This Ripped Entrepreneur Explains How to Get Ahead in Anything | Mark Bell on Health Theory

You know, I'll hear people it's, you know, kind of a popular thing to talk about like self affirmations and saying you're good enough. And I believe in some of that stuff to a certain extent. I do think there's a lot of power in positive thought period. I mean, that's undeniable, right? Uh but at the same time, you can't be cheering for a nobody. But you don't have to be the same person that you were yesterday. And if you made an agreement with yourself, in my opinion, it's cowardly to not work on to at least work towards uh doing the things that you're promising to yourself. Get rid of the can'ts. You know, like as wild as that might sound for somebody who's really struggling, you can build it up over time. Willpower is something you can build up over time. Hey everybody, welcome to Health Theory. Today's guest is Mark Bell. He's a former pro wrestler and record-holding powerlifter who created both Power Magazine and the famous workout gear, the Slingshot. He's also the author of the book War on Carbs and the founder of the notorious Super Training Gym. Dude, what in the world draws you to powerlifting? I find it so interesting. It's so intense and demands so much of you. What was it that originally pulled you in? You know, as a kid, I got into it mainly, I mean, my brothers were showing me some stuff, but what was the real driver was I was throwing around a football one day and this guy yells to me, my brother's friend. He told me to throw him the ball. I should have known better. And so, I throw this guy the ball. Sure enough, he turns around, punts the damn thing into the woods, never to be found again, my favorite football. And I just kind of thought at that point, I don't want to that to ever happen to me. I don't want to ever feel like someone can just do that to me, just take something from me and just, you know, kick it into the woods like that. And so, it was my goal kind of from that point on. You can kind of cut to a Rocky montage of me training in my garage and doing curls and push-ups and all that other stuff. Um but that was enough fire to just kind of get me inspired even just through that summer. But I was kind of a chubby kid. I was kind of a fat kid. And so when I went in the gym and and started lifting, I was naturally stronger than my friends who were much smaller. And I think I ended up bench pressing around 235 or 240 lbs then. And yeah, my friends were like, "Oh my god." And my cousin was like, "You know, I don't know what that's going to turn into, but you'll probably do that the rest of your life." And here I am on your show. That is crazy. What I love about that story though is is something that I don't think a lot of people talk about, certainly not a lot of people that are um sort of outside meathead, which I say lovingly, circles is the aggression of it. Um and basically like wanting to put on muscle to be able to stand up for yourself, which for sure, 1,000% was what I used when I first started lifting. I used to imagine somebody attacking my wife. And I would stare at her across the gym and think what it would be like if I wouldn't if I wasn't able to defend her. And that that was something that gave me the energy to push. And people always cringe a little bit when I tell them that story, but it was like that's what I needed. I was telling you before we started filming that I don't enjoy the process of working out. It isn't that I I mind giving it the energy, it's that I resent giving it the time. But going in and and putting myself in that mental situation and saying like I want to give into the aggression of it. I want to think about the strength, the power that goes behind it. That was is is still very appealing to me. I love the aggression side of it. I really do. Um I think a lot of men feel the way that you're describing. They maybe don't feel like they're substantial enough. Like they don't have enough might to maybe defend their territory, defend what's theirs, or defend their woman, or defend their family, or whatever. I know a lot of guys that feel that way. And a lot of guys are driven to get into the gym, you know, for that reason. But the aggression side of things, you know, I my best lifts are I squatted 1,080. I bench pressed 854 lb and deadlifted 766 lb. And when you get underneath some of these weights, you really don't have any choice but to be aggressive. Um even if you're not aggressive by nature, I mean, I'm pretty like docile, pretty calm, pretty normal. I don't waver one way or the other too much. I try to stay a little bit more even keel just in general with my life. But when it's time to squat, you know, 1,000 lb and get underneath the weight like that, you know, I'm just thinking I want to break this [ __ ] bar in half. Like I want to show people that I'm made of something different than what everybody else is made out of. And here I go. This is my This is my 30 seconds. So, I might hit the chalk bowl and I might smack myself in the chest. It's not cuz I'm an [ __ ] It's not cuz I'm an idiot. It's just like here's my time to shine. I put a lot of practice into this. It's taken a lot of patience. It's taken a lot of years to be able to do that just right and be able to execute it. So, like here I go. This is something that I don't think a lot of people put a lot of energy into, but