The World’s Strongest Man

Mitchell Hooper1:17

They got

Mitchell Hooper1:33

Yeah.

Mitchell Hooper1:35

Uh relatively speaking, you wouldn't have pegged me as the future world's strongest man, but um yeah, I was always bigger than than my peers. I was always relatively stronger than most people I came against. Um but I I didn't train to be strong for a very long time. I got to the gym when I was 16. And when I was 16, I was a bit overweight and my objective was train to look good to try to get a girlfriend. And then as time goes on, I've gotten uh further and further away from that initial goal.

Mitchell Hooper2:42

Yeah, yeah.

Mitchell Hooper2:49

Early days, like I remember so before I actually got in the gym, I was 14 years old. I made the football team. And this is week one of school. I'm in grade nine. And a couple of guys in grade 10, they invited me to come over to their garage for lunch. And they had a bench press. They said, "How much could you bench?" And I said I just knew that 225 is what strong people could bench. And so I said 225 cuz I'm strong. Like in my head, that's what I'm saying.

And they put 225 on the bar. And I lock it and I it's locked out. It's heavy and I'm shaking. I'm like bravado. I bring it down and just crashes on my chest. You know, it took me a little bit of training. I think the first time I hit 225, I was probably 17. I didn't hit 315 until I was 19 in college.

Mitchell Hooper3:36

It is. It is. But if you look at some of the kids today, it's absolutely off the charts. They'll be benching 500 at 18 and crazy stuff like that. Um I I do wonder what I could have done as a teenager and late teen if I focused on getting strong cuz I was trying to be in a calorie deficit and trying to get abs and trying to um and just trying to look good and um sport performance was a small part of that but by the time I graduated high school I could deadlift 600 I could squat 500 I could bench 275 so

It's strong but it's not world's strongest man and up and coming strong.

Mitchell Hooper4:11

No my dad he played he played basketball at the University of Queens up in Canada. My mom was a distance runner she she ran six marathons which I watched as a kid but nobody in my family is particularly strong.

Mitchell Hooper4:29

Sort of I just happened to be larger and and through my whole athletic career my advantage was was essentially that I was bigger than everyone else at similar positions so let's say in in football it'd be normal for me to be a defensive tackle I was a rush end I could get around the edge faster and they couldn't deal with my size and rugby I'd play with the backs not the forwards I kind of got by on that and there was no objective measurements of my strength for quite a while.

Then I did my undergraduate degree in Canada I went and did my master's degree in Australia and in Australia is where I started weightlifting seriously so they didn't know they didn't know how strong I was getting I went and I did the powerlifting championships in in Australia and I won the national title. But you don't really know at that point I was deadlifting just shy of 800 I was squatting just shy of of 650. Which is good but you really have no context and funny enough I did a few strength contest during COVID and the first time my family was able to see me compete and really see me against anyone was at world's strongest man.

Mitchell Hooper5:29

Yeah.

Mitchell Hooper6:18

Yeah.

Mitchell Hooper6:38

Yeah, I still feel that every day. Yeah, I I think there's give or take 4 billion men in the world. For me to have any sort of assertion that I'm the strongest of 4 billion, it it will never feel true in the heart of hearts. You like I say in and again, no disrespect to the competitors. I I'm not surprised by what I can do.

Mitchell Hooper6:56

I'm surprised that there's not some guy in Scandinavia or in Russia or something who could smoke me.

Mitchell Hooper7:03

And there isn't. There's nobody.

Mitchell Hooper7:05

That's such a weird feeling.

Mitchell Hooper7:29

I thought that for a long time.

Yeah, I don't think that anymore.

Mitchell Hooper7:32

Yeah, because if you get context from other sports and and I'm friends with some guys in the NFL, they're huge, they're strong, and their best deadlift is 600 to 700 lb, which is incredible. My best deadlift is 1050. We're not even We're not even close. And so I I I have internalized that you know, we're finding the strongest people in our sport. And you can't accidentally find your way there. Now, I do think if the prize money was $10 million, you'd have some guys coming out of the woodwork, coming from other sports who could potentially beat us.

But you know, for the time being, I think it's I think it's safe to say that there's nobody just hanging out who's stronger. But to your point, I never started in strongman thinking I want to be the world's strongest man, the same that you didn't think I want to set records. And I think that's really important because if you have the objective from day one that I want this accolade, you're never going to enjoy the process. And you're going to be devastated when you accomplish the accolade because the accolade kind of means nothing.

I mean, yeah, you got to write a book about it. And you're That's about as good as it gets.

Mitchell Hooper9:31

Yeah. And and it's for me, it's a a massive internal battle. I feel you accomplish all these things you set out to accomplish. and in my case way more than I set out to accomplish. And it's weird for me not jumping out of bed as happy as I imagined I would be.

Yes, that's right. I actually the the overarching thing with being successful and having money and all that is I was in a apartments in Sydney that was about 600 square feet. It was a kitchen that we could hardly cook in. We had to move the couch to bring out the dinner table to watch TV. It was small small. And I think of my time then versus now and the biggest change in internal thought is that if everything went upside down right now, I can't get another job that would pay for all the stuff that we have.

Where like that other place, there's a million jobs. You just if everything goes bad, you just go work at the grocery store and you'll figure it out and whatever. So it's the stress is absolutely changed. It's a privilege to have stuff and it's very cool and provide a life, but um yeah, it's it's just weird to to go through the actual experience of your successes, your accolades, your well, whatever it is, it solves nothing. And it's the hedonic treadmill of whatever you do, you get used to.

And if you got that boat that you've always wanted, you're going to love the [ __ ] out of it for a month. And then it's just your boat. And then it breaks down. And then [ __ ] you got to paint it.

Mitchell Hooper10:59

But it it it's almost a freeing thing as well and and same thing with travel and meeting people and experiencing things. When you think of all of your best experiences and I think of every strongman contest this way, the best part for me is that my family gets to get together and we used to go have dinner. And if I have a trophy and we have dinner, great. And if I don't, then great. Yeah, it's it's often times you just remember the places, the things, the accolades, the memories.

It's like what what was the meal that you remember? Your best memory is laughing like crazy for me at the Olive Garden. That's my favorite place in the world. And uh yeah, it's it's pretty humbling that way, but it's an important lesson.

Mitchell Hooper12:00

Yeah. Well, I I in uh 2022 was my first World Strongest Man. I then was on the podium for major international shows 26 times in a row. And then I had some personal turmoil, some injuries. Then I come third at World Strongest Man last year, and then I come seventh at a small show over in Europe. Um and it was very much a mental health thing, and I just my life was crumbling. Uh and the number of people who would have been at my party when I won World Strongest Man who totally ousted me was massive.

It was up to 90% of the people I interacted with. Then I win the next major show, uh Rogue Invitational, and then I win the Arnold this year, then I win Worlds this year. And over time, the number of people who have now come back around there, "I'm so happy to see you're doing well. I'd love to get together, do this." That's a great lesson, isn't it?

Mitchell Hooper12:51

I'm good, thank you, but uh Thanks for your time. And as men, uh in my opinion, if you've got two people, two friends you can have an honest conversation with, you are miles ahead of anyone else.

Mitchell Hooper14:07

Yeah, it's it's a nicer world than you'd expect. In fact, it's strange cuz it's like it's more of a passive-aggressive thing than you would imagine. You'd think for guys our size it's aggressive-aggressive and I'm going to [ __ ] smoke you.

Mitchell Hooper14:19

It's just like this kind of weird underhanded Kumbaya feeling, but you know, behind the curtains there's a little bit more personal feelings. Um yeah, it's it's a friendly environment at the local level, extremely friendly. Um at the top level, guys are just so different and you add in um you add in uh performance-enhancing drugs and the things that that can do for your your emotions and your personality and um you know, less than some people think, but it still exists on top of the stress of of competition.

