Real talk: Are you too injured to lift in your meet?

0:09 So you got a broken neck back, but they're all attached. Yeah, same thing. My neck was an issue before, and that's what people like still think it is. Is it because you have an extra large head? Near? Did you bring that up to the PT? My head is not big. You should want your head to be big, because like that's actually y'all know, actually like pictures and in in TV movies, it's the people with the great big head's attractive. Yeah, you actually have a tiny head. That's weird, kind of pebble head. That's okay with me. I don't want a big head, but no, that's not the problem. My neck is still whatever. It's not perfect, but it's my back, my lower back, my lumbar, and I don't know exactly what it is.

0:55 They don't know exactly what it is. I have an appointment after this for the doctor to check to see if he wants to give me an MRI. My spine looks normal, but yeah, I had an X ray, you know. PCT primary care physician referred me to a sports medicine doctor. Had two sessions with her over the course of three weeks, and then when it didn't get better the second session, she just told me I need to stop squatting and deadlifting until it gets better and then slowly start incorporating weights again. And I'm like, okay, well that doesn't even align with what I know about physical therapy because I've met with the physical therapist before who know lifting like Emily, and yeah, you should be going through movements as specific as possible without irritating it. And you know, I don't want to speak too much of it because I don't study this stuff. And then all the credentials, but that's just not doing anything. And just like she's given me these little tiny like yoga old people stretched stuff, it's not gonna you're covering your ass because you don't want just a safer out. Yeah, prescribe me anything more, any more vigorous or more specific. It's I don't If I don't do anything, I don't get worse, right, probably you know chances are yeah so but true. Yeah, but you ain't gonna get better either. A whole bunch of bags of why I want to chat today, like one, what physical therapy looks like and taking care of yourself as a competitive lifter,

2:28 but two, maybe more importantly, I guess like the dark side of competing uh, and how a lot of people and you're you're pretty open with it and do it in a deep pitching because there's there's definitely like a powerlifting culture where people are just bitching about their pains all the time, right, like they walk into the gym, or maybe you're even at lunch with a powerlifting friend you say, hey, how are you doing? Like wow, my hamstring and my shoulder, and like no one asked where I was asking how your day was going, and well I had RPE three and I So there's that person that's always talking about their pains. But then at a higher level, often people are faking it ignoring it, which I think is twofold. One is maybe a little bit of image stuff to on the online persona to look invincible. But then the positive or I think what might be for a lot of people is is you can't in pain all the time, because then you're gonna be in pain all the time, right, Like some of it's a mental establishment to tell yourself I'm gonna be fine, I'm gonna be healthy, so then you act like you're finding healthy as a recovery. And I do think there's merit in that as well, because if you wake up every day like all by yourself, you're wincing, you're probably gonna be in pain more right, So if you try act normal, you try to tell yourself internally, I'm gonna better, I'm gonna get healthy, I'm gonna better, I'm gonna be healthy, chances are that path is going to be there more likely. It's almost like a manifestation for sure. And and just yeah, right, if I'm always focused on my knee because my knee hurts and I'm staring at it all day, it's gonna hurt. But if you start to walk and do shit, you're gonna treat it like right and full that the

3:59 elite athletes have to kind of ignore their stuff for their own mental sake, for competitiveness. And then some of it is the game mean ship? What makes you more open about it or not care about the game mean ship? I guess it doesn't really change if I was completely healthy, like I understand, there are numbers games to play, But if someone else is stronger than me, no matter like what I'm doing, whether I'm hurt or whether I'm like the healthiest and strong, if I have the strongest I've ever been and someone will someone is stronger than me, what am I going to do there any differently when the when the day comes, Like I just I don't know.

