Unpaid And Underrated - 118 : I Don’t Believe in the Anabolic Window

Episode Date: August 12, 2025

This week Joey and Keith get to know Big James (Robo). They dive right into great topics like sandbags, the crü sticker exchange, football, rugby, Canadian bacon, and a ton of home gym nerdery. Links Massenomics x Ünpaid and Ünderrated Colab (https://www.massenomics.com/shop/unpaid-underrated-tee) Get Your Own Keith Head (https://www.unpaidinternpodcast.com/articles/keith-head) Follow The Podcast On Instagram @unpaid.underrated.podcast (https://www.instagram.com/unpaid.underrated.podcast/) Online UnpaidInternPodcast.com (https://www.unpaidinternpodcast.com/) On Youtube @Unpaid.Underrated.Podcast (https://www.youtube.com/@Unpaid.Underrated.Podcast) Our Guest On Instagram @occupationaltherabeast (https://www.instagram.com/occupationaltherabeast/) Our Hosts @keithhoneycutt73 (https://www.instagram.com/keithhoneycutt73/) or his orange gym, @thenowhinecellar (https://www.instagram.com/thenowhinecellar/) @joey_mleczko (https://www.instagram.com/joey_mleczko/) Special Guest: Big James (Robo).

We be recording, we be recording. Let all these people joining the greasy pre-show. I am the greasy pre-show. Nobody can't who I was till I put on the pre-show. Huh? No. Record your progress. You're an influencer nobody's ever heard.

of that was pretty good and I created that emoji to be like that made me chuckle alright let's close discord well you don't want to hear constant

bo bo boop no god that was so obnoxious it's the worst bo bo boop oh some audio all right so big James uh

big james pretty you better quit hitting that microphone when you talk Yeah. I will come to New York if I have to hear this. I ain't coming to New York. Og-hawk! And welcome back to episode 11 of the Unpaid and Unterator podcast.

I'm one of your host, Big Keith, joined as always here by Big Joey. Hello? And this week we got special guest, Big James, who muted himself for some reason. but there he is. Hey, say a little bit there, Big James. What's up, guys? Thanks for having me. Howdy, howdy. Just if I didn't say it already, we're, you know, podcast by a crew, four crew, et cetera. You know, you know the drill by now. And Big James, you're drinking anything fancy over there? It's got some wine, actually.

Wine. Cheers, fellas. We have red wine. There you go. That is very, feeling very bougie tonight. Is it our first? Pinkies up. Is anyone else trying wine on the podcast before? I think it might be out of 100 and, well, this is episode 18, so episode of 11, 119 episodes, if you will, we're 11, whichever one it is.

It is, I think, the first wine consuming, consumption. Consumption, yeah. Yeah, we don't get very many first over here. It's been, you know, we're, you know, old men in this game, so it's not a whole lot of often. We do something new. That's pretty cool. That was the goal. Be the first for something.

There you go. I'm just rocking a regular old bubbly, nothing fan. in the wrong coozy oh yeah well no that lives on I don't what the fuck do I have metal in a I mean I guess I could maybe trust it on my fucking mics I'm good no I like

it lives on one of the the pipes downstairs so I don't use any other drink holder now only the drink spotter chill yeah I know this is my podcast coozy drink spotter chill has carried me through the summer so far yeah it's pretty

dope I was impressed with it Once I finally used it, I was like, oh, I get it now. I made that reel where I was just like, does it drink safety? And then I like put it on the railing. That thing got something stupid, like over a thousand views or whatever. And I'm like, why? Like my lifting videos get like 200 views. And just a simple like, does it drink safety?

Clink gets so many. Internet's stupid. I'm going to cancel. You wearing anything fancier for that? there, Big James? I got the home gym nerd t-shirt on tonight. Nice, nice, nice. That's what I couldn't tell what you were wearing.

I just, I see your head, and then it's like, all your jerseys and your cameras just facing all up your nose. I can't keep the home gym nerd one clean, because as soon as it's clean, I wear it, and then I have to wait for the laundry to be done again. I'm kind of stupid. I should have got two. I know Keith likes the new band, a blank, but this is probably one of my

favorite blanks. This feels so comfy to me. I don't know if I use, like, good fabrics often or something, but this is so healthy. I swear it's still just a hair heavier. The band one, I don't know what it is. It just feels like it's like an eighth skinnier, thinner material than the other ones. But yeah, I think Stephanie actually wore the home

Jim Conn one to work the other day, which I got a kick out of. I was like, I don't know how that's a little extra casual there, but sure. It's going out shirt. Yep. Yep. I'm rocking the home gymcon shirt for you know reasons to be discussed later possibly

I just have a shirt I literally landed from Orange soccer game 20 minutes ago so it's gotta be unpleasant with the air quality right now it is very unpleasant being outside in general sucks oh yeah but like it's like

literally unsafe at least here at certain days I think you guys are getting worse than us because of them westerly winds or eastern winds, yeah. Makes sense, makes sense. But the sun is red for most of the day here, which is terrifying. Yeah.

It's terrifying. Speaking of something not terrifying, we got this crew spreadsheet. If anyone hasn't seen that yet, but Gary's been working on there, I threw it up in the, I think it all, Dave asked me if I had a,

if I had a spreadsheet of everyone's names and emails, and I was like, no, Dave, I don't have an email. I don't have an email list of the, crew. And then, uh, he was like, what do you have all their Instagram? And I was like, no, I don't. It's like, and then I was like, well, that's actually a really good idea and something I've been, you know, meaning to potentially do at some point. But I was like,

I'm not, I'm not doing it. Like someone else can do that. I will put the idea out there and, you know, encourage other people to do it. And then, uh, Gary kind of started running with it. And then after Gary had already started one, Nate was like, well, I can just create a dock and people can just do it themselves. And then he never did that. So Gary's still running with his thing. So I think Gary's already got like a, you know, one six of the crew already input so uh inputted that's not right and yeah input put it but i said inputted yeah i think that's i think you would just say input yeah yes put put in like i i don't know but you know he's been putting something in so thanks gary appreciate that buddy um so yeah anyone there's some links

and there are some links in discord or just in gary yeah you can't talk about lists and putting it in you're gonna get in trouble release the list gary Good stuff. That's an unful political talk. The whole point was just to have a database with people's real names, people's Discord handle, people's Instagram. And then if you want to add some other stuff, Derek from Virginia added a paragraph about, like, things he wanted to talk to people about. And I thought that was pretty dope. So I had to like go to the, I had to go to the spreadsheet and like move the notes column over like 37 tabs to like encompass his whole like two sentences.

But I thought that was really cool. So it's, you know, it's pretty much open source. but, you know, Gary's also collecting the data, so I think that'll be a really cool thing for us to have going forward. Doesn't Tanner just have all that? No, Tanner just has a list of people's, he might have, I don't even think Tanner has, like, names and Discord. Like, I think Tanner just has, like, names. He just has supporting members' names and probably emails. Addresses, probably.

Yeah, well, yes, but, like, he does, I'm assuming he does not have Instagram and he does not have, like, the Discord names all corresponded. And even if he does, he's not going to, like, give that to us. so this is kind of like our because then it's like well maybe someone didn't want to give that information out so this is kind of why it's like it's either pulled publicly so it's already out there or you know

you submitted it yourself so no one's like getting butt hurt that like we stole your data um speaking of butt hurt I don't know if I want to talk about that all right yeah because that might actually be funny if it ever happens but right now it's just yeah we could be yeah I let's let's sit on that then let's just say

I put a Giff in As soon as I found out, and I was like, just going to chill in this chat for a little bit because, like, there's no way. Let's just say, there's no way he's going to join and stay. No. It isn't possible. He will likely, he'll likely get bullied out. Yeah, I, yeah, people know what we're talking about at some point or ask us in person, but, uh, let's see. Hey, we haven't asked us in person thing.

I did some in-person stuff last weekend I feel like it was a month ago now but it was literally just like five days ago and I did a big Dan from Syracuse did as a strongman show out in Buffalo and Chris was Chris Mark was there volunteering and also and I kind of last minute decided to ride out with Chris and Chris's coach

and a mutual friend and I ended up throwing my hat in the ring just to help volunteer because I was one of me I'm already stuck there all day because I didn't drive It's like, rather than just watching people, like I can at least contribute. So, you know, and it's for a really good cause. It's like the guy that puts it on, his son tragically passed away a few years ago in a car crash.

And he's putting, so he's been putting on like a meet the last few years. And it's all to give back to youth sports because his son was, you know, he was only 20 when he passed away. And he was like really, you know, avid youth sports player. So they literally raise like 15 grand a year to like put into local youth sports, which is an awesome cause for them. So, you know, like last minute I saw him was like, hey, you know, if you need me anywhere, here and he put me on sandbags so I had to fucking move the goddamn sandbags around for like four or five hours in the sun but well did you break any no didn't bring any oh I see just tanners that you break yeah yeah well I think that was I think we can blame Jake for that because it was already

a broken sandbag and I'm pretty sure he loaded a 200 pound bag up to 225 and it was already blown out of the seams but sure blame Keith blame the easy target it's all my fault I did it We have video evidence, dude. Yeah, video evidence that was already fucking broken before I even touched it because the goddamn flap wouldn't fucking Velcro shut. And I think Tim was on record saying, yeah, yeah, yeah, you just, you know, it leaks a little. Tim, who, feathers? I believe, yes.

Well, yeah, that's that him. But I can't remember exactly what he said. But, you know, anyway, everyone just likes to bust my chops, but it's all good. Had a funny story about an old squat bar that I saw, I sold this, you know, a mutual, a friend of a mutual, a friend. of a friend of a squat bar. Then we follow each other on Instagram and whatnot. And then he was just doing a story of his gym. And what I thought was the bar that I had sold him like in the video, super rusty. So I kind of like jokingly responded with like, ma'am, what the hell did you do to my bar? It's all rusty or something to that extent. And he was like, so he sent me back like a solid like minute video basically.

No, that's that's not your bar. This is your bar. You know, it just looks like it. And yours is still in mint condition. And you know, I love it. And it was just really funny that he like he took the time because he knew that like I kind of had like you know it's like if you sell something that you really appreciated and liked and then you see someone trashy to kind of you know and you might get a little irritated about it so he kind of reassured me like no man I'm taking care of your bar so I just got a kick out of that because like very few people would like take the time to send that video back because like knowing that it would actually mean something to me and it kind of did because it was like okay you know it was just my turn with the bar now it's

his turn with the bar you know at least he's taken care of it so you're gonna put that story in your memoirs fuck you well I mean according to you i'm an influencer nobody knows so no one's going to read it anyway great great work um big jakey whoa whoa whoa whoa all right so um keep getting called away all right nice having you bro and um so i have that 150 pound sandbag downstairs i have two of them. I have the Enoch Shuck, and then I have a hundred pound bells of steel, but I've had that 150 pound grain strength one. I think use codes can't stand to get 10% off that bag. And it's just been sitting there because it was too heavy. And now the 100 pound isn't heavy enough. So I'm

trying to fill this thing. So I say to my dad, I'm like, oh, I got to go to Home Depot to buy sand. Do we need any sand around the house? And he goes, why are you going to buy sand? I got three containers over there. And I'm like, what? So I go over and he literally has, he's got a shop vac container, because the shop vac's broken, a trash can and a small like gravel container completely full of like virgin unused sand. So did he like have a patio project? Yeah, yeah, when we installed the shed. And apparently it's just been sitting there for like a year and I had no clue. So now we're filling up my sandbag. It is wet. So the sandbag is wet at the bottom. I hate all of you. Um, but it's, well, you could have, you could have, like, laid out all the sand on a tarp or

in a wheelbarrow and like, let it just bake in the red sun for a day or two. And that's what a lot of people would be doing. But yeah, I, I understand the, uh, urgency just to get it filled. And then you're like, fuck, I should have let it dry out. Because I, I, I had one that was wet for like nine months. Everybody, everybody mocked me for asking if you dry out your sand. No, you really do. Like, you, I mean, you can. Like, I, like, I did that with the pea gravel. ingredients or their, like, step-by-step instructions of how they do it, kind of. I washed the pea gravel, dried it on a tarp, and added it to those, but everybody was like, you don't really, like, dry your sand, do you, weirdo?

And I'm like, I would try your sand. So either I'm being pumped. After having a wet sand bag, I would definitely dry your sand if you have the opportunity. And then it started raining halfway through filling it, which double sucked. So now it's, like, I have to bring my scale outside, take it over to the sand, fill it, walk it over to the scale, because the scale only works on flat ground, and I'm filling it in a gravel driveway. So, like, and I couldn't find anything to scoop it.

I was literally using the kids beach toys just because of the small container it's in. And it was taking hours. And, like, I finally got it. And I stepped up on the scale. I was like, Morgan, what does it say? Because I can't see if I'm holding the sandbag. I can't see the scale. And she's like, yeah, it's at about 95 pounds.

And I was like, I've been at this for an hour. I hate this. Well, where's it at now? Because if you fill that to 150, you're not going to be able to carry it down her basement stairs very easily. You watch me. All right, but don't break your fucking neck.

I'm gonna Scott Dodds that thing worried up. All right. How much weight does it lose if it dries up? And that's the other thing is. You will have to continue measuring it as it dries.

So I have to keep some sandbent. I'd bet. I think I got about 40 pounds of pea gravel left, but I really wanted the experience of a sandbag so that I could tell all of you guys that it doesn't really matter. I like, I like a good.

sandbag. Stickers swap is huge right now. You heard about this? Yeah, yeah. It's a thing. I've, I got, like, four on my list that I got to get out. So sorry. I got all of these.

I got all of these. You're at the front there, Robo. Oh, yeah. Plus, I got, like, this pile here, and I don't know what to do with them, but I want them. So, Morgan, that's what Morgan said. Get a whiteboard and make them into magnets. Yeah, because you're going to waste, like, especially on, like, one-off stickers. It's like, I got some stickers now that I'm like, fuck, I should have made that

a magnet like six years ago and now it's kind of just stuck where it is. But yeah, I was thinking of getting, I was thinking of getting an old style photo book and sticking them in there. And Morgan was like, you're never going to look at those again. Yeah, where it's nice to have them displayed. So yeah, I don't know. If you, I mean, you could even, if you have like, you should have like metal beams and shit in your basement, you could stick them on that and then just, you know, move them around and take them with you when you move out or something. So I think that's the game. anything that's removable is really dope with the stickers

every time I see someone just put a sticker on a fridge or something I'm like oh it makes me cringe I'm like that's that fridge is going to die in like five years or less and now you're not going to have any of these crew stickers anymore and oh and

what's that yes brimmy yes brimmy has like uh yeah sick fridge with a lot of stickers Mary's fridge too I think she's sticking all of our stickers on there but if it was the door

to the garage or something oh geez If I send anybody the Delf Dungeon stickers, and you're listening, I think Robo I sent you some. Yeah. Okay, the black one is dope. The other one, so what I didn't realize, I kept telling Morgan, because she designed the sticker, so I said, hey, can you upload your design? She used, like, Vista Print. Yeah, you told us last week she got shitty stickers in comparison to the quality.

Fuck, I'm mad. So code unpaid at plate snacks and get all your stickers going forward, ladies and gentlemen. Next one's going to I hope I can get he was supposed to be at home gymcon this year but he ended up having to back out but you know

we got a little sneak peek at who might be at home gymcon next year who is signed up you know I only say might be just because I've seen like I've seen the home gym con roster like six months out and then like 20 20 those people don't show up so

here's hoping massonomics isn't included in that you know category next year so they are officially on the roster for home gymcon 2026 and that'll be dope Yes. They got a booth booth? Yep, yep, yes.

