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#28 Tom Kallas - World Record Holder Powerlifter & Entrepreneur
4 Plays3 years ago
Tom Kallas is an elite powerlifter and world record holder in squat, 5 times over, with his best number being 816 lbs, while he weighs in at 193 lbs. This is insane!!! He also owns and runs several companies, while working 60-100 hours per week as a lineman, on top of being a father and husband. We get into how he does it all, while barely sleeping, and still putting up ridiculous numbers. Diet, sleep, mindset, family, routines and habits are topics we get into.
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SEBASTIAN ENGSTROM
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Transcript
Introduction to Tom Callis
00:00:05
Speaker
Welcome to episode number 28. I am your host Sebastian Engstrom and today Tom Callis joins me. He is an elite power lifter. He holds the world record in his weight class for squats. I mean multiple of them, five of them.
00:00:21
Speaker
It's a lot. He is also a entrepreneur, businessman. He is a lineman, so blue collar all the way. We get into how he does it as a husband, father, entrepreneur, power lifter. The guy barely sleeps.
Tom's Training and Mindset
00:00:34
Speaker
We get into his training, his diet, his mindset, how he goes about his life and how he is able to achieve these monstrous results. It's a fascinating conversation.
00:00:44
Speaker
And if you haven't checked out our programs that we have, check them out. The strength, the calisthenics, gymnastics, crossfit programs, check them out at saffina.io or saffinastrenght.com. And to receive 15% off your first month, hit saffina all caps 15. You get 15% off your first month. I do these programs. I couldn't find them out there. That's why I created them.
00:01:10
Speaker
They are video instructions. They're easy to follow. I mean, there's a reason why I am looking and fit the way I am. So check them out. I'll be there to coach you throughout the journey. So enjoy those.
Entrepreneurial Ventures and Lifestyle
00:01:28
Speaker
And if you haven't done so so far to keep this show running,
00:01:31
Speaker
to repay do a good favor of the day please if you're an apple scroll down hit five stars or hit like subscribe if you're on any other platform too this greatly helps us thank you for doing so and if you enjoy the show please I ask you this small favor now enjoy the show and the episode with Tom Tom Callas frickin amazing to have you here welcome brother
00:01:59
Speaker
Yeah, happy to be on. I appreciate you reaching out and working through Danny a little bit. Yeah, for sure. So we're talking about Danny from caffeine and kilos and you're drinking out your cup there. Yeah. Yeah. So it's early in the morning and this is freaking fascinating with most high performers that I speak to. You just said you're an early riser 4am. It's just a, it's a regular thing. Like how would you describe yourself? Like what you do a shit ton of things. So who are you talking?
00:02:30
Speaker
Man, I just, I just want to fucking try everything. Like at first, like I got obsessed with, I got obsessed with things like some alignment. I work on power lines here towards the city of Chicago and I loved it for a while is all I want to do. I'm going to work as much as I can. I'm going to be here as much as I can. This is what I'm going to do. Only thing I'm going to do is focus on this. I got pretty good at it. And then I'm like,
00:02:52
Speaker
It's kind of boring. It's doing a great job. I love doing it, but I'm like, well, we want to do something else. So then we started a training company with my buddy, started doing podcasting, started a couple other actually businesses. I'm looking at starting another small business. And then I was actually working at a farm where they had, was a professional
00:03:14
Speaker
bull riding bulls and kept them there. And he was like five minutes down the road from me. I'm like, do you ride these? He goes, yeah, we take them to shows in Texas. And then, uh, my son's like fifths in the world. I go, dude, can I, can you teach me? He goes, yeah. When he comes back home, like you come by anytime you want. I go, don't, like, don't tease me because I'm five minutes from you and I will come down. And I got to walk through the stables and check out the bulls. I'm like, I got you bull riding.
00:03:39
Speaker
, so
00:03:55
Speaker
So you having some big numbers in a big three, is it you that man handles the bull or the other way around? How is that? These bulls are big. I didn't realize how big. You know, you watch that, you like see it on TV and stuff. You're like, oh, that's pretty bull. In person, I'm like, oh, shit. That's a big, that's a big boy.
00:04:15
Speaker
Okay. It'd be, it would be a definitely, it'd probably be more injury prone than anything I've had to get launched from the bowl. But I think I'm like, man, it'd be cool just to try it. You know, especially cause it's right down the road. I almost can't say no.
00:04:26
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Dude, that is, that is a frickin highlighted its own. Like is it, are there competitions? I assume there are in Illinois too. Yeah. Cause they have like the rodeos and stuff. So, I mean, I didn't dig that far into it. This is like literally the last week. And I was just talking to my wife, she says, you're not writing a bowl. I'm like, well, I'm going to try it. I like just like get on one. If it really sucks, well then may I tried it. Okay. All right. Now under the next thing, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Dude. Okay. Then what, what is this, um, what is this new business that you have in mind?
00:04:56
Speaker
Um, I was actually thinking about, so around here, like some of those businesses, you don't really think about that could be super, super profitable, but it's a tree trim. And like around here, like you go to someone's house and drop a tree and make like three grand in a day. So I was like, well, maybe I'll go buy a bucket truck, go to people's yards, turn their trees, walk around, knock on doors and half the time starting a chainsaw in someone's backyard is marketing.
Balancing Work, Family, and Passions
00:05:20
Speaker
Cause everybody's like, I need a tree trimmed.
00:05:22
Speaker
I'm like, oh, maybe I'll do that. So I'm just like, I'm just kind of all over the place and usually my wife has to like hold me back sometimes. You're doing too many things. I'm like, ah, I'm not doing this stuff. There is no too many. I can completely relate to that. Yes. Thank God for the wife's. Yeah, I know.
00:05:41
Speaker
So, but you have some, we haven't talked about this while it's early on, but you have some big numbers. So world record numbers, like we, you didn't, you barely mentioned that. Like what, what, what's, how big, how big part of your life is that? Um, it's still pretty big. I mean, no matter what I'm doing at work, outside of work, side ventures, whatever, whatever. I'm always in the gym four or five days a week. Guys are coming. I feel, um,
00:06:09
Speaker
We've got four car garage in the house, unfortunately, and I just matted the whole thing and then got like a bunch of equipment. So I have like monolith, a bunch of bars, like nautilus equipment, leg extensions, leg curls, like everything you need to do powerlifting. Um, so I've guys that come over twice a week and train with me, um, little bit of a team kind of thing we had going on. So I'm always training four days a week, no matter what, you know, and then if I could find a competition, I'll do a competition and it'll probably get backed off to like yearly.
00:06:38
Speaker
Cause I figured to me, the, the better you get or the more time you spend on the sport, you'd have to do less. Like more competitions is not better for me, less competitions. I'd rather it'd be really good at one meet a year than like decent at four. And it's just, it's tough on the body with work schedule. Like yeah, my normal job, like this week I put in 98 hours and they called me last night at like two in the morning wanting me to come in again.
00:07:02
Speaker
Nah, today's Halloween, you know, so it's just like finding that time. And then this went into my, my last meet prep. I'm working like 80 to a hundred hours a week. And I'm up at 11, I get home at 11 o'clock at night. I have to train until like, you know, probably make my training sessions a little shorter. So do like 12 30. And then I'm back up at four 30 because I got shit to do on the computer.
00:07:24
Speaker
for the training business before I go back to work another 16. So it's like a certain point. It's like, I can only probably do this so often to, you know, cause training heavier takes so much out of you. If it was like shorter, smaller workouts, I could probably bang it out and work a lot. It wouldn't really bother me, but having that act of that recovery, that CNS recovery, heavy weights by yourself at midnight, it's not very fun. It's hard, hard to do. And I'm like, man, this is not that great. So I'm probably going to back it off to like one competition a year.
00:07:54
Speaker
and try to aim it to where I'm less busy at work. Just cause like the sleeping aspect is like my biggest failure. Like I'm terrible at sleeping. Just don't. Okay. How many hours do you function on? Throughout the whole prep, I'd probably average like five.
00:08:14
Speaker
and a
00:08:32
Speaker
Yeah, but given how you look right now, if you put in 98 hours and doing everything that you were doing, you've been blessed with some incredible genes. I'll tell you that. If you're able to function and be as sharp as you are right now, dude. Yeah, I don't know if it's genes or just it's drive. I just like doing a lot of shit. Like when you reach out to me, I'm like, yeah, okay, let's go. I got time. I'll get up at four and then do my programming and then I'll be free at six.
00:09:00
Speaker
And I've always read that too. If, if you're keep, I don't know, when I grew up, I was always, you get up early during the week, kind of. And then the weekends just sleep in as much as you can. Right. And the more I've read about like sleep, cause I'm terrible at it. So I'm trying to like, which way can I get around this? Is if you just wake up at the same time every day, your body like adjusted and likes that more. So sleeping in the weekends for me, I feel like shit. I sleep until eight. I feel like garbage when I wake up.
00:09:25
Speaker
So I'm like, at the latest, I'll get up at five every day, no matter what, and when my body knows, it's always five o'clock, always, always, always. And if it's early, if I got to get up, I got stuff to do, then I get up at four, but it doesn't really bother me.
00:09:35
Speaker
So I'll give you this contrast. I was functioning on six to six and a half hours of sleep to seven. And this was me eventually after a year just feeling like garbage. Like I would repeatedly forget things. I would be a dick literally because I was feeling like
00:09:55
Speaker
shit. And this is just me. I am one of those people. I need to sleep a lot. If I don't sleep a lot, I am just an ass. Like I, I'm not an asshole, but I become very easily irritated and I start forgetting things. I'm not paying attention. I'm not present. And it's just like, then, then it's not, I mean, what's, what's the purpose of doing anything if I can't even function?
00:10:17
Speaker
you clearly like right now like I see like you're you're on it everything is easily like lining up for you so hey I'm uh that's amazing that's incredible that you can have so many irons in the fire and uh be as sharp as you are and function at the I mean Jesus Christ like 90 I'll just touch on this 90 hours what's an average work week how many hours
00:10:37
Speaker
Um, I mean, sometimes, sometimes it's 60, probably average, 60 to 65 average. And then when we get busy, it's 90 to a hundred. And this is not like, and this is you choosing this, this is your choice. Yeah. Well, sometimes I don't have a choice. Like if there's like a lot of people out of power, there's like, yeah, you don't go home.
