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
Beyond Limits: The Mental Game of Masters Athletes
Masters athletes develop superior mental approaches to competition that extend beyond physical abilities, transforming how they handle stress, manage competition strategy, and maintain motivation when facing younger opponents.
• Age brings better stress resilience and adaptability during competition
• Younger competitors often win warm-ups but struggle with competition pressure
• Veterans take time for proper setup and technique, even when under time constraints
• Masters athletes compete against themselves more than others
• Body awareness and spatial recognition become competitive advantages with age
• Competition mindset can transfer to professional and personal challenges
• Having supportive training partners and community enhances performance at any age
• The mental ability to work through physical pain builds transferable life skills
• Crowd energy can provide a 10% performance boost during competitions
Join us next time when we'll bring in an expert to discuss specific mental techniques and strategies that can help athletes of all ages improve their competitive mindset.
@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 are back and we're sweaty. I'm not sweaty.
Speaker 2:I'm kind of glowy. Oh no, I'm sweaty. It's hot, all right. Well, I'm the glowy John and I am the sweaty Scott.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there you go Still. So, before we go too deep into any of this, I just listened to the episode where we interviewed ai, oh, our buddy hal. It literally is the probably the only episode I listened to twice, because the first time I literally listened to it just for like technical, like how long did it take it to respond, or like did it? I mean, at one time I thought you went to mining camp, as opposed to my joke about mime camp well, you know, but I was astounded.
Speaker 1:I was astounded and then I realized that not only did we interview AI, but then I used AI to help me write liner notes for the episode. So I'm almost, I'm almost out you're absolutely the scott and a ice joe no, no, no, no.
Speaker 2:That didn't happen because it took him way too long to remember that cheetos, cheetos, yeah, the sponsor there was a big thought.
Speaker 1:I think he maybe he was deliberating like cheetos did give me eight million dollars towards development.
Speaker 2:But these guys are cool, I have no idea well, you know, I mean, they're not a sponsor, but oh yeah, we didn't even do that, not a sponsor. But to hal's point, yes, every once in a while pop tarts are good I like that you agree with ai when it comes to the the consumption of cheetos. No, I said pop tarts, you didn't you? You started laughing way too well, I heard the pop.
Speaker 1:Heard the Pop-Tarts thing. I'm assuming that that was more of a dream of Sweaty Scott. No.
Speaker 2:I'm not a Pop-Tarts guy, me neither.
Speaker 1:I don't know. The ratio is weird, although those legendary protein, what do they call them?
Speaker 2:They are like protein Pop-Tarts. They're protein pastries, yeah they're delish.
Speaker 1:I actually just bought eight of them. I did. I bought like one of every flavor I saw at Vitamin World.
Speaker 2:Do you remember when we bought the box of them at the Arnold a couple years ago?
Speaker 1:It made me feel like such a snob. But I had to tell the person at Vitamin World like when I was competing at the Arnold and they first brought these out we first brought these out. We bought boxes of them. I'm sorry, made you feel like a snob. Yeah, isn't that every day? Yes, I know you were sneaking up on it. That was fair. That was fine. Um, you want to talk about some content or you want to just like whatever you know?
Speaker 2:I don't when I was competing what now?
Speaker 1:when you say what when I was competing? Was that 40 years ago? Or like last about day, last week? Oh yeah, when I was getting? Oh, it's just nationals, you know what.
Speaker 2:I'm not going to go into that and I want to save that for later. I I do want to talk about that in a future podcast, but when I was competing at nationals, something came to my attention. We had eight lanes, four lanes of men, four lanes of women, with us more seasoned athletes, better known as the old guys, down in lane eight so I don't mean to interrupt.
Speaker 1:Are there old women? Are there masters women?
Speaker 2:yes, strong people yes, they're either yes that seems like an underserved sector.
Speaker 2:They don't talk about that much so like lane one, yeah, and lane five. One through four were women, four through or five through eight were men. Lane one and lane five were like the really lightweight men and lightweight women. Okay, oh okay, I see two and three, yeah, where where you got into the the bigger guys and the women who carried a few more muscles than otherwise, you like how I sort of danced around, I did thank you when you got into lane eight and lane four, that's when you had the teens for both groups, and then the 50 plus men and the 60 plus men and then the 50 plus women and you know both weight groups because when you get to it, it's heavyweight, lightweight when you get into the masters what's the, what's the division, what's?
Speaker 2:lightweight for men. It's for 50 plus it's 220, 220, so I mean you at 240, I'm a heavyweight 235 or whatever you're walking in would be competing against me yeah, 300 totally fair I think so yeah, I agree. Well, our buddy mark yeah, you know, yeah, mark competed in it and mark was the largest guy, but I mean, there were people that were easily 150 plus pounds smaller than him really yeah, I mean, you have people in the the upper, like the 275 range. Okay, all right.
Speaker 1:So I mean there was some heavyweight people, I'm a large person, all right, so I got these lanes.