Yeah, as a, as a booth holder, not just a constant career. Yeah, I buried the lead there in my intro. You've got your tickets, right, Keith? Yes, I went ahead and splur just on the VIP just to get it out of the way. And like, it wasn't going to be any cheaper. And I made it happen this year when it was two weeks before, you know, massonomics. And I'll have to make it happen next year when it's two weeks after.

So just kind of is what it is. And, you know, prioritize and, you know, especially knowing that they're going to go now. It's just going to be that much doper with, like, even more crew. So hopefully we can, you know, bump up those numbers and get more, you know, just homies there. I'll be there. Yeah. Well, whole buddy.

I got mine. I got you and I don't get stuck in D.C. again. I think I'm fucking driving. I think I'm, yeah, I got to drive. I think it's going to be 10 hours. I might even have to, I don't think the oldies can let me borrow a car. I'm not taking my car, but I'm going to rent one, but I don't know, we'll figure it out. But I'm not risking that flight again.

But I'm going to go down third. We have to go down Thursday now because with the VIP, it's like Thursday is going to have some stuff in the evening. So, and there just be the travel day. Even if it does go to shit, it's nothing's happening until in the evening. So. VIP. Ooh.

Okay. Ooh. I did not. I did not splurge for that. I, I, it wasn't. I figured it was like 140 bucks or something.

I think it wasn't even that much. Yeah. And when I got it three day and it was 45. So I was like, if this, if I decide not to go to this, at least I'm only, $45 in the hole. I did not want to get a ZIP. Jake had to get rid of, he was way too generous the first couple years with giving out refunds.

And I think that bit him in the ass this year. And he like had like, you know, thousands of dollars of people wanting refunds the last minute and just out of the goodness of his heart. Like his, you know, he goes from being X amount of thousands of dollars in the hole to now more

thousands of dollars in the hole just for refund. So I think a lot of people have gotten to his ear just be like, yeah, you have to, you have to make this, you know, feasible for you. So, like, stop being so friendly and shit.

So I think he, you know, he pulled any refund abilities, which is, you know, it's, I don't know anyone else that ever offered a refund for an event like that. So the fact they did it for three years was two years and through. Yeah, this was the third one that just passed. Yeah, so, yeah, I've been to so many. It's hard to, I'm fucking losing track. I'm running out of fingers to. I'm running out of fingers to count on. Oh, no, because I was like, was it two or was it three?

Yeah, you're right. It was three because there's two in, two and so many. Two in Frenchelick and one in Louisville. This dink life is just. just keeping me so busy. I can't keep track of, I can't keep track of one event a year for three years. Well, not when it's sandwiched in between another event that I go to every year and then another event that I've gone to two out of three years and another event that I've gone to three out of three years. So it's, yeah, and it's a lot of shit that revolve around

you assholes. And speaking of those assholes, let's write last week's Mathonomics episode. I don't even know what it was because I didn't write any notes down. That was the Tommy's Macrofactor when, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, Robo, did you listen to that? What'd you think of it? Yeah, I thought it was good. They got into a little chat, GBT, talk to, which I thought was funny because... Yeah, what the fuck is it?

I still don't know what an M-Dash or M-Dotter. He literally explained it. Yeah, he did. He did a good job, man. Which dash is it? There's so many dashes on the keyboard, though. It's the longer middle one. Yeah, I've never used.

You have like an underscore, you have a small middle one. Yeah, you use the small middle one as like a hyphen all the time. I've never done the longer one I don't think. I don't know why. why someone would use that or what it would make sense in a sentence for? Like I even Google it and I still didn't make sense. I know people who use

chat GBT for stuff and they are like well you have to take out those dashes. I didn't know what they were calling. Just so it's not obvious that they're stealing. Yeah. The wonder if there's a way to tell Chatby GBT to just take that out. I'm sure you can

cue it to do kind of like don't make this look like ordinary. Make this sound as you typically do you know. But take these out. I thought that was good I use MacroFactor actually I used code Masonomics So it was on the website

Yeah I actually use it in passing Like I just got the year subscription Whatever for the $70 But I kind of only use it actually When I'm in prep Because I'm someone who like I float I compete in 90 kilograms

Powerlifting And I float like Five to six pounds that like every day so when I'm about 12 weeks out I'll start to like dial in a macro factor and like weigh myself every morning and really focus on meal prep and it's really really helpful for that but when I'm not directly in prep I kind of just don't care enough to do it like I feel like it is kind of effort just logging food but that's not a macro factor's thing that's yeah that's just like a me thing but it was a good episode like I think it's funny that

when Tanner was like, oh, it's Tommy's one-year anniversary, and it's my one-year anniversary of thinking about Joe's the Macro Factor. I got to get a kick out of that. Because, yeah, he did kept talking about that. And same thing with Jugger, like he finally, I think did finally hop on Juggernaut AI. But he talked about that, like, forever just contemplating it. He doesn't need to lose any more weight. And I think he's already gained some of the weight that he lost.

So it's like, I mean, he think he's probably at a really healthy weight. If not, I mean, to just be like the jacked. I mean, he could. You could say he could gain some weight, but, like, for what reason, like, if he's not, like, trying to compete, he's probably a lot healthier at, like, the two, what I'm going to guess he's 240-ish, maybe a little lighter, but he doesn't, like he said, he's, he's getting, he's catching up to R.H. He doesn't need to be 275 anymore, so it's, you know, I don't think he needs to balk like Tommy is. Tommy, you know, actively wants to be, you know, 22, 230, and, you know, can't do that without an app telling him to eat more dumbass. even if I wasn't like worried about weight I still think it is good to use it for just like tracking protein that's I'm saying that like hypocritically because I don't do that when I'm not tracking weight but it would be like because I feel like I know Tommy said something similar like if I'm not tracking I do kind of I don't lose weight necessarily but like I'll just my carbs will spike

so much more compared to my proteins whatever because like I mean pasta or pizza or whatever like I eat like a 12 year old sometimes if I don't consciously think about it because that's just like what I still gravitate towards but um whatever if can I rate it now or yeah yeah I mean we've been waiting we've been rated uh yeah five out of five high school kids using chat GPT to write essays. I did enjoy the chat GPT talk because some you know at work we have to send morning communications and they cycle through all the managers and now it's really obvious. who's using it because of the rule of three and the dashes and the emojis in front of all of your rule of three. Yeah, the bullets. Yeah. So that's really funny, but it's also because like we're kind of encouraged to

because in our job, we're encouraged to teach people about AI. But also like, yeah, I caught you. You put no effort into this. One thing that really had me laughing is Tanner just eating the same thing every day forever and I shared my story too because it's like we're at the grocery store one day because I don't always get to go shopping with with my laugh she does a lot of it without me and she's like I need to get you new lunch meat and I'm like okay and she's like do you not realize that you've been eating the same sandwich every day for like a month and I was just like

nope nope sandwich hummus vegetables and a pepperette every day for lunch hook me up and i don't care if it tastes the same or anything i'm just excited somebody made me a lunch because otherwise i'm going to eat like putine or a slice of pizza or just something so bad and fat for me so like no you could send the same thing every day i'm even this close to doing the uh ground beef and rice just just give me food i don't really care what it is right as long as it's like enough to get me through the day and i think i thought it was really funny when tair was just like i could literally eat that every day and never notice and because i'm i guess i'm the same way i thought that was really good uh so i'm going to go ahead and give it uh five out of five m dashes

uh yeah enjoyed it uh i think it was i'm trying to think when it came out and i think i think I actually had worked, listened to a lot of it on Monday at work. So it was a little, uh, slightly more distracted night normally. I don't know what was going on on Sunday, but something was going on. But, uh, yeah, the one part I liked the most when they were talking about how like, uh, just getting, doing ground beef as opposed to chicken is like enough of a, like, he didn't, he wouldn't want to eat that every day because it's almost like too flavorful or too fattening or something.

So, uh, the one thing I would maybe try next time I do a meal prep of chicken is I've never shredded chicken, like, like, like, gross. grilled chicken or baked chicken or whatever in the oven and just actually, I mean, I've had shredded, like if it's crock pot, which, you know, it ends up being shredded kind of, but I've never done like regular grilled chicken shredded. So it might be something. Morgan, Morgan does that and she'll do it with a pork loin as well. But she's also discovered my favorite meal. A lot of food talk, a lot of food talk going. Apparently my favorite meal in the world is braised beef, where you just get like the cheapest

beef cut you can and cook it for like six hours. in a Dutch oven in like gravy and then he just like that and mashed potatoes every time she makes that I'm just like in heaven sound good it really is and she's like good because it's the cheapest meat you can buy and I'm like good buy more anyway yeah so shredded chicken is awesome you don't have to get the special Wolverine claws to do it just use a fork yeah I wouldn't at least not for the first time I would experiment with just like with like a big serving fork and then just get like a regular dinner fork and go to town and see what I can do.

Big James, you got an ad reforce, bud. You didn't rate it. Yes. Oh, five out of five shredded chicken breast. All right, ready? Yeah, buddy. You ever wake up first thing in the morning, walk over to the bathroom mirror,

look at yourself, and think, man, I need more virtual friends to talk to about dairy products, getting strong, staying strong, and using our strength. Well, if that's you, good news, my friend. You're exactly the kind of silly goose we're looking for over here, over here at Massonomics. Starting at just $3 a month.

Yes, that's right. Less than a price of a gas station energy drink. You can unlock access to a glorious online world where things get unhinged, a little weird, and inside jokes take on a life of their own. It might be a community, it might be a cult. Either way, it's a bunch of people who just get it. Taking our lifting seriously, but none ourselves. Strong friends, silly vibes, and zero regrets.

So come join us, you beautiful goose. We welcome you with arms wide open. With arms wet open. You beat me to it. With arms wide open. Well done, James. Well done. Let's kick all we've been getting messages and people chopping in and coming out.

I think there's a bunch of people, you know, because it's sister podcast is recording in a little bit. So everyone's getting antsy and wants to see if we haven't in Greece form first. I think that's what it is why we had all that foot traffic. I think we should have crashed and just had like a cross episode. that would have been fucking hilarious. But yeah, we'll get all those looky-lose out and see if we can't get big James on the horn.

Is that you, buddy? James, you there? Yeah, what's up, guys? Hey, welcome to the unpaid and underrated podcast. We're just where, you know, it's four crew by crew, and, you know, that's you now, bud. Oh, yeah, I'm happy to be here. You know, we're going to hit you with some hard questions, you know.

What brought you to Massonomics? How'd you find us? So it's funny. I was kind of massonomics, like, adjacent for a while. I was watching their stuff without necessarily knowing who they were, kind of just because I was more into some of the home gym stuff. And then the first real introduction for me to them was I kept watching the TSS combo rack review that they did because I wanted a Texas strength combo rack. I don't know. Oh, yeah, the one they did at Jack Nates. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Right, yeah, it's big needs. I was like, they don't have one, but yeah, they did Jack Nates. yeah they did that review and i watched that like a million times just because i was okay that's about getting a fucking four thousand dollar combo delivered so yeah you kind of yeah and then i i was watching like an unrelated like a gluck or i think it was gluck video and he was saying how every tanner needs his tommy and i was like oh those are the massanomics guys but i remember i didn't know i didn't know which one was tanner and which one was Tommy and it was like it was bothering me for whatever reason so i like looked up massonomics on youtube and started watching like a podcast and then i was like oh i didn't even realize that

they had podcasts at this point that's fun um and then i obviously just like started watching the podcast became into it became a supporting member i'm fairly new very new on on your guy's standards but um it doesn't feel like that like big robo is a name i see a lot so like i don't i try to be pretty active. I mean, I've been to, like, I was at the Arnold. I was at home gym con, so that definitely helps. I really wanted to go to Lift Hard, Live Easy this year. I did a lot of travel this month, so it's just too much. But that's kind of me. Like, if I join something, I'm not going to just join it and be a bystander. Like, I joined it for a reason. So I want to be involved. That's kind of my personality. So I'm,

I take that as a compliment that you said that. But yeah, I think I probably was a, I asked Tanner's today. So it was like early January this year. I actually like fully dove in and became a supporting member. So that's that's kind of like my, my origin story for Masonomics. It was kind of a, I tiptoed into it and then just like dove in head first. Hell yeah. Need more of that. Indeed. Indeed. So just had a little brain fart of the real that we shared earlier. You know, we are strongly endorsed, you know, speaking of Tanner, we were strongly endorsed by Tanner as not a bad podcast, you know, not a bad podcast, guys. I mean, that's pretty good praise, you know, from someone that's done a podcast or two,

you know, to be not a bad one, I'll take it. Yeah, that's up there with number one urban podcast. I don't know which one I would put on their shirt. I mean, I don't have the $800 that would cost for a billboard, but if I did, it would be number one urban podcast is the first review and then, you know, not a bad podcast is the second review probably, you know, to harken back to their, what didn't they do one during COVID or something that was like we had that. Yeah, yeah. So if we were to do one of those, but yeah, it's a little too expensive for our budget anytime soon. So one thing we ask everybody, and I think this is worth

noting because you are impossible to find on Insta. Jesus. I'm getting no. So when I was, when I was making my envelope to send you, because we were DMing on Instagram, I was just like, okay, I got to go find who this was from. And it, like, it was a pain in the ass. So who are you on Discord and who are you on Instagram? Yeah, okay. It's funny to because I was, I listened to the podcast you just said with Big Brandon. And then the same sentence, I think he called me like three different things.

So my Instagram is occupational there beast. I'm an occupational therapist. pissed for work so it's just like a play of play on words um my discord is big robo and my name is james most people my whole life has called me robo um but i get both like i obviously don't introduce myself as robo i kind of feel like that's weird as he's lying when i met at the airport he says yo i'm robo that's not i met you before the airport oh yeah that's right that's true you met at home that's you met at the arnold that was the arnold maybe we'll get into that and But that's just, like, one of my things.

I just, I don't know. I don't like introducing myself as a nickname. Hold on. My wife is naked. Stand by. Just turn the video off. You guys can keep talking. Yep, we got to.

You shut up and we can talk. So, um, so I don't, I don't like introducing myself as a robo. So I try to, I try to say James. So people don't know the, um, like, the connection between my discord and my Instagram. They might like talk about me as James, but I feel like when I'm with them, everyone kind of calls me robo so that yeah i don't i think i've only ever if i called you james i think i mostly called you robo i don't know you've been calling james this entire podcast

well that's this isn't count this isn't real life they um that's kind of how it goes honestly like when i that's been my whole life like even you know high school in college i've never introduced myself as robo and then people kind of just like find out my instagram handle or something and it goes i just and then what's your gym name and what's your sticker look like because that my people might resonate and know what they recognize it Yeah, oh, I got a nice little zoom in. That's a whole other level of having a different name and a different... I got a nice zoom in on Hogan's gym tour.

