83 AJ Roberts: The World's Strongest Man Becomes The Fittest

"The idea of greatness is not just in one area anymore. It's about all areas of your life." - AJ Roberts Head on over to www.lewishowes.com/83 for more greatness. Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Lewis Howes?

  This is episode number 83 with AJ Roberts.

• 0:07Lewis Howes?

  Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week, we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin.

• 0:33Lewis Howes?

  Hey, everyone. Thanks so much for diving in today and being a part of this episode with my good friend AJ Roberts. Now, I've known AJ for a number of years, and I'm going to introduce him here in just a second. But he has had an incredible transformation as literally one of the strongest men in the world, who broke a world record in powerlifting. And we're going to talk about what he actually did. The amount of weight that he lifted is incredibly inspiring. It's basically not real. It's like a video game weights that he's flipping around or something. It's crazy. And then he decided to retire after he broke this world record, and he wanted to become the fittest man in the world.

• 1:14Lewis Howes?

  So he lost, I think about 100 pounds, started doing CrossFit, and his goal has been to basically transform his body. And it's amazing what he's been able to do. And this is a guy who dedicated 10 years of his life to one goal, then achieved it and shifted it for something new. And we go a lot about into the mindset today about how he's been able to do everything and what it takes to be successful. And definitely, that is not something you do overnight. So, very cool what this guy's created, and I'm excited to dive into that here. Now, let's go ahead and dive in with my man AJ Roberts, and we're going to let the class begin.

• 2:00Lewis Howes?

  Welcome back everyone to the School of Greatness Podcast. Thanks so much for joining me today again. And I've got a good buddy of mine, Mr. A.J. Roberts. What's up, A.J.?

• 2:08Speaker 01

  What's happening?

• 2:09Lewis Howes?

  I am, uh, I'm excited for this, man. This is, uh, this has been a fun one, but I've been thinking about doing since the beginning of the show started because of your transformation. I'm all about showing how people have achieved greatness in their life and their physical bodies and their health and their relationships and their business and everything. And you're definitely one of the most extreme cases. So for those that don't know, A.J., he's a two-time world record holder. Uh, was, I don't know if you still hold the record for like the strongest, basically being the strongest man in the world, uh, for three, it's a three lifts, right?

• 2:43Speaker 01

  Yeah, it was the squat, bench press, and then the deadlift combined. So the total of those three, I held the record for close to a year, um, before the guy I broke it from took it back.

• 2:53Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 2:54Speaker 01

  And, uh, went on and he went up and of course I retired after hitting some, some, um, some of my goals. So, um, yeah, you know, uh, it was, it was a privilege to have that and it's something no one can ever take away, you know?

• 3:05Lewis Howes?

  Right, exactly. So what was the, the record? It was a powerlifting record, three, three, uh, lifts and what were the weights?

• 3:12Speaker 01

  Uh, so when I broke the record, uh, the record was, uh, 2799 and I broke it at, and total 2825. So, uh, and that was with, uh, 1140 squat, um, I believe 865, uh, bench press and 815 deadlift. And then of course I went on and finished my career with a 1205 squat, 910 bench press and 815 was my, was my best deadlift. Um, but, uh, you know, my goals were always to, to squat 1200, to deadlift 800. And the bench was, I never had a big goal. There was only to go 800 because that wasn't like a number when I started that the top guys were doing. But it was a natural lift for me and, and I, I surpassed where I had planned. But, uh, the, the combo of those three and what was fascinating was I

• 3:57Speaker 01

  never had to be the best, the very best. I didn't have to have the world record squat, the world record bench, world record deadlift. I just had to put the three biggest together. Um, and so, you know, I was- I guess the most all around guy.

• 4:09Lewis Howes?

  You're the decathlete of powerlifting.

• 4:11Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly. Which, you know, depending on who you ask, how lifting like powerlifters, most of the time they say, you know, unless you do all three, you're not a powerlifter. So, um, you know, it was a very big privilege for me to do that, obviously, to be the strongest guy in the world. When I set the world record in my weight class, it was a three or three weight class. I walked around at three hundred and twenty pounds. Um, there's only one man to ever live that ever lifted more than me, and he outweighed me by over a hundred pounds. So,

• 4:34Lewis Howes?

  No way.

• 4:35Speaker 01

  You know, it was, uh, it was definitely a huge achievement. And I think still that total is, you know, number four or five all time. Um, you know, ever to live. So, um, it's, it's cool to be amongst, uh, the very best. And, you know, I still go back and, uh, you know, talk to the guy, guy now, Dave Hoff, he's actually, he lives in Columbus, Ohio, two trains out of West Side, same place I used to train.

• 4:56Lewis Howes?

  Yep.

• 4:57Speaker 01

  And, uh, you know, he's now pound for pound, the strongest guy with biggest total ever over three thousand. Donnie Thompson holds me and then we all go there. So, yeah, you know, good stuff.

• 5:06Lewis Howes?

  Geez, so he'll, he can do it over three thousand. What'd you do, twenty eight hundred something?

• 5:10Speaker 01

  My best ever was, uh, twenty eight fifty five is what I, my best total ever. Yeah.

