A Second Chance at Strength | Steve Gentili

Steve Gentili (0:00)

Man, I just want to live longer. I don't want to die at 35 They checked me in to the ICU and spent three days testing me and couldn't figure out what was going on, but they just told me I was in complete organ failure. I knew I was losing a chapter in my life. That chapter was over.

Mark Bell (0:15)

How long did it take to get another kidney?

Steve Gentili (0:17)

Five years. That is just acceptance. I'm never gonna bench press 600 pounds again. I'm never gonna squat 800 pounds again. And being okay with that, I'm just more grateful for things. You can be mad at it, you can be angry at it, you gotta move past it. You can either be stunted by these things or you can use them as a catalyst for grief.

Nsima Inyang (0:37)

Yeah, he can only squat 405 for like sets of eight now.

Steve Gentili (0:41)

That's a big hit though.

Mark Bell (0:43)

It is.

Steve Gentili (0:43)

Yeah.

Nsima Inyang (0:44)

Yeah, as opposed to probably, you could probably squat 600 for eight.

Mark Bell (0:48)

Well, I was never that good at this. Let's rewind. Right now you squat 405 for eight?

Steve Gentili (0:52)

Yeah, I squat 405 for eight.

Mark Bell (0:54)

What are you even? There's nothing to trip about. I'm sorry, there's nothing to trip about. I get it, I get it, though. But still, that's strong as.

Steve Gentili (1:01)

Yeah, I mean, dude, I feel good about it, like in all reality of where I'm at in life.

It's like, this is what I say, I'm at a point in my life where it's okay. Like, you know, I'm not that strong, I'm okay. I'm okay.

Mark Bell (1:16)

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You're still like in the top 1% of strength.

Steve Gentili (1:19)

You know, like, you know what I, I love the talking to Ed Cohen about this, cause he's like, I just lift heavy enough so I could lie about how heavy I can lift. So I'm a roll, I'm a roll with that one.

Nsima Inyang (1:32)

Yeah. I mean, you said you did 700 for triple the other day. I think you did say it was with the wagon wheel, so it's elevated.

Steve Gentili (1:38)

Yep.

Nsima Inyang (1:39)

But 700 for a triple?

Mark Bell (1:40)

700 leaving the ground is still, is a lot.

Steve Gentili (1:44)

I feel good about it, but you know, I think the comparison for me is like, I was trying to build back to a 2K total, and those aren't 2K numbers. So I think that's where I'm like, good enough, you know? Because the reality of it, I think I just, dude, I just put the bar too high.

Nsima Inyang (1:59)

So I never even reached a 2K total raw. 2K total for people that don't know and power lifting is a big number.

Steve Gentili (2:06)

It used to be.

Nsima Inyang (2:07)

It used to be because there's a guy named Colton Ingebrigts who did a 2,700 pound total.

Mark Bell (2:14)

Yeah, at my body weight.

Nsima Inyang (2:16)

I don't understand what's happening.

Steve Gentili (2:18)

Yeah, either do I, man. I would love to get to the bottom of it, but I can't.

Nsima Inyang (2:21)

What excuses can we can we think of any excuses on what?

Steve Gentili (2:24)

I'll tell you, my go-to is just I'm retired.

Nsima Inyang (2:27)

Oh, yeah, he's lucky.

Steve Gentili (2:29)

Yeah.

Nsima Inyang (2:30)

OK, that's a good one.

Steve Gentili (2:31)

Now there's just something out there now, you know, like, oh, if I was still competing, there's probably new drugs, peptides. Yeah, peptides, programming. They don't. They did. What kind of programming?

Nsima Inyang (2:40)

He saw me on so much shit.

Mark Bell (2:42)

Yeah, I wish we could see the numbers, though, of like, because social media made powerlifting specifically explode. And it's not like it's that old of a sport, right?

So there's just so many more people. Would you say there's maybe three or five times the amount of people that we're doing that are doing powerlifting now? Think about that.

Steve Gentili (2:59)

That's just a pool of people. Ten times. Yeah, probably. Yeah. So and what's different is people are sharing information.

Nsima Inyang (3:06)

Yeah.

Steve Gentili (3:06)

Where they're not gatekeeping programming or, you know, there's tons of podcasts talking about strength training and tons of people posting their training every day. And there's just a crossover.

Nsima Inyang (3:17)

We got no answers.

Steve Gentili (3:18)

Yeah.

Nsima Inyang (3:18)