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Mitchell Hooper Worlds Strongest Man Not Normal · The Best Experience

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You're listening to the best experience with Nick Best. All right, this is
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the best experience with your host, Nick Best and the Angry Dad. And
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thank you so much. And with that, ladies and jentleen, we're here
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with Mitchell Hooper World strongest Man two times, Arnold and Arnold UK, and
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a whole bunch of other stuff that I can't even keep track of it.
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Let me be kind, you know, no stunt unturned. I mean,
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there's how do you find fine for husband and fathers. Well, and congratulations
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by the way, thanks you absolutely amazing. Well, they don't know what
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I start with all that the time that it's interesting, Yeah, it's I
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always feel like there's there's this, there's bullseye that I do with people who
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work for me. And in the middle is minus one in a stage in
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your life where you're going backwards slightly, which is actually okay for periods of
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time. Then outside of that you have plus one. I just don't believe
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in state nation, and plus one would mean that you're you're progressing steadily,
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and plus two is sort of like this temporary idea of you could push really
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hard to excel, but at some stage you're going to burn out. And
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I have no idea how I haven't burnt out from being in what what I
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call plus two or plus three for so long. But yeah, thankfully I
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have really good people around me. I have a bunch of people who work
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for me, who take care of various things to make sure that they're taking
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along. But I always joke that my life is mostly going from when someone's
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on shift and I'm working with them, and then they're off shift and I
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just go work with whoever's on shift next, and it's a it's a constant
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struggle, but you have to realize and recognize that one day you won't be
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the strong youngest man in the world, and you're going to have to create
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something that has some sort of lasting effect after you're done with the sport.
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And that's really my primary concern because financially I'll be fine. I know that,
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and I know that I could do things with just take care of myself,
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but I have people who work for me, and when I'm done the
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sport as strong man, there's no way that I could turn around and just
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tell them that story. The career you thought you had doesn't exist anymore.
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Right, And then it's being a dad adds a whole nother layer to the
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fold, and it makes you question a lot of things about your life and
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how you choose to spend your time and what you're doing, because you're a
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bad dad if you can't provide, of course, but you're also a bad
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dad if you're never present. And where's the balance and where does it shake
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out? And I sort of have this timeline in my head where I'm going
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to be much more reasonable with my travel and my schedule once my daughter has
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the capacity to be able to miss me and know that I'm not there.
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That's my ultimate goal. Yeah, and it won't be long. You know,
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she's pretty little right now, which is awesome. I mean they grow
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so quick. Yeah, they grow fast. It's no neat when you're sitting
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there holding and they fall asleep and all the other stuff. But it won't
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be long until you know, she starts popping that mom dad out there.
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It's a neat feeling, it really is. She's going to be at the
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World's Strongest Man. We'll see how that goes. But hopefully she travels well
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and then the solution to being away is that she just comes with me places,
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right, But there's every possibility that she doesn't like to travel in competition
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environment. In reality, if you bring a baby along, it's for you,
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not for them. The baby doesn't care about the show. Even a
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child doesn't care for the show. They want to go play on the playground
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that's over there. And yes, I started my strong man career when Dylan
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was about five. Yeah, and yeah, he was an America's Strongest Man
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in two thousand and six. He was writing his scooter along the inside of
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the competition, just playing around and cutting across them in front of everything.
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So yeah, they when they get there, they just want to play and
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have fun. It's still great memories. It's the ultimate humbling experience, isn't
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it It is. It's truly absolutely great to keep thinking. Oh yeah,
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definitely with all the endeavors that you're going through right now, and you're because
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like it's so impressive, because like I said, it's your schedule's got to
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be like I have you like a madman. But it's like every time you
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turn around, it's something new, you know what I'm saying. And with
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your team and what you guys are working with, you guys are just constantly
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coming up with new ideas. I can only imagine the business meetings and the
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partner meetings you guys are having with these guys every day. Yeah, there's
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a lot of moving parts, but it's it's turning into i'd say medium sized
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business depending on your definition. But there's six of us now who are working
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full time on that the online business side, and a part of it is
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serious business. That's you know, in the end, you run business for
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profit and for money and for opportunity and everything. But it's equally six people
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of similar age, who half of us were friends beforehand, and it's a
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privilege to be able to work with them because more often than not we're laughing
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about something or having a good time, especially on the trips. So you
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guys seeing me around competition, I'm not stressed out. I'm mostly bored so
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having to say, a ping pong tournament the morning of the Arnold, but
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that's the stuff that I need And in the end I like to think about,
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you know, I have to be the face of the brands. But
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the sooner that I cannot become the face of the brand, and the better
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off we are because then we have a business that's irrespective of me competing or
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not. So I try to do everything I cannot to make myself the sense
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of attention because that ultimately gets pretty old, and I hope just to migrate
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towards business owner more than the person who it lives and die with. Sure,
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smart Jens. That's a conversation me and Nick have all the time because
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like we always constantly like, you know, not to stroke the ego,
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but it's like every time we turn around, like what is he not doing
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and what is he not thinking about? As you're competing and as you're doing
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these things, because it's like it's insane, because like every time we turn
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around, it's like there's no chink in the armor for you. Every time
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we turn around, it's like you're improving, you're constantly evolving, and you're
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just constantly growing with this sport and with everything going on. It's just it
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blows our mind all the time. I think it is important to recognize though,
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that outwardly it seems like all the boxes are being ticked and there's no
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chink in the armor. But there are days where I'm my own chink in
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the armor, and I have a hard time getting stuff done, and I'm
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quite hard on myself, and the days that things aren't going well, it's
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not it's not that I don't go to work, it's that I can't up
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working and I sacrifice things that on paper are more valuable to me, and
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I get my priorities a little bit mixed up, and my blood pressure is
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too high because I'm stressed from all the things that are going on, and
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you know, I am sacrificing a level of athletic ability because I am off
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doing things so much, which part of surprising myself at the arnold is that
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I did not have a perfect life scenario. I had a baby who was
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two and a half weeks old, and you guys know how that goes.
