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Transcript

National Championship Inspiration

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Australia's strongest man slash grappler. I was at Australia's Strongest Man 2026 and I'm inspired, Joe. I mean, I'm always inspired, but I witnessed firsthand uh a teammate of mine, Bradman Houston, the youngest man to become Australia's strongest man. Oh, wow. 23 years old. I think I'd previously talked about him and said, oh yeah, he's like 27. Nah. 23. 23. And it was from the jaws of death. Like he was not winning coming into the, he was like fifth, I think, maybe fourth, coming into last two events, won the second last event, and then it was like, oh, and he won the last event. Wow. And it was like, wow, from the jaws of death. So I was volunteering and helping out. It's kind of like a jujitsu comp, you know, like people who love it help with the thing. And uh man, it's I was so I was so pumped. It was like being a jujitsu comp, like I lost my voice because I was just screaming the whole time, like I get it. And I just saw amazing things from like lightweight men and women through to the super heavyweights, like the opens, and yeah, Bradman won. These are people from all over the country, all over the country. They had to qualify. So you have to be the best in your state, you have to win, or you have to accumulate points by going to various states and getting on the podium. Okay, wow. You can't just show up. Yep.

Calling A Shot For 2027

SPEAKER_00 1:22

And so people are beasts, and I've got to say, Joe, I think it could be an opportunity under 90 kilos. It was, in my opinion, the weakest category. Mmm. I smelt weakness. I was psyoping all those guys. I was like, hey man, how are you doing? Oh, you got a bit of a limp there. How's that? How's that knee of yours? No, no, no. They're all great guys, they're lovely guys. Uh, there are some very strong people in the under 90 categories for men. You were feeling it out for 100%. Potential future participation. I am going. I will win. I will win Australia's strongest man 2027. Um, I like this, Dick. I mean, we've you know, we've been here before, we've been here before where you've where you've been at claims. But we've been like, I'm strongman, you know, and then and then I think it's hit that point where it's like, brother, apparently they need you to hit the juice. Dude, mate, something changed or no, no, no. So I was I was already I I wanted

First Competition And Weight Classes

SPEAKER_00 2:22

to do it, right? But it's not just something you can show up and do. So I very recently did my first strongman competition last weekend, my most recent weekend gone. And um yeah, it was just like an amateur competition, and I had the opportunity to do the 90 kilo category, under 90, I should say, and my coaches are like, nah, it's not hard enough. Because it's it's like I'm probably too strong for an amateur under 90, but not quite as strong as a pro 90. Right. Well, you know what I mean? I'm kind of in the middle. So anyway, I did the 105s and it was a more competitive category, and uh, yeah, it was good. I got third, which is pretty good. And the guys I lost to are kind of like my teammates, they're the guys I go up against like every single weekend for strongman Saturdays. Oh, you guys trained together, yeah. So they usually the weights are scaled according to weight category, right? Um, but yeah, they're both strong dudes. Yeah, they look they look they're taller than you, like they're bigger guys, a bit taller and and significantly thicker. Yeah, and just I would say probably better lifters. How many uh how many people in the in the comp did you compete against? So I think in our category we had seven guys. Right on, which it was like a small comp. It's like a it's like a local tournament, it's like a grappling industries type. Yeah, it's not like going to like uh Pampax or something, you know what I mean? Like it's yeah, but um that's a local netball court kind of almost basketball court. But there were some strong folks there. People came from you know, North Coast, South Coast. People drove hours to be there and experience it. Um and yeah, it was put on, it was great. It was actually at uh the strength workshop. That's your gym, right? Which is the gym I train at, so it was kind of like Home Ground Advantage. Home ground advantage, familiar with all the stuff. Um yeah, but I yo, this is my pigeonhole, bitch. I just uh my water bottle goes here. Everybody's so fuck. Yeah, I'm the I'm probably the least social of everybody. I'm I'm very encouraging when people are lifting, but in between I'm I'm pacing. Right. I've got the earphones on, I'm pacing. I'm slapping myself in the face and fuck I'm I'm in dark energy, yeah. Bro, I'm a hundred percent dark energy. I'm not I'm not a friendly competitor. Do you do you enjoy that? Like, do you enjoy that whole competition process? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love it. Yeah, but it obviously doesn't, it's it's like anything, you know. Uh you you you psych yourself up, you do all this different

