March 1, 2023 • 25 mins
Welcome to Unbreakable! A mental health podcast hosted by Fox NFL Insider Jay Glazer. On today's episode, we go across the Atlantic to catch up with the world’s strongest brothers Luke and Tom Stoltman. This is the incredibly inspiring story of how two brothers built an unbreakable bond, overcame mental barriers and turned autism into a superpower!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Oh, this is Unbreakable with Jay Glazer, a mental health
podcast helping you out of the gray and into the blue.
Now here's Jay Glazer. Welcome into Unbreakable and mental health
podcast with Jay Glazer. I'm your host, Jay Glazer, and
(00:20):
this is the first time we've gone across the Atlantic
to get some guests in. But it's pretty cool book.
I always like to have the best of the best
on here, right, And when we talk about mental health,
it's not just what I go through, the depression anxiety,
it's also the things I've done to lead to success.
You know, my gray has led to success, and I've
tried to be the first to do a lot of things.
The guys I'm having on right now, I usually say
(00:41):
you're one of one, but there's two of you. It's
the stolen brothers, Luke and Tom, who are the world's
strongest men. Right, Tom, you're the world's strongest man. Luke
you're you're strongest man. Right. But that's okay, So there
isn't one of one on here, but welcome man. That's
pretty cool. First of all, how much meat between the
two of you guys are we talking here? Probably probably
(01:03):
two kilos of me today I think we go. Yeah,
it's a substantial amount. It's substantial amount. You have an
incredible story and I'm gonna started here because Tom you're autistic, correct, Yeah, yeah, yeah,
tell the world your story. Come from a small town
there in Scotland and now you're the world's strongest men.
Take us on this journey. Yeah. I mean, so you said,
(01:24):
you know, I've been from Invergorden. I was diagnosed with
autism at a young age I think eleven twelve years old,
so you know, I had it through my whole school
years and even into the kind of higher school years
as well, into college and into work. So yeah, so
growing up in Vicgarden, you know, a small, small wee town,
all we wanted to play was well football in UK
(01:45):
soccer in America. So we all I wanted to do
was play play soccer. That was the one thing that
I loved. That's one thing that I felt normal doing,
was you know, having this ball at my feet and
just kicking it about everywhere. Everyone in Invergordon played football.
Everybody knew what football was, just that's all they did
with Yeah, but it was such a tight knit community
as well, so everyone helped each other. We were all
(02:05):
just friends and we all just everyone knew each other's
business as well, which can be a bad thing and
a good thing at the same time. So then growing
up there, for me, I think I caught better growing
up there because it's such a smallest place. I went
to school which had forty people in it. So my school,
my primary scored forty people in it. That really helped
me with the autism getting into the education system. The
teachers were really supportive to me. All my classmates, everybody
(02:27):
that went to that school were really really kind of
you didn't feel alone. Well, you give us this too,
because I it's interesting. One of my closest friends here
is the general manager Sable Seahawks, John Schneider, and his
son Ben as autistic and Ben doesn't is not very verbal,
but he could write out everything. What does it like
to have autism? What limits you? How do you feel
as opposed to people who don't have autism? Yeah, I
(02:50):
mean exactly for school, Like you know, you think you're
in a box by yourself. I mean when I was
in primary schools a right, But when I went into
the secondary school, that's when I wanted just to trap
myself away and up myself in a room, and I
couldn't colt without a plan. I needed to know every
everything I was doing, every hour of the day. If
I didn't have that, that's when I would didn't take
maybe a tantrim or you know, misbehave for my mom
(03:12):
and dad. Last shout, and yeah, that was kind of
really hard. So that was a Yeah. Just being structure,
I'm planning for myself even to this day, is very
very important for myself to get through life and to
get through what I'm doing successfully. And look, as you're
saying this, what are you doing? Are you first readed?
What are you helping him? Do you understand it? I
mean it was a difficult one to understand. I guess
(03:34):
when I was when we were all younger, a lot younger,
but I'm ten years older than Tom, so I started
my strength journey a little bit earlier, and I was
quite a quiet guy, quite a shy teenager growing up.
And I saw them that what the gym gave to
me was this massive confidence and like sense of achievement.
(03:55):
Every time I went into the gym, I was like, oh,
I'm lusting do more weights than they did last week.
This is amazing. Like, how can I do that? And
the power that gave me as as a young man
growing up in a small town was massive. And then
something kind of in my head, I thought, well, maybe
Tom as this not very confident guy. This this kind
(04:17):
of guy that's struggling, this young boy that I saw
a little bits of myself and Tom. So we thought, right,
let's get Tom to the gym. He's six foot eight,
you know, he's a monster anyway, so this guy's gonna
be fucking huge eventually. So it was amazing. It was
like the kind of transformation was was just insane physically
(04:40):
and mentally. And Tom, it just over the course of
a year, his confidence just at blossom. He became his butterfly,
you know that he was a caterpillar, went into this
little cocoon and came out this jack body. There's a
chat the butterfly and it was really nice for the
family to see because we weren't shoot um. You know,
(05:01):
Tom growing up, he probably doesn't remember too much because
a lot of it was you know, when when you
go through trauma when you were younger, it's quite a
hard to pinpoint exactly those those half moments are because
you kind of you almost want to forget about them, right,
you know. So Tom's now two times world strong as man,
and it's probably more difficult to imagine himself as that
(05:23):
little guy that was he wasn't able to get on
a train, you know for five minutes, or or leave
the house without anyone, or you know, sleep over at
friends houses. And that anxiety, that kind of crippling anxiety,
that kind of I think was was with Tom from
a young age was very apparent to see. And the
lack of verbal communication that Tom was able to give
(05:46):
when he was younger, you know, he wouldn't. You wouldn't.
