March 26, 2024 • 53 mins
Coming off Two Back-to-Back Wins from the Arnold Strongman Classic and the Arnold UK Strongman, Mitchell Hooper shows us he is not normal; he is on that next level.
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Nick Best
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Podcast Producer/Co-Host
Ben Bulman Of Angry Dad Podcast
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Mitchell Hooper Links
Nick Best
Evolution Athletics
Barbell Apparel
Ice Up Industries (Best)
Podcast Producer/Co-Host
Ben Bulman Of Angry Dad Podcast
Instagram @angry_dad_podcast_
https://www.instagram.com/angry_dad_podcast_/
Website https://lnk.bio/angrydadpodcast
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-best-experience--5779077/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:19):
You're listening to the best experience withNick Best. All right, this is
(00:40):
the best experience with your host,Nick Best and the Angry Dad. And
before we get in today's podcast,we'd like to thank our podcast sponsors.
Barbell Apparel, a premium athletic whereengineered for performance with a tailored athletic fit,
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(01:03):
Industry some of the best cold plungescold bass you can get on the market,
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thank you so much. And withthat, ladies and jentleen, we're here
with Mitchell Hooper World strongest Man twotimes, Arnold and Arnold UK, and
(01:26):
a whole bunch of other stuff thatI can't even keep track of it.
Let me be kind, you know, no stunt unturned. I mean,
there's how do you find fine forhusband and fathers. Well, and congratulations
(01:49):
by the way, thanks you absolutelyamazing. Well, they don't know what
I start with all that the timethat it's interesting, Yeah, it's I
always feel like there's there's this,there's bullseye that I do with people who
work for me. And in themiddle is minus one in a stage in
your life where you're going backwards slightly, which is actually okay for periods of
(02:12):
time. Then outside of that youhave plus one. I just don't believe
in state nation, and plus onewould mean that you're you're progressing steadily,
and plus two is sort of likethis temporary idea of you could push really
hard to excel, but at somestage you're going to burn out. And
I have no idea how I haven'tburnt out from being in what what I
call plus two or plus three forso long. But yeah, thankfully I
(02:36):
have really good people around me.I have a bunch of people who work
for me, who take care ofvarious things to make sure that they're taking
along. But I always joke thatmy life is mostly going from when someone's
on shift and I'm working with them, and then they're off shift and I
just go work with whoever's on shiftnext, and it's a it's a constant
struggle, but you have to realizeand recognize that one day you won't be
(02:59):
the strong youngest man in the world, and you're going to have to create
something that has some sort of lastingeffect after you're done with the sport.
And that's really my primary concern becausefinancially I'll be fine. I know that,
and I know that I could dothings with just take care of myself,
but I have people who work forme, and when I'm done the
sport as strong man, there's noway that I could turn around and just
(03:19):
tell them that story. The careeryou thought you had doesn't exist anymore.
Right, And then it's being adad adds a whole nother layer to the
fold, and it makes you questiona lot of things about your life and
how you choose to spend your timeand what you're doing, because you're a
bad dad if you can't provide,of course, but you're also a bad
dad if you're never present. Andwhere's the balance and where does it shake
(03:43):
out? And I sort of havethis timeline in my head where I'm going
to be much more reasonable with mytravel and my schedule once my daughter has
the capacity to be able to missme and know that I'm not there.
That's my ultimate goal. Yeah,and it won't be long. You know,
she's pretty little right now, whichis awesome. I mean they grow
(04:04):
so quick. Yeah, they growfast. It's no neat when you're sitting
there holding and they fall asleep andall the other stuff. But it won't
be long until you know, shestarts popping that mom dad out there.
It's a neat feeling, it reallyis. She's going to be at the
World's Strongest Man. We'll see howthat goes. But hopefully she travels well
(04:28):
and then the solution to being awayis that she just comes with me places,
right, But there's every possibility thatshe doesn't like to travel in competition
environment. In reality, if youbring a baby along, it's for you,
not for them. The baby doesn'tcare about the show. Even a
child doesn't care for the show.They want to go play on the playground
that's over there. And yes,I started my strong man career when Dylan
(04:51):
was about five. Yeah, andyeah, he was an America's Strongest Man
in two thousand and six. Hewas writing his scooter along the inside of
the competition, just playing around andcutting across them in front of everything.
So yeah, they when they getthere, they just want to play and
(05:11):
have fun. It's still great memories. It's the ultimate humbling experience, isn't
it It is. It's truly absolutelygreat to keep thinking. Oh yeah,
definitely with all the endeavors that you'regoing through right now, and you're because
like it's so impressive, because likeI said, it's your schedule's got to
be like I have you like amadman. But it's like every time you
(05:33):
turn around, it's something new,you know what I'm saying. And with
your team and what you guys areworking with, you guys are just constantly
coming up with new ideas. Ican only imagine the business meetings and the
partner meetings you guys are having withthese guys every day. Yeah, there's
a lot of moving parts, butit's it's turning into i'd say medium sized
business depending on your definition. Butthere's six of us now who are working
(05:59):
full time on that the online businessside, and a part of it is
serious business. That's you know,in the end, you run business for
profit and for money and for opportunityand everything. But it's equally six people
of similar age, who half ofus were friends beforehand, and it's a
privilege to be able to work withthem because more often than not we're laughing
(06:20):
about something or having a good time, especially on the trips. So you
guys seeing me around competition, I'mnot stressed out. I'm mostly bored so
having to say, a ping pongtournament the morning of the Arnold, but
that's the stuff that I need Andin the end I like to think about,
you know, I have to bethe face of the brands. But
(06:41):
the sooner that I cannot become theface of the brand, and the better
off we are because then we havea business that's irrespective of me competing or
not. So I try to doeverything I cannot to make myself the sense
of attention because that ultimately gets prettyold, and I hope just to migrate
towards business owner more than the personwho it lives and die with. Sure,
(07:02):
smart Jens. That's a conversation meand Nick have all the time because
like we always constantly like, youknow, not to stroke the ego,
but it's like every time we turnaround, like what is he not doing
and what is he not thinking about? As you're competing and as you're doing
these things, because it's like it'sinsane, because like every time we turn
(07:23):
around, it's like there's no chinkin the armor for you. Every time
we turn around, it's like you'reimproving, you're constantly evolving, and you're
just constantly growing with this sport andwith everything going on. It's just it
blows our mind all the time.I think it is important to recognize though,
that outwardly it seems like all theboxes are being ticked and there's no
(07:45):
chink in the armor. But thereare days where I'm my own chink in
the armor, and I have ahard time getting stuff done, and I'm
quite hard on myself, and thedays that things aren't going well, it's
not it's not that I don't goto work, it's that I can't up
working and I sacrifice things that onpaper are more valuable to me, and
I get my priorities a little bitmixed up, and my blood pressure is
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too high because I'm stressed from allthe things that are going on, and
you know, I am sacrificing alevel of athletic ability because I am off
doing things so much, which partof surprising myself at the arnold is that
I did not have a perfect lifescenario. I had a baby who was
(08:31):
two and a half weeks old,and you guys know how that goes.
Yeah, over these obstacles, andI'm sort of hedging my bet. So
how many obstacles can I put inmy own way and still be good given
that the obstacles are building something productiveover the long run. Yeah, Yeah,
Well, I think you're showing theworld just how many obstacles you can
(08:52):
put it in your own Yeah.You know, hopefully people can see that
there is a part of it thatyour first focus, your first circle has
to be you and your family andtaking care of them. Your second has
to be family and friends. ButI hope that people can see that all
of the work I'm doing should benefitstrong Man as a whole in the future.
(09:15):
And it's getting exposed to new audiences, and it's getting exposed in a
way where you know, I don'toutwardly look hugely unhealthy or hugely unattainable.
Even though I'm six foot three threetwenty people are surprised that I'm not heavy
who aren't in the sport and Ican run around a little bit, and
I can do a CrossFit workout verypoorly, and I think hopefully over time
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people can see that and feel asthough they can participate in the sport,
which is the ethos of the clothingbrand as well, is that it is
actually a really kind, welcoming environment. The whole heavy be kind thing is
not a declaration of who I am, because I'm not the kindest person all
the time. I could be aright asshole like the rest of us.
It's what I saw in the sport, and I saw how it actually was
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and the bravado that it purports tobe, and I thought, let's let's
put the kindness forward first, andthen maybe someone who's not confident, not
comfortable, they're going to be thefirst ones back in the gym. Yeah,
and that's the thing too. Butlike like I said, I'm new
into the culture myself, because likeI came from bodybuilding and you know,
(10:22):
working with Nick and seeing strong manand being a strong man. It's just
I remember the first time I metyou, you were literally sitting there with
your girlfriend at the time, eatingand you were just talking about the numbers
you were running. And I'm sittingthere with Gavid and Sean or Chain and
we were just having a great conversationin Sacramento, and I was just like,
who is this kid, Like justand you were just talking about like
(10:46):
your your your trading numbers. I'mjust like, that's ridiculous. That's trade,
that's not competition. And then whenNick was doing another podcast he came
back and I was like, dude, we gotta keep an eye on this
guy because it's just the way you'retalking. Was like I could see the
glow, the image, the energy, everything coming from you as we were
just having this great conversation during whileyou were just eating real quick. It
(11:09):
was like, right, I thinksecond day of qualifications. It was just
like I said, it was justI could see it in you then.
And then I even talked to youlater that day because we got you on
our other podcast, Religions of Iron, and I was just like, man,
this kid's coming up quick. Andnow just like turn around to literally
the second year you just take it. This is like what the hell?
(11:33):
Yeah, it's logically I can getthere, and logically I can tell you
how anybody. Emotionally, I feellike I'm going to wake up tomorrow and
realize that I got hit in thehead in two and a half years ago.
That's really you can't. You can'ttell me a person who's I've been
(11:54):
so fortunate in the sport to comealong at a time where the style of
events suit and to come along ata time where the prize money is what
it is and the opportunity in sucha growing field is where it is.
And to be honest, it's anextension of my life. I might be
the world's strongest man, but Ithink I'm the world's luckiest man as well,
because this ten years ago. IfI came along, like, even
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if I was as good as Iam now, you probably you'd still make
a living. But how good Andin ten years time, when the prize
money is much larger, you're probablygoing to have guys who I wouldn't hold
a candle to come along. SoI think, yeah, I'm just I'm
in an incredibly lucky time and Ifeel a big responsibility to make sure that
I'm giving back. But you know, every time someone says I can't imagine,
(12:41):
it blows my mind how fast you'vecome up, and blows my mind
what you're doing, I just say, imagine being me, and it blows
my mind too. And I thinka lesson for anyone listening to it is
I didn't know what I was capableof at all, and many many times
along the way I was surprising myself. But I'll never allow my logical thoughts
(13:03):
to stop myself from doing what I'mactually capable of. For example, when
I went to pull the four hundredand seventy five kilo deadlift, I right
before I said, I probably won'tget this. I think there's a thirty
percent chance, twenty five percent chance, but I'm gonna give a help.