I'm the cage. So, yeah, I was right next to the crew fall sticker. James, the cage, Robo, occupational therapies. My sticker just says, like, the cage in the same font that, like, freak athlete. Yeah, there you go, Big Joey. The same font that freak athlete uses, and it just says robo on it. That's my gym name is the cage, certified training facility, obviously. you

um that marks all of our things there CTF certified oh yes I need to get more pictures on the thing because I know you're one of those dragging on my eathos again

dude no it's just my old rash I do I know I have a tour so I have my to eat those track picture I have the ethos I heard you I heard you ragging on it last episode but my picture is still in your gym sis then I think you

can uh I think you can upgrade your pictures I have the picture I have the tour. I have the, I have a link to my YouTube tour. Well, it's like, I'm not, like, I feel like Tanner can only harb on it so much, but like, they literally, one of the things they do every goddamn week is

tour the fucking country, looking for pictures of gyms, and like half the fucking, you can, you can tell, because it takes them so fucking long to find one, that like, every, I would say at least a third don't have pictures, or maybe even more. So, like, send them your fucking pictures. Like, it's just, you're wasting.

I get them. I look at it. It's almost like you're wasting their time, and that just irks the shit out of me to If you have a certified training, Jim, and you listen to the podcast, that just shows me that, that just shows me you don't listen to the podcast or you don't care about wasting their time. Either way, that's shitty. But that's just my little rant. I'm done. Yeah, you're ragging on it. The only difference is the rock, man. No, no, no, not you. You have a picture. I'm not, no, no. I'm talking about the dozens of other people that don't have any pictures whatsoever. I'm just going to remove my pictures to piss. That's fine. Nobody wants to see your gym, Joey. I know my gym sucks Can's on my gym

Nope What's your Hall of Fame is that is DeAvin do you got that? Have you heard about this? Yeah so I have six off including this Hell yeah I'm getting to next year I'm competing at Livedar-Livisi

For sure That's like A priority for me this year Trill Strong man Yeah I'm scared I'm still scared of strong man It's okay you can just do novice for the rest of

your life. I'm so injury prone. That's that stuff's wild to me. Can't you just fix yourself? Occupationally? I know. Have you ever heard the thing? And even a painter's house

is not painted, like all that stuff. I absolutely. I need OT more than half of my clients. Like I'm in dying. I don't do shit that's related to anything I've ever done for living in my house. Yeah. When I did that, my house is falling apart. It's like, I don't give a fuck. I think that's the last thing I want to do when I come home.

that's 100% a true sentiment sentiment sentiment sentiment sentiment sentiment is sand yeah yeah which is something you have abundance of I didn't realize I'm so mad I was standing on it just shows that you didn't help your dad put the fucking sand bed in or do any of the prep work for that or I'm assuming you guys just sub to like there's not a contractor coming in no I just have a full-time job and he does all of this stuff during the day when I'm at work makes sense I just I just I also don't like showed us a picture of like three barrels of station But that means he must have got So like when you initially got your sandbags

That must have been prior to this project And then you haven't got another one Or attempted to build another one Yeah, that's exactly what it was And I just like in passing Just asked Oh do you need any sand Like do we need any sand over there?

And he's like why would I need sand Look at all this Now it's just like Have you heard about all of the sand Have you seen this here? Have you seen the sand? Big James Where do you live?

Where are you from? So right now I live in Warren, New Jersey it's just a small town in North New Jersey it's not far from where I was like born and raised, Berkeley Heights is just like another small north New Jersey town. That's what that is.

You do have a Jersey accent and I've been trying to place it since you started talking. I thought it was a Texan accent, isn't it? Down there they just called it. I did, I went to college in Virginia so I'd be saying y'all. Where'd you had a call? in Virginia.

A college. Say it again. And then I, James Madison University. And then I did a little bit of, I did my master's at Hofstra. So I spent some time in Long Island, New York as well,

you know, the country's biggest state. So I'm familiar. It's not small. Oh, fucking. And my buddy Matt Sesseney was like, somehow like New York's been open

for the missing Mexico plate. And literally like two weeks ago, I was like, I wonder if that's still available. I should look that up. And it wasn't. And then I was, like, you know, looking for some other options. And then Matt post today that he's the one that got it.

Because I think in my head, I just assumed it was someone in, you know, New York City. Like it was Jim Riley or one of the other guys on, like, Long Island or some shit. And I was like, nope, it was my buddy that lives an hour away. He fucking got it. Like, like, and like recently, too. Like, within like the, like, would have been within days of me doing the initial search. I'm like, huh, I wonder if that's still up. So I got her did really get a kick out of that.

So good for him. You know what they say, you snooze, you lose. Yep, yep. Yep. Well, was there anything that you've slept on by being way too late to join the crew, James? Anything you've seen or heard of as far as merch? Like, merch? Yeah, Massonomics merch, you know, shirts, shorts, flags, banners, anything you can't buy today that you wish you could? I don't want to steal Big Brandons, but those squat shorts are awesome.

The breaking parallel shorts that you're trying to get rid of, Keith. I don't know if you did get rid of those. No, they're still up. Just got to send me a new pair of lift shorts and I'll send you. you those figures out those I really like those probably you like to wear your shit bigger so I'm like the largest might be too small for you

both you have a large I think it's a lot to check again it's either a larger or medium I don't know it's it's whatever I posted I don't remember yeah those are sweet I'm trying to think of the shirts I don't I don't think I've missed I want the lift banner like the OG lift banner the white one

but a lot of the shirts I feel like I was, I was able to get one way or another. And they just, you know, secretly re-released the biggest one everybody talks about. So that's off the list of what, buddy. Yeah. So that was the last one I really wanted just because Anthony actually was nice enough. Through the sticker exchange, I sent him a sticker and he was like, I don't have a sticker, but I'll give you some older Masonomics ones.

And that was one of the ones he gave me, which was that's really cool. Yeah, I've got a couple of those. he's a he's a cool dude i love anthony um so that was really nice of him um so ever since i had the sticker i was like i really want to get that shirt and so that was cool but i feel like you can get at the in-person stuff that's like one of the benefits of going to that stuff you can that's true yeah you walked you walked away with a whole bunch of stuff at the arnold didn't you the arnold yeah i got a lot of stuff at the arnold which was cool

and then i was i was laughing and then also pissed at the same time because i was actually pissed but right after, do you remember that guy sent the original email to Tanner about the double X-Ell shirt? Like that day, I had messaged Tanner about the squat shirt and the double X-L and he didn't have it and I was just like, oh, damn. And then

Tanner said that. I was just, I was laughing in my head because I was like, he obviously wasn't talking about me, but I was like, I was also pissed there out of double XLs today. You didn't send a scaling email like, you know, questioning his ethical value. or his business savvy when it was a goddamn meat shirt

for a fucking meat that you didn't go to, you don't. Was it the same guy? Was that the same guy? Yep. Yep. Yeah, that's crazy. It's the same guy.

I'm assuming, yeah, that's crazy. I, what was that two episodes ago? He was talking about that. And I was like, the double X-O merchant strikes back. Oh, yeah. And that dude's still trying to buy stuff. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

He supports the company that he hates that much, I guess. I don't. Some people are just crazy. like there are literal I mean there's just there's people that just have I'm convinced he has to be like a mental imbalance or something because no one's that fucking yeah it's probably it does what you did it after the fact but we're getting that into a later episode possibly um when he joins the discord yeah maybe yeah uh what is your supporting membership number james I'm gonna guess are you

in the mid fours are you in the high force I hold on I have it give you 30 seconds 30 seconds Jesus Christ who is what is this Saturday? Daddy Oh, nice, self-burn. 484. Okay, 484. Not bad, not bad. And then I signed up on January 4th, 2025. Well, without looking, did you beat, did you beat Brandon?

What was Brandon's? He posted that fucking big flag day with this. No, his was the four. Does he? Okay. I know his was like still four something. His was August, I think. Okay.

That was pretty cool. For a second, I thought he spoiled what the prize was, or what the, the mail out. You have you. Like I even like type like a you motherfucker sentence and then I would kind of like thought about it for a second. I was like, nah,

he just got that made himself. They can't be like they wouldn't. They would have announced it more like they've been talking about it for three months. But like they're going to really ramp up the whole like you know, you better you better join now if you want to get it, you know, to get all their numbers. I don't know what you're talking about.

Oh, Brandon posted a picture of his flag. So Brandon got a he just custom ordered a picture of his supporting membership card like the orange, the gold, card and he just got it turned into like a three by like a two by three flag that he's going to hang up in his gym. That's pretty sweet. Yeah. I don't know

if you guys know this secret. If you just messaged Tanner and ask, you might be able to get any flag you want. Maybe not flag with banner. Banner, yeah, sorry. I've heard that recently, right? Yeah, yeah. Flags you can get like any shirt print right? Is that true? May or may not. I'm just going to say

may or may not be true. Yeah. But it's going to not be cheap. Um, it's still going to be through a third party that they still get their money. You know, obviously Tanner and Tommy have to get paid for them. So you're going to pay like $60.70 for a banner and they're going to make their 20 bucks on it or whatever. But you know, you get whatever banner you want theoretically. It's just, you know, all going to be through DMs and whatnot. Um, quite a few people on, you know, you can, if you look at people's walls on Instagram, you can tell that like, oh, that hasn't ever been sold once. And, you know, how did you get that custom this or the custom that? So they even referenced it on last week's episode when they were doing the gym tour because the guy had a, a, a, a,

black background with a white like basically the basement branded massonomics logoed uh banner you know i have one there's uh that one kid that doesn't follow our podcast has a whole bunch of uh he's in the career i can't think of his name but he has a whole bunch of uh those custom he has he has the lift one and he has another one that's uh just like yeah you're right this the old t-shirts but uh you know that is something that you can't always reach out to i was debating on doing a uh making the my making a supporting membership banner and then putting the flag out in the garage or something because I have like the perfect spot that I want another banner in the basement

but like I'd get it custom sized or something but it's like eh I don't know I don't want to like I don't know I don't want to pay for two banners or two supporting memberships but I almost feel if I have two physical flags or a banner and a flag that I'd have to like double dip and get the second one labeled I don't fucking know but we'll see sorry kind of went on a ramble there. Big James, I do appreciate you guys getting all your information to us. Nate's new website has been great. I've just been sending out the link, and then, you know, I check it a couple weeks later,

and if as long as I have some submissions, I'm good to go. You and Brandon both had, I think, seven or eight people submitted your to the questionnaire than the first week. A lot of other people have kind of been on that same page. So I just was curious when you sent that link to your friends and family, you know, how do you say, hey, go fill this out for me? or uh you know these are my buddies from this world like how how does that go yeah uh i just really so everyone no one really knows what the hell i do in like my real life like everyone just knows i

lift and in the home gym nerd for lack of better terms but like they know i went to the arnold and stuff like that and they know that i met up with people at the arnold so i kind of just sent out the link and i was like hey these are the friends that like when i go on trips that i hang out with and then I always prefaced it because like not everyone you know people one of the questions like what are you proud of and then one's like what's a funny lifting thing or something so I always preface it with like you you might not know anything about my lifting so you can answer as much as you want or as little as you want like you know you might not know yeah like you know me but you don't you might not know like what power lifting is or what massonomics

is and like that's okay um so I kind of just gave like a caveat to that like hey these are the people that I just went to see at home gym con and at the Arnold and that type of stuff. That's smart. That's cool. Yeah, no, I appreciate that. There's a lot of people, a lot of times people will, like, you can tell they're like trying to like force an answer or something or, I don't know. But yeah, I do appreciate when the crew send it out to a variety, like, don't just send

it to you the four guys you work out with because, like, that's not going to get me any good show notes. Like, it's not going to get me any variety. We won't be able to, like, make fun of your childhood trauma or anything like that with, you know, we got to get those deep details to kind of. of a you know pull those threads from you so it's good stuff appreciate that it's tough for me too because like i that's one of the reasons why i love crew so much too because like you guys are my people that lift like how i lift you know like i have i have friends and only one of them really

works out like i don't have anyone i could talk gym equipment to like if i if i watched the gluck video of the prime smart arm and literally like one of my friends like walked by me and thought I was watching like something from another world I was like no this is a rack attachment man and then I get like so excited talking to them about it and they're like oh I could see that you love that but I don't know what the hell that is and I'm like okay I'm just I'm not going to talk to you about this stuff and that's fine you know

and they're in their mind they're just calling you a home gym nerd you know they don't even know that's a term and they're just using it in their head so I've came to the point where I'm okay separating it Like, I try to, I know, annoying my girlfriend enough with this stuff, and I'm just leaving at that. I'll do Discord and Brooke, so. Yeah. That's good stuff.

And I even, like, I even feel like, I'm not nerd enough for Gluck's Discord sometimes, because they're in there, and they're just going, like, way into the weeds about some stuff. And I'm like, man, I don't know shit about any of these attachments. It's like, just give me a barbell. And, like, I'll talk all day about barbells and plates and stuff. But, like, you're over my head on a lot of this stuff now. But no, it's still better than the fucking home gym discord. That one's just the worst.

I can't even. There's like nothing of value in there anymore. I just devoid it at all cost. But yeah, I'm in Gluck's Discord and Mathonomics and you and you and a few others. The home gym conman's pretty good. That's at least. Basement and Brandon's, man. Yeah, I still don't get in on that.

I still feel like awkward since I'm, I don't compete under his banner. I'll have to get an invite to that one someday. Big Hogan's in that. I mean, talk to me if you want to get in that. That phone, I feel like is the most. on topic. It's like lifting barbells, nutrition, that's it. Nice. And I definitely up my alley. I appreciate that, you know. It is at my alley. I will, I'll probably have to do another USAPL meet this coming year, but it's still going to be under my, it's still going to be

under NWC. But you said most people don't even like register under Braism and Brandon and they still are in the discord. Yeah, I mean like, Jose is no longer USAPL. And honestly, it's like not, it's me, Bremi, Brandon, Jose, and Hogan that are like the most active. Harry is well. I don't know if Harry's crew. Yeah, because I, I owe him a sticker. He DM me a couple of different places.

And just sent him stickers. Like Marcus is on it from 922 designs. There's other people, but those are the ones, like we're the ones that are talking every day almost. I have to get in there. It's a good, it's a nice community. I would, uh, Brandon, if you're listening,

send me a link, buddy. Uh, all right. I think we can, time for one of our first games here. Big Robo, Big James, big, you know, big, big, big Mr. The Cage. Got a game here called Least Fun Most Fun. So anyone not familiar, first time listening. This isn't a either other, either or, it's not a multiple choice. It is a, I'm going to give you one topic and you're going to kind of use your druthers and explain to me your least fun thing about it and the most fun.

So worst, best, but I like the sound of least fun, most fun. Just rolls off the tongue a little better. So big James. Lease fun, most fun. Home JimCon. oh least fun you know where i'm going with this what did you have some issues international airport in i guess technically we virginia uh least fun to travel getting there me i think it's been well recorded on the recap episode that you guys did i wasn't able to go on it because i was on vacation

but me and keith have pretty much the worst travel you can get um and then on the way there i was like wow it literally can't get any worse than this And then it got worse on the way back. And never said that. We both got screwed. Exactly. It happened. Yeah, because you got, you, you caught the earlier flight and did get into DC, I think.

Because you had like a 6 a.m. flight and I was supposed to go at like 10. And you made it to DC, but then you were still like delayed there. So in a 48 hour span, I got 12 hours worth of delays in a airport, which is like, dude, for being as a bit. of an airport it is like you can go pretty much anywhere in the world direct from dulles and they have nothing to kill time like they haven't renovated anything since 1985 the place sucks um so that is by far by far the least fun part uh the most fun i've so i'm kind of like a little weird like personality wise i think we all are in some ways um i'm i'm very extroverted like Like, I, I have a good time.

