Bob Merkh: From 1135 pound squat to Community Leader and Author

Join John Livia for an exclusive interview with Powerlifter, Author and Community leader, Bob Merkh as they discuss his career and life within and beyond the sport.

#powerlifting #fitness #bodybuilding

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Yeah. There we go. Technically. All right. Uh series that's selling this bodybuilding. Well, uh, about I would say about five years ago, uh, I had started my channel maybe about five and a half years ago, and um I was covering powerlifting. Powerlifting was very popular. And one of the first people that I've had on uh was Mr. Bob Merck, who you have on now, and he's a return guest, even though this is the bodybuilding channel, so I figured it would be best here. He is a powerlifting champion who now wrote a book and is an author on top of that. What's up, Bob?

SPEAKER_00 0:39

Yeah, not much, man. Uh good to be back. Good to see you. Yeah, and uh I am one of the power lifters that embraces uh not necessarily bodybuilding as like my sport, but as a part of my training, so it fits still.

SPEAKER_01 0:50

Oh, all right, good, good, good. How um run down your body, your powerlifting career and your accolades for me, please.

SPEAKER_00 0:59

Oh, yeah, I'll do I'll give you the quick version. So I officially started in 2007 and uh you know, just uh done getting got done playing college football, stuff like that. I didn't really take it real serious until like 2013. I met Rita West, who we have a friend is in common, and she basically called me up for being a big fish in a small pond. So it was time to start taking it serious. That was Raw at that time. Powerlifting was big, Raw was huge. Yeah, um, I was you know top 20 in three different weight classes. I squatted 800 plus Raw in three different weight classes, and around 2015, yeah, I switched to uh equipped. I had an injury, I tore my superspinatus and I was just trying to like get back into training in some way, shape, or form. Turns out I had a nap for it. So then once I got into equipped lifting, I took off kind of fast. Um I did a couple meets on ESPN. I was out, I did the banned bench, benched a thousand pounds there. Uh since I talked to you, last time I talked to you, I think my best squat was like 1135 and my best bench was like a thousand. Now I can say I'm the only person in the world who has ever benched and squatted over 1,100 pounds.

SPEAKER_01 1:58

Really?

SPEAKER_00 1:59

Yeah, I hit an 1100 pound bench press in 2023 and I came back after a quadrupture, a full quadrupture. I came back and I hit 1105 this September. That's fucking so I've also gone on to hit the fourth biggest total of all time with a 2905, and you know, uh done some cool stuff, but I recently retired from full power. I need a new hip. So, you know, uh powerlifting took its pound of flesh.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

No, it you know, it it's true. You get to a certain age and it's like, you know, you beat the shit out of your body, and you really have to look at yourself in the mirror and go, okay, you know, how much more can I get out of this body? I have to uh, you know, now it's time to live healthy. But so what happened was, and it's funny that um you brought up Rita's because what happened was when I first started my channel, um body uh powerlifting was huge, and Dave Palumbo had on Rita West, and at the time she had the world record squat for her weight class um assisted, I'm pretty sure.

SPEAKER_00 2:52

And yeah, at one point she had both. At one point, because I was there, she said it's you want to hear something crazy, she said them both on the same day in Newark, New Jersey. She started the meet roll, hit a world record, put her gear on, hit a world record. But she went on to up that world record some. But yeah, I was there, it was Newark, New Jersey. It was crazy.

SPEAKER_01 3:10

And um, she was only like what 5'4, 5'3, 5'4, like buck 48. Yeah, no, it was real, it was uh uh amazing. So I messed, I messaged her, I think it was on Facebook, and if she came on, and then what happened was I said, Do you have any other friends that would like to come on and talk about their powerlifting? She's like, Oh, I know Bob. Perfect, and then that's what happened. You came on and we talked about it. Yeah, she actually went on.

SPEAKER_00 3:33

Did you know she went on to get her pro card in bodybuilding?

