Chandler and I connected first on IG after coming across a post of his that went viral: “Strong, Shredded, or Natty? Pick two.” We ended up exchanging some DM’s and I asked him on a podcast date; so here it is. Turns out he and I had a ton in common. Competitive powerlifter/ strength athlete, coach, and owner of @BackyardBarbell out in San Jose, California. Chandler and I share a lot of perspectives. We went for close to 3 hours and chose to cut it there because we could have went for another three.

Looking forward to connecting w Chandler in the near future.

Chandler Parsons

Top Strength Project 

Steve Tripp

0:00 Our first date…

0:12 “Natty, Strong, Shredded, Pick 2”

0:50 Pros and Cons of Social Media

2:30 Balls to Brain Ratio

4:10 Meritocracy, you had to earn it

5:00 The control of information

5:50 “Trauma” and strength sports

7:45 “the problem with tattoos becoming popular is that people who should have never

gotten tattooed are getting tattooed…”

9:50 importance of voluntary suffering and community

15:50 Experience w Therapy

17:00 Strength Sports as a Vehicle to Create Direction and Focus

25:50 Training is Honest

27:00 “everything I do, I’m going to do it all the way…”

31:10 King of the Clown Show

34:30 Choosing to Learn from Mistakes and Failures

39:00 Happiness is found in the journey, not the destination

40:50 “a mistake is a mistake only if you didn’t learn anything from it…”

42:40 Not Pitting Time Frames on Reaching Goals

49:25 Aggressive Patience

50:20 “if you could wake up with a 1,000 pound squat, would you?”

53:00 Totaling over 2,000

55:00 PED’s

1:08:00 Equipment Zealots

1:20:00 Backyard Barbell

1:24:00 TOP Strength

1:29:00 How I got involved in Strength Sports

1:33:30 Ironbuild Games

1:34:00 The importance of being a part of something bigger than ourselves…

1:38:20 Focusing providing the best possible service over profits

1:44:00 Jenny and our Group Program

1:56:00 Strongman Circuit

2:04:00 Powerlifting to Strongman

2:11:40 Tom Haviland/ Josh Bryant

2:16:30 … the greatest limitation is believing you have them.”

2:18:00 Ocean State Crossfit

2:21:00 Using Variations in training to address chronic overuse injuries

2:36:00 Where to find Chandler and Backyard Barbell.