I, like, I think Keith can vouch for this. But I'm, like, also in my head very introverted. So, like, the thought about doing that stuff gives me a lot of anxiety. And I, like, don't necessarily look forward to it until I'm there. I get, like, stressed about it. Mm-hmm. Um, yeah, so I feel like that's relatable. So being there and just, like, having a blast with everyone and it, all of my worries and

anxiety is, like, being just bullshit was the most fun part. Nice. Because I knew I was going to. going to have a good time, but just like, I went by myself, and that's, you know, a weird thing in its own, just like traveling to Kentucky to go to a home gym convention by yourself. That was my first time at the convention. And I just had a great time. So that was the most fun part, just hanging out with Keith, hanging out with Brandon, hanging out

with Hogan, watching him compete. And really, everyone that's there, I'm not going to list anymore because I don't want to exclude anybody. But it was just a great time, like, you know, the most important three, I think, you know. I mean, if you heard your name, you know where you stand with Big James. going to smash burger with everybody it was i still i still can't i had a great time i still can't remember yeah i don't know it doesn't matter we got burgers

no i know place but like going going to the ornold i had a blast but i like brook was there so i had like the crutch of like knowing someone personally um and you always have that to fall back on and so home gym con i did not have that and for it to go as well as it did and just for me to have a blast and to like get tickets already the first day I could for next year um it's pretty much all you need to know so that was the most fun part was was hanging out with everybody that's nice most fun is that your wording best fun yeah yeah that's fun least fun most fun so yeah that that's a phenomenon called uh honestly you nailed it it's extroverted introvert and i have that uh the only problem is it's exhausting right yeah and i always say

when somebody's like, well, how would you describe that? I will talk to you for an hour and you won't know a thing about me. Because I don't let you in, but like I can still talk forever and be happy and excited. And then like a switch goes off and I'm like, I'm done. I got to go. I think you guys saw it at Crew Falls like 10 p.m. hit. And I was just like, I'm done. I was like 7.30.

But yes. Yeah, whatever it was. I'm done masking. I'm exhausted. I can't do this anymore. Yeah. And yeah, it's the. same thing. I have the same thing. That's why I'm good in customer service because you just keep

everything on that kind of top level of like conversation. And then the moment somebody's like, oh yeah, well, what about, you know, something deeper political? And I immediately just go, that's not appropriate for the workplace. Like I just shut it down. I never want to have that conversation with any human in any capacity of life. It's like, fucking keep that yourself. And that's that's, so I relate to you on that one. Let's go to hype person. You know, this game. You heard about this? You've seen this? Yes. Yes. So you're about to go for your biggest lift, whatever, squat, bench, deadlift, or when you do strong, man, that live hard, live easy. Yeah, we're going to put that in your brain. And you got one person, a living past, present,

dead, whatever that's going to hype you up to hit that lift. Who is that person? It's my dad. um thankfully still living uh so that's that's that's my person i've done two powerlifting meets he's he's not my coach i have paid for a coach that does like programming and that stuff but for both of my power lifting meets my dad has been my handler he's been the one in the warm up room with me he lifts too right he's he lifts he doesn't power lifts um he just he just lifts um and i respect that he's you know he's in his 60s and he still goes five days a week and you know bench presses and and does everything so He's the one who got me into it. And this sounds like corny, but like I still to this day, I'm a grown man.

And like, when I hit a PR, I like send it to my dad because like I want him to be proud of it. I'm, you know, like I'm proud of that. That's that's something that my parents are also divorced to, not to get personal or anything, but I didn't see my dad as much as my mom growing up. I still saw my dad. He was very much involved in my life. Like I'm blessed that have two amazing parents. but that was something that I really connected with my dad about like it was lifting and the Dallas Cowboys and the Yankees you know like that was our talking points like I would call my dad

every single day and we would talk about sports and lifting and lifting and he'd ask me what I'm hitting in the gym and and that type of stuff so it's it's I have a really great relationship with my dad and lifting has been like a really special part of that so that that thought of like hitting a PR my dad is there like as much as I'm going to hit it because I want to hit that PR. Like, I want my dad to see that. So, like, just looking at him will, we'll hype me. Hell yeah. What a good answer. It is. Yeah. Nice. Is your dad into your meats? He just said that. Yeah, he's been my handler. Yeah. That's right. I heard. Yeah. And he's funny. I did zone out for a second. He doesn't, he got into powerlifting because I, I power lifted,

you know, so like, it was funny. The first meet, we're in the warm up room. And it's natural. Like, I didn't know how warming up for squats would be. Like, I didn't know if everyone was going to be nice and let me, you know, use the rack and that type of stuff. But just like those normal anxieties, and I would talk that to my dad. And he was like, don't worry, Jim, like, I'll get you a rack. Like, don't worry about it. And then he saw, like, you know, the first time I put a 25K plate on, I lifted it.

And then, you know, the guy warming up next to me, his handler put it on. So then after that, my dad was like, you don't touch the weights. It's like the handler always does it. It's like my dad was loan and the weights and stuff. So it was really funny. Like, it was awesome just to like watch. Just do it with him. You know, we were learning together my first meet.

And then the second time we like knew how it went. So it's been really cool to do that with him. That's an incredible answer. And I hope the game evolves and we continue to pull really good answers like that out of people. Side note, I mentioned your accent earlier. You really went full Christopher Walker. during some of that. Has anybody ever told you that?

No, no. Okay. I don't know where that is. I'm so bad with actors. Yeah, so now that I've said it, he's a young kid. Now that I've said it, somebody's going to go back and rewind and try and listen to it. And yeah, you kind of went like, I don't know. And like, it was pretty, it was pretty good.

Thank you for that honest and meaningful answer. That was amazing. Is your dad doing the one that calls you, Jim? Yeah, he is. He's the only want to call me a gym He's got to mean something to you then too I'd like like I really That's stuff stood out during your story

So I was like I wonder if anyone else's family calls him Jim Because he doesn't refer to himself as Jim period So that's uh It's interesting That's pretty cool Yeah It sounds like you guys have a great relationship

So that's pretty cool Um I think we covered nicknames Yeah I mean You can hit on occupation a little bit I mean you kind of said what you did But you just want to you know As little or as much as you want to talk about

Just you know Through your 9 to 5 And then you kind of do on the side as well and have that other spot? I want to share any of that? I'm an occupational therapist. There's a lot you could do with that, but I work in pediatrics. So mainly I work with kids on the autism spectrum.

I've kind of done that my whole life. Like even before I was practicing as an OT, I was involved in like summer camps and stuff that surround itself with kids with special needs. That's always been kind of like a passion of mine, but through my family. my mom did that my sister's a speech language pathologist my aunt was a special needs teacher entire life so i kind of grew up around people helping those in need and it was just something that i've always felt really strongly about and it's something that i'm really proud that i get to do and it's cool too that's where i met my girlfriend and i met her in grad school she's an occupational

therapist too and she works with geriatrics which like the complete so we're the same profession, but we could not do, yeah, we could not do, like, more different things every day, which is funny. So that's, that's kind of it, yeah. Not kind of it. I don't want to downplay it, but that's what I do. Yeah, and then one thing that stuck out to me, you were telling me all your, where do you get all your side funds for your gym upgrades? Yeah, so I do, I work for a school district. I'm actually in between, I'm leaving districts right now.

Hopefully no one is listening to this from my district. I haven't given notice yet. I'm waiting to sign my contract, but I'm switching jobs like right now. So once I sign my contract, I'll put my notice in. But yeah, I work for a school district. That's like my security, like benefits, salary, job. And then I also have a private practice on the side. I opened up an LLC where I see similar, you know, young kids just side business.

And that's kind of where he's alluding to this because I have put a lot of money. into the gym recently and I kind of like made a personal thing that I wanted to spend a lot of money on my business first so I got like a bunch of equipment um everything I needed to like get that going and see kids there um so then now I have like a revenue stream from that and I try to put all that stuff into the gym I'm not as good as Keith like Keith's really good at doing overtime and flipping products like I definitely spend my salary money too um but I was good about being like not on the ethos rack you didn't yeah but i was good about like drawing the line and i was like okay like i'm not buying anything until i buy all of the shit that's going to make me money first

um and now once i'm done buying that stuff i can have fun with my money um now so that's so that's kind of like how i built it yeah now the trick is setting aside five grand a year to fucking travel to go see your friends like that's that's the hard part like i haven't had i haven't added anything of substance to my gym like i mean all the strongman shit but that was like nickel and dime stuff like i haven't put invested thousands of dollars in the gym in several years because i've been investing thousand dollars into the crew for several for three years now so i need my friends to stop getting married to that's the problem oh you got to do what i did no more weddings i'm done don't invite me i'm not coming send me the invite so i have somewhere to send

the card that's it every time they're all so far too like because a lot of my friends are like in Virginia and there so it's a hotel for the whole weekend it's there's no scenario in which going to a wedding is cheap and it wasn't even about the cheapness at some point I was like I was counting down I think I've said this on this podcast before I've been in not two let's include in over 12 weddings in my life everywhere from actually I've done every role, from ring bearer to groom. I don't want to do this anymore. Like, the last one was Big Steve, fellow crew member.

And he reached out and he was like, hey, you were in my first wedding. I would really love it if you were in my second. And I was like, I have questions. Are you doing a stag and dope? Do I have to buy or rent a tuxedo? Like, I had so many questions because I was just like, and then, when you look at, of those 12, I think only three of them are still together.

And I'm like, well, what did I do all that for? That was hundreds and hundreds, maybe thousands of dollars of my time, money. And I'm just like, don't invite me. I'm not coming. I will send you a gift. It will be money. That's what you're going to.

Stop. Yeah. Send me the invite so I know where to send the card. That's all I say now. I went to my... That's been rough. Yeah. I haven't competed.

My last competition was in November, and my next one will be in October, and that's almost, that's what's at 11 months. Yep. The reason I did not compete in between is because I did not have like eight straight weeks for a good prep without a wedding or a bachelor party or something. I was like, this is, I was actually just complaining, not complaining, but I was talking to Basement Brandon about it, just like, you know, long-term goals and powerlifting. And like, I don't know if I'll ever get there, but I would love, like, it'd be so cool to compete at a USAPL nationals.

Like, and he, and so his rebuttal to that was like, dude, you can't really even say that because you just need to compete more. I was like, I just need to have a steady prep, like more than once a year. These bachelor parties and weddings are killing me. Like, it's insane. Yeah. And I mean, it's fun. It's a great time every time. And I'm happy for my friends.

And, you know, one day I'll be there too. And I hope that everyone comes. but of course it is annoying it is annoying you heard that crew we are all invited to his wedding you know there's going to be 700 of us there plus his friends and family outside of us it's going to be a blast and i don't want big steve if you're listening like no that i i loved to be there and i was thrilled to do it so i don't but like when i got married i did a secret ceremony around the fire in my backyard and the only people that were there were my parents and her parents.

Like, I was just, I, I, I didn't tell anybody. We actually didn't announce it for like a year that we actually told people, oh, by the way, we're legally married, do not send me gifts, do not throw a party, leave me alone. Yeah, so, because I was just, I know what it comes down to. So I agree. I'm with you on that one. Sure. Sorry, my wife's naked again, so.

Yeah, you, I, uh, yeah. She ran by in the, with the cave, she ran by with a towel around. and she texted me. She's like, camera. And I'm like, all right. I'll take the show. She's good now. Oh, wait, no, she's not.

Yeah, buddy. Hi, Morgan. There we go. Keith says, hi, Morgan. My wife's hot. I get distracted easily by my hot wife. Indeed. As it should be.

If you didn't feel that way about your partner, there'd be something wrong with that relationship. Yep. 11 years later, 10 years. Whatever she says it is, she keeps track of that stuff. I think Stephanie told someone, because we were just bicker. a little, I wouldn't even say bickering.

We were just, you know, she was picking out glasses and I went up with her and we had some banter going back and forth and she kind of, you know, had to tell the guys like, hey, we've been married for 17 years or whatever the fucker together for 17 years. So I was like, damn, we are old. I still love you. Here's a funny story. I was at Costco one day. It's a complete sidebar.

And this lady had taken off her original glasses to try on a pair. And she put her original glasses on the rack and lost them. them. Oh, that's annoying. It was the funniest thing I think I've ever heard. I felt bad laughing because I did. I laughed right. Yeah, I laughed right at her. I was like, that's actually really funny and I'm sorry for your boss. So I don't know which ones they were. You probably never will at this rate. I should be the one without a tag on them, but yeah, that stinks. That really sucks. All right. Um, so what is, uh, as far as power lifting, you know, what are your, what's, what's,

what's some achievable goals you want to hit in the next few years, like number-wise? My next too big, I should get a 600 deadlift on my next meet, hopefully I'll get it in press before then, so I know it's there. I'll meet there, but if not, it'll be there. I'll be there on meet day. Oh, yeah, it'll definitely be there on meet day for sure. I don't think I'll get a 500 squat before then, but I'm hoping to get that like before the end of 2025,

so I'll have like a month and a half more to do that. um my i just hit two blocks ago before i just went away which kills training but um two blocks ago i hit like 465 at the end of the block with some room in the tank so i feel like if i like peaked and prepped i'm probably like maybe 480 so i think it's maybe realistic bench my bench has not gone up in like a year so bench don't do that bench don't go up right now. If I get a 2.5 kilogram PR in October, I'd be stoked. That's cool.

Nice. Which is like, I have 157.5, which is like 3.40 in the gym. I've never hit it on the platform, though. So I want to hit that on the platform. That'd be cool. It's a big bench. It's good numbers. I dig it.

Yeah, I also hit that in 2021. So it's like. it is it's fine my bench has been within like a 10 pound range for the last fucking six years and it's probably less than it ever has been so it's like yeah you do strong man well even before that yeah well strongman increases your bench i mean there was i was doing some bench because they still do cop bench in juggernaut during strongman and i wasn't even looking at the numbers i was just like whatever juggernaut whatever juggy daddy tell me what to do and and did three reps. They were touch and go. They weren't comp standards, but it's Strongman, who cares.

And then I realized that they were my opener at my last meet. And I was like, damn, like Strongman increases your bench. Overhead press is the, is the secret, is what everybody tells me.

More overhead press, increase bench. Did you see, I put that in Discord like two months ago. I'm a big fan of this, this debate because I agree with you. So I need to preface this conversation with I agree with you. And my entire life, I've been told that a bigger military press, like strict overhead press will translate to bench.

And I've brought this up to my coach multiple times. And I have zero overhead in my programming, like zero, never have. And I have brought this up. I'm like, dude, I complain. And I curse on this, I guess. He's the swore four times in one sentence. I was counting. I'm like, dude, I bitch all the time that my bench is not going up.

Like, what the hell? Why do you give me no overhead? Why do you give me no triceps? Like, I'm failing at the lockout. It's not, I'm not failing at my chest. Like, I know bro science. Like, this is what I mean. And he's, he swears.

He's like, no, dude, just back. Like, lat and chest supported rows. and refuses to give me overhead press. And he says, again, I preface it. I disagree with him, and I've yelled at him for this. He's like, overhead press, I'm sorry, bench press translates to overhead press. Overhead press will not translate to bench. And I do have a tendency to, like, blow out my lumbar every six months.

He's like, it is not worth it at all for you to do any overhead at all. And I'm like, okay, that might be true. but why do you not let me do like at least three sets of heavy triset push down a week? Like why are you just spamming chest supported row? But. So I actually discovered chest supported row.

I'm not an expert at all, right? Juggernaut dictates what I do. That's what I love about juggernaut because if I have to think about it, I won't do it. You know, somebody was like, just do your own programming. You've been doing this for five years.

