Unstoppable Dedication: From Gym Beginnings to Lifelong Fitness

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Where would I be? Who would I have met had
I never walked into a gym?

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Love it, love a die die never die go die
never die die die.

Speaker 3 (00:17):
All right, this is the Angry Dad. Thank you guys
for tuning in. I appreciate it. And before we get
in today's podcast, I think my podcast sponsors every Day
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(00:37):
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it out. That is every Day Fit Life. I appreciate it.
It's getting to today. I have Steve Fushin Man. Let
me tell your him. I met him through Nick Best
and Brian Shaw. And this guy is a powerlifter, bodybuilder,

(01:03):
gym owner and he played football plus strong man and
man he's got some crazy stories. And let me tell
you right now when he told me about getting hit
by the car, snapping your quads and fucking and you're
still training with Brian Shaw. So it's like, you know
that that right there in itself is a lot.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
To some people, it might be to me, it's like expected.
It's like, you gotta there's always more. And I truly
I've been saying that to Brian for eleven years. No
matter when you think you're done, there is always more.
You just got to get after it and get it right.

Speaker 3 (01:40):
That's it.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
And you look at the stuff you've been through.

Speaker 3 (01:43):
Oh yeah, yeah, Like I said, I've been through tremendous amount.
And that's the thing too, is like when we get
people that are like us who do not and it's
not like we don't let it mess with our mindset,
but it's like we have no way to understand what
you know, the distraction is. You know what I'm saying, It's.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
Just a little bit of obstacle. It's like, okay that
that's a new little wrinkle in the game. Let's let's
keep playing. What's around the next corner? And you don't
know and if you don't go around the corner.

Speaker 3 (02:11):
Exactly exactly, you know what I'm saying, Like right right
off top, uh, tell me about you starting off in
trade because because that's the thing too, is like, this
is what you've developed in your brain, has been built
through years, and so just walk me through that.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
Well, it literally starts when you're a kid, you know,
and let's go way back. And to be honest, I
grew up in the one of the most dysfunctional houses
you could ever imagine. Mom and dad say, mom and
dad six you know, five brothers and sisters. So we
were the Brady bunch. I was the second oldest. My dad,
I swear to God to this day, hated me. And

(02:50):
I mean he was a short little man who really
didn't want kids that wound up with six kids, and
he's like, how did I get here? But being of
six kids? Fucky little family. No, we grew up poor,
you know, we grew up in Vermont, very very poor.
I built my first weight bench at like thirteen years old,

(03:14):
and that's when I started. You know, at some point
I was, you know, the stinky kid, the poor kid.
You know. There was the kids in high school and
the kids in grammar school that picked on us. And
one day I said, you know what, I'm fucking done
being picked on. And as soon as you change that mindset,
you start refusing to be a victim. You're not a

(03:35):
victim anymore, because you know, those people that want to
make you a victim won't. They're looking for trouble, but
they're not looking for resistance.

Speaker 3 (03:45):
Hey, one hundred percent. You know, I grew up the
same way, like ten people, two bedroom house. It was me,
my brother, my sisters, my mom, my grandma and uncle
yeh and a couple of cousins. And like I said,
you know, I grew up in Union City, California. Uh,
you know, I grew up on literally the bad side
of the town. It's called Dakoto. It's like one of

(04:06):
the toughest neighborhoods in the Bay Area, you know what
I'm saying. And it's just like and like my family
was one of those family names where you you know,
we're just known to be tough. And you had to
you know what I'm saying. You had to maintain that
right exactly. You know, it's crazy, you know, especially when

(04:27):
you grow up like that, because then it almost instills
in you right away that you have to put up
not a facade, but a wall of defense to let
people know like, oh, you can't fuck with me.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
Well, let's let's think about that for a second. Because
as a you know, when we're young, we're very impressionable. Right,
would either just you know, be bullied, be cry go
you know, go go stand in the corner, or you
can stand up. Being poor makes you be tough because
you've won, you have have to learn to be resourceful.

(05:02):
And if you're resourceful, all of a sudden, it opens
up a whole lot of other doors, because then you go, well,
if I can solve that problem, I can probably solve
that one and that one and that one, right, and
the next thing you know, you're just problem solving and
you're just always moving forward, right, and it doesn't seem
like anything is possible. And my sister and I have
this discussion an awful lot because failure is not an option.

(05:25):
When you grow up without a safety net, or if
you are an adult who doesn't have a safety net,
your parents can't come and rescue you. Your grandmother is
not going to bail you out of jail. It's all
up to you. And if you're always living, moving acting
like failure is not an option, you won't fail one.
You might not take some of the risks you might
have otherwise, but you're going to figure out a way.

(05:47):
So that you're going to be successful, right, yep. And
that's what that's how I learned to be strong, because
it's like, if you're strong, you can succeed. Then if
you're strong, you can endure, right.

Speaker 3 (06:00):
And that's the truth. That's the truth, you know what
I'm saying. And that's one of those things too, is
being resourceful, because even when I was younger, I didn't
realize we were poor until I was older. I just
thought that's just the way life was, and I just
made moves, you know what I'm saying. I want to
do this, so I got to do this to get this, yep.
And that's just what it was.

Speaker 1 (06:17):
I think that's the best part of growing up like that,
you know. You know, I grew up in the seventies.
Nobody knew they were poor, you know what I mean.
Gas was cheap, but Dad and Mom didn't make squat
for money either, and if you wanted something, you had
to figure out how to get it yourself. So it's like, hey,
let's go get a paper out. Let's you know, let's
grab five cent bottles and fill up a bag and

(06:38):
take them down to the grocery store for five cents
apiece and thanks to you, you got money in your pocket.
You could actually buy yourself a soda exactly exactly.

Speaker 3 (06:47):
You know, they go from there, you.

Speaker 1 (06:49):
Know what I mean, instead of growing up. And I
hate to say it, but man, the kids today, they
all got their hands out and I'm guilty of it.

Speaker 3 (06:56):
Hey, I'm the same same, don't get no. Yeah, my
kids do the same.

Speaker 1 (07:01):
I want them to have it better than I did.

Speaker 3 (07:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (07:03):
But then sometimes I tell my wife, we're doing them
a disservice by not letting them figure it out themselves.

Speaker 3 (07:08):
Hey, and that that is the truth, because you know,
like I said, I try to give them the advantage
that I didn't have. But then sometimes, you know, I'm
saying that little, that little, that little part peaks around
the corner. I'm like a check it. Just the fuck out.
This is not how we're doing this. Yeah, yep, yeah,
I said, child goes well, you know, and here's.

Speaker 1 (07:29):
A question, growing up the way you did, would you
change anything?

Speaker 3 (07:32):
Oh? Not at all. I have had. I had the
best childhood growing up, Like like I have memories of
me and like you know, at a huge family in
the neighborhood I grew up in, so I had like
twenty cousins with me at all times at a party,
so we'd be all huddled around a TV playing Nintendo,
running football, throwing up and down the street, playing soccer,

(07:54):
going to the park, riding bikes and you know, and
all my uncles and cousins running around drinking. And like
I said, it was just the most the awesome time
of my life because I can always look back and
just be like, God, we had so much fun.

Speaker 1 (08:07):
Right, that community, that family community, and the bond is
just irreplaceable, and you couldn't put a value to it, right, Oh, yeah,
money or anything exactly. It's a beautiful feeling to be
a part of something. And hell, it takes us till
we're forty or fifty to realize that it's good to
be part of something bigger than ourselves were. In thirties,

(08:31):
we were like, it's all about us, And yeah, somewhere
in your thirties, a like switch goes on you go, huh,
there's more to this, you know what I mean?

