Strength Philosophy & Entrepreneurial Grit | Mark Bell | Straight Outta The Lair Podcast - Straight Outta The Lair with Flex Lewis

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
If you mess up, don't beat yourself up, just go back
on it.
It's understandable to haveanxiety over certain things.
Give things an honest shot.
Try it and take it slow.
Do your best to not be soscared of stuff.
Mark Bell welcome to theStraighter or the Left podcast.

(00:26):
Thank you so much, man.
I love coming to this gym.
It's hardcore as F.
It's unbelievable, really cool.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
We have special software that will bleep out
anything, so please you don'thave to be.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
PG on this.
Just go for it.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
YouTube will always find a way of demonetizing my
videos.
So, apparently so.
First, 30 seconds.
I can't swear right.
10 minutes, 10 minutes, Okay, funtil 10 minutes.
They keep changing all therules.
Talking of rules, I didn'tfollow any of mine in the last
couple of days and I appreciatethe patience in getting in here
because you and I were supposedto film something earlier in the
week.
Of course, I didn't expectpost-surgery complications.

(01:04):
My hand was the size of, Idon't know, fucking fat bastards
.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
This is why you don't do Broke the rule.
Broke the rule.
This is why you don't do Skullcrushers on an airplane.
I know you want your triceps toget bigger, but that's not the
appropriate place to do it.
You didn't have proper warm-upso it's like weird.
It's a weird spot to do tricepextensions.
Is that the story you're?

Speaker 2 (01:21):
telling people I don't know.
Oh, it's much better than mine,so I'll take that all day long.
But elephant in the room foranybody who has missed all my
social media stuff is I tore thetricep tendon off the bone.
My producer is coming behindyou for some reason.
There we go, and patiently.
Mark has been very good inworking with me to get back in.
So this is the first podcast inquite some time, so I'm shaking

(01:45):
off the rust as well aswhatever's in my fucking elbow
right now.
But again, welcome to the showand welcome to the gym again, my
friend yeah, thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
I, you know, can't believe it's been 20 some odd
years that we've known eachother.
I was in venice, california.
I was going to compete at apowerlifting meet.
I walked over earlier in theday to size up the competition.
I'm like, who's going to be atthis thing?
Let me check this out.
And it's very typical you checkout the field and see who's
competing and I saw a coupleguys and there were a couple

(02:14):
guys were in good shape, but acouple guys were like older and
I was like, oh, this is going tobe great.
It was a small event, it wasn'ta big powerlifting meet.
And then I saw these calvesthat were completely absurd.
And I was staring at the calves.
I'm like, oh my god, this guy'scalves are ridiculous.
And I started looking at thewhole thing, the whole package,
as they say was my hands, by myhead yeah, and your arms and

(02:38):
just everything was.
You were just super jacked and Iwas like, oh, I was like, if
this guy's in my weight class,I'm done, I'm, I'm going to be
toast for today.
But yeah, it was the first timethat we met and I don't think
you were a big name.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
I certainly wasn't known at all, but you were
apparently in the US forsomething right, I think I came
over for a flex photoshoot andwe're still adjusting mics here.
I don't know.
See, we've had a hiatus mark,so bear in mind with uh.
Yeah, but I think I was herefor a photo shoot, I believe
maybe longer than 25, 20 yearsago, maybe 25 I don't know

(03:10):
either way that sounds right.
Yeah, it's fresh off the plane.
That's one thing we can bothagree on, and I definitely had
much of a thicker accent.
You probably understood nothingwhat I said back now.
I know you're understandingevery other word right now.
So it's progression, 20 yearsof progression.
But what was that competitionyou were in doing back then?

Speaker 1 (03:28):
I was just like a push pull meet, so it was just a
bench and deadlift meet wasthat?

Speaker 2 (03:31):
venice on the beach?
Yep, I remember them events.
It was so cool yeah, they had alot of tourism watching and a
lot of cool, cool activations.
Do you do much of them?

Speaker 1 (03:41):
I did.
I did a handful of those, yeah,years and years ago and then
obviously like fast forward manyyears later I end up being 300
plus pounds, I think.
When I was competing then Ithink I was only like 198, 220
and that really is suffice tosay.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
You've worn so many different hats, which I want to
talk about later on, butpowerlifting that obviously was
a massive part of your life,regarded as one of the best to
do it.
How did you get intopowerlifting?

Speaker 1 (04:07):
tell us a story on how that went down man, I wish I
had a cool story of someonestealing my bike or something
like that.
But I have another cool storyfor you, cool stories, what
we're about yeah.
So first of all I had two olderbrothers.
My oldest brother, mike, hepassed away 15 years ago or so.
But my two oldest brothers,they were really influential on
me and they got me into somelifting.

(04:27):
But to be honest, I was prettymuch a pussy Like.
My oldest brother, mike waslike if you want to lift you
have to squat, and I don't knowhow he knew some of this stuff.
But him and Chris, they knewabout strength training, they
knew about bodybuilding, theyknew about, they knew about like
real training, not just likeworking out.
And my brother Mike would forcethe squat bar on my back and I
was like it hurts and I want touse the paddies.

(04:48):
You're not using the pad, notin our garage gym, like never,
there's no, he called it thepussy paddies.
You're not using the pussy pad,we're not doing any of that.
Anyway, I was playing aroundthrowing around a football.
I was a loser and didn't haveanybody else to play with, so
I'm chucking the football tomyself.
One of my brother's friends islike hey, bell, he's throwing me
the football.
I knew better because he's anolder kid.
So I'm like he's probably goingto fuck with me.

(05:10):
He said I'll throw it man.
So I throw it to him, hecatches it, he turns around and
he punts it.
He just kicks it as hard as hecan, goes right into football.
I went like looking for it,could never find it.
I'm like 13 years old orsomething like that, and so
right from then you can hit therocky music and hit the rocky

(05:30):
montage.
I'm in my basement doingsit-ups and push-ups and bench
pressing and squatting and deadlifting and all that kind of
stuff.
So that was kicking the sandright yeah, I didn't face yeah,
I didn't want to be treated likethat.
It's not like I'm, it's not likeI was thinking like, oh my god,
I'm gonna beat him up, kind ofthing.
It was just like if I wasbigger and more substantial,
like he just wouldn't, he justwouldn't have treated me that
way.
So I was like, and I didn'tknow, we didn't have mma back

(05:53):
then, we didn't really knowabout people, thought jujitsu
was like fake bullshit, likehoist grace, he hadn't come onto
the scene and all that kind ofstuff.
Yet I didn't realize, realizethat I could have taken care of
it in a different way if I knewmartial arts or something like
that.
But we still in that era westill thought karate was stupid
and stuff like that.
Anyway, my thing was like let mejust get jacked and then maybe

(06:13):
people won't mess with me.

Speaker 2 (06:14):
And that was at 13?
That was around 13 years old,so where's the progression to
doing your powerlifting?

Speaker 1 (06:21):
yeah, you know what?
I was fortunate enough to be alittle bit bigger of a kid to
start out and I was playingfootball and I was getting into
training and I was getting intothe numbers and I remember being
super obsessed with likewriting it out and being like,
oh my god, 12 weeks from now I'mgonna be able to bench like 275
or something like that, becauseI'm doing the math on
progressive overload.

(06:41):
And I remember even being superexcited about being out of like
sixth grade and going into likeseventh grade.
I'm like, oh, the summer'sgoing to hit.
I get to do the Bulgarianprogram because they work out
three days a week or three timesa day, and now I don't have
stupid school in the way and Ican work out for breakfast,
lunch and dinner basically.
And so, yeah, I got really intoit and really obsessed and I
think it wasn't too long after.

(07:03):
Maybe maybe I was lifting forsix months or so.
And then some of the guys at thegym where they were mainly
power lifting were like, dude,you should do a powerlifting
meet.
I'm like, but I'm not evenstrong like you guys are dead
lifting seven, eight hundredpounds and stuff like that.
They're like no, you're strong,really strong for your age.
And then I went and like myopening attempts were usually
like breaking a state record orlike a national record and stuff

(07:25):
.
I didn't know.
I was just lifting and I had,again, some guidance from my
brothers and some guidance fromyou.
Probably remember you might havesome similar upbringings where
the gym wasn't a place, wherethe gym wasn't a place where
someone would take two hours toget ready for Twenty, five, 30
years ago.
People just throw on shit andthey just went to the gym and

(07:46):
they went and they trained andthere was a little bit more of a
little bit more unity.
Because I think back and ifwe're talking like late 80s,
early 90s type thing, maybe evenlate 90s, most of the people in
a gym understood what the gymis for.
The gym is to get jacked.
The gym is to gain muscle massor to gain strength.

(08:06):
I know you can do other stuffthere and you can burn some
glucose and you can do some ofthese things and you could maybe
sharpen up some muscles orsomething, but not really.
The rest is done like in thekitchen and you're even like
your cardio and stuff's probablybetter served doing drills and
stuff outside or running, orsprinting, so.
So anyway, I learned the rightway to do things.

(08:27):
At least, I thought it was theright way to do things Right
from the jump, because it wasabout being big and strong.

Speaker 2 (08:33):
And back then you had somebody that was a mentor
outside your brothers, that wasmentoring you in the gym for
lifts.
Or was this all personalknowledge?

Speaker 1 (08:41):
It was a combination.
Yeah, it was a big common.
It wasn't until later in lifethat I ran into Dave Tate and
Louie Simmons and some of thosepeople.
That was like when I was in my20s and they were great mentors.
But I remember just being inthe gym.
I'm just bench pressing andsome guys came over and they
took the weight off and I waslike, oh, maybe they're using
those plates or something, Idon't know.
So I put the weight back on andI turned back around and the

(09:03):
weights are off again.
I'm like what's going on?
What are they doing?
Again, I'm like 14, 15.
So the guy goes.
The guy comes over to me.
He goes what do you thinkyou're doing?
I was like I don't know.
I was trying to bench press,but you guys I think you guys
keep stealing my fight with thisguy.
I'm going to get my ass kicked.

(09:23):
This guy's like probably 30years old or something and I
could handle myself and I waspretty big, but I'm just a kid,
so I didn't know what the guywas talking about.
But he's, you don't have anyidea what you're doing.
And I said so he showed me totake it slow, bring the weight
down, get a little bit of apause.

(09:46):
Bring the elbows in on yourbench press, have your feet,
sturdy.
He was talking about like legdrive and all this shit.
Like forever ago and I didn'treally know any of it.
I thought you just laid downand went.
My brother showed me some stuff, but they were learning as they
were going as well and yeah,like having people like that who
are like you're not liftingthat way when I'm in here and I
was like, okay, I guess I'lllift with good form and get

(10:08):
super strong and get greatresults from it.
So suffice to say.

Speaker 2 (10:11):
You had really good people around you from the GACO
that give you some lessons thatyou've probably kept in your
life throughout its entirety.
You've just been a student ofthe game in another chapter,
being humble enough to ask thequestions to relearn another
tool, another trade or whateverelse.
But unfortunately, in theworlds we come from, it's

(10:33):
ego-driven right.
Shocking, I know that's news toyou, right, but a lot of guys
humbly won't put themselves inpositions to start on the bottom
peg and go after another climb.
One thing about yourself, and Imentioned this to you yesterday
it's very inspiring to havepeople that I know that have
climbed the Mount Everest intheir worlds achieved getting to

(10:56):
the summit and then look overto another peak and want to
climb that mountain, and sufficeto say you've done that so many
times.
I can't not mention youraccolades and powerlifting
before we move across, becauseagain, 1080 squat, uh, 854 bench
and a six 766 deadlift.
And he said 600 and slap acrossthe face 766 deadlift.

(11:19):
Incredible total mark.
Like how many years did it takeyou to get to that next 0.5
percent level?

Speaker 1 (11:27):
yeah, it took a lot of time.
Took a lot of time and effortto precisely lock everything in.
And there's just.
Louis simmons had a great quotewhere he said your, your dad,
might be able to find you a job,your sister can probably find
you a boyfriend or girlfriend,but you yourself have to really
learn the details of how to getsuper fucking strong.
So he was like, like yourfriends can help you with these

(11:49):
different things, your teachermight be a good mentor, this
other person might be able togive you information, but this
next level of knowledge, ascompeting as an Olympia
competitor, it's just different.
Like you, you can even coachsomeone now and you can even
tell them bro, it's different,it's going to be different.
Everything's going to bedifferent the detail in your
legs, how you're going to getthe detail, how you're going to
get this in your pecs, and allthese different things.

(12:11):
You can explain it all to them,but they have to go through a
bunch of it and they have tofail a bunch and they have to be
the jay cutler for a while.
I think the coolest thing aboutjay cutler's story is and
somebody could correct me if I'mwrong, but I think he was
second place for four years in arow, maybe more.
To me, that's the Jay Cutlerstory.
Yeah, fucking A.
I'm so glad that he won and wonnearly a handful of them.

(12:33):
It's incredible.
He's one of the all-time greats, but second place four times.
You're going to come back afterwhat I know.

Speaker 2 (12:42):
And then to reinvent your why, knowing that you're
standing against arguably thegreatest of all time, and he
beat him and he beat him Again.
That just goes to show howrelentless Jay was in his
pursuit to be the best.
It didn't come easy.
Obviously, everybody's got astory, and this is what we're
here to tell yours.
But with Jay, he had the dreamof being the best in the world

(13:03):
as a teenager and he pursuedthat until he achieved it.
And now, what a story of nevergiving up.

