Video URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74TaVlSuipo
– you are the first ever a person with a mohawk on this podcast haha yeah graduation right is that accurate just say yes definitely the first with a purple and blue also full rainbow man bro oh yeah that's right all the way down the back very very nice absolute very nice now first of all I love you [ __ ] handle world's strongest gay that's me yeah that's hilarious this is there in that community as their acceptance is there open is it just about like they don't give a [ __ ] just long as you're real colander yeah oh yeah yeah no it's um yeah when I came out it was super cool nobody really gave me any [ __ ] that's the best part about strongman you know I know you had Robbo burst in here yeah not too long ago and he'll mention yeah he'll he's something but you know he mentioned just like the community of strong men's so it's awesome because like we all realize what we have to do to get to this level of sport may lend me a little bit of you know sick and twisted in the head to look at a truck and get excited to pull it so yeah when I came out like nobody really gave a [ __ ] they were just like are as long as you can still lift weights we don't care yeah that's it Mears the comedy community in that way for sure like stand-up comedy community nobody gives a [ __ ] no as long as you're funny and you're doing your job like that's all that really matters and we know some that are in the closet and we're like come on man just no one cares come out no no one gives a [ __ ] he'll probably be funnier right it's the more subject matter be more you know not holding on to as much it's easier Hawk like you know I came out just like you know the you know weight off my shoulders was uh was unbelievable what how long ago was this that was 2014 so I was 22 years old okay so I was a late bloomer in the gay world was it like when you were in high school and like what first of all when when do you know you know I don't know that I have like I don't remember like I never had like an aha moment per se for me it was going through high school like I was involved in a bunch of stuff you know was a cheerleader actually also played football was doing the weightlifting thing was class president so had my hands in a bunch of different pots college super
into everything as well and really just focused on school and actually dated a girl for like a year and a half in college in college yeah did you ever date a boy no so but did you let go damn I wish he was a boy she's cool but it was yeah pretty much you know it was uh it was it was more like a friendship than a relationship I guess I don't know you know like we were cool and everything and everything's going well but like nothing else was really going on when you came out was she like AHA that was the reason I broke up with her oh you came out because you know meanwhile you know I'm dating this girl but I'm watching gay porn when she's not around oh my god this isn't right was something else going on here so did you like was it gay porn like finding gay porn you're like that's what I like pretty much really yeah gay porn has thought of very differently than straight porn because like straight porn here's the rub in the straight community you look at straight point you're like especially someone like me who has daughter so you know if somebody probably did something awful to those girls when they were young like that's like nine out of ten times yeah and that's why they turned to porn but when you see gay points like yeah a couple dudes would like to [ __ ] like Dan Savage on and you know we're talking about gay porn he's like it's like they don't think of it the same way no not at all yeah yes so I I ended up breaking up with that girl and I told her I was like yeah like I think I'm gay and I need to like figure this [ __ ] out you know I'm 22 I want at least enjoy my 20s you know trying to figure out a fight if I like dudes or not was she like damn I turned Rob gay she was not very nice about it yeah freaked out yeah it didn't it went downhill pretty quickly oh really so oh yeah like we were living together at the time because we're in college too like I kind of living together and then like I got kicked out and was like living in my car for a little while so it was yeah kind of a [ __ ] show Wow she kicked you out yeah did you stay in contact with her no not even a little bit Wow no yeah then like you know like six months later she's like blowing up
my phone saying I gave her chlamydia I was like gods does not only six-month not on me that's it's been longer than that too since we were doing anything so oh that's hilarious yeah I don't think you keep chlamydia and your system warming right when we don't get it I would yeah I think so I've dodged that bullet luckily but that seems like one that I think you just get it and then yeah bad yeah it doesn't seem too pleasant yeah I mean I don't think it and I wasn't to because like all those like calls and everything we're coming through when I was with my now husband Joey so like we were dating at that time and now my ex-girlfriend is blown into my phone sad I gave her the clap but was he laughing at first years like what the [ __ ] is going on cuz like we literally had been dating for two months uh so it was like super new so he's like what the [ __ ] did I get myself into right because you were a noob to the whole time yeah so that's crazy so you you become you decide okay I got a deal with reality I'm gay you meet that one guy yeah and then you're still with them still there yeah with him we just got married this past March a year that's kind of crazy yeah well you didn't even play the field no no I got real you know it's funny like I joke about this all the time cuz like we met in like the typical millennial gay way on Grindr and you know I was I wasn't even out actually before we met so like on Grindr I was like that shirtless torso pic because I was still you know moves yeah yeah and she was no they're not that good but he thought so we like you know saw me pop up in the aerials like oh who's this [ __ ] messaged me and I thought he was catfishing me because I thought he was way too hot for me thought he was out of my league so I kind of just like got really lucky with the first guy that came my way that's um that's gotta be weird for her right yeah like imagine being a girl even with a guy any like man something's wrong with our relationship I mean it's literally like the most like snake it's there's no more other like it's me it's you it's not you it's me right no that is the it's yeah you know I don't think there's anywhere to go you know higher than that like well unless you want to go pray the gay away yeah that doesn't
work no but is it that is like a way that some people try to fix it yeah particularly like the religious folks yeah it is hilarious man I think it's freakin funny I mean you know like and I I get [ __ ] a lot of I mean obviously like with an Instagram handle world's strongest gay I get more [ __ ] on a daily basis on social media than I can even count and most of its from like religious people really oh yeah like they're sending me like Bible verses or telling me like I need to convert to Christianity and by the way they're probably jerking off while they're doing probably thinking about you it's okay and delicious my go-to response is you know hey man I don't read fiction so doing that but I just always think it's funny because you know they're like you know gay obviously I'm very open with my sexuality on social media and you know world Strongest Man has been super supportive of it they had role Strongest Man and ginger in Pride Month this year and did a whole like little expose about me which was awesome and the comments on the world Strongest Man they're like you're pushing the gay agenda like all this [ __ ] and I'm like listen man like the only agenda we're pushing is like I just want to be treated like everybody else and like get the same [ __ ] that you do you know I've never once like tried to make someone gay you know like meanwhile Christians are in my DM saying like you need to convert I'm not Kay you need to suck a dick that's the gay agenda is a hilarious phrase there's an agenda I still don't even know what it is so whoever's listening if you could like hit me up and let me know I'd love to learn about it yeah you need to get in a tighter knit Club I guess I do khn yes the rainbow Mohawk doesn't make me that gay hilarious thing that like you get it it's not like you're trying to get someone to be a Mormon no you're the gay or not gay exactly yeah why did it but why does someone think that's like that's the weirdest kind of homophobia to me like I had a bit in one of my specials in the past what like there's two types of people that are afraid of gay marriage is people that are really dumb or they're secretly worried that dicks are delicious and I share that all the time
on my social media just I think it's amazing but that's what it is like worried about the gay agenda like they're gonna come get me no that's what it's like it's like they're afraid it's unbelievable I think it's hysterical Erica but well I was real lucky when I was a kid I was exposed to gay people real young when I was a seven years old we moved to San Francisco oh yeah yeah 70s it was gay as [ __ ] and so I was around them all the time like my next-door neighbor was this gay couple my aunt used to go next door and they would get they would get naked smoke pot and play bongos together sick yeah was pretty crazy so for me that was normal life was just like gay I was around gay people I didn't even hear the term [ __ ] until I was 11 and we moved to Florida I remember hearing that when I was like oh wow like I had a my friend his name was candy Candido he's a Cuban kid and his dad was real mad cuz gay people getting married he's reading this new paper I believe the shitty it was his new paper down he was a grown man I remember being 11 goes why is he give a [ __ ] like how weird literally doesn't affect him at all ah but he was so upset yeah but it says but but it was important for me to see because I didn't know people like that so to be around my friend's dad and see him freak out I was like wow what a weird thing to waste your time thinking about for sure I mean that's and you were super lucky to have that kind of a brain yeah I'll see that ugly part of you know the world cuz I mean the thing is with me no I'm fortunate enough for like not many people like talk [ __ ] to me in person right you know like I'm an average sized strong man like I'm not really that big of a dude what's the average size drama you like 300 and I'm the smallest guy that can I miss how much do you weigh I'm like 285 right yeah that's not average size bro well I mean I just competed this weekend against Brian Shaw the [ __ ] 420 yeah that's you know and six foot eight I'm 510 like hey man cool you know so like I'm fortunate like most people don't talk [ __ ] to me person it's like all on social media but it did happen one time in Texas of all places I just finished a truck pull event this
guy was like call me a [ __ ] from the stands like all this stuff and like I just look and I was like dude I suck dick and I'm stronger than you and the whole crowd just kind of like went quiet and then he walked they just went quiet yeah you know I think like in that situation like I feel like people feel like they're invincible like they feel like they have the power cuz they're in the crowd yeah and like they don't expect like somebody like who's competing to like say something back to him right well like I'm not gonna hit like they take that [ __ ] it's amazing it's only when one guy though yeah that shows you how the times are changing for sure no and yeah it's in you know luckily like you know I was dubbed like the unofficial fan favorite at World's Strongest Man this year so it's really cool to see the support throughout the entire community how do you get dubbed the unofficial fan favorite who I was getting like the loudest applause whenever my night no it's true yeah that's so the announcers just kind of were calling me the fan favorite that's cool I'm happy with the way things are going with septon totally it's changing right it's getting a lot better you know and we're super fortunate and that's kind of like when I came out like I'm lucky because I had this like I really don't give a [ __ ] mentality when I came out I didn't care what people thought I didn't care who thought you know if they didn't like me they didn't like me I'll just cut him out you know fortune I didn't have to do that how did that transpire was it because the weight of it was so it was it gave me so much relief that you felt like who gives a [ __ ] now now I'm free was it like that was there was a lot that went into it so I like in my mind I didn't like want to come out until I I it seems dumb now like and I knew I was really gay and I guess you know dating my now husband for six weeks that was kind of the tipping point and at that point in our relationship we kind of realize like alright this wasn't just gonna be like a fling and just having fun like we were actually you know taking the steps to kind of be committed and see what was gonna happen here not expecting marriage but so I came out mainly because of him because he had he