SPEAKER_01 3:35

And that's another thing. She I actually had her on when she turned pro as a uh a bodybuilder, and then she did a few bodybuilding shows. Uh, now I don't think she's active in bodybuilding or powerlifting anymore. I know she's living in Las Vegas, she had a gym for a little while. I have not spoken to her in several years, so I'm really not sure.

SPEAKER_00 3:53

But no, yeah, I talk to her all the time. She's living her best life, kind of like just relaxing in Vegas, sitting by the pool. I mean, I saw her she was around here, she came down like six months ago. She was hanging out at my house and all. So she's doing great.

SPEAKER_01 4:05

Yeah, she's awesome being really very caring, very good human being. Yeah, so why do you love before we get to the book? And what's funny is that what's funny is it's funny that you came on now because right now we have this uh enhanced sports going on. If you've oh it's awesome, if you notice, and what is really funny uh is that none of the world records are getting broken from the actual Olympics, which tells you one or two, which tells you the one thing that I believe is that the uh natural athletes are not really natural.

SPEAKER_00 4:38

That's what I was like, you know what's funny, and I bet you knew because I knew everyone's like, oh, watch these records get shouted, and I'm like, there's no way. No, no, not gonna happen.

SPEAKER_01 4:46

Everybody thought that, but let's face it, athletes will do anything to win.

SPEAKER_00 4:51

And anything I 100% believe that, and I you know what? The title of the book is Moderations for Cowards, so you should be willing. If you're if you're gonna do something, you should want to be the best.

SPEAKER_01 5:01

That's right. Let's uh I'm gonna bring the uh book up. Here we go. Um, so if we could see that this is the book, it's on uh Amazon. It's called Moderation is for cowards. I will put the link for Amazon in the description so you could just click going by. And why don't you tell me about what the book is actually about?

SPEAKER_00 5:21

So I'll give you the rundown because it's funny because as I sort of wrote it, I didn't know I was writing it. Uh I was getting ready. I knew I was getting ready for my last powerlifting meet uh in September. I put everything I had sort of into this meet that I did out in uh blue collar barbell, which is in like Long Island, New York. And I said, like, I'm trying to decide, like, is this the end? Do I have anything left? And I hit that big bench, 1105, but my total was 2805. Great total, but 100 pounds less than my best. So it was at that time where I realized I had to like look in the mirror and decide, like, is it worth putting my body through all this for less than my best total? And I decided, you know, with my kids are 22 now, my twins, my little guys graduating going to high school. I said, you know what, it's not worth it anymore. Not to be not the best version of myself. I didn't think it was 100 pounds left. So I planned one more meet. I was gonna do sort of like a retirement farewell. I was gonna cut to 242 from 308, which I did. And uh, as I'm getting ready for that, just mentally I start writing my thoughts down. And I've always been like a journaler, it's nothing new. And one day we were actually on vacation in El Salvador with my family, and uh my daughter sees it, she's hanging out late with me and she wants to read it. So I'm like, yeah, sure, you can read the stuff. And she starts reading these journal entries and she's like loving them. And uh she goes back and reads some old ones. She's like, you know, where's the rest of them? I'm like, well, that's that's kind of it. So she almost convinced me in a way to sort of take those and put them together to sort of turn it into a book. And that was sort of the start. So I ended up just putting a bunch of journal entries together and then going back and sort of reverse engineering the story. So a lot of the chapters in the beginning are new. Chapters in like the powerlifting career are kind of like from journal entries. And then when I worked with an editor, it was like, well, if you want this to be accessible for everyone and not just heavy into powerlifting, you have to sort of shorten some of the powerlifting lingo out of there, take that out, and just focus on your themes. Because the themes are turns out what's more important. It's you know, overcoming adversity. You know, hard work is the key to success. It's it's natural talent's great, but like you can outwork anything. And what I love about powerlifting and bodybuilding in a sense that like not everyone has the genetic ability to be the absolute best, but everybody will get better. You hit the gym and you work hard, you eat right, you do the right things, and you will 100% improve. And that's like not the case everywhere in life. You know, you're five foot four basketball ain't for you. But like you can you can make powerlifting work if you're five four, you can make bodybuilding work if you're five four.

