The Masters Athlete Survival Guide
We explore thriving as an athlete after 40. Each episode, we’ll dive into tips, hacks, and inspiring stories from seasoned athletes and our personal experience. Whether you’re a weekend warrior or a competitive pro, this podcast is your playbook for staying fit, strong, and motivated
The Masters Athlete Survival Guide
When Your Body Says No but Your Heart Says Nationals
Scott Fike shares his journey toward the USS Masters National Strongman Competition and why this might be his last year competing at this level despite his previous success as a silver medalist.
• Training for five grueling events including a 650-pound yoke carry, 550-pound frame carries, frame deadlifts, bag throws, and log clean and press
• Working around significant shoulder injuries that doctors warn will eventually require replacement
• The importance of having a supportive community and training partners who understand your goals
• How focusing on ancillary exercises and movements can improve main competition lifts
• The mental fortitude required to continue training despite physical limitations
• Why proper programming and technique adjustments can make a significant difference for masters athletes
• The competitive advantage of registering early to go last in competition
• Balancing the desire to win with the reality of aging and physical limitations
• The value of having someone else handle programming to remove decision fatigue
• Understanding that some days will be harder than others but consistency is key
Our mantra for masters athletes pursuing challenging goals: "Don't fucking stop."
@masters_athlete_survival_guide on IG
New episodes come out every other Thursday!
Welcome to the Master's Athlete Survival Guide, where we explore the secrets to thriving in sports after 40. I'm John Catalinas and, along with Scott Fyke, we'll dive into training tips, nutrition hacks and inspiring stories from seasoned athletes who defy age limits. Whether you're a weekend warrior or a competitive pro, this podcast is your playbook for staying fit, strong and motivated. Let's get started and we're back. Hi, it's John, and fresh out of mime school is my friend Scott. I have no idea where the hell that came from.
Speaker 1:I'm still, scott, the last episode that you let me do without you. Ah, yes I said that you were at Mime school.
Speaker 2:Mime school and I had hoped you would get out of the box. I'm out of the box in the closet, yeah, stop.
Speaker 1:All right, whatever. Whatever, my super secret special guest today is that old man over there. It's Scott Fike Day. Welcome to Scott Fike Day. Hi, I know right, I don't know how you. Oh, I do know how you celebrate it. We celebrate it with a taste testing. Yeah, so Scott is I don't know. I think he's trying to ply me with his wares Brought three. Are these unlabeled? Do we know what these are?
Speaker 2:We know, but you're supposed to taste it without knowing first. Oh, okay, it's a blind taste test.
Speaker 1:We are doing a blind taste test of three bourbons Three bourbons. Three bourbons, not the dog, the liquid, no, not my dog. Scott's dog's name is Bourbon and I hate it. I love it, I hate it.
Speaker 2:Because first of all, you go in the backyard and scream bourbon and I'm like, do I need?
Speaker 1:intervention like. It worries me a little, but that's fine, hey, I'm polish, you could have called him krupnik. Oh yeah, yeah, that's true, that would have worked too, and also been weird um one of the features of amazon studio amazon studios aurora studios it's been a long day, folks. Sorry is, um, we have a timer that keeps us sort of on track, uh, as to how far we are in the episode, and, um, I know he hasn't been here a while, but scott's role is to push the incredibly difficult start button.
Speaker 2:Well, in my school, to my defense yes we don't actually do anything, we just pretend oh, oh, so you pretend to push that button about two and a half minutes ago.
Speaker 1:Oh, so that explains the black and white stripe shirt and the gloves.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, okay well, I do need you to bend over and grab the countertop what you look good in a beret, though I gotta say that it's a raspberry beret did you do I need to the kind I get at the secondhand store.
Speaker 1:This is already going off the rails, okay, so let's get back to bourbon, because it's definitely been a bourbon kind of day yes, not the dog um, I am looking at sample a. Don't tell me, because I'm not supposed to know, right, I'm not gonna tell you so here you go Live taste test of Sample A. Sample A.
Speaker 2:Sample A.
Speaker 1:It's very exciting on radio.
Speaker 2:We did hear you swallow, though, did you, that's?
Speaker 1:good, stop it. A little hot, not super hot, so not like cask strength. I'm going to do all the nerd stuff, kind of a caramel start, a vanilla finish, not much of an end, sort of goes away. So maybe not the most expensive bourbon I've ever drank. I can't say that I hated it. So Scott is going to try it. And then Scott has got the cheat card in his hand, so he knows, I do know what it is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, cilantro.
Speaker 1:Oh, I like a cilantro. That's a take on cilantro, but yet it's ethnic and funny, good, okay. So Scott has imbibed. He's reflecting. He's now pretending he's in a box again.
Speaker 2:It's not mime school brother, stop, let it go it is a little hotter than you would expect, um hotter than I think I'm I like normally. Sorry about that, folks, mime school, we don't have microphones in our faces yeah, no, I never thought. It does have a caramel finish to it. With a little bit of butterscotch it is sweet, a little bit of a citrus note to it. I don't get citrus. I do Do you, at least according to the.
Speaker 1:Oh, you're cheating.
Speaker 2:Not at all.
Speaker 1:I'm like he's reading it.
Speaker 2:This is called Buzzards roost.
Speaker 1:Toasted american oak straight bourbon 105 proof so okay, just a little hot, not terrible. Do we know where buzzard roost is from?
Speaker 2:does it say from the buzzard?
Speaker 1:no, it does not say okay, sorry, we didn't do our homework. This is like an impromptu tasting, because uh except right alcohol. Yeah, and john had a long work day, so all right, this is bottle b bottle b oh, he's smelling it it does have a like, a like.
Speaker 2:It smells like it's going to be hot.
Speaker 1:It's got that alcohol smell to it, but did you cheat on this one too? Okay, good, okay, he's taken a ridiculously large swallow, that is. You know, there's a I'm a big guy. He tightened the lid way more than is necessary to hand it to me the three and a half feet that he needed to hand it it's sweeter than the other.
Speaker 2:One's got more than now.
Speaker 1:We're comparing and contrasting.
Speaker 2:I like it more that caramel note oh, it's super caramel.
Speaker 1:Oh, I don't. Oh, I like this it's. It smells more, higher proof than it tastes. Very caramel, no finish, definitely drinkable. Definitely has that like sit by the fire vibe, so there must be some wood and some smoke in there according to this, it is spicy notes with dark cherry, oh, toasted vanilla, it is roasted, it has bread and honey notes oh, bread, yeah, I love bread, quite what I would normally figure with this it.
Speaker 2:It is called Breckenridge, so we're going to assume it's from Colorado. Excellent choice, sir, you're welcome, and it is 86% or 86 proof.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay.
Speaker 2:So thus the taste. But I guess that's weird because, like I said, the smell made it seem like it was going to be real hot. I got that like alcohol-ish smell when we start.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I agree, I agree it smells. I don't know, who knows, it might just be the storage or something, but yeah, it smelled way more alcohol than it was yeah um, I liked it. I liked it more than a. God bless the people in breckenridge. If you are, in fact, in Colorado. I like the smell of this Uh oh, the next sample might not get to me.