Speaker 3 (08:39):
Exactly exactly. Like one of the things that my kids
always get mad at is like a when all of
us are home. You know, it's not too often I
get them all home now because they're all, you know,
of age now, so they're all living their own lives.
But when they were younger, I was like, no, we
all sit down and we all eat dinner, we all talk,
we all explain our day, or like one of the
things like cause I want to watch TV while I'm eating.

(09:01):
I was like, fuck, no, get on the table, let's
have this conversation. Or like we'll go to the restaurant. No,
the kids nowadays never want to eat in the restaurants anywhere.
They just want to take their food home. I'm like, no,
I like to go in, have our food, congregate around
the table, and just enjoy our time. You know what
I'm saying. It's all about the atmosphere and enjoying what
we got at this moment in time.

Speaker 1 (09:22):
Yep. You know. And when you start to think about
that time and those memories, it's so precious because tomorrow,
next minute, it's not promised to anybody. Yes, I've lost
so many friends and know so many people that wish
they had done this. You know. I know a young
man who's dying of cancer now and he says, if
I knew now what I know two years ago, I

(09:46):
would have done much many more things. You know. Now
in the last six eight months, he's doing everything he
possibly can to pack it into his life. But he's
he's grateful for what he has. Yeah, you go, every
every moment is a gift. And that's I swear, that's
why it's called the present, right.

Speaker 3 (10:03):
Hey for real that that is exactly it. And that's
one of the one things that I always talk about
in my pot in the just on this podcast alone,
is understanding how to be present because guess what, we're
always working towards the future. But it's like trying to
understand how to enjoy right now, you know what I'm saying,
Because there's always something happening. There's always something going on,
you know what I'm saying. We always have this urgent matter.

(10:24):
But at the same time, there's moments of times during
the day where I'm like, ah, and then enjoy what
I have, you know, enjoy what I've built.

Speaker 1 (10:32):
You know, just go, I'm lucky, you know what I mean, Yes,
look back on the cheek and say I love you,
and that moment is encapsulated and you just go, that's
the best part of my day.

Speaker 3 (10:42):
That is the best part of the day. And that's
something that like, uh, just growing up how I grew up,
my my family. You know what I'm saying. I grew
up without a dad. It was just my mom and
my mom's side of the family. And never ever when
I was I can remember a time where my mom
and like I said, I love my I tell her
all the time now, but uh, I love you, I

(11:05):
care for you, Like it's just it's like an understanding
under It's just an understanding feeling that we have towards
each other. But we've never said it out loud to
each other. Yes, And so now I always do it.
I you know, like I talk, I talked to my
mom all the time. She's gonna come over and visit
me in the next week, and you know she stays
three days. You know, she comes to visit me three
once a month for like three days. And you know

(11:26):
she lives about four hours away, but you know she comes.
It's a run for it, but she always comes. And
you know, and so I always make sure I tell
my kids that. I always make sure tell my wife
that always makes sure. I tell my mom, my family,
my brother, and my sister. I say it all the
fucking time because I have no memories of a kid
ever saying that. You know what I'm saying. So it's like, right, you.

Speaker 1 (11:45):
Heard, you know, and truly, maybe your grandparents told you,
because I know my grandmother told me every chance she got. Yeah,
nobody else, you know what I mean. You never heard
it at home growing up.

Speaker 3 (11:54):
Exactly, and you know, and I have that memory and grain,
so I never want that to be in my kids' brains.
So I always made sure I'm like, no, I'm saying
it out loud because this is what I mean, this
is what I feel, because like I said, you know,
emotional stability was not a thing when we were growing up.
You know what I'm saying. It's like, this is what

(12:15):
emotional maturity is, and this is what understanding your feelings
and your emotions are. So now you know, it took
me a long time because I was a frustrated, angry,
fighting person when I was a young you know what
I'm saying. I've done. I've been in so many fights,
I've done so many horrible things only because I didn't
know how to express any thought, you know what I'm saying,

(12:39):
And so that was to purge, yeah, exactly. And now
that I've learned how to purge it. You know, I'm
still a loud person, but I'm now a more communicative
person where I'm like all.

Speaker 1 (12:50):
Right, you know, and a healthy, fun way to purge it, right,
you know.

Speaker 3 (12:55):
The exactly Yeah, that is exactly what the gym is for,
you know what I'm saying. And it's finding those outlets
and understanding that you need an outlet not just a hobby,
not just something you do, but something you love in
your life that expresses yourself. You know what I'm saying,
because that's what we do when we're in the gym.
It's the only true way we can express our energy,

(13:17):
our thoughts, our feelings in one movement yep, you know, and.

Speaker 1 (13:22):
Then you can do it daily, you know what I mean.
And the other side, as we're probably as if you're
like me, as you were young, that stuff built up
and percolated, percolated, festered up until it exploded, right exactly.
Somebody was the receiver of that explosion.

Speaker 3 (13:36):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (13:36):
Good batter and different.

Speaker 3 (13:37):
It didn't matter, it didn't matter, It did not matter.

Speaker 1 (13:41):
You know, when you found the gym, you went, hey,
I can actually take this rage, focus it, purge it
into something good. And then what the community that's built
from that being in the gym. I saw a thing
the other day that said, where would I be? Who
would I have met? Had I never walked into a gym?

(14:01):
Some of the best memories in my whole life are
associated with health, fitness, or some kind of strength combat Activityeah.

Speaker 3 (14:11):
And then that's the truth. You know what I'm saying
That that is like a head on the fucking nail,
because here's the thing. The community around the gym is
everybody is basically dealing with almost the exact same thing
you're going through. You know what I'm saying. There's gonna
be people who come in and just do their thing,
but the majority of the people there are dealing with

(14:33):
something and this is the way they express it. And
because there's that acknowledgment amongst us, it creates that tight brotherhood,
you know what I'm saying, Because you go to any
gym right now, and there's gonna people who work out
at the exact same time, never speak to each other,
but they always acknowledge the nod.

Speaker 1 (14:49):
Yep, right, yep, And there's that mutual respect yep ye.
And it's garnered both directions, and it's well deserved because
they've seen you in there multi even it doesn't have
to be they've seen you multiple times. They've seen you
in there twice on three different months. They go that
dude's got it or that's it. He's got it, right,

(15:12):
that's it. That exactly it, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (15:14):
And that level of respect right there is like it's
something that we all need because that's something not society
gives you. You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (15:23):
Well, you know it's like prevalent outside of the gym, right,
I mean, yes, you don't see it on the freeway.
You don't see the grocery store in the parking lot
that respect. You know, you walk out of the gym
and those some of those same people are are jack.

Speaker 3 (15:36):
Holes, that's exactly exactly.

Speaker 1 (15:39):
But the gym they go, I respect you in here.

Speaker 3 (15:42):
Right yep. As I know some of.

Speaker 1 (15:44):
Those people that I see them in the grocery store,
I mean, why are you that way? You know what
I mean?

Speaker 3 (15:49):
Yeah, yeah, you know. And that's the thing too, is
like going to the gym having that respect, you start
to develop this mindset. And the the key thing about
that mindset that you develop in the gym is once
you learn to turn it on to the rest of
your life. Fuck, that is the secret. That is the secret.

