Robert Oberst - The Making Of The American Monster

Full transcript: Oberst Oberst on London Real

3:30 This is London Real, I am Brian Rose. My guest today is Oberst Oberst, the professional strongman known as the American Monster. You’ve competed in strongman all around the world since 2012, including America’s Strongest Man, the Arnold Classic, and five times in the World’s Strongest Man, twice placing as a finalist. Today, you star in the History Channel television show, The Strongest Man in History, alongside Brian Shaw, Nick Oberst, and Eddie Hall, while traveling the world promoting strongman with your catchphrase, strong and pretty.

3:58 Oberst, welcome to London Real. Thank you for having me, I’m glad to be here. Dude, great having you on the show. First off, I wanted to get your thoughts on being in London. What’s it like being in this city?

4:07 It’s got kind of a history of strong man stuff here. This whole country does, right? Right, it’s very, very strong here. It’s cool travel around, it’s, honestly, I studied history in college. So I just like walking around looking at the buildings and everything as well.

4:22 And the people, you know, it’s different than any other city. And I don’t wanna compliment it too much make you think I’m just like gushing. But the people, they have their own flavor. It’s hard to explain. Like you kind of have to be here to know, but like there’s no other place.

4:39 Like LA is not like it. New York’s not like it. Even other cities here like Manchester and other things, Birmingham. They’re not like London. London’s got its own thing.

4:48 And every time you come here, you feel like you’re in the center of the world for a little bit. Yeah, no, no, I agree. And you did some strong man stuff here on the streets, right? Yeah, we paid homage to Thomas Topham, who was an old English strongman, one of the classics. He owned a pub and he would do a bunch of just absurd stuff to promote his pub and bring people in.

5:13 The feat of strength that we did, the main one, was he did a whiskey barrel lift, which is kind of like a yoke bar for your audience who don’t know. It’s almost like having a thick squat bar on your back and you stand up with it. Okay. And underneath this huge contraption, it’s all attached to these big barrels of whiskey. So the world record at the time, I might be a little bit off, it was around 1,700 pounds.

5:39 And then we, all four of us shattered that record and then went all the way up and I believe Brian Shaw finished it over 2,500 pounds. Wow, that’s a lot of weight. Yeah. So what’s, I mean, so you’re just lifting it that like six inches off the ground, that final bit. So it’s like just get it up off the ground. It’s basically how much can you compress your spine before you quit?

6:03 But how short are you willing to be okay? All right, and I mean between this country and Scandinavia you get a lot of strong men right very much so very much So it’s a history of strength you guys you guys are also very Your your old countries, you know, it’s not like America’s only been around for a few hundred years So there’s only so far back you can go but strength is universal and and for having a country That’s as old as England or Scandinavia and Asia even you know these places It’s there’s always these really cool classic strongmen in these feats or like Thomas Topham I was telling you beforehand. He he did this really cool feat of strength where he went outside on a rainy night in London which back then the police officers had these little sheds they would stand in and so like it’s almost like a porta potty kind of thing and they would stand in there to be outside of the weather and be able to still see everything. He with his buddies just just trying to be cool and impress him he goes out there and he sees that one of the police officers asleep so he picks up this this shed and carries it down the street to the graveyard and places it inside an open grave and the police officer supposedly wakes up later and and doesn’t know what’s going on, you know?

7:19 So he was a troublemaker too, you know? He was basically Eddie Hall, pre-1800s. Is it, are all you strong men kind of troublemakers at the end of the day? We’re eclectic, man, we’re all over the place. But, you know, definitely Eddie’s a troublemaker.

7:35 I’m a little bit, I bounce all around because I was number eight out of 10 kids. So like, I had the bigger and stronger brother who used to beat the crap out of me, but I also had like the younger brother who I’d beat up. So like, I can kind of play it both ways where I’ll be nice and I’ll be civil or I’ll be rough. And I go all over the place, but you know, I think for the most part, strong men, at least like on the inside, they’re sweet guys. Most of us understand, you know, we have a lot of power and we have a lot of, not status, but stature, you know?

8:14 Like it’s it’s almost it’s almost immoral for us to be mean right because it’s not like it’s it’s not like a normal man Being that way for us. It carries a lot more weight if if we pick on somebody It’s and it’s not just somebody picking on someone. It’s it’s this giant picking on someone, right? So for the most part we can be troublemakers, but not mean not mean-spirited, right? Not physical kind of troublemakers more like pranks and messing. Yes, and we always mess with each other That definitely I’m telling you Nick Oberst has been on the butt end of a lot of pranks this year And I’m sorry Nick, but you know it was funny. It was fun So this whole television show I mean it’s four of you right so Nick and Eddie and Brian and you and They put you together and there’s banter going on But you’re also going back through history and researching like all of these different strongman feats and testing them What’s it been like doing that?

9:13 Yeah, it’s been it’s fun. Of course. It’s just it feels almost like we grew a reverence for these characters There’s so many guys like Thomas Topham and and all these other characters We did we had a guy Peter Francisco who was a soldier in the American Revolution, which I mean, it’s been a long time There’s no sore spots for English American relations anymore. We’re all allies now Now, but he was a soldier in the American Revolution. This guy was six foot 10 and back in 1776, which is just, it’s unheard of.

9:48 And he fought in the war at 16. He survived being shot and stabbed and all these crazy things. And I mean, there’s stories of him after a battle, there was a cannon stuck on the field. And he, instead of letting the French and the Brit or instead of letting the British take it after the battle, he picks it up and carries it off the field just so he could hold on to it. And this guy, just largely unknown.

10:13 And even though George Washington’s quote is on his gravestone, it says that he was a one-man army and the war wouldn’t have been the same without him, but I had never heard of him. And just getting to tell his story and kind of get a little love out there. It also, in my opinion, there’s really only one time when you die and that’s when people stop speaking your name. And I believe that us carrying on their legacy just kind of keeps them alive a little bit longer.

10:38 Does it give your job a little more perspective? Definitely, definitely. And it kind of centers us. We go home and I can only speak for myself, but I always sit there and I realize like, you know, like my grandchildren are gonna know about this. And it also means, carries back to what I said earlier about picking on people.

10:57 There’s so much more weight to what we’re doing. You know, people are gonna remember what you’re doing. You wanna be the best person you can. Yeah. You have a history degree.

11:07 Do most people have the wrong conception about strong men? I mean, you guys on the show all seem like smart guys, you’re fun guys, you’re accomplished guys. You’re not just a bunch of meatheads. No, there are a lot of us that are meatheads. And we’re definitely like, at least part meathead.

11:23 You’ll see me in the gym and you’ll be like, Jesus. But we are slightly civilized, slightly. Okay, all right. And what what is the typical strongman like, you know? I mean everyone assumes you guys are tough guys But you I mean you guys also have to have sides of you that aren’t tough, right?

11:42 Right well most of us have kids all of us on the show have kids and You just you could see when when we get our little breaks and we’re all face timing our kids and we’re all talking baby Talk and you know daddy loves you all that stuff. It’s it’s you know, it’s it’s heartwarming I mean, we’re all gentle giants. And a lot of us even got picked on as kids because we grew up chubby and just out of place. And you have to find yourself as you’re growing. And all kids do.

12:12 It’s just, again, you stand out as an adult because you’re so big. You also stand out as a child when you’re big. And so having all of that and having your families and everything going on, it really makes for a well-rounded character most of the time. And I can’t say everybody’s that way. I mean, I’m sure you could run into a strong man who is totally the opposite of what I’m saying.

12:33 But at least for the four of us, I feel like we’re all big hearted, gentle giants. Yeah, you know, we had a guy named Jeff Thompson that was here who went on to become a great writer and a BAFTA award-winning filmmaker, but he worked the door at Incoventry, which is this really rough city here in the UK, and I know you did some time on the door. And he used to always say that the doorman, a lot of the big guys and sometimes the bodybuilders sometimes are the scariest guys in the room.

12:57 You know, and a lot of times that they put this whole thing up as kind of this protection right deep inside They’re just they’re sometimes scared. Sometimes they lash out to kind of hide that fear, right? Sometimes with definitely, I mean, especially I grew up working the door I worked at a big venue not not huge But a big bar venue in Santa Cruz, California called the catalyst and we would have concerts like not giant shows But we would have like Willie Nelson come through and our security for BB King and and Snoop Dogg and stuff like that It was really cool really cool time in my life, but you would have situations happen I remember one night when Hank Williams jr. Was playing we had a I’m not gonna say which biker gang because again I could But there was a biker group in there And there was a few of them who were being a little too rough with with one of the women there And I told them, you know, I understand that this is okay in your culture, but it’s not okay in my bar and they got mouthy so we escorted them out the back and Four of them wanted to fight and we ended up getting into a tussle and it got it got pretty rough pretty rough And the next night it just goes back to a regular bar. There’s no concert happening I’m the only man at that door and I’m terrified because I know they’re gonna come in I know they’re gonna come back and so I’m sitting at the door and then all of a sudden I hear all the bikes pull up

14:23 You can hear them and you hear them and I’m just oh my god. This is where it happens This is where it goes, right and out in comes in this big group in the very front There was this short older man who was just he had to have been 80 years old and he Walking in front and all these bikers behind him He looked up at me because in the catalyst there’s the front door and then there’s stairs that go up to the bar and I and I was sat at the top of the stairs. He looked up at me and he just went like that.

14:49 I was like, fuck, it’s like, all right. Like I just put my head down and came down the stairs, you know, like almost like the principal’s office, but come down there and then he looks back and he tells his guys to come forward and the four guys who were in the back with us the night before stepped forward and they had their heads down. And so I started to feel a little bit better. And he goes, I just wanted you to know that we are very sorry for the way that these men acted and it will never happen again.

15:13 He gave me his card. said, if there’s ever another situation like this, I want you to call me directly. I was like, whoa, you know, like a big sigh of relief all of a sudden, I went upstairs and I was like, I’m okay, I’m okay, I’m okay, you know? It was intense, but stuff like that happens. Wow, because that could’ve got pretty nasty.

15:32 Yeah, and I thought it would. Honestly, I was terrified that night. I mean, the biker gangs in California didn’t joke. Yeah. I mean, like, you don’t mess with the Mongols.

15:41 No, no, and that’s Texas. I live in Texas, and that’s all Mongol territory, and everyone knows, I mean, if you leave them alone, they’ll pretty much leave you alone, but you don’t wanna get on a bad side of them. Right, okay, all right. And so you were doing the door for a while, right? I did the door for six years, man.

16:04 That’s the only real job I’ve ever had, was security guard. And because football wasn’t, you tried out for football, you played in college, and then we’re gonna make pros. Very few guys make pro anyway. It’s hard to actually make that transition, right? Yeah, it was hard to transition over and I just was a hair short and didn’t happen for me.

16:24 So, you know, I tried to do the arena football thing, but in America, arena football had folded a year or two before I got there. So guys went from making good salaries to making nothing. And these guys were playing football to try and live out their dream, but they were working at McDonald’s when they weren’t at practice. No, I just couldn’t do that. Like I had already, my knees and ankles were banged up.

16:45 I couldn’t do that anymore. So I started working the door and I was trying to figure out what I was gonna do with my life. And a buddy of mine, he was obsessed with strong man. He just got me in the gym one day and went from there. And you went and did your first competition and boom, you just took to it really quickly.

17:02 Yeah, it was just like a fish in water, man. I took off and football really helped me but I also loved the gym. Like that was one of the things, The camaraderie in the gym for football was one of my favorite things, because when you’re sweating and you’re pushing, and one of the guys is trying to keep up, but maybe he can’t do it, but you see that determination, and that determination makes you want to help him. It makes us all closer, and it just bonds you into this crazy family type situation.

17:32 I love the gym just growing up, so Strongman was perfect for me. Okay, and before we get to Strongman, what were you like as a kid? Like I said, eight out of 10 kids, which means, man, you’re down on the low, on the toilet. One bathroom. One bathroom.

17:46 Yeah, you grew up with some poverty. Yeah, well, yeah, I mean, it’s funny because when I tell people how I grew up, they’re always like, wow, you know, I didn’t have electricity throughout high school. My dad worked at a, like a tractor company, Quinn Caterpillar, Caterpillar contractors. He would come home on the weekend and he would plug in a generator from work for the weekend. So Saturday and Sunday, we had electricity, but Monday through Friday, we had none.

18:14 And people always act as though that’s this big deal. It’s crazy, but me as a kid, it’s like, that’s just the way it was, that’s what it is. So we had fun, we were super creative and we would go and we’d jump on the trampoline and we’d create wrestling matches and stuff like that. I was obsessed with the WWF as a kid, obsessed. And I’d wrestle all my brothers and sisters until I got too big, and then they wouldn’t wanna wrestle me anymore.

18:45 And we’d even create little stories and movies and stuff like that, it was a little camcorder. But we were really close, we were very close. And you got picked on as a kid because you were big? Yeah, yeah, the thing is is we also, we had no money and so all my clothes were ratty, but I was also really chubby. I was just, I was short and just built like a square.

19:10 And so, you know, people love to pick on me because of it. And I was just soft-hearted and I never really wanted to hurt anybody or anything. And so it was probably from like third grade all the way till sophomore year of high school when I hit my growth spurt, that it was just being picked on. You know, but how do you how do you deal with that? Just you just you figure it out I I got I got so lucky like my mom was so supportive My dad worked like 16 hour days and I barely ever saw him but my mom she was always telling me you can do anything you’re special and she really believed it and you can tell when someone’s telling you something they’re Trying to be nice or when they’re telling you something that they truly believe and I just I knew that I was gonna be important I knew I was special because my mom knew it, you know?

20:04 So I just grew up with that. And so even though I was picked on and I’d felt bad about my weight and everything, I’d always go home and I’d feel better. So it was a weird dichotomy of like school and then home life, you know? So the way I almost, I wasn’t even gonna go to high school. I was gonna be homeschooled.

20:26 And I remember it was like four days before school started, after junior high had ended, high school was starting, and a friend of mine, who played quarterback, he gave me a call, and he was like, Rob, you’re not going to school. You’re gonna be a good football player, you should go. You need to come. And I was like, oh yeah, football sounds like fun. So I went and I did that and ended up paying for college and everything, so it was great that I went, but being picked on almost kept me from even getting a high school education.

20:57 Wow, yeah, that’s serious stuff, isn’t it? you can totally mess with kids’ heads for a long time. It really taught me the importance of a lot of things, standing up for yourself, being true to yourself, but it also taught me how important that home life is. Like, you know that as an adult, but as a child, I knew that because like when I was home, I just, I felt like Superman, you know? I was like, wow, like I’m really special, you know?