• 5:14Lewis Howes?

  Have a, have a lot of, how many other guys have done better than that now?

• 5:17Speaker 01

  Um, well, we got, uh, Donnie, Dave, and then Jonas Rattan. And I think those are the only three. So I think my total is number four. Uh, there may be someone I'm forgetting, uh, sneak in there. But, uh, yeah, uh, not many men. Um, and we'll see some more, you know, it's kind of like the, the four minute mile as soon as it's broken, it's start, you know, starts to happen. And, and we've seen that. But, uh, you know, so far, I'm still in that top five and, uh, you know, it's, it's, it's crazy. When I think back, we were mentioned before the show, this is kind of like a whole different, uh, person and a different time in my life, like a different thing, but, uh, it's still.

• 5:51Lewis Howes?

  It was only, it was only three years ago, right?

• 5:53Speaker 01

  Yeah, it was only two thousand twelve when I retired and you of course knew me before, before then. So you knew both the big AJ and then now, you know, the food of transformation and I guess the skinny AJ as people call it.

• 6:05Lewis Howes?

  When I look at pictures of you now, it's like I don't even recognize you because I remember, I don't know if you remember this, I remember sitting on a bus. We were at some mastermind, I can't remember where, we were sitting on a bus next to each other and you had to hold your arms uh, up against the seat in front of your, our, you know, our seat on the bus. You had to hold your arms up there just so you wouldn't have your arm like in my face.

• 6:27Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:28Lewis Howes?

  This is how large a man AJ was.

• 6:30Speaker 01

  I said, you know, it's the same with flying. I flew a lot and I'd have to lean forward in my seat. I'm not very respectful to the others around me. I knew I was a bigger person, you know, and so I would lean forward in my seat to give them the shoulder room and everything like that. It's like I kind of spilled over into the other seat.

• 6:47Lewis Howes?

  It's just crazy how large you can, you know, become through, you know, and you weren't fat. You were just like a solid 320 pound human being. And your arms, you couldn't even put your arms down to the side. They were just so large. It was incredible. And when I look at pictures of you now and videos and watch videos of you, it's like you're, you were 320 then, all muscle, and now you're 240 something. Is that what you said?

• 7:11Speaker 01

  Yeah, 248 right now. I got down, I did a bodybuilding show and actually for the, you know, for the transformation, I had to pick something to train for. And after getting injured, having a few injuries, you know, I picked the sport of bodybuilding just because it was, you know, low impact and gave me a reason.

• 7:30Lewis Howes?

  Something to strive for, yeah.

• 7:32Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly. I'm very goal oriented. And so when I stepped on stage, I'd actually weighed in, I was 220 at one point. So I'd lost over 100 pounds for that transformation.

• 7:42Lewis Howes?

  No way.

• 7:42Speaker 01

  You know, I gained a little bit back after the show, just, you know, the balance thing is what I struggle with, but, you know, I've got it under control. Kept my weight under 250 and I feel so good, so healthy. It's such a change. And I guess you really don't, you don't realize even, even though I was, you know, a competitive athlete and like you said, you know, a ball of muscle, even at 320, you're not healthy. I mean, it's almost impossible. And it's funny, you know, thinking about flying, like I, you know, I got tired of being squished. So, you know, I started flying first class, but I had severe sleep apnea. So when I slept, when I slept, I snored obviously extremely loud. And I actually got woken up one time by the flight attendant because I was disturbing the other customers on first class.

• 8:25Speaker 01

  So even that didn't solve the problem. And so, you know, when I finally realized, okay, I gotta get myself in, I gotta get my fitness, my health back, it was kind of just a little, you know, just like it'd been for the last 10 years chasing the world record to be the strongest. Now it was that chasing to kind of be, become the fittest version of myself.

• 8:44Lewis Howes?

  Right, right. Yeah. And I'm looking, you know, I've seen pictures of you on Instagram where it's like when you were your biggest. And then it's like a transformation shot of you just like shredded with like a six pack. And you see every definition and, you know, you were, you were a lot of muscle back then, but also there's a lot of fat that covers it because you had to put so many calories in your body every day just to put the mass on, I'm assuming, so.

• 9:04Speaker 01

  Yeah, we called it the see it, see it, eat it diet, you know, it was you ate as much food as you could could consume um and it was never enough.

• 9:12Lewis Howes?

  Oh, man.

• 9:13Speaker 01

  Trying to eat more and

• 9:14Lewis Howes?

  Jeez.

• 9:15Speaker 01

  Sneak calories in any way you could through shakes and you know whipped cream in the shakes and all this, you know, all this stuff to to manipulate the body weight and push it up even even higher because um you know with strength and and there's much like a lot of things like with strength. One of the ways is to increase your leverages and as you get bigger, you have better leverages, obviously a shorter range of motion and things like that. So it was all about peak performance and gaining weight was one of the ways we um you know, we manipulate that.

• 9:43Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 9:44Speaker 01

  Be stronger, you know?

• 9:45Lewis Howes?

  And how tall are you?