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Yeah, over these obstacles, and I'm sort of hedging my bet. So
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how many obstacles can I put in my own way and still be good given
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that the obstacles are building something productive over the long run. Yeah, Yeah,
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Well, I think you're showing the world just how many obstacles you can
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put it in your own Yeah. You know, hopefully people can see that
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there is a part of it that your first focus, your first circle has
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to be you and your family and taking care of them. Your second has
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to be family and friends. But I hope that people can see that all
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of the work I'm doing should benefit strong Man as a whole in the future.
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And it's getting exposed to new audiences, and it's getting exposed in a
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way where you know, I don't outwardly look hugely unhealthy or hugely unattainable.
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Even though I'm six foot three three twenty people are surprised that I'm not heavy
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who aren't in the sport and I can run around a little bit, and
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I can do a CrossFit workout very poorly, and I think hopefully over time
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people can see that and feel as though they can participate in the sport,
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which is the ethos of the clothing brand as well, is that it is
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actually a really kind, welcoming environment. The whole heavy be kind thing is
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not a declaration of who I am, because I'm not the kindest person all
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the time. I could be a right asshole like the rest of us.
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It's what I saw in the sport, and I saw how it actually was
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and the bravado that it purports to be, and I thought, let's let's
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put the kindness forward first, and then maybe someone who's not confident, not
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comfortable, they're going to be the first ones back in the gym. Yeah,
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and that's the thing too. But like like I said, I'm new
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into the culture myself, because like I came from bodybuilding and you know,
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working with Nick and seeing strong man and being a strong man. It's just
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I remember the first time I met you, you were literally sitting there with
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your girlfriend at the time, eating and you were just talking about the numbers
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you were running. And I'm sitting there with Gavid and Sean or Chain and
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we were just having a great conversation in Sacramento, and I was just like,
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who is this kid, Like just and you were just talking about like
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your your your trading numbers. I'm just like, that's ridiculous. That's trade,
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that's not competition. And then when Nick was doing another podcast he came
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back and I was like, dude, we gotta keep an eye on this
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guy because it's just the way you're talking. Was like I could see the
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glow, the image, the energy, everything coming from you as we were
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just having this great conversation during while you were just eating real quick. It
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was like, right, I think second day of qualifications. It was just
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like I said, it was just I could see it in you then.
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And then I even talked to you later that day because we got you on
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our other podcast, Religions of Iron, and I was just like, man,
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this kid's coming up quick. And now just like turn around to literally
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the second year you just take it. This is like what the hell?
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Yeah, it's logically I can get there, and logically I can tell you
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how anybody. Emotionally, I feel like I'm going to wake up tomorrow and
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realize that I got hit in the head in two and a half years ago.
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That's really you can't. You can't tell me a person who's I've been
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so fortunate in the sport to come along at a time where the style of
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events suit and to come along at a time where the prize money is what
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it is and the opportunity in such a growing field is where it is.
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And to be honest, it's an extension of my life. I might be
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the world's strongest man, but I think I'm the world's luckiest man as well,
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because this ten years ago. If I came along, like, even
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if I was as good as I am now, you probably you'd still make
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a living. But how good And in ten years time, when the prize
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money is much larger, you're probably going to have guys who I wouldn't hold
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a candle to come along. So I think, yeah, I'm just I'm
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in an incredibly lucky time and I feel a big responsibility to make sure that
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I'm giving back. But you know, every time someone says I can't imagine,
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it blows my mind how fast you've come up, and blows my mind
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what you're doing, I just say, imagine being me, and it blows
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my mind too. And I think a lesson for anyone listening to it is
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I didn't know what I was capable of at all, and many many times
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along the way I was surprising myself. But I'll never allow my logical thoughts
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to stop myself from doing what I'm actually capable of. For example, when
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I went to pull the four hundred and seventy five kilo deadlift, I right
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before I said, I probably won't get this. I think there's a thirty
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percent chance, twenty five percent chance, but I'm gonna give a help.
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And I think a lot of people get in their own way where if they
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think there's a twenty percent chance of getting something, that should make you try
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five times harder. But some people will be a little bit dejected by that
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and feel like, well, there's no way I'm that good, And logically
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I go, well, I am, but emotionally many times have gone there's
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no way I'm that good. It's only been recently, after thirteen fourteen podiums
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in a row that have gone like, you know what, this shit is
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not a coincidence, it's not it's nough fluid not so yeah. I think
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that's a really valuable takeaway for people out there. I think you can do
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a hell of a lot more than you think you can if you just get
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out your own way, agreed, And that's that's that's a good solid growth
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thing and piece of advice that you have out there is people do get in
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their own ways. We all do. It's to some degree. And it's
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it's really neat to hear you say that, because that's going to inspire a
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whole lot of people to think differently about how they approach things, and that's
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going to change the game even more as time goes on. And I was
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back I was back there though ten fifteen years ago. I tell you,
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right, you would have cleaned house then too. I really would have.
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I mean, because I mean being there at the end of Marius and seeing
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the athlete that he was. He's still he's he was unbelievably good, but
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it's still not at that level. I was there when Derek was at his
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peak, you know, so, Droness Brian, I've seen it, and
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athletically and just with the events, there's nothing put in your way. You're
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not going to be in the top three and that I've seen moving forwards,
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there's nothing they're going to have to there's no way to design something that you're
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not going to figure out and function unbelievably well at because you're that good,
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your disciplines that good, your mental capability is more than I've ever seen it.
