Exercise Scientist Critiques the 300LB 15-Year-Old Strongman

He weighs 300 lb and already specializes in strong man. 470 lb at 14 years old. Wait, 470 lbs of what? This I do after praise. Hey folks, Dr. Mike here for RP Strength. Let's see how I intro this. I'm good at some stuff and some stuff I'm not any good at. But whatever professor of exercise science, bodybuilding, competitor, jiu-jitsu, grappler stuff I have going on ain't nothing compared to today's focus. And that's a Mr. Bubba Pritchette, son of Mr. Jerry Pritchette. Jerry Pritchette is a legendary strongman competitor who I've seen in real life from afar as is safe with these people at the Arnold. I didn't really understand how someone could occupy that much visual space all at the same time. I think Jerry Pritchette's in the 65 range and weighs like 400 lb. At only 14 years old, he just turned 15. Happy birthday, Bubba. He is 6'2. Scott, I was also 6'2 when I was 14. No, I was 5'2. — Wait, what? — No, I was actually 5 feet tall even when I was 14. Let's learn things about him and we're going to have a pretty informative episode for you guys about all the things involving the collision of lifting weights and children. I said that weird, but nonetheless, here we are. Meet Bubba, aka the strongest

teenager in the world. At only 14, he set numerous records in strongman competitions. Yeah. I mean, I just wonder what his schoolage children friends think of this. 6'2, 300. Scott, can you imagine there's like beef at the movie theater and the kids from the other high school is there and someone gets pushed and they're like, "Hey, they have an adult giant strongman on their team. " Like, "Nope, that kid's 14. " like, "Oh, this is not going to go well. " It's not something you could eat other 14year-olds if you're his size. I guess to me, sociologically, it must be a little interesting to be that unique, Scott. You know what I mean? Like, when I was 14, I was like below average at everything. A little bitch ass little kid. This guy is physically bigger. And like, but you can't be going raking records at 14 without it affecting your swag a little bit, right? Like, — and like he's walking through middle school and he's bigger than all the teachers. You're like, what the hell? — Middle school. eating middle school children alive. — The teacher's like, "Hey, uh, hey, Bubba, get your homework done. " He's like, "Or else? " They're like, "I Well, actually, I'll do your homework for you. That's what I would do. Just remain safe. " Here, he's doing a yolk walk with why not 800 lb. So, makes sense from an elite strongman perspective. All right.

So, at 9 years old, Bubba weighed a poultry, dare I say, near anorexic 250 lb. — I think he's pooling 250. Oh, JK. Man, it looks like he weighs about 250 too. Yeah. So, yeah, he probably weighed about 200 lb then, huh? Cuz 250 would be a lot. So, he's deadlifting 250 lb at 9 years old. I'm going to see the lift and I'm going to comment on it. Strongman deadlift. Amazing. Amazing. 10 years old, he's now deadlifting 275 lbs. This is intense. Whoa. And his technique got better, too. This is awesome. Notice that flatter back. Notice the bar really close. Head up at the beginning. This is dope. 305 lbs at 11 years old. Scott, look at his face and overall body at 11. He grew up in one year like crazy. That's an adult lifting at that point — for sure. — Good god, that's intense. Amazing technique here. What a grind. Holy crap. Let's talk about a few things with children and lifting weights very young. You may have heard of the fact that if you lift when you're a kid and you lift too young that you're still unfused and active growth plates will fuse and close and you won't grow as tall as you could because of the high forces. Here's two big problems with that. Every time they analyze any amount of evidence with young lifters, which are actually all around the world in the sport of weightlifting and now the sport of strongmen, they find zero detectable relationship between youth lifting onset and height relative to predictive factors from parents or compared to peers. So when you're saying something and there's not really any evidence for it and almost all the evidence goes against it, you have a problem. But the problem deepens still mechanistically. You say high forces cause growth plates to close. Dope. I love that vibe. The problem is that jumping up and down like have any kid have them jump as high as they can and land a few times. You'll notice that humans invented a game called basketball where they do only that. Those forces that go into the vertebrae of the spine of the long bones of the body are multiples higher than the