Speaker 2:I got them filled with people, so the thing that came to me is just sitting there, because there was a lot of time between events, okay, watching the way mentally that people sort of approached events and competing against each other, against themselves, in one. So I'd kind of like to talk about that today, okay. So I'd kind of like to talk about that today. Okay, the differences between the 20-somethings or the early 30-somethings competing, or even the teens, because, like I said, the teens were in my group and it was a highly aggressive group of I'm sorry kids. I mean I'm going to be 55 years old real soon.
Speaker 1:Actually they're probably your grandchildren, but anyway continue. Shut up, john. They're probably your grandchildren, but anyway continue.
Speaker 2:Shut up John, Watching them compete against the 50s and the 60s that I was walking around with. There's a guy named Ed Shore Hi Ed. Shout out to Ed, shout out to Ed. Ed is this phenomenal coach, trainer and athlete. Ed's walking around and three months ago Ed had a busted Achilles, had surgery and then came and competed and took third. But only took third because he made a mistake, otherwise he would have been first.
Speaker 1:I am way too delicate for the sport.
Speaker 2:Yes, but you're going to go with me to Iowa next year when you qualify. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So anyway, it's watching how these people sort of approach it. What's the mentality when they walk into the know, the metaphoric ring or lane or you know whatever it is that they have to compete in? And I want to get your take on what you think you've seen, because I mean you've been around and whatnot.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I don't even have to. You know, it's not even what I've seen. I, as you're, as you're saying this, I'm having all these awful flashbacks because I'm thinking like high school, like I set the high school shot, put record. I immediately was so excited, I ran around the school. I missed my next attempt because I just ran off. Yeah, whatever, uh, college, as far as mental preparedness, I I had not learned to do like, I hadn't learned to turn nervous energy into adrenaline so what would you consider that?
Speaker 2:would that be I?
Speaker 1:was.
Speaker 1:I was very fragile on meat day, like early in my career or a no, no, no, um, like it was very easy to get in my head and some people did and a couple thank god, a couple were teammates and basically told me like you know why I beat you and I'm like why, uh, the other thing I did a lot in college was I'd win warm-ups. I get up there hammer, like I think my lifetime PR happened in warm-ups because I was relaxed and I would just throw and it'd be fine. And then I would get in there and I'd be so psyched like, oh my God, I threw so great. And then I probably went to the other end of the spectrum with Highland and Grip where you know I'm competing. I care, I think to the casual observer they don't realize that I care because I'm very relaxed and it's very just another day at the office and I'm enjoying myself.
Speaker 2:But see, that's the John that I know right, because we've only known each other what Five 70 years, six years, oh no, that's Ronon harkins. That's ron harkins shout out to ron harkins um.
Speaker 2:I think we're on 20 years something like that so I guess one of the things that that brings to mind is this idea of stress handling. Yeah, okay, so let's talk about that for a hot minute, sure, and to me, stress handling is how are you reacting in the moment? Yep, younger groups and this speaks to what you just said are more stress reactive. So I won hot, I won warm-ups. A million times. Yep, you know somebody got into my head, somebody, this, somebody, that. A million times. Yep, you know somebody got into my head, somebody, this, somebody that, versus that sort of, it's just a river man.
Speaker 1:Yep, it just keeps on going I suspect it's got something to do with just experience, like, for example uh, I know an athlete that like in the hammer throw if it rained, he probably should have just gotten the car and went home because that was in his head, just in his head, it, just it, just in his head. It was something he's afraid of falling or slipping or killing a bystander or throwing a hammer in a cage. But it never got past the point of oh, it's rain, everybody's throwing in the rain. Today may not be my greatest day, but everybody's throwing in the same damn rain. But I think that's developing skills.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know it could be the physical skill of throwing.
Speaker 2:But I mean, you and I have been in Highland games where we've seen hammers come out of people's hands and go through fences or whatnot Versus those who have almost a maturity to them. Yeah, Because it's yeah everybody's thrown in the rain. Everybody's, you know, got wet hands. Everybody's on a slick surface. You know, in this case, we've competed in events where, like in practice today, the sandbag was slicker than anything well guess what?
Speaker 2:everybody's picking up that sandbag when it's wet? Yeah, because you know it's sweat, it's this, it's that. That's that maturity, that it's just. I think the old phrase was water off a duck's back.
Speaker 1:It just let it go well, the other thing and and I am super guilt, especially during highland I am super guilty of like lack of complete preparedness, like if you've dealt with oh my god, I was about to say a sweaty bag but I mean, if you've dealt with talking about ron harkin, yeah, yeah yeah, if you've dealt with like less than ideal condition, yep often in high links.
Speaker 1:It's so damn right, it's, it's out of your head. I mean, you're not okay. I've done this before, it's fine. Um, I was bad at that, I. I was bad at like I would. What's that phrase? That you don't? You know, you don't compete at your level of expectation, you fall to your level of preparedness, or something along those lines oh, I always thought it was you know, you compete at the level at which you're.