Tom wouldn't be able to go into I don't mean
to speak like you're not here, sorry to but when
Tom went into the gym the first time, your your
head was down, and that was it, constantly down and
unable to communicate. And but then you know, over time
and patience and more understanding, you know, we've got this
(06:07):
monster of a guy now. You know. It's incredible, dam
is it when you have that level of autism, do
you know and understand everything that's going on and you're
just not able to communicate. I mean when I obviously
a few years back, say before I started strong, and
I didn't understand much of it at all. I mean
I just thought like, because we have two other brothers
(06:30):
and two sisters. I just I used to kind of say,
of my parents, why am I different? You know, because
I can't do the things that my wee brother could do.
I couldn't do the things that Luke could do, and
I couldn't do things that my siblings could do. So
I was that was there. But then when I started
going to the gym and had to go into mentally
uncomfortable places like the hood up thing, that's when I
would usually quit and go, I can't do this. But
(06:51):
I just kind of started like understanding it much more.
I'd start understanding my mind much more because it was
me putting myself in that position, not anybody else. And
that's when then I really really kind of started growing
mentally instead of physical. You know, the gym is the
thing that saved my life. I mean people over exaggerated
saying like, oh, the gym's that, the gym's that, But
the gym is a thing that saved my life and
(07:12):
really taught me mentally how to control the autism. When
things get too stressful, I get too much on anxiety
and stuff. I know how to take myself away now,
but I'll go to the gym. The gyms my safety blanket. Now,
you know, I can go to the gym, speak to
loads of people who go there for an hour and
come out the other side and enjoy it. So you know,
I love about this too. Man, I have whole you
know chapter in my book I'm breakable about you know,
(07:34):
how I get how you can get yourself through the
grave ensign and depression is being service. But this is
next level, Luke, for you to take your little or
younger brother right it was struggle with autism to gym
to transform him. Do you realize, like how beautiful that is?
Have you allowed to love yourself up for it? It's incredible? Yeah,
(07:56):
I mean it's it's a challenge, you know, that's something
that I can giving myself self praise maybe or credit.
It's difficult. It's difficult sometimes, but you know I see
the the boy the man that Tom's become from that
little boy, and it's it's amazing, you know. So it's
so special and so unique, you know, to think that,
(08:19):
you know, the gym, training and lifting some weights, getting
better physically can actually make a huge difference mentally, right,
It's I'm sure there's science. I'm sure there's studies there,
but I'm not that way inclined. I'm very much more off.
I wear my heart in the sleeve kind of guy.
And you know, I see it firsthand what it does
to Tom, And yeah, it's pretty pretty special. It's witnessing
(08:42):
a firsthand was very special at the time. Tom, How
does that make your bond with your brother, knowing that,
like he's the one that opened the door for you. Yeah,
I mean no, my bond is like an unbreakable bond.
You know. I think I have a lot to look for,
basically saving my life because, like I said, we didn't
know we were I was going to be. That's I
don't really know much about my hitch childhood. That could
(09:02):
have went in care, could have went other places. And
you know, my mom and dad could have just said
we can't handle you and away you go. So you know,
the gym, when I stepped into the gym, like I said,
and look toot me there, he kept pushing me. He
kept pushing me, and he kept pushing me. And who
was I sating in my head to say, don't quit
don't quit, and I didn't quit an then look at
us now, you know ten years later where the gym's
my life and I love every minute of it, and
(09:24):
I oh so much to the gym and look for
saving my life. So well, you guys are again you're
one of one, right. So there's a lot of guys
out there who lived and who weren't these strong man contests.
But you guys are different. You're the world chats great.
What makes you all different than your competitors than everybody else? Well,
I think for me, I atually think there's my autism.
(09:44):
I think with autism I can. I've got this tunnel
vision that if I sat myself a goal, nothing will
get in the way of it. So but it's up.
The last two years at Welstow is Man, I did
a ten week prep and I said, the business, sponsor stuff,
everything comes second and third. I've got this time. My
vision at all I'm doing is waking up going to
the gym saying world strong as Man. I had it
written down on my board and I did that. I
(10:06):
was a CD with it every single day for the
two months, and I even wrote on social media that
was going to win World strong Man before I forgot
out there. And but I also think we talked to
a psychologist, and I talked to the psychologist a few
months before my first World strollers Man win. And again
what she'd done to my mindset, I made me like
the unbreakable mindset in the gym. The stuff I did
(10:27):
in the gym was unbelievable. Yeah, I think autism has
that benefit of I can prep myself my mind better
than a lot of people that don't have that. I
just call it a superpower. So right when people hear that,
right you were anybody else, say, man, it's a handicaps limitation.
You turned it into your superpower. You could turn autism
into your superpower. We could turn anything into our superpower.