21:24 Imagine if your mom hadn’t been that way or if she had to work. Exactly, and maybe none of that would have happened exactly and would and she was able to do that with ten kids. Yes, that’s impressive Yeah, she’s a very sweet lady Yeah And so when you start playing football in high school things start changing right because that is a great place to be Socially and physically what was that transition like for you? Football was was my stage. It was my arena, you know, and and from the moment I put on those pads I just I was so dominant. I was I was bigger and stronger and I was fast I don’t know where the speed came from because I was so chubby, but I was quick man I was super quick. And so I Remember just strapping up and day one We’d lined up and I didn’t know anything about football. I didn’t know positions I didn’t know anything I actually started the first game as a freshman and I had to come home I told my mom I was like I’m starting at tackle, but I don’t know what that is So we bought a bunch of magazines and we’re looking through them and I’m like, uh, that’s that’s the tackle right there Okay, that’s what I’m supposed to go. It’s like before YouTube, right? Yeah. Exactly. Wow And so you start getting good at that and for people that don’t understand I mean football in America is like a religion, right? It’s huge. It’s a big deal. Yeah, it’s like the only sport in high school That matters. Yeah, it’s it’s huge man. I mean, especially

22:43 Texas in California Football is everything and you know, it was just you know, if you’re good at football It didn’t all of a sudden it didn’t matter like that I was chubby and all that stuff, you know, cuz it was like, oh we saw you kick some ass on the field, you know And so it really changed all of all of that for me Okay, and you keep getting bigger throughout high school and college as well. Yeah. Okay. I actually graduated high school 375 pounds Wow, I’m 393 pounds of a okay. All right. Yeah, is your body different today than most definitely? Okay How so definitely I have a lot more muscle a lot less baby fat Okay, a lot less because it takes time to build that muscle, right? Definitely grown man strength, you know and the density You know, I just I had a bigger waist than everything. So, you know, it’s it’s it’s a big change Yeah, I was showing you are our video department earlier and we did this film about Dorian Yates who was six-time Mr. Olympia one of our early guests on London Real last seven years ago came on and you know People just thought he would have nothing to say He’s just some lump and he actually ended up blowing everybody away with just his interests as intellect and all that stuff Yeah And we did a documentary about him and and I got to watch his body change through his competition and you really see That to build muscle it can takes, you know, six eight ten years to really build that structure up

24:05 Yeah for something like that and I’m guessing it’s similar with you same same exact thing Yeah, it took me a long time and then you you start to learn like Which muscles take longer so you you work those in a separate way like Dorian Yates He basically treated his body like a sculpture So like I remember Arnold saying one time he’s like you’d look at yourself in the mirror and be like, oh, okay I need I need more plaster on my sculpture here So then you go to the gym and you work that part and that’s that’s your your mold, you know And that’s basically what he did and then yeah, it takes a long time You watch these bodybuilders come up and you know Phil Heath Phil. Heath didn’t look like that 15 years ago. Yeah Yeah, it’s time right? Yeah Before we get to strong man What did you learn from being on the door? Oh?

24:54 Did you learn a lot about people a lot a lot you know? respect is a big thing respect is a very big thing and Even even if it’s common courtesy That’s that’s always necessary whether whether the person deserves common courtesy or not, that’s not a reflection of them, it’s a reflection of you. And so I feel like, you know, we’re really quick to be offended or to be upset with someone and let that change us. And then we put out this gross energy, this, you know, it’s almost like a habitual darkness that just wants to shoot out of you.

25:39 That’s just waiting, you know? And you learn that when you do that kind of stuff, all you do is create more and it comes back. And then all of a sudden, this person and that person feel the same way and it’s really, it’s contagious. So I learned, you know, anything you can do, if you can do a common courtesy, it’s always much better. Even I’ve literally knocked somebody out and never stopped smiling.

26:04 And I’ve had situations where, you know, where somebody was extremely aggressive and me being nice to them actually calmed them down. We had a rap guy came in, a big rapper, I can’t remember who it was, and the crowd was mostly gangster out dudes. It was a lot of tattoos, there was a lot of flags and colors and tats and all that stuff. And so usually those nights tend to get hectic. but in the front row there was this he had to be 16 the 16 year old high school kid and his girlfriend and they’re just you know big wide smiles they’re so excited to see this rapper but they’re surrounded by serious faced gangsters and in the front like there was a cage that was like you know waist high just just to keep you from pushing up against the stage and he’s up there with his girlfriend in front of him, his arms around her and he’s like singing the lyrics to all the songs you know he’s so happy to be there and behind him this this dude who was like twice the size just kept bumping him bumping him and then he turned around and then the guy put his face finger i’m i can’t hear what’s happening but the guy puts his finger in his girlfriend’s face and then starts pushing her face so this little 16 year old like i’m guessing 16 16 year old kid hits this guy Boom, hits him in the face, and I was like, oh, fuck.

27:34 Here we go. It was like 20 people all just started raining down on this kid. So, of course, you gotta do something. You gotta do something. So, I rushed the front end, and there’s two other bouncers coming with me, and I’m reaching over that waist-high fence trying to get this kid, but I’m also getting tagged too.

27:54 They’re tagging everybody. So, I’m getting shots to the face, and I grab him, and I’m holding him like this, and I’m trying to get him over the fence and he’s stuck. So basically, I’m holding him while they’re beating his ass. They’re like hitting him and I’m like, fuck it, like defend yourself and I start swinging, right? So we’re all swinging, finally get him out, get the guy that started the fight, the guy that was poking his girl’s face.

28:18 I caught him once, like nicked him with a pinky and it was weird, like it was almost like a movie, like it split his eye open and it folded down. It was a weird little catch. So I remember because I was pulling him out of the crowd and I couldn’t see one of his eyes because the skin was hanging over it. It’s crazy, I’m sorry. So I get him over and he’s blacked out, like passed out and I drag him to the side of the stage and a buddy, the guy who got me into strong man, Evan Hansman, is actually with me and he looks just like me, like we could be twins.

28:51 So I got him and I got him on the ground and Evan grabs him by his shirt, picks him up and slaps him like the hardest slap I’ve ever seen and the guy wakes up and looks at Evan and he goes, get the fuck out of my bar. And the guy just like, yes, sir, yes, sir. Like got up and walked out back and he was like apologizing and everything. He was like being really respectful and stuff. It blew my mind.

29:14 I don’t know exactly why I started this story. It’s a good story anyway. So keep it respectful. And just cause someone might look like they don’t deserve it, they deserve it because you need to keep your own respect for yourself. Exactly, it’s a reflection of you.

29:29 Right, and treat them like a human being and that’ll always be a good thing. Yeah, there was a lot of homeless people and stuff in Santa Cruz, it’s a big haven for it because the weather’s so perfect. And you learn that, there’s times where it’s hard to be that way. But I mean, being shitty to somebody never made me feel any better. I mean, it might make you feel like, oh, I got a clever one in there and like you burn somebody and you’re like, oh yeah, I burned them.

29:56 But two minutes later, you still feel like shit. But if you’re nice to somebody and that person walks off smiling and then they’re nice to somebody and all that starts to trickle down, like you do feel much better. You know, it’s weird because like it’s not that instant gratification of when you do get somebody back and you have something quick and witty to say. But long-term and for everyone else that’s around you, it’s actually, you feel way better. Right, and in the club, they can see if you’re being respectful to people, so that’ll keep everybody else chill.

30:27 Huge. I think that might’ve been what happened with the bikers, because a lot of that, we were trying, we were trying really hard to keep that from escalating, and we told them, look, we’re not trying to be rude, we’re not trying to be rough, we didn’t even touch them on the way out. We just pointed to the direction and walked next to them, didn’t even put our hands on them, and I think that’s why the old man came back. I’d like to think that way. because some of the guys told him that, and they said, look, actually, the Bouncers were actually really respectful, but these four guys acted out, which they probably had a history of it.

30:59 I’m sure. And it probably made sense. Yeah. Sounds like that movie Roadhouse, where Patrick Spacey said, right? Yeah.

31:05 Yeah, what does he say? Be nice, be nice, until it’s time not to be nice. Yes. Right? Yeah.

31:12 If I could wear those tight pants, I would, too. All right, so your buddy Evan gets you into Strongman. Yeah. Okay. And the first competition you’re you’re loving it first competition I loved it But I sucked the first competition was four days after I googled what strong man was so I didn’t know it growing up Like we didn’t we didn’t have TV. We didn’t have any of that stuff, but When I tried it out I was like I can do this so I googled it and I showed my girl at the time I was like I’m gonna make this happen like I showed her and I was like I will make this happen and Everybody in the world was telling me like don’t do this like it’s like you can do it for fun But there’s no money in this. There’s there’s no way you can be successful as a strong man. There’s just nothing there I was like, yeah, it’s true then it’s true then and it’s still partially true now But the truth is is anything is what you make it, right?

32:03 I’m sure a lot of people will tell you hey don’t do this interview thing There’s no money in that you gotta be a lawyer be a doctor and you’re like, uh, I think I can do this You know It’s you got to believe in yourself and it goes back to what my mom was always telling me and I just I just knew If I wanted it, I could make it happen, right? And then make something happen. Yeah, and that can be up to you, right? Yeah, it’s always up to you and it’s it’s there’s this thing inside you That’s always telling you like what’s real and what’s not what you can do and and I just I just always believed it I always listen to it. Okay, so first competition. You’re no good at it. Terrible. Why because you’re just so new and right So heavy and it was so different than anything in the gym, right?

32:45 And so like we did max weight yoke pick So like it’s like almost the same thing we did in London where we did the barrel the whiskey barrel lifts same thing But it was like like from like my belly height so I had to squat under it to pick it up and I remember there was there was guys that were like half my weight that destroyed me and And all this so at the end of that competition And I didn’t feel disheartened. I was also the only super heavyweight in there, so I automatically qualified for Nationals. So I was like, okay, well, I have an invite to Nationals.

33:20 And I was driving home, and I just knew, like, all it would take was work. I knew what it took to be a good football player. I knew what it took to be successful in school or anything else. And the dedication is not an issue for me. I like going to the gym.

33:35 So I had to focus my energy and I had to direct it the right way. I knew I could. And then when I went to Nationals, I got top ten in America. So I went from basically horrible to being one of the ten best amateurs in America within a matter of a couple of months. Didn’t you set like a log press record early on?

33:56 The very first time I touched a log, it didn’t count because there was no one there. It was me and Evan. And actually my friend Kale, who does a website called Starting Strongman, which is how people now get into Strongman, like if they’re looking to start Strongman and find out like where there’s gyms or how do I train this or what’s this called, that kind of stuff, how do you protect yourself, that’s all on startingstrongman.com. And so it was me, Evan, and Kale.

34:22 And the log press amateur world record at that time was like 3.30 or something like that. The first time I did a log, I hit 340 years. It was maybe 320 and I hit 330. The numbers might be off by a couple pounds. But I broke that record and I remember putting it down and I looked over at Evan and I was like, so is that any good?

34:41 And he goes, get the fuck out of here. I was like, all right, I guess that’s good, right? And everybody has the lift that they’re good at, right? That’s what I kind of noticed. And even watching the four of you guys on the History Channel, which by the way, people can watch the clips on YouTube and I know it’s coming to the UK real soon here.

34:56 There’s great stuff, but you all have something you do better, right? Like Eddie’s kind of the deadlift guy, right? Most certainly. And then Brian recently was the guy that pulled those stones across the bridge. We talk about that.

35:07 But the log press is your thing. That’s my baby. And it’s deceiving, because when you look at the press, it looks light, but you got tons of weight on there, right? It is deceiving, right? It’s deceiving, it’s got a deceptive look to it.

35:21 It’s not like anything else either. And it’s also, like a lot of people wanna try and compare it to like Olympic pressing, like a push press or something, but it’s so different. It’s basically like picking up this dog right here and adding a ton of weight and letting his belly sit on your chest while you press him. And there’s no give, there’s no flex, nothing like that. It’s one of the hardest feats of strength there is.

35:45 I think- And you have to roll it up from the ground, up your belly, that’s a skill and strength. That’s the part that a lot of people mess up on too. Okay. That’s one of the things that- themselves out or they just can’t do it. I’ve seen guys have weight on their chest and black out and fall back because you lose all your air and then you try and take a breath with 500 pounds sitting on your chest.

36:06 It’s not coming in, you know? Wow, all right, so there’s a whole skill set involved with that. Most certainly. Okay, but you were still natural with it. Yeah. Why do you think so?

36:15 Was it certain parts of your body? Because you’re a tall guy. You would think a shorter guy might have an advantage. Most of the time, I have a barrel chest and I don’t have like super long arms. I’ve got arms that are like perfect for my height, but most guys at my height tend to have a little bit longer arms.

36:32 I don’t know, I just, it just worked. Like, I just, I put it up here and it felt natural. It was like, oh, like this is, this is what I was made to do. Yeah. You know, and I just, I’ve always had these big dense front delts.

36:46 And like, even when I bench press in football, we did that, the combine test, we do two plates for reps. I hit 46 reps with 225, and the whole time, the only thing I ever felt was my front deltoids. Everyone else feels it in their chest, but my deltoids are so strong, they just take over, and that’s everything you use to press, so it’s a combination of all those things, and then it was also like, I just have that confidence, you know, and I think all that mixed together just ended up working out.

37:19 Okay, what about posture? Something I always like watch you guys, Like that’s a big deal right here’s if your posture is off by even a few degrees all these things are gonna crush you Oh, yeah, I’ve seen guys be paralyzed. I’ve seen guys just snap. There’s And when you watch the video clips of Strongest Man in History there They show epic fails and stuff and there’s this one that makes me cringe Oh, man, this guy is picking up an Atlas stone And he he’s you know you pick it up you put it in your lap You put your arms over and then you go to pick it up and for the people who don’t know Atlas stones are those round concrete balls, you know, like Atlas held the world on his head. Yeah, that’s basically it Really scary-looking. Yeah, that’s actually my son’s name is Atlas. All right. Happy birthday, buddy And so he’s he’s picking it up Right and the load is probably at his nose height where he has to put it And he’s going up and you see the color drain from the back of his head which means he let all of his air out and he can’t get me back in and then all of a sudden he just collapses with the stone above his chin going up and he collapses and I I don’t know what happened to this person I have no clue but it looks like the stone just comes down on his chest neck and shoulder and crushes him I’m not sure but I’ve seen a lot of that type of thing happen you know and if if you’re not you’re not prepared if you don’t have diaphragm

38:43 Strength and you haven’t done your due diligence before you go into competition some bad stuff can happen man okay diaphragm strength I think I saw some videos maybe of Eddie or someone else training diaphragm strength right we put weights on your chest you practice like breathing right yep I’ve been I’ve been promoting that a lot actually I talked about it on a couple a couple podcasts and videos and trying to teach people that that control you know it’s almost Actually opera singers do the exercises as well, but it’s it’s basically this this part right here That that holds your breath and keeps your lungs and and there and your insides from collapsing under no air And so, you know What we do is we’ll lay on the ground and we’ll put like a sandbag or some weights or something on our diaphragm And you’ll want to flex and push your stomach out and leave it out for like two minutes. So you learn to breathe while still being flexed, which is really hard.