And I'm like, no, I won't. I literally won't. I will just not go to the gym if I have to do the math myself. So that's what I love about juggernaut, code mass 10 or whatever. And I found chest supported rows and I love them because they're crushing my lats

and crushing my shoulders. But there's no reason, even with your lumbar being weak, I guess, whatever it is you want to call it, you couldn't be doing like supported overhead press or pin press or whatever they call it, right? Like just off the rack where you don't have to lift up to your shoulders, you just start it a little higher to get under it and just go up. I didn't see the dumbbell.

Like, you know, on an adjustable. Your back is, whatever. Yeah. So I would say, time for new coach. Yeah. I like him, though. And his rebuttal is I've gotten your squat up a lot. And I'm like, true.

And he'll be like, deep payment overhead for us. And I'm like, okay, all right. Stop like making sense. But could you also just overhaul? overhead press? See, like, I can, but that's a, that's a me thing because I'll get so in my head, right, because then, like, if I do start overhead pressing and I don't tell him, right, and I just want to do it, and then my bench doesn't go up, I feel like I can't complain about

that. Does that make sense? Mm-hmm. Because did you say that because then if, exactly, like, if I was fully upfront about it, You might be like, well, your bench isn't going up because your anterior delts are so fatigued because you're fucking shoulder pressing after your pause benches. You know what I mean? So that's how I think about it.

It might not be true. When you hired a power lifting coach, not a general strength coach, too. Yeah. I would say, my argument any day of the week would be, did I lose anything? Like, did my bench go down? And I think anecdotically, yeah, most people would tell you it's not going. to the worst case scenario is it goes up or it stays the same unless you hurt yourself which also don't do but overhead press I think Tanner would agree I agree I think

I agree that's how I started this combo like it makes so much sense to me and then also like you said anecdotally like in my past when before I was powerlifting when I was just like lifting to look good and be strong it was definitely correlated like once I started shoulder at one point I was shoulder pressing like 90 pounds dumbbells and I was bro benching but I was bro benching the same that I am now and I wasn't even trying you know what I mean like I wasn't focusing on it so whatever but I do pay the guy so

just do uh do you do in plan work do you do like do a lot of I do like I do like no chest accessories I have flat bench three times a week and like the most I'm doing is a tempo bench press or like a close grip bench press where I'm in just like one finger definitely on a peak and I'm doing a lot a lot of that and and like I really don't have a quote unquote like traditional off season where it's hypotrophy like I'm doing my main lifts pretty much all the time I'm that way now too and I do a lot of back I went to physiotherapy and I think

you I don't know if you saw that they were doing the electrotherapy on my tricep it did help. And then I was like, oh, I've also got this pain in my neck. And he kind of looks over and he starts poking at me. And he goes, you do too many shrugs. Didn't even know. I didn't even say it. He was like, you do too many shrugs. And I was like, damn it. That's my favorite exercise. I don't think I've done a shrug in years. Oh, it's so good. I love that lot. Me either with their good shrug, man. A trap pump. Oh, yeah. I love that trap pump because that's like. I'm with you. I'm with it. You're right. You used to play rugby. How big are you how big am i yeah it's not rugby big i'm not i'm not rugby big i was good at rugby though

not to pat myself on the back um mike six foot two hundred six pounds right now played outside center bigger than me bigger than me bigger than me i was i was uh a big high schooler that's the best way i put it like i'm a size 13 foot and i was size 13 at age 11 like my foot has not grown since i was 11 years old so you know that that like corny astro act your age not your shoe size they used to say that to me and my shoe size was older than my age i've never heard that saying but that's really funny you've never heard that never once that's not a song it's good stuff and i was that like snarky-ass kid who would say that like if an adult ever said that to me like actor age not your shoe size i think i'm 11 my shoe size is 13

you're dumb. But that's what they're telling you is act 13. They had to be good. No, they're saying to act 11. 11 not 13. Most people are like age 11 size 6. So like act like an 11 year old, not a 6 year old. And I'm like, hey, you know, jerk off.

That doesn't work for me. Yeah, I'm an 11 year old. I know more than you. Yeah, exactly. I was a little piece of shit. Weren't we all? But yeah, rugby? let me preface this as well i want to hype up rugby a little more than i know let's do it it's

been not been enough rugby talk on this to on this played a lot of sports in my life pretty much every single sport you can play um and i you might not be able to relate to this no shade to canada but like did you play kill the carrier growing up yeah yeah okay like that is the best game ever growing up and that is literally what rugby is rugby is killed a carrier in an organized fashion um i hated sports because i hated practice like i love games every single sport i played but like football practice was the worst thing in the world like yeah going to watch film and then hitting a sled and then doing like in oklahoma like sure the oklahoma was sick but that was five minutes of the whole practice rugby practice was literally just kill the carrier and then

touch rugby i went to my first rugby practice and i was like i am going to stick in this sport like I'm very ADHD. I need to move around constantly. It was great. It was perfect for me. The only problem was that I played football first. And you cannot do that because in football, I'm sure Keith can relate to this. All they tell you to do is put your head first, like stop the runner or block with your head first and put your helmet to stop the person.

Don't do that in rugby. Yeah, I learned that the hard way. I played through three and a half years and got four concussions. Jesus, dude. Dude, you put head first in rugby, you just get a knee to the fucking head. I almost fractured my orbital when I was like 16 years old. Like rugby beat the shit out of me, but it was a great game, a gentleman's game. I love rugby.

All this talk about CTFs. We don't talk about CTE enough. Yeah, we don't. Not for CTE. Yeah, I know. Yeah, like, I would never have my, I remember. Like I said, I've had a great support system. Like, my parents went to everything.

My grandfather went to everything growing up. And he went to one of my rugby games. And it was one of the games I got knocked out, like, completely unconscious. And, like, the next day or whatever, I remember talking my grandfather on the phone. And he was like, I went to everything, but I will never go to another rugby game. Like, I'm not watching you do that. And I'm like, hey, fair game. Like, you did your part.

Thanks. We've had a lot of athletes, a lot of base players. And I don't think we've ever had anybody really go that in depth on rugby. rugby and yeah rugby's brutal it's a it's a scrimmage in the middle or a scrum i'm mixing up those two words scrum thank you yeah yeah scrimmage is something else completely uh and it's just like it's just people beating each other up trying to get a hold of that ball for the first you know 30 seconds of the game and yeah you there's a lot of injuries in that so big big to you did you uh nearly avoid an injury the first time well i got you did avoid an injury nearly avoiding

and it sounds like you would get injured. So however you want to phrase that. Tell me that the first time you used a combo wreck in a public gym. The first time every year is the combo rack. It was fun. I was at this place, Adelante Barbell Club in New Jersey. It's pretty Jersey famous, I would say. I don't think it's world famous by any means.

But the owner is there. He's a really nice guy. He runs a lot of local meets or whatever. But I had not been competing at all at this point. So whatever, I just, I knew I wanted to compete. And I had it at any point. I never used a combo rack, but I was like, I want to at least see what this piece of equipment is. So it was prior to watching the massonomic media, it was 69 times.

This is probably like over a year and a half ago. So still relatively, so yeah, relatively. So whatever, I walk in and I'm just seeing them. And it's set up for squats. So I just start squatting or whatever. And then I'm like, all right, I want a bench. And I didn't know how to, I didn't know how to change it or do anything or whatever. So I went up to the guy, the owner.

I didn't know he was the owner, actually, at the time. I learned all this after the fact, which kind of makes it more funny because this guy certainly would have been liable for what it's about to happen. So I go up to this guy. I'm like, I don't know how to use this. Can you just show me how to do it? And he's like, yeah, whatever. So he just, you know, uses the lever arms. He switches it from squat to bench, like super fast, not a big deal.

And then the pop pin, like, that keeps the, the upright in the correct position is, like, it's being so janky and, like, it's being weird as the guy is setting it up. Like, I don't even know how to describe it. It's just being like, it's basically the hole's more blown out than the pin is girthy. Right. So it wants to fall out. It's, I say something to the guy. I'm like, I'm like, dude, this is really weird. Like, I don't, I don't know how to use this thing, but this does not seem right.

And he's just like, oh, no, no. it's fine trust me like takes it out puts it the other way and then like prop something on it so whatever um whatever long story short i i just go up to like a 300 pound bench on and then bench will go to rack it and i fucking pop the pin out so the the side like completely falls on it it sucks yeah and it's like 90% of my max so i'm like and i'm not on a power lifting program so This is not RP, so everything is an RP 10 when you're just lifting. You know what I mean? Like, I'm not, I'm not racking 315 until I'm failing 315.

So I'm like, I go to racking because I'm failing. And then the thing like falls on me and I'm sitting on the fucking rack. The entire gym is like very serious power lifters. And what makes this even worse too is because it's a fully kidded out gym, whatever. And I'm using like the Laco IPF bar with pound plates. And, like, it's just, it's like, every, every power that they're in there. Now we know why you have a home gym, you know, no public gyms will have you. And, bro, dude, my cousin is fucking spotting me.

And I'm like, dingus, can you grab the fucking weight? Like, can you help me out? The whole, I felt like such an idiot. The guy comes running over. The guy comes running over. It worked until you broke it. What did you do? Yeah, I'm like, I'm like, bro, you set this up.

you set me up for failure and then like fast forward about two or three months when i'm i actually like you know i'm like all right i'm going to compete i sign up for me actually start learning what i'm doing i find out that that guy owns the gym i'm like the owner set me up like that it was so obvious i didn't know what i was doing he let me fucking do that like i could have died in his gym that was actually so funny but one of those things that i actually was so embarrassed and was actually scared like when it's impressive that you were able to rebound from that and that sounds like it was

literally 18 months ago and you've already like been balls deep and the power lifting pretty much sounds like from the moment after that kind of around. So that's still pretty impressive that it didn't scare you off. That was talking annoying more than anything very annoying and embarrassing.

Is it more embarrassing than getting heckled at a 2014 NFC divisional playoff game? the uh des bryant catch game who put that without it's too much i i was like i can remind me i can send you all the data after the fact but it's not like it doesn't break it down by who's submitted what it's just all bullets yeah i did i did go to that that was pretty much as bad of a travel as the um

going to home gym con because i i had it's it's pretty relatable to go to aberdeen i would imagine going to green bay wisconsin uh from new jersey Jersey. Like, I had to fly into Chicago and then take like a bus and then like an island hopper. Jesus. And then just, just to be the little naive, like, you know, 16 year old kid thinking the Cowboys are finally going to win the Super Bowl and they don't. And dragging my mom, by the way, my saint of a mother who did all of this travel with me, who did not give a damn about the Dallas Cowboys, but took the same flight, same bus,

and same island hopper. God bless my mom. She really is a saint. And took her little boy, watched Des Bryant, patch it, and then not to call it a catch. And, yeah, I sat there and cried like a little baby that I am. I spoiled little baby. Because at the end of the day,

I was at a Cowboys playoff game in the middle of Wisconsin. I was very, very lucky to be there. So to call it the worst day of my life is definitely not true. But at the time, it did feel like. like it was one of the worst days of my life i was very upset who heckled it was to show probably every single packer fan yeah i thought there's like one guy that was just like he cried and a packers fan turned around and heckled him yeah well i remember being like you know watching it because obviously i'm at green bay so they're playing the replay over and

over again and the entire stadium is like he dropped it he dropped it he dropped he dropped it and I'm like no it's a catch it's a catch it's a catch once the rep once the rep does come out and is like no he dropped it literally the entire section is like you idiot we told you and then at that point like everything just gets hit by a Mack truck like now the season's over and your team sucks for the 20th straight year. Yeah, that was the last time, was even the last time they made the playoffs or made a run?

No, they've made it and disappointed me since, but that was the best team they've had in my life. Like, I actually thought that they could win the Super Bowl day year. And, of course, of course, they did not. But that was a random ass thing for

someone to put in because they weren't even there. I was with my mom. Okay. So follow up question then. Also random ass. There's not a lot of us, like there's a there's a decent segue here in how much you hate airlines but you travel a ridiculous amount

and there's not a lot of us that have a selfie with the Mona Lisa but you do no no I'm always isn't France I have a selfie with the David okay okay so I'm that one is misread taking selfies of him and his dog Roxy with the Mona Lisa when I was at the museum in Paris Oh, okay. That's my mom. This is a funny story. Yeah, hit me out. All right. So my mom,

again, my mom is a saint. I have very, very good, lucky, and supportive parents. So my mom went to France or whatever, I think with my sister. I don't know who she was with, but long story short, she went to France. And I could have went with her, but I had no desire to go. I was like, I just don't want to go to France for whatever reason. I think now I would have went That's probably a regret I should have went to France But anyways I didn't go on the trip

Yeah and I was like What are you gonna do there You're just gonna see the Mona Lisa And whatever So I stayed home and I watched our dog We had a dog Roxy at the time And she went to the Mona Lisa And she was just complaining to me

Not like ungratefully complaining But she was like You're kind of right I shouldn't have paid to go to the Mona Lisa Like we should have just went to another part of France Like I can't see anything There's 500 people here you're not allowed to take like a photo you can't even get close to the thing and my mom is like you know

she's a she's a little girl so if there's even five people she's not going to be able to see over them like at all so long story short i just like pulled up the mona lisa on google images on my computer and just like turned around with my dog and took selfie with my mom he was like so mad because she was like i can actually see more details through this photo of you and the dog than i can right now and I'm at the music like the famous museum and so that was kind of just like the joke the rest of the trip I was just like

making fun of her like anywhere she went I would just pull up on Google and pull up a picture with like no crowds or anything and I was like I can literally see it better than you can that's such a big move yep yeah just being a little have you ever heard like 16 year old

kid have you ever heard the Mona Lisa song by Connor for real I don't think so Okay, so it's a Lonely Island movie, and it's essentially a Lonely Island song, but he's playing a character called Connor for real, and he talks about how the Mona Lisa is a big piece of shit, and it's disappointing, and she's got like shark dead eyes, and he's just ripping into the Mona Lisa for the entire song, worth it, worth it. And I think Keith, that's the song you're going to post for this. I do need that. If Nate, listen, I need you to add that to the website somewhere. Like, I thought I, I think I've talked about that before, but like, yeah, we'll send it in the Discord or in the group chat, but like people being able to submit in the questionnaire, like the two songs that they want to have on their damn thing would save me a lot of effort.

Yeah, but I think that now that we're talking about this, yeah, the Mona Lisa would be a very funny song to put over this because Long Island is also very funny. Do you want to jump into something there there? Yeah. So I got a, we're going to get a little FMK for you here, James. I got one that might be a quick hitter, and if it is, I'll go in another one that it was a fancer, you know, submitted by someone else that might be a little more funny, but I do want to hear the first one. So, FMK, Joe Burrow, Jamar Chase, Justin Jefferson, all LSU football players who I hear, you're a fan of the team. Yeah, big, big LSU guy. So I'm married Joe Burrow.

He's the coolest. I love Joe Burrow. First of all, he won me in a 90 championship. He's the best college quarterback of all time. his story is amazing underdog story from Ohio State as a never played just rode the bench and goes to LSU, wins the Heisman

comes to number one overall pick and then second year in the league is in the Super Bowl like that guy's just got balls like you can't even believe pause but like he's he's a good player Jamar Chase

dude this is this is a good one because if you're like really into football this is a great debate, I think, because in college, it wasn't even close. Like, Jamar Chase was the number one wide receiver on LSU that year. He was, yeah, it was like a freshman or soft for it was better than Jefferson, who was a year or two older than him. Yeah, yeah.