(10:50):
Look what about you? What what makes you different from
everybody else? Yeah, I mean I think for sure, it's
it's having the privilege to train with Tom. You know,
it's it's more than just a fight for me to
be the best in the world. You know, we've got
each other, the family. You know, we lost Mum a
few years ago, and that's my drive, you know, trying
(11:11):
to do her memory kind of honor, you know, honoring
her name as much as we can't be because again,
you know, all this stuff, it's it's very superficial what
we go through. It's the pain that we go through,
isn't isn't real. Pay No, you know you've been through depression,
You've been through those dark times. That's that's when you
go to the depths of like questioning yourself and and
(11:31):
we witnessed our mother go through so much pain in
her battle to still be here, you know, to breathe
every day. So for me, that's that's what I see
every day is as mum, I'm getting to train with
us big monster every day is pretty special. So it's
it's very it's very humbling to me to be able
(11:51):
to do that. I think, how much is what you
guys doing the strong man competitions. How much would you
say is physical? And how much would you say is
between your ears? Oh jeez, it's like physically it's it's
always the easy stuff, isn't it. You know, Like it's
it's very much routine, go in, lift the weights, do this,
do that. But when everyone that you're competing against wants
(12:13):
to be that alpha, wants to be that kind of
the strongest, the biggest, the badest kind of guy in
the world. You have to make sure your your mind
is imprepenetrable. You know, it's it's unbreakable that minds it
has to be. And I think with Tom and myself
when we go to these competitions, like we're a big
(12:34):
believer in the energy, you know, like energy forces. Now,
so we have our own energy force, you know, we
go in and we've got this vibrations that's going and um,
it's pretty powerful. Like when I see Tom perform, he
is unbeatable. You know, he's the the unmovable force. Um,
the it's it's incredible to see. So I'm really I
(12:55):
really think that's something very powerful for us. I think,
what is it? What is what mind game? So? Okay,
so like my five team is like me and Randy
Gutour and Jay Haran and Chuck Ladell a lot. And
what I learned from Brandy is we don't give a
fuck our fighters and I'm breakable. We don't give a
fucking we winner loose. We just want to make when
you're across the cage from us sparring anything, it's gonna
(13:16):
be the worst fucking after in of your life. That's
that's what we say. We just want you to go
that fucking sucked going in there with them. So if
we take that ego out of it with the winner
the loss, it makes you a lot more dangerous, right,
So what mind games do you guys play with yourself
to put you guys over the top. For me, I
just keep my self chilled out and like dance around
(13:38):
and just give that kind of polit energy because see
when you do that with other competitors and they're all
kind of chopped up and I need to go and
I'm just nice and relaxed, you know, I've got really
like relaxing Taylor Swift music on, and they're all fight
in the hotel. That comes That's what I realized that
I've seen it myself. That comes across there. They stayed
at you and they use that energy like, well, why
(14:00):
is he so chilled out? Why is he not getting
all edged up for the competition? So I just stay
as the rats that I can and don't care about
anything in the world except from just that moment I'm
in right now. So so you're fucking with them, They're
all looking at you, going what why? Because my mind
is I don't I don't want to talk about the
(14:21):
competition until five minutes before I compete or ten minutes
before I compete, I try and just stay away from
that and the keepment itself nice and chilled out. So
give me how you guys felt when you guys won
your first competitions and just you know, that moment of
oh man, everything I've worked for it actually happened. It
was a huge sense of relief because it's almost like
(14:42):
you set yourself these these kind of these goals, you know,
and I'm in great for me personally, I think we
need goals to to really kind of push ourselves, you know,
and for a number of years, you know, maybe finishing
third second, and then for me to win my title
my europe St longest man. When I want that, it
was like it's it's happened. You know. It's like that
(15:04):
kind of it almost breaks that that next level, that boundary.
You've kind of punched through that void. You know you're
in there, You're through the into that next level. And
for me, it was that sense of achievement. It was massive.
It was like all the staff that we do, speaking psychologists, speaking,
you know, doing our physio, doing training everyday, sacrificing, you know,
(15:26):
not going to like birthday party's, weddings, not seeing our wives.
You know, all the stuff just became That's why we
did it. You both talked about speaking of psychologists, like
where are the psychologists getting you? Like, where are the
summer schools, somethings they taught you? You know, they helped
you so much. It was because we're from a small town,
so we have the attitude off on nothing should happen
(15:47):
here because we're just from a small town, you know,
and we almost I was very guilty of like playing
myself down, you know, so I'm just some little idiot.
I'm some daft little fucker that runs around lifting way.
I'm not that special. And so it was a clinical
psychologist we spoke to. So it's almost breaking down that
that mindset. You know, why don't you feel that you're
(16:09):
worth something? Why can't you say, you know, I am
one of the best in the world and be okay
with that. It's like that confidence. And so she gave us,
or she gave me I think probably similar to Tom.
She gave me tenplates, you know, to work through. You know,
the first ex exercise we did was, right, write me
a list why you're some little fucker from the town
and there wasn't many there, but then it was like,
(16:31):
write me a list why you're actually really good at
what you do, and there was a big list and
it was like, you know, that visual realization just really
click for me. And you know, my mindset is a
lot different from Tom's. I'm a bit more emotionally driven,
so I need to take care of my emotions and
make sure I'm not going too high or too low
(16:53):
or I find that kind of middle ground. And with
the templates and the kind of the work that we
did together, just talking, you know, it's it's amazing what
talking about like you can do for you. You know,
it's and been given. It was almost like I got
the permission to just talk about me for a little while,
and that was really powerful for me. That's such an
(17:14):
important message because here are the world's too strong as
men and they're talking about the power of talking and
being open with too many dudes think it makes them
look weak if they talk about it. I really want
people to understand this message and how powerful it is
that that you're giving. So man, I appreciate that. Tom.
What about you, what your psychologist would you learn from
your psychologists that was really able to help you. Yeah,
(17:35):
I mean that was a kind of concrete thinking and
the tunnel vision that she taught me about. I mean,
you know, I really kind of learned like that Basically
how I think is a concrete thinking. So it's just
like I go up to a lift, I do it,
and I just keep doing it repetitively. So she really
kind of tapped into my mind off more like just
(17:55):
getting me, getting me buzzwords and help me with aggression
that I was really kind of laugh like aggression in
the gym, and how to kind of switch myself on
when things got hard, I would just give up. So
she really kind of helped me with these buzz words.
So for this answer, she said aggressive or like squeeze,
and when Luke shouted that out or my coach shouted
it out, I was going to a different world and
(18:16):
just automatically squeeze. She taught me about like lap the
gasid as well, like you know, if I had started
getting lap the gasid of my legs, think about my ears,
and I did that, you know, and ended up winning
like all the events that had that wasn't it. So
it was really it was just like I said, look
as well, it was nice to actually be able to
just talk about myself and be like, you know, if
I'm angry, if I'm sad, how to kind of control
(18:37):
my emotions and just basual I to control my life because,
like I said, I she gave me that unbreakable mindset
and for the last two years, which means I said,
like a month or two months before world stores, man,
I was going to win it. And that's because of her.