Speaker 1:You know your opponent yeah, but you know that's another thing. When it comes to this, we should frame this, this discussion between because we do sort of I think all the disciplines we've ever done have been more like instantaneous ish sports. Right, like you know, I threw things and highlands throwing things and strongman's attempts, basically, and sometimes throwing things, yeah. So I mean, you don't get that like you're not allowed that mental dialogue of, say, a marathon where you're like, oh, four miles in and it's 97 degrees and I'm dying. But you know you've been here before and you're prepared and you've got. You know you got hydration and there's a station coming up. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Or to add to that, john, it's not the you know hockey, basketball, football, baseball, where it's? You know football being the shortest, with only 17 games. These other sports 80, 100 games, you know. Okay, so we lost 10. Okay, but you won a hundred.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, good point. And also it being a team sport and you, you know you cycling in and out and all that kind of stuff. So I guess, yeah, I guess our frame is and it's. You know this may sound egocentric, like absolutely everything else I say, but ours may be the hardest. Like you, don't get a chance to get out of your own headspace if you're about to attempt and your, your mindset's wrong. You know what I mean. You're, you've talked yourself out of. Well, this is going to go horribly, or this is heavy, or I am hot, or I'm hungry, or why won't the stupid bagpipers get out of here so that I can, like, throw and eat lunch?
Speaker 2:yeah, right so let me give you a great example of that. Okay, last week one of our events was the frame deadlift. What's a frame deadlift? So picture a very heavy square that you're standing in okay, made out of in this case it was four by fours, like railroad ties, kind of like railroad ties, okay, okay, the frame itself, with no weight added onto it, was 300 pounds oh, okay okay, inside of the frame, approximately 29 inches apart from each other and 15 inches up from the ground, were a set of pipe handles okay, so if you so, if you've ever done like a hex bar deadlift, it's kind of similar
Speaker 1:very similar shaped, different the weights in different places.
Speaker 2:Okay so the thing is, as with all national level events, these are brand new implements is that true? The ones that I've been to. And then what they do is they just sell them afterwards to try to recruit the costs.
Speaker 1:Oh, I never realized that, but I guess that makes sense yeah.
Speaker 2:And the frames were. You know there were some sort of logistic problems there, but when you've got 500 people beating the hell out of something, you expect it. But they were very well made. I don't know who made them. They did a good job. So shout out to whoever it was that made them for USS Strongman Nationals. For the frames Hashtag ineffectual. Shout out, hashtag ineffectual. Hashtag Cheetos.
Speaker 1:Not sponsored.
Speaker 2:The big thing was with these. These had exceptionally long handles. That's what she said I had to. I'm sorry, no, I kind of set you up with it. One of the things that happened was, if you didn't grab the handles dead center in the middle for the deadlift because you had 70 seconds, okay, you get inside of them and you're looking at the handles. They say go, you've got to reach down, grab the handles.
Speaker 2:If you're going to use straps, you wrap your straps, but you have 70 seconds to get as many repetitions as possible okay, one of the things that I saw with some of the younger competitors really anybody 30 or younger was they didn't take the time to look at their judge and say, hey, I know, I can't strap in early, I just want to make sure that I'm centered with where I'm going to put my hands. Is that okay? Sure, and the other thing that I saw was, when they didn't, they tried to keep going, and so if I grab them too far back, obviously, oh, they were afraid to take the time to re-grip to re-grip.
Speaker 2:So more experienced masters athletes did one of two things they either looked at the judge and say, hey, I'm just going to get my position right, or, b, when they realized after one or two repetitions they were off, they took a couple of seconds, shimmy their hands forward or back, whatever needed to be done, so that it was more level. Here was the difference. Yes, sir, some of the younger folks with their and again their weights were dependent on their groups and whatnot, like I'll give you an example. The weight for our group was 550 pounds. Okay, okay, so winning repetitions. For that were 21 repetitions in like 60 ish seconds.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, I was dead sideways gratuitous ego comment john is over there laughing because he got it right away but some of the other ones who didn't take that time were getting like 10 repetitions, 11 repetitions. Now, some of those folks that were stronger in, like some of the different classes, like some of the open men who had weights in the seven, eight hundred pound range, yeah, I think the top rep number was 25. Wow, that is absolutely. That's more than a rep every three seconds.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but again, that's that mental approach to sort of risk analysis knowing what to do versus just trying to push your body past its limits, right, but I will give you the counterpoint to that, which is a real world possibility you need to be prepared as an athlete, for I'm going to ask the judge if I can just check off the handles and the judge says no ask the judge if I can just check off the handles and the judge says no or I I'm going second to last and I know I need to get 21 reps and I don't have time to re-grip.
Speaker 1:I have a less than optimal grip but I still gotta go because it's the big show today folks.
Speaker 2:But then that becomes that mental endurance that we've talked about in previous podcasts, right, I?
