Unpaid And Underrated - 170 : Lotta Big Tanners (A Home Gym Con Recap)

Episode Date: August 11, 2026

This week, Keith is joined by the members of the Crü who attended Home Gym Con, for a recap of the 4th annual convention. Links Ü&Ü Hoodie Massenomics x Ünpaid and Ünderrated Colab Get Your Own Keith Head Follow The Podcast On Instagram @unpaid.underrated.podcast Online UnpaidInternPodcast.com On Youtube @Unpaid.Underrated.Podcast Our Guest Big Power Locks On Instagram @powerlockneb Big Antonio On Instagram @pinchebecerra Big Steve On Instagram @bambam_168 Big Brad The Pad On Instagram @brad_deters Big Chris On Instagram @friendlyneighborhoodlifter Our Hosts @keithhoneycutt73 or his orange gym, @thenowhinecellar @joey_mleczko Special Guests: Big Antonio, Big Brad, Big Chris, Big Steve, and Big Tanner (Husker Power Locks).

And welcome back to episode 170 of the unpaid and underrated podcast, a podcast by crew for crew. I'm one of your host, Big Keith, joined as always by this week a big old gaggle, gaggle of silly goose's geeses, geese, geese, geese, something like that. So going around the room here, we got Big Steve. This is Big Steve on Instagram. I am Bam Bam underscore 168. We're also joined by Big Brad the Pad. Brad the Pad, most people know who I am at Brad underscore Dieters on the Instagram. Also, Big Antonio coming back at us.

Hello, Bince Becerra, as seen on TV. And this week, we've got a special guest, Big Michelle Paxton, as the Zoom says. But I believe that may or may not be Tanner, Tanner Paxton, of a little Husker Power Locks, Husker Power Locks. Is that who you are, buddy? That's me, Power Locks, Nebraska on Instagram. Sounds good. On my wife's computer, because I don't own one. I mean, it's just, you only have, like, two businesses.

So why would, why would you have a, why would you have a laptop if you only have a couple businesses? I mean, you have to, you have to, you're online now, man. Yeah, yeah. Do you have to wait until you're, like, in your fourth business until you need a, your, dedicated laptop for yourself? I think the Jim Radar guys have computers, and they only have two, I think. And then, uh, everyone's friendly neighborhood lifter.

How you doing there, big Chris? Hey, guys. What's up? Yeah. Um, coming to you. from the back cave and Instagram handle is a friendly neighborhood lifter. Love it. This is a good crowd.

I'm ready to just dive in. So we're talking about Home GymCon 2026. If you're listening, if you're doing a backlog deep dive in a couple years from now, yeah, this is, what are we at? August 5th, 2026. Everyone just got back from Home GymCon a few days ago. This was the fourth annual Home GymCon second year in Louisville. And let's see, who was here? Got a lot of first timers this year.

be a couple repeat home gymmers. So just anyone, anyone jump out. What was your experience, Steve, kind of walking into home gym con for the first time, and seeing how big it was? Um,

it was, I think my, my first initial reaction was it was everything I wished that the Arnold was. Like, the Arnold was overwhelming and crazy and like no gym equipment whatsoever. Um, whereas this obviously is what it's made to be. Um,

so it was really cool to like, you know take all that in we were like wow this is a bunch of nerds like me that want to see a bunch of shit like me fair enough and then uh big antonia you were there last year so what do you think this was about 25 30 percent bigger probably than last year you think how would you compare that yeah i would say the difference uh for me was you know obviously uh you know i had my uh my gym tour uh appeared on you know unpaid and underrated so it was surprising how many people came up to me and we're like hey i saw your gym or hey you know good to meet you and i was like who are you i mean in a very right you know cool way but it is kind of weird yeah i i hear those

guys unpaid unrated are doing a lot of home gym tours like that yeah i do believe you masonomics that's okay i'll take the plug oh no no no i mean uh the massanomics tour but I also had my episode of Unpaid and Unrated. Oh, okay, okay. So folks kind of. The way I heard it, I was like, wait, does he? I got you. I got you.

I got you. No. Yeah, no. Yeah. It was cool. That's cool. So anyone specifically, well, this is like open to the table. Did anyone have anyone say, hey, I listen to your you and you episode, then like, or reference

that at all. Or did you reference or use their you and you an episode is like a talking point at all throughout the weekend? And there were crickets. So I guess not. We're going to go and shut this podcast down, guys. So the whole goal of the podcast was for that. for the past three and a few years.

Apparently, Joey and I fucking suck. I'll say the only person that talked about podcasting was you at home gymcon. Yeah. No, I will say, I think I tore my rotator cuff the day before unpaid and underrated.

So there was a lot of, so yeah, there was a lot of, it was, I had had the MRI, but, you know, we didn't know that I had to go,

you know, under the knife and get surgery. So there was a lot. lot of, you know, folks just checking in, like, hey, how's the shoulder? I know, you know, I was at Crew Falls and in the sling still. So, um, and helping out at the strong man, there was a lot of, like, hey, let us lift that. And I'm like, no, no, no, I'm good. Like, it works again. Like, I'm good. Thank you. I think even in your gym tour, it was like, you were just either getting fully covered or still had some limitations. Because God knows when those, when this fucking gym

tours are dealt. Like, you could have had that gym tour the day after your surgery and you because it was fucking, you know, even it came out a couple months ago. It's really funny that some of these episodes hit like two weeks later and some are like four months later. And it's like, oh, I know that guy doesn't have that in his gym anymore. Big Chris, you had into Louisville, what, Wednesday? Yeah, I headed in on Wednesday with the wife. And we basically tried to check off all the nonlifting stuff first so I could, you know, at least have her somewhat ready for the, the geek fest to ensue.

But yeah, I mean, Louisville's a cool city. It's got a couple of good museums. We did the Louisville Slugger Museum. We did a couple of distillery tours. It's all within walking distance. So no complaints. I mean, we ate well. Like, especially if you like fried chicken,

obviously Louisville's a good city for it. So no complaints. Big Steve, I know you had a couple of fried chicken sandwiches while you were there, too. Oh, dude, I probably ate like four whole chickens at this point. I ate a lot of fried chicken while I was there. Too much, probably.

But it's so good. So good. And then I think Tanner, you might have had one of the more interesting drives and road trips in. Is there anything that stuck out to you there? He's kind of want to give us the breakdown on when you left, who you picked up, how you got there? Yeah, so Jake and Big Mo picked me up in Nebraska City, which is about an hour from my house.

and we're like seven hours into the drive down there and he's like hey i think debo's gym is kind of on the way and i'm like he said it was 15 minutes off track so it'd be like 30 minutes round trip that's really not bad but we were there for like an hour you know when we had to pee that i know you had to pee that bad from the story that i heard when you uh didn't see in st louis and you just drove for another three hours without having to pee you stopped to pee didn't pee because of unsavory conditions. Yeah, Jake was like, hey, we got to stop at a gas station before we get out of downtown St. Louis because it can get kind of sketchy and then proceeded to stop us at the

sketchiest gas station. I've ever been to. Like, I don't think Coach Moe got even got out of the car all the way before somebody was trying to sell on something. It was a wild. We all just kind of stood out there and we're like, yeah, we're not going to the bathroom here we're just going to find a different station down the road somewhere but we went to debo's gym and that was sweet that was uh we had jim envy everybody all of us did that he needs a lot

more gym equipment to fill that place up he's uh he's coming home with a big piece from the uh from the show too he got that jvd leg extension light curl right yeah yeah carp that was that's something that carp was gifted just from doing some reviews and he ended up uh letting it go at a very friendly crew discount if I heard right and I think Debo had to pulled an audible because he was going to come home with a thousand dollar rig like a three three station rig that was just going to be massive but he did have the room for it and then opted for the seven hundred dollar leg extension leg curl that is was plate loaded so I think he he'd won that pretty good deal I was pushing him so hard to buy that rig he just I think I could just see how tired and nervous he was about it

because he's like, this is going to take seven hours to disassemble. I mean, if you were there near the end of the show, the larger booths were essentially just giving shit away. Like, they just, as long as you could fit in your truck, they kept dropping the prices. So you could get some sweet deals. I intentionally brought my car so that I didn't bring anything large home that I didn't need. What did anyone walk away, anybody on this episode specifically?

walk away with anything. I think Bam Bam brought a couple really big things home. I got a bunch of plates. He tries to. Actually, that is kind of, yeah, you want to tell your journey of how you attempted to get them home and what ended up happening?

Well, so we were in the Titan booth, and this was when we were discussing the whole rig scenario with Debo. And they're like, how about you? Do you want it? And I'm like, I'm flying. Like, I'm like, I don't know. Do you guys have like plates or anything? Like, what about bumpers? I actually need bumpers. And the guy's like, oh, I can give you this pair of 45 bumpers for 40 bucks.

And I'm like, $40? Like, yeah, I'm done. Let's do it. And he was like, how you get him home? I'm like, I'll put him in the suitcase. I don't even care. So one story long, I ended up going back there. And I was like, hey, you guys got any more plates?

And they're like, yeah, we got these tens and these 15s and we'll sell them to you for 20 bucks. So $60, I got $2.45, 2.25s, 2. And then it kind of hit me. I was like, I don't even think these 40s. 45s are going to fit in my carry-on, let alone two more tens and two more 15s, and I'm like, ah, I'm going to do know. A hundred pound period. Yeah.

120 pounds of over-get. Yeah, they don't think they're, I mean, they're, like, they do have like a 50-pound, well, like, well, they're not weighed, but I think your check bag can only weigh a certain amount. I would assume your carry-on shouldn't weigh fucking that much. Well, my whole thought process was, I want to say it was on you and you. I heard somebody say that they took a top. Thomas inch dumbbell home from the Arnold as a carry-on. Jesus.

So I was like, I think he can be done. And then I thought about it. And I was like, it's going to be really suspicious. Because like, if I do get this 45 in my carry-on, when it goes through the security, there's absolutely zero chance that they're going to let me, they're going to throw them away or something. You know? So I walked out because Hogan and I are doing the big tech deal.

And I'm bringing his to his house. I'm like, oh, Hogan's got his truck. And I'm like, hey, man, I know I said just 245, but can I actually make it like a hundred pound of weights that you're bringing back to Columbus and he was cool about it. He's like, yep, no problem. Perfect. Perfect. Yeah, I think all I got was, I didn't actually buy anything and just a bunch of merch

from Asinomics and then Fringe was given away basically their entire collection of magpins. So I went back, I went and got like four or five-eighths magpins for my yoke because Hogan had suggested using those. And I kind of was like, that's a stupid idea. And I was like, oh, well, the ones with the, they, you know, have the lock ring on the back. And I put them on the yoke yesterday. I was like, ooh, it's going to be awesome, like super convenient. So I kind of wish I had grabbed two more for the, for the plate holders, too, because

they're pretty sweet. But the one annoying thing was, like, three were completely black and one set fringe and, like, white font. So I was like, well, that's just horrible. So I just took some electric tape and covered it up and I'll figure out if I'm going to, like, paint it or something later because, like, I can't have like one random fringe magpen and everything else is black black, but. Bring it to Crew Falls and I'll trade you.

I got two black ones. Oh, I might do that. Well, I don't want to fucking make you have a, then you'll have an oddball. Michelle. I don't care. I'm not even a little bit like you. And that I'm pretty proud of the fact that I threw some tape on it and I was like 100% okay with that. Like Keith three years ago would have been like, nope, got to fucking go buy a $70 replacement. All right. Um, so my travel this year, thankfully, it was awesome. No issues. Got in when? What, we Wednesday or Thursday? I'm so I can't even remember the whole week's a blur.

must have been no yeah we got on Wednesday night no it was Thursday afternoon yeah Thursday so Brandon Brandon picked me up at the Brandon and Jakey picked me up the airport went and saw the O'Doyle rules gym that was actually pretty dope uh his wife graciously and his daughter put a bunch of care packages together for I think Tanner you ended up showing up to that and uh there was probably 10 or 12 of us down there for a group photo yeah who was it all jakey was taking the worst group photos ever because he was he he was nervous about not being able to see it so he was using the selfie camera. And I'm like, dude, the fucking selfie camera is the worst. Like, like, I get that, like, you're nervous about if people are going to be in frame or not. But like, I'd rather take

two pictures and figure out if someone's got to move than just take a bunch with the selfie camera. So, uh, I think we had to do another photo after Hogan, like, like, like, right when everyone was getting ready to leave, like four more people showed up. So like, oh, another, another group photo just so Brandon can have like the most people in the picture. So, uh, Hogan took over and we got a nice HD quality picture out of that. So that was pretty cool. Um, but yeah, Brandon's gym definitely smaller than it looks like online, but still plenty big enough. You get to get a lot of work done in there. You definitely get strong in there.

