Joe Rogan Experience #854 — Louie Simmons Transcript

Transcript

0:00 Joe Rogan Podcast, check it out! And I've talked to quite a few people who've worked with you that you created, I've talked about that a hundred times You invented that thing in 73? But that would kill my back. So I thought, well, if I I mean, how is it that it's not a gigantic success? Yeah, I don't remember how I heard about it. So then I started researching stuff,

2:17 We use it for grappling. and then we grapple or we shadow spar or you can do anything. and that's why I've got the world's strongest gym. And then power lifted all my life. because I'd average three-tenths off 12 linemen going in the NFL. And Olympic lifting, you clean, jerk, and snatch. Speed strength is intermediate velocity. You know, they were hurting me.

4:42 Somewhere around there. Holy shit. when you would take a guy like kevinman, like a stud athlete like that, and a lot of dumbbells for time. He's one of the best athletes ever in the sport. I'm sure, yeah. You know that. You have to think. Obviously, you're going to have a different need if you're a striker versus a grappler. I want to maximize the amount of work I can do in five minutes

8:02 He's basically started almost really the first MMA school in America, if you think about it, And, like, if you and I would grapple, if we could talk to each other would do heart rates like that and like if you and be optimal that's how we train our speed day like today for squatting and deadlifting is optimal they do um 25 squats at see that with full fighters. Old fighters cover up.

9:59 In other words, you know, So does it have to change all the time because the body just adapts and gets efficient? We push war barrels around for half a mile running, sometimes heavier weight walking. pummeling. Now, how do you, I have the strongest gym in the world, spoke about 140 all-time world records at breakfast and I'm going to tap. When you grapple, you're going to have different opponents,

12:16 I promised him one year he'd break the world record. We changed the bar. So by changing bars and changing, like, the type of workouts you do, and so we train it to a certain percentage where the bar speed is optimal for for explosive power So we work individual individual muscle groups single joint we have records on all kind of things like pen deadlifts or box deadlifts or some kind of squad and what they're capable of doing given each individual day.

15:03 How come you don't open this up? I'll leave in five minutes. gym. We should do like a little tour of the gym But I've had a gym with training partners since 1976. So they just pay a membership fee or something like that? I don't know. It costs me probably, I guess, 50 grand a year. Yeah. Wow, that's interesting. I had to quit five years ago. Yeah, because of my neck.

17:35 when I was 14 years old. 410 at what was wrong? He said, you passed out. I mean, i didn't know then i was on queer street i noticed it's real dark and i never recovered so but i i that I need something from my brain. Why did he kick you in the leg? Oh, okay. I mean, I had a fracture skull at 13. October 21st going to absolutely I have a machine that's going to hold you like you throw a punch.

20:25 I have a machine that can do that. of movement? We've done reverse hypers To people who are just listening to this, And what would you do with your neck? You know what I mean? You drop it down back and forth. It strengthens the back in a very strange way. I only cared about my gym all my life it's one of the most it's one of the most common injuries for

22:52 articulating mechanical disc happened to me but with you they wanted to fuse you right i had two doctors 2005 who wouldn't I mean, I've been tricked. He had me put my hand over my head and raise my head, I don't understand. fucking terrible for you. Exactly what it's like, right? You burn a candle both ends what I learned. Whoa! I tore this one off totally, and they told me I was done.

25:21 That's insane. All extension. I said, I'm not operating. That's right. That brought me out of retirement right then. I'm very motivated by anything. No one has the right to tell you what to do in this world. But if everybody's forced to be clean, then they don't. See, it's not against the rules to take drugs. you're not telling me it's like all these you know some of those fighters have got way more

29:08 But isn't that pharmaceutical? Let's take all the health medication off 68-year-olds. and that that is one of the reasons why steroids should be illegal. and do damage to them. Well, who does? but I see them billboards on the freeway says i shall not lie just quit lying and come out You're born fast. Right. Right. Right. You got a smart doctor, you take HCG.

32:59 and you took and you went into a fight and the other guy thought he was fighting a man but you're No. No? No. But with fighting, that that would be cheating. I think Nate eats fish and eggs too. Yes. Right. See, that's the argument for steroids right there. And just because you're passing the drug test, I won't say who, but I trained a top international shot putter.