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Figuring things out, knowing how the body works, knowing how to you
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know, execute the lift or whatever it is, and then recover from it.
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And the stuff you're talking about with the nervous system, the blood flow
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restriction and stuff like that. I'm looking at that stuff going, oh wow,
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I'm learning new stuff. I never thought about the blood flow restriction stuff
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that you're doing that and I think that's absolutely amazing. And now watching much
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more of that to get more ideas stuff like that. So it's neat to
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see how you're progressing, and then how you're taking the knowledge you have of
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recovery and helping people with that and moving it on to the next level.
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It's just going to make everybody better. It's going to leave it lasting,
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a lasting thing on this sport that you're going to change it. You realize
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that, right, you're going to change the way everything's done. Five ten
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years from now, the way you're doing things now, guys will be doing
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it that way. And you're in the ability to pick up on things.
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I mean, watching you learn how to do the jerk was outrageous. I
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mean it really was. It's just like, oh God, oh wow,
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Now he's just going to pop them up over there. It's you're right,
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the actual record is in jeopardy right now because you're the guy that's gonna be
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able to clean it and pop it up over your head. Yeah, I's
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two or six kila. I did that a couple of days ago, and
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that was a little bit on a whim. That's the first my PB actually
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cleanup press was one eighty because I've never had to go higher than that four
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hundred pounds for the opponents with and that folk clip is actually like I tried
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to do it the first time how I normally do, which is flipping my
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hand mid air, and I discovered very quickly at heavier weight, you can't
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like catch it that way, and so then I dropped it and took about
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three seconds and then went and did it again. I could have brought the
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world record two days ago, So I think his hand time that'll be a
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dangerous events for sure. Yeah, it's like I can't wait, I really
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can't. It's gonna be fun, and then I mean the prep coming up
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for the next four or five weeks and all the stuff that that's going through.
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Because worlds doesn't necessarily give you exact weights and distances and stuff like this.
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It's kind of like, well, you have a truck poll well or
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vehicle pole, you have this, you have that, So it's very nondescriptive.
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So it's kind of neat because you can come in and adapt to things
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very quickly. And then you'll come up and ask people questions too, which
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is one of the most impressive things as well. You'll just ask what do
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you think? And yeah, that's pretty cool. I think you can never
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get too big about yourself that there are people at OSG. There's amateurs who
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could teach me something. For sure. There are amateurs who've been in the
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sport for ten years and I haven't been in the sport for ten years.
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There's something to be learned. But I've come across a pretty consistent pattern where
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people talk and I think it's natural for all of us to obsess over like
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what is the last five percent that you're doing to get the edge. But
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I've come across a pattern with a lot of high level guys top top five,
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top ten in the world, guys where they'll do all of their extra
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all of their five percent. But it still comes down to something as basic
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as I have never ever ever left the gym before my program is over.
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I have never ever missed a day at the gym. That consistency is something
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that even the guys at the top, it's not happening like you think it
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is. They will take a day off because they're tired, They will leave
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the gym early because they got pissed, because they missed a lift, or
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because they're hungry, or because whatever. And I think it's funny how many
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parallels there are between being a top level athlete in the world and just trying
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to generally be healthy. That the fundamental of that is that you have to
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put in a very good effort every single day, and it doesn't have to
19:33
be unreal. But I think that's the real edge that I have, is
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that training for me is never a negotiation. Sometimes it's not perfect, sometimes
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it's not the right implement, but people will talk about how I use it.
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I used a shitty fingles finger, but I did every fucking session on
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that finger. I hit every single thing I was trying to do, and
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you might have had a perfect finger, but you only put in seventy five
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percent of the work on it. You skip a couple of sessions. That's
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still the stuff that I believe makes the most difference. And then all these
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extras, the blood blow, restriction, the nostone and turned all that is
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genuinely as much fun personal experiments and social media content as it is actually trying
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to make myself better. I think all of those things have just really started
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to align, and I will be better at World Strongest Man than I was
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at the Arnold, and I think that's a dangerous prospect for everyone else.
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Yeah, and you're really dangerous at both of those Arnolds. Yeah, Yeah,
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I think going in you're the hands down favorite this year. I mean,
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there's no questions asked. The momentum. It's fun with the momentum and
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just the things that you're doing, but also in your process and the way
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you do things. I don't there's guys that are out there working hard,
20:41
but I don't think there's people out there working smarter and harder at the same
20:45
time getting the most out of everything that they're doing. You're the most calculated
20:51
person I've ever seen it die, and that's that's the same because I've seen
20:56
I've seen some I've seen some lifters of my day and some competitors, some
21:00
strong man guys, some power litters and stuff like that. And the absolute
21:03
approach that you go to these things that are the most cerebral that I've ever
21:07
seen. Like I said, a lot of the stuff that you've managed to
21:11
do, it's going to change the way things are going for the next ten
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to fifteen twenty years. Really, It's quite funny because I think a large
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part of that is I didn't come up in strong man. I was never
21:21
indoctrinated the way that most people are, and so I've sort of found my
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own way to do everything and realize that I'm not normal afterwards, which is
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sort of a euphemism for my life, and just discovering that I'm not normal
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at certain as the title of this episode not normal, well, we just
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got the episode title say something like that. The Arnold UK, we're doing
21:45
a farmer's for distance. There's a chalk pool at the at each end right
21:48
and to me it's like chalk is that is fifty percent of your grip,
21:56
but it is as important as having strong grip is how talcked up can you
21:59
get your hands? So to me, it's just like I'm not even thinking
22:03
about I need to put chalk all the way along the way, and then
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of course I need to chalk up my hands. With fifteen seconds left,
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I couldn't have run to the chalk bowl. I wouldn't have won the event
22:11
if I didn't put chalk down everywhere. But I don't really pay attention to
22:15
what other guys are doing in terms of their tactics and strategy. Only after
22:18
do I realize that no one else did anything like that, And it's just
22:23
baffling to me. And I hope that more guys start to think that way.