00:10:59
Speaker
You go home and sleep, you can have eight hours off and then we need you back for 16. There is no choice. And so that sometimes it's, you're, we just call being forced, you're forced. There is no, you're here, you have to work for 16 hours and then you get released, right? Then you're back at 16. Um, and then sometimes it's voluntarily just cause I get greedy and I like my jobs. I'm like, yeah, I don't mind. I'll stay, you know, I'll help the guys out. So.
00:11:21
Speaker
A little bit of both. And being, okay, just do and died on its own would be just overwhelming for one person. You do so much more on top of that too. But the interesting part is the family part. How do you get that to work when you're coming home and you're lifting and you're not waking up your kids by dropping 700 pounds on the floor and a deadlift? Right, right. Yeah. I mean, the work-life balance to me is kind of
00:11:47
Speaker
I just don't think there's a balance. I really just don't like, okay, so work wants a hundred percent of me. Training needs a hundred percent dedication. My wife needs a hundred percent. My kids need a hundred percent. The side gives me a hundred percent. Hey, the guy you haven't talked to in a long time that wants to hang out and grab a beer wants a hundred percent.
00:12:03
Speaker
sometimes you're just not gonna fucking get it. You're just not, it just doesn't work that way. I mean, yeah, if I worked a nine to five and I was home every day at 4.30 and I could train after the kids went to bed and the life was perfect, I had a five hour chunk of time with them and then I'd go, like, yeah, that'd be great and work life balance. But for me, it's like, it's
Training Regimen and Strategies
00:12:18
Speaker
just not there. So some days, you know, sometimes I go three, four, five days without seeing my kids and that fucking sucks. And especially because I work right down the road and I still don't know to see them. So,
00:12:28
Speaker
Usually what I'll do is, if I'm super busy at work, I can try to shoot home for lunch, hang out with them for an hour, and then go back, which sounds like I did that this week. Or if I can get off at a reasonable time, like four or five, then at that time it's strictly dedicated to my kids, you know, from the five to eight o'clock area, so I don't do what time they go to bed. And then it's either training afterwards or just strictly time with the wife. So it's like, I just try to carve out chunks and then like,
00:12:57
Speaker
Sometimes trainings after everybody's asleep because I don't feel guilty because nobody's sleeping. I'm only hurting my own sleep. So I'm like, I'll just train now. And then like same thing versus getting up in the morning. If I get up at four, I have usually like my daughter is a really riser with me. She gets up at like six, but I'm like, I can have another two hours to where I don't feel guilty because I don't really like.
00:13:16
Speaker
I don't like working at a computer. I don't really like doing anything else when I'm home besides being with the family. You know, that's why I train with people sleeping. I work on people who are sleeping. It's easier that way. So I don't think I've ever come across a, well, let alone a regular person, but an elite performer like yourself who trains at midnight, more or less like, like late at night. How, like, are you able to just, you're out because of the CNS fatigue and you're just all the hormones and you're just done.
00:13:46
Speaker
I'm going to bed now. I can fall asleep right now. I'm fine. I go to sleep anytime. I have a sleep app on my phone. It's called SleepCycle. It kind of helps me monitor how shitty of sleep I'm getting because it just little tracked me. Some nights I'm like, oh, I did really good or I slept really deep or whatever. So it's kind of cool to log it. And some nights it'll say the time I put my phone down.
00:14:07
Speaker
two minutes, I was fast asleep. Like it's just, I'm done. When I lay down that bed, I'm dead. I'm dead to the world. So I got, you know, like sometimes like, I remember last time, like about a month ago, I was still in a prep for a show competition and I'm like driving home at 11 o'clock at night and I'm just like yelling at myself. Like you're just going to drop your bag and you're going to train. You're going to drop your work bag. You're going to change your jeans. You're going to train. I have to keep telling myself that I'm like,
00:14:34
Speaker
Oh, I don't want to do anything. I'm just dead. You know? And then that night, like I talked myself into like a huge double PR because I just, it's just like that mindset. Like you're going to the gym. You're going to, you're not going to put it in a shit hour because you're already staying a blade. So you might as well make it count. So I could slam a pre-workout at 11 show you until 1230 and I will fall asleep at 1235. Like it just, I'm dead done. You know? So the pre-workout, give a shout out. Might as well do it. What is it?
00:15:03
Speaker
Yeah. Huck Finn Barbell is a buddy of mine. We've been good friends for a dozen years now. He's a little bit, I gotta say probably social media famous. There's a lot of crazy stunts and stuff. He's a wild man. And he came out with his own supplement brand about a year or two ago. Awesome product. It's intense. It's a lot of caffeine, but it makes it a great product. He really does.
00:15:26
Speaker
okay so you're okay this has another layer it's full of caffeine and you slam it down at 11 okay yeah it just doesn't dude like i don't know like it'll hit me for like an hour yeah and i can still tell like sometimes if i take too much
00:15:45
Speaker
It'll take me like 20 minutes to get to like, just to finally fucking relax when I'm in bed. And I can tell my fuck I took too much. Um, but still like, I just, I don't know. I've always been the type of person where my head hits the pillow on. That's it. Okay. I'm out. So going into your training, what does that look like? You said four to five times a week. You take us through what is the structure like? So typically, typically it's a Monday, Tuesdays, Wednesday off Thursday, Friday.
00:16:15
Speaker
So I'll have an upper, like a, so if I'm in prep, it'll be a heavy bench day on a Monday, which is usually solo. Um, which makes it kind of hard, but, uh, and then Tuesdays is deadlift days. I usually get a couple of guys to come out and train on deadlift days, unless it's super late, then I just do it myself. Wednesday is always off day. And that's when I usually podcast at night. Um, cause it was an off day. So it's easy for me. Uh, Thursdays is if I'm in prep, like if I'm deep into prep and I have three weeks out, sometimes I don't train Thursdays cause it's like a shoulder day. It's like.
00:16:44
Speaker
Either a heavy barbell overhead press movement or like arms, shoulders, rear delts and stuff. And sometimes I feel like you get so beat up that extra accessory work three weeks out really doesn't.
00:16:57
Speaker
It doesn't aid to your total in three weeks. Sometimes it actually hinders it because you're over training, especially because I wasn't sleeping. I definitely wasn't sleeping a lot during this prep. I'd skip it because I'm like, it's just not, I don't really care if my biceps aren't as strong. I don't need them. You know what I mean? Like it doesn't really bother me to skip that basically because I'm not going to shoulder press heavy because I'm barbell benching heavy. So I really can't hit both without fully recovering. Sometimes I'd skip it, but when I'm typically in an off season,
00:17:22
Speaker
I'm always like hammering like an overhead press movement and then arms that day. And then Fridays, I always do Friday night squats. I don't make place at like seven 30. And usually sometimes there's four or five guys. Sometimes there's 10 people over training. Cause I have a nice, like I have a nice setup. Like I bought a nice model lift.
00:17:39
Speaker
Um, nice bars, nice equipment. I got like, it's four cars, four, four, four, four car full of equipment. So then it's like, you get like a nice little atmosphere going. So if I worked the whole week, like that, just the atmosphere being on other people and training and like the music.
00:17:55
Speaker
I forget about everything. Forget about how much I work, forget about I gotta go to work tomorrow, forget about I gotta get up early. It's just like squat, it all matters. And like everybody's in the same mentality. And then when you're prepping with somebody, like usually I prep with my buddy, Cam, we'll be like, you meet together. We can always feed off each other too. And we squat about the same. He's probably, he's a little heavier. So he's pushing the numbers a little bit harder, but like, it's always like a fight between us. So it's nice having that kind of, not really a rivalry, but just someone, cause if you're a squat 800 and everybody else squat five,
00:18:24
Speaker
It's not really, it's just hard to get fired up for everybody. Like, cause I mean, you want, you want to me, everybody's a hundred percent is the same, but we are training, having, you know, I got a couple weeks left for prep for someone to push you is what you want. And he did that to the whole entire prep. So it was awesome. He wasn't even competing, but he just matched all my numbers all the way up, which is cool. Okay. Cause it does help. Sure. So Saturday, Sunday, anything there? No, I'm either.
00:18:50
Speaker
I usually work a shift or two at work. Usually I will always work Saturdays. Sundays I usually don't work. Usually I pick up a shift at work and then it's just help my pick up the house. We'll do stuff for the kids, try to take them like right now it's pumpkin patch season. So we do stuff with pumpkin patches, try to take them out as much as we can, stuff like that. So weekends I typically try to take off. I'm still in the mornings.
00:19:12
Speaker
Working usually Saturday, Sundays, I work a lot more on the training business just because I have the more time in the morning. So I don't have to rush to get out the door around six. So usually I'll do like a four to seven and then I'm done for the day. I don't look at my, uh, anything on the computer. I'm just trying to check out.
00:19:27
Speaker
And then Sunday morning, same thing, four to seven on the computer. And then I'm done for the day. And whatever the kids want to do or why Scott lined up, we do that. Yeah. It helps with that balance part, you know? Sure. Sure. So with the training, what, if you go into a, a, a, uh, one step deeper or one layer deeper. So let's bench date. Like what, what exercises did you do this week? For example, sets reps, even.
00:19:53
Speaker
Well, this is going to be a good example because I tore my lap. So everything's right now is recovered on the lap, but typically in a salmon in a meat prep and I'm like a month hour, whatever I'll typically do, which is not like main most power lifters is I'll basically move my main movement, which is the bench press to the end of the workout. So I'll do.
00:20:12
Speaker
All my accessories basically before I even bench, because we found out that one, it really doesn't take away from that main movement bench. And two, you're actually more usually warmed up for the bench. Like sometimes you would say, Oh, I don't feel good until I hit my top set. Well, then you weren't really warm. Were you the whole time?
