Training For Heavy Stone Carries After 40 with John "Rockman" Johnson

We chase the Husafell stone dream and admit why a 39 meter carry feels terrifying when the weight is awkward and your lungs get crushed. We swap real stone stories, debate technique, and build a smarter training approach that respects strength after 40 while still pushing a big stretch goal. 
• committing to Husafell Summer 2027 and why long timelines help masters athletes 
• the wrong stone story and how conditions change everything 
• pick mechanics, lap position, and why stone geometry beats you up 
• Atlas sandbag carries, diaphragm pressure, and carry conditioning 
• natural stone faux pas, cultural respect, and why damaged stones get hidden 
• finding liftable rocks in parks and parking lots and why it turns into an obsession 
• Dinnie style lifting and how rings and uneven loads punish your hands 
• unconventional training ideas like misloaded barbells, Zercher work, and gorilla rows 
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Transcript

Welcome And What We Do

SPEAKER_05 0:00

Welcome to the Masters Athlete Survival Guide, where we explore the secrets to thriving in sports after 40. I'm John Catalinus, and along with Scott Fike, 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.

SPEAKER_03 0:33

And

A Return Guest And Chaos

SPEAKER_03 0:34

we're back. Hi John. Hi, not a Dr. Scott. I think we've been invaded by all kinds of technology and all kinds of other stuff that at some point we're gonna have to talk about. But yeah, I'm I'm looking across and and amongst all the rig and roll and other stuff, I think I see a body. And it's not the one that's been under your bed for years.

SPEAKER_05 1:00

Well, you know, it was starting to smell. That's what she said. You know, here's the deal. When we have when we have guests, yes, God, we drag it out. Like we just just introduce them.

SPEAKER_01 1:10

Hi, Rockman.

SPEAKER_03 1:11

There you go.

SPEAKER_01 1:12

Hi guys, how are you? Look, it's John Rockman. It is I.

SPEAKER_03 1:16

I gotta tell you though, you know, other than you know, like Mark or or Dom or something like that, this is our first return guest. Oh our first international star. I I'm honored. You should be something. I mean I am something.

SPEAKER_01 1:34

You should be something.

SPEAKER_03 1:35

What does that mean? You should be something. Like you should be eating a sandwich or something, dude.

SPEAKER_01 1:38

I did on the way here.

SPEAKER_03 1:40

Yeah. You should eat another one.

SPEAKER_05 1:43

John John has been very busy and is is looking lean, like he's gone down a fight class. Like literally. Lean is not thank you. Lean was not the word I was gonna use. Fight you know, victim weight is there. I liked it. All right, so before we started, you were about to ask a rock-centric question.

SPEAKER_03 1:59

I

The Wrong Stone In A Blizzard

SPEAKER_03 2:00

was, I was about to say, Rockman, the same video that you showed or sent me about the uh the gentleman lifting the Husafeld stone off of like a pedestal because he had a leg injury, John had sent. And it was kind of funny that you both saw and saw the same thing in it, but then last night I think you sent me a video about a guy who lifted the wrong stone. Oh, the poor guy. He thought it was the Hussefeld.

SPEAKER_05 2:29

So if if you've watched too many Housafeld videos like me, like yeah, um, I think he's the same guy that lifts it sort of upside down. Okay, where he does pointers. I like I like that technique. Uh well we'll come back to that. But the poor guy, he he went there and they showing January, yeah. They show like a wide view, and it's the tundra. It you know, and and the guy felt could like the need, and he his Scottish, uh his Scottish accent probably backed it up. I feel like he was Scottish, he was in a kilt, and I've been in a kilt in horrible weather, and it's not appropriate. It is not appropriate, but it's like he he did it, and he was he's a smaller guy because the video I saw is he was transitioning from lifting rocks to endurance racing, yeah so so that's sort of his athleticism, and and a little bit of his size, if you can think about it that way, and does full sturker, takes a stone around, sets it down, hug him, high-five him, and then the video continues, and it's like, okay, now we're going to do the real stone because my friend showed me that I did, and I can't believe there's another and it's similar, it really is, it's too similar to be sitting there daddy stone and baby stone.

SPEAKER_03 3:43

It really does look bad.

SPEAKER_05 3:45

And they're I don't think I bet you the weight difference is 50 pounds. There, I think it's it looks more than that. Yeah, I don't know, but it I felt I've never felt so bad for a human being in my life.

SPEAKER_03 3:54

But it was funny because he said in the video, he says, and I even had my friend who's done this a hundred times on you know, making sure this was the right stone, and the guy goes, Yeah, I'm really sorry about that. Yeah, there was a blizzard, and there really was a blizzard there. At one point, it was when he was getting every getting you know psyched up to pick up the stone. He stands up and it literally almost blows him over.

SPEAKER_05 4:18

Oh wow, yeah. You know, the the the thing with the weight and the footing, and yeah, it was I know.

SPEAKER_03 4:24

Well, Wes did that a couple years ago when he was doing the Magnus event.

SPEAKER_05 4:27

Oh, the the mag yeah, the Magnus event they carry at. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:30

And he stood up and he says, I just wanted to know where the ice was because it was so freaking cold.

Committing To Husafell Summer 2027

SPEAKER_05 4:35

I, you know, all right, so before we started taping, I I admitted to the fact that I'm running a 5k in September. Jackass. The the other thing I've committed to is Housafeld summer of 27. Okay. I've committed. Committed to. You're in. Oh, he's committed. Yeah. He should be. And of course I'm freaking out because it's a big heavy stone that's weighted about as ad as unadvantageously? Unadvantage. Yeah. Disadvantageously. Thanks. That works. That works. Uh am a doctor. Yeah. Sort of. Um yeah, so I I have a question for you. Okay. Who wrote the book of love? Do you have any idea how far around the pen is? 39 meters. You know that? Yes. Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01 5:25

I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_05 5:26

Uh now here's my next question. For us who love freedom, what is 39 meters in feet or yards or 30 uh a foot?

SPEAKER_03 5:36

Oh, Jesus.

SPEAKER_05 5:37

Uh see? Uh-huh. Not a document. A meter is 40 inches. Alexa, how far is 39 meters in feet? This is why this is why my house is like. Oh. Now, how can she say about and give it to two decimal places? You know. That's far, dude. Oh, gross. I should have checked before I committed to this. You're committed. Dude, I am committed.

SPEAKER_03 6:05

It's down and back in the compound.

SPEAKER_05 6:07

No, I know. I know. Honestly, I'm more afraid of the pick. I think if I get it picked even reasonably well, I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 6:15

If you can lap it, you're gonna be fine. And it's you know, you look at the commercially available Hoosefeld stones, whether they're sandbags or they're, you know, the metal ones, they look more like a gothic tombstone that's sort of up on Superman's shield on his perfect. But you look at pictures of the Hoosefeld stone, and like our buddy Sean Urquhart has described it as like a guitar pick. If that.

SPEAKER_05 6:45

Yeah, if that it's got that weird lump on, I don't know, do you call that on top?

SPEAKER_01 6:50

And that's the whole thing. How do you recreate that with uh you know, steel or sandbag? You can't.

SPEAKER_05 6:54

Rogue rogue did it with a rogue had a uh replica that they like 3D scanned and had made. I'm sure it was a billion dollars, and that's why all our rogue stuff is so expensive. Yeah, well, I sure as all I'm not buying that for the gym. Why? You're the worst. Your dues just went up. Oh, damn it.

SPEAKER_03 7:12

So yeah, the pick freaked me out. Well, and that goes to what Rockman was just talking about. You know, you're uh a fan of that sort of reverse flip pick, and I've had a lot of success, and you know, part of it's because I'm the size of a rock myself, and I've got a lot of lower back strength. I like you know, leaning it forward just a little bit, using the head, your head, your your chin to sort of hold it in that leaning position. And I think we're gonna we can have some fun this summer trying fun and different things.

SPEAKER_05 7:48

I hang out with wrong people. John's John's over there nodding.

SPEAKER_03 7:51

Oh, yeah, fun.

SPEAKER_00 7:52

That sounds great.

