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Mark Rippetoe:
I mean, let's face it, we're all going to die.

Brian Jones:
It's the pandemic win-win: weight loss and death.

Mark Rippetoe:
Yes, absolutely. But I think to go back to your earlier point... [coughs dramatically and pulls down mask]

Mark Wulfe:
From The Aasgaard Company studios in beautiful Wichita Falls, Texas... From the finest mind in the modern fitness industry... The One True Voice in the strength and conditioning profession... The most important podcast on the internet... Ladies and gentlemen! Starting Strength Radio.

Mark Rippetoe:
Welcome to Starting Strength Radio. It's Friday and Friday is abbreviated F. And here we're here with our friend Brian F Jones.

Mark Rippetoe:
So, stupid fucker fell off of a roof. What was that? 10 years ago? 10 years ago.

Brian Jones:
Yep, that 2011.

Mark Rippetoe:
Tell us the story. Yeah. So it's like nine and a half years ago, something like that. So tell us the story.

Brian Jones:
It was the day before Easter and I had six or seven inspections that day. And of course, as an insurance adjuster, along with an interior inspection, you have to get up on the roof and survey damage. Last, my last inspection, I was in a bit of a hurry. Combine that with... The homeowner had the homeowner had unintentionally affected the footing of where my ladder was. And when I came to step off the roof onto the ladder, it kicked out and I came straight down.

Mark Rippetoe:
Oh, the ladder kicked out. I didn't get that part of it. The ladder actually, the footing of the ladder at the bottom moved and slid out from under your ass.

Brian Jones:
Yeah. And I mean, so quickly, I saw it sliding across the driveway as I fell.

Mark Rippetoe:
As you were going down.

Brian Jones:
Yeah, so I hit.

Mark Rippetoe:
So far up in the air were you?

Brian Jones:
It was 20 feet or so.

Mark Rippetoe:
So it's two-story, two-story house.

Brian Jones:
So, I had so I started, you know, straight down and hit...kind of like somebody grabbing a rebound and and but in the setting of asphalt.

Mark Rippetoe:
Stiff-kneed.

Brian Jones:
Yes, sir. And it shattered. So when I hit, there was enough of like this cold electric jolt that I thought I'd broken my back. So I slumped down and was laying there, looking up into the sky. The homeowner evidently had heard and he came out and looked once and said that, you know, this is bad.

Brian Jones:
I had a phone on me that was back when it was BlackBerry, but at the time... So I called Summer and she was back here in Kentucky. I was in North Carolina at the time.

Mark Rippetoe:
Right. He called her from the driveway?

Brian Jones:
Yeah. Laying on the, Yep. Laying there because I didn't want... I knew that I was going to lose consciousness and I didn't want someone else to out of the blue, call her in and just throw this into her life. I figured.

Mark Rippetoe:
Much better for you to do it. Much better for you to do it. Honey, I've killed myself. Can't pick up the kids tomorrow.

Brian Jones:
You know what's funny? It was really actually kind of close to that because she answered and I... And she said, hello, what are you up to? And I said, well, I've had an accident. And she was like, damn it, what did you do? Thinking, I had ran into the back of somebody. Like a truck.

Mark Rippetoe:
Oh, yeah a car wreck, right.

Brian Jones:
Yeah. And I said, no, no, I've just I've taken a little spill and I'm going to go to the hospital just in case they don't I don't have my phone. I wanted to let you know.

Brian Jones:
Well, then I guess by that time, maybe the paramedics... It gets blurry from there. I know that. I believe Summer talked to the homeowner on my phone, and that's when they took me off to ICU and I was in ICU, I think 12 days. I incurred pilon fractures at the ends of the tibias and that's a compression type fracture.

Mark Rippetoe:
So let's talk about the specifics of of that fracture. You landed on both feet standing up, so the shock just was transmitted from the ground right up the tibias. And they disarticulated...well no, they just shattered into how many pieces?

Brian Jones:
If I remember correctly, the left was, I think 11 and the right... Five, six, yeah.

Mark Rippetoe:
11 pieces of your tibia. And how about your feet?

Brian Jones:
Now, there weren't there weren't any...

Mark Rippetoe:
You have any fractures in your feet?

Brian Jones:
Not broken bones. No, no significant nerve damage, soft tissue damage from the balls of my feet all the way up through, you know, most of my face.

Mark Rippetoe:
There was no fracture in your metatarsals at all?

Brian Jones:
No, sir.

Mark Rippetoe:
That's interesting how that transferred, just all of it landed up in the tibia. What about the knees?

Brian Jones:
No, no issues.

Mark Rippetoe:
So the damage was confined to both tibias.

Brian Jones:
Yes, sir. I have more problems with my knees from incorrect squat form once I started squatting.

Mark Rippetoe:
Right. Yeah, everybody does.

Mark Rippetoe:
So so anyway, this kind of a deal, I mean, that requires... I guess they probably don't try to do a repair like that in one anesthesia. You've got two shattered tibias... Do they fix one, wake you up, slap you around a little while and put you back to sleep and fix the other one? How how does that work?

Brian Jones:
Initially, because of because of the swelling and the tissue damage, they the first operation and I kind of you know, when we had our had our coaches conference and I spoke about it, you know, the first operation I kind of felt, you know, went under in my legs, you know, although they were all jacked up. And then when I woke back up, both had external fixators coming out of them. And that's that was my introduction to a whole new life, you know.