• 9:47Speaker 01

  So I'm five, ten and a half. I used to be five, eleven, but I think all the squatting over the years shrunk me half an inch, so.

• 9:53Lewis Howes?

  Oh, my gosh, that's crazy. So five, ten and a half, at three hundred and twenty something pounds, that's that's pretty, it's a pretty big boy. Um, you know, I'm six, four. If I was three, twenty, I'd be able to carry it a little better, but that's that's crazy. So amazing, man. What what made you decide to get into this sport in the first place? I want to talk about first why you got, why you wanted to have the world record in these three lifts and powerlifting? Um, first off, before we get into then, why you wanted to be the fittest person in the world?

• 10:20Speaker 01

  Yeah, so I think for me, no matter what I do, I struggle with being average or mediocre. I just have this this mindset that if you're gonna do psych, you gotta, you gotta give it a hundred percent, you gotta go all in. And I'm kind of an all or nothing guy. And so when I, when I got into powerlifting, it was a byproduct. I was a, you know, former basketball player. I was a point guard. Weighed a hundred and seventy pounds.

• 10:43Lewis Howes?

  So funny.

• 10:44Speaker 01

  Played, played for England um and got cut from the England squad and that devastated.

• 10:48Lewis Howes?

  You were on the national team?

• 10:49Speaker 01

  I was on the national team and actually Louis Deng, who plays, well, he played for Chicago Bulls. I know he's been transferred now, I think. Not quite sure where he's at now, but he was on the team at the same time.

• 10:58Lewis Howes?

  Shut up.

• 10:59Speaker 01

  Cause I was too small uh and they said like, we can't teach you to grow. You got all the talent in the world, but we can't teach you to grow. We got other players just as good as you. So my attitude was, well, I'm gonna come to America and I'm gonna do this myself, you know, because the goal was always to be a professional basketball player. And then uh through a series. Of unfortunate events, I was unable to play my senior year in high school over here because of they have international rules and all this stuff and I was deemed ineligible. And that's when I got into the powerlifting to do something competitively. And after the first competition, I was hooked and just began, that began the strength journey. And I was lucky and fortunate enough to train, to find a world record holder that lived an hour away from me, went off to college, I was at University of Idaho, world record

• 11:43Speaker 01

  holder lived an hour and a half away, would drive up, I'd drive up twice a week to train with them. And he asked me, the minute I walked in, what do you want to do? And I said, I want to break the world record, I want to be the strongest man to ever live. And he said, well, you know, this is what you got to do, you can't miss training and no drugs, no alcohol, you know, live a simple life. So he laid the foundation and I was just, that was it. And I just stuck to that and 10 years later, here I was, the world record holder. And it was just this unbreakable belief in myself and that's what I've always been able to have my whole life, no matter what I've done. When I set my mind to something, I truly believe that I can achieve it and I don't, don't matter what anyone says. And that was the stubbornness that brought me to America.

• 12:24Speaker 01

  And what I've, what I've found is sometimes what we think is the journey, you know, and what we, where we think the destination is going to be, it may change along the way and you have to be okay with that. But as long as you're committed a hundred percent to whatever it is at the time you're doing it, it seems to all work out. And that, that was really like, when I decided to be the strongest in the world, it was because I was competing in powerlifting, what else is there to do but to be the best? I wasn't going to just do it just to lift some heavy weights. And I actually, I went from 170, my freshman year of college, you know, most people get the, what they call the freshman 15, I actually gained the freshman 60. So I was eating nine times a day at all you could eat cafeteria.

• 13:07Speaker 01

  And, you know, I was just pushing the boundaries and, and, and I was lucky enough to work in the strength and conditioning coach at the University of Idaho. And so I learned a lot from, from those guys, training with Brent, I learned a lot. And then, you know, that kind of led me to move into Ohio to train under Westside with Louis Simmons. And someone brought this up to me recently about my pattern. I also, when I want to achieve something, I seek out the very best. And I go and learn from them.

• 13:36Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 13:36Speaker 01

  And so, obviously, you know, when I, when I wanted to play basketball, America is seen as the best place to be, so I figured out a way to get over here. When I wanted to be the best powerlifter, I was training with a world record holder once he had retired. The best place in the world is West Side Barlow in Columbus, Ohio. I just opt to move to Columbus, Ohio. And so I think that's something that, you know, I've been fortunate enough to have the mentors along the way to guide me. But I've also, you know, done whatever it took to get, to get with those guys and to learn from them and do that stuff. And I think with those two things, that unbreakable belief and then the willingness to go and do whatever it takes, those things have served me well. And, and as you've seen, business, you know, family life, relationships, things like that, all of that stuff

• 14:19Speaker 01

  has improved because of just this, you know, that, that, that attitude I have.

• 14:23Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, I mean, I, you know, we have a very similar mindset, obviously, and I've, whatever I set my mind to, I followed a similar pattern. I go to where the best are, uh, I learn from the best and I do whatever it takes. Whatever they tell me to do, I do it and I do it, you know, twice as good as anyone else, or I attempt it twice as good as anyone else. And for, for me, that's really the only way to achieve greatness is to go to learn from the best and then to do whatever it takes and put the sacrifice, the time and the energy into believing you can make it happen and then doing the work. And you said it took 10 years for you to achieve your dream. It's not like it happened in a year. And it was every day, I mean, you're in Columbus, Ohio, going through hard winters. I know, cause I, I lived there, grew up there.