It's uh it can get a little bit tense, but it's never you you're never unhappy for someone to win in our sport. Yeah. The the sort of common thing the common theme is I would like to beat you at your best and and that's true.

Mitchell Hooper15:27

Yeah, I don't think anyone encourages it, per se, but it's it's kind of a non-negotiable.

Mitchell Hooper15:36

Yeah, you you couldn't you couldn't win a major international show without the help. Because you're taking guys with the best genetics in the world who are doing it.

Mitchell Hooper15:44

I don't care how good your genetics are, you're not going to outdo that person on any sort of regular basis.

Mitchell Hooper15:58

Yeah, and I think

Mitchell Hooper16:03

Semi. Now, I've joined the enhanced game, so I talk about a lot more. Right now, they they try to get us to not talk about it. And a lot of

Mitchell Hooper16:13

Yeah, yeah, we're talking about it now. Uh but the only strongmen involved in the enhanced games are me and Thor. Um and Thor doesn't talk much about it. Um yeah, there there are some personal ramifications, but the thing that I keep saying to people is with performance-enhancing drugs, more generally speaking, if kids want to find information on performance-enhancing drugs, on recreational drugs, on pornography, on you can go find it in 2 seconds with your smartphone.

So, we're not really hiding it from the kids. It's not It's not a new thing to them. I don't think anyone cares if an adult chooses to do something. I think if we have the conversation, the only people we're alerting to this issue that weren't already aware is the parents of the kids who might choose to do it. They don't even realize it's a possibility.

Mitchell Hooper16:55

Um and so, I think we need some good information out there. Because on the downside, there's performance enhancement, and there's the with with running, with strongman, with PEDs, with natural sport, anything, you can choose to be healthy, or you can choose to be an elite athlete.

Mitchell Hooper17:10

And not many people understand that that's not the same thing. I'm sure when you're at your peak running, your your knees, or your hips, or your back, something is screaming at you, for sure.

Mitchell Hooper17:18

And frankly, if it's not, you're probably not working hard enough. Like, you got to tow the line. Um

Mitchell Hooper17:32

For sure.

Mitchell Hooper17:49

Yeah, for sure.

Mitchell Hooper17:53

100%, yeah. Always in pain. But to just round that out, if you're choosing to perform at an elite level doing anything in life, you're going to be sore. The other side, and the bit that I find PD is extremely relevant to this, we talk about the health and longevity side, and the difference between health span and life span in the western world right now. It's It's not good, and it's growing. And if we can do something that would mean that people have more muscular power, better balance, more more muscles, better body composition, better weight management, uh and that means that you're going to extend your health span, well, there are substances that can help you do all of that.

And we kind of have to pull the curtain back and like, what are the downsides of these things? But there are very real upsides if you do it properly.

Mitchell Hooper18:40

They did.

Mitchell Hooper19:13

Yeah.

Mitchell Hooper20:22

But is is it not insane that we look at a situation like your wife and it's this allegedly unsolvable problem, but we've gotten really [ __ ] good at solving the problem of 13-year-old girls and messing with their hormones for birth control. If we put the same energy that we put into that decades ago into anti-aging protocols and hormone modification for middle-aged people, the world would be a better place, but then you can go down the the cynical rabbit hole of like do the people in those positions want the world to be a better place in that way?

You've got the extreme on either side of the political spectrum who are acutely aware of course, but then you just have inherent problems that I don't accept anyone not having an issue with, which for example in Canada, if your child goes to school and let's say your your daughter tells their teacher, I would like to be called he he him.

Mitchell Hooper21:12

That teacher is instructed to not share that with the parents. Now it's a secret from Yeah, so anyway, we could go down a whole rabbit hole, but it is crazy that we can we can modify whether it's for birth control or for transgender, whatever it is, modifying hormones is super well accepted, but in my case for example, I'll modify my hormones half as much as what your wife's going through right now, and there's outrage with the enhanced. How could you ever do this as a grown man making your own choice that's informed you're going through extensive medical testing.

It's it's really backwards, but it's just what we're used to. You know, and and one thing that's that's very useful to talk about is I'm asked so much ever since I've started about performance enhancing drugs. I'm starting talking about it. Are you concerned about your health? Are you concerned about being there for your family? Are you concerned about the long-term effects? Are you concerned about your heart? And the answer is yeah, kind of, but I'm much more concerned about being obese, and frankly exercise volume being extremely low.

Why does no one care about that?

Mitchell Hooper22:11

And it's because it's common. It's not normal, but it's very common. You see other obese people, and and and I'll tell people this, and they'll go, but you have so much muscle, and you know, you you you are active, and you have that tell that to my heart. My heart still has to pump all that blood around all the body. It's not good for you.

Mitchell Hooper22:30

And so it's, you know, it's funny how people will care so intimately about what one person does in one context, and other context just turn a total blind eye.

Mitchell Hooper23:29

Yep.

Mitchell Hooper23:41

Well, it's it's just a misunderstanding of of delayed gratification almost. What feels good today versus what's right for tomorrow is so different. We had in my hometown in in Barrie, Ontario, we had last week high school kids be given a pamphlet with a straw on safe snorting protocols for children 14 to 17.

Mitchell Hooper24:05

No.

In a public school.

Mitchell Hooper24:11

I don't know. I don't know what the objective is.

Mitchell Hooper24:20

Oh.

Mitchell Hooper24:21

The second I was in the gym.

Mitchell Hooper24:23

Everyone in the gym was on performance enhancer. I mean, not everyone, of course, but

Mitchell Hooper24:29

I'm not in the top 100 users at my gym. I promise you that. But yeah, I knew of a kid at another school who was using a We called it a horse steroid, which I assume was EQ. I I didn't really know, but he was using steroids and you know, as I went through the athletic pathway, it wasn't a thing in college football in Canada. I didn't really hear of it. And then I just did my own thing at the gym for quite a while and was sort of just insular and I didn't want to talk to people and socially uncomfortable.

But then immediately when I got into the strength world, it's like, yeah, it's a it's a very real thing everywhere. And not just in the strength world, in the bodybuilding world, the aesthetics world, the regular gym goer world because like gratification I I value propose you inject yourself twice a week and make gains five times faster for the same amount of input. It's a very difficult thing to say no to.

Mitchell Hooper25:20

Yeah, so I I took it really seriously when I started. I in terms of making the decision to do it. So, I had competed in strongman a few times. I had won a state title. When I won the state title for the second time, that was very near World's Strongest Man. And I looked at the weights that they were doing at World's Strongest Man, and I thought if I have a little bit of help, I could I think I could be there. And when I thought that that I could do it, and I thought that there would be some sort of payoff.

If I actually informed myself of what the payoff would be from the for the average professional strongman, I absolutely wouldn't have done it. I thought it was much more luxurious.

Mitchell Hooper25:55

Turned out really well, but I called my mom, I spoke to my wife, I called my dad, I called everyone around me to just sort of check me of am I being overzealous about this? And the common response was basically, you're you're a smart guy. Do what you think is right. Don't compromise your health too much. And um you know, if you think it's the right thing to do, then sure. And I I with these people, I I put some protocols in place of is my personality changing?

Um what kind of health um screenings should I be doing? And um and some commitments to uh to my my wife of of what is this going to look like? Um but it's it's funny cuz she's a vet. So, I asked her, "What do you think?" And she says, "Yeah, that's fine with me. I can trust you, whatever." And the next day, I have a vial and needles, and I have it sat on the counter. Uh I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know how to do it.

She's a vet, she knows. And so, the vial and needles are there the next day, and She walks and she sees it and immediately starts crying. I'm like, "What are you saying?" Yes. She goes, "I didn't think it would be this fast." It's one of those things you should get it tomorrow if you if you know people and you want it. Um so, anyway, she's my enabler. She showed me how to use it. And we're off to the races, but it started with uh with testosterone and then um I took a a compound called NPP, which is a shorter form acting of of deca, which um adds a a little bit of water to your joints and and helps with strength.