Mark Rippetoe:
Right, well, a whole new life for a little while anyway. Just just so that everybody will know. Bryant spoke about this situation at the Starting Strength Coaches Association convention back in '13 or '14. When was that?

Mark Rippetoe:
And it's still on the website. And that that video'ss still up on the website. It's about an hour talk and it was pretty good, if you haven't watched it, you ought to take a minute and watch that after we get through, after you get through watching this podcast with Brian today.

Mark Rippetoe:
So, you woke up and you had all kinds of Frankenstein-looking shit sticking out of your legs. And in a wheelchair. Right? And... I mean, here I am stuck thinking, I wonder how he took a piss? You know. That's how elemental, I am, right? They just had a catheter in you and weren't feeding you any food, so there wasn't a problem with the other side.

Mark Rippetoe:
But you you I mean, this is a this is a pretty serious situation, right?

Brian Jones:
Yeah, well I can tell you, I mean, I didn't have to have, you know, I didn't have to have a catheter. But what what did have to take place was I was completely helpless. I couldn't I couldn't go to the restroom.

Brian Jones:
I mean, Summer had to slide stuff under me, slide stuff out, you know that kind of thing. And even when I did get. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So even when I did it... Was able to transfer you into when you seen one of those big like potty chairs. Even when I was able to kind of transfer off the bed, if I were to sit in that I was such a wreck. It was like it was as bad, almost as bad as falling off the roof. Because I was I had these legs, you know, that were I couldn't move. And I had these giant, like you said, Frankenstein things out of them.

Brian Jones:
And Summer kept trying to tell me that it's OK, this thing will hold you, honey. But I just... It was tough for me that, you know, I...

Mark Rippetoe:
Sure I mean, I wouldn't trust it either. God Almighty. I mean, after all, you'd just fallen off a roof. I mean, if you can't trust a ladder. Trust is gone.

Mark Rippetoe:
So when they when they did this repair - I'm kind of curious about this - how many how much metal did they have in the tibia? Did they have fixation plates? Obviously, they had to have put those in there right?

Brian Jones:
Now, are we talking about the external fixators or the internal hardware.

Mark Rippetoe:
Internal.

Brian Jones:
OK, well, so I had surgeries, I think I had the external fixators, I think what maybe three weeks around that somewhere give or take. Then we had one single, I believe, one single operation to take them both out. Then I'd have another operation, put hardware in one. Operation then to put the hardware in the second.

Brian Jones:
So and then they... So both you and in the talk you've seen, there were binding, there were plates. Screws. Running from well up into the shin, you know, the length up into the tibia, down through the heel and into the foot.

Brian Jones:
And it was a... they were supposed to be there forever. I mean they just said this, you know, this is this is how your legs are going to have to stay together now from here until you die.

Mark Rippetoe:
Yeah, because, of course, healing never takes place. In the in the mind of some people, healing doesn't take place and of course, there's no way we can, you know, make things heal because. I mean, after all, he is a doctor.

Mark Rippetoe:
So, uh...that works aa lot of the time doesn't it. So, so you're in the hospital in the depths of despair. Who wouldn't be? And. Uh, you know, it's good thing Summer's around.

Mark Rippetoe:
She's handy. She's in the unit. You'd had have to have invented her, if she didn't already exist, right?

Brian Jones:
Yes, sir.

Mark Rippetoe:
Oh. So anyway, is she still there?

Brian Jones:
Yes, she's a she's she's just behind...

Mark Rippetoe:
Where's Roger? Have her put Roger in the shot.

Mark Rippetoe:
Hi, Roger. What are you doing, Roge? He's a good boy. Look at old Rog, look at him. What happened to his nose? What did you do to Roger's nose? He didn't used to look like that.

Brian Jones:
No, you got to figure Roger's seven, eight years old now.

Mark Rippetoe:
He's eight. Seven, eight years old. Eight year old pug. How long do pugs get to be 10, 12, 13, something like that?

Brian Jones:
Yeah, and I don't know if you've met Chloe.

Mark Rippetoe:
Here's Chloe. She's a black Pug.

Brian Jones:
Oh and one more introduction, Rip.

Mark Rippetoe:
Oh, Larry. You gotta see Larry.

Brian Jones:
Come over here. This is our young... My youngest daughter, Kyra.

Mark Rippetoe:
Hi, Kyra. How are you?

Brian Jones:
Last night, no yesterday I wanted to get my flip chart out because I was going to do a bubble chart kind of thing.

Mark Rippetoe:
Did you what did you get rid of Larry and get Kyra? Is that what...

Brian Jones:
Yeah. She's getting she's getting Larry. Oh if you see over my see over my shoulder here. Can you tell me what that is?

Mark Rippetoe:
Can I? Rusty said something about... What's the name of the TV show?

[off-camera]:
It's always sunny.

Mark Rippetoe:
It's always sunny. That's too long a name for a television show.

[off-camera]:
It's hilarious.

Mark Rippetoe:
There's Lar. Hi, buddy. Hi, Lar. Chloe's pretty cool. Chloe's going [makes dog face] Larry. Larry's tired of this already. Little Larry Love.

Brian Jones:
So I went to I went to get this flip chart. I pull it out from behind the freezer where it was to use yesterday and I find this dry erase drawing of Danny DeVito and come to find out that's Kyra, my 14 year old daughter.