39:40 Like right now, I can do it, because I’m so used to it. But anyone else, they’d be like, you know? So I got to push out while you all breathe? Yeah, like imagine if I was just pushing that button in. So push that back out, and breathe?

39:51 Yeah, yeah, and learn to keep it flexed. Don’t let your finger go anywhere. That way you don’t lose that, because if your finger goes in, your back’s breaking. And on the exhale is where it’s hard, because you want to go like that. Yeah, exactly.

40:05 But if you let that in, your back’s gonna break because your posture’s gonna get all whacked. Exactly. Okay, and you do the daily breathing exercises, right? I do daily breathing, every morning. Every morning I do breathing exercises when I have my coffee.

40:15 Okay. And I just, I learned that there’s a breathing guru and I’m blanking on his name right now. Wim Hof, not the ice cream. Wim Hof, yeah, I’ve never met him, but I’ve studied a lot of this stuff and I took basically his little routine and I do that in my mornings. And I’ll tell you what, The first 10 times I did it, where you take 100% in, you let 30% out, 100% in, 30% out.

40:42 And then after you do 10 breaths, you let it all out and you just count to 10. Then you breathe in as deep as you can and you hold it as long as possible. And then you let it out. And when I would do that, the first 10, 15 times, my heart just would go like boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And I was like, oh crap, like there’s something wrong, but actually, no, it’s just, your body’s not used to having all that oxygen all through it.

41:09 I’m telling you, man, that’s better than coffee. That wakes you up in the morning. I agree, do you hyper oxygenate yourself before certain lifts? Most definitely, especially if we have like, we’ll do things where we’ll do the log press for 60 seconds, as many as you can. And with that sitting on your diaphragm the whole time, you’re never really getting breath.

41:28 You just, that’s about as much breath as you’re gonna get. So when you do those things beforehand, I’ll stand there and you’ll always, if the camera catches me, you’ll see me doing this. And it’ll look like I’m like falling asleep, but I’m actually like trying to get as much in as I can. Okay, and you do it that kind of calmly. It’s not like, I do that, I do that like on other times.

41:57 Like before, and I might be wrong, I’m not a guru of breathing, you know? I just know what’s been working for me and I’m also adapting as I go. But I do that type of breathing before a competition, but I don’t want my heart rate up when I do the log press for 60 seconds or if I’m gonna do a medley or something. I don’t want my heart rate going. I wanna try and stay calm.

42:19 Yeah, now that makes sense. Yeah, we’ve had Wim Hof on and I’ve been playing with his breathing stuff and it’s amazing. It’s amazing how you can change your state with hyperoxy in your body and I mean, you don’t need anything else. It’s crazy. It’s pretty crazy.

42:32 Story about breaking the ice world record and going past it oh my god just hearing that like makes me like creeped out going underneath the ice and swimming underneath yeah all that so like there was a world record and then he instead of coming up to it he swam past where you’re supposed to come up went up and there was all ice so he’s held his breath past the world record and can’t come up for air and had to break through ice some at some point and I I think his corneas froze, so he couldn’t see anything. Oh my gosh. I mean, that was pretty crazy.

43:04 That’s insane. Yeah, all right, so there’s quite a bit of science in what you’re doing to make sure, because you’re pushing it. Yeah. I mean, you’re going to the edge of the envelope. Yeah, it’s meathead science, yeah.

43:14 I always call Brian the mad scientist of strong man too, because, like you were complimenting me and generously on our intelligence and stuff, but if you talk to Brian Shaw, I mean, he can tell you the diameter of that and he can tell you the best place to put your hand, how far you wanna spread your fingers, which way you do this, that, and he’s so on point that he could talk to you for 20 minutes about how to pick that up. It’s insane. And he’s the most scientific lifter I’ve ever seen, which is probably why he’s four times World’s Strongest Man.

43:49 Okay, because he breaks it down. And yet he’s willing to share this knowledge with you, right? Is that a thing about Strong Man? Are you guys collaborative? We talk about that a lot.

43:58 It’s really common for people to talk about, about all strongmen are always cheering for people, even if they’re competing in some stuff. And there’s some truth to that. Like, yes, some of us are friends and some of us, even if it hinders us, will help someone else. For the most part though, we’re all there to feed our families. Like, and it’s like, it’s not like I hate you.

44:23 It’s just, look, if you beat me, that means I don’t get to put this money in savings for my son’s college. That’s the way I see it. And even like the other day I was competing and as I’m going, it’s also motivation, but I always, I see my son sitting there and like this is for him, you know? All that money that comes in from that, which is not a ton, that all goes straight into his savings. So I’ll never give up his future to help somebody else.

44:58 I just can’t do that. But like, yes, it is a lot more common and strong man for us to be supportive. Especially what you’ll see is like, say we’re carrying something from A to B as fast as we can. And we carry it over there and we’re done. And then we look back and our buddy’s struggling.

45:17 We will go back and cheer for that person instead of just walking off. That is very common. Because our risk is that we’re done. We’ve done our thing, but we want you to succeed too. It’s not like, it does no good for us for you to fail.

45:30 We want you to be successful. So it’s like a code, like a little bit of camaraderie. Maybe like martial artists. Most definitely, it’s a lot like that. And you’ve hung out with martial artists quite a bit.

45:40 Yeah, I’ve gotten around a little bit. Now your son, he’s four now. Did his birth change the way you looked at competition? It changed everything, man. I became wild for a little bit.

45:53 Well, what’s fun is we talked about my early childhood, but when I was 16, my parents divorced and dad had some issues and stuff. And, you know, I don’t wanna get too much into it, but I ended up being homeless and on my own at 16. And I just became angry. I was just so upset and I hated the world. I wanted it to burn, you know?

46:15 And I, for so long, I carried that with me. And that, I’m telling that, it put me in some tough spots, you know, and that’s part of what I was saying with just being curious to people. It brightens the world rather than darkening it. I spent a lot of time walking around making the place darker. And I was a rough character for a long time, for a long time.

46:36 People might find that hard to believe. I’m very happy to say that. I’m happy that people feel that. Because I didn’t like being that person and I wasn’t happy being that person. And it got me into a lot of trouble and I just honestly just kept putting me deeper in a hole.

46:52 And as I got older, you know, I was in college and I’d finally started to find myself. And, you know, I came to grips with, you know, you have to accept that your parents are people, you know, like we always grow up and our parents are supposed to be this perfect image of what you’re supposed to be. But then you realize like, your dad’s a man and your mom’s a woman and they make mistakes and it doesn’t mean that they’re not amazing people. It doesn’t mean they don’t love you.

47:24 It doesn’t mean that you’re wrong. All it means is world people trying to figure this out. Nobody gave you a book and said, hey, this is how you’re supposed to do this and this is how you’re supposed to do that and this will be the perfect life for you. It doesn’t happen. So basically, I had to grow up and I grew up and I was like, I kind of came to this realization that I was only hindering myself and being upset was only making me more upset.

47:52 And so I finally let that go and then, you know, a couple of years later I ended up having my son and man, that changes everything, you know, like I just wanna spend every minute I can playing with them, wrestling with them and showing them the world and everything, you know, and I’m so lucky that because of what I do, I get a lot of time with him. I get to spend all day, every day with him hanging out. And I spent three days, just last week, every day at the lake, where I have a giant man-sized kayak, and I’ll roll out to the middle of the lake and he’ll jump off of it and swim back.

48:32 And we just did that all day long. All day long, we’d paddle out and he’d swim back and that kind of stuff. That’s the most satisfied I’ve ever been in my entire life. is watching him smile, you know? So kind of went all over the place there, but you know, it took me a minute to realize, you know, the way my mom was to me was the way I need to be to the world.

48:55 And that’s also a reflection on who I am as a father now. Right, but you used to use that darkness when you used to lift and stuff like that for a while? Yeah, I used it for everything. I used it for football, I used it for lifting. I used that just in life, you know?

49:11 It even makes the wrong women like you. It makes the wrong friends wanna hang out with you. It got me into bad situations and I was doing bad stuff, man. It was, there were points in my life where it was really dark. And that’s all brought on by my characteristics, by who I was being, you know?

49:32 Because as soon as I changed, all of a sudden those people went around. All of a sudden it was brighter and things were happier, and people were smiling, and I just felt better. And now you think about your son when it comes to winning things and him watching you, so that makes you push it now. Most definitely, most definitely. And I push hard, the same way we looked at Thomas Topham and Peter Francisco and all these characters in our TV show, he’s gonna look at me that way.

50:02 And anyone else can see me however they want. I don’t, I really like, that’s up to them, and of course I hope that they would see me in a good light, but like if they don’t, then that’s your choice and that’s totally fine. For him, I would do anything for him to just see me as a good guy. So that’s important. Yeah, very much.

50:24 It’s a good motivation, right? Yeah, definitely. Let’s back it up a little bit and ask you just about strong men in general. Why do people want to watch strong men? And why is it such a big deal?

50:36 When Eddie was here, he said, every guy wants to be the strongest man in the world. Most definitely. And he says, well, some guys say, no, I don’t want to be the strongest man in the world. He says they’re lying. They are.

50:46 You agree? Oh, definitely. I think every guy wants to be the strongest. Every guy wants to be the toughest, you know. There’s these,

50:58 Not measurements, but you know, there’s just these things that it’s a human nature throughout time. You know, we always wanted to see who was the toughest warrior and who was the greatest swordsman and all of those things. We all want to be all of that. Like I want to be a pirate space cowboy because that’s the best thing in the world, right? Like you’re the top of the line there.

51:21 So, you know, we all want all that stuff. So he was definitely telling the truth. People watch strong man. I think it’s just, we’re such a spectacle. It’s almost like circus freak strength.

51:36 And you don’t understand how this person’s doing this, but you can’t stop watching it. In a lot of ways, it’s like, you know, when you see those videos where it’s like, it’s epic fails and car crashes and all that, and you’re like, how did that? Then you can’t turn away. It’s almost like that. But it’s a different type of twist to it because it’s almost men overcoming are almost overcoming our human form and just being stronger than man is meant to be.

52:12 When you see one of us pulling a plane, you’re like, oh, we weren’t meant to do that. How is that guy doing it? And I think that’s a lot of why people watch. The TV show, I think people watch for a lot more reasons because we get that aspect where we do those feats of strength And you see people like, we ran down Main Street in Cody, Wyoming with a piano strapped to our back. Brian was hurt, so it was me, Eddie, and Nick.

52:41 We ran, it was fucking forever. It was so long. It must’ve been like 300 yards. So it’s out of no idea the equivalent. You got a piano on your back.

52:51 A piano strapped to our back. And everyone in town was there to see that. Everybody in town. and Nick halfway through starts to black out and we’re at really high elevation. So you see the camera goes to Nick and Nick puts the piano down and he’s doing this thing where he’s like his heart is convulsing and he can’t stop.

53:13 And he’s like twitching and trying to grab his chest and you don’t know if he’s having a heart attack or what’s happening, you know? And there’s that appeal that’s there but it’s also, it’s for friends who are all enjoying themselves and pushing the limits in competition, but being supportive as well. Like I said, we will go back and root for the other person to succeed. We will push, but we’re also gonna talk trash like boys do, you know? Like when you’re in the locker room with the other guys, you’re always making fun of each other, teasing about this and that.

53:47 We do all that. And then there’s the human aspect of the character that we’re talking about and the historical aspects of it as well. That kind of stuff, man. that ties it in in such a beautiful little knot that I think it’s, for me, I mean, of course I’m biased, it’s almost impossible not to watch it. The show and the competition.

54:07 Yeah. And how do they choose the events? I mean, they seem to be these real kind of old school lifts or weirdly weird unique lifts. Yeah, you mean with the TV show? Yeah, but no, with the strongman competition.

54:19 With World Strongest Man. Yeah. There’s the classic strength of events that we’ve had for a long time And there’s some that just strongman kind of just invented itself. Like the Atlas stones is, they call it the phenomenal event. The Atlas stones, it’s always how we finish a competition.

54:38 But there’s really no Atlas stones before strongman. There was stone lifting, there was natural stones and there was stone throwing and they still do this. I believe it’s in Iran, they do what’s like a hip lift. They’ll see how heavy of a stone they can get to their hip and hold it with one arm. There’s a lot of stone lifts, but the Atlas stone itself, the shape and the way we do it on the platforms, that’s unique to strongman.

55:04 And it’s quite a spectacle to watch. Yeah, yeah. And it just looks so caveman and carnal. Exactly. It looks hard.

55:11 I haven’t played with it. Oh, that’s brutal. But one of our former guests, Elliot Hulse, he’s got a bunch of his like young guys doing it in like these, you know, just to try it. Yeah. You know, just to get their hands dirty to feel what it’s like to kind of do this.

55:24 He does, he has molds too, doesn’t he? Doesn’t he have the molds? Yeah, I think he does. Yeah, he makes the molds where you pour the concrete into it to make a stone. Yeah, it’s also a lot of crossfit people are doing it now too.

55:35 It’s just something when you tap into that, we all have that caveman in there, you know? Like we all came from somewhere. You didn’t just appear suited and booted as well dressed as you are today, you know? By the way, I love that tie. Oh, thank you, man.

55:49 Yeah, and so we all didn’t just appear like that. We came from something and that is in us. Wherever it is, it’s there. And so when you kinda tap into that, there’s just, it’s almost like after you take a really long run and afterwards you’re freaking exhausted but there’s just this floating feeling. You’re like, fuck man, I just did something good.

56:12 That’s there too when you do a feat of strength like that. Yeah, yeah, I think Dana White says about fighting, it’s in our DNA and he always says like, if some guys are playing basketball some guys are playing hockey, and a fight breaks out, everyone goes watch the fight. I think Strongman is a little like that too, because you gotta go see the guys carrying the pianos, right? And you deep down wanna carry a piano, right? Yeah, you wanna be able to do it, of course.

56:34 Yeah, for sure. And what’s the biggest thing you’ve learned from the show on the History Channel, like, you know, learning about all these former Strongman, like, what have you seen and learned about the history of these guys? Um, you know, I’ve learned so much, it’s almost hard to whittle it down. I’ve grown so much more respect for these characters because all of these men, except for Peter Francisco, almost all of them died penniless. Donald Denny, the guy who created those stones we did in Scotland, the Denny Stones, he won multiple world championships in Highland Games.

57:12 He’s got records and records. They showed us all these trophies and medals and everything and they’re like, oh, by the way, he died in debt. And it’s like all these men, they did it for the pure love of strength, for the pure love of the sport. These men, they weren’t out there, they’re not making Tom Cruise mission impossible checks. They’re not making all this big money.

57:35 They were about the actual growth and knowledge and strength. So, I learned a lot about that. It was humbling to realize how far we’ve come. We did an American, Paul Anderson, who was an Olympic lifter, and he actually lifted at a time where lifting was looked down upon. Football players, hockey players, none of them would work out because it would make you bulky and it’s not good for you.

