America's Strongest Man

Lucas Hatton joins us on our first in-person podcast at OSG 2023. He is America's Strongest Man 2023. Being invited to the Arnold Strongman Classic 2024, we look forward to him competing and seeing what he does in next year's season.

Lucas Hatton
https://linkr.bio/LucasHatton

Nick Best
https://linktr.ee/nickbeststrongman

Evolution Athletics
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Podcast Producer/Co-Host
Ben Bulman Of Angry Dad Podcast
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Website https://lnk.bio/angrydadpodcast



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Episode Transcript

(00:19):
You're listening to the best experience withthe Nick Best. All right, this

(00:41):
is the best experience with your host, Nick Best and the Angry Dad.
And today we got a guest.But before we get into that, let's
thank our podcast sponsors, Barbello,Parrel Premium Athletic where engineered for performance with
a tailored athletic fit, Refine clothingfor an athletic body type, Evolution Athletics,
a supportive gear company owned by BrianShaw, four time World Strongest Man
and strongest man on Earth. Webelieve in all athletes supporting their journey towards

(01:04):
great mins. Iced Up Industries lookthe best cold plunges that turn into hot
tubs. You can get fifty bucksoff with code best that check out ice
up Industries. Nick takes cold plungescold fast almost every day exactly, so
get hooked up. Please use thelinkeds in the notes. It really helps

(01:25):
us out. We appreciate it.And today's guests we have Lucas Patton all
right, America's Strongest Man twenty twentythree, North America's Strongest Man twenty twenty
three and amateur Arnold Uh second,second, there you go, Sorry again,
I was trying to bring it,but it just didn't pop in my

(01:45):
head. But man, with everythingthat you've gone on and now sitting in
a hotel room with Nick Best,so I'm ordered by two big men.
You're not small, No, it'sit's pretty cool. It's great to have
you here. Yeah, appreciate it. And it's been awesome, pretty good
year. Huh yeah. Yeah,it's basically spent three years in that winning

(02:10):
and finally got that big win.So I think that time away like it
was just sweeter when it finally happenedand just financially and everything out of my
life, like I needed that assmwin. So it was like the right
time of everything coming together and feltlike, you know that the last two
years, two or three years waskind of worth it. Yeah, you

(02:30):
know, because I mean you've beenthrough this a lot, Like there's periods
where it doesn't feel like it's worthit or it's harder. During those periods.
Well, yeah, we did theSport of the love because literally there
was no money. I got secondan American Strongest Man in two thousand and
seven and it was like twenty twohundred dollars. Yeah, that's it.

(02:51):
I mean, dark one, I'mnot sure what it was, but I
think it was like four grand,So it wasn't you did the sport because
you loved that. Yeah, we'restill paying for all of our own air
for every nothing was our food orit's all all of it. We had
to take care of all of ourselves. And I mean even America's strongest man
that year was in like a parkinglot kind of area. We were in

(03:16):
side of the Panther Stadium where theyplay the football stuff. So but it
was it's a lot different now.Yeah, I think it's just it's one
of those things where I'm in myI've had one show for someone to help
with some travel, you know,and it's just it's kind of cool to

(03:38):
go from that, like, youknow, we don't. I mean a
lot of us would still do thisfor free, and I still would,
like I mean, most people fortheir entire career do it for free.
People sacrificed a lot of stuff forthis lot for free. Yeah, it's
just it's uh, it was justit was cool to finally get, you
know, a little bit out ofit as far as financials, like you

(04:00):
know, the memories and the storiesand the experiences and how much better you
get. I just like do yourown development, Like that's worth an unsettled
But yeah, so what do youthink was the biggest change in the way
you approach everything or did you justkeep maturing over the last three years.
It's just a natural accumulation of whereyou were. Yeah, No, I'm
actually I'm really thankful for those seconds. The third last herosg was fourth,

(04:24):
and so it might as well besecond with like top three going to giants,
you know what I mean. LikeI feel like if I would have
had those wins at that moment andI went to the next level, I
don't think I was quite ready,right, I'm thankful for the timeline that
I had. And it's just like, you know, that show was thirteen
or fourteen shows into competing and Iwas finding building on that base, and

(04:46):
like it was the calmest I everbeen competing that Like, the it was
just it was good. It wasjust great. It's it's kind of meat.
How once you get a decent amountof experience, you still get the
butterflies, you still get nervous,but the calmness and the approach to it
is different. It's like, Okay, I've been here, I've done this,
I know what to expect from here. So I know I'm not going

(05:08):
to sleep as good as I normallywould. So I've had a really good
sleep the night before, two nightsbefore, and then I'll just if I
get great sleep the night before,great. If I don't, it's no
big deal. And then I'm gonnafunction on all the cylinders. Yeah,
regardless of that fact, and youget confidence in your prep and knowing what's
going on in this couple of daysbefore. It was one of those things

(05:29):
like I mean, how many eventslike standards from events we've done thirty forty
five times, right, and theshow I didn't actually plan on doing it.
I signed it a week out becausesome stuff fell through and they're like
they're putting up twenty five grand forfirst Mike, Well let's do it.
But it was all my favorite events, stuff I'd all done before. May
mean I've kind of lived in thatlike strow Man corp ecosystem of all their

(05:49):
shows, so I've used half thatequipment before. James likes to recycle all
of that stuff, you know,so in some sense like I didn't didn't
prep but like my last few showsprior prep for the show. Correct.
Yeah, And it all just built. And now that there's two like schools
when it comes to that, becauseyou have the Brian Shaw kind of show

(06:11):
up and do the big shows andnot compete very often, and then you
have this to do this thing ofdo every single show, but almost all
these shows we're training for him.See that's kind of how he got training.
And so both were clearly very successful. Yeah, so you have the
epitome of both and the experience ofboth to like look at and see which

(06:35):
one a lot. And I thinkI've kind of rounded the corner finally.
Like before it was like I neededthat like age twelve week prep for a
show, and like you know,it goes like in the future, there
are probably some invites that come twoweeks out you just got to go.
They're going to be the opportunity willcome and you got to go, and
you just got to trust that,like you know, that amount of experience