4:40 It's always something that I've I guess that's the mentality I've had going into meets and viewing my competition in general. It's that like this strength takes time to build and it has to show up on the platform legally, as in like making sure you're hitting depth, all those things. But a lot of the times, if someone else is succeeding, like that doesn't really change how I'm approaching my training because I'm always gonna going to try my hardest. I'm always going to do my best, my best foot forward. If I see someone else, you know, not that they don't inspire me or motivate me, but like I'm already doing my best, and so whether someone else is doing better than me or worse I'm it doesn't change. Yeah, they're trying to game a game that's just not there. And I don't really know when that became a thing because I've always thought similar to you, And that's why I don't love competing in power lifting. But like like basketball, right if you're in the playoffs and you scout a team, and I know sebos is left hands hurting. He hurt his wrist in basketball. I'm gonna force him to dribble with his left hand. I'm not gonna. I'm gonna not gonna go slap his left hand like there's lines to it. But if I know he's got his left hand or his left ankle is a little weird, or we're playing volleyball and we know that, you know the left setters got a busted wrist, I'm fucking launching the ball at her face all day long.

6:01 And I like that game and Ship. I enjoy that, or even if they're not injured, I just know Stebouts can't dribble well with his left hand. I like being able to be tactical and attack weak points. Powerlifting there's no such thing. Yeah, what are you gonna do, like add fifty more pounds onto your squat? If someone else did, like this is lame. They go in the back room and be like, heyev, you hope your back doesn't hurt. Like you could play games like that, and that is a thing, And I enjoy some of that game and Ship too, But in powerlifting, it's like actually hurt. It's actually dangerous, so I don't really do it. But basketball I might do it, you know, like I know he again sea basses. My example of my ship talk really bad shooting day the day before, I'd maybe walk by and say something like, man, hope those shots drop the day, you know, like just make up start think about how we shooting get in their heads. Yeah.

6:46 I like that, I really do. But in powerlifting, for some reason, I don't like it, just because we we are all kind of doing the same thing. Like you said, Like, I don't want to beat someone because they in powerlifting because they have a hurt ankle. I don't want to beat someone in powerlet thing because they got the flu. I want to beat someone because my total out total, they're total, they're best total, they're best that they're healthiest, which like is that otherwise there's always an asterisk. Yeah that sucks, right, And it's like I already know that, and I believe the same thing too if I would to if I were going head to head against someone and they weren't feeling their best or something happened and I'm like why no, Yeah, it's like okay, but it doesn't feel good, and it's like, yeah, on game day. You know you did show up and you know you didn't have those situations, so it's okay to give yourself credit. But it's like, yes, but I wanted to compete against this person, like to the best of our both abilities. And so there's this competitive side that showed up this time around with this injury and this nationals that I usually don't have, which, like I was talking, maybe I shouldn't say this, I don't know, but I was talking to a friend about this, and I'm like, there are just some competitors that I have going into this meat that I know I can beat, but they are like it's it's maybe like two of them that having mind and I know I could, I know, I can know I can, you know, like place higher than them. But if I don't compete at this meet, they're gonna place one place higher than they would have if I did, right, And I'm just like, I don't want them to think they're better than me. I don't want them to get the chance the satisfaction of even like

8:18 I did place higher technically, even though maybe in the back of their head as good competitors, they might be like, you know, but I know she wasn't she wasn't there. They're gonna think that at first a little bit, and then that part's gonna fade and whatever. Yeah, they're gonna for the rest of their lives marvel in that. And I'm just like and then my friend was like, you know, it's it's true. It might be true, it might happen, but there's so much time for you to prove to them by so much, like how much more, how much better you are? And I'm like, I understand that too, So I guess the part that bothers me is like I just needed to stay down. I don't know, I don't know why. I don't know where that came from, but it's it's it's actually kind of relieving though, because I I am not a competitive person if I am beating, so I just heard something different.