What Strongman Day Feels Like

SPEAKER_00 4:52

stuff. And so for those who are not familiar with strong men, it's five events of different descriptions across about five to six hours. So similar to a jujitsu contest in terms of it being like sorry, tournament where you've got short bursts of max effort followed by like 45 minutes an hour of just like fuck not but like sorry, I don't I don't say that to be negative, like the all the women are lifting and then of course all the weight categories are going, right? So you've you've got to be able to keep yourself going all day. That's actually pretty cool. So everyone, like everyone, all divisions go through this one event, yeah, and then all divisions go through this next. That's kind of cool because it means everyone's sort of around it. Yeah, the crowds there watching everyone. Yeah, yeah. That's like nice. It's cool. I I I I enjoyed it. Um the five events, they can they can change, but they can be different for you use you know, they'll let you know whatever, two uh two months out. Generally, if you've registered for a comp, they'll let you know roughly what the they'll let you know the events, and then close of the comp, they'll let you know the weights for your category. Okay. So you know what you need to do. Yeah. But then also the ability to do it on the day is a a different thing. Yeah. And I made some mistakes. Um, so I felt like if I had not made some mistakes, I could have won. Right. So then I was like, mmm. So I got a lot to fix up because I'm gonna do uh New South Wales Strongest, which is at in like two months' time, and that's a qualifier for Australia's strongest. Fuck, you know, if my shoulder hadn't been, you know, this past couple months, I'd probably be right there with you, bro. Yeah, I'm sure you wouldn't. Maybe next year. Yeah, yeah. Um, could you make the under 105 stream? With a weight cup? Sheesh. I could for the record. Um the you made a couple of mistakes. What what kind of mistakes do you make?