Speaker 2:No, it will, because I don't live in Aurora Studio.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, good point, we do have more bourbon here, though.
Speaker 2:God, do we?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:This is probably my second favorite. What was your first favorite? B the back and ridge. It's got a little bit of an aftertaste to it. There's not a lot early on yeah, that seems fair.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that I get that. It's weird. It's almost all finish and very kind of bland up front. You know what's funny? What's funny joke says my favorite joke bacon and eggs walk into a bar. Bartender says I'm sorry, we don't serve breakfast. That's my favorite joke anyway. What are you from?
Speaker 2:vaudeville. Uh, this one says leather toffee and the largest thing here says lingering yeah, so it's got the aftertaste to it and I think I like that taste. This is called old soul. It is straight bourbon small batch we're drinking souls, nice, we are. Damn your, damn your soul. 90 proof Nice, nice. So in my mind Breckenridge was first.
Speaker 1:Okay. So before we move on to the actual topic, why do we have these little tasters there, Scottness? What is this? I don't think I understand understand.
Speaker 2:So last year, for father's day, my wife and children got me a one-year subscription call to a company called flavor, and what flavor does is, every three months they ship you a full size bottle, which I did not bring with me. Why? Because it gives you a reason to go to the speakeasy. Oh, I thought it was just because it was delicious. Yeah, it is, uh, and it gives you three tasters. Now, these tasters probably have what? Three ounces?
Speaker 1:in it.
Speaker 2:Maybe they're test tube size yeah so the idea is for you to gain interest in them. Flavor is a wholesaler of good alcohol, everything from japanese to irish to scottish whiskeys to american bourbons, things like that and the prices are, from what I've seen, 10 to 20 less expensive.
Speaker 1:Yeah, do you get a discount, being like a a member, flavor member, or what I do.
Speaker 2:Oh nice, I do that's what gives me that 10 to 20 discount oh, oh okay and it's pretty good, you know. I mean I've bought, uh, several bottles of japanese whiskey from them that uh, I'm waiting until after a particularly nasty grind to break out for you guys awesome one of them is ungodly hot. It's probably about 135, I'm out. The other is it's 100 proof, but it doesn't taste 100 proof that's, that's an art form.
Speaker 1:Right there, 100, all right. So flavor is not a sponsor, although, although we're more than willing to accept any and all proposals. Absolutely, I mean flavor sponsors, flavor, yeah no, it's a cool concept because, like, I have been to a liquor store in chicago it's a chain called binnie's and they have a lot of bottles open that you can actually taste and I love that concept because it's hard. I mean you're gonna buy a 200 dollar bottle of something that you've never tasted.
Speaker 2:No, I mean, unless you really believe whoever reviewed it or you have a friend who says, oh my god, it's the greatest one of our colleagues, uh ron harkins, said you know, we were at a wedding last summer in indiana and they had the same thing. Whatever you wanted, they opened a bottle of it because they had I mean they. They must have had, without exaggeration, tens of thousands of bottles of alcohol did you try them all.
Speaker 2:I tried enough, okay, that I didn't drive back to the rehearsal dinner. Excellent, we had a friend do that, nice, um, but it. I like the concept because what they're going to lose in a wholesale bottle of booze, right, they're gonna more than make up in a couple of sales of single bottles you would think.
Speaker 1:I mean, I don't know if that's true, but it certainly feels true.
Speaker 2:Well, you know the the sort of rumor that a bottle of pappy van winkle you can buy for a couple thousand dollars. Right, but if you're a bar it might cost you 200 yeah, I don't.
Speaker 1:I'm sure there's markup like galore, but here's the thing. I mean I know things like p. Yeah, I don't. I'm sure there's markup like galore, but here's the thing. I mean I know things like Pappy by reputation. I don't believe I've ever had it no, me neither. And I don't know, without tasting it and loving it, that I would ever consider committing. And the cautionary tale I have is I had a friend that someone gave him a bottle of Johnny Walker Blue, right. So that's a couple hundred dollars for a blended. I didn't like it.
Speaker 1:I didn't hate it but I didn't like it.
Speaker 2:We've had some bottles that you and I have shared with brothers of ours that people have paid hundreds or in one case, $1,000 for. We're appreciative.
Speaker 1:Yep, and without the story story, it's sometimes like you paid what? So well, there you go. There's our little tasting segment. We should do this more often, only because I like drinking bourbon with you, yeah that's it we don't do it enough, all right.
Speaker 2:So what? Since I am fresh out of my school school, and to this point, the Master's Athlete Survival Guide is not a video?
Speaker 1:podcast. It's not, nor will it ever be. Well, mostly, it won't ever be.
Speaker 2:Until we get Cheetos to sponsor us, not a sponsor.
Speaker 1:Yes, sir what I'm a guest today, yeah you are?
Speaker 2:I thought I was a co-host.
Speaker 1:No you are, but here's the deal. Here's the deal Because I looked back at a lot of the things that you know. If we were to do like Masters, athlete Survival Guide, bingo, like the things that we continually say. If you look through, like, 10 of those keywords Cheetos, 11 of those keywords- Not a sponsor 12 of those keywords, not a sponsor 12 of those keywords.
Speaker 1:All right, I'll stop, go ahead. They pretty much point to someone committing to a goal and working towards it and hopefully achieving it. Long journey towards damn well, better be winning. Masters, national strongman felt like something we should discuss, since we never talk about it but we sort of we sort of glance on things like training and don't give me we you.
Speaker 2:You know, this is john john, I love him to death. He truly is a brother of mine, but he knows that I don't like talking about myself, I know that's why I roped you in with 800 of our closest friends.
Speaker 1:Right now the people in the faroe islands are sitting around the fire listening to this going. I've always wanted to know. Tell me about scott's journey. So I'm just trying, I'm doing what the people want.
Speaker 2:I know, I know. Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.
Speaker 1:Is that a? It's a song. Is it Mary Poppins? Yes, it is. Is it Mary Poppins?
Speaker 2:Yes, it is Okay While we're dating ourselves, all right. So one of the things that I don't talk about outside of my very close friend group is about two and a half years ago. I was, I had an ungodly tragedy happened and, as a result of that, every year I set at least one goal for myself to almost in dedication in, you know, improving my worth to myself or whatever and in 2024, that goal was to podium at the uh USS masters, national strongman or the national strongman competition. I mean, obviously I compete in the masters category. I'm 55. I'll be 55 years old this year. That's so old. I know it's not as old as rockman, though shout out to john.
Speaker 2:So last year the goal was to podium. I went in and this Denver, colorado, and there are five events and what we did was you, you basically, within a time period of about four to five hours, you go through five absolutely daunting events, and last year I was truly blessed to lift with some incredible, incredible guys and came in second. So I set one more goal for myself for this year, before John and I embark on who's a Fell 26. I decided that I was going to go back and I wanted to podium again, but I've got the intention of beating my goal from last year. So it's going to be a hell of an arduous trip because I've got some issues that I'm sure John is going to ask questions about today, that sort of head into the training.