thinking about okay, the neurochemical response to the things that I think. And this So, I'm working on a book now and and basically what I'm trying to walk people through is you can take control of your neurochemistry. Now, a lot of it is going to be beforehand, you're going to have to do the work of building in the value system, of beliefs, of coming up with a narrative, things that allow you to to think in a certain way. What does lifting mean to me? What does it mean to set this PR? What um what is the narrative that I'm telling myself? How do you think about self-narrative? And are the things you've been saying here, is it the actual dialogue that you're saying as you're getting under the weight? Like do you have things that you return to? I'm not like other people, that kind of stuff? The narrative is is always is always fake, you know? I think that I don't maybe always know that it's fake, but I need to create it. You know, I hear things that other people say about my gym or about my teammates or about me, and I let it I let it build up, you know, I let it build up over time. I'm 42 now and I you know, stopped competitive powerlifting or at least competitive as far as I would describe it. Um I fell with a 1085 squat a few years ago and I just wiped me out for a while. It was you know, that 3-month period was was really rough in terms of you know, physically, mentally, you know, I couldn't even put on a shoe for 3 months. Um I just try to dig deep and I just try to think like people have it a lot worse and like you chose to do that that you know, I it's all choices. It's just I chose to do that. I'm privileged to be able to lift the weights that I'm able to lift and and uh you know, I'm thankful that I'm able to do those things and and every once in a while something doesn't really go your way, but what am I going to do? Like sit around and cry about it, you know, I'd rather I'd rather continue to figure out a way to forge forward and build momentum. That's really interesting. So, I want to give people a little more context on you. So, um obviously what you've achieved in the world of the physical is extraordinary. You also have a very successful business. You've written a book. Um but it's like you're self-identified fat kid. You're not able to physically go where you want to go. You're not learning in the way that maybe society champions. So, I'm guessing early we're feeling a bit like an outsider. You even said your older brothers didn't want anything to do with you. So, how do you begin to construct the feeling powerful believing you can do it, channeling the aggression? Like how do you turn everything on its head and and end up accomplishing you hold two patents. It's like you've done all this extraordinary stuff. So, how do we start in this place that's very atypical and end up where you end up? You just have to try to figure out a way. So, like the way that I, you know, may come up with a solution may look a lot different than the way somebody else may come up with a solution. With myself I had a lot of trouble reading. I still have a lot of trouble reading. So, I'm like, okay. Not learning is not an option. I have to learn. I got to learn something every day. Um my my car is like a mobile classroom. I'm always listening to something. Always listening to a podcast or or even sometimes an audio book. It just really depends on the mood, it depends on the day, but I still have to figure out ways of learning. I still have to figure out ways to persevere. So, part of the biggest block for me, part of the thing that held me down and it kept me back for so long uh was buying into other people's ideas. So, I think self-doubt is something that may settle in on me because learning was a little harder for me. It was more challenging. And so, I need to figure out ways to work around it. So, what gave you the belief that you could get good like that? Like, the notion that I could get better at something, I came to very late in the game. So, to me, like when I remember when I first started lifting, I wasn't good at it. And so, I thought I would always be bad at it. I didn't think it was something I thought it was like some people can just add muscle and they take to it and then other people don't. And I was quite embarrassed because I was so bad at it in terms of I I couldn't lift heavy. So, that made me feel badly about myself. So, I always shied away from things like that. Like, what what's happening at this point? Are you are you pushing back on things? Like, [ __ ] you guys, nobody gets to tell me who I am and what I can do or is it something else? Did somebody say, "No, Mark, you you can be something." Like, what gave you the belief that this would be energy well spent? There's a few things there. Um I didn't figure things out till really late in the game either. I'm 42, and I was probably about 35. I didn't have any points on the scoreboard when it comes to like having an income or anything like that. And so, you know, it took me a really long time, but at those younger ages, what gave me confidence is a few things. I I lean into the resistance of life. I'm a big believer in that. I'm big believer in like what's like pushing against me and then rather than like straying off completely, you know, people may tell you that you're not good enough to do it or that might be the own the uh narrative that you build up for yourself