22:26
And I think it's gonna change the sport in one of two ways.
22:30
I think it's either going to become a little bit more meticulous and taking care
22:36
of all of those little things, or promoters are going to have to change
22:38
the rules so that guys don't have a two minute time limit stand and stare
22:42
at a log for forty five seconds before they do another rep, because I
22:45
recognize that that's not interesting to watch. But you also have to take advantage
22:49
of every single rule afforded to it, and I don't know which go to
22:55
be honest, so over time I guess we'll find out. But it's certainly
22:59
fun to hopefully be pushing the sport in a more positive direction, oh much
23:06
much more positive. Plus you're doing it in a healthy way, or it's
23:11
a sustainable way where you're not going to You're going to be done when you
23:15
want to be done. You're not going to come into where you're having a
23:21
health issue and you have to stop and you have to back off. You're
23:25
going through it the right way. And if you want to do this ten
23:27
fifteen years, you're going to be here. If you want to do this
23:30
five more years, you're going to be here. You're going to be able
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to stop when you want to stop, not because you have to stop.
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And that's probably one of the most impressive things as well, is you're doing
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everything in a sustainable way. Yeah. Well, I do feel healthy,
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and I just got I was in Nashville for a couple of days getting some
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blood work done and making sure that that site's taken care of, and I
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think genuinely monitoring my health and being cognizant that there are things that are doing
24:00
that are not good for your health. Yeah, there's a supplementation side to
24:03
that, which I think is talked about too much in terms of how much
24:07
that affects your health. But there's the reality of being three hundred and twenty
24:10
five pounds and that's not good for you. In my last note, Soon
24:14
and Serenata I talked about BMI as a thing, and I think it's a
24:18
really triggering thing for people in the sport to be told that you are obese
24:22
and that means something that's not a good thing. You tend do things to
24:26
make it less harmful, for sure, like exercising regular great. It's combating
24:30
that eating a healthy diet is great and good. It combats that all of
24:34
these things count. And for me, I know what being heavy puts on
24:41
your body. I know what the acute spikes and blood pressure due to your
24:45
heart over time. And you're just naive or dumb if you don't think that
24:51
it's going to have really long lasting effects, which is why I won't go
24:55
above three twenty five three thirty. I just won't do it if that loses
24:59
me the world's title. Okay, the good on the guy who's going the
25:02
extra mile. But on the flip side, I think taking care of your
25:06
health and you sleep a little bit better, you recover a little bit better,
25:07
you move much better, and it probably helps you in the sport more
25:11
than it harms you. So hopefully that's another legacy that I can leave behind,
25:15
is that caring about your health and your body is introgral to perform at
25:21
the top level. No, it's the same thing. I never wanted to
25:26
get above three twenty three, twenty five, three twenty two as the heaviest
25:30
I have ever been, So I get it, I mean one hundred percent.
25:34
I mean yeah. And the thing is is you have the ability to
25:40
still stand with everyone on the static events. And that's that's what. If
25:47
you already have that ability, why do you need to be heavy. If
25:49
you can do it, you do it, and you can, so there's
25:52
no reason to take yourself that much further when there's the risk. Reward is
25:57
not there absolutely, So you know, it's it's just fun. Plus it's
26:03
fun to see me and catching up with you too. Yeah. When did
26:07
they let you out of those handcuffs by the way, the handcuffs, Yeah,
26:18
yeah, a couple of minutes. I sweet talked to him, I
26:21
said, do you know who I am, and then that's awesome. So
26:30
we're who gets into strong men. The alverage person who gets into strong man
26:36
is not someone who like and not to say that no one in the sport
26:40
has lots of friends before they get in, but more often than not,
26:42
we're sort of outcast. We sort of don't get along with a huge number
26:45
of people for whatever reason, maybe because you're abrasive, or maybe because you're
26:48
shy, or maybe lack self confidence or something. We all get into the
26:52
sport because we're a little bit broken in some way, and I think I
26:56
came into it a little bit different than other people, but I very much
26:59
still resonate with that message and say something like stupid like that, like the
27:03
laughs in and around that and having other people see us just fucking about and
27:07
seeing that, Okay, it's not as serious as people might think it is,
27:12
and hopefully it adds a layer of enjoyment because I think I think not
27:17
enough people in the sport are having fun. And that's why I value having
27:21
fun in and around strong men so much, because that's what it started as.
27:25
No one gets into it and says this is going to be my living
27:27
well, and the people who do are like daft, you should not ever,
27:32
ever ever have that. This should be the cherry on up. But
27:36
that then just again drops the barrier. People people realize that they should be
27:40
having fun, and if you're not having fun, go do something else,
27:41
because even if you become a pro, you make whatever money you make,
27:45
if you're not having fun, it's just a waste of time anyway. Anyway,
27:49
Yeah, that's that's I couldn't agree more. It's just so some of
27:57
the stuff, where do you come up with these ideas though I means something
28:00
stuff, I just watch it and I'm just like, It'll be ten twenty
28:04
minutes before I stop laughing about it. They're like, what's so funny?
28:07
I'll show people the video. They're just like, oh shit. I'm like,
28:11
if you're not, go follow them. So but I mean, it's
28:14
just just funny some of the stuff. The girl the way, how much
28:17
do you weigh? One thirty five? Yeah, yeah, that was hilarious.