That'll be a good, I think they did his gym tour the day before. So I'm excited to see that one come out in about nine months. And yeah, that was Thursday. We got into, did anyone actually get in early Thursday? Everyone did everyone to go Thursday night or people were kind of rolling in Friday? or? Yeah, I was Thursday night. Okay. So yeah, I rolled in to town about, I don't know, two o'clock or so on Thursday. So guys into the cot,

I think they were letting people in already like three. Yeah, I think it was supposed to be four. Like media had like one to four, which was pretty cool. Technically, I was media just because I kind of like leveraged the podcast as quote unquote media, but then I didn't really do any media. So I probably won't sign up for media next year just because I feel like I didn't really do anything to deserve it this year. So we'll play that by year. But that was really cool because it did. give the the, the, a lot of the people that were there actually to film content, the opportunity

to get like a two to three, I mean, it was technically four hours, but, you know, they did start letting people in a little earlier than the four, but, uh, just to get some one on one time without having to interrupt as many people, basically. So I felt the whole weekend as a whole, there wasn't a ton of media guys just in the way, like it wasn't as obnoxious, maybe as last year might have been, just because they did have that full day Thursday, or maybe it was just, possibly it was so big and spread out that it just wasn't as noticeable. I'm not, I'm not, sure but overall i thought that was kind of cool and then uh yeah everything was kind of off off rippin thursday night um got to see the massomics finally got to see who was behind the mass you know there's

that gym radar guys um i hope was that a big surprise on who was behind jim radar for anybody i was i didn't i didn't run into them all oh you still didn't meet him yet shit i still didn't need them do you at least get your did you least get your green backpack your your swag bag i did i used it as my laundry hamper for my dirty clothes same me too after walking back from Guy Fierry's, I fucking had to put all my clothes on it because it smelled like fucking weed and cigarettes and puke. We went in a little later.

It's a wild party. It was. Generator guys, they've got the men in black flashlights so you forget what they look like after you meet them. So I remember meeting them, but I don't know what they look like. It's the weirdest thing. Fair enough. Yeah, the trick is, I think I got there Thursday

at one because I was helping with some of the Strongman stuff and you just say you're with Big Kurt. He's like the mayor. If you say I'm with Big Kurt like, you know, when I was at the ATX booth, I'm like, oh yeah, I'm helping Big Kurt.

They're giving me shirts and whatnot. So, yeah, pro tip for next year. You're with Big Kurt and the red carpet is pulled out. Yeah, I'm going to play that card next time then. I didn't play that card. I sure did. If anyone could have Brad, that was you, buddy.

You were running it back as a little MC man. It's my new gig, apparently. I'm a traveling strongman MC. I will say the funniest, you know, not to jump all the way into the Strongman events, but that's where I expect a lot of time. The funniest thing, because, you know, Brad is crew through and through,

when he called a lot of the ladies, he's big. It took a while for them to pick up on it and you just see the faces. That's funny. I could see that. I had to explain to him that this is strong man, strong woman. If you're here, you're big. Yeah.

That's actually really funny. Big Heidi did not like that the first time around. Yeah, I don't think many people would like that for the first time. If they don't get the bit or the joke. So big, big Steve, you did a little strong man action. That was your technically, yeah, your, because you did powerlifting last week, right? And then strong man this week? Correct, yeah.

Nice, nice. So your first entry into strongman, how'd that go? It went pretty good. It was a lot more fun than I expected. I really like the gamesmanship aspect of it. Like powerlifting, you know, you're just up there trying to best yourself, whereas that it's like, within one event, I was like, wait a minute. I'm actually doing all right here. It's like, all right.

Okay, that's my guy. I'm going to watch him because he's going to beat me on this one. And it turns it's pretty fun. Yeah, very much so, very much so. Yeah, Strongman is, there was a decent amount of crew there too. I met like three dudes that I don't really know. I think a couple of them were Andrew Montoya's buddies. And then another one was, I'm blanking it on his name, but he's the Kansas City.

He gave me like a Kansas City cruise sticker. And I was like, I've never seen you in my life. Like, I've never seen your face. before in my life and you have a regional crew sticker like am I slipping like is is my crew glue wearing off like I don't know but uh also I had like the same conversation with like four people they're like I've never met that guy before either but boots I think was his name like or that was his his his his handle was boots I believe uh but yeah I've never been handed a regional sticker and not at least had a somewhat of an idea who that gentleman was but and I think

Brad even mentioned like oh there was like four dudes here that were crew that I didn't know so I couldn't really ham it up for him because I just didn't know they were crew Yeah, yeah, there's at least three, maybe four guys that I had no idea were crew. I didn't know and they didn't induce themselves as such. So, you know, I like to cook a little extra for the crew. I did feel that was somewhat common. I had a lot of people that would talk to me and then like find out later they were crew kind of thing, but like not in the moment or they just like wouldn't lead with their crew.

It's just I don't know. I don't know if they're just crew, like passive crew or just nervous people. I don't know, but it was, it was an interesting experience. I had, like, the least amount of people had, like, led with, hey, I'm crew. It was just like, well, I don't know if you're a crew or not, because a lot of people still buy massonomic shit that aren't crew. So I'm not just going to be. There's a lot of people that wear massanomic shirts that probably don't even know there's a

podcast. I just like, oh, sure. That shirt's really cool. I'm going to buy that. And then they wear it to the con. And we assume their crew, but then I met a few people that had no idea what I'm talking about. So, yeah. Well, speaking of massanomics, you know, our friends, our sister podcast, uh,

Steve, did you have a little read for him? Yeah. So I'm going to kind of wing this one and try to keep it fun and easy. If you're anything like me, you probably work too much and you're probably a little antisocial. Crew is the best way to make lifelong friends that you don't necessarily have to hang out with all the time. The enjoyable part about crew is there's, as of right now, four events a year where you can get together with some of the best friends you'll ever have. And absolutely love every minute of it. If you're thinking about becoming crew,

reach out to a crew member and ask about an event or listen to you and you. That is the easiest way to make a bunch of friends that an antisocial person like myself, you won't regret. Perfect. Love it. Love it. Love it. The Massonomics booth, the bunch of new merch, the gym radar booth,

they were, I hope everyone had an opportunity to get their picture. So set the scene, if anyone wasn't there, didn't see the pictures or like I said, this is like two years in the future. So there was a massonomics booth on the left, just like your stereotypical lift hard live easy, Arnold booth. And then they had a double booth with the gym radar booth was essentially just a big TV, some gym radar, you know, bling and like backdrops. And then the big TV had was hooked up to an iPad that was just on gym radar.

So you could pull up your gym. Like Tanner or Tommy could kind of like show what. gym raider is, anyone that didn't have a fucking clue, but a lot of what people just took advantage of bringing up their gym and then getting a picture with Tanner or Tommy in the booth with the, you know, the potential gym radar guys, if that's who it is. And then, uh, the merch specifically did anyone, uh, Big Chris, what do you think of the, do you pick up anything? Is any of the new, any of the new merch stand out to you? Yeah, so, uh, both me and Big Emily both got the, uh, home gym con eight bit, which you know I'm a sucker

for. So, like, those are, you know, I've seen some now that I didn't even, wasn't even aware existed. So I saw the old party hard eight bit and there's the Highland Games too. So there's kind of like a bit of a scavenger hunt now where I'm trying to get all the eight bit stuff and some of the retro ones are, uh, are tricky to find. But yeah, I got that. I got the, um, uh, one of their new shirts. Um, I think it was, maybe it was one of the, I got the new.

I got the new lift hat too that Brad's wearing. I thought that was really sharp. And I got one of their new shirts. I'm totally blanking on what it, what color it was. There was a turquoise something or other. And then there was the maroon home gym nerd. And then there was a black massonomic lifting department. Yeah, I got the, I got the turquoise.

Yeah. It was the silly goose. Is that what it was? The silly goose turquoise, okay. Yeah. Nice. Yeah, speaking of the lift hat, the lift hat was, I'm going to guess they brought in 50 because I know we've researched some potential hat possibilities if there's enough

positive feedback or a positive interest on a you and you hat. That might be a thing we can make down the road. But I'm going to assume it was 50 because they were gone. So we opened to what Thursday afternoon and the hats were sold out Friday morning. And I mean morning like within like an hour of the booth opening. Yeah. I do think there was a lot of guys that had a buddy pick them up, which, you know, it kind of is what it is. People, you know, there's some people that definitely had had their eyes on a hat in a long time. And once they saw, they were for sale, there was definitely a lot of DMs being sent probably to, hey, pick this up for me kind of thing. I was on the fence of getting a hat. I'm not a hat guy. Stephanie wanted a new hat for walking. But after I bought it and wore it, I was like, oh, maybe I am a hat guy. I haven't wore a hat since I was probably 20, like legitimately. And then, like, I ended up wearing a hat, I think all day Saturday. And I was got told, damn, I've never seen you in a hat. You may admit, you know, I've, you know,

So, I don't know. We'll see. I think you're a big hat guy now. I did. I mean, what's funny is like I've been, uh, I wore, um, I've been wearing glasses for a few months and not a single person in my life, from crew or even my personal life, I've ever once commented on my glasses. But I put a hat on and fucking nine people at an hour to say, hey, look at that hat. I've never seen you in a hat.

I was just like, so that kind of mind fucked me a little bit. I was like, I think glasses would be more commentable than a hat, but apparently when it's a lift hat, it makes more of an impact. Yeah, it's funny. I wore my OG lip hat, and then I thought I was going to be, you know, one of a few. And I'm like, oh. You heard you just one of 55 assholes. Yeah.

But then I bought one for my son. And the irony is the discord is full of people that want a hat. And my son was like, eh. He was unimpressed by the gift. Well, sounds like that's going to go back into your collection then. Yeah. As we discussed, your son looked unimpressed always. weekend long. But like you said, this is how he is. As teenagers, too. Yeah, yeah, he's going

off to college. So he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's more of a, a, a, a, a he's, he's, he's, he's going to skip the generation. Those are pretty cool, uh, father's son kind of, No, here's the irony. I think he would have liked doing that because last year it was the same. He was doing a lot of the heavy lifting. And, you know, seemed unimpressed on,

you know, like he wasn't having a blast. And when this year came around, he's like, I'm in. Although he was a scorekeeper, which he said was interesting because, you know, is full of a bunch of enthusiastic strong man. He's like, people were like snatching my sheet and checking the score. And I'm like, you know, so he's just sitting there keeping score with, you know, an important job. Yeah.

I don't envy the volunteers on the technical side of Kurt's show. I know a lot of stuff got changed last minute, a lot of late night emails about start times, of how many the events split. But I know he got kind of hamstrung by bringing in the other, you know, there was another strongman show starting after them on Saturday. So they tried to shorten their Saturday morning. So going down to one event Saturday instead of two.

There was definitely some discrepancies that people were pointing out from Iron Podium versus reality. And at the end of the day, it is strong man. At the end of the day, it is strong man. They did their best probably. It is what it is. It's tough.

There was a couple good friends. Might have got some shitty. tosses and bounce or bounces that is but and you know you can save that for post show show biz baby it goes to show how

well Jake's show was run by comparison like watching watching from the audience to um you know there were a lot of volunteers and I think the not to you know smack talk the home gymcon event but I just felt like

I haven't gone to a lot of strong man shows in person so just the viewing experience of like hegelog loading and some more dynamic stuff is really exciting for the people in the audience, especially if it's like a head-to-head competition. And, you know, it's just, it's more fun to watch that than watch somebody try and like one at a time max out on deadlift, right? So it should have been a two platform show. It should have been a two logs and two deadlift running simultaneously.

If it was possible. I'm sure there was there was weight limitations on like what. Kurt physically had with him. I get all that. I think the sandbagged a shoulder when it was head to head was fucking awesome to watch and very entertaining and very cool. That was really fun. Yeah.

I mean, that was the best event. Yeah. The Zurcher or the Conan's wheel, even though it was head to head, like, I don't know. It was still cool because it was head to head. But the sandbags, I think, took the cake for the show. I think Log and Deadlift could have been right up there. They just would have needed a lot more equipment to run to platforms, I feel. I think the one thing I wish that Kurt did for his show

and it's not no knock at him whatsoever. I really like the shot clock rule that you did. I feel like that would make it so exciting. Like the sandbag, like when the time runs out, like for instance, when I got to my last sandbag, I heard the judge say, you got three seconds left. And I'm like, well, if there's three seconds left, like I'm not going to burn myself.

You could have maybe aggressively lapped that got the bro. You could have got wind on. it and then you could have finished it. Exactly. Like if there was a shot clock, I would have done everything I could to get under that damn thing and try to get it before the other guy did.

You know what I mean? Like I just would have loved to see something like that. That would have been really cool. Yeah, I do think the shot clock will be a thing at every Lift Hard Live Easy going forward that since the Jake kind of discovered that at a different show and it was like, oh, this is dope.

Yeah, it adds, uh, the shot clock adds some flavor, I think. Steve, what sandbag did you get up to? I think I. Were you on the two, I think I successfully got the 225 and I was just about to get the 250 and so was the guy I was going up against as well. But he got there first so he got it. That is a beefy sandbagged shoulder, my man.

