems to be, I guess, the secret in terms of time management for them. It's really just about preparation.

And if you're prepared, then everything goes to plan. It would be like showing up to a basketball game to play with people you've never met before. You might all be great basketball players, but how good are you going to be on the court? Probably not as good as the team that practiced that may not be as talented and and the argument could be set in the latest nba finals so exactly yeah very powerful yeah structure is freedom so it's extremely powerful i want you to take me back let's go back to the time you broke the world record i want you to take me back to that day what was that day like leading up before you were right about to put your shoulders underneath the bar or on your chest?

What was that day like? What were you visualizing? What were you thinking about? What were you not thinking about? How were you feeling? What was coming up for you? And what were those moments like leading up to those final lifts where you knew this was the moment where I was either going to break the record or not? Yeah. It all started six months before that meet because I had been competing for a long time and I had believed in my head, I felt strong enough to be able to contend for the world record. But for several meets, I had fallen short of what I thought I could do and I was beginning to get very frustrated. And so I actually sought out the help of a fitness professional called Mike Robinson. I went to his gym in Indiana called iFast and they did a complete assessment on me. And what we found

was that I had some activation issues in the muscles. And so there was some misfiring going on. And so we began six months before putting me through a rigorous program to make sure that everything was firing, I guess, on all cylinders, you could say. And at the same time, I really started to look at my diet as well. Because up until that point, I really hadn't been concerned of what I ate. I basically, like I said, see it, eat it diet. And I thought maybe if I was more precise with my nutrition, I would essentially function at a better level. And so we began tweaking my nutrition then. And I didn't get rid of the bad calories, so to speak. What I tried to do was replace as much as I could with good calories,

but I still had to get a lot of calories in. So the bad foods remain. So it wasn't like I cleaned my diet up, but I started to add in a lot more good food. The combination of those two things gave me the training that I needed in order to have, you know, going into the competition to really be on point, to hit the numbers I needed to hit, to break that, that meat. And so, um, you know, as the competition got closer, my confidence grew. Um, and, uh, I'm a very big, you know, uh, sports psychology guy. I went through a lot of stuff with that, but, uh, so like, um, as that confidence, that self-confidence grows, self-talk, stuff like that, I knew going in that competition, I had a very good chance of breaking that record. And so there was a lot of visualization that would go through. And the day before,

the competition was a two-day event. Saturday was the lighter lifters. Sunday was the heavy lifters. Saturday, I spent the majority of the day in my hotel room just visualizing the perfect day, just running it over, over, over in my head. And I'd have moments where I'd be trying to visualize success and I would see myself failing. And so then I would correct myself in my head. Um, I w and I'd have moments where I'd visualize, I'd be trying to visualize success and I would see myself failing. And so then I would correct myself in my head and you know, fix the issue, what happened, what didn't happen. And so that morning going down to the meet, my confidence was all time high. Um, I really believed that, that I could have, if I, if I could get through the squats, I knew if I could get through the squats that I was on point for the rest of the day. And it's very rare in powerlifting.

So you do nine lifts. You have three attempts at each lift. It's very rare you go nine for nine. It's like a perfect day. And that's what I had that day. And so as the squats came up, everything in the warm-up room felt super light. 800 pounds felt light yeah we started with a plate two plates three plates four plates just kept adding everything's jumping off my back

people are in the warm-up room you know watching um just in amazement of how explosive everything looked uh that opener came i took that first attempt on the squat felt like it was an empty bar for me um confidence grew second attempt um i you know absolutely destroyed the weight then went for the new record personal record never had lifted it before 11 40 and on that day i probably could have scored a 1200 right there and that 11 40 just most weight i've ever lifted but it was perfect everything was right you know know, my technique, my mindset, everything was right. The weight flew up, bench press and rolled around, warming up, everything connected, everything felt good. And, you know, just went out there, every single lift was felt like it was effortless. And, you know, this is weights that I've seen crush people. It's weights that I've battled with for years, you know, trying to get. And now all of a sudden, it just felt as if everything had come together. And so going into the deadlift now, the pressure began to build, because of course, I'm on track to do something

that no man's ever done. And I actually, so I broke the record on my second deadlift attempt. I did my first, I went for the record on the second i broke the record but dave hoff who's the guy i mentioned earlier who now is the strongest man ever um to live he also broke the world record in the weight class below me but tied my number at that point and so i had one lift left and and louis said you know to to put 815 on the bar. 800 was my biggest deadlift at the time. This is a PR. It's the end of the day.