is that you're not good enough to you don't deserve that. And when it came to school, like the part of my brain was like shut off, like shut down because I had so much self-doubt about my capabilities like in a classroom. And so that door was was like locked. It was like no longer open to me. But most of the other doors I would try to push into, even something like track. When we did track, you know, I was a big kid, but I was like, "Well, I'll run." You know, and I did the 100 m and did the 4 by 100 and I I leaned into that and I got in better shape and it was the first time in my life that I got in good shape. And so at that time you're thinking, "Wait, I put energy into this and I get a result. Whether people want me to be good at it or not, it doesn't matter." Did you fully understand that this is repetition equals progress or like what was the the realization that you had there? Um even though I felt bad that like I wasn't good in school, I always had physical stuff. So this physical stuff and having good supportive parents were things I could always hold on to. They were things that that allowed me to grow. Like if I didn't have that, uh it would have been really hard if I didn't have any sports or any lifting or if I didn't have, you know, these other uh areas where I excelled at cuz you need something. You know, I'll I'll hear people it's you know, kind of a popular thing to talk about like self uh affirmations and saying you're good enough. And I believe in some of that stuff to a certain extent. I do think there's a lot of power in positive thought period. I mean, that's undeniable, right? Uh but at the same time, you can't be cheering for a nobody. Can't kind of cheer for yourself when there's no substance there. There has to be something there. So I at least had something that I was good at. I at least had something I could gravitate toward and say, "You know what? I might kind of stink at some of these other things, but at least I'm pretty good at that." And so, that allowed me to grow and allowed me to to be able to kind of continue onward. What do you say to somebody who really believes that they don't have anything? There There's nothing they're good at. They're not good at lifting. They're not good at track. They can't read well. Like, they just go through the list of things and they're like, "There's There's nothing for me." So, is it hopeless for them or is there some path that you have for them to walk? No, I definitely think that everyone has something. You know, do they find that? Well, you just have to try a lot of different things. And you might suck at those things. Um I think it's easy to kind of point out when somebody's already good at something. It's easy to just say, "Oh, it's probably probably genetics." Easy just to kind of bypass it. It's not genetic. It's It's practice. And these people that are struggling, that are having a hard time uh a hard time understanding like what gift do they have? They're going to have to try some different things out, you know, regardless of how bad it breaks them down, regardless of how much it makes them cry or how much it upsets them because the practice is going to be something that's going to move you ahead of everyone. No one gets a free pass. I can't think of anyone that that gets anywhere without tons and tons of practice. Yeah. The notion of practice to me is something I'm obsessed with. So, I don't think of anything as performance. I think of everything as practice. Um partly because anxiety. So, if I feel like this is my one shot and I have to perform, there's no way to redeem myself, then that really spikes my [ __ ] anxiety. But, if I think of it, "Hey, this is just practice. This is an opportunity to get better." Even if I find myself behind the eight ball, there's no reason to be anxious about it. It's a chance to practice getting out from behind the eight ball. So, hey, here we go. Like, I'm going to take this time. I'm going to I'm going to practice. And that to me is is really really interesting. The reason I'm obsessed with the kid who doesn't think they're good at anything is because I think you're right about you have to have some spark of something that's real and I want to get back to what you said about you can't cheer for a nobody because I agree with you and think it's playing with fire at the same time. And this is one of those what I call advanced class things where it's like it's so [ __ ] true people have to come to grips with it because if you want to have self-respect, you have to have a reason to respect yourself and you can't just look in the mirror and say I love you I respect you all that cuz some part of your brain is going to be like [ __ ] dude, you're not [ __ ] doing anything. So you're right, I think people just have to try a lot of [ __ ] to find the thing that's going to be that real spark at something they're interested in maybe not necessarily something they're great at. Something that they're interested in. Then they're going to practice. Then they're going to see like if they get good at it or at least if they have enough love to pour themselves into that process to grow and get better. There's a moment in your life that I want to drill down on more though which is in the beginning when you had no reason to believe in yourself before you find weightlifting why did you start? If you really break down why anybody