Mark Rippetoe:
Kyra did that? She's got some talents, doesn't she?

Brian Jones:
Yeah, she does.

Mark Rippetoe:
Well, that's good. I don't I don't know if we can get her a job quite yet, but - her being 14 and shit.

Brian Jones:
She's actually wanting to open her own tattoo parlor.

Mark Rippetoe:
When can you get a tattoo?

[off-camera]:
I think 18.

Mark Rippetoe:
You have to be 18 to get one? How much... How do you have to be to be a tattoo artist? 18? So 18's a magic number.

[off-camera]:
You can die for your country and...

Mark Rippetoe:
Vote, but you can't buy Anheuser-Busch Natural Lite. Like you'd want to. Right. All right.

Mark Rippetoe:
So before we got all distracted by all these animals and shit what? What are we talking about? Talking about... Oh, yeah, you had that accident. That's what we're talking about.

Mark Rippetoe:
So you got all this reconstruction and you're in the hospital and depths of despair, all that shit. And then...

Brian Jones:
Well, they sent us, you know, they pretty much sent us home.

Mark Rippetoe:
They got you the hell out of there, right?

Brian Jones:
Yeah. But what the kicker was - and this is just a... I mean to back up just a second, I mean, one of the most probably momentous moments other than the accident itself, was the first time we went to the University of Kentucky sports medicine specialist. I had I had the external fixators in my legs. It was the first meeting with any doctor after the, you know, the ICU stuff.

Brian Jones:
So we went in and he he looked and examined X-rays, this, that and the other and Summer - I was, of course, in a wheelchair - and Summer was sitting in a chair to my left. The doctor came back and was looking and he said, well, you know, I wouldn't say it's good.

Mark Rippetoe:
Well, there's that.

Brian Jones:
He said there's very little chance that you'll walk unassisted again. Best case scenario, I mean, we may be able to get by with a walker, but it's if not, it could be a wheelchair.

Brian Jones:
Well, I mean, it was like it was like a cliche, a dream. And I just remember in that instant, sitting there feeling helpless and looking over and just saying. I think it, man, she's got the short end of the deal in this already. She already had.

Mark Rippetoe:
She already had a fucking idiot for a husband. And then! And now he's an albatross.

Brian Jones:
Right. Right. But she pretty much she just like.

Mark Rippetoe:
She just took it.

Brian Jones:
She just looked at me and said, we got it. We've got this. And we've had it ever since.

Mark Rippetoe:
Well, and what's interesting to me is... You know, and the condensed version of the story is, is Brian said, fuck this, and he started crawling around on the floor and then he started walking and then he started squatting and deadlifting. And when did you deadlift six? How many years after?

Brian Jones:
It was it was two and a half, I think three years after.

Mark Rippetoe:
Three years after you did lifted 600 pounds.

Mark Rippetoe:
So that's all all that other stuff was just complete bullshit like it always is. Why do you think... I mean, having been on the shortest end of a very short stick here with respect to your own personal physical situation, why do they tell you that?

Mark Rippetoe:
I mean, you've... I mean, they told you that, you know, look, man, fuck, Brian, you just better figure out a, you know. I mean, you know, other people buy new cars, you get new wheelchairs. Right,

Brian Jones:
Right, right. Yeah.

Mark Rippetoe:
Uh. Why do you think that are they covering their ass? You think that's what it is? I mean, you're tangentially associated with the insurance business. You know, you've dealt with prognostication in your professional situation, you deal with with prediction and odds and things like that.

Mark Rippetoe:
Why do you think these people don't know any more about this than they obviously do, you know, I mean, it puzzles me. If you were as bad at your job as an insurance adjuster. If I was this bad at my job as a strength coach, as an editor, the various things I do, we'd be starving to death. And yet, these guys still get paid.

Brian Jones:
And the ones that are working for CNN.

Mark Rippetoe:
Yeah, one of the two. Yeah, I mean, it doesn't take much to work for CNN. Got to get a hairdresser. I'm fucked. Well, I don't know. Brian Stelter is not he's not particularly endowed with a lot of hair, is he? And yet he goes to work every day at CNN and just makes up new vocabulary words, you know. What's he going to say today? Fuck,who knows. Who knows what he'll say?

Mark Rippetoe:
But I mean, but the doctors can say to you, you're never going to walk again. You'll never eat again. You're never going to breathe again. You know, it's just it's just so puzzling, it's so puzzling. You know, shit heals, if you make it heal. Right?

Mark Rippetoe:
Now, here's the classic example of this: You know, somebody gets in a real bad car wreck, I mean, a bad, you know, slammed into the side of the car, 50 miles an hour, caves in the rib cage. It produces what's called a flail chest. Right, where the the the fragments of the bones are not being supported on either end. And it's just a loose structure, right?

Brian Jones:
Mm hmm.

Mark Rippetoe:
And nine months later a new X-ray shows a completely restructured rib cage with absolutely normal morphology. This looks like nothing ever happened to it. Now, I know that it's hard to wrap your head around it, but that's what happens. That's what happens now. Why why does that happen?

Mark Rippetoe:
And the most immediate, obvious explanation, if you'll think about it just a second, is you can't quit breathing, right? You can't quit breathing so your ribs can't quit moving. Now, this is this is this is simple, isn't it? I mean, if you if you look at this, how long does a cracked rib take to heal? Three weeks. Right.