58:10 Nobody lifted weights. So he actually would create his own weights in his little garage, and he’d sit in there and do all the stuff himself. Then he flies over to Russia to do the Olympics in Gorky Park, and in the rain, thousands of Russians there, all, it was, times weren’t, I can’t remember exactly the date, but we were having issues between America and Russia. He goes over there, and he goes out to do his lift, and the park goes dead silent. Nobody’s, like, you could hear somebody cough.

58:44 Goes out there, he does this lift, presses it up, puts it back down, and then immediately, eruption of Russian applause for this American who had just broken a world record. You know, and it also, that teaches you, you know, its strength is universal. It’s a language that we all speak, you know? Like, it’s something that we’re all connected to, just like fighting’s universal, and all these other things. Everyone in the world knows how strong they are.

59:12 They know how strong they wanna be. they know what strength is, they know what, like what, if this person is strong that they’d be doing this or they, there’s just a universal language of strength and you know, along with the respect for these characters and stuff like Peter Francisco, he was literally, he was shot twice on the battlefield and then continued to fight, wouldn’t leave the fight. And there’s stories of him after being shot pulling people off their horses to keep them from hurting his friends and stuff like that, you know, and all these characters, Thomas Topham would just do so much for the people.

59:51 Thomas Topham was a rowdy character, very rowdy character, and he would do a lot of pranks and things like that, but he was also a sweet man. He would give meat and stuff to the kids and he would take care of people. At a time when it was hard to get around, it wasn’t like everyone was in excess, you know, and he was still giving things away. Wow, so real universal things going on here that everyone can relate to. Are you surprised by the response to the TV show?

1:00:21 It might be the old confidence in me, but I’m not really surprised, I’m very pleased. I thought we put together a good show and when you’re doing something good, I’m sure when you started doing this, as it started going, you’re like, you know, I think I got something here, you know? You can feel that and it’s almost like a snowball rolling down a hill and you feel that snow collecting and it’s getting bigger, that’s what it felt like when we were doing the show, we were going and I remember just constantly getting goosebumps.

1:00:51 We’d be at a grave site talking about the man who had passed and sharing intimate details with these people about ourselves and this person. And I’d be like, man, I got goosebumps. And I was just like, I think we’ve really got something here. So I’m not necessarily surprised. I’m super grateful.

1:01:12 I’m so, and people have given us so much, given us so much love, you know, we’ve had people writing in and suggesting things or people wrote, we did a pilot on Angus McCaskill who was out of Canada. He was a Scottish man out of Canada. And we did the pilot there, which in season two, I believe we’re gonna go up there and redo it because the pilot never aired. We just did episodes one through seven. and his family, like generations down the line all wrote me and said, you know, thank you so much for talking about, you know, Pappy McCaskill and stuff like that, man.

1:01:49 Like, you know, you just never forget it. Wow, that’s awesome. Tell me about the deadlift, all right? Because this is something you’ve got an opinion on and also it’s an event in the strongman, correct? It’s an event in a big event in a lot of sports.

1:02:04 In a lot of sports and we just had Eddie Hall here a couple months ago. The king of deadlift. The king of deadlift. Who did the 500 kg deadlift. And it’s one of the first things I talked to him about.

1:02:13 And much like what you just said, I said, Eddie, you know how they send these things out into space. You know, how they send like a, there’s like a record that goes out to space and it’s got like, you know, the Bulgarian choir and it’s got all these things. And I was like. The golden record. Yeah.

1:02:28 And I was like, I was saying to Eddie, I was like, maybe they should send out a little video clip of you doing that because it’s like, you know, it’s kind of what you guys do. The ultimate potential of a human being and there’s somebody even close to his record still night, right? I was like two years ago. Yeah, and still nobody even close Right and there’s something kind of beautiful about that because that’s universal. Everybody can watch him do that and say oh Shit, even if you never deadlifted before or even if you know, you think it’s not, you know You have to recognize you picked up a sack of groceries off the ground You know what it’s like to deadlift you picked up things, right? Yeah, so everyone can just you know in their head be like 500 kilos Oh my god. Yeah. Well, first of all, you’ve done that lift in the strongman competitions So what did you think when Eddie did it and what do you think about the deadlift in general? Yes That was a hot topic for another podcast. I did people misconstrued what I said. It was Talk about it. We’ll clear it up. Um when Eddie did that I I Just I couldn’t believe it. There was no words because we’re I mean, I the closest guy was probably 60 kilos away from that You don’t jump world records by 60 kilos.

1:03:37 It just doesn’t happen, you know? It’s not like we came out with a new way to change infants in the womb and all of a sudden a baby was born just super muscular, you know, it’s like, no, Eddie’s the same as everyone else in our class, but 60 kilo jump on a world record? Like it was almost like, I had to watch the video over and over just to believe it was real. It was insane. And not only did he do it, I mean, I’m not trying to like blow too much smoke here, but he pulled it and then he stood there and held it.

1:04:12 Like, I not only did this, but I want you to understand I can control this weight and own it. That’s, it’s astounding, man. It’s astounding. Every second at the top is pain. Oh yeah.

1:04:25 And strain. It’s trying to pull you through the earth, you know? It’s a lot of weight, you know? Yeah. It’s amazing, and I think to this day that’s the most amazing feat of strength in the history of man.

1:04:41 It’s phenomenal. His nose bled, his eyes bled, his ears bled. When you see that kind of damage and him passing out and not remembering his name, what do you think about that? That’s a place that you’d have to go to be able to do something like that. We’re walking a thin line and he did it, man.

1:05:05 It’s insane. It’s almost disrespectful to even try and describe it because there aren’t words to really put it into its right category. It was the greatest feat of strength the man has done so far. Wow. Did you know Eddie back then?

1:05:20 Yeah. Yeah. I’ve known Eddie for a while. Okay. Yeah.

1:05:25 He and I, when we were competing, we were rivals for a long time. I’ve been the American monster and he’s been the English golden boy, you know, bang back and forth. Luckily, we’ve only gone head to head once. It was in Australia for Arnold Schwarzenegger’s competition, and I won, so I have that. I don’t have any World’s Strongest Man titles, though, so I can’t pat myself on the back too hard.

1:05:46 I hope Eddie’s listening. All right, and what are your thoughts about the deadlift? The same thing as I shared before. A deadlift is fine. If you want a deadlift, of course It’s a free world, do what you want to do.

1:06:00 I’m not saying you shouldn’t do it. What I said was, athletes in other sports, like professional football players, basketball players, baseball players, they don’t deadlift. And the reason is because the risk-reward ratio is terrible. It’s a terrible risk-reward ratio. And since then, I’ve spoken to more men that play professional sports than I can even remember.

1:06:26 And every single one of them has agreed with me. They don’t do it. I’ve got a buddy who was three-time pro bowler, a kid I grew up with, went to high school at a rival high school right next to me, and we’re still very close friends. He played for five NFL teams. He said he deadlifted for one week when he was playing for the Buffalo Bills.

1:06:45 They had a new coach and they did deadlifted for one week where they did maybe 60% of their max for singles just to practice the flow and then they never did them again. He’s never done them anywhere else. So in an entire career of one of the greatest offensive linemen to ever play sports, Andy Lavietri, you’re a bad-ass by the way, one of the greatest linemen, he’s only deadlifted three times than it was during one week of programming. Okay. So it’s just, people don’t do it.

1:07:13 And why is that risk-reward? Is it the lower back strain or is it? It’s the front bar being the way that it is. It is a low back strain. It’s hard to be in a perfect position.

1:07:24 If people deadlift in any form at all, like what they’ll do, is they use what’s called a hex bar. So the bar’s on the side, yeah, a trap bar. That’s what I do now. And that’s the right way to do it. If you’re from bar deadlifting to be an athlete in soccer or in rugby or in football, you’re really playing a fire.

1:07:48 There’s really no reason to do that. Why would you not use the hex bar? Or why would you not do hang cleans and power cleans? You’re playing explosive sports. You’re playing sports that you wanna have fast Twitch muscles just firing and you wanna be able to move.

1:08:05 There’s no reason to front bar deadlift. The only reason to front bar deadlift is if you want to be a better front bar deadlifter. And I do it, I have to, I compete in it. It’s one of my worst events. I never did it playing football.

1:08:21 This is where I learned that as a kid growing up, that’s when I learned deadlift isn’t good for other type of athletes. Because I’d never deadlifted until the first time I tried strongman. That’s the first time I’d ever done it. Not even in the gym or anything? Never once.

1:08:37 Interesting. I’d only did hang cleans and power cleans. Because if you did deadlifts when we were playing football, the coach would kick your ass. Like, what are you doing? Because risk, reward, you’re gonna get lower back injuries, guys are gonna be off the field, you’re gonna lose games.

1:08:49 Right, and it’s like, why would you deadlift when you’re going out on a football field trying to, for me as an offensive lineman, trying to manipulate someone else’s body weight by pushing up and exploding through them? That’s hang cleans, that’s power cleans. You know, that’s close grip bench press after a hang clean. That’s staying low and exploding through. It’s front squats, you know?

1:09:15 Front squats, in my opinion, is the best lift for anyone trying to pursue athletic endeavors, front squat. Okay, it’s that front bar squat. Do you think back squats have any place? Yeah, definitely, definitely. And you can be safer with them.

1:09:26 Okay. If you can control a back squat, and yes, you can train deadlift safe too. I’m not saying you can’t. If you’re doing a submaximal deadlift and you’re working on that, it has benefits. Everything has benefits.

1:09:42 Me going like this right now, it has benefits. Is that benefit really worth it? is the question, you know, like I can, I can get up and walk and get a glass of water, but like, and that walking right there, that, that has a benefit, right? Like there’s cardiovascular, that’s good for my leg, for blood flow. Everything has a benefit.

1:10:00 It’s silly for someone to misquote me and say that there’s no benefit to it, or to say like, I said, someone said that I said deadlifting. Deadlifting is innately bad for anyone, I can’t remember, man, people were so crazy. But they were just ripping me up over it. But max, single rep max deadlift is not something you should be doing unless that’s your job. Yeah, and not even not something you shouldn’t be doing because I’m not gonna tell anybody what to do.

1:10:32 Do whatever the fuck you wanna do, I don’t care. If it’s my son, no, you can’t do it. But anyone else, do what you want. If you wanna be a better deadlifter, then do it. If you wanna be good at deadlifts, if you enjoy deadlifts, if you compete, yeah, fuck yeah, cause if you go to the show and you haven’t deadlifted and you try and do it in the show, it’s really gonna screw you up.

1:10:52 My first time doing a car deadlift, Brian Shaw held a competition in Colorado, an amateur show, and I competed in it because it was Brian Shaw’s show, you know, it’s huge. So I went out there and I was probably like, four months after I’d first started deadlifting. So I deadlifted the car, picked it up the first time, and I’m winning the show at this point, just put it back down. It’s like the car, the front two wheels are on the ground and you deadlift the back of the car.

1:11:20 Right, exactly. So then I go for the second rep, my back pops. Pops, both my legs go numb. I fell forward into Brian’s arms, and my legs were numb for I think like six days. Then my legs were off and on numb for almost two years.

1:11:37 All because of that. that one lift. And of course, like that was way too much weight. I was in improper position, but how common it is for someone to do that, it’s insane. Most people in the gym get hurt from bench pressing.

1:11:54 Like it’s the most common lift. Every bro wants to bench press as heavy as they can, right? So they tear muscles. So they tear something, they hurt something, they mess their shoulder up. They’ve been years and years of just pounding away way too heavy on bench press.

1:12:06 The second most common is deadlift. Because of that lower back position’s wrong, you’re overdoing the weight, and then whatever, you get injured. And the thing is too, is when you look at that, the second most common thing to injure someone in the gym is deadlift. How often do you see people deadlifting? The number of people deadlifting versus the number of people bench pressing, it shouldn’t be like that.

1:12:27 The second most common should be something way more common for people to do in the gym. Which makes Eddie’s deadlift look even crazier. Knowing the risk that he would have had to put his body through for that kind of weight. Most definitely. And he pays for it every day now.

1:12:41 If you ask Eddie, he’s still paying for that deadlift. That check’s not cashed yet. Still feeling that strain. I would guess he’ll probably feel that for the rest of his life. And that’s the choice you make.

1:12:54 In our sport, I hurt right now. In our sport, it’s the thing we weigh the risk and reward, and we say, we can do this, and we’re going to feel this pain. and you’re not gonna be right forever. I mean, the truth is, is I’m 400 pounds. How many 95 year old 400 pound men have you ever seen in your life?

1:13:17 It just doesn’t happen. So you look at it like, you got a chance to be a bright shooting star. You’re gonna explode, you’re gonna be as bright as you possibly can, but it’s gonna fizzle out, and that’s the choice you make. because injury is gonna stop your career, not old age. It’s really rare for someone to retire from age.

1:13:39 Right, strong man, they just get injured and they can’t. Most people are forced to retire. Early, before 35, which is rare because you see 40-year-old guys like Daniel Cormier in the UFC, so you guys really are taking your life in your own hands. I mean, you talk about that Atlas stone collapsing on that guy, what you guys do is dangerous. most definitely, yeah, every show.

1:14:03 And the thing is, is I don’t know what it is, is before I do events, I try and visualize success. I do that over and over and over. And then I always get it stuck in my head. I’ll see myself being crushed. I’ll see it.

1:14:18 I’ll go out there and we did a car walk in Manchester last night, or the night before last. As I’m walking out to pick up this car, I just, I see myself slipping, my Achilles is sore. So I see myself slipping, my Achilles tearing and the car crushing me. And I see that in my head as I’m walking out and I’m looking at 10,000 people cheering and screaming my name. And all I can see is me being mopped up off the floor in front of 10,000 people.

1:14:51 And you have to shake that off, accept that that’s a possibility and go or don’t go. You know that’s just that’s your choice and that’s the truth about life, man Honestly, we could walk out here and a bus come over and hit us, you know, that could happen anywhere You you always have to accept the the possibility that possibility that you’re going to go It’s just it’s it’s so in your face and strong, man It’s it’s there and you and I don’t know about anybody else, but I feel it every time I do anything How do you go do that? Lift then just?

1:15:24 Concentrate Go and find ways to manage the pain Well, I have a partial terror of my Achilles, and I have a torn brachial radialis right now. So when I did the Atlas stones, this ripped off of my forearm, and in the middle of loading a stone, and I still had two more stones to go, and I still finished. And my Achilles hurts so bad when I was running with the car, and I got third place in that event, I still ran fast. It’s just one of those things, you learn through sport, through strongman, that the pain’s gonna be there, you know?

1:16:04 You don’t really go to the gym, beat the holy living hell out of yourself, and you know, go home like pipping your step, you know, it doesn’t really happen, so. If a gym soreness is one thing, injury is another kind of pain. Most guys don’t do injury pain. they go to the gym and they just pump out those reps. Injury pain’s different, man.