SPEAKER_01 7:46

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 7:47

You put a hard enough effort in and you can really find that success. And I find that that's kind of a lesson that we learn that really lends itself well to life. So it starts as like my life under the barbell, but it really turns into like how do you overcome adversity? How do you deal with failure? And is it really failure if you're able to keep moving forward? And then the the title is somewhat deceiving because it says moderation is for cowards, but I go on to talk about how really in life, sports, bodybuilding, as a family man, I've got kids. You need balance. Yes. But everyone thinks of balance as being able to do everything evenly. I don't. I think of balance as what is the bullshit you can cut out that allows you to put more into the things that matter. So, like I don't go out drinking, you know, I don't have the junk food. I achieve balance by cutting out things that don't help me achieve my goals so I can focus on the things that do. And that's kind of the lesson I wanted people to walk away from is you don't have to be good at everything. You have to be good at things that kind of matter to you. So think about what matters, where you're gonna put your effort and energy, and put all of your effort and energy into those things. So that's kind of how the book came to be. And it's been awesome. I really just wrote it for my kids and future grandkids. I've sold over 1200 copies, and now I'm going to some school in Lake Placid and doing like motivational speeches and things.

SPEAKER_01 9:00

Fantastic, man.

SPEAKER_00 9:00

Glad took on like a life of its own.

SPEAKER_01 9:02

Yeah, we need more men uh like you uh because a lot of I see a lot of young men today, they lack the uh masculine role models. So we do need, I mean, don't get me wrong, in the last five to six years, we've had a lot of uh podcasters that have jumped on, but uh the we we we haven't had a lot of the power lifter bodybuilder guys doing it. And I'm actually very happy that you are because I always felt that that was a void that needed to be filled. Because um the the balance part is difficult. So what I mean by that is when you go into powerlifting or bodybuilding, if you're not a selfish person, you kind of become a selfish person. Everything revolves around you, and you can't live life like that. So you have to be able to understand that you have to, it's a it's a bit of a give and take. You know, um when I was uh competing in bodybuilding, uh I knew for eight weeks I was going to have a life where um my wife would be second. As soon as those eight weeks were over and the contest was over, she became first again. And I remember every contest I did, I came home with flowers, a card, gifts the next day the next day to give to her, but to sh, you know, to say she's back in the number one spot, basically.

SPEAKER_00 10:19

That's it.

SPEAKER_01 10:19

And there's a lot of people that don't understand that if you have a good person by your side, you kind of want to make them feel that they are the most important thing to you.

SPEAKER_00 10:28

Absolutely. And I would say the same thing. My wife has been my rock.

SPEAKER_01 10:32

Oh, absolutely. We all need that person. Um uh women need that from their husbands, husbands need that from their women, and you become a better person. Uh uh, whether it's your hobby, sport, work, uh, you become a better father, you become a better husband, a better wife, a better, a better mother. But uh there is nobody actually talking about it. Even when you go to seminars, they're not talking about how your how the guys like yourself can help the youth understand masculinity, responsibility, and value. So I'm very happy.

