#124 Mark Bell on Resistance Training and Dieting for Physical and Mental Development

Mark Bell (0:00)

These things might sound intimidating. They might sound hard. Keto might sound hard. Fasting might sound hard.

Doing some of these sprints might sound difficult. Some of this training, but it's not. It's actually fairly easy. Maybe simple is a better word. It's very, very simple.

It might not be easy to execute on it because you haven't done it before.

Well, if you haven't done it before, guess what? It probably will be kind of hard at first, but it will get easier, get better. You can train your willpower. You can train your dedication. You can train all these things over a period of time and you can become more dedicated. You can have a stronger willpower. It's just like any other muscle that you have in your body.

Siim Land (0:37)

Body Mind Empowerment.

SPEAKER_3 (0:39)

Get stronger, faster, smarter, quicker, friendlier, more helpful, more driven.

Siim Land (0:45)

Everything the body needs.

SPEAKER_3 (0:46)

Control your mind.

Siim Land (0:49)

Welcome to the Body Mind Empowerment Podcast. I'm your host Siim Land and our guest today is Mark Bell.

Mark is a world record-holding powerlifter, entrepreneur, former pro-wrestler, and owner of the Super Training Gym. Mark, welcome to the show.

Mark Bell (1:04)

Thank you so much. Great to be on here.

Siim Land (1:06)

Yeah, I was on your podcast a few weeks ago.

We talked about fasting, etc. I've actually been watching your content and your accomplishments on social media for a long while. So it's good to meet, let's say, across the interwebs.

Mark Bell (1:24)

Yeah, that's right. I've seen a lot of your YouTube videos. And then probably one of the more compelling ones I've seen is some of the stuff you've done with Elliott Holes.

And I think you were interviewing Elliott. He was saying how he's read some of your books and tried some of your techniques and stuff.

And I was already listening to some of the stuff that you were saying as well. But I was like, oh, shit. OK, well, if Elliott's doing it now, that really gives it even more validation. I'm a huge Elliott Holes fan. So anyway, it was the information that you put out there is really helping a lot of people. So I appreciate it.

Siim Land (1:59)

Well, thanks for that.

But let's talk about you as well. So that's quite a long resume you have there. And you've done many different things. So maybe give a brief kind of backstory about where you're coming from and how did you end up here?

Mark Bell (2:14)

I started lifting when I was 12

And I've always been drawn to muscle. I've always been drawn to being bigger and being stronger. I can remember when I was probably maybe like 9 or 10 I was watching WWF Wrestling at the time. And Ted Arcidi came on the screen. And Ted Arcidi was a professional wrestler, but he was also a powerlifter. And he bench pressed 705 pounds. He was the first guy to bench over 700 pounds. And I said to myself, you know, I want to do this. I want to do that one day, whatever that is, like that looks exciting, that looks really fun. I want to be big and strong like that someday. And so that kind of kicked the journey off. And lifting has always been there for me. I've never really stopped. I've always kind of thought I was going to do other things. I did track, I did boxing, I played basketball, I played football.

And I did professional wrestling for several years.

But I kind of fall short on all those other things in comparison to what I was able to do lifting wise. And so I guess maybe when I was young, I didn't really know that you could like just be a lifter. I thought you had to kind of like lift for other stuff.

And I wasn't really interested in bodybuilding, so I never really went that route when I was young. Although I appreciated bodybuilding and liked, I followed like Arnold and a lot of the bodybuilders. But it wasn't something I was going to pursue myself. I was more into strength. And the gyms I went to, they were into strength too. And even at a really young age, 14, 15 years old, the gyms I'd go to, they would bench squat, deadlift, do bent over rows, heavy overhead presses, all the basic exercises that are still around today and still really effective.

And, you know, I was really, really drawn to that. And I, you know, learned at a young age how to do those exercises properly. Squat took a really long time for me to get a handle on it. But, you know, so I stuck with it for years and years and ended up breaking some, like, state records and things like that in high school and some national records even. And then as I kind of got older, I started pursuing football a little bit more, went to a junior college, schools. I was never really good in school, so school didn't work out well for me.