had been out since he was 17 and at this point we were 22 and I didn't feel like it was fair for him to be in a relationship with somebody that was still in the closet mm-hmm and that was like my biggest motivator for it and once you so you so you were already happy so you're in this happy relationship so if people were upset at you you like I don't give a [ __ ] I have what I want I'm a better place yeah and you also I mean a must feet I'm in putting words in your mouth but it must feel like when you do become out or you do come out they must feel like a not just a relief but like you're you you've solidified you're fine you're free you're you yeah I mean it's it's exhausting like waking up every day pretending to be somebody or not yeah you know like you literally have to act different than you want to did you have to talk to about girls to guys like when you were on yeah I was always just like I the funny thing is like after I came out like nobody was surprised so I feel like I was the guy that was just kind of like in the background like awkwardly laughing when guys were talking about girls oh my god oh yeah really but I'm looking at the guys in bulges later you know right behind us that's hilarious do you remember it a year like when you were young when you were like hey something might be different um you know I think like I think back to like middle school and you know I think it's just like the stereotypical like I was in the theater I was into music I played sports but wasn't really that good at them and actually was a cheerleader in middle school too like I was I did I joined my first cheerleading team in seventh grade and you know the funny thing is is you know there was tryouts and everything and I got the fourth highest score out of all the girls so I figured that was you know a little telltale sign that was a time you know not stereotyping male cheerleaders whatsoever but I have a buddy who's a male cheerleader who's awesome he's chappelle's 99.9% sure he's straight spell lazy but he's built like a brick [ __ ] to there I mean collegiate cheerleaders are insane yeah but you have to be able to flip through the air people don't understand what cheerleading is right they think of it it's like Jack go team no it's not crazy
acrobatic even in high school like I was throwing girls up in the air by myself and catching them overhead yeah you know like doing [ __ ] like that yeah that's what's weird yeah Chapelle does the stuff where he grabs him by the feet and flips them in the air yeah catches them on one it's stupid it's bananas yeah the amount of physical power you have to have to be able to do that timing coordination yeah yeah it's crazy I mean you have to be a [ __ ] savage to throw someone in the air catch them with one hand it takes a lot of balls a lot of [ __ ] power – yeah the explosive power for sure most men [ __ ] on cheerleaders could never pull that off no no it's [ __ ] hard can you do all the flips and chipped in a backhand surprise oh no could you do it back then no no no that's that's actually one of the reasons why like so I when I was doing it in high school like actually looked to do it in college at the collegiate level but tumbling was like a minimum requirement and I was like a little too chunky so how did you get into powerlifting and strongman time sure so that like honestly totally by chance I was working out in my high school weight room one day after school and a substitute teacher happened to walk by who owned a CrossFit gym and he was like hey you know I I'm at this CrossFit gym like you seem like you like this stuff and you're pretty strong like feel free to come by so I would start I actually started training with him like 5 o'clock in the morning before school but and I found him really quickly I sucked a CrossFit but I liked the lifting heavy [ __ ] and this was back in 2009 and walked into the gym one morning and they were like hey there's a local strongman contest this Saturday we signed you up for it so when you say you sucked at CrossFit Cross was just a bunch of Olympic lifts and different explosive exercise yeah I just wasn't in shape oh right so the ability to do math well in the work yeah yeah yeah right so yes so they signed me up for my first contest I was 17 years old I know it had never touched an implement I had just seen it on TV like everybody else in world Strongest Man got my ass kicked it took last place but you were 17 and how much lifting had you done previous to that maybe four or
five months really but at that point like I I had hit the 500 pound deadlift she's only been lifting for a couple months yeah Oh see just a freak genetically in a foolish in a few lifts I was good at that's a lot of weight to like for a few months of lifting yeah so the contest went horrible for me but I absolutely like fell in love with the sport mm-hmm ended up at Springfield College in Massachusetts and join their powerlifting team and that's when I kind of got you know more of a background and lifting proper technique and all that stuff and then did another local strongman contest where I met this guy Matt Mills who owns a gym Lightning Fitness in Connecticut where I trained now and he was like yeah you know like I'm just starting to get all the strongman equipment you should come down it's only about 30 minutes from their school so I would I actually would go there every Saturday morning from when I was in college to Train strongman and that's when I kind of started competing in the amateur circuit you know and that's kind of led me on my trajectory to here so you one of those rare people that actually lives in Connecticut I live in Massachusetts good for you right over the border good – yeah skate go over there work out real quick and then leave yeah Connecticut strange it's something it's a strange place that's a lost state yeah so you get into powerlifting and then what was your exposure to like truck pulling and all that other crazy [ __ ] um so really not much you know you know the cool thing about strongmen is every contest is different that we do um we know we never do a same you know I've done the sport for over 10 years now and I've never done a contest where the events have been the same in that span of time do you know what it's gonna be before you sign up typically so you know we get about a series of lifts 8 to 12 weeks notice depending on the contest so the gym that I was going to in Connecticut they were just starting to acquire strongman equipment so it was pretty bare-bones so like we had a steel log you know for the log cleaning press they had some atlas stones some farmers handles a yoke and that's pretty much it and then over the years he would get more and more and more and now it's
turned into this massive 15,000 square foot facility and the gym on a recom and equipment [ __ ] because he buys some every time something new comes out he buys it so yeah like my my exposure to the equipment in the beginning was pretty minimal but what I did to compensate for that is I just competed more so I would pretty much from Springfield Massachusetts I drew a five hour radius from where I was and any contest there was in that radius I would do so in my first like three years I competed probably like almost 40 times whoa how often do these things being held at the amateur level pretty often there's usually you could find you know I would say one or two you know per month in New England alone really um and then they're all over the country so you know I think the cool thing is you know like I was really I said I took last in my first contest and that went on for a while I took dead lasting like my first eight shows that I did it's like I wasn't good at this thing when I started now when did you start being successful twenty so I went to amateur Nationals actually in the 200 pound weight class so I weighed in a hundred 200 pounds in 2011 that was my first time at in the amateur national so I'd been doing it for about two years surprising myself and ended up taking second place in that weight class went back to the amateur Nationals as a 231 and 212 and took second place there and then won the amateur national championship in 2013 and that's where I beat you know where I won my pro card and kind of got to that next level but it's such a difficult thing to do that I would imagine doing it 40 times a year like you're gonna get injured luckily I didn't really yeah I mean you know I'm fortunate where I'm I'm so by trade and what I went to school for is I'm an athletic trainer so Sports Medicine has kind of been my thing so you know I've been lucky enough to learn when I was training of when I need to back off when I can push a little bit harder what needs to be taken care of and just try to be smart you know I'm him you know knock on wood you know I've had one serious injury in the ten years that I've been doing this what was a it was a summer of 2018 I dropped a 275 pound
Atlas stone on my chest oh so [ __ ] tore my QL in my low back broke three ribs oh Jesus put me out of commission for a little while and you know what you drop it where was it was at a contest I was in the second place by one point so it was the final event of the contest and I went to push the stone onto the so the thing is with me being only 510 with the Atlas stones like the first box you have to put the stone on is high you know so this was 75 inches tall mmm you know and I'm only 510 so that was literally like eyebrow height so eyelid had to like press it up onto the box and I thought it was up there it wasn't secure to ended up rolling off fell on my chest oh yeah [ __ ] and you know naturally that was the first contest my mom had come seen in person in like four years she saw baby killed by a boulder yep perfect diagram yeah so how long it take you to recover from that let's see that was that was in June or June or July of 2018 and I didn't do my next contest until March of 2019 oh wow yeah it took me out for a while yeah I could only I'm at 275 pound stone ball and that was the lightest one we had in the series Wow mmm Jesus Christ so just your background in understanding athletic science or exercise science allows you to know when you're being silly and when you you know you're not gonna be a [ __ ] but you're not gonna be dumb exactly and I think that's where it's that's why I've been lucky you know and you know kind of state injury-free because even like to this day like you know so my coach is um you know pretty well renowned strongman Derek Poundstone who you know to expect can place our world Strongest Man and he programs some crazy [ __ ] for me but there are some days where I'm just like yo dude this is not gonna fly today when you have a light like what's a light day you know so like I trained four days a week and I get like one like I call him like my bro day it's like my bench back and arms day you know Powerman do that yeah yeah so it's more just like because like bench press is gonna like build up your triceps is gonna build up the anterior delt it's gonna help like you bench press actually helps your overhead lifts and so I do that and that that's what I can sit like my light day but like I'll
still bench like in the mid fours mmm so so four days a week yeah and so how do you how do you structure it do you do every other day do you do um it all depends on the week really so typically I try to go Tuesday Thursday Friday Sunday that's usually my my average week so Tuesday is like my big overhead day where I'll do a strongman movement overhead select log press or dumbbell and that a bunch of shoulder overhead accessory work Thursday my day two is my biggest days so I squat and deadlift in the same day um and that's a workout that sometimes takes four to five hours really yeah so you do big spaces in between each workout so you lift and then do you have like a large take about 10 15 minutes which means that sometimes like you know like we're building up the Arnold strongman Classic in Columbus Ohio this coming March and you know we have a max deadlift coming up and you know I'm potentially gonna be on for a 1,000 pound deadlift Christ you know so like to get through a deadlift workout where I'm dead lifting oh yeah there's me there's huge look at the bar bending that's most [ __ ] up about it so that was that was 850 pounds on the on the the deadlift right there what is that that dumbbell right there that Dumbo was 250 250 one arm overhead press yeah [ __ ] a the the deadlift though is so what is that [ __ ] thing that's called a Husa felt stone coffin yep pretty much that weighs 450 Wow you wearing like a back strap let go yeah so we're a belt yeah so we're at work yeah yeah was it so it helps like build intra-abdominal pressure it also gives just like some tactile feedback to like know where you need to brace so usually weightlifters like we'll put it we're like we feel weakest in our core and that's gonna help us activate those muscles to be a little bit stronger and you know more effectively brace to prevent injury because I never I never understood how it would protect you from a lift like if you're lifting heavy weights and you got that strap around your back yeah it's not really technically meant to like protect per se more just to like help add extra support mmm that's the biggest thing so it does you you don't do heavy lifts without no no no I keep it on yeah whenever I'm going heavy that's pretty much standard for power lifters oh yeah
powerlifting strongman used yeah we're all wearing like pretty heavy-duty belts now when you train do you train to doing strongman stuff like do you pull trucks and [ __ ] like in training yeah so um leading up to World Strongest Man I knew we had a truck pool we actually got to pull the the grave digger and the Monster Jam fire truck really the the monster trucks at worlds this year which is pretty cool what's the grave digger way well so the funny thing is it only weighs 15,000 pounds so they had to grab a second one and attach them so we were hired two of them at one time how does one ever say it only weighs 15,000 pounds that's what I want to know cuz I suck at that event well I don't you know I would like it if it was only one of them but that's that's an event where it must help to be 450 pounds huge huge advantage you know you look at guys like me you know again only 510 about 285 competing against in my qualifying group at Worlds was Thor bjornsen the mountain from Game of Thrones yes how much exact [ __ ] with six nine four forty Jesus that [ __ ] has a six pack six nine four four days so that's Thor doing the event right there and you can see gravedigger right behind him and then behind that they attached with a metal pole to the Monster Jam oh so you use a rope to pull you as well yeah so it's like kind of you get a little bit of lever yeah there's a second truck two trucks that is ridiculous yeah so leading up to world Strongest Man I actually became really good friends with the firefighters in my local town and I just I talked to the fire chief I was like hey can I borrow one of your trucks to [ __ ] fire breaks out okay we got our friend he's out there pulling it they can wait yeah his were his responses are you [ __ ] me I was like I'm actually serious so I actually I was pulling that that was pulling that fire truck like once or twice a week for like six weeks leading up to world strongest how much is a fire truck way um depends if the water is in it or not I found that out the first time it wasn't so it was only about 28,000 pounds and it was actually only 28,000 scheduled that ain't [ __ ] the second time the water was in it so it was 40,000 oh no I was a little bit harder and it made me look like an ass