SPEAKER_00 11:11

So it's funny you should say masculinity and stuff like that, because when I describe this book, if you're to read the Amazon description, it says like sort of a redefinition of what masculinity is. You know, everyone always thinks one thing, but the guy I dedicated this book to, like my lifting coach, all right, he is the toughest man I know. I met him when I was in high school, bench press in 405 for 10 reps, an absolute mass of man. So it's important that he had that because that's what drew me to him. So that was that was the catch, right? But as I become connected to him, what kept me around was he was a great man. Um he would offer kids rides home. He was the one who was taking us out for ice cream, and he became this guy who like he never got mad, I never saw him lose his temper. He wasn't the coach that yelled, he was the one who'd be like, Come here, I'm gonna talk to you for a second. Right. And that was important, and that's what I realized I wanted to be. However, at the same time, if he didn't have that 405 for 10, if he didn't have that, he would have been missing something crucial for me to see, for me to be like, I want to be like him. He had it all. Because he had that big bench, he drove a 69 Mustang and he had a giant New Finland. I see this guy and I'm like, that's it. He's the man. And uh, and I like to think that I've tried to become that guy for some of my lifters because when I tried to pay him back, I still see him twice a week. We still train together, he flew out to all my pro meets. I mean, he's like my best friend, and he's gonna be 70 years old. We still hang out. You know, I was with him yesterday morning, I bring him breakfast every Sunday. Um, I like to think that I'm that way for other people because when I asked him, like, how do I pay you back? He's like, you have to do exactly what I did before other people. And uh, one of the guys you're talking about, you know, misplaced priorities being there for your wife, he wouldn't mind me saying it. One of the guys I really thought about as I wrote this book was a friend of mine, Tristan Breen. He's a big power lifter out in Utah. And uh he looks up to me, but one day he called me and he's like bragging about how he's gonna be training on Christmas and how his daughter won't even get to open her Christmas presents until he gets back from the gym. And I'm like, buddy, like, no, yeah, that's not a good thing. No, I'm not saying mission workout. Don't. You want to get up at 4 a.m. and do the workout so that it's on you? Do that. You suffer, don't make your family suffer, don't make your wife suffer. The reason my gym is in the basement, like I built my home gym and I invested a lot into it. The real reason is there is so when I got home, my kids could do their homework in the other room, in their playroom, while I was training. Right. And that allowed me to still be present. Now, did I spend money that could have been used on other things? Yes, that was a little selfish. Does my wife have a little bit more to do a lot of months when I'm training for a contest? Absolutely. But did I do my part to try and make sure I was still present and helpful? And I think that she could see, which is why she was so willing to invest her time in me. Right. So it's a team effort.

SPEAKER_01 13:52

But the you know, the the ends justify the means. You're your the finished product of your children, because you said um you said uh two of them are out of college already, one guy's uh in high school, right? Yeah, so you could see that your hard work and your critical thinking about how I could create balance and still be a champion uh powerlifter, but be a good dad, it worked. And it worked because you see your kids successful. And that's that's proof, that's proof that it worked. And I I just one thing I don't want to get into too I don't want to get too uh you know too deep, but uh one thing I despise is bad parents. And it's a long story, but I'm not I'm not gonna get into it. I don't have kids, and and you know, me and my wife don't have kids, it's it's another story. And because of that, I despise bad parenting. I mean I absolutely have no respect for anybody because they don't look at it as a gift, and I've I always I would always look at it as children are or a gift, and they're innocent, and it's your job to uh make them into responsible adults.

SPEAKER_00 15:02

So I agree completely, and I mean I'm also a teacher, so it's like I've got my kids, but I also feel like I've got like surrogate kids. I've been teaching for almost 20 years. You know, I started the charity to get the backs of some of my kids who are having a hard time. I run the Special Olympics, so like whether it be my kids, other kids, I'm fully with you there. They need a good example because kids don't learn from what you tell them, they learn from what they see.

SPEAKER_01 15:26

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 15:27

Just like we do, people think you don't learn from what people tell you to do. Think about your own life with your own parents. Like you watch them and you take everything in, and those actions, they're what define you and they're what you really learn from. So you have to model good behavior, not just tell them. If it was that easy, everyone would be a good parent. If you could just tell them what to do, hey, go do your homework. Hey, go get A's. It doesn't work that way. They need to see you living what you're telling them to do in order to be able to learn those lessons subconsciously, and that's the case.

SPEAKER_01 15:57

Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I mean, I don't have any any um any kids, but the fact that I know uh that uh you put them up first and your responsibilities makes me admire you even more. Forget the power lifting. But the combination of the strength training and the fact that you are a family man makes me admire you and envy you even more, right? Um let's take a quick uh trip down memory lane. Why do you think I mean I have my I have my uh theory, but I want yours. Why do you think powerlifting goes like there's always a niche following for powerlifting and bodybuilding, but especially powerlifting, but then it kind of gets real popular for a year or two where it breaks into like almost you know mainstream, and then it always takes a step back and it goes right back to the niche following. And five years ago I've got a good answer for this one. Okay, good. Five years ago, six years ago, it was huge. I mean, huge. The uh powerlifting, um, the um strongman was just everybody was following it, it was all over social media. The strict curl was was getting back into it. The strict curl world record was just broken, nobody gives a shit. Like nobody's talking about it.