Speaker 1:think that's the thing. I think that's the challenge with sort of mental toughness when it comes to any sport is both understanding what you'd like to happen but being like aware I might not get that and I still need to perform it depends on what your goals are.
Speaker 2:You know, younger athletes tend to be I'm going to win at all costs. Break the body. More veteran athletes, more seasoned athletes, older athletes it's I know where I need to be. You know, somebody once said, in the case of what we're talking about, specifically the strongman, it's called strongman, that's smart man, and I looked at him and said you're wrong, you're wrong, you're wrong. What you're?
Speaker 1:talking about with us, and then you picked up a rock and carried it and they were like point yeah it's because you have to figure out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, I just need to be in the top three here because I know I'm gonna win this oh yeah playing to your your physical strength based on your mental acuity yes, I mean this is.
Speaker 1:this goes to any sport where, like, there's you know, multiple scoring, uh, track and field, decathlon, you don't have to win everyone, but you need to be in the pack and you need to dominate the things that you can dominate. But you're right, like a third, fourth place finish you might be fine, but you need to know that so that when you do finish fourth, you're not like, oh well, that ends that. That was fun. I guess I'll be in the olympic village eating uncrustables, if you need me you know, I think some of that comes with body awareness.
Speaker 2:You know it is the mental side of it, but it's also knowing what your body can do. I'm gonna go back to highland with this. We saw people who said I'm just gonna muscle the hell out of this. Okay, you're 20 you're 25.
Speaker 2:You're built just a little bit lighter than me, but you have like negative body fat. Right, you're like you're giving it away to people so you can get away with that. But then I go to christian donovan. Yep, christian, who was not the biggest of guys, but his spatial slash, body awareness and what he needed to do. He was a good athlete is a good he was constantly towards the top of or at the top of the pack.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, but and I guess you know I will bear my soul on a stupid podcast, but being a muscle head with average technique was limiting. Yes, there really is. Only so far you can go by pure strength and a little luck, and if you don't know how to correct something stupid in the middle, again you're dumb.
Speaker 2:Well, that goes to the training side of things. How often you know we make fun of you about the vanity sticks that are at the gym and whatnot, but how often do we use them to look at and say, you know, you say, all right, scott, we're going to go back and forth in these three scenes, or these three you know, sort of individual stills of what you did and okay, you need to change this. Okay, in changing that, I just pulled ahead of somebody who is younger, faster, stronger, simply because we looked at it. So it is that mental awareness.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and this is my old man statement, but I feel like if you tracked most sports in the era of instantaneous video and digital storage of said video, I suspect that had significant impact on a lot of sports that require some level of technique, because I remember the first times I saw myself do something. I'm like what? That is not how I look. I am much better than that.
Speaker 2:I was not much better than that well, to quote our friend rock man, you look like a monkey fornicating a milk jug.
Speaker 1:Oh I miss john, you're welcome, ai, like john, by the way. He called him out by name. He did yeah so, and I don't know if he paid this level of attention, but did you notice the people that seemed underprepared, underperformed?
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, you could see those that came in. There's a difference between that nervous apprehension you have when you're at the show versus I'm a poser Yep, you know, and you could see that I'm a poser, you know, and you could see that. And those that came in that competed got the qualification at some place where it was. They were the only person to compete and they sort of put their name out there and everything else. Yeah, wow, you zeroed five out of five events, but you knew the weights months and months in advance.
Speaker 1:Yeah well it's a thing. It's a thing it's also hard. I mean it's a national level event Like. It's not like some backyard games. It's a big deal. How many athletes are we talking here in a class roughly Well let me go backwards for a quick second.
Speaker 2:No, I don't want that to sound like all of the people that were there that pushed themselves past their limits were posers oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know you went there and did your thing.
Speaker 2:I didn't take no, no, no, no, that in when I said it, that's kind of glad you said it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I agree with you it's because there were some people that were there that zeroed three or four events, that were there, pushing themselves well past what they thought they could do, and you could see that in them, you could see the pride in them, but you could also see that you know they got up there and the frame weighs x hundred pounds and whereas before they may never have picked it up, that frame went up 10 inches and they almost got a full pull on it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know those people I have nothing but respect for well, I can tell you and I don't remember what year it was, but highland games, uh, world championships, I competed in tucson, uh, I pr'd every event for myself and you were number 15. I came in last, I came in 15. I P, but you know what, how can I walk away from that? Like not happy, like that's a win, that's a win. I mean, I didn't get any hardware, but you know, first of all, I got ultimate respect from fifth, from 14 other, well, maybe 13,.