Speaker 2:One of the things that I want to bring up when we talk about this is we talk about and we brought this up and you know, to john's point, he's talked about, uh, master's handling, survival guide, bingo, with some of the topics in. You know, goal setting, yes, but I think the one, john and we've heard it every single time is your tribe yep, community. You know that community around you. Professionally, I'm a college registrar and gym owner. So for me, I go to work and work for us our 10 12 hour days, because we want to make sure that we're meeting the needs of our students and everything else. So when I go home and have to do my training, it might be 10, 11, 12 o'clock at night that I head out to the compound to do my training. And the hardest thing is we all know this We've put in a super long day and it's like fuck I don't want to go out there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, sidebar, um when, when choosing a training partner, consider one that is equally as or less lazy or more lazy than you, because the fact that he's like well, I worked 15 hours and I only have two hours to train tonight makes it really hard to go. Well, you know, I have this hangnail. I don't, I don't think I can lift, I, I don't wanna, I'm I don't know. There's something great on netflix I really need to watch right now so to john's point.
Speaker 2:One of the things we've preached about is just start somewhere, get off the couch, start somewhere. And a dear friend of ours, tony Kalish and we've mentioned him on previous podcasts Tony said to me he says you know what? I want to do this. I want to take your programming off your plate. So I'm going to do your programming for you and you just have to go in there, follow the numbers, follow the rep schemes and stuff like that. So for me, one of the hardest things was taken away from me. I didn't have to do it, I didn't have to look at the planning, the programming, you know. Look at the macros, look at the numbers of how many sets I was doing, how much weight I was moving, what ancillary body parts do I want to work to hit, you know, goals?
Speaker 2:Because, like last year, we had the five events, we had to clean and press every repetition of a slater dumbbell, which is a little bit bigger than those old-timey circus man strongman dumbbells, okay, and ours was 130 pounds and you know it's a one-arm motion. So that was first. We had to shoulder a 550 pound yoke, run down 50 feet, set it down, literally turn our bodies around, pick it back up and run back 50 feet. Bodies around, pick it back up and run back 50 feet. We had to pick up three different weighted sandbags. Put them to our shoulder. Now you couldn't move until you put it on your shoulder. Oh, there's a lot of times what we do is we have to pick it up and sort of run with it. Right, yeah, no, this one to go to the shoulder. Um, what were those weights? 180, 210, 230, okay.
Speaker 2:Fourth event was a deadlift 450 pounds on a bar that didn't flex a lot with the weight on it, so you had to start off the platform. You weren't up to the platform when they say go strap yourself into the bar and then just go until time stops. And then the last event was an atlas stone over bar for repetitions. So picture cannonball made out of concrete. That is probably, I want to say, 15, 18 inches in diameter. It was 250 pounds okay.
Speaker 1:so next time you go to target, target has target has custom bollards in front of their stores and they are not the typical tall cylinders, they are big round red balls. If those weren't glued down, Scott would be putting those over a bar somewhere.
Speaker 2:Maybe depending on how much John had ticked me off on that given day.
Speaker 1:So let's give some credit where credit is due. We sort of glossed over your programmer, slash mentor, slash coach, tony, yeah tell me about tony tony. What was the sigh for that was, if I was tony I'd be offended. No, you shouldn't be. That sigh was almost a respect. Oh, you never sigh after you say my name. That explains it. There's a reason I get it now with tony.
Speaker 2:Tony is a former um pan am games silver medalist. I think tony is a former national champion. Strong man. Tony is an ungodly talented olympic lifter, which drives me nuts because I started into this game so so much later than he did. I can't ollie lift or olympic lift oh, holly lift.
Speaker 1:Is that what the?
Speaker 2:cool kids say I don't know, what do you say? I don't say anything.
Speaker 1:That's why we call it ollie. So god.
Speaker 2:You know, it's those motions of using physics to try to move faster, stronger, heavier things, and Tony is an expert at it, an incredible expert at it. He will look at what I'm doing on any given day and he'll say, all right, this is what you need to do. So one of the things I said I had to do was we had a 450 pound deadlift In a minute. I did 12 repetitions, not great, not terrible. Got me second place in the event that day. So one of the things Tony said- was.
Speaker 1:You're terrible at deadlifting, Do better.
Speaker 2:No, because he's seen you deadlift before. You're better than John, but you're still terrible at deadlifting.
Speaker 2:One of the things I can actually do well is deadlift. He said we're not going to work deadlift, we're going to work everything around the deadlift and then at the end put it together into a package. So one of the things he has me do is, like we have a prowler sled at the gym. We'll load that thing down five, six hundred pounds and then grab a hold of a car strap that's attached to it like a towing strap and walk backwards. But when you're walking, it's not this as fast as you can thing, like we tend to think we do in weightlifting. It is slow, deliberate movement where we're making sure that we're squeezing the muscles, that isometricometric movement to make sure that everything is engaged from the top down. Now here's where I want to give uh, the man in the corner over there is that me?
Speaker 2:yeah, that's you. Okay, a little bit of credit. One of the things that john did and john was instrumental in a lot of my success last year there you go.
Speaker 1:It's all about me, it is and and I, who had 21 minutes in. Oh no, we don't know how long we are in the podcast. We are 23 minutes in 10 seconds now okay.
Speaker 2:So one of the things that john is exceptional at because of his science background is breaking things down and sort of saying okay, you're doing this, I want you to try tweaking it here, you know, change the tempo that you're moving at or try twisting in this certain position and those things with the deadlift. You know I've got an ungodly strong back and one of my heavier deadlifts early on was a little over 600 pounds and I did it good morning style and John looked at me after me after we did it.
Speaker 1:We did a couple repetitions at it and he said I don't know how the hell you did that, because that was all back yeah, if you don't know what, if you don't know what a good morning style is, picture bowing at the waist like you're at the queen, except you have 600 pounds in your hand. It is the least mechanically functional way to lift 600 pounds ever, and this girl that did it for some reason. So I was both impressed and disgusted in one moment.
Speaker 2:Okay it's strong man, that's smart man yeah, there you go, fair enough we've heard that enough.
Speaker 2:Um, so we spent what? Two, three months, yeah, with like next to nothing on a bar with just bands over the top of the bar, foot placement, watching videos. How does you know this guy do it? How do they do it at untamed fitness? How do they do it? You know how is the journalist doing it, how are these people doing it, and then modifying it to at that point, like a 52 year old man and you know what were you 54, 55, somewhere in that ballpark, something like that and changing the way we sort of looked at it. And now, like you've said to me over and over again, when you walk up, before you get there, go through it in your head do your setup, do your mechanics. When you walk up, you should not be thinking it's muscle memory.
Speaker 1:And that's true, and I mean to scott's credit. He has certainly trained enough over the year that it absolutely is um, and now I will really shame him if he doesn't pull the snot out of deadlift um, this year's deadlift is on a frame, this year's events.
Speaker 2:We have five events again. Okay, one of them is a 650 pound yoke. So you put, you know, basically a yoke on your back or a bar across your back with weight hanging down towards the floor, and we have to walk 75 feet with 650 pounds.