• 15:06Lewis Howes?

  And, uh, it's, it's not like you're living in Southern California like you're doing it now.

• 15:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 15:11Lewis Howes?

  Um, so it's, there's no really like secret formula. It's a simple formula that takes a lot of hard work. And, uh, you did it brilliantly, man. So congratulations on that. Now, did you say that you moved, when did you move to the US? Was it, uh, to play basketball? You were 16.

• 15:29Speaker 01

  Yeah, when I came over for high school, I did an international exchange. Which then, um, obviously because of that senior year, they didn't let me play sports because of, they had a rule that you could only play one year as an international student. And so my senior year, I couldn't play sanctioned high school sports. So I actually began powerlifting and I did, I bowled as well. I was, we, we created a high school bowling team. And of course we went to state and that the first year we've ever had a team, we managed to get to state. And, um, because, you know, we bowled every day because we were gonna do it. We were gonna go all out. So that's what I was doing. And then went to University of Idaho for college. And that's when I really a hundred percent focused on powerlifting, but I actually originally went there. I thought I would try to walk on the football team.

• 16:12Speaker 01

  Uh, cause I had some friends going there, but I couldn't get through NCAA clearinghouse because I had some international issues. And so, but kinda like I said, you know, certain things lead you on paths that you necessarily, uh, didn't intended to go on. Uh, but these are the way that, that, that life seems to shake out. You seem to always get where you're supposed to go. It might not just be the way you expected to get there.

• 16:33Lewis Howes?

  Sure, sure. No, I definitely believe in that. I mean, my dream was to be a, you know, play in the NFL and I was on a, playing many years trying to get there. And then all of a sudden I got injured and realized that that wasn't the destination for me. But the things that I learned along the journey supported me where I'm at now. Uh, and it sounds like the things along your journey of powerlifting and the dedication, the commitment it took, the focus, how to, you know, live and, and build a business around your passion at the same time and be successful in all areas of your life. You learned a lot and even though you're not powerlifting anymore, you're applying what you learned in other stuff. Still, your business is extremely successful. Are you still doing CrossFit as well? I know you're, you've been an instructor for powerlifting with CrossFit, but are you doing it regularly?

• 17:17Speaker 01

  Uh, so I sprinkle in about two or three workout, CrossFit workouts a week. I'm doing some powerlifting stuff and, and the bodybuilding. So I'm kinda doing a hybrid program right now. Um, just because I'm trying to find some balance, but also because I miss each sport whenever I'm not doing it. Um, and so I'm doing that to satisfy my taste buds and really keep me happy. Um, but my main focus in terms of, of, of on that is I'm really focused on helping others right now and coaching. And I'm finding that I get a lot of satisfaction out of helping other athletes. Um, and, uh, you know, just, just trying to let go a little bit of that competitiveness side. As an athlete, um, because you know, with all the, all the years of heavy lifting and, and, uh,

• 18:00Speaker 01

  and, uh, lack of, you know, obviously when I was three hundred and twenty pounds, but not necessarily my mobility and flexibility wasn't the greatest. Um, you know, I'm, I'm an aging athlete and I have to start to really understand my limitations, uh, cause my mind sometimes thinks one thing in the body, you know, it's not quite.

• 18:18Lewis Howes?

  I feel you, man. How, how old are you now?

• 18:20Speaker 01

  Well, I'm twenty nine, but obviously with the, with the, with all those years of heavy lifting, I think I'm probably walking around with like a forty year old in terms of the way the body is structured, but I'm slowly, slowly getting those years back, you know, incorporating a lot of the, you know, you know, the, the nutrition stuff and then all of the training I'm doing, um, to kind of, you know, get my, my body back being super healthy in the joints and all that's great stuff. So, uh, I'm seeing that transformation on top of everything that I've been through.

• 18:47Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, it sounds like, you know, you've got some age back and this is something I've been learning how to do is really how to stay young with my, with my body through, you know, when I was eighteen, I could just show up to practice and, you know, barely warm up and just be, you know, full, full speed ahead, no stretching, no warming up, no nothing. And now it's like if I don't warm up for twenty minutes and prepare myself for practice or a game, I'm going to injure myself. And that's why I do a, a lot of therapy twice a week. I'll do a lot of prehab, just stretching with the therapist, uh, mobility work, whatever I need strengthening on at those days and preparing myself so that when I am at practice, I'm already stretched, I'm already

• 19:30Lewis Howes?

  loose, I'm already ready to go. And, uh, it sounds like you've been doing some of those things as well to really hone in on staying young and healthy so you can perform.