(16:11):
That is like if someone would have explained that to
me when I first started working out and I first started,
and and not just first started, but when I first
when I started dedicating my life to this, and how
I can just turn the the the discipline into every
other avenue of my life. God fucking damn, I'd be

(16:33):
fucking a millionaire right now, right.

Speaker 1 (16:35):
But everything got easier when you did realize that, right yeah,
really yeah, wait is way and so it struggles the
same as way, right yeah, and you go, all I
gotta do is chip away at it, get a little
better tomorrow, a little bit more better the day after that,
and everything becomes possible, right, everything.

Speaker 3 (16:53):
But that mountain you see is a fucking mole hill.
You know what I'm saying. It is what it's those things.
It's one step at a time, when lift at a time,
when rep at a time, and that's once you know,
and like I said, everybody you know acknowledges it in
a different way. But it's just that one piece at
a time is how I always approach everything. Now, you

(17:13):
know what I'm saying, I never look at the I
look at the goal. But that's not what I'm doing
right now. The first step is just this and then
this and then this and then next thing. You know,
you're fucking you're you're squatting, you're fucking benching, you're fucking
deadlifting more than you ever thought you could.

Speaker 1 (17:29):
Yep, Yep, it's amazing. It's like, how do you eat
an elephant?

Speaker 3 (17:33):
One bite at a time, that's it, that's it.

Speaker 1 (17:36):
How do you squat six hundred pounds? Well, you got
to start at one plate, that's it. You's gotta start
with the bar.

Speaker 3 (17:43):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (17:43):
Who cares how long it takes you get there exactly.
Part of today's society's problem is that it's right here,
right now, instant gratification.

Speaker 3 (17:51):
You know.

Speaker 1 (17:51):
So there's many different avenues you can take to get
to that point. But my joy is not from getting
to that, whatever that goal is, it's the process to
get to that. I'm a process guy. That's where all
the growth and joy comes from. For me.

Speaker 3 (18:09):
That's the fun, right and that is the fun.

Speaker 1 (18:12):
The stories are written, yes, you know. The other is
the trophy doesn't matter for shit. It's the story that's
built to get to that.

Speaker 3 (18:20):
Reward, No, one hundred percent. Oh man, Like I said,
the things that I've done, the stuff that I've learned
in the gym, and then also to the people that
I've helped in the gym, and it's just like the
glow in their face, the light bulb over the head
when it clicks for them, and you know, and then

(18:41):
also too, it's like you start slowly seeing them transform.
It's like this thing where you're just like, that's the journey,
that's the story, because everything starts with I started working out,
I started going to the gym, my friend, my buddy,
or this guy or a trainer, and all of a sudden,
it's like boom, You'll see the change in that person's life.

Speaker 1 (19:03):
And then it affects their whole demeanor. Right yeah, every avenue,
every aspect of life gets better because of it.

Speaker 3 (19:11):
One hundred person, I said, I.

Speaker 1 (19:14):
Here's a question for you. Then, where was that moment
when you from when you started training to where you
knew that you were going to do this the rest
of your life?

Speaker 3 (19:23):
The moment And here's the thing, It's like I had
two epiphanies in my life, and the first epiphany, my
life had completely fell apart I'm talking about. I'm beat down.
I'm a delivery driver for Costco. I'm having the most
shittiest day. My truck is overloaded, things that's spilt over,

(19:45):
and it's like five in the morning and I'm at
my first stop with my hands on my knees, sitting
on a pallet of fucking deliverable shit like this fucking
sucks well. And I'm sitting there just yelling at myself
because I'm dealing with all their like literally kids, like
all this crazy stuff, and I'm just fucking just cussing
up a storm. And then all of a sudden, I

(20:05):
had this rush relief and I'm like, why am I
worried about everything? Why am I worried about the day?
And it clicked and that's when I had that one
step and then that was my first epiphany. But when
I when I knew what I wanted to do, and
the train in the gym, it was a conversation between
me and my mom ye and me and her were

(20:26):
sitting on the couch because I was sleeping on the couch.
I you know, I said, lost everything. I'm literally a
box of work clothes is all I had. I had
all my uniforms and my boots, nothing else. And I'm
just having this conversation with my mom, you know, like
what months of her just watching me fucking mope around
and I just had that epiphany. And like a week later,
it just you know, We're sitting in the couch and
he looked at me and she's all, what do you

(20:48):
want to do? And it's a question I have never
truly been asked in honesty, like the people will tell you, oh,
what do you want to do with your life? What
do you want to do?

Speaker 1 (20:58):
This?

Speaker 3 (20:58):
And this? And I never let myself answer that because
I was always I clock in, I clock out, I work,
I go home. I'm this person. I'm good with my
hands and I'm good at work. And then when mom like,
really because I used to work out all the time,
but I never really took it to heart. I just
did it because I liked it. And when she had
said that, that light bulb again clicked in my head.

(21:21):
I was like, I want to do this for my life,
for a living. I want to do this because I
only want this, you know what I'm saying. I was like,
I want to try. I wanted to be a bodybuilder,
and I was fucking jacked, bro. I was fucking like
you see how big I was fucking three percent, fucking

(21:41):
I was like two hundred and ninety five pounds, fucking
just dripped to the fucking max. And and you know,
when she asked me, I was like, this is what
I want to do. So I was working towards my
first bodybuilding show. Unfortunately I had an accident. Someone hit
me with a forklift now list looking where they were going.
Fucked up my back, fucked up my shoulder. But I

(22:02):
always still wanted to do this and be in the community,
be in the atmosphere, be in the show in some capacity.
And luckily, you know, that's just how my life worked out.
But when I had when I had that conversation with
my mom, because like I said, she really at like
it was like one of those questions. She looked me
in my eyes, pierced into my fucking soul and was like,
what do you want to do? And I said that

(22:24):
and She's all, I will help you. And when she
met help me, cause like I said, I have four kids,
I was like I can't, you know, like I'm a
single dad. I'm fucking, you know, in between houses, fucking
you know, working and like all this hectic fucking schedule,
I gotta pick them up, drop them off. Where do
I have time? And my Mom's all, I will help
you with that, you know what I'm saying. And she
would watch the kids while I went to the gym

(22:45):
and she would let me pour my soul in the gym,
and you know, I literally turned it into everything in
my life, you know what I'm saying. That it was
just like the most craziest moment that that's ever happened.

Speaker 1 (22:56):
So that was later in life then.

Speaker 3 (22:58):
Yeah, that was yeah, like twenty seven.

Speaker 1 (23:02):
Oh wow. Yeah, And what a great feeling that was.
She really wasn't asking for you to answer her. She
wanted you to answer you, right, And.

Speaker 3 (23:12):
That's exactly what happened. Yeah, that is exactly what happened.
You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (23:15):
It was like a beautiful thing because I asked you
that question, because I'm trying to think of it. I
didn't have that moment. But literally, when I started training
in my buddy's basement with the bench press that we
had built, that was kind of fun. And then when
I started working, actually bought a weader bench and concrete

(23:36):
plate weights. Oh, yeah, I had those funny story. I
still have the bench and bar and waits and it's
been through four generations of oh my god, sister, their
kids and their kids. Yeah, and one day it's going
to hang in the ceiling of my gym. But what
happened is, you know, being you know, a scrawny little

(23:58):
kid who was you know, didn't have great stuff growing up.
As I got stronger, people's perception of me changed and
the way they other classmates treated me different. So it
was more of an evolution as opposed to a moment
in time. It was like a gradual from like sixth

(24:19):
seventh grade to like ninth grade, and by ninth grade
I was running and lifting and all the football players.
I didn't like any of the jocks in high school
because I didn't want to be like that. They all
looked at me differently and respected me differently. And you know,
now I look back and they talk to me, they go,
holy shit, how far you've come?