But yes, it was unbelievable what I learned through her
and what I've picked up and how my autism kind
of benefited from doing that as well, because she really
(18:59):
understood about auto and it really helped just to have
someone there that I could go to it once a
week and just be like, right, I'm struggling with this
and doing good at this helped me out. And she
just knew exactly what to do. You know, they're planning
every hour she had rewritten out for me. It was
just so easy just to have her just tout all
the stress away from myself. What what kind of message
did you get? I'm sure you get messages from other
(19:19):
familys with jids with autism. Yeah, inspiration, Yeah, I mean
I got a lot of I said, that's why I
use this platform. Novel being well strong with Man's nice,
but I want to prove that, you know, when you
can do anything in your life if you've got this
superpower label, you know, and I've got wrongly. I was
getting labeled in school and getting you know, a hard
time from a lot of people. But as you know,
(19:39):
I want to prove to people that I can beat
these normal people, you know, and I'm food time, well
strong with man against these monsters. And yeah, I think
anyone that has autism, you know, and maybe you might
have a rough childhood, you might have people that don't
believe in you. But just get yourself a great support
system and do whatever you want because I've set I
set myself massive goals and every single person laughed at me.
It set from my family and said you're never going
(20:00):
to achieve any and look at me now, so yeah,
you it's just to prove people wrong. Use it, and
I mean, I get kids messed me going like I've
started a gym because of you. My autism is my superpower.
I've got the same superpower to you. And heating that
is like music through my years because now they're actually
living with the superpower. They're loving it and they love
every minute of their life now. And people that come
into the shop to meet as a gym, it's unbelievable.
(20:22):
I can actually change somebody's life by lifting weight or
calling autism a superpower. So that's beautiful, man. You know
it's funny. The last line of my book was like,
for all these years, I always thought I was cursed
by depression anxiety, and now I feel like God bless
me with the person anxiety so I could help others
through their pain. And that's exactly what you're doing. And
that's how great does that make you feel? Yeah? I
mean I said it makes me feel in talking about
(20:43):
it's like I could replace the world straw Man titles
to making sure that this kid's got a better life,
you know, with understanding autism. But yeah, I get an
absolute buzz when, you know, I go speak to a
class of kids or parents have messed me saying oh
you're changing my kids life around, or my kids said
their first few words because they watched you on YouTube.
It's like, Wow, that's that's incredible. You also, that's God's work.
(21:05):
That's amazing. All right, Before I let you guys go.
I always asked my guests this. You know, you've already
given me a lot of unbreakable moments, person or anything,
and we've missed or give me that moment that's something
that should have broken you but didn't, and you can't
hear the other side of that tunnel as a result. Yeah, man,
you're just stronger for the rest of your life. Yeah.
I mean, I think for me, it was obviously my mum.
She was the person that was by my side every
(21:28):
single day with autism. She was the only person I
kind of went to with problems and stuff, and when
she asked, I thought that was my life over as well.
I was. He had a wife. I said to my wife,
I'm never doing strong one it again. I don't know
what to do, you know, Like, I just didn't want
to be on the earth because I'm my best best friend,
my mom, everyone had been she'd been taken away from me, so,
you know, I kind of for that next month or two,
(21:49):
I kind of just I didn't accept that she was gone.
You know, I was too scared to go up to
my parents' house because the first thing you'd hear is
her voice, and I didn't hear that. You know, I
was too scared to phone. I was not letting it go.
And then all of a sudden switched to my mind
and the things she said to me before she passed,
and she wanted to make sure that I was happy.
I had a house, I had a wife, and you
(22:11):
know that just sitting it makes you happy. And I
thought that, and you know, I was doing sitting that
was making me happy. I had a house and I
had a wife. So I basically got her favorite son,
her favorite flower tattooed on me, which is a sunflower.
And every single time I competed after that, I looked
to the I looked to the clouds, and yeah, like
she gives me the energy now to kind of get
out that dark hole and just yeah, be that kind
(22:32):
of strong man I am because my mom was a
that's real strength, you know, trying to beat cancers probably
the most disgusting, horrible disease there is, and watching her
suffer every single day killed us, but also made a
stronger one. Flip side as well, Look what about your brother? Yeah,
very similar to Tom. You know, we both have like
tattoos throughout her body, you know, representing Mam and the family,
(22:54):
and you know, Mam, Mam was our the sunflower. You know,
Mam was our sunshine. You know, whenever we went, she
was always the loudest, the happiest, and she kind of
was the life force of her family. And you know,
watching her at the time, I didn't really know what grief,
real grief was, you know. So for me, it was
(23:16):
realizing what grief was because it hit me in the face.
It hit me really hard, and it took me to
a dark, dark place. Well, you know, I resented a
lot of people, and having a wife that I resented
because she still had a family that was that was
really hard to deal with. But then, yeah, I remember
a few months after Mom passed in the springtime, so
(23:40):
it was a field, like a farmer's field out in
front of me, and I was just sitting outside having
a cup of coffee in the morning, and I saw
a man drive past in her a little van. She
had a little van that she used to drive and
the dogs would follow her. So every morning when she
was still here, we used to give her a wave
and staff and I just had this vision. I saw
(24:01):
her there and I thought, well, just because she's gone,
it doesn't stop us having a relationship together. I still
have a relationship with my every day and not that
realization for me was was really special. You know, because
I still talk to I still see here, I do
things now that I can kind of connect on a
deeper level. Um, So I'm very fortunate I've found that.
(24:22):
But being able to realize I still can have that
relationship with her even though she's not here physically, was
it was pretty special. So yeah, that was That's a
beautiful lesson. Man. You know, I try and tell some
people all the time too, like we just rent these bodies,
but the souls live on forever, so they're always still
with you. So man, I appreciate you both. You want
to meet Listen, you guys, come to La You got
(24:42):
to come to Unbreakable Gym A right and lift my
fucking weights. We can't wait. We'll be out good man. Man,
what you gotta just such an inspiration. I really this
was this one of my favorites. I really appreciate it.