(06:56):
that just keeps building and building,and you know it's I think if you
asked me two years ago to stepinto a show like a week in advancement,
hell no, whatever, just justwait wait till you get that thing
where hey, we're gonna have youcome out to Worlds this year, and
you're like, okay, cool,and they're like, so you could be
this is the COVID year, oneof the COVID years. You could be

(07:20):
We're not sure if man's here.I'm not sure that he's gonna get here,
So we could have you come outand be the equipment tester or saving
with Tom Evans last year, rememberthat he went in. And this is
completely different because I wasn't trained foranything. Oh yeah, yeah, for
you, it's a little bit this. This was you know, I was

(07:43):
going to come and either do announcing, you know, commentary or equipment testing
or I was the last alternate possiblyavailable, and calling call me is like,
hey, make sure you bring akid just in case. Okay,
called. I just got my elbowsdone in June down like sentim your bone

(08:05):
chips and and so my got myelbows cleaned out. Then I went down
to Bottoccelerator and got stumb cells.And you're not supposed to do anything at
all for a month after that.And it was right out a month and
they're like, so to bring Iget off the plane and Collin's like,
hey, you're here, and I'mlike yeah, thanks. He's like,
to bring a kit. Yeah.Why, like, well, two guys

(08:28):
couldn't even get on the airplanes becausethey tested positive on the air cot and
then two guys tested positives right whenthey got there, yes and play.
Yeah, and how many guys didthey? They pulled out quite a few
guys out the woodwork right at theend. So it wasn't that year.
They also pulled the opinion as well. Yeah, wild, Yeah, it
was. It was kind of crazy. So yes, be ready, Yeah

(08:50):
at all times? Is that you'reyou're I guess that was the biggest.
That's about as time as possible asa surprise of competing. Get off the
plane. Yeah, place, bringyour kid justin you don't know, you
haven't been training and they haven't beendoing anything. Yeah you know, I
know you just did all these things, but bring your kid just in case,
like okay, which to me,I look at it as a as

(09:13):
a blessing actually because again in mytenth one, yeah, there's only seven
of ten more? Yeah, isit? Uh? The journeys is like
sixteen to seventeen. Oh yeah,sees the mouse or is it Felix has
got the most and next I thinkis Brian and then z damn that Brian,

(09:37):
it's like right there, but yeah, it's a lot of them.
Brian's makes the most consecutive finals,so yeah, I don't forget how many
that Z went to before he won. Like it's a journalists just whole career
winning, like he had a lotof whole career. Second second, everyone's
gonna start somewhere, but that aexperience paid off. Yeah, he really

(10:03):
I feel well in the case ofWorlds to him and kind the same trajectory,
like let's podium for yeah, fivesix, seven years and then finally
win the thing. God, Ibet that was sweet when he finally did
it. I'll definitely say it's it'sa it's a good feeling, Yeah it
is. Yeah, he made twofinals, made two finals, and then

(10:26):
I made the world finals too.Yeah, so never he told them two
four Worlds from it, there wasjust was there two years the EIR three
because there's three, because there's threethree two did two of them and he
said that was America is as faras man got from there. So that
was fun. The first year Iwas my first year knowing, Yeah,

(10:48):
it was my third show, waspro only did three amateur shows. Yeah,
that's what I wanted to ask youabout like that transition from pot It
just was just it was just seeingthe next edible thing or what was what
was it that So basically for me, while we're doing a podcast, when

(11:13):
you got it's actually nice to peopleask me questions. So it was of
cool. I pera thing. Istopped in two thousand and one and in
two thousand and four month I wonworlds in Power and National Is the same
year, and he was the strength. I've then, hey, strongly contest

(11:41):
you know you just come check itout was shot. Just come watch and
then Grant Heagan was in there,and Carl Gillingham was in there, John
Henderson was in it. Phil Fisteris in it. There's a lot of
guys that are in the show.And I get there and I'm watching the
show and then I see it paidafterwards. I was like wow, and

(12:03):
my son was you're pretty song.You should do this. This is cool
and I was like, good ideakid, and he was like, yeah,
just this little toe head it isthis big. But that was pretty
much what got me into it.I did a contest at March Air Force
Base in two thousand and four andwas right in the middle of the pack.

(12:24):
And it was in the middle ofthe pack. Because I didn't know
what I was doing. I waslike, no, I'm sorry enough to
do this. I just yea,I have no idea, like the Conan's
wheel. I think I got secondand the Conan's will the yoke like I
didn't even know what the hell was, but I made it the whole distance,
so it was just like, okay, and then pull the airplane.

(12:46):
We pulled the four fan fighter jet. That's kind of cool. That was
actually really cool. I'd love todo that again now that I know.
I meantimes you look back and sharehorse you knows there, No, it
was. It was pretty cool.So that's kind of where it started.
I went to that line, wasin the middle of the pack. Then

(13:07):
I went and did another one inNovember in Colorado and the guy they had
gotten fourth at NASS Nationals was competingit. Oh my god, he's gonna
beat everybody, Like, okay,well I beat him as bad as he
beat everybody else. The six events, I got first and five of them.
Then I got second the log andthen he got second and everything,

(13:30):
and then first of all chair.So it was from that point on I
kind of knew so I was qualifiedfor Nationals. I went to Chack Cooy's
contest in Indiana and got second bypoint, and the two of us it
was a point when the amateur andthe project compete, yeah, and we're

(13:50):
they're thrown in there and the topamateur or whatever position and broked. And
but the two of us beat allthe pros. And then I was like
Jack Boy's looking at me. He'slike, you need to keep going.
Yeah, this I slaughtered the farmers, like I just literally spring and I

(14:11):
think it was like three to threeand I was like four and it was
like a hundred feet and I didit and some he's like twelve or thirteen
seconds. Yeah, and he's justlike, okay, you got to keep
doing this. You just don't havean experience. Go to Van's contest in
a month and get some more experienced. So I go to Van Halffield's contest