Speaker 1 (13:09):
And I think that's a similar situation with me.
It's like when do you stop?
You don't stop until you getthere.
And then, even when you getthere, that's where things get
really tricky.
Because you've got to, I meanit could kill you.
Your dreams can kill you, yourdreams can shatter you, they can

(13:30):
fucking break you.
And you see it with fightersand lifters and bodybuilders and
, uh, nfl players, nba players.
See it with everybody.
I mean he can consume you, likemichael jordan was so
competitive, um, that he wouldbet and gamble on all kinds of
other things and who the hellknows.
It seemed like some wacky shithappened with some of that.
Even so, you have to be likethis fire that you have inside.
You got to be cautious on whatyou do with it.
I wanted to elaborate onsomething you said, where you

(13:51):
said climbing this like everestand getting the other side, but
also being humble enough.
Through your beginning stages,or even not even beginning
stages necessarily, even throughyour even after, you feel like
you mastered something to stillbe open-minded and listen to
people.
There's a saying that says manwill never truly find god
because he's not willing to looklow enough, not willing to

(14:11):
search low enough, and to me,it's whatever.
You could be religious or notreligious, but you're not going
to find the true secrets of lifeunless you're willing to get
down the ground and scrub theground, clean the way that it
needs to be cleaned and scrubbed.
So you have to start really lowand maybe for somebody, maybe
their journey into powerliftingisn't to do like a one rep max

(14:31):
right off the bat.
Learn how to squat, learn howto bench.
You don't even have to use thebar, use your own body weight
and just move your arms around,move your legs around.
My brother's story is incredible.
My brother he had, he was justborn with a lot of pain, a lot
of chronic pain.
He and this is how the bellsgot into powerlifting in the
first place.
My brother, chris, was bornwith just a lot of pain.

(14:54):
He had these issues in hisknees and he was just for lack
of a better term like bow leggedand he had to have these knee
surgeries when he was young.
When he got out of that and hestarted to rehab, he went to a
chiropractor and thechiropractor said the only way
you're ever going to get out ofpain is to be strong.
And he's here's a broomstick.
This is how we're going torecover.

(15:14):
This is how we're going torecover from your knee surgeries
.
And strength is never weakness.
Weakness, never.
Strength comes from these, likevarious life lessons that I've
seen firsthand.
So my brother squats and hesquats a broomstick.
He's in tremendous amounts ofpain and he can't really squat.
He just moves a couple inches.
But over time he starts workingon it more and more.

(15:35):
We get some weights in ourbasement and you can fast
forward a year or two.
My brother is at like highschool nationals squatting 675,
having Ed Cohn, the greatestpower lifter of all time, wrap
his knees for him.
That's incredible.
So I got to see some of thatfirsthand.
And my brother both of mybrothers were big time role

(15:55):
models for me.
Sometimes, when somebody wantsto ask me about some success,
I'm like I don't know.
I have no idea what my lifewould be like if I didn't have I
have amazing parents.
I have no idea what my lifewould be like if I didn't have.
I have amazing parents.
I have an amazing family Like I.
I just it's not like I justwant to give all them the credit
and the glory, cause I knowthere's certain things that I
did push on and did, but it justmade it easier for me.

(16:17):
You know, I don't have aproblem with saying I may have
been privileged, like I amprivileged.
I'm a white dude.
You know what I mean.
Youtube is council desk.
Yeah, just shut that down.
No, I don't have any problemwith with saying that I grew up
in a nice neighborhood with nicethings, but I still understand
the value of hard work and Istill don't mind getting punched
in the face and I don't mindlike learning how to punch back

(16:39):
and how to fight back anybodywho's watched.

Speaker 2 (16:42):
Bring it it Stronger, faster.
That's Chris's incredible moviethat he shot, directed,
produced Obviously you were partof it, producing it yourself,
correct, yep.
And it got to show the behindthe scenes of the bells on that
story and obviously there wasanother story that was attached.
But how can you not fall inlove with your family after
watching that?

(17:02):
I I don't think you've come fromany privilege.
When you watch that, you reallysee that it's a real home and
you can see it's a warm home.
You're even your mom and dadhad concerns about you when you
were later on in life and thatjust goes to show the love that
you, your parents, have for you,um, and the support that they
give all your brothersthroughout the years.

(17:22):
And it's very hits home to mebecause I have a very similar
home with my parents no silverspoon.
My parents did everything forus brothers to play rugby, go to
school with uniforms on andstuff like that, but the line in
the sand stops right.
Everything else to your point.
I can attest a lot to mymindset coming from my

(17:45):
upbringing, but then it was methat done the rest.
But I always resort back towhat's in my brain, what I've
seen, saw and wasn't around todrive me.

Speaker 1 (17:56):
Yeah, your mom and dad.
They're both amazing people,it's just they don't have 105
point million followers onInstagram.

Speaker 2 (18:03):
You know what I mean?
My mother could if she wantedto.
She just just wants to stay inthe background but again, but
they don't need it, though.

Speaker 1 (18:10):
That's the thing is, they don't need it, that my dad
doesn't.
There's a meme I saw the otherday on instagram and, uh, the
guy says to his dad has backturned to him and he says I
never got to say thank you.
And the dad turns around and hesaid you never had to and he
just walked away and it had thiskind of funny, quirky music too
, but I thought it was in agreat example.
But you're chill.

(18:30):
I have two children.
I have a 20 year old son and a16 year old daughter, and
anything they want to do.
It could be stuff that I suckat, it could be something that's
going to make me look foolish,it could be something where I
could potentially get hurt orsomething doing it with them,
but, but I will try to meet themto do just about anything.
It's different when you havekids, but I'm not doing it and
I'm not going to necessarilyfilm it or take a picture of it.

(18:52):
It's not about that.
It's about trying to providethem with the best life and give
them the best options possibleso that they can one day become
great parents, or whatever it isthat they want to be able to do
in their life some other time.

Speaker 2 (19:05):
As a parent, though, is there anything that you would
say, hey listen, you're notdoing, because if my daughter
came to me and said I want tocompete in bodybuilding, I'd
have to have a real hardconversation with her about that
, because I know what dad doneto get to the top, and we're not
talking about thesupplementation side of things.

(19:26):
It's just a sacrifice, and thefemale reward is not there as
much as the male reward.
Now, there's so many differentsports my daughter is getting
into.
In fact, she's got a firstBrazilian jiu-jitsu lesson after
this podcast that I got to bethere for.
You're like, do something elseplease.
Yeah but with the bodybuildingside of things, is that similar
for yourself?
Or you do whatever you please,or you do have a hard line in

(19:48):
the sun, just like I'd ratheryou do something else.

Speaker 1 (19:51):
I definitely would caution them against like
certain dangerous things.
I think bodybuilding, powerlifting, these things can be
dangerous.
But really, if you're reallytrying to make something of
yourself and you're, you'regoing to cross some lines,
you're going to cross somebarriers and they need to do
that, they need to learn that.
They need to learn what's toomuch for them, what's they need
to get there.
So I don't think I wouldcaution them against it.
How old is your daughter?

(20:12):
Oh, she's a long way to go.
She's eight, yeah, she's eight.
So it'll be like it's not likeshe's.
When she's 10 she's all of asudden gonna be like you know,
doing heavy, like shrugs andpull-ups and shit like that.
It's not going to happen out ofnowhere, but you might see that
she has more propensity to it.
Maybe she likes some of thosefoods, maybe she likes to
exercise with dad, maybe shelikes to exercise with mom, and

(20:35):
it'll be a slower progression,so it will make sense.
She'll just come to you and belike hey, I think I can make
something of this, and I thinkat that point you'll be super
pumped, you'll be excited andyou could also tell her yeah,
some of the dangers, some of thepitfalls.
Hey, don't do this Like I madesome mistakes on some of these
things and you can guide herreally well, yeah, also what we
have without kids, shall I say.

Speaker 2 (20:56):
We have parents myself and you in our sport of
choice and now moved on andprogressed on to more of the
entrepreneurial side of thingsin life.
Do you install morals on yourkids about being an entrepreneur
or are you doing a collegething?
Because for me, right now, Iwish I started a lot earlier in

(21:18):
my endeavors, even though I feellike when I was bodybuilding I
started up simultaneously a lotof different businesses which
have prolonged themselves on now.
So when I retired, it was anice segue.
But yourself, obviously one ofthe biggest businesses that most
people know you for is theslingshot and what you've done
with that, and even my producerwas like oh hey, tyus, you're

(21:40):
not a regular gym goer, but evenyou know what the slingshot is.
Yes, I do, you're not a regulargym goer, but even you know
what the slingshot is.
Yes, I do, that's great.

Speaker 1 (21:46):
Yeah, so you've got even people that are it's gone
all over the world, it's goneall over the world.

Speaker 2 (21:49):
So let's talk about how you came up with this
concept.
I know it's obviously ties intotraining, but did you ever
think that this would be as bigas what it is?
I still think it should bebigger.
I love it.
That's an entrepreneur.

Speaker 1 (22:02):
Yeah, I still think and that's what he said I still
think it should be bigger forsure, because the slingshot is
like some of what I made it foris not always what it gets
utilized for.
The slingshot is a supportiveupper body device for bench
press, push ups and dips.
I still use it all the time forpush ups, especially.
A lot of times I'll still useit for dips.

(22:22):
But you know me, you can see mestanding here, you know in
front of you I obviously can dopush-ups all day just fine by
myself, but it makes it a littleeasier, just like all this
equipment that you have in thegym out here.
I know that.
You know we, as big tough guys,we don't want to admit that
stuff's making it easier.
If it was really just squats,benches and deadlifts in there,
like even as much as I love thatshit, I don't really want to do

(22:45):
that.
So I was trying to create aproduct that made bench pressing
and some of these things alittle smoother, a little easier
.
I know that pain is like theultimate stop for people.
If you go to do something, ifyou're like mark, you gotta do
these lunges.
You're gonna build up yourquads really good to be great
for running and I go to do itand there's pain.
Three weeks later you're goingto text me how those lunges

(23:05):
going.
I'm going to do it because myknee hurts and so I want to try
to create products knee sleeves,elbow sleeves, all these
different things.
These aren't solutions to yourpain problems.
Your pain problems have to beaddressed through, like your
movement patterns, and it's acomplicated story, but you can a
band-aid on it for thatparticular moment to be able to

(23:26):
handle the amount of weight thatyou need.
Just like a bodybuilder isgoing to put on some knee wraps
a lot of times for heavy legpress, heavy hack, squat.
When it's time for them to go alittle heavier, they're going
to protect their joints andthat's where this idea, the
slingshot, came from.
You're going to do a heavy,you're trying to get your back
to grow and it's what do you dowhen you try to get your back to
grow?
It's I don't know.
You just try to do everythingright.

(23:47):
It's like I need more reps, Ineed more sets and I need more
weight.
And to do that, you're likeokay, I'm going to put on a belt
and I'm going to use straps.
All the straps are taken awayfrom your grip or what it is.
Look, it's going to makeeverything a little easier.
It's a little less taxing on myforearms, a little less taxing
on the elbows.
The belt is giving me that backsupport that I need, and I'm

(24:09):
going to so.
Same thing with the slingshot.
The slingshot allows you to getmore reps, more sets, so you
can get more overall volume inyour workouts, without the wear
and tear and without being likeI hate doing this because my
shoulder hurts.

Speaker 2 (24:22):
So for anybody who hasn't seen the slingshot, can
you explain what it does and howyou put it on?

Speaker 1 (24:27):
Yeah, you just slide it up over the arms.
It's literally two knee wrapsthat's the original design, two
knee wraps that were sewntogether and then in this kind
of cylinder shape and then youslide it up over your arms and
it sits on the triceps and itstretches across your body as
you go to lower the weight insomething like a bench press.
The slingshot acts as doublemuscle as your muscles are

(24:51):
stretching, so is the slingshot.
On the eccentric portion, onthe concentric portion, your
muscles are contracting andthey're shortening, and so is
the slingshot, and so it justgives you passive assistance.
And where some people have gonewrong with it which is fine you
can use it whatever way you'dlike.
I think a lot of people thinkit's for these big heroic one
rep maxes.
I don't know if you ever saw avideo, but a guy got caught in a

(25:13):
powerlifting meet.
Maybe you guys can try to editit in.
A guy got caught in apowerlifting meet wearing a
slingshot and what happened wasthis guy did his squat spent
powerlifting meet.
Squat first, you get threeattempts.
You bench press, you get threeattempts, then you deadlift and
it depends on the federation.
But like they pay attention tothe numbers that you hit because
because there have been peoplethat cheated before, there have

(25:35):
been people that have worn,tried to wear knee wraps under
their knee sleeves and all kindsof stuff.
Yeah, so if you normally squat500 and now there's 625 on there
especially if you're in anatural federation they're like
oh, this is interesting, let'scheck his equipment, see what
he's got going on here.
Anyway, this guy does hissquats and he does well on the
squat, and then he gets into thebench press and for some reason
he's like running up to theplatform benching and then

(25:56):
running away and he hits likehis opening attempt, the second
attempt and all the attempts,from attempt number one to
attempt number three, they'reall like 50 pounds over, like
his best bench press.
So all of a sudden he inheritedthis extra 50 pounds of strength
out of nowhere and I thinksomeone got suspicious, like
that's interesting.
I saw him compete recently andhe was benching like 320 and now

(26:19):
he's benching like there he is375 or something like that.
Yeah, this is the guy.
Yep, and then what happens isthey chase him down.
Oh wow, and it's great becausethe guy has an accent.
He's like you're wearing aslingshot, he's come on, man,
he's don't run away.
And the guy's trying to chasehim.
And the guy's like this isserious business if I'm trying
to sprint to catch this guy,shut up he's turning around,

(26:40):
show us the slingshot maury paulvich fucking episode.

