Breaking Boundaries Podcast - Episode 13 with Matt Dibenedetto

Watch the interview:

Stream the interview:

You can also find our podcast at spotify, google podcasts, amazon music, stitcher or iheartradio.

About our guest:

Fitness enthusiasts, are you ready to train like a NASCAR driver? In this episode of The Breaking Boundaries Podcast, we're taking an in-depth look at the exercise and performance routines of one of the most beloved NASCAR drivers out there - Matt Guido DiBenedetto. If you've ever wondered what it takes to compete at the highest level of NASCAR racing, then this episode is for you. We'll uncover some of DiBenedetto's secrets to success, including his workout routines, strength training tips, and fitness strategies for staying in top form both on and off the track. With our confident, empowering tone, we'll guide you through the ins and outs of NASCAR racing, giving you exclusive insights into the world of motorsports fitness. From high-intensity cardio to muscle-building strength training, we'll show you how to take your workout to the next level and achieve peak performance like a true NASCAR pro. So whether you're a seasoned fitness enthusiast or just starting out, this episode is packed with practical advice, specific details, and expert tips to help you achieve your fitness goals. Don't miss out on this exciting opportunity to learn from one of the best in the business. Hit that play button, and let's get started!.

Learn more about Matt:

Matt's Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/mattdracing

Episode 13 Transcript:

Hunter Molzen:

Hey everybody. I'm Hunter Molzen back with another episode of the Breaking Boundaries Podcast by Barbell Apparel today. He's an all-around great guy, man of family, man athlete, and we actually had this conversation once before, but it lost in the, so I'm excited to sit him again. Car driver at a high level, NASCAR a number of years, and he's doing the truck series now and conversation kinda already know this, demanding than most both for racing and fitness, weightlifting, all of that pretty seriously, which is part of the reason we got connected through Barbell apparel. And no, I'm excited to have the conversation and make for sitting down today, Matt.

Matt Dibenedetto:

Yeah, man, absolutely. Thanks for, for having me. We get round two, we get to two takes, .

Hunter Molzen:

Yeah, yeah. No, it's fun. I mean, we had the conversation once before and, and I think that like it's been long enough now to where some of that's probably escaped my mind and we could have a little bit of the old and a little bit of new. So for people that dunno why don't you give a little bit of background about how you got into racing and let's talk a little bit about kind of like the long odds of, or even just kinda the remote chance that someone whose family didn't have a history in racing who wasn't connected to nascar, who didn't have like piles of money would be able to get into racing, come up as a kid and actually race the NASCAR Cup series.

Matt Dibenedetto:

Yeah, man, none of my family was involved in, in NASCAR or racing really at all. My dad liked cars and, you know, had a drag car once and stuff, but nothing, nothing much. So ultimately when I was five years old I had a four-wheeler and a dirt bike and I, that's all I did every day was just ride and tear up our beautiful property and made it into a dirt track . So that's and then, you know, my dad was actually big into baseball and so that was his passion and he was a coach for the scouting league for the Mets at a time, and he was my little league coach back then. And so at one of our little award ceremony deals, he brought me up and said, this is my, he called me his little Jeff Gordon. He said he likes baseball, but loves racing. And you know, when I was five years old, my dad my parents were in the living room and my dad passed by NASCAR and I made him go back to it and he's like, what the heck do you wanna watch that for ? And I made him go back to it and watch it every single week. I watched NASCAR every week, rode four wheelers and dirt bikes. And then fast forward to at our little baseball award ceremony thing when I was only six years old one of the kids on the team, they happened to race at a local dirt track called Psycho Land Speedway out in Chico, California. And when they heard that I loved racing, they were like, Hey, come check it out. We race out there every weekend. And so I went out there and checked it out and my parents asked me if that was something I wanted to do. And obviously the, the obvious answers right here, .

Hunter Molzen:

Yeah, what a, like what a cool opportunity. I mean a both two have discovered something that you had a passion about so young, right? Like, I think that's kinda like a key line I see with a lot of people that reach high levels of performance, whatever given sport, is that they tend to connect with something at a really young age and realize that that's like something that gets 'em really excited that they love doing. But then also to have parents that were supportive of it, right? Cause like I'm sure a lot of parents would been like, you're not going to, that's, we don't have the resources, or it seems complicated, or we don't even know how to do it. But your parents seem pretty about letting do it. And I know that, you know again from our prior conversation that as you grew up and got really serious about it, but it did take like moving and some pretty serious significant sacrifices on their part to give you the opportunity. You, you had to turn it into a real career.

Matt Dibenedetto:

Yeah. So that's, we, that's the crazy part is we had no idea what we were up against and what kind of journey we were tackling when it got taken to a more a more serious level. So it started just for fun. So I started racing and we started winning and we ended up winning championships, you know, right, right away and having all this success. But really for us, it was just a family thing. We were just doing it for fun. We had no intentions of really much else. It was actually other people that we raced against and were out there that were saying, you know, Hey, Matt's really good. You guys need to pursue this and telling us to pursue this as a career. And really my family's like, oh, I guess, I don't know. And so, it was really from push from other people. I mean, they knew, they knew I was good at, good at driving in circles, but that's a lot to try and tackle something. You know, everybody has the dream of being a NASCAR driver or a, whether a football player or a pro golfer or whatever it is. But man, you know, to do anything at the professional level, it's, it's just, you know, unbelievable what it, what it takes and the time, the effort some, the funds, whatever it may be to get there. So we moved across country because we knew North Carolina is NASCAR country. And so we picked up, moved across country, started racing asphalt stuff out here. And man, it was a long journey. And, and the very, very short summary of it is, you know, we, my parents have done well for themselves, you know, made a good living, but not near to the degree of, you know, having like millions of dollars or seven figures to write checks and kind of pave the way. And, and racing is an expensive sport. So we were racing locally but it got a little bit beyond our means to where we were too stretched financially. And then we had to take a step back and, and really actually quit in 2007. And from then on, I was just kind of on my own and man, through an immense amount of, I mean, God really paving the way and making so many opportunities. And if I wasn't in this place at this time, you know, on so many different occasions, I still wouldn't be where I'm at today. And got just so fortunate and blessed along the way to, to really accomplish something with, with all the odds stacked against me because I didn't have that funding behind me. I didn't have, you know, major sponsorship behind me and things. And that's, you know, ultimately where now obviously I got so fortunate and got my opportunity to race I, I became a development driver for Joe Gibbs racing. So I'll summarize this a little bit. Became a development driver for Joe Gibbs racing. That opportunity got cut short cause it was when the economy sort of went downhill in 2008, 2009. And after 2010 I only got to run a few limited races. My opportunity got cut, cut really short there, and I had to take some opportunities from then on with lower funded small teams and just try and make a lot out of a little. And we did that often and they progressed me along until ultimately I got to run, starting the Cup series in 2015, ran in the Cup series from 2015 until 2021. And that, you know, through a course of a lot of escalation, just really, you know, made my career and got me on the map and, and NASCAR to a further level and really established me to where I've, you know, been around I feel like a long time. At this point it's all flown by like it's been, you know, one year, but I've been doing it for a while now. And so kind of where I was getting at is the interesting thing that I didn't expect is that nascar and this whole journey really helped me on a business front to get sort of my business mind together. And, and because understanding how the sport works, it does, you know, cost a lot. It's expensive, it costs, you know, our truck team, it costs, you know, 3 million to, to run for a year or if you're talking the Cup series, we're talking, you know, 20 million . So it's a lot of money that it takes to make these things go around. And all the employees we have, all the engineers and all the, just like an NFL team or anything, you know, it's, it's a lot behind the scenes that makes it happen. But ultimately we we're nothing without the partners that, that joined on board had come on board and get into the sport. And it's neat how the sports evolved over the years to where all the everybody really works together as one big family in nascar. So whenever we have a partner that comes into the sport, they, you know, and, and I'm very fortunate to have the platform that I have and, and knowing everybody in the sport, we can really, you know, integrate people into a whole realm of people, connections, companies and all otherwise that they, you know, may not have access to. So, it's kind of been wonderful on a business front. And then also getting to do what I love is, which is driving in circles for a living. I have a pretty cool job. .

