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The Joe Rogan ExperienceThe Joe Rogan Experience

Joe Rogan Experience #1101 - Chris & Mark Bell

Chris Bell is a writer, director, and filmmaker known for the documentaries “Bigger, Stronger, Faster” and  “Prescription Thugs”. Mark Bell is an elite powerlifter and owner of Team Super Training Gym in Sacramento, CA. Together they are currently working on an untitled new project about food and health.

Joe RoganhostMark BellguestChris BellguestGuestguest
Apr 10, 20182h 51mWatch on YouTube ↗

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  1. 0:001:00

    Chris Bell’s comeback: deadlifting with artificial hips

    1. JR

      (knocking) Three, two, one. (gun cocking sound) Is that a gun? That's a real gun? Gentlemen, we're live. The Bell Jostle-

    2. MB

      What's up?

    3. CB

      We are live. Yeah, thanks. What's going on?

    4. JR

      It's the bell curve. How are you fuckers? What's going on?

    5. CB

      Doing great, man. It's great to be on the show again.

    6. JR

      Great to g- have you guys here. Um, you know, I was watching your Instagram the other day, and I was looking at you with fake hips, doing crazy fucking heavy dead lifts, man. That's amazing.

    7. CB

      (clicks tongue) I am starting to dead lift a little bit more, uh, because I've been doing this carnivore diet and I feel great. And there's no reason not to, right? So, um, I just figured, uh, if I can do it and it doesn't hurt, then, uh, why not? So, uh, I- I was going up to about 400 pounds, but I think I can still... I think I can even get stronger now. So, what I'm so happy about is this is something... Squatting and dead lifting is something that was part of my life all growing up. I was a power lifter all growing up.

    8. MB

      He's the one that got me into this shit.

    9. CB

      And it- it got taken away from me, and I was really sad and disappointed. Became a drug addict and an alcoholic because of it, and now I can lift again, so I feel good.

  2. 1:003:10

    Hip replacement realities: success stories, botched hardware, and recovery logistics

    1. JR

      That is... Is that unusual for someone who's got artificial hips to be able to do something like that?

    2. CB

      Um-

    3. JR

      Do you know? Do you... How many people do you know that have artificial hips?

    4. CB

      Well, I do know that Ed Cone, who is the greatest power lifter of all time, he has two fake hips now, right?

    5. MB

      Yeah, I think so.

    6. CB

      And I think he still squats 600.

    7. JR

      Jesus!

    8. MB

      Yeah, he can still lift some weight.

    9. JR

      With fake hips?

    10. MB

      (laughs)

    11. CB

      Yeah, @eddiecone. Check him out. He's a beast.

    12. JR

      Holy sh- Uh, fake hips squatting 600 pounds?

    13. CB

      It's insane.

    14. JR

      They say that is, like, one of the most effective replacement-

    15. CB

      Yeah.

    16. JR

      ... surgeries that they do, is replacing people's hips.

    17. MB

      Yeah, for him it's gonna be- it's gonna be a big deal.

    18. CB

      I think it's a great... I think it's a great surgery. Before I got it done, I mean, I couldn't even get up out of a chair. I was... I'd be stuck, you know? I would- I would stick places.

    19. MB

      (clears throat)

    20. CB

      (laughs) And, um, before I got it done, I couldn't really move at all. And then after I got it done, they had botched one side, so one side went perfect, the other side, for two years, was all screwed up and the doctors didn't know it.

    21. JR

      What was screwed up about it?

    22. CB

      Um, the- the cup. There's a cup and then there's the ball that goes into the cup.

    23. JR

      Mm-hmm.

    24. CB

      The cup came loose-

    25. JR

      Oh, no.

    26. CB

      ... and- and it would- it would shift around. Now, they think the cup comes loose because when you do both hips at the same time, they hammer one hip into one side and then you're completely like a dead body almost, and they flip you over and then they-

    27. MB

      It's really violent actually.