Speaker 2 (26:43):
Oh my.
God Chasing after him in theback.

Speaker 1 (26:44):
It was yeah, it was.
You're not the dad.
Oh my God, it was insane.
I was like this is wild.

Speaker 2 (26:49):
Wow, it's got to be a compliment to see just the
added weight.
Number one right, I know youhave to be neutral here, but
you're able to handle moreweight again if we use a belt as
an example man.

Speaker 1 (27:10):
I've seen so many strongman competitors use belts
Like not only wear belts, butthey'll wear multiple belts.
They'll wear like a girdle typething and they'll put a belt
over top of that and they'lldeadlift 900 pounds for reps, or
1,000 pounds for reps.
Or Eddie Hall who you're goingto have on the show soon
Deadlifting 1,100 pounds justastronomical.

(27:32):
But have Eddie Hall, take thebelt off and have him do a lift.
It's not like he's going to beweak.
So that's what people aremissing sometimes with some of
this equipment.
They're like I would never puton knee sleeves.
I want to do it myself.
I want it to be raw and it's no.
This is a targeted way for youto actually handle more weight
safely, and you can.
You can rely on the kneesleeves, you can rely on the
knee wraps.
This is just.
It's just like minimaltechnology to allow you to

(27:52):
handle a little bit more weightagain.
You're getting more weight.
You're getting more, more reps,more sets.
That's going to be good foryour connective tissue.
That's going to be good foryour bone density.
It's just going to be a netpositive overall.
And yes, you shouldn't use itas a crutch and only train that
way.

Speaker 2 (28:08):
That would probably also be a mistake am I right or
wrong in saying that youdeveloped this when you were
injured?
For you to continue training.

Speaker 1 (28:14):
yes, I tore my pec a bunch of times, probably again,
just one of those things likeflying too close to the sun type
of deals like I just needed totake a couple steps back,
probably, and and take some timeoff to fix what was happening
with my structure.
My shoulders were getting likea little too internally rotated
and I was just getting too bigand too bloated and I should

(28:36):
have known that, with thedifficulty I had with wiping my
ass, that bench pressing 600pounds was going to be like
difficult.

Speaker 2 (28:42):
So yeah, in tearing my pec multiple times, I ended
up getting a united statespatent on the invention of the
slingshot isn't it crazy thatsometimes an injury and taking
you out to the game, somethingyou're just fixed on is the
blessing in disguise?
That's what I'm looking at thisright now, because I was in the
gym loving training again and Iget this slap across the back

(29:03):
of the head.
But, as I mentioned to you too,I've got a lot of things that
are going on, but not everythingshould be going on.
All opportunity is not goodopportunity, and this has
allowed me, in relation to whatyou just said, to be.
You know what.
I need to sit down.
I need to look at the theplaying field, or the the desert

(29:24):
that's in front of me and startchoosing what I need to do next
and what direction I need towalk, as opposed to trying to
walk all over the place.
So it's amazing when I havefriends sitting opposite me and
told me hey, when I got injuredthe best thing that ever
happened to me, because Ichanged so much in my training,
more than anything else,mentality Was there something
that clicked for you when yougot injured and you, you created

(29:46):
the slingshot that meant somementality changed.
Was it more entrepreneur or wasit just more on the pursuit to
get back to where you were.

Speaker 1 (29:56):
It's a bit of a loaded question I know around
that same time as when mybrother, mike, died.
And so, yeah, like my injuriesplayed into it for sure, because
I wanted to figure out a way tosolve for this pec injury.
A lot of power to have pec andtricep injuries on bench
pressing.
It's really common, so commonin fact that there's a lot of
athletes that won't even reallymess with bench pressing.
People think that benchpressing is dangerous and it can

(30:17):
be to a certain extent, but notwith the slingshot, and it can
also be.
You can prevent it by justhaving the right knowledge.
You can prevent these injuriesin a bench press.
But bench press is like an it'san unnatural movement.
You're lying down in this kindof weird like a squat.
We can all agree naturalmovement, deadlift, natural
movement.
Okay, a squat might not be anatural movement because you

(30:38):
have this barbell that we'resticking on our back and that
creates certain weird thingsgoing on.
But and same thing with adeadlift, because we're lifting
like this bar as opposed to likelifting rocks or something like
that.
So we can have theseconjectures towards these things
.
But a bench press is fucked up.
There's no denying it's a weirdmovement.
And having your elbow backbehind the midline of your body
in that way.
It can be problematic for a lotof people and one of the

(31:01):
reasons why I created it,invented it, was because I
wanted to solve for some ofthose problems.
Your elbow is way pinned backbehind the midline of your body,
oftentimes with your own bodyweight being on the bar.
If you weigh 200 pounds, yougot 200 pounds at least of
weight on the bench press.
That you're probably doing formultiple reps If you're building
up some decent strength, allthe way to the point where you

(31:23):
could have double that.
A guy who's 200, who's prettystrong, can bench close to 400.
It's like now we're doing somereally extreme shit.
So the slingshot was created tohit some of those people that
wanted to lift heavier andwanted to push on a bench press.
But it was created out of mebeing messed up with, injury me,

(31:43):
realizing man, I, man, I needto step back from this.
I made no money in powerlifting.
That's actually a lie.
I made a thousand dollars and Ialso got a two pound bag of
peanut M&Ms.
I know, don't jump me, bro,ball in.
I know, ball in.
I know there's a lot of moneyright, thousand bucks Couple of
peanuts.
So I made a little bit fromactually powerlifting, but I

(32:07):
wasn't making any money.
I didn't know what I was doing.
What I was doing at the time Iput in a category of I was
sacrificing for the unknown.
The term sacrifice is a bigword.
I realized I'm not trying tolike step on toes of people that
go in the military and stuff,but it was sacrificing for the
unknown.
I was doing all these lifts.
I was taking all these steroids.
I was weighing 300 plus pounds.

(32:29):
They hit all these weights.
This is all stuff I believed in.
This is the way.
Like I'm going to lift as heavyas I fucking can.
I'm going after a thousandpound squat.
I want to try to bench 900pounds.
I want to try to deadlift 800pounds.
These are all things that Ifelt like if I did that, that
was going to make me into who Ineeded to be, and so in that
journey it got disrupted bygetting hurt.
But also during that journey, mybrother Mike died.

(32:55):
My brother Mike is the one whointroduced me to all this shit
in the first place.
He's the one who put thebarbell on my back, as I was
telling you earlier, and hecalled me a pussy and he made
sure that I he's like you betterlearn how to squat.
It's like a fundamentalmovement and I don't care if you
like bench pressing and youlike doing these other things,
but take your time to learn asquat.
He's like I don't care how longit takes you, you need to learn
how to do a squat.
And so over a period of time Istarted to invest in in learning

(33:16):
some of that.
But when he died again, I didn'thave any money.
My wife and I were probablygoing to lose our house.
We signed the papers for ourhouse with my wife and my
brother-in-law because I didn'treally have much of a job I
didn't have.
I didn't have hardly any incomea little bit from like training
some people and stuff like that.
The online world wasn't likebooming with being able to coach

(33:38):
people and shit like that.
I guess at that time I probablywould have done something like
that, but I wasn't doinganything.
I wasn't really anywhere at themoment.
I felt like somebody likewhispered in my ear.
It was scary.
Like I woke up, I had chills.
I went and I talked like I wastalking with my wife and I was
like in tears.
I was like choked up and I waslike I don't know what happened.
I'm like, but I think mybrother just visited me in my

(33:59):
dream.
Like I don't know, like I don'tbelieve in ghosts or whatever.
I don't even know what tobelieve.
I don't know what I believe.
Now I woke up and I was like soover the next like couple days
I'm just sitting there thinkingI'm like what does that mean?
And I'm like I don't reallyknow what the fuck it means.
But life is short, I'm pissedand I'm sad that my brother's
gone and I need to make the mostof it.

(34:20):
What am I doing?
Like?
This power thing?
Stuff is cool, but I'm like bigand strong.
But I'm big, strong and fat andunhealthy and I have.
At the time I had my son, maybehad my daughter, ish, or she
was like coming soon or whatever.
But yeah, I was just like man.
What am I doing with myself?
So the idea of the slingshot,I'm like I'm not gonna let that

(34:41):
die, because my brother, mybrother, had the saying in the
movie bigger, strongerger,stronger, faster.
He said I'd rather be dead thanaverage and I was like you know
what?
I'm not going to let the things?
He was addicted to drugs and hedied of a drug overdose.
But I'm like I'm not going tolet his hopes and dreams die.
I'm like I want to carry onwhat he showed me and what he
taught me and what he showed meand what he taught me, and I

(35:02):
want to have this product liveon through him.
And so I even make a slingshot.
There's a particular slingshotit's called the Mad Dog
Slingshot, which is a doublelayered slingshot.
It's a little more intensebecause my brother was an
intense guy and so I just feltyou know what, I'm not going to
die with these dreams.
I'm not going to die.
Some people will say real fancyor important.

Speaker 2 (35:32):
So your brother's vision, with you of course, came
into reality and it's nowglobal, and what a story that is
to tell.
Again, you've been very openand honest with everything.
That's one thing I've got tosay about yourself, Mark and
truly showing your vulnerableside as much as your strengths
too.
Obviously, your strengths areall over the internet, as much

(35:54):
as your story is, and in doing,all over the internet, as much
as your story is and in doingresearch, I want to encourage
people to just do your best man.

Speaker 1 (35:58):
Do your best to be as upfront and honest with people
as you can.
It's not always easy.
I don't always.
I don't really like to be likesuper frank with people
sometimes because I just I hatethat role.
I hate that role as like aleader or an entrepreneur.
I I don't.
I don't feel it's even my placeto tell you like what.
I don't even want to ask youfor anything.
You know what I mean?

(36:18):
I don't like that, yeah, but Ido understand that it does have.
It is valuable and is important.
But a great way to get thatdone and a great way to not be
apprehensive about that is totell people how you feel, say,

(36:38):
hey, man, that was a great job.
I really you, that's fuckingawesome.
Hey, how long does it take foryou to text your?
Your the guy who's running yourpodcast?

Speaker 2 (36:42):
right now and tell him he did a good job today.
Yeah, not a big deal.
Sit down, you're not havingcompliments you got all excited
no, but it's true I do a betterjob consciously and
subconsciously, I would say overthe last 10 years in in taking
heed on that advice, becausenothing is promised.
We've both lost friends that wewish you said your last
goodbyes to, so I in my head,more more recently in the last

(37:04):
couple years than ever, because,again, it's nothing is promised
and the last parting words thatI want one of my friends or
family members to pass on withis that I said something
complimentary or I saidsomething that they took to the
grave on yeah, without gettinginto that deep rabbit hole
because I did lose a friend withthe last conversation of

(37:26):
telling him I was so proud ofhim and yeah, but again, it's
not me trying to separate myself, being all like giving myself a
pat on the back, it's just life.

Speaker 1 (37:36):
What was like a really cool quality about him?
It was Dallas.
Oh yeah, dallas McCarver.
Yeah, he was just he seemedamazing.
I only met him one time for abrief moment, but he seemed like
a hell of a guy.

Speaker 2 (37:48):
He was a student of the game, truly committed to his
craft and relentless in doingit in the gym and outside he was
just a big teddy bear.
He was the20-something-year-old kid that
was just as clueless as all ofus, who was trying to seek his
best version of himself andtrying to do everything possible

(38:10):
to live up to it.
And you can't please everybodyin the comments section, you
can't say hello to everybody atan expo but it haunted him that
he wanted to make sure he leftan impression and the version
that I thought was him but theone that I got to know and take
under my wing and call himlittle brother was one that
brought me great joy and, as yousee in the gym he's got his own

(38:32):
posing room.
It's the dallas mcava posingroom is photos of him around the
around the gym, because he madean impact in my life at uh.
Obviously he was only a numberof years, but it made a lasting
impression and also, just likeyour brother too, it reminds me
of reality that nothing ispromised and we have one life,

(38:54):
we have one ticket to pull andyou just got to chase shit
because there's always going tobe people that doubt you and
you're always going to havepeople that probably more so
talk shit about what you'redoing than anything else.
But if you've got the ones thatare around you telling you you
can do it, they're the ones thatyou keep close.
And I've got a very good groupof people.
I call them the travelingcircus.
They've been around me inTennessee.

(39:16):
When I moved to Florida, theycame to Florida.
When I moved to Vegas, theycame to Vegas.
And these are the loyal onesthat believed in me before I
even had a trophy.
So now when I eat, they eat,and I truly believe that is
something that, again, a lot ofpeople don't do.
But this is culturally how itwas brought up.
So, as that, again, a lot ofpeople don't do, but this is

(39:36):
culturally how I was brought up.
So, as you can tell by myaccent, I haven't strayed too
far away from my upbringings.
Even my accent is still strong20 years later, a little bit
lighter for you, mark, tounderstand on the podcast, but
nonetheless it's life's lessons,right, and we're learning all
the time, and I'm still humbleenough to know that I'm not good
at many things.
But, just like you, I'm excitedto do different things because I

(39:56):
will refuse to be put into agenre unknown as just that one
person, and suffice to say youare that guy.
You've done so many differentthings which I want to talk
about again.
You've hit the highest of highsin powerlifting, and this is
knowing in certain order.
But you also can call yourselfa bodybuilder.
You have yes, you were hittingshots in the gym yesterday.
I seen you, you fucking closetbodybuilder in the gym.