(14:31):
and there was like seven pros inthat one. Yeah, and Travis Hormaner
was there, Kevin he was there, Grant was there. There's a bunch
of guys there and like I gotsecond in two events, but none of
the amateurs were there. So Igot a massive you know, I picked

(14:52):
the I won the deadlift. Iwas the first person, first amateur to
break the air kind look yeah andstrong man and set the I beat Travis's
record, which was he was pissedand Kevin. Kevin finished. Travis and
I both pulled seven sixty five.Travis looks and he goes, oh,

(15:13):
he pulled some sixty five, whichbroke Travis's right cheer because it was seven
fifty years fifty five or something.He's like, you want to I'm like,
yeah, put out for sure.Yea. He pulls the gets to
his knees and drops it. I'mlike, are you done? And he's
like looking at the pull it rightup brand. But yeah, at that

(15:35):
point that was that was it becauselike the frame, Kevin, he got
it off the start. Nobody elsegot off the start. Travis and I
love finished ship. I dropped inthe middle and finished. So with all
those points, I didn't even needto do stones. I already got it
and got it. But that's kindof how the whole thing kind of got

(15:56):
started. Yeah, I was likethe ass stuff like that because like,
uh, I mean, we talkedabout last night. You were saying,
like, you've been lifting longer thanI've been live and you know you yeah,
but we're going with this. YeahI was ninety five. But like
you can look back at like youknow, like strongly archives or something like

(16:17):
that, but like it doesn't fillthe gaps of like the smaller shows,
like the shows like ASM Worlds,like all the big stuff. It was
like you never really see like thepath people took to get there, and
that's always fascinating. Yeah, it'spretty cool. I'm definitely over And yeah,
I just hard nosed and wouldn't acceptlets for myself no matter what.
I just kept on and kept movingforwards. And I mean I did it

(16:41):
for the love of the sport.I love the training, Yeah, I
did love. Yeah, it takesthe train is very serious. It's one
of the things that like working withNick, I see it's because like,
you know, there's no you know, the courser's talking, playing around,
but when it's time to dial in, the room gets quiet and it's kind
of work. And that's the andthat's one of the biggest difference to see

(17:03):
because like there's a lot of peoplethat have been in training rooms and you
know it's everyone's having fun, butit will maybe you're having fun. Oh
no, it's game time. Hetrains like it's exactly serious moments. You
know, there's kind of kind ofhow I do things, I don't do
it, kind of sets of things. I'll warm up, get to my

(17:26):
workway, hit my target, andmove on to the next thing. Is
certain philosophies of like stimulate during annihilatething, but it's true. And then
but also the same principle with theblood and guts and the mensor stuff of

(17:47):
one to two heavy sets, nomore than eight sets for a body part,
that type of thing. Also,when your training works pretty good,
strong man. We have events,so I mean you train five events of
the day. You just did awhole contest that Yeah, and if you're
training like mirror or at contest,wait, if you're able to do the
contest way in training and get goingtrain with it. Yeah, it's all

(18:11):
good dues and training the order theevents are. Yes, Yeah, you're
going to know what it feels like. I feel like with more and morally
actual scraman gyms popping up that trainthat style of like your event day,
it's kind of going away because peopleused to like drive their two hours to
that one one guy's house. Yeah, yeah, yeah, And it's it's
interesting, Like I feel in thelast few years there's been a lot more

(18:33):
like of the like strength coaches fromoutside of the sport coming into the sport,
and I'm curious what that does,you know as far as the next
few years. I mean, trainingis just has gotten better in a lot
of senses. But like in somesenses, it's like we're over analyzing to
just do the work. It's notall the time. Yeah, there's certain

(18:55):
people that talk about training the arevery educated book wise, they're behind,
Yeah, and they're twenty years behindand they don't know it. I mean,
how long does it take muscle recoverfrom a workout? It could be
a couple days, Okay, howlong is it take tenants to heal from

(19:15):
a workout? Week or two depending? Isn't it longer? It's yeah,
it's significantly like a week. Whotrains on that cycle of Olympic trains on
the tenants heal in a week cycle. Not Olympic lectors. They do like
their ten day cycles at least asthe there heavy top sets, well they're

(19:37):
they're heavy, but any work onthe tenants before they're here is causing more
damage, which is stopping the healing, so they're still not healed. Who
trains on a schedule when their tenantsare ready to go? Not many people.
Yeah, the industry is completely fuckingass backwards. And yeah, and

(19:59):
those realize it doesn't matter how fashionmuscles here unless they're gonna heal. No
matters how fastial tenants here. Ifyou train right when they're ready to be
healed, every time you go intoyou're going to progress without getting hurt much
longer. Yeah, it's like peoplewill go, I mean, yeah,
that's true because everything's the muscle bellyinjuries is so much more rare than that.
It's all connected tissue. Yeah,it's true. And then once you

(20:23):
have a connected tissue terror and healing. I mean, in all honesty,
you can come back fairly fast,but you're still looking anywhere between six months
to where you can start really trainingwithout worrying about it, and then another
five months to get back to whereyou were, And so you're still looking

(20:45):
at the years. Set back ayear. It just costs me a year.
So it's a year of training andnot advancing on your lists, and
that's pretty costly. Yeah, especiallyas you get older. Yeah, you
don't have you don't have that manyyears to pitch on the toilet and come
back the next year. So it'syou're very focused on how long it takes

(21:07):
the connect tissue. Yeah for sure. Yeah, that that six months to
a year of being off. That'swhere I'm at, Like as far as
I don't if we talk about butI'm not doing the shows we can just
because I've been having avisive issue andI got that invite for the Arnold in
a few months, and I'm likeif I'm out six months to a year,

(21:27):
like and I'm gonna stage of thecareer too, Like I feel like,
let's say I got hurt. It'snot like Gentiles and be like we'll
get in by next year when you'reheeled. It's like maybe probably not,
I know. And then you guyson that list like it's list of killers
that have podium at worlds and allthis time like I'm a shot. I'm

(21:47):
thankful. I can't waste it withwith stuff like that. With jan if
you've made her, yeah, likevision I didn't happen and come back and
again it will be the same.Yeah, yeah, you still want to
cheese? Yeah right, No,No, that's understandable. First, picking
well pop a by step off doingOSG. Yeah no, no, no,