Early Mistakes On Yoke And Sandbag

SPEAKER_00 6:47

Now I consumed a lot of caffeine. No, that wasn't the mistake. I didn't consume enough early enough. Really? Yeah. I wasn't awake for the first event. Like I was warm, but you have to come out the fucking blocks. So it was uh 285 kilo yoke. So you put this thing on your back and you have to literally frame, isn't it? Frame, you've got to run it 10 meters. Now, 10 meters isn't far, but 285 kilos is decent. Like I know people who go do more, right? Like you can do more. But Dan, who's one of my teammates, he did it in like 5.5 seconds. Like he literally picked it up and fucking ran. Like it was like a cartoon. I was like, oh. Okay. And I I I didn't really appreciate you. I probably needed speed component, uh a fucking punch in the heart or something. Yeah. Because I did it in I think 8.7 seconds and I was last. You know what? You know what? We did a um You're gonna be so fast. Uh actually, I a lie, I didn't do it. When I was in the film industry, when I was in the film industry, uh, one of my work colleagues had done a shoot at the Greyhound track. Oh, wow. And uh there's a few of those in Sydney where they race greyhounds. Don't know if that's a thing in over of season shoot as well. Yeah, they've tried to a bunch of times, but it's it still prevails. But it's like horse racing, but greyhounds. And uh he was talking with one of the trainers there, and one of the trainers, and they're you know, they're interesting characters, and the trainer was a knock-about bloke, and he was just sharing some stories. Fucking oh mate, I'll tell you about dogs. And uh what they used to do back in the day when they when when they had a dog because the gates, the dogs like horses, they go into the stall and then the thing opens and they run. And sometimes they don't run. And so it's like, fucking, what do you do if they don't run? He's like, I tell you what we used to do, mate. He said he used to take your bag, you have a bag of cocaine in your pocket, lick your finger, stick it in the stick it in the bag of cocaine, and then finger in the bum. Are you suggesting this? We would have fucking hyped you up mad time. This is uh Sydney. Everyone's got a bag. There's bags. You know what's available. Can I get a bag over here? There's the chalk bowl, and there's the can I get a finger over here? Yep, yep, yep. Look, everybody's very supportive in strongman. So look, I'm sure someone would have helped me out. Today's show is brought to you by our good friends at Raised Nutrition, Raised the Bar. They've got all the flavors. They've got Tropical Usae. If that doesn't speak BJJ, I don't know what does. They've got salted caramel, which is delicious. And they've also got rich chocolate and roast almond, which goes awesome with coffee. So if you're looking for a snack to power your BJJ, this is built for you. It's all the clean, good stuff without the nasties. Whether you're trying to get some energy before training or you're trying to speed your recovery after, go to raisenutrition.com and use the code Bulletproof and you'll get yourself some free bars. Get it today. Hey, if I can give you my honest recommendation for one of the best supplements I've implemented in my daily, particularly for my jiu-jitsu training, it's sodium. It's these electrolytes. We talk about them all the time. They've sponsored the show for some time, but it's excellent. Flavor's great, but more importantly, the electrolytes are exactly what my body wants in a hard, sweaty jujitsu session. It replenishes uh my system with all the stuff that I need after all of that sweat. Uh, magnesium, potassium, salt, it's great stuff. You can get yourself a bunch and you can get yourself a discount if you go to sodi sodou i.com.au and you use the code bulletproof15, you get 15% off your order. But actually, no, I just I I thought I brought enough intensity, and then I was, and they're like, you last. And then I was like, fuck. So that that event is is a time trial. Yeah, you gotta like shortest time. Yeah, and you it's as fast as you can. Oh, that's tough. And I just honestly, it wasn't like it was like early in the morning. I showed up early, I warmed up, it was good to go, and I fucking did terribly there. Whereas I've done heavier before, I just didn't go fast enough. Yeah. Didn't appreciate that. So that's a little bit of experience. Right, that's one. What's another mistake? Um, well, we did the carrying we did the um sandbag carry. So it was a hundred kilo sandbag, and you gotta you gotta carry it as far as you can or as in 60 seconds. Right. And we had to walk around kegs, so it's like 10 meters and you just keep going. Now, I'm pretty good on that. I've actually won that event previously in a on a just a casual. So you got the body type for a fucking sandbag. I'm good, I'm good with the I'm good with the bags. I'm good with the sandbags like you're good with the bags, Joe. I can carry that weight. Um, but I was feeling self-conscious because Dr. David Downs fucking ripped out like almost a hundred meters. He did like he did almost 10 laps. Right. Like very close to 10 laps. And I was kind of I was like, shit, I'd better put my weight belt on and cinch it up real tight. Mistake. I went really tight and then I couldn't breathe. Oh wow. So I put I fucking went, come on, you gotta do this. Picked the bag up and I was like, like, could not get any air in at all because you got the bag on kind of your stomach, your chest, and plus it's like feeling like someone's knee riding you. Yeah, wow. Stupid because when I had previously on, you gotta go. You gotta just go and oxygen for you. And I finished last again. Wow, okay. I didn't even get like five and a half laps. It was terrible. I was embarrassed. Were you gassed out? Were you like when you took the belt off? No, I just couldn't I I could not breathe. Yeah, right. So I just couldn't keep carrying it. It wasn't even like muscular fatigue. I was it was crazy to me, and I was like, fuck. I thought I can win this event, and I fucking shit the bed. So the the finger thing, you don't need oxygen when you got the finger thing. No, you know what I mean? You could put the you could put four belts on super tight. Like I could stand on you and fucking just you lie down, I stand, just tighten up that each four belt, and then you get up, no oxygen, and then it's finger, a little bit of room in the sphincter, and uh brother, you go. Um but no, so I the learning in that is I would I would not wear a belt next time, yeah. Right. Not at all. Because it's it's only a hundred kilos, like that's one of those bag is just nothing. That's one of those cool fucking things you can only learn from being in the like doing the colour. Just doing it and just being like, fuck, that was so stupid. Yeah. Um