1:16:25 It is, it is. But in football, you learn how to play through injuries. You do. Rub some dirt on it and keep going. So it shouldn’t be called the strongest man.

1:16:31 It should be called the most pain tolerant man. Yes, yes. Because that’s a lot of it. I watch you guys on the show, and I’m like, how can they, you guys don’t look warmed up, and you’re not in competition, and I’m like, how can, yes, you guys, I mean, you guys walk these stones across this bridge, right? We should talk about that, right?

1:16:48 So on the TV show, that was this place in Scotland, right? Where you picked up these two heavy stones. The Denny stones. The Denny stones, right? Donald Denny is their namesake.

1:16:59 And it was awesome. First, when we got there, I was, again, I was telling you this earlier, we’re there and we’re looking at the stones, and the stones are out in front of this old house right by the bridge, and just this mass of Scottish people just encompassed us. And they’re all just screaming at each other about the, like, this is the way Donald Denny carried him, and no, this is the way he carried him, and they’re like, they’re super invested in this story that we’re trying to tell to the world.

1:17:33 So, you know, like, these people, it’s, to them, they’re not just some stones. Like, to them, that’s their history. Like, the strength of a country is a big deal. When you go to Scotland, and if you insult the strength, If you insult Donald Denny in Scotland, you better be able to back your shit up because they don’t mess around like that or if you were to go make fun of some ancient strongmen in Asia in different spots, you’re basically just saying the entire culture is weak.

1:18:05 Your whole culture is weak because this guy wasn’t that strong and that doesn’t fly well. So we’re there and like you said, there is no real warming up for that because what are you going to do? to go. Picking them up is the event. So what are you supposed to do? And it’s Scotland, so it’s windy and it’s cold. And we’ve got all these people, just every one of them wants to make sure that we hold Donald Denny in the proper light, which I feel like we really did. That’s something that we all took great care in, is making sure that each one of these people got their due justice, you know? And none of these men were perfect. Thomas Topham, we didn’t say this on the show, but Thomas Topham died while trying to murder his wife. He was stabbing his wife that he caught with her new lover and ended up accidentally stabbing himself. How the fuck do you do that? I don’t know. I guess when you’re really mad. Exactly, yeah. He’s like, whoops!

1:19:05 This one was meant for you, you know? Like, I don’t understand how that happened. It blows my mind, but if you read his biography, that’s how he passed away. so it’s not like this guy was like a perfect character and I’m not trying to hold him in this light like he’s not he’s not Jesus Christ some golden boy that I’m saying you should all be like but what he did do was he created a culture of strength and what he did do was he helped out some people he was good to these people and he did these things and so just because there’s a couple bad eggs doesn’t mean you need to throw out the whole batch like we wanted to bring positivity and bring light to strength.

1:19:41 We wanted to tell a story that made other people want to do the same thing. So we took very much, a lot of pride in telling these stories in a way that would inspire other people to be their best selves. That’s what the goal of it was. We want you to have fun, we want you to be entertained, but I want you to be at home and be like, man, I really want to do the best I can on that paper I got to write. I really want to go and I maybe you like to work out. I want to go do the best I can on that Or maybe you train dogs. I’ve got friends who train dogs. Maybe you want to be the best that Whatever your best self is. I want the show to inspire you to be in that you know and and that’s something We were painstakingly aware of the entire time of that and Sorry, I ramble everyone. No, it’s good And so these Denny stones, one’s like 380 pounds and one’s like 430, I believe, or 420 or something like that.

1:20:40 Yeah, I mean, they’re big ass stones. When you look at them, they don’t look heavy, but they are. And they got these thin rings on them that have been there for a couple hundred years, right? Old rings that are attached to them. And you guys are on the middle of the bridge.

1:20:52 It’s cold as hell, you’re wearing kilts. I appreciate the kilts. Some of them, we were very happy. But I mean, I was wondering, well, how do you guys warm up? Because it looked unfair for you guys.

1:21:01 I mean, you guys are doing a lot of serious stuff for the show, man. I’m like, I’m paying you well. We basically showed up every week and they’re like, well, this is your world record you’re attempting this week. And there’s no prep. It’s not like, we didn’t get a prep for that.

1:21:14 We didn’t get a prep for Thomas Topham’s world record in downtown London. We didn’t prep for the canon pickup of Peter Francisco. Did you say go do it? You’re trying not to get injured? Yeah, it’s like, can you break this world record without preparation?

1:21:28 And that’s basically the show. show up, this is the world record, can you break it? And you know, and there’s times where we failed, there’s times where we got injured, and there’s times where we were successful. And I think all of that, because we’re honest about that in the show, I think that becomes part of the story. It’s like, we have advantage because Thomas Topham, Donald Denny, Peter Francisco, you know, all these guys, they didn’t have our nutrition, they didn’t have our training, they didn’t have our lifestyle, we’ve evolved.

1:21:58 We’re bigger, faster, stronger now than any man in history. It’s just the way it is. Because of diet, epigenetics, as well as genetics, knowledge, training, all that stuff. All of it, you know? We flew on a plane.

1:22:12 They didn’t have planes back then. You know, it’s not like we, everything about it is- Sleep, nutrition, everything. So we have that advantage. Our kind of equalizer is we’re not gonna be prepared for these things. So Donald Denny had his whole life carrying stones and his big feat of strength was carrying the Denny stones.

1:22:34 And we showed up on the day without ever having touched these without ever even getting to prepare a practice, we showed up on the day and grabbed those stones and tried to give them hell, you know? And I feel like it’s almost a more respectful way to do it It’s a it’s a more respectful way to do it because if we had all trained for that And we’d all trained for for Thomas Topham’s list and Peter Francisco’s We would be able to break them pretty easily because you know Just like I said, we’ve evolved with we’re two times the size of these guys, too You know, these guys were smaller back then they were starving to death most of them So for it to be actually, you know more of an even playing ground give them a shot at least show some respect to the fact that they were freakishly strong.

1:23:25 You know, let us do it without having that, without that extra prep. So, you know, when it came down to it, it made it a lot harder, it did. But I think that’s what makes it a good show. That’s what makes it like entertaining and you never know if we’re gonna succeed. And a couple times we didn’t.

1:23:42 There were a couple legends that we did not get to defeat. Right, because you just couldn’t do it. Just couldn’t. Right, yeah. I was watching you guys with us stones And I was like, what if you can’t even pick them up?

1:23:52 You know, that’s what I was thinking. I was thinking. When we went down to pick it, I was like, it was the whole week of Scotland, we did the Highland games and then we did the Stones. And then we also did a keg toss for height. I dominated that week.

1:24:09 I was just on fire. My grandma was Scottish and I was just so proud to be there. And I was doing basically a memoir for her, It was something for her, and I had crushed all week. I had won, won, won, won, and then we go to the Denny Stones and I’m like, oh, fuck, this is the bad boy. This is the big guy at the end of the line waiting for you, you know?

1:24:36 And everybody knew it was gonna be hard. Oh yeah, because we all know what the Denny Stones are. A lot of these events, we didn’t know. I didn’t know about Thomas Topham’s barrel lift, but then you find out and then you realize There’s actually like newspaper articles from back then about it and stuff. So we studied up on them as we got to find out what we were doing.

1:24:57 But I knew about the Denny stones from the beginning of my strength career. The Denny stones is just world renowned. Everyone knows that. And so I’ve seen so many people try. I’ve seen people that were strong, actual like professional athletes fly over there and fail and then go home with their tail tucked between their legs, you know?

1:25:19 So I was just like, oh shit, like this, this has gotta go, like it’s gotta go. You can’t fail this right now. So you all picked them up and moved them forward. Yes. And it ripped your hands up big time, right?

1:25:31 I mean, Eddie’s real bloody. Me and Eddie were both bloody as hell. I mean, you held them for a few seconds and I mean, to see you guys with bloody hands compared to what you’re normally carrying, I mean, that’s serious. Yeah, I mean, we all have such callous, tough hands for it to tear, that takes a lot. Okay, and then Brian Shaw got the new world record.

1:25:51 Yes, spoiler alert, Brian crushed it. Brian’s a savage, and I think Brian was a little upset because if we would all had a couple tries at it, like Brian could have crossed the full bridge. But the world record was, I believe, eight feet, and Brian got 11 feet, and the bridge is, I think, 15 or 16 feet, maybe 18, And he could have crossed the whole thing if he would have had a couple of goes at it, you know? But that’s the show, you know? You’re only getting one shot.

1:26:21 You know, if it’s a Super Bowl, you don’t get to rewind the clock and start over. That’s not how it works. So it was just one shot, but he took that world record. Tell me about Brian Shaw. He sounds like a legend in the community.

1:26:34 Well, yes, and Brian Shaw, in my opinion, is the strongest man who ever lived. He’s a four-time world’s strongest man. He’s just an all-around strength athlete. And when I first got into the sport, I based everything I did off of him because he was already a winner, a champion by the time I became an athlete, a strength athlete. So I would watch his YouTube videos.

1:26:57 I would watch his competition. I knew the type of shoes Brian Shaw wore in competition before I’d ever met Brian. So I’d looked up to him. I looked up to him, I put him on the top of my list of like, okay, I can climb this ladder And that topped here, that’s Brian. And so, you know, he’s just also, he’s a good dude, man.

1:27:19 He’s a good guy. He’s got two little boys and his wife, Terry, and they’re just a great family. Brian’s also just, he’s very giving. He’s one of those guys, like we were talking earlier, he will tell you the best way to do something. He will help you.

1:27:34 And he’s loyal. And there’s only so much you could say before you feel like you’re gushing, but he’s just an all around good guy. Okay, all right, we talked about Eddie. So you known Eddie for a while, you guys were rivals, obviously he did the big deadlift. How else would you characterize Eddie?

1:27:53 Eddie’s a troublemaker, he’s definitely a rascal, he’s a potty mouth, and he’s fun, Eddie’s fun. If you’re gonna have a beer with one of the four of us, or if you’re gonna have a beer with us, you want me and Ed to be there, because we’ll make it fun. And every time we go anywhere, You always got to make sure Ed’s in control. We met, one of the handlers are the people who helped with the queen when we were in Scotland and the entire time Ed is like, oh, this fucking mate, well, so fucking he’s like talking about the smell of a fart and he kept saying fuck and all this stuff.

1:28:26 And this guy was just looking at him like could not believe that and the producers had to come over and be like, Ed, you know, calm it down, calm it down a little, Ed. You know, we’re on, this guy runs Braemar Field, you know, don’t fuck around right now. So that’s Ed, he’s basically a very strong child, you know? But he’s a lot of fun. And the same thing is loyalty.

1:28:47 That’s the thing about us guys, the four of us, we really became family. And Ed will go to bat for us just the same as Brian and Nick. What do you mean go to bat? Like if something’s dangerous or say, we kind of feel like, you know, things happen when you’re working then maybe someone gets a little slighted or like the danger factor is the big one. It’s like, if something’s dangerous and they’re wanting Nick or me or Brian to do something and it looks risky and we’re a little iffy about it, Ed or Nick or I, we will all be like, no, no, no, he can’t be doing that.

1:29:25 We’ll all stand up for each other. We all fight for each other. We have issues like, because we’re so big, if we don’t eat every like three, four hours, we tend to have low blood sugar, especially Ed and Brian, you know? So we make sure, like, if one of us is feeling it, then all four of us, we all need to eat. We all say it, we all need it, you know?

1:29:45 It’s like we’re our own little union. Union, right? So when you guys go on strike, you get fed. Yes. Okay, nice.

1:29:52 And what’s Nick’s background? Nick is a father, he’s from Vegas. He was distributing, he was a beer distributor for a long time. And then when we got the show, he actually, he quit that job so he could do the TV show. He was a very well-paid employee.

1:30:09 I don’t remember which beer company he was working with, but he was making good money. And he gave all that up because he believed in the show. And that really showed you where his commitment was. Nick’s also, he’s the one who, he’ll die to do something no matter what. Like that time where he was running with the piano and he had like heart convulsions, We’re finally like, Ed finishes and wins.

1:30:37 I finished behind Ed and I’m laying on the ground just like blacked out, like trying to catch my breath because we’re such high elevation but the strap went against our chest so you couldn’t breathe. It was so long. It was just a brutal event, brutal. And plus like, there’s no half ass in it with an entire town of people watching you and the cameras are on you and we’re competitive. So like, there’s never a time where we’re like, oh, we’ll give it 50%.

1:31:05 That doesn’t happen with us, you know? We don’t do that. But Nick, he gets three-fourths of the way through and has to stop because he’s like, basically having a heart attack under the strap. So they get him on the strap and like, me and Nick, me and Ed finally like wobble over once we’ve collected ourselves, we’re checking on him, like, make sure he’s okay. And he’s like, no, I wanna finish, I wanna finish.

1:31:27 He’s like trying to get back in. I’m like, no, the time has run out. It’s over, it’s over. You can’t go. That’s Nick.

1:31:33 Nick is always that guy. It’s a good group. Who’s the best trash talker? Oberst? I’m definitely the most articulate trash talker, for sure.

1:31:43 Okay, okay. But if you want most vulgar, that’s Ed, for sure. Yeah, I could see that being Ed. I think it’s a bit of a British thing, too. There might be, especially Northern in Britain, there’s maybe a bit of an advantage where he’s from.

1:31:54 Oh, yeah, yeah. Let’s stoke on Trent. Yeah, exactly. What are some other characters in the sport? Is the mountain, is that Thor?

1:32:00 Is Thor the mountain? Thor, yeah. Thor Julius Bjornsson. Okay, gotcha. So he’s up there.

1:32:05 He’s one of the top competitors. Yeah, he is. He won a couple years ago. Last year he got third. He’s very strong.

1:32:12 He’s very strong with Kielkowski, the Polish kid. Young, strong, coming up in the game. You know, there’s a bunch of us. Iron Bibi from Africa. He’s a big strong dude.

1:32:23 He’s just got this raw strength. He’s out there literally training with like potato sacks and rocks and stuff. You watch his videos, his tricep extension, the machine where you push down, he has a rope tied to a bunch of potatoes and he just pushes that down. It’s insane. There can be an advantage to training that way, right?

1:32:43 Because you get that kind of man’s strength. Yeah, that farm boy strength. That’s a real thing, farm boy strength, right? For sure. Because when you grow up chucking hay, your body just adapts and learns to be strong.

1:32:55 Because you’re picking up awkward things and awkward angles all the time, and you gotta just adapt, and you might have to do 50 bales a day, and there’s no question about it. Also, your body’s not prepared for it, so you just have to get it done, right? Yeah, yeah, and then all of a sudden, your body, through repetition like that, through years and years, your body just adapts. So there’s some interesting guys coming up with different stories. We have a lot of characters in Strongman right now.