(22:11):
it's I would do the same thing. Yeah, yeah, it's not
that. I mean, I'm surewhere you got to pick up a bag
doesn't feel right. It's a littlebit of lag and it's hurting right where
it connects. Let's was it lastyear, Corny Butler and OSG? Wasn't
it picking up a bag? Youknow what I'm saying and that. But

(22:32):
it's good that you caught that becauseit's like, yeah, I don't want
to chance this. There's a loton the everybody talked to it seems like
I'm pretty happy that I, youknow, felt some discomfort first. I
feel like most people when they talkabout biceps, it's like I felt nothing,
and then it was gone, yeahright, yeah, yeah, you're
talking to somebody. Yeah yeah,yeah, done a bossy but almost pitching

(22:56):
baseball. And the other one that'swhen man, Yeah, this was five
weeks before if so Wells in twothousand and seven, So that that third
one that you didn't would that bethe third one you didn't do or the
second the second one? I stillstill the show, Yeah, because it
was a muscle ability to I don'tremember what I said about the time.
Yeah, so I've only injured onetenant. Yeah, that's my lab.

(23:18):
Yeah, and that was I knowwhat happened. It's something fun but stupid.
Three weeks before and I tried toSo the easiest way to explain to
people is I tried to pick upa four hundred and forty pounds dumbbell,
giant dumbbell with one hand. Okay, yeah, I got it off the
ground. Yes, sob And thenthe very wise person turned and looked at

(23:45):
me, you should probably not youhave contest coming a bunch froun Like,
yes, sir, And it's like, you probably shouldn't do that contest in
a couple of weeks. And Ithink it's not too bad. I think
it'll be okay. Yeah. Yeah. So I think it's always when people
try to force that one last contestor like get one more out of the

(24:07):
year, and your body's giving youthose warning signs, it's like, right,
yeah, it's kind of where Ifeel like coming right now. And
you know, that's one of thethings Nick always talks about, is like,
yeah, read your body. Butalso too, it's like you see
people come in and rush every showwhen you know you've got to pick and
choose when you do. It's goodto do the shows, but if you're
if you're doing too much and you'veburned your body out and you're not reading

(24:29):
those signs. Just like you said, it's it's at last like those guys
that do like every SCL show orI was starting to a couple of Canadian
guys last night. They don't doa JF circuit. They all compete all
the time. How do you dothat? Yeah, that's I mean,
yeah, I don't want style.That's not one looks overly optional. It

(24:53):
is. It is, and it'sit's good and it's bout. It has
its good points, have his badpoints. Bad points are You're not gonna
have a lot of guys last longperiod. Yeah. The good part is
is you're gonna find the guys thatare really freaking build built for it,
and then those things that come downhere. Yeah, you're gonna turn Hooper

(25:15):
didn't come up that way. OhI thought he did. He hasn't done
ye where I thought he did.No, he literally no. Those guys
they would they wish he would atleast at least canada'strungs man, because I'm
sure they let him come. Yeah, maybe he's strungestan on the planet.
Yeah. Yeah, but I don'tthink many people realize how many really really
good pros are up in Canada.And it's because of that circuit. There's

(25:38):
I could see four or five guysthis wee get at make the final for
Canada. Yeah, if we havethe final and nobody knows, he said,
they're like, oh, Max seemsgood. Like there's five or six
other guys that are damn near justas good as him, like and they
can do with right, Like,there's good guys out there. It'll be
good to see you know, Maxcome back. Yeah that was he gets

(26:06):
set back quite a bit last year. Well, had to break in his
leg. Yeah, yeah, becauseas we've seen him at World and Sacramento
and man, he was looking hewas on the fu. He was huge.
Yeah. Yeah. The thing isI remember being there like some of
his first contests. Yeah, whenhe's just this young kid that's just tough
as nails and comes in and you'relike, look at the heart on this

(26:26):
dude. I mean there's just anequiment. Then you're just like, wow,
he's gonna be really scary. Andyeah, they was like meat grinder
events or he's just like an armover arm or like something that's gonna hurt.
You just gonna keep going. Yeah, yeah, he I bet North
America is he. I think he'szero the deadlift and still was just off

(26:49):
the podium because he just he killedEverything else is a show. He almost
had enough time to get back,and it was just after the injury too,
like one of his first shows back. They're like that, dude's good.
Warwick was a lot of fun.It's I'm really happy I to go
up to that show. It's it'sa neat thing, especially with all the
people that come out because the placejust packed, like the day a little

(27:12):
astronomer up there. Wow, it'sthe toughest thing. Like I know when
you did it, it was onthe armored circuit, wasn't it before that?
Now it's not on the armal circuit, but it's like all the promotions
in French. So it's like,I don't know. I think that might
be why most people don't know aboutthe show and they don't know how cool

(27:32):
it is. We were talking toJeff, but like let's see if we
can get some like English commentary goingon the live stream because he's doing his
own stream this year and he's downso we'll see it was just made for
French Canadian TV. Yeah, sonobody saw it like that. That's one
of the coolest shows to do thelives stream that I would go up and
listening live stream throw it out thathe was talking about it. Yeah,

(27:56):
he's specially especially to do the WorldGirl. It's such a cool that would
be one I want to go justsucking. Yeah, because that was just
fun Yeah, yeah, it's it'sjust pure joy. And it's funny because
I I was up there and Ithink Anthony Sperno was up there and he

(28:22):
was like a new kid who justgot his pro car and strong, a
lot of potential, a strong kid, but just reckless. And I'm like,
dude, don't pull that hard.Don't get into it and then might
get it off the ground, butmake sure your arms are straight before you
pull it off and build the powerinto it. Don't just yank it off

(28:42):
the ground. And yanked it offthe ground and took his bice. Of
course you're just like, what areyou doing? And then he's gonna keep
knowing it. It's it's like,dude, yeah it took U. I
think it did a partial tear onone of the guys biceps up there yanked
it and studamn handy for that.Yeah, but you don't put that power.
Yeah, that flast with that show. I cannot like thank Jeff enough.