SPEAKER_03 7:52

I'm thinking the uh the Sigleiski pig hog bacon back stone.

SPEAKER_01 7:58

That name changes and gets longer every time. That's what she said.

SPEAKER_03 8:01

So does the stone well the thing we picked it up the one time. We weighed it. What did it come in at? Like four. 425. Yeah, just over 420. It's a monster. So I mean, if we can pick that, oh yeah, and it's more of a it's a rectangle. Like you say, it's a rectangle. It approaches rectangle pretty much as far as a natural stone. You're gonna be able to pick the the Hoosefelt because of the Hoosefelt, you can get your arms around. I've got gorilla-length arms, and I could not get my arms you know broad shed around. Geometry freaks me out too.

SPEAKER_01 8:32

Yeah, that that stone, the thickness and just everything about it, I can't even imagine.

SPEAKER_03 8:37

Yeah. Well,

Picking Technique And Stone Geometry

SPEAKER_03 8:38

we're gonna go back in the back of the property that Gene and I live on, and we're gonna do some stone hunting. So one of these days when it's not under 23 feet of water, you know, we'll go back and see what we can find.

SPEAKER_01 8:50

August. The way this year is going. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_03 8:53

Maybe.

SPEAKER_01 8:54

Yeah, that'd be great.

SPEAKER_03 8:55

But I mean, why do you prefer the sort of, you know, put the fat end in your lap and pull the smaller end up so it's by your chin? Because then you gotta do the John Sigleiski thing. Right. And you gotta sort of rotate 400 pounds. That's a skill I want to avoid.

SPEAKER_01 9:14

That's insane. Then the fact that he can do that is that's he does it with a lot of leg motion too.

SPEAKER_03 9:20

Yeah, when he brings it up, he'll pull one leg way the heck out so he's almost standing on one foot and turn his body the other way. You know, no, none of us are young enough to pull that type of crap out.

SPEAKER_01 9:34

It's it's incredible.

SPEAKER_03 9:35

He's he's an A-grade superhero.

SPEAKER_01 9:37

Yes, he is, he's not human.

SPEAKER_03 9:39

Yeah, he's not. I knew it. I knew it. I knew it. All right, back to the original question. So what was the original question? He likes that flip grip, not the flip grip, the uh the flip panel.

SPEAKER_01 9:51

Now, for me, lifting like that, I don't know. I've I don't think I like that so much, but to see that that technique done, it it just it seemed it the way the guy pulled it off, it seemed way easier to get to his lap.

SPEAKER_05 10:04

Yeah, way easier.

SPEAKER_03 10:06

Yeah, but you've got to have incredible back strength because you're reaching down and you've got to sort of pivot that whole stone. You're acting as the pivot point, right? Yeah, I I don't want that type of weight grinding into my thighs.

SPEAKER_01 10:19

Which I guess when you analyze it like that, but watching that video and how he does that, it's so smooth. Whereas I know when I lift, I like I get down, I bring it up into my lap, right? Then I'll pull it in more, then sink fully down. Is it my lap just more comfortable that way?

SPEAKER_03 10:35

Right. But doing that also, like what you just described, gives you a better ability to sort of feel the stone out as to where you want to put your hands, your arms, sort of to get that up to the chest. You know, we're not even getting to the carrying point yet. Right.

SPEAKER_05 10:52

I am of the opinion, correct or incorrect. Incorrect. If I can get it to my chest, I can walk with it. Yeah. Because I've developed enough strength. Because I mean, the way you're especially the way you're talking, Scott, it's almost like a bent row with a 408-pound thing that doesn't want to be rowed.

SPEAKER_03 11:10

Well, kind of, yeah, because if you think about when we pick the regular, the the metal Hoose of Heldstones, and they lean forward, it's you pull it up into you like a bent row. Yep. But then once you can get your legs together more to form that position, then you can get your arms under it without a problem.

SPEAKER_05 11:28

I j I wish there was a modification for the metal ones where you could make it top heavy.

SPEAKER_03 11:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 11:34

Because that's really the thing that you gotta train if you're gonna do the real Icelandic.

SPEAKER_03 11:39

Well, we've got two of them. I mean, why don't we we can take one of them, fill the bottom with whatever so there's some decent weight to it. Or if we just had an insert, right? Like you could what I'm saying is you take one of them, bastardize it, yeah, and then on the top have you know somebody we know enough people that do welding put something across there, and then we can put plates that sit on the top. Maybe maybe maybe I like it.

SPEAKER_01 12:05

I've seen I've seen some that have actually posts coming out where you can put plates, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 12:12

I think I've seen that too. I I don't know. I don't know, freaks me out. I should set different goals. No, you shouldn't. You know, it's Bruce Young's fault. Bruce, if you're listening, thanks. No, no, thanks. It's like, oh, you should really set like stretch goals that are hard and will give you satisfaction when you accomplish them. I should have said something else. Anything else.

SPEAKER_03 12:39

Dude, you said pickleball. Yeah, see? How simple? I mean, rock band's over here crying because you play pickleball. Don't cry. It's okay.

SPEAKER_01 12:47

It's Aiden likes pickleball now. See, they're gonna be you. That's my fault.

SPEAKER_05 12:51

It's a good game. You know, you know who doesn't like pickleball? I used to like your son. It's people built like snowmen that can't move. Number one, I'm not a snowman.

SPEAKER_03 13:01

Number two, I'm built more like a mountain troll.

SPEAKER_05 13:03

No, you're kind of snowman-esque. Snowman-esque. I I I feel like I could trace like round parts of like circles on your body.

SPEAKER_03 13:12

You stay away from tracing anything on my body. Silver and gold. Silver and gold. And I can move short distances very fast, carrying very heavy things.

SPEAKER_05 13:25

Oh boy. Yeah, short distances. Like a fork from his plate to his mouth. No, like 39 meters, John. Yeah, we shall see.

SPEAKER_03 13:36

Oh, we shall see. I can't wait to see.

Atlas Sandbag Carries And Breathing

SPEAKER_03 13:39

This is at Nationals this year, and we've got a couple of them at the compound now. Are it's an Atlas stone sandbag carry. Oh, these things are ridiculous. Okay. All right. We're gonna get uh Daniel Brush up at Valkyrie Strength, told me he is getting them in up there now. Yeah. And we're gonna buy enough to do from 200 to 300 pounds every 25 pounds. So the one we have right now is two and a quarter. That's the weight that I have to do at Nationals. Well, it's not a heavy weight, but the problem is when you pick it up, it is solid like a stone, but it's somewhat mushy, so you can't grip hard. Okay. So when you pull it in, you're pulling it in right to your diaphragm. And walking with that, even just the 60 feet that we have to go, it's you know, basically carry something the size of an overweight human on your diaphragm. Or a double victim weight. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 14:40

No, you know, it it it's like the world's heaviest beach ball. Yeah, that that's agree to know because the the shape is, I mean, it's round and it is unforgiving. Like there's not and I I you know, I see plenty of people lifting sandbags on the internet that don't fill them to what they should be, so they're these big floppy things. Yep. And yeah, on some level it's harder because there's movement. But boy, does that give you a handle? Oh, yeah. Like like no, the sandbags that we use.

SPEAKER_03 15:09

But when they're when they're taught, when they're like they're supposed to be, yeah, yeah. They're impossible to lift. And you know, I mean, I I get why they're doing it, but that's that's the concern that I have when we're we're talking about, you know, who's felt 27 because it with a rock, it's not gonna move. You know, when you get your arms locked in, you're gonna be fine. But it's still 400 plus pounds crushing in on your chest. Yeah, see. So you gotta get it up high enough so it's see I'm sitting on the phone.

SPEAKER_05 15:40

I always whine about geometry and the fact that you have gorilla arms and can grab things, carry things easier than I can. Yeah. Where things land on me, I don't have necessarily as much of a breathing problem as you do.

SPEAKER_03 15:53

See, but the biggest problem I have is with this the the Atlas sandbag. Yep. Because carrying a regular sandbag will carry it low. Carrying the Hoosefeld bags, because I've got a broad chest, I just lean back a little bit. I don't my weight is not in my stomach, so I don't know, it's in my ass and it's it's from my waist down.