00:20:29
Speaker
So we move them, even for our clients we train, we typically have them bench later in the sessions and they're like, hey, does this work out right? Like my bench is like my last thing. I go, yeah, do that for a reason. Like it's part of, there's a method to the madness, you know? So usually it's like, I'm a big fan of bands. So anything I could do bands, like band flies, band bench press, just to get that movement. Cause I'm not a huge stretching kind of guy. I'd rather do active movement to get warmed up.
00:20:54
Speaker
Um, any kind of dumbbell work. And then with, with the bench press too, like I only straight bar bench probably five weeks a year. If I can, if I can get away with not benching on a straight bar, I do, I do a lot of multi-grip. Um, and then I'm a closer grip bench anyway, because I tore my pec minor and I'm like, I don't want to go through this again. So I moved my grip in to save my pecs and then just hand my triceps. Um,
00:21:20
Speaker
So, but I just don't think that the bench move is not just great. It's not great for your body, man. That's why people tear pecs, you know? So I'll try to get away with as much multi-grip as I can or like decently close grip before I move it a little bit out to like a competition style bench. And half the time that's like three weeks out because I'm like, I just don't want to do it. I can get stronger with the variations rather than a straight barbell bench, banging up my elbows, banging up my biceps, and then putting pressure on those pectin. Yeah.
00:21:49
Speaker
So what type of exercises would be before a bench press? You mentioned a few with bands. Yeah, I would do like a lot of flies with bands probably.
00:21:59
Speaker
probably at least 150 reps of flies on each pack before. That's like the first thing I'll do. I'll do some core, like some plank shoulder taps and plank front reaches. Um, then typically it'd be like a neutral grip, uh, dumbbell bench, maybe an incline fly, uh, might do some like rear delts just to open up and then like a wide grip pull down seated rows. And then that way my full upper body is more like, I know it is. And then the first time I take the bar, I want to bench. I feel good.
00:22:26
Speaker
Yes, I already worked out a bunch. And that's typically how do I usually go for like five movements and then sometimes superset it in those movements. And then about the fifth or sixth movement is that is that main movement bench press.
00:22:39
Speaker
Yeah. So what about deadlift and squat day? What did you do before? Well, a lot of it, I was having some knee tendonitis issues. So a lot of it I would do, I would get an old tire that I put dumbbells in and I put a belt on and I just walked backwards for like 20 minutes. That pushing away.
00:22:58
Speaker
It's like the best thing you could do for your knees and active recovery. So I'd typically do that before any leg day ever. Um, I'd always do a walk kind of around the streets here and then come back to my legs. I can basically squat right after that. Like I felt so good. So your legs are pumped, your knees feel good. So I do that. I do then I do like a lot of single leg isolation. So I do like single leg step down, single leg step up, single leg box squats. Um, then like any lateral movements I can do with like a hip circle or a band around my knees. Um,
00:23:29
Speaker
I have a leg press or sometimes I do like a hundred reps of leg press before I do anything too. And then now I got like extension leg curl. Cause I just got these machines like two weeks ago. Um, and then I do some of that, but more as a warmup, like I wouldn't do like.
00:23:43
Speaker
So like on a leg extension, for example, at the end of a workout, I like to do like a lot of tempo stuff or like holds at the top. I wouldn't do that before I had me squatted because there's, you know, I like to fatigue a little bit, but I'm, I don't want to beat the shit out of my legs before I try to squat. So it'd be more of like a warmup routine of a, you know, super set of a curl and extension three sets, 10 reps, just moving and then into the heavy movement. And then if I don't feel like I got enough out of it at the end of the, after I got done squatting.
00:24:08
Speaker
I would go do extensions and curls with tempo or holds or pauses just to, you know, really build that or break down that muscle fiber. Yeah, dude. That's awesome. How are you structured? I'm completely aligned with that after many years of.
00:24:21
Speaker
Yeah, just feeling like you say you warmed up by that last rep of that heavy lift and I'm like, yeah, right. And at the end, like I'm, I have a limited amount of time. I don't want to BS around and I need to get after it. So what is the most bang for the buck? And I would skip.
00:24:38
Speaker
the warm-up at times when I was short on time and just get into accessory work and I'm like wait I feel amazing and my lifts are getting so much better my numbers are climbing and like you're saying I mean that's how I structure my programs that we offer as well and I mean it's the same exact thing getting your CNS fired up getting your muscles activated because even especially after a weekend
00:25:00
Speaker
When like you start forgetting like your muscle memory Whatever it might be like you start forgetting you don't have that same activation You don't feel your muscles all of a sudden when you start getting all those reps in all the Sun boom You're ready to go and that's awesome with that with that leg Or I mean with the with the tire drag. That's that's yeah, okay Okay, it helps a lot man. I think especially for like we sometimes we focus on just pre-habbing instead of rehabbing and
00:25:26
Speaker
Yeah. And then like stuff like that is great for like prehab, just so like we can prevent injuries. Cause half the time it's just like, you just don't want to get hurt. Like let's get to the prep without an injury. You know, that's half the battle sometimes. So with this type of training, how, how do you focus on D-load? Do you do any D-load at all?
00:25:47
Speaker
So the way we structure our programming is we do three week cycles. So it'll be basically the easiest way to break it down is like light, medium, heavy, right? And then the cycle starts over on whichever main movement you have. So say I'm multi-grip benching for three weeks, light, medium, heavy, essentially. When I start over, I might be going to a close grip. So the movement, the main movement's changing. So with that, we don't have to deload as often. So in a meat prep, for me,
00:26:17
Speaker
maybe usually de-load twice. Cause the week of the meet obviously is the de-load, but I'd still like the week of the meet the day before the meet, I squatted four or 500. I'm like, I just want to move. You know, I just like to be in the gym. I like to move. And it was Friday night squats. I'm like, I can't miss it. I'm still going to squat. I don't care if I would meet tomorrow. Um, so the week other meets obviously de-loaded or 50% ish of your, uh, of your openers, but we're still moving, always pushing blood. Uh, besides that,
00:26:46
Speaker
I took another deload about four weeks out just because it wasn't so much the weights were killing me. It was, it was everything else. It was the lack of sleep. It was the work it was doing, you know, having 20 different irons in the fire. Like it was everything else that was accompanying to be like.
00:27:03
Speaker
You need a break. And the weights are telling you, Hey, you can't keep up with us right now. Take a week off. And I'm like, you just got to listen, you know? And that's when we get like a lot of lifters. If we tell them that like, Hey, you look like you're beat up, take a week off. Your sleep's probably shape. Blah, blah, blah. I don't want to, you know, they get nervous. I'm like, you don't need to lift heavy all the time to be strong. We don't need to be strong in the gym. We need to be strong to meet.
Origins and Transition to Powerlifting
00:27:26
Speaker
So it's like, it's kind of hard to train it sometimes cause it's just a lot of like talking to the client. But for me personally, I'm like, yeah, I don't care. Like I just don't, like I know what my body needs and it's not lifting heavy this week. So it's, it's 50% everything drop it still going to gym, still probably push accessories as much as I can. But that heavy movement, just sometimes it's just not there and you have to listen to your body. Cause then people try pushing through the not their moments and they get hurt or they just get disappointed.
00:27:53
Speaker
So then the whole rest of the prep, they're like, why didn't I get that squat? I'm like, you just needed a deload. You just need to relax. And so doing this for long enough, I just like, I know when I need to deal with my body will tell me and I go, all right, this week sucks. Like this is not going to happen this week. We'll get after it next week. You know, we'll just push accessories and pull a tire around. It's easier. How did all this obsession about working out, lifting heavy, how did all this start? Big question.
00:28:22
Speaker
Um, I guess it probably started when I was about 12. Um, we had a gym in the basement growing up, you know, we had like the, the weeder home gym thing, you know, with all the attachments and stuff. And then we had like, uh, a power rack. And then for Christmas, one year, my older brother got like the 300 pound weight set, you know what I mean? With the barbell and all the plates and stuff. And then we just started, my dad's like, you know, you're not just going to sit around in the summers because in the summers you're going to work out and you're going to split wood.
00:28:52
Speaker
Cause I lived on a farm. So for our, we had propane, but propane is the same and expensive. So we would, we'd always go cut down trees and then bring it home and then cut firewood. That's what you're going to do all summer. You know, when I was like 12, it was, I don't try to step up and start doing all that stuff with my brothers. And we just started training. And then we had friends come over and train. And then, I don't know, it just kind of always stuck. And then, uh, I just never let go. Like we all kind of traded powerlifting stuff. Cause you know,
00:29:18
Speaker
when you're, especially getting into the high school years, everybody wants to be the biggest venture. Who's the strongest? Doesn't matter about anything else, but just who's the strongest. So I always kept that mentality of who's the strongest. So then eventually I got two older brothers, they were both stronger than me. Eventually I passed them by a little miles now because I mean, they're just not, they're not, one's a surgeon and one's basically a male gigolo in Austin, Texas.
00:29:45
Speaker
Our paths are very different. I just kind of really hammered with the power because I'm like, this is my shit. And then I was fortunate enough to have like a good gym. I went down the road with this, with this guy, I partnered up with him, John Joseph. And he took me under his wing and I got to train with some of the best power developers in the world at like 19. So like that drive just in the fire just kept going. He kept throwing logs in the fucking fire. And I just never quit. And even when our, the team kind of fell apart, uh, smoothing in my garage. So I don't need it. I'll just trim myself.
00:30:13
Speaker
And then people started coming here. So I'm like, this worked out great. Were there sports involved during this too? Yeah, I played, uh, I played baseball for a long time.
00:30:25
Speaker
And I played soccer for a long time. Um, like they were fun people down or what, like, what would happen? I usually had like, I think I led the team in like yellow and red guards, which is kind of an asshole. And I worked out a lot. So I'm like, I was typically stronger than most of the guys, just cause like soccer players are not known to be strong. So, and I like was, which didn't make me the fastest, but if I can catch up to you, you know what I mean?
00:30:49
Speaker
Um, so I had to play like a lot of high school sports and stuff, but it's just, I just did it cause it was fun. But even then, so when I, when I, when I was in high school, I was doing, I decided to do bodybuilding competition. So when we had soccer practice every day from like whatever four to six. So I'm a grad student in the mornings. So I'd be up at four in the morning. I go dive 30 minutes to the gym. I train for an hour, hour and a half, come home. I'd eat my eggs and protein shake. And then I go to school soccer practice. And then sometimes soccer practice had the gym, but.