Speaker 3 (24:37):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (24:38):
And that's been it's been forty something years. But from
probably like ninth grade in the gym and high school,
it was game on because I knew there was something
to be gained in my soul from it, and I
think my junior. I couldn't remember if my junior or senior.
In high school, I did my first powerlifting meat one

(25:01):
of my friend's dad was a strength coach, drove a
whole bunch of us up to Burlington, Vermont, did my
first AAU event. I don't know where I placed. I
know I was hooked at that moment. And then you know,
fast forward. Joined the Army, had to train to be
strong in the Army, got special privileges because I was strong,

(25:22):
you know, Opening up doors came back because I did
a split option training. So I did a couple of
different tours of training and was actually in the reserves,
so it was part time. But went to college and
gravitated to a gym where there were world class powerlifters there,
so and I was just like, holy crap. You know

(25:45):
Karen Kidder, he's probably the first person in Florida to
squat over one thousand pounds. He owned the gym that
I trained at in college, and now I trained with
mister new Hampshire and that was like nineteen eighty seven,
and from that he won and they all called me skinny.
You know, this was a there was some performing enhancing

(26:08):
products floating around, and I was engaged in that. So
they'd call me skinny. They're like, skinny, skinny. But I'll
tell you what I could. They could not kill me
or make me stop. And then when I did my
first bodybuilding show in eighty nine, I finished second. Changed everything.
They stopped calling me skinny. They're like, all right, that acknowledgment,

(26:28):
and then it was like, okay, so that earned a
little more respect, and then it's on to the next one. Well,
my first contest I finished third, then my second one,
I finished second, and then the third one I finished first,
and one the overall and it was just like game on,
we are going with this the same story. Before I

(26:49):
did my first contest, I was working on a deck
for somebody as a side job, like four or five
weeks out of contest. Their dog bit me across the
eight day. I got stitches, so all that prep was
gone out the window. It was like, do you really
want to do this? And you know, so you lay up,
you get the stitches out, do this, you do that,

(27:10):
you go, hell, yeah, I still want to do it.

Speaker 3 (27:13):
That's it.

Speaker 1 (27:14):
There was no stop. And I moved to Colorado in
eighty nine. May got ran over by a truck September
and they said, oh you're done. You're not skiing, you're
not training. It says, watch me. So the following let's see,
that was September got fixed. For October. I was back

(27:36):
in the gym. I think I did a contest in
ninety one Western won in the Western Colorado. It was like,
don't tell me I can't do something.

Speaker 3 (27:43):
Exactly, don't speak on my name.

Speaker 1 (27:46):
When I do my quad's out, Everyone's like, oh man,
you're I'm like, no, I'm not, because we I've heard
it before and I'm not going to believe it. And
if if you don't give it any power, it doesn't
control over you. Right, that's the truth to it.

Speaker 3 (28:01):
That's the truth.

Speaker 1 (28:02):
It has power. Yep, no matter what the situation is,
whether it's anxiety, fear, love, joy, if you give it power,
it has.

Speaker 3 (28:11):
It right exactly exactly, No, I've had the same situation. Uh.
Two years ago, I had a compartment's Inngron in my
leg and it was it always seems to be around
when I'm going to go to the shop. So uh,
like I basically I got a compartments Engron my whole
thigh and split my thigh all the way in half

(28:32):
to do it. I had to get the five surgeries
on it. And uh, by the time I was called,
they're like, oh, you're not gonna be able to walk
for like six months because how bad it was. And
I was walking in a month and they're like that
is crazy. I was like, only because you think I can't,
I can't.

Speaker 1 (28:48):
That's easier.

Speaker 3 (28:50):
Let me show you, right exactly exactly, you know what
I'm saying. Yeah, you don't know what you're fucking talking about.
I don't give a fuck if you got a degree.

Speaker 1 (28:57):
You're talking about the average victim, not the you know,
not the crazy guy who understands and doesn't fear pain
but gives it a little bit of acknowledge andces exactly.
We're gonna we're gonna work around it, because that's what
it is. Be adaptable, right, Yeah, you have to.

Speaker 3 (29:13):
You know what I'm saying, you'd be more you be you,
You give everything a little bit of leeway and you
can make it fucking work. You know what I'm saying.
You just gotta be And was it still comes to
that mindsets like I don't let this hurt me I
don't let this put me down, and I could work
through it, find a way exactly then there's always more,
that is always always more in the tank. Let me

(29:33):
tell her right now that every gas tank has a
has a reserve tank. You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (29:38):
That's that's exactly right. You know what I mean, that's it.
One of my dear buddies. He says, you can quit
tomorrow tomorrow. Tomorrow is always tomorrow, right.

Speaker 3 (29:48):
Not today. That's it. That's it.

Speaker 1 (29:51):
That's his go to is you can quit tomorrow, but
not today.

Speaker 3 (29:54):
Let me tell her right now that I don't know
how many times I've had that conversation with myself, because
like I have moments in and we all have those
moments of times. I had those moments of times where
I'm fucking frustrated. Fuck this, I don't want to do this.
I want to revert back to just being a punch
a clock puncher and fucking And then after I settle down,
I'm like, what the fuck was I telling myself? You
know what I'm saying, I love what I fucking do.

Speaker 1 (30:15):
Because sometimes the workload gets heavy sometimes, right, yeah, we
got to sit back and go Okay, I'm gonna give
myself five minutes for a pitypot, and then we're gonna
get up off of it and we're gonna get and
pull up our boots.

Speaker 3 (30:26):
And we're gonna get moving exactly. You know what I'm saying.
Don't know how many times I missed a pr like man,
mother fuck, you know, like just fucking just letting it loose,
you know what I'm saying, and then come back to
it and pull it with no problem.

Speaker 1 (30:38):
Right, right, Well, sometimes you have to have those failures
to really enjoy the success. Right if you got the
first try, well I didn't aim high.

Speaker 3 (30:48):
Enough exactly exactly, or it's like.

Speaker 1 (30:51):
If you didn't get it, it's like where is where
was my training flawed? What did I put in one
hundred percent every day in the building the foundation to
get to this point? And if you're honest with yourself,
you can say no, I wasn't right yep, Or you
can if you nailed it, you know you did, you
never question it. But if you missed it, you go,

(31:12):
I can remember that day yep.

Speaker 3 (31:13):
Yeah, yeah, you know what I mean exactly. I wasn't prepared,
I didn't eat enough, I was I didn't fucking get
myself set up. You know what I'm saying. I've definitely
had those days, you know, where we just fall just
a little bit short, but we feel that we still
got it. But yet it's like, nope, I won't, I
won't fall short again.

Speaker 1 (31:30):
That's where yep, and learn from it. And we got
to celebrate all those little successes because it's not always
just the big.

Speaker 3 (31:35):
Ones, right exactly, not a one hundred, it's it's it's
that that is exactly the foundation of what we're talking about.
You know what I'm saying. It's understanding that these little
victories get us the bigger victories.

Speaker 1 (31:45):
Yep. You gotta stack the bricks.