And I think a lot of peopleget in their own way where if they
think there's a twenty percent chance ofgetting something, that should make you try
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five times harder. But some peoplewill be a little bit dejected by that
and feel like, well, there'sno way I'm that good, And logically
I go, well, I am, but emotionally many times have gone there's
no way I'm that good. It'sonly been recently, after thirteen fourteen podiums
in a row that have gone like, you know what, this shit is
not a coincidence, it's not it'snough fluid not so yeah. I think
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that's a really valuable takeaway for peopleout there. I think you can do
a hell of a lot more thanyou think you can if you just get
out your own way, agreed,And that's that's that's a good solid growth
thing and piece of advice that youhave out there is people do get in
their own ways. We all do. It's to some degree. And it's
(14:13):
it's really neat to hear you saythat, because that's going to inspire a
whole lot of people to think differentlyabout how they approach things, and that's
going to change the game even moreas time goes on. And I was
back I was back there though tenfifteen years ago. I tell you,
right, you would have cleaned housethen too. I really would have.
(14:35):
I mean, because I mean beingthere at the end of Marius and seeing
the athlete that he was. He'sstill he's he was unbelievably good, but
it's still not at that level.I was there when Derek was at his
peak, you know, so,Droness Brian, I've seen it, and
(15:01):
athletically and just with the events,there's nothing put in your way. You're
not going to be in the topthree and that I've seen moving forwards,
there's nothing they're going to have tothere's no way to design something that you're
not going to figure out and functionunbelievably well at because you're that good,
(15:24):
your disciplines that good, your mentalcapability is more than I've ever seen it.
Figuring things out, knowing how thebody works, knowing how to you
know, execute the lift or whateverit is, and then recover from it.
And the stuff you're talking about withthe nervous system, the blood flow
restriction and stuff like that. I'mlooking at that stuff going, oh wow,
(15:48):
I'm learning new stuff. I neverthought about the blood flow restriction stuff
that you're doing that and I thinkthat's absolutely amazing. And now watching much
more of that to get more ideasstuff like that. So it's neat to
see how you're progressing, and thenhow you're taking the knowledge you have of
recovery and helping people with that andmoving it on to the next level.
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It's just going to make everybody better. It's going to leave it lasting,
a lasting thing on this sport thatyou're going to change it. You realize
that, right, you're going tochange the way everything's done. Five ten
years from now, the way you'redoing things now, guys will be doing
it that way. And you're inthe ability to pick up on things.
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I mean, watching you learn howto do the jerk was outrageous. I
mean it really was. It's justlike, oh God, oh wow,
Now he's just going to pop themup over there. It's you're right,
the actual record is in jeopardy rightnow because you're the guy that's gonna be
able to clean it and pop itup over your head. Yeah, I's
(16:56):
two or six kila. I didthat a couple of days ago, and
that was a little bit on awhim. That's the first my PB actually
cleanup press was one eighty because I'venever had to go higher than that four
hundred pounds for the opponents with andthat folk clip is actually like I tried
to do it the first time howI normally do, which is flipping my
hand mid air, and I discoveredvery quickly at heavier weight, you can't
(17:19):
like catch it that way, andso then I dropped it and took about
three seconds and then went and didit again. I could have brought the
world record two days ago, SoI think his hand time that'll be a
dangerous events for sure. Yeah,it's like I can't wait, I really
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can't. It's gonna be fun,and then I mean the prep coming up
for the next four or five weeksand all the stuff that that's going through.
Because worlds doesn't necessarily give you exactweights and distances and stuff like this.
It's kind of like, well,you have a truck poll well or
vehicle pole, you have this,you have that, So it's very nondescriptive.
(18:03):
So it's kind of neat because youcan come in and adapt to things
very quickly. And then you'll comeup and ask people questions too, which
is one of the most impressive thingsas well. You'll just ask what do
you think? And yeah, that'spretty cool. I think you can never
get too big about yourself that thereare people at OSG. There's amateurs who
(18:25):
could teach me something. For sure. There are amateurs who've been in the
sport for ten years and I haven'tbeen in the sport for ten years.
There's something to be learned. ButI've come across a pretty consistent pattern where
people talk and I think it's naturalfor all of us to obsess over like
what is the last five percent thatyou're doing to get the edge. But
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I've come across a pattern with alot of high level guys top top five,
top ten in the world, guyswhere they'll do all of their extra
all of their five percent. Butit still comes down to something as basic
as I have never ever ever leftthe gym before my program is over.
I have never ever missed a dayat the gym. That consistency is something
(19:07):
that even the guys at the top, it's not happening like you think it
is. They will take a dayoff because they're tired, They will leave
the gym early because they got pissed, because they missed a lift, or
because they're hungry, or because whatever. And I think it's funny how many
parallels there are between being a toplevel athlete in the world and just trying
to generally be healthy. That thefundamental of that is that you have to
(19:30):
put in a very good effort everysingle day, and it doesn't have to
be unreal. But I think that'sthe real edge that I have, is
that training for me is never anegotiation. Sometimes it's not perfect, sometimes
it's not the right implement, butpeople will talk about how I use it.
I used a shitty fingles finger,but I did every fucking session on
that finger. I hit every singlething I was trying to do, and
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you might have had a perfect finger, but you only put in seventy five
percent of the work on it.You skip a couple of sessions. That's
still the stuff that I believe makesthe most difference. And then all these
extras, the blood blow, restriction, the nostone and turned all that is
genuinely as much fun personal experiments andsocial media content as it is actually trying
to make myself better. I thinkall of those things have just really started
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to align, and I will bebetter at World Strongest Man than I was
at the Arnold, and I thinkthat's a dangerous prospect for everyone else.
Yeah, and you're really dangerous atboth of those Arnolds. Yeah, Yeah,
I think going in you're the handsdown favorite this year. I mean,
there's no questions asked. The momentum. It's fun with the momentum and
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just the things that you're doing,but also in your process and the way
you do things. I don't there'sguys that are out there working hard,
but I don't think there's people outthere working smarter and harder at the same
time getting the most out of everythingthat they're doing. You're the most calculated
person I've ever seen it die,and that's that's the same because I've seen
I've seen some I've seen some liftersof my day and some competitors, some
(21:00):
strong man guys, some power littersand stuff like that. And the absolute
approach that you go to these thingsthat are the most cerebral that I've ever
seen. Like I said, alot of the stuff that you've managed to
do, it's going to change theway things are going for the next ten
to fifteen twenty years. Really,It's quite funny because I think a large
part of that is I didn't comeup in strong man. I was never
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indoctrinated the way that most people are, and so I've sort of found my
own way to do everything and realizethat I'm not normal afterwards, which is
sort of a euphemism for my life, and just discovering that I'm not normal
at certain as the title of thisepisode not normal, well, we just
got the episode title say something likethat. The Arnold UK, we're doing
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a farmer's for distance. There's achalk pool at the at each end right
and to me it's like chalk isthat is fifty percent of your grip,
but it is as important as havingstrong grip is how talcked up can you
get your hands? So to me, it's just like I'm not even thinking
about I need to put chalk allthe way along the way, and then
(22:06):
of course I need to chalk upmy hands. With fifteen seconds left,
I couldn't have run to the chalkbowl. I wouldn't have won the event
if I didn't put chalk down everywhere. But I don't really pay attention to
what other guys are doing in termsof their tactics and strategy. Only after
do I realize that no one elsedid anything like that, And it's just
baffling to me. And I hopethat more guys start to think that way.
And I think it's gonna change thesport in one of two ways.
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I think it's either going to becomea little bit more meticulous and taking care
of all of those little things,or promoters are going to have to change
the rules so that guys don't havea two minute time limit stand and stare
at a log for forty five secondsbefore they do another rep, because I
recognize that that's not interesting to watch. But you also have to take advantage
of every single rule afforded to it, and I don't know which go to
(22:55):
be honest, so over time Iguess we'll find out. But it's certainly
fun to hopefully be pushing the sportin a more positive direction, oh much
much more positive. Plus you're doingit in a healthy way, or it's
a sustainable way where you're not goingto You're going to be done when you
want to be done. You're notgoing to come into where you're having a
(23:21):
health issue and you have to stopand you have to back off. You're
going through it the right way.And if you want to do this ten
fifteen years, you're going to behere. If you want to do this
five more years, you're going tobe here. You're going to be able
to stop when you want to stop, not because you have to stop.
And that's probably one of the mostimpressive things as well, is you're doing
(23:41):
everything in a sustainable way. Yeah. Well, I do feel healthy,
and I just got I was inNashville for a couple of days getting some
blood work done and making sure thatthat site's taken care of, and I
think genuinely monitoring my health and beingcognizant that there are things that are doing
that are not good for your health. Yeah, there's a supplementation side to
(24:03):
that, which I think is talkedabout too much in terms of how much
that affects your health. But there'sthe reality of being three hundred and twenty
five pounds and that's not good foryou. In my last note, Soon
and Serenata I talked about BMI asa thing, and I think it's a
really triggering thing for people in thesport to be told that you are obese
and that means something that's not agood thing. You tend do things to
(24:26):
make it less harmful, for sure, like exercising regular great. It's combating
that eating a healthy diet is greatand good. It combats that all of
these things count. And for me, I know what being heavy puts on
your body. I know what theacute spikes and blood pressure due to your
heart over time. And you're justnaive or dumb if you don't think that
(24:51):
it's going to have really long lastingeffects, which is why I won't go
above three twenty five three thirty.I just won't do it if that loses
me the world's title. Okay,the good on the guy who's going the
extra mile. But on the flipside, I think taking care of your
health and you sleep a little bitbetter, you recover a little bit better,
you move much better, and itprobably helps you in the sport more
than it harms you. So hopefullythat's another legacy that I can leave behind,
(25:15):
is that caring about your health andyour body is introgral to perform at
the top level. No, it'sthe same thing. I never wanted to
get above three twenty three, twentyfive, three twenty two as the heaviest
I have ever been, So Iget it, I mean one hundred percent.
I mean yeah. And the thingis is you have the ability to
(25:40):
still stand with everyone on the staticevents. And that's that's what. If
you already have that ability, whydo you need to be heavy. If
you can do it, you doit, and you can, so there's
no reason to take yourself that muchfurther when there's the risk. Reward is
not there absolutely, So you know, it's it's just fun. Plus it's
(26:03):
fun to see me and catching upwith you too. Yeah. When did
they let you out of those handcuffsby the way, the handcuffs, Yeah,
yeah, a couple of minutes.I sweet talked to him, I
said, do you know who Iam, and then that's awesome. So
(26:30):
we're who gets into strong men.The alverage person who gets into strong man
is not someone who like and notto say that no one in the sport
has lots of friends before they getin, but more often than not,
we're sort of outcast. We sortof don't get along with a huge number
of people for whatever reason, maybebecause you're abrasive, or maybe because you're
shy, or maybe lack self confidenceor something. We all get into the
(26:52):
sport because we're a little bit brokenin some way, and I think I
came into it a little bit differentthan other people, but I very much
still resonate with that message and saysomething like stupid like that, like the
laughs in and around that and havingother people see us just fucking about and
seeing that, Okay, it's notas serious as people might think it is,
and hopefully it adds a layer ofenjoyment because I think I think not
(27:17):
enough people in the sport are havingfun. And that's why I value having
fun in and around strong men somuch, because that's what it started as.