Speaker 1:Another event 75 feet straight. 75 feet straight, no turn, no turn this time I am so happy about that, so it's for.
Speaker 2:That's where the time meter, so it's for time.
Speaker 1:So it's foot speed it is, while you have a zillion pounds on your back.
Speaker 2:It is I'm.
Speaker 1:I'm hoping for sub 20 seconds you're hoping for a sub every 20 seconds. You're gonna be full by the time we get to the end dude.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, you've seen me, you're not gonna be full, never mind. Um, next event is the. Uh, the is a frame carry. So picture a large box about 15, 18 inches tall around you. That's 550 pounds. You have to pick it up, go down 60 feet, set it down, turn around, pick it back up and go back 60 feet. So it's a grip and speed event. Are there wraps for the frame, not for the frame carry? So you need to use your hand strength, so it's hand strength okay which works for us because of all the grip work that we do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yes, then you're going to take that same frame in another event and you're going to. If this time you want to use straps, you can.
Speaker 1:You're going to deadlift it for as many repetitions as you can in a minute now, would you consider that similar to people who are probably more familiar with, like a hex bar like? Is it like a hex bar, deadlift?
Speaker 2:it is exactly like a hex bar because you're talking to 13 to 15 inch.
Speaker 1:Normal deadlifts are about nine inches except it might be a little wider, because it's actually a little narrower than a hex bar this is 29 inches and the narrower the pull, the easier it becomes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, uh, bag throw we have. Oh, I can't believe this event is in there. This is three bags for my group. It's 30, 35 and 40 pound weighted bag over a 16 inch bar behind you, or 16 feet 16 inch would be, I would love 16 inch I could. How much of that bourbon did we drink? Apparently, 16 inches worth 16, 16 foot bar for time. Uh, as the description goes, no thud, no count.
Speaker 1:So what does that?
Speaker 2:mean it's got to go over the bar and hit behind it, as opposed to it just going up and coming straight back down at you. You've got to clear the bar oh, oh, oh.
Speaker 1:I'm like what? Yeah, it's not worded. Well, no gravity, that's what the guy said, that's fine, and the last event is a log clean and press every repetition.
Speaker 2:So okay, it's a 230 pound log where we pick it up off the ground, press it over our shoulders, put it back down on the ground and start again, yeah, okay, so let's go through those events and scott's strengths and what he's trained for.
Speaker 1:So all carries, scott has pretty good foot speed and for a big guy, yeah. And the one thing that I kind of lack is because he's like thick like a brick. Um, he's got a decent shelf on his back to put a lot of weight on. I tend to find it, you know, like I've got this badonkadonk but I can't carry things on my ass, so, um, so that that should be a good event for you I think that'll be a good event.
Speaker 2:There's a guy out there who won last year's and I can't remember his name. Uh, met him last year. We need to give him a visit, like he last year in the down drop spin, come back. So 50 down, 50 back. He had 24 seconds, yeah I saw it's a massively quick.
Speaker 1:Do you remember the tanya harding days? I could, I could help you with that.
Speaker 2:I got this my thing is with the yoke and this is one of the things that nationals. It's tough. They have stuff set up for you to warm up yeah but you've got four, five hundred people warming up on a couple of implements. Wait, wait, wait wait, wait, wait.
Speaker 1:How many people? Four to 500. Oh, because this is nationals and teen nationals, and masters nationals.
Speaker 2:This is everybody. This is just nationals.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'm like wow, that's a lot of old people in one spot. I am definitely going to put a Geritol. Geritol, yeah, I'm definitely going gonna pull up with a food truck filled with like pudding, applesauce or applesauce applesauce would be good too.
Speaker 2:Just my group, as of right now, has 20 or 21 people in it, yeah, which is a massive, uh contingent of folks in a group is that one flight?
Speaker 1:just one big super group?
Speaker 2:oh, yeah, the advantages with nationals for us. You go in reverse order of which you register. Oh, so registering first, going last is a massive advantage, because you know.
Speaker 1:Did you do that? I did Nice, I got lucky. See, when you're an old athlete, you start to learn the importance of things like that, yeah.
Speaker 2:So I get to see just what I need to do to be a little bit better hopefully that's a veteran move right there Than anybody else, but if you can't take first, you want to know You're going to be last.
Speaker 1:Oh wait, Is that Ricky Bobby?
Speaker 2:No, that's Stroker. Ace with Burt.
Speaker 1:Reynolds Jesus, now you really did age yourself. Stroker Ace with Burt Reynolds Strokeries with Bert Reynolds Strokeries.
Speaker 2:Nice, you're killing me. Smalls, another one With the yoke. If you can't win an event, it's about where you place, because if there are 20 people in your group, first place gets 20, second place gets 19. So it does become a game of intelligence. If you know that somebody's going to win that event, okay, be second or third, because you know you can pull ahead of that person in a different event.
Speaker 1:Now, and I don't know what the scoring is called, but let's just pick a normal deadlift. If I do 10 reps, if you do 11, you get 20 points right. But what if you do? If I do 10 reps, and you do 20 reps and win, I still only get one more point. So the gamemanship is being able to go last and just do one more than okay. Look at you.
Speaker 2:You know, I mean one of the things that I'm strong in the lower body and in the smell and the smell, yes, but that's only after I've been working out. One of the things that I pride myself on and john has said this before is my gas tank. I can go hard for two, three minutes, sometimes without really losing a lot of intensity.
Speaker 1:No, that's very true. That's very true. Honestly, if you really had to bullet point five athletic differentiators for you, that's top of the list.
Speaker 2:You know, one of the compliments that I don't think people realize and I haven't shared this, I didn't share this with you. Last year we were out there and it was the deadlift and it's 450 pounds on a texas power bar, which is a very stiff bar, you know. You see those massive deadlifts where the weight's sort of curling down at the corners and the bar is bent a little bit. This bar is like ramrod straight. Okay, 450 pounds, up down, up down. I'm about 45 seconds into the minute and the only thing slowing me down is the up and down command from the judge, from the judge. One of the things I heard from one of my colleagues who was competing with he's like holy shit, he's like a fucking piston and that's, that's one of the things. Those are the things when those people that you're competing with compliment you like that. That means something. Yeah, that means I must predict you.
Speaker 1:You've already. You've already won Ivan Drago.
Speaker 2:You've already won ivan drago you've already won um, but it's this year, you know. You talked about the lower body. Okay, so we talked about foot speed with yoke. One of the things is going to be foot speed with the frame carry. Now they just changed it and I am so happy how happy are you? Disappointed about this. At the same time it was pick up the yoke, go down, and it was previously. Without setting the yoke or the frame down, you have to go around a cone and come back, so you have to turn.
Speaker 1:Yeah, with 550 pounds in your hands and the inertia is disconcerting and hard to control, and oh god, what it does.
Speaker 2:Your frame, your body frame and your core is insane. I think for safety reasons they changed that and I respect that 100% Seems reasonable. So it's go down, cross the line, set it down, you physically turn around, pick it up and go back. Yes, you, I want to see that Jesus.