(40:18):
I can't call you that becauseyou've actually stood on stage.
That's right.
You've been a bodybuilder.
You're running you.
There's so many feathers to thehat mark.
It's just tell me where andthis is what I love that mindset
comes from, because it's got tobe that internal drive, that
flame, and never goes off,because suffice to say you on to
so many different things.
So tell us where that mindsetcomes from I just really love

(40:41):
life.

Speaker 1 (40:41):
I feel really good.
I'm 48 years old and I feelfucking incredible.
So I just I have a lot ofenergy for a lot of the things I
do.
I like to run.
I love bodybuilding.
I've always liked bodybuilding.
I just haven't really been to alot of bodybuilding shows.
I've never really got that deepinto bodybuilding like that.
But I love participating inbodybuilding.
I love trying to alter my ownbody.

(41:03):
I love trying like it's aninteresting piece of the puzzle
to try to figure out oh man,like I'm getting leaner, but
you're like shit.
I'm getting smaller.
Like leaner, but you're likeshit, I'm getting smaller.
Like what the fuck is this?
And that's bodybuilding.
Right, that's the essence ofbodybuilding and the good
bodybuilders even when they dolose weight and stuff, they can
still look really big awesomebodybuilder could have, can gain
pretty good amounts of fat andstill look lean.

(41:25):
You're like how is thatpossible?
Yeah, like how is this guy like30 pounds more than what he
weighed on the stage, but hestill looks lean?
You're like, figure it out.
So I've always liked the puzzlepieces of sport and the puzzle
pieces of trying to figure outhow to bodybuild, how to power
lift the bodybuilding.
I just I like challenges.
I like things to be notnecessarily like super difficult

(41:46):
, but I like things to bechallenging.
I like, more recently, not onlyhave I been, you know, running
I ran the Boston Marathon butnow I'm starting to get more
into running faster, I'm tryingto do like sprints and stuff
like that and, I don't know,maybe some point I'll compete in
like a track meet or somethingLike just why not?
Like just keep learning andjust so what?
Maybe I'll look weird or dorky?

(42:07):
I've never had a problem withlooking weird or being a little
different.
Powerlifting was alwaysdifferent.
Power or being a littledifferent Powerlifting was
always different.
Powerlifting in and of itselfwas embarrassing.
My mother would call the schooland she would be like, oh, mark
broke it down and they wouldannounce it at the school and I
would fall in my chair and meltbecause nobody knew what
powerlifting was.
I'd just be like bright red.
I'm like, oh my God, the girlsand stuff.
They're going to hear this andeveryone's going to ask me what

(42:29):
power?
And I just can't handle thisfucking shame.
I was like why'd my mom have tocall?
Good old mom, good old mom, yeah, I called the school and tell
them what I did.
They're talking about all thoseother stupid kids who scored a
goal in soccer.
My mom was so pro for me thatit was like just absolutely
absurd.
So great.
I love doing new things and Ilove the humility of you're a

(42:52):
fucking beginner Like how goodat this are you going to be?
You're going to be shitty at it.
You're going to be shitty at it.
You're probably going to beshitty at it for a while.
And so the game with running forme and part of what kind of
excites me about it, is like Ifeel like I'm just getting
started and I feel like my bodyweight previously just made
running just way more difficultthan it needed to be, and so now

(43:15):
I'm working on like losing moreweight.
Hopefully I won't completelydisappear, but I would like to
be around 200 pounds I'mprobably 220 ish now and just
stay around there and thenimprove upon the running from
there.
But I've always loved these newchallenges and I just I want to
do more and be more in thisworld.
I want to continue to make moremoney, I want to continue to

(43:38):
get into new things, learn newthings why not?

Speaker 2 (43:40):
What is the excitement about doing all these
new challenges You're lookingfor?
You read a book.
You might get something fromthat book.
You might get a couple ofparagraphs, but what you're
doing is you're throwingyourself into a complete
different sport and that is itovertakes everything, right, you

(44:03):
become obsessed with it.
For me, I can't just dosomething once or twice a week.
I'm all in.
That's what scares me aboutgetting to be bjj is like I
can't just do things as a hobby.
There has to be an end cap,there has to be a fight.
So for yourself, you got intobodybuilding.
Obviously I know you workedwith honey.
You worked with a couple ofgreat people there and you look
fantastic.
You nailed the conditioning,you were rock hard, peeled and

(44:24):
to then to see you then as the300 pound power lifter.
To then to see you there's thepeel bodybuilder, and then that
was the feather on the hat.
Okay, I'm, I'm on to the next.
What is it that you're tryingto get out of each and every
endeavor that you're doing?

Speaker 1 (44:38):
Just the most out of myself.
I'm a really big believer in.
There's a lot of stuff insideof us and we have to figure out.
It's everyone's job to try tobring that out.
I think that there's a lot ofGod-like material within each
person.
I almost don't know how much Ibelieve in necessarily a God, as
I believe that God is almostlike everything and everyone,

(44:59):
and I think that people havedivinity within them.
You hear some of these weirdthings that happen sometimes
when someone's about to die andthen a mom picks up a car or
something, got it off a child orsomething.
You're like that can't even bepossible, that doesn't even
sound real.
But I do think there's ways tounlock really interesting things
within your own body andsometimes some of these things
are just like physical, likesome of them just yeah, of

(45:21):
course, like we could get you torun faster and jump higher,
like we.
We just know, like you and Iknow enough about training to
where we could figure that out.
And each person is going tohave their own.
Each person have their owndifferent like propensity to be
like good at something versusanother person.
But yeah, I just I love, I lovethe challenge of it.
I love what it does for my mind, and so when I'm out on a run

(45:43):
or something like that, yeah,it's a little bit for the body,
but, like, running longdistances is not.
Running long distances is notgreat for your body.
It's not a great way to evenlose weight, really it's not a
great way to even lose weightreally.
It's start running more thaneight or 10 miles, it's just,
it's a battle of attrition, likeyour body's in a catabolic
state.
It's not a great place to be.
However, your body adapts andyour body can get used to just

(46:05):
about anything, and that is thepart that I find to be the most
fascinating piece of the puzzle.
It's like, how is it that like,let's say, even just say during
your bodybuilding career thisis actually possible, but
doesn't seem possible?
You could have.
From the time you were a kid,you could have always loved
running and you could say Ialways ran a mile before every
workout and you now you wouldlook back and be like man, that

(46:26):
would be nuts.
Like even just a mile is it'sfar if you're not used to
running, but if that's the waythat you just grew up, it'd be
normal to you.
Yeah, because your body adaptsto stuff.
So I hear so many peoplethey're super scared to try
something new.
They're like powerlifters.
I don't want to get intobodybuilding says if I lean out
and stuff, I'm going to getweaker and you're like, you
might get weaker, but it's onlyfor a short period of time.

(46:48):
And think about all you'regoing to gain in that process.
We have have a tendency tohyper-focus on what we're going
to lose.
But what are you going to gain?
What if bodybuilding showed youwhat it showed me about myself?
I was all in on powerlifting,quote unquote all in on
powerlifting.
Oh yeah, you thinkpowerlifting's hard.
Try bodybuilding.

(47:09):
And it's not to say thatbodybuilders are better than
powerlifters.
Maybe you think that.
But and it's not to say thatbodybuilders are better than
powerlifters.
Maybe you think that.
But it's not to say thatbodybuilding is even harder than
powerlifting.
But bodybuilding takes morediscipline.
It's just not even possible forsomebody to present another
activity.
I'll call it, since some peopledon't like to call it a sport

(47:30):
it's a sport.
It's a sport.
It's a sport.
It's athletic.

Speaker 2 (47:33):
You're on my podcast.

Speaker 1 (47:34):
Oh my God.
So this sport of bodybuilding.
It's hard to present me withother information that would
make me agree with somebodysaying there's something more
difficult than bodybuilding.
And I know people are like whatabout?
They just go take drugs andthey go on and they just don't
eat Bumstead does 1,300 caloriesand takes a bunch of juice and

(47:54):
gets on stage.

Speaker 2 (47:55):
You're like no, no, no, it was not easy.

Speaker 1 (47:57):
You're like you don't understand.
But even having said that, theamount of time that it takes the
training, the trying to manageyour body fat, trying to figure
out ways of holding on yourmuscle and your diet and your
meal prep.
And I realize as you move upthe ladder you can have people
help you with some of thesethings and all that stuff.
But there's a beginning phaseof that that is really hard,

(48:18):
where you're lugging around yourown stuff and your own gym bag.
You got your chicken from threedays ago.
That's on its last leg.
How many times have you donethat?

Speaker 2 (48:28):
Not three days old chicken man.
Come on Two days.
Yeah, you powerlifters arehardcore.
You Come on two days.
Yeah, you powerlifters arehardcore.
You've got fucking stomachs ofconcrete.

Speaker 1 (48:34):
You did that in the beginning, I'm sure.

Speaker 2 (48:38):
Maybe, but I'm not promoting 3-day-old chicken on
my podcast.

Speaker 1 (48:40):
Okay, I don't need no salmonella fucking emails no
it's good for the gut microbiomemaking you more resilient.

Speaker 2 (48:45):
This isn't a kombucha man.
Yeah, exactly, but would yousay that was the hardest thing
for yourself crossing over frompowerlifting to bodybuilding?
The nutrition element of thingswas that probably?

Speaker 1 (48:54):
that's what I'm talking about with bodybuilding.
It's that 24 7 right, it's that24 7 thing.
And even you know if, ifsomeone gets to be like a higher
level bodybuilder, they'retrying to be a pro.
Now it's you can slightly getout of shape for a minute, but
it really has to be a purposelygetting out of shape thing.
It has to be like a, a bulkright.
And so for me, what it made merealize was that with

(49:17):
powerlifting, I was like maybemore like 70 or 80% in, not 100%
, because I did do a lot ofother stuff when it came to
powerlifting, like I did stuffoutside of powerlifting that
would show you that, yes, I'mlike 100% dedicated to it.
But I just didn't have the sameknowledge after going through
bodybuilding and realizing.
But I just didn't have the sameknowledge After going through

(49:39):
bodybuilding and realizing, oh,this is a 24-hour process.
I'm waking up at fucking 4o'clock to meet Mike O'Tran at
the gym, I'm training with himand I still have to figure out a
way to get my cardio in.
Hany's dealing with a weirdperson to try to train and help
with this in me.
So we need 90 minutes of cardio.
There was like a lot of weirdthings that were tough for me to
figure out.
But missing a meal is the sameas cheating and I didn't even.

(50:03):
I didn't know that Like I.
I just thought, oh, missing ameal probably does you some good
because you're just going to beleaner on stage.
You might be a little leaner,but you're probably just going
to be lighter and look more likeshit.
And if I'm not saying that likeyou may as well just cheat on
your diet if you missed a meal.
But it's so important.
Every little detail ofbodybuilding, all the way down

(50:23):
to those itty-bitty trunks, isimportant and I think that
there's more error.
There's more, yeah, there'smore chance to mess up when it
comes to your nutrition andstuff like that with other
sports and even your preparationfor basketball.
Look, there's a lot of thesesports.
These guys are eating like fastfood and shit.
It doesn't seem to matter thatmuch and I realize you can

(50:44):
figure out if it fits yourmacros and.
But bodybuilding is so weirdthat it's.
No, you can't even do thatbecause that messes up your skin
and your skin's going to bethicker.
If you have milk or potato,there's a difference between a
red potato and a regular potato.
Holy shit, I don't know what'sreal and what's not, but I'm
sure that when you came down tothe end, when you were being as
precise as you need to be, asthe competition got tougher and

(51:07):
tougher, you weren't taking anychances.
You were like no, I believethat rice does this and I'm
fucking eating rice.

Speaker 2 (51:13):
That's exactly what I've done, even carved up on the
exact same things.
I ate the entire prep.
You hear these stories aboutpeople shit-loading it's called.
They'll just throw a load ofcheat meals right at the end or
the day before the show and,yeah, you roll the dice.
You could look incrediblebecause everybody looks great
the day after the show, becausethey pig out, right.
But also there's a process ofthem being on stage, not eating.

(51:33):
The stress is off, the camel,the monkey's off their back, the
stress is low, they enjoythemselves.
Of course they're going to lookbetter.
It's maintaining all thesedifferent things and when you're
on the top, you're then addingin media, you're adding in all
these other components thatsecond to last place don't have
to put up with.
But again, that truly comeswith maturity and understanding

(51:55):
and controlling the variablesthat are coming at you going
into a show.
So over time, I startedlearning to manage my stress
more than anything else, becausethe diet was down.
It was just handling that,because as you get stressed out,
you turn into water buffalo.
That and also I say this withJess, but it's true I could win
or lose a show on a banana.
That's how on point, we weregoing into every single show.

(52:17):
When you're, when everything ismeasured, everything is
controlled and everything isconsumed accurately at the exact
same time that is needed andyour coach is overseeing
everything, nothing is going tohappen unless you make it happen
.

Speaker 1 (52:29):
I think it's so weird how, like even the cream of the
crop bodybuilder it sounds tome like a little bit like you
know how to get yourself in thebest shape and those kinds of
things, but it's still like upin the air on probably a couple
things like I find this to besuper interesting and I'm sure
you probably had it to a degreethat's like crazier than anyone

(52:49):
can imagine.
But sometimes you just wake upin the middle of the night and
you're like the fuck is going on.
I got veins from my toes to mynose right now and you're
totally and completely shreddedand you don't have I know, some
people listening like you, thesemotherfuckers, but you don't
have any real explanation for it.
Yeah, and you could have eatenlike shit or it could have been
two days earlier, and you'rethinking like, yeah, I don't

(53:12):
know how to like recreate thisfor the stage.
Yeah, it's a wild.