9:03 I know, I know, but that's what I mean. Like, typically, I like to stay humble because I know, like if I'm at the top, I will when I do lose. I don't want egg in my face. I don't like that feeling of like in your face, I beat you. Next time it's like someone else beats me and I'm like, okay, what I can't talk anymore to cover my face. It's kind of like embarrassing. I kind of rubbed it in their face last time and now I lost, so like, I don't like that, But in this case, I'm just like, man, I don't want them to think they're better than me. What do you think? Because obviously you can compete and be in you know, nine out of ten shape, But what do you think of the top ten? I just made that number up, but top ten, how many do you think are feeling beat up or dealing with shit? Oh? Man, it's it's definitely like maybe fifty percent or more, you know, like and I would say sixty seventy. I have something that's pissing them off. I've never done a meat that something wasn't pissing me off. There's is okay when you say something's pissing you off, like a bump shoulder that made me adjust my training, like something and something's happening to my body that I couldn't train exactly how I wanted to physically, Like yeah, physical physically physically pain or injury or something uncomfortable. So that's the difference. Especially like any even people getting ready for local meats, they will start to get like as they're fatigue and uncomfort or tired or weak things. Yeah, not such a show. Not that I mean like something so bad that happened for weeks that I have to adjust my training and those things do happen. The one that I don't like or is where people complain about like there there are technically

10:37 healthy, it's just things aren't moving the way they want to right They feel entitled. They feel entitled to the certain weight that they should be lifting, or it's like not as close to their prs as they expected, so they're like this is okay. I'm like, yeah, are you kidding me? Like it's part of the process. It's moved, well you should like what do you? I don't know. That's that's the entitlement that comes through with like even when people are injured, like if you have a really I don't know. It changes depending on situation, but there is some level of entitlement sometimes when it comes to like being injured or just the situation they're in going into a meet and they're upset. It's like you just feel entitled to be able to live more than you can right now. Who says you need to be or lack of perspective, right, because yeah, if you're in a high fatigue state and you're in the middle of a taper, yeah, five hundred's gonna move like five twenty. But that's kind of the goal because and hopefully we take some fatigue away and then you move faster on the game day.

11:33 Yeah, So people get in their heads a lot. They just don't know. Yeah, there are definitely more people probably injured and stuff, And I understand people hiding their injuries and whatnot, things that aren't going right. But I don't really care. You could do whatever you want with my information. I'll share it, like just because I'm pretty open and I try to like it's a fine line between whining and complaining and then sharing your journey as well. Yeah, and I posted a story yesterday talking about like, you know, I'm slowly coming back a little bit, but I've also posted some stories about wanting to quit, and like those are real and it's very like it's deeply emotional and it's a it's a big struggle, you know. It's like whatever I do share, there's more going on underneath it. But I share these not expecting sub not that I don't expect support, but more people responded and shared their stories and showed their support more than I than I thought, and they enjoy and like the transparency and they think it's inspirational or motivational and always catches me up guard. I'm like, oh, I okay, I could see that. I just didn't. I didn't post this with the intent like, you know what, I'm inspire some people sent today something they feel alone. Yeah, but I don't. I'm not doing it to paint this picture like oh, I'm I'm an inspiring person. I'm just telling you my journey and like, oh, I look back and people are inspired or motivated. I'm like, oh, okay, I could see that. The whole part of the journey is in upwards, sadly right. And I threw

13:03 that disclaimer in there as well, and I'm like, I'm trying to make sure I'm not like, you know, I went against what my PT said and I'm feeling better and then maybe next day I'm like, oh, actually it got worse, you know, Like I don't want to do that either. So all these disclaimers like I'm not telling you to go against medical professional recommendation and I'm not expecting this to just be up from here, right, you know. So I think that when you when it as an athlete, I'm Bunny ears Share. I think that when you deal with medical professionals to educate them on I did, like where you are and what your support looks like, and what and what your baseline is, because they don't know.

13:46 They're only they see you, you know, when you're fucked up and not when you're you know, at your best, and they don't they probably deal with gen pop, which gen pop can't dead live four thirty, and most of the time they're dealing with with people who have injuries that came from not ever doing anything, you know, from being yeah, from not being active, from not being active, So they don't they don't necessarily know unless they have that background themselves, right, which is really disappointing. And I was like, she should feel disappointed as a sports medicine doctor in this day and age, and she's not an old person. So it's like, you have no excuse really to tell me to like not do those movements anymore. It's like you didn't even ask what movements hurt? What kind of pain is it?