Hunter Molzen:

Yeah, definitely. And I think that the, so for people that don't know, like how many, you know, you raced the, the Cup series for, what, seven years?

Matt Dibenedetto:

Yeah, I think, oh, was it 2015 to 2021? Yep.

Hunter Molzen:

Yeah. And so like the, the Cup series for, again, people that may not watch NASCAR is like the NASCAR you think of in your head when you think of nascar, right? The track with you, hundreds, thousands of people in the crowd, you know, Jeff Gordon, everything that's the Year cup how many people make it to the Cup Series and race it with basically like no massive amount of money or no background in racing from the, from a family perspective or something like that,

Matt Dibenedetto:

Man without one or the other. I, I feel like, I feel like I should it, it was kind of like winning the lottery two times in a row, . So unfortunately, I feel to have gotten to where I, you know, I have been with the odds stacked against me for sure. So yeah, I mean ultimately you really, you know, need to have some, some sort of funding behind you, some sponsorship or, you know, some partnerships or whatever it may be. On top of obviously having the driving ability as well. Sometimes there's, you know, sometimes there's many, there's many race car drivers out there that have so, so much talent but they may not get the opportunity, you know, they may not get to show their, the opportunity or they can only run at a really local level at a, you know, real low budget cuz they may not have the means and, you know, family may not have the means to get 'em just to that step where they need or whatever it is. So that's the tough part about racing. But it's and it's, it's, I think the tide is turning a little bit on that and they're really you know, the sport has just become more and more and more of a big family. And now it's cool because local racing is growing more than I've ever seen it in my entire life. Like many NASCAR drivers are getting really heavily behind local racing. Like Hickory Motor Speedway is a racetrack six minutes from my house I'm sitting in right now. And it's a very historic, legendary short track where Dale Earnhardt drove at, and Dale, Jared, and a bunch of famous guys, the people that may not even know much about NASCAR have heard their names. And so now NASCAR's getting really behind that local, more local level and they're also scouting, like dirt racing is growing a bunch and they're kind of scouting out, up and coming guys at more local levels. So it is sort of to, to combat kind of some of the, maybe the, I don't wanna say bad news, but the toughness nature of the sport. There are so many efforts now by the sport to, to sort of change that around and for more and more people to have opportunities now.

Hunter Molzen:

Yeah, no, that, that, it's awesome to see that happening. And I'm sure like now, right, you, you know, you're just a few years younger than me I suppose, but like we grew up, right, kind of like on the cusp of the development, the development of like YouTube, social media, things like that, that made being able to attract an audience or attract support, attract sponsors. Like, it, it's like easier now than it was before. All these tools kinda, if we had tried to start Barb Apparel, the pre social media era, it would've been, I don't wanna say impossible, but it would've been much harder, right? We would've to go out and find people like investors to write us money, but we did ourselves to make happen. We did. But these days, like I know other people that have started businesses or other like, you know, become music artists or athletes or things like that, they been able to leverage social presence or other like elbow grease type stuff like that make themselves known, opened up those doors. Something about your story that I don't want be glossed over is the fact that it, like, it wasn't easy for you, you've been doing since you were a kid. You had a lots, like a lot of probably when you're, you, the most of every little opportunity you had and going back and back and back until the doors opened up and you were able to, you know, race the Cup series and even when the, you know, your time in the Cup series ended, you pivoted to the truck series and like, it's always, you're always making most opportunity of you. That's another thing that it's rarely line completely straight, you know what I mean? Like, that's not kinda how it goes. Like all you can do is make sure that you do work hard and take advantage of every opportunity you have and don't, don't, don't slack and don’ts of yourself above any given opportunity works have way of working out. Like sometimes I sit back and it's fascinating to me, like the barbell apparel as a business is, I wanna say like pretty healthy and stable now, right? Like the Covid era kinda was, there was years when we started business in fourteen, years and years went by where every year we're like, we're gonna don's hard except not, would really play a very difficult game of balance balancing cash flow and making sure that you're profitable. And we were trying to grow the business with the money that we made and buy more inventory and buy more advertising and all this stuff. And it like down to the razor's edge for years at the time. But cause we just made the most of every chance we had it, it was like something would always happen, it would always work out. And it's continued to work out and now we're like, you know, coming up on 10 years of starting a business and in many ways there was a lot of luck. But also if you've been lucky for 10 years, was it luck? You know what I mean? Kinda similar to you, right? And so, it's interesting that you, that I have conversations with you, business owners or other athletes, commonality tends to be there.