because like I had told my friends that I was doing this this time thinking that it was the same truck and it was as light as it was the first time I was like all right I look pretty cool in front of everybody and then I got to pull it I'm like this is heavier yeah that's that's a lot difícil it's an extra 12,000 [ __ ] package yeah and so like I was training in a 50 foot course and like that 40,000 pound truck it was taking me like almost 90 seconds to pull and that's like 90 seconds of just non-stop work Christ what does that do to your knees the knees aren't too bad honestly it's just like a full body like burning like everything hurts right like nothing feel like your arms are pumped because you're pulling on the rope in front of you your quads and your calves are just you know pump to the max at that point I'd be worried about like knees and ankles am I the biggest injury that you see with like a truck pull is like the Achilles tendon rupture right and something and kilise tendon will just like pop off when you're trying to pull it that makes sense cuz you're just pushing off with your foot pressure Oh [ __ ] yeah god damn whatever sport is really great it's a sadistic sport it's just so crazy to watch people pull two trucks like up human being pulling two trucks it's per pot I see you with the fire truck that's that's more so you pulling a [ __ ] fire truck it was pretty fun yeah sure if you could do it yeah exactly if you do it's fun just that's a weird thing with people right to just love to be able to do something that's hard to do and I think that's why like all of us are attracted like strong man that's why we compete yeah you know like like I said in the beginning of the show like it's we all have to be a little bit [ __ ] up in the head to look at a truck and get excited to pull it yeah look there it is that's so crazy there yeah I pull the truck that's my coach behind it yeah yeah have you ever seen the video of the strongman who throws the barrel up it hits the bar fall back and hits the back of the head dude that was on him is that guy dead now he lived whoa yeah what kind of a human can survive that I don't know I think it was an empty cake that makes it was it was a [ __ ] aluminium barrel bouncing off your skull yeah yeah yeah he was knocked out cold for a little
while no how old do you know I'm 28 just for 28 November is there a life span for doing what you do because I would imagine like you yes you know men distress um you know I think like we see most of the guys that are in their prime like mid-30s I would say like early to mid-30s it's kind of like the prime for most strongmen athletes but then you got guys like Mark Felix from the UK who's 53 and he's still competing and breaking World Records what yeah to piss test that guy he's on all the [ __ ] 53 83 he also he has the biggest hands and strongmen so they actually don't fit on an 8 by 11 piece of paper what yeah so his hands like 11 and a half 12 inches long yeah that's ridiculous it's like Shaq hands it's crazy but that's when he the world records that he gets are all in grip events ironically and then I have like you know the where's the meat Mans and can't hold on anything god damn 53 it's crazy it's absolutely crazy and he looks like he's 38 you gotta picture that guy Jamie got sidetracked by trying to find his hands in the middle there Wow look at them holes mark fucking-a look at those ciders hands crazy there so long yeah that is incredible though that he's 53 Lehren it's taken people yeah so at the contest that we do in the Ennis it is fingers those are [ __ ] the sausages yeah the contest that we do in England through a company called Giants live that's like one of their promo things that they do in the in the in the magazines that they give everybody where they'll actually put a life's you know a picture of his hand so everybody can compare his hand to to their own Jesus Christ so big that yeah that would definitely help man definitely help that's incredible that he's still competing at such a high level of 58 what is it injuries right there look at his elbow what's Kyle's probably a torn bicep is that common supercut yeah torn bicep I would say is like arguably the most common injury in strongman and what is it which which lifts usually cause that to blow out usually you'll see that on Atlas stone tire flip or if you're dead lifting with like a mixed grip with the under hand on the barbell usually the bicep will pop off in the elbow and roll up into the shoulder what are you thoughts about deadlifting on a mixed
grip do you think that you should do that or should you do it both I mean if you're using the straps like if you're using straps to aid in the grip and kind of take the grip out go double overhand because there's really no point to have a mixed grip and put you at risk of an injury when you don't need to the straps kind of take the grip out of the work for you but for powerlifting that's not allowed so they have to compete with them they have to deadlift without straps so there's two options you can go with you can go with the mixed grip or hook grip which hook grip is you wrap your hand around the bar and then put your fingers over your thumbs mmm and it hurts like a [ __ ] because their bar is just resting there on your thumb and then pushing down on it but it you get a better grip and it you know kind of yeah just like that that's weird why would that be easier I don't know but it works all right it's just if you have a really good pain tolerance it's the way to go because then you're taking out that bicep from the equation and you won't have any risk of injury with that mmm that's interesting and but that does that's not the case with like far more Cary's or any farmers walk or anything no so with farmers like the handles are usually a little bit too big to be able to get like a grip like that so literally it's just a straight up grip event and I hate them do you do a lot of training with like big thick grip things like I know a grog has those balls that you can do chin-ups with and yeah yeah do you like fat gripz like whenever I do like bicep curls sometimes I'll put like just fat grips on to the dumbbells yeah I'm just doing that just to work it I do a lot of shrugs stuff like that whether it's with farmers handles or a frame or a barbell or dumbbells and if that's the case I'll put like fat grips on there to try to work the grip as well that so that dude is 53 years old and he's still competing at the top of the food chain when you do you see yourself possibly doing that dude just 25 more [ __ ] years for you I don't see me doing it for that long I think my goal is to get to like 35 and kind of evaluate where I am yeah I think if I can do this until I'm 35 at this level that would be a really good run because I'd made my first world Strongest Man appearance when I was 25 so if I can go to Worlds
ten years you know I'd be really happy with that this is a it's a crazy way to make a living it's a crazy way to spend your time and like to pursue your life yeah do you because you're you're banking everything on your body hanging in there pretty much yeah yeah what do you like what is when one has a job that at 35 you're most likely probably gonna be on your way out the door how do you structure your life you know for me I'm fortunate you know to have my master's degree in athletic training in sports medicine so I keep that you know valid and up-to-date and I still do like per diem work all throughout you know New England just trying to keep my chops up on that whenever I have the free time to do so but I mean a per diem work like I mean so like I'll cover I'll cover like high school hockey games or college games and just work as an athletic trainer just pretty much for the day okay you know just taking care of any injuries stuff like that you know that's kind of my wheelhouse you know taping concussion evaluation all that stuff oak injury rehab yeah now what kind of like I would imagine with were you talking about these four-hour deadlift squat days I mean you must have some serious rehab routine that you go through right yeah you know I mean I do everything from like self massage and you know I have my own stim unit at home and do that but then I'm also doing recovery workouts on my off days so how much those stim things help those electrical stimulation what one do you use compacts compacts yeah that's the brand that I go with so you have it's like those glue things just put them on and then the nice thing about the compacts was is like they're pretty much foolproof so like has like 12 to 15 pre-programmed settings you put you kind of like punching what body part it's on and then you just pick what setting you want it on so it's like pain relief training recovery competition recovery muscle activation there's a bunch of different ways to use it and then you just hit go and it goes oh so just it's awesome whiney TV or something yeah yeah but I have it in my carry-on so when I fly home tonight I'll put it on during my seven-hour flight home and I use it someone sent me one years back but I never [ __ ] used it Compaq something
write that down yeah I I think they're awesome yes so long with that than I do I do recovery workout so like I'll go to the I'll go to like a commercial gym and you know I'll swim not well do hot tub sauna and then I have like a massage therapist and bodywork person that I go and see I try to see every week but sometimes is every other week where they do deep tissue massage cupping dry needling the whole nine yards on me dude you're so dense you must have a [ __ ] seriously powerful massage therapist if someone's gonna go deep tissue works in pro hockey selling is no joke that's the key right is having someone who's really good it yeah it took me in there it took me a while to find this guy and ironically like him and I ended up we were at college together and he was in the area and I was like oh you know like he's getting massage degree I know he's an athletic trainer and he has a really good background of the body and injuries and stuff like that let me see how it works and he lit me up the first I just go to a regular spa sleep you know yeah it feels great it just took an hour I just paid 90 bucks for a nap thanks it doesn't do enough right no like I mean I tell me like I'm usually more sore when I leave a massage than when I go in but then the next day I feel great yeah it breaks everything loose yeah seems weird that you can just manipulate injuries or tight spots into pliability but it does work well that's the thing that's well like I've been huge into the dry needling lately mm-hmm and I think it's awesome so it's pretty much like acupuncture with science behind it so now dry needling is they take these needles and they just sort of shove it into the muscle yeah wherever there's like a trigger point or tightness or restriction they'll go in and they don't just leave it there like they'll move it around while it's in there and it's not terribly uncomfortable unless there's like a spot that's really [ __ ] up but it works great like I had some low back pain that was killing me for a long time and it ended up being because of my so as my hip flexors were super tight he threw a couple needles on my in my hip flexors and by the time I got off that table all of my back pain was gone have you ever used one of those so right things oh
yeah yeah they're amazing but I mean you see Jesus the design whoever the sick [ __ ] is that created that is a genius really yeah with the scoop yeah fits perfectly it's comfortable yeah it digs in there but you can use that [ __ ] on everything every fact yeah yeah I'm a big fan of that I'm a big fan of those you have Kelly Starr it's mobility wad yeah that ball yep those [ __ ] you lie on there I got those scattered all over the gym out there sure and and I used his like the Voodoo band the flossing hey I do that you know cuz with the stuff that we do you know like my elbows get beat to [ __ ] you know if I'm doing heavy bench press and like even like the dumbbell that you saw earlier and like just having like 250 pounds cranked on your shoulder like that yeah just puts a ton of strain in the elbows like my elbows get beat up pretty good in that time you using the Voodoo band is huge for that well so what that just it constricts and then you do a little bit of an exercise with it and then you undo it yes refine I kind of manipulated a little bit too so sometimes like if I have a spot mailable that's really killing me I'll put a golf ball on it and then wrap the band around the golf ball yeah and then I'll go through that range of motion and move my arm around yes well do exercises like that but like I said sometimes I'll throw like the golf ball in there so it hurts like a [ __ ] but it works great yeah I'm a big fan of it for I had a little bit of a tendinitis issue in my shoulder or in my elbow rather that helped a lot I think it's great elbow people using like a patellar tendonitis on their knees so like all stuff like that is and that's the thing like with a lot of strongmen in general like a lot of us do like that body work and like try to stay healthy because have to well at this level to like the sport has exploded in the past few years and like my competition season started this past weekend and the last contest I'll do is in October oh my god so it's ten months long and as of right now I have almost 13 contests planned now when you have a contest so if you do some crazy strongman competition how much time do you give yourself after it's over I mean I'll be back in the gym tomorrow when I get home real and just