Speaker 3 (31:48):
And for real, got to build that foundation, you know
what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (31:52):
And the thing that you learn, we learned that from
the gym, But if you look outside the box of
the gym, that correlates with everything, you know what I mean.
I started out as a form setter, you know, and
a gym. I wanted to own a gym when I
was in college. My ten year plan was graduate, started practice,
opened a gym. Well, twenty five years later, I finally

(32:14):
opened a gym. But it's like I never gave up
on the dream. We just had to take a little
bit different path to get there.

Speaker 3 (32:20):
Hey, but you still the past still led to the
right place. Well.

Speaker 1 (32:24):
The funny story is when I came up, you know,
it was the economy was funky in nine to thirteen. Yeah,
my son was born in eight nine, the gyms were
all Really the economy was funky and o nine I
was in a good place financially because I had a
bunch of signed contracts. I came home one day and said, Honey,

(32:47):
how do you feel about owning a gym? She says,
what did you do? I said, I bought a jym.
You know, I bought a gym that's going out of business.
I says, you bet I did. I said, I bought
it for pennies on the dollar. We'll figure it out, man,
how it started. And since then, I think I bought
four gyms, hey, failing and closing, you know, to grow

(33:07):
my stock of equipment. My gym hasn't gotten any bigger,
but doesn't need to be any bigger. But in order
to acquire what I want, sometimes you have to buy
a bunch of junk to get the one great ace.

Speaker 3 (33:18):
Hey, that is the truth. You know what I'm saying,
and especially when you have a gym that has every
gem from all those other gyms. Oh my god, would
you know that there's not too many hardcore gyms around here.
We have one around here. It's called Old School Iron,
but uh, you know, it's a drive and it's a commute.
But guess what I do. I do make the drive.

(33:39):
I do make the commute, and I do go out
there to work, and uh fuck, I love it. I
just love the way it smells. I love the way
it fucking how dusty things are. When I fucking pick
up the weight, it's fucking heavy. You know what I'm saying.
I'm not going with these commercial gyms, And I'm like,
oh god, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (33:54):
It's mirrors and cameras and all.

Speaker 3 (33:55):
Exactly, yeah, exactly exactly. You know what I'm saying, Like,
the places.

Speaker 1 (33:59):
Are great, but for an old school guy. You know,
when I used to train, I'd go back to Vermont
in New Hampshire, Connecticut, and some of those old gyms
that all they had were York and Nautilus. Stuff in
the basement of buildings smelled moldy, the weights were rusty,
but everybody in there was working their butt off exactly.

(34:20):
This is what I'm after, and that's what we modeled
our gym off of. You know, I named it after
myself originally, but we've since rebranded it and it's Dirty
Iron Gym.

Speaker 3 (34:30):
There we go to me.

Speaker 1 (34:33):
That is in a nutshell my personality for the gym,
because it's like it just has to be heavies and.

Speaker 3 (34:40):
Yeah, hey, hey, it's gotta look pretty, but you know
what the way when you have when the when the
weights clank and the fucking machines move, and like, like
I said, it's nothing like going into a fucking nice,
solid squat rack that can hold one thousand pounds, you
know what I'm saying. It's like I could throw whatever

(35:00):
I need on my shoulders and I don't have to
worry about the bar bending. I don't have to worry
about the fucking the You know, there are just so
many things because like you go to some of these gyms,
you know, they have great equipment, you don't get me wrong,
but it's too shining, it's too new, and a lot
of it's bent because people don't know how to lift well.

Speaker 1 (35:20):
On the other side, you know, some of that stuff
in the commercial gyms, corporate gyms, their bars are rated
for six hundred pounds.

Speaker 3 (35:27):
That's what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (35:28):
Four And that bars, dog, it's already.

Speaker 3 (35:31):
It's already bowing on the shoulders. You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (35:34):
Oh my god, old school York bars any day of the.

Speaker 3 (35:38):
Any day of the week. You know what I'm saying.
And you know, one of the things too, is like
with a lot of the gyms I go to, if
the dumbbells don't go up to two hundred pounds, fuck,
I should have went somewhere.

Speaker 1 (35:47):
Else, right right, Well, the only thing is where I'm
at Western Colorado, I have the oldest dumb bells, and
that because my dumbbells go to two forty. Yeah, I am,
and one single fifty pounder, and I want to say
it's called a Nashville It was made before York. It's
got a longer handle, and it's probably from the twenties

(36:10):
or thirties from what they figure, they're nobody's really sure.
And then I have a set of one hundred pound
York globes that I scored because nobody could ship them,
but I knew how to go there and get them exactly,
and they're just that's that's my avenue now is collecting
the old York globes, Brian all of them.

Speaker 3 (36:31):
Oh, yes, he does.

Speaker 1 (36:32):
You know he was able to go back to Pennsylvania
and buy somebody's collection. I'm collecting one, two at a time.
And when you come into my gym, some of the
young kids. But this place is like a museum. I
have pictures of Jack Lelane on the wall. Oh single Colombo,
you know what I mean?

Speaker 3 (36:48):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (36:48):
To me, Jack Lane is like the epitome, if not
the true father of fitness.

Speaker 3 (36:55):
I've seen so many videos and late night shows of
him like oh this is this was literally doing Olympic
lifts and like I'm like, what the hell is going
on here?

Speaker 1 (37:06):
Overall suit?

Speaker 3 (37:08):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (37:08):
Yeah, and I remember that from a kid, you know
what I mean? Seeing that in black and white on TV, going,
that's pretty cool. And then if you if anybody knows
his history at seventy years old, he tells he's seven
boats with seventy people and from Alcatraz and some of
his fucking feet tied up and that's bad ass. I
don't care.

Speaker 3 (37:28):
Yeah, you are right. Is that he was doing almost
strong man events before a strong man you know exactly, Yeah,
because I remember him just like pull I think, I
I swear I remember him pulling a bus. You know
what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (37:42):
I'm like, I believe, I think at one point he did.

Speaker 3 (37:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (37:45):
And the funny thing is we have this thing in
my gym now where we do a birthday workout and whatever,
and usually it's one year is crazier than the next
in kind of as a tribute to what Jacquelline always did.
And here's the It started out where it's whatever your
age is, ten reps for every year with just a
bar on the bench.

Speaker 3 (38:05):
There you go.

Speaker 1 (38:06):
I'll tell you what. When I turned fifty five hundred
reps on with just a bar unbroken here, oh yeah,
it's awful. Oh god, you know. And it grows from there.
I think I did.

Speaker 3 (38:21):
What I do.

Speaker 1 (38:22):
I think fifty two I did two twenty five for
fifty two reps to a bench not not like Tom Platts, Yeah,
to ben bench squad, and I was gonna die. Yeah,
you know it would feel like that to memorialize your
birthday with something hard, because what what could be worse
for the rest.

Speaker 3 (38:41):
Of the year, right, exactly what I'm saying. If you get.
You get the worst part out of the way. The
rest of days going to be in the rest of
the yous downhill and it's fun.

Speaker 1 (38:49):
And what's really cool is if you have younger kids
or even same generation that don't maybe push themselves, if
you can inspire them to do something outside the comfort zone.

Speaker 3 (39:00):
Yep, that's a win, right, And then it is the win.

Speaker 1 (39:03):
As the mentor get to rejoice in whatever their victory is.
I just live it again and again through someone else.