Um so, I took those two and and that's what I that's what I sat on for a very long time.

Mitchell Hooper27:26

Strength gains, massively. Massive gains.

In 6 months, my deadlift went from about 780 lb, 350 kilos, to 430 kilos.

Mitchell Hooper27:45

Yeah, 100%. Placebo, 100%.

Mitchell Hooper27:48

Um but one of the hard things is like convincing myself that I could keep lifting more weight because it's just a a rate of progression that I'd never experienced. Um when I started doing some other stuff, so there's um I think I I probably want to end the specific substance conversation there cuz like people know about those. I don't want people to to try to think that get inspired by what I say.

Mitchell Hooper28:07

But there are some that cause a lot of water retention, and water retention is great for strength, terrible for endurance, but depending on what you're doing, you're doing say a one rep max deadlift, it's it's fine.

Mitchell Hooper28:16

I took some stuff and 2 days later, I tried to walk the

Mitchell Hooper28:21

And literally going for a walk around the block with my dog, my calves and low back were so pumped up, so full of fluids, I had to like lean over the railing of a of a sidewalk, and I had to take a break for like 5 minutes. I couldn't make make a 10-minute walk with my dog without my calves chilling out. Um and that was very quick at the end of that one. It's not something I'm willing to give up. Um but yeah, it's it's a interesting world, and it's one that's so far from black and white.

You know? If you told me I'm taking 100 mg of testosterone a week, it's okay. You know, I don't really bat an eye. If you tell me I'm taking 2,000 mg of trend a week, it's like, you're going to die. Are you insane? The The difficult thing is we don't have empirical data to say this is a good idea and this is a bad idea. We have a lot of people with practical experience and bro science and some really smart people who have claimed to figure stuff out, but they're not figuring stuff out through really well-established research studies.

They're figuring it out through educated trial and error and listening to people and whatnot. So, with with Enhanced Games, it's the first time they're taking a control group of young, healthy people, putting them on performance enhancements, and seeing what it What's the upside? What's the downside? And how does this apply to the general population?

Mitchell Hooper29:46

Yeah, so I'm in a different category. Me and Thor are in a different category because we've taken performance enhancements before, but for the other athletes, they were over in the UAE. They were They were given their protocols. This is what you take and here are the substances. So interesting. Could they fake it? No. If they fake it or they took extra, the doctors would know. I mean, they see a testosterone reading, they say you're you're a liar.

Mitchell Hooper30:06

You can't do this. Yeah, I'm sure you can sneak this, that, or the other, but by and large, you're going to get the picture.

Mitchell Hooper31:02

No. No.

Mitchell Hooper31:04

Yeah. I started performance enhancements when I was about 24 and my last marathon was in 2018. So, when I was uh 22.

Mitchell Hooper31:13

My best time was 3:24. I've run three. It was 3:24, 3:30, 3:34.

Mitchell Hooper31:18

Last one My last one, you'll appreciate this. I wanted to qualify for Boston. So, sub 3:05 for my age category. It's like the typical you're an idiot.

Mitchell Hooper31:27

Uh I went Toronto marathon and first half I was on fire and you know, I'd get my kilometer split times in my headphones and I felt good and I finished the first half in 1:24.

Mitchell Hooper31:39

Like if you run 1:24 in the first half and you're aiming for 3:05, you're either very lucky or in serious trouble. So, I was in serious trouble.

Mitchell Hooper32:02

The The helplessness that I would describe though was more like I want to bench 405. And And I I could mostly control it on the way down. That's how hopeless it feels.

Mitchell Hooper32:21

Yeah. I was on I was on the road uh with with 10K's to go. So, about seven miles or seven miles or so. And both of my quads were cramping and my my right hamstring was cramping. And so, I just stood there, just waiting for the cramp to stop. Cuz you have no choice. And I'll never forget this like mom who clearly knew nothing about racing. And I'm leaning up at the time you can see that they're just screaming at me. She crosses the barrier to come right up to my face go, "You can do it.

Come on, please." Please, just leave me alone for a minute.

Mitchell Hooper32:58

I learned about it in 2023 for the first time. And I visited their office in London. I invited them to a strongman show. And from the get-go, I've been I've been pushing them to be involved.

Mitchell Hooper33:09

Oh, cool.

Because my my background and how I got started into strongman is not typical. I graduated my undergraduate in human kinetics. I worked as a strength conditioning coach with a pro basketball team. The season ended. And I kind of came to the realization that in sport, if your team wins or you win, your fans are happy. And if the other team wins, the other fans are happy. So, it's like you're going to build your career on a net neutral. You're making no difference to the world at all.

And the only thing that I loved was the gym. And that's the only like consistent thing that I wanted to do. And I had several family members with health issues. There was no option in Canada for exercise as medicine. So, I went to the University of Sydney in Australia. When I decided to go from sport performance to exercise as medicine, there are three qualities that you ask people to to improve to improve their long-term health. That's um weight management to lose weight, it's get aerobically fit and get strong.

So, I lost 100 lb, did a bodybuilding show. I then ran those three marathons, then entered strength contest. And all of them were just so that if you have never exercised in your life or someone who always has, I can at least tell you I know what it's like going from a low base and accomplishing a high base. So, we're going to take you from no base and get you to a a medium base. Um so, that was my path into um into strength sports. Now, I didn't want to be involved in strength sports.

I wanted to do exercise as medicine. I wanted to improve people's health span. And fortunately, unfortunately, say pulled into sport performance again because I happen to be so good at at strength training. Um

But a week before my first World Strongest Man, I opened my clinic, which is for exercises medicine. And I still have that, and that's still my passion. So, I always find ways to draw some meaning behind lifting weights, which is inherently a very meaningless thing. And with Enhanced and with the idea that we could disrupt the current medical model in a way that improves health span for people, that sort of destigmatizes the idea that middle-aged people could actually live a much better, healthier, productive life. They could be stronger, they could be faster, but more importantly, they could control their blood glucose, their blood lipids, their their weights, their muscle mass.

Um and we can improve life that way. When I heard about that as something that was going to occur, um just with what I want to accomplish professionally, it's it's something that I felt like I had to be involved.

Mitchell Hooper35:28

I don't think it matters. I think in terms of long-term health outcomes, it's about the same. Um but it's easier to manage your weight if you do cardio.

Mitchell Hooper35:39

Yeah, but if if you're taking the same person, same body weight, and you start them on either a high-intensity resistance training protocol or a anaerobic protocol, their health outcomes are going to be extremely similar. Whether we're talking about blood glucose control, uh we're talking about um fat around the organs, we're talking about aesthetics, we're talking I mean, aesthetics, of course, resistance training is going to be better, but aesthetics in terms of like health and you don't look like a mass, it's going to be much the same.

Um the cardiovascular um adaptations and improvements from aerobic training and from strength training for the average person are way more similar than you would ever expect.

Mitchell Hooper36:22

Yeah.

Mitchell Hooper37:01

But when we talk about exercise and and what's best for someone's long-term health and and what's best to make progress in any direction, aerobic training it's going to make you progress, strength training is going to make you progress. This middle territory that a lot of people exist in, which is say a body weight reps to 100,

Mitchell Hooper37:17

It's not getting you strong and it's not a very good aerobic workout. So you're kind of stuck in this middle ground, you're actually not doing a whole lot. You feel good because you've done something, but um I would say as long as you're sticking to one thing or the other um or some sort of combination where you're you're really focusing on one or the other, um I think that's far more important than anything else.

Mitchell Hooper38:04

Mhm.

Mitchell Hooper38:07

Research shows that between 5 and 25 there's not a substantial difference.