Mark Rippetoe:
Everybody gets better, feels like your dead first couple of days, you can't breathe. Everything hurts. Smiling hurts, everything hurts, right? Farting hurts. God help you if you cough, you know. But three weeks later, it's fine. What's the deal?

Mark Rippetoe:
Movement is the deal. Movement tells the fracture that, hey, there's a line here in this bone that's not kind of together anymore. So the little cells on either side of the fracture plane say to themselves, we got to...we need to heal that up. So they they get busy and they start secreting bone, mineral and produce a matrix across that fracture point and, you know, calcuous forms and all the various things that everybody's experience when they have a broken bone.

Mark Rippetoe:
And, you know, a couple of years later, even, you know, a long bone feels pretty much normal. You know, if you can approximate the pieces of the bone - and that's what they were doing in your surgery, they were you have to get the ends of the bone close enough together so there's not a gap. Because if there's a gap there, the body will form what is called a pseudarthrosis, which is a false joint, and it will start laying down cartilage between the two, the ends of the bone instead of healing the bones back together.

Mark Rippetoe:
So I understand why they have to do the fixation. I understand why they have to why they have to put plates in there to stabilize the bones so that they'll grow back together in the right shape with the ends of the bones approximated correctly.

Mark Rippetoe:
What I don't understand is why they don't why they don't learn from the example of the broken ribs. Why do they always want to invoke, you know, you'll never do X again, you know? You'll never walk again and you'll never lift your hand. You'll never come again. Whatever, whatever they...

Mark Rippetoe:
It's always doom and gloom, right? Every every time you do something like this. But they don't seem to understand that everything heals if you force it to heal. If you use it as as it's going to be used when it's healed to the best of your ability while it's healing, you drive the healing.

Mark Rippetoe:
And I don't understand why they don't understand this because and this is back to my original question. Are they just covering their asses? Why would they have told you something like that?

Brian Jones:
I think, you know, and this is definitely a question that I've thought a lot about. And initially, first the litigiousness aspect... The litigious aspect of it, because we do have a society that, ah, that wants to sue at the drop of a hat.

Mark Rippetoe:
We got too goddamn many lawyers. There's no doubt about that.

Brian Jones:
Right. But I think that would be... I think that would be kind of just whitewashing it too quick. I think a good example is the difference between a Starting Strength Coach and, say, a Jazzercise instructor or somebody who's doing bungee plyo type bullshit. You know, it's the same kind of thing.

Brian Jones:
You have... You've got a lot of doctors that are that are working on time and turnover. So what is going to get me through quicker? Slide him through and do the x rays. OK. All right. Take it easy. We'll keep you medicated. We're going to give you a parking space close. Better better than any parking you've ever had. You need anything else, holler at me.

Mark Rippetoe:
But I got to go down to room four.

Brian Jones:
In and out.

Brian Jones:
I can't, you know, I can only it's kind of tough for me because I do have issue with the lack of confidence in general that physicians have in their fellow man. I'm not saying all physicians, but the fact that they discount that someone like me or someone like a sixty two year old woman or a... I don't know an 82 year old man. We've seen time and time again that when when pushed, that not only do bones respond, not only do muscles and whatnot respond, but the human I mean, the people respond, right?

Brian Jones:
He will need the same kind of thing. And my... I had one big... I learned stress, recovery, and adaptation starting at 20 feet from the from the ground. And life, life, it's been awesome ever since.

Mark Rippetoe:
Right. So it is just a damn shame they're so willing to throw "You'll never do blah, blah again" out in front of so many people. What... Giving absolutely no thought to the fact that lots of people will not respond to that as a challenge.

Mark Rippetoe:
A lot of people respond to that by just saying, well. I mean, after all, he is a doctor and he said, I'll never walk again, so I'll just sit here, I'll just sit here. How about that? I've been given permission to sit on my dead fat ass.

Mark Rippetoe:
And a lot of people will take it that way, won't they? And not everybody has the balls to get up out of the chair, do they? And the damage done by that attitude at the doctor's office is incalculable. It's incalculable how many people they've harmed.

Mark Rippetoe:
I mean, you know, if you want to extrapolate that to the to the current situation, we find ourselves in, how many 17 year old kids wearing a mask right now, believe that they're going to die of covid-19?

Mark Rippetoe:
You know, the substantial percentage of them think they're going to die of covid-19, although none of them do. None of them do.

Mark Rippetoe:
Just as an aside here, I think this is an interesting statistic. Do you guys know how many teachers have been - in the world - how many teachers have been given a covid-19 infection by their kids in the classroom? You know how many?

Mark Rippetoe:
None, none, none yet the teachers unions are standing up there on television and saying, we're risking our lives, going back to work.

Mark Rippetoe:
I'm not I've never been particularly impressed with the intelligence of public school teachers. OK. They're not... I've never been particularly impressed with their intelligence, but this is this is just duplicity. This is not a lack of intelligence, this is just criminal behavior. You're extorting money and concessions.

Mark Rippetoe:
Do you realize that one of the things one of the California teachers union wanted wanted in order to go back to work was that they demand that the State of California closed the charter schools? Did you hear that?

Mark Rippetoe:
Oh, yeah. This is... These people are... These people are awful. So anyway.

Mark Rippetoe:
So, you know, and we wouldn't be going back to this so much, but there's no way to avoid the current situation. You can't avoid the current situation. You know, this is a this is a fucking mess. But anyway.