(29:08):
That was the first person to actuallylike invite me to like a non
strong in court pro show. Likehe's like, I hope you fly out,
like and I was like a fillin because Bobby pulled out and he's
like you can go, and Iwas like, okay, cool. He
was the first person to let mego to a pro show and like wind
up. I think it was firstevent. Max Lock ended up doing the

(29:30):
same. I can't remember who hadthe record before. It was a Brad
Jakowski on that long he's like fourand me and Trey tied at four forty
on the same lock and like thenext event, I'm head to head with
Trey and like, dude, Iwas at local shows like six months ago.
I was like, thank you JF. But like you know, it
was I got a chance to gowith those guys and I was hanging with

(29:51):
him, like I think that's oneof my biggest things that's hard in this
stage was like there's this tier oflike thirty pros that kind of live in
their own ecosystem of and those opportunitiesto compete with them, they're so rare
and you just gotta take them whenthey thought, yeah, and you got
them and you're going into the arms. Yeah, okay, that that's gonna
be another bay. I can't wait, big deal. And if you go

(30:12):
in there and make the top fiveand that, yeah, it's gonna be
fine. Yeah. I mean evenif you go in there and you don't
make the top five and you justperform well they come to a perfal and
then interact with the crowd and dostuff like that, you're gonna be fine.
Yeah. But I think you're gonnafinish a little better, I think.
So let's see, let's see theevents. I'm thinking squat. I

(30:36):
love that that max squat. Ifeel like I do better in that group
of a squat than with the deadlift. Like I love the old Hummer tire,
but mcau I don't have the shipout of it. Right. Yeah,
But we'll see the events. Butwith that, I mean, they
allow figure eights, so there's someonein there and the contests that don't there's

(30:57):
still ways around that. There's away that grips. I showed Hooper and
then Hooper put it on the video. It's like I learned this from me.
But there's a way to tie thatstop and everything as good as yeah
the figuerats, except for you canactually let go of the bar and not
like a face planet if what goeswrong. It's like, I mean,

(31:18):
Brian's big, big, I'm nothaving him, and I've still found a
way to get the straps a littleloose for that that twelve ten. Yeah,
he's one of my favorite guys.He's how many events has he made
them change the rules for There's aquite a few. Yeah, Wheel of
Pain. They change it because ofhim, Like I mean, he's just
creative man or the voice that wasthey change of him. Did you see

(31:38):
what he did for the arm overarmed at the shot share? No I
didn't. So his grips are gettingout. He throws at the bar,
the rope around his back, pullsit this way and leads into it,
gets and going, pulls it down, leads into it, pulls it down.
That'll be a rule change. Ohyeah, yeah, No, I

(32:01):
just know he's going to go backkill the good things. The malady.
I don't think Brian was so youknow, into his last show and doing
so many things with running it.I don't think that popped up on his
radar right then and there sure will, but it's like, oh, year
in review, Brian's probably in thestage where he's renewing stuff from last year.

(32:25):
Yeah. So yeah, we justate a heart attack grill a couple
a week and a half ago.Yeah. Yeah, I got to take
a little and we learned. Youknow, makes not a big fan of
kitchen be a little monster but definitelynot male. Kind of spray me a
little bit with the yeah must Yeah, so that place it at. It's

(32:50):
work. It's not a meal,it's worked. Or if you don't eat
all your food, they spank it. Yeah, I recommend eating all your
girls, like seriously. Yeah,so that's a free experience. So coming
in and doing that in three yearswith the work and stuff like that and

(33:14):
placing it, it just makes youappreciated, that doesn't it. Now it's
going to come to get still gettinginto the bigger shows and keep getting into
the bigger shows, which I don'tsee an issue like the Arnold is going
to be a good I would puteverything into that and the fashion you can
get the events from them. Ifyou know the guys that are going to

(33:37):
invite that aren't doing other shows beforethat, look and see what they're training.
Yeah, like for Worlds, weused to watch what the English guys
were doing. You know, wellwe have these events and you're just like,
so you start watching Tom and Lawsand Terry and seeing what they're doing,
They're like, Okay, well Ishould probably start training in this direction.

(33:59):
It's it's sounds like we're like aweek or two out from events.
As far as that snowing. Theonly person who's really trained any events and
said that's what they're training for isThor, but he posted it through his
gym's page. Yeah, it's likeThor finally already prepping for the Arnold.
But he's doing the log and Dumbell, which I think that's just a safe
bet with the Arnold, and especiallydoing two Arnolds Stueks in a row,

(34:22):
one of them probably gonna have alog. Yeah, probably gonna they love
with Dumbell. Right, Yeah,that said, I'll be looking. We'll
see. Just Yeah, you mightwant to give a phone call to Nick.
What you find out what the eventsare secrets in there? You've been
on some of the equipment, Yeah, most of them. Yeah, that's

(34:44):
pretty crazy. Yeah. I gotto the Arnold twice, the Big Arnold
twice, and then that was analternate one year. The built year.
I was the alternative. Didn't getin on that. We'll test it.
Yeah, I was the one thatwreckted for Yeah, because I was probably
three ten and doctor Todd had mecome out and there was a Blueberrel carry

(35:12):
that was at the explot of thatera, and the top two got into
the Arnold and the guy the thirdwas going to be the ultimate and Jerry
won that event Pretchett, and Iwas at the last. I loaded the
last sam bag or keg and pickedit from the ground and I was ten

(35:32):
seconds ahead of where he was andthe handle came off because they pounded the
handles on it. They didn't puta pen in there to make sure they
wouldn't come out. Let you makeyou rerun it. No, that is
it is what it is, iswhat it is. And that dropped me
four points back and put Jerry andDimitar ahead of me. But I did

(35:55):
get to go be the tester,so I got to fly out three each
before test the bill tot at likethirteen hundred was the first like test out,
and I'm like, okde and he'sjust like, okay, all right,
that seemed pretty pretty easy. Whendo you think I go? The
frame bows a little bit, soyou gotta set the pick lower. Yeah,
And he's like look at me,like this lower. I'm like,