Mitchell Hooper38:11

And and this is the thing. People believe that exercise is so much more complicated than it is. And if you want to be a world champion, it's it's intricate. If you want to be generally healthy, you want to make the most of your training. The problem isn't really rep scheme, it's not even really volume that most people run into. It's just lack of intensity. So, if we're structuring a exercise protocol for someone whose goal is to be healthy long-term, and they want to go in the gym and and do the work there.

There are six fundamental movement patterns, and ironically, this is a strongman contest as well. It's push, pull, squat, hinge, overhead press, and carry. So, we need those six elements done in some way over the course of a week. But when it comes to rep range, we're talking 5 to 25. If we're talking volume and number of sets, if you do two to four sets very close to failure per movement per week, plenty. And so, if you say, "I went in and I did three sets of five bench press with one to two left in the tank, then I did three sets of seated machine row with one to two left in the tank at eight, and that was my upper body workout for the day." I have absolutely no problem with that in terms of progress.

Mitchell Hooper39:25

As long as you reach the intensity. If you're at If you're at 25 body weight and it's not hard, add a little bit of weight and go for your life. If If you're If you can do two, well, you should probably get a little bit of assistance to get some sort of volume.

Mitchell Hooper39:37

But it's it's really uncomplicated. And and it doesn't really matter for the average person if you choose to do bench press this week, dumbbell bench press next week, incline bench press the week after, so long as you're meeting that threshold. And we're talking you get 95% of the benefit.

Mitchell Hooper39:59

The issue with focusing on grip strength as a thing that's disproportionately important is there's tons of research around grip strength and your longevity and your overall health and muscle mass. The problem is that it's the chicken before the egg versus the egg before the chicken. Are we talking about grip strength as a disproportionately important thing, or we talking about being strong as a disproportionately important thing? Because if you get strong, your grip strength is going to go up. Yeah. And I would argue that it's much more about getting strong with your body that then leads to strong hands than it is about having strong hands.

I I I refute the notion forever that if you sat on your couch watching TV and you're just doing grip strength exercises that somehow you're going to be healthier for that.

Mitchell Hooper41:14

And to me, that's the advantage that strength training has over aerobic training for someone who doesn't do a whole lot of either. You can see progress with your strength very quickly, very linear, very obvious. And all you have to convince yourself to do is work hard for 3 seconds, 5 seconds, 10 seconds. Where I've experienced getting fit running before, and even if you're getting fitter, your body gets fitter, but you also have to callous your mind to like ignore how hard you're breathing and just And so, if you're on a If you're having a day where you just can't convince yourself to push that extra bit, you're not going to be able to expose that benefit in fitness.

And then in the gym, if we get back to to kids and teenagers, if they go in and they put in the work, it's like the ultimate equalizer of like if you try to lift heavier or if you try to run, you will be able to lift more, you will be able to run further. But if we can focus in the gym with the weights on the bar rather than the aesthetics, particularly for kids, they're going to see progress so much faster, they're going to be encouraged to fuel themselves really well.

They're going to feel that sense of reward so much quicker. Cuz one thing I've learned from bodybuilding to strongman to to when I played football is like inherently I'm always going to feel like my body fat's too high. I I even when I was in bodybuilding I still thought it was too high. And so many kids would have the objective of I want to look good and feel good.

Mitchell Hooper42:32

And a lot of adults say that as well. And I hate to break it to you, you're never going to feel like you look great.

Mitchell Hooper42:39

It's just inbuilt. So if you can focus on these performance outcomes and then, you know, you you end up looking better because of it then great. Um but I think that's something that we do have to just internally accept.

Mitchell Hooper43:01

Yeah.

Mitchell Hooper43:02

Yeah.

And diet like you could when I competed in bodybuilding my body fat was maybe 4 to 6%. I was I was appropriately lean to step on stage. I went to Jack Asters. I don't know if you guys have that down here. It's like pub food. I had as many nachos as I could, garlic bread, and whatever. And then I had so much water retention. I woke up the next day. I didn't even have abs anymore. It's so futile. It comes and goes and of course you lose the water and they come back and whatever.

But it is so futile. You have one day off of your diet and you look half as good as you did the day before. And then so many people ruin their lives to just try to look a little bit better. And then you get back to that thing when you you talked about it. If you have money and you're an [ __ ] before you're just a bigger [ __ ] with money. It's the same thing. You're like you're upset with your body before. Well, now you have this higher bar.

So you're going to be even more upset with your body now.

Mitchell Hooper44:24

For sure.

Mitchell Hooper44:30

Absolutely. But it it gets to I think a broader problem of anyone who accomplishes anything great has an inherent feeling inside themselves that they're not good enough.

Mitchell Hooper44:39

Because if you felt good enough, you'd stop way sooner than you do. So anytime I I meet with someone like yourself or someone who's who's been very successful in business or any sport, you're like, we are similarly broken. You've got that thing inside of us that like I don't know what it is, but something's wrong with you. Something's wrong with you. And like, externally, everyone loves it.

Mitchell Hooper45:16

Oh, yeah.

Mitchell Hooper46:07

Uh-huh.

Mitchell Hooper46:14

Oh, I was devastated outside of coming seventh. It just added to the devastation.

Mitchell Hooper46:20

At this point in my career, I've been number one ranked in the world for 4 years now. It's been It's been 4 years since I've entered a contest and not been favored to win. Um And it does create this environment where there's no upside. You You do what you expect yourself to do, or you have to explain to everyone why you didn't win.

Mitchell Hooper46:38

Um to the point where I I come second at World's Strongest Man in 2024. I I had ripped all the calluses open on my hands in the first event. You battle through, but it is what it is. And I come back, and I had won the year before, so I come back, and this guy I'd never met at the gym. He comes up, and he asks me. He says, "Hey, you you were competing at World's Strongest Man." What's your say? "Yes, it was This is past weekend." "How did you do?" I'm like, "Oh, I came second." And he's like, "Too bad, man.

Like next year you got And I'm like, "Fucker, I second in the world.

Mitchell Hooper47:03

really have the feeling myself, but I have the feeling because I know everyone else is like, "What's What's the deal? I thought you were good."

Mitchell Hooper47:19

What year was it? So we met just before I went to Australia. I think it would have been 20 It would have been 2018, about 6 months after that last marathon.

Mitchell Hooper47:30

Yeah.

Mitchell Hooper47:49

Yeah. Yeah. I So she's

We could run a hell of a business, but she's not open to it.

Mitchell Hooper48:02

Yeah.

Mitchell Hooper48:03

Yeah. Yeah, so she we met and when we met I got out of a long-term relationship maybe 8 months prior and I was going to Australia maybe 2 months after I met her and so I was just playing the field whatever and and I was open with everyone. I was like this is not going to be a thing and

Mitchell Hooper48:20

I I told her verbatim you could be a Victoria's Secret model who cured cancer. I'm not getting tied down before I go to Australia. And lo and behold she we made it work long distance for for 6 months and then I came back and we lived together a bit and then I went back and 3 months more long distance. She graduated vet school and then her first job as a vet was in the western suburbs of Sydney in a place called Penrith. And the western suburbs of Sydney is like right on the edge of the the forest and so I walked into the vet clinic.

And I I'm I have narcissistic tendencies so I just believe that rules don't really apply. I just walk into the back and just what's up guys?

Mitchell Hooper48:59

No one seems to have an issue with it cuz I I think cuz I'm big and they're scared. But I walk in the back and one time there's a a possum and they just got a possum. I was oh, that's pretty cool. Another time I walk in there's a 6-ft kangaroo on the table that they're working on. I'm like this is so mental and that was her first job and we lived in Australia together for 3 and 1/2 years and then moved back to to Canada and then 4 years in Canada and now we're going to move down to Vegas.

Mitchell Hooper49:25

We bought up in Centennial Hills.

Mitchell Hooper49:32

She's small animal, dogs, cats.

Mitchell Hooper49:34

Yeah, she can do all the basic surgeries.

Mitchell Hooper49:36

Yeah.