• 19:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, absolutely. And, and I've seen that transition, that performance enhancement has really carried over into, you know, my focus, my energy, business, and, and this is why I'm starting to under, you start to understand that all of these principles, and this is why, you know, I always love talking with you because you're very similar to me in terms of sports and business and that kind of stuff. But you start to see your world start to merge into one and it all starts to come together. And you realize that the disciplines that you learn in one area of your life can easily be transferred to another. And, uh, when I, you know, when I got into losing weight, You know, one thing I learned through business was time blocking and really being focused for a period of time. Uh, and then in, in just making sure the schedule is correct, making sure things are, you know, in the schedule.

• 20:23Speaker 01

  So if you, you're supposed to be focused for ninety minutes, it's in the schedule, you know, you're not just winging your days.

• 20:29Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 20:29Speaker 01

  And then, so when I got to the nutrition side of things, something I'd never paid attention to. I've been able to eat whatever I wanted for years. Now I had a structured nutrition. I had the, everything is timed. Everything needs to be measured and weighed and all this stuff. It was just taking that discipline of time blocking and making sure I did the same thing with the meals. And so I knew exactly what time every day I would eat, every week I knew when I was preparing my meals. You know, it was all structured in there and that was a discipline I learned from business that I brought back into the athletic. Versus some of the athletic stuff I've took into the business world. So, so you see how it simply blends. And I think that that's the, the biggest thing, probably a lot of people, you know, and this is where I'm going with like the idea of greatness. It's not just in one area anymore. It's about all areas of your life and just having greatness in everything you do.

• 21:13Speaker 01

  And I'm guessing most of the listeners probably feel the same way. And that's like one thing, you know, you see so many people excel in, in sports or excel in business or, or be great husbands. But, but they're missing the other side of stuff. And I just think if they start to really process what they do to be great at whatever it is they're great at. Those lessons can easily be transferred across and that's when the real magic starts to happen.

• 21:36Lewis Howes?

  That's true. Yeah. One of the things that you just mentioned, that I really haven't thought about too much until you just mentioned it. But I, I kind of, it's ingrained in me is the time blocking. And I didn't really think about how valuable that, that actually is until you mentioned that. And the, the correlation with sports and, and business and just life in general. When I, I really understood time blocking when I went to boarding school in, in middle, in eighth grade. I went to a private boarding school. It was coed, so that I had females to hang out with, but it was definitely, you know, a semi stressful and very strict environment. And we had a schedule every day, you know, six AM wake up, clean, clean your room, make your bed. There was like study hall every night for two hours. You go to school, you go to practice, you've got dinner, you've got study hall, then you go to.

• 22:21Lewis Howes?

  Bed was very structured and practices through high school were all the same way. I remember every day in football practice, we would have an itinerary up on the in the locker room on the wall. Basically every 20 minutes, what we were doing, it's like put on your pads, going out to walk into the field for five minutes. Then it was uh 20 minutes of stretching, it was 20 minutes of offense, 20 minutes of defense, special teams. There was always a set block of time for each exercise. It wasn't just like the coach showed up at three thirty and was like, okay, we're going to practice today and let's figure it out as we go. There was always a structure and time blocking for each thing.

• 23:01Lewis Howes?

  And I think that's really valuable information to to use and utilize in every area of your life to really time block. And some people may think, well, that seems a little too much, too much to handle or that seems stressful. I don't want to do that. I want to enjoy life. I don't want to time block things. But really you're setting yourself up to get things done quicker as opposed to just allowing yourself to have all the time in the world. And you're able to be more productive when you do that. So I really like that you mentioned that. And I think everyone needs to take into account setting some type of an itinerary for yourself, a schedule, an itinerary, whatever it may be in all areas of your life, because it's extremely valuable.

• 23:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think it's funny because we think of structure and our first thought is, well, that's not freedom, you know, and everyone wants freedom. They want the freedom of choice, but the structure is what gives you the freedom. Because I find like when I when I've tried to fly by the seat of my pants and just, you know, I'm not sure what I'm going to do today. Next, nothing gets done because you pick the wrong things to focus on. You don't allocate the time, you get interrupted, which is the the the big killer is that the interruptions. Um, and so when you have, you know, when you have your day down to a science, you can time block in free time to go do whatever you want. And if if you know, if you're lucky and you live in a place like like here in Southern California, you may go surfing every morning.

• 24:24Speaker 01

  That's freedom to be able to get up and go surfing every morning. But you know, you can do that because you know what the rest of the day looks like, you know, you're going to get done what you need to get done. And you know, there's lots of stuff, time management programs out there and things like that that people can get into. But the structure is not there in order to, you know, it's not like you're, you know. imprisoned by the structure. The structure is there to give you the freedom because you know what needs to get done, what needs to get done. And quite frankly, you know, I, in my experience, you know, I used to train at Westside. We used to train at eight AM in the morning and I never missed a workout. And now I try to train in the afternoons. And sometimes I have to convince myself to go train because I've had a long day, I'm tired.