Pressing Deadlifts And Stone Victory

SPEAKER_00 13:27

then we had log, which is um 95 kilo log, uh clean and press as many times as you can in a minute. I got five. Well, how much weight was it? 95 kilos. 95. It's not bad. Um, I've done heavier, but for reps, maybe could have got six. But uh Dan, um who's Mr. Speedy, who had won the first event, he got seven, I think. He's a he's the best presser out of all of us, right? Um, he's done, I think, 130 kilo log before. The clean the clean's not the hard part, it's the press. The press is the hardest piece. I mean, the clean is important. Yeah, and there was probably one or two guys there who didn't have much experience. You could kind of see when they were cleaning, like this is not familiar territory. Yeah, right. And then someone tried to do like an Olympic kind of split jerk, and it's like with the log, that's that's not advisable. Yeah, right. Even though maybe someone would do it. So I ended up getting five reps. Maybe I could have got six, but um, so I got second for that event, which is just I guess a bit of luck. Yeah. It's just how it played out, and then um came to deadlift, and uh it was axle deadlift ascending ladder. Right. So with the axle, it's a it's a thick bar, so you can't really hold it. So everybody's strapped in. So people are either wearing figure eights or figure sixes, right? And you just kind of got a grip like that. And the thing about an axle is there's no bend in the bar, it's dead weight. It is significantly harder than uh a regular uh bar. Oh wow, yeah. Because there because there's an element of kind of flex. Yeah, usually you get a little bit of give from a normal deadlift bar, but none here. So I thought I would do terribly here. I did okay, I think. So it was like, I think it was like 180, 190, 200, 210. So you you do it, you do a lift, and then you got a person either side, they slap the plates on. Do another. Oh wow. Until you get to the top weight, and then you max the reps out. Yeah. So I did four reps or five reps at the top weight, five reps. Um, which surprised me. Like, I was like, I thought I would just kind of die because it was like a little bit heavier than I was expecting. So 210 on Axle, ah, that's okay. I'm sure there's people out there be like, pussy. But um, yeah, so that was all right. But David Downs did 14 reps. That's what I'm saying. Like David and Dan are better lifters than me statically. Right. Like better as in like stronger. Stronger. They're stronger. Like they're yeah, they're uh Dan's an amazing presser, like he's the best press in our group, and David's got the best uh deadlift. So he just fucking smashed it. And then some guy who was not nowhere in the rankings pulled out 10 reps, like beat Dan, which was surprising. Um, because I expected Dan to get second. Wow. And I think I got fourth. So that kind of brought me back a little bit. Tell me, when you when you're doing uh deadlifts like that in competition, are you is it 100% caution to the wind? I'm just fucking like I are you think or are you thinking like you know, brace, breathe, like position. No, no, no, because you've got to look, you've got to you've got a you've got a ref as well. So the ref's like like athlete ready, you go, and then you go up and they look, you've got to like lock it out and they say down. Like you can't just I I like to try and pump the refs out as fast as possible because you've got a time limit, right? But no, you've got to you do have to do your technique correctly, otherwise they'll give you a no rep. Yeah, right. And you've just put all this effort in for nothing. But you know, like say, like, like you know, like as you fatigue in a deadlift, right? It's common to go just go into like full flexion. You just like, yeah, cunt, I'll use whatever back position to get those extra reps. Um, for me, I yeah, I mean, i if possible, but I thought I would lose that event. Right. So I'm like, the last event was stones, and I was like, I will fucking win that. So I was like, it actually doesn't matter what I do here. Did as good as I could. Um I probably could have done one more if I was really maxing maxing. But uh yeah, no, it was like it was okay. I I'm not I can't talk too much to strategy, it's just like struggle enough. There's one more event, maybe that'll help me. Yeah, and then we finished on stones, which was 120 kilos over 1.2 meters, and you gotta do it as many times as you can in 60 seconds. Oh wow, and I got nine boom. Did you win that event? Yep. Fucking good job, bro. King of Stones. Well, where where was fucking big uh Mr. Downs? Mr. Downs got eight. Oh, got him. Fucking and I think Dan got six or seven. Okay. So yeah, I came through, I said my dad was there. I saw that photo of you and him was very sweet. He looked, he looked pumped. He was stoked, yeah. He he likes hanging out with the strong man crew because he's he's a madman, and a lot of people do strongman to madman, and so he relates. Yeah, um, but yeah, it's just it's kind of you know, it's he's like sussing it out, he's intrigued by it. It's a bit weird to him, but he he's like, whatever, you're doing it. Like he's yeah, he's encouraging. But you seem to really like it, yeah. Why not? So yeah, I was I said to him, I'm gonna fucking win stones. You watch, I'm gonna fucking win this. I'm the best stone lifter. So they deadlift. You don't even know I'm the fucking best at stone. I kind of know. So yeah, I was I was I was happy to get that, and that that bumped me up in the third. That's so cool, man. It was just yeah, it was a bit of luck of the draw, bit of learning, and uh yeah.

