Speaker 1: All right, how's it going? I'm here with Mike Farr, Silent Mike. How do you spell your last name, Mike?
Mike Farr: F-A-R-R.
Speaker 1: I don't think there's an extra 'R.' I don't think that's correct.
Mike Farr: So the real name is Farrinatchi.
Speaker 1: Farrinatchi.
Mike Farr: But a great-uncle changed it, so now it's Farr.
Speaker 1: Now it's Farr.
Mike Farr: So now it sounds all American.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah.
Mike Farr: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well that's good. I guess?
Mike Farr: Well, he was a pro-boxer.
Speaker 1: Oh, okay.
Mike Farr: 40s, 50s. Us Italiano's weren't the bestest friends over here. So, a PR move and then the family just followed it.
Speaker 1: Lot of people say Italian Stallion, at the time it was maybe like Stallion Mule was more of a-
Mike Farr: Yeah. It was probably both.
Speaker 1: Okay. Well that's interesting.
Mike Farr: There's a fun fact of the day.
Speaker 1: There you go. That's why ... So Silent Mike just kinda been your handle for a while now.
Mike Farr: Yeah. Just the rapper name.
Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.
Mike Farr: Yeah. You gotta have street cred.
Speaker 1: I need a rapper name.
Mike Farr: DL.
Speaker 1: DL? On the DL.
Mike Farr: That's not bad. And Dead Lift.
Speaker 1: And Dead Lift.
Mike Farr: Oh the DL. That's not bad.
Speaker 1: So you played basketball? Was your best sport?
Mike Farr: Yeah. It was my only sport.
Speaker 1: Your only sport. You didn't play any other sports?
Mike Farr: I played soccer, like third and fourth grade. Kinda messing around. Went to a really small high school, so we didn't have a football team. Played pretty competitive year round basketball since about fifth grade.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And you're how tall?
Mike Farr: About 5'8", 5'9".
Speaker 1: 5'9"-
Mike Farr: What would you say?
Speaker 1: 5'9" in wedges.
Mike Farr: Yeah, I'd say-
Speaker 1: 5'9" in wedges.
Mike Farr: I'd say in basketball shoes I'm 5'9". On my basketball roster I'm six foot.
Speaker 1: You know they should make, you know how they have the inserts for weight lifting shoes now? So, you just put them in your regular shoes and makes them like weight lifting shoes. They should do those for basketball shoes.
Mike Farr: So I swear I've heard that men of shorter stature do that casually.
Speaker 1: Really?
Mike Farr: I've heard.
Speaker 1: Lifts?
Mike Farr: Not me. You can check me. I'm proud to be short, I don't really care.
Speaker 1: The JJ Watts.
Mike Farr: Just the regular Watts. If I was 6'4" and fucking 270 I wouldn't need them.
Speaker 1: So then you got into power lifting?
Mike Farr: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So, you got into power lifting. You've done a handful of competitions?
Mike Farr: Yeah. Maybe more than a handful. Yeah.
Speaker 1: About how many, do you know?
Mike Farr: A little ... five, six, seven?
Speaker 1: Five, six, seven.
Mike Farr: Somewhere in there.
Speaker 1: All right 567.
Mike Farr: I don't really like competing that much to be honest.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Mike Farr: But yeah, I try to get one in a year.
Speaker 1: That's good. It's something to drive. So why is that? Why do you try to get one in a year?
Mike Farr: I think a little bit, here is the insight scoop breaking that fourth wall. A little bit is the legitimacy of being a coach and content creator and that I have to put it out there. Otherwise, I live for the moment. I love competing in terms of the crowd, the judges, all that I'm fine with. I just don't ...
Speaker 1: You love the judges.
Mike Farr: The judges love me. I [inaudible 00:02:34] kids. Shrimp daddy. But I think, I just don't love the like stop in training.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Mike Farr: Right, because then you have to deload and then you feel beat up, then you have to peak, and then you have to water cut. I just don't like that. I like training. So that's why I don't do it often, and yeah I do it often just because...