28:26
Some of it is like me and my team we will just send stuff
28:29
to each other and then rip it from other people. I would say that's
28:32
maybe ten fifteen percent. And then this is just it's just my brain.
28:37
It's just my childlike brain if you let that flow a little bit. I
28:41
think a lot of men are this. You just let stupid ideas flow for
28:45
a bit and then you're gonna come up with something that makes you laugh,
28:47
and it makes you laugh, it probably makes someone else laugh as well.
28:49
My favorite one was the the butt plug video. It like, yeah,
29:02
people talk about the squat plug all the time as a joke, and like
29:06
you just apply that to something that's like part of a social media trend,
29:08
and like that's the recipe to just pop off. And the funniest thing is
29:12
whenever I'm making these videos of all of the things that I do and all
29:17
of the businesses that I run, since they all are downstream from the marketing
29:22
that I do through social media, for the most part, my dollar return
29:26
per time, I think is higher doing stupid content than it is doing anything
29:32
else, because that then people feel like they know me and genuinely that is
29:36
me. Like if you spend time around me, that is who I am.
29:40
I love to laugh about things like that, and then you know,
29:42
then it builds a loyal fan base. It grows the fan base because it
29:45
can go viral, and yeah, just making sure to have fun in the
29:49
process because the days are long, and I'm treating strong men as a as
29:55
a sprint until I retire, and then I'll back things off quite a bit.
30:00
Yeah. Nice, that's good. I will say this world's will watch
30:03
out. Eddie likes to stick plungers on people's heads. I'll pay attention to
30:14
where he said all the time. At least it's good enough to buy a
30:17
new plunger. I'll steal a I'll steal a yamaka from one of my Jewish
30:22
friends, and that'll be my protection. Oh man, that's that's freaking awesome.
30:30
I'm like so excited for this world, dude, I cannot wait to
30:33
go. It's already stacked. But yeah, oh my gosh, I'm just
30:41
sitting here just laughing. So uh hips h. Then, So now I'm
30:49
gonna sit here and pick your brain so you know how bad the rotation of
30:55
my hips are? Correct? Yeah, yeah, you're locked in now.
31:00
If you look at the little smile on his face right now, it tells
31:04
you just how kind of nasty they are. What other things would in your
31:14
opinion, do you think I should be doing to increase that range of motion,
31:19
because I'm already doing quite a bit of stuff. It's getting a little
31:22
better. I can I'm getting down to depth now. It's painful, but
31:26
I'm getting down to depth. Yeah, And I'm starting to be able to
31:30
wiggle under the deadlift bargain. And I'm starting to get back to pulling decent
31:36
at data as well. Sure, is there anything other than replacing them,
31:41
which you recommended? Yeah, anything else I should be doing. Look in
31:51
terms of me recommending replacing them, that's just what I think would get them
31:56
the best. It's not any sort of medical advice. But let's just talk
32:00
first about if you are experiencing and I think a lot of people do that
32:04
restriction of motion, and the hips you have to you have to identify is
32:08
that because of a limitation in your active range of motion or your passive range
32:14
of motion? Active range of motion meaning is it your muscles inhibiting you from
32:19
getting to a spot. And that's something that can be adjusted for sure.
32:22
If it's If it's passive, then it's it's your soft tissues. Now,
32:27
let's talk about soft tissues for a second. When you're when you're older,
32:31
what are the two things that never stop growing? And the reason that the
32:45
nose and ears continuously grow is because cartilage never stops growing as we get older,
32:51
and in a lot of ways, our soft tissues continue to grow unless
32:54
they're stimulated in a way for them not to. So, for example,
32:58
your introvertable discs where are not saying as soft tissue per se, but they
33:01
won't grow because we constantly have that pressure on them, the same way that
33:06
an ex gymnast will be able to do the splits for fifteen years after they're
33:08
done, because we do retain that adaptation. But the cartilage in your hips
33:14
continues to grow forever as well. And if we think about how a baby
33:17
can squat, a baby can squat the way they do because they have so
33:21
little that their astabulum, which is where the femur sits, it's so shallow
33:27
that they have a heaps range of motion. Their head is also disproportionately heavy
33:30
to their bodies, so they can balance in this really nice upward position.
33:34
Sometimes just see on social media that how good it is and how broken adult
33:37
bodies are because we can't do that. We're not meant to be able to
33:39
do that, first of all. But in your case, that carlage continues
33:43
to grow and grow and grow and grow well at a certain stage, it's
33:46
going to grow over the head of your femur so much that you just hit
33:51
this end point. And when you hit that end point, the only thing
33:54
that could happen is you round your low back and your pelvis rotates out of
34:00
your hip, or you abduct your knee as in that you shoot it out
34:04
to the side in that only plane that your hips are allowed to go.
34:08
So your physical therapy, you rehab, your stretching, all of that is
34:13
going to expose as much after range as you can, but it's never going
34:15
to fix your passive range, and so you do have a very low ceiling
34:21
on your ability to be able to increase the range in your hips. That
34:24
being said, the things that you're doing are exactly what you should be doing
34:28
to not lose any more range. If you're squatting to full depth, you're
34:31
not going to allow the cartletge to grow over the hip. If you're trying
34:34
to get down into deadlifting, you're going to improve in small ways, whether
34:38
that's figuring out how to do it or just retaining that range in your hips.