SPEAKER_05 16:15

You just said I'm a snowman. Oh yeah, you look pear-shaped, absolutely. Like a pair of boulders piled piled on top of each other.

SPEAKER_03 16:26

I wonder if we can do a pickleball podcast. I'm wondering if I can get out of trouble with this. But long story short, I don't have that issue where it's sitting like that. What think back when we used to do keg carries uh, you know, when the compound first opened. Yeah. Holding them up to your chest. Oh, you mean upright? Yeah, upright's rough.

SPEAKER_05 16:47

Uprights tough. Oh, that's that's where the the what are they what what do we call that? The poop tower? Oh, yeah, the crucifix cross. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:55

Oof.

SPEAKER_05 16:57

That that's horrible. And we should probably do more of that because it's horrible. You carried it. Yeah. Yeah, that's horrible. Yeah, but we just gotta put a lot more weight on it. It's only what 1900. We can't get it super heavy, but we should figure something out.

SPEAKER_03 17:10

Well, it's gotta be heavy enough. It's heavy enough. We had a uh a guest come in once to the compound and picked it up, and it was up around 300 pounds. So it was it was there. But he had a very bulbous belly. Robust. I like my word better, thank you. Wow, I'm a doctor. I like your word better. So there. Fuck you both. He picks it up, he pulls it in. This thing cantilevered out, so it looked like this giant horn going out in front of it. That's a rough implement. It is. I mean, it's great for carries. What it does for your gas tank and your ability to sort of hold things is phenomenal.

SPEAKER_05 17:51

But you've been, John, you've been crazy busy. Have you been in the gym since he's gotten the Housafeld sandbags?

SPEAKER_01 17:57

I was there. You weren't. Uh three weeks ago? We did four weeks ago.

SPEAKER_05 18:04

Three or four weeks ago.

SPEAKER_01 18:05

All mostly grip. You were doing a lot of uh finger grip.

SPEAKER_05 18:08

So you've seen them? Yes. I mean, the 350-pound one looks a little like a pool table. It's I mean, it's larger across than I am. Yeah, it is massive. It's it's ridiculous. Yeah, it's ridiculous.

SPEAKER_03 18:20

But if we can pick that, because it's a sandbag, even stuffed as tight as it is, there's still gonna be some movement with it. I think if we can pick that, we're gonna be in good shape. I hate stone lifting. Do you know why I hate stone lifting? Because you suck at it.

SPEAKER_05 18:33

Thank you. No, because here's the deal. I've watched so many videos and I have seen in a lot of it's weird when a video pops up and I'm like, hey, I know that person.

SPEAKER_01 18:41

Right.

SPEAKER_05 18:42

Um if you were walking through the grocery store, you could not pick out the people who could lift like the Hoosafel stone.

SPEAKER_01 18:50

Because I like your buddy Rockman. I don't know if I could lift the Hoosafel stone.

SPEAKER_05 18:54

Dude, I think you're selling yourself short. Yeah, maybe you really do. Not today, maybe, you know, long work shift. But yeah. Some of the, I mean, some of these monsters, nope, can't even pick it. Right. Yeah. Well, they don't have the ability to get down deep enough to get the picket. I don't know. This goal has freaked me out.

SPEAKER_03 19:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 19:12

Freaked me out.

SPEAKER_01 19:13

I think there's a lot with this dome. It's just different. And if you're not geared towards or haven't done it, it it takes.

SPEAKER_03 19:21

I think we're gonna need to do a lot more of it, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:23

Yeah, it's it's because it's most people are used to atlas stones if they're lifting stones or barbells, which are very uniform weight distributions, normalized.

SPEAKER_05 19:34

It's not like wow, this one end is oddly heavier than the other for no reason I can see. Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 19:40

And the Atlas Stone, people use tacky. I mean, you can't use anything. Yeah, I don't know. You know, it's funny.

SPEAKER_05 19:47

Uh I saw people chalk the Hoosfeld stone.

SPEAKER_03 19:49

I I don't think they're worried about chalk washing off, but tacky would be a problem. Tacky, yeah. That would be a problem. Well, that's a natural stone faux pas. Faux pas.

SPEAKER_05 19:59

There's a lot of faux pas.

Natural Stone Etiquette And Damage

SPEAKER_05 20:00

Oh, let's go. I I want to talk about a natural stone faux pas. Okay. That that crypt that crypt with that historic stone was that iron leaf. Oh, tell us about that. Yeah, yeah. I have so many questions. I can I'm not sure. First of all, my first question is because to the novice, what's the faux pas? Like what went so badly in the pictures I saw.

SPEAKER_01 20:23

So there's a lot of different things that have been going on with the Scottish stones. There's the um I forget which one, the putting stone, but somebody it's been dropped so many times by people that don't understand the culture, and these stones have been around forever, right? And they split. Oh. So what happened with that one?

SPEAKER_03 20:41

That's a major faux pas.

SPEAKER_01 20:43

Yeah. Yeah. So they they found a way to repair it, but now you have to be a little extra careful with it.

SPEAKER_05 20:48

It's gotta happen though, even to the gen I mean I would think even just over time it's gonna happen to a stone.

SPEAKER_01 20:55

But if there's videos of people picking them up and then just dropping them or throwing them and celebrating, not understanding the culture or not caring about the culture. They're just I did it, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:08

Yeah, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 21:09

So with that particular stone, and I probably can't even pronounce it right, the Berivian stone. Something like that, yeah. It used to be a torture implement. So there's I read some of that. Yeah, there's a casket with a hole, and you'd put the body in there, and just the face would show, then you roll the stone over top of the casket uh so they can't get out, and then people would come by and taunt them and spit on them, throw stuff at them, whatever. No, so you're you're just there, you're trapped. But um what see?

SPEAKER_05 21:39

I feel like I've been reincarnated from one of those people because it it checks all my boxes, like it's strength and also putting down my friends.

SPEAKER_03 21:49

I rock me, please continue because I've got so much in my head right now.

SPEAKER_01 21:55

Oh, I don't want to know. But yeah, all right. So I I saw that. So what happened was what happened. happen when it was when the stone was lifted it must have rolled into the the grave part and chipped which is made out of stone that's what I just made out of stone and it it chipped it. Oh so the chip is the yeah so what's gonna happen unfortunately is because these are historic cultural pieces if they keep getting damaged eventually they're just gonna hide them away and people won't be able to touch them.

SPEAKER_03 22:23

Really so well who was I think it was you that was telling us about a stone in like New England or something that you were going to go you you were telling your your wife about it in Pennsylvania in some park cemented it to so people couldn't lift it right probably for very similar reasons.

SPEAKER_05 22:42

But I don't think I don't think the culture here is enough that there were people actually going to lift it right right I just think it was um I don't know we have we have some extra cement let's do something or people just not wanting somebody in their yard lifting this right so it's such a cool looking stone too it looks like a giant mushroom and hey Mario no it you know it's funny every time literally every time I see a rock just a rock just somebody like oh look that's and in my head if I say like oh that's a cool green rock I immediately think of him like oh man I like rocks.

Parking Lot Rocks And Public Lifts

SPEAKER_01 23:23

No matter where you go you see it you see stones you see rocks and you're like can I pick that up like I picked the one up at um oh my gosh Pelicanos they have a bunch of rocks in the parking lot oh the grocery store in front on Ninefalls Boulevard yeah so when you pull up so they put them there so you wouldn't like drive into the ditch. Probably yeah so there's there's the one section right by the sidewalk and there's like four stones there. And every time I go in I'm like I'm gonna lift one of those and my wife's oh she knows she can see she can see the wheels turning.

SPEAKER_03 23:54

I gotta tie my shoes.

SPEAKER_01 23:55

Go ahead the one time I was driving by and I pull into the parking lot and I pulled the car up and I picked the one up I threw it up my shoulder I'm like yeah that's awesome. So now I gotta go for the next bigger one. I'll do it when my wife's there so she can enjoy it too.