No one gets into it and saysthis is going to be my living
well, and the people who doare like daft, you should not ever,
ever ever have that. This shouldbe the cherry on up. But
that then just again drops the barrier. People people realize that they should be
(27:40):
having fun, and if you're nothaving fun, go do something else,
because even if you become a pro, you make whatever money you make,
if you're not having fun, it'sjust a waste of time anyway. Anyway,
Yeah, that's that's I couldn't agreemore. It's just so some of
the stuff, where do you comeup with these ideas though I means something
(28:00):
stuff, I just watch it andI'm just like, It'll be ten twenty
minutes before I stop laughing about it. They're like, what's so funny?
I'll show people the video. They'rejust like, oh shit. I'm like,
if you're not, go follow them. So but I mean, it's
just just funny some of the stuff. The girl the way, how much
do you weigh? One thirty five? Yeah, yeah, that was hilarious.
(28:26):
Some of it is like me andmy team we will just send stuff
to each other and then rip itfrom other people. I would say that's
maybe ten fifteen percent. And thenthis is just it's just my brain.
It's just my childlike brain if youlet that flow a little bit. I
think a lot of men are this. You just let stupid ideas flow for
a bit and then you're gonna comeup with something that makes you laugh,
(28:47):
and it makes you laugh, itprobably makes someone else laugh as well.
My favorite one was the the buttplug video. It like, yeah,
people talk about the squat plug allthe time as a joke, and like
you just apply that to something that'slike part of a social media trend,
(29:08):
and like that's the recipe to justpop off. And the funniest thing is
whenever I'm making these videos of allof the things that I do and all
of the businesses that I run,since they all are downstream from the marketing
that I do through social media,for the most part, my dollar return
per time, I think is higherdoing stupid content than it is doing anything
(29:32):
else, because that then people feellike they know me and genuinely that is
me. Like if you spend timearound me, that is who I am.
I love to laugh about things likethat, and then you know,
then it builds a loyal fan base. It grows the fan base because it
can go viral, and yeah,just making sure to have fun in the
process because the days are long,and I'm treating strong men as a as
(29:55):
a sprint until I retire, andthen I'll back things off quite a bit.
Yeah. Nice, that's good.I will say this world's will watch
out. Eddie likes to stick plungerson people's heads. I'll pay attention to
where he said all the time.At least it's good enough to buy a
(30:17):
new plunger. I'll steal a I'llsteal a yamaka from one of my Jewish
friends, and that'll be my protection. Oh man, that's that's freaking awesome.
I'm like so excited for this world, dude, I cannot wait to
go. It's already stacked. Butyeah, oh my gosh, I'm just
(30:41):
sitting here just laughing. So uhhips h. Then, So now I'm
gonna sit here and pick your brainso you know how bad the rotation of
my hips are? Correct? Yeah, yeah, you're locked in now.
If you look at the little smileon his face right now, it tells
(31:04):
you just how kind of nasty theyare. What other things would in your
opinion, do you think I shouldbe doing to increase that range of motion,
because I'm already doing quite a bitof stuff. It's getting a little
better. I can I'm getting downto depth now. It's painful, but
(31:26):
I'm getting down to depth. Yeah, And I'm starting to be able to
wiggle under the deadlift bargain. AndI'm starting to get back to pulling decent
at data as well. Sure,is there anything other than replacing them,
which you recommended? Yeah, anythingelse I should be doing. Look in
(31:51):
terms of me recommending replacing them,that's just what I think would get them
the best. It's not any sortof medical advice. But let's just talk
first about if you are experiencing andI think a lot of people do that
restriction of motion, and the hipsyou have to you have to identify is
that because of a limitation in youractive range of motion or your passive range
(32:14):
of motion? Active range of motionmeaning is it your muscles inhibiting you from
getting to a spot. And that'ssomething that can be adjusted for sure.
If it's If it's passive, thenit's it's your soft tissues. Now,
let's talk about soft tissues for asecond. When you're when you're older,
what are the two things that neverstop growing? And the reason that the
(32:45):
nose and ears continuously grow is becausecartilage never stops growing as we get older,
and in a lot of ways,our soft tissues continue to grow unless
they're stimulated in a way for themnot to. So, for example,
your introvertable discs where are not sayingas soft tissue per se, but they
won't grow because we constantly have thatpressure on them, the same way that
(33:06):
an ex gymnast will be able todo the splits for fifteen years after they're
done, because we do retain thatadaptation. But the cartilage in your hips
continues to grow forever as well.And if we think about how a baby
can squat, a baby can squatthe way they do because they have so
little that their astabulum, which iswhere the femur sits, it's so shallow
(33:27):
that they have a heaps range ofmotion. Their head is also disproportionately heavy
to their bodies, so they canbalance in this really nice upward position.
Sometimes just see on social media thathow good it is and how broken adult
bodies are because we can't do that. We're not meant to be able to
do that, first of all.But in your case, that carlage continues
to grow and grow and grow andgrow well at a certain stage, it's
going to grow over the head ofyour femur so much that you just hit
(33:51):
this end point. And when youhit that end point, the only thing
that could happen is you round yourlow back and your pelvis rotates out of
your hip, or you abduct yourknee as in that you shoot it out
to the side in that only planethat your hips are allowed to go.
So your physical therapy, you rehab, your stretching, all of that is
(34:13):
going to expose as much after rangeas you can, but it's never going
to fix your passive range, andso you do have a very low ceiling
on your ability to be able toincrease the range in your hips. That
being said, the things that you'redoing are exactly what you should be doing
to not lose any more range.If you're squatting to full depth, you're
not going to allow the cartletge togrow over the hip. If you're trying
(34:34):
to get down into deadlifting, you'regoing to improve in small ways, whether
that's figuring out how to do itor just retaining that range in your hips.
The thing that's most important is theday that you stop trying to do
that. If you just said thatI'm going to take six months off from
squatting. I promise you you're nevergoing to be able to squat to depth
again because that cartlage is going togrow back over and now you've lost your
(34:55):
range and now you're in big trouble. And I say this because I've actually
like grabbed your hips and I've movedyour leg and you can feel the difference
between like this is something that couldbe stretched or just like there's a hard
block. You know, when you'restretching something, you know, hard block
or softball, you're stretching hamstrings.If someone says I'm done, you could
(35:16):
give a little bit extra. There'sa little bit of movement there. When
I take your hips into flexion,it's just like boom and out to the
side, like straight away. You'relike you try to push it in and
you're like, it's like beating tworocks together. That's never gonna happen.
That's why I say replacements is somethingthat probably is a smart thing for you
(35:37):
to do. It has really goodoutcomes compared to what they have had in
the past, and the actual loadof squatting is much less than the load
on your hips of doing a yokeright, because the body doesn't feel forced,
the body feels changes in acceleration andsorry, the body doesn't feel the
(36:00):
body feels force, and force isa change in acceleration and the weight and
in the in the hip. Whenyou're yoking, you're bashing your foot into
the ground. That's way, way, way harder on the hip than it
is to slowly descend with an eightfifty squad or whatever it may be.
Yeah, so it's a long winedanswer too. Yes, I think you're
doing anything you can do, butif you really want to be functioning optimally,
(36:22):
a replacement is probably good. Show. Well, thank you very much.
It's funny because we always joke Nick'sgot a built in squat soup.
You know what I think of that? How dance his muscles and how tight
his body is. He's like,people need to realize, though, that
your hips didn't get that way fromstrong men. It didn't get that way
(36:44):
from training. The overarching thing aboutdeterioration of joints is genetic, and exercise
clinically has been shown to reduce therisk of soft tissue deterioration. People who
run have higher cartilage turnover, meaningit's protecting degradation compared to people who don't
(37:06):
run. And so we don't havetwo nick bests to say, here's the
one that exercised and had hip aplacement, here's the one who didn't exercise
the perfect But the evidence would saythat you're actually in a better spot now
than you would be if you weren'tsquatting heavy. So no one out there
should be afraid of them moving likelike we do, their parents moving like
we do. Just if you wantto be healthy, just take twenty percent
off of the intensity and that's areally good place to be in. Right
(37:30):
on. Thank you, I reallyappreciate that. Probably weren't expecting to go
to do that today, Thank youvery much. No, I appreciate it
also proves to my point of everythingthat you do, you're so knowledgeable.
You're just a well wealth of knowledge, and that he continues to learn and
(37:53):
continues to grow. So it's neatthat you get to share this stuff with
people. Just got very lucky thatyou just happen to work with my face.
I wanted to kind of it waskind of one of my ways to
show you, to get you tospeak about it that people can see just
how analytical you are and how knowledgeyou are about those things. So it's
(38:14):
just thank you. I appreciate Itsquite it's quite irritating to be honest,
that people can can easily see theupside to relentlessly assessing and calculating. And
but there's a part to it,or your brain just doesn't shut off and
there's always things spinning and I'm alwaysgoogling something and always trying to figure something
out and always reading something. Butthere's another side to it where I am
(38:37):
very calculated, and calculated is acompliment, and it's also an insult because
you don't want you don't want acalculated friends. You don't want to describe
a friend that way. And Ihave to constantly evaluate, like am I
doing this because I'm doing it forgood or because I'm doing it because I
know where it's going to get me? For example, like donating back profit
(39:00):
from Lift Heavy Behind. I cameup with that idea and the origin of
what I was thinking is that let'sget back to the community, and that's
great, but then the outcome ispeople are more likely to support the brand.
And you're like, no, I'mjust I'm just trying to do a
good thing and anyone else that well, fuck, I guess you just have
to accept that that's how life goessometimes. Yeah it is. But you're
(39:21):
doing a good thing. Yeah yeah, And that's at the end of the
day. That's the thing. Andwhether it's calculated or not, good things
are good things. People sit thereand playing calculated bad things all the time.
So I mean, it's you're calculatingto do good thing. That's that
is great. And you know,people are gonna detract from anything just out
(39:43):
of jealousy or whatever all the time, and that's on them, it's not
on you. You're trying to dosomething that's good. So you know,
I appreciate all the giving back andall the things that you're doing to this
sport. And you're one of thefew people that will give credit to people
when you learn things too. Nota lot of the guys that do that
do. You teach a lot ofthese guys things and they won't say anything
about it. You will, Andthat's pretty freaking cool on my part.