(36:17):
yeah, you're not gonna get itoff the ground when that gets heavy,
and it's exactly what happened. Ihad to set the set my pick an
inch and a half lower. Eachthing was at a half inch an inch
and a half lower to make sureit didn't hit the ground when I came
off. But I was able.I picked it at the fifteen hundred and
then I picked it at like fifteenlike what the last bilto that they did

(36:40):
was like fifteen sixty something. Yeah, that was my last pick. Yeah,
and I got three steps in anddoctor Todd was like, damn,
put it down. Put it down, And I'm like why and I'm like
wabbling, but I'm moving, youknow why. He's like, you're an
alternate. I'm like so it waskind of cool. So me at three

(37:01):
hundred being able to pick it upand actually move with there, and he
was like okay, that's good.Yeah, yeah, me and me and
I just did a sit down formy uh my YouTube and like we don't
know the events yet, but wewent back and did our our top five
favorite events in the past or whatwe'd like to see. That was one
of mine was like, I knowthe bail to destroyed people. I want

(37:21):
to I just I want to knowwhat it feels like, like it's I
mean, it's it's the thing thathurt her. Jerry heard Jerry her belt
sack and then the journalist and interviewsthat his back has never really been the
same since since. Yeah, likethere's a reason as the dumb part of
me wants to try it, Ican speak to that. Yeah, well

(37:45):
I'm a very like dumb part whenit comes to stuff like that, like
the headlifts and stuff like that.Pretty pretty crazy for me. You did
that one in Australia, Yeah,Jenkins and I tired. They ran,
they ran, that's a yeah.And the crazy thing is they were using

(38:07):
rubber mats, which in hindsight theyprobably would have made plywood squares instead of
the rubber matt and the heavy gotwe had to keep put. I had
like this many mats in there forme to get the angle right where I
could get it off the ground,and the rim of my shoe, the
whole, like the bottom part ofthe white part of the sole would disappear

(38:30):
in the mats like cushion. Sothat was kind of crazy. Yeah,
it really was, but it wasI'm sure the of those weird ones,
the one I'd like to try thebacklift mm hmm. I know it's kind
of dumb and definitely hurts, butthe one they did it forms, Yeah,

(38:57):
that's my favorite. That was crazy. And then I remember after the
last one, Brian competed with me, and it was the last time I
was a little beat Brian by theway it was, so that was a
long time. And we did aSuper Series contest in Romania and his eyes

(39:20):
were still like both all the whiteson his eyes were red from that back,
like completely red, just bloodshot,and you're just like, are you
look at it? Okay? Soyeah maybe yeah, he's like yeah,
And I got second in that show. And then a guy got his name

(39:40):
right on the top of my time. I can see his face clear as
day. He ended up winning bya point, and then he got the
invite to Worlds from that show.And then Colin's like, sorry, man,
maybe next year. And then thenext year I win the FedEx BO
and he calls me. He's likeall right, because it's like one of
those things they still had special invitesand goes all right, dude, you've

(40:04):
done it if you're in and justget ready. Yeah, And so I
had a while to get ready,no idea what the events were, but
I still got ready. Do youthink it's better off the way because I
know that the Arnold Super Series itseems like there was a bigger like qualification
system as opposed to like, Iknow, twenty twenty killed a lot of
stuff. Do you think it's betteroff with just invites or with like the

(40:25):
series how they used to do itfor which all right, I guess in
the case of the Arnold, butthe case super serious too for the for
A World as well. Oh yeah, that was super serious with the Giants
flat yeah, yeah, I meanit's just it's just one into the next,
like that was ode OAF and Colinand then Colin was thing, went

(40:46):
off on his own and got eventuallygot in with Darren and now giants is
what giants? Yeah, but itwas the same you went there you did
well, you qualified to go,so there was still you can only do
some of those shows, so therewere still invites. I mean even now
there's still special invites in the worldsbecause there's what five four or five giants

(41:10):
live shows are Yeah, okay,two of them are specific to just Europeans
are from Britain, correct, butit's still that's top three are automatically qualified,
so that it's fifteen spots. It'strue. Then you got the winner,
so that's sixteen. You got formerwinners that are on a noble and

(41:30):
Stoltman if he doesn't win with thequalifiers, which he does so, and
then Brian when he wanted to go, that's former winners or you're in shape,
you can go, so that you'restill looking at it could be that's

(41:51):
true, so you still got thatopportunity, which was trying to explain it
to that kid this morning. It'slike, no, just keep doing good
and one of the shows are It'slike it's like the generation is so instag
gratification. It's like it used totake like five to ten years to get
in here. Yeah, but nowit's much easier to get in the world.

(42:14):
What I think I see like likea Gavin Singleton or something and they're
like two three years in and hewas already at World. It's like it's
not normal. Yeah, It's likejust because a couple people have done it
doesn't mean that's the thing that howmany dudes took ten years to even get
their first giants right, Well,it's just I think it depends on what
kind of strength are you walk inwith. Sure, Yeah, I mean

(42:36):
Adam was gonna look at hoop.Yeah, man came out of almost nowhere.
Yeah, seven year champ, youknow what I mean. Yeah,
So it's kind of like if you'rethat strong, there is the ability now
to get recognized and get in muchquicker than in the past. So it's
kind of that part's coming nice.Yeah, Like guys too will be like

(42:57):
I can do this yoke that theguy's worlds can like. But it's like
the deadlift of the press, Likethere's things that take the years to develop.
It's more than one of them,and a lot of them. It's
like, oh, like if thatnine hundred one thousand dead lid is normal,
like, yeah, you can doit if you have the years.
Yeah, it's just like it's notgonna happen in two yeh. You already
put in your work over here,yeah, and then you start your following

(43:21):
when you hand out. I mean, I couldn't be more thankful for like,
there's a lot of ways in it'sholding you now. Yeah. Yeah,
So I mean I didn't I thinkmy physically strongest years so far it
was forty. Yeah, I wasstill really really strong at fifty. Was