competed on Saturday okay well so you take a couple days off two days off and then get right back right back into it yeah man I mean that's I mean that's kind of a special consideration mainly because like the contest I'm going into is seen as like the the biggest contest in the world so it's the Arnold strongman Classic in Ohio only ten men qualify for this contest yeah yeah so and this is this will be my first year competing there so my coach was just like listen like you can't waste any time we only have five weeks of training essentially to get ready for this show even though I've been prepping for it for the past like you know six months we used to do a UFC at the Arnold that is a crazy show like wild it's wild and it's gotten even bigger and there's so many people walking around in baggy sweatpants yeah so many dudes that you sweat pants stringer stringer uh you know stringer tank tops and that's you know girls in nothing but spandex and sports bras that whole industry is so strange like they say influencer industry yeah yeah I mean that's what like honestly it took me so long to get a sponsorship one because I'm not huge and two because I don't have a six-pack like nobody wants to look at like a chubby pasty white dude on the front of a lake sometime it's no you could be built like this guy and just pick up heavy [ __ ] half cool if they don't care if you're powerful they want you know like look like you're dehydrated that's all yeah that's what looks good on a poster yeah are you starving and dehydrated with some spray tan we want you we want you that's what we're looking to be jacked and tan yeah and that was yeah so that yeah that was one of the things like that why it took me like so long to get in with some companies and like actually get a legit sponsorship it's there anybody well that guy bjornsen however the [ __ ] you say yeah the Thor guy he's got a six-pack close to it yes that just preposterous genetics it's stupid yeah well obviously the size of him is just preposterous that's that is Viking right that is straight and his name is Thor yeah come on come on that's that's the generation after generation of Marauders yeah I mean his dad is also like six eight it's crazy yeah I'm Owen makes sense so what is it
like when what is the difference between someone that is that big that can stay lean like why can he stay lean um I think it's just like uh one I think it's like the quality food that he eats you know like with him being arguably the strongest man in the world you know he didn't win World's Strongest Man this year but he's been dominant over the past two years he beat him Martines Lee sees from the UA he's actually right here in LA visit yeah yeah he just won back in back in June he's from the UK is that we were saying you you said you owe us originally from Latvia and now he's lived in the US I mean for as long as I can remember how big is that [ __ ] he's six there's martini on me so he's about like six three about 350 so he beat door yes crazy yeah he beat a guy that's a hundred and fifty pounds heavier than him yeah that's crazy I mean that's the thing about the sport you know like I so the way I qualified for the contest in Ohio besides that [ __ ] yeah so the way the way I qualified for this the contest in Ohio was um by winning the Arnold in Australia and you know I know like I said I'm the smallest guy that does this at this level and I was beating guys you know like um Jerri Pritchett who's like six six 370 you know like I you know so how do you how are you got strong what is the differential so what it is yeah you know I think with me it's a it took me a really long time yeah there's Thorin Martines the size that [ __ ] god damn and I've the the woman on Thor's right is are are left as his wife yeah I've seen the two of them together she's fired you larious so they're gonna make a regular-sized kid but yeah you know I think uh I think I got to this level because like I was a student of the sport for a really long time and I like studied everything and I think because you know I took so long to get to where I am you know most guys that are at this level it didn't take them ten years to get there mmm you know like guys like Brian Shaw like Martines like they pretty much got to worlds within two or three years this is giant powerful people ya figure out the work and for me it was like I needed to learn how to make these events work for my body you know so like that's with me
you know like so I have the current American log press record and I don't do like a typical push press I actually split jerk underneath the log really and I'm the only pro strongman at this level that does that why do you do that it's more efficient well they do it it's an athletic quick movement and it's it takes a lot of time and coordination to learn with me having my background and CrossFit that's where I learned the split your technique and then when I got more in a strongman I was like well I really suck it trick pressing we explain that to people with the differences so like a push press is pretty much you get the weight on your shoulders you dip down and then just push the weight up hit overhead like pretty much is with like shoulder and tricep power with a split jerk yeah we get you you get the implement on your shoulders you do a little dip and then you actually throw yourself underneath the log while splitting your feet so it's like a little bit of a dance almost so this is 455 pounds so you get it up to your chest and then you'll see me I dip and then underneath it oh wow splitting my feet and then catching overhead Jesus Christ so what it does it shortens the range of motion of the press mm-hmm but it's it's kind of one of those like risky all-or-nothing moves like with a push press it's brute strength so you can like kind of grind through it and fight it and manipulate the log any way you want but with a split jerk like it has to happen or a doesn't there's got to be that weird moment where you like [ __ ] this isn't happening I got to drop this thing yep what does that like throw it just hold 450 [ __ ] pounds over my head no I'm not taking it I don't care what breaks as long as it's not me actually after that was stoned dropped on you right yeah you know it's just uh for me it was yeah it was you know adapting that splitter technique it just it just made sense and that's that's kind of how I was able to progress to the sport to this level and kind of do some things a lot of people didn't think I would do being this size now how much do you eat you must be eating I did good about all the time it's it's not a crazy amount no I mean I say that like you know cuz I think like you also said oh it's only
28,000 pounds I think like people get caught up in like these ten thousand calorie ting challenges like Obrestad and Brian shod uh you know and stuff like that I'm not that guy you know like an average eating day for me is probably around four to five thousand calories so it's like it's a lot but nothing crazy well Oberst is so big huge he's a giant exactly you know like he was sitting in this chair like I'm a little different looking than him he's got double your head his head is so wide you like what are you yeah he looks like an over he's he's the real-life Shrek great guy he's awesome I love him you know is that [ __ ] huge they so the first conversation Rob and I ever had was actually at that contest in Texas when a dude was calling me a [ __ ] from the stands and we were hanging out before the cut the day before the contest we had never met in person before first interaction we had were hanging out in a hotel room a few of us a athletes and he looks at me is like how old were you when you knew you wanted a dick in your mouth [Music] that's the first thing he said to you first thing he ever said to me would you answer I didn't know I didn't know what's worse playa this league I had seen a world Strongest Man before like I've seen him I've seen him competing for the past like three or four years and that's the first thing the [ __ ] says to me yeah so obviously like we got off to a great start on our friendship you know and like him and I still talk all the time and you know he's bitter because I took the the log press record from him back in April yeah he's very upset with that ya had that that was his it was his for awhile like for four years no no you wouldn't someone you lose something yeah that's what competition is all about exact words are meant to be broken you know now what is your typical breakfast for you like and how many times do you eat in a day um I try to go between six and eight meals oh so it all depends on like when my training is and stuff like that so you bring like little Tupperware continuous with you and should yep yeah um and to be honest I'm pretty boring like I don't like to cook I love to eat but I don't like to cook so I'll pretty much eat the same thing almost
every meal um you know so it's pretty much like chicken or beef and rice and veggies pretty much it that's what Robert was saying basically everybody's like rice and meat yeah you know it's um you know like I'm a fat kid so like I don't like to just eat baked chicken like that's why I'm not a bodybuilder like I'm I can't look like that because I just like the taste of food too much so like I do like air fried chicken fingers to make them healthy you know that'll be the chicken that I eat you know and then I'll throw some sauce on top of it you know make the chicken fingers what you do do you bread them in every way yeah what do you use for the breading and everything usually I'll do like panko and throw that with Bank panko bread crumbs so it's just like a little bit like a more coarse bigger you know a little more crispy err which is nice too because the texture is like I don't want it to taste like mush when I'm eating it like I like like a crunch a little texture right but in the in the bread crumbs I'll just use plain panko but I like a like ranch seasoning packet to throw some flavor in there get a little crazy mm-hm do like an egg wash bread them and then throw them in the airfryer so you don't have to worry about how much you take in so you're basically just eating whatever you want to eat and the reason you eat so many meals a day is just because you're burning off so much yeah yeah and like I asked I just get hungry right like I'm sure you're powerlifting all the time yeah you know like I said you liked my deadlift workout will take 4 to 5 hours but like there's some times on the weekends when I'm doing my strongman workouts I'll be at the gym for like six to eight hours oh yeah six to eight hours of lifting ridiculously heavy [ __ ] yeah I mean granted like a lot of the stuff we do is like setting up and breaking down right you know I can see the event these events are cumbersome they're annoying they're not easy to set up so a lot of it's like just moving weight schlepping across the gym and you know setting these implements up but all in all yeah be there for like six to eight hours from the time I get there done when I leave I won't imagine you would need a lot of sugars oh yeah intro like
my the shake I drink during my workout is almost a thousand calories well like Gatorade protein I use a carb powder you put Gatorade in a shake and then carb powder on top yeah listen it tastes like an orange creamsicle so you do like orange Gatorade like a orange or a non flavored carb powder and then vanilla protein in just that's a thousand calories yeah I mean it's also like 64 ounces oh okay so it's pretty big so it's gotta be this balancing act between getting a lot of protein but getting a lot of carbohydrates and making sure that you're carving the lesson yeah like carbs that's like the the main thing you know obviously eating a lot of protein like I'm probably around like 300 grams of protein a day between 3 and 350 but carbs I mean there are some times I'm eating like almost like 1500 grams of carbs a day and is the reason why you guys prefer rice is just because it's easier to digest those other forms yeah it's just easy to eat to you know like because eating six to eight times a lot and like you just get tired of chewing right to be honest you know I know for sure sculpted chin look you know and you know that's why I like my coach when he was competing he used to do a chicken shakes well that's yeah he would literally like boil chicken emblem and it with water yeah that's mass and he would drink those because he just didn't want to eat all them together chicken shake a chicken chin why does that sound so gross yeah elf I couldn't even look at Mel's like you're [ __ ] make me do that I'm kicking you in the face so are you eating a lot of red meat like what kind of uh what's your preferred protein I love bison bison bison is like my jam um just ground bison try to go like 93 7 if I can super lean mm-hmm yeah but all depends like you know obviously there's a pro strong man I'm not making that much money so you know more of them more often than not it's just like ground beef whatever I can get that's good quality and he gets the calories in yeah bison has got a higher protein content right yeah yeah it's a little bit leaner and I just it like just tastes so much yeah you get that grass fed bison yeah farmers great yeah so how does a strong man make money do you only make money if you win or do you make money from sponsors like what's