Matt Dibenedetto:

Yep. Man. Exactly. It's, it's, you know, and, and, and I'm thankful that I yeah. Was so fortunate beyond what I can even comprehend so many times, you know, being where we are, just like you guys with all the hard work and starting a business, you know, all these things are relative. It's all relative. It's everyone has struggles in whatever journey that they're on. And it's never a, an easy, you know, paved out path. Life itself in this world is not easy. But you know what I, what I've, especially in my, you know, later years here in my kind of walk with the Lord and had a lot of life changed, it's, it's, you know, I'm, I'm so thankful and appreciative for, for the things I do and thankful for the struggles and the, the journey along the way kind of humbling me and getting me to be in the spot where I'm at now and to appreciate things more. But ultimately, you know, like in, in life in general, the, the plans that plans that the that, you know, God has for us is not to do something that we just don't like, or go and do a job nine to five every day that we just can't stand or we're miserable at. There's more, there's more to it than that. And so oftentimes through the through the pain is, is what nets the best results and biggest blessings on the other side.

Hunter Molzen:

Yeah. And you know, I think that the, the other commonality I see in having conversations with high level individuals, athletes is that they're always striving for being the best they can be in the situation they're in. And always in a sense, striving for more. It's like, you know, it, it's rare. Like I have a lot of, and my hobbies, like I'm, I always want more, you know what I mean? Like, I always want be better, achieve more, reach another level. And it's like, there's no contentment to be there. I'm proud of what I've achieved and like I'm happy that it's there, but it's day complacent from other areas of my life. But there's this, this kinda like pocket of my life where I just have to, I have like this insatiable drive to do something more, you know what I mean? I have to do it.

Matt Dibenedetto:

Yeah. It's like, it's like working out. It reminds me of, yeah, when I you know, when I started when I was a kid and I was in high school and I lifting weights, I'm like, man, I wanna be able to bench just have, you know, a plate on each side, have one of them 40 fives on each side, you know, and then you do that or, and then you're like, then you get there and you're proud and you're like, all right, cool. Now what's next? All right, now I wanna get to 185 and then I, I really need to be able to bench with two plates on it. Or I need to, you know, I wanna squat or . I know I had a deadlift goal of, you know I wanted to be able to pull like 400 pounds. And with being smart, I'm very cautious and in what I do for workout stuff, for obvious reasons. I mean, my body would be, you know, intact and can't risk injury and what not. But either way, I remember then I, when I got to that, then I'm like, oh, I can do more than that. Then you pull like four, I pulled like four 40 solidly and easily over covid and stuff. And it's like, and sometimes we have to reflect on the big picture of like, man, think of that, that kid that if just a matter of years ago if I'd be like, oh yeah, man, one day you'll be able to lift this amount of weight or do this or hit these goals, you'd be super pumped. So yeah, like you said, you're always, always wanting more but appreciative on the path along the way and proud of the success and thankful for any of the success along the way no matter what. It's, whether it's racing or working out or any kinda life goals in general.

Hunter Molzen:

Yeah, no, and it's funny that you bring up the example of the weightlifting and the, and the lifting and stuff like, I mean, hey, you're, the weight's like staple training or anything. So it's, it's cool that you have that component and I'm sure it does like provide benefit. Like said, as long as you don't get injured, your body's more resilient. It's more sturdy, it's stable. We could about it of realizes, especially when you series pretty grueling like endurance space endeavor, like you're doing it for hours at a time, it's hot. You have to be laser focused the entire time. Like, it's not a, in all respects right, weightlift weightlifting so much and like it's become more clear as I've gotten older and learned these life lessons and done other things, but it's like, it's like a perfect allegory for how progress is achieved in almost anywhere in life, right? Cause it's like, if you want, if you could, if you were like an untrained kid, like I deadlift five pounds, the only way to get there is like two and increments at a time. Like maybe when you first start you can make bigger jumps cause you're making all those like, you know beginner gain and stuff. But everyone hits a wall eventually where those easy stop. And now it's all, it's step, step by step by step. And whether it's like racing or any other sport, I'm sure it's like you have to break it down to a lot of that kinda minutia to see where you can out the progress and, and like where the bottlenecks are, ability and where you can make those gains.

Matt Dibenedetto: Dude, it's crazy. Like how, how much I, I feel like I talk about it a lot of how much weight lifting or exercise or whatever it is, you know, that people may have their passion in and in exercise. But how much, how many life lessons come from it and how much it applies to all of life, how much it applies to my racing, just the focus, the dedication, the structure, you know, of it. Pushing through some of the hard work and the pain and where it gets better results on the other side, and all is super relative. I could even apply it you know, into my, to my spiritual journey as well. It's all facets of life. It, it's so much more important than just, you know, like, I wanna be strong and I wanna look good. You know, it's, it's our health. It's chipping away at, you know, cuz the, I guess the second law of thermodynamics is that basically, I'm paraphrasing here, but pretty much everything decays if left, you know, unattended, like a house that's left sitting for, you know, 10 years or 50 years or whatever over time is just gonna deteriorate and kind of, you know, our temporary bodies that we're in are the same way and they require structure and it requires discipline and it requires that chipping away, whether it's in our mind, whether it's in our, you know, in our workouts, our physical fitness, all that. It requires that discipline, that structure, it chipping away to always try and push back against that and, you know, take control of our health and those, those types of things in life. So, it really, I never would've thought that years ago I was just a gung-ho kid that just wanted to lift weights and I just wanted to be bigger and put on some muscle and things like that. I would've never realized until now, how many life lessons that working out has taught me and how much it applies. And has helped me in my life in general, cuz that discipline and stuff and that like, slow progression of chipping away and continuing to be, you know, persistent at it and not giving up, not quitting, not letting it, you know, be something that's broke and gets rid outta your life. How much it, it really, you know, is so big in your mental health and all facets of life. For, for me it's, it's, you know, very disciplinary and, and important to me.

Hunter Molzen:

Yeah. No, and it's kinda like, weightlifting is kinda like a great equalizer in the sense that it'll teach everyone that lesson eventually, right? Like some people are, you know, freak, they're like super talented and they just get crazy strong and with just you and vinegar for a long time. But everyone hits that wall eventually. Like maybe for me was at four pounds and for you was at 50 and for another guy he might not hit that wall until like 50 or six pounds. Cause everyone's their own advantage. But like everyone that eventually some up and they don't have the they don't like that that kinda component of having to, or they, the resources help. Then some people like, I think the productive thrive, they're like, alright, like I know what has to be done now, right? It's like I gotta really dial it down and figure out like where I can, where I can dial everything in to continue to, to make performance gain, get stronger, get bigger, whatever it, again, you break down into everything work or your, you know other hobbies or athletic endeavors or whatever. It kinda applies across the board. I suppose like in in that, like do you find, did you find right, like as you, you were racing for so long that I'm sure that a lot of the progress kinda happened in the background, right? Like just by nature of getting older, growing up, racing the whole time. But did you ever find there was kinda like a, like a, an inflection point where you had to really step back and figure out where the bottlenecks were in your racing ability or something that was kinda holding you back to work past it?