Mark Rippetoe:
My point, of course, is that doctors are not helping when they tell you what you can't do because many people will interpret that as shouldn't try to do. Many people will interpret it that way and they shouldn't interpret it that way, but that's that's what they'll do. That's what they'll do.

Mark Rippetoe:
And I just I find it, you know, I've known Brian quite a while and he's really gotten, you know, his head out of his ass and from a situation of complete total despair to a 600 deadlift in two and a half years. You know, not everybody has that kind of balls.

Mark Rippetoe:
I understand that not everybody's got that kind of balls, OK, but what I'm saying is. Somebody with the potential, the physical potential to do that. And you, as a doctor, encourage them to not try by telling them you're never going to walk again.

Mark Rippetoe:
Would you would you people think about what the hell you're doing when you say that next time? This is this is horrible. But it's not the thing to do. You're not helping anybody when you tell them that. You're covering your ass.

Mark Rippetoe:
And if you're in a situation where covering your ass means more to you than helping your patients, sell real estate or something. You know, I don't know if I would inflict that on the real estate profession, but I mean, just but, you know, that's...

Mark Rippetoe:
Anyway, so. And then so the continuing adventures of our friend F here...

Mark Rippetoe:
Summer is a good cook, I guess, right?

Brian Jones:
Yep, yep. Summer is.

Mark Rippetoe:
You decided to bulk up recently, huh?

Brian Jones:
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. That's that's what it was.

Mark Rippetoe:
That's what it was. He said, yeah I'm going to have to go on up to get, go on up to 400. 365. That way I can get my squat up to twelve fifty.

Brian Jones:
Rip, you told all of us that if one gallon of milk is good, two is twice as good.

Mark Rippetoe:
Twice as good. And three is three times as good. Yeah, that's what I always say.

Brian Jones:
And me having been a fluffy trainee to begin with. Of course, I was supposed to go full carb, six thousand calories a day. The milk...

Mark Rippetoe:
Chocolate milk, chocolate milk with extra sugar. Yeah. Oh yeah.

Brian Jones:
So I went I and I eventually found myself at well over... Upwards, you know, hitting almost 360 at one point. Then we got it down and and kind of lived life until we got to - I don't know how quick you quickly you want to jump ahead if we're going to talk about weight.

Mark Rippetoe:
Well, yeah. We are through talking about your legs, those aren't even interesting anymore. Let's talk about your belly.

Brian Jones:
Yeah, well, yeah. Well then that's if that's the case. I mean, up until. I mean, I was just eating and lifting and eating and lifting, and I found myself a week before this, just this Memorial Day, I stepped on the scales and I was like three forty four, three forty six somewhere in there. And I decided, man, I've got to do something and somebody's got to do something.

Mark Rippetoe:
Even if it's wrong, even if it's wrong even. So you decided fuck this! Fuck this, man.

Brian Jones:
Yeah, yeah, I want to see if I can lose... I want to see how quickly I can lose 100 pounds. If I can get up and walk after being told that I couldn't get up and walk...

Mark Rippetoe:
Right, then you lose 100 pounds. Piece of cake.

Brian Jones:
I've got... And, you know, a friend of ours, a friend of both of ours, Jim Steel, we have all of us are familiar. Jim's same kind of attitude. That was that's something I definitely will always give Jim a shout out to is that along with you providing me with the program and support, Jim gave me that extra Man, you don't fucking quit. You don't quit.

Mark Rippetoe:
Yeah. Oh, Jim's a good guy. We're going to have to get him on the podcast before it's all over with. You know. You know, he trains at that gym up in New Jersey where today... We're recording this on the was this twenty eighth... Yesterday, they hauled the guy away in handcuffs.

Brian Jones:
Yeah, they did.

Mark Rippetoe:
The governor of New Jersey is personally pissed off at this gym owner and dragged his ass away in cuffs.

Mark Rippetoe:
Can you imagine living in New Jersey? Why would anybody do that to themselves? Why that'd be kind of like living in Afghanistan or something. You know. Just God almighty, this this guy is just a power hungry, tyrannical fuck, and he decided that...To all appearances are that he's personally mad at the guy.

Mark Rippetoe:
And anyway, that's where Jim trains. He told me that last time I talked to him, he told m...

Brian Jones:
Well, it isn't what a good guy that it is imperative that we never establish strength and strength training as essential to them. If it's not if not for the reason of the independent streak, that we have to be that much easier for them to force us into and to comply. It's a lot easier to take advantage, to knock skulls with, well, weak folks.

Mark Rippetoe:
Sure, it is not so sure it is. And I know that's maybe down in his little black heart, the the governor of New Jersey is thinking like thinking like that, it very well may be that his, you know, is he is understands the nature of this existential threat, healthy, strong people will resist your bullshit. Yeah, and he sees the threat, at least he's not stupid.

Mark Rippetoe:
Yeah, Steel is...and, you know, Steel competes - I don't know why he does this, but he competes in four contests. He's actually done some bodybuilding. He's a big, muscular guy and he knows how to he knows how to get in shape for a for a show, too. So he knows about body fat. And I'm sure he's helped you with with your diet stuff on that. Right.

Brian Jones:
He has. He has. So enough so that like I said, the week before Memorial Day, I was at three forty four and this morning I weighed in, I'm at 286. So I got, you know, 60, what since Memorial, since Memorial Day so far.