Mitchell Hooper49:39

Two girls, we have a 3-year-old and we have an 8-month-old.

Mitchell Hooper49:47

It's largely true.

Mitchell Hooper49:49

Yeah, we got really lucky.

Mitchell Hooper49:51

Yeah, and that was my biggest fear early on. We conceived our first a month after World's Strongest Man when I won in 2023. Our second we conceived when I was on cycle as well.

Mitchell Hooper50:01

But you're playing with fire, for sure.

Mitchell Hooper50:09

It affects your sperm, absolutely.

Mitchell Hooper50:13

Both. But once the the sperm is embedded into the egg, it's just the DNA mixing with each other. There's absolutely no evidence whatsoever to say that's

Mitchell Hooper50:23

None. No.

Mitchell Hooper50:25

No, cuz it's it's just the same as like if if you have a friend who who has a problem with his fertility and then they get um they get help. Like would you then say like, "Oh, is your child going to be stupid?" No.

Mitchell Hooper50:45

Um unless you're taking an an actual gene modifying therapy, um which I haven't done before having kids, um it's impossible for that to be passed on.

Mitchell Hooper51:16

It's a it's a surplus. So we do opposite of bodybuilders. We grow into the show because you want to be most physically capable.

Mitchell Hooper51:23

Um and so in the the heaviest times of year, like now, it's 7,000 calories a day, uh split between six meals, about 350 g of protein for me.

Mitchell Hooper51:33

Yeah. Um so in the morning I have four hard-boiled eggs, I have three pre-made packets of um of oatmeal. I have two scoops of protein powder in that, uh 500 ml of orange juice, uh and a small bowl of cereal. Then my first lunch is six Rice Krispies squares is like an hour before I go to the gym. Six Rice Krispies squares. Um I have uh some sort of carbohydrate. So right now I'm on rice pasta. Then I'll have 500 g of rice pasta, uh 8 oz of beef.

Mitchell Hooper52:06

Yes and no. So I work with a I I work with a dietitian and they tell me exactly what it should be.

Mitchell Hooper52:13

Um and then if my wife makes my food for me, it's weighed exactly. And if I make my food, I am not I don't care.

Mitchell Hooper52:19

And then in and around my workout I'll have 100 g of carbs, most of that coming from powdered carbs, some of that coming from candy. Um and I'll I'll explain some of this at the end. Post-workout I've got about a 1,200 calorie shake that's peanut butter, fruits, protein powders. My dinner's pretty normal. Um that's the one thing I won't cave on. I want to eat with my family and I want to be able to sit for one meal a day.

Mitchell Hooper52:45

Um and then before bed is two cups of yogurt of of plain Greek yogurt, um honey, granola, and peanut butter. Now, in that you go how how clean is this diet? And and I would say reasonably clean, but that the small things like Rice Krispies squares and honey in my in my yogurt at night, the powdered carbohydrates and the candy in and around workouts, part of it is performance and uh having carbs around your workout is is relatively important, but not that much for us because our exercise volume is so low.

It's not like we're turning through carbs. It's more for me, when can you create the excuse to eat food that's going to go to a good place, and when can you create the excuse to eat higher density foods that's easy to get down to be able to hit 7,000 calories?

Mitchell Hooper53:33

It's it's hard because in strongman we always have different demands. So we'll get our events 8 to 12 weeks out from the show. And sometimes it'll be a show where we're moving around with a lot of different implements and and weights. Sometimes it's a lot of maximum strength events. And so it really depends. Once we get the events, then the training program is set up. But let's let's just talk about say the most obvious. If you're going to do a max deadlift a couple of months out, you're probably doing sets of three to five.

You're going to deadlift once a week. Your accessories in and around that will be structured specifically for deadlifting. And your other days will be accessories to deadlifting. You actually have to pull back on things like pressing movements and things unrelated because you don't want your nervous system to burn out for that one thing that you're trying to accomplish. As you creep closer to the show, you increase your intensity in terms of load, you reduce your rep range, and you reduce your volume to the point where two to four weeks out, you're doing one set of one every other week.

You're doing two sets of three every other week. And that is basically the entirety of your maximum effort workouts.

Mitchell Hooper54:41

Walk in, hang out, talk to everyone.

Mitchell Hooper54:45

Yeah. But then warm-ups will be maybe five to 10 minutes depending on what's going on and what injuries you're managing and whatnot. But then you imagine if you're say going up to 900 lb, you've got to take every one of those plates and take it, pick it up, go over to the bar, do a rep, take it, pick it up. So you're an hour just getting up to your heaviest deadlift with a little bit of rest times and moving the plates around.

Mitchell Hooper55:09

Yeah.

Mitchell Hooper55:14

Let's say 900 lb for example. I would do 135, 225, 315, 405, 495, 585, 675, 765, 855. So I'd I'd be on my 10th set by the time I got to working weight.

Mitchell Hooper55:33

For me it's really feeling it out. I would never do 10. 10 is like that would like a lot to me.

Mitchell Hooper55:39

Um the the thing about it is you don't want to build up any sort of response for for vasodilation.

Mitchell Hooper55:45

Cuz if you get vasodilation, you get increased blood flow. Let's say into your low back and glutes. You get this inherent little bit of tightness. And then you get up to your top set and you're you're a little bit tight and you can't quite get into the same spot you wanted to.

Mitchell Hooper55:57

So I'd start with reps in the three to five range. Now, if if I if I lift 135 or 225 and it's just not quite feeling right and I'm thinking maybe I just shift my stance uh 2 cm in or out or whatever it may be. Um I'll just do a set of three to five. Rest. Just think that that didn't feel quite right. Do another set of three to five at that same weight and when it feels good, then I'll go up to the next one.

Mitchell Hooper56:29

No. If I walked you through like every technical cue that you might be thinking about on the day. And on on Sunday, I don't know exactly what I'm going to be thinking about, but it's going to be determined by how my warm-ups are feeling. So

Mitchell Hooper56:39

You When you go into prep, you may shift your stance around slightly, but at this stage in prep, your feet are where they are. And you don't think about it. The biggest cue is where the knurling is on the bar. And that'll determine exactly where your hands are going to go. So if you say, "Okay, right now, I know that if I extend my thumbs from where the knurling stops in the middle of the bar, that's where my hands are going to go."

Mitchell Hooper57:03

That's the rough part on the bar.

Mitchell Hooper57:05

I know that's where my hands are going to go and my feet come into place where my elbows and knees are touching but not interfering. So I I know exactly where they need to be, no problem. But then if we go head to toe, you could be thinking about pulling the crown of your head to the ceiling to stay like really long through the torso. You could be thinking about your shoulder blades rounded forward. You could think about your lats pulling down on your shoulder girdle to create a really solid foundation in your upper body.

You could be thinking about specifically your core bracing, you could be thinking about loading your glutes and hamstrings, you could be thinking about the pressure in your foot at different points in the lift because if you need to pop the bar off the ground, you put pressure in your toes. If you need to lock out very strong, you put pressure in your heels. And so, it's a very stupid, grunty, caveman movement. Yeah, if we actually walk through all of these things that that have to take place for you to work up to world record, work up to maximum weight, it's it can get pretty intricate.

And then the interesting thing is though, all of those things I'm thinking about are things that if I was coaching someone to deadlift that would had no interest in breaking a record, I'm still thinking of all those things because we want to accomplish the same goal whether you want to exercise for world records, you want to exercise to be healthy, which is how do we move the most amount of weight with as few reliance on specific muscles as possible.

Mitchell Hooper58:23

Just max deadlift world record attempts.

Mitchell Hooper58:26

That's it.

Mitchell Hooper58:30

When we did World's Strongest Man this year, there was 10 events over 4 days.