Speaker 1:I got to go now to nationals just to pick it up for other people, just to pick it up me. Go back. Yes, you, I want to see that jesus. I gotta go now.
Speaker 2:Nationals just to pick it up for other people. Pick it up for me, um, and I think that's gonna help those people who are deadlifters and I've got after the first step, which is always that wonky weight bouncing around a little bit because I go such short, choppy steps, which is the way that tony trains us to do it. I think that's I'm going to come in handy with those types of things. So that's the yoke, that's the frame, the frame deadlift. You're picking up a 550-pound box, pick it up, down, up Down and you wait for the judge's command and, in practice, already in 30 seconds done eight yeah, yeah, that's weird.
Speaker 1:That's not a very innovative mix of event to throw that in. I mean I think it's an economic event it probably right, because we already have the frame there, let's lift it and put it up and put it down um, this is probably 550 is not a light deadlift, even off of a hex bar no, I know I'm not. Yeah, and plus it's all cumulative, right, you've already done a couple events.
Speaker 1:No, I get it, and this is probably a good place to interject the fact that like scott is not, was not like a 20 year old strongman ever. You got in a strongman at what?
Speaker 2:53, 52 maybe I think I was 50 or 51.
Speaker 1:Okay, but you're right, as one does like. Oh, I'm getting older, I think I should try to move that bus. Beat the piss out of myself, yeah.
Speaker 2:All right, so that's three of the four events. Fourth event is the bag throw. So you have three weighted bags, three weighted throw bags 10 feet away from the uprights. You have to run over the bag and, from whatever position, throw it up so it goes over the bar. Okay, this is where I I sort of lean on my friend john. Again, that's me, because you know we did highland games for a number of years, you know. And the drills you said all right, stupid, do the water bottle drill do this drill, do that shout out to john, john, john, I can throw better those bags one-handed.
Speaker 2:Yeah, then two-handed yeah, because that's the highland thing.
Speaker 1:Highland is one hand although isn't one bag, 40 pounds or something yeah, but we threw, I threw the 42 no, I know, that's what I'm, what I'm saying so they're not heavy.
Speaker 2:They're not heavy. I think if I can master the two-hand throw, I can throw it from where the bags are sitting. Oh, probably, and that's going to be a huge time saver, probably. And now we get to the last event, which is probably going to be the first event of the day, which will, in all likelihood, determine where I'm going to finish the day the log press.
Speaker 1:Oh, and why, scott, would the log press, when all those other things are so heavy and so difficult and so athletic, with the log press, where you're standing there and pushing a flintstone sized stick over your head, be a problem?
Speaker 2:big sigh, and that is a sigh of uh, anguish, anguish, pain, nice desperation, hand me more bourbon, yes, um, all kinds of things. As john knows, I've got some really, really messed up shoulders. Last year was an anomaly because it was a one-handed press and my right shoulder is great, my left shoulder. There are times I can't reach up into the kitchen cabinet and grab like a plate off of a shelf. That's at head level, because I've got just a massive amount of fat. Yes, that's it, fat in my shoulder between the joints.
Speaker 2:You're an ass. I know I've got a massive amount of uh, ego. Oh no, Ego is the one I'm looking at. Oh, that's. Oh, that's me, that's you.
Speaker 2:Sorry, sorry, uh. So I went to see the specialist and here in Western New York and he said, yeah, you've got some strength and you've got some mobility up there, but I'm telling you, in 10 to 15 years you're going to need a shoulder replacement. There are going to be some days when your shoulder's going to be fine and you can lift your arms straight up above your head with no problem. Shout out to Mike Cefal and the posturology that he does for me.
Speaker 2:God bless posturology that he does, for god bless posturology, god bless posturology. I'm like and there are other days that he said to me you're gonna be crying because you can't pick that shoulder up. Even so, it's parallel to the ground. You know, physically, strength wise, can I lift the log if I didn't have the shoulder issue? Yeah, yeah, I've done that weight before for the reps that we need.
Speaker 2:But my doctor said to me he says all right, I'll get to the conversation that John loves about having a prescription to go travel to Iceland in a couple years. He said to me. He says if you find yourself when we're about four or five weeks out from nationals, which is the end of June, he said, if you find yourself heading in that down motion where things are starting to get a little more painful, he says come and see me. He says we'll give you a cortisone shot. So you know, it's a standard medical practice. We'll make sure that shoulder can get you to get to be able to able to move ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to tell you the truth about this event.
Speaker 1:So here's how it's going to go. And yes, he might get the cortisone shot. He might not. Someone sitting here in aurora studios is going to break themselves that day um, come hell or high water to get as many reps as are humanly possible on this thing. Uh, it might be a swan song, but it's entirely possible that he's definitely going to do everything he can to win that event. The other thing I would like to point out is that your doctor said in 10 to 15 years you might need a shoulder replacement.
Speaker 2:In 15 years I'll be 70. That's what I was saying.
Speaker 1:Like, in 15 years you're going to be 70 years old. You're probably going to need lots of things replaced to be 70 years old, um, you're probably gonna need lots of things replaced.
Speaker 2:I mean, yeah, I mean, look at you. So one of the things I pride myself on and you can call this being stubborn, you can call this you know, I'm german, I'm polish, you know all those nationalities that have the stereotype of being stubborn I don't like to lose. I don't think anybody likes to lose, except john when he comes to the compound that's very true, I'm very comfortable with it, but it's that sort of how.
Speaker 2:What do I need to do? And tony will tell you that in any given competition day, you'll add 10 yeah, I believe that I'll add 15.
Speaker 2:Oh see, there you go, because I just I don't want to. John alluded to it. This and this was the sort of genesis of the conversation with my doctor. This is probably going to be my last strongman nationals competition. We'll still do some competitions, that sort of fit into what our body can do. We're heading more towards natural stones and progressing a little bit. So I'm talking to my doctor and I said this is the last one, thus his conversation with me. He says do this, do this. If you get to this point, you know we need to do a cortisone shot. We'll do a cortisone shot. That's fine, I told him. I said you know, we're going to progress. I, my training partners and I are going to progress to doing natural stones. We're really we're picking it up to our chest, you know, maybe a little bit higher, maybe a little bit lower, and doing some carries. He goes oh, I highly recommend that Nice, to which I told John and John says I'm sorry, did you just get a prescription from your doctor to lift stones in foreign countries?
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, I did. You might want to check his medical degree, because it may have come from the University of Back of Rolling Stone magazine.
Speaker 2:I'm not going to complain if he's going to give me a script to travel to Iceland, dude. And then I have to take my emotional support human.
Speaker 1:Wait, does that mean that I can claim Iceland trip? Can I use my hsa card?
Speaker 2:for that. That's what I'm gonna try to do.
Speaker 1:There you go, that's fine, mr catalinas, we have a question here about this one charge on your card what what it's fine, it's prescribed I have a doctor, yeah, I'm just scott's a doctor, I'm a doctor, scott's a doctor, it's fine um of latvian philosophers yes love.
Speaker 2:Did you teach love today, by the way? No, not today. I taught love on tuesday. Love the gutskin, the zone of proximal development I, I don't want, I need to sidebar.