your primary income coming both so my main income is is mainly from sponsorships you know so I'm sponsored by a supplement company Blackstone labs um SPD which is like an equipment company they make like knee sleeves belts elbow sleeve stuff like that and then I a clothing company that's called kind of fit kind of fat so it's great yeah so they those are like my three biggest supporters and and then on top of that I also do like online coaching for first ranked athletes all over the world so you know pretty much I write their weekly workouts they send me videos I collaborate with them get their competition prep and get them ready to compete so those are my two biggest main it sources of income and then you know on top of that and then you know prize money is just kind of extra on top of you know bonus essentially now you're active on social media obviously you have Instagram which is where I found you but you do you have anything else you do do you do YouTube do you do do a podcast or anything mom YouTube yes so same YouTube name world strongest gay you know and then just launched a website a couple weeks ago so a lot of contents gonna be up there website Rob Kearney strong man calm and then um do you own world strongest gay.com I don't who does I don't nobody does actually what that's nonsense yeah well listen this isn't live so let's true match that [ __ ] get that right after this show immediately yeah go to world strong as gay calm do you want to double that s because it could make it interesting world world's or world strong you know I mean type in that double Asuna type in the SS it's SS yeah it's the world's strongest gay let me see that SS sure that might not exist we're gonna we're gonna give you that we're gonna buy it right now and give it to you this is important because otherwise some dick is gonna get it and then yeah there's no you trade on it that's [ __ ] up that would be fun really [ __ ] all just vaginas 10 bucks you can get it six match it up well it's harder to transfer oh okay perfect luckily we're not live so as soon as we're done cold we'll let you do that yeah you gotta own that manage you have a divert right right yeah that's one second watch it out of the HTTP in there
let me double oh Jesus Christ don't applaud that's amazing when you think about how many websites there are there any available I know I know well it's funny you know like now that I'm getting more popular and stuff like that like I'll get tagged and [ __ ] on social media but there's also like an Irish rugby player named Rob Kearney oh it's like they'll sometimes like tag him or like they'll mean to tag me so it's like it's weird yeah well wait until this is over yeah they'll be fantastic how much you must be getting I mean this is like the first time probably the lbgtq community has gotten behind a strong man though I mean this isn't even just a pro athlete general really you know I think well that's like that's the biggest reason for my Instagram name is just like showing LGBTQ like visibility and pro sports because it doesn't exist right you know like there's a few in fighting the UFC Amanda Nunez greatest women of all time she's gay Oh what which is great and that's a cool but men mmm different animal yeah you know I think like there's this really big disconnect we're like people think like okay lesbian women are allowed to be strong they're allowed to be athletic they can do all these really cool things gay men have to be feminine they have to be put in this box and they shouldn't be pro athletes and that's one of the biggest reasons why I'm so you know I call myself like unapologetically open about my sexuality because like it really is you know the more you think about it like if you even try to think of like an openly gay man in any pro sport across the world no there's no really mainstream I think you forgot about Brian Boitano Oh Touche don't you remember South Park will Brian Boitano do yeah Brian Boitano I mean he's a goddamn trailblazer but yeah other than figure skating who actively competing right or sport there really isn't anything and I'm not saying that you know strongman is by no means like major or mainstream yet but we're getting there people know about it for sure and I think to see like an openly gay man you know I say competing and arguably one of the most like hyper masculine sports in the world yeah you know I think like when I think of masculine sports I think like UFC and
lifting [ __ ] right yeah like right like one you're beating another dude up the other one it's a bunch of guys standing around a weight being like oh I'm gonna pick it up no I'll pick it up I'll pick it up faster you know like it's like Neanderthal almost yeah that's top of the food chain manly [ __ ] exactly yeah so I think it's like super important to see like an openly gay man in a relationship rocking a rainbow mohawk and rainbow tights out on a competition floor I think that makes people feel more comfortable than if you just out there sling and dick oh yeah you weren't in a relationship you were openly gay and just [ __ ] up like hey this guy pick up the [ __ ] moon and he could but [ __ ] you well that's danger that was like one of my buddies he said he's like you know I'm not afraid of you but what does scare me is if you wanted to rape me he's setting you up well I don't definitely don't ready but if you were gonna disrupt you could grab me right here yeah that's uh but yeah those are definitely I mean right after fighting that is the most manly [ __ ] picking [ __ ] up exactly you know so I think that's why like that's why you know I've been so open about my relationship and what I'm doing in the sport and just trying to be more visible for the LGBTQ community in pro sports in general you know cuz like I said before like I get a [ __ ] ton of hate messages on a daily basis and read them all the time why do you even love it really um and I know a lot of people don't but like to me I use it as fuel like there's no bigger [ __ ] you to that person than me winning right you know like so that's how I that's how I look at it like okay dude talk [ __ ] about me all you want I'm the American mob press record holder yeah I won in Australia I'm competing against the top I'm one of the top 10 strongest men in the world competing at this Arnold strongman Classic in March so that's why I love it like I love reading that but like it is a funny thing you said that guy in the audience I saw it's great but the crowd goes silent my favorite pouch that was California people probably start cheering yeah well they lick painters but totally sidetracked them that's a good suckin dick and they you know I get it it's you would think that you would have a lot of sponsors that
would jump in because of this though I would think because you're open and because this is such a manly sport and it's such a non stereotypical thing yeah I would think that would be like really positive for the lbgtq community yeah I mean let's talk in a week girl let's see what happens after the show we can help you it's um you know and that's my biggest thing like while doing this whole thing is like just trying to spread positivity and love throughout the entire world you know I mean I talk about the hate messages that I get but like the ones that mean a lot are like you know I got a message a few months ago from a 16 year old kid who was on the verge of committing suicide because he couldn't come to terms with the sexuality and he said in his in his post like finding my profile let him be comfortable with himself you know that's awesome crazy that's so good it's like it's I never expected to be that person just by saying I love this dude but you know sometimes how you get to be that person right yeah and yourself exactly and I think that's that's why this whole thing has kind of blown up into what it is and why I'm you know fortunate enough to now be working on a documentary what's the documentary so we literally our we just met the film crew this week those guys out there yeah the ones out there okay so I was approached by Andy who she was on the set of world Strongest Man and she was like once she saw my husband and I kiss after one of the events like light bulbs just went off and she was like there's something here so I was approached about doing a documentary count about my life and the belt being the only openly gay approached our man in the world now are there closeted gay strong men I'm sure there are and they just don't talk to you probably you're dangerous I know it's wild [ __ ] with a mohawk my [ __ ] is coming for my title [Laughter] little card star coma now we're gonna have to actually have have a contest for this what if it what if strongman becomes like the WNBA where everyone's gay I'm just selfish I mean that's a good argument that sponsors won't show up though cuz [ __ ] everybody knows the WNBA is gay as [ __ ] true but it's bad
basketball too yeah it's not great that's not good yeah like at least strong men women Sports is awesome but like I always think of like the the Family Guy episode where they're talking about the WNBA and they're like oh and listen to the fan as one guy cheering on the Pat and stands yeah it's it's a tough sell it is sell but but yeah strong man shouldn't be a tough sell no you know and I think that's the cool thing is like strong man in England is massive really like we sell out like fifteen thousand seat arena 's in the euro really yeah it is Hugh what about here what does it like here yesterday or a Saturday in Santa Monica we had about 1700 people that's a good crowd decent decent calm and do it right on the pier oh no sure yeah yeah they you know did all the permits and [ __ ] yeah bleachers set up had a and rogue was there to livestream the entire event which is really cool I love them all my [ __ ] out there's Road they're so cool man but all their stuff is great and you know we're actually the organization Giants live which is the world Strongest Man qualifying tour they're bringing an arena show to the US for the first time since like 2010 that's going to be in Daytona Beach in August August 15th so that's gonna be like the first crack at like breaking into the mainstream US you know arena venues cuz like I said like over in the UK when I broke the log press record this past April is in it was in Leeds and it was in front of a 12,000 seat crowd Wow it was unbelievable why do you think it's so popular over there you know I think um I think the biggest thing is they don't have sports to compete with like we do here is many sports yeah like what do they have like decently bad soccer and rugby is it their soccer bad soccer is not great really yeah I thought English is really into that I mean they are but doesn't it okay but yeah it's not good at Rugby either I think they're pretty good at Rugby pretty good yeah and then they have like cricket but like they don't have the end of oil they don't have sense I don't know that is nonsense I just need the one thing I know about cricket it was like last week a dude got hit in the balls twice in a row twice and that was
on ESPN that's the only reason I saw it they showed cricket on the ESPN because he got hit in the balls twice oh look in the SportsCenter yeah the not top-10 I used to have that late night on ESPN is when you would see strongman competitions yeah and since you know so we're no longer with ESPN we've been picked up by IMG and CBS which is great so now world Strongest Man is aired on CBS and CBS Sports so a little bit more mainstream which is great you know and then yeah so it's really exciting I'm hoping this I'm hoping the u.s. can kind of pick it up when it comes to these these arenas these arena shows what can make it more popular like what do you think can be done to make people understand it's fun to watch I sure I think the us like I think people need to like understand what we're doing and like I think there's such a big respect in the UK for strength you know like Eddie Hall the were the key one world Strongest Man in 2017 won the contest once and then retired that's it because there hadn't been a winner in the UK since the 80s for world Strongest Man so like he is just a household this year that's Eddie yeah I'm not closest to us he holds big belly he has the deadlift world records so he's the only Asian he ded lifted 500 kilos so it deadlift at 1100 and 2 ounce sizes [ __ ] guy so he won world Strongest Man and everybody in the UK knows his name and that's how she where most of my fan bases even is in the UK because this sport is so big and you can see the arena sold out there look this is the last stretch Jay does any oh one more [ __ ] see that's the thing like people think strong man just lifting [ __ ] like we have to be athletic as [ __ ] to do this – wow that tires what got it for him wow that's crazy you don't like a tire yeah we have to like run we have to be agile we have to be able to carry stuff we have to be able to lift heavy well that's fifth and sixth place in this video here yeah [ __ ] that is losers yeah that dudes neck starts around the edges of his shoulders it's crazy it's just a tube such a [ __ ] nutty sport man it is but it's so much fun and like when you come and see a live event it's wild you know because like it the cool thing about strongmen
is like everybody like the fans and the competitors like you want to see everybody succeed so it's like one of the few sports where you're like cheering for someone as you're competing against them which is awesome yeah you know like you're kind of seen as a dick if you if you finish an event and you walk off and you in the person next to you still going like everyone is like dude what the [ __ ] hey when you compete do you have like patches on for your sponsors a [ __ ] like that no so that's where the tough part is you have to wear the competition's shirt because there are sponsors that pay to be on the t-shirt now in between events if there's interviews and stuff like that that's when I'll throw in a sponsor shirt to try to get them some TV time that way but it's also tough because like in the UK like all of those competitions are aired on TV in the UK in the u.s. the only time people see strong man on TV is world Strongest Man but what about YouTube YouTube is growing and that's an offensive now I would feel like that would be the big venue for yeah you know you look at Brian Shaw he has like oh Hamels like I think it's like 1.3 million subscribers on YouTube he's just picking up heavy [ __ ] huge yeah it's just like all about him like him and his wife will do like eating challenges or the blackout's together as an eating challenge with his wife yeah that's it sister how BIG's his wife she's tiny to space I don't know how is she hanging in there with them that doesn't even make any sense oh let me get excited about pizza you know like that stuff so so because the reason why I was asking is because mmm that would be used to be the thing back in the early days with MMA fighters that they could make money off a sponsor or sponsors in there they're you know they're shorts and stuff yeah I mean to be honest like shorts and pants that's a different story but you can wear sponsors in your shorts absolutely oh really so like the competition JRE patch I could sponsor your shorts totally really well I mean I wear spandex though so how do you put us you can put a patch if they have to make that's always my goal like I always try to where I get mad that's fine sponsor him – yes my goal is to try to wear like the craziest most outrageous spandex at every contest