We saw Tyler Thompson. What did he? He shouldered a 350 bonus sandbag and pulled the Riz bag. 838 on the mammoth deadlift bar. So it's probably slight, which is even more imprised, like slightly, well, slightly it is significantly. it is some amount it was some percentage less wippy than a big text bar so in fact he pulled 838 on a mammoth when you get big tyler out to lift hard leave easy again next year he's he had more he had more yeah he did yeah a lot more in the well he only i talked to him about it his his

all-time deadlift PR on a mammoth and a power bar were both like under 820 whatever they were like someone was a deadlift bar so the fact that he chipped a PR on both he was he was satisfied and got the event win. So, like, he didn't have anyone pushing him to, like, go out and pull 900 or anything like that. Yeah, no, he didn't have to do more, but he definitely had it. It was, it was 838 RP8. Did any of you guys have a chance to watch any of the other competitions that were going, like, not the, not the, um, deadlift party, but like the actual power lifting or strength or strict curl competitions while you were there? Personally, did not. Yeah. I mean, I, I, I was able, to watch some of the powerlifting.

And I stopped for one of the lifters. His first attempt was a raw 800 squat. And it absolutely flew. And there were probably about 20 spotters around him that would have been able to do absolutely nothing if he had trouble with it. But he smoked it. It was perfect form, no question about depth. And it just looked like he pressed a button when he went up.

I've never seen anything like him. person. That is super impressive. I've only seen, I've only seen a hard squad like five times in person, maybe like a raw 800 squad. So, I mean, there was some really strong guy.

I mean, besides, you know, the celebrities and, and, you know, Brian Shaw, obviously. But, like, there were just some really strong guys just walking around, you know, who were just competing or just there.

Yeah, I would say the, the average height was definitely a little taller than the Arnold. Not a lot because there was still a lot of short kings there. But for sure, like the average height there is probably like 5-9, whereas the average height at the Arnold, I think it's like 5-6. I definitely wasn't towering anyone over in a large amount of people like I was at the Arnold. So I guess it just says that the broccoli heads are shorter than the home gym day.

I don't know. It is, but like you would think it'd be a similar crowd, like a Jimbrough crowd, but like the Arnold is just not the home gym con. The Olympia bros are shorter than everybody realizes they are. Because they're wider than they are tall for the most part. So then Thursday, what did we do Thursday night? Is that the night we went, a bunch of us went and got pizza? And there was like 15, 20 of us?

Yeah. Yeah, so we tried to go to, uh, spaghetti factory. And as soon as we walked in, they just were like, absolutely not. We immediately party of 20, no reservation, 8 p.m. on a Thursday. It was the Lager's waitress. She wasn't having it. So our, whatever was something other pizza place we did enough. It was another like, it was a solid.

four or five. I don't know. It was a, it was a hike from the Galt House because like I had got to the pizza. I got to this. I was like right as I was getting to the spaghetti place. Like Brandon text me was like, oh, audible, we're going to this place. I was like, fuck, it's like four more blocks up the road. It all did work out. And we got there. It was like wide open. So we had the whole party room to herself. And, uh, we was a little nervous. It was going to be like, here's your bill for $700. Figure it out yourself. But she was able to like itemize everything on the iPad, which was super helpful. Yeah. Our waitress there was super nice. And like I was, it was really. It was really. nice to get the back room and everything and just, I actually was kind of shocked when we called to be able to get all that without any hesitation. It was ready by the time we got there, plenty of seating for everybody. Food came out quick.

It was pretty good too. Like, yeah, I mean, you know, the pizza was good. I got a little shit for getting pineapple on my pizza. And then I thought they were fucking with me because she set the pizza down and it definitely didn't have pineapple on it. And I'm like, I was all like, is it underneath the cheese? And you're wife was like, no, there's no pineapple on that.

So then I was like, oh, you're right, Emily. Let's, uh, and then she ended up, it just was across the table. Someone else had just a plain pepperoni. So we get that swapped around. Um, the funniest thing was the watching you and Emily debate about the pin. Like you, you, you bought a souvenir pin, right? And then like, when she found out the price of it, it was hysterical to me. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, the, uh, the Louisville slugger pen. Uh, yeah, I was like, oh, you know, we got the, you know, we got this little commemorative pen, pen. and she was like, oh, this is so cool, you know, it's so cute. And then I was like, yeah, it was a $15 pen from the gift store. And she was like, what you did what? I did get a kick out of that. Did you do the old tour?

Jimmy Johns. Ooh, Jimmy Johns is good. Yeah, we had been up like almost 48 straight hours by that point. So we were just like, you guys didn't actually. Let's just walk to the nearest place that can get us food immediately. and then we went back as the first time I met Tanner and Tommy was at home gymcon

and I had like just set my booth up and I'm like all right let's let's like go through some stuff here real quick and then all of a sudden like Tommy's putting a microphone on me and they're interviewing me and I'm like I haven't you met you guys yet man that's actually pretty cool

so we'll see how that goes but it was fun a lot of fun Nice. So Friday, or no, well, Thursday night, well, I think most of us neandered back to the Gald House bar. I had one clear liquor drink and it was disgusting. It was like they don't, I mean, I got, is it like a thing at hotel bars that when you get like a mixed drink? It's just like 90% liquor and then just a dab.

They just don't, yeah, they just don't mix it. Like I was on Friday night after the dinner, I kept drinking those Blackberry Smashes. they were serving, and it was just straight bourbon at the bottom. So the top was really sickeningly sweet, and then you get to the bottom of the drink, and it's just pure alcohol. It was not ideal. And I was like, oh, one, I'm good. And then the next day I know Eric Eccles, his buddy brought me a second one.

And I was like, well, I guess I got to drink this. So then, like, what was going to be a half hour at the bar was like an hour and a half and two massive drinks later. I swear I think I felt shittier that night than I, well, I wouldn't say as shitty as I did. It left hard to live easy. but it wasn't like a happy good buzz. It was like a, oh, this was disgusting to get here kind of consumption. So I did not get any more of those that weekend.

And then Friday, Friday was the big day. It was the first, you know, the Strongman show ran most of Friday. That's when a lot of people got there, met a ton of new people, you know, got to chance to walk around all the booths. If you didn't, Friday wasn't super busy, but it was like, it was busy to where like you saw a lot of people you knew and you could talk all day. but it wasn't like elbow to elbow like whereas i think saturday at peak it was a little busier but i feel like it was just wider like the hallways and the walking pass were just wider this year or just seemed more laid out better so i don't know i never felt it was overcrowded but i didn't feel like oh man there's not enough people here to like run it back again in the future

yeah there were certain booths that would get packed but uh i i think you could always like uh you know as it's called out earlier some of us uh are tad uh antisocial you you You could always find a corner to decompress and then jump back in. I think at any given point in time, half of the population of the con was just in Brian Shaw's line. That's honestly what it seemed like. We can talk about Brian Shaw. So did everyone here get a chance to meet him? I never did, unfortunately.

Okay. So Thursday was the only opportunity. Like I knew someone had said, hey, he's doing a meet and agree Thursday. And I was like, well, tonight's the night because tonight's the deadest, the deadest it's going to be. There's like maybe 100 people in the whole, you know, at this point it was like, it was late. It was like right before close. I was like, if I'm going to meet Bradshaw, it's probably going to be now.

So bam, bam and a bunch of the guys were in the front of the line, but the line was only like the full length of the booth, which now seeing the next two days of it was the shortest the line ever was. So, you know, maybe a 45 minute wait, give or take. He was giving everyone as much time as they wanted. Like I didn't like, I was lucky. I don't think anyone while we were waiting took more than like four minutes. Maybe I'm sure someone over the course of the weekend was a complete knob and took like,

you know, 10 minutes and got had to get shoot off. But like at least in my observations, there was a lot of like two to four minute conversations, which I think is justifiable. Like that's pretty cool. This was all like an unpaid meeting, unpaid in the sense of it's not bad, but it was like we didn't have to financially invest to meet and greet with Brian,

which is really cool because sometimes. people would be like, yeah, it's $10 for a picture or some bullshit. So it wasn't, he wasn't trying to like big dick us or anything like that. So that was pretty cool. Basty, what did you talk to him about? So I actually had zero intentions of going to meet Brian Shaw. Like, going to meet like celebrity just really doesn't do anything for me. Like they got to be like really special, like sentimental or whatever for me to even care.

So I was actually hanging out at Tanner Paxton's booth, the Power Walks booth. And I'm like, yeah. you know, Brian Shaw's here or whatever. And he's like, oh, man, I'd love to get some callers signed by him. And I was like, well, he's here. And he's like, yeah, I'm working. So I was like, all right, well, give me the callers and I'll go get him signed. So I went over there.

And again, like, I don't care. It just doesn't do anything for me. So I walked up with the collars in my hand. And I'm like, hey, man, like, do you want to sign these? And he's like, sure, you want a picture? I was not prepared for that because it's just not on my mind. So like total save. Like I didn't have my phone out or anything.

That's hysterical. So I asked, so I like just stood next to him and posed. And like his photo guy was like, um, we need your phone to take the picture. And I go, oh,

I thought Brian wanted his picture with me. It was your inner thoughts or you said that out loud. No, I said that out loud too Brian Shaw. Did they chuckle? Yeah, he laughed pretty hard. I was like,

you know, I had to save like my, me being awkward just like, Oh, he wanted his picture with me. And he's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, what did my picture with you? That actually got me good. That is pretty good.

Yeah, that was the first time I met Bam Bam, too. He was just at the booth. And he's like, I'll get those signs for you. And I was like, sweet. So it's like my first crew meetup. And I'm like, you know, we had well, crew working at the booth for sure. And then like, I feel like everybody that was in crew came over and said, It was cool.

That is the cool part. Like you can kind of, I mean, there are not to be like gatekeeper or anything like that, but there are definitely levels of crew. Like, like, Steve would do that for you. But like, like, like you said, like the other like 10 people that we met like that did the strong man show with Brad that didn't even know they were crew. Like that's like a whole other level of like we want them to get deeper in with us and stuff and be cooler. But like, like, like that is just cool that there's enough of us that are like, you know,

interact regularly on social media and whatnot that we kind of already pre exist, pre, pre, pre know who each other are so there's not this like awkwardness. Um, so that is, that is very cool. Yeah. So I got to meet Brian. I think I was like, I talked about vintage weights for a little bit. Uh, I think I, I think I was like, I was like, yeah, you'd be, you'd be really proud of me. I, you know, I left my powerlifting coach and I'm starting with my strong man coach this coming week. I'm kind of going all in on the sport right now. And he's like, that's, you know, he was very, you know, he's, he's, he's, you watch him on YouTube. He can, you know, he can turn on the, the very supportive, you know, guy. Um, and then I kind of asked him about his weight.

loss and he gave me like a good two or three minutes of just like what he's doing for cardio and everything and it was just there was no like rush like I think I ended the conversation. I was like, all right, buddy, have a good one kind of thing. It wasn't like it wasn't like there was no eyes on you feeling nervous like you had to go. So that's probably one of the few people, you know, that I've been actually like, oh, this is actually cool to meet this dude because I've been watching his YouTube and shit for a decade and, you know, I've, I enjoy a little bit of Brian chalk. Some of this, some of his, this podcast might not be the most, my most, my most, favorite, but he, you know, he does, he did a lot for the sport and is definitely one of the

best American strong man that's ever lived. So there's something to be said for that. So I thought it was cool. I, uh, I had a chance to meet him too. And, uh, I thought that he, like, he just genuinely seemed like a good guy, um, you know, and especially big Emily for her, she doesn't know anything. So she's just tagging along and talking to him about like things completely unrelated to weightlifting, just like, and I'm trying to be like, I want to talk to Brian Shaw about vintage weights, please. Give me a half second. She's like asking about his airplane travel, but that would actually be, I'd like to hear at least. He definitely has to get two seats. Yeah, yeah. So he was, he was talking about just how it's always like, it's always uncomfortable

and the smaller flights, like he just says to man up and tries to get seats next to him. But yeah, I was, when I was talking to Brian, I was shocked. I asked him, like, what is your go-to daily driver for barbell, right? Because I know he's a big equipment geek. Like, he's got everything. And I know he's got a ton of vintage weights, too. So I'm like, you know, what it in? He's lost a bunch of weight, too.

So I'm like, what is your daily driver? Thinking it would be, you know, a rogue Ohio power bar, Texas power bar, something like that, like, or an al-leco. And he just goes, York split or York like retro split sleeve and like that totally tracks

you know like it makes sense that he's the guy who's just using the you know 40 50 year old barbell rather than you know the new one yeah you told me that I think I was like oh that was a pretty cool story whenever you mentioned that at dinner one night yeah um as far as the boost themselves did anyone see anything

was anyone I don't I'm kind of a different boat Like I don't go to home gym con. I really don't give a fuck about the majority of the booths personally. I don't care about like the new equipment. Like I'm not there scoping out the next $4,000 piece of equipment I'm going to buy. I don't need the next trolley arm magic, magic fucking wand that's going to change my system around. But what my gym is is essentially what my gym is going to be with some tweaks here and there going forward. So I like to just walk around and talk to my friends that I've made over the last four years there and shoot the shit with my buddies who end up owning a lot of these companies.

but I'm not really in the market to buy a ton of shit. Did anyone go there kind of actually eyeballing pieces to put on their wish list? I figured Chris would. I know you're, I know you like, you like the equipment. I didn't know if there was anything there in your budget that you were like, we can justify this or did you come home with a $10,000 wish list? Yeah. So first, I got to give shout out to a pair of American flag collars that somebody brought

who may or may not be on the podcast that look pretty damn sweet in person so tanner those are definitely on my wish list it might be it those things are sick man there Steve I think you got a pair yeah yeah you got the only ones yeah I keep them real close I keep a close hey these bad boys you know who asked me for those when we were sitting in the lobby I was sitting in the lobby I carried all the boxes or Jake and I carried all the boxes down carried the axle bar down Before. And I was sitting. Is it at the end of the escrow you're saying?