starts lifting, right? If you break down why anyone starts lifting, it's always for chicks, right? It's always for chicks. I know a couple guys are listening right now like no dude not me. It's always for or to attract somebody, right? You're always trying to feel better about yourself to attract someone. And for me that was definitely the case. I mean I I was a heavier kid. I wanted to be in better shape. I was watching the wrestlers like those guys are jacked. Maybe that's the way to get chicks. I don't know. I don't know how to go about doing all this. And so I just knew I wanted to be in better shape. And so I used always used football as an excuse to lift. But really I was really I was obsessed with lifting the entire time. It was really the lifting that I that I loved and I that I gravitated towards. Mhm. So I imagine on the journey that you've been on to change your physique so radically you've done dumb things, you've done smart things and sort of figured out the difference. What are some big mistakes that people make when they're first getting into this? If somebody wanted to radically transform their physique, um you know, what how much is diet, how much is exercise? Like what does all that look like and and what are some ways you can shave that learning curve down for people? It's a huge story and I need to know a lot of details. I need to know like where you're at. I think everyone's always kind of looking for this uh kind of one-size-fits-all thing and I do believe that if we put America on like a chicken breast diet, that everyone would lose weight. But I do believe the second that that uh levy was lifted to be on a chicken breast diet, I do believe everyone would gain their weight back, probably and then some. And so, reduction of calories unfortunately, it can really help you, but it can also really hurt you because if that's all that you focus on is just eating less, um where what are you going to become over the next couple months or weeks or even years? Like what is it going to look like? What is it going to look like 2 years down the road? That's something to like really keep in mind with weight loss is that losing weight is not a problem in America. A lot of Americans, I think some astronomical percentage, like 80% of Americans that try diets to lose weight. So, losing weight is not the issue. And then we got to figure out, okay, well what is the issue? The issue is keeping it off. You know, how do we figure out a way to keep it off? And if we start out with eating less, then we're going to be able to perform less. And it's like those two things don't sound very good. What if we drop down the food and we try to exercise a lot? Like that's not going to feel great. So, you can either start one of two ways. You can start with some exercise or you can start with nutrition. If you're able to do both at the same time, that would be cool, but I think you could just start with one or the other. You know, figure out figure out the form of exercise, figure out a way that you are going to reduce calories, whether it's through burning them or whether it's through eating less of of Figure out some sort of system where that is actually manageable for you. People utilize intermittent fasting. It's a way to partition off calories and say, "I'm going to eat less here, and I'm going to eat, I don't know, maybe like 75% of my normal caloric intake, but I'm going to eat it in the latter part of the day." I mean, you know from the research done at Quest Nutrition, um Look, carbohydrates aren't bad, right? But we just as a society, we tend to over consume them. There's a lot of companies uh that profit to make it. There's a lot of money to be made on making these hyper palatable foods that were that will kind of override our natural system of being able to taste some of these different flavors. Got all these crazy flavors going on, and we tend to eat too much of them, you know? So, an easy message is just to tell people to, you know, cut back or try to cut out carbohydrates or cut out processed foods. I think people are frustrated because they're often times being lied to. There's a lot of fake health out there. Everybody just assumes everything at Whole Foods is healthy or everything that's packaged that has green or has this clean label, that it's really a healthy option. It's not. So, you have to you have to really watch out for There's a lot of fake health out there. There's a lot of just practices that aren't great. But if you're just trying to figure out somewhere to start, in my opinion, there's no better place to start than to just to walk. Just walk because what it does for your body and what it does for your brain, I think exercise is uh something that's kind of misunderstood in the sense of like what it actually does for our brain is probably way more powerful than anything it will actually do for our body. All you need is some shoes. Throw on some shoes. Get outside. Walk a maybe a little bit faster than you used to, or maybe try to walk faster each time you go out for a 10-minute walk. Try to figure out how many 10-minute walks you can do in in day, or how many 10-minute walks you can do in a week. How often are you just sitting there just mindlessly doing nothing? I think a great opportunity for to hit up some of those walks and to keep your body uh rejuvenated, keep yourself uh burning calories. At the end of the