35:39 So, I mean, hell, I forget to take stuff for eight days. for guys who have retired but while they're competing themselves they don't want to do fight better when they're taking steroids. That's all I'm trying to say. I don't like it. because baseball, no one's getting hurt. But what I'm saying is or i think it's even documented on espn they were going in and had v-ball tabs on the training table

38:37 you're having sex with both the girls. But baseball is more of a skill game, don't you think? to say. If a football team was taking I was at a paramedic one time a true story. Well, there's a lot of hypocritical mixed martial arts fights those guys did whatever the fuck they wanted and the the japanese literally and it's a hormone for steroids for horses.

40:54 Yeah. Why would I go off? Has it ever come up? Our damn prison ought to be on roids. A whole country and he would test people in prisons, How is that even possible? It's just absolutely crazy. You take, look take look at elephants you know these elephants uh what Oh, I'm sure someone he was gay too. The other part, eating people. The ones who took the most drugs were not always the strongest.

43:57 Right. Well, you said it makes you crazy. Right, but when people are taking too much steroids and it makes you crazy. Because you're constantly around these savages. day i'm going to try to make something me better or someone else better that's what i do that's Now, being 68 years old, You're on the ball when I'm talking to you. I mean, I broke my back in 73. I had had no training partners i was on crutches for 10 months every day i'd get down in my basement

46:32 So it's nice for us in California. Normally when I would train Uh huh Well you know That's the stuff that came out of people's brain. They never made synthetic somatomitin. Because it doesn't work. I took tons of it. Okay. It froze. It seems like everything 24 reps of 100-pound dumbbells. It's called Pain Don't Matter. Pain really don't matter to got i don't know his name it's called pain don't matter pain really don't matter to me i'm so freaking used to pain it don't matter

49:13 It was new at the time. And it must have You see the scar got your shoulder That's so crazy. Well, that's one of the best things for it, right? You know, they're surgeons. When people come out of concentration camps, it's a prisoner war. And give you some sort of vitality back. I think that's one of the best arguments that like maybe when an athlete blows a knee out

51:32 but i don't care if you if you don't want to take them fine with me i don't give a damn You've got to fight these big weights. I've been around too many A little bit of drugs will give them side effects. But guys who get gyno, it's just because they have a ridiculous amount of testosterone, They don't have any problem. not thin in them, but almost kind of thin.

53:47 No. Not even close. big ain't strong, strong is strong. You don't have to get bigger to be stronger. That's confusing to a lot of people because a lot of people think where it starts to wear out somewhere in the second round. Yeah. Yeah. I hope our weightlifters All right? and female are tremendously muscular, Powerlifters in this country, American weightlifters are not very good they're not no terrible really no i did not know that there was

57:26 Muay Thai is different than boxing, you know? Well, I think it has happened. I think he's from Yeah, he was a is his name? But that guy won a world title as a Muay Thai fighter and as a boxer. and they're all strongmen. that get them to be strongmen. What's a yoke? You've got to be stable in an unstable environment. Dorian thought that really helped his...

59:45 grips anyhow but it builds up grip and it builds up all your muscles and you're walking see my you Oh, sure. And he's actually beaten some pretty good guys at this point. is a freak athlete. and just toughness. kickboxing, didn't he? He went on a straw man somehow. throwing weights all over his body and trying Mm-hmm. Overeem. Overeem's the best example. Overeem.

1:02:42 it for eight days, you're clean. Everybody thinks there's only one kind of anabolic. And the reason being is because You know, see, we and see world records at the Olympics? Well they're also catching them other people are doing it, too? is so blatant about their endorsement of drugs. Overseas. No, because it's Russia's killing the scientists. They did.

1:05:35 And you know, yeah, and a girl here in America that's a high jumper, I think, or a pole vaulter, was tested 33 times in three years. Yeah. Yeah, he's an interesting case, right? He's reformed. He's here for peace now. Exactly. Yeah. See, I was born at night, Joe, but I wasn't born last night. See, I was. Exactly. I really do. That's a good point. Better immune system.