Speaker 1:I think one or two people might hate me, um no and for the record, he's not talking about me on that one, as far as you know uh, yeah, I mean it was a great because I think I think, at the end of the day, this, this mental thing I think part of it is maybe it's the hardest part is being honest with yourself. Like I am going into this. I am capable of X. Everybody else there is capable of 10 X. If I do X plus one, I win. That's a win?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I win, but that goes to that motivation side of things, john, and I know you asked me a question about group sizes. I'll get to in a second. I forgot about it, but that goes to the motivation side of things. Sizes I'll get to in a second. I forgot about it, but that goes to the motivation side of things. Are you motivated because you want to beat somebody? And don't get me wrong, there were athletes there, yeah, in our groups, who were there simply because they wanted to beat other people. Okay, versus going there and saying this is a bucket list, I'm here, I earned the right to be here. I did better than I thought I was going to do. You know, I uh, one of the members of the compound went and he said I got three PRS and a fourth if you count not getting hurt.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I uh uh. Judd Logan rest in peace. Told me once I think he said it an awful lot because I've heard other people say it. You know, competition isn't a test, it's a celebration of all the hard work. It is I agree, I've put in the effort.
Speaker 2:Now I'm going to go up on stage and it's going to be the world's heaviest talent show one of the things, and I will say this so somebody else is patting you on the back versus you patting yourself on the back don't, don't break that up. One of the things that I truly enjoy in competing with you in competing you don't really compete with me.
Speaker 2:He's there while I'm kicking his butt, but anyway yeah, most of the time, excuse me, uh is just the joy that you put into the crowd. I mean, I can remember we were doing an oktoberfest and you're up there doing the her cold we need to let that go but no, there's more than just that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know it's, you know and you're singing. I can remember you going out for another event and you know you're doing the, the hulk hogan hand to the ear thing, trying to get the crowd. And it wasn't just that it was you, it was that you were getting them involved in it, because, you're right, maybe it is a talent show, but it's an interactive talent show, yeah, yeah because one of the things that I found when I go and compete is that I'll gain 10 or more.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, day of an event, depending on the crowd. Yep, so they're like. Last weekend in north carolina they had said we're only opening one half of the arena. So many people showed up they actually had to open the other half of the arena behind you mean spectators, spectators, and it just covered everything. So people were performing to the crowd and it was incredible. But that's that mentality of I'm here to have fun and prove to myself what I can do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I agree, and I mean I don't know, I guess I've competed in front of maybe a thousand people at best, but can you imagine, imagine, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 2:What's that? I don't argue that. Where, where, what? Oktoberfest? Oh, the beer tent, the beer tent. Okay, never mind. There were between 3,000 and 4,000 people in there.
Speaker 1:They were drunk, they didn't know any better, but they screamed really loud and I'm sure every football kid aspires but Super Bowl.
Speaker 2:Oh.
Speaker 1:God, 80,000 people maniacally screaming either for your death or your success.
Speaker 2:I mean the energy must be crazy. The Rose Bowl Over 100,000 people. Some of those college stadiums. You know, nuts to me. All right, you'd ask the question, and this is kind of an important question because I see this as well as part of the sort of camaraderie slash mental game.
Speaker 1:What were the group sizes? Oh, I thought you meant does this dress make me look fat?
Speaker 2:It does, by the way, damn it, it really does.
Speaker 1:But it brings out my eyes. No because the eyes are invisible.
Speaker 2:So depending on the sort of nicheness of how old or young the athlete was. Explain the older you get, the smaller the groups get, because you don't expect people in their 50s or 60s to be competing?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I guess that makes sense.
Speaker 2:But like the, open 200-ish there were 90 plus people in a lane and each of those eight lanes was was it's basically its own competition. Sure, our group had approximately. I mean, in my group we had 15. Okay, I want to say there were 40 to 45 in my lane, okay, so I mean, that's a good size local show. If you think about it, that's a good-sized local show. If you think about it, that's a good-sized strongman around us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, good point. How many 60-year-old athletes asking as a 58-year-old you can lie Say there were like six.
Speaker 2:I actually think there were six. I was trying to think if it was six or five.
Speaker 1:Nice Ladies and gentlemen, you heard it here first, but John Catalinas is definitely going to nationals when he turns 60.
Speaker 2:well, john's gonna go next year with me. Cedar rapids dude, I'll great I'll qualify just because.
Speaker 1:How's that?
Speaker 2:but it's the other side of it, is the mental gamesmanship, and you talked about this when we started within the group that you're competing against. Yeah, so at Nationals it was me against 14 other guys, if that's what I was there for.
Speaker 1:Sure.
Speaker 2:Some guys were there and you tried to earworm into them. Bad, because you knew they were going to beat you, but you wanted to screw with their mind a little bit Me.
Speaker 1:We had another guy. Nice yeah, we had another guy.
Speaker 2:Nice, yeah, we had another guy. Uh, great, great guy. Three events in. He's sitting in first place. He goes. I've never been in first place one of these in my entire life. Two events later at the end of the day, yeah, he's in eighth place.