00:31:18
Speaker
just whenever adequate for me at the time. So I would just do it before, and then I'd go home and do it all. So it's like, this kind of lifestyle, like, it's always been doing it. It's not even knowing it. It's like, I even, I actually forgot about that, that when I used to get up early and train for the body doing show before school and soccer practice, because I don't know, it's just now it's like normal.
00:31:37
Speaker
Yeah. So even back then, like you were just, I mean, it shouldn't have changed, right? You were, you were optimized on a little sleep then too. It was just about getting out early. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Nice. Yeah. Just getting everything done that I want to do, you know? Yeah. Why did you abandon bodybuilding? Um, it's just a tough fucking sport. I think it was hard. I mean, the diet I was super good at, like, I was told like, eat this, this, and this, and this for every day for six months. I go, okay.
00:32:07
Speaker
No problem. It didn't matter what time didn't matter what I was, where I was at. I had my food. Like that part was like almost simpler to me. Cause I'm like, I know what I'm eating. My body feels really, really good. Cause it's eating the same clean foods every day, but I just didn't, I lacked the size. So I was 18 or walk on stage like one 45. So it's fucking small dude. And I'm like, I kind of want to be bigger and stronger. Like I don't want to be just how lean can I get?
00:32:31
Speaker
how big and how strong I can get, which obviously was a good venture right towards power lifting. And that was when I was 18. I was like, I'm kind of done with this bodybuilding shit. So I did it for, I did five shows over two years. It was fun. I learned a lot, but I'm like,
00:32:46
Speaker
It's just not my niche. And then I got into powerlifting and I went from squat and like 500 to 700, like a negative, relatively short amount of time. I think when I was three years into the sport, I took my first world record. So I'm like, Oh, this is my niche. So then I just, then obviously I just kept running with it. Cause I'm like, Oh, this is, I'm good at this. Let's keep going. Okay. Wow. So how tall are you? Not very five, seven.
00:33:11
Speaker
Okay. And the food, when you were doing bodybuilding, what was that like? What did you eat? Let's see. I would be like egg whites and oatmeal in the mornings. And then it'd be like a fruit or something midday. And then lunch would be chicken rice, or if it was closer to the meat, it'd be like chicken and lettuce, you know, with like a no calorie dressing or whatever.
00:33:37
Speaker
Uh, then a protein shake for the fourth meal, quote unquote. And then the fifth meal would be like eight ounces of chicken or Turkey or like 97% wheat beef. And then possibly a carb source. It just depends how far I was out from the, basically everything started out with more carbs. And then as you take it towards the show, it was less and less and less. And like my body liked it. I ate super clean. I lost like, you know, 20 pounds, whatever with it felt pretty good, but I'm like, I guess I feel small and weak.
00:34:05
Speaker
Also, you know, just being that light, like I was fragile. Yeah. How did that shift when you started powerlifting and your food? So when I first started powerlifting, um, I was actually grouped with these older guys at this gym in this, uh, this town called Cortland and they're like, yeah, you can just forget about diet, eat whatever you want. And I'm kind of looking at the guys and they're like sloppy, older, overweight. I'm like,
00:34:30
Speaker
Yeah, but I don't want to look like you and I'm 60. So I'm like, I don't mind. I was like, I know this is not good advice. Um, so basically I just started more carbs and I would try to push protein and then just, I mean, there was times where I would like go for a heavy push where I would try to put on like 20 pounds to lift heavier. But half the time when you do that, if you go for like a heavy push to push, put on weight, you're changing your, uh,
00:34:57
Speaker
like your form, like your body is changing, mechanics are changing. So you're fighting yourself to find new ways to pick up the bar because you're fucking guts in the way now. So I eventually found, stumbled onto like, I had a friend who runs a company here called Hybrid. And I became friends, now I'm pretty good friends with the head nutritionist there. And me and him worked together for like past four years. He got better. Hybrid performance in Florida. Yeah, yeah. So Hayden knows that, he's a friend of mine.
00:35:25
Speaker
And I'll get to talking to him about it. I'm like, yeah, I just feel kind of sloppy. Let me just try one of your diets. This is like four or five years ago. And he's like, Oh, okay. He goes, you guys don't worry about it. We'll take care of it. Like it all be free mobile. I'm like, I'm like, whatever. If you have to pay, it's not a big deal. But he's like, let me set you up. So what was this guy called Francesco Catalano? And, uh, I've been with him for four years and we just, now it's more of, we just checking each other once a week came in. How's it going? How's the meat prep going? Like all the shit. And then he'll like to send me useful links. But like, no, like he dialed me in pretty good to where,
00:35:55
Speaker
I used to track macros every day for like three years. I was like the big switch from like kind of trying to eat healthy and like, but then when you do that, like, you know, I didn't realize how much protein I wasn't getting him. Like I would eat like some days, 120 grams of protein. It just, I just wouldn't think of it, you know, and then when I started tracking macros.
00:36:13
Speaker
It taught me better habits and like, Oh, you suck at eating protein. You need upper protein. Cause that's the best way to look better. It changes your body composition and you recover better. Um, so simple things like that. And then after like three years of tracking, I just stopped. I was going through like a move. We're moving into this house. I was getting married and all this stuff. I'm like, he goes, just take a break because you know how to eat. Just try to build on your good habits. And that's where I've been for a year now. Like even at this meet, I didn't diet down and do anything. I just ate what I ate and I weighed in like a pound under my weight class.
00:36:43
Speaker
Cause you know how to eat now. So that helps a lot. You know, I didn't really get ever sloppy cause I feel like the same thing. Everything changes. Bigger is not always better. If you sleep worse, you can't move. If I can't play tag with my kids in my front yard. Yes. Like what am I doing? Why are you, you know what I mean? So what you can try to swap 20 pounds more. You can't play with your kids. Like it's just like, which one do you want? You know, you want the best of both worlds. So what does the day of eating look like right now?
Diet and Influences
00:37:11
Speaker
Um, pretty simple. I'll usually wake up. My main thing is like, how much protein can I get in in the morning and afternoon? So if I want to eat a little worse than at night, I can. So like, like this morning, sure. My wife will cook me like four or five egg whites, sometimes like a steak or chicken with it. And then like protein pancakes. So that way I'm hammering the protein or alphabet.
00:37:32
Speaker
And I might do a shake later in the day or fruit and like a bagel just to kind of fill me up a little bit. And then lunch would typically be like last night's dinner. So whatever it was, or sometimes it's basically chicken and rice, sometimes it's shrimp and rice, steak and rice, steak and potatoes, like whatever it was from last night, I'd take that. So you're protein and a little bit of carb source. And she always throws in vegetables to make sure you put otherwise I just won't fucking eat them. Um,
00:37:56
Speaker
And then let's see, prior round four, I usually have like a protein chips. Like I'm just trying to handle that protein all day because I don't forget about it. And then at night, it's whatever the old lady cooks her dinner. And she's always like knowing how I've always eaten for the past four years. She's always like, it's always super low fat, moderate carbs, high protein. So whatever it is, she does like a chicken parm. It will be.
00:38:20
Speaker
like either grilled chicken or air fried chicken that she buys. That's like super low fat and high in protein. And then like, uh, she'll make the sauce by hand and stuff. So it's, she knows what's in it. So that helps a lot. You know what I mean? I think it's a lifesaver. I almost don't have to think about my food because
00:38:37
Speaker
like half the meal she makes for me. Like I'm like, I'm like so fucking spoiled with it. It's awesome. So even during a regular work week, it's similar to that. You just bring the food with you or regular work week. It's like the first, I'm guaranteed I'll be there for five days, like sometimes it's, um, sometimes seven, but typically it's five to six days. It's like the same things in my, in my bag every single day, fruit, bagel,
00:39:04
Speaker
Chicken and rice, protein chips, protein shake, like it's all there. And if I, you know, like you, for some reason I don't have something I'm starving. I just go to the nearest place with your chicken breast sandwich plane or with barbecue sauce. Cause I know it's low in fat, high in protein. You know what I mean? So yeah. And then my food goes with me. I have a little warmer on my truck and I heat my food up in and I'm good to go, man.
00:39:25
Speaker
Okay. So it's a very, uh, you can say more of a traditional approach. And I mean, kudos to you for sticking with it. I guess it's just become such an ingrained habit. And yeah, that's all it is. Just to have it, you know? Yeah. And your body, my body likes it. Like you like doing the same trick. You just feel better. Yeah. So I'd taken the, so I used to do that and then I shifted more towards now I do more higher fat. I don't do the whole keto approach because when that happens, this is disaster pants, right?
00:39:52
Speaker
Right off the bat, I don't handle that well. So I do fairly high protein, but I eat a lot of carbohydrates and I eat complex carbohydrates. A lot of squashes, many different, like I even do grains. So grains from, we're talking rice, brown rice, different types of, I mean grass-fed meats, chicken, fish.
00:40:11
Speaker
A variety of that, but very high fat. So we're talking probably eight tablespoons of olive oil on every single meal, but only eat. Yeah, but we're talking high fat. Yeah. Yeah. So that's high. And that's, and that's cooked with a lot of fat too. But I eat two meals a day and I do intermittent fasting just because I realized, okay, a whole lot better with this. I'm curious with your approach when you hear that type of stuff, like what, what is, what comes up for you?
00:40:40
Speaker
Well, see me, like, I just typically, I've been low fat, always, like, ever since I started tracking, like, even when we were like, underweight at a meet, I'd have like 60 grams of fat a day. That was it. I mean, I was heavy on like, sometimes
00:40:59
Speaker
One of these meats I did particularly, I was like 500 carbs a day, 60 grams of fat, 220 protein, because my body was like a machine at that time, I was just burning everything off. But yeah, I've always kept low fats. I think for a lot of the clients we train, we do nutrition as well, we typically fit more macros towards a lower fat end. I mean, everybody's no different, but we always typically do low fat, but to each their own.