14:26 Is it? You know, It's why you didn't ask about me being able to goblet squat but not being able to backsquat without any discomfort. Yeah, and that should be a differentiation that like means something. It's like, Okay, maybe you can continue to do these squatting movements if you know, goblet squats don't hurt, they don't recret the pain. But you don't want to detrain because you are competitive athletes four weeks out from a national competition, and I do want you in your best shape. Like didn't consider or mention any of those things. Is extreme obviously because we're loading such extreme weights, even compared to like a pro soccer player, you know they're not going to be squatting triple body weight, although obviously they train very hard and have other issues. I do wonder what the medical school or background looks like when something becomes sports med. Right, that's a good question, right, like a PT than a sports You would think the sports PT would start to talk about like posterior anterior loading. Yeah and understand versus Yeah, regular PT that's doing like they do just need to be pain free because they gotta go bring their kid to kindergarten. I understand that here at Sacramento, we do have some you know, sports medicine deal with professional teams and you know they can, but even some of the some of them not, Yeah for sure. And people have like worked with basketball players and said the same thing, like, oh, throw throw it up an elevation, rest it ice it. Yeah, you know you need to apply some resistance if it's your ankle or something

15:56 even like a light resistance band with like obviously depending on the injury. Yeah, broken bones are different, but light strains, most tight muscles, most spasms. Yeah, we need some blood flow. Right, There's there's a fine line between you know, pushing and and when you talk about these things, people who don't understand, like haven't been in the gym, won't understand what this weight means and what percentages. Right. So yeah, she accused me of saying that I told her ten pounds, was lifting ten pounds hurt I'm like, that doesn't even make sense because if you understood the gym ten pounds, so like that's not if you knew what that plate looked like, you're like, well, that's probably not hurting her, not even lifting it.

16:38 And yeah, and I'm like the bar itself is forty five pounds, but yeah, I just it was a little disappointing, and I initially wasn't was expecting that response from my primary care physician, but I was. I was given some hope when she referred me to the sports medicine doctor, who I've never met with one before, so I was exciting. And then she does this, Okay, And that's the whole other issue, right, is that the medical systems set up that through your insurance, you have to go through this system or through this company or through this brand, and they may not have experts, you know, like our friend Emily who understands lifting and understands loading. But then if she doesn't working now, or your insurance is all fucked up, and yeah, it doesn't work here. Yeah, and you can't blame Emily for making money, but your insurance isn't covering that.

17:25 Yeah. And I ended up because I've done probably three or four different rounds of of PT and I ended up paying to go to a sports specific place out of pocket, which is which is not cheap, which is not cheap, but like I don't ever have gotten better, right, And it's it's worth it, you know, it's the cost that you have to pay. But if you're an athlete, or even like have a client who is a runner, she met with the runners specialists to take a look at her knee and her anatomy or physiology whatever. And that's something that a general you know, physical therapist at kaiser is not going to help because like they don't understand the extremes of the sport that she does, which is like runs like twelve to twenty miles you know in a day type of thing. So I'm sure they would just tell her to stop running too, right, Yeah, everyone would just say stop right, And which is so short slided, yeah, and even running you even do long term running or or lifting as you know with your neck, which has gotten better. The chances that it's actually the activity that you do is is so low because we are actually doing a heavy squad session. Even you who's at the highest level, you're actually under the bar like three minutes right, right, probably last most lifts are under eleven seconds, right, so eleven times together, you know, twenty one if you're doing a three by seven, right, the chances that it's the bar's probably pretty low, Like there's a chance. But bodybuilding and powerlifting statistically, all the data you want to look at are the two, like safest sports