maximum forces imposed into the bones compared to when you lift weights straight up. Landing forces from jumping are higher than almost anything you can do in the gym. So why aren't people who jump up and down a lot like basketball players much shorter than the people they compared with that aren't? Because it turns out in order to screw up your grow growth plates and prevent yourself from getting taller, you generally need a gnarly injury like a broken bone or some crazy stuff like that. And then there is a potential that the growth plate gets screwed up and you're in a bad way and you don't get to be as tall as other folks or really that bone stops growing well and maybe you need some surgery to correct that. So, the reality is the idea that children can't lift weights without affecting their height is seemingly more and more likely every year that we do research on it to be just something someone made up. Which, by the way, the world in your own head and my own head is filled with quote unquote facts that are really notions of just somebody made the shit up and we are going along with it with no end in sight. So legit guys, that's really the deal on height and lifting weights. One more year, 12 years old, 375 lbs. 13 years old, 405. Very good. Wow. Even better technique. That's a big deal. Four plate club is a big deal. I'm glad he's happy. And all right, we took a little leap. 600 lb at 14 years old. Although it was 375 at 12 years old, right? 13 it was 400, which is a small gains. I feel like he gained a lot of muscle mass and strength in the interim and then he got to it. King status. He's definitely hit puberty. Okay. Do you guys want an illustration of testosterone levels effect on strength progression? Tada. Age 13 to 14, something happened and put a lot of weight on the bar. And that's called your body's making steroids for the first time. Good setup. Whoa, that's clean. And some technique. Very good. So, that right there is a strongman style deadlift where you're allowed to scoop under the bar and hitch the bar on your hips. Super adaptable to things like the car deadlift and other World's Strongest Man events. Great. Not a strict deadlift. Uh not the same thing because of two things. One, you're allowed to hitch. And two, you're allowed to wear straps. And you notice that he's wearing a belt. and an excellent one for strong men. If Bubba was training for hypertrophy exclusively for muscle mass, then a belt he could look into is called the VersaGrips Hyper Belt. Hyper Belt makes it sound like it goes fast or something, but it doesn't. It wraps around your waist. It is very thin. It is incredibly flexible. You can crank it very easy for things like curls, crank it really hard for things like deadlifts and everything in between. It's also taller than a typical belt. It gives you incredible amount of support and snatches your waist and it makes it look awesome. The Hyper Belt is available for sale. There are links in descriptions, discount codes. Go find that out. All right, that was an ad read. Back to the

video. Oh, we got big squats. Scott, is that a normalsized dad and a normal sized kid? Are both scaled up by a factor of two? Yeah. So, dad is like 6'5 or something. So, Bubba's a big child. Oh my god, there's four plates. Pretty good depth. Not too bad at all. Oh my god. Look at Jerry Pritchett's haircut, Scott. Make sense of that shit. — Oh, it's money. — It's so money. I'm so jealous. I can't have that haircut cuz my hair doesn't grow anymore. Man, 430 lb squat at 14 years old with knee wraps. It's time for my next rant. It's easy to see this kind of stuff on social media. And think to yourself as a young person or even a not so young person, man, I suck. Which is a funny joke. But the comparison game is insidious and totallying pointless. If you are 14 years old or 15 or 13 or anything in between and you're looking above a picture and you go, "Oh my god, that's the standard. Oh, I need to have my squat higher. " Pause, take a breath, and think about this. You do not have one of the best sto I'll say that differently. You do not have one of the strongest human beings on record ever in Jerry Pritchette as your dad. You know, genetics kind of matter a little bit. I've heard a bird flew up and was like, "Quack, genetics matter. " I was like, "Fucking God, a talking bird. " Adam, was the last time I'm going to do that much ass. No, I'm just kidding. I'm on that much right now. — Quack, genetics matter. — God, a talking bird. — Scott, do you see any birds around? I do. I do. — It's super big difference with genetics. That's the number one difference. There's a super big difference with interest levels. You