00:41:27
Speaker
Sure. Yeah. Are any of the power lifters, any of the people that you've come across in power listing, like how prevalent is like, for example, carnivore or keto? We've had a couple clients and the people I know, but it's like kind of mind and hand. Most people, and then like, you see this board of power lifters switch about
00:41:55
Speaker
eight years ago, ish with like Dan green being in his prime. You're like, Oh, you can be Jack lean, strong. Like it's like the, the ways, like the old fat sloppy power lifter have really gone. And I look at like.
00:42:08
Speaker
I mean, not a great example, but kind of, but Larry wheels, like he was, I used to, I used to compete with Larry wheels. Like there's a picture of him sitting next to the other California before he blew up into this whatever international superstar, whatever, you know, he is now, but, um, yeah, you just like see these leaning guys like, Oh, you don't need to be sloppy anymore. So most people like, I would say they have like, I don't know what I call an average diet, but I don't really see a lot of the keto or carnivore or anything. I think people hop on fads.
00:42:36
Speaker
But people always go back to what they know. It's not hard. It's not hard to get like, you lose weight, you beat a deficit gained weight. You have to have, you know, you have to eat more calories. Like I just tell people, main people, people asking for a diet advice and like track a protein, eat more of it. Talk to me in six weeks. If you can't do that, then don't talk to me. You know what I mean? Like am I wasting my time? Cause most people are protein deficient.
00:43:04
Speaker
If we go into Hawthorne, Bjornsson, I mean, the guy's beast, I mean, shredded as hell. And I mean, I think that for me, at least, that is a big, big significant part of when I look at power lifters, I'm like, Jesus, there's a shift in this. Like, you don't need to have a big gut and really put up major weight.
00:43:25
Speaker
So him being a big name, like what were people who were idols that you looked up to growing up or who were even like big names right now? Like, dude, I like how you go about lifting. I mean, I admire you. So at first it was like the Lily bridges.
00:43:44
Speaker
Right. So Eric Lillibridge is one of the best in the world at the time. And he was young too. He was like 25. I'm like squat. The time when I met him in a squat around nine and he was pushing a thousand pound squats. He pushed up to 900 pound dev lift when we were training together and stuff like that. So like, he was one of them. And I got to train with him. So I'm like, Oh my God. Um, and then it was, uh, I don't know, like, like Dan Bell has always been cool. Like we're pretty fucking tight. So, you know, like just watching him lift, like he's been in my house quite a few times, even though he moved to Florida.
00:44:14
Speaker
And he would, it was funny. We would, uh, I'm like, all right, well, if you're in town, we're gonna go out to the bars or like chicken together, hanging out to like two in the morning, just be an idiot. And then we'd come home, sleep until like nine. He wouldn't eat.
00:44:28
Speaker
a a
00:44:54
Speaker
All right, dude. Well, there's, I guess we're not all created equal. I'm like, what the hell, man? Um, so it's definitely cool. Like I wouldn't so much say idolize him because he's just like, cause we're, we're too close now. You know, it's not like somebody I can see on TV or whatever. It's like, oh, it's my buddy. I'll just call you.
00:45:10
Speaker
Uh, but it's definitely like cool. Just like to get, just get fired up to like watch him lift, you know, and then I would travel just to go help him compete, you know, we do that. We do that stuff for each other. So it's kind of cool to have that connection. He's got the biggest total of all time ever. So that's, that's, you know, that's insane. So speaking of, we'll jump into a little bit of what you've seen in the, cause you say he barely eats, but also then we'll jump into your goals. What, what does he eat, Dan?
00:45:38
Speaker
I don't know. He's told me like, cause his wife's Italian and they lived down the road from like their grandparents. So she's always dropping off like chicken cutlets and stuff. So I know he eats a lot of that. I know he eats like a decent amount, but when I was hanging out with him, like he had like one, like after we squatted, he was like, yeah, I'll have like a Jimmy John's. He had like one sandwich. I'm like, don't you want like two or three? He's like, no, I just need one. I'm like, what the fuck dude? So he just, I don't know where I'm like, how do you put on, I think more for him, it was like, I just got to maintain this weight.
00:46:08
Speaker
Because I already, I already ate my way up to 400 or 385 at the time, whatever it was. You know, I just eat when I want to eat. That's it. So I like barely even saw the dude eat for like a week. It was like the strangest thing ever.
Injury and Recovery
00:46:20
Speaker
Weird. Speaking of him having the biggest total ever, what, what are your goals? Well, I was thinking about that the other day too, because I've been kind of, cause when I first started lifting, like I said, I hit my first world record at 21.
00:46:36
Speaker
and it was always in lighter weight classes. So I took it, I had 165 world record squat twice, or I broke my own. And then I had the 181 world record once, I had the 198 world record, these are all squats in reps, I had the 198 world record twice. And now I'm like, I'm always banging against these same numbers, like around, like,
00:47:02
Speaker
The other day I walked out 805 and the spotters took it from me. I tore my latin doing it, but I still think I could have got it and walked out, you know, it increases the level of difficulty. But I'm like, I'm always right around 800, uh, right before I'm tearing my, or tearing my pec minor, I was around a 400 bench. And then right now I'm probably, I was probably knocking on a 700, probably I didn't tear my lat when I squatted. So I'm like, those numbers are like, they're solid.
00:47:24
Speaker
For 198 anywhere I go, I'm probably going to get first, like whatever. It's not really, I'm not really there for, you know, like the little trophies and stuff, but like, it's good. It's a solid total for 198 or, but I'm like, I really want to squad eight 50 or 900. And there's no fucking way I'm doing that at 198. I might be able to weigh in at 198 and do it, maybe, but I gotta do 220. It's just not going to happen. Anybody like Chad, I think it's Chad Penson, he's squad 881 at 198.
00:47:51
Speaker
But the dude was like 225 when he did it. I'm like, cause I was talking to him at the meeting, 220 or 225, whatever. I'm like, all right, I need to get back to this. Like I gotta put out some weight because I really like in my lifetime, I'd really like to squat nine. I go, I'm going to have to be 220 or 230 minimum. So it might take me another two, three years of not putting on sloppy weight, walking around the way, doing a couple of competitions at the weight. But I'm like, I like to squat nine.
00:48:18
Speaker
I'd like to be a mid force venture and I'd like to pull, you know, mid sevens, uh, deadlift. And that's what the next two, three years, like I, if everything can, I can just keep chipping away. I'd like to be like, make a push to be two 60, two 75 made depending on where I'm at when I'm 35 and try to push towards like a thousand home squad. But I just know how heavy I'm going to have to be because
00:48:47
Speaker
If I look back at my training, I've always been able to do a four times body weight squat. I did it at 165. I did it at 181. I did it basically last week at 198. So I've always been consistently, whenever I gain weight, I can put on and do four times that and wraps on a squat. I'm like, so I just have to get heavier and just see if everything else will keep up. So that's like long-term goals. Like that 900 would be huge. And I could be like 903 to meet on the squat. I'm going to have to be heavy. Um, a thousand would be a lot. I'd have to be.
00:49:16
Speaker
Pretty heavy for five, seven frame. It's just, that's a lot of weight to put on, but I don't know. We're going to chip away. I got a squad eight, 51st, you know, we're just sort of chipping away at nine and then we'll see what happens. Yeah. So what, what keeps you just shipping at it? Like what's, what's the drive behind it? It's just like, all right, I've done this for such a long time. I love it. Or is there something like, Hey, I'm going to prove to someone like what, what is, what is the deep driver? Well, it's a couple of things. One, like.
00:49:47
Speaker
There ain't nothing better feeling than having like eight plates on your back and smoking or just looking at the weight. Sometimes I'm like, fuck man. That bar's like, yeah, it's heavy. It's fucking, it looks heavy. I'm like, fuck man. But like, I mean, getting underneath it and fucking owning the weight and making it like making 800 feel like 500. I'm like, this feels good. It took me a year to do this, but I'm back. You know what I mean? I'm here.
00:50:11
Speaker
It's that and then like, I feel like slapping God in the face if I don't push, because I'm like, I built the squat, obviously, like, not saying that the world records are easy, but they came very quickly. And like, I was in the career for your own powerlifting for two and a half, three years, maybe, not even know what I'm doing for the first one. And I just bought a world record. So it's like,
00:50:31
Speaker
Not that it came easy, but it's like for my body, I built a squat. So if I decide not to do that, it's like, Hey, you got built you this way. I'm just going to throw it away. Like push. You know what I mean? I could just, I feel like it's like in service not to do it. So just that keeps me pushing. And then like that extra five pound PR that 20 pound PR after a year and a half of training, like doesn't seem like a lot, but that extra pound is like everything to me at some points. You know what I mean?
00:51:00
Speaker
That's it. It's everything. It's all matters. So with the last meet you're tearing a lot. Do you want to tell us how that happened? And did you feel it coming on? Yeah. So like, so this meter was USPA. So you had to walk your squats out, which I knew. So I started walking my squats out probably four months ago. So that really didn't affect me. I think it does take pounds off your squat, just cause you have to walk it around for a little bit before you spot it.
00:51:27
Speaker
Um, so I hit my opener at like seven 33, easy, buried, dunked. And then I took seven 82 easy. I'm like, Oh, like even when I took the bar that day, when I was in the back warmup, I took one 35. I'm like, Oh, I'm a squat 800 today. I already know this. I have, I like, sometimes you just fucking know when you're on and I pee perfectly. So I'm like, Oh, I know I'm good. So I took like, I was doing double plate flips in the back. I would go.
00:51:51
Speaker
155, 325, 500, 600, 700. I'm ready to go again. Five, five sets, five reps. Um, let's go. I don't need anything. If some already warmed up. So then I took the grace of the 72 hit it and I go. The USPA record was like eight Oh four, but you can chip it and take the record. So I'm like, ah, I just chip it. Give me eight Oh five and a half or whatever the fuck it is.