(43:43):
that like twenty sixteen, twenty seventeen, uh, sixteen seventeen wins seven seventeen
was yeh, the year I gotto the finals. Yeah, but I
told my calf put in the tire. Yeah, I still got through the
whole the rest of the show,but you're still here. You're not gonna
be in the final. And thenwell I was in the final. Well

(44:06):
yeah, they're like always gonna beYou're not gonna be at Yeah, but
it's always too tight, and that'ssomething else. It's kind of like one
of those things where I was tryingto explain it to IRONBB this year because
all my body said, and I'mlike, dude, you're still not the
World Strongest Man competitor. Yeah,there's no place you can go where it
shows you're on the list. You'rea strong man, you're a professionals from

(44:28):
You're not a World Strongest Man competitor, even if your biceps injured through the
show, because all throughout history fromthat point on, what's your names on
that list is the world Strongest Mancompetitor. You're right, world's strongest man.
Yeah, till the day you die. Yeah, you know, like
and yeah, and guys like me, like my promoters have reached top.

(44:49):
I'm like for me, it's likeI'm like I beat seven of those guys
and that's like forever, those guyswill beat World Strongest Man competitors, and
like, I don't know, likeI feel like there's a show to not
come off the gas or to takethe risk. It's you're at the Big
Shop. That's the one world likethat really doing a classic or like or
those Big Four, yeahs are roadLike those Big Four, You're at the

(45:13):
Dream Show. There's nothing else,Like I take something in the world.
I'm doing those. Yeah, it'sgonna showing he was on history just like
I remember the what was it year? Was it? I think we were
in China, so it was thirteenand quickly had messed up his arm pretty
bad in the qualifying heats and hehad won his heat, so he's in

(45:35):
the final and somebody was trying totalk him out of that so someone else
can go in there. And Iremember Mangus walking on to him. He
goes, if you pull out,you won't be a World Strongest this it
won't show as a World strong Manfinalists this year in the top ten in
the world. He goes, eveninjured, you go do it. You're

(45:55):
still you're still a finalist, You'restill a top ten. Yeah, you
don't do it entire time. Yeah, because history will show that as always,
which yeah, I was like,yeah, yeah, I mean there's
dudes that go down as like legendsof the sport that like the biggest thing
they did is the final, Likethat's still hugely yeah. I mean people
are excued about like your Stoltman's andthe wars and stuff like saying like,

(46:21):
well, turn turn ons. Hegot a podium once Sydney twice, twice
twice. It's like guys like thatspanking in the final for years and years
and years like that's people don't givethat enough credit. It's like, dude,
I mean in the world right,even even being like the alternate Worlds
one time. Yeah, like youare in the one percent of the one

(46:43):
percent sport Like it's still that's people'sdream still, you know, I mean
I still is that okay, Ohyeah we're good, Okay, I still
look at it. I mean Iwould always try to be the best,
absolute best that I could be.Yeah, I have my week's over and
it's yeah, I couldn't tell youwhy then there's a point in time where

(47:04):
like a bench like but I'm sureon the most I've done was six thirty
five. Yeah, but it nevertranslated into and you always had a big
squat. It was a stranger.You couldn't get the lake driver. Yeah,
just some disconnectors never clicked, neverclicked. Or it was a range
of motion movement in my lap,like the difference and flexibility on this arm
in this harm Yeah, this isthe one I have it to him.

(47:24):
Yeah, this is the one Ihad fixed. Yeah that's so, but
this one goes up. Yeah,and so now my overhead pressing is it's
actually better than it was, butit's still so it was always I was
going to lose points there and Ihad to be greater everywhere else. And

(47:45):
yeah, so you know what you'regoing into the Arnold right now, you
know, and you're gonta get advicefrom a lot of people out there.
But the thing is is like sometimeslike you were saying, it's something that's
skewed if you need to if youwanted to add something, and like I
said, you got a legend rightin front of you. You know what
what what is something that you needto know in like in a mindset or

(48:06):
just in coming into a major showlike this, because I said, you
just want America's America stronics man,and now you got the end. But
to the Arnold and it's like yeah, it's like, I mean you've you've
been through that, like that earlystage of getting into the big shows.
Were there things that you did thatwas like a stumbling block? Or you
do it differently if you could doit again? Huh? I think the

(48:30):
only thing real thing I would dodifferently is once you start getting there.
Yeah, you're so excited that you'regetting invited to those shows that you take
them all up on. Yeah yougot to pick and cheese. Yeah,
that is the one thing that youcan fill up really fast. Well,
and that's where you're gonna get hurt. Yeah, I mean, still you

(48:52):
can do. You don't want togo just getting in your third year,
in your third second or third yearin where everybody knows you're fucking yeah,
that's right, everybody knows you're reallysolid and really good. At that point,
you just got to chill out becauseyou're to get invited to everything,

(49:14):
like, hey, I'd love to, but it kind of conflicts this and
I don't feel my body is gonnabe ready. But let's I'm gonna plan
on that for next year, butfor this year, I'm gonna pass.
Yeah, you're gonna have to giveup some opportunities in there that you don't
want to, but your body's gonnahold together, and then you can maintain

(49:35):
that high level of placing each onethat you go to so that when you
show, when you get you tellthem, hey, i'll hit it next
year, and then you push offa different show for the following year.
That's probably gonna be I've seen themost fatal mistakes made their Clinicowskiing was hitting
everything and then it's got pretty seriouslyinjured and then out he's he's still not

(50:00):
what he was. I mean,I love that guy, I mean his
attitude. Yeah, he's a greatkid if I call my kid, but
he's a kid. I've seen alot of guys come in and make a
splash and then all of a sudden, I mean Evan, look at Evan
when he first came in, startedgetting invited everything, started doing everything,

(50:22):
and then all of a sudden,his performance started doing this. And then
he come back and started doing moreplanning and better shows. Everybody knows how
good he is, so he getsthe invite some things he's going to has
finally figured that that's the hardest thingto do is I mean, you gotta,
okay, take that one, andthen now you got another one,