SPEAKER_05 24:11

Don't you wish you could just like look at like the brain of Mr Pelicano as he looks out the window of his little Italian market and is like hey mama there's that guy in the parking lot again.

SPEAKER_03 24:24

Leave him the stones alone call call the police this guy's here again.

SPEAKER_05 24:28

Yeah actually they're probably going why do every time this guy he's what's he looking for did he lose something I tagged we don't put the key under there anymore I did I tagged Pelicanos in the post yeah and he writes back and says we don't put the key under the rock anymore because you know please please stop picking up our rocks things just stop but I do you know it's funny I have looked at every every time someone uses a stone as some sort of like natural like guardrail.

SPEAKER_03 24:57

Yep I'm like hmm uh well when we went out with Sigliski that one time last summer yeah we picked up all the stones in uh in the park and then we go out and we're gonna leave he's like oh that one that you're like that one right there that's the one you got we were all so beat up we couldn't I mean yeah he got it about three inches off the ground I maybe you could fit a half an atom underneath when I did it that counts you got wind under it wind under that's right I got the wind under it you just gotta learn the terminology I'm sticking with that's what I did with the the Sigle hog bacon backstone. You got it off the ground I mean that was incredible hey but I got the Wisconsin stone off the ground at the reservoir nobody else did. The Wisconsin stone thank you let's just let it go okay I know he he wants to name a stone let him name a it's a dumb name but whatever this one not walk around the goat pen fuck you 39 meters 39 meters yeah I'd walk on uneven ground before I'd walk on that gravel with the boulders in the middle of it where we were standing I've actually carried stones up that but not big like I can lift now but I've I've carried up and down that ramp. Yeah my my concern with that twisting my ankle that's my concern because they've got those sort of pedestal blocks yeah for the rampway there man if you miss one of those you're you're snapping an ankle with some of those stones.

SPEAKER_05 26:23

I mean think about some of them some of them are decent carrying size but some of them I mean we picked up some pretty nice size stones oh yeah I think I think my uh steel toe work boots might be the the right footwear for this sandals or sandals one of those either you just give in and do sandals and and what is that for you like Jesus please well neither one of us has the uh the flowing locks of our guest in studio today. No no not not at all yeah you know that thank you for adding another nightmare to my fear of the Housafel oh don't look at me I did not go there you gotta walk on an I'm assuming incredibly uneven slightly rudded surface.

SPEAKER_01 27:08

Yeah it's a funny thing though I mean when you when when I first carried that stone up I didn't even really think about because I couldn't if you start thinking about it you're gonna mess up I just went what I remember is not being able to breathe but I didn't worry too much about the footing but now I do think about it a little bit more.

SPEAKER_03 27:26

You see and that's the first thing when I picked that one up I made sure that I had dug my feet down as hard as I could into you know more solid ground. Right because I I was just I was not going to take the chance of walking with that yeah we've got to get some uh some larger toys to play with at the compound so we have a little more even ground to walk on and I still have to test out some of those stones. We've got the eviscerator.

SPEAKER_01 27:52

No throw that away looks horrible throw that away I saw it.

SPEAKER_03 27:55

Yeah throw it away that's a scary looking my brother brought it over he's like what do you think of this one I'm like I'm thinking our insurance doesn't cover it throw it away it's like eviscerator.

SPEAKER_05 28:05

Yeah it's like a granite Brillo pad oh my gosh throw it away yeah it I don't think there's a smooth surface on that stupid thing.

SPEAKER_03 28:12

Nope no I I would agree nope but I mean we go from I think what what's the smallest one there like 180 odd pounds or something like that. Something like that. And the biggest one that we have right now is three and a quarterish okay a little bit more I I saw that one that's a nice looking stone I'd like to give that one a shot. But like you were talking you could have stones that are smaller in size but because of the composite of which they're made yeah it could be you know 500 pounds and right you know be the size of a beach ball.

SPEAKER_05 28:42

Yep you can't judge a stone by its cover.

SPEAKER_01 28:45

That's for sure yeah I've got one in my driveway it's but it has a lot of um iron and it's a smaller stone and I thought oh this one won't be so bad.

SPEAKER_05 28:54

I call the the the big the little big stone because it's heavy and you give me shit about the Wisconsin stone the little big thing the little big stone the little big horn you know it's there's Scott the the stone lifting culture I think half of it is they've got some sort of stone lifting thesaurus kicking out there like hmm what's another word for heavy yeah wait I kind of have to pee oh the pea stone yeah there you go it's like whatever crosses their mind. Wait so when do we get options to this thesaurus? Well I mean whatever crosses the mind Wisconsin yeah yeah you just got the Wisconsin is it

Gym Work Versus Real Stones

SPEAKER_05 29:30

because you think it's shaped like Wisconsin and also do you have any idea how Wisconsin is shaped? Yes because it's more like the New Jersey stone but whatever.

SPEAKER_03 29:37

Oh no it was larger on top so maybe it was the it let it go maybe it's the devoid mushroom stone I'll have to look at that one again Wisconsin yeah I don't I don't know are you doing I I I know you've been incredibly busy and a little bit hurt uh you doing any lifting still lifting yesterday I went into the garage and like gym lifting or rock lifting I've seen I've seen a lot of gym lifting he's been okay a lot of videos but I find the more I gym lift it affects when I want to just go for a hike and pick up a stone because it affects it negatively or positively because well because sometimes I'm over fatigued from working out in the gym and I just so but I think that's where you know like I said I've got nationals June 6th after that I think we start really pivoting the focus of what we're doing in and start doing more um you know get out into natural stones yeah you know the one thing uh god I hate it when I'm wrong um often so you hate yourself often so the one thing that another thing that freaks me out about all this this heavy natural stone stuff is like just you find some stone that is not oriented in a like a hey let's lift me so you gotta kind of dig it out a little bit and maybe well the guy that we started the whole conversation about he had freaking shovels there to dig the snow away to oh yeah he did kind of that was funny that actually freaked me out a little because I'm like and that's what led me to asking you about that Scottish though I'm like what happens if you chip the Hoosefelt stone does like Donald Denny come back from the grave and murder you just he was slapped you ah boy he was the only like historic stone lifter I could think of sorry okay what you've got rock man right across your I said historic I mean he's old he's not that old legend he is a legend you got Sean Urkhart another legend also not that old younger than us any any desire for a dinny type lift kind of thing is that your job I would like to I was I was training for it at one point and then um my son and I were talking about going out to Scotland before COVID hit and then COVID happened so maybe we have to set some uh some dinny stone type of things up here that would be cool I saw there's an upcoming God I I I need to delete my social media there's an upcoming competition in Ireland and I don't know if it's Irish football or something but over in the corner as one does they set up like three stones.

SPEAKER_05 32:27

Oh I thought you were going a different direction oh yeah no one one I think has like a dinny ring uh one I forget the and then the other last one is kind of like the in fact he refers to as a grandfather clock because he bought it from Rogue but they took the time to like drill through a natural stone like you're lifting a natural stone with like a grip implement.

SPEAKER_03 32:48

You see and that that's well think about our introduction to Bavarian deadlifting that's what they had Sean had that 500 pound stone that they drilled bolts down into and attached like an eye hook to and I think that's kind of where I'd like to go at some point with some of the stuff that we can get around here.

SPEAKER_05 33:07

Well you have the rings and the pins and we loaded it with plates and I gotta tell you the Denny lift is more than just about the weight of that awkward side saddle different weights yeah different weights that's not balanced those real handles want to murder your hand skin dig in the heaviest I've had was four something yeah and it just yeah holy hell yeah it well think about it when we did the Bavarian hold uh a couple comps ago a couple of years ago we had people you know they they did their pick and they held it for seconds seconds yeah and these are these are big young boys that think they can do everything right like but not that some of them are pretty good strong men.

SPEAKER_03 33:50

Yeah absolutely but it's a whole different it's a whole different ball game yeah it's a whole different ball game well when we were down at Candace's place this past October and they had the duck walk on denny rings same thing people that didn't know how to hold a denny ring it was a whole new world for them.