I go – oh yeah you need sequins can you have sequins on yours I haven't yet I don't know why I haven't thought about who need them like the ones I wore this past weekend were like swirly rainbow nice yeah it was awesome hot pink with sequins bro yeah yeah I'm down for that yeah yeah for sure all right I love these ideas Joe this is yeah I'm all about it all right any spandex people listen and of yes any any spandex designers and instructors of spandex you know how to put together a good secret kit can't the sequence can't fall off no no cuz I'll be dead less you're and running yeah anchored especially dead lifting right because it's going up your thigh I think would have to do the suit comes on the side yeah like racing stripes Oh super gay racing stripes I like it I like it now when you are doing this like what what kind of shoes do you guys wear because the those guys were running but you're also I would imagine you have to have something that's very flat with like serious I'm super bougie so who should I bring like a five different pairs of shoes to every contest but what do you prefer like what kind of changes every event depending on what the brand I go with his innovate innovate I love all their stuff it's I Nov 8 is it a powerlifting only brand or lifting knee so they have lifting shoes that I wear from my overhead events then I wear like they're barefoot shoes mmm that's what I do for like my moving events and when I deadlift and then they also have like hiking like shoes that are like anti-slip that I'll use like when I do truck pull or pushing events as well yeah and now are their sponsor working on it come on innovate they sent me a bunch of stuff for free so it's better than nothing yeah totally and they're honestly they're the most comfortable shoes I have worn when training let me see what that looks like let me see with them innovate shoes look like I don't know go with the barefoot one let me see what that looks like they're super light – yeah yeah that's what I think I like about them – even their like their weight lifting shoes are light because those are you like clunky and heavy and I'm really like especially like when I'm doing like a split jerk trying to move my feet fast right last thing I want is heavy things
on my feet okay yeah those are the lifting shoes that I have I like that so the platform in the back yeah so they have a raised heel about what 3/4 of an inch now that's for when you're lifting like it's almost like standing on plates right yes yeah that'd be like if they're squatting I'm using that and then I like it for overhead lifts just because it gives you a little bit more stability now why do you have to stand on plates like what is the idea behind that like the just raise the back raising the heel in it takes out the issue of ankle mobility in a lift like a squat mmm so there's a lot of restriction in the ankle and the Achilles if they're tight and that'll prevent you from that'll either cause or prevent you from your knees tracking properly it'll put extra strain on the hips and on the ankles so doing that it kind of takes the ankle complex out of the motion and makes the the movement easier you can eat keep a more upright spine a little bit more comfortable lift so that's usually the thought process behind it so when you have that elevated heel then you don't have to stand on plates or anything like that I just use it just yeah just just a shoe yeah so that it's interesting that there's different you were different ones for different events yeah so the pulling for the truck tire one you use a hiking one so you're saying so this will be my first time using that typically we use rock climbing shoes because real grip super grippy and especially like we're pulling on asphalt usually mm-hmm so that'll dig into the asphalt these ones that I have from innovate now they're they they're like anti slip and they have gripping treads on them so I'm gonna be using them for an event called the wheel of pain coming up at the Arnold strong man classic which is based off of the movie Conan the Barbarian oh where you see him pushing the big bomb yeah I'm a big implement so they actually rogue recreated that implement know where the Arnold yeah if you can pull a picture of that it is the most badass thing ever Arnold this is like a three hundred thousand dollar piece of even did it with the carving is yeah dude that's so cool wild so you literally just have to push it so those big wheels are filled
with sand because they'd obviously don't want to make it too easy for us Wow and you just have to push it in a circle as far as you can in 75 seconds oh wow that's everybody looks [ __ ] exhausted how 60 seconds even better it just hurts man looks like it just is it's like I mean you know like I mean you work out so it's like imagine even doing something like as simple as like rowing on an ERG for 60 seconds just all album non-stop guys pushing with his head yeah so this last year was the first year they did this event and they changed the rules this year where you have to keep your hands on the implement like that like Brian's doing right there someone was just using their head yeah so they don't want anybody to do that anymore seems like that would crush all your vertebra yeah so you have to keep your hands on the implement at all times and push like that what a dope design though I mean it really does yeah that's [ __ ] it's so cool it's all carved out of wood – who built that [ __ ] thing rogue they just hired artists to car that rogue aliens get this because everybody they I mean any anything anything you could think of they're the [ __ ] they have people to make it they're [ __ ] echo bike is the greatest cardio machine thing that I've ever used best and worst because it hurts it's the best but look at this [ __ ] thing with the snakeheads and everything yeah what a genius could see it rolling back when he let go and that's because there's sand in those big wheels so you have to push it against sand so now they have to deconstruct this and bring it back and put it back together again because it's now you could [ __ ] ship it and this is the this is the only contest they use it for they usually one time he is using his shoulders yeah he's Russian what do you expect rozgin nod older that is a crazy thing though yeah that you can kind of use your shoulders and push with your hands yeah so this will be the second time we're doing this event so they switched it a little bit have to keep your hands on the implement at all times and then it's just push until you can't anymore god damn that's bananas look at that yeah everybody looks so tired I mean this is one of those events were like usually like the medics will come over
like with oxygen afterwards oh yeah it's crazy bum bum bum yeah and he's got that Russian brewery on too so he actually he actually isn't the Russian military – is he really he's like the Russian equivalent of like Green Beret so he then he does strongman on top of that yeah that's a manly [ __ ] he's scary he's the next guy to come on he's super nice but you know guaranteed so free Rob that's so free I could not be on everything his English isn't that good no no it's so bad no but they also I mean these Eastern Europeans are smart because they'll play dumb on purpose to not listen to the rules oh and in travel oh really oh yeah sneaky [ __ ] yeah like I don't know but they [ __ ] know yeah how many Russian guys win it cuz you would think that would be a thing like Russian you think of strong people you think of Russians Eastern Europeans are always in the mix um but honestly like dominating across the board lately he's been us Iceland and that's about it is it because we have the best steroids it could be you might have something to do it yeah yeah what kind of testing do they do yeah there's look I mean they test us do they they don't tell us what for oh so nobody gets in trouble no I got caught from weed what well I mean they said do you smoke I was like well it's legal in Massachusetts so yes and sir okay yeah I mean they don't want us like taking coke or like you know stuff like that yeah that's what I would worry about right it's like someone getting on amphetamines yeah no they do test for that like they test for like you know prescription pills yeah yeah I don't know about that you [ __ ] get really strong on that [ __ ] of probably be you probably rip every house or Sade probably break your body yeah you probably not you wouldn't understand the boundaries of you just go I had a buddy of mine got in a fight he was on PCP and a do bit off his finger and he didn't even realize it now he has a toe that they took they took his second toe and curved it so he could still punch so if you shake his hand his right hand we shake see he's got the takes a new meaning to shake a leg his pointer fingers index finger is mastered its curved permanently so he never he never has like a flat hand it's his [ __ ] toe that's why yeah yeah boxing my old
boxing coach Wow shout out to Joe Lake hey but um yeah so yeah so like they don't want to take us like they don't want us taking like that kind of stuff right but um man it's pretty much that's it that makes sense just cuz it's [ __ ] dangerous to it dudes it have heart attacks like you push that thing on me kinda and it is mean it is wild the amount of medical testing we have to go through before a contest is crazy I would imagine your heart the Pat the medical packet that we have to get filled out by our primary cares for world Strongest Man is like 48 pages long but yeah it's while dude so they bring you in for an exam how long does that take we have to get it done on our own so they send after the invites are done and after the the lineup is set for world Strongest Man you get the email that it's like here's the medical pack you need done by this date and you pretty much have to make an appoint with your primary care and get it all done so what does your doctor say when you come to him with that [ __ ] 48 page packet well luckily I've gone to her a few times with it so she knows to block off some time yeah you know it's a lot but it's it's smart because like we have to get an EKG we have to do stress testing we have to get a full blood panel done they have to look at everything because they don't want somebody dropping dead on TV that makes them look pretty [ __ ] bad yeah they would have to make sure that you're not already over trained to write you're creating levels yes so they look at everything I mean it's a full blood panel they like I said they do the EKGs they look at the heart they do um and then it's not because a full medical history as well just everything from parents to pass diseases to what runs in the family everything and now you guys aren't insured by these competitions are you know so if you tear your [ __ ] hand off it's all on you yeah [ __ ] man yep it's ballsy yeah it's it's risky yeah real ya know risky I mean that seems kind of crazy that during the competition itself you're not you're not covered on us even those medical packets like they say like all all all fees associated with this are up to the athletes expense and they don't pay that well no you win you make decent money oh
it's not a lot right you know like to win world Strongest Man you make like 50 grand really that's it yeah for the strong the strongest man in the world yeah that's me worth a million bucks I think so that's the number I mean but look at it so like world's needs it around since the 70s I need to see six zeros and I think you're gonna win the strongest man on the [ __ ] there that's what I'm talking about we need you in the sport yes we up the money seems like someone should be able to pony up a million bucks I would love somebody I will say so like you know we talk about world Strongest Man in Giants live in that whole series but then we also have the Arnold circuit so there's like two big Pro circuits for strongman to choose from the Arnold circuit they've definitely elevated the game right so the Arnold strongman classic in Ohio is like kind of seen as the most elite competition in the world because only 10 guys qualify for that contest world Strongest Man you get 25 and then the prize money in in Ohio is better then world Strongest Man it it's almost double really yeah for Arnold so at the Arnold so each of the Arnold international shows its standard prize money so the Arnold international shows there was one here in Santa Monica this weekend there's Australia South America South Africa Europe Canada I think that's it but we all know the prize money going into each show because it's the same at everyone so it's like 10 grand for first eight six four two one so they payout top six but they also pay all of our travel there so it's not too bad no but then the big motivation is to get to Ohio right where first place is 85 grand and they pay out all ten athletes but like third place at I think it's second the second or third place at Ohio makes just as much as world Strongest Man so this is probably why you have to compete 40 times a year yes kind of imperative and I think it's like to be honest like I didn't really do that well this past weekend at Santa Monica so I didn't make any money oh really yeah oh no which is a bummer like I wasn't like this weekend like the contest like for me it was more like a gauging I was trying to gauge where I was at going into Columbus the events were really similar so do you do that like you have to be careful to not go