Mitchell Hooper58:37

Oh, you're destroyed. I was on the on the last day, I was injecting my knees with lidocaine to numb them so I didn't feel them. Yes, I had injuries coming in. It's just You do what you got to do. And that's the thing, when you're allowed to do anything, it really opens the playbook on what can we try to do to make this thing work.

Mitchell Hooper59:50

I I haven't used Toradol specifically. Um but the issue with anything to cover up, any sort of pain or dysfunction, is that you're just going to progress that pain and dysfunction. So for me, I don't use anything to cover pain. I won't use um Advil, I won't use Tylenol. I I'll use nothing.

Mitchell Hooper1:00:09

No. I want to feel it.

Mitchell Hooper1:00:11

Yeah. And I want to feel it at 500 lb rather than really feeling it at 1,000 lb. You know, you you want to be informed. But when it comes to competition day, if you were racing or if I was trying to compete in World's Strongest Man, um I was driving in and I said to my physio who was talking to me about, you know, the the ramifications and the Let's just make sure this is the right thing to do.

Mitchell Hooper1:00:30

I literally said, "I don't give a [ __ ] I'll explode my knee in World's Strongest Man this year and I'll retire if I have to. It's fine."

Um and I don't know where you're at in your running career, but um if you say, "I want to also break the over 80 marathon record." It's a pretty bad idea in any race to think that like, "You know what? Maybe I'll just send it." Um because you could cause irreversible damage.

Mitchell Hooper1:00:53

And and pain's a meaningful signal. Uh but one of the things you have to do as an athlete is learn which pains are meaning what things. So right now, my back hurts

Mitchell Hooper1:01:01

Yeah.

But I know it's this inflammation that's caused by tight hips because as soon as I loosen my hips up, my back stops hurting. It's like that pain's fine.

Mitchell Hooper1:01:09

Had other pains that are like shooting pain down my legs. You're like, "This is a real problem. We can't push through this one." Um it's a very gray area with with high-performance sport. And are you hurt or are you not hurt? It's like, "Yes."

Mitchell Hooper1:02:43

Every ordinary person, every rational sane person, would just say, "I am hurt and I'm going to rest."

Yes. But you just got to say to your wife like, "This is covering up what a [ __ ] disaster I could be if I didn't run."

Mitchell Hooper1:03:29

Yeah, and that that is the only benefit in my opinion of post-secondary education. You know, unless you need an actual credential to do something. It just shows employers that you're committed enough to stick through something.

Mitchell Hooper1:03:40

And you can show that through running. I can show that through strongman. I'm sure we both have degrees that we think are useless. Um, but um, it's just like successful people that the principles to succeed in sport are the exact same principles to succeed in literally anything else.

Mitchell Hooper1:04:07

Yeah.

Mitchell Hooper1:04:31

Mhm.

Mitchell Hooper1:04:58

Yeah.

Mitchell Hooper1:05:01

Mhm. No, 100% and and there's something about and running was the same for me. Um, I've had a couple of suicide attempts in my life and and battled with self-harm for for the better part of 15 years. And there's something about being on your worst day and being able to look yourself in the mirror and just say objectively, inarguably, I have pushed some physical quality about myself forward compared to where I was a week ago. At least you've got this bedrock of something to sit with and say there's some shroud of evidence that I'm good enough right now to just like go to bed and wake up tomorrow.

Mitchell Hooper1:06:35

Um I just have this problem where I just don't understand why I'm here. I've got a lot of guilt uh with success and things that I've been given that I think have uh are unearned, and I I've been disproportionately benefited in my life. Uh when I was a kid, we went on trips to Europe all the time. My grandpa had a yacht in Florida. We'd go down there for Christmas. We'd be in in the Bahamas in Easter. Um it'd be incredible, but I had the other side of seeing my dad who who always worked hard struggle to make ends meet.

My parents split when I was 3. Um and from a a alarmingly young age, I just thought that it was so unfair that I have done nothing to earn any of this and someone like my dad and many other people work extremely hard and they just they can't have any luxury in life at all. Um, and I've I I struggle with this balance of of what have you given to the world and what has the world given to you? And I'm like, the world keeps giving so much to me and I struggle to keep up with how much can I possibly give back to make up for this net negative that seems to be created by me existing here.

And I feel like if you were taking more from everyone else than you're gaining, it's hard to then justify existence on on hard days. Um, and so I'll I'll have these things where um, you know, if things are going well with my family, um, then then great. If things aren't going well with my family and like the true reason I believe that I'm here and the people that I can give the most back to, um, I go down these spirals of like, well, this is the thing that I'm supposed to be giving back and now these people aren't even happy.

So like, what the [ __ ] am I doing here? What's the point? And my first one was when I was about 21. Um, my second one was uh, last year.

Mitchell Hooper1:08:18

Yeah, winning World's Strongest Man doesn't change a thing. Being big doesn't change a thing. Being successful doesn't change a thing. Um, it's just these uh, internal internal struggles. And and on normal days and on good days, I'm like, I I know that this equation is so dumb because on social media directly I'll benefit so many people, but like that equation is just like how life works out sometimes and in a capitalist world, it's not like I was born into an oligarch and no one made me strong.

I worked to be strong. Um, but it's still absurd to think that you deserve to win world titles just because you're doing the thing that you love cuz other people work as hard as me. They just they'll get hurt or they're just not genetically gifted or whatever it may be. Um, and it's uh, it I I think it gets back to that thing of I don't think I would be as good as I am if I felt like I was worthy of everything I've accomplished.

Mitchell Hooper1:09:12

No. No. Um

Mitchell Hooper1:09:16

If Funny enough, the first one that coincided with me graduating, that coincided with me making the choice to to move to Australia. The first one was running. And so it was it was professionally useful. Um but I just I thought I I have to do something and I have to exert myself and get this energy out of some way. Um and so my my foot hit the road and day one I said, "I'm running a marathon and I've got something to work forward to. I've got something that I've got to adhere to, something I promised to myself and I've told other people I'm going to do." So at least do this.

Yeah, and and then it's it's grim and it's sad, but I think people can relate to it of like if I've got this check mark in 6 months that I got I want to tick off before I'm gone uh okay, if you're going to do this, do it in 7 months.

Mitchell Hooper1:10:00

Just do this thing in 6 months and then you get 6 months and maybe you feel better, maybe it's passed, or maybe you just have to create the next check mark just like get by. Um but even when these things are happening, most most people who don't experience these feelings don't understand that like depression and suicidal ideation and self-harm, it doesn't present in most people as like I can't get out of bed. I don't want to do any I don't want to talk to anyone. I I can't I can accomplish incredible things and and in in multiple world championships that I've won, I've had open wounds from self-harm.

And then I'll go win a world championship and like nobody would have any idea what's going on internally or outside. And then the most recent one was just like for my family. Like my my daughters, it's this is difficult catch-22 because on bad days you're like maybe it's better for my daughters if I'm not here because I don't want them to be like me.

Mitchell Hooper1:10:52

And on good days, you're like, "Fuck, they need someone to help guide them through this mess of But inherently I just maybe selfishly partially might they're going to go through so many milestones that I don't want to miss. Like my heart swells when my daughter yesterday was had her feet at the bottom of her car was walking it with her feet and like I couldn't see it but I saw it on video and like makes me so happy. How many times is that going to happen that I'm just going to have the privilege of that.

But then I also think what what's going to happen in their life they're going to need me for and and how are they going to be able to get by without a dad? I mean it's it's stuff like that and it's it's an eternal battle but I've kind of accepted that it's not this you're cured or not cured thing. And I I have a book coming out later this year talking much more about it. But I think it's more of a how do you just get through the bad days and keep pushing forward and doing the best you can where you can look yourself in the mirror and say that I'm I am contributing to the world what what I can.

Mitchell Hooper1:13:30

I'm 90% of the way there. Like, I I've not been religious once in my life. Um but I think it would help me tremendously. And it also just if I take my life and okay, I got to go on all these trips as a kid and then I got to get to the number one school in my subject in the world when I went to Sydney. Then I just somehow I became the strongest man in the world when I had no intention to do it. And then somehow I've had this beautiful family with healthy children.