18:55 on the planet. So chances are that you're it's probably how you're sitting, probably how you're not moving, probably your bed, probably all these other facts. You're laying in bed for eight hours. If that shit's fucked, that's probably what's fucking you up, right. Yeah, it's probably the same with the running, Like, yeah, there's for sure such thing as stress fractures and repetitive injuries. Right, Golfers get it, powerlifters get it. Runners get it. Because you're doing the same motion over and over. There's a little dysfunction, whether it be in your system or your body or your form there. Yeah okay, yeah, yeah, it'll beat you down over time. But even that, like just stopping it, it's not going to fix it because that dysfunction still is there. So then when you when you go back to do it in any form, it's gonna flare up. So say you're running ten miles a week, when then you start walking five miles a week, that dysfunctions there, it's going to get injured. Yeah, Like your your bike gear is broken, you stop using it, Well, it doesn't mean it's not still broken. Yeah, you just didn't notice it's broken.

19:51 Because you didn't ride. Yeah, you didn't fix the part that's broken. Yeah, it doesn't matter if you pedal fast, pedal slow. Yeah. Maybe I should have given her that analogy or something. But it's annoying when they I have this degree and they're in this position working for this big, you know, hospital company, and you're telling them like, I would try so hard to stay calm because I don't want to seem like a impatient, frustrated, you know, patient of hers that are just like, ah, she's young and eager to train, and she's just she's kind of hopeless because she just wants to get back in the gym because she thinks at her age, it's the whole like it's a whole world. Yeah, and that's I feel like it's it could be a little condescending. Well, you do wonder also because powerlifting isn't like known or respected. If you were a gymnast going to nationals or the Olympics, would this lady talk different? Oh?

20:40 Absolutely not. I mean absolutely they would talk different. They would because part of their charge is to make sure that you're able to perform, not to not to try to intervene and try to gate keep and say I would just you know, you should not do this because you're you're fucking yourself up for life. It's like Olympic app for life on the regular, you know, like all athletes. Yeah, I mean, if you're at the highest level of anything, moderation or your body's not going to be number one. You know, performance is number one. Yeah. To run it back for a second, though, I'm wondering, like, what would it look like from a competitive standpoint if you injured, but you put out on social that you were particularly like your squad or whatever, and so you put your in your opener, something relatively low and conservative or whatever, and then you know you can take a big jump on your second so all your competitors have have clocked your first your first weight, stomp on them. That is the numbers game that people play at more competitive meets, which like, you're no one's really doing that at a local meat there's kind of no reason to. But that's something like as you get closer to a meet, if you are in that top like in the running for top five or something. On podium, people will hide their training, like they will only post their last warm ups and not their top sets, so that their competition doesn't know what to like kind of look for, because when you do get to that top five, like

22:12 your numbers might be actually very close to your competitors in certain lifts. So I don't know. At the end of the day, right, it's just like I'm going to perform as best as I could, and then my handler and a coach they're going to do the numbers game that I'm not going to worry about. They're going to play chess. Well, going back to the thing we're talking about, they're not even playing chess, they're playing checkers. Because if you literally need four fifty pull to win, well, there's you're not gonna pull four fifty. There's there's a false attempt thing where you forced the hand for sure, for sure, and you move them up. But even still, you know what I mean, Like, truly, how you win meets is lifting the most weight and you cannot trick yourself to lift more weight. Yeah, you know what I mean Again, Like, but I can out strategize, and volleyball can force seabasts to shoot the ball when he's had a bad streak. You can read these other things and other sports powerlifting, yeah, you can, Like that's still just a mind game. You can play mind games, but you can't out trick somebody. And there isn't a really good way to be sure that they're going to do what you want them to do in response to you know what you threw out there as an illusion as you can't even guarantee you're going to do what you want to do, not exactly exact, but it gives you that chance. It does.