Show's over. Yeah. Shows over. And I'm just waiting for Coach Mo. Gluck asked for those. Oh, that's dope. Yeah. I was like,

oh, yeah. I sold them. So Jake told me about that. Yeah. It'd be good exposure for you to have Gluck. So I said to Jake, I'm like, well, tell Tanner like, I'll just, I'll give them to Gluck if Tanner will just make me another one

whenever he has time. I'll paint some more. Yeah, he's like, no, he'll make more. I'm like, well, Gluck's like, right here. I'm looking at him. That guy Fierry's like, I will go get them and come back. That way you can get a video, but whatever. Nobody do.

I got the original. Luck will have to wait. Yeah. It looked like the pink ones sold as well. Those were gone. They all did. Yeah. All the ones I painted except for the orange ones.

And then when I got home, I had a DM from somebody at home, Jim Con. The bottom. So I sent those out. So, yeah. It worked out good. Good. Do you end up making your nut back on your trip? You kind of, you know, I know you had like a baseline you wanted to make and not take back X amount.

You know, did you hit your goal? Yeah. Yeah. We booked our booth for next year. And yeah, came back with a little bit of equipment money, I think, is what it's going to end up being. Nice. Did you learn anything of like, oh, I'm going to do this differently at the booth next year or anything like that? yeah, I'm going to mail the stuff down to somebody down here or down in Louisville.

Fair enough. Probably to Ode Oil. Not all of it, but half of it probably. I'm going to mail down because it's kind of tight in the car on the way out. And I think we're going to freshen the booth up a little bit. You know, I didn't really know what I was going to expect, like, booth-wise there. but we're going to get some better marketing material to hang up. That'll work.

And so people can read it from when they're standing back. I still think some kind of, well, you had the axle this year, but I think the goal, you have to have something, like even if figure out a way to have like just a dumbbell handle, just like, you know, in some kind of, you know, have Mo build some kind of wooden thing or something. But then you just need a sleeve to where you can demonstrate more easily. And without having to bend over the floor, I think, too, might be,

like something on the table maybe that is just a, you know, just a mock sleeve. Even if it's like an act, it could even just literally be a two foot piece of axle drilled to a two by four or some or will. Something you figure it out. But I think something like that might be more user friendly to actually prove how badass they hold. Tanner, you know what you can. A smaller table for sure. Yeah. We got too big of a table.

Mo can cut that in half and redo it. Did Moe make that table? No, those were what we rented at the event. So I probably could have went and got a smaller table, but next year I'll get like a four foot table instead of an eight foot table. Gotcha. Yeah, it was long as fuck. Yeah.

I think you need to give yourself credit though, Tanner, as far as marketing goes, because I didn't see a single barbell, dumbbell or any handle there with anything but Husker Powerlocks on a straight power move. That's all I saw everywhere. So the three hours of marketing, the networking time that you're talking about with the media, I like did the, the massonomics guys came over, Tannertami came over, kind of did my booth real quick,

and then I grabbed my gym radar bag and jammed it full of our bow collars and just went to every single booth that had a bar at it and was like, hey, do you guys own the collars? And they're like, no. And I'm like, okay, you should use ours. And like five or six of them ended up buying them, which was sweet.

Oh, no. There were a couple of the booze, like right next to us that I put collars on that actually ended up being really good for us, that we were all in the same row. You know, the guy who made our axiolis. They're like, oh, what are these? And then I see it again. Oh, what are those?

Oh, no. Oh, this is where they're at. Yeah. Yeah. And like the booth right next to us had them on there, right? The dad group guys. And then the booth right next to them had them. And they made our axelar.

So it was really cool. Like, we kind of all were one booth. That's dope. If you think about it, I'm like, we should have just took the arms down. You had good location. Yeah, it was perfect. And there was no booths across from us, really. So we were just, we kind of existed and like, like, I'd be like, oh, you see how our collar fits on a two inch bar.

And then the dad grip thing's 1.87. And it's right there. And then the next booth down, the guy has 15 different cambered bars that are all different sizes. and they fit on all those too. And they were able to like, it kind of almost made people stop at the next one and then the next. And I thought that was cool.

I thought that was a good opportunity. You asked about like next year. Like we should get some of the businesses that crew own that are like adjacent to each other to get booths in the same row. Because you're just kind of marketing each person down the line, you know? Yeah. If I was next to like a protein powder or something,

it wouldn't have made any difference. Yeah. A barbell or, you know, a circus dumbbell or something like that would be really cool right next to it. Right next to the boot. Yeah. Tanner mentioned next year he wants to do a massonomics gym radar and then like a crew booth

where it's just like a couch and just like there's a little bit extra space to hang out. Because we were kind of like, we were kind of just like overwhelming the gym radar side with like backpacks and like just standing and shit between. you know, being tired and not wanting to go back to the hotel. The crew casting couch, huh? Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's what this is going to, you know, this is what we're going to, you know, we pay you to play.

Yeah. That's how it works. Right. All right. So then we had, let's see. I will say, Keith, about the other booths there. Like, I mean, I think there were a couple booths that were really hyped up that I didn't really see much that impressed me.

Like, ref brought the dialed motion thing. back and we tested out of a lot of different leg extension leg curls while we were there. And like the slap on leg attachment for leg extension leg curl, I think everybody was trying to put one of those out. And now people are just making the dedicated leg extension leg curls. And I mean, it's good for the market. There are a ton of different options out there. The dialed motion one kind of feels like they're,

they're taking a little too long to get it out. And the thing itself weighs like 60 pounds, which is fine for me if I want to move it around and move it out of the way and take it on and off the bench. But like, hey, I've got a spouse that wants to use these things too and a 50 pound leg attachment that she has to bring out every time she wants to use it. It's like a non-s, and it's almost comparable in price to a dedicated leg extension leg curl. So I don't know. And you have the room for a dedicated like a dedicated like a which others don't. So everyone's in a different boat too.

They definitely are trying to check that box. I mean, some of the booze, I will say my biggest complaint was like some of the booze, either the reps themselves or the materials they brought were very underwhelming on the fact that like they were either, they didn't understand their own product or they just brought a bunch of equipment and Steve knows one of the booze I'm talking about. he may or may not own some of their equipment from Hansu. But like, these guys just bring their stuff.

And he was on the box. He was unloading boxes Friday morning. And then like I didn't see anyone at his booth the whole fucking weekend either. Well, yeah, because people, I think people are quick to pick up on that. Like there's a difference. I went to the, the freak athlete booth.

And the rep there was so charismatic, knew the product so well, was actually doing full on Nordic curls on the equipment. And I was like, this guy knows what he's talking about. He knows the product, where some of these other guys are manufacturers or distributors first, and they don't know anything about actually lifting weight, which, you know, it is fine in some circumstances, but like, hey, we're at a home gym convention.

Like, get some lifters to talk about your product, you know? So. Now, I think ATX was good for that in the sense that I was doing something wrong. I'm just some fat guy meandering about. and he swoops in. He's like, you are doing this wrong. And he's like, you know, teaching me how to do it and I'm getting range of motion. I'm like to see someone just using your stuff wrong, but to very politely come in, show you how to use it, ask, you know, kind of say, hey, try this one, try this one.

And I'm like, I had this personal, my personal German, you know, personal, you know, personal, trainer for like 10 minutes. So you could tell that he had passion around the products. He knew what it was. And I was like, man, it was an experience. And I wasn't there for an experience, right? I was just following around my buddies who, you know, are all into all the gear. I'm like, give me a barbell and some weights and I'm good. So, you know, to have that, you know, like pull you in, I was like, all right, are doing something. The ATX booth was like I was impressed by a lot of their stuff. I know Tanner went home with that standing chess press that he had his eye on since last year.

And like every, I used their, their chess supported row and felt it was like very compact, very smooth. Everything's like in a good price range and is really competitive with like rogue and rep. Like I felt it was the same level of quality. and it's it's right around the same price point it like sits right where bells of steel sits um so i think they're going to be i know they just launched here in the u.s but like i i'm definitely going to

keep my eye out for some of their stuff it's just so new like i'm glad i tried it but this is why jim radar helps too like once it gets like you know six or seven or eight reviews like i'm not going to be the first person to drop it but like i'll be in early a dollar or, you know, if it's a good product. Yeah, they had this funky little bench where it was a, you know, it just was like this skinny, weird tube of a bench. And I sat on it just, just, you know, fat men in a little coat style. And I was like, this thing feels so good.

I was doing, they had it connected to one of the Smith's machines. Yeah. And I sat on it as a joke to say, what the hell is this? and when I started to do the, you know, the, just pressing on the Smith, I was like, oh, this feels wonderful. Damn it, they did it again. What's the pad? Any ATX pad I've ever sat on is like hard as a brick.

It's like the most. It's like this really like hard vinyl, but it's also like there's no give. That is a similar. Yeah, it was like the style of like the, what do you call it? It's like that round pad. Yeah, yeah. It was like the ROM pad that, you know, Abmat makes, but it was just like the whole bench, like that narrow little half circle, but it was so comfortable. Did you see the booth that was literally just like a bench with a dude that had like a jack underneath of it?

And he was like trying to make a product. And I'm like, what the fuck is this? Like this isn't a product yet. Like what is this? So that guy actually like physically grabbed me and pulled me into his booth. and verbatim he's like hey man you want to try out the coolest effing bench you've ever effing used in your entire life and I'm like uh well I'm here so I guess so he like he like lays me down on this bench and he's like all right now make your arch and then proceeds to get an impact on and crank this thing into my spine and I'm like I'm like

all right all right dude like yeah like this hurts and he's like isn't this thing sweet I'm like no this is horrible yeah he said that He's like, he's in, and then pretreates to get into this whole sales pitch and he's like, you know, I'm just a one man trying to blah, blah, blah. And, you know, I really want to sell my company. I'm like, I don't want to buy your company. Your goddamn bench just snapped me in half. That's funny. That is so funny. We were watching, we were watching Steve's such a nice guy. He was like, yeah, like, you're trying to be friendly to everyone. No one else is giving this poor guy the time of day. And he sees Steve like a. moth come into a flave, it just wrangles him into his bench, and he's there with power tools while Steve sit on the bench. There were definitely some boosts that I'm just kind of like, why are you, like, not to show, like I want people to come to home gym con, but some of these boosts, maybe it's just not

my cap of tea, but it's just like the most random things. And I'm like, I don't know if this is your market. Like maybe you sold some stuff. There's always something that's going to buy random shit. But there's just, there's definitely boost that I'm just like, I don't even know. I don't understand what you're doing here. but kudos to you for trying. An observation I had.

Yeah, yeah. There were two booze there that, like, I didn't, I have no interest in, like, one, you know, the primal booth with all those clubs and everything else. And they had, like, live jousting on stage at one point. And they had, like, a medieval chariot. That was a massive booth. They spent a lot of money on that booth. And I still don't know what their products really were.

Was that the Wild Man of Lennox or whatever? Yeah. I thought that was pretty good. Like just from, you know, like a marketing standpoint, I thought that was pretty cool. And the, um, the D20 Dice, uh,

husband is white. Yeah, yeah, he's been at every home gym con. It's so cruel. He's been at all of them. Always making some weird custom shit. I think I saw it.

Like, I tried to pick those things up and I felt like they were just welded to the floor. Like I just, I couldn't even wrap my head around it. And then I see Deadliest Lips. lift like picking it up like it's nothing and I'm just like well you know yeah I had I had a critical failure trying to lift them as well there was they were not but I think they're they're 350 pounds a piece so I don't think they're meant for you and I just to walk up and pick up so it took a bigger

strong I think Jake did it right yeah yeah yeah yeah but and he picked up that sword thing yeah yeah yeah yeah but Jake's an absolute unit though he's a free Yeah, yeah. Jake is incredibly strong. I had a chance to use the Galt House gym while I was there, and it was outfitted with all this old Nautilus equipment, right? So it had, you know, like the pull-down, calf machine, tons of really good equipment from the 1980s. And I'm going to a home convention where people are trying to reverse engineer

stuff that was perfected like 50, 60 years ago, which is just so funny. You know, like, it's like we've already, we're kind of coming full circle with the home gym market where like they're just trying to repackage commercial stuff to the home gym consumer. It's like this problem has already been solved, you know? Yeah, like, and the only thing you're going to do is

we already have the prototype and it's been well done. Now it's, how can you maybe get me the same quality, but make it a little lighter and a little bit more compact so I can fit it in my basement. Yeah. And like, but you're not at this point in time, and a lot of these things, you're not going to reinvent the wheel, right? No.