(40:06):
I think that's extremely impressive. Sothank you for all that you're doing for
the sport, all that you're doingfor your you know, your wife and
your family and everything else. Itis extremely impressive to see how together it
is, you know, and sothank you you will. I do have
one other question. Other guys cansee that being World Strongest Man is propagated
(40:30):
what I'm doing for sure, Butat the Arnold I was the only athlete
with a booth. At Worlds,I'll be the only athlete with a booth.
At the Arnold UK, I wasthe only athlete with a booth.
And this is just really easy waysto connect with the fans and is going
to help grow our sport, butalso a really easy way for you to
grow a brand if you'd like to. And then as money will come,
sure, but you don't even haveto think about it or talk about it
(40:51):
because you're going for two separate reasons, right. But you're also very giving
as well. I mean, howmany World Strongest Man, how many winners
have gone out and you know setthere at OSG and loaded all those events
and pushed all the all the framesback and picked up all the sandbags and
do all that. There was otherguys there that could have helped, and
(41:15):
they didn't. Yeah you did.I think like I, Like I've said
before, the focus should be onthem, not on me. It should
be why is that common rather thanit's it's particularly special because I don't and
I actually run into this problem alittle bit. I don't see myself as
world's strongest man. I just seemyself as Mitchell Hooper and that was just
a normal guy who just struggles toget his own laundry done and leaves dishes
(41:38):
in the same and like happens tobe incredibly gifted at one thing, And
yeah, I work hard and that'sfine, and that's that's an admirable quality.
Of other qualities that that aren't asadmirable, and I'm working on them,
but we all do. It's it'sfunny. The problem I run into
is since I don't see myself thatway, but other people do, they'll
(42:00):
remember these interactions for that that Idon't think about at all, and it's
like, oh, well you didn't. You didn't talk to me here when
you said this, what did youmean? Or when you you made this
post? And were you like Imade a post? When was it?
It was a post? But beforethe Armed UK I said that I'm not
(42:21):
coming to making appearance, I'm comingto win or something something to that effect,
and then it was like, oh, he's taking shots at Tom I'm
like, no, no, mybest. So it's difficult navigating interpersonal relationship
with people who I don't know verywell, with fans and other competitors in
(42:42):
the sport, because they do valueyour time and your attention and your words
way more than I probably value themfiltering out of my mouth. And so
it's it's been a process of learninghow to behave and that's one of the
things that I do have to workon because I see myself the exact same
as everyone else, and I thinkthat's how I want to be, but
(43:06):
the same way. It runs youinto problems if you don't recognize that some
other people might not see the sameway. Yeah, yeah, it does.
So that leads me to the nextthing. Because you're getting well known,
you're getting things, keep developing,people keep knowing who you are,
You're starting to get more famous.I mean, how does how does that
(43:30):
feel? Because like I walk aroundand got it, I'm just me.
So people come up to me,they say stuff, I'm nice and you
know, thank you take a picturewith them and do all that stuff.
Yeah, it can be a littleoverwhelming at times. How are you?
And you just kind of explained howyou're dealing with a lot of it.
But how are you dealing with that? Because you as you go, it's
(43:51):
going to get more and more andmore. I mean at the Arnold,
I'm sure you couldn't walk anywhere withoutgetting stop every two seconds. I go
to my booth just outside the strongMan Are. I'd go there to just
like change my shirt. I tookone off, put one on, turned
around the lineup of thirty people.Where did you come from? But if
(44:13):
you know me, say people,people who knew knew knew me before I
became who I am today. Nopart of me wants to be famous.
No part of me wants to bethe social media following ego stroke. I
don't care. I don't want that. I've never wanted that. But I
just see too much of an opportunityto do good in the world to not
build that. And so I runmyself into this thing where I'm becoming someone
(44:37):
and with a platform that that forcesme to grow. It makes me,
It makes me uncomfortable. And thebyproduct of that is you do get recognized,
and now I do. I getrecognized virtually everywhere I go by someone
or another, and the there's afew obvious challenges with it, and you
learn things about yourself where I've neverreally considered myself to be someone who gets
(45:00):
overwhelmed. But if I have acrowd of people wanting my attention, I
can't deal. I have to leave. If I've got a line of a
line of people, that's okay,that's better. So for example, like
I won the Arnold US and forwhatever reason, they just allowed everyone on
to the stage and I was like, no, I'm not doing this,
(45:21):
so I left the stage immediately.So you'll see pictures with competitors and fans
and I had to exit. Andthen you run into the problem well,
oh, he thinks he's too goodfor everyone because he left straight away.
But no, I just left togo to my booth so I could deal
with a line rather than a mob. So that's one thing. Another thing
is when you're not If I'm notin a good mood, I just won't
go out in public anymore because Iknow if I get recognized by someone and
(45:44):
I'm in a bad mood, Isort of slough them off that they remember
that and it impacts them and betraining at the gym is becoming more and
more difficult, so I'm finishing upmy basement gym, and now I know
if I really need to focus,that's becoming a basement gym at activity,
and if I want a little bitof social time and hang out a bit
more, I have to accept thatat the gym, these people are going
(46:06):
to come up. The thing thatI've really become comfortable with and have learned
is that you're not going to changepeople's behavior. You're not going to change
how they feel you're not. Don'tpost on Instagram and I never have and
I never will. Don't post like, don't come up to me today,
I don't come up to well I'mtraining. Don't because they want to,
and they they're they're excited, andthat's fine, But you just have to
(46:29):
really control the environment that you're puttingyourself in. Just the same advice.
So I'll give my daughter, like, if if you put yourself in a
scenario, in a situation and abad thing happens because you put yourself in
a place that you wouldn't be comfortable, well, an element of that rests
on you. And so if Igo out and I'm in a place or
at the arm of walking around bymyself, I know that that's going to
(46:52):
get too much, and I knowI'm going to act in a way that
I don't want to, i e. Like ignoring people or head down or
whatever, and that's on me.And I think one of the most powerful
things that we can do as peopleis to take just ultimate responsibility and ownership
over everything. So regardless of whateveranyone says, however I feel whatever it
is, if I can put itonto myself and say I had the capacity
(47:14):
to control that in one way oranother, then I don't feel so bad
about it happening because I know Ican correct that in the future. But
it is bizarre. It's very bizarrefor someone who never set out to be
famous, never wanted to be famous, never wanted to be recognized, had
a difficult time talking to strangers fullstop, to becoming who I am now.
(47:36):
It's a learning process and it's interestingand I really just have two very
distinct circles. I've got the peoplewho I really trust on a day to
day basis, and that's a verysmall set of people. Essentially, it's
my family and the people who workfor me. And then the second layer
is, you know, people whoif I have time and energy, I
have time and energy, and ifI don't, then I don't. I'm
(47:57):
not going to feel bad about that. And that's really that's really it.
I've I've got so many more acquaintancesthan I could ever imagine having over the
past few years, but I haveless people who I would call friends and
now than I did two years ago. And I'm actually incredibly thankful for that,
and I'm quite comfortable with Like,if you've got the biggest party you
could possibly throw, possibly want tothrow, I would have twenty people at
(48:22):
my house, maybe fifteen twenty people, but that's plenty. That's a cap
where like we're yeah, yeah,it's it's it's interesting on how people handle
it, and you handle it witha lot of grace. So that's I
truly, it's pretty much. Theone thing I will say about is there
(48:44):
is just generally rude behavior that peoplejust when they see you as something greater
than a person. To me,it's dehumanizing and I don't appreciate it,
even though they're treating you like you'relike your way up here. For example,
yesterday in the air, I forgetthat the guy has had some sort
of job there. I don't knowif it was TSA or whatever, and
(49:06):
he just like yelled like and I'mlike, don't don't yell at me in
the airport, you know, don'tyell at me. Ever, I've never
pat you. You're not cheering fromyour show drawing a bunch of attention to
me. Then there's a whole likeit's just bizarre. And that's that's the
stuff where I'm like, what doyou do? It's gonna get you surrounded.
Yeah, just leave it alone andjust come up and say a quick
(49:30):
hello or something. But yeah,anyway, it's I will never forget that
I'm sitting in the house I am, and I drive the car I do,
and I have the investments I doand the business I do because of
these people. And I will neverfail to acknowledge that. And that's why
I will be out and available tothe public more than any other competitor.
I will make myself more available.I will take all of the pictures,
(49:52):
I will sign all of the autographs, everything I possibly can do to reciprocate
in some small way with the ironicthing being, like I said before,
that is just going to snowball ontoitself. And I do recognize that,
and I know that, but theroot of it is that I just want
I just want the sport to betaken care of. I want to leave
it in a better place, andI want to leave individuals in a better
(50:13):
place after they speak to me thanbefore. And that's on me to control
when I'm open and ready to dothat and when I'm not well. It's
clear that it's clear that you're doingthat, and I from my from where
I sit, I appreciate that.I appreciate that a lot. It's it's
impressive and it's neat, and Iknow the sport that I love, that
(50:35):
you love, that we all love, is still going to be doing well
and it's going to be even better, and it's going to get better because
of people like you and the waythe way we left it, which I'll
announce right now. I'm going todo OSG nice look this year amazing right
there with them a hold, andyou know I'll be there as well.
(51:04):
I'll be doing my same duties aslast year. So that'll be good to
be able to watch you do yourthing. Yeah, it's I'm pretty excited.
It's why stop doing what I loveto do. I didn't know how
the kidney was going to be Iknow, I know how it's going to
be. I'm coming back. Yougotta get those shoes back, man,
Yeah, we already arranged. Wellthat's amazing. I think it's you bring
(51:32):
a lot to the sport. Youbring a lot of attention, and you
show your vulnerable side more than anyoneI've ever met, which I think,
for for our sport is incredibly valuable. So however long we can keep you
around, then I think the betteroff we are. Thank you. I
appreciate that. Thank you very much. Oh yeah, and Nick, with
(51:54):
that being said, uh, youknow, Mitch, you have lift heavy
beakind but Nick has his own sayingand we usually end the show like that,
Well, is there anything else you'dlike to say before we colling?
Is there anything you want to cover? No, just anyone listening. I'm
(52:15):
incredibly appreciative of all the people whotake the time to listen to what I
have to say. And you know, I take the responsibility probably too seriously
sometimes, so hopefully everyone can seethat my intention is to leave the sport
in a really good spot. AndI get asked the two things I get
asked the most is like, willyou become the greatest of all time?
(52:36):
And when are you retiring. There'slike the two points of interest for people,
And to that, I'll say,I'm just having a blast competing in
the sport right now, and solong as I'm having fun doing it,
I'll be here for the long timeto come. But whenever I do decide
that I'm done, which it won'tbe ten or fifteen years from that,
(52:57):
it's not on the cards for me. But when I do decide that I'm
done, it's impossible for me tosee strong men not being a big part
of my life. That's awesome.Well, thank you so much for taking
the time. I know you've gota lot going on and I really appreciate
it. And everybody out there isalways trained, hard trains be the best
you can be. Man good bybyyou're listening to the best experience would make best
You're listening to the best experience withNick Best. All right, this is
(00:40):
the best experience with your host,Nick Best and the Angry Dad. And
before we get in today's podcast,we'd like to thank our podcast sponsors.