And you know, you guys are halfway across the world
with me right now, man, but I feel like I'm
(25:03):
the third brother with you. Thank you for joining me, guys,
Thank you so much. Keep walking this walk together. Love y'all,
Oh, this is Unbreakable with Jay Glazer, a mental health
podcast helping you out of the gray and into the blue.
Now here's Jay Glazer. Welcome into Unbreakable and mental health
podcast with Jay Glazer. I'm your host, Jay Glazer, and
(00:20):
this is the first time we've gone across the Atlantic
to get some guests in. But it's pretty cool book.
I always like to have the best of the best
on here, right, And when we talk about mental health,
it's not just what I go through, the depression anxiety,
it's also the things I've done to lead to success.
You know, my gray has led to success, and I've
tried to be the first to do a lot of things.
The guys I'm having on right now, I usually say
(00:41):
you're one of one, but there's two of you. It's
the stolen brothers, Luke and Tom, who are the world's
strongest men. Right, Tom, you're the world's strongest man. Luke
you're you're strongest man. Right. But that's okay, So there
isn't one of one on here, but welcome man. That's
pretty cool. First of all, how much meat between the
two of you guys are we talking here? Probably probably
(01:03):
two kilos of me today I think we go. Yeah,
it's a substantial amount. It's substantial amount. You have an
incredible story and I'm gonna started here because Tom you're autistic, correct, Yeah, yeah, yeah,
tell the world your story. Come from a small town
there in Scotland and now you're the world's strongest men.
Take us on this journey. Yeah. I mean, so you said,
(01:24):
you know, I've been from Invergorden. I was diagnosed with
autism at a young age I think eleven twelve years old,
so you know, I had it through my whole school
years and even into the kind of higher school years
as well, into college and into work. So yeah, so
growing up in Vicgarden, you know, a small, small wee town,
all we wanted to play was well football in UK
(01:45):
soccer in America. So we all I wanted to do
was play play soccer. That was the one thing that
I loved. That's one thing that I felt normal doing,
was you know, having this ball at my feet and
just kicking it about everywhere. Everyone in Invergordon played football.
Everybody knew what football was, just that's all they did
with Yeah, but it was such a tight knit community
as well, so everyone helped each other. We were all
(02:05):
just friends and we all just everyone knew each other's
business as well, which can be a bad thing and
a good thing at the same time. So then growing
up there, for me, I think I caught better growing
up there because it's such a smallest place. I went
to school which had forty people in it. So my school,
my primary scored forty people in it. That really helped
me with the autism getting into the education system. The
teachers were really supportive to me. All my classmates, everybody
(02:27):
that went to that school were really really kind of
you didn't feel alone. Well, you give us this too,
because I it's interesting. One of my closest friends here
is the general manager Sable Seahawks, John Schneider, and his
son Ben as autistic and Ben doesn't is not very verbal,
but he could write out everything. What does it like
to have autism? What limits you? How do you feel
as opposed to people who don't have autism? Yeah, I
(02:50):
mean exactly for school, Like you know, you think you're
in a box by yourself. I mean when I was
in primary schools a right, But when I went into
the secondary school, that's when I wanted just to trap
myself away and up myself in a room, and I
couldn't colt without a plan. I needed to know every
everything I was doing, every hour of the day. If
I didn't have that, that's when I would didn't take
maybe a tantrim or you know, misbehave for my mom
(03:12):
and dad. Last shout, and yeah, that was kind of
really hard. So that was a Yeah. Just being structure,
I'm planning for myself even to this day, is very
very important for myself to get through life and to
get through what I'm doing successfully. And look, as you're
saying this, what are you doing? Are you first readed?
What are you helping him? Do you understand it? I
mean it was a difficult one to understand. I guess
(03:34):
when I was when we were all younger, a lot younger,
but I'm ten years older than Tom, so I started
my strength journey a little bit earlier, and I was
quite a quiet guy, quite a shy teenager growing up.
And I saw them that what the gym gave to
me was this massive confidence and like sense of achievement.
(03:55):
Every time I went into the gym, I was like, oh,
I'm lusting do more weights than they did last week.
This is amazing. Like, how can I do that? And
the power that gave me as as a young man
growing up in a small town was massive. And then
something kind of in my head, I thought, well, maybe
Tom as this not very confident guy. This this kind
(04:17):
of guy that's struggling, this young boy that I saw
a little bits of myself and Tom. So we thought, right,
let's get Tom to the gym. He's six foot eight,
you know, he's a monster anyway, so this guy's gonna
be fucking huge eventually. So it was amazing. It was
like the kind of transformation was was just insane physically
(04:40):
and mentally. And Tom, it just over the course of
a year, his confidence just at blossom. He became his butterfly,
you know that he was a caterpillar, went into this
little cocoon and came out this jack body. There's a
chat the butterfly and it was really nice for the
family to see because we weren't shoot um. You know,
(05:01):
Tom growing up, he probably doesn't remember too much because
a lot of it was you know, when when you
go through trauma when you were younger, it's quite a
hard to pinpoint exactly those those half moments are because
you kind of you almost want to forget about them, right,
you know. So Tom's now two times world strong as man,
and it's probably more difficult to imagine himself as that
(05:23):
little guy that was he wasn't able to get on
a train, you know for five minutes, or or leave
the house without anyone, or you know, sleep over at
friends houses. And that anxiety, that kind of crippling anxiety,
that kind of I think was was with Tom from
a young age was very apparent to see. And the
lack of verbal communication that Tom was able to give
(05:46):
when he was younger, you know, he wouldn't. You wouldn't.
Tom wouldn't be able to go into I don't mean
to speak like you're not here, sorry to but when
Tom went into the gym the first time, your your
head was down, and that was it, constantly down and
unable to communicate. And but then you know, over time
and patience and more understanding, you know, we've got this
(06:07):
monster of a guy now. You know. It's incredible, dam
is it when you have that level of autism, do
you know and understand everything that's going on and you're
just not able to communicate. I mean when I obviously
a few years back, say before I started strong, and
I didn't understand much of it at all. I mean
I just thought like, because we have two other brothers
(06:30):
and two sisters. I just I used to kind of say,
of my parents, why am I different? You know, because
I can't do the things that my wee brother could do.