Speaker 1: Isn't it funny that when you start tapering through meet you feel worse.
Mike Farr: Yeah, yeah, often.
Speaker 1: Terrible.
Mike Farr: You're beat up, everything is playing catch up. Then you're getting a little bit of stress from competing. You talked about it earlier, everyone gets stressed. Michael Jordan said the day he doesn't get nervous before games is the day he quits because he doesn't care.
Speaker 1: Right.
Mike Farr: It is very true for all these sports. Even the tonight, I'm going head to head with a beast [inaudible 00:03:13]. I want to perform but I am a little nervous. But the sport of power lifting isn't what I fell in love with...
Speaker 1: The training.
Mike Farr: Yeah, getting better.
Speaker 1: What are you the most proud of in power lifting? It can be a particular lift, a particular accomplishment, it could be whatever.
Mike Farr: Yeah
Speaker 1: It doesn't have to be that. What about power lifting are you the most proud of?
Mike Farr: I think the fact that I played 0.001 percent of hopefully making power lifting and barbells more popular.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Mike Farr: If I played any of that with comps that I've done, the work that I've done in the past whatever six years, that would be one of my proudest...
Speaker 1: It's like May was saying, if she just wants to see the barbell in one more females hand. You just want to get the barbell into one more anybody's hand.
Mike Farr: Yeah, I talked about...
Speaker 1: But your market is much larger than hers.
Mike Farr: It is. There is a little bit more dudes hitting the barbells. One of my goals I've talked about is a little bit of a metaphor but it's also the truth, I want to get on the Ellen Show and teach her how to dead lift. And so...
Speaker 1: That would be so dope.
Mike Farr: So I want that because Ellen and I can dance together.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah.
Mike Farr: We both like to dance. But then also the meaning of that is I think I want dead lifts in pop culture.
Speaker 1: So you like to dance.
Mike Farr: I do.
Speaker 1: And also be being able a musical background.
Mike Farr: I went to art school for 12 years.
Speaker 1: What role, if any, do you think that music being musically inclined plays a role in athletics?
Mike Farr: I definitely think it plays a role in more...
Speaker 1: Traditional.
Mike Farr: Yeah, multidirectional sports, basketball. Kids of our age we call it "swag." I don't know what kids call it now. But when you have little bit of rhythm, and you have a little bit just flow to how you walk, how you move, how you talk, that's the AI.
Speaker 1: Oh! Woo.
Mike Farr: Just one of those, yeah. I do think ...
Speaker 1: The model of athleticism.
Mike Farr: There's a reason why that kind of hip hop and dancing, and that culture does mesh with basketball. Because I do think that there is some of that, and I think there is some of that in soccer, and obviously in football, even baseball to a certain extent. In terms of the sports we do now may not. There's definitely rhythm in weight lifting, which I...
Speaker 1: Right.
Mike Farr: Dabbled in. But it's a different kind of rhythm.
Speaker 1: Yeah, interesting. I always think that's really important that, I agree 100%, I think that a lot of times when people are dragging their students or children to athletics, like getting [inaudible 00:05:23]in music or dance, that it's really important. You know?
Mike Farr: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So its like you hear about the NFL guys doing ballet. I don't know if that myth or not but people are talking about it.
Mike Farr: Yeah
Speaker 1: So it means there's something to it.
Mike Farr: I definitely do think, and same thing even though you asked me like, oh you only played basketball. I think there's something to play in multiple sports. My school was a little different, we did a bunch of different sports in PE. We didn't just do crunches, pull ups like other PEs.
Speaker 1: You did stuff like disc golf.
Mike Farr: We did. Ultimate Frisbee. We played soccer. We would play flag football, we would do things.
Speaker 1: Bocci?
Mike Farr: A little bit of bocci. A little bit of underwater basket weaving was my favorite class.
Speaker 1: Yeah, awesome. Well thanks very much I really appreciate it. Thanks for talking.
Mike Farr: Thanks. What's up internet.