Barbell Apparel, a premium athletic whereengineered for performance with a tailored athletic fit,
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company owned by Brian Shaw, fourtime World Strongest Man and strongest man on
Earth. Believe in all athletes andsupporting their journey towards greatness. Ice Up
(01:03):
Industry some of the best cold plungescold bass you can get on the market,
and you can get fifty dollars offwith code best at checkout at ice
up industries dot com. Please useour links. We really appreciate it and
thank you so much. And withthat, ladies and jentleen, we're here
with Mitchell Hooper World strongest Man twotimes, Arnold and Arnold UK, and
(01:26):
a whole bunch of other stuff thatI can't even keep track of it.
Let me be kind, you know, no stunt unturned. I mean,
there's how do you find fine forhusband and fathers. Well, and congratulations
(01:49):
by the way, thanks you absolutelyamazing. Well, they don't know what
I start with all that the timethat it's interesting, Yeah, it's I
always feel like there's there's this,there's bullseye that I do with people who
work for me. And in themiddle is minus one in a stage in
your life where you're going backwards slightly, which is actually okay for periods of
(02:12):
time. Then outside of that youhave plus one. I just don't believe
in state nation, and plus onewould mean that you're you're progressing steadily,
and plus two is sort of likethis temporary idea of you could push really
hard to excel, but at somestage you're going to burn out. And
I have no idea how I haven'tburnt out from being in what what I
call plus two or plus three forso long. But yeah, thankfully I
(02:36):
have really good people around me.I have a bunch of people who work
for me, who take care ofvarious things to make sure that they're taking
along. But I always joke thatmy life is mostly going from when someone's
on shift and I'm working with them, and then they're off shift and I
just go work with whoever's on shiftnext, and it's a it's a constant
struggle, but you have to realizeand recognize that one day you won't be
(02:59):
the strong youngest man in the world, and you're going to have to create
something that has some sort of lastingeffect after you're done with the sport.
And that's really my primary concern becausefinancially I'll be fine. I know that,
and I know that I could dothings with just take care of myself,
but I have people who work forme, and when I'm done the
sport as strong man, there's noway that I could turn around and just
(03:19):
tell them that story. The careeryou thought you had doesn't exist anymore.
Right, And then it's being adad adds a whole nother layer to the
fold, and it makes you questiona lot of things about your life and
how you choose to spend your timeand what you're doing, because you're a
bad dad if you can't provide,of course, but you're also a bad
dad if you're never present. Andwhere's the balance and where does it shake
(03:43):
out? And I sort of havethis timeline in my head where I'm going
to be much more reasonable with mytravel and my schedule once my daughter has
the capacity to be able to missme and know that I'm not there.
That's my ultimate goal. Yeah,and it won't be long. You know,
she's pretty little right now, whichis awesome. I mean they grow
(04:04):
so quick. Yeah, they growfast. It's no neat when you're sitting
there holding and they fall asleep andall the other stuff. But it won't
be long until you know, shestarts popping that mom dad out there.
It's a neat feeling, it reallyis. She's going to be at the
World's Strongest Man. We'll see howthat goes. But hopefully she travels well
(04:28):
and then the solution to being awayis that she just comes with me places,
right, But there's every possibility thatshe doesn't like to travel in competition
environment. In reality, if youbring a baby along, it's for you,
not for them. The baby doesn'tcare about the show. Even a
child doesn't care for the show.They want to go play on the playground
that's over there. And yes,I started my strong man career when Dylan
(04:51):
was about five. Yeah, andyeah, he was an America's Strongest Man
in two thousand and six. Hewas writing his scooter along the inside of
the competition, just playing around andcutting across them in front of everything.
So yeah, they when they getthere, they just want to play and
(05:11):
have fun. It's still great memories. It's the ultimate humbling experience, isn't
it It is. It's truly absolutelygreat to keep thinking. Oh yeah,
definitely with all the endeavors that you'regoing through right now, and you're because
like it's so impressive, because likeI said, it's your schedule's got to
be like I have you like amadman. But it's like every time you
(05:33):
turn around, it's something new,you know what I'm saying. And with
your team and what you guys areworking with, you guys are just constantly
coming up with new ideas. Ican only imagine the business meetings and the
partner meetings you guys are having withthese guys every day. Yeah, there's
a lot of moving parts, butit's it's turning into i'd say medium sized
business depending on your definition. Butthere's six of us now who are working
(05:59):
full time on that the online businessside, and a part of it is
serious business. That's you know,in the end, you run business for
profit and for money and for opportunityand everything. But it's equally six people
of similar age, who half ofus were friends beforehand, and it's a
privilege to be able to work withthem because more often than not we're laughing
(06:20):
about something or having a good time, especially on the trips. So you
guys seeing me around competition, I'mnot stressed out. I'm mostly bored so
having to say, a ping pongtournament the morning of the Arnold, but
that's the stuff that I need Andin the end I like to think about,
you know, I have to bethe face of the brands. But
(06:41):
the sooner that I cannot become theface of the brand, and the better
off we are because then we havea business that's irrespective of me competing or
not. So I try to doeverything I cannot to make myself the sense
of attention because that ultimately gets prettyold, and I hope just to migrate
towards business owner more than the personwho it lives and die with. Sure,
(07:02):
smart Jens. That's a conversation meand Nick have all the time because
like we always constantly like, youknow, not to stroke the ego,
but it's like every time we turnaround, like what is he not doing
and what is he not thinking about? As you're competing and as you're doing
these things, because it's like it'sinsane, because like every time we turn
(07:23):
around, it's like there's no chinkin the armor for you. Every time
we turn around, it's like you'reimproving, you're constantly evolving, and you're
just constantly growing with this sport andwith everything going on. It's just it
blows our mind all the time.I think it is important to recognize though,
that outwardly it seems like all theboxes are being ticked and there's no
(07:45):
chink in the armor. But thereare days where I'm my own chink in
the armor, and I have ahard time getting stuff done, and I'm
quite hard on myself, and thedays that things aren't going well, it's
not it's not that I don't goto work, it's that I can't up
working and I sacrifice things that onpaper are more valuable to me, and
I get my priorities a little bitmixed up, and my blood pressure is
(08:11):
too high because I'm stressed from allthe things that are going on, and
you know, I am sacrificing alevel of athletic ability because I am off
doing things so much, which partof surprising myself at the arnold is that
I did not have a perfect lifescenario. I had a baby who was
(08:31):
two and a half weeks old,and you guys know how that goes.
Yeah, over these obstacles, andI'm sort of hedging my bet. So
how many obstacles can I put inmy own way and still be good given
that the obstacles are building something productiveover the long run. Yeah, Yeah,
Well, I think you're showing theworld just how many obstacles you can
(08:52):
put it in your own Yeah.You know, hopefully people can see that
there is a part of it thatyour first focus, your first circle has
to be you and your family andtaking care of them. Your second has
to be family and friends. ButI hope that people can see that all
of the work I'm doing should benefitstrong Man as a whole in the future.
(09:15):
And it's getting exposed to new audiences, and it's getting exposed in a
way where you know, I don'toutwardly look hugely unhealthy or hugely unattainable.
Even though I'm six foot three threetwenty people are surprised that I'm not heavy
who aren't in the sport and Ican run around a little bit, and
I can do a CrossFit workout verypoorly, and I think hopefully over time
(09:37):
people can see that and feel asthough they can participate in the sport,
which is the ethos of the clothingbrand as well, is that it is
actually a really kind, welcoming environment. The whole heavy be kind thing is
not a declaration of who I am, because I'm not the kindest person all
the time. I could be aright asshole like the rest of us.
It's what I saw in the sport, and I saw how it actually was
(10:01):
and the bravado that it purports tobe, and I thought, let's let's
put the kindness forward first, andthen maybe someone who's not confident, not
comfortable, they're going to be thefirst ones back in the gym. Yeah,
and that's the thing too. Butlike like I said, I'm new
into the culture myself, because likeI came from bodybuilding and you know,
(10:22):
working with Nick and seeing strong manand being a strong man. It's just
I remember the first time I metyou, you were literally sitting there with
your girlfriend at the time, eatingand you were just talking about the numbers
you were running. And I'm sittingthere with Gavid and Sean or Chain and
we were just having a great conversationin Sacramento, and I was just like,
who is this kid, Like justand you were just talking about like
(10:46):
your your your trading numbers. I'mjust like, that's ridiculous. That's trade,
that's not competition. And then whenNick was doing another podcast he came
back and I was like, dude, we gotta keep an eye on this
guy because it's just the way you'retalking. Was like I could see the
glow, the image, the energy, everything coming from you as we were
just having this great conversation during whileyou were just eating real quick. It
(11:09):
was like, right, I thinksecond day of qualifications. It was just
like I said, it was justI could see it in you then.
And then I even talked to youlater that day because we got you on
our other podcast, Religions of Iron, and I was just like, man,
this kid's coming up quick. Andnow just like turn around to literally
the second year you just take it. This is like what the hell?
(11:33):
Yeah, it's logically I can getthere, and logically I can tell you
how anybody. Emotionally, I feellike I'm going to wake up tomorrow and
realize that I got hit in thehead in two and a half years ago.
That's really you can't. You can'ttell me a person who's I've been
(11:54):
so fortunate in the sport to comealong at a time where the style of
events suit and to come along ata time where the prize money is what
it is and the opportunity in sucha growing field is where it is.
And to be honest, it's anextension of my life. I might be
the world's strongest man, but Ithink I'm the world's luckiest man as well,
because this ten years ago. IfI came along, like, even
(12:16):
if I was as good as Iam now, you probably you'd still make
a living. But how good Andin ten years time, when the prize
money is much larger, you're probablygoing to have guys who I wouldn't hold
a candle to come along. SoI think, yeah, I'm just I'm
in an incredibly lucky time and Ifeel a big responsibility to make sure that
I'm giving back. But you know, every time someone says I can't imagine,
(12:41):
it blows my mind how fast you'vecome up, and blows my mind
what you're doing, I just say, imagine being me, and it blows
my mind too. And I thinka lesson for anyone listening to it is
I didn't know what I was capableof at all, and many many times
along the way I was surprising myself. But I'll never allow my logical thoughts
(13:03):
to stop myself from doing what I'mactually capable of. For example, when
I went to pull the four hundredand seventy five kilo deadlift, I right
before I said, I probably won'tget this. I think there's a thirty
percent chance, twenty five percent chance, but I'm gonna give a help.