1:33:17 Actually, it’s the best it’s ever been. Our sport’s growing, there’s more opportunities. Social media’s done a lot for us, because, you know, it used to be, if you didn’t win World’s Strongest Man, nobody had never heard your name. But now we’ve got the show, we’ve got, you know, the World’s Strongest Man with Giants Live and social media. And social media, if you’re a genuine character, social media tends to find you.

1:33:44 And it just kind of pulls you out and it puts you on display. You know, the people, you always see the people who are trying to act as though they’re that character. And for some reason, it just never works. It doesn’t come off. It’s almost like we can feel on the inside that’s like, that’s not real, that’s not there.

1:34:01 But it’s worked for a lot of us for just actually kind of separating us from the group. And it’s now in a place where you can join Strongman and conceivably make good money. You can be successful, you can be strong, and that’d be the only thing you do. Right, and you don’t have to be the winner of it to do that stuff. Right, it’s not one guy.

1:34:21 Right, it’s kind of like Nate Diaz in the UFC, like he doesn’t need the belts, and yet he’s the most popular guy on the card. Well he does have a belt, the baddest motherfucker belt. Yeah, exactly, right? And now he’s putting it up with this next fight. Sacramento.

1:34:34 Yeah, and he’s more popular than anybody else on the card even when guys are fighting for a real belt. And that’s showing you the power of, like you said, social media and characters and you’ve seen it with the show. And people respect that, you know? Like whether or not, like a lot of people may or may not like what you say or how you say, a lot of people might not like the Ed’s Vulgar or that I talk trash or any of that kind of stuff. But if you’re true to yourself, you have to respect that.

1:35:04 Like, it’s not you have to, sure, of course you have a choice. But if you’re not respecting that, that’s a reflection on you. Like, if I’m being honest about who I am, that’s a vulnerability that most people aren’t willing to be. Yeah, and I think that helps build you up. No, I think you’re right.

1:35:24 What do you want to get out of your strong man career? If you look at the next, I don’t know, five years, I don’t know, what do you want to get? What’s important? What’s not important to you, you know?

1:35:37 Accolades really, the trophies and stuff like that, they’re cool, I’ve got a room full of them, you know? And that stuff is, it’s always nice. It always feels good to carry on a trophy when you walk on your plane and everyone’s asking you what’s that from and you, cause you can’t put it in your check bag, right? You know, nothing fits. So that’s all, that always feels good.

1:36:02 For me though, I’m at this point where I wanna do my best or whatever that is. I wanna find that. And I feel like I’m coming to a place where my body’s now used to the sport and my strength is caught up, and I’m peaking at the right age to where I’m gonna find out what my best is. And if my best is, I’m one of the top 10 strongest men on the planet, which means I’m one of the strongest men to ever live. And if that’s all I ever am, I’m very proud of that.

1:36:30 I’m very proud of that. So whatever my best is, I’d like to know what that is. And it’d be freaking awesome if that means I’m number one. That’d be awesome. But if it doesn’t, I’m okay with that.

1:36:41 I’ve accepted that. And I’d really like to leave with everything intact.

1:36:52 As much of this is broken now, I would like to leave with at least what I have. And my real goal, my real aspiration is to grow the sport, to grow the amount of eyes that see it, but also the amount of people that aspire to be it. And with that, my ultimate goal in life is just to make everybody a little bit more positive, just make a better world for later. I’ve got a four year old dude, and I almost choked myself up. That’s right, it happens here sometimes.

1:37:25 Yeah, it’s the lighting, it’s all it is, it’s lighting. Eddie went pretty deep on his grandma when he was here. Yeah, you know, if he grows up in a better place because daddy did something, I’d be happy. but it’s not just because you provide for him. You want to provide an example for him too.

1:37:43 Most definitely, that’s more important. I grew up with nothing and I still came out okay because I had a good example of my mom. You know, monetarily speaking, what does that mean? I mean, I could blow through everything tomorrow. It means nothing.

1:37:59 You see rich kids grow up and they’re just empty and it didn’t do anything for them or the parents. Money means nothing. To me, it’s time you spend, quality time, and the example you set, the person and the character you are, the way that you affect people. And I hope that my son Atlas will grow up and aspire to affect people in a positive way the way that his dad did. Yeah, that’s super powerful.

1:38:29 You know, Eddie was talking about what he went through that year to win the World’s Strongest Man, and it sounded dark, and he had some dark times. I mean, Jesus, he’s describing his day, which I’m sure is a day that you go through too, you know, waking up at three in the morning to eat, getting back up again, the training, the this, and then the end of his day was 11 o’clock at night in a hyperbaric chamber in his backyard with a little tiny window where he was just sitting there depressed, thinking, oh my God, this is my life. Knowing if he falls asleep, he’s dead.

1:39:00 Yeah, there’s that. His wife didn’t wanna talk to him anymore because she hadn’t literally seen him in four months. His kid hadn’t seen him in four months. He’s pushing his body to the limit. I mean, it just sounded seriously hardcore and hectic to win something like that.

1:39:12 I mean, how do you keep that kind of a lifestyle? Well, I’m at the point where I won’t do that anymore. That’s when I give, I wanted to be the strongest man in the world. I wanted to win and I still do want that. I’m just not willing to give that up anymore.

1:39:26 I did that. When I first came to the sport, I was willing to die for it. I was 100% okay with dying on my shield and being carried off. I was okay with that. I’m not that anymore.

1:39:38 I’m not. My life means much more than Strongman now. And Strongman’s done with me, I’ll be okay. I’m fine. It’s much more important that my home life is better.

1:39:51 So I gave that part of it up. Okay. And what about life after Strongman? What’s happening? Go out and get your PhD in history?

1:39:57 No, I’m hopefully done with that. What I wanna do is I wanna start a facility in Boise, Idaho for young athletes growing. And it’s basically almost what we call like a YMCA, where I’d love to be able to help kids that don’t have the money to pay for good training or any of that kind of stuff. And just basically make a little hub for young athletes to come learn how to train, positive influences, like even have a little section for tutoring and stuff like that.

1:40:31 Because, you know, when I was growing up, when I wasn’t playing football, we were on the corners. And when we were on the corners, we were doing bad stuff, you know, so I think if someone like me can kind of get involved in those kids’ lives the way that I see this happening, you know, I think it can be a positive influence on these kids. I actually, I coached high school football for two years when I was first starting Strongman. and it was the most rewarding time of my life.

1:41:03 I remember helping these kids. There was a kid that was getting kicked out of school and I saw myself in this kid. He looked a lot like I did. He was just, he was, he was me like on the inside. I could tell he was this big hearted boy but he was just having a rough time and he kept getting in trouble and he was just, he was like, fuck it.

1:41:23 I’m done with school. He was gonna quit and the coaches were done with him too and I just begged him. I was like, I begged him, please don’t give up. Just stay. He graduated from college a year and a half ago and he wrote me a letter and he said, thank you.

1:41:37 That’s a big man. Yeah, I’d love to be able to do that. Wow, that’s big, man. Like you can’t replace that, right? A trophy’s not gonna replace something like that.

1:41:46 That’s what I had to learn, you know? You have to go through that. And I’m lucky I didn’t have to pay the ultimate price before I figured that out. As in losing your life, because you could have. Could have, because I was willing to.

1:41:58 I was okay with that. with the darkness and all that and the place you were. You have to be that. To be the world’s strongest man, you have to be willing to let it all go. It has to be the one and only thing you’re focused on.

1:42:09 Okay, willing to die in training, willing to let everything else go in your life to get there. And that’s the only way, and that’s what it took Eddie to get it. And he’s lucky, because imagine if it would’ve taken him five more years to do that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. People ask me if Eddie’s gonna try to beat his deadlift, and I said, I really don’t think so.

1:42:29 Because I just I think he’s done it and it seems like Such a dangerous all-encompassing thing to ever even get back anywhere near it. Yeah, you know Yeah, I would I would I would I would bet anything that he’s done with that, right? I’m gonna talk him out of it if he tried. I Mean I would I would be honest with him. I own that as a friend I would be honest and I tell him like don’t you think you’ve missed enough?

1:42:54 Don’t you think you’ve risked enough? Is that you you’ve left your mark on the sport forever. You’ve left your mark on more than the sport You’ve left your mark on strength. Just the term strength Which is huge global. You’ve left your mark on that. What else? What else do you want?

1:43:12 Door’s trying to beat his deadlift record Everybody wants to be his deadlift record and and that’s fine. I’m sure someday somebody will But he’ll still always be the first man to pull 500 kilos Yeah, you know and and and and the truth is is everything that we do now and and Sometime somebody’s gonna crush it We’re our weights are gonna look silly just the way the guys that were at worlds in the 70s that stuff looks silly to us Like it’s like like like like kids can do that kind of thing now, you know So it’s just the way we evolve and that’s okay. That’s good. That means that means we’re on the right path, right?

1:43:48 So in 10 20 years these records be broken anyways, but still he’ll have a voice. Yeah I still though when I see someone like Thor go up try to be his record That must be such a mindfuck to try to get up there and actually do it and get yourself in the headspace And the way Eddie talked about where he got his head to do that lift I mean, it sounds like you got to go all in on that and you know Just to beat that someone else’s record, you know, you know sounds like a hard thing to do mentally Yeah, most definitely every everything we do is like that and just especially when you’re getting into that like that kind of weight man because if you have that hesitation, if you have that little sliver, like if you start to pull it, and in your head you’re like, I don’t know, I don’t know.

1:44:30 You’re fucking done. You’re done. And you should have never stepped on that stage in the first place. And that’s the kind of thing that can put you down for a long time. Yeah.

1:44:41 Let’s talk about diet really quick. What do you think are misconceptions when it comes to the diet that you need to be the world’s strongest man? What do you know as a truism that other people try to debate? The truism is that we’re all different. Everyone thinks that you have to eat a zillion calories and that’s the way it is.

1:45:02 And that’s true for some people, yes. If you look at Eddie when he was a teenager, you look at Brian Shaw when he was a teenager, you look at Thor when they were teenagers. They were bean poles, they were tiny. So they eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and then they build this person. I am 20 pounds heavier than I graduated high school.

1:45:24 And with the muscle density, that means I’m actually a lot smaller now. For me to eat like Eddie and Brian do, or Thor does, I get way too big. I can be 500 pounds in less than eight months. Just boom, I’ll be huge. And so you have to follow your body.

1:45:44 The other thing is, is like, if you’re gonna eat the bad foods, like Eddie definitely eats a lot of bad foods when he was training, but he busted his ass in the gym. You don’t get to eat the bad foods and then skip cardio. Like that’s powerlifting, that’s not strong man. And strong man, if you don’t have cardio, you’re not gonna ever do anything. Eddie was a very big guy, but he could run 60 feet like lightning and he could carry 400 pounds on his stomach four times back and forth, you know, like you gotta be prepared for the cardio aspect of it.

1:46:24 If you’re looking for a sport that’s just gonna be eat pizza and lift once and then sit there, that’s powerlifting, that’s not strong man. Strong man, you gotta move. And a lot of people think it’s gonna be, you know, it’s all fun and, you know, unicorns and and all that stuff just cuz they get to eat whatever and just lift heavy weights, but You got to do your cardio you have to okay, and you eat a lot of meat. I eat lots of meat lots of rice I basically eat the same things the that Brian eats now, but just less of it, so I’ll do Four or five meals a day small meals of meat and rice my breakfast is eggs and rice and And you know now that I don’t have a competition coming up in the next couple months. I’ll probably cut back on the carbs I like it when I wake up in the morning and I see side abs a little bit You know get a little Instagram picture, you know flex a bunch of you guys have abs Okay, yeah, all right and And you you’ve been asked before about the the vegan strongman and you said that doesn’t exist No, he exists. He’s just not what he claimed like what’s funny is is we looked him up and I couldn’t believe this guy was saying he was a world. He was a world champion strong, man He was he was this he was that he was this and so after the show I got flack a little bit not not nearly as much as the deadlift But I got a little bit so I actually looked into this guy and this is the guy that’s in the game changers movie

1:47:57 I don’t know his name James Cameron. I believe made a documentary about him. Yeah Yeah, that’s the only way it’s called game changers. It’s got all these vegan athletes in there Well, I went I went a hundred percent plant-based last year. I came off it and so I I respect it But also in the movie game changers, there’s a lot of people I never heard of before, right?

1:48:16 I just got to say it. I know I’ll get a bunch of heat from this too, but there’s like It’s not your fault. You haven’t heard of them, you know There’s like a powder There’s a strong man. I’ve never heard of you wouldn’t be everybody else’s fault. You haven’t heard of it That’s everybody else’s fault, you people.

1:48:32 It’s his, it’s your fault that he hasn’t heard of him. There’s a sprint that I never heard of, but there’s nobody I can see is world-class in any way. No, and it’s, again, people took it as an insult, but that was only because they believed the clickbait titles and nobody actually looked into what I said. I was very respectful. I feel much less respectful now because he disrespected me.

1:48:54 But again, I’m, I don’t need- Back to the bouncer days though, You’re still gonna go with respect. I don’t need to like shoot down this guy. He just, he’s a very strong person, he’s strong. He’s not a world champion. He’s not the strong, he’s not the world’s strongest man.

1:49:11 He’s never been the world’s strongest man. I just spoke to the guys at World’s Strongest Man last night, cause they drove me from Manchester to here. And I asked them, they invited him to a show and he pulled out for the last minute because they, in their, he didn’t say why, but in their opinion, they thought that he’s so small that he wouldn’t have been able to move the truck and the truck pull, so they think he got scared and pulled out. But that was their opinion.

1:49:37 He didn’t specifically say that. They just know he got scared at the last minute and pulled out. This guy has never been on like a world-class level of any type with strongman. He did, there’s a lower level strongman tour that travels, I can’t remember the name of it. He did one show with them, And it’s like the bottom level, it’s basically amateur, but like they call it professional.

1:50:00 And he got eighth place out of nine people. So again, I don’t even care. Like you’re still strong. And even if you couldn’t pick up a pencil, who cares? Like you’re a person and if you’re a good person, I really don’t give a fuck what you lift, man.

1:50:17 Like I don’t care. But like to say that all those titles are yours, Like, you’re a champion of this, you’re this, and you’re that. You’re insulting people who have gone to dark places to be what you’re pretending to be. Like, for what Eddie had to do to become what you’re saying you are, you’ve never done that. Yeah, that’s hard to do.

1:50:41 And to take that from somebody that way, that’s extremely disrespectful. Okay, so that’s why you get, you know, you get that. Now, I’m a little, but I mean, at the time when we brought it up on Joe Rogan’s podcast. And when it was brought up, I didn’t even know who he was. So he brought him up on the thing and we looked and I read what his Max, his squad or deadlifter had been.

1:51:08 And I was like, no. Like if that’s your number, like you’re basically a lightweight amateur. Like right now, if you go to nationals, lightweight amateurs are beating that number. which, no insult, I mean, you’re just not the strongest man in the world. Right. You’re not.