    28. CB

      ... when they flip you over, they think that's when the hip might... That- that socket may come out. So, um, they're starting to- to question doing them both on the same day now.

    29. JR

      Yeah, I've heard of people getting one done and then a couple months later...

    30. CB

      I would recommend getting one done because then when I got my other one... when I got the one that was messed up redone and I had one good leg and one (laughs) , you know, one leg to recover on-

  3. 3:103:51

    DEXA scans, muscle biopsies, and the steroid elephant in the room

    1. CB

      We- we just got a DEXA scan done and-

    2. MB

      We got weird shit going on.

    3. CB

      We got really weird shit going on. We had a DEXA scan done and Dr. Jacob Wilson told us that our bone... Was it bone min- mineral den- density?

    4. MB

      Density, yeah.

    5. CB

      It was... Mine- mine was, like, off the charts, but his was way (laughs) off the charts.

    6. MB

      Yeah, and then, uh-

    7. CB

      He didn't, like, recognize it.

    8. MB

      ... we also got a muscle biopsy done by, uh, Dr. Andy Galpin. And he's just like, "Dude, I don't-"

    9. JR

      Love that guy.

    10. MB

      He's like, "I don't know what the fuck's going on with your... With my muscle," and his muscle. He's like, "But we need to talk about this more." And so it-

    11. JR

      It's called steroids.

    12. MB

      (laughs) Yeah, I know.

    13. CB

      Yeah.

    14. MB

      Well, exactly.

    15. JR

      (laughs)

    16. MB

      So he said he wanted to, uh, interview me more and- and talk to me more about like what I've taken over the years and all those different things.

    17. JR

      Yeah, it's... It works. (laughs)

    18. MB

      Yeah, it fucking works. Fantastic.

    19. JR

      There's a reason why people do it. (laughs)

    20. CB

      I just think...

    21. JR

      It's so crazy.

  4. 3:516:46

    Born strong: early lifting, family genetics, and ancestry tests

    1. CB

      I heard you talking the other day about throwing a- a roundhouse kick and you said it's just second nature to you.

    2. MB

      Yeah.

    3. CB

      And I think, for us, we've been lifting-

    4. JR

      Right.

    5. CB

      ... for so long-

    6. MB

      Sure.

    7. CB

      ... that a lot of this stuff... Even when I was a drug addict and alcoholic, the entire time I still trained every day. I wasn't doing as good of a job, but I still would make it to the gym every day.

    8. JR

      Right.

    9. CB

      It's ingrained in us.

    10. MB

      Right.

    11. CB

      It's something that we've been doing forever, so I think that-

    12. JR

      So your body's just designed for it. It's essentially-

    13. CB

      I don't know if it's designed for it, but-

    14. JR

      Well, not designed, but you've sort of designed it. You know, you-

    15. MB

      I think it's something that found us, you know?

    16. JR

      Really?

    17. MB

      Like we- like we did kind of stumble upon it, but I think it's something that found us. And it's, uh...... you know, I, I was strong right out of the gate. He was strong right out of the gate. I mean, and I remember, uh, my friends benching in the garage and they were benching the bar maybe a 10 on each side and I was, you know, doing a plate, doing 185, 12 years old, you know, and-

    18. CB

      He was an animal when he was young, so-

    19. MB

      There was just something there. There was some sort of strength. My mo- our mom benched, uh, what'd she bench?

    20. CB

      135.

    21. MB

      Yeah, she benched-

    22. JR

      Your mom can bench 135?

    23. CB

      Uh, like right off, you know, like without ever lifting. She just put her-

    24. MB

      I wanna say I think she benched 185.

    25. CB

      She might have.

    26. MB

      On the same day because she-

    27. JR

      That's what Joey Diaz would say, "Immigrant mentality."

    28. MB

      (laughs)

    29. CB

      (laughs)

    30. JR

      Where's your mother from?