Speaker 3 (39:10):
And that's your Oh no, right now, my youngest son,
he's getting freshman year in high school. He's getting ready
to start. So this whole summer he has been doing
football camp and you know, and one thing I've you know,
I've coached many a teams for a lot of a
lot of things for all my kids. But the one
thing is that you always got to let the other
coach coach your kid. You can't jump in there. But uh,

(39:33):
one thing I had told my son is like, all right,
when you go there, if you want me to show
you something, I will. So like every time he's done,
he's we're doing cleans. I'm not getting it. What am I?
We're in there practicing cleans? We're going through the stages
or like working on the deadlife, working on the squad,
showing them the position. It's like that that all my

(39:54):
other kids never really been interested in training, because you know,
I've always done it so much in my life. They're
just kind of over. But my youngest son is just like,
I am picking up this torch and he's very serious
about it. So it's like, oh, and just like you said,
we you know, just helping him and guiding him and

(40:14):
watching it. It's like, that's the gift I get to
give him because he's gonna learn and have something with
him that no one else that he knows will have,
you know what.

Speaker 1 (40:22):
And he has a different bond with you than his
his siblings do.

Speaker 3 (40:26):
Yeah, because of it, right exactly exactly. It's it's perhaps to.

Speaker 1 (40:30):
Me that's so rewarding, you know what I mean. Now
being a senior lifter, I get to enjoy that with
so many kids, well from guys who they're forty all
the way down to their teens. And what's really cool
is I've got a new client now that she's now
twenty seven, gonna do her first bodybuilding show. Oh, Anderson's
off and on and she's been coming to my gym
since she was thirteen years old playing volleyball, you know

(40:54):
what I mean. And so to be a part of
that journey is gonna be pretty special.

Speaker 3 (41:00):
No, that is. That is absolutely especially because you know
that's one of those things too, is when you have
someone that you work with and you get to be
there on the sideline and watch the work payoff. That's
the best part. That is absolutely the best part. That's
what I love about everything that I do. And like,
like even on this podcast, I always get a lot
of uh, you know comments, I get a lot of
emails like, hey, thank you for saying what you're saying

(41:22):
because I didn't know that I needed to hear that.

Speaker 1 (41:25):
And it's like, right, and that's one impact that that's
so rewarding for you, you know, because that's the best
part about it, you know, and you might not even
hear about it for years later, right, Yeah, Remember when
I came in your gym whatever it was, or you
helped me bench way back when it's like, yeah, I
may or may not remember, you may or may not remember,

(41:46):
but they remembered, you know what I mean, exactly exactly,
And to me, that's a beautiful thing.

Speaker 3 (41:55):
It's the best.

Speaker 1 (41:55):
It's just amazing, you know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (41:57):
Yeah, And all of it stems from just loving to
work out, loving to train, you know what I'm saying. Like,
like we were before it came on, We're talking about
like what our training schedules are, and I'm like, I'm
I am. I am working out, but I'm not pushing
myself and I don't have a goal and I'm not
training hard. I do have a plan, I do have

(42:18):
all this stuff, and I'm not going through the motions,
but I am pushing myself to a certain extent, you
know what I'm saying. And I'm definitely enjoying it a
lot more, you know what I'm saying, because I got
you know its sometimes you get too tunnel focused when
you're training, and it almost takes the joy out. But
when you can step the faudible.

Speaker 1 (42:37):
Back, yeah, yep, Yeah, you get target fixated and nothing that,
and then you get to you don't see the scenery
on the side of that.

Speaker 3 (42:45):
Trip, right, yep. That exactly.

Speaker 1 (42:47):
You've been there, but some and there are stages in
the training where you have to be there, but you
just you got to realize that you don't have to
live there. Yes, yes, yeah, it's such a joy. I
don't know what I'm gonna quit. Actually, that's and I

(43:11):
hope what a great place, you know what I mean?
Just hey or whatever, just done hey.

Speaker 3 (43:17):
That that is exactly like, this is something that I
will never ever stop doing, you know. And it's not
wasn't even that long ago. You know, people at our
ages and when you look at people at our ages,
when we were young, they became older. You know what
I'm saying, I've looked older, and it's because oh I'm retired.

(43:39):
I don't do nothing now, and that's what fucks some.
But it's like now we're the younger generation growing becoming older,
and now we don't even look nowhere near what our
parents and grandparents look like.

Speaker 1 (43:51):
Right, And you know, fifty years old, you know, when
we were fourteen is way different than now when you know,
you know, I'm pushing sixty, and it's like, you know,
and you.

Speaker 3 (44:02):
Don't look at you know what I'm saying. That's the
thing is, it's one of those things. It's like when
you look at these people who literally love to train,
and even the local person at your gym, who's the
person that just shows up trains every day because they're
retired and they want something to do. They still look
young and move young and move.

Speaker 1 (44:20):
That's absolutely you know. It was when you stop, you're done,
you know what I mean, moving, you're you're done, right,
And it's I said, we're not letting the grim reaper
catch us exactly exactly. I want to keep him way
back in the rearview mirror.

Speaker 3 (44:38):
Way back, way back. Me and my wife when we met,
like I said, I was so hardcore training at the
moment time when she met, and she was really into
training and working out. She just didn't really have anyone
to like really, you know. She she had a couple
of trainers stuff like that, but no one ever really.
And I never want to bag on trainers because trainers

(44:59):
do have a job. Trainers do have a position. But
you know, some trainers just don't teach what they're supposed
to teach.

Speaker 1 (45:05):
Well, and let's be honest, some trainers are rep counters.

Speaker 3 (45:09):
Hey, and that's that's that does happen. And what Yeah,
And well my wife found out that I wasn't a
rep counter. She was just you know, and then, like
I said, it's just our bonding ourselves of working out
and training is just oh, you know, took in our
relationships from the get go all the way to a
whole other level. And it's like, you know, that's that's
the thing too, is like when you can do what
you'd love and share it with the ones that you love, it,

(45:31):
fucking it gives you something.

Speaker 1 (45:33):
It's so rewarding, right, yes, absolutely amazing. And let's let's
go back to trainers. Because literally I first became a
certified trainer in nineteen eighty seven. I went out and
spent six months in Oceanside, California. Didn't learn internship to
become a trainer.

Speaker 3 (45:51):
Nice.

Speaker 1 (45:52):
What we have learned from then to now is a
million miles away. Oh yeah, absolutely, a million miles away
in advancement. And then think about the general public's knowledge.
It's grown by volumes in psychled me.

Speaker 3 (46:12):
Right, yes, you know.

Speaker 1 (46:13):
So the people who are kind of stuck in that
rep counter, they're a different mindset, but they're still doing good.
And I don't on any of them.

Speaker 3 (46:21):
Yeah, I don't want to ever bash them, you know
what I'm saying, And that's I'm on the same boat,
you know what I'm saying, Because they do have a
purpose and a place.

Speaker 1 (46:28):
And some people need someone just to you prod them along.

Speaker 3 (46:33):
You know what I mean? Some people?

Speaker 1 (46:35):
You know, because I'll ask people if I have people
ask Milton, will you write me a program? Will you
write me a workout? I'm like, it's not that easy. Yes,
let's sit down and go through four pages of questions,
because what a workout is versus a program are completely
different things. You can get a workout anywhere on the
internet and every magazine on the shelf at muscle, you

(46:56):
know what I mean, And there's difference. What what are
you trying to accomplish by working out or training on
a program? You know what I mean? Yes, complete a
workout is way different than a program.

Speaker 3 (47:09):
Yeah, workouts.

Speaker 1 (47:10):
People don't understand that at all.