1:07:28 I'm going to kick your fucking ass. I was that way when I was 10 years old. no threat or nothing, I can't do that. his bitches. Right. and the shelves are filled with muscle builders and recovery this and growth hormone that? I was blown away because they have a list. All these things are drugs. I think when you're able to vote, you ought to be able to do anything you want.

1:10:15 actually was a block tenor 12 years old. and mixed mortar. So cement block? since I was 14 years old. No one's ever given me nothing. People, you know, these guys, they, When I die, I won't owe anybody anything. 12 years old. And we played like 220 pounds. And he gets up and he said, you're out. And I said, I'm safe. And he slapped my neighbor was a high school senior. I remember he was probably like 220 pounds.

1:12:15 A pecking order. Okay? He says, if you tell me that tomorrow, I basically, I mean, I'm too. so my mom says for how long wow from punching a teacher There's no trades in America. instead of a handout from the government. I just think it would change. And I think, is that good though? I go call the cops from running my mouth. Just know what you really are. That's all that matters.

1:15:26 things that human being especially men one of the main thing that men lack in life is very difficult get back up yeah nothing i've got back up two million times i never you know i don't matter if you get knocked down. Can you get back up? Yeah. I've got back up two million times. I never, you know, I don't give a damn. Oh, I got Kevin Randall that kicked my ass.

1:16:39 That's the problem with people when their children get bullied, and they send them to some kind of school because they're bullied. My wife didn't want to have kids, and I didn't want to have kids. So why would I have kids? mma i mean when i talk about you to the MMA fighters who know you, you have a fantastic reputation. A mechanical one so it does it without you lifting weights?

1:18:21 Like if you couldn't move your legs, this is your legs. We can show you a little bit on film. Track and field? I think it's far too much. You know, he would go there. Well, it's interesting that you say that because that's the trend now. in the history of the sport None. you get up to the top of the range of motion that's the same with chains too right yeah it's

1:21:18 So you don't do any regular squats or any regular deadlifts? number two greatest 955 pounds at 165. Yeah, a little bit. Well, I mean, isn't that the case with almost anybody who's like at the very top levels of anything? Yeah. Everybody's worried about being sensitive. they did back then you know long before roids they look like they were loaded to the gills

1:23:15 You're not accustomed to it. of hours to get these guys super super strong and then they quit but doesn't that make you It's also they recognize how unique it is. So Roman Gonzalez, classical boxers. technique than anyone would ever really imagine. Well, it's a great thing for your back. I do it all the time, and I can feel my back, especially in the middle.

1:25:32 Now, what about other kinds of therapy, like cold therapy, ice baths, cryotherapy, things along those lines? Strychnine? Yeah, because, you know, it'll stimulate It felt like you were hitting me in the head every heartbeat. What does it do? Yes, and I should have never done it because I think I've got too many injuries, you know. It's my hip bone. I've been very desperate all my life what's what's worked the best for you did stem cells work out well for you well i'm finding out because what has been about three weeks

1:27:50 And do you feel any different? Yeah. Like, I'm jumping around. so at that point of the hospital to the gym that's on tuesday well that sunday i go to the gym and i go i walk i'm Exactly. They tried to kill me. But that's what a training partner is. You ever have it in the neck? My hip was just a minor soreness. Every day. But I've done this for all those years.

1:31:06 I like to walk on tires. Right, right, right. almost my first meet but i mean when the neck if you're gonna pass out you just have, you know, top 10 squatter right off in my, you know, almost my first meet. How much weight are you doing that with? 95 pounds? Yeah. about it. your neck. You got, that's the two, Right. Because what happens to us, we have bad necks.

1:33:48 Well, you know, my friend John Sater, I mean, to this day, 60 something, he gets out and does neck bridges for five minutes. He does that. And how old is he? He's an actual judo coach for seven years. I mean, he's done, I mean, he's a black belt in judo, samba, jiu-jitsu, and he's a black belt in Japanese Muay Thai. Wow. able to regenerate tissue in a lot of areas where it couldn't before that's going to prevent a lot

1:35:57 be afraid to try you know keep trying never give up people give up man they give up and no one I do that fucking thing this thing, I really appreciate it. We'll make a little