 YouTube, what's up, man? So I'm at 3rd Street Barbells, second Saturday, open gym, D-Lo day. Big pull, going for like an opener, and then we're gonna go check out a meet with the homies. We've got a bunch of lifters here. I am no sane, I'm no angel, but I try to support when I can, so we've got some 3rd Street lifters competing semi-local. We're gonna go check that out, but house is bumping. I'm deadlifting in the corner with the rats, but we're gonna get it done. Definitely in a bodybuilder, but training for aesthetics seems to be what's trending. I've seen like mixed reviews, you know, people try to gatekeep or label things, like doing a powerlifter until you step on the platform, and you ain't a bodybuilder until you step on stage, but that ain't what we're talking about today because I could care less about semantics. I've also seen comments about like, how superficial training for aesthetics may be, like no one cares about you, like, you know, it's a beauty pageant, why are you so obsessed with your looks and your body? And I do think there's an aspect of that in fitness. There's definitely a type of personality that gets blown up, and ego get blown up by how they look. But I think for the majority of us, at least for me, I feel like working out, not only besides the health factors, which are always in the back of my head, you know, my dad died a little young from like heart stuff. I can just have heart failure running in my blood. So one, so I could be here a little longer and hopefully help more people. But two, I want to look a certain way or I feel better about myself when I'm a certain lead in this. And I actually think, you know, not to boost myself up, but I'm probably the best one representative of this conversation because I don't really take my shirt off. I'm not walking around in stringers, I'm flexing on people, I'm posing all day, I'm not in the mirrors, but I still see a benefit when I feel that I look a certain way. And I've talked about it a little bit, but that goes the same way as why I design clothes and why I've been into sneakers and clothes my whole life. In sports and basketball and other things, you dress a certain way to feel a certain way, to perform a certain way. And if it takes sneakers or a new haircut or new jewelry or whatever it might be to build that confidence that then you can do something positive with it, I see no net negative. If you're literally just building muscle, taking steroids, getting lean, to try to show off, to try to get a girl, to try to write, we need to look at and take the aspects that are training small improvements over weeks, months, years and take that into our mentality. I think that training for aesthetics for yourself, right? External motivation versus internal motivation can be a positive. And so for me, as we know, in a week, I'm gonna start a cut, I'm gonna go purely hypertrophy training, you guys can follow along. Be sure to give this thing a thumbs up and a like, subscribe. But I think there's a huge benefit there. If I feel better, I'm gonna be in a better mood, I'm gonna be a better boss, I'm gonna be a better leader, I'm gonna be a better coach and I'll be able to express my gifts and share my gym and my talents better with the world. If I walk around all day feeling bad about myself, how am I supposed to represent and put my best foot forward? So that's not everyone. Sure, some people take different routes and have some mature, some lessons of maturity to grow up to, but I think in the big picture, training is what matters and doing the type of training that makes you feel good is what matters most. Really starts with self-awareness, right? Like contemplating, thinking about yourself, looking, internalizing, thinking about your thoughts, thinking about how you act, how you move throughout the day through the weeks of the month, because when it comes to like motivation, I'm a fan of the barbell and strength training because again, what it can translate into the rest of your life, right? Doing something small every single day to reach a bigger goal and no amount of work in a singular day will get me to that goal. It's about work spread out. But I also think there's a mentality and something about self-awareness that you should know what type of training, I don't wanna get all hippie-dippy Rafiki on you, but like feeds your soul. And so what I found out, and I was even just thinking about this about myself last night when I was kind of meditating, is that powerlifting found me because of athletics or I found powerlifting because of athletics, I wanted to perform, I wanted to see what my body could do and push it to its limits. But the difference between basketball and this is one, the teamwork aspect, although community can be a part, but it isn't always a part of powerlifting, so that's obviously why I built this place. But the type of work in powerlifting, the feeling I get, some people really enjoy the incremental progress. A rep PR, RPE PR, right? You did 500 for RPE 8 last week, but this week or next week you move it for a seven. That feels good, because you can see the physical progress or a five pound PR as an incremental, visual, substantial progress. But for me, what I found is what I like is hard work. And so I despise cardio, I'll never be a cardio guy, but something about bodybuilding, style of training makes me feel like I worked harder. And that's not, don't misquote me. Powerlifting and bodybuilding are different. It's not one's harder than the other. But for me, like leaving exhausted is good for my mental. With powerlifting you work hard, but you don't always feel exhausted, right? Like today I did five working reps, right? A top single and then three sets of two at the bottom. I guess six, right? But it's not like the same where if I can leave totally dripping and sweat, something about my mental likes that. So bike rides, sprints, sled work, even just bodybuilding circuits or pushing a chest press to failure, there's something in that that I do thrive off of. So that's one reason I'm making the switch. I say all of that basically for you to find your motivation. You have to understand what feeds you, fulfills