Yeah, I will say to be young again, you know, the, if you volunteered at the strongman, like we put in some work. And afterwards, my son was like, yeah, I'm going to check out the gym at the golf house. And he loved it. He just spent hours there. And I'm like, I just, I just, I just. I just want a cheeseburger. Somewhere to sit in a burger, but God bless you.

I was starving after Strongman Friday. I did eat all day. I'm like, we got to get out of here because I need food or I'm going to kill somebody. So I was at, but another booth question. So after watching the Mastonomics video today, and I had heard the rumor of the new hot adjustable dumbbells hitting the market that we're going to rival the weapons, did any of you guys touch those from Freak Athlete? Because I never actually found out who was producing them.

So I never saw them or touched them. I never found the Freak Athlete booth. And I wanted to try out that damn Dumbah, the kettlebell while I was there. And I just don't know where they were buried, but I never saw him. So they. That was a, oh, sorry, go ahead. Oh, no, I was going to say, I think there was a couple booths that dipped early. Like, if you were looking for something Saturday, it's like, okay, they're gone.

They're gone. And I think Freak Athlete was one of the ones that, you know, a closed-up shop. I don't know if they manpower or they ran out of stuff, but they were, a lot of people were looking for certain booths, and they were like, we're going to beat the traffic,

we're going to beat the loading dock line. Yeah, I had told my dad that I had heard a rumor that there's some new hot adjustable dumbbells going to hit the market. I am in the market for those. We need to try to find those. Never found them. And then I saw a massonomics video today,

and that's their first boot they stop at. And the dude just straight up takes it and just throws it on the ground. And I was like, sold. Because I have 17-year-old bow flexes. And all I had to do is accidentally drop it once. And those things have never been the same. And every single time I use them, Allison hears me just screaming and cussing from the basement

because the two and a half pound plates, they stick. And then they fall off and then they land on my toes. And then I'm just screaming like a looting. I think there was a product recall on those. on the adjustables because I had a pair of those when I was first building out my home gym same thing like

whatever materials they use for the smaller weight plates just wouldn't hold and they you have to like hold them at the right angle to make sure that the plates don't like drop out when you're using them but I did have a chance to go to the freak

athlete booth on Friday I got the full booth tour from the sales rep and I mean they were whipping those things around all day. They must have dropped them at least 10 times when I was at the booth. They're totally the traditional just spin adjustable dumbbells. And the nerling is nice on them.

They go up to like 120s. I think they partnered with Snowd in terms of the manufacturing for them. And Snowd released something today saying that they're going to be doing their own thing where they're going to be releasing their own. So I like the freak athlete ones. I think they're a competitive price point. And if I were on the market for adjustable dumbbells, like they'd definitely be at the top of my list

because they are really traditional dumbbells. Like they look how I want them to look. They've got that look. They aren't overly super long or ridiculous. The only thing I'd say is I'd be curious what Snowd is doing because like that's their actual product that Freak athlete is, leveraging. But yeah, I was there to look at their reverse hyper Nordic, like their

deluxe apex version, and I used it against X masters and like freak athletes a little bit more. And it seems like they're really trying to take it to the next level with their stuff. Because I remember when they started as just a Nordic curl bench, which I've still got in my basement. But now they're all over the place. So good for them. well hopefully they're good because I pre-ordered mine today I love it without even trying them that's good stuff I was I was gonna say for the yeah I was gonna say though

if you got the old Bowflex I know a lot of people buy the average Joe kind of neural kits and they're supposed to be really good because they replace all the plastic bits with metal but of course right you know the the weight is what the weight is versus the, I think these, what do those go to 120? The Boflex, yeah, let's say the new, the freak athletes, they go to 120. My bowflex are the 1090s, so they max out at 90 pounds.

The handles on them are absolute shite. There is no nerling. They are dangerously slick when you got them loaded up to 90 pounds and you're pressing them over your head. Like I've thought about putting hockey tape on them or something like that, you know. Yeah, I would Google, I mean, if you're going to. going to replace them, but being a bit of a nerd. Average Joe, they make neural's replacements, and some people swear by them.

I will say that, like, overall, one big takeaway from the different booze is that, you know, I am going to give Jim Radar their credit right now to say that, like, there's more power just for the average person that goes to a convention like Home GymCon, because I can go on Jim Radar and review a piece, and my review might be looked at by as many people as a formal YouTube review and may actually carry more impact because I'm completely unbiased, right? Like, I'm just some dude. So the people, the booth reps that took their time to understand that like every person to come into their booth is also a potential reviewer that can really move the needle on their product sales. like they need to understand that like a platform like jim radar is taking power away from certain individuals and giving it to the entire mass market to say hey your voice is going to be

justice because like i i read a lot of the reviews on amazon jim radar with more like i trust those in some regards especially if they're highly detailed and they aren't like just glowingly positive or just, you know, completely negative, I give those reviews more credit than even a professional reviewer who does it for a living. Yeah, for sure. I mean, I think I say to say that whoever these guys are, they may have changed the game. The good thing about Jim, the good thing about Jim Radar, too, is like you, all the reviews are tied to a profile.

So it's like, if you're a home or out there only given positive reviews to your own company or something, it's kind of obvious. So it's like, it's slightly easier. I'm sure we'll get bought someday that Nate will have to fucking kick out and figure out how to manage. But for now, I think like it's organically grown. There's not this huge influx of users, just fucking Bukaki and shitty reviews on there than no one wants to read. So I don't know. It's a pretty good product.

The Hall of Fame. Yeah, just because I couldn't, I couldn't figure out how to get the reviews, people to review things on my website. But I could figure out how to just get the Jim Radar link. On my website. They can just click on that and go right to gym radar, which I thought at the time I had like one review on there. But it was cool. And somebody can bleed anything. No one can delete anything on there.

It's there for a minute. You know, Keith, to your point, too, it's like if you see the person who's reviewing it and you're like, you see their gym space and they're a serious, they're a serious lifter, right? Like, you can see somebody who's like, let's say they're pulling 600 pounds. and they're using a product and they're like, oh, I use this to rehab my back, right? Like, I'm going to trust that more than a person who has just, maybe is just a novice lifter or doesn't have the same fitness goals. Like, you can actually delve down and say, like, okay, who is this person that gave this good review?

And you can actually see their case, see what they're trying to accomplish. And it just, again, it just informs your decision even more. Yeah, I've gotten a lot of messages on Instagram. on just some random stuff in my gym. It will take me forever to respond because I don't really use the messages. So it's like eventually I'll see that I have a little request message. And I'm like, oh, three weeks ago, somebody messaged me. But, you know, yeah, people are reading the reviews.

And if you've got your, you know, kind of Instagram, they can send you a message to say, hey, I saw the thing. Let me, you know, like I've built, I've got some custom stuff. and people that are trying to recreate it. They're like, hey, what was the flange you used on the York truck pole? Or, you know, what's the size of this? And, you know, you help them out. So I think it's really cool.

Somebody asked me about the rip-fit gator, the adjustable bench with those bicep curl arms. And, yeah, I mean, it just goes to show you put it on your radar and, like, people can just hit you up. And, you know, you want to give them just an honest opinion, too. of like why you're using it and how you like it. Fair enough. A little Hall of Fame ceremony at the Massomics booth on Friday. I think it ended up being our only meetup because the picture the next day kind of didn't work out

because it was directly during the deadlift party and people were just like didn't really see the event anyway. So the Hall of Fame ceremony, there was probably 50, 40, 50 people at the booth and who'd we see get jackets, anyone? I know who it is, but I don't want to always be rambling. Big Hogan and Big Jake. Very worthy recipients.

Indeed. Brad, you'll have to agree with me. I think it is one of the cooler things to go to these events now and just be like, did I pack my jacket? Yes, I did. Actually, a funny story side rant here. I was at the airport Thursday morning at like 4.40, like 430 in the morning. Actually, we might have just been pulling up and it hit me like, fuck, I didn't pack my jacket. Like, it was in my head to pack it last night. It didn't pack it.

Thankfully, we live like 10 minutes from the airport, and my wife's a rock star, so she dropped me off at the gate. And I was like, she was like, if I'm not back in like 25 minutes, just go through security because, you know, I don't want you to be late. And she got back in like basically like 24 minutes with my jacket. And I was still had plenty of time to get to security and everything. And that would have been really shitty to have been the one Hall of Fame asshole without his jacket there, like fucking Bryce and Paul when they literally had, couldn't bring their jackets three hours and fucking goobers. So yeah, all of Fame ceremonies. But it's just cool being like, you know, now Tanner like kind of talks about. the existing Hall of Fame members that are currently there.

He, you know, does a little intro for the new guys. If you're standing next to him, he's probably going to ask you what he should say about him because he's, you know, so to add to his speech for him. So I just thought that was cool. The Hall of Fame ceremonies, you know, that many people kind of watched it. And we kind of just like took up the whole booth aisle for there for about 10 minutes or so. And got a pretty sweet group picture. And that was kind of the thing.

I thought it was so cool that, like, there were a bunch of, non-Massonomics, non-crew-affiliated people. And, you know, there were probably like, what, 30 to 40 of us there. And all these random people are just, like, coming by the booth just to watch. You know, like, we had taken over that much where it was like, oh, what's going on over here? Like, what's, you know, what are all these people doing? And it was just the Hall of Fame ceremony. And then, um, everyone got their new pack of crew cards from Hogan.

Anybody get any good pulls? I did get one of the, one of the limited. Oh, the ultra rare. Nice. Yeah. Let's see, there Chris Mark,

Katie or Big Matt. Stal Matt, Matt. He was big Matt. I think it was nice. Yeah, he was the new one. So that was cool.

Which, ironically, I was talking to Hogan and I was like, Hogan, who was the winner? And he was like, what do you mean? We made a post like a week ago.

And I was like, but I was never tagged in anything. I was tagged in the who's, who's the mystery guy, like two weeks ago. And then come to find out that, like, I can't remember who is the top of my head. He's, he's been the last few lift-hard of Livese. He's, I can picture his face.

I can't think of his name. But, like, for some, somehow him and Matt made the video and only tagged each other and didn't tag you and you or Hogan or anybody. So no one was collabed. And I went back and looked at it. And it was posted a week ago and I had like, like, 12 likes. And I'm like, well, yeah, that's why no one fucking knows about it because no one saw it. So I was kind of given, I was giving Matt shit. And I actually, like, I DM then I was like, just, just have the guy collab with me.

and I'll have a pop on you and you and then I'll like share a couple pictures of it and even in the reveal video like you still didn't know who won until like 45 seconds in and I was like all right I'm just I'm just gonna screenshot this and post it as a story because I'm still not sure because I think it was really hard to like see

the screen grabs of like the text thread and like I could you know they were trying to make like a funny bit and everything and I don't know it sounds like I'm shitting on now that are my friends I'm trying not to shit on you it was just kind of funny it's just funny because Hogan was like Hogan was giving me shit for he's like what do you mean you You were involved.

And I was like, yeah, in the, in the mystery post, but not the, the reveal. No one tagged me. No one tagged you and you in the reveal. So for anyone listening, this is the big reveal. Stall Matt Matt is the third ultra rare card. And that was pretty cool. There was a funny story that we can't really share, but someone accident, someone who doesn't really understand the cards, I guess, ended up incidentally taking.

big belt-fed Chris's card off his desk, off his table. And, uh, yeah, we won't really, you know, name names, but it is kind of, that'll be some, and it wasn't malicious. It was more of a, a ignorant thing, um, didn't know any better and just kind of let it be, but it was just pretty funny because Chris came him, he was like all hot and he bothered because he thought someone had stole it maliciously and then found out later it was just kind of a, it was something that happened, but we might have to cut that out, but it'll be

right. He doesn't listen, I don't think. I did see somebody finally pulled a Brad the pad. I saw Coach Peck pulled the Brad the pad. I hadn't seen one in the wild. Yeah. I didn't know if it even existed for real, except for the one that I have. Nice.

Coach Peck crushed it this past weekend. I was going to say, speaking of like, cool people to meet, like, Coach Peck is the friggin man. Yeah. He did he chase, do you taste Husker collars down? because he, I was, I was, yeah, he got me. After the close of the serum, after the close, I was trying to kind of help out at Massami's booth for a minute.

And then Jake, um, commandeered me to basically stand at your bed at the Husker collar booth. So no one stole Bam Bam's shit, basically. And then, um, coach peck came up and was like, where are they at? Where they at? It was, I'm like, coach, it's fucking like, it's like 430, dude.

Like the fucking expo closed a half hour ago. Like, they're downstairs. And so, uh, he, he went down and I must have found you and got. got a pair. Yeah. Yeah, he caught me, and then I saw Gluck, and it was sweet. That is dope. Yeah, it's always fun running into Winnie and Gluck.