1:51:27 And I think it’s, people pretty much knew it was bullshit because that thing came out and it’s not like it took over the press and the world was like, oh my God, the strongest man in history doesn’t eat anything except plants. It’s like, it was just kind of pushed aside. Like everyone on social media trying to pretend they’re something they’re not, it just all gets pushed away. Right. Do you think the strongest men in the world will ever be eating plants only.

1:51:52 I think, I mean, anything’s possible. It’s, I don’t know enough about it to have like a real strong opinion, but I think, I’m sure there’s gotta be ways to supplement yourself and take the right things. I would say it’s very easy to say that that would be very hard. Like, so hard that it’s almost like, why would you even do that? But you know, if someone was very dedicated and was like, I just, I feel a connection to the souls of these animals, but I don’t feel a connection to the souls of these plants, even though the plants can communicate in some reason.

1:52:30 That always was funny to me. But like, I don’t, I don’t care, I don’t care. I live in Texas, we hunt, I do. You get mad about it, I do it. But you know, if that’s the way they feel and they truly believe that And I don’t think there’s a limit you can put on anybody.

1:52:50 If someone’s being disingenuous, then you’re gonna get figured out. You’re gonna get broken on your way to the level that you think you’re gonna get. But if somebody is truly wholeheartedly believing in that and they’re trying to build themselves into something, you can be anything. You can be whatever you want. Right, so with the right mindset, maybe it could happen.

1:53:11 When you’ve seen that in Strongman, the mind prevails, right? Yeah, yeah. Okay, all right, good, so you did say something nice about the vegans. I have no, I grew up, Santa Cruz, California, it’s like the vegan capital of America, and that’s where I grew up as a kid, so like I don’t, I was raised by hippies, like I was smoking weed at 12, like I don’t fucking care what you do. I believe in freedom, I believe like, as long as you’re not hurting anybody else, do what you do, man.

1:53:38 Yeah, yeah. The show, are you gonna do some more seasons or what’s happening with the History Channel and all that stuff. And you guys are doing really well, right? In America you said you’re- We are, we’re doing well. We’re doing well, we’ve got good numbers.

1:53:52 It looks promising. We’ll have like an official word in the next couple weeks, but it looks promising. I really hope we get to do season two. I was, we’ve been talking about what we would do and I put in some requests and I was granted my big wish that I really wanted, which was Andre the Giant. And Andre the Giant, When I was a kid growing up, I’d always felt out of place and weird, and I have this curly, weird hair, and I’m just, you know, so.

1:54:21 Yeah, I’ve thought of you and Andre the Giant a few times in this interview. See, and he was my hero. When I first started feeling out of place, I used to look at him and be like, oh, people adore him because he’s the way he is, you know? So I was really happy that they gave a green light to Andre the Giant, so if, excuse me, If we do season two, we’ll do an episode in France for Andre the Giant. Okay, how big was he?

1:54:51 He kept growing. So I believe he got to be seven, six. It’s also one of those things you have to get the right information because in wrestling, they do boister. They do a lot of that, like build up things and stuff. But I believe he was at his biggest seven, six, 540 pounds, 560, I could be wrong, but he was freaking huge, huge.

1:55:20 And I’ve heard stories, and actually I was very lucky. I got to meet Roddy Piper a couple weeks before he passed. It was about a month before he passed. I was invited to a baseball game and I was sitting in the owner’s box and he came in and I was like, Roddy Piper? And I was wearing an Andre the Giant shirt.

1:55:40 And he was like, Andre, who? And he was like messing it up. So we sat down. He was the coolest guy in the world. And he was just telling me Andre the Giant stories all night long.

1:55:49 And, and, and Brody Piper had such a big heart. And he was just telling me about how, how basically how broken Andre was towards the end. Like, you know, nobody wanted to wrestle him and Roddy was the one wrestling him. And he said that they would, they would get him in the back and Roddy would shower him Because if Roddy didn’t shower him, then he’d just be out there smelling like feces and stuff because he couldn’t even wipe his own ass. He was so busted up.

1:56:16 Because he had also that weird genetic thing where he just kept growing, right? His pituitary grand? Yeah. Grand? Yeah, it had a, but you know, what’s crazy is they found out, like right after he passed, they found a way to cure that.

1:56:31 And so there’s a lot of guys, Anderson Bigfoot Silva, the UFC fighter, He had that, and then they fixed it. Gave me some hormones to just cool it down a little bit. Wow, okay, so you’re gonna do some stuff to honor Andre. And what’s it like being in the TV business? Are you having lunch in Hollywood, and you throw your valet keys to the guy?

1:56:50 I make fun of vegans too much for that. Right, okay, that’s true. Is it a weird business to be in? It’s weird, it’s cool, it’s very different because we have guys, like the guys who created show created Duck Dynasty. Like they were a part of that. So it’s like a big successful crew. They don’t mess around, but like we’re all boys, we’re all friends. Like the guys and girls, not just guys, but we’re all friends. And we’ll bust our ass for 13 hours filming and then we’ll also want to hang out after that. And so we’ve got a really cool dynamic going with that crew and I think it really it breeds a good film it reads a good show and it’s we’ve been just super lucky that we’ve got great people and you know my experience is is not like everybody’s because it’s it’s four giant strongmen who basically go to a small town and take over so you know I mean I definitely got some cool stuff I’ve got to meet some cool people and and had fun and all that and we did the premier party and all that and probably had too much fun.

1:58:05 But- It was in LA. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But we did Good Morning America as well. That was fun and stuff. But it’s not like I’m wearing big Hollywood sunglasses everywhere I go.

1:58:19 I still go home and everybody I keep around me makes sure that I still, I’m humbled. And the other thing is there’s something about the iron, the weights, the iron’s not gonna lie to you. Like you go to the gym, like I think it was Henry Rollins said, 400 pounds is always 400 pounds. Whether you feel like you’re the shit and I’m the rock now, you know? Like you go to the gym, that weight don’t care.

1:58:45 It doesn’t matter who you are, it’s gonna treat you the same. So it’s a nice way to keep your head down. Yeah. Let me ask them about you. What’s a daily habit of yours that’s just not negotiable?

1:58:55 Something you have to do every day, even when you’re traveling, or maybe something you just try to do that just keeps your head straight. Daily is my breathing, my breathing exercises. That’s when you wake up in the morning. I wake up and I like to sit there and breathe and like have my coffee. And that gets you grounded.

1:59:13 Most certainly. And wakes you up too. It wakes me up, it puts me in my bright head space too. It just, you know, like a lot of times you don’t get enough sleep. Like for you, I’m sure the same.

1:59:24 Like we’re hustling, you know? It’s not like I don’t have a nine to five where like I have that security and I know things are gonna be okay. Like I am constantly making sure that my success is carried on, not for me, like for my family. Me myself, I would be happy living in a tent, you know, just go in the woods, I’d be cool. Like I really, I don’t need anything.

1:59:50 I’m wearing these jeans were given to me. This shirt is mine, like my brand. I don’t wear expensive stuff, you know? I don’t need all that. So I tend to over push things because I’m trying to take care of other people.

2:00:07 As far as routines go, the only thing I really like to do is when I travel, whenever I go anywhere, I pick a place, I take my shoes and socks off and I walk around barefoot. Okay. Because I believe your feet are the window to your soul and it’s connected to the earth And every time I do that, I feel like I absorb a little piece and I make it to where I’m evolving as a person. I’m trying, like after this, there’s a graveyard down the street and I’m gonna go sit out there and do that.

2:00:38 And it’s just, I feel as though it, whatever I can learn and grow from being here, the experience of this, I want whatever’s coming from that, like to be a part of me forever. I kind of feel like it just gives me a moment to connect to the earth in a way that I, like obviously it’s new and it’s different, so it’s like I can’t replicate that anywhere else. So I’ve done it in the sands of Dubai, I’ve done it in the oceans in China, I’ve done it everywhere I’ve ever been, I’ve always done that.

2:01:14 I’ve done it in Africa all over. Wow, that’s super cool. Yeah, it’s Bunhill Graveyard, one of my favorite, man. I walk through there every day. I love looking at those old graves.

2:01:23 William Blake, famous poet. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He’s in there. Yeah, he’s there. Oh, wow.

2:01:27 There’s a bunch of flowers around it. It’s right in the park area, so. That’s where I’ll go then. Maybe walk on him a little, too. Yeah, no, no, not on him, but yeah.

2:01:35 But it’s great to see all those gravestones. I always, what I do, Oberst, is I always look at all the graves, and I think, what do those people wish they would’ve done? Do they wish they would’ve done that extra rep, or worked a little harder, or gone into that fear a little more? Because I think they all do wish They had just gone a little more. So for me, it’s nice to have that graveyard there.

2:01:56 And it’s super old school as well. It’s like 1700s. Gorgeous. And it’s, I think, where all the non-Catholics had to be buried. So it’s kind of just weird religions and weird people.

2:02:07 Oh, good. There too, because they couldn’t be buried in the normal places. That’s cool. That’s it, yeah. And I think there’s a bunch of plague victims underneath that somewhere.

2:02:15 Oh, wow. Bones everywhere. Oh, wow. Something like that. So if I were to ask five of your best friends, What is Oberst, what are Oberst’s superpowers?

2:02:24 How are you able to do all the things that you do? What would they tell me that you are your superpowers? How are you able to do this? Everyone tells me that I stay calm and they can’t read me. Like that’s something that people always say.

2:02:37 Well, like when shit hits the fan, I just tend to just like, I still have the same demeanor. And I don’t know, I mean, being broke as a kid and having all that and then work on the door. And my whole life experience has kind of taught me that, you know, the more you get worked up or the more you react to something, the more it actually has power and affects you. You know, whether it’s a guy that’s drunk and acting silly and you got to kick him out or like, you know, if some real life situations happen, you know, you see like the old videos in 9-11 when they struck the towers, you see the men that were there that were calm and collected and were actually being able to help people.

2:03:18 And then I don’t want to be the person that’s freaking out and making it worse. I don’t want to be that person. So I just, I’ve got to, somehow I just got this innate power of just being chill. And again, I was raised by hippies and, you know, in a hippie town. So a lot of that comes from that too, you know?

2:03:40 I think that’s definitely the most common one. Okay, that’s a good one. Yeah. That’s really good. What was the best day of your life and the worst day?

2:03:48 The best day of the day was when my son was born. It was 25 hours of hard labor. And my mom was a midwife as I was growing up too. So I actually used to go with her down to Mexico and assist in births when I was a kid for the summer. Oh, wow.

2:04:04 And so, you know, I thought I was prepared. I’ve gone through placentas to check through fat. I’ve assisted in like births without any drugs

2:04:18 Or anything like that, because they didn’t have any of that where we were. And so I was, when we were getting ready to have the kill, I was like, nothing, fuck no. Like it was a complete different story. When it was my dude in there, I was just a nervous wreck. And like, I’m never a nervous wreck.

2:04:35 Like I said, I had that power, but like I just couldn’t be chill. So I’m finally like calming down. I’m trying to keep it good. 25 hours of hard labor. And then the umbilical cord wraps around his neck and his heartbeat, like you watch it on the monitor and I think normal’s in the 130s or 180s or whatever, it went down below 20.

2:04:55 And they had to flip his mother over and had to had her on all fours for him to be able to have a heart rate. And then they had to, it was, I think it was 3.30 in the morning, they’re rushing her down the hall naked on all fours on this gurney to an emergency C-section. And then they get her in there and I can’t go in because they have to like operate and do all this stuff and you’re not allowed in. So I’m pacing in the hallways, like just losing my mind. Like, I can’t see anything.

2:05:22 I can’t help her. I can’t calm her down. I can’t make sure that they’re making like, are you checking this? Or like the things you wanna do, but obviously the doctor knows better, you know? That was, it was intense and it was rough, but it was the greatest day of my life, you know?

2:05:36 And I remember just, it’s like the whole world changes. Like just like that. Like you pick your little dude up and it’s just like, It’s a whole new world, and it was definitely by far the best. And a good world, a new world you wanted to be a part of. Did that put that dark side away for good, you think?

2:05:58 Most definitely. It was just like, okay, that doesn’t come back anymore. I couldn’t. I can’t be that person. Right, around Tim or in general, yeah.

2:06:05 Yeah. No, that’s good, man. That’s a beautiful thing. Yeah. Same thing with my first son, and he’s three now, so not far from your guy.

2:06:13 Yeah, again, that his heartbeat kept going up and down and up and down and I’m freaking out man. Oh, man Beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep I watched that thing like an hour and I keep calling the nurses and they say everything’s fine And then the doctor comes in and she’s saying everything’s fine. And I’m like, okay She’s saying that because she’s lying to keep my wife calm Yeah, so and I’m like, okay, but what’s really happening? Well, you can’t say it in front of her So I’m just like, okay No one’s telling me the fucking truth And I don’t know what’s going on and the heart rate’s going up and down and never felt so helpless like this This is my wife and my son or like your child boy or girl boy, right?

2:06:48 Oh, yeah, so this is my wife and my son the two most important things in the world and I have no control. Oh I hate those days. I had to go back in for another one too And then they didn’t see section there and it’s just I just I always feel so powerless and I just I just love it When it’s over and luckily it’s over and we get these bad beautiful boys, bro, man Just looking forward to doing that again. Did you cut them record? I think I cut the second one Uh-huh the first one I didn’t the first one. I I cut my only I won my son I cut but I I didn’t even like look at it like I walked over there and I was just like yeah Okay, you know just like looking at him cuz he had these big bright blue eyes I just I remember and and I was terrified that if she was gonna go to sleep She was gonna die cuz like when they do the c-section it’s it’s a lot. No, that’s heavy. That’s a lot It’s heavy. So it was it was a it was an experience. Yeah. Yeah, you’re giving me flashbacks to never ever But like thank God for the doctors and they have it all together And yeah, like you just want to you know, you want to just say thank you I you say thank you to the doctor and you know, they’ve heard it a hundred times before but it’s just like no Thank you. Yeah, cuz rarely do you owe that person so much, right? It’s a big deal. Yeah worst day of your life um, I I had dark times. I had some stuff. There was a period where I was still a teenager

2:08:19 And I would sleep under a mail truck. I didn’t have a place to stay. I was kind of falling part all over the place. And I had a scholarship to Nebraska that I had lost because I missed 68% of my senior year in high school. I just didn’t go. And I remember feeling like I’d lost everything that time. And it doesn’t console you much when someone tells you you don’t get to go to college and then you leave and go sleep under a mail truck by yourself, you know?