Speaker 2 (53:14):
It's just a mental battle too, because you're
thinking like I don't know howto like recreate this for the
stage.
Yeah, it's a wild.
it's just a mental battle too,because you're always looking at
yourself in the mirror Alsoanother thing I tell people is
stop looking at yourself fucking18 times a day because you
stand in one mirror.
You see yourself look good inthat mirror.
Don't look in any other mirrorthe rest of the day.
And that's what I see a lot ofthese guys who compete in.

(53:34):
They'll go and look atthemselves in the posing room,
then they'll go in the gym andthen they're taking selfies in
the fucking toilet.
Then they go in at home andthey're looking at them.
I look like I flattened out.
Yeah, you did.
What do you mean to tell you?
You did, did you look good?
Going to become that stress bag, your body's going to fluctuate

(53:56):
, is your point right.
Yes, and even at the Olympiaweek there was one mirror Neil
told me to look at.

Speaker 1 (54:02):
Mirror me on the wall .

Speaker 2 (54:03):
It was at the City Athletic Club the old City
Athletic Club and I would lookin that and then he'd be like I
don't look at myself.
But I did get excited to wakeup on the show day and see what
I really looked like the dryingout process, because once I
shaved my face, I would look atmyself in the mirror and I'd
like you know, like livingout-the-body experiences lift my

(54:25):
hands up and yeah, that is myhand, but I don't look like me.
Do you have that feeling whenyou're competing too?

Speaker 1 (54:30):
Yeah, it was wild.

Speaker 2 (54:31):
Yeah, it was wild.

Speaker 1 (54:32):
And again, I was lucky.
You're very fortunate to haveHani Rambad.
He came on my podcast and thenhe issued a challenge to me.
He's like, oh, you're in prettygood shape right now.
I think you owe it to your fansto do a bodybuilding show.
And I was like bodybuilding.
I was like, oh, I know nothingabout bodybuilding but if you'll

(54:56):
help me, I'm to take you up onit.
But yeah, one of the things Iwanted to do with that is I
really wanted to just push it ashard as I could, like as hard
as I could for that time periodof my life, being Mark Bell with
a wife, two kids and othercircumstances.
Like there's got to be a littlegive and break or a little give
and take on some of thesethings.
So for me, if I was to grademyself, I would say I was
probably like a, not a nine, interms of the effort that was put

(55:19):
in every single day to makesure I had the best outcome.
And the reason why I wasn't a10 is just because I didn't
always do the 90 minutes ofcardio towards the end, because
I'm like I'd rather just eatless and I'd text honeys, you
fat bastard.
You know what'd do is.
He would send me a text of apig no shit, yeah, I know Fat
shaming me.

(55:39):
It was unbelievable, but it wasincredible getting into that
kind of shape.
And then I would see a video.
My team would post like a videoand I'm like who's this guy?
I'm like this is amazing.

Speaker 2 (55:49):
I just can't believe.

Speaker 1 (55:50):
I was able to alter my body like that.

Speaker 2 (55:53):
I'm sure my wife will attest to this.
She said she's had about threedifferent husbands.
Your wife will probably say thesame thing too.
She was with you.
For how long have you guys beentogether?

Speaker 1 (56:03):
Yeah, we've been together for four years Wow.

Speaker 2 (56:05):
How many different versions of Mark has she seen?

Speaker 1 (56:07):
Yeah, she's seen it all.
I'm back to a similar weightthat I weighed when we actually
yeah, I weigh the same as whenwe got married.
Right now, and when I was likemy body weight has been all over
the place, like when I was inhigh school, I weighed 240
pounds so I was trying to getbig for football and I was
already power lifting and yeah,yeah, I was learning about
protein and shit like that.
So I'm drinking these metricshakes that would break my

(56:29):
blender and stuff like that.
Those were horrible.
Your blender would be likesmoking those things in concrete
.
Yeah, those things were awful.
But yeah, my wife has seen meat every weight, from 210 pounds
all the way up to 330, all theway back down damn.

Speaker 2 (56:45):
And right now, mark, what is your way?
What are you getting out of bedfor excited?

Speaker 1 (56:50):
I'm excited and fired up every single day just to try
to figure out a way to get alittle bit better, just to be a
little bit better than I wasyesterday.
And I'm excited about learning,which is funny because as a kid
growing up I always thought Iwas dumb.
I had some learningdisabilities, I had some issues
with learning and stuff likethat, and so I labeled my.

(57:10):
I was in classes with otherkids that struggled as well.
It was easy for me to lookaround and be like, well, I
guess I'm dumb.
And then that that had a thatput like a ceiling on what I
thought I could do.
I didn't think that I would.
I didn't think I could get ajob or do some of these other
things that other kids could do,cause I was like I was fearful
of it, I was scared of it.
And my parents they tried toreassure me like no, you're, you

(57:35):
struggle in math and youstruggle with some reading, but
you're good, like you're fine.
This is not a huge deal and Ithink that was really helpful as
a kid.
It's.
You need more than your parents.
You need like your friends andstuff, to be like a little
reassuring and stuff like that.
And yeah, because I had thatlabel, it made it.
It made things more difficultfor me.
But over a period of time andafter working on myself for a

(57:59):
long time and making myselfstronger, being able to change
my body, I'm like, oh, I'm ableto make all these changes this
way with these particular habits.
Maybe I should stop having thisinternal dialogue telling
myself that I'm dumb, and maybeI should just work on reading
like I can read.
So why don't should just workon reading Like I can read?
So why don't I just work on it?
Okay, it's slower than somebodyelse, okay, it's annoying.
Somebody else might have thesame struggle coming into the

(58:22):
gym, someone who's obese or inpain.
I don't want to do that Samething with me.
When I'm looking at a book, Idon't want to read that.
But you work on it and you growover time, and I think that is
the story on why I'm so pumpedand excited to continue to learn
and to continue to grow.
And then I also became obsessedwith applying stuff.
So there's a lot of stuff I'velearned in the last couple of

(58:45):
years.
That's, it's a bunch of like,little, like fringe stuff.
Again, I think of bodybuilding,I think of all these little I
hate to call them tricks becauseit's not really fair to call it
a trick but there's all theselike little things you could do,
all these little details thatyou can do, and I think that in
people's day to day they don'tunderstand all the tricks.
There's so many different thingsyou can do.

(59:05):
We have a tendency to reach for, like an energy drink.
We have a tendency to reach forthis and reach for that, and
this thing is going to solvethis problem.
This thing's going to provideme with this entertainment.
This thing's going to provideme with this outcome.
But there's so many other thingsyou can do again to elicit,
like, what's inside of youalready and you can generate
your own energy.
And generate your own energy bylistening to nostalgic music.

(59:29):
Think, play a song from whenyou were in like fucking eighth
grade or something like that,and it's going to bring you to a
certain spot.
You could play a certain song.
It could remind you ofsomething that makes you sad.
You could play a certain songand it could bring you way up.
Your decision on that is up toyou and up to what mood you want
to be in, but you don't alwayshave to search for a drug or
caffeine or alcohol to put youin these frames of mind.

(59:53):
You could even watch anostalgic movie, you could go on
a walk, you could all thesethings.
If you go on a walk and you getsome sunlight, you're going to
be like, oh my God, okay, that'snot the same as having 300
milligrams of caffeine.
It didn't give me that samecrazy zip, but I don't think
we're really designed to handle300 milligrams of caffeine in
the first place.
That zip that you feel isactually more of a negative

(01:00:15):
thing because it's putting youon this fucking crazy
rollercoaster ride that we can'tnormally elicit.
That you can't.
That's what drugs do.
Drugs put you in a state andthey put, they bring you to a
spot that you normally otherwisecan't get to on your own.
And you got things likesteroids and these different
things that can.
They do bump you up, right,they level.
And you got things likesteroids and these different

(01:00:36):
things.
They can, they do bump you up,right, they level you up.
But for every action there's anequal, an opposite reaction and
for everything that you dothat's like kind of messing with
us as a human.
You're not getting outside,you're not getting your feet
grounded, you're not gettingsunlight.
We're inside of gyms and insideof places all day just getting
like blue light and just allthese things that are over a

(01:00:58):
period of time.
They pick at you.
It's just, it's small, and sopeople are like I'm not buying,
I'm not wearing those dumb redlight glasses at night, I'm not
gonna do red light therapy, I'mnot gonna.
I don't believe that the sunhas these magical powers.
If you start to do some ofthese habits over time, they
will make a huge fuckingdifference.
You won't even believe it.

(01:01:19):
Everything in our world rightnow is compromised.
Every fucking thing in ourworld right now is compromised,
from your shoes to yourtoothbrush, to your toothpaste.
Most people's feet don't evenactually really fit in their
shoes.
We just wear them because theylook nice.
It's a cosmetic thing and I knowsometimes some of this stuff

(01:01:39):
sounds crazy.
But just walk through your dayand think about all the
different things that you do andall the different products that
you're in contact with.
Your shampoo probably isn'tgood for you.
Your toothpaste, yourtoothbrush, your mouthwash, your
conditioner, your lotion, yourmouthwash, your conditioner,
your lotion.
Your cookware, just theTupperware that you put your
fucking meal prep in it, justthe list goes on and on, and you

(01:02:03):
don't need to be a crazy personabout it.
You don't need to fucking lockyourself in a room and just be
like I can't handle it.
What you can do is you can armyourself and you can make
yourself stronger by learningthese things.
So for me me, I'm just superfucking excited to wake up every
day and to learn some of thesethings and to try to figure out
are these things for real?
Do they really work?

(01:02:23):
Someone just gave me, danawhite, just gave me this bottle,
and he's pushed the button onthis bottle and it's going to
put hydrogen into your water andI'm like so he just, he's dude,
he goes I know it sounds stupid.
He just try it for a week.
I think it sounds stupid.
He thought it sounds stupid.
What if I try it for a week?
And what if it fucking works?
Yeah, why not just try it?
Just give things a chance, givethings a shot and also it's.

Speaker 2 (01:02:46):
There's a lot of information out there and you
can get blindsided if you wentdown this path.
But if you follow in somebodysuch as yourself, that is, has
lived a few lives and now on anew path of finding again,
finding a better place forfinding energy, finding
self-love, whatever it is not tosay, that's yourself right now,
but you're in the trenchestrying to work a better way of

(01:03:10):
becoming a better person.
Follow that person and ifthey're open and honest, they
will tell you yeah, I've donethis for a month.
It's fucking shit, but I did dothis for a month and it changed
my life.
One of the things that I wasfollowing you on when you
started running was you startedrunning bare feet, and that blew
my mind, because we're not inAfrica yet, mark, you're running

(01:03:31):
on the streets of California.
They have fucking dog shit allover the place.
You live in a nice neighborhood, I know, but running bare feet
was that something that youstrived out to get to, or is
this through knowledge andeducation?
You're like you know what.

Speaker 1 (01:03:46):
This is what I should be doing if you think about
this for a second, if you justenvision like trying to walk
across a parking lot without anyshoes on and no socks, it hurts
, right like it hurts, andyou're gonna have to walk a very
particular way.
You're probably gonna be onyour toes, your arms might be
out for balance and shit likethat, and we're designed to be

(01:04:07):
able to traverse this earthwithout any shoes.
However, we make these reallyhard surfaces that fucking suck,
that have rocks, sometimesthere's glass and so it can be
dangerous.
You got to be cautious, but youcan build your feet up to be
super resilient.
That same example I just gaveof like walking across the
parking lot.
You really probably shouldn'thave that much pain and if

(01:04:28):
you're to get down the groundshouldn't hurt.
Lying on your side, gettingdown and just being on your
knees or sitting down andcrossing your legs over and
stuff like that.
None of these things shouldhurt, but you're probably going
to find as you age that theyhurt like hell.
You're like why does this hurtso bad?
This amount of pressure shouldnot hurt us, and when I got into

(01:04:48):
running, the idea was I want tobuild.
I know I'm going to have someresilience from lifting anyway
from handling all these weightsover the years.
My strength to weight ratio isgood, so I'm probably not going
to have the same issues thatsomebody else might have Knee
pain, shin splints and so forth.
I'm probably not going to runinto those things.
But you never had that, no.

Speaker 2 (01:05:09):
Wow, sorry, no, I don't have any of that we can
get to some of that too.

Speaker 1 (01:05:14):
I have zero pain.
But when I started I was likeyou know what?
I knew that my feet were goingto be the key to the whole
process because I would get donewith some of the runs and my
feet were.
They just hurt.
And then they started to hurtso much that even in my own home
I was like man.
I that, even in my own home Iwas like man.

(01:05:34):
I think I need to put like shoeson just to cruise around the
house because my feet arestarting to hurt.
And we got like concrete orwhatever in our house and I'm
like or marble or whatever thefuck it is, and I'm like this is
uncomfortable and I startedresearching it and finding out
more information.
I was like, oh, I was like,holy shit, I need to go the
complete opposite way.
So all these kind of, all thesepeople that you see, all these
boomers walking around withtheir new balances, these dad

(01:05:56):
shoes, right, and a lot ofpadded shoes, the hokas and
these things Sometimes there's atime and place for those things
.
If somebody wants to run 20miles or something like that, it
might be an appropriate shoefor something like that, but
just to go around in yourday-to-day?
It's a huge mistake.
We shoe for something like that.
But just to go around in yourday to day?
It's a huge mistake.
We don't.
The body is a computer.
The body is the mostwell-designed, the most

(01:06:18):
well-designed thing on thisplanet that we probably have the
least amount of information on.
Elon Musk.
He wants people to go and visitMars.
I think we need to visitourselves.
We need to learn more.
We need to learn more about ourbrain.
We don't even know about theconsciousness and stuff.
But the human body is a reallysophisticated computer and
almost everything starts withour skin and in this case, like,

(01:06:41):
we're typically connected tothe earth via our feet and then
our feet are not even actuallyever making contact with the
actual ground, and so those arethings that you got to connect
the dots on that and say, okay,I know there's some weird hippie
stuff out there about groundingand stuff, but you know, like,
the earth is an electromagneticfield, the sun is an

(01:07:02):
electromagnetic field.
These are fucking powerfulthings.
These are things that allowedour ancestors to make it through
these really rough times,because nowadays, if you're to
think man, I wouldn't be able tosurvive without a refrigerator
I wouldn't be able to survive.
Without shelter I wouldn't beable to survive, but we did.
We figured out a way to survivewithout shoes, without so much
clothing.