  5. 6:4610:18

    Neck damage and atrophy: fighters, sleep, and sleep apnea tools

    1. JR

      Dude, I was watching, um, uh, some clips from last night from WrestleMania and Ronda Rousey was with Kurt Angle and I was looking at Kurt Angle's body. I was like, "Wow, that guy has gone through some damage."

    2. CB

      He's a machine.

    3. MB

      Yeah, he's a goddamn beast.

    4. CB

      He's gone through damage.

    5. MB

      He's been through it all. Lots of neck surgeries.

    6. JR

      Well, you could see it in his arms. The neck surgeries you see in guys' arms 'cause their arms atrophy, you know.

    7. MB

      Right. Yeah, he's atrophied a lot, yeah.

    8. JR

      'Cause his fucking neck looks like a goddamn tree trunk.

    9. MB

      (laughs)

    10. JR

      He's just got this neck that starts above his ears-

    11. MB

      Right.

    12. JR

      ... and then his arms are not nearly as big-

    13. MB

      I'd have to say, uh...

    14. JR

      ... as they used to be.

    15. MB

      They're ner- I think it's nerve damage, right?

    16. JR

      Exactly, yeah. I had Pat Miletich in here a couple weeks ago, you know, former UFC champion Pat.

    17. CB

      Yeah, I love Pat. Yeah, he's great.

    18. JR

      He's got one arm that's sh- smaller than the other one. Bas Rutten will be here tomorrow, he's got the same issue.

    19. CB

      Savage.

    20. JR

      It's necks, neck issues for what, you know, g- and I had a bulging disc in my neck-

    21. CB

      Mm-hmm.

    22. JR

      ... and I was getting weird, uh, numbness in my hands and then nerve pain in my elbow.

    23. CB

      In your elbow?

    24. JR

      The ulnar nerve, it goes on there, and when you ignore that shit and then keep training it, keep getting your fucking neck yanked on, then the disc starts to decay-

    25. CB

      Mm-hmm.

    26. JR

      ... and then the pressing against the d- the, the nerves and the-

    27. CB

      Right.

    28. JR

      ... um, the, the, the spinal column, it gets worse. And then it starts atrophying and cutting off the, the nerves to your arms. And you get to the point where your, your shit just shrinks and it doesn't come back.

    29. MB

      A lot of that stuff happens in your sleep too. Like something gets aggravated from training, but you sleep weird, you sleep with your neck all twisted.

    30. JR

      Mm-hmm.

  6. 10:1810:55

    Why Chris tried carnivore: arthritis, keto fatigue, and mental “intervention” framing

    1. JR

      So, um, tell me about this carnivore diet.

    2. CB

      Sure.

    3. JR

      Because I had Shaun Baker in here and he talked to me about it, but-

    4. GU

      ... he doesn't have any science, you know? There's no, like, he doesn't have any, like, real tests or any long-term studies or anything-

    5. Yeah.

    6. ... like that. And, you know, I, I, I'm a person who believes in balance. And I, I, I think that you need phytonutrients, you need plant fiber. I think there's a lotta healthy stuff that you get-

    7. Right.

    8. ... from plants. Um, I'm a big believer in eating meat, though. But all meat, you guys doing all meat?

    9. Well-

    10. Yeah, I think there's, I think there's some-

    11. I've modified it. I believe.

    12. I think there's some holes-

    13. We could talk about it.

    14. Let's one at a time, boys.

    15. (laughs)

    16. Yeah, I think there's some, I think there's some holes in every diet. (coughs) Right.

  7. 10:5517:17

    Fruit, glucose, and the PURE study debate: modifying ‘all meat’

    1. GU

      I think when you go and you make the decision to only eat meat, then, uh, some rational thought should come into your head. Maybe when I switch all the way to just meat all the time, maybe there's a possibility I'm gonna eat too much meat. And so maybe that would make sense to bring in some fruit and bring in some vegetables just so-

    2. Right.

    3. ... you're not eating too much meat, for the simple reason, vegetables have been shown... And, and there's, you know, you can get a study to show you anything. Uh, but there's study, a study that's been done on 200,000 people that went on for 14 years, and they studied, uh, vegetables. They studied every type of vegetable, and they found that they were more neutral than they were harmful or good for you. They found that fruit was a little bit, uh, better for you. And again, you can have any study saying anything.