Speaker 1:He probably lost. He probably lost focus. I mean, it's a lot of things it's not so easy to call because he could have lost focus. They could have been two of his absolutely worst events. Yes, um, everybody else could have. They could have been their best event. Uh, there's so much that goes on, um, and I imagine that's where focus comes in, right. I mean because you can only like I've gotten some people look at me side-eyed when it comes to like shot putting. Shot putting competition is an Excel spreadsheet event. Whatever you do has no bearing on whatever I should do, because I'm not holding back. I mean theoretically, I'm putting hopefully six decent throws together, regardless of what you do. But plenty of people, oh, he just went four feet farther than me.
Speaker 2:I'm screwed well, I think that that's a big thing, yeah, but that's in strongman. I guess that's where the sort of gamesmanship comes in. If I'm the last person to go and I look at the judge and say what's the rep count to beat, and he says to me 20, I'm doing 21. Right, if I'm trying to send a message to tick people off, I'm doing 23. I do exactly, I do 23,. But it's, it's one of those mental sides. Some of the best people I've met have been through strongman and it's that sort of interactive. I want to see you succeed. I know I'm going to succeed with what I do, but I want to see you do well too. Versus the. You know, with the teens I could see them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they were saying nice job, great job, yeah but, it's sort of like saying nice, throw ass, right, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Mumble mumble. You know there's probably a sweet spot because I can't reach my back. Could you pat my back here, quick Thanks. It involves moving forever In some of these elite sports that I've done. I'm not. I'm sorry sorry what?
Speaker 1:yeah, whatever, I'm not the worst athlete you've ever met um but you get to a point oh no um, like really great athletes not paid athletes, because I think that's where the rules change but a really great athlete is also probably a good enough person to cheer you on, even if you're coming in last 100%. Because I think the real greats again have their focus together, have their preparation together, have a plan for their competition day, whatever it may be, and you see it like in road races where a guy will crush the field and then he stays at the finish line and claps a couple people in. I mean that, that's that I. That's one of the reasons I still compete as an old man, I think. I think there's there's this weird camaraderie with strangers that boils up at all these competitions. I mean, some of the quote-unquote friends I have are started out as strangers at a competition.
Speaker 2:Oh, a hundred percent.
Speaker 1:And it just you just click a hundred percent, yeah. So how was your so, how was your mental preparation for all that?
Speaker 2:I mean we, we spent a year like I guess for me, because of injury and whatnot, you know, I was sort of cautiously optimistic and it really all hinged on the second event for me. Yeah, second event was a log press and you know, if you've been listening to us, you know how jacked up my shoulder is um going in. I knew if I zeroed on the log, I get no repet, that I'd have no chance of getting on a podium. If I got one repetition, I had a chance to get on a podium, okay, and if I got more, I could climb.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I don't know. Let's dissect that for a minute in just the generic. Is that a reasonable thought? Is that a self-limiting thought?
Speaker 2:I don't think it was self-limiting for me, because, in my case, because we've both seen me walk into something where I shouldn't have done as well as I did, but I did because of the work we put in earlier we've also seen it where I should have done better.
Speaker 2:And because my brain was not there, I just messed the bed, I mean, it just was not happening. Um, this was a physical thing with me. You know, a week out I could not, literally could not, put my arm straight above my head. Yeah, yeah, yeah, good point. And then, like I flew in on thursday thursday, you know, went out with some friends friday. We weighed in and I'm like my shoulder doesn't really hurt and I picked my arm straight up over my head.
Speaker 1:I'm like, holy shit, I got a chance ladies and gentlemen, this is a unpaid sponsorship for safel Posturology, because somebody went to a grip meet where Mike was in attendance and they spent some time posturologizing, posturologizing. Yeah, what he said, and I don't know if Scott noticed, but apparently it had a very positive effect on his outcome. Oh, it most certainly did. Yeah, that's cool. That's cool. I I just listened. You know, to wrap it up into more like podcast things, we did I listen. I want to, uh, claire shorenstein's eat for endurance podcast. Yeah, she was a guest previously. Yep, uh, and the guest had bonked one of those big long races and just couldn't finish. Okay, and the discussion on they came in dfl. I don't think they came in at all, honestly, but just the the heartfelt discussion on what that like. I will never experience that right, because I mean, that's just not the nature of our sport to like slowly crash and oh burn.
Speaker 2:you're either on on the mountain or you are plummeting Right.
Speaker 1:And I don't know that I have the mental toughness mostly because of my pedigree in sport. I don't know that I could fight through that slow crash and burn and keep going, Going to disagree.
Speaker 2:Are you, yep, why? I have seen you at competitions and at the compound, where you're just like no, I'm not going to stop.
Speaker 1:oh well, that's you know, folks, let's, let's be honest, let's dissect that whole thing. So here's how it goes. I'm sweaty, I'm exhausted, I'm crabby. I basically need a nap and a diaper change and I'm so glad you brought that up, we are done right. Like scott and I said that we're gonna do 10 reps of x and we did our 10 reps, although scott probably did 12.