And then somehow I've been able to be financially successful when most the vast majority of people in my sport can't make ends meet. I'm like, I can't take this as this balance of what do I give to the world and what do I get? But I'm starting to think that like maybe there's something more to all of these things that I'm given than just happenstance.

Mitchell Hooper1:14:14

And if I could attribute that to gratitude from some sort of higher power, um I think that would that would help.

Mitchell Hooper1:14:21

Because it's just in the past 8 months that I've started thinking about it. I don't talk about it ever.

Mitchell Hooper1:14:27

But something about I don't know what the hell it is, but it's just it's everywhere in my face right now.

Mitchell Hooper1:14:33

Everyone's talking about it. Everyone's telling me that it's a good idea. Like yeah. I I saw that my mom's best friend who works at the church, she runs with her every day. And I never see this lady ever in my life. And then I've started seeing her at the bakery. I'm like, what the [ __ ] Just like, I I I still don't think there's like a god watching down on us, but to think that everything is just sort of happenstance and just occurs and you're lucky or you're unlucky or I don't know.

I I can't get around it.

Mitchell Hooper1:15:21

Yeah.

Mitchell Hooper1:15:26

Yeah.

Mitchell Hooper1:16:01

Is it Is it similar?

Mitchell Hooper1:16:31

Yeah.

Mitchell Hooper1:16:59

Wow.

Mitchell Hooper1:17:15

Yeah.

Mitchell Hooper1:17:19

Yeah.

Mitchell Hooper1:17:22

Yeah, yeah.

Mitchell Hooper1:17:29

Yeah.

Mitchell Hooper1:18:15

Yeah.

Mitchell Hooper1:18:27

Yeah, yeah. Well, with ayahuasca with 5-MeO-DMT, I I I have it at my house, and I actually I took some, and I didn't take enough to break through cuz as soon as I got close, I was like, "I just want to go back to normal. I don't want to do this.

Mitchell Hooper1:18:56

Yeah.

Mitchell Hooper1:19:17

Yeah.

Mitchell Hooper1:19:40

Yeah.

Mitchell Hooper1:19:54

Right.

Mitchell Hooper1:20:09

Yeah.

Mitchell Hooper1:20:13

With psychedelics, you get back to faith.

Mitchell Hooper1:20:16

There's too much [ __ ] that's common between people and they take something like DMT and the fact that there's these substances on Earth that if you take them, you have these experiences. You They're like You know when there's a YouTube video and someone just like put something in the corner for people to comment on?

Mitchell Hooper1:20:33

It's like God's version of putting something in the corner of the world and just going like, "I wonder if they'll find this."

Mitchell Hooper1:20:56

Mhm.

Mitchell Hooper1:21:24

Yeah.

Mitchell Hooper1:21:36

Yeah. Is your wife normal like mine?

Mitchell Hooper1:21:39

Yeah.

Mitchell Hooper1:21:41

How often do you wish that you were normal?

Mitchell Hooper1:21:44

Yeah.

Every day.

Mitchell Hooper1:21:56

Yeah.

Mitchell Hooper1:22:01

Yeah.

Mitchell Hooper1:22:04

It's crazy, isn't it?

Mitchell Hooper1:22:06

Mhm.

Mitchell Hooper1:22:15

Yeah. Yeah. Dude, I'm I'm so lucky with mine. I mean, we have the normal things of like if I was if I was running every morning, it would just be about like I need your help sometimes in in It wouldn't be about anything other than that, but um I could literally do any of the most outlandish [ __ ] and my wife every time would be like, "Yeah, that's fine." I I'm pretty much when I went to do um DMT, it's like, "I'm just going to go to the basement and do this." And she was like, "Okay, I'll see you in a bit."

Fine, whatever.

Mitchell Hooper1:22:52

Yeah.

Mitchell Hooper1:22:56

Yeah, yeah. It's uh we've cursed them. We've cursed

Mitchell Hooper1:23:10

Yeah.

Mitchell Hooper1:23:16

Yeah, yeah. It's like the uh the entrepreneur on their 35th business telling you that it's going to be the one. I shut up.

Mitchell Hooper1:23:27

And and that is the skill of every single person who experiences success.

Mitchell Hooper1:23:32

It is It is not that you're a rock star ever. It's not that that you have this special talent or gift or you're super smart or it's literally just like, can you rely on this person to show up every day and do the thing reasonably well? That's just incessantly consistently. And for me, that's that's what's won me World's Strongest Man. That's what's the how I've experienced every success in my life. It's like, regardless of how I feel, I will just be at the table making some sort of effort and just trying to put one foot in front of the other.

Mitchell Hooper1:24:18

100%.

Mitchell Hooper1:24:23

Yeah.

Mitchell Hooper1:24:28

Yeah.

Mitchell Hooper1:24:35

So when you were using at your peak, did you you didn't have family, didn't have a partner, you were just you were on the streets and

Mitchell Hooper1:24:44

Okay, right.

Mitchell Hooper1:25:03

So you were just literally Wolf of Wall Street.

Mitchell Hooper1:25:18

Yeah, yeah.

Mitchell Hooper1:25:34

Yeah.

Mitchell Hooper1:26:16

Sure.

Mitchell Hooper1:26:25

Yeah. Yeah.

Mitchell Hooper1:26:40

You were getting clean before she even knew.

Mitchell Hooper1:26:52

Yeah.

Mitchell Hooper1:26:57

I've uh I've experienced withdrawals a couple of times from Adderall.

Mitchell Hooper1:27:02

It's super useful for performance, but the fact that they give this [ __ ] to kids is insane.

And I've been like I'm not an anxious person at all, but like that will do it to me. And I'll be leaned over my couch like crying thinking, "What if the worst thing possible happens?" And then you can't even articulate the worst thing possible. It's the the use of putting it like this between that it feels that way 100% between withdrawals from Adderall and some some experiences on mushrooms and psychedelics, the lesson of your brain can convince you of things that aren't true and aren't happening.

Mitchell Hooper1:27:34

When you experience that for real for real, you're like every day becomes a little bit easier cuz you just take that voice. You just say whatever idiot is in there like just ignore it altogether.

Mitchell Hooper1:27:55

Yeah.

Mitchell Hooper1:28:03

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Mitchell Hooper1:28:20

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Mitchell Hooper1:28:23

Yeah.

Mitchell Hooper1:28:36

Yeah, so I'll I'll move every single day, but in terms of intense training, my last big effort was a week ago. So, I'll take Yeah, I'll take between 10 and 14 days before the show if it's a big single one rep max. Uh but I find if I stop moving, I start feeling like I I can't recover like I want to just keep sleeping. Like I'm sluggish and

Mitchell Hooper1:28:53

Um Yeah, so I'll move every day, but more bodybuilding stuff, nothing super heavy and um just get the mind right for the show and um do a bit of exploring. I'm really looking forward to my wife's coming down. We're moving down here with a couple of friends, so they're coming down as well.

Mitchell Hooper1:29:06

We'll be able to go tour our house. My wife hasn't seen it yet.

Mitchell Hooper1:29:10

And we'll be able to just explore the area, go on a hike after the show. So, I'm looking forward to that more than anything.

Mitchell Hooper1:29:17

Yeah.

Mitchell Hooper1:29:19

Mm. No. Yes and no. I mean, there's no like there's no active hatred, but I think there's um there's competitive tension for sure.

Mitchell Hooper1:29:31

Thor. So, he played the mountain in Game of Thrones.

Mitchell Hooper1:29:38

That's just social media stuff. He doesn't actually do that, yeah.