I couldn't do the things that Luke could do, and
I couldn't do things that my siblings could do. So
I was that was there. But then when I started
going to the gym and had to go into mentally
uncomfortable places like the hood up thing, that's when I
would usually quit and go, I can't do this. But
(06:51):
I just kind of started like understanding it much more.
I'd start understanding my mind much more because it was
me putting myself in that position, not anybody else. And
that's when then I really really kind of started growing
mentally instead of physical. You know, the gym is the
thing that saved my life. I mean people over exaggerated
saying like, oh, the gym's that, the gym's that, But
the gym is a thing that saved my life and
(07:12):
really taught me mentally how to control the autism. When
things get too stressful, I get too much on anxiety
and stuff. I know how to take myself away now,
but I'll go to the gym. The gyms my safety blanket. Now,
you know, I can go to the gym, speak to
loads of people who go there for an hour and
come out the other side and enjoy it. So you know,
I love about this too. Man, I have whole you
know chapter in my book I'm breakable about you know,
(07:34):
how I get how you can get yourself through the
grave ensign and depression is being service. But this is
next level, Luke, for you to take your little or
younger brother right it was struggle with autism to gym
to transform him. Do you realize, like how beautiful that is?
Have you allowed to love yourself up for it? It's incredible? Yeah,
(07:56):
I mean it's it's a challenge, you know, that's something
that I can giving myself self praise maybe or credit.
It's difficult. It's difficult sometimes, but you know I see
the the boy the man that Tom's become from that
little boy, and it's it's amazing, you know. So it's
so special and so unique, you know, to think that,
(08:19):
you know, the gym, training and lifting some weights, getting
better physically can actually make a huge difference mentally, right,
It's I'm sure there's science. I'm sure there's studies there,
but I'm not that way inclined. I'm very much more off.
I wear my heart in the sleeve kind of guy.
And you know, I see it firsthand what it does
to Tom, And yeah, it's pretty pretty special. It's witnessing
(08:42):
a firsthand was very special at the time. Tom, How
does that make your bond with your brother, knowing that,
like he's the one that opened the door for you. Yeah,
I mean no, my bond is like an unbreakable bond.
You know. I think I have a lot to look for,
basically saving my life because, like I said, we didn't
know we were I was going to be. That's I
don't really know much about my hitch childhood. That could
(09:02):
have went in care, could have went other places. And
you know, my mom and dad could have just said
we can't handle you and away you go. So you know,
the gym, when I stepped into the gym, like I said,
and look toot me there, he kept pushing me. He
kept pushing me, and he kept pushing me. And who
was I sating in my head to say, don't quit
don't quit, and I didn't quit an then look at
us now, you know ten years later where the gym's
my life and I love every minute of it, and
(09:24):
I oh so much to the gym and look for
saving my life. So well, you guys are again you're
one of one, right. So there's a lot of guys
out there who lived and who weren't these strong man contests.
But you guys are different. You're the world chats great.
What makes you all different than your competitors than everybody else? Well,
I think for me, I atually think there's my autism.
(09:44):
I think with autism I can. I've got this tunnel
vision that if I sat myself a goal, nothing will
get in the way of it. So but it's up.
The last two years at Welstow is Man, I did
a ten week prep and I said, the business, sponsor stuff,
everything comes second and third. I've got this time. My
vision at all I'm doing is waking up going to
the gym saying world strong as Man. I had it
written down on my board and I did that. I
(10:06):
was a CD with it every single day for the
two months, and I even wrote on social media that
was going to win World strong Man before I forgot
out there. And but I also think we talked to
a psychologist, and I talked to the psychologist a few
months before my first World strollers Man win. And again
what she'd done to my mindset, I made me like
the unbreakable mindset in the gym. The stuff I did
(10:27):
in the gym was unbelievable. Yeah, I think autism has
that benefit of I can prep myself my mind better
than a lot of people that don't have that. I
just call it a superpower. So right when people hear that,
right you were anybody else, say, man, it's a handicaps limitation.
You turned it into your superpower. You could turn autism
into your superpower. We could turn anything into our superpower.