And I think a lot of peopleget in their own way where if they
think there's a twenty percent chance ofgetting something, that should make you try
(13:26):
five times harder. But some peoplewill be a little bit dejected by that
and feel like, well, there'sno way I'm that good, And logically
I go, well, I am, but emotionally many times have gone there's
no way I'm that good. It'sonly been recently, after thirteen fourteen podiums
in a row that have gone like, you know what, this shit is
not a coincidence, it's not it'snough fluid not so yeah. I think
(13:52):
that's a really valuable takeaway for peopleout there. I think you can do
a hell of a lot more thanyou think you can if you just get
out your own way, agreed,And that's that's that's a good solid growth
thing and piece of advice that youhave out there is people do get in
their own ways. We all do. It's to some degree. And it's
(14:13):
it's really neat to hear you saythat, because that's going to inspire a
whole lot of people to think differentlyabout how they approach things, and that's
going to change the game even moreas time goes on. And I was
back I was back there though tenfifteen years ago. I tell you,
right, you would have cleaned housethen too. I really would have.
(14:35):
I mean, because I mean beingthere at the end of Marius and seeing
the athlete that he was. He'sstill he's he was unbelievably good, but
it's still not at that level.I was there when Derek was at his
peak, you know, so,Droness Brian, I've seen it, and
(15:01):
athletically and just with the events,there's nothing put in your way. You're
not going to be in the topthree and that I've seen moving forwards,
there's nothing they're going to have tothere's no way to design something that you're
not going to figure out and functionunbelievably well at because you're that good,
(15:24):
your disciplines that good, your mentalcapability is more than I've ever seen it.
Figuring things out, knowing how thebody works, knowing how to you
know, execute the lift or whateverit is, and then recover from it.
And the stuff you're talking about withthe nervous system, the blood flow
restriction and stuff like that. I'mlooking at that stuff going, oh wow,
(15:48):
I'm learning new stuff. I neverthought about the blood flow restriction stuff
that you're doing that and I thinkthat's absolutely amazing. And now watching much
more of that to get more ideasstuff like that. So it's neat to
see how you're progressing, and thenhow you're taking the knowledge you have of
recovery and helping people with that andmoving it on to the next level.
(16:11):
It's just going to make everybody better. It's going to leave it lasting,
a lasting thing on this sport thatyou're going to change it. You realize
that, right, you're going tochange the way everything's done. Five ten
years from now, the way you'redoing things now, guys will be doing
it that way. And you're inthe ability to pick up on things.
(16:33):
I mean, watching you learn howto do the jerk was outrageous. I
mean it really was. It's justlike, oh God, oh wow,
Now he's just going to pop themup over there. It's you're right,
the actual record is in jeopardy rightnow because you're the guy that's gonna be
able to clean it and pop itup over your head. Yeah, I's
(16:56):
two or six kila. I didthat a couple of days ago, and
that was a little bit on awhim. That's the first my PB actually
cleanup press was one eighty because I'venever had to go higher than that four
hundred pounds for the opponents with andthat folk clip is actually like I tried
to do it the first time howI normally do, which is flipping my
hand mid air, and I discoveredvery quickly at heavier weight, you can't
(17:19):
like catch it that way, andso then I dropped it and took about
three seconds and then went and didit again. I could have brought the
world record two days ago, SoI think his hand time that'll be a
dangerous events for sure. Yeah,it's like I can't wait, I really
(17:40):
can't. It's gonna be fun,and then I mean the prep coming up
for the next four or five weeksand all the stuff that that's going through.
Because worlds doesn't necessarily give you exactweights and distances and stuff like this.
It's kind of like, well,you have a truck poll well or
vehicle pole, you have this,you have that, So it's very nondescriptive.
(18:03):
So it's kind of neat because youcan come in and adapt to things
very quickly. And then you'll comeup and ask people questions too, which
is one of the most impressive thingsas well. You'll just ask what do
you think? And yeah, that'spretty cool. I think you can never
get too big about yourself that thereare people at OSG. There's amateurs who
(18:25):
could teach me something. For sure. There are amateurs who've been in the
sport for ten years and I haven'tbeen in the sport for ten years.
There's something to be learned. ButI've come across a pretty consistent pattern where
people talk and I think it's naturalfor all of us to obsess over like
what is the last five percent thatyou're doing to get the edge. But
(18:45):
I've come across a pattern with alot of high level guys top top five,
top ten in the world, guyswhere they'll do all of their extra
all of their five percent. Butit still comes down to something as basic
as I have never ever ever leftthe gym before my program is over.
I have never ever missed a dayat the gym. That consistency is something
(19:07):
that even the guys at the top, it's not happening like you think it
is. They will take a dayoff because they're tired, They will leave
the gym early because they got pissed, because they missed a lift, or
because they're hungry, or because whatever. And I think it's funny how many
parallels there are between being a toplevel athlete in the world and just trying
to generally be healthy. That thefundamental of that is that you have to
(19:30):
put in a very good effort everysingle day, and it doesn't have to
be unreal. But I think that'sthe real edge that I have, is
that training for me is never anegotiation. Sometimes it's not perfect, sometimes
it's not the right implement, butpeople will talk about how I use it.
I used a shitty fingles finger,but I did every fucking session on
that finger. I hit every singlething I was trying to do, and
(19:51):
you might have had a perfect finger, but you only put in seventy five
percent of the work on it.You skip a couple of sessions. That's
still the stuff that I believe makesthe most difference. And then all these
extras, the blood blow, restriction, the nostone and turned all that is
genuinely as much fun personal experiments andsocial media content as it is actually trying
to make myself better. I thinkall of those things have just really started
(20:12):
to align, and I will bebetter at World Strongest Man than I was
at the Arnold, and I thinkthat's a dangerous prospect for everyone else.
Yeah, and you're really dangerous atboth of those Arnolds. Yeah, Yeah,
I think going in you're the handsdown favorite this year. I mean,
there's no questions asked. The momentum. It's fun with the momentum and
(20:36):
just the things that you're doing,but also in your process and the way
you do things. I don't there'sguys that are out there working hard,
but I don't think there's people outthere working smarter and harder at the same
time getting the most out of everythingthat they're doing. You're the most calculated
person I've ever seen it die,and that's that's the same because I've seen
I've seen some I've seen some liftersof my day and some competitors, some
(21:00):
strong man guys, some power littersand stuff like that. And the absolute
approach that you go to these thingsthat are the most cerebral that I've ever
seen. Like I said, alot of the stuff that you've managed to
do, it's going to change theway things are going for the next ten
to fifteen twenty years. Really,It's quite funny because I think a large
part of that is I didn't comeup in strong man. I was never
(21:21):
indoctrinated the way that most people are, and so I've sort of found my
own way to do everything and realizethat I'm not normal afterwards, which is
sort of a euphemism for my life, and just discovering that I'm not normal
at certain as the title of thisepisode not normal, well, we just
got the episode title say something likethat. The Arnold UK, we're doing
(21:45):
a farmer's for distance. There's achalk pool at the at each end right
and to me it's like chalk isthat is fifty percent of your grip,
but it is as important as havingstrong grip is how talcked up can you
get your hands? So to me, it's just like I'm not even thinking
about I need to put chalk allthe way along the way, and then
(22:06):
of course I need to chalk upmy hands. With fifteen seconds left,
I couldn't have run to the chalkbowl. I wouldn't have won the event
if I didn't put chalk down everywhere. But I don't really pay attention to
what other guys are doing in termsof their tactics and strategy. Only after
do I realize that no one elsedid anything like that, And it's just
baffling to me. And I hopethat more guys start to think that way.
And I think it's gonna change thesport in one of two ways.
(22:30):
I think it's either going to becomea little bit more meticulous and taking care
of all of those little things,or promoters are going to have to change
the rules so that guys don't havea two minute time limit stand and stare
at a log for forty five secondsbefore they do another rep, because I
recognize that that's not interesting to watch. But you also have to take advantage
of every single rule afforded to it, and I don't know which go to
(22:55):
be honest, so over time Iguess we'll find out. But it's certainly
fun to hopefully be pushing the sportin a more positive direction, oh much
much more positive. Plus you're doingit in a healthy way, or it's
a sustainable way where you're not goingto You're going to be done when you
want to be done. You're notgoing to come into where you're having a
(23:21):
health issue and you have to stopand you have to back off. You're
going through it the right way.And if you want to do this ten
fifteen years, you're going to behere. If you want to do this
five more years, you're going tobe here. You're going to be able
to stop when you want to stop, not because you have to stop.
And that's probably one of the mostimpressive things as well, is you're doing
(23:41):
everything in a sustainable way. Yeah. Well, I do feel healthy,
and I just got I was inNashville for a couple of days getting some
blood work done and making sure thatthat site's taken care of, and I
think genuinely monitoring my health and beingcognizant that there are things that are doing
that are not good for your health. Yeah, there's a supplementation side to
(24:03):
that, which I think is talkedabout too much in terms of how much
that affects your health. But there'sthe reality of being three hundred and twenty
five pounds and that's not good foryou. In my last note, Soon
and Serenata I talked about BMI asa thing, and I think it's a
really triggering thing for people in thesport to be told that you are obese
and that means something that's not agood thing. You tend do things to
(24:26):
make it less harmful, for sure, like exercising regular great. It's combating
that eating a healthy diet is greatand good. It combats that all of
these things count. And for me, I know what being heavy puts on
your body. I know what theacute spikes and blood pressure due to your
heart over time. And you're justnaive or dumb if you don't think that
(24:51):
it's going to have really long lastingeffects, which is why I won't go
above three twenty five three thirty.I just won't do it if that loses
me the world's title. Okay,the good on the guy who's going the
extra mile. But on the flipside, I think taking care of your
health and you sleep a little bitbetter, you recover a little bit better,
you move much better, and itprobably helps you in the sport more
than it harms you. So hopefullythat's another legacy that I can leave behind,
(25:15):
is that caring about your health andyour body is introgral to perform at
the top level. No, it'sthe same thing. I never wanted to
get above three twenty three, twentyfive, three twenty two as the heaviest
I have ever been, So Iget it, I mean one hundred percent.
I mean yeah. And the thingis is you have the ability to
(25:40):
still stand with everyone on the staticevents. And that's that's what. If
you already have that ability, whydo you need to be heavy. If
you can do it, you doit, and you can, so there's
no reason to take yourself that muchfurther when there's the risk. Reward is
not there absolutely, So you know, it's it's just fun. Plus it's
(26:03):
fun to see me and catching upwith you too. Yeah. When did
they let you out of those handcuffsby the way, the handcuffs, Yeah,
yeah, a couple of minutes.I sweet talked to him, I
said, do you know who Iam, and then that's awesome. So
(26:30):
we're who gets into strong men.The alverage person who gets into strong man
is not someone who like and notto say that no one in the sport
has lots of friends before they getin, but more often than not,
we're sort of outcast. We sortof don't get along with a huge number
of people for whatever reason, maybebecause you're abrasive, or maybe because you're
shy, or maybe lack self confidenceor something. We all get into the
(26:52):
sport because we're a little bit brokenin some way, and I think I
came into it a little bit differentthan other people, but I very much
still resonate with that message and saysomething like stupid like that, like the
laughs in and around that and havingother people see us just fucking about and
seeing that, Okay, it's notas serious as people might think it is,
and hopefully it adds a layer ofenjoyment because I think I think not
(27:17):
enough people in the sport are havingfun. And that's why I value having
fun in and around strong men somuch, because that's what it started as.