could be someone who's dedicated themselves to doing fine art, to practicing art, and you do it so much that you got into lifting and you're like, "Oh, why am I not as strong as Bubba Pritchette? " It's because he's been lifting weights for a very, very long time and living his life in a pretty organized manner. That intersection of him being a completely different person on his own path and you your own path means that any comparisons you do are like kind of stupid and pointless. Imagine if I looked to someone like Sydney Sweeney and thought, "Man, she's so much lighter than me. She's got so much more hair than I do. Her fashion sense is so great. What am I doing wrong? " Would you like, "Mike, you're a 41-year-old balding Jewish man with body hair issues. " And Sydney Sweeney was born flawless and always will be. Why are you comparing yourself to her? Totally different from people. Like, right. Well, it's actually just as stupid to compare yourself to basically anybody except for one person, yourself. So, when you're a young person and you look at all the people around you doing really crazy things, don't you for a second put pressure on yourself to do better. No, use them for inspiration. If Bubba Pritchette can get that big and strong by age 14, hey shit, if you're 14, maybe by 16, whatever it is you want to do in life, you can get a little bit better than you currently are. Because if someone can do amazing things, well, shit, you could certainly do some pretty good things, stack those benefits, keep doing and eventually become somebody really damn impressive. So whether it's in lifting weights or in academics, in extracurriculars, or just looking presentable so people don't laugh at you every day of middle school. Yikes. Oh, that was a memory. Weird. You can only ever do your best. And the only person to compare yourself to in a gentle way of just staying on track is you from a year ago. Anyone else will pretend future you is not a standard of comparison. Cuz if we all start comparing ourselves to everyone else, then we should all feel like shit all the time, except for the best person that's the best at everything. That person doesn't exist. Although Ronnie Coleman's real, and that's pretty goddamn close, husc. — Yes. — Yeah. It's okay to compare yourself to Ronnie Coleman and feel like shit. Everyone else, don't do that. Okie dokie. So, what's he going to do with 245? He's Ooh. He's going to squat it, right? Where's that Hello Darkness, my old friend song? — Throw away your notepad and your Excel sheets. The RP Hypertrophy app has all of your workouts displayed in one place with guided videos on exercise techniques and a program that evolves to better suit your needs the longer you use the app. All you have to do is follow the plan right on your phone and get the gains. Click on the link in the description of this video to get started. Yikes. All right. 470 lbs at 14 years old. Wait, 470 lbs of what? This I do after praise. — Holy Scott. — Yes. about 10 or 15 years ago. It was already modern strong then. 470 lb log clean and press was like nationally competitive for adults. — Damn. — It was like you could go to World's Strongest Man and that would be like dope lift. Like you'd be right in the thick of things, man. Guys were just cresting over 500 lb at the Oh my god, dude. It's wild. It's also So, Bubba Pritchette has a huge advantage. I assume like watch we learn that he's been estranged from his dad this entire time and it's just something he got to doing himself. Uh assuming his dad is in the works, he's not just getting bigger and stronger faster than everybody. He has access to facility and especially technique. Which means that by the time he's log pressing in competition in his 20s will have been so many log presses done at such a young age that his neural network, his brain's ability to coordinate his body during log presses, stone carries, everything else is going to be so unbelievable that his ability to express his strength is just going to be better. Learning things when you're younger, if you like them, right, and you're the one who wants to be there, is a superpower way to get really good at shit when you're older. Like Scott, you're play someone in tennis who's like playing since age five and you just throw your racket away after a few hits cuz this man like you speak the language of tennis like I speak English. You know, — just comes naturally to you at that point. So, not only is his lifting incredibly impressive on how much he's lifting, but his technique and the progression of his technique is so impressive. That stuff he's going to know the rest of his life. This is really intense.