(01:07:23):
So taking the shoes off andrunning was was something that
worked out great for me.
I learned I needed to do it ona track or I needed to do it
because like a track you're notgoing to find like broken glass
on a normal track, and I alsoneed to do it like in a field
where the grass was like soft.
But that built up a lot ofresilience in my feet and then I
was able to wear like more likebarefoot shoes like Vivo.

(01:07:45):
Barefoot is a good brand.
The ones I'm wearing right now.
These things are field groundsare called, so there's a lot of
good brands out there thatpeople can check out.
You really just want to makesure that your foot can act like
a foot and these things of likepeople having bunions and your
toes all slammed together andall this shit.
It's just because of poor shoes.
It's just because of shittyshoe wear.

Speaker 2 (01:08:06):
What did you find and feel when you started putting
all this together?
Was it like a sense ofwell-being, just earthing
yourself?
Or what was the firstcharacteristics that you were
like?
I'm going to keep this going.

Speaker 1 (01:08:21):
You start to feel strength and you start to feel a
coordination between your eyesand your body.
So have you run or sprinted ina long time?

Speaker 2 (01:08:29):
I played a celebrity football game.
What three months ago times,yeah, sprinting all over the
place some.

Speaker 1 (01:08:37):
Sometimes, when you're sprinting and it's been a
long time since you sprinted,yes, you'll go out and you'll
sprint and you feel like it'stotally unsafe.
It's a little scary.
You're like I'm running fast,which feels cool, but first of
all I'm not sure if I'm gonnablow something out.
And then I'm not sure if I'mgoing to blow something out and
then, secondly, I'm not sure ifI'm going to eat shit.
It feels like you're going tofall it was.

Speaker 2 (01:08:56):
Yeah, I was very impressed by how explosive I
still was foolishly, but thenthe after effects was there for
a while.

Speaker 1 (01:09:04):
Oh, yeah, you probably got.
Oh, my knees were tossed.
You probably got insanely sore,yeah.
But yeah, what I was feelingfrom the, from the barefoot
stuff, was better likeproprioception.
So better like balance, bettercoordination between the eyes
and between the feet.
And then also, when you run abarefoot, you automatically are
going to run with.

(01:09:24):
The form is probably going tolook different than and feel
different than what you're usedto, but you're forced into
running on the balls of yourfeet Like it's impossible.
You're not going to heel strike, Wow.
You're not going to try to runbarefoot and just be jamming
your heel into the ground thewhole time.
That just would not make anysense.
So you're going to be on theballs of your feet more, You're
probably going to be leaningforward more and you're also

(01:09:46):
going to want quicker likeground contact time, because
your brain is smart enough toknow like the ground hurts.
Bro, let's pick those feet upand let's get them moving a
little faster.

Speaker 2 (01:09:56):
Interesting.
Interesting Because, again, Icome from a sprinting background
, so I got taught how to run,how to activate my glutes, but
it was never done in.
It was never done like on abasic level.
I was already running fast andthen they tried to alter my
stride, not understanding thatit brought on a whole new slew

(01:10:19):
of issues shin splints, kneeproblems but all my issues
started in my feet.
That's why it's an interest forme when I was speaking to you
yesterday about improving thatfeet, because my knee issues
right now are no coming from myfeet.
So I walk around barefoot a lot.
So when I get home I take myshoes off and I'm in my bare

(01:10:39):
feet all the time.

Speaker 1 (01:10:41):
granted, it's not, I'll have I'll have some shoes
sent to you.
There's a shoe.
You mind me plugging something?
Plug away.
There's a shoe called paluvaand it's made by mark sisson
created primal kitchen.
He's an iconic figure in thehealth and nutrition space, but
Mark also was a triathlete whenhe was young and he's one of the
fastest triathletes of all time.
As a runner he was reallyimpressive.

(01:11:03):
But he made these shoes calledPaloovas and maybe he can bring
it up on the screen.
It's basically like an activetoe spacer for your feet.
It's a shoe, but it's basicallylike an active toe spacer for
your feet.
It's a shoe, but it's a toe.
It's a toe shoe and you pushyour, you put your foot in there
and it'll be annoying at firsthaving your toes spread out a
little bit throughout the day,but you wear them for 10 minutes
, go on some walks and stufflike that and really help them.

(01:11:25):
It'll help tremendously.
You'll be shocked.
It's, it's these.
Yep, those are yeah, those arethem.
Yeah, it's weird.
It's weird when you think aboutstuff like that because you're
like that's like it's not gonnareally do anything, but it
fucking works.
It helps a lot.

Speaker 2 (01:11:36):
Oh, wow, so that when you put your feet in there's
like toe positions inside theshoe?

Speaker 1 (01:11:40):
yeah, yeah, basically it's like wearing it's if
you're wearing a glove,interesting for your foot.
And what's funny is likesometimes people look at shoes
like that and they'll go oh mygod, those are so ugly.
And you're like, hey man,you've got to take that up with
god, because that's the humanfoot brother I'm in a different
chapter of my life right now.

Speaker 2 (01:11:56):
I'm obviously doing different endeavors and I was on
my path and doing another thingand, as I said, it's probably a
slap in the back of the headfor me not to focus on that and
focus on some new stuff.
But, needless to say, I'm likeyou in that sense where I'm
always chasing my next.
Why Getting up every morningfor bodybuilding?

(01:12:16):
I knew what my goal was, I knewwhat my dream was and I was
chasing that.
Yes, there was things along theway that I was doing with the
businesses and stuff, but it wasall encompassing.
On that, mr Olympia, I knewthat date was set and everything
was going to go down that yearon that date was set and
everything was going to go downthat year on that date.
When that was taken away from meby my choosing.

(01:12:36):
It's trying to find that newchase and I throw myself into a
lot of different things, but Ithink I don't know if this
you'll attest to this nothingwill replace bodybuilding and
nothing will replace being asstrong as fuck as what you were,
but also and I said thisearlier too it's not going to
define me.
Bodybuilding is part of mylegacy, but now I'm trying to

(01:12:57):
find other things that add thatfeather in the hat.
We can look at Arnold.
Right, there's that example,since we're coming from this
world and look what he done withthe bodybuilding and then went
on to be a famous actor and thenwent on to be a governor and

(01:13:19):
now he's probably going to bedoing something else at the the
tail end of his lifespan.
But again you look at that andI think to myself wow, he could
have easily retired after themovies.
He got so much money with thereal estate aside, he didn't
have to do the movies right, andthen he'd done the movies and
then he's done.
But every time you're puttingyourself at the front of the
line to to take the praise andalso take the criticism.
And when you do anotherendeavor, I feel like there's so

(01:13:39):
much criticism more thanthere's positivity.
Because even when I seen yourunning, I was like look at this
crazy fucker.
Of course I knew there was abigger goal for you, because you
just do something.
But again, how would you fightthat fight of shutting off the
negativity and just focusing onwhat you want to achieve out of
this?

Speaker 1 (01:13:58):
the number one way to handle that is to not look at
it like it's a choice to go inthe comment section.
And what are you looking for?
What are we looking for in thecomment?
What is a seven time mr olympiachampion like?
Looking in the comment section,for what are you what you're
digging for?
It's almost like you're askingfor it.
It's almost like you're askingsomebody to be like hey man,
you're looking fat, you knowwhat I mean and you're like what

(01:14:19):
, you're like what.
And then you check out thatperson's profile and, yeah, all
that stuff.
It just brings you to likereally weird.
It's it makes sense, right,because you're posting something
that you're trying to showother people and then then
you're like, oh, I wonder whatthe response is from me showing
how to add more protein to myday.
And then there's 15 people thatlike shit on it.
Oh, you're just trying to hawka new product or whatever.

(01:14:39):
Those things are going tohappen.
I think that one of the thingsthat fires me up and gets me
excited to wake up every day andto push is my family, is my
wife and my kids, and I want tobe a role model for them.
I care about what they think Icare about how they feel.
I can't really be too consumedabout what other people think
about something I posted orsomething I did.

(01:15:02):
Obviously I'm going to takeownership of stuff too.
If I hurt somebody and I didsomething wrong, I'm going to
have to go back and correct that.
That's just that's how I wasraised, that's what I believe,
and I'm going to try to do mybest.
But if I make a joke or saysomething that's off color and
someone wants to try to twistthat into some weird thing,
that's on them, that's not on me.
So I really.
For me, there's two things.

(01:15:22):
One is to stay the fuck out ofthe comments, don't look at them
, which is probably verydifficult for a lot of people,
but I think that's powerful.
I think you should be strongenough to do that.
And if you do see a commentthat's negative, if you do
search through it, ask yourselfthe question yet why are you
looking at these things?
What are you trying to get fromit?
And also, somebody points out aflaw of yours.

(01:15:45):
It's like how many flaws do wehave?
I think it's a seneca orsomebody like that one of the
great philosophers.
He's oh, that's the only flawthat you see, yeah, oh, you're
only going to make fun of mygigantic nose, you're not going
to make fun of my big ears too.
There's a lot of stuff that wecan point out and we can pick
apart the last piece of that.
I would say I've worked over thelast several years on what I
call equanimity.
People can look up the word haslike some different meanings,

(01:16:18):
but it basically just means likea balance of the mind, just be
like real level.
And that's the way I am.
I'm not like I'm not overlyexcitable, I'm not all fired up,
you're not gonna.
Really.
It would be like nearimpossible for you to see me
yelling at somebody, or it'sjust I.
For somebody to get thatresponse out of me.
They'd have to do somethingreally fucking wild or crazy,
and I don't mind getting crazyif it's needed for something
that might be dangerous orsomething like that.
But I am very, uh, calm.
I try to stay like even everyday.

(01:16:39):
I'm a big believer in likeputting up like sixes and sevens
every single day rather thantrying to put up tens.
I'm not a perfectionist.
I don't feel that I need to.
I don't feel pressure.
I don't feel like, oh, I didn'tdo that perfect it's.
No, I was like day one of doingthat thing and, yeah, you could
have put more effort into it,but let's leave it for tomorrow.
You didn't hurt yourself.

(01:16:59):
Tomorrow's a new day.
We can work on that more overtime.
We're going to keep grabbingmore and more of that.
So for me, I think again I haveto go back to my parents,
because they just they filled meup a lot of confidence.
They taught me a lot my motherespecially like spending time, a
lot of time with her, beinglike a mama's boy.
She would tell me okay, you'renot as smart in some of these

(01:17:21):
classes and you're strugglingwith this, but when you arm
wrestle, who wins?
When you race your friends, whowins?
Yeah, when you lift with yourfriends, who wins?
And and it was always everybodyelse no, it was always me.
It was always me.
And so she was like you haveyour own, you got your own
strengths.
You have your own strengthswithin you and that's why my
supplement brand is calledWithin you.
It's from my mom, who was justconstantly like gassing me up

(01:17:46):
basically with highlighting someof the things that I was
naturally maybe a little bitbetter at than some people.

Speaker 2 (01:17:53):
Yeah, For myself.
I got to face my upbringing.
Even I can relate to the schoolas well, and then, coming home,
my mother would gas me up tothe attributes of what I was
good at, as opposed to what Iheard when I was in school.
Oh, you're a jerk or you'restupid.
I got told that same thing too,and it's a tough thing as a kid

(01:18:15):
who is trying his hardest andstill doesn't get it.

Speaker 1 (01:18:20):
That was the thing that made it difficult.
I didn't even realize it tillyou just said it, but I was
trying.
Yeah, that's the part thatwould made it harder to swallow,
because some of my homework orsomething would take three, four
hours or something, and my dadwas there, like my dad's,
literally trying to show me.
My dad started to cry becausehe's man, like I'm trying, he's
like I don't mean to be upset infront of you, but I, he's like

(01:18:40):
I don't know how to help you iswhat he said, and the school
didn't know how to help me.
This is a long time ago.
They didn't have like as muchspecialty stuff as they have now
, where there's some.
Someone could have just said oh, you just need some tutoring.
Yeah, that's probably all Ireally needed was a little extra
attention there, but a littleboost of confidence too.
Who knows, maybe I would neverfucking got it.
I don't see.
Nowadays, though, I don't mind,like when you're a child and

(01:19:02):
stuff, things are way moresensitive and things are way
different.
But I don't mind.
I don't mind some of thesewords that we tend to think are
like derogatory.
I, I don't mind the word dumb,I don't mind saying eh, I'm a
little dumb when it comes tosome of that stuff.
It's okay, I still can improveupon it and I still can be aware
that that's a little bit of aweakness for me.
But what that does is thatallows me to maybe allocate that

(01:19:24):
out to somebody else.
Maybe somebody else is going tobe if I hand that off to
so-and-so, I know they're goingto fucking read every detail of
it and they're going to reallypay attention to how that's
written and what's said in there, and I don't have to read it
and deal with it.
Yeah, I got them.
People too.