SPEAKER_00 17:16

I know it literally just happens. Like that 23-year-old kid, yeah, like cross payments, like you can't even find videos of it.

SPEAKER_01 17:21

Yeah, it's unbelievable. Why do you think that is?

SPEAKER_00 17:24

So I'll answer this be like a slightly longer version. So I still think powerlifting is big in terms of numbers, because like if you look at like IPF numbers and high school gats and stuff like that, like I have a girl who's out at high school gats right now, like they still got a lot of people, but there's a lot of things that always power lifters and lifters, there's a lot of ego in that sport. And we tend to get in our own way. So, what has happened historically, whether it be raw, whether it be equipped, whether it even be strongman, but not strongman so much, you know, when things are going well, like we had the WPO that came back in 2018, 2019, that's equip lifting, it was big, but then all of a sudden, like the judging lacks us up, and some people get calls and some people don't. And all of a sudden you have federation splinter. And now you have some lifters go over here, some lifters go over there, and it sort of dilutes the talent pool. When people tune in, they want to see the best of the best. They want everyone to be there and they want good competitive standards. Like me, I have competed in every federation because I chase, I actively chase the best that there is. But not everyone's going to do that. And honestly, not everyone has that opportunity. You know, I've been able lucky enough to be able to travel to places all around the country to do the big meets and stuff like that. So that's a big part of the reason is ego, bad judging. And honestly, we're our own worst enemies a lot of time because, you know, we're already a small group, and it's constantly power lifters turning on each other, whether it be raw versus gear, or you know, right now there's different types of multiply equipment, and like in the smallest subcategory of the sports, people are arguing over what type of bench shirt is the right type of bench shirt. And it's like, guys, it's all we're all doing the same thing. We're all lifting weights. It shouldn't really matter unless we're directly against each other and like you're taking something that I don't get an opportunity to do, we should be friends. Same thing with bodybuilders, but like we all love the iron. I don't know why everyone has to want people to love it the same way as them. It doesn't really make sense. You don't say that in other sports.

SPEAKER_01 19:23

Yeah. No, you're 100%. Um, there's usually one major federation that controls everything the NFL, the MLB, the NHL, the A. And um, so you're right. Anytime there's multiple multiple governing bodies, uh, it's always takes a downfall. Best and and that is a great interpretation because the best uh the the the best sport that got hurt the most from multiple uh governing bodies is boxing. You know, the IBF, the WBA, the WBO, you go from state to state, different rules, different this, different that, different ring sizes, different, you know, and it was just uh you had different rankings, and nobody like it just nobody can.

SPEAKER_00 20:07

You can't keep up, you don't you can't keep up, and people follow certain money to certain places. Like when I was a kid, and I'm assuming like we're like the Tyson era where the heavyweight boxer, like everyone knew the heavyweight champion of the world. Everyone knew, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:20

And that's uh that from your perspective, it's a hundred percent accurate from the inside of powerlifting looking out, from the outside looking in, there doesn't seem to be any more superstars. Five or six years ago, you had the mountain, you had Eddie Hall, you had Brian Shaw, and um you also had uh what was his name? Scott Mendelssohn. Um you had these you know almost household names, you know. Everybody knew the mountain from uh Game of Thrones, and and um you don't I couldn't tell you who the world's strongest man is now.

SPEAKER_00 20:55

Yeah, honestly, I I don't keep up with it either. The one the biggest name in powerlifting right now, if I had to say, uh Jimmy Cole is a big bench presser, and he gets a lot of uh love and attention. He's he's got a big bench press, like hundreds of pounds more than everyone else, friend of mine, great guy. Yeah, um, but outside of him, there's I mean, Dave Hoff was a big equipped power lifter. Uh, there is this one raw guy who I figure must start. If you haven't heard his name yet, I don't even know him personally. He's young. Um, I want to say he's from like South Africa. His name is Colton. It's Colton the Limit Breaker on Instagram, and he's squatting almost 1100 pounds raw.