Matt Dibenedetto:

Yeah, you know I've had a lot of, a lot of success along the way, but I've al I've also had a lot of heartbreaks, you know, in my career and, and along the way. And I would say in general, probably the most humbling times of my life ended up being the biggest blessings of my life because they, they really got me to in to look more inward versus looking outward. So I've had many of 'em, like I, right now I'm racing in the truck series, I was in the Cup series all those years. And when you're in the Cup series, you know, you just, people treat you like you're, you know, like you're some big celebrity and you're like, you, you just have all this attention and all this glamor and all this stuff, what that comes with racing in the big series and, and doing that at a professional level that sometimes it's easy to fall into the trap of forgetting to, to turn the mirror around on ourselves and always look inward at how we can be better, you know? And, and it's really easy for self-pride to, to sneak into the mix and, and try and, you know, sometimes think we're better than we are. Cause ultimately the second that we, the second we start thinking we know it all or man, I'm good or I can beat these guys on any day or whatever. There's, there's balance between having confidence but also that humility. And, and through a lot of, I mean many heartbreaks like finishing second at Bristol for me, when we've had that thing in the bag or now, you know, racing in the truck series going from truck or cup down to the truck series some of those humbling things actually ended up, you know, being, being major blessings cuz it helps. And, and Mike, just speaking to myself at least, it's really helped me to focus inward on how not, not outward on not, not on everybody, whatever everybody else is doing. Not on other people's problems or strengths or weaknesses, just solely flipping the mirror around on only to myself being like, all right, how can I be better? How can I be better at what do I, you know, at what I do for living? How can you know, what do I need to be listening to? What's life trying to speak to me for me to be better at my job? And kind of that so answering your question in a bit of a long-winded answer that yeah, there's so many bumps and bruises along the way and so many humbling times. Any athlete, anybody, even in work, it doesn't matter. It's all applicable just in life and whatever we do. That humility has been probably my, my saving grace is trying to focus on that focus inward on how to, how to just be better each and every day at what we do for a living and, and give it our all. Cause the second that we don't do that, it's just like the same, I can go back to it all times, just like the gym, the second you start slacking in the gym, you start losing some gains and losing progress. And it's the same, same type of mentality toward racing. The second we start, you know, I start going, I don't need to study that much for this week, and I've been to this racetrack, you know, 15 times, whatever, you know that nope, you already lost. The second you start you start trying to convince yourself of something like that. That's not true.

Hunter Molzen:

Yeah, for sure. Like you pride before the fall, right? Like, I know that I, I did power lifting for a number of years and you know, at least for me, pretty strong and that strength stuck with me for a long time after I lifting, transition other sports do maintenance on weightlift too. But I know like I was having like some issues with my, you know, with my posterior chain feeling just weak inc. Deadlift, see where I go. And like, I started like, you know, just plates felt easy added another set of plates, easy, two, five, easy 305 easy. And I just, I just kept doing it and it all felt easy and I, I got like cracked 400 pounds and I was like, that's probably good. Like, I should stop there so I don't hurt myself. And I, I know better than to do this kinda stuff, right? I really do like, and whatever. So I went through the rest of my workout, felt fine, and then like I woke up the next day and I could barely get outta bed. My body was just like crippled, like all stabilizer muscles that allowed that pulling normally safely and stuff were, were completely atrophied. Didn't remember how to do it. But the issue is like my brain remembered how to do it. The big muscles remembered how to do it, so weight off the floor and didn't feel that bad, but like all the fundamental stuff that by being in the repetitive habit doing it actually, you know what I mean? Like, that was all gone and like I was, you know, dumb and didn't really think that I, you know, it felt easy enough that I was like, I'm probably fine, I'm well below like my, my prior like and, and stuff. But it's still, I didn't do it the right way. And I paid the, and was injured for like three weeks and went, my physical therapist explained did why smarter retrospect deadlift, like probably warm up to like 225. That would've been fine. And then been like, hard cap, I'm not gonna add more than, you know, 15, 20 pounds a week period. And I still would've been back up to 400 pounds on like a month or two and it would've been fine and I wouldn't been injured for a month instead, you know what I mean? And so it's like just being prideful and not doing things the right way can really bite you if you don't put the discipline forth to, to do stuff how you know you need to do it.

Matt Dibenedetto:

Yep. That's, that's the hardest, the hardest thing for us, especially us men. We're not good at a couple things. One is displaying emotion or being vulnerable or in my case definitely swallowing pride, and chipping away at things. We just often are, are guilty just I think as, as men in general oftentimes of just wanting to cut right to the, the end goal or being like, I know how to do this, I got this. And then we're like, ah, shoot, crap, I paid the penalty now. Yeah.

Hunter Molzen:

Or it's kinda like, you know, you have to be mindful of your body and injuries cause right, you use your body for a living and if you're sitting there with like a herniated in the truck, like that's not gonna be great for your race performance. So I'm sure like sometimes you, you might even know in the gym, like, I, I can do this, but maybe I shouldn't do this. Right? And that's the other hard thing, like, like you said as a man or whatever is like, it's hard to know that you can do something and then choose not to do it cause it's not the smart thing to do, right? Or it's not the, it's not the beneficial thing to do for your training. It kinda like plays in that pride component. And like, I know like exercise for me is a great outlet for like aggression and all these things and it's like, so if I can lift the weight, I wanna lift the weight. And I know actually it's, it's a great little kinda metaphor, whatever you wanna call, it's that back yourself in the gym, which I love to do. I love to just like beat myself into complete like, you know, Smith and feel just like I left it all out there in the gym. But it's really counterproductive to do that cause you like, at least I negatively impact my recovery, my training the next day suffers my training day after that might even suffer as well. So it's really make a lot of, lot more progress. Like if I keep my training volume like under 90% of my max and I stop the session probably at like 90% of what I could do. Like I leave the tank on weight I'm using that takes me to hundred percent or even like 5% if you wanna call it. It really does just like, it, it, it's only gonna add this much extra to your training adaptation or whatever. But it'll just bury me for a day or two. But it's really hard to not do it cause it's like that's what you wanna do. You wanna feel like you just left it all out there

Matt Dibenedetto:

Yeah, exactly. I had, I had a couple things that really helped me along the way. I had my old crew chief in 2018. His name was Randy Cox. He was former army ranger and he was like big weightlifting guy and did kickboxing and a bunch of stuff, but very athletic. And he, he helped explain to me, you know, he's just like, Hey, it's like if you cut your hand, if you, if you just have a little micro tear or a paper cut or whatever, you just have a little minor tear, it'll grow back repair and then bam, you can, you know, you're good to go. It's like if you just obliterate and mutilate your hand and it's ripped open or shreds, it takes forever to recover and you just did more damage than, than harm in a certain sense to where now you're having to wait till you can even, you know, walk to do your next workout or leg day or whatever it is. And then back in, I forget what year it was, I think it was around I think it was 2017 maybe. I had a 17, it might have been 18, somewhere around that, that timeframe. I had, I was doing front squats and I decided, you know, so I, I've usually racing's been a, a saving grace to me where it's kept me a little bit more safe in the gym compared to doing what you know, me would want to do as be like, oh, I can do more. I got this. It's, it's kind of kept me from that. But in this one instance, this one day, it didn't, I was like, oh, I think I can slap a few more pounds on there and I don't know what I was doing for weight or like 300 or so, who the heck knows, but I'm trying to do a we were doing a single rep max front squat. And I went down to the bottom, went to come up and I heard and felt like a pop in my left hip flexor. And I tore it and it hurt and, and me, and, and actually in the moment I didn't really, I was like, oh man, that felt a little awkward. And then obviously after that I paid the penalty for the next matter of, oh man, more than weeks, just months. And, and it, it petrified me in a good way where it packed me down. Just that one instance I was like, Nope, no more. Not even gonna try. If I think that I have more in the tank, then that's good. I'll just leave it in the mental in the mental notes. And, and man, you know, a lot for me it took getting older and learning the hard way some in certain instances. And I'm looking back, just very thankful for racing in my career, making sure that I've always kind of, that's probably saved me more than anything from, cuz I just knew in the back of my head, while racing comes first, I can't hurt myself. But as I've gotten older and kind of learned from people that are much smarter than me just training in a smart manner, not always ablating myself, just training smart and having that mentality. I'll never forget what my crew chief said, that mentality of just chipping away at it, little micro terror and rebuild and just always making little progress. And, and if I'm back squatting, I don't, if sure if I have another rep or two in the tank maybe but my form might suffer a little, but I think I can stand it up. No, it's just not worth it. It doesn't matter. I'm not gaining anything from that. And, and watching even you know, some of these people that train like professional strongman, like Martins Licis and, and you know, I follow Eddie Hall and Thor and some of these guys and I watched some of their training when they're lifting and, and I'm like, oh, what the heck? Why did he rack it? He had, he had a couple more in the tank, you know, . But ultimately I'm like, hang on, maybe there's something to what these guys are doing. They, maybe they don't, they don't train as, as stupid as we think, you know, maybe they're pretty methodical. And they have a very well thought out, laid out plan by professionals of how to get to these crazy high goals that they're getting to. So anyways, that's the long-winded way of saying I'm appreciative for especially as I've gotten older for really focusing on taking care of my body and training in a, a smart manner.

Hunter Molzen:

Yeah. Well, and, and really like I've, I've had some similar experiences with, with other like people that were mentors or you know, people I've sat down with to talk like this. And like really if you think about it, right, your ability to make progress is kind like the training volume you can incur and then the ability to recover from it. And it's like, remember I was talking with professional rock climb Vegas. He's like, don't get hurt man. Cause like, cause if you're hurt for a month or two, it's like it sets you way back and it really is like, if you can make so much progress in a year, right? And you have a catastrophic injury to now you can't train for or two months, months. Not only have you taken away percent of the time, training from the year is a big deal, right? But you also have to rebuild once you've gotten better. So it's more like half of the year is gone, half of the year training is gone now and like you're spending a quarter year just then your back, it's like accidents happen, things you didn't foresee happen. Like sometimes it's unavoidable, but when you do it to yourself cause you were being stupid, that's when it's really a bummer and that those are the ones you wanna avoid at all. You, you know, I should stop, I should stop right now. But demons head more, you can do it. And you're like, no, I should stop. I'm like, my form's crap. And that little things like, mm like grind out, but you need to stop, right? Cause it's like, that's when like everyone I've talked to that's had like a bad injury barring like the stuff, you know what I mean? It's always when they know they should stop, right? It's end of the day, it's the end of the session. There, they, they're like cold, they're not warmed up and that's when things break. And it's like they, everyone had that little voice that was like, maybe you shouldn't have done that. Or like, maybe you should stop now. But they just pushed a little bit too far and then things blow up and then, you know, they're not working out for three months because they're arm muscle or something. And I mean, sometimes you legitimately don't, don't see it coming. I had so aggressive was warm up like a dummy. And I had this like really kinda like flexibility intensive hip movement and like something in my outer hip just popped and like, it kinda felt fine. It didn't feel that bad dropped off. I like weird felt sore, finished my workout. But again, I woke up the next day and I couldn't barely walk my right leg. And luckily have a good buddy who's a PT here in Vegas. So I went to him, he got me doing like basically old rehab where I was like doing very, you know, rudimentary assisted movements. Isolating that heal luckily wasn't the end of the world. But it's like I know that I didn't have time to warm up properly. That leg wasn't warm, it wasn't stretched out how it needed to be to do the movement. I shoulda just skipped it. I was rushed. I still to get training and I should just skipped that movement that day. But, you know, just being not, you know, not listening to the smarter part of me and getting injured. So, so yeah, it really is like, you just gotta be intelligent about it. And like, like I said, kinda fortunately for you, you do have that greater thing keeping you dialed back in the sense of like, I gotta be healthy, I gotta race, my body's gotta be functioning. So if there's any question, like I definitely know that this over here, the racing is a priority to kinda like keep me in check.