    4. Wait a minute, wait a minute. What is this study? What-

    5. Uh, it's called the PURE study.

    6. Wait a minute. They said that it's, that vegetables are neutral? What does that mean?

    7. They're, they're neutral. They just- They don't really help you that much. They weren't, uh, necessarily great and they weren't necessarily bad. Uh, I don't know what their-

    8. In comparison to what though?

    9. I don't know what their standard was for what they were looking for exactly, but the main thing they were looking for was, uh, it being protective in terms of your heart. That was their main, their, the main thing they were looking at.

    10. Huh.

    11. So they found out that saturated fat is protective of your heart. They found out that cholesterol is actually protective of your heart.

    12. Yeah.

    13. They found out that salt is... Now, it's all, like, you know, without... You can't take in tons and tons of salt because then something's gonna- (laughs)

    14. Well, salt'll kill you.

    15. Yeah.

    16. If you eat a pound of salt, you're dead. You know?

    17. Yeah.

    18. Salt's one of those things-

    19. Exactly.

    20. ... that's really good for you. It's an essential mineral.

    21. To a li- to a certain extent.

    22. Yeah, but if you take too much of it, you will die.

    23. So I think any of these things can be done too far. I jumped on a carnivore diet just to give it a shot and to see exactly what it was about. And I liked it.

    24. But why, why did you do that? 'Cause you talked to Shaun, Shaun Baker?

    25. Yeah, yeah.

    26. Yeah.

    27. He was, he was on your podcast.

    28. Mm-hmm.

    29. I got inspired to do it. He was already doing it, so I was like, "All right, let me try it out."

    30. And why?

  8. 17:1719:58

    Blood work, inflammation markers, and how testing can be misleading

    1. JR

      Now, are you getting your blood work done?

    2. CB

      Yes. Um, just got my blood work done, um, from last month. And it ... uh, everything improved from keto to carnivore. I didn't really have any cholesterol issues. Um, I didn't have any, uh, uh ... the, uh ... what was, what were my issues that- that were-

    3. MB

      We've had our blood work done probably four or five times in the last year or so, I would say.

    4. CB

      Yeah.

    5. MB

      And, uh, you know, not all the numbers are, are fucking great but for the most part, it's been pretty healthy. The cholesterol's been good. The triglycerides have been good. Um, this doesn't show up on your blood but-

    6. JR

      W- well, what's not good?

    7. MB

      Uh, just it's not in the high, not in the high range of-

    8. JR

      Of?

    9. MB

      ... you know, o- of what it, what it shows you on the, uh, on the sheet. And then we also have other people-

    10. JR

      Wait, wait, wait. For what?

    11. MB

      Uh, oh, in terms of like the triglycerides and the, the cholesterol and stuff like that? Is that what you're talking about?

    12. JR

      Well, like what ... you're saying what's not good. You know what I'm saying?

    13. MB

      No, I'm just saying like-

    14. JR

      Not in the high range, like in, in terms of what?

    15. MB

      You know, I'm saying, uh, everything's, everything's been pretty good. Like this last time, I did have my, um, uh ... I had one of my markers, uh, kind of high.

    16. CB

      Well, we both had high C-reactive protein and we don't ... we're not sure why, so that's something that we have to like look into.

    17. JR

      And what is C-reactive protein?

    18. CB

      It's a, it's a marker for inflammation and my C-reactive, reactive-

    19. MB

      Specifically of the heart.

    20. CB

      Yeah.

    21. MB

      It's not good.