Speaker 1:But then scott always does this I'm sitting there, I'm dying or I'm close to death, and scott will say you know, I think I'm gonna do one more set, and I never to. And I always don't let him go on alone. And it's not camaraderie and it's not fellowship of the ring, it's just you, fuck. I am going to bury you as much as I feel buried right now. How's?
Speaker 2:that worked out for you.
Speaker 1:It never does. By the way, he outweighs me by about 97 pounds and no 96, I went on a diet.
Speaker 2:Oh, you shaved good good.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I I I applaud you for thinking that I've got that level of mental toughness, but I don't but, john, you could give up, you could stop you could say could you have fun? I have that recorded right now. So I'm going to say hey, scott, on the podcast. You said I could stop.
Speaker 2:I'm not going to let you but but I mean that fair, that's where that sort of comes in and I've seen it pay off for you because, again, going back to the same thing, where I mean I just sent you that video because it came up in a memory you would be the keg over. Oh yeah, and I mean that was. It was a 290 plus pound keg, it was 130 percent of your body weight. You had no right moving that because, thanks for your support, you didn't before.
Speaker 2:No, I never, I never did, I never did I shouldn that you had never put it over bar before, Right right. You went in there, you got it up to lap, it fell down. You could have stopped, I could have, but you've got Steve Schmidt.
Speaker 1:Steve Slater yeah, I know All these rock stars.
Speaker 2:Sean Urquhart sitting there looking at you.
Speaker 1:It's the Mount Rushmore of strength sports.
Speaker 2:And let's not me and you looking at you and I mean they're like rock stars, and I'm just shaming you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know, and you got one. Yeah, but you, you just backhandedly illustrated complimented you yeah, no, not me so much, but just the fact that, and you know, obviously in team sport, well in a team, hold on, but in robbie von schlag as well.
Speaker 2:Robbie was there as well, I don't want to forget.
Speaker 1:Robbie, in individual sport, having a training partner or a clique of friends that can make all the difference. Because, first of all, you know you get some backhanded coaching afterwards Like dude. You should try this. You should try that. Have you done this? I have a device that might help you with your deadlift. You should try that. Have you done this? You know I have a device that might help you with your deadlift. You should try it. Yeah, I can't use mine right now because I'm using it, um. But yeah, I think there's levels of, you know, motivation once you lose what you have in your head and I think it starts again with like a training partner and moves out to fellow competitors, friends, um family crowd yeah I was gonna go family crowd the, the, the.
Speaker 1:Remember the lady that was that was like the national champion in beerstein holding yes, yeah, yeah, she was probably the loudest person there she was a tiny little old lady.
Speaker 2:Well, yes, sir, it was just the amount of extra energy. Maybe we just got a new member at the compound maybe I don't know, five, six months ago. Ryan chi oh, I love ryan ryan, 50 year old guy. Wait, yes, he's 50.
Speaker 1:He's in our group, dude. Shout out to ryan and whatever skincare regimen you've got going on.
Speaker 2:But I mean, when ryan comes to, you know, to the saturday strongman and then to the sunday afternoon old man strongman group, yeah, his endurance. At the end I'm like, oh shit, I can't let him beat me yeah you know, and it's that sort of, it's that, and it's not because I'm I'm stronger than him or anything else.
Speaker 1:No, it's a mental thing at that point it really is very mental tough because he I mean we expose him to stressors he's never seen before. Hey, we're gonna carry this. Hey, we're gonna lift this. Hey, we're gonna do this for an ungodly amount of reps. I've never seen him grouse complain, just tries. It gets to wherever he fails and he's happy to be there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, today we did some sandbag work, sandbag over a bar, and you know he grabbed the bag and he's going and I'm like son of a gun, look at him, go. Yeah, you know, I mean again and it's that he's a strong kid, kid he's 50 he's a strong guy, but don't get me wrong, he is mentally tough.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And he got to be Really.
Speaker 1:In certain sports you really have to be Well, let me postulate this, since postulate is my word of the day Versus posturology Versus. Yeah, we've moved on from that. Shout out to Mike Seville Hi, Mike, Does training and or competing in any kind of sport actually build the toughness, the mindfulness that we seem to hold in such high regard?
Speaker 2:In my mind, the answer is yes, with caveats. Oh yes, Because if you can develop that mental toughness to work through the physical pain of what any sport is right, I mean every sport, I don't care what it is, it could be something as lowly as pickleball we mentioned pickleball at 43 minutes and 13 seconds into the podcast for those playing at home.
Speaker 1:I just had to bring it up because you have your pickleball pickleball shoes on doesn't matter what the sport is in all seriousness pickleball, bowling, you know.