Mindset Injury Risk And Next Steps

SPEAKER_00 19:01

Were you nervous before the comp? No, I thought I could win. I walked in the gym. Was it in any way similar to a jiu-jitsu comp in terms of how you feel beforehand? Yeah, a little bit. A little bit. Like you see what other people are doing and you think, oh my god, that guy's fucking strong. Yeah. Like you see someone do something, it's back. Oh my god. Like you there is the in your head, there is the psychology of like, oh my god. Like it's like a hyperjudgmentalism kind of like analyzing that's going on, isn't it? It's hard to, I think for anyone, like as a competition, so you're being compared, but at the end of the day, it's just you, gravity, the weight. So all the other stuff is kind of distraction. But if you look at someone and you're like, fuck, they don't look that strong, and then they just do 10 reps of a weight and you're like, what the hell? I don't think I can do it. Can I do that? You know, there's a lot of the that element. I think what I really like about strongman is it is probably a bit more fun and a bit more entertaining than say normal powerlifting comps because it's very set. No, I mean, you know, a lot of people. From a spectator's point of view, yeah. I have I've watched a bit of strongman and it is very entertaining. It's cool when they set up head-to-head stuff. So if you were trying to lift the stones and I'm trying to lift the stones, we're racing. That as a spectacle is cool and it also gives urgency. Yeah. Or if we're doing farmers carries up and back, like we are going head to head, which is it, you know, it's fun. Yeah. But no, I think it's less intense than a jujitsu tournament in terms of like it is really hard in the heat of the moment, but it's over faster. You don't cop the like mind you, some people do get injured, they like kind of half pass out and drop shit on themselves, and like you can get really fucked up. Yeah, tell me, uh, I'm I think I know the answer, but you know, when you think about like the yoke carry or the sandbag um walk, it I can't help but feel like you could just fucking buckle a knee or some shit. Yeah, is you do you is that is that is that a risk? At Australia's strongest, a guy dislocated his elbow. Shout out Murray, aka Muzz Dog. Um he one arm Murray. He was Australia's strongest last year and he got second this year. He dislocated his elbow because the frame's so heavy, like his elbow just fucking You're carrying the frame like that? No, no, he was um down. This is uh this is at the national championship, and his elbow just dislocated and he had to drop it. Oh wow, but then with a dislocated elbow, they taped it up. He finished all the stones. Wow, mate. Like even guys who were healthy and no injuries didn't finish all the stones. Yeah, wow. Murray's a fucking legend and a total savage. And uh another guy kind of got did a uh very heavy overhead press, I think 140, whatever, but then he got a bit faint and fell back and dropped the bar on himself and then hyperextended his knee. Oh shit. It was pretty savage to watch. Yeah. And so you can you can go. Oh, you don't oh bro, you can absolutely completely fuck yourself because like if you're getting a stone up and it gets stuck and you kind of fatigue, you can totally drop it on your foot or you like you. That stone will jump guard on you in a heartbeat. It'll jump, you know, mate, it'll jump to mount, it'll be on your chest. Like, there's definitely there's a lot of fails that can happen with um strongmen. But no risk, no reward. But I I think the the thing that I have on my side is so many years of hanging out in basketball stadiums with jujitsu, you know, just having to be there all day. Did you have a supply of little half-frozen Asae cups that you could just fucking in between events? I didn't bring enough snacks. I I brought uh bananas and a muesli bar, but it went long. And so I was uh shout out to my friend uh Lachlan uh Lockie, he was competing in the um amateur category, which he shouldn't have. He had um caffeine gummies, like just like think tropical flavoured like gummy bears. Mate, I was fucking wrecking those. I was wrecking those, it was so good. So um needless to say, my caffeine addiction is not reduced, but I think going to Australia's strongest, competing at this local comp and now prepping for the state comp, um, it will be really hard. There's like some numbers in there which I don't know if I can get, but it's kind of 10 weeks away. So provided I get stronger and it all works out, should be cool. Fuck mate, I'm keen to see it. Yeah, no, I'm excited. So I mean it's it's it's a bunch of fun, it's a it's a new challenge, and fucking let's go. Sure.