you and makes you feel like you accomplished something. Some people like big projects, huge projects, the build up, the build up, the progress, the work, and then get there. Some people, like a barber, I've talked about this with my barber, some people like to see a project, fix a project, and the project's done quickly. Right, like construction's similar. Oh man, we gotta fix this window, we do it, we work on it, and that was done. Some people really get fulfillment from project, or issue, project fix, where building a gym in a community, right, it's never done. The progress is always there. There's always things to improve, there's always ways to improve the membership relationship, the membership experience, the community, and the culture. Some people really get off on that, right, the big picture stuff. So you just gotta find out what it is that drives you and really fulfills Rafiki feeds your soul. Understand for me, I'm not a power lifter, but what I do love to do is like, kind of cultivate some community and culture, and so that's what we try to do in our clothing, we're a good company, we talk about losing weight, and methods to train, and kind of build confidence education through lifestyle change, and that's kind of the ultimate goal here, right, reach as many people as I can. What's really cool, and I thought about this the other day is like, some things I've done in the past, whether it be podcasts or YouTube, we're on a bigger scale than what I do and move now, but the impact I have I think is deeper and a wider net now, and I know those are like cliche ass words, y'all, if you guys create, you've maybe seen other life coaches or business folks, and people talk about impact or helping your community and giving value and all these words, and sometimes when they're regurgitated so much, they lose value, I think. To be able to build a gym of lifters that are having fun, getting healthier, and helping give back to each other is the ultimate goal, so I wanna continue to try to lead by that as much as I can. Now, you may or may not believe it or may or may not know, but I'm insanely introverted. I don't like crowds, I don't like being social. A lot of my energy goes into my employees, my work and business, and then being social in these doors because I want people to be welcome, and you can call that fake if you want, but it's me, it's just, I want people to feel welcome. So we got a group of young cats, they were all competing today, and so me and the crew decided to go say what's up, show them a little bit of support, you know? I think, I don't know, you know, because I was never very sentimental in certain instances, but I do know for some people, a little support goes a long way, and so we couldn't make the whole day, Abby had stuff to do, we had to bring her back here to get to her car, but being able to show up for the guys, just say what's up, see a couple of their bench press attempts, give them a fist bump, hopefully made their day a little bit better, and there's a lot of ways you can give back to the sport, and I think that's one of them. You know, you can start in the micro, just helping one person in the gym, lift off, don't be mean, share a rack, give them some tips, load their bar, unload their bar form, all the way up to, you know, the money stuff, even little ones, right? Like we had to pay to get into that gym to watch that meet, and that goes towards, I guess, hypothetically a competitor, a third street, but the truth is, it goes to lifters, so hopefully that money's being used to help support the sport, more competitions, and the lifters within that gym and that community, and so little things like that, if you kind of switch how you think, rather than like, damn man, I gotta pay money to just watch lifting, like, no man, that money's going towards other lifters, new equipment, or keeping their facility clean, or building the community events that are going on, so I have no issues with stuff like that, and that's what we try to do to give back, and the impact of, you know, February 4th and 5th, having our meet here, hopefully is gonna be a similar thing, where we're having 200 plus lifters, hopefully have one of the greatest meets and fun of their life. Now, what makes a great meet? Just run smooth, safe, and have a good time, and that's all we're trying to do, there's no magic. We were just talking off air a little bit about prepping for a meet, or tapering for a meet, and it's kind of the same, like, you can fuck up your strength in the last couple months, but you ain't gonna automatically do one training session, or one accessory, or one lift in a day that's gonna make you that much stronger, right? Being strong is cumulative over weeks, months, years, but you can do shit to fuck it up, and running a meet, or showing support, I think is similar. You can do something small, and just showing up is enough, but not showing up, or not paying, or not being supportive of an individual, or being grumpy, or giving someone a mean look in the gym can take away from that adventure so much. You don't have to go above and beyond, you don't have to put on a parade for powerlifting, but just doing the bare minimums, inviting someone to train with you, giving them liftoffs, offering little things like that can go such a long way, so the long rant basically to say, to support people where you can, you don't have to go crazy, you don't have to get into debt, you don't have to waste your whole day, but you can support the sport yourself, and those around you really helping build that community by just little acts of kindness, man, so. It was cool to go to another gym, again, getting my face in the powerlifting scene a little bit, trying to support as much as we can. We will be at the Arnold, if you all are gonna be at the Arnold, say what's up, Abby's competing, we're basically just going to support her, but I'm sure we'll walk around and see a bunch of old friends and vlog, and so you guys can see that adventure with us, that's in about a month, so stay tuned, be sure to give this thing a thumbs up, subscribe, and I hope you guys are enjoying the video. Selling the mic, I'm outta here, man.