    22. CB

      My C-reactive protein-

    23. JR

      You both had this-

    24. CB

      Mine was really high on keto, but then after I went keto to carnivore, it came way, way down so I don't, I don't know where it is right now and it's-

    25. MB

      Huh. Yeah, I also, uh, had a really high ... mine registered really high out of nowhere. It was totally fine with all the blood work I've had done and the last one I had done, it skyrocketed. People were saying, "Well, maybe it's because you worked out beforehand or ..." you know?

    26. JR

      Right. Were you consistent in when you ate, when you got your, your test done? Were you guys on a fast before your last test done?

    27. MB

      I, I trained beforehand, so I might have fucked it up.

    28. JR

      Oh, you fucked it up for sure.

    29. MB

      (laughs)

    30. CB

      Yeah, that's-

  9. 19:5824:44

    Costco steaks, ‘organic’ definitions, and grass-fed vs grain-fed tradeoffs

    1. JR

      Well, are you eating a lot of fatty cuts like ribeyes-

    2. CB

      Yeah.

    3. JR

      ... and stuff like that?

    4. CB

      Pretty ... mostly ribeyes, yeah, I'd say mostly.

    5. JR

      Because that's what I, I, I like a lot of dietary fat. I like a lot of like meat fat, you know?

    6. CB

      I think there's a certain point, right? 'Cause, um, I, I don't know. Before, when I was doing a ketogenic diet, um, the fat is kind of free-flowing because, uh, you make your bulletproof coffees and you're just dumping fat-

    7. JR

      (laughs) Mm-hmm.

    8. CB

      ... in everything.

    9. JR

      That's true.

    10. MB

      In butter.

    11. CB

      You're putting butter on everything.

    12. JR

      Right.

    13. CB

      But when you have-

    14. MB

      You might be overdoing it, yeah.

    15. CB

      When you have a steak, what's really nice about having a steak is you're right about 65% to 75% fat already, like just, just out of, out of-

    16. JR

      If you're eating corn-fed.

    17. CB

      ... out of the box. Yeah.

    18. JR

      You're eating corn-fed beef? Is that what you're eating?

    19. CB

      I d- I eat both.

    20. JR

      Mm-hmm.

    21. CB

      Um, I think that, um, the difference between the grass-fed and the, and the grain-fed, there really isn't a substantial amount of proof of how much better that is. I do know that grass-fed beef has five times the amount of omega-3.

    22. JR

      Yeah.

    23. CB

      So you always wanna pick grass-fed beef when you can, but a lot of people can't afford it and also, uh, the be- ... for me, the best meat is at Costco. That's the best tasting meat that you're gonna find. I- I've been everywhere. (laughs)

    24. JR

      True. Why, why is Costco better?

    25. CB

      It just tastes the best.

    26. MB

      I think they shop around for the best stuff.

    27. CB

      They have the best meat.

    28. JR

      Really?

    29. MB

      I think they do.

    30. CB

      Yeah.

  10. 24:4439:00

    Fighting obesity: refined carbs, cravings, and diet ideology wars

    1. MB

      I think these are some of the smaller issues. These aren't the main things that we're really trying to fight. You know, my brother and I, we just, uh, took on to do another film, and he, he and I are doing this one together on nutrition. And we're just, we're trying to find out some truths. I mean, we're trying to find out about grass-fed and organic and all these different things. Uh, but mainly, we're just trying to figure out how the fuck do we help fight obesity? How do we help fight diabetes? How do we help people, uh, gain control of their diet? And I think that's really truly what we're talking about, is control. And you look at something like a ketogenic diet, in my opinion, it's one of the few diets that can really help people with control of their diet because it can help break up the cravings. And that's really ultimately, I think, where our fight is.

    2. JR

      (coughs)

    3. MB

      It's against, it's against cravings of all these convenient foods that taste so fucking good-

    4. JR

      Well, the cravings is-

    5. MB

      ... that are in our face all the time.