SPEAKER_01 21:30

Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 21:30

Benchin, benching almost 600. I think he actually did hit 600 raw. And he deadlifted well over a thousand and he just missed 1102.

SPEAKER_01 21:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:41

If you can imagine that raw, he's a raw lifter and he's a 242. So think about that. Like, so there are people out there, but you're right. We like the old guards stayed around so long that they're all kind of fizzling out, but no one came back to replace him. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:54

I mean, five or six years ago, I remember C. T. Fletcher would have his own um uh raw.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

uh powerlifting show and um uh what was his name came out of that and he has the the role open bench world record uh god maddox julius maddox yes yes yes yes and it was it peaked like i said five or six years ago and now you kind of like you said like i remember um cobb I had him on the show five or six years ago when he broke the the assisted uh but you know i i it's it's it kind of sucks because it's a great community you know what i mean like it is yeah you know it is i mean i just judged the meat the other day actually ironically enough the newer meet the same meat i saw Rita break those records in because I'm trying to stay around the sports stay around the community and all and man it was great I thought it would be hard for me to not be competing and be in the judge's chair but like to see all the people just coming up and first meet second meet because it's like a smaller local meet it was fantastic um everyone's helping everyone people rapping each other's knees it's like it reminded me of why I got into it in the first place it was such a welcoming community but then you get on the internet and all of a sudden it just doesn't seem like the internet has been the best thing and the worst thing for strength sports right the best for information because man can you find like the training that we have access to is amazing the Reddit forms and stuff like that like it is tremendous and honestly strength athletes are great at talking to you you can reach out to most people in the strength athlete they'll give you a little bit of their time that's right like you can't write an email to LeBron James or send him a DM like it ain't gonna happen. But like take the best lifters in the world there's a good chance they'll respond to you. Yeah or they'll even coach you a lot of them do coaching this that and the other so you have excess of information but on the other hand everybody's got an opinion everyone's gonna tell you you're squatting high you're not locked in out your deadlifts you're soft when you're bodybuilding like everyone who isn't there and usually people that don't even do it. Right you know they call themselves a power lifter bodybuilder but they've never done a show they've never done a meet but they feel like they're entitled to these opinions and I get it everyone's entitled to opinion but they're not all equal. Yeah my opinion on powerlifting matters more than most powerlifters. I'm sorry I've been there longer I've done it at a higher level my opinion on bodybuilding doesn't matter as much as someone who's done a show but it still matters more than Gary who sits on his couch. You know I've been to shows I've been to the Arnold and I trained with people that have crossed over so although I might not know as much I'm still involved and then it's just always some guy sitting on his couch or some kid who wants to chirp and uh I never let it get to me but it still dilutes things.

SPEAKER_01 24:33

Yeah yeah yeah no a hundred percent does it really is yeah social media has like you said has its pros and cons and um yeah if it wasn't for social media I wouldn't be able to get in touch with three quarters of the people I can to get on my show.