I hadn't done three deadlifts and gotten all three for as long as I could remember. The energy was there. Everyone was fired up. You know when you get so ecstatic that it's almost like your skin is floating and there's like vibration underneath the skin and you just have that energy. And I just – everything was right and I just grabbed that bar and I stood up with it and I remember setting it down and just letting out the biggest yell. I was so happy and I actually – Louis came up. I gave Louis a big shove and like out of excitement and he you know he fell back and um but it was it was the most ecstatic i had ever been and uh you know i

believe i was happy for for the rest of the evening um you know i was on cloud nine and then obviously the next morning it was depressed the mindset of okay now what you know and it was that that moment oh man that moment in time i realized that it not had not been about getting to where i got to it's been about the journey and that's when things began because i realized no matter where you get in life once the clouds clear you're going to see a higher mountain right there's always going to be something else to conquer there was always going to be something else to conquer. There was always going to be. And so that's when I realized that it was really about that journey. And so when I set the new goals, they weren't based on a world record. They were based on what

I wanted to do. But the moment that I broke that record, it really was 10 years coming together. And finally just, you know, it was a sense of, I guess, peace that I'd finally put together what I knew I could put together. I'd proven to myself that I wasn't crazy because a lot of people doubt you. A lot of people think you're crazy. And it was just more proof that you really can achieve anything you want to achieve when you put your mind to it. You believe in yourself and you go to the ends of the earth in order to achieve it and i think that you know the biggest thing i i realized is that you know if you really want what you want then then you can get it if you don't that's okay you just have to be okay with that right and um you know but that was the moment and that's the really solidified that belief that you can get, do, have whatever you want in life.

It just, you know, takes time. That took me 10 years. The weight loss journey took two, you know, and I had the first world record that day when I broke that, that's what really instilled that belief that I could do anything. Everything since then has happened exponentially quicker than I could have ever imagined because now I don't doubt it. You know, I just commit 100% it's easy to give everything you got knowing that you're going to end up where you need to get up and so even though you still have ups and downs and failures they don't affect you as much because you know the end goal right you play the long game and it's all going to come together and I think that that makes a huge

difference because that roller coaster you know the highs and the lows you enjoy to enjoy both um and you don't emotionally react to it but uh yeah the day that day when that all came together it was at that point in time you know it was probably the best experience I personally had um ever in any sporting event and it was it's kind of one of those things where, you know, it's so personal, you can't ever share it. But the people that were there definitely were in that moment. And they could feel that. And like I said, that those six months leading up to that, but for the next year, that's really where the magic happened. Because I trained, I literally felt like I was in the state of flow. I knew exactly what to do.

Everything came to plan, you know, and I finished a career March, 2012 with that 1205 squat. And that was, you know, that was the most enjoyable year of training I ever had. Um, it was, it was effortless. It was enjoyable. Uh, and everything came together in the following year for that final squat. And then when I, when I took that 1205 and I got that lift at that moment in time, I knew I was done and I had the greatest sense of gratitude. And, um, I was so happy that everything, and I looked at my journey and I still had to finish the competition and I almost did it. Um, went onto the bench press and I had some issues there and only I missed my first two lifts and managed to get the third one to complete. And then the thing is, if I had not done that, I would have had to do another competition because my lift

wouldn't have counted. But everything came together. You know, I finished that day and retired as a competitive powerlifter to get my, obviously mainly to get my health back in order. And, but I retired where I was happy, where I was on top. And the reason I wanted to do that is I'd seen so many people achieve greatness and then not step away and just continue to get injured and start to go backwards and just this constant scramble to try to get back to where they were. And I didn't want to be that way. And I was so happy with where I was at. I didn't want to ruin the moment, you know? And so, you know, it was,