Speaker 1:What the hell does that mean?
Speaker 2:it is an educational philosophy where there are three sort of circles. We sit in the middle circle because that is our comfort zone. The second circle, just outside of our comfort zone, is where learning happens. So, just pushed a little bit outside of that comfort zone, that third circle. Yeah, is I give up? Oh, that's a very simple way of talking about it, but that's what it is oh, so that third circle was like.
Speaker 1:I think that came up myself.
Speaker 2:I thought that came up in my wedding vows, no, anyway.
Speaker 1:Are you sure?
Speaker 2:Well, all right, so let's talk about your training, or when you lived in Lockport.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh, let's talk about your training.
Speaker 2:Okay, what about my training?
Speaker 1:How did we get from A to B? What have you focused on? Have you focused on? I've seen you do some things, because here's the deal, right, we take a giant step back. This podcast is mainly not always, but mainly, and maybe not today focused on doing something. So, given that your baseline was silver medalist, that's where you were and you could have very comfortably maintained that level of strength and mobility and all that jazz. But you, you needed to progress. What two, three things, grandiose things did you pursue that you think has made you better sitting here today? It was a great question it was a great question.
Speaker 2:I know you can tell by the fact that I'm actually thinking about it.
Speaker 1:I know I love it.
Speaker 2:I'm a big fan I'm gonna add a fourth and the fourth oh, you didn't answer the first three and you're adding a fourth.
Speaker 1:The fourth is number one.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay it is relying even more on the people who helped to get me to silver last year. Okay, you know my wife, my daughter yourself, um, tony, without a doubt, you know the guys that work out at the compound, our brothers, those types of things. You know that, the small group of the actual people whose names I mentioned. They're my superpower, it's what they. I don't want to let them down. I don't want to let the person I set the goal for down, and I think that's my superpower. So it's cool if it's.
Speaker 2:If it's one thing, that's it. Yeah, that's enough. I don't want to disappoint.
Speaker 1:That's enough, because I guess at the end of the day right, I mean tony's a master programmer he could ask all sorts of things of you. Uh, I'm a master motivator. I can make fun of you in nine different languages. Time, but really what? Really what it comes down to is is the fact that you will not stop pursuing this goal no you're not skipping workouts.
Speaker 1:You're not halfway through doubting whether I want to do this or not. You're not. You're also not lying to yourself that it's going to be easier than it is, which is yeah. I mean, you see plenty of athletes, I got this. This shouldn't be a problem.
Speaker 2:And it's hard because I've had a couple of injuries this year, like outside of just the normal old man in my shoulder, like I've got right now, two really screwed up, like just behind my collarbone. I did something where muscles popped in both of the spots and it's hard. But look in the mirror, don't be a freaking wuss. No, and you've got people who now those people I mentioned are they're going to be disappointed if I go there, do my best and don't win or podium, no.
Speaker 1:But I'm gonna feel like they are. Oh, I am. No, I'm going on record right now. I don't give a shit what you think take john catalina yeah, out of that list please um, all right.
Speaker 2:So the intrinsic motivation for me has always been paramount. Okay, so you want to talk about physical things, listening to my body more and understanding where the strength is and where the strength isn't. Tony is programming more based on those, those ancillaries, okay, that sort of help. The lift all right. Deadlift, not a problem. Deadlift multiple times. You know, for speed I can do it. It takes a hot second to get strapped in and whatnot. So he's working things where it's okay. Drag a 600 pound sled backwards, don't strap in, just drag it backwards. Well, you think, okay, so that's working. You know the, the glutes, the hamstrings and things like that. What you're not thinking is that's working. Your hands too so absolutely.
Speaker 2:You know the the frame carry. That's helping the frame carry yeah those things where he's having like he has me do what he calls the Norwegian 4x4, which is A Volvo. No, it's not a Volvo. Oh, okay, Sit on an airdyne bike because we've got an airdyne bike. It's the only piece of cardio we have at the compound.
Speaker 1:It's the worst.
Speaker 2:It's gross. Do four minutes of a bike sprint okay, slow down for four minutes. Do four minutes of a bike sprint? Slow down for four minutes. Two things are happening there. Number one those two four minute sprints. That's all about foot speed. You're trying to go as fast as you can and keep those feet moving and the heart is just going up and you know you're trying to increase your vo2 and stuff like that, but it's also building that sprint cardio. You have five one minute events yeah, you're dead good point at the end of a minute.
Speaker 2:You haven't worked out hard enough before that that's true, not to mention I.
Speaker 1:What is the, what is the break between events like? Is it lengthy?
Speaker 2:it depends on how many people are in your lane. That's true. Last year we had 12 lanes up in Colorado. It was the 50-plus fat guys that I was a part of. The 50-plus skinny guys where Doc a future guest on our podcast Eric Jensen was, and there was the 60-plus guys who were ungodly inspirational. They would whip your ass.
Speaker 1:Catalyst. I would gladly come in last in the 60 plus strongman, just so I could say, yeah, I competed in nationals in the 60 plus strongman and the other group were the teens.
Speaker 2:The teens were lifting the same weights that we were, but really yeah but I mean you're talking a 19 year old or 20, depending on when their birthday was. You're talking a 19 year old kid who's 20, depending on when their birthday was. You're talking a 19-year-old kid who's doing 225-pound stone. They might have been a little bit lighter. Yeah, you know those types of things in moving, so God if we'd have gotten involved in this.
Speaker 1:I was trying to think Was I strong at 19? What grade are you at at 19? You're out of high school, you're in college. Oh, school year in college. Oh, I was pretty strong, okay, wow, I never thought of that. So wait, you said there's 12 lanes. Does that mean you have 12 masters athlete, 12 going at the same?
Speaker 2:time? No, because in each lane, like in my lane, all of the 50 plus went, all the 60 plus went and the teens went. So they started with the teens, then they went to the 60 plus, then they went the 50 plus lightweights, 50 plus heavyweights, because the weights got progressively heavier. So once we did one event, then we would jump to the next event. Now there were some instances where other lanes might have been a little bit ahead or a little bit behind us, but that's the way they said what's another lane?
Speaker 1:oh, other lanes are like open.
Speaker 2:Guys could be the open okay, you know super heavy I thought it was your group was taking up the whole 12 lanes. No, no, no because that would be weirdly disconcerting.
Speaker 1:It'd be like a horse race yeah, but then you would never.
Speaker 2:There'd be no advantage to registering early, right, good point. So, depending on how many people are in your group, you could have upwards of a half an hour between it. Okay, you know. So you think, oh, I'll get my breath back.
Speaker 1:Not necessarily you might be surprised. Yeah, not necessarily. After a couple of events, I just ran with 700 pounds I.
Speaker 2:I need a hot minute and I only have a hot minute pretty much, and what you're doing between those things you're trying to hydrate, you're trying to get some food into you and you're trying to get ready for the next event you should make your own pre-workout with extra hydration I should or I should know, somebody should know somebody that's making his own pre-workout with extra jitters.