SPEAKER_05 34:10

Yeah a new fantastic point of view you might want to say I was really wondering if you were going to take that I was so you know I was I I I wasn't going to but you know there are certain idiocies to which I am beholden and that is unfortunately one of them oh yeah so John have you ever heard of the Ohio Stones of Strength?

Ohio Stones And A Sheriff Story

SPEAKER_03 34:31

Yes yeah yeah yeah I'd like to go check them out yeah well guess what yeah guess what guess what's on Scott's list of things when we go we uh one of our friends Josh Beatty he uh he's got a stone at his mom's house with a plyneth there and there's he's got like a like a chest high plinth oh yeah yeah it's not yeah okay well for you well yeah it might be over your head wow this is not the nicest podcast you know we we've been nicer yeah but no I mean he he built the whole thing and I'll tell you the story in a minute about how he got that particular stone but you know he's involved with it Sean Arkhart's involved with it the stones of strength and whatnot um I don't at some point I'd like to I need more data before I commit because if one of these stones of strength is 500 pounds you have to actually apply and they have to choose you to do it. Dude I'm a legacy they gotta let me in face it father you fucked up I could not believe you just did that that was good that was well played but you know like this summer we've talked about heading down for a weekend and because there's a little route that you know Josh has told us about right around Columbus where you can hit a bunch of them. So Josh did a podcast with uh a friend of ours from Highland Games um lives up in Canada and he was describing the story and he sent me this clip of how he came to get this particular stone that's at his mom's house oh do tell because I don't think I've heard the story Josh is a sheriff's deputy okay super nice guy you must know Josh I'm trying to think I'm probably connected to him you're connected to him something I'm sure you are I'm sure you are he he's a big guy real strong guy super super nice guy we met him first through Highland okay so he you know he and his brothers had talked about they wanted to have a stone they wanted to have a stone they wanted to do it to dedicate to their mom you know blah blah blah you know my mom's still alive he was he'd finished his shift it's like 11 o'clock at night he's driving home he's got his uniform on he drives past a construction site backs up pulls into it flopping around in the mud he finds this 200 and some odd pound stone that he carries in his police uniform to his car puts it in the car that turns into stone he gets home that night and his wife's like what the hell happened to you I can appreciate that so is is is stone lifting a crime is it a sport or a disease it it is a bad obsession. Yeah it's a bad obsession it's not so I would go with disease then yeah I mean I'm thinking you know he's he's lifting you know things uh you know in front of grocery stores yeah I had to carry that stone from Sean Urkhart's garden into his garage that was that was so rough oh my god well you carry it I mean he does owe you in the fact that it took him forever to finally you know I know lift it to get to his chest kids you were carrying that thing around you realize I'm sending this to Sean it's fine beautiful it's fine he needs to know he needs to know the internet is aware now the people in the Faroe Islands have spoken we're gonna go to the Faroe Islands someday to lift and they're gonna wait a minute are you the one that insulted Sean? Yeah right so I'm gonna come back with these pictures of John and some tribal you know crucifix being roasted alive.

SPEAKER_05 38:18

Have you seen the Faroe Islands? I would definitely be tied to the tree of woe. The tree of woe they look like they look like they have a tree of woe. I'm sure they have a tree of you gonna like turn sideways and bite the vultures next to you possibly yeah yeah possibly I'm gonna live the dream okay so I will I will put this out into the group I have to lift oh who's Fellstone what

Misloaded Bars And Zercher Ideas

SPEAKER_05 38:40

unconventional training tool method approach between now and summer of 27 should I be considering because you're right like a like barbell rose right we found I found one I found a video you know football bars the rectangle with all the handles I saw a video of a guy doing that with the orange fat grips. Okay. Pretty heavy so the super so it's hard to grip but it's still an even barbell in a controlled environment. But we can fix that.

SPEAKER_01 39:16

I mean you can put oh my god I never thought you know that might not be the dumbest thing you've ever said and you've said some horribly dumb things misloading a bar yeah yeah that would help this is one of those moments you're welcome yeah I don't hate that that a lot of good mornings I was gonna say good mornings zerters yeah I hate zerters they're the right tool for the job they are but I think it's Zercher deadlifts yeah yeah I don't disagree honestly the time we did them in the gym was horrific trying to regular barbell height I would put them on like a set of five inch blocks or something why because you're not gonna pick the freaking Hoosefeld stone off the ground from you know six inches up if it's right but if if you look at when I used to this different sport when I used to train um conditioning for boxers I would find out how long their rounds are and I would make them condition them for a minute longer than what their rounds are right so same thing with the stone or the barbell have it harder lower than yeah with the stone we've talked I mean and that's kind of one of the main tenants of the compound train longer harder than any competition you're gonna do but then I would counter that with saying okay we've got two metal hoose felts that are loadable we've got from a hundred up to three hundred and fifty pound sandbag hoosevelts that are you know pretty much rock hard right okay fine lay them flat on the ground yeah I don't disagree I just think right I you know I just want to attack this thing from every stupid angle I can think of which is why I said what have I thinking of I love the misloaded barbell thing.

SPEAKER_05 41:02

Yeah that's probably really like you can't overdo it because I feel like it could almost approach dangerous right but a little you know that might be cool with a Zercher misload because you would have to accommodate right oh my god because as it is it's a great upper body conditioning to a little bit you have I don't hate that offset.

SPEAKER_03 41:22

Well that um Penley Rose Gorilla Rose what's a gorilla roll I don't know what I'm not familiar with the term think of the way uh like a a large gorilla walks yeah like you yeah pretty much that's where that's where I was going thanks for saying it Scott tossing a meatball in the middle of the group and Rockman just knocking that bastard right out of the park.

SPEAKER_05 41:44

Do you usually hit meatballs? I eat them that's what I was thinking. Like when you threw a meatball I thought are we fighting over food? You'd both lose that fight. Yeah that's true.

SPEAKER_03 41:56

You done picking on me?

SPEAKER_01 41:57

I could be tenacious with food.

SPEAKER_03 41:59

Says the guy that's victim weight to the 300 pound strong man. Yeah you go with that okay I got you boo I got you uh gorilla rose yes Tony's programmed for me a couple of times recently you stand sort of like a gorilla does where you're up a little bit higher and you're holding the kettlebells like the top horn of the kettlebells okay and your hips are a little bit lower. You roll one to your hip at any given time.

SPEAKER_02 42:24

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 42:25

And you know it's one at a time like that.

SPEAKER_05 42:27

So I'm kind of like in like a not as deep as like a catcher but like a catcher's kind of position.

SPEAKER_03 42:34

Like I'm kind of like my butt's out kind of your butt's out a little bit but your hands are actually connected to the ground through the kettlebells. Oh so I am very bad oh yeah kettlebells are on the ground oh that's I said think about when a girl walks how their f their knuckles are on the ground yeah the best thing would be to do them with um what do they call them the the Thompson fat bells? Yeah the Thompson fat bells those would be the best to do them with yeah but those things are like four bucks a pile well if you weren't so cheap we'd have those other plates that we saw at the Arnold we saw these plates at the Arnold they are trapezoids okay they are trapezoids that may have been six inches thick it was even less yeah it was a three inch negative pull oh wow how much were they Scott six bucks a pound yeah yeah so before like one of our members Ryan who you've met yeah okay so Ryan says come on you guys gotta see this so we go there and you get all these broccoli heads trying to you know pull it they got 500 pounds all these guys pulling it and they got suits on and they got wraps on and they got everything else and John's looking at me and he's just like poke poke poke that's why you know that's why he does this that that's why he's there is to like do this to you remember Ren and Stimpy I do and the brain I was that's him that's that's pretty good so I go over and the guy goes you know you're gonna try this so I do a a switch grip 500 Pound three inch negative pull cold. One straight up, not a problem. Bring it back down. We're talking to the guy. John's talking to somebody else again. Yeah, he just did that type of crap. I say to the guy, how much are these? Well, you know, they're still in prototype, they're a little more expensive. I'm thinking to myself, oh shit, we're talking three, four dollars a pound. He goes, right now, they're you know, for whatever, they're like six bucks a pound.