Matt Dibenedetto:

Oh man, a hundred percent. I'm thankful racing has, has been my saving grace because I know I probably would've injured myself multiple times because I was so guilty of that mindset of like, I know I got more, but then luckily it would be the battle of that voice in my head that's like, you got more, but it's like you have, but this is your whole career so don't hurt yourself. Cause you can't drive the dang car if you don't. And it'll, and they, you know, missing one race can, can ruin our entire race season. You know, for, for us you miss one race, you can, that can be mean missing the playoffs, you know, just because you sacrificed a race worth of points from the driver point side and stuff. So ultimately I'm really thankful that I've had racing to keep probably the, the testosterone man side of me in check just a little bit of the, I've been weightlifting throughout the years and still made plenty of mistakes along the way. But learn from, you know, learn from them and learn from people that are, you know, much more intelligent in that realm than I am. And been fortunate to, you know, kind of dial it in over the years and now, now feel like I have a, you know, just a good structure and, and you know controversial in the workout world a little bit. You know, I, when I, I went into CrossFit obviously you mentioned CrossFit and you get such mixed reactions. I've been kind of on both sides of these things and it, but I'm glad that I did it for a little while cuz really taught me a lot. Cuz you, all you hear about is just everyone going to CrossFit and getting hurt. And then when I got to just understand, I wanted to just, you know, know what that whole realm of fitness was about and what all the hype was about and wanted to learn. You know, I kind of started becoming just more open-minded where I just wanted to know more about different forms of training. Whether it's, you know, I love watching the, you know, world's strong men. I enjoy that. I, I love watching power lifting. You know, it's CrossFit. I appreciate any forms of just fitness no matter, even if it's something I'm not interested in, like long distance spiking or whatever, I don't, I don't have any interest in it, but I appreciate 'em all more. But CrossFit, doing that kind of helped me to understand that, oh, it's not really the necessarily the workouts in some instances, in a lot of instances, it's more just the, the mindset of like, go until you're lying in the floor and puking. You know, and it's, and that's kinda where, where we, we can get in trouble easy. So luckily I, I did CrossFit but my, you know, kind of some of my prior experiences or failures or that one injury especially with my hip flex or those things really just kept me grounded to where I did it. And I'd go in and I just had to swallow all my pride and be like, oh, you know what looks like the women's weight was gonna be appropriate for me today, . And it's hard to swallow that pride and be like, I'm probably gonna be better, get a more functional workout doing that. And I had to separate that like, I had to treat it a little more like cardio and treat my muscle hypertrophy at weightlifting as my what I call my bro stuff. So I kept the physique and, and looks and, and also anyways, kinda, you know, through experiencing some different types of fitness over the years, it's, it's kind of given me a good balance.

Hunter Molzen:

Yeah, no, and I, I love CrossFit. I did it for a number of years and I, I don't need anymore. But like, I think it's awesome. But in many respects, right, like CrossFit itself, like the wads are the game, right? Like, it's like, that's like the game day. It's like the race, it's the football game, it's whatever analogy you wanna make, but that's the game. But the equivalent would be like if a wide receiver just played football games to train for being a wide receiver, right? Like playing the actual football game has a really high risk of injury. They're not, they're not, you know, you're not doing it very long. You're not doing it that often and, but there's a lot of training behind the scenes that prepares you for the game. And that's really, if you wanted to excel, CrossFit, how I would think about it, right? Like, like you're saying, like I know I wanna be good at CrossFit, so if I need to do my metcons to be able to like handle the volume, but that I would do that at a much lighter weight than I'm capable of handling. That way I can just focus on, like you said, going all out. But I know the weight's not heavy enough to hurt me. So like if I bury myself in terms of like, you know, metabolic conditioning, who cares, right? Like I'm, I'm at like 60% of my max, it's not be a big whatever, whatever percentage. Then stronger I do my controlled rested weightlifting. Yep. That way I can at the same time. But the problem is to make the classes, like everyone can come and do their thing and they don't have to do like training on the side. People basically just like put as much weight as they can on the bar and go all out. And then they, you blow into pieces, causes when you're out intelligent, begin kinda separate it and then pick and choose like, do you actually compete and see what you're capable of? Today is game day, so now the time where you gonna load up the bar you've prepared, let's what doing days week

Matt Dibenedetto:

And man, those CrossFit games athletes like Matt Frazier and Noah Olson and all these people, oh my gosh, the, the amount of training that goes into what they do is far, far beyond going in. And, you know, obviously doing an hour of, of your, you know, metcon and maybe a little weightlifting. Yeah. And you're outta there. I mean they're, they're training route routine and regimen is just absolutely unbelievable. I would never be able to come close to doing what they do. But, but yeah, and you can even look at those guys. I always tell people, I'm like, look, look at them. I can see, I know that they do like isolated, you know exercises as well. I know they do bench press and you know, like isolate buy stuff curls and they do like the, you know, working on the little stabilizer muscles and working on their rear belts and rotator, they, they're doing some of the, you know, the, they're doing a lot of that stuff mixed in with their programming one because they're physique wouldn't look that way by just straight up doing a, doing wads. You know, like that's some, they, they, they train incredibly intentional at what they do. So, I guess, I guess the moral of the story is anything at a professional level just takes an absolute absurd amount of, of efforts time and focus on what we on what we do. That's for sure. But I, but anyway, we kind of, I, I just had a passion for, I've always had a passion for, well, of course racing. And as you can tell, I can get off on a tangent talking about fitness stuff cuz I, I just love it and enjoy it. And I had a period of time where we were moving and we were busy and we had so much going on. We were, I mean, moving was the biggest part and I didn't really work out much, maybe a day or two a week, you know, just not much. Cuz we were so busy and man, that was probably one of the biggest eye openers for me cuz it, it really started deteriorating some of my daily mental health. Cause my, my regimen was all screwed up and I wasn't having that daily thing in that just was like, kind of kept me grounded and that I enjoyed and felt like I'm making progress and feeling good and looking good and all that. And man that really made me probably take it for not, not so much, not take it for granted as, as much as I used to. And just appreciating the ability that I, that God gives me the health to be able to do it and stuff. Cause man, it's, it's for some people, you know, it's so important to our, our lives and our health and our structure and that was a, that was a big eye opener for me.

Hunter Molzen:

Yeah, I can relate completely. Like I've had periods of time where business and other things have stacked up to be so busy that like, like you mentioned, maybe I'd only get two workouts in a week. It's, it's probably been more than a decade where I've gone like a full week without working out unless I was like traveling on vacation or something. But then I'm usually doing something active enough to at least like, kinda like get my energy out. But I would agree completely. Like if I don't, if I fall out of my workout routines, I start to kinda like, in many respects, just like, not like my life very much, like love my family and everything, but it's like, I'm like, this is not how I wanna live. I do my workouts every day. Its thing I look for terms of I'm doing, were about, about how, you know, people are, are meant for more than just like working or whatever. And like I would, I would act the same thing. Like I think thing and maybe not everyone's the same, maybe's out, genuinely working out. I would guess that most of being outta shape to where it just sucks cause you're not capable at all. And a place where their body was capable of like hard effort that everyone would like it. I mam. But the, if, if I were to list my priorities in life, it'd probably be like family, faith, fitness and then everything else is coming after like work, everything. Like work is a necessity. I do it, I enjoy it, but I definitely like fitness and working out more and it's, its highest in terms of priorities that are within myself, you know what I mean? Like faith and families outside of myself, that stuff that's like both like rewarding on an existential level and it's partially like my duty and my obligation. I, I feel compelled to, to be there. But the things that, in terms of things that I do just for myself, like, like work is so far below these other things, it's like I would do anything, like having been to a place where I'm only working out once or twice a week, I would do anything to not have that be the case. Even if it meant changing my career, changing the business like I have to do. It's just something have mental goes crap. I don't what I'm doing, don't myself don't, the way my days are taking shape and life kinda turns into this big meaningless blur that I just hate. You know what I mean?

