#28 - Mark and Chris Bell: steroids, powerlifting, addiction, diet, training, helping others, documentaries, and living your best life

The Peter Attia Drive

Peter Attia, MD

Health & Fitness, Medicine, Fitness

4.7 • 7.3K Ratings

🗓️ 12 November 2018

⏱️ 131 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode, Mark and Chris Bell discuss their love of powerlifting, their unbelievable personal records, and what prompted the making of their now iconic film, Bigger, Stronger, Faster. They also very openly discuss steroid use, their tragic family history with addiction, the many inspirations that lead to their multifaceted success, and their dedication to having a positive impact on others in fitness and life.

We discuss:

The impact of Bigger, Stronger, Faster, how it got made, and how it challenged Peter’s set of beliefs regarding steroids [4:45];
Chris’s personal story of addiction and how he’s using his experience to help others [17:30];
Importance of sharing your struggle, and the danger of comparing yourself to others [28:00];
Early life, their love of pro wrestling and what motivated Brothers Bell to be great? [33:45];
How they got started lifting weights, powerlifting vs Olympic lifting, and personal records [43:30];
Lifting weights: the importance of challenging yourself, how to avoid injury, monitoring progress, and staying motivated [1:02:30];
Chris on how changing his diet changed his performance and life [1:09:15];
Best resources for those wanting to get started lifting weights effectively and safely [1:14:00];
Teaching kids strength training early in life, the negative impact of sitting and how we can minimize it [1:18:30];
Benefits of bodybuilding, Mark’s prep for his first competition, and the role of the ketogenic diet [1:27:15];
The steroid controversy: Mark’s use of them and Peter’s perspective [1:42:15];
Testosterone: Peter’s approach to improving it in patients, and the impact of sleep, cortisol, and statins on production [1:51:00];
Upcoming nutrition documentary [2:03:00];
Parting advice from Mark [2:05:00];
Kratom, a powerful plant with the potential to help opioid addiction and more [2:06:15];
The many resources and ways to follow Mark and Chris [2:07:45]; and
More.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everyone, welcome to the Peter Atia Drive. I'm your host, Peter Atia.
0:10.0	The drive is a result of my hunger for optimizing performance, health, longevity, critical thinking,
0:15.7	along with a few other obsessions along the way. I've spent the last several years working
0:19.6	with some of the most successful top performing individuals in the world, and this podcast
0:23.8	is my attempt to synthesize what I've learned along the way to help you live a higher quality
0:28.3	and more fulfilling life. If you enjoy this podcast, you can find more information on today's
0:32.5	episode and other topics at peteratiamd.com.
0:36.1	Hey everybody, welcome to this week's episode of The Drive. This week I had two guests.
0:46.6	This was a first. I've never interviewed two people simultaneously, which is not to say
0:51.2	it's rocket science. I think a monkey can figure it out, and I'm at least as good as a monkey,
0:55.2	so I was able to figure it out. It did stress me out a little bit because I was trying to figure
0:59.0	out how do you keep two people engaged. It seems like we did a pretty good job, and I think
1:02.2	you'll enjoy this episode. My guests were two guys who I just referred to as the Brothers
1:07.8	Bell, but they're obviously known more commonly by their actual names, Mark Bell and Chris Bell.
1:14.6	Some of you may recognize these guys, especially if you're interested in powerlifting or if
1:19.8	you've ever paid attention to some really interesting documentaries in particular, Bigger,
1:26.4	Stronger, Faster, which was sort of the breakout performance for Chris Bell. That is, I believe
1:32.4	a documentary that if you look at all of its downloads on Netflix, would certainly put it
1:37.1	in kind of the top 10 docs of the last decade. I could be wrong on that, but I feel like
1:41.5	I remember reading that somewhere. Prescription Thugs was also a follow-up documentary, and there
1:46.6	are a number of others, including one that is in the works at the time of this recording that
1:50.9	will link to as well. His brother, Mark Bell, his younger brother, is an absolute legend in the
	...

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