00:52:13
Speaker
And I walked it out. It was a little shaky in the walkout, but sometimes that CNS doesn't allow you to be straight and stiff, because I was shaking a little bit. Like my head, I'm like, fuck. But as soon as I settled and got the squat command, I'm like, oh, I'm good. I got this. Came down, hit my reps. Probably could have hit them a little bit harder, but I hit them pretty well. Came out of it. And then I just started to feel my left, because I was so tight, I started to feel my left lat.
00:52:41
Speaker
Like a little bit. And then before I knew I just felt like a zipper open. And I'm like, I knew it was a tear from tearing my pec minor. I go, okay. I tore my lap. And this was like, you know, it's within what, in a matter of a second, two seconds. Like it felt like everything was slow. I'm like, okay. I tore my lap, but I still feel good.
00:53:02
Speaker
So then all the weight shifted to my left knee, but I'm like, I just shifted back to your right. So I'm like thinking of all this as like in this one second. So I felt it tear. I'm like, okay, shift, shift back, push. And I started to push out of it. I'm like, oh fuck, I got this. And then the judge goes, take it. And I'm like, what? I was like, you gotta let me fucking fight. Cause I was just shifting the weight back to my other knee. Cause I didn't want to squat it on one. But I got called for downward bar motion.
00:53:32
Speaker
But to me, I'm like, the bar just shifted. It never went down, but I'm like, I was fucking furious because one, I tore the lat and I didn't get the lift. So there's the tearing lat. There's no reward. Fuck, yeah. This sucks. But I'm like, hey, at the end of the day, you know, it's pro day. These people are lifting heavy. It's a judge's job to protect the lifter. I go, she, she saw something. She said, take it. I'm like, it's weird. It's a sport. You know what I mean? And then.
00:54:00
Speaker
Yeah, so that tear benching is super hard. Like I'm not a very good venture anyway, so I need all the help I can get and I was like the goal that that meet was to tie my old PR.
00:54:10
Speaker
because of all the injuries I've had. I'm like, if I could back my old PR within like seven months, like, Oh, that's, that's awesome progress to me. Um, so I fell about 10 pounds shy of that just because I want to go push like my last heavy bench. I went to like three 69 or three 75, whatever. And I opened up and I started to flare. And usually at that point, my, the back will engage and you can push out of it. Sure.
00:54:32
Speaker
Well, the term lab today, buddy. So there's just no pushing out of it. And then deadlifts was like even worse because he was just pulling down on that. So like, we're just like, even with one plate, I'm like, Oh, I'm fucked. So I was just like, well, I'll just warm up faster.
00:54:50
Speaker
And I'll just pull the weight faster. So it doesn't hurt as quick. Cause I'm like, it's already torn. I'm already at the meat. Ooh, who cares? And it's not, it didn't detach. So there's no detachment point. So I'm like, whatever's bleeding out and tearing. It's just in the middle. I don't really care. Like you think it's worse. Whatever. Am I just adding a week or two to my recovery? I don't like, I'm already in the meat. I don't give a shit. So I end up, I'm like, I think I could pull my opener, which is like six 33 pulled it hurt. I'm like, yeah, whatever. And then I want to do six 72, which would be a meat PR. I'm like,
00:55:19
Speaker
like a PR and meets with a torn lad. I'm like, that's, that's pretty good. I'll take that pulled 672 with not too much of an issue, but that lab was starting to scream at me and I'm like, uh, but since losing that squat, I needed to take like 688 to have a PR total. So I'm like, I might as well try. I'm already here. Whatever. And I go to pull it came off the ground pretty fast.
00:55:45
Speaker
But right around my knees, I really felt the lat. I started to feel it to roll. The muscle where it starts to roll up and I started shaking and I go.
00:55:57
Speaker
This is it. I'm like, they ain't no fight. I fought it for like a second and I'm like, I felt that role. I'm like, yeah, I'm done. That's like the way down. But I'm like, I still had like a pretty, pretty good meet all things considered. So I was happy at the end of the day. And, and the best part of the meat was when I started powerlifting, you would get to meet at 9 AM and you would leave at like 10 PM because it took so long. It was kind of an organized, this meat was started at 9 15. And I think we got awards at four.
00:56:25
Speaker
And I was like, Oh good. I can go to the bar. So me and my wife were like, we got the babysitter, the nanny came and got the kids or whatever. I'm like, let's go to the bar. So we had like four hours to go to the bar before we had to be home. Like, this is awesome. But that was my favorite part about it. You had a good time smoothing me my, my lap tour. That sucked. But I go, I got four hours to hang out with my friends and trigger my wife. This is great. Yeah. So what are you doing now? Recovery wise to get you healthy.
00:56:49
Speaker
So I just got back into the gym this week. They usually tell all my clients and typically most people like, Hey, after a meet, after a tough prep, take the whole week off, me being me, I'm like, yeah, I'm an exception to the rule. I don't mean to take a week off. And I had people come to my house to train anyway. So I'm like, I'm not just going to sit inside while they're training the garage. So I started rehabbing this week. Um,
00:57:08
Speaker
The first, first day or so of training was just like arms. What can I do? Let's assess issues. Cause my left knee kind of hurt because I shifted all the way down it. So I've been having to take off like probably another week of like squatting before I can really make sure that knee's okay. Um, so it's just like, okay, I can do biceps, do a little bit of triceps. I can do shoulders backs out of the question the first day.
00:57:29
Speaker
Took him more, a couple of days off. And then, uh, Friday night we trained again because Friday night spots, it's not going to change because I'm injured or not a prep. Other people have needs to do. So people are coming over to train. And so I started rehabbing my back. Um, and for basically, for whenever we rehab, it's just simple approach. What here, here are a list of movements. What can you do? What can you do? If you could do them, we start with like, so Sam, the seated row, I have a seated row in my garage, one handed 30 pounds in her, I guess you're doing 30 pounds this week. Okay.
00:57:57
Speaker
30 pounds when you just push blood 20 reps, five sets, 20 reps, whatever. So, okay. That doesn't hurt. I could do a, um, a straight bar row with a machine. Okay. I could do 70 pounds. Okay. Cool. Write it down next week. I'll try 90 and like, so it's just basically, I assess what I can do, what hurts, what doesn't hurt, whatever. It doesn't hurt certain range of emotions. I'll do an increased weight and then it's just week by week, what feels good. And obviously it's healing the body's healing as it does. Uh,
00:58:24
Speaker
Um, anytime there's an injury, that's where all the blood goes. So it's healing itself. So I go every week, it's just going to get better. I'm just going to get stronger. And then I would imagine by the end of the year, I'll be back to deadlifting normal. Everything will be fine. Like I'm just not, it doesn't seem like it looked bad when it started bleeding out. Cause it bleeds out into the tricep because that's where the attachment point is. And then gravity it's going to bleed down. So it's bleeding down into my triceps. So everybody's like, Oh my God, you tore your tricep. It was just my back's bleeding out into my arm. Yeah.
00:58:55
Speaker
It hasn't affected me at work. So I'm like, it can't be that bad. It just, and plus I deadlifted 672 on it. So how fucking bad could it be? You know what I mean? Like, yeah, it hurts, but it held. Um, so it's just, it's just week by week analysis of what hurts, what doesn't, and can we increase weight?
00:59:12
Speaker
And then we go from there. So I would imagine within four to six weeks, I would probably pretty much back to normal start of the year. I'll be fresh. I'll be fine. So yeah, I'm not, I'm not too worried about it. So going into your Friday night squats, any, any, uh, heavy day, like what I've heard some hardcore rap, what it, what it, what's your music preference?
00:59:36
Speaker
Well, for reference, on my last heavy deadlifts in the meet, I put on Brooks and Dunn, she used to be mine, which is like slow country. Very country. So like, sometimes we, me and my buddy will push like, there's an artist named Stitches, like a complete, like he looks like an idiot, but his music gets us like fired up. So sometimes it's like that heavy rap.
01:00:00
Speaker
Other times, like my one trading partner cam, it's like slow country. It's like, uh, when, when this is called, uh, his music, what the fuck is this song called? It's called pine box. He talks about how he wants to die in a pine box, burying in a pine box. Like the super saddest country song ever fires them up. So that's what we listened to. Everybody, Jacob, he likes raps. We usually put on rap form. And then for me, it's like,
01:00:22
Speaker
Sometimes it's like heavy screaming in your face, uh, rap. And then sometimes it's just slow country. You know, it just depends. I mean, we're, we're a little, a little different than aspect. I guess it's not always like that screamo rock early 2000s. It's like sometimes it's rap. Sometimes you just listen to country and then sometimes it's just.
01:00:42
Speaker
little rock in the background and we're good to go because everybody's yelling and firing each other up. Sometimes you don't even need music. And then half the time, look what I'm going to meet. Guys, what song you want? I'm like, I can't hear shit. I don't know what's going on. Like when I'm squatting, it's silence. Like, like you said, I got two seconds of tearing my lad and like squatting. Like to me, that's like a minute. Everything's quiet. I don't hear anything. Again, I don't know. It's just one of those like modes you get it. Sometimes you don't need it. Yeah.
01:01:07
Speaker
Looking back at your career, what have been the toughest moments? Like shit, this sucks. Um, just some of the props, man. Like you go back with like the working and stuff, like just sometimes you're just in the gym, you know, like 11, 12 at night, like by yourself and everybody else is sleeping. And it's like,
01:01:30
Speaker
This is not fucking ideal. Like it's just not like I'd be benching. Like for instance, one time, like a month, a month ago, I was fucking, we were crazy busy at work. I'm actually by myself and I'm like barely getting my bench up. And I'm just like, I'm just like hanging my head. I'm like, is this even fucking worth it? What am I doing? Like would I even be better sleeping right now and trying to like, I'm just not much of a morning work worker outer. Like I'd rather work in the mornings. Um,
01:01:57
Speaker
So like sometimes it's just, it's just hard. Like when you have people around so much easier to push when you're by yourself and it's cold and it's dark and nobody else is fucking around. You have no distraction. Sometimes it's just like, man, this is tough. It's tough to be fired up. It's tough to, you know, to show up and, you know, but to me, it's just like, just punch the fucking ticket clock in clock out.