Everyone else, don't do that. Okie dokie. So, what's he going to do with 245? He's Ooh. He's going to squat it, right? Where's that Hello Darkness, my old friend song? — Throw away your notepad and your Excel sheets. The RP Hypertrophy app has all of your workouts displayed in one place with guided videos on exercise techniques and a program that evolves to better suit your needs the longer you use the app. All you have to do is follow the plan right on your phone and get the gains. Click on the link in the description of this video to get started. Yikes. All right. 470 lbs at 14 years old. Wait, 470 lbs of what? This I do after praise. — Holy Scott. — Yes. about 10 or 15 years ago. It was already modern strong then. 470 lb log clean and press was like nationally competitive for adults. — Damn. — It was like you could go to World's Strongest Man and that would be like dope lift. Like you'd be right in the thick of things, man. Guys were just cresting over 500 lb at the Oh my god, dude. It's wild. It's also So, Bubba Pritchette has a huge advantage. I assume like watch we learn that he's been estranged from his dad this entire time and it's just something he got to doing himself. Uh assuming his dad is in the works, he's not just getting bigger and stronger faster than everybody. He has access to facility and especially technique. Which means that by the time he's log pressing in competition in his 20s will have been so many log presses done at such a young age that his neural network, his brain's ability to coordinate his body during log presses, stone carries, everything else is going to be so unbelievable that his ability to express his strength is just going to be better. Learning things when you're younger, if you like them, right, and you're the one who wants to be there, is a superpower way to get really good at shit when you're older. Like Scott, you're play someone in tennis who's like playing since age five and you just throw your racket away after a few hits cuz this man like you speak the language of tennis like I speak English. You know, — just comes naturally to you at that point. So, not only is his lifting incredibly impressive on how much he's lifting, but his technique and the progression of his technique is so impressive. That stuff he's going to know the rest of his life. This is really intense. — My ultimate goals in the sport is to win World's Strongest Man to be the youngest dude at 17 years old. — That is a very specific goal. Wow. What do I think about that? I think it's incredibly inspirational for someone to be that vocal about that specific goal. At the same time, I would say that other people also want to win that competition. Some of them are older, very strong. And so it scares me hypothetically to make goals that illustrious for fear of failure. He gets even ballsier. Let's find out. And try to win it eight times. — Eight. The current record if you count Mars Pujunowski's wins is five, which really it's five. Eight is intense. Not just six. eight. — One of my idols, Ronnie Coleman, has won Mr. Olympia eight times. So, I think think that'd be pretty cool. — Yeah. Winning the Mr. Olympia eight times means you show up and you flex your muscles. Winning World's Strongest Man eight times means you don't get torn in half by strong man eight times. That'd be pretty impressive. Um uh yeah, Scott, the whole Ronnie Coleman thing is coming back around on this one, isn't it? — Mhm. — Y' be Ronnie Coleman. What a god. Folks, there is still more video to come, but we have a member section which has a longer, more uncut versions video, tons of other bonus content content, tons of other intellectual stuff that's a little too nerdy for the main channel, but you guys are going to love it. Huge value, small price. Give it a click, become a member, and we'll see you in there. All right, back to the video. My best event out of this weekend is definitely the Super Yolk. I'm going to smoke that. You guys are going to see. — I don't know what they call why they call it the Super Yolk. just seems needlessly even more painful. But strongman is a sport in which you step into the line of pain and injury probability. You just swag your way through it. Real actual sport. Wow. I'm a huge strongman fan, by the way. Um cuz I was too small to do it myself and weak and low willpower and low athleticism. Scott, how can I blame other people for this? — Thanks, Oh, the deadlift medley. Are you tired of deadlifting just one bar for a few reps? Try multiple bars instead. Oh, and they get heavier. Impressive. Bubba Pritchette, if you

ever see this, you're the fucking man. Out of 10. out of whatever you're going to accomplish great things and I think it's awesome that you're doing what you're doing. Everyone else out there doing their own best. Mr. Bubba Pritchette is inspiration not to be compared to unless you like losing as a hobby. And now we outro peace. Woo! That was fun. Scott, I feel at age 41 insanely unaccomplished and weak. — Dude, you should. Love is a beast. Do you guys want to feel probably also insanely unaccomplished and weak? Our next video here will probably hook you up, but there's going to be fun and learning. And who can turn that down? Give it a click. See you next time.