23:26 And I am defending or I'm thinking about the Arnold because it's essentially what happened. Yeah, yeah to me, Yeah, you're a little bit neconnec. Yeah I was neconne last lift, but our lot numbers like allowed me to go after she didn't. So that would imagine you had to pull your best pulls in meets four thirty. Well, then we wouldn't play the game, I know, but you know what I know, But some people still do. Yeah, because because you know ten twenty thirty pounds, you don't always know exactly where strength is right, strength is in a bull's eye that we can visually know. We know you're in a range pull four twenty to four fifty today, but say you had to pull four fifty five or four sixty to win the stronger person wins. Yeah, you're taking the risk. Yeah, the stronger person just wins. But then what if I'm there's a flaw in my character as an athlete, and they know that I am just highly competitive, and I instead of letting my coaches handle this stuff, I'm like, no, do it, Like whatever it is I need to pull.

24:21 Yeah, like fuck it, I'm gonna you know, goes bassa wall and like low whatever gives me the chance to win. And you know some people are like that for sure, and some people convince themselves enough to like end up pulling it off. You can get gas, you can definitely get gass. Yeah, but like, but it's just such a smaller range, you know. Yeah, it's very very like like tiny, Like if you if we ran one hundred of those meats or those scenarios you versus I don't even who whoever it was. Let's just say though, so you we run a hundred of those and like fifty of them were with coaches games and fifty of them worthout coaches games. The percent that you win it is still it's yeah, yeah, that's my point. She I think she's stronger than me, though, But that's all just my point, whereas if you run think in that way, that's a good thing to think. If you run Lakers versus Celtics nineteen eighty eight back to back one hundred times, and each game you have a different coach leading the way, the variance is yeah, right, what you rip out pat Riley from some of them and throwing me and Sea Bass, We're gonna lose more games. I don't know. Yeah, I'm already looking your hair back. Well, my basketball IQ was pretty good, but that was a bad example. But you're throw in some shit or you know, it's because there's just more to manipulate, right, Yeah, with paralletting, there isn't much room. You can't out trick that. You can't out trick gravity, right, you can only do your best just sniff ammonia.

25:45 There are statistics about like the difference that coach is making different professional sports, like which one of them has the most I forgot. I think we even talked about it. I think I think we've talked about it before. The NFL was pretty high, Yeah, was pretty high, and which is like noticeable, like their coach the movement in the NFL of offensive, defensive and lead coaches get traded all the time or they're fired all the time, you know, which is crazy. And you see the team's performance, like I guess if you follow a coach and you follow how their team does, is it fairly like consistent? Yeah, like the best coaches have had success on many different teams. I think that's really cool. Yeah, we're in powerlifting. You can't always show that, right, Like you have a shitty coach, yeah, and the strongest lifter ever. Yeah, or the opposite, you could have the best coach and a shitty lifter ever, and yeah, the coaches be able to talk about that all the time. So I don't know, sometime coaches take too much credit. I think that's very common.

26:40 That is very common and all sports. But but even in power lifting, because there's so much on the individual and team sports, the coach really can strategize because like there's so many pieces, so many players. Like you, we go on a group road trip and like everyone's heads cut off, you know, like you can't even control that situation. So like imagine having eleven twelve people on feel or core whatever. Yeah, there's a lot more skill to it. Yeah, yeah, I think NFL was near the top, But I forgot college football, Yeah, apparently like number one. Yeah, yeah, I mean, but that's hard too because that has I guess both of them do have a factor when you go to professional sports or college. Recruiting is a piece of coaching. So part of college being so impactful is that the best recruiters and the history of the game is you know, Nick Saban in Alabama for example, they have such a history that everyone wants to go play for them, So of course you're getting the best crop, and then maybe you're a really good coach. So the question is more in game, yeah, which you can't isolate because even at the professional level, there's recruiting, there's contracts. Powerlifting is actually one of the better examples because it's all amateur and that it's you're choosing your coach. Yeah, right, Like yeah, it's kind of an interesting play because yeah, there's always recruiting, and there's always politics, there's always money. I don't under see if I can find any kind of definitives before other than college. I remember seeing data and I think it was college than NFL, than NBA, then maybe MB. I don't know if they talked about the MLS. Team sports, yeah, team sports, Yeah, it's because it's hard with individual sports.

