The Endless Pursuit of Progress - Sam Sulek - #994

**Chris Williamson** (0:00)
If you weren't doing bodybuilding, what do you think you'd be obsessing over instead?

**Sam Sulek** (0:04)
I think, I mean, it would have to be something, but honestly, I was kind of lucky. Starting off bodybuilding, I didn't even say bodybuilding. The only, and this is something people say anyway, if you don't compete, you're not a bodybuilder. Like it's a little, because when someone does their first show, they kind of want to express this glamour about it. It's like, I'm a bodybuilder because I competed. You just, but I can't lean into that. So before I actually competed, I'd always describe myself as like just, I'd say a lifter. Because the point wasn't more so to compete in bodybuilding. Like when I'm working at arms, I'm not thinking like, okay, I need arms to be a little bit bigger, so that I can beat this guy on stage. It's more so I want them to be bigger for me. And then that kind of played into, once I was at a certain level, like, okay, now is about time to compete. Like it was always on the list, but it wasn't like the point, especially not in the beginning. For me, I'm like, I just want to get big. I did gymnastics when I was like 11 to 16 I think it was good, but I wasn't like gonna be college level scholarship, like no Olympic, but I like it was fun. And there was one guy named Connor who is, he's the older dude.
And now I might not look at him the same way, but at the time he was nuts. He was huge. So we all, whenever we do like strength or conditioning, that's how I think that was probably some of the C that got planted. Cause I was doing like four hours a day, like middle school, early high school.

**Chris Williamson** (1:42)
So you already had one obsession.

**Sam Sulek** (1:43)
So that was like it. Like every, it wasn't, I never had to be dragged to do it cause like I was excited, it was fun. So once I quit doing that, to switch it with the bodybuilding just happened to be something I was already kind of interested in and it just fit perfectly. Like we would talk every summer where some of the guys would be like, okay, this summer we're actually gonna work out. Then we never did it. But once I actually quit doing it, that's what I replaced it with. But if it wasn't bodybuilding, let's say there was a alternate universe, Sam, or I've got the itch where it's like, oh, it'd be awesome if I could play guitar like Rob Scallon, he's a YouTuber who's into guitars and everything, or just anything. Like that could have been it. But it happened to be like, okay, I'm gonna get into working out really serious. And that also just happened to be the perfect match for me.

**Chris Williamson** (2:31)
Have you held onto the bendiness from gymnastics at all?

**Sam Sulek** (2:34)
A little, I can like, when I stretch, I can loosen up. But when I'm off season, full of carbs, like it actually kind of sucks to squat, because I get-

**Chris Williamson** (2:44)
How tight everything is.

**Sam Sulek** (2:45)
Everything is tighter. When I'm dieted down, I can get my hands under a squat bar fine. But when I'm eating a lot of food, like when I'm more like a 270, like I'm sitting there for five minutes just trying to stretch out.

**Chris Williamson** (2:57)
Mike Isretel had some back surgery thing on him, and it's cut open, they've removed fat, they've got rid of fat cells, they've stitched him back up. It's like a big traumatic surgery.

**Sam Sulek** (3:08)
Yeah.

**Chris Williamson** (3:09)
And I asked him what the most painful thing that he went through was, and it was that he said they'd laid him on his back with his arms like this.

**Sam Sulek** (3:17)
Yeah.

**Chris Williamson** (3:18)
And so he woke up and the most painful thing was the fact that he'd been in an overhead position with his arms over his head for a few hours.

**Sam Sulek** (3:24)
Yeah.

**Chris Williamson** (3:25)
And that always makes me laugh.

**Sam Sulek** (3:27)
I never heard that part. I did see that though. Some of those, if I had something done like that, for whatever reason, I probably wouldn't post that surgery picture with like the bloody shirt.

**Chris Williamson** (3:37)
That man has no shame. He just opened-

**Sam Sulek** (3:40)
That's kind of cool too, because he actually gets to show it off.

**Chris Williamson** (3:43)
Well, I think, why is it that people have resonated with you? A very sort of transparent look into, even if people don't see themselves directly in Mike getting his back cut open, or you spending a lot of time obsessing about the gym, what they do see is a person being transparent. And that's where relatability comes from, I think. Like authenticity breeds relatability. And if Mike had just disappeared and come back with a smaller waist and some scars, people would have been like, hey, what's going on? And I think that wouldn't feel very legitimate.