(10:50):
Look what about you? What what makes you different from
everybody else? Yeah, I mean I think for sure, it's
it's having the privilege to train with Tom. You know,
it's it's more than just a fight for me to
be the best in the world. You know, we've got
each other, the family. You know, we lost Mum a
few years ago, and that's my drive, you know, trying
(11:11):
to do her memory kind of honor, you know, honoring
her name as much as we can't be because again,
you know, all this stuff, it's it's very superficial what
we go through. It's the pain that we go through,
isn't isn't real. Pay No, you know you've been through depression,
You've been through those dark times. That's that's when you
go to the depths of like questioning yourself and and
(11:31):
we witnessed our mother go through so much pain in
her battle to still be here, you know, to breathe
every day. So for me, that's that's what I see
every day is as mum, I'm getting to train with
us big monster every day is pretty special. So it's
it's very it's very humbling to me to be able
(11:51):
to do that. I think, how much is what you
guys doing the strong man competitions. How much would you
say is physical? And how much would you say is
between your ears? Oh jeez, it's like physically it's it's
always the easy stuff, isn't it. You know, Like it's
it's very much routine, go in, lift the weights, do this,
do that. But when everyone that you're competing against wants
(12:13):
to be that alpha, wants to be that kind of
the strongest, the biggest, the badest kind of guy in
the world. You have to make sure your your mind
is imprepenetrable. You know, it's it's unbreakable that minds it
has to be. And I think with Tom and myself
when we go to these competitions, like we're a big
(12:34):
believer in the energy, you know, like energy forces. Now,
so we have our own energy force, you know, we
go in and we've got this vibrations that's going and um,
it's pretty powerful. Like when I see Tom perform, he
is unbeatable. You know, he's the the unmovable force. Um,
the it's it's incredible to see. So I'm really I
(12:55):
really think that's something very powerful for us. I think,
what is it? What is what mind game? So? Okay,
so like my five team is like me and Randy
Gutour and Jay Haran and Chuck Ladell a lot. And
what I learned from Brandy is we don't give a
fuck our fighters and I'm breakable. We don't give a
fucking we winner loose. We just want to make when
you're across the cage from us sparring anything, it's gonna
(13:16):
be the worst fucking after in of your life. That's
that's what we say. We just want you to go
that fucking sucked going in there with them. So if
we take that ego out of it with the winner
the loss, it makes you a lot more dangerous, right,
So what mind games do you guys play with yourself
to put you guys over the top. For me, I
just keep my self chilled out and like dance around
(13:38):
and just give that kind of polit energy because see
when you do that with other competitors and they're all
kind of chopped up and I need to go and
I'm just nice and relaxed, you know, I've got really
like relaxing Taylor Swift music on, and they're all fight
in the hotel. That comes That's what I realized that
I've seen it myself. That comes across there. They stayed
at you and they use that energy like, well, why
(14:00):
is he so chilled out? Why is he not getting
all edged up for the competition? So I just stay
as the rats that I can and don't care about
anything in the world except from just that moment I'm
in right now. So so you're fucking with them, They're
all looking at you, going what why? Because my mind
is I don't I don't want to talk about the
(14:21):
competition until five minutes before I compete or ten minutes
before I compete, I try and just stay away from
that and the keepment itself nice and chilled out. So
give me how you guys felt when you guys won
your first competitions and just you know, that moment of
oh man, everything I've worked for it actually happened. It
was a huge sense of relief because it's almost like
(14:42):
you set yourself these these kind of these goals, you know,
and I'm in great for me personally, I think we
need goals to to really kind of push ourselves, you know,
and for a number of years, you know, maybe finishing
third second, and then for me to win my title
my europe St longest man. When I want that, it
was like it's it's happened. You know. It's like that
(15:04):
kind of it almost breaks that that next level, that boundary.
You've kind of punched through that void. You know you're
in there, You're through the into that next level. And
for me, it was that sense of achievement. It was massive.
It was like all the staff that we do, speaking psychologists, speaking,
you know, doing our physio, doing training everyday, sacrificing, you know,
(15:26):
not going to like birthday party's, weddings, not seeing our wives.
You know, all the stuff just became That's why we
did it. You both talked about speaking of psychologists, like
where are the psychologists getting you? Like, where are the
summer schools, somethings they taught you? You know, they helped
you so much. It was because we're from a small town,
so we have the attitude off on nothing should happen
(15:47):
here because we're just from a small town, you know,
and we almost I was very guilty of like playing
myself down, you know, so I'm just some little idiot.
I'm some daft little fucker that runs around lifting way.
I'm not that special. And so it was a clinical
psychologist we spoke to. So it's almost breaking down that
that mindset. You know, why don't you feel that you're
(16:09):
worth something? Why can't you say, you know, I am
one of the best in the world and be okay
with that. It's like that confidence. And so she gave us,
or she gave me I think probably similar to Tom.
She gave me tenplates, you know, to work through. You know,
the first ex exercise we did was, right, write me
a list why you're some little fucker from the town
and there wasn't many there, but then it was like,
(16:31):
write me a list why you're actually really good at
what you do, and there was a big list and
it was like, you know, that visual realization just really
click for me. And you know, my mindset is a
lot different from Tom's. I'm a bit more emotionally driven,
so I need to take care of my emotions and
make sure I'm not going too high or too low
(16:53):
or I find that kind of middle ground. And with
the templates and the kind of the work that we
did together, just talking, you know, it's it's amazing what
talking about like you can do for you. You know,
it's and been given. It was almost like I got
the permission to just talk about me for a little while,
and that was really powerful for me. That's such an
(17:14):
important message because here are the world's too strong as
men and they're talking about the power of talking and
being open with too many dudes think it makes them
look weak if they talk about it. I really want
people to understand this message and how powerful it is
that that you're giving. So man, I appreciate that. Tom.
What about you, what your psychologist would you learn from
your psychologists that was really able to help you. Yeah,
(17:35):
I mean that was a kind of concrete thinking and
the tunnel vision that she taught me about. I mean,
you know, I really kind of learned like that Basically
how I think is a concrete thinking. So it's just
like I go up to a lift, I do it,
and I just keep doing it repetitively. So she really
kind of tapped into my mind off more like just
(17:55):
getting me, getting me buzzwords and help me with aggression
that I was really kind of laugh like aggression in
the gym, and how to kind of switch myself on
when things got hard, I would just give up. So
she really kind of helped me with these buzz words.
So for this answer, she said aggressive or like squeeze,
and when Luke shouted that out or my coach shouted
it out, I was going to a different world and
(18:16):
just automatically squeeze. She taught me about like lap the
gasid as well, like you know, if I had started
getting lap the gasid of my legs, think about my ears,
and I did that, you know, and ended up winning
like all the events that had that wasn't it. So
it was really it was just like I said, look
as well, it was nice to actually be able to
just talk about myself and be like, you know, if
I'm angry, if I'm sad, how to kind of control
(18:37):
my emotions and just basual I to control my life because,
like I said, I she gave me that unbreakable mindset
and for the last two years, which means I said,
like a month or two months before world stores, man,
I was going to win it. And that's because of her.