Reflections on Personal Growth
01:02:21
Speaker
you'll feel better in the morning. And I usually do. But some moments it's just hard. You just don't want to be there. Yeah. What are the toughest obstacles that you've been able to overcome? Probably the combination of the lack of sleep is just tough. It's just
01:02:45
Speaker
If I sleep more, I'm going to do less, but I don't want to do less, but it would be better if I did less. So it's like, it's like a constant battle in my head. Like you can sleep more, but then you're not going to spend the two hours with your wife at night.
01:02:59
Speaker
or you're not going to spend like two hours on the company in the morning. Like, so there's like, there's, there's takeaway. So I'm like, well, I could sleep less. So that, that's definitely a battle of mine that I struggle with. Um, and then just, you know, having injuries, you know, training around them, like, so for now, like for the next two months, it's basically going to rehab this lap and everybody else, like my one buddy is going to start prep. So I'll be watching everybody train heavy while I do rows with 70 pounds. So it's like, eventually you're like,
01:03:26
Speaker
You know, it's like being outside a party, you're just looking through the window. Like, so mentally, sometimes that's, that's tough, but I've always been pretty struck. I've never had a like mental, like any kind of issues. Like I grew up like, um,
01:03:44
Speaker
normal. My parents have been together for 30 years. We lived out on a farm. I didn't really have any huge problems. I got in a little trouble when I was a kid, but nothing major. Mentally, I'm pretty fucking rock solid. That really helps to dissuade any issues. Mentally, I'm fucking pretty solid, so that helps a lot.
01:04:06
Speaker
So going into the mental piece, are there any mental training that you do of any sort? Like, do you do any, let's say, breath work? Do you do meditation? Do you do journaling? Do you, or you just know who you are, damn, to the core and just get after it? Yeah, I'm, uh, I just know the fuck I am. Like, I just, you know, I kind of, so my, my dad was in a,
01:04:31
Speaker
when before he had kids, he's in a biker club. So my dad growing up, the toughest motherfucker I knew I'm like, somebody said my dad's tough, my dad's pretty fucking like he was just a tough dude. He had to be, you know, in the circumstances that he put himself in. So that like, made me probably grow up a little harder. And even not even always harder, because it's the opposite. My mother was like,
01:04:55
Speaker
an angel, like literally, she came from heaven, you're an angel, like three boys, you know, we had like, but we had a good fucking growing up. So like, mentally, she's never really there for me. And then something about, I, you know, this is a controversial piece that Jordan Peterson talks about is you don't grow up until you have children. You don't become the man or the woman you want to be until you have to care for something more than you care about yourself.
01:05:24
Speaker
So having kids at, what was I, I think my daughter's form 20. Okay. So I was 23 when I found out my girlfriend was pregnant at the time, but like, so having that, you know, I grew up in this kind of not a super hard environment. My dad, you know, it was a bit of a hard ass. So it made us hard asses in a sense, but in a good sense.
01:05:48
Speaker
But I was always kind of like a little bit softer, honestly, when I was growing up, like, I remember me and my girlfriend, I got in a fight when I was, the woman I'm married to now, Amber, we got in a fight when I was like two weeks into dating her. And I was like such a fucking pussy, like a cry builder. I loved her and I'm like, what's wrong with me? But I was just kind of a little bit on the softer side. And then having the kid, Emory, when she was obviously born, like when I was 24ish,
01:06:18
Speaker
There was no crying at the hospital. There's no tears of joy. There were no tears of anything. There was this ultimate realization, you better get your fucking shit together. You know what I mean? It was more of grow up now and there is no time to fuck around. And there's something to be said, and I've always said this, for being not just the toughest guy in the room,
01:06:42
Speaker
but someone, being the someone someone can always go to and lean on. That is maybe the hardest person at that moment. And this brings me to, like I'm saying my oldest is four, but I've told you, I think before offline that I have a 21 year old. Well, I'm 28, suddenly it doesn't make any fucking sense, right? I can't have a kid when I'm seven, which I don't think so. I wasn't trying. But we, we took in my wife's youngest sister when I was,
01:07:12
Speaker
26, 25. Their father passed away. Their mother wasn't in the picture. She had nowhere to go. So we went to the courts. We adopted her when she was 16, took her in. So then all of a sudden, another ultimate realization, right? After my first kid ultimate relation, get your shit together. Now,
01:07:33
Speaker
that 20 year later, basically, you have a 16 year old that you care for to feed house, you know, basically, you know, whatever on the payroll. And you know, you have to help be a once a be your father, but be father figure now. Yeah, for sure. Like, and there's there was really no like, wasn't even a hard decision to take her in. It was like, this is what's going on. This is the next steps. We have to go to court. We have to do this. Like, get it done. You're on your I was telling your mind now.
01:08:03
Speaker
forever. But so that was another growing up thing. And then we're seeing as we got her, we had twins. So like, that was like, almost a blessing. In a weird way, that you know, they were whatever people say, like, God works in mysterious ways, it was weird actually came to us.
01:08:20
Speaker
because we had twins very relatively soon. And that was tough because my, my other daughter was like 15 months old. And then I got these two new ones and I'm not good with babies. My wife's telling me to rock her a certain way. I'm rocking and I'm sweating out or the baby sweating. I go, this is fun. Like his father, I don't know what I'm doing. I'm just like not good until they're like one. So her all of a sudden living with us, like the living aunt slash
01:08:47
Speaker
kid that I'm raising like was like almost a blessing in disguise having her. And then just having all these things happen within like a 24 to 26, 27 year old time period was like, almost like almost just made me harder. And it makes me want to do more, provide more. And now she's in college so that you know, she's away in college, she's doing her own thing.
01:09:11
Speaker
But like I always say, she's still on the fucking payroll. So I still got to make sure my shit's together. She still needs advice or she needs to come home. I have to take care of that, which is fine. We're happy to do it. I mean, we're happy to do it, but it's like, it's always a thing in my head. And then you're also like, you know, I'm 28 and I'm giving advice to a 21 year old. You know, so it's also like, that's my kid, quote unquote. So it's, it definitely, it adds to the level of difficulty, but the reward that you get out of it is it
01:09:39
Speaker
nothing else matters, you know what I mean? The reward of watching her grow up and seeing her with our kids and stuff like that, it's more rewarding than anything, just knowing that you always did the right thing, you know, taking her in and whatnot. So it's definitely a cool aspect, but it's definitely like, it's making me
01:09:59
Speaker
tougher and harder when you almost think like having four daughters make you softer. I don't want the exact opposite way, which sometimes does. It doesn't really help. Uh, it makes it harder in my, in my marriage is cause like, I had to such this tough guy mentality of like getting everything done. And then plus I want to do a million different things.
01:10:17
Speaker
all while making sure everybody else is taken care of. So it adds to the degree of difficulty, but the reward is fucking awesome. Yeah, for sure. Having a daughter myself, I mean, it definitely had me scaled back, but in the same time, step up for sure. And scale back, it did make me softer. And I have this theory that if you're a man, and if you have a daughter,
01:10:40
Speaker
you have and especially for you there's a reason like there are lessons to learn there's some lesson to learn about the feminine that probably you need I know for me myself I need to soften my ego needed to be tempered I needed to be humble I needed to step up and do things for others and not myself so I'm glad in the sense that I didn't have a son to not because I already go wild so many times I didn't need wild energy in the household so right and it kind of sounds like that to a degree for yourself as well you
01:11:10
Speaker
But you give me your opinion on that. Yeah. I mean, I guess it just, it shapes everybody differently, but the stepping down and stepping up, like only people who have kids who understand what the fuck you're talking about. Like, and I'm like, when you said that, I'm like spot on dude. Absolutely. Cause it's like, you need to back off certain things, but then step up as a person, you know, personally. Um, so yeah, but like, I think I know what you mean when you say like a little bit softer, like, cause at first, like, I mean, all this shit going on, right? So like,
01:11:39
Speaker
It's making it hard as a person taking someone else in the process and then having all these kids in a relatively short period of time, you know, made me want to step up and then step down because you were saying, but also like the softness will still come in.
01:12:00
Speaker
For me, it's tough to have one-on-one interactions with my kids because they're all roughly the same age. To take one away from the group, the others will start freaking out almost. It's hard to separate when there's three of them.
01:12:14
Speaker
So like, but yesterday, for example, I was cleaning up, we had our pool closed and cleaning up and putting everything away and putting all the laundry and all the shit away because it's getting cold here. And like, I was my one, my two daughters didn't want to help, they wanted to help mom bake and make pizza and stuff for dinner. I'm like, okay, so I'd hardly my middle child come with me.
01:12:34
Speaker
And it's like someone that small and it can just break you down. You know what I mean? Like she slipped and fell. Like I, like my knees killing me. I sprinted across and she slipped and fell like three steps. Like she was fucking, but like that, like you sprint across, grab her, pick her up, hold her. And then you're like, this is the softness that you don't, you can't read and do. You know what I mean? It's like moments of being with your kids and then having them being like,
01:13:04
Speaker
You know, your whole, you know, it's your whole world, you know, you care about them more than you care about yourself. It makes you saw in my wife will see it with me. And they were like, it's weird. Sometimes when situations are escalated, like kids are screaming, yelling, my wife's frustrated or I'm frustrated. I'll get calmer in those times of high stress where most people get more stressed, more louder, but I've always tried to implement that louder is never better. Better is better. So I'll get calmer as things get escalated.
01:13:33
Speaker
So I think having all the daughters that I have has brought down that, like that softness of me where I can look through a situation, step away. But for me, kids being young, you just fucking calm down and distract. That's all you have to do. Hey, come look at this. Hey, do this. You're crying about something because your sister did this, right? Hey, I'm gonna pull you away for a second. Look at this. Hey, look at this funny picture on my phone. And then like to me, it's all distraction. But then being able to be the worst reason and softening.