day, when you sit down and you're about to totally plop down and just completely relax in front of your TV and scroll through Instagram, I think that's a great time before you actually fully relax to go, "Oh, I That should be your cue right there to go and do a 10-minute walk." So, just I mean, the simple things. People need to sleep more, need to drink more water. Every time that you drink anything that's caffeinated, which is a huge thing in America, right? All the coffee. Anytime that you drink any coffee, drink some water. Don't be afraid of salt. Um and figure out some sort of sleep schedule. Figure out an eating schedule. Like, how how crazy and how asinine is this, right? You're going to leave You're going to leave your house at 7:00 in the morning. You know exactly where you need to be for the day. You know all the different people that you're going to run into for the day. There's some things that might come up, but you basically have a good idea of your schedule. That's why people have a day planner. And their day planner is hooked to their computer and their phone and their We have all the information that we need. And then, what's missing from that? There's no your your exercise probably isn't on there. You probably didn't write down like when you wanted to train. And so, therefore, it's just up in the air. It just might happen, it might not. I'm going to go to the gym at 5:00 a.m. tomorrow. And you're like, "Yeah, I didn't write it down." So, you just skip it. And then, what about our food? We never write down our food. What if you were to write down your food for the next week and say, "This is what I'm going to eat. I want to see if I have the balls to eat what I'm going to write down right now." How hard would that be on a scale of 1 to 10? It shouldn't be that hard. That should actually be kind of easy, right? If you were to write it down and say, "I just want a stronger discipline. I'm going to even write down some foods that I like. Or they can all be foods that you like. I mean, you can you can pick some really good options, but if you if you plan ahead, then you'll be ahead. If you plan ahead, you'll be in a position where you can eat these foods that taste good that aren't packing the same punch as you just randomly eating out somewhere. Don't be a dumbass. Don't leave your house without any plan for your food. You don't leave your house with no food prepped or nothing or no idea where you're going to eat. And then what are you going to do? You didn't You didn't prep anything on your way out, so you you mixed up a coffee and uh threw that down on your way to work, and your whole day is behind. The entire day is behind. And you're like, "Oh my god, I didn't even eat." Then you go get some crap food at lunch. Then when you come back from lunch, you're super tired. You feel like [ __ ] Your boss yells at you. You're on your way home. And you're like, "I am [ __ ] starving." So, you roll through McDonald's. You get a Big Mac, and you get some french fries. And you get a chocolate shake to wash it all down. And and and then you just All right, we'll just take all that. We're just going to sweep all that right underneath the rug conveniently. We won't ever talk about that, and we'll just repeat for tomorrow. What do you tell people though? Cuz when I hear that story, A, it's true, no question. But I know that moment, like before I sort of built the mindset that I have now, the hard thing about not eating the french fries is it is exactly like a drug. It will have a very predictable and [ __ ] wonderful neurochemical response to eat the french fries. The hard thing about french fries isn't that they're just convenient, which is already wonderful. It's not even that they're cheap, which again is fantastic. It's that it it's it's like taking a drug. And you you have that shitty day. Your boss is yelling at you. You're just in a really gnarly mental state. And the fries will fix the problem. That that's And I think that's the a problem. It actually works. I agree. And I remember when I first went low carb and I had these [ __ ] crushing headaches and I just felt like ass. And I went to my wife and I said, "If I just ate this [ __ ] cookie, I would feel better." And the problem was that was true. And of course there's you get on the other side of it. But what do you tell people knowing that it's a very real psychological issue that they're dealing with? The french fries solve that problem. It's a it's a tough it's a tough thing to kind of deconstruct on people because like you said, the food tastes good. I was a food addict as well. I'd wake up in the middle of night and raid my pantry. I mean, it looked like a bear came through. I was like, "What the hell happened?" There's, you know, Ben & Jerry's and peanut butter cups and there's all these wrappers everywhere and just like, you know, I just I was in that habit of doing that for a long time, but you don't have to be the same person that you were yesterday. And if you made an agreement with yourself, in my opinion, it's cowardly to not work on to at least work towards uh doing the things that you're promising to yourself. Get rid of the can'ts, you know? Like as wild as that might sound for somebody who's really struggling, you can build it up over time. Willpower is something you can build up over time. How? Well, you're going to have to chip away at it. You're