28:10 Individual. Yeah, individual, it's just I think it's on the person. I think it's more on the individual. Yeah, genetics, but also like you know, their mindset and how they train and like their constance. Look at the Olympics sports, you know, you're like, what's the ship where you ski and then you shoot some shit and then you ski again? What you never seen that? You've seen that whatever by athl Yeah, yeah, so you never seen that in the winter sports? You go skiing and they got to shoot like a bunch of targets that you get a ski again, You've never been by Athlone curious? Are you? Are you serious? Yeah? But the thing but the point is when we're talking about that, which I've watched, not I'm not a fucking fan, but I've seen it, they're not like, oh my god, she comes from the regime of coach Smith and he's winning all the by path the bi partisan ski events. You know, Okay, they're talking about that. They're saying like, why, wow, she can ski real fast? Right, because only it's a an individual sport. But if you go to watch basketball in the Olympics, you're like, oh, Kobe Bryant's leading team America. He's with his favorite coach, pat Riley right now, right, you know? And oh the yeah USA teams led by blah blah blah, that's why they've had a lot of success lately. And I like that, and especially now with these bigger teams of power lifting coaches. I like that I have a low key coach because it's almost like me making a statement like you don't need the best coach in the world, you want to do better or are your best coaches' Oh yeah,

29:40 yeah, yeah, that's exactly what I'm saying. But he's not. And he knows that too, because like it's just it's not his thing. He's a he's a pharmacist. But either way, he's a great coach. He's super knowledge. But the best coach isn't the one with the most athletes. It isn't the one most well known. It isn't the one with the strongest athletes, right right, Like I think I could if I went all in, I could be a top easily right now, but I just don't have the time, and then it would depend on the amount of athletes I got that made me look good, right yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely. It's like who do you who can you get on? And then how do I market that? Like even still I'm probably in the in the you know, coin flip of top ten, who has like the most world records as a coach. You know, I have like two or three under my belt. But it's how I market that. And I'm not posting on Instagram every day reposting my lifters breaking world records saying like this is what we did for that. You know. It's all how you market too, Yeah, and I'm not doing that anyway. Like, no, no matter what athlete I have, if they like, you know, I never once said we squad, I would just yeah, I would just tell him because I would die. What do you mean? Wait? If I tried to squad eight oh five, my athlete squad at eight five, you know what I mean?

30:48 But they say we it wasn't a tandem lift. Yeah, I don't like. Yeah, I don't. I don't like that phrase. And like if I if my athlete does very sex is a very successful athlete, I would just think, Okay, I'm not a bad that's what the imposter. It's like, Damn, I'm not I'm not bad, right, that's kind of all you have to be as a coach. Yeah, you have to not be bad. You have to allow them to be good enough to do what they need to do, and you have to not destroy their love of the support and the process of coach or they're back, make sure that they're still enjoying it. There's there's a lot to it, for sure, But I'm I'm not the best coach out there. It's and and you don't need the best. You're the best coaching here here. Yeah. Well yeah, well Mike, he's not coaching tired, old and so what do you got three weeks? Yeah, four weeks, three, four, fourteenth, fourteen?

31:40 What days today? Eighteen? A little bit less than four weeks? Yeah, yeah, needless to say, I'm not ready. Whoever is you? Squad? A little bit away yesterday, Yeah, a little bit, a little bit seventy kilos on Sunday and then one oh five kilos yesterday. Yea. And Dad lived around the same, yeah, dead around the same. Every Dave is around like one ten, one fifteen. Ye. But all this kind of came up in a week or two, so the chances are I could probably go away or a week or two. Yeah, people are saying like, I'm gonna watch you last dream shave for you. You're gonna be back like you're gonna hit prs like you never know I could. I'm like, damn good, where'd you get that? Where'd you? Who'd you get that hope from? It is possible, though, and where can I find some? Because I don't happen? It is better. I am a little more hopeful. And what sucks. I keep telling people of this when when you get injured, it's the hardest part is coming in and like having the hope. And I will say I didn't have any. I honestly came in and trained because I felt like when I have no option too.