But yes, it was unbelievable what I learned through her
and what I've picked up and how my autism kind
of benefited from doing that as well, because she really
(18:59):
understood about auto and it really helped just to have
someone there that I could go to it once a
week and just be like, right, I'm struggling with this
and doing good at this helped me out. And she
just knew exactly what to do. You know, they're planning
every hour she had rewritten out for me. It was
just so easy just to have her just tout all
the stress away from myself. What what kind of message
did you get? I'm sure you get messages from other
(19:19):
familys with jids with autism. Yeah, inspiration, Yeah, I mean
I got a lot of I said, that's why I
use this platform. Novel being well strong with Man's nice,
but I want to prove that, you know, when you
can do anything in your life if you've got this
superpower label, you know, and I've got wrongly. I was
getting labeled in school and getting you know, a hard
time from a lot of people. But as you know,
(19:39):
I want to prove to people that I can beat
these normal people, you know, and I'm food time, well
strong with man against these monsters. And yeah, I think
anyone that has autism, you know, and maybe you might
have a rough childhood, you might have people that don't
believe in you. But just get yourself a great support
system and do whatever you want because I've set I
set myself massive goals and every single person laughed at me.
It set from my family and said you're never going
(20:00):
to achieve any and look at me now, so yeah,
you it's just to prove people wrong. Use it, and
I mean, I get kids messed me going like I've
started a gym because of you. My autism is my superpower.
I've got the same superpower to you. And heating that
is like music through my years because now they're actually
living with the superpower. They're loving it and they love
every minute of their life now. And people that come
into the shop to meet as a gym, it's unbelievable.
(20:22):
I can actually change somebody's life by lifting weight or
calling autism a superpower. So that's beautiful, man. You know
it's funny. The last line of my book was like,
for all these years, I always thought I was cursed
by depression anxiety, and now I feel like God bless
me with the person anxiety so I could help others
through their pain. And that's exactly what you're doing. And
that's how great does that make you feel? Yeah? I
mean I said it makes me feel in talking about
(20:43):
it's like I could replace the world straw Man titles
to making sure that this kid's got a better life,
you know, with understanding autism. But yeah, I get an
absolute buzz when, you know, I go speak to a
class of kids or parents have messed me saying oh
you're changing my kids life around, or my kids said
their first few words because they watched you on YouTube.
It's like, Wow, that's that's incredible. You also, that's God's work.
(21:05):
That's amazing. All right, Before I let you guys go.
I always asked my guests this. You know, you've already
given me a lot of unbreakable moments, person or anything,
and we've missed or give me that moment that's something
that should have broken you but didn't, and you can't
hear the other side of that tunnel as a result. Yeah, man,
you're just stronger for the rest of your life. Yeah.
I mean, I think for me, it was obviously my mum.
She was the person that was by my side every
(21:28):
single day with autism. She was the only person I
kind of went to with problems and stuff, and when
she asked, I thought that was my life over as well.
I was. He had a wife. I said to my wife,
I'm never doing strong one it again. I don't know
what to do, you know, Like, I just didn't want
to be on the earth because I'm my best best friend,
my mom, everyone had been she'd been taken away from me, so,
you know, I kind of for that next month or two,
(21:49):
I kind of just I didn't accept that she was gone.
You know, I was too scared to go up to
my parents' house because the first thing you'd hear is
her voice, and I didn't hear that. You know, I
was too scared to phone. I was not letting it go.
And then all of a sudden switched to my mind
and the things she said to me before she passed,
and she wanted to make sure that I was happy.
I had a house, I had a wife, and you
(22:11):
know that just sitting it makes you happy. And I
thought that, and you know, I was doing sitting that
was making me happy. I had a house and I
had a wife. So I basically got her favorite son,
her favorite flower tattooed on me, which is a sunflower.
And every single time I competed after that, I looked
to the I looked to the clouds, and yeah, like
she gives me the energy now to kind of get
out that dark hole and just yeah, be that kind
(22:32):
of strong man I am because my mom was a
that's real strength, you know, trying to beat cancers probably
the most disgusting, horrible disease there is, and watching her
suffer every single day killed us, but also made a
stronger one. Flip side as well, Look what about your brother? Yeah,
very similar to Tom. You know, we both have like
tattoos throughout her body, you know, representing Mam and the family,
(22:54):
and you know, Mam, Mam was our the sunflower. You know,
Mam was our sunshine. You know, whenever we went, she
was always the loudest, the happiest, and she kind of
was the life force of her family. And you know,
watching her at the time, I didn't really know what grief,
real grief was, you know. So for me, it was
(23:16):
realizing what grief was because it hit me in the face.
It hit me really hard, and it took me to
a dark, dark place. Well, you know, I resented a
lot of people, and having a wife that I resented
because she still had a family that was that was
really hard to deal with. But then, yeah, I remember
a few months after Mom passed in the springtime, so
(23:40):
it was a field, like a farmer's field out in
front of me, and I was just sitting outside having
a cup of coffee in the morning, and I saw
a man drive past in her a little van. She
had a little van that she used to drive and
the dogs would follow her. So every morning when she
was still here, we used to give her a wave
and staff and I just had this vision. I saw
(24:01):
her there and I thought, well, just because she's gone,
it doesn't stop us having a relationship together. I still
have a relationship with my every day and not that
realization for me was was really special. You know, because
I still talk to I still see here, I do
things now that I can kind of connect on a
deeper level. Um, So I'm very fortunate I've found that.
(24:22):
But being able to realize I still can have that
relationship with her even though she's not here physically, was
it was pretty special. So yeah, that was That's a
beautiful lesson. Man. You know, I try and tell some
people all the time too, like we just rent these bodies,
but the souls live on forever, so they're always still
with you. So man, I appreciate you both. You want
to meet Listen, you guys, come to La You got
(24:42):
to come to Unbreakable Gym A right and lift my
fucking weights. We can't wait. We'll be out good man. Man,
what you gotta just such an inspiration. I really this
was this one of my favorites. I really appreciate it.
And you know, you guys are halfway across the world
with me right now, man, but I feel like I'm
(25:03):
the third brother with you. Thank you for joining me, guys,
Thank you so much. Keep walking this walk together. Love y'all,
Fox Sports Radio News
Host
Jonas Knox
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