going to have to find something you're good at. We'll have to go back to kind of the beginning of everything. You'll have to find something that maybe you're not uh amazing at right away, but you're a little bit better at that than you are at a couple other things. You don't suck as bad at that one thing maybe as as much as you suck at everything else. And you hold on to that with everything that you got. And you're going to be able to build strength and willpower through that. The willpower will help make you feel better. It will help keep that momentum going for you. But I thought I had these like blocks, right? And then because I built up willpower over a period of time, I'm like, "Fuck all these blocks. [ __ ] all these roadblocks. I'll just get in a three-point stance and knock them all over. I can figure this out." Yeah, that that part of your personality is what I'm super super drawn to. The I don't know if the mission statement of your company is something that you think about a lot, but if it is, I'd love for you to talk about that. I think that whole notion, which to me anyway, it'll be interesting to see if it's tied for you, the the mission statement of your company and [ __ ] your elbow, like those to me are are connected and so powerful. Um walk us through what's the mission statement of your company. Yeah, my goal, and you know, a big goal with the social media stuff that I pump out, all the different videos that I have, uh the podcast, all the different things that I do are in an effort to try to make the world a better place to lift. And what I really mean by that is I want to try to lower the barrier of entry into exercise. Um things don't have to be so hard. They They will be hard at some point. They will get more difficult. If you want to bench 400 lb, yeah, shit's going to get to be really hard. If you want to be 5% body fat and you're not actually gifted to be 5% body fat, things are going to get a little dicey. Things are going to get to be really really tough. But in the beginning, just to make some just to have some small changes, some small changes will lead to big-time progress over a period of time. And I like to kind of lower that barrier of entry into training, and I feel that exercise, um my gym, my gym is free. A lot of the seminars that I do is free. A lot of the seminars I do are free. Um but the reason that it's free is because I want to try to trick everybody. Let's lure people in. Let's give them a good time, and let's trick them, and then while we have them there, let's grab a hold of them and tie them up and make them keep training there as much as we can. I have a hypothesis about you, about your gym, and it goes like this. You talk about heart and determination. I think that's the real juice. And I think what makes lifting so powerful and so transformative, certainly was for me, was that it is hard and the only way to really make progress is to lean into the resistance that you're talking about, to push yourself, to show yourself that you're capable of more, to get beyond the how little can I get away with and get into how much can I bear and how much weight can I get under and to see yourself begin to develop and change and when you realize that through focus and determination you're able to make a radical change in your body and then you tap into whatever the [ __ ] hardwiring is about human beings, the the intrinsic desire that we have to be strong and to look good is so [ __ ] powerful and then to do it under your own free will when it was difficult and you pushed through, there really isn't anything more transformative that I could prescribe to somebody. If somebody is feeling badly about themselves, the first [ __ ] thing they should do, go work out. It isn't fun, but Jesus, the the I can't think of anything, literally nothing, that will have the kind of impact on your self-esteem than getting your body right. And it's it's this twofold thing that ties into heart and determination. And I'm obsessed with you because of [ __ ] your elbow. What what is [ __ ] your elbow? What was that whole thing? Like and why is it so rad? You know, I I think in this world the greatest respect that you're ever going to earn comes from yourself. It's called self-respect. I think that is the most important thing. I think that's really what we're all after. Everybody wants to be substantial. Everybody wants to be recognized. Everybody wants to be noticed. I mean, it's part of the reason why social media is so popular. Everyone's, you know, got these big lights on their head saying recognize me, basically. They people want to be recognized and And know, from having employees, when you do recognize somebody, especially when there's a whole group around, that means more to them than you sitting down with them saying, "Hey man, you know, you're doing so well, we're going to give you a raise." Like, yeah, the they're pumped about the raise, of course, but it doesn't last as long as that time that you compliment them and say, "You know what? You've been [ __ ] kicking ass for me and you're doing a great job and we all appreciate you." That's like way different, right? It's like a launches you into a whole different level. So, the [ __ ] your elbow thing came from somebody was they made a comment on my YouTube channel and they said, "You teach people to ignore pain and you teach people to to push beyond their