Speaker 1:So one of the things and I just want to say this for the listeners as much as for you, as much as for me to remember this is that we have, uh, claire sorenstein coming on, who is an endurance athlete nutritionist yes, and I deeply want to ask her, like when everybody and if you listen to her, I mean, she has hundreds of podcast episodes um, if you listen to it, she's talking to people that run the moab 240 and stuff like that, like that's a chance right, but that's how she frames endurance.
Speaker 1:But I want to talk to her. I mean five strongman events in the course of a day, while not constant medium velocity cardio.
Speaker 2:It's a one-minute max high-intensity sprint.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean I'm sure that's what Olympic sprinters go through right with prelims Like stand up go.
Speaker 2:Think about it this way pick a weight. I don't care what the weight is 212 pounds make sure it's a little bit heavier 213 pounds, 215 pounds. Okay, and I want you to walk up to it, grab it, and then I just want you to deadlift non-stop for a minute. Yeah see what your heart feels like afterwards pick up a sandbag and run with it, not walk. Run with it, well, while you are, yeah well, yeah, getting into your shoulder first do you have to get.
Speaker 1:They have to shoulder that. No, no, no, not this year okay so that means you're crushing your lungs as you're running with it. Oh yeah, oh cool, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:That's the worst part of that I mean we have guys who will pick it up and they'll put it and they've got that. What's the polite term? That fat man?
Speaker 1:shelf. Yeah, nice.
Speaker 2:Where they'll put it on it and where the fat sort of comes in before it goes into the rib cage. That's where that diaphragm is. So they're setting it there and they're crushing their diaphragm.
Speaker 1:They can't breathe. I understand. I don't understand, but I understand crushing their diaphragm. They can't breathe, I understand. I don't understand, but I understand.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's kind of the advantage of having, you know, a somewhat straight stomach.
Speaker 1:Somewhat we'll go somewhat I'm wide, I'm not thick I'm wide, I'm not thick, I'm pleasantly plump I have a what did you call it earlier?
Speaker 2:a badonkadonk?
Speaker 1:yeah, that's mine, get your own, stop touching mine, a large ass go sit down.
Speaker 2:Go sit down, thanks, go sit down.
Speaker 1:Well, that's behaving gene, I'm in, I, I'm intrigued by all this, and you know the other stressor, I mean, when you're talking about the heavy carries in the minute you are trying to win an event. So I mean, there's just that baseline of you know, I'm in a competition stress which, which I think you are, and I, I, I will. You know, I haven't said an ego thing in a while. I think I'm similar, like I like being in that place. Yeah, I, I, I enjoy that's. One of the best parts of sport is being sort of where you can take nerves and turn it into adrenaline. I like that, that's excellent and you're very good at it. But you see, guys, I saw a lot of people in Highland lose because and lose their shit when they lose, right, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, I want to throw this in there. You brought that idea up. You want to win this year, being bittersweet because it's my last year really maybe this, maybe, maybe we're gonna go with a maybe, because no one completely believes you. Yeah, this year I'm I'm very happy and I truly am to say, part of the motivation I have to win this year is one of the competitors I know very very well, do you? Is it me?
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, it's not me, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:I wasn't supposed to laugh like that was I. As long as it's not me, I'm good this year. My little brother Tim I know him Qualified and is in the exact same class that I am Nice, and Timmy is fourth registering, so he's the fourth last person to go. Oh, so I work with him, I teach him some of the tricks and whatnot, but in the immortal words of Rocky, you fight great, but I'm a great fighter. Oh, oh, shots fired people. Shots fired, as much as I want to see my brother succeed.
Speaker 1:He can come and suck in all day long. I would love to see my brother succeed.
Speaker 2:He can come and I would. He can come and suck in all day long. Love to see. You know and I know I'm gonna piss off some of my colleagues who are out there listening I would love to see two fikes standing up there. You know first and second, but I want him to be second I love my brother, but it's acceptable.
Speaker 1:You know, he's four years younger than me and I should, and he has some incredible strength. I should have had Tim on the podcast. I feel like that discussion may have gone similar, yet different. But slightly different, yeah, maybe.
Speaker 2:You know, one of Tim's strengths is he's a really, really good presser. Yeah, that's very true. So Timmy's got a chance of winning the log press at nationals.
Speaker 1:Uh-oh.
Speaker 2:You know he's got a chance of winning the log press at nationals, you know for repetition oh, um, uh-oh people, but when is?
Speaker 1:this event that we can't stop talking about tanya, harding his knee.
Speaker 2:He can win anything, because I want to win.
Speaker 1:Yeah, when is this? Event end of june I want to say it's like the 28th.
Speaker 2:Okay, down in north carolina. So yeah, june in north carolina it's like the 28th down in North Carolina. So yeah, june in North Carolina it's going to be great temperatures.
Speaker 1:And in other news, seven old men melted. Today the associated puddles have been scooped up and sent to their loved ones. Great, right now it's not at a gym, right, it's at like a convention center or something.
Speaker 2:It usually is yeah, that is going to be the world's smelliest convention center we're going to have you know, I'm thinking it's going to be eight to ten lanes this year because it's a smaller venue. These lanes have to be 75 feet long, oh.
Speaker 1:So you've got eight lanes, let's say, 75 feet long.
Speaker 2:It's going to be fun.
Speaker 1:I truly hope they're doing. I hope they bring in like show ponies or they have like a manure show afterwards to help like make it smell better in there, it might, it might work that way like. If any of you are familiar with the smell of unwashed hockey equipment, multiply that by a trillion oh, I am.
Speaker 1:That's what that's gonna be like, so good luck to you. Um, what's what's all? Right, so we're what? What it's what? What's today's date? Uh, april 4th, today's april 4th, so you're a month and a half ish out um, two, no, two and a half.
Speaker 2:Oh okay, two and a half may. 4th june, 4th end of june, oh, end of june, yeah sorry, um, what does the road forward look like?
Speaker 1:do you? When do you stop? Like when do you take? Usually a week out.
Speaker 2:That's it a week out we don't do anything.
Speaker 2:Probably about two weeks out tony will start tapering the weights okay um, a week out I'll be doing a lot of stretching, a lot of foam rolling, a lot of I mean I'll still be biking and whatnot, because that's just cardio, right. Um, these next couple of weeks it's going to be, you know, working to see what the shoulder can and can't handle. It's going to be getting closer and closer because eventually I want to do all the comp weights and we'll probably do a comp run through in the next couple of weeks. We'll probably go through all five events once just to see where we're at, because right now I can do all comp weights for pretty good times I mean decent enough times, yeah, and so it's going to be a okay. So you did the make up a number here. You did the 75 foot run with a yoke in 25 seconds. All right, you got to knock five seconds off that.
Speaker 2:You want to get down to 20, 19 seconds. That would get you somewhere in that second place range.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I love going into all manner of competitions. Go better if you have an inkling.
Speaker 1:Anybody that walks into a competition like, yeah, I don't know where I am, I'm just gonna try. They're lying to themselves a little bit. 100, I mean they might get lucky and it might work out. But that that is not the athlete I am. If I walk in and there's an event and I don't know how I'm, how I can do at it, I can't push because I won't know well let's, let's bring up the barrel, the keg over bar from two years ago at Oktoberfest. Do we really have to?