Speaker 3 (47:12):
And you know, even with that, like you know, I was.
I got lucky because I was so into it. I'd
buy every muscle and fitness, every flex and I would
read every article I could get my hands on, and
I would be like, I like this, and then I
would and somehow figured out how to peace and really

(47:33):
notice that I respond to this, I feel this, And
then I would put my programs together and my training
together and not knowing that, oh, that's what we were
supposed to do, not just you know, because like you know,
a lot of everyone was like I'm gonna try this workout.
I would try the workout and like I didn't feel nothing,
but this one exercise, I'm gonna you know, mark that
and then read another article and then try another article.
And then I started to follow following bodybuilders that I loved,

(47:56):
and I was like, this is what they do for
this body part and then you and then put all
that together, right, and then just through everything I learned,
I got lucky because I met I met up with
some guys who are all you know, Barry of bodybuilders,
and god damn it, I there because I was. They
seen how serious I was in the progresses I was making,
and they took me under their wing. They're like, hey,

(48:18):
we work out it this time on these days. Show
up and that's that's all he told me. I did.
I never threw up so much in my life, you
know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (48:29):
And how did you learn? Though? Oh right?

Speaker 3 (48:32):
Yeah? Yeah, it's like like the and here's the thing too,
people don't know what failure means when it comes to
a failure set and when I come to Jesus meeting
of what a failure set was. I fucking was Like
I was hooked even more because like I got so,

(48:55):
I got on my back. The guy's all, we're gonna
do twenty and we're gonna do four sets of these
twenty reps because we're trying to warm up, and so
we're wrapping, we're repping, and he's all, I'm gonna spot
you on this last twenty, but do not quit, do
not quit. I'm gonna So he was literally hugged me
and went up and down with me, and when I

(49:16):
got to ten, he was lifting me with the weight.
All right, Now my job was to not stop pushing,
and I fucking racked that thing and they already brought
me the trash can. I'm just fucking heaving hard. Everything
that was in me was gone.

Speaker 1 (49:33):
And that was the warm up.

Speaker 3 (49:35):
Yes, yes, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (49:38):
It was just for a workout afterwards.

Speaker 3 (49:41):
Oh exactly, exactly. You know what I'm saying, because even
after that point, you know what I'm say, because we
were supposed to be squatting. We're supposed to go over
five hundred. That was the goal for that day, and
like Oh, now we're just gonna, you know, ease into it.
Of course, you know there's breaks in between. And these
guys are fucking like nothing. You're not even breaking a sweat.
They're fucking just hammering it. I get under that fucking thing.

(50:01):
Oh my god, I regret I regretted it at the moment,
but I loved it at the end.

Speaker 1 (50:06):
But how much you learned that your capabilities were far
greater than you ever imagined ever that little bit of time.

Speaker 3 (50:16):
Right, that's it.

Speaker 1 (50:17):
What you thought was once impossible, Now you went, that
wasn't so bad. What's the next? Where's the envelope go
from here? Right?

Speaker 3 (50:25):
Exactly exactly, And that's exactly what it was.

Speaker 1 (50:27):
And that is that's that's where growth happens. Right, that
is so many levels.

Speaker 3 (50:33):
Once I figured out that I could push past what hurts,
and just all I gotta do is keep pushing because
that's my only job. Game changer.

Speaker 1 (50:43):
Oh, in the same regards to that story, One time,
while training with Brian, we were doing kettlebell swings, one
hundred pound kettlebell swings. Brian's four fifty at the time, right,
I'm like two thirty and everyone else is over three hundred.
We're all swinging one hundred pound kettlebell, one hundred swings.

(51:05):
You can't stop. Brian smokes to a hundred, smokes to
one hundred. I get to like fifty and I'm fucking
die and I'm still going right. I literally pass out
at eighty five, fall on the ground. Brian touches my shoulder.
He says, I'll get the last fifteen for you. I said,
the fuck you will. I dusted my ass up, got

(51:27):
off the ground and did like another three, another three,
another three, hit that hundred, fell over dead. You know
what I mean. That's how we finished that workout. But
you go, you go. There's always more. Always do is
fucking go get it, And if you're not willing to
go get it, you're not part of the team. But

(51:47):
if you fail, get up, fail get up, you earn
everybody's respect. I was never even remotely the strongest in
our crew at Shaw. No one could outwork me because
I just refused to quit.

Speaker 3 (52:07):
That's what it takes.

Speaker 1 (52:07):
And it's like, I'm The funny thing is is Carrie
and I would talk afterwards or on the next following Saturday.
Come down. She's like, I don't know how you do this,
I says, you have no idea, and I'll tell you
now the rest of the world. Next day I would
I would drive to Denver Thursday, deadlift, drive to Denver Saturday,
do events. Sunday. I would be on the couch with

(52:30):
ice on my shoulders, ice on my knees. I can't move.
Nobody saw any of that, you know what I mean.
And it'd be like right back at it. Into the
gym again on Monday for my normal routine that I
get trained by myself. But it was just like it
makes you better, you know what I mean. And then
I'd go to my gym on Monday and be like

(52:53):
the guys would be like you're going, I'm like, fucking it,
Monday's leg day.

Speaker 3 (52:58):
That's it.

Speaker 1 (52:59):
Here we go.

Speaker 3 (53:00):
Oh yeah. And that's the thing too, is like even
in that thing, it's like I've with the amount of
training that I've gone through, I've had stints of training partners,
and the only thing I've ever told him, but all
you got to do is show up, you know what
I'm saying, and you just go through the work. I
don't adjust anything, you stick to the weight you can do.
You just do what I'm gonna do. You know what

(53:21):
I'm saying, you all you gotta do is push. As
long as you're showing effort, I'm gonna be there for you.
And I've had multiple people in and out, but only
one person ever fucking like the push and be able
to push me because I'm you know, I'm I've always
been the biggest guy in the gym, and so you
know what I'm saying, I'm always lifting the heaviest, I'm
always pushing the most weight. So it wasn't too it

(53:42):
wasn't too often I actually had someone to push me
when I was, you know, just by myself, and I
had one person. It was literally my brother. He would
stay and he I would beat him to death in
the gym, but he, over over a two years, was
literally pushing what I was pushing. And I was like,

(54:04):
this is exactly what we fucking love. And it would
be me and him six days a week in the gym,
fucking just grinding fucking weight, and he was just he
was like the shape that he was in. He was like,
I can't believe I'm this big, and I can't believe
I could do the things that I do. I can't
believe I can lift as much as I can lift,
and he was out and it was like all you
had to do is show up, and he always showed up.

Speaker 1 (54:26):
And how much fun did you both have?

Speaker 3 (54:28):
Oh? Oh my god, so much. We had so many,
so much fun, so many inside jokes, and you know,
like and we'd have those days where just we just
have our headphones in, not even speak a fucking word
and just bang this motherfucker out, And god, those are
the best. Like I said, that's part of the journey

(54:50):
that I always look back and love the most.