limits and I think it's irresponsible and you're you're trying to say that the central nervous system doesn't get fatigued and that it doesn't matter and you know, he's saying all this kind of stuff like this." And so, I I said, "You know what?" I was like, "Fuck this guy." So, I shoot this video and I say, "You know, you're using the central nervous system as an excuse not to exercise hard. You're using it as an excuse not to get after it." And I said, "People need to get after it. They need This is This [ __ ] is supposed to be hard. This stuff is supposed to hurt and there's no way to really cushion it. It's going to be painful. And let's not try to make a bunch of roadblocks and excuses on why we're not getting into the gym cuz we can think of millions of excuses on why we're not going. We don't need any help from the outside world." So, I I in this video I say, uh I'm talking about my own elbow pain. I'm like, you know, I'm talking about training through elbow pain and and I'm still going to push and I'm still going to aim towards benching 600 lb and I don't care, you know, how bad my elbow is. Man, I said, "You know what? [ __ ] you and [ __ ] your elbow." And so, that's something that has resonated with a lot of fans. They get excited and they they they want me to write it on stuff when I sign things and they want me to say it, you know, in videos and different things like that, but it's really just just a message of, you know, don't worry about the horse being blind, just load the wagon. Like, just go. Like, don't You don't read instructions, you just go for it. Just Yeah. I uh I have sort of the business equivalent of that. I think that what I talk about, creating momentum, going after every day, like everything has to be done this day, working long, hard, and smart, which is the feedback that I get the most pushback on, which to me is is startling. It's one of those There've been a few times where I've given advice that's like so bulletproof, there's nothing to go after, and those ends up being the ones that like really [ __ ] set people off. And I'm like it doesn't make sense, but there is there there is an air of um irresponsibleness, if that's a word, to telling people to train through pain. There is. But at the same time, I would much rather be in a position where I went so hard in my life over something I cared about, by the way. This isn't just like to chase money or do something stupid. It's like something you really [ __ ] believe in that fills you up, that gives you energy, that makes you feel alive, that you're serving not only yourself, but other people. Like, that [ __ ] like there's something innate to the human condition that will reward you mentally in a way, even if there are times where you're like, I have to tap out for a minute. I've got to sit down. I've pushed too hard. I've gone too far. But I would so much rather be in the position of like, yeah, I went too far, than a place where I lived for so many [ __ ] years, I can speak with experience, than being in a place where you know you're not doing enough, and there's this voice in your head screaming that you're capable of doing more. And that is that is a a ring of hell unto itself. Whereas, going too hard and and hitting a roadblock and having to slow down because you did push too hard, that's not a ring of hell. It It's pain. It's suffering. There's no question. It's not a ring of hell. Whereas the other under valuing yourself, not demanding enough of yourself, not holding yourself to a high enough standard, the the nervous aggression that that gives you, which is why this guy was commenting on your thing, because if you're right, he has to reflect on himself about living a life less than he could, that's the [ __ ] ring of hell. And so, what I would say to like on on the topic of pain though is that we're all going to be in pain. We're all going to die. We're all going to end up in a hospital bed or in a wheelchair or like we're all going to end up being in more pain than you are today. It's it's inevitable. Yeah, there's more joy that's coming our way, but there's also a lot more pain. So, pain is like, who cares? Like it's going to be part of what you do. It's part of it's part of exercising, it's part of growth. Like I don't think you can even figure out ways of growing without going through some sort of pain. You know, though there's a lot of people say like on the other side of pain there's promise. I believe in that. I think that's very true. Speaking of pain that has promise, talk to me about the death of your brother. Seemed to have a pretty big impact on you. What happened? And then how did that change you? You know, there's this you know, pivot points that you have in your life and that certainly was was one of them. My oldest brother Mike, he had drug addiction problems from the time he was from the time he was very young. He was always attracted to danger. He was always attracted to you know, doing things that were kind of that were extreme. And so, you know, we we I kind of always knew that day would come that there would be, you know, either call that he's in jail again or call that he was you know, going to be dead. My dad called me up one day and you know, his voice was trembling and stuff and he says, "Your your brother's dead." And like I'll never forget, you you hearing my mom in the background screaming, "It's not true. It's