for me, it was the perfect ending and the perfect beginning of this new chapter of my life. And what's the new, what's the new vision, the new dream or goal that you have in this new journey? Yeah. So really like, uh, you know, I live a purpose driven life, which is fantastic. And my, my, my new vision is really to help as many people as I can achieve the ultimate you, you know? And I do that. My vehicle obviously through that is health and fitness. And so I'm very lucky to work with CrossFit and travel the world, teaching the powerlifting seminar, which really should be called the strength seminars. That is what we teach is people how to get strong. I coach out of a CrossFit gym here and then have online community and things like that. So, you know, my vehicle

is the fitness because I feel like, you know, most people pick an area they want to focus on, whether it's money, whether it's fitness, whether it's family, whether it's faith. And that is a vehicle for the other areas in their life. And that's, you know, they, they, their fitness, they get that in check and then that leads to improvements in all other areas of life. And so I feel very blessed to be involved in that and to do that. And then of course I have a partnership with Andy Jenkins and Mike Filsaime in marketing Genesis and that where they're the, you know, they're the experts and I help with the marketing there. Sure.

And we transform lives financially. And so I'm very blessed to have those two avenues and to be working with hundreds of thousands of people, really. And my goal and my reach is unlimited. And that's really where it goes. And I look at building a legacy, similar, I guess, to say Arnold Schwarzenegger or someone like that who, you know, continues to this day. You know, now he's back in charge of Flex magazine and he's heavily involved again in the industry of fitness. And so those are the guys I look up to.

And kind of the vision for the life is to just to lead people to being the better versions of themselves and really stepping up. And, you know, it's easy to say, oh, it's easy to do. You just do it. just to lead people to being the better versions of themselves and really stepping up. It's easy to say, oh, it's easy to do. You just do it. But a lot of people struggle with that. So I'm very blessed to be able to help those people and to help them transform their lives and start to move in the direction. They know. They have that gut feeling that they're born to do something,

and it's just not happening. I'm very lucky to be able to create, I guess, that ignition and that spark that gets them on that journey. I love it, man. Well, I could talk about this journey with you all day long, but I want to wrap it up and bring you to our final question here in just a second. But where can people – what is the best place for people to connect with you online? Yeah, so AJRoberts.com is the website. And then Facebook is the best place for people to connect with you online? Yeah, so AJRoberts.com is the website. And then Facebook is the best place, Facebook.com slash AJRoberts.

And on Instagram too, it's just AJRoberts. And those are the two places I hang out the most at. So you can follow the journey. And if you want to reach out, reach out. Very cool. Very cool. I definitely recommend following AJ over on Instagram. Some really cool photos and videos of him doing his workouts and stuff. So make sure to check that

out as well over at AJRoberts.com. We'll have it all linked up at the show notes or at lewishouse.com. I'll give you the link here in just a second. But with that, let's go to the final question, my man, which is what I ask all of my guests. And that is, what is your definition of greatness? My definition of greatness. To me, greatness is living every day as if it's your last and putting 100% effort into whatever it is you do because if you don't, what else is there to do? I love it, man.

AJ, it's been a pleasure, brother. I can't wait to see you soon and hang since we're like a couple hours from each other now. And I'm always going to be keeping tabs on what you're up to. So I appreciate you for all you do. And thanks for coming on, man. Thank you. And we'll see you soon.

There you have it, guys. I hope you enjoyed this episode with AJ. Very inspiring what he's been able to create with his body and his mindset throughout all the years, both translating from sports into business and relationships and everything else. Extremely powerful stuff. We're going to have all the show notes back over at lewishouse.com slash 83. lewishouse.com slash 83. So make sure to check that out.

three Lewis house.com slash 83. So make sure to check that out. And I appreciate you guys so much for subscribing on iTunes on SoundCloud and Stitcher for sharing this on on Facebook and Twitter and social media. And if you haven't left a review yet over on iTunes, please do that helps the rankings and helps spread the word about the podcast. I'm super pumped about all the guests we have coming up in the near future. So make sure to subscribe because you're not going to want to miss out on who we've got coming on. And I'm so grateful that you're on here and taking the time to listen. It means a lot to me. So you guys know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great. If you have an opportunity,

not a perfect opportunity, and you don't take it, you may never have another chance.