Mark Rippetoe:
So and so that's what, five? Six weeks.

Brian Jones:
Is it?

Mark Rippetoe:
Six weeks, isn't it? So all of June, half of July. That's that's insane. Yes, oh so what so seven weeks, seven weeks, 60 pounds. You know, so it's like eight pounds a week.

Brian Jones:
And it's not and you know that one of the things that I made sure to do is drink at least a gallon of water a day because I didn't want to fool myself into thinking that some of this weight loss was dehydration or just fluids flushing.

Mark Rippetoe:
Because a lot of times it is. But if you're if you're drinking enough water, it's not not likely to be a false number on the scale.

Brian Jones:
I wouldn't I would never I would never recommend this to anybody. But what I would recommend is figuring out... Is figuring out what your enough point is, and doing whatever it takes. We I mean, you we have the capacity - I'm nothing special. I really am not, because there were there were times without a doubt that had I not had Summer... She's the one that kept this going, not me.

Mark Rippetoe:
No, I know that. But you're the one that didn't eat. Not her.

Brian Jones:
Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. That's true.

Mark Rippetoe:
You're the one that did it. You're the one who pulled six hundred not her. So yeah. You've got a role, you have a role to play here right.

Brian Jones:
So to answer your question. Yeah Jim, Jim was not only directly involved but also just from an inspiration standpoint because I could I've seen time and time again the way when he I like the way he gets stuff in his head and it's just a focus. And I think that you can develop and learn that kind of thing.

Brian Jones:
So, you know, I've learned a lot from you, Mickey D, you know, I definitely learned a lot from him and Jim.

Mark Rippetoe:
So, Jim, you know, for those of you that want to get a hold of Jim Steel, he's it basbarbell.com. That's B a s barbell dot com. You can get in touch with him through his website. He'll be glad to help you out if you've got problems you think he can help you with.

Mark Rippetoe:
So let's talk about what Jim told you to do. Well, how did you drop? I mean, that's a hell of a bunch of body weight to lose and not a very long period of time. So what did you do?

Brian Jones:
Again, I'm not recommending you. The person has to find the thing that works for them, because what I did very well could kill somebody, the truth of the matter is. But me not doing it...

Mark Rippetoe:
A lesser man.

Mark Rippetoe:
So what did you do?

Brian Jones:
Well, I started it just started walking the morning after I'd walk to get home, not fucking eat, not eat my face eight hours. And then eat - basically eat one time. I guess the term is clean, but, you know, big hunk of protein and some grains with with a plenty of fiber and plenty.

Mark Rippetoe:
That does sound dangerous.

Brian Jones:
And that's it. Just one... I know. Yeah. Right. So and then then a gallon of water and then I because I knew because I actually going into it where I had gotten so fat, I mean my, my squat technique went out the door. I started developing meniscus problems, ACL, MCL issues. Back issues.

Mark Rippetoe:
Just mechanical shit from all the lard, right?

Brian Jones:
Yes. And so it got to the point where I had stopped even training barbells for probably six to eight months because it just a pain. And I mean, it was horrible. But so I hadn't been hadn't been barbell training, but I decided, you know, we're going to start back from the very beginning.

Brian Jones:
What made me walk again, it was the same thing that was going to get me down to continue living well. And that was... I ran - I've been and I'm doing it now - I'm still running LP, you know. I started from the beginning so that... So I'm running Starting Strength running the Starting Strength. Gallon of water a day and one meal and moving, moving, moving, moving. And I'll tell you what, it's been an excellent difference in a lot of ways.

Mark Rippetoe:
Well, have you had to buy a new pants since and stuff or did you keep your old pants from previously?

Brian Jones:
Well, my even my old pants were fat pants. Skinny pants and skinny pants for me were 42s, no exaggeration.

Brian Jones:
So but... Yeah, now I can't remember living and feeling the way I do, the biggest thing is that the amount of pain that has been removed from my legs. I had never lived life without that constant pain, but a lot of it was because of the weight just smashing both of those, you know, where the where the injuries were.

Brian Jones:
But now that I've got the weight off, I mean, it's energy and it just builds on itself. But the key is it's just like I think people, you know, people want to start training or dieting or having a new different nutrition plan or activity level. They want to do that and they'll start out. But then a week, two weeks, maybe three weeks into it, you know, they're not seeing stuff like that. So they quit because they don't think that it's for them, because they've heard the doctors say, you know, well, you know, maybe instead of maybe training hard, let's walk slow or or, you know, we can we can treat that pain.

Mark Rippetoe:
But or hey, we get you up over 350 we can go ahead and do that lap band procedure that you've been wanting. But I mean, we can't we can't do that if you weigh in 325. So you need to gain some weight so we can help you. So we can do that surgery to take some weight off.

Mark Rippetoe:
I've actually heard of that being advised. I've actually heard of it being... You know, it's an interesting profession

[off-camera]:
Put them on a bullshit diet and exercise program and they say, well, try this first, knowing damn...

Mark Rippetoe:
Knowing damn well it's not going to work.

Brian Jones:
Right. Right. But to back up what I'm saying. So folks are getting to -- the really industrious ones, make it to say four weeks. Because they don't see any results, they quit. And I want to start convincing people.. because not... I would have, I would have quit. Now, I'm talking about the weight loss.