not true." That was really crazy thing for me cuz it's not like me and my brothers are very, very close. All three of us were always very close. Um my oldest brother was like if someone picked on me or something, I mean that wasn't going to happen, you know. It was hard hard for me to get uh picked on even with the guy who punted my football in the woods. My brother straightened that guy out. My brother uh was always like the equalizer, you know, and he was uh kind of like known in in the town, you know, as funny as that might sound, but he was known as like the town badass. He was our our childhood, you know, idol. That's who we looked up to. Some people had Bo Jackson and Michael Jordan and we had Mad Dog Mike Bell that we were uh looking up to. Yeah, that's uh that's pretty rough. I I hear you mention him a lot in interviews about just sort of You say it almost in passing, but like that it it is this anchor point for you that my brother tried a life that I could see just didn't work out and so it's informed how you live. What would you say is that it's obviously not just don't do drugs. Like what is the thing that you see that he sort of tested and it failed? Is it a hedonistic life? Like what what is it and what did you take away specifically? So, you know, when he died, you know, like I said, it's really hard to try to figure out how to make any sense of it and I was like you know, not you know, what do I what do I do sort of thing and how do I handle this and how do I be strong for my family and you know, what are some things I can do to try to take, you know, such a horrible thing, how do I make this a little bit more positive, you know? And when I went to my brother's funeral, I ended up getting my answer because as complicated as my brother was and as hard as he was to deal with, everyone [ __ ] loved him. They absolutely loved him. You know, you and I met and I was up there kind of in your waiting room. I shook your hand and it's like I'm pretty quiet. I'm pretty reserved, right? It's probably pretty normal, but every once in a while you probably run into someone who's like super loud. They're hyped up. Yo, Tom, what's up? And they give you a big bear hug. My brother was like that. You know, he was like he was over the top. So, you weren't going to ever forget who he was. And so, I tried to take at least some of that uh aspect, you know, of him. I don't have the same outward personality. But, like he wouldn't let anybody run him over. He wouldn't let anybody do him wrong. He was really big on like protecting himself and protecting the things that he believed in. So, I'm like, maybe I can just take little chunks of some of those things, some of those good really good qualities he had, and maybe I can carry those things out in my life. Maybe I can carry those things out in my business. And when he died, it wasn't too long after that that that I created the Slingshot. And that that was for my big brother. My big brother, you know, he's somebody that in the movie Bigger, Stronger, Faster, he says that he has something inside him that he wants to share with the world and he like didn't know what it was. Well, I feel like my brother Chris and I are still here to be able to deliver that message and be able to to help, you know, deliver his message, which which was he loved to lift weights. He loved he loves strength training. He loved getting after it in the gym. And that's what we're here to do. We're here to make sure that his dream does come true and that we do make the world a better place to lift. I like it. If people are going to make one change that would have the biggest impact on their health, what change would you have them make? Start figuring out a way to move. Start figuring out a way to move. If it's if it looks like walking to you, that would be a great start. If you're already walking, you're already moving around a little bit, then try to pick away at one thing with your diet. Um don't really worry about a ketogenic diet. Don't really prick your fingers and worry about ketones and all these different things. Don't make things too complicated. Maybe just say, I want to do a little bit better than I did yesterday, so maybe I'll just try to eat less carbs or maybe I'll try to eat less sugar. But I'd say walking is number one and if there's any sort of diet recommendation I can give you is just to really try to cut back on carbohydrates cuz not that carbs are bad, but just uh we have a tendency to overeat on them. Mhm, I hear that. Where can people find you? You can find me at Mark Smelly Bell on Instagram. Uh I have a YouTube channel which is Mark Bell Slingshot. You want to check out the Slingshot, it's a supportive upper body device for bench press, push-ups, and dips. We make knee sleeves, we make something called a hip circle which has been ripped off by everybody in the fitness community. We make uh wrist wraps, we make clothing, we got all kinds of stuff over at markbellslingshot.com. Nice. I like it. Mark, thank you so much for joining me, man. This is a lot of fun. Guys, if you haven't already, be sure to subscribe and until next time, my friends, be legendary. Take care. Thank you guys so much for watching and being a part of this community. If you haven't already, be sure to subscribe. You're going to get weekly videos on building a growth mindset, cultivating grit, and unlocking your full potential.