And, I mean, amazing. And then you go to the league and right away, Justin Jefferson is like a top three wide receiver. But I still think that Jamar Chase is better. Like, there's just some. Chase is so good after the catch. It's unreal. Like his wide receiver screens, he'll just take a short pass for 80 yards.

Like, he's so hard to tackle. He's so fast. I think if he was on the Vikings, like Justin Jefferson is the only good thing on the Vikings. I think if you put Chase there, he would have the same numbers. Like, Chase has T. Higgins,

and he has, so he has a better quarterback that just, like, makes good decisions instead of throwing him the ball every play. So I'm going to kill Justin Jefferson, and I will fuck, Jamar Chase, because I think Jamar Chase is better. Nice. I usually don't do this, but I'm going to

hit you over the second one. You have to hate them, though, right, Keith? As a Brownsman? You got to hate Burma. I hate the Steelers. I don't care about the Bengals. Like, you would think that the Bengals would be a bigger rival, but, like, I don't know. I don't even know where fucking Cincinnati is in the state of Ohio in comparison.

Like, it doesn't mean anything to me, whereas, like, I grew up an hour south of Pittsburgh, and I fucking hate the Steelers with a passion. And, you know, it's just, and I hate the Ravens even, well, I hate the they're the third, the team I hate the least out of the division. So it's like you would think to be in the in-state

rival would be more, but it's just, I don't think there's ever really been a big rivalry in comparison to the Ravens and the Steelers, at least from my point of view. FMK, I'm going to hit you with another one. Chicken Parm, Taylor, ham, egg, and cheese. And if that sounds right, is that you familiar

what that is? And then Ralph's pizza, FMK. Are these, like, three foods that mean something specific to you? Yeah, these are three really good foods. I'm also, I know you're a big chicken pawn guy. I love chicken porn. I'm on a quest to have every chicken palm in New Jersey and rate them. That's, uh, right now my favorite is Pavolos and Nutley was the best.

They went out of business, though. So now it's Kianti's and Summit, if you ever, if you ever around. But, um, are you actually keeping a list of your ratings or your spreadsheet of somewhere? Yeah, I'm actually, I'm keeping it. I'm keeping it. And it's got a glaze rating. Is this a 5 out of 5 or a 10 out of 10 scale or a 7 out of 7? It's not, no, it's not, I don't rate the, it's not a numerical scale at all.

Okay, it's just, this is better than that. That's better than that. I got, oh, so you just, you rank them like 1 through 10. Yeah, yeah. I just kind of like know my rolling top three. Nice, nice, nice. That's that kind of makes sense. Mount Rushmore, if you will.

Yeah, pretty much. All right. So out of those, I'd actually probably, I'd marry Ralph's pizza. It's only because I, of those three it's the only one that's i also love and is sentimental the other ones i just love um so i would marry rouse pizza just because what it means to me i had it growing up with like my at my grandparents house all the time uh so it's like has good nostalgic memories to it um i would fuck taylor ham because i feel like it is the unofficial food of new jersey i'm

curious to see if you explain if you get backlash i don't know what this is it's pretty much like Canadian bacon, but better. So it's like a mixture of bacon and Canadian bacon. That's how I would describe it. It's just like I have it. I have a Taylorham egg and cheese on an everything bagel with salt pepper ketchup, and it's a very good breakfast. That's how I would describe it.

It's good. So Brooks family is from Albany, and one of my favorite things is like bringing them Taylorham and cooking it for them, and they all can vouch that it's very good. So it's upstate New York approved. I have a question. Go ahead, Joey. Go ahead. So, my laugh actually recently asked me this, is what is Americans' obsession with Canadian bacon?

And my understanding of an American version of Canadian bacon is literally just fried ham. Yeah. Do you guys not have the cornmeal coated, thick, female bacon that we have? I don't know what that is. Yeah. Can I tell you what I think of when I say Canadian bacon? Yes, please. I think of an egg McMuffin

Whatever is on an egg McMuffin From McDonald's I just don't ever say Canadian bacon Like I've never It's a movie that John Candy was in before you die That's the only reference I have up But I've never used the word In reference to food in my life ever

Next time I come down there Keith I'm bringing you some actual What we would call Canadian bacon And like I said It's cornbread rolled It's cured And it's usually anywhere between Half an inch to an inch thick

and it's genuinely good bacon but I've had what Americans call Canadian and it's like this might as well be fried baloney yeah anyhow I see it on a menu it is literally just like thin shitty hand have you ever heard of pork roll like people call Taylorham pork roll

like I bet you beerbelly Chris what's his last name Dominger Damager yeah Damanger like Damaling like a dingan de ding my text you guys or whatever and be like Big Robo is a fraud like it's not Taylor Ham it's it's pork

roll like that's the new jersey debate or whatever like stout jersey calls it pork roll so I don't know if you can just message you directly it's the same food or it's the same food have you met up with Chris yet I think we talked about that you were gonna get you to do some meat and greets he was just by me

for Jackton Ginger's nationals but I didn't you go I was in Italy bro yeah so he messaged me I actually would have went to that I was like only 35 minutes from my house but anyway Canadian bacon I can't speak to so I don't

want to even say that it is close to that, but Taylor ham is delicious. It sounds interesting. I'm going to fuck that, and then I'm killing chicken palm because it's whatever. Didn't mean to hijack, but it's just funny that it came up last week, and then I was like, okay,

I have so many American friends, and I want to talk to them about what they think Canadian bacon is versus what we think Canadian bacon is, and that would be that. Do you actually call it Canadian bacon or just call it? No, it would be P-Male. P-E-A-A-A.

email, I never even heard of that. Oh, yeah. Yeah, go ahead and next time you Google search it, you'll see, and you'll just be like, I want the shit out of that. I'm down. I liked what you said last week that if you're not a vegetarian, all meat needs to be on the table. Yes.

I like that. Yes, that's a thing I have lived with it. I don't know if I agree with that, but I liked it. Yeah, you might have heard it. I might have thought it, but yeah, no, I, people can obviously have preferences. I just find it weird when people are like, no, not this one animal. Like, I can't eat this. Those are too cute or those are to this or those are too that.

Like, I think it's weird where, you know, people, I'm on the carnivore diet. Okay. But I don't eat this or this. And I'm like, well, you're not a carnivore. You're just a selective animal. Like you're, yeah, I'll stand by that any day. I do have, like I said, last week, the rule. I don't need octopus, but that's a respect thing.

That's not like a rule thing. Octopus are too smart. Yeah, so that's pretty funny. I actually finished off my kangaroo ones today. I guess we're going into the Mount Rushmore. All right. I. Mount Rushmore.

You're welcome to throw in the fifth alien face, if you think. The top five or top four U.S. cities. Ooh, top four U.S. cities. Like big cities? All right. No, whatever you want to do. Dredders, man. It can be, uh, things.

Here's an example. I was, I was driving last week. And I've been to a bunch of U.S. cities. And I was driving into a new town. Aberdeen. Yep. And two falls. I was like, I've, I've been to this town a million times, but I've never driven in from this direction.

and I legitimately thought I was in Aberdeen again based on how the railroad tracks went across and the buildings were there. It looked like I was going to Massonomics gym and I felt so nostalgic. It was like, how do I miss Aberdeen fucking South Dakota? Like of all the places I've traveled,

I'm sitting here going, I wish I was in Aberdeen. So it doesn't have to be a big city. It would be the cities that you are going to put on your Mount Rushmore. I'll do, I don't love it this, but I'll put New York just because similar to Rouse pizza. It is, it means something to me in New York City. It's just like, it sounds corny, but when I was a little kid, I'd go and see the Rockefeller tree every year with my mom.

So, like, you know, Christmas time in New York City is, I feel like will always be special to me. But, like, I also, when I have to go to the city now, I hate going to the city. like how many people yeah it's very much a love hate relationship um Nashville

Tennessee is an awesome place that is definitely in my Mount Rushmore of American cities if you like country music which is a hot topic I feel like I do like country music

so it was the bar scene there like just going to get a drink and there's live music everywhere is cool like the fact that you can walk into a bar and it's four stories and every story has a

different live band playing I thought was so cool with $22 beers yeah that that definitely sucks definitely sucks go to a bachelor party and it's even more because you got to buy the bachelor

no we're not doing that anymore right yeah yeah I'm done I'm on that I'm on that wave lane um San Diego I've only been like once but I think it's like the most beautiful city like the weather

was perfect the landscape was like so so beautiful I really liked that I don't know if I could live there because I I'm so biased towards the east coast I don't think I could ever live on the west coast just because I'm an east coast kind of guy um

oh that the last one's tough um I'm going to do Arlington actually I'm going to Harrisonburg, Virginia, because I've really enjoyed my time in college and some of the best friends I'll ever have in my life. I met there and I just have really good memories hanging out with my buddies there. So that's it. Harrisonburg, New York, San Diego, and Nashville. That's crazy. The good answers. Let me do the alien. Warren, New Jersey, where I live now, where the

cage is. Is it Appalachia or Appalachia? I would say Appalachia. I'm going to add that to the game. For every American year. All righty. I think that'll mostly round out the interview portion. Didn't really anything else that's jumping out that we can't throw into unpaid or underrated. So let's going to go ahead and hit you with unpaid or underrated.

Are you familiar with this game, Big James? Yes, I am familiar. Do you want to explain it to your friends and family that are all tuning in by the dozens and dozens and aren't really sure what this game is? Yeah, sure. I will explain it. It's kind of like a special edition of the old-fashioned, overrated, underrated, where unpaid is kind of the not ideal option of the two because no one likes not being paid for their work. So you have unpaid and then you have underrated. Perfect.

Love it. Appreciate it. One of the people get to explain that. And, you know, it's always, it's going to go one of two ways. Are you going to butcher it and it's funny like I do half the time or they'll do it great and people understand what they're talking about? And that's good too. So either way, it's win-win for me. um unpaid or underrated uh ice hockey oh this is going to get me in trouble uh i'm gonna go

unpaid but i only because i don't know all the rules and i can't ice skate at all but my girlfriend's family is a huge ice hockey family and they have a tournament every year in rochester and that's why i got to hang out with keith and go to the no wine cellar but I definitely did not participate and I feel like I let like her brother, her dad, her uncles down because I just like cannot participate so I watch with her mom while she plays

I thought you played the whole time dude no I watched the whole time you made it sound like I thought you had been playing the whole day Joey let me tell you something that's a stupid cool I watched I thought you were an athlete and no I am an athlete I just not on skates bro

I understand. I can't skip. Anything on my feet. So I'll get there. I'll get there. This winter I took up skiing for the first time. I'm not natural with anything on my feet. We already went over this.

You got big-ass feet, man. Like, size 13, it's awkward for me. But anyway, like, had him for 25 years. You should be used to him by now. No, no, bro. It's like having flippers. You don't get used to it. It's all just variant forms of sliding.

I've said that before. Like, all winter sports are just controlled sliding. it's either downhill or on a flat surface it's all the same and then you got to throw some stuff in like shooting or you know hockey in between as a canadian i'll tell you and i'm going to break some hearts here i don't give a shit about hockey i it's a good sport like i can appreciate it the fact that you can get pissed off and drop gloves and yeah like i i appreciate that i appreciate the physicality like all the stories like the one guy died on the bench and then he was like can you resuscitate me and let me back in like they're definitely tough guys play hockey yeah i'm not

taking anything away for them i just i can't play hockey at all um but i'm telling you that was a great weekend so she goes there they do that like drunken beer league hockey and joey you should visit keith and go to this little rinky dink hockey rink like 25 minutes from his house lake shore arena the best buffalo wings i've ever had like not even you're praising them not even close dude i had to have no exaggeration probably a hundred and twenty of those suckers in two days like and i still they ruined wings for me like still i'm craving them wow i will be in i will be in rochester and just around christmas time for um brook's grandmother's like birthday party and i'm driving a half hour and getting fucking wings from this place i've been thinking about it

i've been thinking about it for a long time please please i would love to do that they're so good Oh, we get Chris and a couple of their guys come over probably, too. Like so good. Awesome. Unpaid or underrated. The Texas Strength System Power Bar. Oh, so underrated. So underrated.

Never even heard of it. Yeah, no one has. For an imported bar, it's been blowing up. The G1 Power Bar, fully stainless steel, well, I think like chrome sleeves, but it is under $400, I'm pretty sure. It is like better than the rogue bar. It is the best. The neural termination marks.

Like there is no tolerance in the collars. It's competition collars. No one talks about it. Dude, it is both. Okay. It is both. Kind of like a boogie? It is the closest neural to my chewy bar.

I have the 20 mountain chewy. It's the closest other bar I have to that. I don't have the Kabuki Power Bar, though. I know you do. Yeah. So I can't, I can't really compare to that. It's definitely sharper than the Rogue Ohio Power Bar. And it's, like, grippier.

It's not as sharp as the Texas Bar, but it's grippier, like, the Texas Power Bar. Interesting. It's a lot like the Chooley, dude. And it is made, like, randomly so well. The only person who has a video on this is Basement Brandon. Yeah, and so I bought, I bought the combo rack. And then whatever, the lead time was like 12 weeks. And they kept emailing me about 25% off on the power bar.

Like every week I'd get an email from Texas strength systems. I was like, you bought the combo rack, add the bar for 25% off. And I couldn't find any information on this bar. So then I've watched Brandon's video and then I messaged Brandon. And then he was like, dude, it's actually a really good bore. Like I never use it and I never talk about it. It's like no one ever asked me about it. And so I got it.

And it's pretty much just like. the high level USAPL competition bar. Like they don't use the Aleko. They use like Texas strength kind of just hits them out. So I'm weird. Like I got it for that because I'm like, well, if I ever do go to Nats,

I want to use their bar. Yeah. That makes sense. And it's, I just can't believe it because everyone talks about like the Hansu, the Hansu bars when they were doing their deals. And the Hansu bar with the deal was only like $50 less than this one is all the And I was like, why does, why does this one never get, I don't know, there's just no videos on it.

Everyone likes to make those, like, best budget bars under $400, all this stuff. And that's one of them. Well, where's your review video on it, bud? I did. I have one. No one watched it. It's got like 80 views. YouTube's hard, man.

That's why I don't get it. Got them. Got them on there. I do. I have best budget IPF bar and I compare it to the road one. Shameless plug. It's, uh, right, everyone watching this should watch that. give me some of these but uh that'll i'll segue into my third one

well i i hit it up with the lugul i just wanted to see it uh it does come in chrome stainless steel or uh black sarah cody and uh the the uh the price is decent dude right it's 423 canadian is that for the stainless or well for the sarahody i don't know if that was canadian but i assumed the cookies is that you're saying is that is that the first Is that still your first glass of wine or have you been filling up off camera?

I have a... He's got a half bottle. Okay, I just haven't paid, yeah. It's not a full. It's not a full. It's not a full. It's like, it's a 375 milliliters. Nice.

All right, my last one here. We kind of briefly touched on it just a second ago. So unpaid or underrated, having a YouTube channel and trying to keep up with that. A fitness based YouTube, a fitness home gym fitness YouTube channel. in this saturated market? I'm going to go underrated,

but I'm going to caveat it with like, it really depends why you do it. Like, I, a lot of people start it because they're like, I want to get free equipment. I did not, I'm not one of those people. I never had that assumption.