Speaker 2:Competitive walking, weightlifting, I don't care, because they're all pushing you physically to get through that physical pain, to sort of take yourself to a different plane, so to speak. You need that mental toughness. The one thing that I see when I work, uh, with college students or with other administrators or professors or or or and I'm sure you see this in your field, in environmental science is people don't realize the sort of tangents that should be drawn from it. They say, oh, I can do this, I can do this, I've done this on the court. Okay, you had to break through something to do it. Right, bring that same damn toughness here, stop being a wimp.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, and I actually somebody, one of the people I work with, says you know, I was a star high school quarterback. Well, everyone was a star high school quarterback. I'm sorry to break the news to you, but you know, let's say, I was a star high school football player. Blah, blah, blah. Okay, did you ever go to practice when you were hurt, or you thought you had a concussion, or you know, you broke up with your girlfriend and you had failed three tests in a row and you had to work through all of that mentally goes yeah all the time. Then why the hell aren't you using that right now? Wow?
Speaker 1:shout out to everybody on linkedin if you're looking for a job, scott scott is not hiring, thank god but he is a motivational coach, yeah right right? No, but you're. You're not wrong and I think everybody's guilty of it and at 47 minutes in johnson I'm not wrong.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, I mean, I don't even think me with this, you know, overarching podcast, in this incredible sense of self that I seem to carry way too high yeah um, I am probably not the same person in the gym as I am in some professional arenas, because what you just said is like I kind of got taken aback, like oh yeah, I guess if I could fight through x I could fight through y, because it's, you know, different variable, same chemistry we don't make those comparisons yeah because it's a night and day thing.
Speaker 2:You go to work in a suit, and tie or, and you know, capris and whatever, I don't care.
Speaker 1:I don't wear capris anymore. The hr talked to me it's about time, it really is about time but we don't make that comparison that it's the exact same mental fortitude.
Speaker 2:Yeah, to work through the problems that we're seeing, just don't effing stop.
Speaker 1:yeah, that's crazy. This is I. I am actually gonna have to ruminate on this, because it is weird. Like, okay, I am working out at 1 o'clock, I will work out for two hours, I am going to accomplish these nine things. That's just going to happen. You get to work and it's like maybe if I get through five today that'd be okay. The parallels are there and I don't even know that I noticed them. I once said to somebody Self. Self, I said.
Speaker 2:You come into work and you've got your to-do list. It's sort of like when you have your plan in a workout. And I said to this person I said what happens when you get into work? Well, x happened in a class. Remember I work at a work. Well, x happened in a class, because, remember I work at a college, x happened in a classroom. Uh, I got 10 emails and this and this and this. I said you ever been in a workout and all of a sudden you're carrying something or pressing something and you tweak a muscle. Yeah, what do you do? I pivot, hello, yeah yeah, that's funny.
Speaker 1:That's funny. Maybe we should become business guru. You want to start a business podcast? I want to call it none yo bidness no yeah, I wish I had like a cricket soundtrack, because yeah that, that really died hard.
Speaker 1:Nowhere near you will there be the none yo business podcast featuring john and scott. Sorry, would have been great, would have been great. People are missing out. They would have. Um, I think this is a good place to pause because we have a guest that I've been hoping to schedule that I think can put a much sharper point on all this mindset stuff, sort of bring some clarity to the yeah, yeah, yeah, I think I think you know you've we've done sort of back of the napkin sitting sitting at the end of the bar rehashing the good old days kind of thought about this and I think some really great points came up.
Speaker 1:But I think I'd like to reach out to somebody that sort of does this for a living and get some actual tips and tricks and tactics.
Speaker 2:So let me do what I counsel teachers to do. What, to this point, is muddiest for you?
Speaker 1:You know, for me it's always the barrier of beginning, and I think that's in all arenas of everything. I think if I start something I finish it, but boy can I come up with timings and lack of equipment. You know, I don't know. That's the excuse shirt about you. Yeah, I don't have the right shoes. Uh, you know it's hot in my office. Uh, oh, you know, I really should order that that thing from amazon before I get started, all of that. Once I get over that hurdle, it's downhill, but that hurdle is a hurdle, it's a hurdle you and you for me cheetos, not a sponsor.
Speaker 2:I like the mental side of competing because I've always been in. This is something that was instilled in me as a little boy. Young boy was never little. You're welcome. I just beat you. There, there's always somebody better than you. Strive to be better than them, okay. So I've always had that sort of mentality in my head or figure out how to beat them in the long game. I want to know more about the transition, taking that athletic mentality and moving it more across to life in general.
Speaker 2:Oh okay, you know the business, uh, personal type of thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I like it. All. Right, folks, we'll stay tuned to a future podcast where, hopefully, we can find somebody that can answer all these and your burning questions. You know, feel free to message the uh master's guide on Instagram, and if you have any questions, I'll uh make sure those get asked as well. I'm sweaty, I, I'm sweaty. I've transferred from glowy to sweaty, so you're now sweaty John.
Speaker 2:I am sweaty John and I'm glowing.
Speaker 1:Scott, oh, he is kind of glowing folks, so we're going to wrap it up as always, glowy or not, I am John and I'm still Scott. See you, everybody, Bye. 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.