Brian Jones:
But the key is, is that you've got to understand that this whether it be weight loss or whether it be build in strength for yourself, it's stopping it four weeks is akin to bringing someone in the hospital who has cancer and treatment for four fucking weeks. And because it doesn't disappear, you quit to send them home. You don't do that shit.

Brian Jones:
So if you don't give up on a life due to cancer, why give up on your own life when you have the power to change? I mean, you really do. We'll sit and watch someone wither away and die for years because we don't want to give them the...even the ability to make the decision to how things are going to end for them. We'll do that. But we won't we will not allow ourselves more than a commercial blurb and maybe sitcom links worth of time before we say, fuck it, I can't lose weight, I can't jump, I can't live. I mean, that's not me. Everybody who does that.

Mark Rippetoe:
All the stuff I just can't do.

Brian Jones:
Yeah, exactly.

Mark Rippetoe:
I just can't. And so, you know, that's one that's... It's time for me to get back.

Brian Jones:
You've given, Starting Strength has given, Jim has given. People all over this country with with no expectation. And due to my accident, you know, some of the things that I don't want to solely say that the reason that I've lost the weight that I have was because just a calorie restriction and slow calorie burn. That that's not the only reason.

Brian Jones:
I had - it was hard to come to, but I had to admit and understand and accept the idea that I did experience significant PTSD with the accident.

Mark Rippetoe:
Yeah, it changes your mind. And by that I don't mean, you know, causes you to change your mind about something. I mean, it changes the way your mind works. It quite profoundly changes lots and lots of things about you from now on. It just giant traumas like that, whether they're physical or emotional, leave you a different person. They just do.

Mark Rippetoe:
And, you know, and that that's not to say that. You know, the way to deal with PTSD is to, you know, stand around and whine about having PTSD the rest of your life. Well, I've got PTSD, therefore I can't do blah, blah, blah. Look. Everybody's got a shitty story, you know, some people have shittier stories than others, right?

Mark Rippetoe:
Everybody has got a shitty story, and we don't want to see you make an excuse for not being worth a fuck because of your shitty story. You know, that's what that's what is being encouraged these days by psychology and all these other professions that make a living off of. You know, trying to get into your skull and tinker around with things.

Mark Rippetoe:
You know, I mean, my dad was in World War two. I'm an old guy. Daddy was in World War Two. Came back from World War Two and, you know, didn't complain at all about any of this shit to those old guys, they wouldn't have known what the hell PTSD was because they all had it and everybody had a shitty story. It was World War Two.

Brian Jones:
You just can't sit down with bourbon.

Mark Rippetoe:
And that's just how it was...you just dealt with it. Hell you grew up in the Depression. You know, things were shitty, this is just one more shitty deal. Standards were low, you know. Yeah, of course you're yeah, I know you got hurt. Yeah. You, you know, saw your best friend just turned into a pink mist, right? Yeah, so did I. So let's talk about something else. And that's the way they dealt with it.

Brian Jones:
I mean, it could have been worse. They could have been French.

Mark Rippetoe:
I hadn't thought about that, but, you know...

Brian Jones:
That was mean, I joke because they're French.

Brian Jones:
It's good to hate the French. Who said that? Famous statement. It's good to hate the French.

Mark Rippetoe:
But no, I mean, it's just a... Yeah, PTSD's real. Sure it's real. Do we pander to it or do we or do we...

Brian Jones:
I did for a while.

Mark Rippetoe:
Do we step over it and walk on? That's what we do. Yes, we step over it and get on with the fucking walk. Right. That's how it has to be dealt with. Sometimes that's a great big step, but it has to be taken anyway.

Brian Jones:
Absolutely, and that's and that's what happened, that's what happened with me. I acknowledged it. I realized that I had severely limited my circle of friends, my circle of influence. I got to where I wouldn't even travel again because I was afraid. And I'm talking this has gone on for years. I wouldn't even travel much where I used to have to travel a lot with my job because I was scared to death to be, to be any distance from Summer.

Brian Jones:
So... and it culminated it culminated in me, you know, just one more reason not to have to leave is eat, eat, eat. I got everything I want. But I realized, you know, after our coaches conference, after that speech, all the talk I gave. So many people came up and were hungry for more and they were asking me, man, I've got this guy that would he be perfect. He'd love to hear from you. Would you be interested in coming up to Cleveland and speaking to a group?

Brian Jones:
Oh, sure. Sure. We've got another someone else. I mean, just one after the other. Would you want to come to work and talk and talk at my gym? Or do you want to come in that school that I work at? And of course, I would say I mean, there was even talk about me doing a regional TED talk.

Brian Jones:
I had all that in front of me nine years ago. Imagine a life I would have started then and not continued pandering to the PTSD. What life would be like for my kids. I'd be nine, nine years ahead right now. And I feel like I cheated them. I feel like I cheated Summer and I'm ready to pick it up. I want to help folks.

Mark Rippetoe:
You're ready to quit being a worthless bag of shit and get up off your ass and get in a car and go talk to somebody. Wonderful! Brian is available.

Brian Jones:
That's right.

Mark Rippetoe:
Brian is available to speak to your group.

Brian Jones:
And no masks required.

Mark Rippetoe:
No masks, no. Masks prohibited, in fact.

Brian Jones:
And here. Hey, Rip, if I can if anybody I mean, if anybody wants to email me...

Mark Rippetoe:
BrianJSquat@gmail. Excellent. So get a hold of him.

Brian Jones:
Absolutely.