34:43
The thing that's most important is the day that you stop trying to do
34:46
that. If you just said that I'm going to take six months off from
34:50
squatting. I promise you you're never going to be able to squat to depth
34:52
again because that cartlage is going to grow back over and now you've lost your
34:55
range and now you're in big trouble. And I say this because I've actually
35:02
like grabbed your hips and I've moved your leg and you can feel the difference
35:07
between like this is something that could be stretched or just like there's a hard
35:10
block. You know, when you're stretching something, you know, hard block
35:14
or softball, you're stretching hamstrings. If someone says I'm done, you could
35:16
give a little bit extra. There's a little bit of movement there. When
35:21
I take your hips into flexion, it's just like boom and out to the
35:24
side, like straight away. You're like you try to push it in and
35:28
you're like, it's like beating two rocks together. That's never gonna happen.
35:31
That's why I say replacements is something that probably is a smart thing for you
35:37
to do. It has really good outcomes compared to what they have had in
35:40
the past, and the actual load of squatting is much less than the load
35:49
on your hips of doing a yoke right, because the body doesn't feel forced,
35:53
the body feels changes in acceleration and sorry, the body doesn't feel the
36:00
body feels force, and force is a change in acceleration and the weight and
36:05
in the in the hip. When you're yoking, you're bashing your foot into
36:07
the ground. That's way, way, way harder on the hip than it
36:10
is to slowly descend with an eight fifty squad or whatever it may be.
36:15
Yeah, so it's a long wined answer too. Yes, I think you're
36:17
doing anything you can do, but if you really want to be functioning optimally,
36:22
a replacement is probably good. Show. Well, thank you very much.
36:28
It's funny because we always joke Nick's got a built in squat soup.
36:31
You know what I think of that? How dance his muscles and how tight
36:35
his body is. He's like, people need to realize, though, that
36:40
your hips didn't get that way from strong men. It didn't get that way
36:44
from training. The overarching thing about deterioration of joints is genetic, and exercise
36:52
clinically has been shown to reduce the risk of soft tissue deterioration. People who
37:00
run have higher cartilage turnover, meaning it's protecting degradation compared to people who don't
37:06
run. And so we don't have two nick bests to say, here's the
37:08
one that exercised and had hip a placement, here's the one who didn't exercise
37:12
the perfect But the evidence would say that you're actually in a better spot now
37:16
than you would be if you weren't squatting heavy. So no one out there
37:19
should be afraid of them moving like like we do, their parents moving like
37:22
we do. Just if you want to be healthy, just take twenty percent
37:25
off of the intensity and that's a really good place to be in. Right
37:30
on. Thank you, I really appreciate that. Probably weren't expecting to go
37:37
to do that today, Thank you very much. No, I appreciate it
37:43
also proves to my point of everything that you do, you're so knowledgeable.
37:49
You're just a well wealth of knowledge, and that he continues to learn and
37:53
continues to grow. So it's neat that you get to share this stuff with
37:59
people. Just got very lucky that you just happen to work with my face.
38:05
I wanted to kind of it was kind of one of my ways to
38:07
show you, to get you to speak about it that people can see just
38:10
how analytical you are and how knowledge you are about those things. So it's
38:14
just thank you. I appreciate Its quite it's quite irritating to be honest,
38:19
that people can can easily see the upside to relentlessly assessing and calculating. And
38:24
but there's a part to it, or your brain just doesn't shut off and
38:29
there's always things spinning and I'm always googling something and always trying to figure something
38:31
out and always reading something. But there's another side to it where I am
38:37
very calculated, and calculated is a compliment, and it's also an insult because
38:44
you don't want you don't want a calculated friends. You don't want to describe
38:46
a friend that way. And I have to constantly evaluate, like am I
38:52
doing this because I'm doing it for good or because I'm doing it because I
38:55
know where it's going to get me? For example, like donating back profit
39:00
from Lift Heavy Behind. I came up with that idea and the origin of
39:05
what I was thinking is that let's get back to the community, and that's
39:07
great, but then the outcome is people are more likely to support the brand.
39:09
And you're like, no, I'm just I'm just trying to do a
39:12
good thing and anyone else that well, fuck, I guess you just have
39:16
to accept that that's how life goes sometimes. Yeah it is. But you're
39:21
doing a good thing. Yeah yeah, And that's at the end of the
39:23
day. That's the thing. And whether it's calculated or not, good things
39:27
are good things. People sit there and playing calculated bad things all the time.
39:31
So I mean, it's you're calculating to do good thing. That's that
39:36
is great. And you know, people are gonna detract from anything just out
39:43
of jealousy or whatever all the time, and that's on them, it's not
39:46
on you. You're trying to do something that's good. So you know,
39:50
I appreciate all the giving back and all the things that you're doing to this
39:52
sport. And you're one of the few people that will give credit to people
39:57
when you learn things too. Not a lot of the guys that do that
40:00
do. You teach a lot of these guys things and they won't say anything
40:02
about it. You will, And that's pretty freaking cool on my part.
40:06
I think that's extremely impressive. So thank you for all that you're doing for
40:12
the sport, all that you're doing for your you know, your wife and
40:15
your family and everything else. It is extremely impressive to see how together it
40:19
is, you know, and so thank you you will. I do have
40:23
one other question. Other guys can see that being World Strongest Man is propagated
40:30
what I'm doing for sure, But at the Arnold I was the only athlete
40:35
with a booth. At Worlds, I'll be the only athlete with a booth.
40:37
At the Arnold UK, I was the only athlete with a booth.