Speaker 2:We do because I'm proud of you with it. I'm tired of this story, no you're not, I'm not really 290 pound keg over bar.
Speaker 2:It was a 50 inch bar. You had to pick it up from the ground and put it over the bar. You need to pick it up from the ground, put it over the bar. John, who weighs maybe 240, 250 pounds that weekend because we were um celebrating a little bit at schmidt's, maybe we'll go yeah, we'll go 240, all right. So I mean, this is 50 pounds more than the man weighs. He's gonna pick it up from the ground, he's gonna put it into his lap and then from his lap, stand up with it and put it over a 50 inch bar. Before we got there he'd gotten close, gotten it up to the bar, but I don't think he ever cleared it.
Speaker 1:I don't think I ever cleared it. I don't think I ever cleared it.
Speaker 2:We got to the event and the first rep took you about 30 seconds and I mean you fought the hell out of that, I did, but you knew where you were and this is that old man mentality that we talk about a lot. We're not gonna let the kids beat us we're not gonna let the kids embarrass there.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Is that like hey, you know what, kid, let me show you how it's done. Hold my beer, it can still be done. Hold my bourbon, not the dog. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So the greatest thing though and I don't know if I told you these words I was proud of you, aw thanks, I really was Thanks. You got it over the bar and then you started dancing around the stage like a fool. Oh well, and there is one of the I'm still me. You know the titans of strength. Oh yeah, steve Slater. Strength, oh yeah, steve slater. Yeah, sitting there, you got 20 seconds. Do it again. You're like, no, I'm dancing, I'm good, I'm good, I'm fine.
Speaker 1:No, but you know we talk about that baseline of of like competition day, um nerves and and stressors. So doing that lift in front of steve slater, steve schmidt, chad clark, uh, robbie van schlag, sean urquhart, I mean these guys are all so doing that lift in front of Steve Slater, steve Schmidt. Chad Clark, Robbie Van Schlag, Sean Urquhart I mean, these guys are all like legends?
Speaker 2:Yeah, they really are.
Speaker 1:They are the sport in that you know, at least in that area. I mean, if you, if you watch any like world's strongest man, you might see Steve resetting equipment.
Speaker 2:Steve Schmidt all the time, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, these guys are animals and to do that in front of them was uh I accept it's humbling I actually, but I accept the fact that I pulled one off, so that's fine. You know, we I just I don't know why this popped in my head I mentioned, mentioned before, um, another one of our friends, uh, west derwinsky. Yeah, sixth strongest man in the world. I saw him somewhere say what, what you sort of backed into with. You know you can do the events, but it's the ancillary stuff that can be the differentiator.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm A hundred percent yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, he does that when he trains at our place.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, it's what's left, what haven't you done Right? What's left, what haven't you done right? What are those little things that can tweak, that can go wrong? Yeah, and that's what I'm working on. You know that's. You asked the third thing that I've done different this time. That's it. Those are the. That's all the ancillary things.
Speaker 1:Third thing okay, no, I accept that. Um, you don't really. I mean it's funny, you. You don't do anything different in the gym, but you do a lot that isn't necessarily focused on nationals or even those strongman events in the gym, like the other day, was just basically like let's lift a lot of things in a horrible fashion over and over a lot of times in a very short amount of time.
Speaker 2:Yes, no, so that was good, um, but I think, john, with that it's, it's the gas tank, but it's also the, the muscle memory just firing in that motion. Yeah, and that's something that I got from you, that's something that you're like get your cues in your head and do it over.
Speaker 1:And yeah, because over and over because you see it right, if you, if you're not in the moment of of whatever you're doing, technique is part of it, falls apart you get that first, muscle gets tired and suddenly the, the house of dominoes falls apart.
Speaker 2:I want to one of the things last year going in. I, like I said before, I'm not a good presser. Last year the circus dumbbell. It was a 130-pound Slater dumbbell. Picture a dumbbell with those giant balloon-like ends on it and the handle that you're grabbing is about the size of a Coke can. Okay, it's that big around. Grabbing is about the size of a coke can. Okay, it's that big around. John says to me you know, you're, you're going down, you're stopping, and then you're not doing anything. And I had done this up until about three weeks before the event. John says stop screwing around. As soon as you get yourself set, go down and explode. All of a sudden I did a repetition two weeks before the event. I got three repetitions. Day of the event, I got six repetitions and I stopped before the time was up because I was not going to get nine six put me in second place.
Speaker 2:I needed nine for first because the guy that was in first got eight.
Speaker 1:So you know that that's where the the sort of thought process comes in a little bit yeah, I mean that that speaks to the episode we did with Dr Charles Inferno, yes, where he's coaching, I mean and coaching doesn't always have to be a coach but another set of eyes that understands you mechanically and your goals is invaluable. And I mean I appreciate that Scott gives me credit for that. But really, if you knew anything and stared at it, I'd be like why are you doing that? And if anybody does anything ride a bike, play pickleball I didn't bring a pickleball, this is the thing.
Speaker 2:So I just did now pickleball. Who had a ball in 64 minutes?
Speaker 1:If in your head you probably think you look different than you actually look in my head. Well, I hope in your head you look different than you actually look. In my head, well, I look like I hope in your head you look different than you actually look, but that's, that's a different podcast.
Speaker 2:That is a different podcast I'd like to ask if there's anybody out there that needs a new co-host, because I'm looking to uh to leave the message maybe one of your mime friends can help you out.
Speaker 1:That would be, that would be an interesting podcast. I'm miming to John right now. What does that finger mean? I don't understand. I'm number one, apparently. Good for me. Okay, this feels like it, but what did I forget to tell people about your journey? All right, so let's go back. Let's go back a year, and you're not you, you're just some sage man on the mountain telling scott one thing what's? What's the one here? What do you want to print on the t-shirt for scott, who's about to undergo being better for a year?
Speaker 2:is this a pg t-shirt or is this a scott t-shirt?
Speaker 1:I don't know what that means. Do you have dirty t-shirts? Do you have like?
Speaker 2:I don't wash them often oh, okay, fair.
Speaker 1:No, it is whatever t-shirt you feel comfortable with in the circles that you travel in, don't fucking stop. Yeah, there you go, look at that folks. I like that. I might make that the title of this podcast. I like that. No, because that dude that that is that it's make that the title of this podcast. I like that. No, because that dude that is. It's funny, because I didn't know where you were going to go. But that is absolutely correct, because not all the workouts were great. No, your mind wasn't always bright. Your nutrition is all over the place. Your levels of exhaustion have been all over the place Not existent or all encompassing.
Speaker 1:You got to train with me and I'm like a walking distraction in nine different ways. Yeah, so no, I like that. I like it, don't fucking stop. I think that's where we'll stop. I'm still scott, I'm stopping, but I'm not stopping and I am am still John. See you folks. Thanks, folks. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to help support the podcast, please share it with others, post it on your social media or leave a review. To catch all the latest from us, you can follow us on Instagram at Masters Athlete Survival Guide. Thanks again. Now get off our lawn, you damn kids.