    6. JR

      ... refined carbohydrates and sugars.

    7. MB

      Absolutely.

    8. JR

      Those are giant.

    9. MB

      Yeah.

    10. JR

      And, and when you (coughs) excuse me, when you hear about saturated fat being dangerous, it is dangerous if you take saturated fat with high levels of carbohydrates and high levels-

    11. MB

      Yeah.

    12. JR

      ... of refined sugars.

    13. MB

      Right.

    14. JR

      Dr. Rhonda Patrick went over that in depth, and it's really fascinating, the reaction that your body has to the high levels of carbohydrates and the high levels of fat. So your body is either fat burning or carbohydrate burning. So when you combine the two of them together, you have a nightmare.

    15. CB

      Yeah.

    16. JR

      You're really not supposed to do that.

    17. MB

      Recipe for disaster.

    18. JR

      But it's not the saturated fat that's the problem; it's the saturated fat in conjunction with the refined carbohydrates-

    19. MB

      Mm-hmm.

    20. JR

      ... and sugars. And one of the things that they're finding too, is one of the big arguments that vegans in particular have used for high carbohydrate diets in, in re- in relation to obesity, is look at Asian cultures. And Asian cultures you have low levels of obesity but high levels of high carbohydrates. But you know what else you have? High levels of diabetes.

    21. MB

      Diabetes.

    22. JR

      Diabetes.

    23. MB

      Or-

    24. JR

      You don't have to be fat to be- Yeah.

    25. MB

      ... a diabetic, yeah.

    26. CB

      How many people in China, 400 million people?

    27. MB

      Something like that.

    28. CB

      With diabetes?

    29. JR

      Well, they're, their level-

    30. MB

      Something crazy like that. You're trying to break a record.

  11. 39:001:20:15

    Organ meats, wild game, and ‘rabbit starvation’: building a sustainable carnivore approach

    1. JR

      I use his mayonnaise because I eat a lot of wild game.

    2. GU

      Mm-hmm.

    3. JR

      And wild game doesn't have much fat at all. Like if I eat-

    4. CB

      You talked about that Chipotle mayonnaise.

    5. JR

      Ooh, that's the shit.

    6. GU

      And I started eating like crazy after you said it. (laughs)

    7. JR

      I ate a ton of it this morning with a, with a steak.

    8. CB

      That's really good.

    9. JR

      I just, I take it, I'll slice a piece of steak, dunk it in, I'll put a, a fucking glob of mayonnaise on my plate, I'll dunk the steak in the mayo.

    10. CB

      This stuff's good.

    11. JR

      But it's a Chipotle lime mayo, and it's made with avocado oil, so you're getting all these healthy fats, it gives you some nice taste.

    12. CB

      It's good.

    13. JR

      And again, 'cause I'm eating moose and elk and deer, so very, very lean meats. If I'm not eating like a, a cow, if I'm not eating, eating beef, my meat is mostly like really lean meat.

    14. CB

      Yeah. You wouldn't be able to do a carnivore diet on those kind of meats, right? I mean, it's too, it's too lean, right?

    15. JR

      Yeah, I would think so.

    16. CB

      You'd have to add fat some other way.

    17. JR

      You ever see a rabbit starvation?

    18. CB

      Mm-hmm.

    19. JR

      Yeah. Rabbits are extremely lean. And you can eat only rabbit and literally starve to death.

    20. CB

      Wow.

    21. JR

      Yeah. People have experienced rabbit starvation.

    22. CB

      Sh-

    23. JR

      Sounds crazy.

    24. GU

      It is crazy.

    25. JR

      It's crazy.

    26. GU

      Because it's so lean?

    27. JR

      Yeah. Find... Google that. Google rabbit starvation, what that means.

    28. CB

      See-

    29. JR

      'Cause someone told me about that and I literally never looked into it o- other than what they said. But it's so lean that-

    30. CB

      Yeah.

Episode duration: 2:51:13

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