 So one of the reasons why I like dive really deep into powerlifting is I feel like it's like the most basic, most relatable, easy to get into way to build strength, not just like literally in the body, but in your mind and in life, right? I think like when you train your body and you're able to improve incrementally, ride the ups and downs and build a strong body, what you're really building is a strong mind. And when you can build a strong mind, you can then ride the ups and downs of life and be successful in life. And that's why I like, I love powerlifting because it's literally has so many parallels, there's injuries, setbacks, the equipment, the circumstances, sometimes none of those things are ideal at all. But do you just show up and go nah, I'm not going to lift today? No. I just go through it just like the way life is. So to me, that's why powerlifting is so freaking amazing. It's something that you still see people that are 70 years old, hit a PR, like one of my first meets, I saw a 70 year old squat 405 and I was like, oh, shit, this is freaking crazy. You know, like you can set PRs, there's never too young to start, never too old, doesn't matter your gender, your size, everyone needs to build strength and that's why I love powerlifting. Ooh, why do I have too high a level? It's the one sport where as much as I put in, I get out. So the more work I put in myself, the more I can see progress and especially like, I'm a scientist so I love the nitty gritty, like little details and the mechanics things. So the more I learn about it, the better my technique became, the better my numbers became. So that's what attracted me to it, of course there's a lot of other sports like it, but I feel like that's one where you can kind of choose to be your individual person working towards the goal or you can be on a team to push each other. So I love it. It's good for every aspect of life for me. Out of all the sports, why pick powerlifting? I think when I was a kid, my favorite thing was community and I couldn't play football, I couldn't do wrestling, I got injured in both and my grades, but mainly because of injury and we had a weight room like right next to all the football players played and I would be in there all day literally every single day after school until they got out of practice. More people started having fun with that. I just remember even when I was in football during the summer, the funnest part about training was the weight room, the camaraderie, the hype and it was all very direct. You saw results right away, you saw the results and the weights moving up and it was just a fun place to hang out and as I got older, I only found that in the gym. It's like a community of people from all walks of life get together and have the same common goal of wanting to get better in the gym and also try to improve your own life. So that's why I really fell in love with powerlifting and lifting weights. Why did I pick to coach in powerlifting? It's an opportunity to work with human beings in my community, teach them the things that I believe are very important through sport and through the sport of powerlifting. You learn a lot about yourself. You learn a lot about how to fail and that it's okay to fail and you have to troubleshoot and problem solve and find a way to overcome. And if you have goals, you have to work for those goals relentlessly in a smart way as well in a structured way and create the best plan possible in order to find a way how to make those goals come true. And I come from a background of football. I come from many backgrounds of martial arts. Growing up was like my first sports and those things taught mental toughness. And I believe mental toughness is something that is extremely important for a human being's character and development, but also for someone to live life and understand that there's always going to be something going on. But what are you going to do to overcome that? And how are you going to maintain the highest quality of life? So powerlifting to me and why I am in powerlifting, it's greater than just lifting weights. It's greater than just calling numbers and having the fulfillment of achieving a personal record or all time best, right? So that's why I would say I joined the sport. Yeah, that's why I say I lift and that's why I coach. Why did I choose powerlifting? So it's kind of tracks back all the way to high school. I had surgery when I was growing up and my small intestine. Like I legitimately had to tear through my abdomen and I was like really weak for like a week. So like I couldn't walk, I couldn't do anything on my own. I was like really insecure about my strength, my looks and I want to get stronger and bigger. And I literally, I was like that type of kid to like look up bodybuilding.com workouts, how to get strong, how to get bigger. And it told me to squat, bench and deadlift. So basically like from then on, I fell in love with the movements itself, I stopped caring about how I looked and legitimately I just wanted to get stronger and stronger and stronger. And then I found out that powerlifting was a sport. And when I stepped on the plow for the first time, legitimately I fell in love with the sport. Like I wanted to do more, it was like an addiction. And every time I trained, I got a fire, I had a burning desire to get better and better and better. So I think we put this opportunity to like be able to give the people that are competing for the first time like this meet, like seeing new lifts like your brother for example, like the best example I could think of like he's having a great time so far. Like he has his entire community behind him. But yeah, that's kind of what I got in powerlifting. Talking about powerlifting. You know, I think the step into it or the door opening for me was for athletics. You start to research anything. I want to be a strength and conditioning coach. I first wanted to play basketball again. So I dropped out of college and I had to train myself to be faster, jump higher, more durable. I'm only five, nine, five, 10. Difficult to play at the division one level or professional amateur level, which I played out of it. You start to do research, some kind of hinge, some kind of squat and some kind of press or often what pops up to get you stronger and ready for that world. You know, in combination with some plios and sport specific stuff, like actually playing the sport. When I decided not to go back to school and found real powerlifting, I was thrown into the flames. You know, I dropped into the strongest gym on the planet at the time. And what kept me around wasn't necessarily the pursuit of strength, although I think that is what gets a lot of people addicted to the sport, constantly improving, seeing the PRs, the rep PRs, the volume PRs, the strength and muscle over time. For me, it was kind of the community. And obviously that roots into why we built Third Street. I think that when you enjoy the process with like-minded individuals, your level of success and the rate of success and your chances to exceed what you thought is capable goes through the roof. So the community itself, we can bicker all day long about federations and deadlift bar, no deadlift bar and maybe some executives and business and politics in the sport. But when you dive into the root of the community, the people of powerlifting, it's a very, very special niche. Ladies and gentlemen, just a little insight why powerlifting, why it's in our veins, why we promote it, why we give back to the sport, whether it's energy, running meets, money, building the communities ourselves best we can. That's it. 3sb.co, grab your tea right now. Confious, most durable tea in the game. We over me, be a part of something bigger yourself, man. Community and culture always. Salam, Mike. I'm out.