Tribute to Charles Poliquin

Charles was my first and biggest mentor. You know, I was his protege at Pollock and Group, right? We had a great relationship, and then we had a falling out. But I still give credit to him for the strength training stuff he taught me. Every time. Yeah, I say some things where if you say things that are factually incorrect in the industry, I'm going to call you out. I've called him out on some things. That doesn't mean I don't care about the guy. I love the guy. And I always, in my seminars, I got this from Charles. This is the best thing he ever taught me. This is the second best thing he ever taught me. I say that type of shit. I think it's really important on this day right now that we honour Charles because, you know, all three of us have learned a lot from him. Brenton, indirectly, has learned a lot from Charles. So, I mean, you know... The godson. You know, what a fucking career. If anyone had a career you would want to emulate, probably without some of the personal attributes but you know he has impacted more people in the personal training and strength conditioning game than anyone else I know of Love the guy or hate the guy, I would not be sitting here and Muscle Nerds would not exist without him. And all the people, all my best friends and closest friends and colleagues, I wouldn't fucking know them. I wouldn't be living in Australia, I'd be in Texas doing something else. Maybe I'd go back into computer programming, I don't know. But when I was 14, I started studying his stuff, everything in muscle media, TMAG, all that. And then eventually I met the guy and we had created a personal relationship. And then I started working for him and all that. And, yeah, like almost every single trainer I know was influenced in some portion by him. And then for the generations coming up, it's important for them to know that even though they've not maybe they've never had experience with them, They're getting that experience through myself, Ben, you, and everyone else that actually got a chance to meet the guy or study his stuff. And he will live on forever and ever. Indeed. Yeah, so we're all indebted to him. And I think it's important that we acknowledge that. 100%. Yeah, totally. There's been a huge wave of stuff on social media since his death about a month ago. and I think I was very careful to not put anything out there because every single person I've ever met in this game put up photos of when they met him and you had a really, really significant one because you were so close to him for a while but I just chose to leave it, leave it alone. I only met him twice in my life. I learnt everything indirectly from him. I thought I'm not going to try and ride this wave. this is important to me, to let the man rest in peace. But, I mean, honestly, what a fucking career. Here's the thing. I lost my father seven weeks before Charles. So in a span of two months, I lost my father. I lost the two most important men, most important mentors I've had in my entire life. And like we talk about when it's not about the food, that's some shit that I had to deal with. And I was doing okay, and then I wasn't doing okay after that happened. And Zoe's, thank God for Zoe because she keeps me grounded and she's seen me like completely devastated from both of those things. But you just move forward and you keep their legacy alive. Yeah, that's important. And what about, can you comment on the stuff that Strength Sensei group is doing now with, is it Carlos? I don't really know what's going on. I wasn't sure what's going to happen. But, you know, he had Carlos and he had Tony Parra and he had a lot of people around him. I think Carlos is still running with it. and yeah, Carlos is amazing. He's amazing. I met him, fuck, I met him, fuck, I don't know, a decade ago and the guy's super knowledgeable and he's, both of those guys are really good guys to kind of keep that movement going. That flame alive. The flame and then also keep evolving it with all the new research. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And they've got a good support system especially in Australia. They've got the guys at Shredder Strengths. They've got Marty and Kelly and they keep that stuff going and that's fantastic. Yeah, absolutely. Charles rest in peace brother Anyone for one of these? I'm just I'm just I'm just You guys are a bad influence This is definitely not a ring This is the first time for me I don't even drink whiskey Ben is cringing because when I walked in the doors He was being given this bottle of whiskey as a gift I think Birthday gift to you Happy birthday mate Thank you, man. Thank you. I'll get you another one on the way to Huxleberger. Done. I think if you give him a few more of these, he'll buy you at least a couple. Well, the kind of... The empathy was just going to pour out. The pre-warm-up to this podcast, I was getting choked out and armbarred for 15 minutes. It was very good to watch. I'm going to have to go get some counselling now. I'm just trying to surface that trauma. I'll give you a hug, Luke. Only if I can smell your beard. Before we get into Brenton and Luke on the mats, let's just raise a glass to Charles. There it is right there, gentlemen. Cheers. Cheers. Don't shoot this one, Isaac. Gentlemen. Now, Brenton, what was it like kicking Luke's ass on the mat just before? It always feels good beating a muscular behemoth, the guy who's poured his entire life into being a physical specimen. Yeah, yeah. Just for me to be able to grasp his life in my hands and just feel like it was for nothing. Well, I tell you, I was at a disadvantage because it's been a very emotional weekend and I've had some, you know, we've been tending to our flock and all this. So I just took it easy on you because, you know, basically I didn't want to die. So my retort to that is I asked you how you doing and I listened to the tone in your voice and how you said it And I thought I going to go easy on this guy today He walks in he like hi and he shakes my hand and I go holy shit he got a grip and he goes oh well I left and I go fuck See, watching you roll with Brent and I was like, fuck, I'm so glad I don't have a gay anymore, but at the same time I'm like, hmm. That does look like fun. Well, here we go back to the stress response. You saw me freeze, and then you saw me try not to shit my pants. That's pretty much what I was doing. That's the facade, right? Yes. Did I tell you about the nickname that they used to give me when I used to do BJJ back in the day? When you did BJs? BJs, yes. Okay. Was it pretty mouth? Have you seen this? Well, the thing is you get the scent of the beard as well. You get the beard smell too. It's delightful. But no, BJJ. There's your extra J. um no bear deer bear deer yes wait wait bear deer yeah i forgot what we're talking about what are you talking about they gave me a nickname bear deer oh bear deer that's your nickname in jiu-jitsu yeah i got lost i got lost in the beard talk i mean i got lost i've been trained by your beard oh you have to smell it i thought that was just a weird side remark but it actually smells delightful it's like a therapy beard it's almost like a weird vapor pen thing or something He just went in for a second sniff This is getting really intense ladies and gentlemen I don't even know if I've ever smelled anyone's beard before It's like gypsy tears and Jesus love There's a name for that Flavor or do you call a smell a flavor I don't know It's tobacco and vanilla right It's the Tom Ford tobacco vanilla beard oil We talk about this all the time Because I have a similar thing but it's about half the price Yeah I love the fact that this is recorded in permanent history. Yeah, you're snipping Ben's beard two times. Britton, you should smell my balls. Yeah, nah. Unless it's got that cinnamon, tobacco, whatever. No, he's washed since then. What if I lie and say it does? There's only one way for you to find out. I think I can consult Mac on this one. So good. This is burning out exactly as I hoped. Well, I think we'll be cracked over the whiskey It was just like doomed for just disaster. But the sweetest disaster. It's wonderful. Yeah. Indeed. What else do we want to talk about? We've got a whole list of bullet points on there, don't we, Brenton? Yeah. So we've covered auto-regulation. We've talked a little bit about the state of the personal training industry. I think we've covered a bit about psychological stress, how it leads to inflammation. We paid homage to Charles. Charles Poliquin. We talked a little bit about when it's not about the food, which fed into obviously the personal training industry and how you're bringing in a trauma counsellor and sort of developing that empathy with clients and metabolism. Mac? Power lifting. Ben, what's up? What's happening? Oh. No. Oh, stop it, you.