I actually, ironically, I ended up, I can kind of, well, was it Sunday morning at the, well, I mean, I ran into him multiple times throughout the evening and talked to him at the Expo and talked to him a good bit Saturday night too. But for Sunday morning flying out, like, it was kind of funny because we saw each of other insecurity. I somehow didn't have my TSA known traveler number associated with my fucking app, even though I literally just flew to South Dakota the week before, and it was fucking on the same app and there. So, and it's, it didn't realize it when I left Rochester because the guy just didn't tell me, but, and to come to find it. So then it's like, then I had to go all the way back to

the other line because the guy was a dick about it. And he's like, no, dude, you know, you're not, you're not TSA pre-check. Get the fuck out of here. So that was, and then I ended up, like, getting in line with Winnie and Gluck, basically, and shot the shit with them for a while throughout security. going through security was funny because I got a picture of my bag and you could see my I saw that my lever belt was like super

obnoxious but then also the four magpins that just looked like dildos were really was very amusing and then for some reason I've never got to padded down in my life another reason to be TSA parade check but that dude definitely like knuckled my fucking nuts

that was awkward as shit I was just like I'm assuming that's what they're half to do but I was also like I'm just wearing gym shorts and a t-shirt like what do you fuck do you think I'm like, what do you think I have in here? And what did the fucking security show? Do you just have a quota of dicks you guys have to touch today or what? Because then Gluck came out and said, yeah, he, Glock was like, yeah, that guy definitely

just touched my dick. And I was like, yeah, same. So I just thought that was a very odd experience. I've never been patted down like that before in my life. Louisville's got a TSA Diddler, huh? Apparently. His quota is all of them. Yeah, that's what his quote was.

I'm bummed I drove now. I wish I'd flown in. I mean, well, I'll, I'll get, I'll, I'll get you in. crew falls buddy i was gonna say what's the saying do something you love and you know work in your life hands up it's giddling dudes at security is something i love so what do we have we had the the deadlift party did anyone else participate in that the the the rep fitness sponsored deadlift party so that was fun that was a good time i uh it's always fun like just to kind of hop in i was like i don't know what but they ended up doing like 50

pound jumps. So I was like, ah, I hit, I hit 405. I hit 4.55. I was like, oh, I'm good. I'm not going to go for 490. I kind of kicking myself. I should have gone, or it wasn't 50 pounds, but it was. They'd go 455 to 495 because they did plate, plate quarter jumps. And I was like, that would have been like a fucking 30 pound PR for me. And I was like, uh, man, I'm like just here hanging out with my friends. I'm, my belt was a little loose because usually I wear a soft belt under it. I, any, every excuse and bullshit story you wanted to hear. I just didn't want to go out there and miss my lift. So I was like, I ended 455 at like RP8.

I was like, I'm good with that. But then watching carp go out and rip it at like RP 11, but actually get it locked out. I was like, oh, that really motivated me. But I was also like, I don't want to follow up and then not get it because it would just be so. I don't want to end on home gym con with them shitty miss lift. But that was pretty cool. It's a heinous found my dad in the crowd and interviewed my dad for a brief minute. That is funny.

Let's see. oil just like was just like you guys need to get Hustor Power locks on these on this bar and that is like some of the best content from the weekend yeah I think I saw did Joe Joey E I had mentioned it and I was going to come over but that it just never made it and then Joey E. We're using those cheap oh spring clips. Yeah Joey yeah Joey E came back with a pair and then I think from like 495 up it had those on and I was right there I sent you guys a couple good videos of that and I was like trying to zoom in on the caller great videos. Did you guys see the the picture of Brandon with Brian Shaw

and without any context you would just think it's like two normal dudes because they're about the same size as one another so you're just like oh yeah just a couple of random guys like random dudes just hanging out taking a picture together and it's like yeah the average height of these people

is 6-6. Brandon is so big he's so big Brandon with the he had the picture the the picture of me and Brian that's getting all the memes Brandon took and then

that was like just the perfect picture for people to like there's been so many that had made me laugh that Tanner had a couple good ones Jake had a couple good ones so it's just everybody likes like cutting me down but it makes me laugh because it's my buddies The sandbag one was pretty funny

Yeah that was that was very very very good Um VIP dinner who was here for VIP Anybody me and Chris is it? Okay, so everyone's asking, is even in the Discord right now, so should I get the VIP?

You get some merch with it. You used to get early access. I don't think the, I don't think VIP even gave you early access this year, so I wouldn't buy it for that. You basically, if you're new to Home JimCon and don't already know a ton of people in the community, I probably wouldn't do VIP, where what VIP really gets you, at least this year, was the dinner.

The dinner itself was just a big buffet dinner, a couple drink tickets, but you're just rubbing elbows, with a bunch of company owners and stuff, but it was so big this year that you're really not getting a bunch of one-on-one time with any one. You're kind of just sitting with any table that's open, and then just shooting the shit at who's that table, and then like a little bit of a happy hour before and a little bit of post drinks after.

So if you're not already kind of in that world, I wouldn't drop the extra like $100, $200 of the ticket actually will be, depending on when you buy it. If you do, use code unpaid, but if you don't, like, I don't know, like unless you're really into the world already and know a lot of these people, the VIP dinner might not be where it's at for you. But if you've, you know, if you're a long time person there, it's definitely cool.

My favorite part of the VIP dinner, other than it was cool to watch Massonomics win an award. But the coolest thing for me was, um, all right, Jake had everyone stand up. If this is your first year, sit down. If this is your second time, sit down. If it's your third time, sit down. And then by the time I got to the, you know, if this was your fourth year here, there was only like 20 of us standing up. Um, that was really cool to walk to be one of those guys standing up. and then just being like,

I've known these guys for four years and some of them have grown to be pretty cool friends. But yes, massonomics to bury the lead. They did win Best Small Booth, which was funny because no one and crew voted for them at all. I don't think. I think like two people voted and,

you know, I do remember when I checked in, I did get a business card that had a QR code on it that I was supposed to vote on and then never made it that way. And I'm sure Jake said it on the PA system, but that's one thing we can bring up to. I never heard a single thing Jake said on the PA system once because it was so echoy.

And I feel bad because I know they paid several hundred dollars for the PA system that they didn't, because the last year they didn't have it because it was such an extra fee to get access to it. That this year personally, I don't think it did anything because I personally couldn't hear a fucking thing he said once. They could pay me $700 to mention it during the Strongman show. And afford not to. put pen to paper it's a bargain yeah yeah the strong man uh the strong man show used the equipment from the other power lifting and they had a setup they had the screens and and and it was uh it was nice i kept getting in the live stream and uh you know uh i i was told uh to get my ass out of the shot

what a shame if your ass became this viral moment i go goes around What a shame that would be. But no, they had a wild set up. That was one of my favorite pictures was getting my ass in your face together. That was a good one. One thing, one, I don't know if this does the people not. So I prefer it's like, I, when I get a picture with someone, if there's not a good buddy around, I will ask any stranger in the world, hey, sir, ma'am, do you mind taking a picture of me with my friend real quick? And no problem.

I think like two people commented throughout the weekend. I was like, you're the first person I've seen you do that. Everyone else just takes selfies. I was like, yeah, I don't, I don't think it's that hard to ask a stranger 30 seconds to take a picture. Is that not something people do? Is everyone just do selfies? I still do that for sure. I mean, like, I didn't think it was uncommon.

I thought it was weird someone said something about it. I mean, to be fair, that's something my parents always did. Well, I am your parents. Kind of tracks. Yeah, yeah, we are 20 years older than you, aren't we? Yeah, it's a very massive. thing to do to ask somebody to help you. But we are all like, are we all like

in our early 40s and then Bam Bam's in his mid-20s? Or am I way off? I'm early 30s, so. Oh, well, you look like you're 26. You act like you're 22 some days too. So it would have been Friday night post day one Strongman and you had to be doing sandbagged a shoulder medley at like 9 a.m. And it's like 1230 and you're on like

beer 9 or something. And I was like, I was got, I tried to I got to say the after party of the awards dinner on Friday night in the Galt House Conservatory was awesome. I had it. 30 of us in like the one little section. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like Keith, the VIP thing, like being my first time there and everything. It was nice to go to the awards dinner. And it was almost entirely worth. it to get the picture of Tanner, fist, you know,

fists in the air with Tommy holding the sign on the side of them because it was such a good meme capture moment. But I don't think you need three days, you know, to do Home GymCon. Like, if you're looking to go and, like, you want the primo experience, like, three days is overkill.

You know, like, you can squeeze it out if you want, but you can see everything in, like, two days, tops, you know, so. Fair enough. So on the topic of the VIP dinner, the few of us peasants that didn't go, we ended up at the spaghetti factory, had a great meal. And they let us in, which was good. And I was still hungry afterwards, of course, because I'm always hungry.

And I believe it was either Nicole or Hogan was like, we should go get ice cream. So funny story, we walk like four blocks or whatever it was to get ice cream. and when we walk into the place there was the Louisville fire department there Oh yeah yeah And we're like oh they must I bet they know Brandon and we're all like Oh do you know our buddy Brandon Doyle

And I think it was Jake facetimed Brandon was like I'm even Devo but some one of them One of you did one of them did it They're like hey do you know this guy And the Louisville fire department Apparently has issues with Brandon's Fire Department they called him to JV School

Hut or whatever Whoa Yeah I was fired We expected it to be a friendly occasion it was not. Brandon, Brandon kind of played along with it on the phone and then when he hung up, he was like, yeah, fuck that guy. I make a lot more money than him.

Something along those lines. That was funny, though. That was an unexpected FaceTime. One of my I wouldn't say highlights, but it doesn't really matter to me, but it was still kind of cool, was meeting the dude from Schitt's Creek. I don't know, I can't know his name

off the top, but he was, I think he was in a movie, something Frosty, Mr. Frosty, Oh, hot frosty. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, like, that, that dude. So, like, most people's wives watch that show. So, like, I thought it was really cool to get a picture with him. I actually talked to him for, like, we were, me and a couple other crew and then a couple

other guys that kind of, like, neandered over and asked stupid questions. It kind of, do you have that? Like, we're, like, the random people kind of ruin. You're having a good conversation. And then just, like, the kind of weird person comes over and ruins it with, like, stupid dumb shit. And it's just like, I think that's me usually. No, no. I mean, like, really, like, like, like, like, like, like, drunk.

obnoxious, stupid, dumb shit. And I'm like, come on, dude. I'm, like, trying to have, like, a cool conversation with someone who's, like, a legitimate, like, movie actor, which isn't, like, isn't that cool. But, like, the fact that, like, I watched the show with my wife and I don't know, I thought it was pretty cool. And he's just like, and then for him to just be a dude talking about his gym and, like, we talked about, like, we didn't talk about, you know, briefly about, like, being an actor and trying to work out and shit. But, like, it was mostly just shooting the shit about his gym in California. And me and a couple other guys had a really good conversation with that while trying to, like, like, nudge out the weird annoying. guy. It was just kind of like, I don't know, it was awkward. Oh, is that the, uh,

Schist Creek that the dude that plays the, uh, he's the vet. Yes, yes. Right. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, he's, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he was on, he was on the, uh, the, Mike and the other guy's podcast that isn't around anymore. So they, that's not on air anymore. So you can't, you can't really go learn anything about him in his home gym, you know, journey now, because I think Jake pulled all that content for, for justified reasons. Um, Coop was there at least a couple days.

I got to actually, I met Coop last year and had a good conversation with him. And then I don't think anyone believed me because I didn't get a picture with him. And then this year I actually was able to, he, you know, it was kind of like, I saw him a few times.

Like there's people I saw, but didn't want to interrupt. So you just kind of wait until you get your turn with him. And then like, just same with like Gluck and Winnie. Like there was just a couple times where like, oh, we actually did meet like an empty hallway for like half a second and got to shoot the shit for a minute.

So got a picture with Coop for the first time. and that was kind of cool. Shot the shit with him. I met Coop. Nice. I was walking to the bathroom. And I took, every time I went to the bathroom, I took a different route. I thought you were going to say you took a pair of collars with you to like hand to hand them out to a celebrity.

No. No. Take my collars. It worked out that I went to all these booths before and dropped them off because I ran into him right by the Mars bar booth. and he was like, hey, I want one of those hats. And I was like, we're like three aisles down. He's like, I'm leaving right now. Shoot me a DM.

And I looked over and at the Mars bar booth, our callers were still on the bar. And I was like, like, you got a minute. And so his film crew got it. I don't know. Oh, that's dope. With it. He did release a, I don't, an hour and 19 minute video today. I definitely.

Well, because Jake, I saw the Jake, I didn't even see it on it on YouTube. but it's all Jake had shared it on Facebook. So I was like, I'll get to that when I get a chance because an hour and a half video is a bit. But that would be sweet if we got on there. I'm sure he's going to probably, well, hey, as in, I'm sure garage and radio or garage gym reviews are going to pump out a bunch of content for a favorite. My YouTube channel today before this was just everything home gym con like day. Everybody's just like pumping out content. And I think like Jungle Gym reviews has a two hour video, which.

no way I'm watching two hours of home gym recap. I'm also not watching any of it because I was already there and I don't really care. Like even the like, even the Massonomics one, which like I always love their content. I was just like, I saw all this. Like great for the people that weren't there.