Like, why would anyone give me anything? Because I'm never going to do it for that. Like, this is not my job. I never think I'm going to make money. office so like if i don't want to do a video i'm just not going to do it like you know what i mean i i do it because it's fun like i i enjoy thinking about making a video and like i like

filming myself talking about gym equipment because i really do like love the equipment that i bought like i bought a rogue rhino rack and i spent you know five grand on the rack because i've loved the fucking rack you know what i mean so like i made a video on it because no one wants to hear me talk about it. So I wanted to talk to the damn camera about it. You know what I mean? Because I really feel that way about the stuff.

So when people not that this has really ever happened, but I had like one company that makes the shittiest things ever like, hey, we'll send you Smith machine to review. And I'm like, no thanks. Because I don't want your shitty Smith machine. Like, I want to make videos on

stuff that I don't care if I bought it. Like, I would rather buy it because that means I wanted it. That's why it's in my gym, you know what I mean? So I'll make a video on something because I really wanted it. And if you think the video is cool, cool. If it gets 16 views, that's fine. I'm probably 15 of them, like, because I wanted to hear myself talk about it. Like, that's kind of just how I go about it.

That's why it's underrated for me. But, like, if you really want to do it, like, if you want to make a goal to get a thousand subscribers like bro it's so unpaid I feel like that's so hard and there's so many people doing it and there's so many people doing it really well even the videos that get like 500 views

I'll watch them and I'm like that was a really good review like that guy knew what he was talking about um so it's tough for those people and I kind of like I feel bad for not feel bad like they're doing good and their videos

are sick but like gluck and shit like I mean, that's such a grind. People don't appreciate how much of a grind it is to actually make money doing that stuff. I can't even imagine, like, you care. I don't give a shit about my thumbnails, but, like, if you're really trying to make money off it, you have to care, the lighting has to be perfect, and the color that you use on the font matters, so it's like, I can't be bothered with that stuff. I give them a lot of credit.

I also love, like, how basement branding goes. about it. I appreciate how his just feel like he's just talking. That's kind of how I try to make my videos too. It's like, I'm just going to talk about equipment. I'm not, not that luck for anyone sells it. Like, no one does a bad job. I really mean that. I'd love, like, watching everyone's videos. I'd really try to consume as much as I can. Um, but basement Brandon, like his one cut videos where he just talks about a bar and then just like shuts the camera off. Those are my favorite videos it's like dang he's really into that he really knows

what he's talking about and like you could just see that he loves this shit you know like I like those yeah he doesn't give a whole lot of review just for the sake of review like he doesn't really care like he might go a month and not put anything out because he doesn't have any new shit or doesn't care

there's nothing wrong with it like you have to do that if you're trying to make this your job you have to do a couple of those reviews where like this company's making worth my while I have to do it but like Brandon has you know Brandon's got a job he does his YouTube shit you know what I mean

like it's just a different way thinking about it and I I just I couldn't be bothered the editing the the having to care but I mean I also just I'm the weight is weight type of guy like I love my strength co plates I love my Texas power bar but ultimately like

having to know that much about stuff I can't imagine like but that's just me I it's also why I'm weak as shit I kind of hate that I'm not though I kind of like dude I snap back a cable

and scratched my rack like a week ago and I wanted to die and I was like why am I mean yeah like why do I care this much about freaking steel in my basement

that I literally squat out of like five minutes I was like what do about this my rack is some Chinese made Canadian import it's not barely even a half rack but I'm like well I can squat off it and I can bench off it what the fuck do I care about literally anything else right and I

you know I've dabbled in the do I like roller pins do I like no ultimately I just want to lift the weight and feel good about it so I guess that's part of the reason why like I've never got into YouTube and I see a lot of the crew really getting into it and I just don't have the time or patience or strength or physique or or any of the stuff, right? I want to do more so

my like idea is I want to do more of like OT and power lifting. I was I was going to bring that up. That type of stuff. There's a guy I follow and his name is Havon, I think his name is.

Havanaugh McLean. he's on Instagram and he does success stories with his differently abled people

and it's all feel good shit and it's amazing and he's 65,000 followers 654,000 followers and like that stuff is dope because that's

what people want to see right? Like it's you know but ultimately you're dealing with children so you have that one barrier where you shouldn't we shouldn't be

post in children without consent and blah, right? So, but like, ultimately, yeah, if you were to lean into that, like, you would probably get that niche following of people that want to see, you know, exactly how to make themselves better. And there's a lot, like, not even to go into specifics, but like, people with Down syndrome and autism is very, there's a lot of power lifters that are on the spectrum. like the niche about it

lends itself to people that are on the spectrum so there is a lot that you can do it and I I caveat it with everyone that's why I call it as a spectrum if you ask me I think everyone is on the spectrum that's why it's a spectrum which is varying varying degrees but like there

there is really a lot that so we have this game we like to play I guess it's my turn Yes, sir Alright Unpaid or underrated Tiny Tonals The Voltra

Oh It's a hot topic I have I have to go underrated now I actually have one So I pulled trigger And got one Yeah you were debating about that

A lot I thought For a while dude And then I used it, so I was so on the fence on if I wanted to get the indie add-on, like the road cable stacks to make the active functional trainer or the Voltra. And then I went to Home GymCon, use Darko's or whatever. And then right after Home GymCon, I went to Brooks Lakehouse for family vacation for Lakehouse. Then this was not the only factor on why I did not go to the last. lift hard live easy but one of the reasons i did not go this year was because i was talking to brook

about it and she is right like if i was going to go i was going to compete and i was talking to tanner at the arnold and he was like listen your crew if you're going to go and you message who is it dave runs it right yeah yeah so he was like if you message dave kind of like tell him your circumstance like i'm not going to tell you it's a hundred percent but there's like a 95 percent chance that you'll be able to compete like something will happen and you'll be you'll be able to compete. So I had that in my head and I was like, oh, okay, like, awesome. So I came back from me, Arnold, and I was talking to Brooke, like, I was going to go to the Lift Hard Live Easy and I was going to compete. And every year for the 4th of July, like, her family goes to Lake

Winipasaki in New Hampshire. It's, like, very important to her. It's, it's like a family tradition. And I get that. And I'm lucky enough that I've been the past couple of years, like, invited and been a part of that. So long story short, it's just, it's very important. to her. She knows how I am. She was like, if you come to the lake and you have a powerlifting competition, like the weekend after that, like you're not going to be present at the lake. Like, you're going to be worried about working out. Like, you're going to find a gym. You're going to be so worried about your prep. And then if you're not doing all of that and you just like take a week off and go on vacation and then go to the lift hard, live easy, you're going to be pissed off that like

your numbers aren't as good as they could be because whatever. You just didn't say. Because you went to the lake yeah yeah exactly so not to blame brooke but the whole time i was at the lake god damn bro i had a if i had a boulter right now i could be doing both like i could be at the lake doing pretty basic shit keeping my stuff and competing next week or whatever um and so really honestly like that's that's just kind of a funny story but what sold me is like the the fact that i could take it with me like go away for the weekends go on these like wedding trips yeah and not go crazy with it um and it was just so much easier because i don't have any cable system at all so i was like i'm getting a lot of

things that i'm lacking for lack of better term like things that yeah exactly i'm getting a lot of versatility out of this um and it's dude it's been cool like i'm still like dude it's not a smart purchase you know like i recognize it's two grand and it's not going to last right device, isn't it? Yeah, but like, I feel like a jerk off for having one, but it's been it's been super cool. Like, it's, it's actually brought a lot to my training that I didn't think it would. And I'm going like, it's, it's made training fun again. Like, I look forward to using it. Like, I'll, I'll just like randomly do abs because I'm like, I want to use this thing for abs. Like, I'm, you know what I mean? Because you guys get it. Like, I'm, we're so

programs like it's not switching i'm still doing my squats my benches and my deadlift like and my accessories really aren't changing but now i'm kind of just like how you were talking about the shoulder presses i'm just like adding shit because i really really want to do it like i'm getting excited to do it so like whatever i'll do a single arm preacher curl today just because i really want to try it out and like see this setup and and play with the modes um so that has been like really cool like i've called my buddies over and been like I know you're not really that into lifting, but you have to see this. And then they come and, like, play with it.

And they're like, wow, wait, no, that actually is, like, so cool. I had my mom come over, like, two and a half weekends ago, and she's, my mom's pretty fit. And she's had a goal for, like, ever to do a pull-up. And I set it up at the top and then use the belt swap belt and had her do assisted pull-ups. So for the first time in her life, like, she's never, you know, the gym they have those things? Yeah, yeah. She's never used one of those. like, bro, I took a video of it and I was like, this is worth the $2,000 right here.

Just for this video. She was so pumped up and she was like, can I come over and use this? I was like, mom, yes, any time you want. Like, any time you want, that would make me so happy if you came over here and used this. You know what I mean? So that's cool. Like, and I really think that Brooke will use it and stuff. So I'm hoping to get a lot of versatility out of it, but I feel like a coward.

No, and I actually want to say, like, that's the first really glowing positive review of the Vultra that we've had on here. And, you know, that's a completely different perspective. There's nothing wrong with that. It's a piece of gym equipment. People can have opinions. And that was a good one. Unpaid or underrated. What I want to do here?

Kim, Kid Cuddy. Oh, who? Most underrated of all time. I love Kid Cuddy. Similar to a lot of the other things, I guess if you listen to this podcast, you'll get the vibe that I'm like a very sentimental person. So like Kid Cuddy just means a lot to me. Like when I was a young adult and, you know, going through identity crises and, you know, high school girlfriend breaks up with you and, you know, just dealing with the normal, you know, high school BS and that type of your life.

Like, I listen to Kid Cuddy when I was happy and when I was sad and really feeling any emotion. So I was just obsessed with him. And I think I will be for the rest of my life. Like, anytime he goes on tour, I go and see Kid Cuddy. Like, I'll go to his New York concert and then try to go to his Philly concert too. And the best thing I'm padded is, like, I love my home friends to death. Like, they're really great guys. but at this point in our lives like we're every year that goes by we lose things that we overlap on like we're all just in such different stages of our life and like you know one day start stop going to the gym i start getting really into the gym and you know you just life happens but we all still love kid cuddy like that's cool if kid cuddy album comes out we our group chat is popping off again like that type of stuff if he goes on tour we we all go um so that's kind of cool too it's

It's like one of, one of the uniting things that I have with my home friends that, you know, as life goes on, that stuff kind of decreases. Love it. Now I'm worried about asking the other one because that was a fucking great answer. You better not shit the bed with this one, James. Last one. Unpaid or underrated Gucci. Gucci, the brand? Yep.

I'm going to go unpaid. I don't think. who put this somebody put Gucci Prada Versace That was a suggestion For FMK And I threw it down

Into unpaid Oh you son of my bitch It's still If it was gonna If it was valid enough For FMK It would have been fucking Gocha Prada Versace

I don't really I don't really feel strongly About any of those companies All right Unpaid or underrated Asiables Oh Dude that depends

So they're actually really underrated, like, taste-wise, but it's really context-dependent. Like, I would never sit in my kitchen and eat an asa-e bowl, you know what I mean? Like, I think that's kind of weird. Not weird, but just like, what am I doing here? How do I get this? You got to be, like, on vacation or something, and maybe we walk outside the hotel and there's an assaye shop next door like and you get one and it's probably one of the best things you've ever eaten but i don't know if i would like go to the do you know what the juice house is do you

have those by you no it's just like it's uh yeah like a it's like a they just make juice like for smoothies yeah like they have booster juice yeah like they also have like assayables like i don't think i would go there for one but if i'm like if i can see an ocean That's a good cue that an assaye bowl is on the table. I feel like that's fair play. I remember getting into goji berries for a while because they taste like a barn. And I love that taste. Have you ever had an asaibou?

Yeah, probably in passing. But it's, again, I'm in the middle of Canada. So it's not one of those things that are all over the place. They're very refreshing. They're very refreshing. But like I said, I feel like it'd be so out of place. It'd be like, you know, again, home from work on a Monday and just being like, huh, I'm going to have a Pena Colonna.

It's like, what? You're in your living with him. That's good. I mean, the Pina Colada is like great, but that's how I would describe it. I think you passed on paid and underrated. Did, he did. Oh, yeah. We can air this episode.

Yeah, we'll see if Nate can get around to it. This is a long-ass episode, but that's okay. It's going well. Oh, stop it. No, we're good. I'm not working tomorrow, so it's all good. I am working tomorrow, but I have a lot. gallon is a gallon is a really bad way to describe how much shit I have to do tomorrow but

my parents are coming out of town staying for the weekend so I ended up uh I was already going to take a half a day but I ended up just burning the whole day off yet today when I realized it was pretty much done with all for everything I had to do so um but that's irrelevant uh yeah um James do you have anything for us buddy I feel it's because it says James on the thing and usually I would I would call you Robo but I default to like well it's also it's what your name is James on the thing. So I usually default to what people have their name. My name.

It's not just my name on Zoom. That's true. That's true. I have a question. Did you see, did you see Hogan's Gentore video today? Yeah, yeah, watch it today.

Oh, we should have talked about that. What's so special about that rock? The rock. I missed the rock. The stone, the $1,000 stone. Oh, the stone of steel. So it's an, it's a, so think of like the rep pepens. So like a adjustable dumbbell, it's an adjustable dumbbell.

It's an adjustable. Atlas stone. So you can, it's a plate loadable stone. So the whole thing spins apart and there's like a peg inside that you can add plates to and then like, but it's like that they does it in a way to where they're not loose. It's like it's like a hundred little, well, not a hundred, but there's like a dozen little like big washers, if you will or big like spacers and you have to like take the spacer out and then like put washers in to get it to where like however many plates you have in. Like, and then you still have enough like washers and spacers to completely like seal it on the, the rod in the middle of it to where like

it's not loose plates because you're literally picking it up as a stone and dropping it on shit and like throwing it like lifting it over apparatuses so it's just a plate loadable Atlas stone and it really is like a thousand dollars because it's also like mill out a piece of metal that will fucking

thread together in a sphere and can be dropped with hundreds of pound in it hundreds of pounds in it and then still unthread and rethread so it looks pretty crazy but I was like, what? I don't know the, like, what's the normal atlas stone cost, but I was like, $1,000.

No, no, no. So, like, concrete. I mean, you can get concrete ones made for whatever your local guy that just has, like, the thing with stones is you want a variety. Like, okay, so how many different weights do you put on a barbed when you're working up to your, like, the 500 pounds? Right, yeah. So the same thing with stones. I just, I don't want to pick up a 200 pound stone a 100 times.

I want to have 150 pounds stone. I want to have a 200 pounds stone. I want to have a 225 pound stone. And I want to have, like, I already, like, and I own, like, six sandbags already, and I've only been in a strong win for a year. If I got into stones, I'd fucking have that many stones already, too, because it's, like, it's all scalable. So that's a way to have one stone and have it be scalable-ish. So it's pretty cool. It's just a matter of getting them if you can find one that's, it needs to be light enough.

Because I think the first time I got into stones, like, I could only pick up the empty one, like, once or twice. I think when I very, I think when I first met Hogan, he was, I don't mean, I'm honest, I know he can pick. it up now because he's gotten as strong as shit in the last couple years but I think when he first bought it like out of even knowing if he could pick it up and I think he like wasn't able to pick it up I might if I'm misquoting him but I don't believe he was able to pick it up when he first bought it but I know he can now because he's strong as shit he's like two years of dedicated strongman worker kids got strong as fuck yeah I have yep an unpaid or underrated for you guys a couple let's do it all right unpaid or underrated

at the anabolic window. So getting protein in. Jesus. I don't even pay to the Anabolic window. Nope. Unpaid. Unpaid.