No one gets into it and saysthis is going to be my living
well, and the people who doare like daft, you should not ever,
ever ever have that. This shouldbe the cherry on up. But
that then just again drops the barrier. People people realize that they should be
(27:40):
having fun, and if you're nothaving fun, go do something else,
because even if you become a pro, you make whatever money you make,
if you're not having fun, it'sjust a waste of time anyway. Anyway,
Yeah, that's that's I couldn't agreemore. It's just so some of
the stuff, where do you comeup with these ideas though I means something
(28:00):
stuff, I just watch it andI'm just like, It'll be ten twenty
minutes before I stop laughing about it. They're like, what's so funny?
I'll show people the video. They'rejust like, oh shit. I'm like,
if you're not, go follow them. So but I mean, it's
just just funny some of the stuff. The girl the way, how much
do you weigh? One thirty five? Yeah, yeah, that was hilarious.
(28:26):
Some of it is like me andmy team we will just send stuff
to each other and then rip itfrom other people. I would say that's
maybe ten fifteen percent. And thenthis is just it's just my brain.
It's just my childlike brain if youlet that flow a little bit. I
think a lot of men are this. You just let stupid ideas flow for
a bit and then you're gonna comeup with something that makes you laugh,
(28:47):
and it makes you laugh, itprobably makes someone else laugh as well.
My favorite one was the the buttplug video. It like, yeah,
people talk about the squat plug allthe time as a joke, and like
you just apply that to something that'slike part of a social media trend,
(29:08):
and like that's the recipe to justpop off. And the funniest thing is
whenever I'm making these videos of allof the things that I do and all
of the businesses that I run,since they all are downstream from the marketing
that I do through social media,for the most part, my dollar return
per time, I think is higherdoing stupid content than it is doing anything
(29:32):
else, because that then people feellike they know me and genuinely that is
me. Like if you spend timearound me, that is who I am.
I love to laugh about things likethat, and then you know,
then it builds a loyal fan base. It grows the fan base because it
can go viral, and yeah,just making sure to have fun in the
process because the days are long,and I'm treating strong men as a as
(29:55):
a sprint until I retire, andthen I'll back things off quite a bit.
Yeah. Nice, that's good.I will say this world's will watch
out. Eddie likes to stick plungerson people's heads. I'll pay attention to
where he said all the time.At least it's good enough to buy a
(30:17):
new plunger. I'll steal a I'llsteal a yamaka from one of my Jewish
friends, and that'll be my protection. Oh man, that's that's freaking awesome.
I'm like so excited for this world, dude, I cannot wait to
go. It's already stacked. Butyeah, oh my gosh, I'm just
(30:41):
sitting here just laughing. So uhhips h. Then, So now I'm
gonna sit here and pick your brainso you know how bad the rotation of
my hips are? Correct? Yeah, yeah, you're locked in now.
If you look at the little smileon his face right now, it tells
(31:04):
you just how kind of nasty theyare. What other things would in your
opinion, do you think I shouldbe doing to increase that range of motion,
because I'm already doing quite a bitof stuff. It's getting a little
better. I can I'm getting downto depth now. It's painful, but
(31:26):
I'm getting down to depth. Yeah, And I'm starting to be able to
wiggle under the deadlift bargain. AndI'm starting to get back to pulling decent
at data as well. Sure,is there anything other than replacing them,
which you recommended? Yeah, anythingelse I should be doing. Look in
(31:51):
terms of me recommending replacing them,that's just what I think would get them
the best. It's not any sortof medical advice. But let's just talk
first about if you are experiencing andI think a lot of people do that
restriction of motion, and the hipsyou have to you have to identify is
that because of a limitation in youractive range of motion or your passive range
(32:14):
of motion? Active range of motionmeaning is it your muscles inhibiting you from
getting to a spot. And that'ssomething that can be adjusted for sure.
If it's If it's passive, thenit's it's your soft tissues. Now,
let's talk about soft tissues for asecond. When you're when you're older,
what are the two things that neverstop growing? And the reason that the
(32:45):
nose and ears continuously grow is becausecartilage never stops growing as we get older,
and in a lot of ways,our soft tissues continue to grow unless
they're stimulated in a way for themnot to. So, for example,
your introvertable discs where are not sayingas soft tissue per se, but they
won't grow because we constantly have thatpressure on them, the same way that
(33:06):
an ex gymnast will be able todo the splits for fifteen years after they're
done, because we do retain thatadaptation. But the cartilage in your hips
continues to grow forever as well.And if we think about how a baby
can squat, a baby can squatthe way they do because they have so
little that their astabulum, which iswhere the femur sits, it's so shallow
(33:27):
that they have a heaps range ofmotion. Their head is also disproportionately heavy
to their bodies, so they canbalance in this really nice upward position.
Sometimes just see on social media thathow good it is and how broken adult
bodies are because we can't do that. We're not meant to be able to
do that, first of all.But in your case, that carlage continues
to grow and grow and grow andgrow well at a certain stage, it's
going to grow over the head ofyour femur so much that you just hit
(33:51):
this end point. And when youhit that end point, the only thing
that could happen is you round yourlow back and your pelvis rotates out of
your hip, or you abduct yourknee as in that you shoot it out
to the side in that only planethat your hips are allowed to go.
So your physical therapy, you rehab, your stretching, all of that is
(34:13):
going to expose as much after rangeas you can, but it's never going
to fix your passive range, andso you do have a very low ceiling
on your ability to be able toincrease the range in your hips. That
being said, the things that you'redoing are exactly what you should be doing
to not lose any more range.If you're squatting to full depth, you're
not going to allow the cartletge togrow over the hip. If you're trying
(34:34):
to get down into deadlifting, you'regoing to improve in small ways, whether
that's figuring out how to do itor just retaining that range in your hips.
The thing that's most important is theday that you stop trying to do
that. If you just said thatI'm going to take six months off from
squatting. I promise you you're nevergoing to be able to squat to depth
again because that cartlage is going togrow back over and now you've lost your
(34:55):
range and now you're in big trouble. And I say this because I've actually
like grabbed your hips and I've movedyour leg and you can feel the difference
between like this is something that couldbe stretched or just like there's a hard
block. You know, when you'restretching something, you know, hard block
or softball, you're stretching hamstrings.If someone says I'm done, you could
(35:16):
give a little bit extra. There'sa little bit of movement there. When
I take your hips into flexion,it's just like boom and out to the
side, like straight away. You'relike you try to push it in and
you're like, it's like beating tworocks together. That's never gonna happen.
That's why I say replacements is somethingthat probably is a smart thing for you
(35:37):
to do. It has really goodoutcomes compared to what they have had in
the past, and the actual loadof squatting is much less than the load
on your hips of doing a yokeright, because the body doesn't feel forced,
the body feels changes in acceleration andsorry, the body doesn't feel the
(36:00):
body feels force, and force isa change in acceleration and the weight and
in the in the hip. Whenyou're yoking, you're bashing your foot into
the ground. That's way, way, way harder on the hip than it
is to slowly descend with an eightfifty squad or whatever it may be.
Yeah, so it's a long winedanswer too. Yes, I think you're
doing anything you can do, butif you really want to be functioning optimally,
(36:22):
a replacement is probably good. Show. Well, thank you very much.
It's funny because we always joke Nick'sgot a built in squat soup.
You know what I think of that? How dance his muscles and how tight
his body is. He's like,people need to realize, though, that
your hips didn't get that way fromstrong men. It didn't get that way
(36:44):
from training. The overarching thing aboutdeterioration of joints is genetic, and exercise
clinically has been shown to reduce therisk of soft tissue deterioration. People who
run have higher cartilage turnover, meaningit's protecting degradation compared to people who don't
(37:06):
run. And so we don't havetwo nick bests to say, here's the
one that exercised and had hip aplacement, here's the one who didn't exercise
the perfect But the evidence would saythat you're actually in a better spot now
than you would be if you weren'tsquatting heavy. So no one out there
should be afraid of them moving likelike we do, their parents moving like
we do. Just if you wantto be healthy, just take twenty percent
off of the intensity and that's areally good place to be in. Right
(37:30):
on. Thank you, I reallyappreciate that. Probably weren't expecting to go
to do that today, Thank youvery much. No, I appreciate it
also proves to my point of everythingthat you do, you're so knowledgeable.
You're just a well wealth of knowledge, and that he continues to learn and
(37:53):
continues to grow. So it's neatthat you get to share this stuff with
people. Just got very lucky thatyou just happen to work with my face.
I wanted to kind of it waskind of one of my ways to
show you, to get you tospeak about it that people can see just
how analytical you are and how knowledgeyou are about those things. So it's
(38:14):
just thank you. I appreciate Itsquite it's quite irritating to be honest,
that people can can easily see theupside to relentlessly assessing and calculating. And
but there's a part to it,or your brain just doesn't shut off and
there's always things spinning and I'm alwaysgoogling something and always trying to figure something
out and always reading something. Butthere's another side to it where I am
(38:37):
very calculated, and calculated is acompliment, and it's also an insult because
you don't want you don't want acalculated friends. You don't want to describe
a friend that way. And Ihave to constantly evaluate, like am I
doing this because I'm doing it forgood or because I'm doing it because I
know where it's going to get me? For example, like donating back profit
(39:00):
from Lift Heavy Behind. I cameup with that idea and the origin of
what I was thinking is that let'sget back to the community, and that's
great, but then the outcome ispeople are more likely to support the brand.
And you're like, no, I'mjust I'm just trying to do a
good thing and anyone else that well, fuck, I guess you just have
to accept that that's how life goessometimes. Yeah it is. But you're
(39:21):
doing a good thing. Yeah yeah, And that's at the end of the
day. That's the thing. Andwhether it's calculated or not, good things
are good things. People sit thereand playing calculated bad things all the time.
So I mean, it's you're calculatingto do good thing. That's that
is great. And you know,people are gonna detract from anything just out
(39:43):
of jealousy or whatever all the time, and that's on them, it's not
on you. You're trying to dosomething that's good. So you know,
I appreciate all the giving back andall the things that you're doing to this
sport. And you're one of thefew people that will give credit to people
when you learn things too. Nota lot of the guys that do that
do. You teach a lot ofthese guys things and they won't say anything
about it. You will, Andthat's pretty freaking cool on my part.