Speaker 1 (54:57):
Simply amazing. Right, Yeah, And here's the truth of the matter,
and it goes without saying. It's all across the board
for life, the hardest things are the best things, right
because if it was easy, you don't remember it. You know,
if you had to work for it, it felt more rewarding,

(55:19):
right yep. You know, whether it's the first time you
squatted five hundred, the first time you pulled five hundred,
you know, or that next pr that was the best
because it was hard. And what once you realize what
was once hard becomes less hard, then where's that next
step get you? You know what I mean exactly? It's

(55:42):
just a it really is a beautiful journey. It just
most people will never experience it. That's sad. That's what
makes me sad, you know what I mean. And I'm
not sad sad, but I'm going, man, you people don't
know what you're missing out on, or like building a
house because that's the gym is my profession, or excuse me,

(56:04):
the gym is my obsession. Construction is my profession. I
build custom homes in Aspen, Colorado, one of the most
affluent places in the world, so I get to build
some of the coolest shit some people will never even
get to see. I go, how do I put that together?
And you know, and I'll see a set of drawings

(56:25):
on somebody will say, hey, how do you build that?
And I'm like, same way. I build everything one piece
at a time, because it doesn't matter whether it's a
two thousand square foot home or my current project's a
fifteen thousand square foot home. Just go what the hell's
in there? I'm like, well, there's five bedrooms and two
massage rooms and indoor pool and outdoor hot tub. You know,

(56:46):
they still got the same pieces and all you have
to do is stack the bricks.

Speaker 3 (56:51):
That's it.

Speaker 1 (56:52):
One at a time, you just go hole because people
ask me all the time, how do you do that?
How do you deal with the stress. You know, construction
stress is nothing compared to the stress at the gym.
Oh An. Emotional stress to me is easy stress people
and dealing with schedules. Yeah. Yeah, it's not permanent. And

(57:14):
the other side of that is in neither is the
stress from a dream.

Speaker 3 (57:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (57:18):
If you realize that none of this is permanent, it
makes it so much easier because then it doesn't have
the strength pushing you back down.

Speaker 3 (57:25):
Right exactly, Now, that's exactly it. Like you know, it's
always you know it. To me, it always comes back
to this correlation where if you have this in your
life and you have training, you have discipline, you have
all these things that you can develop with the with
the iron, it makes your life exponentially better. Yeah, you

(57:48):
know what I'm saying. It's that realization because like I
right now, I got one of my good friends, he
just started training with me. He shows up every day
and he's just like, I didn't know that I could
do this, and now it's he's like his life is
growing at the moment, and it's growing because he's like

(58:09):
this is the hardest thing I do all day, so
nothing else bothers him. You know, I used to stress out,
I used to have all these things that would jump
at me. And now cool as a cucumber, no fucking
like worries.

Speaker 1 (58:22):
Beautiful. Yeah, literally you can probably you probably get joy
out of that seeing him be rewarded that.

Speaker 3 (58:30):
Right, exactly, exactly, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (58:33):
That's the cool part is training partners or just that
community of the gym is what's the word I want?
Vicariously living through others? Oh yeah, right, oh yeah, you
know you're broke down, you're on crutches, you're you're hobbled,
whatever it might be, it doesn't have to be you.

(58:53):
And then the other side of that is more of
that correlation of that we're part of something bigger than
just ourselves. Yeah, you know, and everyone asked me why
why do you why do you kill yourself running your
shaw classic? It's like, because I love being part of
something way bigger than myself, and hopefully someday someone look
back and go, that's amazing. My grandson can say my

(59:16):
grandpa was a part of that, you know what I mean?

Speaker 3 (59:18):
Yep, Hey, I know exactly what you mean right, And
it comes back to what you said earlier, you know,
when you said, Uh, if I didn't go to the gym,
imagine the people I wouldn't have met I would have met.
You know what I'm saying. It's like it's the fucking
most realist thing I've ever heard right now, It's like,
you know what I'm saying, it's insane and I fucking
love it.

Speaker 1 (59:38):
And think about the ripple effects from you know, you
met one you met, and through them you met another
and another and another. You just go, holy crap, the
opportunities that well being healthy and fit, you know, opens.

Speaker 3 (59:53):
Up big time. That's how we met, you know what
I'm saying, Like it all started the gym, it all
started with podcasting. It's all started doing these things that
I fucking love. And that's how our pass crossed. You
know what I'm saying. It's like, it's just so crazy.

Speaker 1 (01:00:06):
Will you make it to the SHAW this year?

Speaker 3 (01:00:08):
Finally, that's the plan I will. You know what I'm saying.
As far as I understand, as long you know fingers crossed,
nothing happens. You know, my goal is to be there.

Speaker 1 (01:00:18):
So do you have tickets already or you're coming with
Nick or what.

Speaker 3 (01:00:21):
He's coming with Nick? You know what I'm saying. So
it's like I'll be riding in with Nick or flying
in with Nick, just spending on how we're getting there.
So as soon as he knows, you know what I'm saying,
I'll be there with him.

Speaker 1 (01:00:30):
Tell him to get in that little fucking mini pocket
car and whole ass. And because then he has an
open ended ticket, he can.

Speaker 3 (01:00:37):
Go back whatever he wants, right exactly exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:00:41):
I would love to have Nick come out and see
my side of the mountains, because he's been nastest he's
been to Denver. He literally flies through the little town
where I live a little bit north of me, which
is Glenwood. It's gorgeous, but you know, fifteen minutes off
the highway south of that is where I live. And
this is, you know, our own little banana belt because

(01:01:03):
we have the best snow and more sun than you
guys have in California on a yearly average.

Speaker 3 (01:01:11):
There you go, and the.

Speaker 1 (01:01:12):
Climate is better, and frankly, I think our scenery is
actually better than what we have over an Estes where
Nick has been with us.

Speaker 3 (01:01:20):
There we go, We have big plans.

Speaker 1 (01:01:22):
Then down the street. You know what I mean? Yeah, no,
I guess Nick hasn't been here because we had Nick
out for the Crown Mountain. But that's when I had
it down in Denver in Superior, so we brought Nick
out as a judge, so he hasn't done my show
that we put on here for adaptive athletes as well

(01:01:43):
as able body athletes side by side. Literally the backdrop
is a giant thirteen thousand foot mountain. Oh, it's it's
pretty hard to take.

Speaker 3 (01:01:57):
Yeah, it sounds like we need we're gonna need to
do that.

Speaker 1 (01:01:59):
Yeah, if you guys drove, you could literally take a
detour on the way home or on the way out,
you know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (01:02:04):
There we go. I have to talk to Nick about
that then see what we can do. Yeah all right, man, man,
time flies when you're having fun and I appreciate you
coming on Steve and share.

Speaker 1 (01:02:15):
It's such a pleasure.

Speaker 3 (01:02:16):
Oh yeah, yeah, it's it's a blast. And uh well
let me sign us out. Would you like to promote
anything before we get out of here?

Speaker 1 (01:02:26):
Health and fitness, Health and Fitness.

Speaker 3 (01:02:28):
I will put his Instagram and his link in the note,
so you know you guys want to come follow Steve,
Come check him out, you know, let him know that
we I sent you that way. And uh, everybody listening
to this, Uh, I'm the angry motherfucking dad. You want
to watch my shit YouTube, You want to listen to
a speaker, soundclass, sit or Spotify, Google Play, Apple Podcasts,
pot Being, SoundCloud, Deezer. iHeartRadio. This motherfucker's that week. You
can easily fucking find it, rate, review, like, subscribe, all

(01:02:50):
that fucking bullshit. I really appreciate it. I'm also part
of the Inner Circle podcast network or group of powerful
podcasters out there sharing their ship at his Inner Circle
pm dot com. I'll take it everyone, our websites, everyone shows,
so make sure you check it the funk out. We
have shows as the Plunge, Failing Hollywood Simmons, the more
the untrained ey of the hood diner, and shit happens
when you party naked, and we'll see all motherfuckers on

(01:03:11):
the next one. Fuck.

Speaker 2 (01:03:15):
Always living, always always living, always always living

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