• 25:05Speaker 01

  And I did it in the mornings. It was never an issue. I got it out of the way. And so, you know, I've started mixing that up, but it, you know, the, the structures, I know what time I'm going to train. But now I, now I see why people don't always get into the gym. Because, you know, if you've had a stressful day, sometimes the last thing you want to do is go put your body under more stress in the gym. Some people find the gym very relaxing, so they look forward to that. But everyone's slightly different. And so it's the same thing. Like if you know, like if you have to write every day and you don't sit down and at a certain time have a ritual you go through, a way to write, it might not get done. And then it drags on and it drags on. And I think that that's what I'm seeing more and more of with the successful people. Um, and, and you know, you're connected as well. You get, you start talking to these people and you realize

• 25:49Speaker 01

  that their life is very organized. They may be busy as heck, but it's very organized. And they know, they know what they're doing, when they're doing it. And it, everything seems to come together and, and that's really seems to be, I guess, the secret in terms of time management for them is it's really just, it's about preparation. And if you're prepared, then, then everything goes to plan. You know, it's, it would be like showing up uh, to a basketball game uh, to play with people you've never met before. You know, you might all be great basketball players, but how good are you going to be on the court? Probably not as good as the team that practiced. That may not be as talented and, and the argument could be set in the latest NBA finals, so.

• 26:29Lewis Howes?

  Exactly. Yeah. Very powerful. Yeah. Structure is freedom. So it's extremely powerful. I want you to take me back. Let's go back to the time you broke the world record. Would you take me back to that day? What was that day like leading up before? You were right about to put your shoulders underneath the bar. Or on your chest. What was that day like? What were you visualizing? What were you thinking about? What were you not thinking about? How were you feeling? What was coming up for you? And what were those moments like? Leading up to those final lifts where you? Where you knew? This was the moment where I was either gonna break the record or not?

• 27:15Speaker 01

  Yeah. It all started six months before. That meet. Because I had been competing for, you know, a long time. And I had believed in my head, you know, I felt strong enough to be able to contend for the world record. But for several meets, I had fallen short of what I thought I could do. And I was beginning to get very frustrated. And so I actually sought out the help of a fitness professional called Mike Robinson. I went to his gym in Indiana called IFast and they did a complete, you know, assessment on me. And what we found was that I had was, I had some activation issues in the muscles. And so there was some misfiring going on.

• 28:00Speaker 01

  And so we began six months before putting me through a rigorous program to make sure that everything was firing, I guess, on all cylinders, you could say. And at the same time, I really started to look at my diet as well. Because up until that point, I really hadn't been concerned of what I ate. I basically, like I said, see it, eat it diet. And I thought, maybe if I was more precise with my nutrition, I would essentially function at a better level. And so we began tweaking my nutrition then. And I didn't get rid of the bad calories, so to speak. What I tried to do was replace as much as I could with good calories. But I still had to get a lot of calories in, so the bad foods remained.

• 28:44Speaker 01

  So it wasn't like I cleaned my diet up. But I started to add in a lot more good food. The combination of those two things gave me the training that I needed in order to have, you know, going into the competition to really be on point, to hit the numbers I needed to hit to break that meet. And so, you know, as the competition got closer, my confidence grew. And I'm a very big, you know. Sports psychology guy. Sure. I went through a lot of stuff with that, but so like um as that confidence, that self-confidence grows, self-talk, stuff like that, I knew going in that competition, I had a very good chance of breaking that record. And so um there was a lot of visualization that would go through and you know, I the day before,

• 29:29Speaker 01

  the competition was a two-day event, Saturday was the lighter lifters, Sunday was the heavy lifters. Saturday, I spent the majority of the day in my hotel room, just visualizing, you know, the perfect day, just running it over, over, over in my head. Um I would and I'd have moments where I'd visualize, I'd be trying to visualize success and I would see myself failing. And so then I would correct myself in my head and you know, fix the issue, what happened, what didn't happen. And so that morning going down to the meet, my confidence was all time high. Um I really believed that that I could have, if I if I could get through the squats, I knew if I could get through the squats, um that I had was on point for the rest of the day. Hmm. And it's very rare in powerlifting, so you do nine lifts, you have three attempts at each lift.

• 30:12Speaker 01

  It's very rare you go nine for nine, it's like a perfect day. And that's what I had that day. And so as the squats came up, that first, everything in the warm-up room felt super light, you know? Um it it as we. Eight hundred, eight hundred pounds felt light. Yeah, we started with a plate, two plates, three plates, four plates, just kept adding. Everything's jumping off my back, people are in the warm-up room, you know, watching, um just in amazement of how explosive everything looked. Uh that opener came, I took that first attempt on the squat, felt like it was an empty bar for me. Um confidence grew, second attempt, um I you know, absolutely destroyed the weight. Then went for the new record, personal record, never had lifted it before, eleven forty. And on that day, I probably could have squatted twelve hundred right there. Wow.

• 30:56Speaker 01

  That eleven forty just, most weight I've ever lifted, but it was perfect, everything was right. You know, my technique, my mindset, everything was right, the weight flew up, bench press and rode around, um.

• 31:09Speaker 01

  Warming up, everything connected, everything felt good. And, uh, you know, just went out there, every single lift was, it felt like it was effortless. And, you know, this is weights that, you know, I've seen crush people. It's weights that I've battled with for years, you know, trying to get it. Now all of a sudden, it just felt as if everything had come together. And so going into the deadlift now, the pressure began to build. Because of course I'm on track to do something that no man's ever done. And I actually, uh, so I, I broke the record on my second deadlift attempt. Um, I did my first, I went for the record on the second, I broke the record. But Dave Hoff, who's the guy I mentioned earlier, who now is the strongest man ever, um, to live.