Matt Dibenedetto:

Yep. A hundred percent. I've had to be in that spot where I was like, you know what? I'm putting off meetings and whatever. I don't care. I'm working out and this is a part of my day that I am not willing to give up and I'm not going to ever again cuz I do that. And then you start realizing that I start getting grumpy and then you start, then it's like, man, my clothes aren't fitting. Like they, or I'm starting to lose a little. Or you don't, you slack off on your eating game or whatever it is and then it just deteriorates your mental health starts specking your days, then it affects your work and your meetings and everything that falls underneath it. So Yeah, like you, like you said, I've and

Hunter Molzen:

The stuff above it, right? Like impact the way you, you interact with your family and all sorts other people, all sorts of stuff.

Matt Dibenedetto:

Yeah. Oh man. Even and everything in my, in my faith, my walk with the Lord, everything, it's like, it, it's all that discipline falls underneath it. Cuz if I'm grumpy because of one piece of my life that's really important that I'm neglecting, then it affects every single thing outwardly , you know, on top of that. So, I'm, I'm thankful man to have like-minded folks like yourself and kind of our and you know, to have that, that piece of, of stuff being, you know, a big part of my life and, and, and enjoying it. You know, it's, I, I think it's easy for what I, I see a lot and I understand is you know, in this world we live in, oftentimes we can be focused so much outward on what other people think and things like that. Or easy for that, that enemy we're fighting to kind of want to get in our head and want us to think that that, oh man, I'm, or feel, you know, like, down on ourselves or, oh my gosh, I'm so weak, or I'm just starting and I'm so outta shape. I can barely even be on the rower for one minute or whatever it is. But when we one, either get, get through that part of it. But, but two, just over the years, I've, I've as especially, you know, God's really helped me in, in enjoying and appreciating things and having the right mindset on stuff. It's like, no, when we have the mindset of just how, how encouraging it is to our lives and how much, you know chipping away at it is gonna bring us, you know, success and being better and feeling better and making every part of our life better and not worrying about, you know, outward stuff, but appreciating the, whether wherever we start, just starting somewhere and moving on from there. It's when we have the right mindset toward it, it's I mean, I've been guilty of it when if I lose a little strength or whatever, it's easy to get down, but it's like, nope, let's just chip away at it and get a little bit better and a little better and enjoy the process, you know, when you just enjoy the process. Yeah. and, and for me, it's hard for me. I, I'm an impatient person, so trying to have patience and enjoying the process and enjoying just the health and ability to do those things, it, it really, you know, turns into a, a blessing and it's like, it, it rejuvenates your day or breaks up your day or starts your day off, right. Depending on when you work out. I'm not, I'm not much of a first thing in the morning guy, but . But now I enjoy it.

Hunter Molzen:

Yeah. No, and, and really it's like, I think that knowing what's important to you and where those priorities lie also kind of gives you the framework you need to be able to structure the other areas of your life. Like say, no, and you need to, or be happy with a certain amount of progress somewhere else, right? Cause like, you know, take barbell business example work. I could work 20 hours a day every day forever. And they're probably, I probably would never run outta work, but at a certain point I have, this is enough for today. I'm are important in my life. I have to get 'em done and go do your workout or go spend with family or whatever. It's, and I think that like, we could probably finish the conversation with maybe just a little bit of your perspective on like, you know, how you went through your life. You came into racing, you reached the pinnacle of your career, the NASCAR Cup series, like an achievement. Many people probably can't even relate to Harvard 20 get into Harvard or something. All your know, faith changed life and stuff that like, like I'm sure it was an amazing achievement, but at the end of the day, there are other things in life that matter more, right?

Matt Dibenedetto:

Yeah. You know, the, without diving too, too deep into it. Yeah, I mean, my racing journey and getting to the top and being in that position and all really, really saved my life and changed my life in ways that I did not expect whatsoever. Because, you know, you're young when I'm young, you know, you're just like, I wanna drive race cars and I want to have, you know, be famous or whatever it may be that we desire of this world. And sometimes when you get there it actually puts things in perspective because things can often, look, I'm gonna say this with a balance. So things can often look more glamorous from the outside looking in without, you know, seeing all the hard work or the frustrations or the heartaches or the hard work or the struggles and the trials and all the things that go along with it. Just like with, with anything that we, you know, work for having life in general. But for me, you know, I'm, I, I got to this point where I was feeling, you know, you feel kind of in a sense, you know, on top of the world, like, oh man, I'm here. Like all of these smokes I'm driving against Dale Jr. And Tony Stewart and all these guys when I first, you know, came into the Cup series. But ultimately, you know, in 2000 20 was when, you know, there was a lot of like personal struggles in my life that were that were really happening and bearing down on me and, you know, some family struggles and things with my wife and I, and all these things. You name it. Where from the outside looking in, it let me know my life looked perfect. It's like, oh, Matt drives a Lamborghini and he has cool cars and a big house, and stuff like that. But ultimately, I was actually the most broken that I had been in my life, just being totally honest. But fast forwarding to this day it led me into opening my heart to things I hadn't the past. And it led me to open it up to, to God and his story with a sense of humility and not a sense of pride. And just coming to understand, wanting to know some of the greater the greater purpose in life beyond the temporary. And ultimately like what are we doing here? What's the point of all this? There's gotta be more to life than all the just struggles and pain and the end of our story being that we just turned to dust and kind of ignoring this whole, you know, some of the stuff that we battled daily on a temporary basis. And, and anyways, fast forward to today. Yeah, I'm, I couldn't be happier and more thankful that some of the, the biggest struggles in my life actually led to the being the biggest saving grace in my life to where now, you know, just quick summarizing from that point to today. You know, I appreciate my job so much more. I appreciate what I do. I love what I do wherever I'm meant to be. Whether it's racing in trucks or racing in the Cup series or, or whatever it is, I just appreciate the journey a lot more and understanding the big picture in life you know, holding God here and everything else underneath it. And like we talked about with priorities in life, just, I really had to work on reprioritizing things in my life and I put things in perspective and yeah, I go, go through go through my daily life now with a, a piece that I didn't even know existed and a joy that I didn't even know existed. And all those things just from, you know, prior priorities and I guess, you know, maybe some of it's getting older and and when you start thinking about having kids and when life gets a little more real along the way, you start asking a little bit bigger questions and then bigger questions are the best thing in the world to ever ask with a sense of humility behind it. Cause it, it definitely has blessed my life far beyond what I deserve.