But like at least that particular video, I want to see like they're more blog styles. What I'm really looking forward to if they picked up some blog stuff. Where we were at? Let's see. So nightlife. We've hit that a lot. So,

Guy Fiery's I guess or did we kind of covered most of everything leading up to that so that was the outside of the Sunday that was the last two raw Saturday so how was I know how my journey to get there was anyone else want to explain their journey and why it was so cumbersome and crowded so so me

Steve Emily and spicy pizza all went over together and we basically hit just a wall of humanity. So for people listening, the trip to Guy Fierry's. Guy Fierrez was absolutely in the middle of this Cuban Pride Festival that was going on on 4th Street in Louisville. And there was a live concert going on. Tons of people in, like, costumes. The entire area is an open liquor and open container.

permitted zone within the city. So people are just like throwing beers everywhere. Everyone's hammered already by the time we're walking down the street. We stick out like completely, we're just wearing like home gym nerd t-shirts. We stick out like total sore thumbs. I'm actually like a little worried at one point because Emily's, you know, big Emily, but she's only five three. So I was really glad, Steve, I appreciate you walking behind. So she was kind of like in the middle of three guys.

So like nobody could, you know, do anything to any of us. Like I'm glad I traveled in a small group. But like leaving I was kind of, I had my wits about me at the end of the night too. Because it was just like it was out of control. And again, we stood out like sore thumbs. Leaving was the worst. Getting through was bad enough in panic like anxiety ridden because like you were like elbow. People just weren't moving.

They were just dancing. No, they just weren't moving. but then at like midnight it was so much worse and I wanted to go the way that I think like Tanner Tommy a bunch of guys had left a few minutes before us and then like me

Brandon and Emily had left right after that and Brandon was like oh we'll be good we'll just walk through the fucking parade and I was like or the carnival I was like can we can we not go can we not circumvent this and he was like no we'll be fine so then I had to proceed to have like probably the worst walk of my life through like I thought I was like for sure

someone got stabbed that night like there had to have been some some nefarious actions going on because I walked through so much just filth on the ground like dozens of beer cans and bottles and just food and trash and just everywhere just like sloshing

and I swear by the time I got back to my room I smelled so bad like I did not smell like smoke at Guy Fieri's when I walked there but on the way back my clothes reeked like my whole suitcase smelled like fucking weed and cigarettes I mean people we went down the the side

alley through the parking garage and people like just were stumbling out and this was probably Keith maybe like an hour and a half before you left like we left on the early side and it's still just kind of like I just was kind of

keeping my wits about me you know you don't want to especially in a parking lot at a at the end of a concert where people are hammered you just you want to keep your distance so yeah that was an experience but uh Guy Fierry's definitely lived up to exactly what I thought a guy Fierre's would be.

What was funny is like, like, Forest Reader was crowded last year, too. And I think there might even been a band, but it was just like normal college kid shit or like under 30 year old shit. Like it wasn't a like actual like festival that was bringing out thousands and thousands and thousands of people. So I've got a pretty good story. Well, you got to the bar like fucking four o'clock. So it was probably already. So I need to. So I need to preface this.

Thursday when we rolled into town, after driving through Indiana for five hours, my dad and my buddy and I, we just wanted a beer. And Guy Fierrez was like the only bar that was open at that time. Because like everybody else opens at like 7 p.m. or something like that. So we went into Guy Fierrez. And Josh was the bartender there on Thursday.

He was also there. He was the gentleman behind the bar on Saturday as well. So we had a couple beers. we're just being real friendly, you know, Midwestern folks shooting the shit or whatever. And then we said, you know, hey, we'll see you on Saturday. And then Saturday, obviously, there was intermittent rain. And we saw like the window we're like, well, let's just walk there now and stay dry. So we got there at like five.

And we started drinking because Josh was there. And we were having a good time. So we just started drinking. And then they see, you know, he's turning SummerSlam on the bar at like six o'clock. like, okay, well, this is the right move. We'll just wait for you guys to show up. And then, no, so we hung out all night, drinking. Now, we're talking three dudes drinking here at the bar.

And we're doing a good job, too. So, and then, you know, some mingling with you guys, all the jazz. And next thing you know, everybody's got early morning flights. Everybody's gone. The only person left in bars. It was damn near midnight by the time. Maybe it was 11. I might have closed at 11.

So this is where it gets interesting. Maybe I oversold my. how like we were there, but it was still, it was 1030 or something. So everybody rolls out and it's just me and Big Jim Riley still sitting at the bar and they're closing. So now everybody from this festival have been using their restrooms all night long, right? It's just like a public restaurant. I think like three people ate food at that restaurant that night and they were all us. These these restrooms are way worse than they are.

I mean, there's beer cans in the urnals. One sink had at least 20 limes in it, cigarette butts. I remember those lines. Yeah, yeah. Paper towels all over the floor. But anyway, so they're trying to close and lock the doors. And it's getting to the point where they're having to be physically aggressive to, like, slam these doors closed. And they're, like, slamming people's arms in the doors.

And they finally get them locked up and closed. And Jim and I are just staying at the bar, finishing our last call of drinks, having a good old time. And they are, like, pounding on, like, the glass and, like, the doors. It's like a zombie movie. Oh, yeah. It's totally Sean of the dead. We're just at the Winchester waiting for it to all blow over, right? One of the kitchen staff goes to bring out the trash.

And next thing, you know, he's cussing somebody out because they just want to come in and he's not letting them in. And one of them gets in and it takes like three of them to like shove this dude out the door. It was absolutely wild. But anyway, like I said, we had made real good friends with Josh the bartender. So at the end of the night, I was going to pay the tab for, you know. myself, my dad, and my buddy. We have a drink in there since five. Our tab should have been about 200 bucks. He turns the thing around. He puts in like six bourbon and coax. He charged me $40 for my entire night of drinking for three dudes. So Josh got a big old tip. They were working

really, really, really hard. And then to let Jim and I out of the building, they had to like quick open the door, we had to go run out and they just had to slam it behind us before the zombies got in. It was absolutely insane. I think that was the move then to leave slightly before that because that was, I do remember we got back to the hotel and you had posted where everybody go. And then, yeah, that was, that was wild. Yeah, it was a good time, though. Got Fierry's.

The food was solid and, you know, the bartenders are friendly. Yeah, we did not make it to PBR this year. Steve did not get a ride a bull. He had to go pick up plates at the Arnold. He had to go with Lode Hogan's truck at 6 a.m. I think everyone was just wore out. And it was easier enough just to stay at guys. And it was to,

I don't think if there wasn't the Cuban festival, we probably would have bar hopped a little bit. But there was just, it was such a fucking madhouse. We would have lost everybody instantly. It wasn't going to be worth of effort. We were at the convention center till like 11. You know, my, my buddies and I,

breaking down shit. no no uh we uh yeah everything was broken down uh we were breaking down uh everything that wasn't you know kind of nailed down because it's a fire sale right so uh well no that's what i'm breaking down suit you bought yeah my buddy bought half of PRX um uh shout out to freedom strength there was a lot of mats that were being sold and you know i had a buddy yeah my buddy was like i how do i get get a hold of, you know, the guy selling them. And then finally we got a hold of Kurtz, who, of course, is the mayor of, you know, home gymcon.

And they were like, take them. Like a stone. What kind of Matt? The tiles, the, oh, ironclad? Is it the hammerclad flooring? Hammerclad. Hammerclad flooring. Check them out.

Yeah, hammerclad flooring. And, and I took, I got. the wrist machine from Temple of Gaines. So, but the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, hearing, uh, you know, hearing, uh, the people that were there at six a.m. That might have been the play because we were, we were, we were just waiting there and it was like 11 p.m. So we missed guy Fierry, but apparently, uh, we, we, uh, we, we probably had enough fun, uh, just, you know, kind of hanging out and, um, you know, um, you know, and, um, you know,

any crew, we were helping them load up. We're like, all right, you know, we're here. Let's get you loaded up. Partly because we were nice, but partly because we would get out of here. We want our turn to be, you know, faster. So it was definitely. That's when I'd get real selective on who my good friends are when I was like, okay, I can be here for six hours moving shit or I can go like enjoy the last couple hours of my

$1,500 vacation. I know. friends because sorry I won't help people move shit. Yeah, big little Randy, he's crew, he bought a bunch of mats, we helped him load out up. There was an older gentleman bought the Quad Send

and he was just like, we were fucking miserable. We were like, we don't know you, but we will gladly help anything to just kind of move the line. I was told that.

I was just going to say the QuadSend, like that is the one negative against that thing is wherever the hell it's going good well that thing is the size of a sports car like it's just so big i was told that debo had a funny or rough loadout story of getting yelled at or something does anyone observe that yeah so i helped uh debo load up and tanner load up his uh chest press machine so we broke everything down, which that turned into a fiasco because the whole, you know, it was carp's machine, but he sold it to Debo. So that turned into a nightmare at GMWD because we just flew over there and started taking it apart. And they're like, this isn't yours. Yeah, they're like, this isn't yours.

You need to prove you owned it. They're probably pissed at the fucking carp. Yeah. So that turned into a whole thing. So we finished getting that apart. And then I'm like, all right, I'll go start taking apart the ATX machine. I go over there and they're like, this is massonomics machine. Like, not yours. You can't touch it. I'm like, so I physically had to call Tanner. And I'm like, hey, is it okay that I take this apart? Because these guys are not happy with me touching it. So whatever, we break everything down. We get it the other than the building.

And we're like, all right, Debo, you know, go get your truck. And he got, like, yelled at, I guess, by a lady running the dock because they, you know, he doesn't have a badge or anything. So she doesn't know who he is or anything. So I didn't know it was like this, like, sweet old woman down there. So I went up to Tanner and I'm like, give me your affiliate badge. I'll go down there and play tough guy. I'll get him in here. So I go down there, like, march down there.

Like, I'm going to scream at some guy, like, strong arm our way in. It's like this sweet old lady. I'm like, hey, that's my buddy. Can I, like, please get him in? Your nice voice, your indoor voice. Well, I got him in line. And then we're like, we sat in line for like 10 minutes and we didn't move. So then finally we're like, you know what?

Let's just back out of line and we'll go around the corner. And we ended up just carrying everything from the second floor from the convention down and that took like five, six trips by the time we got the ATX machine. We got the stack down, like everything. And turning the whole thing because as soon as we started loading, that's when the downpour started. So it was like, I think it was me, Brandon Doyle, Tanner, Tommy, Debo, Heather. We're all like, all right, well, starting to rain pretty bad. Debo, why don't you guard the truck and we'll go make another trip?

All right. I had on my flight home So I mentioned earlier I had no travel issues I guess technically I did have a slight delay Getting home was about 20 minutes late Because we tried to land I've never had a landing aborted because of weather

So like I think it started downpour right As we were trying to land And then like the guy just like aborted But then like I've never had a pilot Not communicate with the with the people in the plane Like there's always the pilot Or the copilot be like oh sorry guys We'll have to you know sorry for the curbulin

Sorry for this you know this is what we're dealing with Like the flight attendant was just like Oh yeah he couldn't land. We're going to circle around. But I'm like, there was the most like, un, like, professional kind of communication. I was like, what the fuck? Like, what just happened? Are we going to die?

And then it was like a legit, like, the pattern that they had to take to, like, circle back. It was like, my wife, like, watched it on flighty and could just see me make this huge fucking loop around like the entire county. Like, we were nowhere, like, I was like halfway to Buffalo turning around or some shit. So, uh, second time we landed no issue. But it was just, I've never had that like, we're like, shit's down. Like, we're going down at a,

45 degree angle and the next thing you know we're fucking aggressively pulling back up and I was like oh I guess I'm uh you know figure it out well they heard big Keith was on board so they had to whip a shitty at the plane real quick yeah it does uh it does make me wonder how people like even even 20 years ago like

how did people get picked up at the airport because like where like there wasn't a cell phone lot so was it all like or maybe there was a cell like like how did you know when your party was ready because you can't or you just literally drive on the airport for two hours until like your friends there like well so they had they had like a pickup lot that you just kind of sat in and you just had to like wait until somebody

called you and then you go and pick them up from whatever gate they're at but I'm thinking like pre pre cell phone and shit even oh pre so I don't know what they held the signs at the gate well no I was I yeah I'm just like pre 9-11 okay and yeah that whole thing you could just go and wait for them Yeah, you just, you went to the gate.

Yeah. And I'll see you just like park at like where there's just an actual random parking lot that's like just. Yeah, you just, you just park and went to the airport. And you can just go sit and wait for their arrival gate. Damn. Right. Well, that's wild. All right.

Well, that's most of what I had on my list. It used to be a proper freaking country. Where's the bad rubber country? Yeah, I talked to Roamer in a good bit. I got a couple of his videos. Just did anyone, did anyone meet anyone for the first time, like, crew wise that they were like, oh, I've been talking this guy for, you know, two years or anything like that. It was like cool to put, put, put,

put put hand to hand? I got to meet belt fed Chris. Good, dude. So I got to thank Chris and Randy personally for the beautiful belt they provided me with. So that was high on the list. Coach Peck was really cool. He was about as cool as I expected there to be. I met, I think his name, he just had a home gym tour.