It means nothing to me. Just like I have this idea that I want my creatine either right before or right after I work out. But that's just if it doesn't happen, I don't panic.

Right? I don't believe in the anabolic window. But mostly just because like I, I haven't seen anything to tell me it exists. What's significantly more important to me is just, am I, am I hungry or am I too full?

If I'm too hungry, I don't want to train. If I'm too full, I can't train for a little bit. Like, that's the only thing that matters to me when it comes to food consumption and training. This is a big thing in powerlifting. I don't know if it's the same in Strongman, but unpaid or underrated, like snacking on gummies during your lifting,

or like BCAs or whatever, those like intra-workout amino acid drinks. I'll group them together, unpaid or underrated. You go first, Keith. I mean, it's probably underrated. Like, I don't, I mean, I'm, I will consume some food if I have it around and I'm feeling like shit. Like, I've been there's some times I'll run upstairs and, like, grab a banana or something. Or I used to always have jelly. I used to be really big at having, like, jelly beans in the basement.

I think I still do, but I haven't eaten them in forever. But, you know, at least for meats, I always take them with me to meats. but, like, mid-training session, sugar consumption, or BCAAs, I don't really do it much anymore, but I don't knock anyone for doing it. If you neglected your food throughout the day, it's definitely probably even more important, but I'm not of a body weight of a man that neglects food. BCAAs are a scam.

I don't think they do anything. I have yet to see any proof that they do anything. Not to say you shouldn't take them if you think they're helping. candy in the gym when I was powerlifting was clutch because from my understanding when you're pushing your adrenaline you're eating up glucose and as you're eating up glucose

you find yourself getting lightheaded and weaker and a lot of the times that can really fuck up your lifts in Strongman I haven't had the need or desire mostly when I'm at work I have candy and just so I don't kill people if my glucose drops and I get all like mad and angry and I'm just like oh wait

a couple gummy bears will help but in the gym I used to keep them in there for like those really big lift days and now I I guess I've just been doing it too long I fell off so unpaid

especially BCAs yeah I'd never never taking those but I'll do like dried fruit working out good call yep yeah it's it's pretty good but i also like just got into that because i i just had invisible line for like two years and i wore that when i was working out so

i couldn't really snack on anything like healthy dehydrated shit or like the shitty stuff from the grocery store that's just like the shudely like i let you have them right here these um mangoes from trader joes with sugar on them yeah they're like they're pretty borderline they're actually not that bad for you like if you go and compare this to the ones with the out sugar on them there's not much of a difference but they're pretty good um my last one that's not unpaid or underrated but if you guys found five thousand dollars and the only caveat was you had to spend it all on gym stuff what would you get my answer is different now than what it would have been last year probably so a top of the line yoke because the one french sport wouldn't irks me um do me a solid too and and give me um like a price. Doesn't have to add up to $5,000, but I just don't know, like,

the count, I don't know what this is. So a rogue yolk delivered to my house would be like $900 probably. Like, I think it's like 600 plus like pallet shipping basically or $2,300 shipping. So under just under $1,000, which I wouldn't pay that for the yoke. But if I found one used for like $4,500, I'd buy it. I bought a really cheap one that's just, like it feels really cheap. The stone of steel sounds would be kind of nice possibly. not having to like buy a bunch of stones but also maybe at the flip side it's just like rent a bigger

building for $5,000 for a year and have all this space but that really wouldn't work because I'd wanted to be next to my house so like I don't know like a combo rack I guess but I would pretty much be like the three or four grand yeah so probably you don't have to spend it I was just trying to say like if you don't have to think about money like what would you get no I'd like to upgrade the yoke that i but sorry the um the the competition bench i have to a combo rack just so there's like a little more variety when we have multiple people over to be able to like scale heights and stuff but i don't really want to do that at the end of the day because right now my bench has a very small footprint and the combo rack would have the big feet that wing out and be tripping

hazards like in the walkway and i without getting rid of a bunch of toolboxes and storage on the other side of the gym i don't have room i couldn't just get rid of one of the squat stands just because the way they're set up, like there's not enough room for a combat wreck there. But like, I don't know, perfect world, it would be nice to have a combat wreck

somewhere in the gym, but I'm not paying Texas strength system prices right now. And I don't really want the Hansu because it's like way too long for my setup. But I think the Texas would be the right one to get. It's just,

I'm not paying $4,000 for one. So, I don't have Thera Beast money. Um, my answer, five trips to Aberdeen, South Dakota. more like three yeah um probably a wooden log if i could get there's a company here in canada that makes custom made wooden logs and they'll etch them out they'll put your logo or whatever on um probably that right uh because a wooden log would probably last outside better because that's the

only place i could lift it is outside that's why i don't have a steel log because it would just rust. I don't have the room in the basement for it. So probably that. Like that would be ideal to get a good 120 130 pound log that could withstand the elements here in Canada.

Probably that. Aside from that, those shiny ass handsu plates that Matt has. Oh yeah. I know I said earlier. I'd pay $5,000 to steal Matt to me. He doesn't have any plates. That'd be worth it just to take his plates. Fuck him.

Love you, buddy. Yeah, like, weight. I said earlier, weight is weight, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But those are so damn gorgeous. Do you, if you had your pick of any, do you like them better than the, uh, uh, this isn't Brandon has like the same ones, but his have the face are colored and then the, the rims are chrome. You know what I'm talking about?

No. No, no, I don't know what you're talking about. I barely remember what you're talking about, Joey Wunton. Yeah, I do remember him sharing that he had different ones, but I, give that a, give that a Google. real fast because I'm curious to know which one you would prefer what am i good doing i go look up the uh handsu colored crumbs that's and it'll probably come up so they look exactly like when they're loaded on the bar they look exactly like mats that's mostly squat videos right yeah or actually if yeah yeah yeah right um they look exactly like that on the bar except the first one will have the

red because like the face is colored like a oh i see them no no i I would go for the, I would go for those shiny, shiny ones that Matt had. Fully Chrome. Yep. Those ones with the color are like, if I could have anything in the world, any gym thing in the world, I would trade my calibrate plates for those. Like the ones that they're gorgeous, but once you put on four plates, you got four reds on, right?

Like you're not. Well, no, it'll still be, it'll look like chrome. It'll look like one red. Oh, I see what you're saying. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I see what you're saying. Yeah, yeah. No, I still think I would go for the shiny.

because I like things to be kind of the same. Yeah, it would be like unlimited money I would buy thousands of pounds of those or strength coal plates because that clunk is gorgeous.

Dude, the, oh my God, now I'm blanking on his, what's his real name? Mark, right? Rosenberg, deadliest lift. Yeah, his chrome deep dish mayhams, you know what I'm talking about? Yeah, you got those two years

Dude, those those look sweet. The chrome deep dish plates. I didn't know what happened to Mayham. They didn't come back out. Did they mean so a company? I don't know.

They, that's always kind of, I don't want to disparage any companies, but I always get them an ex-master confused. An X-Mart. A question for Joey. So you, you borrowed, Paul, Paul?

No. Cam's Camber bar. So like I, you know, they're, you know, a neutral grip bench bar, if you will. So have you actually done any overhead pressing with that in the last couple days? Yeah, yeah. I posted it a couple days ago. I was doing some log movements, right?

Obviously, it's not the same as a log, but you can lap it. You can lap it, you roll it. I did that before you got when it was awkward. Yeah, I mean, it's all I have. Yep. Right? So, like I said, I can't lift a log in the basement unless it's seated log. And that's...

I even experimented with, uh, I taped. a foam roller to like one side of it too just to kind of get that like replicated like the barrel. Oh yeah I didn't do that either your chest. That's smart. No it was awesome. It felt but yeah just a neutral grip overhead press

is very comfortable in my opinion so yeah that that replicates just doing that you're almost I don't recommend doing a bunch of cleaning pressing or cleaning with it because you're not fucking your bicep up because it's going to be you're not going to be able to do it the right way yeah no no you can't get that rolling up the

the weight. So I'd say just get more experience with just overhead pressing in that neutral grip position was what I would recommend you get a bigger benefit out of that as someone who dicked around with trying to turn a one of a bar similar to that into a log. It just wasn't close enough.

And I just felt like I was hurting my arms because you're in of just curling it up like the way you shouldn't. But it's still pretty cool. Yeah, but also scant's just as just stay strong. It doesn't matter what the implement is. I know you don't understand that But that made sense to me It doesn't matter what the implement is

Oh yeah The implement doesn't really matter If you're just strong in general That's kind of why I want to try Highland I would love to try a cabre toss Because my deadlift is pretty decent And I feel like those movements match So

Have I ever cabered? No But could I? We'll see one day when I don't have a job that's all weekends I don't know it's not ideal strength sports I do you get anything else for us buddy for we bring this one in for a landing

no I'm good I just wanted to say that uh thanks for having me I think you guys do a great job it's fun I have to admit that before I spent you know nine hours with Keith in the airport I actually did not listen to too many of these but after after he booked me i felt social responsibility to to do my fair share so i listened to

about 10 or 15 nice and i will say that i will be listening weekly it's a it's a good podcast you guys do a good job so and like some people are confused why we book like i go to my way to book people a month out it's strategic because also i don't want to like deal with last minute scheduling but it's like it gives us time to get info back from people but it also gives the guest time to actually consume our backlog because I know a lot of you fuckers aren't listening every week or it's that many episodes so like that's your you know several people have

you know shared something similar to me in private or on the podcast so you know that's when people reach out I was like hey can you get me in the podcast I'm like I got the next six weeks booked so no I can't get you on the podcast and how much have you listened yeah exactly like I just want to be on there okay what's your favorite episode how many have you listened to how many so it's the people

that are like really eager that don't listen that we kind of are like why? I was honestly it was like a little biased and went back first to listen to the ones. Oh yeah, you have to cherry people. Like the people that I met. Yeah. That's the smart move. But like I didn't know

I didn't know Bremi. Like I'd never met Bremi. I bought a chalk bowl from him. I talked to him on Discord and like his podcast was I think in December but just last week I listened to Bremi's podcast with you guys. So that's cool. It's been cool. And now I feel like I I need to get a shirt and a banner. I felt like a fraud before. There are only three spots left on the shirts.

I got to get a shirt for sure. Speaking of Bremen, there's three spots left. And jokes aside, as Tanner says, it's not a bad podcast or whatever. Like, we have this niche that we do where this podcast is for 600 people. Okay? Like, we do this every week for literally just those 600

massonomics followers and to know that there's people that listen to massonomics and hear tanner talk about it all the time see us talk about it in the discord see tanner repost our stuff and they still don't listen it's like or even follow like yeah like i don't follow us you motherfucker at some point we are doing this for people like yourself that are like i want in i want to dive in i want to i want to be involved how do i start it's listen to unpaid and underrated right right So when you see Scants post, you know who Scants is. You see Jen post. You know who Jen is.

You know, Dammy and all that kind of thing. And I love that it took booking you to get it. But like, I love that. Now you're like, no, now I get it. I get it. I love it. Right? And that's a good story to share because, yeah, we're here for, I'm not here for me.

I can tell you that much. No. I mean, I enjoy this immensely. But if we weren't doing the search. for you guys. We wouldn't be here every day. Yeah. Like, like I, like, I, like, I could, I, I, I could, I, I could enjoy doing this once a month as much as I enjoyed, you know what I mean? Like, it is, it is all taxing. But, yeah, that, circling back to the, to the spreadsheet, though, is, I'm going to make an

effort, too, is to, like, reference once, once, that spreadsheet's actually, like, like, up-to-date and, like, thorough, if, I mean, it might not ever be, but, like, that, the spreadsheet that Garry's compiling will be very essential for me to make sure that you and you is following all the active crew because I don't want to follow a fucking non-cru back or like crew adjacent like I'll DM crew adjacent but like with the goal to get them to be crew.

Gary, you're listening. You're always listening. Add a column appeared on unpaid and underrated yes or no. Yeah, I was thinking about that. I could even go through there and do that because I'll at a glance I can know everybody. Yeah, that's smart.

Let's add that. I can even have chat GBT do that or something. I ain't getting no chat GVT, I had no M dashes to my spreadsheets. Well, we got some affiliates. Help, you know, these really don't, they help you guys more than they help us.

Like, we don't really get anything out of these. We get very, very, what's smaller than not a lot, that's how much we get back from these. But you guys get more savings than we get profits. So, you know, take advantage of them. Affiliates, obsidian ammonia,

barbell rescue, plate snacks, home gym con, belt fed strength, freedom fitness equipment, and apparel from the Strength Co. Code Unpaid will pretty much save you some amount of money at all of our friends' websites, you know, and support the people that support you. They support us, et cetera, et cetera. You know, I think one, two, three, four, five, six or seven of them. Like, they're almost all crew and they almost all are at home gym con or they're at the fucking lift hard, live easy. You know, like these are the people that we associate with. So give them your money and, you know, help people that run these small businesses stay afloat. It's more about that than it really is anything else. Big James, are they going to find you yet, bud? Occupational Bearbeast on Instagram. Awesome. Big Joy, where you get?

At Joey underscore Mlesco, M-L-E-C-Z-K-O. Follow me, you bastards. I mostly, like, I've been at 20 under 1,600 followers for, like, a year. I'm going to catch up to you. I'm going to pass you. Yeah, yeah, I know. And it's just like, ugh, like I just want to. But again, you go back and it used to be like, oh, I want to crack a thousand.

and then you crack a thousand, but it's that one, like I want that landmark of just hit 1600 once. I did, I think I did a giveaway for my thousand follower and it went to a crew-adjacent person.

Oh, nice. Yeah, he still hasn't joined yet. If you're listening, I know who you are. I'm in talks to your buddy, Will. I'm in talks.

We can talk about that in the post show because I got some other stuff to talk about briefly. Instagram, unpaid, underrated podcast, website, Unpaid Internpodcast.com. We got a YouTube,

Go Rape's Carp and others for reverse comment. And I'm Keith Honeycutt 73 on Instagram. More importantly, follow my orange gym and then a wine cellar. And until then, see you next Tuesday. I just want to point out briefly. I mentioned the Christopher Walkin thing,

which was very funny to me. And then you started calling your mother a saint, which is such a New Jersey stereotype. My mother's a saint. My mother's a saint. I was just like, oh, I love this. The Sopranos. I wanted to kind of.

of dig into the like just the stereotypical tag and stuff I was like I don't want to come off as a douche but no I know I don't doubt that but that is like my mother's like that's a that's a a new york italian mom I'm an italian from jersey what do you expect I'm I love it that wasn't a judgment call at all I love it I thought it was great you had no who like do you not watch how old are you though you're like early I did I probably didn't know I I don't know anyone's name. What's is there? Christopher Walken.

He's, like, extremely famous just for the way his dialogue. Yeah, yeah, dude, he was in, he was in the Spider-Man. Yes, he, what, no. No, he was. William Defoe. Oh, Batman. Yeah, he was in the Batman Returns. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I knew he's in someone.

He was in the Fat Boy Slim video. Click, Pope Fiction. Yep. I won't just watch in my ass. Never mind. That's, yeah. Dude, this guy was in a lot Yeah, yeah, I know this guy

I just would have never A kangaroo Jack That's a funny one Of all the Christopher Walking movies He was the bad guy in the rundown With The Rock and Sean William Scott Yeah, yeah

Boop