• 31:53Speaker 01

  He also broke the world record in the weight class below me, but tied my number at that point. Jeez. And so I had one lift left and, and, and Louis said, you know, to, to put eight fifteen on the bar. And, uh, you know, eight hundred was my biggest deadlift at the time. So this is a PR, it's the end of the day. I hadn't done three, I hadn't gone three, hadn't done three deadlifts and gotten all three, uh, for as long as I could remember. Uh, but the energy was there, everyone was fired up. And, and you know, you know, when you're, you get so ecstatic that it's almost like your skin is floating. And there's like vibration underneath the skin. Hmm. Uh, and you just have that energy. And I just, everything was right and I just grabbed that bar.

• 32:33Speaker 01

  And I stood up with it and I remember setting it down and just let, letting out the biggest yell, you know, I was so happy. And I actually, I, you know, Louis came, I gave Louis a big shove and like out of excitement and he, you know, he fell back and, um, but it was, it was the most ecstatic I had ever been. And, uh, you know, I, I believe I was happy for, for the rest of the evening. Um, you know, I was on cloud nine and, and then obviously the next morning it was Depressed. The mindset of, okay, now what, you know, what's next? No. And it was, that, that, uh, that moment in Oh, man. That moment in time, I realized that it not, had not been about getting to where I got to. It had been about the journey. And that's when things began, cause I realized no matter where you get in life.

• 33:18Speaker 01

  Once the clouds clear, you're gonna see a higher mountain, right? There's always gonna be something else to conquer. There was always gonna be, and so that's when I realized that it was really about that journey. And so when I set the new goals, the they weren't based on a world record. They were based on what I wanted to do. Um, but the the moment that I broke that record, it really was ten years coming together. And and finally, just, you know, i- it was a sense of, I guess, peace. Um, that I'd finally put together what I knew I could put together. I had proven to myself that I wasn't crazy. Um, because a lot of people doubt you, a lot of people think you're crazy. And it was just more proof that you really can achieve anything you want to achieve when you put your mind to it, you believe in yourself.

• 34:03Speaker 01

  And you go to the to the ends of the earth in order to achieve it. And I think that, you know, the the biggest thing I I realized is that, you know, if you really want what you want, then then you can get it. If you don't, that's okay. You just have to be okay with that. Right. And, um, you know, but that was the moment, and that's the really solidified solidified that belief. That you can get, do, have whatever you want in life. Um, it just, you know, takes time. That took me ten years. The weight loss journey took two, you know? And I had some fluctuations up and down in there and and times where it was difficult, but, um, it it's one of those things where I think, once you start to have that belief, you know, and and

• 34:46Speaker 01

  that what the first world record, um, that day when I broke that, that's what really instilled that belief that I could do anything. Everything since then has happened exponentially quicker than I could have ever imagined. Because now I don't doubt it, you know? I just commit a hundred percent. It's easy to give everything you got. Knowing that you're gonna end up where you need to get up and so even though you still have ups and downs and failures, they don't affect you as much because you know the end goal, right? You play the long game. Exactly. And it's all gonna come together and I think that that makes a huge difference because that roller coaster, you know, the highs and the lows, you enjoy to enjoy both.

• 35:29Speaker 01

  Um, and you don't emotionally react to it. But uh, yeah, the day, that day when that all came together, it was at that point in time, you know, it was probably the best experience I personally had um, ever in any sporting event and it was, it's kinda one of those things where, you know, it's so personal, you can't ever share it. But the people that were there definitely were in that moment and they could feel that. And like I said, that those six months leading up to that. But for the next year, that's really where the magic happened. Cause I trained, I literally felt like I was in the state of flow. I knew exactly what to do. Everything came to plan, you know, and I finished a career, March two thousand twelve with that twelve oh five squat. And that was, you know,

• 36:12Speaker 01

  that was the most enjoyable year of training I ever had. Um, it was, it was effortless, it was enjoyable. Uh, and everything came together the, in the following year for that final squat. And then when I, when I took that twelve oh five and I got that lift, at that moment in time, I knew I was done. And I had the, the, the greatest sense of gratitude and um, I was so happy that everything and I looked at my journey and I still had to finish the competition and I almost didn't. Um, went onto the bench press and I had some issues there and, and only I missed my first two lifts and managed to get the third one to complete. And then the, the thing is, if I had not done that, I would have had to do another competition because my lift wouldn't have counted. But, but everything came together,

• 36:55Speaker 01

  you know, I finished that day and, and retired um, as a competitive powerlifter to get my, obviously mainly to get my health back in order. Um, and uh, but I retired where I was happy, where I was on top. And the reason I, I wanted to do that is I'd seen so many people uh, achieve greatness and then um, you know, not step away and just continue to get injured and start to go backwards and just this constant scramble to try to get back to where they were. And I don't, I didn't wanna be that way. Um, and, and I was so happy with where I was at. I didn't wanna ruin the moment, you know? Sure. And so, you know, it was, for me, it was the perfect. Ending and the perfect beginning of this new chapter of my life.