SPEAKER_01 44:28

For a limited time, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 44:30

And I'm thinking to myself, I get weight a buck a pound. So for 450 pounds, you want you know, five hundred dollars, six hundred dollars? I no, it was it was four hundred and fifty dollars for a ninety. Yeah, yeah, yeah. For a ninety pound for a two forty five. Okay, that's great. So you've got to buy multiples because if you don't, it defeats the whole purpose of this.

SPEAKER_05 45:03

I take a sawzau to a damn plate before I do that. Or just you know what you can also do? Stand on a block.

SPEAKER_03 45:08

Stand on a block. Kind of like we do. Didn't want to solve your problem there, sir. But so $500 for 90 pounds. Thank you. And then uh I saw an I can't remember the guy's name. He's a pretty good trainer. John Rockman. No uh physical therapist. He goes and he walks up and he's got these plates on, and I'm sure he would he partnered with them and he got them for free on barbell, and there's collar, you know, a double set of collars on, and he goes and he spins them. So they're spinning in circles. Okay, and then he gets them and he stands up with them, and it's like the weirdest. Oh, are they off center? Yeah, so they're giving you a weird like an earthquake bar too.

SPEAKER_05 45:53

Yeah, I like my spine a little bit more than that. Oh, yeah. His whole like heroic like three-inch deficit deadlift story, he forgot the the closing argument where he's like, Oh, yeah, cold was probably a bad idea.

SPEAKER_03 46:11

I did something in my left forever that I felt it for right.

SPEAKER_05 46:16

But right now, right now, six 19-year-old broccoli headed boys are like having a podcast where they're going, dude, you see that old fat bald man just walk in and do that. No, it was me, not you. Wait, which guy was that? You know, the one that looked like a snowman. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 46:32

Great, henceforth, instead of Scott, I'm gonna be called Frosty.

SPEAKER_05 46:36

Until the next, until the next day. Yeah, it's not a Brock Man. It's not it's not an insulting, like like well, maybe it's over. Never mind.

SPEAKER_04 46:44

Silver, gold, you know, so these these I just I need new friends.

SPEAKER_05 46:49

Yeah, you do. Yeah, you do, but we're the best you can get, so whatever. No, that's the problem. Now, in the confluence of my internet watching, it's not big words. It is, thank you. Even for someone that's not easy. These expensive plates.

Gym Gear That Costs A Fortune

SPEAKER_05 47:03

Do you guys ever watch like gym tours? Like just some random, like, hey, let's check out. Oh, over here we have like you know, 20 billion dollars in whatever that Italian brand is, Prada or whatever that is. Prada? No, I don't think it's a Prada.

SPEAKER_03 47:19

No, but the red, you know, the red Oh those things that Ryan wanted us to look at. Yeah, no.

SPEAKER_05 47:23

It's like each machine with thousands of dollars. Like, are they fronts for like the drug cartels? Because and they're home gyms, dude. It's it's bonkers, it's bonkers the amount of like those those treadmills that like are kind of curved on the bottom. Oh, yeah. I forgot how I looked up the price of those. I'm like, oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03 47:43

Yeah, they're not just I'm thinking I know what I have invested at the compound. Yeah, and I see some of these like home gym tours, like you're saying, and I guarantee they're four, five, six times what we've got invested at the compound. And some things are weirdly expensive.

SPEAKER_05 48:00

You know what's weirdly expensive? That that beehive hex lighting. Oh, that hex lighting, yeah. Yeah, that's bonkers expensive.

SPEAKER_01 48:08

I don't think I've ever looked into that.

SPEAKER_05 48:09

Yeah, I haven't. I know it's not cheap, but well, you know, when you when you start transitioning the bodybuilding, you you need the right angles. You need a good flat light. What? Versus a hair light. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 48:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 48:25

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 48:26

I had a client that had an amazing gym in his basement. Yeah. The guy was independently wealthy. You know, I think you're gonna have to be.

SPEAKER_05 48:35

I think if you had the space and money, I mean you'd be I'd be hard pressed not to.

SPEAKER_01 48:41

Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_05 48:42

Yeah. You know what I although you know what I would do first if I did the garage gym, because I every time I look at it, that rogue rack that folds. Oh, the one that sort of shifts sideways. Yeah, we've seen that every time we go there. And you know, they have it at Rogue with every accessory bolted to it. Of course. So it's like it's like ten thousand dollars within six inches of the wall. It might not even be ten, it might be twenty. It's yeah, I mean it's cool.

SPEAKER_03 49:11

It's if you didn't have room, or if you were still like parking in your garage type of thing, this is the way to go. I mean, without a doubt.

SPEAKER_05 49:20

But well, I did look up this newest thing that uses uh I think it uses electromagnetism. It's it's about the size of a loaf of bread, and it's got a cable coming out of it. I've seen that, and you can bolt it to your rack in various ways, or if you get two of them, you can do all sorts of things, but it's thousands of dollars. Crazy.

SPEAKER_03 49:41

Well, think about it. We every time we go to Rogue, I look at those ski ergs. I love those ski ergs. I love those two, but they're like 2,900 bucks. Yeah, that's awesome. Here's the thing you get a couple of serious steel bands, shout out to our buddy over there. Nice. I just you get a couple of those, you loop them over the top of your rack. Hey, instant ski erg.

SPEAKER_05 50:00

Yeah, but grandpa, it's really not. It's it's close. You can change the band tension too. Yeah, it's it's true, but didn't cost me $3,000. Did not. That's very true.

SPEAKER_01 50:11

Rocks are free.

SPEAKER_05 50:12

Rocks are free. Unless, of course, you get arrested at your local grocery.

SPEAKER_01 50:16

Your local Italian grocery hasn't happened yet.

SPEAKER_05 50:19

I'm glad you threw the word yet in there. Do you have your eye on any? Is there a stone out there with like like if you look at it, you all you hear is there's a couple.

SPEAKER_01 50:31

One of them's in somebody's yard. Oh, really? They actually want to pull up in their driveway and say, hey, what are you doing with these stones? Because they're kind of piled off to the side.

SPEAKER_05 50:38

Oh, it's not even like there's not like a light on it next to a flagpole or something.

SPEAKER_01 50:42

It's like it's moved off the side, and there's like three or four, and one of them is just it's it's beautiful. I and every time I drive by, I look and I'm like, I should just pull up and ask, What do you know?

SPEAKER_05 50:54

I'll tell you what. If we transition to video podcast, can can we please have that conversation on video? Because I want to see you go to a door and excuse me, sir or ma'am, and they're gonna think you're a Jehovah's Witness, and you're gonna be like, you know that rock you have in your front? Yes, sir. Um can I have it? No, first it would be can I lift it?

SPEAKER_01 51:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 51:15

To where and why and what's under it? And I mean, the questions would be oh yeah. Oh, it'd be great.

SPEAKER_01 51:20

I've I've thought about like great. Thought about doing that. Just hey, if if I can lift this stone, can I have it?

SPEAKER_03 51:28

Most people, when they have conversations in their head, it's like a conversation they want to have with their significant other or their banker.

SPEAKER_05 51:36

Not the strangers that have a rock. But you know, I I apparently am somewhere on the spectrum of rock lifting because I have looked, I have stopped at garden centers and looked at the cost of like buying a rock. They're expensive.

SPEAKER_01 51:51

They're expensive, they're expensive.

SPEAKER_05 51:52

We do it all the time. We're on Facebook Marketplace. Well, on Facebook Marketplace, sometimes 20 bucks for this boulder.

SPEAKER_01 51:57

I've got some for free off of Marketplace.

SPEAKER_05 51:59

If you really is it sort of like if you can lift it, you can have it. Kinda. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 52:04

Yeah, that was must get rid of, you know. I'm like, the guy the guy thought I was weird. He thought I was gonna pull up with a truck for landscaping reasons. I'm like, I'm gonna lift these. Why can I pick through and grab the whatever I want?

SPEAKER_05 52:15

Like, so dude, you don't drive a pickup truck, do you?

SPEAKER_01 52:18

I have um no, but I have the nitro, which is an SUV kind of thing.

SPEAKER_05 52:23

Yeah, right. Yeah. So you just throw a giant rock in the back?