SPEAKER_00 24:45

It's a hundred percent accurate here's here's what I'll say um is improv the most impressive thing to me about the power sports if anybody out there hasn't gone to a uh a powerlifting ego and yeah the the when you get to the heavyweights and you get to the big dudes like somebody like yourself and you get to the big dudes you expect them to put up some serious weight it was always more impressive and that's why I was so impressed by Rita by the women especially the small women and then the small guys that put up the amount of weight it's like how is it possible where are they getting this power from you know to me that was the most uh most impressive when I saw the little guys the the guys that are like five seven maybe 180 190 pounds and then benching over 500 and you go how is that fucking possible and then when you see a five foot four Rita West squatting over 600 you go how how is this possible yeah right there's a guy John Hack he's a raw powerlifter and I mean he's a 198 or pressing over six deadlifting over nine it it's wild and I will say back to the social media and good things you referenced the women in strength sports social media opened that door yeah because think back like 10 years ago if I was at a powerlifting meet 10 years ago you'd see one or two females tops and they were grouped into the men who's like where do you put them and now it's almost like because you see it online because it's become more acceptable especially in powerlifting like it's 60 40 75 30 like it's it's always higher level I'm doing a bench meet because I'm I'm retired from full power but I'm still benching a little bit at York Barbell and some of these numbers for women are opening up over 600 pounds on the equipped bench press and that's like you didn't hear about that. That was a great like you said that was a great squat and now of a sudden you're seeing women bench press over 600 pounds. I never thought I'd see that like the bone like the like the the tendon and joint and bone strength alone to be able to stack that on the under a sub 200 pound female frame is just wild. Yeah but it just goes to show what you can acclimate to when you have the accessibility to the stuff. So again good and bad with the social media but if I had to say it's more good than bad because of those things.

SPEAKER_01 27:07

Yeah absolutely 100% uh Bob I appreciate you always uh love and respect um when you reached out to me I was very happy to uh help promote the book because you were one of the first powerlifters that came on my channel when I needed you the most and I didn't forget I'll never forget that so I was always fun I always love talking I love a new audience too. Yeah absolutely so I I I want to be one of those people that doesn't forget where he comes from so when you messaged me of course I said yes no problem you were there for me when I first started my channel I didn't know what I was doing. You said absolutely I'll come on and when you said I wrote a book I want to I want to uh advertise it no problem dude you got it so I appreciate you of course and I just want to tell you no much love respect I admire you greatly um every time we talk I admire you even more so please go buy the book it's gonna be in the the link is in the description on Amazon moderation is for cowards and follow uh Bob on Instagram uh what is the Instagram Bob what you Bob it should it's my name so it's Bob Merck um and it's obviously Instagram and listen you got any questions or things like that I love like I said I do love talking and I say you reach out to people I answer DMs and stuff like that all the time. Okay um you know whether it be about training itself the book I love the chit chat so hit me up if you want so if you guys are interested in powerlifting which if you are in high school female or male and um when you get on the bench everybody stops to watch pursue power powerlifting okay because that's how you know you got what it takes. When everybody when the whole gym stops to watch and somebody goes that kid's only 16 you know you need you got what it takes.

SPEAKER_00 28:47

And let me tell you if you're interested in if you're interested in bodybuilding in the future there ain't nothing better than putting a little like heavy compound movements in your training that's right so there's a lot of like good like Kyle Irving I don't know if you know who he is big bodybuilder and power lifter there's a lot of people now because the modern power lifter doesn't look like they used to you don't see these 350 pound like purple hypertensive you know mutants anymore you're starting to see people that look like they could you know give them 16 18 weeks and they could step on a stage and you're starting to see more and more power lifters do that. Like Joe Sullivan Joe Sullivan was a big power lifter he was able to get his pro card almost instantly just because of the mass he just needed a lot of coaching and a lot of posing work.

SPEAKER_01 29:30

But like it wasn't about he knew the training he even knew how to cut he knew the diets because he was a guy who used to cut down to 220 so there has been a lot of people so I honestly think that is a good future for powerlifting because I hate to see the you want to look strong too like for me it always mattered you want to look you know if I want to be strong I want to walk around I want to have the arms I want to have a chest there was a lot of guys that crossed over I even believe uh Ronnie Coleman did some powerlifting he did he did and uh I mean everybody knows um Johnny Jackson of course um and then who is Stan Efferding Stan Effering's another one I know Stan Effering um obviously we got Larry Wheels that crosses over he does everything he like yeah he just tried MMA so go figure but anyway um Bob thank you very much for coming on man we will be in touch and uh yes moderations for cowards link is in the description uh Bob's Instagram is in the description go and click and check it out believe me you will not be disappointed thank you Bob we'll talk soon brother all right thank you so much man take care have a good night you got it later