Speaker 2 (01:19:38):
My wife is one of them.
But again, the skills that Ipossess my wife doesn't, and my
wife is super skilled in somethings and it's just a yin to
yang right.
I realized fast enough, soonenough, as a young kid, that
nobody could outwork me.
Just give me the opportunity toshowcase what you're trying to

(01:20:01):
do, and then I'll get my handsdirty, turn my head back to
front and do it.
Whether it was woodwork and thePE department was another, I
was the teacher's pet therebecause I was like show me how
to do a backflip and I'll learnhow to do it.
Now, when it came to thecurricular stuff, maths and
English were terrible for me,but the English teacher she knew

(01:20:22):
that I wasn't a bad kid.
The sets that I was in and thefellow friends I had with me
still friends to this day.
They watch me.
It was just a fuck aroundsession and nobody could contain
us.
So we're all put in the sameclass together and when you got
that type of environment, nobodywants to work right and you're
there it's like, hey, I'll seeyou tomorrow and we're gonna
fuck around again.
Yeah, when you got two or threepeople were trying to work in

(01:20:43):
that class and I was one of them, but the maths for me was just
way over my head.
I was always looking out thewindow what the p department was
doing.
I was a daydreamer and I'vesaid in many different podcasts
I was selected as well as otherpupils and told you all three
things.
Now, when I left school, Istarted my first business and I

(01:21:06):
won the young businessman theaward three times.
I went back to that same classand I fucking told her I wasn't
stupid, it was just applicationand how.
The understanding of how, how Iwas being taught to learn,
wasn't at par to to the otherstudents.
Now, not to say that I give ashit about math either, because
how many people use this mathoutside of money counting but it

(01:21:29):
was more of a life's lesson forme back then that if I want to
do something, it's up to me todo it, and you have the same
mentality, right, it's okay,I've done this.
Now I'm going to do this, butit all starts with that first
step, no pun intended, and it'sgoing to hurt, you're going to
be clueless.
But if you surround yourselfwith good people who are going

(01:21:49):
to encourage you on that journeyas opposed to tell you, it's
like, oh, you're doing thiswrong.
You're doing this wrong asopposed to, hey, let me tell you
how you can improve, then allof a sudden, you start enjoying
it, but nobody wants to hear howshit you are all the time,
because you are going to suckand these new endeavors that I'm
getting into.
Even in the business world, I'vegot a lot of smart, powerful

(01:22:15):
friends that have exitedcompanies for nine figures, that
are humble enough to want totrade out knowledge.
So my skills are not theirs andtheirs are not mine.
So it's good to have differentcircles of people, and my point
is I'm mentioning this I'venever stayed within the
bodybuilding box all throughoutmy career and I've always
expanded my horizons, even whenI was competing, to have friends
that were successful indifferent genres, whether they

(01:22:35):
were fights, whether it wasbusiness, whatever else.
And I see the same thing withyou, too, because you have them,
people that have been aroundyou, that are still around you
to this day, but were greatpeople to lean on and have words
of advice that could push youthrough a plateau, or we're in a
different skill that give yousome sort of I don't know
encouragement to get you throughthe first stages or even at the

(01:22:58):
end stages bodybuilding,running, powerlifting, whatever
it is.
But yeah, that's just anobservation that I've seen from
the years of me knowing you Ithink it comes from probably the
same place that you got it fromwas that?

Speaker 1 (01:23:09):
I would imagine you were probably popular in school
and so on.
Things like that.
Popular ginger yeah, I waspopular, and stuff like that too
.
I had two older brothers thatwent through the same school so
everybody knew who I was type ofthing and I was pretty good at
sports and people knew who I was, powerlifting wise and I was
lifter guy.
You're probably lifter guy likewhatever.
So people, people knew me forsome of those things but I

(01:23:33):
didn't run with the popular kidsonly and that was because I was
in those specialty classes witha lot of other kids and I saw
those kids get disrespected.
I saw those kids.
I saw one kid I remember onetime I was just walking through
the hallway and this other kidjust comes up alongside the kid
knocks his uh paid, knocks hisbook and his papers on the floor
.

(01:23:53):
The kid turns around to go andpick him up and the kid punches
him.
I take that kid, I throw himagainst the locker as hard as I
could.
I had no idea what the resultsof my lifting were.
I didn't know what was.
This kid smashes into thelocker, hits the ground and
doesn't move and the hallwayclears out and it's I'm like, oh
my god, what happened?
And then luckily he was okay.
But I went to the principal'soffice, I got in trouble and I

(01:24:16):
just said, hey, look this otherkid's in my class.
He got picked on for absolutelyno reason.
I was like this other guycalled him retarded, and he's
not retarded and he knocked hisfucking books out of his hands
and then he punched him.
I'm like it's disgusting, I.
Then he punched him.
I'm like it's disgusting, I'mnot gonna, I'm not gonna watch
that.
So if you have to suspend me,then that's fine, I get it.
And I got suspended for a dayand so did the other kid and

(01:24:36):
stuff, just because that's liketheir policy or whatever.
But I I didn't only associatewith the popular kids because of
shit like that.
I didn't like this, likeseparation of these little
clicks and stuff.
And even when I was powerlifting and even when even I
only did a small stint withbodybuilding but I did
professional wrestling for a fewyears and stuff like that, and

(01:24:56):
I just I always thought there'sno reason to get like caught up
in any of this stuff becauseit's just going to slow you down
like I I don't need, I don'tneed to be friends with this guy
, like I don't need to act aparticular way to be friends
with this guy and then and thentreat this other guy over here
like shit because he's not partof what we're doing, like that
takes way too much energy andlike I'm trying to go, I'm

(01:25:18):
trying to go in positivedirection, I'm trying to move
myself forward.
So I always thought like man,all that shit just seems like a
giant waste of energy.
I don't want to be part of anyof that.
So probably the same.
In the same vein of of what youwere describing, it's like I was
in those classes with thosekids and those kids were not
popular.
Those kids were the opposite.
People didn't know who theywere and people didn't care who

(01:25:39):
they were.

Speaker 2 (01:25:40):
People were very disrespectful to them, as if we
weren't all equal, and I thinksuffice to say that happens in
sports too, right, where athleteto athlete will treat each
other with the respect.
But then certain athletes willlook at fans as like a burden,
when that is the bane of yourexistence.

(01:26:00):
Not in the bad way, right, thatis, you are existing because
you have fans wrong fucking term.
That's not the bane ofexistence.
That's somebody else you don'twant to like, but it's the
reason, the dna of, yeah,exactly why you're on the stage
and getting yelled, whistled,supported, and then, when it
comes down to meeting thesepeople, it's like a mentality of

(01:26:20):
like they're way below you.
What they don't realize isevery fan's dream is to be on
that olympia stage at somecapacity or maybe just to
support it.
But you got a lot of fans who Iknow have the privilege of
finding out their story, thatthey met me at a certain place
and now in some cases have stoodnext to me on stage.
But they met me as a fan and Igive them the experience, the

(01:26:45):
hospitality or whatever theywalked away with and I was the
champ.
So anybody that hasn't won atitle and is treating somebody
like that, I think it's madness.
As a champion, you shouldn'ttreat your fans like that if you
have guys who, in my eyes, guysyou mentioned Emilia, chris
Bumstead, great representativeof the sport, incredible

(01:27:07):
following, rightfully so.
He does everything right.
He's the poster boy for for theIFBB and you've got guys like I
mentioned, jay Cutler, toomassive lines to this day.
You ask Jay, ask a fan, whendid Jay last compete?
You'd probably say a couple ofyears ago, because he's made
himself so relevant and soavailable for his fan base.
He's just an incredible person.
And same thing for yourself.

(01:27:27):
You've always made yourselfavailable.
You, you've always madeyourself available.
You've never tried to makeyourself as if a hierarchy of
your sport and everything you'vedone.
And what I'm getting with thisis because I got to land the
plane, I just had to text mywife.
She's definitely very upsetabout me right now.
But in wrapping this up, mark,I'm sorry we could go on another

(01:27:47):
30 minutes.
Is there anything that you wantto plug, promote or push that
we've missed out on that?
You want to plug, promote orpush that we've missed out on
that you want to talk about andtell us?
I don't know if you want tointerject with anything.

Speaker 1 (01:27:58):
No, I think you guys have done a great job.
It was Epictetus that said ifsomebody is going, to insult you
, that they don't know you wellenough.

Speaker 2 (01:28:04):
He's the man of many courts.

Speaker 1 (01:28:08):
What a dick correcting me over there.
I'm such a jerk.
You just got into Greekphilosophy.
I'm all into it.

Speaker 2 (01:28:12):
He's all into it too.
I've studied readingmeditations too.
Yeah, I'm into that right now.

Speaker 1 (01:28:19):
Yeah, I guess I can finish on just saying that I
want to encourage people to do acouple things.
One is you mentioned you havesomeone that you cared about
that died.
I've had many people in my lifedie.
It just it can suck in a lot ofways.
It doesn't suck, it sucks, butI think what you can do with it
is you can try to think aboutthe traits that that person had
that you really liked, and youcan have those.

(01:28:40):
Those traits live on within youand you can and you can.
I think we're here on thisearth in the first place to
share our experiences with oneanother.
I can't figure out what otherreason why we're here, so that's
the best I can come up with.
So I want to encourage peoplethat if you are going through a
hard time your uncle died oryour grandma or someone just

(01:29:02):
think about the traits that theyhad that were powerful, that
you thought were great, thatother people appreciated and
have those and carry those on,and then also the traits that
maybe weren't great.
Those are good learning toolstoo.
You know, my brother was likejust one of those double-edged
swords.
You know you didn't know whatyou're going to get with him on
a particular day, but you alsoknew that he wasn't going to
take shit from anybody, so hehad you.
Just take the good, you can getrid of the bad and you can have

(01:29:24):
that live on within you.
And I just want to alsoencourage people just do your
best to not be so scared ofstuff.
Just try things.
Obviously, if there's likelegit danger, it's
understandable to have anxietyover certain things jumping out
of a plane or something likethat but do your best to give
things an honest shot, whetherit's a diet or going on a walk,

(01:29:46):
like, just try it and then tryit for a handful of days.
Take it day by day, take itslow.
If you mess up, don't beatyourself up.
If you screw up on your diet,don't beat yourself up.
Just wait a day or two and goback on it.
What we're trying to do is likethe thing that that has helped
me so much and the reason whyI've been able to be successful

(01:30:09):
in some things is just the factI've been able to do it for a
really long time, so there's noreal rush on anything.
I liked what you said.
You were like I'm going to beable to outwork that.
I'm going to be able to work myass off, be able to outwork
that person.
I love that opportunity, I lovethat mindset, but for some
people it sounds like you werevery athletic and it sounds like
you were explosive and we canget into like your genetics and

(01:30:32):
shit like that, because being apro bodybuilder and the pro
bodybuilder that you were, ittakes a whole slew of so many
different combinations of things.
We know that hard work anddedication is like right there,
but you also achieve like somemuscle mass is just I don't
understand what the deal is withthis guy, like he's made out of
something different than therest of us.
So there's always a, there'salways some like outliers in

(01:30:54):
there, but the thing that wehave to remember is that we can
improve, and the way that you'regoing to improve is to try to
last as long as you possibly can.
You want to be as strong for aslong as you can.
You want to be in shape for aslong as you can.
There's no reason, as we getolder, for people to look at you
and be like, oh man, like justsucks man, he's just let himself

(01:31:15):
go.
It's yesterday when I came inhere.
You're like holy, fuck man,you're so lean.
That's just such a coolcompliment coming from someone
that's done all these awesomethings and bodybuilding.
It makes me feel great.
And it's hey, you know what,you're still heading in a good
direction.
Next time I see if my eyeballsare all sunken in.
And you're still heading in agood direction.
Next time I see if my eyeballsare all sunken in and you're
like, bro, okay, the dietingit's over, you need to go back

(01:31:36):
to a bulk.
Then that'll be a differentconversation.
But thanks so much for havingme on a show today.
I really appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (01:31:41):
Oh man, I we could talk for another hour.
I know we can't, I should have.
I should have just ago.
So you can tell how much I wasenjoying this podcast.
But one part and thing I wantyou to maybe break an exclusive
on 10 years time.
What does mark bell want tohave achieved in that period of
time?

Speaker 1 (01:32:00):
I guess this is actually a little simpler than I
thought it would be.
You ask a question like thisbecause it's a pretty big
question.
I want to be able to break offand break free.
That's it break off and breakfree.
I like the stuff that I do.
I love the stuff that I do.
It's something that gets me outof bed every single day.
But I want to just be cool withdoing shit the way that I did

(01:32:21):
when I was young, without thephone, without the video.
Maybe I'll still pop on somepodcasts, maybe I'll still get
around and do certain things,but I want to distance myself
from the rat race.
It can be great and there'sgreat information to share with
people and there's so much funfrom it.
And, as you said, you talkedabout the fans.