(40:06):
I think that's extremely impressive. Sothank you for all that you're doing for
the sport, all that you're doingfor your you know, your wife and
your family and everything else. Itis extremely impressive to see how together it
is, you know, and sothank you you will. I do have
one other question. Other guys cansee that being World Strongest Man is propagated
(40:30):
what I'm doing for sure, Butat the Arnold I was the only athlete
with a booth. At Worlds,I'll be the only athlete with a booth.
At the Arnold UK, I wasthe only athlete with a booth.
And this is just really easy waysto connect with the fans and is going
to help grow our sport, butalso a really easy way for you to
grow a brand if you'd like to. And then as money will come,
sure, but you don't even haveto think about it or talk about it
(40:51):
because you're going for two separate reasons, right. But you're also very giving
as well. I mean, howmany World Strongest Man, how many winners
have gone out and you know setthere at OSG and loaded all those events
and pushed all the all the framesback and picked up all the sandbags and
do all that. There was otherguys there that could have helped, and
(41:15):
they didn't. Yeah you did.I think like I, Like I've said
before, the focus should be onthem, not on me. It should
be why is that common rather thanit's it's particularly special because I don't and
I actually run into this problem alittle bit. I don't see myself as
world's strongest man. I just seemyself as Mitchell Hooper and that was just
a normal guy who just struggles toget his own laundry done and leaves dishes
(41:38):
in the same and like happens tobe incredibly gifted at one thing, And
yeah, I work hard and that'sfine, and that's that's an admirable quality.
Of other qualities that that aren't asadmirable, and I'm working on them,
but we all do. It's it'sfunny. The problem I run into
is since I don't see myself thatway, but other people do, they'll
(42:00):
remember these interactions for that that Idon't think about at all, and it's
like, oh, well you didn't. You didn't talk to me here when
you said this, what did youmean? Or when you you made this
post? And were you like Imade a post? When was it?
It was a post? But beforethe Armed UK I said that I'm not
(42:21):
coming to making appearance, I'm comingto win or something something to that effect,
and then it was like, oh, he's taking shots at Tom I'm
like, no, no, mybest. So it's difficult navigating interpersonal relationship
with people who I don't know verywell, with fans and other competitors in
(42:42):
the sport, because they do valueyour time and your attention and your words
way more than I probably value themfiltering out of my mouth. And so
it's it's been a process of learninghow to behave and that's one of the
things that I do have to workon because I see myself the exact same
as everyone else, and I thinkthat's how I want to be, but
(43:06):
the same way. It runs youinto problems if you don't recognize that some
other people might not see the sameway. Yeah, yeah, it does.
So that leads me to the nextthing. Because you're getting well known,
you're getting things, keep developing,people keep knowing who you are,
You're starting to get more famous.I mean, how does how does that
(43:30):
feel? Because like I walk aroundand got it, I'm just me.
So people come up to me,they say stuff, I'm nice and you
know, thank you take a picturewith them and do all that stuff.
Yeah, it can be a littleoverwhelming at times. How are you?
And you just kind of explained howyou're dealing with a lot of it.
But how are you dealing with that? Because you as you go, it's
(43:51):
going to get more and more andmore. I mean at the Arnold,
I'm sure you couldn't walk anywhere withoutgetting stop every two seconds. I go
to my booth just outside the strongMan Are. I'd go there to just
like change my shirt. I tookone off, put one on, turned
around the lineup of thirty people.Where did you come from? But if
(44:13):
you know me, say people,people who knew knew knew me before I
became who I am today. Nopart of me wants to be famous.
No part of me wants to bethe social media following ego stroke. I
don't care. I don't want that. I've never wanted that. But I
just see too much of an opportunityto do good in the world to not
build that. And so I runmyself into this thing where I'm becoming someone
(44:37):
and with a platform that that forcesme to grow. It makes me,
It makes me uncomfortable. And thebyproduct of that is you do get recognized,
and now I do. I getrecognized virtually everywhere I go by someone
or another, and the there's afew obvious challenges with it, and you
learn things about yourself where I've neverreally considered myself to be someone who gets
(45:00):
overwhelmed. But if I have acrowd of people wanting my attention, I
can't deal. I have to leave. If I've got a line of a
line of people, that's okay,that's better. So for example, like
I won the Arnold US and forwhatever reason, they just allowed everyone on
to the stage and I was like, no, I'm not doing this,
(45:21):
so I left the stage immediately.So you'll see pictures with competitors and fans
and I had to exit. Andthen you run into the problem well,
oh, he thinks he's too goodfor everyone because he left straight away.
But no, I just left togo to my booth so I could deal
with a line rather than a mob. So that's one thing. Another thing
is when you're not If I'm notin a good mood, I just won't
go out in public anymore because Iknow if I get recognized by someone and
(45:44):
I'm in a bad mood, Isort of slough them off that they remember
that and it impacts them and betraining at the gym is becoming more and
more difficult, so I'm finishing upmy basement gym, and now I know
if I really need to focus,that's becoming a basement gym at activity,
and if I want a little bitof social time and hang out a bit
more, I have to accept thatat the gym, these people are going
(46:06):
to come up. The thing thatI've really become comfortable with and have learned
is that you're not going to changepeople's behavior. You're not going to change
how they feel you're not. Don'tpost on Instagram and I never have and
I never will. Don't post like, don't come up to me today,
I don't come up to well I'mtraining. Don't because they want to,
and they they're they're excited, andthat's fine, But you just have to
(46:29):
really control the environment that you're puttingyourself in. Just the same advice.
So I'll give my daughter, like, if if you put yourself in a
scenario, in a situation and abad thing happens because you put yourself in
a place that you wouldn't be comfortable, well, an element of that rests
on you. And so if Igo out and I'm in a place or
at the arm of walking around bymyself, I know that that's going to
(46:52):
get too much, and I knowI'm going to act in a way that
I don't want to, i e. Like ignoring people or head down or
whatever, and that's on me.And I think one of the most powerful
things that we can do as peopleis to take just ultimate responsibility and ownership
over everything. So regardless of whateveranyone says, however I feel whatever it
is, if I can put itonto myself and say I had the capacity
(47:14):
to control that in one way oranother, then I don't feel so bad
about it happening because I know Ican correct that in the future. But
it is bizarre. It's very bizarrefor someone who never set out to be
famous, never wanted to be famous, never wanted to be recognized, had
a difficult time talking to strangers fullstop, to becoming who I am now.
(47:36):
It's a learning process and it's interestingand I really just have two very
distinct circles. I've got the peoplewho I really trust on a day to
day basis, and that's a verysmall set of people. Essentially, it's
my family and the people who workfor me. And then the second layer
is, you know, people whoif I have time and energy, I
have time and energy, and ifI don't, then I don't. I'm
(47:57):
not going to feel bad about that. And that's really that's really it.
I've I've got so many more acquaintancesthan I could ever imagine having over the
past few years, but I haveless people who I would call friends and
now than I did two years ago. And I'm actually incredibly thankful for that,
and I'm quite comfortable with Like,if you've got the biggest party you
could possibly throw, possibly want tothrow, I would have twenty people at
(48:22):
my house, maybe fifteen twenty people, but that's plenty. That's a cap
where like we're yeah, yeah,it's it's it's interesting on how people handle
it, and you handle it witha lot of grace. So that's I
truly, it's pretty much. Theone thing I will say about is there
(48:44):
is just generally rude behavior that peoplejust when they see you as something greater
than a person. To me,it's dehumanizing and I don't appreciate it,
even though they're treating you like you'relike your way up here. For example,
yesterday in the air, I forgetthat the guy has had some sort
of job there. I don't knowif it was TSA or whatever, and
(49:06):
he just like yelled like and I'mlike, don't don't yell at me in
the airport, you know, don'tyell at me. Ever, I've never
pat you. You're not cheering fromyour show drawing a bunch of attention to
me. Then there's a whole likeit's just bizarre. And that's that's the
stuff where I'm like, what doyou do? It's gonna get you surrounded.
Yeah, just leave it alone andjust come up and say a quick
(49:30):
hello or something. But yeah,anyway, it's I will never forget that
I'm sitting in the house I am, and I drive the car I do,
and I have the investments I doand the business I do because of
these people. And I will neverfail to acknowledge that. And that's why
I will be out and available tothe public more than any other competitor.
I will make myself more available.I will take all of the pictures,
(49:52):
I will sign all of the autographs, everything I possibly can do to reciprocate
in some small way with the ironicthing being, like I said before,
that is just going to snowball ontoitself. And I do recognize that,
and I know that, but theroot of it is that I just want
I just want the sport to betaken care of. I want to leave
it in a better place, andI want to leave individuals in a better
(50:13):
place after they speak to me thanbefore. And that's on me to control
when I'm open and ready to dothat and when I'm not well. It's
clear that it's clear that you're doingthat, and I from my from where
I sit, I appreciate that.I appreciate that a lot. It's it's
impressive and it's neat, and Iknow the sport that I love, that
(50:35):
you love, that we all love, is still going to be doing well
and it's going to be even better, and it's going to get better because
of people like you and the waythe way we left it, which I'll
announce right now. I'm going todo OSG nice look this year amazing right
there with them a hold, andyou know I'll be there as well.
(51:04):
I'll be doing my same duties aslast year. So that'll be good to
be able to watch you do yourthing. Yeah, it's I'm pretty excited.
It's why stop doing what I loveto do. I didn't know how
the kidney was going to be Iknow, I know how it's going to
be. I'm coming back. Yougotta get those shoes back, man,
Yeah, we already arranged. Wellthat's amazing. I think it's you bring
(51:32):
a lot to the sport. Youbring a lot of attention, and you
show your vulnerable side more than anyoneI've ever met, which I think,
for for our sport is incredibly valuable. So however long we can keep you
around, then I think the betteroff we are. Thank you. I
appreciate that. Thank you very much. Oh yeah, and Nick, with
(51:54):
that being said, uh, youknow, Mitch, you have lift heavy
beakind but Nick has his own sayingand we usually end the show like that,
Well, is there anything else you'dlike to say before we colling?
Is there anything you want to cover? No, just anyone listening. I'm
(52:15):
incredibly appreciative of all the people whotake the time to listen to what I
have to say. And you know, I take the responsibility probably too seriously
sometimes, so hopefully everyone can seethat my intention is to leave the sport
in a really good spot. AndI get asked the two things I get
asked the most is like, willyou become the greatest of all time?
(52:36):
And when are you retiring. There'slike the two points of interest for people,
And to that, I'll say,I'm just having a blast competing in
the sport right now, and solong as I'm having fun doing it,
I'll be here for the long timeto come. But whenever I do decide
that I'm done, which it won'tbe ten or fifteen years from that,
(52:57):
it's not on the cards for me. But when I do decide that I'm
done, it's impossible for me tosee strong men not being a big part
of my life. That's awesome.Well, thank you so much for taking
the time. I know you've gota lot going on and I really appreciate
it. And everybody out there isalways trained, hard trains be the best
you can be. Man good bybyyou're listening to the best experience would make best
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