Hunter Molzen:

Yeah. What an amazing story. And it's, you know, great to hear that perspective. And I think that it's, it's cool to hear people from different places and different careers, different paths, kinda reaching similar conclusions, right? And it's kinda, you know, that whatever it is you're pursuing, like you really do have to kinda like take everything in stride and enjoy the process. Cause you never know what what's gonna take shape or where you're gonna end up. And oftentimes, like, like you said, from the outside looking, right, the lamb the amazing, but oftentimes don't what's going on behind the scenes. And like when you get there, it's not as glamorous as anyone would think, right? Like, I, you know, I've interviewed MLB pitchers and stuff, and you think, oh, they play baseball for a living. That seems so awesome. That job is so frigging hard. You know what I mean? They play like games a year and then they're training in the off season and they're traveling in between the games. Brutal, brutal. It's a brutal job. It's, and like if you love it, you love it and it's awesome, but it's like nothing is as glamorous as, as it seems like it would be. Definitely nothing is easy. And so like, if you can't learn to have your priorities straight and to enjoy the journey and enjoy the process and kinda like be happy with where you're on day, then you're gonna miserable matter. So that's really kinda what you, or your career aspirations or whatever it may be achieve to reach a place like where you wake up every day, you're like, man, I love this. I get to, like, today I woke up, I took care of my kids for a little bit. I worked out, I did some work that I had to do in between, now I'm chatting, you'll, it's an awesome day. I can do that every day until I die and be totally happy, right? But it's like, you gotta figure out what it is that you enjoy and also not always be waiting for, for some achievement that you wanna achieve and think like, that'll be the thing. That'll be the thing that makes me happy. Cause it won't be right. It's not like once you get there, like you said, it's just like anything else, the human, the human mind is so capable of, of adapting. Kinda like you mentioned the big house, right? Or the Lamborghini, like I'm sure when you first buy, you're like, this is awesome. Maybe for a week, maybe for a month, but eventually it's just your car and eventually it's just your house. And it's, I never, I never walk through this house and think like, oh, what a, what a nice kitchen. It is a nice kitchen. It's a great kitchen. And I'll say like, if I leave for, like, if I'm gone for an extended period of time, like two months something, and I walk back into my front door, I'm like, oh, that's a really nice kitchen. But like, when you're living in, you don't even about it anymore. If I had to back first when I was square foot, tiny thing, anything that only thing my wife and I could afford, thankfully we could afford a house back then, but the mortgage was cheaper than rent would've been so crazy times, right? Like used to kinda like achieved the pinnacle of dream in the career and, and see that that perspective is still echoed when you've learned the appropriate lessons and come to a place where I would, I would say, that have a very healthy and welled perspective on life.

Matt Dibenedetto:

Yeah. Man, that's, that's darn. And, and I come into, you know, not trying to preach or, or talk too much like scripture and all that, but for me, just personally, my journey you know, in the book Proverbs, it's the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And coming to understand for me was I kept saying, I'm like, man, if life's about me, this is, this is a pretty kind of empty cause all, it just ends up being like, ah, when I get this, I'll be happy. And then you get it and then you're like, oh man, it's just temporary. And then it's like, well, when I get this Lamborghini, then I'll be happy. And then it's like, oh man, that was temporary too. . It's like, and got me to start you in life as temporary. It's like, oh, it's temporary. And it's like, life has to be about more than just me. And then when I realized life is about a lot more than me and it's a way bigger than me, and that's a good thing, you know, not a bad thing. So yeah, that's man, it's cool stuff. I enjoy being able to bounce some of this stuff back and forth and talk. It's just amazing how everything is. Stuff like working out, racing, whatever it is, whatever we do for a living, it's all, it's all it's all relative and no. And you know, and, and another thing just to finish on all that is like, I'm really thankful that I've been taught through this, like being, you know, coming up journey all the way to the racing and, you know, top of NASCAR and driving for one of the most famous teams I was driving for the wood brothers, you know, one of the most legendary teams in NASCAR and all that. And now being very, you know, have, having been had had an interesting couple years and being grounded a lot it's neat that I'm, I'm thankful to be able to share with people and, and see view that there is no, there is absolutely no one person that's, you know, role in life is more important or less important than another. It doesn't matter if you're you know, like I, I use my friend that's a, a car salesman. He you know, he's a, he is a very, you know, grounded man in his faith and everything, and he sells cars and each car he like programs to a particular radio station that's like a, you know, some, some Christian music or whatever. And he just, it just, he tries to do just a couple little things that just maybe drop a little seed and, and that's it without overstepping his boundaries with respect to the corporate world and everything, of course. But I always think about that. I'm like, man, you know, something like that, that may, people may just overlook and think is just like, oh, whatever, that, that could have planted thousands of seeds, you know, over the course of, of years, you know, or whether it's somebody that just is, you know it doesn't matter what role it is, if you work in a school and you affect kids in a certain way or you, you know, positively influence them, and that's what you do every day of your life. You know, like God's using us all for good no matter what no matter what it is, and no, no one thing, no one person is better or greater than another. And it's often easy in this world to look from the outside in and maybe think that someone's got it made or their life is so much better than mine or, and, and that's a trap that I would say that I've fallen in and we can all easily fall into. And, and I'm thankful to, to have a greater perspective on that now and to, to maybe share with people and to share with younger people and stuff. Like, don't fall into that track, you know, life's much bigger than someone's temporary stuff. And, and, but also with just appreciating the, the things that we do get to do in this temporary time here more.

Hunter Molzen:

Yeah. No, and I mean, like, I, I guess the last thought I'll, I'll leave. I've like, careful how all that stuff that you do, kinda like a deeper look into some people's, like, right, some of these people's lives that, like historically people would've felt like, oh, they have it so easy. They must be so happy, their life must be so great. And you can see truthfully it's not, and like many times they might be miserable, average pressure, lack of satisfaction, whatever, it's not coming from come something else. And so, no, it's, I agree with you completely, man. It's been a, it's been a great conversation and I do think that it'll be, it'll be fun to, to have people listen to it and your perspective on fitness career, all man. So down with us today. Best of luck in the remainder your season, man. We look forward to staying in.