• 37:34Lewis Howes?

  And what's the new, what's the new vision, the new dream or goal that you have in this new journey?

• 37:41Speaker 01

  Yeah, so really like, you know, I live a purpose driven life, which is fantastic. Um, and my, my, my new vision is really to help as, as many people as I can. Um, achieve the ultimate you, you know? Um, and I do that, my vehicle obviously through that is health and fitness. And so I'm very lucky to work with CrossFit, um, and travel the world, teaching the powerlifting seminar, which really should be called the Strength Seminars. That is what we teach is people how to get strong. I coach out of a CrossFit gym here and then, uh, have online community and things like that. So, you know, my vehicle is the fitness because I feel like, you know, most people pick an area they want to focus on. Whether it's money, whether it's fitness, whether it's family, whether it's faith. Um, and that is a vehicle for the other areas in their life.

• 38:25Speaker 01

  And that's, you know, they, they, their, their fitness, they get that in check. And then that leads to improvements in all other areas of life. And so I feel very blessed to be involved in that and, and to do that. And then of course I have a partnership with Andy Jenkins and Mike Forsen in, in marketing Genesis and, and that. Uh, where they're the, you know, they're the experts and, and I help with the marketing there.

• 38:45Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 38:45Speaker 01

  And we transform lives financially. And so I'm very blessed to have those two avenues and to be working with, you know, hundreds of thousands of people, really. And my, my goal, my reach is, is, is unlimited and, and that's really where it goes. And I, I look at building a legacy, you know, similar, I guess, to say Arnold Schwarzenegger or someone like that. Who, um, who, you know, continues to this day, you know, now he's back in charge of Flex Magazine. And he's heavily involved again in the, in the industry of fitness. And so those are the guys I look up to and, and kinda the, the, the vision for the life is to just to lead people to being the better versions of themselves and really stepping up. And, um, you know, it's easy to say, oh, it's easy to do, you just do it. Um, but a lot of people struggle with that.

• 39:30Speaker 01

  And so I'm very blessed to, to be able to help those people and to, to help them transform their lives and start to move in the direction of they, you know, they know, they have that gut feeling that they're, they're born to do something. Um, and it's just not happening. And I'm very lucky to be able to, to create, I guess, that ignition and that spark that gets them on that journey.

• 39:49Lewis Howes?

  Hmm, I love it, man. Well, I could talk about this, uh, this journey with you all day long, but I want to wrap it up and, uh, bring you to our final question here in just a second, but where can people, what is the best place for people to connect with you online?

• 40:03Speaker 01

  Yeah, so AJRoberts.com is the, the website and then, uh, Facebook is the best place. Um, Facebook.com slash AJ Roberts, uh, and on Instagram too, uh, just, uh, it's just AJ Roberts. And, uh, those are the two places I hang out the most at. So, um, you can follow the journey and if you want to reach out, reach out.

• 40:20Lewis Howes?

  Very cool, very cool. Yeah, I definitely recommend following AJ over on Instagram. Some really cool photos and videos of him doing his workouts and stuff. So make sure to check that out as well over at AJRoberts.com. We'll have it all linked up at the show notes or at LewisHowes.com. I'll give you the link here in just a second. Uh, but with that, let's go to the final question, my man, which is what I ask all of my guests, and that is, what is your definition of greatness?

• 40:43Speaker 01

  My definition of greatness. To me, greatness is living every day as if it's your last and putting a hundred percent effort into whatever it is you do because if, if you don't, what else is there to do?

• 40:57Lewis Howes?

  I love it, man. AJ, it's been a pleasure, brother. I can't wait to see you soon and hang since we're like a couple hours from each other now. And, uh, I'm always going to be keeping tabs on what you're up to. So I appreciate you for all you do and thanks for coming on, man.

• 41:09Speaker 01

  Thank you and we'll see you soon.

• 41:19Lewis Howes?

  There you have it, guys. I hope you enjoyed this episode with AJ. Very inspiring what he's been able to create with his body and his mindset throughout all the years, both translating from sports into business and relationships and everything else. Extremely powerful stuff. We're going to have all the show notes back over at LewisHowes.com slash eight three, LewisHowes.com slash eighty three. So make sure to check that out. And I appreciate you guys so much for, uh, subscribing on iTunes, on SoundCloud and Stitcher for sharing this on, on Facebook and Twitter and social media. And if you haven't left a review yet over on iTunes, please do. That helps the rankings and helps spread the word about. The podcast.

• 42:02Lewis Howes?

  I'm super pumped about all the guests we have coming up in the near future. So make sure to subscribe because you're not going to want to miss out on who we've got coming on. And I'm so grateful that you're on here and taking the time to listen. It means a lot to me. So you guys know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great.

• 42:33Speaker 02

  If you have the an opportunity, not a perfect opportunity, and you don't take it, you may never have another chance, chance, chance.