40:39
And this is just really easy ways to connect with the fans and is going
40:43
to help grow our sport, but also a really easy way for you to
40:45
grow a brand if you'd like to. And then as money will come,
40:49
sure, but you don't even have to think about it or talk about it
40:51
because you're going for two separate reasons, right. But you're also very giving
40:55
as well. I mean, how many World Strongest Man, how many winners
41:01
have gone out and you know set there at OSG and loaded all those events
41:07
and pushed all the all the frames back and picked up all the sandbags and
41:10
do all that. There was other guys there that could have helped, and
41:15
they didn't. Yeah you did. I think like I, Like I've said
41:17
before, the focus should be on them, not on me. It should
41:20
be why is that common rather than it's it's particularly special because I don't and
41:25
I actually run into this problem a little bit. I don't see myself as
41:29
world's strongest man. I just see myself as Mitchell Hooper and that was just
41:32
a normal guy who just struggles to get his own laundry done and leaves dishes
41:38
in the same and like happens to be incredibly gifted at one thing, And
41:44
yeah, I work hard and that's fine, and that's that's an admirable quality.
41:46
Of other qualities that that aren't as admirable, and I'm working on them,
41:51
but we all do. It's it's funny. The problem I run into
41:54
is since I don't see myself that way, but other people do, they'll
42:00
remember these interactions for that that I don't think about at all, and it's
42:06
like, oh, well you didn't. You didn't talk to me here when
42:08
you said this, what did you mean? Or when you you made this
42:13
post? And were you like I made a post? When was it?
42:17
It was a post? But before the Armed UK I said that I'm not
42:21
coming to making appearance, I'm coming to win or something something to that effect,
42:23
and then it was like, oh, he's taking shots at Tom I'm
42:27
like, no, no, my best. So it's difficult navigating interpersonal relationship
42:37
with people who I don't know very well, with fans and other competitors in
42:42
the sport, because they do value your time and your attention and your words
42:46
way more than I probably value them filtering out of my mouth. And so
42:51
it's it's been a process of learning how to behave and that's one of the
42:54
things that I do have to work on because I see myself the exact same
43:01
as everyone else, and I think that's how I want to be, but
43:06
the same way. It runs you into problems if you don't recognize that some
43:07
other people might not see the same way. Yeah, yeah, it does.
43:13
So that leads me to the next thing. Because you're getting well known,
43:19
you're getting things, keep developing, people keep knowing who you are,
43:22
You're starting to get more famous. I mean, how does how does that
43:30
feel? Because like I walk around and got it, I'm just me.
43:32
So people come up to me, they say stuff, I'm nice and you
43:37
know, thank you take a picture with them and do all that stuff.
43:39
Yeah, it can be a little overwhelming at times. How are you?
43:45
And you just kind of explained how you're dealing with a lot of it.
43:46
But how are you dealing with that? Because you as you go, it's
43:51
going to get more and more and more. I mean at the Arnold,
43:54
I'm sure you couldn't walk anywhere without getting stop every two seconds. I go
44:00
to my booth just outside the strong Man Are. I'd go there to just
44:02
like change my shirt. I took one off, put one on, turned
44:06
around the lineup of thirty people. Where did you come from? But if
44:13
you know me, say people, people who knew knew knew me before I
44:17
became who I am today. No part of me wants to be famous.
44:21
No part of me wants to be the social media following ego stroke. I
44:25
don't care. I don't want that. I've never wanted that. But I
44:29
just see too much of an opportunity to do good in the world to not
44:31
build that. And so I run myself into this thing where I'm becoming someone
44:37
and with a platform that that forces me to grow. It makes me,
44:40
It makes me uncomfortable. And the byproduct of that is you do get recognized,
44:45
and now I do. I get recognized virtually everywhere I go by someone
44:49
or another, and the there's a few obvious challenges with it, and you
44:54
learn things about yourself where I've never really considered myself to be someone who gets
45:00
overwhelmed. But if I have a crowd of people wanting my attention, I
45:04
can't deal. I have to leave. If I've got a line of a
45:08
line of people, that's okay, that's better. So for example, like
45:12
I won the Arnold US and for whatever reason, they just allowed everyone on
45:16
to the stage and I was like, no, I'm not doing this,
45:21
so I left the stage immediately. So you'll see pictures with competitors and fans
45:24
and I had to exit. And then you run into the problem well,
45:28
oh, he thinks he's too good for everyone because he left straight away.
45:30
But no, I just left to go to my booth so I could deal
45:32
with a line rather than a mob. So that's one thing. Another thing
45:37
is when you're not If I'm not in a good mood, I just won't
45:40
go out in public anymore because I know if I get recognized by someone and
45:44
I'm in a bad mood, I sort of slough them off that they remember
45:46
that and it impacts them and be training at the gym is becoming more and
45:52
more difficult, so I'm finishing up my basement gym, and now I know
45:55
if I really need to focus, that's becoming a basement gym at activity,
46:00
and if I want a little bit of social time and hang out a bit
46:02
more, I have to accept that at the gym, these people are going
46:06
to come up. The thing that I've really become comfortable with and have learned
46:10
is that you're not going to change people's behavior. You're not going to change
46:14
how they feel you're not. Don't post on Instagram and I never have and
46:16
I never will. Don't post like, don't come up to me today,
46:21
I don't come up to well I'm training. Don't because they want to,
46:24
and they they're they're excited, and that's fine, But you just have to
46:29
really control the environment that you're putting yourself in. Just the same advice.
46:34
So I'll give my daughter, like, if if you put yourself in a
46:37
scenario, in a situation and a bad thing happens because you put yourself in
46:42
a place that you wouldn't be comfortable, well, an element of that rests
46:45
on you. And so if I go out and I'm in a place or
46:49
at the arm of walking around by myself, I know that that's going to
46:52
get too much, and I know I'm going to act in a way that
46:54
I don't want to, i e. Like ignoring people or head down or
46:57
whatever, and that's on me. And I think one of the most powerful
47:00
things that we can do as people is to take just ultimate responsibility and ownership
47:06
over everything. So regardless of whatever anyone says, however I feel whatever it
47:10
is, if I can put it onto myself and say I had the capacity
47:14
to control that in one way or another, then I don't feel so bad
47:17
about it happening because I know I can correct that in the future. But
47:22
it is bizarre. It's very bizarre for someone who never set out to be
47:24
famous, never wanted to be famous, never wanted to be recognized, had
47:29
a difficult time talking to strangers full stop, to becoming who I am now.