(50:44):
and you still got to have enoughtime to heal from the contest that you
did, get back to training,get strong, and do another contest.
You know you should. You're gonnalearn to function at about a six week
level if you can hold your body, bodies conditioning and it's six weeks out
from a show at all times,which is quite easy. Yeah, that's

(51:07):
where you want to that's where youwant to live. And then you make
sure you have a week or twoof healing after the contest, and then
it's worse a month and then becauselike the biggest issues I had with doing
the Arnold was the Finix bo wasprobably the second heaviest contest in the United

(51:29):
States at that time, and Imean ode we had to do a thousand,
one thousand pounds sixteen inchs dead withyeah, with a stiff barol,
you know, so it's a sarcialdetalic, but still you got to feel
Felix and I tied it like onethousand and three, and then Terry pulled
on thy twenty five and then wedid a stone over bar. I think

(51:50):
the stone was like three eighty orsomething like that for reps as the last
event, and then the yoga waslike a thousand and stuff like that,
and it was just the Farmers waslike four hundred a hand. Yeah,
you know, it was a brutalcontest and you were just like you're just
getting recovered in your arm, andit's like you never feel like you can

(52:14):
hit that at full speed. Yeah, you know, last if there was
like an extra five weeks in there, then I could feel like I hit
speed. But that that was oneof those where you get the opportunity to
get in, you go and youjust get everything you got and some you
know, you take what's there butif I was gonna say that would be

(52:39):
something that ye be very strategic.Yeah, because once you have the goods
and everybody knows you have the goodsand they know now you have the goods,
and then they see you work withthe crowd and work with people,
and not only that, being ableto get yourself in the competitive mind yet
still be audience aware. Yeah,at the same time to where you don't

(53:05):
need to go out and you canbe like a w superstar. But if
you go over and deal with thecrowd and have fun with the cow but
they's you're competing, just does Milesand it brings more people into this floor
year as well. Yeah, Imean, nothing's worse than the dudes and
just sit in the back and donot don't acknowledge the crowds, like,
yeah, they paid for paid forthe seats. Yeah, admitically, that's

(53:25):
gonna be probably the biggest learning forme, gonna learn on it. Like
it's it's really not that fun ofit. Yeah, just Hotel who does
it in a genuine way and they'rejust having fun, you know. And
that's where I'm at, Like thisshow going up with the art of like
get to compete against dudes that Iwatched on TV yeah the last ten years.

(53:46):
Like I didn't even see that inthe UK too, So the fans
that are touch Yeah, it's it'syeah, it's just just gotta believe like
I'm there for a reason. Ican hang with those dudes and enjoy it,
enjoy the crowd. Yeah, it'syeah. You know, I think
the last person I'm trying to convincemyself, you know, maybe this is

(54:08):
the game, right, and you'resitting in here on my spot, you
know, and it's it's gonna beawesome. Man, I have person training
and then still yeah, yeah,yeah, they're gonna be okay. I
think I mean, give me eighteenmonths, two years to build the deadlift,
like that could be real problem forthese dudes. Yeah, it's just

(54:30):
everybody's got that one thing that they'reworking on. Like I can't remember.
I don't know why I can't do. I always got that one event.
It's not my event, So whatdoes that mean I gotta work on don't
an event three years in a row. Well, off season, our planet
is just have it in. Wehave stones ever real week, yeah,

(54:52):
because it's just gonna be just throwingin really. Yeah, it's gonna be
in shows. What's it ever gonnago away? One week, make it
a light to where it's light andyou gotta go fast, because that happens
occasionally, and then the next weektwo weeks later, and make it a
heavy to where you can barely move, and train it both ways, because

(55:13):
like Warwick where we had an armand it was uphill, slow cross,
nobody finished and it was brutal,and then the next year it was slightly
downhill and it was so you neverknow what you can get your hands on.
Train went slow, train went fast. You know, it's just those

(55:34):
couple of events, Gonna keep workingthem, and you know, and the
deadlift comes with time. Yeah,and you just just need the reps and
the time time, the core conditioningand stuff like that. Holloween training your
abs twice a week, Okay,yeah, no, we're on. We're
on a good pace with the deadlifts. Yeah, try twist. I did
a lot of rotation. I wasthrowery, like rotational strength comes from yeah

(55:59):
yeah, this camera. Yeah man, it's for some reason, deadlift just
didn't come natural to me, likeI was after college, Like I was
a strong lifter, barely deadlicted fivehundred, but I could squat six,
I could do all those I justI mean, I don't think I did
that time with the deadlift in college. Probably didn't lift it that much either,
No, which a lot of olympicliftingand stuff like that. And now

(56:22):
you know, a year and ahalf ago the max was like around seven
hundred, and now it's like eightfifty for reps is pretty normal, right,
and so given you know, ayear or two more, we'll get
into that nine hundred raw range.And that's kind of where a lot of
these guys are at, so asidefrom a couple of those freaks. But
yeah, that ear of everyone ona thousand, it's kind of gone.

(56:44):
But even even then they saw things. Yeah, polls too, they poles,
they might not be as fast ontheir feet and yeah quick, they
might not last in the medley.Yeah, so it's yeah, no,
na a fun. It's a reallyfun phase right now. Just enjoy it.
Well, you know, and that'sgreat, you know, and you

(57:06):
know it's fun phase everything coming in. But Nick, you know, we
we eat as much and as alwaysas much fun as all these are,
we always got to end it.And Nick has a favor of thing and
you know it holds true to everythingthat you're talking about here and what you
want to do. So Nick,let the fans know. Well, the
first one you say, go followthis link will be in a note.

(57:28):
I always say it just just startedup my YouTube. Goone on Instagram,
anything else around. That's the maintwo right now. Okay, So that's
just Lucas Lucas on Facebook. Yes, good Facebook going may important. You
can monetize Facebook as well, Okay, so get on that and do that.
So YouTube, Facebook and Instagram thoseare You can still kind of monetize

(57:54):
tik talk, but that's the thingthat's not very good, at least my
experience with it. But into's gungo follow him please and as if you
like this, please like SERI subscribeYou click the little button to get in
the notices. As always, andas always, train hard, train smart.
The absolutely past you're listening to thebest experience would take best