SPEAKER_01 52:26

Yeah. I've had the one at that guy's yard, I had like four or five stones. Nice.

SPEAKER_05 52:32

Driving like this. You should be on the commercial. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 52:34

I'd love to have the Wisconsin stone on the back of my truck. Yeah. Nice.

SPEAKER_01 52:40

But yeah, I look, you know, I not only do I look for myself, because I want to set up that bonds Bonds Lake more for stones. I love that. There's a few other locations where I'd like to put a stone, and I'm like, but there's not one nearby. If I can stop at that guy's house and grab a couple stones, they're gonna go right on top of a plinth, which was I like the plinth thing. Yeah, I do.

SPEAKER_03 53:02

I've got one you can have.

SPEAKER_05 53:03

A plinth or a stone? A stone. Well, he's got like criteria, dude. It's not like you just are the farmer and you're giving away your daughter. He's got standards.

SPEAKER_03 53:13

Oh no, this is a great stone.

SPEAKER_05 53:14

It's what all dads say about their daughters. Yeah, this parallel works on so many levels. This stone has a great personality. Oh boy. All right, what stone are you? I'm trying to get rid of a stone. Are you trying to get rid of the eviscerator? Yes. Nobody should lift that. Nobody should lift that. That should be a cautionary tale. Leave it out front. Maybe somebody like John will drive by like, I think I kind of want to lift that stone. Yeah. He'd lift it. He would. He would lift it, but then we'd have to like pay for his blood transfusion for all the all the blood loss.

SPEAKER_03 53:52

Oh no, we'll just sponge on the ground. Oh, okay. Fair duct tape.

SPEAKER_05 53:55

Duct tape. That'll fix that. Duct tape fix everything. Duct tape, little tacky. Alright, are there any publicly accessible stones that are on your must-lift list?

SPEAKER_01 54:08

Historically,

Must Lift Stones And Trail Finds

SPEAKER_01 54:09

or just any?

SPEAKER_02 54:11

Both. Ooh.

SPEAKER_03 54:13

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 54:14

Historically, I don't know yet. Still looking, and I've been working, so I haven't had the time to just well that Irish stone you you I want to verify that that that was it because that's it? Okay. Because if it is, I met two people from Ireland at at the Bill Stadium where I'm working. Yeah. And the one guy had no idea about stone lifting. Sure.

SPEAKER_05 54:37

Because the other guy because he was normal with the lights.

SPEAKER_01 54:40

He owned his own business. The other guy, and I'm listening to him talk. I'm like, where are you from? He goes, Ireland. So I'm like, oh. So I started picking his brain, and he's all oh yeah, yeah, we've got him all over and this and that. And so I showed him the stone that I lifted, and he goes, That looks like it'd be an Irish stone or whatever. So it looks like it is it.

SPEAKER_05 55:03

Oh.

SPEAKER_01 55:04

So I'm really hoping, but I how do you verify it?

SPEAKER_05 55:08

Yeah, that's the problem without anything that's like documented. I'm sorry. I have a hard time believing that all those stones that have like the backstory are really as verified as the like if you start like saying here's the story now, right? Ten years from now, everybody's gonna be like, Oh, you know what I heard?

SPEAKER_01 55:26

Right, I could just say this is it. This is it, but um somebody has to. If if it is it, I'm the first person in over 200 years to have picked that stone up because the video where it didn't happen. I have it video. Oh, damn it.

SPEAKER_03 55:40

I you're talking to a bigger social media whore than you do. That's true. Never mind, never mind. All right, so there's the historic. There's the historic. What about the others?

SPEAKER_01 55:50

The well, Bonds Lake has tons of them. Yeah, all over. I mean, they have them in the parking lot in the one spot uh where uh John and I got we were cheered on for lifting them. That was fun because that never happens. Usually it's all you're gonna hurt your back. Why are you doing that? So um, yeah. I mean, every park you go to, everywhere you go, I there's a stone, and there's still a few more I want to try out at Bonds Lake. I gotta show you the guys these stones on the lower tra they're they're awesome. Oh yeah. Oh my gosh. Where at Bonds Lake there? Bonds Lake, but this is a different part of Bonds Lake. We've my wife and I were hiking.

SPEAKER_05 56:31

I don't know much, you know. Honestly, I just take my drone there and I know like the old ski hill part.

SPEAKER_01 56:35

So down below the ski hill, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 56:37

There's some of the still the park down there for a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 56:41

Okay. So going that way, going the other way, the old scout camp, uh Stonehaven. Stonehaven. Stonehaven, which I've camped at.

SPEAKER_03 56:49

My brother broke his arm there.

SPEAKER_01 56:51

Nice. I got ran over by rudder sleds there during the winter Klondike.

SPEAKER_03 56:56

Oh, it was during a winter Klondike that he was sledding down a hill and decided to try to bounce off a tree.

SPEAKER_01 57:02

He could have hit me and then went into the tree. Plastic sleds. I uh I had the plastic sleds.

SPEAKER_05 57:07

I ate a Klondike bar once. I just I'm sure. What would you do for him trying to fit in? You guys have all these great stories. I don't have anything.

SPEAKER_01 57:14

But so yeah, uh Stonehaven, yeah, which is a fitting name.

SPEAKER_05 57:20

Is it still there?

SPEAKER_01 57:21

It's still there, but it's not owned by the county now. Yeah. So it's public access. You can walk in there. All the old cabins are still there.

SPEAKER_05 57:28

So you can go in from that like side street down the hill. Like I don't know if you're gonna go back to the colour. Whatever it is, right?

SPEAKER_01 57:33

Yeah, whatever it is. But yeah, so there's a trail up in there, and uh that whole bottom trail I have loaded with stones, and John has loaded a couple stones, uh, which he named the ogre stones because they're huge. Gigundus. And gigundus. Gigundis. So um, yeah. I can't lift them. They're big, they're they're huge. But there's a lot of really nice ones, like nice rounded stones near larger stones for Plynth, and it's just a beautiful location. I love it.

SPEAKER_03 58:08

Love it, yeah. I think that's his way of telling us we're gonna be at Bonds Lake this summer.

SPEAKER_01 58:13

We're going to Bonds Lake this summer. We're gonna hit the upper trail and then we're gonna hit the lower trail.

SPEAKER_05 58:18

Uh I'm I'm all for it. I I'm gonna hit the bourbon trail. That works too. Um you know who we need to have on the podcast? Mrs. Rockman. I feel like there's stories there too. They're probably all like, so I covered my eyes and he did whatever he was gonna do, and I just started walking to the car, and I hoped he would show up, but if he hadn't showed up, I think I may have just driven away.

SPEAKER_01 58:43

Yeah. Yeah, that'd be fun to have her up.

SPEAKER_05 58:48

Yeah, this is a podcast, not marriage counseling. Sorry. We're not gonna help on the inside. Yeah, you can't use us as an excuse to like tell her, Oh, honey, you know, remember that guy with the stone in front of his yard? Well, I stole it. And it's in the back of your car. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 59:06

My uh my mother-in-law, she saw a picture on Facebook with a large rock in the passenger seat of the car, and she goes, That's that's what John will be doing. And I'm like, I already did. What do you mean, gonna be doing? That was me. That sounds about right. I scratched the back of um the nitro before I owned it. It was a friend of mine who owned his own mechanic shop, and I was borrowing his car. To move a stone.

SPEAKER_05 59:34

Note to self, don't borrow, don't lend your stone cars to rock man.

SPEAKER_01 59:40

I was driving by and I I saw a stone, and as one does, and I pull into the parking lot. It's at a it's it was outside of a doctor's office, it's in between a doctor's office and an Italian restaurant on Military. Okay, and it was a smaller stone hidden behind a big stone. So I'm like, they won't miss it. Nobody sees it when they drive by. So I picked it up, it was heavy, and I got it over to the parking lot and I dropped it, and I'm huffing and puffing. I'm like, how am I gonna get this in the back of the car?