32:44 It's a habit. I've done it for so long I got I'm gonna do it like I don't want to. It's not because I'm still motivated and I'm so dedicated to the sport and the love for it is just undying, Like no, that's not I lost that for a second. Okay, And it happens, and it's sometimes like it we really was just the routine of it that kept me in here. Some people like to say, like, yeah, I was just so in love with this ship that I didn't let that stop me from well did for me, and that's not the case for everyone. But I want to make that transparent as well. Yeah, zelatry at the beginning is easy, but it's hard. Mm. Yeah, it's definitely. I don't know. At this point, it's just to continue doing what I've been doing, no matter if I'm failing or whatever. The waves tides are going to set myself up to give myself the best chance day of Yeah, you know, that's what you can do. That's really and if it goes great, awesome. If it goes bad, awesome, there's another meat down the future. Yeah, more meats to be had, exactly, And I just to prove myself on the next one at least if I do bad on this one, I'll get people's hopes down and then I'll like get out of the spotlight and then I won't feel a pressure managing expectations. Yes, that's going all the way to Tennessee to manage Yeah, if I honestly like, if I don't, if I can't do anything, really, I figured I wouldn't. At first. I was like, yeah, I'll go through the movements and do whatever I can't, But I realized, No, why why I put that on the record when I know I wasn't gonna be able to do anything at least feel like a seven out of ten to compete,

34:15 right, Yeah, I think that's how I'm going to play because even in the gym, right, you don't know until you load the bar, right, and for you, even on game day, you won't know until you you'll know if you're in the pocket, if you're in the pocket, Yeah, you don't know if it's a pr day or an okay day. You'll know if it's a bad day. But yeah, it's hard to predict the future, you know, in the warm ups and you know even more, Yeah, you kind of got to get the first attempt if I'm doing what I'm doing today, Like, if that's what's gonna happen on meat Dame, I'd rather not and not because I'm like, oh, she just didn't want to lose. You quit. It's like you could decide that if you want to. But it's like, why am I going to put that on the record, Like what is that going to do for me? Yeah? Really nothing? Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you can't squat above seventy percent, I'm gonna just go halp On and eat Memphis Barbecue's it Vinegary? Is that their deal? Or is that Kansas? Because it's Memphis, South Carolina?

35:02 Memphis, South Carolina? Yeah, South carolinatle Bit and then Texas Barbecue. Those are like the hubs. Yeah, I don't know what makes Memphis maybe more rub less liquid. I didn't. There are like minor differences. I was not totally born, like sweet versus where'd you go Terry Blacks? You didn't like it? I didn't. It's I didn't say I didn't like it. I just wasn't away. I think when you're from California, it's a little different. I guess, well, because we have a good food. If you're if you're from Michigan, yeah, you're not having the Mexican food, Asian food, the barbecue that we have in California more special. It's gonna blow your brains. And you're also world traveled. Yeah, so you've had food from a lot of good sports. Yeah. So if you if you just if you grew up and hang out in Wisconsin, yeah, you know, and then you go have like real barbecue or even even other places you know, like yeah, and you don't have like good ass Italian food, but California, you're pretty spoiled. Literally, the best Austin was the place that I the discotta tacos so so good. And then yeah, soumich depends on the spot, right, yeah for sure? All right, we'll let you get to the docs appointment. Where can people find you?

36:08 Did besides nationals on the fourteenth, competing and smashing on Instagram at aby dot, Leu and Thirstree, Barbell, ladies and gentlemen. Three what the needs? We got a brand new drop check it out right now. Hoodies, my new favorite sweatshorts, some sweatpants that get you ready for the fall weather. Uh, and a bunch of tea. So check that out through sp dot CEO new episodes every Wednesday and Friday. And I'm sounding Mike Where you want to find me? I am Matthew Jim mcdeon on all those social media. This show is fifty percent facts. What percent is a word and fifty is just numbers. Is a Spreaker Prime podcast association with iHeartMedia on the Obscure Celebrity Network And we won't get with you next time