Mark Rippetoe:
You know, I'll tell you what. Here's the here's the correct order. Watch this podcast like you're doing right now. Then go to our website to StartingStrength.com and find Brian's talk at the SCCA convention - and we'll link it - and watch that. And then you'll you'll understand why there was not a dry eye in the house that weekend at the SSCA convention back all those years ago.

Mark Rippetoe:
And I'd like to.,, Yeah, really Brian's a powerful speaker. And he will he will help you.

Brian Jones:
If I could, just two quick points, I think that are important to me, for people to hear. The first is it has to - and I was talking to Nick about this, too. And this is one... Today, actually. And this is one of the other reasons that really motivated me to lose all that weight. I was well, I guess I never realized how popular the video of the conference of my talk was.

Brian Jones:
And not long ago, I came across it one way or another. And I actually started reading the comments and I saw comments from three, four or five years ago, people asking. Hey, can you tell me this is what happened to me or that's what happened to me. I've lost them. I don't know whether they succeeded or not.

Brian Jones:
And then looking at that video, I realized how I was standing in front of a room of some of the most consummate fitness leaders, health, strength builders in the country, if not the world, looking like a haystack with a pumpkin on top. I mean, if you look at you look at that, you look at that. I'm adorable. People love me. I know that. But I mean, look at it...

Mark Rippetoe:
Look, Leppo was there. And my point I mean, Leppo was there. Oour friend Joe Leppo. He's, what is he, five seven standing up or laying down? Oh, oh. I'll hear from him for that.

Brian Jones:
So my point being is, one, any of you guys do get an opportunity to go and look at the video of my talk. Look at how effing fat I am. Look at how fat. And that's where I started, if not worse. I was about three twenty there. So imagine me with another almost twenty five thirty pounds.

Brian Jones:
Now, I'm halfway through, I did it, I wasn't it wasn't an act, it wasn't an act, and it wasn't dial a meal, it wasn't any shit Oprah sent to me.

Brian Jones:
Second thing I should use because I was just a regular Joe, regular fat Joe who did it. The second thing is, if you get a chance also there was an article written about me, Barbell Training as Rehab. You can also find it on the website and they may be able to link it. There's pictures. There are pictures both in the conference and in the article that show my calves the first time they took the bandages, the cast and everything off.

Brian Jones:
And my calves, my both my calves, were no bigger around than my wrists. Those little skinny calves that I could put my hands around are the same calves that squat ,that pick up my daughter, that deadlift that run up the stairs now that finally got past the motor come up to quote, a great man, "a fat kind of half arm pulled wheezing guy clean" to just within the last couple of days, an acceptable somewhat hang...

Mark Rippetoe:
No, that was a pretty good hang clean. Brian sent me a video of his clean. And I'm telling you, the only damn thing wrong with this right now is - I'll just go ahead and do this on the podcast, might as well - you're you're not finishing your hip extension at the top.

Mark Rippetoe:
In other words, look at the video and you'll notice that you don't ever get into the layback behind vertical. Like you would.

Brian Jones:
That's the same, same exact thing, Summer said on our honeymoon.

Mark Rippetoe:
I know this may not be correctable if it's that embedded, you know, we got you got to finish. You're not finishing at the top. You've got to think about the shrug. Think about a shrug and finish the pull. That's what you're not doing.

Mark Rippetoe:
But aren't you haven't got an arm pull. The thing looked pretty good. The rack looked great. It's just, you know, the last 10 percent of the hip extension's not done. Summer knows this is not my fault.

Brian Jones:
That's right, she does.

Brian Jones:
And legs that size, right, legs that size, eventually deadlifting six hundred and fifteen pounds, squatting four hundred and fifteen pounds, right. Pressing 205 was my best press. And I guess what do we have left my bench - 325.

Mark Rippetoe:
You know just this was your best. You, you know these are, these are just your previous PRs. You're not through. You're not dead yet.

Brian Jones:
And I'm not a genetic freak. I'm not...

Mark Rippetoe:
I'll tell you when you're dead. OK. I'll be the judge of this. All right. Thanks for being with us today, F.

Brian Jones:
Any time.

Mark Rippetoe:
We enjoyed it.

Brian Jones:
And once again, anybody out there that would I'd love to talk to you. Whether it be personally or a group. Give me a holler.

Mark Rippetoe:
Give him a holler. What is that the what was that again? Hold it up, brianjsquats@gmail.com, get a hold of him there.

Brian Jones:
And don't want to get it mixed up and say Brian Jr mails it. G, squats.

Mark Rippetoe:
No, that won't work.

Brian Jones:
Whole different website.

Mark Rippetoe:
That won't work, that won't work. Or it might work in a way that would...no.

Brian Jones:
Reference back to the honeymoon.

Mark Rippetoe:
Right, there we go.

Brian Jones:
Now wait a sec. And if you want when you get off Nick, Nick, I give Nick a very good explanation of some of the other benefits, but it would probably be for maybe you like Starting Strength at night or once we start going into, you know, adult kind of.

Mark Rippetoe:
Right, right.

Brian Jones:
Nick can fill you in.

Mark Rippetoe:
That other website we're working on right now. That's right. Got it.

Brian Jones:
Guys, appreciate it.

Mark Rippetoe:
Got it.

Mark Rippetoe:
Thank you, F-man. We'll we'll talk to you soon. And thank you for joining us with Starting Strength Radio. Next time.

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