SPEAKER_05 1:00:10

That's what I was thinking. That's why I asked you if you had a pickup truck, because there is that, like you basically at least have to get it to chest once. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:17

I had to do this three times before I finally got it in the car. So I I opened the hatch and I get over. I'm I'm looking, I'm like, well, I have this stone in the middle of a parking lot now. I have to do something with it. So I I started to get it in the car, but I didn't get it all the way in, and it scratched the bumper right down.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:36

I'm like, is that what he made you buy the car? Is that why you own the car now?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:40

He he never knew. I never told me until now. Now he knows. So after that, I'm like, well shit, I can't just leave it here. So I eventually, after sucking wind for a bit, picked it up, got it in, shimmy it in, and drove away. And it's in my driveway now. Nice, yeah. It's a nice stone. It's in my driveway.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:00

That's another thing I want to ask. Which my wife loves. As I was gonna say, that's another thing I want to ask Miss Rock. So let's talk about your landscaping. It's the greatest. Yeah, it's so beautiful. Yeah, it's like a Zen garden, it keeps changing. A lot of hardscape. A lot of hardscape. A lot of hardscape.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:19

John and his rocks.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:23

Fun. I think we're running out of steam, which must mean we're coming near the end. Uh, I feel like we've accidentally backed into the fact that we're doing the Stones of Strength this summer.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:34

Well, I'm going down to do the rounds, not the actual event.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:39

No, no, no, yeah, yeah. Although I could, I totally would win. Um then I feel like we're gonna be like nothing could be wrong with like three old men floating around a boy s an old Boy Scout camp.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:53

Nothing wrong with that.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:55

No. Right? I've got serial murders or we've come back after a traumatic like do you remember when we were here when we were 14 and that little Ricky went missing? And then little Ricky comes out and starts chasing us through the woods.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:10

Now, do you notice the story of of Stonehaven and the uh the uh the hermit? Yep. The hermit so there used to be an old car that was wrecked in there in Frankenstein's car. Frankenstein's car. There was a monster face drawn on paint on the back.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:29

Frankenstein's castle, Igor's car. They had Igor was pictured on the back of the castle. That was Igor, okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:33

We were always told it was the hermit in Stonehaven.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:35

We gotta pause this story for a minute. Like, when did you guys meet? Seriously. Recently, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:02:42

Yeah, within the last couple of years.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:44

Alright, so you have a shared childhood that's unshared. I feel I'm worried that I'm gonna run into some moment where you guys like crossed paths. All right, continue. No, he's significantly older than I am. Nobody's significantly all right. So there's this abandoned car with a duo on it.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:00

Yeah, there's the whole story or legend behind it was this guy crashed in the middle of the woods and whatever. And I forget the rest of the story, but he lived in the woods, stayed there, built a castle and lived there, and then he would um late at night when the boy, when it became a Boy Scouts camp, he would capture the young scouts and drag them off as one does. So one night we were camping with, of course, the older scouts, the younger scouts, and I was one of the younger scouts, and they told us about the whole story, and I'm like, this is stupid. But they tried to scare us with it, yeah. And then we're in our tent at night time, and this has to do with rocks, too. They were throwing rocks at the tent like the outside, and we're supposed to be like, oh my god. But yeah, yeah, that's about the extent of my story. But I saw the car, and there is an old building there, like a castle.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:52

I don't know if you ever that I thus the the f we always called it Frankenstein's castle. So do an Igor's car. Do you know the history of that building? I have no idea. Oh, we got home into it.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:03

So I have my historian friend looking into it, but he says it shows up on no maps from he's got he goes all the way back to Hudson Land Company or whatever. Yeah, yeah. And uh all the way up till now, he says there's nothing listed as ever having a building there.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:20

Now, is this is this like a like the size of a kid's like playhouse?

SPEAKER_01 1:04:25

It's a castle. Really? Big. Really? I've there's no trespassing signs on there now. And when I go with my wife, because she's a rule follower, I have to follow those rules and I can't go up to it and take a look.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:37

Well, yeah, because I mean, obviously, anything you do now, you get hurt in in our society, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:44

Like lifting stones, god forbid, you get hurt.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:47

That doctor would have sued the hell out of you for breaking your back on his property.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:52

Probably well, that's why I drove dragged the stone to the restaurant side. I was there.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:56

Sure. Safe. Sure.

Summer Stone Plan And Wrap Up

SPEAKER_03 1:04:59

But all right, so this summer to start the uh the journey for next summer, we've got the Bonds Lake Stones. We've got, and you're welcome, the reservoir dog stones. Yep. We're getting two thumbs up from Rockman. We'll go back to the park in Lockport.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:22

Yeah, it's a John B.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:25

Good.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:26

John B. B. good. Nice.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:28

Well played, Chuck.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:29

John B. Austin Nature Trails.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:32

Because we've got to pick up the uh the bacon back stone every time. It's gonna change a different angle. We'll go down to uh to Ohio, visit some of our friends there, and have three pounds of sauerkraut and uh deal with the Ohio stones.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:52

Do you guys know Mark Carpenter?

SPEAKER_03 1:05:54

Name sounds familiar.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:55

He lives with Bryce Bryce Nickels. Oh, Bryce is a psychopath.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:59

Yeah, so thank you.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:00

They're out barefoot and stream like that. Yeah, he's a psychopath. I want to join them and just of course you do.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:04

Yeah.

unknown 1:06:04

Of course.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:05

I saw I ran into him at the Arnold. Okay. And I'm Bryce, yeah. Yeah. And I'm like, dude, shoes. Just shoes. Consider shoes. I don't, you know, you can do it shirtless, whatever. Shoes. Come on now.

unknown 1:06:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:17

Yeah, because those cloth shoes are going to do so much to protect. No, but it just, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:22

It's mentally honestly.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:24

I think I'm just a shame. From the guy who dropped, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:27

From the guy who dropped a 10 kilo plate on his toe and it looked like the freaking tomato exploded. Lovely. Yeah. That's pretty great. So that that's the sort of start, and then we now need to start thinking about some lower exercises, lower body exercises, some off-loaded exercises. Calf raises? No. You do not need calf phrases. I like calf phrases. Caf phrases work for me. Can't imagine why.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:53

What you could do are those toddler squats to get what is a toddler squat?

SPEAKER_05 1:06:57

Yes, you have no depth. You have no depth. I don't, but what the hell is a toddler squat?

SPEAKER_01 1:07:02

I like the like the they call the Asian squat, the toddler squat. Well, you just hold yourself, well, like super deep. We're not on video, yeah, but yeah. I I'd show off if we were on video.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:11

Oh. Yeah. You weigh 12 pounds.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:13

I do weigh 12 pounds. Victim weight. So sad. So sad.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:18

It's sad. Alright, so that that's the summer. We're gonna have to get some natural stones to the compound and take them inside for uh overwinter work. Oh, I like it.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:29

I wonder if we can find one that's similar to the Housafel.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:32

Well, that's I wanna because I've got a lot of property, and then we still, once it's not a mud bog, gotta get out to uh that farmer that said we could I hate the fact he just set me up to stop at every nursery now and like look for the the hoosa replica.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:48

Yeah, damn it. Wagner Farms. Wagner Farms up on Lock Floor Road. I'm aware of that. Well, I've bought two stones from them. Yeah five dollars.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:57

It's because they're like, hey, hey, Angie, this there's this guy out here, he wants to buy a rock.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:04

Well, they had a box of them. I'm like, oh, I'll take that one.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:08

Johnny Walk, who farms thousands of acres in Niagara County, friends with my brother. He said, just come on over. I'll use the tractor, put them in the truck for you, put them on a trailer for you.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:18

See, that's that's what they asked. The Wagner guy said, Do you do you want me to get the tractor lift them? No, I got this. I got this. I'm just gonna he watched me lift it horrified at first.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:31

All right, so that's why are we friends with him? I don't know. He's a bad influence in the wrong ways.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:36

Yeah, no, all the right ways.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:39

You know what? What? I'm still Scott, I'm still John. And you are? I'm still Rockman. Yeah. Thanks, brother. Bye.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:46

Bye, everybody. Peace

Support The Show And Goodbye

SPEAKER_01 1:08:48

out.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:48

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.