2:09:01 Like there’s not, there’s no like break. And that was a tough night. And I ended up going to junior college and getting a scholarship and all that stuff and figuring it out. But as far as like an individual worst night,

2:09:21 I don’t know, like there’s a period in my life for about four or five years that was just basically one big, dark spot. And there were times I remember digging cigarette butts out of ashtrays, smoking them and shit like that. And I remember after I went and left to Santa Cruz, California, I went to Reno, and I was stacking backer board for a living. For 12 hours a day, I would take backer board, which is like siding for like a wall in a house, And I would shake it to see if it cracked and then I’d stack it and I’d do that for 12 hours a day.

2:09:59 And I was the only person in the group that spoke English, I was the only person in there like that had a high school degree. I was basically just labor, you know? And that all was pretty dark, but it’s hard to narrow it down to a specific day. It’s also times that I’ve learned to appreciate, you know? I remember waking up with a possum on my chest that was like nibbling on my nose.

2:10:31 And I got the time, I freaked out and I was like, what the fuck is going on? But now I look back at it and it’s like, it’s kind of silly, you know? But, you know, whatever that darkest day is, it’s faded a lot. It’s, I’ve learned like letting go of those dark days and looking more at those bright days. I remember looking at my son’s eyes and all that, You know, like, I get videos from him every single day when I’m not home.

2:10:58 And he’ll just be like, daddy, I miss you. And like, all that, that takes all that away. I don’t think I have a worse day anymore. Do you think that dark time is something that all men kind of have to go through? I mean, I know you said your parents’ divorce triggered it, but do you think somehow we all have to go down there as part of our own evolution?

2:11:21 Or do you think you could have skipped it? For me, I had to. I had to. It’s hard to say for everybody. It seems like almost every well-rounded character that I know has had that.

2:11:33 So I think it’s, like in the Bible they say, it’s easier, it’s harder for a rich man to get to heaven than a camel to go through the eye of a needle. And the story behind that is that if you’re handed everything, how are you supposed to ever be grateful for it or respectful and like if if somebody gave you all of this would you really want to bust your ass all day to do it would you want to get up at 5 a.m. and go to bed at 11 if if you didn’t have to you know it’s hard to have that kind of character unless you earn that kind of character so impossible I’ll never say impossible anything a vegan can be the world’s strongest man a rich person can be the most down-to-earth nice person in the world all those things are possible anything is possible but I would say it’s extremely rare and extremely hard I think I think those those hard times if you can get to them and if you can see the light at the end of the tunnel and you can stand up and you know be strong afterwards I think that that definitely is is one of the sure ways of being an actual well-rounded individual yeah it it makes you, for sure.

2:12:48 Yeah, one of my favorite hip hop artists, Ice T, he always said it’s not about the come up, it’s about the come back, you know? And most of the people we have in this chair have come back from something, and that’s what makes them interesting, you know? You see it with fighters in the UFC. How do they deal with that loss? You know, you see a lot.

2:13:04 Some guys never can come back from that. Some guys can come back and say, you know what? Guess what, I’m back. And I think it’s true with people, too. Yeah, I was actually in, I was in Africa.

2:13:15 I told you that there was a part of my career where I was willing to die for Strongman. And during that time, I was competing at World Strongman in Africa and I tore my bicep. And I just, I was broken. I couldn’t believe, like I’d done everything that Eddie had done. I had sacrificed family.

2:13:33 I had sacrificed birthdays and parties and friends. I had nothing except Strongman. I kept everything away from me. I had this one thing. And then like that, it was just taken.

2:13:45 Arm couldn’t hold, ripped off the bone, done. And so I remember I went and sat by this river in Africa we were in Botswana and I’m sitting there and I’m watching this like this leaf in the river it was like dancing right here and then it just started to float away and I’m watching it and I was like, that’s my career, my career’s done. Everything you’ve sacrificed, it was for nothing. Everything you just did, it doesn’t mean anything. You failed and I remember feeling that and it was just, it was like getting kicked in the stomach and I was so broken, I was, I just couldn’t believe it’s, like imagine just busting your ass like that and feeling so much pain and having so much sacrifice and for it all just to be taken at a pop.

2:14:35 Like I felt a pop and I knew it was gone, it was gone. And so I just, I was like, that’s it, I’m done. So I, and luckily I had the fortitude. I went home and once I shook off that initial reaction, I finally just built myself back up and I came back. And of course, again, that comes from my mom.

2:14:54 My mom gave me that. And I just, I had the fortitude to come back and I pushed and I pushed and I built myself back up. And now again, I’m one of the top 10 strongest men in the world. And I earned that without all that other two. because now I have a well-rounded life.

2:15:14 I have my son, and my son gets daddy time all the time. There’s no compromise there for me, ever. That means more to me than the TV show, than money, than strong man, than anything in the world. I’ll be a broke dad, but I’ll be a good dad, you know? Wow, that’s powerful, man.

2:15:35 Powerful, that’s one of those beautiful places. Gorgeous, gorgeous. We went golfing there, too. Really? Yeah, we had a blast.

2:15:42 It’s a gorgeous place for a bad thing to happen. Oh, yeah. For the life-defining moment, I mean, you could’ve chose to let the leaf go down and you could’ve quit, right? Right, yep. And I could’ve, in that moment of weakness, that’s what it felt like had happened, you know?

2:15:57 But the thing is, if you grow with repetition and build yourself up and keep telling yourself you can do things, if you’re a positive person, you’ll find a way to fight. There’s always light, like it may get dark, but you can find that light. You just gotta look sometimes. Yeah, yeah. It’s good for people to hear this, you know, because there always is that light.

2:16:21 Especially give it a day, you know, let breathe through it, you know. And you know, plus also, just think of all the character you built, you know, up until then anyways, you know. Exactly. That’s enough most people would kill for that, you know. It ended up being the right thing.

2:16:35 And it’s such a cliche. Everyone always says that like, it’s what meant to me or it’s for the best or it’s gonna end up being a good thing. You know, the reason that’s a cliche is because it’s true. It’s true. Sometimes you gotta eat shit to figure out like, I’m not supposed to be that, I’m supposed to do this, I’m supposed to not.

2:16:56 I had four pilots fail before I got the one that actually was good. And every one of those four, if they would have got picked up, I would have been done in a season and I would have never had another shot. But we got the right one, and the right one worked. There’s a reason for that. Every time those pilots failed, I felt like I failed.

2:17:14 When I got cut and I didn’t make the NFL, I had to call my mom. That might be one of the worst days of my life. I promised I was gonna buy a house. And I had to call and tell her I couldn’t. That was hard.

2:17:34 But I wouldn’t trade any of that stuff for where I am now. Right, because that got you here. Yeah. Right. Like you said, it’s a cliche, but it’s true.

2:17:43 Very true. I knew you were gonna get me choked up. I knew it. It’s all good, man. It’s important that people see it.

2:17:53 What scares you? Not a lot scares me, per se. I’m scared, it’s weird, because I would be scared to not be a good father. I’m scared if I wouldn’t have If I wouldn’t be a good example But all that’s in choices, right? So like it’s not really a fear It’s more of it’s a reminder in the back of my head like every time I’m doing something I’m like, okay your son’s gonna see this, you know Like this is this is your legacy for him and the legacy for other people like it’s like I said, it’s great I love the support I get and everything but it’s it’s a drop in the bucket compared to what it is for my son and so You know, I’m that’s more of a back-of-the-mind like reminder, but scared. I Don’t really get scared much anymore, you know, I’m a positive person and You know, I I get worried about injuries and stuff like that But even then I accept them and I move forward not much to fear what keeps you awake at night. Oh Making sure I’m doing the right stuff is an example.

2:19:11 Making sure I’m being good and that’s when at night I also, I think a lot about how other people are gonna perceive this. Cause like I said, that kid I coached in high school wrote me and said, thank you so much. You know, that’s all everywhere. Everywhere, there’s people watching this right now who they’re gonna decide to do something different because of this, and then that’s gonna change the world. And that’s all over the place, and when you kind of accept that, it can be daunting.

2:19:40 It can feel like there’s a brick on your chest, like, holy shit, that’s a lot, that’s a lot. But it’s also a blessing, because we have an opportunity now to change the world, and that’s cheesy, I know, it’s super cheesy, but it’s true, we can make this place better. And it’s our choice, and there’s a lot of stuff right now between your country and mine right now. There’s a lot of craziness and there’s a lot of promotion about divide and this and that. But the truth is, is that’s the media’s opinion.

2:20:14 That’s somebody’s opinion about way things are. You and I, I don’t feel that way. You obviously don’t feel that way. People as just regular people, we’re still the same. And if we can come together and communicate that and just be nicer to each other, I think we’re all gonna see that that fog, that fog’s not really there.

2:20:36 That fog is just, it’s a magic trick. Like, we’re still the same, and we’re still strong, good people. And I would love to be a part of the reason that that actually started to change. And you do that by putting out these messages. Yeah, be as positive as you can, be helpful, be, you know, just be a good example.

2:20:55 I definitely mess up. I am a flawed person, I mess up all the time. I say things, I’m like, why do you say that? I do that all the time. I make mistakes, I judge people when I shouldn’t, and I try and constantly remind myself to be better at all those things.

2:21:13 But that’s who we are as people. We’re all flawed. And the more you realize that between other people, the more you can see like, this guy may be doing something stupid, but I do stupid shit too. We’re all the same. And it it would be really it would be really cool if You know like one day the tagline, you know when that when they’re doing Strongest men in history season 7 million and they’re doing my episode, you know, they’re like, you know This guy actually did bring people together. That’d be awesome. Yeah. Yeah and Maybe treat everybody like you’re a bouncer. That might be yeah the way to do it, right?

2:21:50 So be nice. Yeah common courtesy, right be respectful even if maybe they don’t deserve it in that moment, but still do it because they’re human and because you wanna be a good person and be proud of yourself. Yeah, and why would, if this person’s being something that you feel is less than they should, why would you wanna be on that same level? You already feel that’s less. Why would you wanna come down to it?

2:22:14 Hold yourself to a higher standard. And when you travel the world, you must notice one thing, that when you meet people, everyone’s nice, right? It’s not like what you hear in the news. I mean, you travel everywhere. I’m all over the world and people are good.

2:22:29 Like generally, like you and I, we had a great conversation, came in, sat down. This has been great. You know, like you can tell when someone’s a good person and you just get that around the world. People are generally good people. And it’s so promotable.

2:22:47 It’s like, it’s click bait, you know, for people to see like, you know, this person’s this bad and this person’s this bad and they’re, I can’t believe this person’s this that’s so offensive and this person hates these people and all that and it’s, that’s just a way to get people to click on their website and to look at their Instagram page, you know? In real life, like, we’re not that way, we’re not. You know, every single person in this office introduced themselves to me and was nice.

2:23:14 I’ve walked by thousands of people just in the couple days I’ve been here and not a single person has been like rude or mean or anything. It’s just, we’re just people. Yeah, yeah. I think we’re gonna get through this too. But you have to recognize that and realize there’s the story that you’re being told online versus people, real people in real life.

2:23:35 When people get down to it, they’re just nice people. They’re looking out for themselves and their families and we just gotta get through this, it’s important. We will, we will. I hope so. Oberst, I always ask a few questions at the end.

2:23:45 I’m gonna ask you, if I could give you a magic phone and you could call up the 20-year-old Oberst and give that young man some advice. Maybe there’s still some darkness there at the time, your college probably playing ball. What would you tell him based on what you know now? You know, a lot of what we’ve already been saying, I would tell him all the cliches. You’re gonna get through it.

2:24:09 Things are gonna be good and you’re gonna be grateful for even the hard times. I would tell him to bet on the Cubs. And, you know, it’s again, it’s like all those cliches that just really ring true. The following success secrets are only available inside the London Real Tribe, where you get exclusive access and insights from our high-performance guests on wealth creation, productivity, leadership, morning routines, health, and well-being. To join our tribe community, go to londonreal.tv forward slash tribe.

2:24:48 Now, let’s continue with the show. Great advice. The second part of that question is, best advice you ever received? Could it come from your mom, or from a coach, or from something like that? Is there anything that comes to mind?

2:25:04 I’ve had a lot of really cool people in my life. I’ve had great coaches and my mother. My mom always told me I could be whatever I wanted to be. An astronaut space cowboy like I I definitely believe I could do that I Think I think that that has to take the cake man. I know we’ve already talked about it, but it’s just It comes up in everything and when when I wanted to I wanted to be an Eagle Scout and when I wanted to play football and Strongman and when I’m now that I’m a dad. I believe that I’m gonna be a good dad I just believe it and I know it means so much to me Failing is just something. I can’t let happen. I won’t let that happen, you know, so you know It’s changed my entire life. Just having someone believe in me and So that’s it right there My mom used to say the same thing From San Diego. Maybe it’s in Southern, California Say you can be anything you want to be and there’s people that say that say that you shouldn’t tell you cuz that’s not true I don’t I don’t think that’s I think you should definitely say that You can yeah, you really can you most definitely can why why couldn’t you yeah?

2:26:17 What are the limits that that we know that like? If you were nine years old right now, what limits do we definitely know that you have? None exactly with information and everything we know today and technology and nutrition or whatever mindset you really could be yeah You could be the president you could be a bull rider you could work at NASA, you could be the smartest man alive. You can dig ditches if that’s what you want to do. If that’s what makes you happy, yeah, you can do anything in this world. And that’s the luxury we have as people now is that we actually know that’s true. We know it’s true. Eddie was a swimmer. He was a skinny swimmer. Nobody was telling him he’s going to be the world’s strongest man.

2:27:02 You know the you have to you have to believe in that yourself and then you’ve got to find that path and earn it But there’s there’s nobody on a list that says oh, no, you can’t be that you’re on this list can’t do it That doesn’t exist. Yeah. Yeah Oberst this has been a lot of fun You know, it’s funny because and I’m sure you get this all the time when people see you guys Because you’re such you know, you’re such sometimes caricatures beautiful. You’re beautiful. Yeah You’re strong and pretty and they think all right. Well, he lives a lot and that’s one thing, you know But maybe sometimes they forget all these other dimensions to your personality So I’m really glad we got to dig into it and thanks for going to some of those darker places Yeah, you know, you’re a really fascinating dude We got a big personality and I can see where a lot of this stuff comes from from your work ethic to you know All the way you’re fun and I’m loving the show, you know, I’ve used the clips on YouTube are great I know it’s on the US on the history channels coming to the UK so you guys are just it feels good to hang out with you guys and it’s also fun and interesting it’s respectful of these strongmen in history and it’s just a different vibe from the competitions too so big congrats on the show thank you and thank you so much for having me everybody’s been so excited that I’m coming here you know it’s you do a really good job with what you do so

2:28:20 Thank you for putting out a nice message the way you do it’s really important and you know people need a lot more of this in their life so thank you too You know my pleasure man and people do you know people need to be listened to what you’re saying Let’s get this positivity back out there Let’s get people pushing themselves to do these great things and I do think we’re gonna make it as a species, right? Yes, sir. I think we will so all the best going forward looking forward to season two and three and four and Seeing you compete as well. So thanks so much. Rob. Thanks brother. All right, appreciate it