too crazy in one of these events or something I definitely like held back this weekend you know I think I could have hit another gear if I needed to but already having my qualification of the big show I didn't like mentally I don't think I'd have been able to like turn it on like I need to go high oh and when is Ohio but the first week of March so the contest is the fifth and six I think or the sixth and seventh so you have nothing between right now which is January 20th and month so how do you ramp up like what is your schedule would like to prepare for something like that so the biggest thing so we look at the events right so you know I mentioned we have the max dead so my goal is to head up 2,000 pounds which would be which would make me the first person under 300 pounds body weight to do that in history whoa yeah how close are you I pulled 970 in July Jesus Christ so so we're close right there we're close and you're only 28 yeah you're gonna get stronger exactly so if you don't get to 300 pounds if you don't gain too much weight you can nail I don't want to like I was I was almost 300 I was like 298 at world's strongest man in 2018 and I was a fat [ __ ] mmm it was gross like I look at my husband I was like why did you want it like lay next to me like I had neck rolls on my neck rolls I'm like I was gross this thing like some dudes like bears they're like I'm big well he does like I and I totally I'm a bear but like I was an ugly [ __ ] bear dude okay a bear just going to not engage oh man look at my head looked like a [ __ ] blueberry but like honestly like 285 is like kind of my sweet spot because I'm still getting stronger we're getting a little bit leaner and getting better at the sport so like I don't see a reason to get any bigger right but I honestly do think a thousand pounds is doable right now well it seems like if you're 30 30 pounds away if you're doing that much weight 906 I mean look 30 pounds to a deadlift for a regular person that's an extra thirty pounds that's a lot but not when you're already doing 970 [ __ ] pounds yeah and like to go back to like the prep and like to ramp up to this contest you know like before like this weekend we had the deadlift was a 775 for reps in a minute and I pulled six which was okay that's well like I
probably could have pulled seven or eight if I needed to the winning number was nine and everybody that ironically everybody that finished ahead of me in that event has already deadlift at over a thousand pounds so that made me feel pretty good but like leading up into these next few weeks like I'm gonna start working like my heaviest Idol fated before this contest was eight fifty for one I'm gonna start working up into that low to mid-90s probably three weeks before the contest two and a half weeks before the contest then do deadlifts at all before up leading up to the contest if I do it'll be light very nice a light relative you know it's a relative term say sorry pal yeah so you're just trying to let your body recover and that's what a lot of people think like people forget like when we're training this hard like we're beat to [ __ ] and like we're like I we get stronger when we when we rest in recover so I really don't exercise or lift like the week of a contest like I'll do my recovery workouts that I talked about before we're like I'm just kind of swimming hot tubs on of that stuff but I won't lift any weights and that's cuz like my body like my central nervous system like everything just needs a break right and you get stronger over that period oh for sure it's amazing does Joe feel like you maybe are overtraining in in other ways cuz not really that get that much stronger when you take a week off almost seems like you should do that more often no because I think you need to get to that point where you need to get beat down you know like there are some strength coaches out there that like you know we call it a deal owed right so it's like where you're ramping up ramping up going super heavy then you back off for a little bit right and that's what we call the D load and there's some coaches that give that every fourth week of their program regardless and I don't agree with that because I don't think anybody can work that hard for three weeks to beat down their body enough where they need it every single fourth week normal people don't train hard enough to need regular D loads the the D loads the guys who practice that way are they winning or they not really know most of it like I say that like most of that's like in like I see a lot of the powerlifting
community where it's just like squat bench deadlift but like in all honesty like I don't feel people like I feel like you have to earn your D load and that's like what my coach does with me like I went almost six months without a deal owed leading into this contest and that happened about a month and a half ago and I knew I needed it because I was tired every day regardless of how much sleep I got I didn't want to go to the gym every time I get to the gym I was [ __ ] miserable I just wanted to leave I didn't want to look at anything I don't want to talk to anybody and I texted my coach I was like I need a [ __ ] break mm-hmm and he was like all right cool I was waiting for get to that point but it's good but it you know it's like it's like I feel like it's something you have to earn because people like people think they work hard but they don't really know what that means until they're like actually pushed to do something right and that's where I got to that point and that's why like these next five weeks are gonna be like super crucial in my training to this contest because I'm gonna have to I'm gonna beat my body to [ __ ] over these next five weeks you know and my husband will probably get pissed off of me because I'll be a prick 1 or 2 times at least but it's like you know this is the biggest competition of the world and I know what I need to sacrifice to get to that point and that's gonna mean long training sessions really hard training sessions and I'm you know just like I said I'm just gonna beat my body down just to reap those rewards at the end of it yeah that's gotta leave you super exhausted it hurts and cranky and just like oh yeah you know like I can't remember the last time I woke out of bed feeling woke up in the morning like feeling good oh you must be in pain all over the place right yeah it all hurts yeah but whatever don't do cool [ __ ] you get our MRIs and get [ __ ] checked out no I'm sure I have herniated disks and stuff like that like how could you not my weren't my orthopedics actually one of my closest friends ironically yeah you know but like his whole thing is like as long as you're feeling good like why when I look into it right because then you might freak out you think about it right like if you
know it if you don't know it's not gonna hurt right you know but like if you see it then like you start thinking it's like oh [ __ ] yeah I can't imagine your disks are awful that's why it's so impressive that's actually 6-3 when I started the sport that's why it's a mate amazing that guy's 53 and still able to lift such insane amounts of weight it's crazy I mean it's so impressive and there's actually still a guy there's a guy here at LA who owns a gym called the training hall in Thousand Oaks that's where Martines trains his name is odd Hagen name he's 72 and he still does some some strength competitions – what yeah like he's still deadlifts like over 500 pounds I've seen that guy online yeah yeah oh it is awesome that's insane yeah he's like the nicest dude ever but like he has he has arguably the best grip in the world really yes 70 – yeah it's crazy Mike yeah he's a freak now is that yeah that's him yeah I have seen him yeah that isn't crits incredible that has that jacked yeah he's like 73 I think yeah just turned 73 this weekend was his birthday training hall I know where that is yeah that's like 20 minutes away from here man yeah so that's that's where Martines the current world Strongest Man trains and then ODE is the owner of that place wow that's amazing that you could still get after that age he's so cool that that's all of his grip toys so as those things called the blob which they're literally just like probably three inch wide like weights where you send a light and they're smooth on the side where you have to pick them up in like a pinch a pinch grip I'll just hold on yeah thick dumbbells he has the crush grip stuff now what kind of people come to his gym this is regular folks or everybody there's a competitive power lifter strongman Olympic weightlifters and then just your average person and that's kind of the thing is like you know people think like espresso like my gym back home and lightening Fitness people think like you have to be a competitor to go train there like the gym owner like we have everybody from like professional strongmen we have a woman that squats over 700 pounds I love her Catrina she's one of those like they're bigger than mine oh my god seven pounds
that's incredible she's like is she uh maybe issue book she competes like 181 I think and I think she's maybe like five seven she must be I'm a [ __ ] tank yeah she's great I love yeah that's so strong but then we also have like 65 year old grandmothers that are working out at the same time in our gym oh that's cool well you have to if you want to pay the bills right yeah we have mopin you know the gym the gym I go to like we have like over 250 members right now so it's pretty big but like you know we're also in a 15,000 square foot facility that has the best strength equipment you know on the East Coast I would say oh really oh yeah oh yeah like the gym the gym oh we go to like in the strongman and like strength world is like world renowned have you ever been a west side barbell I haven't – I mean they're just to meet Lois Simmons oh absolutely I mean I've met him in the fencing you know like I hear stories about him where like he like tore his bicep yes and he was in a sling for like three days and got pissed off said [ __ ] this and just extended his arm really fast popped the bicep off again then started bench pressing oh my cuz he just couldn't wait for it to heal like just he told me that he had a shoulder reconstructed you got shoulder construction and then when he his first day back they made a max out bench yep I'm like why I mean there's guys like Greg Panora who was a guy that was in the west side versus the world documentary where like he had like the he had a he ruptured his patellar tendon got the surgery done I think it was the next day was on the bench bench pressing with his leg like fully extended in an immobilizer like he was busting the staples he was like dripping blood through the bandages but you know they had to train man Jesus Christ now going back to what I said luckily I have my background in sports medicine so I don't do [ __ ] like that good for you yeah because talking to Louie I was like why why I gotta [ __ ] do it so you gotta do there's Larry crazy-fast looks like a mutant and he still does this [ __ ] look at crazy it was that tape or tattoos that's attached to a – yes name all over him right and
he's get the Captain America armband time yeah that look at the build on him it's just crazy and he's been doing this [ __ ] since the 60s yeah have you seen that documentary no I have it's all hard it's awesome against the world you talk about just like intense badass [ __ ] that like all they care about is that in the record board in their gym in competing yeah well we went in there to interview Louie it was a [ __ ] trip it was a trip and then we went and checked out his jam he gave us a tour of the gym and that's sick we had a good – it was one of the rare ones that Jamie and I did that video which one that we shot like walking around the gym oh yeah yeah I never did anything with it ah we should put it on YouTube because we put out well if you ever find yourself in Connecticut Joe I know how much you loved this time I [ __ ] like kinetic when I see it over and a bring you into our gym I would definitely do that there it's wild what's it called again lightning fitness light Connecticut one more time it's in South Windsor Connecticut so it's just outside of Hartford okay and we drive a little bit 45 minutes each way yeah yeah but there's like we there's essentially like two sides of the gym there's like the strongman side in the powerlifting side you know like the strongman side like has every piece of strongman equipment you can think of so we have Atlas stones from 60 pounds to 530 pounds we have logs we have monster dumbbells we have the farmers walk there's turf there's tires from 250 to a thousand pounds then the powerlifting side is where we have like the mono lifts all the squat racks and then all the isolation like bodybuilding machines as well so it's like yeah it's like a 15,000 square foot gym and you live in Springfield living just outside Springfield Western – yeah town called Wilbraham so I know where that is yeah I just do gigs out in western mouths – so yeah when I lived in Boston nice to drive out there yeah like where Pittsfield oh okay yeah so I am yeah I used to the so I I just left working full-time I worked in the boarding school world for a long time that's why I'm like in the western mass area and we lived in East Hampton I was super super awesome little town yeah so that's why
your last thing Massachusetts is a trip it's a cool spot it's not bad man it's great you know like I called his [ __ ] though right now it's sucks my husband flew home this morning and we got a snowstorm yesterday so he's flying yeah I mean I'm I'm flying home tonight and you know I'm going back to like six inches of snow so that's great it builds character yeah it's great we also have the like it's it's really cool cuz like we get four seasons you know like we there was a stretch this summer was like 110 for three days in a row really it was super hot that's just global warming [ __ ] whinnies yeah yeah I used to get that that you know the appreciation for summer for sure yeah and even in the summer it's like it's pretty it's like between out say like we have an average between like 85 and 90 every day in the summer so it's pretty warm where's the strongman hotbed like what if there was a place where you like if you want to be an actor you moved to LA right if you want to be a strongman is there a place where you go to I really don't think there is it's because like I would say in the u.s. there's only like four or five guys that are doing it really really well at a really high level you know it's let's me Oberst Jerry Prichard Brian Shaw Martines and then there's Nick best in Vegas as well so probably like six of us and we're all over the place you know there's me I'm the only one in the East Coast and then there's Brian and Colorado Martines is out here Jerry's in Phoenix Oberst is I think is in Iowa now I think and then Nick best in Vegas so we're kind of like spread out all over the place and that's a cool thing like strong man like will do um like I get hired to do like seminars all over the US and all over the world we're like gyms will pay me to come into their gym for a weekend like teach people you know from my experience and like different gym lifts and stuff like that so that's pretty much it there's really no like one place you know like power lifting has Westside right but there really isn't that that culture around strongman would there be any benefit to training with some other top-level guy