01:13:59
Speaker
you know sometimes it's me sometimes my wife can do it and i'm getting stressed out just because of like you say when sometimes you have lack of sleep you actually don't fucking touch up with you eventually fucking catches up with me so you just get frustrated you know and it's just like it's funny because people always say like hey you know you're gonna miss this time step back and look but i do a very good job of stepping back and looking while i'm in the moment it's like telling you about where my daughter from not a huge deal slipped a couple stairs but like that moment of holding her knowing like
01:14:30
Speaker
one day, you ain't going to want me to pick you up. You know what I mean? So I'm always like conscious in those moments and softer in those moments when you have to be, and other times you got to be, you know, like the hard guy, like, for instance, like I'm saying, someone has to be the hardest guy in the room at the funeral of my, my father-in-law. Very sad. He was very young. He was like 42. You know, we, every now we have all these problems and I take helium. That's the, uh, this one year old, 21 year old.
01:14:57
Speaker
but you ain't gonna fucking catch me crying because it's not the time. You know what I mean? Like you have to be soft, but you have to be hard because if I'm crying, what the fuck are they gonna do? They just lost their dad. And there's, my wife's got three younger siblings, so there's four of them. And it's like, at that time you have to be the hardest. So like those moments like that almost make me harder and tougher and like almost, hey, turn the fucking emotions off for a while, which makes other parts of life hard, but it makes a lot of other parts of life easy for others.
01:15:27
Speaker
So like that balance that we talked about is tough because sometimes there ain't no fucking balance. You know, you have to be one or the other. So, I mean, as long as you have awareness, as long as you know what you're doing and you can get stuck in that state and don't know how to get back then. Hey, I think, I mean, it's all about that. It's if, if you have awareness consciousness behind it, for sure, man.
01:15:49
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, and then having a good partner at home, you know, I mean, she could read me before, you know, before I could get in the door sometimes, she knows like.
01:15:57
Speaker
So having that is more than, you know, you'd be lost with her. You'd be stuck in one or the other, you know, without her. So that helps a lot. So I'm curious now, nature versus nurture.
Family and Life Lessons
01:16:08
Speaker
You probably have the most interesting, if you look from the outside and you saw on paper, you and your three or two brothers, the three of you and how you would like, how would you describe each brother? I'm like, whoa, like, how did that turn out?
01:16:22
Speaker
So like I have an older brother, but it was funny because we're all in high school at the same time. My brother was a senior, my other brother was a sophomore and I was a freshman. So like half the time me and my middle brother would be in detention together. So we'd be able to ride home together. It's where I was fucking off. I'm like getting in fights and being idiots. You know what I mean? Like these kids are, but yeah, talk about
01:16:41
Speaker
three different people, like my one brother is, he's a trauma surgeon in Chicago, like which is kind of the torture being just terrible. Like, like so many shootings and killing and stuff. And he's, he's a Chicago surgeon, like Dr. Callis, like, you know, it's kind of funny. And then, you know, my other brothers in Austin, Texas, he's about 30 now. And he's just wild man, like, the best way I can describe it, and the easiest to relate is
01:17:12
Speaker
Dan Buzeri on the 30 and not rich. Like he does well for himself, but he's not a multi-million dollar poker player, but that's like what he is. Like always surrounded with all these women. And he's an awesome Texan, just like who they're 10 years ago, deciding on what sucks him out of here. I'm going to try something new. And then just because I never coming back. And now he's like this somewhat of a, you know, kind of gigolo played way down there, you know, he's living his life and he fucking, I think now Dean getting into his 30s, he's like,
01:17:40
Speaker
I'm kind of done with this. And I was trying to settle kind of kind of grow my roots into something else a little more meaningful. So I think he's finally come into that realization.
01:17:48
Speaker
But again, like, like we talked about, you don't grow up until you have a kid. You just don't. So I think that, you know, in the next five years, that's going to be a big step for him. And then growing up and learning that, um, but yeah, it's definitely like, cause you have me doing the multitude of things I try to do every day. And then the surgeon and the guy that said, don't send me these hilarious snapchats and telling me these awesome stories of how he is in Texas. You know what I mean? So it's like the three, but then, you know, my parents couldn't be prouder because
01:18:17
Speaker
you know we're all decently successful we do well for ourselves and like you know we never like like i said we never had any problems growing up and we just didn't like my wife's like oh what's it like having a normal childhood like oh this is what you get out of it a normal guy you know so but yeah it's interesting seeing like getting all three of us together is like a super fun time you know
01:18:38
Speaker
So wrapping it up with a few questions. If you look at yourself 10 years from now, like what type of advice do you think you would give yourself? And that is one part. Let's start with that. I would probably, that's tough. Because part of me says I would tell myself to slow down and focus on things one at a time instead of doing
01:19:05
Speaker
Like, Hey, I wanted to do tree trimming. Hey, I want to do this on the side. Hey, I want to start bull riding. Hey, this business is great. Let's do something else. Um, probably tell myself to slow down and just be in the moment a little bit more. So like, so like, even now, like knowing this, trying to live, you know, conscious of being super busy and then being at home and trying to be, you know, a better father, like others always tell myself, like, cause my phone is always going off. Always. If it's not somebody it's something. Hmm.
01:19:34
Speaker
So it's like half the time I'll just take it and I put it on the counter far away. I plug it in, I put it down, I put it on vibrate. Like if work calls, it's a separate ringer for that. If I have to go in, but sometimes like you got to fucking separate. So like living in the moment is definitely one thing I need to get better at. And like I could constantly try to do it because that's probably one thing I would tell myself is just, if you're not going to stop doing a million different things, when you are doing the, one of the things.
01:19:58
Speaker
Fatherhood, whatever it is, be in that moment for as much as you can and be that 100% that they need, even if it's only for two hours. That's a big one that I would probably like to be better at. Looking back, I'd probably tell myself to be better at.
01:20:13
Speaker
I think that's just an amazing way of wrapping it up, too. Tom, it's sincerely, it's been a pleasure. I mean, what strikes me about you is that you have so many irons in the fire, yet still, you are incredibly level-headed. You know where you're at, you know where you stand for, you know what matters.
01:20:31
Speaker
damn sure I mean my priorities not always the best so damn much respect to you for doing it and not even having designated practices and when I say that I mean like there's so many people even like I've gone into like mindfulness stuff when we talk about deep meditations deep breath work all that stuff and
01:20:54
Speaker
seeing you just execute, damn, thank you for putting that out into the world and just you being you and knowing who you are and putting that effort into everything that you do, you're making a difference. So thank you for being a change maker. Yeah, I appreciate it. I know this is a, it's fun, like I said, when you podcast, sometimes you don't get to talk about yourself because you're talking about someone else. So like someone listens to this, they're going to learn a lot more about me, even though I've recorded a hundred episodes in a podcast. So it is kind of nice to like,
01:21:24
Speaker
not therapy, but like almost like, put it back out there. This is what I got going on. And like, sometimes it's good because other people, people get fucking fired up about it. Like, dude, I'm a fucking
01:21:35
Speaker
idiot from the middle of nowhere, 1000 people town, one hallway high school with 40 people that we graduated. No, from nowhere. I can do it. Oh, 100. Like, no, we say if I could do it, you could do it. Like 100% you could. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? Just from nothing small town to doing whatever it is, whatever, whatever I want, providing like, anybody can do it. You just teach. That's what people I do give that question a lot. Like with motivation, how do you still train? How do you still do it? Like,
01:22:02
Speaker
You just get up, wake up and do it. It's not, it gets hard sometimes, but it's also like.
01:22:09
Speaker
if you have a couple more hours a day because you decide to sleep less, you can get a lot of fucking things done. So I don't know. It's just, I just hope that I can drive someone else to do the same things, you know, maybe not do as many things as I do, like focus on smaller things at once. But like, I just, I always want to be that driver. Like sometimes I'll go on Instagram, I'll do some rants and stuff, just cause I'm like throwing a show off that I'm working with. Please keep that up fricking amazing. Right. But people do like, they appreciate it. Maybe it's one person, maybe it's fucking a thousand people, but I,
01:22:38
Speaker
I part of me wants to make sure I'm humble. I don't want to be a fucking asshole. I look at me, I'm fucking midnight. I'm squatting. Like, no, this is not ideal. Don't do this. But if you're gonna, you know, be a hundred fucking percent, commit, get up early, stay up late, you know what I mean? Because that's what you have to be for.
01:22:54
Speaker
Hopefully this is not forever, but it has to be like this way for 10 years and so be it. But I just hope that it fucking fires someone else up to do just one more extra thing or just, Hey, step away and be a better dad for those two hours that you have. You can put your phone down. Well, Tom said that he, he does it. That's why I'm going to do it. Like just little shit like that. I'm like, God, I hope I could just push that out and somebody else can fucking adjust it and listen and, you know, do something that I say and take forward and be a better person. That's all. Boom. Boom.
01:23:23
Speaker
Tom and I'm fucking fired up, dude. Fucking, hey, yeah. Fucking fired up. Love you, dude. Go get it. Family time. Halloween. Get after it. It's Halloween, man. I got to go dress up, so. Yeah, awesome. Okay.
01:23:40
Speaker
Tom really knows himself so damn I am grateful that he's out there doing the work that he is putting in the hours and he's seeing the feedback he's seeing the games he's seeing the results it's not always pretty but he gets it done and I think a lot of us have a number two for to learn from that of course I've done that myself
01:24:03
Speaker
I also, I can't speak enough to this, is rest, recovery, do silence, do meditation, do something that keeps you sane with him. He surely knows what it is for him and that's amazing. We all work differently. If you want to connect more with Tom and see what this amazing just performer is up to, all the show notes have the links to his social media, to his website and so forth.
01:24:31
Speaker
And if you want to check out our programs, which are phenomenal seven day free trial, you have the gymnastics cross it, you have calisthenics and you have a little bit of everything. There are two mainly. There's three there in the, that we're working on right now as well. And I do these programs. There's a reason why I, and we have them up there.
01:24:53
Speaker
because I didn't find anything that was as methodical as thoroughly thought out. Everything had everything chopped up or it was randomized or it was just a sliver of what I wanted. This actually incorporates what I always wanted. So give it a try. Safina all caps 15 to get 15% off your first month and if
01:25:14
Speaker
you haven't done so so far please leave five stars if this show helps you scroll down on apple hit five stars literally takes you five seconds hit like subscribe i truly appreciate you doing this thank you very much and i'm sending you so much love until next time
01:25:42
Speaker
you