(01:32:43):
I like to joke around a lot,like we have foul jokes back and
forth and mess with each otherand shit like that.
But I'm always so shocked whena fan comes to me and they're
like hey, you know what a coupleyears ago?
And I'm always like, oh great,I probably fucking.
What did I say to this guy?
Like probably said somethingterrible to him, and they're
always so appreciative.
They're like you know what youtold me, and it'd be something

(01:33:03):
like I don't know somethingwhere their son was addicted to
drugs or something wild and Inot only did I communicate with
them at a show or something, Ialso gave them my number and
communicated with them for acouple of months or some shit
like that.
I'm always like, oh my GodCause you forget sometimes, like
all these different people thatyou help over the years, and
for me, I've always loved, uh,connecting the dots for people

(01:33:25):
and helping people, that helpingsome of the fans that sometimes
maybe don't have access to someof the things that we have
access to.
So all that stuff is great andall that stuff is amazing.
But I want to just be cool withjust being me and just being
like by myself and just beingwith my wife and just being.
My kids are old.
Like 10 years from now they'regoing to be with their own

(01:33:46):
families doing their own things,like completely out of the
house, and so I just want to belike a hundred percent
bulletproof and secure witheverything that I'm doing,
everything that I'm about, and Ifeel that way now.
But social media like it.
Just I can't really put it anyother way.
I have to admit it takes time.
It's a time, it's a timeconsumption thing.

(01:34:07):
And what is it I'm looking forto get out of it?
Am I trying to be like morefamous or something?
It's just an interesting thing.
I don't even really know how tomake sense of it.
I don't know if anyone has theright answers, but in practicing
like stoicism and buildingtowards like equanimity and just
wanting to be a more completeperson, a person that's like

(01:34:30):
just present as fuck, like justsomeone who's hyper aware, I
think that's the direction I'dlike to go.
But who knows, it's hard.
Yeah, it's really hard to say.
But, just like yourself, therewas a time where we lifted,
where it wasn't filmed.

Speaker 2 (01:34:46):
That was probably 60% of my career, maybe more.
I didn't film a lot of my stuff, even when I was training for
the Olympia, believe it or not.
I regret that, but then at thetime I didn't want a camera near
me because I wasn't doing itfor the camera I was, and then
would I have lifted differentlyMaybe.
But what you said about thefreedom element of things,

(01:35:09):
there's a lot of friends of minethat are talking that same talk
right now, who have done verywell in life, very well in
business, and then they'verealized this I got x, I got y
and I got z.
It didn't make me feel anybetter.
The chase was the chase.
I was excited to get it.
When I got it, it's anadrenaline dump.
The chase is what they werelooking for and when they got it

(01:35:32):
, as I said, it was just likeanticlimactic.
And these are very successfulpeople.
But no, they could live in atiny house as long as my
everybody who's around me ishealthy and happy.
That's what I'm looking for, Iknow, and and that conversation
is coming up more and more Ithink it's because I think it's
because we have.

Speaker 1 (01:35:49):
We have what I would call fitness freedom, like, like
we don't need another workout,quite honestly, and it doesn't
have to.
It's not an emergency.
We can go weeks, months andprobably even a couple years
without lifting and I don't know, like it probably just I don't
know it probably wouldn't makethat big a difference.
Maybe it would make adifference on how we feel about
ourselves and maybe that wouldbe a crime to do that.
But my point is that, like, wedon't need another workout

(01:36:14):
within the next 48 hours.
It's not an emergency.
So we have a fitness freedom,we have financial freedom, we
have food freedom because we caneat, because we're basically,
in a sense, at this stage you'relike a food or like a diet
ninja.
Like you're not a black belt,you're a fucking ninja.
You're on that next level andyou know how to defend yourself
against like ice cream, pizza,cheeseburgers.
You could figure out a way towork it off or to eat less of it

(01:36:35):
or whatever you need to do.
Maybe it's just for a period oftime where you eat that way and
you get rid of it.
Other people are still tetheredto those things.
Other people are still reallytethered to their particular
diet has to be a certain way andI'm in agreement with that
because, people, you need toreally break yourself off on
certain things.
You need to really crushyourself in the beginning with

(01:36:55):
certain habits so that youingrain those habits.
Once the habits are ingrainedand you start to know the rules,
once you know the rules andstart to master the rules, then
you can break them and you canstart to go your own way.
But I think for guys like us,have these freedoms, these
fitness freedom, financialfreedom and those things make us
secure, they make us feelreally good and we're looking

(01:37:17):
for a mental freeing ofourselves from still going to
run into fans and shit like thatand that's still going to be
awesome, but maybe again justgetting out of this, this little
rat race that we're in yeah,it's again.

Speaker 2 (01:37:31):
As I said, it's a common conversation that's
coming out, but it's hard tobreak that cord when your
attachment to your fans is justin a device.

Speaker 1 (01:37:42):
It makes you feel good about yourself.

Speaker 2 (01:37:43):
And again you've got this in your hand.
You're scrolling through inother people's lives and how
they're living, or you'refollowing somebody that gives
you inspiration to do somethingelse.
It's so many differentconnections you have to this
device.
But then when you're lookingfor that change, is it just best
just cut the fucking snake'shead off and just go for it?
And I know a lot of peoplewho've done that and they're

(01:38:06):
like oh my god, life is so good.
I don't have to fucking stressabout these other nonsenses that
maybe even maybe I'm justtaking a week or two off.

Speaker 1 (01:38:14):
I know you took a little time off from the podcast
.
I think those are great thingslike hey guys, I'm gonna be out
for six months or a year, likesome.
Sometimes it's good just topull the plug on some of these
things.
I also want to illustrate topeople like I'm really fortunate
that the different people I getto be around and get around,
but it's not every day that I'msitting across from a seven time

(01:38:37):
, mr Olympia.
It's not every day that I youknow, I got to interview Dana
White today Not every day thatI'm hanging with friends that
are also financially free.
And I just want people to takethis message very seriously.
And I say this in jest a lot oftimes on my Instagram, but I
say hashtag, be rich.
And I'm not trying to say, hey,man, everything's all about

(01:39:00):
money.
But holy shit, man, it reallychanges your life.
The invention, the creation ofthe slingshot, tearing my peck,
having my brother die, havingall those things happen and then
having it lead to the inventionand the creation of the
slingshot.
Me being able to monetize thatand being able to be a
multimillionaire from thatsituation is like one of the

(01:39:21):
most amazing feelings that youcan have, obviously, there's
bringing a child into this world.
You can't compete with thatshit.
There's certain things youcan't compete with, but making
that money and being a man andbeing the person that is relied
upon to keep the family securefeels fucking amazing, and it's

(01:39:43):
one of the reasons why I think,for me, I'm able to be pretty
calm, because what the fuck do Icare, I don't care if my car
like and this wouldn't happen atthis stage, but this happened
when I was a bum my car wouldoverheat.
I had all kinds of car trouble,all kinds of issues all the
time, and during that time I wassomebody that used excuses.
It's no, the traffic here inLas Vegas is not an excuse.

(01:40:07):
You're aware of it about thetraffic.
But I found that throughfinancial freedom and through
learning some of these things asan entrepreneur and through
these challenges, thesedifferent challenges that I
throw at myself, like getting ina cold plunge and doing some of
this shit, all these littlethings, they stack up over time
to allow you to be able tohandle more and more.

(01:40:29):
And the saying of you wantsomething done, done, give it to
the busiest person in the roomcouldn't be more true, because
the busiest person in the room,the hustler, the guy that's
probably making the most amountof money, probably also has the
most amount of energy and he'sprobably the one who's most
enthusiastic about still doingshit.
I just interviewed dana white.
He was so fired up, he wasyelling for four hours.

(01:40:50):
He's like that all the time,holy shit.
He was so hyped he gave us likethis speech, like in the middle
of the podcast, and I was likeI just wanted to go and like
fucking lift or run or something.
I was getting all, all fired up.
But do your best to try tofigure out how to either
monetize some of the stuff thatyou're doing or teach that to

(01:41:12):
your children.
Maybe you didn't get the sameshot or same chance and you have
to be stuck to this nine tofive and it's just harder for
you to figure out.
But I think that maybe noteveryone can be financially
secure.
Maybe that's just the fuckingnegative roll the dice or
something, I don't know, but Ithink that I guess what I'm
trying to illustrate is that ifI can make it, I feel like

(01:41:33):
everyone should be able to makeit, because I didn't really used
to think much of myself andover time.
It took a long time, but overtime I built myself up and over
time and there's also a ton ofluck involved in this I met my
wife.
My wife is an amazing person.
She changed my life forever.
My wife happened to go toschool for business, so it was

(01:41:53):
like slide all that shit over toher side so she can handle it
Very similar.
Yeah, but you put yourself inthese positions too, and that's
something that, even though Icall myself, I said I was a bum.
I was never someone that wasn'twilling to work hard.
I was never the person thatwasn't willing to Even just
thinking of like old employersof a couple of places I worked.

(01:42:16):
I didn't have a lot of regularjobs, but even just something
like being a bouncer.
I was a bouncer at a placecalled Sharky's in Los Angeles
which is another story foranother day, another podcast
because that's where I worked,there with my brothers, and I
worked there with John Cena,which was super interesting,
yeah, super interesting.
But even just working at a placelike that the owner of the
place I remember when I wasworking there, I was like 24, 25

(01:42:39):
years old.
He's like man, you're a lotdifferent than these other guys.
I was like I don't know whatyou're talking about.
What does that mean?
He goes I tell everybody thesame thing and you're the only
one who's actually likefollowing through and doing it.
I was like, oh, I don't know.
I just you told me what to do.
I'm getting paid for it.
So I'm like and I'm bored.
So he wanted the bouncers andstuff like that he wanted to

(01:42:59):
make sure they kept the bottlesand glasses and cups and stuff
and threw them away and clearedthe dance floor and shit like
that.

Speaker 2 (01:43:05):
Show initiative.
I was just always like justdoing it fast because I was like
bored out of my mind.
That's the difference betweenyourself and other people.
You mentioned something andagain we'll wrap up in this.
A lot of people will have theexcuses built up I can't do this
because of this.
I can't do this and I'll alwayshave a fucking story to throw
back at them.

(01:43:25):
Because when you've lived alife, you get to meet a lot of
cool people who have been putinto very bad situations or born
a certain way or an accidenthappened.
So I have a rolling index offucking stories that I can
combat.
Your bullshit stories of whyyou can't do this or you can't

(01:43:45):
do that.
It's all excuses.
Bottom line is, if you want tochange your life, you got to
have that first day where it'sokay, this is going to be it,
things are going to go wrong.
But focus on the wins asopposed to all the losses that
are happening.
And if you keep on looking atyour wins as a chart, it's okay.
I did get my first meal in, Idid drink x amount of water, I

(01:44:08):
did do 20 minutes of cardio downthe street.
I know I'm just throwing thisout of my ass.
But the point is, change comeswith a lot of hardship and a lot
of lessons that you are goingto learn and you're not going to
like.
Bodybuilding taught me so muchshit, powerlifting taught you so

(01:44:28):
much shit, but then we haven'tsettled on that.
Now we've got to look for otherthings too.
Business is an ever-going,expanding, vast of knowledge
that every time I get to acertain level, I learn that
there's another level to this,and that excites me.

Speaker 1 (01:44:45):
It's fun.

Speaker 2 (01:44:45):
It's fun, it's fucking taxing and you'll get a
fucking financial slap acrossyour fucking head too if you
don't watch out.
But that's life, right, whetherit's a physical injury, whether
it's a physical lesson, whetherit's a lesson that hurts your
heart or it's a hardship that weall have to develop, calluses

(01:45:06):
on and and keep on truckingforward.
If life was easy, then we'dhave everybody running around
multimillionaires and saying,yeah, I didn't work that hard.
But what I love doing in myposition in life right now is
having people like yourselfright across in front of me, and
I love stories that truly tookhardship, determination and even

(01:45:33):
though you mentioned luck.
But luck is just when youcreate the opportunity, right?
What's that saying?
When opportunity meets, what isthat saying?

Speaker 1 (01:45:41):
about luck when preparation meets opportunity.
Yes, opportunity.

Speaker 2 (01:45:44):
And that's it right.
You were preparing forsomething which created the luck
.
I met my wife.
Was it luck?
No, because I fucking went overto talk to her and I used
Michael Hearn as the excuse tocreate the opportunity, right?
But again, is that true?
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:46:00):
Michael Tren.

Speaker 2 (01:46:01):
Mike was there at a bodybuilding.
Ali used to be sponsored bybodybuildingcom and she was on a
booth and I seen Mike and Iused Mike as the hey, what's
going on?
My man, I haven't spoken to youfor a long time and then I
diverted my attention to Ali.
You don't give a fuck aboutMike O'Hearn.
I love Mike, but at that pointin time, no, I didn't give a
fuck.
Are we at two hours Fuck?

Speaker 1 (01:46:20):
me.

Speaker 2 (01:46:24):
We've got the best podcast you've ever done, though
that's true.
We have had so much becauseyou've had to change the heart
in so many different things.
We mentioned a lot of otherthings that I'd love to, in the
future, pick up on.
Of course, I have to shoot, forobvious reasons.
I may have missed the fuckingfirst lesson, but nonetheless I
will blame you on this podcast.
Tyus has given me a couple ofmessages saying I need to wrap
up, like 20 minutes ago, butnonetheless, whatever you do,

(01:46:47):
that's because he doesn't wantto do the work.

Speaker 1 (01:46:48):
He doesn't want to do the work.
He missed the whole point ofthe whole show.

Speaker 2 (01:46:52):
You're supposed to be working your ass off.
He was claiming, yeah, tofucking settle the camera, what
you guys didn't see off set.
But, mark, it's been a pleasure.
I'm already looking forward todoing something in the future
again as a part two, becausewe've got so much more we can
speak about and suffice to saythis two hours has gone like
that, my friend.
So welcome to the Strayl-O-Lairpodcast, and I think it's
without saying we'll have a parttwo coming in the future.

(01:47:12):
Thank you so much.
I appreciate it, my man, markBell, strayl-o-lair.
I have to use this and we areout.

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Strength Philosophy & Entrepreneurial Grit | Mark Bell | Straight Outta The Lair Podcast

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