like you know like for fighters they want to go and train in the gym with his other top-level fighters cuz they push each other and inspire each other and iron sharpens iron oh yeah and at the top level we try to do that as much as possible you know I just don't think none of us are like willing to move our families and our life's around just for that because we realize what the sport is you know I mean fighters it'd be worth it when you're making a million bucks a fight right for us it's not that level but you know Martines he flew out Massachusetts this past summer to train with me even though he had just one world Strongest Man there's events that I'm better than him at and that's why he flew out to me because he had a contest coming up where those events were in it so he wanted what events you really shine in log presses my bread and butter we talked about then there's the oak walk which is you know the crossbar with stance picking up on your back and walk with it you know that's one event that I'm really well known for as well and this one that Martines tends to struggle at so why are you so good at that what's the deal people call me like Fred Flintstone of strongman I move my feet really really quick I don't know like I just got I for some reason I just like ya feelin super heavy weight on my back and movin quick with you you know world Strongest Man we had a thirteen hundred and fifty pounds on that thing it was a [ __ ] now is actually end of a medley so we had a farmers walk that was three hundred and thirty pounds per hand and then we had to pick up a 1,000 pound yoke and then the thirteen hundred and fifty God yeah and I was the only one in my group that actually finished that event which was pretty wild god damn you at the end of something like that all your tissues must be so torn apart like yeah it was like I mean you talk about like cranial pressure like my I felt like my eyes were purple it was wild yeah I would imagine right that kind of cream have you ever do you know what happens when you fly in a jet it's going like the g-forces and stuff yeah I know you have they call it hooking where you like hold on to the handle you gotta go I guess but then your forcing that luck
pretty much what we're doing because with strongman like when you have 1,300 pounds on your back like you're not gonna breathe that well like you can't really expand your lungs in your ribs to breathe prosper almost holding your breath so and that's with most of our stuff like I hold my breath whenever I do moving events and I just try to exhale and inhale as shortened as small as possible just to get enough so I don't pass out pretty much does anybody pass out all the time what am i one of my good friends at world Strongest Man in the Philippines on 2018 we were carrying like a 330 pound sandbag and like the way he carried it was just like resting round in his diaphragm and he didn't pick it up high enough to go onto the platform so he just ran into the platform fell backwards and was just out cold and Magnus ver Magnusson is standing right next to him another awesome man great name didn't twitch didn't move a muscle he just goes so it's just like any passing out kind of like a normal part of what we do I can only imagine it does so it doesn't sound good when I'm saying it out loud but well it makes sense though I mean the [ __ ] insertion does anybody have heart attacks not typically it's it has happened the only person that comes to mind is a guy I can't remember what year his name was Jesse maroon day and he did have a heart attack in the gym when he was training and that's how he passed away and he was only I believe he's only 28 or 29 years old it happens in jiu-jitsu yeah guys get hard tax training and then you know I mean another thing is like sleep apnea because the guys are so big so that causes a lot of stress on the heart do you use a CPAP machine or anything I don't I don't need one you know I'm pretty fortunate that I don't have that issue when I sleep you know but a previous coach mind Mike Jenkins he passed away in 2013 because of sleep apnea and you know just the strain on his heart so yeah that's not good it's basically not sleeping yeah and you're suffocating yourself yeah it's crazy so a lot of the guys that this level do but I mean that but that's mainly like because of their size dude and I have it really yeah yeah yeah it's might have fat tongue but that's all the years of fighting like with that neck you
musculature and all that development there yeah for some reason like I've kind of you know got lucky Joseph all all players have it for sure how our lifter so I think when you want once you get around the 300 pound body weight like do you snore not terribly hmm on planes I do but that's because my bad mouth just opens up yeah exactly yeah so a good place to sleep now or just sit in general when you're near 300 pounds it's what's so fascinating to me when you think about people that explore the boundaries of what a human body's capable of and strongman is like what there's like guys who do like David Goggins that do like the ultra marathons but strongman is like that's another form of this extreme pushing of the boundaries of what what your body is capable and when you look at the progression of the sport it just has slowed-down like if anything it's gotten even like the weights keep getting heavier every year everybody keeps getting faster and like all those like when the [ __ ] is this gonna stop you know like we show up to a contest now like alright there was literally a contest in 2018 where the deadlift was 880 pounds for reps wait what's the [ __ ] dude and there was a [ __ ] that pulled over 5 is so much crazy and so it's like all of us are like where does it stop like does it stop you know like the the log press world record is 502 pounds overhead right now you know it's just like these crazy outlandish numbers but like the people like we keep doing them so I guess we're doing it to ourselves to a point I guess so but do you like what is pushing it is it just that you is it a preconceived idea of what's possible and now that the bar has been moved and now you realize that or is it just that people are more scientific about their training now I think that's what it is I think it's um and it's also like when you the the evolution of equipment over the years you know like with rogue being more our main equipment sponsor now they make Australian equipment so like regular people have strong and equipment in their gyms you know like they're like PT clinics that have farmers handles in them for people to work on core musculature and posture when they're walking so I think just like the general availability of
strongman equipment is made it easier for people to train it more regularly and get better at the events because you we have to practice you know like being strong is great but you have to be able to manipulate the movement and manipulate the implement to work and that's where just like the training and the practice portion of it comes in so I think that's why we've seen you know a lot of these weights being pushed so much further because everybody pretty much has regular access to these strongman implements now mmm it just it's interesting to me that you're saying that the weights are getting heavier and people are getting faster it's like then I'm thinking like how long have people been doing this when was the first strongman competition I mean strongman dates back to like the 1700s really well yeah kind of [ __ ] like barrel throw yeah really um I mean when Rob was on you know he was talking about the show strongest man in history that was just on History Channel and they they went back into the history books to look at old you know quote-unquote strong men doing these strengths these feats of strength all throughout you know I think one of the most notable names is Louis Cyr a guy from Canada who was about my size actually and is revered to be one of the strongest men in history and so when he was doing like these dumbbell lifts and these back two lifts and these hip and thigh lifts and stuff like that so strongly it's been around for a long time but World's Strongest Man didn't become a thing until the 70s mmm that's when world Strongest Man I think 77 was the first year of world Strongest Man and that's when it kind of became a sport you know and not just a kind of a hobby I guess so how do they determine what stuff you're gonna do for the world Strongest Man did they I mean did they have a panel of experts that sit down and devise each individual event yeah I mean it's it's come a long way from what it was in the 70s I mean they used to do like medleys with like potato sack races back at world Strongest Man a long time ago now it's a little more standardized where they do have like a committee where it's you know people from the strongman circuit and judges and stuff like that but they also bring TV execs
because they want stuff that's gonna look cool you know be and I think that's a great thing because you don't want it's like stuff that is cool to me isn't gonna look cool to somebody that doesn't know anything about the sport sometimes so when they choose the events like pulling two monster trucks like okay one it's you have to be strong as [ __ ] to be able to do it but it also looks really cool on TV so they try to find that marriage of both of those things to make it the most pleasing to the average participant but also impressive exactly you know like the deadlift event they don't have us yeah so this is that's Marquette that's Marc Felix yeah so this is one of the world records that he did how old is he what he's doing this this was 53 right so this was actually just this past July this was that when Wembley Stadium oh my god or well the arena in London the Hercules hold what a great name so each of those pillars weighs 400 pounds and he's just chillin and you just have to hold it as long as you can the size of his [ __ ] shoulders yeah that is preposterous it's dumb that dude has preposterous muscles that's ok how long does he hold this [ __ ] fine he goes over one minute yeah I mean it's crazy no this is a world record reading what kind of after this is what 122 drops it yeah what kind of breathing you doing here like does it help to breathe in deep and heavy or so chest during an event like this it looks 30 that is crazy that's exactly dude black don't crack they're not lying guys it's amazing so with with an event like that it's more just real and I try to relax and getting into like a calm mental state because you don't want to be super revved up because you're not moving you're just focusing on your grip and that's the biggest thing for an event like that but then there's also events we're like okay when you're maxing your deadlift you do have to hold your breath right so it's different for everything you do it goes up to his wrist that's that's incredible that's amazing though that he can hold those [ __ ] things for that long was I got minute I wasn't a minute 23 seconds and for reference like I I was at that contest and did it for like 42 seconds oh that's crazy now how do you prepare for someone dead do you like you don't hold those things
like you just work on your grip but no usually I'm honestly self set up like a pulley system in the gym so use just like regular handles that use them like a cable machine set up a pulley on like a squat rack or like one of the rogue rigs have loading pins coming down stack weights on that and then just holding yeah or even just doing something as simple like pull up holds like dead hangs from a barbell yeah right from a pull-up bar how long can you dead hang for I've done over a minute that's impressed okay guys that heavy yeah yeah so honestly usually would go my shoulders usually get tired before anything else yeah just from like holding it and so you must have like crazy tears all over the place and [ __ ] like if you ever got your your labrum checked or anything like that good a must now I'm looking at you pressing that 250 pound thing over your [ __ ] head like that ain't that's not normal shoulder pressure no it's not polite if you do it safely incorrectly but you know it's also taken 10 years to get to that point right right you know like it's funny you know like I have the American log press record but like overhead was my weakest lift when I started the sport I sucked you just focused on it so much yeah and like I said before like I became a student of the sport so I was looking at what was working out for other guys what wasn't working and trying to find that balance of what I could make work for me so luckily yeah like I said I've been pretty injury free and healthy the entire time that's pretty amazing well listen man I appreciate you coming in here thank you so much hope this gives you some more attention and let people know how [ __ ] impressive it is I appreciate it I really love your your Instagram man your you're an inspirational guy you're very positive it's very it's a happy fun page – it's very appreciate I try and that's uh you know the one of everything I post and everything and I just like I said I try to spread the message of love positivity and just you know inspiration with everything that I do so well no pun intended I'm pulling for you to get that hundred thousand pounds and I appreciate you being here man create thank you very much great to meet you bye everybody
[Music] thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music]