47:36
It's a learning process and it's interesting and I really just have two very
47:39
distinct circles. I've got the people who I really trust on a day to
47:44
day basis, and that's a very small set of people. Essentially, it's
47:47
my family and the people who work for me. And then the second layer
47:51
is, you know, people who if I have time and energy, I
47:53
have time and energy, and if I don't, then I don't. I'm
47:57
not going to feel bad about that. And that's really that's really it.
48:01
I've I've got so many more acquaintances than I could ever imagine having over the
48:06
past few years, but I have less people who I would call friends and
48:10
now than I did two years ago. And I'm actually incredibly thankful for that,
48:14
and I'm quite comfortable with Like, if you've got the biggest party you
48:17
could possibly throw, possibly want to throw, I would have twenty people at
48:22
my house, maybe fifteen twenty people, but that's plenty. That's a cap
48:27
where like we're yeah, yeah, it's it's it's interesting on how people handle
48:37
it, and you handle it with a lot of grace. So that's I
48:39
truly, it's pretty much. The one thing I will say about is there
48:44
is just generally rude behavior that people just when they see you as something greater
48:50
than a person. To me, it's dehumanizing and I don't appreciate it,
48:53
even though they're treating you like you're like your way up here. For example,
48:58
yesterday in the air, I forget that the guy has had some sort
49:01
of job there. I don't know if it was TSA or whatever, and
49:06
he just like yelled like and I'm like, don't don't yell at me in
49:12
the airport, you know, don't yell at me. Ever, I've never
49:15
pat you. You're not cheering from your show drawing a bunch of attention to
49:19
me. Then there's a whole like it's just bizarre. And that's that's the
49:22
stuff where I'm like, what do you do? It's gonna get you surrounded.
49:25
Yeah, just leave it alone and just come up and say a quick
49:30
hello or something. But yeah, anyway, it's I will never forget that
49:35
I'm sitting in the house I am, and I drive the car I do,
49:37
and I have the investments I do and the business I do because of
49:39
these people. And I will never fail to acknowledge that. And that's why
49:45
I will be out and available to the public more than any other competitor.
49:50
I will make myself more available. I will take all of the pictures,
49:52
I will sign all of the autographs, everything I possibly can do to reciprocate
49:58
in some small way with the ironic thing being, like I said before,
50:00
that is just going to snowball onto itself. And I do recognize that,
50:04
and I know that, but the root of it is that I just want
50:07
I just want the sport to be taken care of. I want to leave
50:09
it in a better place, and I want to leave individuals in a better
50:13
place after they speak to me than before. And that's on me to control
50:16
when I'm open and ready to do that and when I'm not well. It's
50:21
clear that it's clear that you're doing that, and I from my from where
50:27
I sit, I appreciate that. I appreciate that a lot. It's it's
50:30
impressive and it's neat, and I know the sport that I love, that
50:35
you love, that we all love, is still going to be doing well
50:38
and it's going to be even better, and it's going to get better because
50:40
of people like you and the way the way we left it, which I'll
50:46
announce right now. I'm going to do OSG nice look this year amazing right
50:55
there with them a hold, and you know I'll be there as well.
51:04
I'll be doing my same duties as last year. So that'll be good to
51:08
be able to watch you do your thing. Yeah, it's I'm pretty excited.
51:14
It's why stop doing what I love to do. I didn't know how
51:17
the kidney was going to be I know, I know how it's going to
51:20
be. I'm coming back. You gotta get those shoes back, man,
51:24
Yeah, we already arranged. Well that's amazing. I think it's you bring
51:32
a lot to the sport. You bring a lot of attention, and you
51:37
show your vulnerable side more than anyone I've ever met, which I think,
51:42
for for our sport is incredibly valuable. So however long we can keep you
51:47
around, then I think the better off we are. Thank you. I
51:51
appreciate that. Thank you very much. Oh yeah, and Nick, with
51:54
that being said, uh, you know, Mitch, you have lift heavy
51:59
beakind but Nick has his own saying and we usually end the show like that,
52:06
Well, is there anything else you'd like to say before we colling?
52:10
Is there anything you want to cover? No, just anyone listening. I'm
52:15
incredibly appreciative of all the people who take the time to listen to what I
52:19
have to say. And you know, I take the responsibility probably too seriously
52:23
sometimes, so hopefully everyone can see that my intention is to leave the sport
52:29
in a really good spot. And I get asked the two things I get
52:32
asked the most is like, will you become the greatest of all time?
52:36
And when are you retiring. There's like the two points of interest for people,
52:40
And to that, I'll say, I'm just having a blast competing in
52:44
the sport right now, and so long as I'm having fun doing it,
52:47
I'll be here for the long time to come. But whenever I do decide
52:52
that I'm done, which it won't be ten or fifteen years from that,
52:57
it's not on the cards for me. But when I do decide that I'm
53:00
done, it's impossible for me to see strong men not being a big part
53:02
of my life. That's awesome. Well, thank you so much for taking
53:08
the time. I know you've got a lot going on and I really appreciate
53:12
it. And everybody out there is always trained, hard trains be the best
53:16
you can be. Man good byby you're listening to the best experience would make best