I think his name was Matt from And he was really cool. I talked to him for a while and he was a really good dude. I mean, I met a lot of people who were, like I met more Rory for the first time, which was really cool. And he and I were talking. I met Kurt for the first time. That was really cool.

I got to, I mean, I wound up talking to Gluck and Winnie. Yeah, you did. Yeah. For probably like 45 minutes on Saturday night. We were just like, you know, it was nice, it was nice for Emily too because, you know, Gluck and Winnie are,

you know, husband and wife training partners and they have a big gym. So like, it was nice for her to talk to another, you know, another woman who's like part of that kind of community where like she's actively lifting too and like, she actually reviews the equipment. So it was, it was kind of cool for her to kind of hear

another woman's take on like home gym ownership. So, yeah. Good times, good times. Who else did I was? Oh, I met Matt for Pioneer, which is kind of a, I always have him and Chris, you know, aren't the best of friends by any means. I'm really good friends

with Chris, so, but I have bought fucking like seven belts off Matt over the last decade and have like three of us, you know, his, his levers. So I did have to, I knew that he was, when I did seem at the booth, I was like, I at least, like I've DMed with him over the years and stuff. Like I at least got to talk to the guy for a couple minutes.

So he was pretty cool. Definitely. It was funny though. I showed him. I was fucking with Chris. I was like, oh, I just got a picture with your buddy.

And he's like, oh, who's fucking mad? He's like, you're dead to me. Yeah. I got a kick out of that. Oh,

I almost felt bad because we spent, we must have spent 90 minutes talking to Randy. She was awesome. We're, you know, belts and customization and just the processes. And then we're walking around and Pioneer is just like $60 lever belt. And I was like, I felt guilty walking by the booth wearing the Pioneer belt I just bought.

But like buying it for 60 bucks. Yeah, that's hard to be. The lever itself is fucking 40 bucks. The Pail, yeah, the Pail levers. Yeah, the Pals is 40, 50 bucks. Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, we, there was deals to be had.

I do feel bad. Like, Pioneer had a really shitty spot. Like, I don't know if they picked that for a reason or if it was all that was left, but they were an in-cap in like a dead area. And I'm like, that was the worst. Literally, I think it might have been the worst spot ever. I wonder if you picked that spot because wasn't that right across from the powerlifting? It was,

but the power living was like a three-hour thing over the course of three days. Like, it wasn't like, nothing existed there the other two and a half days. Like, there was just nothing there. Although in that area, arm assassin was there. And they were a little closer to the middle. I think Matt was like the farthest end cap over, I think, though. But yeah. Armour Sasson was another kind of surprise booth where we just spent a ton of time and just played

with all the stuff and the things. And, you know, one of my buddies got a crazy deal because, you know, it was late and he's like, make me a package. And so he walked away with a lot of good stuff. I had a funny experience at the fringe booth and the Matthew Porter collab booth. I was trying math the adapter for the belt, for the belt squat where it's just like the vertical handle with the, the T-Barr vertical handler thing.

And I fucked it up because I, I don't know if I didn't have my glasses on or if it was dark or what, but like I didn't realize like the, there was a pin that actually went through a hole. And I thought the pin just went before or after the hole and that's what locked into place. And I definitely, so I had it not locked into place.

And I went down and like the whole fucking thing came flying at me. And he was like, yeah, you dumbass. And like the other guy, the other crew watching me. think of his name of the top of Mike. One of the mics was like, I wondered what you were doing.

There was a hole right there. I had no clue why you weren't putting it in the hole. I didn't fucking see it. I couldn't see it. So that was a, if you were there and saw that, you definitely saw me eat shit. So that was,

enjoy that. Other than that, yeah, I mean, Home GymCon, it's already booked for next year, guys. It's going to be the same end of July, 29th weekend.

You can get your tickets right now. You get the VIP ticket for 100 bucks. I think the regular tickets like 40 bucks a day or 40 bucks for the two day path. It's not going to be any cheaper. So if there's like 80% chance you're going to home gymcon, Jake periodically raises the ticket prices and it will not be cheaper than what it is when you're hearing this. So you can go ahead and get that locked in if you want. Also, crew falls date has been set.

That's the first Saturday in December. And Lifted Live Easy has been set. That is going to be July, the weekend of like July 10th, 11th, something like that. So that'll end up being a lot of birthdays around there. My birthday is the 14th. to think Mary's birthday is the day of the party. So there'll be a lot of crew birthdays going on. So Litzhard LeVidi is getting moved up about six, eight, six, seven weeks or so.

So I think that's going to be a, for me personally, that's going to be awesome because I am so fucking exhausted right now by doing two massive vacations in the course of three weeks. And my bank account really hurts because it was just all at once. So like in the same monthly statement, there's like fucking three grand gone. So spreading that out over the course of two and a half months is going to be, or, month and a half, whatever, it's going to be much nicer on the wallet and just being able to split it up emotionally of like, like, I'm tired of work. I need to break. Okay, cool. Now I can work for six weeks. I'm tired of work. I need to break again rather than, I didn't even like feel like I got

back in the rhythm of work for those four days that or the six days that we did work, whatever it ended up being. So definitely sign up for all those things. If you have any interest in hanging out with crew, your next opportunity's crew falls. It's a very fun event. And then we'll, you know, there'll probably be a bunch of us at the Eagle in March or February. And then The third Lovizi in June and home gym con in July. So I hope to see everyone there. You at least make one of those events and you'll get to know a lot more people and expand your friends. Other than that.

And lifting parties. Don't forget the lifting parties. Yes. Yeah. Big Eddie's got his highland games coming up. There's always regional crew meetups. There's a variety of things to do. There's people that I think that even want to already set up.

I think Toby is. is going to do an in-person meet-up during crew falls because he doesn't have his license, so he can't make it. That's an inside joke there, but good job, Toby. Dumbass. Anybody else? Anything last closing statements on Home GymCon or your crew weekend? I think it's a good time.

I think it's worth checking out at least once. I think you should go if you got a home gym. It's worth going to check out when in doubt. You get to hang out with some crew. said you maybe don't need more than one day at the con to see everything. But it's worth going to. I had a lot of fun. Louisville is a cool city.

A lot of good food. Yeah, I mean, it was, I will say coming off of the Lift Hard Live Easy, like, it was nice to kind of do like a victory lap and see everybody again after such a short time. It was really cool and kind of like took the edge off because after the two trips, I was like, okay, it's it's time to get back. reality now. Like, whereas after Lift Heart Live Easy, it was kind of like hitting a slamming into a brick wall, going a thousand miles an hour, you know, like getting back to the real world was a bit of a bummer. But like this, after this weekend, I was like, okay, I'm, I'm good now, like, time to get

back to my day job. And like, and I took a two week break after, with like just unstructured training. And I was really, like, especially after home gym. being around all the strong men competitors, all the power lifters, like talking, nothing but like lifting and home gym stuff, man, I had, I don't know about you guys, I had an absolute fire under my ass to start training on Monday. Like I was coming out of the gate hot. So, Monday was day one, day one with the new coach. And it was, it was, it was definitely a challenge. It was fun. Uh, anybody else? Um, I actually had a question for the group.

route. Was there anything that you felt was missing from Home JimCon? Or do you feel like it was like, gosh, dang man, this thing was buttoned up? Or like a piece of equipment or a company that didn't make it or something you were hoping to see? Yes, Steve and I had this conversation about like the lack of actual barbell, dumbbell, strong man. And just like the absolute fundamentals of like how you actually get strong, right? Like that whole thing of just all you need is like some dumbbells, some barbells and some rusty weights. Like where, you know, yeah, yeah. Like seriously, where's Texas Power Bar? You know, like I feel like they should really be there for it.

So. So there, I think there's a spot. That's what I was thinking too. I think there's a spot for somebody who's making. strong man equipment to be there. Ruse MFG, maybe. That's what I'm talking about. Yeah.

I saw it. Everybody liked the Axel war at our booth and they're like, and it was just right across the way. And then that was it, man. There was nobody else, nobody else there catering to that community at all. I saw one safety spot bar. But I mean,

Serbers is more gear, not, uh, yeah. Yeah. Like equipment. Yeah. But yeah. I mean, there was the Jimborough guys that had their, you know,

adjustable, um, barbell. And I saw rep safety squat bar that came out, you know, years and years ago. Oh, and that is it. Like rep rogue and some,

some really small specialty bar type stuff. But like, there is room for if you bring all your strong man stuff and set up a booth, especially because I don't know about you guys, but I noticed the booths that had some kind of challenge or some like, some component of like, oh, try and do this to win a $10 gift card or whatever, they were constantly attracting people if for no other reason than just people like free stuff. Right. So it's a good booth. It's a, it's an easy way to set up some kind of challenge where people can just

participate and have fun too. I think why we might not ever see a strong man company is because all that's like made to order like like like I'm thinking like like Mark the Mike Bartos power center company like all his shit's made to order he doesn't just have like a 20,000 of equipment sitting on a shelf that he can bring in and his website hasn't even been alive for the last few months. So I don't even know if he's still a company currently. And other than that, it was like like a lot of like Snake River or like made well. These are just dudes doing it on the side. Like I don't there's really not like Titan is probably the biggest strong man manufacturer that actually has shit readily available and they're not bringing like that would

be cool if Titan like if I wish Titan could but then it's like they want to sell their their $3,000 machine, not their $200 log or their $300, you know, uh, who's a felt stone or something. I mean, a 10 by 10 booth is like 600 bucks, right? So you bring out now, maybe you're not selling anything at the show, right? You might be able to sell what you brought. But I mean, shoot, how many people have heard of our company, right? Like, all you do is go to something like that.

Show all the strong men that are there. and if two people buy something, you've paid for your booth. Right? And you get the opportunity to get in front of 10, 15 different people that have Instagram or YouTube channels and you can get your stuff out there.

I think that would be, that's probably like you were saying, like these guys are doing it on the side. Like, take it there and see. I mean, if you have quality stuff, people will talk about it. Yeah, I think. Compared to the last,

year there wasn't a lot of giveaways and I didn't make it to the French lick ones but I heard it was hard to walk away without like a ton of stuff so you know definitely you know some opportunity yeah I know

but uh I I still have Jocko creatine from last year I think we heard from everybody except Bam Bam what do you get right? I don't want to cut anyone off but do you got any close about Steve? I would agree with what Chris said. Like he said, we had a conversation about it. And I understand why those manufacturers aren't there. But I do think it's a whole. But again, like a powerlifting power bar

company, like, what are you going to bring? You're going to bring a power bar and you're going to pay $600 for a booth and 90% of the clientele there already has a barbell. You know what I mean? So it's like you want to see strong man equipment. And I want to see strong man equipment, of course. but, you know, the clientele that's probably going home, JimCon is going there for machines. So I get, I get it, but I'm still at this point in. I guess one thing I'd add to that is a lot of us that like, like, bougier strongman shit, like we're finding strong man and strong man equipment later in our careers. So we don't, we like are coming from having nicer shit.

Whereas if you're like, all my strongman buddies lift on fucking like dirt and rocks and garbage equipment and don't care. So, like, a lot of strong man community don't give a fuck about what they lift on, whereas, like, the power lifting community that a lot of us come from, now we maybe venture in a strong man. We have a slightly different opinion, but the bulk of the strongman community don't give a fuck what they're lifting on, which is kind of weird. And why I think there aren't bigger strong man equipment companies and why so much shit

is, hey, your buddies are welder, may have to make you something. Yeah, I still think there's, there's room for a booth. I mean, there were two strongman competitions there with, what a hundred total competitors with how many volunteers did you guys have right if five people buy a $300

a $300 circus dumbbell like you're in great shape man if somebody had a circus dumbbellbell there I would probably bought it yeah I probably would have one at my booth too if there was one there I am curious to see

what the home Jim Kong Kahn windfall is for your power locks though because those were everywhere and I'm interested to see if you you know get that bump yeah we have 12 customs and I had like 15 orders yesterday and today so damn sweet it's been fun that is good that is good that'll help you move some of that inventory for sure all right boys we good um let's uh big stever they got find yet uh you find me at uh bam big stever they got you find me at underscore 168 on Instagram. Big Brad, where you at?

Brad underscore Dieters, tuned in for Kenny Loggins Tuesday. Big Antonio, where do you want to talk to him, Matt? Inchibacerra, Instagram. Mr. Paxson, how are we going to buy some Husker PowerLocks? Hussker PowerLock.com and PowerLock SMEB on Instagram. Love it. Chris, we're going to have to see you. Friendly Neighborhood Lifter on Instagram. All right, boys.

So we got a podcast on Payton Underrated. Go check us out there. The biggest place I love you guys chatting about is the Masonomics Discord and the U&U Chub channel there. That's our favorite. I am Big Keith Honeycutt 73 on Instagram. You can follow my orange jam than a wine cellar. Until then, see you next Tuesday.