Mitchell Hooper1:29:41

He He did boxing. He boxed Eddie Hall

Mitchell Hooper1:29:44

Yeah. Um but um he's the current deadlift world record holder and um

Mitchell Hooper1:29:51

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he has a much better chance than I do, and fair enough. You're challenging the best of all time, and um I'll give it my all, but um I put out a video because I've I've gone head-to-head with him five times. I've beat him five times. Um and so, I put out a a compilation of me beating him. And so, I don't think it was received overly well.

Mitchell Hooper1:30:10

I don't think so.

Mitchell Hooper1:30:14

Yeah, we did face off stuff yesterday, but hang out now.

Mitchell Hooper1:30:19

Tension for sure, but it's fun. The thing is like I want people to perform at their best, right? So, other competitors for example, the one who I was head to head with at World's Strongest Man this year, we were miles ahead of everyone. He's a South African guy who's played rugby professionally and he's been involved in sports good athlete, but also gets sport a little bit more like that's traditional sport and so poking fun at him doesn't feel like bullying. So, like he did really well in the first few events and on stage I shoved him and like not like full intense, but I push him and I say what the [ __ ] man?

Like [ __ ] you. And so he kind of chuckles and then the next day he tells me that I suck at this event and I tell him he sucks at this event.

Mitchell Hooper1:31:07

We're laughing and like it's cool. It's it's no worries. Where say someone like um Tom Stoltman, he's a huge big big Scottish guy, amazing strongman. He's won one World's Strongest Man three times and diagnosed with autism. So, I know that if I interact with him, he thinks that I'm trying to throw him off his game. So, I just don't talk to him. I don't want that and I know it with with Thor at this point, if I if I jeered at him or caused more friction or talked or said stuff, then it very well could get in his head and it very well could impact his performance.

Even something like I I just asked to change my deadlift attempts up to the world record. Two attempts world record and I know that he had a in-person meeting because he had a problem with me requesting that. Like he's got my number. He could have texted me.

Mitchell Hooper1:32:00

That's my opinion as well.

Mitchell Hooper1:32:04

That he doesn't want things changing close to the show.

Mitchell Hooper1:32:10

We spoke about what we're going to do and then I just asked if they minded if I if I shifted my attempts.

Mitchell Hooper1:32:17

I think so, too. Yeah.

Mitchell Hooper1:32:21

Yeah.

Yeah, I think so.

Mitchell Hooper1:32:25

It's Sunday. It kicks off our event specifically kicks off at 8:00

Mitchell Hooper1:32:30

8:00 and then it'll it'll wrap around 9:00. That'll be our final attempt.

Mitchell Hooper1:32:34

It's streamed on Roku. It's streamed on something else as well. I genuinely believe this is going to be more viewed than the Olympics. Uh it's mega. Yeah, their promotion's been really good. The conversation about it's been incredible. I was at Expo in the UK where World's Strongest Man is the most popular.

Mitchell Hooper1:32:50

And I was there 3 weeks before World's Strongest Man and I would say 80% of people were talking to me about Enhanced Games. No one gave a [ __ ] about World's Strongest Man because it's this new thing that's really exciting and the steroid Olympics and

Mitchell Hooper1:33:03

Yeah, and they're putting out huge money. I mean if if the sprinters break the 100-meter world world record, it's a million dollars.

Mitchell Hooper1:33:11

Um Olympic lifting records uh and and our deadlift, they're paying quarter million.

Mitchell Hooper1:33:17

Numbers that are just not heard of for actually performing in the sport.

Mitchell Hooper1:33:23

75,000.

Mitchell Hooper1:33:26

It's not bad, but it's also kind of pathetic.

You know, I mean you you can

It's a great opportunity to leverage for endorsements and social media and and you know, like you said, once you're successful, other successful people are are happy to be in the same room as you.

Mitchell Hooper1:33:41

I've been lucky to to leverage a lot of that stuff. Um but I think there's two titles in the world that matter and that's the World's Strongest Man and the World's Fastest Man. The guy who wins the 100-meter and the guy who wins World's Strongest Man. And they're the only two titles that require no explanation of how far is a marathon or how far is a 100 miler. It's literally just the thing and I think for for one of the most impactful titles in the world, you would think that it'd be

Mitchell Hooper1:34:05

A lot more upside, I think.

Mitchell Hooper1:34:08

Uh I've got um Mutant supplements.

Mitchell Hooper1:34:12

I've got Neuro Gum.

Mitchell Hooper1:34:14

I don't know if you've heard of them, but they're

Mitchell Hooper1:34:18

Kent and Ryan.

Mitchell Hooper1:34:20

Yeah, yeah. I've got Ketone IQ.

Mitchell Hooper1:34:23

Yeah. Uh I've got Rogue Fitness.

Mitchell Hooper1:34:27

Uh-huh. Uh and I've got Free Nicotine.

Mitchell Hooper1:34:30

Yeah, yeah.

Mitchell Hooper1:34:31

The the nicotine uh the the evidence for one rep max for non-users of nicotine um is really cool. People don't like me talking about it, but I've kind of come to this stage in my right page of 30 that I just don't give a [ __ ] and I'm just going to say the truth of whatever it is and

Mitchell Hooper1:34:45

Started that, but um yeah, it's pretty cool. It's it's called dopamine dopaminic adrenergic receptors and the from the brain down your nerves uh down your nerves crossing the synapse between nerve and muscle, down the muscle, it it benefits the the rate and the speed of conduction across the board. It's gross. So, your your firing gets more rapid, your rate coding gets more rapid, your ability to recruit muscle goes up. Only useful for one rep max stuff if it's of course a vasoconstrictor. Um but yeah, it's it's very cool.

Mitchell Hooper1:35:23

I'll have it in while I compete.

Mitchell Hooper1:35:25

Yeah.

Mitchell Hooper1:35:26

Yeah.

Mitchell Hooper1:35:27

I think there's also a Yeah, I hope so. There's also a state learning bit where I love that you take a pre-workout and um you feel like you're you're on crack, like you itch and stuff.

For me, there's been such an association over time that that means it's ready to lift big weight. Like it just gets me in the mood to do it. Um and so the the head rush with nicotine has done much the same.

Mitchell Hooper1:35:50

She's coming down for the first time. She's going to be backstage with me.

Mitchell Hooper1:35:53

Yeah, there's there's often too many moving parts for it to make sense for a spouse to be back there. Um and there's too much stress and you know, you do well or poorly in an event and I've seen it too many times where if it's my coach or um even my coach's wife, she's cuz he does a lot of commentating, she'll be back there. But she's been around the sport for ages. So you can tell them just shut the [ __ ] up. Like I just need I just need a minute.

You can never say that to your wife.

Mitchell Hooper1:36:21

No, no. Never. Um but in this instance I either pull the deadlift or don't. So she'll help me put on my deadlift suit, which is pretty straightforward, but yeah. Um like I said before, the coolest thing of all of this is just that now her and I are going to share this experience that like who on earth gets to do that with their partner and just like in 30 years we'll just think back to like, "Do you remember that time when we did the steroid Olympics?" [ __ ] crazy.

Mitchell Hooper1:36:47

Uh she lifts weights recreationally. She did a marathon like 9 months after giving birth to our first. We met at the gym.

Mitchell Hooper1:36:55

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So she's always been active, always been into it. Um when we met actually, I I had spoke to her beforehand. Uh in general I train with my best friend, but this time I wasn't. And I had spoke to her we had like exchanged numbers, we had texted she was going to meet up or she was going to come to my place. Um let's call it a Friday night. And my friend and I were training Friday afternoon and she comes up to me, has a brief conversation, is like, "Are you good for me to come over tonight?" And I'm like, "Yeah, that's perfect." And then she walks away.

He's like, "What the [ __ ] was that?" I'm like, "It's just how I roll, dude." I never met her. I don't know.

Oh, that's funny.

Yeah.

Mitchell Hooper1:37:51

Yeah, thanks, brother.

Mitchell Hooper1:37:54

Cheers.